Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 82

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 82
“We depart after the midday meal at early afternoon—around three o’clock. Gather whatever you need. The test begins the moment you arrive at Gwi-rim.”
If they departed at that hour, they would reach Gwi-rim in the evening, as the sun began its descent.
Tension settled naturally across the students’ faces.
“The test ends only when all twelve eggs have been found, or when I judge that no more can be recovered.”
Whether that would take four days, a fortnight, or several months was impossible to say.
The students who failed to secure a Monster Bird Egg would remain trapped in Gwi-rim for that entire duration.
The moment they left Gwi-rim, they would be disqualified from the test.
The only lifeline was the existence of a safe zone where the spectral energy ran thin.
It was then.
“What lies within the boundary marked by the red flags?”
One of the students in front raised his hand and asked.
The boundaries of Gwi-rim, centered at its heart, had been divided into three zones: red flags, yellow flags, and green flags.
Since the Monster Bird Eggs lay between the red and yellow boundaries, only the inner region beyond the red flags remained unaccounted for.
Gwi-ya-gaek’s gaze turned toward the student who had spoken.
At that cold stare, bristling with an unsettling chill, the student faltered and took an involuntary step back.
“You die.”
The words emerged in a languid, indifferent tone.
Yet the meaning they carried was far from light.
“That is no place for the likes of you. If you wish to be shredded by the monster bird’s claws and die, then enter by all means.”
The students drew in their breath sharply.
Beyond the red flag boundary lay the domain of the monster bird itself.
It was a place none were to trespass.
“I trust you understand. We are dismissed.”
The dismissal came sharp on the heels of the stern warning.
After a month of cultivation training, the students had grown familiar with one another and now clustered in small groups, discussing the upcoming trial.
Among them, one group stood out unmistakably.
“We’ll only find eggshells.”
The one who spoke with such certainty, shrugging his shoulders, was Jin Geom-hwi, the second son of the Heavenly Sword Demon Family.
He had been the student who passed the Illusion Formation after Yeon-woo in the first test.
He carried the distinctive ease and confidence of one born to the Seven Families Three Palaces.
The refined, honed martial aura that radiated from him—far too mature for a freshly admitted student—spoke volumes about how thoroughly he already surpassed his peers.
His martial achievements were likewise exceptional.
Over the past month of sword training alongside Jin Geom-hwi, the other students had come to recognize the overwhelming gap between themselves and him, dividing into two distinct groups.
Those who sought to avoid his notice, and those who clung to him with desperate determination.
A warrior’s body already refined to completion, martial skill of extraordinary caliber.
And to crown it all, a family connection—the Heavenly Sword Demon Family, the same lineage as Gwi-ya-gaek himself, who served as master of Maryong Hall.
He was steadily establishing himself as a likely candidate for the position of Sub-Leader.
“Sir, what do you mean by that?”
The students who followed him already treated him as a Sub-Leader candidate.
Their very manner reflected it.
“Only eggshells?”
“You fool. Do you truly believe the masters would hand over actual Monster Bird Eggs to mere students?”
Jin Geom-hwi’s tone was one of absolute certainty as he spoke down to them.
He let out a derisive snort as he continued.
“A Monster Bird Egg is a Spiritual Medicine that even the martial masters of our army hunger for and cannot obtain. There is no chance they would offer it to students, much less in a second trial.”
“Then—are you saying it’s a lie? That we must risk our lives for counterfeit eggs?”
“An eggshell is still an egg. The contents simply aren’t there.”
“Then there’s no need to risk our lives at all….”
Jin Geom-hwi shot a withering look at the student beside him, as though he were an idiot.
“Such a fool! Must I spell everything out from beginning to end?”
A separate group passed by them quietly, undisturbed by the commotion.
Once some distance had opened between them, one of the students in that quieter group turned to the one leading them.
“Do you think it’s true? That there will only be eggshells?”
The leading student turned to face her.
Hair the color of silver, gathered into a half-knot, caught the breeze and scattered. A faint smile played at the lips of her strikingly beautiful, otherworldly face as it gleamed beneath the bright sunlight.
One of the students, glancing back without thinking, found himself transfixed, his gaze helplessly drawn to her face.
Eyes of gentle kindness, a sharply defined nose, lips that curved softly.
She was Eun Ryeong, a disciple of the Yao-hwa Palace.
The third to pass the Illusion Formation, after Yeon-woo and Jin Geom-hwi.
She carried a different air from the other students—rumor had it she’d already joined the ranks of the first-tier masters.
If the rumors were true, there wouldn’t be a single student in Maryong Hall who could match her in martial skill.
The students were curious whether she truly belonged to that elite tier, but none dared ask directly.
Her presence didn’t invite casual approach.
“Please, speak comfortably. We’re students together, after all.”
“Ah, forgive me.”
Even as she said this, Eun Ryeong maintained her formal speech.
She explained that her manner of speaking was simply her habit.
The customs from being the youngest in Yao-hwa Palace didn’t fade easily.
Eun Ryeong smiled gently and answered the question from moments before.
“The Monster Bird Egg is precious, so that’s likely what it is.”
What’s hidden must be only the eggshell.
“Then there’s really no need to risk our lives for it, is there?”
If the Monster Bird Egg is fake, the Demon Spirit Pill alone would be sufficient.
“The Gyojoo ordered us to stake our lives on it. There must be good reason for that.”
“Good reason?”
Eun Ryeong gave a light nod.
“Not the Monster Bird Egg itself, but something of equal worth to our lives.”
If one weighed the Monster Bird Egg against a student’s life, the egg would far outweigh it.
So it cannot be the egg itself.
But since the Gyojoo commanded us to stake our lives, there must be a reward of commensurate value waiting.
“Then we should search for it!”
Even if we don’t know what it is—it has to be better than the Demon Spirit Pill, doesn’t it?
Eun Ryeong offered a knowing smile instead of answering directly.
One of the students glanced at her group, then turned his gaze elsewhere.
His eyes fixed on the stairs at the edge of the Practice Grounds.
A male student sat perched on the steps, his long black hair reaching to his waist gathered loosely at the back, carefully polishing a jade flute.
The student, whose bearing seemed relaxed and at ease, emanated a princely air no less refined than Jin Geom-hwi’s.
Yet beneath that dignified composure lay a boundless freedom of manner—a languid gaze and an easy smile that were distinctly his own.
This student, embodying both the bearing of a great house and the disarming charm of a drifter, was Heon Sa-ryul, the eldest son of the Yu-eum Ma-ga, one of the Seven Families Three Palaces.
In martial prowess, Heon Sa-ryul fell short of the previous two, but in the Sound-Based Martial Art alone, no other student could rival him.
That incident where dozens of students watching a sparring match had covered their ears in agony at the mere light playing of his flute remained ever at his heels.
The Sound-Based Martial Art was difficult to counter.
Thus Heon Sa-ryul too was being evaluated as a promising candidate for the position of Sub-Leader.
“What’s your take on this?”
Do Gyeom, Heon Sa-ryul’s longtime friend and the son of a Yu-eum Ma-ga vassal, posed the question.
Though a student like the others, he’d also entered as a bodyguard.
Heon Sa-ryul had passed through the Illusion Formation six times; Do Gyeom, eight times.
Both were exceptional students.
…
Sa-ryul’s eyes swept across the gathered students once, then returned to the jade flute as he spoke.
“They’re dividing into teams.”
“Teams?”
“The tests aren’t all individual affairs.”
He examined the jade flute’s luster closely, then tucked it into his robe and leaped down lightly.
With ease, he adjusted his sleeves and stood facing the assembled students.
“Whoever brings the Monster Bird Egg becomes the team leader. It’s always been that way at Maryong Hall. Teams are decided before the third test.”
An arrangement for the multi-person trials to come.
The Demonic Sect was the Strong First Philosophy, a teaching where all stood equal, yet only one person could grant that claim—the Heavenly Demon alone, the apex of the sect.
The martial masters beneath that apex had to know when to bow and when to band together.
They did so to survive, and they did so to exalt.
“Risk our lives for that? Then I’m not taking the team leader position.”
“There will be privileges granted only to the team leader.”
“Privileges?”
“I don’t know what they are myself.”
“Will you go searching for it?”
The Monster Bird Egg?
“Who knows.”
Heon Sa-ryul shrugged lightly.
“Depends on how things unfold.”
If I genuinely feel like I’m about to die once I enter the boundary, then I’ll have to give up.
I’m not willing to stake my life on whatever it is.
And so the students gathered in small clusters, trading speculation about the trial.
Most of them assumed the Monster Bird Egg would be nothing but an empty shell.
It was simply too precious an object to fall into a student’s hands.
Precisely because it was so rare, they reasoned, it couldn’t possibly be genuine—and paradoxically, this meant the instructors had likely prepared something equally rare to deceive them.
In other words, the reward for the third zone remained shrouded in mystery.
But there was one person who actually believed it.
‘How good would it taste? Absolutely delicious, I bet?’
One appears every thirty years, they say—so it must be incredibly rare, unimaginably exquisite.
Everyone fights over it because they want to eat it, right?
How delicious must it be if people shed blood just to claim it?
Yeon-woo pictured the luminous black egg and quietly licked his lips.
The objective was the Monster Bird Egg.
The boy had already locked onto his target.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————