Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 84

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 84
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Baek Yeol-han, standing before the Green Boundary and peering beyond it, gave a start that shook his entire frame.
His shriek echoed through the forest, and where that cry reached, the Trainee Students taking their examination trembled with fear—though that was another matter entirely.
“What’s wrong with you? Are you hurt? Why’re you screaming like a madman?!”
Sa-ma Hyeon, the very one who had provoked the outburst, merely plugged his ears in annoyance.
“Gasp… haah… haah…!”
Baek Yeol-han clutched at his heaving chest, his eyes landing on Sa-ma Hyeon, who had somehow drawn close behind him.
“When… when did you get here…?”
“Just now.”
“But…”
I didn’t sense a thing.
“Did you pick up some incredibly sharp movement technique or something?”
“What nonsense is that? You’ve been in the forest two days and lost your wits?”
“…”
Baek Yeol-han swallowed dryly.
Right. There’s no way he could’ve done that.
I must’ve been concentrating too hard.
‘But still…’
“How did you even know to come here? You didn’t figure out I was here, did you?”
Gwi-rim sprawled wide and vast.
It was no place to search for someone on foot as a mere Trainee Student.
“Of course I knew you were here.”
Even so, Sa-ma Hyeon adjusted the Small Crown on his head as if it were obvious, raising his brow slightly.
“Didn’t you enter Gwi-rim before I did?”
“Right, that’s true.”
The two had been guided into Gwi-rim by the same Gyojoo, Sa-ryeon.
Baek Yeol-han had entered first, and Sa-ma Hyeon had been the last among the Trainee Students to enter the forest.
“Once I knew the starting point, predicting your path wasn’t difficult. I thought you’d stay in one place for about a day, and by now you’d have reached near the Green Boundary. Predicting your route from where you entered the forest, I walked and found traces of where you’d passed through.”
Baek Yeol-han’s mouth fell slightly open.
“…That makes sense?”
“Isn’t it simple? You can’t even understand that much—are you really that much of a fool?”
“…”
Baek Yeol-han had no words to offer.
For a moment, he found himself oddly curious.
Was he truly so foolish that he couldn’t follow this boy’s reasoning…?
Then he shook the thought away and asked.
“So why did you follow me here?”
“Because I was frightened.”
“…”
“My benefactor entered separately, so I couldn’t predict his route. You were the only one I could rely on.”
“…”
Why does this kid sound so calm about it?
Just then, Baek Yeol-han’s eyes caught the Yellow Pouch tied at Sa-ma Hyeon’s waist.
“What’s that? I don’t think I saw it when we entered the forest.”
“Your eye for detail is sharp, I’ll grant you that.”
“…”
I’m tempted to leave him behind.
“So what is it?”
“I don’t know either.”
“…?”
“I truly don’t know.”
Sa-ma Hyeon’s expression was perfectly blank as he said it.
* * *
Two days earlier, when the Trainee Students entered the forest for their examination.
Sa-ma Hyeon had been the very last of his group to step into the forest.
As Sa-ryeon sent him in, he called Sa-ma Hyeon back and thrust the Yellow Pouch into his hands.
“It will be of help when you search for the Red Token.”
Sa-ma Hyeon did not take it readily.
Instead, he looked up at Sa-ryeon with a tilted head and spoke.
“Does the Gyojoo have the privilege to cheat like this? It damages the integrity of the examination, doesn’t it?”
Sa-ryeon merely smiled at the accusation, lifting the corners of his mouth without a word.
“It’s a privilege only the Gyojoo can possess.”
“A monopoly of power, you mean?”
Monopoly of power—the abuse of authority for private gain.
It was a sharper accusation than before, yet Sa-ryeon only smiled again, unbothered.
“The Gyojoo is human, after all. It’s natural to favor one Trainee Student or two.”
Sa-ma Hyeon’s expression darkened at the word “favor,” but Sa-ryeon paid him no mind.
“Thousands of Trainee Students gather here. No matter how fairly the Gyojoo is selected, everyone inevitably has those close to them among the students.”
From great houses to minor families, from martial sects to freelance schools, even the palace itself.
The Shipman Daesan brings them all together under one banner.
There was no way to avoid points of connection.
That’s why the Gyojoo secretly harbored preferences among the Trainee Students.
There was no stopping the heart’s inclination, so to some degree, it was an unspoken understanding to turn a blind eye.
“Even that Trainee Student Yeon-woo you call your benefactor—he receives remarkably open favoritism from Gyojoo Gu-yeong, doesn’t he?”
In fact, among the Gyojoo, it was quite remarkable that Gu-yeong was the first to display such favoritism openly.
He seemed like the type who would conceal his preferences to the very end.
“In a word, it’s a privilege. Not a monopoly of power.”
Sa-ryeon smiled and gently shook the Yellow Pouch.
Naked favoritism, plain and simple.
Favoritism directed at him, yet Sa-ma Hyeon’s expression remained troubled.
“Even so, I must refuse. I wish to compete fairly with the other students….”
But his words never finished.
Sa-ryeon’s hand moved.
Sa-ma Hyeon didn’t even see the motion clearly.
The Yellow Pouch was already tied around his waist.
“What is this—!”
“If you dislike it, come back and return it. As long as you don’t open it, there’s no harm done, is there?”
“…!”
Sa-ma Hyeon’s face flushed red.
He moved to untie it at once, but Sa-ryeon’s hand was faster.
Tap—
Sa-ryeon gave him a light push to the chest.
In that instant, Sa-ma Hyeon was shoved backward as if struck by some tremendous force, stumbling back frantically.
There was no other choice if he wanted to keep his footing.
By the time he’d regained his balance and glared at Sa-ryeon, he’d already crossed into the forest.
“Take care on your way.”
Sa-ryeon waved at Sa-ma Hyeon with a flutter of his fingers, bidding him farewell.
Once he’d stepped into the forest, leaving now meant disqualification.
Sa-ma Hyeon had no choice but to turn his steps inward, the pouch around his waist.
* * *
And now.
“You don’t know?”
“Such things exist. Don’t ask. I don’t know, and I never will.”
Sa-ma Hyeon spoke curtly as he approached the Green Boundary flag.
He touched one of the flags lightly and turned to Baek Yeol-han with a question.
“Are you going to cross?”
“Yeah.”
“The dead might be wandering about.”
“I know. This is Gwi-rim, after all.”
“And you’re still going in?”
“I can’t give up on the Demon Spirit Pill, can I?”
Baek Yeol-han laughed briefly as if it were obvious, shrugging his shoulders.
“If you had any sense, I wouldn’t have asked you to come along in the first place. If you’re scared, wait here. I’ll just find the Red Token and come back.”
Sa-ma Hyeon stared at Baek Yeol-han intently.
“I’m going with you.”
“You sure about that?”
A brief silence.
A fleeting pause hung in the air, and as always, Sa-ma Hyeon adjusted his Small Crown and muttered.
“Being alone is scarier.”
And so the two of them crossed the Green Boundary together.
By then, most of the hundred-twenty Trainee Students had begun crossing the green line, one or two at a time.
* * *
“Ahhhhh!”
“Waaah!”
Screams tore through the shadowed forest from all directions.
With sounds of rustling and crackling, panicked Trainee Students scattered in every direction.
Soon, from the direction the students had fled, an ominous rumble echoed.
Thump—thump—
The sound drew steadily closer.
It came from beyond the brush where the students had escaped.
Thump—thump—thump!
At last, relentless footsteps trampled through the undergrowth and revealed themselves.
Desiccated ashen skin, black lips, teeth yellowed and jagged as visible through a gap-toothed grimace.
A yellow Talisman Seal was affixed to its forehead, and below it, the eyes had gone dull—their pupils clouded over in a lifeless gray-white haze.
The black nails extending from its hands were honed long and sharp as blades, and everywhere they passed, leaves and brush were cleaved away.
A Ghost Soul Demon—the failed prototype, a lesser Jiangshi that had not achieved the higher rank of full power and mastery.
Shhhhh—
The lesser Jiangshi that had emerged trampling through the brush suddenly froze in place, rigid as stone.
The Trainee Students chasing it vanished from sight.
Being inferior, it could not sense their presence; the moment it lost its target, it stopped dead where it stood.
Standing there like a tree, like part of nature itself, frozen and still.
“Heeyaaah!”
Then a Trainee Student armed with a sword burst from the brush.
And at that same moment.
Snap—
The Jiangshi’s body whirled toward the student.
The moment the student met its unfocused gray-white stare, his body locked rigid mid-charge.
Thump-thump-thump-thump!
The Jiangshi began moving toward the student.
“N-no…no…!”
Yet the student did not flee.
He could advance no further, but he did not flee—not despite the terror, not despite everything.
He stood with his sword raised, meeting the Jiangshi’s gaze, trembling.
That was when it happened.
Crack—whoosh!
A figure leaped down from the branches above, sword flashing in a wide arc.
The keen blade severed the Talisman Seal affixed to the Jiangshi’s forehead in a single stroke.
And at that instant, the Jiangshi’s movements ceased, frozen completely.
Thud!
“Hah…hah…hah….”
The Trainee Student who had severed the Talisman and stopped the Jiangshi was Jin Geom-hwi of the Heavenly Sword Demon Family.
The student who had served as bait, drawing the Jiangshi’s gaze, was one of those who had volunteered under his command.
Jin Geom-hwi steadied his breath and approached his subordinate, patting his trembling shoulder gently.
“Well done.”
“I…I thought I was going to die…”
The student’s words trailed away, his mind still reeling.
“Thanks to you, I took it down easily. But next time—”
Jin Geom-hwi believed this to be the aftermath of tension finally breaking, and he continued. Yet.
“Th-there…th-th-th-there…!”
The trembling student’s hand pointed toward one spot.
Beyond the brush—somewhere that had remained outside their field of vision.
Shhhhh—
In the shadows, another Jiangshi’s head had turned toward them, its gray-white eyes now fixed upon the two.

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