Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 89

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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 89
Whoosh—
The three of them had arrived at a ravine.
Sharp wind cut fiercely through the narrow ravine, and it wailed through the entire gorge in intervals.
The sound was like the screech of a ghost. It suited a ravine in the Ghost Forest.
“There it is.”
In the middle of the cliff face, an eagle’s nest sat perched.
The eagle they had been pursuing landed in the nest with a tremendous flap of its wings.
Inside the nest sat an eagle that appeared twice the size of the one that had followed them, and from its bulk and appearance, it seemed to be female.
The male eagle returned from its hunt and passed its prey to the female.
The female eagle remained in the nest, tearing into the kill.
“She must be brooding. But more than that… what kind of eagle gets so massive?”
Jin Geom-hwi whispered tensely.
True to his words, an eagle that had lived drawing in Ghostly Qi was three times larger than any eagle they knew.
Even the male was enormous, but the female—vast beyond comprehension.
Even without spreading its wings, it was nearly the size of the three of them.
“Will there really be a Mystical Bird Egg there? Are we just digging through an innocent eagle’s nest for nothing?”
“It’s there.”
The answer came from Yeon-woo.
The two of them turned to look at Yeon-woo.
Yeon-woo stared at the nest without even blinking.
“It’s there.”
Yeon-woo could see it.
Beneath the female eagle as she tore at her meal, mixed in with the other eggs—a black egg.
Because the aura felt the same as what he had sensed at Maryong Hall, he was certain.
Jin Geom-hwi and Eun-ryeong could not have identified it, but they trusted Yeon-woo’s word.
The Martial Prowess he had displayed when facing the corpse demon surpassed theirs.
They had no choice but to believe him.
“If it’s there, we have to get it. Best to move while the male is out hunting, right?”
Eun-ryeong nodded.
“Yes. The problem is the female. Eagles don’t leave their nest while brooding. She’ll come at us if she realizes we’re attacking, but she won’t abandon her eggs.”
“The female shouldn’t be a problem for the three of us. While the male is hunting, we subdue the female and take the egg….”
“We can’t kill her.”
Both of them turned to Yeon-woo again.
“What are you talking about? Not kill her?”
“Grandfather said so. You don’t eat a beast that has young.”
Living in the mountains, Un-hyeon had rarely been genuinely angry, but one of those times was when Yeon-woo brought back an egg from a mother bird’s nest.
The mother bird had followed Yeon-woo all the way to his house, chasing after her young, and when Un-hyeon saw that, he scolded Yeon-woo harshly and made him return the egg to the nest.
Then he had said:
A beast with young is not to be eaten.
Whether it be a bird, a rabbit, or a bear.
Though birds, rabbits, and bears were all meat to Yeon-woo and he could not fully grasp the principle, Yeon-woo had promised Un-hyeon to do the same.
“Are you joking? You want us to leave those monsters alive?”
“Yes.”
“Even if they attack us?”
“Yes.”
“Insane.”
Jin Geom-hwi could not understand.
Don’t kill them because they have young.
In a world where you kill even a human who shows murderous intent, why spare a Demonic Beast tainted with Ghostly Qi?
All while risking danger in the process?
“What are you, a righteous faction sect leader now? Where is this half-baked chivalry coming from?”
“Well….”
Eun-ryeong’s face also showed incomprehension.
For children raised in the Demonic Sect, it was an obvious truth.
The weak are culled; only the strong survive.
Those who offer their hand are gladly used; those who draw their blade are killed without mercy.
And if climbing higher was all that mattered, was that not enough?
To those educated this way, the maternal love of a Demonic Beast meant nothing.
Yet Eun-ryeong did not dismiss Yeon-woo’s words.
Not for the beast—for her.
“Then, we should think of a way to retrieve the egg while avoiding direct combat.”
“You’d actually listen to that?”
“In return, I’ll give this egg to Jin Geom-hwi. How does that sound? What do you say?”
“I don’t care.”
“…Really?”
If she gave him the egg first, there was nothing he couldn’t agree to.
He’d been uneasy about accompanying Eun-ryeong on the promise of getting the egg first in the first place.
They’d gotten lucky finding one early, but in truth, whether they’d manage to locate all three remained uncertain.
‘If she brings it out first like this…’
There was no reason to refuse.
“Fine. All right then. This time, I’ll go along with what you say.”
And so the three of them divided their roles.
While Yeon-woo, swift of foot, drew the female bird’s attention, Jin Geom-hwi would secure the egg, and Eun-ryeong would keep watch, ready to aid Yeon-woo if need arose.
What remained was to wait for the male to venture out hunting again.
In the meantime, Jin Geom-hwi circled wide around the cliff and made for the opposite side.
He wove a vine rope around a massive tree and wound it about his waist.
The nest sat at the cliff’s midpoint.
The distance was too great to descend using the Light Body Art alone.
Screeeee—
The wait was not long.
The male bird soon flew out again to hunt, needing to fill the belly of his much larger mate.
Only after the male’s form vanished beyond the distant sky and they’d waited until he was surely far enough away did they begin to move.
Whoosh—
Yeon-woo stood atop the rock, axe in hand.
“Be careful.”
Eun-ryeong spoke softly.
Yeon-woo grinned and picked up a stone she’d spotted earlier—roughly the size of her own head.
Then, with all her strength, she hurled it toward the nest.
Whoosh— Crack!
The moment the stone struck the wall near the nest, the bird’s head snapped up sharply.
Her keen eyes swept across the cliff in a flash.
Then they fixed on Yeon-woo.
Yeon-woo drew a deep breath. And then—
“Hey, you big bird! Come play with me!”
Come play with me, play, play—
Yeon-woo’s voice rang out through the ravine, sharp and clear.
‘That crazy…!’
Jin Geom-hwi and Eun-ryeong, caught off guard by her actions, froze in shock.
Flap—!
The bird responded.
“…!”
Jin Geom-hwi looked down at the nest.
She hadn’t left it, but her wings spread wide.
She was preparing to take flight at any moment.
In that instant, Yeon-woo kicked off the rock and plunged down into the ravine.
“…!”
The two of them gasped again.
Yeon-woo hadn’t even secured a vine rope. She simply threw herself down as she was.
Whoosh— Thud!
And yet, impossibly, Yeon-woo landed not far from the nest on the opposite side of the ravine.
The axe blade bit deep into a crevice in the cliff face, and her hands and feet locked against the jutting rock to support her.
‘That… that monster!’
She could’ve cleared this distance with ease?!
‘This ravine…’
Jin Geom-hwi swallowed hard, staring down into the depths.
‘It’s at least fifty feet deep…!’
That insane beast of a woman!
Flap—!
“…!”
Jin Geom-hwi’s gaze snapped toward the nest.
His eyes trembled slightly.
The female hawk was moving.
With her wings fully spread, she was nothing short of imposing.
She appeared to measure nearly nine feet across.
A vastness utterly unbefitting a hawk.
Whoosh—whoosh—
Each beat of her wings summoned a gale.
The sound was forceful enough to cut through the ravine’s howling winds.
Tap—tap-tap—crack!
Yeon-woo moved.
At that same instant, the female hawk launched into her attack.
She had recognized Yeon-woo, who had vaulted across the wide ravine in a single bound, as an intruder in her nest.
Crack—tap-tap—tap!
Yeon-woo’s speed scaling the cliff matched her running pace.
Five years.
For one who had lived in the mountains these past five years, nothing was more familiar than this.
Shrieeeeek!
The female hawk bore down on Yeon-woo.
The hawk’s attention was wholly fixed on her as she darted back and forth across the cliff face.
‘Now!’
Tap—
Jin Geom-hwi, who had been watching for his opening, leaped down from the cliff.
Tap—tap-tap-tap!
He unfurled the Vine Rope and deployed the Light Body Art, bounding diagonally down the cliff as though running through air.
Though aided by the rope, his movements were no less fluid than Yeon-woo’s.
Crack!
Jin Geom-hwi reached the nest in an instant.
The eggs of the hawk infused with Ghostly Qi were themselves of tremendous size.
A single egg reached as high as Jin Geom-hwi’s knee.
And nestled among those eggs—
‘There!’
The Mystical Bird Egg lay waiting.
Slightly larger than a chicken’s egg, just as he had seen it in Maryong Hall.
Jin Geom-hwi seized it at once.
‘As expected.’
The egg was nothing but shell, exactly as he had anticipated.
He couldn’t say precisely how it had been affixed, but it was hard as stone.
Jin Geom-hwi tucked the Mystical Bird Egg into his breast and grasped the Vine Rope.
Climbing would take longer than descending, since he’d have to hold fast to the rope—time they didn’t have.
While Yeon-woo bought him those moments, he needed to conceal himself quickly.
Shrieeeeek—crack!
“Watch out!”
The female hawk plummeted at tremendous speed, seizing the very cliff face where Yeon-woo had been clinging just moments before.
Under the hawk’s tremendous grip, the stone shattered and dust scattered.
The size was fearsome enough—but the strength was extraordinary.
Yeon-woo, caught off guard by that unexpected power, turned to face the hawk with widened eyes.
Whoosh—whoosh—
Their gazes locked—the hawk’s sharp eyes meeting hers.
Yeon-woo let out a soft laugh.
Tap—
She pivoted her body downward at once.
Hawks are birds that hunt by diving to snatch their prey mid-flight.
She was luring the bird downward to trigger that very instinct.
Fortunately, the female hawk followed readily enough.
Her body and raw strength had grown, but her cognitive abilities seemed no different from those of an ordinary hawk.
That was when it came.
Whistle—!
A sharp whistling sound pierced the ravine like a blade.
It was Eun-ryeong’s signal—a warning of danger.
Jin Geom-hwi, climbing the Cliff, and Yeon-woo, luring the Dark Hawk, both lifted their eyes to the sky at the same moment.
Shrieeeeek—
The hunting hawk had returned.

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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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