Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 97

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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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Chapter 97
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Munch, munch. Smack, smack.
Chomp, chomp.
The bird’s eyes were hollow as it watched Yeon-woo savor the roasted meat.
‘Truly….’
It had thought it was about to be devoured….
Just moments before, the human had approached with an Axe in hand, saying it was hungry.
It asked where here might have fish to catch.
When the human had drawn near with gleaming eyes, it truly believed it would be seized and eaten.
‘Was it…consideration…?’
All that talk of bird meat, bird meat—and yet the human was eating fish…?
‘In any case….’
– There’s less than an hour left now.
It had spent all its time coming to the Riverbank, catching fish, making fire, and eating.
That meant barely half an hour remained.
As the time the mother bird had threatened grew closer, it was not Yeon-woo who grew anxious—it was the small bird.
The small bird stared at the human, who sat contentedly patting its belly, with its beak hanging open.
– You….
“…?”
– Aren’t you afraid?
Yeon-woo flopped backward and craned his neck upward.
The small bird’s golden beak came into view.
“Of what?”
– You’re really going to die, you know…? She’s my mother, but….
She had never once let a human she encountered live.
Very rarely—even when facing a human who rivaled her in strength, when life hung in the balance.
– Mother will kill you no matter what it takes….
“Probably.”
– Probably?! What are you even—!
“Why does your mother want to kill me? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
– I told you! Because you saw me…!
“Why can’t anyone see you? Is there a reason you have to be alone?”
– Alone…!
The bird fell silent, its beak closing.
Who would wish to live alone?
Who would want every human they met to perish?
The small bird did not wish it either.
Though it had been brief, there had been a human with whom it had shared its heart.
– Mother… Mother wishes for me not to be exploited by humans.
“Exploit you?”
– Yes. Mother lived that way her whole life.
The small bird’s head drooped, and it looked sorrowful.
It was not weeping, yet Yeon-woo knew the bird was weeping.
Yeon-woo shifted swiftly, positioning himself before the bird.
The bird looked at Yeon-woo.
– My mother absorbs Demonic Energy. Every thirty years, the Demonic Energy she accumulates becomes an egg.
As proof, Goe-jo’s nest is blue.
Instead of the Demonic Energy and Ghost Aura flowing entirely into Goe-jo, the blue forest was sustained.
The Ghost Aura drifting through the Ghost Forest converged around the blue nest, and thus the Ghost Aura grew thicker the closer one came to it.
Yet the nest was blue.
That was the form of the Ghost Forest as it centered on Goe-jo.
Yeon-woo tilted his head.
An egg?
“Goe-jo’s egg…?”
– That’s right.
“Then your mother is Goe-jo?!”
The small bird nodded.
– Humans call our mother that.
Yeon-woo’s mouth fell open.
So the mother bird was Goe-jo! I never realized!
– The humans imprisoned her in the forest to harvest her eggs. They kept her from leaving for anywhere else.
A bird flies the sky.
Because they can fly, being able to go anywhere is both the nature and the right of a bird.
The Demonic Sect stole that sky from her.
All because of human greed.
– From the moment she began laying eggs infused with Demonic Energy, my mother has been trapped in Ghost Forest.
Ghost Forest.
For Goe-jo, the sky was nothing but Ghost Forest’s perpetual darkness.
The sky above the nest was clearer, at least, but Ghost Forest’s sky was always overcast.
Before long, Goe-jo stopped venturing beyond the nest.
– And then I was born.
After the chick was born, my mother abandoned the nest even less.
She needed to protect her young.
– The humans didn’t know I existed. My mother wanted to send me away from the forest before the humans discovered me, but….
The small bird gazed down at its own feet.
Its eyes filled with bottomless sorrow.
– The curse the humans placed on my mother affected me too. I can’t leave this forest either.
Yeon-woo looked down at Goe-jo’s feet.
His stare was intense, but the small bird knew the truth.
‘He can’t see anything.’
The magic art binding Goe-jo to Ghost Forest is a Secret Art passed down through generations in the Ghost Soul Demon House, one of the Seven Families Three Palaces of the Demonic Sect.
It is a magic art that deals with the boundary between spirit and flesh, life and death—invisible even to the naked eye unless one is a master of Ghost Soul Art.
It might have been easier if it were a tangible chain, something visible and real.
Since it couldn’t be touched through physical means, there was no way to break it.
– My mother still hasn’t given up. She’s trying every way she can to get me out of here. And….
The small bird fixed its gaze on Yeon-woo.
– She wants to keep me hidden no matter what.
That was why Goe-jo killed humans.
To protect her child—born as a Spirit Creature in her image—from human hands until she could escape Ghost Forest.
Knowing that human greed knows no bounds, it was obvious that they would kill a chick that laid no eggs to harvest its Spirit Core.
Goe-jo killed without hesitation.
Not to kill was to die.
Flap—
Before the small bird could finish speaking, the sound of enormous wings fluttering echoed from far away.
The small bird’s head snapped toward the direction where it sensed its mother’s presence.
– Ah, Mother is…!
Coming…!
At the same moment, Yeon-woo rose to his feet.
In his hand, once more, was a small Hand Axe.
The small bird stared at him in shock.
‘Surely not!’
– Are you going to fight her?! With Mother?
Yet there was Yeon-woo with his axe, stepping toward the small bird.
For the first time, he radiated a fierce, overwhelming aura.
His target was—
‘Me?!’
The small bird instinctively retreated, step after step.
Whether it felt Yeon-woo’s pressure or sensed something else, its mother’s presence drew rapidly closer.
Yet still only a distant speck in size.
There was still time before the mother bird would arrive.
– D-don’t do something so foolish! Mother won’t spare you for that…!
But the small bird soon understood.
It was only natural that the human would want to kill it.
Since it had caused human deaths, it would naturally seek revenge somehow.
Or perhaps it meant to use itself as a hostage and escape. If that were the case….
Shhhhh…
The small bird instinctively withdrew the aura it had been gathering.
Had some bond already formed between them?
It was a dangerous choice that could cost it its life, but it wanted to yield to this human’s will.
Yeon-woo, holding the Axe, stepped before the small bird.
Then, gripping it firmly in both hands, he raised the Axe high above his head.
[If only I could stop this!]
Screeeeeeee—!
A tremendous force surged forward at incredible speed.
And at that same moment.
Whoosh—!
Yeon-woo brought the Axe down with all his might.
In that instant, the small bird closed its eyes.
Crack—!
[!!]
The Axe struck home.
In empty air.
In the empty space near the small bird’s leg, striking nothing at all.
– ?!
The small bird’s eyes flew wide as it sensed something amiss and opened them.
In the small bird’s eyes appeared the truth.
The Axe blade had embedded itself not in flesh, but in the shackle of Magic Art that bound its ankle.
– You, you…! What, what…!
Before the small bird could even ask what had been done.
Screeeeeeee—!
A massive shadow fell across the sky above Yeon-woo and the small bird.
The mother bird descended toward them like an arrow, her speed undiminished.
Whoooooosh—!
The violent wind forced Yeon-woo to plant himself firmly, still gripping the Axe, or be swept away.
– Ugh…!
The problem was that the gale Goe-jo had unleashed now tore across the sky several times fiercer than when it first appeared.
Goe-jo had descended far too quickly.
“Ah!”
Yeon-woo’s grip finally slipped, and the Axe fell from his hands.
As Yeon-woo’s body was swept up and carried away by the gale.
Soft—
‘Soft?’
Something plush caught Yeon-woo’s body and held him up.
A single large feather, sunset-gold in color, fluttered down before his eyes.
Yeon-woo blinked.
– Ah, dear.
He turned his head to look back at Goe-jo, who had caught him with her wing.
Goe-jo’s blazing crimson eyes regarded him from above, filled with complicated emotion.
“Put me down.”
– Very well.
Goe-jo set Yeon-woo down without protest.
With great care, at that.
As Yeon-woo’s feet touched the ground, the small bird rushed toward him.
The Axe still remained embedded near its leg.
– Mother! That child…!
– I saw it as well.
In the meantime, Yeon-woo checked the knots holding the Medicinal Herbs to make sure they hadn’t blown away again.
Goe-jo turned to him with an urgent edge to her voice.
– Dear. Can you see that vine around its leg?
Yeon-woo glanced at the small bird’s leg.
Wrapped tightly around it was something that resembled a wooden vine.
It bore a striking resemblance to the vine he had cut when he saved Heon-sa-ryul and Do-gyeom not long ago.
“Yeah. I tried to cut it in one stroke, but it didn’t work.”
– You tried to cut it…?
The moment Goe-jo’s anxious suspicion hardened into certainty.
She swallowed dryly.
– Have you learned the Ghost Soul Art?
“What’s that? I don’t know anything about that.”
Goe-jo’s golden beak parted slightly.
She hadn’t even learned the Ghost Soul Art, yet she was seeing through magic arts?
And it wasn’t enough just to see them—she was actually touching them, breaking them apart?
‘What in the world….’
But Goe-jo didn’t ask.
How it had happened wasn’t important now.
‘This is a first.’
Meeting a being who could dismantle magic arts—it was the first time in centuries that she’d encountered such a thing.
And perhaps, a chance that might never come again.
Goe-jo’s instinct spoke clearly.
‘I must never let this child slip away.’

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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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