Ascension of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 40
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 40
The pavilion visible before my eyes.
I could see men loitering around with torches and short staffs.
“That place is…”
Before Wang Il’s words, hidden at the alley entrance, could even finish.
Zhuge Munhyeon, whose anger had reached the top of his head, shot forward at tremendous speed.
“…Huh?”
Wang Il couldn’t help but feel flustered as Zhuge Munhyeon, who had been right beside him, flew to the pavilion in an instant.
And.
Thwaaack!
They didn’t even have a chance to resist.
With the Silver Cold Staff that struck as soon as it was drawn, the men couldn’t even use their strength once before being knocked down and unable to get up.
Their identity… there was no need to know.
Craaash!
The door shattered into pieces inward and burst open.
“What the…”
There was no need for words.
Thwaaack!
Zhuge Munhyeon gave a taste of the Silver Cold Staff to everyone who blocked his way.
Whether their heads burst or not, whether their limbs broke or not.
He struck and smashed them down before they could even react.
Passing by those who had fallen without knowing why, he ransacked the interior of the pavilion and when he opened a certain door.
“Who are you!”
Next to the man who was shouting angrily, Grandfather was sitting slumped.
The person who had left the manor with a dignified appearance and gentle expression, saying he would give his grandson pocket money…
His white hair was disheveled, his clothes were torn here and there. And his cheek was swollen red with handprints remaining.
“Mu, Munhyeon?”
“…”
Worry appeared in Grandfather’s surprised eyes.
As if asking why I had come here…
I clenched my teeth tightly.
After the long time of my previous life, I had formed a family relationship for the first time. In that relationship, I felt affection I had never experienced, received love, and lived a life that was second to none.
But now someone had broken one of those warm barriers.
“Didn’t I ask who you are!”
The man who approached angrily glared and tried to grab my collar.
My enlarged pupils remained fixed on Grandfather the entire time, but my hand moved toward the approaching man.
I grabbed his hair and pressed him toward the floor with strength filled with rage.
Craaash!
I stomped hard on that head that had broken through the wooden floor.
Thud!
I didn’t know if he was dead or alive, but the buried man’s body went limp on the floor.
Surprise and shock.
And rage.
“This crazy bastard!”
When the other men drew their weapons and approached, Zhuge Munhyeon extended his foot as if sweeping the floor.
“Huh?”
The men looked dumbfounded.
He was clearly right in front of them…
But only wind had brushed their faces with a whoosh…
“Are you alright?”
“Munhyeon, you?”
The men whipped their heads around to look at the conversation coming from behind.
‘H-how?’
They should have attacked immediately, but their feet wouldn’t move.
They had lost track of his movement in an instant.
It was enough to realize he was a master incomparable to themselves.
Zhuge Munhyeon, sitting beside the slumped Baek Hanseong, suppressed his anger and spoke with a smile.
“Please get some sleep.”
“Mun…”
Baek Hanseong, who had been grabbing his sleeve with a worried expression, looked at Zhuge Munhyeon’s smile and slowly closed his eyes.
He had pressed the sleep acupoint to put him to sleep.
Since he had suffered hardships, he would need rest.
Also, seeing cruel scenes wasn’t good for mental health. He might suffer from nightmares for no reason. Though the bare floor would be uncomfortable, he only needed to lie down for a moment.
Zhuge Munhyeon, who had gently laid Baek Hanseong down beside him, transformed into a cold face where not a trace of emotion could be felt and turned toward the men.
Crackle!
The suppressed fighting spirit burst out in an instant and extended forward, causing the floor to crack from where his feet touched, and a fierce cold wind swept through even though no windows were open.
“W-wait!”
“…”
“We are…”
The men who realized they were no match opened their mouths urgently.
They seemed about to reveal their identity.
It would be a threat saying they were such people so don’t act rashly, or a plea to spare their lives.
But I had no intention of listening to dogs barking.
It was just noisy…
Tap.
A light sound of stepping on the floor.
“I didn’t ask… anything.”
“…!”
When Zhuge Munhyeon’s voice, which had been like a sudden gust of wind, was suddenly near their ears, the men were startled and swung the clubs in their hands.
Whoooosh!
Three men.
The clubs they swung crossed through where the sound had come from.
The Silver Cold Staff filled with internal energy extended straight and pierced one man’s chest, and the back of the swung fist struck another man’s head so fast it didn’t take even one breath.
Thud! Thwack!
Two men fell simultaneously.
Their breath was cut off in one blow.
The remaining one prostrated himself flat on the floor without even time to hesitate.
“Please spare me!”
He shouted at the top of his lungs until the veins in his neck bulged thickly.
The moment my gaze dropped slightly.
Thud!
His head was crushed under my trampling foot, blood stained everywhere, and the room became quiet.
Only the breathing of the sleeping Baek Hansang could be heard.
Zhuge Munhyeon carefully lifted his body with both arms.
First, I need to get grandfather to a safe place and call a physician to treat him.
After completely destroying all the bastards inside and walking out leisurely, Wang Il, who had been hiding nearby and watching, came running over in a panic.
“Could you hold him for a moment?”
“Huh? Yes!”
Already knowing that Zhuge Munhyeon was a tremendous martial arts master, he blinked in surprise, then nodded vigorously and took Baek Hansang’s body.
Zhuge Munhyeon immediately turned around.
The culprit?
Though he neither asked nor heard an answer, he already knew.
“Hoeunru, was it?”
They would be there.
Since they said they detained him even after the banquet ended, the feast would still be in full swing.
It didn’t matter if it had ended.
He would just make them come to him.
Thump!
Zhuge Munhyeon turned and stomped the ground forcefully, his posture lowering toward the pavilion with its door grotesquely destroyed.
Massive internal energy seeped into the Silver Cold Staff, and thread-like energies split and burst forth.
Threads of Qi.
What is commonly called sword energy.
Grip!
As he gripped tightly, the energies extending in all directions intertwined and merged into one.
Whooooom!
He struck down directly, and it extended and curved.
A star fallen to earth possesses power strong enough to destroy everything, so Falling Star is like a Slashing Strike.
Kuaaaaaaang!
The energy created by the sword cut through the center of the pavilion on this floor, and the debris split in two collapsed powerlessly.
It was a single sword strike.
Wang Il, terrified, barely managed to keep from dropping Baek Hanseong whom he held.
“Is there a skilled physician nearby by any chance?”
At the sudden question, Wang Il nodded like someone possessed by a ghost.
Even if there wasn’t one, he would have to say yes.
“Please call them to the manor. Even if they’re sleeping, wake them and bring them. I’ll provide adequate compensation.”
“Yes! I’ll do that.”
Who could possibly refuse here?
He had never seen anything like it in his life.
The sight of a perfectly fine pavilion collapsing in an instant…
If there was a physician who got irritated from being woken up, he’d have to drag them here even if it meant getting into a fistfight. His hands trembled violently as he faced potential death.
* * *
Due to the untimely commotion, the manor’s lights blazed brightly.
People moved busily according to the physician’s requests, boiling water and brewing medicinal herbs.
The commotion also woke up the companions who had been sleeping soundly.
‘What on earth is happening?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Damn, we can’t even ask… Elder Brother Munho, you ask.’
‘N-now? That doesn’t seem like a good idea.’
Zhuge Munho had no choice but to join Gwan Hwiping’s whispering.
The atmosphere emanating from Zhuge Munhyeon’s back as he sat beside Baek Hanseong, who was receiving treatment from the physician, was like that.
If he had been angry as usual, they might have tried talking to him, but they could fully feel his emotions sunk unfathomably deep.
His expression was calm and his conversation with the physician was composed, but those watching from nearby knew.
It was the first time.
They had never seen him this angry…
Surely several people must have died. They were certain of it.
‘Miss Sayo doesn’t know either?’
‘…I was sleeping too.’
‘Ah…’
Even the beggar, quick with information, could only watch nervously.
What on earth had happened that Baek Hanseong, who went out for the banquet, was in such a state, and Zhuge Munhyeon was angry?
Who in Dangang District could have made him angry in the middle of the night…
Surely it wasn’t the Gaebang, right?
That would be too troublesome…
It was then that all sorts of thoughts and worries mixed in Sayo’s mind.
“Phew, it’s fine now. He took quite a beating, but there doesn’t seem to be any major problem with his body. However, given his age, it would be good for him to rest and recuperate for a while.”
“Thank you.”
“What kind of chaos is this in the middle of sleep…”
At the physician’s words after finishing treatment, Zhuge Munhyeon took out a money pouch from his chest and offered it whole.
It was something he received from Mother.
She said there was nothing more unsightly than a man going out without money.
“A-all of this?”
The physician looked up in surprise at the weight of the money pouch.
When he sneaked a peek inside…
“Gasp! Th-this is too much.”
“Please take care of his treatment for a while. At least until he fully recovers.”
“W-well… it’s not such a serious injury.”
“He’s a relative of the Zhuge Family. He’s also my maternal grandfather.”
“I know that, but… I understand.”
The physician accepted and pocketed the money pouch.
It was too much money to refuse.
And.
“Musician Wang.”
“Yes!”
“The Hoeunru banquet, who’s the host?”
At Zhuge Munhyeon’s question, Zhuge Munho, Gwan Hwiping, and even Sayo perked up their ears.
They were extremely curious about which bastard had made that monster angry.
“That’s… the Palmun Gang.”
“Palmun? Is he the leader of those bastards from earlier?”
“That’s right.”
“He’s still at Hoeunru, right?”
“It didn’t look like a banquet that would end easily.”
“I see.”
He had been holding back all this time.
Until the physician’s treatment was finished.
Now it was time to exterminate the vermin.
He wouldn’t leave a single one alive.
Just as Zhuge Munhyeon was slowly getting up, Sayo also rose and blocked his path.
“Y-Young Master.”
“What?”
“P-please listen to me for just a moment.”
“…?”
“Palmun was… once a person who served as the Beggar’s Sect Branch Leader of Dangang District.”
A Beggar Sect member who became a ruffian as a desperate measure to survive.
He was the one Sayo had tried to recruit.
Zhuge Munhyeon spoke to Sayo, who wore a troubled expression.
“So?”
“Pardon?”
“What does it matter that he’s a Beggar Sect member?”
Sayo felt the blood in her body turn cold under his gaze.
She involuntarily swallowed hard.
If left like this, the Beggar Sect members of Dangang District would be annihilated. The Zhuge Munhyeon she had seen was someone who would surely make it so, regardless of their numbers.
However.
“I know. I know they did wrong to you, sir. But please reconsider just once more. I beg of you.”
“…”
Zhuge Munhyeon gazed intently at Sayo, who was prostrated flat on the ground, pleading.
To be stained by good requires constant effort of self-reflection, but to be stained by evil requires only a single moment of carelessness and an instant of temptation.
In other words, performing evil acts is difficult only in the first step, but afterward one becomes intoxicated by familiarity and it becomes natural, and repeated evil deeds become both more vicious and more taken for granted as time passes.
The Beggar Sect members of Dangang District must have been the same.
Abandoning the way of chivalry and choosing to be ruffians must have made their lives more prosperous.
They must have been intoxicated and enjoyed themselves within that.
Regardless of others’ gazes or evaluations…
Because all those who change their path to head in a different direction go through such a process.
On one hand, he also understood Sayo’s heart.
Because she needed to obtain the Beggar Sect members of Dangang District.
He also knew that it would be of great help to the Zhuge Family as well.
“Young Master, I earnestly beg of you. Please give them just one more chance! Even if Palmun is beyond hope, those below him will be different.”
“Different?”
“How could they refuse when the water flows down from above? Please, please let me try to persuade them just once!”
His heart wavered slightly.
A chance…
He would only need to close his eyes for a moment and let his anger subside.
But at that moment.
Kwaaaaang!
The manor’s main gate shattered as dozens of martial artists came rushing in.
“Which bastard is it! Which bastard attacked our Palmun Gang’s branch! Come out right now!”
At the sight of the intruder holding a club and shouting arrogantly with great momentum, a cold smile formed on Zhuge Munhyeon’s lips.
It seemed they were determined to kick away their opportunity.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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