Chronicles of the Mad Demon - Chapter 172
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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 172. Malice (1)
“Huh.”
The old Taoist Priest quietly admired the swift movement of the warriors rapidly surrounding the area.
“Their movements are swift indeed. I heard that the discipline of the Martial Alliance warriors had become quite lax after the war, but it doesn’t seem to be entirely true.”
“….”
“What do you think?”
Ja Dam bowed her head.
“I’m not sure.”
“Do you mean they’re lacking? Or that you can’t judge their level?”
“Both.”
“Hehe, with your achievements, you could see it that way.”
Ja Dam shook her head.
“I’m not disparaging them. I simply don’t know exactly what level the Martial Alliance warriors are at, so I can only compare them to my own level.”
“I understand. But even you couldn’t move as uniformly as they do. Though your skill is incomparably superior, showing such army-like movements requires very long training.”
Ja Dam didn’t quite understand what those army-like movements were.
But she trusted her master uncle’s insight. Her master uncle was one of the heroes who had cut down countless ruthless Evil Demons alongside her Master on fierce battlefields of the past.
“People say that Mu Dang martial arts are the best under heaven. But those words are wrong.”
“Is that so?”
“Any martial art in the world becomes a famous sword under heaven when held by one with deep enlightenment. Mu Dang martial arts can become the best under heaven, but if all Murim Warriors in the world gained great enlightenment, it could be evaluated as just ordinary martial arts.”
Ja Dam recalled her master uncle’s teachings anew.
Her master uncle always told her to doubt her deepest convictions. Doubt and distrust were different things, and knowing that difference was necessary for a Taoist Priest to live in Jianghu without forgetting that a Taoist Priest is a Taoist Priest.
Now Ja Dam felt she was beginning to understand what that meant.
Not everything, but some of it.
“By the way….”
The Jegal Clan in the distance still looked like a small dot.
Though they were quite far away, her master uncle Heo Joong Jin In seemed to sense something.
“Truly miscellaneous Killing Intent. I can already feel the tingling Demonic Energy.”
“Already?”
“Don’t mind it. Even if you reach this master uncle’s level, it would be difficult to obtain such senses.”
Ja Dam knew well that this wasn’t said as boasting.
He was someone who had been active on battlefields for nearly twenty years as a Taoist Priest. He had to be superior to anyone in reading Killing Intent, especially Killing Intent derived from Demonic Energy.
“It seems the situation has become urgent. Tsk, it would have been good if they had contacted us even a little sooner.”
Heo Joong Jin In clicked his tongue and tapped the ground several times with his toes.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Whoosh!
The two people quickly descended the slope.
Behind the two people executing the lightness skill representing the Mu Dang Faction, Stepping on Clouds, cloud-like energy was spreading out in wisps.
* * *
“How could Uncle?!”
Two people lost for words from shock.
Jegal Chung Yang, who had regained his composure relatively quickly but still couldn’t escape the shock, asked as if he couldn’t believe it.
A faint smile appeared on Jegal Moon’s face.
“Do you want to know the reason?”
“….”
“I’m sorry, but there’s no reason for me to tell you.”
“What?!”
“Whatever the reason was, you won’t be able to forgive me, and I have no intention of seeking forgiveness from you either.”
Jegal Moon looked up at the sky.
Even though he had suffered internal injuries from Jeogal Myeong’s Energy Wave, he looked very refreshed. No, now he didn’t even show signs of internal injuries.
“It’s completely different from the sky I saw yesterday. Indeed, people should live in their own homes.”
This meant that this place had not been his home until now.
Jegal Chung Yang cried out as if wailing.
“Why are you doing this?! How could you join hands with ruthless Ma In…!”
“Do you know the meaning of ruthless?”
Jegal Moon’s voice, tinged with laughter, was like the wingbeats of a hawk soaring through the sky.
Free and vigorous. It was clear he couldn’t be happier than this.
“Ruthless is short for brutal and ruthless. But all Murim Warriors living in Jianghu are brutal and ruthless. In this world without law or order, where is there anyone who isn’t ruthless?”
“That’s sophistry!”
“In this situation, you probably don’t want to have a debate with me. You just want me to admit my wrongdoing and change this situation according to your standards.”
Jegal Moon clicked his tongue.
“I thought you had grown up, but you’re still young after all. If it’s a situation you can’t change with your own power, you should have learned to give up first.”
“…!”
“Elder Brother taught his children wrong. Well, thanks to that, it was convenient for us.”
Jegal Moon looked at the kneeling scholars.
Their faces were colored with terror. Many of them had even fainted. They realized there was no hope immediately after realizing they had been captured by Ma In.
Actually, several brave scholars had stepped forward, but they were torn apart alive by the Ma In’s hands.
After seeing that terrible sight, no one dared to raise their heads.
Baek Ho asked indifferently.
“By any chance, do you sense demon-subduing energy?”
“I sense it. It’s very high-level Buddhist martial arts. It’s disgustingly revolting.”
“If it wasn’t breached from the Outer Courtyard, there’s a high possibility that the Outer Courtyard warriors let them in.”
If that were the case, it meant they should be massacred.
Jegal Moon shook his head.
“I gave those who had been starving for a long time the conviction that they would never go hungry again. Even one who knows the truth cannot overcome the madness of humans consumed by desire.”
“Then it means they broke through directly from the Outer Courtyard.”
“That must be it.”
“To break through the Outer Courtyard requires martial arts at the level of the Six Family Heads. But the Inner Courtyard cannot be breached with martial arts alone.”
“Conversely, it means it can be breached even with weak martial arts.”
It wasn’t wrong.
But if someone had breached both the Outer Courtyard and Inner Courtyard in one go, it meant their martial arts and enlightenment were remarkable.
“Don’t worry. The White Marquis will come soon too.”
Baek Ho, who was about to say that going directly to solve it would be the fastest way, soon bowed his head.
He knew well how remarkable Jegal Moon’s martial arts were. With the White Marquis coming as well, the situation would be as good as over.
“Still, we can’t just leave the intruder alone. It would be better to eliminate them before they cause more unnecessary variables.”
“That’s right.”
“But it seems the kids have decreased a bit?”
“I sent them toward the Family Head’s Office, but none have returned yet.”
Jegal Moon frowned.
“That’s a bit troublesome.”
That’s when it happened.
“We greet the White Marquis’ Vice-Leader!”
Some of the Ma In who had headed to the Family Head’s Office returned.
Baek Ho shouted.
“Why are you only coming now?”
“Forgive us!”
“Enough, give your report first.”
Ma In quickly continued speaking.
“An unidentified master infiltrated the Family Head’s Office, killed Baek Cheong and over a hundred members of his White Demon Corps, then fled with the family head!”
“What?!”
Baek Ho flew into a rage.
On the other hand, Jegal Moon seemed completely unfazed and remained calm.
“The situation had already concluded before we arrived, but based on the traces, we estimate there were three in total! According to footprint analysis, one of them appears to be Jegal Chung Ho, and the other two are presumed to be formidable masters!”
One of them would be the practitioner of demonic arts.
The problem was the other person.
“Who is it?”
Jegal Moon shook his head.
“We can’t tell for now. However, there’s a high probability it’s a martial arts master.”
“Pardon?”
“It was so faint that even I wasn’t sure. It was such a weak glimmer that I thought I might have been mistaken. But now that I think about it, it’s definitely a martial arts master.”
Baek Ho felt inwardly astounded.
A demonic arts master followed by a martial arts master? Had elders from Shaolin and martial arts sects come here?
Come to think of it, they would be capable of breaking through all of the Jegal Family’s formations and rescuing the family head in an instant.
“Where is Baek Sa now?”
“He’s with Jeogal Myeong.”
“Jegal…”
At that moment, Jegal Moon turned his head.
“Huh!”
An anxious yet familiar aura was rapidly approaching.
Jegal Moon frowned for the first time.
“Did he flee?”
A moment later.
“Huff! Huff! You guys hurry… Huk!”
Jeogal Myeong was startled to see his younger brother.
“You, how are you here?!”
“This is the first time seeing each other like this, isn’t it?”
Jegal Moon smiled.
“I thought we’d meet after everything was over, but who would have thought we’d see each other so soon. Did you run away?”
“You?!”
“But what’s with that complexion?”
The smile turned to coldness in an instant.
“Even after mastering the Red Seed technique, could you still be this terrified?”
“…What?”
“How astounding. I knew better than anyone that you were pathetic, but I never thought you’d be this pathetic.”
Jegal Moon’s appearance, even clicking his tongue, was far too unfamiliar to Jeogal Myeong.
Baek Ho called out in a low voice.
“Show your respects. This is the White Marquis’ Vice-Leader.”
White Marquis’ Vice-Leader.
Among the Five Colored Noble Ranks under the Apostle, he was the second-in-command of the White Marquis, and his actual skill was known to be almost equal to the main leader—a master of legendary proportions.
Jeogal Myeong felt a shock as if he’d been hit in the back of the head with a hammer.
“You, you?!”
He knew well that he was merely a mask. He had known from the beginning that someone was orchestrating major events to overturn the existing family system and transform it into a demon’s nest.
But he never imagined it would be his younger brother.
“Don’t tell me… the Martial Arts Manual was also you?!”
“I was at a loss for how to make that stupid head of yours understand. It was a moment when I truly realized that simplifying difficult concepts is no ordinary labor.”
He had been able to deceive the family elders, and even his older brother who was the family head, because the level of martial arts that Jeogal Myeong actually demonstrated was remarkable.
But as Neung Hyeong had said, he had merely trained enough to naturally execute martial arts that someone else had interpreted and explained for him.
Even that alone had made him grow incomparably compared to before, but since he hadn’t realized it himself, it wasn’t truly his own.
“Still.”
Jegal Moon let out a bitter smile.
He fingered the pouch hanging from his belt.
“I must complete the mission I was given, right?”
Then, Jegal Moon grabbed Jeogal Myeong by the collar and pulled him back.
In that gap, a long iron spear struck down like lightning.
Crack!
The spear shaft, buried more than halfway into the ground, trembled.
It was like a meteor falling from the sky. The force was so strong that countless cracks appeared around where the spear was embedded.
Jegal Moon looked toward the southeast with fearsome eyes.
A young man was walking from that direction.
“As expected, you were all gathered here together.”
“Who are you?”
Moyong Bi shook his head.
“That’s not really important.”
“…?”
“Anyway, as expected, it was you. The culprit who created this situation.”
Jegal Moon’s eyes flashed with interest.
“You knew of my existence?”
“Your stupid blood relative couldn’t have brought the family to this state with the demons’ help alone. No matter how full of holes this household is.”
“Huh.”
“But you, you’ve learned quite a peculiar demonic art.”
At those meaningful words, Jegal Moon’s cheek twitched.
“You can see my demonic art?”
That’s when it happened.
Thud!
A person who had soared high into the sky descended to the ground. Coincidentally, where he landed was next to Moyong Bi.
It was Neung Hyeong.
“It’s called White Face Demonic Art, junior.”
“White Face Demonic Art?”
“It’s a demonic art that makes your complexion turn pale when you practice it.”
“That would be good for faking illness, wouldn’t it?”
“I’ve never thought of it that way.”
“By the way, why couldn’t you catch that idiot?”
“…Damn, I won’t make excuses.”
“You’re not what you used to be, are you?”
“Don’t talk shit!”
Listening to the conversation between the two who had no tension whatsoever, Jegal Moon shook his head vigorously.
“Who are you people?”
Moyong Bi and Neung Hyeong spoke simultaneously.
“People.”
“Introduce yourself first, you bastard.”
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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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