Chronicles of the Mad Demon - Chapter 256

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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 256. The Great Demon’s Immortality (1)
“So that’s what happened?”
A smile spread across Meng Ha Sung’s face.
“Struggling, are we? Even within the same faction, one’s own life comes first—is that it?”
“It’s not just Jong Mu Seok. Most of the Elders likely feel the same way. After all, they’re a group gathered for their own interests, aren’t they?”
“That would be the case.”
Gong Sun Baek smiled faintly.
“Setting aside other matters, the change in Young Ho Gyeong has been quite remarkable. To be frank, I had planned to remove him from his position soon.”
“For what reason?”
“I believed he would create the reason himself.”
He had been certain that Young Ho Gyeong would succumb to external pressure and ruin the Law Enforcement Hall’s order.
And now, that certainty had shattered.
“So he became the Tambi Ryeong-ju.”
“So it appears.”
Meng Ha Sung shook his head.
“I acknowledged his accomplishment, but I never expected him to turn Young Ho Gyeong’s heart as well.”
“In truth, looking at Young Ho Gyeong’s personal circumstances, one cannot call him a bad person. Rather, his lack of ambition leaves a favorable impression on those engaged in politics.”
Meng Ha Sung burst into laughter without realizing it.
“Chief Military Officer, are you worried I might harbor excessive expectations of the Tambi Ryeong-ju?”
Gong Sun Baek shook his head.
“If someone is worthy of expectations, then holding such expectations is fitting. I simply do not underestimate human potential.”
“Like with Young Ho Gyeong?”
“Precisely. Of course, the Tambi Ryeong-ju must have given him great stimulus. He was placed at a crossroads of an extreme binary choice.”
“But in the end, it was Young Ho Gyeong who made the choice.”
“A man who had lived his entire life for his lord finally staked his own life. And he did so at a moment when he had to decide immediately.”
Gong Sun Baek’s smile soon turned into a bitter one.
“Everyone failed to see it, but Young Ho Gyeong possessed both a sense of responsibility and chivalrous justice in his heart.”
Seeing people correctly is a Chief Military Officer’s basic knowledge. By that standard, I had failed to see the heart of the leader of such an important organization as the Law Enforcement Hall.
Yet Moyong Bi had seen it.
‘With that temperament, if he had judged it to be wrong, he would have cast Young Ho Gyeong to the depths. Yet he waited.’
It meant he had seen something I could not.
Perhaps I held greater expectations for Moyong Bi than I did for the Alliance Leader himself.
Meng Ha Sung nodded.
“It would have been better if his ambition had been channeled in a positive direction.”
“We shall see as time unfolds.”
Meng Ha Sung, nodding, picked up a document placed beside him.
“You know the Jegal Family Head visited the Alliance Leader’s Residence?”
“I do.”
“He expressed his feelings quite candidly.”
“What did he say?”
“I will not stake my clan’s fate for you alone. However, for the benefactor who preserved my clan’s destiny, every member of the Jegal Clan will draw their sword.”
Gong Sun Baek’s face darkened.
“So you’re saying you’ll stand with us for Tambi Ryeong-ju.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“Couldn’t you have phrased the same sentiment more gracefully?”
“Isn’t it better for us this way?”
I had laid bare the sincerity that need not have been spoken aloud.
That very act became the foundation for building trust. Going forward, when the Alliance Leader’s Faction and Military Department issued orders regarding the Jegal Clan, there would be no room for misunderstanding.
“Jong Mu Seok and the faction elders will certainly move to eliminate his subordinates, so I’ve requested that the Alliance Leader’s Faction secretly dispatch military forces.”
Gong Sun Baek’s eyes gleamed.
“You’re seizing the momentum.”
“Exactly.”
“And since Jong Mu Seok said he would expose the corruption of Jeon Chil Sung and the other elders of the Elder Council, they must be feeling the heat.”
“Which is why…”
Meng Ha Sung laughed coldly.
“I thought I’d demonstrate to my Jegal Family Head that I’m not lacking as a leader, and flex my strength a bit.”
….
“Alongside Tambi Ryeong-ju.”
* * *
Clang! Clang!
Kang Hyang let out a sigh after striking the sword several times with her hammer.
“Damn it.”
Unsure what was bothering her, she wiped the sweat from her brow with a cloth laid nearby.
“What’s the matter?”
“My hammer work just isn’t flowing today.”
Yu Ho, her fellow blacksmith, burst into laughter.
“What’s this? The master craftsman known as the Iron-Blooded Artisan?”
“Don’t even get me started.”
“Come to think of it, there’s been a lot of work lately. Why don’t you rest today? We’ll handle the overtime.”
Kang Hyang smiled wryly.
“Sorry for always leaving the overtime to you all.”
“Come on, you know it’s always been that way. Ever since you first met Master Kang, all the overtime fell to us. Don’t you remember?”
Kang Hyang chuckled softly.
“Then I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Don’t worry and just rest. Get some fresh air too. That walking path through the Outer Forest would be nice.”
“How did you know I go there often?”
Yu Ho looked at her as if exasperated.
“Don’t you remember when you were drunk and I took you there a few times?”
“Did I?”
“I’m serious—cut back on the drinking. And maybe start looking for a spouse.”
“How many men would willingly take a woman whose hands are covered in calluses and whose muscles are hardened from labor?”
“Since there won’t be many, you’d better start searching diligently from now on.”
Watching them exchange such banter with ease, I realized our connection truly ran deep.
After entrusting the task to Yu Ho, Kang Hyang ventured into the forest, a considerable distance from the Blacksmith Workshop.
“The breeze feels wonderful.”
The forest wind gently cooled the heat that had built up in her body.
That was precisely why Kang Hyang loved this place—it cooled her neither too harshly nor too slowly, striking the perfect balance.
Standing before a small rock along the walking path, Kang Hyang caressed the stone with a bitter expression.
“I’ve already rotted away ten years in the Martial Alliance.”
How much contempt she had endured simply for wielding a hammer as a woman.
Gritting her teeth and proving her worth, she had come this far. Truly, those had been days of relentless pursuit without once looking around.
“…Is that why?”
Kang Hyang let out a bitter laugh.
“Is that why my life has become so twisted? I should have looked around while running forward, before needing to prove myself.”
She slowly turned her body.
Whoooosh.
The wind that blew swept up several fallen leaves into the empty air.
A few leaves obscured her vision before drifting away again.
Then six men appeared.
“You’re Kang Hyang, the Alliance Leader of the Weapons Manufacturing Unit under the Iron Forging Department of the Martial Alliance Outer City, correct?”
Kang Hyang smiled fiercely and spoke.
“And if I’m not, would you believe me?”
Shing.
The men drew their swords.
The blades, treated with non-reflective coating, did not glimmer even in the sunlight filtering through the branches.
Their faces, bearing eyes filled with killing intent and requiring no further words, were like demons themselves.
Kang Hyang clenched her teeth.
“Has Jong Mu Seok been captured?”
“…”
“Damn it. If I’d known it would end this pathetically, I never would have listened to that son of a bitch.”
“What do you consider pathetic?”
One of the men laughed wickedly.
“Dying in a group fight? Or having just your head severed?”
“Dying at the hands of bastards like you is pathetic enough.”
“Don’t worry. You won’t be sent alone.”
“What?”
“Your subordinates who lusted after their superior’s body will all be executed for murder and sexual assault.”
Kang Hyang’s face flushed crimson with rage.
“You’re worse than animals!”
The men laughed sinisterly as they approached.
“A woman who doesn’t know her place—we should have some fun with you before we dispose of you.”
The way he spat out such vile words as naturally as breathing suggested he’d done far worse than once or twice.
Kang Hyang, whose eyes burned with contempt, soon let out a bitter laugh.
“Right. What’s the difference between bastards like you and corrupt dogs like me who take blood money?”
“Hehehehe.”
The two men stomped the ground.
Flash!
A streak of light blazed diagonally through the empty air.
The faces of the charging men twisted in agony.
Splurch!
Their bodies, split diagonally, tumbled grotesquely as if shredded by the teeth of some colossal beast.
“Gaaaahhh!”
“Ahhhhh!”
Though their torsos were severed clean in two, death didn’t come instantly. But soon, as they coughed up bloody foam, their bodies convulsed before finally going still.
The remaining men’s eyes widened in horror.
“I’ve been curious about something for a while now.”
A young man emerged from behind Kang Hyang, who wore that bitter smile.
With his elongated frame and a grotesque pair of twin blades slung across his shoulder—blades that looked as though chunks had been bitten out of them—he was none other than Moyong Bi.
“Don’t you guys feel embarrassed spouting lines like that? It’s so clichéd.”
“W-who are you?!”
“And asking for introductions in the middle of all this—also clichéd.”
Moyong Bi stomped the ground.
Crunch-crack-splat!
The sound wasn’t of a blade cutting, but of a giant tearing flesh and bone with bare hands.
Moving like a tempest, Moyong Bi closed the distance in an instant, severing three men’s necks before pressing his grotesque blade against the survivor’s throat.
The man swallowed hard.
‘A supreme master!’
And one whose power transcended imagination. The moment he saw the charge, his subordinates’ heads were already being severed.
“By the looks of it, you’re the captain.”
“…!!”
“I’d say you’re the type who’d bark and swear loyalty for just a mud-caked dumpling, so let’s skip the torture, shall we? Understood?”
It was a demand to answer his questions obediently.
The man clenched his teeth and asked.
“Then my life…?”
Slice.
“Grrghk!”
Two fingers fell away cleanly.
Unlike his dead subordinates, he’d only lost two fingers, yet the pain radiating from the clean wound was beyond imagination. What puzzled him was how cleanly they’d been severed this time.
Moyong Bi spoke coldly.
“What are you trying to negotiate for? Should I make sure you can neither live nor die?”
A piercing shriek tore through the air!
The killing intent amplified by the Brain Gate Heart Technique burrowed deep into the man’s consciousness.
His complexion drained to a sickly blue as he clutched at his throat, gasping for breath. The overwhelming killing intent had seized him in the grip of suffocation.
“Death is certain. The only difference is whether you die in such agony that you beg to be killed, or whether you die cleanly enough to become dog food.”
“Gasp! Gasp!”
“Ah, since I enjoy tormenting people, I could make you remember everything you ate during the Spring Festival when you were two years old, even before a quarter hour passes. So there’s no need to hesitate about asking me things you don’t know.”
The man, his mind shattered by extreme terror, lost consciousness.
Moyong Bi sheathed the Wild Beast Blade and grumbled.
“In any case, it’s because those so-called Elders of the Martial Alliance employ sinister fellows like this that the outside world is in such chaos.”
He turned his gaze toward Kang Hyang.
“You lured him in well.”
“Indeed, I did.”
“Hmm?”
Kang Hyang spoke with self-mockery.
“Whether it’s those men or myself, when we all conspire with the Elders of the Martial Alliance and commit sinister deeds, our lives end up like this.”
“What good does regretting it now do?”
“I’m not regretting it now. I regret it every day.”
“Is that so?”
“…What becomes of me now?”
Moyong Bi pointed toward the Inner City with his chin.
“You’ll have to go to the Law Enforcement Hall. You’ll just need to reveal everything you know there.”
Kang Hyang nodded.
“I’m prepared for it.”
“Of course you should be. Whether you saved your family with the money you received from Jong Mu Seok, supported orphans, or gave your subordinates larger bonuses, sin doesn’t disappear.”
Kang Hyang was startled.
“How did you know that?”
“I need to make at least a minimum confirmation of whether a person is worth protecting, don’t I?”
“….”
“Still, seeing that you regret it means you’re not entirely rotten. You committed wrongs while knowing they were wrong, so your punishment will be rather heavy.”
“…Yes.”
Moyong Bi looked up at the sky.
“I wonder how things are going over there?”

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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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