Chronicles of the Mad Demon - Chapter 74

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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 74. Secret Place, Secret (4)

The world was rapidly flowing backward.

It felt like entering a different time zone. Everything visible seemed to become fragments scattered like torn pieces of paper with each step.

How long had it been? Since entering such a world.

‘You’re fast indeed.’

Compared to his prime years, it was naturally a slow speed.

But considering the Young Master’s past, it could be called a blindingly fast speed.

‘Young Master.’

Guo Lao looked down at the back of Moyong Bi’s head.

The Young Master’s hair swaying in the wind occasionally disturbed his vision.

It seemed like the Young Master’s dark past was screaming.

‘I still don’t understand.’

Was it about half a month ago?

When I suddenly saw the Young Master visiting the Ancestral Hall, I felt uneasy wondering what was happening again.

But thinking about it now, the Young Master’s real change began from that time.

‘You said the Young Master had been learning the family’s martial arts from long ago?’

Seok Woong had told him.

He had trusted him for quite a long time. As someone from an escort warrior background, he didn’t exclude any possibility, but still, his words were trustworthy.

It wasn’t a situation to lie about anyway.

‘Is that really true?’

If he had been learning from long ago, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed the signs.

Could it be that the Young Master was born with such tremendous talent that he could even deceive his eyes?

‘Even if that were true, there’s no way I, who have watched the lord and young lord’s martial arts for so long, wouldn’t recognize it.’

That was the reason for his sudden suspicion.

A simple yet certain reason. Although things had come to this point now, he trusted his judgment built over many years.

And one more thing.

‘…I felt no impulse while watching the Young Master.’

He had extracted, ground down, purified, and finally burned it all away.

Now only traces of that wicked ‘seed’ remained. He could feel it himself.

Still, if someone had learned the family’s true martial arts, his sensitive senses couldn’t have missed it.

‘It was from that time.’

The morning after visiting the Ancestral Hall.

From when the Young Master personally treated the Eldest Miss’s illness, his head began to throb.

A warning from the traces of the seed.

Seeing it react so sensitively despite only traces remaining, he thought it fortunate while feeling inevitable self-blame and frustration.

‘You learned all those heart methods? Is that possible?’

Of course it was possible.

Especially if based on the Honyuan Heart Method, he could have learned almost all energy manipulation arts of the Moyong Noble Family. In terms of inclusiveness, Honyuan martial arts was among the top divine arts in the world.

Even his own martial arts were transmitted by the lord who had incorporated part of Honyuan martial arts.

But to learn all that just by looking at secret manuals without a master?

‘By my common sense, it’s impossible, Young Master.’

Could even a genius of the ages understand the meaning of characters without learning the Thousand Character Classic?

Naturally impossible. This was a problem beyond the realm of talent.

Even the greatest genius of the current age, or even of all time, couldn’t personally test so many martial arts alone without being familiar with martial arts. Moreover, weren’t they all high-level divine arts of Jianghu?

At best it would lead to qi deviation, with high probability of death.

‘What on earth happened to the Young Master?’

He had many worries.

He wanted to visit the Young Master frequently and ask various things. No, he wanted to confront him.

That this wasn’t possible by the common sense he knew.

Whether someone had helped, and if so, why hadn’t he told everyone until now.

If not that, he wanted to ask if he was possessed by the ghost of a deceased ancestor.

‘Ancestor…’

Of course it was nonsense.

But there was one incident that made him think that nonsensical imagination might be possible.

‘Soui Mangcheonje (Burning Clothes Sky-Gazing Ritual).’

Burning clothes while hoping to the sky.

Sky meant the ancestors. Soui Mangcheonje was the Moyong Family’s unique ritual culture of burning cherished silk clothes to pray to ancestors.

He could barely recall the name of that ritual just recently. It was so long ago that his memory was hazy.

The Young Master performed the ritual that even he had forgotten, as if familiar with it.

There were books about ritual procedures in the secret place?

Was that really so?

‘I… really have many things I want to ask the Young Master.’

He wanted to ask even now.

But he couldn’t ask.

Because as a subordinate questioning a superior might seem improper? That wasn’t it.

‘I am afraid, Young Master.’

The Young Master had secrets he hadn’t told anyone.

He had a premonition that if he learned the identity of those secrets, something frightening would happen.

A veil of secrets covering something unbearable. The moment he lifted that veil, he felt he could never return to the past.

Of course, if he had sensed that secret was trying to harm everyone, he would have asked long ago.

‘Still, I trust the Young Master.’

After the Young Master changed, the family gained vitality.

When the young lord was alive in the past, the entire family was filled with defeat and despair since they had just fled from Yolyeong.

Moreover, after the lady passed away, each day was a war, so the dark clouds never cleared.

In a sense, it was the first vitality felt since moving to Hubei.

‘Whatever the Young Master is hiding, this foolish old servant knows well that his heart for the family is sincere.’

However, what Guo Lao wished for was one thing.

‘Please take care of your health.’

Though unsolved questions continued, if the Moyong clan could be happy, he could bury everything and live. No, he would have no regrets even in death.

How much time had passed like that?

“Huff, huff.”

His internal energy had long been depleted.

Yet Moyong Bi’s speed didn’t decrease. It even seemed slightly faster than when his internal energy was full.

Surprise appeared on Guo Lao’s face.

‘This is?!’

The simple lightness skill gradually changed into a familiar lightness technique.

‘White Deer Facing Wind!’

It was one of the Moyong Noble Family’s secret transmission lightness skills, corresponding to the second lightness among the Two Lightness Three Steps.

A lightness skill optimized for straight-line travel, created by one of the ancestors who gained inspiration from encountering a spiritual deer with pure white antlers.

Throb!

His head ached from the pain emitted by traces of the seed.

But even that pain couldn’t eliminate this emotion.

‘To see White Deer Facing Wind like this.’

It was tremendous speed even performed without internal energy.

Guo Lao’s face, colored with emotion, gradually changed to shock.

‘Could it be Qi Absorption Rebound Force?’

It was an advanced enlightenment of drawing earth qi through the Yongquan acupoint on the sole after depleting all internal energy, forming rebound force to maintain lightness skill to the end.

Knowing didn’t mean one could do it. Even those with deep enlightenment could lose balance immediately and get seriously injured if concentration broke.

‘This, this is.’

He naturally employs such dangerous realizations as easily as breathing. This was possible because most of the acupoints throughout his body were well-opened.

‘How did he reach such a level?’

Since it requires extremely delicate external qi manipulation, even super first-rate masters don’t use it carelessly unless in the worst situations.

It was surprising that he had reached the level of qi absorption and repulsion, but what was even more surprising was how naturally he employed it.

That wasn’t the end of it.

“Sseup.”

Beyond the sound of wind blowing madly.

The Young Master’s short, strong breathing could be felt.

While maintaining lightness skill through qi absorption and repulsion, he builds internal power again. He’s attempting the Twin Dragon Energy’s movement training with the Honyuan Heart Method.

It was no different from simultaneously operating three martial arts at once. Guo Lao’s thinking stopped at this unbelievable situation.

And time passed again.

Thud!

Dust clouds rose around where he kicked off the ground forcefully.

The agility of changing direction, yet surprisingly smooth.

Now the traces of the seed didn’t even issue warnings.

‘Even the Blue Crane Flowing Water Step…’

Lee Gyeong’s final lightness skill.

Though somewhat slower than the White Deer Facing Wind Step, its advantage was free direction changes and less burden on the body.

White Deer Facing Wind Step, Blue Crane Flowing Water Step.

The two lightness skills representing the Moyong Noble Family appeared across time.

Guo Lao was greatly moved. Though he was curious how the Young Master could perfectly execute both lightness skills, his emotion at seeing the Moyong Family’s high-level martial arts after so long was much greater.

Time passed again.

After running non-stop for three full hours, Moyong Bi stopped in a forest beside a deserted abandoned house.

“Huff! Huff! Oh, that was exhausting!”

How long had it been since he ran like this?

He ran using qi absorption and repulsion, skipping even rest. Despite having internal energy, his stamina hit rock bottom.

“Young Master, are you alright?”

“Not enough to kill me.”

His panting breath quickly became stable.

His breathing control was also remarkable. Like someone who had lived fighting their entire life, he seemed to know how to reorganize as quickly as possible.

“How is Guo Lao?”

“I was comfortably carried on the Young Master’s back.”

Even though he was carried, he hadn’t rested once at that speed. It was excessive strain for an aged body.

Yet Moyong Bi said this.

“Right, of course you should be fine.”

Moyong Bi stood up and looked at the abandoned house.

“Young Master, please rest a bit more.”

“I’m fine. This much is nothing.”

Guo Lao suddenly felt another strangeness.

‘His way of speaking.’

The Young Master uses very informal speech when conversing with the young misses or the Fire Sword Group. Sometimes his speech makes him seem even younger than his age.

But when addressing him, his speech becomes completely different.

Like an aged veteran of Jianghu who had lived in the same era for a long time.

“Some rice balls.”

“Ah, yes.”

Guo Lao took out rice balls and jerky from the bundle tied around his back.

Moyong Bi didn’t suggest Guo Lao eat some. He knew he wouldn’t eat even if offered.

After filling his stomach, Moyong Bi pointed at the abandoned house and said.

“That abandoned house looks rather strange, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose.”

It was literally an abandoned house.

As if it had fully faced the passage of time, not a single place was intact. At least the wall looked sturdy.

“By the way, where is this place?”

“As expected, you don’t know.”

“Pardon?”

“If it were the old you, you would have felt uneasy the moment you saw the abandoned house.”

“…?”

“Of course, you still would have passed by. That abandoned house has a formation technique that disrupts outsiders’ cognitive abilities.”

“What?!”

Guo Lao was startled.

A formation technique?

A distant look appeared in Moyong Bi’s eyes.

“It’s one of the places established for the world’s safety. Especially, they surrounded it with double and triple formation techniques so those who learned demonic arts could never discover it.”

“De, demonic arts?”

“The formation techniques are so secretive that no one could know of their existence unless they saw them directly. Even I… only knew the location, this is my first time seeing it directly.”

Guo Lao suddenly felt his spine grow cold.

“Could that place be the secret place?!”

“That’s right.”

“…But didn’t the Young Master say he had been to the secret place?”

“I did.”

“…”

“How about it? Shall we go in together? Of course, you have no right to refuse.”

Moyong Bi’s grinning face shone as brightly as the sun, making it hard to look at directly.

Still, Guo Lao looked straight at his face.

In that dazzling face, no dampness or danger could be found.

“I will naturally follow.”

“Good.”

Moyong Bi walked ahead.

“Though it became an abandoned house, I heard it was quite a large old bookstore before.”

“Old bookstore…”

“It was called Tian Yi Shu Gu.”

Tian Yi.

Clothes worn by celestial beings or fairy maidens.

It was an old bookstore built on a deserted road in Tian Men County, Hubei Province.

“Go in.”

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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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