Heavenly Demon Divine Saint - Chapter 104

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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 104
Clatter, clatter.
The carriage rolled forward without hesitation along the well-maintained roads that the Namgung Family had so carefully prepared.
The journey was swift and comfortable—stopping periodically at relay stations to exchange tired horses, and lodging at upscale inns for rest and meals.
I gazed absently out the window at the flowing landscape.
‘Even the Namgung clan proves useful sometimes.’
The roads, the Crown Prince—I had received considerable assistance in many ways.
Clatter!
As we drew closer to Songshan, the unfamiliar scenery gradually transformed into familiar vistas.
While contemplating how to approach Shaolin and fingering the golden token, the faces of my senior brothers naturally surfaced one by one in my mind.
Those bald senior brothers who clashed with me daily, frustrated with one another, yet ultimately laughed and chattered loudly together.
‘I wonder how they’re all doing.’
In that moment, my eyes deepened.
In truth, whenever I thought of my senior brothers, an ominous dread surged through me as if someone were squeezing my heart.
‘A temple closure lasting at least five years?’
My senior brothers were not foolish enough to be ignorant of the chaos that would descend when Shaolin withdrew from the Realm.
Didn’t this mean that some grave problem had arisen—one so immense that whatever disturbance erupted would have to be endured?
Crunch.
Strength unconsciously flooded into the hand gripping the token. My pale knuckles trembled faintly, betraying my anxiety.
‘Whatever it is, I’ll know soon enough.’
In the distance beyond the window, Songshan, cradling clouds, revealed its majestic presence.
* * *
“So Hyup, we’ve arrived.”
“Faster than expected. You’ve worked hard.”
At the junction leading toward Songshan, I descended from the carriage.
There was no further need to rely on the Namgung Family’s power. Or rather, I shouldn’t rely on it. From here on, I had to move alone.
“Take care of yourself. Whatever you do, I pray fortune favors you.”
The Coachman bowed respectfully. He too was of the Namgung household. Knowing that I was a benefactor to the family, he had served me attentively throughout the journey and shown sincere courtesy.
I smiled faintly and returned the greeting.
“Thanks to you, Coachman, the journey was comfortable. Night is falling, so please travel carefully.”
“Yes.”
After parting ways, I turned my steps toward Songshan.
“Well then, let’s go.”
My measured pace shortened its stride and gradually quickened, until soon I was bounding up the steep terrain of Songshan in a single breath.
A familiar path. One I had climbed countless times from when the Previous Abbot took me in until my rebirth.
Yet the atmosphere was distinctly different from before.
‘What is this?’
For some reason, the desolate atmosphere unsettled me, and my breath came in short, stifled gasps.
Was it because the incense pilgrims who once filled the mountain paths day and night had vanished? Or was it the anxiety born from the concerns I harbored that now strangled my breath?
“Enough. Once I confirm, that’s all.”
Cheon So-hyun cast aside his wandering thoughts and infused greater elasticity into his lightness technique.
As he soared over the final cliff, the tightly sealed mountain gate of Shaolin came into view.
Landing lightly, Cheon So-hyun knocked upon Shaolin’s gate and called out.
“Is anyone there?”
How long did he wait? When no response came and he sensed no presence, Cheon So-hyun’s expression hardened into stone.
‘Damn it, where has everyone gone?’
It was certainly natural that a sect under lockdown would not admit outsiders, yet the absence of even a single sentry was decidedly strange.
His gaze shifted toward the side of the gate. There stood the stone wall he had so frequently scaled to avoid troublesome eyes.
‘…There’s no choice.’
Entering a sect under lockdown was an act of profound disrespect—to ignore and trample upon a decision the sect had carefully deliberated. It was shamelessness incarnate.
Yet Cheon So-hyun vaulted over the stone wall in an instant.
‘There is no time to delay.’
Before his expulsion, he had devised several methods to approach Shaolin.
He could have taken a detour through the ancestral burial grounds known only to the elders, or made contact through the lay disciples not publicly known, the Beggar Clan with whom Shaolin maintained close ties, or even the influential families of Luoyang.
But all such methods had become meaningless now. Even at this very moment, fanatics led by Ryu Jeong-hak would be pursuing him.
Since he had prepared at least a minimal contingency, confronting the situation directly was the best course of action.
Yet upon seeing the landscape beyond the compound wall, Cheon So-hyun’s expression twisted in an instant.
“What… what is all this…?”
What lay before his eyes was not the majestic temple of his memories.
The main halls appeared to have been savagely torn apart, their forms now reduced to a pitiful wreckage. The training grounds and the halls beyond them were no different. The sturdy structures that once stood firm had been crushed and shattered.
“…!”
Cheon So-hyun’s pupils trembled as though an earthquake had struck.
He had never imagined, neither in the past nor in any future, that Shaolin could be reduced to such a state of devastation.
Casting aside the creeping dread that assailed him, Cheon So-hyun steadied his mind.
The halls naturally fell into disrepair when maintenance was neglected. The training grounds could collapse from the rigors of practice.
He needed to find someone immediately and ascertain the situation.
“Is anyone here?!”
Cheon So-hyun infused his voice with inner force and rushed forward like a madman. As he tore open the door to the Discipline Hall within Shaolin, his expression grew even colder.
The hall, which should have been filled with the meticulous Priests who guarded Shaolin’s precepts, was utterly empty.
Cheon So-hyun’s gaze swept through the interior with trembling eyes.
A musty stench filled the space of eerie silence, and gossamer cobwebs clung to every corner of the beams and pillars.
It was evidence that no human hand had touched this place for at least several months.
He hastily turned and made his way elsewhere.
‘…Where has everyone gone?’
Crash! Crash! Crash!
He checked the Arhat Hall, the training grounds, and finally the Abbot’s Chamber where the Abbot Senior Brother had dwelt, but the result was the same.
“Is anyone here?!”
His complexion, as he wandered in search of any sign of life, had become as pale as if possessed by a ghost, and his mind churned with a maelstrom of thoughts.
‘Could the Dark Lotus Society have taken revenge?’
Cheon So-hyun briefly mulled over the question, then quickly shook his head.
‘That’s not it. It’s impossible.’
The faction was a disorganized band of ruffians. Before their reincarnation, they had destroyed two pillars, so they should be overwhelmed just managing the aftermath for now.
No, even if they had managed it, there was no way they would have stormed Shaolin unless they had lost their minds entirely.
That was when it happened.
“You don’t seem to tire easily.”
“…!”
The vast Training Ground stretched before me.
A wave of killing intent crashed against my back, and I flinched in surprise. My senses snapped to full alert, my eyes widening.
“Shouldn’t you be thinking about giving up soon?”
The distance wasn’t far. The fact that I hadn’t sensed a single presence until they drew so close was truly unsettling.
A master. Among all the warriors I’d encountered since my reincarnation, this was undoubtedly one of the strongest.
“Turn around and you die. Your name, your affiliation, your numbers, your purpose here—reveal them in order.”
Thump! Thump!!
Despite my heart pounding wildly, my eyes grew cold and sharp.
Shaolin reduced to ruins, its halls standing empty, and an unfamiliar voice echoing from behind me.
‘This person doesn’t belong to Shaolin.’
Everything about this was unacceptable.
“So you’ve chosen punishment. Very well—die.”
As I turned my head, a brilliant flash of white light tore through my vision.
Shing!
The blade was impossibly fast and sharp. I barely managed to cross my arms to block, but the weight—heavy as Mount Tai itself—drove me backward, stumbling.
Pain throbbed through my palms as blood seeped crimson across my skin.
I hadn’t fully dissipated the force of their strike. Faced with such profound and weighty inner power, I immediately drew upon the Muryeong Sammaejinhwa.
“Who are you? Why is an outsider prowling through Shaolin’s halls?”
“That’s rich coming from you.”
Shing!
A flurry of strikes followed. I threw my body backward, evading. The floor of the Training Ground erupted in a violent explosion.
‘Who is this?’
The Mysterious Swordsman wore a brown bamboo hat pulled low. Even with their inner energy tightly compressed, the aura leaking out was overwhelming.
They seemed to be barely restraining their murderous intent and killing spirit. Their clothing and blade offered no identifying features.
Boom! Boom!
The Mysterious Swordsman’s blade crashed repeatedly against the Training Ground floor.
Between clouds of rising dust, brilliant flashes of light descended without pause.
‘Damn it!’
I thrust both hands forward, doing my utmost to meet each strike, but with every exchange, I was driven back without mercy.
It wasn’t simply a matter of being overpowered in strength.
Their swordplay was extraordinarily strange. The blade technique flowed as if breaking apart, moved as if frozen—never offering even a single moment for me to find an opening.
“Your movements are impressive. Among those who’ve come recently, you’re worth acknowledging.”
Boom!
Impact struck my abdomen. The Mysterious Swordsman’s swift blade had pierced through my guard and found my chest.
“That’s all there is to it.”
A crimson line traced from my solar plexus to my right rib cage. I clenched my teeth and amplified the protective technique of the Gwangak Gyeol, driving my foot down against Jin Gak.
Uuuuoooong!!
I cycled my martial essence to its absolute limit, even releasing the constraints of the Red Palace Unobstructed Technique. The condensed energy surged outward through my limbs in all directions.
A flicker of surprise crossed the Mysterious Swordsman’s eyes beneath his bamboo hat.
“Ho.”
A scorching wind that ignited the frigid early winter air in an instant. The aura radiating from my opponent’s entire body resembled an erupting volcano.
‘Amitabha Buddha!’
My solid fist cleaved through empty space. Not just once. The punch accelerated repeatedly, striking as if leaping across distance itself.
Black sparks scattered as successive strikes poured forth with devastating lightness and ferocity. Beneath that overwhelming force, the Mysterious Swordsman’s form swayed precariously like a candle before the wind.
But.
“Futile thrashing.”
The Mysterious Swordsman stepped forward and swung his blade.
Against that exquisite swordsmanship, my fist energy was shredded to pieces. Simultaneously, a diagonal slash carved through.
It was a power that transcended the swordplay I had encountered from the Namgung Family.
It was not a difference in martial philosophy. It was a difference in the pure skill the swordmaster possessed.
I tilted my head to the side, barely evading.
My cheek stung from the mere wind of the passing blade.
The Mysterious Swordsman’s sword carried the imposing presence of a jagged cliff.
First strike, then distance, then a third. The unbroken succession of slashes was threatening yet strangely familiar.
With each technique, the power intensified, and in that persistent, flowing grace, I became certain of my opponent’s origin.
“…Are you a Taoist of Wudang?”
“Ha, you’re just a green youth who doesn’t know your place.”
Kwaaang!
I was sent flying backward, exhaling roughly.
“Well, a brat like you wouldn’t know your place and would cross the mountain gate.”
And when I confirmed the Mysterious Swordsman’s face revealed between the disheveled bamboo hat, my shoulders trembled.
‘…What is that bastard doing here?’
Jin Gong-han, an elder of the Wudang Sect. Someone I had connections with in the past, one of the few I had been friendly with.
“Enough idle talk. Now die.”
The Tai Chi Wisdom Sword. Jin Gong-han’s blade pierced toward my eyes.

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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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