My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 160

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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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Episode 160. With a Flourish and a Flame
“You must be exhausted.”
Bae Chojin approached Jin So-baek just as he emerged from the Five Great Clans’ Patriarch council.
But then—
“…eh? Oh. Yes, that’s right.”
What?
Jin So-baek looked utterly absent, as though his mind had wandered somewhere distant.
“What’s wrong? Has something happened?”
“Something? Well. Yes, it has. I’ve just heard quite an extraordinary story.”
“An extraordinary story?”
Jin So-baek nodded slowly.
His face still bore the mark of disbelief, shock clinging to him like a weight he couldn’t shake.
“Mad. Absolutely mad. That I should find myself bantering with such a man.”
“But what story could possibly have affected you this way?”
“Curious, are you?”
“You leave me hanging like this and then ask if I’m curious?”
Hardly a jest.
Bae Chojin’s brow furrowed as he pressed again.
“Come on, just tell me. What is it?”
“Well, it’s like this…”
Jin So-baek then recounted to him everything he’d heard from Peng Mugang during the Five Great Clans’ meeting.
At which—
“I… beg your pardon?”
Bae Chojin’s jaw went slack.
“Surely you’re joking?”
…
“Really… truly? That he is the successor of the Martial God…?”
“Shh! This is a secret.”
Though eventually all would come to light, they had sworn to hold their tongues until then as they departed.
Still, Jin So-baek had chosen to confide in Bae Chojin, for he was his right hand.
“Good heavens…”
Now she understood why he seemed impossibly strong.
The successor of the Martial God, no less.
Only now did Bae Chojin grasp the full measure of Yeo Un-hwi’s incomprehensible power.
Yet she was not alone in this realization.
All who had witnessed that moment—when Yeo Un-hwi had struck down the Demonic Sect’s secret weapon, that monstrosity, with his Heart Sword—would have arrived at the same conclusion.
He had seemed like a god made flesh, descended from the heavens themselves.
That scene would surely become the most vivid, unforgettable memory of their lives.
Her anticipation proved true.
The Martial World would soon revolve around Yeo Un-hwi.
Jin So-baek then turned to Bae Chojin and spoke.
“This is an opportunity.”
“An opportunity?”
“Yes.”
Jin So-baek, who had already resolved to follow him, felt his conviction deepen further.
He would stake everything on Yeo Un-hwi.
With him, the dreams that Jin So-baek truly harbored would be no mere fantasy.
Already his heart had begun to race.
“But…”
Bae Chojin suddenly spoke, his voice tinged with worry.
“Someone as powerful as that went to the Demonic Sect alone. He’ll return safely, won’t he?”
“I wonder. The real concern should perhaps be for the other side, not him.”
Jin So-baek could not fathom the scale of destruction Yeo Un-hwi might wreak.
Yet strangely, he felt no concern at all.
Why should one worry for him?
It was rather amusing, was it not?
Not one man venturing into the Ten Thousand Mountains, but rather the vast majority within those mountains who should rightfully be the object of concern.
***
In the suffocating dark.
A solitary figure moved through the shadows.
He was Gwak Cheonhu, the Heavenly Demon Cult Master, the Demonic Emperor Piercing Heaven.
Despite the thick darkness, he walked without a trace of fear, his footsteps measured and deliberate.
But soon he came to a halt.
A sound had reached his ears from somewhere ahead.
A low growl.
Something between a beast’s cry and a creature’s rumble—it stirred in Gwak Cheonhu an inexplicable dread, as if his insides were turning to water.
“Who goes there! Show yourself!”
Whether the creature understood language or not, he thrust Internal Energy into his voice and bellowed into the dark.
And what appeared then—
A low moan echoed.
Enormous golden eyes blazed from the darkness.
They were unmistakably inhuman.
They were like—
Another prolonged growl rumbled through the night.
The sound came again, lower this time, and then the shape emerged fully into view.
A sharp intake of breath.
It was an enormous Golden Dragon.
Gwak Cheonhu’s entire body turned to ice.
Without warning, terror seized him, and he began to tremble.
A dragon. What in the name of—
Another deep, resonant growl.
There was no time to think. The Golden Dragon’s jaws snapped open wide.
And from that mouth, a torrent of massive flames erupted, engulfing him.
“No—nooooooo!”
Gwak Cheonhu screamed himself awake.
His breath came in ragged gasps, shallow and quick.
It was a dream.
His entire body was drenched in sweat, soaked through.
Yet even now, awakened from the nightmare, his frame continued to quake.
He opened his hand to look at it.
His palm glistened with perspiration.
This had never happened before.
Never, since his name had been inscribed among the Twelve Supremes, had fear gripped him so completely.
A sound like grinding teeth.
The fear transformed, hardening into something else—fury.
“Curse it all!”
His fist slashed through the air with violent irritation.
The wall beside him shattered completely under the blow.
Everything he had planned lately was falling apart.
Four of the Ten Demonic Stars he had sent to the Hebei Peng Estate had fallen.
Including the Black Demon, that meant he had lost half the Ten Demonic Stars.
But he still didn’t understand why.
Something felt wrong. Ominous.
He had attempted to ascend to the seat of the Heavenly Demon before taking action again, but that cursed Priestess would not obey his commands.
What he had waited for until now was this: the previous stubborn Priestess had finally expired, and her successor, after five years of trials in the deepest caves of the Ten Thousand Mountains, would only receive true Priestess status once she emerged from her final ordeal.
He had not expected her to defy him so utterly.
That damned Heavenly Path—no matter what he tried, its flames would not ignite.
It was surely the work of the previous Heavenly Demons, those scheming predecessors who had designed it to magnify their own legacy.
He had to become the Heavenly Demon soon and claim those artifacts—the ones prepared only for the Heavenly Demon.
Then becoming supreme under heaven, unifying the entire Martial World—these would cease to be mere dreams.
A grinding sound escaped his teeth.
The thought crystallized: he could delay no longer.
Today, he would settle it once and for all.
And so, as dawn broke, Gwak Cheonhu set out toward his destination.
***
“Another one, then.”
This was Fengshan Palace, the sacred temple of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
It was the place where the Cult performed its rituals, where the Priestess dwelt alongside her priestesses who served her.
There, Priestess Wi Seollin stood with furrowed brow, gazing down at something before her.
A large Water Basin, brimming with water.
Yet in this place where neither wind nor anything else stirred, the water in the basin rippled and gleamed golden, only to fade and begin again in endless repetition.
“What on earth is this?”
Wi Seollin’s hand swept across the water brimming in the great urn.
Splash.
As droplets fell from her fingertips, Wi Seollin’s eyes grew grave.
These strange omens had been appearing with increasing frequency.
For a moment, her heart swelled at the thought that this might be the revelation she had long awaited—but she quickly dismissed such hope.
It was an impossible dream.
The current Cult Leader and his would-be successors were all unsuitable.
A father who knew only himself, and children no better than he—willing to commit any depravity simply to catch his eye.
Looking at the Heavenly Demon Cult as it stood now, even she could see that her generation would not fulfill the sacred mission.
Then what could these omens possibly mean?
What was it that stirred the human heart so restlessly?
“Sigh. I truly don’t know.”
No matter how much she thought, no answer came.
All Wi Seollin could do was exhale deeply.
Yet her worries did not end there.
There was something far more pressing.
It concerned Gwak Cheonhu, the current Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Like anywhere else, the atmosphere of the Heavenly Demon Cult shifted greatly depending on who served as Cult Leader in any given era.
When a moderate—one who shunned war—took the position, the age became relatively peaceful; but when one mad with blood and slaughter ascended, just as many perished both within and without.
Yet curiously, when the Cult Leader was moderate, those beneath him often harbored greater discontent.
It was the nature of the Demonic Sect that none could truly abandon their appetite for blood.
Still, all Cult Leaders throughout history had held the Heavenly Demon Cult’s traditions and laws sacred, adhering to them meticulously.
For a disciple of the Demonic Sect, this was only natural.
But this Cult Leader was different.
Gwak Cheonhu, possessed of a cruelty that made him hunger for blood more than any predecessor, was openly disregarding the laws and traditions of the Heavenly Demon Cult entirely.
‘A dangerous man.’
Wi Seollin’s mind turned to Gwak Cheonhu’s gaze.
It was the look of one who might commit some terrible act at any moment.
‘I can only pray he does not.’
Wi Seollin’s eyes rose toward the ceiling.
At its center hung a lamp wreathed in an aura of mystery, its surface carved densely with ornate patterns.
This was the Heavenly Path.
Since ancient times, whoever kindled the flame within the Heavenly Path was recognized as the new Heavenly Demon.
Yet throughout all the long history of the Heavenly Demon Cult, the Heavenly Path had ignited only twice—save for the First Heavenly Demon.
And when a Heavenly Demon is proclaimed through the Priestess, they gain absolute authority over all things within the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Even the Priestess herself, whom the Cult Leader cannot command at will, must obey the Heavenly Demon without question.
In this way, the Heavenly Demon was the Heavenly Demon Cult itself—everything, incarnate.
Thus every Cult Leader of every age had yearned to become the Heavenly Demon.
It was only natural.
For it meant becoming the true absolute sovereign of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Not only they desired this.
The Priestesses too had always prayed for the Heavenly Demon’s return in their lifetime.
For it would have meant their sacred mission fulfilled.
But she could not bring herself to lie, no matter what.
When the Cult Leader demanded that she proclaim him the Heavenly Demon, casting aside tradition, it was as though he demanded she deny her own life—and the lives of every Priestess before her.
Moreover, she could not allow Gwak Cheonhu, who lacked all qualification, to possess those sacred things prepared only for the Heavenly Demon.
Yet there was little she could do.
She could only endure, and endure again, holding fast to her duty until the end.
Even if it cost her life.
It was then.
A commotion erupted outside.
Then—
Crash!
A man came tumbling through the entrance.
Moments later, a middle-aged man entered slowly, clicking his tongue in displeasure.
“Wait a moment? How dare you keep the Cult Leader of this sect waiting! Do you take me so lightly? Tsk.”
“Cult Leader. This is a sacred place where rituals are performed. We must ask you not to—”
The priestess beside Wi Seollin spoke up carefully,
A sharp metallic ring.
In an instant, the priestess’s head fell to the ground.
Saek Ma, one of the Ten Demonic Stars who had swept in alongside Gwak Cheonhu, had drawn his blade.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
The priestesses standing behind Wi Seollin screamed.
Wi Seollin’s eyes had turned cold and hard.
Gwak Cheonhu’s mouth twisted into a smirk as he faced her.
“What pleasant weather we’re having. Perfect conditions for the birth of a new Heavenly Demon, wouldn’t you say? Isn’t that so, Priestess?”
At Gwak Cheonhu’s words, Wi Seollin’s face froze.
***
At that very moment elsewhere.
A golden figure descended upon a peak near the Ten Thousand Mountains.
“Phew. So this is the place.”
Yeo Un-hwi gazed slowly at the Heavenly Demon Cult Headquarters, its fortress-like structure sprawling before him.
An ordinary person would have been overwhelmed by such a sight, but Yeo Un-hwi was smiling instead.
His eyes gleamed as though he were beholding some exquisite delicacy.
Hmm.
Yeo Un-hwi paused to consider.
What should he do now?
Slipping in to find the Cult Master’s location and launching a surprise attack would certainly be the easier approach.
But somehow, he didn’t want to do that.
Since he’d come here to rampage, after all.
“Yes. That’s decided.”
He would smash through the main gate and everything else on his way in.
Yeo Un-hwi then began walking toward the entrance of the Heavenly Demon Cult Headquarters.
Now he would show them the true difference in strength.
And he would do it spectacularly, loudly, magnificently.

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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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