Namgung Heavenly Demon - Chapter 97

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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 97

A private room on the second floor of Cheonhyanglyu, the largest and most luxurious inn in Xining.

A round moon had risen outside the window, casting a gentle glow into the room.

On the table, a full spread of dishes was laid out, including Xifengjiu, said to be Xining’s finest liquor, and steaming hot cuisine.

“Please accept this, young master.”

Mujin tilted the wine bottle.

Glug glug.

The sound of clear liquor filling the cup broke the silence.

“Thank you.”

Namgung Cheon accepted the cup.

Across from him, the Wandering King was fiddling with his wine cup with rough hands.

However, Namgung Cheon knew how terribly those rough hands had been stained with blood in the past.

‘Mad Wolf, wasn’t it.’

Namgung Cheon brought the wine cup to his lips while inwardly recalling his old alias.

A young wanderer who had become his traveling companion by chance, whose eyes held no vitality, only emptiness.

A man who, after his bloody revenge, was ultimately consuming himself.

This was the Wandering King, Hyeok Do-gang’s past.

―Do you have no attachment to life?

―…It’s all the same in the end anyway. I’ll eventually be killed by someone too.

Hyeok Do-gang’s dry voice from back then was still vivid.

‘That bastard who was like that… has changed quite a bit now.’

Though the years had passed and frost had heavily settled on his hair, his eyes had grown deeper.

The countless storms and solitude he must have experienced while wandering through the years had accumulated layer by layer, now becoming an unshakeable massive rocky mountain.

Namgung Cheon chuckled and downed his drink.

As the strong liquor went down his throat, the Wandering King set down his empty cup on the table and spoke.

“The wine tastes good.”

“It’s expensive, so isn’t that natural?”

At Namgung Cheon’s response, the Wandering King chuckled.

“Yes, it’s worth the high price. Just like your sword.”

The Wandering King’s gaze turned toward Namgung Cheon.

Whether it was due to the alcohol or the moonlight.

His eyes seemed particularly deep and distant.

“Baekheung was someone close to the Transcendent realm. He simply couldn’t cross that boundary due to lack of enlightenment, but what he had accumulated was certainly no less than the Transcendent realm.”

The Wandering King refilled his wine cup.

“And yet, to cut down such a Baekheung and already walk your own path of the sword…”

He lifted his wine cup and muttered as if talking to himself.

“How strange. It’s as if I’m seeing that man again, the one I briefly traveled with long, long ago.”

“…”

Namgung Cheon looked at the Wandering King calmly.

The Wandering King stared piercingly into Namgung Cheon’s eyes and continued speaking.

“I knew neither his name nor his origin. He was just a fellow who wandered the world with only a sword at his side…”

A bitter smile crossed the Wandering King’s lips.

“One day he disappeared. Whether he used some transformation technique or not, I couldn’t even find a face like that.”

Namgung Cheon smiled bitterly inwardly.

‘His intuition is still sharp.’

He had thought there was no way he’d be recognized.

His face, voice, and even the foundation of his martial arts had all changed.

But the Wandering King was sensing it instinctively.

The color of a soul that doesn’t change even when outward appearance does.

“…I heard that young masters these days dislike old stories, so I was being foolish.”

The Wandering King chuckled and downed his drink.

“Still, if I may add one thing, that fellow had a really damn nasty personality. Just like you.”

“…”

“But still… his skills were real.”

The Wandering King set his wine cup down on the table with a sound.

That sound rang out particularly cheerfully.

“Same with you.”

A brief statement.

Mujin’s eyes widened greatly.

He, who didn’t acknowledge most even among the Twenty-Eight Stars of the World, had acknowledged Namgung Cheon.

“Master, are you acknowledging the young master’s martial prowess right now?”

The Wandering King frowned.

“I was mistaken. You’re still as dense as ever.”

Faint smiles spread across everyone’s lips.

Mujin laughed heartily again and picked up the wine bottle.

“Come, come! Let’s stop with the gloomy old stories and drink. Tonight we don’t need to worry about those Kunlun bastards watching, so let’s empty this precious liquor.”

Mujin poured wine generously into Namgung Cheon and the Wandering King’s cups.

The wine cups rippled.

The three men silently clinked their cups together again.

Clink.

The clear sound spread out into the night sky.

The moonlight from outside the window settled upon their wine cups.

Past connections and present connections mixed together as one in the wine cups.

Namgung Cheon quietly smiled and swallowed his drink.

It was bitter yet sweet.

Just like the path he had once walked with the Wandering King, and the path he would walk in the future with his disciple Mujin.

* * *

Late at night. After the drinking session had ended.

Namgung Cheon sat cross-legged on his bed and closed his eyes.

Deep within his dantian.

In the middle of the sea of blue internal power, a small, transparent energy was sleeping.

‘Meorhon.’

That energy he had constantly tried not to be conscious of was felt clearly.

Namgung Cheon carefully tried touching the energy.

Wooong―.

A faint vibration. That was all.

As if it wasn’t yet time to awaken, the energy showed no particular reaction.

‘Still, that’s fortunate.’

If he had been greedy and swallowed the power whole, he would be emanating demonic energy by now.

Namgung Cheon slowly regulated his breathing and stored Meorhon away in the depths again.

‘Right now it’s weak, but I can gradually nurture it.’

However, the problem was.

‘To nurture this Meorhon…’

Namgung Cheon’s brow furrowed.

The only method to grow a Cheonma-hon like Meorhon and handle it completely.

‘Cheonma Sinkong.’

Only Cheonma Sinkong could become the vessel to contain Cheonma-hon, and could become the key to draw out the power of Cheonma-hon.

‘But with my current body, it’s impossible.’

Even if it’s Cheonma Sinkong, it’s ultimately a demonic art.

And the foundation of demonic arts is the accumulation of demonic energy.

But right now, his dantian was filled only with pure internal power built up through Cheonggung Daeyeon Simbeop.

If he tried to forcibly learn Cheonma Sinkong in this state, the energies of righteousness and demon would clash, leading to qi deviation as surely as fire burns.

Moreover, he couldn’t become a demon, nor should he.

‘However, it’s not like there’s no method.’

Just as he had changed Cheonggung Daeyeon Simbeop to its current form before, if he could change Cheonma Sinkong itself.

‘A Cheonma Sinkong that doesn’t accumulate demonic energy.’

It was truly an absurd idea.

The essence of Cheonma Sinkong lay in destroying everything through demonic energy.

Yet he wanted to exclude that core demonic energy and replace it with pure internal power.

‘Theoretically, it’s impossible.’

All the energy circulation paths of Cheonma Sinkong were designed solely for the destructive nature of demonic energy.

If pure and stable internal power flowed along those paths, the energy would scatter without either going berserk or exerting any power.

‘However…’

Namgung Cheon recalled Meorhon sleeping deep within his dantian.

What if.

‘If I temporarily change the nature of my internal power with Meorhon…’

Only when operating Cheonma Sinkong would it react with Meorhon to temporarily take on destructive properties like demonic energy.

‘It’s still just a thought, so there’s a long way to go.’

Namgung Cheon smiled bitterly.

This was a problem of an entirely different dimension from modifying Cheonggung Daeyeon Simbeop.

This was the realm of recreation, overturning the foundation of the world’s greatest demonic art.

It would require countless trials, errors, and enlightenments.

Even so.

‘I will definitely accomplish it.’

To stand at the highest place under heaven.

* * *

Inside a massive pavilion covered in luxurious decorations on all sides.

“Raise your head.”

A dry voice came from behind a curtain decorated with treasures.

At this, a man who had been pressing his forehead to the floor trembled as he slowly raised his head.

Then came the following voice.

“My disappointment is great. The Gold Insect Sect, created to scheme for the world’s treasure troves, couldn’t even properly open a single Seolying Secret Vault and collapsed.”

“…”

“Moreover, the so-called leader tucked his tail and ran away just to save his own life.”

The other party’s blatant mockery.

But the emotion that rose on the face of the prostrated man, the Head of the Golden Cauldron Society, was fear.

It would have been better if they had raged or cut off a finger.

The voice that was too calm for the crime committed instead tightened around his throat.

“…I am deeply sorry.”

“Let me hear your reasons. No wind, no waves. Waves don’t rise without wind.”

The Head of the Golden Cauldron Society swallowed dry saliva and continued speaking.

“The Wandering King and his disciple intervened.”

“The Wandering King.”

Clack.

The shadow behind the curtain set down a teacup.

“I see.”

No emotion could be felt in the voice.

And that indifference drove the Head of the Golden Cauldron Society mad.

To survive, he bowed as if crawling on the floor and desperately shouted.

“Th-there was one more!”

“Speak.”

“Namgung Cheon of the Namgung Clan. He was there too! Moreover, he directly… broke Baekheung, the Grand Elder of Kunlun.”

“…Namgung Cheon?”

For the first time, the figure behind the curtain showed emotion.

“Yes, I confirmed his identity through a spy within Kunlun.”

“Hmm.”

A moment of silence passed.

The Head of the Golden Cauldron Society struggled to suppress the suffocating tension.

Considering the Wandering King, Namgung Cheon, and even Eulmyeol Sword, this matter was bound to fail…

“So.”

“Yes?”

“You’re saying the reason you ran away was merely because of those three.”

“…”

The Head of the Golden Cauldron Society’s complexion turned ashen.

“Please give me just one chance! I will definitely make up for it. I’ll stake my life…”

“No need. Your life isn’t worth even a penny, so there’s nothing to stake.”

“…”

The Head of the Golden Cauldron Society cautiously raised his head as if gauging the situation.

Then the voice continued.

“Lay low for the time being. The League’s attention will be focused on this Sichuan for a while.”

There was trouble in Qinghai, so why would attention be focused on Sichuan?

He couldn’t understand what it meant, but the Head of the Golden Cauldron Society bowed his head for now.

“I-I will keep that in mind.”

“Now withdraw.”

At those words, the Head of the Golden Cauldron Society quickly backed away and fled the pavilion as if escaping.

Silence returned to the pavilion once more.

The figure behind the curtain slowly reached out and slowly wrote three characters on the paper placed on the table.

.

“Namgung Cheon…”

First the Taeju Trading Guild, and now the Gold Insect Sect.

Once could be called coincidence, but.

“Not twice.”

With a faint sneer, he looked down at the paper with Namgung Cheon’s name written on it.

“I thought he might be worth putting on the scales.”

He dared interfere with the grand plan and toppled the carefully built tower.

Whoosh.

The paper with Namgung Cheon’s name instantly turned to ash and scattered into the air.

“There’s no longer any reason to let him live.”

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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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