Obtaining Heavenly Demon Martial Arts in the Magic Era - Chapter 38

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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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38
The Cheolhyeol Jang Family. Having built the massive Cheolhyeol Group through steel, trading, and construction as their pillars, they now stood as the nation’s largest conglomerate in both name and reality, commanding over a hundred prime business entities within the group structure.
The Cheolhyeol Jang Family. Having built the massive Cheolhyeol Group through steel, trading, and construction as their pillars, they now stood as the nation’s largest conglomerate in both name and reality, commanding over a hundred prime business entities within the group structure.
Through all those long years, they had accumulated slush funds by crossing the line between the legal and illegal—sums too vast to even hazard a guess at.
And now, vast reserves of the Jang family’s money that had slumbered in darkness without a trace were beginning to flow openly through the underground world.
In a single day, wartime-grade Magical Equipment crossed international waters via overseas vessels and flooded the harbors.
The sheer volume demanded that enormous cargo trucks haul it around the clock.
But that was far from all. Mercenaries and fallen mages—hardened operatives from dark corners across the globe—began swarming into Korea like locusts.
When uncontrollable criminals of the worst sort entered the country in such a short span, Korea’s crime statistics spiked to abnormal levels. It was a stark measure of just how vast the scale of money and manpower moving through Jang Jae-young, the head of the Cheolhyeol Jang Family, truly was.
#
“Phew—so you’re saying if we just bring in some high school punk’s head, you’ll pay this much?”
“One hundred billion. In clean, laundered cash.”
The mercenaries had scoffed at the fact that the target was a mere high schooler, but the moment “one hundred billion” left someone’s mouth, their eyes gleamed with greed all at once. With hunters scraped together from every corner of the world crammed into one space, the 200-square-meter gymnasium filled shoulder to shoulder without a single gap.
The bloodlust radiating from criminals of every nationality and race churned chaotically through the air.
Thump-thump.
Then a figure in pitch-black combat fatigues ascended the platform with heavy footfalls.
He looked down at the crowd without emotion, then gripped the microphone.
“Good to see you all. I’m Kim Gi-beom, representing Security Iron under the Cheolhyeol Group.”
Security Iron—the sharp blade of the Cheolhyeol Jang Family, handling everything from the group’s official security operations to classified missions.
The moment their representative emerged, the mercenaries’ attention snapped into focus.
Cropped hair. A lean, muscular frame. The clipped, emotionless speech of a soldier.
‘That’s the head of Security Iron…’
‘Doesn’t look like much.’
Even after Kim Gi-beom introduced himself, the gym showed no sign of quieting.
“Silence.”
The instant he opened his mouth again, the cacophony vanished as though cold water had been thrown across the gymnasium.
There was only one reason: the moment the man spoke, he had intentionally unleashed a torrent of Inner Energy forward, laying bare his true level for all to see.
Tingle-tingle.
The sheer volume of Inner Energy Kim Gi-beom released, making no attempt to conceal his stage, was enough to crush the entire 200-square-meter space. The mercenaries could not bring themselves to open their mouths as they struggled to endure the pressure of his power pressing against their very skin.
‘Insane—how does a monster like that even exist?’
‘So this is the caliber of Cheolhyeol…’
Every last one of them had carved their living from streets and battlefields.
Yet in that moment, they understood in their bones: the man before them was a predator who could end all their lives in a heartbeat.
Kim Gi-beom surveyed the now-silent gymnasium with clear satisfaction before he spoke.
“From now on, you will be assigned to teams and operate accordingly to ensure smooth mission execution. Team leaders, step forward.”
Before his words even settled, operatives from Security Iron filed onto the platform in formation.
While none matched Kim Gi-beom’s presence, each one radiated the ominous aura of a seasoned elite.
Click.
Kim Gi-beom pressed the remote, and team assignments appeared on the massive screen behind the platform.
Once the assignments were complete, they dispersed to their quarters.
“Huh, they’re providing housing too?”
But when they arrived, it was a remote mountainside deep in the Outskirts of Gyeonggi Province—not a civilian dwelling in sight. Having reached what was part training facility, part dormitory, a few tried to sneak out for a drink that night. The moment they pulled up the map app, however, they realized there wasn’t a single convenience store or supermarket within ten kilometers, and they cursed in frustration.
“Fuck, did we enlist for high school camp?!”
Starting the next day, hellish training began.
Intensive field exercises designed to forge a rabble into a single weapon.
“Aaaaagh! We came here to make money, not rejoin the military!”
“Damn it! How long do we have to keep doing this shit!”
A handful who reached the end of their patience and attempted escape in the dead of night were dragged back the next morning, bloodied and broken.
“Fuck! I won’t! I can’t stomach this garbage anymore!”
At one mercenary’s defiant shout, Kim Gi-beom’s cold gaze fixed upon him.
“…Number 36. You’re having a private meeting.”
An hour later, after his “discussion” with the team leader, Number 36 returned with hollow eyes, staring only at the ground, moving through the drills like a automaton.
After that chilling scene repeated several times, the mercenaries soon fell in line, docile and obedient.
After days of training ended came the day the Cheolhyeol Jang Family issued equipment.
The mercenaries’ eyes went wide.
“Insane—this is really crafted from 100% pure Mana Stone Equipment?”
“They’re distributing top-tier gear like this to everyone here? The Cheolhyeol Jang Family must be drowning in money!”
The mercenaries, confidence peaking, trembled with barely contained excitement.
“Brief the operation overview again.”
“Operation commences at 0HH hours. By 0MM minutes, clear all remaining targets in Zone One and—”
The preparations were systematic and meticulous. Every operative drilled the operation repeatedly until they could recite the entire plan with their eyes closed.
It took less than a month to complete all the preparations.
Perfect, controlled training deep in the mountains. Jang Jae-young was certain that no information would leak to the outside world.
In the cool air of the family head’s office, Jang Jae-young’s lips twisted into a smile.
“Begin the operation. The operation name is: Molten Metal.”
“Operation Molten Metal. Commencing.”
Autumn had arrived in full, with a cool wind now blowing steadily. The hot and lethal molten metal forged by the Cheolhyeol Jang Family began pouring toward the underground levels of Seoul Station and Yongsan Station.
#
Meanwhile, in a pitch-black underground bunker, Gaebang’s Patriarch Seon Young-hun sat in his armchair with eyes gleaming sharply. He already knew that the term “Martial Artist” had been brought up as an agenda item in the Mage Family Head Council.
The safe house beneath Seoul Station had been exposed by the cleaning staff hired by Jang Ki-han, and it was highly likely they had noticed the alliance between Cheon Do-hyeon and Gaebang from the Club Babylon attack incident.
No—it was easier to assume they already knew everything.
‘Given Jang Jae-young’s character, he’s the type who’d burn down an entire village to catch a single flea.’
Having made this assessment, Seon Young-hun moved a step ahead of schedule.
He concentrated all the capable Gaebang disciples scattered throughout Seoul into the deepest underground level of Yongsan Station.
And not long after, the catastrophe he had feared finally struck.
Crunch-crunch-crunch—!
The outer wall of the underground bunker at Yongsan Station, which he had been confident no force could breach, was finally torn open.
Boom—!!
With a tremendous explosion, a reinforced blast door several centimeters thick was torn away like tissue paper. Piercing through the acrid smoke of gunpowder, the mage unit of the Cheolhyeol Jang Family, clad entirely in the latest Magical Equipment, poured in like a tidal wave.
“Kill them all! Don’t let a single rat escape!”
At the commander’s merciless order, dozens of fireballs and lightning bolts filled the narrow underground corridor in a carpet bombardment.
“Hold the line! Form a Defensive Formation!”
The martial artists of Gaebang drew upon their Inner Energy all at once, resisting with desperate determination. But the overwhelming force of the Mana Stone Equipment—concentrated capital from the Cheolhyeol Group—far exceeded what these martial artists could have imagined.
Sharp blade energy was blocked by the protective shields of the magical instruments and bounced back uselessly, while the martial artists, unable to maintain their Defensive Formation under successive magical bombardment, suffered severe internal injuries and collapsed backward one after another.
“Haha! Barbarian pigs swinging nothing but hollow metal sticks!”
A large man at the vanguard broke into a cocky grin.
He was a bounty hunter notorious in the back alleys of Vietnam—known as To Ryong. True to his name, he was a 4th Circle Harmonizer who specialized in Earth-attribute magic.
He wielded his own unique technique combining rock magic and shield magic, the Shale Maelstrom, as his primary skill. With Mana Stone Equipment provided by the Cheolhyeol Jang Family strengthening his technique, the space around him had become an impregnable maelstrom impossible to even approach.
Crash-crash-crackle—!
“Aaahhh! My legs!”
As sharpened rock fragments spun ferociously, the Gaebang disciples who attempted to approach fell like autumn leaves, blood spraying across their bodies.
“Hehehehe, have you witnessed? I am the great To Ryong.”
To Ryong was just about to form a massive rock spear toward the fallen martial artists to cut off their breath when—
Bang—! Crash-crash-bang—! Smash!
The rock spears he had fashioned in midair were struck repeatedly by something of unknown origin and began shattering to pieces.
Fragments of shattered stone scattered in all directions like weapons.
Whistle—
“Urgh! You damned—!”
To Ryong’s cheek split open with a line of blood from the fragment that grazed him, and his face contorted with rage.
“Who is it! Show yourself now!”
Then came a clear, crisp sound—ting—the sound of a coin flicking through the air. To Ryong, reacting by pure instinct toward the source of the sound in the darkness, summoned an Earth Sphere and fired it.
Coin Throw.
And only then could To Ryong see with his own eyes what his solid Earth Sphere had been struck down by.
Whirrr—!
What came hurtling through the air with tremendous acceleration was nothing other than a single worn coin. An ordinary coin that might roll through any back alley.
Yet the moment that coin made contact, To Ryong’s vaunted Earth Sphere was destroyed as easily as sliced tofu.
“…Who are you?”
In the center of the battlefield, as the dust settled, a man slowly emerged from the darkness, walking deliberately.
“I only recently started learning this technique and wasn’t sure it would work in real combat, but it seems to pack more of a punch than I expected. Lucky.”
A voice impossibly calm and composed—utterly at odds with the fierce battle raging around him.
As the man’s face became fully visible beneath the dim lighting, To Ryong’s eyes widened to the size of lanterns.
“You…that high school bastard with the bounty on his head!”
Cheon Do-hyeon had appeared in person to face the Cheolhyeol Jang Family’s hunting dogs who had invaded Yongsan Station.

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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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