Obtaining Heavenly Demon Martial Arts in the Magic Era - Chapter 46

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

46
One advantage of the Republic of Korea’s unification was that there was no longer any need for the inconvenient hassle of air travel when heading to China. For quite some time now, it had been possible to cross the border directly by land.
As they crossed the enormous bridge spanning the Yalu River, the landscape beyond the window began to shift noticeably.
Featureless buildings crammed efficiently into small plots of land. Paradoxically, while the Korean cities were ablaze with garish neon signs adorning the exteriors of their structures, the endless expanse of the Chinese continent breathed something altogether rougher and more raw—a quality that seemed to emanate from the earth itself.
Desolate plains where dust swirled in the wind, and towering mountain ranges that stretched into the distance.
How long they had driven along those crude roads, untouched by Mado Engineering, was anyone’s guess.
Gradually, signs of human presence began to appear.
The buildings that came into view were constructed from the concrete and brick of an earlier era.
Screech—
The weathered SUV, which had been driven relentlessly for tens of hours without rest, lurched to a halt at the entrance of a quiet village on the outskirts, trailing dust in its wake.
“Goodness, everything aches…….”
The first to step out of the car was Lee Ye-rim.
Having been hunched in the vehicle for so long, her body was stiff and sore. She groaned as she stretched her arms wide.
A moment later, the driver’s door opened, and a man emerged, rubbing his stiff neck with a pained expression.
“Everyone’s worked hard.”
The thick Chungcheong dialect flavored his words. He was Lee Dae-gwang, the final member of the Gaebang’s Three Dragons alongside Lee Sang-won and Lee Ye-rim.
With his unkempt beard and thick glasses, he wore an affable smile that made him look like nothing more than a kindhearted country gentleman. Yet beneath that innocent veneer lay an unmistakable aura—the subtle emanation of a master martial artist.
“The JG Investment headquarters is supposed to be a bit further in from here. Looks like we ought to gather some information first before we head out that way.”
Cheon Do-hyeon, the last to exit the vehicle, surveyed his surroundings.
The sharp night air carried the thick scent of earth and the acrid smell of smoke that stung his nostrils.
Do-hyeon drew a deep breath into the depths of his lungs and instinctively read the energy flowing through the vicinity.
‘Certainly different from Korea.’
His first impression was one of alienation. The mana concentration in the atmosphere was markedly lower than in Korea.
Perhaps for that reason, the village that had appeared before them lacked the vibrant aura of elaborate magic that one would typically sense.
Instead, the rough breathing of people and the raw vitality of life itself filled the streets.
As they ventured deeper into the village, a bustling marketplace lined with street vendors came into view. Merchants sat on mats spread across the ground, piling medicinal herbs of indeterminate origin into towering heaps for sale; people pulled carts laden with goods. It was a scene that had long since vanished from Korea, a land dominated by Mado Engineering.
“Hmm?”
Do-hyeon’s attention lingered on one particular stall. Wooden pencils and ballpoint pens, crafted entirely by hand without any trace of mana infusion, were displayed there.
But what truly captured his gaze was a notebook.
A crudely bound notebook with its cover fashioned from rough leather, yet precisely because of its roughness, it drew his interest all the more.
“This is lovely…….”
For someone who harbored a peculiar attachment to analog objects untouched by mana, it was a treasure he could not simply pass by.
“Hey, what are you doing? Is this really the time for that?”
Lee Ye-rim cried out in exasperation. Sure enough, Do-hyeon had already squatted before the stall and was haggling earnestly with the merchant over the price of the notebook.
“I’ll buy two of these notebooks if you knock down the price a bit. That’s too much, too much! Lower it, lower it!”
“I don’t understand! I don’t understand!”
Do-hyeon’s Korean and the merchant’s Chinese collided in the air, passing each other like parallel lines that would never meet.
Just as Lee Ye-rim was about to grab the back of her neck in frustration, Lee Dae-gwang chuckled warmly and held her back.
“Let him be. He’s at just the right age to enjoy such simple pleasures. It’s far better to see him acting like a curious child than to watch him put on airs like some premature adult.”
Fortunately, the merchant’s eyes lit up the moment he saw the crisp Korean currency Do-hyeon offered, and he nodded readily in approval.
Korean won seemed to circulate without difficulty even in this remote frontier.
Do-hyeon completed the transaction, handing over the banknotes and accepting his purchases.
“Oh!”
As if suddenly remembering something important, he naturally began gesturing and miming at the merchant, asking him something.
“JG Investment. Jay, Gee, Investment. Where is it?”
The merchant’s eyes widened the instant he heard the English letters “JG” and the word “Investment.” It was clear he recognized that incongruous name, so out of place in this humble corner of the world. Familiar with the location, he nodded knowingly and extended a crooked finger toward a distant point beyond the marketplace.
“It’s over that way, they say?”
Do-hyeon rose to his feet and spoke with crisp assurance.
Lee Ye-rim, who had assumed he was merely indulging in some pointless hobby, looked embarrassed as she scratched the back of her head at his unexpected competence.
“Hmm, well… that turned out to be useful after all.”
The three of them followed the direction the merchant had indicated, leaving the village and continuing on their way.
The path grew steeper, and the dirt road gradually transformed into ancient stone steps covered with moss. They asked locals several more times for directions, but each pointed them toward the same destination.
And finally, they reached the place where their footsteps came to a halt.
As they emerged from the dense bamboo forest that had obscured their view, an immense natural spectacle overwhelmed all three of them.
“Th-this is Yongzhong Mountain in Shaanxi Province…….”
Lee Dae-gwang muttered the words in a dumbfounded voice.
A towering mountain peak rose to a height that seemed to touch the sky itself. Between oddly twisted rock faces, thick mist flowed down like waterfalls.
Mist far too dense and unnaturally formed to be the product of nature alone.
Cheon Do-hyeon, with his keen sensitivity to such energy, detected the subtle currents flowing through the fog.
‘Peculiar. Not sorcery, and not martial arts either. What on earth could this be?’
Unaware that the Jegal Clan’s Qimen Formation blocked the approach of intruders, Cheon Do-hyeon and his companions gazed upward at the wondrous sight conjured by the interweaving of illusion and reality—the dizzying peak of Yongzhong Mountain piercing through the clouds—their faces slack with bewilderment.
“So what you’re saying is…….”
Lee Ye-rim’s voice trembled with disbelief.
“The headquarters of a global hedge fund that controls capital across the entire world…… is at the top of that mountain?”
Do-hyeon, too, alternated his gaze between the thousands of stone steps that plummeted like a sheer cliff and the summit hidden beyond the mist, muttering under his breath.
“Why……?”
JG Investment—the crystallization of modernized capitalism. Beyond its surface name, the distinctive aura and madness unique to the Jegal Clan seemed to seep through the fog, tangible and present.
#
At the foot of Yongzhong Mountain, where the Jegal Clan’s main house stood.
The moment they set foot on the mountain to reach JG Investment’s headquarters.
A wave of vertigo—
In an instant, the logic of the world twisted.
The ancient trees standing thick as a forest and the bizarre rock formations moved with an eerie regularity, as if alive, warping the field of vision grotesquely.
With only a single step forward, the landscape that had been directly before their eyes was torn away entirely, replaced by something different.
“What? The path just now—?!”
Cheon Do-hyeon’s party realized they had fallen victim to some strange sorcery.
“When did this happen?!”
Lee Ye-rim spun around urgently, desperate to secure a path of retreat.
The dirt road they had walked on just moments before had vanished without a trace, and behind them, a towering cliff face blocked any escape completely.
“What kind of technique is this? Is it some form of illusory magic?”
“It is not magic or technique. This is what we call the Qimen Formation.”
Lee Dae-gwang surveyed the distorting landscape around him with a steady gaze as he spoke.
“Simply put, it’s a formation method that creates a maze without exit by using illusion arts and terrain. Those Jegal bastards certainly don’t make hospitality easy. We need to find the Formation Eye and escape through the Gate of Life, but this is going to be troublesome…….”
As Lee Dae-gwang continued his explanation, Cheon Do-hyeon’s attention was fixed on the flow of energy occurring beyond the illusions that clouded his vision.
Energy swirled around the terrain concealed throughout the formation.
Watching quietly, he sensed a movement governed by regularity.
“……So we must move according to predetermined rules to escape the formation.”
Then, abruptly, Cheon Do-hyeon stepped forward.
“I don’t think we need to overthink this.”
In his eyes, the intricate principles of the Qimen Formation with its interlocking heavens and earth held no significance whatsoever.
If the energy producing the phenomena disappeared, the formation itself could never exist in the first place.
From Do-hyeon’s Dan Tian, the pitch-black energy of the Taeheo Hunyuan Heart Method began to rotate fiercely. The turbid energy of the Qimen Formation swirling around him trembled as if sucked inward with his every breath.
[Devouring Star Technique – Vacuum]
A tremendous roaring sound—
An explosive suction force erupted, and all the energy in the vicinity began to be drawn into Do-hyeon’s Dan Tian.
As the flow of energy that had composed the formation was forcibly twisted and erased,
Crack, crack-crack!
Like a massive pane of glass shattering, the illusions that had clouded their vision shattered into fragments and disappeared without trace.
“……Insane.”
A stunned exclamation escaped Lee Ye-rim’s lips, and Lee Dae-gwang’s jaw hung slack. The Jegal Clan’s intricate Qimen Formation—one that had plunged countless intruders into despair across centuries—crumbled with pathetic ease, and the hidden path revealed itself.
It was a broad road stretching in a perfectly straight line up to the midpoint of the mountain.
“Let’s go.”
Cheon Do-hyeon began to walk across the remnants of the shattered formation, his face calm as though nothing had happened.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————