Obtaining Heavenly Demon Martial Arts in the Magic Era - Chapter 50

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

50
Could anyone endure the searing pain of a wrist joint twisted nearly to its breaking point?
“—Ahhhhhhh—”
From Dan Cheon-u’s lips came an undignified shriek.
“What—what are you doing?!”
His eyes fixed on Cheon Do-hyeon.
“….”
He held Dan Cheon-u’s arm twisted in his grasp, his gaze cold and silent.
“Clan Head! What is this bastard doing?!”
Dan Cheon-u screamed desperately toward Jegal Gyeong.
But the clan head’s mouth remained closed.
No words could escape it.
His eyes—those eyes that had never lost composure no matter what variable emerged—trembled now as if shaken by an earthquake.
“I… that is…”
Only broken syllables, almost groans, leaked from his lips.
One was the son of an absolute power in China, holding the Jegal Clan’s life and death in his hands.
The other was the son of Cheon Song-gyeong, the legendary 27th Heaven Demon, the hero of the entire Martial World.
He didn’t know whose side to take.
And so, for a moment, he forgot how to speak.
Cheon Do-hyeon watched Jegal Gyeong’s obvious panic and found himself regretting his rash action.
‘I charged in without thinking… if I’m clumsy here, the Jegal Clan could be hurt.’
In the brief span, Cheon Do-hyeon’s mind moved with urgent clarity.
‘We can’t get tangled up in this.’
It was a judgment made in a fraction of a second.
#
Cheon Do-hyeon wrenched Dan Cheon-u’s arm up once more, violently.
“Ahhhhhhck! Damn it all! Stop—stop!”
Dan Cheon-u’s shriek tore loose again.
Cheon Do-hyeon dragged the frozen Jegal Seo-rin to his back with urgent haste, shouting:
“Jegal Clan!”
He poured thirty percent of the Inner Power sleeping in his core in one breath, and the energy surrounding his body began to shimmer visibly.
The more he honed the Heaven Demon Sword Technique, the more his Inner Power took on a blackened hue.
Because of that, the Inner Power surging now across his shoulders, arms, and back bloomed like soot-black flames.
Whoooosh—
Black streaks swirled behind him,
and Cheon Do-hyeon’s appearance was like something risen from hell itself.
“…So you rejected our proposal and took hands with the Demon Path.”
Each word fell like frost.
“From this moment forward,”
Cheon Do-hyeon slowly lifted his gaze.
As black energy filled his eyes, his presence grew even thicker.
“The Jegal Clan is the Public Enemy of the Martial World.”
Cheon Do-hyeon himself knew his performance was awkward.
But the overwhelming pressure his aura created buried that awkwardness at once.
Dan Cheon-u’s complexion turned deathly pale.
“This—what—!”
The killing intent Cheon Do-hyeon radiated struck at his instinctive terror.
Was this how a prey animal felt meeting a predator?
Every hair on his body stood on end.
He realized his hands were shaking only a beat too late.
Cheon Do-hyeon savored the color of fear in Dan Cheon-u’s face, barely suppressing a satisfied smile.
“The woman—I will take her with me.”
In that brief moment, Cheon Do-hyeon gathered Jegal Seo-rin into his arms and began to flee.
Jegal Gyeong and Jegal Yun had no chance to react to this unplanned move.
“Wha—what…?”
Like people who had forgotten how to speak, only the same syllables escaped their lips.
Everything happened too fast.
Seo-rin’s wrist seized by Dan Cheon-u.
Cheon Do-hyeon wrenching Dan Cheon-u’s arm away.
The declaration as Public Enemy, and then—fleeing with Seo-rin in his arms.
All of it happened in a single, breathless instant.
‘Is this a dream?’
‘It must be.’
That expression played across the clan leader’s face, naked and unguarded.
That was when it happened.
Thud.
The sound of measured footsteps rang out, clear and deliberate.
Dan Jin-myeong, the patriarch of the Hwan-un Dan Clan who had already climbed into the carriage, opened the door and descended.
He watched Cheon Do-hyeon’s retreating back and spoke.
“So it was you.”
His voice had sunk to a dangerous whisper.
“The refuse Cheol-hyeol spoke of — from the Cheon Ma Divine Sect.”
Dan Jin-myeong’s gaze slowly tracked Cheon Do-hyeon across the ridgeline of Yung-joong Mountain beyond the annex, pinning him with precision.
“Where do you think you’re running, you wretch!”
Dan Jin-myeong slowly raised both arms. His walking stick fell lightly onto the garden’s gravel.
Then, from the tips of his fingers, invisible threads spread outward in all directions.
They swiftly filled the entire area,
and a deep, resonant hum filled the air—
The sky itself began to twist slowly.
“What—what is this!”
“Look at the sky! Look!”
The air over Yung-joong Mountain grew heavy and oppressive, and then dozens of vast black hands pierced through the clouds, reaching downward.
The Thousand-hand Phantom Vision.
The enormous hands, like those of a giant from mythic ages, descended with a majesty that transcended fear and inspired awe.
They plummeted in unison along the path where Cheon Do-hyeon was fleeing.
Crash—boom—
Roooaaarrr—
A deafening sound, as if Yung-joong Mountain itself were collapsing.
“…!”
Jegal Gyeong’s pupils trembled.
Jegal Yun’s legs gave out beneath him at the overwhelming spectacle wrought by Dan Cheon-u, and he staggered.
#
At that same moment.
Cheon Do-hyeon stared calmly at the enormous hands descending upon him.
Jegal Seo-rin, cradled against his chest, held her breath in terror, unaware of his intent.
Cheon Do-hyeon showed no sign of fleeing; instead, he gazed unblinking at the sky and swiftly penetrated the true nature of the technique Dan Cheon-u had woven.
An Illusion Art.
A massive domain-wide illusion technique.
The reason he could discern Dan Cheon-u’s technique was
that Cheon Do-hyeon possessed a Peerless Divine Technique of his own—the power to weave illusions.
The Heaven Demon Phantom Vision.
He deployed the Heaven Demon Phantom Vision to counter Dan Cheon-u’s Thousand-hand Phantom Vision.
Two illusions colliding.
The massive hand
seemed to plunge down upon Cheon Do-hyeon’s body.
Boom—
But it did not end there; dozens of hands, their target fixed, stacked upon one another and continued to fall.
Boom-crash-boom!
Then, having fulfilled their purpose, the black hands scattered slowly.
Yung-joong Mountain bore not a single scratch.
The verdant ridge remained untouched, and the garden’s gravel showed no disturbance.
The vast hands they had all witnessed left no trace anywhere.
All of it—had been illusion.
And Cheon Do-hyeon was no longer there.
“…!”
Dan Jin-myeong’s eyes widened as wide as a lantern.
His Thousand-hand Phantom Vision was no mere phantom.
It was the pinnacle of Soul Capture—a technique that carved an identical illusion into the perception of every person within the designated radius.
It was the Secret Transmission of the Hwan-un Dan Clan, one that even the patriarch of the Jegal Clan had been unable to resist.
And yet Cheon Do-hyeon had slipped through that same illusory technique using illusion against illusion, departing with ease.
“…How dare you.”
Dan Jin-myeong’s mouth twisted.
“How dare you conjure illusions before me.”
The hand gripping the walking staff trembled almost imperceptibly.
“…I am the founder of Illusion Art, the Hwan-un Dan Clan!”
He shouted the words with a face flushed crimson with fury.
Meanwhile, having witnessed Dan Jin-myeong’s Illusion Art display, Jegal Gyeong’s fingertips clenched his own robe hem with fierce intensity.
Tremor-tremor.
It was from anxiety and dread.
Even while sitting across from Dan Jin-myeong all this time, conducting negotiations, he had never suspected the man had reached such a level of mastery.
If these people turned their backs and moved to devour the Jegal Clan,
could he possibly defend his house against the Hwan-un Dan Clan?
The moment that thought struck him, regret came flooding in like waves.
His clenched teeth made a sound as though a hairline fracture were opening in his molars.
#
Even after the situation had settled, Dan Jin-myeong remained silent for a long while.
And some time later, he slowly turned his gaze.
“…Clan Lord Jegal.”
His voice was low.
“What do you intend to do about today’s incident?”
His gaze came to rest on Jegal Gyeong’s face.
“As you have witnessed and heard, we too are victims of this affair…”
“…Victims, you say…”
His expressionless face swallowed the rest of his words.
“Hm…”
Dan Jin-myeong’s lips curved upward in the faintest smile.
Yet to Jegal Gyeong’s eye, it was less a smile than a mere reflex of the facial muscles.
“…Let me make one thing clear: after today, the relationship between our two houses will not be as it once was.”
The old man leaning on his staff turned slowly back toward the vehicle.
His shoulders in the black suit were narrow and skeletal, yet the weight he projected behind him seemed to press down upon his entire frame.
Bang—
The door closed.
Whirrrrr—
The autonomous vehicles lifted off in unison.
The Hwan-un Dan Clan’s convoy disappeared beyond the ridge of Yung-joong Mountain with the same orderly precision with which it had arrived.
#
Only after the column of vehicles had completely vanished from sight did Jegal Gyeong exhale, short and sharp.
He turned his gaze slowly.
Toward the deputy clan lord, Jegal Yun, who stood rigid beside him.
“…Yun.”
“…Yes, Father.”
“When you find Lord Cheon Do-hyeon—”
Behind his glasses, Jegal Gyeong’s eyes deepened, growing grave.
“Bring him directly to my office.”
Beneath those few words lay, for the first time, the grain of a trembling emotion.
Anger, perhaps. Or fear. Or shame.
Or all of them at once.

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