Obtaining Heavenly Demon Martial Arts in the Magic Era - Chapter 53

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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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53
Lee Ye-rim conceded defeat and lowered her fists.
Her ragged breathing gradually settled—one breath, two breaths—and slowed. The two of them sat in silence side by side on a worn wooden chair in the Inn Backyard.
After a sparring match fought with full effort, there comes a feeling of deeper connection with one’s opponent.
Lee Ye-rim had been an excellent sparring partner, and
every time their eyes met, they’d engage in bare-knuckle fighting that approached real combat, deepening their sense of intimacy.
Perhaps that was why.
Cheon Do-hyeon broached a subject that had been taboo between them.
He drew Gwak Cheol’s Three-Section Staff from his waist and caressed it with his hand as he spoke.
“This Three-Section Staff… it must be precious to you, yes?”
At those words, Lee Ye-rim’s fingers interlaced once over her knees.
She nodded briefly.
Then, after a moment of silence, she opened her mouth slowly.
“…I don’t know who my parents are.”
Her voice had fallen to a low murmur.
Do-hyeon looked at her slowly.
Lee Ye-rim didn’t meet his gaze.
She only stared quietly at the fingers resting on her knees.
“…They say I was lying in some alley corner. A newborn, nothing but flesh and blood. Seon Young-hoon found me and brought me back, and Gwak Cheol raised me.”
“…”
“Those two even gave me my name together.”
Lee Ye-rim smiled faintly.
“The name of a child raised by beggars, and yet they gave it such beauty. It didn’t suit me at all.”
Do-hyeon listened quietly to her words.
Lee Ye-rim spun a Folding Knife once across her palm.
“So Bangju and Gwak Cheol are like my parents to me.”
By then, Lee Ye-rim had turned her head to look at Cheon Do-hyeon. Her eyes were reddened at the rims.
A glint of resentment flickered in her gaze.
Whether from the moonlight or her bearing itself, she looked all the more forlorn.
“…”
“I’m afraid of losing people.”
It was a single sentence, spoken low and quiet.
“I can’t bear it twice. Not again. So…”
The tips of Lee Ye-rim’s fingers trembled slightly.
Do-hyeon pretended not to notice.
“You take responsibility. Make sure that Young-hoon and everyone in Gaebang—none of them get hurt. You protect them.”
Her tone was rougher than usual.
It was a demand that could have been called unfair.
But Cheon Do-hyeon read clearly the true feeling hidden within it.
Right now, she was telling him she would accept him as a true comrade.
Even though she resented Cheon Do-hyeon for having caused the death of someone precious to her, she was granting him forgiveness—if he would protect Gaebang.
“Yes. I will protect them.”
Cheon Do-hyeon answered thus because he understood Lee Ye-rim’s fear better than anyone.
Perhaps Cheon Do-hyeon and Lee Ye-rim were very much alike.
Beneath an appearance of strength lay a coward trembling with fear, someone who could not bear to lose anyone.
“…All right.”
Lee Ye-rim smiled faintly, as if his answer satisfied her deeply.
Then she spun the Folding Knife again.
“…One more round?”
“…I have to leave early tomorrow.”
“And I don’t?”
The two of them burst into laughter at the same moment.
The darkness was growing deeper.
From inside the Inn came the faint sound of Lee Dae-gwang and Jegal Seo-rin arriving.
* * *
Meanwhile, in Seoul. Cheongyun Jang.
Thanks to the meticulous care of the Gaebang members, Seon Young-hoon rose from his sickbed within days.
As the saying goes, a poison, if used well, becomes medicine.
Having fully detoxified Kim Gi-beom’s poison, his complexion had grown noticeably firmer than before.
Once he left the recovery chamber, he spent most of his time in the temporary Bangju quarters that Cheongyun Jang had prepared for him.
There was a task he’d been focusing on intensely in recent days—
“Has it come in?”
“Yes, Bangju.”
Lee Sang-won, Kim Seung-yeon, and Kim Jun-pyo all lifted their eyes from across the desk at once.
The fact that they could understand him even with the object omitted meant all four of them had been concentrating on this matter to that degree.
“Start with the search routes through the Cheolhyeol clan’s estates.”
Kim Jun-pyo tapped one section of the monitor.
Red dots scattered across a map of Seoul.
Yongsan. Yeongdeungpo. Dongdaemun. Mapo. Gangnam.
Seon Young-hoon gazed at it quietly.
“…You’d think they’d know by now he’s left Seoul?”
Kim Seung-yeon nodded at the Bangju’s words.
“He’s deliberately wasting time. Blatantly.”
……
Because they could guess what Jang Gi-jun’s behavior meant,
the atmosphere in the Bangju’s office grew heavier still.
This situation meant one thing.
“Jang Gi-jun really did seek an alliance.”
Seon Young-hoon exhaled softly, acknowledging the fact.
Lee Sang-won stroked his chin as he asked, “What’s he plotting?”
“What’s his angle?”
Kim Seung-yeon held a brief silence, then placed her hands back on the keyboard.
“What I’m certain of: Jang Gi-jun. This man seemed to have an entirely different brain structure from ordinary people. Look at what I’ve dug up.”
The screen changed.
On Kim Seung-yeon’s monitor was a personnel profile photo marked in red letters with “ACCESS RESTRICTED.”
The photo showed a handsome man staring forward—Jang Gi-jun’s face.
His record section was crammed with entries of multiple overseas mercenary operations.
Seon Young-hoon looked at Kim Seung-yeon with a genuinely puzzled expression.
“Where exactly do you even get this kind of information?”
“…Dad’s connections.”
“Maybe we should get your father’s take on this too.”
“Anyway!”
Kim Seung-yeon cut off the conversation and pointed to one line in Jang Gi-jun’s mercenary history that was notably marked in red.
Everyone’s gaze naturally shifted toward it.
A conflict zone overseas.
Jang Gi-jun served there as an intelligence officer for a Magitech Unit—a sort of field training operation sent by his clan.
And there,
“…an entire unit annihilation. Seven mages in the same unit—all dead.”
“Hmm.”
“But only Jang Gi-jun came back alive.”
How?
The answer would soon come from Kim Seung-yeon’s mouth.
In the focused office, only her voice rang out clearly.
“According to the investigation, when Jang Gi-jun was exposed to an enemy ambush, he sold out his own unit. What’s shocking is—”
Kim Seung-yeon swallowed and continued.
“He killed all his fellow mages with his own hands.”
Kim Seung-yeon turned to the next page.
“After returning to Korea, his activities became even more blatant. Jang Gi-jun has a record of being charged with kinslaying. Two cousins died under mysterious circumstances. One in a car collision. One in a hiking accident.”
“This time too…?”
“Coincidentally, both were rivals competing with Jang Gi-jun for the position of next Family Head. After they died—Jang Gi-jun suddenly rose to become a candidate for the position. Of course, the murder charges were dismissed as unsubstantiated and he was released.”
A long silence fell.
“…This bastard is genuinely insane, isn’t he?”
“…Sold out his own unit, killed two cousins, climbed to the Family Head position…”
Kim Seung-yeon nodded, agreeing with Lee Sang-won and Kim Jun-pyo’s assessments.
“Jang Gi-jun doesn’t distinguish between allies and enemies. He’ll use any means necessary to survive. Can we really trust someone like this?”
The information had been laid out.
And sitting in this room was Seon Young-hoon, Bangju of Gaebang, a specialist hardened in gathering and handling intelligence.
All eyes were on what his decision would be.
He seemed to feel their gazes and slowly raised his head.
Then, as if having made a decision, he opened his mouth with grave weight.
“I accept the alliance.”
“Bangju?”
“It is precisely because he is such a man that an alliance becomes possible. I accept it.”
His voice had settled into a low, measured tone.
“Of course, we’ll need to prepare for contingencies.”
Seon Young-hoon’s eyes flashed with intensity.
And so, in Korea, the direction of the battlefield was shifting in a way no one had foreseen.
* * *
The next morning.
Cheon Do-hyeon and his party had Shipman Daesan in plain sight.
The colossal mountain filled their entire field of vision.
The place where the ancestor of the Cheonma descended a thousand years ago, or so the records claimed.
Once the stronghold of the Murim’s greatest power.
After the Great Purification Operation, a sealed mountain that no one had dared to set foot upon.
Standing at a distance, gazing upon it, Do-hyeon felt something within his chest beginning to vibrate slowly.
‘This is… the Cheonma Divine Art?’
As though the Cheonma Divine Art he’d carried with him had sensed the essence of Shipman Daesan,
it resonated from his breast.
‘So this really is the Cheonma Divine Cult’s headquarters.’
A place where the spirit of the Cheon family dwelled.
The homeland of the soul.
Its source now stood before his eyes.
And yet—
The party, having reached the foot of the mountain, came to an abrupt halt.
“……?”
Lee Ye-rim let out a small, involuntary sound.
“……Hey. What is that?”
Where the sealed mountain gate should have been—
an enormous temporary structure stood, utterly at odds with the natural landscape.
A gray Magitech construction.
It appeared to be a makeshift installation, yet its scale rivaled that of a small village.
And above that structure, a single banner fluttered.
A thin black line cutting across a cloud motif.
The banner of the Hwangyun Clan.
Lee Dae-gwang slowly removed his glasses, his expression one of disbelief.
He wiped the lenses with the back of his hand once.
He put them back on.
But the view had not changed.
“……What in the world is this?”
Do-hyeon’s eyes seethed with fury.

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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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