Obtaining Heavenly Demon Martial Arts in the Magic Era - Chapter 55

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

55
Black Qi had seeped into his body.
Under the influence of Demonic Qi, Cheon Do-hyeon’s eyes began to perceive
things that were ordinarily invisible.
The timing was remarkably convenient.
At the Mountain Entrance, after confirming the scale of Hwan Woon Dan Ga’s forces, Cheon Do-hyeon and his companions
were devising a strategy to minimize friction.
‘It was as if….’
Shipman Daesan seemed to be speaking to him.
‘Grant not a single sacred artifact of Cheonma Singyeo to the invaders.’
“Cheon Do-hyeon! Cheon Do-hyeon!”
His companions called out his name urgently in the meantime, attempting to assess his condition.
Whoosh—
Cheon Do-hyeon raised his arm to block their movements.
“I’m all right now.”
“What was that?”
“You should stay down a while longer, it seems.”
Do-hyeon rose to his feet, ignoring his companions’ reactions.
His gaze was directed toward the tent situated behind Dan Cheon-woo’s back.
He stared at the black Qi announcing its presence.
Now the black wave radiating from the unidentified object within the tent appeared to him like a distress signal, a plea calling him to come and save it.
Cheon Do-hyeon made his judgment.
He could not ignore that signal and walk away.
But the current situation was not in Do-hyeon’s favor.
Hwan Woon Dan Ga had erected a temporary structure and wholly occupied the Mountain Gate of Shipman Daesan.
If a fight broke out, they would certainly be isolated in moments.
If he were alone, he could extract himself one way or another, but now he was with his companions.
To urge an assault on Hwan Woon Dan Ga without knowing their full strength
would be like pushing his allies off a cliff.
‘……Then.’
There was only one way.
Cheon Do-hyeon slowly turned his gaze toward the group.
“……First, please enter the mountain.”
His voice had dropped low and quiet.
“……?”
“What?”
The man who’d been groaning just moments before was suddenly spouting nonsense,
and Lee Ye-rim looked at Cheon Do-hyeon with an expression of disbelief.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Do-hyeon kept his gaze on Dan Cheon-woo.
“Something strange is visible to me. I think it’s because of the Demonic Qi…. It seems to be connected to Cheonma Singyeo. I need to investigate it.”
“…Hey!”
Lee Ye-rim caught him short with a quick interjection.
“I’m coming with you.”
Her jaw clenched with determination.
Do-hyeon shook his head slightly.
“If all eyes focus on one place, the rest can move freely.”
He felt the worried gaze of Lee Ye-rim, Lee Dae-gwang, and Je-gal Seo-rin.
“Hwan Woon Dan Ga knows I’m in China. They’ve even tracked me to the foot of Shipman Daesan. My position is already exposed. It’s right that I move separately and create a distraction. While I raise hell, slip into Shipman Daesan.”
Trembling.
Lee Ye-rim clenched her fist so tightly blood drew from her palm.
As always, Cheon Do-hyeon was courting danger.
She didn’t possess enough strength to aid him from his side.
That fact infuriated her.
“……You must rejoin us.”
A single grinding word.
“Of course.”
Do-hyeon nodded curtly.
Je-gal Seo-rin gently grasped at Do-hyeon’s sleeve.
“……Young Master.”
A voice, trembling faintly.
“Please… come back safely.”
Cheon Do-hyeon regarded her quietly.
“Don’t worry.”
Then he smiled, slight and brief.
“The sword the Je-gal Family head lent me — I ought to test it at least once, shouldn’t I?”
Je-gal Seo-rin smiled faintly in return.
Cheon Do-hyeon gripped the Cloud Hand Sword he’d received from Je-gal Yoon, holding it firm.
The weight of the blade transmitted solidly into his palm.
As he drew upon his inner reserves, the Demonic Qi clinging to his Blood Meridians and Dantian bloomed forth.
In one breath, Do-hyeon launched himself down the mountainside.
Whoosh—
#
Dan Cheon-woo, bored with sitting still, had been loitering in front of the temporary structure.
Into his line of sight, a black shadow suddenly lunged.
“…Huh?”
Dan Cheon-woo blinked sharply.
The approach was so swift he couldn’t tell whether what he was seeing was illusion or substance.
And then, the next instant—
Crash—
Do-hyeon’s blade sheared clean through one of the structural posts at the entrance.
Splinter, bang—
As the column crumbled, the beam above it buckled under the weight and collapsed inward.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
Part of the temporary structure caved in, dust erupting in all directions.
“Hey!”
Dan Cheon-woo snapped to awareness, shouting.
“You mad bastard! What the hell are you doing!”
Do-hyeon didn’t answer.
Instead—he cleaved another structural post with precision.
Splinter—
Crash, crash, crash—
The man before him was systematically dismantling the building through sheer physical power.
“What… what is this!”
They say overwhelming force is like magic itself.
Dan Cheon-woo forced his panic down.
He wove a hand seal and deployed the secret technique of the Hwan Woon Dan Ga.
His silver-gray hair rippled in the wind.
The moment he completed the seal, the air currents around them shifted without warning, before the technique could even manifest.
Shhhhh—
A pale blue-tinged mist spread outward in all directions.
The Mirage Mirror.
Within Do-hyeon’s field of vision, Dan Cheon-woo’s form split—three. Five. Seven.
All at once, fragmenting into multiples.
Each of the seven Dan Cheon-woos bore identical breath, identical expression, identical killing intent.
“…I’ll tear your body into seven pieces.”
All seven Dan Cheon-woos spoke in unison.
Only then did Do-hyeon turn, truly looking at Dan Cheon-woo.
“You…!”
Dan Cheon-woo’s eyes widened like lanterns.
Recognition flashed across his face.
Then his lips twisted, murderous intent pouring forth.
“Better yet. I’ll repay you for that humiliation back then. I won’t grant you a quick death.”
Do-hyeon drew a steady breath.
The Cheonma Mirage Step.
Having witnessed the Je-gal Family’s Cheonsu Mirage and gained enlightenment through it, his Mirage Step had reached the eighth tier.
And that realm far transcended Dan Cheon-woo’s.
Cheon Do-hyeon’s form fractured to match the number of illusions Dan Cheon-woo had created.
“…!”
Seven clones, standing opposed.
And Cheon Do-hyeon’s clones moved as one, subduing Dan Cheon-woo and his men in an instant.
Cheon Do-hyeon drove his fist squarely into a face.
He tackled another and brought him crashing down, raining merciless blows.
He wielded Gwak Cheol’s Three-Section Staff to strike at a head.
He swung the Cloud Hand Sword he’d received from Je-gal Yoon, slashing through Dan Cheon-woo’s body.
Striking, cutting, piercing, raking—
Dan Cheon-woo suffered brutally across seven different methods of attack.
It was a cruel truth one wanted to ignore: only one of them was the real body.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
Fortunately, it was the real Dan Cheon-woo who thrashed on the ground, his vital point struck.
In that flicker of an instant, all seven waves of pain seared themselves into his mind at once.
Overwhelmed by the cascade, Dan Cheon-woo lost consciousness.
A low, rattling sound escaped his throat.
The moment the original body fell, the mirages vanished as though swept away.
……!
With the commanding officer of the operation sprawled on the ground, chaos erupted across the site.
Pandemonium.
People hurled their equipment and fled.
The guards who had been advancing to confront Cheon Do-hyeon began backing away, reading the situation.
Cheon Do-hyeon left those without the will to fight untouched.
His blade swept once more toward the skeletal frame of the temporary structure.
A sharp shriek—then a deafening crack.
One side of the structure collapsed inward.
Inside were what appeared to be Demonic Engineering devices; they exploded, sending blue sparks cascading in all directions.
Crackle—snap and hiss.
The sound of expensive equipment being obliterated all at once.
‘This should be enough.’
The site was devastated to a degree that would take considerable time to rebuild.
“……Ah, ah…… Aaahhhhh!”
The people who appeared to be researchers let out cries that bordered on screams.
Cheon Do-hyeon paid them no mind, pressing toward the tent that emanated black Qi, intent on his true objective.
In the deepest recess of the tent.
A small bundle wrapped in black cloth lay before him.
“This is….”
The Black Wrapping Cloth.
Something inside was vibrating faintly.
Thump.
Do-hyeon’s heart beat in time with it.
Thump.
‘……This belongs to the Cheonma Singyeo.’
Do-hyeon knew it with absolute certainty in a single breath.
He carefully unwrapped the cloth surrounding it.
A soft rustle.
What emerged from the wrapping was
a Red Gem, no larger than a palm, glowing with crimson light.
Its surface was covered densely with seals whose meaning eluded him.
The moment Do-hyeon touched it, as though entranced,
that moment—
A sharp, piercing sound rang out.
The instant his hand made contact,
the grain of the Red Gem rippled,
and a sharp crack.
A single fracture line appeared across its surface.
Crack and splinter.
It was the beginning.
The fracture became two lines, then three, then five.
“Ah, ah—what?”
As the treasure he’d gone to such lengths to obtain began to shatter,
Cheon Do-hyeon gasped in dismay.
In his panic and confusion,
Crack—crack—
The fracture spread rapidly across the entire gem until finally
Shatter—
the gem split open.
And from within—
black shadows began pouring out in a sickening wash of crimson light.
As if awakening from an ancient seal,
the black shadows shrieked with voices that sounded anything but human.
Screeeeeech—
A sight as if calamity itself had been unleashed upon the world.
Was this what Pandora had felt, opening the box of catastrophe out of mere curiosity?
‘We’re finished.’
The black forms, like malevolent spirits, multiplied as they emerged—
one, two, three… seven… eight—
before arranging themselves before Cheon Do-hyeon’s eyes.
Figures wispy as thin smoke.
They bore the vague outline of human shapes, yet their faces, hands, and feet were indistinguishable.
Only the deep rancor dwelling within them was unmistakably clear.
Beings whose flesh had perished, leaving only resentment behind.
Twisted by the Demonic Qi of Shipman Daesan, corrupted beyond recognition.
‘…A thousand years ago. Were they followers of the Cheonma Singyeo?’
The Demon Spirits shrieked in unison.
Kyeeeeee—
Cheon Do-hyeon instinctively stepped back and raised the Cloud Hand Sword.
But then—
the Demon Spirits, who seemed about to descend upon him like a maelstrom, suddenly froze in place.
Flinch.
And slowly, they bowed their heads toward him.
No—it was not merely a bow. As they lowered their heads, their bodies bent further and further.
Until they knelt on their knees.
Even then they did not stop.
“…?”
The black, smoke-like forms all prostrated themselves fully before Do-hyeon.

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