Obtaining Heavenly Demon Martial Arts in the Magic Era - Chapter 8

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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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8
Clang!
“……”
The VIP lounge of the Cheolhyeol Jang House. Furniture crafted from antique solid wood.
Among marble objets d’art, a suffocating silence hung in the air.
Jang Gi-han gazed down indifferently at the crystal glass shards scattered across the floor.
As liquid spilled onto the crimson carpet, the wet patch darkened. At first glance, it looked as if blood had been shed.
“Kim Byeong-ju was beaten?”
“I—I beg your pardon, Young Master! Byeong-ju is being transported to the hospital as we speak, but for some reason his Mana Core has been damaged…”
“Ha.”
A dry laugh escaped Jang Gi-han’s lips. Before anything else, Kim Byeong-ju was an elite who had reached the Third Circle—Ignition. That such a man had been taken down by nothing more than a high school student, and a Norma at that, unable to cast magic, was almost absurd.
Jang Gi-han raised an unusually long hand and tapped his lips with his fingertips as he spoke.
“How disagreeable.”
Jang Gi-han sank deeper into the sofa. It was an emotion he had never experienced before in his life. Not because his plaything had broken. What disturbed him was the fact that a variable had emerged beyond his control.
“Young Master, shall I dispatch a specialist team at once? Tonight, without a trace…”
“No.”
Jang Gi-han’s eyes narrowed like a serpent’s.
“That would be no fun.”
“Sir?”
“I tried to remember when I last felt something like this, and it’s never happened before. This irritation, this indignation.”
He toyed with the flame that gathered at his fingertip.
“I want to test something. Whether my patience runs out first, or…”
Whoosh!
The flame began to shift its color.
Red, blue, green—
Finally transforming to black, the flame was undeniably burning, yet it darkened the space around it instead.
“Hah!”
The man standing beside him caught his breath in shock at the true nature of the flame Jang Gi-han had conjured. Jang Gi-han paid no attention to the man’s reaction and continued speaking.
“He’ll crawl to me and beg for his life before long.”
Jang Gi-han’s mouth twisted into a grotesque smile.
Simple elimination was tedious.
Crush him thoroughly, plant despair, and in the end, make him crawl back having lost everything.
That was the way of Cheolhyeol.
“Let’s prepare something amusing for the school.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
The storm had already been announced.
#
At the same moment, in a dilapidated dojo.
Silver-white vapor rose from Cheon Do-hyeon’s body.
Whooooom—
The Steel Mana he had absorbed from Kim Byeong-ju.
That high-density energy had been completely broken down and digested within Cheon Do-hyeon’s Dantian. Because it had been the Mana of a Third Circle mage, it took a full day to refine it using the Taeheo Hun-won Heart Method. Still, the effort had been worthwhile.
“Exhale…”
As he released a deep breath and opened his eyes, white light flickered across his gaze. He could feel Internal Force exploding outward through his Dantian.
Coursing along his meridians like a torrent, the Internal Force made every sensation in his body sharper.
Dust particles dancing in the air—
He could see their movement and flow.
Cheon Do-hyeon clenched his fist tightly.
Crack!
Moreover, the Internal Force that had exceeded one full Cycle now coated his bones and muscles with steel-like hardness. Power surged through every inch of his body.
The gains did not end there.
[Absorption Celestial Method — 5-Star Achievement Reached]
The experience of absorbing an Ignition-grade Mana Core to its limit.
Because of this, the mastery level of the Absorption Celestial Method had finally reached Five Stars.
Once the minimum requirement suggested by the Cheonma Divine Art was satisfied, the scripture granted him access to the next technique. Do-hyeon did not hesitate and immediately turned the page of the Cheonma Divine Art.
Rustle—
As he physically turned the page, he heard the sound of pages turning echo in his mind as well.
‘What will the next art be…!’
The Absorption Celestial Method lived up to the name Cheonma Divine Art. It was a technique of both offense and defense depending on how it was applied.
And finally, the essentials and incantations of the Cheonma Divine Art’s second technique flowed into his mind.
[Chapter 2. Movement Techniques]1. Cheonma Phantom Shadow Step 2. Cheonma Sovereign Step
“Movement techniques…”
The second divine art consisted of two movement techniques.
Cheon Do-hyeon committed the movements to memory, his brow furrowing in concentration.
He was a man who had trained in modern martial arts his entire life.
Boxing, Taekwondo, wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
In modern martial arts, the essence of footwork is efficiency—close the distance via the shortest path, evade with minimum effort.
But the Cheonma Phantom Shadow Step presented a path that seemed absurd.
[Movement based on one hundred and eight directions]
“That’s inefficient.”
Why take a curved route when a straight line would suffice? It defied all scientific logic.
Yet hadn’t he learned through the Absorption Celestial Method that martial arts transcended such reasoning?
His martial arts possessed strange powers and might that he could not simply dismiss. So he decided to trust the technique and move his body accordingly.
“Empty the chest…”
He chanted the incantation aloud and directed his Internal Force according to the Heart Method.
Thus, the first step.
*Whoosh.*
Ordinary.
The second step.
“Is this the moment?”
Do-hyeon channeled the Internal Force from his Dantian through the Yongquan Acupoint in his sole.
And on the third stride.
*Pop.*
“What?”
Cheon Do-hyeon had definitely taken the third step.
Yet before his eyes, an identical phantom of himself materialized.
It remained **at the spot where his first footfall had touched down.**
‘An afterimage?’
It wasn’t the kind of blur created by sheer speed.
By warping the flow of energy, it deceived the eye of the observer.
When he took his fourth and fifth steps, the phantom lagged two paces behind, chasing after him and dizzying the senses.
A perfect phantom—impossible to tell which was real.
“Ha, this actually works.”
Cheon Do-hyeon let out a bitter laugh, his mind racing.
He couldn’t interpret martial arts through the lens of conventional fighting. This was magic.
His thoughts quickened as he considered the applications of the Cheonma Phantom Shadow Step.
Most mages attack from a distance. To counter them, closing the gap is paramount.
But this newly acquired Cheonma Phantom Shadow Step was the key that would resolve that challenge entirely.
With perfect illusions to deceive his target, he could close the distance far more easily. Everything would change.
Trembling with excitement, Cheon Do-hyeon examined the second movement technique.
“So what comes next…”
Cheonma Sovereign Step.
The name alone reeked of arrogance.
The description was even more absurd.
[Each step crushes the heavens underfoot.]
“The footwork itself is an attack?”
In modern fighting, there’s a common expression: “I’ll kill you with my footwork.”
But that’s mere metaphor—using clever footwork to overwhelm your opponent. The Cheonma Sovereign Step, however, meant it literally.
Walking alone could suppress an enemy.
‘I can’t even picture it. Let me just try.’
Cheon Do-hyeon invoked the incantation with skepticism. Unlike the Cheonma Phantom Shadow Step, the Cheonma Sovereign Step demanded enormous Internal Force from the outset.
‘Nngh…’
The weighty Internal Force drawn from his Dantian concentrated into his legs. Without having absorbed Kim Byeong-ju’s power to the limit, this would have been unbearable.
Boom.
He planted his first foot.
In that instant.
“Ugh!”
Vertigo crashed through him—blood draining from his body like an ebb tide.
And in the same moment.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
The entire dojo shook as if an earthquake had struck.
It was no mere vibration. The gravity within a three-meter radius centered on Cheon Do-hyeon had warped.
Crack!
The wooden floor beneath Cheon Do-hyeon’s feet splintered like a spider’s web.
The sandbags nearby crumpled as if pressed by an invisible hand, and the glass cups on the shelf shattered beyond resistance.
Crash! Bang! Bang!
“Gasp… gasp…”
Cheon Do-hyeon hastily ceased his cultivation. Cold sweat poured down like rain.
Just a single step.
A mere step forward, and thirty percent of his Internal Force had evaporated.
But the power it unleashed…
“Insane.”
Cheon Do-hyeon gazed at the destroyed dojo and shuddered.
If the Cheonma Phantom Shadow Step was a footwork of deception, the Cheonma Sovereign Step was a footwork of annihilation.
At merely first rank, the power was already this devastating—what would it become upon mastery?
Whether the opponent defended with magic or not, it would be a force that could crush the space itself.
Cheon Do-hyeon trembled at the might of the martial art.
He clenched his fist.
The Hwanggeum-ryun, disciples of a magic noble house.
Whatever schemes they were plotting mattered little to him.
If anything, a collision with them was something to anticipate.
“Come on then.”
Every time he fought, growth found him without fail. The distant wall that was the mage no longer frightened him. Rather, it had become nothing but nourishment for advancement.
Cheon Do-hyeon’s eyes gleamed with the light of a predator.
He took his stance once more.
“Again! Again!”
Each time the Cheonma Phantom Shadow Step unfurled, Cheon Do-hyeon’s phantom flickered and vanished,
and each time he deployed the Cheonma Sovereign Step, the building trembled as if it might collapse.
‘I can’t train the Cheonma Sovereign Step here.’
Cheon Do-hyeon wore a boyish smile. He was intoxicated with excitement.
After learning the Cheonma Divine Art left by his grandfather, he felt joy in growing stronger with each passing day.
If he continued this way, he could become a formidable warrior whom no one dared challenge. That was the path of martial arts.
“I’ve lost all sleep tonight.”
Cheon Do-hyeon could not contain himself.
‘I want to grow stronger faster. Strong enough that no one can ever touch me.’
Hunger drove him onward.
He intended to push the mastery of both footwork techniques to their limits.
The goal Cheon Do-hyeon set in his heart was singular: to reach a level where coordination with the Absorption Celestial Method became possible. Until he achieved that, he had no intention of sleep.

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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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