The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 121

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

Chapter 121.
‘At this rate, we’ll be annihilated.’
As Gwak Cheon trembled violently, cold sweat streaming down his face, he surveyed the battlefield.
Whoosh!
A dwarf assassin suddenly burst forth from within the Pae Do Moon ranks, his hand axe descending toward Gwak Cheon’s spine.
“Ugh!”
Snapping to awareness, Gwak Cheon swiftly deflected the hand axe.
Clang!
Sparks erupted in the air as Gwak Cheon’s eyes widened at the force of the blocked strike.
The internal energy embedded in the hand axe transcended imagination, and a surge of qi shook his meridians violently.
“Wae Sal… the Master of Eum Sa Gok.”
Gwak Cheon recognized at a glance that the assassin wielding the hand axe was Wae Sal, the valley master of Eum Sa Gok.
“Hehehehe, your skill is pathetic!”
Wae Sal, casually spinning his hand axe, let out a contemptuous laugh.
“Now, die!”
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, Wae Sal closed the distance and brought his hand axe down to cleave Gwak Cheon’s skull.
Clang clang clang clang!
Gwak Cheon raised his sword to parry the relentless assault, but unable to withstand the overwhelming force channeled through the hand axe, he was forced to retreat step by step.
‘For an assassin to possess such formidable martial mastery…’
Despair flickered in Gwak Cheon’s eyes.
Assassins specialized in ambush tactics were typically weak in direct confrontation. Yet Wae Sal excelled not only in assassin techniques but possessed martial prowess that was simply insurmountable.
Slash!
Spotting an opening, Wae Sal’s hand axe carved across Gwak Cheon’s shoulder blade.
Blood sprayed upward as searing pain consumed his shoulder.
“Impossible!”
Gritting his teeth, Gwak Cheon unleashed his sword technique.
If he too fell to Wae Sal, the entire formation would collapse beyond recovery.
“Argh!”
Around him, Jin Cheon Moon disciples were falling one after another.
Gwak Cheon’s jaw clenched as he glanced about. Already, more than half of Jin Cheon Moon’s courtyard had been surrendered.
Moreover, the Cheongeomdan was constructing a final defensive line while protecting the sect leader Wang In Hwa, who was confined due to injuries.
‘We cannot hold much longer.’
With the front lines already shattered, the best course was to fall back and regroup with the Cheongeomdan in the rear to mount a final resistance.
“Retreat!”
At Gwak Cheon’s command, the Jin Cheon Moon disciples began withdrawing as if they had been waiting for the order.
Blood-soaked and retreating, their faces were etched uniformly with terror.
“It’s over.”
Gwan Dok Gun, the Pae Do Moon master observing from a distance, wore a sinister smile.
The Cheongeomdan, Jin Cheon Moon’s greatest fighting force, was in full retreat.
Even amidst the chaos, a handful of Jin Cheon Moon’s skilled masters pressed forward, yet the tide of battle had already turned irrevocably against them.
“What a lengthy struggle this has been.”
Gwan Dok Gun spoke as though uttering a sigh.
It had been nearly a decade since Pae Do Moon first clashed with Jin Cheon Moon for dominion over Sangyang.
Under ordinary circumstances, Pae Do Moon could never have prevailed against Jin Cheon Moon, a sect whose roots ran generations deep in Sangyang.
‘Heaven itself has favored us.’
Gwan Dok Gun cast a sidelong glance at the Masked Assassin standing beside him.
I knew neither his identity nor his name.
Months ago, he had appeared before me unbidden, offering to ensure victory in our power struggle against Jin Cheon Moon.
Gwan Dok Gun had laughed bitterly at first.
But when the Masked Assassin produced a bank note for one million yang and spoke of purchasing the assassins of Eum Sa Gok outright, I could not help but swiftly compose myself.
―What do you desire from me?
Nothing in this world comes without cost.
Knowing this truth all too well, I found myself wary even upon seeing the million yang note.
Yet the Masked Assassin merely offered a brief reply.
―Will you do it, or will you refuse?
Gwan Dok Gun tilted his head and asked.
―Do you harbor a grudge against Jin Cheon Moon?
Rather than answer, the Masked Assassin spoke of something entirely different.
―I hear the Jin Cheon Moon Master Wang In Hwa has been in seclusion due to an old internal injury flaring up. Now would be the opportune moment to strike at Jin Cheon Moon.
Gwan Dok Gun could make no sense of it.
Who was this Masked Assassin? Why did he desire Jin Cheon Moon’s defeat? Where had such vast wealth come from…?
As countless questions coiled upon themselves, I could only stand in bewilderment.
―If you refuse, we shall speak no more of it.
As the Masked Assassin reached for the note, Gwan Dok Gun snapped to attention.
One must seize opportunity when it presents itself. This was my life’s philosophy.
―You truly desire nothing else in return?
―Nothing.
At that answer, Gwan Dok Gun unhesitatingly seized the bank note.
And thus I launched a massive invasion of Jin Cheon Moon with the aid of Eum Sa Gok.
“Once we eliminate those vermin, it will all be finished.”
Gwan Dok Gun smiled broadly and gazed upon the Masked Assassin.
“Thanks to your benevolence, my lifelong ambition is finally being realized.”
And just as I was about to exchange a few more cordial words,
―Aaaaagh!
Suddenly, agonized screams erupted in rapid succession from the rear ranks of Pae Do Moon’s forces.
“What is happening?”
At Gwan Dok Gun’s question, a subordinate nearby spoke urgently.
“The Yin Sword Division has returned!”
“What did you say?”
Gwan Dok Gun hurriedly surveyed the situation behind them.
There, warriors clad in Jin Cheon Moon garb and members of the Nangindae were attacking the Pae Do Moon disciples.
It was the Yin Sword Division led by Moon Gwang and the Nangindae who had arrived.
“How in the world did they manage to reach this place?”
Gwan Dok Gun’s eyes widened in disbelief.
He had witnessed with his own eyes how the assassins of Eum Sa Gok had installed formidable formations and traps throughout Woong Ga San Jang to eliminate the Yin Sword Division.
And those formations and traps were of a caliber that should have been absolutely impossible for the Yin Sword Division or the Nangindae to overcome.
Yet they had returned unscathed?
“Leave none of them alive!”
Under Moon Gwang’s command, the Yin Sword Division and Nangindae began cutting down the Pae Do Moon disciples.
Having achieved a great victory against the assassins at Woong Ga San Jang, the morale of the Yin Sword Division and Nangindae had reached its zenith.
Moreover, the Pae Do Moon disciples had grown complacent, believing they had breached Jin Cheon Moon’s defensive line.
Thus, when they were suddenly ambushed from behind, they found themselves unable to regain their composure.
“Commander Moon!”
Gwak Cheon, spotting Moon Gwang directing the battle from the rear, cried out loudly to his subordinates.
“Aid the Yin Sword Division!”
―Waaaaaah!
With a tremendous roar, fierce combat erupted anew in an instant.
“These wretches!”
Gwan Dok Gun, witnessing the scene, unleashed a furious cry.
Had he pressed forward just a bit longer, he could have taken the head of the Jin Cheon Moon Master and brought them to complete submission.
The unexpected arrival of the Yin Sword Division and Nangindae had once again plunged the battle into an unpredictable chaos.
“Carve out an escape route!”
As the Pae Do Moon formation began to crumble, the assassins grew desperate.
They even began to callously sacrifice their own allies from Pae Do Moon to preserve their own lives.
“You inhuman butchers!”
The Nangindae fighters at the vanguard cursed vehemently upon witnessing the assassins using corpses as shields.
“If you possess even a shred of humanity, do not desecrate the dead!”
Yet the assassins of Eum Sa Gok continued to exploit the corpses, heedless of his cries.
“They are stronger. Stronger than the assassins at Woong Ga San Jang,” Heuk Pyo remarked, circling the battlefield and hurling projectiles.
At his words, Nam Goong Woon’s eyes gleamed with realization.
“These are their true forces!”
Shwish, shwish, shwish!
In that moment, the assassins of Eum Sa Gok altered their tactics.
They began slaying not only the disciples of Jin Cheon Moon but also members of Pae Do Moon to carve out an escape route.
“Both of you, fall back.”
Bu Eunseol, observing the scene, stepped forward and extended her fist.
Whoooosh.
With the sound of air being drawn from all directions into a single point, the assassins ravaging the battlefield were sent flying as mangled corpses.
“What manner of fist technique is that?”
The assassins hiding among the Pae Do Moon members retreated with expressions of terror.
Bu Eunseol’s overwhelming force was too vast; no matter how hard they tried to escape, there was nowhere to hide.
“That wretch!”
As Bu Eunseol cut down the assassins, Wae Sal, the master of Eum Sa Gok, launched himself off the shoulders of a Pae Do Moon member and revealed himself once more.
“I must eliminate you first to carve out an escape route.”
Upon Wae Sal’s appearance, Bu Eunseol turned to Nam Goong Woon behind her and spoke.
“Face him.”
“Me?”
Bu Eunseol nodded with an expression of utmost seriousness.
“This is an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime, if at all.”
A direct confrontation in broad daylight against an assassin who possessed not only lethal technique but also superior martial arts.
Even masters who had roamed Gangho for decades rarely experienced such a trial. Should he survive this battle, the gains would be immeasurable.
‘I see.’
Nam Goong Woon understood.
Combat with Wae Sal—this was the gift Bu Eunseol was giving him.
“Understood!”
Nam Goong Woon rushed forward and without hesitation unleashed the Cheonggung Bi Yeon Sword against Wae Sal.
As blade flashes swift as light swept across the heavens and earth in all directions, Wae Sal’s eyes widened.
“The Nam Goong Family?”
Realizing the young man before him was of the Nam Goong Family, Wae Sal instead wore a relaxed smile.
“Hehehehe. So you’re a young master of the family.”
As he parried each of Nam Goong Woon’s blade flashes with his hand axe, he maintained his confident smile.
“You should know—martial arts and assassination are different things.”
It was no exaggeration to say that those born into prestigious families had been revered their entire lives.
And such an environment only inflamed youthful vigor, leaving them all with contempt for Murim and arrogant dispositions.
“Cut your own throat for me, won’t you?”
Wae Sal was confident.
No matter how superior Nam Goong Woon’s martial arts were, he could not defeat someone hardened by countless battles.
“…?”
Yet after a dozen exchanges, Wae Sal’s eyes filled with bewilderment.
The reason inferior assassins could gain the upper hand against Orthodox Sect masters was simple.
They employed crude and despicable techniques that the righteous would never use.
But Nam Goong Woon was the opposite.
To evade hidden projectiles, he thrust his buttocks upward and flew backward; to avoid poisoned blades, he rolled frantically across the ground like a madman.
Cornered, he even scooped up dirt and flung it, and in close combat he spat without hesitation.
Wae Sal’s jaw dropped in disbelief.
‘This man… truly of the Nam Goong Family?’
The Nam Goong Family, called the house of sword masters, was renowned for its strict internal codes.
Yet here was a direct descendant brazenly employing techniques that made even assassins wince?
‘But his swordsmanship is undeniably solid.’
The sword technique pouring down before my eyes was unmistakably the Changung Bi Yeon Sword—a blade that only direct descendants of the Nam Goong Family could master.
Just as Wae Sal, his mind reeling, barely evaded the Changung Bi Yeon Sword,
Ptooey!
Nam Goong Woon, closing in with blinding speed, suddenly spat.
And with extraordinarily poor fortune, a portion of that projectile struck Wae Sal’s cheek.
“….”
As Wae Sal wiped away the spittle with his sleeve, veins bulged visibly across his forehead.
“The Nam Goong Family has fallen into ruin! To produce a reckless fool like you!”
It was a curse that would have sent any family descendant into apoplexy, yet Nam Goong Woon remained unruffled, even chuckling with amusement.
“For an assassin, you’re remarkably dull. Only now do you grasp my identity.”
Wae Sal’s eyes suddenly gleamed as understanding struck him.
“Are you Nam Goong Woon, the reckless scoundrel of the Nam Goong Family?”
Nam Goong Woon, deflecting Wae Sal’s assault with ease, smiled with composure.
“Since you’ve figured it out, present your neck!”

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