The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 260

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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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Chapter 260.
Yu Hwa Ryeong’s eyes brimmed with disbelief.
Throughout his life, he had heard countless rumors dismissed as mere ghost stories, yet never had he encountered a tale as grotesque as this.
Whoosh!
Seized by fury, he tore away the massive cloth that covered the three-man-high vessel in one swift motion.
Within lay a transparent liquid, and suspended inside were corpses drifting aimlessly.
Gag.
Confronted by such a macabre and terrifying sight, Yu Hwa Ryeong stumbled backward and collapsed.
“Why would they preserve corpses in such a manner?”
“They were likely living people once.”
“You mean they deliberately drowned living people to death?”
“Not drowned—rather, like steeping herbs in wine, they extracted every drop of human essence from them.”
Crack.
Unable to contain his erupting rage, Yu Hwa Ryeong shot to his feet, fists clenching.
As if infusing human blood to craft elixirs were not enough, they had drained the vital essence from living beings? Could any human commit such atrocities?
“What manner of heaven-defying evil would drive them to such acts? What possible reason?”
She slowly gathered the fallen cloth from the ground as she spoke.
“Looking back through the history of Murim, human experimentation conducted by Evil Sects and the Poison Sect was hardly uncommon.”
Then, with a light leap, she landed atop the glass vessel and draped the cloth over it once more.
“Yet such abominations were inevitably exposed, hunted down by the Murim, and their sects were annihilated.”
“You suggest they operate under the court’s protection and conduct such horrors freely?”
“More precisely, the military establishment.”
Jong Ri Sa Yu’s gaze sank into shadow as she stared into the darkness.
“They have long researched methods to reconstruct the human body and develop drugs to enhance strength.”
In that moment, a single word surfaced in Yu Hwa Ryeong’s mind.
―Dong Chang.
It was likely not the military at all.
Only those wielding absolute power—the Dong Chang—possessed the audacity to conduct such brutal experiments.
Creak.
The sound of an iron door opening accompanied by soft footsteps echoed through the space.
The group exchanged glances and hastily concealed themselves in the darkness.
Thud, thud.
The footsteps drew progressively closer until two figures came into view near the glass vessel.
One was an elderly man with hollow eyes and an emaciated frame, dressed in the typical garb of a Haeng Rim wanderer.
Beside him stood a Masked Assassin adorned with an ornate embroidered wind cloak.
Though his face remained concealed, his piercing gaze seemed to penetrate the darkness itself.
‘That one….’
Hidden in shadow, Bu Eunseol’s eyes narrowed to razor-sharp slits as she studied the Masked Assassin.
She had detected faint gouges etched into the scabbard he wore.
They were the marks left by Seok Song’s desperate strike with his diamond-shaped sword.
‘The author of the massacre of the Heavenly Sword Society?’
Something felt wrong.
The incident where the Ten Seats, including the leader of the Heavenly Sword Society, were annihilated occurred twenty years ago.
Even if he had been in his twenties then, he should be well into his forties by now.
Yet the skin and eyes beneath the mask belonged to someone who had barely crossed into adulthood.
The Gaunt Old Man removed the cloth covering the glass chamber and spoke.
“I’ve already completed seven layers.”
The old man, examining the interior of the glass chamber with a satisfied smile, spoke again.
“I believe I can complete up to eight layers within a month.”
“Perfection is irrelevant—increase the quantity instead.”
The voice was cold and austere, yet it unmistakably belonged to a young man.
“They will contact us soon.”
“Understood.”
The two figures, conversing as they circled the interior, soon headed toward the iron door.
Just as the old man stepped beyond the open threshold,
He stopped abruptly.
The Masked Assassin halted and suddenly turned around.
“What is it?”
The old man asked, and the Masked Assassin nodded.
“I wish to examine the mechanism—please go ahead first.”
“Very well.”
The old man nodded and departed, while the Masked Assassin stepped back inside.
With a heavy thud, the iron door sealed shut once more.
Footsteps echoed.
The Masked Assassin walked deeper inside, scanning the space methodically before coming to a halt.
A sudden gust.
A faint wind suddenly emanated from the Masked Assassin’s entire body, sweeping across the darkened interior.
In that instant, Bu Eunseol’s eyes widened.
She realized the Masked Assassin was expanding his hypersensory perception to meticulously probe the surroundings.
「Do not look toward the author.」
Bu Eunseol hastily sent a telepathic message, but it was already too late.
The man’s keen senses had swept across the location where Yu Hwa Ryeong and Jong Ri Sa Yu were concealed.
“Quite the sizable rats you have here.”
Metal shrieked.
Simultaneously, the sound of grinding metal erupted from all directions,
“Ahhh!”
With a brief scream, the floor beneath Yu Hwa Ryeong and Jong Ri Sa Yu split open on both sides, and they were swallowed into the darkness below.
A brilliant flash.
In that instant, a streak of light blazed forth from the darkness.
Bu Eunseol, concealed in the shadows, unleashed a torrent of sword energy at the Masked Assassin.
Clang!
As blade met blade in mid-air, a tremendous wave of sword energy rippled outward in all directions.
Light bloomed through the darkness as the two weapons locked together.
Spark after spark flew.
With their blades pressed against each other in a test of strength, sparks erupted between the two magnetized steel edges.
A faint luminescence emanated from between the Masked Assassin’s brows as he pushed back against my blade.
I noticed his eyes bore a subtle azure tint.
‘Not the inner cultivation methods of Zhong Yuan.’
When I studied the Reverse Extreme Heart Method under Hyul Geum Gang, I had also learned in detail about the strengths, weaknesses, and characteristics of the inner cultivation secrets of all the major sects across Tianxia.
―Unlike the orthodox inner cultivation methods of Zhong Yuan, the secret techniques of the outer regions focus primarily on refining the upper dantian. This means the accumulation of power is slower, but…
Once one reaches the realm of the Three Origins and Three Harmonies, the emergence of the primordial spirit from the womb, one can unleash mysterious power that transcends human limitations.
As I recalled Hyul Geum Gang’s teachings, my eyes sharpened.
Could it be that the Masked Assassin possessed such heavenly talent that he had already reached the primordial spirit emergence realm at such a young age?
‘No—he’s drawing upon externally injected energy.’
The inner power the Masked Assassin unleashed was formidable, yet its duration was remarkably brief.
In other words, he had clearly consumed some elixir or medicinal substance to temporarily elevate his inner cultivation level.
A grunt escaped him.
Unable to withstand the dense, overwhelming inner power I poured forth, the Masked Assassin began retreating step by step.
“Argh!”
“Ugh!”
But then, agonized screams from Yu Hwa Ryeong and Jong Ri Sa Yu echoed from the pit below.
Crash! Clang!
Metallic sounds rang out in rapid succession. Something was clearly happening in the depths below.
‘There are enemies beneath the mechanism as well?’
As my focus fractured and my inner power wavered,
Whoosh!
the Masked Assassin seized the opportunity and retreated forcefully.
“Deactivate the mechanism.”
At my stern command, the Masked Assassin laughed softly.
“Say that after you’ve subdued me!”
Click.
In that instant, a massive hole opened beneath where I stood.
But I had already retreated three paces back.
I had anticipated the vibrations and mechanical sounds rising from the floor.
A scoff.
The Masked Assassin lightly swept his left foot across the floor.
Again came the click, and another gaping hole opened where I had been standing.
‘It wasn’t the floor—it was the shoe sole.’
It would be impossible to install mechanism triggers throughout this vast Great Hall.
The Masked Assassin had installed the activation device in his shoe sole, allowing him to trigger the mechanisms freely whenever he wished.
“Suppression.”
Bu Eunseol, gazing down at the dark blade she held, nodded.
“Indeed.”
Whoosh!
With a sharp whistle of air, Bu Eunseol closed the distance to the Masked Assassin in an instant.
Simultaneously, she extended her dark blade with effortless grace.
At first glance, it appeared to be a simple, swift sword strike.
But the faint luminescence dancing along the blade’s edge rapidly expanded, transforming into a bewilderingly complex technique in mere moments.
Crack!
As a brilliant flash of light shot forward like lightning, a colossal cross-shaped sword aura cascaded down from above.
And from both his sides, eighty-one intricate, shifting sword techniques poured forth relentlessly.
Recognizing the sophistication of the Masked Assassin’s swordsmanship, Bu Eunseol applied the principles of the Thirteen Nights technique, unleashing three distinct sword strikes simultaneously with her fingers.
“Hah!”
As countless sword techniques surrounded him from all directions, the Masked Assassin gasped for breath.
With a single hand producing three sword strikes at once, it was as though a tempest of blades had been unleashed.
The sword paths and techniques were impossibly swift and unpredictably varied in their trajectories.
“Haah!”
Realizing he could not possibly defend against this, the Masked Assassin swung his blade with all his might, creating a transparent barrier of sword energy across his entire body.
He had deployed a life-saving ultimate technique capable of preserving his life under any circumstance.
But then something extraordinary occurred.
Shwish!</
As though caught in a vortex that pulled air into nothingness, the cascading sword auras vanished in an instant along with the sound.
Clang.
In that same moment, Bu Eunseol's dark blade was pressed against the Masked Assassin's throat.
The instant her sword techniques disappeared, she had closed the distance and placed her blade at his neck.
"It was all illusion."
The Masked Assassin's voice carried a tone of hollow despair.
In truth, Bu Eunseol had not yet reached the level to subdivide the Thirteen Nights technique with her fingers to such precision.
Thus, while she had unleashed three sword strikes simultaneously, they were merely sword shadows—nothing more.
But the Masked Assassin, unaware of this limitation, had desperately deployed his life-saving technique.
In other words, Bu Eunseol had feigned an overwhelming display of swordsmanship to exploit his weakness, then seized the opening without hesitation to subdue him in one decisive move.
"I do not repeat myself."
Bu Eunseol spoke coldly.
"Deactivate the mechanism."
Any foolish resistance would result in your neck being severed in two.
The Masked Assassin raised both hands and spoke carefully.
"Understood. However, I must move my feet."
Bu Eunseol nodded, and the Masked Assassin cautiously shifted his left foot.
Rumble…
A low vibration resonated throughout the space, and the entire Great Hall began to tremble.
Boom. Boom.
At that same moment, heavy tremors emanated from the pit where Yu Hwa Ryeong and Jong Ri Sa Yu had vanished.
It sounded as though some colossal creature of unknown origin was moving across the ground.
"What in the—"
As Bu Eunseol turned her gaze toward the dark chasm,
Whoosh.
The Masked Assassin's body sank into the floor, only to reappear moments later near the entrance in the distance.
It turned out that the mechanisms installed here could not only collapse the ground beneath one's feet, but could also freely relocate the floor's position.
"Quite the ingenious contraption."
"Hehehehe!"
The Masked Assassin standing before the exit let out a triumphant laugh.
"No matter how formidable your skills, you will never be able to defeat that one."
'That one?'
Click-clack.
Suddenly, the floor beneath Bu Eunseol and dozens of stone tiles around her transformed into a gaping black void.
"What a shame. To miss such an entertaining spectacle."
The Masked Assassin, leaving behind those cryptic words, laughed heartily before vanishing entirely.
Whoosh.
In that instant, I plummeted into the darkness below.
Thud.
But my body halted mid-fall.
I immediately deployed the Floating Step technique to suspend myself in mid-air, then swiftly activated the Wall-Clinging Dragon technique to press myself against the stone wall.
In truth, such traps posed no real obstacle to me.
"Hah."
As I regulated my breathing and was about to unleash the Piercing Ascension technique to burst through the ceiling,
"Ahhh!"
Yu Hwa Ryeong's desperate cry echoed from below once more.
After staring impassively into the darkness below for a moment, I threw myself downward without hesitation.
Saving Yu Hwa Ryeong's life took precedence over capturing the Masked Assassin.
If he died, revenge would be meaningless.
Tap.
Landing lightly on the ground, I raised my brows.
Before me lay countless cave passages branching off in all directions like a spider's web.
Deep beneath the mountain, yet someone had carved out such an elaborate network of caverns below?
'This structure could not have been artificially constructed.'
It seemed the Underground Facility had naturally possessed this configuration, and the Gwan Bu had merely installed their mechanisms upon discovering it.
Shimmer.
Expanding my heightened senses to probe the cavern's interior, I located the source of the cries and deployed my lightness technique in a single fluid motion.
―ROOOOOAR!
As I entered the cavern's depths, a colossal silhouette loomed before my eyes.
It was a creature I had never seen in my entire life.
Standing over eight feet tall, its entire body was encased in golden armor-like scales, and blade-sharp claws jutted from its hands in jagged profusion.
Its two enormous eyes gleamed with an obsidian black that seemed to drink in light.
It resembled some grotesque fusion of a giant bipedal mole and a tortoise.
"Haah… haah…"
Before the creature, Yu Hwa Ryeong and Jong Ri Sa Yu stood bleeding, their breath coming in ragged gasps.
The blade sang as it left its sheath.
Without hesitation, I drew my sword and slashed at the creature's neck.
The blade shrieked against its hide.
Sparks erupted where my divine blade met the creature's throat.
Astonishingly, the creature possessed an outer carapace so impenetrable that it could withstand even the edge of a sacred blade.
"Be careful! Weapons are completely useless against this thing!"
At Yu Hwa Ryeong's cry, my eyes flashed with understanding.
The air hummed with gathering power.
A faint luminescence coalesced around my left fist.
With a deep resonant sound, the very air around me began spiraling inward toward my clenched hand.
"It won't work."
Jong Ri Sa Yu cried out, recognizing that I was attempting to unleash an internal energy technique similar to the Splitting Mountain Strike.
"We've tried many times, but the outer shell is far too thick…"
Her words trailed off.
A deafening roar tore through the air.
From my left hand, which had been gathering that faint glow, erupted a crimson radiance as brilliant as the sun itself.
The Seventh Fist of the Fist Demon, the Heavenly Water Shattering Palm.
The ultimate expression of annihilation fist technique—the power to obliterate all that stands before it.
The creature shrieked in agony.
The Heavenly Water Shattering Palm had struck it directly in the abdomen.
That cry was far more human than bestial, chilling the very marrow of those who heard it.
It convulsed in torment.
The creature began vomiting thick, viscous fluids from its maw.
Having taken a direct hit from the Heavenly Water Shattering Palm—a technique capable of demolishing an entire palace hall—even with its impenetrable exterior, its internal organs must have been completely ruptured.
With a final, sickening thud, it collapsed.
Blood began pouring from the creature's mouth in a steady stream.
"Such overwhelming fist technique."
As I dispatched the creature with a single blow, Yu Hwa Ryeong, still bleeding, exclaimed with a mixture of astonishment and relief.
"We're alive because of you."
His entire body was drenched in blood and covered in severe bruises, though fortunately he had suffered no fatal wounds.
"This creature…"
Upon hearing my low murmur, Jong Ri Sa Yu spoke.
"It appears to be an artificially created spirit beast, fashioned using spirit herbs and humanoid golden rats."
"So they can even modify animals."
"If we utilize human vital essence, it's not entirely impossible."
Yu Hwa Ryeong's mouth fell open.
Though I had always prided myself on broad knowledge, medicine and poison were entirely different disciplines.
Bu Eunseol, listening to their conversation, recalled the humans contained within transparent glass vessels.
'So human vital essence can be used to create not just spirit herbs, but spirit beasts as well.'
"By the way, your fist technique is truly remarkable."
Jong Ri Sa Yu spoke while staring intently at the eyes of the masked Bu Eunseol.
"So you're a fist master rather than a swordsman? Your martial prowess rivals the Gae Bang's Soaring Dragon Palm—it's quite formidable."
She possessed exceptional medical skills and considerable martial ability, but her understanding of fist techniques was not particularly deep.
Therefore, I had deduced that Bu Eunseol's martial prowess was extraordinarily high, yet I had completely failed to perceive that she had reached the threshold of the Extreme Heaven Realm.
Moreover, because of the Nangya Sect's martial techniques—which left no traces or distinctive characteristics—I had never even dreamed she was a master of the Demonic Path.
"Could it be that the sword on your back is merely a deception you carry around…."
Just as she was about to speak to Bu Eunseol again,
Thud, thud. Clang.
From within the dark corridor came the sound of metal striking metal, accompanied by slow, deliberate footsteps.
As those sounds drew progressively closer, a sinister and oppressive aura seemed to pierce through the darkness and spread in all directions.
Thump.
The figure that finally emerged was a grotesque being clad in a gray martial robe stained with dried blood, hair disheveled and wild.
Though the angular face bore eyes of piercing sharpness, the pupils themselves were hollow and vacant, and the gait was unnaturally slow.
At first glance, this was no longer a person in sound condition.
The clanging sound came from a chain attached to a short blade gripped in the grotesque being's hand, dragging across the floor.
"You are…."
Yu Hwa Ryeong's eyes widened as he beheld the creature's face.
The aura emanating from the entire body was unmistakable, and the unique weapon—a chain connected to a blade—was wielded by only one person in all the Murim.
"The Blood Chain Blade. Gu Ju Hun?"

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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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