The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 304

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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 304.
The Needle Sovereign’s Primordial Golden Needle was known only by name throughout the martial world.
Its appearance, size, and shape remained shrouded in mystery.
Yet now I could see that needles existed which were not only as fine as a strand of hair, but shorter than a finger’s width.
‘So there are multiple varieties.’
Bu Eunseol smiled bitterly.
The Primordial Golden Needle that Jong Ri Sa Hyeon now held was even thinner and shorter than the Feather Needle, which was said to be the smallest among all concealed needles.
I had never imagined that such a needle could be hidden in one’s palm and used to tap someone’s shoulder.
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
When Bu Eunseol feigned ignorance, Jong Ri Sa Hyeon spoke in a low voice.
“This Primordial Fine Rain Needle is so thin and delicate that it can be inserted into the pores of skin, and it responds to the true energy flowing through the body.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s eyes narrowed as he gazed at Bu Eunseol.
“And it won’t pierce the skin of a master whose inner strength exceeds this level.”
True to his title as the Needle Sovereign, Jong Ri Sa Hyeon had sensed Bu Eunseol’s formidable inner strength with merely a single needle.
This was a situation no one could have predicted, yet Bu Eunseol remained composed.
“What is your true identity?”
If you were a master exceeding this level at such a young age, your reputation and appearance would surely be widely known.
It was inconceivable that you would bear a face and name I had never heard nor seen before.
“I apologize, Elder.”
Bu Eunseol bowed respectfully with both hands clasped, her expression troubled.
“I humbly ask your forgiveness that I cannot reveal my sect due to my master’s orders.”
“Is that so? Well, such things do happen.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon nodded regretfully as he spoke.
“However, the Main House has an iron rule: we do not admit those whose background and identity are uncertain. You must leave.”
“Grandfather.”
Unable to bear it, Jong Ri Sa Yu stepped forward, and he spoke with a stern gaze.
“You. Are you now trying to change even the Main House’s policies?”
“I understand. However, I have one question for you, Elder.”
“What is it?”
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath and spoke.
“I have heard that you faced Chil Ji Ma Do Bu Janyeong in Hwangju forty years ago.”
“And?”
Bu Eunseol spoke with utmost gravity.
“I wish to hear the details of what happened then.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s expression showed incomprehension.
Why would this young person ask about the great demon of the Demonic Path who had vanished long ago?
“You’re curious about what happened between me and Chil Ji Ma Do forty years ago? Why?”
Bu Eunseol, after a moment’s hesitation, wore an expression of pain.
“I am searching for traces of his whereabouts.”
“Hmm.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon let out a sigh.
The number of masters who had fallen to Chil Ji Ma Do Bu Chanyang in the past was beyond counting.
‘Perhaps her parents or teacher were slain by his hand.’
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon assumed that Bu Eunseol’s blood relatives or mentor had been killed by the Chil Ji Ma Do, and he shook his head.
“That matter is my personal affair. I have no intention of disclosing it to outsiders.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon exhaled a weary breath and waved his hand dismissively.
“Now, take your leave.”
“Elder.”
Bu Eunseol clasped her hands respectfully and spoke with unwavering confidence.
“Would it not be fitting for you to make a wager with me?”
“A wager?”
“I have heard that you possess such transcendent inner power that you can deploy the Striking Palm Technique with merely a single breath.”
Bu Eunseol fixed Jong Ri Sa Hyeon with eyes brimming with confidence.
“If you can push me back even a single step through inner power alone, I shall depart quietly.”
And she spoke again with resolute force.
“But if you cannot push me back, then you shall tell me that story instead. What say you?”
“Have I grown so old that I hear delusions?”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon nearly burst into laughter at the absurdity.
“Young one. Learn to distinguish between audacity and recklessness.”
The Breath King was known to possess the deepest inner power among the Four Gods Seven Kings, and his martial prowess was equally formidable.
Yet now a young man who had barely passed his twenties was demanding a contest of inner power?
It was nothing short of suicide.
“Bu Eunseol.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Jong Ri Sa Yu also approached Bu Eunseol and shook her head.
“Grandfather is not a man who forgives such provocation.”
The Breath King, Jong Ri Sa Hyeon.
He was a man who despised young upstarts with unbridled ambition.
From the moment it became known that the Primordial Golden Needle could open the Conception Vessel, tens of thousands of young people had come seeking him out—some groveling, others brimming with audacity.
Among them were those like Bu Eunseol who had provoked him and wagered against him.
And Jong Ri Sa Hyeon had never once let such people leave unscathed.
“There was one in the past who employed the same tactic as you.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon regarded Bu Eunseol with a contemptuous expression.
“He demanded a contest of inner power from me and deliberately sustained fatal internal injuries.”
“….”
“All based on the shallow calculation that I would employ the Primordial Golden Needle to heal him once his injuries became irreversible.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon spoke with solemn gravity.
“But I refused to treat him. Do you know why? Because deploying the Primordial Golden Needle consumes inner power equivalent to ten years of cultivation. Do you understand what I am saying?”
“Even if I were to die, such a thing would never occur.”
Bu Eunseol spoke with crystalline clarity.
“Rather, I ask that you tell me of what happened then.”
“There’s no helping it.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon sighed upon realizing Bu Eunseol’s resolve was unshakeable.
“Don’t blame this old man’s hands for being heartless.”
He immediately drew upon his inner power and pushed Bu Eunseol back.
The force behind it was roughly one hundred and fifty years’ worth of cultivation.
Even if Bu Eunseol possessed power beyond this level, it was enough to send her flying in an instant.
‘What?’
Yet Bu Eunseol stood firm as if rooted to the earth, not even drawing upon her inner power.
‘Her inner power exceeds this level.’
To have reached such cultivation at an age not yet in her twenties.
This proved she was an exceptional disciple produced by a major faction or great house of the Righteous Path.
‘Which sect could have produced such a disciple?’
“Indeed, you have every right to be confident.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon, who had been observing Bu Eunseol with narrowed eyes, spoke with grave admiration.
“But you’ll regret it soon enough.”
Despite his cold tone, he slowly and methodically doubled his inner power.
Had he unleashed his formidable power suddenly and violently, Bu Eunseol’s meridians might have ruptured or suffered irreversible internal injuries.
‘The Guusal Unit’s intelligence was accurate.’
The Sorrow King was known to possess a stern temperament and a ruthless hand.
Yet according to the Guusal Unit’s information, contrary to his reputation, he was actually a magnanimous and compassionate man.
―He only appears stern on the surface, but in truth, he’s quite considerate.
Jong Ri Sa Yu’s words suddenly came to mind.
If Jong Ri Sa Hyeon were truly a heartless man? She would have desperately tried to stop this fight.
She could not bear to watch the meridians of a man she harbored feelings for burst before her eyes.
But knowing that Jong Ri Sa Hyeon would not resort to cruelty, she remained silent and watched.
‘Perhaps those of the Four Gods Seven Kings are different.’
Until now, every righteous faction member Bu Eunseol had encountered was arrogant and selfish.
But those belonging to the Four Gods Seven Kings of the righteous faction.
Tan Wang and Beok Goong Ryung whom she saw at the Martial Emperor’s Secret Archive, and Yuk Jang Cheon of the Murim Alliance, and even the Sorrow King before her eyes…
Their character was far better than their reputation suggested.
‘He must have genuinely devoted himself to the Primordial Golden Needle Technique.’
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon was likely suppressing his inherently benevolent and compassionate nature beneath a forced facade of sternness.
He surely could not stand idly by watching someone dying or gravely wounded.
As Bu Eunseol fell into contemplation, Jong Ri Sa Hyeon was internally shocked.
‘I thought she possessed power only slightly exceeding this level at best.’
Yet the inner force he was now unleashing had surpassed three levels.
And still, Bu Eunseol did not budge an inch?
‘Could this woman’s inner power actually exceed three levels?’
Three levels of inner power approached the ceiling of what late-stage masters could achieve.
Yet Bu Eunseol wore a composed expression as if utterly untroubled?
Whoosh!
Suddenly, wind erupted from Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s body.
At the same time, pure white inner energy flowed from him, enveloping Bu Eunseol’s form.
At last, he was pouring forth his full power, unleashing his inner cultivation without restraint.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
The inner energy unleashed by the two masters created a tempest of vital force in the Flower Garden, the earth itself buckling and heaving.
Had Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s residence not been situated deep within the Manor, the people inside would have thought an earthquake had struck and descended into chaos.
‘This cannot be.’
Jong Ri Sa Yu, driven back to the edge of the Wol Dong Gate by the storm of vital force, gasped aloud.
‘White Xiaoxie’s inner cultivation rivals Grandfather’s?’
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon had spent his entire life as a physician, studying countless miraculous elixirs and their absorption methods.
His inner power was known to rank among the highest of the Four Gods Seven Kings.
Yet here was a youth barely past his prime, boldly matching him in a contest of inner cultivation?
‘Could it be…?’
A rumor circulating through Murim surfaced in Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s mind.
A prodigy of the Demonic Path who had ascended to the Four Gods Seven Kings at such a tender age.
One possessed of profound wisdom and ruthless methods alike, leaving none alive who dared obstruct his path—
Such were the whispers about the next generation of Demonic Beings.
Though he was a Grand Master of the Orthodox Sects, Jong Ri Sa Hyeon harbored no great hatred or prejudice toward the Demonic Path.
Yet he had no desire to cultivate relations with the heir of Demon Hall.
‘But this power… it is not of the Demonic Path.’
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s gaze shifted.
The inner cultivation methods of the Demonic Path grow sharper, blade-like in nature, the more powerfully they are wielded.
Yet Bu Eunseol’s inner energy grew softer and more viscous, did it not?
‘I must discern the truth.’
With his hands clasped behind his back, Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s fingers traced the empty air several times, and formless energy touched Bu Eunseol’s meridian points.
True to his epithet of Needle King, he was solidifying his inner power into threads fine as needles, attempting to divine the source of Bu Eunseol’s cultivation through pulse diagnosis.
‘The Muscle Tendon Changing Classic?’
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s eyes widened as he covertly perceived the flow of Bu Eunseol’s vital energy.
Pure yet viscous vital force was dispersed and stored not merely in the dantian, but throughout the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.
Was this not the profound mystery revealed only by Shaolin’s Muscle Tendon Changing Classic, called the supreme divine technique of the Orthodox Sects?
‘So that was it.’
Shaolin’s secret arts were never to be divulged—impossible for outsiders to master.
With this single technique alone, Bu Eunseol had revealed her identity as surely as if she had announced it.
A smile played at the corners of Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s mouth.
‘A disciple of Shaolin, then.’
The Muscle Tendon Changing Classic could not be mastered by just anyone; it was transmitted only to those with the Abbot’s permission and a genuine necessity to learn it.
In other words, no matter how exceptional a disciple’s talent, without karmic connection to the technique, they could not receive its transmission.
‘And yet…’
The Needle King, a master of Gangho, remained exceedingly cautious.
I sensed that the sword hanging behind Bu Eunseol’s back was a superior divine blade, and that an unmistakable aura of the Demonic Path flowed from her body.
‘There is no sword technique in Shaolin’s martial arts.’
Shaolin’s martial disciplines contained no techniques employing bladed weapons.
There existed a temple art called the Dharma Triple Sword, but it was merely a sword technique in name alone.
In reality, it was merely a technique closer to short staff methodology.
Of course, lay disciples were free to carry weapons, but the true essence of Shaolin’s martial arts was ultimately the boxing and palm techniques executed with bare hands.
In the end, one could only use their two hands as weapons.
‘Come to think of it, doesn’t the Demonic Path possess a profound cultivation method similar to the Reverse Muscle Scripture?’
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon recalled Hyul Geum Gang, the fallen monk of Cheon Ryong Temple whom he had faced long ago.
Not only was his inner power formidable, but he wielded a cultivation method so superior and majestic that one might mistake it for Shaolin’s Reverse Muscle Scripture.
A deep rumble echoed.
After a prolonged confrontation, Jong Ri Sa Hyeon withdrew his inner power in one breath and spoke calmly.
“Let us call this match a draw.”
Bu Eunseol shook her head.
“Then you admit to losing the wager?”
“I cannot admit to that.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon spoke without emotion.
“That was your unilateral wager, was it not?”
“But…”
“That is why I said it was a draw.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon narrowed his eyes and spoke.
“If you wish to hear the tale, then make one more wager with me.”
Bu Eunseol pondered something deeply for a moment, then nodded.
“Very well. Speak your terms.”
“Defeat three of the Main House’s disciples in combat.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon smiled faintly.
“If you succeed, I promise to recount that day’s events in detail.”
The origins of inner power could be obscured.
But martial techniques themselves bore clear distinctions between the Orthodox Sects and the Demonic Path.
Because the paths they pursued were fundamentally different, a master of Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s caliber could not be deceived.
“Very well.”
Bu Eunseol nodded readily, and Jong Ri Sa Hyeon extended his hand.
“Then let us waste no time and begin at once.”
* * *
The Manor possessed no dedicated Martial Arts Arena.
This was because Tan Wang’s disciples did not set aside separate time for sparring or practice.
Instead, they honed their composure and acuity by treating patients day after day.
Moreover, by administering advanced acupuncture to patients, they refined Tan Wang’s secret techniques.
Lacking any suitable place for martial contests, Jong Ri Sa Hyeon led Bu Eunseol to the front courtyard of the Manor, where blue stone tiles were laid.
There stood seven men with eyes that gleamed with fierce intensity.
They were disciples taught directly by the Needle King, and their inner strength and acupuncture techniques were formidable.
Even though Jong Ri Sa Hyeon had been informed of all the circumstances, his confident expression suggested he possessed considerable faith in his martial prowess.
“Let the youngest step forward first.”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon pointed to Im Gun Byeong, his youngest disciple.
Im Gun Byeong possessed swift movements and exceptional adaptability.
He would be the ideal opponent to probe Bu Eunseol’s martial abilities.
“Master.”
At that moment, Bu Eunseol spoke calmly.
“There is no need to waste time—I shall face all three simultaneously.”
In that instant, the faces of all seven disciples, including Im Gun Byeong, darkened with hostility.
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon nodded slowly.
“Your confidence is remarkable.”
Then he addressed his disciples.
“Gong Woon Gyeok and Ma Cheon Woong—you two join as well.”
Thereupon, the largest and oldest-looking man and a lean, hollow-eyed man stepped forward.
They were Gong Woon Gyeok, the first disciple, and Ma Cheon Woong, the third disciple.
They had both mastered the Needle King’s absolute techniques—the Golden Thread Flowing Circle—up to the eighth stage, and their inner strength approached the threshold of three decades of cultivation.
‘If demonic martial arts emerge, or if she draws a blade… this match would be unnecessary.’
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon intended to use this martial contest to determine whether Bu Eunseol was a member of the Demonic Path.
“Begin.”
“Very well.”
Bu Eunseol did not hesitate and extended her fist.
It was the Piercing Mountain Single Fist—a technique resembling the Hundred Step Divine Fist that Shaolin disciples performed as a formal salute.
Boom!
As the tremendous fist force erupted, the three disciples standing in a triangular formation scattered in all directions, simultaneously launching twenty golden needles.
The Golden Thread Flowing Circle is a technique of launching minute golden needles at different angles and intervals.
What makes this technique fearsome is that it channels tremendous power into needles so small that they cannot properly conduct inner force,
and moreover, every point where the needles rain down targets vital acupoints of the human body—a single strike can render one completely incapacitated.
‘Even a Shaolin master would find it difficult to defend against the Golden Thread Flowing Circle unleashed by three masters.’
Just as a smile was about to form on Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s lips as he observed this display,
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Suddenly, dozens of palm shadows materialized in the void, systematically neutralizing each falling golden needle.
“That is…”
Jong Ri Sa Hyeon’s eyes widened as he observed the palm technique Bu Eunseol was executing.
“The Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara Palm?”
Among Shaolin’s Seventy-Two Absolute Techniques, the supreme secret art with the most complex hand forms and the most severe inner force consumption.
The very essence of Shaolin’s palm techniques—movements as unpredictable as dozens of butterflies taking flight simultaneously—was unfolding brilliantly across Bu Eunseol’s hands.

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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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