The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 345

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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 345.
Dahyang Tavern.
It was a tavern nestled in a remote village some distance from Pyeong Do, and it was also Yu Cheong Rim’s regular establishment.
This was because the tavern’s proprietor was a fence who dealt in stolen goods.
When So Ok Rim said she had something to discuss, Yu Cheong Rim brought the two of them to this place.
The inn was not frequented by ordinary patrons, and it was equipped with a secret chamber where information would not leak to the outside world.
“So… this person is a wanderer, you say?”
After listening to So Ok Rim’s explanation for some time, Yu Cheong Rim tilted his head in confusion.
According to her account, the topknotted man’s name was Seol So.
A wanderer of Jeok Cheon Mak Ji, hired by So Ok Rim.
But I had already witnessed Bu Eunseol’s lightness skill firsthand.
I suspected that Bu Eunseol was merely disguised as a wanderer—that her true identity lay elsewhere.
“That’s not important. Let me get to the main point…”
So Ok Rim proposed a plan to capture the Black-White Witch.
Specifically, she suggested that Yu Cheong Rim become a fresh bait to replace Seol So.
Or rather, it was phrased as a proposal, but it was essentially a declaration.
“…I cannot do this.”
After hearing everything, Yu Cheong Rim bowed his head as though to bury his face in the table.
“Please just kill me instead!”
When So Ok Rim’s expression did not change, he clasped his hands together toward Bu Eunseol.
“Master Seol. No, Master Seol! Please, I beg you, spare me. I do not wish to die yet!”
Then So Ok Rim spoke in a gentle voice.
“Why would you die? We are right here with you.”
“But still, how can you ask me to become bait to capture the Black-White Witch?”
Yu Cheong Rim spoke with a tearful expression.
“If something goes wrong, won’t I die with my blood drained?”
“Hey, who said bait? I just meant we’d set a trap.”
“Didn’t you just say bait a moment ago?”
Yu Cheong Rim trembled and spoke.
“Besides, no matter how formidable your martial prowess is, you absolutely cannot defeat that witch.”
“What are you talking about? Have you seen her?”
“I have.”
Yu Cheong Rim nodded, his eyes filled with terror.
“I have seen that witch before.”
“When? How?”
As if recalling memories from the past, Yu Cheong Rim trembled and spoke.
“It was when I snuck into the Ak Family Manor to steal and was making my escape from the village. I was about to rest briefly at the Guan Di Temple when I felt a strange presence. I turned around to look, and there was a shadow clad in black clothing with hair dyed white, staring at me.”
With a terrified expression, his eyes wide open, he continued.
“Her face was not clear but remained blurred and constantly shifting. And the moment our eyes met, I felt dizzy, and my body became paralyzed.”
Yu Cheong Rim swallowed hard and continued speaking.
“At that very moment, my vision began to darken, and my mind filled with nothing but fear and despair. Then suddenly, my entire body turned cold.”
He continued his account.
“When I opened my eyes again, a woman with long fangs was tearing at my throat and drinking my blood.”
Yu Cheong Rim opened his collar to reveal the wound on his neck.
“This is the mark left behind by the Black-White Witch.”
“Hmm, it’s hard to say this is a bite mark from teeth.”
“I don’t know either, but after that incident, this scar remained on my neck.”
“But how did you survive?”
So Ok Rim tilted his head in confusion.
“You survived blood-draining from the Black-White Witch? That’s strange, isn’t it?”
“Among the pursuers sent by the Ak Family Manor, there was one who was quite exceptional. He tracked the traces of my concealment technique and eventually discovered the Black-White Witch while she was draining my blood.”
Yu Cheong Rim lowered his head as he spoke.
“The Black-White Witch exposed her face while draining blood. When the pursuer saw her face, he became furious.”
Yu Cheong Rim spoke with his eyes tightly shut.
“With a movement swift as lightning, she thrust her hand into the pursuer’s abdomen. She pulled out his organs and his head….”
“Ah, that’s enough. Skip that part and continue.”
“I seized that opportunity to deploy my concealment technique in one swift motion. I endured underground for three days so the Black-White Witch couldn’t find me. Then I emerged and lived in seclusion for a long time afterward.”
The terror of that time seemed to resurface as Yu Cheong Rim’s pupils darkened.
He had survived by the narrowest of margins from the hands of the Black-White Witch.
“Hmm.”
So Ok Rim folded his arms.
It was not out of empathy for Yu Cheong Rim’s suffering.
From listening to the account, he sensed that the Black-White Witch’s martial techniques were quite different from Hyeol Hwang’s martial arts.
“Setting aside the matter of being unable to move, she actually tore at the throat and drank blood? Something seems off.”
So Ok Rim tilted his head in puzzlement.
“If she were a descendant of Hyeol Hwang, she could drain blood without using her hands. Why would she tear at the throat?”
“It’s possible it wasn’t that way.”
At Bu Eunseol’s words, So Ok Rim shook his head.
“I don’t know. This fellow is so fearful that he might have seen things that weren’t there.”
He pointed to the wound on Yu Cheong Rim’s neck.
“No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t seem to be a mark made by human teeth.”
“In any case, I won’t do it.”
When Yu Cheong Rim spoke firmly, So Ok Rim chuckled and said.
“That’s your choice. But do you know something?”
“What is it?”
“The Black-White Witch will surely pursue and kill anyone who witnesses her face.”
“Of course. That’s why since that day, I’ve always concealed my true appearance and used disguises.”
So Ok Rim then clapped his hands and spoke.
“You’ll do that for the rest of your life?”
“Pardon?”
“Are you going to live your entire life in such anxiety? Disguising yourself, changing your face every single day?”
When Yu Cheong Rim fell silent, So Ok Rim spoke with disarming gentleness.
“Why don’t we simply eliminate her? Then you can live in peace, and wouldn’t that be better for you? Wouldn’t it?”
“How could we possibly eliminate the Black-White Witch?”
“I am the Goddess of Eun Ha. A madwoman like her? I could dispose of her in a single breath.”
Yu Cheong Rim hesitated for a moment.
The thought crossed his mind—could So Ok Rim’s martial prowess truly eliminate her?
But as he recalled that suffocating darkness he had felt in the Black-White Witch’s presence, Yu Cheong Rim shook his head.
“I cannot do this. Please find someone else.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“I will not.”
When Yu Cheong Rim spoke with such firmness, So Ok Rim’s gentle smile vanished entirely.
“Fine then. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Thank you for under—”
“I’ll have to spread word throughout the region. That the Thousand-Faced Divine Thief who saw the Black-White Witch’s face is alive and well in Shandong.”
“What do you mean—”
Yu Cheong Rim’s eyes widened in shock as So Ok Rim bared her pointed teeth in a smile.
“With just such rumors spreading, wouldn’t the Black-White Witch come hunting for you? We simply wait for that moment and capture her then.”
Trembling.
Yu Cheong Rim’s body shook at So Ok Rim’s vicious coercion.
‘This demonic woman!’
If the Black-White Witch was a sorceress who drained men’s blood every night…
Then So Ok Rim was a sorceress who drained people’s lifeblood in broad daylight.
If he refused her proposal?
So Ok Rim would truly spread such rumors and linger about his surroundings, waiting for the Black-White Witch to appear.
That too would be an act of draining someone to death.
“I… I will do it.”
“Hmm? No, it’s fine—”
“No. I will do it.”
Yu Cheong Rim composed his expression and clasped his hands together solemnly.
“If we capture that witch as soon as possible, wouldn’t Gangho become stable and people be able to sleep in peace?”
“Then… perhaps that’s true?”
So Ok Rim nodded with a satisfied expression.
Thus she had obtained a fresh, appetizing new bait.
* * *
―The Black-White Witch has appeared again!
Rumors spread that the Black-White Witch, who had vanished without a trace, had resurfaced in Pyeong Do.
She had allegedly attacked martial artists passing near Cheongwoo Mountain in Pyeong Do and drained their blood.
After that, near Jaha Mountain and Pungak Mountain as well.
She roamed the vicinity of renowned peaks throughout Pyeong Do, continuously attacking martial artists and draining their blood.
―The Black-White Witch has lost her mind!
Enraged martial artists united their forces and conducted a thorough investigation throughout Pyeong Do.
Yet the Black-White Witch refused to show herself, as if she had never existed at all.
But the moment the investigations quieted, she would strike again with ghostly precision, draining blood and toying with those who pursued her.
Pyeong Do, within an abandoned temple nestled in Pungak Mountain.
A campfire burned there, and six wanderers had gathered together.
Armed with weapons, their eyes gleamed with intensity as they constantly peered outside.
They were mercenaries who had accepted the contract to eliminate the Black-White Witch.
“She doesn’t seem to be here.”
A middle-aged man with a spear strapped to his back spoke matter-of-factly among the gathered wanderers.
“We’ve been roaming this area for five days now, and there’s not a trace of her.”
“That’s the truth.”
Then a man with a short bow slung across his back, chewing on grass, chuckled dryly.
“She probably moved to another region because she caused too much trouble here.”
The man spat out the grass he’d been chewing and tapped his coin purse as he spoke.
“Well, we’ve already pocketed a hefty sum under the guise of investigation fees, so it doesn’t matter much.”
As they were chatting amongst themselves,
A shadow swept past.
A black silhouette suddenly appeared before the abandoned temple.
The figure in black clothes with disheveled hair bleached white gazed down at the wanderers with bloodshot eyes.
“The Black-White Witch!”
The wanderers gasped in shock and assumed combat stances. But those who had already locked eyes with the Black-White Witch
“Ugh…”
suddenly let out strangled sounds and their bodies froze in place.
They could not move at all, as if their vital points had been sealed.
“Hrrr…”
The Black-White Witch emitted a low growl and approached them with her sharp fangs bared.
A soft sound.
Yet before she could drain their blood, their bodies suddenly softened and they began to collapse to the ground.
It was as if they had turned to jelly.
“Ugh…”
As they fell, the Black-White Witch parted her disheveled hair to the sides.
Then the face of a pale man with heavy eye makeup was revealed. It was Yu Cheong Rim.
“Doing things that fate never intended.”
Yu Cheong Rim wore a melancholic expression as he gazed at the black metal object hidden in his sleeve.
It was a device called the Hundred-Step Soul Chaser, manufactured by the Dang Family, equipped with a dart launcher that could fire invisible, concealed poisoned needles.
He had mixed a poison made from hallucinogenic powder and numbing powder on the darts to render the wanderers unconscious while feigning to drink their blood.
“At least I’ve created the evidence.”
Yu Cheong Rim retrieved a pair of pointed false fangs from his pocket and made marks on the wanderers’ necks.
Then he took out a bottle filled with chicken blood and sprinkled it over their bodies.
Even this much would make them believe their blood had been drained, yet they would survive because it wasn’t fatal.
“Let us stop here for today!”
Yu Cheong Rim shouted toward the distant sky.
“Dawn will break soon, after all!”
He was terrorizing Pyeong Do while disguised as the Black-White Witch, coerced by So Ok Rim.
A witch so obsessive and vicious that anyone who glimpsed her face would be hunted down and slain without mercy.
Surely such a being would never tolerate someone impersonating her.
“….”
Yet no matter how long he waited, there came no response.
She had likely gone to scout the surrounding area once more after witnessing him subdue these men.
“Sigh. Better dead than suffering.”
The moment he set down the blood-drained wanderers in a corner of the Abandoned Temple and exhaled deeply,
“….”
something felt profoundly wrong.
It was as though something incomprehensible stirred behind him.
As Yu Cheong Rim, sensing an ominous presence, slowly turned his body… he saw a shadow with long hair bleached white, its head bowed.
‘She’s arrived!’
It was the real Black-White Witch.
“She has appeared!”
Yu Cheong Rim cried out loudly.
“The Black-White Witch has emerged!”
Yet his voice merely echoed into the night sky. There was no response whatsoever.
“Lady So! Master Seol!”
Bu Eunseol and So Ok Rim had truly vanished—nowhere to be found.
‘These insane bastards! They said they’d protect me!’
Yu Cheong Rim’s eyes widened, his eye corners trembling violently.
He had been able to attempt this mad scheme only because he trusted Bu Eunseol and So Ok Rim.
Yet now that the Black-White Witch had appeared, they had vanished without a trace?
“Help me!”
Unable to suppress the terror erupting within him, Yu Cheong Rim deployed the Earth-Tunneling Technique without looking back.
If the Black-White Witch revealed her eyes, his body would be paralyzed in that instant, rendering him immobile.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
Burrowing frantically through the earth, Yu Cheong Rim burst free from the vicinity of the Abandoned Temple in a single breath.
“….”
Yet even after escaping dozens of zhang away, he sensed a faint shadow pursuing him directly across the ground’s surface.
The Black-White Witch was following the very trajectory of his burrowing path.
‘I cannot shake her this way!’
Boom!
Yu Cheong Rim burst upward onto the surface and began deploying a divine technique as swift as lightning.
His epithet of “Thousand-Face Divine Escape” had been earned through his renown for wondrous reversal techniques.
However, his lightness skill was also unparalleled in Murim. Until now, his Great Hall Extreme Island Shadow had never once allowed pursuers to close in.
Of course, Bu Eunseol and So Ok Rim were exceptions.
‘Damn it!’
But today it seemed I would have to add one more exception to that list.
The Black-White Witch’s nose was practically touching my back as I sprinted forward at full speed.
‘Just a little further!’
I could see lights flickering in the distance.
Once I entered Seong Do, martial masters would be gathered in crowds.
Moreover, I could deploy the Thousand Transformations technique to instantly change my appearance and clothing, shaking off the pursuit.
‘Please! Please!’
Yu Cheong Rim ran as if his feet were on fire.
If I could just enter the crowded Seong Do, I could definitely escape the Black-White Witch’s pursuit.
Whoosh!
But that hope turned to bubbles.
A sharp cutting sound pierced the air, and my neck was suddenly ensnared by white hair.
“Gasp!”
Feeling my neck about to break, Yu Cheong Rim quickly drew his short blade and slashed at the hair.
But the white hair—whatever it was made of—remained unmarked even when struck by the Moon Gap, a superior-grade blade.
“Uuugh.”
The Black-White Witch, who had subdued Yu Cheong Rim by extending her long hair, slowly approached with her head bowed.
Then the long hair parted, revealing her hazy face.
‘As expected, again.’
What appeared between the parted strands of hair was a blurry face that changed hundreds, thousands of times.
And the moment I saw it, the entire world turned black, and my body became paralyzed.
‘So this is how I die.’
As despair flooded through me, my entire body became heavy as water-soaked cotton.
My breathing grew slower, and even my will to live began to fade away.
Yu Cheong Rim unknowingly closed his eyes slowly.
Whoosh!
But with a sharp cutting sound, the darkening world began to regain its light.
Opening my eyes again, a gray-haired man with his hair tied up was standing tall, holding a black sword.
It was Bu Eunseol.
Swish.
However, the hair that had been severed by the dark blade and fallen to the ground moved like a living creature, returning toward the Black-White Witch before being absorbed into her body.
‘Sorcery?’
Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed with intensity.
There was no way severed hair could be absorbed into the body rather than the hair itself.
“Master Seol! Where on earth have you been?”
Yu Cheong Rim, regaining his senses, approached Bu Eunseol and spoke with tears in his voice.
“I nearly died just now.”
Bu Eunseol let out a deep sigh.
“There is not just one.”
“Pardon?”
As Yu Cheong Rim blinked in confusion, Bu Eunseol spoke with firm conviction.
“The Black-White Witch is not a single person.”

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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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