The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 382

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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 382.
“Oh.”
Upon spotting Bu Eunseol, Sim Wol and Jin Seol let out brief exclamations of surprise.
“Spirit Lord.”
The two rose and clasped their hands in salute, and Bu Eunseol returned the gesture.
“What a coincidence.”
“Indeed.”
Jin Seol clasped her hands with composure.
“We were just about to leave. I hope you have a pleasant time.”
Yet contrary to her words, freshly prepared dishes still steamed with heat upon the table where she sat.
It appeared that Jin Seol intended to move to another location, likely to spare Bu Eunseol discomfort.
In that instant, anger flared in Sim Wol’s eyes.
‘Does her heart waver so? Has she now taken to avoiding even meeting with me?’
Moreover, to relocate without so much as a word of consultation? Was this not an affront to his dignity?
“There is no need. We shall take our leave instead.”
Then Won Se Moon, standing behind them, spoke with a disappointed expression.
“Spirit Lord. We came all this way… Mmph!”
At that moment, Jo Nam Cheon and Wi Cheon Gyeong approached Won Se Moon, covered his mouth, and dragged him outside.
“Then please, enjoy your time.”
As Bu Eunseol clasped her hands, Sim Wol smiled and spoke.
“Spirit Lord. It is rare for us to meet like this—won’t you join us for a drink?”
He drew closer, his expression warm and affable.
“Are we not, after all, of the same household?”
Then he turned to Jin Seol.
“Once you are married, you will have to set aside matters of the Demon Hall. Would it not be wise to bid farewell to those around you without regret in the time remaining?”
In that instant, Jin Seol’s brow furrowed sharply.
She had no intention of leaving the Demon Hall simply because she was to marry Sim Wol.
Yet he dared speak such words to Bu Eunseol without consulting her?
‘He is reproaching me for rising from my seat without permission.’
Jin Seol, having discerned the reason for Sim Wol’s displeasure, fell silent.
“Just one drink before you go, Spirit Lord.”
When Sim Wol urged her again, Bu Eunseol turned to Yu Woon Ryong.
“Go ahead to another pavilion. I will join you shortly.”
“Y-yes.”
Yu Woon Ryong nodded and led the Lords back outside the Jinwhanhru.
“Then.”
As Bu Eunseol took her seat and lifted a cup, Sim Wol poured with both hands.
“Sitting across from you like this, I am reminded of when the Spirit Lord first came to the Demon Hall.”
The clear liquor flowed smoothly into the cup.
As the cup filled, Sim Wol closed his eyes and spoke.
“Although Lord Muhonjung has risen in status, you haven’t forgotten what happened back then, have you?”
“Of course not.”
“It seems the drink has gotten to you.”
Sensing the arrogance in Sim Wol’s tone, Jin Seol gave him a warning look.
But he paid it no mind and continued speaking.
“Did you forget? When you were among the Ten Demon Immortals, you entered the pavilion under my guidance.”
Jin Seol forced a smile and nodded her head.
“I’m aware of that.”
‘He’s always been so gentle and considerate, yet now he cannot control his emotions.’
She found it difficult to suppress the bittersweet feeling rising within her.
‘Does he not trust me? Why does he feel the need to assert himself before Muhonjung?’
Though Jin Seol had once held Bu Eunseol dear to her heart, that was in the past.
When she encountered Bu Eunseol before the Sole Brightness Pavilion, she had once again brushed away her feelings and put her emotions in order.
Yet here was Sim Wol, consumed by jealousy, doing precisely what he should not.
“That’s true enough.”
At that moment, Bu Eunseol raised her cup and spoke to Sim Wol.
“Back then, I was nothing more than a provincial girl who didn’t understand the pavilion’s circumstances. Had you not helped me, I would have faced considerable hardship.”
Gulp.
Bu Eunseol and Sim Wol looked at each other and drank deeply from their cups with both hands.
Given his position as the successor to the Demon Hall, it was an extraordinarily respectful gesture. He was honoring Sim Wol’s dignity greatly in front of Jin Seol.
“Then I shall take my leave.”
As Bu Eunseol rose from her seat, Jin Seol stood as well and bowed her head.
But then Sim Wol spoke again, saying something out of place.
“Lord Muhonjung, wouldn’t it be better to stay a while longer?”
And he smiled while looking at Jin Seol.
“Once you’re married, we won’t see each other often.”
This behavior of Sim Wol’s had crossed the line entirely.
In that instant, a flash of light blazed in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
Under normal circumstances, she would never have tolerated such rudeness.
But Bu Eunseol held her tongue. Because Jin Seol was present.
Before the woman one loves, every man wishes to appear strong—such is the true nature of a man’s heart.
Bu Eunseol did not wish to diminish Sim Wol’s dignity in the slightest.
“There will be another good opportunity next time.”
And she turned away calmly.
“Then.”
As Bu Eunseol departed, silence fell over the room.
Jin Seol hung her head in shame, while Sim Wol only then came to his senses.
‘I don’t understand why I acted that way. Could it be because of that inner elixir?’
Biting his lip, he recalled the face of the one he had met months ago—the one who had given him an inner elixir that had completely transformed his life.
He was a figure at the apex of the Demon Hall, one who could not be thought to be in league with outside forces.
And in an unexpected place, he made an unexpected proposal to Sim Wol.
―This inner elixir dissolves at different rates depending on one’s aptitude. With your constitution, you will soon gain abilities beyond imagination.
Sim Wol, who had been gazing at the inner elixir, could not hide his astonishment.
There were two reasons for this.
First, the man who had earned the trust of all the upper echelons of the Demon Hall for so long was colluding with an external force.
And he had come to realize that the claim about gaining tremendous power simply by consuming this crimson inner elixir was true.
After all, his martial prowess had increased several times over compared to before.
‘Simply by consuming it, my power increases, and if I fully integrate it, I gain extraordinary abilities?’
Sim Wol found this dreamlike tale difficult to believe.
However, consuming something like an inner elixir only benefited the body with no detriment, so he accepted it without hesitation.
And the moment he consumed it, he felt his power surge immediately.
Moreover, as he cultivated his martial arts, did not the elixir’s essence merge with his own true qi?
‘If this continues, my martial prowess will grow without limit.’
Sim Wol fell into ecstasy.
Such a miraculous object existed in this world?
With this alone, he could transcend the seemingly impenetrable wall of the highest realm in one bound.
―However, this inner elixir may have side effects, so exercise caution.
Not long after, Sim Wol came to understand what side effects he had warned of.
Into his once-tranquil spirit suddenly flooded an uncontrollable rage and murderous intent.
‘So this was it.’
Originally, Sim Wol was a man of clear mind and strong patience.
But as the power flowing from the inner elixir merged with his own true qi and continued to amplify his strength,
his murderous intent grew equally with each increase in power.
Eventually, when an overwhelming killing intent that he could not control began to overflow, he found it impossible to maintain a peaceful daily life.
‘There is no choice.’
Unable to suppress the overflowing power and murderous intent, Sim Wol made one decision.
‘I must go outside and kill some Murim practitioners.’
The Demon Hall is not a place where everything visible is all there is.
If he could not control his murderous intent, the masters capable of detecting it would swarm the place.
And if he were to come under investigation? The consumption of the artificial inner elixir would be exposed, and he would be imprisoned in the Underground Prison alongside the person who had colluded with external forces.
‘Since my power has increased anyway, it should be fine.’
When one obtains a sharp blade, one wishes to wield it; when one learns new martial arts, one wishes to test them. Such is human nature.
Sim Wol ultimately created another identity to suppress the overflowing power and murderous intent.
Mu Young Sal Gwi.
The true identity of the serial killer who had thrown the Ho Gwang region into terror was none other than Sim Wol, who had integrated the inner elixir.
“You.”
Then Jin Seol spoke.
“You were not yourself today.”
Only then did Sim Wol awaken from his deep reverie.
“Was I?”
Sim Wol suppressed the murderous intent bursting forth and offered the gentlest smile he could muster.
“My apologies. I fear I overindulged in drink today.”
At this, Jin Seol’s expression grew cold yet tormented.
‘Those eyes.’
Sim Wol clenched his fists once more.
Jin Seol always possessed eyes like a blizzard of frost sweeping relentlessly across the landscape.
Yet that coldness fractured in certain moments—precisely like now, when she faced Bu Eunseol.
‘I will kill her without fail.’
The fury erupting within him set his eyes ablaze with crimson light. His blood quickened naturally, and strength surged through his frame.
Then Jin Seol rose to her feet and spoke.
“I’m tired, so I’ll head back first.”
“Allow me to escort you.”
“That’s not necessary. I have a carriage waiting outside the inn.”
“Very well.”
As she turned away, Sim Wol’s eyes flooded with crimson killing intent.
He longed to unleash a strike upon Jin Seol at once, to pursue that wretched Bu Eunseol and tear her face to shreds.
Yet he had to endure. Revealing his true nature now would be catastrophic.
Drip, drip, drip.
Blood trickled from Sim Wol’s fists as he suppressed his murderous urges.
He had clenched them so violently that his fingernails carved into his palms.
‘This will not do.’
Sim Wol licked the blood from his hand, and a cruel gleam flickered in his eyes.
To cool the scorching blood that burned within him.
He would return to Mu Young Sal Gwi and slaughter people once more.
* * *
Man Bak Dang was a place where one could grasp at a glance the various intelligence flowing into the Demon Palace and the state of the Murim.
Sim Wol was a disciple of Man Bak Dang and enjoyed the trust of its Master, granting him authority to access much information.
In other words, even if he ravaged the Ho Gwang region as Mu Young Sal Gwi, he could easily conceal his tracks and identity using Man Bak Dang’s intelligence network.
Whoosh.
Departing the Demon Palace, he unleashed his lightness technique in one breath, escaping Changsha Region and reaching Hyeong Do.
According to the Demon Palace’s intelligence network, no intelligence organizations operated in this Hyeong Do vicinity, nor were there any exceptional masters of espionage.
It was a perfect place to commit massacre at will.
‘Slaughtering Murim practitioners has grown tedious.’
At first, he had savored killing those Murim experts who resisted and fought back.
Yet as he committed mass slaughter, he found greater pleasure in massacring common folk who could not even resist.
If Murim practitioners were balls that rolled and dodged, common folk were balls that lay still and obedient.
And he found it far more exhilarating to gather the stationary balls together and burst them all at once.
‘It would be most satisfying to annihilate an entire village.’
Carelessly touching common folk left evidence behind.
But if he wiped out an entire village, he could easily destroy the evidence and sow confusion among those who pursued him.
‘It is hardly commonplace for a single person to massacre an entire village.’
Sim Wol closed his eyes, feeling the killing intent that burned his body white-hot.
I, who had always operated in the shadows using wisdom and executing plans with utmost secrecy, was becoming a blood-soaked Demon Expert.
‘But it must be done. If only to further strengthen my martial prowess.’
The more power I exerted, the more the dormant inner elixir within my body began to dissolve and merge.
With each massacre I perpetrated, I grew stronger and stronger still.
Thud.
Sim Wol arrived at the foot of the mountain overlooking the village, his expression one of rapturous ecstasy.
‘I shall melt it all away. Perfectly.’
As Sim Wol’s body soared above the rooftops, a killing intent that seemed to tear the very heavens apart erupted from his form.
* * *
Chirp, chirp, chirp.
The dim sky had brightened once more.
Bu Eunseol, who had returned from the Inn last night, had spent the entire day sitting in her office, lost in contemplation.
‘The sensation is unmistakable.’
In truth, the reason Bu Eunseol had not immediately fled that place yesterday
was partly to preserve Sim Wol’s dignity, but also because she wished to observe him more closely.
Sim Wol had made mistakes and displayed rudeness unlike his usual self.
And she could be certain that this stemmed from the ferocious aura possessed by the artificial inner elixir.
The Sim Wol that Bu Eunseol knew was not a person who lacked such restraint.
‘Which means….’
As Bu Eunseol fell into deep contemplation,
―Hiyah! Kiyah!
Resonant shouts rang out in succession from outside.
From the sound alone, Bu Eunseol could discern that Won Se Moon and his unit members were engaged in sparring.
‘He seems to have taken it to heart.’
Won Se Moon had once been beaten to near death by So Ok Rim.
Since then, he had been cultivating his martial arts with even greater fervor.
Of course, he could not bridge that vast gap in a single leap. But day by day, through diligent practice, he was steadily narrowing the distance.
‘Looking back on it, it seems to have been a good stimulus for him.’
Bu Eunseol, a faint smile on her lips, stepped outside.
By then, the sparring had ended, and Won Se Moon and his unit members lay scattered across the Training Grounds, breathing heavily.
Bu Eunseol observed them from a distance, careful not to disturb their rest.
“So Yok has done something quite commendable.”
At that moment, Yu Woon Ryong approached Bu Eunseol and spoke.
“She has made Won Se Moon, who used to do nothing but drink, diligent once more.”
The Sayoung Battle Division, which had been conducting large-scale operations, had recently seen fewer combat deployments.
As a result, Won Se Moon and his unit members had become somewhat lax in their martial cultivation.
―Is there truly another person in this world as strong as the Spirit Master?
But with So Ok Rim’s emergence, Won Se Moon was shocked into action, and once again began earnestly cultivating his martial arts.
A place where only the strong can survive.
That is precisely what the Murim is.
“I’ll be back soon enough.”
Bu Eunseol recalled the face of So Ok Rim, smiling with sharp canines bared.
Was it because I hadn’t seen her in so long?
Suddenly, I found myself missing So Ok Rim’s round cheeks and her blunt, commanding expressions.
“Once I’ve grown stronger.”
“Mm. That’s frightening in its own way.”
“In its own way? What do you mean?”
“You haven’t heard yet?”
Yu Woon Ryong sighed before speaking.
“Last night, the Mu Young Sal Gwi appeared again. This time, it completely annihilated an entire village.”
“An entire village?”
“Yes. It was a large-scale massacre of civilians, so even the Gwan Bu mobilized, but they still couldn’t find any trace.”
Bu Eunseol felt a peculiar thought stirring within her.
The Mu Young Sal Gwi was being watched not only by the Murim Alliance but by multiple intelligence organizations. Yet it had boldly pierced through their encirclement to slaughter civilians.
‘That intelligence network….’
Bu Eunseol, lost in deep contemplation, spoke to Yu Woon Ryong.
“Yu Woon Ryong.”
“Yes?”
“From now on, investigate the current situation of Man Bak Dang and the movements of all its disciples without exception.”
“Man Bak Dang?”
“That’s right. Not a single person left out.”
Yu Woon Ryong blinked, but upon realizing the gravity in Bu Eunseol’s expression, he nodded.
“Understood.”
That evening.
Yu Woon Ryong visited Bu Eunseol’s office and reported in detail everything he had investigated.
“Baek Jeon Cheon, the Man Bak Dang Master, is currently away from Gwan Oe. His subordinates are preoccupied with managing the main hall.”
Yu Woon Ryong spoke matter-of-factly.
“And when I went to Man Bak Dang, he welcomed me. So we talked for quite some time.”
“Sim Wol… him?”
“Yes. The Man Bak Dang Master holds him in great trust, and it seems the power of the Elder Council works subtly behind the scenes as well… In reality, he holds all the command authority that would correspond to the vacant position of Deputy Master.”
“Is that so.”
It was an unexpected revelation.
That Sim Wol, who had always conducted himself as merely a disciple of Man Bak Dang, was actually the second-in-command.
“Surely you’re not thinking of interrogating him?”
At that moment, Yu Woon Ryong spoke with a smile.
“Is it because you can’t bear to see him and Jin Sang Hwa getting along?”
It was a jest that only a close friend, not a subordinate, could make.
Yet Bu Eunseol nodded with an expression of utmost gravity.
“That’s right.”
“Huh?”
“Something about him simply doesn’t align with Jin Sang Hwa.”
Yu Woon Ryong’s eyes widened.
Having assisted Bu Eunseol for so long, I could now discern her thoughts merely by the gleam in her gaze.
‘She is not jesting.’
Yu Woon Ryong swallowed hard.
In Bu Eunseol’s eyes, there lingered a killing intent unlike anything he had witnessed before. Only then did he arrive at a conclusion that seemed utterly impossible.
“Surely not.”
Yu Woon Ryong spoke with an expression of utmost gravity.
“Is Sim Wol the Mu Young Sal Gwi?”
“Perhaps.”
“That cannot be.”
Yu Woon Ryong shook his head.
The recent deranged serial killer was Sim Wol, a talented disciple of Man Bak Dang and a student of Samma?
Sim Wol held only the position of a Man Bak Dang disciple, yet he could be considered a significant figure within the Demon Hall.
For such a man to slaughter Murim practitioners and innocent civilians without reason while concealing his identity?
“If such deeds were exposed, he would lose everything. That would be far too reckless a gamble.”
“It appears he has also consumed Demonic Essence or an Artificial Core Elixir.”
At Bu Eunseol’s words, Yu Woon Ryong’s eyes widened once more.
I had only heard tales of Artificial Core Elixirs and Demonic Essence, never witnessed them myself.
Yet according to Bu Eunseol’s account, did they not infinitely amplify the cultivation of those who consumed them, and even transform their very spirit?
Still, this remained incomprehensible.
‘What could Jeok Bung’s disciple possibly lack….’
As he pondered deeply, he shook his head.
‘No, he must have lacked something.’
Only then could Yu Woon Ryong understand Sim Wol’s heart to some degree.
Once, Sim Wol too must have harbored ambitions to reach the pinnacle of the Demonic Path.
But upon facing Bu Eunseol, a formidable rival before his very eyes, he must have fallen into endless despair and torment.
It had been the same for Yu Woon Ryong in the past.
Now that I had resolved to stand beside Bu Eunseol, who would reach the pinnacle of the Demonic Path rather than claim it myself, the torment had ceased. Yet…
Sim Wol, like my former self, must still be suffering even now.
“Then, I shall meticulously trace his movements in accordance with when the Mu Young Sal Gwi appears.”
“Our intelligence network will prove insufficient. As a Man Bak Dang disciple, he has surely already discerned and blocked the flow of our organization’s intelligence apparatus.”
Bu Eunseol spoke with solemnity.
“Cooperate with Mu Heun, the Lord of the Sa Hon Dae. Having inherited everything from the Guusal Unit’s master, he will surely be able to uncover Sim Wol’s movements.”
“Understood.”
Yu Woon Ryong took a deep breath.
At last, Bu Eunseol’s newly established Secret Intelligence Organization received its new directive.
Through those exceptional operatives, I must uncover Sim Wol’s clandestine movements.

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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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