The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 391

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

Chapter 391.
Clang!
Just as I was about to unleash the three-stage transformation of the Meteor Pursuit technique, Jo Cheon Wang’s Imperial Dragon Sword suddenly thrust forward, forcing me to abandon my sword form mid-execution.
‘Hmm.’
A sweet, metallic taste of blood rose from my abdomen to my throat.
When executing a sword technique, one must expend all their internal force and skill until the very end.
But when the flow of power was interrupted before I could fully release it—
The internal force meant to be channeled through the sword technique reversed direction, flowing back into my body.
“Nothing impressive.”
A faint smile played at the corners of Jo Cheon Wang’s lips as he repeatedly severed my techniques mid-execution, inflicting internal injuries.
It was the smile of certain victory—the confidence that he could kill me.
‘A life-or-death duel isn’t won simply by superior sword technique.’
Jo Cheon Wang, who had refined his swordsmanship to its absolute limit, possessed a unique ability.
The moment his opponent assumed a stance to execute a technique, he could easily predict the next movement.
The Return of All Streams to One.
Whether Orthodox Sect or Demonic Path swordsmanship—ultimately, all sword techniques were merely the physical motions of a human wielding a blade.
And through countless battles, having achieved mastery over the sword, Jo Cheon Wang could discern from his opponent’s stance alone—
Exactly what technique would unfold next and how it would flow.
Clang!
As my sword form was blocked mid-execution once more, hot, iron-tasting blood surged up my throat.
Whoosh!
But I paid it no mind, shifting my technique mid-strike to attack Jo Cheon Wang again.
Clang!
Yet again, with a sharp metallic ring, my sword technique was severed.
Shwik!
The moment my technique broke, a fatal opening appeared.
Jo Cheon Wang seized the opportunity without hesitation, sweeping his Imperial Dragon Sword in a single fluid motion to sever my forearm.
Tsk!
I barely managed to deploy the Extreme Speed Shadowless technique to evade, but my sleeve was still torn by the sword energy.
‘He’s even anticipated my sword path in advance.’
I couldn’t hide my shock.
Even if Jo Cheon Wang had perfectly grasped every variation of the Murmuring Heaven technique… he shouldn’t be able to predict exactly how and in what manner I would execute each technique.
Yet Jo Cheon Wang, as if he had entered my very mind—
Had instantly comprehended even the variations of my Murmuring Heaven technique and severed my sword form in an instant.
‘I’ll try again.’
Twisting my grip on the Silent Sword, I slashed toward Jo Cheon Wang’s neck once more.
But as if he had already anticipated it, my sword technique was blocked mid-execution again.
‘Magnificent. Truly magnificent.’
My eyes sparkled with endless brilliance.
Only now did I truly comprehend the level to which Jo Cheon Wang had refined his swordsmanship, and the method by which he predicted my technique variations.
‘Having engaged in countless fierce battles against terrifying swordmasters, I’ve honed my ability to predict techniques merely by observing their stance.’
It was a fearsome talent that would exhaust even ordinary martial artists.
Yet Bu Eunseol’s face radiated a joyful smile.
Jo Cheon Wang’s swordsmanship was formidable enough to inspire awe, but not so overwhelming that I couldn’t keep pace.
Rather, such techniques felt like a gift—they expanded my horizons and allowed me to develop new methods of my own.
‘I’m confident in predicting movements from stance alone.’
Bu Eunseol, who had mastered the intricacies of human movement since her days with Yeomsa.
As I pushed my Beast Path to its maximum and observed Jo Cheon Wang, I could anticipate his sword techniques to a considerable degree.
And now, I began to unfold an entirely new variation of the Musan Cheon Style.
Whooom!
A low resonance echoed from the Silent Sword as sharp techniques poured forth.
‘It appears to strike the lower abdomen, but the technique has actually transformed to target the throat.’
Having anticipated Bu Eunseol’s sword technique, Jo Cheon Wang leisurely defended his throat with the Jade Dragon Sword.
Shiver.
But something strange occurred.
The moment he predicted the technique, Bu Eunseol’s sword shifted once more, now piercing accurately toward his lower abdomen.
‘What?’
Slightly startled, Jo Cheon Wang quickly raised his blade to block Bu Eunseol’s technique.
‘How is this possible?’
Until now, his technique predictions had never once failed.
Yet suddenly, that prediction had shattered?
‘It must be coincidence.’
Clang!
Bu Eunseol now unleashed the Crescent Moon Radiance, pouring forth a sharp cross-shaped sword aura.
Simultaneously, a keen sword aura streamed diagonally toward Jo Cheon Wang’s ribs.
‘The cross-shaped aura appears grand through the sword light, but the true technique is to sever the ribs.’
Having detected every variation in Bu Eunseol’s Crescent Moon Radiance, Jo Cheon Wang leisurely swung the Silent Sword downward.
‘No?’
Yet again, something strange unfolded.
He had raised the Jade Dragon Sword and struck down forcefully at the technique targeting his ribs.
But suddenly the sword technique underwent a bizarre transformation, and a sharp sword aura erupted from behind his back—how was this possible?
Ching!
Barely blocking Bu Eunseol’s Silent Sword, Jo Cheon Wang’s eyes narrowed.
‘It was her wondrous footwork.’
Only then did he realize that Bu Eunseol hadn’t transformed her sword technique at all.
Instead, she had deployed wondrous footwork, subtly altering the direction from which her sword techniques emerged.
‘Her adaptability is extraordinary. She has already mastered the essence of Nangya Sect’s practical martial arts.’
The practical martial arts of Nangya Sect evolve and develop in response to an opponent’s attacks.
And Bu Eunseol, having deeply internalized those practical arts, was now adapting her swordsmanship to match Jo Cheon Wang’s abilities and techniques.
‘So she truly is the successor of Demon Palace.’
Jo Cheon Wang nodded in admiration.
There was no need for further probing or sword techniques.
What if I simply used vacuum force to behead Bu Eunseol in one stroke?
Then I would merely be playing the role of a martial arts instructor teaching swordsmanship.
Whoosh.
After widening the distance and halting his movements, Jo Cheon Wang smiled and nodded.
“Now I shall show you what the Imperial Dragon Sword truly is.”
Regardless of what Jo Cheon Wang said, Bu Eunseol paid no heed and unfolded the techniques of Crescent Moon Radiance once more, targeting his vital points.
But something strange occurred.
Zing!
Bu Eunseol sensed a low vibration and a wind-like sensation passing through her body.
It was the kind of intuition earned through countless battles.
Whoosh!
Bu Eunseol immediately ceased her sword technique and spun her body diagonally through the air.
In that instant, a razor-sharp sword force materialized in the void, grazing perilously close to her lower abdomen.
“Impressive.”
As Bu Eunseol evaded the strike, Jo Cheon Wang exclaimed.
“You managed to avoid that.”
His voice carried an indescribable sense of emotion.
In his youth, Jo Cheon Wang had been a wandering swordsman.
By chance, he obtained an ancient sword manual called the Earthquake Heaven Sword Scripture, and through it, he created the Imperial Dragon Sword technique.
The Imperial Dragon Sword technique, which maximized the mysteries of Vacuum Concealment Shadow from the Earthquake Heaven Sword Scripture, could unleash the overwhelming pressure and terrifying power of a celestial dragon descending from the heavens.
Moreover, through the mysteries of Vacuum Concealment Shadow, he could capture the perfect moment to deceive an opponent’s senses in an instant.
Jo Cheon Wang named this fleeting moment the Moment of Stillness.
And if sword techniques were deployed precisely aligned with this Moment of Stillness?
A perfect sword strike would be born that even a god could never evade.
Until now, he had used this Moment of Stillness only six times.
Those he had faced with it were formidable enemies threatening his life, and by defeating them, he had attained the supreme position of Wu Tian Duan Master.
Even if deployed lightly, for one so young to evade a sword strike unleashed through the Moment of Stillness?
“Until now, my heart has been heavy.”
Jo Cheon Wang spoke with a peculiar expression.
“No matter that it is vengeance for my only child, it felt like cutting down an underdeveloped child.”
The atmosphere surrounding Jo Cheon Wang, who had maintained an air of ease, transformed.
His eyes grew grave and cautious as he gripped his sword.
“But now I acknowledge you as a worthy opponent capable of crossing blades with this Master. And I shall deploy my sword technique properly.”
Bu Eunseol gripped her silent sword with utmost care.
Jo Cheon Wang’s words were no boast.
He was a warrior of reversal who had roamed the Murim for decades, accumulating countless exploits and surviving life-and-death battles against formidable foes.
There was not a moment to lower one’s guard, and even with maximum effort, one could not guarantee survival in such circumstances.
‘I cannot use the Blood Sealing Seven Forms.’
Bu Eunseol’s ultimate technique was the Blood Sealing Seven Forms of the Chilji Demonic Sect.
Though it was called an unstoppable death technique that no one could block, even it only revealed its true power when the forms were perfectly completed.
However, Jo Cheon Wang seized that fleeting instant and unleashed a decisive strike.
In other words, the Celestial Dragon Sword Technique would undoubtedly unfold faster than the Blood Sealing Seven Forms.
‘Then….’
Bu Eunseol could sense it.
This battle was not a clash of sword techniques against sword techniques.
Instant against instant.
A battle of fleeting moments against fleeting moments.
Whiiiing.
Suddenly, an intense aura of energy flowed from Jo Cheon Wang’s body.
That aura had already sealed off the space behind where Bu Eunseol stood.
Jo Cheon Wang created a barrier of intense sword energy around the ten-zhang perimeter, as if drawing a ward.
To prevent Bu Eunseol from retreating.
He intended to attack head-on in a single breath and unfold a decisive confrontation.
Whooom!
A violent shockwave rippled from Jo Cheon Wang’s body,
Whoosh!
It burst forth as if erasing space itself, cleaving toward Bu Eunseol’s form.
The perfect moment.
An absolutely flawless instant where the opponent could never counterattack.
If this perfect moment was struck precisely, any enemy would inevitably fall.
Even if Bu Eunseol had mastered a sword technique that surpassed him.
Before the subtlety of this perfect moment, any sword technique, no matter how powerful, became hollow.
Saaaash.
At that same instant, a pure white aura bloomed from Bu Eunseol’s body.
Chatter-chatter-chatter.
Simultaneously, a bone-chilling cold so intense that teeth would chatter engulfed Jo Cheon Wang’s form.
The supreme ultimate technique of Bing Ha Dae Je—the Glacial River Seal—had unfolded.
‘This bastard!’
Jo Cheon Wang realized his mistake too late.
This opponent was using ice energy?
Wasn’t this a situation that would completely shatter Jo Cheon Wang’s perfect calculation of the ideal moment?
‘So he’s been cultivating ice energy.’
Having reached the pinnacle of the sword, Jo Cheon Wang could read the flow of an enemy’s body and sense when new power would surge forth.
And by utilizing that instant, he could deploy his sword form at the perfect moment that could never be escaped.
But as Bu Eunseol unleashed the formidable ice energy, the perfect timing that Jo Cheon Wang had so carefully aligned shattered into disarray.
Crack!
In that instant, Bu Eunseol’s silent sword erupted, piercing through space and shooting toward Jo Cheon Wang.
Jo Cheon Wang’s Celestial Dragon Sword, which had captured the perfect flow and the ideal moment.
Slowing the flow of that precise moment, Bu Eunseol launched her counterattack.
Between the two of them, who had truly seized that exact instant? Now only the heavens knew.
But at that moment,
Swish!
A sharp blade erupted from beneath Bu Eunseol’s feet with a brief cutting sound.
It was something neither Bu Eunseol nor even a ghost could have predicted.
‘An assassin?’
Before the two had even begun their duel, someone had been concealed beneath the earth, employing the Ghost Concealment Technique.
And he had seized the precise moment when the two were locked in a life-or-death struggle, executing a flawless ambush.
From the perspective of swordsmanship, it was yet another perfect moment.
‘I cannot be struck by this blade.’
Whoosh!
In an instant, Bu Eunseol’s form became translucent, and the blade erupting from the earth grazed past her feet.
The Extreme Speed Shadowless Technique, capable at its pinnacle of shifting ninety-nine directional angles in midair, unfolded at its absolute limit.
Thud! Thud!
But in doing so, the sword technique Bu Eunseol had been pouring toward Jo Cheon Wang slowed by half a beat.
Slash!
Blood erupted from Bu Eunseol’s body.
Jo Cheon Wang’s Dragon Slaying Sword had carved a massive wound across his chest and shoulder at an angle.
Flash!
A brilliant radiance blazed in Jo Cheon Wang’s eyes.
‘Now is the moment!’
He could sense it.
In this instant, he had seized a perfect moment that even a martial god could not evade.
‘But….’
Countless thoughts raced through his mind in that brief span.
As the Alliance Master of the Murim Alliance, he had upheld his principles until now, never once committing an act of injustice.
But if this Masked Assassin’s ambush resulted in Bu Eunseol’s death?
That would be a dishonorable revenge.
‘How can honor and vengeance be the same?’
His thoughts were lengthy, but his action was swift as lightning.
Recalling his son’s mangled corpse, Jo Cheon Wang immediately redirected the Dragon Slaying Sword to sever Bu Eunseol’s neck.
Clang!
At that moment, a force came flying from somewhere, rushing swiftly toward the Dragon Slaying Sword.
Jo Cheon Wang was startled.
Another unexpected situation had erupted, shattering the perfect moment once more.
Clash!
The force and Jo Cheon Wang’s sword collided.
From Bu Eunseol’s body, the power of the Spider Web Binding Formation spread outward.
It was the perfect ‘moment’ that Bu Eunseol had created.
Zing!
The spreading force did not envelop Jo Cheon Wang, but rather the Masked Assassin who had ambushed me from beneath the earth.
I had deployed the Yeoi Jin Gyeol formation to trap the enemy underground, preventing any escape.
Flash! Flash!
Simultaneously, my silent blade underwent two shifts in velocity in mid-air.
Thrust!
As my blade plunged deep into the earth, crimson blood erupted from the ground.
In the end, despite reading the perfect moment, I had counterattacked not Jo Cheon Wang, but the Masked Assassin who had launched the ambush.
Crash.
The mortally wounded assassin then deployed an earth concealment technique and began to flee.
Whoosh!
Watching this unfold, So Yo deployed her movement technique and began pursuing the assassin.
The assassin could return at any moment to strike at me again.
In other words, if I failed to eliminate this threat decisively, my focus would scatter, and I would surely lose this duel. So Yo had grasped this truth and immediately gave chase.
‘Now is my chance….’
Meanwhile, Jo Cheon Wang, seeing that I was not attacking him, seized another opportunity to land a decisive blow.
‘I must have my revenge!’
Such a sneak attack was a shameful act that even those of the Demonic Path would not commit.
Yet he could not possibly let this opportunity slip away.
‘If her martial prowess is already like this, and I leave her unchecked for merely a few more years, I will never defeat her!’
When I had witnessed the duel with Cheon Geom, my martial prowess had been clearly inferior to his.
But in this brief span of time, had I not made tremendous progress?
He too had grown weary of hearing himself called a genius since childhood, but he had never even heard in jest of someone who elevated their martial arts cultivation as rapidly as I did.
“You must die! There is no other way!”
With a battle cry, he unhesitatingly drove the Jeryong Sword into my back.
Clang!
Yet with a peculiar impact sound, the Jeryong Sword penetrated only about an inch.
I had already perceived his ambush and deployed the Dae Jeong Bing In formation.
Crackle, crackle. Zing!
But Jo Cheon Wang’s martial power transcended imagination.
In the end, even with the Dae Jeong Bing In deployed, I sustained severe internal injuries, and the blade tip penetrated about an inch.
Boom!
From the aftermath of that ambush, I was driven back five paces before crashing to the ground.
“Ptui.”
Having endured successive ambushes, I spat crimson blood from my mouth, clearly suffering grave internal wounds.
Rising.
Yet I immediately straightened my body and gripped my silent blade firmly.
“Shall we begin again?”
Tremble.
At my composed and solemn demeanor, Jo Cheon Wang’s eyes twitched without cease.
Driven by the singular obsession of avenging his son, Jo Cheon Wang had repeated vicious ambushes twice over—tactics even those of the Demonic Path would not employ.
Yet Bu Eunseol did not condemn him for it.
Instead, with an expression suggesting she had anticipated precisely this, she calmly prepared to unfurl her swordsmanship.
“I….”
Jo Cheon Wang’s voice, unlike before, carried no majesty.
From the moment he had ambushed Bu Eunseol, his martial power and mental fortitude had deteriorated significantly.
A martial artist must conduct themselves with integrity.
An evil person must be capable of committing wickedness without hesitation.
A righteous person must naturally act with integrity and righteousness.
But Jo Cheon Wang had failed to do so.
When a master who had reached such heights abandoned his convictions, an irreparable collapse of the spirit ensued.
“…I have no right to seek vengeance.”
Jo Cheon Wang bit his lip.
Then he channeled tremendous martial power into the Jeryong Sword he held.
Crack.
The blade, forged from mysterious iron, began to fracture like a spider’s web across its surface.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
It shattered into dozens of pieces and collapsed in ruins.
“Thus it ends.”
Jo Cheon Wang had lost his son to Bu Eunseol’s hand.
Yet blinded by vengeance, he had abandoned the convictions and pride he had cultivated over a lifetime. And he had committed acts of baseness that even he could not condone.
Because of this, Jo Cheon Wang’s martial power and mental fortitude had greatly declined, and he had lost even the justification to face Bu Eunseol again.
“Between you and me, there is no longer any debt of grievance.”
With those words, Jo Cheon Wang lowered his head in shame. Then he slowly turned and departed.
“Huff. Huff.”
Bu Eunseol, breathing heavily, waited until Jo Cheon Wang had completely disappeared.
Click.
She sheathed her silent sword and leaned against a rock to sit.
Pat.
When she pressed the Blood Sealing Points on her shoulder and chest, the blood that had been flowing stopped.
Bu Eunseol withdrew a Jasodan from her robes and swallowed it in one gulp.
‘Still so far to go.’
One of the Seven Sovereigns of the Murim Alliance. The Jeryong Sword, Jo Cheon Wang.
He was not among the Seven Sovereigns known for exceptional prowess.
Yet his true strength still surpassed Bu Eunseol’s own.
Had he not been blinded by vengeance and lost his righteousness and justification, Bu Eunseol might already be lying cold beneath the earth.
Clang! Bang!
At that moment, the sound of weapons clashing echoed from the distant sky.
‘So Yo.’
Only then did Bu Eunseol recall that So Yo had pursued the assassin.
Whoosh.
I unfurled my movement technique in a single breath, soaring above the open ground.
Clang! Crash!
After traversing some two hundred paces in an instant, I could see two silhouettes clashing with weapons in the Forest Clearing, locked in fierce combat.
It was So Yo and the Masked Assassin.
‘That person…’
Astonishment flickered across my eyes as I watched the Masked Assassin, who was fighting against So Yo wielding her drawn blade.
‘So it was him.’
The Masked Assassin was the swordmaster I had encountered in the Underground Fortress where I had cultivated Inhua—the one who wielded the martial arts of Sae Oe.

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