The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 51

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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 51
As the deep night settled in, the lights scattered across the Island flickered out one by one.
Whoosh.
A dark silhouette moved swiftly toward the center of the Island, concealed within the shadows.
It was Bu Eunseol, dressed in a form-fitting night garment.
‘So this is the Blood Yin Evil Sect.’
After a lengthy sprint, Bu Eunseol arrived at the Island’s center, her eyes gleaming with intensity.
Dozens of Palace Halls stood erected throughout the grounds, with robed disciples wearing crimson masks patrolling the vicinity.
‘The Vice-Sect Leader of the Soul Absorption Sect, as Ma Woon mentioned.’
Recalling Ma Woon’s explanation and the contents of the documents she had reviewed, Bu Eunseol swiftly surveyed the interior of the Blood Yin Evil Sect.
Though I had never formally trained in concealment techniques, I moved with the practiced stealth of a seasoned assassin.
Extreme Speed Shadowless Movement.
This supreme divine technique, conceived by Go Wol, the Heavenly Great Swordmaster, combined with my own sharp yet cautious nature, manifested in movements as ethereal as a phantom.
Thud.
After passing by several Palace Halls, Bu Eunseol suddenly halted her movement.
Across the way, beneath a Palace Hall, I spotted a middle-aged man conversing with someone.
The skin beneath his eyes was deeply darkened, and his lips were thin and crimson. He resembled a venomous serpent that had assumed human form.
‘Seok Jeong.’
This viper-like middle-aged man was none other than Seok Jeong, the Black Assassin and Vice-Sect Leader of the Soul Absorption Sect within the Blood Yin Evil Sect.
‘Indeed….’
Observing Seok Jeong from a distance, Bu Eunseol narrowed her eyes.
Even in the darkness, a piercing gaze flickered intermittently. And throughout his entire frame, an aura as sharp as an unsheathed blade radiated outward.
At a glance, one could instinctively sense he was no ordinary master.
Moreover, this was the Blood Yin Evil Sect’s main stronghold. One careless move could expose me before I even drew close.
‘I truly must conduct this assassination attempt with utmost precision.’
I had already endured countless ambushes on Hell Island beyond measure.
Among them were assassins employing extraordinary methods, and even trainees from Geuk Sal Mil Gak, the grand master of assassins.
‘First, I must locate the most advantageous position for an ambush.’
When conducting an assassination, location is the foremost consideration.
Attacking from an unsuitable location could result in a counterattack, or allow the target to easily summon reinforcements.
“Very well, then. I shall proceed accordingly.”
At that moment, the other party departed after concluding their conversation, and Seok Jeong re-entered the Palace Hall.
Swoosh.
Deploying my phantom-like divine technique, I silently entered the Palace Hall where Seok Jeong had vanished.
‘This place….’
After traversing a lengthy corridor, a staircase descending underground came into view.
As I cautiously descended the stairs, a pungent medicinal odor assailed my nostrils.
‘This is….’
Upon entering deeper into the underground chamber, a vast stone room revealed itself.
On one side stood an armory displaying weapons, while throughout the Underground Stone Chamber, enormous earthen vessels large enough to contain a person were arranged in rows.
Those were the very jars used by the Blood Yin Evil Sect to brew elixirs when deploying their dark arts.
‘This is the perfect place for an assassination.’
Since this was where elixirs were stored, only members of the Soul Absorption Sect could enter—outsiders were strictly forbidden.
Moreover, being an underground chamber meant that any noise would be unlikely to escape to the surface.
‘Good.’
I slowly placed my hand on the assassin’s blade slung across my back.
An assassination attempt was no different from combat under extreme duress. One had to detect the precise spacing and opportunity; if a single strike went awry, it would result in irreversible consequences.
‘I’ll finish it here.’
At that very moment, Seok Jeong was inspecting the jars scattered throughout the chamber.
There was no better opportunity to strike.
Gripping the assassin’s blade, I crept toward the area behind Seok Jeong as he examined the jars. And just as I was about to drive the blade home—
“…!”
Suddenly my pupils dilated, and the world fell silent as if time itself had stopped.
My keen predatory senses detected something cascading down from the ceiling.
Thwip.
Without time to think, I twisted my body sideways to evade,
Pap-pap-pap!
Dozens of razor-sharp steel arrows pierced through the blue stone floor where I had been standing.
“Truly, you assassins are predictable creatures.”
Seok Jeong, who had been watching the jar where I was hiding, smiled faintly.
“Why do you always choose this place as your ambush point, as if you’ve made some pact?”
Hearing those words, I understood something crucial.
‘Nine Heavens Cycle….’
Seok Jeong had survived eight assassination attempts thus far.
He had already discerned the patterns of every assassin who entered this place.
“Come out. There’s no escape route anyway.”
At Seok Jeong’s words, I slowly emerged from my hiding place.
With the exit already blocked, there truly was no way out.
“This one is quite young.”
Seok Jeong stared directly into my eyes, visible through the mask, and spoke.
“Whether old or young, your methods are always the same. You infiltrate the incoming vessel, wait for an opportunity, and the moment I enter this place, you attempt the assassination.”
Seok Jeong, observing my lowered stance, placed a hand to his temple with a contemptuous smile.
“So I installed a detection mechanism here specifically to sense assassins. To know the moment a rat enters.”
‘So that’s what it was.’
Seok Jeong, who had always encountered assassins at the same predictable location, had installed a device capable of detecting hidden assassins in this chamber.
He had anticipated their patterns and prepared accordingly.
‘This is a flaw in the Guusal Unit’s structure.’
Only then did I truly comprehend the fundamental weakness of the Guusal Unit.
We operated in isolation, knowing neither the sects nor identities of our fellow operatives, executing only the missions assigned by headquarters. While this method was effective for concealing an agent’s identity and maintaining secrecy, it was woefully inefficient in achieving our objectives.
Without information sharing among us, the same mistakes could be repeated endlessly. Exactly as was happening now.
A metallic whisper.
Seok Jeong abandoned the black saber at his waist and lifted a massive blade from the armory instead.
“Assassins like you have no choice but to take your own lives when methods fail.”
He spoke again, a cruel smile playing at his lips.
“The death throes of desperate assassins—they’re as addictive as opium. Hehehehe.”
Seok Jeong intended to handle Bu Eunseol himself without alerting anyone to the intrusion.
‘Exactly what I wanted.’
The assassination had failed, but I had gained an opportunity to fight.
I drew one of the two assassin’s blades slung across my back and stepped forward toward Seok Jeong.
A sharp whistle cut through the air.
I immediately extended my blade in an instinctive thrust toward his throat.
It was an intuitive killing strike, an application of the swift-blade technique from the Hwa Woo Byeok Noe Sword Manual.
“Hmm.”
Seok Jeong’s expression shifted to surprise as he perceived the stability of my swordwork.
“This isn’t the sword technique assassins use.”
He laughed with ease, raising his saber vertically to the center.
“Try to block this.”
A soft scraping sound.
As Seok Jeong unleashed his saber technique, black sand-like killing intent enveloped my entire body.
The Black Saber Technique—the signature skill that had earned him renown across Gangho for over a decade, now displayed in full force.
A brilliant spark erupted.
Blade and saber clashed, sending sparks flying.
Before I had formally cultivated my inner energy, I would have been overwhelmed by the cascading force and driven backward.
But now, my defense actually forced Seok Jeong to retreat two steps.
“For one so young, your inner energy is quite profound.”
Shocked by the depth of my cultivation, Seok Jeong unleashed the Black Saber Technique with all his might.
A violent flurry of strikes.
Layers of saber cuts monopolized every direction I could move.
Simultaneously, he pressed forward with relentless killing strikes, leaving me no room to breathe.
Blood bloomed.
Wounds appeared on my body as I defended against the Black Saber Technique.
‘Something’s wrong.’
I was blocking the saber strikes accurately, yet strangely, the tip of Seok Jeong’s blade kept grazing my body.
‘Once more.’
This time, to prevent him from cutting my head, I extended my blade slowly to induce a collision of weapons.
A sharp whistle.
But Seok Jeong’s saber vanished mid-strike, only to reappear cutting toward my shoulder instead.
‘I see.’
As the blade grazed my shoulder, my eyes gleamed with understanding.
‘He’s transforming his technique mid-strike.’
He feints toward the head but targets the shoulder. He thrusts at the chest while severing at the waist.
False strikes.
Seok Jeong’s Black Saber Technique created afterimages to bewitch opponents and deceive the eye—a form of blade variation, or rather, saber transformation.
‘This is the difference experience makes.’
No matter how skilled one became with saber transformation, it was difficult to maintain the composure to deploy false strikes so freely in a life-or-death situation.
Only Seok Jeong, who had survived by cutting down countless enemies, could execute such methods.
‘I must steal that secret.’
As I observed Seok Jeong’s saber technique for so long, my sword strikes gradually began to shift.
I altered the straightforward thrusts I had always relied upon, sometimes interrupting them abruptly. When I occasionally stabbed at seemingly random targets like a madman, Seok Jeong’s offensive slowed incrementally.
‘It’s not as impressive a technique as I thought.’
As I continuously mimicked the Black Saber Technique, I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
But this was not the truth.
Using false strikes recklessly in actual combat only exposed one’s weaknesses. Therefore, when learning blade variation, a master would slowly demonstrate the false strikes usable in real combat through proper technique.
But I had mastered the Wild Beast Saber and possessed an innate sense for combat.
Even as we fought, I was naturally absorbing Seok Jeong’s saber secrets as smoothly as flowing water.
‘This one?’
When Seok Jeong saw me gradually mimicking his Black Saber Technique, a chill ran down his spine.
‘He’s mimicking my saber technique while his neck could be severed at any moment?’
Seok Jeong twisted his grip on the saber.
‘This one will become a disaster!’
Whoosh, crack!
Changing his technique, he unleashed an unrelenting barrage of attacks without a single pause, continuously pressuring me.
“Let’s see if you can copy this too!”
With a thunderous roar, Seok Jeong’s saber technique grew even more ferocious.
After roughly thirty seconds passed, fresh crimson wounds began appearing across my body.
‘So this is what fighting a stronger opponent feels like….’
The only master above my level I had ever faced was Go Gun Pyeong from the White Horse Sect.
Even that was merely a test to withstand five moves—it couldn’t be called actual combat.
But Seok Jeong’s saber technique was no test; he swung his blade relentlessly solely to sever my life.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Not technique, but killing strikes poured down like a tempest.
Yet I neutralized each saber strike one by one using the Wild Beast Saber’s capabilities and my unique combat instinct.
Though Seok Jeong seemed ready to collapse at any moment, seeing me endure to the end, he grew irritated and shouted loudly.
“You bastard! Will you keep running around like a rat forever!”
Bang!
Simultaneously, he stomped hard on one of the blue stone tiles beneath the floor.
He had reactivated the hidden mechanism installed in this underground stone chamber.
Shwish, shwish, shwish!
Thirty-six steel needles rained down from the ceiling toward me at staggered intervals.
Swish, swish, swish.
In that instant, my body blurred, and Kang Chim’s blade passed through empty air.
Deploying the Extreme Speed Shadow Technique, I shifted my stance thirty-six times without moving from my position.
Whoosh!
But seizing that opening, Seok Jeong’s saber grazed across my forearm.
Blood trickled down.
Seok Jeong licked his lips with evident satisfaction.
“Hehehehe! I can already see the grim reaper standing behind you!”
Click! Swish swish swish!
As Seok Jeong activated the needle launcher consecutively and deployed his saber technique, gaps in my defense began to emerge.
I wielded my sword with all my strength, but there was no way to pierce through the Black Death Saber Technique and land a fatal blow on Seok Jeong.
‘Should I use the Heavenly Thunder Unparalleled technique?’
Currently, my most powerful trump card is Cheon Woon Gwang’s Heavenly Thunder Unparalleled form.
However, each deployment of the Heavenly Thunder Unparalleled form consumes an enormous amount of strength and inner force.
Moreover, if I failed to eliminate my opponent with a single killing strike, I would fall into grave danger.
‘Let me try applying the martial techniques I’ve mastered so far.’
So Jeon’s Heaven-Breaking Blade Extreme Form, Je Woon’s Heart-Splitting Deception Technique, and Han Dan’s Heavy Sword.
Wasn’t my application to the Guusal Unit precisely to perfectly master these three martial techniques and bind them together as one?
Clang!
At that moment, our sword and saber collided by chance, sending sparks flying.
Seizing the opening, Seok Jeong didn’t miss the opportunity and slashed down at my shoulder once more.
Whoosh!
As blood sprayed, my mind suddenly cleared. And I realized one crucial fact.
‘He’s not trying to kill me!’

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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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