The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 569

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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 569.
As dawn broke, Bu Eunseol and Baek Mu Sung spread out a map and huddled together to discuss their strategy.
According to the carrier pigeon message sent from Mangyeong Jeon, Sal Gwi’s movement routes were divided between Dae Ryun Mountain and Hong Ok Mountain.
It seemed he had noticed the pursuit and hired an intelligence organization or assassins to split his trail.
“We’ll need to divide into two groups to capture him.”
Bu Eunseol nodded at Baek Mu Sung’s words.
“The Main Force will head to Dae Ryun Mountain, and you go to Hong Ok Mountain, Baek. We’ll meet up anyway if we circle around widely enough.”
“Hmm.”
Baek Mu Sung stroked his chin, then shook his head.
“The Main Force will go to Dae Ryun Mountain. How about the Elite Division heads to Hong Ok Mountain instead?”
The path to Dae Ryun Mountain was far longer and the terrain far more treacherous.
Just last night, he had spoken of competing fairly.
Yet Baek Mu Sung was already breaking that promise, showing consideration for Bu Eunseol.
“Baek.”
“After all, the Main Force is faster at light movement. If we’re going to establish an encirclement with two divisions, wouldn’t it be better to arrive simultaneously?”
‘In any case, we won’t be able to claim credit for this.’
Neither Bu Eunseol nor Baek Mu Sung could take credit for this operation.
Yang Seol Rin had declared she would capture him herself, and she had given them the entire intelligence network of Sa Hon Dae…
Whoever arrived first, she would already have Jisalseong in custody and be returning.
“Understood. Let’s do it that way.”
Baek Mu Sung led his team members and deployed his light movement toward the direction of Dae Ryun Mountain first.
Bu Eunseol did not rush, instead checking the condition of her team members and once more confirming the route to Hong Ok Mountain.
Then,
Flutterflutter.
A faint sound like the flapping of bird wings echoed from afar.
It was a signal sent by So Yo.
“Prepare to move. I have something to attend to briefly.”
Separating from her team members for a moment, Bu Eunseol immediately sent a long-distance sound transmission.
[What’s happened?]
[She suddenly left.]
Bu Eunseol furrowed her brow.
[What do you mean? The Murim Alliance’s intelligence network still shows she hasn’t left this area yet.]
[She calculated the heavenly signs. The ones near Sichuan were false trails she created, and Jisalseong is near Nan Ju, she said.]
Bu Eunseol couldn’t quite understand, but she nodded.
[Understood.]
‘This might actually work out better.’
What Bu Eunseol had been worried about was the possibility of Yang Seol Rin and Baek Mu Sung meeting and clashing at the same location.
That’s why she had moved So Yo and Sa Hon Dae to track Yang Seol Rin’s movements as they progressed.
But if Jisalseong, this Killing Ghost, wasn’t here? Then it was actually fortunate.
Whoosh.
Bu Eunseol led the Elite Division toward Hong Ok Mountain.
However, she didn’t rush forward at full speed; instead, she controlled their pace and advanced at a leisurely tempo.
After half a day of travel, the sun began to set gradually.
When Bu Eunseol spotted a valley ahead, she paused briefly and spoke.
“Let us rest here.”
“Already, my lady?”
At Bu Eunseol’s words, Tae Mu Ryong, who had been following behind, blinked in surprise.
“My lady, if we proceed so leisurely, Lord Baek might already have found and dealt with Sal Gwi.”
“It matters not.”
“My lady?”
“Besides, don’t we need our strength to face Sal Gwi?”
Bu Eunseol offered a serene smile.
“Whether we travel quickly or slowly, it will take roughly two days to reach Hong Ok Mountain anyway. Let us recover our strength and search methodically as we proceed.”
Tae Mu Ryong tilted his head uncertainly, but thinking that Bu Eunseol must have some deeper strategy, he nodded in agreement.
“We rest here.”
At Tae Mu Ryong’s command, the Team Members began to rest in their own ways—some practicing their cultivation techniques, others lying down to sleep.
“Please rest comfortably, my lady. I shall scout the surrounding area.”
“Very well.”
‘The Yang Seol Family…’
As I wandered around the valley, I furrowed my brow.
Just as Seo Jin Ha had said.
I too had always found her appearance suspicious.
How could the Yang Seol Family, which guarded such profound secrets of Murim, happen to fall into the Sayoung Hall’s intelligence network, and then reveal all their important information to me upon our encounter?
No matter how much the world is said to be a series of coincidences, such a probability was nearly impossible, was it not?
‘Could it be that fate truly exists?’
Yang Seol Rin had an eccentric temperament, but she didn’t seem like someone who would lie or scheme.
Then could meeting her truly be fate?
I didn’t believe in such things as destiny.
Yet there were moments when I felt as though some inexplicable force was drawing me forward.
Perhaps meeting her was indeed fate, and it might become the catalyst for glimpsing the abyss of Murim that I had never seen before.
Before long, night had fallen.
The Team Members lit a fire and began roasting dried provisions over the flames.
“My lady.”
At that moment, Tae Mu Ryong approached Bu Eunseol.
“Are you not exhausted?”
Even as I pondered these thoughts, I had been vigilantly watching over the surrounding area to ensure the Team Members could rest comfortably.
“There is no need for concern. I am confident in my stamina.”
When Bu Eunseol shook her head, Tae Mu Ryong smiled faintly.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m confident in my physical stamina.”
As Bu Eunseol shook her head, Tae Mu Ryong smiled faintly.
“If the Lord possessed the Renewal Technique, the journey to Sichuan would have been mere sightseeing. I’m sorry you’re suffering needlessly because of us.”
“It’s fine. And… if you have something to say, please speak freely.”
Bu Eunseol recognized that Tae Mu Ryong had something on his mind and offered a reassuring smile.
“Is something troubling you?”
“No, it’s nothing significant. It’s just…”
Tae Mu Ryong asked in a low voice.
“From what I observe, the Lord seems to have no personal desires whatsoever. Yet I’m curious why you always risk your life executing missions for the Six Pavilions.”
“There is no human without desire.”
Bu Eunseol smiled softly.
From Tae Mu Ryong’s perspective, it must have seemed strange.
Seon Woo Jin was someone who harbored no ambition for status, honor, or power—nothing of that nature.
Yet he threw his life into every mission that came down from above.
“Desire doesn’t necessarily have to be about honor or power. It doesn’t have to be those things at all.”
“If not honor or power, then…”
“I wonder.”
Bu Eunseol turned the question back to Tae Mu Ryong.
“What is it that you desire, Deputy Lord?”
“I…”
After a moment of contemplation, Tae Mu Ryong spoke in a low voice.
“To continue as we are now—to remain with the Lord and the Team Members for a long time. In other words, to share both fortune and hardship together.”
“To share both fortune and hardship.”
Bu Eunseol’s smile carried a hint of melancholy.
“Life and death, suffering and joy. To experience them together…”
It had been my childhood wish as well.
To share both fortune and hardship with my grandfather—that was my only desire.
But the cruel Hyung Su stole that from me, and even desecrated my grandfather’s grave, robbing him of eternal peace.
My desperate hope had become nothing more than a dream that could never be realized.
“A humble wish, yet a difficult one to achieve.”
“Is it?”
When Tae Mu Ryong laughed awkwardly, Bu Eunseol spoke with conviction.
“But I will do my utmost to ensure that Deputy Lord’s wish comes true.”
It was a promise I could not keep.
Bu Eunseol would leave someday. Tae Mu Ryong’s wish, too, could never be fulfilled.
But if I could educate the Team Members well and make them stronger…
Even if I were to leave the Murim Alliance, the Elite Division members could support one another and share both fortune and hardship together.
“In truth, I was so curious about what the Lord desired.”
“I wonder.”
Bu Eunseol shook her head, gazing toward the distant sky.
“It seems there was something… but I’ve forgotten it now.”
In her eyes, reflected by moonlight, lay an unspeakable sorrow and anguish.
‘The Lord does not lie.’
Tae Mu Ryong could sense it.
Bu Eunseol had lost her dreams. And she had lived all this time swallowing her anguish in silence.
‘So this is who the Lord truly is.’
Understanding a person doesn’t require as much time as one might think.
Just like now, hearing only a single sentence.
One can come to understand that person’s entire life and thoughts.
And such a phenomenon is possible precisely because one holds that person so dear and cherishes them so deeply.
Whoosh.
But then, a very faint sound of air splitting reached Bu Eunseol’s ears.
It was the kind of sound that emerged when tremendous power was unleashed or when sharp energy rippled outward.
‘This is…’
As Bu Eunseol sprang to her feet, Tae Mu Ryong spoke in alarm.
“My lady. Has something occurred?”
“I thought I heard something.”
“A sound?”
No matter how intently Tae Mu Ryong strained his ears, he heard nothing.
Bu Eunseol spoke casually.
“I’ll go check briefly. Don’t worry yourself—rest here.”
And without waiting for a reply, she immediately deployed her movement technique.
Tae Mu Ryong felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
Whoosh!
He deployed his movement technique in the direction Bu Eunseol had vanished, without even a chance to speak to the team members.
“Deputy Lord!”
Jeong Jong Do likewise deployed his movement technique to follow Tae Mu Ryong.
The team members who had been resting then looked at one another before shouting loudly.
“Everyone follow where the Lord goes!”
Bu Eunseol was deploying Scattered Form Boundless—one of the Orthodox Sect’s movement techniques, not Extreme Speed Shadowless.
Yet her speed transcended the limits of Scattered Form Boundless, resembling instead the deployment of Heavenly Dragon Great Luo Movement, one of the Orthodox Sect’s supreme techniques.
This was because Bu Eunseol’s mastery of movement cultivation had reached such an extraordinary realm.
That even ordinary techniques became supreme movement arts upon reaching the pinnacle of movement mastery.
‘The sound has vanished.’
Bu Eunseol, who had been rushing forward rapidly, paused her movement and pricked up her ears.
The sound of air splitting she had heard before was no longer audible.
No matter how much she heightened her senses, nothing could be heard, which suggested.
She had merely caught by chance a sound that had emanated from a distance too far to detect.
‘Could it be a false trail strategy?’
A strange thought suddenly occurred to her.
Perhaps Yang Seol Rin’s departure to Nan Ju was Jisalseong’s deception, and he was not truly in Sichuan at all—such was her intuition.
‘It’s possible.’
If that were the case, the probability of him colliding with Baek Mu Sung, who had departed toward Dae Ryun Mountain, would be quite high.
‘But this direction isn’t toward Dae Ryun Mountain.’
The direction from which the sound came was not the path leading to Dae Ryun Mountain.
Then could it be that Baek Mu Sung, while heading toward Dae Ryun Mountain, heard that strange sound and began tracking Jisalseong?
‘I need to find the direction.’
Bu Eunseol drew upon her heightened senses with all her might, yet still the sound eluded her.
‘Heavenly mechanism.’
Suddenly, Bu Eunseol recalled the moment when Yang Seol Rin had infused her with azure energy, allowing her to perceive the smoke of the Frozen Divine Skeleton.
In truth, it wasn’t that she had injected any special power.
She had merely amplified the crystalline divine energy within her body, enabling her to perceive what was ordinarily invisible.
Whoosh!
Bu Eunseol immediately drew upon her crystalline divine energy.
She then concentrated that energy not within her body, but into her eyes. Her eyes began to sting, and soon the pain became so intense it felt as though her eyeballs might burst.
‘This won’t work.’
As she channeled energy similar to crystalline divine essence through her eyes, her vision grew clouded and the pain in her eyeballs became unbearable.
And nothing in particular became visible.
‘Pupil technique, pupil technique—that’s what she said.’
Yang Seol Rin had asked Bu Eunseol why she couldn’t see the Frozen Divine Skeleton, questioning whether she had pupil technique.
That meant Yang Seol Rin had mistakenly assumed Bu Eunseol had mastered the Pupil Art.
‘True energy circulation.’
Bu Eunseol had mastered the Longevity Secret from the Reverse Muscle Scripture, and through it, she had acquired the Half-Sky Heart Method while possessing formidable inner power.
In other words, she had inadvertently mastered the supreme inner power cultivation method of the Righteous Path, accumulating such tremendous power that—
—she existed in a state as though she had mastered the Pupil Art, with pure true energy pooling abundantly in her dantian.
‘I’ve been operating the Four Spirits’ energy far too much like inner power cultivation.’
The Four Spirits’ energy is all the power of nature itself.
It shouldn’t be accumulated in the dantian and used; rather, it should be naturally summoned whenever needed.
‘Naturally.’
Whoooosh.
As Bu Eunseol, gazing toward the distant sky, spread her crystalline divine energy widely,
through her blurred vision, she glimpsed a crimson aura rising from the distant heavens.
That energy was rising faintly like smoke from dozens of leagues away.
Could this possibly be the aura of Jisalseong that Yang Seol Rin had spoken of?
Then why hadn’t Yang Seol Rin perceived this aura and instead gone to Nan Ju?
Unlike her and Chang Dam, was Jisalseong truly here?
‘The distance is far too great.’
Boom!
Bu Eunseol, drawing upon her thunder divine energy, unleashed the Extreme Speed Shadowless.
As the thunder divine energy within her body merged with her original true energy, violet lightning erupted forth.
Crash!
In that same instant, Bu Eunseol became a single streak of lightning, tearing through the Half-Sky.
Upon arriving at the location where crimson energy bloomed, I immediately flipped my body and unfurled the Mountain Form Mu Goong once more.
‘This cannot be.’
The place I finally reached was a village nestled beneath a mountainside.
The village had already transformed into ruins, and countless bodies lay cold and lifeless.
Boom!
At that moment, another deafening explosion erupted from the Forest near the village’s outskirts.
Bu Eunseol immediately rushed toward the source of the sound.
There, massive trees lay snapped in half, and two figures were locked in fierce combat.
It was Baek Mu Sung and an elderly man in tattered martial robes.
Around them, Baek Mu Sung’s Team Members formed a perimeter, observing the battle.
The martial prowess of Baek Mu Sung and the old man was so extraordinary that the Team Members dared not intervene.
‘Is that Jisalseong?’
Perched on a tree more than ten zhang away, I observed the fight.
The old man’s body was gaunt yet corded with muscle, his eyes burning a fierce crimson.
Moreover, his skin was darkened as if charred, and his movements were so swift that he resembled a colossal bat in flight.
‘Is this a technique stolen and learned from the Yang Seol Family?’
I could see a peculiar energy flowing from the old man’s body, clinging to Baek Mu Sung’s form.
Yet Baek Mu Sung seemed utterly unaware, unleashing a torrent of fists as massive as mountains.
‘No, it’s slightly different.’
If Yang Seol Rin controlled or severed others’ true energy circulation from a distance,
then the energy flowing from the old man’s body was like an invisible hand, obstructing Baek Mu Sung’s movements.
Crash! Crackle!
Baek Mu Sung unleashed the Arhat Divine Fist repeatedly, a technique capable of toppling even mountains in a single strike.
Yet because the old man manipulated the invisible energy with uncanny precision, the fist force kept veering toward unintended targets.
“Hmph. So you resort to sorcery.”
Baek Mu Sung snorted coldly and deployed the Continuous Tier Nine Technique, closing the distance to the old man’s body.
Simultaneously, sharp sword energy erupted from all ten of Baek Mu Sung’s fingers.
It was the Shaolin Dragon Claw Hand, renowned for its supreme power in close combat.
Screech! Slash slash slash!
Baek Mu Sung’s Dragon Claw Hand moved with blinding speed, raking across the old man’s body.
Yet not a single scratch appeared on the old man’s skin, despite the Dragon Claw Hand—capable of gouging iron—grazing his flesh.
The energy pouring from the old man’s body still clung to Baek Mu Sung, shielding him.
‘Even a master of such caliber cannot sense it?’
Only then did I understand Yang Seol Rin’s confidence.
If even Baek Mu Sung, undoubtedly the most formidable among the younger generation of masters, failed to detect that transparent energy, then no matter how powerful one’s martial arts, it would be difficult to counter.
[Hehehehe.]
But something bizarre unfolded.
The gaunt old man with eyes blazing crimson was now replicating every single martial technique Baek Mu Sung had displayed thus far.
Crash! Crackle!
The Arhat Divine Fist erupted from the old man’s hands, and in the next instant, he transitioned into close combat, unleashing the Dragon Claw Hand.
The power and movements were indistinguishable from what Baek Mu Sung unleashed—as if they were performing martial exercises while gazing into a mirror.
“Interesting.”
Only then did Baek Mu Sung sense that the old man possessed abnormal strength, and he drew upon his inner energy reserves.
“Until now, I haven’t been using my internal power properly.”
Remarkably, Baek Mu Sung had been deploying his martial arts while severely restraining his inner energy.
If the Seventy-Two Shaolin Techniques, already renowned for their devastating force, were combined with his formidable internal power—
The result would be such tyrannical might that it could no longer be called Shaolin martial arts.
Zing. Zing.
At that moment, a faint golden radiance kindled across his body.
A secret Shaolin technique imbued with the essence of Pasa, capable of amplifying martial power several times over.
The Prajna Great Ability unfolded.
Screech!
As the power of the Prajna Great Ability surged forth, all the transparent energy enveloping Baek Mu Sung’s body was severed.
“Hah!”
Baek Mu Sung unleashed the Seventy-Two Shaolin Techniques with all his might.
Just as the Hundred Step Divine Fist unfolded, the Finger Flick Divine Technique followed; just as the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara Palm sealed the old man’s escape route, the One-Finger Meditation shot toward his brow.
‘Formidable.’
From a distance, Bu Eunseol released her grip on the hilt of the Muk Hon Sword.
The martial arts Baek Mu Sung displayed were the very quintessence of Buddhist martial doctrine.
With the energy clinging to his body severed and multiple techniques unleashed simultaneously based on the Prajna Great Ability—
The old man could not evade them and was struck repeatedly in succession.
Boom! Boom!
The old man, struck in the abdomen and chest by the Lion’s Roar Palm and the Subduing Demon Palm Technique, plummeted through the air like a falling bird.
Whoosh.
From Baek Mu Sung’s body, now depleted of power, a shimmering haze of true energy rose.
The internal power circulating within him was so overwhelming that he was dissipating and regulating it externally.
He walked toward the fallen old man.
Though victorious, his brow remained deeply furrowed.
“Indeed, a Killing Ghost worthy of becoming a Great Killing Ghost.”
When first discovered, I had thought him merely another common Killing Ghost in the Murim.
Even when my team members first surrounded and fought the old man, I did not intervene.
I simply watched leisurely, thinking it would grant them practical combat experience.
But once the Cho Soo Gong Bang technique began, the situation changed entirely.
The old man not only absorbed all of my team members’ martial techniques but also identified their weaknesses.
He immediately inflicted fatal wounds upon three of them.
Eventually I stepped forward, but the old man grew progressively stronger with each exchange.
It reached the point where I had to deploy the Seventy-Two Techniques with full power to bring him down.
“Lord, you’ve endured much hardship.”
The team members, who had been watching intently, rushed toward Baek Mu Sung with cheers.
“That old man seemed to have been concealing his true strength all along.”
Baek Mu Sung nodded and pointed at the fallen old man as he spoke.
“Sever that wretch’s neck and return.”
“Yes.”
The team members approached the fallen old man.
The old man who had taken the full brunt of Baek Mu Sung’s unleashed power and force had his entire ribcage shattered, his chest caved inward like a hollow cavity.
*Shing.*
One of the team members drew his blade and called out coldly.
“May you be reborn as a sage in your next life.”
And in one swift motion, he severed the old man’s neck.
―Aaaahhhhh!
At that very moment, a piercing scream tore through the heavens.
When Baek Mu Sung turned his head to look, the old man had somehow sprung to his feet.
He had already climbed onto the back of the team member who had attempted to cut his throat, and was now savagely tearing at his neck with his teeth.
“This bastard!”
“Kill him!”
The team members cried out in shock and stabbed their blades into the old man clinging to their comrade’s back, yet
*Gulp, gulp.*
the old man paid them no mind and continued to greedily drink the blood pouring from the team member’s neck.
And with each gulp of blood that entered him… remarkably, the caved-in ribcage began to protrude outward once more.

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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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