The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 60

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

Chapter 60
What distance separates the boundary between life and death?
I had always believed that boundary to be as thin as the edge of a blade.
Each time sword crossed sword, life and death diverged. And that difference was always measured by the sharpness of a single blade’s point.
“Haah… haah…”
Sword raised in one hand, I drew ragged breaths, my lungs burning.
The bookshelves that had stood so densely packed lay toppled in all directions, torn pages swirling through the air like snow.
With each clash, blood spilled from my body while the assassins’ threads of life were severed.
“Haah… haah…”
I gasped for air, having unleashed both the Thousand Defeat Sword Technique and practical swordplay simultaneously in rapid succession.
I had crossed countless thresholds of death before, but never had a battle stretched so long.
I could no longer tell whose blood pooled on the floor.
My inner energy had bottomed out, my dantian throbbing with exhaustion, and my Baekryeon-forged blade had lost all its teeth.
“This monster of a creature…”
The remaining assassins faltered.
Drenched in blood, I swayed as though about to collapse, yet rose again like a roly-poly doll, unleashing blade flashes with the fury of lightning.
“You…”
Their words never finished.
Staggering, I unleashed another torrent of lightning-swift blade strikes.
“Ugh!”
Low cries echoed as the remaining assassins fell once more.
‘Is it finally over?’
The assassins who had rushed at me endlessly, no matter how many I cut down, were nowhere to be seen.
But less than a quarter hour had passed. Eyes closed, I suddenly pushed my Wild Beast Technique to its absolute limit.
‘No—something remains.’
It was intuition, if nothing else.
All the assassins had fallen, yet a lingering dread persisted—as though an unseen demon bared its fangs from the darkness.
As I stood in silence for what felt like an eternity,
A low rumble echoed.
Suddenly, the inner Secret Chamber door swung open and Dan Seo Ok burst through.
When no sound had come for so long, her worry and fear overwhelmed her caution, and she opened the chamber door.
“Are you alright?”
The moment Dan Seo Ok spotted me, drenched in blood, and rushed forward in panic,
“Step back.”
My eyes snapped open. I blocked her path and raised my sword vertically before me.
“Impressive. You sensed my presence.”
A low voice accompanied the emergence of the Black Shadow from between the swirling papers.
He wore a strange garment that gleamed with an inky luster, his long hair split into two flowing strands.
A subtle shift.
As I regarded the man, an uncanny pressure descended upon me.
Behind the man who suddenly appeared before me, there was a sensation as if some massive creature might burst forth at any moment—a strange and unfamiliar pressure that gripped the air.
“Hmm.”
The man who let out a low hum looked down at me and tilted his head curiously.
“Unexpected. You certainly weren’t here before.”
From the man’s words, I could deduce one crucial fact.
Not only had they been preparing for this for a long time, but my existence had not been present in Ayang at that time.
‘I arrived six months ago. This plan was conceived far earlier than that.’
As if reading my thoughts, the man broke into a smile.
“Exactly. Had someone like you existed back then, the plan would have taken a different shape.”
His voice carried an ease that spoke of absolute confidence, and his movements were utterly natural.
If this man unleashed his power, it would be a force to shake heaven and earth, to rend the very sky and crack the ground beneath.
“If you step aside even now… you still have a future ahead of you.”
The man, brimming with self-assurance, suddenly raised his fist.
“Mind you, I’m suggesting this not because the odds favor you!”
Abruptly, the man clenched his fist. In that instant, a powerful shockwave rippled outward in concentric circles, pushing me back slightly.
The man had detonated the formidable inner energy gathered in his palm all at once, revealing the profound depth of his cultivation.
“Now then, will you step aside?”
The man, laughing with supreme confidence, turned his gaze toward So Yok behind me.
“You need only take one step to the side. Do that, and no harm will come to you.”
I had already fought against nearly a hundred assassins, accumulating wounds both great and small. I had lost so much blood that my vision was beginning to blur.
Yet I straightened.
But I only drew myself up even more rigidly.
“I said step aside.”
And I slowly began to draw upon my inner energy.
Wounds of this magnitude, a crisis of this severity—compared to what I had endured thus far, they were nothing.
From my blurred eyes, a crimson blood-light blazed forth once more.
“You will not advance another step beyond this point!”
Whoosh!
The inner energy I had drawn forth became a powerful gale, scattering the man’s hair in all directions.
“Ho…”
The man, realizing that my cultivation level was equal to his own, shook his head slowly.
“What a pity.”
Then, from his waist, he slowly drew his blade.
It was a distinctive sword.
Narrower than an ordinary longsword by half a cun, and longer by about a chi. The blade had lost all the characteristic luster that steel should possess.
It was an unusual stance.
The man held the long blade not pointed at me, but rather raised it horizontally across his brow as if to block out the light pouring down from the heavens.
“I yield the first strike to you.”
This man was no mere assassin.
The blades of assassins were merely the manifestation of will for killing alone; they cared nothing for who struck first or second.
Whoosh.
Instead of answering, I extended my blade.
It was a slow, seemingly weak strike—yet one whose trajectory and timing were impossible to predict.
It was one of the fundamental sword techniques I had honed through countless real battles.
Whoosh!
Just as my transformed strike was about to sever the man’s wrist,
Crash!
An overwhelming sensation, as though a massive wave were crashing over me, engulfed my body.
Screech.
I halted my attack and swung my blade to protect the vital points of my body. Yet even so, I felt a pressure as if my body were being torn asunder.
‘Heavy sword technique!’
The blade of the long sword in my grip was bending as if it might snap.
The man before me was employing a formidable heavy sword technique with a thin, elongated blade.
‘I cannot let our blades clash.’
The man, having refined heavy sword technique for years, poured forth devastating pressure even through his lightest movements.
If blade met blade, my weapon would shatter instantly.
Zing.
I stepped back and drew my blade behind my back, assuming an unusual stance.
Immediately, a tremendous aura bloomed around me, forcing the man to halt his technique.
It was the Heaven Tyrant Sword Extreme Form.
“Quite the extraordinary method!”
The man, intensifying the destructive power of his heavy sword technique, continuously moved his blade’s tip to pierce through my sword aura.
Gouging, thrusting, slashing—his techniques grazed my skin, but I remained unfazed, defending against his heavy sword strikes with the Heaven Tyrant Sword Extreme Form.
“You! So you were stalling for time!”
The man, having discerned that I sought not victory but time, raised his blade’s tip toward the heavens.
“Can you stop this as well!”
In that instant, a devastating pressure descended upon me as if to tear my body apart.
It was the ultimate pinnacle of heavy sword technique—something that could not be blocked by ordinary methods.
‘I’ve been waiting for this!’
At that moment, a brilliant radiance blazed in my eyes.
In truth, I too could unleash heavy sword technique. Yet I had remained on the defensive all this while, deliberately luring the man into impatience so he would resort to a powerful strike.
Screech!
With my right hand wielding the long sword to execute a formidable heavy sword technique, I drew the assassination blade from my back with my left hand.
Divided Mind Technique.
As the man unleashed his tremendous pressure, I deployed heavy sword technique with my right hand and swift sword technique with my left.
Crash! Boom!
In that moment, with a deafening explosion, both the man and I were hurled in opposite directions.
“Ugh.”
Blood flowed from the man’s neck, though fortunately it had not been pierced through.
The instant I attempted to pierce his throat with the swift blade, he had instantaneously expanded the pressure of his heavy sword technique, shattering both my long sword and assassination blade into fragments.
“….”
I barely managed to block the attack, but blood was streaming down my neck.
However, the blade hadn’t penetrated deeply enough to be life-threatening.
“You deliberately seized the moment when I lowered my guard and struck.”
The man nodded as if impressed, yet his eyes gleamed with a chilling murderous intent.
“You’re someone who absolutely cannot be allowed to live.”
*Clang.*
For the first time, the man raised his sword vertically to the center.
*Whoooosh….*
Powerful winds began to swirl around the blade.
It was as though a tremendous hidden force from the world itself was converging upon his longsword.
“Try blocking this as well.”
Just as the man, bearing a sinister smile and baring his fangs, was about to swing his sword,
*Kurrrr.*
A sound like a distant waterfall crashing echoed softly through the sky.
It was the sound of a master with superhuman martial prowess deploying a lightness technique.
‘Woo Mun Hwang!’
The man’s eyes snapped open as he was about to unleash his technique.
Woo Mun Hwang was a master who lacked nothing compared to himself.
A mere fledgling like Bu Eunseol could be killed anytime, but under no circumstances could he face Woo Mun Hwang in this situation.
*Whoooosh.*
As distracting thoughts arose, my mental focus scattered, and the energy gathered in the blade grew faint. The outcome was already decided.
“You truly are fortunate.”
The man slowly lowered his sword and looked down at Bu Eunseol.
“I shall kill you slowly in due time.”
Bu Eunseol stared back at the man with cold, unwavering eyes.
“That is precisely what I intend to say.”
“Hehehehe.”
The man let out a low chuckle and murmured in an ominous tone.
“I look forward to it.”
With those brief words, the man’s form gradually dissolved into the darkness.
Bu Eunseol stared intently at his departing figure, and as it vanished,
*Thud.*
I drove the broken assassin’s blade I had been holding into the ground.
*Drip.*
At the same moment, a faint trickle of crimson blood seeped from the corner of my mouth.
‘To unleash such overwhelming pressure with merely the opening stance!’
The man had generated a powerful force by deploying only the opening stance before even beginning his sword technique, inflicting internal injuries upon me.
“Master Ho!”
As Bu Eunseol collapsed, Dan Seo Ok, who had been standing behind, rushed forward to support me.
“Are you alright?”
Of course I was. Internal injuries were nothing—mere scratches.
That’s what I wanted to say.
But the words wouldn’t come. Dan Seo Ok’s eyes, fixed upon me, were glistening with tears.
“You’re fine, aren’t you? You can’t die.”
Dan Seo Ok trembled violently.
Breathing heavily, I worried she might fear my last breath, that I might close my eyes forever.
‘Would she grieve if I died?’
A foolish thought.
The precious jewel of the Jipma Clan, the talented daughter chosen by Demon Hall.
Why would someone of such noble standing in the martial world mourn the death of a mere Guusal Unit member?
‘It was a pointless thought.’
I shook my head at the sight of tears pooling in Dan Seo Ok’s eyes and pushed myself upright.
“Bu Eunseol.”
“Yes?”
“That is my name.”
“Eunseol… Bu Eunseol.”
Eunseol.
A name that suited my pallid, porcelain skin.
And like my eyes, which held sorrow, it was a name both melancholic and beautiful.
“I see.”
Dan Seo Ok wiped away her tears and smiled brightly.
“I’ll remember it.”
And she gazed intently at me.
Her eyes brimmed with affection, and a rosy blush bloomed across her cheeks.
Sensing something amiss, I averted my gaze, but her eyes pursued me relentlessly.
Dan Seo Ok’s eyes, overflowing with tenderness.
Boom!
Thunder crashed, and a gray shadow descended before the Old Bookstore. It was Woo Mun Hwang.
Whoosh!
Martial artists in dark gray robes followed, landing behind Woo Mun Hwang. Their eyes gleamed like torches in the darkness.
They appeared to be warriors directly under the Jipma Clan.
“Seo Ok! Are you unharmed?”
Woo Mun Hwang, rushing forward in panic, suddenly froze.
Dan Seo Ok, covered in dust and blood, was pressed close against me, gazing at him.
“Yes? Yes.”
Dan Seo Ok, regaining her senses, withdrew from my embrace and rose calmly.
“Thanks to Bu… Teacher protecting us…”
Bang!
Then the Old Bookstore’s door burst open once more, and a thunderous voice resonated through the air.
“Eighteen! We’ve come to help!”
As Bu Eunseol turned her head, Sang Ryang and Ma Woon burst through the entrance, their clothes torn to shreds and drenched in blood.
“We defended as hard as we could, but it seems a few of them slipped through! So we went ahead and dealt with all of them…”
Sang Ryang and Ma Woon, who had charged in with such confidence, fell silent at the sight before them in the Old Bookstore.
The corpses of assassins lay piled like mountains—far more than they had slain themselves.
“Not just a few, then. Haha.”
“Indeed. We were certain we’d let some escape. Haha.”
As Sang Ryang and Ma Woon exchanged glances and smiled awkwardly,
“You’ve endured much hardship. I’m grateful.”
Woo Mun Hwang, having cast aside all pride, gripped Bu Eunseol’s shoulder.
Had he heeded Bu Eunseol’s words, this danger would never have arisen.
And had she not risked her life in battle just now… Dan Seo Ok would already be a cold corpse.
“It was what needed to be done.”
Her response was clipped and devoid of emotion.
The Woo Mun Hwang of before would have flared with anger at such an answer.
‘Truly a stalwart figure. Few words, too.’
But now, even Bu Eunseol’s terse manner seemed masculine and dependable to him.
“Have their identities been revealed?”
“Not at all. We couldn’t even determine whether they belonged to the Orthodox Sects or the Demonic Path.”
Woo Mun Hwang spoke bitterly as Bu Eunseol’s expression shifted to one of surprise.
“The masters at headquarters examined their weapons and garments meticulously, but found no trace of their origin. They were clearly prepared from the start to leave no trail.”
He ground his teeth audibly before continuing.
“I will return to headquarters and hunt down those responsible for this to the very end. And…”
The rest of Woo Mun Hwang’s words were barely audible, yet their meaning was unmistakable.
‘Another storm of blood will sweep through Gangho.’
The Jipma Clan Lord is a figure as formidable as the sect masters of the Ten Demonic Gates.
And Dan Seo Ok, whom the Elder Council backs as their chosen successor, wields tremendous influence within the Demon Hall itself…
Those who orchestrated this would inevitably face the price they deserved.
“You two have also endured much hardship.”
Dan Seo Ok smiled brightly at the Ssangma, and they grinned widely in return, bowing their heads.
“You honor us with such words!”
“Indeed. We merely did what was necessary.”
“Uncle. These individuals are from the Ak Yang Branch…”
“I know.”
Woo Mun Hwang cut her off coldly and led Dan Seo Ok toward the carriage.
“Let us depart now.”
Ma Woon’s face fell.
“Blast it. Would it kill that old man to speak with a bit more grace? He just leaves as if it’s obvious.”
Sang Ryang chuckled and shook his head.
“Did the young lady not already answer? She is not one for idle words, so we may well expect good tidings.”
From her seat in the carriage, Dan Seo Ok kept stealing glances at Bu Eunseol through the window.
But Woo Mun Hwang misinterpreted her behavior.
“The Gongssi Ssangma are also members belonging to the Ak Yang Branch. There’s no need to regard this matter as anything particularly special.”
“Yes, Uncle.”
Even as she answered, Dan Seo Ok’s gaze remained fixed on Bu Eunseol’s face, standing amid the ruins of the Old Bookstore.

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