The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 629

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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 629.
A deep hum resonated through the air.
Since Im Ji Pyeong’s internal energy remained unrestrained, extracting the thin needle lodged in his qi sea was effortless.
A soft pop.
As the slender needle embedded in his dantian sprang free, he swiftly tucked it away within his robes.
A whisper of movement.
Unfolding his movement technique with utmost discretion, he ascended onto the Palace Hall’s roof, then proceeded to traverse the spaces between buildings with ghostly swiftness.
Im Ji Pyeong possessed not only eyes capable of piercing through darkness, but also the ability to sense invisible mechanisms.
Upon reaching the Cheon Hye Medicine Forest’s warehouse where discarded furnishings lay scattered, he halted and his eyes gleamed with recognition.
‘So a secret passage exists here.’
After surveying his surroundings, he entered the warehouse and began meticulously examining its interior.
Discovering an aged scroll hanging on one wall, he smiled, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
‘Quite an intricate mechanism indeed. Yet it cannot deceive my eyes.’
As he lifted the scroll, its reverse side revealed countless needle-thin holes scattered across its surface.
At first glance, it appeared merely as cracks in the wall, but it was in fact an exquisitely crafted mechanism.
Studying the holes intently, Im Ji Pyeong withdrew a thin needle and inserted it into one of several openings.
A soft click.
This allowed him to depress a microscopic button protruding from within.
Thereafter, he sequentially inserted needles as if tracing the Big Dipper constellation.
A deep grinding sound.
A low vibration emanated from somewhere, and a small door materialized in the opposite wall.
A sharp click.
Im Ji Pyeong immediately entered through the door.
The interior was a long corridor devoid of light.
Yet he moved through it with the ease of entering his own home.
How long had he walked?
The narrow passage gradually widened until it became spacious enough for five people to stand abreast.
Upon reaching the corridor’s end, a massive door secured by an enormous lock came into view.
A metallic click.
Having picked the lock with his needle, he stepped inside.
Before him stretched a vast space lined with countless small iron gates—a prison-like structure.
The upper portions of the iron gates featured dense bars to allow guards to observe the interior.
‘What manner of prison is this?’
Im Ji Pyeong cautiously approached and peered through an iron gate.
Beyond the bars lay a narrow stone chamber where countless objects were stacked in layers.
However, all of them were covered with large cloth, obscuring what lay beneath.
‘Hmm.’
After a moment’s contemplation, Im Ji Pyeong withdrew the needle from his robes once more and unlocked the iron gate’s mechanism.
With a metallic clang, he entered and hastily lifted the covering cloth to peek beneath.
“Gasp!”
He let out a cry without thinking and stumbled backward.
What lay stacked within the black cloth.
Were they not corpses piled upon one another in grotesque heaps?
‘Why would such bodies be in the Cheon Hye Medicine Forest….’
Moreover, all the corpses lay with their tongues protruding and eyes wide open in death.
The sight was so horrifying that Im Ji Pyeong found himself backing away involuntarily.
Thud.
But as he emerged from the Iron Gate, something hard suddenly pressed against his back.
Startled, he turned his head, and
Crack.
A massive hand, like a cauldron lid, suddenly stretched toward his face.
Im Ji Pyeong instinctively deployed his footwork to evade, but the enormous hand pursued relentlessly and engulfed his face.
“Ugh.”
The hand was so vast it could obscure not only his mouth but his eyes as well.
“Agh!”
Panicked, Im Ji Pyeong unleashed the Shadowless Continuous Leg Technique in rapid succession.
Even the greatest masters would be forced to release their grip and retreat when facing such a technique at close range.
But something impossible occurred.
The owner of the massive hand saw the technique coming yet made no attempt to evade, instead clamping down on Im Ji Pyeong’s face.
Crack crack crack!
The Shadowless Continuous Leg Technique struck repeatedly at the center line of the giant’s body.
“Gasp.”
Yet the cry of pain erupted from Im Ji Pyeong’s own mouth.
The creature’s body was hard as iron, and his toes felt as though they might shatter.
“Ugh.”
As Im Ji Pyeong twisted with all his strength, the massive fingers finally loosened, allowing him to break free.
Before him stood a giant over seven feet tall, with a face stretched long like a horse’s, and eyes rolled back white.
Not a single hair adorned its head, and its skin bore a grayish hue, as though gazing upon a walking corpse.
‘I will die.’
Im Ji Pyeong could say with certainty.
If this giant wielded martial arts properly, he was as good as dead.
“Great Hero, I….”
As Im Ji Pyeong opened his mouth,
“So you couldn’t resist and crawled out after all.”
A low murmur accompanied a faint shadow that slowly approached from behind the giant.
It was Chong Gwan Eom Jeok, who had guided Im Ji Pyeong to the Cheon Hye Medicine Forest.
“Chong Gwan.”
Im Ji Pyeong clasped his hands together with relief.
“I happened to be searching about last night and….”
“Happened? Hardly.”
Eom Jeok waved his hand and flashed a smile as cold as ice.
“What did you come to steal from Ben Rim?”
Then, gazing at Im Ji Pyeong, he spoke with chilling contempt.
“One of the Four Great Thieves, Yu Cheong Rim.”
In that instant, Im Ji Pyeong—or rather, Yu Cheong Rim—widened his eyes in shock.
His disguise had been flawless, and the identity he’d assumed belonged to a genuine scholar from Fukken who suffered from consumption.
How could Eom Jeok have seen through his deception so effortlessly?
“I believe you’ve made a mistake, sir. I am——”
“I would have preferred to let you live, but that won’t be possible.”
Eom Jeok cut him off, smacking his lips and shaking his head.
“You’ve seen what you shouldn’t have seen.”
“I saw nothing, Chong Gwan.”
Yu Cheong Rim, sensing there was no escape, clasped his hands together.
“Please spare me. I came with no malicious intent whatsoever.”
“Then why did you come here?”
“I merely heard that Cheon Hye Medicine Forest had acquired a large quantity of inner cores from ten-thousand-year fire carp——”
“I see.”
Eom Jeok clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“Despite how carefully we’ve conducted this operation, thieves like you always sniff it out and find your way here without fail.”
“Please, spare my life. I only wanted to use those inner cores to cure my elderly mother’s illness.”
“An orphan of the streets like you has a mother? How amusing.”
“I recently found the mother who abandoned me. But she was afflicted with an incurable disease, and——”
Eom Jeok snorted as he watched Yu Cheong Rim’s tongue work so smoothly.
“Madness. I’ll simply kill you and turn you to ash without further discussion.”
“C-Chong Gwan——”
“I’ve been observing these past few days, and you’re not a Golden Spirit Immortal Body.”
Eom Jeok spoke coldly.
“You must have realized that Ben Rim is searching for someone with an exceptional physique before reaching adulthood?”
‘He really intends to kill me.’
Yu Cheong Rim took a deep breath.
Originally, he had infiltrated Cheon Hye Medicine Forest to steal the inner cores of ten-thousand-year fire carp in secret.
But the security here was surprisingly stringent, and formidable masters resided here as guests.
Changing his approach, Yu Cheong Rim learned that they treated young men before reaching adulthood, so he sought out such a youth to use as his cover identity and came to this place.
He had purchased the identity of Im Ji Pyeong, a suitable candidate, for a substantial sum and assumed his persona.
―Act as though you possess a special constitution.
Perhaps because the information broker had received fifty thousand silver taels as payment, he added one more detail.
―It’s widely known in this underworld that Cheon Hye Medicine Forest is searching for someone with a special physique.
Upon hearing this, Yu Cheong Rim——
found a suitable person named Im Ji Pyeong and paid handsomely to purchase his identity for one month.
And before entering here, to appear as a Golden Spirit Immortal Body, he had consumed ten Heavenly Sun Divine Pills, which possessed intensely yang properties.
However, Eom Jeok had already discerned his own position from the start.
‘There is no way out.’
Just looking at the corpses piled in this place alone, the Cheon Hye Medicine Forest was a dragon’s pool and tiger’s lair that I dared not touch.
Even if Eom Jeok were to let me go, I could not escape safely.
‘It is all or nothing.’
Yu Cheong Rim’s hand slipped into his bosom.
‘If I have the Heavenly Collapse Explosive Pellet…’
There were many patients here, among them notable figures and leaders from all walks of life.
If I detonated this demonic treasure that could shatter an iron house with just one pellet?
Chaos would erupt immediately. Perhaps I could seize that slender thread of opportunity to escape.
“Please spare me, sir.”
The moment Yu Cheong Rim dropped to his knees and, feigning a bow, attempted to hurl the Heavenly Collapse Explosive Pellet hidden in his sleeve,
Crack!
Suddenly, a piercing sound came from behind, and my entire body went numb.
Eom Jeok had somehow circled behind him and suppressed his vital points.
‘This cannot be.’
Though Yu Cheong Rim had not cultivated exceptional martial prowess, his agility and nimbleness were unmatched in the Murim.
Yet he, who had even cultivated one of the supreme martial techniques of the Murim—the Great Hall Shadow Technique—had not sensed a single trace before his vital points were suppressed?
Was Eom Jeok, the chief administrator of the Medical Guild, truly so formidable in martial skill?
What in the world was the Cheon Hye Medicine Forest?
‘I have walked into Hell of my own accord.’
Seized by terror, Yu Cheong Rim cried out desperately.
“Spare me, please! I beg you, spare me…”
Crack.
As another vital point was suppressed, Yu Cheong Rim’s lips merely trembled; no sound escaped.
“Remove him at once.”
Drag.
Yu Cheong Rim was dragged across the floor by the hair, gripped in the Giant’s hand.
This stone chamber within was the place where the stench of rotting corpses was most intense.
The floor inside had a gaping hole, and within that chasm lay countless bodies stacked upon one another.
The corpses piled below had not a single intact limb; all were torn apart in grotesque fashion.
It seemed the giant tore people apart while still alive and discarded them here to die.
Thud.
The Large Built Man grasped Yu Cheong Rim’s both arms as if lifting a toy, his vital points already suppressed.
Crack.
Then his bones and muscles began to stretch.
The man was attempting to tear my arms from their sockets with brute force.
“Ugh! Uuugh!”
With his vital points suppressed, Yu Cheong Rim’s eyes bulged wide as he screamed.
He, who had earned renown as one of the Four Great Thieves of the Murim, was to meet his end with limbs torn asunder like paper?
Thud.
Yet Yu Cheong Rim’s arms, which had been stretching as if they would tear, suddenly went slack.
At the same moment, focus vanished from The Giant’s eyes—the one who had been trying to rend me apart.
Looking closely, it seemed he had simply lost consciousness.
“Huh?”
Just as Yu Cheong Rim blinked in confusion,
A figure slipped forward.
A hunched old man emerged from behind The Giant.
Pop.
The moment our eyes met, Yu Cheong Rim’s vital points—the Horse and Arm meridians—unlocked instantly.
‘A master of extraordinary skill.’
Eom Jeok possessed considerable martial prowess, and his technique for striking vital points was devastatingly precise.
Yet to unseal sealed meridians merely by locking eyes?
“W-who are you, sir?”
When Yu Cheong Rim spoke respectfully, the old man shook his head.
“Quite bold. Do you know where you are?”
The old man, regarding Yu Cheong Rim with a raspy voice, spoke in a low tone.
“I’ve left a corpse behind. Leave this place at once and escape Cheon Hye Medicine Forest. Should you delay even slightly, I cannot guarantee your life.”
“Th-thank you.”
Yu Cheong Rim, panic-stricken, tried to rush outside.
He paused.
Yet he suddenly stopped and gazed at the old man’s deeply wrinkled face.
Though aged like an ancient tree, something in his eyes felt familiar.
After tilting his head in confusion for a long while, Yu Cheong Rim whispered with delight.
“Bu Eunseol? Aren’t you Bu Eunseol?”
The old man’s brow furrowed.
“Bu Eunseol?”
“I am Yu Cheong Rim. I captured the Black-White Witch alongside So Yok.”
The hunched old man—or rather, Bu Eunseol, who had infiltrated Cheon Hye Medicine Forest in disguise—was startled.
‘How did he see through my disguise?’
As Bu Eunseol’s eyes shifted, Yu Cheong Rim shrugged and spoke.
“Hahaha. So it is you.”
“How did you see through the disguise?”
Bu Eunseol asked with utmost seriousness.
If someone like Yu Cheong Rim could see through her disguise,
Then other masters might also be able to see through it.
“Bu Eunseol. Who am I? Am I not one of the Four Great Thieves?”
Yu Cheong Rim shrugged as he spoke.
“I’ve worn so many disguises since childhood that I’ve forgotten not only others’ faces, but even my own.”
He drew closer and whispered to Bu Eunseol in a low voice.
“That’s why I learned to distinguish people by their eyes since childhood.”
Yu Cheong Rim, who could be called the greatest master of reverse recognition in all of Murim.
Since his childhood, he had honed the skill of distinguishing people not by their faces, but by their eyes and the light within them.
Moreover, to capture that terrifying Black-White Witch, he had used Bu Eunseol, a wanderer named Seol So, through reverse recognition.
And he had spent several days and nights with So Ok Rim.
The experiences he endured during that time were a relentless succession of hardships he could never forget.
Because of that, Yu Cheong Rim had etched the eyes of Bu Eunseol and So Ok Rim so vividly into his memory that he could recognize them by the merest glimpse of their gaze.
“Distinguishing people by their eyes… I see.”
If it were anyone else, Bu Eunseol would not have believed such words, but she could believe Yu Cheong Rim.
After all, she herself possessed the ability to distinguish people by their body shape and the contours of their muscles.
“But what brings you here, Master Seol?”
Yu Cheong Rim whispered to her with a broad smile.
“Surely you haven’t come to steal the Ten-Thousand Year Crimson Lotus Elixir as well?”
Bu Eunseol let out a sigh instead of answering.
Yu Cheong Rim had no idea that this place was the headquarters of the Infinite Realm, the most fearsome organization in all of Tianxia, and had infiltrated here to steal the Ten-Thousand Year Crimson Lotus Elixir.
“There is no Ten-Thousand Year Crimson Lotus Elixir here. Leave at once.”
“Come now, Master Seol.”
Yu Cheong Rim spoke with an audacious grin.
“Why would the Medical Guild construct such mechanisms and station masters here if there weren’t some extraordinary treasure? Surely that’s the case, is it not?”
Indeed, those of the thief clan possessed a different way of thinking.
Though he had barely crawled back from the very threshold of death itself,
the moment treasure was mentioned, he had already lost his senses and was drooling with greed.
“Had I known beforehand that the Cheon Hye Medicine Forest was such a den of dragons and tigers, I would have made better preparations. It seems I was swindled by an information merchant. Looking back, I’m fortunate merely to have escaped with my life…”
Watching Yu Cheong Rim chatter incessantly, Bu Eunseol fell into thought.
She had infiltrated this place by switching places with a deaf old man who worked here, in order to conduct a thorough investigation of the Cheon Hye Medicine Forest.
But the internal mechanisms proved more complex than expected, the surveillance more formidable, and she still had not determined where Cheon Joon was located,
nor how many troops were stationed here, nor how many secret mechanisms existed.
Moreover, there were so many patients arriving at this place that she could not act rashly.
Yet Yu Cheong Rim had infiltrated the Cheon Hye Medicine Forest with nothing but reverse recognition and a false identity,
and had discovered in a single stroke the secret mechanism that Bu Eunseol had only found after ten days of searching.
‘Indeed, a thief is a thief.’
Bu Eunseol regarded Yu Cheong Rim with a burning gaze.
‘With him, I can execute my plans perfectly.’
“In any case, I owe my life to you, Master Seol. I shall not forget this debt.”
After finishing his tirade, Yu Cheong Rim clasped his hands together.
“Then, take care of yourself, Master Seol.”
And just as he turned to leave,
Thud.
Bu Eunseol grasped Yu Cheong Rim’s shoulder.
“Is there something you wish to say?”
Bu Eunseol answered with a gentle smile instead of words.
In that instant, Yu Cheong Rim felt a sinister premonition wash over him.
He knew of someone from his past who had worn a similar smile.
She was a woman who stood nearly seven feet tall.
Moreover, she possessed terrifying martial prowess capable of reducing a person to pulp with a single strike.
Her fists moved faster than her words, and she expressed her thoughts through violence.
When opinions differed, she likewise… wielded her fists as the instrument of persuasion.
Truly, she was a violent and destructive figure who solved everything with her fists.
“Yu Hyung.”
“W-why are you doing this?”
As Yu Cheong Rim stumbled backward, Bu Eunseol extended her hand with an impossibly tender expression.
Grasping his shoulder firmly, she spoke in a voice that was both affectionate and gentle.
“Let’s work together on something, shall we?”

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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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