The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 681

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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 681.
The moment I shattered the formation completely, the mirrors arrayed around me in a suffocating enclosure vanished in an instant.
Then, from the distant darkness, a metallic groan echoed as another door swung open.
The door yawning wide in the darkness resembled a monstrous maw gaping hungrily.
Gazing at the distant door, I shook my head.
‘Judging by the pattern, this cannot be the extent of the trials.’
From the door hanging open in the darkness, an ominous aura seemed to pour forth relentlessly.
Clearly, there would be yet another absurdly elaborate trial awaiting beyond.
After all, someone like Gong Sun Hwa Wook would never test merely martial prowess and intellect.
He would surely evaluate temperament and character as well, seeking a suitable match for his daughter.
‘I should turn back.’
I had already done enough to prove myself.
There was no need to risk passing through any more perilous trials.
I turned and made my way back out of the Great Hall.
“….”
But the path behind me was blocked—no, it had collapsed entirely.
When I unleashed the Heavenly Water Technique against Shin Geum Cheol Byeok, the mechanisms of Cheon Sung Byeol Bu itself had been destroyed.
However, I had been too preoccupied—pressing deeper inward and battling frantically against the Evil Spirits in the mirror chamber—to notice the entrance had crumbled.
I had been completely unaware the entrance had collapsed.
‘So that’s why the master never came.’
With the entrance destroyed, he must have assumed a catastrophe had occurred and summoned his household to clear the debris.
I would likely have to wait quite some time before I could exit.
‘Then it would be better to simply push forward.’
Of course, I could have cleared away the rubble or unleashed my harmony to sweep it aside in one stroke.
But doing so would expose an extraordinary level of inner power and martial skill that couldn’t be explained by Seon Woo Jin’s supposed abilities.
Rather than wait idly for them to clear the debris, it seemed wiser to simply advance forward.
A low rumble echoed.
As I exited the Open Ground, another long corridor came into view.
‘A hidden door here as well?’
My footsteps faltered.
There should be only one exit from the corridor, yet my senses detected another door—one I hadn’t perceived before.
It was an intuition born from repeatedly encountering Hao Shu techniques and Imperial Palace martial arts.
A sharp resonance rang out.
The moment I unfolded my Crystal Divine Technique, the previously invisible door revealed itself and opened.
‘Was this a trial as well?’
I paused to consider.
If there were both an obvious door and a hidden one, which should I enter?
It was a question that required no deliberation.
A deep resonance sounded.
I immediately pushed open the hidden door and stepped inside.
Yet something strange occurred.
A sharp hum.
The moment I stepped into the Long Corridor, the vital energy contained within my body suddenly began to—
release itself of its own accord?
It felt as though the spirit of some martial technique had manifested, extracting and examining every ounce of power within my body.
A sharp hum. Another sharp hum.
The vital energy flowing from my body continued to dissipate outward without end.
As if something in this corridor were greedily devouring my energy.
‘How dare a mere formation array.’
My eyes turned cold.
A formation array daring to drain my vital energy?
This was more than a test—it was an affront to my pride as a master of martial arts.
A violent rush.
As my rage erupted, black flames began to engulf my entire body.
Yet something felt wrong.
I had merely drawn upon my power, yet something dormant deep within my consciousness—
a profound darkness seemed to have awakened?
‘This is…’
It flowed through my entire being as gently as the energy I naturally possessed, yet it was immensely powerful.
If I unleashed it, I could destroy the entire world.
“Haah.”
As I exhaled, brilliance flashed across my eyes, and the power of all creation seemed to converge in my palms.
As my pupils began to turn completely black,
A clear resonance.
suddenly a stream of crystalline energy emerged from near my crown, from the Baihui point,
and began to suppress the surging dark energy?
‘This is…’
That energy was as crystalline as if it were cleansing each bone joint, and remarkably, it was not generated from within my body but
injected from outside—an utterly unfamiliar vital force.
‘That energy from back then.’
When I regained my memories at Beggar Village and began another rebirth transformation,
along with fragmented memories from childhood,
it was the mysterious and concealed energy that had merged with my original vital essence, its origin unknown.
‘There is no time to ponder this deeply now.’
The energy spreading from the Baihui point transformed my black energy into points of green and crimson light.
A resonant boom!
As those points of light spread outward, the strange force that had been draining the power from my body vanished entirely.
A soft exhale.
At last, the corridor was filled only with peaceful energy.
After taking a deep breath, I quickly emerged from the Long Corridor, and a massive door appeared before me once more.
‘Is this the final trial?’
Even without invoking the Gong Family’s Insight, the building’s structure made it clear this was the last gateway.
Bu Eunseol drew upon her martial power, her expression tense.
The trials she had faced thus far were unlike anything she had ever encountered—terrifying and formidable.
Now that she had reached the Final Corridor, that gateway would surely be incomprehensibly difficult and intricate.
It might even be a gateway capable of striking directly at one’s spirit.
Boom.
As the door finally opened, Bu Eunseol stepped slowly inside.
But an unexpected sight greeted her.
The interior was elegantly furnished, and in the center stood a Go Room with a Go board placed upon a table.
“Are you truly asking me to play Go?”
Bu Eunseol was utterly bewildered.
They had installed mechanisms designed to trap people, and the final gateway was truly meant to be a game of Go?
“Very well.”
Bu Eunseol sat before the table bearing the Go board.
“Make your move.”
But then,
“This way!”
An urgent voice called from the opposite door.
“The corridor has completely collapsed—she may have gone toward the Heavenly Circle and Earthly Square!”
Crash!
At that moment, the door suddenly burst open, and through the Go Room’s entrance on the opposite side,
Gong Sun Hwa Wook and dozens of his retainers came rushing in.
“If we reverse the formation through this Go Room…!”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook, who had been urgently directing his retainers,
froze in shock upon discovering Bu Eunseol sitting calmly before the table.
“You… how is this possible!”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook blinked rapidly as he spoke.
“How did you enter this place?”
“It appeared a formation was installed, so I broke through it.”
“What?”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook pointed toward the corridor through which Bu Eunseol had entered, as if seeing a ghost.
“You entered the Go Room through that passage?”
“Yes.”
“You passed through the Heavenly Circle and Earthly Square?”
Bu Eunseol blinked, asking,
“Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing at all.”
Some thought seemed to strike Gong Sun Hwa Wook, and he shook his head with vacant eyes.
Then he gestured weakly toward Bu Eunseol.
“The Cheon Sung Byeol Bu facility has collapsed, so come out now. We’ll play go another time.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook led Bu Eunseol out of the Cheon Sung Byeol Bu.
He brought her to a pavilion with a beautiful garden and pond.
By now, moonlight poured down brilliantly, and the area around the pavilion was suffused with an ethereal atmosphere.
“Wait here for a moment.”
When Gong Sun Hwa Wook returned after some time, his hands carried a large wine jar and cups.
“This is thirty-year-old plum blossom wine.”
After setting down the wine jar, Gong Sun Hwa Wook rolled up his sleeves and opened the lid of the wine vessel himself.
“I sealed this away when Gyeong Yi was born.”
As he moved to break the seal, Bu Eunseol, grasping the situation, extended her hand.
“Lord of the House, perhaps you should save that for another time.”
Wine made when Gong Son Dan Gyeong was born.
That clearly meant it was wine sealed away to be shared with the man who would become her husband.
It absolutely should not be opened like this.
“It’s fine.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook murmured with somewhat melancholic eyes.
“It seems like there won’t be another occasion to drink it if not today.”
Shaking his head, he opened the sealed wine jar decisively.
“Who else but someone like you could become Gyeong Yi’s husband?”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“You must have suspected it, but that place was a facility to select a suitable son-in-law. And the test is… over.”
“Already?”
“Hmm?”
“It just seems like something is missing.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook blinked his large eyes.
“Missing, you say.”
“Well… shouldn’t we also observe things like character and temperament?”
When Bu Eunseol spoke honestly, Gong Sun Hwa Wook showed a faint smile.
“Of course, character is the most important thing. More so than martial prowess or wisdom.”
He shook his head.
“But there’s no need for that.”
“Why is that?”
“There are two reasons.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook spoke.
“You are the man Gyeong Yi chose.”
He gazed toward the distant sky with infinitely profound eyes.
“Gyeong Yi has always been a good judge of people since childhood. If that child chose you, there’s no need to examine character or temperament.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook spoke again.
“Even if one’s character and disposition were not good… once someone truly comes to care for another, they will no longer heed their parents’ opinions.”
It meant that if a child cared for someone, opposition would be futile.
“And the second reason is….”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook shook his head as if it were absurd.
“Because you passed through Cheon Won Ji.”
“I’m not sure what you mean, sir.”
“We’ll discuss that a bit later.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook made a subtle expression and offered his cup.
“First, let’s have a drink.”
He personally poured the plum blossom wine generously into Bu Eunseol’s cup.
Even from just catching a whiff of its fragrance, it was potent enough to intoxicate, and wonderfully aromatic.
Gulp.
My throat burned as my stomach warmed with the sensation.
“I deliberately made it strong. Since you’re someone Gyeong Yi chose, you must have quite the capacity for drink—so we can talk through the night.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook’s expression was exactly like that of a man greeting a true son-in-law.
Bu Eunseol smiled and nodded.
“Indeed, sir. This is fine wine worthy of drinking through the night with you.”
At Bu Eunseol’s words, Gong Sun Hwa Wook’s eyes sparkled.
He had called him not “family head” but “sir”—wasn’t that treating him as a father-in-law?
“Then, shall I teach you Go while we drink? You said you couldn’t play Go, didn’t you?”
He eagerly summoned a servant to bring the Go board.
And he carefully taught me how to play Go.
Bu Eunseol, blessed with excellent memory and keen intellect, quickly mastered the game.
‘This is a dream. A sweet dream.’
Now I had truly become the son-in-law of the Gong Sun Estate, and Gong Sun Hwa Wook had truly gained a son-in-law.
But this is a dream that will shatter when dawn breaks.
A memory that will linger long…sweetly, so very sweetly.
“The wine is already finished.”
Dawn was already breaking.
Gong Sun Hwa Wook peered into the empty wine vessel with reluctance.
“The wine ran out right on time.”
This wine, carefully brewed in the year Gong Son Dan Gyeong was born, was potent yet fragrant and sweet.
“Thank you for keeping an old man company through the night. Now get some rest.”
“Thank you for the drink. Please rest well yourself, sir.”
As I turned to leave with a respectful bow,
“Oh, that’s right.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook drew a piece of paper from his robes.
“Take this with you.”
“What is this?”
“A map. For someone who has been searching for you eagerly.”
As Bu Eunseol tilted his head in confusion, Gong Sun Hwa Wook smiled.
“Twenty years ago, the previous family head went to Sera Uzi Mountain in Seo Jang. The Demon-Controlling Scripture was discovered in the Soundless Valley there.”
Bu Eunseol let out a small sound of realization.
Sera Uzi Mountain was where Guangyang Temple stood—the place she had once visited to borrow the Great Demon Scripture on her way to Yunhai Biyeok Palace.
“They say an exquisite formation technique lies hidden within the Scripture of Demons. But before I could even enter Sera Uzi Mountain, I nearly perished at the hands of Hyeol Pung Young, known as the Great Demon’s Scattered Hand.”
He continued speaking with composure.
“Just as I was on the brink of death from his assault, I was saved by an old lama monk.”
When Bu Eunseol tilted her head in confusion, he spoke again.
“He said he had spent his entire life wandering in search of someone—a child bearing the Primordial Mist Qi that he himself had infused.”
“Primordial Mist Qi.”
“He asked that if anyone in Zhong Yuan possessed such power, they must be sent to him without fail.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook nodded.
“And you possess the Primordial Mist Qi.”
“Me?”
“Indeed.”
Gong Sun Hwa Wook spoke.
“The trials you broke through were not of my creation. Rather, I constructed them based on diagrams he provided—to distinguish the person he sought.”
‘No wonder those trials felt designed to identify a specific person.’
It turned out that the trials Bu Eunseol had shattered
were not set to test a prospective son-in-law, but to identify the person Seo Jang Seung was searching for.
‘If he’s a lama monk…’
Bu Eunseol suddenly recalled something.
She remembered the stories she had heard when she first recovered her memories.
At that time, Seo Jang Seung, who had shared rare texts like the Beast Poison Scripture, had been staying at the Manor.
And around the time she recovered her memories, she had sensed a mysterious energy dormant within her body.
Could it be that the lama monk Gong Sun Hwa Wook spoke of was the same Seo Jang Seung who had infused her with this mysterious power?
“Thank you.”
After gathering her thoughts, Bu Eunseol pressed her palms together.
“I will go and see for myself.”
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
Though her words were measured, her heart raced.
If he was indeed the same Seo Jang Seung who had stayed during her childhood?
She might finally uncover clues about her parents.
After parting with Gong Sun Hwa Wook, Bu Eunseol entered the Palace Hall that the Gong Sun Estate had prepared for her.
The interior was immaculately cleaned, and the furnishings were all new.
Yet it carried a faint sense of desolation—likely because no one had lived here for a long time.
She led her weary body directly to where the bed was.
As she was about to rest while cultivating her inner energy, her gaze suddenly fell upon a wooden pillar on the opposite side.
She had noticed faint characters carved into the upper part of the pillar, marked by the patina of countless touches.
“Was this her room?”
Bu Eunseol discovered characters carved very faintly into the upper portion of the pillar.
Gong Son Dan Gyeong.
Yet beside it, there was another name etched faintly into the stone.
Baek Mu Sung.
“So that’s how it was.”
Gong Son Dan Gyeong and Baek Mu Sung had apparently been lovers for a brief time in the past.
Judging by the fact that both their handwriting was inscribed there, Baek Mu Sung must have stayed at the Gong Sun Estate’s manor for quite some time.
A soft scraping sound.
Without realizing it, I drew up my Gong Sim Tong Ryeong and examined the traces of the characters carefully.
“It must be around twenty years old.”
No wonder the characters looked faded and the handwriting lacked strength.
Twenty years from now.
So it seemed these two had carved the characters when they were around ten years old.
“A childish love, then.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
“Why am I even concerned with this?”
This behavior was like searching through an ex-lover’s past with eyes wide open.
Wasn’t it the picture of a timid man?
“Pointless interest.”
Shaking my head, I lay down on the bed.
But knowing this place was where Baek Mu Sung had spent his childhood, all manner of thoughts came flooding back.
“In any case, things can never return to how they were with him.”
Baek Mu Sung was presumed to have devoted himself to Sam Gye.
No matter how unchanging my heart might be, his would never be the same.
“Sera Uzi Mountain, then.”
I gazed at the map Gong Sun Hwa Wook had given me.
As the saying goes, the area beneath the lamp is the darkest.
Seo Jang Seung was staying in a place close to Guangyang Temple, which was adjacent to Yunhai Biyeok Palace.
“If my suspicions are correct, I might just be able to hear stories about my parents.”
My heart raced.
I wanted nothing more than to summon Seo Jin Ha right now, entrust my duties to him, and set out immediately for Seo Jang.
“The lady of the house was so sorrowful back then.”
Just then, a strange sound drifted in from outside.
“And now you’ve grown so well, returning with a suitor.”
It was the voices of servants passing by in the distance.
My hearing was sharp enough to detect falling leaves from fifty paces away.
Their voices came through with perfect clarity.
‘Sorrowful?’
I couldn’t understand what the servants were saying.
Grown so well, they said.
Then what had happened to Gong Son Dan Gyeong in her childhood?
Patter, patter.
From somewhere distant, I heard the sound of measured footsteps drawing near.
Bu Eunseol’s entire body stiffened in alarm.
Those footsteps—I recognized them instantly. They belonged to Gong Son Dan Gyeong, the distinctive gait I’d come to know throughout my time at the Murim Alliance.
‘Why is she here?’
The direction of those footsteps led directly toward the Palace Hall where I was staying.
Why would she seek me out at the crack of dawn?
“Seon Woo Dae Ju.”
Gong Son Dan Gyeong’s dulcet voice drifted through the door.
“Are you still asleep?”
In that moment, a tingling sensation rippled across my skin, as if smooth silk had brushed against the nape of my neck.
Her voice carried an unmistakable tenderness, the kind one reserves for a beloved—intimate and affectionate.
“No, I’m awake.”
Flustered, I hastily straightened my appearance and opened the door.

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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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