The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 696

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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 696.
Gong Son Dan Gyeong blinked her eyes.
How could Mu Jon grant a private audience so easily?
“So there’s something I don’t know after all.”
Once Mu Jon’s messenger had departed, Gong Son Dan Gyeong sighed and shook her head.
She could sense it instinctively.
That there was something between Bu Eunseol and Mu Jon—something she was unaware of.
“You won’t tell me even if I ask, will you?”
Bu Eunseol deliberated for a moment.
She wondered if it would be acceptable to reveal that Mu Jon possessed a dual identity as Shin San Ja.
But she quickly shook her head.
Mu Jon was, in any case, meticulously protecting her own identity.
If she were to expose Mu Jon’s shadow to Gong Son Dan Gyeong, then Mu Jon might also feel compelled to expose her own secrets to her.
“I only learned of it after arriving at the Snowflake Sect.”
Instead, she broached the subject in a way that Gong Son Dan Gyeong could accept.
Without at least some explanation,
the relationship she had maintained so firmly until now could crumble.
“The task to retrieve the Eternal Ice Jade was actually Mu Jon’s test to see me.”
“A test?”
“Yes. He likely wanted to confirm whether I was worthy of a direct audience.”
Bu Eunseol explained in detail.
Mu Jon had informed the Snowflake Sect of his visit in advance.
And he already knew what gates were installed there and what restrictions existed.
“Then did the elder test Seon Woo Dae Ju’s martial prowess through the Snowflake Sect’s trials?”
“I cannot say whether he tested martial prowess, but the Cheonum Jigwan was structured so that one could never pass through its gates without reaching a certain level of martial skill.”
To tell a perfect lie,
one need only add a spoonful of “speculation” or “assumption” to the truth.
That way, even if the truth were exposed, it would merely be a mistaken prediction.
“Why would Mu Jon test Seon Woo Dae Ju’s martial prowess?”
“I cannot say. Perhaps he wished to confirm my martial cultivation level, or perhaps it was verification for a future task.”
Gong Son Dan Gyeong, who had been pondering, nodded her head.
“That could indeed be the case.”
In the past, she herself had conducted separate tests before assigning Bu Eunseol tasks, to verify her suitability.
There was nothing extraordinary about Mu Jon doing the same.
“Hmm.”
Gong Son Dan Gyeong swallowed.
But since everything was mere speculation with no definitive conclusion, her mind remained shrouded in fog and ambiguity.
“Very well. In any case, when Seon Woo Dae Ju meets the elder, all these reasons will be clarified.”
She took a deep breath and spoke.
“You said within one hour, so the elder’s messenger will likely visit Seon Woo Dae Ju’s office within that time. Have him deliver this wooden box directly.”
“Understood.”
“Return to your duties.”
I clasped my hands respectfully.
“Then.”
As I turned to leave, her voice reached me.
“Seon Woo Dae Ju.”
“Do you have further orders for me?”
When I turned back, a faint glimmer of emotion flickered in Gong Son Dan Gyeong’s clear, luminous eyes.
“Be careful.”
Her words carried genuine concern and worry.
Gong Son Dan Gyeong.
She was originally the type to charge toward her goals without regard for means or methods—
A cold-blooded, ruthless woman, was she not?
Yet now, her eyes revealed emotions I had never witnessed before.
“Understood.”
I swallowed the bewilderment rising in my chest and clasped my hands together.
‘I must not waver.’
Gong Son Dan Gyeong’s cunning and composure were certainly no inferior to my own.
Perhaps even this display was calculated.
* * *
When the hour of the Rooster arrived, just as Gong Son Dan Gyeong had said, a visitor appeared at my office.
‘Not Mu Gyeol.’
I had naturally expected her to send Mu Gyeol.
Instead, a young martial artist dressed in the garb of Pung Baek Hall, who handled all manner of miscellaneous duties, had arrived.
“The elder instructed me to deliver this letter to you.”
Yet the eyes and bearing of the martial artist handing over the letter were absolutely not those of someone from Pung Baek Hall.
“Hmm.”
When I unfolded the letter, it contained a brief message: come to a small village far from the Murim Alliance within the shortest time possible.
“Thank you.”
Taking the letter, I immediately slipped out of the Murim Alliance and headed toward the village mentioned in it.
Yet when I arrived at the Village Entrance, the martial artist from Pung Baek Hall I had seen earlier was standing there, waiting for me.
“Please receive this letter.”
When I unfolded the new letter, it contained a map showing the location of a lake, far beyond this village.
“Hmm.”
I deployed my lightness technique and headed toward that lakeside.
After a considerable journey, I arrived at the lakeside, where another man in Pung Baek Hall garb stood holding another letter.
And this same pattern repeated itself several more times.
‘Why go to such lengths?’
My intelligence network could never track Mu Jon’s movements or whereabouts anyway.
So why employ such a convoluted method? It served no purpose whatsoever.
‘I see.’
Yet I soon grasped Mu Jon’s true intention.
I had witnessed a man from Pung Baek Hall dressed similarly to me unfurling his divine technique.
‘He means to shake off the tail attached to me.’
Mu Jon was not trying to make a fool of Bu Eunseol.
There existed a situation where the Murim Alliance, or perhaps the Sam Gye, could track Seon Woo Jin’s movements.
If that happened, Mu Jon’s own trail could be exposed as well—so his intention was to sever any tail that might have latched onto him.
Whoosh.
As I continuously deployed my lightness technique, I had already left Hanam and entered the borders of Hubei.
Upon arriving at a waterfall deep within the mountains, I discovered another young man dressed in Pung Baek Hall garb.
‘He wants me to go to the underground secret passage of Yeongak Dojeon?’
As I gazed down at the letter, I drew a deep breath.
‘Gong Son Chong Sa.’
Only now did I realize that Gong Son Chong Sa was also included among those tails attached to me.
‘Of course.’
Gong Son Dan Gyeong was within the Murim Alliance.
Perhaps more than anyone else, she would desire to know Mu Jon’s whereabouts.
Despite having followed his orders for so long, she did not even know where he was or his location.
The moment Gong Son Dan Gyeong heard that Bu Eunseol had met with Mu Jon, she would immediately mobilize her intelligence organization to track his movements.
No, she surely did exactly that.
Therefore, Mu Jon was now attempting to shake off every tail, including Gong Son Dan Gyeong’s intelligence network.
Whoosh.
I returned to the Murim Alliance.
The night had deepened, and the third watch was already passing.
I immediately entered the Supplies Warehouse on the western side of the Murim Alliance and used the secret passage to head underground to Yeongak Dojeon.
‘Just as I thought—there is nothing here.’
Unlike before, the stone chamber where Jeong Cheon Je’s corpse had been kept was nowhere to be seen in the passages below Yeongak Dojeon.
Gong Son Dan Gyeong’s claim that she saw nothing here was certainly not a lie.
‘Only by entering through the secret passage hidden within Yeongak Dojeon itself could I see the Eternal Ice Pavilion.’
Previously, I had discovered the secret passage hidden on the first floor of Yeongak Dojeon and was able to see the Eternal Ice Pavilion containing Jeong Cheon Je’s corpse.
But entering this way through the Supplies Warehouse—
the stone chamber where Jeong Cheon Je lay hidden left not even a trace.
‘Is this the final test?’
Mu Jon had clearly said he would wait for me in the underground facility beneath Yeongak Dojeon.
Yet Mu Jon was not in this passage.
Then it was certain he was waiting in the stone chamber where Jeong Cheon Je’s corpse lay.
‘Entering Yeongak Dojeon’s first floor again is impossible.’
The security level of Yeongak Dojeon transcended imagination, and above all, it was a place where Mok Do In, the formidable master of Eun Rim Gak, resided.
No matter how skilled I was, I could not deceive Mok Do In’s superhuman senses and infiltrate secretly.
‘It had responded to harmony.’
Suddenly, Bu Eunseol remembered.
When escaping the Stone Chamber, she had drawn upon the power of harmony.
And through that, a new mechanism had opened.
‘Let me try.’
A deep hum resonated.
Bu Eunseol gathered every ounce of her strength, drawing all the power within her body to the surface.
As her body threatened to collapse from the strain,
A sharp vibration pierced through.
At last, the Prajna Great Ability flowed forth, and the power within her body aligned.
A metallic click.
Then a concealed door materialized on the opposite wall.
Bu Eunseol walked through without hesitation.
‘As expected.’
Before Bu Eunseol’s eyes stood the Eternal Ice Pavilion, emanating waves of frigid cold.
And against the shadowed wall where the ice pavilion was erected, a figure’s silhouette appeared.
Though the face was obscured by darkness and the features indiscernible, the figure wore a plain, worn gray robe.
“Are you Shin San Ja?”
Then a pair of eyes gleamed from the darkness, and the figure slowly walked toward the light.
An aura as sharp as a blade’s edge emanated from him, yet an infinite emptiness like a vacant sky enveloped everything.
His eyes flickered with mysterious radiance, and every exposed patch of skin was covered in scars like a spider’s web.
“I am now Mu Jon.”
The one called the greatest sage of Murim, Shin San Ja himself.
Standing in place of Jeong Cheon Je, the foremost of the Orthodox Sects, and Sin Do Mu Bi… the current supreme master of the Orthodox Path.
Dan Mok Ki, the Mu Jon among the Sammasamjon, the mightiest of them all, had finally revealed his true face.
‘It is said he has engaged in as many secret battles as Gak Ju, standing as equals in the Tianxia.’
Bu Eunseol examined Mu Jon’s appearance closely.
Like In Ma Ak Moo Ryung,
He was known to have risked his life countless times in secret battles since his youth.
As proof of this, not a single spot on his entire body remained unmarred.
His shoulders and forearms bore the marks of bones that had healed improperly, never receiving timely treatment, protruding awkwardly.
‘But why is he now called Mu Jon?’
At that moment, as if seeing through Bu Eunseol’s innermost thoughts, Mu Jon murmured softly.
“A wandering sage has no place in such a position, you see.”
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
Her heartbeat was racing wildly.
Bu Eunseol was certainly looking at Mu Jon.
Yet her senses were detecting something entirely different.
She could not perceive Mu Jon’s martial power, and with each blink of her eyes,
It felt as though an hour’s worth of time was slipping away in an instant.
Moreover, the appearance she had just witnessed vanished, and before her stood only an unidentifiable figure.
‘Is this person comparable to Ma Cheon Je?’
Ma Cheon Je concealed the extraordinary within the ordinary, capable of shaking or shattering one’s spirit with a single word.
And at times, from the appearance of an ordinary old man,
he would suddenly emanate the presence of a demonic deity descending upon the world from the darkness.
But Mu Jon was different.
Merely facing him had rendered Bu Eunseol’s five senses and extrasensory perception completely useless.
What she perceived was not Mu Jon himself, but an empty world and nature itself.
And as a little time passed… he had transformed into something that could no longer be named.
‘Would I lose my soul like this?’
Fortunately, Bu Eunseol had experienced the martial prowess of Ma Cheon Je, the peerless demon general, and to escape from his attack that plunged the spirit into the abyss in an instant,
she had converted that power into physical attacks using the function of the Nangya Heart Eye, and had experience defending against Ma Cheon Je’s assault through the Mu Hwang Jeong Gak.
And this time, conversely, to reclaim the senses that Mu Jon had stolen,
she deliberately sank her own spirit into an endless abyss, deploying the principles of the Sak Jeong Secret Art that annihilated all emotions.
Saaaa.
Black mist rose from Bu Eunseol’s entire body.
With her physical senses severed, she unfolded the Yeouui Jin Gyeol.
And remarkably, that mist
began to replace all the senses Bu Eunseol had lost.
Mu Jon’s face became clear, and she could even sense what kind of power he was wielding.
The Cheon Ui Heart Art.
Now she understood—Mu Jon had applied Jeong Cheon Je’s Cheon Ui Heart Art, disrupting all the qi within Bu Eunseol’s body,
causing her to lose all sensation.
“Huh.”
Suddenly, an exclamation escaped Mu Jon’s lips.
“Unbelievable.”
Whoosh.
At the same moment, the qi that had blocked Bu Eunseol’s senses began to slowly dissipate.
Mu Jon had withdrawn the Cheon Ui Heart Art.
“Sa Do Moo Myung—is he not a heartless person?”
Mu Jon’s voice was layered with conflicting emotions.
“If he truly had no intention of cutting away the sprout, how could he have poured forth such profound affection…?”
His voice became so thin that eventually his words became inaudible.
As Bu Eunseol stood dazed, Mu Jon opened his mouth with a calm voice.
“Speak if you have something to say. That must be why you sought me out.”
Upon hearing those words, Bu Eunseol found herself conflicted.
―Why did you use Shin San Ja’s identity to manipulate certain sects or individuals?
―Did my parents truly fall to Jeong Cheon Je’s hand?
―Jeong Cheon Je is alive, but where is he?
―Your ultimate purpose cannot be the protection of the Orthodox Sects, so why do you masquerade as Jeong Cheon Je?
Countless questions flooded her mind, yet she could not carelessly voice them aloud.
He had manipulated countless sects and individuals by leveraging his position as the greatest sage of Murim.
If such a man were to speak falsehoods or distort the truth?
The process of finding answers could become far longer and more convoluted.
“Cautious, I see.”
Mu Jon observed Bu Eunseol’s heavy silence and nodded approvingly.
“It is rare to possess such patience and prudence at your age.”
Then, with a gaze that seemed to pierce through all things, he spoke.
“If you have nothing to say, then let us end this.”
Bu Eunseol felt an odd sensation wash over her.
The image of Mu Jon she had harbored until now—
was of a sinister figure who exploited Shin San Ja’s identity to manipulate individuals from various sects, harboring selfish motives and hidden schemes.
Yet now, he emanated an aura of detachment from all worldly concerns.
Was he not radiating the very atmosphere of a renowned sage of Tianxia?
“If I ask, will you answer?”
Bu Eunseol spoke in an even tone.
“I no longer have any debt of gratitude to repay.”
“Hehehehe.”
Mu Jon chuckled softly, finding her words quite amusing.
“I told you—I came as Mu Jon.”
In other words, there was no need for debts of gratitude.
“Since you have brought the Eternal Ice Jade, I shall answer your questions in exchange.”
He paused briefly before continuing in a low voice.
“As Mu Jon, that is.”
Bu Eunseol’s expression grew subtle.
He would answer as Mu Jon.
Did that not mean he would refuse to answer anything learned through Shin San Ja’s identity?
Yet Bu Eunseol had no choice in the matter.
“Then should I not properly verify who I truly am?”
Currently, many individuals in Murim concealed their identities while hiding within various sects.
Mu Jon must have long known of such facts and dealt with them accordingly.
Naturally, it was only proper that he verify her identity as well.
“There is no need for verification.”
Mu Jon shook his head.
“The mere fact that you entered this place is proof enough of your identity.”
“I do not understand your meaning.”
“Only those who have stepped into the Wuji Realm—masters of the highest caliber—can enter this facility.”
A profoundly mysterious radiance flickered once more in his eyes.
“Only those who resonate with Wuji power can pass through.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes gleamed with realization.
She had suppressed the emergence of her Wuji Ascension and eliminated the stage of treading the path of the Wuji Realm.
However, the power of ‘Harmony’ was,
ultimately closer to the power of Wuji capacity that masters of the Wuji Realm could unleash.
‘If I could use Harmony at will….’
Bu Eunseol forcibly calmed her racing heart.
‘It means I could immediately match myself against the masters of the Wuji Realm who dominate Tianxia.’
If I could wield Harmony freely according to my will, rather than forcibly drawing and arranging power?
It would be no different from reaching a realm where I could freely contend with masters of the Wuji Realm.
“But I have not reached the Wuji Realm.”
Even at such words, Mu Jon’s expression remained unchanged.
“Of course not.”
And he spoke leisurely, as if peering into Bu Eunseol’s martial cultivation level.
“But the Wuji Equal Rank should have manifested sufficiently.”
‘The difference between Demonic Path and Orthodox martial arts.’
The essence of Orthodox martial arts lies in a single character: Qi.
Therefore, unlike those of the Demonic Path, Orthodox practitioners
prioritize tempering their inner force first when learning martial arts, making inner force cultivation paramount.
Though Mu Jon did not scrutinize Bu Eunseol’s martial cultivation level as meticulously as Ma Cheon Je would have,
he sensed from the vital energy flowing through her body alone that Wuji Equal Rank had already awakened within her.
‘There is no need to elaborate on my martial cultivation level.’
Bu Eunseol chose not to dwell on it further and changed the subject.
“Why did you grant me the identity of Seon Woo Jin?”
There were mountains of questions to ask Mu Jon.
But first, she needed to discern whether he would answer truthfully and how far he would go as Mu Jon in providing answers.
Therefore, Bu Eunseol began with a lighter question.
“I am of the Demonic Path, after all.”
“That is a question you should ask Shin San Ja, is it not?”
The identity of Seon Woo Jin was given by Shin San Ja.
Since he is now Mu Jon, he cannot provide the answer that Shin San Ja would give.
“Then I shall ask differently.”
Bu Eunseol spoke.
“Why did you permit the fictional figure known as Seon Woo Jin to wreak havoc through the Murim Alliance?”
Bu Eunseol shifted her approach,
reframing the question so that Mu Jon, rather than Shin San Ja, could answer it.
“Hehehehe.”
Mu Jon laughed with a pleased expression, then opened his mouth.
“I needed someone capable of improvising properly in any situation.”
With the corners of his mouth raised, he raised his eyebrows.
“So even when the plan was suddenly altered, I permitted it.”
Mu Jon spoke as if expressing himself and Shin San Ja as entirely separate, independent individuals.
“Far more suited than the original candidate, I would say.”
“That is correct.”
“You’re saying you could trust Shin San Ja’s decision to test such an important matter with merely two gates?”
Bu Eunseol rephrased the question once more.
This time, she posed it in a way that Mu Jon, not Shin San Ja, could answer.
“Shin San Ja opening those two gates merely confirmed that your spirit had entered the intermediate stage. It had nothing to do with trust.”
Mu Jon’s eyes grew sharper as he continued.
“He was verifying something else entirely.”
“You mean Cheon Am Seong?”
“So you knew.”
Mu Jon’s gaze narrowed to slits.
From that single phrase, he deduced much.
“You’ve met Dam Jeung.”
‘I cannot admit to this.’
Dam Jeung had said that Jeong Cheon Je was alive.
If that were true, then Mu Jon was hiding something.
I could not afford to acknowledge meeting Dam Jeung now.
“It was Cheon Joon who said such a thing.”
Bu Eunseol spoke firmly.
“That I am Cheon Am Seong.”
“Cheon Joon…”
Mu Jon’s eyes shimmered with an enigmatic light.
“How curious. If that is so, then Cheon Joon must have demonstrated power sufficient to harbor such suspicion.”
His gaze swept over her from head to toe as he spoke in a low voice.
“Did he perhaps force your spirit into the Abyss, and you escaped from it?”
Bu Eunseol felt her skin prickle.
Only then did she truly understand.
Not a single careless word could be uttered before Mu Jon.
If Ma Cheon Je could destroy an enemy’s spirit without speaking a word…
Then Mu Jon could deduce hundreds of truths from a single phrase spoken by his opponent.
His shadow was the greatest sage of Murim.
She must never make a slip of the tongue.

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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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