The Heavenly Demon of the Blue Sky - Chapter 29

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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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Azure Heaven Celestial Demon – Episode 29
The countless battles fought across Anhui Province became invaluable nourishment for building a solid foundation.
This held true not only for the students of Xiaoming Martial Academy, but for me as well.
The more blood stained my blade, the deeper and more solid the Azure Heaven Demonic Qi coiled within my Dantian became.
The martial arts I had previously refined grew sharper and more refined still.
‘It’s time to move to the next stage.’
Having gauged my progress, I turned my steps toward the study without hesitation.
In the corner of the newly constructed study’s bookshelf.
I withdrew a thick tome from among the carefully dusted secret manuals.
Azure Sky Flying Swallow Sword.
It was a sword technique that struck at an opponent’s blind spots with speed and elegance, like a swallow gliding through the blue sky.
“Hmm.”
As I turned the pages, I carefully analyzed the forms and meanings contained within the manual.
I gradually restored the lost incantations in my mind.
“The harmony of a straight blade and nimble footwork. That’s the essence.”
Soon after, I stepped into the training grounds and began executing the forms of the Azure Sky Flying Swallow Sword.
Whoosh!
My blue robe fluttered beautifully, rippling like a swallow’s wings.
Then, arching my body mid-air, I traced a graceful arc.
Slash!
Like a swallow diving to pluck an insect, I delivered a sharp thrust.
Yet the elegant dance that embroidered the air shattered abruptly beyond the third form.
“…Ugh!”
A stabbing pain shot through my chest.
My Dantian’s energy surged backward in an instant, and my breath caught.
‘The Severed Meridian. The large movements are putting strain on my body.’
Until now, I had relied on minimizing my motions to an exacting degree to manifest my martial arts.
But executing the Azure Sky Flying Swallow Sword—maintaining my entire body light as a feather while advancing continuously—was beyond my capacity.
‘I’ve mastered the technique perfectly, yet my body refuses to follow. How frustrating.’
I wiped the cold sweat from my brow and fell into deep thought.
Most rigid swordsmen would have surrendered upon feeling such limits.
But who am I?
Am I not the Celestial Demon who climbed up from the very bottom of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains?
‘If I have no teeth, I’ll chew it down with my gums.’
The life of the Demonic Sect, which disregarded means and methods and pursued only victory and results.
As I rummaged through memories of my past life—one that would use any trick or tool to win—a certain scene flashed across my mind.
‘That’s it. The device I used when attacking those nouveau riche merchants at an inn in Hangzhou recently.’
I had fired a portable wrist crossbow with a hook and line attached to scale a wall.
If my body cannot become light as a feather, then I can forcibly pull myself using objects and tools around me to substitute for footwork.
‘An expedient method can be a solution if it yields results.’
The moment the thought took shape, I headed without hesitation to the blacksmith.
“Ah, Hyeok! Welcome! What brings you here?”
Yeonhwa, her face streaked with soot, greeted me with delight.
Han Seoksan, who had been tending the forge, also welcomed me with his weathered face.
“I need a favor.”
I explained the structure of the wrist crossbow I had conceived to the two of them.
“I want to attach it to my wrist, fire it to anchor it where I choose, and use it to pull myself up.”
“So you’re saying attach a line to the crossbow to provide recoil? That’s a brilliant idea!”
Yeonhwa’s eyes sparkled as she immediately picked up a brush and began sketching designs.
But as she drew, a problem seemed to present itself.
“Yet Hyeok, if you’re to lift your body and cleave through the air, the rope and crossbow must be quite thick and sturdy to support that weight. And if you wind such a thick rope around your wrist crossbow to carry it about, the weight itself will be considerable. I fear it would only burden your body.”
Now that she mentioned it, the crossbow I had used before had not lasted long either.
The process of retrieving the fired rope was itself quite troublesome.
Han Seoksan, observing from the side, offered his counsel as well.
“More than that, for this crossbow to withstand your body weight while simultaneously delivering a sudden, powerful recoil, the internal components must employ various grades of iron. Strength alone won’t suffice, nor will flexibility alone. The ore mined from the Namgung Clan’s mines alone would struggle to meet such exacting specifications.”
Weight and materials.
As the two craftsmen faced this impasse and wracked their brains,
a solution occurred to me.
“If the rope’s thickness and the crossbow’s strength are the problems, I have a good alternative.”
“Yes? What might that be?”
“Heavenly Silkworm Thread.”
The two men’s eyes widened at the word that left my lips.
“The silk stored in the weaving workshop—if you twisted it into multiple strands and used it as a rope substitute, wouldn’t it be far more durable than ordinary cord? It’s lightweight, and you could keep firing it without needing to recover it, just like a spider’s web.”
“Ah! If it’s Heavenly Silkworm Thread, you could wind tens of feet inside the crossbow and it’d take up barely the space of a thimble! You’re brilliant as always, Hyeok!”
Yeonhwa clapped her hands together in excitement.
She then retrieved a large weapon from the storehouse and held it out before Han Seoksan.
Thud!
“This is—!”
It was the axe I’d taken after disposing of Wang Sam, the bloodpath fiend who’d assaulted the main house long ago.
“It appears to be polished from precious black iron. What do you think of melting it down and using it in crafting the crossbow?”
Han Seoksan carefully ran his fingers across the axe’s surface, then could not contain his admiration.
“Magnificent! Multiple layers of exotic iron are interwoven throughout! If we melt it carefully and work with it, we can forge a crossbow that is both light and incredibly resilient!”
“Excellent. All the problems are solved. I’m entrusting the creation of this weapon entirely to both of you.”
“Yes! Leave it to us! I’ll make it perfectly, exactly as you envision it!”
Yeonhwa patted her chest with confident pride, and Han Seoksan likewise smiled warmly as he stoked the flames in the forge.

* * *
Ten days passed.
The sound of the hammer striking metal from the smithy ceased, and Yeonhwa and Han Seoksan came to me carrying the finished work.
“I’m so nervous! What do you think? We forged it night after night without sleep……”
I fitted the finely crafted Wrist Guard Gauntlets, polished from black iron, onto both wrists.
“Good. The fit is excellent.”
The form was sleek and elegant—a thin, graceful curve running from forearm to wrist.
It wasn’t overly heavy, and it didn’t restrict the wrist’s movement at all.
‘They’ve creased it like joints. This is meticulous work.’
This was surely the handiwork of Han Seoksan, experienced in weapon-crafting.
Satisfied, I nodded and examined the inner surface of the gauntlets.
Click! The Heavenly Silkworm Thread was wound tightly in neat coils.
“Show your palm and point your fingertips in the direction you want to aim, then thrust your wrist forward.”
Following Yeonhwa’s instruction, as I gave the trigger motion, the spring mechanism engaged with precision and a sharp needle shot forth.
Whoosh! At the same moment, the silver-tinged Heavenly Silkworm Thread stretched taut. It possessed enough force to support my body weight.
“Superb. Both of you have worked tremendously hard.”
They had crafted it exactly as I had hoped, flawlessly.
At my praise, Yeonhwa’s nose twitched with pride and she puffed out her chest.
“Hehe, that’s the natural result! Ask me anytime you need something else!”
Han Seoksan beside her also bowed respectfully, his face glowing with satisfaction.
“This old man is grateful beyond measure. Thanks to you, it has been a valuable experience.”
After sending them off, I entered a remote forest alone.
Among the towering ancient trees, their branches so thick they seemed to blot out the sky.
I took a light deep breath, then gave a snap motion to my wrist as I raised it.
Whistle! Ping!
The Heavenly Silkworm Thread shot forth with a faint sound of air being split.
It embedded firmly in a thick branch of a tree roughly thirty paces away.
As I pulled hard, my body soared high into the air.
Hup!
Reaching the peak height, I snapped my right wrist this time.
Ping!
The Heavenly Silkworm Thread caught in a tree on the opposite side, and like a spider traversing its web, I shot through the forest in a zigzag pattern.
‘Excellent! My body feels no strain.’
I had gained fluid movement that could rival Lightness Skill itself.
And that form recalled the secret assassination unit of the past master of this place—
the Black Mist Squad, who favored this footwork technique.
‘A footwork that moves silently along the thread from blind spots, targeting the enemy’s throat.’
The Traceless Flying Shadow Step. And more than that—
I shot upward toward the tops of the ancient trees and drew the Azure Sea Crescent Moon Sword from my waist.
Hiss! A flash of azure blade-light cut through the forest’s darkness.
Ranging freely through the air, I unleashed all the forms of the Azure Sky Flying Swallow Sword that I had not been able to display until now.
Slash! Slash!
As the Heavenly Silkworm Thread shot from my left wrist, pulling my body’s center,
the Azure Sea Crescent Moon Sword in my right hand thrust lightning-swift into the enemy’s blind spot.
A swallow’s flight that circles the heavens before plummeting earthward in a heartbeat.
Within that elegance, the Demonic Sect’s signature unpredictable movement merged flawlessly.
The silver Heavenly Silkworm Thread and violet sword light crossed in a dizzying blur, as if a galaxy had spilled into a pitch-black forest.
Shriek—! Trees fell smoothly along the trajectory left behind, tumbling to the ground.
Boom—! Crack-crack-crack!
A thunderous crash shook the earth, and dust erupted upward.
Then, landing lightly as a feather, she brushed the dust from the blue blade.
The orthodox school’s steadfast swordplay combined with the heterodox path’s efficient footwork.
And excellent equipment fused into this new form.
‘A cyan swallow dancing through the shadow of the Celestial Demon.’
With a satisfied smile, she spoke the name of her new technique aloud.
“Azure Heaven Demon Swallow Sword. Yes, this will do.”

* * *
At that same moment, in Longzhong, Hubei Province.
When surveying the current state of the realm and discussing the history of the martial world, no one omits the Zhuge Family, one of the Five Great Houses.
The reason they maintained the clan’s lofty reputation without wavering lay not in overwhelming martial prowess or raw military strength.
It was the sharp insight to read the flow of the world, and the extraordinary wisdom to turn crisis into opportunity.
For this reason, the archives of the Zhuge Family were perpetually heaped with information gathered from every corner of the realm, and their interest in worldly affairs was not merely keen but obsessive.
And now.
A middle-aged man dressed in a neat crane-patterned robe felt his deep, clear gaze tremble faintly.
“Truly, it is a cascade of unbelievable events.”
It was Zhuge Ming, the patriarch of the Zhuge Family and he who was called the Celestial Mechanism Scholar.
His gaze rested on the name that has most recently set the martial world ablaze: Namgung.
Until very recently, the Namgung Clan had vanished into history’s shadows, thought destroyed by the Clan Extermination Calamity.
Rumors spoke that the youngest son who barely survived lay bedridden, clinging to life day by day.
Yet that sickly young master suddenly rose from his bed and ascended to the patriarch’s seat, and from then began making moves that defied expectation.
His thorough punishment of the upstart merchants who had disdained the clan was merely the opening act.
When news arrived that he had not only rooted out the remnants of the hidden Bloodpath Faction, but had personally slain Sidao Wu, the notorious elder of that wicked sect—
Zhuge Ming initially dismissed it as exaggerated rumor.
‘He must have simply lent his hand to Zhang Hu of the Kaifeng Faction and Huiguang of Shaolin—rising stars worthy of attention engaged in combat.’
But the world’s predictions were utterly wrong.
The two young masters instead proclaimed to all heaven and earth that they themselves owed a great debt to the Namgung patriarch, and that it was he himself who had taken Sidao Wu’s head.
Nor did it end there. He gathered the scattered members of the Namgung household, miraculously rebuilt the clan’s territories, and swept away every bandit and brigand infesting Anhui Province, restoring peace to a region that had grown desperate.
All of this had transpired in mere months.
Now, not merely the Zhuge Family but the eyes of all heaven and earth were fixed upon the resurrected Namgung.
“Mmm…….”
Zhuge Ming tapped his fingers upon the table. A merchant’s calculation and a scholar’s reason spun rapidly in his mind.
‘This is the moment. The expectations surrounding the Namgung are highest in a thousand years of their history, yet their power remains as fragile as an infant. In other words, a perfect nadir.’
A bond forged at such a time would become, when Namgung fully recovered their strength, an asset worth more than gold.
Even a sack of rice or a small word of praise given now would be doubled in gratitude during such a period.
Now was the opportune moment to strengthen their ties.
Yet Zhuge Ming exercised caution.
‘The problem is that I cannot determine precisely what manner of talent the new patriarch of Namgung, Namgung Hyeok, truly is. Will he prove a tiger worthy of wagering the Zhuge Family’s destiny upon, or merely a cat with a polished exterior?’
It was then that he fell into deep contemplation.
Creak—! The study door opened quietly, and a handsome young man entered, a leisurely smile on his face.
“Father. You appear lost in profound thought.”
It was Zhuge Yun, the eldest son of the Zhuge Family and a genius called the Crouching Dragon of his generation.
Zhuge Ming greeted his son with a warm smile.
“Indeed, I was just contemplating Namgung. Certainly, now is an opportune time to form bonds, yet I hesitate because I have not directly observed the patriarch’s capacity. What does your father do?”
At those words, Zhuge Yun unfolded the White Feather Fan he held in his hand with a rustle.
Behind the snow-white feather fan, which covered the area beneath his eyes halfway, his gaze flickered with keen curiosity.
“Then we have a most excellent pretext.”
“A pretext, you say?”
“With the coming winter, the gathering of the next generation of our great houses shall be held at our Zhuge Family, shall it not? What if we formally invite the patriarch of Namgung to that gathering?”
Zhuge Yun waved his White Feather Fan gently, his eyes narrowing with interest.
“After all, Namgung were once members of our circle by origin—justification enough. By summoning him to that occasion, I shall directly discern whether he is truly the pillar to support the Azure Sky, or merely a fortunate accident…… ”
A contemporary who walks the same age, one who shall govern the realm: Namgung Hyeok.
Through the narrow gaps of Zhuge Yun’s smile, a keen curiosity gleamed.

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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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