The Heavenly Demon of the Blue Sky - Chapter 33

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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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Heavenly Demon of Breaking Heaven: Episode 33
Five days remained before the assembly convened.
During that time, I refined the newly forged Namgung Sword.
After that, Yuhwa led me by the hand through the bustling streets of Yungjoong.
And at last, today had arrived.
The gates of the Jegal Clan Estate, where the Orthodox Sect’s finest minds were said to gather, swung open.
“Hyeok! Are you all set?”
The door burst open and Yuhwa swept inside.
She wore a martial robe of sky-blue silk embroidered with the symbol of Namgung Clan, woven with exquisite care from the finest heavenly silk, its collar adorned with cloud patterns that looked magnificent.
The Jade Hairpin she’d bought at the market stall last time was pinned neatly through her hair.
With the clear qi refined through all her training added to this, she presented the figure of an incomparably beautiful and commanding talent—one whose radiance was striking enough to draw gasps.
Her face glowed with the anticipation of meeting the other Outstanding Talents.
“Mm, yes.”
Meanwhile, I stood before the mirror hastily pulling my collar closed, unmoved.
What pleasure could there be in a gathering where the Orthodox Sect’s younger disciples cultivated friendships?
Besides, I had never been one to enjoy mingling with others.
“Can’t you just go alone?”
“What nonsense! How can the Clan Head of Namgung speak with such irresponsibility!”
Yuhwa carefully re-fastened my collar, then straightened the Iron Token at my waist with precise attention.
“Our youngest really does cut such a fine figure!”
Observing my appearance now that my grooming was complete, she grew animated—though it was not mere sisterly fondness that drove her.
The pale cast to my complexion only deepened an air of frail elegance, lending an ethereal quality to my features.
The custom-tailored martial robe with its deep blue luster and the flowing winter overcoat with its wide sleeves adorned the whole ensemble with refined grace.
A far cry from the blood-soaked days of the Heavenly Demon of Breaking Heaven in my past life.
Here stood the very image of an aloof, noble young nobleman of the Orthodox Sect.
“At this rate, every woman in Yungjoong will line up for you. Don’t you think?”
“Pointless talk. Let’s depart before we’re late.”
I turned away with deliberate curtness.
“Oh, look at you getting shy! How adorable!”
“I’m not adorable.”
“Yes, you are!”
When we descended to the ground floor, Namgung Gyeong, who had been waiting, grew so moved his eyes reddened with emotion.
“The bearing of you both is truly magnificent—like beholding Virtuous Man and Woman! And the radiance behind the Clan Head’s back is quite extraordinary, reminiscent of my younger days when I…….”
Left unchecked, he would shower us with such embarrassing flattery all day and night.
Pop! I pinched shut those loose lips of his and hurried him along.
“Enough fanfare. Let’s go.”
“Mmph! Yes, yes!”
I offered Yuhwa my hand and helped her into the carriage first, then settled beside her with a heavy seat.
Through the carriage window, the prosperous streets of Yungjoong swept past in a blur.
The thoroughfares were far more crowded than usual—no doubt the fervor of the Yongbong Conference was inflaming the entire city.
Before long, the carriage’s pace slowed, and soon it came to a halt.
“Clan Head, we have arrived.”
Following Namgung Gyeong’s guidance, I stepped down from the carriage to find an enormous mansion’s gates looming into view with tremendous grandeur.
This was the headquarters of the Jegal Clan Estate, the Orthodox Sect’s foremost minds.
“Only honored guests representing their clans may enter from this point.”
The guards of the Jegal Clan Estate stepped forward with formal demeanor to bar our way.
I produced the official letter with gold leaf along with the Iron Token of the Murim Alliance.
“We come from Namgung Clan.”
“An honor to receive you. Please, allow us to show you inside.”
The escort guard could not accompany us further—such were the regulations, and there was no way around it.
“We shall wait in the outer pavilion. Please proceed at your leisure, Clan Head.”
I raised a hand lightly in acknowledgment and accepted the guard’s guidance.
‘Indeed, truly a renowned family worthy of their fame in Formation Technique and Qimen Dunjia.’
At first glance it appeared to be merely beautiful landscaping, yet every placement of tree and flow of pond formed a subtle Illusory Formation.
A stranger wandering in carelessly could easily become trapped and lost forever in such a design.
“We have arrived.”
Before us lay a garden so resplendent my jaw nearly dropped.
Willow branches hung low and dripping over a clear pond, casting deep shadows.
At the center rose a three-story pavilion, commanding and majestic.
“Wow…….”
Yuhwa, standing beside me, let out a deep gasp of admiration at the spectacle.
Not only that, but Outstanding Talents gathered from all corners of the realm occupied the space.
They clustered in small groups, laughing and chattering, boasting of their family lineages—a truly laughable sight.
‘How tedious.’
A gathering held under the grandiose pretext of discussing the future of the Murim Alliance.
But to my eyes, having been the Heavenly Demon of Breaking Heaven in my past life, it was nothing more than the gaudy playtime of spoiled scions from prestigious clans.
“Tsk, tsk.”
I clicked my tongue dismissively and began walking slowly toward the pavilion.
A soft rustling sound.
The moment my sister and I crossed the threshold of the pavilion.
The gazes of dozens of Outstanding Talents, who had been gathered in clusters and absorbed in boasting of their families, suddenly snapped toward us as if by some unspoken agreement.
The chatter that had filled the hall fell silent in an instant.
“Good heavens, isn’t that the Namgung Clan that fell into ruin?”
“I heard they were rebuilt anew, but to think they would even attend this gathering…….”
“Then is that person the Namgung Clan Head that was rumored about?”
“But looking at him, his inner strength doesn’t seem particularly deep at all……. Doesn’t he just look like a young master barely scraping by day to day?”
“Exactly. How could he have slain an elder of the Crimson Religion, when surely the rumors have been greatly exaggerated…….”
Whispered murmurs swarmed around my ears like a cloud of bees.
Eyes tinged with doubt, laughter saturated with envy, or perhaps keen curiosity.
Dozens of different gazes swept across my entire form with relentless scrutiny.
Lacking the boldness to address me directly, they all kept their distance and merely watched for any opening.
‘How irritating.’
I folded my arms and thoroughly ignored the deluge of stares.
In my past life, when I stood at the zenith as the Heavenly Demon of Breaking Heaven, the masters of the realm would bow their foreheads to the ground and tremble merely at the sight of my shadow.
Yet now I had to endure the critiques of these green Orthodox Sect saplings spoken right to my face.
‘Tsk, this is exactly why I never wanted to come to children’s games like this.’
Still, the reason I remained was Yuhwa beside me.
The eldest daughter of the Namgung Clan, striving to ensure no blemish fell upon her family’s standing.
“Sigh.”
Since it was a place my sister wanted to be, I had decided to stay quietly and leave when the time came.

* * *
At that same moment, two burly men wholly unadapted to the glittering, extravagant atmosphere of the banquet hall were doing nothing but drinking plain water in a corner.
The eyes of Hwangbo Gang and Ak Jin were fixed on the Namgung siblings.
“Brother, those are the Namgung.”
Ak Jin pointed toward the entrance with his pot-lid-like hand.
A woman of breathtaking beauty and the young master who now represented the Namgung Clan.
The fair-skinned boy walking in seemed almost unspeakably delicate.
There was nothing about him that bore the harsh, murderous air of one trained in martial arts.
“But you’re telling me that among this frail-looking woman and young master, there exists someone skilled enough to reduce that solid garden stone to dust in a single blow?”
Hwangbo Gang swallowed hard, utterly unable to believe what he was hearing.

* * *
‘Hm?’
Among the countless gazes, two auras stood out as particularly intense and piercing.
When I turned my head, I saw two massive men watching me intently.
‘Who are they? Do they know me?’
It was precisely as I tilted my head in confusion.
“You, you bastard……!”
A sharp, biting voice came from somewhere.
When I turned to look, a woman in a green silk dress, her face half-concealed behind a veil, stood pointing at me with trembling fingers.
A woman from the Sacheon Dang Family.
Judging by her seat among the honored guests, she held high rank.
This was a fact I hadn’t known.
“That unlucky wretch back then……! So you, you were Namgung all along?!”
The woman looked back and forth between the blue martial robes of Namgung and myself, her lips trembling.
But “unlucky wretch”? So she’s still brooding over what happened then?
As a series of commotion drew other Outstanding Talents to gather and murmur among themselves.
I folded my arms as if to say “so what” and raised one corner of my mouth into a smirk.
“Ah. That hysterical woman from before?”
“A lunatic woman?”
The woman’s face flushed crimson in an instant, cycling between red and purple.
As if no one had ever dared speak such a word to her before.
“How dare you address me, Dang Soyeon, the eldest daughter of the Sacheon Dang Family, with such vulgar language!”
“Vulgar?”
I let out a laugh of disbelief and shrugged my shoulders.
“Stealing something someone else grabbed first, and when that doesn’t work, sneaking poison into their veins—isn’t that lunacy? Does the Sacheon Dang Family teach such things as family etiquette?”
“……!”
At my blunt retort, the Outstanding Talents filling the hall drew in a collective breath.
“Have the two of you met before?”
“Did she really use poison to try to steal something?”
The Dang Family’s poison had a notorious reputation even within the Orthodox Sect.
As the whispers of others echoed through the space, Dang Soyeon’s sense finally snapped under the weight of shame and fury.
“You mad creature! I’ll tear your mouth to shreds!”
Swift as lightning, a slender hand plunged into her sleeve.
A keen Flying Blade was about to slice toward the space between my brows.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
A gentle wind rose from nowhere, and a pristine white feather fan lightly pressed down upon Dang Soyeon’s wrist.
“My, my. How could we allow bloodshed at such a distinguished gathering where dragon and phoenix have come together, Miss Dang?”
A voice as warm and melodious as a spring breeze.
The one who appeared was a young man dressed in a white scholar’s robe.
A crescent moon seemed to rest in each of his eyes as he smiled warmly.
“Has the tea and refreshments prepared by the Jegal Clan not been to your liking?”
He redirected the blame for the disturbance in the Jegal garden back to her with his question.
“Je, Jegal Woon!”
Understanding his meaning, Dang Soyeon irritably withdrew her Flying Blade.
“Tch! Out of my way.”
She then shouldered through the crowd that had gathered and disappeared into a corner of the garden.
“There was a brief commotion, it seems.”
The remaining man fanned himself with the white feather fan, smoothly restoring order to the chaotic atmosphere.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jegal Woon, host of this Yongbong Conference and the young master of the Jegal Clan Estate.”
Then, with a cunning smile, he stepped toward the center of the pavilion.
“Now then, shall we return to our original purpose? I am deeply honored that so many of the Orthodox Sect’s finest talents have gathered here in one place. Thank you for traveling so far.”
With that, he performed a respectful fist salute toward the gathered crowd.
“Though it is regrettable that certain individuals such as Muyong, Doggo, and the Hasbuk Peng Family could not attend due to unavoidable circumstances.”
In other words, nearly every major clan had shown up.
One could well imagine how much effort had gone into organizing this gathering.
“Yet seeing the faces of these distinguished Exceptional Talents before me, that regret melts away like snow. Now then, let us set aside formalities.”
Jegal Woon folded his White Feather Fan and gently clapped his palm.
“It is certainly pleasant to gather like this and enjoy ourselves freely, but this is, after all, a banquet hosted by the Jegal Clan Estate. I had no wish to make it an ordinary affair where we merely drink and disperse. Therefore, I have prepared special entertainment. The first item is a riddle.”
At Jegal Woon’s signal, servants of the Jegal Clan carried a large table to the center of the garden.
Soon after, a long sheet of pristine white painting paper unfurled across its surface.
“Would you care to participate? I shall present a special prize to whoever solves it.”
At Jegal Woon’s invitation, the Outstanding Talents were seized with competitive spirit, eager to display their wit.
“Excellent. Here comes the problem.”
Jegal Woon dipped his brush generously in ink and, without hesitation, wrote the riddle in one fluid stroke across the paper.
His handwriting flowed with both grace and power.
[That which cannot be cut by a sword, nor shattered by palm force. It rusts steel, erodes the mighty Mount Tai, and brings even the greatest heroes and warriors to their knees. What is the most fearsome hidden weapon in all the world?]
The moment the riddle was complete, the Outstanding Talents in the pavilion rushed toward the painting paper and began to murmur among themselves.
“A hidden weapon that cannot be cut by a sword and brings heroes to their knees……”
“Surely you mean the Formless Poison?”
“What brings great heroes to their knees is the allure of beautiful women! Yes, that must be it!”
Various plausible wrong answers flew about, but Jegal Woon merely smiled with ease and shook his head.
“All are excellent attempts, but not the correct answer.”
As time passed, the faces of the crowd grew increasingly frustrated.
“For heaven’s sake, what is the answer?”
“Don’t torment us—tell us the answer already!”
“That’s right! Did you not simply write down an impossible riddle from the start?”
It was just as these men, who prided themselves as the Orthodox Sect’s finest talents, began to surrender one by one, raising the white flag of defeat.
“Well, I’d say the answer is quite close at hand.”
Jegal Woon’s gaze swept lazily across the pavilion before settling on me, where I stood alone in the corner, nursing my cup.
“I wonder what Young Master Namgung Gyeong thinks?”
“……?”
“You’ve been watching everyone else fret about this problem with such obvious indifference this whole time.”
And then he added a subtle challenge.
“I’m curious whether you’ve abandoned the attempt because you find the problem too difficult, or because it strikes you as beneath your notice.”
At Jegal Woon’s sudden call-out, every eye in the room swiveled toward me at once.
A calculated maneuver—using the crowd to pressure me, hoping to squeeze out whatever I was holding back.
‘Look at this one.’
The boy was already reading the room’s currents, trying to seize control of it.
Whether you’d call it clever or cunning.
I lifted one corner of my mouth in a slight smile.
“You want to know the answer?”

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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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