The Heavenly Demon of the Blue Sky - Chapter 38

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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 Sky Celestial Demon — Episode 38
At that very moment.
Dang So-yeon, Jegal Un, I, and our warriors moved swiftly along the mountain path.
We pressed forward after discovering the trail Yu Hwa had taken upward.
Crash! Boom-boom!
From deep within the shadowed forest halfway up the slope came a thunderous impact that shook the earth, accompanied by the sound of trees snapping like brittle twigs.
‘There.’
I descended through the air and landed in a clearing as dust billowed up around me.
The ground lay torn and gouged as though struck by lightning, with thick tree trunks splintered grotesquely across the earth.
“Hyeok!”
My first glimpse revealed Yu Hwa, thankfully unhurt.
“Are you injured?”
“I’m fine — Hwangbo protected me!”
Only then did I notice the massive figure blocking the space before us.
It was Hwangbo Gang, his upper robes torn to shreds, thick veins bulging along his arms as he heaved for breath.
‘Impressive.’
I stepped closer and steadied him by the shoulder.
“My sister lives because of you.”
At my words, Hwangbo Gang relaxed his stance and exhaled with relief.
“On the contrary, I owe gratitude to you. You steadied the wavering in my heart.”
Hwangbo Gang’s cheeks flushed as he glanced toward Yu Hwa.
The sight was peculiar, but this was hardly the moment to probe a young man’s awkward affections.
“But the creatures — where are they?”
Hwangbo Gang’s expression hardened instantly at my question.
“That is… most strange. My fists shattered their spines, my strikes tore holes through their bellies — yet the wounds sealed themselves as though they had never been.”
So I had not been mistaken earlier.
“And what chilled me most was that they ceased their assault in perfect unison, as though responding to a single command. Their heads bent backward in grotesque synchrony, and they fled up that path as though a silent order had rung directly in their minds.”
Hwangbo Gang pointed toward a steep mountain path ascending toward the summit.
The same behavior as those who had attacked me — new orders relayed, targets redirected without question.
“I’m pursuing them now. The both of you, descend.”
I gave the order, but Yu Hwa and Hwangbo Gang shook their heads in unison.
“I’m coming with you! I want to help!”
“If you go, then I, Hwangbo Gang, shall follow to the bitter end!”
Their eyes held an unwavering resolve.
Better to keep them where I could watch them than to waste time breaking their stubbornness.
“Tch. Do as you will. But don’t fall behind.”
I launched myself like a hawk toward the path where the enemies had vanished.
Whoosh! Rush!
As we climbed the mountain trail, cutting through the dense darkness of the forest.
“Ahhhhhhhhh-!!”
A harrowing scream tore through the air from beyond a distant ridge.
“This way!”
I changed direction and surged toward the sound.
The moment I reached the scene, a thick reek of blood struck my nostrils with sickening force.
“Gasp… hack…!”
It was Ak Jin, the heir of the Sandong Ak Clan.
Black-clad figures surrounded him on all sides, pressing their assault.
“Damn these bastards!”
Ak Jin’s Black Iron Spear drove toward their throats in a desperate thrust.
One of the black-clad creatures ignored its own arm being pierced and seized the shaft of the spear.
The remaining two raised their verdant claws to sever Ak Jin’s lifeline. A perfect dead angle — nowhere to escape.
“Ak Jin!!”
Hwangbo Gang, arriving behind me, cried out in alarm, but the distance was too great.
A moment of absolute peril.
‘Not too late.’
I drove my foot into the earth and launched Heavenly Silkworm Thread from my armor in the same motion.
It caught on the branches above, and I used the rebound to spin my body through the air.
Azure Sky Demon Swallow Sword — Fifth Form: Soaring Swallow Cuts the Void.
Sharp! Bang!!
A brilliant violet wind split into two arcs and came crashing down.
The arms of the black-clad assailants flying toward Ak Jin’s throat were severed in a single blow.
A cry of agony pierced the air.
As the maimed attackers staggered backward, I landed smoothly in front of Ak Jin, cutting off their advance.
“L-Lord Namgung!”
Ak Jin, his face drained of color, exhaled in ragged gasps as he stared at me.
“Fall back. I’ll handle the rest.”
I was about to take a step forward toward the black-clad figures, the Blue Sea Bright Moon angled before me with blood dripping steadily from its blade, when—
Thud. A soft rolling sound.
A dark, spherical object tumbled across the ground toward my feet through the darkness.
‘A Thunderbolt Bomb?!’
I swept it away with a blade wind even as I threw myself flat against the earth.
A deafening roar tore through the night.
The entire forest shook violently as the blast split the air like thunder.
Someone had deliberately detonated it to cover the black-clad figures’ escape.
Acrid smoke and pale dust swallowed the clearing in an instant.
Coughing erupted in the haze.
“Hyuk! Are you hurt?”
Hwangbo Gang and Yu Hwa, arriving late to the chaos, raised their weapons while hacking through the smoke.
“A coward’s trick!”
Jegal Un stepped forward, wielding his White Feather Fan with sweeping force.
The Jegal Clan’s secret technique—the Wind Sweeps Remnant Cloud.
Pure white wind surged forth, and in a single breath, it drove the acrid smoke and choking dust far down the mountainside, clearing the clearing entirely.
The cold night air flowed back through the forest, and vision returned—but the enemy had vanished without a trace.
All that remained at our feet was a corpse, its throat half-torn away, already growing cold.
Judging by the ornate robes he wore, he was a youth of the Seomun Clan.
“Young Master Ak! What in the name of heaven just happened?”
When Jegal Un demanded an answer with urgency in his voice, Ak Jin opened his mouth hesitantly, his pallid face trembling.
“I—I don’t know. We were simply climbing the mountain together with Young Master Seomun when suddenly, creatures with faces black as pitch erupted from the forest!”
Deep terror still lingered in Ak Jin’s eyes, unabated.
“It was strange—so strange. They didn’t even glance at me, though I stood right beside him. Even when a spear grazed my shoulder, they didn’t cry out or react. As if I didn’t exist.”
“What do you mean—”
“Only Young Master Seomun! From the start, only him—they tore at him like beasts! Only after Young Master Seomun’s breath left his body did I finally catch their eye, did they move to kill me! Lord Namgung, I owe you my life. I am grateful beyond measure. I would be dead now but for your intervention.”
Ak Jin pressed his trembling hands together and offered them toward me in gratitude.
“Spare the pleasantries.”
I rested my chin in my palm, turning over the pieces of the puzzle in my mind, fitting them together one by one.
Creatures wearing human forms, yet devoid of emotion.
Beings that moved with clear intent, selecting which target to hunt according to some master’s command.
The memory of facing such things in my past life surfaced, and my jaw clenched involuntarily.
“I know who’s behind this. The Blood Cult—those damned wretches.”
The Blood Cult.
Demons that lusted for blood and flesh, wielding forbidden sorcery of the most grotesque kind.
The moment that dreadful, taboo name left my lips—
“The B-Blood Cult?!”
Ak Jin, who had been sitting paralyzed in shock, was the first to react.
He shrieked, his face draining of all color as he trembled violently.
“You mean those vile creatures have infiltrated the very heart of the Jegal Clan’s stronghold?!”
“…Lord Namgung.”
Jegal Un’s face had gone rigid as stone, his voice emerging thin and wavering.
“How can you be certain the Blood Cult orchestrated this ambush?”
Dang So-yeon and Hwangbo Gang swallowed hard, their eyes betraying disbelief.
The mere name carried such terror.
For these orthodox sect disciples, it seemed a burden beyond bearing.
But to me, they were nothing more than loathsome vermin to be crushed beneath my heel.
“The method tells all.”
I dismissed the unease rippling through our group and examined the corpse of the Seomun Clan youth.
It was a horrifying sight.
The body was grotesquely mangled as if raked by a bear’s claws, flesh hanging in ragged strips.
His once-gorgeous robes were soaked through with blood, their original color lost entirely.
“He didn’t even manage to draw his sword.”
The level of skill among those who had come to ambush us was formidable indeed.
I myself would scarcely have escaped this fate.
“Ugh……!”
A retching sound came from behind me. It was Dang So-yeon.
Though she dealt in all manner of deadly poisons, it seemed she was unaccustomed to facing a corpse so grotesquely mangled.
I, meanwhile, examined the body closely without so much as a change in expression.
“……As I thought.”
The torn flesh bore a sickly bluish-black discoloration.
Poison, certainly. I gestured for Dang So-yeon to come closer.
“Hey.”
“Ugh…… gah, w-what, w-why……!”
“Weren’t you saying you’d be useful? Stop heaving and come look at these wounds.”
Dang So-yeon glared at me, her eyes glistening with tears.
“Y-you, you don’t find this horrifying, you just……?”
“I don’t. With such weakness, the future of the Sacheon Dang Clan looks rather bleak.”
“W-what! M-move aside!”
A slight jab at her pride brought her closer, her brow furrowed in determination.
She slipped the Crescent Moon Silver Ornament from her forehead and dabbed it against the flowing blood near the wound.
When she wiped it clean on a piece of white cloth, the poisons that had appeared merely black revealed subtle color variations along the streak.
It was no ordinary ornament—a masterwork used for tracking poisons.
Since the Dang Clan stood among the world’s finest not only in poisons but also in hidden weapons, they possessed deep knowledge in such metallurgical arts.
“……This isn’t ordinary refined poison meant for assassination.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s a filthy mixture of Rot Poison that forms on corpses long after death, and a vicious Rust Poison that seeps from ancient weapons. At this concentration, it means the bodies had been rotting in a pile for years…….”
As Dang So-yeon spoke, Jegal Un’s face beside her drained of color.
“Do you mean to say the deceased rose and attacked us?”
His voice held disbelief.
“Yes, that’s right. And they were people who possessed formidable Internal Energy in life. Though I can’t fathom where they came from…….”
In that instant, a spark lit in my mind—I realized the lamp beneath the stand had been dark.
“Wait……!”
I strode toward the mountain’s peak with purpose.
“Young Master Namgung! Where are you going so suddenly!”
“Follow me.”
My startled companions rushed after me.
We arrived at the Shrine—the destination of the courage trial.
I approached the grim, blackened statues of human form.
These were the things we had passed without a second thought during the trial.
I drew close and brought my nose to them, breathing in their scent.
From the surface of clay and stone, a faint ominous aura and stench emanated.
“When were these statues brought here?”
Jegal Un, who had caught up to me in breathless haste, answered with a puzzled expression.
“Not long ago. They were a gift, presented with prayers for peace, but I don’t understand why you’re suddenly asking…….”
“Prayers for peace, you say.”
I exhaled softly and examined the statue’s fingers closely.
Congealed blood clung to them alongside fragments of flesh. Moreover, maggots writhed in the crevices of cuts scattered across the surface.
Unlike my first glance, signs of battle were evident in many places.
“The assassins didn’t breach the Jegal Clan’s Formation Array from outside. They were here all along—concealed within. That’s why they went unnoticed.”
“What? What on earth do you mean……?”
I regarded my bewildered companions.
I pointed at the statues standing starkly in the darkness and spoke matter-of-factly.
“These things. Jiangshi.”
At the word that escaped my lips, my companions seemed to stop breathing.
“J-Jiangshi? But those only appear in legends!”
Hwangbo Gang’s face had gone pallid as he objected.
Yu Hwa’s lips trembled as she too struggled to believe.
“They’re not mere legend. They were real a hundred years ago.”
I continued calmly.
“It’s Forbidden Sorcery devised by fallen Cultivators. Blood essence and resentment are breathed into corpses, transforming them into instruments of murder.”
In my past life as Pa Cheon Ma Jon, I had no patience for the contemptible practices of the Blood Cult—those who defiled the dead and wielded them like game pieces.
While blood between the living was the way of the martial world, to drag the deceased from their rest and mire them in filth repulsed me deeply.
I had stamped out their main stronghold and ended their line, yet these vermin had somehow been resurrected in my absence.
Not content with toppling the Celestial Demon Divine Cult and the Namgung Clan, now these Jiangshi have surfaced once more.
I reached out and ran my hand across the surface of the Jiangshi disguised as a statue once again.
Filthy dust clung to my fingertips, and a nauseating Corpse Stench assailed my nostrils.
The craftsmanship was markedly inferior to the Jiangshi I’d faced in the past.
Those creatures had been treated with special compounds and sorcery, rendered hard and smooth as steel.
Elegant instruments of murder—they wouldn’t have reeked with such vile stench.
But these things before me?
Rotting corpses hastily slathered with soil and stone dust.
Their inherent power was formidable enough to catch Hou-ki off guard and kill him, yet the process of crafting them was crude and unrefined.
“This doesn’t quite fit the Blood Cult’s handiwork. These statues look like someone’s imitation—a rough copy. Where did you receive these as gifts?”
At my words, Jegal Un’s brows drew together sharply, as if a face had surfaced in his memory.
“These… these things….”

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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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