The Heavenly Demon of the Blue Sky - Chapter 43

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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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Cangotian Sky Demon 043
“Namgung Hyeok……!”
At the name that spilled from the boy’s lips, Guma’s bloodshot eyes widened until they seemed ready to tear.
The new Clan Head of Namgung. Even within Hyeolgyo, that name carried an absolutely weighty significance.
Not merely because he had rebuilt a clan that had once been extinguished.
It was because he had eliminated Sadoumu, an elder renowned among the sect’s most celebrated masters, a man of such formidable strength that even a fatal internal wound could not diminish his threat.
The news sent shockwaves through the bloodless, tearless depths of Hyeolgyo.
And no one was gripped by deeper shock and fury than Guma himself.
For he was one of the disciples Sadoumu had raised.
Even among demons who made light of human life, they harbored sincerity toward one another.
‘Master……!’
Originally, Guma too would have remained in Hangzhou alongside his master Sadoumu to sever Namgung’s lifeline. But Sadoumu had dissuaded him.
—Return to the sect and complete the task assigned to you. After all, drying up the bloodline of this hollow shell called Namgung is a matter of moments—I shall finish quickly and return.
That was the last exchange with his master.
When Guma heard the dire report that his master had been brutally slaughtered by that sickly wretch who served as Namgung’s Clan Head.
Guma lost his reason and raged.
He pleaded again and again with the sect’s leadership to send him, swearing he would march into Anhui Province at once and tear that brat’s limbs asunder.
But the sect’s reply was cold.
—We have only recently ended a great war. To mobilize the headquarters merely to kill a single wretch would bring more loss than gain.
—That wretch slew one of our celebrated elders! And if things proceed as they are, Namgung will be resurrected. How can this be a small matter?
—Do you think we are unaware? But already Gaebang and Shaolin stand at his side. Moreover, all the Orthodox Factions keep close watch on Namgung’s revival—to move openly would only bring harm to us.
Besides, the leadership had something to rely upon.
—We have heard that he attends the assembly of young prodigies this time. When we exterminate those prodigies using Jinzhu Eonga and Corpse Vampire Technique, that wretch of Namgung shall likewise be torn to shreds and perish. You need not lift a hand, Danju—vengeance will be accomplished.
At those words, Guma bit his bleeding lips and endured.
He waited in seclusion, anticipating that his master’s enemy would be devoured alive by the corpse vampires.
But what was the result?
Namgung Hyeok not only survived, but brazenly subdued Yan Taijing and exposed Hyeolgyo’s Corpse Vampire Technique to the world.
In response to this outcome that defied all expectations, Guma received a new command.
The moment Jinzhu Eonga was destroyed in war with Seomunsega, before the warmth had even faded from the ashes, came an order to infiltrate ahead of the Murim Alliance.
He was to recover the Corpse Vampire Technique left behind there, and seize the chance to steal Jinzhu Eonga’s Secret Manuals as well.
Moving in secret according to the command, he had at last obtained all his target manuals from within the ashes.
‘That Namgung Hyeok has appeared here?’
Guma’s vicious face twisted grotesquely.
That brat who backed himself with the Jegal Clan, who spread the labyrinthine maze and marsh of Qimen Dunjia to bar his path.
Could it be—that arrogant wretch of Namgung who had slain his master and repeatedly sabotaged the sect’s plans?
“Kekeke……! Hahahaha!”
Guma suddenly burst into wild laughter.
“So you are that Namgung Hyeok? That sickly lump of Namgung blood they said would be dead within days?”
Guma slung the blade he held across his shoulder, his eyes flashing as he gnashed his teeth.
Fury and confusion had already transformed into intense murderous intent and exultation.
“What miraculous fortune! A gift from heaven itself! I shall tear you asunder and achieve vengeance for my master!”

* * *
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth with my sleeve.
‘A disciple of Sadoumu.’
Even as I steadied my breathing, my dantian churned with unease.
Mere moments ago, I had merely deflected a blow aimed at Jegal Woon’s head, yet the impact had transmitted a sensation as though my entrails were twisted.
Though I had refined the Severed Meridian and cultivated my inner energy, my slender frame could not withstand such brute force head-on.
‘A difficult opponent.’
And that is only the man before me.
“Praise the great Master! We shall shed the shackles of flesh and journey to the eternal sanctuary, the Muryangryulgyae!”
For an eerie clamor erupted from the marsh below.
At first, the warriors of the Jegal Clan had achieved surprise and seized the advantage.
But when the Hyeolgyo assassins, driven to the brink of death, suddenly began to chant their master like fanatics,
they all at once bit down and swallowed something they had hidden in their mouths.
“Gruuuugh……!”
In that instant, the assassins’ eyes rolled back crimson, and every vein in their bodies swelled as if about to burst.
They had lost all reason and transformed into living corpse vampires.
Even trapped in the marsh, they began to wield bestial strength, pressing down terrifyingly upon the elite warriors of the Jegal Clan.
‘Beast Blood Pill.’
In my past life, I had witnessed something just like this before.
A virulent elixir made by filtering and refining the blood of wild beasts.
It was a vicious substance that robbed one of reason and gnawed away at life in exchange for explosively doubling Internal Energy and physical capability in an instant.
‘Then and now, these madmen are all the same. Brainwashed by their lord, throwing away their lives like it means nothing.’
I clicked my tongue at the Hyeolgyo’s tenacious yet repugnant death throes.
I turned my head toward Jegal Woon, who stood gripping his White Feather Fan tightly behind me.
“I’ll handle the enemy commander. You go down into the marsh and look after your people.”
The Jegal Clan was individually weaker than the Hyeolgyo.
Without a commander to restore order, they would crumble rapidly.
“The method to defeat a raging enemy is the same as the answer to the riddle you posed me once before.”
That enigma Jegal Woon had thrown at me at the Yongbong Meeting.
What cannot be cut by a blade, cannot be shattered by palm force, rusts steel, erodes even the mighty Taishan, and brings even the greatest heroes to their knees—what is the most terrifying hidden weapon in all the world?
“Time itself. Against time, even raging demons are powerless.”
At my words, Jegal Woon’s eyes gleamed with recognition.
“The Beast Blood Pill’s potency is fierce but brief. As time passes, the surging blood qi will overwhelm the body until it explodes from within and dies. So never engage them head-on. Use the formation’s advantage to pin them down and buy time—that’s all that matters.”
Jegal Woon nodded at the clear command, yet his eyes darted anxiously between me and the enemy commander Guma.
“But… can you face him alone, Clan Head?”
That single collision just moments before had already proven Guma’s savage martial prowess.
In Jegal Woon’s eyes, I looked outmatched standing alone against him.
“It will be difficult.”
I wiped away the blood at my mouth with the back of my hand and answered without concern.
“But right now, this is the best option.”
……!
“Of course, if I threw the Jegal Clan forward as meat shields to weaken the enemy commander’s strength, my battle would become far easier.”
I adjusted the Qinghai Bright Moon lightly in my grip and smiled coldly.
“But skulking in the shadows to gain advantage—that’s not my style.”
A conviction that hadn’t changed once from my past life until now.
At moments of crisis, I always led the charge with overwhelming martial prowess, cutting off the enemy’s lifeblood first.
That was the pride of the Shattering Heaven Demon Lord, who once ruled all under Heaven.
“Aah…”
At the same moment, a deep sigh escaped from Jegal Woon’s lips.
In his eyes, fervent worship and admiration whirled once more.
“Your noble resolve, Clan Head—I shall engrave it deeply upon my heart.”
Jegal Woon placed his White Feather Fan across his chest and cried out with ringing clarity.
“Please, claim victory! We too shall do the same!”
Having spoken, he didn’t hesitate for an instant, hurling himself down toward the marsh beneath the trees to rejoin the Jegal Clan’s forces.
And thus only Guma, the Danju of the Hyeolgyo, and I remained.
“So you truly claim to be the Clan Head of the Orthodox Factions? Last time, you cowardly summoned the beggars of the Gaebang and the monks of Shaolin to launch a sneak attack with an avalanche!”
He hurled a provocation at me.
“Yet this time you’ve dragged in the young masters of the Jegal Clan, using formations to blind us and conjuring marshes for a sudden ambush! How cowardly and petty! And you dare hold your head high as the leader of the Namgung?”
A shallow ploy to stir emotions and seize an opening.
At those words, I shook my head incredulously.
“Worms who indulge in every vile deed under the sun, now spouting about fair combat. It’s laughable.”
I aimed the Qinghai Bright Moon at an angle and answered coldly.
“Fair and square? Don’t make me laugh. In a war of life and death, such petty concerns are worthless. I will seize any means, use any method, and sever the enemy’s throat to crush them utterly.”
A sharp blade wind cut through the air in a vicious arc.
“If the hypocrites of the Orthodox Factions find my methods insulting and point their fingers at me,”
The bearing of the Shattering Heaven Demon Lord, who once commanded all under Heaven—not some Orthodox Faction puppet—overwhelmed everything around me.
“Then I shall stand at the summit and set their rotted minds straight.”
“Y-you madman…!”
“That’s a problem for later. For now, let me send you to join your beloved master.”
“Shut your mouth!”
Did he truly dare provoke one who had weathered every trial?
I had never lost a single war of words.
Guma, caught by his own provocation, shot upward into the void.
Crash!
His blade came down in a thunderous strike, reducing the ancient tree where I stood to dust in a single blow.
But I was already gone. Knowing my body couldn’t withstand a direct collision, I had hurled myself backward to evade.
Whoosh!
A thread shot from the Hidden Weapon Gauntlet strapped to my wrist and lodged firmly into the branch opposite me.
Using that as a pivot, I deployed the Traceless Flying Shadow Step through empty air.
My body became light as a feather, gliding through the void.
“You talk as though you’re the supreme master of all creation, yet you scurry away like a coward! Where do you keep fleeing to?”
Guma came surging after me, breathing hard and fierce.
I let his taunts pass over me like wind, unfurling the supple forms of the Cangotian Demon Swallow Sword to flick away the incoming blade qi with acrobatic precision.
‘My power is already stretched thin. I can’t afford to waste anything—I have to find his weakness and exploit it.’
I retreated step by step, watching his movements with cold clarity.
The crimson blade came into view.
Stuck to its surface like a grotesque spiderweb were the flesh scraps and dried blood of those he’d slain before.
Ritual talismans binding the vengeful spirits of the unjustly dead wrapped densely around the blade body.
‘An evil art—he won’t even release the grudges of those he murdered, instead tempering their resentment into a weapon forged from murderous intent.’
As expected, each time Guma swung his blade, different sword techniques and blade arts from various schools of martial tradition erupted chaotically atop the crimson blade qi.
In an instant, my insight from my past life pierced through to grasp his full strength.
‘Hyeolgyo has nothing of its own—how could its roots run deep? Guma’s native sword technique is lacking. He merely traps the martial secrets of dead vengeful spirits within his blade, then bulldozes forward with overwhelming blood qi.’
His true core was not his ignorant flesh but the terrifying Ghost Blade itself, vessel of those vengeful spirits.
‘Then the target isn’t Guma’s body—it’s his weapon.’
Clang! Crash! I stopped retreating and began meeting his blade directly.
When the Kunlun Sect’s swift sword erupted from Guma’s blade, I countered it with Taiji principle; when the Emei Sect’s flowing sword poured forth, I suppressed it with the crushing weight of Cangotian malice.
I isolated the weak points in the sword techniques wielded by those vengeful spirits and relentlessly struck only the surface of the blade itself, not his body.
A terrible shriek—
Each time my blade touched the Ghost Blade, the talismans wrapping it ignited with horrible screams and vanished one by one.
“You, you bastard!”
Guma, panicked, intensified his fury and swung his blade with savage aggression.
He couldn’t fathom how this mere youngster had already perceived and countered the multitude of blade techniques in such detail.
Yet the situation wasn’t entirely favorable for me either.
The thick blood qi choked my breath, and blood began pouring from the corner of my mouth.
Without yielding, I clenched my teeth and drove the forms of the Cangotian Demon Swallow Sword through with exquisite precision.
At last, as the final talisman bearing the deepest resentment caught flame—
Shatter!
The impact of the Qinghai Bright Moon striking the Ghost Blade pushed it past its breaking point; Guma’s blood-soaked blade shattered into countless fragments that rained down like dust.
“Gaaaahhh!”
Dozens of vengeful spirits, their chains severed, rose free all at once, becoming a shimmer in the air.
I too had suffered a tremendous shock in the process of destroying the weapon, crashing roughly against a tree and coughing blood.
“My, my Ghost Blade! I’ll tear you to pieces, you bastard!”
Guma shrieked in horror, then, catching sight of my battered form slumped against the tree, his eyes blazed with madness.
Extending black talons, he lunged to pierce my heart.
In that critical instant—
A sensation I had never experienced in my past life swept through my entire being.
The power and voices of the vengeful spirits scattered into the void as the Ghost Blade shattered—I felt them with perfect clarity, as though they were my own limbs.
Perhaps it was because I had crossed the river of death once before. Or perhaps it was because my current vessel could wholly contain both the clear blue Cangotian Sky and the deep darkness of the Abyss.
Though I couldn’t grasp the precise reason, I instinctively understood how to wield this power.
Wiping away the blood, I lifted my lips in a cold smile.
“Do you truly believe that only thieves like you know how to command blood qi?”
Thump, thump.
Deep within my faintly beating heart, I quietly opened the Manyeol Gwichong.
Then I reached out my hand toward the wailing vengeful spirits hovering in the air.
“I have broken your fetters and freed you. If you wish to take revenge upon your enemies, remain with me for a moment and lend me your strength!”
From my fingertips bloomed a thick blood qi that gently cradled the turbulent scarlet resentment swirling through the air.
Then I gathered the power and released it with full force.
Boom!
The vengeful spirits, freed from their bondage, regained their liberty, and a tremendous shockwave swept through the space around me.
“Gyaaahhh!”
Guma, charging toward me, took the full brunt of it and crashed into a massive tree opposite him.
“Cough…… hack……!”
Spitting blood, he barely managed to rise on trembling legs.
“This, this is blood qi of the Demonic Sect…! Who, who the hell are you!”
“I already told you. Cangotian Namgung Hyeok.”
I lifted the blade burning with blood qi and spoke softly.
“But what does it matter? My sky has been dyed crimson, swallowing darkness itself. If you can’t understand, then die and find enlightenment in death.”
I threw myself through the air to deliver the final blow.
Sensing his imminent death, Guma fumbled desperately in his robes and drew out a Secret Manual.
“Stop! You targeted me for these, didn’t you? Take one more step and I’ll tear these Secret Manuals to shreds right now!”
A final, pathetic act of defiance—a desperate threat.
Yet.
Snap—!
There was not a shred of hesitation in my movement.
The Qinghai Bright Moon, honed crimson in the void, shot forth like a flash of light.
The perfected technique of the Cangotian Demon Swallow Sword—Demon Swallow Falling Star.
Like a swallowtail traced against a blood-red river of stars, that distant celestial stream, the blade’s arc cut through Guma’s neck in a single breath and swept onward.
“……What?”
Guma’s hand froze in midair, still reaching to tear the Secret Manuals.
His vision, pooled in his eyes, inverted as it fell—and from his severed neck, scarlet blood erupted like a fountain.
I snatched the Secret Manuals from the air as they fell and landed lightly on the ground.
Then, shaking the blood from my blade, I opened my eyes wide and smiled coldly down at Guma’s corpse.
“What was that? I didn’t hear you.”

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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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