The Heavenly Demon of the Blue Sky - Chapter 45

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Changteon Demon 045
Some time later.
“Cough, hack—!”
The Gajoo’s private chamber in the Namgoong Main Estate.
Dark blood spilled in clots over the cloth pressed to his mouth.
Returning after severing the neck of the demon general Guma had been well enough.
But the moment tension released upon his return, he’d collapsed onto a sickbed.
Drawing on the vital energy of the Manyeol Gwi Jong with a frail body had taken its toll.
“Gajoo, drink this!”
The physician at his side thrust a medicinal broth forward, his face ashen.
He accepted the bowl with trembling hands and drained the bitter medicine in one breath.
“…Bitter.”
He was wiping his mouth and steadying his Dan Jeon when it happened.
The door burst open—
“Hyeok!”
His three sisters rushed in, their faces drained of color at the news.
Their eyes darted between the bloodstained cloth and his pallid face, tears welling up.
“You said you were just going out for air, a light patrol of the surroundings…”
His sisters clutched his hand tightly, their voices wavering.
“It’s nothing. Just a scuffle with some rats from the Hyeol Gyo.”
“The—the Hyeol Gyo!?”
He pressed a finger to their lips before they could cry out.
“It’s fine. Calm down. I don’t want this to get complicated.”
There could be investigations into the Gangsi Sul and the Jinjoo Eon Clan Secret Manual.
In times like this, it was best to keep the household’s tongues still.
“Still, next time please tell us first.”
“Yes, there may be things we can help with too.”
Warmth radiated from their hands. He gently pulled away from them.
“All right, all right. Let go.”
Then he issued a warning to Namgoong Gyeong, who stood rigidly by the chamber door.
“Same goes for you. Loose tongues do no one favors. Let’s keep this quiet.”
The man trembled, clutching his book.
“Ah, alas! That I must cherish and conceal the Gajoo’s radiant and glorious deeds! What cruel torment is this!”
Even as he cried out with a solemn expression, he nodded with firm resolve.
“Yet this Namgoong Gyeong swears that should my lord command it, I would sew my lips shut and guard this secret unto death!”
Dismissing the noisy man, he turned to his sisters and spoke of what lay ahead.
“I’ve agreed to cooperate with the Jegal Seaga Clan. I intend to establish a Tae Hak in Namgoong.”
“You mean the scholars of the Jegal Clan—those called the finest minds under heaven—will be coming to Namgoong?”
His sisters’ eyes widened.
He nodded and assigned tasks to Seol Hwa, the youngest.
“Find suitable land for the academy and recruit those willing to study the classics. I care not for rank or birth.”
Ability alone mattered. That was the way of the Changteon Demon.
“Yes! I’ll recruit talented and brilliant minds without fail!”
Next, he turned to Yeon Hwa, his second sister.
“Secure materials and skilled workers. Have the academy built swiftly.”
“Leave it to me! I’ll build an academy worthy of Namgoong’s prestige!”
Finally, he spoke to Yoo Hwa.
“With outside forces entering, there must be no quarrels or unfair treatment. Strengthen internal patrols and oversight.”
“Yes! I’ll enforce the Gajoo’s command with absolute impartiality!”
They seemed well-practiced in their duties now. Good.
“Then go.”
He was pulling the blanket over himself when his sisters hesitated, as if something more needed saying.
“Honestly, you’ve been so cold and gruff all this time.”
“We weren’t worried for ourselves, but we fretted you might be misunderstood or resented from the outside.”
“Yet now you’re bringing in talented figures from the Jeong Pa to support Namgoong!”
Their trembling voices brimmed with infinite trust and pride.
“It was all needless fear! We’re so glad! We’re truly grateful you’re here!”
They spread their arms wide, ready to throw themselves at him.
“Oh, you precious thing! I’m so proud I could burst! I just want to squeeze you and bite your cheeks!”
He should have seen this coming.
This time, I didn’t want to endure it. I tried to kick off the quilt and flee.
“Ugh!”
My body wasn’t fully recovered yet. And without meaning to, I flinched at the shoulders.
‘The legendary Namgoong Hyeok, terrified of his sisters’ overwhelming affection?’
Bewildered by my own strangeness and helplessness.
I found my wrists pinned as I was drawn helplessly into their embrace.
“Ow! Let go, let go!”
“No! I won’t release you!”
Disheveled hair and innumerable kiss marks blooming across my cheeks.
‘Vicious Jeong Pa bastards…….’
After enduring their torment for a long while, I collapsed onto the bed with a vacant stare.

* * *
Several days passed.
Thanks to my sisters’ devoted care and the old man’s meticulous attention, my body began to stabilize.
“Phew…….”
Whoosh! I rose from the bed and swung my sword lightly in practice.
Through repeated training, my swordsmanship and inner strength were gradually recovering to their former level.
But.
‘The real problem is this cursed vessel.’
I clicked my tongue, gazing down at the thin wrists visible beneath my loose sleeves.
Namgoong Hyeok—one who had spent more than a decade bedridden and ailing. My constitution was inevitably weak.
Despite daily training and consuming medicinal tonics, I remained noticeably smaller compared to my peers.
‘No matter how profound the inner strength and swordsmanship I master, this flesh won’t support them.’
To overcome that limitation, it was essential to learn external cultivation techniques to strengthen the body.
Fortunately, my inner reserves had recently grown enough to begin learning external techniques.
‘And I have access to an excellent secret manual.’
I retrieved the Jinjoo Eon Clan Secret Manual that I’d hidden beneath the bed.
Eon Tae—the heir of the Jinjoo Eon Clan, who had killed the patriarch of the Seomun Se and led his family to ruin.
He had harbored inferiority, lamenting that his clan possessed no distinctive martial techniques to rival other great families.
Yet to my eyes, the Jinjoo Eon Clan’s martial arts were anything but inferior.
‘Especially their external cultivation techniques—they surpass even the Namgoong and Ma Gyo.’
Indeed, the clan had produced countless powerful warriors throughout its history.
‘Blind eyes cannot perceive treasure.’
How pathetic, sitting upon riches yet wailing of poverty.
From the moment he deemed himself weak, the Jinjoo Eon Clan had already begun its decline.
“To think this would fall into my hands.”
The four characters inscribed on the cover were none other than the Dae Won Sin Gong.
The core meditation technique of the Jinjoo Eon Clan’s direct line—passed down exclusively through their clan heads across generations.
Mastered properly, the subtle meridians would become as strong as iron.
At the highest level, one could purportedly deflect blades.
The realm known as Do Geom Bul Chim—blades cannot pierce.
‘It should aid even my sluggish growth.’
I sat in cross-legged meditation and spread the secret manual across my lap.
I turned to the first page and began reading the detailed oral instructions densely written there.
‘Now I understand why this meditation method was passed down as sole heir transmission. The subtleties are damnably complex and obscure.’
Moreover, it was designed to respond only to the Jinjoo Eon Clan’s unique energy.
By the very nature of a clan technique, it was engineered so only blood descendants could acquire it.
‘Greedy pursuit without caution would be no different from drinking poison.’
Yet I wasn’t willing to abandon this. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Crack! Drawing on experience from my past life, I meticulously dissected the Dae Won Sin Gong’s oral instructions.
‘This is no ordinary meditation technique that merely gathers and circulates energy. This…….’
True to its purpose of strengthening the body, it sought to expand the subtle meridians throughout the flesh.
A method that forcibly accelerated bone and muscle growth, tempering them like a blacksmith’s forge.
‘Wait, then……?’
The foundation of Dae Won Sin Gong ultimately rested on expanding and stimulating the meridians through energy.
They had asserted it was impossible without the Jinjoo Eon Clan’s unique energy.
‘But what if I already possess another form of energy capable of triggering meridian expansion?’
A third energy dwelling within me, following Changteon and demonic essence.
It was a pure and potent life force—manipulated through one’s own blood as its medium.
Among them, the Mujgan Hyeol Ryoo Gong was the Ma Gyo’s supreme technique for creating flow.
If the Jinjoo Eon Clan’s vital energy seeped into the blood vessels to establish pillars and widen the meridians,
then the Mujgan Hyeol Ryoo Gong could control the pressure and current of blood, swelling and forcing the blood vessels outward like waves.
In other words, it would use the violent blood-current of the Mujgan Hyeol Ryoo Gong to forcibly pry open the sealed gates of the Jinjoo Eon Clan and activate the Dae Won Sin Gong.
‘Theoretically, it’s flawless.’
Closing my eyes, I began to quietly recite the incantations from both secret manuals.
I methodically deconstructed the obscure passages and pondered their meaning anew.
“Breathe vital energy into the blood vessels to swell them, force the growth of bone and muscle to forge an iron vessel…….”
First came the incantation of the Dae Won Sin Gong.
A crude exhortation to cast the body into colossal form.
But my body resisted fiercely, lacking the vital energy of the Jinjoo Eon Clan.
Just as my qi and blood twisted in rebellion, I moved directly to the next incantation.
“Command even a single drop of blood as you will, let it flow without the slightest obstruction, and with that fierce current carve a path…….”
This time it was the incantation of the Mujgan Hyeol Ryoo Gong.
The Ma Gyo’s thick, cool vital energy immediately seized control of every blood vessel in my body.
Using the fierce torrent of blood, I ruthlessly forced open the constricted meridians from within, swelling them outward.
A fusion of the Jeong Pa’s closed outer cultivation with the Ma Gyo’s extreme blood-flow art.
“And thus shall I forge the Geum Gang Bul Goe’s martial bone……!”
I merged both incantations into one and expelled them from my lips.
It was indeed as arduous and perilous as mixing oil with water.
Should even a single strand of qi and blood fall out of alignment, I would plunge into a devilish dementia—a reckless gamble with death itself.
Thick beads of cold sweat dripped steadily from my brow.
The sensation of bursting pressure collided with the agony of twisting bones, and consciousness threatened to slip away at any moment.
But who was I?
I was the Demon King of the Broken Heaven, who had overcome every crisis in this world and ascended to its pinnacle.
I clenched my teeth with fierce determination and concentrated.
At once, the tangled threads began to unravel smoothly into a single strand.
“Done!”
Simultaneously, a sky-blue flame ignited and wrapped around my body like clouds.
The blue essence of the Jeong Pa and the crimson blood-qi of the Ma Gyo had become one.
“Let me call this the Manyeol Dae Won Gong.”
Now what remained was to wield this formidable outer cultivation naturally and effortlessly.
But in my Dan Jeon, Changteon and Sim Yeon were so intertwined that there was no room to settle.
‘Then it must be the heart, not the Dan Jeon.’
The Manyeol Gwi Jong, which dwelt in the heart and mediated between Changteon and demonic qi.
There I bound the operational incantations of the Manyeol Dae Won Gong firmly in place and synchronized them.
Thump, thump.
A heavy pulse resounded within my chest.
With each beat of my heart, the essence of the Manyeol Dae Won Gong flowed naturally into my meridians and began to circulate throughout my body.
‘Perfect.’
A deep smile spread across my lips.
I felt the blood vessels throughout my entire body breathing as if of their own accord, subtly expanding and contracting, growing tougher with each cycle.
There was no need for me to sit cross-legged or forcibly cultivate my inner power.
So long as I breathed and my heart beat, the essence of the Manyeol Dae Won Gong flowing through my pulse would temper my flesh.
Like rainwater seeping through cloth, it would forge my frail and thin frame into steel-hard martial bone without the slightest strain, day after day—perfect conditions had been established.
Then I reached for the remaining secret manual lying at the edge of the bed.
The Eon Ga Gwon—a fist manual named after the Jinjoo Eon Clan.
Crackle, crackle.
“Hm.”
Having just tasted the wonders of the Dae Won Sin Gong, I turned the pages with anticipation.
‘As expected.’
I let out a small exclamation after turning only a few pages.
“The Jinjoo Eon Clan truly does possess things worth using.”
In the Gangho, there were times when one couldn’t even spare a moment to draw a sword.
In such circumstances, having mastered such a fist art would become a perfect defensive trump card.
I rose from my seat and took my stance, slowly reciting the incantations inscribed in the Eon Ga Gwon secrets.
“Root Mount Tai beneath your feet, imprison the earth’s resonance within your Dan Jeon. Let your movements be heavy as a thousand-jin boulder, and let each strike you extend cut the heavens like lightning…….”
The more I pondered the meaning, the more an intrigued smile played across my lips.
This was no shallow martial art that simply discarded technique in favor of brute force.
True to a clan that had produced countless warriors of immense stature, it was a fist art that fully exploited overwhelming physicality.
‘Heavy. Destructive. But.’
I lack the weight and strength to hold my center like Mount Tai.
What if I wove in the Ma Gyo’s nimble footwork?
The technique that came to mind was none other than the Hyeol Un Naseon Gak.
Where the Eon Ga Gwon channeled bodyweight through a straight, driving line, the Hyeol Un Naseon Gak wielded rotational force.
Perhaps it would supply what I lacked.
Snap! I kicked off the ground, launched skyward, and spun my body like a top.
The Hyeol Un Naseon Gak’s characteristic fierce kicks traced a spiral.
At the apex in the void, I began to fall back toward the earth.
I drew the accelerating rotational force from my entire body—through my lower half, into my waist, up through my shoulders—gathering it without the slightest loss into my clenched fist.
“Huh!”
In that same moment, I wove together the Qi erupting from my heart—the Manyeol Dae Won Gong—with the pristine Changteon Qi dwelling in my Dan Jeon, the original essence of Namgoong.
Whoosh!
The weave of both Qi merged flawlessly with the descending technique in midair.
Around my clenched fist, blood-red and azure-blue fused into a brilliant, fierce sky-blue flame that roared with terrible beauty.
A radiant and devastating Tu Gi born from Jeong Pa and Ma Gyo made one.
Boom!
The shockwave of the sky-blue flame rippling outward from the void struck the ground hard, shaking the chamber’s thick pillars.
“Hoh, look at that.”
This much, even with a body still so weak?
I laughed, astonished at what I’d accomplished, my smile blooming wide.
My hair streaming, the haze of sky-blue flames wrapping my entire form.
They rose like clouds, taking the shape of a dragon borne upon my back.
“I’ll call it the Cheong Hwa Yong Gwon. A worthy technique.”
I gave it a name that fit.
For the rest of the night, I sweated through finding movements that flowed with it.
At last, I had created entirely new forms unique to the Cheong Hwa Yong Gwon.
‘Thus the Jinjoo Eon Clan Secret Manual has fulfilled its purpose.’
Yet knowing the bygone effort poured into a single volume, I resolved to keep it carefully in Namgoong’s secret archive.
‘When the day comes that someone worthy of bearing it appears, I shall pass it willingly and make them my lifelong opponent.’
At the thought of endless contests to come, I laughed with a strange ache and gazed out the window.
The deep darkness lifted, and a brilliant dawn was breaking over the sky.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————