The Introverted Heavenly Demon - Chapter 17

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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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The Introverted Heavenly Demon Episode 017
Namgung Eon
When I think about it, the Namgung Clan had every right to be furious.
The Family Head came all the way to the Demonic Cult’s Lair, only to have the Minor Sect Leader who was hosting the banquet mock him from the very first greeting, and then—under the guise of entertainment for the guests—he was beating and tormenting a young girl.
Was this not a blatant humiliation of a great family that represented the Orthodox Martial Sects?
Namgung Eon’s face had flushed red and purple, yet he appeared to be barely swallowing his rage.
“What are you all doing?”
But it was not Namgung Eon who shouted at the cultists who were mocking the girl playing the zither—it was Baek So Cheong, sitting right beside me.
“Miss, why are you doing this?”
Baek So Cheong had sat in silence throughout the banquet.
As though she had no interest in anything happening before her eyes.
But when the cultists began tormenting the helpless girl, she could bear it no longer and rose from her seat to cry out.
“That’s enough, sister.”
But I raised my hand to stop Baek So Cheong.
“Minor Sect Leader! Are you just going to watch this happen?”
Baek So Cheong turned to me with an accusatory tone.
“I’ll handle it myself, sister.”
I left So Cheong standing there bewildered and walked toward the front of the Guest of Honor Seat.
The girl who had been playing the zither was still sobbing, her cheeks cradled in her hands.
I approached Gwak Chun Soo, who stood dazed.
“Your name is Gwak Chun Soo, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Did you prepare this banquet?”
“Yes, Minor Sect Leader.”
“How delightful. Yes, a banquet truly comes alive when there are screams and when we can mock weeping women.”
“Thank you for understanding, Minor Sect Leader.”
Gwak Chun Soo grinned foolishly and bowed his head.
Then.
Crack!!
At merely eleven years old, I was somewhat shorter than the adults, but my raised hand was more than sufficient to strike Gwak Chun Soo across the face.
“M-Minor Sect Leader…?”
“But the chair I was sitting in was far too low. Were you trying to insult me, the Minor Sect Leader, by seating me so poorly?”
Gwak Chun Soo’s frightened gaze shifted toward the chair where I had been sitting.
Indeed, it was a subtle difference, but the chair was genuinely a bit lower.
Crack!!
I struck the other side of Gwak Chun Soo’s face with the back of my hand and looked down at him.
The loud and chaotic atmosphere of the banquet hall was suddenly engulfed in silence, as though cold water had been poured over it.
“The water I was drinking was far too cold. Because of you, the greasy food will sit uneasily in my stomach.”
Gwak Chun Soo’s eyes darted about helplessly, uncertain where to look.
Crack!!
“When I speak, you should answer, should you not?”
Gwak Chun Soo, meeting my terrifying gaze, finally dropped to his knees and began prostrating himself in supplication.
“I have committed a crime worthy of death. Please, forgive me!”
“Your pathetic display disgusts me. Get out of my sight.”
After Gwak Chun Soo departed the Banquet Hall with bowed head, I turned my gaze toward the young girl who had been playing the guqin.
“How long have you been playing the guqin?”
“Ah… well… approximately three years, sir.”
The young girl, trembling even more than before, stammered through her answer after a long pause.
I lifted her gaunt hand to examine it as I spoke.
“Fingering technique can certainly be corrected, but your strings lack spirit when you play. Is it hunger sapping your strength? Tsk. Young Ho…”
I began to call for Young Ho Bin, then changed my mind and turned to look at Baek So Cheong, whose eyes had widened in surprise.
“Sister, if you would not mind, might I impose upon you for a favor?”
“Please, speak freely, Minor Sect Leader.”
“This child’s guqin skills are abysmal, and now that her already decrepit instrument has been destroyed, she cannot even practice. Those who must listen to her playing in the future deserve better. So, Sister, if you would…”
“I know a bit about the guqin myself. I shall purchase her a new one.”
“I am grateful. Since this child is nothing but skin and bones and cannot properly pluck the strings, if you could provide her with meat to eat, I would be most appreciative. Though, if she alone were to bring food home, it might spark conflict in her poor household… what an unsightly prospect. Tsk!”
“Then I shall simply provide enough food for her entire family to prevent any quarreling!”
“Would you do that? I am deeply grateful.”
Baek So Cheong smiled enigmatically, rose from the Guest of Honor Seat, and approached the young girl.
Taking the girl’s hand, she slipped through the crowd and departed.
While I made my requests of Baek So Cheong, not a single person dared to speak or interrupt.
Surveying the now-silent Banquet Hall, I noticed Young Ho Bin gazing into the distance with a smile, while Jang Su Ryeon and the Left Elder stood with eyes wide and mouths agape.
My younger brother Hyeon Yi was stuffing his mouth with meat dumplings layered with peeled shrimp.
And then my eyes met those of Namgung Eon, who had been watching me with complicated emotions.
I turned my gaze toward Namgung Eon and slowly opened my mouth.
“A guqin… How lamentable that such a thing should be considered entertainment at a banquet hosted by the Sun and Moon Divine Sect and the Namgung Family. Would you not agree, Young Master Namgung?”
The “pretext” that the Left Elder had mentioned was likely that guqin-playing girl, but I had just eliminated it.
Well, pretexts are simple enough to fabricate.
“Come forward. Let us enliven the atmosphere of this banquet together.”
It was not something I wished to do, but as one who had received the Sect Leader’s command, I could see no other way.

* * *
Namgung Eon rose from his seat with a hardened expression.
“You wish to lighten the mood?”
“Whether you or I, there’s no need for us martial artists to squabble like petty men with endless bickering. Let us settle this cleanly with a proper match.”
The moment I openly challenged Namgung Eon, every person in the Banquet Hall held their breath, watching for his reaction.
The Giant Warrior seated beside Namgung Eon attempted to dissuade his young master.
But Namgung Eon waved him off and slowly stepped forward.
When he reached me, the anguish that had filled his face had transformed into the expression of someone who had made a firm resolve.
“Before that, I have a question for the Minor Sect Leader.”
“Speak.”
Namgung Eon met my gaze directly as he spoke.
“Though I am not yet old, I have witnessed many heroes from the Righteous Sects with my own eyes. Their words were all the same—that those of the Demonic Cult are base and treacherous.”
Namgung Eon’s words spread to every corner of the quiet Banquet Hall, and soon angry murmurs erupted from the faithful gathered here.
It was a natural reaction—not only had he used the word “Demonic Cult” instead of “Sun and Moon Divine Sect,” but he was openly condemning us as base and treacherous.
Some even spat curses, but with me, the highest-ranking person present, remaining silent, there was nothing they could do.
Namgung Eon continued undeterred.
“Regarding what I have heard about you, the Minor Sect Leader of the Demonic Cult, I shall not repeat it in words. But upon hearing your words the moment I entered this hall, I thought indeed that the rumors were true.”
“And?”
“Yet… what was that just now? I cannot comprehend it.”
The murmurs had ceased, and no one attempted to interrupt Namgung Eon.
“The man seated beside me is Cheon Young Dan Ju, a first-rate master of Kangho. Among the martial artists of the Namgung Clan, who call themselves a Righteous Sect, not one stepped forward for that young girl. Shamefully, neither did I. Yet why did you help her? I cannot understand it.”
As I listened to Namgung Eon’s question, the words the Left Elder had spoken to me earlier came to mind.
‘The Namgung Patriarch is no ordinary man, after all.’
‘What do you mean, Left Elder?’
‘The Namgung Family knows they cannot escape to the end. If the Sun and Moon Divine Sect attacks the Namgung Clan in full force, great damage is inevitable. So what will they do?’
‘…’
‘They are pretending not to know that the Sect Leader sent you to kill the young master. No, it is worse than that. Bringing only the most incompetent of their sons suggests from the start that…’
At that time, I had not believed the Left Elder’s words.
Was not the Namgung Clan like Mount Tai itself among the Righteous Sects of the martial world?
Even if not a Righteous Sect, he was still their son.
How could a family head ignore the Demonic Cult’s retaliatory killing to protect the clan’s safety?
I could not believe that the Namgung Patriarch would use Namgung Eon as a “disposable piece” in such a manner.
But now.
“Minor Sect Leader. I, Namgung Eon, am not afraid to fight you. I merely wish to know your answer. I have lived for the Namgung Clan’s righteousness and accord. Will you answer me? Minor Sect Leader. What am I dying for?”
‘So you knew all along.’
It was at that very moment.
The countless gazes that had fixed upon me the instant I entered the Banquet Hall, the burdensome expectations placed upon Baek Yeon as the Minor Sect Leader of the Demonic Cult, the pressure not to disappoint the Sect Leader—all of it vanished like a lie.
How I should act, how I should answer this man’s question—everything that had felt uncertain until now began to crystallize with clarity.
I looked at Namgung Eon and spoke.
“You’re already so rigid in your thinking, spouting such tedious words. No wonder you’re the incompetent young master of the Namgung Clan.”
“Minor Sect Leader, I beg for your guidance.”
“What use are such distinctions? Whether one follows the Sun and Moon Divine Sect, the Orthodox Martial Sects, the heterodox paths, the Demonic Cult, or belongs to the Namgung Family—are we not all simply men, all warriors of Kangho?”
“….”
“So I need only act as I believe is right. If I am born into this world, live by my own will, and die—what shame could there be in that?”
After hearing my words, Namgung Eon, who had remained silent for a time, burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahahaha!”
When that laughter finally ceased after a moment that felt both brief and eternal, Namgung Eon clasped his fists in salute and spoke.
“Minor Sect Leader, I am grateful. Then….”
“Are you ready?”
“I humbly request instruction through a single exchange.”
“Very well.”
I too clasped my fists toward Namgung Eon.
“Come at me.”
Namgung Eon swept his right hand forward, assuming a martial stance.
I swallowed my breath and drew upon the inner force coursing through my entire body.
I did the same.
I summoned forth the full depth of the Hyeon Ma Gyeong I had cultivated all this time.
Thump. Thump.
The Hyeon Ma Gyeong’s violent energy erupted within me, its demonic aura resonating with the qi flowing through my meridians.
Whoosh.
“I shall yield the first move.”
As the superior, it was proper martial etiquette for me to receive his opening technique.
“Then I shall not hesitate and will take the liberty.”
The inner force Namgung Eon possessed was pure, flowing, and solid.
It stood in stark contrast to my own rough, explosive demonic cultivation—the refined inner power characteristic of the Orthodox Sects.
Compared to me, he still fell far short.
Though Namgung Eon was young, he was a true martial artist and could not fail to recognize this.
My Hyeon Ma Gyeong had already surpassed the level of thirty years of cultivation.
No matter how noble his birth as a son of the Namgung Family, the gap between us was so vast that a direct confrontation held little meaning.
Namgung Eon was drawing upon his inner force to its absolute limit.
He understood that unless he could defeat me with this single attack, given that I had yielded the first move, his chances of victory were nonexistent.
Once I received his attack and countered, it would be over.
The disparity was so great that the moment my power touched his, his life would be extinguished.
In Namgung Eon’s fist, which gathered every ounce of strength and the final thread of his inner force, lay the resolve that if this attack failed, death was acceptable.
Crack!
It was then, realizing that Namgung Eon had accepted death.
I recalled once more the vow I had made to myself repeatedly since my rebirth as the Minor Sect Leader of the Demonic Cult.
Had my life not already been forfeit once before?
So if I possess strength, I shall use it to protect innocent lives.
Perhaps Heaven granted me the Cheon Ma and the introspective nature to suppress it for precisely this purpose.
To kill Namgung Eon in this duel was a mission the Sect Leader had imposed upon me.
I had been given no other choice.
But….
“Haaah!”
I made my decision of my own will, beholden to no one else.
At least in this moment, I would not let anyone die.

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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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