The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 109

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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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Surviving in the Murim as a Mage: Episode 109
The stench of decay vibrated from all directions.
Inside beast cages barred with iron, naked humans huddled together on their knees, their eyes all glazed and unfocused.
Demon Cultivators rarely passed through this area.
When a curious Demon Cultivator happened by to inspect the beast cage, the owner—another Demon Cultivator—scurried over and whispered softly.
“These are defective goods. I’ll sell them to you very cheaply.”
“They look damaged, though?”
A natural haggling tactic.
Since they genuinely appeared to be in poor condition, it was a reasonable attempt to drive down the price.
But the slave merchant was no pushover.
“Come on, at least I’m selling them all together. Five of them don’t even cost as much as one mid-grade slave. It’s practically free!”
“Ha! Who do you take me for, a fool? What if I buy them and they die from illness? That’s just throwing money away! Buying a single mid-grade slave would be a hundred times better!”
“Now, now! If you buy these five and manage them a little, they could at least handle garden maintenance—isn’t that a good deal?”
Watching the Demon Cultivators haggle in front of the slave cage, Ilhyang and Woo Ki-cheon exchanged a peculiar expression.
“Something feels off about this, Senior.”
“Yeah. I feel it too.”
“We conduct transactions like this in Bangsi as well, but…”
“There’s no difference between there and here.”
A relationship where each devours the other.
A relationship where each enslaves the other.
That was precisely the relationship between humans and Demon Cultivators.
Woo Ki-cheon watched as the slave merchant sold five people at once as defective goods.
Ilhyang quietly warned him.
“If you act on pointless compassion, it will trouble many.”
“Hmm… wouldn’t it be nice to have at least one attendant to serve us?”
It was unexpected.
He didn’t seem like the type to say such things originally.
His origins were unmistakably from the Demonic Sect Alliance.
Those from the Demonic Sect Alliance didn’t hesitate to use humans as resources.
Moreover, wasn’t Woo Ki-cheon from the Guiyin Sect, considered the most vicious among the Demonic Sect Alliance?
The Guiyin Sect didn’t merely use human bodies—they meticulously extracted souls and used them eternally through sorcery.
“Think about where we’re going right now.”
“…I understand, Senior.”
Woo Ki-cheon couldn’t hide the longing in his eyes.
But once Ilhyang set off, he didn’t mention it further and immediately followed.
Since Cheonran Fortress itself was enormous in scale,
it took a full half day just to reach the destination.
Even riding various vehicles along the way, it took this long—I truly felt the magnitude of this place anew.
“That’s where the Hoelang Portal is located.”
The Hoelang Portal.
In other words, a spatial gateway connected to the Deep Three Continents.
In the language of the Seven Continents, it was a kind of portal.
Given that the Demon Immortal Realm had this, the Immortal Celestial Realm surely possessed something similar.
The Hoelang Portal hadn’t seemed particularly impressive from a distance.
But as I drew closer, its scale proved far more massive than I’d anticipated.
It was nearly the size of a grand manor house.
An entrance of that magnitude suggested something.
The demon cultivators had apparently designed it to allow entry not just in humanoid form, but in their true bodies as well.
“Two visitors? Ah, one of you is a Jiangshi.”
“Yes.”
At the Hoelang Portal’s entrance, simple lines had been drawn on the ground in charcoal.
Remarkably, the demon cultivators were passing through the portal in orderly fashion, following those lines.
Woo Ki-cheon let out a soft exclamation of surprise at the sight.
Ilhyang was inwardly startled as well.
It was unexpected.
I’d thought there would be more of a wild, untamed aspect to them.
But this displayed order and discipline as refined as any human society.
The line Ilhyang and Woo Ki-cheon were joining was approximately the sixth from the left.
The 4th Tier Demon Beast guarding that entrance conducted no identity inspection—merely held up a mirror artifact with a perfunctory expression and briefly reflected Ilhyang’s image.
“What is that?”
“It records your entry and exit.”
An expression of profound lethargy and ennui.
That look was deeply familiar to me.
The mages of the Magic Tower, worn down by endless work and research, always wore such expressions.
The gate commander, a 4th Tier Demon Beast, opened his mouth in a monotone voice devoid of inflection.
“As you likely know, your arrival point within the Hoelang Portal will be randomized. From there, you can identify Human Monks by the crimson aura hovering above their heads—exercise particular caution. The Jiangshi accompanying you will be transported together, so you need not worry on that account.”
Having anticipated the questions before they were asked and answered preemptively.
The 4th Tier Demon Beast spoke again.
“Do you have any further questions?”
“None.”
“Excellent. Then I wish you a bountiful harvest.”
Ilhyang stood at the portal entrance, observing the Ghost Shadow Demon Lord.
Even upon first arriving at Cheonran Fortress, he’d shown no tension—like someone on a leisurely excursion.
But after touring the Slave Market.
And after witnessing firsthand how human slaves were treated throughout this place, he’d grown considerably more composed.
‘That’s for the best.’
Woo Ki-cheon was a lich.
A lich was fundamentally the most corrupted form a mage could become.
Entirely different from mere undead.
A being that had transcended death itself.
This gave him an exceptionally strong sense of self-awareness.
Moreover, Woo Ki-cheon was the highest-grade lich of the current era, created by fusing knowledge from this world with knowledge from the Seven Continents.
‘I’ve certainly placed several security enchantments on him.’
Honestly, controlling him wasn’t easy.
Woo Ki-cheon, who could be distinguished as a high lich rather than an ordinary lich, should be treated as barely exceeding the 5th Realm and reaching the 6th Realm by this world’s classification standards.
It was only half, but the Sixth Realm was the power of Yeonheo-gi.
Precisely half a grade stronger than Ilhyang at this very moment.
‘Still, this is the best option.’
During the creation process, I could have reduced his self-awareness and elevated his controllability further.
But if I had done so, there would be no way to resist if the worst variable emerged in the Deep Three Continents.
That’s why I threw the dice.
For now, Woo Ki-cheon didn’t know his location and was obediently following orders.
But once we arrived in the Deep Three Continents, there was no way to predict what would happen.
In the end, though there was some anxiety, Ilhyang proceeded according to plan.
“Let’s enter.”
“After you, Senior.”
The 4th Tier Demon Beast guarding the Hoelang Portal entrance ultimately failed to precisely identify Ilhyang’s true nature.
The high-ranking demon cultivators entering the portal were all exceptionally skilled in human transformation techniques—humanification arts, as they were called.
A few Dog Demons in another line beside them sniffed and tilted their heads in confusion.
But before they could approach and say anything, Ilhyang and Woo Ki-cheon slipped into the shimmering portal.
Along with that distinctive dizziness felt when passing through a portal, the vision darkened.
When the vision brightened moments later, the first thing visible was lightning falling from the sky.
Crackle—
A bolt of lightning struck down.
Where the lightning hit, a charred tree burned while displaying lush green leaves.
An unreal sight.
“Those expensive Heavenly Tribulation Lightning Strike Trees are scattered everywhere.”
I heard Woo Ki-cheon’s admiring voice.
I quickly retrieved the artifact I’d stored in the Jeo-mul Platform.
The ring and clothes were already equipped.
The staff. In other words, the Hyeonmyeong Divine Transformation Staff.
“From here on, there’s no need to hide being human.”
“Ha, indeed!”
Woo Ki-cheon’s expression seemed slightly improved compared to when we entered.
That made sense—from here onward, this was a place where not just demon cultivators but humans could also be encountered.
The Ghost Shadow Demon Lord said he’d visited the Deep Three Continents even when he was human.
So he knew roughly the geography.
“Seeing lightning fall so relentlessly, this is likely the White Tiger Gold State.”
“White Tiger Gold State? Then this is the Cang Qiong Realm.”
“Yes.”
Each of the Deep Three Continents in the Upper Realm was comparable in size to a single Suyeon Realm of the Upper Realm.
That is, excluding the largest Gui Yi Continent.
The Dao Yuan Realm and Cang Qiong Realm—both were each comparable in size to either the Demon Immortal Realm or the Immortal Celestial Realm.
Such vast continents had entry restrictions beginning at minimum from the Wonyeonggi level, resulting in an extremely sparse population distribution in practice.
Yet from the Wonyeonggi level onward, one could command an enormous territory.
No matter how expansive the continents were, they often encountered one another, so Ilhyang surveyed his surroundings and spoke.
“How many portals to the Gui Yi Continent are there in this realm?”
“There are forty-two in total.”
The Cang Qiong Realm and Dao Yuan Realm had enough information circulating that rough maps could even be drawn of them.
This place too was said to expand slightly each year, but not as rapidly as the Gui Yi Continent.
Thus maps had been created, and the Upper Sects shared them among themselves.
Naturally, maps could not be obtained by ordinary means.
But if one had connections to a major sect, information could be obtained one way or another.
Ghost Shadow Demon Lord Woo Ki-cheon had been an elder of the Guiyin Sect and Black Night Sect in life, and thus had connections to the major sects of the Demonic Sect Alliance.
This was fortunate for Ilhyang.
“Let’s move for now.”
Drawing out a flying artifact from the Jeo-mul Platform, Ilhyang boarded the lotus-shaped artifact and ascended slowly into the air.
He adjusted his altitude to approximately thirty-three zhang above ground—roughly one hundred meters.
There were two reasons for this.
One was that lightning would strike from the sky at altitudes above thirty-three zhang.
‘The only exception was said to be Hapdogi.’
In truth, Hapdogi was not at a level to be affected by mere lightning.
Already being a natural disaster itself, why would lightning be frightening?
Yeonheo-gi.
Thus even 6th Tier Demon Beasts.
Were unaffected by lightning, but it was still a concern, so they generally avoided flying above thirty-three zhang.
‘The second reason for not flying high was….’
Flying at altitudes above thirty-three zhang made observation possible from much greater distances.
In other words.
“Hunters, Senior. Bad luck meeting us in such a vast place.”
It made him an easy target for professional hunters who roamed the Deep Three Continents specifically to hunt Demon Beasts and humans.
Ilhyang gauged the auras of five figures rapidly approaching and tightened his grip on the staff in his hand.

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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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