The World’s Greatest is Dead - Chapter 566
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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 Heavenly Supreme Has Died – Episode 566
The foremost figure of the Demonic Cult. Gyemun, wielder of the Black Iron Demon Blade.
The old man who stands at the center of the current Demonic Cult in a world where the Celestial Demon has vanished.
He was pressing down on my sword with steady force. It wouldn’t budge. The pressure was considerable.
“For someone who claims to have something to say, you’re being remarkably violent.”
I narrowed my eyes and asked. At my words, Gyemun’s expression twisted. His gaze shifted backward.
Whoosh—! A blade came flying in. It was Yoo Yeon.
“…I told you to stand down.”
He grimaced with obvious displeasure, then reached out his hand toward Yoo Yeon’s blade.
Clang—! His hand, wrapped in qi, caught the sword edge as if it were nothing.
This was absurd.
‘The gap in level is painfully obvious.’
To say there was nothing behind Yoo Yeon’s attack would be a lie. She was sincere. She had thrust forward a blade infused with sword qi. And Gyemun caught it without effort.
A clear difference in realm. Moreover, a difference in level. I could distinctly perceive the flaws and enlightenment etched into the sword path.
And yet—
‘To Gyemun, it means nothing.’
Heaven and earth. The chasm between this old man before me and my own level.
It was strikingly similar to what I had felt when facing the Sword Emperor.
“…!”
Yoo Yeon froze at the sight of her captured blade.
“You’re in the way.”
Gyemun flicked his hand lightly, but the movement was invisible. Impossibly fast. Only the sound of air being torn reached my ears.
Thud—! With a brief impact, Yoo Yeon’s body was driven backward. Seeing this, I moved.
I rushed forward and caught her back, absorbing the momentum to lessen the impact.
Gasping sounds escaped her. Yoo Yeon was drooling blood from the pain.
“…Hmm.”
At the sight, Gyemun tilted his head slightly.
“You blocked it in that brief opening.”
“…Haa—”
Yoo Yeon steadied her breathing in short gasps. Watching her, I grasped Gyemun’s meaning.
‘She defended.’
When Gyemun struck her abdomen and drove her back, Yoo Yeon had mounted a defense in that fleeting instant.
Did she perceive it through pure instinct? I questioned whether I could have managed the same.
“…As expected.”
I set aside whatever Gyemun was muttering and let Yoo Yeon catch her breath for a moment.
I touched her back to help her recover, channeling a bit of my energy to steady her.
Then I approached Gyemun.
“What brings you here?”
“As I said before. I came because I have something to tell you.”
“Me? Or… her?”
“….”
Gyemun flinched at my words. Seeing his reaction, I nodded to myself.
‘Just as I thought.’
It seemed Yoo Yeon also perceived something. I wondered what she saw that made her take interest in that man.
It had nagged at me subtly, and I’d formed several hypotheses about it.
Of course, I had no intention of mentioning it now.
“Perhaps I am your objective.”
Gyemun’s purpose would be me, after all.
“Yoo Yeon.”
“….”
At my call, Yoo Yeon lifted her head.
“Stay here.”
“…!”
Her eyes widened. She immediately tried to shake her head, so I furrowed my brow and stared at her.
“Stay here. I’m fine.”
“….”
Faced with my firm tone, Yoo Yeon hesitated. When no response came and I simply stared, she nodded after a moment.
Fortunately, she seemed to listen. Yoo Yeon glared at Gyemun before departing.
As Yoo Yeon left the alley, Gyemun watched her for a moment.
“You’ll bore a hole through him at this rate.”
“….”
I asked him something. In that instant.
Whoosh.
“….”
In a flash, something pressed against my throat. A sharp blade.
The moment the sword touched my neck, I looked at him.
Honestly, I trembled. Once again, a moment I hadn’t sensed coming.
“You bastard….”
I tried to threaten him, but the words wouldn’t come. After assessing Gyemun’s state, I spoke.
“Why? Are you surprised?”
One of my hypotheses—the most likely one—I mentioned to him.
“That a child who should have died is alive and well. And has even returned to Singyeo. Is that truly so shocking?”
“…!”
At my words, Gyemun’s pupils trembled wildly.
Seeing that, I was certain within myself.
‘He knows.’
This old man knows. That the Celestial Demon’s child is alive.
That the child is a girl.
I’d already confirmed this before through questioning, but here I could discern something greater.
‘He was suspecting Yoo Yeon.’
Gyemun seemed to be thinking about Yoo Yeon, and I noticed it—so I pressed the advantage. I figured it was better to pursue this line of inquiry rather than ease off the suspicion or redirect it.
The Celestial Demon was scheming.
‘He wants to use me.’
And he hoped to employ this old man as much as possible for his own purposes—I was well aware of his desires.
So now that I knew that—
‘I should oblige him.’
It seemed my priority was to use him just as he intended to use me.
“…How…did you.”
“Last time too, you found it strange that I knew something. And now it’s the same.”
I touched the blade pressed against my throat with my finger, then pushed it away gently. Without any resistance, it slid back on its own.
“What’s strange about it? That I know something? Or that I’m with her?”
“….”
“It seems to be both.”
He appeared to find it strange that I knew her and was with her at all.
Hearing that, I let out a soft laugh.
“There’s nothing strange about it. I made an effort to find her…and barely managed to do so.”
“Why…? What could you possibly know?”
“What’s wrong with trying to find someone of the same blood?”
“…!”
We’d become siblings in an instant, but I needed to make use of it somehow.
“I simply found what Singyeo lost through their own blundering.”
“…You. Just how much do you know?”
“I have no intention of telling you such things.”
The threat had already passed. Gyemun had become nothing more than a shocked man.
“I, that is, I will now do what must be done within Singyeo.”
“…What?”
“Gwima.”
“…!”
At my brief call, Gyemun froze. Gwima. After a moment passed at that name—
“You called for me…?”
Gwima, who had been hiding at a distance, appeared and knelt before me. Seeing this, Gyemun’s face contorted violently.
“Gwima. How could you——”
“It has been long since we met. Black Iron Demon Sword.”
Even as Gwima greeted him, he did not look at Gyemun. He gazed only at me.
Gwima had been hiding his presence from both the Sword Emperor and this place itself, avoiding Gigam’s detection.
‘I thought he would come if I called.’
The moment I called, I believed he would appear immediately and approach. And indeed, Gwima appeared at once.
As though the existence of the Elder mattered not at all, he appeared straightaway and displayed his loyalty before me.
Gyemun’s reaction to this was far from ordinary.
“You…you knew beforehand and kept silent? And yet you sided with the Young Master…!”
“I have never sided with the Young Master. I did so only because there was no other choice. Surely you understand that as well.”
“….”
“However, that necessity no longer exists. For I now have one far superior to anyone else—the Heavenly itself.”
“Ha.”
As words bordering on reverence reached my ears, I felt my cheeks warm. Gyemun too exhaled sharply.
“…You. Do you truly regard this mere whelp as the Heavenly?”
“What reason exists to believe otherwise?”
“That is…!”
“Do not remain shackled to the past and lose the future. The previous Heavenly would not wish such a thing.”
With each word Gwima spoke, Gyemun’s responses grew fewer.
I sensed a wavering within him.
Not quite persuasion. Merely a trembling—nothing more than that.
“Successor of Jeongpa. Predecessor of the Sword Saint. You expect me to believe you have harbored true intentions toward Singyeo all along?”
Along with this, a thick suspicion turned toward me.
“That is irrelevant. No matter what else one possesses, ultimately you remain the Sword Saint’s Predecessor. And yet…”
“What problem is there with that?”
“…What?”
“I fail to understand what problem exists in being the Sword Saint’s Predecessor.”
“Do you call that reasoning….”
“Regardless of the means, my will is my own. The legitimacy of Singyeo stems from strength and the will of the Demonic Cult.”
With a metallic ring, I drew my blade.
“Ah… Ahhh….”
Gwima, knowing full well what my sword was, gasped in admiration as I unsheathed the divine blade.
“If my will ultimately turns toward the Demonic—then regardless of what it becomes, it holds no contradiction.”
Ssshhhhh. I moved my energy. The Celestial Demon Divine Art, which I had barely grown accustomed to in mere days, flowed through me.
I wrapped the energy lightly around my body.
Hair darkened to black. Eyes burning red once more.
Maintaining this state, I reversed the blade and offered it to Gyemun.
“What do you make of this. The Black Iron Demonic Sword.”
“…What is this….”
Just as I wondered why I was presenting such a blade so suddenly.
Gyemun’s expression shifted to one of disbelief as he reached out to grasp the sword. Or rather, attempted to.
In that instant.
Crackle-crackle-crackle——!!!!
“…!”
The pressure erupted, and Gyemun failed to seize the blade.
“Ha… Surely not… A divine sword…? How…!”
Recognizing it as the Celestial Demon’s sword—the Celestial Demon Divine Blade reborn in the hands of the Dang Clan—Gyemun cried out in shock.
A lost relic emerging here had clearly startled him greatly.
Yet his shock would not end there.
“Everything follows its natural course. And if that course has been twisted, I shall bend it back into alignment myself.”
If you wish to be arrogant, then possess the qualifications to back it.
I borrowed that hollow rhetoric the Celestial Demon had been subtly spouting.
“Believe it or not—I care not. The only question is whether you will follow or refuse.”
“….”
“If you refuse, then do so. I have little need for you.”
I suspect the Celestial Demon would have spoken thus. That he needed nothing at all.
That standing alone was itself ten thousand demons.
This man would have said the same—
[…Who?]
I no longer know. Perhaps it matters not.
“Hani, make your choice. Spare me further questions. I have shown you everything there is to see, have I not?”
“Truly… Do you intend to become the Celestial Demon? As Geomseong’s Predecessor?”
“I have no intention of employing legitimate means. However.”
I had no such intention.
“Can Singyeo truly refuse me?”
Therefore, I could afford to elevate my pride further still.
What Gyemun required was a substitute for the Celestial Demon bearing perfect symbolic weight. I merely needed to appear as such.
Ah, of course.
‘Strictly speaking, that is precisely what I am now.’
I am the successor the Celestial Demon left behind. That Demon had been deliberately crafting me thus, and I was not ignorant of it.
“Singyeo cannot refuse me. Hani, surrender what I desire.”
“….”
Gwima remained kneeling still.
Gyemun fell silent.
I waited for him in silence, saying nothing.
“…I would ask but one thing.”
“I am listening.”
“What became of the child’s mother?”
“….”
The child’s mother? Was he speaking of Yoo Yeon?
Yoo Yeon’s mother, then.
“She is dead.”
“….”
Dead, long ago.
Upon hearing those words, Gyemun’s demeanor shifted, if only for a moment.
After that.
“…Follow me.”
Gyemun turned and began to move.
For reasons I could not discern.
‘It seems to have started moving?’
It appears the gears someone had set in place are beginning to turn.
The mechanisms crafted by an Unknown Assailant, that is.
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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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