The Youngest Son of the Nanyang Jin Family - Chapter 348

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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 Youngest Son of the Jin Family of Luoyang – Chapter 348

I surveyed my surroundings with half-lidded eyes.
Three corpses lay scattered, shredded by the blade of wind.
Their eyes, filled with blood, remained wide open—a stark testament to their ignorance of what had befallen them.
Confirming this, I gazed upon my sword.
The sensation of the blade in my hand felt peculiarly different today.
Recalling one by one what I had felt moments before, something displeased me, and I furrowed my brow with a sigh.
“What… what manner of martial art was that!?”
At that moment, Goh Ak-sang rushed forward, crying out.
His eyes, wide with disbelief at what he had witnessed, bore the countenance of a warrior possessed by profound thirst for martial knowledge.
I shook my head gently.
“It was a failure.”
“A… a failure? That?”
Yes, without question, it was a failure.
I sought to become wind, yet I did not become wind.
I enfolded the sword in wind, yet it did not unfold as I envisioned.
I felt once more that the threads of the Formless were not so easily grasped.
At yet another failure, I could not help but furrow my brow.
Yet Goh Ak-sang, unable to believe, alternated his gaze between me and the dead.
For those renowned in the Demon Sect for their exceptional skill, a single technique that had simultaneously cut down all three could not possibly be deemed a failure.
I offered a bitter smile.
“Regardless, let us attend to what remains.”
“Ah, yes!”
I turned my head, as if clearing thoughts from my mind. Even with three dead, many still remained, and they desperately wielded their blades for survival.
As Goh Ak-sang entered the fray and overturned the situation once more, those who had completely lost momentum fell meaninglessly.
After observing briefly, I turned my gaze elsewhere.
Surely, had he emerged from that place?
I moved slowly toward the location from which Yu Sahon had emerged.
Along the way, no one properly blocked my path, and some even cleared the way for me.
This was their instinctive choice to flee, driven by fear of me.
Thus, without any obstruction, I entered the inner hall and examined its interior.
The interior was vast and complex, but following the traces on the floor, I soon arrived at the largest chamber.
The object I sought lay solitary upon a table in that very room.
“Is this… the Extreme Demon Scripture?”
I approached slowly and examined it.
It was aged leather, not paper.
Though discolored by the passage of time, I sensed the touch of countless sect leaders across the long years.
I slowly extended my hand and unfolded the leather.
The characters carved into that surface remained completely untouched by the passage of time.
Still vivid and majestic.
I could sense a momentum as if a dragon were ascending to the heavens.
And alongside it, a small landscape sketched in the corner.
Somehow crude, making it ambiguous whether it could be called a drawing at all, yet strange enough that I couldn’t dismiss it as anything else.
That hastily drawn image appeared to symbolize something.
But no matter how long I stared, I couldn’t decipher it, and comparing it to the vivid and majestic calligraphy, I wondered if the same person had truly created both.
I narrowed my brow slightly, furrowing my eyes in concentration.
“Hmm.”
Characters and image.
The image was undoubtedly pointing to something. Though I couldn’t determine what, I suspected it might be a secret treasure of the Cheonma passed down through generations of the Demon Sect.
I had no lack of desire to investigate, but touching anything belonging to the Demon Sect was impossible.
I couldn’t afford to damage our relationship over such a matter.
Thus, this image held no meaning for me.
The characters, however, were different.
The moment I gazed upon them, I felt as though they would drain even a person’s spiritual power. The characters seemed to embed themselves in my mind, refusing to fade, emanating a peculiar force.
As my brow continued to narrow and my pupils began to lose focus from absorbing the text.
I sensed a presence outside and quickly regained my composure, covering the Extreme Demon Scripture.
“I’ve secured the perimeter.”
The one who entered was Goh Ak-sang.
Drenched in blood, he wore a cruel smile as he confirmed the Extreme Demon Scripture resting on the table.
“Is this it?”
“It appears certain—this seems to be what you were looking for.”
Goh Ak-sang nodded as he entered, grasping the object in his hand. When he cast a suspicious glance at me, as if questioning whether I had unfolded it, I simply shrugged lightly.
“Do you doubt me?”
“Ha ha ha! How could I? You’re the one the Sect Leader trusts most!”
Goh Ak-sang burst into hearty laughter, and the suspicion in his eyes vanished. He naturally secured the Extreme Demon Scripture in his embrace and bowed to me once more.
“I’m grateful for your assistance. I won’t forget this debt!”
“Are you leaving?”
“Now that I’ve recovered it, shouldn’t I return with haste? And you, Heavenly Warrior…?”
“I still have matters to attend to.”
At those words, Goh Ak-sang’s eyes gleamed.
If the Sect Leader’s hidden card had reason to remain in the Central Plains, it would suggest that the Demon Sect could soon make its move in the coming days.
That deep smile was the expression of one harboring such thoughts.
But I simply wished to return home.
“Then I’ll take my leave first.”
“Yes! We’ll meet again in the Demon Sect later.”
I patted Goh Ak-sang’s shoulder and turned to depart.
The moment I stepped outside, my eyes fell upon numerous corpses and the Black Demon Sect members moving about, verifying whether anyone still lived.
Crimson blood dripped steadily from the blades.
As I turned my head to confirm that those who had been holding their breath, feigning death, were one by one exhaling their last, Yeon-un, who had drawn near without warning, furrowed his brow.
“Isn’t that too much? No matter what, against an opponent who has lost the will to fight….”
“That is the law of the Demon Sect, is it not?”
I lightly patted the shoulder of Yeon-un, who was speaking with displeasure.
“Let us go.”
“…Yes.”
As if eager to leave that place as quickly as possible, Yeon-un answered weakly and hastily led Haryeon by the hand, following behind.
He followed with hurried steps as if unwilling to remain with them any longer, then opened his mouth with questioning eyes.
“But Young Master, what about that? You said you were searching for something…?”
“Ah— that? I found it.”
“What!? Was it truly something extraordinary?”
Something extraordinary?
If the Extreme Demon Scripture became known to the world, it would not be strange for a storm of blood to sweep through the martial realm.
However, there was no chance it would ever be revealed.
I had no intention of seeking it out in the first place.
But one thing.
I erased the image that dwelt in my mind and looked up at the pitch-black sky.

‘I have reached the Extreme, yet have not transcended the Extreme….’

What came to mind was one passage among many.
Reached the Extreme, yet did not transcend it.
Whether this meant it was possible to transcend it, or whether someone had actually witnessed such transcendence, I could not know.
But.

‘In the moment the balance of the Five Elements shattered, I glimpsed what lay beyond.’

I had been taught that the Five Elements were an unbreakable principle.
Yet someone had glimpsed what lay beyond it.
It was certain that it contained content far more important than I had anticipated, and the strange sense of danger I felt was no illusion.
“…Why, after all?”
Muk-hwang could have stopped it if he had chosen to.
But because he released his grip instead, this situation unfolded, and ultimately it seemed I was the one who moved to bring it to a close.
From beginning to end, I could not shake the feeling that I had been played by Ma Un, yet I could not say I had gained nothing from this situation either.
A suspicion arose—perhaps Muk-hwang had orchestrated all of this to push my back forward.
Because I could not fathom his reason, I felt uneasy and unsettled.
This was why my furrowed brow would not relax.

The dwelling of Ma Un, Sect Leader of the Demon Sect.
Within the Sect Leader’s training ground that none could enter, a statue of the Heavenly Demon stood so immense it defied imagination, and before it, Ma Un stood motionless, his gaze sweeping the surroundings without emotion.
What thoughts occupied his mind remained inscrutable.
Yet his eyes remained fixed upon the countless sword marks etched across the walls.
Then suddenly, he grasped his sword and began to dance.
Drawing them out one by one.
Beginning with the demonic techniques he had desperately mastered to survive, extending to the Heavenly Demon Divine Art that only a Sect Leader could obtain.
For a long while he danced and wielded his sword, yet the sword marks he created could not surpass those carved into the wall.
Did he sense it?
A furrow deepened between Ma Un’s brows as his movements ceased.
“Is it impossible?”
A mountain he must overcome.
Yet his sword could not transcend it.
Frozen in place, unable to advance, frustration consumed him, choking his throat until even breathing became agonizing.
Then it happened.
Ma Un’s narrowed gaze shifted.
As if receiving a voice transmission from someone, he nodded in understanding, and with a smile suggesting approval, he turned his head toward another direction.
“That child has succeeded.”
“Hohoho—.”
At the sudden laughter from above, I looked up to see a man perched at the very apex of the colossal Heavenly Demon statue, his laughter carrying the transcendent tone of an ancient sage.
Ma Un swallowed hard at the sight of this being.
One whose mere presence compelled bowing of the head.
A youth in appearance, yet something far greater within.
In that moment, the man atop the statue descended from the towering Heavenly Demon with light, effortless steps.
Treading through the void.
A technique Ma Un could perform himself, yet executed at a level incomparably higher.
Ma Un knelt of his own accord and bowed his head.
“That child will surely obtain much. Do you not think so?”
“…Your words are correct.”
“Hohoho—.”
In the moment that laughter—transcending the world itself—buried itself in his ears, Ma Un felt the inner demon he had sensed moments before vanish completely.
Ma Un’s eyes changed as he felt this peace.
As if beholding a devout believer.
Yet he voiced the question dwelling in his mind.
“May I…ask one thing?”
“What is it?”
“Why have you…allowed that child to inherit Mu Heo’s legacy? And this pushing of his back…is there a reason?”
A question anyone would naturally harbor.
Though I understand Jin Cheon-u to be remarkable, from the perspective of a Gwanbaek ascending to divine status, he is clearly no more than a mere whelp.
Yet he had even used Nam Tae-cheon’s remnants to push his back forward.
And even the Extreme Demon Scripture on top of that.
It was only natural that the situation defied comprehension.
“Because he is still a child who must grow… he lacks much.”
Ma Un held his breath and bowed his head even lower.
Though he could not know the precise details, it was abundantly clear that there existed definite reasons behind all of this.
Then it happened.
The Gwanbaek, who had drawn near without warning, placed a hand upon Ma Un’s bowed head.
A flinch—!
Though the grip was not forceful, his body trembled, for this being who had ascended to divine authority could snuff out Ma Un’s existence with such a gesture alone.
Soon a gentle voice burrowed into his ears.
“Yes, you have aided me in one matter, so I too must repay you in kind. Is there something you desire?”
A voice that whispered with temptation.
Words so sweet and enchanting, utterly impossible to resist.
As Ma Un slowly lifted his head to gaze upward, the Gwanbaek’s smile bloomed.
In that moment, Ma Un’s eyes shattered.

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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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