Chapter 144. Trying to Row a Boat On Land (15)

Eun-Ah glared at Ok Ji-Gyeong in the middle of her roar, revealing a strong killing intent for a moment. Therefore, he had been more shocked than anyone else.

He steeled himself, trying hard to stop his legs from shaking.

“Hahaha. No worries, no worries. You can’t possibly think that I, the young patriarch of the Western Nihility Gate, would be scared by a little beast.... Hahaha.”

Namar, Hye-Rim, and Su Ran sighed at the same time, knowing that the man was forcing himself to pretend to be strong.

‘How can the last remaining member of a powerful sect with a rich history act like this?’

***

“I’m done. Let us go.”

Although Si-Hyeon had learned all of the foundational demonic arts of the Heavenly Demon Cult, it had still taken her some time to assimilate them as techniques of her own.

Now, Si-Hyeon had indeed become the Heavenly Demon. She had become a Paragon, a level higher than that of even her master, the Palm Martial Emperor.

The masked Dark Sword immediately knelt down, his right knee and right fist slamming into the ground.

“Understood!”

A fire burned deep within Dark Sword’s cold gaze.

‘It starts now, Martial Heaven. It’s time for you to see the true terror of a Heavenly Demon Cult led by a true Heavenly Demon.’

The previous Heavenly Demon, the Dominating Fist Heavenly Demon, had never taken one step back, even against the joint attacks of those who would later be called the Eight Heavenly Martial Emperors along with waves upon waves of Transcendent Class experts. He had only been defeated by Martial Heaven’s sneak attack.

After having succeeded in severely injuring the Dominating Fist Heavenly Demon through a joint attack, Martial Heaven persistently attacked the weakened Heavenly Demon Cult and the Dominating Fist Heavenly Demon, eventually forcing the Dominating Fist Heavenly Demon to seal his entire power and inheritance into the Heavenly Demon Egg.

That marked the beginning of the most miserable era of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

But that era was now over.

Si-Hyeon was the first female Heavenly Demon, and at the same time, due to the order of succession, she was also the strongest Heavenly Demon of all time. She was likely as strong as Tang Jeok-Ha, the one who destroyed all three Demonic Paths.[1]

Walking up to a massive door forged of black iron that blocked one side of the secret underground chamber, Si-Hyeon lightly placed her hand on it.

Crack!!

The slightest of cracks spread from her hand across the black iron. In a split second, countless cracks webbed their way through the door, which shattered into small pieces.

“Guide me to our forces, Dark Sword.”

“Understood!”

Dark Sword ran ahead and Si-Hyeon followed behind, floating in the air with her arms crossed.

It was an incredible display of the Heavenly Demon Flight Art that had reached the highest of tiers.

Soon, they arrived in a cavernous valley, hidden so well within the wilderness that it was impossible to find for someone who didn’t know it was there.

“I’ll guide you, so please follow the path I take,” Dark Sword said, concerned with the formation installed ahead of them.

However, Si-Hyeon just shook her head arrogantly and continued to fly forward.

“No need. Follow me.”

Countless small bolts of lightning crackled around her, sapping away at the formation's energy.

For once, Dark Sword was able to relax and walk through its domain without any worries.

‘To think she’s already reached a point where she can display the Cult’s greatest defensive technique, the Absolute Demon Wall....’

This wasn’t a feat possible merely just because she had assimilated the techniques and comprehensions of the previous Heavenly Demons or absorbed the cultivation of the Dominating Fist Heavenly Demon.

No... Her ability to condense that knowledge into her own comprehension and display such a level of skill was a testament to her own martial talent.

“Who is it?!”

Two guards belonging to a subordinate squad of the Eight Division of the Demon Army stood at attention, wary of seeing Si-Hyeon emerge from the end of the formation.

Dark Sword’s role as Foundation Protector was to guard the Heavenly Demon from the shadows, standing as the final sword to defend the Heavenly Demon at the end. Unless there was no other choice, he was not to be seen by anyone else, and hardly anyone even knew of his existence. The moment they emerged and were in the presence of others, he had already hid in the shadows.

Now, Si-Hyeon had to handle the rest on her own.

“Kneel!”

With a single word, Si-Hyeon’s demonic qi blasted around her, generating an absolute pressure that forced the two warriors down on their knees.

“The Heavenly Demon Cult will live forever!”

As people who had also cultivated the techniques of the Heavenly Demon Cult, the two warriors realized immediately after they felt the qi besieging them—Si-Hyeon was the new Heavenly Demon.

Behind them, the gate with a depiction of the Heavenly Demon carved into it opened without anyone’s intervention.

As Si-Hyeon went through the gate, demonic qi continued to exude from her entire being. Sensing this, the remaining troops of the Heavenly Demon Cult poured into the massive training ground connected to the main gate.

Some of the demonic qi surrounding her coalesced on her back, forming black wings.

All the cultists gathered at the training hall knelt and shouted,

“Eternal Immortal Cult of the Heavenly Demon!

“The Heavenly Demon Cult will live forever!”

Si-Hyeon walked between the kneeling cultists and headed toward the massive throne on a platform situated in front of the training grounds. As she stepped forward, the long black robe covering the throne flew into the air.

Si-Hyeon caught the robe and put it on, then sat on the throne with her legs crossed. Her long legs were more perfect than those of a marble statue as they peeked out from within the robe.

Si-Hyeon quietly leaned into the throne and smiled, the corners of her mouth rising.

Her smile was filled with such demonic force that even those within the Demonic Flower Faction[2] cultivating the Lust Art, the art with the strongest charm among the Heavenly Demon Cult’s Soul Stealing Arts, couldn’t control themselves.

As the seals were broken and Si-Hyeon underwent a complete transformation, her originally beautiful appearance shined even brighter than before. She used to have a girl-next-door type of beauty, but now, it felt as if people would kill each other over her beauty, as if nations would collapse for the sake of a single smile!

On top of that, her strength was just as overwhelming!

The elders of the cult could feel her strength radiate over them. They shed tears of joy at finally seeing a beacon of light after having endured such years of shame.

“Not bad.”

Although the number of cultists was less than half of what it had been during the Heavenly Demon Cult’s heyday, Si-Hyeon was still satisfied.

“This is more than enough. But...”

As she dragged the end of her sentence out, six streaks of darkness stretched from the nebulous demonic qi flowing behind her.

“Agk!”

“Ugh!”

They moved like tentacles, grabbing onto two elders, two members of the Eighth Division of the Demon Army, one member of the Sword Demon Cabinet, and a member of the Heavenly Demon Light and Darkness Battalion.

Just like that, six people were caught by the neck by Si-Hyeon's demonic qi and were lifted into the air, their eyes filled with fear, doubt, and disbelief.

“You rats... I can smell the disgusting stench of those Martial Heaven bastards from you.”

Immediately, all six people had a look of shock glint in their eyes.

Squelch!

One of the people from the Eighth Division, the one on the far right, fell to the ground, while his head remained in the air.

It was cruel, but Si-Hyeon didn't even blink.

The scene of Woo-Moon being murdered had replaced all sympathy and mercy in her heart with blank iciness.

When it came to dealing with Martial Heaven, she had the resolve to become the greatest evil in the world.

Squelch!

The spy from the Sword Demon Cabinet also dropped to the ground, decapitated through the throat.

Throughout all of this, Si-Hyeon hadn’t stopped smiling. However, the bloodlust and demonic qi emanating from her was so strong that it seemed as though it would blot out the sky and envelop the earth.

Even under Si-Hyeon’s formidable pressure, the Heavenly Demon Light and Darkness Battalion Leader forcibly moved, kowtowing and shouting as his forehead slammed onto the ground.

“My lord! Please spare the spies! We can extract a lot of useful information from them while they still breathe!”

Si-Hyeon smiled brightly in response.

Squelch, squelch, squelch!

The remaining spies were all explosively beheaded.

Bang!

Another streak of demonic qi split apart from the mass behind Si-Hyeon and whipped the battalion leader across the cheek.

“Since when did the Heavenly Demon Cult stop and suppress our rage to weigh the benefits of this and that? If you want to kill, kill, and if you want to destroy, destroy.”

The core belief of the Heavenly Demon Cult was power!

The shame cut the battalion leader deeper than the savage wound on his cheek, making him lower his head even more.

“I deserve death for my insolence!”

“Don’t let that scar ever fade. Remember this moment forever and never forget this lesson.”

“I have received your order!”

While sitting on the grand throne, Si-Hyeon scanned the subordinates lined up before her.

‘Senior brother... In the end, I didn’t even get to confess to you. That’s the thing I regret most. Since I’m the last one left, from now on, I’ll live only to avenge you. Martial Heaven... I’ll erase it from this world.’

Although Si-Hyeon had promised herself to be as cold and harsh as ice, everything about her demeanor changed when she thought of Woo-Moon.

‘And the Merchant Guild... is uncle doing okay? Is he doing okay?’

Although she was worried about the guild, the way things were now, she couldn’t go back.

Now, her fate had taken her to a place worlds apart from her dreams of the future.

She had made a triumphant entrance not into the business world as the leader of a major merchant guild, but into the true

murim

, as the new Heavenly Demon. Not only that, but she had left an inerasable impression on her followers.

She was just a young woman, but she was making sure that not one single person would dare to ignore her just because of that.

***

Woo-Moon stood before a Confucian school in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province.

Dusk melded heaven and earth into the same red hue.

After ordering Eun-Ah to wait on the nearby mountain, Woo-Moon climbed over the wall of the Confucian school and onto the roof of the central pavilion before slowly expanding his senses.

‘There you are.’

He could hear someone breathing heavily somewhere in a smaller pavilion.

There, the son of the Night Spear Devil, a frail boy struck with jaundice, was sweating and gasping in his sleep as if he was having a nightmare.

“What a poor child...”

An old woman sat next to the boy, constantly wiping the boy’s sweat with a towel to try to get his body temperature to drop.

‘What a relief. He’s at least receiving excellent care here.’

Woo-Moon didn’t bother with pleasantries; he quietly entered the room and knocked the woman out by pressing her acupoints, then knelt in front of the bed. He focused, gathered his qi, and sent it through the boy’s acupoints.

‘I can do this. With the Forbidden Divine Art and the Gentle Celestial Sword—I can do this!’

He carefully inspected Gyeong Mu-Gi’s entire body meticulously, without leaving out a single detail. As he did so, he discovered something strange.

‘There are some abnormalities and foreign things eating into his bones and blood.’

[3]

This wasn’t a poison, no, nothing of the sort. However, it was something even more terrifying than poison, something that gnawed away at Gyeong Mu-Gi’s body and drew him closer and closer to death.

Woo-Moon continued to infuse Gyeong Mu-Gi with qi, visualizing an image of the Gentle Celestial Sword extirpating all abnormalities or foreign objects, while the qi of the Forbidden Celestial Art helped his body heal and regenerate in a normal way.

It wasn’t until the morning sun was about to rise that Woo-Moon was able to finish all of Gyeong Mu-Gi’s treatment.

‘What a relief, really.’

He wondered how happy the great Night Spear Devil would have been if he were alive to see this.

Woo-Moon felt as much sadness as he felt proud of himself.

‘Now... I have to do some dangerous things, so I can’t take this child with me. For now, it would be better for me to let him grow here.’

As the boy hadn’t fully recovered yet, it was probably for the best that he wasn’t told about his father’s death just yet.

‘Later, when everything is over, I’ll come and make you my official disciple. In the meantime, you must stay healthy.’

Woo-Moon rifled through Gyeong Mu-Gi’s belongings. He immediately found a manual detailing the Dark Night Spear and a manual detailing the Great Burning Heart Art and proceeded to read both of them head to tail. Then, he picked up the brush on the table and detailed his own explanations of the parts he thought may be difficult to understand. Unfortunately, as he didn’t have much time, he was only able to add his comprehension to a few essential parts.

After he finished modifying the manuals, he also put down manuals for the Raging Wind Palm, the Heavy Rain Fist, and the Northern Wind Steps that he had written down earlier.

‘Then, till we meet again!’

As soon as he released the two people’s acupoints, Woo-Moon disappeared.

Gyeong Mu-Gi woke up from his sleep and was surprised to feel that his body had become extremely light.

“What the...?”

When he got up, he noticed his martial arts manuals sitting on the table...along with three new manuals that he had never seen before.

While he was both surprised and frightened, his first reaction was to open the books to check the contents. He saw a message written on the first page of the Raging Wind Palm.

—At your father’s request, I have agreed to take you in as my disciple. Please understand that I can’t reveal my name to you right now, and I can’t teach you directly due to some pressing issues right now. Therefore, I’ve given you some materials and explanations for now. Please practice diligently until I come to visit you with the Night Spear Devil later.

Thud!

When he put the book down, a pendant dropped from his sleeve onto the bed.

“Ah!”

When Gyeong Mu-Gi saw the pendant, his eyes filled with tears.

How could he not recognize the pendant that his father had received from his mother before she passed?

1. Referencing the main character of one of the author’s previous books,

The Sixth Heavenly Lord

. The focus of this book is on the Heavenly Demon Cult. ☜

2. The word Demon in Heavenly Demon is Mo (Demon/Devil/Fiend in the western Demon sense). In contrast, the word Demon in Demonic Flower is Yao (Magical Spirit/Beast Demon). ☜

3. This is how cancer is described in older texts. ☜