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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: The Current Heavenly Demon!
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In truth, Dok Cheon-roe was a promising talent within the Poison Heavenly Pillar Gate.
As its name suggested, the Poison Heavenly Pillar Gate specialized in poison arts.
Its people were all born with a natural resistance to poison.
Among them, Dok Cheon-roe was born with a resistance that could be called the absolute best.
Unfortunately, what he gained in resistance, he lacked in other areas.
For example, his character and talent for wielding weapons were deficient.
But that wasn't particularly important.
Character wasn't something the Demonic Cult, treated even more horribly than the Unorthodox Faction, cared about, and as for weapons, he could simply choose not to use them.
Thus, Dok Cheon-roe became the sole focus of the Poison Heavenly Pillar Gate's expectations, honing his skills primarily in the fist and palm techniques among their secret arts.
His most outstanding skill was the Poison Heavenly Palm, a strike delivered after coating his hands in a deadly poison.
That made it all the more devastating.
When he was utterly defeated by Maeng Ak in the first test of the Divine Hall of the Latent Demon.
That day, Dok Cheon-roe realized there were poisons that even he, with his superior resistance, could not handle.
Even after using his most confident Poison Heavenly Palm, he had failed to leave so much as a scratch.
Worse, his opponent was an orphan.
Unlike himself, who had been showered with the Gate's expectations and had naturally accumulated elixirs and teachings.
The difference in the support Maeng Ak and Dok Cheon-roe had received growing up made the impact of his defeat all the greater.
Dok Cheon-roe was instantly relegated to a status below the other Rising Stars, who had been his rivals.
Upon hearing the news, the Poison Heavenly Pillar Gate came to the brink of expelling him.
Fortunately, since the Divine Hall of the Latent Demon had just begun, they gave him one more chance.
And so, swallowing his pride, he had pleaded with So Ryong and the other Rising Stars of the Five Heavenly Pillar Gates.
This time, he had to kill Maeng Ak and salvage what little was left of his shattered reputation.
However, that hope was now turning to dust.
At the hands of that man, Maeng Ak.
He had to hurry before his last hope was extinguished.
He had to help Do Cheon-mu and So Ryong.
If they ended up like Geom Cheon-ha, sprawled on the ground, then all hope would be lost.
But what was this?
Eum Cheon-myeong and Hwan Cheon-hwa, who were supposed to be covering the rear with him, weren't moving a muscle.
Even when he glared at them murderously, even when he screamed his lungs out.
Those two simply averted their eyes and covered their ears.
Confusion and doubt blossomed in Dok Cheon-roe's mind.
'Why aren't they moving?
Surely they're not in league with that monster? Come to think of it, there's more than one suspicious thing about that monster…'
The most baffling of all was that bastard, Eum Cheon-myeong.
Fine, he could concede a hundred times over that Hwan Cheon-hwa was just that kind of girl.
Honestly, she had reason to hate him, and hadn't she been passive when they were planning at the Demonic Heaven Inn?
But Eum Cheon-myeong had no excuse.
Eum Cheon-myeong was a genius of sound arts, raised by the Sound Heavenly Pillar Gate since childhood.
The Sound Heavenly Pillar Gate had always been close with the Poison Heavenly Pillar Gate, and he had naturally become friends with Eum Cheon-myeong.
Just like the old saying, geniuses think alike.
So why wasn't that bastard helping him deal with Maeng Ak?
He couldn't understand.
He couldn't stand it any longer.
He had to confront them.
"Fine! Forget Hwan Cheon-hwa. But why are you just standing there, you damn lunatic!"
Dok Cheon-roe actually had a suspicion.
'Is it because I was knocked out during the first test?'
Ever since being beaten by Maeng Ak, Dok Cheon-roe had developed an inferiority complex and paranoia.
This situation seemed to be a result of that.
Just then, Eum Cheon-myeong shouted.
"Shut up, Cheon-roe! Still haven't grasped the situation?"
With a single sentence, Eum Cheon-myeong pierced straight through Dok Cheon-roe's paranoia and inferiority complex.
*Guh.*
To Dok Cheon-roe, the betrayal of Eum Cheon-myeong, whom he had considered a friend, felt more painful than the fact that he couldn't defeat Maeng Ak.
In truth, since Dok Cheon-roe had been knocked out, he didn't know.
That when he was eliminated by Maeng Ak in the first test, Eum Cheon-myeong, the man he thought of as his friend, hadn't spared him a single glance.
"Just you wait, you traitors! You will regret this!"
The current situation was already despairing.
But instead of helping, those traitors pushed him deeper into the abyss.
Dok Cheon-roe's voice, as he shouted at them, was filled with malice.
Powerlessly, it was all he could do to the traitors right now.
His own subordinates were fighting the monster right behind him.
Dok Cheon-roe's blood boiled, but he had no choice but to turn his back on the traitors.
He had to protect his people.
But the monster wouldn't even allow that.
*Thud.*
Something rested on his shoulder.
The shape he felt was clearly a human hand.
But its weight was like a boulder.
That's right. The owner of the hand was the monster, Maeng Ak.
Dok Cheon-roe knew it without even turning around.
He could feel Maeng Ak's unique energy, the same he had felt during the first test, flowing through the hand.
Then, a chilling voice reached his ears.
"If you're done talking, how about you look at me for a moment?"
***
Eum Cheon-myeong was born with perfect pitch.
Not the kind people usually talked about.
He was a genius, born with the ability to replicate any sound art after hearing it just once.
To the Sound Heavenly Pillar Gate, Eum Cheon-myeong was like a blessing bestowed upon them.
A genius had finally emerged who could overturn their perennial status as one of the lower-ranking Gates among the Five Heavenly Pillars.
At first, Eum Cheon-myeong didn't mind the expectations placed upon him.
The children of the Gate envied him, and the adults watched him with pleased expressions.
But as he grew older, all of it began to feel like a burden.
Slowly, Eum Cheon-myeong's dream of raising the Gate's status began to fade.
It wasn't his own dream, but the Gate's dream.
Still, he couldn't betray the Gate that had poured everything into him.
Eum Cheon-myeong did his best in his own way.
He forced himself to befriend Dok Cheon-roe, a Rising Star from the friendly Poison Heavenly Pillar Gate, and practiced his sound arts every day.
In doing so, he gradually lost himself.
His closest friend had a personality that clashed completely with his own, and the pipa, his favorite instrument, now felt like a mere tool for sound arts, and he grew tired of it.
It was then.
He heard talk of the Divine Hall of the Latent Demon.
The very next day, he went to the Sound Heavenly Pillar Lord, the highest authority in his Gate, and spoke.
He would represent them at the Divine Hall of the Latent Demon and claim the position of Young Cult Leader.
In return, he asked that they grant his humble dream.
The Sound Heavenly Pillar Lord promised him the reward, and from that day on, Eum Cheon-myeong worked even harder to seize the Young Cult Leader's seat.
All for his dream of breaking free from the Gate's shackles and wandering the martial world for a year with nothing but his pipa.
But that resolve was shattered on the very first day at the Divine Hall. Maeng Ak had appeared.
He was a monster who made Eum Cheon-myeong, who had always been called a genius, feel insignificant.
Dok Cheon-roe, who was also called a genius, had been knocked out in a single blow.
And that was after Dok Cheon-roe had used the Gate's ultimate technique, the Poison Heavenly Palm, yet he was still no match.
Even Eum Cheon-myeong, a genius of sound arts, couldn't guarantee a complete victory against Dok Cheon-roe using the Poison Heavenly Palm.
Maeng Ak. He was a monster.
Two days after that stormy first test.
Eum Cheon-myeong gathered with So Ryong and the other Rising Stars of the Five Heavenly Pillar Gates to formulate a plan.
To eliminate their common enemy, Maeng Ak.
Except for Hwan Cheon-hwa, everyone outwardly spoke as if they dismissed Maeng Ak, but he could feel them trembling with fear inside.
To his ears, with their perfect pitch, the sound of their heartbeats was deafeningly loud and clear.
Among them, the loudest heartbeats belonged to himself and Hwan Cheon-hwa.
Eum Cheon-myeong could gauge an opponent's martial prowess through sound.
It was a more accurate method than trying to probe their strength with internal energy.
Normally, one couldn't accurately gauge the prowess of someone stronger than themself with internal energy, but he could.
But from Maeng Ak, he heard a sound he had never heard before.
It was a sound unlike any he had heard from anyone else.
He hadn't even heard such a sound from the Sound Heavenly Pillar Lord and the Poison Heavenly Pillar Lord, the greatest masters of the Demonic Cult.
How to describe it… yes, it was like a sound that defied the heavens, a sound that would crush anything that stood in its way.
Just hearing it sent shivers down his spine and made him instinctively cower.
That was why, even when his friend was struck down by Maeng Ak, he couldn't bring himself to look at him.
All he could do was babble nonsense, praying that Maeng Ak would lose interest in him.
In truth, as the other Rising Stars proposed various plans, he already knew.
No matter what plan they came up with, if the opponent was Maeng Ak, it would fail.
He simply hid like a coward.
Hoping desperately that the other Rising Stars would take care of him, he hid behind them.
He desperately wanted to stop them, but he knew their pride wouldn't let them listen, so he only pulled aside Hwan Cheon-hwa, whose reaction had been different, to persuade her.
*Hwan Cheon-hwa. Why do you show no interest in attacking that man?*
*You first, Eum Cheon-myeong. Why do you look so terrified? You, the future Lord of the Sound Heavenly Pillar Gate, are in a pathetic state.*
*Yes. Mock me if you wish. I am afraid of him. I feel like I can hear a sound from him that shouldn't be heard.*
*I feel something similar. However, it is closer to admiration than fear.*
*Admiration?*
*Yes. Admiration. He is like the one from the legends passed down in my Illusion Heavenly Pillar Gate…*
Hwan Cheon-hwa had spouted a series of incomprehensible words.
To summarize, it was something like this.
The Illusion Heavenly Pillar Gate, which uses illusionary arts, has been the guardian of the Sacred Black Flame left behind by the founding Heavenly Demon.
That Sacred Black Flame would sometimes foretell the birth of a hero who would lead the Cult.
And she, the young mistress of the Illusion Heavenly Pillar Gate, had seen a man in that prophecy.
She said she felt the same energy from Maeng Ak as she did from that man.
It was an energy that was neither demonic nor evil, nor was it righteous.
Hwan Cheon-hwa had said she would watch to see if Maeng Ak was worthy.
And today.
As the day came to execute the plan after the official entrance ceremony, I finally understood the meaning of her words.
Maeng Ak. He was not a being that mere cadets like us could dare to defy.
He had single-handedly fought over thirty cadets without a single scratch.
And that was despite his own cultivation being inferior to those cadets.
Moreover, every one of those cadets was a Rising Star whom the Cult had painstakingly nurtured.
An impossible feat, accomplished by his hands, something that couldn't be achieved with mere talent.
His movements were unlike anything ever seen or heard of in the Cult, an abnormal display of footwork that one couldn't even dare to imitate.
And the energy radiating from those movements was just as Hwan Cheon-hwa had described.
It was neither demonic, evil, nor righteous, yet it was more domineering, dense, and powerful than any other energy.
Eum Cheon-myeong could only feel frustrated with his foolish friend who still failed to grasp the situation.
Even if their personalities didn't match and their bond was forced, he was still a friend.
Eum Cheon-myeong was about to say something to the frustratingly dense Dok Cheon-roe, who was turning his back.
But Maeng Ak moved faster.
In the blink of an eye, Maeng Ak had dealt with over twenty cadets and was standing behind Dok Cheon-roe.
The time it took was no more than a brief exchange of words and a moment's hesitation with Dok Cheon-roe.
Maeng Ak. He was already beyond the level of a cadet.
On the first day of the Divine Hall's second test.
The hierarchy within the Divine Hall of the Latent Demon had been settled.
Dok Cheon-roe hastily turned and thrust out his Poison Heavenly Palm, but Maeng Ak dodged it as easily as he had with the previous cadets.
No, it was beyond a mere dodge.
It was a divine skill, making it seem as if the attack was avoiding him on its own.
As Maeng Ak tilted his head slightly to the side, Dok Cheon-roe's right hand struck empty air.
He then tried to extend his left palm.
But Maeng Ak's hand moved first.
"I asked nicely, and you throw a palm at me? What the hell is wrong with you!"
*POW!*
Maeng Ak's fist slammed squarely into Dok Cheon-roe's solar plexus.
It sounds like a lie, but Dok Cheon-roe's body lifted off the ground.
Seeing as his stomach wasn't pierced, it seemed Maeng Ak hadn't used his internal energy.
As proof, Dok Cheon-roe didn't die, but simply lost consciousness.
Maeng Ak retracted his right fist as if it had been anticlimactic and asked.
"And you two?"
That short, casually uttered phrase felt anything but light.
It was obvious that treating his words lightly would lead to the same fate as the cadets who had already fallen.
Eum Cheon-myeong was about to shake his head no.
But Hwan Cheon-hwa's sudden action froze him in place.
"All cadets following Eum Cheon-myeong and myself, withdraw!"
She suddenly dismissed the cadets, forfeiting their numerical advantage.
And as soon as she confirmed that the presence of the eighteen cadets, excluding Eum Cheon-myeong and herself, had vanished, she cried out.
While slamming her forehead to the ground.
*Thump!*
"This humble cultist, Hwan Cheon-hwa, pays respects to the current Heavenly Demon!"
She truly shouted those words. Her voice was filled with sincerity.
At that, not only Eum Cheon-myeong but also Maeng Ak froze with dumbfounded expressions.
One prostrated female cadet, two male cadets staring blankly at her, and behind them, thirty unconscious cadets scattered about, with a perfectly still pond without a single ripple.
It was a truly bizarre scene.