novelraw Chapter 42 : Chapter 42
Chapter 42 : Chapter 42
Chapter 42 - Legacy of the Heavenly Demon (8)
The moment the Demonic Cultists raised their momentum and were about to rush at the party, Jaun walked out first.
Jaun, tightly clenching the hand wearing the Ink Ring, looked up at the sky once and then lowered his gaze toward the Demonic Cultists.
“How can those who have lost their origin stand upright and distinguish between right and wrong!”
At the loud shout bursting from Jaun’s mouth, the rushing cultists stopped in their tracks.
“They shall be like children who have lost their parents, and like trees that have lost their roots.”
At Jaun’s words that quietly resonated through the surroundings, the cultists looked at Jaun as if he were absurd.
“If the kin of the Demon, who were wandering after losing their Master, question your existence, it is only right to inform them that their origin lies with you.”
Jaun slowly raised his head.
“With this, prove that the Master of Ten Thousand Demons has reappeared on this land.”
Jaun, who recited his father’s words exactly, gritted his teeth and drew up the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
─ Seueueueuk
The Demonic Energy wrapped around the cultists, who were murmuring and sneering at Jaun, began to be sucked into Jaun.
“Demonic Energy is……?”
The Illusion Demon opened his eyes wide and looked at Jaun.
The amount of Demonic Energy being dragged toward Jaun increased gradually, and the gathered Demonic Energy swirled violently around Jaun’s body like a tornado.
The Demonic Energy, endlessly amplified through the Reverse Heaven Asura Art, began to lift Jaun’s body into the air.
A dark red light fluttered thickly around Jaun’s eyes, and Jaun’s entire body began to shine in a dark red hue.
Jaun, stopping in mid-air, fluttered his robes and slowly clasped his hands behind his back.
Jaun, who had been looking down at the cultists while floating in the air for a while, lifted one foot.
Then, Jaun’s foot took a step down in the empty air as if stepping on stairs.
“Heavenly Demon Reappearance !”
─ Kuuuuuung!
With Jaun’s single step, the Demonic Energy in all directions began to fluctuate violently.
“Keoheok!”
Cultists with lower cultivation realms vomited blood from their mouths and collapsed to the ground.
“Ten Thousand Demons Submit !”
─ Kuuuuuung!
As Jaun’s foot, with his hands still clasped behind his back, took another step down, more than half of the remaining cultists could not withstand the fluctuation of internal energy and knelt on the spot.
“Demonic Way Under Heaven !”
As if walking down stairs, Jaun’s step trod on the air again, and the remaining cultists, unable to withstand the trembling of Demonic Energy that even vibrated the ground, collapsed to their seats in droves.
“Myriad Demons Eternal Era !”
Finally, as Jaun’s step touched the ground with a loud shout, the knees of the Illusion Demon, who had been holding out alone and trembling until the end, touched the ground with a thud.
In front of Jaun, who had landed on the ground with his hands behind his back, one hundred cultists were kneeling.
It was the day exactly one hundred days had passed since Jaun chose to walk the Gangho.
***
“Heavenly Demon…… Reigning Step? No. That can’t be.”
The Illusion Demon, muttering while kneeling, brought his fingernails to his mouth and chewed on them crunchingly.
“Clearly, His true teachings were lost……!”
While the Illusion Demon couldn't regain his senses, Jaun’s left hand extended forward while looking at the one hundred cultists rolling on the floor.
The Millennium Silk extending from the Ink Ring swept the floor at a rapid speed.
─ Chwaaaak
With a single gesture of Jaun’s hand, the heads of dozens of cultists rolling on the ground were severed at once.
At Jaun’s subsequent hand gestures, the surroundings were filled with the scent of the cultists' blood.
Buried in the thick scent of blood, the Illusion Demon shook his head left and right and stood up.
“……This makes no sense. It’s impossible……!”
The Illusion Demon raised his head.
“Who are you?”
“The Master of Ten Thousand Demons.”
“Don’t talk bullshit!”
The Illusion Demon drew up his energy with an enraged face.
“How could someone like you. A dreg of the Murim Alliance! Are you saying you know His martial arts!”
Simultaneously as the shouting Illusion Demon sprang forward, the White Light Squad Leader and Black Light Squad Leader, who had been lying prone on the ground looking for an opportunity, raised their bodies and rushed at Jaun.
Dark red energy filled up around Jaun’s body once again.
─ Kaaaang!
Jaun blew away the Illusion Demon’s sword, and the Millennium Silk extending from the Ink Ring sliced through the waists of the two Squad Leaders.
The three people, whose gathered Demonic Energy was snatched away by Jaun just like that, couldn't even graze Jaun’s clothes.
─ Kwadadang
The Illusion Demon shouted once again without even looking at the Squad Leaders who had been split in half and fallen beside him.
“Someone like you! Where did you steal those martial arts!”
“If you are someone belonging to the Divine Cult, you should know the fact that the Heavenly Demon Divine Art is not passed down merely through manuals.”
At Jaun’s words, the Illusion Demon stopped in his tracks.
“The Heavenly Demon Divine Art is a martial art of single transmission, and something that can only be used by inheriting the Demonic Energy of the previous Heavenly Demon.”
The Demonic Energy gathering on Jaun’s fist shook the surroundings with a buzzing sound.
─ Peook!
Jaun’s Soul Severing Spirit Crushing Fist struck the Illusion Demon’s abdomen hard.
“If you feel it directly, you will know the truth.”
Jaun’s angry energy cut the Illusion Demon’s insides into pieces.
The Illusion Demon, who vomited a mouthful of blood, looked down at his abdomen.
“It is the Soul Severing Spirit Crushing Fist. Was He really…… alive?”
With eyes mixed with respect and regret, joy and sorrow, the Illusion Demon looked up at Jaun.
Jaun nodded as if answering his question.
“I should have stayed by His side……. I have no face to see Him again in the afterlife.”
The staggering Illusion Demon vomited blood once again with a retch.
“If you have truly succeeded Him, be careful of…… the Blood Demon…….”
─ Kwadadang.
The eyes of the Illusion Demon, who fell to the floor, lost their light amidst remorse.
***
The surroundings were annoyingly silent.
Over a hundred people who were alive and breathing just a moment ago had turned into corpses.
In the middle of over a hundred bodies of the cultists, Jaun caught his breath for a moment.
‘It eventually came to this.’
He didn't like the scent of blood stimulating the tip of his nose.
Jaun gathered his energy and blew away the surrounding scent of blood.
‘Will the people I thought of as close friends still treat me as a close friend?’
Various connections he met after coming down from Mount Daeheuk flashed through his mind.
For Jaun, who had lived his entire life alone with his father in the mountains, they were quite valuable connections and precious days.
‘Even if I become alone again, nothing will change. Let’s just think I had a pleasant dream for a while.’
Jaun sighed deeply, gathered his courage, and slowly turned around.
“You…….”
The trembling eyes of his colleagues.
He had prepared himself, but his heart ached more than he thought.
Countless emotions were entangled in the gazes of Jaun and the Anti-Demon Squad members.
Jaun, having read the emotions directed at him in their eyes, laid down his remaining lingering attachments.
‘As expected, was it unavoidable?’
Thinking about it, it was natural.
To them, who had burned their lives with a single hatred for the Demonic Cult, his martial arts and origin were things they could not accept.
Exactly twenty steps.
The distance to his colleagues was by no means far, but Jaun could not take a single step forward in those twenty steps.
“Amitabha.”
An old monk’s Buddhist chant intervened in the space filled with silence.
─ Hwiririk
Following behind the old monk, eighteen sturdy monks landed in front of the Anti-Demon Squad members.
It was the support from Shaolin that arrived late.
The old monk, who landed between Jaun and Yeon Seung-il, stared piercingly at Jaun.
“Benefactor. It seems we have just seen something unbelievable…….”
Jaun looked at the wary face of the old monk with a calm expression.
“Benefactor…… Are you truly the descendant of the Heavenly Demon?”
“……I am Han Jaun, the only son and disciple of the previous Heavenly Demon, Wi Jeong-cheon.”
“Hah…….”
At Jaun’s words, the old monk shook his head from side to side.
“I am Manhae, the Abbot of Shaolin. I pride myself on having experienced many things in the Gangho, but this is the first time I have experienced something as perplexing as today.”
There were thorns in Manhae’s tone.
Jaun smiled bitterly.
Come to think of it, his fate was truly unfortunate too.
He lost his biological parents in the chaos, and although he received martial arts and affection after being saved by the Heavenly Demon, he eventually became a sworn enemy of the Demonic Cult itself.
Now, even the Murim Alliance was denying his existence and ostracizing him.
His situation of not belonging anywhere and not being welcomed anywhere was a little sad.
Manhae spoke again toward Jaun, who was lost in thought.
“You said you have been active as a member of the Murim Alliance’s Anti-Demon Squad until now?”
“Yes. I belong to Squad 30 of the Anti-Demon Squad.”
Yeon Seung-il, regaining his senses at Jaun’s words, clenched his fists tightly.
Yeon Seung-il, who was agonizing over something, struggled to lift his exhausted body from the spot.
“Zen Master Manhae.”
“Silence!”
Manhae raised his hand to stop Yeon Seung-il’s words.
“Whatever you say, it won't be good for either of you.”
At Manhae’s words, Yeon Seung-il swallowed the words he was about to say.
After contemplating for a moment, Manhae’s mouth opened.
“Benefactor. Can you accompany us to the Murim Alliance?”
“If I return to the Murim Alliance, what will happen to me?”
“I am sorry to say, but you will be imprisoned in the prison first. And a detailed investigation regarding your guilt will follow.”
“And after that?”
“Since a case like this is unprecedented, I don't think I can give a definite answer, but in the meantime, when personnel belonging to the Demonic Cult were caught and brought to the Murim Alliance……. They either spent their entire lives in prison or were killed. Only two cases existed.”
“Zen Master!”
At Yeon Seung-il’s words, Manhae raised his hand again to restrain Yeon Seung-il.
“Do not open your mouth anymore. I am saying this all for your sake.”
Manhae, who blocked Yeon Seung-il once again with a sharp tone, asked toward Jaun.
“Will you accompany us?”
“If it is as you said, it will be difficult. Because I have work to do.”
Jaun, having answered so, lowered his head.
Watching that appearance, Manhae spoke again toward Jaun with a complicated expression.
“Benefactor. You have been active as a member of the Anti-Demon Squad in the Murim Alliance all this time as a Demonic Cultist. Since we don't know how much of the Murim Alliance’s information has leaked through you…….”
“Information leaked?”
At Manhae’s words, Jaun raised his head.
“How can we know that you are not a spy dispatched by the Demonic Cult? Furthermore, you said yourself that you are Jeong-cheon’s disciple. Therefore, I am saying that an investigation is needed even more. His name is never light.”
Jaun realized the intention contained in Manhae’s story.
Regardless of what his intentions were, it meant the Murim Alliance had to take him in for investigation.
A sense of despondency beyond bitterness washed over him.
“If I belonged to the Demonic Cult in the first place, such a tragedy…….”
Cutting off Jaun’s words, Manhae spoke again in a strong tone.
“Everything will be revealed once you are investigated at the Murim Alliance. I will ask the question again. Will you accompany us?”
A faint light spread from around Manhae’s body. It was an expression of his will to take him even if he had to use force.
Jaun’s eyes settled calmly.
“I tell you again, but it will be difficult.”
“Amitabha…….”
At Jaun’s answer, Manhae quietly recited a Buddhist chant.
Manhae, who had been contemplating for a long time like that, took a step forward as if he had hardened his resolve.
“The Eighteen Arhats, prepare the Arhat Formation!”
At the old monk’s resounding shout, eighteen sturdy warrior monks standing behind flew in and surrounded Jaun in a circle.
‘I simply wish to achieve revenge against the Demonic Cult.’
Jaun’s true intentions, invisible to the eye, did not reach them, and they only bound Jaun with his visible origin and martial arts.
Manhae, looking around the positioned Eighteen Arhats, shouted toward the back.
“Cheong-yu. Step back, and Hyeon-dam, you take the Gate of Life of the Arhat Formation.”
Hyeon-dam, who was bowing his head with a face full of confusion, raised his head to look at the old monk.
“Master. No, Zen Master.”
“I let you be active in the Anti-Demon Squad because you wanted it, but now I see the Murim Alliance is also a rotten old tree. How can I leave you in a place that doesn't even know a Demon is active inside? Return immediately. And establish the law of Shaolin.”
At Manhae’s words, which were like frost, Hyeon-dam clutched his wound and struggled to stand up.
“Jaun is not a Demon .”
Hyeon-dam’s firm voice resonated through the surroundings.
“A Demon is something that simply exists. Look at the traces of the Demon engraved on that child’s body. If one who possesses the Demon is not a Demon, then who is a Demon?”
Hyeon-dam, who did not give a particular answer to Manhae’s words, went to the Gate of Life of the Arhat Formation and took his position.
Manhae, turning his gaze back to Jaun, asked.
“This is the last question. Will you accompany us to the Murim Alliance?”
“There is something I must accomplish. Therefore, I have no leisure to spend time in prison.”
Manhae, who was staring piercingly at Jaun’s face, let out a sigh.
Manhae, looking at the warrior monks surrounding them, shouted loudly toward all directions.
“Eighteen Arhats Formation. Open.”