Chapter 137. Trying to Row a Boat On Land (8)
A Martial Heaven warrior blocked Si-Hyeon’s path with his sword. However, she just waved a hand imbued with the Empty Hand Demonic Art and shattered the sword before jabbing forward with the Dark Star Finger.
The warrior blocking her path collapsed with his heart pierced.
Si-Hyeon stepped over him and entered the Heavenly Demon Mound without hesitation.
Although there were many various hidden traps and mechanisms within the Heavenly Demon Mound, none of them activated as she passed by.
However, without fail, all of them activated for those who followed her.
***
“What the...”
Woo-Moon, who found himself close to the Heavenly Demon Mound, let out an exclamation of surprise as he examined a corpse.
“This is definitely my grandfather’s technique. And there are traces of the Night Spear Devil Gyeong Hong, too. As expected of Grandpa! He must have been aware of Si-Hyeon’s danger and come to help.”
Thinking that his grandfather had gone ahead to help Si-Hyeon, Woo-Moon finally felt somewhat at ease.
By this point, there was no longer a carriage trailing behind Woo-Moon, as Ma-Ra had finally finished recovering and was hidden in his shadow like before.
After his... unexpected blessing of meeting lips with Ma-Ra, the two seemed to have completely forgotten about the event and didn’t mention anything about it.
Soon, Woo-Moon arrived before the Heavenly Demon Mound.
A group of people were standing in front of the cavernous opening of the Heavenly Demon Mound.
It looked like a giant mouth, wide open and with a deep, seemingly bottomless pit that seemed like a throat waiting to swallow whoever was rash enough to enter. And as if to confirm that the place was dangerous, countless corpses littered the ground before it.
Considering Si-Hyeon must have entered the mound, Woo-Moon also wanted to go inside. However, the group that survived the fight and was blocking the entrance seemed to have no intention of letting him pass.
A young man, protected by warriors and flirting with beauties with see-through robes showing everything underneath, looked over at Woo-Moon as the latter approached.
“What’s with that bastard? Kill him.”
After saying that, the young man no longer paid attention to Woo-Moon and focused on flirting with the beauties again.
“I think it’ll be better for you if you just get out of my way.”
Although bloodlust oozed from Woo-Moon’s words, the young man only glanced at him with a look of surprise. However, he was still mainly focused on touching and teasing the women instead.
The young man's bodyguards rushed toward Woo-Moon.
Surprisingly, they seemed to be even stronger than the Blood Cloud Black Ace Squadron, the elite hidden guard force of the Black Bull Gang. Thankfully, there were only ten of them.
‘I have to end this quickly!’
Woo-Moon unleashed Raging Storm from the start.
A massive shower of sword aura was unleashed from his sword, cutting down all of the young man’s bodyguards except for one.
Although the survivor rushed toward Woo-Moon, a throwing knife suddenly came from behind and pierced the back of his neck.
“Tsk, tsk, what trash. You won’t be able to beat him even if you try,” the young man said.
The knife hadn’t been thrown by Ma-Ra, but by him. He had murdered his own subordinate with his own hands.
As Woo-Moon walked toward him with rage in his eyes, the young man smiled and moved aside, opening the way to the entrance of the Heavenly Demon Mound.
“Wow! What an impressive glare! Oh, I can’t hold out anymore; I’m so terrified. Please, oh, please, great lord, what do you think about just sparing my worthless life and going in~”
Actually, Woo-Moon felt relieved. In this situation, where he was in a hurry to save Si-Hyeon, he didn’t have the leeway to fight a young man whose cultivation he didn’t even know. He didn’t like the young man in the slightest, seeing as he had casually ordered for Woo-Moon to be killed and then slaughtered his own subordinate in cold blood, but he had no choice right now.
‘Just who the hell is he? I’ve never seen someone my age with such incredible cultivation.’
Woo-Moon could vaguely see the fierce demonic qi and bloodlust hidden behind the young man’s arrogant smile.
He passed the young man and stepped into the Heavenly Demon Mound, the terrible demonic qi emanating from within making his already anxious mind even more nervous.
“My name is Cheon Yu-Rin, and you must be Young Hero Song, the rising hero who’s become quite famous these days. I hope to see you again in the future.”
Woo-Moon turned around to look at Cheon Yu-Rin after the young man finished speaking.
“Why are you just letting me pass?”
Cheon Yu-Rin smiled.
“I just wanted to greet you. It's nice to meet you, I guess. Go on in quickly. It seems you’re looking for someone. Oh! Just to make sure you don’t forget who I am... I’m a member of Martial Heaven.”
‘Martial Heaven!’
It was really odd. It seemed these people had a hand in a lot of things. In fact, it now occurred to Woo-Moon that the reason his grandfather had come all this way was not Si-Hyeon but rather Martial Heaven.
Woo-Moon, Ma-Ra, and Eun-Ah walked by Cheon Yu-Rin, wary of the man whose motives they had no idea about, and entered the Heavenly Demon Mound.
From the beginning, entering was a nightmare. The path was soon cut off, and there was a gaping hole with no end in sight, with the cliff on the other side seemingly too far away to cross.
“Ma-Ra.”
Woo-Moon lifted Eun-Ah in his arms and ran toward the wall to the right, with Ma-Ra swiftly on his tail.
They jumped up on the wall and continued running, pushing off the wall at an angle. Although they slowly fell further and further down the side, they were fortunately able to safely reach the cliff on the other side without falling too far down the chasm.
The situation wasn't good there, either.
Corpses were scattered around as if a massive fierce battle had already taken place.
Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra continued to follow Si-Hyeon’s traces. Now that the both of them could crack her traces at the same time, their advance was even faster.
Fortunately, the countless traps and mechanisms of the Heavenly Demon Mound had already been triggered by those who had passed by.
Thanks to this, Woo-Moon was able to quickly chase after Si-Hyeon, running and stepping all over the corpses, and eventually reached the rear of the mound, where people were engaged in a fierce battle.
“Die, dogs of Martial Heaven!”
“You damned fanatics, the Heavenly Demon is no more!”
“Shut up, traitor!”
“Our God is the true God of Martial Arts!”[1]
Through their insults, Woo-Moon was able to determine the identities of both sides.
One was Martial Heaven. The other, the Heavenly Demon Cult.
To move forward, Woo-Moon had to make a decision. Either kill everyone before him or help one side to take down the other. It was not a tough decision.
Woosh, squelch!
After blowing apart the head of the Martial Heaven warrior who was in front of him, Woo-Moon continued forward and helped the Heavenly Demon Cult fight off Martial Heaven.
After figuring out which side Woo-Moon was helping, Ma-Ra and Eun-Ah also took action and attacked Martial Heaven.
Ma-Ra fully displayed her Death God techniques, and Eun-Ah picked some people she thought she could deal with and attacked them.
The figures of the Heavenly Demon Cult were also surprised when Woo-Moon suddenly appeared. However, they were relieved to see that he wasn’t their enemy, and they fought with Martial Heaven with even more vigor.
Killing the Martial Heaven warriors one by one, Woo-Moon continued to advance.
Eventually, he came across a fork in the road.
Both of the fairly long passages were, as expected, full of warriors.
At the end of the passages, he could see the Palm Martial Emperor and the Night Spear Devil on one side...and Si-Hyeon on the other.
“Si-Hyeon!” Woo-Moon called her name loudly.
“Ah!”
Si-Hyeon, who was walking in a daze, suddenly came to her senses at the sound of Woo-Moon’s voice and turned to look behind her.
“S-senior brother!”
As soon as she came to her senses and saw what was going on around her, she went pale with fright. Seeing Woo-Moon, who seemed to have come all this way to save her, Si-Hyeon began to cry.
“Senior brother!”
“Si-Hyeon! Just wait; I’m coming to save you!”
His grandfather and the Night Spear Devil were Absolute Masters. On the other hand, Si-Hyeon was just a weak girl.
Seeing his junior sister looking at him in fear, Woo-Moon felt his heart break. He was so anxious that even though he was sweating, his mouth was dry.
Although he wanted to run at her at once, the Martial Heaven warriors blocking the path were stronger than he had expected, and they were keeping him from continuing forward.
“...”
Si-Hyeon was only able to keep her sanity for a moment; the next instant, her eyes glazed over again. She continued forward, and as she took the corner, she disappeared from Woo-Moon’s sight.
Woo-Moon was confused to see Si-Hyeon walking away instead of coming toward him, even after seeing her come to her senses and cry. Had she been kidnapped, or was she being dragged away by someone’s threats?
‘Who’s doing this? Is it Martial Heaven? The Heavenly Demon Cult?’
Although he didn’t know the answer, he had to continue sticking to a side in order to follow after Si-Hyeon. Thus, he continued to help the figures of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
The Palm Martial Emperor also heard Woo-Moon’s voice as he called for Si-Hyeon. He shouted from the other path, “We’re good here, so hurry up and go save Si-Hyeon!”
“Yes! I understand, Grandfather!”
If the Palm Martial Emperor couldn’t even greet his grandson, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, then the situation was truly urgent. Still, knowing his grandfather, Woo-Moon felt reassured.
Somewhat relieved, Woo-moon headed toward the passage where Si-Hyeon had disappeared.
“Move! All of you, get out of my way! You damned bastards!”
One move, one kill!
Every time he swung his sword, he’d kill a person without fail. Often, it wasn’t just one but two or even three at the same time.
Even though they were the warriors of Martial Heaven, with higher cultivations than the Black Bull Gang, they couldn’t stop him whatsoever.
The Palm Martial Emperor and the Night Spear Devil were fighting against twenty-four people who identified themselves as the Seventy-Two Heavenly Dippers, as well as the Seventh Mu Heon and the Eleventh Mu Heon.
As he fought them, the Night Spear Devil couldn’t help but be surprised.
Although he had heard from the Palm Martial Emperor that Martial Heaven was powerful, he had never thought that they would be at this level.
‘What the hell is with these Seventy-Two Heavenly Dippers? Even though they aren’t Shaolin Monks, their grasp of Shaolin techniques is incredible. Moreover, from what they’re saying, there are people even stronger than them. But that means...’
Among the Seventy-Two Heavenly Dippers, each and every one was a Transcendent Class expert. And they claimed that Martial Heaven has countless people even stronger than them?!
The Night Spear Devil’s heart felt somewhat burdened. It was the same for the Palm Martial Emperor.
The two powers that they had run into after coming here were the Heavenly Demon Cult and Martial Heaven. Not only were they shocked to see that the Heavenly Demon Cult had emerged within the murim once again, but they were even more surprised to see them fighting with Martial Heaven.
‘What’s the relationship between the Heavenly Demon Cult and Martial Heaven?’
The two were fighting against twenty-six opponents, each dealing with thirteen people.
Considering the skills of the enemies, who were all Transcendent Class experts, it was easy to see how incredible the two Absolute Masters, the Palm Martial Emperor and the Night Spear Devil were.
However, in truth, their hearts were incredibly heavy right now.
While blocking and counterattacking against three of the Heavenly Dippers, the Palm Martial Emperor called out to the Night Spear Devil.
“See, this is why I told you not to follow me. Now, there’s no turning back.”
Squelch!
Finally, the Night Spear Devil succeeded in stabbing one of the Heavenly Dippers with his spear.
The Night Spear Devil twisted and spun the spear to cause as much damage as possible before pulling the spear out quickly.
“And? I ran into an old geezer who was planning on going to a dangerous place alone. Was I supposed to be heartless and leave him to die alone?”
“What? Who are you calling a geezer, you brat!?”
Bang, bang, bang!
At the hands of the angry Palm Martial Emperor, the seventh Mu Heon and two of the Heavenly Dippers fell, spewing blood from their mouths.
The cooperation between the two Absolute Masters resulted in greater power than just one plus one, and the duo began to push their opponents back in spite of their numbers.
“Hmm, but this is not really the problem....”
“Yeah, these bastards aren’t the thing I’m worried about.”
Clap, clap, clap!
As the two combined forces to take out another seven enemies, a young man and an old man entered the hall, the former slowly clapping.
“As expected, the Palm Martial Emperor and the Night Spear Devil deserve their reputation. I guess we’ll have to take action ourselves.”
They were the Spear Martial Minister and the Palm Martial Minister—two of the Twelve Martial Ministers of Martial Heaven.
“How entertaining. He’s an Absolute Master of the spear like me...” the Night Spear Devil said.
1. The Heavenly Demon is technically a god, as the cult’s full title is the Heavenly Demon God Cult. Also, the Heavenly Demon Cult prides itself on being the strongest, with its leader as the strongest God of Martial Arts, which is why the Martial Heaven side is declaring their god as the God of Martial Arts. ☜