Chapter 18
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Demonic Creature
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A shadow fell over Lee Se-min's eyes, which had sparkled for a moment, and his pursed lips turned a bloodless purple.
Seeing him like a patient on the verge of death, radiating despair from every inch of his body, So-hyang felt her heart tear with guilt.
"Th-then, what if I subjugate all the demon weapons in the Demon Seal Cave? Even if it's just me, it might still help, right...?"
She racked her brain desperately for a way to be useful and voiced it. A glint appeared in Lee Se-min's eyes for a moment—
"...No. We can't burden one person with that much. Even So-hyang, there must be limits."
He seemed tempted but refuted himself with moral reasoning. So-hyang clutched her chest at the sight.
"No, I'm saying I'm fine! It's not even a burden...!!"
"So-hyang's mental strength is certainly admirable, but mental corruption isn't something to take lightly—"
The Alliance Leader, who had been watching blankly as the one offering help clashed sharply with the one refusing it, finally chimed in.
"She'll be fine, though? This girl's mental fortitude is far tougher than you think."
With a playful expression, he placed his hand on So-hyang's crown and let out a hollow chuckle.
"I guarantee it—it's an impregnable fortress that even the malice of a mere demon weapon can't scratch."
"Get off."
As her head was lightly pressed down, So-hyang made a sulky face and swatted the Alliance Leader's arm.
"See? She's not even fazed."
"...Did you do something?"
"Here, try it yourself for a second," the Alliance Leader said, lightly pressing on Lee Se-min's forehead.
"Just a light press with the Heavenly Domain on your mind."
And in Lee Se-min's head, an endlessly vast and clear blue sky unfolded.
An advanced form of the Wisdom Light Mind Speech.
The Alliance Leader's mental image engulfs the thoughts, forcing nothing but the sky and crushing the spirit.
"-Kuhk!?"
The Alliance Leader's finger had touched Lee Se-min's head for less than a fraction of a second—
But the pressure he felt was beyond imagination.
"Hahk, heuk."
This pressure-laden hand... and she swatted it away like it was nothing...?
"-What the hell are you doing to a kid who's already hurt?!"
Lee Se-min stared in astonishment at So-hyang, who swung her hand blade at the Alliance Leader with murderous intent, as if it were no big deal.
"Ehey, I just gave it a tiny acupressure press. Stimulating like this occasionally is good for mental health."
The Alliance Leader casually blocked the steel-cutting strike with a single finger and added,
"I pressed on her about a hundred times harder than that. See? She's fine."
"Pardon?"
Lee Se-min looked at the Alliance Leader as if asking if he was insane.
"Honestly, you'd expect someone to drop dead from that, right? I figured she'd at least pass out, but it's ridiculous, isn't it?"
"Hm, that much? What of it, just a bit of blue in her head?"
"Anyway, don't worry. She probably wouldn't even be affected by a mind sword."
"...Understood. Then, will you please help us, So-hyang?"
"Of course!"
Finally, So-hyang's mind eased a little.
The demonic creatures sealed in the Demon Seal Cave were diverse. Varied beyond measure. Bizarre in every way.
From demon weapons shaped like weapons to demonic beasts, demonic trees, and even eerie entities without physical form.
"Among them, may we start with demon weapons similar to Blood Curse?"
"Of course, tell me whatever you need."
So-hyang smiled warmly and patted Lee Se-min's shoulder.
"By any chance, do you like food? I'm pretty good at cooking, so let me treat you sometime—"
"Ah, thank you, but I'm fine. I have no hobby for gourmet eating...."
"Tsk, that's no good. You're already skin and bones—eating well is the first rule of health."
So-hyang looked over Lee Se-min's body with worried eyes, like a grandparent fussing over a grandchild.
"What, are you the Demon Seal Cave grandma now?"
The Alliance Leader, watching in disbelief, couldn't hold back and interjected—
"Yeah, why don't you call me Grandpa once? In my past life, I was obsessed with the sword and had no kids, so you'd be very welcome."
So-hyang beamed and spouted madness instead.
"...Pardon?"
Lee Se-min doubted his ears and stared at So-hyang, wondering if he'd misheard.
Her body was precocious for her age but not quite adult.
Soft eyes falling gently with an innocent smile.
A face still showing faint traces of baby fat.
She might pass for a young married girl if anything, but it didn't match what she'd just said.
"Putting that aside, I'm worried about the public's eyes...."
"Whoa, this girl's nuts."
The Alliance Leader couldn't hold back and spat harsh words, while Lee Se-min wore an agreeing expression without saying it.
"I-it wasn't serious. Just a joke I threw out...."
A corridor carved into solid rock.
Doors lined both sides at regular intervals.
Each one visibly made of sturdy steel, without handles, making it impossible to guess how to open them.
They didn't seem designed to open at all.
The walls, doors, floor, and ceiling were densely inscribed with neat scriptural seals.
Golden chains hung thick like spiderwebs, covered in countless talismans.
It was thorough, flawless—desperately intent on preventing escape.
"This is the deepest part of the Demon Seal Cave, the Demon Isolation Chamber."
"...Hoo, quite the impressive space."
"The result of our best desperate efforts."
Lee Se-min muttered bitterly and placed his hand on the foremost door.
"Release."
With a concise incantation, he infused qi in a complex flow, and the heavy steel door slowly ground open with a roar like scraping rock.
Wind flowed out from within.
Stale, humid air long sealed away.
A fishy burnt stench like scorched squid.
Swirling ash and embers.
Above all, the vivid aura of malice—bewitching, mocking, and toying with the human heart.
"Mind-and-body erosion type. A demonic creature discovered eleven years ago in Red County, Guangdong."
In the center of the empty stone chamber, devoid of any structures, lay a single ordinary hand warmer.
"Commonly called the Unknown Fire Penalty, a city-grade demon weapon."
A charcoal burner's everyday hand warmer suddenly absorbed demonic nature one day.
Literally one day—no reason.
Arbitrarily weaving cause and effect.
Inevitably, one clutches their head when studying demonic creatures.
"Sometimes there are plausible reasons, like being possessed after slaying many on the battlefield or resentment from lost family...."
But occurrences without reason were common enough to drive one mad.
"Without warning, the charcoal burner's body holding the hand warmer burst into flames, turning into a pitch-black lump of charcoal."
The human-shaped charcoal lump became a doll faithfully obeying the demon weapon's commands.
"It then ignited fierce flames, burning everything around it, and began to move."
Its destination: the nearest humans.
Its behavioral principle was clear.
"It is obsessed with burning people."
Set a nearby person ablaze.
Move.
Set another ablaze.
Repeating this process.
"Its speed was slow, but its power immense."
No advanced intelligence, no martial arts.
Just sheer, overwhelming firepower.
"Its flames rival gang qi."
Indiscriminate flames burning wood, stone, iron, warriors—and even sword qi and gang qi.
In essence, a slowly moving sun.
Hence its city-grade threat level.
A disaster requiring an entire city—Sichuan, Anhui, Shaanxi, or Guangdong—to mobilize fully.
Hearing the beyond-imagination explanation, So-hyang asked blankly,
"...What the hell kind of thing is that?"
"We don't know."
Irregular. Bizarre. Incomprehensible.
Efforts to explain demonic creatures inevitably end here.
City-grade demonic creature.
Countermeasure: Multiple transcendent experts cooperating.
As So-hyang nodded silently to Lee Se-min's explanation, a sudden question arose, and she pointed at the Alliance Leader.
"But this guy could suppress it alone, right?"
"The Venerable One is... an exception."
A transcendent being who reached the Fire Transformation Realm, shedding mortal shackles.
Whether third-rate, transcendent, human-grade, or city-grade—irrelevant to a Venerable One.
So-hyang had once thought it like giant versus insect, but reality was worse.
Like the difference between plane and solid.
Lower dimensions can't even interfere with higher ones.
"But you punched a hole in my Heavenly Domain, right?"
Thus, what So-hyang did was beyond norms, bizarre even to a Venerable One's eyes.
"The more I think about it, the more mysterious...."
Naturally placing his hand on her crown again, the Alliance Leader murmured meaningfully, eyes gleaming.
As if pondering whether to crush the small head in his grasp.
"Well, it's up to you."
Reading his thoughts, So-hyang replied softly.
But she had no intention of dying quietly.
Last time was barely a scratch, hardly a hole—but what if she staked life and soul?
Not satisfied with mere scribbles or peeing on Buddha's finger.
"I'll take at least one finger with me."
Possibility didn't matter—only the pure sword in her heart.
Her chillingly sunken voice filled the corridor.
In the abruptly changed atmosphere, Lee Se-min's hand trembled, and even the hand warmer's soot and embers settled to the floor.
A moment of silence.
The Alliance Leader gazed down at So-hyang with unreadable eyes—
"Kuk, kuhahaha!"
Then burst into light laughter, roughly ruffling her hair with his raised hand.
"What, cutting off a finger just for that? Come on, I just put my hand on your head for a sec, and you say something so scary!"
So-hyang's face, shaken every which way, was full of sulkiness.
"Then stop painting blue pictures in my head, you lunatic."
"Haha, just curious how far you could endure! How about this?"
"Tsk, blue then red, rain falling, thunder crashing, pulling all sorts of crap."
"Kuhahaha!!"
The suddenly tense atmosphere relaxed, and the Alliance Leader stepped back again.
Reining in his Fire Transformation Realm presence so the demon weapon wouldn't cower in fear.
"Alright, then. I'll try capturing it."
"...Yes."
With that, So-hyang lightly picked up the hand warmer—
"Hoo."
And let out an exclamation of unclear meaning.