Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Legacies of Past Heavenly Demons
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Hyeok Mulin underwent countless trials in the Demon God Realm after that.
Through those ordeals, he came to feel firsthand that the Demon God Realm's infamous reputation was well-earned.
He nearly plummeted to his death after scaling an endless cliff until his internal energy was utterly exhausted, and he was once buried alive underground with every acupoint sealed.
There were times he had to cross bubbling, boiling lava, and others when weapons poured down from every direction.
He even had to battle his own reflection in a massive bronze mirror.
'But through it all, I ultimately grew.'
Each trial pushed him to the absolute limit, his life hanging by a thread like a tightrope walk.
Yet Hyeok Mulin overcame them all, achieving a martial ascension in the process.
Every trial he faced had served as both a test and a stepping stone for his growth.
And now, having passed the trial before his eyes, Hyeok Mulin circulated his energy and meditated, awaiting the next one.
Before long.
Rumble rumble rumble.
The air split open, revealing the gateway to the next trial.
He gathered his energy appropriately and rose to his feet. Lifting his head straight ahead, he soon tilted it in puzzlement.
"Hm?"
Something was off.
Until now, the rifts leading to the next trials had been a deep, inky darkness.
But the rift now filling Hyeok Mulin's vision emitted a pure white light.
"This is different."
Its alien presence made his eyebrows furrow.
It was obvious at a glance.
This was definitely unlike any trial before.
Either this was a place to rest briefly, or...
'...the final trial.'
Having endured no small number of trials already, he had anticipated the end was near.
And if it was the latter, it was impossible to even guess how brutally it might devour him.
But.
"No need to think about it."
Whether rest or final trial, he had only one choice left.
Staring at the rift, Hyeok Mulin smirked faintly.
Step step.
He strode toward the rift.
Moments later, his entire body was swallowed by the white rift.
Flash!
Dazzling light enveloped him, and Hyeok Mulin raised an arm to shield his eyes.
Entering the new rift, he slowly opened his eyes and lowered his arm.
As his gaze settled straight ahead, his head began to turn slowly.
The place resembled the rift's hue—the entire world was painted stark white.
Floor, ceiling, front—everything was blanketed in white.
After scanning the bizarre scene briefly, Hyeok Mulin soon noticed another anomaly.
Whoosh—
The air felt different.
The previous trials had carried a heavy demonic energy permeating the void, but here it was more than that.
Demonic qi, murderous qi, chaotic qi, fiery qi, watery qi, earthly qi, heavenly qi, vital qi, natural qi—every form of energy under heaven was gathered here, with densities so extreme that ordinary people would struggle to even breathe.
Of course, for Hyeok Mulin, who cultivated the Pure Soul Divine Demon Art, it posed no issue.
'What is this place?'
A resting spot, or the final trial?
No grueling challenge had appeared yet, so Hyeok Mulin couldn't easily decide.
But as he turned to move—
Thud.
Something touched his back.
A chill raced up his spine. He turned slowly, and his pupils dilated.
"......!"
There stood a colossal black wall of imposing majesty.
Facing it, Hyeok Mulin placed a hand on the surface.
This was the first time he'd felt such a sensation upon touching something.
The wall was cold and unyieldingly hard, almost sucking his hand in.
Intrigued by the strange, subtle feel, he unleashed a palm strike.
Thud—
Yet the wall stood unmoved, unaffected.
It was tougher and more resilient than any ore he'd ever seen.
'Not meant to be broken, I suppose.'
This bizarre space contained nothing but the wall.
Destroying it might seem like a typical trial.
But after testing with a palm strike, Hyeok Mulin dismissed the idea.
At full power, he might leave a mark, but shattering it was another matter entirely.
Even if he became the supreme martial artist of all ages, he doubted he could.
"Hmm."
Murmuring thoughtfully, he looked up, then scanned left and right.
It stretched endlessly upward and to both sides, its edges beyond sight.
'Climb it, maybe?'
This wall that soared without end?
"...No."
He'd already conquered a cliff-climbing trial.
The same wouldn't repeat.
Shaking his head, Hyeok Mulin made his decision.
Standing still would reveal nothing.
So he chose to walk along the wall and survey the surroundings.
Step step.
But even after walking far, the wall showed no end, nor did the environment change.
Then, suddenly, Hyeok Mulin's eyes flicked to the wall.
"......?"
Cracks spiderwebbed across it, stretching high upward in massive gashes.
Puzzled, he paused to inspect them, tapping and prodding.
No reaction. Unable to discern their nature, he resumed walking.
Step step.
But after a few dozen more steps, his eyes sharpened again.
"Another one."
This time in a different form, but another crack in the wall.
Glancing at it, he swallowed and pressed on.
Soon after, he spotted yet another.
And after seeing it three times.
"......No way."
Stopping, Hyeok Mulin's expression hardened.
Instead of walking sideways along the wall, he began backing away, one step, two.
Keeping the wall in view, he retreated a hundred paces, a thousand, before halting.
Finally, the cliff's full silhouette came into view.
"Ah......"
Hyeok Mulin stared ahead, half entranced.
The marks etched into the wall were awe-inspiring traces of transcendent martial arts.
Absorbing them in stunned silence, he soon realized something else.
'That person's!'
The same individual who had left the Thousand-Year Divine Sword traces on the Island Cliff in the Millennium Prison.
Yet while similar, these surpassed those in depth and realm.
'I thought it was an unorthodox martial artist back then.'
He had been wrong.
These traces revealed nothing of the artist's origin.
Demonic? Orthodox? Unorthodox? Or perhaps from beyond the martial world?
The more he looked, the deeper the mystery grew.
As shock and admiration mingled in his eyes.
"...What's that?"
He spotted a small sword mark near the base.
Hyeok Mulin couldn't help but wonder.
Though distant and faint, it was clearly made by someone other than the one who left the grand traces across the wall.
Tilting his head, he started toward it.
Approaching the sword mark, his eyes gleamed as he drew near.
"This is...!"
The secret technique of the sixteenth Heavenly Demon.
The Flowing God Advances to Heaven Sword was etched there plainly.
Only then did Hyeok Mulin recall.
This was the Demon God Realm.
Scanning rapidly, he spotted more traces left by others on the wall.
'Past Heavenly Demons who entered the Demon God Realm left their marks!'
The wall bore the martial arts and writings of successive Heavenly Demons.
No names or titles accompanied them, so their authors remained anonymous.
But not for Hyeok Mulin.
He had pored over the martial manuals left by past Heavenly Demons in the Heavenly Demon Secret Vault dozens of times over decades.
He could distinguish each one's techniques and handwriting.
"That's the eighth Heavenly Demon's handwriting."
"And that's from the fifteenth Heavenly Demon."
Nearby writings, scrawled after failed attempts to replicate the traces, were messy and chaotic.
A few steps further, another inscription appeared.
Hyeok Mulin halted upon seeing it.
A plain sentence.
Yet among their many writings, it conveyed a profound despair beyond mere frustration.
They were all Heavenly Demons.
Only the supreme geniuses of the world, or those near it, could ascend to that position.
Yet even they faced an insurmountable wall.
The one who left traces across the entire wall.
No one could replicate that person's art.
Thus, some had left their own techniques instead.
"That's...!"
Spotting one, Hyeok Mulin brightened.
The signature ultimate of the sixth Heavenly Demon, the Golden Light Heavenly Demon.
The Mad Dragon Great Demon Hand was carved into the wall.
'To think I'd find the Mad Dragon Great Demon Hand here.'
Eyes gleaming, he caressed the mark.
The Heavenly Demon Secret Vault held a manual on it.
Unusually for Heavenly Demons, its creator had left a joint-seizing technique, piquing Hyeok Mulin's interest.
But the explanations were too obscure, with no illustrations, forcing him to abandon deciphering it.
Yet now, to witness it with his own eyes.
Grinning, he internalized the Mad Dragon Great Demon Hand right there, making it his own.
"Struck gold."
Satisfied after grasping its foundation, he continued onward.
Soon after, he encountered a welcome trace.
"Well now."
The creator of the Glacial Soul Severance Palm he actively used.
The Ice Soul Demon Emperor Seol Ungang's writing was there.
But its content was far from uplifting.
He had given up too.
As the Glacial Soul Severance Palm's founder, Hyeok Mulin had felt a certain kinship.
Gazing at it bitterly.
Then he realized the writing continued.
Hyeok Mulin whipped his head around.
Beside it was the trace of the true Glacial Soul Severance Palm.
"So this is the true Glacial Soul Severance Palm."
It embodied a lifetime devoted to ice arts.
Though Hyeok Mulin had reached the eighth star, this eclipsed it in insight and profundity.
Absorbing it fully, a slow smile curved his lips.
Truthfully, he'd viewed the Glacial Soul Severance Palm as limited.
As an ice-attribute art, its flaws matched its power.
But witnessing the Ice Soul Demon Emperor's creation shattered that notion.
"He had transcended mastery in ice arts to an even higher realm."
What of limits?
True martial artists shatter boundaries.
He had achieved utmost proficiency not just in the Glacial Soul Severance Palm, but in ice arts themselves.
And beholding it, Hyeok Mulin gained enlightenment.
A clue to surpassing the Glacial Soul Severance Palm's mastery, glimpsing what lay beyond.
"I'm no successor of your Ice Palace, but I'll wield it in a way worthy of your renown."
Of course, he'd first need to achieve full mastery of the Glacial Soul Severance Palm to claim this legacy.
But how joyful to even glimpse the path ahead.
Nodding in gratitude, he pressed forward.
'This place is another Heavenly Demon Secret Vault.'
Seeing the arts of past Heavenly Demons—known only from texts and illustrations in the vault—etched as traces everywhere filled him with delight.
Just taking them in sparked minor insights.
Then, spotting something, his body froze instantly.
Rooted like ice, his eyes locked on one inscription.
It was from the previous Heavenly Demon, who vanished thirty years ago.