Chapter 230
Chapter 230
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 230
Chapter Title: Saam Valley's Demise
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Kuoooo—
Deep within the Saam Mountains, a single plume of smoke rose between towering cliffs.
It soon swelled into a massive shroud of ashen clouds, blotting out the sky.
No matter where one looked in Saam Valley, the scene was the same.
Amid blazing buildings lay scattered corpses.
Each fallen body bore a single wound—fatal enough on its own.
Did they even realize they had entered battle? Who had taken their lives? Where had the attack come from?
They likely never knew, not even in their final moments.
In this calamity rivaling a natural disaster, only one man still clung to life.
"Hoo, hooo..."
At the heart of Saam Valley stood its lord.
He had no time to wipe the blood streaming from his split forehead.
Clutching his mangled arm, he braced for threats from any direction. Heightening his vigilance, he finally turned toward the front.
There stood the man responsible for the massacre.
Facing an opponent cloaked entirely in black, as if darkness incarnate, the Saam Valley Lord slowly spoke.
"What grudge drives you to this?"
Saam Valley Lord Jang Pil.
He had spent his life ensuring no one could seek revenge, slaughtering not just his enemies but everyone connected to them.
Even before becoming valley lord, he had shed his old moniker—"Poison Serpent Heart Wave"—and his birth name, reinventing himself completely.
With all traces of past grudges erased, he could think of no one who might harbor resentment toward him or his valley.
Whoosh—
But his foe offered no reply, only silence. All that remained was the devastation behind him.
Decades of cultivating Saam Valley, reduced to ruins in an instant.
By the hand of a single man.
Yet Jang Pil felt not rage, but hollow despair.
The enemy before him was beyond reach, even if he shattered every limit.
Why would such a powerhouse strike without warning? The question lingered, unanswered.
Unable to do more than stare, a fleeting thought crossed Jang Pil's mind.
His overwhelming might. His fighting style.
"No way..."
He dismissed it, but every clue pointed to one man.
"The master of Saya, Black Night!"
Black Night answered with silence.
Taking it as confirmation, Jang Pil spat his fury in a voice thick with injustice.
"Your updates stopped cold—and now you target us out of nowhere?!"
Once one of the world's top three assassin groups, Saya's fearsome reputation was best known to fellow killers.
Jang Pil had even glimpsed Black Night once, from afar, during a mission.
A monster I'd never want as an enemy.
That helpless feeling was the same back then.
Over two hundred assassins deployed, yet all but him could only watch idly as the mission ended.
Afterward, Black Night had obliterated another of the three great assassin groups before vanishing.
And now, here he was again.
Fortune could not have turned more cruelly.
His identity revealed, Black Night stared for a moment before speaking slowly.
"My lord's command."
Jang Pil could scarcely believe it.
Black Night serves someone?
Unthinkable.
The lone terror of the assassin world, now under another's heel?
Who could command such loyalty?
"...The lord of Blood Heaven Divine Palace?"
The only figure Jang Pil could imagine was Blood Heaven Divine Palace's master.
Especially after recently accepting a hit on their young lord.
He hadn't committed fully, but if it had stirred the palace lord...
No other reason fit.
But then.
Shhh—
Black Night's killing intent made Jang Pil's hairs stand on end.
Behind him loomed the phantom of a wrathful demon.
"You dare compare my lord to that paltry palace lord?"
Jang Pil's vision blurred.
Calling Blood Heaven Divine Palace's lord "paltry"?
No such figure existed in the world—not one worthy of such disdain.
Swish.
Black Night drew closer.
Jang Pil tilted his head to the ash-choked sky, exhaled deeply, and closed his eyes.
Who the hell did we cross?
Regret consumed him, but to his last breath, he never learned the truth.
On the road to Blood Heaven Divine Palace's headquarters.
Yeon Jeokhwa rode in a carriage with Hyeok Mulin, winding through the mountains.
Why am I sharing a carriage with him?
She had boarded first, without inviting him. Yet Hyeok Mulin followed naturally.
Without her permission, the carriage's owner.
His ascent was so seamless that neither she nor the attending palace servants stopped him.
Only after departure did Yeon Jeokhwa sense the oddity, left bewildered—but she swallowed her protest.
Too awkward to kick him out now...
After agonizing, she resigned to sharing the ride.
She stole a glance at Hyeok Mulin across from her.
...His face is actually decent.
Who would have thought such features hid beneath that mask?
Looking back, hunting him down had been reckless.
How could she find one man in this vast world by voice and build alone?
Back then, vengeance had driven her to scour the earth.
Yet now, face-to-face, time had dulled the hatred.
Or rather, what she felt was...
Joy?
For reasons unknown, gladness at seeing him. Strange indeed.
Overlapping past and present, Yeon Jeokhwa found herself staring openly.
Then.
"You've made fine progress with the Blood Heaven Linked Divine Art."
Gulp—
His sudden voice made her swallow hard.
She yanked her gaze away, peering out the window. After a beat, she glanced back slyly.
"How did you know?"
Her hair.
Hyeok Mulin's finger pointed to her locks.
Now dyed red—proof her body had fully accepted the art.
"Ah... I see."
Ghostly perception.
He truly knew his martial arts.
Bringing him along was the right call, she reaffirmed.
Whew.
Steadying her breath, she steeled herself and spoke.
"What's your name?"
"Hyeok Mulin."
After agonizing whether to ask, the answer came effortlessly. She felt oddly deflated.
Hyeok Mulin.
Repeating the ring of it, she soon replied.
"Same as the Heavenly Demon. Must have been a pain."
"Doesn't it occur to you that I am the Heavenly Demon?"
Studying him briefly, she shook her head firmly.
"Come on, no way."
As young lord of Blood Heaven Divine Palace, she had faced plenty of demonic cultivators.
They always exuded that signature demonic qi, in daily life or battle.
But from Hyeok Mulin—now or during his ice technique earlier—not a trace.
If he were the Heavenly Demon, the qi would be overwhelming.
Thus, she was certain: mere namesake.
"Whatever you think."
"What's with that evasive answer?"
She furrowed a brow, but he said no more.
The truth's out, so he's just teasing again.
Vowing not to get swept up, she pressed on.
"Why haven't you asked my name? Not curious?"
"..."
Meeting her eyes, Hyeok Mulin replied measuredly.
"I sought you out—how could I not know your name?"
True enough.
He had come first, and without knowing she was Blood Heaven Divine Palace's young lord, Yeon Jeokhwa, such actions made no sense.
Speechless, she clamped her mouth shut.
Always on his terms.
From their first meeting to now.
Every moment with him flowed to his rhythm.
Never before had she felt this.
Always the one leading as young lord—being led left her unsettled.
Right, I know too little about him.
Unfair mismatch.
She, publicly known; he, shrouded save his name. Vast info gap.
To even the field, she probed for details.
"Where's your hometown?"
Hyeok Mulin chuckled softly.
"Quite interested in me. I prefer taking my time."
Her face flushed crimson.
N-not like that!
She hastened to clarify.
"I need to explain you to the palace lord! Clan or sect makes it simple!"
"Then ask that—why the hometown bit?"
"Well...!"
Cornered, she pivoted sharply.
"Anyway—clan or sect?!"
"None."
Not a lie.
He had stepped back from Hyeok Clan, overseeing Heavenly Demon Divine Cult remotely as cult leader.
So, unaffiliated: true.
"Really? Tricky to explain then..."
"Just say friend. Why complicate it?"
"Dragging a stranger in as 'friend' would raise eyebrows."
"Friendship cares not for timing or frequency—only depth."
"...Depth."
Unexpectedly sage words silenced her.
They rode on in quiet till the carriage reached its destination.