Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: The Heavenly Demon's Guidebook
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Hyeok So-jin stealthily followed Sang Hak into the depths of the Demonic Palace.
‘So this is the Eight Demon Hall.’
Ordinarily, a place called a "hall" is meant for martial arts training or large gatherings.
But the Eight Demon Hall was a hall in name only; it was a massive, exquisitely crafted, and sturdy armory.
The name likely came from the fact that each weapon was displayed on a brilliant bronze statue, making it look as though the statue itself were armed.
‘This is just staggering.’
Hyeok So-jin’s jaw dropped as he looked around.
Even in Jeol-cheon-myeol-ji, where the Great Demons lived in seclusion, countless divine weapons were stored.
But compared to the Eight Demon Hall laid out before him, it felt like a neighborhood dojo's weapon rack.
There were not only countless divine arms and ancient weapons that had made their names known throughout Murim for generations—like the legendary swords Yuchang, Gan Jiang, Mo Ye, Juque, and Zhanlu—but also…
There were protective armors like the Golden Form Armor and the Iron Essence Armor, and statues adorned with peerless hidden weapon mechanisms like the Azure Poison Blood Hand and the Ice Ghost Blood Wheel Tube.
“Look around carefully and take one weapon you desire.”
“Anything?”
“Yes. If you don't need a weapon, protective armor or a hidden weapon will do. Choose as you wish.”
Hyeok So-jin couldn't understand.
He had merely followed Bu Eun-seol into the Demonic Palace. Why was he being given such a reward?
“Perhaps you're mistaken about something? I'm not a successor candidate…”
“I know. You are an attendant to a successor candidate.”
“An attendant? Me?”
As Hyeok So-jin asked again, Sang Hak frowned.
“I, the master of this hall, have no time to waste. Choose quickly.”
‘An attendant to a successor candidate, he says.’
It was so absurd he had to laugh.
To think he could obtain one of the treasures stored in the Eight Demon Hall simply for following Bu Eun-seol, one of the Heavenly Demon’s successor candidates…
Only now did he truly grasp the weight of the title of successor candidate in the Demonic Palace.
“May I look around for a bit?”
“Hmph, you have fifteen minutes.”
With permission granted, Hyeok So-jin carefully examined the armory's interior.
As befitting the great armory of the Demonic Palace, every item on display was a demonic or divine weapon.
Not only that, but next to the unique weapons of great demons from long ago were manuals detailing their origins and how to wield them.
“Hmm.”
After looking around the Eight Demon Hall for a while, Hyeok So-jin was lost in thought.
At his waist hung Seol-ran, an ancient treasured sword he had brought from Jeol-cheon-myeol-ji.
While it couldn't be called a divine sword, its sharpness was comparable to Bu Eun-seol's Muk-geom.
‘No matter how I think about it, I don't need a weapon.’
Shin-yeol-ma-gi, the ultimate art of Jeol-cheon-myeol-ji, was not a discipline that used weapons.
It was a martial art that utilized powerful, formless true qi in subtle ways, so a sword could sometimes feel more like a hindrance.
‘Then should I take a suit of protective armor?’
Hyeok So-jin quickly shook his head.
Wearing protective armor could lead to complacency, making one rely on its effectiveness and neglect evasive maneuvers.
Moreover, it was useless against techniques that attack internally, making it worthless against masters at or above the transcendent realm.
‘I'd better just give up.’
It was better to take nothing at all than to force himself to take a weapon or armor that didn't suit him.
As Hyeok So-jin turned to leave without hesitation,
*Thud.*
His foot suddenly bumped into something.
“This is…”
He looked down at his feet and smiled brightly.
‘With this, I think I can properly utilize Shin-yeol-ma-gi.’
And without hesitation, he picked up the object at his feet.
“Well then, I'll take this.”
“Hm?”
Sang Hak stared at the object Hyeok So-jin had picked up, a look of bewilderment on his face.
“You're going to take that?”
“Yes, I like this one.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am.”
When Hyeok So-jin nodded with a bright smile, Sang Hak grunted and nodded.
“If you like it, then it must be good. Take it.”
“Thank you.”
Hyeok So-jin brought his hands together in a gesture of thanks, then unhesitatingly tucked the object he was holding into his robes.
It was a bundle of Steel Cord Blood Thread, which had been wound around a trap mechanism meant to capture intruders who secretly entered the Eight Demon Hall.
***
The Ten Thousand Demon Arts Pavilion, Second Floor.
The scene was completely different from the first floor of the pavilion, which Bu Eun-seol had entered before.
The first floor, packed with so many manuals, had giant bookshelves installed in a lightless cave, with salt and charcoal placed about to preserve them.
The second floor, however, was built like a giant maze, with manuals placed inside transparent glass cases installed throughout.
Due to its immense scale, a large guidebook was placed at the entrance of the pavilion, showing the approximate locations of the books and a map of the interior.
And next to it was a storeroom containing grain pills and fresh water.
“Hmm.”
After a brief survey of the confusingly interconnected interior of the pavilion, Bu Eun-seol eventually returned to the entrance and opened the guidebook.
‘It’s better to understand the complex maze structure in advance and explore it systematically.’
Now that he realized this was all part of the Heavenly Demon's test, he had to move as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“Hmm.”
The guidebook was unnecessarily thick.
This was because it contained not only the internal layout but also descriptions of the over seven thousand types of manuals on display.
Bu Eun-seol familiarized himself with the structure and layout of the pavilion described at the beginning of the book, then began his exploration in earnest.
Iron Emperor's No-Kill Sword Manual.
Blade Soul Black Wheel Sword.
Death Emperor's Blood Yin Projectile Sword.
Fierce Coagulation Blood Phosphorus Sword.
In the first corridor, advanced sword arts, any one of which was enough to dominate the world, were contained in glass cases.
‘There's no need to look at sword arts.’
Bu Eun-seol shook his head as he looked over the manuals.
His Mu-sang-cheon-ryu, created based on Dang Cheong's teachings, had transcended the limitations of all sword techniques.
Its ultimate secret was to grow stronger with every fight, discover the enemy's weaknesses, and shatter their techniques.
In other words, it was a sword art of enlightenment, so there was no need for him to learn any new sword techniques.
‘I should look for martial arts that I lack.’
Passing quickly through the corridor, he came upon manuals for fist techniques, finger arts, and grappling skills.
‘I don't need these either.’
The Gwon-ma-chil-sik that Bu Eun-seol had learned encompassed the principles of all such arts.
Learning a new manual would ultimately amount to nothing more than practicing a variation of the Gwon-ma-chil-sik.
“Besides, manuals are…”
Bu Eun-seol's eyes darkened for a moment as he recalled the manual for Gwon-ma-chil-sik.
No matter how detailed the practical applications are in a manual, it is difficult to use them in a real battle right away.
If one could fully master a martial art just from a manual, every sect in Murim would simply stack manuals in their libraries instead of teaching their disciples.
‘Even my mastery of Gwon-ma-chil-sik, which I honed naturally through real combat, is only at fifty percent.’
Bu Eun-seol couldn't understand.
Rather than deeply honing one art from a manual, it would be far more beneficial to read through countless manuals and acquire a variety of techniques.
‘Why did he tell me to learn just one martial art?’
According to the guidebook, there were seven thousand, three hundred and eighty-seven advanced demonic arts displayed here.
To make proper use of the ten days, the most logical method would be to select several manuals and slowly digest them.
But the Heavenly Demon had specifically told him to learn one, and to come find him at Seong-ma-gak afterward as if to confirm it.
‘One art. Just one…’
Lost in deep thought, Bu Eun-seol began to quickly scan the manuals displayed in the pavilion.
Every single one was an outstanding demonic art, and the thickness of the books was nearly uniform.
“One art. Just one.”
As he repeated the same words and skimmed through the books, Bu Eun-seol suddenly recalled his first audience with the Heavenly Demon.
The image of an old man, not ancient despite being the strongest martial artist who had divided the Murim in two.
“Yes, that's it.”
Most of the manuals here were ancient ultimate arts passed down through the demonic path.
But the Heavenly Demon was not a man of old. Furthermore, he wasn't a disciple of the Ten Demonic Sects that had supported the Demonic Murim for generations.
From the perspective of Murim's history, the Heavenly Demon was an unprecedented, new figure.
*Fwip, fwip, fwip.*
Having reached an epiphany, Bu Eun-seol began to carefully scan the covers of the seven thousand-plus manuals in the pavilion.
But there was nothing.
All the manuals displayed here were old. In other words, they were manuals written by the great demons of the past.
“They're all ultimate arts from the past. There are no martial arts manuals that the Heavenly Demon could have written.”
The most recently written manual was from over two hundred years ago, belonging to the Buddhist Demon, a great demon who had come from a Buddhist temple.
Moreover, it was a secret art for maximizing the fortitude of the spirit and couldn't be called a martial art.
“Besides, there are just a lot of needlessly redundant martial arts.”
Due to the nature of demonic martial arts, the manuals weren't systematically organized like those of the orthodox factions, resulting in a higher number of manuals.
For example, the fundamental principles and martial secrets of the famous demonic hand techniques, the Eternal Demon Blood Hand and the Blood Jade Steel Hand, were identical.
From what Bu Eun-seol could tell, if properly categorized, the seven thousand-plus martial arts manuals here would amount to only about three hundred different arts.
“Was I mistaken?”
He had been certain there would be a martial arts manual written by the Heavenly Demon here.
But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find one.
“Tomorrow will be the sixth day.”
Only four days remained.
Yet he hadn't even chosen a single martial art.
He couldn't disobey the Heavenly Demon's command, so he would have to pick one martial art from some manual, any manual.
“Even after checking everything…”
In that instant, a flash of lightning sparked in Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
He hadn't checked everything yet. He hadn't read the latter half of the guidebook at the entrance to the end.
Bu Eun-seol ran to the entrance and began to read the back of the hefty guidebook in detail.
To his surprise, it contained explanations and summaries of the seven thousand-plus manuals.
As he read through the contents quickly, Bu Eun-seol's hand paused.
The guidebook was, true to its name, a guide.
It detailed the structure of the pavilion, the types of manuals on display, and a condensed version of their contents.
But within that long, extensive text lay the great principles of martial arts.
The essence.
The back of the guidebook offered a profound interpretation of the core principles, what could be called the very quintessence of the manuals.
In other words, the author of this guidebook had mastered all the martial arts manuals on the second floor of the pavilion and explained them in detail.
And that author, of course, had to be the Heavenly Demon.
‘The Heavenly Demon intends to pass on the secret of his own martial cultivation to those who enter this place.’
Bu Eun-seol, who had synthesized the martial arts of Nang-ya-gak.
He had created a sword art that broke free from the framework of established martial arts.
But the Heavenly Demon, in contrast, had condensed the principles contained within the framework of existing martial arts to create a new one.
‘With my current abilities, I can't possibly condense over seven thousand demonic arts.’
Then there was only one thing to do.
He had to spend the next four days reading the essence of the summaries compiled by the Heavenly Demon, then select and learn the manual that would fill his current void.
***
Before he knew it, four days had passed.
Only after poring over the summaries in the guidebook for days on end was Bu Eun-seol able to identify what he currently lacked.
Powerful internal energy.
Bu Eun-seol's level of internal energy was such that it wouldn't fall short even against the greatest masters who looked down upon the world.
But he had no martial art that could fully utilize that powerful true qi.
Mu-sang-cheon-ryu and Gwon-ma-chil-sik displayed immense power, but they were primarily based on the subtlety of their forms and techniques, not the level of internal energy.
However, as Bu Eun-seol carefully read the guidebook, he was able to find a secret art within it.
The Secret Art of Shaving Emotions.
Perhaps an ordinary martial artist, not someone like Bu Eun-seol, wouldn't have even thought to read it.
It simply described how to fortify one's spirit.
But Bu Eun-seol, convinced that the Heavenly Demon had written it, read on in detail.
“What an unconventional method.”
The Secret Art of Shaving Emotions proposed a unique method for fortifying the spirit: to literally shave away the emotions within one's heart.
—If one can sharply shave away the emotions in the heart, what could possibly stand in the way?
Every grandmaster of martial arts experiences the trial of the inner demon at some point.
The Secret Art of Shaving Emotions pursued an ingenious yet radical method of overcoming that ordeal… by eliminating emotions and even the heart itself.
“This seems less like a secret art and more like an explanation of qi circulation.”
Not only that, but at the end of this secret art was a description of a unique secret for operating true qi.
The True Formula of Ignorance.
Written there was a timeless principle that allowed one to freely transform and project the true qi within the body.