Chapter 119
Chapter 119
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: 화산천마 (119)화
-----------------------------------------------------------------
```html
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Circuit
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Crunch crunch.
Cheonhwi, chewing on the jerky prepared by the merchant leader, grabbed the reins.
Neigh!
The horse reared up on its hind legs, its cry echoing out.
"Exactly ten days, huh."
Cheonhwi reined in the horse and looked up at the massive mountain looming before him, Bang Mountain.
Unlike Mount Hua, Bang Mountain had no steep cliffs or towering peaks.
"Then..."
Cheonhwi released the reins and leaped down.
Perhaps because it had run relentlessly for ten straight days at his urging, the horse was panting heavily.
"Good work."
Cheonhwi gave the horse's head a light pat, then smacked its rear.
"Live free now."
Neigh!
The horse bounded away into the forest.
"Alright, shall we go?"
With that, Cheonhwi set foot on Bang Mountain's trail.
Whoosh—
Cheonhwi unfurled the Dark Shadow Step and crossed the warping scenery in a single breath, arriving at the spot marked on the wanted notice.
"Around here."
He pulled out the wanted notice and unfolded it.
"Left a hundred paces."
He kicked lightly off the ground.
Boom!
Shooting through the air, Cheonhwi landed in the dense underbrush.
"Let's see... here it is."
The destination was a cliff.
A cliff tangled with vines everywhere, as if long abandoned.
Cheonhwi strode forward, scanning the surroundings.
Unlike everywhere else, the flow here at this cliff was different.
'It cuts off right here.'
As if a waterfall had been blocked by trees, the natural flow was severed.
'So this is the spot.'
Flow Severed, Enter Void, Become True (유단지입허변진)
'Arrive where the flow breaks, and the illusion turns real...'
He immediately thrust his hand toward the cliff.
As if to shatter it, his hand shot forward—right before it would collide.
Squelch!
An unexpected response came.
"Of course."
The corners of Cheonhwi's eyes curved up.
His thrust arm had sunk into the cliff up to the elbow.
Flow Severed, Enter Void, Become True It looked complicated at a glance, but it was ridiculously simple.
Enter where the flow is severed.
The illusion will become reality.
In other words...
'An illusion formation.'
With that thought complete, he boldly hurled his body into the cliff.
In that instant, his vision twisted suddenly, and the scenery before him changed utterly.
"Clean inside."
Cheonhwi turned his head, looking all around.
The overgrown cliff was gone without a trace; he was now inside a cave.
And.
"Huh?"
A horrific scene greeted him.
Dozens of skulls riddled with holes lay scattered on the ground.
"Why are there corpses here?"
It contradicted what the merchant leader had said.
Even the imperial court couldn't decipher it, much less anyone else.
Cheonhwi crouched and examined the skulls on the floor.
No rotten flesh clung to them.
Just the occasional wriggling bug here and there.
"Died at least decades ago. Meaning someone solved the cipher on the wanted notice long ago..."
Cheonhwi's brows furrowed.
He had subconsciously assumed no one would make it here following the notice.
He was wrong.
Someone had deciphered it and entered the secret annex.
Not just one—organized.
"The annex might already be cleaned out."
Judging by the mountain of skulls here, intruders had suffered greatly, but it was hard to be certain the Shadowless Divine Thrower's annex hadn't been looted.
"Better check fast."
He started to step forward quickly.
Halt!
A chilling instinct halted his foot.
That instant.
Grind!
Noise from below, and something sharp shot upward.
In the blink of an eye, the iron bars rose, halting right before Cheonhwi's nose and flaunting their deadly sharpness.
"So that's why the skulls had holes."
Cheonhwi's eyes narrowed.
An exquisitely gruesome trap that would leave one crippled at minimum if sprung.
"Triggered when a foot touches, right? Then..."
Cheonhwi circulated his Plum Blossom Qi Art.
A plum blossom fragrance bloomed from his entire body.
"Just move faster than it can react."
The words ended.
Flash!
Cheonhwi shot forward like a loosed arrow.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Thunderbolt Flying Stream Step Pinnacle Lightness Skill from the Dark Shadow Secret Annex
Deploying the supreme lightness skill stored in the Dark Shadow Secret Annex, Cheonhwi advanced faster than the rising iron bars.
Like a single streak of lightning!
Thud! Thud!
The delayed sounds of traps activating behind him.
But Cheonhwi ignored them, forging ahead.
There was more than one trap.
Not just iron bars—massive scythes swung wide, hidden weapons poured down, heavy iron maces too.
But.
"Slow."
Cheonhwi poured on more speed.
The traps only triggered after he'd passed, cleaving empty air.
About a li further.
"Finally here."
Spotting the iron door marked on the wanted notice, Cheonhwi drew near.
He tapped various spots on the door.
Rumble—
With a grinding noise, the rusted iron door swung open.
"Too late."
Surveying the interior, Cheonhwi couldn't conceal his disappointment.
It was barren.
Wooden crates lay toppled and gaping on the floor.
And not just that.
Several statues inside were utterly smashed, and the walls bore sharp sword scars on all sides.
As if someone had done it deliberately.
"Quite the haul..."
Even at a glance, there were at least dozens of crates—but Cheonhwi's gaze halted abruptly.
Unlike the scattered crates, a deeply familiar energy wafted leisurely from a dust-caked stone wall.
"Demonic qi...?"
Cheonhwi brushed away the dust blanketing the stone wall, revealing an intricate painting.
In the image, a middle-aged man stood tall amid roaring flames, while an elder prostrated himself before him.
"That face..."
Cheonhwi scrutinized the painting closely for a moment—then his pupils dilated sharply.
The middle-aged man's face was familiar.
No, beyond familiar.
"It's my past self?"
No angle made it anything but an exact match to his previous life's face.
"Why am I painted here..."
The moment Cheonhwi reached for the painting.
"...!"
He froze.
The stone wall bearing the image concealed a complex hollow structure within.
'This flow...'
Cheonhwi gathered his internal energy.
Infusing it along the conduit!
Flash!
The painting erupted in ecstatic radiance.
Then it began tracing a beautiful formation in midair...
"...Why is this here?"
Cheonhwi's gaze turned razor-sharp.
A formation that had no business existing in the Central Plains was now activating.
His masterpiece from his previous life.
The maze-and-illusion array.
🔥 FORBIDDEN FORMATION ACTIVATED 🔥 ⟨ Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Circuit ⟩
Masterpiece of Mazes and Illusions
'What?'
In his previous life, Cheonhwi had fallen into a trap laid by the righteous sects: the legendary formation, Nine Heavens Forbidden Demon Path.
An endless maze of illusions.
It preyed on the mind, harder to fathom than ten fathoms underwater.
Rejecting demonic beings alone, it had confined Cheonhwi to its labyrinth.
And more.
Ten paintings affixed to the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demon Path's walls.
The divine relic Four Spirits Chart resonated with the path, birthing illusions.
Tempests, tidal waves, celestial dragons, qilins...
Vivid enough to feel real, evoking awe.
'Twisting the harmony of heaven and earth.'
Yet even the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demon Path couldn't bind one called the Absolute Heavenly Demon. It fell to his hand.
Admiring it, Cheonhwi had reborn it as a new formation: the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Circuit.
But the Reincarnation Circuit had a flaw.
Like its predecessor, it could be used only once.
And the lack of the Four Spirits Chart.
When Cheonhwi destroyed the Nine Heavens path, the chart tore to ash.
So he substituted something else into the Reincarnation Circuit.
Thus, it had never been deployed—not even once.
The substitute? The caster's death.
Flash!
Cheonhwi's body was drawn into the light.
He could have broken free right then, but he surrendered to the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Circuit.
Curiosity.
Who? Why? For what purpose?
Who had prepared it here, embracing death?
Right on cue.
Step— step—
Footsteps echoed as a silhouette pierced the dazzling light.
'Finally showed.'
The Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Circuit's defining feature—this.
To be precise, not a silhouette...
A dead resolve.
No living being.
The will of the one who forged it on death's doorstep, made manifest.
Cheonhwi regarded the dead resolve.
A gaunt-eyed elder with patchy, thinning hair.
'Looks real.'
He had created the Reincarnation Circuit but never tested it.
Who would gamble their life on a one-use formation?
Unless on the verge of death.
'Well-crafted. Indistinguishable from a real person.'
A satisfied smile formed.
Not inferior to the illusions from that past Nine Heavens path.
'Judging by the age, deployed facing death?'
Likely its form right before activation.
'Face rings a bell...'
As Cheonhwi stared intently.
"This wasn't laid for the likes of you... How dare you!"
The dead resolve's mouth moved swiftly, spitting fury.
And Cheonhwi.
"Oh, the dead resolve talks."
Burst into admiration.
'Didn't expect speech.'
Experiencing it firsthand felt different.
Meanwhile, the dead resolve's brows knit.
"How do you know I'm a dead resolve?"
"Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Circuit."
"...!"
The dead resolve's eyes bulged.
"How do you know that name..."
"Obvious at a glance. More importantly, who is 'that lord' you'd stake your life deploying this for..."
"Shut it! Not for scum like you to name!"
The dead resolve's voice rose.
"That one is Supreme among Demons, Greatest Demon of past and present, Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's..."
Eh?
Cheonhwi cocked his head.
Titles that had grated his ears endlessly.
"...Absolute Heavenly Demon!"
Me?
Cheonhwi eyed the dead resolve steadily.
'Who? Almost no one would deploy the Reincarnation Circuit for me...'
Pondering its features.
'Huh?'
Imagining hair on the bald pate, smoothing wrinkles—a familiar face emerged.
"...Vice Heavenly Demon?"
```