Chapter 236
Chapter 236
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 236
Chapter Title: The Cultivator's Mountain (10)
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In an instant.
The man's body came to a halt.
It was a complete stop, on an entirely different level from the slowdown inflicted by the Bagua.
This was a first.
An opponent against whom every single Bagua failed.
Once inside the trial grounds, the Bagua's power was absolute.
It could never be dodged or ignored.
Yet the man before them dismissed the Bagua's abilities as if they were a joke.
Over thirty 'Kun' trigrams had rapidly degraded every physical ability of his body, and the poison of the 'Kan' trigram should have seeped in, making even movement impossible.
What about 'Gen'?
His weapon's durability should have plummeted, rendering its attack power worthless.
On top of that, he had been hit by every single Bagua, from 'Tai' to 'Li' and 'Zhen'—all of them.
He shouldn't have even been able to think of resisting.
A massive beast's roar erupted from the lower dantian.
A cry on a whole different level echoed across the entire mountain.
When the sound finally faded, heaven and earth fell silent.
Not a single insect chirped.
All that remained was a deathly stillness that swept through every direction.
He had heard of it before.
The existence of such a type of martial art.
A forbidden technique that ignored countless controls and instead suppressed the opponent!
'Lion... Roar...!!'
That was the man's final thought.
Silence descended upon the mountain.
The beast's roar that had shaken everything from the base to the midsection forced countless arhats to halt in their tracks.
Goosebumps prickled their skin.
Even from a distance, their inner energy vibrated.
The explosive shockwave of sound made everyone hold their breath.
Only after a long while did they finally speak.
"Lion's Roar?"
"Someone who has mastered a forbidden martial art..."
"A peak expert of the Mythic Realm at the base of the mountain?"
...The arhats could barely open their mouths.
There were martial arts called forbidden.
Ones that must never be learned, and the moment they were, the practitioner became a public enemy, hostile to all arhats.
Becoming an enemy of the Pantheon meant certain death.
Yet the aura of a Lion's Roar had emanated from the base of the mountain.
However, the Lion's Roar was a demonic art that only supreme masters who had reached the 'Mythic Realm' could learn.
It fundamentally required the ability to unleash Remote Force Projection.
Did this mean someone had mastered a long-lost forbidden demonic art from actual combat and was climbing the mountain?
It was too ominous to dismiss.
It felt just like hearing the raw, utterly ferocious howl of a primal beast.
A roar so powerful that even experts dared not move.
As all the arhats who heard it hardened their faces in contemplation,
"......"
Yulla's fur stood on end all over her body.
She was half-human, half-beast.
A werewolf, after all.
She was certain this cry was far from a mere 'Lion's Roar.'
The Lion's Roar was a martial art.
An artificial technique created through training.
A demonic art that devastated the surroundings by exploding sound waves and inner energy.
But...
The cry from moments ago was different.
Far more primal, fundamental—the raw voice of the world's most ferocious beast.
The apex beast possessed will.
Anger toward the world and an aura of destruction were mingled within.
Yulla couldn't budge an inch.
If even she, half-beast, was like this...
True beasts wouldn't dare resist before that roar.
But... who?
Someone in the trial grounds had unleashed such a roar?
'...The unvetted participants from the outer sects.'
It seemed Isa Baek hadn't misjudged their scores after all.
For the first time in ages, real monsters capable of shaking the mountain had appeared.
Ones that would put the stagnant Pantheon and clans on edge.
"Heavenly Demon Roar...!"
Chiwoo shuddered violently.
It was undoubtedly the cry of the Heavenly Demon, passed down only in legends.
From ancient times, he had memorized every saga and trace left by the Heavenly Demon without missing a single one.
Though he had never seen the Heavenly Demon himself, each episode in his life was a shiver-inducing feat.
The current roar was unmistakably one of them: the 'Heavenly Demon Roar.'
The Lion's Roar was merely a derivative imitation of the Heavenly Demon Roar.
The Heavenly Demon had vanished without a trace, but later experts who witnessed his arts up close had recreated it as best they could—that was the Lion's Roar.
Naturally, an imitation could never match the original.
'The omnipotent Heavenly Demon has sent an heir!'
It was clear.
Escaping the impenetrable hell that even all Twelve Heavenly Kings couldn't breach, granting eternal enlightenment to the First Heavenly King Chiwoo, and using the Heavenly Demon Roar.
A chain of impossibilities unless it was the Heavenly Demon's successor.
Finally, after eons, he had left his mark.
The Heavenly Demon's purpose was obvious.
Reforming the Pantheon!
Restoring the Cultivator's Mountain to its original state!
Tears streamed down Chiwoo's face.
Emotions welled up.
How much persecution had there been?
After the Heavenly Demon vanished, the followers who upheld him grew endlessly weaker.
They clung only to his name and endured, but in the end, all faded away.
Even at the mountain's base, the Heavenly Demon's name was nowhere to be heard.
His prestige no longer echoed.
It had been thoroughly erased, not even worthy of jokes.
The Twelve Heavenly Kings had become relics of the past.
But now that his successor had appeared...
'Brace yourselves, Pantheon.'
Everything would change from one to ten.
Chiwoo's sole mission was clear.
To stand by his side until he ascended to the Pantheon!
Chiwoo's eyes gleamed.
The will of the other Twelve Heavenly Kings, the hearts of all who followed the Heavenly Demon, rested on his shoulders.
He couldn't lag behind.
To keep up properly, he couldn't stop.
Chiwoo moved immediately, subduing the remaining arhats in the trial grounds.
"Unbelievable."
Yulla glanced at the pile of Bagua trigrams stacked before her and muttered.
She had swept up nearly every Bagua from the second trial ground.
Among them were even five 'Qian' trigrams.
It was a number that made the lack of passers for so long seem suspicious.
"One person monopolized four 'Qian' trigrams."
Park Chan-woo said.
Yulla shrugged.
She had somewhat suspected as much.
He had moved like a ghost, evading her gaze.
He had likely hunted down the 'Qian' owners solo.
This time too, it seemed he had tried to hunt but got counter-hunted instead.
Then,
Park Chan-woo probed.
"Is there a demon in this mountain?"
"...What nonsense is that? The Pantheon is the group that opposes demons."
"Then why is there an incarnation in the trial grounds?"
"......The 'Qian' holder was an incarnation?"
"Exactly. Even the Pantheon's arhats can't filter out incarnations, it seems."
Now it was certain.
The Pantheon, a group that opposed demons.
They could distinguish demons themselves but apparently not their 'incarnations.'
Well, without the 'Radiant Dantalion's Glasses,' he wouldn't have been able to either.
The problem was that this was the Pantheon.
The place that should know demons best was instead being manipulated by them.
"......Incarnations climbing the mountain will inevitably use demonic power anyway. We can filter them out then."
At the mountain's base.
Most were eliminated in the three trials.
Very few incarnations made it to the midsection unscathed.
Incarnations who used demonic power were enthralled by it, lacking self-control.
When overwhelmed or reaching their limits, they shamelessly drew on demonic power.
'There are incarnations in the trial grounds. There must be arhats aiding them too.'
He hoped it was just paranoia, but high chances were incarnations existed even at the midsection and above.
Moreover, the possibility of arhats or clans aiding incarnations was quite high.
Yulla didn't seem to be one... but if the mountain crawled with incarnations, the climb wouldn't be easy.
'Ones incomparable to Earth's incarnations.'
Maybe even arhats who became incarnations.
If so, they'd wield even greater destructive power than humans turned incarnations.
If their goal was to destroy the Cultivator's Mountain, it had to be stopped.
"Anyway, time for scoring. You... Chiwoo, was it?"
Yulla said, looking at Chiwoo.
Chiwoo nodded.
"I am Chiwoo."
"Upper."
"...Upper? I swept up all the Bagua."
"The 'Qian' was brought by the one you call your successor, wasn't it? Not directly acquired by you, so Upper."
Regret flickered across Chiwoo's face, who had received Upper scores twice in a row.
But there was no helping it.
Yulla was right.
No matter how many Bagua he swept, he hadn't personally secured the crucial 'Qian' trigram.
Soon, Yulla turned to Park Chan-woo.
"Congratulations. Exceptional."
A consecutive Exceptional score holder.
The unprecedented grading made the third examiner, Anton, frown.
"You two, are you insane?"
He spat curses outright before Isa Baek and Yulla.
Examiners must be fair.
The highest score was an exclusive privilege for the utmost talent.
Yet Isa Baek and Yulla had consecutively awarded 'Exceptional' to one person.
"Broke my fist."
"Gathered four 'Qian' alone."
Isa Baek and Yulla stated their unavoidable reasons.
But Anton still scowled.
"You didn't conduct the trial properly. Sloppy, right?"
"...Anton. Do I seem like the sloppy type?"
"No matter that you're from the 'Nine Clans,' stick to the line."
Isa Baek and Yulla didn't hide their displeasure.
Anton was an examiner from the 'Nine Clans' at the mountain's summit.
But serving as one at the base meant he was a fallen noble, rumor had it due to a grave sin against his clan.
Anton clicked his tongue.
"...Tch. My trial won't pass with scores like yours. I can't just watch lowly outer sect trash climb the mountain again."
"Forcing failures is taboo."
Isa Baek retorted, and Anton smirked.
"Need to? My trial is the fairest from the start. The 'Tower of Mystery,' culmination of all clan techniques! They'll hit their limit and despair there."
Anton was confident.
His trial was on another level from the previous two.
There was a reason it was the final third trial.
The 'Tower of Mystery' at the end of the base.
All three gazes turned to the tower.
Not just them.
News of an Exceptional score passer had spread to the midsection too.
A significant number of arhats took interest.
And at that moment.
Park Chan-woo entered the 'Tower of Mystery'.