Chapter 244
Chapter 244
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: Cultivator's Mountain (18)
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Avici Hell!
Arisa was shocked upon hearing Chiwoo's words.
A name unknown to most Arhats.
Only those from the secret realms knew it.
Thousands of years ago, the Absolute Demon Lords who rebelled against the mountain's master, Taebaek, and were imprisoned!
The demonic realm where they were confined was none other than Avici Hell.
They were now forgotten figures, too taboo even to mention by name, despite being a demonic realm.
'No way. That place... has never once been opened.'
Even as all other demonic realms had opened, Avici Hell alone remained sealed.
Locked away for thousands of years without proper support, there was no chance the Absolute Demon Lords inside could still be alive.
Naturally, there was no way for an inheritor to have received their martial arts.
No, if Avici Hell had truly opened, the secret realms would be in an uproar by now.
Word should have spread through intelligence channels long ago.
Arisa turned to look at the man who had accompanied her.
'Enma. Have you ever heard talk of Avici Hell opening?'
'No.'
The man, Enma, shook his head.
He had access to all information from the secret realms, yet this was the first he'd heard of Avici Hell.
That left only one conclusion.
These two were lying.
They were pretending to be from the secret realms despite not being so.
Why?
'Because they can't reveal their true origins?'
Saying it outright would bar them from ascending the mountain.
No matter how corrupted Cultivator's Mountain had become, it wouldn't openly accept those it rejected.
Especially demons or the Twelve Races.
Did that mean the two men before her were connected to demons or the Twelve Races?
Moreover, there was something off about their words.
Their master, who had lived a full lifespan and passed away.
If he had emerged from Avici Hell, he would have been one of the Absolute Demon Lords—sealed and dead with all his meridians and dantian destroyed. Could that truly be called "living a full lifespan"?
Their relationship was strange too.
'One calls the other "successor" and follows him devotedly. If they both came from Avici Hell, what exactly is their connection?'
It didn't seem like an ordinary bond.
Arisa looked at Park Chan-woo.
"Chiwoo. I've heard the rumors that you call that man your 'successor.' Whose lineage does it refer to?"
"You don't need to know that much."
Chiwoo replied.
It wasn't yet time to reveal he was the Heavenly Demon's successor.
He could wait until they reached the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods.
Announcing it now would only heighten suspicions against them.
Still... he understood Arisa's doubts.
Arhats from the secret realms had always been tightly knit.
Inherently insular, they rarely trusted outsiders.
Someone pretending to be from the secret realms when they weren't would naturally face extreme wariness.
That was precisely why Chiwoo had chosen "secret realm" as his origin.
'If I can convince them, I gain the power of the secret realms.'
Conversely, earning their trust meant having the secret realms backing him.
No matter how strong Chiwoo was, this was Cultivator's Mountain, home to the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods.
He couldn't get Park Chan-woo there on his own power alone.
Chiwoo knew that ascending the mountain required the support of a major sect or faction.
There was no guilt in it.
After all, they had indeed emerged from a demonic realm within the true secret realms.
Chiwoo smirked.
"But... I can show you something."
"...What?"
"A lost pure martial art."
"A lost martial art?"
"Shura Sword."
"Wait. Did you just say Shura Sword...?"
Arisa's expression hardened.
The name Shura had been taboo for ages.
Among the Absolute Demon Lords who rebelled against Taebaek was one—the most outstanding, it was said—who was a descendant of the Shura Gate.
The gate had been exterminated back then, and all its martial arts lost.
Yet the tale of the "Shura Sword" that severed Taebaek's arm lived on as a famous legend, whispered among insiders.
To Arhats from the secret realms especially, it was the stuff of dreams.
Of course Arisa knew the name of the Shura Sword.
And what manner of martial art it was.
"Care to take it once?"
"...Very well."
Arisa nodded with a resolute expression.
She immediately drew her sword and assumed a stance.
Chiwoo shrugged his shoulders.
"I'll swing just once. After that, believe it or not—it's up to you."
"I'm ready. Begin."
Arisa's skill placed her among the top three even among secret realm Arhats.
She had no peers her age.
Even the renowned experts midway up the mountain steered clear of her.
Arisa circulated her internal energy.
Aura enveloped her entire body.
"Impressive Repelling True Aura."
It was none other than Repelling True Aura.
Chiwoo acknowledged it.
It had been ages since he'd seen such a perfectly stabilized version.
And that wasn't all.
The sword aura cloaking her blade was flawless.
It handled both offense and defense simultaneously.
Not twice as hard—twenty times the challenge.
"You've stepped into the realm of Divine Sword, I see. Well then..."
Chiwoo raised his sword.
And then—
Flash!
"Why are you leaving already? Aren't you going to ask what we saw in the tower?"
Enma tilted his head.
They had several prepared topics.
Yet Arisa had turned away without asking a single one.
Especially what they'd seen reaching the 150th floor—that was a key point.
If they could expose the ugly truth of the Corpse Sect, a secret even they couldn't cover up, it would be a trump card.
But she hadn't asked.
After taking Chiwoo's sword, she'd turned and left without hesitation.
"What, it was nothing. He just swung his sword once—schwing. How's that the Shura Sword? The Shura Sword I know made thunder rumble when swung..."
"Exactly. Shura Sword."
"...It was the Shura Sword?"
Arisa nodded gravely.
Thunder had truly roared.
For her alone.
Her head had rung, hallucinations and auditory illusions striking like lightning.
If he'd unleashed it in earnest...
Gulp!
"...So that rumor was true."
"What rumor?"
"About the clan of the Absolute Demon Lord who severed Taebaek's arm. That the Shura Gate was actually an assassin organization."
A rumor known only to a select few Arhats.
Caution kept the Shura Gate's name unspoken, but whispers persisted that it was an assassin group.
Even severing Taebaek's arm had supposedly been an assassination attempt.
"So the Shura Sword is an assassination technique?"
"Yes. At least... that's how it felt to me."
"...I always wondered how they cut off Taebaek's arm."
Enma's face hardened too.
The Divine Slayer Taebaek.
The current master of the mountain was a god incarnate.
No—even that fell short.
He transcended gods.
An inviolable existence utterly beyond reach.
Demon King?
Demon God?
Taebaek surpassed them.
The true Absolute Being.
How had they severed the arm of such a being?
"...Wait a second."
Enma's eyes widened suddenly.
Then he continued.
"Suppose that Chiwoo guy really is a descendant of the Shura Gate. Then his climb up the Mysterious Tower wasn't his full strength."
The Mysterious Tower demanded direct confrontation.
A structure where assassins couldn't showcase their true skills.
Yet he'd reached the 73rd floor.
Meaning he could have gone higher if he'd wanted.
That was why.
Arisa had turned away as she did.
Doubting them was pointless.
Above all...
"That 'successor'..."
She recalled him.
The man, Park Chan-woo.
A Shura Gate descendant called him "successor."
Serving him with utmost devotion.
"What? Who the hell is he? Any guesses?"
"..."
Arisa didn't answer.
...Any guesses?
'The Shura Sword is a martial art only the Shura Gate's successor can learn.'
In other words, Chiwoo, who wielded it, was the Shura Gate's inheritor.
For such an inheritor to call a man "successor" and follow him...
...Wouldn't that mean he's greater than the Shura Gate itself—someone the entire gate would serve?
But she couldn't pin it down.
Whatever stood above the Shura Gate.
"We must not make enemies of those two."
On the contrary.
Resolve hardened on Arisa's face.
"...From now on, our secret realms will stand with them."
Park Chan-woo looked at Chiwoo.
He sensed there was more Chiwoo hadn't told him.
"An assassin, then."
"...You recognized my sword."
Chiwoo replied, slightly surprised.
The Shura Sword was known only to those who experienced it.
An absolute killing technique, an assassination art.
And Park Chan-woo had seen through it instantly.
"That's how you endured Avici Hell alone."
"...Yes. Solitude is no great threat to an assassin."
Chiwoo agreed.
The sole assassin among the Twelve Heavenly Kings.
He had been raised from birth as a doll for killing.
An assassin in the shadows.
Humans are social creatures; prolonged isolation drives them mad.
But not Chiwoo.
To him, solitude was like a friend.
He had once hidden motionless in the same spot for six months on an assassination mission.
The key reason he survived Avici Hell.
"Are you disappointed?"
Chiwoo asked cautiously.
That was why he'd kept silent until now.
An assassin didn't fit 'Cultivator's Mountain' at all.
It clashed frontally with the Arhats' spirit.
The Shura Gate embodied the mountain's darkest side.
A group that wouldn't hesitate at slaughter if the mountain required it.
Their attitude opposed the Heavenly Demon's honor.
In the Heavenly Demon's era, no such group existed.
Of course, the Assassin Gate's stance wasn't much different.
They didn't serve the Heavenly Demon.
They served the mountain itself.
Chiwoo was the only one in the Assassin Gate who revered the Heavenly Demon.
He admired the transcendent myth the Heavenly Demon had forged.
Becoming one of the Twelve Heavenly Kings who followed the Heavenly Demon had been his choice.
But... what of the Heavenly Demon?
'...He wouldn't approve.'
Would such a man accept an assassin?
On the contrary, he'd despise and fear it.
That was the sole reason he'd withheld it from Park Chan-woo.
'This is the end, then.'
Even if cursed or resented, there was no helping it.
They'd part ways from here.
Protecting from afar was the only option.
But Park Chan-woo shook his head.
"Can you teach me that sword?"
"...Pardon?"