Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Eternal Divine Thief (4)
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“Eternal Divine Thief?”
In that instant, a chilling silence descended over the secret warehouse.
While the Heavenly Demon remained utterly at ease, Pavilion Master Seok's face had stiffened.
But that atmosphere didn't last long.
“Hahaha! Lord Gunryong, you jest too harshly. How could I possibly be that thief?”
Pavilion Master Seok shook his head, denying it vehemently.
It was a convincingly argued point. The torches and night pearls had been destroyed, plunging the room into darkness for no more than a few seconds at most.
In that brief window, for the Eternal Divine Thief disguised as Pavilion Master Seok to subdue the real one and infiltrate? It bordered on the impossible.
Moreover, wasn't Hajin of the Invincible Golden Isle standing guard by Pavilion Master Seok's side, her twin hearts fully alert?
“Are you truly the real Pavilion Master Seok?”
“Of course!”
Pavilion Master Seok nodded vigorously, his face flushing red as if he might snap if pressed further.
“It's true that I agreed not to touch the Seated Buddha Jade Statue. But that was only before the blackout happened. Once the lights went out, didn't we have to check whether it was real or fake?”
Pavilion Master Seok spoke with profound grievance.
It was a fairly persuasive tale.
“Well, fair enough.”
“Phew. I'm glad you understand.”
“Then, just one last question.”
The Heavenly Demon fixed him with his signature impassive gaze, still clearly doubting whether this was the real Pavilion Master Seok.
Under that piercing stare that seemed to see right through him, even Pavilion Master Seok had no choice but to concede with a nod.
“Very well. Ask away. This branch's yearly profits? Or the total annual intake? Whatever you like.”
Pavilion Master Seok, desperate to clear his name this time, was even prepared to divulge information known only to the branch lord.
But the Heavenly Demon's question surpassed all imagination.
“Who am I? My true identity, that only you know.”
Astoundingly, the Heavenly Demon pointed at himself with a finger.
The question was simple, yet impossible to answer lightly.
“Y-Yes?”
Even Pavilion Master Seok, who had prepared for everything, hadn't anticipated such a question; his eyes wavered.
“Why so flustered? You know.”
A grin!
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Demon smirked in amusement, clearly enjoying himself.
As he said, from their very first meeting, the Heavenly Demon had held a private audience with Pavilion Master Seok and mentioned his true identity outright.
'If you're the real one, you'll answer easily. If fake, you won't even dare guess.'
Martial artists of the Central Plains didn't even believe in the First Heavenly Demon's eternal ice seal; plenty thought he'd simply died at the hands of the White Dragon Sword God Baek Un-hwi.
Thus, linking the current youthful Gunryong to the First Heavenly Demon was exceedingly difficult and laborious.
“L-Lord Gunryong, you are...”
Pavilion Master Seok, more flustered than when accused of being the Eternal Divine Thief, barely managed to open his mouth.
“Yes. Who am I?”
“You are...”
Pavilion Master Seok hesitated slightly.
As he feigned reluctance to speak...
Heteromorphic Myriad Li Journey
A flashy, swift, and ever-changing lightness skill.
Realizing he was cornered, he revealed his true colors.
Behold this dazzling, rapid, protean lightness skill he unleashed.
Accelerating from a standstill was difficult even in a carriage, yet he accomplished it with effortless grace.
Paaaaang!
He even produced bewildering transformations and afterimages that defied belief.
In the blink of an eye, the single Pavilion Master Seok split into four identical figures, scattering east, west, south, and north.
The northern clone even scaled the wall upward.
Their lightness skill was so blindingly fast that even the Heavenly Demon of the world might let them all escape—or so it seemed.
“Seal it!”
Before parting ways alone with the faux Pavilion Master Seok, the Heavenly Demon had secretly transmitted orders to two others.
In other words, to Hajin of the Invincible Golden Isle and Ghost Shadow Sword Yang Hui-gun.
Without those prior transmissions, it would have been impossible.
Kwaaang!
Before the Heavenly Demon's shout even finished, Hajin and Yang Hui-gun slammed shut the secret warehouse doors from either side, as if awaiting the signal.
“Damn it!”
Pavilion Master Seok—or rather, the Eternal Divine Thief disguised as him—cursed in frustration at his narrow failure to escape.
Watching this, the Heavenly Demon called out in utmost delight.
“Got the rat in the jar. Keep the door locked tight; we'll hunt it down properly.”
Those familiar with the secret warehouse's structure would know: it locked from the outside.
With Yang Hui-gun and Hajin securing the door—two transcendents in the realm of enlightenment—no external intrusion was a concern.
In short, inside this secret warehouse housing the Seated Buddha Jade Statue: the Heavenly Demon and the Eternal Divine Thief.
Just the two of them, trapped.
“Finally, alone at last, Eternal Divine Thief.”
The Heavenly Demon, thrilled to be alone with the Eternal Divine Thief he'd long wished to meet, welcomed him gleefully.
“...Unbelievable.”
The Eternal Divine Thief, meanwhile, seemed deeply shocked.
Over years of thievery, he'd faced crises mistaken for the Eternal Divine Thief many times.
But to be openly identified and sealed in an isolated space? A first.
Was the shock too great?
Sss...
The Eternal Divine Thief dropped all denials and lies.
Instead, he shed his Pavilion Master Seok disguise entirely, revealing a startlingly ordinary man in his late thirties: pale-faced, youthful-looking, exuding androgynous charm.
Pale skin, baby-faced, androgynous, with dark circles under his eyes—this might well be the true, bare face of the Eternal Divine Thief.
“When and how did you figure out my identity?”
Even his voice had completely changed, ambiguous as to gender.
“Before that, I have a question. Just... what are you?”
The Heavenly Demon hesitated briefly before asking.
His curiosity burned about the Eternal Divine Thief's 300-year mystery and origins.
“Think I'll tell you?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
The Eternal Divine Thief, now in his true form, was startled by the Heavenly Demon's earnest affirmation.
“That's why you're showing your real face. Right?”
“Huhu... What a bizarre, amusing fellow.”
“And quit acting so mysterious. I can roughly guess your trick.”
“Trick?”
“Yes. Nothing in this world is eternal. Not love, not friends, not bonds. Let alone a mere thief operating 'eternally' for 300 years? What taller tale could there be?”
“How dare you!”
Outraged at the belittling—nay, insulting—words, the Eternal Divine Thief fumed.
“Shall I guess? To operate as the Eternal Divine Thief for 300 years. At first glance, it seems like living an immortal life true to the moniker. But there were periodic vanishings, weren't there? What does that mean?”
The Heavenly Demon enjoyed rumors and hearsay, but he was no fool to be duped and deceive the masses.
“That you're an immortal who ascended to divinity? Absurd. A true immortal belongs to the immortal realm, never returning to the mortal world.”
The Heavenly Demon spoke true.
He himself, having mastered destructive martial arts surpassing immortals, had forgone ascension—not for lack of immortality, but because it meant severing all mortal ties to join the immortal realm.
The Heavenly Demon cherished his bonds above eternal life itself.
“So, not immortal—most likely human, then. Using some eerie, sinister sorcery? But meeting you face-to-face, your lightness skill resembles illusions, far from evil arts. So, only one answer remains.”
Putting together all the clues and mysteries, the solution was surprisingly simple.
“The Eternal Divine Thief is a hereditary trade, passed down through generations—or a lineage sect.”
“...!!”
Struck at the core, the Eternal Divine Thief recoiled in shock, his composure cracking.
300 years of activity, interspersed with disappearances.
It all pointed to succession: passing the mantle to heirs.
The Eternal Divine Thief was practically a business, a one-line secret art transmitted solely through bloodline.
“No one knows the true face or form of the Eternal Divine Thief, after all.”
“Huhu, you really believe that? What if I've lived 300 years—what then?”
“Puhahaha!”
The Heavenly Demon clutched his belly, roaring with delayed laughter at the Eternal Divine Thief's attempt to regain gravity.
“About 200 years ago, I saw you. That Eternal Divine Thief and this one are completely different people.”
The reason the Heavenly Demon was certain about the disguised Eternal Divine Thief.
Not just because he touched the agreed-untouchable Seated Buddha Jade Statue, but because he vividly remembered the Eternal Divine Thief from 200 years prior.
“You're joking? You saw me 200 years ago?”
“300 years makes sense, but 200 doesn't?”
“That's...”
“No matter how much you mix reversal arts and bone-shrinking techniques, you can't change the aura you exude, your inner energy.”
The Heavenly Demon didn't know that past Eternal Divine Thief's true face.
Yet he knew it was a different person from this one.
A clear benchmark made distinction easy.
“You're insane!”
Convinced the Heavenly Demon was toying with him, the Eternal Divine Thief abandoned extracting answers.
Time for the next plan.
Chaeeng!
Shrieking like a hawk, he drew a pair of razor-sharp daggers—one deep green, one deep purple.
Identical save for color, both radiated unease and peril.
These twin blades, the Dual Extremes Twin Poison Daggers, paralyzed on graze and induced overwhelming drowsiness—a divine relic of wondrous power.
“Why do you think I revealed my true face, one I've never shown anyone?”
“Tired of a masked life handed down from others?”
“...”
Silenced briefly by the Heavenly Demon's cheek, the Eternal Divine Thief finally thrust forward his Dual Extremes Twin Poison Daggers, poised to strike.
“Over the years, I've encountered sharp ones like you. Now, I'll kill you... and preserve the Eternal Divine Thief's secret.”
Leaving those words, the Eternal Divine Thief slowly closed in on the Heavenly Demon.
From the moment he revealed his face, his mind held one thought: slay the Heavenly Demon, eradicate all traces.
The world saw the Eternal Divine Thief as a legendary thief never caught, or possessor of the world's finest lightness skill. But they overlooked one thing.
His martial prowess.
The Eternal Divine Thieves, generation after generation, inherited martial arts and knowledge in full. Thus, every incarnation reached the transcendent realm.
Upper echelons, no less.
Heteromorphic Myriad Li Journey
The swiftest, most variable lightness skill in Central Plains history, brandishing blades of extreme poison.
Everyone has a grand plan.
Before getting hit, that is.