Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Sima Clan's Useless Heir (3)
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"Deputy Clan Head! Intruders have broken in!"
As the Heavenly Demon's group shattered even the Six Directions Formation and advanced with unstoppable momentum, the Sima Clan forces fell into chaos.
They weren't a proper martial house to begin with, and with their numbers alone, they'd placed ironclad faith in the formations—the young master's sole redeeming skill. Now, they crumbled like a sandcastle.
Even more telling, the subordinates reported this not to the clan head, but to the deputy clan head, Elder Fury Palm Sima Baek-hyeon. It was proof they didn't trust Clan Head Na-ryong Sima Hon.
"Tch, intruders?"
Sima Baek-hyeon was just as shocked.
What could anyone possibly want to steal from our Sima Clan?
Before the split into two factions en route to the Demonic Cult, the Sima Clan might have been worth targeting. But the current Sima Clan was just another run-of-the-mill family.
With nothing of value to outsiders, he couldn't fathom why anyone would attack.
"Mobilize all forces to guard the clan head's quarters! And hurry... inform the clan head as well!"
Sima Baek-hyeon—the current pillar of the Sima Clan, trusted and followed by all forces even more than the wastrel clan head—made his decision and headed for Sima Hon's room.
Meanwhile, Sima Hon lay deep in slumber, tormented by memories of the past.
-It's you.
The very day he entered the Heavenly Martial Institute with top honors, earning second place.
-You're from the Sima Clan, right? The ones who birthed a direct line of the Demonic Cult?
-What? So you're Demonic Cult bastards?
Entrants to the Heavenly Martial Institute were typically in their early to late teens.
Children that age could be crueler than adults.
Having left the Sima Clan for the first time, Sima Hon was overwhelmed by the unfamiliar experience.
And one more thing.
-My father, the Alliance Leader of the Murim Alliance, told me... Originally, Sima Hon here was supposed to be top of the class. But they couldn't give first place to someone from the Sima Clan—the breeders of Demonic Cult purebloods and producers of one of their greatest strategists—so they bumped him to second.
Facing blatant discrimination for the first time, he finally grasped the cold reality.
At least back then, Sima Hon still clung to a shred of hope.
If I just excel and prove myself, I can overcome the world's prejudices and discrimination.
While attending the Heavenly Martial Institute, Sima Hon fought against every bias and slight.
The harsher the world treated him, the harder he worked—double, triple the effort.
As proof, he graduated with record-breaking scores and passed the Murim Alliance's strategist exam. Yet what returned was...
-I'm sorry, Sima Hon.
We can't accept someone from the Sima Clan—the clan that produced one of the Demonic Cult's greatest strategists, Demon Eye Thunderclap Sima Hui—into the Alliance's strategist division.
It was a discrimination and prejudice far greater than all his multiplied efforts.
Ah, I see.
The day everything crumbled.
Sima Hon realized the truth.
There was nothing he could do in the Murim Alliance or its Heavenly Martial Institute.
After that day, Sima Hon left the institute and returned to the Sima Clan.
If he couldn't shine in the Alliance or institute, he'd raise the Sima Clan, prove his worth, and humble the Alliance's arrogance.
I'll make those who denied me regret it!
With that resolve, he worked himself to madness.
He vowed to elevate the Sima Clan to the ranks of the Five Great Clans at minimum.
But the words left by his father—the previous clan head—on his deathbed plunged Sima Hon into despair once more.
-Hon, you'll understand when you become clan head yourself. This world, this merciless Central Plains martial world, doesn't want our Sima Clan to rise.
Because we're branded as the clan that birthed a Demonic Cult pureblood and Demon Eye Thunderclap Sima Hui.
The Central Plains martial world's view of the Sima Clan was narrower and colder than Sima Hon had imagined.
Regrettably, it was stark reality.
-Hon, the Sima Clan must remain as it is—like wine diluted with more wine, water with more water.
If our main house grows too prominent, we'll be branded Demonic Cult sympathizers and crushed. If too weak, we'll be invaded for the secrets behind birthing a pureblood and Sima Hui.
This constraint, this prejudice, shackled Sima Hon's ankles just as his wings were spreading.
Sima Hon—a genius of the Sima Clan's all-time greats in talent alone.
Paradoxically, his brilliance made him utterly miserable.
Using his gifts to raise the clan would invite backlash, and the more he shone, the more they'd eye him as Sima Hui reborn.
In the end, Sima Hon was forced to hide and clip his wings. For a prodigy, such a life was hell itself.
"Liquor, where's the liquor?"
Sima Hon's eyes snapped open, groping for alcohol.
Was it from shedding mad tears on his late-night bed?
He had no tears left; liquor would fill the void.
Sober, the sharp shards of memory stabbed relentlessly, driving curses from his lips to endure.
Sima Hon drank to stay remotely human.
"Clan Head!"
As Sima Hon blindly pawed the bed for a bottle...
The urgent voices of Sima Baek-hyeon and his subordinates rang out.
"Why the fuss again?"
Sima Hon turned aggressive, thinking they meant to stop his drinking.
But their report was unexpected.
"Intruders... the intruders have arrived."
"What?"
Stunned only briefly by the unforeseen news.
"Hmph, the Six Directions Formation will handle them. What's there to worry ab—"
As he scoffed and dismissed it.
"The foes have broken the Six Directions Formation and are sweeping through our elite forces like autumn leaves in the wind."
"They broke the Six Directions Formation?!"
For the first time, Sima Hon reacted vividly.
He, who always reeked of booze and seemed lost in another world, showed raw emotion at last.
"N-No, that's impossible. The Six Directions Formation is surely..."
Sima Hon tried denying reality, but
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gung!
The outer walls of the Sima Clan buildings shook violently, announcing the intruders' arrival.
And one more thing.
"The guard unit has collapsed!"
"The front lines are broken—the path to your quarters is wide open!"
Piling crisis on crisis, the clan's defenses crumbled utterly, leaving only the unknown intruders' swift advance.
Who the hell are they, and what's their goal?
Sima Hon's pupils shook in panic.
If he were truly incompetent and irresponsible, he might have fled without a backward glance, prioritizing only himself.
But Sima Hon made a startling judgment.
"From this moment, all Sima Clan forces cease resisting or confronting the intruders!"
His order not to fight left many subordinates baffled. Some even thought the wastrel clan head was finally dooming the clan.
But Sima Hon's words weren't over.
"All Sima Clan forces must focus solely on survival. Survivors, gather at the main hall here in my quarters!"
Ordering them to stop fighting wasn't from apathy or a desire to destroy the clan.
Quite the opposite—it was to prevent meaningless sacrifices.
He even summoned all forces to his quarters.
Up to this point, many eyed him suspiciously, thinking he was hoarding guards for his own escape.
This isn't the time.
Astonishingly, the wastrel clan head Na-ryong Sima Hon—in the depths of crisis—began regaining his senses.
Clap clap!
He slapped his cheeks hard to snap himself alert, cleansing body and mind.
His perpetually flushed face from hangover and poison, drunken eyes, and listless demeanor vanished.
Far from apathetic, Sima Hon's eyes sparkled with unprecedented clarity.
That look!
Sima Baek-hyeon, who remembered Na-ryong Sima Hon at his peak just before entering the Heavenly Martial Institute, couldn't help but feel elated.
This was the Sima Hon of his prime.
"What exactly do you plan to do?"
"The enemies are few but monstrous—one-man armies."
"We should abandon resistance and flee via the underground passage."
Subordinates unfamiliar with this awakened Sima Hon scolded him.
As Sima Baek-hyeon stepped in to intervene.
"I hate to admit it, but their power has already surpassed ours. There's only one way."
The image of the slothful dragon, Na-ryong, was gone.
"I'll use every formation skill I possess to hold off the intruders!"
Sima Hon clenched his trembling, liquor-weakened hands and declared.
"No matter what, I will protect the Sima Clan and our families!"
That alone would atone for the slothful days lost to despair.
"Hmmm."
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Demon advanced, felling Sima Clan warriors one after another.
Given their ties to Sima Hui, he held back—no fatalities.
Yet the peculiar expression on his face stemmed from one thing.
They're too weak?
Even accounting for the split—strong ones to the Demonic Cult pureblood line, the rest in the Central Plains Sima Clan—they were weaker than expected.
Weaker even than the Sima Clan from 200 years ago, during the Heavenly Demon's era. Few among those faced reached the Peak realm.
"Gunryong, sir. The main hall is just ahead."
Ghost Shadow Sword Yang Hui-gun, escorting the Heavenly Demon and protecting Sogang, spoke up.
No sooner had he finished than a grand, weathered building of ancient charm appeared.
The Sima Clan's sturdiest structure—the clan head's quarters and main hall, steeped in history and tradition.
"Right. First, I need to meet this wastrel clan head."
The Heavenly Demon planned to question the current clan head about Sima Hui's past, and if he was still out of it, give him a proper wake-up call.
As they approached the main hall, everything seeming to go smoothly.
Shiiiiiik!
A hissing leak of air, and fresh clouds of mist began billowing out.
This was utterly surreal.
Deep in the Sima Clan's heart, at the main hall—yet mist like that from a massive mountain's midway point erupted.
It defied logic.
What did this scene portend?
"Oh ho, what's this?"
The mist thickened over time, soon a dense fog obscuring everything ahead.
This foul haze clung to the Heavenly Demon's group like it was stalking them, spewing endlessly.
"Any idea what it is, sir?"
Sogang was quick on the uptake.
Seeing the Heavenly Demon neither panicked nor surprised, but intrigued, he reacted at once.
"No need to guess."
The Heavenly Demon stated with a smile.
"This is that rascal Hui's Dream Mist Barrier Formation."