Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Sama Clan's Utter Ruin (5)
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The Heavenly Demon felt, as the warm yellow light symbolizing Sama Hui seeped in, an instinctive pull as if Sama Hui himself were beckoning him.
"……!!"
Sama Hon and Sama Baekhyeon were just as startled by the sudden appearance of the light.
"What in the world is going on?"
"Why is there such a light beneath the patriarch's chambers?"
Doubts swirling in their minds, the Heavenly Demon and the Sama Clan members hurried toward the patriarch's chambers below, as if they had never been at odds.
After all, with the Sama Clan's forces, shaking off the Heavenly Demon's group was impossible anyway.
And so, after rushing down...
The yellow light was emanating from right beneath the patriarch's chambers—to be precise, from the location of the secret passage.
As they approached, what do you know?
"Hm? It's blocked."
"It's covered by a solid stone wall—what's going on?"
Instead of seeing the light upon descending, they found it obscured by the massive wall typical of underground passages, leaving everyone flustered.
It was right then.
"Hey. You seem to know the way."
As everyone milled about in confusion, the Heavenly Demon looked at Sama Hon with a meaningful gaze.
"I... can no longer hide it."
Under the Heavenly Demon's blatant stare, Sama Hon finally nodded as if resigning himself to reveal everything.
He then calmly approached the stone wall from which the yellow light seeped.
Swoosh!
Placing his palm on the wall several times, something astonishing happened.
Incredibly, the firmly sealed stone wall parted on its own, revealing the hidden space.
The light in question shone brilliantly from within that space.
Ooh, oooh!
The Sama Clan members gasped in unison, jaws dropping.
Even Sama Baekhyeon, who knew the clan's buildings inside and out, and the various elders could not close their mouths.
They had never even imagined such a hidden space existed.
"Patriarch!"
"What... what is this place? What does it mean?"
The key figures of the Sama Clan were so shocked they stammered, barely able to string sentences together.
"That is..."
Sama Hon hesitated, flustered like a cornered man, unable to speak easily.
"This is the place where Maan Heavenly Brain Sama Hui met his end, isn't it?"
The Heavenly Demon finally pieced it all together and spoke.
At the words "the place where Sama Hui met his end," not only Yang Hui-gun and Sogang but the entire Sama Clan recoiled in horror.
"Th-that can't be!"
"Even if Maan Heavenly Brain bore the Sama surname, he was strictly pure-blooded Demonic Cult lineage! How could such a blasphemous figure meet his end in a hidden space right in the heart of the Sama Clan main house?!"
The Sama Clan, and its warriors, had suffered lifelong torment from the stigma of ties to the Demonic Cult and producing a pure-blood member.
To them, another link to the Demonic Cult was tantamount to inducing a seizure.
Even Sama Baekhyeon vehemently denied it with a sharp reaction when...
"Everyone, calm down. Regrettably... he is correct."
Another shocking event unfolded.
Sama Hon raised his hand in admission.
As the Sama Clan patriarch, when he should have been denying any Demonic Cult ties vehemently, his confession flipped the clan upside down.
"Patriarch! You can't admit it!"
"This is absurd. How could Maan Heavenly Brain be in our clan's hidden space?!"
"This can't happen!"
Everyone protested vehemently, but too much evidence had already been exposed for denial.
From the Six Directions Formation onward, the Dream Mist Barrier Formation was decisive.
"Sama Hon, was it? Better to just come clean."
"What do you..."
Sama Baekhyeon jumped up to intervene, but the Heavenly Demon cut him off.
"You still don't get it. The current Sama Clan patriarch, Snake Dragon Sama Hon, inherited the legacy of Maan Heavenly Brain Sama Hui."
"……!!"
The words they had rationally grasped but emotionally denied struck their ears, crumbling the Sama Clan members utterly.
Honestly, looking back, suspicions had been there from the start.
Sama Hon, who had returned from near-expulsion at the Heavenly Martial Academy, had only average knowledge of formations, yet from last year, he actively introduced the Six Directions Formation and showed openness to formations.
'I thought he was just using formations to break free from his stifling situation where he couldn't realize his ambitions!'
Sama Baekhyeon stared at Sama Hon, whom he had served like a son or lord at times, in utter disbelief.
"Patriarch. Explain. What happened?"
Ignoring others' urgings and silence was one thing, but he couldn't ignore Sama Baekhyeon, his most trusted confidant.
Sama Hon agonized before finally speaking.
"As I mentioned before... I was demoted from top disciple to second due to my Sama Clan origins, and even after topping the Murim Alliance Military Affairs Department's exam, my acceptance was revoked. Even after returning to the clan in despair, the setbacks continued. Everyone was blocking and hindering the clan's growth and development—it was all witnessed."
With things out in the open, Sama Hon recited in despair, as if there was no point hiding anymore.
His anguish and sincerity shone through.
"I was in agony. I believed I had the talent, yet I couldn't rise to fame personally, nor make the Sama Clan renowned in the martial world. It felt like my talents and entire life were being denied."
This much, even Sama Baekhyeon knew well.
The other Sama Clan warriors vaguely suspected as much.
"The only solace for me was one thing. Alcohol. Just alcohol. When drunk, my painful reality seemed somewhat veiled, so I clung to it. But upon sobering, the misery was even worse than before."
Sama Hon belatedly realized alcohol was no temporary fix or anesthetic.
No, upon sobering, the depression that tormented him returned as a monster several times larger, overwhelming him.
"I couldn't live like this anymore, so my eccentric escapades began. That escapade was wandering the underground secret passage accessible only to the patriarch with the key."
Reputable sects and clans typically had underground escape routes for the safety of leaders.
The once-prosperous Sama Clan had an excellent one, and through it, Sama Hon could roam outside the clan a bit, forgetting his suffocating torment.
"But as even that grew stale and boring... while searching hidden spots in the secret passage, I stumbled upon..."
"You discovered the space left by Maan Heavenly Brain Sama Hui, right?"
Hesitating to say it himself, the Heavenly Demon stepped in to help Sama Hon.
"Yes. At first, rage surged. I screamed that because of Maan Heavenly Brain Sama Hui, our clan and descendants suffered such oppression and persecution. I even tried to burn everything he left there on the spot..."
Sama Hon was exceptionally intelligent and clever.
Such a person couldn't live ordinarily like others.
Living ordinarily was hell for the intelligent him.
Wandering hell, he found the insights of hell's culprit, Maan Heavenly Brain, and tried to destroy them—but couldn't.
"Because you, Sama Hon, are of the same breed and kin as Sama Hui."
The Heavenly Demon said.
Others can never truly understand you.
Yet sometimes, there are others who do.
People call them 'kindred spirits.'
"Yes... that's right."
Sama Hon nodded, tears filling his face.
He closed his eyes, recalling the moment he discovered Maan Heavenly Brain's insights that day.
"Unbelievable! Pressing the stone wall's hollow spot according to the numbers from our Sama Clan's basic inner cultivation method... and a secret space appeared!"
Sama Hon had unlocked the stone wall's secret thanks to the Sama Clan's foundational inner method, the Three Calls Three Breaths Heart Method.
This method literally involved inhaling three times and exhaling three times, repeated thrice in succession. Tapping in that sequence revealed the hidden space.
"Ooh, oooh!"
Na-ryong Sama Hon, who daily drowned boredom in alcohol, banquets, and secret nighttime flights unknown to all.
Discovering the hidden space was an unparalleled thrill for him.
'What is this place? Did some outstanding ancestor of the Sama Clan leave insights here?'
In the brief entry, countless thoughts crossed his mind.
Finally, holding a worn book found there alongside long-dispersed Sama Clan martial robes, he felt the greatest thrill of his life.
But joy was fleeting.
-This book contains the final insights of the man called Maan Heavenly Brain.
Realizing the space's owner was none other than Maan Heavenly Brain, fury ignited, and he tried to burn it.
"It's because of you! All this because of you!"
He unleashed immense anger, nearly overturning everything.
Tremble!
Yet Sama Hon was a strategist and scholar, deeply curious about that era's history among many figures.
A scholar cannot overcome curiosity.
'Just once. Just one page. I need to know what it is before burning it.'
Though intent on burning Sama Hui's insights, as an extraordinary man and aspiring strategist, he couldn't ignore the ultimate work of the Demonic Cult's greatest strategist, Maan Heavenly Brain.
And upon reading the first line of the first page, Sama Hon was utterly captivated deep in his heart.
-To the one who finds the world laughable and wants to shatter it all.
Daringly turn the next page!
As if presciently describing his own plight, the words compelled Sama Hon to turn the page.
It detailed how Maan Heavenly Brain Sama Hui left the Demonic Cult secretly for the Sama Clan and left his final insights before his end.
-With the sole Heavenly Demon sealed and even the steadfast Loyal Ghost Sword Yang U-ryang resigning, the Demonic Cult held no meaning for me anymore.
Having lost my most cherished people, how could I find peace within those walls?
Yet I had to live.
Without me, the strong-willed Demonic Cult Five Heavenly Kings would clash, splintering the cult's forces—once proud as the Central Plains' strongest—into thousands of pieces.
Thus, I fulfilled my duty.
Not admirably, but as the failed force dreaming of Central Plains conquest, I bore the full aftermath alone.
Without Maan Heavenly Brain Sama Hui, the Demonic Cult wouldn't have reached the Fourth Heavenly Demon.
Instead of four, the First Heavenly Demon might have been the only and last.
Not at its peak, but advancing to Second and Third Heavenly Demons was all Sama Hui's merit.
Gulp!
Even Sama Hon, who hated and cursed Sama Hui, swallowed hard, deeply immersed in reading.
-Thereafter, I lived in paradox.
The more I devoted to the Demonic Cult, the less the Second Heavenly Demon and his faction liked me.
To them, I symbolized the previous failed power's core—ripe for removal.
I had to save the Demonic Cult.
But saving it meant my death.
So I... feigned death at the Demonic Cult's main base, Heavenly Mountain.
Official histories record Maan Heavenly Brain Sama Hui dying of old age there, but it's fake.
Fake records.