episode_0408

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The next morning.

Heukmyo and I headed to the depths of the Heavenly Demon Church together with Wei Seo-ryeon.

Gradually, tight security was put in place, but in the end, not even people were there.

The secret location of the Heavenly Demon Church was a small dojo built in a cave.

An ordinary dojo with just a floor and no pillars or furniture.

Two people were already standing in the dojo.

Jeong Cheol and Wi Ji-cheon holding the key.

It seemed like he could sense the presence of me and the black cat, but Jeongcheol didn’t even flinch, showing his back to us, perhaps because he was completely focused or intentionally ignoring us.

“I will begin the succession of the Heavenly Demon God.”

As always, Wi Ji-cheon, whose emotions were completely unreadable, calmly opened his mouth.

“There is only one thing the successor must do. Overcome the black dragon that resides within the laws of the Heavenly Demon God and win the laws of the star.”

After saying that, Wi Ji-cheon began to write something on the cover of the secretariat.

Although it was impossible to tell with the naked eye what he was writing, the text that Wi Ji-cheon was writing was one that anyone could have predicted.

Cheonma Shingong.

Every time Wi Ji-cheon’s brush moved, black energy rose from the secret book.

Wi Ji-cheon’s brush strokes, which should be said to be the Hwaryong Point or the Black Dragon Point, eventually completed the secret book of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and as a book full of the principles of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was completed, the curse contained in that principle was also completed and revealed itself.

Tsuzzz!!

The black dragon energy rose up around the secret book so intense that it felt as if the secret book was on fire.

The one who has already subdued the black dragon.

Wijicheon, the Heavenly Demon, laid down the secret book of the Heavenly Demon’s Magic in front of Jeong Cheol without any change in his expression, putting the rampaging black dragon to shame.

Wi Ji-cheon stood there waiting for Jeong-cheol to unfold his secret weapon.

It’s a strange confrontation where Jeong-cheol looks down on Bi-geup and Wi Ji-cheon looks down on Jeong-cheol.

It was Jeongcheol who broke the confrontation.

“Do you think I will fail?”

“The probability is not high.”

Wi Ji-cheon answered calmly as always.

“You must have heard how harsh the ritual of selecting Socheonma is, right? Even though candidates for Socheonma are selected and selected through such rigorous training, only a very small number of candidates have actually inherited the Cheonma divine skill. Your success rate if you suddenly take on the challenge will not be high.”

“Kwikkk, that’s a phrase I’ve heard so many times.”

Jeongcheol burst out laughing.

“No. impossible. It’s an empty dream. I came here after hearing those words many times. By flattening the noses of those people.”

Jeongcheol took his eyes off the secret book where the black dragon flag was rising and looked at Wijicheon.

“I will ask again. Does Heavenly Demon want me to fail?”

“No.”

Wi Ji-cheon glanced in my direction and opened his mouth.

“I may feel sorry for those who are waiting, but I hope you succeed.”

Did you hear something completely unexpected?

Jeongcheol could not answer, and Wijicheon continued.

“I told you this before, right? The chances of you succeeding are low. If you had been another candidate competing with Wei Seo-ryeon, you would have been eliminated. However, if you ask whether this succession itself is meaningless, it is not.”

If only I could overcome the black dragon.

If only we could achieve the result of succession.

“Possibilities exist in any path, so no one knows what kind of accomplishments can be achieved by following that path. I hope that you will succeed and open up another branch of possibility for me and Shingyo.”

Wi Ji-cheon says that she will accept Jeong-cheol regardless of what kind of person he is or what path he took.

So, to Jeong-cheol, Wi Ji-cheon’s words must have sounded like this.

Survival of the fittest.

Since you have become the successor to the Heavenly Demon God, the only right path is to succeed in succession.

Jeongcheol’s gaze went back to the secret book of the Heavenly Demon God.

Could it be that his final resolution was strengthened through his conversation with Wi Ji-cheon?

“I will achieve it once again.”

Jeongcheol muttered and stretched out his hand to the emergency room.

As soon as the secret book reached his hand, the black dragon flag wrapped around Jeongcheol as if it had been waiting. As soon as he opens the secret document, a black dragon climbs up Jeongcheol’s arm.

After seeing this, Wi Ji-cheon left the dojo and closed the wide open door.

I looked at Jeongcheol’s back, engulfed in the black dragon spirit, until the gap in the door was completely closed.

“Thank you for your hard work. Father.”

“I did everything I had to do.”

Wi Ji-cheon still maintains a calm expression despite having gone through such a big task as the ceremony of inheriting the Heavenly Demon God.

“Now all I have to do is wait.”

Wei Seo-ryeon responded to Wi Ji-cheon’s words with a strange expression.

“I feel strange. I never thought that I would welcome the successor to the Heavenly Demon Divine Art in this way. That too…”

Wei Seo-ryeon, speechless, looked at the black cat.

Below article.

Is there another succession ceremony like this?

A situation where a person who is not even a member of the Heavenly Demon Church inherits the Heavenly Demon God’s Art, and in front of such a place of succession, an enemy is waiting for the succession to fail.

Wouldn’t this be one of the most unusual succession ceremonies in the long history of the Demonic Cult?

Wi Seo-ryeon seemed concerned about that, but Wi Ji-cheon accepted it without any hesitation.

“What is important about the format? What matters is the essence.”

“…Yes, but.”

This was when Wei Seo-ryeon nodded with an uncertain expression.

Hwaaa!!

A huge black dragon started rampaging towards the dojo.

The doors and windows of the dojo rattled as if they were about to fall off at any moment, and the Black Dragon flag, which looked like black mist, leaked out between the cracks.

“It’s quite loud. Was it like that back then?”

“That’s right. I heard that too.”

The constant rattling of the windows and doors indirectly informed us of the intensity of the black dragon that was swirling around Jeongcheol.

How long had I been watching that rattling?

Wi Ji-cheon, who was watching the scene together, muttered.

“There will be a final decision.”

“Ugh!”

Kwaaang!

Jeongcheol’s screams and the explosion inside caused all the doors and windows of the shrine to fall down.

The inside of the seal is clearly exposed.

In the center of the dojang, Jeongcheol was lying down and writhing.

“Ugh…”

The black cat that witnessed Jeongcheol let out a groan.

Jeongcheol’s appearance was definitely terrible, as if half his upper body had been burned by black flames. It is impossible to think that he has inherited the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

“Failure.”

Wi Ji-cheon’s sentence continued. Wijicheon’s emotions were completely impossible to read normally, but for some reason now, he could feel a hint of regret.

“Now it’s your turn.”

Wi Ji-cheon and Wi Seo-ryeon took a step back, as if clearing the way.

I walked slowly towards the dojo. My gaze met Jeongcheol, who was lying half-engulfed by the Black Dragon.

“You bastard!”

In Jeongcheol’s anger, the energy of the Black Dragon trembled and poured down on me.

Rather than saying that Jeongcheol was handling the black dragon, it should be said that the black dragon, which was hell-bent on biting humans, targeted Jeongcheol and me at the same time.

I moved forward, turning my brain wheel and raising my sword to block the black dragon that showed its fangs.

The black dragon energy penetrated my entire body, but it was something I had to endure in order to approach Jeongcheol.

Jeong-cheol, who was dying, looked at me with bitter eyes and spewed out criticism.

“You bastard! If only you weren’t there! I hope everything went smoothly!”

“…it’s smooth sailing.”

Was that really the case?

Certainly, when playing the game Murim World, Jeong Cheol had a high probability of ascending to the position of magistrate and becoming the head of the Sichuan Rangin.

If it weren’t for me, wouldn’t Jeong Cheol have been able to become an expert in Hyeongyeong, become the leader of the Sacheon Nang people, and become the third force in Sacheon?

In the past, I would have thought that might have been the case.

“Even if I weren’t in this world, you wouldn’t have succeeded.”

But not now.

“Inooom!!”

As Jeongcheol’s emotions intensified, the Black Dragon became even more violent. Although he was blocking the Black Dragon Qi using his light as much as possible, the Black Dragon Qi was fundamentally unable to stop it as it penetrated his body.

Still, is it because the host is dying?

Compared to Wei Shulian’s Black Dragon, its appearance was only ferocious and its power was lacking.

“What choices have you made so far? Haven’t you always sold your cause and persevered whenever things got stuck?”

“Kkeukkeuk…! How dare the lucky guy who overcomes every crisis with the help of others criticize me?”

Jeongcheol mocked me.

“From the chief’s Podalap Palace to the Sajo and Socheonma…! You, who had such great connections, would never understand! This is how I felt after selling everything!”

“It is true that I was lucky to receive their help.”

I acknowledged that fact.

There were quite a few times when I was lucky after confronting Jeongcheol.

“But it doesn’t mean I don’t know how you feel. Because I also lived as a ronin for a long time.”

Jeongcheol’s face distorted violently at my answer, but he could not refute it right away.

On the surface, Jeongcheol and I had quite a lot in common.

He lived for a long time as a ronin, and also pioneered the realm of Hwagyeong as a ronin.

Of course, I was a fake ronin and Jeongcheol was a real ronin, so it would be unfair to say that I felt a sense of kinship, but I was able to understand some of Jeongcheol’s choices.

“There is no family, faction, or martial arts, so selling everything just to survive and achieve…that is the way of a ronin.”

“The guy who knows that…! How dare you criticize me! Without sacrificing anything..! You don’t come up here! Talk like that!”

Jeongcheol clenched his fists and trembled.

“If you have reached the prefectural police…! If you have achieved the Heavenly Demon Divine Skill! You were nothing!”

“If you wanted to do that, you shouldn’t have run away.”

I met Jeong Cheol in the camp when he was at the Seojang, became Yong-maeng, and was raiding Odok-mun and the Sado-ryeon. And he survived with the help of an unknown elder.

Feeling threatened by an unknown elder, Jeong-cheol disbanded the Apostolic Alliance and disappeared under the false pretext of addiction.

What did you do after that?

In response to Mo Yong-sega’s declaration that he would fully support me, I once again set the stage by selling my reputation as a Sichuan ronin.

“In order to rise high, you have to protect and build something.”

What choice did Jeong-cheol make in the confrontation that ended like that?

That moment of collision with all your might.

Instead of pouring everything into Jeongcheol, he chose to relax.

Rather than risking everything on the martial arts he had accumulated, he even wanted to sell those martial arts skills to gain the Heavenly Demon God’s Skills.

In the end, Jeongcheol did not protect anything and only pursued profit.

It was a truly foolish choice, and it was a choice that was bound to fail.

At a time when he could not even believe in the martial arts skills he had accumulated throughout his life, did Jeong Cheol still have the will to rise above?

The answer was spread out before my eyes.

Even though I gave my own answer, Jeongcheol still looks at me with eyes full of resentment. With such sincerity, I endured the black dragon that was biting me and raised my sword.

Jeongcheol told me I was lucky.

It was exactly what it said.

I built something up even though I didn’t realize that I had to protect it and build it up.

That’s why I was able to reach this height.

Wasn’t that really luck?

The sword he held backwards fell and the sharp sword pierced Jeongcheol’s body.

Jeongcheol’s eyes widened.

I faced his gaze without avoiding it.

It was a long journey.

It was the end of that long journey, so I didn’t want to avoid the outcome.

Jeongcheol’s body lost strength.

Jeongcheol’s fist, which had been clenched until the very end, lost its strength and the black dragon flew wild as if making a final struggle. In an instant, Jeongcheol’s body turned black and he collapsed.

Ssss.

Jeongcheol’s body gradually became smaller and eventually disappeared completely.

At the same time, the black dragon energy embedded in my body began to collapse.

As if confirming that Jeongcheol has disappeared from this world.

I took the sword without a single trace of blood and returned it to its sheath.

click.

I thought as I heard the sound of the sword and sheath clicking together.

The long journey has come to an end.

“It’s the end…”

Starting from Ilryu, who can’t even smoke a sword, to Hwagyeong.

A long journey that crossed Xijiang, Yunnan, Cheonghae, Xinjiang, Sichuan, and Shaanxi.

The journey finally came to an end in the depths of the Heavenly Demon Church.