Chapter 119: Chapter 119
Mumble, mumble.
Cheon-hwi, who was chewing the beef jerky prepared by the Guild Leader, grabbed the horse’s reins.
Neeeigh!
The cry of the horse, which stood tall while raising its front legs, rang out.
“Is it exactly ten days?”
Cheon-hwi, who stopped the horse, looked up at the giant mountain, Mount Bang, that appeared before his eyes.
Unlike Mount Hua, Mount Bang did not have steep cliffs or high peaks.
“Then…”
Cheon-hwi let go of the horse’s reins and jumped down.
Perhaps because it was driven to run without rest for ten days, the horse was panting heavily.
“You worked hard.”
Cheon-hwi lightly stroked the horse’s head and immediately slapped its rear.
“Now live as you please.”
Neeeigh!
The horse jumped and disappeared into the forest.
“Then shall we go?”
And Cheon-hwi took a step towards the mountain path of Mount Bang.
Swish…
Unfolding the Dark Fragrance Drift, Cheon-hwi passed through the distorting scenery and arrived at the location written on the treasure map in a single breath.
“It should be around here.”
He took out the treasure map and unfolded it.
“A hundred steps to the left.”
Following that, he lightly kicked off the ground.
Paaang!
Cheon-hwi, who shot out while cutting through the air, arrived at a thicket.
“Let’s see… It’s here.”
The place he arrived at was a cliff.
A cliff where vines were entangled everywhere, as if it had been neglected for a long time.
Cheon-hwi walked with long strides and examined the surroundings.
Unlike before, the flow of this cliff alone was different.
‘It abruptly cuts off here.’
The flow of nature was severed, like blocking a waterfall with wood.
‘Then it means it is here.’
He recalled the phrase written on the treasure map.
When the flow is severed and entered, the false transforms into the true.
‘Since it said that if you arrive at the place where the flow is severed, the illusion will transform into reality…’
He immediately reached out his hand towards the cliff.
The moment the thrust hand was about to collide, as if to smash the cliff.
Swoosh!
A response different from what was expected returned.
“I knew it.”
The corners of Cheon-hwi’s eyes curved.
The thrust hand had passed through the cliff and was entirely inside up to the elbow.
When the flow is severed and entered, the false transforms into the true.
It was a phrase that seemed complex at first glance, but in truth, it was incredibly simple.
Enter the place where the flow is severed.
Then the illusion shall transform into reality.
In other words.
‘It means an illusion array was installed.’
At the same time he finished his thought, he refreshingly threw his body toward the cliff.
At that moment, his vision suddenly distorted, and the scenery before his eyes completely changed.
“The inside is quite neat.”
Cheon-hwi moved his head and examined his surroundings.
The cliff where the thicket had been overgrown vanished without a trace, and he was inside some cave.
And.
“Hmm?”
A terrible tragedy welcomed him.
Dozens of skeletons with holes pierced in them were rolling around on the floor.
“Why are there corpses here?”
It was different from what the Guild Leader had said.
He had said that let alone the Imperial Family, even he himself couldn’t interpret it.
Cheon-hwi squatted down and examined the skeletons rolling on the floor.
There wasn’t a single piece of rotten flesh attached to the skeletons.
Instead, only bugs were occasionally wriggling around.
“They died at least several decades ago. If so, it means there was already someone who solved the secret words written on the treasure map in the past…”
Cheon-hwi’s brow narrowed.
He had unconsciously been certain that no one would be able to come here by looking at the treasure map.
However, he was wrong.
Someone had already read the secret words of the treasure map and even entered the secret cave.
Not just one person, but systematically.
“If this is the case, the secret cave might have already been plundered.”
Seeing the skeletons piled up like a mountain here, it seemed they had experienced quite a bit of hardship, but it was hard to be certain that the secret cave of the Shadowless Divine Thief hadn’t been plundered because of that.
“I should quickly go check.”
Just as he was about to quickly take a step forward.
Halt!
He withdrew his foot at an eerie intuition.
At that moment.
Grind!
With a noise from below, something sharp shot upwards.
The iron grate that had risen in the blink of an eye was already boasting its sharp majesty right in front of Cheon-hwi’s nose, who had stopped.
“I wondered why there were holes in the skeletons.”
Cheon-hwi’s eyes half-opened.
It was an exquisite and terrible trap where one would at least be crippled if caught.
“The trap activated when my foot touched it, right? Then…”
Cheon-hwi circulated the Plum Blossom Divine Art.
Then, the scent of plum blossoms bloomed from his entire body.
“I just need to move even faster before it can react.”
The moment those words ended.
Flash!
Cheon-hwi sprang forward like an arrow.
Thunder Lightning Flying Stream Footwork!
Cheon-hwi, who unleashed the peak lightness art that had been kept in the Dark Fragrance Secret Cave, advanced faster than the iron grate could rise.
Like a single streak of lightning!
Boom! Boom!
The sound of the traps activating could be heard belatedly.
However, Cheon-hwi ignored those sounds and continued moving forward.
There wasn’t just one trap.
Not only iron grates but also giant scythes swinging widely, pouring hidden weapons, and heavy iron maces.
But.
“Too slow.”
Cheon-hwi spurred on his speed.
The traps only activated and sliced through the empty air after Cheon-hwi had already passed by.
After going for about a quarter of an hour like that.
“I’ve finally arrived.”
Discovering the iron door written on the treasure map, Cheon-hwi approached closer.
Afterwards, he knocked on various parts of the iron door.
Rumble…
With a noise, the rusted iron door opened.
“I’m late.”
Looking around his surroundings, Cheon-hwi found it hard to hide his disappointment.
The inside was bare.
Wooden boxes were lying overturned on the floor, gaping open.
Was that all?
Several statues inside the secret cave were completely smashed, and there were things like sharp sword marks on all sides.
As if someone had done it on purpose.
“There’s quite a lot of items…”
Cheon-hwi’s gaze, which had been looking at the wooden boxes that numbered at least several tens even at a glance, suddenly stopped.
Unlike the place where the wooden boxes were rolling around, an overly familiar aura was leisurely flowing from a stone wall piled only with dust.
“It’s demonic energy…?”
As Cheon-hwi swept down the stone wall full of dust, the dust scattered, and an exquisite painting revealed its appearance to the whole world.
Inside the painting, a middle-aged man stood perfectly straight amidst roaring flames, and in front of him, an old man was prostrating himself.
“That face is…”
The pupils of Cheon-hwi, who had been carefully examining the painting for a moment, suddenly grew larger.
The face of the middle-aged man in the painting was familiar.
No, it was not just at the level of being familiar.
“Isn’t that the old me?”
No matter how he looked at it, the middle-aged man’s face exactly matched his past life’s self.
“Why am I drawn…”
The moment Cheon-hwi reached out his hand to the painting.
“…!”
He flinched.
The inside of the stone wall where the painting was drawn was completely empty with a complex structure.
‘This flow is…’
Cheon-hwi drew up his internal energy.
Then, the moment he blew his internal energy along that passage!
Flash!
The painting emitted an ecstatic light.
And then, it began to draw a single beautiful array in the empty air…
“…Why is this here?”
Cheon-hwi’s eyes turned fierce.
An array formation that should never be in this place, the Central Plains, was activating right now.
The masterpiece that his past life’s self had created.
The array formation of maze and illusion.
It was the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path.
‘What is this?’
In his past life, Cheon-hwi had fallen into the trap of the Righteous Faction bastards and suffered from the legendary array formation, the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path.
An endless maze and illusions.
A method that reacted to the human mind, which was harder to fathom than ten fathoms deep water.
The Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path, which only rejected demonic practitioners, had locked Cheon-hwi in a labyrinth.
Was that all?
The ten paintings that hung on the walls of the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path.
The Divine Item, the Ten Spirits Painting, reacted with the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path to create illusions.
Storms, waves, heavenly dragons, qilins, and so on…
It was so vivid that it felt like reality, to the point that admiration naturally came out.
‘Because it was to the extent of twisting the harmony of heaven and earth.’
However, even if it was the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path, it could not restrain him, who was called the Absolute Heavenly Demon, and it was ultimately destroyed by his hands.
And then, Cheon-hwi expressed his marvel and reborn the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path into a new array formation.
That was precisely the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path.
However, there was a problem with the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path.
It was that it could only be used exactly once, just like the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path.
And the absence of the Ten Spirits Painting.
When Cheon-hwi destroyed the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path, the Ten Spirits Painting was torn and turned to ashes.
Therefore, Cheon-hwi put something that could replace the Ten Spirits Painting into the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path.
Because of that, the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path had never been unfurled even once.
Because what replaced the Ten Spirits Painting was precisely the death of the caster.
Flash!
Cheon-hwi’s body was sucked into the light.
Although he could escape right now if he wanted to, he entrusted his body to the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path.
It was because he was curious.
Who, why, and for what purpose.
Did they prepare the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path in such a place, risking their life.
Just in time.
Step… Step…
Along with the sound of footsteps, a human figure pierced through the brilliant light and walked out.
‘It finally came out.’
The big distinguishing feature and characteristic of the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path was precisely this.
To be exact, it was not a human figure…
It was a Remnant Thought.
That was not a living being.
It was the materialization of the thought of the one who created the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path right before their death.
Cheon-hwi looked at the Remnant Thought.
It was an old man with hollow eyes and sparsely falling hair.
‘It looks real.’
Although he had created the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path, he had never actually cast it even once.
It was natural, for who would risk their life for the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path that could only be unfolded once?
Unless they were right before death, that is.
‘Looking at it like this, it was made well. No matter how you look at it, doesn’t it look like a real person?’
A smile of satisfaction was formed.
Even when compared to the illusions of the Nine Heavens Forbidden Demonic Path he had experienced in the past, it was not lacking.
‘More than that, seeing that he is old, did he unfurl it with death right before his eyes?’
Perhaps the current appearance was the appearance right before activating the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path.
‘He looks a bit familiar…’
While Cheon-hwi was staring at the Remnant Thought.
“I did not unfurl this for a bastard like you to enter… How dare you!”
The Remnant Thought moved his lips quickly and spat out a voice filled with anger.
And Cheon-hwi.
“Oh, the Remnant Thought can even speak.”
Burst into admiration.
‘I didn’t know it could actually even talk.’
Experiencing it directly like this felt different.
Meanwhile, the Remnant Thought’s brow narrowed.
“How did you know that I am a Remnant Thought?”
“It’s the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path.”
“…!”
The Remnant Thought’s eyes widened.
“How do you know that it is the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path…”
“I know when I see it. More than that, who the hell is the guy you call ‘that person’ that you would even sacrifice your life to unfold the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path…”
“Silence! He is not someone a bastard like you can dare to speak of!”
The Remnant Thought’s voice gradually rose.
“That person is the Supreme among Demons and the Greatest Demon of All Time, as well as the Heavenly Demon Cult’s…”
Huh?
Cheon-hwi tilted his head.
What the Remnant Thought was saying were aliases and titles he had heard until his ears bled.
“…Absolute Heavenly Demon!”
Isn’t that me?
Cheon-hwi gazed intently at the Remnant Thought.
‘Who is it? There are almost no guys who would unfurl the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path for me…’
While carefully looking at the Remnant Thought.
‘Hmm?’
When he filled in the balding head and erased the wrinkles in his mind, a familiar face was revealed.
“…Bi Ma?”
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