Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 497.12 – Side Story 4 Part 1

Madman (1)

“Aaaaargh.”

Heavenly Demon was secretly impressed by Iron Fan Immortal’s resistance. Despite forming a connection, she was enduring like the Great Spirit Beast she was, having lived for thousands of years.

Not only had his power increased compared to a year ago, but his spell power had also grown to the point where it could be said to surpass that of a divine-level diviner.

Yet she was resisting his spell power with desperate will.

She was truly worthy of being a Great Spirit Beast comparable to the Six Demons.

Until now, only two of the six divine-level diviners had taken spirit beasts of king-level as spirit servants.

The will of spirit kings was on a completely different level from ordinary lesser demons.

However,

“Thud!”

Eventually, the exhausted Iron Fan Immortal collapsed to the floor, her eyes glazing over.

‘It’s done.’

At last, her will had shattered and she had submitted.

Heavenly Demon addressed Iron Fan Immortal, whose face was haggard and eyes unfocused.

“Iron Fan Immortal.”

“Yes, master.”

Though she couldn’t properly raise her body due to exhausting her demonic power and mental strength to the extreme, Iron Fan Immortal tried to show proper etiquette towards Heavenly Demon, seemingly having developed a will to obey.

At this sight, the corners of Heavenly Demon’s mouth turned up.

He hadn’t particularly desired to take a spirit king as a spirit servant, but taking a Great Spirit Beast comparable to the Six Demons as a spirit servant would be shocking to diviners if they found out.

“Whoosh!”

Since he had completely made her his spirit servant, there was no need to keep her in an exhausted state, so Heavenly Demon returned some of her demonic power that he had left aside.

As he injected the demonic power, vitality gradually returned to her haggard face.

Once her breathing had somewhat stabilized, Heavenly Demon asked:

“Do you know where Hong Hae-a is?”

At this question, her complexion fluctuated between red and blue as her expression quickly twisted, but unable to overcome his dominance, her eyes soon glazed over and she opened her mouth.

“I know the child’s former dwelling.”

“Former dwelling?”

“Yes.”

“Where is that?”

“It was in a cave called Hwa-un Cave in Gusonggan of Diamond Head Mountain.”

“Was? So he’s not there now?”

“Hwa-un Cave is not far from here, but in the past, the stone monkey destroyed the cave, so it no longer exists.”

“Stone monkey. You mean Sun Wukong.”

“That’s right.”

Heavenly Demon remembered what the diviner Yeo Surin had told him about the ancient texts.

She had said that in the past, that stone monkey Sun Wukong had opposed not only the Great Strength King, but Hong Hae-a as well.

Then it seemed Hwa-un Cave wasn’t the lava cave.

“Do you know where the lava cave is?”

“Lava cave?”

“Hong Hae-a told the Golden Nine-Tailed Fox to bring him there. Don’t you know where that is?”

At Heavenly Demon’s question, Iron Fan Immortal frowned and hesitated for a moment.

Does she know something?

Heavenly Demon pressed her will strongly and asked:

“Is there somewhere you suspect the lava cave might be?”

“I’m not certain where the lava cave is, but… when that child returned, he spoke of an unquenchable flame.”

Seeing her struggle to part her lips, Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue.

Maternal love was certainly something remarkable.

However, once a connection was formed, it was ultimately impossible to refuse.

“What’s this unquenchable flame?”

“Nngh…”

“Answer me, Iron Fan Immortal.”

“Deep underground in a hidden part of Mount Tian… there’s an unquenchable flame. He said he might have obtained the primal energy of a flame surpassing Samadhi True Fire there.”

“Mount Tian?”

A strange light flashed in Heavenly Demon’s eyes.

Mount Tian in Xinjiang.

He remembered.

Not because he knew the geography well, but because it existed in his memories.

It was a place with amazing scenery where desert, lush forests, and eternal snow existed simultaneously.

A long-forgotten memory surfaced.

It was also the place where he had first descended to this world as the King of Demons.

Several hours had passed.

Something massive landed in the great hall of Plantain Leaf Peak, which had been blasted open.

“Thud!”

The being was a huge, bizarre monkey with a purple face covered in white fur.

The giant monkey, wearing armor decorated with snake patterns, swept the surroundings with trembling white eyes and gnashed its teeth.

“Grr!”

‘What on earth happened here?’

He had come to protect her on the orders of his master, Hong Hae-a.

At first, the monkey had found the order strange.

Though not as much as the Great Strength King, Iron Fan Immortal was still a Great Spirit Beast who could easily match him.

Unless the ancient immortals came, there should be no one who could do anything to her, so he thought the order was just out of concern for that fox girl.

But this was an unexpected result.

The great hall of Plantain Leaf Peak had become a scene of carnage, and the stench of lesser demons’ blood filled the air.

“Roooooar!”

The enraged giant monkey let out a roar.

With one roar, a storm-like pressure swept in all directions, threatening to collapse the already devastated great hall.

“Rumble rumble rumble!”

But someone stopped it.

“Please stop! White Ghost King!”

The giant monkey, no, the White Ghost King, unable to contain his anger, stopped roaring.

His eyes fell on someone lying in a pool of blood.

The one in human form was Ash-Faced Demon, the gray-haired spirit king who was one of Iron Fan Immortal’s Three Heroes.

“Thud! Thud! Thud!”

Recognizing him, the White Ghost King hurriedly ran over, lifted him up, and demanded:

“Tell me what happened here at once!”

***

Mount Tian in Xinjiang.

In a cave within the vast mountain range covered in eternal snow and bitterly cold.

A campfire crackled there, and someone sat in front of it, roasting jerky on a skewer.

As the jerky turned golden brown, the figure lifted the skewer and removed the mask he was wearing, setting it down.

The uniquely patterned mask, though made of hard material, was cracked and broken in several places.

The figure bit into the jerky from the skewer.

“Munch munch!”

Blue eyes, a high nose bridge, and quite an exotic face.

It was Ma Ra-hyeon, the Right Guardian of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Ma Ra-hyeon, hurriedly eating the jerky that steamed in the cold air, gulped down water from a leather pouch.

“Phew.”

Having satisfied his hunger, Ma Ra-hyeon exhaled a long breath as if he’d survived, then sat in a meditative posture and began circulating his energy.

As he circulated his energy, he recalled the situation from several hours ago.

In his mind’s eye, a middle-aged man with short grizzled beard unleashed a fierce saber technique towards him, and he countered it using defensive and sword techniques.

He had received teachings about the sword from First Elder Ou Cheon-mu and his lord Heavenly Demon for a year, gaining excellent swordsmanship skills.

However, the opponent’s saber technique was beyond imagination, and he was defeated in just thirty seconds.

“Clench!”

His fist tightened as he circulated his energy.

Recalling their daily battles, he had been honing his sword techniques, but even after two weeks, he had never lasted more than thirty seconds.

Why was this happening when he was facing someone who wasn’t even in their right mind?

Unable to focus on circulating his energy, Ma Ra-hyeon soon stopped and struck the ground with his fist.

“Thud!”

“Father…”

The reason he had come here was to avenge his father.

He had learned about his father’s killer from the Holy Fire Priestess just a year ago.

Yet he had only acted now because he wanted to avenge his father without anyone’s help.

[Right Guardian. Priest Mayera went to Mount Tian, the holy land of our sect—no, the Fire Faith Order—along with the elders to regroup the believers. But then…]

That’s when the tragedy occurred.

His father had been brutally killed while evacuating believers due to the rampage of a madman who appeared in Mount Tian.

[Who is he?]

[A disciple skilled in martial arts called him the Ten Martial Arts Madman[1].]

Ten Martial Arts Madman, Cho Jin-geuk.

Was he the one who killed his father?

Ma Ra-hyeon was well aware of the Ten Martial Arts Madman.

There were three people known as the craziest in the martial arts world.

Martial artists called them the Three Madmen, and they were the Mad Monk Ja Geum-jeong, the Mad Swordsman Ji-oe (now known as the Sword Demon), and the Ten Martial Arts Madman Cho Jin-geuk.

The common point among the three was that they were all mad, but Ja Geum-jeong was mad with alcohol because he had seen something he shouldn’t have, and the Mad Swordsman Ji-oe, now the Sword Demon, was mad with the sword.

But this Cho Jin-geuk was different from the others.

He was said to be truly insane.

Cho Jin-geuk, originally known to be from a renowned martial arts family, suddenly went mad one day and gained notoriety for senselessly killing hundreds of civilians and dozens of martial arts masters.

Those who barely survived encounters with Cho Jin-geuk all said the same thing consistently.

He was either properly insane or born with a killing nature, one of the two.

But at some point, he disappeared.

Come to think of it, that was around the time he had received news of his father’s death.

[That man was a madman, but he was truly a monster. Why don’t you ask the cult leader for help?]

[I can’t do that.]

If he received help from his liege, the world’s greatest martial artist, he could easily kill the opponent.

However, he couldn’t entrust his father’s killer to someone else’s hands.

His pride as a martial artist wouldn’t allow it.

So Ma Ra-hyeon had long been collecting information about Cho Jin-geuk and had gone through a year of preparation to face him.

After coming all the way to Mount Tian and finally finding him…

When he first saw him, he was literally half out of his mind.

Whether someone had confined him or he had done it himself, he was trapped in a cave, his legs shackled with specially made chains that even internal energy couldn’t penetrate.

[Hehehe. I’m hungry.]

‘To think my father was killed by someone like this.’

It didn’t matter if he was mad or not.

With only the thought of avenging his father, Ma Ra-hyeon tried to kill him in one strike.

But the moment he thrust his sword, this madman suddenly blocked his attack with a long staff, displaying spear techniques, then slashed his chest with a saber technique from the other hand.

“Slash!”

“Ugh!”

Lightning-fast hand movements and techniques.

It could be called the skill of a peerless master.

He had heard that Cho Jin-geuk was a master of ten weapons, but he hadn’t known he could switch between martial arts so freely.

‘I mustn’t let my guard down.’

No matter how mad he was, with skills like this, he could be in trouble if he was careless.

But even with this caution, a shocking result occurred.

Despite giving it his all, he was defeated in just seven moves.

‘How could this happen.’

He had prepared for revenge for so long, yet he, at the pinnacle-stage of the Transformation Realm, couldn’t last even ten moves against a mere madman.