Chapter 318: A Thousand Years Ago (1)

However.

Unexpectedly, there was someone right next to me who seemed even more shocked than I was.

"Heavenly Researcher’? Could it be… are you the very same Cheon Munhyeon of ‘Heavenly Brain’, who once served as part of the Seven Path Society three generations ago?”

At the words of the Pavilion Lord of Thousand-Day Pass Pavilion, Heavenly Researcher covered his mouth and laughed like a woman.

"Hehehe! That is but a distant past now."

It was as good as admitting the Pavilion Lord’s words.

I was more than a little shocked by that statement.

‘Three generations ago? Just how long ago is that supposed to be?’

He wasn’t just an old man in his seventies or eighties—he might very well have lived for more than a hundred years.

I clasped my fists together politely before him.

His age alone was worthy of respect, but more importantly, back at the Salga, I had been able to find my direction thanks to his advice.

It was as if I owed him a debt of gratitude.

“What brings you to me this time, Elder?”

A smile formed on his wrinkled lips.

And then, he uttered words that carried a strange weight.

"You have grown far beyond where you were back then, Young Master. I’m sure the Grand Heavenly Lord now considers it an eternal regret that he failed to kill you."

Flinch!

The sudden mention of the Grand Heavenly Lord startled me, but I quickly pulled myself together.

If the man before me was truly the author of the Demonic Divine Physique Restoration Records, it wasn’t strange that he might have been connected to the Grand Heavenly Lord in the past.

However.

‘But to think he’s the actual author of the Records… it’s a bit…’

The author I had imagined was someone fickle, driven by selfishness and curiosity, someone who would throw everything away for personal gain.

But the old man standing in front of me carried an expression and demeanor that felt endlessly solemn.

‘He just doesn’t seem like the same person who wrote that book….’

What was the truth?

As I stood there confused, Heavenly Researcher laughed and spoke again.

"Ah, you asked why I came to see you, Young Master?"

“…….”

"It’s simple. I came to give you a warning and some advice as you try to pass through this place."

A warning and advice?

"You’re not here for the trial of the Thousand-Day Pass Pavilion, but to reach beyond the “Gate”, aren’t you?"

“…That’s correct.”

Since the other party already knew about the Iron Gate, there was no reason to hide it.

At that moment.

Heavenly Researcher bent his hunched back even lower and said,

"Please, be careful."

“……!”

"Beyond the Gate lies the very hell of the human world, along with the truth you seek."

Heavenly Researcher continued with a slightly trembling voice.

"And there, a certain wraith… will be guarding something."

“A wraith? What do you mean by that?”

At my question, Heavenly Researcher shook his head.

"As someone as lowly as me, I cannot possibly know the true nature of that being."

Lies.

I was certain that Heavenly Researcher had at least some idea of what that wraith was.

It was just that, for some reason, he seemed unable to say it out loud.

"But there is one thing I can say for sure. No matter how powerful a master of the Extreme Demon Realm you might be, survival beyond that Gate cannot be guaranteed."

“……Heh.”

The Pavilion Lord of Thousand-Day Pass Pavilion let out a sigh beside me.

Unlike the lie he had just spoken earlier, these words rang with undeniable truth.

"If, by chance, you manage to return safely."

Heavenly Researcher bowed deeply.

"I would like to make you a proposal."

“…A proposal?”

"My proposal is related to a certain shameful secret that the Cheon Clan buried in the past."

“……!”

Not only I, but even the Pavilion Lord of Thousand-Day Pass Pavilion stiffened at those words.

It wasn’t just any secret.

It was something so poisonous that just getting close to it could get you eliminated.

"If you were to seize that secret, you would be able to far more easily shake off the Cheon Clan’s watchful eye."

“…….”

"Young Master. So, please, I sincerely hope you return safely and unharmed."

The old man who had introduced himself as Heavenly Researcher disappeared in the blink of an eye, just like before.

Truth be told, I was now strong enough to catch and subdue him if I wanted to…

‘…But I felt like I shouldn’t.’

I sensed it instinctively.

Heavenly Researcher definitely had a hidden card up his sleeve. If I carelessly tried to make him an enemy, I’d be the one to suffer for it.

"A proposal, huh…."

“What do you think?”

The Pavilion Lord of Thousand-Day Pass Pavilion shrugged.

"Who knows? It’s not for me to decide. Nothing would change even if I gave my advice."

For some reason, I got the feeling that he didn’t want to discuss this topic any further.

‘Come to think of it, this man had quite a complicated past too, didn’t he?’

Maybe he was somehow connected to the very shame that Heavenly Researcher had mentioned.

While I was lost in that thought.

The Pavilion Lord of Thousand-Day Pass Pavilion opened the door and gestured inside.

"Go on in."

I chuckled and asked,

"Didn’t you want to go in there together with me?"

Not long ago, the Pavilion Lord had openly shown interest in what lay beyond the Iron Gate.

He gave me a bitter smile.

"Now that Elder Heavenly Researcher has shown himself to you, I have to report this to the Cult Leader first. Curiosity can’t come before duty."

"Hmm, I see."

The reasoning sounded perfectly legitimate.

And yet, his behavior felt a little off, different from usual.

‘It feels like there’s another reason….’

But this wasn’t the time to get caught up in those suspicions.

"Anyway, I’ll decide whether to accept the old man’s proposal after I return."

"Right. If you can… I’d appreciate it if you came back safely and told me what you saw beyond the Gate."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I’ll decide that when the time comes."

Leaving those words behind, I turned my body and walked deeper into the main branch of Thousand-Day Pass Pavilion.

Once my figure disappeared into the darkness, the Pavilion Lord of Thousand-Day Pass Pavilion, who had been quietly standing guard, slowly began to reveal a rising fury on his face.

"Breaking the promise made with the Cult Leader to never interfere again…"

His demeanor had completely changed from moments ago.

"Or… is it that the exiled bloodline of his clan plans to rise again in time for the Cult Leader’s ascension? Either way, this is getting messy."

Tsk!

The Pavilion Lord clicked his tongue hard and turned his body with a rough movement.

***

‘Luckily, I haven’t forgotten the path.’

Although I had walked this way once before, I remembered that it branched off in a different direction from the main area.

I succeeded in reaching the Iron Wall I had visited in the past.

‘The Qi-Absorbing Jade is still here.’

The same Qi-Absorbing Jade that had once drained my inner energy so mercilessly remained intact.

Taking out the treasured sword I had brought from my family, I muttered to myself.

"It wouldn’t be bad to go over what I saw last time… but for now, I should open the Gate first."

These days, it was unlikely that I’d run out of Qi, but my priority was clearly to check what lay beyond the Gate.

‘From the first stance, slowly.’

Pat!

I imbued my sword with Qi Projection and began to perform the sword dance slowly.

Starting with First Record: Opening the Celestial Fire Stream.

Splendid and graceful.

At the same time, powerful and sharp, the sword techniques of the Heavenly Record Sword began to trace along the etched sword patterns on the Iron Gate.

Second Record: Ascending Demon Flame

Third Record: White Nothingness Mirror

Fourth Record: Nine Heavens Single Blood

Fifth Record: Silver Soul White Demon

Sixth Record: Boundless Mirror Demon

Seventh Record: Heavenly Net Gathering

Eighth Record: Hundred Heavens Samadhi

And the Ninth Record: Heaven and Earth Ultimate Progression.

In an instant, nine stances danced through the air, leaving black marks on the Iron Gate.

And finally,

I drew my sword diagonally, performing the Celestial Record Sword’s final technique.

Heaven-Piercing Annihilation

Crack!

At the moment the final strike carved into the deepest groove of the Iron Gate—

Crack! Crack-crack!

The gate, which had stood firm for a thousand years, began to quake as it opened.

At the same time, the Qi-Absorbing Jade embedded at the center of the gate suddenly fell out!

"…Huh?"

I stared blankly at the Qi-Absorbing Jade as it rolled on the ground.

After a few seconds, I snapped back to my senses.

"W-Why did it fall out?!"

Back at the ruins of the Nine Heavens Sage Maiden, the Qi-Absorbing Jade had remained attached until the end, so I had felt assured… and yet here I was, getting blindsided!

In a hurry, I grabbed the Qi-Absorbing Jade rolling on the ground.

"N-No way… did it lose its function…?"

Usually, such mechanical devices operated through a network of interconnected mechanisms.

If the Qi-Absorbing Jade had lost its function, then all my effort would have been for nothing!

I quickly examined the Qi-Absorbing Jade and tried channeling my Qi into it.

‘It’s still absorbing Qi… thank goodness, it’s not broken.’

I let out a sigh of relief and turned my gaze toward the darkness swirling beyond the gate.

‘Looks like I don’t have the luxury to check everything slowly.’

I could feel it.

That ‘darkness’ barely visible beyond the gate wasn’t just a lack of light—it was a tangible, artificially created ‘real’ darkness.

I tucked the fallen Qi-Absorbing Jade into my inner pocket and crossed through the gate, stepping inside.

The moment I passed through the ‘Gate’,

a suffocating wave of toxic demonic energy began to press down on my skin.

Heavenly Researcher’s warning that even a master of the Extreme Demon Realm would be in danger here was no exaggeration.

Leaving aside the wraith he had mentioned, the very environment itself was lethally dangerous even to those trained in demonic arts.

It felt like the ‘luminous poison’ that had buried countless humans in the earliest days of existence.

However, since I had reached the Transcendent Demon Realm and achieved immunity to all poisons, it couldn’t affect me much.

Step. Step.

In that overwhelming darkness, I walked straight down the seemingly endless path.

‘This place….’

As time passed,

I started to realize that something about this place felt oddly familiar.

But it wasn’t a familiarity from a past life or the one before that.

It was from just recently—

the massive space of demonic energy that had surrounded Yoo Family's Sacred Mountain during the Bongseon Ritual.

This space I was in now was, in essence, exactly the same as that place.

‘Wasn’t it called… the Grand Evil Demon Servant Formation?’

Yes, if I recalled correctly, that was the name mentioned by Sixth Heavenly Lord.

It was said to be a peerless formation, created as a pair with the Demonic Spirit Possession Qi Flow Formation, that forged the Six Great Demonic Gods into absolute masters over a thousand days.

The fact that such a formation had been placed here wasn’t particularly surprising.

However…

‘Senior Brother said that the future they once faced was slumbering here.’

I had no idea what form that slumbering future might take in this dark and poisonous place.

‘For now, I’ll focus on finding Senior Brother’s sword.’

Widening my sensory perception to the fullest, I continued walking through the darkness.

And at some point—

I sensed someone crouching ahead, radiating a faint red light.

“…?!”

Logically, no living being should exist here besides me.

And yet.

Who in the world… was that, appearing in my senses right now?

Swish!

At that moment, the figure before me seemed to have noticed my presence as well and slowly raised their head.

The figure asked me,

"Who are you?"

Flinch!

The moment I caught sight of their face through the darkness, my shoulders gave a slight shudder.

It wasn’t just the eerie voice that sounded like scraping iron—but also the fact that, instead of ordinary eyes, thick, dark blood-tears were flowing down from both of their eyes.

‘Is this… the very wraith Heavenly Researcher warned me about?’

I immediately adjusted my stance, preparing for battle.

"Why? Why…? How could a living being step into this place?"

The wraith slowly relaxed its posture and stood up.

"This is a place of rest. A place where my master left their final trace. A place of memories."

Muttering something under its breath, the blood-stained wraith gazed up at the ceiling.

"Anyone who defiles such a place—"

Turning its eyes directly toward me,

"—must die, no matter who they are."

It began to radiate a chilling bloodlust.

"Ah…."

Though the figure was clearly approaching me with hostile intent, the moment I saw their outline, I couldn’t help but let my arms fall limply at my sides, dumbfounded.

My mind tangled into knots.

Because the identity of the wraith, who approached with blood-tears dripping from its eyes,

was unmistakably—

“…Senior Sister Ma Seoyeon?"

It looked horrifyingly identical to Ma Seoyeon, who had been calling me ‘that damned disciple’ not long ago.

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