Chapter 146: The Grave
I replayed in my head how we'd ended up here.
Yeom Yuhwa had said she'd found the permitted place, then led Goeong and me somewhere.
And the place we arrived at was...
the Heavenly Demon Hall.
At first, I didn't understand.
Hadn't we already tried everything we could in front of the Sacred Flame Altar?
All we'd managed to confirm was that the Sacred Flame responded only to me and Cheongun's sword.
We had still failed to restore it completely.
And yet...
Yeom Yuhwa had brought us straight back to the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Why did she bring us here again?
I was staring toward the Sacred Flame Altar with that thought in mind when Yeom Yuhwa began walking.
Is there something at the Sacred Flame Altar?
But I was wrong.
She stopped not in front of the altar...
but before the Heavenly Demon's throne beside it.
“Please wait a moment.”
Yeom Yuhwa looked around once...
then reached behind the throne.
Clunk.
With a heavy metallic sound...
the floor beneath the throne began splitting apart to both sides.
At the same time...
a hidden staircase was revealed below.
“Wow!”
Goeong's eyes sparkled like a child's.
“Amazing! A secret door!”
I silently stared down the staircase.
Cold air slowly crept up from below.
I had no idea there was something like this beneath the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Yeom Yuhwa looked toward me.
“Let us go inside.”
Without hesitation...
she began descending.
A moment later, Goeong and I followed.
The staircase was quite long.
After turning several times on the way down...
a wide underground space finally came into view.
It was an enormous hidden chamber.
Calling it merely a chamber felt almost wrong.
It was large enough to hold several hundred people.
Night Pearls were embedded throughout the walls and pillars.
Their faint blue light illuminated the vast space in silence.
The instant Yeom Yuhwa stepped off the stairs and onto the stone floor...
she suddenly stopped.
Then she turned toward me.
“Please wait here for a moment.”
With that...
she faced forward again and began murmuring something in an extremely low voice.
I could barely make out the first few words.
“...Only... awaken... respond not....”
But after that...
her voice became too quiet to hear clearly.
It sounded like a prayer.
Or perhaps some form of ritual invocation.
Goeong also stared at her strangely.
Then he lightly tugged on my sleeve.
“Mujin. What is she doing?”
“Shh.”
I shook my head and gestured for him to stay quiet.
Goeong pouted...
but didn't say anything else.
A short while later...
Yeom Yuhwa turned back toward us.
“It is done.”
Then she began walking deeper into the underground chamber without hesitation.
We followed for quite some time.
Eventually...
Yeom Yuhwa stopped.
She pointed toward the wall opposite us.
“We have arrived.”
I looked around once before asking,
“This is the place?”
“The place you were talking about?”
“Yes.”
Her answer didn't waver.
I couldn't help letting out a sigh.
“Are you sure?”
I looked around again.
“This is really the ‘permitted place’ mentioned in that old text?”
“Yes.”
Yeom Yuhwa answered firmly.
“There is no doubt.”
Rather than question her further...
I turned my gaze toward the wall ahead.
A massive altar stretched horizontally across my field of vision.
Dozens of jade tablets were arranged neatly across it.
At first...
I'd thought they were merely decorative objects.
But once I moved closer...
I realized they weren't.
There were characters engraved on them.
What are these?
I stepped closer and began reading them one by one from the nearest tablet.
Then—
...!?
I froze.
No.
I was stunned.
The characters engraved on those jade tablets were far too familiar.
Names.
Each tablet bore someone's name.
Names that no martial artist would dare treat lightly.
Names most people in the martial world had heard at least once.
Names that inspired awe in some...
and terror in others.
The names written on those jade tablets belonged to...
the Heavenly Demons of generations past.
Only then did I realize what the jade tablets truly were.
Memorial tablets...?
They were memorial tablets.
Tablets bearing the names of the dead.
I stared at them for a long time.
It felt strange.
The Heavenly Demons who had once plunged the martial world into fear...
their memorial tablets were all enshrined here in orderly rows.
Then—
“Heavenly Demon's Kindred Spirit.”
Yeom Yuhwa's quiet voice echoed through the chamber.
Without taking my eyes off the tablets, I asked,
“What exactly is this place?”
"..."
Yeom Yuhwa remained silent for a moment.
Then she began speaking in a low voice.
“The history of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult has never been peaceful.”
Her tone was quiet...
but carried weight.
“For hundreds of years, the Divine Cult has been persecuted, attacked, and denounced as a wicked demonic force.”
“There have been more than a few times when its very existence stood on the brink of destruction.”
I silently waited for her to continue.
“But each time...”
She looked toward the tablets.
“the Divine Cult survived.”
Her voice became firmer.
“There was only one reason.”
She slowly raised one hand toward the memorial tablets.
“Because a great Heavenly Demon always protected the Divine Cult.”
Her gaze moved across them one by one.
“Among the followers of the Divine Cult, there is a belief.”
She spoke reverently.
“The Heavenly Demon remains with the Divine Cult forever.”
“Even if the fate called death eventually comes for the Heavenly Demon....”
Yeom Yuhwa lifted her eyes toward the ceiling above us.
Toward the hall we'd descended from.
“That is why this place lies directly beneath the Heavenly Demon's throne.”
I frowned.
“Beneath the throne?”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
“The place of the living Heavenly Demon is above us.”
Her voice remained calm.
“Because that is the seat of the one leading the Divine Cult in the present.”
Then she looked toward the tablets again.
“But beneath that seat...”
“rest the Heavenly Demons who returned to heaven before him.”
Her tone deepened with reverence.
“Above, the living Heavenly Demon protects the Divine Cult.”
“Below, the spirits of the Heavenly Demons of generations past protect it alongside him.”
Then she added,
“In other words, the Heavenly Demon never stands alone.”
“He stands upon the will of every Heavenly Demon who came before him.”
Yeom Yuhwa paused briefly...
then continued.
“Even within the Divine Cult, only a very small number know this place exists.”
She looked at me.
“More precisely...”
“knowledge of this place is passed down only to the Heavenly Demon and the Flame Attendant.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“It's that important?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“This is a place where the will, majesty, and spirits of the Heavenly Demons who protected the Divine Cult are enshrined.”
Then she looked straight at me.
“In the long history of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult...”
“you may be the only person other than a Heavenly Demon or Flame Attendant ever permitted to enter.”
"..."
I looked at the memorial tablets again.
Yeom Yuhwa had described the place with great reverence.
But to me...
in the simplest terms—
It's a grave.
A place where the memorial tablets of past Heavenly Demons were enshrined and their spirits honored.
A kind of tomb.
Of course...
to members of the Demonic Cult, it undoubtedly held far greater sacred meaning.
Even so...
one question still remained unanswered.
I immediately asked,
“I understand why this place is important to the Divine Cult.”
I turned toward Yeom Yuhwa.
“But I still don't understand why this place, specifically, is the ‘permitted place’ mentioned in that old text.”
Yeom Yuhwa didn't answer immediately.
Instead...
she stared at the memorial tablets for some time.
Then, as though reaching a decision...
she spoke firmly.
“Heavenly Demon's Kindred Spirit.”
“This is not simply a place where the memorial tablets of past Heavenly Demons are kept.”
I silently watched her.
“When someone becomes the Flame Attendant...”
“the first thing they must do under the guidance of the previous Flame Attendant is come here.”
She continued,
“And upon entering this place for the first time, they must recite a particular passage.”
A passage?
It was probably the words Yeom Yuhwa had been murmuring earlier.
“It is because of the meaning contained within that passage...”
She looked toward me.
“that I brought you here.”
I frowned.
“What passage?”
Instead of answering right away...
Yeom Yuhwa stepped closer to the altar.
Then, in a low and clear voice, she recited:
“Only the permitted one shall awaken the sleeping will and open the closed path.”
Her voice echoed through the vast chamber.
“Unless one is worthy to inherit that will, the flame of heaven shall not respond.”
After finishing the short passage...
she continued.
“Until now, I believed the ‘permitted one’ in that passage referred to the Flame Attendant.”
Then Yeom Yuhwa slowly turned to face me.
Her gaze lowered toward my waist.
More precisely...
toward the sword hanging there.
“...But yesterday, in the Heavenly Demon Hall, I clearly saw the Sacred Flame Altar respond to you and that sword.”
"..."
“And you said that last night, the Cult Leader spoke the word ‘key’ to you.”
Her gaze sharpened.
“At the very same moment, the sword began vibrating.”
Yeom Yuhwa paused to steady her breathing.
“At first, I couldn't believe it.”
Then she continued more quietly.
“But now...”
“I can no longer be certain that the ‘permitted one’ in the passage refers only to the Flame Attendant.”
A bitter note entered her voice.
“Perhaps the Flame Attendant's role was merely to guard this place...”
“and, when the time came, guide the permitted one here.”
I silently repeated the words in my head.
The permitted one.
The key.
The sword.
It could all have been absurd.
A leap in logic.
But right now...
I couldn't easily deny Yeom Yuhwa's interpretation.
Because from the moment I'd entered this chamber...
my own body had already told me that this place was somehow connected to Cheongun's sword.
Wooooom.
Ever since we'd stepped underground...
the sword at my waist had been trembling faintly.
And after Yeom Yuhwa recited the ritual passage...
the vibration had become far clearer.
Now it was strong enough for everyone in the chamber to notice.
Slowly...
I lowered one hand and wrapped it around the sword hilt.
Wooooom.
The resonance grew stronger.
Goeong's eyes widened as he pointed toward my waist.
“Mujin! The sword is crying again!”
Yeom Yuhwa watched me with bated breath.
“Heavenly Demon's Kindred Spirit....”
At that moment...
I understood what I had to do.
I didn't hesitate anymore.
Shing.
The instant I drew the sword...
the entire blade began vibrating violently.
WOOOOOOOM!
At the same time—
the whole underground chamber shook as though struck by an earthquake.
RUMBLE!
The walls embedded with Night Pearls trembled.
The memorial tablets on the altar rattled violently.
Old dust continuously fell from the ceiling.
“Wow!”
Goeong shouted excitedly as he looked around.
But my gaze was fixed somewhere else.
The wall directly opposite the altar.
There was no way I could look away.
Rrrrrrumble....
Stone ground against stone.
The wall behind the memorial tablets was slowly splitting open.
“Impossible....”
Yeom Yuhwa murmured in a trembling voice.
I silently watched.
A hidden space was opening behind the memorial tablets.
Beneath the Heavenly Demon Hall...
inside a secret underground chamber...
there had been yet another hidden space.
