Returning to Martial Deity Heaven, Yeon Woo Jin went straight to find Sama Cheon.
“Master, have you been well?”
“Heh-heh-heh, oh yes. And you—have you kept well?”
“Yes, I’ve been fine.”
“Heh-heh-heh. More than fine, I hear. Rumor says the Central Plains are already in your hand.”
“That’s not so.”
“Not so, you say? I heard the Central Plains Alliance was founded and you were seated as its Alliance Lord.”
“It ended up that way.”
“That doesn’t ‘end up’ by accident. That’s your ability, through and through.”
Yeon Woo Jin smiled at Sama Cheon’s praise.
“Good. Since you’re back, it’s ti to make Martial Deity Heaven yours as well, isn’t it?”
“Have the other Little Heavenly Lord candidates finished their closed-door cultivation?”
“They’re all due out within the week. Once they’re out, the competition for Little Heavenly Lord will begin in earnest.”
At the ntion of the competition, Yeon Woo Jin nodded with an easy smile.
“Confident, are we? Well, the competition is aningless by now anyway. Hardly seems necessary.”
“Even so, people have prepared for a long ti. It’s right to give them their shot.”
“Hmm. Is it a ‘shot,’ though? I wouldn’t call it that.”
Sama Cheon shook his head.
“At any rate, we’ll start next week, so be ready. I’ll explain the particulars to everyone when we’re all gathered then.”
“Understood.”
“What will you do until then?”
“Master, do you happen to know anything about the Demonic Tiger Relic?”
“The Demonic Tiger Relic? That divine thing said to track magi?”
“You know it?”
“No, I only recall reading of it in passing. I wasn’t much interested, so I didn’t read closely. It should be sowhere in the Imasurable Library.”
“I don’t rember seeing it in the Imasurable Library.”
“That can’t be. I’m sure I saw it there.”
Sama Cheon looked at Yeon Woo Jin and then shook his head.
“There’s no way you’d misrember. Then it must be my mory that’s wrong.”
However brilliant he was, he knew he couldn’t match Yeon Woo Jin.
Knowing that, he corrected himself at once.
Had anyone else said as much, he’d have barked at them—for daring to dismiss him.
But Yeon Woo Jin was the exception.
The one person his mind could not beat.
Yeon Woo Jin said,
“Perhaps not, Master. I could be mistaken. I’ll comb the Imasurable Library again.”
“Do that. We’ve got ti—take a thorough look.”
“Yes.”
****
When Yeon Woo Jin stepped into the Imasurable Library, familiar faces greeted him warmly.
“Young Lord! How long has it been?”
“We heard you’d gone out into the martial world. Have you kept well?”
“We missed you, Young Lord.”
They ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ were the library’s three wardens—First Warden, Second Warden, and Third Warden—joyfully welcoming him.
“Have you all been well?”
“Heh-heh-heh. Our days are always the sa.”
“The tis you were here were this old man’s happiest.”
“This fellow speaks true. Seeing you here brings back the old days.”
“Sa for . Those days with you three were genuinely enjoyable.”
“To think you found joy spending ti with us old n... a blessing across three lifetis, Young Lord.”
“Let’s not go that far.”
“Heh-heh-heh. A man who’ll be the new master of Martial Deity Heaven once lived and studied with us—how is that not an honor?”
“You will certainly beco Martial Deity Heaven’s new master. No matter how talented the others are, before our Young Lord they’re re drops in the bucket.”
“Frankly, the Little Heavenly Lord competition is pointless. A waste of ti and budget.”
“You call it a waste? It’s the day our Young Lord makes a dazzling entrance to the world.”
“Ah! True. I hadn’t thought of that.”
They all laughed as the First Warden scratched his head.
Then one of them asked,
“Judging by the look of you, you didn’t co just to see us. Is there sothing you’re hunting for?”
At the Second Warden’s question, Yeon Woo Jin gave a wry smile.
“As sharp-eyed as ever.”
“Heh-heh-heh. Age only sharpens useless instincts.”
“Right. I’m here to find sothing.”
“What is it? Say the word and we’ll fetch it.”
“I need material on the Demonic Tiger Relic. Do you know anything about it?”
“What’s that?”
“A divine relic of the Northern Sea.”
“A divine relic, hmm. Then check The Treasure Compendium in the Third Stacks. It contains entries on all manner of rare things that exist in this world.”
“The Treasure Compendium? Ah! I rember it. I wasn’t interested at the ti, so I didn’t read it.”
“Heh-heh-heh. Do you know where it is?”
“Yes.”
“It sounds urgent—go on, then.”
Yeon Woo Jin grinned at the three.
“Let’s share dinner later.”
“Heh-heh-heh. Gladly.”
****
He found The Treasure Compendium.
He’d never opened it—treasures hadn’t held his interest.
He’d written it off as a book compiled to tickle people’s curiosity.
The Imasurable Library held every kind of text, and plenty of them were useless.
Especially in the Third Stacks, where such odds and ends were common; he’d skipped many volus he didn’t care about.
The compendium spanned five volus.
There were that many treasures in the world.
He drew out Volu One and opened it,
Then turned the pages slowly.
Volus One, Two, and Three listed the world’s divine weapons and peerless arms.
He wasn’t looking for weaponry, so he skimd them and moved on.
Even a skim fixed much of it in his mory.
He opened Volu Four.
It recorded all manner of elixirs and panaceas.
He opened Volu Five.
Curiosities and anomalous objects.
This was it.
He turned the pages, unhurried.
At first ca entries on every sort of precious bead.
Who in the world had compiled such knowledge?
It was fascinating.
Was the author a madman?
Or a genius?
He paged through the wondrous objects said to exist in the world.
If all this were true, this book didn’t belong in the Third Stacks at all.
More than anything, it was intriguing—and fun.
He was reading with real interest when—
“Found it!”
The Demonic Tiger Relic.
With the entry he wanted before him, Yeon Woo Jin’s focus sharpened.
The information was detailed.
Demonic Tiger Relic.
A carving in the shape of a white tiger.
It stated that when the first Demon from the Demon Realm erged through an ancient rift, that Demon dropped this carving.
In short, not a thing made by humans.
“So that’s why it senses magi?”
If it was an object from the Demon Realm, then sensing magi made sense.
Its credibility rose.
And with that, curiosity about the author spiked.
Who could it be?
What sort of person knew this?
He even wanted to et them.
He read on.
Being from the Demon Realm, once it sensed magi it would begin to move—running toward the direction of the source.
However, to do that, you had to insert a Demon Essence Stone into the hole near the relic’s belly.
“A Demon Essence Stone?”
The text said demons replenished their magi through those stones.
“Whoever wrote this—how do they even know that?”
He didn’t know who the author was, but they clearly knew the Demon Realm intimately.
He even wondered if they might not be human.
Perhaps a demon who crossed over long ago, settled here, and lived hidden.
If so, they might still be alive.
He wanted to find them and et them.
“A Demon Essence Stone, huh...”
Where would he even get one?
He’d thought securing the relic would be the end of it, but the to-do list kept growing.
Maybe it would be faster to wait for the Demonic Cult to move, catch them, and trace the rift from there?
The thought crossed his mind.
“Haa...”
The problem was whether this book’s contents were true.
If it was fabricated—
He’d be wasting his ti.
Wait.
Wasn’t Martial Deity Heaven founded because a rift to the Demon Realm existed here—and to guard against it?
If so, might there be Demon Essence Stones within Martial Deity Heaven?
The idea struck him.
Deciding he needed to speak with Sama Cheon first, Yeon Woo Jin snatched up the compendium and sprinted out.
****
Sama Cheon read from The Treasure Compendium.
“Yes, this is the book. So my mory wasn’t wrong. Heh-heh-heh.”
“Do you think it’s true?”
“It’s true.”
“Who could have written it?”
“I don’t know. My guess is soone from the Demon Realm wrote it. A demon very interested in the treasures of n.”
“That was my thought as well.”
“You ca to about the Demon Essence Stone, didn’t you, Woo Jin?”
As expected of his master.
He’d grasped exactly why he’d co.
“Yes. If this book is accurate, those stones exist. I wanted to know if you knew anything about them.”
“I do.”
“...You do? Truly? Where can I get them?”
“Where else? In the Demon Realm.”
Deflating.
“Well of course they’re in the Demon Realm. I’m asking if they exist in this world.”
“Heh-heh-heh. Fair enough.”
“Do you know?”
Hope crept back into Yeon Woo Jin’s eyes as he asked.
“This is the first ti I’ve seen you this anxious, Woo Jin.”
“Master.”
“Heh-heh-heh. All right, all right.”
Sama Cheon chuckled and said,
“You know why Martial Deity Heaven was built here, don’t you?”
“Yes. Grandfather told .”
“Good. Deep beneath Martial Deity Heaven lies a rift linked to the Demon Realm.”
“It still hasn’t closed?”
“No. It has not.”
“Then things from the rift could enter the world.”
“That’s what we feared, and we tried to erase the rift. It was useless. It wasn’t sothing human power could seal.”
“What did you do, then?”
“We investigated—whether it truly linked to the Demon Realm. Many lives were lost. We tried sending people into the rift.”
“Could anyone enter it?”
“At first, we failed. Those who went in returned physically intact, but every last one ca back with their minds shattered. We learned nothing.”
“What did you do after that?”
“We studied. We discovered that the Demon Realm’s energy didn’t sh with human energy; the two clashed and wrecked the mind. So we changed thods. We trained people to acclimate to the magi spilling from the rift.”
“Did it work?”
“It did. After training them and sending them in, they couldn’t endure long, but they brought back so information.”
“What kind of information?”
“That the Demon Realm is far vaster than we imagined. And that what cos through the rift is only the tiniest fraction of it.”
“A fraction?”
“Witnesses reported that the creatures in the Demon Realm were uniformly gigantic. And simply seeing them made your skin crawl.”
As Sama Cheon spoke, he searched for sothing.
“Here.”
What he brought out was a dossier.
“This records everything we’ve learned investigating the rift. Read it.”
Yeon Woo Jin took the dossier and scanned it slowly.
It detailed how the investigation began, step by step.
The predecessor of Martial Deity Heaven had been Demon-Slaying Heaven.
Demon-Slaying Heaven was ford to protect humans from demons.
Its sole concern was the Demon Realm and its denizens.
Its Heaven Lord had been Yeon Cheon Baek.
He had believed that if they watched and sealed the rift here, demons would never again appear in the world.
So he founded Martial Deity Heaven on this site and began investigating the rift.
The early failures read like a logbook.
He skipped ahead to the section on acclimating to magi and resuming the probes.
There, the at of it began—the first true accounts of the Demon Realm.
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