Book 6 Chapter 37
The Heavenly Demon Prison (天魔牢)!
The Heavenly Demon Prison!
Pitch-black darkness!
Damp and clammy moisture,
A chilling cold emanating from moss-covered stone walls,
And, crucially, the smell of death permeating every inch of the darkness.
A secret yet deadly prison located deep within Mount Shouyang (首陽山) in Shaanxi Province (陝西省)! The Heavenly Demon Prison (天魔牢)!
This place was a deep, dark abyss where death always lingered.
Deep within Mount Shouyang, the Heavenly Demon Prison was a place where only those who had committed grave sins, the highest-class prisoners within the Black Heaven Alliance and the Demon Pavilion, were confined. It was notoriously infamous within both the Alliance and the Pavilion.
A place only for sinners, a devilish realm from which one could rarely return alive once entered, a space where fear, madness, and death coexisted with darkness. The eerie and damp atmosphere alone sent shivers down one's spine.
Cold, damp moisture, a vision shrouded in deep darkness. The flickering lights in the long, dark corridor cast even more grotesque shadows.
The clanking of chains, the creaking of iron doors, occasional, unidentifiable screams – everything was alien to everyday life.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The sound of the iron door twisting from a powerful impact echoed through the prison. Because it was an enclosed underground space, the reverberating sound was deafeningly loud and bizarre.
"It's starting again!"
Jo Yeon-il, one of the guards of this Heavenly Demon Prison, covered his ears and scowled. His already fierce expression became even more menacing.
Judging by his grumbling, such incidents were not uncommon.
"Every time I hear that sound, I get the creeps!" Jo Yeon-il said with an annoyed tone.
"Who wouldn't? To me, it sounds like demons wailing in the purgatory. I'll get a nervous breakdown at this rate!"
Jo Yeon-sam felt the same internal dissatisfaction.
"I can't fathom who is imprisoned in there that necessitates such intense surveillance!"
"Shh!"
Jo Yeon-il quickly covered his friend Jo Yeon-sam's mouth and put his finger to his lips. It was a sign that loose tongues cause all sorts of trouble, urging caution in speech.
"Be careful what you say! Don't you know that no one is allowed to reveal anything about the person imprisoned in that special cell? Don't try to find out! While some things are better to know, there are times when not knowing is as good as taking three doses of medicine."
At his friend Jo Yeon-il's advice, Jo Yeon-sam immediately covered his own mouth. His ultimate goal was longevity. However, he never achieved that goal in the end.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The sound still didn't stop. It was a terrifying noise, as if the iron door would break open at any moment.
It was the gaze of a beast, burning with a terrifying glint that always sent a chill down one's spine. A gaze that contained a killing intent so intense that even the heavenly demons would momentarily flinch, possessing eyes that lived constantly close to death and could decide the fate of dozens with a single gesture! A cold, red will to drive everything to death radiated from his entire body.
The man could be described as the embodiment of murderous intent and madness.
Gal Hyo-bong (葛梟鳳), the Blood Flow Blade (血流刀)! A notorious serial killer who slaughtered eighty-eight disciples of the Demon Pavilion for no reason seven years ago.
And, twelve years ago, the greatest prodigy of the Demon Pavilion!
A single defeat had transformed him from a man hailed as the foremost prodigy of the black arts in a hundred years into a murderous fiend drenched in blood.
The tragedy began nine years ago at the Huashan Covenant Branch.
At that time, all the black arts practitioners unanimously blamed the Blood Flow Blade, Gal Hyo-bong, for their defeat in the Huashan Covenant. No one disputed this opinion.
It wasn't because he lost then. The main point was that the black arts lost to the white arts because he did not participate.
He, who was praised as the greatest prodigy in a hundred years, suddenly declared solitary cultivation before the Huashan Covenant Branch. To others, it was as if he had abandoned all responsibility and glory placed upon him. At that time, only he could stand against Jeon Hwi-mun (全輝文), the Radiant Sword (光輝劍), the greatest prodigy of the Heavenly Martial Academy. And he was the one who could win!
However, no one knew his true intentions when he made the decision for a near-disappearance into solitary cultivation, delivering a shock to the entire black arts world.
The Huashan Branch, a battle of pride between the righteous and the wicked, ended with the victory of the righteous faction. It was an inevitable outcome with Gal Hyo-bong absent.
He had become a sinner of the Demon Pavilion and the Black Heaven Alliance, his roots.
He seemed to have rigorously whipped himself and trained ferociously during his solitary cultivation.
Three years after Gal Hyo-bong locked himself away, focusing on martial arts!
The tragedy occurred on a dazzling summer afternoon.
With an explosion, the entrance to the training hall collapsed, and from within, a bloodthirsty demonic beast rushed out.
Appearing as a murderer, he slaughtered anyone he saw, indiscriminately.
He mercilessly cut down the lives of those in his path, whether they were warriors of the Demon Pavilion or his juniors, with impeccable precision. Although his consciousness was lost, his blade had become incredibly powerful, as if to prove that his training had not been in vain. He was beyond the level that ordinary guards could stop in large numbers.
Blood flowed like a river, and bodies piled up like mountains.
Only after the Ten Great Elders, alerted by the emergency bell, intervened was he finally subdued.
Even the Ten Great Elders sustained significant injuries to capture him alive. It was considered a miracle that none of the Ten Great Elders died.
Although Gal Hyo-bong was captured alive, they could not bring themselves to kill him, considering his crimes. If they had intended to kill him, they would have done so from the beginning, and the Ten Great Elders would not have risked injury to capture him. His background was too immense to be executed arbitrarily.
He was one of the grandsons of Gal Jung-hyuk (葛仲赫), the Martial God Devil, Paecheon (패천), the idol and living god of the entire black arts world.
There was no way to restore him, who had fallen into Qi deviation and lost his will, at that time.
After continuous discussions lasting an entire month, his punishment was decided. He would be imprisoned in the Heavenly Demon Prison (天魔牢), which was also called the Immortal Return Prison (불귀옥), until his consciousness returned.
This was tantamount to saying that if his mind did not return, he would be imprisoned until death.
Out of respect for Gal Jung-hyuk's face, Gal Hyo-bong was imprisoned in the Heavenly Demon Prison with only chains, without any other restraints.
From that day on, the Heavenly Demon Prison gained its most troublesome resident.