Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 103

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 102. Moving Forward Without Regret—2
Dam Ho’s retinas captured Namgoong Chang’s image perfectly. In that reflection, Namgoong Chang’s face was suffused with shock.
‘He eavesdropped on the Telepathic Communication?’
No matter how skilled a martial master was, intercepting Telepathic Communication was impossible. That was Namgoong Chang’s understanding of the world.
As if to answer his unspoken question, Dam Ho opened his mouth.
“I spent a very long time in an underground space, you see. A place where not a single ray of light penetrates—a truly horrific world. But do you know what’s funny about it?”
…….
“There, even the smallest sound becomes deafening. A single drop of water falling strikes the wall and gets amplified dozens, hundreds of times over. You can’t possibly imagine how agonizing that is.”
Dam Ho’s voice was unusually soft, his words mumbled—yet somehow they reached everyone else’s ears with crystalline clarity.
“Imagine it. During every moment you breathe and live, sounds like that never cease, not for an instant. What do you think that would feel like?”
…….
Namgoong Chang could not speak. A strange feeling gripped him—as if opening his mouth now would be a grave mistake.
Even in that moment, Dam Ho’s words continued.
“You’d probably go mad within three days. I did. I was nearly gone by then. So do you know what I did? I plugged my ears with mud. But the sound still burrowed through.”
There was no emotion in Dam Ho’s voice. Yet somehow, those listening sensed an unspeakable desolation emanating from him.
It was like the scrape of metal against bone. But no one could break free from his words—as if bound by massive chains, utterly immobilized.
“I think I spent a year like that, going mad. But here’s the strange part—the human body really is remarkable. At some point, it began to adapt. I stopped hearing the sounds I didn’t want to hear, and even the faintest sounds I wished to hear became loud and clear.”
“So…… what exactly are you trying to say?”
“Are you asking because you don’t know?”
Dam Ho stared hard at Namgoong Chang, and a chill ran down the man’s spine.
‘He heard it…… all of it?’
Namgoong Chang had never imagined there existed a martial artist capable of intercepting Telepathic Communication. Which meant Dam Ho had pierced through to his true intentions.
A cold light began to flicker in Namgoong Chang’s eyes.
It was certainly unexpected that Dam Ho could intercept Telepathic Communication. But he was not the sort to let his spirit waver over such a thing.
“Do you truly think such a pathetic excuse will earn you forgiveness for laying hands on the Namgoong Clan?”
“Forgiveness?”
“The Namgoong Clan never forgives any who harbor enmity toward us. Begging for mercy now is pointless.”
“You think I look like someone who begs forgiveness from anyone?”
Dam Ho’s lips curled upward—clearly a sneer to anyone with even a hint of perception.
Namgoong Chang was as perceptive as they came. His face hardened into stone.
“Enough of your reckless tongue. It’s not too late yet. Cut off your right arm, and perhaps I will show you some mercy.”
Thirty martial artists of the Golden Sword Brigade surrounded Dam Ho, their killing intent flaring sharp and fierce. Yet Dam Ho paid them no mind whatsoever.
Dam Ho lifted his right arm for all to see.
The calluses embedded in his fist were so thick they gleamed like stone.
“If you can cut it off, try. But you’d do well to prepare yourself. Because I will cut off your head. Without fail.”
The moment Dam Ho’s words ended, the air around them grew deathly cold.
Ugh!
Stifled groans spilled from the mouths of the Golden Sword Brigade.
They were overwhelmed by the brutal aura that poured from Dam Ho, by the surging waves of savage intent.
Dam Ho’s words seemed to carry Word Spirit with them.
It felt as though whatever he spoke would absolutely come to pass.
That eerie sensation sent shivers through Namgoong Chang’s spine.
Namgoong Chang cried out without thinking.
“Golden Sword Brigade! What are you doing? Suppress him at once!”
At his shout, the brigade sprang into motion.
“Subdue him!”
Namgoong Joong Moon, commander of the Golden Sword Brigade, moved first, his voice a roar.
Shing!
From his hand unfurled the Flash Lightning Thirteen Sword Thunder, the sword art of the Namgoong Clan.
And that was the beginning.
The Cheonpoong Raejeon Sword, transmitted only within the Golden Sword Brigade, erupted from every direction. Like dozens of bolts of thunder descending at once, a storm of blade-force crashed down upon Dam Ho.
“What?!”
Cho Yeon Un let out a gasp at the sight.
The Golden Sword Brigade was among the highest-tier forces of the Namgoong Clan. The coordinated formations they deployed wielded such devastating power that even Cho Yeon Un could not claim with certainty he could handle them.
The situation was careening toward complete disaster.
Though Namgoong Su had started this, the Namgoong Clan was not the sort to quibble over such details. Yet Cho Yeon Un could not simply stand by and watch his friend fight the martial artists of the Namgoong Clan.
Becoming enemies with the Namgoong Clan was all but equivalent to becoming enemies with the Five Great Clans themselves. If they stood against those powers, Dam Ho would have no place left to stand in this world.
‘How can I resolve this?’
He resented Dam Ho for colliding with the Namgoong Clan without any plan. But he was not so lacking in loyalty that he would abandon a friend he had taken the trouble to befriend.
Cho Yeon Un’s gaze suddenly turned toward O Gun Ui.
O Gun Ui, the private teacher of Hae So-wol and an elder of the Haenam Sect, stood watching without intervening in the fight.
‘Then what?’
It was at that very moment that Cho Yeon Un was racking his brain so intently.
Bang!
“Gasp!”
With a deafening crash, someone flew backward. The one losing consciousness while blood streamed from his head was a warrior of the Golden Sword Brigade.
The Yong Un Sword, which had once been his pride, lay shattered into fragments, and his left arm and chest were crushed as though struck by a colossal hammer. The Pa Seong Chui had detonated.
Boom! Boom!
Thunder rumbled forth in succession. Warriors of the Golden Sword Brigade flew in all directions.
“Damn it!”
The face of Namgoong Joong Moon, the leader of the Golden Sword Brigade, twisted grotesquely.
Zing!
The Yong Un Sword in his hand was singing out in pain. It had barely withstood Dam Ho’s single blow, but the price was that his entire arm had gone numb, making it impossible to hold the blade any longer.
Namgoong Joong Moon shifted the sword to his other hand.
In that interval, another three or four warriors of the Golden Sword Brigade fell, pulverized in Dam Ho’s hands.
Crash!
“Shriek!”
The youngest member of the Golden Sword Brigade, Namgoong Se Gyeong, lay sprawled on the ground with a piercing scream. Nearly half of his torso had been torn open as though savaged by a wild beast.
He clung to life by a thread, but he was as good as dead. Even if he survived, he would never function as a human being again.
Dam Ho had made sure of it.
“Such a cruel creature.”
At that moment, Dam Ho’s gaze turned toward Namgoong Joong Moon.
A chill ran down his spine.
In that instant, Namgoong Joong Moon felt an inexplicable sense of danger and hastily leaned his body backward.
Slash!
Dam Ho’s elbow scythed past Namgoong Joong Moon’s face. The flesh caught on his elbow tore away, and a geyser of blood erupted.
“Arrgh!”
Namgoong Joong Moon screamed involuntarily.
Half of his face had been torn away, exposing the raw, crimson flesh beneath. Namgoong Joong Moon shrieked and staggered, experiencing pain like nothing he had ever felt before.
Whoosh!
In that moment, Dam Ho’s kick came with a devastating wave of force.
The Tan Ma Gak.
Crack!
Dam Ho’s foot pierced a hole through Namgoong Joong Moon’s chest.
“Gasp!”
Namgoong Joong Moon clutched at his chest and stumbled backward. Where his heart should have been, a cavity had opened, and the space beyond was visible.
Dam Ho leaped over Namgoong Joong Moon’s body as it crumbled like a sand castle.
Dam Ho charged forward in a straight line.
Namgoong Chang’s face, stricken with horror, entered his field of vision.
The Golden Sword Brigade had been cultivated with painstaking care by the Namgoong Clan. This was an organization that should never have crumbled so pathetically. That was why the shock Namgoong Chang felt was beyond words.
‘Where did such a monster come from…’
Namgoong Chang’s body began to tremble.
He too had mastered the martial arts of the Namgoong Clan to their apex. But the opponent was a monstrous existence who had rendered the Golden Sword Brigade helpless in an instant.
Shudder!
His body trembled without his knowledge.
A billowing black robe, black hair scattering in the wind.
Between them, eyes cold and emotionless, gleaming black.
Like a massive battering ram charging down upon him, Namgoong Chang’s pupils wavered.
‘But he was limping…’
That doubt suddenly came to him.
By then, Dam Ho had closed in upon his chest.
Whoosh!
A blow that shattered great fortress walls—the Pa Seong Chui came flying.
Namgoong Chang gasped and dodged. But Dam Ho’s movement was far faster than his reaction.
The closed fist suddenly opened wide, seizing Namgoong Chang’s right arm. And twisted it.
Crunch!
“Shriek!”
A scream tore from Namgoong Chang’s lips as the most terrible pain he had ever experienced exploded through him.
But Dam Ho’s attack did not end there. His hand transformed into a blade, chopping down at Namgoong Chang’s throat.
To cut him clean through.
At that moment, Namgoong Chang recalled what Dam Ho had said.
That he would slit his own throat.
Dam Ho was keeping his promise.
Namgoong Chang didn’t dare move to escape; he only squeezed his eyes shut.
Clang!
Namgoong Chang cracked his eyes open. There, blocking his view, was a familiar back.
“Gun Ui.”
The one who now stood before him with the towering presence of a great whale was none other than O Gun Ui, the Hundred-Victory Swordsman.
O Gun Ui said nothing. Rather, he could not.
Zing!
Merely blocking Dam Ho’s strike had sent a numbing surge through the hand gripping his blade. Yet he showed no sign of it, his face composed as he opened his mouth to speak.
“That’s enough.”
“They came to this fight first.”
Dam Ho’s breathing hadn’t roughened in the slightest, as though he hadn’t been moving violently at all.
It felt like staring at some creature that would never tire no matter how far it ran.
‘Does such a being exist in the Jianghu?’
He couldn’t be more than thirty, if being generous. The very fact that he’d achieved this level of mastery at such an age was incomprehensible.
Dam Ho’s expression remained cold, yet O Gun Ui could feel it—the terrible killing intent lying dormant within him.
‘So this is Gwon Ma……’
Since entering Hunan Province, the most frequently heard rumor was about Gwon Ma.
A crippled martial artist who dealt death.
At first, he’d scoffed at it.
He’d held the conviction that one whose physical balance was broken could never reach a true realm. So he’d thought the rumors exaggerated. But the man before his eyes was real.
If anything, the rumors had captured only half of what Dam Ho truly was. The momentum and killing intent radiating from him now were something O Gun Ui had never experienced before.
It was as if a volcano spewing molten lava stood before him. Once it erupted, no one would be able to stop it.
Then Namgoong Chang, regaining his senses, cried out.
“Kill him. Gun Ui.”
Namgoong Chang’s voice was thick with venom, yet the emotion beneath it was unmistakably fear.
Namgoong Chang was afraid of Dam Ho. He was flailing against that fear, but O Gun Ui knew well how futile such struggles were.
O Gun Ui looked toward Dam Ho.
“Will you withdraw? If you leave now, all that has happened here will be forgotten.”
“Who are you to grant me leave? He is an enemy of the Namgoong Clan.”
From behind him, Namgoong Chang bellowed. O Gun Ui turned to face him.
“Chang, I have no confidence in subduing him completely.”
“Gun Ui.”
“This is not an offer for his sake. It is an offer for yours.”
“What do you mean?”
“I cannot guarantee your complete protection against him.”
“That’s… impossible.”
Namgoong Chang’s eyes trembled.
The O Gun Ui he knew would never show weakness before an enemy. Yet here he was, speaking thus with a foe before him.
‘To what extent does he reach?’
Namgoong Chang’s face drained of color.
If O Gun Ui could not manage it, then no one in this place could deal with Dam Ho.
“Chang, let us set aside our grievance here. You have greater matters to attend to, do you not?”
A strangled sound escaped his throat.
Namgoong Chang couldn’t bring himself to answer; he only clenched his teeth. Yet O Gun Ui took his silence as answer enough.
He turned to face Dam Ho.
“Will you withdraw now?”
O Gun Ui believed Dam Ho would listen to him. After all, this was a considerable concession on his and the Namgoong Clan’s part.
But the answer that came from Dam Ho far exceeded his imagination.
“Why should I?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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