Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 121

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

Chapter 121. The Threads of Fate Are Woven in Patterns Too Complex to Predict—2
A woman dressed in light traveling clothes had entered the inn.
Though a veil obscured her face beyond recognition, the elegant curves visible above her robes were enough to captivate the soul. But what struck most forcefully was her intoxicating presence.
The patrons found themselves entranced, unable to tear their eyes away. Yet the woman seemed entirely accustomed to such attention, regarding her surroundings with complete indifference.
A quiet corner table sat empty. She moved gracefully toward it and sat. The men began murmuring among themselves as they watched.
“Look at that figure. She’s enchanting.”
“Indeed. I’d count myself blessed to spend a night with someone like that.”
The eyes of the men fixed upon her burned with naked desire.
Dam Ho also found himself studying the woman.
The intensity of her presence was overwhelming enough to explain the other men’s reactions. Yet his gaze differed from theirs in a crucial way.
His eyes were cold and sharp, gleaming with a different kind of attention.
The desire-blinded men failed to notice what he saw: a sword hanging at her waist.
No mere ornamental blade that women wore for decoration. This was a weapon properly balanced and weighted, its grip polished smooth from years of use.
She was a swordmaster. Her steady gait and the fierce light that pierced through the veil confirmed his assessment.
The Innkeeper Woman approached the veiled guest.
“Welcome.”
“Do you have a room available? Preferably somewhere quiet.”
The woman’s voice was as beautiful as her striking appearance.
“There is a private room in the back, though I’m afraid it’s rather shabby…”
“That’s fine. I’ll take the private room.”
“Ah, but it really is quite worn…”
The Innkeeper Woman scratched her head apologetically. From her reaction, the private room’s condition was plainly poor. Yet the veiled woman replied without concern.
“It doesn’t matter. I only need it to be quiet.”
“Well then…”
The Innkeeper Woman nodded, resigned to the guest’s preference.
“Show me to the room later. First, I’d like to eat.”
“What would you care for?”
“Do you have noodle soup?”
“Yes, of course.”
The Innkeeper Woman hurried toward the kitchen.
Alone now, the veiled woman glanced around the room. The men who had been stealing glances suddenly averted their eyes with awkward coughs.
As she turned her head slightly, her gaze fell upon Dam Ho and Bang Jin Bo.
In that moment, something flickered behind her eyes. Their gazes had met directly.
His eyes were pools of darkness, fathomless and serene. She could read nothing in them—a rare occurrence that stirred her curiosity.
‘Is there truly a master of that caliber here in Tongsan?’
She tilted her head slightly, intrigued.
Then Dam Ho lowered his gaze and returned to his meal. The woman felt a momentary pang of regret, but soon her attention shifted away from him.
She gazed out the window.
Far in the distance, Gugung Mountain rose into view. White mist wrapped around its slopes in a scene of uncommon beauty.
As she continued to admire the mist-shrouded mountain, several men sitting near the inn’s windows exchanged knowing glances and rose from their seats.
They moved toward the table where the veiled woman sat.
A handsome young man from their group approached the woman first.
“Miss, you seem to be dining alone. Would you care to join our table?”
The woman looked up at him, and seeing his companions behind him, the man flashed a confident smile.
His name was Jo Gyeong Yeom, a notorious rake well-known throughout Tongsan. Wealthy and handsome, he had seduced countless women.
His eyes, fixed upon the woman, burned with desire.
‘A new face. Once I’ve undressed her, she’ll be extraordinary.’
It wasn’t merely her body that intoxicated his thoughts. Years of experience with women had taught him to recognize potential—and she, he sensed, would be an exceptional conquest.
Jo Gyeong Yeom offered what he believed was his most irresistible smile. But the woman’s answer cut through his confidence like ice.
“Get out.”
“What?”
Jo Gyeong Yeom’s brow furrowed. The woman spoke again, her voice even colder.
“You’re disgusting. Leave.”
“How dare you. Are you speaking to me that way?”
“Since you’re the only one here, yes—I’m speaking to you.”
“I’ve lived a long time, but never have I been so thoroughly insulted. This is absurd. Brothers, what should we do about this?”
Jo Gyeong Yeom turned to the men at his side.
The others stepped forward eagerly, emboldened by his challenge.
“These women forget their place. A proper woman ought to revere a man’s words as she would the heavens.”
“Indeed. Jo-hyung must have been shamed. How pitiful—rejected outright by a mere woman.”
The men were martial artists with ties to Tongsan’s underworld. They moved in concert with Jo Gyeong Yeom and committed every manner of atrocity.
Not a single woman who fell into their clutches escaped unscathed. They ravaged not just the body, but the soul itself.
From the moment the veiled woman stepped into the inn, their lust had been inflamed. They were prepared to pay any price to have her in their arms.
“Come now, let me see your face. I’m curious how beautiful you are.”
Jo Gyeong Yeom reached out to tear away the woman’s veil.
Spurt!
Blood suddenly fountained up from the back of his hand.
“What—?”
Jo Gyeong Yeom blinked in confusion, unable to comprehend. Then the searing pain brought him crashing back to reality.
“Ahhhhh!”
Jo Gyeong Yeom clutched his arm and rolled across the floor.
“This wretch!”
“Get her!”
The other men, startled, were rushing forward.
Spurt-spurt!
Their shoulders and napes suddenly split open, blood erupting in crimson arcs.
“Gahhh!”
“Aaaahhh!”
The men collapsed, writhing on the floor.
Only then did they understand the true terror of this woman.
The wounds gaped with the precision of a blade’s edge. Yet not one of them had seen how she’d struck.
She was a master beyond their fathoming—a swordmaster of such caliber that men like them were beneath her notice, their lustful designs utterly meaningless.
The woman parted her lips.
“Do you still wish to see my face?”
Jo Gyeong Yeom and the others shook their heads with desperate vigor.
Their faces had drained of all color. They pressed their wounds to staunch the bleeding, but the flow would not cease.
If the blood continued at this rate, death itself was not far distant.
Jo Gyeong Yeom and the men fell to their knees, pleading.
“We were wrong. Please, we beg your forgiveness.”
“Find a physician to stem the bleeding, and you’ll live.”
“A… a physician?”
At her words, Jo Gyeong Yeom and the men bolted from the inn without hesitation.
Watching them go, the woman smiled—a smile cold and meaningless. But hidden beneath the veil, her true expression remained concealed from all eyes.
Now the other patrons understood: this was a formidable master, and they offered her not even a glance.
The veiled woman had shown Jo Gyeong Yeom and his men precisely what befell those foolish enough to tangle with a member of the Murim. She was no creature to be desired; she was something far more dangerous.
Bang Jin Bo stared at the veiled woman, utterly astonished by her martial prowess.
“Elder brother, that woman truly is remarkable.”
Bang Jin Bo had not seen how the veiled woman had wounded the men’s bodies.
Light flickered across Dam Ho’s previously empty gaze.
‘Find a physician and they’ll live, will they?’
Perhaps they would.
If the physician were a divine doctor of sufficient skill to mend the life-force channels.
While others had seen nothing of how she struck, Dam Ho had perceived everything.
Her weapon had been the metal chopstick lying on the table. She’d moved so swiftly that no one else’s eyes could follow.
In that instant, Dam Ho saw it clearly—the razor-sharp Sword Qi coalescing around the chopstick.
The Sword Qi she’d unleashed had done more than lacerate flesh. It had severed the life-force channels of Jo Gyeong Yeom and the men alike.
Only the exquisite subtlety of her Internal Energy held them together by a thread.
The fatal flaw: as the men rushed to find a physician, those threadbare meridians would tear completely.
From the moment they dared to accost the veiled woman, they had already been marked for death.
Suddenly, the corpses of the Daewon Escort Agency porters he’d seen before arriving here flashed through his mind.
‘Her handiwork as well.’
The veiled woman was a master of the blade. And a formidable one at that.
Having finished her meal, the veiled woman entered the private room the Innkeeper Woman had shown her. It was as shabby as promised—yet tended with such care that it would serve as adequate lodging for some time.
“Hah.”
The woman exhaled and removed her veil, revealing her true visage at last.
Skin unnaturally pale from long deprivation of sunlight; eyebrows delicate as brushstrokes; eyes black as obsidian. Her nose was sharp and prominent, her small lips a deep crimson.
She possessed every hallmark of a peerless beauty. Beyond that, she radiated a subtle, magnetic allure that drew the human spirit toward her.
This was precisely why she wore the veil at all times—to escape, however slightly, the magnetism of men’s gazes.
“I still haven’t found the object. Yet every fool and nuisance insists on clustering around me. How much longer must I endure this?”
After gazing out the window for a moment, the woman rose and leapt into motion.
At the peak of Gugung Mountain stood the Gugung Sect.
The current Sect Leader of Gugung was Cheol Yang, a Zhenren.
He had become Sect Leader in his early thirties and had been praised for leading the sect well for the past twenty years. According to rumor, his martial prowess and Taoist power were both exceptional, earning the respect of many.
Though the hour was late, Cheol Yang could not sleep. His heart raced for reasons he could not explain.
“Sigh.”
At last, Cheol Yang abandoned hope of rest and stepped outside.
Normally, when the sun set and night descended upon Gugung Mountain’s peak, a magnificent sea of stars would unfold. But tonight, thick clouds obscured the sky, and every star had vanished from sight.
“Why is it so dark? This bodes ill.”
Cheol Yang was a master skilled enough to read celestial phenomena. The Taoist power he had cultivated over decades ran deep within him.
Yet the celestial signs he perceived tonight were profoundly turbulent. He had not seen the heavens so disturbed in several years.
“Could it be because of the Demonic Cult’s resurgence?”
The world was in disarray because of the Demonic Cult. The Gugung Sect was preparing to send troops to aid the Murim Alliance in response.
“How many casualties will there be this time?”
Decades ago, when the Demonic Cult had last risen, Cheol Yang was a young martial artist in his prime. He had fought against the Demonic Cult alongside his senior brothers back then.
Fortune favored him, and he survived to the end. Because of that, he was selected for the final death-squad.
He had endured fierce battles with that corps, more brutal than most. That was why he understood better than anyone how terrifying the Demonic Cult truly was.
“Yet surely, if all the power of the realm is gathered together, something can be done?”
Cheol Yang was attempting to console himself with such thoughts.
A whisper of sound.
It was a faint noise—the brush of cloth against grass.
Cheol Yang turned. A woman in a light martial robe appeared before him. She emanated an air of mystery, and he recognized her at once—the veiled woman who had lodged at the Pungcheon Inn.
Cheol Yang’s brow twitched slightly.
Many Daoists trained at the Gugung Sect. Among them were women. Yet none of them carried the mysterious presence that surrounded the woman before him.
“Who might you be, young lady?”
“You are the Sect Leader of Gugung, Cheol Yang the Zhenren, are you not?”
“That is so… but who, if I may ask, are you?”
“My name is Eum Yu Gyeong.”
“I see! Miss Eum. But what brings you to the Gugung Sect at this late hour? We would receive you just as warmly in daylight.”
Cheol Yang’s voice carried a note of caution.
He knew the woman before him was no ordinary person.
The place where he now stood was within the inner sanctum of the Gugung Sect. Three gates had to be passed to reach it, and Gugung’s disciples maintained a vigilant perimeter at each one.
That Eum Yu Gyeong could approach this place undetected by the sect’s disciples meant she was a master of considerable skill.
Eum Yu Gyeong stepped closer to Cheol Yang and spoke.
“I’ve come to ask you something.”
“How unsettling. What could you possibly be so curious about that you would climb the mountain at this hour?”
“I hope you will tell me if you know.”
“Please, ask away. If it is something I know, I will tell you freely.”
Cheol Yang quietly drew up his internal energy, ready.
“A Sacred Object.”
“What?”
“My sect is searching for the Sacred Object you stole from us.”
Cheol Yang’s eyes widened in shock.
“You… surely you’re not from the Demonic Cult?”
“Will you tell me? Where have you hidden the Sacred Object you took?”
Eum Yu Gyeong’s voice rang out clearly through the night sky.

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