Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 127

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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 126. Calamity Arrives Without Warning—Part One
A man in his late forties named Jang Han, along with a dozen or so others, sat atop a seven-story pagoda that commanded a clear view of Akyang spread below.
“Heh heh! Quite the spectacle.”
Far across Dongting Lake, a fierce battle was raging.
A towering giant of nearly seven feet and a lean, wiry girl were locked in combat against the martial artists of the Namgoong Clan.
From this vantage point, their clash was vivid enough to touch.
The true name of this master was Gwak Geo Cheol.
Gwak Geo Cheol served as Vice-Leader of Heuksuchae, one of the Nokrim Eighteen Strongholds. Apart from Jo Yoon San, the stronghold’s leader, he held the highest station there.
Though his appearance seemed rough and unlettered, he was in fact sharp-witted and skilled in strategy. For this reason, Jo Yoon San trusted him greatly.
Yet Jo Yoon San’s trust was not an unalloyed blessing. It meant Gwak Geo Cheol had to shoulder all manner of unsavory work.
He had arrived in Akyang mere days ago. Upon entering the city, his first act was to visit Cheongsang Tower and engage courtesans for his pleasure.
The stronghold had women, certainly, but none possessed the delicate, supple allure of those at Cheongsang Tower. Gwak Geo Cheol indulged in their company alongside his men, savoring every decadence.
He could not remember how much wine he had drunk with them. When his senses cleared, wine bottles lay scattered across the floor and the bare courtesans were strewn about like fallen leaves.
That dreamlike reverie ended yesterday.
“I should have eliminated that bastard first.”
Gwak Geo Cheol muttered as he watched the towering giant display his formidable martial prowess against the Namgoong Clan’s fighters.
The giant was Muk Il Gwang. He fought desperately to shield Hwang Hye Ryeong.
It was Gwak Geo Cheol himself who had tipped off the Namgoong Clan that Hwang Hye Ryeong was hiding with them. His design was to use the clan to eliminate her.
Until now, his plan had proceeded flawlessly.
“Truly, you are remarkable, Vice-Leader. However did you conceive such a brilliant stratagem?”
One of the men beside him wrung his hands in flattery.
The man’s name was Gong So Chu. Though he appeared frail, his hands were nimble and his heart was cold—he made a useful instrument for Gwak Geo Cheol.
Come to think of it, his bond with Gong So Chu had already spanned more than twenty years—as old as his tie to Jo Yoon San himself.
Gwak Geo Cheol smiled thinly.
“Flattery will earn you nothing, So Chu.”
“Heh heh! Do you think I seek reward? These words flow from the heart, I assure you.”
“Tch! You devil—your tongue runs without end.”
“Twenty years I have served Leader Jo and Vice-Leader Gwak. When you snap your fingers, things snap in place—is it not so? Heh heh!”
Gong So Chu burst into hearty laughter.
Gwak Geo Cheol smiled faintly at Gong So Chu’s shamelessness and turned his gaze back to Dongting Lake.
Crash!
Water erupted in a towering spray, and a deafening sound reached even this height. It was the aftershock of Muk Il Gwang unleashing his Extreme Martial Technique at full power.
The Namgoong Clan’s fighters scattered backward in retreat.
Panic flickered across their faces at the display of Muk Il Gwang’s overwhelming prowess.
The encirclement collapsed momentarily. Muk Il Gwang seized the opening, cradled Hwang Hye Ryeong, and fled aboard the Yunma Dagang Vessel.
Once ashore with his massive frame, Muk Il Gwang deployed the Water Walking technique, then burst into Lightness Skill and vanished from sight.
The Namgoong Clan’s martial artists gave chase in commotion, but Muk Il Gwang and Hwang Hye Ryeong had already slipped away.
“What—what?”
Gwak Geo Cheol sprang to his feet.
“They’re fleeing the feast I so carefully laid.”
Fury burst from him.
“Vice-Leader?”
“Send men to track that woman and the brute. If they escape Akyang and reach Paewang Stronghold, this becomes far more troublesome.”
“Understood.”
“Fools! And they dare call themselves martial artists of the Five Great Clans? So Chu!”
“Yes!”
“Take some men and scout out their escape route.”
“Shall we strike directly?”
“Why should we interfere? Inform the Namgoong dogs instead. If word reaches the Supreme Leader that we had a hand in this, he’ll stir before the great undertaking begins—and that old man must not learn of it.”
“Understood. I will merely provide information.”
“Go.”
“Yes!”
Gong So Chu led several subordinates down from the tower.
Those he took with him were all men renowned for their tracking skills within Heuksuchae. With their ability to find a needle hidden in fallen leaves, they would have little trouble hunting down Hwang Hye Ryeong and Muk Il Gwang.
“Curse it all. I should have killed that woman then and there. None of this trouble would have followed.”
Gwak Geo Cheol bit his lip savagely.
＊＊＊
Wuhan was the provincial capital of Hubei Province.
To the south, waterways including the Yangtze River were well developed, and to the north, main roads were well maintained, making it renowned since ancient times as a crossroads where all paths converged.
Particularly in Hubei Province, with its many large and expansive lakes, various fish dishes had flourished despite the inland location.
“Ahhh!”
Upon arriving in Wuhan, the first thing Bang Jin Bo did was seek out the market.
The market was lined with vendor stalls, their displays crowded with fish of every variety caught from the nearby Yangtze River and Dong Lake, their bellies gleaming as they lay exposed to the air.
Bang Jin Bo wandered through the market with delight.
Dam Ho, by contrast, gazed around with eyes that betrayed no particular interest.
His expression remained impassive, yet his thoughts churned in complicated currents beneath.
‘Eum Yoo Gyeong.’
The fact that she hailed from the Demonic Cult was beyond question—they had encountered her at Cheongsang Tower already, and she had acknowledged it herself.
Sin Mu Wol, her disciple, was unmistakably a member of the cult as well.
‘Then what of Geum Ma Saja?’
Through Sound Transmission, Sin Mu Wol had told Eum Yoo Gyeong that Geum Ma Saja had slipped away.
Geum Ma Saja had declared himself to belong to the Demonic Cult, which meant all three should be allies in the same cause—and yet there had been unmistakable hostility in Sin Mu Wol’s tone toward him.
‘Eum Yoo Gyeong said she was searching for a Sacred Object.’
He had never once heard any account of a Sacred Object belonging to the Demonic Cult, and so he could not even begin to guess what it might be.
Dam Ho concluded that the inner workings of the Demonic Cult were far more intricate than he had suspected, though he chose not to dwell on it further.
There were limits to what could be deduced from fragmentary information. There was no point in entangling himself in speculation now.
‘When the time comes, we shall meet.’
No matter how vast the Jianghu, fate would bring them together eventually.
The threads of favor and enmity that bound the Jianghu were remarkably resilient—once woven, they would not easily unravel.
Dam Ho and they had already tangled their fates. So long as breath remained in his body, they would meet again.
As he walked, a shabby antiquarian bookshop caught Dam Ho’s eye. Musty air drifted from within, thick with the accumulated scent of countless aged volumes.
Dam Ho told Bang Jin Bo he would wait inside the shop and stepped through the threshold.
The interior was so crammed with books that there was scarcely room to set one’s feet.
The proprietor was an elderly man who appeared to be over seventy, dozing fitfully in his seat.
Dam Ho drew a single volume from the shelf dedicated to Martial Texts.
It was a secret manual titled the Wind Cloud Divine Fist.
The grandiose name made Dam Ho’s brow twitch. Yet when he opened it, the contents proved rather mundane.
The other volumes were the same—Dragon Tiger Fist, Lightning Divine Fist—names that promised grandeur but contained no genuine Martial Text worth studying.
Dam Ho was not disappointed. He had harbored no illusions about finding legitimate martial instruction here.
He scanned through the shelves with methodical speed, and two dozen Martial Texts passed beneath his fingers in quick succession.
As he turned the pages mechanically, his hand suddenly stilled.
A passage had arrested his attention.
[Only the Solitary Wanderer stands alone and supreme beneath heaven.]
This unexpected line seized hold of Dam Ho’s gaze.
It was neither a martial secret nor anything of particular significance, yet those few characters shook his entire being to its foundation.
Dam Ho closed his eyes.
Solitary Wanderer… the Solitary Wanderer lineage… and himself…
His thoughts took flight on Wuhan’s wings, spreading wide.
Thought summoned thought, and his imagination stretched without end.
His shoulders trembled slightly.
Whoosh!
In that instant, the Dark Soul Heart Method stirred.
A surge of internal force arose and began to course through his entire body in swift spirals.
Dam Ho did not consciously direct the Dark Soul Heart Method—could not, in fact.
Within the darkness, he felt infinite freedom.
Solitary Wanderer—those three characters held everything he had ever sought.
Only now did Dam Ho perceive his true nature.
‘I have always been alone.’
His thoughts extended further still.
Far ahead, he glimpsed a light.
A light dark as pitch.
An endless darkness that nonetheless shone.
Just as he reached out his hand toward it—
―That cannot be, Ho.
Suddenly a voice pierced through his thoughts like a blade through silk.
‘Master.’
Dam Ho turned around.
There stood a phantom of his master.
Hyun So, the Zhenren he had longed for in his dreams, gazed down at him.
‘Master!’
Within the illusion, Hyun So appeared as he had twelve years ago, gazing at Dam Ho with steady eyes.
Hyun So shook his head and spoke.
―Not yet.
‘Master!’
―Not yet, Ho. Not now.
Dam Ho turned to look behind him.
The dark light was fading, inch by inch.
He could still reach out and grasp it.
―Ho!
In that moment, Hyun So’s voice reached him once more. When Dam Ho turned, his teacher offered a gentle smile and continued.
―Ho, protect yourself. Stand firm in who you are.
‘Master, I…….’
Dam Ho released his grip on the fading light and walked toward Hyun So.
Hyun So’s figure grew dimmer with each step.
Dam Ho reached out his hand. But it passed through empty air.
Hyun So vanished like a phantom, and Dam Ho found himself alone.
Dam Ho opened his eyes.
A brilliant burst of spiritual radiance erupted and faded in an instant.
As his gaze cleared and steadied, Dam Ho surveyed his surroundings—and froze.
The bookshelves around him lay in ruins, volumes scattered in every direction.
In one corner, the shop’s elderly proprietor trembled with terror.
Only then did Dam Ho grasp what had transpired.
‘Did I fall into the Heart Demon Realm?’
The Dark Soul Heart Method was a fusion of the Hua Shan Sect’s Joong Cheon Heart Method, the Demonic Cult’s varied practices, and Dam Ho’s own enlightenment.
Because the Joong Cheon Heart Method had stood as a steady foundation, he had been in little danger of falling to such illusions.
But when he became lost in the notion of the Solitary Wanderer, the entire Dark Soul Heart Method shuddered with instability.
The Dark Soul Heart Method moved of its own accord, seeking perfection. Yet it had pushed too far, too fast.
In trying to fly a path meant for walking and running, fractures appeared everywhere.
If he had grasped that dark light?
Dam Ho shook his head.
He had nearly lost control entirely.
Had he truly fallen into the Heart Demon Realm, the destruction would have been far more than one bookshop.
Still, the experience had not been without gain.
Though he had nearly spiraled into madness, his Dark Soul Heart Method had grown considerably more resilient—a gift of stopping at precisely the right moment.
“Master.”
A faint longing flickered in Dam Ho’s eyes.
“I-is it really you, Master Dam?”
A voice called to him from the bookshop entrance.
Dam Ho looked up to see a shabbily dressed man staring at him with eyes full of dread.
“Who are you?”
“I am Jang So Chul of the Wuhan branch of Hao Wen.”
“Hao Wen?”
“Yes! The Akyang branch sent word, and so I came at once…….”
Jang So Chul’s voice trembled involuntarily.
From the moment Dam Ho entered Wuhan, Hao Wen had been tracking him—he was a person of note, one to be watched carefully. When the letter arrived from the Akyang branch, they had been able to locate him immediately.
When Jang So Chul had entered the bookshop to deliver the message, the sight that greeted him was nothing short of horrifying.
Black energy spiraled around Dam Ho as its center, as though some monstrous creature had spread its dark wings.
The black current, saturated with killing intent and madness, had struck Jang So Chul with a shock that nearly stopped his heart. He had witnessed countless martial masters and experienced much in his years, but never had he seen anything so overwhelmingly, crushingly powerful.
Jang So Chul presented the letter with utmost respect.
Dam Ho tore open the envelope and read the message.
“Jo Yoon San…… Heuksuchae…….”

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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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