Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 133

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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 132. Blood Thicker Than Water—Part 1
“Ugh!”
Mook Il Gwang’s eyes snapped open with a groan.
His vision was blurred, unable to focus. He blinked several times in succession.
Gradually, his senses returned.
“Miss!”
Mook Il Gwang lurched upright, crying out. His hand instinctively reached for the Axe.
In that instant, a warm voice came from beside him.
“I’m all right, Il Gwang.”
“Miss!”
He turned his head and saw Hwang Hye Ryeong crouched there, watching him.
“Are you truly unharmed, miss?”
“I’m fine. But what of you, Il Gwang?”
“I’m…”
Mook Il Gwang’s expression twisted as he tried to say he was well. His Qi and Blood felt tangled and blocked throughout his entire body.
His frame was sturdy enough that nothing appeared to be broken, but the Internal Injury was severe. Yet it seemed someone had tended to him properly—the condition wasn’t worsening.
“How… what happened?”
Bewilderment clouded Mook Il Gwang’s features.
Hwang Hye Ryeong offered him a faint smile.
“My brother helped us.”
“Your brother? Then…”
“Yes.”
Hwang Hye Ryeong nodded and gazed outward.
Bright sunlight was pouring through the mouth of a cave. They had been inside the Cave all along.
Just then, someone entered.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
It was Bang Jin Bo, his round frame and kindly smile unmistakable. A large pot hung from his hand.
Inside it was a murky Medicinal Porridge.
“You looked badly hurt, so I made some nourishing porridge for you.”
“Thank you.”
“Come now, it’s nothing difficult.”
Bang Jin Bo set down the pot with a warm smile.
“Where is my brother?”
“He’s…”
Bang Jin Bo trailed off, his gaze turning toward the cave’s entrance.
“Urrgh…”
A whimper escaped Gong So Chu’s lips.
Soaked as though he’d been lying in a pool of blood, his entire body was stained crimson.
Tears streamed down Gong So Chu’s face. Yet his will could not move even a finger. Every inch of him had been crushed—as if struck hundreds, thousands of times by a colossal hammer.
The mere fact that he still drew breath seemed a miracle.
The night before had been a nightmare for Gong So Chu. And the architect of that nightmare was none other than Dam Ho.
‘That monster is a devil.’
Shudder.
The mere thought of him made him lose control of his bladder.
Though his trousers were soaked, shame never entered his mind. Fear was all that remained.
The name Dam Ho was seared into his consciousness like a brand of terror.
He had tortured Gong So Chu through the entire night.
First his fingers had been shattered. Then his toes. The count of breaking bones had multiplied in moments.
Beyond the agony, what drove him toward madness was that despite such grievous wounds, he still clung to life. He would have welcomed death, but somehow—however he’d been handled—death would not come.
The hours of torment stretched like eternity.
At first, he’d understood nothing. Why was Dam Ho torturing him?
But as time wore on, he learned the answer.
He was the sole survivor of the village they had plundered. And Dam Ho—that wild child who’d once torn out a comrade’s throat—was now a monster returned to collect his due.
He couldn’t remember exactly what he’d said. He’d rambled endlessly, hoping that if he did, perhaps Dam Ho would show him mercy.
After all that babbling, consciousness had slipped away. When he came to again, he found himself abandoned in this unfamiliar place, utterly alone.
‘Did he just… let me go?’
It was the only conclusion he could draw. And he prayed—genuinely prayed—that it was true.
But the problem now was that he could not move of his own volition. He couldn’t even crawl; not a single finger obeyed his will.
Lying here like this, he would soon become carrion for the beasts.
‘Dammit! My brother is reduced to this state, and what is that man doing?’
He resented Gwok Geo Cheol, the Fan Master.
Yet he had followed for twenty years. He would feign death at the man’s command. It was all because of Gwok Geo Cheol’s orders that he’d risked his life infiltrating the ranks of the Murim Alliance’s martial artists and sown discord among them.
It was precisely when he harbored such resentment toward Gwok Geo Cheol.
“So Chu!”
Suddenly a familiar voice rang out.
In that instant, tears welled up in his eyes. It was a voice he’d yearned for even in his dreams.
“M-Master?”
Gwok Geo Cheol stood before him as though materializing from a dream.
Gwok Geo Cheol and his men came rushing toward him.
“Is that you, So Chu?”
“Ugh… ugh…”
Gong So Chu nodded, his answer coming as tears streamed down his face.
“What happened to you?”
Gwok Geo Cheol asked, but Gong So Chu could not answer. His jaw had been shattered.
After Gong So Chu was abducted by Dam Ho, Gwok Geo Cheol and his subordinates had cautiously tracked him. Unlike Gong So Chu, Gwok Geo Cheol had remained at a safe distance from the battlefield.
He’d been wary of his appearance drawing unwanted attention and exposing his identity.
For that reason he’d sent only Gong So Chu, though without great concern. He’d believed that Gong So Chu was sharp enough and sound in judgment that there would be little real danger.
The dim-witted martial artists of the Murim Alliance fell easily to just a bit of persuasion. Watching them, he’d sneered at what fools they were.
But everything changed the moment Dam Ho appeared.
Dam Ho was unlike any figure Gwok Geo Cheol had known before.
In all his years in Jianghu, Gwok Geo Cheol had never encountered a martial artist who possessed such terrifying, overwhelming Martial Prowess as Dam Ho.
He too was a creature of Jianghu.
He’d seen countless martial artists of prodigious strength.
Among them were absolute warriors whose very names resonated through Jianghu in those days. By raw Martial Power alone, they might even surpass Dam Ho.
But Dam Ho carried a primal terror that existed in none of the others.
Savagery and cold madness.
It was a quality that set Dam Ho apart from other martial artists. And Dam Ho knew how to wield both of these things with precision.
‘Could it be that such a peculiar specimen exists even among the Righteous Sects, those who know only how to preserve face?’
Dam Ho was, by Gwok Geo Cheol’s measure, a monster beyond comprehension. Yet this monster had abducted Gong So Chu.
Though Gong So Chu had been useful in fomenting discord among the Murim Alliance’s warriors, he was not so important a figure as to warrant the effort of abduction.
‘Where on earth did he take So Chu?’
If someone other than Dam Ho had taken Gong So Chu, he would not have given it much thought. But if someone with the stature to influence all of Jianghu—like Dam Ho—had taken him, the matter was entirely different.
A careless move could bring calamity upon the Green Forest as well.
For that reason, Gwok Geo Cheol had cautiously pursued Dam Ho’s whereabouts, taking every precaution not to be discovered.
And then, unexpectedly, Gong So Chu had appeared before him—reduced to a ruin, unable to speak of his own will, incapable of moving a single finger.
What could possibly explain it?
As such questions swirled through his mind.
“So you found your way here.”
Suddenly an unfamiliar voice cut through the air.
The moment Gwok Geo Cheol heard that flat, emotionless tone, every hair on his body stood on end.
“Who are you?”
He spun around. There, not far away, sat a solitary man atop a large boulder.
A man dressed entirely in black. Disheveled dark hair framed eyes that gleamed with an unsettling black light. A chill ran through him.
“Gasp!”
Gwok Geo Cheol recognized the man instantly.
How could he not? This was the man who had unleashed a bloodbath in Akyang.
It was Dam Ho.
Dam Ho rose from the boulder.
“You’re Gwok Geo Cheol, the Fan Master of the Black Fan Guild, aren’t you?”
“How did you…?”
Even as he spoke, Gwok Geo Cheol shot a look at Gong So Chu, thinking that he must have disclosed everything.
Gong So Chu could offer no defense. The mere sight of Dam Ho had paralyzed his reason.
Suddenly the events of the previous night came flooding back.
As buried terror surged forth anew, his heart began to race wildly.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
His entire body convulsed as though seized by a violent wind.
“Guh… guh…!”
Gong So Chu, who had been frothing at the mouth, suddenly went rigid. His heart had failed, overcome by fear.
Gong So Chu could not even close his eyes in death. His corpse, with wide-open eyes staring blankly into the void, was more than enough to chill the bones of the Green Forest warriors who had pursued him.
“Krugh! Was So Chu nothing but bait?”
Gwok Geo Cheol’s face twisted in confusion. Quick-witted as he was, the truth crystallized in his mind almost instantly. And his suspicion was correct.
Gong So Chu had been Dam Ho’s bait—a lure to draw in Gwok Geo Cheol and his men.
Though Gong So Chu couldn’t remember everything, he’d revealed far more than expected: the connection between Jo Yoon San and Gwok Geo Cheol, and even the reason they’d come to Akyang.
Dam Ho descended from the rock. Gwok Geo Cheol and his subordinates flinched, stumbling backward in unison.
The closer Dam Ho advanced, the further they retreated.
He still limped as he walked. Yet no one in that clearing dared laugh at him. No one could laugh.
A savage terror seized them, as though they were cattle dragged toward slaughter. Their bodies trembled like aspen leaves, shaking with a dread they had never known before.
Only Gwok Geo Cheol clenched his teeth and stood his ground.
Dam Ho spoke.
“Why?”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Why are you so obsessed with hunting that girl?”
Dam Ho’s eyes gleamed with cold fury.
In that instant, Gwok Geo Cheol felt as though a blade were raking across his chest. His heart plummeted.
“Ugh!”
Gwok Geo Cheol stumbled backward, glancing around desperately.
His once-reliable subordinates stood shaking like whipped dogs, terror draining the courage from their faces.
Gwok Geo Cheol barked an order.
“What are you doing? Stop him now!”
“But……”
“Stop him! If you don’t stop him, you’re all dead anyway.”
“Damn it!”
Reality crashing down on them at last, the subordinates seized their weapons and rushed at Dam Ho.
“Hyah!”
“Get him!”
As his men charged forward with roars, Gwok Geo Cheol spun on his heel and fled.
‘Curse it! My plan to use the Murim Alliance to eliminate that woman is ruined. How can I kill her when a monster like that guards her?’
Gwok Geo Cheol cursed the cruel fact that he had only two legs—not enough to run faster.
Bang! Bang!
Thunderous blows echoed behind him.
He heard no screams. But Gwok Geo Cheol knew in his bones—his men, posted as a human shield, were dead.
Whoosh!
A terrible wind pressure bore down from behind.
“Ahhh!”
Gwok Geo Cheol shrieked, spinning around to slash wildly with his weapon.
Whoosh!
His Nangya Blade carved through the air in a broad arc. But there was nothing to strike.
“Damn!”
The curse had barely left his lips when a hand clamped around his throat.
The crushing grip choked off his breath, and his jaw fell slack of its own accord.
Crack!
Dam Ho’s fist drove into Gwok Geo Cheol’s ribs. Blood spilled from his mouth.
His ribs shattered like pottery, splintering under the blow.
The agony—a torment he’d never imagined—brought him to his knees.
“Ngh!”
He had plundered countless times, stolen countless lives without remorse—yet Gwok Geo Cheol had never once tasted the terror of being hunted, of facing true death.
“No! No, please!”
As Gwok Geo Cheol crawled across the ground, tears streaming down his face, Dam Ho’s right foot came down toward his leg.
Crunch!
“Ahhhhh!”
Gwok Geo Cheol’s anguished scream tore through the air. His leg hung shattered, dangling uselessly.
He lifted his head. Dam Ho stood over him, looking down.
“Why?”

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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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