Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 139

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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 138. The wind never stops shaking the branches of ancient trees—1
Ailao Mountain in Yunnan Province was a treacherous range.
Its slopes ran deep and steep, rarely touched by human feet, and its peaks shrouded year-round in mist and cloud, making the true face of the mountain impossible to discern.
Tianhua Palace, nestled at the summit of Ailao Mountain, was a Mysterious Sect. Though it seldom involved itself in the affairs of Jianghu, the formidable reserves it possessed meant that none dared to regard it lightly.
Tianhua Palace was one of the Nine Great Sects and, sharing Yunnan Province as its base with the Jeomchang Sect, had maintained steady relations with them, earning recognition as an Orthodox faction.
Tianhua Palace had traditionally housed far more female disciples than male. Consequently, most of its leaders throughout history had been women.
The current leader of Tianhua Palace was Jang Hwa Gyeong.
Despite being past sixty years of age, Jang Hwa Gyeong possessed such formidable Internal Energy that she appeared to be in her early forties.
The Cloud Creation Pavilion, located in the deepest recesses of Tianhua Palace, served as her dwelling.
Whether joy or sorrow visited her, Jang Hwa Gyeong would retreat to the Cloud Creation Pavilion to gather her thoughts. The place had become as familiar to her as her own heartbeat.
Today, too, Jang Hwa Gyeong walked through the Garden before the Cloud Creation Pavilion.
The beautiful garden was a place she had tended her entire life. It overflowed with rare flowers and exotic plants seldom seen even in Yunnan Province, boasting a splendor worthy of the heavens themselves.
Jang Hwa Gyeong bent at the waist and gazed upon a small orchid blooming alone in the crevice of a rock.
“Soon the Heavenly Flower will open its petals.”
This small orchid was a rarity known as the Flower Descended from Heaven. She had obtained it with great difficulty from the treacherous peaks of distant Tianshan.
For the Heavenly Flower, which grew only in cold places, to take root in Yunnan Province with its warm climate year-round was far from easy.
Jang Hwa Gyeong had cultivated the orchid with meticulous devotion. Only after years of such effort had it begun to bear fruit, and so her feelings could scarcely be ordinary.
They said the Heavenly Flower was a blossom sent down by heaven itself. And there was a legend that when it bloomed, it brought great fortune.
“What fortune will it bestow?”
Jang Hwa Gyeong smiled and caressed the Heavenly Flower, whereupon its leaves trembled as if shy.
She was still admiring the petals in this manner when it happened.
Boom!
A sudden, violent Energy Wave rippled through the air.
It came from the direction of Tianhua Palace’s Main Gate.
“What—?”
Jang Hwa Gyeong’s expression shifted in an instant.
A murderous Energy Wave so intense it seemed to throttle the heart sent every hair on her body erect.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The emergency bell began to toll. It rang only when enemies stormed the gates.
“Who dares assault Tianhua Palace?”
She rushed toward the Main Gate.
“Palace Master!”
Disciples of Tianhua Palace converged on her from all directions.
Dozens became scores, and soon hundreds gathered.
A savage killing intent radiated from their entire forms. They reached the Main Gate of Tianhua Palace in moments.
The instant Jang Hwa Gyeong saw the gate, her eyes widened.
The martial practitioners who normally defended Tianhua Palace lay scattered across the ground. Blood pooled upon the stone, and the massive gate itself had been shattered beyond recognition.
In the place where sentries should have stood guard, figures in Red Wind Robes now stood watch.
They numbered barely a hundred, yet the Energy Aura radiating from their bodies was breathtakingly overwhelming.
At their center stood a man whose eyes glowed crimson.
In his hand he gripped a spear etched with a dragon coiling through its length, and from the weapon poured an aura so terrible it seemed to devour all light.
The oppressive presence alone, merely to behold it, felt as though one’s heart would be pierced. It was a weapon worthy of being called divine. And the master of such a weapon could be nothing ordinary.
Jang Hwa Gyeong suppressed the rage boiling within her and spoke.
“Who are you to dare wreak havoc upon Tianhua Palace?”
“My name is Yun Du Gwang.”
“Yun Du Gwang.”
“Yes. You likely have not heard of me—this is my first appearance in the world.”
Jang Hwa Gyeong’s brow furrowed.
“Do we share some enmity?”
“None whatsoever.”
“Then why?”
“A declaration of war requires an appropriate sacrifice, after all.”
“A declaration of war?”
“So our Cult Master instructed.”
“Cult Master?”
In that moment, Jang Hwa Gyeong’s eyes flew open wide.
Though countless sects existed in the world, few organizations referred to their leader as a Cult Master.
There was only one organization that could rightfully bear that title.
The Demonic Cult alone.
“You… you come from the Demonic Cult?”
“You’re not entirely oblivious, then.”
“Why the Demonic Cult?”
“Didn’t I tell you? A Declaration of War requires a sacrifice.”
The corners of Yun Du Gwang’s mouth curled upward, and a thick, suffocating murderous aura began seeping into the surroundings.
“Gasp!”
“Ugh!”
The Tianhua Palace martial artists, caught without defense against that killing intent, trembled visibly.
“Has the Demonic Cult at last revealed its true ambitions?”
“You made the first move.”
“What do you mean?”
“Without you, we would have gone on living quietly, as we always have.”
Yun Du Gwang gripped the spear with force, and thick veins like earthworms bulged across the back of his hand.
“Hmph! Will you hide behind such cowardly excuses? I don’t know why the Demonic Cult has marked this palace as its prey, but you will soon learn that we are no easy quarry.”
Jang Hwa Gyeong raised her hand, and the warriors of Tianhua Palace drew their weapons, turning them toward Yun Du Gwang and the Demonic Cult’s fighters.
Yun Du Gwang assumed a spear stance, weapon in hand.
“I am Yun Du Gwang, Hidden Dragon Hall Master of the Divine Religion, and in the name of our Cult Master, I shall erase Tianhua Palace from this world.”
“Absurd. Do not underestimate the strength we possess. All disciples—annihilate the Demonic Cult!”
Jang Hwa Gyeong let out a sharp laugh as she issued her command.
“Raaaah!”
“Drive back the Demonic Cult!”
The warriors of Tianhua Palace surged forward with a battle cry, rushing toward the Demonic Cult’s fighters. Yet even now, those arrayed behind Yun Du Gwang remained motionless.
They moved only after Yun Du Gwang’s command fell.
“In the name of the Divine Religion, we shall annihilate Tianhua Palace. Begin the Holy War.”
“Yes, Master!”
Whoosh!
The fighters who had not made a sound until now swept forward in a flurry of red robes, the Red Wind Robes billowing as they descended upon Tianhua Palace’s warriors.
Crack!
Their bare hands thrust out from beneath the robes. What they wielded were Soul Chasing Claws—a Mysterious Weapon with three blade-like talons jutting from each hand like claws.
Though devastatingly effective in close combat, these weapons were notoriously difficult to master and even harder to employ in real battle, making them rarely encountered in the Jianghu.
Yet the Demonic Cult’s fighters wielded the Soul Chasing Claws with practiced ease.
Screech!
“Argh!”
“Ahhh!”
Each time the Soul Chasing Claws tore through the air, Tianhua Palace’s warriors fell, spraying blood. It was Tianhua Palace’s disciples who died one after another, while the Demonic Cult’s fighters sustained barely a wound.
Like wolves descending upon a flock of sheep, they displayed overwhelming martial prowess.
“Tsk!”
Jang Hwa Gyeong bit her lip until blood flowed.
Her disciples were dying before her eyes. Unable to believe the reality unfolding, she let out a cry of rage.
“I will not forgive you, you dogs of the Demonic Cult.”
Her pale hand slashed through the void.
The Demon Control Mystical Hand—the Supreme Technique that only the master of Tianhua Palace could master—unfurled.
Whoosh!
Her hand shadows engulfed the entire space around her.
The Demon Control Mystical Hand, honed to its peak, possessed enough power to reduce a boulder the size of a house to dust.
In that moment, Yun Du Gwang thrust the spear he held into the void.
A swirl of crimson light rose along the spear shaft, extending outward through the blade.
Spear Energy erupted forth.
The second form of the Extinguishing Fire Spear—Blood Flower Rain—Yun Du Gwang’s Supreme Technique.
Boom!
Two massive forces collided in the void.
Blinding light exploded outward, and shockwaves tore across the surroundings.
Some were caught in the blast and tumbled across the ground, and the wall that had barely been holding itself together crumbled entirely.
Thud!
Moments later, a body plummeted to the ground with a heavy impact.
“Uhhhhh…”
The woman gasping and convulsing intermittently was none other than Jang Hwa Gyeong, Mistress of Tianhua Palace.
Her right arm was severed from the shoulder and lay somewhere out of sight, and her entire body was soaked in blood, her face so mangled it was difficult to recognize.
“Ahhh!”
Tears streamed from her eyes.
Her disciples were dying.
Centuries of history were crumbling. The Tianhua Palace was falling.
Yun Du Gwang looked down at her, his voice sharp and cold.
“There’s no need to feel so wronged. Many sects will fall just as Tianhua Palace has.”
“You—you demons!”
“We lost everything and hid at the world’s edge. That place was all we had left, our final refuge. But you followed us even there. You took even that from us. Now all we have is our last shred of pride and poison in our veins. Anyone in such straits would become a demon.”
A low growl escaped her lips.
“Call us demons if you like. Blame us for drenching the Jianghu in blood. It matters not. We have a reason to fight—one that will not bend.”
This was a fight for survival.
Many would spill their blood on this land.
Even if the Divine Religion bore the stigma of the Demonic Cult forever, they would endure it.
“Let none survive. Show all who oppose the Divine Religion what becomes of them.”
Yun Du Gwang’s command descended, and that night, the Tianhua Palace was annihilated—not a single soul left alive.
***
Atop Lotus Peak, shrouded in mist, the upper chamber of Hua Shan was filled with the sect’s leadership.
Many had gathered in that single space, yet not one drew breath loudly.
The annihilation of Tianhua Palace sent shockwaves through the world.
Though they had kept themselves distant from worldly affairs and were classified as a Mysterious Sect, their strength surpassed that of most sects in the Central Plains.
And yet, in a single night, Tianhua Palace was wiped from existence. Not a soul survived, and even the foundation stones were thoroughly destroyed.
Because of this, every sect under heaven was on high alert. Hua Shan was no exception.
Having suffered the greatest losses in their conflict with the Demonic Cult decades past, their fear and fury burned all the fiercer.
After a long silence, Hyun Cheon finally spoke.
“The Demonic Cult’s invasion has become reality at last. Today it was Tianhua Palace, but tomorrow—who can say? It could be us.”
A heavy murmur rippled through the chamber.
The elders could say nothing more.
Though their lips remained sealed, the gravity of the situation weighed upon them all.
Hyun Cheon swept his gaze across the gathered elders and issued his command.
“Recall all disciples to Hua Shan, save those dispatched to the Murim Alliance.”
“Understood.”
“And send word to Hyun Gyeom. Tell him his seclusion is over. It is time.”
“Yes!”
Hyun Gyeom was Hua Shan’s finest swordmaster. His strength would be essential to defend the sect against the Demonic Cult’s assault.
Then someone spoke carefully.
“But there is one matter…”
“What is it?”
“What of Dam Ho?”
The speaker was Hyun Gyeong, the master of Taiping Palace, which ranked just below Hua Shan itself.
All eyes turned to Hyun Gyeong. The Dam Ho he had named was none other than the Heavenly Swordsman.
Dam Ho, the Heavenly Swordsman.
The name that burned brightest in the Jianghu today, yet one too heavy to bear without consequence.
Moreover, Myeong Gyeong had recently returned from venturing forth into the Jianghu with great confidence. He had revealed his own defeat at Dam Ho’s hands and withdrawn into seclusion to cultivate.
The impact of these events on Hua Shan had been tremendous. So much so that whenever two or more gathered, debate erupted.
Some insisted Dam Ho should be recognized as a true disciple of Hua Shan. Others argued they could not take on one marked as a public enemy of the Jianghu.
Both sides held merit, and even Hua Shan’s leadership could not decide.
Too hot to hold, yet too valuable to lose.
That was Dam Ho’s position within Hua Shan now.
The leadership deliberated on his future regardless of his own wishes. Yet by the time the meeting ended, no conclusion had been reached.
Hyun Cheon’s gaze grew distant and grave.
‘Yun Gyeong must find Hyun So. He must.’

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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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