Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 144

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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 144. Those Who Forget the Past, Those Who Cannot—3
Hwang Gyeong Moon looked down at Jo Yoon San.
“It’s been a long time, Chaejoo Jo.”
“I should have visited more often. My apologies.”
“Distance is distance. There’s no helping it.”
“Still, while I’m here, I’ll do my best to serve you well.”
“I appreciate it!”
“But what occasion brings this celebration? Surely you didn’t arrange it for us?”
“It happened to work out that way. You’ve traveled far and must be weary. Enjoy the festivities and rest well tonight.”
“Thank you.”
Jo Yoon San bowed deeply. The other chaejoos followed suit, inclining their heads.
Jo Yoon San turned, a smile playing at his lips.
Despite the countless eyes fixed upon him, he moved with unhurried ease.
Suddenly, a woman of ethereal beauty entered his gaze. In that instant, his smile deepened.
Without hesitation, he strode toward her.
“It’s been far too long, Hae Ryeong.”
“Chaejoo Jo.”
Hwang Hae Ryeong bowed toward Jo Yoon San.
“You’ve become quite the proper lady now. You’d make a fine bride.”
“You seem as vigorous as ever, Chaejoo.”
“Do I?”
“Yes!”
“How kind of you to say.”
Jo Yoon San nodded slowly.
His words were warm, yet his eyes burned with a coldness and sharpness unlike any before.
“I hear you’ve been in Akyang. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps you didn’t see Geo Cheol?”
“You mean Vice-Chaejoo Gweok?”
“That’s right.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Are you certain?”
“Quite certain. Why would you ask me that?”
“Geo Cheol went to Akyang to meet an acquaintance, but I haven’t heard from him since.”
“Vice-Chaejoo Gweok went to Akyang? For what reason?”
“He said he had someone to meet there. Since you were in Akyang, I thought you might know something. Never mind it.”
“I understand.”
Jo Yoon San studied Hwang Hae Ryeong with a piercing gaze as she answered.
‘She truly knows nothing?’
Hwang Hae Ryeong’s expression was one of genuine ignorance.
Gweok Geo Cheol had acted on his orders, revealing Hwang Hae Ryeong’s existence to the Murim Alliance.
As a result, members of the Namgoong Clan and mugins from the Murim Alliance had moved to capture her. Yet their intentions had been thwarted by Dam Ho alone.
That much could be forgiven. In life, carefully laid schemes often came to nothing—it happened all the time.
The problem was the mysterious disappearance of Gweok Geo Cheol, his loyal subordinate and Vice-Chaejoo of Heuksuchae.
Gweok Geo Cheol was no mere underling. He was a trusted confidant whose every thought Jo Yoon San could read, and so devoted that he would not hesitate to leap into fire itself if asked.
More than anything, Gweok Geo Cheol had followed him for over two decades. The bond they shared ran deeper than blood.
And that bond had been severed. As if Gweok Geo Cheol had vanished from the world entirely.
It was from that moment that Jo Yoon San had begun to feel an inexplicable unease.
Jo Yoon San’s piercing gaze finally shifted from Hwang Hae Ryeong to the side.
He saw Muk Il Gwang, and a plump boy nearby.
And a young man whose face he had never seen before.
A Black Leather Long Coat dark as pitch, black hair wild and disheveled like a wolf’s, and between the strands, eyes as fathomlessly black as obsidian.
Jo Yoon San’s brow furrowed. The moment their eyes met, he felt something unsettling—a chill he could not name.
It was as if countless ants had crawled across his entire body. He had never felt such a sensation before.
Without thinking, Jo Yoon San spoke.
“Who are you?”
The man—Dam Ho—did not answer.
Instead, he stared directly at Jo Yoon San. The reflection of Jo Yoon San’s face filled the depths of his black eyes.
Then a smile spread across Dam Ho’s lips, spreading like wildfire slowly consuming the land. At the sight of that smile, Jo Yoon San felt the unease deepen.
“Who are you?”
His voice suddenly rose.
Dam Ho, who had been staring intently at Jo Yoon San, finally spoke.
“It seems you don’t remember.”
“What?”
“I remember it clearly.”
“Have we met before?”
Dam Ho did not answer Jo Yoon San’s question. Jwa Sin Chung, Jo Yoon San’s loyal henchman at his side, bristled at Dam Ho’s silence.
“The Chaejoo is speaking to you. Why don’t you answer?”
Jwa Sin Chung stood seven feet tall and possessed extraordinary natural strength—within Heuksuchae, he had no match.
As Jwa Sin Chung’s voice rose, all eyes in the hall snapped toward him. The one who felt most uncomfortable was Hwang Hae Ryeong.
Hwang Hae Ryeong, who knew Dam Ho’s temperament well, stepped forward hurriedly.
“This is the Gwonma, Dam Ho, the great master.”
“The Gwonma?”
Jwa Sin Chung’s eyes widened at this revelation, despite his aggressive momentum.
He had heard rumors of the Gwonma well enough. In the Jianghu of the present day, Dam Ho was the Mugin whose name was spoken with more dread than any other.
“Are you truly the Gwonma?”
Dam Ho’s gaze turned toward Jwa Sin Chung.
“Gasp!”
The moment Jwa Sin Chung met those pitch-black eyes, utterly devoid of emotion, he inhaled sharply without meaning to.
He felt, with his entire body, what a frog must feel standing before a serpent.
He could not move. The fear that seized him was suffocating—one step would be his last.
“If you meddle once more, I’ll see to it you never chew your food with your own teeth again.”
“…….”
Jwa Sin Chung clamped his mouth shut instinctively.
The Dam Ho known throughout the Jianghu was a man who always kept his word once spoken. The fact that few who made an enemy of him lived to tell of it proved the rumors true.
Jo Yoon San’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“Are you truly the Gwonma?”
Dam Ho did not open his mouth. But this time, no one dared suggest he was being discourteous.
‘If this man is truly the Gwonma, he’s an enormous figure.’
‘Why would such a figure come to this place?’
Such suspicions rose in the minds of those present, but not a soul dared step forward and ask.
Jo Yoon San’s eyes gleamed with sharp calculation.
“So you are truly the Gwonma. What could the Gwonma possibly have to gain by coming to this remote mountain village?”
“Is Paewang Chae a remote mountain village?”
“…….”
Jo Yoon San could not answer. To accept Dam Ho’s words would be to insult Paewang Chae and Hwang Gyeong Moon before all these people.
Instead, he changed the subject.
“You have a sharp tongue.”
“My fists are sharper still.”
“Are you picking a fight with me?”
“You started it.”
“You bastard!”
“I didn’t realize before, but you’re remarkably dull-witted.”
In an instant, a tremendous killing intent erupted from Jo Yoon San’s entire body.
“Ugh!”
“Hah!”
The Mugis nearby, overwhelmed by the killing intent, shuffled backward in hesitant retreat. Yet Dam Ho’s expression remained entirely unmoved.
“Do you wish to die? This is the main headquarters of Nokrim. Your false reputation means nothing here.”
“Shall I test it? Whether that’s truly so?”
“You?”
Dam Ho rose to his feet. At this, Jo Yoon San flinched and took a step back.
Humiliation flashed across Jo Yoon San’s face.
He, who dreamed of becoming the Great Chaejoo of Nokrim, had just been forced back by the mere force of an opponent’s presence—a blow to his pride he could not abide.
In Dam Ho’s gaze fixed upon Jo Yoon San, there flickered not the slightest hint of emotion.
An enemy he had not faced in twenty years. When they finally met, he’d expected rage to boil over, to drive him mad with fury—yet unexpectedly, a cold, crystalline rationality prevailed, as though he’d been doused in ice water.
It was the moment Jo Yoon San’s rage was about to explode.
“He is my guest. He saved my daughter from grave peril. Treat him with respect.”
The grave voice of Hwang Gyeong Moon rang out.
At the voice of the absolute ruler of Nokrim, Jo Yoon San had no choice but to suppress his anger. Yet he did not forget to make a threatening gesture toward Dam Ho.
“You’d do well to be careful. If you cross my sight once more, I will show you no mercy.”
“You should take in the view around you while you have the chance.”
“What?”
“If you see much while you’re alive, you’ll have no regrets even after you’re gone.”
“You really are…….”
“Chaejoo Jo.”
Had Hwang Gyeong Moon’s voice not cut through once more, Jo Yoon San would have hurled himself at Dam Ho without hesitation.
Jo Yoon San was colder and more calculating than most, yet Dam Ho’s provocations somehow rattled him without mercy. It was the first time such a thing had happened, and Jo Yoon San could not hide his bewilderment.
‘Damn him!’
He stared at Dam Ho for a long moment, then turned away.
‘I will never let this pass. How dare he provoke me, relying on that paltry reputation.’
His shoulders twitched with intermittent spasms.
Dam Ho watched Jo Yoon San’s receding figure intently.
“Brother.”
“Brother!”
Hwang Hae Ryeong and Bang Jin Bo called out to Dam Ho at the same moment. Only then did Dam Ho tear his gaze from Jo Yoon San.
“Brother, I’m sorry that you had to…….”
Hwang Hae Ryeong’s face clouded with apology.
She had mistaken Dam Ho’s intervention as being on her behalf.
“It’s fine.”
Dam Ho reached out one large hand and gently touched Hwang Hae Ryeong’s head. It was an ill-mannered gesture to show to a grown woman. Yet Hwang Hae Ryeong felt no aversion to it—quite the opposite.
It was the precise inverse of the revulsion that seized her whenever she saw Jo Yoon San.
She had actually laid eyes on Jo Yoon San of Heuksuchae only a handful of times. Yet whenever they met, her body recoiled instinctively.
She despised everything about him.
Jo Yoon San spoke in ways she could not fathom—of events from her own childhood that she herself could not remember.
Perhaps that was why the aversion ran so deep.
‘Brother.’
By contrast, when she looked at Dam Ho, an inexplicable peace flooded her chest.
It was then.
“Ho ho! So the hero of the realm has been here all along.”
A voice dripping with sensuality purred into Dam Ho’s ears.
He turned to see a woman with a voluptuous figure swaying her hips as she approached.
Yi Ga Heun, Chaejoo of Cheongang Chae.
A female powerhouse who had risen to command Cheongang Chae, one of the Eighteen Bands of Nokrim, in a woman’s body.
More than a few Nokrim outlaws had thrown themselves at her seductive beauty and lost their lives for it.
No wonder her epithet was the Serpent-Scorpion Witch.
The Serpent-Scorpion Witch, Yi Ga Heun, settled naturally into the seat beside Dam Ho.
“I’m Yi Ga Heun. Pleased to meet you, Great Master Dam.”
“…….”
“You seem more taciturn than I expected. There’s no need to be so wary. I happen to favor you, after all.”
Yi Ga Heun pressed her hip against Dam Ho’s side.
The air around them grew thick and warm in an instant.
A sensual smile played across Yi Ga Heun’s face.
She felt an enormous attraction to Dam Ho.
In the Jianghu, strength was law. In her eyes, Dam Ho was a powerful man.
‘Ho ho! If only I could wrap this man around my little finger, dominating all of Nokrim would be no mere fantasy.’
She was a woman of vast ambition.
Though she was cooperating with Jo Yoon San for now, if Dam Ho proved more appealing, she stood ready to switch her allegiance at a moment’s notice.
“Great Master Dam.”
“In heat, are we?”
“Pardon?”
“The stench of your musk is overwhelming.”
In that instant, not only Yi Ga Heun’s face but the faces of everyone present drained to a sickly pallor.

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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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