Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 162

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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 162. There Are Things You Must Never Touch—Part Two
His name was Namgoong Jang Gyeong.
He hailed from Cang Qiong Hall, an organization within the Namgoong Clan that housed middle-aged martial masters whose strength had earned recognition within the family.
Belonging to Cang Qiong Hall meant one possessed martial strength within the top hundred ranks of the Namgoong Clan—and Namgoong Jang Gyeong occupied an even higher position within that elite circle.
The mere fact that Namgoong Jang Gyeong had emerged into the world was itself evidence that something extraordinary was unfolding within the Namgoong Clan.
Namgoong Jang Gyeong fixed his gaze upon Jong Li Yeon.
Jong Li Yeon was barely in her early twenties.
For ordinary Jianghu practitioners, such an age would mark no more than a beginner—yet she had already cultivated considerable renown. Within Anhui Province, scarcely a soul remained unfamiliar with her name.
Even with the Namgoong Clan’s absolute dominion over Anhui Province, treating Jong Li Yeon carelessly would prove deeply troublesome.
Under normal circumstances, they would have approached with meticulous formality and care. But these were not ordinary times.
There was no luxury of sparing her concerns.
“Whoever summoned you, we do not know—but surely they would understand and accept our position if they grasped the urgency of the Namgoong Clan’s affairs.”
“That’s impossible.”
Jong Li Yeon shook her head.
In her eyes, all lives held equal worth. Whatever pressing circumstances the Namgoong Clan faced, the next patient awaiting her care labored under equal urgency.
The patient was scarcely more than ten years old—a girl of Dong I’s age, working in her father’s inn. Three years prior, she had been stricken by a Heavenly Curse, her blood vessels ossifying like stone, and she was dying by slow degrees.
Jong Li Yeon had first encountered the girl around that time. But then, no cure had existed within her knowledge. No treatment, nowhere in all she had learned, held any answer.
Jong Li Yeon never abandoned hope of saving her. Even as she tended to those whose afflictions she could address, she pressed forward with her research into the girl’s condition, relentless and unwavering.
Three years had passed in that manner. Throughout that span, the girl had wasted away toward death’s threshold, and now the end drew near. Yet Jong Li Yeon had finally—finally—uncovered the key to treating her ailment.
She was on her way now to save her. This was the moment she had awaited for three long years.
“I will attend to my previous patient as swiftly as possible, then address the Namgoong Clan’s matter.”
“That cannot be permitted. A life hangs in the balance.”
“This patient’s life is equally critical.”
“Lady Jong Li. This presents a difficulty.”
Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s voice turned cold, and with his shifting demeanor, the very air seemed to frost.
Jong Li Yeon’s expression hardened in kind.
Though she appeared at first glance merely a delicate, unworldly girl—naive and ignorant of life’s ways—she was in truth a physician who had surrendered everything to the Medical Arts.
‘A physician must never weigh the value of lives according to rank or station. Those whose lives hang most precariously must receive the physician’s skill first.’
Those were the words her master, the late Physician Hwal Seon Yu Tae, had spoken before teaching her the Medical Arts.
Her master had long since departed from this world, yet his teachings remained etched deeply within her heart.
Jong Li Yeon’s eyes did not waver. Namgoong Jang Gyeong recognized then that further words would be futile.
“I shall commit this transgression, Lady Jong Li.”
His voice was resolute.
Before his words had finished falling, the Namgoong Clan’s warriors closed in, encircling Jong Li Yeon and Hwa No.
At that moment, the old man who until now had remained silent stepped forward.
“When did the Namgoong Clan become so lacking in manners?”
Gone was the demeanor of an elder who moments before had exchanged easy jests with Jong Li Yeon.
From Hwa No’s entire being there now radiated a presence sharp and cutting as frost.
Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s eyes trembled.
He was reckoned among the masters of the Namgoong Clan. Naturally, he possessed the discernment to gauge another’s caliber.
Yet until Hwa No had revealed himself just now, he had given him scarcely a thought—so ordinary had been his appearance. Now that he stood fully exposed, his presence filled the space like a crushing weight upon the chest.
‘No ordinary master.’
But fear of Hwa No’s presence alone could not justify retreat. The circumstances would not allow it.
Namgoong Jang Gyeong approached Hwa No and asked, “Who are you, honored elder?”
“Who am I?”
“Just an old man drowning in debt.”
“Debt?”
“This young lady here saved my life. That debt—whether it be owed to King Yama himself, I cannot say—but the interest keeps compounding, and I’m still bound by it.”
Hwa No muttered complainingly as he rotated his wrists and loosened his body.
“We have no reason to fight, if only your young lady would show a bit of flexibility.”
“I’ve told that stubborn girl the same thing more than once—please, just bend a little, that’s how one finds ease in this world. But her obstinacy is truly something. More headstrong than a donkey, I tell you.”
Hwa No glanced toward Jong Li Yeon and clicked his tongue.
She stood with her face flushed crimson, her lips pressed firmly shut.
Though her eyes blazed with feigned fierceness, her clenched fists trembled visibly.
‘Mere bravado…’
She affected strength to conceal her fear.
Such posturing might deceive ordinary folk, but masters like Namgoong Jang Gyeong would see through it entirely.
“Then persuade your young lady, if you would. It is not yet too late.”
“But here’s the thing, I rather admire that obstinacy of hers. Despite everything, she clings to her own principles and convictions. Unfortunately, such people are rare these days.”
“So you choose punishment instead?”
“Time will tell who chose the path of punishment.”
“We are the Namgoong Clan.”
“I see.”
“And still you mean to make an enemy of us?”
“Did I not say it already? My life was spared. I’m living a second existence on borrowed time — why should I fear death?”
Hwa No’s voice was perfectly calm. His air of detachment, as though he’d transcended the world itself, only stoked Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s fury higher.
“Mark my words. From this moment forward, everything that happens in this inn rests on your conscience and your shoulders alone.”
“Ha! How terrifying.”
“Terrified you should be.”
Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s gaze swept across the martial artists who’d come with him.
“From this point forward, there can be no witnesses. Kill them all — erase the evidence.”
“Yes, sir!”
The Namgoong Clan’s martial artists answered in unison and drew their blades. The faces of Jong Li Yeon and Hwa No went ashen on the instant.
“Surely… you don’t mean to slaughter everyone in this inn?”
“You made it so.”
“You’re insane!”
Hwa No spat out a curse, but Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s expression never shifted. Jong Li Yeon’s face, by contrast, drained white.
She had only meant to uphold principle, yet the matter had spiraled far beyond her reckoning.
In one corner of the kitchen, the innkeeper and Dong I huddled and trembled. Strong as Hwa No was, he couldn’t shield them both.
Jong Li Yeon pressed her lips together, biting hard.
“Wait—please. If I go with you, will you spare them?”
“That cannot be.”
“Why not?”
“Because a word once spoken cannot be unspoken. Everyone in this inn heard the command to kill them all—and how long do you think such a secret would hold? People cannot keep silent, and even the gravest oath grows light as a feather as time passes.”
The Namgoong Clan held dominion over the peak of power in Anhui Province.
They possessed unrestrained authority and martial strength, and enjoyed the wholehearted support of the people there.
What would the people of Anhui Province say if they learned that the Namgoong Clan’s warriors had been ordered to slaughter everyone in an inn?
Surely they would face moral condemnation they could not escape.
For the Namgoong Clan, it would be a crushing burden.
“Their deaths lie at your feet.”
“But—”
“Begin!”
The command fell from Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s lips.
The Namgoong Clan’s martial artists raised their blades and advanced on the fighters gathered in the inn.
“Ahhh!”
“This is madness! What have we done?”
The faces of all those who had watched in breathless silence until that moment turned the color of ash.
They shrieked and scrambled toward the exits, but the inn’s entrance was already blocked by the Namgoong Clan’s warriors.
The people huddled into the corners of the inn, and the Namgoong warriors slowly tightened their noose.
Dong I trembled in her father’s arms, her lips quivering.
“Father?”
“It will be all right. It will be all right.”
Her father patted her back, trying to comfort her. But his voice carried no strength.
‘This is exactly why I never wanted dealings with Murim.’
He held his small daughter tightly in his embrace, desperate to shield her from whatever might come.
That was when it happened.
Bang!
Suddenly the air in the inn tore open, and a wind as savage as a wild beast crashed down upon them all.
“Ugh!”
“What—?”
Guests and Namgoong warriors alike staggered, unable to keep their footing against the violent Energy Wave.
“What is this?”
Jong Li Yeon and Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s faces drained of color as they turned toward the source of the crushing impact.
“Gahhh!”
One of the Namgoong Clan’s warriors reeled where he stood.
One of his shoulders was completely crushed inward.
He couldn’t take more than three or four stumbling steps before collapsing backward like a felled log.
Thud!
A hollow crash echoed through the inn, and behind where the warrior had blocked their view, people could now see what lay beyond.
A man was sitting there.
A man with wild black hair, dressed in a tattered black coat.
The martial artist who had received Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s orders naturally moved to eliminate him. It was, after all, the command he had been given.
The moment the warrior’s blade was about to reach Dam Ho, a violent gust swept over him. And the world went dark.
That was the end of the martial artist.
Silence fell over the hall.
Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s eyes trembled.
The tremor spread to his shoulders, yet Namgoong Jang Gyeong was not even aware of it.
‘How could I have missed him?’
This fierce presence, this savage Energy Wave—it spoke of an opponent who was far from ordinary.
Namgoong Jang Gyeong had never felt an Energy Wave so raw and ferocious in all his life.
Had he known such a being existed, he would never have issued an execution order so carelessly.
Namgoong Jang Gyeong reproached himself for his hasty decision and opened his mouth.
“Who are you?”
“Does it matter?”
The moment Namgoong Jang Gyeong heard Dam Ho’s voice, every hair on his body stood on end.
Dam Ho pushed himself to his feet.
In that instant, not only the warriors of the Namgoong Clan but even Hwa No flinched and stepped back. Dam Ho’s presence was terrifying in its intensity.
Jong Li Yeon’s eyes widened.
Though she was bold enough to stand against the Namgoong Clan directly, she had never encountered anyone whose martial spirit radiated with such overwhelming force as Dam Ho’s.
A single man’s presence dominated everyone gathered in the inn.
Dam Ho moved toward Namgoong Jang Gyeong.
His left foot dragged slightly across the floor.
The instant Namgoong Jang Gyeong saw that movement, two characters came to mind.
A name that now struck terror through the Jianghu.
“So you are Dam Ho.”
The resonance his cry triggered was tremendous.
“Dam Ho? Then… the Demon of Authority?”
“The Demon of Authority was in this inn?”
The Namgoong Clan warriors murmured among themselves.
How could they not know that name?
At every crisis, Dam Ho had been the towering wall that blocked the Namgoong Clan’s path. Namgoong Soo, the clan’s second son, had lost his life by his hand.
Dam Ho was nothing less than the Namgoong Clan’s eternal enemy.
“How dare you—”
Namgoong Jang Gyeong’s angry roar erupted.

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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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