Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 171

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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 170. The Fist Demon and the Sword King Collide—Part Two
The world contains countless Lightness Skills.
The Grass Running that skims across grass blades, the Water Running that treads upon the surface of streams, the Treading Snow Without Traces that leaves no mark even when stepping through deep snow.
Though they seemed impossible, these were Lightness Skills that existed in the realm of reality. Indeed, in the present Jianghu, martial artists who had mastered such techniques truly existed.
Yet apart from these, there existed Lightness Skills that belonged to the legendary realm, passed down only through oral tradition among the people.
The Void Stepping, which allowed one to walk through empty air as though treading flat ground, and the One Reed Crossing, which spoke of a single reed leaf sufficing to traverse a flowing river—these were precisely such legends.
A legendary Lightness Skill passed through people’s mouths, yet unknown whether anyone had truly mastered it.
The Sword Flight Technique was likewise a Lightness Skill that claimed its place among such legends.
The realm of riding upon a sword and taking flight.
It was a domain of impossibility that seemed achievable only by immortals.
Though such a realm was said to exist, in the past several decades, Namgoong Cheon was the first martial artist to display the Sword Flight Technique.
“How… how is this possible?”
Jong Li Yeon’s face had gone pale as ash.
The distance Namgoong Cheon could traverse by Sword Flight Technique was in fact only about five hundred paces. Yet even that much was sufficient cause for alarm.
Thunk!
In an instant the blade shot through the air and embedded itself directly before Dam Ho. Upon it, Namgoong Cheon descended with a gentle grace.
The thin blade flexed slightly for a moment, then returned to its original form.
Standing upon the sword, Namgoong Cheon looked down upon Dam Ho.
Namgoong Cheon towering upon the blade and Dam Ho gazing up at him. And Jong Li Yeon watching the scene with a pallid face. Silence descended upon their surroundings.
Namgoong Cheon, arms folded across his chest, regarded Dam Ho. From his entire body radiated an oppressive aura that only an absolute master could possess, bursting forth with explosive force.
A faint anger gleamed in Namgoong Cheon’s eyes.
“Are you the Fist Demon?”
His momentum swelled like a snowball, pressing upon their surroundings.
Namgoong Cheon’s rage was violent and scorching, like an active volcano. His wrath was directed at both Dam Ho and Jong Li Yeon.
Dam Ho’s eyes trembled slightly.
Every muscle in his body was drawn taut like the string of a drawn bow, seized with tension. His body sensed the threat before his mind could process it, reacting instinctively.
His hair stood on end, and goosebumps crawled up his spine. Since entering the Jianghu, he had never felt such tension before.
Namgoong Cheon’s gaze was sharp as a finely honed blade, and the aura flowing from his body was murderous beyond measure, as though facing thousands of swords at once.
“Why do you not answer? I asked if you are the Fist Demon.”
“I am!”
“At last we meet. You brazen wretch. How dare you inflict such grievous harm upon my clan.”
Killing intent dripped from Namgoong Cheon’s voice.
Dam Ho said nothing, merely meeting Namgoong Cheon’s gaze.
The muscles beneath his clothes rippled. As he sensed his opponent’s strength, his body instinctively sought and adjusted to the optimal state necessary to meet that power.
Namgoong Cheon’s eyes turned toward Jong Li Yeon.
“And know this—you will not leave this place alive. Because you did not come, we lost the chance to treat Namgoong Mu Jin’s demonic possession in time. Your life is no equal payment for that crime. To refuse to treat the heir of my clan because of a mere girl.”
“Gasp!”
Jong Li Yeon’s response was only a trembling body as her face went white. Such was the killing intent radiating from Namgoong Cheon.
Namgoong Cheon, called the Sword King, was nothing less than the pinnacle among all martial artists who wielded the blade as a weapon. For an ordinary physician to withstand his killing intent was impossible.
With Namgoong Mu Jin afflicted by demonic possession, the Namgoong Clan’s succession structure had plummeted into chaos with no path forward visible.
Had Namgoong Su at least survived, the matter of succession could have been more readily resolved, but he too had fallen to Dam Ho’s hand.
In every way, Dam Ho had dealt the Namgoong Clan the gravest of blows. Because of this, a clan with centuries of history had been thrown into turmoil.
Because of a single man, decades of accumulated power had been set back.
Namgoong Cheon’s fury pierced the heavens. And his wrath, given form, pressed down upon Dam Ho and Jong Li Yeon.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
Dam Ho’s heart pounded fiercely. So violent was its beating that it seemed it would burst from his chest.
Dam Ho instinctively sensed that he was facing the strongest opponent since his entry into the Jianghu.
The chill running through his entire body had not yet faded. Such was the overwhelming presence that Namgoong Cheon commanded.
Even had Dam Ho’s condition been sound, this would be a formidable foe. And now he bore unhealed internal injuries inflicted by the Sword King.
Yet Dam Ho did not despair.
Throughout his time in the Jianghu, he had acted with nothing to constrain him, but he had always known that such a moment might come—when a wall of overwhelming magnitude stood before him, immovable and insurmountable.
‘If I win, I will surpass it. If I am blocked and fall, so be it.’
Now that his revenge was complete, no lingering attachment remained in this world. The only regret was that he had not yet glimpsed his master’s face.
Crack!
As Dam Ho tightened his clenched fist, the sound of bone joints striking together rang out. That sound stirred Namgoong Cheon.
“Insolent!”
The look in Dam Ho’s eyes, fixed upon him with intensity, displeased him.
Where there should have been eyes filled with despair and desperation, he instead saw a spark of boldness and challenge, and this particularly provoked his ire.
“I will gouge out those eyes.”
Namgoong Cheon lifted his body slightly into the air, and with his foot, he flicked away the hilt of the sword upon which he had been standing.
It seemed like a casual kick, but the blade flew toward Dam Ho at a terrifying speed.
In an instant, Dam Ho unleashed a strike toward the incoming attack.
The Wave-Breaking Fist.
Crack!
Fist and blade collided, and the metallic ring echoed across the field.
Screech!
Dam Ho’s body was driven backward. Where his feet touched the ground, a deep furrow carved into the earth.
A thin line of blood traced the corner of Dam Ho’s mouth. From a single exchange of blows, a tremendous impact had pierced through his entire frame.
Whistle!
The blade, as though alive, whirled back to Namgoong Cheon’s hand. The moment he grasped it, his aura transformed.
“I’ll grant you six moves.”
He swept the blade forward and rushed toward Dam Ho.
Sharp waves of energy crashed down like a tidal surge.
Dam Ho ground his teeth. Since he had begun studying the martial arts, this was the first time he had felt such overwhelming pressure from an opponent. That only fueled his rage further.
Boom!
He stomped the ground.
His body erupted forward like lightning. The Charging Step had unfolded.
The Wave-Breaking Fist followed in its wake.
Crash!
Another deafening boom tore through the air.
Against an ordinary opponent, even if he suffered no great wound, he would have staggered back at this point. But Namgoong Cheon was different.
Swoosh!
His body rotated smoothly, redirecting Dam Ho’s power as he pressed forward.
Rip!
Dam Ho’s ribs tore open, exposing bone beneath. Blood gushed out in torrents, and his eyes twitched violently.
It was a strike that maximized the blade’s intrinsic subtlety—not the force of Sword Qi or Sword Rampart, but the weapon’s own lethal artistry.
Namgoong Cheon swung the blade wide, flinging the blood from it.
“Everyone trembles at the mere mention of Kwon Ma, and you thought yourself the supreme master of Gangho? Ridiculous. Excepting the Four Divine Immortals alone, there are more than ten martial artists in Gangho today who could kill you without effort. You are nothing.”
Once again, the name Four Divine Immortals had surfaced. But Dam Ho could not afford to dwell on it. No—more truthfully, he had no leisure for such thoughts.
Even as the moment unfolded, Namgoong Cheon’s words continued.
“A worthless wretch who lucked his way into power, swaggering about as though heaven itself holds no terror for him.”
Namgoong Cheon raised his blade again, pointing it at Dam Ho.
Brilliant sunlight fractured against the steel, scattering into fragments. The refracted light stung Dam Ho’s eyes.
In that moment, Namgoong Cheon moved once more.
Screech!
The blade carved through the air with razor precision.
Namgoong Cheon’s target was Dam Ho’s throat meridian. A direct hit meant instant death.
Clang!
Dam Ho deflected the blade with a Single Yang Strike.
Though he had struck the blade’s edge with only the back of his hand, blood still welled from the wound.
Namgoong Cheon smiled and unfurled his blade toward Dam Ho once more.
Thrust, slice, retract—one simple form followed another in rapid succession. At first glance they seemed ordinary, but in Namgoong Cheon’s hands they became more devastating than any supreme technique or celestial art.
Whip!
Dam Ho’s entire body bloomed with sharp cuts. Each one drew blood and sent a piercing ache crawling up his spine.
The Poison Walk Style is fundamentally linear.
Because of his limp—his inherent handicap—he could not master elaborate movement methods. What he had chosen instead was the Charging Step.
The Charging Step possessed destructive force enough to shatter gates, but in exchange, it lacked variation and was monotonous in application.
The Poison Walk Style was built upon the Charging Step, so its variations were necessarily limited. But in return, the destructive force of each blow surpassed all other martial arts.
Namgoong Cheon had discerned the strengths and weaknesses of both the Charging Step and the Poison Walk Style from merely one glimpse.
‘Evade the first strike alone, and his martial arts crumble to nothing. It is remarkable he has dominated Gangho with such a crude system.’
Namgoong Cheon let out a derisive snort.
Namgoong Cheon, having perfected the Emperor Sword Form, had already reached a realm worthy of being called Master of an Era.
Sword Qi? Sword Rampart?
It was not that he could not use them.
He simply had no need to employ them.
It was sufficient to kill his foe without resorting to such things.
‘You must die in maximum agony. That is the price for standing against the Namgoong Clan.’
Swish!
His blade whirled through the air in a dazzling display.
Dam Ho’s form was driven back in disarray. Since entering Gangho, never had he been pushed back so helplessly.
That was how fearsome Namgoong Cheon’s sword had become. The moment any opening appeared, it struck like a viper, ruthless and precise, leaving wounds in its wake. Dam Ho’s entire body had become a map of blood marks.
“No, this can’t happen!”
Jong Li Yeon’s face drained of all color as she watched.
Dam Ho hadn’t even fully healed from his wounds against the Sword King before this—fighting the man they now called the Sword King himself was nothing short of suicide.
Namgoong Cheon’s figure multiplied—two, three copies of him blooming before Dam Ho’s eyes.
It was what happened when he deployed the Infinite Divine Step, the secret movement method of the Namgoong Clan.
He moved so rapidly that afterimages lingered, creating the illusion of multiple bodies.
Whoosh!
Namgoong Cheon’s blade carved through the air again and again.
Ordinary moves wove together into a storm. That storm bore down with such ferocity it seemed ready to devour Dam Ho whole.
Using the Infinite Divine Step, Namgoong Cheon positioned himself where Dam Ho would move before striking—a pattern that repeated endlessly.
All Dam Ho could do was curl his body tight and deploy the Tremor Shield. It offered some protection against Namgoong Cheon’s keen strikes.
“Tsk. Dull.”
When his blade met only the shield with no real progress, Namgoong Cheon’s tongue clicked against his teeth.
He’d realized that ordinary sword forms could no longer wound Dam Ho.
Namgoong Cheon poured his power into the hand gripping his sword.
Hummmmm!
The blade sang out in response.
With that Sword Cry came flame—his weapon blazing to life.
Like an erupting volcano, the intense and searing fire soon took the shape of a sword.
Sword Rampart.
A realm where nothing could be cut, nothing could be broken—made manifest.
“Give me that neck, Kwon Ma.”
Shrieeeee!
Namgoong Cheon’s blade traced a wide arc down toward Dam Ho’s throat.
“It’s dangerous!”
Jong Li Yeon cried out, unable to stay silent.
That instant—
Screeeech!
Dam Ho’s curled body uncoiled like a spring. His right leg flew in a strange, curved arc.
Bang!
His heel struck Namgoong Cheon’s left shoulder with a sharp crack. The impact sent Namgoong Cheon stumbling backward, driven hard by the blow.
The Blood Heaven Kick—a Supreme Technique passed down solely by Woo Gyeong Pae, the Iron Blood Tyrant Demon who had once roamed Gangho alone, armed with nothing but a single footwork technique.
Dam Ho straightened his shoulders.
It wasn’t over yet.
‘Don’t treat my life like some cheap trinket in your pocket.’
Grind.
Dam Ho’s teeth ground together.

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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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