Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 172

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 171. The Demon of Authority and the Sword King Clash—3
Strange heat radiated across Dam Ho’s entire body. The beads of sweat clinging to his skin evaporated into vapor.
Namgoong Cheon’s eyes gleamed as he watched Dam Ho’s transformation.
His left arm hung limp at his side. The shoulder struck by the Flying Demon Kick had dislocated.
“So you’re not entirely worthless after all.”
Crack!
Namgoong Cheon forcibly reset his shoulder back into place. Vicious pain shot through his mind, but he ignored it.
He had endured such agony countless times during his martial training. The shoulder swelled grotesquely, but it hardly mattered—he favored his right hand anyway.
“You reject a chance to die peacefully. You’ll come to regret that.”
“I don’t regret anything.”
Belated remorse, or lingering attachment.
Such feelings had no place in Dam Ho’s heart.
Thud!
Dam Ho launched himself from the ground.
The Rushing Steps unfolded.
A smile played at the corner of Namgoong Cheon’s mouth—a sneer, unmistakable to any observer.
“Fool! You still haven’t realized that movement method won’t work against me.”
Namgoong Cheon deployed his Infinite Divine Steps once more, evading Dam Ho’s Rushing Steps.
He curved gracefully through the air, rushing toward Dam Ho’s back, the blade in his hand gleaming with lethal brilliance.
It was in that instant.
Bang!
Dam Ho threw himself violently against the ground.
His right foot burrowed into the earth up to the ankle. He had deployed the Thousand Jin Weight to forcibly halt his forward momentum.
Nngh!
As the pressure mounted, the muscles in his leg bulged massively, and blood vessels rose like cords across Dam Ho’s face.
Using his right foot as a pivot, Dam Ho spun his entire body, dispersing the accumulated pressure.
“Hmm!”
The pupils of Namgoong Cheon, now approaching from behind, trembled. Dam Ho’s reaction had exceeded his expectations.
Shriek!
Dam Ho unleashed the Dan Gong Byeok.
The impact ripped through the very grain of the air, striking Namgoong Cheon’s eardrums.
Tinnitus erupted inside his skull, and for an instant his balance wavered. Dam Ho did not miss that opening.
Dam Ho’s palm struck Namgoong Cheon’s chest. He was unleashing the Five Finger Rock Breaking Force.
Whack!
Namgoong Cheon snapped back to awareness and immediately struck Dam Ho’s hand with the flat of his blade, then leaped back.
“Whelp!”
Whoosh!
Even as he created distance, he continued his assault with the sword.
In that instant, Dam Ho launched himself skyward and spun in a complete rotation. His leg whipped out like a Whip.
The Flying Demon Kick.
Screech!
Bang!
Though aimed at Namgoong Cheon’s head, the attack was intercepted by the blade. The sword flexed like a bow, deflecting Dam Ho’s body away.
Despite successfully blocking the assault, the impact sent Namgoong Cheon’s carefully bound hair tumbling loose and wild.
Through the tangled strands, fury blazed in his eyes.
“Insolent!”
Namgoong Cheon hurled the blade he held directly at Dam Ho.
Ping!
The sword spun through the air toward Dam Ho, who ducked his head and let it pass.
Dam Ho charged forward without hesitation.
A swordless Namgoong Cheon was no match for him.
His eyes flashed with savage intensity.
“Careful!”
Jong Ri Yeon’s voice came from behind him, followed by a sharp wave of danger that struck his mind.
Dam Ho ducked instinctively.
Whish-crack!
A searing pain slashed across his back. As he straightened, he saw his own blade spinning through empty air behind him.
The sword, having shifted its trajectory mid-flight, attacked like a living creature.
‘The Sword Spirit Technique.’
A legendary realm where intention masters the blade.
Whoosh!
The air split open as a silver blade shot toward Dam Ho’s throat.
Dam Ho deflected the sword with Un Mang Soo, but the blade rebounded and curved back toward his vital point at the waist.
Swordplay wielded directly by a human inevitably carries many restrictions. The structural limitations of the human body cannot be overcome.
But swordplay deployed through the Sword Spirit Technique knew no such limits. It could unfold freely, constrained by nothing.
Rip!
The hem of Dam Ho’s robe tore away.
Watching him, Namgoong Cheon smiled.
“How much longer do you think you can evade?”
Namgoong Cheon had mastered the Emperor Heart Technique, the supreme Internal Energy method of the Namgoong Clan. The Internal Martial Energy he had accumulated through it approached the infinite.
So long as his energy did not deplete, the Sword Spirit Technique would not stop.
Namgoong Cheon deployed the Emperor Sword Form with his Sword Spirit Technique. Already possessing overwhelming power, when the subtleties of the Emperor Sword Form were layered upon it, the force doubled.
Screech!
Before the sharply whirling Sword Spirit Technique, Dam Ho’s form seemed as precarious as a lamp flickering in the wind.
“Ah!”
A sigh tinged with despair escaped between Jong Ri Yeon’s lips.
‘This is hopeless. No matter how strong he is, he cannot overcome the Sword Spirit Technique.’
She did not fear for her own life, but the thought that Dam Ho would lose his because of her filled her with crushing remorse.
In truth, Dam Ho was being driven into an absolute corner by the Sword Spirit Technique. There seemed no way to break through it.
His body accumulated wounds while he could not land a single blow on Namgoong Cheon.
Dam Ho’s gaze grew cold and steely.
An ordinary man might have despaired and surrendered. But Dam Ho was no ordinary man.
‘If there is no path, I will forge one.’
That was the Dark Form Fist, Dam Ho’s singular path.
Boom!
As Dam Ho deployed Bang Pae, his body began to vibrate at a fundamental frequency.
In that state, he unleashed Rushing Steps toward the Sword Spirit Technique. Seeing this, Namgoong Cheon let out a derisive laugh.
“You’re so eager to die.”
The power of the Sword Spirit Technique was absolute.
No unarmored body could withstand it. No matter how much a defensive technique like Bang Pae was backed by fundamental vibration energy.
Thud!
The Sword Spirit Technique pierced through Bang Pae and drove deep. Flesh tore open, and the blade carved through the chest muscles as it entered.
“Cough!”
Dam Ho spat blood.
The blade had passed clean through one of his lungs and split out his back. As the lung punctured, it shriveled rapidly.
With air intake cut in half, Dam Ho’s complexion turned ashen in an instant.
Dam Ho’s body froze in place, the blade through his chest. Standing hunched and bleeding, he was the picture of defeat. Namgoong Cheon threw back his head and laughed with unbridled triumph.
“There! Ha ha ha!”
His laughter shook the earth itself, sending dust spiraling upward.
In that moment, Dam Ho lifted his head. Blood flowed from his nose and mouth. Crimson streams traced down his jaw and stained his chest.
“Krgh!”
A grotesque rattling echoed from his collapsed lung. Yet Dam Ho’s gaze never dimmed.
If anything, it blazed more fiercely and terrible.
Through gritted teeth, a harsh and murky voice emerged.
“Got… you.”
“What?”
“Your sword!”
The blade that had pierced his chest was now gripped in Dam Ho’s hand.
Crack!
Dam Ho tensed his grip, and the blade snapped in the middle. He released the broken fragment. Half the blade still protruded through his chest. A wound that would have meant instant death for any ordinary man. But Dam Ho’s body, honed to its absolute limit, was no ordinary matter.
The muscles around the wound tightened, stanching the bleeding to a minimum. The lung wound too constricted, cutting off the seepage of air to the outside.
“Haah!”
Dam Ho drew in a deep breath.
As air flooded in, his shriveled lung recovered its original shape.
Bang!
Dam Ho’s foot struck the ground hard.
His fist cleaved the air.
As Dam Ho’s form exploded forward with terrifying speed, Namgoong Cheon’s face registered shock for the first time. He reached instinctively to swing his sword, only to find nothing to grasp.
In desperation, he deployed Protective Aura.
Crash!
Dam Ho’s strike exploded against the Protective Aura, and the silver barrier rippled as Namgoong Cheon’s body was thrust backward.
“Tch! You insolent—”
Even shielded by the Protective Aura, the violent shock reverberated through his organs. The impact that cut through his entire frame twisted Namgoong Cheon’s face, but fury soon consumed him utterly.
“Do you truly believe you can best me without a blade? Fool!”
He was the patriarch of the Namgoong Clan.
Naturally, he had mastered not only the clan’s sword techniques but every martial fist art as well. Without a blade, he remained invincible.
Namgoong Cheon unleashed the Nine Cleave Divine Fist, the Namgoong Clan’s secret technique—and it became his greatest blunder.
Dam Ho did not miss that single moment of transition as Namgoong Cheon shifted to the new form.
Bang!
Dam Ho’s fist crashed down on Namgoong Cheon’s forearm, shattering the technique mid-execution.
“Hiss!”
Namgoong Cheon clenched his teeth, preparing to deploy the Nine Cleave Divine Fist again—when Dam Ho’s entire body blurred before his eyes.
The Bang Pae had unfolded.
In that state, Dam Ho threw his fist.
Fist, then elbow, then trunk and knee strikes erupted in sequence. Dam Ho’s body rotated like a spinning gear.
A relentless cascade of interlocking attacks, breathless and unceasing.
Six Harmony Blood Mountain River.
The technique wrung the body to its absolute limit, placing enormous strain on the entire frame and leaving one defenseless in its aftermath.
Dam Ho had only trained in it; this was his first deployment in actual combat. He had hoped to avoid unleashing it, but he had no choice.
The Sword Spirit embedded in his chest was torn to shreds each time he wielded the Six Harmony Blood Mountain River. His body, barely held together moments before, hemorrhaged freely—yet Dam Ho pressed on, heedless.
Boom-boom-crack!
A deafening roar echoed out, and Namgoong Cheon’s frame shook.
When he blocked the fist, the elbow struck; the moment he guarded the elbow, the knee flew in.
Like a massive tempest tearing through the air—an overwhelming pressure and impact that overwhelmed all defense.
Crack!
“Hack!”
A sharp snapping sound erupted from the forearm that had blocked Dam Ho’s strike. A murky groan spilled from between Namgoong Cheon’s lips.
There was no need to see it to know—his forearm bone had fractured.
“Damn this—”
Namgoong Cheon spat out a curse and attempted to retreat, but his body would not move, as though ensnared in the mire of adhesive.
When the Six Harmony Blood Mountain River was deployed, a terrible gravitational force emanated from Dam Ho’s entire being, drawing everything around him into its pull. Namgoong Cheon, too, found his feet caught in that vortex.
Between strands of hair matted with blood, a cold, desolate killing intent flickered in Dam Ho’s eyes.
A chill ran down Namgoong Cheon’s spine. A terrible premonition seized him.
In the instant his fractured forearm shattered, a hairline gap opened.
The Six Harmony Blood Mountain River drove through that fissure.
Whoosh!
Both arms spread wide; fists, elbows, shoulders, and body strikes cascaded like a storm.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
“Cough!”
His face snapped sideways from the blow, his body bending like a shrimp when the knee struck his ribs. Another body strike followed, and an open palm smashed into Namgoong Cheon’s jaw.
Muscle tore, bone shattered. Blood flowed, saliva sprayed. His pupils grew dim, and tinnitus rang in his skull.
An ordinary man would have lost consciousness—but this was Namgoong Cheon.
The Sword King, Namgoong Cheon.
Even as his mind dimmed, his right hand formed the Sword Finger Seal.
A faint energy gathered at his fingertips—the Sword Finger Seal channeling blade energy through his fingers.
Shriek!
They exchanged their final strike.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————