Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 176

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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 175. Even a fierce wind cannot erase the smell of blood—4
At one corner of the open ground stood a small clay hut.
The moment Hyun So and Un Gyeong entered with the Hua Shan Sect disciples, the cramped hut seemed ready to burst at the seams.
Outside, Hae So Wol played with the children. The shabby-clothed youngsters gazed at her with expressions of wonder.
It was natural enough—a woman as beautiful as a fairy maiden, wearing a sword at her side, was quite a sight to behold.
“Are you a Jianghu master?”
“How did you come to be here?”
The children’s questions tumbled forth.
Hae So Wol found herself at a loss for words. The curious, eager eyes fixed upon her felt unbearably burdensome.
One child among them caught her attention.
A little girl who looked barely four or five years old, skin stretched tight over bone and illness plainly written across her face, silently tugged at the hem of Hae So Wol’s sleeve.
Hae So Wol lifted the girl into her arms and asked gently.
“What’s your name, little one?”
Instead of answering, the girl looked up at her with anxious eyes.
“A-are you… taking grandfather away?”
“Grandfather?”
Hae So Wol’s gaze shifted toward the hut.
Through the window, she could see Hyun So sitting across from the Hua Shan disciples.
Their conversation was inaudible from where she stood.
“Are you really coming to take grandfather away?”
“No! Waaah!”
At the girl’s words, the other children’s faces crumpled. Tears spread like wildfire—within moments, a dozen children were all crying.
“Oh, oh no, children—”
Hae So Wol’s face registered shock. Cold sweat beaded along her spine.
Hyun So turned to look at Un Gyeong. Un Gyeong could not meet his gaze and lowered his head.
The silence stretched unbearably long for Un Gyeong.
After studying Un Gyeong in silence for some time, Hyun So finally spoke.
“How did you find this place?”
“We mobilized every Outer Disciple we had. One of them reported seeing someone resembling you in Shanxi Province.”
“Mm.”
“As we dug deeper into Shanxi Province, word reached us that someone like you was raising orphans in a place called Qingliuvalley. So I came to verify whether it might be you.”
“You must have gone through considerable effort.”
At Hyun So’s calm words, Un Gyeong involuntarily lifted his head to look at him.
“Master! I beg your forgiveness.”
“Forgiveness for what?”
“For abandoning you… for leaving Dam Ho behind thirteen years ago. I am truly sorry.”
These were words he had bottled up in his heart for thirteen years. The thought that he had abandoned his master had robbed him of countless nights’ sleep.
He had long determined to apologize to Hyun So, but lacked the courage to do so and had postponed it again and again.
At Un Gyeong’s words, Hyun So’s eyes closed tightly for a moment.
A single name, still lodged in his heart like a spike driven deep.
Dam Ho.
His only disciple. His son.
After losing Dam Ho, Hyun So’s world had collapsed.
For a time, he had lived in such despair that he could not even remember how he’d survived those days.
He came to his senses nearly two years after Dam Ho’s death. During all that time, not a single person from Hua Shan had come to find him.
After that, he spent several more years alone.
He read countless Taoist Scriptures, trying to heal his wounded spirit. But a heart that has been broken does not mend easily, and his body and mind grew ever more wasted.
Even then, no one from Hua Shan came to visit.
Only then did Hyun So realize that he had been forgotten by Hua Shan.
All he could do was laugh bitterly.
He had lived his entire life for Hua Shan, had loved it with his whole heart—yet it seemed his love had been entirely unrequited.
So Hyun So descended from Hua Shan.
Though he remained a Daoist of the Hua Shan Sect in fact, he could no longer bear to remain there.
He wandered through the realm without direction.
His disciple no longer existed in the world, yet the world continued on as before. That ordinary continuation of life wounded his heart all the more deeply.
With his aching heart clasped to his chest, Hyun So traveled throughout the realm. In the course of his wandering, he met countless people.
Beggars, the sick, those bearing stories of sorrow, orphans who had lost their parents in times of upheaval.
People he would never have encountered had he remained in Hua Shan.
Hyun So grieved over their circumstances, laughed with them, and empathized with their pain. The wounds inflicted by people were slowly healed through meeting with people.
It was then that Hyun So finally came to understand.
True Tao is not something that can be obtained only in the mountains.
It is among people, in the friction of human contact, that one can truly attain the Tao.
From that moment on, Hyun So the Zhenren threw himself earnestly into the world.
He went hungry for days on end and begged for food; he saved wicked men from their nature; he was swindled; he even took up the treacherous work of boatmanship. Thus he cast himself into the currents of the world, encountering and learning from countless souls.
As a man, Hyun So the Zhenren came to know the world, to know people, and to know himself.
Time flowed on, and one day he came to his senses to find a dozen children gathered around him. He had taken them in one by one—orphans wandering the realm—until there were so many.
Raising a dozen children alone was never an easy thing. They needed a stable home. That is why he came to Qingliuvalley.
Hyun So the Zhenren saw Dam Ho in the clear faces of those children. For that reason, he could love them more deeply, cherish them, and find peace in his heart.
Hyun So the Zhenren reached out and patted Un Gyeong’s shoulder gently.
“It’s all right. How could this be your fault alone? It was simply misfortune. That child’s fate ended there.”
“M… Master!”
At Hyun So the Zhenren’s warm words, a tremor ran through Un Gyeong’s shoulders. Something hot welled up from the depths of his chest. And tears came.
A stifled sob escaped him.
Un Gyeong wept. Hyun So the Zhenren held him close, cradling him with warmth. Those Hua Shan Sect disciples who witnessed the scene felt a solemn light kindling in their eyes.
When one thought of Un Gyeong, words like stern, sharp-minded, and cold rationality came to mind.
Within the Hua Shan Sect, Un Gyeong served as deputy to the Sect Leader and was the one who pointed the Sect’s path forward with a colder, sharper mind than any other.
Not once had he ever shown a moment of wavering in front of his disciples.
For this reason, all revered and feared him.
Yet here was that very Un Gyeong, defenseless in Hyun So the Zhenren’s arms, weeping. The strangeness of the sight threw the Hua Shan disciples into confusion.
A moment later, Un Gyeong composed himself and wore an embarrassed expression.
“Master!”
“Did Jang Moon In send you?”
“He did.”
“The Sect Leader remains in good health?”
“He does.”
“That is fortunate.”
Hyun So the Zhenren smiled.
Un Gyeong found himself lost for a moment, gazing at that pure, unblemished smile.
The features were still those of the Hyun So the Zhenren he knew, yet something about him felt unfamiliar.
Broader somehow, and deeper—as though a faint halo radiated behind him.
He had never felt such a presence, even from the Cultivation Power-laden elders back on Hua Shan.
‘How is this possible?’
The question troubled him, but for now, relaying Jang Moon In’s words took precedence.
“The Sect Leader wishes that you would return to Hua Shan.”
“Now, after all this time, my brother seeks me out? Has something happened at the Sect?”
“That is…”
Un Gyeong bit his lip hard.
Watching his eyes waver, Hyun So the Zhenren exhaled slowly.
“Something has happened.”
“You have not heard?”
“Heard what?”
“About… Cheon Gyeong.”
“Cheon Gyeong? Do you mean that name?”
“It appears you have not heard.”
“Speak plainly.”
The equanimity that Hyun So the Zhenren had maintained until now shattered like a ceramic bowl hurled against granite.
“Cheon Gyeong… is alive.”
“What do you mean?”
“It is true. Somehow, against all odds, he survived that place. He is alive and well.”
“Is it true? Does Ho truly live?”
“Yes. Gwon Ma Dam Ho. The most famous warrior in the Jianghu today.”
“Gwon Ma?”
“Yes.”
“A fearsome epithet.”
“The epithet matches his power. Countless of the Jianghu’s greatest masters have fallen before him.”
“I see.”
Hyun So the Zhenren showed no further surprise, and Un Gyeong found this unexpected, so he asked:
“Does this not astonish you?”
“That child always had something special about him from a young age. He pursued strength relentlessly, and was tenacious enough never to abandon a goal once set. A slight limp in his leg? That could never be a handicap for Ho.”
“Unfortunately, only Master knew such things.”
“Prejudice blinds the eye. The prejudice that the incomplete cannot be made whole. Those who see only what they wish to see, who grasp only what they desire—such people can never recognize that truth.”
“I was one of those people.”
Un Gyeong’s smile turned bitter.
Because he limped, Un Gyeong had sought only to exclude him from every situation, never trusting Dam Ho. He had told himself it was for Dam Ho’s sake, but looking back now, it was nothing but self-deception.
“Then what is it that Jang Moon In wishes from me?”
“We hope you will return to Hua Shan.”
“To Hua Shan? Is it because of Dam Ho?”
…….
Un Gyeong could not answer.
Hyun So closed his eyes slowly.
“I see. Jang Moon In has always done whatever strengthens the Hua Shan Sect. It seems in his eyes, Dam Ho appears to be a tool worth using.”
“I am… sorry.”
“What have you to apologize for? It is Jang Moon In’s thinking that is thus.”
“Master!”
“I will not return to Hua Shan.”
Un Gyeong started at Hyun So’s declaration. He had not expected such firm refusal to return to Hua Shan.
“But Master….”
“Hua Shan is my homeland. Someday I must return. But I will not return as bait to draw in a disciple. That is my will.”
“Master, please reconsider.”
“My mind will not change. My disciple walked a path of hardship because of an inadequate master. I will not have him walk that perilous road again because of me. And I have already told Dam Ho to live freely. That child is no longer a disciple of Hua Shan. Therefore, no one can bind him to Hua Shan.”
In Hyun So’s voice lay an unshakeable conviction.
Hyun So had never raised his voice to another soul while at Hua Shan. When such a man spoke with force for the first time, the weight of it was felt at once.
“When the time comes, I will seek out Hua Shan of my own accord. Until then, leave me be.”
“Master!”
Hyun So closed his eyes as though there was nothing more to say. Bewilderment crossed Un Gyeong’s face.
It was a clear dismissal.
By force, he could have taken Hyun So with him easily enough. But Hyun So was his master. He could not lay hands on him, nor did he wish to.
“Go now.”
“Master, I will not leave Sakju. I shall remain at the Murim Alliance’s Sakju branch, so if you change your mind, speak at any time.”
…….
“Until we meet again, stay well.”
Un Gyeong and the Hua Shan disciples offered the Fist Salute to Hyun So, then departed.
Left alone, Hyun So opened his eyes. Moisture gathered at the corners of them.
“You lived. Dam Ho, you lived. Thank you. For living like that.”
Thick tears rolled down the old master’s weathered cheeks.
Hyun So’s gaze turned toward the southern sky.
Clouds drifted swiftly along the currents of the age.

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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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