Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 181

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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 180. The Wind of Chaos Blows from the North—2
“Do you know who I am?”
At Dam Ho’s question, Myeong Cheon smiled enigmatically.
His black eyes gleamed as though they held all the wisdom in the world. Yet there was something far too deep and mysterious for the gaze of a young boy.
“Dam Dae-hyeop is more famous than I expected. And…”
Myeong Cheon’s eyes turned toward Dam Ho’s legs.
In that brief span of time, he had discerned the fact that Dam Ho was limping.
Dam Ho’s gaze darkened.
The expression and manner of speech unbefitting a child, and that penetrating gaze that seemed to see through the human heart—there was something profoundly unsettling about it.
Myeong Cheon was a prodigy. One who embodied Wen Yi Zhi Bai—hearing one thing and understanding a hundred.
Such geniuses were truly rare. He was the sort of being that could only be said to have descended from heaven itself.
Yet for all his exceptional mind, his body was devastatingly fragile. He remained awake barely two Double Hours each day. Any longer, and his Heart Meridian would buckle under the strain, causing him to cough up blood.
Heaven had granted him a mind capable of dominating an age, but had denied him a body to sustain it.
So those who knew of Myeong Cheon called him the genius who never awakens.
His only hope lay in Jong Ri Yeon.
Myeong Cheon smiled.
“Thank goodness you kept your promise. I was starting to reach my limit anyway.”
“I told you. I will make you well.”
“Thank you.”
“But you must keep your promise to me as well.”
“Of course.”
Jong Ri Yeon smiled at his reply.
Dam Ho realized that the bond between these two stretched back quite far into the past.
“When are you thinking of beginning the treatment?”
“Right now!”
“So soon?”
“Strike while the iron is hot.”
“Then I’m delighted. This is a moment I’ve been waiting for all my life.”
Jong Ri Yeon looked toward Dam Ho.
“Thank you for bringing me this far.”
“It was a promise.”
“Many people in this world make promises carelessly, but few actually keep them. In that respect, you are a very special person.”
“I didn’t bring you here to listen to flattery.”
“I know. Still, I’m grateful.”
Jong Ri Yeon smiled softly.
Dam Ho gazed at her for a moment, then turned away.
“I need to rest.”
“I shall show you to your quarters.”
The Old Man led Dam Ho away to his lodgings.
Watching Dam Ho’s receding figure, Myeong Cheon murmured.
“He seems quite bashful, this elder.”
“He has his moments.”
“He reminds me a little of my oldest brother.”
“You had a brother?”
“Didn’t you know? I have several older brothers above me, and one older sister.”
“How did I not know this?”
“Because I never told you.”
“Hm?”
“Ha ha ha!”
Myeong Cheon laughed heartily. But the moment quickly passed, and his complexion turned deathly pale.
The first time in ages he had laughed so openly, and his Heart Meridian flared with pain. Blood trickled from his nose. A cursed body indeed.
‘But that’s all right! Now I can finally be of help to my brother.’
This was the moment he had waited for his entire life.
For this day, his brother had forged ties with Jong Ri Yeon’s teacher and provided aid in every way. And his efforts had borne fruit after more than a decade.
He had waited so long.
When she was on Nam Man Ho’s Island, the thing she labored over most was Myeong Cheon’s cure. The foundation had been laid by her teacher, but that treatment was incomplete.
She had researched desperately to supplement the method, and in doing so, had managed to perfect her teacher’s insights.
“Make sure it doesn’t hurt too much, will you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll be using the largest needles, so it’s going to hurt like hell.”
“That sounds rather frightening.”
“You’re acting like a senile old fool.”
“Heh heh!”
Myeong Cheon laughed openly.
Jong Ri Yeon shook her head watching him.
She’d come to know Myeong Cheon through the bonds of a previous generation, but there was little she truly understood about him. So it was hard to adjust to this childish demeanor of his.
“Let’s go inside. It’ll be a long night. And a painful one.”
“Yes!”
Myeong Cheon answered with vigor.
The two of them entered side by side, shoulders level.
The moment Myeong Cheon stepped into the room, he stripped off everything but his undergarment, and a frame so gaunt that bone showed through caught Jong Ri Yeon’s eye.
A look of pity crossed her face.
“I told you to eat more.”
“No matter how much I eat, I can’t seem to gain weight.”
Myeong Cheon smiled sadly, and the sight of that expression only deepened the ache in her chest.
“Let’s begin.”
“Yes!”
“It will hurt terribly.”
“I’m prepared.”
Myeong Cheon clenched his teeth hard.
Jong Ri Yeon nodded and drew out her needles.
“Huuuh.”
After taking one deep breath, Jong Ri Yeon began to unfold her Acupuncture technique.
The old man led Dam Ho to the most secluded room.
“Rest here.”
“Very well.”
“Thank you for bringing the Divine Physician safely to this place.”
“…….”
“Thanks to you, the young master will live. I shall never forget this kindness.”
“You’ve known Myeong Cheon for many years, it seems?”
“I’ve served him from the moment of his birth. He is no different from my own son.”
“Is that so? He’s a fortunate one.”
“Pardon?”
“To receive such devoted care from a Martial Artist as formidable as you.”
“…….”
In that instant, the old man’s expression hardened. But the awkwardness vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and he soon wore an easy smile.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“…….”
“I shall take my leave now. Please rest comfortably.”
The old man left hastily.
Left alone, Dam Ho muttered quietly to himself.
“Everyone carries one secret or another.”
Dam Ho gazed out the window, arms crossed.
The estate was built in a distinctive style in many respects. The courtyard layout, characteristic of the northern regions, shut out external gazes, while all the spaces opened toward the central courtyard at its heart.
By contrast, the room assigned to Dam Ho had its view of that central courtyard blocked, and instead possessed a small window that commanded a view of the street.
One could see outside, but nothing of what happened within could be discerned from the interior. The spaces had been arranged this way deliberately.
Darkness began to settle over the street.
Just then, a faint fluctuation of Internal Martial Energy felt from within the estate. Jong Ri Yeon must have begun the treatment.
Dam Ho leaned his back against the wall and closed his eyes.
Countless thoughts drifted across his mind.
Dam Ho did not try to control these thoughts. He observed the process as they branched and grew, expanding of their own accord.
Self-Observation.
By turning one’s gaze inward, one grasps one’s own existence with precision.
It was a cultivation method he had awakened to while staying on the island through the winter past.
By observing oneself with cold clarity, one discerns one’s limits with exactness. No emotion intrudes upon this perception.
Like drawing a line with a sword’s sweep, one distinguishes clearly between what one can and cannot do.
Through repeating this series of exercises, one learns to maintain the sharpness of reason like a blade’s edge in any circumstance.
It was a method of cultivation that allowed him to train himself most efficiently here in this ordinary dwelling, without concern for the gazes of others.
Time flowed on ceaselessly.
The senses that had focused inward now turned outward.
One section, two sections…. His senses expanded without limit, until at last the entire estate fell within the domain of his perception.
Countless walls stood in his way, yet they could not block his perception.
He sensed distinct patterns of breathing.
One breath—deep and unbroken.
It was the breathing of the old man who had guided Dam Ho here.
‘A turtle.’
From the old man’s breathing, Dam Ho recalled a vast sea turtle descending into the abyss. With a single breath able to traverse tens, even hundreds of leagues, the tremendous Internal Energy he sensed was like that of such a colossal creature.
Dam Ho’s perception caught another breath.
The owner of that steady, unchanging breath was Jong Ri Yeon. She possessed only enough Internal Energy to support her medical arts.
Dam Ho’s perception detected yet another presence.
The source of that feeble, flickering breath—barely holding on—was Myeong Cheon.
His breathing was so fragile that survival itself seemed miraculous, yet it trembled violently with each needle Jong Ri Yeon inserted.
In Myeong Cheon’s breath, Dam Ho perceived a carp in a drought-stricken pond. The waterline had receded so far the fish’s body was nearly exposed; only its gills remained submerged as it gasped for breath.
If the water level dropped further, the carp would surely die.
Jong Ri Yeon’s acupuncture was replenishing that pond with water. Whatever the mechanism, that was how it felt to Dam Ho.
Water was slowly flowing into Myeong Cheon’s pond. The great carp, which had been gasping alone, was gradually returning to life.
But crisis came.
The inflow diminished, as if blocked, while the drainage breach burst open, spilling the meager water that had been gathered.
Jong Ri Yeon’s hands grew frantic.
Her breathing, which had been steady until now, quickened, and sweat poured ceaselessly across her brow.
Her effort bore fruit—the outflow lessened, the inflow strengthened, and water filled the parched pond once more.
Jong Ri Yeon moved her hands with purpose.
She shored up the teetering walls of that fragile pond and widened the intake channels. Each action demanded intense concentration.
Jong Ri Yeon accomplished it all flawlessly.
Water filled Myeong Cheon’s pond. The water rose and rose, drenching him to his shoulders, filling an immense reservoir to the brim.
The carp gained freedom, swimming through the water as if it had never gasped for breath at all. Yet the pond was narrow—the carp could not thrash about as it wished.
The carp desired a larger pond. And Jong Ri Yeon, for the sake of that carp, made the pond ever wider.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
Water flowed in torrents, flooding the pond like a river.
The pond expanded until it could no longer be called a pond. It became a lake, and the carp felt no constraint.
To taste greater freedom, the carp decided to shed its flesh. The scales that had bound its body fell away one by one, exposing bare flesh beneath.
As the constraining scales fell, the body writhed and convulsed with sudden vigor. It lengthened, expanded. Its snout thrust forward, teeth growing sharp. Two whiskers stretched long, while new scales sprouted along the slick body. And then two pairs of legs emerged.
The carp had become a dragon.
The dragon ascended to the heavens.
Dam Ho witnessed every moment of it.
In truth, Myeong Cheon was at that very moment shedding the oppressive Heavenly Curse that had tyrannized him and being born anew.
Bones cracked and shifted to their optimal positions; skin peeled away. New flesh sprouted, muscle formed upon the withered body that had seemed so frail before.
“The Shedding Form and Replacing Bones?”
Jong Ri Yeon cried out.
Her acupuncture was meant only to treat Myeong Cheon’s affliction. It contained no such profound art capable of inducing such a transformation.
“This… this isn’t because of my acupuncture. What on earth…?”
Someone had embedded something within Myeong Cheon’s body. Jong Ri Yeon’s needles had become the catalyst that awakened it.
Jong Ri Yeon, understanding nothing, could only gape at the phenomenon unfolding before her eyes.
Dam Ho expanded the reach of his perception.
In that instant, something that had eluded him until now suddenly came into focus.
A presence vast and solid as a mountain.
Dam Ho’s brow twitched.
The moment Dam Ho perceived him, he too perceived Dam Ho.
A deep rumble sounded.
Resonance erupted between them.
The resonance spread far and wide, and within it, Dam Ho heard a voice calling to him.
Dam Ho’s gaze sank into profound depths.
He threw himself through the open window and landed atop the roof of the building across the way.
There was another guest upon that roof.
A giant of seven feet tall, with a frank, unassuming face that belied his massive frame—yet even in darkness, his eyes blazed like lanterns.
At his waist hung a great sword, wrapped round in cotton cloth and clattering softly.
A deeper rumble sounded.
As they faced each other, the resonance between them amplified beyond measure.
Resonance only occurs when two beings of equal power meet. This meant the figure before him possessed a vibration as vast and mighty as Dam Ho’s own.
The air between them grew burning hot.
He spoke first.
“So this is what you look like, Gwon Ma.”
“And you are?”
“My name is Geom Yul Cheon.”
The man—Geom Yul Cheon—smiled.

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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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