Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 24

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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 24. Finding the Way in Darkness—Part 2
Dam Ho’s eyes opened abruptly. Before him stretched an underground cavern, almost a secret chamber—the most cramped space within the greater hollow, yet it was his only dwelling.
This underground space, bearing faint traces of use from long ago, was Dam Ho’s sole refuge.
He slept on a stone bed carved from rock in one corner of the chamber, enduring the bone-deep chill that rose from its surface.
The bitter cold tormented him, and to withstand the freezing air, Dam Ho had to practice Yun Gong constantly.
He turned his head toward the wall beside him, and his eyes caught characters etched there—carved by someone’s sharp instrument, it seemed.
Jeom Yul Cheon. I have buried my companions here.
These words had been carved by whoever dwelled here before Dam Ho.
They appeared the moment he opened his eyes, mere inches from his gaze. Markings covered the walls in countless places.
Each inscription was left by those who had inhabited this space before him. Some had carved despair; others, hope.
What became of them, he neither knew nor cared.
Dam Ho’s concern was only the present—survival at any cost, and escape from this place.
He left the chamber and made his way into the underground cavern.
At last he stood before an enormous boulder.
Among all the rocks and earth that had tumbled into the cavern, this was the largest and most solid.
It stood like a gatekeeper, sealing the cavern’s entrance shut. Yet its massive surface bore numerous gouges and scratches. Not long ago, its body had shone like polished mirror glass.
The reason became immediately clear.
Thud!
Dam Ho’s leg crashed against the boulder. The struck surface crumbled; fragments scattered in all directions.
It was his left leg—not whole and intact, but even so, the rock’s surface splintered with deep cracks.
He kicked again.
Thud! Thud!
Enormous sounds echoed through the dark underground space, reverberating long after each blow.
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Crack!
A fracture split the enormous boulder. Beginning at its base, the fissure spread across the entire mass in moments.
Boom-boom-boom!
The enormous boulder collapsed with an agonized groan.
Dam Ho regarded the shattered remains with cold, expressionless eyes.
The boulder could never have crumbled on its own. It was Dam Ho’s fists that had destroyed it. Yet his knuckles bore not a single wound.
Hard calluses jutted from his hands like lumps of stone, his fists as unyielding as steel hammers.
He flexed and unfurled his fingers slowly, testing them. The sensation was not unpleasant.
Despite shattering the enormous boulder, the amount of earth and debris blocking his path remained unchanged. He had only just begun to scratch the surface.
He could not know how many more times his fists would need to strike. Yet Dam Ho felt no concern.
In this dreary place, all he possessed was time—abundant, endless time. He would strike as many times as necessity demanded.
His fist collided with another massive boulder. Each impact drew a heavy, agonized cry from the rock.
Thud! Thud!
A single, unwavering will to destroy.
The resolve to break free from all that confined him—this alone drove him forward.
Suddenly, Dam Ho pulled back.
Whoosh!
His form shot forward, closing the distance of a dozen paces in an instant.
Chung Bo unfurled—a footwork technique as devastating as a battering ram breaching gates—followed by Pa Seong Chui.
Crash!
The enormous boulder shattered, stone fragments exploding outward.
Dam Ho’s eyes gleamed eerily in the darkness.
These were the Chung Bo and Pa Seong Chui that he and his master, Hyun Seo, had created together. When they had first devised these techniques, they had been infused with the sublime principles of the Hwasan School.
But the Chung Bo and Pa Seong Chui he wielded now held neither mercy nor the philosophy of the Dao.
Somewhere along the way, the essence of the Demonic Cult’s techniques had seeped into Dam Ho’s martial arts.
The mysteries of Sam Gyeok Po Yeong Gwon had dissolved into Pa Seong Chui; the quintessence of Tan Ma Gak had merged with Chung Bo. Gwang Ap Soo had been reborn as another technique altogether. Jung Cheon Sim Gyeol had fused with the Demonic Cult’s inner methods, evolving into something entirely new.
The Hwasan School’s techniques and the Demonic Cult’s arts—seemingly impossible to reconcile—had woven together within his body.
Dam Ho was a devourer.
To grow stronger, he would embrace even demonic cultivation without hesitation.
The techniques he had created with Hyun Seo had transformed so radically that no trace of their original form remained. Even Hyun Seo herself would not recognize them.
The damp, isolated environment had made Dam Ho’s character ever more closed, ever more saturated with killing intent.
His days turned like a wheel within a wheel.
Brief rest, then Yun Gong; movement to Man Ma Go to absorb knowledge from martial texts; then to the pools to catch and consume blind cave fish.
After that, he would deploy his techniques against the boulders blocking the cavern.
The rocks were his enemy; the massive earth, his obstacle.
Destroy, and destroy again.
When exhaustion overtook him, he would circulate his Yun Gong before sleep claimed him.
There was nothing else to do in this place besides that.
Darkness drives a person mad. Especially being alone for so long in such isolation was a breeding ground for Demonic Possession.
To avoid losing his mind, he had to give his utmost to even the smallest task.
‘Perhaps I’ve already gone mad.’
True madness didn’t require broadcasting one’s insanity outward.
One could go mad in icy silence.
To maintain reason cold as ice, yet be able to unleash madness whenever necessary—that was possible.
Dam Ho believed he had reached such a state.
This place was impossible to endure without losing one’s mind.
Bang!
One stroke of his Pa Seong Chui shattered a boulder to pieces.
Just as Dam Ho moved to hurl another Pa Seong Chui out of sheer habit—
Whirring!
Suddenly, from between the rubble, countless tiny insects swarmed forth in a dark cloud, hurtling straight toward Dam Ho.
‘Ants?’
The insects, smaller than grains of rice, were definitely ants. Yet unlike ordinary ants, these bore wings.
In normal ant colonies, only a tiny fraction possessed wings. But every single one of these ants flying at Dam Ho had wings.
They were no ordinary ants. As if to prove that fact, they attacked him all at once with their mandibles.
Dam Ho stumbled backward hastily, deploying his Pa Seong Chui.
Whoosh!
His Pa Seong Chui could obliterate even massive boulders in one blow. Yet futilely, it had no effect whatsoever on the ants.
Knocked back momentarily by the wind, several ants still managed to bite Dam Ho stealthily.
His brow furrowed deeply in an instant. The bite wounds burned with unbearable pain and itching beyond imagination.
‘Poison ants?’
Dam Ho retreated swiftly. In the meantime, the ants bit him several more times.
The bitten areas swelled grotesquely within seconds.
“Ugh!”
A murky groan escaped through Dam Ho’s clenched lips.
His eyes widened, bloodshot. The pain and itching radiating from the bites spread across his entire body in moments.
Buzzing!
The ants kept coming at him.
With superhuman endurance, Dam Ho bore the agony and leaped backward more than a dozen paces in an instant. Only then did the ants retreat to where they had emerged and circle the area restlessly.
Finally, Dam Ho dropped into a cross-legged position and began to circulate his Yun Gong, attempting to drive the poison out with his Internal Energy.
Whoooosh!
His Internal Energy surged through his body, trying to expel the ant venom. But the poison was so remarkably virulent that it wouldn’t budge at all.
Throb-throb!
Thick tendons bulged prominently across Dam Ho’s entire body.
“Argh—!”
Pained grunts escaped through his firmly pressed lips.
Pain was something he could endure indefinitely. But the itching—even someone with Dam Ho’s superhuman tolerance found it nearly unbearable.
He wanted nothing more than to abandon his cultivation at that moment and claw at his entire body with his nails. If he could just strip away his skin layer by layer, the itching might finally stop. But if he did that, the lethal poison would attack his heart.
To cultivate was torment beyond bearing; to stop was to risk his life.
In the end, Dam Ho endured the itching and concentrated on his Yun Gong.
Red welts appeared across his face.
“Hah!”
Dam Ho exhaled roughly and lifted his head above the water. The red welts that had covered his face had faded considerably.
Over the following days, he circulated his Yun Gong desperately, finally managing to drive out the poison that had entered his body. Whether ten days or more than two weeks had passed, he couldn’t be certain.
During that time, Dam Ho had brushed with death several times.
It felt as though he were trapped in the fires of hell itself, his skin being flayed by blades. The ant venom was that vicious.
Dam Ho gave the ants a name: Hell Blood Ant. They truly seemed to have crawled up from the depths of the underworld.
Dam Ho ate a fish he had caught, his thoughts turning grim.
‘To escape this place, I must pass through that area.’
The ground surrounding Cheon Geum Ma Ok was impossibly hard. No wonder the Demonic Cult had used this place as a prison.
The only remotely feasible exit was where the earth had collapsed—but now that place was the lair of the Hell Blood Ants.
Any disturbance would certainly provoke them to attack.
The problem was that Dam Ho currently had no means to defend against the Hell Blood Ants. No matter how exceptional his martial arts were, it was impossible to kill their countless numbers in a single assault.
A hasty attack would bring swift retaliation, and he couldn’t guarantee he would survive such an encounter again. Yet retreating now was equally unthinkable.
For now, fish remained in the waters, but eventually every last one would disappear into Dam Ho’s stomach.
When that day came, it would truly be the end.
There was no time to retreat, no room for hesitation.
He had only one choice: to move forward.
Dam Ho’s jaw clenched hard.
‘The shield… I have to complete the shield.’
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Dam Ho challenged the Hell Blood Ants dozens more times after that. But the outcome was always the same.
Bitten by the Hell Blood Ants, he experienced hell itself.
There were moments when he thought it would be better to bite through his own tongue and die. The pain and itching that transcended human limits drove him to smash his head against the rocks dozens of times.
His forehead split open, blood drenching his entire body.
Barely regaining consciousness, he would circulate his Yun Gong, then challenge the Hell Blood Ants once more.
As he fought the Hell Blood Ants, Dam Ho’s body wasted away rapidly. By the end, he was little more than skin stretched over bone.
He had no idea how much time had passed.
A low thrumming sound filled the cavern.
The Hell Blood Ants surged toward Dam Ho.
Backing away, Dam Ho unleashed a Pa Seong Chui. Many of the ants were caught in the blast and crushed. But countless others, pushed back by the force, recovered and came at him again like a tidal wave.
In that instant, Dam Ho’s hand form changed.
His fists, which until now had been clenched like hammers, suddenly opened wide.
His palms extended in a gentle push, and a soft wind emerged, driving the Hell Blood Ants back.
The Hell Blood Ants tried desperately to close the distance, but it was futile. For a moment, Dam Ho’s eyes lit up as he observed the flow of his own inner Qi.
‘Raw power is useless against these creatures. What I need is the refined control of Qi—like the Myon Jang technique of the Mudan School.’
It was a realization born from dozens of battles with the Hell Blood Ants.
Some enemies could not be defeated by strength alone. The Hell Blood Ants before him were precisely such enemies.
Their numbers had swollen enormously with all their breeding. If he left them unchecked, the Underground Cavern would be completely overrun.
This was no longer a test of martial growth.
This was a fight for survival.
Dam Ho brought his open palms together, closing them.
The nature of his inner Qi transformed.
A sharp inward pulse.
As his Qi circulation shifted, the air between his hands and the Hell Blood Ants vanished in an instant—a perfect vacuum.
With a shrieking roar, the surrounding air rushed toward his palms like a tidal wave. The Hell Blood Ants were caught up in the vortex.
Hundreds of thousands—millions—of Hell Blood Ants compressed into a ball the size of a child’s head.
Dam Ho’s inner Qi application shifted once more. His fingers curled inward as his hand twisted to the right.
Detonation.
Boom!
The compressed mass of Hell Blood Ants exploded outward.
The shock sent the air of the Underground Cavern rippling in all directions.
A deep, resonant sound echoed through the space.
The Five Fingers Dark Breaking Technique.
This was the martial art Dam Ho had created to face the Hell Blood Ants—a vicious method that instantaneously created a vacuum around the enemy before detonating it.
But only a fraction of the Hell Blood Ants were killed by the Five Fingers Dark Breaking Technique. The survivors numbered hundreds of times more than those he had slain.
The Hell Blood Ants surged toward him again.
Black as a shadow, they engulfed him. In the moment they opened their mouths to bite, consumed by rage—
A violent tremor ripped through Dam Ho’s entire frame. At a speed imperceptible to human sight, his body vibrated with tremendous intensity.
His form appeared doubled, tripled, overlapping.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The Hell Blood Ants that had lunged to bite him exploded.
The Ultra-Vibration Protection Qi Method.
Dam Ho’s own martial art, inspired by the rapid beating of an insect’s wings.
“The shield,” Dam Ho whispered, his voice thick and hoarse.

He had finally completed it.
His lips moved, and the name emerged like a prayer.

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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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