Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 31

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

Episode 31. Gratitude and Grudge Alike Are Never Forgotten—3
Something struck the ground, then dragged across it.
The sound possessed a rhythm so regular that people found themselves drawn to it without thinking.
As the sound drew nearer, the concentration in their eyes reached its peak. Their eyes reddened with strain, their shoulders seized by involuntary tremors.
Not only the caged people, but the bandits and Dong Ja Chu reacted identically. The sound gnawed at their nerves from the very foundation, eroding them.
Scrape! Scrape!
Like an ant devouring wood, the sound consumed their nerves and amplified their dread.
Thud! Drag! Thud! Drag!
Only when the sound grew clearer did Dong Ja Chu realize it was the sound of footsteps.
From beyond the darkness, someone was finally revealing themselves.
He struck the ground with his right foot, then dragged his left, drawing closer. Each time he dragged his left foot, his shoulder dipped slightly.
Dong Ja Chu noticed the man was lame. In ordinary circumstances, he would have sneered and snapped his neck without hesitation. He possessed a cruel nature that showed no mercy to anyone who dared alarm him, even for a moment.
But now, such an act was impossible.
Thud!
The instant he laid eyes on the man, his heart plummeted as though struck by a hammer.
His spine turned cold, sweat pouring down his entire body like rain. Thick tendons rose from his clenched fists like earthworms.
He bit down so hard that blood seeped between his teeth, yet Dong Ja Chu felt no pain as he fixed his gaze on the figure advancing through the wavering darkness.
At last, piercing the gloom, the man’s pale white face emerged from the shadows. Clad in a black robe dark as the night itself, his visage seemed to float suspended in the void.
Behind the man followed a horse, black as shadow, yet not a soul present noticed this fact.
Such was the overwhelming and intense presence the man commanded—a presence no eye could tear itself from, not for a moment.
Drip-drip!
Beads of sweat fell ceaselessly from the bandits’ faces.
They dared not breathe loudly, keeping their eyes fixed on the man who had emerged from the darkness.
‘Who in the world is this man?’
As though their entire minds had gone white, not a single thought came to them. The man’s presence transcended their imagination by an immeasurable distance.
The man paused in his stride and surveyed his surroundings.
His eyes shone with an eerie light in the darkness.
Shiver!
Those who met his gaze trembled involuntarily, like fish laid upon a cutting board.
His gaze came to rest on Dong Ja Chu—or more precisely, on Bang Jin Bo, who lay cradled almost in Dong Ja Chu’s arms.
The sword in Bang Jin Bo’s hand, the hand of Dong Ja Chu gripping it, and the blade pressed against the throat of Yom Pyong.
The man seemed to grasp the situation at a glance, nodded slightly, and furrowed his brow.
In that instant, both Dong Ja Chu and the bandits felt a pressure closing around their throats.
The man gestured toward Bang Jin Bo.
Bang Jin Bo stared blankly at the stranger. His expression was no different from the others’. Yet somehow, he sensed familiarity emanating from the man—impossible, for he had never seen this face before.
“Come here.”
The man’s lips opened for the first time.
The moment Bang Jin Bo heard his voice, he knew who the man was.
“Brother!”
The man who had ridden in the carriage with him.
Though his true features were obscured by his wild hair, the sound of his voice alone had remained vivid in Bang Jin Bo’s memory.
The man who had emerged from the darkness was none other than Dam Ho.
Dam Ho opened his mouth again.
“Come here.”
His voice—gravelly and rough—jarred Dong Ja Chu awake. He pulled Bang Jin Bo into his arms violently. Instinct screamed at him to seize the boy as a hostage.
He pressed the blade to Bang Jin Bo’s throat and shouted.
“Who are you….”
Crash!
Thunder roared from the darkness in that moment, swallowing Dong Ja Chu’s words.
The bandits and merchants pressed their hands to their eardrums and staggered.
Whirrr!
A high-pitched ringing shrieked through their ears.
Objects blurred into doubles and triples before them; their legs lost all strength and buckled.
After a moment, the ringing subsided and objects came into clear focus once more. And when their vision finally recovered completely, the bandits’ faces had turned to pure shock.
“G-Great Lord?”
“Huargh!”
Suddenly the bandits dropped their faces to the ground and began retching violently. Those caged within suffered the same affliction.
“Ughh!”
Moans of agony poured from their mouths involuntarily.
“How…?”
Dong Ja Chu’s upper body, which had been holding Bang Jin Bo in a grip and threatening him, was nowhere to be seen. Only his lower body remained, abandoned without its master.
Where Dong Ja Chu’s upper body had been, Dam Ho’s fist now occupied the space. One strike of Pa Seong Chu, following Chung Bo, had sent Dong Ja Chu’s upper body flying.
It was the first time he had ever unleashed his Martial Arts against another human being.
Dam Ho himself had not expected that a single punch could sever a human’s upper body from his lower half.
Before him stood Bang Jin Bo’s lower body, now bereft of its master, and Bang Jin Bo himself, bewildered and alive.
Dam Ho cradled Bang Jin Bo’s head in his arms and murmured softly.
“Humans are… so fragile.”
In the darkness, what he had fought ceaselessly were towering boulders and solid bedrock.
He had trained his Martial Arts against objects that possessed a hardness incomparable to human flesh.
Into his two fists, which had never stopped bleeding, were compressed a Killing Intent and Dominating Power that no human body could withstand.
The result was the gruesome spectacle now before his eyes.
Dam Ho shielded Bang Jin Bo, still confused and cradled against his chest, from the sight of that horror.
Even though Dong Ja Chu had died by his hand, Dam Ho felt no emotion. Once, he would have hung his head in guilt, but now it all seemed like the affair of a stranger—something entirely detached from himself.
Dam Ho decided it did not matter. Twelve years of darkness had not been wasted.
“Grrr! Who in blazes are you?”
Jo Bok, coming to his senses belatedly, cried out.
He had just seen the upper body of Dong Ja Chu, the leader, fly through the air before him. The sight was so surreal that he could not fully comprehend it—as if he were caught in a nightmare.
The Dong Ja Chu he knew was no weakling. Had he been weak, he would never have risen to lead Hyeol Lang Dae.
Dong Ja Chu was not a man who should have died so pathetically.
Dam Ho’s gaze turned toward Jo Bok, and Jo Bok’s entire body trembled as though struck by lightning.
Dam Ho’s lips parted, and a harsh, phlegmy voice emerged—rough and murky, like something caught in his throat.
“And who might you be?”
“I… I am Jo Bok, vice-leader of Hyeol Lang Dae.”
“Hyeol Lang Dae?”
Dam Ho surveyed the bandits arrayed around him. Each bore the weathered, menacing visage of someone who had lived a brutal life.
Yet in their eyes fixed upon Dam Ho lurked a terror they could not conceal.
“Yes! We are Hyeol Lang Dae. If you withdraw now, I will grant you mercy. But if you do not…”
“If I do not?”
“I will slaughter you without mercy.”
“And yet?”
“I will kill you. Tear you to shreds…”
“Then why aren’t you doing it?”
Dam Ho’s voice was flat, devoid of feeling, yet somehow it sent chills down their spines.
Seized by inexplicable dread, Jo Bok shouted an order.
“Kill… kill him!”
Instinctively, they had recognized that Dam Ho belonged to a breed utterly unlike any human they had ever known.
His words ignited the tinder. The bandits, already trembling with nameless terror, suddenly rushed at Dam Ho as one.
“Hyaaah!”
“Kill him!”
They whipped themselves into a frenzy, channeling their fear into rage.
They hurled themselves at Dam Ho in a frenzy of madness. Each had felt the same realization: kill him or die themselves.
More than a hundred bandits were rushing forward. Faced with such numbers, any man might have faltered, but Dam Ho’s expression remained utterly unchanged.
For a moment, he glanced up at the night sky.
It was a night without a single star visible through the darkness.
Bang!
“Aaaah!”
A deafening crack split the air, followed by a scream. Blood splattered across the obsidian sky.
Another crack, then another. With each sound, a bandit fell, spraying blood.
With each punch, a life was crushed.
“Aah!”
The imprisoned merchants, caged like beasts, widened their eyes in shock.
Humans were not supposed to die so easily. Yet Dam Ho denied that very premise, dispatching them with horrifying ease.
These formidable bandits shattered like glass.
“Uaaaagh!”
“Save me!”
The terrified bandits shrieked in desperation.
The merchants’ entire understanding of the world was collapsing before their eyes.
In moments, more than two-thirds of the bandits lay dead. The blood they spilled flowed like a river across the earth.
“A… a demon!”
Jo Bok stared at Dam Ho with eyes wide with terror. His legs trembled beneath him, a testament to his fear.
Dam Ho was a cripple. That much was certain. But when he unleashed his Martial Arts, Dam Ho was anything but crippled.
Jo Bok thought Dam Ho’s gait was a disguise—a ploy to lull his enemies into carelessness.
He had never once imagined there existed another like Dam Ho in this world.
Crack!
“Argh!”
Even in that moment, the Hyeol Lang Dae’s subordinates were falling dead.
It was nothing short of a one-sided slaughter. If this continued much longer, it seemed not a soul would be left standing.
“S-stop! Please!”
Jo Bok screamed until his voice cracked.
Whether Dam Ho heard him or not, he halted the carnage and turned to face Jo Bok. Then Jo Bok spoke, his face streaked with tears.
“Forgive us! Isn’t this enough? We’ve paid a terrible price already. For us to suffer further punishment for our crimes—it’s simply too cruel.”
“Too cruel?”
“Yes! This is far too cruel. I don’t know what your relationship is to that boy, but this—this indiscriminate slaughter—it’s excessive.”
“Is it?”
Dam Ho tilted his head, and in that gesture Jo Bok glimpsed a thread of hope. He hurried forward and dropped to his knees before Dam Ho.
“Please, I beg you. I’m begging you like this.”
As Jo Bok knelt, the light in Dam Ho’s eyes grew colder still.
“You don’t ask forgiveness from me.”
“Then… from whom?”
“From that child.”
Dam Ho pointed toward Bang Jin Bo.
Jo Bok scrambled toward Bang Jin Bo and threw himself down before him.
“Boy, spare us. We were wrong.”
“I… I don’t…”
“I’ll do whatever you ask. I’ll pay any compensation you demand. Please, just…”
Jo Bok wept before Bang Jin Bo.
He dared not even consider taking Bang Jin Bo hostage. He had just watched with his own eyes what happened to Dong Ja Chu.
Bang Jin Bo stood frozen, uncertain.
He was a gentle-hearted boy by nature. He had never imagined he would find himself in such a situation.
‘What… what do I do?’
His mind went blank. But in that instant, his father’s face appeared before him—his father’s face, twisted in desperation as he fought to protect him.
Bang Jin Bo pressed his lips together firmly.
Rather than speak a word asking Dam Ho for vengeance, he would not grant forgiveness either.
Jo Bok’s desperation deepened.
“I’m begging you so earnestly—please say you forgive us! You fat brat!”
“….”
But Bang Jin Bo kept his mouth sealed and said nothing.
Jo Bok cried out again.
“Damn you, you worthless fat wretch! When someone begs you like this, do you have no—cough!”
Thud!
In an instant, Jo Bok’s body was hoisted into the air. Dam Ho had seized him by the collar and lifted him up.
He spoke in a voice only Jo Bok could hear.
“Forgiveness isn’t something coerced from the guilty party through threats and pleas like yours.”
“Gasp—!”
“It must come willingly from the hearts of those who were harmed, those who suffered alongside that child.”
Dam Ho’s gaze swept toward Bang Jin Bo and the victims trapped in the enclosure. Their eyes were fixed upon him.
“None of them will forgive you.”
“Spare me! Please!”
“Did you spare them when they begged just as desperately?”
Jo Bok realized Dam Ho would never let him live. Mad with rage, he began to shriek.
“You demon! Do as you will! But know this—your end won’t be kind either. Do you understand who stands behind us? They will never forgive you. You’ve touched the wrong people. They’re coming. They’ll be here soon.”
A thin line appeared at the corner of Dam Ho’s mouth. The curve of his lips formed unmistakably into a smile.
“I look forward to it.”
“You—?”
Crunch!
In that instant, Dam Ho’s fist buried itself in Jo Bok’s abdomen, piercing clean through and emerging from his back.
Jo Bok stared at his own belly in disbelief.
“Ugh—!”
“You talk too much,” Dam Ho said flatly.
Dam Ho withdrew his arm from Jo Bok’s abdomen. The man’s body crumpled to the ground without ceremony.
Jo Bok lay sprawled on the ground, breathing hard. His breath came in ragged gasps like a fish cast onto shore, and gradually his breathing began to steady.
Dam Ho’s gaze turned toward the remaining bandits.
The shadow of death fell across their faces.

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