Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 32

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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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Chapter 32. To Walk a Thorny Road While Alive—Part 1
When daylight broke, only Bang Jin Bo and the merchants trapped in the cage remained alive. Not a single bandit survived.
Though their lives were spared, the merchants’ faces were twisted with terror. They stood in the center of the clearing, breathing shallowly, their eyes fixed on Dam Ho.
He stood alone upon ground that death had claimed.
The bodies of bandits lay scattered around him. There was no other way to describe it.
Not one of those struck by Dam Ho’s fists retained any recognizable form. Some burst apart as if hit directly by the Lightning Thunder Blast, while others had their bones and flesh torn asunder in a single blow.
Though these merchants prided themselves on having seen much in their years of travel, they had never witnessed anything like this.
“Ah… a demon……”
Someone muttered the words before catching himself, slapping a hand over his mouth. He lowered his gaze, terrified that Dam Ho might have heard.
But contrary to his fears, Dam Ho simply stood motionless in the clearing, seemingly unable to move.
His eyes had sunk into a fathomless depth.
This carnage was of his own making. Over a hundred people had died by his hand, yet Dam Ho felt no stirring of emotion whatsoever.
He closed his eyes for a moment, and only then did he understand what he had lost.
‘Is this what I’ve abandoned?’
Twelve years of life beneath the earth had stripped him of the normal human capacity to feel.
The bodies scattered at his feet were proof of it.
Dam Ho opened his eyes and gazed at the merchants huddled in the cage. They flinched at his look, their eyes darting away in fear.
He began breaking down the cage doors one by one. Though the merchants were freed, they could not bring themselves to step outside. The overwhelming presence of Dam Ho kept them frozen.
After he had destroyed all the doors, Dam Ho approached Bang Jin Bo. The boy still stood motionless, his mind seemingly absent, lost in shock.
Dam Ho’s hand pressed down on Bang Jin Bo’s shoulder. Only then did the boy look up at him.
Tears welled in his reddened eyes before spilling down his cheeks in an endless stream.
“Uhhhhh! Brother!”
Bang Jin Bo broke into violent sobs.
Dam Ho watched him in silence.
He was a child who had lost his father. Dam Ho could not easily measure the depth of loss and sorrow the boy must feel.
All Dam Ho could do was bear witness.
In the meantime, the merchants trapped in the cage quietly slipped out one by one.
Once freed, they too were moved by Bang Jin Bo’s grief, and tears began to flow down their faces.
“Uhhhhh!”
In moments, the clearing had become a place of wailing.
It was only after a long time had passed that the weeping ceased. A few men began to rise and move about.
They began retrieving the goods the bandits had plundered and loading them back onto the carts in order. Seeing this, the others joined in the work of organizing their cargo.
The sight of them doing so was grotesque beyond measure. Yet Dam Ho watched in silence.
At last, after all their belongings had been loaded onto the wagons, one of the merchants approached Dam Ho and bowed.
“Master, on behalf of all the merchants, I offer our gratitude for saving our lives.”
“Mm.”
“Thanks to you, we have been spared. How might we repay such kindness?”
“There’s no need.”
“But……”
“I didn’t come to save you. I came for that boy.”
Dam Ho’s gaze turned toward Bang Jin Bo, who was still weeping.
“So don’t concern yourselves.”
“Ah, I understand.”
With Dam Ho’s words so bluntly stated, the merchant said no more. In truth, he felt relieved.
This merchant was the eldest among those present. With Jo Su Gwang, the caravan master, dead, the responsibility now fell to him.
He bore the duty and obligation to bring the survivors to Zhongyuan. He could not afford to indulge in sentiment or idle emotion.
He had to quickly restore order and ensure that the dead’s families were cared for by the living. This was the way he and his fellow merchants survived.
The merchant clasped his fists in salute to Dam Ho and approached Bang Jin Bo.
“Jin Bo, we must go now.”
He tried to lead him away, but Bang Jin Bo did not stop his tears. Though the merchant pulled at his hand, the boy remained unmoved, as if he had turned to stone.
Eventually the merchant abandoned his attempts to console him and returned to the others. He conferred with them at length before approaching Dam Ho and Bang Jin Bo once more.
“Master, we must depart now. So I have a request—might you be willing to escort us to Zhongyuan? We will ensure your compensation is more than adequate.”
“I refuse.”
“Master?”
A look of embarrassment crossed the merchant’s face. But as he met Dam Ho’s resolute gaze, he found he could not bring himself to press further.
Though Dam Ho appeared unremarkably ordinary now, mere moments ago he had been a killer who had slain a hundred living bandits. If he so chose, he could end the merchant and all his men in the time it took to eat a meal.
The merchant reconsidered.
“Forgive me for imposing such a difficult request, Master. We shall make our way to Zhongyuan on our own.”
His reasoning was simple.
He would return from this place to Toro Ban and hire more ronin and escorts. Fortunately, most of their goods remained intact, and the bandits’ horses were available—resources enough to afford their hire.
The merchant approached Bang Jin Bo again and urged him to come along. But Bang Jin Bo remained frozen in place, and the merchant’s face twisted with frustration.
They couldn’t afford to waste more time here.
“If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to leave you behind. Is that what you want?”
“I, I… Hnnngh!”
Bang Jin Bo broke into fresh sobs.
That’s when Dam Ho stepped forward.
“I’ll take Jin Bo with me.”
“You will, Great Master?”
The merchant’s expression shifted to surprise as he looked at Dam Ho. But it passed quickly, and he soon lowered his head in deference.
“Very well. Then I entrust Jin Bo to you.”
“And one more thing…”
“Speak.”
“Leave one horse behind.”
“As you wish.”
The merchant didn’t even ask why—he simply agreed. The bandits had ridden in on more than a hundred horses. Leaving one behind meant almost nothing to him.
Besides, Bang Woo Gwang, Bang Jin Bo’s father, was dead. The merchant couldn’t shake the discomfort of escorting a parentless child all the way to Zhongyuan.
Once they reached Zhongyuan, there would be complications. He’d have to provide compensation, arrange shelter, secure the boy’s future. The price of taking responsibility for Bang Jin Bo—who was no longer connected to the caravan—had become far too steep.
Handing the boy over to Dam Ho seemed the cleanest solution.
“Jin Bo, go with this Great Master. He will take good care of you.”
The merchant pulled out a few silver coins and pressed them into the still-weeping boy’s hands. It was mere appearance, a gesture to salve his conscience—though even that small act felt necessary.
Without waiting for Ban Jin Bo’s response, he hurried back to his men and swiftly led them away from this hellish place.
The merchants didn’t look back as they drove their carts onward. In moments, dozens of carriages and horses vanished from Dam Ho and Bang Jin Bo’s sight.
Dam Ho made no move at all.
Pffft!
Heuk Gwi, who had been nearby, approached and nuzzled her head against Dam Ho’s cheek. Dam Ho gently stroked the beast’s neck in return.
After all his crying, Bang Jin Bo eventually collapsed from exhaustion.
Dam Ho lifted the boy onto one of the horses the merchants had left behind—the finest animal of the bunch, left behind out of respect for Dam Ho.
Dam Ho mounted Heuk Gwi and led the horse carrying Bang Jin Bo away from the clearing. Behind them, nothing remained but desolation.
Soon after, wolves drawn by the stench of death emerged into the clearing. They descended on the corpses with ravenous hunger.
Crows followed in the wolves’ wake. The bandits’ bodies became feast for the wild beasts.
For a long while, scavengers picked over the human remains.
Whoosh!
Shriek!
A bone-chilling whistle of displaced air cut through the air, followed by a wolf’s anguished cry. Startled, the wolves bolted in all directions, and crows erupted upward in a dark flutter.
The ones who emerged in that spot were martial experts.
Each radiating an aura of uncommon power, the warriors surveyed the devastated clearing with furrowed brows.
They dismounted as one.
The leader’s eyes gleamed with cold intensity. A man in his late thirties, his bearing exuded such formidable presence that those nearby instinctively tensed.
Hanging from his waist was a Saber marked with an eerie ghost-faced emblem.
The leader stood before what appeared to be Dong Ja Chu’s corpse, his gaze turning icy.
“So Dong Ja Chu lies dead here.”
A subordinate stepped forward.
“The entire Blood Wolf Brigade has been slain.”
“The object?”
The subordinate shook his head. The leader’s expression grew even colder.
“How many survivors?”
“The beasts have mangled the bodies severely. It’s difficult to determine a count.”
“Find them. Use whatever means necessary.”
“Understood!”
The subordinate set off at once toward the scattered corpses, examining each one methodically.
Meanwhile, the leader knelt on one knee before Dong Ja Chu’s remains.
“A useful hunting dog, lost too soon. This will complicate matters at San Jang.”
Dong Ja Chu himself had never realized it, but he was quite valuable. His willingness to undertake dirty work had made operations run smoothly until now.
As the leader studied Dong Ja Chu’s body, his eyes flickered. Something glimmered at the boy’s waist.
The leader reached down and lifted the glinting object.
“The Myo An Stone?”
His voice wavered slightly. So precious was the Myo An Stone that even this most unflappable of men was shaken.
His gaze fixed on Dong Ja Chu’s corpse.
The Myo An Stone was not something Dong Ja Chu should have possessed. That meant he’d attacked someone and seized it by force.
“Perhaps we’ve provoked the wrong enemy.”
Anyone who carried a Myo An Stone would be no ordinary figure — someone not to be dismissed lightly.
The world harbors many things best left untouched. Perhaps Dong Ja Chu had stumbled upon one of them.
“Even so, the death of my hound cannot be forgiven.”
The leader rose to his feet.
His name was Gyeong Cheon Saeng, a man bearing the epithet “Demon Blade Blood Fiend” — a title earned through his capacity for cruelty.
His eyes gleamed with murderous intent.
Dam Ho had brought Bang Jin Bo to a spot near the large boulder where Bang Woo Gwang’s body lay.
At the sight of his father’s corpse, Bang Jin Bo’s legs gave way beneath him.
“Ah… Father! Sob…”
Bang Jin Bo collapsed across his father’s body and wept without restraint. Dam Ho watched in silence, bearing witness to his grief.
One must face the reality of sorrow and overcome it. To turn away in this moment, however painful, only ensured that a greater anguish would remain in its place.
Bang Jin Bo spent the night at his father’s side.
As dawn broke, Dam Ho finally stirred.
“It’s time to let your father go.”
“What do you mean?”
“He deserves to rest now.”
“But…”
“He has earned that peace.”
There was something compelling in Dam Ho’s words; Bang Jin Bo found himself nodding without quite realizing it.
Bang Jin Bo rose unsteadily. For a time he gazed at his father’s body, then began gathering stones from the ground nearby, stacking them over the corpse to form a grave.
His palms split open and bled; his fingernails trembled. Yet he did not utter a single word of complaint as he built his father’s tomb with his own hands.
Dam Ho watched, and spoke softly to himself.
“You are fortunate, even now. At least you are able to build your father’s grave with your own hands.”

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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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