Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 46

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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 46. Blood Called by a Storm of Sand—3
Every time footsteps sounded, the martial artists who had been slaughtering the laborers flinched as if their hearts were responding to those approaching steps.
Jo Hyeol-san’s eyes trembled.
A man was approaching, cutting through the darkness.
A man draped in a Long Robe as black as pitch, walking toward them while dragging one leg slightly.
All eyes fixed upon him. The commanding presence of the man who controlled the area would not let their gazes waver.
Drip.
Cold sweat trickled down the backs of the martial artists, yet they were so tense they barely felt it.
Behind the man’s back hung a corpse. It was the martial artist who had been trying to kill Geum So-hye and her family. His upper body was crushed so brutally that his form was unrecognizable.
No one knew how the martial artist had died. They had only heard a dull sound before seeing the corpse transformed into a body.
All they could surmise was that the limping man who had just appeared must have killed the martial artist. The method and manner remained unknown, but the blood smeared across the back of his right hand testified to that fact.
Everyone froze. Not only the martial artists of the Western Heaven Mountain Manor, but Sim Og and the people of Geum Ma Manor as well.
Then someone burst forth from behind the limping man and rushed toward Geum So-hye and her family.
“Are you all right?”
The one cradling Geum So-hye and soothing her was Bang Jin-bo. Geum So-hye, who had regarded the limping man and Bang Jin-bo in turn with a bewildered expression, now saw her face light with relief.
“Wahhh! Brother!”
Geum So-hye’s cries echoed through Mok Ma Manor.
The suffocating atmosphere that had dominated the yard loosened slightly. Only then did the martial artists’ ragged breathing burst forth, and Jo Hyeol-san was no exception.
Jo Hyeol-san stepped forward with a deep breath, his face full of tension.
“I was unaware that an esteemed guest was present. If I may be so bold, might I inquire of your name and distinguished clan?”
……
The gaze of Dam Ho, the man in the black Long Robe, turned toward Jo Hyeol-san.
His lips were pressed firmly shut, his eyes sunk so deep they were indistinguishable from the darkness itself, and the deep shadow cast across his entire face rendered his presence all the more intense.
Jo Hyeol-san was overwhelmed by Dam Ho’s aura. Before the man’s rough gaze flickering in the darkness, he felt as though his entire body were being torn to shreds.
‘What kind of eyes are those……’
Dam Ho regarded Jo Hyeol-san without a word. Jo Hyeol-san’s lips had gone dry. He longed to escape this suffocating silence.
‘Please, just say something.’
Whether his desperate wish reached him or not, Dam Ho finally opened his mouth.
“Who are you?”
“We are martial artists of the Western Heaven Mountain Manor.”
Jo Hyeol-san answered hurriedly.
He fervently hoped that Dam Ho knew of the Western Heaven Mountain Manor. If he did, perhaps Jo Hyeol-san could buy himself some time.
Dam Ho tilted his head. At that gesture, Jo Hyeol-san felt his heart plummet.
Jo Hyeol-san was a strong man.
He was not the sort to be overwhelmed by another’s mere presence and break into cold sweat. Had he been, he would never have become a trusted aide of Silver River Castle or led the Western Heaven Mountain Manor.
And yet now, Jo Hyeol-san genuinely feared Dam Ho.
Dam Ho possessed an aura that no other martial artist had—an Qi Pressure that dominated like a savage beast, and a raw Killing Intent that gnawed at the very soul.
No martial artist Jo Hyeol-san had ever encountered could shake a person’s spirit from its foundation the way Dam Ho did.
Jo Hyeol-san understood instinctively.
‘This man must never become an enemy.’
Making such a person an enemy would mean endless calamity.
Jo Hyeol-san pressed on hastily.
“We came to capture that woman. We will take only her and depart.”
Dam Ho’s gaze turned toward Sim Og.
Sim Og was little more than a cadaver. She regarded Dam Ho with the weariness of exhaustion.
Dam Ho recalled having seen her once before, though his memory was vague. But Sim Og, preoccupied as she was, did not recognize Dam Ho’s face.
Then Jo Hyeol-san spoke again.
“She invaded our manor and committed grave crimes. If you will permit us to take her, we shall withdraw gracefully.”
“As you please?”
“What do you mean?”
“You invade this place, kill so many people, and simply withdraw as you wish?”
His voice echoed like the roar from the bottomless pit of hell itself—rough, yet resonant with terrible depth.
The raw Killing Intent in that voice strangled the hearts of all who heard it.
“Ugh!”
Several martial artists let out groans of anguish. The laborers had long since lost their senses. Some of them had fouled their trousers in terror.
They had known Dam Ho was no ordinary man, but the power and presence he now displayed far exceeded their imagination.
Jo Hyeol-san clenched his lips.
“Damn it! So you reject the way of kindness and choose the way of violence? You’ll regret this.”
“Will I?”
“We are martial artists of the Western Heaven Mountain Manor.”
“Is Western Heaven Mountain Manor really that impressive?”
“Now I see it clearly—you’re mad. How dare you speak of Western Heaven Mountain Manor with such contempt.”
At last, unable to bear it any longer, Jo Hyeol-san burst out.
He was indeed overwhelmed by Dam Ho’s presence, but more than that, he understood that if he continued to yield ground like this, all would be lost.
“If you obstruct us further, I won’t show restraint. This is your final warning.”
In the darkness, Dam Ho’s eyes flickered with terrifying intensity.
“Warnings are usually given by the strong to the weak. But you don’t strike me as particularly strong.”
“Gah! Attack! I order you to kill him!”
Jo Hyeol-san cried out in desperation.
At his command, the martial artists surged toward Dam Ho in unison.
A common expression crossed all their faces—desperation. The knowledge that if they failed to deal with Dam Ho now, they would have no tomorrow drove them forward with blind fury.
Dozens of martial artists rushed at Dam Ho.
Weapons bristling with killing intent in their hands. Their eyes like daggers thrust toward him.
Yet Dam Ho did not move.
“Be careful,” Sim Og called out.
Her voice rang through the night.
In that instant, Dam Ho drove his foot against the earth.
Bang!
Thunder erupted, and someone who had been alive only moments before became a corpse, hurled backward.
Not even a scream escaped.
For the first time, men understood how easily a human could cease to exist.
“What—?”
Jo Hyeol-san’s eyes widened in shock.
With his injured left leg, Dam Ho struck the earth again. His body became a line, cutting through the air.
A deafening sound followed.
Crash!
And with it came another death.
The corpse that tumbled across the ground was someone Jo Hyeol-san knew well.
Gong Dal-cheon, whose smile had been legendary, lay dead. On his final face lingered only fear and incomprehension.
Chung Bo followed by Pa Seong Chui.
Straight lines of force, looking nowhere but forward.
Tu Ro was crude. Bo Beop was even simpler. Yet none could evade Dam Ho’s strike.
Bang!
After each sound, silence inevitably followed.
Death came upon them unannounced.
“This is impossible. How is this even possible?”
Jo Hyeol-san gnashed his teeth.
The martial artists he had brought were among Western Heaven Mountain Manor’s elite. They were not so weak as to fall to such crude technique.
From a distance, as Jo Hyeol-san observed, it seemed strange that they could not avoid Dam Ho’s attacks.
But the oppression and terror those who faced him directly felt was beyond imagination.
As though trapped in a vast bog, their entire bodies had become powerless. Their legs felt chained with thousand-pound shackles. Their bodies would not obey their will.
Dam Ho drew a single line, collapsing the distance in one stride.
There was no time to evade or block.
His charge existed beyond the realm of their perception. By the time they sensed his attack, Pa Seong Chui was already slamming into their bodies.
Crash!
“Aaaagh!”
As though a massive boulder were pulverizing his entire body, the martial artist shrieked in agony.
At least he managed to scream. The others did not even have that.
Bang, bang, bang!
Explosions erupted in rapid succession, and corpses flew in all directions. A storm of death swept through Western Heaven Mountain Manor’s warriors in an instant.
“Nngh!”
Jo Hyeol-san’s pupils trembled.
His gaze could not hide the terror within.
At last Dam Ho’s frenzied charge ceased. No one had stopped him. He had simply come to a halt because there was no one left to kill.
Dam Ho’s entire body was drenched in blood—baptized in the blood of those he had slain.
Sim Og could not bear the sight and turned away.
“Insane……”
It was her true feeling.
Suddenly her stomach twisted. Unable to hold back any longer, Sim Og doubled over.
“Heave!”
She had eaten nothing, yet vomited everything her stomach contained. There was no other way to endure it.
The sight Dam Ho had just displayed was more shocking than any scene she had witnessed in her entire life.
“How can one human being kill another so easily?”
She did not think of Dam Ho as a martial artist.
To her eyes, Dam Ho was a human butcher—a seasoned professional who knew how to extract maximum efficiency with minimum effort.
Dam Ho’s gaze turned toward Jo Hyeol-san.
Of those who had forced their way into Geum Ma Manor, only he and Sim Og had survived.
“Nngh!”
Jo Hyeol-san, cowed by the killing intent in Dam Ho’s eyes, found himself backing away unbidden. Yet the distance between them did not grow. Dam Ho was walking toward him.
When he had slaughtered the martial artists, Dam Ho moved like a whirlwind. But now he shuffled forward with a limp.
At any other time, Jo Hyeol-san would have mocked him for it. But he could not now. There was something far more terrifying in that limping gait.
“D-don’t come any closer.”
Jo Hyeol-san’s voice trembled despite his will. Yet it could not stop Dam Ho’s advance.
“I am the chief administrator of Western Heaven Mountain Manor. If you touch me, Western Heaven Mountain Manor will never forgive you.”
“Is Western Heaven Mountain Manor truly so formidable?”
“It is. Western Heaven Mountain Manor is the true master of Xinjiang. And that is not all—the Manor’s influence extends to the Central Plains. Touch Western Heaven Mountain Manor, and you cannot live in peace even there.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes! If you show sense now and release me, I will pursue this matter no further.”
As his words seemed to take effect, hope flickered across Jo Hyeol-san’s face.
In that moment, Sim Og cried out.
“You cannot let him go just like that! Western Heaven Mountain Manor has been kidnapping merchants crossing the plains and forcing them into servitude.”
“This woman…….”
Jo Hyeol-san glared at Sim Og, who had just scattered ash over his nearly completed escape. But she paid him no mind and continued.
“It is true. Even now, countless people are being held captive and enslaved. I saw it with my own eyes at Bakgyeok Dal Peak in the Tianshan Mountains.”
She cried out with the full force of her voice.
The first to react was Bang Jin-bo.
“That cannot be…….”
Bang Jin-bo’s shoulders trembled.
He had long harbored doubts about his father’s death. Now, instinctively, he grasped that Western Heaven Mountain Manor was connected to it.
Dam Ho understood in the same moment.
His eyes began to gleam with an ominous light.
“It was you.”
Those four words froze Jo Hyeol-san’s heart.

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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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