Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 47
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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 47. There Is No Justice Worth More Than a Human Life—Part 1
“Damn it!”
Jo Hyeol-san clenched his teeth with all his strength.
He understood now that no words would reach Damho anymore.
The man before him was a monster beyond reason, something no martial strength could match.
‘Then there is only one choice left.’
Jo Hyeol-san hurled his body backward.
At this point, capturing Sim Ok was no longer the priority. He had to survive and get word of this to Eunha Seong, no matter what.
Jo Hyeol-san spread both hands wide.
Whizz-whizz-whizz-whizz!
In an instant, dozens of coins poured from his palms.
The Geum Jeon Pyo—also known as the Nahan Coins—a hidden weapon of lethal precision.
They resembled ordinary coins, but their cutting power and penetration far surpassed any standard projectile. Their lethality was incomparable.
Jo Hyeol-san was a master of the Geum Jeon Pyo, and he had killed countless men with them.
He did not believe this technique alone would kill Damho. But he thought he could buy himself a few precious seconds.
‘No matter how formidable his martial arts, he’s a cripple. If I unleash my Light Bodywork, there’s no way he can catch me.’
Jo Hyeol-san spun and bolted without waiting to see the result.
He was drawing upon his Internal Energy, about to deploy his Light Bodywork at maximum speed.
Whirrrrr!
Behind him, a sound like tens of thousands of bees taking flight all at once erupted, and a Killing Intent like a tidal wave crashed over him.
Thwack!
It wasn’t just the Killing Intent. A hand vast as a cauldron lid seized the nape of his neck.
“Ugh!”
Jo Hyeol-san’s face contorted as crushing force strangled him. He thrashed against Damho’s grip, but the man’s hand held firm as a steel vice.
Jo Hyeol-san drew upon his Internal Energy, but it was useless. Like an octopus stranded on shore, his limbs would not obey him.
His body wrenched around in place.
Damho’s face was inches away. It was carved like a statue—utterly devoid of emotion.
Yet Jo Hyeol-san could feel it. The Killing Intent radiating from him.
Those deep, sunken eyes flickered and blazed with wild fury. That gaze alone made Jo Hyeol-san’s breath catch.
Jo Hyeol-san could not comprehend what was happening. The coins he had hurled with all his strength lay scattered across the ground, and Damho’s body bore not a single wound.
Faced with something his mind could not grasp, Jo Hyeol-san was seized by terror.
“Pl—please……”
In that moment, Damho raised his hand. Jo Hyeol-san’s body soared into the air with it.
As Jo Hyeol-san’s legs thrashed in the void, Damho’s arm plunged toward the earth like a thunderbolt.
Crash!
Jo Hyeol-san’s torso was driven into the ground.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the Pasture, and his body sank deep into the earth.
“Hack!”
Jo Hyeol-san vomited blood in a great gout.
The enormous impact felt as though his entire body was coming apart. But his agony was far from over.
His body was wrenched skyward once more. And then slammed down again toward the ground.
Bang!
“Ahhhhh!”
A shrill scream tore from Jo Hyeol-san’s throat.
Bang! Bang!
Damho continued driving Jo Hyeol-san’s body into the earth. With each impact, the crater grew deeper, and Jo Hyeol-san became a rag doll.
“Noooo! Please……”
Jo Hyeol-san begged.
But Damho remained unmoved. He said nothing at all. That was what made it truly terrifying.
He would have welcomed any word—even if Damho had asked him if he wanted to die. But Damho, cruelly indifferent, simply raised his grip on Jo Hyeol-san’s throat again.
“Please—please……”
Boom!
Jo Hyeol-san’s body was driven into the crater once more.
The only difference now was the deafening roar that rang out, and the fact that Jo Hyeol-san’s body went still.
“Nnnngh……”
A thin, pipe-like wheeze seeped from Jo Hyeol-san’s throat. Only when that fragile breath faded into silence did Damho finally straighten and rise.
Blood pooled in the crater where Jo Hyeol-san lay. He drowned in his own blood and breathed no more.
Damho turned away.
“Hic!”
Geum So-hye let out a hiccup.
It wasn’t only Geum So-hye. Every survivor stared at Damho with eyes clouded by terror.
Those who had lived through it saw hell itself in his form.
In their eyes, Damho was no longer human.
He was a monster—far more terrible than even the fearsome martial artists of Seoocheon Sanjang. They trembled so violently they couldn’t bear to meet his gaze.
So terrified that they forgot he was their savior, the one who had bought them their lives.
Every eye fled from him. Every eye but one—Bang Jin-bo’s.
A suffocating silence settled over the Pasture.
Damho harbored no resentment toward them. He understood well enough how he must appear in their sight.
They had lived in different worlds.
Unlike them, his humanity had been worn thin by accumulated hardship, worn down to something incomplete. Their sensibilities remained ordinary—fragile things that could never withstand the hellscape he had conjured. They were right to fear.
They were normal.
He was the aberration. So he couldn’t blame them.
His gaze shifted to Sim Ok.
Her reaction was no different from the others. For all the martial arts she had learned, she was still a woman—one who had never imagined witnessing such a hell unfold before her eyes.
Damho walked toward her.
Sim Ok was afraid of him. Terrified—this man who had choreographed this blood-soaked nightmare. Yet she forced her eyes wide open and held his stare.
Damho finally stood before her. His lips parted.
“Why did you flee to this place?”
His voice was rough and murky, like someone freshly emerged from a dusty mine. It grated against the ear, yet no one dared say they found it unpleasant.
She clenched her small fists.
“We had no choice. We needed to find horses here.”
“You didn’t think they’d follow you?”
…….
Sim Ok offered no reply. Her silence was answer enough.
His eyes flickered with rough intensity.
“Then you knew this would happen?”
“I told you—we had no choice. I have a duty to protect the peace of Gangho and uphold the greater justice. Please, help us. You’re the only one who can stop Seoocheon Sanjang’s ambitions. For the sake of Gangho’s peace, please……”
“Greater justice? Is that more important than their lives?”
“I’m sorry for that. But if their deaths preserve Gangho’s peace, then it’s not so bitter a thing, is it? Please, help me. You could stop Seoocheon Sanjang’s schemes. For the peace of Gangho……”
In that instant, Damho’s massive palm swung across Sim Ok’s cheek.
Crack!
“Aaah!”
The unexpected blow sent Sim Ok tumbling across the ground. Her cheek swelled almost instantly.
She couldn’t gather her wits, shaking her head as the world split into doubles and triples before her eyes.
“Ah!”
Sudden agony flooded her mouth. Blood pooled thick on her tongue. When she spat, a broken tooth came with it.
“How……?”
Sim Ok murmured blankly.
The broken tooth mattered less than the simple fact that someone had struck her. It was a shock far deeper than the pain.
She was not the sort of person to be treated this way.
“I… I……”
Her voice trembled. She felt she should say something, anything, but the words wouldn’t come.
Damho looked down at her.
“You should have apologized to them first.”
“But the fate of Gangho rested in my hands……”
Sim Ok cried out as if making excuses. Yet Damho’s eyes remained cold and unmoved.
“Gangho isn’t important enough to justify destroying these people’s lives.”
“How can you say such a thing……”
Her eyes wavered.
His words denied everything she had built her life upon.
Damho turned away. There was nothing more to say to her.
His gaze moved to Bang Jin-bo.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes!”
Bang Jin-bo nodded.
There was much he wanted to ask, but he asked nothing. Though Damho was drenched in blood, something about him no longer inspired fear—not the way it had before.
A man who existed atop the deaths of others.
Perhaps this was Damho’s truest nature, Bang Jin-bo thought.
Bang Jin-bo led his horse from the edge of the Pasture and began loading his supplies. In the meanwhile, Heuk-gwi approached Damho. A creature without words, yet it seemed to know already that Damho was leaving.
The people of Geum Ma-jang watched in silence, too afraid to call out to any of them.
Damho climbed onto Heuk-gwi’s back. Bang Jin-bo followed close behind. Even then, the people around them couldn’t bring themselves to speak.
Damho approached Geum Gwan-cheon while mounted on Heuk-gwi.
“My lord…….”
Geum Gwan-cheon’s voice trembled. He couldn’t speak with the ease he’d known before. No matter how many years he’d lived, he remained an ordinary man. His nerves were not thick enough to endure such hellish scenes.
“I owe you much for your kindness all this time.”
“I…….”
Geum Gwan-cheon’s gaze turned toward the martial artists. His eyes held a fear he couldn’t conceal.
The martial artists from Seoocheon Sanjang had died here. Whatever the reason, they would never simply let this pass.
Though not well known in the Central Plains, the influence of Seoocheon Sanjang in Xinjiang was formidable. If they so desired, erasing a mere horse ranch from the world would be no difficulty at all.
Then Damho’s voice came again.
“The worry you carry will not come to pass.”
“My lord?”
Geum Gwan-cheon lifted his head in surprise. But Damho was already receding into the distance, still mounted on Heuk-gwi. All Geum Gwan-cheon could see was their retreating forms.
Bang Jin-bo hastened to follow after Damho.
“Brother.”
Geum So-hye called out to Bang Jin-bo.
The sight of Geum So-hye, her face smeared with tears, pierced Bang Jin-bo’s heart.
He wanted nothing more than to stay, but he had to follow Damho.
“I’ll be sure to visit soon.”
“You have to come.”
Geum So-hye waved her small hands.
“I will!”
Bang Jin-bo nodded vigorously and followed after Damho.
When Bang Jin-bo drew alongside Damho, he asked.
“But where are we headed? Are we going straight back to the Central Plains?”
Damho shook his head.
Bang Jin-bo’s expression grew uncertain.
“Then?”
“To Seoocheon Sanjang.”
Damho’s gaze turned toward the western sky.
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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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