Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 54

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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 54. Entered the Central Plains, yet everything felt unfamiliar—Part 1
Jiayuguan Pass was one of the few passages connecting the Western Regions to the Central Plains. If Shanhaiguan represented the archetypal gateway at the eastern end of the Great Wall, then Jiayuguan stood as its counterpart at the western extreme.
Anyone traveling to and from the Western Regions or conducting trade with the frontier peoples had to pass through this place without exception. Because of this, though the numbers were never great, a steady stream of travelers moved through.
Given its military and strategic importance, more than four hundred soldiers stood perpetual guard here.
Today, as always, some twenty soldiers manned the main gate of Jiayuguan, scrutinizing the credentials of merchants seeking passage.
Those wishing to enter the Central Plains had to declare their identity and purpose; the reverse held equally true.
Yu Yun Cheng was the commanding general of Jiayuguan. Born from the Songshan Sect, a martial artist who had enlisted in the army with aspirations of glory, he had risen swiftly through the ranks. But last year, caught in political intrigue, he had been demoted to this remote posting.
Time moved sluggishly at Jiayuguan. The frontier tribes had lost their strength and no longer threatened the pass, and since the soldiers handled the inspections, he had little to do.
He drilled daily out of sheer boredom, though no spark of enthusiasm kindled in his chest. The tedium had worn him down, and now he drifted through each day stripped of ambition.
Yu Yun Cheng stood before the fortress gate, gazing blankly northward. Separated by nothing more than the city wall, the northern sky seemed unusually harsh and wild.
Yu Yun Cheng exhaled a long sigh.
“Had I known it would come to this, I would have been better off tempering my martial arts back at the Songshan Sect.”
He had been a promising talent even within the Sect. With a little more patience and dedication to his training, he surely could have risen to a position of prominence there.
He knew now that regret served no purpose, and the past could not be undone. Yet with each passing year, longing for what was lost tightened its grip on his heels.
“What if I threw myself into Jianghu right now?”
For days, such thoughts had plagued him, robbing him of sleep. The deeper the boredom ran, the deeper the conflict in his heart.
Suddenly, a flicker of interest crossed Yu Yun Cheng’s eyes. Far beyond the gates of Jiayuguan, two riders were approaching.
‘Merchants?’
Yu Yun Cheng shook his head at once.
The party was too small to be merchants, and besides, there were no goods visible—nothing a trader would carry.
‘Two people alone crossing Xinjiang?’
Curiosity kindled in Yu Yun Cheng’s expression.
As they drew closer to the gate, their faces became clear.
A young man who appeared to be in his late twenties and a boy who looked barely into his teens.
The young man had wrapped cloth around his face to shield against the dust. His long black hair and black leather robe cast a striking, imposing image.
By contrast, the rotund boy in his early teens wore a perpetual, warm smile. He was laden like a tortoise, carrying a bulging bundle of supplies on his back.
“Halt!”
The soldiers guarding Jiayuguan shouted and raised their weapons. The two figures reined in their horses.
“Who are you and where do you come from? State your identity.”
The soldiers’ voices were sharp and tense. Yu Yun Cheng stood nearby, holding the power of life and death over every soldier at the garrison.
Negligence in duty meant swift and proportionate punishment. Unlike other commanders who had passed through this place, Yu Yun Cheng showed no mercy for soldier’s lapses.
Even as the soldiers leveled their weapons, the young man in black showed not a flicker of reaction—or rather, none could be discerned beneath the cloth wound tightly around his face, covering everything but his eyes.
The answer came from the round boy beside him.
“Greetings, soldier sirs. You must work hard, all of you. I’m Bang Jin Bo.”
The rotund boy with the perpetual smile was indeed Bang Jin Bo. The dark-clad figure beside him was Dam Ho.
Dam Ho gazed silently at the towering walls of Jiayuguan.
He had passed through this place twelve years ago. But then, he had not needed to submit to such procedures—likely owing to the influence of the Wudang Sect or the Songshan Sect.
The lofty wall barring the way forward. Beyond it lay the Central Plains. He should have felt eager, yet his eyes held no emotion whatsoever.
The soldiers questioned again.
“Give us your name and purpose. Why do you wish to enter the Central Plains?”
“We belong to the Silver Lotus Merchant Guild, those of us who departed this place a year ago.”
“The Silver Lotus Merchant Guild?”
The soldiers exchanged whispers. One of them confirmed that the Guild had indeed passed through here.
“Are you truly from the Silver Lotus Merchant Guild? We heard their company numbered nearly a hundred. How is it only the two of you remain?”
“Truth is, we were attacked by bandits…”
Bang Jin Bo revealed how the Blood Wolf Bandits had destroyed the Silver Lotus Merchant Guild. To the skeptical soldiers, he produced a Sealed Letter bearing the personal seal of the Blood Lin Sal Mak leader.
“General!”
The soldier who received the letter hurried toward Yu Yun Cheng, recognizing this decision lay beyond his authority.
He extended the Sealed Letter to Yu Yun Cheng.
Yu Yun Cheng glanced at it and nodded lightly. The seal impressed upon it was unmistakably Sim Su Myeong’s.
The name of Sim Su Myeong, leader of the Blood Lin Sal Mak, carried no small weight. At minimum, none at this garrison failed to know it.
Particularly a commanding general would necessarily have connections of some kind with Sim Su Myeong. Some of those who crossed Xinjiang sought protection; the Blood Lin Sal Mak possessed the means to provide it.
Jiayuguan served as the intermediary between them. Officially, such arrangements were strictly forbidden by law. Yet they occurred in secret nonetheless, for everything here was in short supply.
Weapons rusted, food was always scarce. Because of this, the commanding generals of Jiayuguan facilitated such arrangements and took their commission.
The Sealed Letter stated that the Silver Lotus Merchant Guild had been wiped out by bandits, and that Sim Su Myeong, leader of the Blood Lin Sal Mak, vouched for the identity of these two persons.
“The Blood Lin Sal Mak leader vouches for them?”
Then they could be allowed passage. Sim Su Myeong was not a man to speak falsehoods.
Yet the final phrase troubled him.
“Without fail?”
The last part of the Sealed Letter emphasized that they must be allowed to pass “without fail”.
“Hmm!”
A spark of intrigue flashed across Yu Yun Cheng’s face. In all his decades of dealings, he’d never encountered a situation quite like this.
“What should we do, sir?”
A soldier asked.
Yu Yun Cheng straightened from where he’d been leaning against the wall and walked toward Dam Ho and Bang Jin Bo.
The moment Yu Yun Cheng approached—his bearing unmistakably formidable—tension seized Bang Jin Bo’s face. For all he’d endured alongside Dam Ho, he was still barely past his early teens.
As Yu Yun Cheng stepped before him, Bang Jin Bo swallowed hard.
“The Silver Lotus Merchant Guild annihilated by bandits? Then how did you two survive?”
“Well, that is…”
Bang Jin Bo’s eyes flicked toward Dam Ho. Yu Yun Cheng’s gaze followed naturally to him—but Dam Ho’s eyes remained fixed on Jiayuguan Pass’s walls.
“Hey, you.”
Yu Yun Cheng called out sharply. Yet Dam Ho seemed deaf to his voice, still gazing at the fortification.
“You there—can you not hear me?”
Yu Yun Cheng seized Dam Ho’s wrist, his grip employing the Grasping and Restraining Technique at a master’s level—suppressing all the way to the wrist meridian in a single motion.
Any martial master worth the name should have reacted. But Dam Ho gave no response whatsoever.
Yu Yun Cheng’s brows shot upward. He was affronted that Dam Ho showed no sign of strain from his technique. So he poured internal energy into the meridian point he’d seized.
The Heaven and Earth Grasping Restraining Hand.
One of the Songshan Sect’s supreme techniques. Once caught in the Heaven and Earth Grasping Restraining Hand, no opponent could break free by any means—that was Yu Yun Cheng’s certainty. But his certainty shattered in the next instant.
“Let go of my arm.”
The moment he heard that quiet voice, every hair on his body stood on end. He didn’t know why, but his body obeyed instinctively.
“This man…”
He couldn’t suppress his shock. There was no ordinary way to escape the Heaven and Earth Grasping Restraining Hand. Yet Dam Ho turned his head as though completely unaffected.
Yu Yun Cheng poured more internal energy into the technique. With the wrist meridian suppressed, this level of concentration should have torn a scream from anyone.
Then Dam Ho turned and fixed his eyes on Yu Yun Cheng.
Eyes infinitely deep and still. Not a flicker of emotion showed in them—only a thick, suffocating darkness.
A shudder ran down his spine.
And that was only the beginning.
Crack!
At the meridian point he gripped, the sound of bone against bone rang out. Some invisible, tremendous force was pushing his fingers back.
Yu Yun Cheng’s eyes widened. He poured more internal energy into his fingertips, straining with all his might.
Snap!
“Ah!”
His fingers snapped free from the meridian point. His palm split open and bled; his thumb and forefinger—which had borne the direct force—bent grotesquely at unnatural angles.
Then Dam Ho’s voice came.
“Touch my body again without permission, and you die.”
“…”
His voice was as calm as ever. Yet hearing it, Yu Yun Cheng found himself nodding frantically. He felt he would truly die otherwise.
He’d always prided himself on a rough life in the military. And the formidable martial arts he’d learned from the Songshan Sect.
He’d known no fear. He’d believed nothing in the world could frighten him. But hearing Dam Ho’s voice and meeting his gaze, he realized what a frog at the bottom of a well he truly was.
Dam Ho hadn’t moved a finger, yet Yu Yun Cheng couldn’t move at all. The sheer force of his presence had pinned him down. In all his decades with the military, he’d never experienced anything like it.
He couldn’t accept that Dam Ho was human like himself.
Meanwhile, the soldiers watched Yu Yun Cheng with blinking eyes, unable to comprehend why he stood alone, sweating profusely and nodding.
Yu Yun Cheng felt even more astonished. Only he had been directly affected by Dam Ho’s presence.
‘A master beyond my reach.’
Yu Yun Cheng regretted his youthful recklessness.
If Dam Ho so wished, every soldier here would be corpses scattered across the ground. To a master of such caliber, the number of ordinary soldiers meant nothing.
Then Dam Ho’s voice sounded again.
“Any problem?”
“None, sir. You may pass.”
Hearing Yu Yun Cheng’s answer, Dam Ho withdrew his gaze. Without even allowing Yu Yun Cheng a breath of relief, he barked at the soldiers.
“Open the gates now.”
“But…”
“I said open them. Quickly.”
“Yes, at once!”
The soldiers hastily swung open Jiayuguan Pass’s great gates.
Beyond the yawning portal, the sky and earth of the Central Plains stretched before them. It had been twelve years since Dam Ho last saw the Central Plains.
Dam Ho urged the Black Horse through the gate, with Bang Jin Bo hurrying after him.
The horse snorted sharply.
The Black Horse released a rough whinny, its nostrils flaring wide.
Something felt different—as if the very air had changed beyond a single wall. Dam Ho glanced back over his shoulder.
Yu Yun Cheng’s body stiffened, thinking that Dam Ho was looking at him. But Dam Ho’s gaze was fixed elsewhere entirely.
The vast wasteland and harsh sky—places where he had spent a considerable portion of his life. Yet they held no attachment for him now.
Dam Ho’s gaze turned back toward the Central Plains.
Clouds that had hung motionless in the blue sky suddenly began to drift.
“Let’s go!”
At Dam Ho’s word, the Black Horse bolted forward.
“I’m coming with you.”
Bang Jin Bo’s white horse followed close behind.
The two horses shrank to dots and vanished from sight in moments.
The eldest-looking soldier among them approached Yu Yun Cheng.
“General, was it right to let them go?”
“And if I hadn’t?”
“Sir?”
The soldier’s expression turned uncertain.
He had grown accustomed to taking considerable sums under the guise of passage fees whenever people passed through, and the prospect of this lost opportunity stung.
Yu Yun Cheng let out a dismissive sound.
He regarded the soldier with contempt.
The man had no idea how close he had come to stepping across the threshold into the grave.
Yu Yun Cheng, on the verge of blaming him, shook his head instead.
Now that he thought about it, he had been much the same.
He had grown weary of life in this place and had even entertained thoughts of venturing into Jianghu. But meeting Dam Ho had changed his mind entirely.
“This post suits me better.”
He feared what might happen if he ventured into Jianghu and encountered Dam Ho again. The scent of blood that clung to that man made his skin crawl.
He didn’t need to hear how Dam Ho and Bang Jin Bo had survived the bandit assault—he could already imagine it. A man like Dam Ho would never let anyone who had touched him live.
“I didn’t even ask for his name. Perhaps the Jianghu will convulse because of that man.”
In Yu Yun Cheng’s mind’s eye, the sky above the Central Plains burned crimson.

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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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