Fist Demon of Mount Hua - Chapter 91

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

Chapter 91. One Who Walks and Moves Alone, the Lone Walker School—3
Do Hak-gyeong had left, and Eun So-cheong remained alone.
Eun So-cheong apologized first.
“I’m sorry!”
“For what?”
“My uncle asked me to do it—I had no choice.”
“Your uncle from the Ui Seon Sect?”
“Yes!”
“Why would he ask that?”
“Because of you.”
“Me?”
“That’s right!”
At Eun So-cheong’s answer, Bang Jin-bo’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Because of you.”
……
“You didn’t know? Outside, it’s all anyone talks about—you especially. In Hunan Province especially, it’s absolute chaos. Several sects are moving fast.”
“Why?”
“Because if they recruit you, their sect’s power will grow that much stronger.”
“Sigh! You really don’t know him at all. He’s not the kind of man who serves under anyone. If that ever happened, he wouldn’t be himself anymore.”
Bang Jin-bo exhaled a long breath.
Eun So-cheong agreed with Bang Jin-bo’s assessment. She’d seen Dam Ho only a handful of times, but even imagining him taking orders from someone seemed impossible.
A completely independent spirit.
That was how Eun So-cheong perceived Dam Ho.
Yet her uncle, Sim Woo-won, thought differently. Despite having already been humiliated by Dam Ho once, he harbored ambitions of recruiting him.
“You’re the connection that links him to us. That’s why my uncle sought you out. But his recognition of your culinary skill is genuine too—that much is certain and unchanging.”
“I see.”
Bang Jin-bo suddenly felt the wind knocked out of his sails.
He’d been pleased to receive recognition from Do Hak-gyeong, but learning it was underlay with political calculation drained the joy from him.
Eun So-cheong watched Bang Jin-bo with a sympathetic expression.
“There will be many more situations like this ahead. Your renown has already shaken the realm, and you’re the only connection to him.”
“Sigh!”
“All I can tell you now is to stay strong.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Friends?”
“Yes! That’s what I believe we are. What about you?”
“I… I think of you as a friend too.”
Bang Jin-bo’s face flushed red, ears crimson. Seeing him in that state, Eun So-cheong burst into laughter.
Eun So-cheong pulled over a chair and sat down.
“I wish he’d come soon.”
“Why?”
“The atmosphere around Dong Ting Lake is unusual lately. Many martial artists have been flowing in.”
“Dong Ting Lake is always full of visitors though.”
“This time is different.”
“How so?”
“Most of the inns around Dong Ting Lake have been reserved entirely by martial artists. At the Tianxia First Tower, even the separate wings that barely see guests have been rented out wholesale by Wudang Sect warriors.”
“Wudang Sect? That’s an incredible place, isn’t it?”
“Exactly! Along with Shaolin, they’re considered the head of the Nine Great Sects. The fact that such a place has sent people ahead to reserve separate wings is proof that Wudang is expecting very important figures to arrive.”
“Hmm.”
Bang Jin-bo let out a low murmur.
Though Bang Jin-bo knew little of Gangho, he understood well enough how formidable the Wudang Sect was. To ordinary people like him, the martial artists of great sects like the Nine Great Sects or the Five Great Clans belonged to a distant world.
The thought that such figures were arriving at Dong Ting Lake made him naturally anxious.
“Because of this, the Eun Ga House has fallen into chaos too. The Ui Seon Sect as well, and the Ak-yang Sword Sect has been completely turned upside down.”
“Do they know why these people are coming to Dong Ting Lake?”
“If they knew, would there be all this turmoil? When the Nine Great Sects cough, all of the Central Plains catches a fever.”
Eun So-cheong exhaled softly.
She too disliked the current situation. The fact that she had no way of knowing what was truly unfolding here weighed heavily on her chest.
Bang Jin-bo suddenly asked, as if remembering something.
“By the way, what about that girl?”
“Who? Oh, Hye-ryeong?”
“I can’t see her.”
“She won’t be here for a while. There’s something she needs to handle. She only came out for that, and stopped by briefly to see me.”
“Everyone’s so busy.”
“That’s just how life is.”
Sigh.
Bang Jin-bo exhaled deeply once more.
Eun So-cheong watched him steadily. She couldn’t claim to understand everything in his heart, but she felt she grasped something of it.
Eun So-cheong lingered awhile longer, chatting, before taking her leave.
Alone again, shadow settled across Bang Jin-bo’s face.
The visits from Do Hak-gyeong and Eun So-cheong had only filled his mind with questions.
“How am I supposed to live from here on?”
He couldn’t follow Dam Ho forever.
From the start, Dam Ho had only promised to bring him as far as Dong Ting Lake. What came next was entirely Bang Jin-bo’s own burden to bear.
Bang Jin-bo’s troubles deepened.
Drip. Drip.
Blood trickled down the back of Dam Ho’s hand.
Drop by drop, the blood seeped into the earth. Yet the crimson stain remained vivid and distinct.
Dam Ho’s gaze fixed on the half-collapsed wall. A man, drenched in blood, lay embedded in the center of the stone barrier.
Cough!
The man coughed up blood. After spewing it out, he barely managed to lift his head, looking up at Dam Ho.
“That little wretch has become a monster.”
The man’s name was Go Sang-gyeong, once a member of the Black Tiger Band.
After the Black Tiger Band disbanded, he had settled here on Yuelushan and lived comfortably as a local notable, for he had amassed considerable wealth during his time with the gang.
A visitor had arrived at his door half a time unit ago.
A limping figure dressed entirely in black.
At first, Go Sang-gyeong had laughed at him. But the laughter turned to horror in no time.
Exactly half a time unit. That’s how long it took for all the servants and retainers he kept to become corpses.
The mansion that, just half a time unit before, had overflowed with laughter and vitality now reeked of death alone.
Go Sang-gyeong muttered.
“They had done nothing wrong. Did you truly have to slaughter every last one? You are a heartless demon.”
“I told you not to interfere.”
Gasp.
“They chose to ignore the warning.”
Go Sang-gyeong had hired considerable numbers of martial artists to protect himself. His conscience weighed heavily, so he had spared no expense in his preparations.
They threw themselves at Dam Ho to shield their employer. And the result was as merciless as what lay before them now.
Dam Ho knelt on one knee before Go Sang-gyeong, bringing their eyes level. Go Sang-gyeong turned his head away, avoiding Dam Ho’s gaze.
Death loomed at his doorstep, yet looking into Dam Ho’s eyes terrified him far more. To carry that gaze with him into his final moment would be unbearable. That was how deeply Dam Ho frightened him.
Dam Ho gripped Go Sang-gyeong’s jaw and forced him to face him.
Gasp!
“Jo Yoon-san. Where is he?”
“I don’t know. We lost contact over ten years ago. How would I know where he is?”
In an instant, Dam Ho’s eyes went fathomless and cold.
Crunch!
“Ahhhhh!”
Go Sang-gyeong’s little finger shattered. As if struck by a massive hammer, the bone crumbled and the muscle tore.
Go Sang-gyeong shrieked like a madman, experiencing agony beyond anything his life had prepared him for.
Dam Ho looked down at him without feeling. The sight was suffocating with terror.
Dam Ho systematically crushed Go Sang-gyeong’s ring finger next. Wracked by torment he’d never imagined possible, Go Sang-gyeong thrashed. But Dam Ho proceeded with mechanical precision, pulverizing each finger bone in turn.
Go Sang-gyeong screamed and pleaded for mercy.
He wished for death. But Dam Ho would not grant him that mercy.
Dam Ho dislocated his jaw so he couldn’t bite his own tongue, and sealed his Inner Force so he couldn’t rupture his own meridians.
Gasp!
Go Sang-gyeong had no choice but to scream on and on.
How much time had passed?
The pupils of Go Sang-gyeong’s eyes had gone blank. His hands and feet were crushed as if trapped between massive boulders.
Now he felt no pain at all. The inability to feel anything terrified him even more.
A vertigo and isolation washed over him, as if only his head existed. Go Sang-gyeong felt he was losing his mind.
“Please…… kill me.”
“Jo Yoon-san. Where is he?”
“I… I really don’t know.”
“How do we find him?”
“I don’t know! I swear—I really don’t know!”
Go Sang-gyeong’s tears spilled freely.
Dam Ho’s gaze turned even colder.
Go Sang-gyeong truly seemed to know nothing. The fact that he’d held his silence even at this point meant there was nothing left to tell.
The real problem was that the chain connecting Go Sang-gyeong to Jo Yoon-san had been severed.
Dam Ho murmured to himself.
“Lucky for him.”
In that instant, Go Sang-gyeong flinched, thinking the words were meant for him. His eyes widened with terror. But then he realized Dam Ho was speaking of Jo Yoon-san.
The darkness flickering in Dam Ho’s eyes deepened further still.
Go Sang-gyeong pleaded.
“Please. End it now. I’m begging you…….”
Dam Ho placed his foot on Go Sang-gyeong’s neck. At that cold, chilling touch, Go Sang-gyeong’s body shuddered. Yet almost immediately, a smile crossed his face.
‘At last. I can finally die.’
Crack.
The sound of his own neck snapping—that was the last sound Go Sang-gyeong heard in his living breath.
Dam Ho stared for a moment at the corpse with its tongue lolling out.
With that, the connection to Jo Yoon-san was completely severed. But Dam Ho felt no disappointment.
If that man wanted to swim in the greater waters, he would show himself eventually.
Gangho.
There existed no deeper waters for a martial artist than that.
Dam Ho emerged outside and climbed onto Huk-gwi’s back.
“Let’s go.”
Huk-gwi surged forward at a terrifying pace.
Two time units of riding brought them to the landing at Wang-seong. Wang-seong was a small county situated on the river plain where the lower reaches of Dong Ting Lake converged. From here, a short boat ride would see them to Dong Ting Lake itself.
Dam Ho stood at the landing, waiting for a ferry to arrive.
After waiting roughly half a time unit, a boat pulled into the dock. It was the Yunma Ferry, which plied the waters of Dong Ting Lake.
Dam Ho tied Huk-gwi to a mooring on the ferry’s lower deck, then climbed onto the main deck. Passengers had already claimed their spots there.
Dam Ho was making his way past them when
“I’ve heard the scenery of Dong Ting Lake is beyond compare, and truly it lives up to its reputation. I steal the hours and fortune of Heaven and Earth—and in stealing them, I savor them.”
A cheerful voice rose suddenly from among the passengers.
That voice was not unfamiliar. Dam Ho turned his head and saw a face he recognized.
The owner of that voice also noticed Dam Ho and widened his eyes in surprise.
“Wait—who is this?”
Dam Ho’s brow furrowed slightly.
A young man in his late twenties with eyes as bright as morning stars and a mischievous expression—it was Cho Yeon-un.
They’d parted ways after Hong Am Mountain Lodge, and Dam Ho had nearly forgotten about him. He’d never dreamed of meeting him again here, thousands of miles away.
Cho Yeon-un seemed equally startled, his expression turning momentarily blank.
He strode toward Dam Ho with broad steps.
“I never expected to meet an old friend in a place like this. It’s good to see you, friend.”
His face had already broken into a warm, radiant smile.

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