Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 118

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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 118
Grant a wish?
A stifled laugh escaped me.
As if I were some omniscient god, granting every heart’s desire?
“Anything at all?”
The Trading Company Master waved his hand dismissively.
“Well now, I’m no god, so of course not everything’s possible. Anything beyond my reach is out of the question. But within the limits of my power, anything goes.”
That made sense.
Cheon Hui nodded.
The Trading Company Master’s eyes narrowed with satisfaction.
“If it’s wealth you want, I’ll give you enough to spend a lifetime and still have plenty left. If it’s power, I can buy you positions in the imperial court itself.”
“You seem confident.”
“Well, I’m drowning in money, and my connections are too vast to even count.”
“That much is true.”
Running a trading company required three essential things: capital, connections, and trust.
And if one was the master of the Tianxia Trading Company, spoken of as the finest trading house under heaven, what more need be said?
‘To grant anything, he says…’
Cheon Hui deliberated for a moment, but—
‘Nothing to think about, really.’
The decision came in a flash.
There was only one thing I had ever needed, then and now.
“In that case, I’d like the Shangsheng Martial Manual.”
“The Shangsheng Martial Manual?”
“Yes.”
“That’s difficult.”
The Trading Company Master cut the words short and clean.
“But you said you’d help within the limits of your power?”
Cheon Hui twisted his mouth into a smirk.
“Or are you about to speak out of both sides of your mouth? The master of the Tianxia Trading Company?”
“Ha ha ha!”
The Trading Company Master burst out laughing at the provocation.
“I was careless. But as you know, in Kangho a martial manual is more precious than life itself. Even if I tried to buy such a thing with money, would you sell it if you were in their position?”
“Just give me whatever you can acquire.”
“But then what you’d get wouldn’t be the Shangsheng Martial Manual you’re after—perhaps the Liuhe Sword Technique instead. Would you settle for that?”
“I could acquire it well enough myself if I wanted to.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The black market, for instance.”
……
The Trading Company Master’s eyes narrowed.
Then he shook his head firmly.
“I don’t want to make enemies of Kangho.”
The martial manuals sold on the black market were mostly items peddled in secret by disciples expelled from their sects.
If he were to purchase such a thing—
His trust with the sects of Kangho would crumble.
The Trading Company Master, who had been shaking his head, spoke again.
“What about this instead?”
Then he rummaged through his sleeve.
From it he withdrew a faded, worn scroll of paper and set it upon the table.
“A Treasure Map of Wuying Shentu that I recently acquired.”
A Treasure Map?
Cheon Hui’s eyes narrowed.
What sort of Treasure Map was this?
The Trading Company Master looked flustered at the reaction.
“Why that expression? I thought you’d be quite satisfied with this.”
“This?”
“A Treasure Map of Wuying Shentu, isn’t it?”
“Who is that?”
The Trading Company Master fell silent for a moment.
“……You don’t know who Wuying Shentu is?”
“Are they famous?”
The Trading Company Master looked at Cheon Hui with slightly widened eyes, then laughed in disbelief.
“Wuying Shentu appeared out of nowhere about two hundred and fifty years ago, stealing not only every martial arts manual in Gangho but even treasures from the imperial palace itself. Some say that if there’s a place where he hid what he stole, it would be the greatest treasure trove under heaven.”
All sorts of martial arts manuals, you say?
Life kindled in Cheon Hui’s eyes.
“Ha-ha. Your eyes just lit up.”
“But are you certain that this is actually a Treasure Map belonging to that thief Wuying Shentu, or whoever? It’s a bit odd that a treasure map would surface after two hundred and fifty years.”
At Cheon Hui’s forthright words, the Trading Company Master smiled and nodded.
“I purchased it directly from the imperial palace itself, so it’s authentic.”
“From the imperial palace? But if the imperial palace had their own treasures, why would they sell it?”
“To be precise, the imperial palace ultimately failed to properly decipher the text and abandoned it. I bought it from them for a considerable sum.”
It was no mere sum.
Several bolts of fine silk, plus rare goods imported from the Western Regions.
He had poured much wealth into the imperial palace to acquire this.
“I managed to determine that the location marked on the Treasure Map was near Shenxi, but I could get no further and was about to give up just as you arrived at this place.”
That was why he’d been drinking today.
He’d barely managed to figure out the approximate location.
So he’d stayed in Shenxi trying to unravel the secret language, but—
He’d failed.
‘It was not meant to be with me.’
The Trading Company Master gave up without hesitation.
Clinging to it here would only waste time.
One had to know when to let go.
And that very quality was why he and the Tianxia Trading Company had become the finest merchant house under heaven.
But then.
As if by fate, Cheon Hui had found the martial arts manual.
‘What else could this be but heaven’s ordained destiny…….’
From the moment Cheon Hui appeared, the Trading Company Master had known he was no ordinary man.
It was a signal sent by his intuition, honed through long years of leading the Tianxia Trading Company.
“What do you think?”
The Trading Company Master unfolded the paper.
The yellowed Treasure Map bore pictures and strange characters scattered throughout.
“However, possessing this—”
The Trading Company Master spoke, but Cheon Hui’s ears had closed to his words now.
Perhaps that was only natural.
The characters that even the imperial palace had been unable to decipher were far too familiar to Cheon Hui.
Indeed, those characters were—
‘The secret language of the Tianma Divine Sect?’
Cheon Hui’s eyes sharpened.
The Tianma Divine Sect, which revered the Heavenly Demon and Demonic Fire, had possessed its own linguistic system since ancient times.
That was the secret language.
The secret language, based on Sanskrit and reversing the order of words, was something only a tiny fraction within the Tianma Divine Sect ever learned.
‘Wuying Shentu wrote in the secret language?’
He stared at the Treasure Map as though to bore holes through it.
‘Is this thief Wuying Shentu a follower of the sect? Or did the secret language spread elsewhere after I vanished? Or is this a trap set by the sect itself?’
Several hypotheses came to mind.
But—
‘I’m just making my head spin for nothing.’
He shook his head, clearing away the thoughts.
No matter how much he thought about it, there was no way to find an answer without seeing it with his own eyes.
‘I need to read more of it first.’
Cheon Hui immediately read the Treasure Map.
“The eastern cave of Fang Shan? Enter the secret cave within it, and you can obtain everything under heaven?”
A hollow laugh escaped him.
Obtaining everything under heaven, no less.
What grandiose nonsense.
‘Even I couldn’t accomplish that in my past life.’
Cheon Hui chuckled softly.
Even during his past life as the Absolute Heavenly Demon, when he made the Nine Regions Eight Emperors tremble, he couldn’t claim to have possessed everything under heaven.
The world was simply that vast.
“Go this way and turn left? Then…….”
As I read the secret language haltingly, piece by piece.
“Can you… can you read that right now?”
The Trading Company Master spoke in astonishment.
The cipher written on the Treasure Map was no ordinary code.
At first, the Trading Company Master had been confident.
What he possessed in abundance were money and connections. So he had summoned all manner of learned men and had them attempt to decipher it, but.
“We cannot decipher it.”
“It is beyond our understanding.”
“Forgive us.”
All he heard were words of failure.
It was only by chance meeting a certain eccentric known as Tianji Zi that he had managed to discover the Treasure Map was somewhere in Shenxi.
This youth, whom he had met for the first time today, was deciphering that cipher fluently.
“Because I know the language.”
“You… you mean that language?”
“Yes.”
“Which language is it?”
“The… Xinjiang region.”
He had instinctively been about to say Tianma Divine Sect, but quickly twisted the words away.
“Xinjiang?”
The Trading Company Master’s brow furrowed.
“I had never once considered it might be the language of Xinjiang.”
Xinjiang was one of the most remote and desolate places even beyond the known world.
And for good reason—Xinjiang harbored the most fearsome beings in All Under Heaven.
The Tianma Divine Sect!
The holy ground of the Demonic Way itself.
As long as they existed there, Xinjiang remained a forbidden land that no one could enter recklessly.
‘So those who know the language of Xinjiang are nearly nonexistent in All Under Heaven… Surely not!’
The Trading Company Master flinched and looked at Cheon Hui.
‘A Demonic Sect disciple?’
He studied him carefully, holding his breath.
But no matter how intently he looked, he detected neither Demonic Energy nor killing intent from Cheon Hui.
‘What a foolish thought I’ve harbored.’
The Trading Company Master laughed awkwardly.
‘It has been well over a century since disciples of the Demonic Way last showed their faces…’
He shook his head and observed Cheon Hui again.
Suspecting him of being a Demonic Sect disciple now seemed absurd—Cheon Hui was far too pure and transparent.
‘If anything, he resembles a Taoist…’
The man, who had been smiling faintly, opened his mouth.
“You must have spent some time in Xinjiang.”
“I did spend some time there.”
Cheon Hui nodded.
It was far more than just “some time.”
He had lived there tediously.
In his previous life, he had scarcely stepped outside—devoting an entire lifetime to mastering the Martial Arts scattered throughout All Under Heaven.
“Fate is truly mysterious. Just as I was about to abandon the Treasure Map, someone who can read its cipher appears. How providential.”
The Trading Company Master laughed heartily as he spoke.
In truth, the moment Cheon Hui began reading the Treasure Map, desire had begun to bloom within him.
And why shouldn’t it—this was the Treasure Map of Wuying Shentu, known as the Greatest Thief of All Ages.
But he had severed his greed.
For most people, that would have been difficult.
‘Needless greed invites calamity.’
He understood that clinging to something that was not his fate would only bring suffering.
“The fate bound to this Treasure Map clearly belongs not to me, but to you.”
The Trading Company Master smiled contentedly.
“Take it.”
“I was planning to do just that.”
Cheon Hui immediately grasped the Treasure Map.
“Oh, and there is one more thing I would like to ask of you separately.”
“A request?”
“I need a horse.”
“A horse……? Ha, I see.”
The Trading Company Master grasped his intent immediately.
“I’ll have one prepared.”
A short while later, the Trading Company Master handed Cheon Hui a horse from the branch and spoke.
“Later, could you tell me what sort of things are kept in Wuying Shentu’s secret cave?”
“I’ll take a look.”
“Heh, I’m looking forward to it.”
The Trading Company Master stepped back.
“Hup!”
Cheon Hui mounted the horse and took hold of the reins.
‘Fang Shan in Shanxi Province, then.’
Cheon Hui’s gaze turned eastward.
To reach the place marked on the Treasure Map, he would have to ride without pause for a full ten days.
‘That’s going to take considerable time.’
Just as Cheon Hui was about to depart.
“Xiao Xie!”
A voice calling to him came from some distance away.
O Chief Steward, who had arrived late from attending to business, waved his arms broadly and shouted.
“Travel safely! I promise to visit you in person once I’ve multiplied your fortune!”
Cheon Hui let out a soft laugh.
“I’ll be counting on it.”

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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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