Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 121

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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 121
“The Gangho Martial Arts Ranking?”
A hollow laugh escaped him at the absurdity of it.
The sheer number of martial arts that existed throughout the world was beyond counting.
And someone had ranked them?
It was preposterous.
“Bi Ma compiled something strange indeed.”
Cheon Hui clicked his tongue as he spoke.
Yet despite his words, his gaze remained fixed on the manuscript.
Part of him was curious.
How exactly had they ranked them?
‘Well, might as well take a look. Bi Ma wouldn’t have left this here without reason.’
He reached out and opened the manuscript.
And in that moment.
“Hmm?”
Cheon Hui’s brow furrowed.
On the first page was written the author’s name.
But it was a name he’d never seen before—neither Bi Ma nor Mu Yeong Sin Tu.
“It wasn’t Bi Ma who compiled this?”
Squinting, Cheon Hui read the name aloud.
“Gong Wang?”
Another hollow laugh.
‘Empty and ruined’—what a name.
With such an untrustworthy name, Cheon Hui almost closed the book, but he shook his head instead.
‘Still, if Bi Ma left it here, there must be something to it.’
He lifted the book and turned to the next page.
And in that moment.
…….
The faint smile that had lingered at Cheon Hui’s lips vanished entirely.
Instead, he focused his attention and read through the manuscript carefully.
The contents were exactly what the title promised—the Gangho Martial Arts Ranking itself.
The Black Path Two Great Hand Methods.
The Buddhist Heaven Beyond Three Schools.
The Orthodox Eight Great Sword Methods.
The Evil Path Two Great Forbidden Techniques.
Beyond these, there were also the Confucian and Daoist traditions.
Regardless of Orthodox, Evil, or Neutral sects, each was ranked and divided according to the nature of their martial arts.
Then.
“Hmm?”
Cheon Hui’s hand paused as he turned the page.
A very familiar martial art had appeared in the manuscript.
“The Jaha Divine Art?”
The Jaha Divine Art was listed fourth among the Righteous Path Five Great Divine Arts.
‘That makes sense.’
He recalled his sparring match with the Sect Master.
Though the Sect Master’s martial prowess was still low and its power somewhat lacking, the Jaha Divine Art had demonstrated remarkable profundity and force.
‘If that’s fourth rank…….’
Curious to see what might rank higher than the Jaha Divine Art, he continued reading.
And the moment he saw it, he understood.
‘Ah, of course those would be there.’
First rank was the Dharma Tendon Changing Classic, which only the legendary Dharma Master had ever mastered.
Second was the Supreme Ultimate Divine Art, founded by Zhang San Feng and likewise perfected only by him.
Third was the Heaven Center Scripture of the legendary monk, the Tianlong Great Dharma Master.
Each was a divine art worthy of amazement.
But when Cheon Hui checked the final entry at fifth rank, he tilted his head.
‘The Excess Will Heaven Mechanism Divine Art?’
Though he prided himself on having studied countless martial arts, this one called the Excess Will Heaven Mechanism Divine Art was something he’d never even heard of.
‘What kind of martial art could it be, to be mentioned alongside these divine arts?’
Seized by curiosity, Cheon Hui began reading the explanation for the Excess Will Heaven Mechanism Divine Art carefully.
It was an unusual Heart Technique—one that involved mastering two contradictory Heart Techniques called the Excess Will Divine Art and the Heaven Mechanism Divine Art, then ultimately merging them into a single Transformation Body.
In a manner that piqued his curiosity, Cheon Hui savored the text with composed deliberation.
After reading roughly three pages of explanation, Cheon Hui nodded to himself.
According to the written account, it was a divine art that yielded nothing to the other Righteous Path Five Great Divine Arts.
‘A divine art I’ve never even heard of—how remarkable.’
Interest kindled in Cheon Hui’s eyes.
At the same time, his gaze bored into the wide-open Gangho Martial Arts Ranking before him.
‘If there’s one I don’t know about, there could be others hidden in here….’
He quickly turned the page.
How long had he been reading?
“Hmm. The Divide Thunder Hand certainly deserves a place in the Black Path Two Great Hand Methods. But the Black Shadow Seven Point Hand might be superior to the Five Elements Killing Method….”
Before long, absorbed in the book’s contents, Cheon Hui found himself comparing the Gangho Martial Arts Ranking with his own assessments.
Tap.
Cheon Hui closed the book he’d finished reading.
‘Learning martial arts I never knew existed—excellent.’
His satisfied smile faded as his eyes fixed on the five wooden boxes.
“Those wooden boxes there must contain things of equal caliber, surely?”
Cheon Hui’s eyes gleamed.
He promptly opened the leftmost of the five neatly arranged wooden boxes.
Click—
The moment he saw what lay inside.
A hollow laugh escaped him.
“So that’s what this was for.”
Why one wooden box had been placed in front.
And why such a peculiar tome as the Gangho Martial Arts Ranking had been tucked inside it.
“Clever work, Bi Ma.”
Inside were three volumes of texts.
And all their titles were familiar.
They were secret manuals for three Buddhist techniques, including the Buddhist Heaven Beyond Three Schools mentioned in the Gangho Martial Arts Ranking.
Click—
He opened the adjacent wooden box as well.
This time, four Martial Arts Secret Manuals lay within.
Click, click.
The boxes beside were the same.
“Buddhist, Confucian, Immortal, and Secular.”
As Cheon Hui recited the tendencies of the secret manuals in each box in order, his eyes sparkled.
“And Evil Path.”
The corners of his mouth lifted.
Here lay the collective fruits of Bi Ma’s travels across All Under Heaven gathering martial arts. The thought of what he would discover filled his chest with excitement and exhilaration.
“Then I’ll start with the Buddhist techniques.”
* * *
The day after Cheon Hui entered the Tianma Samsara, the entrance to Bi Dong was in considerable commotion.
“S-Sect Master. What should we do about this?”
The Shadowless Sect Master watched his disciple trembling beside him and shouted.
“Stay still! This is not a place for us to interfere.”
His voice wavered.
‘Damn it!’
Upon hearing rumors that the Bi Dong of Mu Yeong Sin Tu—which had recently stirred all of Shanxi—had been discovered, he’d rushed to Fang Shan with desperate haste.
But he’d come away empty-handed several times.
Only today had he managed to find the entrance to Bi Dong and enter.
Yet the situation was hopeless.
Not only were many already present,
but at the center, two great sects representing Orthodox and Evil Path stood in confrontation.
‘Why in hell are Shaolin and the Moon Sun Sect here!’
The Shadowless Sect Master bit his lip.
‘Curse it! The Bi Dong of Mu Yeong Sin Tu belongs to the Shadowless Sect!’
The Shadowless Sect was founded by Cheon Myeon Tu, who had once received brief instruction from Mu Yeong Sin Tu, and it took pride in inheriting his legacy.
His claim had merit, yet he could not dare voice it aloud.
Shaolin, the foremost of the Nine Factions and One Gang.
The Moon Sun Sect, one pillar of the Five Emperor Sect.
He lacked the boldness to speak loudly in the face of those two.
“For now… we pull back.”
He wanted to scream at them all to get out this very instant, but what came from his lips was nothing but humiliation.
As the Shadowless Sect disciples hugged the edges of the entrance.
“Make way.”
A middle-aged man with a Giant Blade strapped to his back parted the Moon Sun Sect disciples and stepped forward.
“A pleasure.”
Standing at the fore, he grinned wickedly at the arhats before him.
“I am Song Yeong of the Moon Sun Sect.”
In that instant, the air of Bi Dong grew heavy.
“The Bright Moon Blade!”
“An elder of the Moon Sun Sect… here?”
“Hell. Of all people…”
The martial artists were seized with dread.
Song Yeong was an elder and master of the Moon Sun Sect, but Kangho knew him better as a man without mercy in his hands—notorious for his cruelty.
‘Not a tremor,’ he thought.
Song Yeong’s brow twitched.
Unlike the other terrified martial artists, the arhats showed no wavering whatsoever.
When he met their cold, measured gaze.
“Amitabha.”
A Buddhist call resonated among the arhats.
Then an elderly monk emerged slowly from their ranks.
Song Yeong’s expression hardened at the sight of him.
“Shaolin has indeed drawn its sword. So the Tathagata Divine Fist himself comes.”
Won Eum, the Tathagata Divine Fist!
One of the ten foremost masters of Shaolin in this age—a grandmaster of the fist arts.
“The… Tathagata Divine Fist?”
“Why would he come to this place?”
Bi Dong erupted in commotion.
The appearance of Song Yeong alone was remarkable, but now came the Tathagata Divine Fist.
At the emergence of masters whom one might glimpse only once in a lifetime, the martial artists who belonged neither to Shaolin nor the Moon Sun Sect bit their lips hard.
“This wasn’t the day for it.”
“Damn it!”
They had held on even with Shaolin and the Moon Sun Sect appearing, but now it was useless.
Meanwhile, the Tathagata Divine Fist surveyed his surroundings.
His gaze swept swiftly over those pressed flat against the walls.
‘They’ll be in danger if this continues,’ he thought.
He turned to Song Yeong and offered a proposal.
“What of calling a temporary truce?”
“A truce?”
“Rather than spill needless blood at the entrance, would it not be better for all of us to enter Mu Yeong Sin Tu’s Bi Dong together?”
Song Yeong’s eyes widened.
In truth, he had been thinking the same as the Tathagata Divine Fist.
No matter that he had brought some of the Yellow Sun Gang—soldiers among his ranks—the opposition was the Tathagata Divine Fist and the arhats.
They would be equally difficult to contend with.
‘A clash now would end in mutual defeat,’ he mused.
His purpose was singular, after all.
A single object the Shadowless Sect Master had instructed him to retrieve.
All he needed was that oddly-shaped wheel—whose name he did not know.
‘Yet how strange.’
Song Yeong regarded the Tathagata Divine Fist.
‘That Shaolin—who shudders at the Evil Path—would propose a truce first.’
It was astonishing that Shaolin, famous for the Dharma Suppression and Dharma Extermination arts, should be the first to request a truce from Evil Path masters like himself.
‘Or perhaps there’s another purpose,’ he wondered.
Song Yeong, his eyes sharp and narrow as he regarded the Tathagata Divine Fist, accepted the proposal.
“Very well. I was thinking the same. There’s no point in fighting among ourselves here…”
His gaze cut through the surroundings.
“…only to play into someone else’s hands.”
At those words, several drew sharp breaths.
And the Shadowless Sect Master among them swallowed hard.
‘Damn it! I was planning to slip in while the two of them fought and steal it…’
The clash between Shaolin and the Moon Sun Sect.
The Shadowless Sect Master, who had been eyeing the opportunity to steal something in the chaos, bit his lip.
Watching him, Myeongwol Dao smiled with a bitter edge and spoke.
“Do you all agree?”
Everyone nodded.
No—they had no choice but to nod.
Once Shaolin and the Moon Sun Sect had agreed to cooperate, what else could they do but comply?
As the situation began to settle.
“Then I shall understand it as a truce.”
Tathagata Divine Fist clasped his hands together and withdrew.
Myeongwol Dao grinned pleasantly, then spoke to the martial artists with a gesture of benevolence.
“Does anyone wish to go ahead?”
One of the ronin stepped forward in response.
“We’re permitted to go first?”
“Do as you please.”
The ronin looked at Myeongwol Dao with a suspicious expression, then turned his head away.
Glancing at the Arhat monks lined up beside him, he swallowed hard.
‘No matter how strong the Moon Sun Sect is, as long as those Arhat monks are here…….’
His eyes glinted as he opened his mouth.
“Then I shall go first.”
“Very well.”
Myeongwol Dao smoothly cleared the path for him.
The ronin glanced at Myeongwol Dao, seized the moment, and dashed forward while unfolding the Three Catastrophe Step.
After about two strides.
‘I’ll discover it first…….’
His thought was cut short.
More precisely, it had to be.
Crunch!
Iron spikes that had suddenly thrust up from the ground pierced completely through his head.
“Gasp!”
“What in the—!”
The martial artists gasped.
The ronin dangled from the spikes like meat on a skewer, scattering brain matter and blood in all directions.
‘So there was a trap after all.’
Myeongwol Dao twisted his lips into a smile.
He had been the first to arrive at this place and, discovering what appeared to be bones of those caught in the trap, had deliberately cleared them away beforehand.
He had made someone volunteer to go first so he could understand what kind of trap it was.
And, just as he had calculated, one of the greedy ronin had obliged.
‘It triggered the moment his foot touched the ground.’
He recalled what had just happened.
The iron spikes had responded and shot upward the instant the fleeing man’s feet made contact with the earth.
“A trap, truly!”
“Is this what Bi Dong is?”
As everyone recoiled in horror.
“……Greed brought calamity upon him.”
Tathagata Divine Fist moved to recover the corpse.
After moving the body to a safer place, Tathagata Divine Fist clenched his fist as he stared at the trap.
“Amitabha Buddha.”
With a low chant, Tathagata Divine Fist thrust his fist forward.
In that instant, a tremendous wave of fist force crashed down.
Boom!
The ground where the iron spikes had been exploded.
And a moment later.
Ting, ting.
Fragments of shattered iron spikes ricocheted upward from the now-devastated ground.
“That, that is……!”
The Shadowless Sect Master stared in astonishment.
A fist technique from Shaolin capable of destroying such an incredibly solid trap from such a distance.
There was only one possibility.
“The, the Hundred Treasure Divine Fist?!”
“Gasp! Is that the Hundred Treasure Divine Fist?”
As the martial artists stared in shock, the Tathagata Divine Fist himself stepped toward the trap he had demolished, his mouth curving into a smile.
“Everyone, follow carefully behind me.”

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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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