Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 122

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

Chapter 122
Half a day later, Yeora Shingeon and Myeong Wol Do led their party to the Iron Door.
“At last…….”
“We’ve made it.”
Those who had navigated the traps within the Secret Chamber of Wuying Shentou spoke with exhausted voices.
Their appearance offered no comfort either.
Torn garments scattered across their bodies.
Wounds visible here and there.
All of it gathered while passing through the traps.
“Ah. There aren’t any more traps, are there?”
One of the drifters spoke in a low voice.
And with good reason—how many had there been?
Iron spikes rising from the floor.
Iron mallets erupting without warning.
Massive axes moving side to side.
Projectiles raining down from all directions.
Everyone who had been eager to rush toward the Iron Door froze at his words.
They studied the area around the door carefully.
Already, dozens lay dead.
No matter that Yeora Shingeon and Myeong Wol Do were with them, they were no grave robbers.
They had shattered a few traps through brute force, but nothing came easy.
Especially the fourth trap.
Even with Yeora Shingeon clearing the path ahead, if anyone failed to evade the projectiles, death was certain.
“……It doesn’t seem like there are any more traps.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
They questioned and questioned again.
To have come this far only to die—how cruel that would be.
Then.
“Go ahead.”
Myeong Wol Do ordered his subordinates forward.
Whoosh—
One of the Hwang Il Danyeon moved.
He approached the Iron Door, touched something, and signaled back that all was clear.
“Looks like there are no traps.”
Myeong Wol Do promptly approached the door.
Now that arrival was near, there was no need to heed Yeora Shingeon and the monks.
From this point forward, they had to move quickly.
“Hah!”
But.
No matter how hard he pushed, the Iron Door would not budge.
“Faction Master.”
“We can also…….”
The Hwang Il Danyeon rushed to help.
“It’s no use.”
At those words, he withdrew his hands and stepped back.
“Allow me to attempt it.”
Yeora Shingeon stepped forward in turn and pushed against the Iron Door with all his strength.
So great was his effort that veins stood out on his forehead.
And yet.
“…….”
The Iron Door remained immobile.
“There must be another way to open it.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“I do not.”
The two men furrowed their brows.
They had barely reached their destination.
And yet they could not enter.
“We cannot wait forever.”
Myeong Wol Do drew the Great Curved Blade from his back.
Shing—
In that instant, everyone understood why he had earned the epithet Myeong Wol Do.
As he drew upon his internal force, the enormous curved blade gleamed with a light like the new moon in the dead of night.
“I have no choice but to break through.”
Raising the Great Curved Blade high, he brought it down with devastating force.
Whoosh!
In an instant, a torrent of blade wind and a razor-sharp beam of light collided with the Iron Door.
Screech-screech-screech!
Sparks erupted, and a bone-chilling sound echoed outward.
After struggling against each other like that for a time.
Thwang!
Myeong Wol Do was hurled backward.
“……So it wasn’t mere iron after all.”
His brow furrowed.
He had deployed the Myeong Wol Dō Method with his full internal force, yet couldn’t even scratch it.
Just then, wind roared in from beside him.
Boom!
Something struck the Iron Door with tremendous force and vanished in an instant.
Turning his head, he saw Yeora Shingeon’s expression had hardened, his fist still extended.
“Amitabha Buddha.”
He was drenched in cold sweat.
He had unleashed the Baekbo Shingeon to its absolute limit, yet the Iron Door bore not a single blemish.
“……So there must be a method to opening it.”
“Troublesome indeed.”
Meanwhile, Wuying Munchu’s eyes gleamed with sudden recognition.
‘This is the gate my master once spoke of!’
He cautiously glanced at those around him.
‘They’re not the sort to simply walk away.’
It seemed almost certain that the Shaolin monks and the Yiriyuekmun disciples would not leave this place.
Which meant only one path remained.
Wuying Munchu approached the two men.
“I know the method.”
Myeong Wol Do’s eyes brightened.
“You know it?”
“I do.”
“How is it you know?”
When Myeong Wol Do regarded him with suspicion-filled eyes, Wuying Munchu spoke softly.
“The sect master who founded this gate was once a disciple of Wuying Shentou.”
Yeora Shingeon’s eyes widened.
“Ah. So you are the sect master of Wuying Sect.”
“You know of us?”
“Indeed. I have heard that the Wuying Shadow Method of Wuying Sect is second to none in all the land.”
To his surprise, Yeora Shingeon had recognized him—Wuying Munchu’s lips curved upward.
“Hmph.”
“I had worried, since you’ve not appeared in Gangho for a century. Fortunately, it seems your sect still endures.”
Wuying Munchu’s expression darkened.
“……There were reasons for that.”
Though Yeora Shingeon was curious, he turned to the more pressing matter first.
“But if the sect master has come forth in such a manner, does that not mean you intend to open the Iron Door yourself?”
“You mean to strike a bargain with me now?”

Myeong Wol Do unleashed a surge of killing intent.
“I… merely seek fair compensation.”
Overwhelmed by the vicious killing intent, Wuying Munchu forced himself to speak, his voice trembling with cold sweat.
“Or… I simply won’t open the door.”
“You dare speak even with death at your threshold…….”
“No one under heaven but I can open this gate.”
As he spoke with unmovable conviction, Yeora Shingeon dispersed Myeong Wol Do’s killing intent and stepped between them.
“It’s said that Wuying Munchu never yields, and those words ring perfectly true.”
“You do me too much honor.”
Yeora Shingeon asked softly.
“What promise are you speaking of?”
“Surrender the secret techniques of Wuying Shentou to me.”
“Understood.”
Surprisingly, when Yeora Shingeon accepted the proposal so readily, Wuying Munchu’s eyes widened.
“You’re… truly serious?”
“A man who has devoted himself to the Buddhist way does not speak falsehoods.”
Yeora Shingeon glanced at Myeong Wol Do.
“And what will you do?”
Myeong Wol Do regarded Wuying Munchu’s proposal with considerable displeasure.
“So be it.”
His primary objective was the strange Lunar Wheel whose name he did not even know, which Munchu desired.
‘And even if I secure the secret techniques, I won’t be free to leave as I please.’
But Wuying Munchu had already read Myeong Wol Do’s thoughts and turned to regard Yeora Shingeon.
‘All I need is to leave under Yeora Shingeon’s protection.’
With the Wuying Shadow Method, he had confidence that even Myeong Wol Do could not catch him.
Wuying Munchu approached the Iron Door.
“Then I shall open it.”
He caressed it several times, and then—
Click!
The Iron Door began to swing open.
“All that effort for mere…”
“Was it a mechanism array?”
The moment the door opened with nothing more than a few gestures after such exertion, Myeong Wol Do stared forward in dismay.
But only for a moment.
As the interior of the Iron Door came into view, his expression gradually hardened.
And it was not only he.
Everyone’s gaze froze cold.
The air within was deathly chill.
Several statues inside the Secret Chamber lay completely shattered, and the walls on all sides bore deep sword marks.
The Wooden Chest lay overturned on the floor, its lid agape.
“What… how is this possible?”
* * *
Tap.
Cheon Hui closed the final Martial Arts Manual and rolled his stiffened neck from side to side.
“Hmm. Excellent.”
He was quite satisfied.
The Martial Arts Manuals that Bi Ma had organized were all works worthy of being called masterpieces of All Under Heaven.
‘They certainly deserve their rankings.’
The only disappointing aspect was—
“There are fewer manuals than I expected.”
Inside the Wooden Chest lay exactly twelve volumes, and most of them were texts he already knew.
“Had I not discovered these three, there wouldn’t even be twenty in total.”
Cheon Hui gazed down at the three Martial Arts Manuals.
The Cheonra Saehon Gyeong.
The Heuk Geom Yeonhwan Sipsik.
The Cheonoe Ma Gyeong.
‘The Cheonra Saehon Gyeong seems to be the original martial art based on the hidden technique that Heuk Sa Won displayed, and the Heuk Geom Yeonhwan Sipsik is practical in application.’
Both secret techniques belonged to the imperial martial arts.
And the remaining one—
‘This is what Ma Noe would have coveted.’
Cheon Hui studied the Cheonoe Ma Gyeong.
Even the book itself was ominous.
Bound in human skin, the Cheonoe Ma Gyeong contained not Demonic Arts but several vile and profane secrets of the Demonic Way.
‘Did he deliberately leave this behind for Ma Noe?’
Cheon Hui laughed softly.
Bi Ma and Ma Noe were sworn enemies, yet they recognized each other’s strength nonetheless.
“But this is troublesome.”
Cheon Hui stroked his chin thoughtfully.
The Martial Arts Manuals were all exceptional.
“I simply cannot practice them.”
Most of them were martial techniques from sects that were still active even now.
In my past life it wouldn’t have mattered, but as a Daoist priest of the Huashan Sect now, I couldn’t perform them.
Of course, there were some decent secret manuals as well.
For instance, the Danyok Myoljin Gong from the Jeoljin Sect, now extinct, or the Budong Sim Gyeol, which no longer had a master.
But none of them truly appealed to me.
“I’d rather learn a different martial art altogether.”
Cheon Hui, who had already studied countless martial techniques, knew of ones superior to these.
‘Still, this one is worth learning.’
Cheon Hui’s eyes fixed on a single point.
The only martial manual not categorized into one of the five classifications.
It was Bi Ma’s martial manual.
‘The Bi Cheon Haeng Bo…’
A soft laugh escaped him.
“A movement technique befitting Bi Ma.”
It seemed Bi Ma had never neglected martial practice in his lifetime, for he had created his own movement technique.
A technique that achieved maximum efficiency with minimal internal force.
And now it was perfectly suited for Cheon Hui, whose internal force was inferior to his past life.
“And it’s not even a demonic art.”
Perhaps it was because Bi Ma had once been the master of the Feilong Sect before converting to the Tianma Divine Sect.
This Bi Cheon Haeng Bo didn’t feel like demonic arts at all.
Rather, it was so refined that it carried the unmistakable flavor of his former sect, the Feilong Sect.
‘He probably didn’t plan it this way, but this movement technique is exactly what I need right now.’
Tsk.
Cheon Hui scratched his head.
‘Quite a bit of time has passed, it seems.’
Having spent so long reading the martial manuals, he’d lost all sense of time.
“I suppose I’ve seen everything there is to see.”
Cheon Hui surveyed his surroundings.
The chamber was a good place—it had martial manuals and a place to rest—but there was one problem.
There was no food.
To be precise, there were the Byeok Gok Dans that Bi Ma had prepared long ago, but they had completely rotted after all this time.
‘Even Bi Ma couldn’t have anticipated that I’d arrive three hundred years later.’
Cheon Hui glanced at the Stone Chest that had once held the Byeok Gok Dans and rose to his feet.
“Well then, let me go outside and fill my stomach.”
He adjusted his robes calmly.
Then, taking the two swords he’d set beside him, he fastened them to his belt and prepared to depart.
“Before I leave, though…”
Cheon Hui’s eyes gleamed as he reached for the Wooden Chest where the martial manuals lay.
Then he ignited the Sammai Jinhwa.
Whoosh!
The books and chest blazed, thick smoke curling upward and obscuring his view.
“Now, let me be on my way.”
This place held no more meaning for him now.
The martial manuals were committed to memory, and the Demonic Sword that Bi Ma had prepared was secured at his belt.
Shing—
Without hesitation, Cheon Hui drew the Demonic Sword.
Snap!
The moment the blade left its sheath, the Demonic Sword pulsed with demonic energy as if it had been waiting all along.
Infected by the demonic energy, Cheon Hui let out a grin.
“Let’s make the finale spectacular, shall we?”
Cheon Hui’s eyes opened halfway.
At the same moment, he channeled the aura of the Absolute Supremacy Art into the Demonic Sword.
—Thrum!
The Demonic Sword trembled with exhilaration.
This intense force!
This absolute momentum!
As the Demonic Sword grew intoxicated by the incomprehensible wave of power, approaching a state of rapture—
“Watch closely, Bi Ma.”
Cheon Hui slowly raised the blade.
At the same moment, his gaze shone with an icy light so piercingly cold that an indescribable force erupted from the Demonic Sword.
“The sword that led you into the Divine Sect.”
In that instant, the world split in two.
Crack!
Those who had been staring vacantly into the empty Secret Chamber of Wuying Shentou suddenly panicked as fissures tore across the wall.
“An… an earthquake?”
The wall, its surface covered in intricate patterns, split cleanly down the middle with a sharp snap.
Thud— thud—
A figure walked out from within.
Distinctively, he wore two swords at his flanks—a sharp-featured young man of striking appearance.
“A person?”
“Why is there someone in there?”
Everyone cried out in bewilderment.
Of course they were confounded—a person had just emerged from a split wall.
Meanwhile, the young man scratched his head, surveyed his surroundings, and spoke.
“Does anyone have something to eat?”

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