Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 17

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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 17
The Hour of the Tiger had not yet broken—the sun still slumbered beyond the horizon.
Through darkness thick as wool, a young man climbed the steep and narrow mountain path that wound toward Nakan Peak.
A neat, clean-featured young Daoist.
It was Jeok Geom.
“Huff, huff.”
Jeok Geom shook his head, breath ragged as it escaped his lungs.
As he’d felt yesterday making this same climb, the mountain road to Nakan Peak was rough and treacherous.
Moments later, reaching the modest tile-roofed cottage that was his destination, Jeok Geom spread both arms wide.
“Whew…….”
Drawing a deep breath, he lifted his gaze.
Inside the ramshackle cottage that looked ready to collapse at any moment was the person he sought.
Cheon Hui.
Only fourteen years old, yet his private master.
Once, he would not have spared such a person a thought—but now, everything was different.
Captivated by Cheon Hui’s martial bearing at the Oак Martial Competition, Jeok Geom had come to seek instruction from someone younger than himself.
‘Today is the day.’
Steadying his breath, Jeok Geom knelt slowly and reverently.
‘That day, his power was overwhelming. No matter how much younger he is than me, his skill is beyond…….’
“Jeok Geom?”
Startled from his thoughts by the call, Jeok Geom flinched and spun his head around urgently.
There stood a familiar woman.
“Seol Ran? What are you doing here?”
It was a meeting neither had anticipated, and as they stared at each other in confusion—
Suddenly, the door swung open with a bang.
Cheon Hui emerged, martial robe carelessly draped over his shoulders, hair disheveled. Both Jeok Geom and Seol Ran hastily lowered their heads and cried out.
“Master!”
“Master!”
Cheon Hui glared at the two calling to him, his face twisting as he spoke.
“You’re being loud—shut it.”
* * *
Late afternoon. Hyeon Do, who had come to the cottage as usual, glanced at the two kneeling figures before turning to Cheon Hui ahead.
“I came wanting to learn about that Plum Blossom Sword Technique you showed back then……. But why are these children here?”
“I don’t know. They’ve been like that since morning.”
Jeok Geom and Seol Ran, who had been kneeling, flinched at Cheon Hui’s plainly annoyed reply and quickly added their words.
“W-we came because we wished to seek instruction from Cheon Hui. Sect Master.”
“This girl has also come seeking to receive teachings from the master. Sect Master.”
“Instruction, you say?”
At their answer, Hyeon Do folded his arms and fell into deep thought.
As time passed and the crease between his brows deepened, both Jeok Geom and Seol Ran shrank back.
Seol Ran’s complexion turned particularly pale.
She was an Unnamed Disciple who had not yet received Sect Recognition.
Of course, Hwasan Sect had deliberately withheld her recognition because of her circumstances, and she was in practice no different from a True Mountain Disciple, yet the fact remained that she was an Unnamed Disciple.
Then Hyeon Do’s eyes met theirs.
He gazed steadily at the two trembling in fear of some harsh command before turning his gaze toward Cheon Hui.
‘To receive instruction from Cheon Hui, is it…….’
At first, he had meant to scold Jeok Geom and Seol Ran for seeking such instruction.
But upon reflecting more deeply, he suddenly thought—was this not actually a good thing?
Both had been overflowing with talent in their martial displays at the Oак Martial Competition. And if the greatest genius of all time were to teach them…….
He swallowed.
‘But how can I convince Cheon Hui to teach them…….’
“Hmm.”
Just as Hyeon Do sank into deep consideration and lowered his head, Cheon Hui spoke.
“If there’s nothing else, may I go?”
Watching Cheon Hui turn to leave, Hyeon Do was startled and quickly uncrossed his arms.
“Ah, wait.”
Hyeon Do hastily caught Cheon Hui’s arm.
For once this training session ended, it would not be Cheon Hui who felt the loss, but he himself.
“S-Sect Master?”
“Sect Master……?”
Watching Hyeon Do’s urgent demeanor, Jeok Geom and Seol Ran struggled to hide their bewilderment.
Cheon Hui was talented, but only a first-generation disciple.
Yet Hyeon Do was Hwasan’s greatest master.
And the picture before them looked less like Hyeon Do testing Cheon Hui, and more like Hyeon Do clinging to him for answers.
They exchanged uncertain glances between the two, but Hyeon Do had no time for their reactions.
“So you want to know about that Plum Blossom Sword Technique I displayed earlier.”
“The Plum Blossom Sword Technique? Ah, the Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword?”
“The Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword…?”
Wrinkles creased Hyeon Do’s forehead.
He had no recollection of such a technique existing within Hwasan Sect.
“…Is it a sword form of our school?”
His voice, clearly strained from deep deliberation, echoed into the empty space.
And Cheon Hui answered lightly.
“I created it anew.”
“…!”
Hyeon Do’s eyes widened beyond measure. Those eavesdropping from the shadows—Jeok Geom and Seol Ran—felt the same shock.
‘He created it anew?’
‘The Plum Blossom Sword Technique—recreated?’
Whether or not the three were alarmed, Cheon Hui ignored their silence and continued.
“I filled in the shortcomings of the Twenty-Four Moves Plum Blossom Sword Technique and established this new sword form.”
Hyeon Do, who had been stupefied, gasped.
“Is that truly so?”
“Why would I lie about it?”
Cheon Hui answered with perfect certainty, then turned to look at Hyeon Do directly and spoke.
“So that’s why you want to learn about the Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword, isn’t it?”
In that instant, Hyeon Do’s eyes transformed.
His pupils blazed with fervent intensity as he clenched both fists tightly.
“Yes.”
Cheon Hui smiled faintly, watching him.
He had changed.
In the past, he would have raised objections—spouting rules about the prohibition of passing secret techniques, insisting on propriety and etiquette. Now he simply let it be, unbothered either way.
‘Well, we’ve been exchanging Martial Discourse rather than just teaching each other techniques anyway.’
He was truly a man obsessed with the martial arts.
That someone barely fourteen summers old would engage him in serious Martial Discourse would ordinarily wound the pride of a man his age—yet he showed not a trace of such concern.
Instead, he welcomed it.
‘That’s why I share it with him.’
Had he been anyone else, Cheon Hui would never have taught him.
“How is it executed?”
Perhaps sensing he could truly learn, Hyeon Do’s pupils burned with excitement, bloodshot from the intensity.
“You already know how to deploy the Plum Blossom Sword Technique, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Cheon Hui immediately began reciting the Incantation.
After hearing the Incantation for about an hour, Hyeon Do nodded and scratched notes into the ground.
“Remarkable. To think you could simplify the Incantation this cleanly.”
“The original Plum Blossom Sword Technique simply carried unnecessary Incantations.”
“Hup!”
“Gasp!”
At Cheon Hui’s matter-of-fact words, Jeok Geom and Seol Ran gasped in shock. But the disaster they feared did not come.
“Ha ha, yes, it was somewhat convoluted before.”
Hyeon Do nodded in agreement at last.
The Plum Blossom Sword Technique was tangled with countless Taoist Incantations of various schools, making it difficult to master from the start.
But what of the Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword?
Taoist Incantations? None.
Complex Incantations? None.
All that remained was simple Incantation.
Yet there was still something difficult to grasp.
Hyeon Do immediately picked up a small twig that lay on the ground and began swinging it about wildly like a sword.
“According to the Incantation, the Sword Flower should disperse here. But how do you gather the Sword Flower in one place and move it as instructed?”
The Incantation was simple, but the scope was vast beyond measure.
As if tens, hundreds of martial arts were mingled together.
“Rather than scattering your internal energy here, you should concentrate it first, then deploy it with an explosive feeling—that way you can unfold the first three moves.”
Hyeon Do followed the explanation, tracing the twig in his hand through the empty air as he asked.
Whoosh— Whoosh—
“You mean deploy it this way?”
“That’s not it. The Sword Flower is important, sure, but you have to merge your internal energy into one. Think of it like pouring water on the ground with your internal force…….”
While the two continued their exchange.
Swish—
Jeok Geom and Seol Ran’s eyes brightened, and at that same moment, their gazes met.
‘Senior brother……?’
‘Senior sister, perhaps?’
In that fleeting instant, the two recognized that they harbored the same thought, and simultaneously nodded.
‘I haven’t the faintest idea what he’s saying.’
‘Not a clue what any of this means.’
Despite their brightened eyes, neither of them understood a thing.
And Cheon Hui hadn’t understood either.
But the difference between him and the other two lay with Hyeon Do, who could not unfold the Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword.
‘No, I’ve made the incantation this easy, and yet the greatest master of Hwasan can’t grasp such a simple incantation.’
Cheon Hui’s chest felt tight.
But Cheon Hui did not know.
The incantation had become far simpler, but the martial principle embedded in the Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword had risen to dizzying heights.
Though easy by his standards, even a master of the Heavenly Martial Realm would find it difficult to properly unfold such a level of sword technique in a single day.
“Do you not know Having Structure, Yet Without Structure?”
“Having Structure, Yet Without Structure?”
“The Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword has no fixed laws. It appears like a sword dance, but it is a completed sword form in itself.”
Hyeon Do’s chest also grew tight.
How could it be both a sword dance and a sword form?
A sword dance is a sword dance; a sword form is a sword form.
Aren’t they separate things?
But to say they were the same—his knowledge of martial arts simply could not accommodate it.
Yet what else could be done?
Cheon Hui had already achieved it.
“Mmm, Having Structure, Yet Without Structure, you say……”
As he wrung out the martial knowledge held within his mind, he asked cautiously.
“But you truly mean there are no laws to a move?”
Cheon Hui exhaled a sigh as he watched Hyeon Do, who had understood none of the explanation.
Then suddenly a passage came to mind, and he spoke it aloud.
“Ah! Then you know Unchanging Responding to Ten Thousand Changes, yes?”
At the appearance of something he actually knew, Hyeon Do’s face brightened and he nodded readily.
“Ha ha ha! Of course I do. Is it not that the unchanging responds to the ten thousand changes?”
“Exactly that.”
“……?”
Seeing Hyeon Do’s face marked with a question, Cheon Hui felt his chest tighten painfully.
‘How can he not grasp something so simple?’
As Cheon Hui felt frustration threaten to burst from his chest, he finally took up the wooden sword.
“Look.”
With the words, he drew up his internal energy.
“Oh!”
“Such an application of internal energy!”
Jeok Geom and Seol Ran’s eyes gleamed.
In the midst of what they had been unable to comprehend, they gazed upon Cheon Hui with admiring eyes as something visible finally took shape before them.
“Let me show you once.”
As Cheon Hui spoke, his sword moved in a great arc, and crimson plum blossoms bloomed across Hwasan.
“Ah……”
“Such a sword form……”
“It’s beautiful.”
The three, struck with wonder, gazed transfixed at Cheon Hui as he danced a sword dance that embraced both plum blossoms and the world in its beauty.
After a time watching passed.
“……I see now it will be difficult to unfold today.”
Hyeon Do, who had been intently observing the Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword that Cheon Hui had just displayed, murmured quietly, his expression crestfallen.
It was still beyond his current ability.
‘I’ve reached the Heavenly Martial Realm, yet even mimicking this sword technique feels overwhelming.’
A hollow laugh lingered at the corners of his mouth.
And so his admiration for Cheon Hui’s talent had crossed the threshold into sheer wonder.
“If I just learn the incantation, everything else will fall into place.”
As Cheon Hui murmured this,
A faint movement—
Hyeon Do watched as the two stood in a dazed stupor, still enraptured by the lingering brilliance of Cheon Hui’s Chiljeol Plum Blossom Sword, and posed his question.
“What will those two do then?”
“If we just leave them be, they’ll find their own way out.”
Hearing Cheon Hui’s indifferent response, Hyeon Do nodded firmly in agreement.
“Rather than that, what if we had them serve as attendants?”
“Attendants?”
Cheon Hui’s interest kindled at the suggestion.
Attendants? Well, that would certainly be convenient.
As he sank into thought, memories of his former retainers surfaced unbidden.
‘Come to think of it, Gwi Ma and Bi Ma were quite remarkably swift in their movements.’
It was a thought that would have shocked every martial cultivator in the Central Plains had they heard it.
Who were Gwi Ma and Bi Ma?
In merely two years of venturing into the Central Plains, they had thrown the entire region into chaos and forced the Jeom Chang Sect to seal its gates—the fearsome demon lords themselves.
And yet he thought of them as mere retainers.
Cheon Hui glanced at Jeok Geom and Seol Ran.
The two stood rigid as statues under his gaze, stiff and unmoving.
‘When I compare them to those two…’
The second disciples of Hwasan Sect, compared to Gwi Ma and Bi Ma.
It was a thought that would wound the pride of Gwi Ma and Bi Ma if they ever heard it, yet Cheon Hui took it as a matter of course.
Indeed, to him, whether they were Gwi Ma and Bi Ma or the second disciples of Hwasan—there was no real difference.
‘But having them around would certainly be more convenient.’
As Cheon Hui sank briefly into contemplation, Hyeon Do’s eyes gleamed with sudden clarity.
‘If these two receive instruction from Cheon Hui, they will improve by leaps and bounds.’
It was less a speculation than a certainty.
His teachings were simply that exceptional.
Seizing the moment, he addressed Jeok Geom and Seol Ran, who were swallowing hard with anticipation.
“What do you two think?”
“We would be honored!”
“We would be honored!”
Having grasped the intent behind Hyeon Do’s question, both disciples’ eyes flared with light, and they answered in unison.
“If you’re asking us to serve as attendants, we’ll do whatever is required, won’t we?”
Cheon Hui asked this as a final confirmation.
For a moment, Hyeon Do felt a flicker of unease, but he shook it off with a sideways tilt of his head and spoke again.
“Of course. Wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, sir!”
“We will do anything!”
Cheon Hui gazed at the two as they replied with such vigor, as though they had been waiting for this moment all along.
Looking into their eyes, which shone like starlight, he nodded in approval.
“Good. Then let’s proceed as planned.”
“Thank you!”
“Thank you!”
Upon hearing his final acceptance, the two rejoiced and simultaneously lowered their heads in deep respect.
In doing so, they failed to notice
the corners of Cheon Hui’s mouth curling upward.
Nor the dark future that was about to descend upon them.

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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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