Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 172

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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 172
That night, Cheon Hui descended Huashan and raced westward.
‘The Bi Cheon Haeng Bo technique really is efficient. Minimal Internal Force consumption.’
Perhaps it was because he’d once sprinted from Pyeong Ri County all the way to the Huashan Sect using the Bi Cheon Haeng Bo before.
He was faster than usual.
But that wasn’t all.
He hadn’t rested for nearly two hours, yet fatigue didn’t touch him.
If anything, his body felt impossibly light.
Despite the Light Body Technique—a skill that typically accumulated weariness—the wind felt refreshing, and his spirits soared with it.
He lifted his head toward the sky.
A full moon hung radiant and bright, its silvery light cutting through the darkness with a gentle glow.
“A fitting night for blood.”
A cold smile crossed his lips.
In the same moment, his legs surged with redoubled power, and the landscape blurred past him.
* * *
“Who are you……?”
Cheon Hui flicked the gatekeeper away with his foot as though swatting a nuisance.
Boom!
At the deafening crash, people came pouring out.
They were a motley assortment.
A few wore neat Martial Robes, but most were so drunk they could barely keep their clothes on.
Cheon Hui’s nose wrinkled.
A thick stench of wine stung his nostrils.
Turning his head, he saw bottles scattered across the floor and half-eaten food scattered about.
“What’s this? A drinking feast? These bastards have it good.”
At his words, those drowsy with drink snapped to attention and scrambled to their feet.
“Who the hell are you?!”
“Do you know where you are?!”
“Can’t you see? An enemy.”
Cheon Hui’s lips curled in mockery.
At the same moment, he looked up.
His gaze fixed on a man who had been watching from the window of this floor of the Pavilion.
The bearded man with a rough stubble carried an air entirely different from those on the Estate Grounds.
“Are you Sa Gwi Bang Ju?”
“How dare you speak to the Bang Ju like that!”
Grateful for the man’s voluntary confirmation of his identity, Cheon Hui unsheathed his sword and licked his lips.
“My child owes you a debt.”
As he spoke, Cheon Hui swung his blade.
Crash!
A dizzying roar accompanied a translucent Sword Qi that hurtled toward Sa Gwi Bang Ju on this floor with devastating speed.
“……!”
At that fierce Sword Qi, Sa Gwi Bang Ju hastily grabbed the axes beside him.
Whoosh!
He drew up his Internal Force urgently, smashed through the window, and crossed his two axes in an X toward the oncoming Sword Qi.
It was the Twin Snake Stirring Axe, a defensive form he was confident in.
The crossing axes collided with the Sword Qi.
Screech—
An unpleasant screech erupted.
‘This… this Sword Qi…….’
Sa Gwi Bang Ju’s face went ashen.
The Sword Qi did not bounce back; instead, it gnawed relentlessly forward.
And under that relentless pressure, the Twin Snake Stirring Axe was being forced back.
“Ugh… ughhh!”
He gritted his teeth.
So hard that he tasted copper blood pooling in his mouth.
But he couldn’t stop.
Instinct screamed that if he yielded even an inch, the Sword Qi before him would cleave him in two.
“Hyah!”
With a shout, he drove the Sword Qi upward.
Crack-boom!
The Sword Qi surging upward shattered the ceiling, and debris rained down all around.
“Haa, haa.”
He managed to deflect the Sword Qi, then staggered as he breathed heavily, his reserves completely depleted by the impact.
He had defended, but the shock had drained him of every last ounce of strength.
With a trembling gaze, he looked ahead.
The windows of this floor were already shattered, and the ceiling was gone—the night sky visible above.
Beneath the full moon and starlight hanging in emptiness.
A handsome youth stood composed at the center of the estate grounds, gazing upward.
The moment their eyes met.
A chill shot down his spine.
The hair on his back stood on end.
It was a youthful face.
But he felt it.
Whether the youth appeared inexperienced or formidable was irrelevant.
He could read the true nature shadowing that boyish, handsome countenance.
Something wearing the mask of humanity.
That was unmistakably Non-Human.
“Already scared? How do you expect to win?”
Cheon Hui regarded Sa Gwi Bang Ju and his surroundings with emotionless eyes, his expression cold as ice.
The moment his gaze fell upon them, they trembled as if they had lost control of their bladders.
“We’re only getting started.”
Cheon Hui walked forward, his blade trailing at his side.
His pace was neither slow nor swift.
Thump—thump—
His footsteps echoed at a steady rhythm.
Yet with each step, everyone’s heartbeat quickened all the more.
A low, creeping sound.
They could not move at all.
Or rather, instinct had frozen them in place.
They knew that the moment they moved, their necks would be severed.
They held their breath in silence.
Hoping he would pass without incident.
Thump—thump—
As the footsteps continued to echo, the unbearable tension that gripped their bodies caused their faces to contort without their awareness.
A suffocating silence hung for a moment.
Tap.
Cheon Hui’s steps ceased.
Directly beneath the window where Sa Gwi Bang Ju stood.
The moment Cheon Hui stopped, the sound of exhaled breath came from all corners of the room.
It had been only twenty steps.
Yet those twenty steps felt to them like eons of time compressed into moments.
As Cheon Hui slowly lifted his head.
“Kill him! Kill that bastard right now!”
Sa Gwi Bang Ju shrieked in terror.
Yet no one moved at his command. Or rather, they could not move.
Cheon Hui scanned the followers of Sa Gwi Bang, and his lips twisted.
“Come, then.”
His cold voice spread throughout the space.
“Kyaaaagh!”
Those seized by panic fled in an instant.
In that moment, only Cheon Hui remained in the estate grounds.
“Your subordinates lack loyalty.”
Sa Gwi Bang Ju’s face had gone deathly pale.
The killing intent woven into that voice alone made him desperate to flee as well.
‘What… what kind of killing intent is this….’
He swallowed hard, then gripped his weapon—the Blood Twin Axes—with crushing force in both hands.
Though the familiar weight of the Blood Twin Axes settled into his palms, it brought no comfort; only terror welled up from within.
He shook his head violently.
What would happen if he surrendered to fear in this moment was all too clear.
Before his thoughts could spiral further, he channeled his Inner Power into the Blood Twin Axes.
A faint surge of Inner Power frost coated the axe.
“Haaagh!”
He expelled a raw roar from his throat.
It was a lion’s cry—an incantation to drive back fear, laced with grim resolve.
Whoooooom—
As the axe sang out from his exhausted Inner Power, he swung it with brutal force.
The skin of his palms couldn’t bear the speed, and tore open against the Blood Twin Axes.
The wounds burned, but he didn’t stop.
“Die!”
With a shout, he poured every ounce of strength into the Twin Dragon Crossing Axe once more.
For an instant, crimson serpents seemed to burst from the Blood Twin Axes, and a razor-sharp wave of force erupted.
Screeeech—
Two serpents crossed directly above Cheon Hui in the Estate Grounds, as if to split his skull open.
Cheon Hui’s jaw fell slack as he watched the incoming serpents and raised his blade.
“First, I’ll settle the Wulian Pavilion’s account.”
Crack!
Blood fountained skyward.
Thud—
The arm still gripping the axe fell to the ground and convulsed in fine, rapid spasms.
“My—my arm! Noooooo!”
Sa Gwi Bang Ju shrieked as the horrible agony bloomed through his severed limb.
“One alone won’t suffice.”
An indifferent voice drove into his ear as his mouth hung slack with spittle.
When had Cheon Hui descended to this level? He stood over him now, looking down.
A chilling light shone in his eyes.
Empty of all emotion, and therefore transparent—yet terrifying all the same.
“I’ll need to take two.”
Cheon Hui spoke in a level voice, and unleashed a murderous Killing Intent. Sa Gwi Bang Ju, writhing in agony, lost all power to respond.
His mind went blank—a white sheet.
Cheon Hui’s sword rose.
The blade passed over Sa Gwi Bang Ju’s eyes and descended toward his right thigh.
“No—don’t…”
“Yes.”
Cheon Hui drew the blade through his thigh.
“Ghaaaah!”
Sa Gwi Bang Ju thrashed helplessly.
But Cheon Hui simply looked down at his flailing form, his lips twisting open into a cold smile.
“Now it falls to Jeok Geom’s turn.”
Cheon Hui sheathed his blade.
Then, slowly, he raised his foot.
Crack!
He brought it down, crushing Sa Gwi Bang Ju’s abdomen as the man thrashed on the ground.
The Inner Power channeled through his sole shattered the Lower Dantian, destroying it completely.
“Gack—”
Vomit and blood erupted from his mouth.
Unable to endure the overwhelming agony, he lost consciousness on the spot.
“He can’t die peacefully like this.”
Cheon Hui poured his Internal Force through his toes and stanched the bleeding with precision.
He observed the trembling figure still clinging to life, then swept his gaze across the surroundings.
“Those skilled masters and Jeoljeong masters Jeok Geom mentioned—they’re nowhere to be seen.”
It was strange.
The joint operation between Huashan and Jongnam hadn’t differed much from this ambush.
Yet then, he’d already been waiting for the assault; now, they’d vanished as if they’d never come.
‘Someone’s leaked information.’
Cheon Hui’s eyes turned sharp as steel.
‘Whoever it is, once I find out…’
A cold smile played at the corner of his mouth.
Soon after, he lifted his head.
Gazing at the full moon still hanging in the night sky, Cheon Hui unfurled the Bi Cheon Haeng Bo.
“I should return before it grows any later.”
* * *
Shenxi was in turmoil.
Word spread at astonishing speed that two of the Nine Factions and One Gang — the Jongnam Sect and the Huashan Sect — had launched a joint operation and been routed.
Most who first heard the rumor dismissed it as baseless gossip.
But when the Jongnam and Huashan sects offered no rebuttal and maintained their silence, everyone understood the rumor was true.
All eyes turned to Shenxi.
Huashan and Jongnam, whose prestige had grown by destroying the Baek Gwi Seong faction, had failed to eliminate four obscure unorthodox sects.
For the gossips of Kangho, there was no tastier morsel to chew on.
Those who loved to embellish rumors soon singled out the four unorthodox sects that had repelled Jongnam and Huashan, lavishing praise upon them.
Under the name: the Four New Masters.
But even before that name became widely known, another rumor was spreading like wildfire.
‘Sa Gwi Bang Ju has been crippled!’
Some doubted it.
After all, Sa Gwi Bang was one of the Four New Masters themselves.
And who was Sa Gwi Bang Ju?
A master who had recently defeated the Huashan Sect’s swordsman and the Maehwa Sword School.
Just moments ago, he’d earned the epithet Twin Ghost Axes for wielding two axes with uncanny precision.
That such a man should be crippled?
Yet before skeptics could fully form their doubts, the rumor proved true.
The Twin Ghost Axes was seen receiving treatment from a physician, missing one leg and one arm.
“Say, Jeok Geom. Did you hear? Sa Gwi Bang Ju’s been crippled.”
“I heard.”
Jeok Geom answered with a complicated expression.
It was fitting that Sa Gwi Bang Ju, his sworn mortal enemy, had suffered such a fate — yet questions gnawed at him.
“Who on earth did this to him?”
The question came from Seol Ran.
The Sa Gwi Bang Ju she had faced directly had displayed formidable skill.
Only an exceptional master could have managed such a thing.
‘Surely not…’
In that instant, his gaze drifted to Cheon Hui, who sat meditating on the peak.
But then he shook his head.
‘That can’t be.’
A journey from Huashan to Sa Gwi Bang and back would take at least four days.
‘Even if he were my master, it would be impossible to make such a trip in a single night.’
Meanwhile, Cheon Hui, deep in meditation, recalled last night’s events and smiled faintly.
‘At last. My heart feels lighter.’

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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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