Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 185

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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 185
Rip! Rip! Rip!
Sa Yu Valley Master tore the letter to shreds, exhaling roughly through his nose.
He was furious—absolutely furious.
The Chief Steward watching from the side held his breath.
Already anxious over the growing interference from those who manipulated Sa Yu Valley from the shadows, the Master’s nerves were wound tight.
The dread that had filled him to the crown of his head now erupted completely at this letter.
“Damn those bastards!”
Sa Yu Valley Master’s face flushed crimson. He stomped on the torn shreds.
“May I ask what troubles you?”
The Chief Steward ventured carefully.
He knew it was dangerous to intrude on this moment, but he had no choice—the situation that followed would demand his knowledge.
“They’ve cut off their support.”
“Cut off—their support?”
The Chief Steward struggled to hide his shock at words he had never anticipated.
“They made this mess so grand, then slipped away without a trace!”
Sa Yu Valley Master’s fury boiled over.
Thanks to those mysterious forces, he had grown strong rapidly.
But now.
All contact with them had severed.
And at the worst possible moment—right before the decisive battle with Huashan Sect and Jongnam Faction!
The Chief Steward seized the opening and spoke.
“Master, this is actually an opportunity.”
“What?”
“Now there are no hidden powers behind us. If we can simply weather the coming clash with Huashan and Jongnam, surely you will finally achieve the independence you have desired for so long.”
“Who doesn’t know that?”
Sa Yu Valley Master’s voice boomed.
“Our enemy is Huashan and Jongnam. Without their support, how could we possibly win?”
“There exists another Master Faction.”
……
“As long as those other factions do not learn that our backing has vanished, they will tear down Jongnam and Huashan of their own accord.”
“So it is another Tiger Guarding Tiger scheme.”
“Precisely.”
Sa Yu Valley Master’s agitation subsided.
“Do you think it will succeed?”
“They too are merely puppets.”
The Chief Steward’s voice rose slightly.
“How could they possibly know whether our backing has withdrawn or not?”
“But won’t their own backers notice?”
“All this while, they have deliberately remained hidden, wielding other sects as proxies. It would be difficult now to expect them to take action that might expose their identity.”
The Chief Steward’s reasoning was sound.
If those hidden powers sought information, they could uncover other backers whenever they wished.
But to do so, they would have to risk exposing their own identity.
And they were not the sort of people to take such risks.
Sa Yu Valley Master sank into his seat.
“Then for now, I must bluff and make it seem they are still there.”
“A perceptive judgment, Master.”
“But won’t the other Master Factions grow suspicious with such limited strength?”
“Fortunately, the Dead Soul Ten Swords we have cultivated using the resources they provided have just completed their closed cultivation and emerged.”
A smile touched Sa Yu Valley Master’s lips.
“Far sooner than expected.”
“The elixirs and Heart Techniques they sent were extraordinary. The Dead Soul Ten Swords now possess strength that transcends first rate and borders on the Apex Realm itself. It is a pity they lost their consciousness in the process, but what does it matter?”
“Ten masters of the Apex Realm……”
Sa Yu Valley Master murmured, his eyes narrowing to brilliant crescent moons.
Sa Yu Valley had been an obscure, nameless sect dwelling on the margins only a few years prior.
But after Baek Gwi Seong fell.
They came to him, and everything changed.
First, he himself had cultivated new martial arts and reached the Apex Realm.
“If we can simply manage this coming battle as you say, we shall be free.”
As the Chief Steward watched Sa Yu Valley Master recover his composure, his eyes flashed with sharp, cold light.
But it was something that unfolded in a mere instant, so Sa Yu Valley Master did not witness it.
* * *
Weinan, in Shenxi.
Groups of people moved among the hills that sprouted up here and there like bamboo shoots after rain.
Cheon Hui, at the front of the group, turned to Cheon I Gae, who was keeping pace beside him, and asked.
“How much farther?”
“Just over this mountain.”
“They’ve hidden themselves quite deep.”
“Why else would they call it a valley? And the more guilty a person is, the more carefully they hide and conceal themselves—it’s the perfect place for heretics like them.”
Cheon Hui nodded in agreement.
Indeed, the Tianma Divine Sect, the center of the demonic path that had been persecuted throughout Zhongyuan, had not made its home in the Tianshan Range without good reason—a perilous mountain chain.
The more enemies one had, the more sensible it was to hide in a place narrow and complex in its terrain.
Cheon Hui glanced back over his shoulder.
“There’s no time. Let’s move faster.”
As his disciples followed well, Cheon Hui increased his speed further. At the same time, the disciples themselves squeezed out every last bit of strength and deployed their Divine Movement Art, pressing hard on Cheon Hui’s heels.
In one breath, having crossed the mountain, Cheon Hui gazed upon a pavilion perched on a cliff edge above the clouds.
“Is that it?”
“That’s the one.”
“They’ve built it in quite a precarious spot.”
“The Huashan Sect isn’t much different, is it?”
“I suppose you’re right.”
Cheon Hui loosened his neck lightly.
“Then let’s go.”
Cheon Hui took his first step forward.
His pace was brisk and assured.
And the steps of the Bi Geom Group and Hwa Ryeong Group following behind were equally steady.
The mountain path climbing upward was silent.
Only the soft echo of their footfalls reverberated through the air.
But that silence shattered in an instant.
“Enemies?”
A clear, ringing voice that struck the ear.
Before them stood a woman.
She was a woman who had just come of age, with delicate, well-proportioned features.
“Why are you dressed like that?”
“What… what kind of appearance is that?”
Jeok Geom and Cheon Hyang’s brows furrowed.
Her garb was peculiar.
Her robes, improperly fastened and hanging half-undone, dragged along the ground, and her eyes were vacant and dull.
Several of the Daoists who saw her flushed and hastily turned their heads away.
Then Cheon Hui stepped forward.
“Enemies?”
The woman tilted her head in confusion.
It was such an innocent gesture that it seemed ill-suited to her age, yet something about it drew the gaze and held it captive.
Cheon Hui offered a cool smile.
“That’s right—enemies.”
The moment those words left his lips.
“Enemies!”
The woman’s expression changed abruptly as she cried out in her pure voice, the shift sudden and vicious.
The innocent face vanished, transforming into something like a Fierce Evil Spirit, and sharp killing intent radiated out in an icy wave.
“Then die!”
Accompanied by a cold voice utterly different from before, the killing intent erupted.
“Gasp!”
“What is this…?”
The Bi Geom Group and Hwa Ryeong Group quickly circulated their Inner Force against the storm of killing intent that cut at their skin.
Whoosh!
The woman hurtled toward Cheon Hui.
Her pale fist swung at his face, but it found only empty air.
And at the same moment.
Crack!
Cheon Hui’s kick struck the woman’s back, sending her sliding across the earth.
“Fascinating. Very much so.”
Cheon Hui’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at the woman who had collapsed from a single blow.
‘The Sagi has invaded her mind.’
The woman’s condition was catastrophic.
Her consciousness had been stripped away by the Sagi, leaving her to obey commands alone.
‘Look at this. I never knew there were creatures more vicious than the Blood Sect.’
The Blood Sect fanatics, whose purpose was to drench the world in blood, were formidable enough, but whoever had reduced the woman to this state seemed equally deranged.
What kind of madness would compel someone to steal another’s consciousness and fashion them into a weapon?
And that was only the beginning.
Her Upper Dantian had been gnawed away, leaving a small hole through which her Innate Qi was seeping out, drop by drop.
It was only a trickle.
Water Drop Piercing Stone, as they called it.
If it continued to accumulate, the consequences would surely be fatal.
In fact, one needn’t look far ahead.
‘If she keeps bleeding like this, she won’t have more than five years left.’
Watching her life drain away even now, Cheon Hui craned his neck and fixed his gaze on the pavilion precariously perched atop the cliff.
‘I’d like to see the face of the madman who did this.’
Just then.
“Three Swords! Where are you—gasp!”
The Tall Man pushing through the undergrowth froze the moment he caught sight of Cheon Hui and the others.
But someone moved faster.
“You bastard. Where do you think you’re going?”
Cheon I Gae seized his wrist.
The Tall Man thrashed violently to free himself, but instead his body was hoisted into the air.
Thud!
He crashed face-first to the ground.
Caught off guard by the sophisticated technique employing Two Flower Grafting, the Tall Man’s expression went blank before his face drained of all color.
“What in the hell did you do?!”
Cheon I Gae spoke through gritted teeth.
Though not quite as perceptive as Cheon Hui, he too had noticed the change that had befallen the woman, and his rage was burning fierce.
“What do you take people for—”
Then a massive saber came crashing down.
Whoosh!
Cheon I Gae retreated from the powerful slash and saw who wielded the blade.
His face twisted in fury.
“There’s more than one?”
His gaze fixed on the man.
The eyes of the saber-wielding man were as vacant and unfocused as the woman’s had been moments before.
As Cheon I Gae took him in, he could no longer contain his rage and bellowed.
“These madmen! What do you think people are?!”
His cry rang out sharply, echoing across Sa Yu Valley.
“Leave this to me.”
Cheon Hui opened his mouth to speak.
“What?”
“Pardon?”
“What are you saying?”
As everyone, including Cheon I Gae, turned to stare at Cheon Hui’s sudden pronouncement.
Whoosh—
Cheon Hui’s form vanished.
Deploying the Divine Step Hundred Transformations, he scaled the cliff in a heartbeat and slipped into the pavilion.
“…Huashan Sect? Why would they attack this valley—”
Cheon Hui furrowed his brow as he spoke, observing a middle-aged man shouting within and a scholar looking flustered before him.
“Because they struck first, obviously.”
“…!”
“Huashan… Sect?”
The Sa Yu Valley Master recoiled with a start.
He turned to Cheon Hui and asked.
“Strike first? What do you mean?”
“Hwa Yu Pyo Guk.”
“…!”
Sa Yu Valley Master’s eyebrows shot upward.
‘Leaving a mess all the way to the end!’
He recalled the man who had led Sa Yu Valley’s subordinates out the day before, and finally, biting his lower lip hard, he opened his mouth.
“You came alone?”
“For now.”
In an instant, killing intent flickered across Sa Yu Valley Master’s eyes.
“Quite bold. Coming up this valley alone, where Bi Yeon Sword Master was repelled.”
“Hm? Repelled? From what I can see, it doesn’t seem quite that severe.”
Cheon Hui’s lips curved upward.
“Ah! Back then, it seems there were men watching your back. Unlike now.”
……!
Sa Yu Valley Master’s eyes widened.
“But why aren’t they here now?”
Cheon Hui pressed on without pause.
“Hmm. Perhaps they went elsewhere, just like when they attacked Hwa Yu Pyo Guk. Or perhaps…….”
Cheon Hui’s gaze pierced through Sa Yu Valley Master.
“They’ve stopped helping you?”
“……?!”
‘Just a guess, but I hit the mark.’
Cheon Hui’s lips twisted into a smile.
He’d attacked so brazenly that it seemed strange no masters had appeared, so he’d thrown out that remark as a wild inference.
But seeing such a violent reaction, it appeared his words had struck directly at the truth.
“……You know far too much that you shouldn’t know.”
Realizing his own blunder, Sa Yu Valley Master’s body radiated an intense surge of qi.
‘Oh, so there is something different about being a valley master after all.’
Though he’d thought of him as merely the master of some minor faction, the aura he gave off was more formidable than expected.
‘At this level, he’d be on par with that man who wielded the Reverse Control Technique. Or maybe slightly superior. Very slightly, though.’
Whoosh!
Sa Yu Valley Master charged forward.
The moment Cheon Hui seemed lost in thought, the master thrust at his vital point in one breath.
An ambush aimed at catching him off guard.
The attack unfolded with perfect trajectory and psychological reading, targeting Cheon Hui’s solar plexus, but.
Swift—
He evaded with a light twist of his body.
Crack!
The palm strike that cut through empty air crashed against the wall behind Cheon Hui, leaving a deep impression.
‘He dodges the Sa Yu Eight Palms so effortlessly?’
His eyes were seized with shock.
The Sa Yu Eight Palms was a Qi Technique that drew in surrounding energy to overwhelm in a single motion.
Yet his opponent not only didn’t get caught up in it—he evaded with ease.
Then.
“Now it’s my turn?”
A cold voice struck his ears.
There stood Cheon Hui, eyes blazing with an icy blue light as he stared at him.
“Take this.”
A sword, drawn without warning, swept through the air.
A violent gust of wind rushed forward.
Sa Yu Valley Master, seeing the wind, swung both palms wide.
Clang! Clang!
It was remarkably swift palm strikes, like flashes of light.
And they carried considerable weight.
For a minor faction, it was quite exceptional palm technique.
But.
Screech!
Cracks began to form in the palms blocking the sword, and soon he staggered backward.
“Urgh!”
Sa Yu Valley Master spilled blood from his mouth.
Both his palms were already slashed to ribbons by the blade, drenched in blood.
‘At this rate, I die!’
With his lips clenched tight, he blocked Cheon Hui’s onslaught while suddenly letting out a roar.
“Chief Steward! That’s……!”
“Wait—is that wise? If you give him that, even the Sa Yu Valley Master couldn’t…….”
“This is no time to haggle over details!”
“Yes, understood!”
The Chief Steward bowed quickly, a faint smile flashing across his lips before vanishing.
‘At last, I’m giving it to him.’
He swiftly returned to his usual expression and drew something from his sleeve, hurling it toward the Sa Yu Valley Master with force.
“Catch it!”
“Hmm?”
Cheon Hui’s eyes narrowed as he watched the object trace an elegant arc through the air.
“An Elixir Pill?”
The Sa Yu Valley Master snatched the thrown pill deftly from the void.
“Ugh!”
Whether from clutching it with his blood-soaked hand, he let out a brief grunt before immediately tossing the pill into his mouth.
“I will exact payment for having me consume this!”
In that instant, the transformation began.
The black pupils of the Sa Yu Valley Master’s eyes vanished, leaving only the whites, and then a ferocious killing intent erupted from him.
Cheon Hui smiled at the sight.
“So that’s what it was—what robbed that woman and man of their consciousness.”

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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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