Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 191

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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 191
Ten days later.
The rumor spread rapidly across Shenxi province: the Shin Ju Sa Pae had challenged both Huashan and Jongnam to a Martial Match, wagering control of Shenxi’s hegemony.
Especially with Sa Yu Gok already fallen, the Shin Ju Sa Pae’s bold move sent shockwaves through the region.
Some gossipers said the Shin Ju Sa Pae had finally drawn their blades; others predicted they were cornered, making a last desperate gamble as Sa Yu Gok crumbled.
As a result, debate erupted everywhere.
A few wagered that the Shin Ju Sa Pae, who had once repelled the Joint Operation of Huashan and Jongnam, would triumph. But that was all.
Most trusted in the newfound strength of Huashan’s Military Unit—the very force that had destroyed Sa Yu Gok—and predicted victory for Huashan and Jongnam.
Nine Major Sects and Four Unorthodox Schools versus rising factions:
the difference was unmistakable.
Consensus tilted overwhelmingly toward Huashan and Jongnam, not the Shin Ju Sa Pae.
And true to public expectation, both Huashan and Jongnam readily accepted the Shin Ju Sa Pae’s challenge.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
Elders gathered at the Unjung Pavilion.
“Sect Master.”
Bi Gak Ju’s voice rose with agitation.
“This is a trick they have devised.”
He could not conceal his excitement.
In fact, it was not just him.
Most of the elders assembled in the pavilion wore expressions no different from his own.
Bi Gak Ju opened his eyes wide as he spoke.
“Now that Sa Yu Gok’s lord has fallen, they are backed against the wall. Yet suddenly they request a Martial Match—is this not strange?”
His voice turned sharp and clipped, as though he was forcing down surging excitement.
“They must have realized that a Full-scale War would mean certain defeat. So they chose a method that offers them even the slightest chance of victory, did they not?”
He pressed forward like an inquisitor, his gaze fixed on the Sect Master.
With him, the elders’ eyes turned toward the Sect Master, and the air grew heavy.
Tension filled the pavilion.
Yet unlike the others, the Sect Master at the head seat remained composed and unruffled.
He sipped his tea with deliberate ease.
“Hmm, fine fragrance the tea has.”
The Sect Master smiled softly as he sampled the brew.
Bi Gak Ju, slightly annoyed by this demeanor, furrowed his brow and spoke.
“Sect Master…….”
“Ha ha, I understand well enough.”
The Sect Master cut him off and set down his cup.
“How could I not see that the Challenge Letter itself is a trick?”
Bi Gak Ju’s eyebrows twitched.
“Then you accepted it knowing this?”
“Indeed.”
The Sect Master swept his gaze across the elders, their faces dark with displeasure.
“You all wear grievance plainly on your brows.”
A few elders stiffened at his keen remark.
“I did not convene a council, and my unilateral decision to accept the challenge sits ill with you, I suspect…….”
The Sect Master added quietly.
“But my decision will not be reversed.”
“Sect Master!”
“How can you act so arbitrarily…….”
As most of the elders struggled to hide their bewilderment at his firm tone.
“Is there perhaps a reason for such a choice?” Hyeon Heo asked carefully.
Hyeon Heo asked carefully.
“Because word of the Shin Ju Sa Pae’s Challenge Letter has spread far and wide.”
The Sect Master answered as if he had been waiting for the question.
“In such circumstances, what would the world think if we declined the match?”
His eyes grew grave.
“They would say Huashan feared the Shin Ju Sa Pae and avoided the confrontation.”
“If we triumph in a Full-scale War afterward, such rumors will vanish.”
Hyeon Heo spoke with force.
His eyes blazed with passion.
Ever since the Joint Operation had been repelled, he had yearned to crush the Shin Ju Sa Pae.
But.
“A full-scale war…… Of course, I could refuse the match as you suggest and still emerge victorious in open conflict. But our disciples would bleed for it. Do I truly wish to see such carnage again?”
The Sect Master countered his words.
“That is…….”
Hyeon Heo’s mouth closed of its own accord.
By his logic, victory would indeed come to pass.
Yet the price in spilled blood would be far from negligible.
The Sect Master continued, his voice steady.
“And that’s not all. Those with no stake in the Kangho yearn for this war to end with each passing day. If we refuse the match and wage full-scale conflict instead, what will they think of us?”
Hyeon Heo’s brow furrowed.
No more words were necessary.
He could already envision the rumor spreading like wildfire—that the Huashan Sect, one of the Nine Major Sects and Four Unorthodox Schools, cared nothing for the common people.
“So that’s why they spread those rumors…….”
“Cunning indeed.”
Murmurs rippled through the hall.
Now even the elders seemed to grasp why the Sect Master had accepted the match.
As shadows fell across their faces at the realization of their opponent’s strategic acumen, the Sect Master’s lips parted once more.
“But it may yet be an opportunity.”
“An opportunity……?”
“What do you mean, Sect Master…….”
The elders exchanged puzzled glances, and the Sect Master answered with half-lidded eyes.
“If we accept the match they desire and crush them utterly instead…… will we not gain a standing in Shenxi that no other faction can match?”
The elders’ eyes gleamed with renewed light.
The anger and resentment toward the Shin Ju Sa Pae that had shadowed their faces began to fade, replaced instead by swelling anticipation.
It was then that Bi Gak Ju spoke again.
“Then, who will represent us in the match?”
Silence fell over the chamber all at once.
The Sect Master’s words held merit, certainly—but they rested on a single, essential prerequisite.
Victory.
Only an unconditional triumph could realize all that he had spoken.
“Is Hyeon Do not away on a mission?”
Bi Gak Ju spoke with evident concern.
And there was no one else in the Huashan Sect at present capable of providing such assurance.
“Surely the Sect Master isn’t thinking of…….”
“It is not me.”
The Sect Master’s answer was firm and decisive.
At the same moment, the corners of his mouth lifted.
It was a smile bright and radiant as the sun hovering above the Unjung Pavilion, illuminating all the world around it.
“The one who will face them in the match is Cheon Hui.”
* * *
After the grand assembly had concluded.
Returning to the Ja Ha Pavilion, the Sect Master regarded Cheon Hui, who awaited him there, with a steady gaze.
‘Ha, so Cheon Hui read it exactly as he said.’
Laughter threatened to spill forth at the mere sight of him, and the Sect Master opened his lips to speak.
“It has unfolded precisely as you predicted.”
“It was the ordained sequence of events.”
Cheon Hui answered with composure, though mockery simmered beneath the surface of his calm.
‘So they truly committed to a self-inflicted trap.’
Those cornered at the cliff’s edge had precious few choices.
Sever the limb and abandon it.
Or gamble everything on fate’s wheel.
Yet they had lacked the will to cast aside what they treasured, and so they had laid their snare.
‘Though not the entirety of their strength, certainly…….’
Cheon Hui’s eyes narrowed to slits.
The true architects lurking behind the Shin Ju Sa Pae were transparent to him—their intentions laid bare as day.
Cheon Hui’s lips moved once more.
“When is the match?”
“Four days hence.”
“That’s swift.”
“Surely that was deliberate on their part.”
The Sect Master’s eyes opened halfway, and he gazed at Cheon Hui with knowing certainty.
Between his long, drooping brows, his gaze flickered with a light that seemed to look beyond Cheon Hui, into something far distant.
“They struck when Hyeon Do was away.”
“But you accepted the Martial Match.”
“You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Me? I’m supposed to fight?”
“Do you object?”
“Not object, exactly. It’s just tedious.”
Cheon Hui spoke with an expression of mild annoyance, then something seemed to occur to him, and he continued.
“But it is curious. I remember you once telling me never to draw such attention to myself…….”
“Truthfully, I still don’t wish to thrust you into the spotlight,” the Sect Master said.
He smiled wryly.
“But there is an old saying—an awl hidden in a bag will eventually poke through. A prodigy like you cannot remain concealed forever; the world will learn of you in time.”
The more the Sect Master came to know Cheon Hui, the clearer one truth became to him.
‘This is not a child I need worry over.’
At first, he had regarded Cheon Hui as the late youngest disciple’s final gift, a child whom the Huashan Sect and he himself must protect.
But that had been a delusion.
Cheon Hui was the one who protected Huashan and him.
‘We were the ones who caged him.’
Once he understood this, the Sect Master made his resolve.
He would release Cheon Hui from his care.
He would let the boy who had been trapped in this gilded cage of Huashan spread his wings and soar into the boundless sky.
“And if he must inevitably emerge before the world, let it be with brilliance,” the Sect Master said, looking at Cheon Hui.
He looked at Cheon Hui as he spoke.
“Show your strength in this Martial Match.”
“Ugh, what a nuisance.”
Cheon Hui scratched his head.
It was rather troublesome indeed.
Yet he did not refuse.
In a situation where no one could predict what they might do, stepping forward himself was the most certain course of action.
“How will the Martial Match be structured?”
“Each side will select three representatives and fight in turn.”
“That’s vague.”
Cheon Hui furrowed his brow.
“What do you mean?”
“If I win but the other two lose, we’re defeated regardless, aren’t we?”
“Ha. You need not worry on that account.”
The Sect Master continued his explanation.
“The victor in each match may continue fighting until defeated.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“For instance, the first representative could defeat all three opponents, or conversely, the third could defeat them all. It is a format where the victor continues to face fresh challengers.”
“Ah. So the side that exhausts all three members first loses.”
‘Whoever designed this rule is unwittingly helping me.’
A smile twisted across Cheon Hui’s mouth.
In a typical sect-versus-sect Martial Match, each side would field one representative and the outcome would be determined by that single duel.
But this format was different.
Like a Life and Death Match, the victor would continue to fight without rest.
It was a structure that betrayed overconfidence—the belief that without Hyeon Do and the Sword Saint, they were guaranteed to win.
‘What a foolish choice they’ve made.’
Cheon Hui let out an inward laugh.
Their confidence that they could win without those two had become his greatest advantage.
How could he not find it amusing?
Still smiling faintly, Cheon Hui rose to his feet.
“The Martial Match is in four days, correct?”
“Where are you going?”
When the Sect Master asked with a puzzled expression, Cheon Hui’s smile deepened.
“Just to prepare for what comes after. One never knows what the future may hold.”
* * *
Four days passed like an arrow in flight, and the day of the Martial Match arrived swiftly.
As befitted the event consuming the attention of all Shenxi Province in recent days, the arena at Cheong Ya Field overflowed with a throng of spectators.
The assembled crowd was diverse in every respect.
Warriors, couriers, beggars, common folk, merchants—everyone.
Not just the martial artists of Gangho, but even ordinary people who had never trained a day in their lives.
Everyone in Shenxi who cared about the balance of power between the two factions had gathered, not a single person absent.
“What do you think?”
A man turned to his companion amid the murmuring crowd.
“What are you asking? Obviously Huashan and Jongnam will win.”
The man who had posed the first question furrowed his brow in protest.
“But even so, hasn’t the Shin Ju Sa Pae defeated both Jongnam and Huashan recently? And the fact that they sent a Challenge Letter means they have confidence, doesn’t it?”
“That’s ancient history. Recently, the Sa Yu Gok tried to meddle with the Hwa Yu Pyo Guk and got destroyed by the Huashan Sect—didn’t they face Faction Destruction? So they think three other sects will defeat Huashan and Jongnam?”
“But this is a Martial Match.”
“Exactly—it has to be Huashan and Jongnam!”
“But who knows? Didn’t even Yu Yun the Great Hero suffer a major defeat?”
Their argument grew louder.
“Bah! Are you underestimating the Nine Major Sects?”
“Still, the Shin Ju Sa Pae’s current strength—”
But it wasn’t just those two debating.
Disputes were breaking out everywhere about who would win, when a middle-aged man in one corner set up a game.
“Come, come! This isn’t a business that comes around every day! This is an excellent opportunity to make money based on how this Martial Match turns out!”
“Hmm, an opportunity?”
“Well, well. Let me take a look.”
Those who had been hesitant began gathering cautiously around the middle-aged man who had opened the betting house.
And they carefully placed their wagers.
One person, then two…
As the numbers grew and money piled up, the eyes of those who had been merely watching changed.
“I’ll put ten taels on Huashan and Jongnam.”
“Wait! I’m adding five taels to the Shin Ju Sa Pae!”
The competition was intensifying when—
“Gasp!”
A sharp intake of breath, and the ground before the middle-aged man cracked open with a sudden snap.
“What? Has something—”
The middle-aged man looked up at the sudden change in atmosphere, and his face went rigid.
Thud—thud—
A young Daoist dressed in the Sect Robes of Huashan was approaching through the parted crowd.
‘Huashan… Huashan?’
The middle-aged man who had set up the betting game swallowed hard, staring at the young Daoist.
‘Damn it! Business was going so well!’
Thinking the young man had come in anger because he was taking bets against his own sect, the middle-aged man shrank back his neck and spoke.
“I-I’m terribly sorry. I’ll close up right away and return the money—”
Just as he was hurriedly about to dismantle the game—
A smooth gesture—
The young Daoist extended his hand.
On his palm lay something gleaming with golden light.
‘What? Is that… a Gold Yuan Note?’
As the middle-aged man stared blankly at the Gold Yuan Note, a flat voice came from above.
“One Gold Yuan Note on Huashan and Jongnam.”

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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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