Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 196

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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 196
‘How is she using the Okryeong Sinma Shu……?’
Cho Ryeon fell into deep confusion.
The Okryeong Sinma Shu was a martial art that had never once been deployed in Zhongyuan, and it was the very reason she had been entrusted with this shadow division.
Yet this young Daoist before her—what was he?
Merely uttering the name of the Okryeong Sinma Shu was shocking enough, but what she had just witnessed…….
‘He surpassed me.’
Her throat went dry of its own accord.
Faced with a situation beyond her comprehension, a profound thirst had kindled within her.
‘Has the Sect planted a hidden agent within Huashan? No—if they had, they would have informed me for certain. And if there were someone capable of deploying the Okryeong Sinma Shu to this degree, there’s no way I wouldn’t know of them…….’
As confusion threatened to swallow her whole, her eyes—unable to grasp what was happening—wavered without direction.
Crack-crack-crack—
Cheon Hui paid no mind to whether she was confused or not, and loosened his left shoulder.
It had been so long since he’d unfolded it.
The last time he’d deployed the Okryeong Sinma Shu was when he’d taught it to Nachal Bingma.
As Cheon Hui, lost in brief recollection, recalled her expressionless face, he let out a soft laugh.
‘I never thought that taciturn woman would take on a disciple.’
It was then, while he was thinking of Nachal Bingma, who kept her distance from everyone save him.
“……Who are you?”
After a long moment of staring at Cheon Hui, Cho Ryeon finally forced her clenched lips apart.
The question that emerged after prolonged deliberation.
It was layered with many meanings.
How did he know of the Okryeong Sinma Shu and deploy it?
Was he connected to the Tianma Divine Sect?
Yet the answer that returned was…….
“Didn’t I just tell you? Cheon Hui.”
It was a simple answer, full of amusement.
“…….”
Cho Ryeon’s lower lip trembled slightly as she bit down on it, glaring at Cheon Hui with icy coldness.
Through that response, she realized that further conversation would be meaningless, and her eyes took on a glacial gleam.
‘At least I’ve learned one thing.’
Then, at once, she drew up her internal force slowly.
Transparent vital energy flowed from her body, wrapping carefully around both hands.
It was the opening of the Okryeong Sinma Qigong, the internal force technique she had cultivated.
‘He has nothing to do with the Sect.’
Her eyes flashed with a keen edge.
Had he been connected to the Divine Sect, he would have let some information slip one way or another.
Yet he had not.
‘While it’s impossible to comprehend how he deployed the Okryeong Sinma Shu, that can be investigated later.’
She drew her breath in slowly.
Though she had many questions about him, the martial match was more pressing for now.
Shhh—
As her momentum rippled outward subtly, quietly revealing her presence.
Slash!
Suddenly the sound of wind tearing split the air.
Cheon Hui’s blade had already swung down as if to cleave straight through Cho Ryeon’s crown.
It was a swift strike of astonishing speed.
So fast that its trajectory was barely visible—yet her body moved first, her blade chasing after his with quick reflexes.
Whoosh—
The whip-like force carved through the air, aiming for the sword’s edge. Her plan was to strike upward against the descending blade and deflect it away.
But.
Whooosh—
Her force sliced through empty air in vain.
Cheon Hui, who had been wielding his blade, had suddenly vanished as if snuffed out.
“……!”
The instant Cho Ryeon lost track of Cheon Hui, she gasped and sharpened her energy sense.
‘Left……!’
Having swiftly detected his presence, she turned her head—only to stiffen.
Cheon Hui had drawn close without warning, his blade already in motion.
Boom!
Reflexively, she stamped down hard on her acupoint.
Then, twisting at her waist with tremendous force, she thrust her palm forward.
A transparent Okryeong Sinma Shu, refracting the sunlight, shot toward Cheon Hui’s face.
It was an instantaneous counterattack.
But.
Crack!
Unfortunately, the Okryeong Sinma Shu was intercepted by Cheon Hui’s blade.
‘So easily?’
Cho Ryeon’s lips parted slightly.
Bewilderment surged through her.
Though not at full strength, she had still poured seventy percent of her inner power into that Okryeong Sinma Shu.
Yet he had blocked it effortlessly.
‘At this rate, I won’t be able to match him.’
As Cho Ryeon, seeming to have made some silent resolve, steeled her expression and her eyes gleamed with fierce determination,
“Nothing more? Then I’ll come to you.”
Cheon Hui stepped forward leisurely, narrowing the distance between them.
His pace was slow, unhurried.
Watching his completely unguarded movements, Cho Ryeon’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
‘He’s looking down on me?’
Her eyes sharpened with a keen edge as she observed Cheon Hui’s contemptuous bearing.
In that instant.
Whoooosh―
Her robes billowed violently.
Wind rushed in from all directions, and an intense, biting cold radiated outward from her as its epicenter.
A pristine, bone-chilling coldness descended upon the Training Grounds as if the depths of winter had arrived.
Crystallize―
Soon, all that cold Qi gathered into her hands, and transparent palms materialized.
Cheon Hui’s eyes widened slightly at the sight.
“What? You’ve perfected it?”
A smile tugged involuntarily at his lips.
The technique she was now displaying was identical to the form that Nachal Bingma had once created, swearing it would allow her to overcome him.
“What was it called again? I remember thinking it was a martial art with a name similar to Suhsu Magong…….”
He was searching his memory for the martial art’s name from his past life when
Crack!
Cho Ryeon’s palms, gathering the cold Qi, extended outward, and overwhelming inner power erupted forth.
It swept across Cheon Hui’s entire body in an instant, like a tidal wave crashing down.
‘I must kill him.’
A vicious, murderous intent exploded from Cho Ryeon’s entire being.
Any thought of sparing her opponent to win the people’s hearts had long since vanished.
He could never be allowed to live.
He had to be killed unconditionally.
For the sake of the future.
‘Before he grows any stronger than this!’
In the moment when the brutal, cold-Qi-infused Suhsu Magong completely engulfed Cheon Hui before her,
“……!”
Her eyes flew wide open.
An unbelievable sight unfolded.
The formidable power of the Suhsu Magong began to crack violently, and through those fissures, something crimson seeped out.
Like a seedling sprouting from a split in the earth, it emerged in a tiny form, peeking through the gap, then gradually unfolded into a single plum blossom in full bloom.
‘A plum blossom……?’
As she stared blankly at the blossom, the Suhsu Magong tore in two.
Shred!
Cheon Hui, having torn apart the Suhsu Magong that had covered the Training Grounds, tilted his head slightly.
“Disappointing. I’ve heard that when the Suhsu Magong is properly deployed, it can freeze All Under Heaven. But this couldn’t even freeze water.”
His indifferent voice struck Cho Ryeon hard. Yet she had no mind to properly absorb his words.
‘This, this can’t be…….’
Something she had never imagined had occurred.
Within the Tianma Divine Sect, the Suhsu Myeolcheon was counted among the most supreme techniques—those few one could count on a single hand. However lacking her own skill might still be, however incomplete her mastery,
the power contained within it was not to be dismissed!
Yet now it had been breached, shattered.
But it didn’t simply collapse—it was torn apart, crushed into rubble.
‘How could this be?’
Cold sweat beaded across her forehead and dripped down her chin.
Drip.
A single drop fell onto the Training Grounds.
“Show me your full strength. Or would you prefer I force it out of you?”
The frigid voice had barely finished before Cheon Hui pushed off the ground in a blur of motion.
Cho Ryeon’s instincts screamed at her to leap aside, and she bit down hard on her lower lip.
Her beautiful face twisted into something savage and grotesque.
At the same moment, her gaze sank.
Down into an abyss with no bottom.
For a disciple of the Tianma Divine Sect, failure was not an option.
She tore open the floodgates of her Internal Force.
Crash!
Her Suhsu Magong unfurled, freezing the air itself and raising a vicious wind centered on her body.
A cold so suffocating it stopped the breath.
The very sunlight streaming down seemed as though it would freeze solid the moment it drew near her.
“Huu.”
She exhaled deeply, her breath misting cold between her lips.
Her eyes had gone transparent and still as she regarded Cheon Hui for a moment, then she stomped down deliberately, her weight settling.
Thud.
A dull, heavy sound.
Her body surged forward.
Her palm, saturated with a cold so intense it would freeze and shatter anything it touched, drove toward Cheon Hui.
But then—
Tap.
Cheon Hui’s blade struck her hand.
The Suhsu Magong lost its trajectory in an instant, veering away from him toward the ground instead.
Boom!
The floor of the Training Grounds inverted beneath the strike.
Dust billowed up, obscuring both their sights.
Yet this time Cho Ryeon did not panic. Having tested her opponent through several exchanges and recognized his skill was formidable, she maintained her focus despite the failed attack.
She drove power through the tips of her toes.
Whoosh!
Tearing through the dust at terrifying speed, her left palm thrust forward with sharp, domineering force.
A technique that seemed no more than a simple outstretched hand.
Yet it was one of the ultimate techniques of the Suhsu Magong—the Suhsu Myeolcheon.
A snowy palm that destroys the heavens.
Just as the technique’s name promised, that white hand swelled enormous in an instant, splitting the sky in two.
Crash!
The Training Grounds, built of solid stone, shattered into fragments that sprayed outward.
“Gasp!”
The crowd’s faces went deathly pale.
Debris from the destroyed Training Grounds was raining down upon them.
“Ahhh!”
“Run! Scatter!”
Just as the crowd, struck like thunder from a clear sky, began to flee in panic—
“Everyone, help!”
“Move! What are you waiting for?”
Daoists from both Jongnam and Huashan launched themselves from their seats, rushing into action.
At the sight of the Daoists, the crowd clasped their hands together in desperate prayer.
“Please, save us!”
“I beg you!”
The Daoists raised their blades high against the desperate cries echoing from behind.
“We’ll hold them all back!”
With Ha U Jin’s resonant shout, their blades rose like torrential rain, cutting and deflecting the hail of boulders in all directions.
With so many fragments falling, several slipped past their defense and rained down on the crowd.
“Get back!”
“Stand behind me.”
Martial artists who had been watching the match stepped forward from among the crowd, flicking or sweeping aside the remaining falling stones.
After a moment, as the commotion began to subside.
A sharp whistle cut through the air—
The wind dispersed, and the Training Grounds came into view.
Half of it, crude though it was, lay in complete ruin.
“Good heavens…….”
“How is that possible…….”
The crowd stood speechless.
Those trained in martial arts were struck with an altogether different magnitude of shock.
‘Does such a technique even exist?’
‘Is this truly the power of a human?’
The Daoists of Huashan and Jongnam were stunned into silence—a destruction so complete it left them reeling.
Then Ha U Jin’s gaze shifted.
“Where is Cheon Hui…….”
His eyes swept across the Training Grounds, finding Cho Ryeon before they found Cheon Hui.
At the sight of her, he smiled.
Despite having just witnessed such a devastating technique, her lips trembled.
What could that mean?
His gaze followed the wavering path of her eyes.
“That was quite refreshing.”
A voice came, threaded with amusement.
From between the shattered remains of the Training Grounds, Cheon Hui emerged slowly.
Hair tumbling slightly across his face, he swept it back as he walked, then paused to brush dust from his shoulders with casual flicks.
“I might just have to master it properly—for the heat of summer.”
Watching him approach without a single wound upon him, Cho Ryeon was left in a daze.
It had been the Suhsu Myeolcheon.
Within the Divine Sect itself, few but the elite could properly defend against it—an Ultimate Technique.
Yet this young Daoist had received it.
Not only received it, but stood before them now as though nothing at all had occurred.
Then Cheon Hui took another step forward.
Crunch—crunch—
With each stride over the ruined debris, Cho Ryeon’s heart hammered in her chest.
She flinched, and stepped backward.
For each step he took toward her, she retreated—until Cheon Hui, laughing softly, halted his advance.
“Since you’ve given me a fine spectacle, allow me to repay the courtesy…….”
He drew his sword and manifested the Plum Blossom Divine Art.
An inner power flowed around the blade—clearer and purer than what Cho Ryeon had unleashed.
Then color bloomed within it.
A red as vivid as blood itself.
A scarlet alive with vitality.
“Let me show you the sword of Huashan.”
Cheon Hui dropped the blade downward.
As the sword traced a gentle arc, the crimson inner power writhed and undulated.
With a sound like wind through silk—
Plum blossoms bloomed in all directions.
So beautiful that even the onlookers—and Cho Ryeon herself—had their breath stolen away.

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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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