Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 20

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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 20
In the candlelit quarters where lamplight danced against the night, Hyeon Cheong and Cheon Hui sat heavily on the floor, keeping their distance from one another.
Cheon Hui, watching Hyeon Cheong, smacked his lips in disappointment.
‘So much for eating meat tonight.’
Jeokgeom and Seollan, who had spotted Hyeon Cheong’s sudden arrival, had tactfully withdrawn.
Just as Cheon Hui was lamenting the loss of the steaming meat wafting its fragrance through the air—
‘But why did he come here?’
A flicker of bewilderment crossed his mind.
Until now, the Hyeon Cheong he’d known had lived in Mangyeonggak, never setting foot outside its walls.
Yet here he was, not only slipping away from Mangyeonggak but traveling all this way.
As Cheon Hui pondered this riddle, Hyeon Cheong, who had been lost in thought, finally opened his mouth.
“……Are you teaching Jeokgeom and Seollan directly?”
“It happened that way.”
Cheon Hui answered flatly.
His response felt perfunctory, squandering all that waiting.
‘What’s he really trying to ask, beating around the bush like this?’
Meanwhile, Hyeon Cheong, his face etched with disbelief, muttered quietly to himself.
“How remarkable—it came to pass by circumstance.”
He paused, then spoke while looking at Cheon Hui.
“It truly astonishes me. Only months ago you could scarcely hold yourself upright, and now you’re instructing disciples of the second generation.”
As Hyeon Cheong spoke with affected admiration, his eyes grew increasingly unfathomable.
He had heard that four months prior, Cheon Hui had hovered on the brink of death.
In fact, at their first meeting, he’d considered offering to teach him martial arts—
‘Meddling without purpose.’
As Hyeon Cheong shook his head in self-reproach,
‘Just get to the point already.’
Cheon Hui’s expression betrayed his exasperation.
Watching Hyeon Cheong dance around the subject and sink into contemplation was nothing short of torture.
He fixed Hyeon Cheong with a steady gaze and asked directly.
“So what brings you all this way?”
Perceiving the edge of urgency in Cheon Hui’s tone, Hyeon Cheong’s demeanor shifted.
The softly raised brows and upturned lips gradually descended, hardening into a rigid, unwavering line.
In the blink of an eye, Hyeon Cheong wore an expression of grave seriousness unlike his usual manner, and he spoke.
“I’ve heard rumors about you circulating through the Main Sect.”
“Rumors, you say?”
In that instant, Cheon Hui’s brows twitched.
Rumors? What kind of rumors was he talking about?
Unlike his usual composed demeanor, he reacted with acute sensitivity to the word ‘rumors.’
And for good reason—the strange rumors that had once spread about him had caused no end of trouble.
So much trouble that he’d personally hunted down several sects until they scattered like dust.
‘What nonsense has been spreading now?’
Since becoming Cheon Hui, he’d never given thought to rumors about himself, and his face creased slightly with consternation.
Alarmed by the rapid shift in Cheon Hui’s expression, Hyeon Cheong hastily added to his words.
“Recently, the number of disciples at Mangyeonggak has increased, and in investigating that matter, I came to hear rumors about you.”
Thinking that Cheon Hui disliked his explanation, he quickly offered context—
‘What is he saying?’
Cheon Hui’s furrowed brow showed no sign of easing.
The issue was that what he wanted to know was not the origin of the rumor, but the rumor itself.
Cheon Hui laid bare his intention.
“So what is this rumor?”
Hyeon Cheong realized he’d misread the situation and answered with an embarrassed smile.
“That you displayed exceptional martial prowess at the Owak Gathering.”
The tension in Cheon Hui’s brow dissolved.
That was it?
Cheon Hui, recalling the Owak Gathering—a name far grander than its substance warranted—which had amounted to little more than children’s games, found himself unimpressed.
But did Cheon Hui realize it?
That his present attitude came across to Hyeon Cheong before him as though such feats were only natural.
“……So the rumor holds truth.”
“It does, in fact.”
Cheon Hui confirmed it with studied indifference.
“You’ve come all this way merely to confirm the truth of such rumors?”
“Hah, well, there’s that too.”
Hyeon Cheong’s expression softened noticeably as he answered in a low voice.
‘Throughout all of history, I wonder if there has ever been another who showed growth like Cheon Hui’s.’
His eyes grew warmer as he beheld Cheon Hui’s Remarkable Growth—the kind of transformation one might only see in legends and mythology.
‘A great blessing indeed for our sect.’
Lost in thought, he murmured aloud.
“Hyeon Gang’s eye for talent was truly extraordinary…….”
Hyeon Cheong bobbed his head up and down as he muttered to himself.
For a moment, he gazed at Cheon Hui and Hyeon Gang as if superimposing one over the other, then smiled softly.
“Do you know why I have been living in Mangyeonggak all these years?”
The moment Cheon Hui heard Hyeon Cheong’s words, he sensed something unusual.
‘That tone—it’s the one the sect leaders always used when they wanted to tell the young disciples about their pasts…….’
They say an ill premonition is never wrong.
Hyeon Cheong, lost in contemplation as he gazed into empty space, soon began to unfold his story.
“Though I spend every day in Mangyeonggak now, there was a time I kept my distance from books. I favored the sword over the page, and I loved movement more than stillness.”
“…….”
Cheon Hui’s eyes narrowed slightly.
‘Damn it—can’t even interrupt him.’
In the old days, he would have kicked such rambling aside with a curse and simply ignored it.
But now he was in no position to do so.
The long-winded old fool standing before him was now his teacher.
“……While Hyeon Do and I were training in martial arts, our master brought back a child from somewhere and took him as a disciple.”
Hyeon Cheong’s words trailed off, and the wrinkles around his eyes deepened.
His gaze held a mixture of joy and sorrow—two contradictory emotions—and after blinking once, he fixed his attention on Cheon Hui.
“That child was your teacher, Hyeon Gang.”
“I see.”
Cheon Hui responded reflexively.
He hadn’t truly listened, nor was he genuinely curious about the matter.
But Hyeon Cheong, oblivious to Cheon Hui’s lack of interest, continued his tale.
“……Eight years ago, Hyeon Gang set out with the Maehwa Sword Technique masters, only to encounter a great calamity. They clashed with the Mulsulpajeomsword and the Gwimyeoldae under its command.”
Hyeon Cheong’s lips tightened.
As he recalled this painful chapter of the past, his face contorted with anguish.
Unlike him, Cheon Hui now showed interest, opening his previously closed ears wide.
‘My teacher, you say?’
A flicker of curiosity stirred in him.
“I still do not know the reason why the two sides collided. But collide they did, and it ended in Mutual Destruction. Not a single soul survived.”
Hyeon Cheong shook his head slowly.
It remained a mystery to this day.
Why had the Maehwa Sword Technique masters and the Gwimyeoldae come into conflict? Why had they fought with such resolve to accept Mutual Destruction?
The cause, the process—he knew none of it.
Only the result was clear.
Hwasanpa had lost Hyeon Gang, its future, and the Maehwa Sword Technique masters, while Baekguiseong had lost the Mulsulpajeomsword and the Gwimyeoldae.
And because of this, the power of both sects had greatly diminished.
Hwasanpa, once first among the Nine Sects One Alliance, fell behind, and Baekguiseong, which had been praised as nearly the highest seat among the Six Imperial Sects, was forced down to the lowest ranks in disgrace.
“Our sect wanted to take revenge upon Baekguiseong. But reality is harsh. We naturally thought the Murimdmaeng would support us……. Yet the Murimdmaeng made a pact, saying it could not risk war with Heuksaryeon while the BiCheonhoe still stood strong.”
Cheon Hui’s mouth twisted as he listened.
‘So much for claiming to be righteous.’
When he recalled how the Righteous Sects had once persecuted the Cheonmashingyeo, calling themselves justice, bitter laughter escaped him unbidden.
‘No different from our teachings.’
No—the Righteous Sects were even more contemptible.
Even the Cheonmashingyeo, whom they called masked devils, moved to avenge an attacked affiliate.
No matter how dire the Cheonmashingyeo’s circumstances became, no matter how formidable the enemy, they did not flinch and retreat like those hypocrites.
“Most opposed that decision, but we had no choice but to accept it. They called it a sacrifice for the greater good.”
Hyeon Cheong ground his teeth.
Bloodshot veins had begun to spider across his eyes, the capillaries filling with blood.
‘So this is his true nature.’
As Cheon Hui observed Hyeon Cheong emanating an aura so sharp and different from his usual demeanor.
“But do you truly believe such a thing is justified? If a senior successor of Shaolin had died, if a senior successor of Wudang had fallen, do you think the Murimdmaeng would have remained silent? They buried it because it was our sect!”
He unleashed the fury that had been burning within him.
His eyes, bloodshot from exhaustion, opened sharply as he fixed his gaze on Cheon Hui.
“That’s correct.”
Cheon Hui answered flatly, without inflection.
At his composure, Hyeon Cheong collected himself.
If even he, the elder brother, felt such a piercing ache in his chest, what must Cheon Hui—who had regarded Hyeon Gang as both master and father—be enduring?
‘It must hurt him far more than it hurts me.’
In the moment their eyes met, Cheon Hui’s gaze seeming deliberately impassive, Hyeon Cheong found himself sharing in that pain.
But did Cheon Hui realize it?
That his answer came not from sorrow or empathy, but simply to end the conversation.
That he was suppressing annoyance, not grief.
‘So when does this end?’
Just as weariness was beginning to settle over the waiting, Hyeon Cheong spoke again.
“After that decision was made, I entered Mangyeonggak. To restore the lost and scattered martial arts of Hwasanpa, and then—no, for the Murimdmaeng not to dare look down upon our sect, we needed to cultivate supreme masters to rival even those of Shaolin and Wudang.”
Hyeon Cheong spat out the words as if they tasted of ash.
For eight years he had endured not only wrestling with those detested books in pursuit of restoration, but had confined himself to Mangyeonggak day after day.
Yet even now, he had restored only dozens of Martial Arts Texts.
At this rate, even if he devoted his entire life to it, it remained unclear whether he could restore even a tenth of what lay in Mangyeonggak.
But then a rumor had reached his ears.
And seeking to verify its truth, he had visited the disciples, discovering things far beyond what the rumor had suggested.
Lost in thought, Hyeon Cheong fixed his gaze on Cheon Hui.
“The disciples told me you had reinvented the Maehwa Sword Technique. Is that true?”
“Yes, sir.”
“……!”
Hyeon Cheong clenched both fists tightly.
The Maehwa Sword Technique was already a supreme technique, yet he had reinvented it.
Making it an even greater supreme technique at that.
No matter that it came from Jang Mun In and Hyeon Do—it was a claim almost impossible to accept.
But after arriving at Nagan Peak and witnessing him teaching Jeokgeom and Seollan, his doubt had dissolved, and he had acknowledged it all.
The martial skill on display was that remarkable.
Enough that not only the seemingly impossible rumors, but even the disciples’ grandiose claims all became believable.
Hyeon Cheong opened his mouth, eyes on Cheon Hui.
“Then would the other martial arts texts in Mangyeonggak be restorable in the same way as the Maehwa Sword Technique?”
As Hyeon Cheong held his breath waiting for the answer, Cheon Hui’s lips moved.
“Restorable?”
“Yes.”
When Hyeon Cheong nodded, his eyes shining with anticipation as he looked at Cheon Hui—
“Most of them have already been restored, sir.”
“What—what did you say!”
At an answer that shattered all his expectations, Hyeon Cheong’s eyes went wide as saucers.

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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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