Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 214

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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 214
“Hmm?”
The white-haired elder, who had been tending the Vegetable Garden, stopped his work and lifted his head.
His narrow eyes fixed upon the empty air.
The high sun in the sky and fragments of cloud drifting past.
The old man’s thin eyes, which had been gazing quietly at the clear sky, slowly opened wide.
A chilling pale gaze was laid bare.
Within the white sclera, pupils dark as ink—drawn as if by a brush-tip—pierced through the empty space with a hunter’s stare.
Sssshhh—
And in that moment, a subtle fury seized the space itself.
The orchids and grasses that had grown around the half-finished Vegetable Garden bowed their heads as if cowering from his wrath.
Grrr—
The earth trembled with a low hum.
For years now, this ground had shown no change whatsoever. Yet now it sang with a rumbling voice, shuddering beneath the surface.
“…….”
The elder’s white eyebrows twitched once as he felt the vibration travel through the soles of his feet.
This was no ordinary thing.
It was a signal that someone had entered the Xiao Tian Di Sheng Formation.
“I told them not to enter without permission.”
The elder’s lips, which had been sealed shut, parted, and a voice emerged—low and grave.
Contrary to his benevolent appearance, he drew out a weighty tone as he drove the hoe lightly into the earth.
Then he straightened his bent spine.
Boom!
The surrounding air grew heavy and still.
Oppression swallowed the space whole.
He had neither summoned his inner power nor released any killing intent.
The bearing of an absolute master who had attained the realm of the Absolute flowed forth of its own accord.
An overwhelming presence that bent the spine and commanded submission merely by beholding it.
Even a master of considerable skill would find themselves unable to meet his gaze.
Thus the old man tending the Vegetable Garden vanished, and Pae Gun—the Absolute—appeared in his stead.
Pae Gun gazed sharply into the empty void, his eyes gleaming with light.
“……An uninvited guest, then.”
His low voice carried, beneath it all, a peculiar note of anticipation.
And at that same moment,
Sshhh—
The fury that had enveloped the space dissipated as if washed away.
Interest kindled in Pae Gun’s pale eyes as he erased the wrath with formidable speed.
‘The first time since I established the Array Formation.’
This was a forbidden place.
More precisely, ever since he had claimed this ground as his own, he had sealed it against all intrusion.
And decades had passed since then.
In all that time, those who had visited this forbidden ground could be counted on one hand.
Je Gal Shin, the current clan lord, and Je Gal Myeong, who was all but decided as the next clan lord.
And his old friends alone.
Altogether, barely five in number, and he knew the essence of every one of them.
But this visitor now—
“……An energy I feel for the first time.”
A smile played at the corner of his lips.
Finding the Xiao Tian Di Sheng Formation was as difficult as plucking a star from the heavens.
And no wonder—this Array Formation was one he had created himself, compiling dozens of formations passed down through the Je Gal Clan into a single unity that was his alone.
Even Je Gal Shin would have become confused about its location had Pae Gun not revealed it first.
Yet this uninvited guest had found their way here through force of will alone.
More than that—they had not merely arrived but plunged boldly into the Xiao Tian Di Sheng Formation without hesitation.
The very fact of entry suggested either profound expertise in Array Formations or skill keen enough to read the countercurrent energy that the Formation produced—yet there was such an utter lack of restraint to it all.
“Recklessness or confidence?”
Pae Gun narrowed his eyes to slits.
Beneath the half-closed lids, his dark pupils remained fixed upon the empty air.
“Truly, I wonder who this could be.”
* * *
“What kind of lunatic built this thing?”
Cheon Hui entered the Array Formation without hesitation, his expression betraying utter bewilderment.
The moment he stepped into the formation, he could understand the landscape shifting.
Formations inherently contained illusions; they warped scenery and conjured hallucinations—that much was predictable.
But what he saw now was something else entirely.
Could this even be called a landscape?
Day and night, sun and moon, mountain and sea.
All of them existed simultaneously.
On the left, the sun hung in the sky; on the right, the moon rose; from a colossal mountain, the sea flowed and stretched to the horizon.
And it continued moving, cycling without pause.
“This is a mess.”
Cheon Hui shook his head slowly.
The entire world was chaos.
But what troubled him more was that the landscape wasn’t the only corrupted thing.
The energies of Yin-Yang Five Elements pressed in from all directions, continuously shifting their positions.
It was hardly what one could call circulation.
Yet it was too unique a pattern to define as anything else with certainty.
As Cheon Hui surveyed his surroundings, he caught sight of water, soil, and clouds flowing boldly beneath his feet, and an involuntary laugh escaped him.
“But what in the world was this person trying to accomplish with such a formation?”
There were limits to how chaotic something could be.
This was nothing short of a rejection of the world’s natural order, of circulation, of the very laws of nature.
“It’s not as if they’re trying to become a Heavenly Demon.”
Cheon Hui murmured in exasperation, yet even as he spoke, he found the words oddly fitting.
A Heavenly Demon was a being that defied heaven itself.
An absolute god standing aloof above the world’s fundamental principles, rejecting them entirely.
And if this formation achieved that defiance—at least within this space—then in a sense, it wasn’t so different.
Though, of course, it was limited to this space alone.
“But this Pae Gun fellow is unique too. Deliberately installing such a bizarre formation. Is he trying to trick whoever enters here?”
Cheon Hui swept his gaze rapidly across the surroundings.
The more he examined it, the more absurd the formation seemed.
There were no particularly dangerous auras woven into the chaotic landscape, no Gates of Death to be found.
Only scattered Gates of Life that forced one to wander endlessly, and even most of those posed no actual threat to life.
Should someone stumble into this formation by accident, they wouldn’t die—they’d simply wander until exhaustion made them collapse and the formation expelled them. That much was plain to see.
“It doesn’t match his reputation.”
The intent remained unclear.
Yet through this formation, one truth became evident: Pae Gun was someone who, despite his reputation for killing, had no desire for others to enter this place.
“I’ll understand once I meet him directly.”
Cheon Hui spoke the thought aloud without concern, and immediately spread his sensory awareness outward.
A rich plum-blossom fragrance poured from his entire being, spreading bit by bit through this incomprehensible world.
Soon, Cheon Hui detected not merely dozens but nearly hundreds of Gates of Life.
“There are far too many.”
His brow furrowed as he sensed them.
All but one of them led back outside.
There were far too many to check individually.
“I was hoping to meet him quietly by finding the correct gate, but at this rate I’ll still be searching when dawn breaks.”
Cheon Hui drew his sword without delay.
The Baekryeon Sword gleamed as it appeared, reflecting sunlight and moonlight in equal measure, casting an otherworldly glow.
“What a nuisance.”
Cheon Hui gripped the blade with a grunt of irritation.
The sword point, held perfectly straight, aligned with the corner of his eye, releasing the Red Light Slash.
The scarlet arc was drawn.
No sound of wind-splitting followed.
Only the trajectory of the red light carved itself long across the chaos, then multiplied, one stroke becoming two.
In an instant, the jumbled landscape was dragged along the trajectory and convulsed violently.
The formations were etched horizontally across the scenery.
Moving so swiftly that the eye could scarcely follow, the trajectories multiplied at an ever-accelerating pace.
A single sword stroke.
Yet within that one stroke, hundreds of variations layered together, unleashing tremendous power.
Truly a marvelous swift sword—a sword of transformation.
The web-like trajectories that had filled the formation soon forced even the moving landscape to halt in place.
The speed of those trajectories must have been overwhelming.
Cheon Hui, who had been wielding his sword within that suspended moment, abruptly stilled.
In that very instant.
Crack!
The space in the void twisted, and soon the surrounding landscape shattered apart.
Shatter!
Then, as a sound like breaking glass rang out, the night sky revealed itself through the fractured scenery.
Soft moonlight and countless stars.
No longer trapped in the Array Formation’s illusion, Cheon Hui surveyed his surroundings slowly.
“It’s surprisingly sparse inside.”
Muttering as he gazed at the barren ground save for a vegetable garden and a thatched cottage.
“Well, I’ve decorated it as best I could. Though I suppose the garden could use more tending.”
A soft voice drifted over.
An old man sat at the thatched cottage.
The silver-haired elder, his white locks bound neatly upward, held an ancient-looking tea cup in both hands as he regarded Cheon Hui.
‘What have we here?’
Cheon Hui’s eyes gleamed sharply for a moment.
Despite staring directly at the old man before him, he felt nothing.
No presence, no aura.
At first glance, he appeared to be merely an old man tending a small vegetable garden.
But Cheon Hui knew better.
No—he felt it instinctively.
The old man standing before him was no ordinary person.
And as if to prove it, a sharp glint flickered briefly in the elder’s narrowed eyes.
Then the old man smiled gently.
“You’ve made quite a mess of things, haven’t you?”
The old man spoke, gazing at the ruined vegetable garden.
It wasn’t just the garden.
The Xiao Tian Di Sheng Formation was now completely shattered, and repairing it seemed nearly impossible.
“Ah well, it was a fine Array Formation for tending vegetables. Now I’ve lost that use of it.”
The old man—Pae Gun—set down his tea cup.
With a soft clink, his slightly stooped frame gradually straightened.
“And who might you be?”
Pae Gun asked, his narrow eyes opening wide.
Cheon Hui answered with an air of indifference.
“Cheon Hui.”
Surprise flared in Pae Gun’s eyes.
He had not expected an uninvited intruder to answer so readily and without guile.
Then Cheon Hui spoke again.
“And you are Pae Gun, are you not?”
“Ah, so you knew of me before entering?”
“I wanted to see with my own eyes. One of the Eight Martial Gods, that is.”
Pae Gun burst into laughter.
“What confidence the young have.”
Pae Gun’s lips stretched wide.
Thinner and more delicate than even the crescent moon floating in the night sky above his head.
Then his mouth opened fully.
“Indeed. I am Pae Gun, also known as Je Gal Go Cheon.”
In a single moment, the air grew heavy.
It was not only the air.
Even the crescent moon and stars floating in the night sky above dimmed under his overwhelming presence.
Everything grew progressively hazy.
All save for one—Pae Gun Je Gal Go Cheon alone.
Soon there was nothing in all the world but him.
Lofty and assured.
Witnessing Pae Gun’s sudden display of an absolute being’s bearing, Cheon Hui let out a quiet laugh.
That smile was different from his usual one.
Brimming with fighting spirit.
Much like the smile he had worn long ago, when he walked the line between life and death.
‘So this is what an Eight Martial God can do? Certainly worthy of the fuss.’
The oppressive aura Pae Gun now radiated was not something he had deliberately conjured.
It was something that flowed naturally from those who had transcended the Heavenly Martial Realm and reached the Martial God Realm.
That was when Pae Gun spoke.
“Now that you’ve seen me in person, what do you think?”
“Truly worthy of being called a Martial God.”
Cheon Hui answered with excitement in his voice.
“The martial depth you possess has already touched the heavens, and the title suits you well.”
Pae Gun stared intently at Cheon Hui.
At the same moment, a ghostly pale gaze emerged between his eyelids and moved.
After observing Cheon Hui for a while, Pae Gun patted the seat beside him.
“This conversation looks to be a long one. Don’t stand there—come sit here. I’ve prepared tea specially.”
“Tea? Don’t you have any wine?”
“Wine?”
The old man who answered let out a laugh.
The sight of someone in Sect Robes asking for wine reminded him of an old friend from long ago.
“So you’re a drunkard too, then.”
The old man, recalling his departed friend, rose to his feet and gave his waist a light tap.
“Then wait a moment. I should have some Fruit Wine I made years ago somewhere.”
Cheon Hui’s entire body burned hot as he watched the old man disappear into the house.
Fighting spirit was churning within him.
“Powerful. Incredibly so.”
Stimulation had finally come to his recently listless existence.
In his past life, he had pursued nothing but martial arts, and because of that, he had been called the Absolute Heavenly Demon and stood as the supreme master under heaven.
But it had been a lonely path.
With all under heaven beneath his feet, there was no one to stand beside him or compete with him.
At the summit, there was only himself.
So when he obtained this new life, he had harbored a quiet hope.
‘Three hundred years have passed—perhaps there exists another master of incomparable skill.’
But that hope had faded quickly.
Among the skilled experts he had met in Kangho, there was none worthy of being called a true master.
Baek Sa Sin and Jongnam Geom Seong certainly stood out among them.
Yet even they had not satisfied him.
But this old man before him now……
Pae Gun was different.
He had transcended the Heavenly Martial Realm and was striving toward the Beyond Heaven realm—the Martial God Realm itself.
Here was a figure who could quench his thirst.
In that instant, a brilliant smile bloomed across Cheon Hui’s face, spreading all the way to his ears.
“This is the Kangho I desired.”

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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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