Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 234

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 234
“What? You’re really bandits?”
Upon arriving at Hangsan Stronghold, Cheon Hui’s expression betrayed utter bewilderment.
Deep within the mountains stood an enormous pavilion.
Inside, everything was arranged with meticulous care—far too orderly for a place where bandits were supposed to dwell.
“Hmm, with a setup like this, you must be hoarding quite a lot of gold and treasures.”
After surveying Hangsan Stronghold for some time, Cheon Hui turned his gaze toward the frozen bandits and opened his mouth.
“Gather every last piece and bring it before me.”
The bandits could not hide their shock.
They’d been told to guide him to Hangsan Stronghold, and they’d wondered what this was about—but to think he intended to strip the stronghold of its gold and treasures.
Who could have foreseen it?
That a Daoist of the Huashan Sect would attempt to rob a bandit stronghold.
As they stood dumbfounded in the face of this unexpected turn of events.
“Why? Do you dislike the idea?”
Cheon Hui spoke, and though they remained motionless, he fixed them with a stare and continued in a low voice.
“Then you’re no use to me.”
“W-what? No! Please, no!”
“We’ll fetch everything right away!”
The bandits bolted in panic.
Their opponent was a master of extraordinary skill.
A mere flick of his fingers would be enough to claim their lives.
How could they possibly resist?
Moments later, before Cheon Hui lay a mountain of treasures: gold coins at the center, surrounded by expensive bolts of silk, glimmering jewels, and countless other valuables.
“H-huff! We’ve brought everything!”
Cheon Hui gazed at the heap of riches piled nearly as high as a man and spoke with exasperation.
“Look at this. So bandits really do know how to work diligently at their craft.”
It was a reproach, yet strangely it carried the tone of praise, and the bandits laughed awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Cheon Hui stroked his chin as he surveyed the mountain of gold and treasures too numerous to count.
“But carrying all this away by hand would be difficult…”
There was simply too much.
Even if everyone from the Hwa Ryeong Dan wrapped everything in bolts of silk and carried it, it would be a struggle.
“Ah!”
A good idea suddenly struck Cheon Hui, and he turned to the bandit panting beside him.
“Do you have carriages?”
It was an abrupt question.
Yet the bandit answered without hesitation.
“We do! Though they’re rather old, I’m not sure if they’ll suit your needs…”
To the bandit whose voice grew increasingly feeble, Cheon Hui replied matter-of-factly.
“It doesn’t matter. Bring them here.”
“Right away!”
With that response, the bandit rushed off with his companions, hurrying frantically in some direction.
Shortly after, they returned, dragging three dilapidated carriages by hand.
“Huff! Huff!”
“Push a little harder! Come on!”
The bandits, who had physically hauled the carriages up the steep mountain path, stood before Cheon Hui and breathed heavily.
“P-phew! H-here they are.”
Cheon Hui regarded the carriages.
They were indeed quite shabby, as he’d heard.
Yet.
“Well, this should do fine.”
They weren’t terribly bad.
The wheels rolled smoothly without issue, and apart from their age, the rest seemed serviceable enough.
‘I’m not planning to ride in them anyway.’
Just as the bandit who had hauled the carriages alongside his fellows was about to brighten at Cheon Hui’s seemingly indifferent response.
“What about horses?”
Cheon Hui’s question struck without warning, and sweat beaded again on the bandit’s brow.
He immediately lowered his head.
“I’m sorry! We have no horses!”
“Is that so? Well, I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Fortunately, Cheon Hui brushed aside the matter without concern.
He had asked, but seeing the man bring the carriage himself, he harbored no great expectations.
‘There are plenty of others who can substitute for horses.’
Cheon Hui smiled wryly and spoke.
“Then load everything we pulled out earlier onto the carriage and let’s head down.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
In that instant, a collective sound of deflating air escaped from the mouths of the Nok Rim bandits.
‘He’s telling us to haul a carriage loaded with all of that down the mountain?’
They wondered if they’d misheard.
The carriage alone was extraordinarily heavy.
But to load it with gold, silver, and treasures that had been stripped from the stronghold—it seemed impossible to manage.
They turned pleading eyes toward Cheon Hui, but all that reached their ears was a reproach-laden command.
“What are you doing? Stop dragging your feet. We don’t have time—load it up quickly.”
* * *
“Sir.”
O Chief Steward approached Cheon Yi Gae.
Cheon Yi Gae, who had been binding the Nok Rim bandits and Black Shadow Corps members whose meridians were sealed, turned his head slightly and asked.
“Hmm? What is it?”
“What do you intend to do with them?”
“What else? We’ll have to take them to the nearest branch of the Murim Alliance.”
“Ah. I see.”
O Chief Steward wiped his chest in relief.
He had been worried that they might have to travel with these captives.
Having shed that concern upon learning it was not to be, O Chief Steward’s lips moved again.
“Then will you yourself…….”
“Well, I’ll have to wait here until those people arrive, won’t I?”
Cheon Yi Gae spoke with evident reluctance.
He too would have preferred to follow the journey, but the situation had grown quite urgent.
“This is not something we can simply overlook. It could very well affect the future of Kangho itself…….”
Cheon Yi Gae’s expression grew grave.
‘Sa Hyuk Ryeon went too far.’
If not for Cheon Hui, they would all have been slaughtered.
‘Were they driven into that much of a corner?’
His brow furrowed.
With the appearance of the Black Shadow Corps, it was now almost certain that Sa Hyuk Ryeon was attempting to bring both the Nok Rim bandits and the Dae Eun Trading Company under their wing.
That much he could understand.
Replacing Baek Gwi Seong’s absence with the Nok Rim and seeking wealth was only natural from their perspective.
But what was happening now was excessive.
‘They pressed forward even after seeing that the Tian Xia Trading Company requested help from the Murim Alliance and the Plum Blossom Sword Masters of Huashan Sect moved.’
Of course, with the Black Shadow Corps at their side, they must have been confident in their ability to achieve complete annihilation.
Yet contrary to their expectations, their plan to ambush the escort caravan had failed.
And that was not all.
The Black Shadow Corps had suffered a crushing defeat instead.
‘Will Sa Hyuk Ryeon simply let this pass?’
It was difficult to imagine they would.
No matter how wary they were of the Bi Cheon Society, the Black Shadow Corps had been destroyed, and Hangsan Stronghold, which was to newly join them, had been defeated as well.
On top of that, they had not even managed to carry out their plan to obstruct the escort caravan.
If they simply let this slide, the Nok Rim bandits and the Dae Eun Trading Company would voice their grievances, and Sa Hyuk Ryeon would appear to have bowed their head to the Murim Alliance, narrowing their standing.
Thus they could not retreat.
‘Why would they lay such a trap for themselves……!’
Cheon Yi Gae clicked his tongue with a sharp ‘tsk.’
Even if the current Sa Hyuk Ryeon felt their momentum waning compared to the Murim Alliance and Bi Cheon Society and sensed a crisis, this was far too hasty.
‘If things continue like this, the Murim Alliance and Sa Hyuk Ryeon will clash, and one side will fall.’
Entertaining the worst-case scenario, Cheon Yi Gae shook his head with a sigh.
‘Still, we don’t yet know what choice the Alliance Lord and the military strategist will make.’
It took both hands coming together to make a clap.
If the Murim Alliance made the greatest concessions and withdrew, things might yet unfold well.
‘Though the chances of that are slim.’
Yet even Cheon Yi Gae, turning that possibility over in his mind, could only laugh bitterly.
Sa Hyuk Ryeon had struck first.
So why would the Murim Alliance need to make concessions?
‘And then there’s the choice of the Huashan Sect—no, that man’s choice, too. That matters…….’
As Cheon Yi Gae’s thoughts trailed on, his gaze fixed on the mountain path where Cheon Hui had climbed, when suddenly he caught sight of a carriage rattling down the slope.
“Huh?”
Three worn carriages were struggling their way down the steep path, and something felt wrong.
It wasn’t only Cheon Yi Gae who sensed the strangeness—murmurs of confusion rippled through the onlookers.
“A, are those people pulling the carriage……?”
“Those are the Nok Lim bandits that the Grand Master of the Maehwa Sword School brought with him…….”
Disbelief painted their faces.
The carriages were being pulled by men, not horses.
Several of them rubbed their eyes with their hands in doubt, blinking hard, but the sight of men pulling the carriages instead of horses did not change.
Then, belatedly, they noticed the figure sitting on the driver’s seat of the carriage and flinched.
“The Grand Master of the Maehwa Sword School?”
“Master……?”
Cheon Hui sat cross-legged on the driver’s seat, letting out a drowsy yawn.
“Haaah.”
Cheon Hui wiped away the tears trickling from the corners of his eyes with his index finger, then smirked toward the Nok Lim bandits.
“Come now, we’re almost there. Once we arrive, you can rest.”
Not long after, the carriage drew to a halt before them.
Thud—
The Nok Lim bandits collapsed, utterly spent.
“Pant, pant.”
As their chests heaved with labored breaths reaching their very throats.
“Well now.”
Cheon Hui descended from the driver’s seat.
Crunch!
He stepped lightly over the prostrate forms and approached O Chief Steward, then asked.
“Could you take a look at the goods inside?”
“The goods, you say?”
O Chief Steward’s eyes gleamed.
“Of course.”
The moment O Chief Steward rushed over and threw open the door of the first carriage, he gasped at the sight of the abundance within.
“Wh, what is all this?”
“It’s from Hangsan Stronghold.”
Gulp—
O Chief Steward’s throat moved visibly.
“W, would you allow me to sell these for you?”
Cheon Hui chuckled.
“You can fetch a fair price for them?”
O Chief Steward nodded his head vigorously up and down, as if it might fall off.
“I will ensure the utmost sum reaches you, Master.”
“Well then, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Thank you so much!”
Cheon Hui withdrew his gaze from O Chief Steward, who was now hurriedly cataloging the goods in the carriage, and turned toward where the Hwa Ryeong Dan was stationed.
“You’ve finished treating everyone?”
Cheon Hyang nodded.
“Then let’s depart now. I went to the trouble of securing carriages, after all.”
The Hwa Ryeong Dan brightened at those words.
‘Not only riding on horses, but actually resting fully in carriages!’
‘What generosity from our master!’
As they stood grinning, thoroughly mistaken.
“Then get ready to pull the carriages.”
With a single sentence, Cheon Hui shattered their expectations entirely.
“……What?”
“P, pull the carriages?”
“Yes. Those men over there pulled them all the way from there to here, so surely you’re not saying you can’t do it?”
In that instant, Cheon Hyang bristled.
“B, but Master! You said you’d let us rest if we defeated those thugs.”
Cheon Hui let out a soft laugh and replied.
“Then who defeated the master of Hangsan Stronghold?”
……
Cheon Hyang pressed her lips together and bowed her head deeply.
“And these people who cowered before the Black Shadow Corps—who are they?”
“That is… well….”
The members of the Hwa Ryeong Dan felt sweat soak through their clothes.
Cheon Hui regarded them with contempt and let out a long sigh.
“Good heavens, if I were in your position, I couldn’t even bring myself to ask for rest out of sheer shame. And you learned nothing from being treated like that?”
The Hwa Ryeong Dan fell silent.
Then Cheon Hyang, whose head had been bowed, spoke quietly.
“The master is right.”
At her words, the Hwa Ryeong Dan stiffened.
“D-did you just say, Leader?”
The Hwa Ryeong Dan, who had never expected their leader to side with Cheon Hui, gasped in shock.
‘It was close.’
Cheon Hyang recalled the battle that had just unfolded.
The Black Shadow Corps were strong.
Strong enough to drive them back in utter defeat.
‘If the master hadn’t been there, we would all be dead.’
Her fists clenched.
‘I thought we had grown stronger….’
Through training that felt like hell itself, repeated again and again, she had believed they had surpassed their former selves.
But it was a grave illusion.
Kangho was vast, and reality was cold.
Cheon Hyang looked at Cheon Hui and asked.
“Can we grow stronger by doing that?”
“You’ll become stronger than you are now, certainly.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Cheon Hyang spoke to the Hwa Ryeong Dan members.
“Don’t you want to become stronger?”
At Cheon Hyang’s question, the Hwa Ryeong Dan shook their heads side to side.
What martial artist does not wish to grow stronger?
But.
“Even so, that sort of training….”
“What would people say….”
Pulling a carriage struck them as unseemly.
If they, wearing the Sect Robes of Huashan, went about pulling a carriage, what would others think of them?
‘They’d think we were mad.’
Yet despite their reluctance, Cheon Hyang had already made up her mind.
“If you don’t want to do it, then quit. But if you do, you leave the Hwa Ryeong Dan.”
Her words fell like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
The members of the Hwa Ryeong Dan, left with no choice, slumped their shoulders and sighed as they moved toward the carriage.
‘Easy to manage when they obey orders.’
Cheon Hui was nodding to himself with arms crossed when Jong Pyo Du cautiously approached.
“Great Master of the Maehwa Sword School.”
Hmm? What’s this about?
Cheon Hui turned to look at Jong Pyo Du, who was still trembling with fear, his eyes surprised.
Jong Pyo Du flinched at Cheon Hui’s gaze but quickly performed the Fist Salute respectfully.
“I am grateful to you for saving myself and the families of our trading company.”
Cheon Hui’s expression turned awkward.
“That’s why I came.”
At those words, Jong Pyo Du shuddered.
‘How cowardly we are. Cowardly indeed. Even as we avoided them out of fear of their strength, the Great Master devoted himself entirely to our rescue.’
For a moment, he wished he could crawl into a hole and disappear.
How shameful were the deeds they had committed.
Jong Pyo Du bowed deeply.
“You are truly the Great Master.”
“…Mm, is that so?”
Cheon Hui, uncertain what he meant but seeing him conduct himself with courtesy regardless, gave a perfunctory reply.
Then Jong Pyo Du, looking at the Hwa Ryeong Dan beside him, spoke.
“There is one more thing I would ask of you. The members of the Maehwa Sword School have sustained wounds in saving us. Might it not be better to have them rest in the carriage during our journey?”
They too had labored so hard to protect the goods in their care. He could not turn away from them now, worn and exhausted as they were.
‘Sir!’
‘Master!’
At Jong Pyo Du’s words and expression, the faces of the Hwa Ryeong Dan members, who had been preparing to pull the carriage, flushed with color.
Especially the injured member among them—relief flickered across his features, however briefly.
“Come now, are you telling me that the Maehwa Sword Masters of Huashan would refuse to train just because of a few cuts? Rest in the carriage?”
Cheon Hui cut off Jong Pyo Du’s appeal without hesitation.
“Master…….”
The Hwa Ryeong Dan members were about to protest when they heard what came next—and fell silent.
“Surely not! A Maehwa Sword Master of Huashan doing something so shameful? Wounds like that heal with a bit of spit. There’s nothing to it.”
As Cheon Hui spoke, he fixed the Hwa Ryeong Dan with a steady gaze, then slowly twisted his lips into a smile.
“Isn’t that right?”
The faces of the Hwa Ryeong Dan members contorted.
After being called out like that, climbing into the carriage to rest would make them look pathetic.
‘We’re done for.’
‘Damn it!’
As their expressions froze solid—
“Truly, the Maehwa Sword Masters……!”
“Training even with wounds—no wonder the Maehwa Sword Masters of Huashan are so renowned!”
Jong Pyo Du and the other escort agents and porters gasped with admiration, their eyes gleaming.
Already brimming with respect for the Hwa Ryeong Dan after the earlier battle, they now gazed upon them with eyes alight with mingled concern and hope.
Under their stares, the Hwa Ryeong Dan members lifted their trembling lips into forced smiles.
“Y-yes. Would a Maehwa Sword Master rest for wounds like these?”
“R-right. Like Master said, these scratches are nothing at all.”
And moments later—
‘Gasp! W-why is this so heavy?’
‘Aaahhh! I’ve lost my mind!’
‘Damn it! I should’ve just lain there groaning about the pain!’
With expressions twisted in deep regret, they began hauling the carriage forward.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————