Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 26

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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 26
Bang!
Neng Mian Do-gwi’s lifeless body crashed to the floor with a heavy thud.
“What in the….”
Go Gye-yeong stared in bewilderment, his gaze darting between the corpse and Tian Hui, who stood with an expression of utter nonchalance.
‘Why did Neng Mian Do-gwi….’
His mind reeled in confusion.
Moments ago, Neng Mian Do-gwi had charged at him wielding a blade suffused with such potent Yin Energy that even someone ignorant of martial arts like himself could feel its intensity.
Yet Tian Hui had merely drawn his sword, displaying no aura or momentum whatsoever.
The outcome should have been obvious.
But what had just happened?
Suddenly, a brilliant Red Light erupted from the blade, and the result reversed entirely.
Tian Hui stood motionless with sword in hand, while Neng Mian Do-gwi—who had been swinging his blade with such lethal Yin Energy—now lay collapsed as a corpse far colder than the chill of his own technique.
‘By all appearances, Neng Mian Do-gwi had the momentum to cleave him in two….’
Gulp.
Go Gye-yeong’s throat tightened, his mouth suddenly dry from the shock.
But only for a moment.
‘A merchant my entire life—how could I possibly understand such things?’
He quickly abandoned the line of thought.
For someone who didn’t even know the first character of martial arts, some mysteries would remain forever closed.
Dwelling on it would only give him a headache.
What mattered now was one thing alone.
He needed to express his gratitude to the Taoist Master from the Huashan Sect who had saved him, his wife, and the Bifeng Trading Company.
“I am deeply grateful for your great favor.”
He bowed immediately and respectfully toward the young Taoist Master before them.
“Thank…thank you, Master.”
Yeon Su-ran’s voice trembled as she brought her shaking hands together with great effort, her face drained of all color.
And with good reason—in less than the span of a moment, she had witnessed a succession of horrors.
The sudden assault, the deaths of those who had tried to protect her, the roaring flames and screams throughout the trading house.
That alone would have been enough.
Even now, the acrid smoke stinging her nostrils was sufficient to plunge her mind into chaos.
An ordinary woman would still be in shock, her senses shattered—yet she clung desperately to her reason.
She was, after all, the First Lady of the Bifeng Trading Company.
Tian Hui, however, received their sincere expressions of gratitude with little reaction.
In fact, he scarcely paid them any attention at all.
Instead, his eyes remained fixed on Neng Mian Do-gwi, sprawled flat on the ground.
He had felt the killing intent for the first time in ages, and his body had burned with anticipation—so much so that he had deliberately waited for his opponent to fully display his true technique….
‘Why is he so weak?’
The heat draining from his body was palpable.
His disappointment was profound. Neng Mian Do-gwi had collapsed before even properly demonstrating his martial arts.
He turned his gaze away sharply.
The man and woman looked up at him still trembling, fear still evident in their frames.
“Everything’s been taken care of.”
He answered flatly, confirmed that they were safe, and turned to leave.
‘I’ve protected them now, so this task is done.’
He had completed his first priority—protecting the leader of the Bifeng Trading Company—and was about to step through the shattered doorway when—
“W-where are you going, sir?”
Go Gye-yeong asked urgently.
Perhaps because he had just been cornered moments before, he could not hide his anxiety at seeing Tian Hui slip away.
Tian Hui glanced back at him.
Reading his heart in an instant, he spoke with an expression of annoyance.
“If you’re anxious, follow me.”
With that, he stepped through the door.
“Husband.”
“Yes, madam.”
Go Gye-yeong and Yeon Su-ran exchanged glances, then followed with set faces.
Gasp!
Wheeze!
As Go Gye-yeong and Yeon Su-ran emerged behind him, they cried out in alarm and covered their mouths with their hands.
The corridor was filled entirely with corpses.
“Since when have there been corpses like this……!”
Go Gye-yeong’s eyes trembled.
Most of them wore clothes other than those of the Bifeng Trading Company—these were the intruders.
What that meant was only one thing.
The Taoist Master standing before him was the one who had wrought this carnage.
And he had accomplished this slaughter so covertly that even Neng Mian Do-gwi inside had not detected it.
“As expected of the Huashan Sect…….”
Go Gye-yeong’s eyes gleamed as he watched the back of Tian Hui walking ahead.
Step—step—
In truth, the sight of the Taoist Master walking through the corpses was utterly grotesque.
And if the Taoist Master’s hand speed had been fierce, what did that matter now?
He was an ally, not an enemy.
‘Like ten thousand celestial soldiers.’
A flush of triumph colored Go Gye-yeong’s face.
At that moment, as soon as Tian Hui emerged outside, he frowned.
‘What? Still not finished?’
The moment he left the Inner Chamber, what greeted him was a battleground thick with acrid smoke that bit at his nostrils.
* * *
“Ugh!”
Jeok Geom clenched his teeth as enemies kept appearing no matter how many he felled.
He was outnumbered.
The Plum Blossom Sword Users numbered barely five, while the unidentified martial artists numbered well over fifty by rough count.
“This is not the time for this!”
Jeok Geom shouted loudly.
He was growing increasingly desperate.
‘I have to hurry inside!’
From the moment he witnessed the carnage at the Bifeng Trading Company, his mind had been in chaos. And the unknown fate of his parents inside the Inner Chamber only deepened his distress.
“Get out of the way!”
As he cried out and swung his blade—
Whiiiish!
A sharp whistle of air came straight at him.
“……!”
Jeok Geom’s body tensed and his head snapped around.
The attacker’s blade was hurtling toward his temple.
He hastily redirected the trajectory of his own sword.
Clang!
He caught the blade edge-to-edge, but the impact made his sword quiver.
“Senior Brother!”
At that moment, Seol Ran cried out.
Having hastily put distance between herself and the warrior before her, she called again.
“Come to your senses! What would Master think if he saw you like this?”
Stung by her sharp words, Jeok Geom flinched.
Tian Hui was both someone he revered and someone he feared most.
In everyday matters, he dismissed everything and handled things carelessly, but when it came to martial arts, he was scrupulously thorough and coldly exacting.
If he saw this display…….
A shiver ran through him.
Jeok Geom trembled.
“……Thank you, Junior Sister.”
Cooled now, he assessed his surroundings while gripping his blade with lightness.
His sword moved.
Whoooosh!
A rich fragrance of plum blossoms drifted in all directions.
The Plum Blossom Sword Technique he had trained in every single day for a year now unfolded.
Slash!
He severed the arm of the ambushing warrior.
“Aaaaargh!”
The warrior stared at his severed elbow, then thrashed about in agony, rolling across the ground.
Jeok Geom’s eyes remained unmoved as he watched.
Had he been an unpracticed warrior facing the enemy for the first time, his reason would have wavered at the screams and the alien sensation in his hands—but he remained composed.
‘……That training was not wasted.’
Perhaps it was owing to the experience gained through the practical crucible of actual hunts.
The tension that had gripped him five years ago, crushed beneath the weight of the exhibition match, had long since vanished.
What remained was only Jeok Geom of the Plum Blossom Sword Users.
Whisp!
Jeok Geom continued to unfurl the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
The sword, fragrant with the scent of plum blossoms, cut down his opponents without hesitation, and Seol Ran felled hers with equal efficiency.
“At least that’s something.”
Tian Hui murmured, watching from the sidelines.
Under normal circumstances, the sight would not have impressed him; but there was something far more troubling to behold.
“Compared to those lot, anyway.”
Tian Hui’s eyes narrowed with disdain as he regarded the remaining Plum Blossom Sword Users, excluding the two.
“Huff, huff.”
“Is everyone all right?”
“I’m dying here.”
Jeok Jae, Jeok Un, and Jeok Bi, facing off against the coordinated assault of the Overlord Sect disciples, were struggling hard.
‘Tsk—so they too lack practical experience.’
In terms of actual skill and martial prowess, the Plum Blossom Sword Users were clearly superior to the Overlord Sect disciples.
But what did that matter?
They were being pounded like dogs out there.
‘Compared to those three, Jeok Geom and Seol Ran might as well be immortals.’
Just as Tian Hui was clicking his tongue in disapproval—
“Let us settle this fairly, one against one——”
Jeok Un flared his eyes and opened his mouth.
“Bahahaha!”
But before Jeok Un could finish, the Overlord Sect disciples erupted in laughter.
“Idiots, every one. What’s this ‘fairness’ in the Jianghu?”
“What was Huashan thinking, sending us these naive fools who know nothing of the world?”
Watching Jeok Un and Jeok Jae charge forward in anger at the mockery, Tian Hui wore an expression of utter contempt.
“Struggling against mere rabble like that—pathetic. How disappointing.”
Tian Hui exhaled a deep sigh.
“All that training wasted.”
Just as he was summing up his assessment of them in a single phrase, killing intent emanated from beside him.
“Die!”
Screech!
A sudden Overlord Sect disciple thrust his blade toward Tian Hui’s ribs.
In a heartbeat, the sword’s tip drew closer.
Boom!
An explosive crash erupted as a pillar shattered.
Rumble-rumble—
The man was sent flying straight through the pillar in an instant, tumbling among the Overlord Sect disciples in a mangled, unrecognizable heap.
Then, as the Plum Blossom Sword Users and Overlord Sect disciples fell momentarily silent—
“Master?”
“When did you arrive?”
Jeok Geom and Seol Ran broke into bright smiles.
To those already pressed into a disadvantageous position, Tian Hui’s arrival was nothing short of a beacon of hope.
“There was another one hiding?”
In stark contrast, the Overlord Sect disciples’ eyes sharpened as they tightened their grips on their blades.
“You!”
“How dare you lay hands on our sect’s disciples!”
“Kill him! All of you, kill him now!”
As the figures rushed at him from all sides, Tian Hui’s lips curved into a cold smile.
A chilling, bone-deep smile.
“You’re desperate to die, aren’t you?”
Thud! Thud!
With dull, heavy sounds, five rushing martial artists were sent flying, spraying blood as they fell.
Snap!
Tian Hui spun his body and seized the neck of an Overlord Sect disciple attacking from behind.
“P-please… spare me……!”
As he watched the man struggling and pleading, Tian Hui twisted his neck with an impassive expression.
Crack-crack-crack—
An unpleasant sound rippled through the air, and the faces of the Overlord Sect disciples drained of all color.
In the blink of an eye, six Overlord Sect disciples lay dead—a sight that planted seeds of terror in the hearts of those who remained.
But they did not know.
This was only the beginning.
A blur—
In an instant, his form wavered and vanished, then reappeared among the disciples.
A sharp intake of breath.
“…!”
They swiftly raised their weapons toward Tian Hui, who had materialized before them.
A hollow thud.
But their blades passed through empty air, meeting nothing.
Then, with a sound like thunder splitting a drum, their robes billowed outward.
“Argh!”
“Gah—”
Blood sprayed from their mouths as they sank slowly to their knees, then collapsed.
A tremor—
“Did he just use the Internal Heavy Hand Method?”
One of them, having recognized the technique Tian Hui had just deployed, went pale.
The Internal Heavy Hand Method was no trivial art.
Only a sect master of the highest rank could master such a technique.
Yet this young Taoist Master was wielding it with ease.
Sweat beaded—
As Tian Hui drew ever closer, beads of perspiration began to roll down the disciple’s brow.
“What are you doing? Come on. If you won’t come to me, I’ll come to you.”
With those words, Tian Hui launched himself forward, his feet leaving the ground.
He shot forward like an arrow.
“You brat!”
A man of towering build stepped forward and blocked Tian Hui’s path.
“The Master!”
“The Master has arrived!”
The faces of the Overlord Sect disciples lit up.
The broad-shouldered man in black robes was the leader of the Bakyeong Group who had ambushed the Bifeng Trading Company, and one of the three most formidable masters in the Overlord Sect—the wielder of the Single Fist of Mount Taishan.
“You. You will not cease your cruel onslaught—”
He had barely cried out, his expression grave as he took his stance, when Tian Hui’s fist moved.
A sharp crack—
“Ugh!”
The massive man was sent flying, his body colliding hard against a wall.
The wall cracked with a deafening boom.
“…!”
As the Overlord Sect disciples stood frozen in shock, Tian Hui—the one who had launched him—tilted his head curiously.
“Who is that guy?”

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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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