Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 286

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

Episode 286
The moment Nong Jil’s order came down.
Black and crimson waves surged violently across Ami Mountain, one of the sacred sites of the Buddha’s Way.
When two thousand members of Sa Hyuk Ryeon moved in unison, it was enough to create that illusion in anyone watching.
“Amitabha Buddha….”
One of the Ami Sect disciples pressed her trembling palms together and called out the Buddha Call.
She was not alone.
Every eye among those gathered at Bokho Temple’s Mountain Gate, preparing to stand against them, wavered.
Truly an overwhelming sight.
For a moment, breath itself seemed to freeze.
Especially the momentum of Gwi Yeong Dae and Hyeol Yeong Dae, arrayed for battle, was extraordinary.
A killing intent and martial spirit so fierce it burned the skin spread rapidly, inundating Bokho Temple and Ami Mountain in a single breath.
Whoosh!
At the same time, the forces deploying the Gyeong Shin Beop swept past Nong Jil at their head and rushed toward Bokho Temple.
Those who had each mastered Speed Techniques like the Gwi Sal Bo and Hyeol Ryu Bo displayed wondrous, ethereal movements as they rapidly blanketed the Mountain Gate of Bokho Temple.
In an instant, the sky turned black.
When two thousand troops leaped skyward and came pouring in, the very heavens seemed to be swallowed.
Then it happened.
A brilliant light erupted!
Those who had been lunging toward the gate were hurled backward by the violent radiance.
A dozen fell in a single stroke.
Standing before them was So Un Sa Tae, her posture mirroring one who had just unleashed the Yunhoe Yukhwan Jang.
“What audacity brings you here?”
So Un Sa Tae glared at the troops surrounding Bokho Temple’s gate, her eyes blazing wide.
And then.
“This ground belongs to the Ami Sect…!”
She released the Hangma Hu.
Her voice, infused with the wondrous power of the Great Celestial Divine Art, rang out thunderously across the land, causing the Sa Hyuk Ryeon forces’ advance to falter for an instant.
Mystical power surged through her entire being.
It was a power that carried weight in its very presence.
The opaque, heavy energy that radiated outward seemed to warp the space around her.
Now it was perfectly clear why some whispered of her as the Spirit of Ami Mountain.
“This is no place for wicked rabble like you to set foot!”
So Un Sa Tae cried out, her gaze hardening with fierce determination.
The benevolent countenance that had moments before resembled the Bodhisattva of Virtue transformed in an instant into something fierce as an asura.
It was not her expression alone that changed.
Her very presence swelled to terrible grandeur.
Standing firm as though she alone would hold back the entire Sa Hyuk Ryeon army, she raised the Yunhoe Yukhwan Jang in her grip and roared:
“Disciples of Ami—strike down the wicked enemies who threaten our sect!”
“The Sect Master!”
“Truly, there stands the Sect Master of Ami!”
The Ami Sect disciples and martial artists who had been cowering before the vast army recovered their courage.
So Un Sa Tae—her very existence.
To have an Absolute Master at their side was a tremendous power in warfare between sects.
“Strike down the wicked enemies!”
“Now is the hour to render judgment upon the Demonic Path!”
Those gathered at Ami Sect’s gate steeled their hearts and moved in perfect unison.
“Disciples of Ami—deploy the Hangma Bokryong Jin!”
The Ami Sect disciples, following the guidance of their elders, formed the Hapbyeok Jin.
“Disciples of Cheongseong—draw your blades!”
“We render judgment upon the Demonic Path.”
The Daoists of the Cheongseong Sect who had come to aid Ami and the martial artists of the Murim Alliance likewise took their stance with surging spirits.
Meanwhile, the Sa Hyuk Ryeon forces, though they had briefly paused, showed no sign of intimidation at the sight of So Un Sa Tae and these warriors, and each gripped their weapons tightly.
And this time, rather than striking head-on, they scattered in all directions and rushed in as if to encircle them.
It was a formation that matched the pattern of Heavenly Net, Earthly Snare.
After a moment, finally they collided.
The beginning of a massive engagement.
Clang! Boom! Crash!
“Urgh!”
“Gah!”
From all directions, a cacophony of sound erupted.
Screams, the wet sounds of flesh piercing and being severed, the clash of blades—countless cries of violence.
They were the hallmarks of a life-and-death struggle unfolding in real time.
And yet, within that chaos.
There existed a pocket of eerie stillness.
As if the very noise dared not intrude upon it.
So Un Sa Tae and Nong Jil.
Two beings whose martial power had reached the heavens.
These two entities of the realm beyond heaven stood motionless amidst the slaughter, locked in each other’s gaze.
In the conflicts of Kangho, masters were vital.
Especially if they were the supreme masters of their respective factions, like So Un Sa Tae and Nong Jil—their importance went without saying.
Thus the two regarded only each other.
For the power to shift the balance of this battle resided in them alone.
“Shhh.”
After watching So Un Sa Tae for a long moment, Nong Jil drew a Long Pipe to her lips and exhaled smoke toward the sky.
The pristine plume never reached the heavens; it scattered and dissipated midway.
She then tapped the Long Pipe downward.
Whirr—
She spun it once around her palm and caught it anew.
Her graceful hand movements flowed into the grip as she seized the Long Pipe like a sword.
“Remarkable spiritual power.”
Nong Jil spoke, her eyes widening.
Her pupils, elongated like a serpent’s, gleamed with the pitiless light of prey sighted.
“That would be the power of the Great Perfected Divine Art, the famed secret technique of the Ami Sect?”
“A demon’s eyes can perceive, then.”
So Un Sa Tae replied calmly.
“Hehehehe, indeed…….”
Nong Jil’s laughter spilled forth.
Yet her eyes did not laugh—they remained fixed on So Un Sa Tae with unwavering focus.
That gaze held the quality of one gone mad.
“My blood boils. Terribly so…….”
Her hair began to sway, and a murky aura streamed from her entire body, spreading like threads of yarn.
The energy became visible to the eye.
It was vile and utterly toxic.
As it radiated outward, the aura suddenly gathered densely around the Long Pipe.
It coiled about the instrument in layers.
A manifestation of mysterious harmony.
Yet neither Nong Jil, who had conjured it, nor So Un Sa Tae, who beheld it, showed any shift in expression.
It was simply the natural order for them.
Whooooosh—
Then, abruptly, a wail of ghostly weeping pierced the air.
In an instant, the Long Pipe, now imbued with ferocious energy and wrapped in murky aura, plummeted downward with a dull thud.
Aimed directly at So Un Sa Tae.
The space between them warped.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
A devastating strike carrying immense power.
‘One who bears such a fearsome reputation did not earn it without cause.’
So Un Sa Tae’s eyes settled with resolve.
Her opponent was formidable.
This was no mere figure who wielded infamy through empty boasts and phantom titles.
But still.
“Amitabha Buddha.”
She, too, was no ordinary master.
Swish—
So Un Sa Tae raised the Yunhoe Yukhwan Jang.
Immediately, the spiritual power surrounding her crystallized—the power of the Great Perfected Divine Art condensed into focus.
This consolidated energy began to seep into the six rings of the Yunhoe Yukhwan Jang.
Flash!
And at once, a blindingly radiant golden light blazed forth.
The Universal Illumination of Buddha Light—Luminous Extinction.
The concentrated martial force of the Daejung Shin Gong exploded outward, surging forward with devastating power.
A deafening roar tore through the air.
Golden light shot forth in a streak, trailing a shimmering afterimage in its wake.
In that instant, the blazing onslaught collided head-on with the blade strike wielded by Nong Jil.
A direct impact.
Boom!
The explosion and shockwave erupted in delayed succession.
Everything around them seemed to fade away.
* * *
Thud-thud-thud—
Feeling the tremors beneath his feet, Cheon Hui flicked the Hwaweol, shaking off the blood that clung to it, and turned his gaze toward the epicenter of the blast.
“Hmm?”
The distance from the Mountain Gate was roughly two hundred paces.
An considerable distance.
For most, the details would be lost in the haze, but Cheon Hui could see it as clearly as if it stood before him.
So Un Sa Tae locked in combat with a woman dressed in peculiar garb.
“This looks rather entertaining.”
His interest was piqued.
So Un Sa Tae’s martial prowess was formidable, but the woman’s was no less impressive.
“So that’s the Sect Master of the Ami Sect and the martial power of the Seven Luminaries Immortal? More skilled than I’d expected, and their martial arts are quite distinctive too.”
As Cheon Hui leaned forward with curiosity, watching the scene unfold at the Mountain Gate—
Thwack!
The sound of feet pushing hard against the ground rang out.
It was Jeol Gang Gwi Su.
Seizing the instant when Cheon Hui had turned his head, he launched himself into flight without hesitation.
Not a moment’s delay in his response.
‘I can never defeat him.’
At seventy years of age,
his survival as a Sapa martial artist had been enabled not merely by his martial prowess, but above all by his keen instinct.
And now he sensed it with absolute certainty.
This Plum Blossom Divine Art user was a master whom none of the fighters gathered here could hope to overcome, no matter how they combined their strength.
“Think you can escape?”
Watching Jeol Gang Gwi Su flee while deploying the ultimate Speed Technique, Cheon Hui lifted his foot and moved.
Earth crumbled beneath his weight as his blade drew a line across the air.
His sword strike, unleashed without warning, carved through the atmosphere and pursued Jeol Gang Gwi Su closely at his heels.
The speed was too great even for the eye to follow.
“……!”
Jeol Gang Gwi Su caught sight of the incoming blade too late and attempted to evade,
Slice!
but the blade cut cleanly across his waist before he could move.
Jeol Gang Gwi Su’s corpse tumbled across the ground without losing its forward momentum.
A gruesome sight.
Cheon Hui paid no attention to Jeol Gang Gwi Su’s lifeless body, turning his gaze instead to the trembling Sapa martial artists.
“Don’t think of running.”
His voice was soft, barely audible.
Yet to the Sapa fighters, it sounded as though it had emanated from the Nine Abysses itself, and terror seized them.
“You will all die here anyway.”
A sentence had been passed from Cheon Hui’s lips.
The Sapa martial artists trembled at his verdict, their jaws clenching tight.
Then they all gripped their weapons.
Flight was no longer possible.
If that was the case, only one path remained.
“I will engage those on the left.”
Chu Geon spoke to Ak Shim Gun.
Now that Jeol Gang Gwi Su was dead, the only skilled masters left here were himself, Ak Shim Gun, and that venomous-eyed old man.
“Eum Poong No Goe.”
Eum Poong No Goe furrowed his brow in response to Chu Geon’s call.
“What is it?”
“We must combine our strength.”
“Against that monster? Have you lost your mind?”
“Then is there another way?”
“…….”
Eum Poong No Goe fell silent.
As he’d said, there was no other path.
Chu Geon, watching the quiet figure of Eum Poong No Goe, gripped his sword anew and spoke.
“I ask for a direct confrontation.”
With those words, Chu Geon pushed his Hongyang Ki Gong to its absolute limit and stamped the ground.
Thud!
A clear footprint remained beneath him.
He had kicked off so fiercely that even a faint tremor rippled through the earth, and now he unfolded the Chukjin Bi technique.
At his blinding speed, the landscape warped.
As he moved toward Cheon Hui’s left flank, his eyes caught sight of Ak Shim Gun with a blade drawn from the opposite side and Eum Poong No Goe raising both palms to strike directly at Cheon Hui.
A single second.
They staked everything on that moment.
Soon all three reached mere steps from Cheon Hui, each unleashing their signature techniques.
The Hongtian Gwangmang Geom.
The Gunrim Byeokryeok.
The Eum Poong Gwicheon Pa.
Their attacks, launched simultaneously from three directions, crashed down upon Cheon Hui.
The clashing forces whipped around from all sides.
But that was not all.
Screech-screech-screech―
From the blade being swung on the right came a shrill, grating sound that tormented the ears.
It came from the small holes bored into the blade itself.
And what of Chu Geon?
His sword, infused with Hongyang Ki Gong, radiated a piercing Sword Qi that tore through the very air.
Finally, Eum Poong No Goe, facing him directly, unleashed a desperate blow—his Eum Poong Gwicheon Pa summoning a chill wind.
It was a coordinated assault so vicious that even a master of the Wuji Realm could not have withstood it without shattering bone.
But their opponent was formidable.
As the three bore down on him simultaneously, Cheon Hui’s entire body blazed with an elegant crimson light.
The harmony of the Plum Blossom Divine Art.
Then around Cheon Hui unfolded a mystical scene, as though twilight itself had descended.
Whish―
In the same instant, Cheon Hui’s sleeve rippled.
Beneath that sleeve, the Hwaweol, cradling twilight within it, rose, and a crimson wave of energy surged forth.
The world was dyed by the surge of that energy.
The pristine white snow and the falling sunlight were wrapped in crimson light and drawn inward.
What the crimson light traced was a single arc of trajectory.
Soon everything was absorbed into that trajectory, and then.
Crack!
A single sound rang out in the silence.
A small sound of something being severed.
Yet to those gathered here, it sounded louder than any other noise.
And moments later.
Thwip―
Blood erupted from three places.
The three men who had rushed at Cheon Hui fell forward, deep wounds carved into their chests.
There were no screams.
Only the dull sound of their limp bodies striking the ground, arriving belatedly.
Cheon Hui did not spare a glance at those who had fallen, turning his head instead to the side.
The remaining remnants were trembling.
Among them, several had begun edging backward, their postures suggesting they were preparing to flee at any moment.
“I told you earlier not to think of running. Seems you didn’t listen.”
Cheon Hui immediately deployed the An Hyang Pyo technique.
His form flickered in and out of existence.
At such blinding speed, his movements appeared fragmented.
A Speed Technique impossible to follow with the eye alone.
Soon his figure, wielding the sword, remained only as afterimages around them.
While blood was left trailing in all directions in its wake.
Moments later.
Splat, splat.
Pools of blood gathered bit by bit across the dirt ground, and gradually only silence accumulated.
Cheon Hui surveyed the area he had swept clean, then turned his head to regard Myeoljol Dae.
They too were nearly finished with their work.
Bodies of heterodox martial artists lay heaped around Myeoljol Dae.
The robes and sleeves of those who had unleashed their martial power were stained dark crimson with blood, and drops of blood fell from the tips of swords and sabers, releasing the scent of blood into the air.
The members of Myeoljol Dae breathed heavily, their chests heaving with exertion.
Though they had faced a motley collection of minor sects and scattered bands rather than major powers, these opponents were far from weak.
Some were hardened veterans of Kangho with seasoned techniques, and a few seemed even stronger than the major organizations Gwi Yeong Dae and Hyeol Yeong Dae.
Perhaps because of this.
Myeoljol Dae, having dealt with them, could not be said to be in particularly good condition.
Some had their robes torn to shreds, and some bore visible wounds.
The marks of an intense blood battle.
‘Still, no internal injuries…….’
Cheon Hui was satisfied with the current situation.
No internal injuries.
That alone was a significant achievement.
And what pleased him most was this.
‘Now I can finally demonstrate true skill.’
The expressions of Myeoljol Dae’s members differed markedly from when they had first set out on their mission.
The aura radiating from their entire beings was honed sharp and held at heightened intensity.
The life-and-death struggle amid the reek of blood had sharpened their nerves and pushed their senses to their limits.
‘Is it our turn to rampage now?’
Cheon Hui smiled thinly and shook Hwaweol clean.
Blood clinging to the blade’s surface scattered into the pools at his feet, spraying the scent of blood in all directions.
At that gesture, Myeoljol Dae, who had been regulating their breathing, turned their attention to Cheon Hui with keen focus.
“It seems fighting has also begun at the Mountain Gate, so things have become somewhat easier for us. They won’t be able to manage all that personnel.”
Cheon Hui spoke in a measured tone.
“Move out immediately.”
At that command, the members of Myeoljol Dae who had been catching their breath nodded in unison.
A sharp aura emanated from them as they did.
The true mission of Myeoljol Dae was only just beginning.
Watching them with set faces, Cheon Hui gazed upon the vast assembled forces and grinned.
“Time to crush them one by one.”

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