Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 287

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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 287
The outskirts of Bokho Temple.
The shockwave from the collision between Sa Hyuk Ryeon’s forces and the martial artists gathered at the Ami Sect was immense.
Countless temples and hermitages that had boasted long histories were losing their rustic, time-honored appearance as martial artists clashed everywhere.
A landscape turning steadily to ruin.
Clang! Ring!
The collision continued without pause.
Neither side could afford to yield.
Yet the tide was gradually turning unfavorably for the Ami Sect.
Two thousand against seven hundred.
With such a stark disparity in strength, the outcome was perhaps inevitable.
Sa Hyuk Ryeon’s forces, spearheaded by the Blood Shadow Corps and Ghost Shadow Corps, pressed hard against the Ami Sect’s nuns defending Bokho Temple and the martial artists who had come to aid them.
The delicate balance of power that had held taut began to tip gradually toward Sa Hyuk Ryeon’s forces as time wore on.
Then, a change stirred in the rear ranks of Sa Hyuk Ryeon’s forces.
“When did they slip behind us—!”
The Ghost Shadow Corps members responsible for the rear guard were caught off guard by what was unfolding.
Spray of blood!
Blood was fountaining in all directions.
“Who in the hell are these bastards—!”
The Ghost Shadow Corps members glared at the mysterious band that had suddenly appeared.
That was when—
“Don’t panic.”
A man who seemed to be a commander spoke quietly to his men, his eyes glinting with killing intent.
“They number less than a hundred, at most.”
His eyes, tense despite his words, fixed on the rampaging group.
Those clad in white robes splattered with blood everywhere.
But what captured his attention more than the rest was the young man at their head.
He alone wore no white robe.
Instead, he wore a Sect Robe of deep black with a crimson plum blossom emblem emblazoned upon it.
‘Why is Huashan here…’
The moment his eyes took in the Huashan Sect garment and the question arose—
Without warning!
The robe he’d been staring at suddenly loomed enormous.
‘No, right before my eyes—’
That was his last conscious thought.
Boom!
“Hmm. That makes one less to worry about,” Cheon Hui muttered, casually swinging the Hwa Weol as though brushing away an insect.
“Choke!”
The throat of a man who had leaped from a tree branch overhead to ambush him was pierced clean through.
Blood cascaded downward in that instant.
Whistle—
A vicious killing intent grazed his skin.
Those who had been watching for an opening from all sides thought this was their moment and rushed him together.
The speed was that of lightning.
Two men attacked from the front while six men and women from the flanks deployed their martial arts with individual ferocity, their blade-sharp Qi considerable.
Among them, a middle-aged man rushing from the side thrust a Hyeop Geom forward like an arrow, while two men and a woman beside him wielded long spears in diagonal arcs.
That was not all.
The others swung their various weapons—fists and palms—delivering strikes with all their might.
Rumble—
Their coordinated assault, launched while airborne, sent the atmosphere trembling with the sapa’s distinctive killing intent and malice.
Just as their powerful combined strike threatened to shred Cheon Hui to pieces—
Tap.
Cheon Hui’s feet moved at the last possible moment.
An extraordinarily late response.
Some among them laughed bitterly, thinking he was thrashing about in desperation.
But they soon had no choice but to stop laughing.
Instead, their mouths fell open.
In an instant, Cheon Hui’s form began to splinter into multiple afterimages, leaving only shadows in his wake.
Illusory Ring Maze Step.

A lost martial art that had remained hidden in the secret vaults of Huashan Sect for centuries suddenly revealed itself here on Ami Mountain, as if time itself had been swept away.
“……!”
“What!”
Those facing Cheon Hui gasped in shock.
Swish—
The Hwa Weol trembled slightly, left and right.
A tremor so minute it could barely be perceived.
In the instant that movement appeared—so subtle that one had to look carefully even to notice it had shifted at all.
Whissssh—
A faint breeze swept past them.
A wind so gentle it barely stirred their hair.
But then that breeze suddenly intensified, and in the next breath, it consumed their bodies entirely.
And a howling gale swept through.
Whoooosh!
In that same instant, their entire bodies were carved with horizontal wounds, blood spraying in all directions.
Pools of blood gathering on the ground in an instant.
Cheon Hui didn’t spare a glance at the fallen corpses, his gaze fixed on Myeol Jeol Dae.
“Leave the rear to me!”
“Fall back if you’re seriously wounded!”
Myeol Jeol Dae was holding their own against the black-robed martial artists of the Ghost Shadow Corps.
Though not with any decisive advantage.
In fact, they were at a disadvantage.
Those among Myeol Jeol Dae with lower martial prowess—Im Ha Ryul foremost among them—bore severe wounds.
The opposition was the Ghost Shadow Corps.
Elite forces of Sa Hyuk Ryeon, and no matter how promising these later-generation masters from various sects were, the gap between them remained stark.
Of course, if Cheon Hui had stepped in, things would be different, but he had no such intention.
Nursing each person along one by one?
That was not the role of a leader.
‘If they die, there’s nothing to be done for it.’
That was Cheon Hui’s thought.
Full survival was the goal, but death—if it came—was simply an inevitability.
Kangho was a place where life and death dwelt forever at one’s side.
To survive, one had to grow stronger.
‘And they’ve learned from me, too.’
Cheon Hui’s eyes narrowed.
Though the time had been brief, Myeol Jeol Dae’s martial skill had grown far beyond what it was when he first met them.
Perhaps it was only natural.
When one repeatedly spars with a master of the highest realm, one’s eye grows sharper.
And they had reaped those benefits well.
Was this not proof—that even now, Myeol Jeol Dae held their own against Sa Hyuk Ryeon’s elite?
Had they retained their original strength, they would have been annihilated long ago.
‘They know it themselves, surely.’
The eyes of Myeol Jeol Dae shone with fierce, living light.
In times past, merely encountering enemies of this caliber would have filled them with dread, but now—now their bearing was entirely transformed.
“Huff.”
Im Ha Ryul raised her sword.
She bore a serious wound on her left arm and moved with difficulty, yet she did not pause.
Her opponent was far stronger than she.
Yet the thought that she might lose never entered her mind.
“……I can win this.”
Her muttered words came with eyes that blazed with fierce intensity.
The attacks streaming in from the Ghost Shadow Corps member were sharp and cutting, true enough, but they no longer felt truly menacing to her.
“Hah!”
She thrust her right foot forward with full force.
Pouring all her strength into the ground, she raised her blade in a diagonal strike.
A swift slash carrying faint Sword Qi.
A strike that once would have barely parted the air now cleanly severed the chest of the incoming Ghost Shadow Corps member.
Whoosh!
Blood drenched Im Ha Ryul.
In the moment she hurriedly lifted her sleeve to wipe the blood from her face—
“……!”
A shadow fell across his path.
In that moment of carelessness, a Ghost Shadow Corps member thrust their spear forward.
Im Ha Ryul clenched her teeth.
It was already too late to evade.
She shifted her stance to take the blow along her ribs, accepting a wound to avoid a fatal strike.
Clang!
A sharp blade flashed into view.
In the same breath, the spear shattered in half, and the Ghost Shadow Corps member wielding it crumpled to the ground.
Thud—
“Hah… hah. Don’t let your guard slip.”
Dan Ri Gwan Cheon, who had just cut down the member targeting Im Ha Ryul, drew heavy breaths.
“Sub-Leader. Thank you…….”
“Save your gratitude for later.”
Dan Ri Gwan Cheon spoke coldly.
Though his tone and manner seemed curt, Im Ha Ryul grasped his meaning at once and spread her Internal Energy outward.
Later meant survive until then.
She positioned her back against his while he swept his blade forward, raising her own sword to match.
No words were exchanged.
It was an action born of instinct.
The method she’d grown accustomed to through sparring matches with Cheon Hui now manifested in her movements.
Soon both drew upon their Internal Force.
This was a battlefield.
A place where one moment of negligence meant death.
Cheon Hui, watching them, opened his eyes slightly.
Not just Im Ha Ryul and Dan Ri Gwan Cheon—all of Myeol Jeol Dae maintained their vigilance.
More than that, they were poised to flee at any moment, which pleased him greatly.
“They can manage on their own now.”
Myeol Jeol Dae’s mission was simple.
Strike-and-withdraw tactics—what the generals called divide and conquer.
The battle method devised to shake Sa Hyuk Ryeon’s forces had so far proven effective.
“They’ll look after their own lives.”
From now on, it was their responsibility.
Cheon Hui turned his gaze from Myeol Jeol Dae and took a step forward.
Tap.
His leather boots pressed into a pool of blood.
Yet he felt nothing beneath them.
The Inner Power of the Plum Blossom Divine Art naturally lifted him a hair’s breadth above the pool, treading on emptiness instead.
He had reached the highest realm of the Bosin Gyeong technique.
Cheon Hui, who had unconsciously demonstrated a state of enlightenment, fixed his gaze straight ahead.
Thousands upon thousands of troops.
As Cheon Hui studied the forces of Sa Hyuk Ryeon, he caught the scent of blood on the wind and allowed a clear smile to touch his lips.
Killing intent and fervor, excitement and bloodlust.
It was a sight that reminded him of his past life.
“Then I suppose I should finish my own business.”
Cheon Hui’s gaze lifted slowly upward.
Toward the Mountain Gate of Bokho Temple.
At the violent collision of energies erupting from that direction, his mouth curved into a smile.
There were indeed things worth savoring there.
* * *
Boom!
A sound like a drum exploding rang out.
A Blood Shadow Corps member bounced off the ground several times before collapsing.
All eyes turned toward the commotion.
There stood So Hye Sa Tae, her palm thrust forward, perfectly still.
So Hye Sa Tae, who had driven the Geumjeong Myeon Jang technique squarely into the abdomen of the charging Blood Shadow Corps member, unleashed the Hangma Hu.
“Disciples of Ami—repel these wicked intruders before they penetrate deeper into Bokho Temple!”
At the same time, golden light flowed from her body, and formidable Beophryeok surged forth.
The Buddha Soul Leaf Sutra Art.
So Hye Sa Tae’s eyes snapped wide open.
A flash of light!
Crystalline brilliance infused with spiritual force streamed from her eyes as she released a profound incantation.
When the Ami Sect’s divine technique surged forth like a savage tempest, the Blood Shadow Corps members rushing to attack flinched involuntarily.
It was an instantaneous reaction.
The materialized spiritual force was overwhelming.
The majesty of a master who had reached the Wuji Realm.
It was not an incantation or presence that mere Blood Shadow Corps members could withstand.
“Amitabha Buddha.”
“Amitabha Buddha.”
The disciples of Ami Mountain murmured softly, pressing their palms together.
And then.
A radiant cry burst forth!
The pristine energy that the Ami Sect prided itself on blazed brilliantly across their entire bodies.
The So Cheng Divine Art.
As the relentless assault poured down without respite, the tide of battle gradually turned, and the nuns of the Ami Sect—their lips clenched in concentration—were spurred on by So Hye Sa Tae’s cry to draw upon all of their inner power at once.
Perhaps because of that effort.
Golden light infused the Hangma Bokryong Jin formation they deployed, and spiritual force whirled through the air.
At that moment, the momentum of the Ami disciples did not yield an inch to the forces of Sa Hyuk Ryeon encircling them from all sides.
Then.
Thunk!
A sickening sound rang out from directly behind So Hye Sa Tae.
It was the sound of a blade piercing fabric.
Startled, So Hye Sa Tae spun her head around sharply.
And the scene that came into view immediately washed her face in shock and fury.
“Seo Ryeong!”
The blade of a sword protruded from the belly of Wi Seo Ryeong, one of the Ami disciples.
It was a fatal wound from which there was no recovery.
“Cough… cough. Abbess…”
As Wi Seo Ryeong coughed blood and struggled to speak.
“Life clings stubbornly,” the man who had driven the blade into Wi Seo Ryeong’s abdomen said coldly, and drew the protruding sword sideways.
A spray of crimson!
Blood erupted, and Wi Seo Ryeong collapsed.
A spectacle that unfolded in the blink of an eye.
“Sister!”
“Sister!”
The other Ami disciples, belatedly grasping the situation, raised their swords to strike.
The Windswept Chaos Sword Technique.
A swift and erratic blade method was unleashed as though to shred the man who had buried his steel in Wi Seo Ryeong’s flesh.
But.
A flash of brilliance!
The man unfolded an even more devastating sword strike.
The difference was beyond compare.
Five sword strikes executed in a heartbeat, scattering black energy wavelengths as they collided with the disciples’ blades.
Screech!
The Ami disciples were driven back.
Their swords shattered into fragments that scattered in all directions, and several of them clutched their chests, crying out as internal injuries seized them as they retreated.
The man glanced at them, then raised the blade he had just wielded once more.
And drew it across to the side.
Slice! Slice!
Thin red lines appeared across the necks of the retreating Ami disciples.
Their heads fell away in succession.
The materialized black Sword Qi and energy wavelengths had claimed their lives in a single instant.
Six Ami disciples who had been near the man had already become corpses.
A massacre that had taken but moments to accomplish.
“Curse you!”
So Hye Sa Tae stamped the ground.
Inner power infused with deep rage erupted from the soles of her feet in the form of the Buol Hone Bae Yeop Gong technique, exploding outward.
The manifestation of the Shin Beop—the Yeong Hwal Sin Byeon.
Her silhouette vanished in an instant as though she had folded space itself, and she hurled toward the man with blinding speed.

Ten paces, five paces, one pace…
In an instant, she was within striking distance.
So Hye Sa Tae spread her palms wide, pouring the full force of the Buol Hone Bae Yeop Gong into them.
Hum—whooom.
A deep, resonant power emanated from her hands.
The Mua Sin Jang.
The moment her palms drove forward—
“You let your guard slip.”
A voice came from behind her.
And at the same instant—
Crack!
Her right arm shot skyward.
“Master Sa!”
“Sect Leader, no!”
The watching disciples gasped, their eyes wide.
An old man in a crimson Martial Robe had appeared at So Hye Sa Tae’s back, a sickle raised in his grip.
The old man gazed at the figure in the black Martial Robe, his mouth twisting into a smile.
“A fine provocation, Gwi Yeong Dae Ju.”
The one called Gwi Yeong Dae Ju smiled back at the old man.
“Amusing, really—I never thought affection for a disciple would create such an opening.”
“Perhaps your love for her runs too deep?”
At the barbed exchange, So Hye Sa Tae’s eyes widened and she extended her left hand.
But then—
Whoosh!
The old man leaped lightly backward, evading her strike.
“Reason must always remain cold and clear—and yet you still have not learned this.”
As the old man spoke, So Hye Sa Tae clenched her teeth and reached to press a vital point to stanch the bleeding—
“No you don’t!”
Gwi Yeong Dae Ju rushed forward.
His sword swept toward her throat, nearly within reach when—
Sssss—
Gwi Yeong Dae Ju staggered.
The scent of plum blossoms suddenly tickled his nose.
‘It can’t be…?’
The moment his eyes widened—
Crack!
A long diagonal line of blood opened across his shoulder and down to his waist.
The blood bloomed like scattered petals.
And beyond him—
A young man stood with his sword trailing.
When So Hye Sa Tae and the nuns saw him, their eyes went wide.
“The Maehwa Divine Cooperation!”
“The Young Master!”

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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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