Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 306

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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 306
The current state of Gangho was unprecedented chaos.
War between the Murim Alliance and Sa Hyuk Ryeon.
The conflict waged by two of the three great powers that had divided Gangho for decades was growing more intense with each passing day.
In a sense, it was inevitable.
They were simply releasing in one catastrophic moment all the force that had accumulated over those many years.
And so events that might occur once in a decade began erupting almost weekly.
The destruction of Cheon Geom Jang. The Ami Fortress battle.
The defeat of the Cheol Hyeol Dan and Sinryong Dae, and the northward advance of various Sapa sects from Gangbuk.
The destruction of the Gwiwon Sect, among others.
Between the Murim Alliance and Sa Hyuk Ryeon, attacks flew without mercy or discrimination.
And amid all this turmoil, a new rumor drifted northward from Gangnam.
— The Murim Alliance’s elite masters—the Pama Dae, Hyeop Wi Dae, and such renowned masters as Cheok Sa Gwi Geom, San Su Mu Yeong, Gwan Cheon Il Chang, and Cheon Ryeok Shin Do—had joined forces to assault the Immortal Heaven Sect’s main stronghold!
It was a shocking rumor.
The Pama Dae and Hyeop Wi Dae were the elite of the Murim Alliance.
The fact that Cheok Sa Gwi Geom and Cheon Ryeok Shin Do were included meant the Murim Alliance had truly drawn its sword.
“So the Murim Alliance is finally going to show what it’s made of!”
Some spoke with gleaming eyes of the Murim Alliance’s southward advance into Gangnam.
“But do you really think they can bring down the Immortal Heaven Sect’s main stronghold with that many people?”
Most reactions were skeptical.
The reason was simple: the target was the Immortal Heaven Sect’s main stronghold.
The largest heretical sect among the Five Emperors.
Had they not held dominion over Guizhou even before the era of the Nine Factions Three Hegemony System?
Yet some did predict the Murim Alliance would prevail.
“Still, who knows? With the Pama Dae, the Hyeop Wi Dae, and Cheon Ryeok Shin Do, they might even kill the Immortal Heaven Sect Lord…….”
“True enough. Even the Immortal Heaven Sect’s main stronghold—anything is possible, isn’t it?”
But that was hope rather than conviction.
Once the rumor spread, all eyes turned to Guizhou.
The outcome had to come eventually.
And not long after, another rumor came northward.
Faster than before.
— The Immortal Heaven Sect’s main stronghold had fallen, and the Immortal Heaven Sect Lord had been cut down by the hand of the Maehwa Sword Association!
It was a result no one had foreseen.
“What? The Maehwa Sword Association killed the Immortal Heaven Sect Lord?”
“I heard they were active at the Ami Fortress battle, but to also slay the Immortal Heaven Sect Lord?”
Everyone drew a sharp breath.
It had been only a short time since word spread that Nong Jil had been killed at the Ami Fortress.
And now the Immortal Heaven Sect Lord?
Astonishment was only natural.
And amid such commotion, those most energized were the storytellers.
“Gather ’round, all of you! I’ve obtained the freshest news, gathered with great care from the O Hwang Moon!”
“Didn’t I tell you before? The Maehwa Sword Association is destined to be the greatest master under all heaven!”
They spoke loudly with excitement.
Though Gangho had fallen into chaos, such was the way of the martial world.
The storytellers merely peddled the latest tales of turbulent Gangho to the common folk, keeping their purses well lined.
“And have you heard? The one who annihilated an entire unit of the Sinryong Dae was none other than one of the Chilyo Seon!”
“It’s said Ok Gi Rin drove back those who tried to cross the Yangtze River…….”
“Have you heard the rumor that the Sa Hyuk Ryeon Lord has shown himself?”
The storytellers wove tales from hearsay in their own manner, and these spread across all heaven with remarkable speed.
* * *
Seven days had passed since the Immortal Heaven Sect Lord was slain and the main stronghold destroyed.
Dozens of horses and ten carriages thundered along the road leading to Hubei, kicking up clouds of dust.
They were martial artists of the Murim Alliance.
Having crossed the Yangtze River, they left the wounded and the Hyeop Wi Dae at a nearby Murim Alliance outpost and Medical Hall, while only those in sound condition continued toward Murim Alliance headquarters to deliver their reports.
Speed was essential to convey the information.
And in the foremost carriage of that procession,
“Stop there.”
Cheon Hui, seated opposite to Im Ha Ryul who was embroidering a long robe with golden thread, issued the command.
“Yes, like this?”
“Yes. Make that part stretch a bit further to the side. And here…….”
“Understood.”
At Cheon Hui’s word, Im Ha Ryul moved her needle with practiced speed, stitching the pattern deftly.
Time passed—how much, she couldn’t say.
“Done.”
Cheon Hui, who had been watching the peculiar pattern take shape on the sleeve, nodded and spoke.
‘What is this?’
Im Ha Ryul studied the completed pattern embroidered on the Long Robe’s sleeve, her brow furrowing slightly.
It was a pattern difficult to name.
It resembled script, yet looked like a drawing.
It looked like a drawing, yet resembled script.
“A most unusual pattern, I must say.”
Yuk Won, seated beside Cheon Hui and watching intently, murmured as he studied it.
Though the pattern seemed drawn haphazardly, he sensed instinctively that some mysterious order governed it.
“Sanskrit? Ancient script?”
“Something like that.”
Cheon Hui answered dismissively, reluctant to elaborate.
Explaining what this pattern truly was would have been complicated.
He then extended his hand toward her.
“Let me have it.”
“Ah, yes, here it is.”
Im Ha Ryul quickly handed over the garment.
“Hmm.”
Cheon Hui took it and examined the Long Robe thoroughly.
More precisely, he was verifying the tassel pattern embroidered on the garment’s sleeves.
‘I’ve inscribed a simple array formation for now.’
What had been stitched on the sleeve was the Hwanhwan Mijin—a Mirage Array—simplified and applied on a smaller scale.
Had anyone versed in array formations witnessed it, they would have fainted in shock.
An array formation was a complete thing unto itself.
To unravel it and reconstruct it anew was far more difficult than creating an array from scratch.
Yet Cheon Hui, who had achieved this remarkable feat, remained utterly composed.
For him, such work was simple enough to be taken for granted.
‘Let me see if it works properly.’
Cheon Hui ran his fingers across the pattern on the sleeve.
He channeled his internal force from the Plum Blossom Divine Art as he did.
Then—
Shhhhh—
Radiance flowed from the pattern.
At this wondrous sight, Im Ha Ryul, Yuk Won, and Chu Gye Gwang, who had been quietly observing, opened their eyes wide.
“……!”
“This energy…….”
“An array formation?!”
Unlike Im Ha Ryul, who was simply astonished, Yuk Won and Chu Gye Gwang grasped what was unfolding and their jaws fell slack.
Cheon Hui glanced at them for a moment.
Whoosh—
He draped the Long Robe around his body.
Then he channeled his internal force, properly activating the Hwanhwan Mijin inscribed on the sleeve.
The atmosphere inside the carriage transformed instantly.
The air surrounding them, caught in the activated Mirage Array, rippled in layers.
As if to bewitch the human eye.
‘Yes, it was like this.’
Cheon Hui, recalling the martial technique the Immortal Heaven Sect Lord had once displayed, made a light gesture.
Suddenly his sleeve quivered softly.
Fwiiish—
The embroidered tassel moved with fluid grace.
It was the simple Water-Skimming Technique.
Yet the three who witnessed it recoiled in astonishment.
His hand, which had been trembling, suddenly split into dozens of forms, filling the entire carriage.
It was a sight both wondrous and mysterious.
‘His hand—it split into multiple copies!’
‘An illusion?! Yet the aura contained within seems genuine, not false…….’
‘Right in front of me, and yet I sense nothing at all…….’
They were genuinely shaken.
The palms moving with the swaying sleeves resembled butterflies, but the power contained within them was suffocating.
Dozens, hundreds of hands—each one brimmed with genuine force.
Cheon Hui, who had woven the Geum Na Su Beop together with the Array Formation inscribed on his sleeves, opened his eyes halfway.
‘This would be quite cumbersome to operate.’
Now that he’d tried it, deploying both the Array Formation and martial arts simultaneously proved far more complicated than he’d imagined.
He had to split his consciousness in two.
‘Rather than operating them separately, why not merge them into one from the start?’
A single thought suddenly struck him.
The Array Formation was the Array Formation; the martial arts were martial arts.
But what if they were fused into one?
Cheon Hui’s consciousness surged with extraordinary vigor.
Every insight he’d ever grasped began to dance.
It happened in an instant.
His Upper Dantian opened, and his consciousness became vast as an ocean.
He dredged up the countless demonic techniques and Huashan Sect martial arts stored in his mind, along with the Zhongyuan martial philosophies he’d encountered in the Gangho, and even the techniques of those he’d met in his past life—all of it came flooding forth in a torrent.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of martial arts tangled and unraveled in an instant.
‘Done.’
A single martial art remained in his mind.
In the very next moment, as Cheon Hui’s eyes blazed with light and he moved to raise his hand again—
“Huh?”
His hand stopped abruptly mid-motion.
His gaze fixed on his sleeves.
The color of the sleeves, which had been shimmering faintly, began to fade, and the inner power they’d been radiating scattered and vanished in an instant.
Without warning.
Crack—
The sleeves crumbled into dust.
The Array Formation inscribed on Cheon Hui’s sleeves could not withstand the new martial insight he had conceived.
Patter-patter-patter.
Cheon Hui watched the dust fall onto his knees, then gathered his inner power.
Observing the section where the sleeves had vanished without trace, his eyes grew cold.
‘Tsk, ordinary cloth won’t suffice, will it.’
He recalled the vestments—or rather, the Dharma Robe—worn by the Immortal Heaven Sect Lord, then shook his head.
‘Still, I’ve grasped it well enough. Whether it’s an Array Formation, martial arts, or sorcery—ultimately they all begin from the same source, don’t they?’
As Cheon Hui recalled the saying “All Rivers Return to the Sea,” a smile formed on his lips.
He had gained a small but profound insight.
‘I’ll have to attempt it properly later.’
After a brief moment of reflection, he simply stripped off the Long Robe he’d just put on and cast it aside.
The Long Robe with the torn sleeve that had borne the Hwanhwan Mijin was no longer of use.
“Oh!”
Im Ha Ryul gasped, picked up the discarded Long Robe, and carefully examined the section where the sleeve had vanished.
‘What on earth was that just now……?’
Her eyes trembled.
It remained vividly clear to her.
The hands that had fluttered about inside the carriage.
And it was not only she who had witnessed it, for Yuk Won could not restrain himself from asking.
“What was that just now? I certainly sensed the flow of an Array Formation.”
Yuk Won’s eyes brightened as he looked at Cheon Hui.
“I merely attempted to inscribe an Array Formation onto the garment and then merge it with martial arts for the first time.”
Cheon Hui spoke without concern.
Yet Yuk Won and Chu Gye Gwang could not help but be astonished at what such a statement implied.
“Were you attempting to create a Dharma Robe like the Sinma Manbyeon Ui?”
Yuk Won asked, recalling one of the most mysterious treasures known throughout All Under Heaven.
‘The Sinma Manbyeon Ui…….’
Cheon Hui stroked his chin thoughtfully.
The Sinma Manbyeon Ui was one of the Ten Great Treasures Under Heaven, a demonic treasure known to ward off poison and prevent the Juwhain Ipma, though he had never actually seen one.
In fact, he had never laid eyes on it before.
‘It does seem to be a similar principle.’
Cheon Hui nodded and replied.
“When you think about it, they’re quite similar.”
Yuk Won started in surprise at Cheon Hui’s matter-of-fact reply, then spoke with newfound interest.
“Remarkable. I wouldn’t have imagined embedding Array Formations into garments. You must have considerable expertise in formations as well.”
“To a certain degree.”
Cheon Hui answered with the same composure, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Then is it perhaps possible to embed Array Formations into my clothes as well?”
He asked carefully.
Clothes inscribed with Array Formations—
It was temptation itself.
At his words, even Chu Gye Gwang and Im Ha Ryul’s eyes lit up as they looked toward Cheon Hui.
‘Why did I have to demonstrate it here?’
He’d attempted it to test the insights he’d gained from his fight with the Bulsacheongyo Lord, but now he was heading toward a troublesome situation.
Cheon Hui immediately shrugged his shoulders.
“No, that won’t work. As you just saw, it’s beyond limits. The garment wouldn’t withstand it.”
“Even so, if it could be used just once—”
But Yuk Won didn’t give up.
Cheon Hui watched him with narrowed eyes.
‘Persistent fellow.’
Cheon Hui’s mind turned, and a good thought came to him. He spoke at once.
“I could do it, but would you be alright with it? The fact that it’s me keeping it to this degree is about it. Anyone else would have fallen into Juwhain Ipma. Not that it’s certain, but the possibility exists.”
“Juwhain Ipma?”
Yuk Won’s brow furrowed.
For a single use, Juwhain Ipma was far too great a price to pay.
“Then there’s nothing to be done.”
He spoke with regret and was about to surrender when—
“We are arriving at the Alliance shortly, sir.”
The coachman spoke quietly from ahead.
And not long after, the moment the carriage came to a halt—
Hm?
Cheon Hui’s eyes opened slightly.
He felt familiar presences approaching rapidly from far in the distance.
What? Why are these presences here at the Alliance?
The moment that thought arose—
Bang!
The carriage door flew open, and a wild-spirited female Daoist thrust her face brazenly inside.
“Master!”
It was Cheon Hyang.

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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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