Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 31

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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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Chapter 31
The next morning, Bifeng Trading Company began its day much earlier than usual.
The servants were working to recover from yesterday’s catastrophe—disposing of the bodies scattered throughout the compound and repairing the shattered buildings.
“Everyone, keep your spirits up!”
“Then I’ll take charge of the hall repairs. You handle the bodies, will you?”
Jeok Geom exchanged greetings with the servants moving about Bifeng Trading Company, muttering to himself.
“Sigh. This situation has become complicated.”
Originally, the Huashan Sect’s mission was to protect Bifeng Trading Company from the Paewang Sect’s pressure.
But something had shifted.
They’d discovered the Baekgwi Sect lurking behind the Paewang Sect, and now their own strength alone was utterly insufficient to resolve this.
‘I sent a letter to the Main Sect, but whether we can hold on until the reply comes…’
A sigh escaped him unbidden.
With the Baekgwi Sect as their opponent, their forces simply couldn’t withstand them.
In the end, they needed the strength of the elders.
And until then, Tian Hui was the only one who could protect both Bifeng Trading Company and themselves.
“There’s only Tian Hui to trust in.”
As he continued walking while lost in thought, he found himself at the door of Tian Hui’s quarters.
He raised his hand and knocked.
Knock, knock.
“Tian Hui, are you awake?”
After a brief wait, sounds of rustling came from within.
Then shortly after, the door creaked open.
Tian Hui appeared looking disheveled, scratching his head as he spoke.
“Hmm, what is it? Is the meal ready already?”
Jeok Geom smiled awkwardly.
“Yes. Everything is prepared.”
“Really? Got it.”
Tian Hui immediately shut the door with a bang.
Jeok Geom stared at the firmly closed door, then muttered uncertainly.
“……Will he be all right?”
A moment later, inside the main hall of Bifeng Trading Company.
Munch, munch—
Tian Hui was eating rapidly through the carefully arranged spread before him.
In particular, he was using his chopsticks primarily on the pork dish, Red-Braised Pork, and the duck dish, Sauce-Braised Duck.
‘The seasoning has soaked in nicely.’
He was in good spirits.
The more lavish meal compared to last night’s fare satisfied him completely.
“Nothing beats meat for breakfast.”
The disciples of the Huashan Sect smiled awkwardly.
Their plates contained not a trace of meat, only vegetables.
Not that this was unusual.
Except for Registered Disciples, disciples of the Main Sect typically ate like this.
Just then, Jeok Bi, who had been watching the senior masters’ expressions, stealthily reached for his chopsticks.
Jeok Jae, seeing Jeok Bi trying to sneak some Red-Braised Pork, glared at him.
“Senior.”
“But the master is eating some, so just one piece……”
“I’ll report it to our master.”
Jeok Bi immediately withdrew his chopsticks.
“Haha, you disciples are something. Just joking around. Joking.”
Jeok Bi laughed as he spoke, but inside he was shedding tears of blood.
‘That rigid fool.’
Just as Jeok Bi was cursing Jeok Jae inwardly.
“I’ve sent a letter to the Huashan Sect. A reply should come in about ten days……”
Go Gye-young, who had finished his meal first, was opening his mouth to speak while looking at Tian Hui.
Murmur, murmur—
Outside suddenly grew noisy.
Soon the sound of hurried footsteps approached from a distance, and the closed door creaked open as a man rushed in urgently.
“M-Master of the trading company!”
Go Gye-young’s brow furrowed.
He had instructed them not to disturb while they were hosting a banquet for the benefactors who had helped the trading company, yet someone had suddenly opened the door.
His genial demeanor evaporated in an instant, and he rounded on the man with a sharp rebuke.
“What’s the meaning of this interruption during a meal!”
Under normal circumstances the man would have apologized and withdrawn, but he spoke up urgently instead.
“The Paewang Sect… the Paewang Sect….”
The moment Go Gye-young heard those words, his expression turned fierce.
“Has the Paewang Sect launched an assault?”
At that question, the Plum Blossom Sword disciples dining with him and Yeon Su-ran bolted from their seats.
“No, no. The Paewang Sect…!”
The man was gasping for breath between words, and Go Gye-young, unable to contain himself, seized the man’s shoulders and demanded an answer.
“What in heaven’s name has happened to the Paewang Sect!”
At Go Gye-young’s forceful pressure, the man’s face drained of color, and his body began to tremble as though his strength was giving out.
Seeing the man on the verge of losing consciousness, both Yeon Su-ran and Jeok Geom moved to restrain Go Gye-young.
“Father, father—”
“Dad! He’ll die at this rate!”
Go Gye-young, whose eyes had been wild with intensity, came back to himself. He released his grip and called out to the man.
“Are you… are you all right?”
“I’m… I’m fine.”
The man, dazed moments before, came back to his senses at Go Gye-young’s words and opened his eyes wide.
As a measure of calm settled over the room, Go Gye-young faced the man and asked carefully this time—far different from the pressure he’d applied before.
“What has become of the Paewang Sect?”
The man’s eyes flew open.
“The Paewang Sect… they’ve been annihilated!”
“……!”
The room fell into turmoil.
“What?”
“Ann… annihilated?”
“How could that be….”
Go Gye-young, the Plum Blossom Sword disciples, and Yeon Su-ran were seized by shock.
Shortly after, Go Gye-young pressed for confirmation.
“Is that truly what happened?”
“It is. I heard the rumor and found it hard to believe, so I went to see for myself—there were crowds of people gathering. It appears the destruction happened last night.”
Go Gye-young’s hair seemed to turn white.
The Paewang Sect was one of the five greatest powers within Shaanxi Province, with a roster of disciples numbering five hundred or more.
Yet in a single night, they had been wiped out.
Then, all at once, Go Gye-young’s mind turned to a particular man.
“What… what of the Paewang Sect Master?”
“He is presumed dead.”
A heavy silence descended over the room.
Who was the Paewang Sect Master?
He was a master of such extraordinary skill that few within Shaanxi Province could claim to rival him, and possessing keen acumen besides, he was the very man who had raised the Paewang Sect to its present standing.
Yet he was dead?
What master could possibly have….
Those gathered, all thinking the same thought, found themselves simultaneously drawn to the image of a single person, and they stiffened.
A soft shuffle—
Whereupon the eyes of everyone save the messenger naturally converged on one point.
Munch-munch—
Tian Hui, aware of their stares fixed upon him, narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth.
“What? Never seen someone eat before?”
* * *
Within the halls of the Paewang Sect, a man in a Light Blue Martial Robe was moving about as though he owned the place.
“So the rumors were true….”
Ha U-jin’s face hardened.
He had come in haste upon hearing that the Paewang Sect had been annihilated, but the reality was far grimmer than the reports.
Corpses were piled like mountains in all directions, and the blood they had spilled had dried into the earth, casting everything in a crimson hue.
“…… How ghastly.”
His face twisted in revulsion.
He had only just opened his mouth when the stench of decaying flesh assaulted his nostrils.
He soon covered his nose and surveyed the scene.
The condition of the bodies was appalling.
Skulls shattered, necks broken.
And the other bore holes throughout its body, having died with sharp metal fragments still embedded in its flesh.
‘A hidden projectile weapon?’
Ha U-jin picked up a fallen metal fragment and examined it.
As he studied the fragment—far too crude to be anything resembling a proper hidden projectile—his brow furrowed.
“What brings the Flying Swallow Sword Lord to such a place?”
He turned at the familiar voice.
Beyond the merchant street, a middle-aged man stood with an insinuating smile playing across his lips.
“Eun Su-cham-sal.”
Ha U-jin set down the metal fragment and rose to his feet.
“And what business brings you here?”
“Ha, I was passing through the area on other matters when I caught wind of a rumor.”
“A rumor of trouble nearby?”
Ha U-jin’s expression hardened, barely perceptibly.
Eun Su-cham-sal was one of the Four Directions Masters of which the Baekgwi Sect boasted.
If someone of his standing had taken direct action, this was clearly no ordinary affair.
‘Surely not….’
Ha U-jin fixed him with a hard stare. “Did you do this?”
“Did I do this? Kra-ha-ha-ha!”
Eun Su-cham-sal burst into raucous laughter.
In the midst of it, Ha U-jin added his question.
“The Baekgwi Sect, feeling threatened by the Paewang Sect’s growing strength, has stepped in—is that it?”
The laughter stopped abruptly.
“That joke cuts too deep.”
“You think it a jest?”
Eun Su-cham-sal’s face went cold.
“Are you belittling the Baekgwi Sect?”
“…It’s merely a hypothesis, nothing more.”
The two locked eyes in a delicate standoff.
Yet neither pressed further nor escalated the tension.
To cross that line would mean outright war.
After a moment of mutual scrutiny, Eun Su-cham-sal unexpectedly gave ground.
“If you’ve examined this place, you should understand this wasn’t my doing.”
“….”
Ha U-jin fell silent.
He had already known Eun Su-cham-sal bore no responsibility for this catastrophe.
He would never leave such traces behind.
Ha U-jin spun on his heel.
Since Eun Su-cham-sal was not the culprit, there was no reason to engage further—and he had no wish to even meet the eyes of anyone connected to the Baekgwi Sect.
‘I must find the true killer before Eun Su-cham-sal does.’
With Eun Su-cham-sal’s arrival spurring him to haste, Ha U-jin moved among the corpses, searching for lingering traces of martial arts technique.
Whoosh—
Eun Su-cham-sal’s gaze shifted.
What he beheld was the most grotesque corpse among the mountain of bodies piled before him.
The skin was shredded to ribbons, eyes and entrails spilled outward.
Eun Su-cham-sal stared at the corpse of one who had once earned fame as Chuan Lun Dao.
‘What in heaven is this? Not content with Leng Mian Dao Gui dying at the Bifeng Trading Company, now the Paewang Sect faces Sect Annihilation.’
His mind spun, despite the jest he had directed at Ha U-jin.
He had left the Baekgwi Sect and come here to proceed with the next phase following the Paewang Sect assignment—but this….
‘Wiped out entirely.’
The mission that was to succeed without fail had failed, and he felt his throat tighten.
Moreover, the cost of that failure was steep.
Leng Mian Dao Gui was merely a discarded pawn to the Baekgwi Sect, but the Paewang Sect had been cultivated with considerable care.
As Eun Su-cham-sal surveyed the surroundings for a brief moment, he gleaned several pieces of information.
‘The killer is one person….’
Eun Su-cham-sal’s brow narrowed.
From the traces nearby, it was clear a single individual had wrought this catastrophe, but….
There were things that made no sense.
‘Among all these traces, there is not a single mark of martial arts technique.’
His head reeled.

The Paewang Sect was no small organization.
To slaughter an entire force of this caliber in a single night without leaving a trace would have been impossible, even for him.
‘Who on earth could have done such a thing?’
While Eun Su-cham-sal struggled to fathom the killer’s identity, Ha U-jin found himself equally adrift in confusion.
There were no signs of martial arts technique, yet the bodies scattered about bore gruesome testimony to what had transpired.
“Such barbaric handiwork.”
His brow furrowed involuntarily.
The methods themselves were savage enough, but the carnage left behind spoke volumes—hundreds slaughtered in what amounted to wholesale butchery, toyed with as though they were nothing.
‘This is no Orthodox Sect master.’
He was certain of it.
Yet anyone who saw what had become of the Paewang Sect would have drawn the same conclusion.
With that thought settled, he turned to leave the sect behind.
At the same moment, Eun Su-cham-sal stirred as well.
‘I must report this to the lord.’
There was nothing more to be gained by lingering.
What mattered now was offsetting the losses incurred by the Paewang Sect’s collapse.
Moments later, the two men departed the Paewang Sect, each heading in the opposite direction.
Both harboring the same conviction: the killer was either an Unorthodox Sect master or a Demonic Cultivator.

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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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