Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 313

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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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313
Fire
Screech—
The doors of the Bicheon Library swung shut.
‘Damn, I didn’t get through everything.’
Cheon Hui watched the closing doors with an expression full of regret.
‘Could I sneak back in later?’
The thought suddenly took shape in his mind.
Since he already knew how to open the doors, it wasn’t impossible.
But then.
‘No.’
He immediately dismissed the idea.
Opening the doors would be possible anytime, but sneaking in was another matter entirely.
If he got caught, the fallout wouldn’t be small.
After all, this was no ordinary vault—it belonged to the Murim Alliance itself.
That was when.
“Did you enjoy your look around?”
Yuk Mu Gwang asked suddenly.
Somewhere along the way, he’d removed his hand from the door and was now studying Cheon Hui carefully, a gentle smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
Cheon Hui shrugged and replied.
“I did enjoy it well enough, though I must admit I’m a bit disappointed.”
Yuk Mu Gwang laughed at his words.
He understood what Cheon Hui truly meant.
“There will be another opportunity next time.”
His voice trailed off softly.
It carried a note of certainty.
“I suppose there will be.”
Cheon Hui accepted his words as natural and expected.
Yuk Mu Gwang, pleased by his confident bearing, turned and settled into his chair.
Seated in exactly the same posture as when Cheon Hui had first arrived, he raised his hand lightly in farewell.
“Go carefully, now.”
His tone was grave and composed.
At that parting gesture, Cheon Hui turned on his heel.
There was no reason to linger here any longer.
He headed toward the darkened staircase, then glanced back over his shoulder with a slight movement of his lips.
“Until next time.”
With those words, Cheon Hui climbed the stairs, and silence settled into Yuk Mu Gwang’s eyes.
He had returned to his ordinary demeanor.
In that quiet, Yuk Mu Gwang reflected on Cheon Hui, who had now vanished completely.
Meanwhile, as Cheon Hui emerged from the Pavilion a short while later, he narrowed his eyes against the blazing sunlight.
The sky that had held only the moon when he’d entered now bore the sun at its zenith.
Half a day had passed.
That was when.
“That… that Sect Robe is Huashan? Could that be the Maehwa Sword Association?!”
“Why would the Maehwa Sword Association be here…?”
The Alliance’s martial artists passing near the Pavilion recognized Cheon Hui the moment he appeared, their eyes widening in surprise.
Some of them went completely rigid.
It was, after all, the Maehwa Sword Association.
The peerless prodigy who had defeated Nok Lim Dae Je, slain Nong Jil, and most recently killed the Immortal Heaven Sect Master and brought down that organization—his achievements were legendary.
They all held their breath, eyes fixed on Cheon Hui.
Encountering the Maehwa Sword Association in such an unexpected place sent a chill through them.
“To think we’d meet the great swordmaster here.”
“He looks just as I imagined.”
They murmured to themselves as they watched him.
Their hearts burned to approach and speak with him, yet they dared not.
Cheon Hui’s reputation had already surpassed that of an ordinary Later Generation Master; within the Murim Alliance, he now stood among the very few at the highest rank.
How could they presume to approach him so casually?
Cheon Hui, meanwhile, paid no attention to their stares or whispers.
His mind held only one thought.
‘I need to organize and properly study those martial manuals I just read.’
Cheon Hui’s eyes narrowed.
Just the martial arts secret manuals he’d read in the Bicheon Library numbered well over a hundred.
He had to organize all of it.
‘It’ll take several days.’
With that thought, Cheon Hui set off.
Time was precious.
The moment his foot touched the ground, a faint wind began to stir around his trouser leg.
Whoosh—
His form vanished like a mirage.
It was instantaneous.
* * *
Having left the Bicheon Library and returned to the Pavilion, Cheon Hui did not step outside his quarters.
It was nearly complete closed door cultivation.
“Why is the Master doing this?”
Ho Gwang Gae stared at the Pavilion with a puzzled expression, taken aback by the unprecedented seclusion of the Master.
It was directed toward the chambers of Cheon Hui, Master of the Myeoljjeol Corps on this floor.
His brow furrowed slightly.
Four days had already passed.
After ordering everyone not to enter, Cheon Hui had simply remained in those quarters, taking no meals all this while.
“Has something happened?”
Dan Ri Gwan Cheon asked carefully.
Worry colored his tone.
“To the Master?”
At Dan Ri Gwan Cheon’s question, Ho Gwang Gae found it absurd.
Who was their Master?
A peerless master who had killed Nong Jil to save the Ami Sect, and had also slain the Immortal Heaven Sect Leader.
“You don’t know that either?”
Yet Dan Ri Gwan Cheon remained cautious.
“Didn’t he sustain a serious wound from the Immortal Heaven Sect Leader’s blade? The Immortal Heaven Sect Leader’s Internal Force is known for being peculiar. What if he’s suffered demonic possession because of it……?”
“That’s…….”
Ho Gwang Gae’s brow darkened.
‘He did take a serious wound to his waist.’
Because Cheon Hui had seemed perfectly fine on the way here, he’d momentarily forgotten about it.
Just as worry began to creep in again and he turned to look toward the chambers once more—
“Aren’t you training?”
A crisp voice struck their ears.
It was Cheon Hyang.
Unlike the two of them, she showed no concern and seemed not to be thinking of Cheon Hui at all. She tossed her sweat-soaked hair back and spoke to them.
Before her lay fallen bodies.
Members of the Myeoljjeol Corps and the Hwa Ryeong Dan.
Since returning to the Murim Alliance together, Cheon Hyang had been leading the Hwa Ryeong Dan to the Pavilion where the Myeoljjeol Corps lodged every morning.
And this was how they sparred.
“Cheon Hyang, the leader.”
At Dan Ri Gwan Cheon’s formal address, Cheon Hyang’s body trembled, and she waved her hand dismissively.
“Just call me Cheon Hyang, okay?”
“……I understand. Miss Cheon Hyang.”
“That’s still not great, but it’s better than the formal stuff.”
Cheon Hyang smiled brightly.
At that, Dan Ri Gwan Cheon turned his face slightly and asked in a low voice.
“Aren’t you concerned about the Master?”
“Hmm? Well…… it is true he’s been inside quite a while.”
Cheon Hyang frowned slightly as if searching her memory.
Dan Ri Gwan Cheon’s expression grew serious.
“Then we should go check on him right now——”
“Can you handle what comes next?”
Seeing Dan Ri Gwan Cheon about to move immediately, Cheon Hyang cut short his words.
“Didn’t your master tell you not to come?”
……
Dan Ri Gwan Cheon fell silent.
“He’ll come out once he’s finished with what he’s doing.”
Cheon Hyang’s gaze rose toward Cheon Hui’s chamber as she spoke.
Meanwhile, Cheon Hui—unaware of the commotion stirring outside—sat cross-legged in his room with eyes closed.
A profound silence hung in the air.
Yet within Cheon Hui’s mind, chaos reigned as never before.
Dozens, hundreds of martial arts manuals.
He was unraveling them one by one, stripping them bare to their essence.
‘The Moon Wheel Hand—does it channel true energy through the blood meridians in a single explosive thrust? But perhaps there is a better way…….’
Cheon Hui delved deeper into each martial art he had once skimmed through rapidly.
How to perfect it. Or rather, how to wield it flawlessly.
This thought alone consumed him, and countless martial theories gradually refined themselves under his scrutiny.
‘Discard what’s unnecessary. Strip away the useless incantations.’
Cheon Hui reinterpreted the martial arts with audacious boldness.
Though these were not creations of his own, he swiftly excised portions and wove in new strands, unafraid to reshape what others had built.
To any observer, it would have been extraordinary.
Even a Grand Master would hesitate to remake martial arts so freely—it shook the very foundation of the discipline.
But Cheon Hui harbored no such doubt.
How could he?
He had already pierced through to their root.
“All martial arts spring from a single source.”
As he organized the fundamental principles of martial theory he had built through countless years of contemplation, Cheon Hui’s eyes blazed with crystalline light.
Transparent, luminous, otherworldly.
His mind, wearing that gaze of something not of this world, expanded into vast immensity, holding all existence within itself.
His Mental Realm.
The power of the Plum Blossom Divine Art flowed from his body, severing him completely from the world and creating a realm entirely his own.
“Martial arts begin simply. Every art, no matter which, starts with Heaven-Earth-Human and ends with Heaven-Earth-Human.”
Cheon Hui whispered these words as a final reflection.
Martial arts were created to refine the human body.
Their origin was the desire to draw the qi of Heaven and Earth into human flesh.
The well-known Confucian Qi Technique, Daoist Qi Technique, and Buddhist Qi Technique—as well as the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, that heretical masterwork created by the first Heavenly Demon himself—all began the same way.
Even the Blood Technique of the blood heretics, who cultivated martial power through the sacrifice of living things and human blood, could not escape this truth.
Because, in the end, the human body was the vessel.
And it was not only martial arts.
Sorcery and Array Formations were no different.
They twisted and wove the qi of All Under Heaven, yet in essence they were no different from a single discipline of martial theory, created and unraveled by human hands.
And what more?
Even a weapon was merely an extension of the hand.
Sword, spear, saber—it mattered not.
‘And the outcome is determined by the heart of the one who wields it. Whether it becomes a living blade or a killing blade depends on that alone.’
As Cheon Hui pondered this, he closed his eyes.
Whoooosh—
In that moment, a transparent sword manifested before his Mental Realm, radiating brilliant light.
It shimmered, as though scattering into mist.
Yet the power and intensity contained within it were incomparable to anything else.
The Heart Sword.
The manifestation of the sword dwelling in his heart.
Cheon Hui reached out his hand.
A faint resonance of qi seemed to transmit through his palm as it touched the transparent blade.
‘No. It’s still uncertain.’
Cheon Hui released the Heart Sword without hesitation.
He could have grasped it, had he wished.
But his body, still incomplete in its transformation, lacked the capacity to wield the Heart Sword without reservation.
‘When the body finishes its growth…….’
Just as he was about to erase the Heart Sword—
Roooarrr!
Suddenly, a violent tide of qi surged forth.
Backlash.
‘Did I gain something by letting it go?’
A smile played at the corners of Cheon Hui’s lips.
He had grasped the situation instantly.
At once, he centered himself.
The fully opened Hundred Convergences Point drew down the Heaven-Earth Qi cascading from above, washing it clean throughout.
At the same moment, his smile deepened.
It was a smile suffused with satisfaction.
The energy passing through all three hundred sixty-five blood meridians and the secondary channels of his entire body awakened an exquisite clarity.
‘I never thought I’d experience this again.’
Cheon Hui’s lips twisted further.
He had felt this before.
It was the unity of Heart, Qi, and Body.
A realm he should have completed long ago—he had only now arrived.
He felt his body growing lighter.
Soon the Heaven-Earth Qi transformed into the pure power of the Plum Blossom Divine Art, and in one breath it accumulated in Cheon Hui’s Lower Dantian.
As vast quantities of utterly pure Internal Force filled the Lower Dantian to capacity.
Snap!
Transparent wisps of energy gathered one by one above his head, blooming into flower buds.
Blue, red, and white blossoms.
Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.
‘Late, but it came.’
Cheon Hui, gazing down at the sacred flowers of the spirit above his head as though observing them from a distance, twisted his lips in a smile.
It was a realm reached late because his body had not matured to match his high martial prowess and pure energy, yet the feeling was not unpleasant.
‘An unexpected chance meeting, truly.’
Cheon Hui slowly opened the eyes he had kept closed.
‘But why is the situation different? In my past life, I would have undergone Bone Exchange and Fetus Replacement.’
Suddenly he recalled his previous life.
Back then, in exchange for gaining energy, he had achieved Bone Exchange and Fetus Replacement.
But now, instead of undergoing that transformation, Internal Force had accumulated in his Lower Dantian and energy overflowed through all his blood meridians and secondary channels.
“Well, this works better for the current situation anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”
Cheon Hui chuckled and spoke, then released his cross-legged posture and moved his shoulders lightly.
His body felt light.
Though he had maintained the cross-legged position for the long span of four days, there was no heaviness, no stiffness.
But that was not all.
The flow of his Internal Force now embraced his body comfortably, unlike before.
It was as though it stood in constant readiness.
Having confirmed his physical condition, Cheon Hui rose from the bedchamber with a satisfied smile.
His martial theory had been largely organized.
So now what remained was to apply that organized theory——
Practical experience.
“Shall I loosen up a bit?”
Cheon Hui smiled and murmured to himself, then gathered two swords he had left beside him before entering Mental Realm cultivation and stepped out of the chamber.

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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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