Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 314

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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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314
Fire
“Master!”
The moment Cheon Hui appeared, it was Cheon Hyang who greeted him before anyone else.
She was wielding a wooden sword, and the instant she spotted him, her face brightened with a radiant smile as she immediately moved toward him.
Her sect robe fluttered softly as she began to unfold the An Hyang Pyo.
Step.
But Cheon Hui moved first.
The hem of his dark crimson sect robe rippled slightly, and his form shimmered and vanished, cutting through the air in a single breath.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Like a phantom crossing the space, Cheon Hui descended gently into the center of the Training Grounds.
Silence.
Not a sound, not a whisper of qi.
It was the Ultimate Bi Cheon Haeng Bo.
Having materialized suddenly in the heart of the Training Grounds, Cheon Hui turned his head slowly.
His two eyes, suffused with a faint crimson light, gleamed as pure as dewdrops, taking in each person around him one by one.
Everyone stood spellbound, their gaze fixed upon him.
“Convenient that you’re all here.”
His voice drifted out quietly.
Cheon Hyang was the first to snap back to herself.
“Master! Why did you go into seclusion?”
As her words burst forth—curiosity overflowing as she dropped her An Hyang Pyo stance—Ho Gwang Gae and Dan Ri Gwan Cheon began to regain their senses, one by one.
“Great Master!”
“Commander! Are you well?”
“We were so worried when you didn’t emerge. Are you in good health?”
Members of the Myeoljjeol Corps and the Hwa Ryeong Dan, mixed together, gathered around Cheon Hui in greeting.
Nearly sixty in number.
Cheon Hui let their voices wash over him as he opened his mouth to speak.
“You’ve continued your training, I trust? You haven’t stopped just because I was absent, I hope.”
“How could we stop training?”
“Not a single day missed.”
“We trained hard!”
Answers came at once in response to his question.
A fierce hunger burned in their eyes, plainly visible.
Those gathered here were the ones who had witnessed Cheon Hui’s greatness firsthand.
His overwhelming martial prowess.
And so they had redoubled their training efforts.
To stand alongside Cheon Hui.
To be of use to him.
“Your eyes shine brightly.”
Cheon Hui read the fire in their gazes, smiled faintly, and drew the Hwawol up from his side, still in its scabbard, as he spoke.
“Then shall we put that to the test?”
“A test?”
Everyone hesitated at his words.
Whissh—
Cheon Hui extended his right index finger toward them, curling it in a beckoning gesture.
A provocative gesture.
And with it, Cheon Hui twisted his mouth into a slight smile as he spoke.
“Come at me.”
In that instant, most of them froze.
They had grasped the intent behind his words.
A martial match.
Cheon Hui intended to gauge the results of their training through nothing less than combat.
Even as the Myeoljjeol Corps and the Hwa Ryeong Dan hesitated for a moment.
Dash!
One figure shot forward like an arrow.
It was Cheon Hyang.
The instant his words left his lips, she was already moving, bolting toward him without delay.
There was no hesitation in her.
A martial match with a true master was like a rare chance meeting granted by fate.
A martial match with an absolute master like Cheon Hui was a chance that might never come again.
How could she let this opportunity slip away?
‘A match with my teacher after all this time.’
A faint smile played at her lips as the power of her Maehwa Internal Cultivation began to spread slowly through her body.
The sunset glow shimmered across her sweat-dampened Sect Robe.
As she drew forth all the accumulated power of her Maehwa Internal Cultivation at its peak, it began to radiate light.
‘If I hold back even slightly, I’m finished.’
She recalled her past match with Cheon Hui at the Huashan Sect, and her body tensed.
She had to give everything.
Only then could she avoid being utterly overwhelmed.
She guided her power downward.
Like a heartbeat, the inner power of her Maehwa Internal Cultivation surged through the Grand Circulation, and soon reached her sole, the Yong Cheon Hyeol point.
Boom!
The cuffs of her pants exploded.
The An Hyang Pyo at its ultimate peak had unfurled.
Her body blurred.
Her form stretched like a shadow, so impossibly swift was the An Hyang Pyo.
A bitter midwinter chill scraped across her face like the edge of a blade.
The distance between her and Cheon Hui closed rapidly.
Ten paces, nine, seven, four, one.
And then, right before his face.
Thud!
Cheon Hyang planted her foot down with force, striking the ground.
From the point where her foot struck, a web-like Qi Wave spread outward in all directions.
Dust erupted in a delayed rush.
And in that moment.
‘Now!’
Maintaining her momentum, Cheon Hyang dragged the wooden sword in her hand perilously close to the ground before suddenly snapping it upward in a strike.
The wooden sword, catching the speed of the An Hyang Pyo, blurred for an instant and then seemed to vanish.
Only pure white light remained.
It was a Kkwae Geom at its peak.
The slash, sweeping in a crescent arc, tore the surrounding air apart and released a sound like thunder.
It was like the cry of a beast.
“Such a Kkwae Geom!”
Ho Gwang Gae’s eyes widened in shock.
This was the first time he had seen Cheon Hyang display her martial arts so fully.
And her current strength far exceeded what he had estimated.
A trickle of cold sweat ran down his forehead.
‘At that level, she’d surpass even Dan Ri Gwan Cheon….’
He glanced sideways.
Dan Ri Gwan Cheon, standing beside him, was equally shocked, his eyes wide with disbelief.
It wasn’t only the two of them.
The entire Myeoljjeol Corps watching was stunned by Cheon Hyang’s martial prowess.
Meanwhile, Cheon Hyang felt her hand trembling finely around the wooden sword and clenched her teeth.
Following the An Hyang Pyo at its peak, the Maehwa Nak Seom she now unleashed was a strike that transcended her limits.
But she could not stop.
One moment.
She had to decide the match in a single moment.
“Your training has been diligent, I see.”
Cheon Hui murmured, his eyes cast downward.
The Kkwae Geom that Cheon Hyang had swung was now just below his chin, yet he remained standing aloof.
And at the very instant the blade was about to touch him.
Flash.
Cheon Hui’s outstretched right hand vanished.
Or rather, the speed of his movement created the illusion that it had disappeared.
Soon his right hand shot out toward the wooden sword aimed at his jaw and.
Click.
He caught the blade between his thumb and forefinger.
And in that instant.
A brilliant flash erupted!
A rough wind swept up between them.
Cheon Hyang’s sweat-dampened hair rose upward, her Sect Robe billowing wide.
It was the aftershock of the sword she had swung.
“Hah!”
Those standing nearby raised their arms to shield their faces from the violent gale of Qi Blast.
Their eyes trembled faintly.
It was a storm of overwhelming force.
This was no ordinary blade strike.
Yet that blade came to rest in Cheon Hui’s hand without moving even a step.
Caught between just two fingers—his thumb and forefinger.
“Bare-Handed Blade Seizing……”
Ho Gwang Gae murmured the words like a soft gasp between his teeth.
It was a technique rarely witnessed.
The kind only seen when one without martial training drew a blade against a master.
Yet now Cheon Hui had demonstrated it.
Against the strike Cheon Hyang had unleashed.
The implication was simple.
The gap in martial prowess between Cheon Hui and Cheon Hyang was as vast as the difference between an untrained person and a master at the Jeoljeong realm.
‘Or perhaps even greater?’
Ho Gwang Gae shook his head slowly.
What Cheon Hyang had wielded was a wooden sword.
Ordinarily, when a blade strike that fierce carried such power, the aftershock would shatter it without fail.
But what of this?
The wooden sword remained intact.
It meant he had absorbed all the force.
‘Incomprehensible.’
He shook his head.
Cheon Hui was already at a position Ho Gwang Gae could not fathom.
“That was my finest technique……”
Cheon Hyang spoke, her breath like a sigh as she looked at the wooden sword caught between two fingers.
It was an attack she had perfected through daily, unbroken cultivation—a realm of martial mastery—yet it availed her nothing.
She felt the sting of hollow defeat.
“That was an excellent strike,” Cheon Hui said, regarding her with genuine praise.
The words caught her off guard.
“Hm?”
Cheon Hyang looked at him in surprise.
She had never heard him offer praise before.
She had almost believed he knew not how to give it.
But praise?
“However, it’s a pity. If you meant to deploy the Maehwa Nak Seom here, you should have better read the flow of that energy.”
As he spoke, Cheon Hui withdrew the wooden sword smoothly.
“……!”
Cheon Hyang stared at him in bewilderment.
She had been gripping the wooden sword firmly.
Yet it slipped free without any resistance.
Cleanly, naturally—as though nothing had resisted it at all.
It was like being blinded with her eyes open, struck without warning.
But Cheon Hui, indifferent to her shock, let the wooden sword hang loose as he spoke.
“Like this.”
The moment the wooden sword’s tip touched the ground.
Tap.
He planted his right foot lightly.
Yet the result was anything but light.
Qi Blast radiated outward beneath his sole in all directions, scattering like petals.
A harmony revealing the Ultimate An Hyang Pyo.
“Keep your eyes wide open and watch carefully,” he said.
As he spoke, his sleeve rippled.
The wooden sword had begun to move.
The wooden sword that had touched the ground rose heavenward now, riding the flow of the Qi Blast he had unleashed.
Following the same sword path that Cheon Hyang had swung.
To others, it looked no different from before.
‘This is…….’
But Cheon Hyang knew.
Rather, she could not help but know.
The rising sword strikes from below flowed as a single continuous motion.
The An Hyang Pyo and the Maehwa Sword Technique.
Two distinct martial arts merged into one, their currents interweaving as they traced their blade path.
‘Wielded like this…….’
Just as clarity dawned on her.
‘What?!’
The next sword strike caught her off guard.
The rising wooden sword did not stop.
She saw the wooden sword rushing close enough to brush her chin in the blink of an eye, and her eyes darted in panic toward Cheon Hui.
And urgently she signaled with her eyes.
‘No, surely not?’
Cheon Hui, reading her glance, laughed.
‘Now, now I understand what this is!’
At that smile, Cheon Hyang felt her courage drain away, and she appealed with desperate eyes.
‘You need to take the hit directly to understand it better.’
Cheon Hui answered with untroubled composure, signaling with his eyes.
‘Receive it!’
The moment the color drained from Cheon Hyang’s face, the wooden sword completed its arc.
Crack!
Cheon Hyang’s body flew upward.
She was hurled through the air near the edge of the pavilion before crashing down.
Thud!
Dust rose from the floor.
Her fallen body trembled finely before going limp.
She was unconscious.
“…….”
For a moment, silence hung in the air.
The Myeoljjeol Corps broke into a cold sweat.
Cheon Hyang had called out the defensive posture.
Yet Cheon Hui had attacked her without hesitation, knocking her senseless like that.
They glanced furtively at the Hwa Ryeong Dan.
And they were startled.
Though their leader, Cheon Hyang, had fallen, the Hwa Ryeong Dan continued their conversation with unruffled composure.
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen such a sight.”
“Our teacher is as merciless as ever.”
Their manner suggested familiarity with this.
Then Cheon Hui, the wooden sword resting on his shoulder, gestured with his finger once more and spoke.
“What are you waiting for? Come on.”
Before his words had even finished, the Hwa Ryeong Dan exchanged glances and formed their ranks.
Once Cheon Hui came at them like this, there was no escape.
“Better than the Myeoljjeol Corps, at least.”
Cheon Hui regarded the hesitant Myeoljjeol Corps with a fixed stare, then tapped his shoulder lightly with the wooden sword.
Those who met his gaze felt a chill rise from their spines.
‘Did we make a mistake?’
‘Should I have stepped forward?’
Just as they belatedly recognized their error.
Whoosh—
Cheon Hui turned his gaze from the Myeoljjeol Corps and looked at the Hwa Ryeong Dan, who had assumed their formation.
“Do you come first, or shall I?”
At the question, the Hwa Ryeong Dan without hesitation unfolded their Speed Technique and rushed toward Cheon Hui.
* * *
A group of travelers approached swiftly toward the pavilion where the Myeoljjeol Corps was stationed.
“Is it true that you have completed your seclusion?”
At the question from Cheol Su Bi Geom, the elder of the Cheonchung Geommun, Seol Geom, who walked at the head, smiled faintly.
“It is.”
Cheol Su Bi Geom’s eyes deepened.
It was far more than that.
“Amitabha Buddha. At last we meet.”
“The benefactor of our sect….”
“The Maehwa Sword Association….”
Won Jong Dae Sa of Sorim, So Yeon Sa Tae of the Ami Sect, and Gok Pyeong of Konglun—all who had followed him here—their eyes deepened with recognition.
How much longer had they walked?
Soon the Pavilion, their destination, came into view.
“That place over there….”
Seol Geom pointed at the Pavilion with his folded fan to speak, then stopped short.
A sound had suddenly reached them.
Crack! Crack!
“Aaahhh!”
“P-please, stop!”
“Save me… gasp!”
The sound of something being struck, mingled with screams, rang out—and those approaching froze.
“…!”
“Could it be enemies…!”
Startled and momentarily paralyzed, they broke into an urgent run.
In moments they burst through the gate that bore no name plaque. The instant they stepped inside, they went rigid.
“Come on, get up. How often does such an opportunity come your way?”
A young Daoist clad in a distinctive black-and-crimson Sect Robe swung a wooden sword—each sweep producing a thunderous boom, sending martial artists sprawling outward.
And it was not merely one or two.
Dozens lay scattered across the ground, groaning and uttering deep moans of pain.
“What on earth….”
“What is going on….”
As Won Jong Dae Sa and the rest stood frozen, watching the scene unfold before them—
“Cheon Hui!”
Seol Geom, arriving just then, called out loudly.
“Such a rare chance meeting… eh?”
Cheon Hui, who had been hurling bitter remarks at the fallen Dan Ri Gwan Cheon, suddenly turned his head at the urgent, familiar call echoing in his ears.
Spotting Seol Geom, he raised a light hand in greeting, his bearing oddly serene for the chaos around him.
“It’s been a while.”

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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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