Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 33

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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 33
Hidden behind the earthen wall of Bifung Sangdan, Yuk Hun’s frown deepened as he watched the Maehwa Sword Masters through a crack in the brick.
A member of the Salhon-dae, one of Baekguiseong’s martial divisions, he was carrying out orders that Eun Su Cham Sal, the faction’s leader, had given before departing for Baekguiseong days ago.
Surveillance of Bifung Sangdan and assessment of its killers.
Of these tasks, what he’d focused on most intensely was the surveillance of Bifung Sangdan itself.
More precisely, it was to gauge the capabilities of the Maehwa Sword Masters staying within it.
And through that prolonged observation, he’d managed to gather considerable intelligence on them.
That they’d come to protect Bifung Sangdan from an assault by Paewang Mun, and that one of them was Bifung Sangdan’s heir.
And that they were fledglings—the Maehwa Sword Masters having only recently taken them in.
Yet now he found himself utterly bewildered.
‘Who in blazes is that?’
A beautiful young man had appeared unexpectedly while he was reviewing the Maehwa Sword Masters, and his sudden emergence was enough to upend all the intelligence Yuk Hun had gathered thus far.
He’d known the Taoist’s identity, or so he’d thought.
When he first began surveilling Bifung Sangdan, he’d prioritized gathering information on that young Taoist above all others.
The Sangdan’s master showed particular regard for him, and the Maehwa Sword Masters treated him with deference.
But he’d swiftly excluded the youth from his assessment of their combat strength.
After all, the boy was quite young and not a Maehwa Sword Master himself.
Moreover, his martial presence was extraordinarily faint.
As if he’d never trained in martial arts at all.
So Yuk Hun had concluded that Cheon Hui was simply a Taoist of exceptional talent but little martial accomplishment.
It wasn’t unheard of in the martial world for aged Taoists of high aptitude to take in orphaned children.
Yet now he had no choice but to revise everything he’d set down in his assessment.
‘Such Martial Power…….’
Yuk Hun’s bridge of nose wrinkled as he recalled the moment when the beautiful young man had overwhelmed the Maehwa Sword Masters.
‘Could that boy truly be an Elder-level master from the Hwasan School, leading those sword masters?’
His pupils trembled violently, as if struck by lightning from a clear sky.
Why had he been so vigilant in his continued surveillance of those sword masters?
He’d assumed that an Elder-level master would surely have accompanied them to guide them, and he’d been searching for traces of such a figure.
But in all that time, he’d found nothing, so the Salhon-dae members had labored in vain.
As the saying goes, the darkest spot is beneath the lamp.
The one he’d dismissed as merely a Taoist had been an Elder-level master all along.
‘Perhaps it was deliberate. If he appeared to be just a young Taoist, no one would suspect him of leading the Maehwa Sword Masters.’
Yuk Hun clicked his tongue in admiration at how methodically the Taoist operated, defying all expectations of a holy man.
‘Could he have mastered the Boyish Art? It’s said that Taoists who practice the Boyish Art retain youthful appearances even as they age. But why reveal his strength so suddenly today?’
As the doubt arose, he narrowed his eyes while studying Cheon Hui.
Then—a subtle shift.
The young man’s head turned toward him.
Two pitch-black eyes fixed upon him, piercing and sharp with precision.
‘No, surely not…….’
Yuk Hun went pale and shook his head.
‘No. It’s coincidence, mere coincidence.’
He swallowed hard.
From where he crouched at the wall’s edge, he was at least fifty zhang away.
A distance so great that even he would appear no larger than an ant unless he pooled all his inner force into his sight.
As he forced himself to steady his mind and straightened his head which he’d been turning away—
A tremor.
His pupils quivered.
The boy was still gazing directly at him, just as before.
And now he’d raised his index finger, pointing it straight at Yuk Hun without wavering.
‘I’m exposed!’
Sensing the danger, Yuk Hun spun around and made to flee.
A flash of brilliant light.
The red radiance consumed his vision, and consciousness ceased.
“So he was an assassin they sent as well?”
After killing him, Cheon Hui let out a hollow laugh.
The man had deployed the Stealth Art, or so he’d attempted, but in Cheon Hui’s eyes it was clumsy and full of gaps.
‘Not even worth the dirt beneath the fingernails of Eun Hyeong Ma Nyeo’s assassins.’
Six killers sent by Eun Hyeong Ma Nyeo in those days when he’d had no ambition for the leadership.
Those six had possessed a unique ability to deceive the senses of masters, and a keen sixth sense to match.
Comparing this wretch to them would have been an insult to them.
“Incompetent fools or not—doesn’t matter. The point is, someone had me in their sights.”
* * *
Late that evening, Sam Hun gathered the Salhon-dae members and his brow furrowed.
The roster should have held eighteen in total.
But only seventeen stood before him now. One was missing.
“This time….”
Sam Hun’s face crumpled as he tried to place the absent member’s name.
“…Did something happen to Yuk Hun?”
The room grew cold.
“Damn it all…!”
Sam Hun swallowed the curse that rose to his throat, his eyes narrowing as he glared at Bifung Sangdan, two hundred paces beyond the walls.
Since Eun Su Cham Sal’s departure days ago, the Salhon-dae had followed Sam Hun’s word as if he were their true commander.
And yet he hadn’t come?
It could only mean open defiance against Baekguiseong.
‘Unless he’d gone mad, he wouldn’t ignore my orders and vanish like this.’
Sam Hun’s eyes narrowed to slits.
Something had certainly happened to Yuk Hun.
Until now, he’d executed his assignments and led the Salhon-dae without a single hitch.
But from the moment they began sending watchers to Bifung Sangdan, something felt wrong.
‘Every time we send someone to Bifung Sangdan, we lose contact with one. This is the third time. And now it’s Yuk Hun…’
“What in blazes is going on?”
Sam Hun’s voice came thick with irritation.
The task itself—to spy on Bifung Sangdan and gather intelligence on the Killer Beast—had come directly from Eun Su Cham Sal.
To fail in executing that order?
There could be only one consequence.
Death.
And now three of them had gone silent.
Worse still—one of those three was Yuk Hun, one of the Salhon-dae’s finest masters. The frustration boiling inside him was almost inevitable.
As unease crawled up his spine, he began gnawing at his nails, his eyes darting as he muttered aloud.
“Is it the Maehwa Sword Masters? Or….”
He was still turning over the names of those capable of such a thing when—
“The Maehwa Sword Masters wouldn’t have done it. They lack the skill not only to detect Yuk Hun’s presence, but to dispose of him so cleanly.”
Sib Il Hun interjected.
Alongside Yuk Hun, he was one of the Salhon-dae’s most accomplished in the Stealth Art.
“Then you’re saying the Killer Beast who destroyed the Paewang Mun has surfaced again?”
Sam Hun’s voice turned sharp.
Sib Il Hun flinched slightly at the edge in his tone, but soon shook his head.
“…I cannot say for certain.”
After turning it over in his mind, they arrived back at the same wall. Creases deepened across Sam Hun’s brow.
“Then we have no choice but to take the risk ourselves.”
“May I investigate?”
“You?”
“With three members providing support, my Stealth Art should allow me to penetrate deep into Bifung Sangdan’s interior.”
“…Hmm. I see.”
Sam Hun fell silent in thought.
The reason they hadn’t gone deeper into Bifung Sangdan was the commander’s direct order—remain undiscovered until he arrived.
But if he gave orders independently now, and they were discovered?
He’d have no excuse for losing his head.
After a moment’s deliberation, he made his choice.
“Just make absolutely certain you’re not detected.”
“Understood.”
Sib Il Hun’s eyes hardened with resolve.
Shortly after, Sib Il Hun and three other members headed for Bifung Sangdan, while the rest scattered in different directions.
As Sib Il Hun led the three toward the compound wall, his eyes grew sharp and he lowered his voice.
“Erase your presence. Deaden your breath.”
The wall before them was simple enough to scale, but Sib Il Hun did not relax his guard.
Without a word from him, all three dispersed at once.
Watching the three vanish into the darkness, Sib Il Hun deployed the Hidden Form Technique, gradually stilling his breathing.
His breath and presence grew fainter and fainter.
Merged now with shadow itself, he slipped into Bifung Sangdan as though it were his own home.
‘……The merchant house has grown too.’
‘The master made sure to give Hyang’s family a generous sum…….’
‘Hey, aren’t the Maehwa Sword Masters so impressive? So noble and…….’
A feast of information kept flowing to his ears.
As he continued gathering intelligence, he felt things growing quieter as dinner time approached, and his eyes rolled inward.
‘So far, nothing stands out.’
Sib Il Hun’s eyes sank.
He’d gathered plenty of information, but nothing about who had killed Yuk Hun.
‘I wonder if Sa Sib Gu Hun found anything.’
Realizing he could extract no more information from this location, he bent his body to move and check what the other members had discovered.
The moment he tried to shift position to sense Sa Sib Gu Hun’s presence, he went rigid.
‘What? He’s gone?!’
Sa Sib Gu Hun, who had come with him, had vanished without a trace.
As if he had never existed at all.
‘When did he disappear? Wait, could it be……!’
He whipped his head around in panic, turning toward Sam Sib Yuk Hun, whose presence he could still sense.
Thankfully, Sam Sib Yuk Hun was still there.
‘Sam Sib Yuk Hun is still…….’
Relief flooded through him for only an instant.
“……!”
Sam Sib Yuk Hun’s presence snuffed out.
‘What, what is this…….’
Sib Il Hun’s pupils trembled.
Now only one remained — I Sib Chil Hun, who was hiding beyond the ten-zhang distance with his breath held.
‘The one who attacked Yuk Hun has appeared……!’
He immediately grasped the situation, sensing the danger, and hurried to bury himself in the thick darkness before racing toward I Sib Chil Hun.
‘I have to join forces with I Sib Chil Hun first.’
He arrived at I Sib Chil Hun’s hiding place and clutched his chest.
‘The killing hand hasn’t reached this far yet. That means it’s coming from over there.’
He watched in the direction where Sam Sib Yuk Hun had fallen.
Thud— Thud—
Footsteps rang out.
Something about those footsteps unsettled Sib Il Hun, and his eyes flickered.
In his field of vision came a young man dressed in a martial robe of a strange color combination — red and black.
‘……Is that a Plum Blossom?’
The moment he saw the Plum Blossom embroidered on the sleeve, information buried deep in his mind surfaced.
‘A Daoist who traveled with the Maehwa Sword Masters?’
Tap.
The young man, Cheon Hui, stopped walking.
Then, gazing down at the small lake beside him, he asked.
“Another bug?”
There was no answer to the question hurled into empty air where no one stood.
Yet Cheon Hui did not stop speaking.
“How many are there, anyway?”
With those words, he raised his index finger.
Thwip!
The Finger Wind pierced through the lake and drove downward.
Soon blood bloomed from beneath the water, and a corpse rose to the surface.
“……!”
Sib Il Hun, watching, swallowed his shock.
The one hidden beneath the lake was I Sib Chil Hun.
‘I Sib Chil Hun, who possessed the sharpest instincts even within the Salhon-dae…….’
Moments later, the corpse floated on the water’s surface.
The instant Sib Il Hun confirmed the body, cold sweat beaded across his brow.
The corpse floating in the lake bore the same hole in its forehead that had been bored through the Cold Face Ghost King.
‘That, that man is a Fierce Beast!’
Sib Il Hun felt his breath catch in his throat.
Then Cheon Hui lifted his head and spoke.
“How much longer are you going to hide?”
His gaze turned toward the roof.
Pop!
In the same instant, a shadow burst from the darkness.
Sib Il Hun scrambled to deploy the Hidden Form Technique, desperate to flee this place.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
But Cheon Hui’s Finger Wind, loosed from his fingertip faster still, pierced through his neck.
‘This… this can’t be…’
Sib Il Hun’s thoughts cut off abruptly.
Thud!
Watching the corpse drop from the air mid-flight, Cheon Hui clicked his tongue. “Tsk.”
“Whatever this was, they only sent me small fry.”
His eyes lingering on the body with contempt, Cheon Hui glanced around before stroking his jaw thoughtfully.
“Leaving things like this feels sloppy, doesn’t it?”
It wasn’t a pleasant sight.
The lake surface and its surroundings were strewn with mangled corpses.
“Let me see…”
Cheon Hui approached the lakeshore.
He surveyed the area briefly.
“This spot will do.”
Moving to a patch of grass-grown earth near the water’s edge, he swung his sleeve with force.
Thwack!
In an instant, soil erupted in all directions, and a deep pit opened before him.
“Deep enough to hold several people.”
Satisfied at the sight of the excavation, Cheon Hui hefted the corpse with a pleased expression.
Whoosh—
After tossing all the bodies into the hole, he swept his hand once more.
The pit sealed itself cleanly.
“Flawless.”
To the untrained eye, the earth showed no sign of disturbance. As Cheon Hui nodded and turned to leave, the moment stretched—
“Master!”
Jeok Geom came running up, breathless.
His swollen eyes and bruised face had subsided, courtesy of the Gold Wound Medicine, and upon seeing Cheon Hui, he opened his mouth in alarm.
“That sound just now…”
“Just swatted some insects.”
“…Insects, sir?”
“There were more than usual tonight.”
Jeok Geom looked around in confusion.
Summer was indeed drawing near; insects fluttered through the air all around them.
“You’re right that there are many, but why suddenly in the dead of night…?”
“Not a concern anymore. I’ve dealt with them all.”
“I… beg your pardon?”
Jeok Geom’s face betrayed utter bewilderment.
It made no sense whatsoever.
Insects were still flying about all around them even now.
While Jeok Geom stood perplexed,
“What are you doing standing there?”
Cheon Hui strode forward, speaking to the still-dazed Jeok Geom.
“We should eat.”

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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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