Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 35

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 35
The moon hung luminous in the dead of night.
As the sun that illuminated the realm withdrew from sight, the moon’s pale blue light rose in its stead, dyeing the world in soft, ethereal tones.
Among the places bathed in that moonlit intoxication was a small pavilion of the Bifeng Trading Company.
Moonlight slipped through the narrow gap of a half-opened window, wrapping itself gently around Cheon Hui, who sat in meditation on the bed.
It was then.
Soft rustling—
Cheon Hui’s closed eyes opened.
Perhaps from opening them so suddenly.
His pupils, still brimming with Internal Energy not yet fully settled, gleamed far more brilliantly than the moonlight pouring down upon him.
His lips parted slowly then.
“They’ve gone quiet, trying to hold their breath.”
He unfurled his seated posture and rose to his feet.
Then, narrowing his eyes to slits and tilting his head, he gazed toward Barren Mountain.
The Barren Mountain cloaked in darkness was silent.
Yet within his sight, the presences hidden beneath that silence manifested with perfect clarity.
Sinister, filthy presences.
He retrieved the sword draped lightly across the bed.
“They’ve gathered of their own accord.”
Making no effort to conceal himself, Cheon Hui moved, his gaze and killing intent fixed upon those eyes that bore down on this place.
The moment his feet touched the ground lightly.
Crack.
The landscape shifted in an instant.
The room’s walls that had enclosed him on all sides vanished from his sight, replaced instead by thickets and trees abundant across Barren Mountain.
Feeling the cool wind brush against his cheek, he swept his gaze across the surroundings and pressed forward, only for a moment.
“Tonight, the Bifeng Trading Company will be erased from the martial world.”
“Yes, sir!”
At the commanding cry, he quickened his pace.
In the darkness, figures crowded densely together. Whether to hide themselves in shadow, those clad entirely in black night garments easily numbered well over fifty.
‘Fifty? Sixty? About that many.’
After a quick count.
Whoosh—
He revealed himself before them.
“What are you doing here?”
“…!”
At the shadow that suddenly appeared and the words it spoke, Eun Su Cham Sal and the Salhon Order reflexively widened their distance from one another, then encircled Cheon Hui.
‘Quite well-trained, aren’t they?’
Cheon Hui swept his gaze across those closing in on him, then halted his eyes upon Eun Su Cham Sal, who among them concealed his power with subtlety.
The only one not wearing a mask.
Though he had tried to hide, the aura and presence that naturally seeped from his body could not escape Cheon Hui’s sight.
The moment he deduced from the circumstances that this man was the leader, he opened his mouth, looking toward him.
“I asked what you’re doing here.”
“….”
“Difficult to say, is it?”
He smiled mockingly at them.
But they did not respond.
Whether they maintained their composure even in the face of provocation, they neither smiled nor bristled.
Yet he understood it well.
That men like these lacked composure of heart and lost their composure with ease.
Abruptly, he fixed his gaze upon one man.
The eyes of the one closest among those surrounding him were full of tension and wariness as they watched him.
He raised his forefinger and pointed at him.
At the sudden gesture, the man appeared startled, and his pupils wavered for just a moment.
A sound like a soft thud erupted.
In that instant, the man with the plum-blossom-patterned hole now carved into his forehead—his head jerking back in confusion—wore an expression utterly bewildered as to what had just transpired.
Thud.
He collapsed backward.
Silence flooded the moment.
A different silence than before.
The air around them, which had been thick with vigilance, had grown cold and heavy.
That was when it happened.
“So it was you.”
The man who appeared to be the leader stepped forward.
Cheon Hui met the eyes visible between the mask’s gaps.
“What, you were just keeping quiet this whole time? I thought you were mute.”
It wasn’t quite mockery—but it was close.
Still, the leader, Eun Su Cham Sal, was startled by what had just transpired, yet his composure remained unshaken at this level of provocation.
“Did you kill my subordinates?”
“Your subordinates? You mean those insects?”
Cheon Hui tilted his head deliberately, then let out a soft laugh before continuing.
“Oh, right—those insects hiding in the Bifeng Trading Company were your subordinates too? Well, I killed every last one of them.”
Eun Su Cham Sal’s brows rose sharply.
The Salhon Order was his pride—it had earned him the position of Western Commander among Baekgwi Fortress’s four directional leaders.
And insects?
His gaze hardened as his pride took the blow.
But he did not move rashly.
That Ground Wind he’d glimpsed just moments ago—it was no ordinary martial art.
‘Who is this man?’
The moment he caught sight of the robe Cheon Hui wore, Eun Su Cham Sal’s eyes gleamed with recognition.
‘The plum blossom emblem? The Huashan Sect! Then could it be one of those plum blossom sword masters staying at the Bifeng Trading Company? No, there was no one like this among the sword masters. Then perhaps a young Daoist in the separate quarters?’
Having swiftly deduced Cheon Hui’s identity, he spoke as though testing the waters.
“So you’re a master of the Huashan Sect.”
But it was a grave miscalculation.
Cheon Hui caught the words that Eun Su Cham Sal had barely managed to utter while still processing.
“And you’re from Baekgwi Fortress.”
……!
His eyes widened at the words that struck him so directly.
“That’s right. I had a feeling.”
“…Were you just guessing?”
“I was almost certain, actually.”
Cheon Hui smiled and spoke with ease.
It had been a confident question from the start—he’d already grasped the situation the moment the assassins had begun sneaking into position.
‘Besides, the only ones who’d have reason to target the Bifeng Trading Company right now are Baekgwi Fortress, seeing as the Paewang Sect is supposedly backing them.’
But Eun Su Cham Sal, unaware of Cheon Hui’s thoughts, found his already complicated mind growing even more tangled.
‘How did he discover we were from Baekgwi Fortress?’
One hypothesis suddenly occurred to him.
‘Could the Huashan Sect have detected Baekgwi Fortress’s involvement from the very beginning!’
Eun Su Cham Sal’s gaze deepened.
Like a knotted skein unraveling, each mystery unspooled one after another.
Soon he furrowed his brow and spoke.
“So your sect already knew Baekgwi Fortress would attack the Bifeng Trading Company. That’s why, the moment the Paewang Sect’s initial plan failed, you predicted we’d make another move—and laid a trap for us.”
“A trap?”
Cheon Hui’s expression turned exasperated at Eun Su Cham Sal’s misunderstanding.
“What kind of trap could men like you lay.”
“Now you’re pretending not to know?”
Eun Su Cham Sal didn’t believe him.
No—he had no intention of believing him.
“Then you must have prepared thoroughly at the Bifeng Trading Company to meet our assault.”
Cheon Hui shook his head firmly.
‘There’s no point talking to him.’
He was caught in a complete misunderstanding.
And he was utterly convinced that misunderstanding was the truth.
“Think whatever you like.”
Cheon Hui tossed out the words carelessly.
He’d grown weary of engaging further.
But Eun Su Cham Sal took the remark as confirmation, his eyes flashing as he emanated a sharp killing intent.
“However, you and the Huashan Sect have made a mistake.”
Having said all he needed to say, Eun Su Cham Sal spread both arms wide like wings.
Whether or not it was a silent signal, the momentum of the Salhon Order began to shift dramatically.
Within the thickening air, their killing intent bloomed and spread, gradually consuming the space.
Like the other members of the Salhon Order, he carried his own killing intent as he continued.
“Had you fled, you might have at least preserved your body, but to march straight into the tiger’s den like this.”
Yet Cheon Hui remained unmoved.
Such killing intent barely registered with him.
Instead, curiosity drew him to study the man, and he asked.
“But you talk quite a lot, don’t you?”
As Cheon Hui stared at him in wonder—how could someone so talkative have held his tongue moments before—
Swish—
At that very moment, moonlight fell across Eun Su Cham Sal.
His face was anything but ordinary.
The left side of his face was covered in burn scars, and his head bore no hair.
Yet soon those strange features faded from view.
What dominated was the eerie gleam in his eyes and the twisted expression on his face, both overwhelming his unfamiliar appearance.
That eerie quality, mingling with the blue moonlight, summoned a chill that mixed into the very air.
A moment later, his lips parted.
“Hide the soul within the kill.”
The instant those words ended.
A horrific wail—
A killing intent so vicious it swallowed the Barren Mountain whole, and the bodies of the Salhon Order members grew progressively dim.
More precisely, their presence was buried beneath the colossal killing intent that flooded the mountain.
In the space where countless figures had vanished, only Cheon Hui and Eun Su Cham Sal remained.
A thin smile—
Eun Su Cham Sal wore the faintest smile.
Then his presence grew hazy, and his silhouette melted into the darkness.
“Open your eyes wide and see clearly. The true form of the Salhon Order…”
Even his voice grew fainter, fading into nothing.

Silence fell.
Cheon Hui looked around.
The sixty Salhon Order members who had surrounded the area vanished, and soon even Eun Su Cham Sal, the last to remain, disappeared from sight.
As if their encirclement of him just moments before had been nothing but a dream of that day.
But that was only what appeared on the surface.
To his eyes, everything was clear.
They had stilled their breath, stilled their presence, killed everything—yet their hearts still raced.
‘How pathetic.’
Savoring the sudden quiet that had descended, Cheon Hui recalled what Eun Su Cham Sal had said, and a smile crossed his face without his realizing it.
“So this is the true form of the Salhon Order?”
It came out as a laugh.
In all his years, he had never once encountered anyone worth a damn who spoke of the ‘true form’ or ‘true strength.’
Not those who defied him, nor those who ambushed him.
Not the clans he had personally wiped from existence.
Not even those who schemed in the shadows, constantly eyeing his position, waiting to seize it for themselves.
All of them had been worthless, utterly unremarkable.
And he was feeling it again now—even these men, surrounding him with the confidence that they had perfectly deceived all Five Senses, were no different.
‘All mouth.’
“Sixty assassins or so…”
As Cheon Hui swept his gaze across the surroundings, something seemed to occur to him, and he nodded.
“Then let me see what you’ve got.”
Cheon Hui’s hand grasped the sword he had not drawn even once since his Emergence into the Martial World.
Swish—
A blade of pure white revealed itself to the heavens.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————