Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 38

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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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Episode 38
“……sir! Come with…….”
“Where…….”
Cheon Hui withdrew his Yungi Josik at the commotion outside, his brow furrowing.
“What’s all this noise?”
With an expression thick with irritation, he was unfurling his legs from lotus position when—
“Master!”
Jeok Geom’s voice came right on cue.
“Elder Hyeon Do has just arrived…….”
Bang!
Before Jeok Geom could finish speaking, the door flew open roughly, and a massive shadow stretched long across the room.
As they say, speak of the tiger and it appears.
Hyeon Do stepped through the doorway, and his eyes met Cheon Hui’s.
“Cheon Hui!”
He bellowed the name and broke into a run.
“Elder?”
At the thundering approach, Cheon Hui was rising from the bed when—
Whoosh!
Hyeon Do reached him in a stride, gripping his shoulders and running a swift gaze over his entire frame.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
The sudden inquiry made Cheon Hui narrow his eyes.
“I’m fine.”
“Thank goodness,” Hyeon Do said, exhaling as his shoulders dropped.
But his expression shifted almost at once, and he leaned in, his voice dropping to something careful and measured.
“Is what was written in the letter sent to the Main Sect true?”
“A letter?”
The word stirred confusion in him.
Then, something buried deep in memory surfaced unbidden.
“Oh! That one?”
He recalled Go Gye Young mentioning a letter bound for Hwasan-pa long ago.
“It’s probably accurate.”
In that instant—
“Baekgui-seong……! Damn them, these bastards have shown their claws again!”
Hyeon Do’s eyes flared as he cried out.
Then, visibly seized by fury, he stamped his foot as his face grew more savage.
As his already harsh features twisted further, an even more menacing aura began to emanate—
‘Hm?’
Beyond Hyeon Do’s shoulders, a figure stood awkwardly at the threshold, drawing Cheon Hui’s attention.
It was a middle-aged man of neat and tidy appearance, wearing a pale blue Do-bok and crowned with a Dojuane on his head.
Seeing him dressed in a way that screamed ‘I am a Daoist,’ Cheon Hui noticed rationality returning to Hyeon Do’s eyes that had burned with rage.
Then Hyeon Do turned to him, following Cheon Hui’s gaze behind his own back.
“What is it?”
“Who is that person?”
At the question, Hyeon Do’s face shifted into an ‘ah, I forgot’ expression, and he introduced the middle-aged man standing behind him.
“Ah, I’ve neglected my manners. He is Ha Woo Jin, known throughout the martial realm as the Swordsman of Coral.”
“The Swordsman of Coral?”
As Cheon Hui tilted his head in puzzlement, Hyeon Do hastened to add his explanation.
“A Daoist of Jongnam-pa and a master swordsman widely renowned throughout the martial realm.”
Hyeon Do’s eyes grew warmer.
He shifted his gaze from Ha Woo Jin and looked toward Cheon Hui, his lips parting.
“And one of your master’s dearest friends.”
Hyeon Do regarded him intently.
The fact that Ha Woo Jin and Hyeon Gang were such intimate companions was known to only a rare few in the martial realm.
Joy? Surprise? Or perhaps doubt?
He waited to see what reaction would come.
“Is that so?”
An entirely different response slipped out.
After all, what did it matter whether the master had friends or not?
He’d never even met his master.

‘So what exactly are you getting at?’
When Cheon Hui fixed him with a look that asked if he had anything more to say, Hyeon Do faltered.
“Did you know that he was a close friend?”
“No.”
“Then why would you even be curious——”
“Hyeon Do.”
Ha Woo Jin cut into the conversation.
He shook his head at Hyeon Do, then spoke quietly.
“Perhaps it would be better if we all sat down and discussed this more calmly?”
Shortly after, Cheon Hui, Hyeon Do, and Ha Woo Jin settled around the table in the center.
“I am Ha Woo Jin of the Jongnam-pa.”
Cheon Hui watched Ha Woo Jin introduce himself and his sect once more.
He grasped the hidden intention immediately.
‘Why does he have to circle around it like this?’
From his time at the Hwasan-pa, observing the conduct of the Daoists, Cheon Hui interpreted that greeting as a prompt for him to introduce himself in turn.
He answered with a hint of irritation.
“I’m Cheon Hui.”
Ha Woo Jin’s expression softened.
He then looked at Cheon Hui with warm eyes and opened his mouth.
“Ah, so you are the disciple of Hyeon Gang.”
His voice carried a tangle of emotions.
Though not widely known in the jianghu, he and Hyeon Gang had been close friends for many years, transcending the walls between the Hwasan-pa and the Jongnam-pa.
Benevolent rivals and kindred spirits.
But on the day Hyeon Gang died, Ha Woo Jin had been unable to avenge his friend.
The elders of the Jongnam-pa, who had fed and raised him, had blocked his path when they moved to take revenge against the Baekgui-seong.
His friend mattered, but so did his family.
So he had abandoned his vengeance and returned to the Jongnam-pa, yet the weight upon his heart pressed down on him still.
That was why he had never returned to the Hwasan-pa, deliberately keeping his distance.
‘I never thought I’d meet the child you took in like this.’
His bitter smile faded, and his eyes grew hazy.
Years ago, Hyeon Gang had told him that he had brought an orphan from some village.
‘I heard he was only six years old when you took him as a disciple, yet now he’s grown into such a fine young man.’
Time flows relentlessly, they say.
The child who had been but six years old was nowhere to be seen—only an accomplished youth stood before him.
‘I should have visited sooner.’
As he sank into reflection of a different sort—
‘He’s staring at me strangely.’
Cheon Hui found his gaze unsettling.
Then it happened.
Tap.
Hyeon Do drained his tea in one long gulp and opened his mouth with a grave expression.
“Is it true that the Baekgui-seong stands behind the Paewang-mun?”
“Yes.”
Ha Woo Jin’s eyes widened in an instant.
“The Baekgui-seong backing the Paewang-mun……?”
But Hyeon Do paid him no mind and pressed on with his questions.
“I want to hear the details.”
“The details?”
Hyeon Do nodded up and down.
“Ugh, what a hassle…… Fine, I’ll tell you.”
With a sigh at the earnest look on Hyeon Do’s face, Cheon Hui began to recount the attack he’d suffered the moment he arrived at the Bifeng Trading Company.
“The day I arrived at the Bifeng Trading Company……”
Hyeon Do and Ha Woo Jin leaned in, absorbing every word of Cheon Hui’s account into their minds.
Perhaps an hour or so passed.
Before long, the story was drawing to a close.
“……and that’s what happened.”
As he finished with the words of how he’d killed them—
“How dare they lay hands on our sect again.”
Hyeon Do’s fists trembled with barely contained rage.
“These bastards have chosen death!”
The Daoist spat out words that should never have left his lips, exhaling sharp bursts of breath through his nose.
Ha Woo Jin, who had been listening to the account all the while, furrowed his brow.
“So Paewang-mun was a faction Baekgui-seong established to carry out their covert schemes.”
His face hardened imperceptibly.
With Baekgui-seong lying quiet of late, both he and Jongnam-pa had grown lax in their vigilance toward them.
It had all been a smokescreen.
‘To keep such a sordid plan hidden from our very eyes…’
Their ruthlessness made his blood run cold.
For thirteen years they had held their breath, and Paewang-mun had played the part of the uninvolved faction.
So thoroughly that no one—not even himself—would have dreamed of any connection between Paewang-mun and Baekgui-seong.
Proof of this came recently.
Had not Un Su Cham Sal, whom he had met days ago, conducted himself as though he and Paewang-mun had no association whatsoever?
“Even in that situation, he kept up the act…!”
Suddenly Ha Woo Jin’s eyes flew wide open.
The doubt that had nagged at his chest for days was finally resolved.
“So that’s why Un Su Cham Sal came immediately after Paewang-mun fell!”
“Un Su Cham Sal?”
At those words, Hyeon Do’s face twisted.
Un Su Cham Sal was one of Baekgui-seong’s Four Commanders, a figure of considerable renown—one whose appearance in the Jianghu inevitably brought a storm of blood in its wake.
Hyeon Do turned to Ha Woo Jin and asked.
“He came here?”
Ha Woo Jin nodded.
“I encountered him while searching for the remnants of Paewang-mun, which was recently annihilated.”
“To send Un Su Cham Sal himself! They’ve resolved to see this through to the bitter end!”
As Hyeon Do clenched his teeth.
“Senior Hyeon Do.”
Ha Woo Jin spoke with a grave expression.
“Bifeng Trading Company is in danger.”
“Danger? What do you mean?”
“The Lord of Baekgui-seong sent Un Su Cham Sal not merely because the plan failed—but if he now knows Paewang-mun has been wiped out…”
He swallowed hard.
“He will send a stronger force.”
“A stronger force, you say…”
“The Baekgui-samde may come to Bifeng Trading Company.”
“The Baekgui-samde…”
Hyeon Do drew a sharp breath.
If it was the Baekgui-samde, the matter was grave indeed.
Was it not the Gwimyeol-dae, one of the Muyeok-samde of old, that had left the youngest disciples and the Plum Blossom Sword Maidens all perished in mutual annihilation?
“Samde…?”
At that moment, Cheon Hui interjected.
“Whatever they called themselves—samde or what have you—they did come the day before yesterday.”
“What?”
“Is that truly so?”
Hyeon Do and Ha Woo Jin, reacting instinctively, leaned their faces forward toward Cheon Hui.
“Do you know their identities?”
“Do you know who they are?”
“Sal… something or other, it was… what was it again?”
Cheon Hui furrowed his brow in thought.
The more time passed, the more urgent Hyeon Do and Ha Woo Jin became.
“Think carefully.”
“Take your time.”
“Just give us a moment?”
As Cheon Hui spoke with evident irritation, the two had just begun to withdraw the faces they had thrust forward.
“Ah!”
At Cheon Hui’s response, as though something had come to him, both men’s ears pricked up at once.
“Was it Salhon-dae? Or was it Sal-something else? I don’t remember exactly, but it was something like that.”
The moment those words left his mouth, both men sprang to their feet simultaneously.
“Salhon-dae!”
“Salhon-dae has come!”
As the two let out a cry loud enough to split the ears, Cheon Hui furrowed his brow.
“Salhon-dae isn’t known to the world, but when they move, I’ve heard they destroy at least one sect entirely…….”
Ha Woo Jin muttered absently.
Salhon-dae was a force that even Jongnam-pa couldn’t dismiss lightly if they faced them.
‘But they came to Bifeng Trading Company?’
Doubt flickered through his mind.
Bifeng Trading Company seemed far too intact for it to be true that Salhon-dae had come—the very organization that brought annihilation.
“Fortunately, only scouts came…….”
As he spoke, he felt a jarring contradiction.
His words held no consistency.
‘No, that can’t be right. In all the times Salhon-dae has been encountered, not a single person who saw them has lived…….’
His gaze turned back to Cheon Hui.
Given his composed expression, he didn’t seem to be lying.
‘Then what in heaven happened?’
His thoughts deepened.
But the puzzle only became more tangled rather than untangled, leaving his mind even more confused.
At last, abandoning the attempt to reason it through, he asked Cheon Hui directly.
“……Did you encounter Salhon-dae?”
“Yes, I did meet them.”
“Then they……”
“I took care of them.”
“Took care of them?”
As Ha Woo Jin’s expression showed confusion, Cheon Hui added his words more directly for clarity.
“I killed them.”

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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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