Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 40

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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 40
Crack!
Seventy men materialized like mushrooms after rain across the low hills overlooking the Bifeng Merchant Guild, converging from all directions at once.
“What is this?”
“This can’t be…”
The men, dressed entirely in pristine white, grimaced at the sight of dozens of decomposing corpses scattered across the trimmed brush.
The bodies were all wrong somehow.
Not only was there no sign of resistance, but holes driven through the crown of each head ran in a perfectly straight line down to the groin.
As if a blade had been thrust through them from above like a skewer through meat.
Then the crowd parted in two.
Whoosh—
A man emerged between them.
He appeared to be in his early to mid-thirties, with a gentle, measured bearing.
Save for his jet-black hair, brows, and eyes, his entire frame was shrouded in pristine white cloth, radiating an air of singular distinction.
He was none other than the sole disciple of the Master of Baekgwi Castle and the Southern Lord—So Baekgwi.
“Master. You called for me?”
“Contact with the Salhon-dae has been severed.”
“…!”
“Find out what happened. Take the Baekgwi Order and investigate.”
So Baekgwi recalled the command that had been given to him.
A direct order from his master himself—nothing less.
And being instructed to bring the Baekgwi Order made the gravity of the matter unmistakable.
‘The Salhon-dae must have gathered here.’
Before departing, he had collected the letters that Eun Susamsal had sent and read them, allowing him to pinpoint where the Salhon-dae would assemble.
But this—what was this?
The place was filled with corpses, all of them wearing black masks.
So Baekgwi stepped forward with his left foot.
Whoosh—
His gait was peculiar.
Though each step was distinct and deliberate, not the faintest sound reached the ear, and his body bore no sway whatsoever.
He advanced silently forward, as if he were a ghost without feet.
Had one glimpsed him in the dead of night, one would have sworn the spirits had seized them.
It was the Baekgwi Night Walk—the Spirit Body Technique that the supreme master of the heterodox sects who had once overturned the Gangho, the Master of Baekgwi Castle himself, had perfected.
Tap.
So Baekgwi penetrated among the corpses in an instant, dropping to one knee before removing the mask from one of the bodies.
“…This can’t be!”
So Baekgwi’s pupils trembled.
The face concealed beneath the mask was familiar.
No—more than merely familiar.
This was someone he had often crossed paths with within Baekgwi Castle.
“The Salhon-dae?”
His face, now that he’d identified the corpse, filled with a cold, searing fury.
The gentleness that had marked his features hardened in an instant, and he exhaled a palpable murderous intent.
“Ugh!”
“My lord, Southern Lord!”
The subordinates around him faltered, blanching as that killing aura descended upon them.
“Suppress your killing intent.”
A crisp, cutting voice pressed down upon him.
He turned his head to find a man standing between middle age and old age.
The man’s face was impassive.
Yet despite that stolid expression, his eyes held a chilling gleam.
He was the Eastern Lord of Baekgwi Castle.
Su Cham Dokgeom—deemed the strongest among all four Lords.
Su Cham Dokgeom appraised So Baekgwi from head to foot with eyes like those of a predator sighting prey, then parted his lips.
“Cool your head and think. Why would the Salhon-dae have died here?”
“…!”
So Baekgwi’s face stiffened almost imperceptibly.
Consumed by rage, he had failed to see the situation clearly.
“Thank you, elder.”
“However extraordinary the turn of events, keep your reason sharp and cold.”
At the man’s counsel, So Baekgwi’s eyes grew cold and sharp as he turned the matter over in his mind.
“It seems there’s a master at the Bifeng Merchant Guild who’s detected the presence of Salhon-dae.”
Having finished his reasoning, So Baekgwi spoke, and the man nodded slowly, his eyes widening.
“That’s not all.”
The man’s voice had grown as deep and hollow as if he’d fallen into the great Yangtze itself.
“Whoever it was, there’s not a trace of the body being disposed of.”
“……?!”
At those words, So Baekgwi and the ranks of Baekgwi Order arrayed behind him stiffened visibly.
The Gangho was a place brimming with blood grudges.
Especially in matters concerning martial sects—it was a place so treacherous that one’s teeth would chatter.
That’s why, should someone from a martial sect be killed in the Gangho, one would typically scatter Ash of Corpse Dissolution to dispose of the body without incurring a blood grudge, or bury it deep in the earth.
But to leave the corpse as it was?
By Gangho standards, such an act made no sense.
“Unless the opponent is a fool, he would have realized at a glance that we’ve come from Baekgwi Castle. And yet he left the body untouched. That means…….”
The man’s voice trembled slightly at its edge.
“Either he’s an absolute master who wouldn’t even spare a thought for Salhon-dae, or he deliberately left the corpse as a calling card to draw us out.”
The words came out cold as ice, bitten off between his teeth.
Whichever of the two it was, this mysterious opponent held Baekgwi Castle in contempt.
“Which means he may have already sensed our presence.”
The man speaking shifted his gaze.
His eyes took in the Bifeng Merchant Guild, its repairs still unfinished.
Whoosh—
Heat rippled from Eun Susamsal’s body, and the air itself twisted and warped.
That was when someone came running.
“M-my lord!”
“What is it—…….”
At the panicked cry, So Baekgwi jerked his head around, then froze in that position.
There was a corpse with a caved-in face.
The left side of the face was punctured beyond recognition, yet it was a face that could be identified without question.
“……Eun Susamsal?”
“What?”
Su Cham Dokgeom reacted.
Appearing at So Baekgwi’s side in an instant, he examined Eun Susamsal’s corpse from every angle, then his eyes widened in shock.
“These marks…… the Bi Noe Sword?!”
Su Cham Dokgeom stared at the traces, his face betraying disbelief at his own words.
It was beyond comprehension.
The Bi Noe Sword was Eun Susamsal’s ultimate technique.
Yet to be struck down by the very technique itself.
And So Baekgwi, who stood beside the corpse staring at it intently, felt the same incomprehension.
At first glance it appeared as though his head had simply been crushed by a blade, but the distinctive burns and the faint lingering internal force unmistakably bore the mark of the Bi Noe Sword.
“How did Eun Susamsal fall to the Bi Noe Sword?”
At So Baekgwi’s question, laden with confusion, Su Cham Dokgeom furrowed his brow and murmured.
“Did the opponent reverse the technique?”
Reversal was the first thought that came to mind.
“That wouldn’t be it.”
So Baekgwi countered.
“The traces of the Bi Noe Sword left on this corpse far exceed the mastery Eun Susamsal had displayed in the past.”
The mark of the Bi Noe Sword imprinted on Eun Susamsal’s remains transcended by an immeasurable distance the level So Baekgwi had witnessed before.
“It’s possible Eun Susamsal had been hiding his true martial ability all this time.”
“Even if that were the case, to turn back a Bi Noe Sword of this magnitude would require at minimum a Sword Immortal of the caliber of the Wudang Sect to come.”
“What are you saying?”
“The opponent must have unleashed the Bi Noe Sword.”
So Baekgwi’s reasoning held the greater weight.
Eun Susamsal was a man whose past was unclear.
Perhaps his fellow disciple had happened to stay at the Bifeng Merchant Guild, encountered him, and come to blows.
Of course, this too was mere speculation.
How could one know anything for certain by merely looking at a corpse?
Only the questions grew deeper.
So it was that So Baekgwi added further words.
“Though I grant it’s only conjecture.”
“Is that so.”
Su Cham Dokgeom bit his lip.
The corpses bore the marks of their opponent plainly enough, yet the more he examined them, the deeper his confusion grew.
“I’ve seen so many traces and learned nothing. It seems I’ll have to move directly if I’m to understand what happened.”
Su Cham Dokgeom shifted his gaze.
It fell upon the place where all these puzzles converged into one.
The Bifeng Merchant Guild.
* * *
“They’re no different from those other ones.”
At Cheon Hui’s sudden remark, Ha Wujin, who had been watching from the side, tilted his head in confusion.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing, sir.”
Cheon Hui withdrew his gaze and looked toward Ha Wujin, who had spoken to him from nearby.
It had already been seven weeks since he first came face to face with Go Gyeyoung and took residence at the Bifeng Merchant Guild.
Ha Wujin, who had been awkward on the first day, had melted into the Guild without even realizing it.
Of course, there were still things that felt strange to him.
One of them was the training Cheon Hui had imposed on the Plum Blossom Sword Masters. Having witnessed it firsthand, Ha Wujin had been appalled.
That was torture, not training.
And it didn’t stop there.
At every meal, the Taoist not only disregarded the prohibition against meat but seemed to relish it, leaving Ha Wujin bewildered beyond words.
In his consternation, he had tried to hint at or help guide Cheon Hui toward the righteous path, but it had been fruitless.
It was only natural.
Would it be reasonable to expect in seven weeks what the Hwasan Sect had failed to achieve in five years?
Hyeon Do had even told him to give up, but Ha Wujin refused.
“One must refrain from killing. Even the life of this tiny ant must not be held in contempt, lest…….”
Ha Wujin clung to Cheon Hui’s side and recited the teachings of the Tao.
Somehow the roles had become reversed.
He had come to the Bifeng Merchant Guild to uncover the secret techniques of the Paewang Sect, yet he had long since forgotten that purpose, his mind now consumed with the thought of redeeming Cheon Hui.
And the man himself, Cheon Hui…….
‘They’ll serve well enough as a test.’
Ignoring Ha Wujin’s words entirely, he watched the gasping Plum Blossom Sword Masters, and Jeok Geom and Seol Ran as they wielded their blades.
He compared them with those outside—the ones whose presence carried a murky, oppressive aura.
‘Save for the two among them who radiate a stronger presence, the individual martial ability of these disciples is somewhat better.’
As he pondered this, his gaze shifted.
He watched Hyeon Do performing meditation training and Ha Wujin continuing his lengthy explanations, then stroked his chin thoughtfully.
‘If those two join in, it should be adequate.’
Having made his rough estimate, Cheon Hui nodded. These were enemies he could have dispatched easily had he stepped in, but he deliberately refrained.
‘They need the experience, after all.’
He had known vaguely that the Hwasan Sect was weak, but through the training sessions with the so-called elite Plum Blossom Sword Masters, he had come to feel it keenly.
‘Without me, the Hwasan Sect is finished.’
It was an arrogant thought, but sadly, it was true.
The Hwasan Sect’s weakness played a part, but Cheon Hui’s strength was simply too formidable.
‘Once the Hwasan Sect grows stronger, I can wander Gangho with a clear mind.’
Though it was a righteous sect, life at the Hwasan Sect suited him quite well.
There were no assassins eyeing his life or interfering with him, no poisoned food, no sudden ambushes.
No schemers bowing in front while scheming behind his back, and no one pestering him with endless demands.
What a blessed existence this was.
Compared to his former days as the Master of the Cheouma Singyou, it was incomparably peaceful.
To maintain his current life, the Hwasan Sect would have to grow stronger than it was now—that was his conviction.
‘The Cheouma Singyou should be sufficient, shouldn’t it?’
It was a preposterous thought.
In Gangho, a place proud of thousands of years of history, the Cheouma Singyou was the supreme power among single martial sects.
Even Shaolin and none of the forces of the Nine Provinces Eight Sovereigns had managed to surpass them even once.
Any man with even passing knowledge of Gangho would dismiss such a notion as utter nonsense.
But Cheon Hui was different from them.
‘That much is the minimum.’
As the former Master of the Cheouma Singyou, such a standard was his baseline.
“Hmm?”
Just then, Cheon Hui’s gaze fell upon the main building.
His eyes, their focus blurred like tarnished silver, bathed in the sunset’s final light of the day, gradually flushed red.
“Still, they’re quick this time.”
Eyes honed sharp as a whetted blade gleamed coldly in the fading sunlight, fixing on the throats of those who had concealed themselves in shadow.
Watching them draw closer, Cheon Hui spoke toward the fallen Plum Blossom Sword Masters.
“What are you doing? Get up.”
They lay motionless as corpses.
In ordinary circumstances he would have kicked them to their feet, but Cheon Hui did not press further.
Instead, he added a word of caution.
“If you wake too late, you’ll only suffer for it.”
The moment those words ended.
Crash!
The perimeter wall of the Bifeng Merchant Guild collapsed with a tremendous roar.
“What—what is this?!”
“What’s happening?”
The Plum Blossom Sword Masters jolted awake in panic.
But already, flames were rising from all sides of the Bifeng Merchant Guild.
Whoosh!
And as if by cruel chance, a wind had picked up; the fire spread with terrible speed.
“I told you. If you’re late, only you’ll have trouble.”
At Cheon Hui’s words, the Plum Blossom Sword Masters came to their senses with stupefied faces as the situation unfolded in an instant.
“An—an attack?”
The Bifeng Merchant Guild, barely restored, was once more engulfed by flames.
“Ahhh!”
“An attack! We’re under attack!”
As the crisis erupted in moments, people scattered in panic and bolted outside.
Tap, tap.
Then, through the rubble of the broken wall, some forty martial artists surged forth like bamboo shoots after rain, cutting off all escape.
“Hmph!”
“Mercy! Have mercy on us!”
As the servants of the Bifeng Merchant Guild trembled with terror at the sight of the martial artists radiating such lethal intent.
Step— step—
Footsteps sounded through the smoke, and So Baekgwi emerged among the warriors.
“Where are you rushing off to in such haste?”

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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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