Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 41

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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 41
Ha Wujin, startled by these sudden arrivals, was about to thrust off the ground in haste when—
Whoosh—
Someone moved faster.
“Hyeon Do?”
Hyeon Do took in the figures before him.
His face, as he regarded them, burned with a killing intent that seemed impossible for a Daoist Master to possess.
“A remarkable Gyeong Divine Method.”
So Baekgwi’s gaze fixed upon Hyeon Do, who had suddenly blocked his path, and his eyes flashed with menace.
“Did you kill Salhon Dae?”
Hyeon Do’s brow twitched.
From his counter-question, it was immediately clear the man belonged to Baekgui Sect.
“From Baekgui Sect, then.”
“Reinforcements have already arrived?”
“Gasp!”
“Baekgui Sect?!”
In that instant, Ha Wujin and the other Maehwa sword cultivators running up from behind went rigid.
“So it was true after all.”
Hyeon Do clenched his teeth.
“Are you one of the Four Direction Masters?”
“Hehehehe.”
So Baekgwi wore a frigid smile.
“If you desire an exchange of names, shouldn’t you reveal yours first?”
“……you dare!”
“Hahaha! ‘You dare’ — what a singularly unique name you bear!”
The moment his mocking laughter ceased, Hyeon Do could hold back no longer and moved.
Crack!
A swift and graceful divine technique that pierced through flames burning like white lightning.
“……!”
So Baekgwi’s pupils wavered.
Hyeon Do had demonstrated a divine technique that far exceeded his expectations.
The startled man hastily drew up his Internal Energy, and a pale white vapor enveloped him.
Screech—
The Sa-Eum Gwi-Hyeon Divine Technique, personally taught by the Baekgui Sect Master to So Baekgwi!
A biting chill permeated the air—an alien, sinister force woven from Yin Energy and Ghost Energy that wrapped around his defense.
Soon his right arm moved.
Thud!
With a dull sound, he was sent hurtling backward.
So Baekgwi retreated three paces with tottering steps, his expression contorting.
“The Gwi-Eum Palm……!”
Astonishment mingled with gnashing teeth.
Who was he, after all?
The absolute one destined to become the next Sect Master of Baekgui Sect, successor to his master—So Baekgwi.
And yet he had been forced backward.
As his pride cracked and his face twisted in fury,
“So Baekgwi.”
A low voice drifted through the gaps between the flames scattered by the rough wind.
‘That voice……?’
Hyeon Do, who had just unfolded the Maehwa Palm against So Baekgwi’s abdomen and was preparing his follow-up strike, turned his head.
Upon the shattered wall, a man stood with his left sleeve fluttering in the breeze.
The moment Hyeon Do caught sight of him, the man’s epithet came to his lips.
“Sucham Dokgeom……!”
“Ah, you know of me?”
Sucham Dokgeom’s mouth curled upward, and between his lips yellow teeth gradually showed.
“But I’m afraid I don’t know who you are, my friend. Who might you be?”
“Hyeon Do.”
Sucham Dokgeom’s eyes widened.
“The Hwasan First Sword……!”
Though he had thought there might be a Master among the Bifeng Trading Company, he had never imagined that the one known as the Hwasan First Sword would actually be here.
“But even so…….”
Sucham Dokgeom’s eyes narrowed to slits.
According to rumors that had spread across the land, Hwasan’s First Sword had yet to reach the Wuji Realm.
“Alone, he shouldn’t have been able to annihilate Salhon Dae…….”
His eyes gleamed with an eerie light as he murmured softly, surveying his surroundings.
“I see.”
Ha Wujin appeared at his side, silent and watchful, waiting for his opening.
“With the Bi-Roe Sword Master beside him, it would have been sufficient.”
His mind cleared.
If Hyeon Do—known as Hwasan’s First Sword—and the Bi-Roe Sword Master joined forces, they would indeed be more than enough to wipe out Salhon Dae.
Of course, several questions remained.
Who had wielded the Bi-Roe Sword.
And how Salhon Dae had been killed in a single strike.
But Sucham Dokgeom had no time to dwell on such matters now.
His opponents were Hyeon Do, Hwasan’s First Sword, and the Bi-Roe Sword Master, whom Jongnam Sect tacitly recognized as its future Sect Master.
‘Facing one would be manageable…….’
But taking on both alone was beyond him.
He cast a glance toward So Baekgwi.
“I’ll handle Hyeon Do. You take the Baekgui Corps and deal with the Bi-Roe Sword Master and those Maehwa Sword cultivators over there.”
“As you say.”
So Baekgwi answered as though he’d been waiting for this.
With Sucham Dokgeom taking on Hyeon Do—the most troublesome opponent—he could breathe easier.
‘It’s a shame I won’t kill him myself, but it can’t be helped.’
He’d been angered by Hyeon Do’s move just moments before, but the mission took priority.
“Then I’ll leave this to you.”
Without hesitation, he spun around sharply.
His gaze fell upon Ha Wujin and the Maehwa Sword cultivators, rigid with tension and vigilance.
“The South Direction Master?”
Ha Wujin’s mouth fell open as he recalled the title Sucham Dokgeom had used for So Baekgwi.
“You were So Baekgwi……!”
The South Direction Master of Baekgui Sect—Baeksa Divine’s sole disciple, a prodigy said to have reached the Wuji Realm at a young age.
Long ago, he and Hyeon Gang and So Baekgwi before him had been called the Three Pillars of the Next Generation who would lead Seonseo—he knew this man well.
‘For him to appear here, someone who never sets foot outside Baekgui Sect unless it’s a grave matter…….’
It was around then that Ha Wujin sensed the situation taking a dire turn.
Whoosh!
The Baekgui Corps members, positioned in a distant encirclement, moved as one, and Hidden Weapons flew through the air.
Thud-thud-thud!
The sudden ambush was devastatingly effective.
Especially the Maehwa Sword cultivators, tense from keeping watch on So Baekgwi and Sucham Dokgeom, were caught completely off guard by the projectiles descending from an unexpected angle.
“Deploy the Maehwa Butterfly Dance!”
At Jeok Geom’s cry—the first to recover—the Maehwa cultivators drew their swords.
“Hah!”
“Hah!”
“Shuh!”
Battle cries erupted from all directions.
The swords of the Maehwa cultivators left dozens of blade trails, weaving into a tight net.
The true form of the Maehwa Butterfly Dance that Jeok Geom had called for.
That is, a sword barrier.
The barrier deflected or beat aside the incoming Hidden Weapons, blocking the assault.
Their movements were so precise and swift that it was hard to believe these were the same cultivators who had been sent fleeing in panic by the enemy’s attacks days before.
“Shuh!”
“Another ambush……!”
But it had been a feint.
The Baekgui Corps threw the Hidden Weapons and immediately drew their blades, charging forward.
As the Maekgui Corps attacked from all sides with flying projectiles, the Maehwa cultivators who had been braced for defense met them head-on, and the two forces tangled in an instant.
Jeok Geom raised his sword and shouted.
“Deploy the Maehwa Sword Formation!”
In moments, the Maehwa cultivators formed a circle, each bracing their back against the others. A crimson energy enveloped their five bodies.
Rough energy for a Daoist Master.
Yet this was the very manifestation of the Maehwa Sword Formation that Hwasan Sect took pride in.
Jeok Geom and the other Maehwa cultivators faced those rushing at them like a pack of hounds.
They were a far cry from the Paewang Moon School warriors of a few days prior.
Each one, individually, was a Master of at least First Class standing.
True warriors of the Baekgui Sect, those called the Six Imperial Divisions.
Yet they did not waver.
What did it matter if the enemy was the Baekgui Sect?
“We are the Maehwa Sword Masters!”
“Gyaaaah!”
“Come on!”
“I am Hwasan’s crimson blade!”
With Jeok Geom’s cry as the signal, the other four deploying the Maehwa Sword Formation raised their blades aloft with a thunderous shout of their own.
Soon the two groups collided.
Bang! Clang! Crash!
The boom of drums, the clash of steel on steel, the rupture of air.
Each collision a different note.
Against the relentless assault of the Baekgui Corps, the Maehwa Sword Masters held their ground with iron resolve.
Not one of them, not a single warrior, showed the slightest opening—impregnable as a fortress of stone.
Among them, the three who had undergone the legendary trial of the Byeon-Che Qi Technique under Cheon Hwi were utterly transformed from before.
They parried with ease and countered with grace.
Had it been one or two, it would have been different, but when all five Maehwa Sword Masters displayed such prowess, the Baekgui Corps faltered in disbelief.
“Such swordplay at that age…….”
Jeok Geom seized the moment the Baekgui Corps member hesitated and unleashed the Maehwa Falling Plum.
Slice!
“Gah!”
A line of blood traced from shoulder blade to waist, and the Baekgui Corps member dropped to his knees.
‘When did movement become so fluid?’
‘When did the blade grow so light?’
‘Did I really just land that strike?’
Even as he calmly deflected the attack and successfully countered, he found himself bewildered.
His body felt lighter than expected, and with vitality surging through him, his Internal Energy responded far faster than he’d anticipated.
And what of the enemy’s strikes?
A palm technique infused with Internal Energy had caught him squarely in the abdomen, yet it caused him no pain.
Compared to the excruciating agony he’d endured under the Byeon-Che Qi Technique, it felt no worse than a mosquito bite.
Nor was Jeok Geom alone in this.
Jeok Jae and Jeok Woon too began deflecting the Baekgui Corps members’ attacks and launching counteroffensives.
Remembering how they’d struggled mere days ago against the Paewang Moon School warriors—far weaker than these—their growth seemed impossible.
‘Was that really training?’
‘That was actually training?’
‘Wasn’t he just tormenting us?’
The three wore bewildered expressions.
Though Cheon Hwi had called it training, they had always regarded it as punishment inflicted upon them for refusing to train.
The three exchanged glances.
Nod.
Confidence kindled in the faces of the three as they lowered their heads in affirmation.
It had been merely ten days.
Yet the change was unmistakable.
“Let’s go!”
“Let’s finish this!”
“Come on!”
As the three unleashed themselves, their momentum surged.
“I can trust them completely now.”
“Older brother, focus on your own opponent!”
Jeok Geom and Seol Ran wielded their blades with newfound brilliance, as if unleashed from restraint.
Their skill exceeded that of the three.
The Baekgui Corps, overwhelmed by sheer momentum, retreated in disarray.
Then it came.
Whoosh—whoosh—
Those who had been charging recklessly withdrew.
They ceased their headlong assault and instead spread out in a widening circle, gradually constricting around the tightly clustered Maehwa Sword Masters.
They had begun the Charwon Battle formation.
“Damn…….”
“You’ve figured it out.”
Jeok Geom and Seol Ran’s faces darkened.
Clearly not just a Baekgui Corps tactic, they had grasped that the Maehwa Sword Formation was incomplete, and they were now attempting a war of attrition instead.
Clang! Clang!
They struck and withdrew, then struck again.
The moment it seemed they might counterattack, the Baekgui fighters would leap backward to widen the distance, and in that gap another would resume their relentless assault.
With their timely rotations, the tide of battle would not turn, and instead it drifted further against the Hwasan swordsmen.
The Hwasan sword users gripped their blades tightly.
Even now they wanted to chase down the Baekgui fighters as they retreated, but they simply could not.
If they did, the Maehwa Sword Formation would collapse, and their situation would become far worse.
“To think the terrible Baekgui Sect would run away in fear.”
“Fleeing like cowards, aren’t you.”
Jeok Geom and Seol Ran spoke words meant to provoke, but their opponents remained unmoved.
Whoosh— crash!
Rather than respond, the sharp strikes and retreats only intensified and repeated.
‘Damn it!’
The taste of blood lingered in Jeok Geom’s mouth. He had bitten his lip too hard.
‘We’re trapped like fish in a net.’
The enemy’s numbers were ten times their own.
As the war of attrition stretched past a quarter hour and into prolonged fighting, Jeok Jae and Jeok Woon began to waver noticeably.
“Are you all right?”
“Ugh, ugh. I’m fine.”
“Still holding up.”
Jeok Geom clenched his lip between his teeth.
If time continued to slip away like this, defeat was certain.
* * *
Whoosh!
The Fire Demon, rising from none knew where, swallowed the entire Bifeng Trading Company whole.
Go Gyeyeong, watching the flames creep toward the main building, cried out urgently.
“Everyone evacuate!”
Perhaps because he was facing this for the second time.
His mind sharp and clear, he first made sure those around him—the servants—were safe.
Buildings could be rebuilt, but people, once dead, were gone forever.
Go Gyeyeong’s eyes suddenly widened.
“My, my lady?”
Yeon Suran was nowhere to be seen.
“Being a second time, you’re quite quick to respond.”
A voice came abruptly from behind him, and Go Gyeyeong spun around in panic.
Where there had been only empty air moments before, Cheon Hwi now stood.
And in his arms, he held Yeon Suran.
“My lady!”
Cheon Hwi handed her to Go Gyeyeong.
“She’d breathed in quite a bit of smoke and lost consciousness.”
“Thank you.”
Tears welled at Go Gyeyeong’s eyes.
Black ash clung here and there to her face.
Had he been even a moment later, she might have been trapped in the Fire Demon and lost her life.
No—there was every chance she would have.
The flames were that fierce.
“This kindness, I… how can I ever repay it.”
“Rather, why don’t you tend to the flames.”
“But the water…”
“I’ve broken through the wall leading to the lake in the rear garden.”
“The wall…!”
Go Gyeyeong immediately barked a command.
“Everyone, go to the rear garden and draw water from the lake!”
The moment Go Gyeyeong’s order fell, the servants who had finished evacuating rushed out in streams.
“I’ll go ahead.”
Cheon Hwi watched as Go Gyeyeong ran off, Yeon Suran on his back, and lifted his gaze.
“The urgent blaze is put out.”
Once everyone had left and Cheon Hwi found himself alone in the main hall, all that reached his ears was the sound of flames consuming pillars and walls.
“At least the wind is dying down now, so the fire shouldn’t spread any further.”
He tilted his head back and gazed at the sky.
The ash and flames that had been scattered in all directions by the fierce wind had gradually stilled, now rising only straight upward.
“I’d planned to simply watch from the sidelines.”
From the moment the assault began, he’d stepped away from the action, thinking he would do nothing but observe.
But that hadn’t been possible.
Perhaps because they were a heterodox sect, they’d shown themselves to be contemptible.
Those fighting against Hyeon Do, Ha Wujin, and the Maehwa Sword masters weren’t their only force.
They had divided their original numbers.
Into a main unit that revealed itself openly, and a separate squad that sought to slaughter the servants.
The ploy was to draw people’s attention by exposing the main force openly, then dispose of the trading company in secret.
“The Bifeng Trading Company is quite important to the Hwasan Sect now, after all.”
Cheon Hwi’s eyes gleamed.
Those pupils, holding within them the roaring flames, falling ash, and darkness, were eerie.
The moment his gaze lengthened.
Crack!
The air split open, and the flames exploded.
It was the Baekgui Corps members hiding in silence who were startled by the sudden change.
As they exchanged glances with one another.
Splinter!
A liquid redder than the flames rained down like a shower upon their heads, splattering everywhere, accompanied by the sound of something shattering.
“……!”
The Baekgui Corps members forgot they were hidden, staring in shock at the corpse.
The body that had fallen into the flames was gruesome.
Its upper half was utterly mangled, as if torn apart by a wild beast.
The head in particular had been so severely mutilated that it was impossible to recognize the original features—horrifying to behold.
“I-impossible?”
As those bewildered men murmured.
“You’ve gathered conveniently.”
Tap-tap-tap!
At Cheon Hwi’s sudden appearance, the Baekgui Corps grew wary, raising their weapons.
Ordinarily, in an unexpected situation, they might have panicked or wavered, but they quickly regained their composure.
They identified Cheon Hwi as the enemy, not whoever that was, and prepared to deploy their killing techniques.
It was not the movement of ordinary trained men.
It was the disciplined bearing of those thoroughly schooled in their craft—those accustomed to such situations.
And yet…….
“Nineteen of you, then.”
Cheon Hwi swept his emotionless gaze across the Baekgui Corps members one by one, his voice a whisper.
And in that instant.
Thud!
One man simply collapsed.
There was no warning, no visible change.
The Baekgui Corps fell into confusion.
‘What on earth just happened?’
‘What is this?’
The Baekgui Corps members stared blankly.
The fallen member had no thought of rising again.
Looking closely, a small hole had been drilled through his forehead, and hot blood pooled beneath him on the ground.
It was as if he’d been possessed by a phantom.
In that moment, the phantom’s mouth tore open and snow-white teeth gleamed from the darkness.
“Then shall we finish this?”
The phantom’s voice was low and measured.
In an instant, the Baekgui Corps members recalled the terror and dread they had long forgotten.
The teeth of the fear-stricken men chattered once, and after that single instant, not a single member of the Baekgui Corps remained alive.

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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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