Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 42

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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 42
“At last the tide is turning in our favor.”
So Baek Gwi’s expression hardened slightly as he watched the tangled melee between the Baek Gwi Dae and the Maehwa Geom Soo fighters unfold before him.
The Maehwa Geom Soo, if one could call them that, were still barely more than children—and there were only five of them.
Compared to the fifty or so members of the Baek Gwi Dae he’d brought, the disparity was roughly tenfold.
Yet somehow they maintained an even match.
“Were the Maehwa Geom Soo truly this formidable?”
So Baek Gwi’s brow furrowed.
‘If these are the Maehwa Geom Soo recruits and they’re holding their own like that against the Baek Gwi Dae…’
The Baek Gwi Seong kept intelligence on the Hwa San Pa updated daily, constantly gathering fresh information.
Yet the Maehwa Geom Soo’s caliber exceeded what he’d anticipated.
Of course, if he stepped in himself, he could resolve the situation swiftly regardless—but that wasn’t the point.
“Your opponent is I.”
Ha Woo Jin, his brow creased with fury, stood his ground before him.
“The Snow Lotus Sword Master, wasn’t it?”
So Baek Gwi twisted one corner of his mouth into a smirk.
“Someone I’ve long wanted to see.”
Ha Woo Jin’s eyes narrowed to slits.
He was barely containing the rage that had swollen to his throat.
What they had done was abominable.
Not only had they launched a sudden assault, but they’d set the Bi Pung Sang Dan ablaze without mercy.
He had no way of knowing how many had perished in the flames.
“…You will answer for your crimes.”
“Hahahaha!”
At Ha Woo Jin’s declaration, So Baek Gwi’s eyes widened before he burst into laughter.
But while his mouth gave voice to the merriment, his eyes remained utterly cold.
A moment later, the laughter ceased abruptly.
“Answer for crimes? That’s what you and yours should be doing, not I.”
So Baek Gwi returned the blow in kind.
From his perspective, it was they who bore the debt—they who had slain Sal Hon Dae.
Whoosh!
In an instant, ten members of the Baek Gwi Dae surrounded Ha Woo Jin and unleashed a volley of hidden projectiles.
Ha Woo Jin, having anticipated the assault, raised his blade and swept it in a circle.
Ting, ting, ting!
A sharp metallic cry rang out as the incoming projectiles scattered in all directions.
Then came the moment.
Whistle—
A hidden projectile, different in sound from those before, keener and more lethal, arrowed toward his left shoulder.
Snap!
He thrust his foot forward desperately and twisted his head to the side, but he couldn’t evade the sudden attack completely.
“Ugh!”
His robe tore across the left shoulder, leaving a long gash. Blood beaded along the line and trickled down to his wrist.
Biting his lip, he raised his gaze.
So Baek Gwi stood before him, a Bi Soo and a Cheol Pyeon wedged between his fingers, his eyes burning with intent.
“Yet this is unexpected. I’d heard that the Jong Nam Pa and the Hwa San Pa were at odds recently, but I never imagined you’d move in concert.”
“…No matter how strained relations between our sect and the Hwa San Pa have become, if the Baek Gwi Seong is the enemy, is it not only natural?”
“Ah, I see your point.”
So Baek Gwi’s thin smile widened as he flicked his wrist, releasing the remaining Bi Soo and Cheol Pyeon in a spray.
Whistle—
Ha Woo Jin slashed through the air, deflecting the projectiles hurtling toward him with his blade.
Hissss—
Snow-white light bloomed across So Baek Gwi’s black pupils like frost settling on glass.
It was the phenomenon that manifested when the Nae Gong of the Saeum Gwi Hyun Sin Gong was unleashed.
Then he planted his foot firmly against the ground.
Flash!
As he infused his Nae Gong into the Baek Gwi Ya Haeng, his movements became grotesquely fluid.
His form stretched and elongated, and in the next instant, he was already bearing down upon Ha Woo Jin.
Startled by the uncanny assault, Ha Woo Jin swung his blade to meet him.
Slash— slash—
So Baek Gwi evaded every strike with nothing more than a subtle turn of his head.
It was agile, fluid movement.
Yet that was far from the whole of it.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind rose. In that instant, he pivoted on his left foot and unleashed the Gak Beop.
Ha Woo Jin raised his forearm to block the vicious technique aimed at his ribs.
“Ungh!”
A dull pain shook through his entire body.
Had he failed to block it, he would have coughed up blood—the force was that savage.
Knocked back a step, Ha Woo Jin reset his grip on his blade and drove it forward.
It was the Cheonha Samsipyuk Geom, the celebrated sword technique of Jong Nam Pa.
“Hah!”
So Baek Gwi sucked in a sharp breath at the piercing sword form and leaped backward.
Flutter—
His torn garment scattered in the wind, caught by the Cheonha Samsipyuk Geom, and was consumed by the flames, turning to ash.
In the span of a single breath, their probing exchange had revealed much.
Both now understood that neither was beneath the other.
“The Cheonha Samsipyuk Geom, then.”
So Baek Gwi’s form vanished as he grasped Ha Woo Jin’s sword method at a glance.
“Where are you!”
Ha Woo Jin swung his blade horizontally toward So Baek Gwi, who had materialized before him.
Whoosh!
In that instant, So Baek Gwi ducked low.
His jet-black hair rippled in the air above him, suspended as if frozen.
Boom!
The sound of wind being crushed rose from beneath Ha Woo Jin’s chin, drawing ever closer.
He jerked his head down urgently. A palm strike radiating yin-tinged energy that made his skin crawl was ascending from below.
“Gasp!”
Startled, Ha Woo Jin arched his back sharply, barely evading the strike, though the shockwave still reached him.
Ugh—
A groan escaped him unbidden.
Pressing his head with urgent fingers, Ha Woo Jin forced his reeling body upright.
“You dodged that?”
So Baek Gwi’s eyes widened in surprise.
It was a Gwi Eum Jang—the Ghostly Yin Palm—delivered with cunning speed, powered by the Nae Gong of Saeum Gwi Hyun Sin Gong.
It had reached mere inches from its mark, and he had not doubted for an instant that it would connect.
Yet he had barely escaped it.
Thrum—thrum—
Ha Woo Jin shook his head roughly.
The strike had grazed him, and his jaw still tingled; his vision had become a complete blur.
So Baek Gwi and the surrounding landscape wavered and melted like rippling water.
“Even a near miss is this severe. If I’d failed to dodge…”
Drip—
Cold sweat beaded on Ha Woo Jin’s brow.
This was no ordinary opponent.
Breathe—
He exhaled a deep, measured breath from the pit of his lungs.
So Baek Gwi was no one to face while nervous and distracted.
Then, a gentle and pure energy suffused through his entire frame.
One of Jong Nam Pa’s celebrated divine techniques—the one that had earned him the alias of Bi Yeon Geom Gun.
The Hyun Cheong Geon Gang Gi now revealed itself through him.
* * *
“The threshold of Mu Geuk Ji Gyeong.”
Cheon Hwi rested his chin on his hand, watching the battles unfold before him.
He might have appeared to be a man of leisure, but anyone who learned what he was sitting upon would fall silent without question.
A mountain of corpses, mangled and crushed.
Cheon Hwi was perched atop it.
“Much of a muchness.”
His eyes remained steady as he observed the fierce clash between Bi Yeon Geom Gun and So Baek Gwi.
Evenly matched, a battle of titans locked in struggle.
Yet soon he turned his gaze away.
It didn’t matter to him which of them won.
Sure, they said the man was an old friend of his master, but what difference did that make? He didn’t even know who his master was.
A thin whistle cut through the air.
Cheon Hwi’s gaze swept toward the distant inferno burning bright against the darkness.
The roaring flames surged skyward like a dragon ascending to heaven, illuminating the black night with fierce brilliance.
The onrush of fire was so violent that even those drawing water from nearby wells to suppress it could only stand mesmerized, helpless to approach.
‘Taking longer than I thought.’
Cheon Hwi’s eyes turned toward the heart of the blaze.
Within the searing flames, Hyun Do and Soo Cham Dok Geom clashed their blades against each other.
“His skill has definitely improved.”
Cheon Hwi watched as Hyun Do deflected Soo Cham Dok Geom’s sword and countered.
Perhaps because his opponent bore the weight of Baek Gwi Seong.
Or perhaps now that he had reached the Celestial Realm, Hyun Do displayed his prowess openly before the martial world without restraint.
The endless dance of the Maehwa Geom Beop unfolded relentlessly.
Yet Soo Cham Dok Geom was no easy opponent.
Despite the handicap of fighting with one arm, he parried Hyun Do’s techniques, deflected them, and launched his own counterattacks.
Not only that.
As time passed, his Nae Gong grew more intense, and his blade strikes fell like a cutting wind through the desert.
After a brief exchange, both fighters stopped.
Now, as they regarded each other warily, a chilling aura spread in all directions—a signal that the true battle for life and death was about to begin—and it swallowed even the roaring flames in an instant.
The fire dimmed and darkness bloomed between them.
In that space, they locked eyes.
But that moment was fleeting.
Boom!
An explosion erupted between them.
“Why is he being so timid?”
Cheon Hwi’s expression darkened as he spoke.
Hyun Do was more cautious than expected.
As if he hadn’t yet grasped the true extent of his own realm.
‘If he’d just realize his realm surpasses his opponent’s, it would be over.’
He clicked his tongue and turned his gaze away.
The gap between them was already unmistakable—there was no need to watch further.
“How are those two faring?”
He turned his head sharply.
Cheon Hwi’s eyes shifted to the chaotic melee where the Maehwa Geom Soo and the Baek Gwi Dae clashed.
“Still pushing it, are they.”
Though they’d held their own better than expected at first, numerical disadvantage grew heavier with each passing moment.
The current situation made that plain.
The five who had been holding their own against the Baek Gwi Dae now found their limbs growing heavy.
They hadn’t felt it yet amid the endless fighting, but the exhaustion would strike hard soon.
“Still, they’ve lasted longer than I’d have wagered.”
Cheon Hwi, who had been murmuring to himself, raised his index finger.
A faint whistle pierced the air.
A thin wind force erupted, deflecting the blade of a Baek Gwi Dae member who had been aiming for Jeok Bi’s back of the head.
Struck by the impact, the blade wavered violently and cut through empty air beyond Jeok Bi, who pivoted sharply on his left foot and slashed cleanly across his attacker’s waist.
“We’ve gleaned enough now.”
Cheon Hwi rose slowly to his feet.
He stood, trampling a mangled corpse beneath him, and surveyed the entire battlefield before speaking.
“Time to end this.”

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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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