Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 5

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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 5
Flip. Flip.
He turned the pages of the Martial Art Text without pause.
The passages of the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps went by in quick succession.
To any observer, it might have looked like a child leafing through a book carelessly, but Cheon Hwi was deadly serious.
At last he reached the end.
Snap.
He closed the text, shaking his head.
“It’s different from what that old woman performed.”
He spoke with certainty, then flipped the book upside down to check if perhaps it was defective, peered into the corners just to be sure, hesitating for a moment.
Scratch. Scratch.
He rubbed the back of his head.
“What is this? The technique she performed wasn’t the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps? No, it couldn’t have been anything else.”
He simply couldn’t make sense of it.
The cover of the text clearly read Jade Ring Mysterious Steps, and its contents matched perfectly with the footwork technique the old woman had demonstrated.
And yet something was off.
The Jade Ring Mysterious Steps was a supreme technique that even Wudang and Shaolin had coveted.
There was a time when he’d thought that in footwork, speed was what mattered—what need was there for principle or enlightenment?
But that misconception had been shattered by three things: the Heavenly Demon Reign Steps recorded in the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, the Cloud Dragon Great Nine Forms of the Kunlun Sect, and finally this Jade Ring Mysterious Steps.
From the Heavenly Demon Reign Steps, he’d learned that footwork itself could command overwhelming power.
From the Cloud Dragon Great Nine Forms, he’d grasped the importance of footwork in executing martial techniques.
And from the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps, he’d discovered that footwork was the very foundation of all martial arts—allowing him to refine and improve his own deficient footwork.
But this was supposed to be that Jade Ring Mysterious Steps?
He clicked his tongue.
The Jade Ring Mysterious Steps still vividly etched in his memory was an extraordinary yet unique footwork rooted in the Eight Trigrams.
Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth.
The Eight Trigrams—each signifying one of these principles—merged Heaven and Earth, the two trigrams that created all things, with the six trigrams that governed them. And the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps was a footwork technique that employed these eight trigrams.
The arms and legs represented Heaven and Earth respectively, while the remaining six trigrams were expressed through footwork itself.
‘Like this.’
He stepped forward slowly with his left foot.
Whoosh.
Cheon Hwi’s sole touched eight directions at once.
Deep as a lake, soft as water.
Powerful as fire, swift as thunder.
Wavering as wind or solid as mountain.
His footwork became kaleidoscopic in the blink of an eye. Dozens of footprints were stamped across the ground in an instant.
Tap.
After a moment, his feet—which had been moving ceaselessly across all directions—came to a halt.
He frowned while looking at the text.
His Internal Energy fell short, preventing him from executing it fully to the end, but at the final stage the eight trigrams should have merged into one.
This would create the true Heaven and Earth, completing the Jade Ring.
This was the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps he knew.
Yet the instruction text contained missing passages in the middle sections.
What remained was Heaven and Earth.
And only three trigrams—Fire, Thunder, and Wind.
So what was the result?
‘It had become a half-baked footwork that pursued nothing but speed.’
But was it even fast?
Not even that.
The original Jade Ring Mysterious Steps was far swifter.
And without the original variations it once possessed, it lacked fluidity as well.
‘How did that old woman read this and perform such a Jade Ring Mysterious Steps?’
This incomprehensible question burrowed deeper into his mind.
With only instruction passages that had such obvious gaps, completing the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps would be difficult even for him—let alone for someone else.
So was that old woman a genius like himself?
That wasn’t the case.
She had merely reached the Martial Extreme Realm through relentless effort, more a person of talent than true genius.
Yet she had created such a technique?
It made no sense.
One question led inevitably to the next.
He fell into thought for a moment, then arrived at two possible explanations.
‘Either the crucial passages lost from the text had been transmitted through oral tradition, or someone had deliberately left only half the instructions for the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps out of fear it might be stolen.’
He shrugged.
There were still martial sects whose arts were passed down orally, and there were places that deliberately hid the key passages of important texts.
‘In the Heavenly Demon Scripture Repository alone, there were eccentric texts with deliberately twisted instructions so that no one but the author could master them.’
He frowned, gazing at the repository around him.
Countless martial texts lined the shelves.
Looking at all these volumes, there was no telling how many others might have missing passages like the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps.
‘Though none of it will be of use to me.’
He replaced the text indifferently and let his gaze wander.
“Then shall I read the next one?”
With renewed interest, he withdrew the book positioned beside the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps.
“Hmm, this one…….”
He shelved the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps and took up the neighboring volume.
He opened it and soon became absorbed in its contents.
Thus a long time passed.
Meanwhile, Hyeon Cheong set down the text he had been annotating and rose from his desk.
“The sun is setting again today.”
The sun hung low on the mountain’s edge, slowly descending.
The sky grew redder by the moment.
The evening glow gently enveloped Huashan Sect, painting it in beautiful hues.
As he gazed at the landscape,
he suddenly stood up.
Occupied with his work, he had momentarily forgotten.
That Cheon Hwi, who had arrived early that morning, had not come back down.
He hurried up the stairs. Soon he reached the third floor, and his footsteps halted.
Cheon Hwi sat on the floor, utterly absorbed in a martial text he held in his hands.
“……So you were starving for martial arts.”
A bitter smile played at the corners of his mouth.
Then he renewed an old resolve.
‘Disciple. Though I could not help you then, if you wish to study martial arts, I will teach you everything I have learned in my lifetime.’
Hyeon Cheong’s resolve was remarkable.
It was a fact known only to the elders of Huashan Sect, but he was among the highest masters in terms of martial skill. The reason he became the keeper of Manjing Pavilion was because of the death of his youngest disciple, Hyeon Gang.
Hyeon Gang had met his end in mutual destruction with a master of White Ghost Castle, the Absolute Annihilation Sword.
Huashan Sect had wanted revenge.
But it could not be.
The Martial Alliance, centered around the Nine Major Sects and Unified Faction.
The Feitian Society, formed by the Eight Great Families and the moderate sects between orthodox and heterodox.
And the Evil Black Alliance, comprised of evil sects and dark paths.
The Three-Way Division of Heaven and Earth—the era of the Nine Provinces Three Hegemon.
And White Ghost Castle was one of the Six Imperial Gates that sustained the Evil Black Alliance.
If the two pivot sects of the Martial Alliance and Evil Black Alliance were to clash, a war between the two great powers would inevitably spread, and the balance that had long maintained the Central Plains would undoubtedly be shattered.
In a way, a choice for the greater good.
Yet Hyeon Cheong had been devastated.
What if it had been Wudang or Shaolin instead?
They would have gone to war without hesitation.
But it was Huashan that had to yield.
Had the sect’s prestige remained as it once was, such treatment would never have been tolerated.
So he had shut himself away in Manjing Pavilion.
All because no supreme master had emerged from his sect.
So he devoted himself to excavating the martial arts stored in Manjing Pavilion, seeking to resurrect the lost or scattered techniques of Huashan’s past.
For eight years he remained in the pavilion, poring over and annotating martial texts with obsessive dedication.
And there was one thing he had taken an interest in.
Cheon Hwi, who was frail beyond measure.
‘With that constitution, becoming a master would be difficult; teaching him enough martial arts to defend himself would suffice.’
Of course, his interest was born not of hope but of pity.
Click.
Just then, Cheon Hwi closed his book.
“You should rest now.”
“Understood…… yes.”
Hyeon Cheong laughed as he watched Cheon Hwi gaze wistfully at the library before turning to descend the stairs.
A moment later, seeing Cheon Hwi slip out of Manjing Pavilion beyond the railing, Hyeon Cheong tidied the library section labeled “Lightness Skill.”
Tap.
Then his gaze fixed on the floor.
Footprints overlapped in chaotic patterns.
“Heh, so he was restless after reading martial texts for the first time.”
The image of Cheon Hwi, flushed with the thrill of discovering martial arts texts, flickered through his mind.
Hyeon Cheong smiled warmly for a moment, then walked past that spot.
Unaware that within those very texts lay the profound secrets of the Jade Ring Mysterious Steps—that long-forgotten transcendent art he had so desperately sought.
* * *
Thud.
Cheon Hwi closed the book again.
‘Next.’
Four days had already passed.
During that time, Cheon Hwi had been methodically scouring the three levels of Manjing Pavilion and reading, yet still had not gotten through most of the collection.
Had he been his former self, this would have been unthinkable.
Because he possessed such exceptional Five Spiritual Roots that a single reading would imprint not only the content of a martial text but the very principles behind it into his mind.
But there was a reason he could not do so now.
With practiced ease, he made his way to the bookshelf and pulled out another martial text, opening it.
Tsk, this one’s ruined too.
The Jade Maiden Pure Heart Sword Technique.
The text contained an entirely different interpretation of the sword method centered on yin energy.
‘What? The Jade Maiden Pure Heart Sword Technique is the advanced form of the Virtuous Lady Sword?’
He shook his head firmly.
The two arts were fundamentally different in nature.
The Virtuous Lady Sword, rather than being a true sword technique, was a purely physical conditioning exercise with no practical application—it operated on entirely different principles from the Jade Maiden Pure Heart Sword Technique, which transformed yin energy into its method.
He couldn’t fathom who had written such nonsense.
‘Again?’
“Ugh.”
He closed the martial text with a sigh.
There were so many incorrectly transcribed texts like this.
As a result, it was taking considerable time to trace through each art one by one and identify the errors.
Click.
He reshelved the Jade Maiden Pure Heart Sword Technique.
At least when he encountered entirely new martial arts he had never seen before, he could read through them with interest and move on lightly.
But some of these arts, he already knew—or had at least observed them before.
And so, almost unconsciously, he had begun to examine them with a critical eye, making comparisons.
“This is completely wrong.”
With a displeased expression, he shook his head and reached for the martial text slanted against the shelf right beside the Jade Maiden Pure Heart Sword Technique.
“The Falling Petal Sword Technique?”
Upon discovering a text for a sword technique he had only heard rumors of in the past, his eyes brightened with interest as he opened the book.
As he read intently, he naturally raised his arm and clenched his fist as if grasping a sword.
“This part is a bit unsatisfying, isn’t it? Wouldn’t gathering this form inward be more powerful than extending it outward?”
He extended his arm fully.
Whoosh!
His slender fist shot out like lightning, the air split, and sound erupted.
Bang!
“With this execution it would be fierce and sharp, yet they interpreted it this way? Is this really the Huashan Sect I know?”
The more he read through the martial texts housed in Manjing Pavilion, the more questions arose.
The Huashan Sect he knew was counted among the very best of the Nine Major Sects and Unified Faction.
It stood shoulder to shoulder with Wudang and Shaolin.
But what was this?
The martial arts recorded here were so sloppy that they hardly seemed worthy of the Huashan Sect at all.
The only exceptions were signature techniques of the Huashan Sect like the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique and Dark Fragrance Drift—these were flawlessly refined masterworks.
They were exceptional enough to rival the elite demonic arts of the Heavenly Demon Divine Church.
But those were only a handful.
Most of the collection was in this state.
No wonder the sect leader is only at that level.
Now he understood the sect leader’s martial prowess.
No matter how brilliant the advanced techniques might be, if the foundational arts that support them are inadequate, what use is it?
The seed bed must be rich and fertile for the harvest to be lush and abundant.
But if one had created such barren ground as this, even the finest seed would yield meager returns.
Better to change things myself. If I master most of these martial arts the way they’re written in the texts, they won’t be worth much anyway.
I was clicking my tongue and shaking my head when—
Wait.
My eyes caught on a weathered tome sitting on the highest shelf of the bookcase.
Demon Slaying Sword Technique.
The aggressive, domineering name of the technique was so at odds with Daoism that my hand moved of its own accord.
I opened the martial text at once.
“Huh? It reverses demonic energy?”
I laughed softly.
Demonic energy was an absolute force.
It could never be defied.
But it twists demonic energy? That’s impossible……? Wait? What’s this? It actually seems feasible? Could it be…….
The pages whispered as I turned them.
I was drawn in completely, absorbed in the text as if under a spell.
I closed the book.
I stared into empty air for a moment, then shut the text.
A lingering resonance remained.
Especially the final form.
“Is this madman serious? Betting one’s original true essence for a single strike?”
A technique of mutual destruction, paid for with life itself.
It was truly a remarkable form.
I had marveled at the Demon Breaking swordwork written before it, but at that final move, I trembled at its ferocity.
Yet as I read on, I found myself nodding.
It was a formidable form, deployable only once.
Once that would be enough to strike me down, had I been careless in the past.
“I probably wouldn’t die, but I could be gravely wounded……. But who conceived this technique? You’d have to despise the demonic way with utter fervor to even dream up such a mad sword form.”
I pored over the martial text carefully, searching for the creator of the Demon Slaying Sword Technique.
Then I found it.
“Sang…… Un?!”
My eyes flew wide with shock.
Sang Un? That was that wretched Trickster Daoist!
As I recalled the Trickster Daoist who had tormented me endlessly, I urgently flipped through the martial text again.
The book was considerably aged.
As if much time had passed.
……How…… how could this be?
My hands began to tremble.
Shock gave way to urgency; I quickly sought out Hyeon Cheong to make sense of this.
I soon found him in a corner of Manjing Pavilion, composing a martial text as usual.
“Master.”
At the sound of my voice, Hyeon Cheong set down his brush with an expectant expression.
“What is it?”
Hyeon Cheong collected his thoughts carefully.
He was preparing to explain a technique to me.
But his thoughts spiraled into a maze at my next words.
“Do you…… know of someone called Sang Un the Immortal……?”
My face twisted with distaste.
‘I can’t believe I have to call that perverse, vile Trickster Daoist by the title “Immortal.”‘
That was when Hyeon Cheong tilted his head.
“Sang Un the Immortal?”
He furrowed his brow in thought for a moment, then upon seeing the martial text in my hands, his expression brightened.
“Ah! You must mean Sang Un the Immortal, the honored ancestor who was our sect’s twenty-third headmaster. Back three hundred years ago, when our sect enjoyed its greatest renown…….”
Hyeon Cheong’s explanation continued.
But I was not listening.
One word from what he said had burrowed into my mind and was tearing it apart.
“Three…… hundred years ago?!”

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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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