Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 70

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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 70
‘The Family Head of the Old Guard? No wonder he seemed extraordinary.’
Now it made a certain amount of sense.
That outstanding martial prowess, that disciple defying the Family Head’s orders to accept him—it all fit.
And yet questions remained unanswered.
Why had he become a recluse in the back chambers?
Had he been stripped of his position as Family Head?
At that moment, the old man’s face crumpled.
It was the most irritated expression Cheon Hui had seen from him yet.
“What did you just say? Family Head of the Old Guard? Haven’t I told you countless times not to call me that?”
The voice poured forth like a waterfall, sharp with reproach, and Namgung Jingyeong flinched in alarm, bowing his head hastily.
“My apologies, Grandfather.”
“That’s all that matters.”
Yet despite his words, his expression remained tense.
When Namgung Jingyeong lifted his head awkwardly—
“But why do you look such a mess?”
The old man stared at Namgung Jingyeong’s battered face in shock.
The handsome youth had vanished; bruises marred his visage like watercolor stains.
“Hah, hah. These marks, you mean?”
Namgung Jingyeong touched his still-swollen cheek with an awkward smile.
“My own karma, I’m afraid.”
“Karma…?”
“Indeed.”
Watching Namgung Jingyeong answer so brightly despite his ruined face, the old man decided not to press further.
“But you haven’t set foot here in half a year, and now you’ve returned. What brings you?”
“Well, it concerns a guest of our house—”
Namgung Jingyeong began, then suddenly turned his head and smiled toward Cheon Hui.
‘Why are you staring at me?’
Cheon Hui found himself meeting Namgung Jingyeong’s sudden gaze.
“Ah, actually, I came to introduce my friend to this place.”
The statement was even more unexpected.
‘Friend? What?’
“Friend, you say?”
For a moment, Cheon Hui thought his own thoughts had slipped out.
But it was someone else who had spoken.
“A disciple of the Huashan Sect is your friend?”
The old man, a flicker of surprise in his eyes, pointed at Cheon Hui with one finger and asked.
“Yes, Grandfather.”
“But aren’t relations between our clan and the Nine Factions and One Gang rather strained?”
“Hah, hah. What does it matter if relations between our clan and the Nine Factions and One Gang are poor?”
Namgung Jingyeong, still smiling, turned his gaze to Cheon Hui.
“He is a friend whose heart resonates with mine—beyond the sight of worldly gossip.”
“We’re friends, you’re saying?”
Cheon Hui finally interjected, unable to hold back.
“Wasn’t that so?”
“What nonsense.”
He spoke flatly.
Friends? Hardly.
They’d merely crossed blades a handful of times; there was nothing between them to warrant such a claim.
But contrary to Cheon Hui’s thoughts, Namgung Jingyeong seemed genuinely to regard him as a friend, and he swayed unsteadily.
“B-but didn’t we open our hearts to each other, truly crossing swords as one?”
“When did we?”
“D-didn’t we, through sparring?”
“That was just practice.”
“How can that be…?”
Struck as if by a thunderbolt, Namgung Jingyeong knelt heavily, his expression hollow.
“Then it was all a misunderstanding on my part.”
He murmured to himself, then suddenly his eyes blazed and he shot to his feet.
“Then that means—”
Namgung Jingyeong strode forward with such volume his voice rang painfully in the ears.
“How about we become friends from today onwards?”
What?
While Cheon Hui stood bewildered, the Family Head approached with a delighted laugh.
“Heh heh heh. The second son of our clan and a Huashan Sect disciple as intimate friends—now that pleases me greatly!”
After laughing heartily for a time, the Family Head’s eyes widened as he turned to Namgung Jingyeong with a question.
“But are you certain? If you befriend a Huashan Sect disciple, you might find yourself drifting further from the successor’s position you’ve coveted so intensely…….”
Namgung Jingyeong gave an indifferent shrug.
“I may have thought differently once, but now the successor’s position and such matters hold no interest for me whatsoever.”
“You’re saying that?”
The Family Head’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Yes.”
“Yet I distinctly remember you scrambling desperately to secure the successor’s position, despite all my warnings.”
“I was a frog in a well back then. My eyes were fixed on what lay before me, blind to the vast world beyond.”
The Family Head studied him with surprised eyes.
“Are you calling our clan a well?”
“Honestly, compared to All Under Heaven, isn’t it?”
Namgung Jingyeong scratched the back of his head sheepishly, gauging the old man’s reaction.
“Ha ha ha!”
The Family Head tilted his head back and burst into hearty laughter.
“True! You’re right—our clan is indeed a well compared to All Under Heaven.”
Once his laughter subsided, his expression softened as he gazed at Namgung Jingyeong.
“You’ve changed considerably.”
“That’s what I believe as well.”
At the ready agreement, the old man’s smile deepened even further.
“A most encouraging transformation.”
“It’s all thanks to Cheon Hui.”
‘Me?’
Cheon Hui suddenly found himself being referenced by Namgung Jingyeong and turned to look at him.
When their eyes met, the younger man’s face broke into a smile.
It was a bright, refreshing smile unlike anything Cheon Hui had seen from him before.
Then the Family Head spoke to him.
“Thank you for broadening my foolish grandson’s perspective.”
“I haven’t done anything particularly noteworthy.”
“Heh heh heh. For a Daoist, your modesty knows no bounds.”
No, really, I haven’t.
Yet the Family Head, already convinced of his own narrative, gazed upon Cheon Hui with warm eyes.
“Now that I think of it, we haven’t even exchanged names properly. I’m Namgung Hansang. Once upon a time, I was called the Thunder Flash Sword…….”
The Family Head seemed to catch himself mid-sentence and added hastily,
“Though that epithet was bestowed upon me so long ago that you likely have no knowledge of it.”
“Thunder Flash Sword……?”
Yet contrary to the old man’s own assessment, the moment Cheon Hui heard that epithet, a piece of information suddenly crystallized in his mind.
A former Family Head of the Namgung Clan.
And the Thunder Flash Sword.
There could only be one such person.
“So you were among the Five Greatest Swordsmen of the World in the previous generation.”
“How did you……? I thought that epithet predated the Nine Regions Three Powers System, so you would have no way of knowing.”
Unable to fully conceal his satisfaction, the Family Head’s lips twitched upward.
No wonder he carried such strength.
Cheon Hui now understood the power radiating from him.
Despite his casual demeanor, the title of Five Greatest Swordsmen of the World was far from light.
Those swordsmen had dominated the Kangho in the era before the Nine Regions Three Powers System was established.
Common lore held that their prowess transcended even the rank of Undefeated Master, such was their excellence throughout All Under Heaven.
‘And yet here he stands in this state…….’
As Cheon Hui examined the Family Head further, a flicker of sympathy spread across his features.
‘The weight of lost glory must be tremendous.’
Could the old man have read his thoughts?
The Family Head’s expression grew peculiar.
“What is that look in your eyes?”
“What look?”
“As though you’re pitying me…….”
The Family Head swallowed his words and shook his head slowly from side to side.
‘That can’t be.’
Who in All Under Heaven would look at him that way?
“No. It’s nothing at all.”
The Family Head shook his head again.
“More importantly—would you tell me your name? Your Sect Token, that is?”
“But you already know it, don’t you?”
“I’d like to hear it directly from you.”
The Family Head’s eyes gleamed.
Facing the old man’s weighty gaze, Cheon Hui opened his mouth at once.
“Cheon Hui.”
“Cheon Hui. A fine Sect Token indeed.”
Nodding with satisfaction, he let his voice fall soft.
“Is there anything you wish for?”
“Pardon?”
“My circumstances have their limits, but I’ll help with whatever you need.”
‘Wish for?’
There was nothing to deliberate about.
“Then please spar with me.”
“Spar?”
Cheon Hui continued toward the Family Head, whose eyes had widened in surprise.
“The Namgung Clan’s Sword Technique is said to be unmatched in All Under Heaven, and I wanted to see it for myself.”
At the praise, a bright smile spread across the Family Head’s face.
“Hah! Our clan’s techniques are indeed second to none.”
A smile tugged at Cheon Hui’s lips as well.
‘They eat it up when you flatter them like this.’
Warriors always grew pleased when their school’s martial arts received praise.
Especially when it was a clan—they took even more pride in it.
“Good. You’ve done something worthy of reward.”
The Family Head spoke with open satisfaction.
‘Waiting was the right call.’
The conversation had grown long, and he’d wavered several times about whether to press the matter, but his patience had not gone unrewarded.
‘If a master of that caliber displays the Namgung Clan’s arts, the depth will be something else entirely.’
Cheon Hui’s mouth slowly fell open in anticipation.
“Can we see it right now?”
“Hah. You’re quite confident, aren’t you?”
“Without that, I’d be a corpse.”
The Family Head laughed at the youthful confidence of this Taoist.
Brilliant skill, yet still so young.
“Your abilities are outstanding, but such excessive confidence will become a grave weakness in Kangho.”
“I haven’t run into that problem yet, so I can’t say I understand.”
“Then I’ll teach you myself.”
The Family Head extended his hand toward Namgung Jingyeong, who had been watching quietly beside him.
“Could I borrow a sword?”
“Right here.”
Namgung Jingyeong immediately handed one over.
For a sword guardian to hand over their blade to another was ordinarily unthinkable, but the two shared a grandfather-and-grandson bond.
The Family Head then drew the sword.
Shing—
Cheon Hui quickly followed suit, drawing his own blade out of courtesy.
“Ah—before you demonstrate the techniques, could you tell me what martial art it is?”
“And what reason would there be for that?”
“I need to understand exactly what art I’m witnessing.”
“You’re quite interested in our clan’s martial arts.”
“……Yes, I suppose I am.”
Cheon Hui’s eyes grew deeper.
His pupils, black as a bottomless abyss, held a terrible sharpness—but that gleam vanished in the next instant, and no one who might have seen it would remember.
“Then, starting with the Thirteen Thunder Flash Sword, one of our clan’s techniques……”
The Family Head was raising his sword to demonstrate when—
“Ah! That one—never mind.”
Cheon Hui cut him off.
“I saw how that person deployed it.”
The moment those words left his mouth, Cheon Hui drew his sword and spoke in the same breath.
“Like this.”
Flash!
The blade’s gleam grazed past Namgung Hansang’s side.
“……!”
Namgung Hansang’s eyes snapped wide open.
That flash of steel just now—it was the Thirteen Thunder Flash Sword.
Perfect, if only his Internal Energy had been sufficient.
“How could you possibly know the Thirteen Thunder Flash Sword…….”
Cheon Hui watched Namgung Hansang’s dumbfounded expression and shrugged slightly.
“I told you—I saw how that person deployed it.”
As he spoke, he pointed toward Namgung Jingyeong.
The latter, having witnessed Cheon Hui’s Thirteen Thunder Flash Sword, was struggling to contain his own shock.
“You’re saying you copied it?”
“Yes.”
Namgung Hansang’s expression stiffened slightly as he beheld the confidence radiating from Cheon Hui’s face.
“……The Thirteen Thunder Flash Sword is such a superior technique that merely watching it once or twice is hardly enough to grasp its essence. Yet somehow…….”
‘That thing?’
Cheon Hui let out a soft laugh.
A warrior’s pride in their martial skill was a sacred thing.
Yet to have one’s technique replicated so swiftly—that could wound the ego considerably.
“I’ll admit, it’s such an exquisite technique that watching it just once or twice told me nothing of its true nature.”
Cheon Hui continued, noting how the rigidity drained from Namgung Hansang’s features.
“So I suppose I watched it about six times? That was enough for me to understand it.”

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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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