Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 80

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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 80
‘Huh?’
Cheon Hui, returning to the Huashan Sect’s dormitory after a long absence, found himself face to face with an unexpected scene.
“Just this last interval left! You can do it!”
“Huff, huff. Senior, please—I’m begging you—don’t tell me how much time is left. It only makes me weaker.”
“Ah. Understood.”
In the center of the Central Garden, every last member of the Plum Blossom Seven Swords was performing Mabo, sweat streaming down their faces.
‘What’s all this?’
He approached them and spoke.
“It’s been a while.”
In that instant, the exhausted disciples snapped their heads up so sharply they nearly wrenched their necks.
“Junior!”
“Cheon Hui!”
“You’re finally here?”
Just as they all broke into bright smiles and began to wind down their practice.
“You still have this last interval left, don’t you?”
Cheon Hui’s voice cut through them like a thorn.
“G-yes.”
“…That’s right.”
“We’ll catch up later.”
The disciples’ faces darkened, but they quickly shook their heads to rally themselves.
“Just give us a moment.”
“We’ll finish in no time.”
Watching them refocus, Cheon Hui couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.
‘Their skill is still far from adequate, but at least their resolve is firm.’
As he surveyed them.
“Long time no see.”
Hyeon Jin approached.
Cheon Hui, observing him fresh as morning dew without a single bead of sweat, asked quietly.
“You’re not practicing Mabo?”
“Ha, haha. I’ve already finished.”
“Is that so?”
Cheon Hui looked him up and down.
‘It looks like he did, but…’
Under that scrutiny, Hyeon Jin broke into a cold sweat before hastily opening his mouth.
“But tell me—how did your errand go?”
“It went well. All resolved.”
“I’m relieved.”
Hyeon Jin placed a hand over his chest.
A few days ago, when Cheon Hui had suddenly announced that something had come up and he was leaving, he’d tried to stop him—but the boy had simply departed before he could insist.
‘And he left his sect robe behind, going in casual clothes like that…’
Even now, Hyeon Jin itched to ask what the matter had been.
‘But the boy is no child anymore.’
He forced himself to swallow the question.
That was when Cheon Hui spoke up.
“Ah, and about this—I’ll need to prepare for a move. We’re changing dormitories.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
The abrupt statement took Hyeon Jin aback.
The transfer of dormitories was a confidential arrangement known only to the Deputy Sect Master and himself.
“That’s something only the Deputy Sect Master and I are supposed to know.”
“What?”
Cheon Hui’s brow furrowed.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you already know? The Deputy Sect Master was going to assign us a new pavilion…”
“Wait.”
Cheon Hui locked eyes with Hyeon Jin.
“Explain in detail.”
Meeting Cheon Hui’s cold gaze, Hyeon Jin flinched but soon nodded.
“Understood.”
A moment later, after hearing the full account, Cheon Hui’s eyes grew glacial and still.
‘So you two already decided to switch lodgings?’
He snapped his head up, glaring toward where the deputy commander stood.
‘How dare you use me like this?’
* * *
The next morning.
Thud. Thud.
“A guest has arrived—won’t you come out?”
At the noise, Cheon Hui—fresh from his Yungi Josik cultivation—glanced down from the window.
Beyond the pavilion’s gate stood Daoist priests in pristine white robes, pounding on the doors and shouting loudly.
Bang! Bang!
“Come out this instant!”
Voices thick with rage continued to ring through the air.
Creak—
Hyeon Jin and the Plum Blossom sword masters, quick to respond to the commotion, opened the gate.
“Infinite Buddha. What brings the Daoist priests of the Songnan Sect to our sect’s lodgings at such an early hour?”
“What brings us here?!”
“Look at the shamelessness of these people.”
“To commit such acts and then play innocent—what brazen effrontery.”
Seeing the Songnan Sect’s priests hurl accusations instead of returning courtesies, Hyeon Jin and the Plum Blossom sword masters’ brows furrowed.
“Surely your words are too harsh?”
“Too harsh?! You commit such deeds and now speak of harsh words?!”
The middle-aged priest at the front bellowed.
His voice was so powerful that even through the window, Cheon Hui’s ears began to ache.
Recognizing the gravity of the situation upon seeing the angry Daoist Cheong Woo Ja, Hyeon Jin spoke in measured tones.
“What deeds do you speak of?”
“Hmph. Playing dumb, are we?”
Cheong Woo Ja’s eyes widened sharply.
“Did you not attempt to seize the pavilion where our sect resides?”
“Wait—you came all this way over that?”
Cheon Hui, listening from above, couldn’t help but laugh.
Seize? Hardly.
Who had seized what first?
But Cheong Woo Ja, thinking otherwise, burst with fury.
“Why covet our pavilion instead of seeking a new one?!”
Hyeon Jin, meanwhile, stood bewildered.
The Songnan Sect’s lodgings?
Of course, the pavilion they occupied belonged to Huashan Sect, so reclaiming it would have been their preference—yet it was simply impossible in practice.
That was why they had resigned themselves to the newly renovated pavilion.
“We are staying in a different pavilion—”
“Wasn’t it your sect that seized ours first?”
Cheon Hui appeared in their midst.
His sudden emergence—as if he’d sprung from the very ground—made everyone flinch.
“The pavilion your sect now occupies was originally ours, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Cheon Hui.”
Ignoring Hyeon Jin’s urgent gesture to stop, Cheon Hui met Cheong Woo Ja’s gaze directly.
“Am I wrong?”
“That was long ago.”
“So you admit you took it.”
Cheong Woo Ja’s face crumpled.
“No, I didn’t admit that.”
“Didn’t you just?”
“We didn’t seize it—we obtained it.”
“That’s the same thing.”
Cheon Hui yielded not an inch.
“It’s entirely different!”
Cheong Woo Ja spat the words.
“Our sect’s pavilion was granted to us in recognition of long cooperation and shared prestige—that’s how we changed lodgings. You’re just a foolish boy spouting nonsense without understanding anything!”
Cheon Hui watched the man shake with rage and smiled mockingly.
It was painfully obvious he was just trying to bluster his way out with empty words.
“We relocated the same way.”
Cheong Woo Ja snorted derisively.
“Hmph. You think you can claim our pavilion with nothing but a little renown?”
Just as he was about to respond, something cut him off.
『Is this what you were talking about yesterday?』
Hyeon Jin’s voice reached him through Jeon Um.
『Yes.』
『The place you originally discussed with the Second Master was a different pavilion……』
『You said you wanted to reclaim the Huashan Sect’s quarters.』
『That is……』
Hyeon Jin’s eyes wavered at Cheon Hui’s transmitted words—a tone that asked what nonsense this was.
But he did want to reclaim it, just as Cheon Hui had said.
The past glory of Huashan.
Its rightful place.
And one of those things was precisely the pavilion that the Songnan Sect had seized from them.
『……You’re right.』
Hyeon Jin lifted his head sharply.
“Your words are harsh indeed.”
His rebuking gaze was cutting.
“Are you insulting our sect?”
Cheong Woo Ja was momentarily flustered by Hyeon Jin’s unusually sharp response—he who normally retreated a step.
‘Finally showing some backbone.’
Cheon Hui watched Hyeon Jin with satisfaction.
In the past, he would have backed away immediately, but now he was much changed.
“You find it so offensive that we wish to reclaim our pavilion?”
In that moment, the Daoist priests of the Songnan Sect stirred.
“What? Reclaim it?”
“That pavilion is ours!”
“Exactly! It’s been our pavilion for ages now—to attempt to seize it is simply outrageous!”
The priests of the Songnan Sect cried out in succession, and Cheong Woo Ja added a final jab.
“Having barely earned a shred of renown, now you grow arrogant and attempt such absurdities.”
This time, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen could not hold back.
“That’s too much!”
“You’re belittling everything we’ve built!”
As the Plum Blossom Swordsmen bristled at his tone, which completely disregarded their efforts, Cheong Woo Ja laughed all the harder.
“Hardship? A handful of trivial tasks, you mean? Ah—or do you refer to recently felling Heuk Hyo Sal Ma?”
Cheong Woo Ja mocked them even more.
“I see you’re pleased with the strange epithet you’ve earned—the Plum Blossom Seven Swords, or whatever—but do you truly believe a trifle like that entitles you to claim our quarters?”
Just as a few of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen were about to lose their patience and move to action,
“What about defeating Baek Gwi Seong?”
Cheon Hui interjected.
Cheong Woo Ja’s brow furrowed.
“Hmph. That was an endeavor our sect’s Hyeon Do also undertook.”
“Ah, right. That’s true.”
Cheon Hui nodded, recalling someone he’d momentarily forgotten, then shook his head.
“This doesn’t seem to be a matter of words.”
Cheon Hui turned his gaze away from the confident Daoist priests of the Songnan Sect.
“Shall we settle this outside?”
Cheon Hui’s voice dropped to barely a whisper.
“What?”
“What are you saying now……”
As everyone turned to Cheon Hui with bewildered looks at his sudden words,
“Ha ha ha. I’ve come out.”
In that instant, Seol Geom, who had been hiding behind the compound wall watching everything, emerged awkwardly with a forced smile.
Cheon Hui glared at him coldly.
“I heard you were going to handle everything yesterday. What is this?”
“I did explain that, but……”
Seol Geom’s words trailed off as his eyes met those of Cheong Woo Ja, whose eyebrows were raised defiantly.
“He simply refused to believe me.”
“Then you expect me to believe that!”
Cheong Woo Ja erupted in anger.
“I haven’t even heard reports of Suryongchai’s collapse, let alone received them. How could I believe that Huashan Sect brought it down?”
Cheong Woo Ja’s next words were astonishing.
The collapse of Suryongchai.
And by Huashan Sect, no less.
Hyeon Jin and the Plum Blossom Seven Swords disciples looked bewildered, but a name quickly surfaced in their minds.
‘Surely not!’
In the same instant, they turned to look at Cheon Hui.
Hyeon Jin then sent a mental transmission.
‘Was it you?’
‘Yes. You said we needed prestige to move the pavilion, so I handled it quickly.’
For a moment, Hyeon Jin stood dumbfounded.
He’d slipped away without a word—to bring down Suryongchai.
‘Why would he take such a dangerous risk alone…….’
Anger surged alongside his belated concern.
‘But it’s already done…….’
In the end, he could only shake his head.
‘I’ll ask him about it in detail later.’
With that mental transmission ended, Hyeon Jin turned to face Cheong Woo Ja, who stood with brazen confidence.
“No. Our sect did do it.”
Cheong Woo Ja’s face twisted at Hyeon Jin’s sudden admission.
“My words are not lies. Do I look so foolish that I would speak an obvious falsehood?”
Seol Geom then added his weight to the matter.
The lightness that had marked him until now vanished; his eyes narrowed to slits as his voice turned cold as ice.
“Wouldn’t it be better to simply admit it now?”
“Is that what this is?”
Cheong Woo Ja clenched his teeth.
“Are you and Huashan Sect conspiring to frame us and drive Songnan Sect out?”
At Cheong Woo Ja’s wild accusation, Seol Geom sighed and spoke carefully.
“What would I gain from doing such a thing?”
“Ha! What indeed—trying to join hands with Huashan Sect, no doubt!”
Cheong Woo Ja’s eyes flared wide.
He thrust his face toward Hyeon Jin.
“That pavilion can never be handed over!”
“That pavilion is ours now.”
Hyeon Jin did not yield.
He had prestige and justification both.
And with Seol Geom as a steadfast ally, there was no reason to back down.
Cheong Woo Ja’s brows twitched.
He was clearly displeased that Hyeon Jin’s previous evasiveness had given way to resolve.
“Are you saying Huashan Sect means to make enemies of us?”
Hyeon Jin flinched at that.
Cheong Woo Ja’s expression brightened at the reaction.
‘That’s right. That’s exactly what Huashan Sect is now.’
The arrogant Huashan of old, looking down on Songnan Sect, no longer existed.
Hyeon Jin’s face hardened as he spoke.
“Does it truly need to come to that?”
“It does.”
At that answer, deep lines creased Hyeon Jin’s forehead.
Songnan Sect was enormous, and by all his instincts, he should have stepped back.
But.
‘How much longer can we keep retreating?’
Now was the time to move forward.
“Is that Songnan Sect’s position? Or yours alone, Cheong Woo Ja?”
Cheong Woo Ja’s lips twisted.
“It’s Songnan Sect’s position.”
…….
As Cheong Woo Ja spoke with his chest thrust forward, Hyeon Jin exhaled deeply before opening his mouth.
“……Unlike you, I alone cannot speak for Huashan Sect.”
Cheong Woo Ja laughed sharply.
“Then perhaps you should give up…….”
“But.”
Hyeon Jin’s eyes flew wide open.
“If it comes to that, I will stand against the Jongnampah alone if I must.”
“……!”
Cheong Woo Ja feigned surprise.
But that was not the end of it.
The Plum Blossom sword masters came pouring out.
They lined up beside Hyeon Jin and spoke with ringing voices.
“We shall follow you.”
“Master, I am with you as well.”
As the Jongnampah Daoists grew tense and watchful at their display.
“What in the world are you doing!”
A deafening roar came crashing down.
The force of it was so stunning that all present — whether from Jongnampah or Huashan — turned their heads in bewilderment.
At the epicenter of the roar stood a man of immense, towering build.
Had it not been for the Sect Robe he wore, one might have mistaken him for a brigand — so fierce and savage was his expression.
“B-brother!”
“Senior!”
“The Huashan Divine Sword?!”
He was Hyeon Do, master of the Huashan Divine Sword.

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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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