Heavenly Demon of the Huashan Sect - Chapter 81

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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 81
Hyeon Do walked through the standoff between the Songnan Sect and the Huashan Sect.
“Master, what is the meaning of this?”
“Senior Martial Brother!”
Hyeon Jin’s chest swelled with relief.
Hyeon Do’s arrival in this moment was like ten thousand soldiers descending from heaven.
“Our sect recently gained modest renown and received an accord from the Martial Alliance, so we decided to move back to our former quarters. But the Songnan Sect refuses outright, and this dispute arose.”
Hyeon Jin glanced at the rigid Cheong Woo and emphasized the word “modest.”
“Move back to our former quarters?”
Hyeon Do’s eyes widened.
“When did our lodgings change?”
Hyeon Jin laughed awkwardly at this entirely unexpected question.
Though his senior martial brother had been traveling the Martial World recently, he suddenly remembered how he himself had been cloistered on Huashan, rarely venturing out all this time.
“The Songnan Sect had been using our former hall as their quarters.”
“Why would the Songnan Sect use our hall……?”
Hyeon Do’s voice dropped.
The notion that the Songnan Sect—of all sects—was occupying a Huashan hall sat poorly with him.
He soon clasped his fist and bowed to Cheong Woo.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am called Hyeon Do.”
“……I am called Cheong Woo.”
“Ah, so you are the Wind Cloud Sword.”
Hyeon Do nodded slightly.
The Wind Cloud Sword was an elder of the Songnan Sect with considerable martial prowess.
“I never imagined we would meet like this at the Alliance.”
“I too did not expect to meet you in such circumstances.”
A peculiar tension flowed between them.
Soon Hyeon Do spoke.
“Might I ask why you refuse to relocate the hall?”
“Yesterday you suddenly ordered us to move. How could I agree to such a thing?”
Cheong Woo replied calmly.
His demeanor now stood in stark contrast to his arrogant posturing moments before.
It was no wonder—the man before him was an Absolute Master who had greatly shaken the Martial World.
He was the Huashan Divine Sword, the slayer of the White Death God.
“Hmm. A fair point.”
Hyeon Do nodded.
Even he would refuse such a demand if given so suddenly.
“Senior Martial Brother!”
Hyeon Jin bristled at this.
“But I understand that the hall where the Songnan Sect resides was originally our own.”
His voice was flat and toneless.
Yet the weight behind it was enough to drain Cheong Woo of his composure.
“Then could you not make a concession?”
“That was ancient history. If we are to quarrel over the past, then this world belongs not to us but to nature itself, does it not?”
“What matters is the present.”
“Indeed.”
“Hmm.”
Hyeon Do stroked his chin thoughtfully, then turned his head.
“Master, I have a curiosity.”
Hyeon Jin looked puzzled at Hyeon Do’s sudden question, then his eyes brightened at what followed.
“When the Master moved halls in the past, did you receive separate permission?”
“No, I did not.”
Hyeon Jin answered with certainty.
At this, the faces of the Songnan Sect Daoists darkened.
Though they had forgotten, when they themselves had relocated their quarters to the Huashan hall in the past, it had been the same.
In fact, it had been far worse.
“What do you make of it?”
……
Cheong Woo bit his lip.
“……That too was long ago.”
“Is that so? Then might I ask one more thing?”
A chill swept down Cheong Woo’s spine in that instant, but he asked cautiously.
“……What is it, sir?”
“Why did you move your lodgings to our hall, of all places?”
“That was… decided by the Alliance, sir.”
“By the Alliance?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do.”
Hyeon Do’s eyes narrowed as he spoke Cheong Woo’s name in a low voice.
“My eyes are not holes in a wall, boy.”
Hyeon Do’s voice sank lower.
It was a whisper pulled up from the depths of a dark abyss.
“How long do you think Huashan Sect will pretend not to see Songnan Sect’s movements?”
Gulp.
Cheong Woo swallowed hard, overwhelmed.
In the next instant, a suffocating pressure seized his body completely.
“Elder martial brother?”
“What’s wrong?”
He felt a shock as he saw his martial brothers behind him watching with confusion.
‘This pressure… only for me…!’
Channeling such intense force to a single person was a technique that could never be displayed without exceptional mastery of Internal Energy control.
“I heard you ask our sect leader just now whether Huashan would become enemies with Songnan.”
“Senior martial brother?”
Hyeon Jin’s eyes widened.
“May I answer the question in his stead?”
Hyeon Do slowly pulled his chin back.
Then he opened his mouth, his bearing as though he were looking down upon all the Daoist masters of Songnan Sect.
“Becoming enemies with Songnan Sect is of no consequence.”
* * *
The Martial Alliance stirred with great excitement.
Huashan Sect and Songnan Sect had clashed!
The Huashan Divine Sword had declared he would settle things with Songnan Sect directly!
A collision between Huashan and Songnan—both of the Nine Sects and One Clan—was already the talk of gossips everywhere.
But with the recent Absolute Master, the Huashan Divine Sword, inserting himself into the conflict, it was inevitable that rumors spread through the Martial Alliance with the speed of wings.
And the Huashan Divine Sword Hyeon Do, at the center of these rumors, wore a bright smile.
“Cheon Hui, it’s been a long time.”
“It has been, hasn’t it.”
Despite Cheon Hui’s lukewarm response, Hyeon Do continued to press close.
“Nothing troublesome has happened?”
“Nothing, except what just occurred.”
“Just now? Ah!”
Hyeon Do laughed lightly.
“It was bound to happen anyway.”
“That’s true enough.”
Thinking it over, he was right.
A clash with Songnan Sect, their longtime rivals in Shaanxi, was an inevitability that could never be avoided.
Just then, Hyeon Jin, who had been watching the exchange between Hyeon Do and Cheon Hui with an astonished face, spoke up.
“It has been some time, senior martial brother.”
“And you—it’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
“You’ve become much more relaxed, sir.”
“And you’ve grown more resolute.”
Hyeon Do and Hyeon Jin exchanged smiles.
Their relationship had been ordinary before, but now, having weathered this ordeal together, their eyes held mutual trust.
“Where have you been all this time?” Cheon Hui asked Hyeon Do.
He had vanished after saying he would visit the Alliance Leader on the day of arrival.
He had disappeared after mentioning he would see the Alliance Leader on his first day here.
“Here and there, coming and going,” Hyeon Do replied with a slight smile.
“For a whole month?” Cheon Hui asked.
“Heh heh. Yes.”
Hyeon Do, chuckling, gazed at empty space for a moment as though recalling that time.

Then he set down the tea cup with a soft clink.
“Other sects from the Nine Sects and One Clan came seeking cooperation with us.”
Hyeon Jin’s eyes widened.
“Other sects, you say……?”
“Shaolin, Qingcheng, and Gae Bang.”
Hyeon Jin caught his breath.
Shaolin and Qingcheng he could understand.
They were three of the battlegrounds in the Evil Sect War now raging within the Martial Alliance.
No doubt they’d moved quickly to court the Huashan Sect, which had recently produced the Huashan Divine Sword and risen in renown.
But then.
“Gae Bang, you say?”
“Indeed.”
“Gae Bang has maintained neutrality for a very long time. Why would they suddenly wish to cooperate with us?”
“The Gaebang Leader came to me directly, wanting to join forces and build a faction.”
“A faction?!”
Hyeon Jin’s frame stiffened with surprise.
Gae Bang had always proclaimed neutrality, no matter what turmoil afflicted the Martial Alliance.
But a faction—that was something else entirely.
“He said the Evil Sect War within the Alliance has grown so fierce that it threatens to tear everything apart. He needs a force capable of maintaining balance.”
“Yet why would Gae Bang of all groups suddenly…….”
“Perhaps they find the current situation to their liking and wish to preserve it,” Cheon Hui interjected.
Cheon Hui had spoken up from the corner.
Only then did Hyeon Jin remember he was there, and he let out an awkward laugh.
“Forgive me—this may be too complicated a matter for you yet. Perhaps we should discuss it later…….”
“No, it’s fine. Cheon Hui can hear this.”
“Pardon?”
Hyeon Do smiled thinly and continued.
“I think the same as you do. The Gaebang Leader wasn’t pleased with the current state of the Martial Alliance and provided me with information.”
His gaze shifted to Hyeon Jin.
“According to the Gaebang Leader, the current Martial Alliance is plagued by petty skirmishes stemming from the Evil Sect War. Is that the truth?”
“Yes, it is.”
Hyeon Jin answered in a low voice.
“The Martial Alliance is now divided into four factions. One consists of Shaolin and Emei; another of Wudang and Songnan; a third of Qingcheng and Kunlun. The last is an alliance of smaller sects led by the Martial Alliance Leader himself. They don’t merely watch each other warily—they clash openly in various places.”
“And Geom Gak and Jeom Chang—are they neutral?”
“They are preoccupied with succession disputes within their own sects, or so I’ve heard.”
“Just as the Gaebang Leader told me.”
Hyeon Do stroked his stubbled chin thoughtfully.
“Hmm, it is indeed complicated.”
He exhaled a long breath, then drained his tea in one gulp and smacked his lips.
“Now then, let me explain why I’ve arrived so late.”
Hyeon Jin leaned forward, his expression intent.
“Every faction except Wudang and Songnan came seeking to join hands with me.”
“As expected!”
Hyeon Jin’s eyes shone.
Once, the Huashan Sect had been scorned even by lesser sects, let alone the Nine Sects and One Clan.
Yet now everyone reached out to them.
For him, it was a matter of profound emotion.
“And so?”
Cheon Hui, by contrast, remained unmoved.
‘Nothing surprising about that,’ he thought.
From their earlier conversation, he’d already gathered as much.
“So I met them in person and learned what they truly wanted.”
“What was it?”
Hyeon Do, watching the excited Hyeon Jin, answered in a cold voice.
“The Alliance Leadership Position.”
The room froze.
“The Alliance Leadership Position, you say……?”
“They want to drive him out.”
“B-but when the Eight Patriarchs withdrew from the Alliance, the Nine Sects and One Clan agreed that none would ascend to the leadership…….”
“So they plan to install a proxy to take the position.”
Cheon Hui let out an inward gasp of admiration.
‘So that’s the trick they’re playing.’
It was a method of exploiting a weakness.
Since they themselves could not ascend to the position of Martial Alliance Leader, they were planning to install a puppet instead.
It was a despicable tactic—one that even the Evil Sects or the Tianma Divine Sect would not consider.
The Nine Sects and One Clan, those supposed masters of righteousness, boasting of their purity.
“The die is already cast. All of the Nine Sects and One Clan are working to bring down the current Alliance Leader, each building their own power. And our sect has had no choice but to be drawn into that conflagration as well.”
Hyeon Do’s eyes closed slowly.
Recalling Na Han Seung, who had sought him out, the elder of Qingcheng, and the Gaebang Leader—each of them in turn—he shook his head.
“So for the past month, I’ve traveled around, meeting with them and listening to their terms.”
Hyeon Do’s gaze grew heavy.
“About which side to join hands with.”

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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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