Chapter 253 – Mount Hua Has Fist Demon (3)

Bang!

The first to fly away as bloody pulp was a Mad Demon Hall warrior. His face and upper body were crushed beyond recognition as he rolled on the ground, as if hit by a massive rock.

There was no scream, no resistance. Dam Ho leaped over his mashed corpse.

Boom!

Another explosion rang out. This time three or four Mad Demon Hall warriors flew in all directions.

Their speed flying back was twice as fast as their charging speed.

There wasn't even time to understand what had happened. With each explosion, Mad Demon Hall warriors flew away without even screaming.

It was like a massive storm sweeping through. Those caught in the storm lost their lives regardless of martial arts level.

Whoosh!

An energy current swirled around Dam Ho's body. It was the Violent Demon Energy with explosive force.

With the Violent Demon Energy wrapped around him, Dam Ho threw his body at the enemies. Everything touched by his Violent Demon Energy exploded.

The sight of human bodies exploding like firecrackers instilled terrible fear in the Demon Cult warriors.

"Ahhh!"

"Such a monster…"

Eventually some warriors appeared who threw away their weapons and fled. Dam Ho paid them no attention and threw his body straight ahead.

His target was Sang Han-cheon.

Instinct told him. Taking down Sang Han-cheon would end today's war.

"Hyah! Soul-Chasing Cross Energy!"

Dan Ho-sang blocked Dam Ho's path. Dan Ho-sang's spear released energy.

Swish swish swish!

At that moment Dam Ho's body wavered like a candle flame. Though charging in a straight line, he swayed just his upper body to completely avoid Dan Ho-sang's spear strikes.

"Huh!"

By the time Dan Ho-sang widened his eyes, Dam Ho had already reached point-blank range.

Dam Ho unleashed the Five Finger Dark Breaking Energy. Just before his five fingers could attach to the chest, Dan Ho-sang barely managed to block with his spear shaft.

Bang!

"Kuhk!"

Dan Ho-sang flew back with his spear. Dam Ho pursued Dan Ho-sang at terrifying speed.

Flying black hair, emotionless eyes flashing between. And Dan Ho-sang's shocked face reflected in those eyes.

At that moment, a completely irrelevant thought entered Dan Ho-sang's mind.

'Wasn't he definitely limp? How can a limp person move like this?'

Dam Ho's imperfect left leg planted into the ground. Using his left foot as an axis, his right leg flew in a straight line.

Swoosh!

It was a kicking technique with a completely different trajectory from the Blood Sky Kick or Crushing Devil Kick he usually used. So Dan Ho-sang couldn't respond in time. All he could do was concentrate internal energy in his abdomen.

Dan Ho-sang didn't know. That was his greatest mistake.

Crack!

Dam Ho's leg pierced through Dan Ho-sang's abdomen. The internal energy concentrated in his abdomen was useless.

"Guh!"

Dan Ho-sang's mouth gaped at the shocking pain from his abdomen.

It was the Charging Kick.

It was the evolved and completed form of the Charging Step. The Charging Step that could break castle walls, the Charging Kick was a kicking technique that concentrated that powerful force to a single point.

It was Dam Ho's unique kicking technique different from the Crushing Devil Kick or Blood Heaven Kick he often used. The Charging Kick was the result that had made Dam Ho spend countless sleepless nights.

Dan Ho-sang's body collapsed like a sand castle. In his eyes as the light of life faded, doubt still remained unresolved.

'How?'

Until his last breath, Dan Ho-sang couldn't understand how he was dying.

Dam Ho charged past Dan Ho-sang. Darkness wavered in his pupils.

"How… can this be!"

An urgent look appeared on Sang Han-cheon's face.

After Hwang Yeol, now Dan Ho-sang too. Even the Mad Demon Hall warriors couldn't hold Dam Ho back.

Everything he had believed in was crumbling.

Dam Ho was approaching with unstoppable momentum. Sang Han-cheon wasn't someone who wouldn't know he was the target.

"St-stop him!"

An urgent voice burst out without him realizing.

Though normally more cold-headed than anyone, at this moment he couldn't be.

A military advisor like Sang Han-cheon categorizes and predicts all humans by type. Understanding a person based on martial power, personality, and various data to establish countermeasures.

Until now, Sang Han-cheon's methods had never failed. So he was blind to his methods.

But now for the first time, a being appeared that denied his common sense. The human called Dam Ho didn't fit within his defined methods and calculations.

The very existence of Dam Ho completely shook his common sense. That's why he couldn't help but be terrified.

Dam Ho launched his body high into the air. What goes up must come down. As his body fell, Dam Ho used the Thousand-Jin Drop.

Swoosh!

With a tremendous sound of splitting air, Dam Ho's body drove straight down toward Sang Han-cheon.

"Danger!"

At the critical moment, Il-mong hugged Sang Han-cheon and quickly moved away. Dam Ho's form drove straight down where Sang Han-cheon had been.

Bang!

With an earth-shaking explosion, terrifying shockwaves swept through the area. Rising dust blocked people's vision.

After a moment, wind blew away the dust revealing a truly horrific sight.

Like a meteor had fallen, there was a huge crater about five zhang wide, and dozens of corpses were scattered around it. They were all Military Department warriors who had been guarding Sang Han-cheon.

The corpses of those who died as if hit by a thunderbolt were beyond horrific.

"Ugh!"

Sang Han-cheon let out a pained groan at the unbelievable sight.

Until now, Sang Han-cheon had controlled the Demon Cult with just his superior intellect. The number of people who had lost their lives at his word easily exceeded hundreds. But no death was more horrific than the sight before his eyes.

Dam Ho stood up.

His entire body was creaking. Though he had raised his vitality with the Life-Saving Poison Pill, that didn't mean he had completely returned to normal. It was just a temporary effect. Forcing such a body made his entire body scream.

Still Dam Ho moved. Because the enemy was before his eyes.

"Uwaaah!"

"A-a demon!"

The Demon Cult warriors in the area fled in panic.

Just one fist-sized hole was enough to break a massive dam. Dam Ho had thrown his entire body to make that hole.

"Take them down!"

"Die!"

Mount Hua Sect warriors and heroes rushed through the hole Dam Ho had made.

The warriors who had only been pushed back until now gained courage and charged, and turning back a tilted scale was never easy.

Dam Ho's overwhelming presence dominated the battlefield. The blood scent flowing from his body was enough to paralyze people's reason.

A single master completely reversed the tilted situation. At this unbelievable sight, Sang Han-cheon lost his mind.

"This can't be!"

"We must retreat!"

Il-mong pulled Sang Han-cheon's hand. Even while being pulled by Il-mong, Sang Han-cheon couldn't take his eyes off Dam Ho.

"Fist…Demon."

Focus gradually returned to his turbid eyes.

Sang Han-cheon bit his lip until it bled.

'Mount Hua's core wasn't Hyeon-cheon or Hyeon-geom. It was Fist Demon. That one is Mount Hua, and Mount Hua is that one. Predicting Mount Hua without considering him was my greatest mistake.'

A cold wind blew in his heart.

Even now, Dam Ho was walking toward Sang Han-cheon.

Though limping, he didn't stop for a moment. His appearance was truly terrifying. Enough to plant fear in the heart of Sang Han-cheon who had lived without knowing the emotion of fear.

Sang Han-cheon looked around.

Smoke was rising from all over Mount Hua. And many had died. Most of the important Mount Hua figures targeted had lost their lives. Just that much had achieved their primary objective.

Sang Han-cheon turned and said:

"Retreat."

"Yes sir!"

Il-mong conveyed Sang Han-cheon's order to the Demon Cult warriors.

War drums announcing retreat rang out everywhere. The Demon Cult warriors withdrew like the ebbing tide. While doing so, they didn't forget to block Dam Ho and Mount Hua Sect warriors' pursuit.

The Military Department warriors threw their bodies to block Dam Ho.

"You shall never harm the Military Advisor!"

Even while falling to Dam Ho's fists, the Military Department warriors clung to him until the end.

If one wasn't enough then two, if two weren't enough then four, thus dozens, hundreds blocked Dam Ho's path.

While they blocked Dam Ho, Sang Han-cheon descended Mount Hua with Il-mong's protection.

'Though I leave now, I will surely repay this humiliation.'

Sang Han-cheon's eyes shone colder than ever before.

Dam Ho's steps stopped.

Swish!

The body of the warrior who had clung to him until the end collapsed. Where Dam Ho had passed, corpses of warriors who had blocked him lay in rows. It was truly an unprecedented horrific sight.

Dam Ho's cold eyes sank even deeper.

There was no meaning in chasing Sang Han-cheon further. He would have already left Mount Hua with Demon Cult warriors' protection.

"Cheon Kyung."

"Senior Uncle!"

The surviving Mount Hua warriors gathered around Dam Ho.

The number of survivors was barely a few dozen. The Hyeon generation elders were completely wiped out, and over half of the Kyung generation first disciples were dead or injured. The damage to the second generation disciples with weaker martial arts went without saying.

Fortunately thanks to Sage Hyeon-cheon's quick judgment, Myung Kyung and Han So-yu had safely protected the third generation disciples, but their martial arts were still extremely weak.

Thus Mount Hua's spirit and strength were greatly damaged. It would take several decades for Mount Hua Sect to regain its former glory.

Mount Hua Sect disciples wept. More than Mount Hua's fall, what made them sad was the death of their masters and martial siblings.

They had no leisure to worry about Mount Hua's tomorrow. They wept holding their masters' corpses and calling their senior brothers' names. But Woon Kyung alone couldn't do so.

The responsibility left to him was too great to simply let everything go and cry.

Mount Hua was everything to him. With Mount Hua's complete fall, he alone had to keep his mind clear and face reality.

Mount Hua needed a core now.

'Cheon Kyung.'

Woon Kyung's gaze turned to Dam Ho.

***

On the day Mount Hua was attacked, the murim alliance headquarters in Yueyang by Dongting Lake was also ambushed.

Two of the Seven Great Demon Masters, Storm Divine Fist Yi Seon-chang and Iron Killing Divine Whip Yun Gwang, led several hundred elites in a surprise attack. They had received separate orders from Sang Han-cheon and inflicted great damage by ambushing the murim alliance headquarters.

It was a catastrophe that occurred while the murim alliance's Military Advisor Namgung Chang had left with the main forces dispatched to Shaolin Temple. Fortunately Alliance Chief Nam Cheon-san and Vice Chief Jo Ui-myeong came out to repel the Demon Cult's surprise attack, but this greatly lowered the murim alliance's morale.

Zhongnan had fallen, and Mount Hua had suffered great damage. On top of that, the murim alliance headquarters was struck. It was truly a devastating defeat that would go down in history.

Because of this, the righteous sects' momentum was greatly broken. But even amid this, there was one ray of hope.

Fist Demon Dam Ho.

His overwhelming martial might shown at Mount Hua was made known to the world through the righteous heroes who were there.

A man who alone saved Mount Hua from the brink of extinction.

He alone killed four of the Seven Great Demon Masters, and by killing numerous Demon Cult warriors made them withdraw from Mount Hua.

In a dark age where no hope could be seen, he alone shone brightly.

Thus the legend of Fist Demon shook the world.

Jin Ja-gang twisted his body and threw the Soul Seizing Thread rings with the mystery of Flying Needle Twelve Branches.

The Soul Seizing Thread spun around, wrapping around the bodies of the charging warriors. When Jin Ja-gang pulled one ring, the warriors’ limbs were severed.

The warriors collapsed in heaps.

Blood flowed abundantly on the ground.

Cries continued and desperate screams echoed.

The remaining warriors stopped approaching in shock.

Hae Mak held up his blood-soaked hands and wailed.

“You bastard! You will never survive! Someday you’ll be torn apart into a thousand pieces!”

Malice clouded Hae Mak’s eyes. Hae Mak didn’t beg for his life. Nine of his ten fingers had been severed, leaving only his right pinky finger.

The depth of his frustration could be seen just from his expression.

Jin Ja-gang approached him.

“You said I had no power? Say it once more. Who lacks power now?”

“Kill me! Don’t mock me and just kill me!”

Hae Mak raged.

Jin Ja-gang raised his hand. If he struck with internal energy, Hae Mak’s head would burst like a pumpkin.

Jin Ja-gang said coldly.

“I was planning to do that anyway.”

But then.

Thud! Thud! Boom!

The pile of stones stacked in front of the collapsed cliff prison began to vibrate.

Then the stone pile exploded outward.

And from there, Yelu Huan and another prisoner walked out.

Yelu Huan said.

“That won’t do. I also have something to collect from that fellow. If you kill him, I can’t repay that debt.”

Hae Mak shouted.

“What did I do wrong to you! For ten years I never missed giving you one meal a day and provided maximum convenience!”

Yelu Huan gestured with his chin toward the collapsed prison.

The prisoner behind him made an evil smile and said.

“I’ve been smelling gunpowder for ten years. So I removed everything except near the entrance. Of course, thinking such a thing could stop our sect’s Reverence Guardian was a mistake.”

“These damned Demon Cult bastards…”

“Look at this fellow?”

The prisoner with a cold expression standing behind Yelu Huan turned his head left and right as he walked forward. With one eye completely hollowed out and a murderous expression, his appearance alone was enough to give intimidation.

“How dare some insignificant beggar-like nobody say such things to our Sect Master. I’ll pull out your jaw.”

Yelu Huan stopped him.

“Ma Heul. I said I had a debt, not you.”

“Yes, Reverence Guardian.”

Ma Heul stepped back slightly but didn’t stop glaring at Hae Mak. Hae Mak ground his teeth.

“Demon Cult bastards dare to toy with me…”

“The one toying around isn’t me, but that fellow over there.”

Yelu Huan indicated Jin Ja-gang with his eyes.

Jin Ja-gang looked at Yelu Huan as if asking why he was saying such things to him.

“Cowering over just one branch leader, tsk. I thought you’d kill everyone here and be waiting for us. It’s a waste of the name Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art.”

Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art!

Others might not know, but Hae Mak understood. No matter how secret it was, those sent by Baek Li-jung had been coming for ten years trying to obtain it, so he couldn’t not know.

Hae Mak looked at Jin Ja-gang with surprised eyes. He seemed to think Yelu Huan had transmitted it to Jin Ja-gang.

So that’s why he was so strong!

Since Jin Ja-gang had learned the martial art Baek Li-jung had desperately tried to obtain, it was natural that he couldn’t be defeated.

Jin Ja-gang asked.

“Didn’t you say it would take time to awaken on my own?”

“I said that about progressing beyond the Five Light Dikes among the Nine Lights, not about being unable to properly use your current power at the Four Light Dikes.”

“Dike” means embankment or levee. It means a shining dike that contains vortexes. Dan Ryeong-gyeong called them dikes for convenience, but the accurate name Yelu Huan used was Light Dikes.

Before coming here, Jin Ja-gang could barely fill three dikes completely. But Yelu Huan was saying Jin Ja-gang had four dikes.

However, parts of the dikes, like the left Gushing Spring point or Palm Center, were on Jin Ja-gang’s blocked energy channel side. And the Lower Dantian and Life Gate point could only connect dikes once the left energy channels were opened.

‘My left body’s energy channels are blocked, so naturally I can’t build dikes… Ah!’

Jin Ja-gang even thought himself stupid for not having that thought earlier.

It was no longer accurate to say Jin Ja-gang’s left energy channels were blocked. He could melt the channels and make them flow, albeit slowly.

Didn’t that mean he could now use the left Gushing Spring point and Palm Center too!

Yelu Huan shouted.

“What is Primordial Unity? Primordial Unity is yin and yang. Yang and yin. Different but not different, same but not same. That is Primordial Unity.”

Blocked but not blocked, turbid energy that isn’t pure energy but is like pure energy’s internal power.

Jin Ja-gang suddenly understood this.

‘Then my fourth dike is!’

Seeing Jin Ja-gang acting distracted, Hae Mak’s anger surged.

How much did he look down on him to give and receive teachings right in front of him!

Hae Mak secretly picked up the iron abacus at his feet. Then he raised his internal energy to the extreme, hooked his pinky finger, and swung.

“Die!”

Whooom!

The iron abacus flew toward Jin Ja-gang’s head with terrifying momentum.

Jin Ja-gang’s dazed eyes suddenly flashed.

The whites of Jin Ja-gang’s eyes turned red.

Whirr.

His whole body trembled finely. This was because he circulated his right internal energy to maximum, maximally activating vortexes in three dikes. The aftermath melted his left body’s energy channels and flowed, and he drove that flow into his left palm’s center to build one more dike!

The turbid current internal energy that arose in his left arm was trapped in the newly formed dike in his palm center, wildly creating whirlpools. Several large and small whirlpools were generated. Jin Ja-gang didn’t care. The number wasn’t important, but making them harmonize with each other was.

That is Primordial Unity.

Each being free while maintaining order.

Contradictory but not contradictory.

Coexisting together!

Part of the pure energy internal power trapped in his right body flowed into his left body. His left body’s energy channels connected with his right body’s energy channels.

The dike in his left Palm Center became much larger. The power contained in his internal energy became correspondingly stronger. The whirlwind energy in his left arm tore his clothes, making his sleeves flutter wildly.

In that state, Jin Ja-gang raised his left arm and blocked Hae Mak’s iron abacus with his wrist.

Crack crack crack!

The iron abacus bent like taffy, its frame crumpled, and abacus beads flew in all directions.

The vortex whirling within his left body’s dike was different from his right body’s, slow but containing heavy power.

Now four whirlpools with massive power existed in Jin Ja-gang’s body. Three dikes were pure energy internal power and one dike was turbid energy internal power. Though different dikes, when moving they intertwined and moved without discord.

He could feel incomparably stronger power flowing through his body than when circulating three dikes.

Hae Mak was speechless.

“Th-this bastard…”

Jin Ja-gang merely shook his left arm as if brushing off dust, showing only slightly that the impact wasn’t entirely absent.

Yelu Huan raised only one corner of his mouth and smiled.

“Now you’ve come to your senses. Then I give that fellow to you. Take him.”

Jin Ja-gang grabbed his left wrist with his right hand and gathered internal energy heavily in his left palm. He moved internal energy from his right dike to the left, pouring it into his palm until it would burst. His left palm turned dark red. Hot heat was felt and heat haze rose.

With that he grabbed Hae Mak’s face. Hae Mak was going crazy from his face burning.

“Kgh, kugh! What are you doing!”

“They say a person’s appearance at the moment of death continues the same way in hell. Until they repent. It should suit you perfectly.”

Burning Twin Scale Palm!

Whoosh!

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Smoke rose from Hae Mak’s face. Hae Mak struggled but couldn’t escape Jin Ja-gang’s hand. Jin Ja-gang revealed extreme killing intent and said.

“See you in hell.”

At that eerie voice, the warriors froze. Even those who had been screaming shut their mouths and trembled with fear seeing Hae Mak’s face burning black.

Then several tried to flee in panic.

Yelu Huan opened his mouth.

“Ma Heul.”

Ma Heul’s eyes gleamed, affected by Jin Ja-gang’s killing intent. Yelu Huan commanded.

“Go wild.”

A murderous smile also circled Ma Heul’s lips.

“I was waiting.”

As soon as Ma Heul finished speaking, he charged out. He wildly swung his long arms, smashing warriors’ heads and crushing their chests.

The Guizhou branch became a hellscape of carnage.

In less than a meal’s time…

No one remained standing in the clearing in front of the prison.

* * *

When the Guizhou branch was cleaned up, Jin Ja-gang immediately prepared to leave.

“I received much help. Then…”

Ma Heul blocked Jin Ja-gang’s path. Ma Heul still had killing intent remaining and looked down at Jin Ja-gang, unable to calm his excitement.

“Until now I endured because the Reverence Guardian told me to endure, but give proper greetings before leaving.”

Jin Ja-gang looked up at Ma Heul directly.

“Didn’t I just do that?”

“This ungrateful bastard…”

Ma Heul glared at Jin Ja-gang with his one eye as if to devour him. However, Jin Ja-gang wasn’t intimidated at all and even sneered.

“The Reverence Guardian just now deliberately spread the name Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art to make me Indestructible Heavenly Sword’s target. Though I’m not in a good mood about it, I think we exchanged fairly well.”

“We killed everyone here without leaving a single one, so what nonsense are you spouting!”

“A few who were inside the branch heard those words and then fled.”

“You knew and let them go?”

“Is there a problem?”

Ma Heul stared at Jin Ja-gang with wide eyes, then gradually changed to a smiling expression.

“The Reverence Guardian is right. This bastard is really strange. Even knowing the Reverence Guardian’s thoughts, he acts like that.”

“Right. That’s the kind of fellow he is, so he could come this far with such a ruined body.”

Yelu Huan bid farewell to Jin Ja-gang.

“I transmitted the Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art to you thinking of old friendship with Woo-am, but if we meet as enemies next time…”

“The Reverence Guardian owes me one debt.”

“Hmm. That’s right.”

Yelu Huan thought for a moment, then corrected himself.

“Whether as enemies or passing acquaintances, I hope we don’t meet if possible. If you want to collect the debt, come find me.”

Jin Ja-gang slightly bowed his head to Yelu Huan in greeting, then looked at Ma Heul. Ma Heul grinned and stepped aside.

“I think differently from the Reverence Guardian. If we meet sometime, I really want to give you a beating.”

Jin Ja-gang left without replying.

Limp, limp.

Ma Heul watched Jin Ja-gang leave with a strange expression.

“He’s really a strange fellow until the very end. Limping when he’s not even crippled.”

“It’s probably unconscious behavior.”

Yelu Huan said without taking his eyes off Jin Ja-gang’s retreating figure.

“The day he vowed revenge, the most uncomfortable memory left in his body is expressed this way. Like how King Goujian of Yue slept on firewood and tasted gall to not forget revenge. His own body is so persistent in not forgetting revenge.”

Yelu Huan watched Jin Ja-gang for a long time before leaving.

“Let’s go too. Home.”