Fist Demon of Mount Hua ( Novel ) - Chapter 305

Chapter 305 – Truth Always Comes Heavy (2)

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“Kereuk!”

Seok Mu-gang vomited blood violently.

Red blood damply stained his chin and chest. His pupils, as red as the blood that stained his chest, were shaking.

As if he had collided with a house-sized boulder that had rolled down from a mountain, his entire body was creaking and his internal organs were scrambled, making even breathing difficult.

“How dare you! How dare you!”

Seok Mu-gang wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve while burning with anger.

He was the master of Rock Cliff Stream, one of the Thirteen Branches. He could not accept the fact that he was being driven into a corner by a mere limping martial artist.

But he wasn’t given the opportunity to leisurely sit and burn with anger. Even at that moment, Dam-ho was surging like a storm.

WHOOSH!

Storms suck in everything.

Dam-ho was the same. The strange attractive force generated from his body grabbed Seok Mu-gang’s feet. And Dam-ho’s fist came flying.

The opponent was someone whom even repelling energy didn’t work against. There was only one way to respond to such a person. To attack in the same way.

Seok Mu-gang threw his fist in return.

CRASH!

Fist met fist.

Though they were human bodies, they were fists trained to be harder than steel. With a metallic sound, both men’s bodies staggered momentarily.

Seok Mu-gang’s expression contorted. It was because his fist hurt as if it would shatter. So he stepped back slightly.

Dam-ho was different. He too was human. He felt the same pain. But he ignored the pain and charged forward.

Black pupils flashing between disheveled hair.

His eyes contained no wasteful emotions like madness or anger. Those emotionless eyes that contained no feelings at all made Seok Mu-gang feel eerie instead.

“You bastard!”

Even though it wasn’t midwinter, he felt cold wind down his spine. Every hair on his body stood on end.

CRASH!

At that moment, Dam-ho’s second strike poured down.

Seok Mu-gang somehow managed to block the second strike. But as the price, his feet got tangled. To such a him, Dam-ho’s third strike poured down.

CRASH!

“Kreuk!”

Seok Mu-gang’s body swayed greatly.

He tried to somehow grasp an opportunity to counterattack. But Dam-ho’s attacks continued without giving him a moment to breathe.

CRASH! CRASH!

The fourth and fifth strikes followed.

Seok Mu-gang’s face gradually contorted. With each repetition, the pain grew exponentially.

WHIRRRR!

A strange sound echoed.

At first, he thought it was simply tinnitus. But it wasn’t tinnitus.

Every time Dam-ho’s waist rotated, every time his fist cut through the air, a sound like gears turning echoed.

CRASH!

Dam-ho’s fist struck Seok Mu-gang’s forearm once more.

CRUNCH!

For a moment, Seok Mu-gang heard the sound of his forearm breaking like a corn stalk.

That was the beginning.

CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH!

Dam-ho’s fists became a storm and surged.

Each time his fist struck hard, Seok Mu-gang’s body shrank a little.

Tremendous shock penetrating his entire body. He deployed Golden Fortress Iron Wall, Rock Cliff Stream’s protective technique, but it was useless.

Only then did Seok Mu-gang realize that the storm-like continuous strikes that followed without pause were not simple improvisation but were actually a thoroughly calculated single technique.

Six Harmonies Blood Mountain River.

The final chapter of the Solitary Path that delivers twenty-four consecutive strikes in a single breath.

Dam-ho was deploying Six Harmonies Blood Mountain River for the first time in actual combat.

Fifteen, sixteen, and… seventeen.

CRACK!

“Kreek!”

The seventeenth fist punched a large hole in Seok Mu-gang’s chest.

Seok Mu-gang knelt on the ground and looked alternately at his chest and Dam-ho’s face with an unbelieving expression.

“This can’t… be!”

His cheeks trembled, and blood flowed from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

Seok Mu-gang absolutely could not believe the reality.

He was the master of Rock Cliff Stream.

He was chosen, and therefore should walk a noble path to stand at the peak of the martial world. He could not believe that he had to meet such a miserable end.

So he gathered his remaining strength and shouted.

“What are you? What on earth are you?”

A voice melted with resentment and anger resonated thunderously through the underground cave. But his voice no longer contained any strength.

“What on earth are you? What on earth…”

Those were the last words of Seok Mu-gang, master of Rock Cliff Stream.

His head dropped with a thud and moved no more.

“Uuu!”

A groan-like moan flowed from Dan Woon-hyang’s mouth.

The expression on her face was disbelief itself.

Who was Seok Mu-gang?

He was someone who could be called the strongest among the Demon Cult’s young martial artists. He was an absolute master who belonged to the upper tier even among the leaders of the Thirteen Branches. Such a strong person had been miserably shattered by Dam-ho without being able to respond properly.

It was such a lie-like scene that she would never have believed if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.

The actual difference in martial power between Dam-ho and Seok Mu-gang was not as great as one might think. If there was a difference between them, it was that Dam-ho was a martial artist perfected through countless real battles while Seok Mu-gang was a martial artist perfected in the training hall.

Dam-ho knew how to use everything about himself. Like breathing naturally, he knew how to deploy all the martial arts he had learned in the right place at the right time.

On the other hand, Seok Mu-gang’s martial arts were rigid. Since each technique was powerful, there was no need for irregular combinations.

That difference separated the life and death of the two. But for Dan Woon-hyang, whose martial arts were inferior to theirs, she could not know such differences.

“De… demon.”

She unconsciously muttered like that.

Then Dam-ho turned his head and looked at her. The moment their eyes met, Dan Woon-hyang fled without looking back.

He was a monster who had instantly killed even Seok Mu-gang. There was no way she could handle him alone. Now was the time to escape.

She disappeared into the darkness in an instant.

Dam-ho tried to pursue such Dan Woon-hyang. But the next moment, Dan Gong-wol’s voice that was heard caught his ankle.

“Fist Demon.”

When Dam-ho turned his head to look, Dan Gong-wol gestured with difficulty.

“Come… here.”

Dam-ho saw the earnest wish in his eyes. So he approached him.

Anyone could see it was a hopeless sight. Even though it wouldn’t be strange if his breath had already been cut off, he was desperately holding onto the thread of life in such a miserable state.

Dam-ho knelt on one knee and met his gaze. With eyes that had now lost focus, he was looking at Dam-ho.

“Huff! Huff! Whether heaven has not yet abandoned the martial world… I get to meet you like this. Do you know who I am?”

“…”

Dam-ho silently nodded. Then a faint smile appeared at the corner of Dan Gong-wol’s mouth.

“Right! I am an old man with the false name of Wind Moon Emperor. From now on, listen carefully to what I say. It’s a very… important matter.”

“Speak!”

“This place was the last sect of the Heavenly Death Cult. We found and exterminated what was barely maintaining its lineage.”

It was from very long ago… a secret story not recorded in martial world history.

Before being called the Four Divine Emperors, they were friends and had spent quite a lot of time together.

They accidentally discovered that the lineage of a cult that had disappeared long ago was continuing. Until then, they were burning with a sense of mission that they must uphold the justice of the martial world. So they thought they had to uproot the cult.

“So we came here. And we killed those who lived here. We killed so many. Like blood-hungry evil spirits…”

Dan Gong-wol’s voice was full of regret.

“They… most of those we thought were beings we could never be forgiven for were ordinary people. Though they were descendants of the Heavenly Death Cult, they were no different from village folk who had forgotten their ancestors’ memories and lived ordinary lives. Even as they died by our hands, they asked why. Why must they die? Why are we doing such things? We answered. Because you are descendants of the Heavenly Death Cult.”

Thus they paid for the sins their ancestors had committed.

Dan Gong-wol could not forget the eyes of those who died then. Their eyes tormented him for decades and he never forgot them for a single moment.

“I didn’t know then. That it would be such a great sin.”

“…”

“We… the Four Divine Emperors are paying the price for that sin. One of us opened the forbidden book of the Heavenly Death Cult that was stored here.”

“Forbidden book?”

“A book containing the secret traditions of the Heavenly Death Cult. We discovered it here and sealed it away.”

That was the reason Dan Gong-wol had returned here. They had discovered a forbidden book that could be called a relic of the Heavenly Death Cult here.

The forbidden book contained various sorceries and great methods, and they had decided by agreement to seal it here.

Dan Gong-wol’s gaze looked toward a stone coffin in one corner of the underground cavity. It was the place where the forbidden book had been sealed. But the stone coffin was wide open and empty inside.

Someone had broken the seal and taken the forbidden book.

“And eventually he broke the seal.”

“Who?”

“Lee Gwan.”

“Lee Gwan?”

“Iron Blood… War God Lee Gwan… Be careful… of him.”

“He opened the seal?”

“He is…”

Dan Gong-wol trailed off.

His throat was parched and his breathing was labored, making it difficult to continue speaking.

Long ago, just before completely destroying the Demon Cult’s main base, Lee Gwan stabbed a dagger in the back of the Four Divine Emperors.

It was a betrayal no one had expected. Because of this, the Four Divine Emperors were split and completely annihilating the Demon Cult came to nothing.

Dan Gong-wol was curious. Why he had betrayed them, why he had attacked. He had luckily avoided fatal wounds, but Ho Cheon-san and Yong Hwa-seol had suffered severe injuries and disappeared.

Dan Gong-wol wanted to tell Dam-ho all those stories. But all those stories only circled in his mouth and didn’t flow out.

“Gurgle! Gurgle!”

Blood foam came up from his esophagus and filled his mouth.

GRIP!

Dan Gong-wol gripped Dam-ho’s hand tightly.

It was such intense strength that one couldn’t think it came from an old man on the verge of death.

“The one who… attacked you… is his… he is… Hwa…”

Slide!

Dan Gong-wol’s hand that had been gripping Dam-ho’s hand slid down powerlessly. His breath had been cut off.

Even in death, Dan Gong-wol was looking at Dam-ho with his eyes wide open. Though his breath had already been cut off, his eyes were telling many stories.

Dam-ho sat in place like a stone statue and looked into his eyes and face for a long time.

It was a shabby death that didn’t match the reputation of the Four Divine Emperors.

Death came equally to everyone like that. For those living in the harsh martial world, death was never someone else’s business.

Dam-ho closed Dan Gong-wol’s wide-open eyes and stood up from his seat.

Dan Gong-wol had tried his utmost to convey the truth, but his pronunciation was garbled and most of it was incomprehensible. But he understood the important facts.

“You mean Lee Gwan?”

Iron Blood War God Lee Gwan.

Among the Four Divine Emperors, he was known to have the strongest martial arts.

Almost nothing was known about his school or martial arts. What was certain was that his martial arts were the strongest among the Four Divine Emperors.

His head began to ache.

Though he learned that Lee Gwan was related to the Heavenly Death Cult, everything felt even more complicated instead.

He couldn’t understand why someone who enjoyed glory lacking nothing as one of the Four Divine Emperors would covet the forbidden book of the Heavenly Death Cult and revive the Heavenly Death Cult in the present era.

Dam-ho shook his head and moved his steps outside the cave.

When he came outside, sunlight poured down dazzlingly. But Dam-ho had no leisure to savor the sunlight.

He placed his palm on the cave entrance and operated the Five Finger Rock Breaking Energy.

CRUMBLE!

As spiral energy occurred, the cave entrance collapsed like a sand castle.

This place was the final resting place of Dan Gong-wol, who had wandered the world all his life. Here he would rest eternally.

Dam-ho moved his steps with the completely collapsing cave behind him.

His gaze was directed elsewhere.