Chapter 318 – Fist Demon’s Unyielding Spirit (3)

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Tension appeared on the faces of the Tang Clan martial artists.

Orders had been given to kill the Fist Demon without question regardless of the reason if he was discovered.

The inspection orders currently issued throughout Sichuan Province were also to track Dam-ho’s whereabouts.

The oldest middle-aged man among the Tang Clan martial artists stepped forward and raised his voice:

“Answer! Are you the Fist Demon?”

“What if I am?”

“It’s him.”

The middle-aged man, Tang Cheong-hwa, suddenly took out fireworks used for signaling from his bosom and shot them into the air.

BANG!

Despite it being broad daylight, colorful fireworks burst in the air.

At that moment, Dam-ho moved.

CRASH!

“Kek!”

Tang Cheong-hwa, who had shot up the fireworks, became a bloody mess and flew away.

The Tang Clan martial artists surrounding Dam-ho showed bewildered expressions for a moment. They had spread a dragnet to catch Dam-ho, but never expected Dam-ho to attack so mercilessly without any conversation.

Tang Cheong-hwa was trembling, crushed beyond recognition. But that too was only brief, and soon his body went limp. He had died.

The Tang Clan martial artists were momentarily at a loss about what to do with the situation that occurred in an instant. At that moment, Dam-ho moved.

CRASH!

With a roar, two Tang Clan martial artists standing at the front were flung away.

“Aaaak!”

“P-please spare me!”

The faces of the Tang Clan martial artists who belatedly grasped the situation showed fear. It was because they never expected Dam-ho to use such merciless violence without any conversation.

No matter what opponent it was, if it was the Tang Clan, giving them some face and backing down was the common sense they had experienced. Even the Qingcheng Sect and Emei Sect, belonging to the Nine Great Sects, had done so. So they thought Dam-ho would do the same. But Dam-ho’s reaction far exceeded their common sense.

CRASH!

“Krek!”

With a thunderous sound, another martial artist was crushed like minced meat and flew away.

“What is this?”

“He’s not even human. No negotiation at all?”

The Tang Clan martial artists belatedly threw hidden weapons at Dam-ho and swung their swords. But the hidden weapons they threw were swept away by rough air currents before they could even reach Dam-ho’s body, and their swords broke in the middle and scattered in all directions.

“Kraaak!”

“Uhek!”

In an instant, screams and death ran rampant.

The people waiting for inspection watched the entire scene with terror-stricken expressions.

Most of them were ordinary people. They were people who had never imagined in their lives that they would see such a scene.

In their eyes, Dam-ho was not human but the Grim Reaper.

People trembled in terror at his appearance of mercilessly dealing death.

“……”

Suddenly, suffocating silence descended.

No more sounds burst forth in the area.

The Tang Clan martial artists were all dead, and ordinary people covered their mouths with their hands and squeezed their eyes shut.

They were afraid.

Afraid that Dam-ho’s gaze might turn toward them. Afraid that he might lay hands on them. But Dam-ho didn’t even glance at the ordinary people.

His enemies were those who harbored hostility and acted against him, not ordinary people.

Dam-ho silently mounted Black Ghost. And left the checkpoint.

“Hic!”

Someone hiccupped.

It was a merchant who appeared to be in his late thirties. He desperately tried to cover his mouth and suppress the hiccups, but it was useless.

“Hic! Hicc!”

The hiccups kept bursting forth.

He was scared.

So scared he couldn’t bear it.

If he opened his eyes, it seemed that demon would be standing before him, glaring at him. If he received those terrifying eyes head-on, he would surely go mad from being unable to endure the fear.

His heart pounded madly as if it would burst out at any moment. But no matter how long he waited, he couldn’t feel Dam-ho’s presence.

Only then did the merchant gather courage and open his eyes.

When he opened his eyes, the scene he saw was truly horrific. The Tang Clan martial artists who had been showing off their authority just moments before were all lying in pools of blood without exception. But Dam-ho was nowhere to be seen. Somehow Dam-ho had left.

“I… lived.”

The merchant whose legs had lost strength collapsed on the spot. He wasn’t the only one who sat down on the ground.

All the people who had been trembling in fear lost strength in their legs and sat down where they were.

“We lived. We survived. Sob!”

“Uhuheng!”

People’s crying sounds echoed over the official road piled with death.

The legend of the Fist Demon.

At some point, the people of Sichuan Province began calling the Fist Demon a legend.

It was because of the Fist Demon’s actions.

Throughout Sichuan Province, the Tang Clan’s death order had been issued.

Not only the Tang Clan but all sects that cooperated with the Tang Clan were mobilized to spread a dragnet.

Numerous sects like Nam-ui Sect, Ha-young Sect, and Green Line Hall cooperated with the Tang Clan’s orders and blocked the official roads.

A fearful atmosphere was created throughout Sichuan Province. With the Qingcheng Sect and Emei Sect maintaining silence, there was no one bold enough to interfere with the Tang Clan’s actions.

All people of Sichuan Province held their breath. And watched Dam-ho’s movements.

If it had been an ordinary martial artist, they probably would have hidden without daring to show themselves in a situation where the Tang Clan’s dragnet was spread.

It was accepted wisdom that no matter how strong an individual was, they couldn’t defeat many, and it was impossible for even the strongest martial artist to fight against the entire world.

Moreover, this was Sichuan Province. A place the Tang Clan had already perfectly controlled. Due to the terrain closed off by high mountain ranges, the dragnet was woven even more tightly, leaving no gap for even an ant to escape through.

People expected Dam-ho to escape the dragnet while hiding. But their expectations were wrong.

Dam-ho neither hid nor avoided. He moved eastward, then eastward again, riding Black Ghost.

His appearance moving while wearing torn and tattered black clothes reminiscent of rags and riding Black Ghost, a pitch-black horse, couldn’t help but be conspicuous.

The first place to block him and be destroyed was Green Line Hall.

The hall master of Green Line Hall was Tang Woo-cheon. He was a collateral blood relative of the Tang Clan who had become independent long ago and established Green Line Hall. Under the Tang Clan’s aggressive support, Green Line Hall had grown frighteningly and now had a size that couldn’t be ignored.

Because of this, Tang Woo-cheon’s pride was at its peak. It seemed he could defeat any sect except the Tang Clan. At least within Sichuan Province.

But his pride was now shattered and broken like glass fragments at this very moment.

“Kreuu!”

The cry of a wounded beast was flowing from Tang Woo-cheon’s mouth. His eyes were bloodshot, and red blood was flowing from his mouth as he gritted his teeth so hard they might break.

The Green Line Hall martial artists he had been so proud of were lying here and there bleeding. Those who had died with terror-stricken expressions could be seen everywhere, and even if they were still breathing, there were many whose limbs were bent in bizarre directions, making one doubt if normal life would be possible later.

Just moments before, their faces had been overflowing with vitality. There had also been anticipation about participating in the Tang Clan’s operation.

No matter how much the opponent was called the Fist Demon, they had been confident that Green Line Hall’s power could inflict great damage. But their expectations were mercilessly shattered the moment they encountered Dam-ho.

Dam-ho… was a demon.

Communication with him was completely impossible.

The moment he saw Green Line Hall blocking the official road, he charged without any conversation. And hell unfolded before their eyes.

After the thunderous ‘CRASH!’ sound echoed, what inevitably remained was someone’s corpse.

Neither the combined formation that Green Line Hall was so proud of nor the hidden weapons secretly obtained from the Tang Clan worked on him.

The moment fierce air currents swirled around Dam-ho’s body, the hidden weapons the Tang Clan was proud of lost their power and fell, and dozens of Green Line Hall’s martial artists screamed miserably and flew away.

It was like watching a tiger that had invaded the middle of a flock of sheep.

Only then did Green Line Hall’s martial artists clearly realize their situation. That they, who had thought themselves tigers until now, were actually nothing but gentle sheep.

No, it would be the same no matter what martial artists were brought before Dam-ho.

‘In front of that person, anyone can only become sheep. How are we supposed to handle such a person?’

Even Tang Woo-cheon himself had charged at Dam-ho only to become incapacitated with a single strike.

His chest bone was deeply dented, and he bled from all seven orifices. The reason he was still alive was due to the very special heart technique he had learned.

Southern Heaven Martial King Heart Technique.

It was a Taoist heart technique he had obtained and learned by chance.

Thanks to the heart technique that had excellent efficacy in protecting the heart meridians, his breath wasn’t cut off, but moving itself was impossible due to pain that felt like his entire body was being dismantled.

“Kreuk! How?”

He barely raised his head to look at Dam-ho.

Dam-ho stood in the middle of a scene reminiscent of hell.

From beginning to end, he hadn’t said a single word. This made Dam-ho’s appearance even more terrifying.

Only then did Tang Woo-cheon realize.

‘That person is different. Though he certainly has human form, he’s not human. He’s not someone we can dare to handle.’

For the first time, he resented the main family, the Tang Clan. He couldn’t help but resent the Tang Clan’s family head for giving the order to block Dam-ho of all people.

Then Dam-ho walked over.

One step, then another step. Limping slightly with one foot.

Normally he would have sneered mockingly, but now his mind was filled only with fear.

Swish!

Finally Dam-ho stood before him.

Tang Woo-cheon briefly raised his head to look up at Dam-ho, then quickly lowered his eyes.

The moment he saw Dam-ho’s eyes, Tang Woo-cheon saw his own death. His entire body trembled, and his sphincter muscles lost strength. Smelly and damp filth flowed out between his legs, but Tang Woo-cheon wasn’t even aware of this fact. His fear of Dam-ho had paralyzed even his reason.

He prayed for this nightmare-like time to pass as quickly as possible. And he swore to heaven and earth. That if he saved his life, he would never again go near Dam-ho.

Whether heaven and earth heard his prayer, at that moment Dam-ho walked toward Black Ghost. And he rode Black Ghost away from the scene of slaughter.

“Uuu!”

“Are, are we alive?”

The voices of survivors confirming Dam-ho’s departure burst out from various places.

Though colleagues they had spent their lives with had become corpses lying everywhere, at this moment they were rejoicing at having saved their lives.

Green Line Hall was only the beginning.

The sects that had spread dragnets against Dam-ho all inevitably failed to avoid great disasters.

When the situation became like this, the dragnet mobilized by the Tang Clan became useless.

A dragnet was the best method used when many martial artists hunted a few martial artists. There was no better way to instill the awareness that “we are one” among numerous people with different ideals and thoughts.

Every time martial world criminals appeared, numerous sects joined forces to spread dragnets for the same reason. It was an excellent opportunity to strengthen bonds with each other and gauge opponents’ abilities while jointly hunting martial world criminals. But this only applied to opponents worth hunting.

Dam-ho was an opponent to whom common martial world sense didn’t apply.

Though he was merely an individual, he possessed ironclad determination that wouldn’t be intimidated even facing the entire world and unconventional military power.

If they maintained the dragnet like this, they might be able to kill Dam-ho someday. But if that happened, numerous sects would have to be annihilated or suffer near-total destruction.

No matter how much the sects watched the Tang Clan’s mood, they wanted to decline that. As fear spread, the sects began to withdraw one by one while watching each other’s reactions, and when the situation became like this, it was the Tang Clan that had led the dragnet that became troubled.

The Tang Clan’s atmosphere, which had been rising high after forcing the Qingcheng Sect and Emei Sect to close their gates, sank down as if cold water had been poured over it.

Even in that moment, Dam-ho was moving east, then east again.

He neither hid nor avoided. So many people could see his movements. Both martial artists and ordinary citizens living in Sichuan Province were watching Dam-ho’s actions.

Now the Tang Clan was rather cornered.

If Dam-ho left Sichuan Province like this, their honor would fall to the ground. Conversely, if they directly clashed and fought with Dam-ho, they had no choice but to accept massive damage.

By not hiding and breaking through head-on, Dam-ho was shaking the Tang Clan’s very foundation of survival.

One man’s unconventional actions were shaking all of Sichuan Province and the entire Tang Clan.