The Regressor of Mount Hua

Chapter 220. The Hero and the Demon Head (2)

"Namu Amitabha. It's been a long time, Benefactor Zhou."

"Hundred Paces Fist Monk?" Zhou Xuchuan's eyes widened in surprise.

Hong Gao, the disciple of the Divine Monk, the next abbot of the Shaolin Temple, and the future Divine Fist, was standing in front of him.

Although he had heard that the Shaolin Temple would send an elite, who could have thought that it would be Hong Gao?

He was one of the greatest martial artists of the Shaolin Temple, so he was definitely an elite master. Due to the monk's position, however, Zhou Xuchuan couldn't have imagined that he would come here.

"I owe you something from back then," Hong Gao remarked.

"You owe me something? Really? I don't think so," Zhou Xuchuan replied.

There was once a grudge between them, but thanks to the Divine Monk's mediation, they resolved their ill feelings without much trouble.

"What happened at the time made me realize my shortcomings as a monk, and I reflected on them. Thus, I was able to make a small achievement in my cultivation. You've truly been gracious to me in so many ways, Benefactor Zhou."

"An achievement? That really is a cause of celebration for the Righteous Faction."

Zhou Xuchuan greeted him with a cupped fist; he was genuinely delighted. He welcomed the news about how the man who would later inflict fatal damage to the Dark Heavens Association Lord had become stronger.

"By the way, what are you doing here with the special task force?"

"Don't you think that's because I was sent to the special task force?"

"Hmm? Wait, you mean you were sent here, Hundred Paces Fist Monk?" Zhou Xuchuan asked, tilting his head in confusion.

The special task force was supposed to be exclusive to members of the younger generation. Hong Gao had too much experience—multiple decades of experience, and he couldn't be considered a member of the younger generation.

"I apologize for interfering without notice. However, we can't send only the members of the younger generation. Thus, it was decided that one of us monks wielding the demon-purifying qi would be sent to the battlefield."

"I see. In that case, you're more than welcome here."

Although Zhou Xuchuan was confident in his martial arts, it was still quite burdensome for him to stand before the Blood Demon.

If a master like the Hundred Paces Fist Monk were to join in, the burden would be reduced. Considering that Hong Gao could wield demon-purifying qi, the Blood Demon could become wary of him.

However, one person seemed to be okay with the arrangement. Of course, Zhou Xuchuan didn't give his opinion without thinking; he had his own considerations as well.

"Since the Hundred Paces Fist Monk is here, I should briefly introduce the members of the special task force to you."

Zhuge Xiuluan easily memorized the faces, names, positions, and cultivations of the special task force members. There was a reason she was called a genius. In addition, since she had personally organized the formation with Zhuge Xiao, it was only natural that she was aware of everyone's identities.

"I'll be in your care, Tactician Phoenix," Hong Gao said. It seemed like it was his first time meeting Zhuge Xiuluan. However, he did not get lost in her dazzling beauty.

Not only was he older, but he was also a Buddhist focused deeply on his cultivation. Despite being a man, he showed no interest in her.

He was the complete opposite of some of the men assigned to the special task force who drooled at the sight of Zhuge Xiuluan.

"...Lastly, the Seal Dragon of the Zhongnan Sect, Young Hero Hao Dechang."

Hong Gao was amazed when he heard that.

Zhou Xuchuan was also quite surprised when he saw Hao Dechang.

He had already achieved great success in the Zhongnan Sect's Five Thunder Seals and had even made the foundational Five Thunder Peak Seals Technique his own at unprecedented speeds. He, too, would leave his name in history in the future.

There are so many geniuses!

While it was good news, it made Zhou Xuchuan realize that there was an abnormally high number of geniuses and heroes in this era.

Well, it wasn't strange that they were here, as they had all been popped up like mushrooms since the war started. In twenty to thirty years, there would be a crazy amount of geniuses.

However, it wasn't bad at all.

A slightly talented ordinary person would feel despair upon getting surrounded by so many gifted people and geniuses.

However, Zhou Xuchuan only managed to survive thanks to them.

He hadn't forgotten that debt of gratitude, even in this lifetime.

If it hadn't been for these geniuses and gifted people, the Dark Heavens Association would have ruled over murim a long time ago.

"I humbly greet you, Senior of the murim."

Hao Dechang was a man of few words. He had a magnificent frame that could be compared to the members of the Peng Family.

He was tall, but his frame was so wide that he looked like a mountain.

His withdrawn demeanor gave him the impression of a silent hill.

"Namu Amitabha. While it's a shame that the Blood Sect has invaded the Central Plains, I'm happy to meet the younger generation of the Righteous Faction. This fate is—"

Hong Gao's compliments were cut short.

"The Blood Cult is right in front of us!"

The Blood Cult's army had emerged through the sand clouds.

***

The Gobi Desert's terrain was rocky, which was why it looked so barren. However, its terrain was exactly the reason it had many places for someone to hide. The Martial Alliance hid in every corner, waiting for the Blood Cult to arrive.

A moment later, the Blood Cult's shouts reverberated throughout the desert.

"RAAAHHH!"

"The Righteous Faction's blood will be our sacrifice!"

"Our sacrifice!"

What seemed to be five thousand cultists screamed together. However, not all of the five thousand were cultists, as about three-tenths of them were jiangshi.

"All troops, on guard!" You Riwen raised his sword high upon hearing the news from Zhuge Xiao.

Rumble!

The Blood Cult's army ran without stopping.

None of them were sane, and they were only interested in taking the lives of their enemies as well as shedding blood on the battlefield.

The Blood Cult wasn't actually a cult that worshiped blood. Of course, they worshiped blood at first, but somewhere along the line, they grew obsessed with blood-related things such as the Blood Dao or Meridian Arts, eventually compiling a demonic art that suited their obsessions.

As their research progressed in that direction, the Blood Cult's demonic art grew intertwined with blood to the point where every practitioner developed an addiction to it.

In the end, they became unable to control their demonic nature when exposed to blood through sight or smell.

"Argh!"

"Fuck off! That one's mine!"

"EHEHE!" Nôv(el)B\\jnn

There was nothing more annoying than facing someone unafraid of death. It was extremely burdensome to fight enemies willing to trade everything for a kill, and these cultists were particularly annoying to deal with, as they were moving nonstop despite their injuries.

"Namu Amitabha." A calming incantation echoed amidst the battlefield's cacophony of madness and the sounds of metal clashing against metal. Despite the loud noises, the incantation was loud and clear.

The clear incantation was coming from a middle-aged monk with particularly thick and dark eyebrows. His cultivation base was incredible.

Every time someone blinked, his figure would split into nine, each performing a different martial art. The one thing they had in common was that each figure used a palm technique and that the power and speed of each palm had reached the Transcendent Realm.

"Ugh!"

"Damn you, bas—ugh!"

Whenever the monk's palm landed on a cultist, they would either bounce away, spraying blood everywhere or collapse on the spot.

"One Palm Purifying Demons!"

"It's Hong Jin!"

Hong Gao and Hong Jin were the representatives of the Shaolin Temple.

Hong Jin was Hong Gao's disciple, and he was an expert in his own right with mastery over many of the Shaolin Temple's palm techniques. He was one of the One Hundred Experts Under Heaven as well.

He was also a genius who had mastered the Nine Grades of the Lotus Pavilions, a Shaolin Temple foundational technique.[1]

Once Hong Gao was drafted into the special task force, his disciple Hong Jin inherited the command of the Shaolin Temple's forces.

"How could you harm people for your own selfish desires and pleasures? The actions you have all taken so far have been so outrageous that I must break my precept for today for the sake of the peace of the world."

Led by Hong Jin, the Shaolin monks moved bravely.

"Fuck off, you idiots!"

"ARGGHHH!"

The blood cultists looked at the monks and either avoided them as if they were repulsive or rushed out with killing intent.

The number one thing that all cultists hated beyond anything else was—without a doubt—the monks of the Shaolin Temple.

While the Righteous Faction's martial arts were all pure, the Shaolin Temple's techniques were the best when it came to purification. Their demon-purifying qi was so strong against cultists that it was considered the cultists' bane.

The monks not only had mirages and phantoms capable of deceiving the eyes, but whenever their demon-purifying qi collided with a cultist, the cultist would find their blood vessels and meridians aching upon each impact.

The Martial Alliance advanced forward with the Shaolin Temple as the main force.

"Kyahahahaha, get out of the way! Get out of the way!" An unpleasant voice, reminiscent of grinding iron, reverberated throughout the battlefield. Everyone turned to the owner of the voice.

"Argh!"

A Daoist of the Wudang Sect vomited blood. He was suspended in the air with a hand piercing his back.

"The Blood Claw Ghost has appeared!"

"The Blood Claw Ghost!" someone shouted in surprise.

Compared to other forces, the Blood Cult lacked martial artists, and most of its members were sorcerers or shamans. However, it wasn't like there were no martial artists among them at all. They had members notorious in the murim.

Among those notorious blood cultists was the Blood Claw Ghost, a Great Demon Head.

"You dare not pull that dirty hand out?!" A majestic voice echoed.

Shing!

A sword carved a line in midair, and it flew precisely at the hand sticking out of the Daoist's back.

"Oh dear!" The Blood Claw Ghost hurriedly pulled his hand out and sneered. "Kekeke, aren't you the Wudang Sect's Second Absolute? While the taste of this blood isn't great, for someone of my caliber—"

Shwing!

The Blood Claw Ghost was interrupted by a streak of sword light flashing before his eyes. Before he realized it, a sword was thrust toward his neck.

The attack was filled with sword aura.

An ordinary person would go stiff and die, but a master like the Blood Claw Ghost wouldn't make such an amateur mistake. Far from freezing and dying, he even counterattacked.

The Blood Claw Ghost himself hadn't realized when he had pulled out his hand, but when he came to his senses, his instincts had already told him to block the sword. His left hand shot up from below, and there was a three-pronged iron claw attached to the back of his hand.

Foolish!

A nearby Wudang Sect Daoist laughed at the Blood Claw Ghost.

The sword wielder was the Wudang Sect's Second Absolute. Moreover, it was an attack filled with the sword aura of a Harmony Realm expert. Unless that claw was forged from Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron, it couldn't possibly block the sword.

The iron claw definitely wasn't forged from Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron.

However, a blood-red haze manifested and strengthened the iron claw.

"Claw aura!" Yun He frowned. "Extreme Demon..."

"Extreme Demons" were what members of the Demonic Path called Harmony Realm experts.

"Now, shall I test your skills?" The Blood Claw Ghost smirked. The five fingers of his right hand were sharp like those of a beast, and each finger was also coated in claw aura.

He cackled and rushed forward.

The Blood Cult's forces followed closely behind him.

"Argh!"

The Zhongnan Sect and the Kongtong Sect were struggling.

"Watch your step!" the Milky Way Sage warned, flicking his thumb and middle finger.

Thwip!

A thin beam of light rushed forward. This was the Milky Way Sage's specialty, the Milky Way Star Plucking Finger. At first glance, it looked like he was flicking spit, but it wasn't the case at all. Each of those little globs was half as strong as an aura.

The ground flipped over, and the blood of the mole cultists hidden underneath gushed out.

Occasionally, the sand would scatter, revealing a rock with a hole underneath.

"You dare!" the Milky Way Sage roared with his brows raised. Although it was faint, he could sense movement within the earth veins. He could feel the mole cultists running away. "I won't let you leave!"

The Milky Way Sage threw himself into the wind. With one hand behind his back, it seemed more like he was taking a walk rather than running. However, his speed was unusual, and he seemed to be flying straight ahead while floating above the ground with each step.

"Is that the Milky Way Wandering Shadow Flight?!" Zhi Yiguang exclaimed in surprise as he observed the mysterious movements of the Milky Way Sage.

Boom!

However, this wasn't the time to look away.

The ground exploded, and a mole cultist jumped out, rotating like a drill.

It wasn't dancing or showing off its talents. The rotational power was contained entirely in its abnormal hands.

Senior Brother!

Zhi Yiguang's eyes opened fiercely. He was filled with anger as he drew the sword at his waist. He had heard about how some of the disciples of the Kongtong Sect had lost their lives at the hands of these mole cultists or whatever.

While his Senior Brother Zhi Yunbo hadn't died at their hands, the disciples of the Kongtong Sect had suffered immensely from the mole cultists. Thus, his desire for revenge boiled over at the sight of them.

"Die!"

Zhi Yiguang's sword and the mole cultist's claws clashed.

The Kongtong Sect's Ascendent Technique—the Seven Kills Sword—was unleashed. The Seven Kills Sword was a penetration technique. The sword was coated in just a single layer of qi, but it would split into seven as soon as it landed.

The powerful threads of qi pierced the enemy, leaving behind seven holes. Unless one's cultivation base was profound, the technique was impossible to block.

"Ugh!"

The mole cultist fell to the ground, splattering blood.

"I will kill every single one of you without exception." Zhi Yiguang's eerie voice rang out.

The Blood Cult's offensive was fierce, but the Martial Alliance fought fiercely as well, not paying attention to their momentum. Of course, the Martial Alliance didn't just stop the cultists; they were slowly carving open a path as well.

"Now!" Zhuge Xiuluan exclaimed, pointing at the enemy camp.

"Let's go!"

Beneath the dark sky, the Hero and the Demon Head gathered under one plan.

1. This is an incredibly famous technique, modeled after the legend that Shakyamuni took seven steps (nine in East Asian Buddhism) the moment he was born, with lotus flowers blooming with every step. This is arguably the Shaolin Temple's most famous murim technique in Korean literature. ☜