After leaving the Heavenly Demon Library, I went first to the Heavenly Demon Hall.
“I have returned.”
Father, who had been silently looking down at me, beckoned me forward.
“Come closer.”
I walked five steps forward.
“A little closer.”
This time, three steps.
“More.”
I walked right up to the foot of the stairs.
Father was examining me. He must have been curious what martial art I had learned, but since I had walked without using the Wind God Four Steps, there was nothing he could discern from my movements.
“What martial art did you learn in the Heavenly Demon Library?”
“It’s a secret.”
As if he had expected me to answer this way, Father released his demonic energy without hesitation.
“I will not ask twice.”
The demonic energy that flew at me was on an entirely different level from what the Blade Ghosts had sent before. It did not sting or hurt; it felt as though I were sinking into a dark abyss. My body turned cold, and the flow of my true qi slowed on its own.
Since I had never intended to hide it from Father in the first place, I answered honestly.
“I learned a movement art.”
“What movement art?”
“The Wind God Four Steps.”
This was a silence born of shock.
Soon, the demonic energy that had briefly withdrawn swept over me again.
“Enough nonsense.”
“It’s true.”
The demonic energy dragged me deeper into the abyss. Even as it rose to my throat and swallowed my face, my gaze toward Father concealed nothing.
I sank endlessly into the swamp-like depths. I could not breathe. I thought, surely he would not actually kill me, but the unavoidable terror of suffocation came surging over me.
At that moment.
It felt as if something enormous was staring at me from within the darkness.
‘!’
The instant my eyes met its gaze, everything pressing down on me vanished, and I found myself standing at the edge of the red carpet in the Heavenly Demon Hall.
Father withdrew his demonic energy and spoke as if issuing an order.
“Show me the martial art you claim to have learned.”
Even now, Father did not believe it was the Wind God Four Steps.
“What will you give me in exchange?”
Father looked dumbfounded. In his life, no one had probably ever demanded something of him while setting conditions.
“I’ll let you live.”
With a faint smile, I stepped back and stood in the middle of the hall.
Then I slowly displayed the Wind God Four Steps.
The moment I unfolded the Shadow Step, Father sprang up from his seat. From the very first step, he had realized it was different from other martial arts.
And so I completed all the forms of the Wind God Four Steps.
Father was not one to reveal his emotions easily, but now he could not hide his shock. Because it was a lost martial art, Father must have been seeing the Wind God Four Steps for the first time today as well, but he had recognized precisely just how extraordinary this martial art was.
“Where did you learn the Wind God Four Steps?”
Now Father believed that this movement art was indeed the Wind God Four Steps.
“I learned it in the Heavenly Demon Library.”
Whish.
In an instant, Father crossed the space and arrived before me, grabbing me by the throat as he asked coldly,
“You dare lie to me?”
He seemed ready to snap my neck on the spot. It was the first time Father had ever laid a hand on my body, and the emotion behind it was anger.
But I was not angry. Father was sincere when it came to martial arts. That was why he occupied that seat, and why he was so strong. I understood this father of mine.
“The Wind God Four Steps was not in the Heavenly Demon Library.”
A chilling energy, cold enough to freeze all the blood in my body, flowed through Father’s fingertips. It was a different sensation from sinking into the abyss earlier.
“I definitely learned it there.”
“A lie!”
“Can you swear you have seen every single one of those countless manuals? It might have been placed on another shelf, not the shelf for movement arts.”
“Then you knew the Wind God Four Steps was there!”
“I didn’t.”
“A lie!”
“I truly didn’t know. I was trying to learn another martial art and discovered it by chance.”
On this point, I denied it flatly. There was no other way to explain it. Of course, Father would not believe me.
Father withdrew the hand gripping my throat and asked again.
“Where was it?”
“It was being used as a prop beneath a bookshelf.”
“And how did you discover it?”
“I found it while trying to straighten the shelf because it was propped up crookedly.”
Father hesitated, wondering whether to believe this, then nearly summoned a subordinate to bring it before stopping himself.
“You must have already destroyed the important parts of the manual.”
“How did you know?”
“Because I would have done the same.”
After glaring at me for a moment, Father returned to his grand chair as quickly as he had flown toward me.
“Recite the formula.”
As expected! That was my father.
My goal was not to defeat Father and ascend to the position of Heavenly Demon. Nor did I intend to wait for Hwa Mugi under the exact same circumstances as last time.
Killing that bastard was important, but the purpose of my regression was to save Father and the people of the Heavenly Demon Hall.
I would not let revenge become the entirety of this regression. Revenge was the reason for my return; the purpose of my return was to live this life happily.
After killing Hwa Mugi, until Father handed over his position, I intended to wander the world freely, not bound to the sect, and live enjoyably.
That would be when my real life began. With this young body, I would live an unfettered life. The title of my autobiography would be “Life Like Geom Mugeuk.”
For that reason, there was no problem with teaching Father the movement art.
Of course, not for free.
“I refuse.”
To spare my angry father the trouble of flying at me again, I quickly spoke.
“There is no such thing as free in this world.”
“I seem to recall that the secret technique I taught you at the hunting grounds was free.”
“That was the price of the liquor you drank at the hunting grounds.”
At my shameless words, Father looked dumbfounded.
“How on earth have you endured until now? A shameless bastard like you.”
“You have to grow before you can talk back. Now I am taller than you, Father. I gritted my teeth and held it in until I grew this much.”
I did not yield a single word to Father.
Father. You cannot beat me. You have no idea how much I have suffered. Do you know how many times I crossed the threshold of death?
“Is there something you want?”
“What I am giving you is a martial formula, so it would be fair to receive a martial formula in return. If I had my way, I would like to be taught the Nine Flames Demonic Art, but that seems difficult, so I will settle for the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art.”
For a moment, silence flowed.
The Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art was, as its name suggested, a protective art that guarded the body, a unique martial art of the Heavenly Demon passed down only to the Heavenly Demon himself.
“Impossible!”
“This is the Wind God Four Steps we are talking about. Strictly speaking, I’m the one taking a loss in this trade.”
“The Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art may be learned only by the Heavenly Demon and his successor.”
“You can teach me in secret. In any case, the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art activates without leaving any outward sign, so no one else will ever know.”
It was a martial art that would never become known to outsiders.
I could sense Father’s hesitation. If he became serious, grew angry, and pressured me forcefully, in the end I would have to tell him. But Father did not do that. Father was Father.
In any case, from my position, it was a martial art I absolutely had to obtain. If I learned the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art, it would be like gaining an extra life.
“Please think it over and send me word.”
I bowed respectfully and was about to turn away when Father’s voice came to me.
“The Wind God Four Steps comes first.”
Amazingly, Father had decided to transmit the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art to me.
He was really going to teach me the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art?
Perhaps Father wanted me to become his successor. Or perhaps he thought I was bound to die while facing the Eight Demon Venerables anyway, so he did not care.
“Very well.”
“Why accept so readily? I could take only the Wind God Four Steps and not teach you.”
“At the very least, you are not someone who would do something shameful in front of his son.”
A sneer brushed Father’s lips. Using even the word shameful was the strongest move I could make. How could Father not know what I was thinking?
‘I’m sorry, Father. But I can’t just hand over the Wind God Four Steps for nothing, can I?’
Fortunately, Father’s reaction was not that bad. He was the sort who would value me securing a price like this more highly than foolishly offering up a martial formula for free.
“Good. Tell me the formula.”
“Yes.”
I taught Father the formula of the Wind God Four Steps.
Father quietly closed his eyes and pondered the formula.
When three sijin had passed, Father began to display the Wind God Four Steps.
I watched without blinking even once.
The Wind God Four Steps that Father displayed was the same as what I had shown, and yet different.
Father seemed to be saying this:
This is how I interpret this martial art.
I imprinted every single movement of the Wind God Four Steps Father displayed into my mind. It was not because I intended to imitate it exactly. It was because I knew that the level of one’s martial learning was determined by how one interpreted those minute differences—what parts were different from mine, and why.
After completing all the forms, Father quietly fell into thought.
I, too, sank into deep meditation as I compared the Wind God Four Steps Father had just displayed with the Wind God Four Steps I had displayed.
I had to learn.
Father’s attitude toward martial arts. The way the greatest thought, and the depth of his interpretation.
At last, Father awakened from his meditation.
“It truly is an excellent martial art.”
If the words “excellent martial art” came from Father, that was the highest praise.
“You can’t swallow it down because your conscience would bother you, can you?”
Father snorted, but this time there was satisfaction mingled in it.
Now I had created the greatest variable since my regression.
Could Hwa Mugi truly defeat Father, who had even learned the Wind God Four Steps?
Of course, I intended to beat Hwa Mugi to death myself, but giving Father the Wind God Four Steps like this was a kind of contingency plan.
Father kept his promise.
“From now on, I will transmit the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art. I will say it only once, so memorize it well.”
Before hearing the formula, I sat down cross-legged on the spot.
Because Father would truly say it only once, I did not intend to memorize it with my head, but by circulating the formula myself and engraving it into my body. This was not something anyone but an expert of my level should attempt.
Father began transmitting the formula of the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art.
“From the Mingmen point, move your inner qi gently through Shenshu, Zhishi, and Weishu. At this moment, the true qi must be as light as snow settling on blades of grass. Speed is important through Pishu, Ganshu, and Geshu. Walk, run, then raise the speed as if lightly soaring, and when you reach Shenzhu, Fengmen, and Quyuan, pour it out powerfully like a crashing waterfall……”
The formula was openly difficult from the very beginning. Its difficulty was truly at the extreme. Even as I moved my true qi according to the formula, my heart kept dropping in terror. I resented Father to the point that I could hardly believe he had not stopped me from circulating the formula directly, even though he knew it was this difficult.
Naturally, several crises came. I managed to get through the minor ones, but near the end, a major crisis struck.
In an instant, my true qi flowed backward, and my meridians rampaged as if they would burst. The taut meridians felt as though they might explode at any moment. If I had not strengthened my meridians with the Heavenly Meridian Strengthening Art before, I would certainly have suffered severe internal injuries.
‘So learning the Heavenly Meridian Strengthening Art was preparation for this very day. Then I will not die today!’
At the very edge of a cliff where qi deviation, internal injuries, and death awaited if I fell, I became the embodiment of positivity and fought back.
I also believed.
I was not fated to die while learning martial arts from Father.
Did my faith reach through?
The true qi that had been bucking like a wild horse settled down. My inner power flowed along the meridians it was meant to follow, and having overcome the crisis, I was able to complete the final formula of the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art.
“Hooooo.”
I brought the circulation to a close with a long breath and slowly opened my eyes.
Father was standing by the large window of the Heavenly Demon Hall, looking outside.
Had he known that such a great crisis had passed through me?
If I had fallen into qi deviation, would he truly have helped me?
Until I heard the words “from now on, you are the next Heavenly Demon” from Father’s mouth, I could be certain of nothing.
Whether he knew my feelings or not, Father looked out the window and spoke of the greatness of the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art.
“When your life hangs by a thread, the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art activates on its own. If, in the future, you achieve great completion in the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art, you will never die.”
The instant I heard those words, one question arose in my heart.
‘Then why did you die, Father?’