“Investigator Seo was impressive.”
Ian said as we returned to my quarters together. I was taking her there to show her the residence I had moved into after becoming Young Cult Leader.
“She seems like a completely different person from when I first saw her.”
“She’s worked very hard in the meantime.”
Since Ian was someone who would be offended to be called second to anyone when it came to effort, I added one more thing.
“But don’t start thinking that means you need to work even harder too. You already overdo it enough as it is.”
“No. I’m not going to let my effort overflow halfway. I’m going to make it gush out in torrents.”
I could guess what Ian was thinking right now. With everyone else surging ahead, she might be feeling as if she alone were falling behind.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I’m only visiting your new residence today. In the past, I would have come to see you on the very first day you moved.”
It seemed she felt sorry for coming so late. Her already drooping shoulders sank even further.
“If you put it that way, I’m the same. I moved into a new home and didn’t even invite you, didn’t I?”
“You were busy, Young Master.”
“You were busier than I was. Is touring a room more important, or is our work more important? The answer is obvious. So there’s no need to feel sorry at all.”
I took her inside. She was startled by how much larger it was than before.
“Ah! It really is big.”
“This body is the Young Cult Leader of our cult!”
The maidservants passing by came out politely and greeted Ian. Ian accepted their greetings with a smile.
When she entered my room, she was even more surprised.
“It’s so different from the room I expected.”
The bookshelves lining the walls, the large bed with pure white bedding, the desk and chair placed by the sunlit window. It seemed different from what she had imagined.
“This isn’t your taste, Young Master.”
“This is my taste.”
“I didn’t know. You should have told me it was like this.”
Before my regression, I had had no such thing as taste.
Whether the bed was big or small, whether there were bookshelves or wardrobes, I had not cared. My only concern had been becoming the successor.
That was why I had drifted away from becoming the successor. Because I saw nothing. I did not see people properly, and I did not care what was in my own room.
At the time, I had thought I was passionate, but now that I thought back on it, I wondered if perhaps it had been an escape into passion.
“You have so many books.”
She took interest in the bookshelves first.
“Now that I’m Young Cult Leader, I need to look learned.”
“This book is incredibly thick.”
“Don’t take it out! That one’s for decoration. It’s hard to put back in.”
“It won’t come out even if I want it to. A book you need inner energy to pull out!”
She examined another bookshelf.
“There are a lot of books here that Elder Blade Demon has, aren’t there?”
At one time, she had borrowed books from the Blood Heaven Blade Demon to read.
“Yes. I wrote down all the books he had there and filled this shelf with the same ones. The Elder knows books well.”
She took a book from another shelf and studied it closely.
“You even have this kind of book.”
The book she was holding was titled Escaping the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare.
“Have you read it?”
I nodded and answered.
“I have.”
“Did it seem like you could escape if you followed it?”
“I didn’t read it to escape. I read it to keep others from escaping.”
She laughed at my words.
“Young Master, you’re someone who can say, ‘Lay out the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare!’ but I might end up trapped in the Martial Alliance’s Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare, so please lend me this book.”
“As much as you like.”
“Please lend me this one and this one too.”
She picked out several books. She used to mostly read collections of poetry and paintings, but the books she chose now were all books that recorded secret methods for surviving in the martial world.
“Do you still read books these days?”
“I try to read at least for one gak before going to sleep. I have to build indirect experience, if nothing else.”
It seemed she was still worried that she might become a frog in a well.
“Ian.”
“Yes.”
She turned toward me.
“You think having a lot of worldly experience is better, don’t you?”
“Of course. Isn’t it?”
Ian’s eyes went round.
“It is. People with a lot of worldly experience somehow seem impressive and dependable. They have insight, and they can offer new teachings and experiences to those around them. But to become that way, it also means they’ve gone through and suffered all kinds of filthy things. They’ve endured dirty, petty things, seen people at their very worst. They even come to harbor distrust and disgust toward humanity. Do you think such experiences are only good things in a person’s life?”
Before my regression, I had gone through many things. Yes, thanks to that, I had become stronger and survived.
And so? Could I say my life had been a better one than Ian’s, who had silently walked only the path of a bodyguard warrior? If I were thrown somewhere, perhaps my chances of survival would be higher, but that did not mean it was a better life.
“I’m saying you don’t need to feel too regretful about the life you’ve lived, walking one path in silence. You don’t have to deliberately take on all sorts of miscellaneous wounds and pains wrapped up in the name of experience. You can fight without them, and you can win without them. I believe it. A moment will come when the life you’ve lived through effort will protect you more powerfully than any other experience.”
When I reached out, one of the poetry and painting collections on the shelf slipped free.
The collection floated through the air and was delivered to her.
“So read what you want to read as well.”
I had seen her glance at that book twice.
Ian sidled over to me and stared intently as she said,
“I guess bloodline really is a thing.”
I stared back at her with a serious expression that suited those words. Then, perhaps feeling needlessly embarrassed, Ian avoided my gaze and pretended to look elsewhere.
“The bed is really wide and nice. Is it soft?”
“If you’re curious, lie down.”
“You thought I’d say, ‘How could I dare lie on the Young Cult Leader’s bed!’ didn’t you?”
She threw herself onto the bed.
But her body floated above it.
“Not in the clothes you wore outside! Now I understand why Elder Blade Demon wouldn’t let you lie down.”
I floated her back to where she had been. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she spoke with a serious face.
“A while ago, I selected five people for the Ghost Shadow Unit. I looked at their character and their skills. As you said, I’m aiming for an elite organization rather than focusing on numbers.”
“You’re doing well.”
“Ah, and tomorrow I’m going to leave the cult with Cheongmyeon and my subordinates. We’re going to search for people to recruit into the Ghost Shadow Unit. I should have gone out earlier, but I delayed leaving the cult so I could watch the inauguration ceremony for the Lord of the Yellow Springs Pavilion. While I’m out, I’ll also visit Strategist Go and Cult Leader Pungcheon.”
She was stepping into the jianghu in earnest.
Perhaps sensing the worry in my gaze, she smiled and said,
“Don’t worry. I have nine tails, don’t I?”
“Come back stronger!”
She rose from her seat, cupped her fist politely, and said,
“Yes, Young Cult Leader!”
* * *
I immersed myself in martial arts training.
Across both before and after my regression, this was the period when I was training in martial arts the hardest.
Perhaps because he knew I was in a state of total absorption in martial arts, Father postponed all kinds of events within the cult.
The Guhwa Demonic Art and the Sicheon Secret Art.
They were martial arts I could not help but devote myself to earnestly.
First, the more I trained in the Sicheon Secret Art, the more there seemed to be a difference in the flow of time between the outside and inside of the Space-Time Transposition Art.
However, the difference was still minute, so it was not yet at a stage where I could use the Sicheon Secret Art for actual training.
Use the Space-Time Transposition Art, then use the Sicheon Secret Art again, and then train in martial arts there.
Inner energy would be consumed in three overlapping layers.
Compared to that, the time difference between outside and inside was not yet meaningful, so I was in a situation where recovering inner energy took even more time.
My heart was impatient, but I did not rush. It was not a martial art that could be accomplished overnight, and the life of training was consistency. Repeat, and repeat again. If I did that, one day I would find myself standing on the next stage.
Next was the Guhwa Demonic Art.
Once I became familiar with the mental method of the Guhwa Demonic Art, I began training in earnest from the First Form. It was a difficult and profound martial art, but I calmly analyzed the chants and advanced little by little.
Today, I intended to execute the First Form for the first time.
Guhwa Demonic Art, First Form: Human Annihilation Form.
From the very first form, it was simply annihilation. It meant that if one were human, one would surely die.
I gazed at the wooden dummy set up in front of me and steadied my mind. When I felt that both body and mind were ready, the Black Demon Sword was drawn.
Saaak.
In a single stroke, the dummy’s head fell off. It was an even faster sword form than the Azure Heaven Form, the swift-sword form of the Flying Heaven Sword Art.
So had I succeeded in the First Form? No. I had failed.
I walked over slowly and examined the wooden dummy whose head had fallen.
A faint trace of a sword line remained on its back. There were no marks at all on the left or right.
The Human Annihilation Form was a technique in which, the moment the form was unleashed, four sword energies flew in simultaneously from the opponent’s front, rear, left, and right.
Just imagine it.
In a flash, sword energy flying in not from one place but from four places at the same time. And they were not all aiming for the same spot. They came from four directions, each targeting a different place.
The sword energy from the front aimed for the neck, the one from behind for the back, the one from the left for the waist, and the one from the right for the legs.
However, for now, only the sword energy from the front flew properly, while the sword energies from the other three directions did not.
I closed my eyes for a moment and recalled the chant.
After organizing the chant in my mind, I unleashed sword energy toward a new wooden dummy.
I examined the wooden dummy again. This time, its back had been cut away, while its neck remained intact.
I repeated and repeated, but the First Form did not unfold as I wanted. I was missing something.
Father had said that he wanted to see the Guhwa Demonic Art as I interpreted it.
At this rate, could my Guhwa Demonic Art ever surpass Father’s? The only thing I could trust was my Heavenly Martial Body, but even I could not be certain whether I would be able to wield a Guhwa Demonic Art that surpassed Father’s.
As I agonized over it, clutching my head, I suddenly realized something.
The greed of wanting to learn a Guhwa Demonic Art stronger than Father’s was instead holding me back. Added to that greed was the desire to be acknowledged by Father, and it was weighing even more heavily on my ankles and dragging me down.
This isn’t my way.
I immediately left the training ground.
* * *
When I entered the Heavenly Demon Hall, Father was standing with his hands clasped behind his back, looking out the window.
“Come up here.”
“Yes.”
I walked the Path of Blood, climbed the stairs, and stood side by side with Father. Whenever I stood here with Father and looked out over the cult’s scenery, I always felt good, and now I stood beside him as Young Cult Leader.
“The Thousand Poison Forest has decided to double the amount of poison it produces.”
“Why do they say that is?”
When I asked while pretending not to know, Father looked at me. Since he knew I had been interacting with the Poison King recently, he must have guessed that I had influenced this decision as well.
Father’s gaze turned back out the window. After a brief silence, Father spoke in a low voice.
“Do not provoke the Poison King. He is someone who can become the beginning and the end of everything.”
I could understand what that meant. It meant that a war could begin because of him, and that he could also end a war. Martial artists had no choice but to be sensitive to poison. A lifetime of training could be ruined by a single poisoning.
“I will keep that in mind.”
Father turned to me and asked,
“Why have you come today?”
“I came because I have a request to make of you, Father.”
“What request?”
“Please use the Human Annihilation Form on me.”
At the unexpected words, Father flinched in surprise.
“You finally became the successor, and now you want to die?”
“Of course not.”
I loosened my chest garments.
“I’m wearing supreme-grade heavenly silkworm silk and even the Ghost Tiger Robe. I’m asking you to use it only to the extent that I won’t die.”
“Your reason?”
“I want to experience it directly and grasp the feeling.”
Originally, I should have learned much more from Father. But since Father had only given me the bare minimum of interpretation because he wanted to see the Guhwa Demonic Art as I interpreted it, this was a request he could grant.
“Very well.”
Once Father gave his permission, I stepped back and put some distance between us.
Are you ready, here I come. All such words were omitted.
The Heavenly Demon Sword was drawn at once from Father’s hand.
Swish.
A truly short and light sound of wind.
In that instant, I was shocked.
Four demons attacked simultaneously from every direction.
Father’s Human Annihilation Form was not merely four streaks of sword energy flying in. It was a sword energy in which terrifying apparitions of four demons, enough to freeze the body just by seeing them, appeared simultaneously from east, west, south, and north and swung their swords.
Kaaang! Kaang!
I blocked two, one struck me shallowly, and the other hit my body squarely.
Pak! Paaak!
As the sword energy collided with my protective energy, I flew through the air and rolled across the floor.
“Uuugh!”
It truly hurt. I had blocked with supreme-grade heavenly silkworm silk, the Ghost Tiger Armor, and protective energy on top of that, but my waist hurt as if it would snap in two.
It was fortunate Father had adjusted his inner energy. If he had unleashed it to the limit, I might have died from that one move. Even if I had not died, I would have suffered a fatal injury.
It was the first moment I truly felt the terror of the Guhwa Demonic Art.
And what I was curious about at that moment was this.
“If my realm in the Guhwa Demonic Art rises, will those demons manifest in my Human Annihilation Form as well?”
Father nodded.
“Similar demons, but different ones, will appear.”
Similar, but different.
He meant that because I would interpret the Guhwa Demonic Art differently and complete the martial art in my own way, different demons would appear.
My heart began to pound. Seeing the Heavenly Demon Soul was still a distant, distant matter, so I wanted to see my own small demons through the Human Annihilation Form at least.
“Will that do?”
“It is enough.”
I rubbed my waist, gave my greeting, and was about to turn away when I asked Father,
“By any chance, did you name those demons?”
That sneer appeared at the corner of Father’s mouth.
“The Poison King likes naming things. I’ve been spending time with him often lately, so I suppose I’ve been influenced.”
After greeting Father politely, I turned away.
The attainment of my martial arts was not solely my own attainment. If a Human Annihilation Form different from Father’s emerged, Father too would receive some inspiration from my Guhwa Demonic Art. Influencing each other, we would become stronger.
At the end of the Path of Blood, I said to Father,
“The next time I come to see you, I’ll bring four friends with me.”