“Training ends today.”
At Jang Ho’s words, the enforcement martial artists showed their regret. It had been training so brutal they could no longer count how many times they had cursed, but they had gained much from it.
Their martial arts had not advanced by leaps and bounds, but at the very least, their slackened minds had been pulled taut again.
For experts on the level of enforcement martial artists, a difference in mental strength could be said to lead directly to a difference in skill.
On top of that, Jang Ho had taken time here and there to look over their martial arts, correcting improper postures and bad habits. Thanks to that, quite a few had seen genuine improvement in their martial skill.
Until the very end, Jang Ho was telling each enforcement martial artist how to correct their stance and what sort of training they should do from now on.
Truly, none of the enforcement martial artists who had undergone that hellish training could have imagined they would say such a thing.
“Could you not train us a little longer?”
That was when I, who had been watching from the side, stepped forward.
“That will be difficult. Captain Jang has ascended to the position of Demon Army Lord.”
At the words Demon Army Lord, everyone was startled. They had been confined to the training ground and had not heard any news from outside.
“Congratulations.”
At someone’s congratulations, cheers and applause burst out.
Jang Ho left them with his final farewell.
“I will never forget the time I spent with you. Then, I’ll see you next time. No, wait. From my position, if I end up seeing you all, that means something terrible has happened. Let’s never see each other again as long as we live!”
After offering that final farewell, even mixing in a joke, Jang Ho left the place.
I stood on the platform where Jang Ho had been standing. The enforcement martial artists’ gazes were quite different from what they had been on the first day of training.
“You there, the first and last martial artists ever to be trained by a Demon Army Lord!”
At my words, several of them burst into laughter.
“Now, even if I ordered you to go arrest my father, you could do it without fear, couldn’t you?”
Laughter broke out here and there again.
After loosening the atmosphere like that, I conveyed what I had wanted to say to them.
“Martial arts are important, and fighting well is important too. But I believe the most important thing for those who bear the name of enforcement martial artist is pride. Pride in upholding the rules of our cult and protecting its order. We walk our own path. Understood?”
“Yes!”
“You’ve all worked hard in training. I’ve prepared a banquet, so today, drink your fill and rest!”
Cheers of joy erupted even louder than their vigorous reply from before.
* * *
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was waiting for me in the place where we met every day.
“The sight of you standing tall here is like a guardian stone watching over me.”
“Are you mocking me by calling me a stone head?”
“How could I possibly?”
I had thought he would fly into a rage because I had dragged the One Flower Sword Venerable into this, but unlike usual, he was calm.
“Congratulations on seating Jang Ho as the Demon Army Lord.”
“Thank you.”
I was more tense than ever. I had no idea what this old man might suddenly do.
But today’s Blood Heaven Blade Demon, just as Jang Ho had done, was showing an unexpected side unlike his usual self.
He was extremely composed. So much so that I wondered if perhaps this man called the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had originally been this sort of person.
This was why one must not judge a person after seeing only one side of them. One must not be deceived by the front. I still did not know what the back side of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked like.
“How did you persuade the Sword Venerable?”
“If you promise not to get angry, I’ll tell you honestly.”
“I won’t get angry.”
“I pricked Senior Sword Venerable’s pride by saying that you were the true Demon Venerable. I used you, Elder.”
The corners of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s mouth curled upward.
“In that case, you were the one who was fooled. There’s no way that schemer wouldn’t have seen through your shallow ploy.”
He disliked the One Flower Sword Venerable, but at the very least, he did not underestimate her.
The same went for the Sword Venerable. The fact that she had intervened in this matter also meant she trusted the Blade Demon’s eye for people.
“That fox will definitely try to scheme against you. She’ll use the fact that she helped you as a reason to keep you from meeting me. What will you do then?”
“For me, you come first, Elder.”
“She’ll bring up the fact that she helped Jang Ho.”
“That’s fine, since you helped me first, Elder.”
“Will that still be the case when she makes you an offer you can’t refuse? Like this, for example.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon took a small box from his robe and held it out.
“A promise is a promise.”
I accepted the box and carefully opened it.
A single blue-tinged pill was emitting a mysterious spiritual energy, as if it were not of this world.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon spoke with an expression that showed it truly pained him to part with it.
“It is the Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill.”
At this moment, I had no need to pretend to be surprised. I really was surprised to see him hand over the Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill so readily. I had expected him to make all sorts of excuses, saying he was trying to find a decent spiritual medicine but could not, and to avoid giving it up easily.
“Oh! Is this really the Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill? How did you obtain this?”
“I have kept it stored away for a very long time. I treasured it and did not even take it myself.”
“You’re truly giving this to me?”
“Shall I take it back?”
“As if you would.”
Perhaps his insides were churning, because the Blood Heaven Blade Demon drank the liquor set before him.
Putting down the cup, he said,
“Second Young Master, I will stake the rest of my life on you.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon had laid down the strongest card he possessed.
I had once told Father that the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had no value worth keeping.
Now I would have to correct those words.
If you were going to come out this decisively, then I, too, would properly make you mine.
The Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill that should have gone to my brother had come to me, and with it, the fates of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and me had changed. It had changed even more because it had not come by force, but willingly.
“Thank you for trusting me.”
I respectfully gave him a cupped-fist salute, then made one request.
“I will take the divine pill here and now. Would you stand guard over me?”
At that, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was startled.
“You’re saying you’ll take the divine pill in front of me?”
“Yes. Since you gave it to me, Elder, I believe it is only right that I take it before you.”
To stand guard over someone while they circulated qi and regulated their breath carried a certain symbolic meaning. For a martial artist, it was the final stage of trust.
“You trust me?”
“Isn’t it because I trust you that I am taking this Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill? If you had poisoned it, I would have to do whatever you ordered in order to obtain the antidote.”
A look of interest flickered through the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s eyes.
“And why do you believe I did not poison it?”
“Because you are not someone who would choose such a despicable method.”
“I consider myself fairly despicable.”
“There are many kinds of despicableness. As I see you, Elder, you are not someone who would overturn the whole board and break a promise.”
“What if your intuition is wrong?”
“I’ll think about that when the time comes. Now then, please stand guard for a short while.”
In truth, it was a safe gamble. That was because I knew the Blood Heaven Blade Demon loathed poison arts and sorcery to the point of disgust.
I sat down cross-legged right there and took the Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill without hesitation.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon stared at me with a shocked expression. It seemed he truly had not expected me to take the spiritual medicine in front of him.
The Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill was a spiritual medicine I had never seen even in my life before regression.
‘Divine pill, please melt well.’
The medicinal effect of the Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill, which began melting from the moment it entered my mouth, passed down my throat and started spreading through my entire body. It was a force far greater than the Demonic Essence Pill I had taken earlier in Socheondong.
My blood meridians, strengthened by the Heavenly Meridian Strengthening Art, welcomed that tremendous energy by opening their pathways wide. The energy of the divine pill galloped like a thousand-li horse, and my blood meridians gladly became a field to receive it. The spiritual qi, rushing like a gale, stretched out into the fine meridians throughout my body.
I devoted myself wholeheartedly to circulating qi and regulating my breath in order to fully refine that vast energy into internal energy.
After several rounds of careful qi circulation, I was able to store the miraculous energy of the Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill in my dantian.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the Blood Heaven Blade Demon standing a short distance away, arms crossed, looking at me.
“How did the divine pill taste?”
“Like honey. I have never eaten anything this delicious in my life.”
“Damn it! Damn it all!”
He was regretting that he had not eaten it himself.
“I am certain it has been digested ten times more valuably than if you had taken it yourself.”
Now, even if I were to clash with the Blood Heaven Blade Demon right before my eyes, I would not hear anyone say I lost because of my internal energy. That was how pure and abundant the internal power overflowing in my dantian was.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon squatted down in front of me. Seeing him up close, he had more wrinkles than I had expected.
“Listen, Second Young Master.”
“Yes, Elder.”
Looking into my eyes, he asked,
“What exactly are you? Just what are you, that you overturned my heart and made me spit out even the Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill?”
I immediately drew up my internal energy and released demonic qi. Like an erupting volcano spewing lava, demonic qi burst forth. It was a cold and stern aura, different from what I had shown him until now.
“The one who will one day lead you. If you are still alive by then.”
Within the suffocating energy pressing down on him, several emotions crossed the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s face. At the very least, though he might get angry, he did not mock me.
When I withdrew my demonic qi, the frozen air around us loosened.
“I’ll acknowledge that you have guts, at least.”
“Let me ask one thing as well.”
“Ask.”
“What is it that you ultimately want, Elder?”
“What could an old man like me want at this age? I simply keep living as I have, carried along by inertia.”
“You seem far too passionate for that to be true.”
“I do?”
“When I see you pushing me, you seem like a young man. I can feel a blazing fire from you.”
At that moment, I once again saw flames in the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s eyes. The Blood Heaven Blade Demon still stood alone within the flames.
“Is that how I look?”
“Yes.”
On the other hand, he spoke as though he had no confidence in himself.
“That is a relief. Lately, I thought I had cooled down completely…”
I could guess what that feeling was. No matter how many ambitions, aspirations, and desires one placed in a basket, there were things that time mercilessly scooped away.
“Please give me liquor.”
“Liquor? I lost this wager.”
“The moment you gave me the Beyond-Heaven Divine Pill without begrudging it, you won the wager. I will receive your liquor, Elder.”
“Are you sincere?”
“Please guide me well from now on.”
If he was this difficult for even me to deal with, how difficult would he be for my enemies? I intended to make the Blood Heaven Blade Demon truly one of my people. I did not know if that would be possible, though.
The moved Blood Heaven Blade Demon filled a cup to the brim.
“Here, take it.”
I drank the liquor the Blood Heaven Blade Demon gave me in one refreshing gulp.
“Let us do well together from now on!”
“Yes. Even if you pull your petty tricks, please keep them to a level I can handle.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon flinched for a moment, then burst into laughter.
“Hahaha!”
Since becoming a Demon Venerable, I was probably the first person to say “petty tricks” to his face.
“Have another drink.”
“Good!”
I knew. Though he was smiling so broadly now, he had not yet opened the door to his heart completely. The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was not someone who could be judged only by what was visible through a door cracked open.
I did not know what lay beyond that door.
As Father had said, that the human heart could never be known, I did not intend to predict or define the person called the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. I would judge only by what I could see.
And our relationship would be decided on the day that door opened wide.
Whether I burned to death in your flames, whether you died pierced by my sword, or whether we became eternal friends, the decision would be made that day.