The Drunken Demon’s qinggong was fast.
The speed he had first shown had been only a fraction of his true ability. The more he ran, the faster he became.
‘Just how much trouble did he get into while drunk to become this fast?’
He was fast enough to make one want to joke like that. That was how the Demon Venerables were. They would drink together, crack every kind of joke, even leap into a lake and swim together, yet never once had he mentioned that his qinggong was this swift.
The other Demon Venerables were the same. Far from boasting about their martial arts, they almost never even brought them up. That was the truly frightening thing about real masters.
So? Did an unexpected reversal occur?
Unfortunately, no such thing happened. No matter how fast the Drunken Demon was, Geom Mugeuk’s Swift Step had surpassed the perfected tenth stage and reached the eleventh.
“I’m going on ahead!”
They had been running at about the same pace, but as they neared their destination, Geom Mugeuk increased his speed. He did not hold back, nor did he let his guard down. With Fire Dragon Wine on the line, how could he?
Geom Mugeuk unleashed the Swift Step to its utmost limit and arrived at the appointed place first.
A short while later, the Drunken Demon arrived, panting for breath.
“What are you? Why are you so fast?”
“I saved my strength for the final moment.”
The Drunken Demon knew that was not why he had lost. He was gasping for breath, while Geom Mugeuk was breathing as calmly as usual. In other words, he had never been a match for him to begin with.
For all he knew, if Geom Mugeuk had shown his true ability from the start, he might have gone to a nearby village, bought snacks to go with the wine, laid them out, and waited.
“I’ve never lost in qinggong before.”
“I’m the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
Geom Mugeuk looked around with an air of smugness.
“Now then, where would be a good place to drink our Fire Dragon?”
He wondered if the Drunken Demon would truly give him the Fire Dragon Wine.
“Follow me.”
The Drunken Demon flew off somewhere using qinggong.
Geom Mugeuk followed after him. This time, he used the Heavenly Demon Flight Art he had been practicing whenever he found the chance. With his back straight and even his arms crossed, he flew after him in an openly lofty posture.
Truly, it was a qinggong that suited Father all too well. To fly in with such an aloof stance, then descend slowly by walking through the air! Ah, this was it!
No matter how much faster the Swift Step was, this was the reason he could not give up on the Heavenly Demon Flight Art.
The place the Drunken Demon brought Geom Mugeuk to was a small rock jutting out from a cliff overlooking magnificent scenery.
“On my way back to the cult, I sometimes have a drink here.”
Far off in the distance, Dacheonsan could be seen, and the river flowing before it shattered the sunlight and glittered. Reed fields spread out again around the river, so beautiful it truly seemed like a scene from a painting.
“If you’re going to drink Fire Dragon Wine, you should drink it in a place like this.”
The Drunken Demon took the Fire Dragon Wine from his robe and held it out to Geom Mugeuk.
“You’re really giving it to me?”
“Then should I not? We made a wager.”
“But it’s Fire Dragon Wine.”
“I still have to give it to you.”
“You joined hands with my brother, didn’t you? So you laced it with Formless Deadly Poison here, didn’t you?”
“Looks like you don’t want to drink it. Then never mind.”
“As if!”
As the Drunken Demon tried to put it back into his robe, Geom Mugeuk quickly snatched the Fire Dragon Wine from him.
The Drunken Demon took a cup from his sleeve.
“This cup will yield exactly three drinks. It is more effective to drink it in portions than all at once, so divide it into three and drink it.”
The Drunken Demon had truly run with all his might, but seeing that he had even brought a cup, Geom Mugeuk thought perhaps he had brought this wine intending to give it to him as a gift after all.
The Drunken Demon took out another cup and poured liquor from the gourd-shaped blood flask hanging at his waist. When outside, he drank any liquor just fine, but when it came to cups, he tried to drink from his own whenever possible.
“Now then, I admit defeat.”
After clinking his cup vigorously against the one the Drunken Demon held out, Geom Mugeuk drank the Fire Dragon Wine. A scorching energy, as if it would burn his insides, slid down his throat. He understood why he had been told to divide it into three portions.
Geom Mugeuk immediately began circulating his qi and dissolving that blazing energy. It was an extreme yang energy among extreme yang energies, but Geom Mugeuk began absorbing it into the meridians throughout his body without much strain.
When he dissolved all of the energy with a single full circulation, the Drunken Demon was astonished. He knew Geom Mugeuk’s martial arts were powerful, but he had not expected him to dissolve one cup of Fire Dragon Wine with a single circulation.
They toasted again and he drank the second cup as well.
“Ugh, that’s good!”
The second cup also set his entire body ablaze. The more he drank, the more fiercely it burned, but not to the point his body could not endure it.
In that way, Geom Mugeuk drank all of the Fire Dragon Wine in three portions and dissolved all the energy contained within it.
The pure and majestic energy that had been circulating through the meridians of his entire body became internal energy and gathered in his dantian.
It was a greater amount than he had expected.
Even before, Geom Mugeuk had possessed more internal energy than anyone, but he needed even more. These days, he was cultivating the Space-Time Transposition Art, the Sicheon Secret Art, and even the Nine Transformations Demon Art.
The more internal energy he had, the shorter his training time became, so even a handful of internal energy was welcome without question.
After completing a circulation of true qi, Geom Mugeuk’s two eyes held an even clearer and deeper light than before, which then faded away.
Watching him, the Drunken Demon shook his head and said,
“I’ll have to rewrite the part about the Fire Dragon Wine.”
“What do you mean?”
“The secret manual passed down through the generations says it takes three days to absorb all of the Fire Dragon Wine.”
The Drunken Demon had expected that, even if not three days, Geom Mugeuk would at least spend a day here circulating his qi. And yet Geom Mugeuk had absorbed all of the Fire Dragon Wine’s energy before even half a shichen had passed.
“What are you? Just what are you that you keep startling people like this?”
At the question, half jest and half sincerity, Geom Mugeuk spoke in a voice full of dignity.
“I am the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. And who might you be?”
The Drunken Demon played along with Geom Mugeuk’s banter.
“I am a drunkard who lost a wager and was stripped clean of his Fire Dragon Wine. Future generations! Never wager on qinggong with the Heavenly Demon Hall!”
The two looked at each other and laughed.
“Brother, thank you.”
“What’s there to thank me for? You won it in a wager.”
“What’s your request?”
“Why so suddenly?”
“Even if it hadn’t been a wager, I should grant your request. Say it! I’ll do anything.”
“Anything?”
“Even if you tell me to go spill your liquor on Father’s bed, I’ll do it.”
“That’s not granting a request, that’s assassination.”
They bantered like that for a while, but in the end the Drunken Demon did not state his request.
“It’s fine. I’ll tell you later if the chance comes.”
Since he seemed unwilling to say it now, Geom Mugeuk did not press him further.
“Let’s have another qinggong wager next time.”
“Next time, I request Longevity Wine.”
Longevity Wine, too, was a rare wine that could grant internal energy no less valuable than Fire Dragon Wine.
“Shall we go to the Ice Palace first?”
Geom Mugeuk was being considerate of the Drunken Demon, but he did not accept that either.
“If not for you, it was a place I wouldn’t even have thought of going. Meet your heart first. You do know where that heart is right now, don’t you?”
“If I knew where she was, I wouldn’t go. I’m going because I don’t know where she is or what she’s doing, and I’m worried.”
“How are you going to find her?”
Geom Mugeuk gazed at the river far away, sparkling like jewels in the sunlight.
“Don’t worry. That girl… if anything, it’ll be harder not to find her.”
* * *
The two ran and ran toward the North Sea.
If they came across an inn along the way, they stayed there; if not, they camped outdoors.
Geom Mugeuk displayed his skill at camping. When he expertly dressed the beast he had hunted, sprinkled it with a secret seasoning, and served it, the Drunken Demon was greatly impressed.
Seeing him rejoice that it was perfect as a drinking snack, Geom Mugeuk felt apologetic. It was a dish he had made several times for the other Demon Venerables. He had even taught his guards how to camp and cook.
And so, sharing the stories they had not yet told, they ran north.
They ran and camped, ran and drank. After running without pause like that, the two finally arrived at the North Sea.
“Snow.”
Spring had come to the Central Plains, but snow lay piled in the North Sea.
“I was disappointed that there wasn’t much snow this year. Let’s enjoy it to our hearts’ content before we go back.”
Watching the excited Geom Mugeuk, the Drunken Demon thought inwardly,
‘Will we really be able to enjoy ourselves and go back?’
For some reason, being with Geom Mugeuk made him feel an instinctive sense of crisis, as if something was bound to happen. It was just his imagination, right?
The place the two arrived at was the village from which the last news of Ian had come. It was a little removed from the center of the North Sea, so there were not many outsiders.
The villagers wore fur hats and clothes made from animal hides. Trees and grasses that could not be seen in the Central Plains grew here and there. The North Sea certainly had its own unique sense of mystery.
‘Why did Ian come all the way to this distant place?’
She must have come here for a reason.
At the appearance of the two men in thin martial robes, the villagers’ gazes gathered on them. Passersby, shop clerks, even people who had stuck their heads out by the windows, all silently watched the two strangers.
“Let’s go there.”
It was, unusually, a tavern made from a cave.
When the two entered the tavern, several customers drinking inside looked at them all at once. Every gaze was wary.
Of course, Geom Mugeuk and the Drunken Demon paid them no mind.
When they sat down, a waiter came over and greeted them.
“Welcome!”
“Bring us liquor and something simple to eat.”
“Please wait a moment!”
The Drunken Demon, who had been looking around the interior, glanced up at the ceiling and said,
“I don’t think I’ll even get drunk. Not when I don’t know when those things above my head might fall.”
At the Drunken Demon’s words, Geom Mugeuk raised his head. From various places in the cave ceiling, icicles stretched down long and sharp like spears.
“If we break those off and put them in the liquor, it’d be nice and cool.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, the Drunken Demon laughed and said they should try it.
A short while later, the waiter brought the liquor and dishes. There was no need to break any icicles. The cups were frozen solid.
“If you drink from these, the liquor will be cold.”
Though it was cold outside, everyone was drinking chilled liquor rather than warmed wine.
“See here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let me ask you something. Has a woman wearing a veil and carrying a sword come here?”
“No. No one like that has come.”
But Geom Mugeuk saw it. In that fleeting instant, the waiter had flinched. No matter how seasoned a waiter he was, he could not avoid Geom Mugeuk’s sharp eyes.
“We’re friends of that lady xia. We’re not bad people, so tell us.”
The Drunken Demon cut in and added a word.
“Look at our faces. What part of these faces looks villainous?”
“In my experience, whether someone is a villain or not has nothing to do with how they look. In any case, I have never seen such a person.”
After the waiter withdrew, the Drunken Demon said,
“Why did he say he didn’t know when he clearly did?”
The Drunken Demon had also noticed that the waiter was lying.
“He tried to hide it because we looked like villains.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, the Drunken Demon touched his own face.
“This face? This handsome face? What part of it!”
The Drunken Demon was indeed handsome. Wherever he went, he had the face of a handsome middle-aged man.
The Poison King, the Extreme Evil Young Demon with his mask off, the Drunken Demon, and me. If the four of us walked around together, I’m certain we’d be called the Four Handsome Men or the Four Heavenly Kings.
“If that’s not it, then she’s involved with dangerous people whose names he can’t even speak.”
That was likely the case. Otherwise, there would be no need to hide the fact that he had seen Ian.
When the two had drunk a few cups, the waiter brought the food. It was a dish from the North Sea region that could not be seen in the Central Plains.
As the waiter set down the food, Geom Mugeuk casually placed a silver piece on the table. The waiter flinched in surprise. It was far too large a sum to be a tip from a customer thanking him for his trouble. It was money he would have to work at least ten days to earn.
Quick-witted as he was, the waiter understood. He was to tell them about that lady xia and take it.
“This is your first time here, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“I’ll tell you some places nearby worth seeing.”
The waiter told them of places worth visiting in the area.
“If you go five li east, there is a place where snow blossoms bloom. It’s a magnificent sight you won’t see in the Central Plains. Surinsa Temple to the south is also worth visiting. Be careful not to slip when you climb the stairs.”
After mentioning a few more places, he added at the end,
“Ah, and do not go near the manor to the west under any circumstances. It is a dangerous place.”
That was enough. He had told them in this way that Ian had come here and gone to that manor.
The waiter pocketed the money and went toward the kitchen. It was a clever answer. Even if trouble arose later, he had not said a single word about Ian.
After leaving the tavern, Geom Mugeuk and the Drunken Demon headed west.
Following the waiter’s directions, they found that there truly was a manor there.
As they entered through the main gate, the Drunken Demon looked around the interior and said,
“Didn’t you say the person you’re looking for was a pretty heart?”
A single line entered their eyes.
The trees, the stone lantern standing in the courtyard, even the rear wall. They had all been sliced in a long, straight line. As if measured with a ruler and cut with perfect precision, it was clear a clean single strike had been unleashed.
And on the ground remained bloodstains that had not yet been cleaned away. Presumably, those caught along that line had been cut apart in the same way.
The Drunken Demon pulled his collar closed as if he felt cold and said,
“That’s not a pretty heart. That’s a terrifying heart, isn’t it?”