The carriage raced swiftly toward the main branch of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Except when they stopped for meals, rested the horses, or slept at inns at night, the carriage ran without pause.
Today, too, the carriage was speeding down the road.
As it passed in a cloud of dust, the sparrows perched on a scarecrow all flew up at once.
“They’re just like me.”
At Ian’s words, Geom Mugeuk raised his head.
“What is?”
Beyond the sparrows that had just taken flight and ridden the wind into the sky, a single crane stood on the edge of a rice paddy.
Its aloof, elegant figure seemed just like Geom Mugeuk, and she herself felt like one of the sparrows that had just fluttered up. The thought had simply slipped out.
By the time Geom Mugeuk looked out the carriage window, the scenery had already changed, as if to say everything had only been a fleeting instant.
“There is such a thing. Something that chirps.”
“How bland.”
“By the way, what have you been thinking so hard about?”
All throughout the carriage ride, Geom Mugeuk had been sunk in deep thought.
“Whether it’ll be cut off or not.”
“Pardon?”
Not understanding what he meant, Ian’s eyes went round. Seojin, who was with them, also looked puzzled.
Geom Mugeuk stuck his head out the window and called to the carriage ahead.
“Let’s stop for a moment!”
At that, the two carriages running ahead came to a halt.
Geom Mugeuk got down and went to the carriage carrying the Fist Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable.
“We only have three or four days left until the main branch, so from here on, let’s travel together.”
Thinking there must be a reason for him to do this when everything had been going smoothly, the Fist Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable readily got down from the carriage.
Geom Mugeuk sent back the two carriages that had been leading the way, along with all three drivers.
“From now on, I’ll drive the carriage myself.”
There was indeed a reason Geom Mugeuk was doing this.
After letting the horses loose to graze in a nearby field, Geom Mugeuk gathered the two Demon Venerables, Ian, and Seojin in one place.
“Please come over here for a moment!”
The four of them gathered around Geom Mugeuk. Everyone wondered what he was up to.
“Ian, draw your sword.”
Being told out of nowhere to draw her sword, Ian did as she was told and pulled it free. The sharp energy of the Sun-Moon Sword flowed along its blade.
‘Is he trying to spar with me?’
But her guess was completely wrong.
Geom Mugeuk rolled up his sleeve and held out his arm.
“Strike my arm with that sword.”
A brief silence passed.
“Are you testing your protective aura?”
“No. I’m going to block it without protective aura.”
At those words, not only Ian but the other three were startled as well. Everyone’s eyes fixed on Geom Mugeuk’s arm and the Sun-Moon Sword.
“This is the Sun-Moon Sword. The Sun-Moon Sword you gave me as a gift, Young Cult Leader. The blade is far too sharp to test whether it’s genuine or not, isn’t it?”
“I’m not trying to test whether that is genuine. I’m testing whether something else is genuine.”
What on earth was he talking about?
“My arm is getting tired. Hurry and strike.”
“If I strike, that tired arm will be gone.”
“Hurry!”
Ian looked at the Fist Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable. As if those two would know Geom Mugeuk’s intentions any better.
At last, the Fist Demon nodded to his daughter. It meant she should do as she was told.
“I’m really going to hit you.”
“Hit hard!”
Fine. If it were anyone else, maybe not, but since it was the Young Cult Leader, he must have some plan. Ah, whatever. I don’t know anymore.
The Sun-Moon Sword split the air. Since he had said he would not use protective aura, she did not infuse her sword with inner energy either. Even so, it was not a sword one could block with bare flesh.
Ssshhk.
Thwack.
For an instant, silence settled over the place.
Everyone froze as though time itself had stopped.
The Sun-Moon Sword lay directly against Geom Mugeuk’s forearm. Astonishingly, despite having struck down hard with the Sun-Moon Sword, it had not cut off Geom Mugeuk’s arm.
“Are you all right?”
“No. It hurts like hell. Were you trying to cut off the Young Cult Leader’s arm?”
“You told me to strike hard.”
“I didn’t mean that hard. I think the bone broke.”
Of course, unlike his fussing, Geom Mugeuk’s arm was perfectly fine.
“You raised your protective aura just now, didn’t you? You did, right?”
“No.”
Geom Mugeuk shook his head.
A strange light flashed through the eyes of the Fist Demon, who had been watching.
“It was not protective aura.”
At that, Geom Mugeuk gave a faint smile.
“As expected. Master, you recognized it.”
Everyone was surprised by those words. Ian, in particular, was greatly shocked.
“Even if it’s you, Young Cult Leader, you endured the Sun-Moon Sword without protective aura?”
“I used this instead.”
Geom Mugeuk took a martial arts manual from his robes.
Heavenly Steel Body.
A body-protecting demonic art.
It was the very manual he had taken from the treasure vault where the secret coffer had been, the only one he had brought back.
The Fist Demon knew about this martial art.
“The Heavenly Steel Body is a demonic art that was lost long ago. Where did you obtain it?”
“I found it this time in the underground treasure vault.”
Geom Mugeuk explained what he knew about the Heavenly Steel Body.
“The good thing about the Heavenly Steel Body is that it can be used together with other protective arts. If used alongside protective aura in a moment of crisis, it will be of great help. Since I obtained it while dealing with the matter of the Yellow Dragon Martial Hall, let us all learn this martial art together.”
At that, the Fist Demon declined.
“A martial art of such supreme level has its own destined master. Since it is tied to you by fate, you alone should learn it.”
“To be honest, I was planning to learn it by myself anyway.”
It was not because of fate or greed.
“To raise protective aura and deploy this Heavenly Steel Body at the same time requires an enormous amount of inner energy. If used clumsily, one might only waste inner energy and end up worse off than using protective aura alone. Even if one succeeds, it may strain the body.”
That was why he had intended to use it alone.
“But while practicing it, I found a way to use it with existing protective arts while minimizing the inner energy required.”
At those words, the Fist Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable looked at each other in surprise. They knew very well how difficult it was to modify and use a supreme demonic art like the Heavenly Steel Body. And he had corrected its greatest weakness at that.
“You figured that out during the journey here?”
“When it comes to martial arts, am I not rather genius-like?”
Of course, whenever they stayed at inns, he had used the Time-Space Transposition Art and activated the Time-Heaven Secret Art within it to ponder and train for a much longer time.
Even so, to newly improve and use a martial art like the Heavenly Steel Body was truly an extraordinary feat.
“Please allow this disciple to show off a little. And only if the two of you accept it can Ian and Seojin accept it as well.”
After all, they could not readily learn a demonic art that a Demon Venerable had declined.
When he put it that way, the Fist Demon no longer refused.
“I will now recite the formula.”
At that, Ian and Seojin were deeply overwhelmed.
“You are truly going to transmit such a precious demonic art to us as well?”
Ian was genuinely moved. The Flying Heaven Sword Art, the Sun-Moon Sword, and now the Heavenly Steel Body as well. The Cult Leader had even given her the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng.
‘Just how much are you planning to work me to the bone?’
Seeing the tremble in her eyes, Geom Mugeuk shattered her emotion to pieces.
“It’s not for your sake.”
“Then?”
Geom Mugeuk drew the Black Demon Sword and said,
“That way, I can strike you too. See this bruise? You’re next!”
Ian flinched at the sight of the Black Demon Sword and stepped back.
“I’ll hold out my arm after I achieve great mastery. Please wait about thirty years.”
Though he knew perfectly well it was a joke, Geom Mugeuk played along.
“I won’t forget. I’ll test it then.”
Those words made Ian feel good. They also meant they would still be together thirty years from now.
The one who felt most overwhelmed among them was Seojin. She even waved her hands and stepped back.
“I am fine.”
Ian was Geom Mugeuk’s direct unit leader and someone called his heart, so that was one thing. But was she not merely a squad leader? She could not learn such an incredible demonic art alongside Demon Venerables.
“No, you need this martial art the most. You have to survive until the day you save us with your ghost arts, don’t you?”
Seojin truly wanted that. She hoped the day would come when she saved these people with her ghost arts.
“When a martial artist should be cautious is not when learning martial arts, but when using them. Right now, you just have to say, ‘Thank you.’”
Seojin felt it again. The Young Cult Leader’s excessive affection.
“Thank you.”
How could Geom Mugeuk not give them excessive affection?
Ian and Seojin.
They were the two people who had made his regression possible. They were people for whom nothing he gave would ever feel wasted.
And so Geom Mugeuk taught the four of them the formula of the newly revised Heavenly Steel Body. He repeated the formula over and over so that all of them could memorize it.
Afterward, for the several days it took to return to the main branch, everyone trained in the Heavenly Steel Body.
The Fist Demon, who had so strongly refused the Heavenly Steel Body at first, trained the hardest.
“What would you have done if I hadn’t transmitted it to you?”
Whenever Geom Mugeuk saw that huge frame training even late into the night, he teased him, but the Fist Demon silently focused only on his training.
In truth, it was understandable. From the beginning, a protective art like the Heavenly Steel Body was most useful to a fist fighter who fought with his bare body.
Had that fervor spread?
The Ilhwa Sword Venerable also trained properly in the Heavenly Steel Body. Since it was a protective art that suited demonic arts well, she too felt its necessity.
As a result, Geom Mugeuk and the two Demon Venerables naturally began sharing many discussions about the Heavenly Steel Body.
There were weaknesses the Fist Demon sensed in the Heavenly Steel Body, and there were things the Ilhwa Sword Venerable perceived as well. Since they had never spoken so openly about a single martial art before, the two Demon Venerables found these conversations extremely interesting.
The three of them, in particular, had recently made great achievements in martial arts. Therefore, their discussions contained deep implications and insights not only into the principles of protective arts, but into martial learning as a whole.
Ian and Seojin simply listened. There were many things they could not understand, but the two of them tried to remember as much as they could. Someday, a day would come when they understood what the things they heard today had meant.
As a result of the three of them discussing it like this, they made it possible to circulate the formula a little more smoothly.
“Thanks to you two, it is no longer the New Heavenly Steel Body, but the New-New Heavenly Steel Body! At last, the martial art is complete.”
But the Fist Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable knew. The reason they had been able to make various suggestions was because the form Geom Mugeuk had improved already existed.
If they had heard the original Heavenly Steel Body, they would never even have thought to improve it. They would simply have passed it off as, So this is that kind of martial art. That difference was far too great.
“Now, draw your sword.”
This time, the Fist Demon had Geom Mugeuk draw his sword.
The Fist Demon held out his massive fist and forearm.
“Strike.”
“You know, don’t you? My sword is the Black Demon Sword. A demonic sword two ranks higher. Oh, and the one striking is also two ranks higher. It’ll get cut. It really will.”
“Enough. Hurry and strike.”
“Then here I go!”
Ssshhhk.
Thwaaack!
The Black Demon Sword could not cut the Fist Demon’s thick forearm.
“Excellent.”
Of course, Geom Mugeuk also had not infused his sword with inner energy.
But considering that it had only been a few days since they learned it, by blocking the sharpness of the Black Demon Sword, the Heavenly Steel Body proved just how remarkable a protective art it was.
“Now, this time let us test blunt force.”
“Excellent. Where shall I hit you? Just say the word.”
“This time, I should be the one to strike. What kind of test could those bracken-like little hands of yours possibly make?”
Watching the Fist Demon clench that huge fist, Geom Mugeuk hurriedly fled backward.
“Thirty years from now, on the day I cut Ian’s arm, I’ll take that fist.”
The three women watching them laughed together.
Just then, Seojin suddenly said to Ian,
“Did I perhaps tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“That I’m grateful you chose me.”
Seojin looked at Ian and spoke formally.
“Thank you for becoming my unit leader.”
The words came out of nowhere, but it was a proper and sincere expression of gratitude.
She felt that what she had learned and realized this time was more than everything she had experienced in her life until now combined.
She was grateful that she had received so comfortably and easily what others might have to suffer their entire lives to obtain.
“I learned a lot thanks to you too, Squad Leader Seo.”
She was not saying it merely to sound nice. Ian, too, had gained many realizations and lessons during this trip outside the cult.
Ian’s gaze naturally turned toward the Ilhwa Sword Venerable standing beside her.
Elegant and beautiful, yet stronger than anyone.
In the Ilhwa Sword Venerable, Ian saw the form she herself must pursue in the future.
She knew very well how important that was.
What mattered was always direction.
No matter how hard a person tried, if the direction of that effort was wrong, they could not obtain results equal to their labor.
Rather, that effort might become poison and swallow them whole. To think I tried this hard, only to get such a result. I was a fool, wasting my suffering for nothing.
At such times, one could simply turn back, but instead, the efforts made until then would catch at one’s ankles.
That was why direction mattered from the start.
Because only when effort met the proper direction did it become destiny.
Ian’s gaze turned toward the person who had taught her all of this.
As though they had never been joking around, Geom Mugeuk and the Fist Demon were engaged in a serious discussion about martial arts.
Ian conveyed to Geom Mugeuk the very words Seojin had said to her.
‘Thank you. For becoming my Young Cult Leader.’
* * *
Geom Mugeuk and the two Demon Venerables entered the Heavenly Demon Hall.
With Geom Mugeuk at the center, the Fist Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable followed behind him. It was customary not only for the Young Cult Leader, but also for the Demon Venerables, to seek out and greet the Heavenly Demon upon returning from outside the cult.
As Geom Mugeuk entered the Heavenly Demon Hall, he shouted loudly as always.
“Father, I have returned!”
But at the end of the Path of Blood, his father’s taishi chair was empty.
And instead of his father, Chief Strategist Sama Myeong was waiting.
“Young Cult Leader, you have returned?”
“Chief Strategist.”
The Demon Venerables and Sama Myeong exchanged greetings as well.
Once the greetings were over, Geom Mugeuk quickly asked,
“Where is Father?”
At that, Sama Myeong relayed unexpected news.
“The Cult Leader has entered closed-door training.”