When Siu raised his head after completing the rite of nine bows, Baekhui’s gaze had settled into a chill incomparable to before.
The bewitching playfulness from moments ago had vanished, and in its place lingered only the majesty of the first Heavenly Demon, who had driven the Central Plains into terror a thousand years ago.
“Now, I shall transmit to you the mnemonic formula of my consummate art, the Heavenly Demon Black Thunder Heart Art (天魔黑雷心功), the foundational heart method among all the martial arts of the Heavenly Demon. Do not miss a single word. Engrave it upon your soul.”
Baekhui’s lips parted, and a bizarre yet majestic formula shook the inner world.
“With the will of the Heavenly Demon, rend the heavens; with black lightning, annihilate all things. Qi (氣) is thunder (雷), and the heart (心) is demon (魔); devour all things, yet burn not thyself.”
Each time the formula rang in Siu’s ears, a vision flashed through his mind as though black lightning were striking down.
Baekhui moved behind Siu, placed her pale hand on his shoulder, and began explaining the fundamentals of the acupoints as she poured cold demonic qi into him.
“All martial arts depend on how one circulates the energy of the dantian through the blood vessels and meridians. Open the Baihui (百會), receive the yin energy of heaven and earth, refine it in the lower dantian, and make the seed of black thunder sprout.”
Baekhui’s white fingers slowly trailed down along his spine.
Every place her thin silk sleeve brushed against made Siu’s muscles twitch and respond with heightened sensitivity.
“Inhale. This is breathing and expulsion, drawing in the yin energy of heaven and earth and engraving it deep into your bones. And when you exhale, burn away the impurities within your body with black lightning and purify them. At first, you will suffer the agony of your meridians burning away, but if you cannot endure it, you will become nothing more than a half-burnt lump of charcoal.”
Following her instruction, Siu released his first breath.
The energy he inhaled was cold as ice, yet the moment it reached his dantian, it transformed into explosive lightning and coursed through his blood vessels like molten lead.
“Ugh……!”
His entire body convulsed as though being twisted.
It was the pain of tens of thousands of ants gnawing at his blood vessels—no, a burning agony as if the inner walls were being seared with a red-hot iron.
A groan leaked through his tightly clenched teeth, and from between his pitch-black hair, beads of sweat steeped in dark demonic qi poured down like rain.
“Keep your wits about you, disciple! The moment your will breaks, the black thunder will devour your soul first. I said the heart is demon. Throw the desires and fighting spirit within you to the black thunder as feed, and subjugate that destructive power beneath your will!”
Baekhui’s voice struck his soul.
Siu gritted his teeth. The stubborn grit he had cultivated while fighting hunger alone in the mountain village stirred within him.
The lingering attachment that had wished to live an ordinary life had long since burned away in the flames of lightning.
Siu glared head-on at the pain constricting him and forcibly dragged the rampaging black energy down into his lower dantian.
Gradually, tiny black sparks began to crackle beneath his skin.
It was the moment the gate to the First Heavenly Layer, the Black Thunder Foundation (黑雷基礎), opened.
The black sparks that had been leaping wildly as though to tear space apart slowly began to subside.
The burning pain that had seared his blood vessels had, before he knew it, transformed into a heavy, cool energy and was steadily accumulating in Siu’s lower dantian.
His rough, heaving breaths quieted, and in the inner world, only the sound of two heartbeats resonated.
As if unable to believe it, Baekhui kept her hand on Siu’s dantian and felt the seed of black thunder pulsing within.
Her crimson eyes, filled with awe, trembled faintly.
“So it truly is the Heavenly Demon Body (天魔之體). To think you could form a dantian in a single stroke like this. Not even the demonic talents who dyed the Central Plains in blood a thousand years ago accepted black thunder as perfectly as you.”
As if proud of him, Baekhui gently brushed aside Siu’s hair, which was damp with sweat and clinging to his face.
Her touch was endlessly tender, but the possessiveness contained within it had grown even thicker.
She brought her lips close to Siu’s ear and breathed a rich, heated breath into it.
“Yet do not grow arrogant, disciple. You have only now taken your first step toward becoming the Heavenly Demon. The path you must walk is higher than those heavens, and the darkness you must swallow is deeper than this abyss.”
Baekhui pushed Siu by the shoulder and smiled bewitchingly.
Through her thin silk martial robe, her voluptuous curves swayed once more, dizzying Siu’s vision.
“Training within the inner world shall end here. Now, wake. The Maryeong Valley of reality awaits you—and me as well.”
The moment her words ended, the pitch-black space began to scatter in all directions like a shattering pane of glass.
Together with Baekhui’s receding laughter, Siu’s consciousness plunged rapidly toward the sensations of reality.
“Hup……!”
With a gasp, Siu’s eyes flew open.
The air of Maryeong Valley, cold beyond comparison with the dreamlike inner world, rushed deep into his lungs.
But before that chill, what he felt first was the heavy mass of power pulsing like a heart in his lower dantian.
Siu placed a hand on his abdomen.
The energy of black thunder was so clear and intense that he could almost feel the illusion of black lightning writhing beneath his skin.
“So this is a dantian. Compared to yesterday…… I truly feel as though I’ve been born anew.”
At the unexpectedly polite tone that slipped out of him, Baekhui narrowed her eyes and burst into laughter.
She was still seated by Siu’s head as he lay collapsed on the ground, quietly looking down at his face.
“Oh my. Speaking so respectfully all of a sudden? It does not suit you, Siu.”
“But you are my master…… It doesn’t seem right to speak casually to you.”
Siu scratched the back of his head and avoided her gaze.
She might have been a female demon who had lived a thousand years, but the Baekhui before him was a bewitching woman flaunting a volume that seemed ready to burst through her silk martial robe, making it torment just to look at her directly.
As though amused by Siu’s reaction, Baekhui lightly tickled the tip of his chin with her finger.
“Hohoho, do as you please. In any case, once you become my husband, such etiquette will hardly matter.”
“Wha…… What are you talking about! Between master and disciple, how could such a thing……!!”
Siu’s face flushed crimson all the way to the tips of his ears.
As Siu panicked and tried to rise, Baekhui pressed him back down by the chest with a force that was gentle yet impossible to resist.
With a crestfallen expression, as if she might shed tears at any moment, she caressed Siu’s cheek.
“Do you dislike this master so much?”
“That’s……! That is not the case, but……”
“Then what is the problem! A man and a woman like each other!”
Baekhui thrust her face right up before Siu’s nose. Her rich fragrance paralyzed his reason.
Overwhelmed by her presence and her sensual pressure, Siu had to struggle to suppress the pounding of his heart as it threatened to burst forth.
Seeing Siu flustered, Baekhui smiled playfully with her eyes, then bent down and softly kissed his forehead.
In the cold air of Maryeong Valley, only her lips were scorching hot.
When Siu froze with his mouth foolishly agape, Baekhui whispered by his ear, sweet yet stern.
“Quickly assume the lotus position. Were it up to my heart, I would raise your realm in one stroke through energy transmission across the body, but…… this master’s martial power has been sealed for a thousand years and is not whole. Instead, I shall guide the path once more through true qi guidance, so do not forget a single thread of the internal energy’s flow. Engrave it upon your soul.”
Because of the lingering warmth on his forehead, Siu’s face flushed all the way to his ears.
But sensing the seriousness in Baekhui’s gaze, he did his best to pretend nothing was wrong and sat cross-legged.
Baekhui’s presence approached from behind. Along with the rustle of her thin silk sleeve, her white palm pressed firmly against Siu’s back.
“Concentrate. What will flow through your meridians from now on is my true demonic qi, and the source of the black thunder you must govern for the rest of your life.”
From Baekhui’s palm, a small but violent bolt of black lightning burrowed into Siu along his spine.
A tingling sensation swept through his entire body as though a living snake were gnawing at his bones.
Soothing Siu’s breath as it wavered in pain, Baekhui began to chant the formula in a low, majestic voice.
“Qi (氣) is thunder (雷), and the heart (心) is demon (魔)…… Devour all things, yet burn not thyself.”
Each time her voice rang out, the black thunder tearing through Siu’s body gathered into his dantian along a trajectory so precise it seemed uncanny.
Entrusting himself to the flow of power burning regardless of his will, Siu accepted with his entire body the path of the demonic way that Baekhui opened for him.
By the time the pitch-black demonic qi that had swallowed Maryeong Valley all night slowly subsided, the dawn sunlight that had crossed over the ridges of Jirisan poured down, cleaving through the mist of the forbidden zone.
The spiritual energies that had been screaming in the darkness quieted beneath the warm light, and the chirping of mountain birds that had flown in from somewhere broke the silence.
The hellish night had passed, and a peaceful morning had come to Maryeong Valley as well.
Baekhui watched Siu without moving a single step from where she stood.
Because of the aftereffects of guiding his true qi throughout the night, her complexion had grown slightly pale, but the gaze with which she looked at Siu was deeper and darker than ever.
After confirming that the violent black thunder rampaging within Siu’s body had finally been stored away in his lower dantian like a docile lamb, the corners of her lips rose in a gentle arc.
“……The time has finally come.”
The moment her low murmur ended, Siu’s eyelids, which had been still as stone, trembled faintly.
Siu slowly opened his eyes.
His eyes, far deeper and clearer than yesterday, yet with a cool black light (黑光) dwelling at their center, flashed as they caught the morning sun.
Siu lightly breathed out. The breath that slipped between his lips was mixed with tiny black sparks, and from his entire body overflowed the heavy pressure emitted by muscles and bones tempered through the night.
As if unwilling to miss a single change in her disciple, Baekhui smiled in rapture and quietly shaded the sunlight falling across Siu’s face with her hand.