Chapter 53: Variables are Unwelcome
Chapter 53: Variables are Unwelcome
“Haah... haah...”
Seo Dae-ryong lay spread-eagled on the ground, his ragged breaths drifting toward the night sky.
The bright full moon that had been hanging high was now hidden from sight. He had begun this training after his daily duties but before dinner; now, midnight had long since passed.
I actually did it!
In a state where he felt he couldn't swing the blade even one more time, he had managed to complete another thousand repetitions. To swing this heavy blade two thousand times in a single day...
Seo Dae-ryong couldn't believe his own achievement. His form had undoubtedly crumbled toward the end, but he had swung with gritted teeth until the very last.
He told himself to get up and head home, but he couldn't move a muscle. Drowsiness washed over him like a rising tide.
Seo Dae-ryong began to dream.
Geom Mu-geuk was surrounded by enemies, trapped in a desperate crisis. Just as the foes lunged at the wounded man...
A bolt of Blade Qi streaked out like lightning, sweeping the enemies away. Those caught in its path were reduced to a bloody pulp and vanished.
Then, like a haughty plum blossom petal drifting to the ground, he descended between the enemies and Geom Mu-geuk. Now a supreme master of the blade, he held a massive great blade, just like the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
He turned to Geom Mu-geuk with a faint smile and asked, “Are you alright, Pavilion Master?”
A satisfied smirk played across the sleeping Seo Dae-ryong’s lips.
“My right hand! You’ve come!”
At Geom Mu-geuk’s choked-up words, Seo Dae-ryong turned back toward the enemies and spoke coolly.
“Now that I am here, you may rest! Sleep in peace!”
Then, a familiar voice drifted in from somewhere.
“Aren't you going to wake up now?”
Seo Dae-ryong instinctively ignored the voice and rolled over. He didn't want to wake from such a pleasant dream. The dream of traveling the world as a master was, after all, his true ambition.
Seo Dae-ryong continued to sleep.
In his dream, he rescued beautiful women from peril and set sail with them. He woke up with a beaming smile, watching the women engage in a subtle war of nerves to monopolize his affection. Among them was his junior, Jo Hyang.
It was the first time in his life he had ever woken up laughing.
He felt wonderful. So good, in fact, that he didn't even want to get up... but where was he?
A strange ceiling.
No, it wasn't entirely unfamiliar.
Wait, could it be?
Seo Dae-ryong bolted upright, only to let out a sharp cry.
“Urgh!”
Regardless of his pleasant dream, his entire body felt like it was breaking. It felt as if someone had spent the whole night beating him with a club.
Seo Dae-ryong scanned his surroundings.
This place?
It was the very bedchamber of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon where he had slept after drinking.
Oh my god! Why am I sleeping here?
He remembered finishing the second thousand swings and collapsing on the ground, but nothing after that.
Fortunately, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was not in the room.
Groaning, he stood up and gingerly made his way out. When he reached the window, Seo Dae-ryong froze in surprise.
In the yard where he had swung his blade yesterday, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was now swinging his own. Seo Dae-ryong was about to rush out and greet him, but he stopped in his tracks.
He was captivated by the sight of the man wielding the blade.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was swinging with the exact same posture he had taught him yesterday. The grip was the same, and the trajectory of the swing was identical.
In that moment, Seo Dae-ryong realized. The training he had been given was the very same training the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had performed when he first learned martial arts.
He didn't just give me random chores to make me suffer.
Then, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon spoke abruptly while still swinging his blade.
“Are you allowed to slack off just because your Pavilion Master isn't around?”
“Ack! Now that you mention it...!”
The sun was already high in the sky.
“Gah! I’m late!”
Seo Dae-ryong hurriedly threw on his clothes and rushed outside.
“I’ll be going now!”
He gave a deep bow and started to turn away, then paused and turned back.
“Thank you so much for letting me stay the night again.”
Even if the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had given him money or a precious blade, he wouldn't have felt this choked up. Oh, he would have been happy, of course, but the nature of the emotion would have been different.
For the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, wasn't letting someone sleep in his own bed a far more difficult thing than giving away money? This feeling of being treated as someone precious was incomparable to anything else.
“If something similar happens next time, please just toss me into any guest room. Just don't kill me. Well then, I’ll see you this afternoon!”
At that, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon asked with a look of surprise, “You’re coming back?”
“Of course I am.”
“I won't go easy on you just because you're sore. It’s two thousand swings again today.”
At the mention of two thousand, his entire body shrieked in protest, but his mouth blurted out, “Yes, sir!” His mouth wasn't the one that would be suffering, after all.
After his energetic reply, Seo Dae-ryong sprinted away.
“I’m late! I’m late!”
He felt like he might die of exhaustion. The thought of training again today was repulsive, yet strangely, he felt great.
He wanted to keep learning from the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. To be honest, he wanted to impress him.
*
After several days, the medicine I was brewing was finally complete.
I poured the concoction into a palm-sized vial. There were still five days left until the Blood God Festival.
Now that the medicine was ready, I planned to scout all the way to the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s throne, while also checking if the secret passage was functioning correctly.
After descending the mountain, I arrived at a wasteland located not far from the Pungcheon Cult. It was a place of withered trees, jagged rocks, swarming poisonous insects and snakes, and wind-blown trash. A place where no one would come, even if you stayed all day.
There was a large boulder there, and I manipulated the hidden mechanisms beneath both sides of it in sequence.
Rumble.
The boulder slid open, revealing a passage. I had been impressed back then, but even now, the craftsmanship of the mechanism was remarkable. To think they could create a passage so perfectly concealed.
Once I stepped inside, the door closed automatically. I manipulated another hidden mechanism from the inside, and a hatch opened in the floor.
I pulled out a Night-shining Pearl and descended into the underground tunnel. The passage was wide—likely designed to transport the Sound Thunder Bell in case of an emergency. It was thanks to this very passage that I had been able to steal the bell before.
I took out the vial and applied the medicine to my face and hands. With this medicine applied, even a master with an exceptional sense of smell would be unable to pick up my scent.
I walked slowly through the tunnel.
I stopped a good distance away from the secret exit leading to the throne room. In the past, I would have had to get closer to investigate, but that was no longer necessary. I had found a safer way to observe.
I closed my eyes and emitted my Qi. A thin thread of Qi snaked along the passage. It rounded a corner and traveled a long distance until it reached the secret door.
When I first learned this secret technique from my father, I never imagined I would be able to emit Qi so thinly and over such a distance for scouting purposes in a real situation.
The Qi slipped through a tiny crack in the passage door. The moment my Qi entered the new space...
I felt a massive presence from one side.
It’s the Pungcheon Cult Leader!
As expected of a Cult Leader, his aura was formidable. I quickly moved my Qi in the opposite direction.
Next, I searched for the master with the sensitive sense of smell. Sure enough, he was stationed near the Sound Thunder Bell.
Having confirmed the presence of both, I withdrew my Qi. Since I had already experienced this once before, there was no need to risk discovery by lingering.
Having successfully completed my reconnaissance, I returned to the mountain.
After a meal of jerky, I sat in a meditative posture and practiced the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art. For the remaining five days, I intended to stay tucked away in the mountains without moving a muscle. If I wandered around and got swept up in some strange incident by fate, it could cause problems.
Creating no variables—that was the minimum courtesy I owed to my past efforts.
*
The day of the Blood God Festival dawned.
Before setting out, I looked up at the sky and prayed for today’s success.
When my father spoke of the two ways to block the Soul-Seizing Technique, I had thought to myself that there was a way a hundred times easier than those. Hoping that my intuition was correct and that I could conclude this matter safely, I descended the mountain.
The road to the Pungcheon Cult was teeming with people intending to participate in the ceremony. They were a diverse crowd: from the heads of great sects who had dealings with the Pungcheon Cult, to martial artists from minor sects hoping to make an impression, to merchants looking to hawk their wares to the attendees.
On the day of the Blood God Festival, everyone, regardless of status, had to travel to the Pungcheon Cult on foot. This was the authority of the Blood God Festival.
I watched them from a distance before heading toward the wasteland where the secret passage lay. Many thoughts crossed my mind as I walked.
What if the door suddenly won't open? What if the event is suddenly canceled? What if the Pungcheon Cult Leader decides to ring the bell himself? What if I misunderstood the method of obtaining it?
Anxiety always tries to prey upon the soul like this. In times like these, one has no choice but to trust oneself. The belief that such misfortune will not strike, and the belief that even if it does, one will overcome it. The best weapon against anxiety is self-belief.
I reached the area near the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s throne room via the secret passage and waited for the right moment. Of course, I had already applied the scent-masking medicine to my face, hands, and body.
The timing of my move was already decided. When they began to ring the Sound Thunder Bell and reached the thirty-sixth toll, that would be my time to act.
How long did I wait in the darkness?
The faint sound of the bell began to drift in. I waited, counting the tolls. When the bell struck thirty-three times, I moved slowly to the base of the secret exit.
At the thirty-fifth toll, I quietly opened the secret hatch beside the throne and stepped out.
The shackled master was about to strike the final toll. Because the Pungcheon Cult Leader allowed no one else into this room where the sacred relic was kept, only the man in shackles was present.
The moment he struck the thirty-sixth and final toll...
I unleashed the Wind God Four Steps. Using the Dark Shadow Step, I closed the distance to the shackled martial artist. Approaching as silently as a ghost, I struck his Demonic Acupoint and Sleep Acupoint simultaneously. He fell into a slumber while still standing, not even realizing he had been attacked.
It happened in an instant, but it was a technique that required the continuous execution of peak-level skills.
After neutralizing him, I moved toward the Blood Buddha statue standing behind the Sound Thunder Bell. The time allotted to me was the single incense burner's worth of time it would take for the Pungcheon Cult Leader to return here.
I pressed firmly on the closed eyes of the Blood Buddha, and its eyes snapped open. The sight of the wide-eyed Blood Buddha was eerie.
I pressed once more, and the eyeballs protruded forward. Inside the protruding eyeballs, there was a white liquid filling about a third of the space.
This was the very reason I had traveled such a long distance.
The roots of the Soul-Seizing Technique practiced by the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord lay in the Blood Cult Demonic Arts. The Pungcheon Cult was the successor to that Blood Cult.
My father knew this much, but there was one thing he didn't know.
The Blood Eye Purifying Water.
It was a holy water passed down in secret only to the leaders of the Pungcheon Cult. By placing this Blood Eye Purifying Water into one's eyes, the counter-dispelling method for Blood Cult sorcery would become visible. One could perceive the very essence of the sorcery with their own eyes.
I had heard that it was created and passed down since ancient times to prevent internal rebellions, but because the recipe and management were only known to the Cult Leader and his successor, outsiders remained completely ignorant of its existence. The person who had revealed this fact to me was none other than the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s son, Neung Baek-gun.
When I had come here in the past, I was too busy fleeing with the Sound Thunder Bell to have time to use this. Now, finally, the moment to obtain the Blood Eye Purifying Water had arrived.
I removed the Blood Buddha’s eyeballs. There was a small hole at the top of each.
Drip.
One drop of the Blood Eye Purifying Water from the right eyeball into my right eye.
Drip.
One drop from the left eyeball into my left eye.
As the liquid entered my eyes, they burned with a searing heat, as if they were on fire. There was pain, but fortunately, my vision remained intact.
I returned the eyeballs to their original positions; they slid back in, and the Blood Buddha closed its eyes once more. There was plenty of the essence left in the eyeballs, so the next successor would have no problem using it, and they wouldn't even realize that two drops of the Blood Eye Purifying Water were missing.
I stepped back into the underground passage, but before closing the door completely, I fired two streaks of Finger Wind.
Swish.
The shackled master woke from his slumber. He looked bewildered for a moment, but after confirming that nothing was amiss in his surroundings, he resumed his duties. It was a move that could never have been pulled off by anyone less than a master of my caliber.
I wondered what circumstances had led to that man being bound like that, but I was in no position to rescue a stranger. He was not someone whose fate was meant to be changed by my regression.
I quietly exited through the secret passage.
I had intended to collect the fated encounters related to the materials for the Great Regression Art one by one when the time was right, but because of the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord, I had obtained the Blood Eye Purifying Water sooner than expected.
Regardless of the reason, there is always joy in accomplishing a great task. Especially this time, as I had gained an ability I never possessed before, the joy was difficult to put into words.
It wasn't just because I could now kill the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord. It was because I believed this new power would help me in some way on my journey toward Hwa Mu-gi.
After leaving the secret passage, I could have indulged in a victor's leisure and enjoyed the Blood God Festival, but I ran toward the Main Cult without looking back.
Until the very end, variables were unwelcome.