The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts
I sat in the chair and kept chewing on Eun Seollyeong’s words.
The inn was noisy.
It had been two days since we left for Shaanxi.
We stopped at some small town along the way and entered the inn for a proper meal.
Eun Seollyeong leaned over the menu in front of me and studied it intently.
I, on the other hand, sat there blankly.
“Even if you sit in a chair, you’re still chewing on my words.”
Her voice echoed in my mind.
The place where I was born, a monster no one knew about.
She meant me.
The words she had spoken to me replayed in my head.
It wasn’t a joke.
She didn’t joke around like that.
And if it had been a joke, why would she give me this belt?
The belt she had been holding at my waist earlier was now strapped around it.
It felt as if a lid had been placed over the aura I constantly emitted, hiding everything.
I had never known how to gather the inner energy or qi I produced.
Even Asura, who had given me the foundation for real attacks, defense, combinations, and responses, hadn’t taught me that.
When Mumyeong assessed the aura flowing from me after I put on the belt, he said it was at the level of a second-rate martial artist, objectively.
But she was the Guardian of Mount Hua.
Her knowledge of martial arts compared to mine was unmatched.
Doubting a master’s opinion was already a crime.
In other words…
All of these facts pointed to the truth of what she had said to me.
“Uncle, why are you so strong?”
The words of the little girl from the Namgung family came back to me.
I had thought they were just polite words at the time.
“Shadow Twin Swords!”
Ryu Hwasa had collapsed with his legs giving out and shouted as he watched my back jumping over the gorge.
“How… how can a human move that fast?”
The eyes of the enemy who was watching me deploy the Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong technique and approach were close to a face that had encountered something beyond fear.
“In this world so coldly and ruthlessly devoid of uselessness, where the outcome of ‘rewarding the good and punishing the evil’ is taken as natural, I hope the host wins.”
I remembered the words Mumyeong had spoken to me during the hellish training before my duel with Gwak Ido, when I was crying from exhaustion.
“Bi-ryu, you don’t know yourself well enough.”
The last words So Yeomgyo had muttered while lying comfortably beside me came back.
I had wondered about my real strength even for a moment when facing Jongnam’s Gwak Ido.
How far up the ranks in this jianghu did I truly stand?
A story from my childhood came to mind, told by some wandering martial artist with passionate words.
The greatest martial artists in jianghu history were not just talented; their fate itself forced them to live a life of pure struggle.
What kind of life was the life of struggle? I had asked.
The martial artist answered like this.
“While ordinary martial artists live their entire lives without even five life-and-death duels, the martial artists who lived the life of struggle must have settled almost two-tenths of all their fights—including minor ones—with life-and-death duels.”
“…I.”
Suddenly I realized I had endured an insane life.
I had survived while staring only at my feet.
I hadn’t even had the courage to look far ahead.
Two-tenths?
If the two-tenths of all my fights were life-and-death duels, that was the marker of a life filled with struggle.
I laughed weakly.
Every fight of my life had been a life-and-death duel at the cost of my life.
Fate had repeatedly pushed me into danger, saying “Even if you live like this, won’t you die?”
Despite the anxiety that the future was uncertain, I threw everything away.
I crawled while vomiting blood and screaming in agony.
Why did I have to suffer this humiliation?
I had fled to Cheonsubaekryeonsa just to survive, yet here I was, still being mocked by the upper ranks like a fool.
I felt the urge to bang my head against the wall of this unreasonable and absurd reality and die.
I had lived while feeling it not as a metaphor but in the literal sense.
If I had been an idiot, at least my heart would have been at ease.
I was the kind of man who could think ambiguously.
I wanted to protest against the irrational actions, but I understood that speaking up would only provoke them and make things worse.
In the end, I had to face it all myself.
Every time I had to throw everything away and burn it, and every fight was one that never guaranteed a next chance.
Before every fight I had prepared with full power, and I had lived by surrendering everything, as if barely passing the line in a divine test and advancing to the next level.
When I looked at you, it reminded me of my past self.
I remembered the middle-aged man patting his protruding belly and speaking casually.
I once crawled at the bottom of the capital begging for knowledge.
I couldn’t feel envy when I saw a martial artist with a sword at his waist and shoulders relaxed.
I flinched at the mere threatening gesture of one of them, thinking he might hit me even if I did nothing.
I remembered when I first obtained the Heavenly Demon’s power and stole the martial arts of a Mount Hua martial artist who wielded the plum blossom spinning dagger.
Even though the Mount Hua martial artist looked younger than me, I hadn’t understood his martial arts at all.
I had even wondered why he was making such a simple action so difficult.
I had practiced for over three hundred days in a cave with no sunlight, clutched my hands that burst open, and cried.
The sky I had to reach was so high and endlessly high that I had felt despair on the endless path I had to walk.
I kept climbing.
And one day.
When I looked around, I realized I had reached a height from which I could now look down.
Eun Seollyeong closed the menu loudly.
“Ah.”
I was shaken from my long thoughts by that sound.
Eun Seollyeong stared at the closed menu with calm eyes and spoke.
“People say easily, ‘Advance with the strength you had even when you were breastfeeding.’ But they don’t really know what that means. Because they haven’t experienced it.”
She had already seen through what I was thinking.
“A person who truly walks with their all-out strength can never have the luxury of sighing while looking at the destination and asking ‘When will I get there?’ They can only see the path right in front of them, take one step at a time, and endure. That’s the maximum they can do. So they walk and walk. And.”
Eun Seollyeong spread her white fingers and drew a circle in the air.
“One day, when you look back, you’ll realize you’ve already arrived at the destination.”
“Even you had that experience, Eun Seollyeong?”
“Of course.”
Eun Seollyeong spoke with eyes filled with unwavering conviction.
“This isn’t just about martial arts.”
Eun Seollyeong pointed at the people passing outside the inn window.
Many people were living their own lives.
“Regardless of field, anyone who has reached the peak in anything has experienced it. That’s why the saying goes: ‘All paths eventually converge into one.’”
“….”
“It really doesn’t make sense, does it?”
Eun Seollyeong blinked her calm, silver eyes.
“In the jianghu, no one has survived a life like yours and lived. So the fact that you have the martial arts level of the common martial artists in Cheonsubaekryeonsa itself is strange.”
“I.”
I said in a dry voice.
“I have nothing special. Lucky to have gotten the Heavenly Demon’s gem… that’s all. I started late, and I don’t have outstanding talent or a brilliant mind. Meanwhile they were born with systematic training and talent from when they were young, smart, and…”
“No.”
Eun Seollyeong didn’t hesitate even a little.
“All of this, Moyong Bi. The result of you, the man, working hard. The Heavenly Demon’s gem is just one trigger; it is not the element that creates the decisive result. Even if I imagine giving the Heavenly Demon’s gem to a man in the Zhongyuan under the same conditions as you…”
Eun Seollyeong stroked her chin and fell into thought.
“Within half a year he would have committed suicide in despair. As my judgment, having abandoned a woman’s life and chosen to live the life of the sword, you can believe it.”
I couldn’t speak for a long time.
After several deep breaths, I barely managed to whisper.
Thank you.
My voice was hoarse.
I wasn’t sure if she had heard me.
But I thought I saw the corner of her mouth lift slightly.
Eun Seollyeong pointed at the belt I was wearing with her finger.
“If you use this, you can gather a certain amount of your aura. That way, even if you go to Ha-mu-gwan in Cheonsubaekryeonsa, you can hide your power. Pointsoi.”
Pointsoi came running like a mad dog at her call.
“Ah, you called?!”
I thought it was a scene I had seen somewhere.
Eun Seollyeong spread the menu again and said.
“Does this shop have any two-pot head wine?”
“Ah, what a dazzling beauty, and you know the taste of liquor too! Of course! Yes, we have it. Shall I bring a bottle?”
Eun Seollyeong shook her head.
“I still have a long way to go, so bring about three bottles. And one large bowl too.”
“Large bowl? Why a large bowl?”
“….”
Eun Seollyeong raised both hands.
One hand holding the large bowl and the other pretending to pour from the liquor bottle.
“….”
I would never forget the expression on Pointsoi’s face when that came to mind.
“And I’m ordering food too.”
Eun Seollyeong looked at me.
“You said you eat a lot, right?”
I nodded.
Eun Seollyeong pointed at the menu with her finger.
“From here to there. Everything. Ah, I don’t really like spinach, so don’t put anything except what’s unavoidable in the cooking process.”
“….”
Pointsoi took the indicated menu and hesitated before saying.
“Will there be any more guests from the group?”
“No, there won’t.”
“Then are the two of you going to eat all this?”
Eun Seollyeong looked at me briefly.
“Eat moderately.”
“…right now, for me?”
Pointsoi staggered off.
I watched Pointsoi leave and whispered cautiously to her.
“That thing people in the Blood Sect talk about… the one that expels intoxication with internal energy from the legends… is that what you’re doing? Eating three bottles of two-pot head wine.”
Eun Seollyeong blinked and said casually.
“Liquor is best enjoyed by taking the spirit as it is. That’s not etiquette toward liquor.”
“….”
Food arrived.
Eun Seollyeong liked noodles.
Coincidentally, so did I.
“Half a jar is what I usually prefer for a good meal. Especially Shaanxi food is famous for its taste.”
I quietly clenched and unclenched my fist under the table.
This was the first time I had felt tense before eating in front of someone.
“And, Moyong Bi. I’ve wanted to say something from the beginning.”
She looked at the mountain of various dishes and decided the order in which they had to be eaten first.
She folded her hands modestly and watched the dishes Pointsoi placed one by one.
“You still don’t know why your brothers are desperately trying to prevent your promotion.”
I lifted my head to look at her.
The Heavenly Demon copies martial arts
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