Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts - 228
Right after the end of the regular trial for Sa Ha-yun, the adopted daughter of the Jeomchang Sect leader.
The world of pure survival of the fittest!
When Sa Ha-yun, adopted second daughter of the Jeomchang Sect leader, first heard that phrase from the sect leader, she was around ten years old.
She was an orphan.
It was a day when the sun was setting unusually dramatically, dyeing the sky in deep reds and golds.
A woman who would one day become her father slapped her in the face for dreaming of being a martial artist instead of grabbing a kitchen knife like the other neighborhood boys her age.
She had been caught by the incoming father who would soon adopt her, along with the servants, when she was being dragged around by the collar and whipped mercilessly across the face.
At first, she thought she would be scolded in front of the adults.
‘Despite her young age, she received no guidance, yet her shoulders carry strength while her wrists that were slapped remain supple like wet willow branches. She is truly a born talent for Jeomchang’s swordsmanship.’
But the sect leader actually paid her extra attention.
‘This child has nowhere to go. How could we not take her in?’
The servants and stewards were delighted at the appearance of a new female hero.
The sect leader asked her directly.
‘Little one, will you follow me? Do you have any interest in the world of murim?’
She looked up at the man who would become her father and asked.
‘What kind of place is the world of murim?’
At her question, the sect leader answered immediately.
‘It is the world of survival of the fittest. A world where only the strong survive, far more honest and pure than the outer world.’
From that day on, she joined the Jeomchang Sect.
One step further, she officially became the adopted daughter.
She naturally came to understand the nature of this world as one of wild survival.
She also realized that talent was abundant in the world, but that she herself was not lacking in it either.
Ordinary murim warriors were like fallen leaves in her presence.
By simply studying, she quickly caught up with her seniors who had trained for years.
In the process, the order in which she progressed was always fixed,—
Normally, Jeomchang’s martial arts emphasized speed, striking short and fast to pursue relatively long-term battles.
But she used momentum to instead cut the flow with a single, extremely strong instantaneous strike and launch a second attack, ending the fight.
Crucially, she had no natural aura.
Even without any training, she could move as stealthily as a professional killer, which made other warriors gasp in amazement.
‘If she had not encountered me back then and joined the assassin guild, she might have truly stirred up rivers of blood in the murim.’
The Jeomchang Sect’s chief steward once said this while watching her unrestrained performance of seven consecutive victories.
All of these combined made even those stronger than her unable to relax around her.
But not everyone viewed her positively.
‘She is chaotic.’
‘Unworthy of Jeomchang.’
These were the representative rumors circulating about her inside the Jeomchang Sect.
Still, she paid them no mind.
Following her father’s words, she believed this world was one of survival of the fittest.
She thought that the stronger one became, the more they would win everything.
So she only trained.
She did not even aspire to the sect leader’s exclusive martial art, the Eighteen Sunlight Sword Techniques.
At best, she wished to receive the Twelve Sunlight Sword Techniques from above.
Even though her big sister, a direct blood relative, was blocking her, receiving the lower-level Twelve Sunlight Sword Techniques would still open the door to the ultimate secret art, the Nine Sun Shot Arrow Sword Method, for later.
But reality was cruel.
‘Twelve Sunlight Sword Techniques for such a young child?!’
The elders opposed it at the council meeting.
The surface reason was her young age.
But anyone could see the real motive.
The sect leader was growing old and weak.
Depending on who would become the next sect leader, the future of Jeomchang’s power would shift dramatically.
The elders, centered around her big sister Sa Il-yeong, began to restrain the standout Sa Ha-yun.
If she had no talent, they might have said to just learn up to the Twelve Sunlight Sword Techniques.
But she was too talented and posed too great a threat to them.
Of course, they did not openly oppose her, as she was the adopted daughter of the sect leader on paper.
They simply stated their opinion through a formal proposal that, since her aptitude was evident, it should be discussed after the conclusion of the trial at Cheonsubaekryeonsa, perhaps even recommending her for Chu-mu-gwan.
‘In the end, if Sa Ha-yun really has talent, she will grow even more greatly at Cheonsubaekryeonsa, receive official recognition, and return. For example… as a graduate of Chu-mu-gwan?’
Sa Ha-yun still vividly remembered the face of the Jeomchang elder who, when closing his eyes, used to rub his fake beard and laugh smugly.
For reference, her big sister Sa Il-yeong had received the Eighteen Sunlight Sword Techniques at a much younger age than she.
The only difference between them was the bloodline.
‘…In the end, it was like this.’
Thus, under the restrictions of the higher-ups of Jeomchang Sect, her main martial arts were limited to the Penetration Sunlight Sword Method in swordsmanship and the Flowing Cloud Body Method in footwork.
These martial arts were not bad, but they were common even inside Jeomchang Sect, and their flaws were obvious.
Originally, the Flowing Cloud Body Method was an extremely light footwork that easily lost one’s center, and without the Great River Flowing Cloud Body Method to compensate, it was basically half-finished, a secret art that only elites knew the secret to.
In short, unless she entered Chu-mu-gwan, she would be stuck with half her abilities, and she absolutely had to enter.
From that perspective, passing the regular trial for Sa Ha-yun was far more important than her life, for her future.
—Splash.
Sa Ha-yun splashed the lake water onto her face.
For her, the regular trial was now just one final hurdle before she could challenge the Chu-mu-gwan promotion exam.
Cheonsubaekryeonsa had secret manuals compiled by cooperation among the various sects.
Of course, security was tight, but even the sects had their own thoughts, so they selected only mediocre secret manuals that, if leaked, would not be fatal.
Yet to her, even those were precious, so whenever an opportunity arose, she would bury herself in the manuals and devour them.
She realized she had innate talent and battle sense.
She discovered the Jeomchang martial art called Residual Sunlight Sword Method that could further perfect the Penetration Sunlight Sword Method, and she had learned it independently in a week and applied it this time.
‘I worked my ass off, but learning it in a week and using it in real combat was impossible. Instead, my limbs got all tangled up and I could only manage thirty percent of my usual ability. It would have been better not to learn at all…’
Sa Ha-yun blinked her long eyelashes while bathing in the lake water.
‘Damn it. Annoying.’
Sa Ha-yun spoke roughly and furrowed her brows.
Her figure, tall even compared to her peers, with curved lines beneath, was becoming more slender as she aged, and her beauty was ripening in a way that set her apart from ordinary murim women.
Moreover, her elegant yet haughty first impression had made countless men fall for her, and their rivalry with her only made them fall even harder for her terrifying skill.
Because of that—
‘Miss, could you please accept this flower? Of course, no matter how beautiful the flower is, compared to your beauty, it is worth less than a grain of gold sand.’
‘Your eyes are more beautiful than the stars in the night sky, and your fluttering black hair sways my heart like willow leaves trembling in summer heat.’
Sa Ha-yun had heard such courtship lines at least four times a week in dignified atmospheres.
‘I should just curse them. You stupid animals.’
And that was her honest feeling upon hearing the confessions.
From childhood, the only thing filling her mind had been survival of the fittest.
So her instinct was to follow only one thing: a strong male.
A vicious flesh-eating beast that craved blood.
In her orphanage days, when a neighborhood boy who acted as her leader tormented her while she trained, she felt her first heartbeat for the first time while watching blood and flesh spray from being grabbed by the throat.
After being adopted into the Jeomchang Sect, she had once attended the orthodox sect’s friendly sparring tournament as an observer, claiming the title of the sect leader’s daughter.
‘Damn it! Friendly sparring with orthodox sects is disgusting! Come at me! I’ll kill you all!’
It was when the sudden action of the martial artist who had beaten her opponent and was roaring was seen by all the high-ranking orthodox officials, leaving them unable to hide their shock.
—Thud.
She covered her mouth with her hand.
Her face flushed at the sight of the bare, shiny body of the martial artist from the deviant cult, splattered with blood and flesh, and his crude speech that was rare even for deviant cultists.
‘Me, reacting to that vulgar beast-like way of speaking!’
She was shocked by her own reaction and desperately hid it at the time.
But that night, she could not sleep with her heart pounding.
Whenever she tried to sleep, she thought of the sweat droplets on his broad, glossy chest and the red blood drops.
And the crude words.
‘Ah, am I really crazy?’
Restless from the excitement, she got up the moment the rooster crowed.
With a cold water bath and morning training ahead, she stepped out to find—
‘Miss, the blue silk robe you are wearing today is bluer than the waves of the Yangtze River and perfectly matches this summer season. You must have slept well?’
And there was a sea of animals, all of them male birds with flower-pushing hands.
They all hurried to boast about their families while boasting about their words like flowing spring water, along with various gifts.
Every single one of them looked like a fop.
They had arms and legs thinner than a warrior’s, to the point that she seriously considered whether she should carry them around.
The problem was that they did not feel embarrassed about it at all; they proudly displayed it.
Moreover, rejecting them did not end simply.
In the process, inevitable hatred intertwined, and enemies inevitably accumulated around her.
The most recent incident had happened like this.
‘Please come sit over here? Please. I beg you.’
A young man from a wealthy family who was groveling and gesturing to the cushion he had laid out had her confession rejected, and to take revenge, he had requested a hitman from the Lower Gate for an entire year.
Since then, she had come to hate sweet-talking speech more than anything on earth.
‘I should just curse them. Curse. If you are being polite, at least be consistent. You perverts.’
Sa Ha-yun grumbled while washing the blood off her body after fighting a wild boar.
She was wearing a loose uniform that did not stick too much against the sticky summer humidity, but it was not enough.
‘Why are all the orthodox male idiots all the same lame males? They are all fools and stupid…’
She suddenly thought of the new junior disciple who had joined not long ago.
At first, she had suspected his firm body beneath the black uniform was different from her peers.
She had sensed a wild, explosive atmosphere, like a beast that would detonate if touched.
So even when she first greeted him in the training ground and remained silent during the argument between Ho Seoa and Gang Mu-jeong, she did not think he was scared but rather that he had a dignified part where he held back.
That was why she had actually liked him at the time.
But—
‘It turns out he was just a bright-faced dog with nothing but empty words.’
That was also a misconception.
She recalled the brief argument earlier.
With his momentum exploding, the man finally flinched like any ordinary orthodox male under pressure.
He was just a show-off like Gang Mu-jeong, always pretending.
People may deceive with words, but they cannot deceive their pupils.
Sa Ha-yun had clearly seen his pupils trembling.
‘He is an animal after all. No beastly nature.’
At that moment, Sa Ha-yun felt her tension drain away.
She thought she would rather have heard the vulgar cursing of that deviant cult male than this.
If they were going to talk so elegantly in front, they should do so in back as well.
Her past orthodox fops had been nothing but sinister.
She had seen them polite in front but humiliating and spreading lewd tales in back more than once.
—Splash.
She finished bathing and simply wiped off the moisture.
‘Sigh. What masculinity do I expect from these scholar warriors? I have given up. I have given up.’
From somewhere deep in the forest, the faint sound of a tiger’s roar could be heard.
She did not hear it.
‘In the end, I am an orphan without a proper sect record, not even with the orthodox. If I had known I would be reduced to cold leftovers, I should have been adopted by the devil cult or deviant cult instead. Wouldn’t I have been spreading my wings to the fullest by now? Was it wrong from the start?’
She muttered while putting on her clothes.
‘No, even if not that, if only there had been a real, true warrior, a true husband, a true beast-like male in this world filled with such incomplete fops…’
—Krrroong…. Krrreeeng….
Sa Ha-yun’s words were cut off sharply.
She immediately stepped forward and snatched the sword that had been drawn.
The subtly creaking awkwardness she had shown while fighting the wild boar moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
‘What was that sound just now.’
Holding the sword in one hand, she quickly pulled on her loose uniform without wiping the water off her wet body.
It was the sound of a beast.
Something roaring.
Sa Ha-yun held her breath and listened with her ears.
It was neither approaching nor receding.
—Ziiik… Waziiik!
—Bang! Kwajiiik!
—Krrroong! Krrreeeng!!! Krrreeeng!
—Puk! Puk-puk! Waddd! Waddd!
It felt like a huge something was tearing apart like live bait for ants while thrashing around in the forest.
She was certain the sound was approaching from this side.
Sa Ha-yun hesitated for a moment.
She fixed her sword grip and headed toward the source of the sound.
Unexpectedly, the sound was close.
She pushed aside the obstructing bushes.
Her view was instantly cleared.
‘…Hah.’
Sa Ha-yun was left breathless by the scene before her.
—Krrreeeng!!!!
It was a massive tiger she had never seen before in her life.
In the forest, the tiger was being ripped apart alive.
—Kwaaang! Kwaaaaaang!
The surroundings were completely scorched.
Trees on all sides were broken, and rocks were pulverized.
From afar on the hill, the two had been rolling and fighting as they tumbled down.
And in the tiger’s embrace was a man.
‘Uaaaaah!!’
In his arms was clearly the new, green junior who had been facing her earlier, his pupils trembling.
That man, Moyong Bi, was tearing open the tiger’s chest with his bare hands, ripping apart his upper body completely, and grabbing and pulling out the heart.
This was the first time she had seen such a sight.
Sa Ha-yun muttered.
‘With his bare hands, the tiger’s heart?’
—Krrreeeng!
The tiger let out its final scream and struggled wildly.
—Pukak!!
With a disgusting sound, the heart was pulled out.
Moyong Bi shouted from amidst the avalanche of blood pouring out.
‘Haa, haa. This damn! My Dan! My Dan…! Oh gods! Oh gods!’
In extreme excitement, Moyong Bi shouted.
‘Oh gods! This is heaven-sent luck! Not from Maedusan but from this ordinary place! How is this possible! Uha! Uahaha!!’
Even though some middle words were lost in the rough spurt of blood, Moyong Bi was extremely happy.
From within the blood, Moyong Bi poured out streams of red light from his eyes while madly shaking the tiger’s corpse with both hands.
‘Ah… ah.’
Sa Ha-yun’s mouth fell open.
Nothing of the earlier image of him facing her, trembling pupils, remained.
No more polite demeanor.
Still, Moyong Bi continued to shout in an excited voice she had never heard before.
‘It should be there. It will be, Mumyeong, right? In this world, how could I encounter such heaven-sent luck here, not even in the western hills! Oh gods. It really was the heavens helping me— what? Snap out of it and look beside me right now!’
Moyong Bi’s head turned like lightning to the side.
Their eyes met.
‘… .’
‘… .’
Moyong Bi’s eyes widened.
He took a deep breath.
‘Shit.’
Since he had no natural aura, better than even a killer’s, that startled expression was one she had often seen him make.
Sa Ha-yun stared at the tiger he had torn to pieces with trembling eyes.
‘Y-you new guy, what are you? How did you… weren’t you weak? You couldn’t even touch Gang Mu-jeong. And above all, that was definitely the Heavenly Demon Jade, but what are you doing right now…’
Sa Ha-yun swallowed her saliva.
‘… .’
Moyong Bi was still looking at her.
She could not read his thoughts.
Sa Ha-yun finally decided on her usual frontal breakthrough.
She widened her eyes.
‘You, do you know what this is? If you tell everyone above about this, I will tell them what exactly is going on right now—’
‘…Haa, ha ha. Drop it.’
Moyong Bi lowered his head.
Muttered.
‘What?’
Sa Ha-yun raised her eyebrows.
The voice that came out was the first she had ever heard from Moyong Bi.
‘If you are going to tell, tell it. If you get expelled from Cheonsubaekryeonsa, get expelled. But I can’t stand watching you all anymore. I can’t endure it because I am like a dog.’
‘Eh?’
Moyong Bi slowly raised his head.
‘I can’t hold back anymore. Do as you please.’
Sa Ha-yun felt her breath stop.
The male’s pupils were trembling.
But it was not from fear or anxiety.
It was a trembling pupil clamped down on by explosive anger.
‘What you call your childhood games was only possible when the surroundings were calm, but now that my life is in danger, I can’t help you anymore. After all, there is Gang Mu-jeong over there too, right? I was going to try anyway… Well, fine.’
Sa Ha-yun staggered.
The atmosphere emanating from the man in front of her was completely different from all the orthodox males she had ever met.
She felt a warning bell ring in her head.
Without realizing it, she stepped back.
She took a step backward.
‘Stop.’
Sa Ha-yun froze.
Moyong Bi wiped the blood that had flowed down his cheek with the back of his hand and flicked his blood-stained finger toward her.
‘You damn bastard, where do you think you’re going? Come here right now.’
‘…!’
—Thud.
Sa Ha-yun’s face instantly turned as red as an apple.
Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts
The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts.