The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts
I thought my life of being cheated by others was something I could manage.
Honestly, I didn’t have the personality to trust people, nor was I a kind soul.
But being swindled in such an unexpected place left my mind foggy.
It felt like I’d been deceived.
Let me sort out my current situation in three points.
First, I had been cheated.
Second, I had come here intending to undergo a trial that was never supposed to exist.
Third, if it wasn’t a real trial yet I was still in this place, then I was unintentionally committing a forbidden act…
My head turned completely white and I shot upright.
“What the—!”
“Worry not about unauthorized departure.”
“Huh?”
The silver-haired woman, Eun Seollyeong, who had been carefully reading the document I had given her, spoke up.
“Look, is there a seal here? At least, the trial was properly issued through Cheonsubaekryeonsa.”
She buried her face in the paper and sniffed it.
“I was going to guess when the document was written by its scent, but the sweat smell is far too heavy to make sense of it.”
“No, why are you sniffing it again!”
I snatched the paper from her hand with a shout, my face flushing crimson.
Even though it was tucked away in my pocket, the fabric was so close to my skin that my own scent was bound to be strongly embedded.
Eun Seollyeong said calmly, “Do not worry. From the time I chose the life of iron over the life of people while training at Mount Hua Sect, I no longer care.”
“That indifferent face of yours only makes me angrier.”
“Perhaps you’re ashamed because of the unwashed scent. Please stop. I was wrong.”
“Hm.”
Eun Seollyeong tossed another log onto the dying campfire.
“Probably someone used a clerk to be there in my place to block any unnecessary information for you.”
She brushed herself off and rose to her feet.
She clenched and unclenched her fists.
She tightened the silver bandages.
She nodded, as if confirming some recovery.
“The main branch owner of the caravan that was attacked this time was the one who performed tightrope walking between the imperial court, the Blood Cult, and the Demonic Cult. In the end, everything that happened today was not accidental.”
She straightened her clothes.
—Clang.
Every time she moved, a faint metallic resonance echoed from her sleeves.
“If all of this was planned, and you don’t know who you have made enemies with, you must not take it lightly.”
I didn’t need to be told who.
The one who would do such a thing to me was most likely the eldest or second son of the Moyong Family. And the third, Moyong Ryu…
I bit my lip.
“Whatever happened today, it would be best not to reveal it even after returning. No one would believe it anyway. And the thing you want is simple: head straight toward the sunrise once the east opens.”
“You’re talking about the Sacred Lotus?”
Eun Seollyeong nodded.
“Yes. Of course it would be protected… but it would be fine. Just dodge sideways, dig downward, and gather the Sacred Lotus, then it’s over.”
She turned her back.
Her sleeve fluttered in the wind.
—Clang.
The metallic sound rang out again, its source the white bracelet bound around her wrist.
It resembled thin shackles.
Thin shackles encircled her exposed arms and wrists, like those worn by prisoners undergoing punishment.
[Holy crap. Cold-scent-stone shackles?]
“Cold-scent stone?”
Eun Seollyeong’s steps halted abruptly.
She looked at me.
“I thought you were just some nobody. You have quite the surprises up your sleeve. Did you figure it out?”
“Ah, that…”
Mumyeong quickly added.
[Among the characteristics that scatter inner energy, each shackle weighs fifty catties and is forged from that mineral. Even the Demonic Cult applies them only to major criminals.]
…Hold on, Mumyeong. There are at least four of those shackles visible on her right now?
Eun Seollyeong tilted her head at my silence.
“Now that I think about it, it’s strange. I didn’t notice at first because I didn’t pay much attention, but no matter how much I looked, you endured until I arrived even against the leader of the Surayeomrang Squad, the Yama King.”
She approached me.
“You are a mere apprentice performing the Ha-mu-gwan trial difficulty at Cheonsubaekryeonsa.”
“T-that’s…”
If she knew I had killed the Demonic Cultists and that a fragment of the Heavenly Demon resided inside my body, what would happen?
There was no need to think.
Instant death.
Cold sweat poured down my back.
Her silver eyes seemed to see straight through my soul as they stared fixedly at me right in front of my face.
Our gazes met.
In the split second that followed, accompanied by a short sigh, she withdrew her gaze.
“…Well, there’s nothing I can do about it. We won’t meet again. Let’s never meet privately like this again.”
She walked away.
Even though she moved with fluid steps, she receded at an unnerving pace.
“H-hey! Where are you going? The east hasn’t even opened yet!”
“My original purpose has been fulfilled. There is no longer any reason for me to remain here. I will depart first.”
“What was my original purpose?!”
“Mine was this as well. Since it was something I needed, I cannot give it to you. Forgive me.”
Whisk!
A white lotus appeared in her hand.
“Huh?”
I stared blankly.
It was the Sacred Lotus.
It emanated a mysterious beauty, as if scattering faint luminous dust in the darkness.
—Whoosh.
The moment the Sacred Lotus touched the cold-scent-stone shackles, it crumbled.
“T-that… where did you get it…!”
“The place I mentioned.”
“No, not some abstract expression! Hey, wait!”
I desperately chased after her as she moved away and shouted.
“Wait! Don’t disappear so quickly! Let me talk! Eun Seollyeong!”
She didn’t stop and kept walking away.
“Ah, hold on! Stop! Ah, I mean…!”
Pantingly, I shouted.
“Master!”
—Whoosh.
A thick branch flew from the darkness and slammed into my solar plexus.
“Ugh!”
I collapsed to the ground with a single cry.
“Rude brute.”
With those last words, Eun Seollyeong vanished without a trace.
“No, why is ‘Master’ rude? Argh…”
I had no choice but to stare at her while clutching my bruised stomach for a long time.
***
“Is the Guardian always that sharp? I mean, why didn’t you take mine while you were at it?”
I walked while clutching my stomach, which had turned deep purple, facing the rising sun.
“I swear I was angry about the word ‘Master.’ You were pretending not to be.”
[You knew it well, so why the act?]
“Well…”
I clicked my tongue.
“I’m polite by nature.”
[It would be more believable if you said Jin Muje knew how to serve tea.]
“What are you talking about, Jin Muje? He’s a Wudang Sect Taoist, so of course he….”
I thought for a moment and said,
“Wow, I never imagined that.”
[See?]
“And you insulted me.”
[It was only the truth.]
I walked along the dangerous path for a while.
But the path itself soon ended.
I checked several times, and the direction Eun Seollyeong had pointed was correct.
Instead of a path, sheer cliffs loomed ahead.
‘Well, I have no choice.’
With a light sigh, I clung to the cliff like a monkey.
Through concentrated training with Pahwanggun, I had spent every day climbing waterfalls while eating only green pig’s blood.
I had endured that hellish life of sitting on a huge rock, standing up, rolling logs, and never stopping.
With nothing but inner energy, even one grab on a rock held by pure physical strength would never let go.
Hanging from the cliff, I leaped sideways and advanced.
[Now that I think about it, Host, haven’t you felt any changes in your body recently?]
Mumyeong asked suddenly.
“Strange point?”
[Precisely since the battle with Jeokmaryeong, when I failed to copy his demonic art.]
It had been annoying me like a fish bone stuck in my throat since earlier.
My body had changed.
The sensation when moving was different.
The speed of response when exerting strength and the range of movement differed.
It was like a child growing rapidly whose height estimate goes off and who bumps his forehead while walking, but this felt unfamiliar even though it was clearly my own body.
[Host’s body and mind have been reconstructed to follow the Heavenly Demon’s living body and intertwined, as I recalled.]
“Did we?”
[We went further there.]
“What?”
[More of Host’s own has been erased, and the Heavenly Demon’s body has gained dominance.]
“….”
[That’s why I asked. Did you feel any change?]
Silently I passed the cliff.
After walking sideways for a long time, I finally reached solid ground where I could plant my feet.
I settled there.
Once I consciously confirmed, it was even clearer.
Actions that had not applied the Vajra Demon Subduing Fist until recently felt rigid, even the simplest one.
I had brought copies of the twelve forms of the Vajra Demon Subduing Fist to bridge the gap between postures, but even that could not fully fill them.
But after the battle with Jeokmaryeong, that awkwardness had vanished.
Although still lacking, the difference between applying martial arts and not was no longer black and white.
My body became nimble and agile.
The inner energy of the Heavenly Fire Hundred Triplets and Heavenly Brain Hundred Triplets I had absorbed circulated smoothly around my dantian, as if alive.
And, crucially—
—Crack.
—Crack-crack.
One corner of my mind, always filled with memories, felt the edge of a winter field crumbling.
It was the feeling of confronting a vast catastrophe approaching from the distant horizon.
“Having others do the work is disgusting.”
[…]
Growing stronger while I remained me meant something.
Growing stronger without me meant nothing.
I needed to prepare countermeasures for this change along with it.
“Outside, the Moyong Family power struggle gnaws at me, and inside, some unknown fool eats me away… It’s almost pitiful that there’s nothing free.”
With a short sigh, I cleared my thoughts.
First, focus on the problem right in front of me.
If I don’t know what to do before such a huge problem, I should untangle the thread before me.
Then everything would be resolved.
“There’s a place like this hidden behind the cliff.”
After crossing the cliff sideways and landing, I found a vast open area hidden by the cliff.
A massive waterfall cascaded down the cliff and flowed across the open area before dropping onto the cliff again.
Beside the waterfall, a half-collapsed temple remained.
Long stone pillars that had once guarded the temple entrance lay scattered everywhere.
And between the ruins of the collapsed temple, countless lotus flowers bloomed.
“T-the Sacred Lotus.”
I hadn’t expected to find it so quickly.
I ran over excitedly.
At the same time, the ground began to tremble.
—Kugugugu…
The waterfall roared as a massive white water droplet, like a giant white serpent, slithered out from behind the enormous stone pillars.
The ground shook violently.
Its head was the size of my torso, its fangs the length of my arms.
Its eyes were the size of my head.
—Ssshhiiiik.
It flicked its long tongue, staring at the intruder, me.
—Chrr-r-r.
The droplets on its tail vibrated and disturbed the air.
Sweat broke out on my skin as I muttered toward someone who wasn’t here.
“Is this… the simple ‘dodge sideways, dig downward, harvest the Sacred Lotus, and it’s over’ that the Master mentioned?”
The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts
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