The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts - Chapter 49
I drew the sword from the carriage and sheathed it at my waist. I slipped on the gauntlets that rose to my elbows.
With a flick, I shed the cumbersome Moyong family robes, slipped into the issued black martial uniform, and bound my limbs tightly.
“Is this the answer? It feels like something’s missing.”
“What do you mean? We definitely handed out everything that should be supplied before the trial.”
Instructor Lee Jasuo crouched beside the carriage, gripping his belly, and grumbled.
He shook a map in front of me.
“Even at this distance, it’ll take at least a week to get there.”
“Weren’t provisions like dried meat for the journey handed out? Didn’t you see the package given together with the clothes?”
I stared at him blankly.
Lee Jasuo flinched.
“You… you can’t be serious.”
“…”
“Hold on. You don’t know that your instructor’s pay is as thin as rice porridge?”
I kept staring without a word.
“Absolutely not! Where in the world gives even pocket money to the disciples heading out on trials!”
Leaning in close until my face nearly touched his, he kept staring.
“It can’t be! Absolutely not! Even if dirt gets into my eyes!”
“…”
“Absolutely…”
After a while I received a heavy pouch from him.
“This is the last time. There’s never been anything between us.”
“You bastard. If you stumble and die on the way, don’t blame me.”
“It’s a pity, but I’ll definitely come back.”
Just like that, I headed toward the lake of Hyeonhobong, the site of the second trial.
The road was familiar.
Two and a half years earlier, but in the real outside world it had been only two or three months.
I didn’t know if it was coincidence or fate, but this Hyeonhobong was also north of Baekhakmubong, that place of obsession for me.
[Hypothetical note: The numbers 1 through 6 in the second trial may be assigned according to the distance fallen. If my reasoning holds true.]
I could easily find the remaining clues for the second trial.
The sixth second trial held what was called the Heavenly Blood Demon Spear, said to be the holy relic of the White Lotus Demon Sect.
Before I smashed the gatekeepers blocking the way and left the second trial, I had found that the Heavenly Blood Demon Spear, which had shattered into pieces the first time I saw it, was now firmly embedded in the jade stone as if nothing had happened.
I was going to retrieve it as I passed.
But it shattered like a mirage the moment I touched it, just like the first time.
Soon I was surrounded by gatekeepers emerging from the dark hole connecting to the underground floor and had to cross the brink of death.
Only after repeating that twice could I accept that the sword was not for me.
From the wall painting depicting the six second trials along the corridor, I estimated that the maker of this second trial had wanted to reach the Heavenly Blood Demon Spear of the sixth one in order.
But I had accidentally found the sixth first, and something was twisted.
The moment I solved the secrets of the remaining second trials, I might also learn something about the Heavenly Blood Demon Spear embedded in the jade stone.
The hidden roots of the Blood Cult and Demon Sect, the six second trials of the White Lotus Demon Sect.
In addition to the trials at Cheonsubaekryeonsa, a new task had appeared that I must resolve.
Even for survival. Even for growth. I cannot ignore this information.
If the Heavenly Blood Demon Spear existed in the sixth second trial, the remaining five second trials might also hide the legacy of the White Lotus Demon Sect.
I had to confirm it.
[Camp here for the night.]
It was deep into the night.
As autumn deepened, the night air grew bitterly cold compared to the day.
I had started digging the ground and gathering leaves for a sleeping place as soon as the sun began to set, but I could only finish preparations after it grew completely dark.
I lit a fire and cut the felled logs into larger pieces so the flames would burn for a long time.
I dug a hole in the center of one log, propped it up, and made the flames shoot upward.
Over the fire I placed a small iron pot and boiled dried meat and salted water.
I drank a broth that smelled horribly rancid, like a meat soup that couldn’t even be called that, to quiet my hunger.
[Holy relic of the White Lotus Demon Sect]
“Host. It’s time.”
Although my legs ached from walking all day, I brushed myself off and stood up.
When I left the second trial, I had set a goal for growth.
To acquire every martial art I copied without relying as much as possible on the Heavenly Demon’s power.
This goal had arisen from the experience felt clearly during the process of fully acquiring the incomplete Heaven and Earth Great Shift, which had required copying the Vajra Demon Subduing Fist.
At first glance it looked like performing the same martial art, but the quality was different between executing it with my body awakening its fundamentals and simply following the puppet-like imitation.
Most of all, the process of practicing it endlessly as if engraved into this body helped my overall growth greatly, much like master Go players reviewing past battles to build skill.
The most urgent hole I had to fill was, as Pahwanggun had pointed out, bridging the gaps between the martial arts I was learning.
[Movement/form description]
[It won’t be possible to master it in one breath, but carving the forms, understanding them, and then at some point breaking free from the form to let it seep in like natural movement of the body, that will be the moment it helps bridge the gaps between the martial arts the Host worries about.]
Indeed, after fully acquiring the Vajra Demon Subduing Fist, the ability to respond flexibly had become immeasurably different.
The Ssangryong-seonpung-geom of the Moyong family and the Blood Death Sect’s Blood Demon Wheel Chain Sword were still far away.
But as if the inner dan was slowly melting and being absorbed, the paths of the copied martial arts gave me clear growth.
Still far, far away.
To survive in this reality without being swung by others’ hands, I needed power.
My current level was pathetically lacking by that standard.
Jeokmaryeong rose to mind.
The image of Guardian Eun Seollyeong fighting the Demon Sect disciples flashed vividly as I closed my eyes.
I had already seen the heavens with my own eyes.
No matter how much I built my martial skill in the future, I would never be satisfied as long as I measured it against the techniques of those men imprinted clearly in my mind.
I had to go further.
Grow.
If I became at least their level, then even in this dirty reality where I am swung about knowing it, I would gain a little freedom.
“Haaah…! Hah!”
After swinging my arms and legs wildly, I collapsed onto the cold floor.
“Hic… hic.”
The cold that flowed through my body always brought me back to my feet.
I sprang up.
Again I swung my arms and legs.
[Steam rising from my body beside the flickering campfire]
“People only live the life they draw, don’t they?”
That was what Mumyeong had said to me.
I stopped moving.
[Patting the ground with both arms and standing on one leg]
“Don’t you think it’s pathetic to look at guys who look like they’d only do it with girls, all dressed up?”
When doing waterfall training, Pahwanggun’s words came to mind.
“…”
My whole body was soaked with sweat.
The campfire light danced over my sweat-drenched flesh.
Blood poured as if my head would burst.
Every part of my body trembled.
“You’re late.”
“But you know hunger. More than my body, more than my status, that’s your greatest strength.”
“You’re right about being late. But you know hunger. More than my body, more than my status, that’s your greatest strength.”
The words of Moyong Taese came to mind.
[Pushing with one arm and supporting with the other]
“When will he come?”
Mother’s dry lips had parted while she was freezing in the straw bed.
[Supporting my full body on a single thumb]
The dull, heavy body grew supple and faster as time passed.
My eyes, gazing at the campfire while standing on one leg, burned brightly.
“Hah… hah.”
From dawn I carried the burden northward, and as the sun began to set I made a camp, spat white breath, and continued the training days.
Without a teacher to guide me and without help, I sweated blood in the darkness, using Mumyeong’s occasional advice as my guide.
It was the third night.
Luckily I found a deer dying of a broken leg.
I didn’t know how to butcher it or drain the blood.
After grinding it for a long time, following Mumyeong’s advice, I barely managed to peel the skin and butcher it enough to roast over the fire.
“Damn… is this… well, well done?”
I had never grilled meat before the fire, so I didn’t know where the well-done ended and the raw began.
I poked and flipped it several times.
Before me was a pitiful roast where the end was charred and still underdone.
“…”
Pathetic, but it was meat I had prepared with my own hands from start to finish.
After staring for a while, I put a piece of meat dripping with grease in my mouth.
“Tough.”
Because it was undercooked, the part near the fire had lost too much fat and felt like chewing rubber.
The part far from the fire was underdone and oozed blood.
“Still…”
I tore into it with the scent of meat filling my nose.
“It tastes good.”
I ate for a long time.
Mumyeong, watching my appearance, whispered.
[In the old countryside when living with Mother, had you ever eaten even wild beasts?]
I swallowed the tough meat.
“There’s no foolish beast that can’t even scratch its own back, and no naive animal that would fall into a rich man’s concubine.”
[That’s right.]
“In winter when snow falls, Mother—”
The jaw chewing and swallowing the meat slowed.
“Mother… meat… so…”
A single drop of oil on my lip fell to the ground.
Her reddened eye rims blinked.
“I really wanted to eat it.”
[…]
The orange and red flames mixed and the campfire blazed higher.
I looked at the campfire.
“They say that the painful memories that didn’t kill me only make me grow stronger, don’t they, as the sages shout like heroic tales?”
Chewing the rancid meat in my mouth, I looked at the campfire and said.
“That’s nonsense.”
[…]
“It’s the bullshit said only by those who never experienced nightmares that chew to the bone.”
I muttered in a hoarse voice.
“The more time passes, the clearer it becomes rather than fading. The humiliation of the powerless past, the cold. The memory. And those things keep whipping me. They prevent me from stopping in place. Even if I become a hunting dog that runs until I die of exhaustion.”
I turned my back to the campfire again and began recalling the martial arts without practicing.
[Worried, are we?]
“What is?”
Mumyeong said.
[As you know from the previous friction, the north is a region where the Demon Sect and Blood Cult meet.]
“But?”
[As my personal hope, I hope you never make contact with the Blood Cult until the end.]
“Blood Cult? Why?”
I asked stupidly at the unfamiliar name.
[Because both they and the Host are twisted.]
Mumyeong answered calmly.
“We truly insane ones never tolerate each other.”
[Punching through the air with a fist, another night of training]
Northward I climbed endlessly.
“Kyahk, kyahk.”
Against the background of ravens cawing, I walked further north along the ominous path.
“Sometimes you make sounds I can’t understand. You’re not interested in the Blood Cult guys, and I’m twisted, what does that mean?”
I walked while sweeping the autumn reeds beside the road.
[You’re the one asking what, so you already know. The attitude of concentrating on something, the response taken. Honestly, the Host isn’t very healthy-minded.]
“Haha, you, the product of the Demon Sect, saying such things makes it funny.”
[Even I, the product of the Demon Sect, should take alarm at saying such things.]
“…”
My laughter stopped.
“Sorry, but I’m perfectly normal.”
[I never said you were abnormal. I only said you were twisted.]
Before me stretched a high blue sky with not a single cloud, the golden waves of autumn rippling across the wide plain.
I crossed the plain.
I climbed the hills.
[Personally, I don’t think it’s bad. Hatred and lack in the heart always give strong propulsion.]
From behind me the darkness flickered and whispered softly.
[We influence each other. From me to the Host, from the Host to me. Whether it’s good or bad.]
“I don’t trust you.”
[I’m the same. Host. We’re just a mad dog chasing toward food, exhausted and dying. This vivid reality is a racecourse. Nothing more, nothing less.]
“…”
The sun was setting again.
Red sunset filled the sky.
My face facing the sunset also flushed red, feeling both heat and chill at the same time.
“Kyaaak!”
A raven flew up with a screech that tore at the ears.
[And again this time, starting off spectacularly.]
I narrowed my eyes and stared quietly at the landscape ahead.
“Not what you expected? Anyway, there are only crazy bastards in this world.”
[I expected it, but still.]
“Pududuk!”
Hundreds of ravens shot into the sky.
[This time the difference is incomparable.]
Red sunset rose under the blue sky.
“Is this hell?”
Under the sunset stood a giant tree.
“Kiiik… kiiik…”
On the tree, hundreds of corpses hung by their necks and swayed.