Stopped Time
Before the empty pavilion, two small mounds rose from the earth.
They were graves for the Danri siblings. I could never have left them behind in that hollow hall. When I sent them on their way, I buried my own lingering regrets with them beneath the soil. The Danri siblings would not have wanted my feet shackled on their account, either.
Looking back was something to do only after everything else had been finished. For now, I had to think only of Yiryeong.
My footsteps echoed through the quiet forest as I forced one leaden stride after another. Perhaps I had been through too much, because there was no strength left in my body, but I never once stopped moving forward.
*****
The old man’s study.
"At last, you’ve become a face I can stomach. The last time was truly disappointing."
I listened to him in silence, watching him as he spoke.
A faint smile hovered on his face.
Was he pleased that I had become someone suited to the Demonic Sect, or was he simply glad to see me suffer? It could have been either.
When I still gave him no answer, the old man’s relentless gaze bored into me.
"You’ve finally stepped into the Transcendence rank. Impressive, though still crude."
Just as he said, my realm was still unstable.
The blood-red demonic qi in my body surged and sank again and again, rising to the surface in rhythm with my emotions.
It was partly because I hadn’t bothered to conceal my energy, but I couldn’t deny his assessment that I was still unrefined.
"Seven days."
"Hm?"
"I’ll stabilize it in seven days."
At that, the old man burst out laughing.
"I like the confidence. Very well, I’ll lend you the training ground. No need to return to the forest."
"I’ll need one person. A martial artist above the Transcendence rank."
The old man thought for a moment, then scribbled a few words on paper and handed it to a servant.
"He’ll be on his way to you in an hour or two."
That was all I needed from him, so I had no reason to exchange further words with the old man.
*****
A vast training ground spread out before me.
An empty space with no one in it at all. It was perfect for me.
Without hesitation, I drew my sword and swung it in a wide arc. Qi clung to the blade, visible to my eyes now.
When I had been stuck at the Peak realm, it had only ever been a heat-haze, but now its shape was unmistakable.
−!
The sword tore through the air, and wind lashed violently outward. I could roughly estimate just how much power it held.
Keeping the qi flowing, I unleashed the sword I had only ever imagined.
Demonic qi drained in an instant from the heavy dantian, leaving me with a hollow, sunken feeling.
There was no longer any reason to use mere feints. My overwhelming inner power gave substance to what had once only been deception.
It was only one swing, yet the result was anything but. Eight swords seized control of the entire space.
The blood-red sword paths that shot out into the air seemed almost alive, brimming with vitality.
"Huu..."
It was exactly the sword I had imagined, but more than twenty percent of my internal energy had been sucked away. If I overused it, my demonic qi would be drained dry in no time.
As I stood there regulating my breathing, someone approached me.
"That was truly a splendid sword. Did you create it yourself, Young Master?"
I turned toward the voice and saw a woman wearing an eyepatch.
For a woman, she was tall, with fine lines gathered faintly at the corners of her mouth.
She looked a little over forty.
When I nodded, she went on.
"I came at the command of the Left Guardian. I’m Im Seo-wol, and I currently hold the position of leader of the Black Lotus Unit, though I’m honestly overreaching a bit."
I could feel the demonic qi churning within her body. Overreaching? Not at all.
"Shin... no, Lee Hyun."
"Hehe. I’ve heard quite a lot about you. It’s an honor to be of help to you, Young Master."
She circled the training ground once with her eyes before asking me, "So, Young Master, how would you like me to help?"
"A spar. Just keep going without stopping."
At that, the smile on her face turned cold.
"Just as the rumors say. Young Master, I don’t do holding back, you know?"
That was exactly what I wanted. The more strength she showed, the more helpful it would be to me.
⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎
I saw a low stance and fingers bent in a peculiar shape.
The movement reminded me of a bird of prey, and I realized the martial art she practiced was a claw technique.
I had to be careful of her speed. As I wrapped my sword in blazing red gangqi, her figure stretched long and thin.
Following the warning of my instincts, I thrust my sword forward and blocked the blood-red fingers that had closed in on me in an instant.
Kaang!
Her fingers flicked lightly off the blade.
Fast. Her movements kept breaking and resuming in abrupt bursts. My eyes could barely keep up.
As if she meant to give me no time to think, her hand shot out again.
I raised my sword to shield my body, but just before it could reach me, her bent hand suddenly opened wide.
With that casual gesture, my sword and arm were flung hard outward from my body. The blade was still in my hand, but I had no time to pull it back in.
Her fingers surged at my unguarded opening once more.
Kwaang!
I stamped the ground hard and narrowly escaped her reach.
The difference in speed was overwhelming. I did not even have a chance to draw out my sword properly. At this rate, I would be carved apart helplessly.
I had to catch up to her, even if only for a single instant, but my body could not respond to those movements.
I seized most of the qi flowing through me and rammed it into my eyes. Under that pressure, it felt as though my eyeballs might burst.
Drip, drip.
The capillaries in my eyes burst, and a sticky liquid spilled down my face. It was probably blood, but I didn’t care.
Every subtle twitch of muscle was now laid bare before my eyes. I could even track the blur of her form.
I broke the fraction of a second before her fingers could touch me into smaller and smaller pieces.
Hundreds of scenes flooded my mind. Within them, I found the faint tremor in her arm.
I gathered the shattered images back together. Her next move appeared before me.
No, even seeing it was too slow. I had to predict all of it.
The sheer volume of information made my head feel ready to split apart, but within it, I snatched one single image.
One chance was enough.
There.
I drove my sword down into empty air. In that one instant, I swung and swung again, carving red trajectories through the void. Countless thin sword paths overlapped, layering together until they formed a surface.
And then, in that space drowned in scarlet demonic qi, the leader of the Black Lotus Unit appeared.
Kwaaaang!
The floor exploded apart, carving a massive fissure into the ground. Scattered dust and flying stone chips filled the training ground.
"Cough, cough!"
She gave a few dry coughs and waved the dust away.
She was bleeding here and there, but nothing serious. If my sword had truly landed, it would not have ended with that much.
"Did you dodge it?"
She looked stunned.
"Of course not. I blocked it with body protecting qi. It did get through, though."
"With body protecting qi?"
"Body Protecting Qi. It consumes a huge amount of internal energy, so it can only be used briefly, but it’s excellent for blocking an attack like the one just now."
An attack like the one just now. She meant a sword strike that crashed down in a single instant.
"Because of body protecting qi, martial artists at the Transcendence rank and above tend to avoid attacks like that. Instead, they mostly use chained assaults."
Chained assaults. That did make sense. If the sword kept coming, it would probably be impossible to sustain body protecting qi for long. Her internal energy would run out first.
But that didn’t suit me.
"Can’t a stronger sword break through body protecting qi?"
"It can. In fact, my body protecting qi was broken halfway through just now. You just need to find the method that suits you, Young Master."
I had plenty of time to practice both using body protecting qi and breaking through it. I still had six more days.
"Again."
"Hehe. As expected, Young Master, you’re becoming rather likable."
·
·
·
Walls cracked in several places. Even the floor had been smashed to pieces in a grotesque mess.
We lay side by side in the training ground, now so ruined it was hard to recognize its shape.
I had no internal energy left to pour into my sword, let alone the strength to move my body.
"Congratulations, Young Master. You can finally say with confidence that you’re at the Transcendence rank now."
"...Thank you."
Over the past seven days of sparring with her, I had not only stabilized my energy but even learned how to use gangqi. Without her, that would have been impossible.
The Black Lotus Unit leader pushed herself up through the dust and held out a hand to me.
"Well, I suppose my goal of making a good impression on you has been achieved."
When I took her hand and stood, the hem of my clothes, caked with dirt, came into view. We were both in a terrible state.
"I’ll repay this once I become the Young Cult Leader."
Hearing that, she laughed out loud.
"Ahaha. I’ll be looking forward to it."
*****
"I never expected you’d actually do it. So your confidence wasn’t misplaced after all."
That was what I heard in the old man’s study after parting ways with the Black Lotus Unit leader.
I had no time to answer things like that one by one.
"When can I receive that great art you mentioned before?"
The great art that would let my mind remain awake within stopped time.
Now there was truly only one step left before I became the Young Cult Leader.
"The preparations were finished long ago. Follow me."
The old man led me into a dark hidden chamber. It was similar to the place where I had first awakened in the Demonic Sect.
Inside the chamber, around twenty people were waiting for me.
They all looked middle-aged or older. Some even seemed older than the old man standing before me.
What shocked me was the fact that every single one of them was a monster who had reached the very edge of the Transcendence rank.
"Pay your respects. These are the elders of our sect."
They were, quite literally, the living history of the Demonic Sect. Perhaps one of them had even taken part in the great war between righteousness and evil a hundred years ago.
"Left Guardian, there’s no need for that. Young Cult Leader, would you grant this old man his greeting?"
One of them stepped toward me.
He had snow-white hair and a face deeply lined with wrinkles, but his back was straight and his eyes shone sharply.
"...Of course."
My brief reply seemed to displease the Left Guardian, who frowned.
"You rude brat. Elder Wi, this fellow isn’t even the Young Cult Leader yet. We don’t even know whether the great art will succeed, so there’s no need for such etiquette."
"Left Guardian, since such a young man has already reached the pinnacle of demonic mastery, he is the Young Cult Leader in my eyes already."
The old man called Elder Wi placed a hand on my shoulder and guided me to the center of the chamber.
When I sat where he indicated, the elders surrounded me.
"Young Cult Leader, don’t be burdened by it. You’ll do well."
"How much does time accelerate?"
"I can’t say exactly, but the current Cult Leader once said it was around twenty years."
Twenty years. Would my mind be left wandering in that long expanse of time? It would be longer than the years I had already lived.
Yiryeong flickered before my eyes. Yes, once this was over, all I would have to do was wait for her. There were not even three years left until the promise I’d made with her.
Something like this great art, whether it took twenty years or even longer, didn’t matter. I was already prepared.
The elders’ dense demonic qi filled the space around me. It reminded me of the great art I had received when I first came to the Demonic Sect.
But now, unlike then, the demonic qi felt as though it was wrapping itself around my body. The denser it became, the warmer it felt.
Countless hands came to rest on my back. The overwhelming torrent of energy that flowed through them severed my mind from my flesh.
"Young Cult Leader, I’ll see you shortly."
With Elder Wi’s voice hammering through my skull as the last thing I heard, time came to a stop.