The Daemo's Nuclear Noogie
Seomun Su-rin's worries had been entirely justified. When Cheong had returned from the Demonic Cult with her mind in tatters only to recover dramatically through the teachings of the Daejeong Seongong, the Heavenly Solitary Star had blazed crimson with rage and regret. Reading the star's omen, Seomun Su-rin had offered a midnight ritual in relief that her disciple had narrowly escaped a great crisis.
From that moment onward, her heart had been in constant turmoil. Her disciple was gentle and kind, far too soft-hearted for the brutal world of Murim. She feared the girl would return broken in body or spirit. Autumn had deepened, and the time for her return had long passed, yet the disciple did not come.
Then a disciple sent out to purchase supplies brought word of a great calamity in Sichuan—an uprising, an assassination plot—and Cheong's name had been mentioned. Seomun Su-rin's heart plummeted. Using the supreme art of sword flight, she crossed the natural barrier of the Sichuan Basin's mountains in a single step and arrived in Chengdu.
Of course, Seomun Su-rin was a venerable elder of the Daoist path who understood propriety and decorum. She did not commit the impropriety of knocking on the Tang Clan's gates in the dead of night. She secured lodgings for the evening and waited until the hour of the snake—when visiting would not be a burden—before presenting herself at the Tang residence in proper attire.
At last, she laid eyes upon her disciple. Though the sun stood high in the sky and all under heaven labored diligently beneath its bright yang energy, her disciple lay sprawled across a luxurious silken bed, wandering the land of dreams. Worse still, the shameless girl had stripped completely bare save for the bandages wrapped around her chest, kicking off the covers and stretching her limbs in a shameless display that would make any observer blush.
Seomun Su-rin's fury surged to its peak. When a Profound Realm expert grew enraged, the very atmosphere trembled and gravity doubled, pressing down upon the space with overwhelming pressure. Stirred by this aura, the disciple's eyes fluttered open. Meeting her master's gaze, she broke into a bright, innocent smile despite her unfocused, drowsy expression.
"Hehe, it's Master…… I missed you……"
Then she closed her eyes again, breathing softly and sweetly. Seomun Su-rin's fury, which had reached its limit, wavered and gradually subsided.
Well. As long as the child is safe, that is enough. It was not as though anyone else would see her sleeping posture. Even if it was unsightly—extremely unsightly—what did it matter? Moreover, her face had grown even more delicately beautiful in their time apart, and her limbs had lengthened. She had clearly undergone Body Reconstruction. It was a pity she had not reached the Transcendent realm, but it was common enough for one's physical form to transform while one's enlightenment remained elusive. Such missed insights would return before long; there was no need to dwell on them.
But why was she wearing bandages only around her chest? There was no bloodstain or scent of blood, yet a faint medicinal fragrance wafted from them. Seomun Su-rin's stomach dropped. She reached out, and the bandages around Cheong's chest slid down slightly, revealing what lay beneath.
An ugly, crudely stitched wound was exposed. Had it been even slightly deeper, it would have reached her ribs. A little deeper still, and it would have cleaved her heart in two. The girl had been in such pain that she had taken medicine and lain down. Seomun Su-rin hurried forward to check her pulse and found meridians that had developed to a heaven-and-earth-shaking degree compared to before, along with countless traces of demonic arts……
Seomun Su-rin's fury instantly erupted, piercing the ceiling and exploding outward.
"You—little—wretch—!"
Thwack!!!
With teardrops trembling at the corners of both eyes and a lump rising on one side of her head, Cheong knelt on the floor with both hands raised high.
"The wench has been recklessly throwing her body about and carved out a magnificent scar. How splendid. How truly splendid."
"Th-they said the scar wouldn't remain……"
"Oh? You're proud of it, are you? Then what about all those demonic energies crudely patched together? Do they vanish after the fact as well?"
"No, that's not what I meant……"
"Not what you meant?"
"Hehe. Disciple greets Master. I missed you. Very much."
Still holding her hands up, Cheong naturally bent forward and performed a deep bow. Seomun Su-rin had achieved Reversal of Aging through her profound cultivation and appeared merely as a noble lady, but she was a senior of Murim who had lived even longer than Choe-ri-ong. Having lived so long, she could tell that Cheong's greeting was not a mere ploy to escape the current situation. Rather, it was filled with sincere longing, and the resentment that had built up between them melted away.
Seomun Su-rin let out a long sigh.
"The wench who claimed to have missed me was comfortably sprawled out in someone else's house."
"They said the scar wouldn't remain. I didn't want you to worry."
That single sentence melted away the last of her resentment. Still unwilling to forgive her outright, Seomun Su-rin spoke sharply.
"Hah. So the disciple conspired to make her master look like a fool who didn't even know her chest had nearly been split open."
"Hehe. Actually, my chest was split open. Ow!"
Thwack!!
Cheong rolled across the floor. Ow. She had been hit in the same spot again! A Profound Realm expert's aim never wavered. This was a quantum-entangled super-strike Nuclear Noogie that ignored distance entirely. Highly advanced martial arts transcended even science.
Rubbing her head until it felt like it might catch fire, Cheong flinched under Seomun Su-rin's fierce glare and quickly raised both hands again.
"Haa. How is it that in my later years, my only disciple has nothing to recommend her except her temperament?"
If hell truly existed and its countless burning sinners had heard this, they would have cursed her for having eaten her cultivation through her rear end.
"Fine. So what manner of demonic arts did you learn? I distinctly warned you to stay away from them."
"Well, you see. I didn't learn them because I wanted to."
In front of Seomun Su-rin, Cheong's speech patterns resembled Dang Nan-a's.
"If you didn't learn them because you wanted to, then according to your own words, did someone threaten you at swordpoint to learn demonic arts?"
"It really did turn out that way……"
Seomun Su-rin's eyes twitched. Come to think of it, this disciple possessed not only an excellent temperament but a talent even more dazzling than that. It would not have been strange if some demonic leader had taken a liking to her and forced her to learn demonic arts. But even so, there should have been only one.
"No, what kind of reckless fools took someone else's disciple and made her learn demonic arts? Unless the Demonic Cult kidnapped her……"
"Actually, the Demonic Cult did kidnap me……"
Seomun Su-rin's expression grew even more serious.
"The Demonic Cult? Well. You seem to have escaped safely. Rather than that, let us hear what demonic arts you learned. I need to know so I can respond appropriately."
"Uh. First, there's the Jajeon Magong and the Black Killing Demonic Palm……"
In truth, the Demonic Cult was unfairly blamed. They had only forced her to learn those two. The rest were things Cheong had forcibly stolen and learned herself.
"The 108 Asura Swords, the Ice Heaven Asura Demonic Art, the Blood Demon King Divine Art, and the Tangseon Talui Mu. I think those are righteous ones."
"……You learned quite a lot. Heavens, and four of the Ten Great Demonic Arts at that. At this rate, you're on track to collect all ten."
"But I learned good things too! The Muscle Tendon Change Classic and Daejeong Seongong that Master mentioned."
"Wait. No."
Seomun Su-rin waved her hand. The demonic arts had clear origins, and since Cheong had been kidnapped by the Demonic Cult, their malicious intent to brand her as a demonic practitioner even if she escaped was obvious. But the Muscle Tendon Change Classic? And the Daejeong Seongong? Had the Demonic Cult kindly captured a Shaolin monk and an Emei nun—owners of those divine arts—and had them teach her?
"Hmm. Never mind. Fine. And what else?"
Seomun Su-rin's expression softened. This disciple had always brought back strange things from her time in Murim. She had already suspected the girl possessed some method she could not speak of. Looking back now, even the question of what she should learn had been deeply meaningful from the start.
"The Taeeum Oknyeo Singong. They said the Sonyeo Hwanhee Gyeong was definitely a Daoist mental technique."
"It is somewhat unorthodox, but it is correct."
"Ah. And this one—I received it as a gift, so I wasn't sure if I should learn it."
Cheong retrieved the manual for Wave-Treading Micro-Steps from the guest room's drawer and held it out. Seomun Su-rin flipped through it roughly, her expression hardening once more. Her facial muscles were working hard today.
"This is no ordinary manual."
"I think it's called Wave-Treading Micro-Steps."
"So the Wheel-Turning Demoness has taken a position in the Demonic Cult. Hmm? You didn't mention learning the Jeonryun Mageop."
Cheong's expression answered for her. If Cheong did not know something, anyone in the world could tell from her face. Seomun Su-rin changed the question.
"Was the one who gave you this in the Demonic Cult?"
"No. It was given by someone in the Prince's residence."
"I see. The Prince's residence…… After you learn it, burn it. It is an object that invites bloodshed."
"Ah. They said that too. Something about a bloody wind?"
"Yes. A single volume of this text once led to the annihilation of an entire sect. That is how much people covet it."
The Blood Calamity of the Yeonseong Sect. A common tragedy that befell those without the power to protect their treasures.
"Uh, is it a good martial art?"
"It is the greatest footwork technique under heaven. I have heard that upon mastery, one's movements become like the wind, impossible for anything in this world to catch. Even in the worst situation, one can preserve one's life. It is worthy of being called a divine art."
"Then couldn't our Sinnyeo Sect claim it? I've already memorized it all. We could just change the name to something like Sinnyeo Shinbo."
Seomun Su-rin smiled benevolently. To her disciple, even the greatest divine art under heaven was merely something nice to have or not. The problem was that she treated demonic arts the same way without fear, which had caused this entire mess. Yet nothing in this world consisted of only one side. Yin and yang, light casting shadows behind it—this was the natural order. Therefore, what an elder must do was cast her shadow as a master to conceal her disciple's own shadow.
"Yes. Let us do that."
Seomun Su-rin tucked the manual away. Unlike other martial arts, this one could guarantee her disciples' safety. Even the despicable act of stealing the legacy of a vanished sect was worth enduring.
"Ah. Yes. Let us hear the story. How did you escape from the Demonic Cult's vile den?"
Seomun Su-rin's gaze was so warm that Cheong's heart melted gently. And as always in front of her master, it melted a little too much.
"Ah, well. This disciple once again performed a spectacular feat and crushed the Demonic Cult's ambitions. Ah! That's right. Look at this. Yap. Heavenly Demon Summon! This is the main body of that Heavenly Demon fellow. So what happened was……"
From the chattering Cheong's palm, the Heavenly Demon Soul rose. A vein bulged on Seomun Su-rin's forehead. Naturally, something was about to rise from Cheong's crown as well.
Then—thwack!!!
The sound of a walnut being cracked echoed clearly across the heavens beyond the door.