Chapter 121: Fist King Gazes Upon White Cat 2
Fist King Gazes Upon White Cat 2
Chapter 121: Fist King Gazes Upon White Cat 2
Dan Woo-sung smiled as he gazed at White Cat sitting obediently on his palm, then shifted his eyes toward Young Palace Master.
Young Palace Master was also watching Dan Woo-sung with a grin.
"Fist Demon, you truly have no fear."
The moment Dan Woo-sung saw Young Palace Master's expression, he knew the young lord was about to order White Cat to attack. Regardless, Dan Woo-sung fixed his gaze back on White Cat's eyes.
This was a critical moment—for both Dan Woo-sung and White Cat.
If White Cat obeyed Young Palace Master and attempted to strike, it would be obliterated right there on his palm.
This was the palm of the Fist King, after all.
Whether White Cat transformed or attacked, it would be shredded to pieces by the White Lightning Ten Stages before it could even move. Yet Dan Woo-sung had no intention of doing so. To him, the creature under Young Palace Master's command was just another living being.
Young Palace Master's lips parted as he issued a short command to White Cat.
"White Cat, kill him."
The moment the words left Young Palace Master's mouth, Dan Woo-sung spoke to White Cat.
"There's no need to kill."
White Cat turned its head on Dan Woo-sung's palm and looked at Young Palace Master—as if confirming the order. Young Palace Master glared back and pressed again, his voice sharp.
"White Cat, kill him. He's the enemy."
White Cat bristled, its fur standing on end, before turning back to Dan Woo-sung.
Dan Woo-sung repeated the same expression, gaze, and tone.
"There's no need to kill."
He shook his head slightly and spoke to White Cat in a calm voice.
"You're a higher spirit than Young Palace Master. You don't have to obey his orders."
His tone was casual, as if he fully expected the creature to understand him.
When Dan Woo-sung spoke gently, White Cat stared back with tense eyes. Even animals experience conflict.
Dan Woo-sung mimicked eating something and continued.
"You kill only when you're hungry, when survival demands it. If you're not hungry and don't need to eat, then you don't kill."
Teaching such things to White Cat proved Dan Woo-sung wasn't exactly sane either.
But while Dan Woo-sung lectured White Cat, the one whose pupils trembled with shock was Young Palace Master.
White Cat was listening to Dan Woo-sung instead of obeying his command. Young Palace Master insisted again.
"White Cat, kill him. Kill him. Kill him, I said!"
Dan Woo-sung pointed alternately between Young Palace Master and himself and spoke to White Cat.
"No. You don't have to listen to him. You don't have to live by anyone's orders."
He gestured toward the vast world beyond them.
"White Cat, here."
White Cat pivoted on Dan Woo-sung's palm and stared at the wide world he indicated.
Dan Woo-sung continued.
"Go where you want. Play where you wish. There's no need to kill humans. This is freedom. Run wild for once."
Carefully lowering White Cat from his palm, he extended his hand as if urging it to go.
White Cat leaped lightly from his palm, glanced once at Young Palace Master, then bolted away with furious speed.
Young Palace Master shouted.
"White Cat!"
As Young Palace Master roared, Dan Woo-sung burst into laughter, as if thoroughly amused. This was exactly why Mad God had called him the Mad King.
Of course, even Dan Woo-sung was surprised White Cat understood him. He hadn't been certain this would work, making the experience uniquely special for him too.
White Cat didn't vanish immediately.
It sprinted away from Young Palace Master, leaped into the air, scaled trees, and dashed around as if it had been desperate to play. Then it raced back toward Young Palace Master and Dan Woo-sung and stared at them.
Young Palace Master, foolishly trying to scold it mid-chase, bellowed again, but Dan Woo-sung simply waved his hand as if telling it to go.
White Cat, liking Dan Woo-sung's actions and words more, resumed its frenzied sprinting around the area.
Dan Woo-sung teased Young Palace Master.
"Well, I guess a spirit is still a spirit. Who knew it'd understand human speech so well? Though I heard you're nothing but a corpse without your cat..."
Young Palace Master watched White Cat darting about and muttered.
"Ah, it's not that bad. This is irritating."
Dan Woo-sung glanced at Phantom Demon's barrier some distance away before approaching Young Palace Master. The young lord glared and stepped back.
"Don't come closer. It's pointless. My subordinates will arrive soon, and you won't be able to kill me before then."
Ignoring him, Dan Woo-sung kept advancing—until White Cat swooped down from the air and landed in his path, blocking him. Yet it deliberately avoided looking at either of them. A clever creature. Its posture made it clear it didn't want them to fight.
Dan Woo-sung gazed at White Cat.
The words he'd spoken to it now echoed back at him.
He turned to Young Palace Master.
"White Cat is better than your Demonic Path."
Young Palace Master retorted.
"Seems better than you too."
"Maybe so."
At that moment, both Dan Woo-sung and Young Palace Master turned their heads left simultaneously. Phantom Demon's barrier collapsed with a thunderous crash, as if two immense forces had collided.
Young Palace Master muttered under his breath.
"Damn it..."
Something must have happened to Phantom Demon—which meant Heavenly Demon might reappear.
Young Palace Master activated his Lightfoot Technique and moved, shouting at White Cat.
"White Cat!"
But White Cat didn't return to him this time.
Dan Woo-sung weighed the situation between Young Palace Master and the disturbance near Phantom Demon before heading toward the barrier. Since White Cat was blocking his path, it seemed Sword Demon and Heavenly Demon concerned him more than Young Palace Master.
Sword Demon moved along the barrier as if scaling a mountain. His reason was simple—he wanted to confirm the sensation of passing through its surface again. Leaving Heavenly Demon behind and living freely was an option, but the moment he considered it, absurdly practical concerns plagued him.
Where would he go from here?
How would he get food?
How would he relieve himself?
He couldn't just squat in the streets like an animal.
And what would he do when he ran out of money?
If he resorted to killing people to survive, the Murim Alliance would quickly track him down. Normally, that wouldn't frighten him, but the thought of being surrounded while blind made the world feel pitch-black.
Having lived as part of the Demonic Path, commanding subordinates, he realized how little he could do alone.
Demonic Path, martial world, Strongest Under Heaven...
None of that mattered. The real problem was his inability to live an ordinary life.
'Should I get myself a slave?'
Sword Demon ran his hands along the barrier, searching blindly for Phantom Demon.
Phantom Demon, meanwhile, was in dire straits.
He had trapped Heavenly Demon inside the Phantom Battlefield, intending to wear him down. But Heavenly Demon sat cross-legged in meditation, utterly unfazed, while the blind Sword Demon circled the barrier's outer edge, hunting him.
The sight of a blind man closing in to kill him was terrifying even for Phantom Demon. Worse, this blind man had Blade Immunity.
Phantom Demon darted around the edges of his own Phantom Battlefield, fleeing. If he dispelled the barrier now, Heavenly Demon—that troublesome bastard—would escape. Trapped between two horrors, Phantom Demon froze when Sword Demon spoke.
"Phantom Demon, what are you doing over there?"
Phantom Demon held his breath, staying perfectly still.
Sword Demon stroked the barrier with one hand and asked,
"Aren't you going to ask why you're underground? Kehahahahaha!"
Drawing his Demon Sword, Sword Demon lunged blindly into the darkness.
"Time to catch a mole."
He stabbed downward, and like a mole burrowing away, Phantom Demon's form darted aside. Each movement resembled a snake swallowing a person whole.
Sword Demon grinned.
"You little mole, I've been looking for you."
When Phantom Demon burst from the ground like a corpse rising, Sword Demon swung his sword and charged. Phantom Demon drew his own blade to block, and Sword Demon laughed cheerfully.
"Ah, a swordsman? No wonder I like you so much."
Ignoring all technique, Sword Demon slashed wildly.
Clang! Crash!
Each time Phantom Demon parried, the barrier trembled.
Just as Sword Demon's Blade Immunity was tied to his Demon Sword and demonic arts, Phantom Demon's Phantom Battlefield was linked to his own dark energy.
With Sword Demon hammering at him, the barrier couldn't help but shake.
Inside, Heavenly Demon quietly opened his eyes, smiled, and murmured.
"Oh... Well done. My blind friend is quite skilled. Seems more useful now than when he had eyes."
Heavenly Demon chuckled to himself, wearing the same eerie grin Sword Demon had seen through the Abyssal Gaze.
He stood and waited for the barrier to break.
Then a thought struck him.
Why not let Sword Demon absorb Phantom Demon?
Heavenly Demon grinned wider.
He would let Sword Demon devour Phantom Demon—then take Sword Demon for himself. That insolent Fist Demon and Mad Demon's arrogance had worn thin. He'd endured long enough. Now, he would claim Sword Demon—the last piece he'd been saving.
Shrouded in darkness, Heavenly Demon's thoughts grew blacker than the void around him as he waited for the chaos outside to unfold.
For now, all he could do was cheer on his friend.
Sword Demon laughed as he drove Phantom Demon back. Phantom Demon blocked his strikes and gasped out broken words.
"If this... continues... Heavenly Demon... escapes."
Sword Demon cackled.
"Ah, is that so? Then both of us are in trouble."
Phantom Demon retorted.
"That one... no friend... of yours."
Sword Demon nodded.
"None of us are, aren't we?"
"Idiot... kill Heavenly Demon... first."
Sword Demon slashed violently, as if rejecting the idea.
"I'll kill Heavenly Demon last. Don't worry about him."
Phantom Demon couldn't reply.
"Ah—"
He wanted to say that very thought proved Sword Demon had fallen into the trap.
The moment a slight opening appeared in Sword Demon's guard, Phantom Demon thrust his sword—only to feel his stomach drop with instant regret. Just as expected, the tip of his blade struck Sword Demon's neck with a metallic clang. Sword Demon deflected it effortlessly, closed the distance, and drove his Demon Sword into Phantom Demon's gut.
Thunk!
Sword Demon smirked.
"Ah, you pathetic bastard..."
Phantom Demon wanted to protest—that he'd exhausted his energy fighting Heavenly Demon—but it was too late.
As Sword Demon began absorbing Phantom Demon through the Demon Sword...
A grotesque scream echoed.
The last thing Phantom Demon saw before death claimed him was Heavenly Demon silently approaching from behind Sword Demon—smiling.
A chill ran down Sword Demon's spine. He yanked his sword free and swung backward.
Heavenly Demon caught his wrist with one hand while seizing his face with the other.
At the same time, Sword Demon grabbed Heavenly Demon's wrist and tore it away.
Heavenly Demon's palm was already stained deep violet.
Sword Demon grinned through a twisted expression.
"Friend, finally made up your mind?"
Heavenly Demon smirked back.
"Yeah. Stay still, Clan Head."
Both poured every ounce of their energy into the clash. Each had hidden deeper reserves than the other expected. Just how many secrets had they kept from one another?
Even after absorbing Phantom Demon...
Heavenly Demon's hidden depths ran deeper. His violet-stained palm slowly inched back toward Sword Demon's face.
But Sword Demon was no pushover either.
With a grotesque laugh, he dropped the Demon Sword from his right hand and kicked it with his foot.
Shiiing!
The blade shot through the air as Sword Demon recited the Demon Sword Art's incantation. The sword abruptly changed trajectory mid-flight and streaked toward Heavenly Demon's back.
Heavenly Demon tried to break free, but Sword Demon tightened his grip and grinned soundlessly. Staring into Heavenly Demon's face through the Abyssal Gaze, he spoke flatly.
"...Smile. Like you always do."