Chapter 175
Chapter 175
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 175
>Chapter Title: Extreme Demon (5)
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A few days later.
Il-mok's classmates, along with the teaching assistants and instructors, left the Demonic Path Academy.
It was time for their third field training, as scheduled.
Just over forty days after that shocking battle, they were heading out for training again.
There was a risk that the cadets' mental states might deteriorate, but fortunately, their destination this time was the main headquarters.
Having done two rounds of training at the armed forces units, this time the training would take place at institutions in the main headquarters.
Specifically, at the Protector Court and the Instructor Court.
* * *
Upon arriving at the main headquarters, the Demonic Path Academy cadets split into two large groups and headed to the Protector Court and Instructor Court.
They would rotate every half month, spending a full month in total training at the Protector Court and Instructor Court.
Since it was the first day, the cadets received a brief explanation of the duties handled at either the Protector Court or Instructor Court, were shown to their lodgings to rest, or began their training.
Around that time, a warrior from the Protector Court secretly approached the instructors and sent a transmission to So Hong.
So Hong nodded lightly with an expression as if she hadn't heard a thing, then slipped away toward somewhere.
The place she arrived at was the main hall of the Protector Court.
She entered the building cautiously and performed a fist salute toward the elderly man sitting at the table, showing her respects.
"I greet the Leader of the Protector Court."
"It's been a while. Subordinate Unit Leader So."
Contrary to his welcoming words, the Leader of the Protector Court's expression was icy cold. Even though it had been over half a year since they last met.
"Your messages have been quite sparse lately."
"There was a major incident at the Demonic Path Academy, so I had no time to send letters."
"You call that an excuse?"
A stern aura emanated from the Leader of the Protector Court. In the past, So Hong would have felt fear or intense hunger in such an atmosphere.
But now, she wore a composed expression.
"In times of chaos like this, opportunities arise! After serving in this Protector Court for over ten years, do you not even know that basic fact?"
At the furious Leader of the Protector Court's rebuke, So Hong replied without any change in expression.
"Cadet Il-mok was in the infirmary until just a few days ago. Moreover, after graduating from the Demonic Path Academy, Cadet Il-mok is slated to take on a mission assigned by the Heavenly Demon. Even if I had sent a letter separately, it wouldn't have changed anything."
Her words were polite but devoid of any emotion.
"The very mission the Heavenly Demon planned to assign him is one we could alter precisely because of this chaotic time! With his prized disciple nearly in great danger, couldn't you persuade him to join the Protector Court instead of that perilous task?"
So Hong recalled Il-mok's performance on the battlefield.
"The Youngest Young Master is not the kind of weak man who would avoid a dangerous mission."
As So Hong continued to give negative responses, the furious atmosphere around the Leader of the Protector Court shifted.
"This won't do, that won't do. Do you think you're in a position to say such things?"
The Leader of the Protector Court said with a face grown chillingly cold.
"If not, you'll rot in the Demonic Path Academy for the rest of your life."
At the Leader of the Protector Court's threat that was not quite a threat, So Hong recalled her days at the Demonic Path Academy.
The incident where the Youngest Young Master had been sold to the academy for the absurd reason of being fond of women.
At first, she had suffered quite a bit.
She had to attempt things she'd never done before, trying to seduce the Youngest Young Master, and every day she was tormented by the ominous fear of being discarded by the Leader of the Protector Court, causing her demonic art to nearly run rampant constantly.
But not anymore.
Even against the Leader of the Protector Court's words that were like threats, her demonic art showed no sign of stirring now.
"How could teaching the talents who will lead the Divine Cult in the future be called rotting away?"
After the recent raid, she had realized it.
At some point, she had truly become an 'instructor.'
Now, her goal was no longer simply to drag the Youngest Young Master into the Protector Court.
To the Leader of the Protector Court, whom she once followed like the sky in order to rise higher, she offered her final greeting.
"When next we meet, I ask that you call me Instructor So, not Subordinate Unit Leader So."
Polite as ever, but with a face devoid of any lingering emotion, she performed a fist salute.
"……."
Ignoring the murderous glare she felt piercing her back from the Leader of the Protector Court, she hurriedly exited the building.
'Whew.'
A faint sigh escaped her lips naturally.
It was a situation she had anticipated ever since coming out for training at the Protector Court.
She had spoken calmly because of that, but the inexplicable pressure was unavoidable.
No matter what anyone said, the Leader of the Protector Court was one of the pillars supporting the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
'It was the right thing to do, right?'
As she walked with a complicated heart, she soon arrived at the building where the Demonic Path Academy cadets were resting.
"Haah!"
The sight of a young cadet swinging his sword with all his might caught her eye.
It was the cadet So Hong had saved during the previous raid.
She recalled the scene right after escaping to the main headquarters, when that cadet had come to express his gratitude.
'Thank you, Instructor! I will become an excellent warrior of the Divine Cult and prove that your grace was not in vain!'
As if fulfilling that promise, So Hong's lips curved into a natural smile as she watched the cadet immersed in training.
* * *
Even after his classmates, teaching assistants, and instructors left the Demonic Path Academy, Il-mok focused on his training.
For a long while, he swung around an iron weight according to the external art training method taught by Instructor Cheok Il-so.
"Whew."
Once his limbs, squeezed to their limits, began to tremble, Il-mok headed straight to the bathhouse in the Black Dragon Pavilion.
After washing his body thoroughly, Il-mok returned to his room and immediately sat cross-legged.
He planned to focus on his internal art cultivation method while his muscles recovered.
He considered doing qi circulation and breath adjustment right after exercising, but his obsession with hygiene made it impossible.
Il-mok closed his eyes and began to observe his internals.
With deep breaths, he drew in qi, awakening the energy dormant in his dantian.
He wrapped the qi that had entered deep into his lungs with internal energy, then guided it according to the essentials of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword. By the time he completed the Lesser Heavenly Circulation, the new qi that had entered his lungs had taken on the same color as his existing internal energy.
"Sip. Whew."
Repeating his breaths and gathering qi several more times, soon a distinctly larger mass of energy filled his meridians and raced through them.
Once he had absorbed a sufficient amount, Il-mok gradually gathered the qi racing through his meridians back into his dantian.
As the now-larger energy converged in his dantian, at one point it became full, and the remaining qi that couldn't return circled his meridians.
Il-mok calmly observed the flow and little by little piled the circulating qi into his dantian.
A subtle pain emanated from the packed dantian, but along with it, the dantian's size gradually expanded bit by bit.
Even though he was just sitting still operating his internal energy, thick beads of sweat had formed on Il-mok's forehead before he knew it.
After gathering all the qi circulating his meridians into his dantian.
"Sip. Whew."
He repeated the process again.
He continued expanding his dantian and internal energy for a long while like that.
At one point, Il-mok's brow furrowed.
- Swing the sword!
- Recreate that sensation from that day!
- You must make that perfect single strike from then your own!
The aftereffect of being startled into hiding by the Heavenly Demon's lion's roar reared its head slyly.
Of all times, right at this moment when he was immersed in his internal art cultivation method.
To Il-mok, it seemed like it had targeted this dangerous moment on purpose.
- Shut up!
As the aftereffect kept screaming to grab the sword and Il-mok resisted it, a fight broke out within him, naturally causing the demonic qi racing through his meridians to surge wildly.
Il-mok's meridians twisted everywhere, veins bulging red and blue across his body, and cold sweat began pouring down like a waterfall.
- You bastard.
Il-mok inwardly cursed at the sneak attack from his other self.
Suppressing the demonic qi by force had reached its limit. If this continued, his meridians would burst, killing him or crippling him.
Realizing he had no choice but to swing the sword as the demonic art demanded, he tried to stand up.
- !?
The sensation of someone's palm pressing against his back transmitted to him.
- Of all times, now?
Following the demonic art's ambush, someone was clearly attempting an assassination.
The demonic qi from the palm against his back was burrowing into his body.
Il-mok tried to drive out the intruding enemy's demonic qi somehow, but the situation didn't allow it. He couldn't even control his own rampaging demonic qi.
However, the qi from what he thought was the enemy moved completely differently from his expectations.
That person's energy began selectively suppressing only the rampaging demonic art qi.
Thanks to that, Il-mok could operate his internal energy much more comfortably, and before long, he succeeded in gathering all the rampaging demonic qi back into his dantian.
"Whew."
Il-mok, finishing qi circulation and breath adjustment with a deep breath, opened his eyes.
He immediately stood up and performed a fist salute toward the one who had saved him.
"I thank you for the Pavilion Master's grace."
The one who had saved him was Yeom Ga-hwi.
"It was something that needed to be done, so think nothing of it."
Yeom Ga-hwi, who had become Il-mok's nanny by order of the Heavenly Demon, replied with a gruff face.
He didn't mention that he had been hiding and watching Il-mok for days already due to the Heavenly Demon's command.
He thought that if Il-mok realized he was being guarded, he might lose his vigilance.
But Yeom Ga-hwi's consideration was somewhat pointless.
It wasn't because Il-mok had already heard from the Heavenly Demon that Yeom Ga-hwi had been assigned as his nanny.
A few days after the first rampage.
"Sip. Whew."
While lifting and lowering an iron weight several times for external art training learned from Instructor Cheok Il-so.
- The end of all martial arts leads to one.
- Why do you think you can't perform a sword technique you could do bare-handed with this?
- Come! Let's perform that sword from that day again!!
Suddenly, the mad demonic art began mistaking the iron weight in his hand for a sword.
As Il-mok resisted the commands of the mad demonic art and his other self, his body trembled violently.
Before long, veins threatened to burst through his skin, turning red and blue, and cold sweat dripped from his body.
Unable to endure it in the end, the moment Il-mok swung the iron weight according to the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword technique.
Paht!
With tremendous lightness skill, Yeom Ga-hwi closed the distance in an instant, and his single fist struck Il-mok's abdomen.
"Guh…."
As Il-mok let out a weak groan from his momentarily blocked breath, Yeom Ga-hwi quickly moved his hands to seal Il-mok's acupoints.
"Sit cross-legged and focus on your internal energy!"
As if he had no interest in Il-mok's condition, Yeom Ga-hwi placed his palm on Il-mok's back again and began suppressing Il-mok's demonic art.
Even after that day, Il-mok rampaged almost every day.
Rampaging while operating his internal art cultivation method, while swinging the iron weight. Even rampaging in the middle of eating at the cafeteria.
Because he tried to perform the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword with chopsticks.
After suppressing the rampaging Il-mok once more, Yeom Ga-hwi wiped the sweat he hadn't realized he shed with the back of his hand.
'The Heavenly Demon did warn me, but I never imagined it would be this bad.'
He had heard Il-mok was in a precarious state, but Yeom Ga-hwi hadn't expected the rampages to be this frequent.
'…If I had let him go with the cadets, something truly horrific might have happened.'
Whether Yeom Ga-hwi admired the Heavenly Demon's foresight of the future or not.
Il-mok continued to immerse himself in training.
Even as his other self rampaged every other day, Il-mok remained unshaken.
No, he was actually training even harder out of spite.
- You bastard. The Master scares you, so you think I'm an easy mark?
The thing that cowered from one roar of his master and stayed quiet for over ten days was now having fits almost every day.
Because its intentions were so impure, Il-mok didn't want to be manipulated by the demonic art.
Normally, if a madman kept coming, you'd avoid him out of fear.
But to Il-mok, this was somewhat familiar.
- I've dealt with worse crazy complainers than you, you son of a bitch.
Beyond coming every day, there had been guys who came with knives threatening him, so this was nothing special.
Time passed like that.
While his classmates went out for training and returned, received instruction from their instructors, and went out again.
Il-mok simply fought alone against the demonic art, growing his dantian, meridians, and internal energy while tempering his external art.
After a few months like that, changes began to appear little by little.
The frequency of the fits noticeably decreased.
To be precise, the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword still threw tantrums every day, but Il-mok started overcoming them bit by bit.
After a few more months like that, on a day when the Demonic Path Academy graduation ceremony was not far off.
"Whew."
Il-mok, who had been performing qi circulation and breath adjustment, opened his eyes with a deep sigh.
After pondering for a moment, Il-mok picked up a single sword left alone in one corner of the training ground.
"Whew."
As if shaking off tension, he steadied his breath lightly and began his sword dance.
Starting from the first form of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword, Soul-Stealing Ready Sword, he performed all fourteen forms, then followed with all eight subsequent forms.
Right after performing all the forms. Il-mok's eyes changed.
Not染ed with madness. Certainty settled in his previously tense gaze.
Il-mok moved boldly.
The insights gained over two years at the Demonic Path Academy.
The teachings learned from Elder Kang at Peach Blossom Ridge, the realizations from clashing with instructors. To that, he began demonstrating the true intent of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword comprehended in his battle with the leader of the fanatics last time.
With a single swing, countless subtleties blended naturally.
An act that would have made his muscles, bones, and meridians scream in the past now left only a slight stiffness.
Far from painful, it even felt refreshing as Il-mok gradually became immersed in the sword dance.
Lost in the sword like that for a long while.
"Whew."
Il-mok, his internal energy depleted, lowered his sword with a deep breath.
A smile had unconsciously formed on Il-mok's lips.
A single step.
The distance Il-mok had escaped Extreme Demon.