Chapter 237
Chapter 237
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 237
>Chapter Title: Spying (1)
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At the unexpected words, Il-mok asked back in a flustered voice.
“W-what do you mean, abandon? What are you talking about?”
“Well, if I don’t get stronger quickly, I can’t be with you, brother. But you told me to stop training, so you must mean I’m a hindrance and should leave.”
“Ah….”
Only then did Il-mok recall an old memory.
In the past. Before entering the Demonic Path Academy.
Il-mok had said something like that.
That because he was the disciple of the Heavenly Demon, he had to live busily. To be with someone like him, Seon-a also had to become an excellent Demonic Cultist.
It was just something he’d said to soothe the child left behind during his first outing, when he’d been dragged along by his master.
Who would’ve thought this child had been hung up on those words even now.
Feeling an inexplicable guilt, Il-mok stroked the child’s head and said.
“I’m saying that because you’ve grown enough to be with this brother. No need to be impatient now; take it slow.”
“You’re not abandoning me?”
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, with tears welling in her eyes, beamed.
“Ahem. Of course not. Ah, how about from now on, we meditate together often, you and this brother.”
“As long as it’s with you, brother, anything is fine.”
At Seon-a’s response, Il-mok nodded and thought.
I need to properly teach this child.
The technique called meditation, or more accurately, a nap.
Even back at the Demonic Path Academy, it was thanks to this meditation (nap) technique that he’d endured without going mad.
‘Hmm. If she enters the Demonic Path Academy, I should tell her to join the meditation club.’
* * *
Il-mok spent his time peacefully.
The matters in Pyeongnyang County were being handled by Gwan Mu-yeol, Baek Cheon, and Seo Jae-pil, while the red-light district affairs were taken care of by Dam Bin and the Jin Hong Pavilion Master. The Maitreya Divine Cult’s branch manor issues were managed by the Nanju Branch Leader and the Orthodox Pavilion’s leader and deputy, Won Sul.
On top of that, Pyeongnyang County, Nanju, and the other small counties in western Gansu Province were being patrolled and overseen by the Red Tiger Squad and White Dragon Squad.
In other words, unless some special incident arose, there was no longer any need for Il-mok to step in.
‘As expected, work is all about outsourcing.’
Il-mok had dumped all the tasks on others, but he felt justified.
He’d run around diligently to create this situation, after all.
He slept deeply until late in the morning, then got up and taught Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a meditation while sneaking in an extra nap.
That said, he didn’t spend the entire day just sleeping and meditating.
Unlike Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, his condition was one where side effects weakened as his realm rose, rather than worsening.
While teaching her meditation, he performed Qi Circulation and Breath Adjustment to build up the inner power of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword, or he swung the Ascending Heaven Sword alone to practice his sword dance, or lifted iron weights to train his external arts.
Or.
“Squad Leader Dam. If you’re not too busy today, how about a simple spar?”
He would spar with Jin Ha-yeon or Dam Bin, and occasionally with the squad leaders of the martial squads who returned from Nanju.
“As a follower of the Divine Cult, I welcome any chance to exchange martial arts, Young Master.”
With those words, Dam Bin took her position about three paces from Il-mok.
‘It’s still amazing no matter how many times I see it.’
Dam Bin, who usually exuded the gentle air of a seasoned maidservant.
The moment she circulated her inner energy and entered combat stance, a seductive smile played on her lips.
Contrary to that bewitching smile, black threads capable of piercing human flesh with ease burst from her sleeves.
Paht!
Il-mok lightly dodged the first attack with agile footwork, but by then, Dam Bin’s threads had spread all around.
Like a spider’s web trap.
Il-mok avoided the spiderwebs with light movements or sliced them with the Ascending Heaven Sword as he advanced, while Dam Bin retreated, continuously scattering new threads.
Some threads were eye-catching, while others lay hidden in the training ground’s dirt or shadows as traps.
Their spar took the form of a chase, but neither gained a clear upper hand.
Since it wasn’t a life-or-death battle, they were both holding back to some degree, and their realms weren’t vastly different.
Sreuk.
As he cut a black thread that suddenly shot up from underfoot, Il-mok pondered the difference between Dam Bin’s martial arts and his own.
‘It’s like climbing entirely different mountains, even if the heights are similar.’
A prime example: Dam Bin had also transcended the Extreme Demon realm, yet she used no qi reinforcement.
No, it felt like she’d barely trained in handling qi reinforcement at all.
And Il-mok vaguely understood why.
‘Forming qi reinforcement on a sword gripped in your hand, just three feet long, is a whole different story from forming it on a mass of threads like that.’
Given the nature of Dam Bin’s martial arts, qi reinforcement was horrendously inefficient.
Thus, instead of extreme qi condensation like qi reinforcement, she raised her realm by infusing qi into as many threads as possible in various forms.
Extreme condensation of qi versus dividing qi as finely as possible for diverse applications—which was the true path?
The moment that question arose in his mind, Il-mok recalled the Heavenly Demon’s words.
- Warriors of the Central Plains often speak of the Transcendent Realm, but it is merely a fabricated stage born from the path from Peak Realm to Ultimate Realm being too distant.
When he’d first heard those words, Il-mok had thought.
Perhaps because his master’s realm was so lofty, the divisions among the lower ones seemed ridiculous.
Like how in popular modern games, challengers dismissed brutal hardcore play as all the same.
But now, he felt he grasped the true meaning, if only a little.
‘Dam Bin’s Dark Spider Blood Silk Art is also a supreme demonic art, so if she enters Transcending Demon, she can reach the Ultimate Realm.’
Whether through extreme qi condensation or extreme qi division and application, the end result was reaching the Ultimate Realm.
So why did Central Plains martial artists obsess over the Transcendent Realm and qi reinforcement?
The answer came easily.
‘Jianghu warriors, especially the orthodox faction ones, mostly wield swords. The next most common weapons—sabers, spears—or bare-handed arts are also better served by condensing qi into reinforcement rather than dividing it finely.’
In contrast, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s demonic arts were quite diverse. The problem was the variety of side effects that came with them.
Naturally, Il-mok’s mind filled with the various demonic arts he knew.
‘Come to think of it, the Peak Realm distinction is just as odd. Creating sword qi or saber qi is twice as hard as creating hand qi, like Seon-a does.’
Circulating qi over one’s own hands was far easier than coating it onto a separate weapon.
That’s why terms like “sword and body as one” existed for good reason.
But conversely, when realms were similar, sword or saber users would have the edge over bare-handed fighters.
‘Same for Jin Ha-yeon with yin energy or my eldest senior brother with yang energy. Handling dangerous energies makes advancing realms tough, but at equal levels, they’d dominate overwhelmingly.’
Having thought that far, Il-mok naturally reached a conclusion.
‘The ways of handling qi are infinite, depending on the martial art. And looking at supreme demonic arts, there are diverse paths to the Ultimate Realm.’
In the end, what mattered was ‘how perfectly one could control qi according to their will.’
The methods of handling qi were merely the most efficient approaches tailored to each art’s characteristics.
Only when qi could be perfectly controlled by will did one reach Transcending Demon—or the so-called Ultimate Realm.
Il-mok thought.
‘I don’t know why that results in complete body reformation, though.’
And knowing this fact didn’t change much right away.
Knowing that perfect willful control of qi was needed to advance didn’t mean he could actually achieve perfect control.
However.
‘No need to fixate solely on qi reinforcement.’
Realizing it was just one means among many was what mattered.
“Whew.”
As Il-mok organized his thoughts and let out a light breath, Dam Bin—who had stopped moving at some point to watch him—asked.
“Have you attained enlightenment?”
Il-mok shook his head at the question.
“Less enlightenment, more like pondering my training methods.”
“???”
Regardless of Dam Bin’s puzzled expression, Il-mok gripped his sword anew according to his conclusion and began dancing his sword dance alone.
He disassembled the forms he’d previously executed habitually and unconsciously.
‘What if I circulate inner power like this?’
He twisted the qi flow unnaturally with his will, or circulated it in flows unrelated to his body’s movements.
- Hey! That’s unnatural!
- Perform the perfect sword art!
Ignoring the other self still lingering in his head as it clamored, Il-mok continued his sword dance.
Unlike before, Il-mok’s sword dance didn’t flow smoothly like water.
It jerked awkwardly, like a marionette puppet on strings—controlled by a novice puppeteer, at that.
Watching Il-mok’s bizarre sword dance, the three women’s expressions turned subtly strange.
Not because they’d gained some insight from it.
‘The Eighth Young Master seems to have gained heart demons instead of enlightenment.’
Dam Bin worried that Il-mok’s skills might be regressing.
‘…He’s probably thought up some weird new method again.’
Jin Ha-yeon, whether out of trust or distrust, seemed willing to accept that Il-mok had his reasons.
‘Don’t worry about brother. Even if he falls into Demonic Deviation and becomes a cripple, I’ll take care of him for life.’
For some reason, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a’s eyes sparkled.
* * *
Somewhere in the Central Plains.
In a pleasure quarter vastly larger than Nanju’s red-light district, the provincial capital of Gansu.
In a dim corner of the street where perfumed women called out to customers and drunken men staggered by.
In a private room of an ordinary brothel, unremarkable compared to the grand pavilions and taverns lining the streets.
A middle-aged man lounged like a wastrel, leisurely drinking alone, when he suddenly spoke into the empty air.
“Something urgent come up?”
At his question, a shadow stretched long from the darkness, and a figure in black robes appeared.
“Contact with Elder Yang Jong, who headed to Nanju, has been lost. Same for the Nanju Branch Leader.”
“Hmm. So that rat-like fellow got taken out.”
The middle-aged man smiled with interest and tossed back his cup.
“The Maitreya Divine Cult, was it? Seems like quite the entertaining place.”
“They dared touch our sect’s elder and branch. Shouldn’t we seek revenge?”
At the black-robed figure’s question, the man burst into mad laughter.
“Hahaha. Revenge? Who? Me?”
“…….”
As the black-robed figure showed no reaction, the man clicked his tongue lightly and spoke.
“Tch. Since when did our Hao Clan fuss over loyalty and talk revenge?”
“Then what’s your plan?”
The black-robed figure asked with certainty, as if expecting some action despite the words.
True to that conviction, the man replied with a playful smile.
“Rats have their own ways. For the Hao Clan, it’s information trading, isn’t it?”
“You mean dig into the Maitreya Divine Cult?”
“Hahaha. You’re improving. You’re starting to understand me. With these bizarre upstarts seizing Gansu Province out of nowhere, plenty of people must be curious about them.”
And if juicy information on the Maitreya Divine Cult surfaced, greedy opportunists were sure to emerge.