Disciple of the Fist King
A new C-rank gate record, followed by a solo clear of a B-rank gate.
The raid footage, broadcast live around the world, became a global sensation overnight.
An F-rank hunter who had set a record the likes of which no one had ever seen.
The heaven-gifted Lee Tae-hyun!
His name was about to become the hottest piece of gossip in the world all over again. Broadcasters and every branch of the media alike had been counting the days until his return.
"Oh! There he is!"
And the moment Lee Tae-hyun walked out of the gate—
"Great. Reporters swarming the place again…."
"This one's mine! I'm taking him with me! KHAHAHAHAT!"
—he was scooped up by a gigantic figure of unknown identity and vanished from sight.
"…Huh?"
"What the…?"
"Hey! Hey! Get a shot of that! Shoot it, now!"
"Breaking news! This is breaking news!"
"Miracle F-rank hunter Lee Tae-hyun abducted mere seconds after clearing a gate! Now THAT'S an exclusive!"
Seong Ju-ah, who had watched the whole scene unfold, squeezed her eyes shut.
"Aaargh, that insane old man!!"
"…Kuh-hk!"
Gathering my scattered wits, I pushed myself upright. My bleary vision swam back into focus, and the room around me came into view.
"A… room?"
I turned my head, taking stock of my surroundings. No bed—just a blanket spread over a wooden floor, and bandages wrapped around my body.
Where am I?
At a glance, it looked something like a sword sect's quarters.
Did someone actually carry me to the Sword Sect?
I cast my mind back. I distinctly remembered clearing the Jeju gate and stepping outside, and then—
"Hmm…."
My memory cut off right there. Don't tell me I fainted on the spot. Because if I did, that would be more than a little embarrassing.
"Still, how long was I out that they hauled me all the way from Jeju to the Sword Sect?"
And wouldn't a normal person take an unconscious man to a hospital? I could just about understand flying me to Seoul, but what possible reason was there to bring me here?
Did Baek Seo-ha or Seong Gyu-ho do it?
Whatever the reason, sitting here speculating would only leave me with more questions. Faster to go outside and ask someone directly.
Clack!
I gripped the handle and flung the door wide open.
"You're awake."
What greeted me was not quite what I'd expected.
"……."
"You have a few things wrong, my boy. This is no Sword Sect—this is the great Hyeonmu Fist Sect!"
"Ah. Right."
So it is.
I kept my composure as best I could and met that golden gaze staring down at me.
"Finally come to your senses, have you? You were out for quite a while. I was starting to worry."
"…How long exactly was I unconscious?"
"Three days, as of today."
Three days already?
Domain techniques really do eat through mental strength.
When I'd used 'Prajna,' I'd been out for half a day—and this time I'd unfurled 'Sparrow-Wing Cannon Domain,' a technique on an entirely higher level, on top of a body already riddled with injuries.
Three days straight of sleep was understandable.
But when someone's out cold that long, you'd think they'd at least call a healer-type hunter.
Apparently this old man didn't believe in such things.
Hold on, though. If this was a fist sect…
Then this is Cheorwon.
While I'd been out cold, I'd traveled from one end of Korea to the other. The information kept coming, and it was enough to make my head spin.
"Thank you for the emergency treatment. You also helped me inside the gate."
Whatever else he was, the Fist King's aid hadn't been nothing. He'd suppressed me when the ring nearly took control, and frankly, resting here beat being swarmed by reporters.
"KHAHAHA! What's with the stiff talk!"
The Fist King beamed and folded his bulging arms.
"After all, you're the man who's going to become my disciple!"
"…I'm sorry, what?"
Where had that come from?
"You used the Hyeonmu Ink Fist, did you not?"
That… was true. I had used it against Cheonmagwi—but my Ink Fist hadn't climbed so much as a single rung of mastery. I couldn't wreath my strikes in Ink Qi the way he could.
Unlike the Sword Sect, with its many sword forms, the Fist Sect had a single supreme art: the Ink Fist. And it was a technique where talent counted for far more than effort.
"And on top of that, you used the arts of other sects too. How does one man wield the techniques of all four great sects—"
There it was. I knew this question was coming.
Here, just like at the Sword Sect, the best move was to come clean.
It happened to be the truth, after all.
"I studied and interpreted them on my own, so—"
"…I've no interest in whether you did."
The completely unexpected answer threw me off for a beat.
A stranger—not even a formal disciple—had used his sect's most closely guarded art, and he didn't care?
Normally, anyone would interrogate me the way Seong Gyu-ho had.
"What I have a complaint about is THIS!"
The Fist King shoved his enormous face in close, brow furrowed.
"Compared to every other sect's techniques, your mastery of the Ink Fist is a complete disaster!"
"Uh…."
"How is this not a tragedy worthy of weeping! Where in all the world is there a martial art to rival the Ink Fist!"
Raging, he hammered his fists into the floor with a thunderous boom-boom. The ground shook like an earthquake had struck.
"So I've decided. As of today, you are my disciple!"
"Your disciple?"
"From this day forward, unless you can perform the Ink Fist through at least its third form, you will not take a single step out of this sect!"
Black energy began to smolder and coil around the Fist King's two fists.
"Come, my disciple! Once you've had a proper taste of the Ink Fist, you won't be able to even remember those other arts exist!"
"W-wait just a moment—"
"Heh heh heh. Perfect physique, perfect bone structure too! First, we'll start with a million strikes on the training post—"
Just as I was about to be abducted a second time by the muscle-bound behemoth—
"That's ENOUGH!"
"GWOHK!"
Someone came sprinting in and drove a straight punch into his side. The Fist King folded like a hinge and went rolling across the packed-dirt yard.
"Hah… hah…! What is wrong with you, planning to RUN a patient all the way to Cheorwon?!"
"Guh… Ju-ah, now hold on, that's not…."
"Oh, it IS! Go reflect on yourself!"
The Fist King, who'd been roaring with confidence mere seconds ago, whimpered and scuttled out of sight.
"Aigo, I can't live like this!"
The woman who had just landed a clean hit on the Fist King himself—Seong Ju-ah—looked at me, smoothed her disheveled hair, and cleared her throat with a cough.
"Tae-hyun, sir. So this is where you were. I'm glad I found you."
"……."
I simply stared at her, wearing an expression that demanded an explanation.
"Wh-why are you looking at me like that…."
"……."
"Ugh…."
Her cheeks flushed faintly pink before she let out a long, heavy sigh.
"The truth is…."
"You're the Fist King's niece?"
"Yes. Kang Hyuk-jin—the man they call the Fist King—is my mother's older brother."
Well, that was a first.
Who would have guessed the incoming Director of the Hunter Bureau was related by blood to the Fist King?
"It's not exactly a secret, but I don't go around announcing it either. It seems I've deceived you without meaning to. I apologize."
So that was why the Fist King had taken on a mission like this. The whole thing was a project Seong Ju-ah had personally spearheaded, after all.
"You don't need to apologize. If anything, I got to dodge the reporters and rest properly because of it."
"W-well, about that…."
Seong Ju-ah smiled awkwardly and slid a tablet across to me. On its screen, one internet platform after another was plastered wall-to-wall with articles and videos about me.
They really wrote it until they were sick of it.
Breakdowns of the raid footage. Detailed timelines of my every move. The clip of the moment the Fist King abducted me (…) had already smashed past ten million views.
The reaction was exactly the ideal I'd been aiming for.
At this level, it won't interfere with the next plan.
I gave a satisfied nod and scrolled down the feed.
Among them was one article that caught my interest.
So the famously prickly woman finally agreed to an interview?
Cha Yoo-seon, Master of the Suzaku Spirit Sect. Before my regression, she'd been famous for refusing to show her face not just to reporters but even to her own disciples.
It wasn't about cultivating an air of mystique—she was simply so fastidious and old-fashioned by nature that she couldn't stand the circus of fame.
And yet she went out of her way to give an interview.
So it had bothered her that much. My 'Sparrow-Wing Cannon Domain.'
Not that I ever planned on hiding it forever.
For the sake of everything I intended to do going forward, I planned to use the arts of all four great sects freely and without reserve.
Why else had I built this image of 'talent' and 'genius' in the first place?
"As you can see, the whole world is still buzzing about you. I should have blocked it in advance, but the interest was just too overwhelming…."
"It's fine. I'm the one who started all this."
I handed the tablet back and stretched lightly. Days of doing nothing but lying down had left my whole body stiff and achy.
"Now that I've confirmed you're safe, I'll head back for today."
Seong Ju-ah stood and cracked her knuckles—pop, pop.
"I'll… I'll take good care of the Fist King, so please rest comfortably. I'll come by tomorrow morning."
"Ah… yes…."
Somewhere in her voice I could hear the trembling of a frightened middle-aged man.
"Oh, that's right."
Just as she was about to leave, I stopped her with a question.
"Would you happen to know when guild war registration opens this year?"
So Seong Ju-ah and the Fist King were family. Who'd have thought.
Now that even the Fist King had been dragged off, the room was quiet. I ran a light check over my condition as old memories surfaced.
Did the Fist King's influence have anything to do with Seong Ju-ah becoming Director?
I considered it, then dismissed the thought almost immediately.
For one simple reason.
Seong Ju-ah became Director after the Fist King was dead.
Afterward, the Fist Sect, led by its next Master, never recaptured its former momentum and slowly withered away. The sect had been able to operate as freely as it did precisely because its Master, Kang Hyuk-jin, was the number-one ranked hunter in the country. A sect that lost such a symbol naturally losing its luster was only common sense.
"Was that really why pre-regression Seong Ju-ah was the way she was…."
Nothing I could do about it right now.
"First things first… this."
Azure Key Fragment (2/3)
Two fragments gathered—the shard has begun to take on the unmistakable shape of a key.
With two pieces collected, it was finally starting to resemble an actual key. Once I obtained the last fragment, it would be complete.
"I still have no idea what it unlocks."
But this time, I had learned one thing for certain: this key was part of my Limit Break System.
What exactly did it want me to see? There was nothing in your hand at all.
The Fist King hadn't been able to see this key. Only my eyes could perceive it.
And there was something else only visible to me, in the same way.
Quests and achievements.
Those, too, had come into being after I obtained the Limit Break System. Which meant they were tied to my regression.
The Monarch. And regression.
The two were unquestionably intertwined. Solve the mystery of one, and the other was bound to resolve itself.
"Still so much I don't know."
The Iron Blood Monarch. The Specter Monarch. What on earth were those two, really…?
"…Who cares?"
I could just catch them and kill them. There's an old saying, after all—a weak body makes the head work overtime. So no point in overcomplicating it.
"First, get stronger."
I pulled a skill book out of my subspace. My reward for taking down Cheonmagwi.
◈ Grants mastery of one engraved A-rank skill. Consumed upon use.
◈ Engraved Skill: Mist-Shadow Step (A)
An honest-to-goodness A-rank skill book!
At first I'd considered just feeding it to the Mimic, but having at least one evasion technique like this on hand seemed worthwhile, so I'd put the decision off.
And now, I'd made up my mind.
You have used the A-Rank Skill Book.
You have acquired the engraved skill.
Skill acquired: Mist-Shadow Step (A)
Mist-Shadow Step.
Judging by the name, it seemed I could replicate that movement Cheonmagwi had shown me.
"Better to see it once than hear it a hundred times."
I stepped outside and broke into an easy run, then immediately—
Tap-tap-tap!
—shifted into the footwork.
Mist-Shadow Step
A short while later.
"This… is actually fun."
A smile crept slowly across my lips.