The Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Demon (4)
As soon as Baek Hwaryeong took the hand of this fellow, light enveloped the two of them. The radiance swelled upward and then subsided, and when it faded, the surrounding scenery had completely changed. From the room in Mount Hua that reminded one of the Ice Palace, they now stood in a desolate plain where nothing could be seen. In this barren field without a single blade of grass, the only sounds were the whisper of wind and the cawing of crows.
This place was familiar to Baek Hwaryeong as well. It was the battlefield she had chosen long ago when she fought an army all by herself. Even after quite a long time had passed, traces of that battle still remained scattered across the plain.
“If we’re talking about barrenness, isn’t Mount Hua about the same as this place anyway?”
Baek Hwaryeong, who had been surveying the surroundings, turned her gaze toward this fellow. She had a long pipe in her mouth—though no one knew when she had taken it out—and let out a laugh mixed with smoke.
“If I destroy the grounds of Mount Hua again, that fox Baru will scold me.”
“Is this Baru the fox you mentioned?”
“Indeed. Isn’t she adorable?”
“She is. Adorable enough that I’d want to take her with me.”
“That would be rather troublesome. Baru finds her small joys in life, you see.”
“Is that so? What a shame.”
While they conversed, Baek Hwaryeong observed the martial artist known as this fellow. At first glance, her realm seemed to be at the very edge of first-class. If that were all, it would be embarrassing for her to act like a powerhouse in the martial world. But what was engraved within her was different.
The way every single movement of this fellow naturally carried an aura. The inner energy flowing within her body. Even in Baek Hwaryeong’s eyes, it was no light matter. It was so profound that she couldn’t even guess its limits.
This was the first time she had seen such a severe disparity between physical body and realm. Normally, if one side was lacking, the gap would cause the person to collapse under the strain. So how was this fellow standing there so perfectly fine?
Was it because she was an outsider with a fundamentally different structure? No. That couldn’t be it. If that were the case, she couldn’t possibly be this stable right now. Which meant she had reached a realm capable of overcoming even that disparity.
A smile carved itself onto Baek Hwaryeong’s lips. It had been a long time since she had met an opponent worth fighting.
“This fellow. Shall we begin?”
“Let’s.”
The moment the answer came, both of them moved. Baek Hwaryeong was the first to throw a punch. Normally, she would have offered her opponent several moves regardless of who they were, but the person before her was not someone she could afford to be lenient with. When facing a strong opponent, things like probing or mind games were unnecessary. All that mattered was to pour everything into a single strike that would shatter them.
The fist Baek Hwaryeong unleashed, infused with the inner energy of her divine art, felt like the word “strong” had descended into reality. In response, this fellow’s movements were as soft as flowing river water. No matter what storms the world might bring, a river simply follows its course. This fellow simply accepted the storm called Baek Hwaryeong with perfect composure.
“Is that the Harmonious Fist?! There’s no way that old man from the Daoist sect would have taught you that?!”
“Of course he didn’t teach me. I stole it!”
“Khh. I knew it!”
In the span of a single breath, countless exchanges took place. Every time Baek Hwaryeong executed a move, countless afterimages tempted this fellow. Those afterimages were clearly meant to lure the opponent out, but the instant a gap appeared, they would turn into lethal strikes.
Yet this fellow showed perfect counters against every single one of those countless afterimages. It was as if she had decided that if killing intent was hidden among hundreds of illusions, she would simply deal with all hundreds of them. She let every single move flow past her harmlessly.
The smile on Baek Hwaryeong’s lips deepened when she saw it. To an outsider who didn’t know the situation, their exchange would have looked exactly like two people performing a perfectly choreographed dance. The optimal attack met with the optimal response—it was like the graceful movements of actors on a stage.
The devastated earth, swept clean by death, served as their stage, and the lead actors were Baek Hwaryeong and this fellow. The dance and song they displayed to the world existed only to prove their strength to each other. The audience was more than enough if it was just the two of them dancing.
“You still look like you have plenty of energy left!”
“Aren’t you the same?”
It was fun. Having an opponent who could respond properly even when she raised her momentum. Having someone who wouldn’t be swayed by her tricks and could counter them instead. How long had it been since she met such an opponent?
Ever since she had newly established the Heavenly Demon Cult, she hadn’t been able to find anyone who could stand against her. It had been nearly ten years. So that was it. Had the martial artist known as herself been in a long slumber inside the cult for ten years? And had she only now awakened from that long sleep, finally able to unfold her martial arts once more?
What made Baek Hwaryeong even happier was that this fellow still hadn’t shown even a fragment of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. What are you hiding? What are you holding back? To think you still have the leisure to act relaxed while facing this seat—I can hardly believe it.
Fine. If you won’t show your true sincerity, then this seat has no choice but to force it out of you.
Baek Hwaryeong spread the inner energy she had kept hidden inside her throughout the surroundings, crushing the world beneath its weight.
The pressure alone crushed the earth downward, forming a massive crater centered around her.
“Give it your all. Fight as if prepared to die. After all, even if you die, you won’t truly die, will you?”
Even in a situation where an ordinary person would have sensed their impending death under the pressure of the divine art, this fellow remained perfectly calm. She looked up at Baek Hwaryeong’s arrogant smile, returned it with one of her own, then moved her hand and pressed several acupoints on her body with deliberate force.
They were acupoints Baek Hwaryeong also knew. The very same ones she had learned while torturing the man once called the Divine Doctor. The blood sealing method that caused the dantian to run wild, producing inner energy until the dantian itself was destroyed.
This method granted nearly infinite inner energy for a short time, but the price was equally enormous. It inflicted damage so severe that one would either die or wish for death. Any normal martial artist of Murim who knew this technique would never use it unless faced with a truly hopeless crisis.
But for this fellow, such things were not a problem. Because she was an outsider. Because even if she died, she could come back to life. Because she was someone who could treat her own body like a disposable tool.
“Where did you learn that blood sealing method? He only knew it as the Divine Doctor, didn’t he?”
“Must I really go through the trouble of explaining it again?”
Baek Hwaryeong understood the meaning behind the words this fellow spoke while shrugging her shoulders. If you want to know, defeat me first and then I’ll open my mouth. Right. I lacked style. It isn’t proper for someone of the cult to chatter on and on.
“Understood. I shall do so.”
“Just in case, I’ll ask—are you thinking that what I’m doing right now is underhanded?”
“Huh? What nonsense. Where is there any such thing as underhandedness in a duel?”
No matter what one does, if victory is placed on top of it, it becomes the right thing. Crying out that something is underhanded is nothing more than the cry of the weak. A true powerhouse must shatter their opponent no matter what moves they make.
“Yes. I suppose that’s true.”
For the first time, this fellow moved first. The intent contained in her movements was no longer the softness from before. It was strength. It was the tyranny that would shatter everything standing in her way.
Hah. That’s more like it.
Baek Hwaryeong smiled as she watched the Heavenly Demon Divine Art this fellow wielded and prepared her own tyranny in response. There was no doubt about this fellow’s proficiency in the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. The Heavenly Demon of the cult, Baek Hwaryeong, could guarantee it. She had already reached the great completion of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Where had she learned it? From whom? How had she trained? There were countless questions, but now was not the time to ask them. When two people who had reached great completion of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art met, the only thing they needed to do was clash their tyrannies and prove whose was greater.
Fist met fist. The resulting shockwave sent both of their hair flying—Baek Hwaryeong’s short, broom-like bob and this fellow’s smooth, long hair. In that instant, Baek Hwaryeong thought she had seen the hairpin tying this fellow’s hair somewhere before.
Huh? That’s definitely…
“Do you have time to be distracted?”
The moment those words were spoken, this fellow’s fists began to pour down like a storm. Baek Hwaryeong had lost her flow for a brief moment, but she regained her composure in an instant. She hadn’t survived in Murim all this time for nothing. Emotional disturbance was something she could immediately rein in.
Without retreating even an inch, Baek Hwaryeong and this fellow’s fists collided. Each time they did, Baek Hwaryeong felt an indescribable sense of unease. Even though they both used the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, each person’s interpretation was different. Although the foundation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art lay in tyranny, how one pursued that tyranny was left to the individual.
But strangely… the tyranny this fellow pursued was endlessly similar to the one Baek Hwaryeong pursued. The will to shatter the heavens that oppressed the world and stand above them in dominance. The will of Pacheon was contained within this fellow’s martial arts.
It could simply be a coincidence that they pursued the same direction. Or perhaps she had seen Baek Hwaryeong’s Pacheon and copied it. There were countless other possibilities that could explain this situation. However, none of those explanations could account for the unease Baek Hwaryeong felt in her heart.
A person who had reached great completion of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art to the point that even she would acknowledge it. A perfectly identical interpretation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. An appearance so similar that anyone would believe they were sisters. The room in Mount Hua that reproduced the scenery of the Ice Palace where she had once stayed long ago. The blood sealing method she had heard about from the Divine Doctor. And the hairpin her mother had given her for her birthday in the distant past, which she had eventually lost.
Any one of these could be a coincidence. But when they all overlapped like this, it became inevitability.
It was unbelievable. It was something that made no sense at all. Because the person before her was an outsider, the thought rising in her mind seemed even more absurd. And yet, if it wasn’t that, there was no way to explain this unease.
So while receiving this fellow’s fist, Baek Hwaryeong asked:
“Are you… this seat?”
Upon hearing those words, the killing intent this fellow had shown until just moments ago vanished somewhere. She took a big step backward, let out a long, empty laugh, and finally gave her answer.
“You finally figured it out?”
You are me, yet you really are slow on the uptake. Even after hearing the answer she had hoped for, Baek Hwaryeong felt her head grow even more tangled.