The Heavenly Demon Drops By (6)
After knocking out a few of the charging thugs, I could see the Black Whatever gang slowly backing away, fear finally setting in. This was exactly why dealing with people who didn’t know their place was such a hassle. They charged in without understanding the difference in strength, only realizing what stood before them after getting beaten once. Just like chickens—they had to butt heads to learn anything. Hmm. It was about time to send their leader flying so the rest would scatter and run.
While scanning the chicken-headed fools for the one with the sharpest beak, I spotted Baek Hwaryeong standing in front of a man.
“Senior Brother! Show them what you’ve got!”
“Senior Brother!”
The way the thugs looked at him with eyes full of admiration and expectation told me he was their boss. Maybe the pressure from his underlings’ cheers pushed him forward. The man who had seemed scared moments ago began circulating his internal energy and took a stance.
Even at a glance, it was clear he hadn’t learned from any reputable sect. His way of handling qi and moving his body was crude and sloppy. I didn’t know what he thought of himself, but it was a waste of the internal energy he possessed.
The full-powered strike from the chicken-headed boss was caught ridiculously easily in Baek Hwaryeong’s grasp. It was only natural. With such a rotten foundation, the martial arts he displayed could only be a mess.
“I told you to use your secret technique, didn’t I?”
“No, that… um.”
“Are you looking down on me?”
“That guy actually used his secret technique just now.”
When Baek Hwaryeong frowned, I stepped in to explain. That really had been his best effort. She blinked in disbelief.
“...You’re telling me that was actually his secret technique?”
It was perfectly understandable for her to react that way. She had grown up in the Heavenly Demon Cult, faced off against the prestigious orthodox sects, and returned to the Cult. When would she have ever dealt with the pathetic martial arts of street thugs like these? Even I had been shocked the first time I faced common rabble after leaving the Cult. I simply couldn’t comprehend how they could strut around so proudly calling that garbage “martial arts.”
I grabbed Baek Hwaryeong by the nape of her neck—she was still staring at the man in utter astonishment—and pulled her back. Then I addressed the chicken-headed boss.
“I’ll give you one chance. Get lost.”
“Thank you for your mercy!”
Even as she watched the Black Whatever gang slink away, Baek Hwaryeong still looked unsettled.
“Was the standard of the Murim truly this low?”
“The world is wider than you thought. Whether in a good way or a bad way.”
I brought Baek Hwaryeong back to the tofu skin shop. The moment we stepped inside, every eye in the place turned toward us. Given what we had just done, it wasn’t strange to receive glares. Normally those looks would be filled with wariness or fear. But the gazes directed at us now were different. They were clearly looks of interest.
“There seem to be quite a few new faces here.”
Baek Hwaryeong said this while scanning the interior of the shop. Every time her eyes landed on someone, they hurriedly looked away.
“What do you want to do? Shall I flip the place?”
She must have grown certain after seeing their behavior. She lightly raised her internal energy and asked me.
“Hold on a moment.”
I stopped her because I had a hunch about those stares. Then I spoke directly to the viewers.
“Be honest. How many of you came here to see us?”
“If you won’t speak, I’ll have no choice but to root you out myself.”
“I know there are more than just this one. I won’t interrogate you separately, so if you came to see me, raise your water cup.”
When I said that, several people sitting at the tables lifted their cups. There looked to be about a dozen of them. One of them had even been sitting there since I first entered the restaurant.
“That’s enough. Put them down.”
Seeing how they had rushed over and packed the empty seats tight after I spent barely any time dealing with the Black Whatever gang, it seemed they really had wanted to see me.
“If you’re just watching, I won’t say anything.”
“That doesn’t mean you should come looking for me, though.”
I was correcting what seemed like a misunderstanding when Baek Hwaryeong spoke up beside me.
“Min-ga? Why are those fellows watching your every move?”
“It’s because they’re something like my followers.”
“Are they believers?”
“No, it’s different from that. So… hmm.”
I wasn’t sure how to explain it. There was no way I could tell Baek Hwaryeong—who knew absolutely nothing about the modern world—about streaming or games.
When I checked the chat for a suitable word, they were busy calling themselves demonic cultists. It was ridiculous that people who called themselves the new Heavenly Demon Cult would use the term “demonic cultist,” but it wasn’t particularly helpful.
“Just think of them as people who want to see my face.”
“Hah. You’ve got it rough.”
When I sighed and said that, Baek Hwaryeong nodded as if she understood the hardship. I wasn’t exactly in a position to receive sympathy from someone living trapped in the Cult, but…
When we returned to our seats, Baru was drooling while staring at the food. She lifted her head when she noticed us.
“You’re back! This time I waited without eating!”
No matter how I looked at it, she seemed far closer to a child craving praise than a divine spirit. A chuckle slipped out on its own. When I glanced around to see if others felt the same, both my stream viewers and Baek Hwaryeong wore identical expressions.
The Heavenly Demon from the Heavenly Demon Cult. She looks exactly like the one from Apis.
The way they talk to each other makes them seem insanely close. What the hell did this human do while coaching Hwaryeong’s Asura Path?
She came to play with Baru. Right now she’s tempting Baru with fried tofu skin.
<Photo of the Heavenly Demon looking sulky after Baru transformed into human form.>
I got a bit scared when she suddenly turned serious and spoke earlier.
The Heavenly Demon’s expression of utter disbelief was seriously hilarious lol.
This is crazy. Hwaryeong, turn the stream back on!
After returning to Mount Hua with me, Baek Hwaryeong finally succeeded in pulling Baru into her arms. Perhaps the shared meal had lowered her guard somewhat. Baru looked reluctant but eventually surrendered her body. Baek Hwaryeong wore an expression of pure bliss melted into Baru’s fluffy fur. No matter how you looked at it, she had zero intention of letting go.
“Little one.”
“What is it?”
“Is it really fine to stay like this? Don’t you have work to do?”
“It’s fine! My disciple is handling everything in my stead!”
I was getting cognitive dissonance. Weren’t all the tasks that came to her things only the Heavenly Demon could handle? Of course I hated doing work myself, but I still handled everything personally. Yet here she was, shoving all her responsibilities onto someone she could boss around… I was genuinely envious.
“Min-ga. Aren’t you the one who pushes all your work onto your sect members?”
Baru, still nestled in Baek Hwaryeong’s embrace, looked at me with pity and said that. I couldn’t deny it. It was true that I had left all the paperwork to Siyugeom.
“What? So you also leave work to your disciple? Haha. I knew it.”
“They’re not my disciple.”
They were merely members of the Hwasan Sect who learned Hwasan’s martial arts. I couldn’t exactly call them my disciples.
“You should know better than anyone. The meaning of the word ‘disciple’ is not so light.”
The benefactor who had shown me the way when I was lost after the Ice Palace collapsed once said: To a martial artist, a disciple is someone who inherits your will and proves that the path you desired was right. If you take in an unworthy person as a disciple, it only proves that your own path was wrong. That was why one must be extremely careful when accepting disciples.
In fact, my benefactor never once called me his disciple until the moment he died. He believed the path I wanted to walk was different from the one he envisioned. Even now, I think that stubborn old man was quite eccentric.
“I know. How could I forget the words my master gave me?”
“...Huh?”
What?
“Master? That old man accepted you as his disciple?”
“Yes. It hasn’t been many years.”
No way. There was no chance that eccentric man would have taken me as his disciple. Weren’t the paths we pursued completely different? Though it didn’t seem like there was that big a difference between the martial arts Baek Hwaryeong and I pursued.
“It’s less that I changed and more that the old man grew softer with age. That stubborn old bastard with his nine lives.”
“Wait. Hold on a second.”
There were far too many words that caught my attention. Every single word Baek Hwaryeong uttered felt like it was stirring up my mind. I looked at her tilting her head in confusion and finally managed to ask.
“Is that old man still alive?”
“He is? He’s probably holed up in some remote mountain, continuing his research into martial arts.”
...Hah. That old man is still alive?