The Heavenly Demon Visits Her Master (3)
The woman dressed in fluttering heavenly robes slammed her tail against the ground, inspecting the formation. As time passed, the intensity of the attacks grew steadily stronger. The opponent was breaking through the array faster than she could analyze the assaults and reconstruct it.
“You just have to block it well, don’t you?”
When the old man who had been watching from the side offered a pointed remark, the woman’s eyes snapped open wide.
“Everyone knows attacking is supposed to be easier!”
“I know that too. But if your skill were truly superior, there wouldn’t be any problem at all.”
“If I had that kind of skill, would I be clinging to your pant leg like this?!”
The woman shrieked, and the old man let out a soft chuckle. It was exactly the reaction he had been waiting for. The thoroughly enraged woman huffed and puffed to herself for a moment before catching sight of the old man’s relaxed expression and whipping her head away.
“Shut up. If I make a mistake and the formation breaks, you’ll be the one dealing with everything, you know?!”
This time the old man offered no reply to her outburst. He could not say with certainty that he could handle all the enemies now swarming toward them.
The pathetic fools who had previously wandered the mountain performing strange rituals were manageable. No matter how many of them gathered, their inherent trashiness never changed, so cutting off their heads was not particularly difficult. The jiangshi they commanded were the same. Jiangshi with infinite internal energy and lifeforce were certainly troublesome opponents, but since the martial arts they used were utterly worthless, they were merely annoying. Once he realized that simply severing all their limbs was enough, they became opponents he could handle without issue.
But their leader was different. Even for the old man, the one who called himself the Hyeolgyoju was an existence he could not confidently declare he could defeat. Was the level of his enlightenment high? By the standards of the entire Murim it was certainly quite high, but that was all. If it were merely a matter of enlightenment, the old man would not have hesitated.
Then was the Asura Dual Extremes that the Hyeolgyoju possessed an unparalleled divine art no one could withstand? No. That was not the case. The Heavenly Demon Divine Art the old man wielded was a supreme art among supreme arts, lacking nothing when compared to any other martial art in the world. No matter how great the Asura Dual Extremes might be, the old man could handle it sufficiently.
So what made the old man hesitate?
It was the internal energy possessed by the Hyeolgyoju.
The jiangshi possessed infinite internal energy, but they could not fully control it all. No matter how much water falls from the sky, if the lake meant to receive it is too small, it will simply overflow and disappear. The lakes of the jiangshi were far too small, so they lost far more than they gained.
But the Hyeolgyoju was different. What he possessed was too vast to be called a lake. In it, the old man saw an ocean. An ocean so enormous that even attempting to measure its size felt disrespectful. The Hyeolgyoju himself seemed to have only recently obtained that sea, for his handling of the spray was still clumsy, but that posed no problem. Even a giant casually splashing in the water would bring a threat of death to the tiny creatures living below.
Could the divine art I possess split that ocean?
The old man could not say with certainty. That was why, had he been alone, he would have gone to test his martial arts without the slightest hesitation. He would have stepped forward while imagining the sight of everything he had built until now cleaving that sea apart. After all, he too was a warrior who practiced the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
But the old man could not do that.
Because of one damn lizard who had come crawling to him just days ago, weeping and begging to be spared. Everything had gone wrong because of that.
The old man thought of the warrior who must be watching him from beyond that formation and let out a hollow laugh. To think that taking in one damn brat in the past would leave him this weak. If he had known it would come to this, he should have abandoned her whether she practiced the same divine art or not.
“No. No. No. Don’t do this.”
While the old man was muttering to himself, the woman suddenly cried out in a high, urgent voice.
“Damn it! How can a mere human possess so much energy?! What should I do?! How can I fix this? How…?”
It seemed the fellow who had been casually splashing in his own sea until now had finally begun to raise real waves in earnest. Why? He had appeared to be enjoying this standoff in his own way. Had something urgent come up? The exact reason was known only to the opponent, but guessing the result of that whim was not difficult.
The old man grabbed the woman’s shoulder and spoke.
“Lizard.”
“What?! I’m busy right now!”
“Run. I’ll buy you time.”
The old man spoke without the slightest hesitation. Swinging his fist toward that ocean was something he had longed to do from the very beginning. The conclusion he had postponed because of the lizard who called herself a divine spirit was finally arriving. What reason was there to hesitate?
“Can you really win against that damn monster?!”
“I don’t know.”
“But…”
“Is there any other way?”
Those who wish to live will live. Those who wish to die will die. Wasn’t that enough? In any case, he was a man who should have died several years ago. Originally, he should have given his all against the leader of the Murim Alliance, ultimately failing to surpass him and meeting his end. He could simply think that moment had finally arrived. The book that had dragged on without a proper period was now being given another chance to place its final mark.
“What a touching story.”
The polite tone that somehow sounded like mockery made the old man turn his head. There stood the Hyeolgyoju, right in front of the formation.
“Already?! The formation is still…”
“Why would I destroy it all? It’s much easier to make just one hole and come through.”
“That’s impossible. Then why until now…”
“Why? Because the spells used by a divine spirit are all outstanding, of course. I analyzed them, broke through them, and raised my own skill. Your spells were quite interesting too. If lightning hadn’t fallen from the sky, I wouldn’t have resorted to such crude methods.”
At the revelation that he had been treated like nothing more than a textbook, the woman collapsed to the ground in utter despair. The old man glanced at her, then lifted her with one hand.
“You. What are you—”
“Go.”
And with that, he hurled her far beyond the mountain slope. It was a violent act that would have killed an ordinary person, but the old man paid it no mind. She was the one who called herself the divine spirit of this mountain. There was no way she would die from something like that.
“Even so, she won’t get far.”
“It’s just buying time.”
When the Hyeolgyoju ran his hand along the wall created by Taoist magic infused with cold energy, the wall that could not withstand the chill crumbled away, and the final line of the formation vanished. The Hyeolgyoju’s gaze met the old man’s in a straight line.
“I’ll ask one more time. Are you truly not interested in joining the Blood Sect? I could grant you even greater power and a higher realm.”
“Power? Realm? Not bad.”
Even as he spoke words that seemed like agreement, the old man drew up the internal energy within his body and took a stance. The Hyeolgyoju looked at him and asked calmly.
“It seems our thoughts differ.”
“Indeed. Because that wouldn’t be my power, would it?”
The old man had once belonged to the Divine Cult. As such, he did not believe there was any right or wrong in the pursuit of power. Nevertheless, he rejected the Hyeolgyoju’s offer because he did not believe the power being offered would truly become his own. How could power that could be taken away the moment the Hyeolgyoju changed his mind be called the old man’s power?
When the old man smiled as he spoke, the Hyeolgyoju smiled back.
“Come, then.”
The old man did not refuse the invitation. Enveloping his entire body with the ferocious internal energy of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, he thrust his fist toward the Hyeolgyoju’s dantian. His movement could only be called the ideal of all fist warriors. The single strike that erupted the moment his foot stamped the ground was flawless and clean. In a word, his fist was perfection itself.
In response, the Hyeolgyoju wrapped energy around his hands. In his right hand burned scorching Yang energy like the flames of hell that consumed sinners. In his left hand gathered Yin energy cold enough to freeze even the Ice Palace. The two energies that should never have been able to coexist gathered around the Hyeolgyoju and transformed into a pure white energy even brighter than snow, settling into his palms.
The moment fist and palm collided, the one pushed back was the old man. Realizing his own energy was being overwhelmed, he hurriedly retreated. If he had struggled even a little longer in that contest of strength, he would have been devoured by that energy.
Troublesome.
Watching the old man grit his teeth, the Hyeolgyoju shrugged.
“Is this all? I’m terribly disappointed compared to that person. It seems there truly is a difference in class even when using the same martial art.”
It was a remark clearly meant to scratch the old man’s pride, but the old man did not waver in the slightest. He had long since accepted that his time had passed.
“Have you fought Hwaryeong?”
“Hwaryeong? You mean the Heavenly Demon? No. I would like to meet her, but we have not yet encountered each other.”
“Huh?”
At the unexpected answer, the old man momentarily forgot that an enemy stood before him. What nonsense was this fellow spouting? Who else on this land had reached the pinnacle of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art besides Hwaryeong?
“Oh dear. It seems we cannot continue this conversation. A calamity is approaching, so I must hasten.”
“What nonsense are you babbling?”
“It is nothing you need to know.”
The Hyeolgyoju showed the old man that what he had thought were waves had merely been splashing. Amid the countless palms pouring down like a raging storm, all the old man could do was endure. It was not defense. The word “defense” could only be used when one was capable of protecting oneself from the opponent’s attacks. The old man, carving away his own flesh to buy time, was not defending against the opponent’s attacks. He was simply stalling.
The strange energy of the Asura Dual Extremes gradually eroded the old man’s body. Sensation vanished from the hand that had made direct contact. The movement of his arm grew sluggish. Even protecting his body with the internal energy of his divine art became difficult. Slowly. Ever so slowly. The ocean called the Hyeolgyoju was eroding the land called the old man.
The old man instinctively realized it. He would die here. In that case, at the very least, let me witness the end of the martial arts I can unfold.
To the old man, the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was the sky itself. No matter what events unfolded, no matter how the rain and wind raged, no matter how the storms passed, no matter if night came and morning followed, it remained perfect in its unchanging form. That was why the old man had always pursued perfection. No matter what moment arrived, he had striven to become the perfection that looked down upon everything from above with lofty dignity.
Right now the Hyeolgyoju stood higher, pushing him back, but if he erupted his true energy and forcibly raised his own sky—
“Old man. If you’ve grown old, shouldn’t you know when to rest in the back?”
The moment the old man resolved himself for death, someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.
…Who?
The old man had sensed no presence, nothing at all. He had thought there was nothing. So how could there be a person behind him?
The old man watched a figure in black pass him and step forward. He saw the energy of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art surging around her body. And he saw the domineering path held in her hand.
The sky was there.