The Qi Arts Master Chapter 4
Salma Squad circled around Tian Ailang and launched their combined assault.
The Salma Squad members simultaneously drew flying knives from their bosoms and hurled them at Tian Ailang's deadly acupoints. At the same time, they pulled daggers strapped to the outside of their thighs and attacked vulnerable spots like the eyes, solar plexus, armpits, heart, and groin—places too tricky to block easily. The attacks seemed varied, even haphazard, but to the defender, they felt like a sticky, lethal quagmire that was hard to fend off. The Wheel Salma Sword Formation was a relentless barrage of such strikes. Divided into first and second lines, the Salma Squad moved as one body, and once the formation fully engaged, it could exhaust even a superior master to death. Occasionally, hidden elite members unleashed sword qi, dooming even absolute peak experts trapped inside. In fact, the famed absolute peak master, the lord of the Cha Tang Sword Sect, had perished to this very Wheel Salma Sword Formation, cementing its fearsome reputation in the martial world.
Tian Ailang read the flow of the wind and swung his hand. The incoming flying knives reversed direction and flew back. He deflected the daggers raining down from above with the back of his hand like water off a duck's back, then leaped into the air.
The Salma Squad members, seeing their own flying knives return with even fiercer momentum, urgently bowed low enough to kiss the ground to dodge them. They accelerated forward and thrust their daggers at the target point. But by the time they recovered, their target had vanished in an instant, halting their movements briefly.
"Above!"
Salma shouted and hurled an incomplete but powerful sword gang at Tian Ailang.
Tian Ailang twisted the air's flow along the sword gang's trajectory with his internal energy, sending the gang slashing harmlessly through empty space with its full ferocity. Salma could never have imagined Tian Ailang blocking his attack like that. Incomplete or not, it was still sword gang—his strongest strike by raw power. Gazing at Tian Ailang's absolute defense, Salma felt an impenetrable wall, as if no attack would get through. A chill ran down his spine, his hairs standing on end—like the dread he'd felt first meeting the sect's guardians or elders. Despite the youthful appearance, an objective thought struck him: this might be a superior warrior. Could they have provoked a rejuvenated ancient monster? If so, he'd talk his way out. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, he spotted orbs of glowing internal energy dropping from Tian Ailang's hands into the midst of his subordinates.
Everything happened in a flash.
A colossal result unfolded before Salma's eyes.
Boom!
The light orbs that fell among his men exploded like bombs with a deafening roar. His clustered subordinates, arrayed for the formation, were shredded into chunks and obliterated in an instant. Salma's mind reeled in cognitive dissonance. Who were they? Himself, ranked in the Demonic Cult's top hundred, and his elite squad—the pinnacle of assassination in the sect, a name that made the entire martial world tremble. But thoughts were fleeting; his body's survival instincts snapped him alert. He rolled desperately across the ground like a donkey—a humiliating move any martial artist despised. Yet it saved him from the mass of internal energy grazing overhead.
"W-Wait! Just a moment!"
Salma cried out urgently at the approaching Tian Ailang.
Tian Ailang tilted his head and paused.
"You have something to say?"
Seeing Tian Ailang respond, Salma crouched low and asked, "Are you perhaps some esteemed elder?"
Tian Ailang shook his head. "No. Now it's my turn to ask."
"P-Please, speak."
Salma was convinced this was some rejuvenated old freak playing games, even if Tian Ailang denied it. Nothing else explained the situation.
"Is the Heavenly Demon from twenty years ago still alive?"
"……?"
Salma blanked for a moment, unable to grasp the meaning, but answered hastily as Tian Ailang drew nearer step by step. "Y-Yes! Yes! Our Lord is doing well."
Seeing Tian Ailang's faint smile at his words, Salma broke into cold sweat. The ground around Tian Ailang rumbled with a grinding groooan, and the very air resonated like a wail. How profound must his internal energy be to cause such phenomena with mere emotion? Tian Ailang, hearing Salma's confirmation, was swept by a bizarre new feeling. His grandfather had told him not to dwell on revenge, to seek happiness and live freely—but no effort could erase his rage toward the Demonic Cult that slaughtered his family. When building his grandfather's grave, he'd dug extra holes equal to the number of Qi Arts household servants from his stories. Though he'd never met them, they had loved and sacrificed for him; this was to honor them too. He'd meditated for days before the hundred pits. One day recalling only his grandfather. One imagining his forgotten parents and the household. One envisioning their massacre by the Demonic Cult. The rest filling the pits to make mounds. As he buried the dirt, he'd entombed his complicated emotions alongside. Departing after settling everything, only his grandfather's dying wish to find happiness—and his personal vow of vengeance against the Demonic Cult—remained.
Yet fate had thrust Demonic Cultists upon him. His first kills carried faint reluctance, but knowing they were Demonic Cult made hesitation vanish. Only a rising thirst to slaughter more. And now, news that the Heavenly Demon—his family's killer—lived, inflamed his emotions further. For the first time since mastering the Immovable Mind through Qi Arts stage four, his feelings stirred. As emotions swirled, his internal energy churned unstably. The rampaging energy shook from lower to upper dantian, triggering alarm.
"Haaah!"
Suddenly, Tian Ailang roared, expelling his internal energy with a shout.
"Kuhk!"
Salma ahead clutched his ears at the lion's roar, blood streaming from them and his mouth.
"Kuhuk!"
Tian Ailang spat blood immediately after.
Grandfather warned me about this—nearly fell into qi deviation.
A great realization from Qi Arts stage four training was the Immovable Mind. Tian Ailang recalled his grandfather's teaching: Out in the world, amid emotional whirlwinds, always guard the Immovable Mind lest you lose yourself. He hadn't understood then, but now it clicked. He'd nearly lost it and tumbled into qi deviation, purging it at the cost of internal injuries.
Slipped away in that instant...
Tian Ailang scanned for traces of the vanished Salma but found no signs—not a whisper of presence or drop of blood. A twinge of regret—he'd wanted Demonic Cult intel from him—but he shook his head to dismiss it.
Suddenly, exhaustion gripped body and mind.
"Ah!"
Only now did Tian Ailang remember the Dam siblings. The thrill of "Demonic Cult" had made him forget; he worried if innocents had died in the fight's aftermath. He found them quickly. Flung by the Rampage Pill's effects, they lay unconscious against a tree stump away from the battlefield. Approaching, he checked—they lived, unharmed.
"Phew..."
Tian Ailang sighed in relief, sat beside them. Amid corpses, he'd wait for them to wake while circulating energy to heal his injuries.
* * *
Tian Ailang escaped Baekdu Mountain guided by the awakened Dam siblings. Ni Daeyeok, more familiar with the terrain, took the lead assertively. By village arrival, night had fallen, so they headed straight to an inn. After Ni Daeyeok ordered hot baths, they washed off the grime and reconvened for dinner. Refreshed faces all around. Their blood- and dirt-caked looks revealed, the waiter serving them rubbed his eyes in disbelief—were these the same ragtag kids he'd shown to rooms?
"Thanks to young hero Tian, we're alive and eating our fill. Haha!"
Ni Daeyeok, who'd tacitly become the group's spokesman, joked to lighten the mood.
"Ugh, is this positivity or just idiocy?"
Dam Soyeon shot him a glare and shook her head.
"But it's not wrong, is it? Our Soyeon must've earned such merit that heaven sent young hero Tian to aid us."
"Aigoo, little bro. Think I'll fall for that? I'll tell Mom everything when we get home—brace yourself!"
"Aaaah... anything but that!"
Ni Daeyeok waved dramatically, drawing a smirk from Dam Soyeon. Tian Ailang watched curiously. Heartwarming. No siblings of his own, it felt novel yet conveyed fraternal bonds—different from his grandfather's familial warmth.
"Aigoo~ Seeing young hero Tian smile again eases this Dam family's worries."
Tian Ailang relaxed at Ni Daeyeok's cheekiness, offering a light smile. Then he said, "Truth is, I have a grudge against the Demonic Cult. That's why I was sorting my thoughts the whole way down."
"I figured. But despite that grudge, you didn't know Salma? He's infamous."
Tian Ailang shook his head. "No idea."
"Really? With such profound arts, must've trained deep in the mountains."
Ni Daeyeok's words evoked Tian Ailang's grandfather.
"Yes. Just grandfather and me. So I'm ignorant of worldly affairs."
Reading the loneliness, Ni Daeyeok asked carefully, "Then... you're out in the world alone now?"
"Yes. He passed recently."
"Ah... My condolences. Sorry for prying."
"It's fine. All things return to nature—that's the way of the world."
Ni Daeyeok pondered deeply whether to ask his next question. He'd mulled it since teaming with Tian Ailang on Baekdu.
"Whew... Young hero Tian. I have something I must ask, but first, may I tell you about us and our clan?"