Heartfelt Discipline
"Gah!"
Struck by the club, Jegal Seo-wol let out a scream and hastily scrambled backward. Even though he had instinctively dropped his chin to minimize the impact, he was certain his eyeballs had nearly popped from their sockets.
"Hey now—already trying to get clever about it?"
Smack!
Do-ha kicked Seo-wol's jaw upward with his foot.
He's definitely something special.
Even in that dazed state after the illusion broke, the boy had still tried to deflect the club as much as possible. That wasn't a skill you acquired through practice—it was an innate sense you either had or didn't.
"You son of a—!"
A low hum of force. A sharp whistle of steel.
Body launched into the air by the kick to his chin, Seo-wol used the rebound at once, spinning to slash with his sword.
"You need to loosen up your body first."
A light catch. A sharp whirl.
Do-ha twisted aside to avoid the blade, seized Seo-wol's ankle midair, and hurled him away.
The technique Seo-wol had just used was the Small Heavenly Star Sword Technique. It was a form the Jegal Clan—whose members tended toward frail physiques—had created with an emphasis on fundamentals: weak in raw power, but designed to be built up step by step.
But that guy's frame is so solid he's just swinging the Small Heavenly Star Sword Technique with pure force.
It wasn't that the technique didn't suit him. His body was simply too exceptional—the sword was moving separately from the form.
"You bastard!"
After tumbling across the ground several times, Seo-wol gripped his sword again and charged.
What a sturdy sandbag.
While beating him, Do-ha had been continuously injecting streams of energy, large and small. Seo-wol's insides ought to have been a wreck by now—but his body was so tough he was simply enduring it.
"Being sturdy is actually convenient."
A quiet motion. A firm press.
The moment Do-ha rolled up his sleeves, Seo-wol instinctively stepped back. Do-ha hadn't released any killing intent, nor infused the club with energy—yet a strangely chilling sensation washed over the boy all the same.
"Come here. Now let's really get hit."
Do-ha tightened his grip on the club. Tendons rose along his forearm.
"P-please... stop..."
Thud!
Seo-wol crumpled.
"Whew. This guy's actually fun to beat up."
Do-ha wiped the sweat from his brow and looked down at Seo-wol writhing on the ground. How long had it been since he'd broken a sweat thrashing someone? The boy's physique was so exceptional that ordinary blows simply wouldn't put him down.
"Urgh..."
"Get up already. You've still got more coming."
Covered in bruises, eyelids swollen shut, Seo-wol trembled as he forced himself to his feet. How many hours had he been taking hits already? He'd rather have died—but whatever that damn man was doing, even after hours of beating, his organs remained unharmed.
Do-ha swung the club experimentally. Once. Twice.
"This is interesting. Should I try experimenting with other methods?"
"...E... experiment?"
"Ah—when I was hitting you, I mixed Heal magic into the club."
Originally he'd planned to beat and heal in turns, but that was cumbersome, so he'd simply blended Heal into the club itself. And surprisingly, it worked rather well.
"If I refine this properly, I might even be able to use it as a pressure-point interrogation technique..."
Normal Heal
A soft, bubbling shimmer of light.
Do-ha swung the club this way and that, dispelled the Heal magic that had been layered on it, and replaced it with the next tier up—Normal Heal.
When he'd used the one-Circle Heal, bruises formed but the organs stayed intact. So what would happen with Normal Heal? Would the bruises mend on the spot?
"Let's have you take hits for about two more hours. I'm curious. After that I'll experiment with Great Heal too, so look forward to it."
Seo-wol said nothing. His pupils trembled at the casually spoken words—not from the shock of being beaten again, but from the fact that this man was casting magic.
"Don't tell me..."
"?"
"Someone this strong, who uses martial arts and magic at the same time..."
The brilliant mind of Jegal Seo-wol arrived at a single name. Across the whole of Belhart, there was only one being capable of that.
"The Absolute Being... Lord Baek Do-ha..."
His idol from years past—the one he had wanted to follow even if only at the tips of his toes. That person was standing right in front of him. The face was different, but this had to be magic, or else a face-changing mask.
Seo-wol dropped to his knees.
"What?"
The sudden prostration left Do-ha nonplussed. The boy had been muttering to himself, then all at once was bowing.
"Absolute One! You're alive!"
"Yeah, I was alive. So get up."
With a quiet gesture, Do-ha dispelled the Illusion magic. He'd figured the kid would catch on eventually. As he'd said before—Jegal Seo-wol had an exceptional mind.
"Just as I thought..."
As the Illusion faded and Do-ha's true face appeared, Seo-wol's eyes began to shine. How devastated he had been more than ten years ago, when word came that the Absolute Being was dead.
"So you remembered me."
"How could I ever forget the Absolute One?"
In his childhood, the Absolute Being had been the only person who truly listened to him. Other adults ignored his words; some even scolded him for talking nonsense. But Do-ha alone had recognized his talent, heard him out—and even put the tactics he devised to use in actual war.
Suppose there existed an extraordinarily capable strategist whose name was unknown. A true historical genius—but if no commander ever employed his plans, what then? Exceptional talent or not, he would simply become another useless body among the ranks. That had been Seo-wol.
He had been certain his tactics would work, yet no one used them. They preferred to ignore him. In a way, he understood. What commander would deploy a strategy presented by a fifteen-year-old child? This hadn't been a mock battle or a training exercise—it was real war. In a situation where corpses piled into mountains, no one could casually trust a child's words and commit to a plan.
But the Absolute One properly read my tactics, recognized their excellence, and used them.
Moreover, until the strategy was executed, Baek Do-ha never said whose plan it was. If the tactics failed and they lost significant forces, the responsibility would have fallen on him. Only after annihilating the Demon God's army did Baek Do-ha publicly announce that the strategy belonged to Jegal Seo-wol. Thanks to that, other sects—and even those within his own clan—finally recognized his brilliance.
"That I could grow this much is entirely thanks to the Absolute One."
"Ah... hearing that, I see I buttoned the first button wrong from the start. I share some of the blame."
If only he hadn't announced who created the strategy back then. Even if he'd been criticized for hogging the credit, this child might never have gone astray. From the age of fifteen, everyone treated him as something precious—and eventually he started going off the rails.
"Pardon?"
When Do-ha let out a deep sigh, Seo-wol tilted his head. What was he talking about all of a sudden? His fault?
"Right. Since I messed up, I should be the one to fix it."
Do-ha's grip tightened on the club.
"Uh... why are you grabbing the club again..."
As Do-ha approached with the weapon firmly in hand, Seo-wol stepped backward. Hadn't the atmosphere been warm just a moment ago? Why did it look like he was about to start clubbing again?
"Until now I was just hitting you thoughtlessly. From now on, I'll put my heartfelt sincerity into every single blow."
"Th-that... you could just not hit me..."
"Let's meet again as new people."
A rush of air. A solid crack.
In the end, Do-ha began the clubbing with sad eyes.
"..."
"You said to take him away, but deep down you're still worried, aren't you?"
It had already been two days since Baek Do-ha took Jegal Seo-wol. As Jegal Myeong stood motionless in front of the clan building, Dokgo Man—sitting on the ground—snorted a laugh. No matter how wild Seo-wol was, a child was still a child, was that it? The man had been standing out here for two full days.
"That's not it."
Jegal Myeong shook his head at Dokgo Man's words. What he was worried about wasn't Jegal Seo-wol. It was the Absolute Being, Baek Do-ha.
He remembered what Do-ha had been like in his prime, decades ago. If anyone picked a fight, he never let it slide. He even went around thrashing Immortals, didn't he? So Jegal Myeong was worried that if Seo-wol kept cursing, Baek Do-ha might lose his temper. In the worst case—if the Absolute Being's eyes truly rolled back in rage—the entire Hubei Province could be wiped off the map. That wasn't hyperbole. He meant it sincerely.
"At least Senior Namgung Je-u, the Absolute One's friend, is Alliance Leader, so he could restrain him to some degree... but if the Absolute Being truly becomes enraged, no one can stop him."
"I-is it that serious?"
Dokgo Man stammered. He had obtained information about the Absolute Being's achievements, but the age gap meant he had never personally witnessed those days of activity.
"Did you know? About thirty years ago, half of Xinjiang disappeared."
"Ah, I've heard of it. Don't tell me..."
"Yes. The Absolute Being blew it away."
At the time, the Blood Cult had nested in Xinjiang—and those lunatics had turned even children into corpses and hung them along the streets. Seeing that, Baek Do-ha's eyes truly rolled back. He combed through the vast expanse of Xinjiang like a man searching for lice, hunting for the Blood Cult. But they hid so thoroughly that even the Absolute Being couldn't find them for over a month.
"Do you know what he did then?"
"?"
"He simply blew up every area where the Blood Cult might be."
"..."
"Every time the Absolute Being's lightning fell, trees and buildings turned to ash and scattered on the wind, and his qi arts sent the ground surging into the sky."
Because of that, an unwritten rule arose in the Moorim: never, ever anger Baek Do-ha—lest his wrath come crashing down.
"But Xinjiang exists now, doesn't it?"
"The Immortals restored it."
The Kunlun Sect was based in Qinghai, and they begged so desperately that the Immortals personally descended to the middle realm. How terrifying must it have been? Right next door, an enraged Baek Do-ha was flipping the land upside down. Fearing the damage might reach Qinghai, the Kunlun Sect kept submitting petitions to Kunlun in the Seon-gye—and only after Baek Do-ha finally stopped could they come down.
"But the people living there..."
Xinjiang being the widest region in the Central Plains, many people lived there. And hadn't he just said even the buildings were blown away?
"Depnius the Dragon—who was the Absolute Being's friend at the time—had teleported all the people to safety beforehand."
"Ahh."
Then—
A long whoosh cut through the air. From far off in the sky, Do-ha came flying in.
He landed lightly.
"Lord Baek Do-ha!"
Jegal Myeong hurried forward. Worried the man might be angry, he kept his eyes wide open, carefully reading every line of Do-ha's expression as he approached.
"Why are you all outside?"
Do-ha looked at Jegal Myeong and Dokgo Man and tilted his head. The Beggars' Sect branch leader being out on the street made sense—he was a beggar—but why was Jegal Myeong standing out here?
"Um... about Seo-wol..."
"As expected. You're a father after all."
"That's not—"
"Here he comes."
"?"
At Do-ha's words, Jegal Myeong looked past him. Do-ha had flown in alone, so where was Seo-wol? Had he ordered the boy to run?
"What is that..."
Dokgo Man, who had been watching quietly, dropped his jaw. From far away, something enormous was waddling closer and closer.
"Lord Do-ha—what on earth is Seo-wol carrying...?"
"That? A giant rock I carved."
Jegal Seo-wol, holding a massive stone fully ten meters in diameter, was breathing in ragged gasps as he staggered forward.