Father and Son (2)
Crimson light bled out across his entire body as it surged toward Jin Yigang. It was the phenomenon that appeared when he drove his demonic art, the Blood Heaven Ten-Thousand Demons Skill, to its extreme. The red glow that radiated from that technique was known as Blood Sea Gang — a blade of hardened force that tore flesh apart at the barest graze. And the Blood Heaven Ten-Thousand Demons Skill was no lesser art, either; it held a place among the Ten Great Demonic Techniques of the Cult.
Wham!
Jin Yigang charged straight at Maya.
It was Maya who struck first. He hurled a fist at the oncoming Jin Yigang, and a sunset-colored light shot toward him in a straight line — a fist-gang packed with enormous force.
Jin Yigang twisted his body at a cunning angle, letting the fist-gang slide past as he closed the distance.
Soon the two men collided. Unlike Hyeolsu's hands, which had turned blood-red as if dipped straight out of gore, Maya's hands looked no different from an ordinary man's. Only the fist-gang and palm-force that poured from them were red. Jin Yigang shifted and dodged again, and Maya's fists came faster and harder each time.
At some point, Jin Yigang reached the point where he could dodge no longer.
BOOM!
Their fists met.
SKREEECH!
The rebound from the collision spread outward, carving a wall of compressed air between them.
"Gah!"
With a scream, Jin Yigang was driven backward in a long slide. A deep furrow gouged itself into the earth before him. Having retreated a full jang, he turned and charged at Maya again.
His speed was no different from the first time.
BOOM!
This time it was his left hand that met the blow.
"Kugh!"
Jin Yigang cried out and was thrown back once more. Again the distance was exactly one jang, and again a deep furrow marked his passage.
He drove forward with hands and feet together, hurling himself at Maya, who met him with another fist.
"Chah!"
Jin Yigang's fist shot out with a battle cry.
BOOM!
SKREEECH!
His body was flung backward, leaving another deep furrow in the ground.
After being knocked back some twenty times, Jin Yigang stopped for the first time instead of charging straight back in. Blood was trickling steadily from the corner of his mouth.
"Your insides must be completely wrecked by now."
That was exactly why Maya had kept using the same attack. Every strike sent a shockwave hammering into the body's interior, become internal injury upon internal injury. At first, the victim doesn't even realize he's been wounded. Then, once enough time passes, his strength gives out and he collapses. That was the true terror of the Blood Heaven Ten-Thousand Demons Skill.
"Feeling confident?"
Jin Yigang walked toward Maya. This time, he didn't run. He walked.
"…"
"You're older than Hyeolsu, aren't you?"
"Hyeolsu?"
"Your punches are softer than Hyeolsu's, you bastard. Oh, right! That old coot should be at the gates of the underworld by now."
"You… killed Hyeolsu?"
"If you don't want to follow him down there, you'd better actually put some strength into it."
"Then I shall, whelp!"
Maya charged at Jin Yigang, fist blazing.
"You had strength to spare all along, you son of a bitch? Should've done that from the start."
A half-beat late, Jin Yigang's own fist shot out.
"Ugh!"
"Ack!"
Cries of disbelief spilled from the lips of Na Hujeok's party as they watched the fight.
Jin Yigang's defense this time was different. He hadn't blocked Maya's fist head-on. His own fist was aimed at Maya's torso.
THUD!
Maya's fist slammed into Jin Yigang's body first.
THUD!
Jin Yigang's fist hammered into Maya's body a heartbeat later. They were striking each other in exactly the same way — but the man who took the hit first couldn't hit as hard.
"Ugh!"
With a cry, Jin Yigang leaned his upper body in and threw his left fist.
THUD! THUD!
Their fists cracked against each other's bodies. Jin Yigang was still a beat late, and his screams kept spilling out.
"Something's strange here."
Nang Baek tilted his head.
"What do you mean?"
Na Hujeok asked.
"He did the same thing against Hyeolsu."
"Did what, exactly?"
"Let himself get beaten like a madman."
"You mean he wasn't beating like a madman — he was getting beaten?"
"Yeah."
Nang Baek nodded.
"Getting beaten like a madman… don't tell me — the Ten Thousand Strikes…"
"Gaejeong Daebop?"
Na Hujeok and Nang Baek shouted at the same time.
"You knew too?"
"You knew too?"
The two men spoke simultaneously, staring at each other.
"Somebody fill me in here."
Umun Heo said.
"Did you know that boy has two separate reservoirs of internal energy?"
Na Hujeok asked.
"Besides the one he received from the dagger?"
Umun Heo shot back.
"The other energy the boy carries comes from the Shadowless Demon Shackles."
"The Shadowless Demon Shackles?"
"Most people think of them as nothing more than a pair of manacles, but that's not all they are."
"What are you talking about?"
"The Shadowless Demon Shackles aren't a glove you can put on and take off. Once you wear them, you wear them until the day you die. Because they share a single fate with the wearer's internal energy."
"A shared fate, you say…"
"Meaning the shackles and the internal energy cannot be separated. Handing over the shackles means transferring the energy along with them."
"So the boy absorbed his predecessor's entire internal energy when the shackles passed to him?"
"That's right. And on top of that energy, he recently took in the dagger's as well…"
"So he's carrying a monstrous well of internal power inside him."
"The problem is that none of it has been activated."
"That would explain it — his dantian was never developed in the first place."
"Which is why he stored all of it in his blood channel. Whatever energy came with the shackles must be stored there too. The problem is that it's dormant — unusable. And the finest way to break that congealed mess apart is the Manta Gaejeong Daebop."
THUD! THUD! THUD-THUD!
Jin Yigang and Maya began trading punches in earnest. Jin Yigang was always a beat late — but not once did his fist fail to extend.
"What in the world is wrong with that boy…"
Umun Heo couldn't hide his bewilderment.
Of course, the Manta Gaejeong Daebop was something Jin Yigang could perform. No — it was something he had to perform if he ever wanted to unclot that lump of internal energy. The problem was the method. Rather than anyone else, he was surrendering his body to fists swung with the intent to kill him, unspooling the Great Art on the end of every blow.
It was something no sane man could do. No — even a madman wouldn't go this far.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"He's doing it."
Na Hujeok nodded.
At first he'd been only half-sure. But as time passed, the truth grew undeniable: Jin Yigang was receiving the Manta Gaejeong Daebop against Maya.
If he had simply been pummeled — not receiving the Great Art — he should have collapsed long ago, his whole body drained of strength. Instead, Jin Yigang's movements were getting faster. Until moments ago his hands had lagged a single beat; now they moved in unison. Both fists buried themselves in each other's torsos at the same instant.
"Krrgh!"
"Gahk!"
BOOM! BOOM!
"Ugh!"
"Kch!"
BOOM! BOOM!
Their fists tore through the air at terrifying speed and cracked against every part of each other's bodies, never stopping. Noses burst. Blood poured from mouths in steady streams.
"Krrrgh!"
"Kahk!"
THUD! THUD-THUD-THUD! THUD-THUD-THUD!
"GRAAAAH!"
"Kgh!"
As more time passed, even their screams began to differ. Maya's cries grew long and ragged with pain, while Jin Yigang's stayed short and clipped — more like battle cries than screams.
And then another shikyeong slipped past.
"Good heavens!"
Na Hujeok's party stood gaping.
Maya was being pushed back. At first he had retreated to defend and counterattack; now he was retreating because he was being hit. No — he was being driven.
The tide had turned, completely, from where it had begun. And Jin Yigang attacked with the same method as ever.
Almost nothing had changed.
No — one thing had. His fists had gotten faster.
BOOM!
"Gahk!"
BOOM!
"Kraagh!"
BOOM!
"Gahk!"
Maya screamed again and again.
'Impossible. How… how…'
He had racked his brain for every way to turn the situation around, but here, now, there was nothing left to do.
'I should never have fought him with fists alone.'
There were hundreds of ways to kill the boy that had nothing to do with fists. Yet he had cast every one of them aside and chosen to fight with fists alone. The fist had been the surest way to destroy him — and in the end, choosing the fist was the very reason he was losing.
'But still…'
Maya wrung out the last of his strength.
"I still have some fight left in me!"
He threw his fist with everything he had.
THUD! BOOM!
"GRAAAAAGH!"
"Gahk!"
The two men collapsed together in a heap.
It was the end of a long, long fight.
Na Hujeok's party walked over to where Maya and Jin Yigang lay. The first to open his eyes was Maya.
"Tch!"
Na Hujeok clicked his tongue.
"I regret nothing."
Maya said.
"I'm sure."
"Go on ahead. Wait for me there."
"Better not bother waiting."
The Demon Venerable set his foot on Maya's face.
"Because if we meet down there, this time I'll kill you for good."
Na Hujeok drove his foot down.
CRACK!
Maya's head burst like a smashed watermelon.
Having crushed Maya's skull, Na Hujeok lifted Jin Yigang onto his back.
The party moved to a new location at once.
Before long, Gung Yo and Mu Daebo arrived, along with Yu Bongji and Si Muyeong. Gung Yo led the way at the front since she knew the road; Na Hujeok, with Jin Yigang on his back, trailed at the very rear.
"Feel better now?"
Na Hujeok asked.
"How'd you know I was taking those hits on purpose?"
"Because if you weren't, no man alive would do something that insane."
"Well… turns out life doesn't reward everything you pour your life into."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean it's not effort that decides whether you succeed. It's luck. No matter how hard you try, if luck doesn't come, you fail. And then someone always says the same thing. It's not that you had no luck — you just didn't try hard enough. …No. In this world, there are people who never tried. But there's no such thing as someone who didn't try hard enough. A person who tries pours out everything they possibly can. They stake their life on it. And when they fail anyway, all you can call it is bad luck. Which means it's not effort that decides success or failure. It's luck. But you can't just sit on your hands because luck decides everything. You have to do something. Effort — so that when luck comes, you can grab it. That's what my father and I did. My father bowed at the Divine Martial Gate a thousand times a day, folding his waist like he was doing it ten thousand times over, praying for his son. And the son read his books a thousand times a day. And I passed first in the land. Top marks in every single examination. I thought the suffering was finally over. My father would never have to bow again. And then all of it ended as a dream. The day we were to depart for the palace, the world turned upside down. Twenty years of my father's life and twenty years of mine evaporated like foam on water. Start over in a new world? That's a fantasy. My father took to clutching a bottle steeped in despair, and I took to clutching a duel tube of poison. And still we didn't die. Life only got more stubborn, and the pit of despair and failure only got deeper. So the next time around, the son became a poison-taster and the father added gambling to his drinking. Two people without even the courage to die, swallowing poison and drinking and gambling all in the hopes that someone else's hand would finish the job. But we didn't die. So tell me — that father and son, that luck of theirs… is it good luck, or is it bad?"