Chapter 254 - Yesterday Feels Like Today

I decided to take the Wicked Laughing Demon's advice to heart.

Take a step back from the Secret Art of Heavenly Time.

Of course, it wasn't as easy as he made it sound. We were martial artists, people who had always charged forward.

My first choice was to spend less time training in the Secret Art of Heavenly Time and devote that time to the Nine Calamities Demonic Art instead.

Right. This was no time to concern myself with another martial art.

With that mindset, I focused on the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

Honestly, if not for the Secret Art of Heavenly Time, I would have wanted to spend all day learning the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

It was a truly abstruse, advanced martial art, and its very difficulty gave it an irresistible allure.

Even its mental cultivation method was beyond comparison with other arts. The internal energy it accumulated through practice was far greater than that of my previous method.

Had Father been there, I would certainly have teased him:

"So you've been keeping this wonderful martial art all to yourself!"

I became absorbed in training in the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

For now, rather than practicing its moves, I worked to make my body completely accustomed to its breathing method. Even that alone was enjoyable.

Of course, that didn't mean I had lost all interest in the Secret Art of Heavenly Time. The more I learned of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art, the more I realized I needed it.

And I realized something else.

Reducing my training time wasn't the answer to taking a step back.

This approach was wrong.

* * *

When I arrived at the Blood Heaven Saber Demon's residence in the Southern Saber Sect, he was reading.

I stood some distance away and watched him.

Strangely, seeing him sitting by the window with a book always calmed me. I wanted to read but rarely managed much of it. Was I perhaps enjoying it vicariously?

Just then, his voice reached me through sound transmission.

"Stop spying and come here."

"You can send your voice quite a distance. Don't tell me you can use the Thousand-Li Sound Transmission Art, too?"

"You're one to talk!"

I walked over to him.

"Aren't you busy? I've never seen a young lord with so much time on his hands."

"I am busy."

"Then?"

"However busy I am, isn't this where I belong? Right beside you, Elder!"

I rested an arm on the windowsill and leaned against it.

"To be honest, I've had plenty of free time lately."

"As young lord, you should find work to do."

"No, thank you. Sooner or later, everything will come pouring in at once. I'll rest while I can."

"Then go rest. Why come here?"

"Because I'm most at ease when I'm with you, Elder. I've come to rest."

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon shook his head, but he was clearly pleased to see me.

As I entered the room, I indulged in a little needless banter.

"Ah, wonderful! How do you still smell so nice at your age?"

"You don't need to bait a fish you've already caught."

"I'm serious. It's not flattery."

I looked over the books on his shelves, making a mental note of those that seemed interesting. I planned to buy them later and put them on my own shelves. If I bought them, surely I'd read them someday.

"Have you read all these books?"

"Unlike someone I know, I don't buy them for decoration."

"Someone once said that reading begins with buying the book."

"You enjoy seeing books on your shelves more than reading them, don't you?"

"I'll read them all someday! I'll read more than you have, Elder."

"Do you think these are all I've read?"

Startled, I looked at him.

"But you're a Demon Supreme! What am I to do if I open your secret storeroom and find books piled where weapons and elixirs ought to be?"

"I'll try blocking an incoming sword with a book."

At first, it had seemed so incongruous. Now a book suited him better than the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber.

"There's freshly brewed tea over there. Have some if you want."

"I was just longing for a cup."

I sat at the tea table and drank.

"It's the same tea, so why does it taste better when you brew it, Elder?"

"Because you enjoy making an old man work for you."

Pretending not to hear, I ran my hand over the tea table.

"I should put an identical table in my room."

Then he abruptly asked,

"Something troubling you?"

He really did know me better than anyone. Turning my teacup in my hands, I asked him,

"Have you ever taken a step back?"

His gaze moved from his book to me.

"From what?"

"From what you wanted most."

He seemed to consider what I meant for a moment, then answered firmly.

"Never."

His expression seemed to declare that he had only ever moved straight ahead in life.

Of course, anyone who didn't know him would see him that way. That stubborn old man hardly looked like someone who would yield.

But he had already taken several steps back.

By accepting me.

I was the one who had charged forward. To open the door to his heart, I had advanced straight toward him, and he had stepped back to make room for me.

Had he only charged toward me as well, our relationship would have been quite different.

"Why ask that all of a sudden?"

"I was wondering how to take just one step back."

Having weathered every kind of hardship, he would probably understand what I meant.

"Have you ever read a book called How to Take Just One Step Back, or something like that?"

"How could such a book exist?"

His gaze started to return to his book, then swung back to me. He was curious after all.

"If a clever child like you is struggling with it, whatever it is must be extraordinary."

"It's a martial art."

He would think I meant the Nine Calamities Demonic Art, since this concern had arisen after I became young lord.

"But why are you trying to step back?"

"It's so complex and difficult that I've hit a wall. I want to look at it from a little distance. I also wonder if wanting it too desperately is actually keeping me from making progress."

"Could it be that you don't want it desperately enough?"

"I doubt that's it. If there's one thing I'm confident in, it's my willingness to work hard."

After a pause, he asked,

"But trying to step away from that art to find a way forward like this... aren't you actually drawing closer to it?"

"!"

An insight flashed through my mind.

Unable to contain myself, I sprang to my feet.

"You're right! I wasn't stepping back. I was clinging to it even more fiercely."

I rushed toward him.

"If I'm going to cling to anyone, it should be you! Elder!"

"Stay away! You're making my skin crawl!"

Using object manipulation through the air, he pushed me back and seated me at the tea table again.

Then, deliberately deepening his voice, he said,

"Young lord, please preserve your dignity."

I noisily slurped down the rest of my tea and answered,

"No, I'll shed even more of it. I've found my answer."

* * *

"The prodigal son returns! I'm back with the group!"

The three members of the Late-Night Training Group stared at me.

I'd been too busy to attend for some time, only to show up out of the blue today.

Yi An said,

"You're still going to join our late-night gatherings even after becoming young lord?"

"Yes. I'll keep coming even when I'm cult leader."

"We wouldn't like that."

Thanks to the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, I had realized something.

To take a step back from the Secret Art of Heavenly Time, I had cut down my training hours and worked to find other approaches.

Now my conclusion was simply to live as I had before.

As I had before learning the Nine Calamities Demonic Art or the Secret Art of Heavenly Time.

I had trained hard back then, too. The difference was that training hadn't weighed on me. I had thrown myself into encounters with the Demon Supremes and made use of every spare moment to practice. It was simply something I did, without the pressure of having to achieve a particular goal by a particular deadline.

And throughout that process, I had continued to grow stronger and improve.

I needed to step back. Not from martial arts, but from the burden and the impatience. To let the achievement come one day as I busied myself with life, just as before.

"It's been a while. Please give me your guidance."

As though determined to do this properly, the Fist Demon stripped off his shirt. That fearsome face and perfectly muscled body—it had been a long time since I'd seen them.

I took off my shirt, too. Compared to him, my hands and body were a baby's.

I felt guilty toward him for neglecting my fist training lately, after pestering him so insistently to take me as his disciple.

I performed the Thunderbolt Asura Fist alongside him. Ordinarily, my worries over the Secret Art of Heavenly Time would have kept me from even considering practicing his art.

Yi An and Cheon Sohui also devoted themselves to training beside us. Yi An's skills had improved yet again. Even this brief glimpse was enough to show how hard she had been working.

When our eyes briefly met as she performed a move, I smiled at her. She returned a faint smile.

Cheon Sohui looked at the Fist Demon with an expression that said, Did you see them rubbing it in a single woman's face just now, Lord Fist Demon? Then she flinched in surprise at herself. She was startled to have communicated such a thought so unconsciously to the intimidating Fist Demon.

He continued training as though he hadn't noticed.

Then, as we practiced—

KRRR-BOOM!

Thunder rang out from the fist I thrust forward.

Not only I, but Yi An and Cheon Sohui practicing beside me, were startled.

"Was that sound from me?"

"Yes. It came from your fist."

Everyone was surprised, but I was the most surprised of all.

"How did that happen? To be honest, I've neglected my fist arts lately. Today is my first time practicing them in a while. Why on earth did they produce thunder?"

The Fist Demon gave me a look that said, How should I know? Then he silently resumed his training.

Had I grown stronger in the meantime? Or was it because I had unknowingly taken a step back from my fist arts?

One thing was certain.

After I began learning the Nine Calamities Demonic Art, my martial arts had begun to undergo upheaval.

KRRRR-BOOM!

This time, thunder sounded from the Fist Demon's fist. It was louder than the thunder from mine.

"Wait, why are you making that sound now, when you never did before? You never made it during training!"

He continued practicing, pretending not to hear my protest.

"Why do it on the very day I make thunder for the first time? Don't tell me you're jeal—"

KRRR-BOOM!

His thunder drowned out my words.

"This is going too fa—"

KRRRRRR-BOOM!

* * *

I was heading home, my body exhausted, when someone suddenly came to mind and I changed course.

Someone who would probably still be awake at this late hour. Sure enough, he was.

"What are the stars telling you, Brother?"

The Drunken Demon, gazing up at the night sky from a boat floating on the lake, answered,

"They're saying, 'You've got the easiest life in all Murim!'"

He turned toward me with a welcoming smile.

"You're here?"

From the lakeshore, I used the water-walking art to cross the water in one swift movement and land on the boat.

"Now you're showing off your skills as much as you please."

On the day I was chosen as successor, I had displayed my qi presence before all the demonic martial artists. Now that I was young lord, there was no reason to hide my skills.

"I've never been the type to hide them. I like stepping forward and drawing attention."

"Actually, so do I."

"Why else would we call each other brothers? Let's go make a splash in the Central Plains sometime!"

"I know plenty of good places. Let's go!"

Surely he couldn't know as many as I did. We ought to share a drink somewhere with fine wine and beautiful scenery.

We filled each other's cups to the brim.

"Congratulations on becoming young lord."

"Your help made a big difference, Brother. Thank you."

"The fifth-biggest difference, perhaps?"

"You're drunk, Brother. You're putting yourself down again."

We toasted and emptied our cups.

"Ah, that's good!"

"Exactly! You're the one to drink with, Brother."

It felt wonderful to share a drink with him after so long.

We talked about this and that, taking turns pouring drinks.

I also told him freely about my struggle with the bottleneck in my martial training.

His solution was typical of the Drunken Demon.

"Drink! The answer is in the wine. Get drunk, and everything will work itself out."

"You really do have the easiest life in the world, Brother."

"Drink. Wine holds life, the martial world—everything."

We drank some more. Drinking with the Drunken Demon again after so long, the wine went down like water.

He talked about everything under the sun. He gossiped about the Demon Supremes, spoke of women he'd met in his youth, and discussed martial arts.

He might seem to let his tongue run wild when drunk, but he never crossed the line. That was why I always thought his mistakes came when he was sober.

SPLASH!

Eventually, the Drunken Demon jumped into the water, and I jumped in with him.

After swimming here and there around the lake, we floated on our backs and looked up at the night sky.

"It's still lovely here."

"When I idle away my time here like an immortal, it feels as though time has stopped. A watch ago feels like now, and now feels like a watch from now. Yesterday feels like today, and today feels like tomorrow."

Brother. That time is what I need to stop.

Perhaps because he had mentioned time, the Secret Art of Heavenly Time came to mind.

The meridians within my body appeared in my imagination, superimposed upon the night sky. I had tried all sorts of methods so far. Sending true qi from this meridian to that one, then from here along another route. There were still so many possibilities left to test.

'Stop. Why think about that at a wonderful moment like this?'

I was spending time with the Drunken Demon precisely to take a step back from the Secret Art of Heavenly Time.

SPLASH!

I dove beneath the water again.

But a moment later, I lifted my head back above the surface.

Once more, I imagined my meridians superimposed upon the stars.

Not here, and not there. Where had it been just now?

Then I found a spot where the meridians I envisioned aligned perfectly with the stars.

'Found it!'

A shiver ran through my whole body.

Was it mere coincidence? Or...?

What if I circulated my true qi in the sequence of those constellations? It felt as though something might come of it.

Could the Secret Art of Heavenly Time have been created by studying the constellations?

"Brother!"

"What is it?"

"I think I've solved the problem I told you about."

The Drunken Demon was startled. Then he burst into hearty, delighted laughter.

"Didn't I tell you? Drinking solves everything!"

"I'm heading back! Thanks, Brother. Let's talk again later."

I shot straight out of the water into the air.

Changing direction in midair, I flew toward the lakeshore.

His voice reached me from behind.

"Your brother will always be here."

Starlight poured down upon the Drunken Demon as he floated on the water.

* * *

Back at the training hall, I prepared two sticks of incense.

I lit them simultaneously, placed one in the incense burner, and performed The Art of Space-Time Transposition.

To improve my concentration and minimize the internal energy consumed, I created an empty space with nothing in it.

There, I recited the formulas of the Secret Art of Heavenly Time. Unlike my previous attempts, I moved my true qi in the sequence I had discerned from the constellations earlier.

Had it worked?

I couldn't tell yet whether it had.

At my current level, I could only find out by leaving this place and comparing the time that had passed. Even a tiny difference would do. If only the Secret Art of Heavenly Time would begin to work!

Please!

It was my fervent wish to achieve twelfth-level complete mastery of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art, whatever it took.

When the incense had burned down a certain amount, I released The Art of Space-Time Transposition.

SHHHH

The world of The Art of Space-Time Transposition vanished. Emerging from it, I slowly walked toward the incense I had left burning.

I crouched before the burner and planted my stick at the same depth as the other.

My heart trembled as much as my gaze as I stared at them.

The two sticks of incense had burned down to different lengths.