Chapter 257 - Anyone Human Will Surely Die

“Investigator Seo looked wonderful.”

Yi An spoke as we headed back to my residence together. I was taking her to see the home I had moved into after becoming young lord.

“He seems like a completely different person from when I first met him.”

“He’s worked hard since then.”

Since Yi An was second to none when it came to hard work, I added a warning.

“But don’t start thinking you need to work harder too. You already put in more than enough effort.”

“No. I’m not going to let my effort just trickle over the brim. I’ll make it overflow in torrents.”

I could guess what she was thinking. Perhaps she felt everyone else was racing ahead while she alone fell behind.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I’m only visiting your new residence today. Before, I would have come on the very first day you moved in.”

Apparently she felt bad about visiting so late. Her already drooping shoulders sank further.

“If you look at it that way, I’m just as guilty. I moved into a new home and never invited you over, did I?”

“You’ve been busy, Young Master.”

“You’ve been even busier. Which matters more, seeing my room or doing our work? The answer’s obvious. So you have nothing to apologize for.”

I led her inside. She was astonished at how much larger it was than my previous home.

“Oh! It really is huge.”

“You stand before the Cult’s illustrious young lord!”

The maids passing by greeted us respectfully. Yi An acknowledged their greetings with a smile.

She was even more surprised when she entered my room.

“This is nothing like the room I expected.”

Bookshelves lined the walls, a large bed held snow-white bedding, and a desk and chair stood beside a sunlit window. Apparently none of it matched her expectations.

“This isn’t your taste, Young Master.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I had no idea. You should have told me.”

Before my regression, I’d had no taste to speak of.

I hadn’t cared whether my bed was large or small, whether I had a bookcase or a wardrobe. All I cared about was becoming the successor.

And that was why succession had slipped further out of my reach. I hadn’t looked at anything. I hadn’t truly seen the people around me, or even cared what was in my own room.

At the time, I’d thought I was passionate. Looking back now, though, perhaps I had simply been using that passion as an escape.

“There are so many books.”

The bookshelves caught her interest first.

“Now that I’m young lord, I have to look learned.”

“This one is incredibly thick.”

“Don’t pull it out! It’s for decoration. Getting it back in is a struggle.”

“It won’t budge even if I try. Imagine needing internal energy just to pull out a book!”

She examined another bookcase.

“You have a lot of the books Elder Saber Demon owns.”

She had once borrowed books from the Blood Heaven Saber Demon.

“Yes. I wrote down every title he had and stocked my shelves with the same ones. The Elder knows his books.”

She took a book from another shelf and studied it closely.

“You even have something like this.”

The book in her hands was titled ‘Escaping the All-Encompassing Net.’

“Have you read it?”

I nodded.

“I have.”

“Did it seem like you could escape by following its instructions?”

“I didn’t read it to escape. I read it to stop anyone from escaping.”

She laughed at my reply.

“You’re someone who can order, ‘Deploy the all-encompassing net!’ But I might get caught in the Orthodox Martial Alliance’s net, so please lend me this.”

“Of course.”

“And this one, and this one too.”

She selected several books. She had mostly read collections of poetry and paintings before, but everything she chose now contained secrets for surviving in Murim.

“Do you still read these days?”

“I try to read for at least a quarter-hour before bed. I need to gain some secondhand experience, even if this is the only way.”

Apparently she still worried that her view of the world would remain narrow.

“Yi An.”

“Yes?”

She turned toward me.

“You think having more experience of the world is better, don’t you?”

“Of course. Isn’t it?”

Her eyes widened.

“It is. People with plenty of worldly experience have a certain appeal and reliability. They have insight, and they offer those around them new lessons and experiences. But it also means they’ve been through every kind of filthy business to get there. They’ve endured dirty, petty things and seen the very worst in people. They may even come to distrust and despise humanity. Can you really say those experiences are entirely good for someone’s life?”

Before my regression, I had been through a great deal. Yes, it had made me stronger and helped me survive.

And then what? Could I say my life was better than Yi An’s, when she had quietly devoted herself to the single path of a bodyguard? I might have a better chance of surviving if we were thrown into some unknown place, but that didn’t make mine a better life.

“I’m saying you don’t need to regret the life you’ve lived, quietly following one path. You don’t have to acquire all those assorted wounds and pains dressed up as ‘experience.’ You can fight without them. You can win without them. I believe a moment will come when the life you’ve built through hard work protects you more powerfully than any other experience could.”

I reached out, and a collection of poetry and paintings slid free of its shelf. It floated through the air into her hands.

“So read the things you want to read too.”

I had seen her glance at that book twice.

Yi An sidled over and gazed steadily at me.

“I suppose there really is something to bloodlines.”

I stared back with a seriousness befitting her words. Perhaps she grew embarrassed, because she avoided my gaze and changed the subject.

“Your bed is so spacious and lovely. Is it soft?”

“Lie down and see, if you’re curious.”

“You thought I’d say, ‘How could I dare lie on the young lord’s bed!’ didn’t you?”

She threw herself onto the bed.

But her body hung suspended above it.

“Not in the clothes you wore outside! Now I understand why Elder Saber Demon wouldn’t let me lie on his.”

I floated her back to where she had been. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she spoke with a serious expression.

“I recruited five people into the Ghost Shadow Squad recently. I considered both their character and their skill. As you instructed, I’m aiming for an elite organization rather than sheer numbers.”

“You’re doing well.”

“Oh, and tomorrow I’ll be leaving the Cult with Blue Face and my subordinates. We’re going to look for people to join the Ghost Shadow Squad. I should have left earlier, but I postponed our departure so I could attend the Pavilion Master of Yellow Springs Pavilion’s inauguration. While I’m out, I’ll also visit Strategist Go and the Wind Heaven Cult Leader.”

She was taking her first true steps into the martial world.

Perhaps she sensed the worry in my gaze, because she smiled.

“Don’t worry. I have nine tails, remember?”

“Come back stronger!”

She rose and respectfully cupped her fist in her palm.

“Yes, young lord!”

* * *

I devoted myself to martial arts training.

Never, either before or after my regression, had I trained as diligently as I did these days.

Perhaps Father knew how absorbed I was in my martial arts, because he postponed all the various events within the Cult.

The Nine Calamities Demonic Art and the Secret Art of Heavenly Time.

These were arts I could hardly help working hard at.

First, the more I practiced the Secret Art of Heavenly Time, the greater the time difference between the inside and outside of The Art of Space-Time Transposition seemed to become.

But the difference was still so slight that I wasn’t yet at the stage of using it for actual training.

I would perform The Art of Space-Time Transposition, then the Secret Art of Heavenly Time, and then train in martial arts inside.

That meant expending internal energy on three overlapping tasks.

Meanwhile, the time difference between inside and outside was still insignificant, so recovering my internal energy took more time than I gained.

I was impatient, but I didn’t rush. This wasn’t an art I could master overnight, and consistency was the lifeblood of training. Repeat, then repeat again. If I kept at it, I would find myself at the next stage before I knew it.

Next came the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

Once I grew accustomed to its mental cultivation method, I began training in earnest, starting with the first form. It was a difficult, profound art, but I calmly analyzed its formulas and progressed little by little.

Today, I intended to execute the first form for the first time.

The First Form of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art: Human Annihilation.

Right from the first form, it was simply annihilation of humans. It meant that anyone human would surely die.

I gazed at the wooden dummy set up before me and calmed my mind. When I felt ready in both body and mind, I drew the Black Demon Sword.

SWISH.

The dummy’s head fell off in a single stroke. It was even faster than Azure Heaven, the swift-sword form of the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art.

So had I successfully performed the first form? No. It was a failure.

I approached slowly and examined the headless dummy.

A faint trace of a sword cut remained on its back. There were no marks at all on its left or right sides.

Human Annihilation was a form that sent four streams of sword qi at the opponent simultaneously—from the front, back, left, and right—the instant it was unleashed.

Imagine it.

In a flash, sword qi came at you not from one direction, but from four at once. And it didn’t all aim for the same spot. Each stream attacked a different target from a different direction.

The sword qi from the front targeted the neck, the rear the back, the left the waist, and the right the legs.

But so far, only the sword qi from the front struck properly. The other three streams failed to reach their targets as they should.

I closed my eyes for a moment and recalled the formulas.

After organizing them in my mind, I unleashed sword qi at a fresh wooden dummy.

I examined it again. This time, its back had been sliced apart, but its neck remained intact.

I tried over and over, but the first form wouldn’t come together as I intended. I was missing something.

Father had said he wanted to see my interpretation of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

At this rate, how could my art possibly surpass his? All I could rely on was my Heavenly Martial Physique, but even I couldn’t be certain I would wield a Nine Calamities Demonic Art that surpassed Father’s.

As I racked my brains over the problem, a realization suddenly struck me.

My desire to learn a Nine Calamities Demonic Art stronger than Father’s was holding me back. That desire was compounded by my longing for his recognition, dragging at my ankles with still greater weight.

This wasn’t my way.

I left the training hall at once.

* * *

When I entered Heavenly Demon Hall, Father stood looking out the window with his hands clasped behind his back.

“Come up here.”

“Yes, Father.”

I walked along the Path of Blood, climbed the steps, and stood beside him. Looking out over the Cult grounds at his side had always made me feel good. Now I stood there as young lord.

“The Thousand-Poison Forest has decided to double its poison production.”

“Why would they do that?”

Father looked at me when I feigned ignorance. He knew I’d been spending time with the Poison King lately, so he would likely have guessed I had influenced this decision.

His gaze returned to the window. After a brief silence, he spoke quietly.

“Don’t stir up the Poison King. He is a man who could be the beginning and the end of everything.”

I understood what he meant. The Poison King could start a war, or bring one to an end. Martial artists had no choice but to be sensitive about poison. A lifetime of training could be destroyed by a single poisoning.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Father turned to me.

“Why have you come today?”

“I came to ask you a favor.”

“What favor?”

“Please use Human Annihilation on me.”

Father started at the unexpected request.

“After all that effort to become my successor, now you want to die?”

“Of course not.”

I opened the front of my clothes.

“I’m wearing supreme-grade heavenly silkworm silk and the Ghost-Guard Robe. I’m asking you to hold back enough that I won’t die.”

“Why?”

“I want to experience it directly and get a feel for it.”

Ordinarily, I should have learned much more from Father. But because he wanted to see my interpretation of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art, he had given me only the bare minimum of explanation. This was a request he could reasonably grant.

“Very well.”

With his permission, I stepped back to put some distance between us.

He dispensed with any warning such as “Are you ready?” or “Here I come.”

Father immediately drew the Heavenly Demon Sword.

WHOOSH.

A very brief, faint whisper of wind.

In that instant, I was shocked.

Four evil spirits attacked me simultaneously from all sides.

Father’s Human Annihilation wasn’t merely four streams of sword qi. Terrifying phantoms of four evil spirits, enough to freeze the body at the mere sight of them, appeared in all four directions and swung their swords. That was the form his sword qi took.

CLANG! CLANG!

I blocked two attacks. One grazed me, and the other struck me squarely.

THUD! THWACK!

As the sword qi collided with my protective concentrated qi, I flew through the air and tumbled across the floor.

“Urrgh!”

It really hurt. Even with supreme-grade heavenly silkworm silk, Ghost-Guard Armor, and protective concentrated qi shielding me, my waist felt as though it would snap in two.

Thank goodness Father had moderated his internal energy. Had he unleashed the form at full power, that single move might have killed me. Even if I survived, I would have suffered a critical injury.

For the first time, I felt how terrifying the Nine Calamities Demonic Art truly was.

And in that moment, this was what I wanted to know.

“If my mastery of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art improves, will these evil spirits manifest in my Human Annihilation too?”

Father nodded.

“Similar spirits will appear, but different ones.”

Similar, but different.

He meant that different evil spirits would appear because I would interpret the Nine Calamities Demonic Art differently as I developed it.

My heart began to pound. Seeing the Heavenly Demon’s Soul was still a long, long way off, so I wanted to see my own little evil spirits, even if only through Human Annihilation.

“Was that enough?”

“More than enough.”

Rubbing my waist, I paid my respects and was about to turn away when I asked him another question.

“Have you given those evil spirits names, by any chance?”

That mocking smile appeared on Father’s lips.

“The Poison King likes naming things. I suppose spending so much time with him lately has rubbed off on me.”

I bowed respectfully to Father and turned away.

My martial accomplishments weren’t mine alone. If my Human Annihilation differed from his, Father too would find something stirring in my Nine Calamities Demonic Art. We would grow stronger by influencing each other.

At the end of the Path of Blood, I called back to Father.

“The next time I visit, I’ll bring four friends with me.”