Chapter 37 - What Lies Beyond the Door

“Your training ends today.”

At Jang Ho’s words, the enforcement martial artists showed their disappointment. The training had been so grueling they had lost count of how often they had cursed, but they had gained a great deal from it.

Their martial arts had not improved by leaps and bounds, but their lax minds had been pulled taut. For experts of their caliber, a difference in mental fortitude could translate into a difference in ability.

Moreover, Jang Ho had found time to inspect their martial arts and correct faulty stances and habits. Thanks to him, several had made tangible improvements in their skills.

Even now, at the very end, he was telling each of them how to correct their posture and what training they should pursue.

Who could have imagined that the enforcement martial artists who had endured such hellish training would ever say this?

“Couldn’t you train us a little longer?”

I had been watching from the side, and now I stepped forward.

“That won’t be possible. Squad Leader Jang has just been appointed Demon Army commander.”

Everyone was astonished at the mention of the Demon Army commander. Confined to the training grounds, they had heard no news from outside.

“Congratulations!”

Someone’s congratulations prompted an outburst of cheers and applause.

Jang Ho offered them his final farewell.

“I’ll never forget the time I spent with you. Until we meet again. No, wait—from my perspective, meeting you would mean I was in serious trouble. Let’s never see each other again!”

With that parting joke, he left.

I took my place on the platform where Jang Ho had stood. The look in the enforcement martial artists’ eyes was markedly different from that of their first day of training.

“Well, then! The first and last martial artists to be trained by a Demon Army commander!”

Several of them burst out laughing.

“Now you could march off without fear even if I ordered you to arrest my father, couldn’t you?”

Laughter broke out here and there again.

Having lightened the mood, I told them what I had wanted to say.

“Martial arts matter, and so does fighting well. But I believe the most important thing for anyone bearing the name of enforcement martial artist is pride. Pride in upholding the Cult’s discipline and safeguarding its order. We follow our own path. Understood?”

“Yes!”

“You’ve worked hard in training. I’ve prepared a feast, so drink your fill and relax today!”

Their delighted cheers were even louder than their earlier resounding answer.

* * *

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon was waiting for me at the place where we met every day.

“Standing tall here like that, you look like a guardian stone watching over me.”

“Are you calling me a blockhead?”

“Of course not.”

I had expected him to fly into a rage over my involving the Single Flower Sword Supreme, but he was unusually calm.

“Congratulations on making Jang Ho Demon Army commander.”

“Thank you.”

I was more tense than ever. There was no telling what this old man might suddenly do.

Yet today, much as Jang Ho had, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon was showing me an unexpected side of himself.

He was exceedingly calm. So calm that I wondered whether this was what he had truly been like all along.

This was why one should never judge someone by a single facet. I must not be fooled by the front he presented. I still did not know what lay on the other side of the Blood Heaven Saber Demon.

“How did you persuade the Sword Supreme?”

“I’ll tell you honestly if you promise not to get angry.”

“I won’t.”

“I wounded Senior Sword Supreme’s pride by saying you were a true Demon Supreme. I used you.”

The corners of his mouth curled upward.

“Then you’re the one who was fooled. That schemer couldn’t possibly have missed your shallow little ploy.”

He disliked the Single Flower Sword Supreme, but at least he did not underestimate her.

The same was true of her. Her involvement in this matter also meant she trusted his eye for people.

“That fox will certainly try to work her wiles on you. She’ll use the help she gave you as a reason to keep you from meeting me. What will you do then?”

“You come first, sir.”

“She’ll bring up how she helped Jang Ho.”

“You helped him first, so that won’t be a problem.”

“Will you still say that when she makes an offer you can’t refuse? Like this, for instance.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon took a small box from inside his robe and held it out.

“A promise is a promise.”

I accepted the box and carefully opened it.

A single bluish pill gave off a wondrous spiritual qi that seemed not of this world.

With an expression of genuine regret at parting with it, he said,

“The Divine Pill Beyond Heaven.”

For once, I did not need to feign surprise. I was truly astonished that he would surrender it so readily. I had expected him to withhold it, offering one excuse after another about trying to find an elixir but being unable to find anything suitable.

“Oh! Is it really the Divine Pill Beyond Heaven? How did you obtain this?”

“I’ve had it stored away for a long time. I treasured it too much even to take it myself.”

“You’re truly giving it to me?”

“Shall I take it back?”

“Certainly not.”

Perhaps pained by the loss, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon drank the wine before him.

Setting down his cup, he said,

“Second Young Master, I’ll stake the rest of my life on you.”

He had played the strongest card he possessed.

I had told Father before that the Blood Heaven Saber Demon was not worth keeping in my collection.

Now I would have to correct that statement.

If you were willing to be this generous, then I, too, would make a proper place for you in my collection.

The Divine Pill Beyond Heaven that would have gone to my brother had come to me instead, changing both my fate and the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s. The change was all the greater because he had given it willingly, not under compulsion.

“Thank you for believing in me.”

I respectfully saluted him with my fist cupped in my palm, then made a request.

“I’ll take the pill here and now. Would you stand guard for me?”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon was startled.

“You intend to take it in front of me?”

“Yes. Since you gave it to me, I believe it’s only right to take it in your presence.”

Standing guard over someone during qi-circulation meditation carried a symbolic meaning. For a martial artist, it was the ultimate expression of trust.

“You trust me?”

“Isn’t trusting you the reason I’m taking this Divine Pill Beyond Heaven at all? If you had poisoned it, I would have to obey your every command to obtain the antidote.”

A flicker of interest passed through his eyes.

“Why do you believe I haven’t poisoned it?”

“Because you aren’t the sort of person who would choose such a despicable method.”

“I consider myself quite despicable.”

“There are different kinds of despicable. As I see you, you aren’t someone who would break a promise and overturn the entire game in the process.”

“What if your intuition is wrong?”

“I’ll think about that when the time comes. Now, please stand guard for a little while.”

In truth, this was a safe gamble. I knew that the Blood Heaven Saber Demon hated poison arts and sinister sorcery enough to shudder at them.

I sat cross-legged on the spot and took the Divine Pill Beyond Heaven without hesitation.

He stared at me in surprise. Apparently, he had not expected me to actually take the elixir in front of him.

The Divine Pill Beyond Heaven was an elixir I had never seen even in my life before regression.

'Divine pill, please dissolve well.'

It began dissolving in my mouth, its medicinal potency passing down my throat and spreading throughout my body. Its energy was far greater than that of the Demon Essence Pill I had taken earlier in Lesser Heaven Cave.

My meridians, fortified by the Thousand-Meridian Strengthening Art, opened their channels wide to welcome this tremendous energy. As the pill’s energy raced like a steed capable of galloping a thousand li, my meridians gladly became the open plains that received it. The spiritual qi raced like a gale into the finest meridians throughout my body.

I devoted myself to qi-circulation meditation to convert this vast energy fully into internal energy.

After several painstaking rounds of meditation, I was able to store the Divine Pill Beyond Heaven’s wondrous energy in my dantian.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the Blood Heaven Saber Demon watching me from a short distance away with his arms folded.

“How did the divine pill taste?”

“Sweet as honey. I’ve never tasted anything so delicious in my life.”

“Damn it! Fuck!”

He regretted not having taken it himself.

“I’m certain it has been put to ten times better use than if you had taken it yourself.”

Even if I fought the Blood Heaven Saber Demon standing before me right now, no one would be able to say I had lost for lack of internal energy. That was how abundantly pure internal power filled my dantian.

He squatted down before me. Up close, he had more wrinkles than I had expected.

“Tell me, Second Young Master.”

“Yes, sir.”

Looking into my eyes, he asked,

“Just who are you? Who are you to turn my heart inside out and make me cough up even the Divine Pill Beyond Heaven?”

I immediately drew up my internal energy and released demonic qi. It erupted like lava spewing from an exploding volcano. Unlike anything I had shown him before, this qi was cold and stern.

“I am the man who will one day lead you. If you are still alive by then.”

Several emotions crossed his face beneath the suffocating qi pressing down on him. Whatever anger he might have felt, at least he did not sneer.

When I withdrew my demonic qi, the frozen air around us relaxed.

“I’ll grant you this much—you have nerve.”

“Let me ask you one question as well.”

“Ask.”

“What is it you ultimately want?”

“What could a man this old want? I simply keep living as I always have, carried along by inertia.”

“Aren’t you far too passionate for that?”

“Me?”

“When you push me, you seem like a young man. I can feel a blazing fire.”

At that moment, I saw the flames in his eyes again. The Blood Heaven Saber Demon still stood alone amid the fire.

“Is that how I seem?”

“Yes.”

He, on the other hand, spoke as though uncertain of himself.

“That’s a relief. Lately, I thought all the fire in me had gone cold...”

I could guess how he felt. No matter how much ambition, longing, and desire one piled into the basket, there were things that time would indifferently take away.

“Please pour me some wine.”

“Wine? But I lost our wager.”

“The moment you gave me the Divine Pill Beyond Heaven without holding back, you won. I’ll accept your wine.”

“Do you mean that?”

“Please guide me well from now on.”

If he was this difficult even for me to deal with, how much trouble would he give my enemies? I intended to make the Blood Heaven Saber Demon truly my man, though I did not know whether it would be possible.

Deeply moved, he filled my cup to the brim.

“Here, take it.”

I drained the wine he had given me in one satisfying draught.

“Let’s make a good go of this!”

“Yes. And if you pull any bullshit, please keep it to what I can handle.”

He flinched for a moment, then burst out laughing.

“Hahaha!”

Since he had become a Demon Supreme, I was probably the first person to call his antics bullshit to his face.

“Let’s have another cup.”

“Gladly!”

I knew. Though he was smiling so broadly now, he had not yet opened the door to his heart all the way. The Blood Heaven Saber Demon was not someone I could judge from what I glimpsed through a door barely ajar.

I did not know what lay beyond that door.

As Father had said, one could never truly know another person’s heart. I intended neither to predict nor to draw conclusions about the man called the Blood Heaven Saber Demon. I would judge only what I could see.

And our relationship would be decided on the day that door opened wide.

Whether I burned to death in your flames, you died pierced by my sword, or we became friends forever—the answer would come on that day.