Chapter 53 - No Unforeseen Complications

“Hah, hah.”

Sprawled on the ground, Seo Daeryong sent his ragged breaths up toward the night sky.

The bright moon had hidden somewhere, out of sight. He had started training after work, before dinner, but now it was well past midnight.

‘I finally did it!’

He had completed another thousand swings when he had felt incapable of managing even one. Two thousand swings of this heavy saber in a single day.

He could scarcely believe what he had accomplished. Of course, his form must have fallen apart toward the end, but he had gritted his teeth and kept swinging.

He told himself it was time to get up and go home, but he could not move a muscle. Sleep overwhelmed him.

Seo Daeryong dreamed.

Geom Mugeuk was in danger, surrounded by enemies. Just as they rushed at him, wounded as he was, saber qi shot out like lightning and swept through them. Those caught in it disappeared in bloody pulp.

Then Seo Daeryong descended between the enemies and Geom Mugeuk, as loftily as a falling plum blossom. Now a supreme master of saber techniques, he wielded an enormous great saber like the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s.

He looked back at Geom Mugeuk with a faint smile and asked,

“Are you all right, Pavilion Master?”

A satisfied smile also formed on the sleeping Seo Daeryong’s lips.

“My right-hand man! You came!”

At Geom Mugeuk’s emotion-laden words, Seo Daeryong turned toward the enemies and declared with perfect flair,

“Rest now that I’m here! Get yourself a good night’s sleep!”

Then a familiar voice came from somewhere.

“Isn’t it time you got up?”

Instinctively ignoring it, Seo Daeryong rolled over. He did not want to wake from such a wonderful dream. Becoming a master and roaming the world was his real dream, too.

He slept on.

In his dream, he rescued beautiful women from danger, then sailed away with them. Watching them maneuver against one another to monopolize his love, he awoke with a contented smile. His junior colleague Jo Hyang had been among them.

Never in his life had he woken smiling like this.

He felt wonderful. So wonderful he did not want to get up... But where was he?

An unfamiliar ceiling.

No, not entirely unfamiliar.

‘Don’t tell me...?’

Seo Daeryong bolted upright, then cried out.

“Urgh!”

Wonderful dream or not, his entire body ached as though it were breaking apart. It felt as if someone had beaten him all over with a club throughout the night.

He looked around.

‘This is...?’

It was the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s very bedchamber, where he had slept after drinking.

‘Good heavens! Why am I sleeping here?’

He remembered finishing the second thousand swings and lying down on the ground, but nothing after that.

Fortunately, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon was not in the room.

Groaning, Seo Daeryong got up and stepped carefully across it. When he reached the window, he started in surprise.

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon was swinging his saber in the courtyard where Seo Daeryong had practiced yesterday. Seo Daeryong was about to hurry out and greet him, but stopped.

The sight of those saber swings had captured his attention.

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon was swinging in precisely the stance he had taught Seo Daeryong yesterday. His grip was the same, and so was the way he swung.

In that instant, Seo Daeryong understood. The training he had been given was the very training the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had done when he first learned martial arts.

‘He wasn’t just ordering me around at random to make me suffer.’

Then, as though he had eyes in the back of his head, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon abruptly spoke while continuing his swings.

“Does the Pavilion Master’s absence give you permission to slack off?”

“Oh! Now that you mention it...!”

The sun was high overhead.

“Aaah! I’m late!”

Seo Daeryong hastily got dressed and rushed outside.

“I’ll be going now.”

He bowed and was about to leave, but turned back.

“Thank you so much for letting me sleep here again.”

Even if the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had given him money or a treasured saber, he would not have felt this choked up. Oh, he would certainly have been happy, but this was a different kind of feeling.

For the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, might letting someone sleep in his own bed be harder than giving them money? This feeling of being cherished was beyond compare.

“If something like this happens again, just toss me into any guest room. As long as you don’t kill me. I’ll see you this afternoon, then.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon looked surprised.

“You’re coming?”

“Of course.”

“I won’t go easy on you because you’re sore. Two thousand again today.”

At the words “two thousand,” his entire body recoiled, screaming that it was impossible, but his mouth said, “Yes!” After all, his mouth wasn’t tired.

Having answered with gusto, Seo Daeryong ran off.

“I’m late! Late!”

He really felt as if he would die of exhaustion. He hated even imagining another training session today, yet strangely, he felt good.

He wanted to keep learning from the Blood Heaven Saber Demon. To be honest, he wanted to impress him.

* * *

After several days of simmering, the medicine was ready.

I poured the concoction into a palm-sized vial. There were still five days until the Blood God Ceremony.

Now that it was ready, I intended to scout as far as the Wind God Cult Leader’s throne today, checking along the way that the secret passage worked properly.

After descending the mountain, I arrived at a stretch of wasteland not far from the Wind Heaven Cult.

A few withered trees and rocks stood amid swarming venomous insects and snakes, with windblown rubbish scattered about. It was the sort of place where you could stay all day without seeing a soul.

There was a large boulder there. I operated the hidden mechanisms beneath its two sides in sequence.

SHHHK.

The boulder opened, revealing a passage. I had marveled at it back then, and even now, it was an exceptionally well-built mechanism. How had they made a passage so perfectly concealed?

Once I stepped inside the boulder, the door shut automatically.

I operated another hidden mechanism within, and a door opened in the floor.

Taking out a night-shining pearl, I descended into the underground passage. It was wide, seemingly built to transport the Thunderous Sound Bell in an emergency. That width had allowed me to smuggle the bell out through here.

I took out the vial and applied the medicine to my face and hands.

With this medicine on, the master with the exceptional sense of smell would not be able to detect my scent.

I walked slowly along the passage, stopping well short of the concealed entrance into the throne chamber. In the past, I had approached closer to investigate, but that was no longer necessary. I now had a way to scout safely.

I closed my eyes and emitted qi. A strand traveled along the passage, rounded a corner, and continued for some distance before reaching the secret entrance.

When Father first taught me this secret method, I had never imagined I would be able to emit qi in such a long, thin strand and use it for reconnaissance in the field.

The qi slipped through a tiny gap in the passage.

The instant it entered the new space, I sensed an immense presence off to one side.

‘The Wind Heaven Cult Leader!’

His imposing presence was indeed extraordinary, as befitted a cult leader. I quickly moved my qi in the opposite direction.

Next, I located the master with the sensitive nose.

Sure enough, he was near the Thunderous Sound Bell.

Once I had confirmed both men’s presence, I dispersed my qi. I had already been through this once; there was no need to risk discovery.

With my reconnaissance safely completed, I returned to the mountain.

After a meal of jerky, I sat cross-legged and practiced the Heavenly Demon’s Body-Protection Art.

For the remaining five days, I would stay put, secluded in the mountains. Wandering about for no reason and getting swept by fate into some strange incident could create trouble.

Avoiding unforeseen complications was the least respect I owed all my past efforts.

* * *

The day of the Blood God Ceremony dawned.

Before setting out, I looked up at the sky and wished for success today.

When Father had told me the two ways to resist soul-seizing sorcery, I had privately thought there was a way a hundred times easier.

I descended the mountain, hoping my thinking would prove correct and I would bring this undertaking to a safe conclusion.

The road to the Wind Heaven Cult was packed with people heading to the ceremony.

They came from all walks of life: leaders of major sects with ties to the Wind Heaven Cult, martial artists from small sects hoping to make themselves noticed, and merchants looking to sell their wares to the attendees.

On the day of the Blood God Ceremony, everyone had to travel to the Wind Heaven Cult on foot, regardless of rank. Such was the ceremony’s authority.

After watching them walk from a distance, I headed toward the wasteland containing the secret passage.

Various thoughts crossed my mind along the way.

What if the door suddenly refused to open? What if the ceremony was suddenly canceled? What if they changed things so the Wind Heaven Cult Leader rang the bell himself? What if I was mistaken about how to obtain it?

This is how anxiety attacks, trying to eat away at our souls.

At times like these, all we can do is trust ourselves. Trust that such misfortune will not strike, and that even if it does, we will overcome it. Faith in ourselves is the best weapon against anxiety.

I followed the secret passage to a point near the Wind Heaven Cult Leader’s throne chamber and waited for my moment. Naturally, I had applied the scent-blocking medicine to my face, hands, and body.

The time to move was already decided. Once the Thunderous Sound Bell had rung thirty-six times, I would begin my operation.

How long had I waited in the darkness?

Faint bell tolls began to reach me. I waited, counting them.

At the thirty-third toll, I moved slowly to the spot below the secret entrance.

At the thirty-fifth, I quietly opened the concealed entrance in the floor beside the throne and emerged.

The shackled master was about to strike the bell for the last time. The Wind Heaven Cult Leader permitted no one else into this place where the sacred relics were kept, so the shackled man was alone.

The instant he struck the final, thirty-sixth toll, I employed the Wind God’s Four Steps. Using Dark Shadow Step, I approached the shackled martial artist as silently as a ghost and struck his paralysis and sleep pressure points simultaneously. He fell asleep standing up, without even realizing he had been attacked.

It had happened in an instant, but the maneuver demanded a succession of techniques executed at the highest level.

After subduing him, I went to the Blood Buddha standing behind the Thunderous Sound Bell.

I now had the time it would take the Wind Heaven Cult Leader to return here—the time needed to drink a cup of tea.

I pressed firmly on the Blood Buddha’s closed eyes, and they snapped open.

With its eyes open, the Blood Buddha looked terrifying.

When I pressed again, its eyeballs protruded forward.

The protruding eyeballs were about one-third full of a white liquid.

This was why I had traveled so far.

The soul-seizing sorcery practiced by the Soul-Seizing Demon had its roots in the Blood Cult’s demonic arts.

The Wind Heaven Cult was the successor to that Blood Cult.

Father knew that much, too, but there was one thing he did not know.

Blood-Eye Purifying Water.

It was holy water passed down in secret only to the leaders of the Wind Heaven Cult.

Putting this Blood-Eye Purifying Water into your eyes allowed you to see how to counter the Blood Cult’s sinister sorcery. You could perceive its very essence with your eyes.

I had heard that it had been created and passed down since ancient times to prevent rebellions within the cult. But because its preparation and upkeep were taught only to the cult leader and his successor, outsiders never knew it existed. The person who told me about it was none other than the Wind Heaven Cult Leader’s son, Neung Baekgun.

On my previous visit, I had been too busy fleeing with the Thunderous Sound Bell to put any into my eyes.

At last, the moment had come to obtain the Blood-Eye Purifying Water.

I removed the Blood Buddha’s eyeballs. There was a small hole in the top of each.

DRIP.

One drop of Blood-Eye Purifying Water from the right eyeball into my right eye.

DRIP.

One drop from the left eyeball into my left eye.

As the Blood-Eye Purifying Water entered my eyes, they burned with a searing heat, as though on fire. It hurt, but fortunately, it did not blind me or anything of the sort.

When I replaced the eyeballs, they retracted, and the Blood Buddha closed its eyes again.

There was enough purifying water left inside to administer it to the next successor without any trouble. They would not even know that these two drops were gone.

I entered the underground passage and, before closing the door completely, sent out two streams of finger force.

SWISH.

The shackled master awoke.

He looked bewildered for a moment, but after confirming that nothing was amiss around him, he resumed his duties. It was a maneuver no one short of a master of my caliber could have accomplished.

I wondered what story had left that man shackled there, but I was not in a position to rescue someone whose identity I did not even know. He was not among those whose fate would change through my regression.

I quietly slipped out through the secret passage.

I had intended to claim, one by one when the time was right, the fortuitous opportunities connected to the materials for the great art. Because of the Soul-Seizing Demon, however, I had obtained the Blood-Eye Purifying Water sooner than expected.

Whatever the reason, there was always joy in accomplishing something great. Especially now, having gained an ability I had never possessed before, my joy was difficult to put into words.

It was not simply because I could now kill the Soul-Seizing Demon. I believed this new power would help me in some way on my journey toward Hwa Mugi.

After leaving the secret passage, I could have indulged in a victor’s leisure and enjoyed the Blood God Ceremony. Instead, I raced toward the Cult without looking back.

No unforeseen complications—not even at the very end.