Chapter 67 - Just the Age for It

The next day, I went to see Father to report what had happened with the Wind Heaven Cult Leader. Since it all concerned affairs within the Cult, Father probably already knew the broad outline. Still, hearing it from me in person was an entirely different matter from receiving Sima Myeong’s report.

As it happened, Father was training. While I waited outside, word came that I should enter.

“He asks that you come into the training ground.”

The voice from thin air belonged to Hwi, Father’s personal bodyguard. It had been a long time since I had heard him.

“It’s been a while, Uncle Hwi.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

His reply was brief. I remembered walking through the streets of Demon Family Village holding his hand as a child. I thought I had pestered him to buy me street food. Whatever the details, that day remained a fond memory.

“Let’s meet face-to-face sometime, Uncle. I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“Yes.”

“Nothing formal, Uncle.”

I couldn’t tell exactly how he would take my goodwill, or how he currently felt about me. What was a pleasant memory for me might have been an unremarkable part of his daily life. Even so, I needed to stay on good terms with him. He was the person Father trusted most.

I braced myself and entered the training ground. Sure enough, Father attacked with the Underworld King’s Step again today.

I evaded with the Flicker Step while knocking aside his Heavenly Demon Sword with my Black Demon Sword. It was the first clash between the two swords, and a far more dangerous attempt than simply dodging. Naturally, Father recognized the change in my level of attainment at a glance.

“You’ve improved!”

His own mastery of the Underworld King’s Step had advanced considerably when he launched that attack, yet I had blocked it in an even more dangerous way.

“Of course I have. I probably train more than anyone else in the Cult. No, I suppose I’m second. Yi An trains the most.”

“Why haven’t you considered that you might be third?”

That remark told me how diligently Father was practicing the Wind God’s Four Steps.

‘You’re doing well, Father. You must achieve complete mastery. You absolutely must!’

I left the training ground with Father, and we talked as we walked side by side.

“What brings you here?”

“The Wind Heaven Cult Leader wants to join forces with me. I get the feeling there’s been a rift between him and the Eight Demon Supremes. Were you aware of it?”

I didn’t mention that he had taught me the Art of Space-Time Transposition. The Wind Heaven Cult Leader wouldn’t be making that public either.

This was how Father viewed the heart of the matter.

“It was arrogant of the Demon Supremes to drag the Wind Heaven Cult Leader all the way here. They should have gone to him to resolve the matter. If they wanted to bring him here, they should all have gone and asked him themselves.”

“They wounded his pride.”

He likely had several reasons for pushing into the Central Plains, but I began to think that if I stripped them away one by one, his wounded pride might truly lie at the very bottom.

“The things you neglect as trivial ultimately become the biggest problems. This was clearly a mistake on the Demon Supremes’ part.”

I caught a glimpse of Father’s troubles. If he followed his heart, he would probably set the Demon Supremes against the Wind Heaven Cult Leader, sit back and watch, then wipe them out, starting with those whose loyalty was lacking.

But they were the Cult’s principal fighting force. If they fell, the Orthodox Martial Alliance would inevitably strike. The Eight Demon Supremes were, quite literally, a necessary evil for Father.

“Then why did the Wind Heaven Cult Leader come to me instead of seeking you out?”

Father’s answer was just as certain this time.

“First, because he finds me intimidating. Second, because he thinks you’ll be easy to use.”

“What does he want to use me for?” I asked, pretending ignorance.

“Put your questions to your strategist.”

“But I don’t have a strategist.”

“Find one.”

“Where am I supposed to find someone as intelligent as Strategist Sima?”

Father merely snorted.

“Easy for someone who already has one to say!”

Finding a strategist as intelligent as Sima Myeong truly was my foremost task.

“Aren’t you doing well enough without a strategist?”

“Thank you for saying so, but much of it has worked out because I was lucky.”

I was navigating these situations based on the many experiences of my life before regression. I wasn’t a strategist by nature either. I absolutely needed one whose discernment and insight could support me.

“Please answer just this one question. What does the Wind Heaven Cult Leader want?”

Father stopped walking and answered.

“His dream is to expand into the Central Plains.”

“But he’s a man who won’t leave his throne because he’s guarding his sacred relics.”

“That’s his obsessive nature.”

“And his dream is to expand into the Central Plains. I see.”

In my life before regression, the Wind Heaven Cult Leader had failed to expand into the Central Plains. Hwa Mugi had swept through all of Murim, so he had never dared set so much as a foot there and had ended his life beyond the frontiers.

But my regression was changing his life too. He had come in person to the Central Plains—where he otherwise would never have come—and even to the Cult itself.

“For generations, the Blood Cult beyond the frontiers has had its sights on the Central Plains. They have never once succeeded, but the desire to expand here is in their blood.”

“Now I understand why he came to me.”

I knew all of this without needing to ask Father, but I acted as though I had learned it from him. Sometimes, even when you knew something, you had to pretend otherwise and behave this way. It was less hypocrisy than courtesy toward Father.

Most parents in the world would want their children to come and ask them questions like these. Would Father be any different?

In this respect, at least, he wasn’t. Otherwise, he would never have said what came next.

As he was about to head inside, Father added gruffly,

“Since you’re here, have a meal before you go.”

“Yes!”

Nothing pleased me more than Father telling me to stay for a meal. But I didn’t say so. If I did, he would never invite me to eat again.

Father was never an easy man.

* * *

When I returned to Yellow Springs Pavilion after eating with Father, I had an unexpected visitor. The Demonic Buddha himself had come to see me.

“Welcome, sir.”

“I’ve been meaning to visit. It took me longer than I intended.”

This was the first time I had seen him so close. He was even shorter than he looked from a distance, and looking at his golden skin made me want to touch it.

The Demonic Buddha.

My elder brother’s right-hand man in every sense.

“Please, have a seat.”

“I shall.”

The Demonic Buddha sat down. He hated having anyone look down on him. That was probably why he held his back so rigidly straight even while seated.

“An important sacred relic has been stolen from my friend. How could I stand idly by? I came to see how the investigation is progressing.”

“I’m personally investigating the case.”

“Is it really true that a thief broke in?”

“True? What do you mean?”

At my perfectly innocent question, he gave me a look that said, Are you asking because you really don’t know?

“How can I believe that a thief entered the Cult’s inner compound?”

“Wouldn’t it be even harder to believe that the Wind Heaven Cult Leader staged the whole thing?”

The tension between us was palpable from the outset.

A faint golden light also shimmered in his eyes. This phenomenon appeared only in those who had attained complete mastery of the Golden Great All-Encompassing Demonic Art.

Just how powerful were the Demonic Buddha’s martial arts? His Golden Great All-Encompassing Demonic Art was as difficult to contend with as the sorcery of the Soul-Seizing Demonic Art.

“If a thief truly entered the inner compound, the Cult’s reputation will suffer greatly.”

“Yes, it will.”

“Shouldn’t we handle it quietly?”

“How?”

“What about sending him back beyond the frontiers for now, so he can’t make a fuss? His presence won’t help us catch a thief we couldn’t catch otherwise.”

He was plainly testing me. He was certain the theft had been staged, and he would believe I was helping with it.

“Would he listen to a mere pavilion master like me?”

“I heard the Wind Heaven Cult Leader came to see you.”

“He came to pay his respects.”

“The Wind Heaven Cult Leader believes you will become the successor.”

“He gave no indication of that. Why do you think so?”

“Otherwise, he isn’t the sort to visit anyone. He’s accustomed to people coming to pay their respects to him. If such a man sought you out, he must have seen your potential to become the successor.”

Even as he spoke, he continually watched my reactions, trying to read my true thoughts. Sorry to say, but even Father failed at that.

“Second Young Master, you must send him back for the sake of the Cult.”

He was trying to kill two birds with one stone. If I tried to send the leader back, that would suit him just fine. If I refused the proposal, he could accuse me of failing to act in the Cult’s interests.

“No. In that case, we mustn’t send him back.”

“What do you mean?”

“As you said, he’ll use this incident as a pretext to damage the Cult’s reputation. Then we should keep him here. While he’s in the Cult, he won’t dare speak recklessly. I’ll drop him a hint that if he wants his sacred relic found, he should watch his tongue.”

For a moment, the Demonic Buddha had no answer. Of course, he wasn’t so easily handled that he would come to rid himself of one problem only to leave with another.

“The Wind Heaven Cult Leader is a sly old snake. He certainly has an ulterior motive.”

“Then I’ll pretend to join forces with him and find out what it is.”

“With such stubbornness, you look likely to become an excellent Pavilion Master of Yellow Springs Pavilion.”

“I’m mostly stubborn about things I believe are right.”

The Demonic Buddha took that as a rebuke implying that he was in the wrong.

Perhaps seeing his opportunity, the Demonic Buddha swiftly formed a hand seal with his fingers.

Dharma-Turning Light Seal!

Golden radiance burst from his body.

This light, more intense than the sun, prevented an opponent from keeping their eyes open for an instant. To masters on the level of a Demon Supreme, that fleeting instant was as long as an eternity. Should I stab here and kill them, or there? No, let’s stab both places.

I closed my eyes too.

But before closing them, I realized that the light had scarcely affected my eyes. I could clearly see the golden radiance pouring from his body and the Demonic Buddha moving at its center.

What shone at that moment was not the Golden Great All-Encompassing Demonic Art, but my New Eye Procedure.

Still, I deliberately closed my eyes. There was no need to reveal the full extent of my abilities to him.

When I opened my eyes again, the Demonic Buddha had thrust his face right up to mine. His face, which looked both childlike and adult, felt unfamiliar.

The look in his eyes said exactly this:

Had I intended to kill you, you would already be dead!

He had every right to be confident. The Golden Great All-Encompassing Demonic Art had five hand seals in all. I didn’t need to experience it to know how terrifying the attack following this blinding light would be.

I said nothing. Deliberately, I feigned surprise and apprehension, if not outright terror.

Apparently deciding that this was sufficient warning, the Demonic Buddha rose. What he said was the opposite of what the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had said when he first visited me.

“I’d like to see you often. We can drink tea like this and talk. If you stay by my side, only good things will come your way.”

“Please share plenty of those with my elder brother.”

The Demonic Buddha smiled in satisfaction at my immature arrogance.

“Yes, you’re just the age for it. Until next time.”

“Take care.”

As he left the room with quick, short steps, the stiff expression I had deliberately assumed relaxed, and the room, which had been suffused with gold, returned to normal.

Listen, Demonic Buddha. You would be better off not seeing me often. So far, the Demon Supremes who have become involved with me fall into only three categories.

Those who have become my friends, those who are becoming my friends, and those who are dead.

Which do you think you belong to? As things stand, I don’t think we’re going to become friends...

So, are you confident you can create a fourth category?