Chapter 84

“Fine.”

The Heavenly Demon set his wine bottle down as he spoke.

“I will test your qualifications. By any means you can think of, try to touch even the hem of my robe with a fingertip.”

A hollow laugh almost slipped out.

Touch his own robe?

That was impossible even if there were a thousand of me right now, no, ten thousand.

Not just me, in all of Murim, you could count on one hand the people who might manage that alone.

“Isn’t that a bit too much determination to keep me from coming along?”

“If you have the ability, it should be possible.”

“You know that makes no sense, right, Master? And my body isn’t in normal condition. Please factor that in.”

The Heavenly Demon fell briefly into thought.

“Then shall we switch roles?”

In other words, ‘I’ would have to evade the Heavenly Demon’s attacks.

Just imagining it made every hair on my body stand on end.

That made even less sense.

Both were impossible, but this version also added the risk of injury. The Heavenly Demon would adjust his strength, sure, but it did not feel like he would be particularly gentle with me.

“You are reluctant about this as well?”

“Hmm, a bit? Given the state I’m in, proving myself with my body is still a bit too much.”

“You are overflowing with excuses. Stay in the Cult.”

The Heavenly Demon’s eyes shifted ever so slightly in a mocking way, as if to say, ‘This is all you are, and you still want to come with me?’

I quickly argued back.

“It’s not like you are leaving ‘tomorrow’ anyway, Master. So how about we test whether I could pass your trial ‘assuming’ I am in full condition at that time?”

A hint of interest flickered in the Heavenly Demon’s eyes.

“What do you propose?”

“A debate of martial arts.”

A debate of martial arts was an imaginary sparring match that used words as weapons.

Rather than physical ability, it required knowledge, experience, aptitude, and battle sense.

Even this could not truly be compared to the Heavenly Demon, but in my current situation, a debate was the only arena where I might have a chance.

Still, my skills were not something to scoff at.

“So how about it? Do you have the resolve to face my sharp tongue-sword?”

“Of course.”

The Heavenly Demon’s throat bobbed lightly as he swallowed his drink.

“You may set the conditions for this debate.”

“Alright.”

I quickly racked my brain.

I had to proceed under conditions that favored me as much as possible.

There were two ways to conduct a debate of martial arts.

One was to discuss metaphysical principles of martial reason, such as the various ways to realize Separation of Mind and Sword, or the feasibility of becoming an Ascended Immortal.

The other was to assume an actual combat situation and exchange techniques in words, deciding victory through that.

I chose the latter.

And I added two constraints on top of it.

“First, you have to use martial arts scaled to my level. No need to seal meridians, just match your internal energy and physical level to mine. Second, we only use techniques widely known in the world. It would be unfair if we use skills ‘only’ I know or secret arts only you know, Master.”

“You have arts that only you know?”

“Don’t look down on me. I’ve rolled around Murim for years, you know.”

“How many years is that?”

“…Half a year?”

The Heavenly Demon shook his head slightly.

Whatever. I gave a faint smile.

Under these terms, I could at least put up a decent fight against the Heavenly Demon.

They restricted his overwhelming martial prowess and maximized my own strengths.

“How does the debate end?”

“When either you or I forfeit our replies.”

“Then you make the first move.”

“Got it.”

I met the Heavenly Demon’s eyes.

My goal was not victory.

It was to plant bewilderment in those eyes that still sparkled with interest.

If I could do that, the Heavenly Demon would surely acknowledge me.

“Alright, I’ll start. I draw my Cold-Iron Dagger, lower my stance, slip in from the left, then cleave upward to your right shoulder with Thunder Dragon Flash Slash.”

The name sounded grand, but it was basically a technique where you draw a powerful arc and slash your target.

The Heavenly Demon’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

“A Thunder Dragon Flash Slash from lower left to upper right means you intend to cut my throat.”

“You’ve read it exactly right.”

“You go for your teacher’s throat from the very start.”

“In a fight, there is no teacher or disciple. There is only winner and loser.”

I spoke in a grim tone.

The Heavenly Demon quietly repeated my words.

“So there’s only winner and loser, you say?”

“Heh, that’s right. So what will you do?”

The basic conditions for the Heavenly Demon and me were the same.

But I held the Cold-Iron Dagger and used the advantage of the first move to launch an extremely lethal killing strike from the start.

This one move would not shake the Heavenly Demon, but it could tilt the flow in my favor.

“White Snake Flicks Its Tongue.”

White Snake Flicks Its Tongue was a technique that used the whole body’s spring to stab the opponent’s vital point in a single strike, like a snake darting out its tongue.

“Urk.”

I instinctively wrapped a hand around my forehead.

He had only spoken the name of the technique, yet a perfect image formed in my mind.

The moment I moved to cut the Heavenly Demon’s throat with Thunder Dragon Flash Slash, his right fist would surge in far faster, as if he had already predicted my movement, and then, in the very next instant, my skull would explode like a smashed watermelon.

Why was it?

Even though our conditions were supposed to be the same, it felt like I was going to be helplessly beaten.

“Um, just to be clear. You’re not ‘actually’ trying to smash my head, right?”

“You have seen correctly.”

“…Then I use Reverse-Cutting River Flow to twist my wrist and block White Snake Flicks Its Tongue with the flat of my Cold-Iron Dagger.”

“One Point Pierces the Falls.”

A single point that pierced a waterfall.

It was the intent to drive the fist forward regardless of the dagger blocking the way and shatter the head.

“Isn’t that a bit too rough for your disciple?”

“You were the one who said there is only winner and loser in battle.”

“That’s true, but…”

“I will absolutely crush your skull.”

The voice was dry, yet grimly resolute.

Wait, he’s seriously going this far?

‘Is he sulking?’

No way.

I just couldn’t imagine the Heavenly Demon sulking.

But if that was not it, his behavior made no sense.

‘That’s not the issue here.’

What mattered was earning the Heavenly Demon’s recognition.

To do that, I had to break through his obsession with my skull.

“…”

I sprang up from the bench.

Standing in the open space before it, I began to physically run through the Heavenly Demon’s techniques.

It was not easy to come up with counters just by thinking.

‘If I use Plum Blossom Petals Here, he’ll counter with Fierce Tiger Severing the Shore, and if I spin with Coiling Dragon Stirring the River, he will uppercut my jaw with Tilting the City, Falling Flames.’

“You are taking quite a while.”

“Let me concentrate.”

I let the Heavenly Demon’s words pass in one ear and out the other, piled thought upon thought.

At last, a good move came to mind.

“Iron Ox Plows the Field!”

Like that, the breathless debate resumed.

“Blood Hawk Pounces on the Earth.”

“Divine Ape Scales the Trees!”

“Iron Fan Shatters the Cliff.”

With no other words exchanged, only the names of techniques echoed through the space.

As the debate continued, I broke out in cold sweat several times.

It was because the Heavenly Demon showed such gruesome follow-through.

Things like yanking my forearm in with a force-drawing hand technique, then slamming the back of his fist into my face, or twisting his body to smash his elbow into my temple.

Every one of his techniques ended in the same horrifying conclusion of crushing my skull.

It was only a debate, but my mind grew hazy.

Each of the Heavenly Demon’s moves felt so vivid, as if they had real substance.

‘I can’t keep letting him drag me around.’

Regrettably, I was only barely managing to fend off that obsessive brain-smashing barrage.

I had not landed a single effective hit on the Heavenly Demon.

To overturn this situation, I had to shake the entire board.

I needed to present a technique that would catch the Heavenly Demon off guard.

‘A technique like Heaven-and-Earth Reversal.’

A technique I had seen in my previous life came to mind.

This just might work.

The Heavenly Demon would not expect it.

But then.

“It seems you have something in mind.”

The Heavenly Demon spoke.

His intuition was downright ghostly.

I denied it calmly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I sharpened every nerve.

I waited for the single moment I was aiming for.

Finally, the perfect situation arrived.

“Crimson Flames Spout to Heaven.”

To put it simply, Crimson Flames Spout to Heaven was a watered-down version of Thousand Hands Tathagata Palm.

It got that name because you swung your fists like crazy until your face turned bright red.

Strictly speaking, it was more of a party trick for drinking games, but things changed when the one using it was the Heavenly Demon.

In my mind, crimson waves of lava surged up toward the sky. The storm of fist-images the Heavenly Demon would unleash would certainly be far more threatening than that lava.

However, Crimson Flames Spout to Heaven had a fundamental flaw.

Since it spilled out countless punches, the power of each strike had no choice but to be divided, and within those innumerable fist-images there had to exist certain fixed ‘gaps’ and ‘trajectories.’

‘Which means it can be predicted and countered efficiently.’

I grinned broadly and shouted.

“I use Heaven-and-Earth Reversal to bounce back Master’s third strike!”

The Heavenly Demon’s expression changed ever so slightly.

He was probably surprised in two ways.

First, my ploy was the perfect counter to the Crimson Flames he had cast. It was a move that could only come from someone who fully understood the flaw of that technique.

Second, because of the infamous reputation of Heaven-and-Earth Reversal.

No one thirsted for martial arts like third-rate warriors. For them, martial arts were both life and livelihood.

However, it was absurd for a mere third-rate warrior to approach higher-level martial arts.

So they would revere certain widely-known techniques as if they were divine arts.

The so-called Six Great Techniques of Third-Rates.

Heaven-and-Earth Reversal was the most famous among them.

It had a certain ‘romance’ to it.

The romance of repelling the opponent’s strike and gifting them the maximum possible humiliation and despair.

Yet the number of people who actually used this technique was extremely small.

Because it was not as simple as it looked.

There were many variables to calculate, and the movements had to be extremely delicate.

If you copied it clumsily, instead of bouncing away the enemy’s attack, you were more likely to get skewered and die.

It had claimed the lives of so many third-rate warriors that it had gone from ‘great technique’ to ‘taboo,’ and I had just used it.

Sure enough, the Heavenly Demon pointed that out.

“Heaven-and-Earth Reversal is a technique that leads to self-destruction if executed half-heartedly.”

I did not answer.

There was no need to chatter yes or no. I just had to show it.

I ran through Crimson Flames Spout to Heaven and Heaven-and-Earth Reversal in sequence.

“How is it?”

“Have you seen Heaven-and-Earth Reversal before?”

“Seen it? It is so famous I just picked up the name and tried copying it.”

Of course, that was a lie.

In my previous life, while traveling the Central Plains, I had once happened to watch it over someone’s shoulder.

“…”

The Heavenly Demon went silent for a moment.

So he was finally impressed?

‘But this alone isn’t enough.’

To get the result I wanted, I couldn’t stop here. I had to go one step further.

Just as the Heavenly Demon was about to open his mouth, I jumped in first.

“Let me guess. You were planning to counter with Lure and Draw Out, or something similar, right?”

“…That is right.”

“Then I respond with North Wind Flays the Face. You would follow with Thunder that Shakes the Peaks, right, Master? Expecting that, I prepare Serpent Snare. I use it to sweep your lower body and break your balance. At the same time I slice with the cold-iron dagger, slit-slit. Hehehe. Perfect, isn’t it?”

Even the Heavenly Demon would not have any tricks left after this.

A sense of triumph washed over me.

Seeing the Heavenly Demon remain silent, I asked again.

“So? Even after all that, do I still not have the qualifications to guard you, Master?”

One corner of the Heavenly Demon’s mouth slowly lifted.

A sense of foreboding crept over me.

The Heavenly Demon spoke quietly.

“Falling Rock Crash.”

In that instant, my mind went blank.

The moment I heard it, I realized my plan had collapsed.

Serpent Snare was a technique that coiled around the opponent’s lower body like a snake and dragged them down.

Falling Rock Crash was the opposite.

The lower body, as if bound by an invisible rope, was yanked backward and up, and with that recoil the upper body snapped forward like a falling boulder, slamming down on the opponent’s crown.

The Heavenly Demon had finally smashed my skull.

‘I was almost there!’

As I sank into emptiness, the Heavenly Demon spoke.

“If you cannot tell bait from food, you can only be caught.”

His intent to crush my skull had been bait all along. I had become a stupid fish, so fixated on the bait that I hooked myself.

‘I’m doomed.’

Not just doomed. Thoroughly ruined.

I had not only failed to surprise the Heavenly Demon, but ended up being taught a lesson on top of it.

I must have gotten too full of myself.

“Haaah.”

A sigh escaped me on its own.

The Grand Strategist’s request, my personal aims, and even my sense of duty to protect the Heavenly Demon. It felt like all of it had gone up in smoke.

‘Should I beg for another round?’

I shook my head at once.

That was hopeless.

The Heavenly Demon was not someone that would work on.

“Haaaah.”

Another sigh slipped out.

At that moment, the Heavenly Demon spoke.

“It will not be such a light journey.”

“Eh?”

Thinking about what that meant, my mouth fell open before I realized it.

“Master…?”

Downing the rest of his drink, the Heavenly Demon added a single offhand line.

“You were not bad.”