Chapter 86

“Die, you bastard! Hiiyaaaap!”

The leading warrior swung his saber at the Heavenly Demon with a shout.

I sucked in a sharp breath before I knew it.

Did he even realize who he’d just cursed at like that?

‘I’ll pray for your soul.’

But the Heavenly Demon didn’t kill him.

Like flowing water, he stretched out his hand and stripped the saber from the man.

“H-huh?”

The warrior who had rushed past the Heavenly Demon blinked, staring at his own hand.

He’d been holding a weapon just a moment ago, only for it to vanish in the blink of an eye, so of course he was rattled.

Puk!

Gripping the saber in reverse, the Heavenly Demon smacked him in the back of the head.

The man slammed into the ground without even a groan.

I found myself covering the back of my own head.

Tsk tsk, that had to hurt. He should at least be grateful he wasn’t dead.

“Hyaaa!”

I wasn’t exactly in a position to sit back and watch.

Since one of them happened to be charging at me too, I drew my cold-iron dagger.

Seugeong!

I swung my blade at the oncoming saber, and his weapon sliced cleanly in two like tofu.

“…!”

His eyes flew wide in shock.

Babababak!

Not missing that opening, I unleashed a rapid flurry of punches into his frozen body.

He went limp, losing consciousness before he could even so much as move.

‘Yeah, that’s more like it.’

A satisfied smile tugged at my lips.

Maybe it was because I had brushed past death so many times even after regressing, but I felt more seasoned than before.

At this level, even the Heavenly Demon would have to acknowledge me, right?

My shoulders practically rose with pride.

But then—

Kwadang! Kwadang!

At the crash from the Heavenly Demon’s side, I turned my head.

The warriors rushing him were collapsing in real time, unable even to scream.

In the blink of an eye, a dozen or so men lay sprawled around him.

I was struck speechless.

While I was puffing myself up over dropping a single guy, he’d felled that many?

‘I really do still have a long way to go.’

In front of the Heavenly Demon, I couldn’t help but be humbled.

Just then, several dozen more men poured out of the main building.

I thought it was a small branch, but it was like they’d gathered every random thug in town.

Maybe they were cowed by all the bodies strewn around the Heavenly Demon.

They only hovered uncertainly, none of them daring to charge in.

“It’s only two guys! What are you so scared of?!”

A heavyset man standing at the very back of the crowd roared.

From the looks of him, he was probably the Heretical Alliance’s Tianshui branch chief.

Having pulled his subordinates together, he glared back and forth between me and the Heavenly Demon.

“One’s just a brat, and the other looks like he’s swung a blade or two, but there’s no edge to him. You lot are more than enough to kill them. Attack with the Asura Slaughter Formation!”

“Yes, sir!”

The warriors formed a sloppy formation and inched toward us.

Just as I’d thought, it was definitely a mob of random riffraff.

“I’ll take that guy. Master, you handle the small fry.”

“Are you confident?”

“You know who I am, don’t you? I’m the Heuk-Slaying Little Demon Baek—”

“Go.”

“Yep.”

I moved around the approaching warriors and headed straight for the branch chief.

He looked down at me with a solemn expression.

“Brat, you’re eager to throw your life away. Hundreds have gone to the underworld by this Tianshui Poison Overlord’s hand.”

“I’ve killed a man who killed tens of millions.”

“Haha! So you’re a lunatic.”

The branch chief arrogantly drew his saber.

He clearly thought I’d be easy prey.

And then—

Puk, puk, puk.

At regular intervals, blows landed with the steady rhythm of someone chopping wood.

I didn’t need to look back to know.

The Heavenly Demon was sending them to dreamland one by one.

Noticing that, the branch chief’s pupils shook violently.

He was the kind of man who only showed himself after his subordinates had all been knocked down.

The arrogant eyes that had looked down on me moments ago were now filled with horror that went beyond mere shock.

Even with poor judgment, he had to realize the Heavenly Demon was a monster who could tear someone like him apart with one hand.

“Where in the world did a monster like that come from…?”

Suddenly, the branch chief spun around and bolted.

‘Wow.’

I couldn’t help but be impressed. That hesitation-free dash. That brutally practical—no, brainless—mindset that knew pride didn’t put food on the table. Neither Demon Cult nor orthodox types would ever make that choice.

“And just where do you think you’re going?”

I unleashed Soul-Extinguishing Flash Step and closed in on his back in an instant.

“G-get lost!”

In a panic, he twisted only his upper body back and shot out a palm strike.

It had the power of someone at the threshold of peak level, but instead of dodging, I thrust out my cold-iron dagger.

Startled when his palm almost got skewered, he hastily twisted the flow of his palm force aside.

In that instant, his side was left completely exposed.

Not missing the gap, I drove the tip of my foot into it.

“Guhk.”

The branch chief doubled over and flailed his left hand at me.

I swung my dagger again, and he yanked his left arm back.

He still had a saber hanging at his waist, but I never gave him time to draw it.

Bbak! Bbak! Bbakbbak!

In a brief span, we traded blows several times.

Without winning a single exchange, the branch chief took a kick to the back of his knee and toppled over.

“If you get up, you’ll get hurt.”

I pressed the cold-iron dagger to the back of his neck.

He gulped and shook his head.

He meant he had no intention of resisting anymore.

“Good. That’s how it should be.”

Thanks to the Heavenly Demon, this fight had gone unusually smoothly.

With his morale broken and his mind on running away, his whole body had been riddled with openings.

“Not bad, right?”

I asked the Heavenly Demon, who had just finished mopping up the small fry and was looking this way.

He answered in a low voice.

“Even a thousand-li embankment crumbles from an ant hole.”

Even a long embankment stretching five-hundred kilometers can collapse from a single ant hole.

In other words, don’t let your guard down.

Since he wasn’t wrong, I immediately focused my attention back on the branch chief.

Pinned under me, he squeezed out his words.

“Wh-why are you doing this out of nowhere? Did the Murim Alliance send you?”

“No, but I came because there’s something I want.”

“And what would that be?”

“Tranquil Frost Pills.”

The Tianshui branch chief’s face twisted.

He must’ve heard rumors that some thugs were going around robbing people of their Tranquil Frost Pills.

“T-the Alliance will never overlook this.”

“I don’t care if it’s the Alliance or the Alliance’s grandpa, I’m not scared of either. Just hand over the Tranquil Frost Pills.”

I held out my hand to him.

Shaking with frustration, he took a wooden box from his breast.

I took it and opened it to find two Tranquil Frost Pills inside.

“Yeah, that’s it. If you’d done this from the start, you could’ve skipped the beating.”

“You didn’t even ask for them—Ghk!”

I chopped him in the back of the neck and knocked him out.

And just like that, the battle at the Heretical Alliance’s Tianshui branch was over.

As expected, the Heavenly Demon’s way is better than mine.

It was far more satisfying to smash through head-on than to fuss over petty schemes.

Once I caught up to what I’d achieved in my past life, I’d be able to act however I liked too.

“Let’s go.”

The Heavenly Demon and I strolled casually away from the wrecked Tianshui branch.

“Thanks to you, that went real easy, Master. Thank you.”

“Enough.”

“But you didn’t kill anyone this time, huh?”

I’d checked once the fighting was over.

None of the Heretical Alliance warriors had vanished from my sensing.

The Heavenly Demon’s answer was cold.

“They simply weren’t worth killing.”

I almost laughed to myself.

The Heavenly Demon was an absolute powerhouse who could kill thousands or tens of thousands without batting an eye.

But he wasn’t a lunatic who reveled mindlessly in blood and slaughter.

The Heavenly Demon never lost his dignity.

I didn’t dislike that about him.

We plundered Heretical Alliance branches as we passed through various cities.

Just like he had in Tianshui, the Heavenly Demon blew their front gates to pieces one after another.

The only difference was that he no longer fought alongside me.

Every time the gates exploded and the residents came out furious, I had to handle them by myself.

On the first day, I got hurt pretty badly.

So of course I grumbled.

-“How can you do this to me? Master smashes the gate, and the disciple has to clean it up?”

-“It seems getting injured has made you complain.”

-“Obviously.”

-“Then get beaten more.”

-“Huh?”

Saying he’d patch up the weak spots in my fighting, the Heavenly Demon came at me himself.

The same thing repeated for the next ten days.

We’d raid a Heretical Alliance branch, repel the Heretical Alliance fighters chasing us, then I’d get thoroughly beaten up by the Heavenly Demon.

‘I really shouldn’t have come along.’

I’d expected it to be tough, but not like this.

Getting pummeled nonstop every single day.

The only saving graces were that the Ice-Spirit Cold-Soul Grass had eased the constraints of the True Blood Severed Meridians, and that the Heavenly Demon consistently made sure I had time to circulate and regulate my qi.

Thanks to that, I could just barely hang on.

‘…Still, it’s working.’

It was brutal, but at some point I noticed something strange.

As time went on, I was getting hurt far less.

My physique and internal energy were clearly the same.

Even the methods the Heavenly Demon used to “teach” me through beatings were ones I’d experienced in my past life.

Yet I was improving at a steep pace.

Thanks to the Heavenly Demon, I was mastering things I hadn’t realized in my past life, or had realized but my body hadn’t been able to follow.

Like that, by the time we’d passed through the Heretical Alliance’s territory and entered the Murim Alliance’s domain, I’d achieved sharper combat ability and a stash of fourteen Tranquil Frost Pills.

Passing villages like Cheon-yang and Mi-hyeon, we finally arrived at Xi’an.

It was a city so prosperous it had served as the capital of thirteen dynasties, but it was special to me for another reason.

There was something very lucrative I could harvest here.

“Master, don’t you feel the wind?”

“What wind?”

“The wind of a fateful encounter.”

The Heavenly Demon’s brow furrowed slightly.

His face said, “What nonsense are you talking about?”

“There’s a rumor that a treasure sank on the riverbed of the river flowing through Xi’an. Haven’t you heard of it?”

“I have not.”

‘Of course he hasn’t. It hasn’t even been discovered yet.’

Several years from now, long-lasting heavy rains will cause the Wei River and the Ba River to overflow.

Near the Ba River, they would find a bronze pig statue called the Bronze Seated Statue.

Coincidentally, it was one of twenty art pieces sought by the owner of the Myriad Gold Money House, counted among the Three Great Tycoons of the Central Plains.

So the finder received an enormous fortune.

The problem was how to haul it up…

First, I needed time to think.

“Master, could we stay here for just two days?”

“You intend to chase a windfall.”

“I’ve got a feeling I can find it.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“I’m sure you do?”

The wording felt a little off to me, and as I mulled over it, the Heavenly Demon nodded.

He was telling me to do as I wished.

I let out a breath of relief.

I’d thought he’d tell me to train instead of wasting time on foolishness, or lecture me about relying on luck.

“Um, Master.”

Since there was something I wanted to say, I carefully brought it up.

“As for that treasure… how about we dig it up?”

“We?”

The Heavenly Demon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

I hurried to explain.

“I’ve got a good guess where it is. If you use your true power to lift up the whole riverbed in that spot, maybe nine meters by nine meters should be enough.”

“…”

Silence fell for a moment.

The Heavenly Demon looked at me as if beholding something that shouldn’t exist in this world.

“What’s with that look?”

“All you ever do is scheme to use your master somehow.”

“Hey now, ‘use’ is harsh. It’s mutual benefit. There’s a grand design behind this. If things go well for me, it benefits you in the end too.”

“Your tongue really does flow like a clear stream.”

“Anyway, you’ll help, right?”

“Take care of your own business.”

A flat refusal.

Asking the Heavenly Demon to dig out a riverbed, even I knew how absurd that sounded.

‘Well, I figured as much.’

That’s why I’d come up with another plan during the journey.

The problem was finding someone to carry it out.

“Welcome!”

We found a decent-looking inn and rented an annex with two rooms.

Since it was a big city, all the nicer places were either full or refused us lodging, saying they only took guests whose identities were vouched for.

We went to the annex to unpack, then returned to the main hall to eat.

While we waited for our order, snippets of chatter around us drifted to my ears.

“Serves them right! Thanks to the Evil-Slaying Twin Heroes, they’ve had their noses smashed flat. I hear four or five branches got wrecked.”

“Funny thing is, apparently nobody died.”

“That’s walking the true path of chivalry. Just because those bastards roll in the mud doesn’t mean real heroes have to.”

“Yeah. They really know what true chivalry is.”

“There’s a reason they call them the Great Heavenly Dragon and the Little Heavenly Dragon.”

I snorted softly and spoke to the Heavenly Demon.

“Master, looks like there are others out there like us.”

“So it seems.”

But the more I listened, the stranger it felt.

How to put it, something about the deeds of the Evil-Slaying Twin Heroes sounded oddly familiar.

“I hear the Lanzhou branch chief pisses himself if he so much as hears the words ‘Evil-Slaying Twin Heroes.’ Hahaha!”

“Wahahaha!”

I met the Heavenly Demon’s eyes.

A silent conversation passed between us.

‘They can’t be talking about us, right?’

‘…It seems they are.’

I was dumbfounded.

The Demon Cult’s leader and his disciple being called heroes?

Could there be a greater contradiction in the world?

An indescribable feeling washed over me.

The Heavenly Demon, it seemed, was displeased at being called that when he stood at the pinnacle of the demonic path.

His brow was furrowed hard.

Seeing that, I spoke in a teasing tone.

“It seems the Great Heavenly Dragon is in a foul mood?”

“And the Little Heavenly Dragon seems delighted.”

I burst out laughing before I could stop myself.

The Heavenly Demon, making jokes?

It was then—

I heard a commotion at the inn’s entrance.

When I turned my head, the waiter was blocking a boy of about ten from coming in.

The waiter spoke in an embarrassed tone.

“Kid, I told you, we can’t let someone in dressed like that.”

The boy was dressed rather oddly.

At his waist hung a bundle of folded rods, and on his back he carried a long bamboo basket with a lid.

Whatever was inside it, water was dripping steadily from the basket.

From the waiter’s perspective, he had no choice but to stop him from entering.

“I fully acknowledge your concerns that I might harm the inn’s hygiene and reputation. In that case, how about I leave the basket outside before I go in?”

The boy, speaking far more politely than his age suggested, peered past the waiter and scanned the interior of the inn.

Then his eyes met mine.

For some reason—

His gaze moved from me, to the Heavenly Demon, back to me, then back to the Heavenly Demon.

The boy’s eyes went as wide as lanterns.

“The Evil-Slaying Twin Heroes!”

Wait, how did he recognize us?

“The Evil-Slaying Twin Heroes?”

“Really?”

Every gaze in the room focused on us at once.

The boy tried to approach us as if in a trance.

The waiter hurriedly blocked his way, but the boy twisted his body like an eel and slipped past the man’s arm.

That brat knows martial arts.

‘But why is he heading toward us?’

From across the table, I heard the Heavenly Demon’s quiet voice.

“The solution you were looking for is walking to you on its own feet.”

“Huh?”

As I stared at him, puzzled by the Heavenly Demon’s cryptic words, the boy came to a stop in front of us.