Chapter 47: Demon Footsteps
“Am I overthinking this?”
I felt that I was being too hasty. It felt like I had set a conclusion beforehand and was forcing my way to it.
Why was that?
If there was a reason, I could guess it. It was because of the grating feeling I got from that Mount Hua Sect disciple.
I needed to observe the situation more objectively.
‘I can think this way because I know this trace belongs to Master Heavenly Demon, but if someone did not know, they could misunderstand, couldn’t they?’
In the trace left by Master Heavenly Demon, there was not even a speck of strange or evil energy. It felt like looking into a deep and heavy abyss.
One could tell just by looking at Baek Mu-ho’s reaction.
‘He even absurdly mistook it for Master Bodhidharma’s martial arts.’
Even so, one other thing could not be explained.
‘However, it makes no sense to destroy the trace left by Master Bodhidharma. This is something only someone hostile to Orthodox martial arts would do. If the goal was to monopolize the fortuitous opportunity, they should have destroyed Master Heavenly Demon’s trace as well.’
Wondering if I was overthinking, I set up hypotheses from various angles, but the conclusion was still that the one who did this was not of the Orthodox faction.
In the end, going in circles, it would not be a coincidence that a member of the Demonic Cult, a prime suspect, came here.
‘Could it be that they knew from the beginning that something Master Heavenly Demon left was here?’
If records detailing Master Heavenly Demon’s tracks remained within the Demonic Cult, it was entirely possible.
Although it was indeed too much of a leap, the result lay right before my eyes.
I should ask Master Heavenly Demon when he returned.
‘Is there a need to wait until he returns?’
Although I did not know the reason, I got the feeling that Master Bodhidharma and Master Heavenly Demon had traveled here and there together for a while. Even here, they seemed to have carved traces together.
“Master Bodhidharma. Did Master Heavenly Demon leave something behind here?”
[Leave something behind?]
“Yes, something like a memento.”
[That fellow is not the type to care about such things… Ah!]
The answer came out just as expected, but Master Bodhidharma suddenly gasped.
[True, at that time, was he a bit less worldly than now? It was a period when his self-pride pierced the heavens.]
If there was a landmark or a token worth remembering or recording, there was plenty of reason for the Demonic Cult kids to come all the way here to look for it.
But what was this feeling? I kept thinking that I was missing something.
“……Ah!”
Thanks to stepping back a pace to examine the situation, I quickly grasped the nature of the incongruity I was feeling.
“I was too relaxed!”
However, despite my urgent voice, Baek Mu-ho did not move an inch and only stared at the trace on the wall.
I could see that he was tremendously absorbed. My casual muttering just now probably did not even enter his ears.
He seemed to be gaining something, but I was sorry, we had no time for that.
Thwack!
“Argh!”
“Wake up and follow me quickly.”
“What? Why?”
Perhaps because he was forcibly dragged out of his deep absorption, Baek Mu-ho shouted irritably.
However, there was no time to deal with his whining right now.
“I know what the bastards attacking Mount Hua want.”
Without even finishing my sentence, I threw myself out of the cave.
After briefly hesitating between me and Master Heavenly Demon’s trace, Baek Mu-ho followed behind me with a sigh.
It seemed he judged that I had a reason to be so urgent.
“What is it?”
“The villages near the Mount Hua Sect are being attacked, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Because of that, the Mount Hua Sect is currently focusing all its strength on the outskirts to defend the nearby villages.”
“That is true… Ah!”
Baek Mu-ho also seemed to get the drift.
This was Mount Hua, where the Mount Hua Sect resided. Disposing of a spy from the Demonic Cult would normally be a piece of cake.
Normally.
“Right now, the Mount Hua Sect is empty.”
But what if it was a spy whose identity had not been exposed?
“It is a housebreaking.”
Whether they destroy or steal.
They can do whatever they want.
***
“What is this, it makes me feel dirty.”
A main sect disciple of the Mount Hua Sect. No, Sang Woo-kyung, a spy of the Demonic Cult, rubbed his greasy hands against his clothes and recalled memories of the past.
“Tsk.”
When Sang Woo-kyung was around ten years old, the Cult gathered children with outstanding bone structure. Believing it was to select the rising stars who would open the future of the Heavenly Demon Cult, Sang Woo-kyung applied enthusiastically and finally succeeded in being chosen by the Cult.
However, the place Sang Woo-kyung was sent to was this Mount Hua Sect.
The people of the Mount Hua Sect, recognizing Sang Woo-kyung’s talent, took him in and made him a disciple, as he had been abandoned like a friendless orphan.
“If it were not for the restraining seal, I would not have done this.”
The years he spent living as a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect were not bad. Living as a person of the Mount Hua Sect for nearly twenty years, he had also grown attached.
He thought it would be fine to live and die as Mount Hua disciple Sang Woo-kyung.
However, rendering the decade or so of quiet years meaningless, an order had come down.
It was an order to retrieve the Heavenly Demon’s heritage that must be somewhere on Mount Hua.
Sang Woo-kyung’s life, restricted by a peculiar and sinister method that could not be called a product of the demonic path, was mortgaged to the Cult. The Cult did not overlook the possibility that a spy who infiltrated could defect over the course of time.
If he did not want to die, he had to follow the order.
“In the end, this is also just an excuse…”
If he wished to remain a main sect disciple of the Mount Hua Sect, and if the relationships he had built up so far were precious, what he had to do was simple.
He could just commit suicide. Then, even if he died, he could remain a main sect disciple of the Mount Hua Sect.
Sang Woo-kyung made his choice.
“I must live.”
He valued his own life more.
He resolved to survive even if it meant betraying all the connections he had built and stabbing them in the back.
Sacrificing oneself for others is a foolish thing. Anyone would strike someone in the back if their own life was on the line; that is how humans are.
Sang Woo-kyung rationalized his choice as a matter of course.
Mount Hua main sect disciple Sang Woo-kyung disappeared, and only Sang Woo-kyung the Demonic Cult spy remained.
“As the masters say, a dog of the Demonic Cult acts like a dog. Since a Demonic Cult member is doing the work of the Demonic Cult, please do not blame me too much.”
The moment he chose to live as a Demonic Cult member, Sang Woo-kyung hardened his heart.
Soon, flames would soar from the main strongholds of the Mount Hua Sect. He had set embers on ropes soaked in oil, making the flames rise with a time delay.
Under normal circumstances, such a method would never work, but not now. For the remaining people, just putting out the fires would be overwhelming. If he utilized that chaotic gap, he could grab a hefty share and slip away leisurely.
“I have to make a living too.”
He had practiced Orthodox martial arts for twenty years. Even if he returned to the Heavenly Demon Cult like this, he would not be able to practice demonic arts. He would end up as neither one nor the other.
Therefore, even if he went back to the Heavenly Demon Cult, he had to secure martial arts he could practice on his own.
Something like the Purple Sunset Divine Art, the secret of secrets.
Inflicting a heavy blow on the Mount Hua Sect in the process would also serve as a good achievement.
“Thank you for everything.”
Sang Woo-kyung, who shook off all his relationships, laughed joyfully with anticipation for the future.
***
“Am I too late?”
As I drew closer to the Mount Hua Sect, I saw rising smoke.
“Wow! It is not just one or two places?”
Just as Baek Mu-ho said, smoke was rising from all directions.
A pungent fragrance spread through the acrid smoke. It seemed that among the burning buildings, there was also a medicine room storing medicinal ingredients.
“Water! Bring water!”
“At least take out the contents!”
The Mount Hua Sect disciples desperately fought against the demon of fire.
However, despite those efforts, the flames devoured the buildings as if they were living creatures.
“They look very short-handed.”
It was the Mount Hua Sect, which boasted hundreds of years of history. Of course, most of the buildings had been reconstructed, but even so, several decades was the basic age.
Meaning they were in a state perfect for burning.
Not to mention, if it was a place storing herbs and spirit herbs, it had to be kept dry to prevent moisture.
This, too, was a condition that could not help but be vulnerable to fire.
Ultimately, as if they judged that putting out the fire was difficult, they were taking out only the precious herbs and spiritual medicines, even at the risk of their clothes catching fire.
“You look for that guy. Considering the time the fire started to rise, he probably has not left Mount Hua yet.”
“What about you?”
“I should help here. Still, I owe them the courtesy of having stayed the night.”
Baek Mu-ho spoke vaguely, but it was not hard to guess where the level of those words reached.
“Since your lightfoot art is better than mine now.”
Instead of chasing something not in front of him out of emotional judgment, he would choose the immediate best option before him.
It was a realistic judgment, unlike Baek Mu-ho.
One could say he had a personality that grew calmer in a crisis.
“Go quickly!”
Baek Mu-ho, who pushed my back with his words, threw himself into the flames to help the short-handed Mount Hua Sect people.
As I turned my body according to Baek Mu-ho’s words, a ringing voice was heard.
“Whose doing is this!”
“Argh! Martial Uncle! Take it easy!”
Since the situation was what it was, Taoist Zabu, who had thrown away his silent meditation, was pressing down on the giant fire demon with his sword.
The problem was that the building was also crushed by that sword pressure.
Although the fire was extinguished, the building was also crushed.
Seeing those sights made the thought that I must not lose the fellow who did this grow even stronger.
[What, has trouble broken out already?]
Right then, Master Heavenly Demon’s voice came through. Having found out something in Hell, he used the word “already.”
[According to the information spat out by the guy I beat up in Hell…]
“Thank you. You do not have to say it.”
Digging up information through Hell—I thought it was a good idea, but the opponent’s action was much faster.
It was also after I had confirmed the face of the one who did this.
“Didn’t you say there is also the issue of causality? The moment you speak of it, it feels like I would have to pay a price, and listening to it now would just be like mending the barn after losing the cow.”
The situation had already occurred. There was no reason to listen to it at the cost of paying a high price.
[Well, if that is how you think.]
Was it an overthought? I got the feeling that something else was hidden in Master Heavenly Demon’s voice.
Should I have listened to it?
Although a different thought occurred to me belatedly.
“Masters, rather than that, could you advise me on which direction that guy might have fled?”
For now, catching that guy was the priority.
The Mount Hua Sect disciple I had met near Immortal Peak.
Since it was practically his home ground, rather than blindly chasing him, I was asking for the advice of the masters who would have some knowledge.
If it was this, it would not be directly utilizing the power of the heavens, so there should be no problem.
[Hmph.]
As if he had something to say, Master Heavenly Demon made a sound as if thinking for a moment.
[Did you come after finding the trace left by me and Bodhidharma on Immortal Peak?]
“Yes.”
[Then that guy might have something interesting.]
“Something… interesting?”
Why, when Master Heavenly Demon spoke like that, it did not sound like it was simply interesting?
[To commemorate gaining enlightenment in the middle of Mount Hua, I left one of my tokens behind.]
[Hey, you son of a…]
It seemed Master Bodhidharma did not know about it either.
A token of the Heavenly Demon right in the middle of the Orthodox faction’s territory.
[Although it was a childish thing to do when I think about it now, if it functioned properly, a fraction of the Western Metal Deity’s divine power might have dwelt in it.]
If it was the divine power of the Western Metal Deity, did that mean the true force of the White Emperor?
[Heh… Was it a force that would connect our fates in this way?]
Master Bodhidharma let out a breath of what seemed like admiration at this weaving of fate.
[Even if it is weak, it is divine power. Even a small amount reveals a strong presence like a light in the darkness.]
“What should I do?”
[You just need to read space. I will properly teach you the basics of the Calamity-less.]
Because I had shown absurd progress the moment I encountered it, the Heavenly Demon Calamity-less Hand I practiced was rather weak in its foundation.
Master Heavenly Demon explained those basics.
The master’s voice continued.
[Feel. Originally, seeing is uncertain. When a hunter looks at the forest, he sees the prey to hunt; a woodcutter sees the trees; and a herbalist sees the herbs. Even when looking at the same thing, human eyes capture different things.]
[Read and feel.]
[Read the world you will dominate, feel it, and then know what it is.]
[That is the beginning for one who wishes to walk this Heavenly Demon’s path!]
Master Heavenly Demon’s words rushed in unilaterally.
Those words sprouted within me.
The moment the expanding senses stretched out from the highest point of Mount Hua.
“Found you!”
In this world where gods had disappeared, I felt a single strand of energy that felt foreign.