So? Did Someone Force You to Become the Heavenly Demon?

TL Note: In ancient China, the words county and village were used interchangeably; in those times, villages did not exist as formal administrative units as counties did.

Chapter 16: Business Trip (1)

As I predicted, the task Master intended for me was related to the previous banquet.

However, it wasn’t just a simple assignment to create some system and reporting format out of nowhere.

“Your suggestion was quite excellent, but it was also a suggestion made without fully understanding the actual circumstances of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. Therefore, let us first familiarize you with the realities of our Cult,” Master declared. He instructed me to begin by assessing the conditions of the regions governed by the Cult.

In other words, I had to go on a business trip.

And our gracious Master, who was kind enough to make me grind my teeth, gave me two days instead of leaving immediately.

“You should bid farewell to that child. She might be quite anxious if you suddenly disappear,” he added, his gaze fixed on me with an oddly amused glint.

Though I couldn’t decipher the meaning behind his look, I was grateful for the opportunity to say goodbye to Seon-ah the following day.

“Do you have to go…?” she pleaded, her eyes welling up.

“Urgh…”

The child’s earnest gaze pierced my heart. However, my sadness wasn’t solely due to her cuteness.

‘I don’t want to go either!!!’

The fact that this wasn’t a voluntary trip made the situation doubly distressing.

Yet, I couldn’t explain the truth about being forced to go.

“Seon-ah. Big Brother is a disciple of the Supreme One.”

I couldn’t badmouth Master in front of Jin Hayeon who was watching with cold eyes from the side.

“Because I am the disciple of the great Heavenly Demon, I have various duties to fulfill. Therefore, even while I’m away, you must diligently study and practice every day.”

“Why…?”

“Probably because I’ll be busier? I like playing with Seon-ah, but if Seon-ah becomes smarter and better at martial arts, we can do work together instead of just playing, right? Then we can be together all the time, right?”

“Ah!”

As if struck by a sudden realization, Seon-a’s already large eyes widened further, and she nodded vigorously. Charmed by her cuteness, I patted her head and extended my pinky finger.

“I’ll bring you a gift when I return. So make sure you study hard while I’m gone, okay?”

“Yes!! I’ll definitely become an excellent person and work together with Big Brother!”

After finishing my brief farewell with Seon-ah, it was time for training with Master again.

“Since you’ve learned all the main forms of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword. Today, let’s learn the forms of footwork and movement techniques.”

With those words, Master gracefully moved around Windrock Palace. Astonishingly, deep footprints were left wherever he stepped.

“Follow these footprints and execute the movements I demonstrated.”

For the next hour, I contorted my body, mimicking Master’s movements and following his instructions. It resembled a bizarre dance more than martial arts. By the time the movements of the lightness technique and footwork started to become familiar, the training session came to an end.

The next morning…

“Huaaam.”

A bundle was strapped to her back, containing books, ink, brushes, and other materials for my studies. Following her lead, we traversed the inner grounds of the Demonic Cult.

We soon arrived at a location where a large carriage was parked.

“Haha. Come on in.”

And in the carriage was Master, an early riser due to his age, was already seated inside.

To my surprise, he would be accompanying me on this trip.

Once Jin Hayeon and I boarded, the coachman, who also served as a bodyguard, set the carriage in motion.

As we passed the cult’s ground and entered a forested path, lush greenery filled the view from the carriage window.

‘Perhaps because Master is with us, it feels rather leisurely.’

It felt more like going on a casual trip somewhere than a business trip.

As I was enjoying the forest bathing in the carriage since early morning.

Thump.

Suddenly the carriage stopped, and Master looked at me and spoke.

“Get off now.”

“???”

There wasn’t a village in sight. Why would I get off here?

Confused, I obeyed.

The scene outside was even more perplexing.

‘Why am I the only one getting off?

As if reading my expression, Master spoke from inside the carriage.

“From now on, run after us.”

“!?”

Before I could react, the carriage started moving again.

‘Are you crazy!?’

Shocked, I quickly moved my feet to chase after the carriage. Oddly enough, the carriage was moving at quite a leisurely pace. As if matching my running speed.

And when I finally managed to catch up to the carriage’s side, Master spoke.

“. Have you forgotten the movement techniques I taught you yesterday? This too is part of your training. In any situation, whenever you run, move according to the movement technique’s principle until those movements are completely ingrained in your body.”

Only then could I fully grasp the situation.

The reason Master gave me two days’ grace wasn’t consideration for saying goodbye to Seon-ah.

It was because he needed time to teach me the movement techniques.

‘Come to think of it, the reason he didn’t summon me immediately after the banquet might have been because of this as well.’

Master had a plan all along—a plan to efficiently exploit my abilities. Just then, his sharp voice cut through the air.

“Your posture is wrong. Focus. Do you think an enemy’s sword will miss you in a real situation just because you’re tired? Your form must be flawless, even under the most strenuous circumstances.”

It was a hellish business trip right from the start.

* * *

“The angle of your waist is wrong.”

“My apologies. It is due to this lowly one’s inadequate martial arts instruction,” Jin Hayeon chimed in, echoing Master’s nagging.

How long had I been running while enduring their relentless criticism? Just as my mind began to cloud over…

Thud.

The carriage running alongside me stopped.

“Get in.”

“Huff… huff…”

Completely out of breath, I clumsily climbed aboard and gulped down the water from a flask offered by Jin Hayeon.

“Regulate your breathing by exercising your breathing technique. It might be uncomfortable at first, but there’s nothing better than breathing exercises to restore a tired body and stabilize your breathing,” Master instructed, his tone sterner than usual.

Suppressing a sigh, I assumed the lotus position inside the carriage.

“Inhale… Exhale.”

I took a deep breath, guiding the surrounding energy deep into my lungs. As I controlled this energy, circulating it through my meridians according to the principles of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword, transforming it into Demonic Energy (魔氣), a sudden thought jolted me.

‘Damn.’

I almost flinched without realizing it.

Whether due to lack of breath from excessive exercise or because of the carriage’s vibrations.

The energy was raging more violently than usual, and as a result, strange pain occurred every time the energy passed through the meridians.

It struck me then—I was cultivating Demonic Arts. Unlike the stable techniques of the righteous sects, Demonic Arts were volatile and prone to causing Qi Deviation, a catastrophic disruption of internal energy.

Even when learned carefully and normally, it could cause mental illness as a side effect, so how much worse could it be?

However, it would be even more dangerous to abruptly stop the operation of energy circulation I had already started would be even more dangerous.

With the feeling of walking on thin ice, I carefully operated my internal energy.

“Inhale… Exhale…”

I focused my mind while breathing as deeply and slowly as possible.

After repeating several small cycles like this, the violently raging Demonic Energy gradually began to stabilize, and seizing the opportunity, I gathered it within my dantian.

‘Perhaps because I concentrated so strongly, the energy increased more than usual.’

Confirming the noticeable growth in my energy, I opened my eyes with one final deep breath. A chill ran down my spine as sweat, either from the run or the exertion of concentration, cooled on my skin.

“Hahaha. As expected, I knew you could do it, Il-mok,” Master’s voice chuckled.

“…Did you intentionally make me practice my breathing technique in a dangerous situation?” I asked, my voice sharper than intended.

The crazy old man stroked his beard with a smug grin. “As a martial artist, you will often encounter situations where you must practice breathing exercises in unstable physical or mental states.”

“…Was it truly necessary to practice that now?” I countered, implying that such training would be more appropriate after attaining a higher level of mastery. Master shook his head.

“You must think the other way around. On the contrary, after becoming an expert, even the smallest problem can become insurmountable. Which is more dangerous: a small stream overflowing or a great river flooding?”

“So, you’re saying that since my internal energy is still weak, you made me practice this dangerous circulation in advance?”

“Hahaha. Indeed, you understand my meaning well. Furthermore, even if a problem arose, your internal energy is not yet so vast that I couldn’t intervene. If you possessed even a sixth of the internal energy of, say, your Sixth Senior Brother, even I could not guarantee your safety.”

As expected, Master had it all planned out.

‘If only he would share those plans, that would be really nice.’

While I was feeling such regret inside, suddenly the carriage suddenly lurched to a halt.

Noticing my puzzled expression, Master stared blankly at me before speaking. “What are you doing? Why aren’t you getting off?”

“Have we already arrived?”

“Now that you’ve rested enough, shouldn’t we practice lightness techniques again?”

“…”

For a moment, I was speechless and looked back and forth between my master and Jin Hayeon.

I got off the carriage with a sigh.

‘Fuck.’

That word kept echoing in my mind.

* * *

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the village wasn’t far. By the time we began our third round of movement training, our destination was visible in the distance.

“Let’s end this training when we reach that village.”

Perhaps because the destination was in sight,  I ran towards the village with the fervor of a traveler discovering an oasis in the desert.

Ironically, Master’s plan had worked: the movements had become completely ingrained in my body. Whether it was due to the relentless practice or this body’s extraordinary talent, I honestly couldn’t tell.

Master’s nagging no longer reached my ears. Even with my mind half-absent, my body instinctively executed the movements. As I blindly ran towards the distant village…

…it gradually grew larger until the carriage and I finally arrived at its outskirts.

“Giddy up!”

Neigh!

As we neared the village, the carriage stopped, and Master and Jin Hayeon, who had been traveling comfortably in the carriage until now, got off with calm steps.

I, drenched in sweat, entered the village together with them while half out of my mind.

“Long live the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons!!!”

The loud shouts coming from all over the place made my clouded mind snap back to attention.

When I hurriedly looked around, people who seemed to be residents of this village were all shouting with their entire bodies prostrated on the ground.

“Oh, Heavenly Demon!”

“Please save us!!”

“Please keep us from falling into evil!!”

Watching that scene gave me goosebumps.

‘They’re acting as if they’re welcoming a god.’

At Tianshan Mountain Range, the headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, I had accepted such behavior, considering the inherently cultish nature of the place. However, witnessing such fervent reactions in an ordinary village was unsettling.

I never expected such an intense reaction even in a village where ordinary civilians lived.

‘Is this the power of a cult?’

It was truly a terrifying sight to behold.