Chapter 53: No Room for Variables

TL: FoodieMonster007

"Haa, haa."

Seo Daeryong lay spread-eagled on the ground, his ragged breaths drifting toward the night sky.

The bright moon was nowhere to be seen, as if it had hidden itself. His training began after his daily duties and before dinner, but the Purple Orb had long since passed.

I finally did it!

He had completed another thousand swings after feeling he could not swing even once more. He had swung the heavy dao two thousand times in a single day.

Seo Daeryong could not believe what he had accomplished. Of course, his form had likely fallen apart near the end, but he had gritted his teeth and swung anyway.

He thought he should get up and go home, but Seo Daeryong could not move an inch. Sleep washed over him.

Seo Daeryong had a dream.

Geom Mugeuk was in peril, surrounded by enemies. Just as the foes rushed toward the injured man, dao qi shot out like a thunderbolt and swept through them. Those caught in the qi turned into bloody messes and vanished.

Soon after, he descended between the enemies and Geom Mugeuk like a single plum blossom falling gracefully. Now the greatest master of the dao arts, he held a massive giant dao, just like the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.

He turned to Geom Mugeuk, smiled faintly, and asked, "Are you all right, Director?"

A satisfied smile also formed on the lips of the sleeping Seo Daeryong.

"My right-hand man! You've come!"

At Geom Mugeuk's emotional words, Seo Daeryong turned to face the enemies and spoke coolly.

"I'm here now, so please rest! Get some deep sleep!"

Just then, a familiar voice came from somewhere.

"Shouldn't you get up now?"

Seo Daeryong instinctively ignored the words and turned over. He did not want to wake from such a pleasant dream. The dream of becoming a master and roaming the world was his real dream too.

Seo Daeryong kept sleeping.

In his dream, he rescued beautiful women in distress and set sail with them on a boat. He woke up with a pleased smile as he watched the women subtly vying for his exclusive affection. Among them was his junior, Jo Hyang.

It was the first time in his life he had ever woken up smiling like this.

He felt so good. So good he did not want to get up, but where was he?

An unfamiliar ceiling.

No, it was not completely unfamiliar.

Could it be?

Seo Daeryong shot up and screamed.

"……"

Separate from the pleasant dream, his entire body ached as if it were broken. It felt like someone had beaten him all over with a club throughout the night.

Seo Daeryong looked around.

This place is?

It was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's bedchamber, where he had slept after drinking.

Oh my god! Why am I sleeping here?

He remembered completing the second thousand swings and lying on the ground.

Fortunately, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was not in the room.

Seo Daeryong groaned as he got up and walked cautiously to the window. He was startled by what he saw.

In the courtyard where he had trained yesterday, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was swinging his own dao. Seo Daeryong, about to run out and greet the Master, froze.

His gaze was captivated by the man swinging the dao.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon swung the dao in the exact form he had taught him yesterday. His grip and his swing were the same.

In that moment, Seo Daeryong understood. The training he received was the same training the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had done when he first learned martial arts.

He wasn't just making me do random things to make me suffer.

Just then, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon spoke abruptly.

"Are you allowed to slack off just because the Director isn't here?"

"Huh! Now that you mention it?"

The sun was high in the sky.

"Aargh! I'm late."

Seo Daeryong hurriedly dressed and went outside.

"I'll be going now."

Seo Daeryong bowed his head deeply and started to turn away, but then he turned back.

"Thank you so much for letting me sleep here again."

Even if the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had given him money or a treasured blade, he would not have felt such a surge of emotion. Ah, of course he would have been happy, but the feeling would have been different from what he felt now.

For the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, letting someone sleep in his own bed was more difficult than giving them money. This feeling of being cherished was incomparable to anything else.

"If something like this happens again, please just toss me in any guest room. Just don't kill me. Well then, I'll see you this afternoon."

Then, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon asked, surprised, "You're coming?"

"Of course I am."

"I won't go easy on you just because you're sore. It's two thousand swings today as well."

His entire body screamed that it was impossible at the mention of two thousand swings, but his mouth said, "Yes!" After all, his mouth was not tired.

After replying energetically, Seo Daeryong ran off.

"I'm late! I'm late!"

He was so tired he felt like he could die. He hated imagining training again today, but strangely, he felt good.

He wanted to keep learning from the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. To be honest, he wanted to make a good impression on him.

The medicine, decocted over several days, was complete.

I put the prepared medicine into a palm-sized vial. There were still five days left until the Blood God Festival.

Now that the medicine was made, I planned to check if the secret passage was working properly and scout all the way to the throne of the Wind God Cult Leader today.

After descending the mountain, I arrived at a wasteland not far from the Heavenly Wind Cult.

It was a place with a few withered trees and rocks, swarming with poisonous insects and venomous snakes, and littered with trash blown in by the wind. No one would come here all day.

A large boulder sat there. I operated the hidden devices under both sides of it in sequence.

"……"

The boulder opened, revealing a passage. I had marveled at it back then, and even now, it was a truly well-made mechanism. How could someone create such an unnoticeable passage?

As I entered the boulder, the door closed automatically.

I operated another hidden device inside, and a door opened in the floor.

I took out a night-luminescent pearl and descended into the underground passage. The passage was wide, likely made to transport the Echoing Thunder Bell in an emergency. Thanks to that, I had been able to smuggle the Echoing Thunder Bell out through here.

I took out the vial and applied the medicine to my face and hands.

When this medicine is applied, a master with a keen sense of smell cannot detect my scent.

I walked slowly through the passage.

I stopped far from the secret entrance in the throne room. In the past, I would have gone closer to observe, but there was no need for that anymore. I now had a way to observe safely.

I closed my eyes and emitted my qi. A single stream of qi advanced along the passage. It turned a corner and traveled much farther before reaching the secret entrance.

I never knew I could emit qi in such a thin, long stream and use it for reconnaissance in a real fight until I first learned this secret method from my father.

The qi slipped out through a small crack in the passage.

The moment my qi entered the new space, I felt an incredible presence from one side.

It's the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader!

As expected of the Cult Leader, the aura he exuded was extraordinary. I quickly moved my qi to the opposite side.

There, I found the master with the sensitive sense of smell.

Indeed, he was near the Echoing Thunder Bell.

Once I had confirmed both of them, my qi dissipated. Since I had already experienced this, there was no need to risk being discovered.

Having safely completed the reconnaissance, I returned to the mountain.

I finished my meal of beef jerky, sat cross-legged, and cultivated the Heavenly Demon Defense Art.

For the remaining five days, I would stay holed up in the mountains without moving. If I wandered around and got swept up by fate into some strange incident, it could cause problems.

Not creating variables was the minimum courtesy to my past efforts.

The day of the Blood God Festival dawned.

Before leaving, I looked up at the sky once and prayed for the success of today's mission.

When my father told me about the two ways to block the Soul-Stealing Art, I had thought to myself that there was a method a hundred times easier.

Hoping my idea would prove correct and I could safely conclude this matter, I descended the mountain.

The road to the Heavenly Wind Cult was a sea of people trying to attend the ceremony.

They were of various types. There were leaders of large sects who had dealings with the Heavenly Wind Cult, martial artists from small sects hoping to make an impression, and merchants trying to sell goods to the attendees.

On the day of the Blood God Festival, everyone, regardless of their status, had to walk to the Heavenly Wind Cult. This was the authority of the Blood God Festival.

I watched them walk from a distance before heading to the wasteland with the secret passage.

Various thoughts crossed my mind on the way there.

What if the door suddenly doesn't open? What if the event is suddenly canceled? What if it's changed so the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader rings the bell himself? What if I was wrong about the method to obtain it?

Anxiety attacks in this way, trying to consume our souls.

At times like these, there is no choice but to believe in yourself. The belief that such misfortune will not come, and the belief that even if it does, you will overcome it. The best weapon against anxiety is faith in oneself.

Having reached the area near the throne room via the secret passage, I waited for the right time. Of course, I had applied the scent-masking medicine to my face, hands, and body.

The time to move was already set. The moment the thirty-sixth strike of the Echoing Thunder Bell sounded would be my time to begin.

How long did I wait like that in the darkness?

The faint sound of a bell began to drift in. I counted the sounds and waited.

When the bell had been struck thirty-three times, I moved slowly and went beneath the secret entrance.

When the thirty-fifth bell toll sounded, I silently opened the secret passage in the floor next to the throne and stepped out.

A master bound in shackles was about to strike the final bell. The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader never allowed anyone else into this place where the sacred object was kept, so only the man in shackles was here.

The moment he struck the final, thirty-sixth bell, I unleashed the Four Strides of the Wind God. I used the Shadow Step to approach the shackled martial artist. Moving like a silent ghost, I struck his demonic and sleeping acupoints simultaneously. He fell asleep standing, never realizing what had happened to him.

It all happened in an instant, a technique that displayed the highest level of skill.

After subduing him, I went to the Bloody Buddha erected behind the Echoing Thunder Bell.

The time I had now was about a quarter of an hour, the time it would take for the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader to return.

I pressed firmly on the closed eyes of the Bloody Buddha, and its eyes flashed open.

The open-eyed Bloody Buddha was terrifying.

When I pressed once more, the eyeballs popped forward.

Inside the protruding eyeballs was a white liquid, filling them about one-third of the way.

This was the very reason I had come all this way.

The roots of the Soul-Stealing Art that the Soul-Stealing Demon Supreme had mastered was the Blood Cult demonic art.

The successor to the Blood Cult is this very Heavenly Wind Cult.

Father knew this much, but there was one thing he did not know.

The Bloodeye Holy Water.

It was a holy water passed down in secret only to the Cult Leaders of the Heavenly Wind Cult.

If you put this Bloodeye Holy Water in your eyes, you can see the method to break the Blood Cult evil arts. You can grasp the essence of the evil arts with your eyes.

I heard it was created and passed down since ancient times to prevent rebellions within the cult, but because the method of production and management was passed down only to the Cult Leader and his successor, outsiders knew nothing of its existence. The person who told me this fact was none other than Neung Baekkun, the son of the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader.

The last time I came, I was too busy fleeing with the Echoing Thunder Bell to have time to use this.

Now was finally the moment to obtain the Bloodeye Holy Water.

I took out the eyeballs of the Bloody Buddha. There was a small hole on top of each eyeball.

TOK!

One drop of the Bloodeye Holy Water from the right eyeball went into my right eye.

TOK!

One drop of the Bloodeye Holy Water from the left eyeball went into my left eye.

As the Bloodeye Holy Water entered my eyes, they burned as if they were on fire. There was pain, but thankfully, my vision did not go dark.

When I placed the eyeballs back in their original positions, they retracted, and the Bloody Buddha closed its eyes again.

Enough of the essence remained in the eyeballs, so it could be administered to the next successor without issue. They would never even know that these two drops of the Bloodeye Holy Water were missing.

I entered the underground passage and, before closing the door completely, fired two streams of finger qi bullets.

"……"

The shackled master woke up.

He was momentarily dazed, but after confirming that nothing was amiss, he began to do his work. It was a feat that could never have been accomplished by anyone less than a master of my caliber.

I was curious what story that man had to be bound like that, but it was not a situation where I could rescue someone I did not even know. He was not someone whose fate was meant to be changed by my regression.

I quietly exited the secret passage.

I had been planning to collect the miraculous encounters related to the materials for the great art one by one when the time was right, but because of the Soul-Stealing Demon Supreme, I obtained the Bloodeye Holy Water sooner than expected.

Whatever the reason, there is a joy that comes with accomplishing a great task. Especially this time, having gained an ability I never possessed before, the joy was hard to put into words.

It was not just because I could now kill the Soul-Stealing Demon Supreme. It was because I believed this new power would somehow be helpful to my revenge on Hwa Mugi.

After exiting the secret passage, I could have enjoyed the Blood God Festival with the leisure of a victor, but I ran toward our Cult without looking back.

Until the very end, no variables were allowed.