Chapter 312 : The Passage of Time (1)
Chapter 312: The Passage of Time (1)
In response to his Master's question, Il-mok sheathed the Ascension Sword and answered with a martial salute.
"I'm fine, Master."
"I'm glad I wasn't too late."
The Heavenly Demon nodded with a gentle smile with his hands clasped leisurely behind his back.
A moment later, someone landed lightly behind the Heavenly Demon.
It was the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord, the man who was always at the Heavenly Demon's side.
"Forgive my tardiness, Lord of Ten Thousand Demons."
"Ho ho ho. This old man rushed ahead on my own, so do not blame yourself."
The Heavenly Demon replied as such, then turned his gaze toward the bisected corpse of Taragai.
More precisely, a little further beyond it.
Il-mok and the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord followed his line of sight and saw the surviving nomad warriors.
They were the ones who had been charging in to form the encirclement.
But the same guys who had been charging in with terrifying momentum were now panicking and yanking on their reins to stop their horses.
They skidded to a halt while still about one or two miles away from them.
It was a pretty far distance, but these were people of the Great Plains. Every last one of them had exceptional eyesight.
The nomad warriors had watched with their own two eyes as their Khagan was cleaved in half like it was nothing.
Seeing their Khagan cut down mid-flight had shocked them into yanking their horses to a halt.
And that wasn't all.
Shouts in the nomadic tongue echoed from the distance, and several groups wheeled their horses around and began to flee.
When the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord sprang to his feet to give chase, the Heavenly Demon spoke.
"Let them go."
"They are those who dared defy the Divine Cult."
"We already know where their homeland lies. There is no need to chase them now. Besides, given the nature of nomadic peoples, with their leader gone, they will soon splinter apart and devour each other."
The Heavenly Demon's explanation reminded Il-mok of what had happened with the Mangud tribe.
'They did say the Oirat tribe only forced the other tribes to join them because of that Khagan's sheer power. They're definitely going to split now that their Khagan is gone.’
With the one man holding them all together gone, the glue keeping their alliance intact had totally vanished.
"I shall follow your will, O’ Supreme One."
"I shall follow your will, Master."
Il-mok and the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord each offered their respects.
The Heavenly Demon smiled warmly at them.
Instead of stroking his magnificent white beard as he usually did, he kept his hands clasped behind his back.
Neither Il-mok nor the fanatics prostrating themselves in the distance noticed.
That the Heavenly Demon's hands, clasped behind his back, were trembling faintly without pause.
'Hoo. In the end, no human being can overcome the absolute laws of nature known as aging.'
Despite having undergone the Overhaul Body Transformation twice and containing godlike power in his body, the Heavenly Demon’s body had grown far too frail due to his age.
* * *
The Demonic Cult's followers came to their senses belatedly and cleaned up the battlefield.
They then retraced their path a short distance and recovered the carriages they had abandoned.
Since the Oirat tribe's whole plan was to steal the merchandise on those carriages intact, the Cult basically didn't lose any goods at all.
Once the situation seemed more or less settled, Il-mok finally posed a question to the Heavenly Demon.
"Master, what brings you all the way out here?"
"Ho ho ho. Didn't you tell me yourself, Il-mok? That the Oirat tribe's movements had been suspicious of late."
The Heavenly Demon explained that ever since that warning, he had ordered the martial groups traveling through the Tianshan Mountain Range to keep watch on the Oirat tribe.
"And two days ago, we got a report that the Oirat Khagan and over a thousand of his warriors were marching east."
Factoring in travel time for the messengers, the army had actually started moving four days ago.
"But don't we have plenty of other combat units in the Cult? Why did you come all this way yourself...?"
While Il-mok had easily survived the perilous ordeal specifically because the Heavenly Demon had personally intervened, he still found it incredibly difficult to digest that the supreme leader of the Cult came rushing to his aid.
"Hahaha. Everyone else is swamped with work, so shouldn't this old man with too much free time pitch in? Besides, the situation seemed urgent enough that someone fast on his feet needed to go."
Only then did Il-mok understand.
Thinking about it, they were ridiculously far from the Cult's main headquarters right now. To cross that kind of distance in just two days meant his Master must have been sprinting so hard the soles of his feet were on fire.
The Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord's late arrival was likely because he couldn't keep up with the Heavenly Demon's insane speed at the very end.
"I can only express my deepest gratitude for your grace, Master."
"Oh, please. A master rescuing his disciple is hardly anything special."
The Heavenly Demon simply smiled softly, looking like he had only done what any normal person would do.
His face was full of the pure affection a master has for his disciple.
After meeting that smile for a moment, Il-mok cautiously brought up something.
"Master, might I ask you a question about martial arts?"
"A disciple asking his master about martial arts is also perfectly natural. Ask."
"That... Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride (天魔君臨步). How exactly does one perform it?"
Even now, that terrifying moment was burned into Il-mok's brain.
He couldn't forget the sight of the nomadic warriors dropping to their knees every time his Master took a single step.
For him, that display of absolute dominance was way more shocking than the Force Flame or the Sword Telekinesis he used to kill Taragai at the end.
But for some reason, the Heavenly Demon furrowed his brow at Il-mok’s question and murmured.
"Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride?"
Seeing his reaction, Il-mok immediately reined in his expectation.
'The Heavenly Demon Divine Arts are permitted only to the Cult Leader, so it must be difficult for him to answer.'
That was precisely why Il-mok had been so cautious in bringing this up.
But a moment later, the Heavenly Demon broke into a hearty laugh.
"Hahahaha. Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride. What a splendid name."
Sensing something from his Master, Il-mok asked again.
"...Did that specific martial art not have a formal name before?"
"It seems to have just gained one, thanks to you. It means this old man now has a brand new record inscribed inside the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts manual."
Il-mok’s head spun upon hearing that.
A technique without even a name meant it was something performed on pure impulse.
Whether Il-mok was having a minor crisis or not, the Heavenly Demon, the Heavenly Demon seemed to be organizing the manual in his head before finally speaking.
"So then. You wished to know how the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride was performed?"
"Yes, Master."
"Hmm. Now that my youngest disciple has entered the Realm of Truth, you should be able to grasp what this old man once told you. Do you recall when I said that upon entering the Realm of Truth, one becomes able to commune with the world, even if only slightly?"
"Where the mind goes, the energy flows, and one becomes able to commune with the world. That was the very first thing I recalled after entering the Realm of Truth."
"As expected of my youngest." The Heavenly Demon nodded as if he'd expected nothing less, then elaborated.
"A warrior who enters the Realm of Truth becomes able to move energy through will. And after breaking through several more walls beyond that, there comes a moment when one can interfere with the very principles of the world through that energy. For example, yes. Without even swinging a sword, the mere resolve to kill one's opponent becomes enough to harm them."
"...Are you referring to Wounding by Intent?"
"That is the common expression, yes. Generally, the first transcendent application realized by swordsmen who reach this exalted realm is often called the Heart Sword (心劍). Because the sword is most familiar to them, simply conjuring the mental image of cutting their opponent with a sword is enough to actually cut their opponent."
After hearing the Heavenly Demon's explanation, a thought occurred to Il-mok.
"Then are you saying that all you did was conjure the image of trampling on them, Master?"
"Correct."
Il-mok nearly let out a wry laugh.
Simply imagining trampling his enemies was enough to produce a miracle of that magnitude.
At this point, it seemed less fitting to call it the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride and more appropriate to just call it the Heart Stride.
Naturally, Il-mok cringed as he remembered how he acted when he first reached the Realm of Truth.
'...Looking back, I really was no different from a child.'
After gaining the ability to wield energy a bit more freely, he used to wander the plains trying out all sorts of tricks.
He remembered feeling exactly like a little kid who had just been handed a shiny new toy.
A shiny new toy called Qi (氣).
But after seeing the realm of martial attainments that his Master has achieved, Il-mok now realized that what he'd been doing really was child's play.
After a moment of reflecting on his own arrogance, Il-mok suddenly caught onto a weird detail.
"Master, but what did you mean when you said you would add the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride to the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts?"
It wasn't like he could just write down a rule saying, 'Think really hard about stepping on your enemy, and they'll magically die.'
Understanding exactly why Il-mok was so confused, the Heavenly Demon suddenly gave him a random order. "Youngest, picture an imaginary enemy in front of you. Then try swinging your sword to cut them down."
Puzzled as he was, Il-mok followed the Heavenly Demon's instruction.
FWSHHH!
The Ascension Sword was drawn and carved a beautiful arc through the air with blinding speed.
After Il-mok sheathed the Ascension Sword, the Heavenly Demon asked. "When you just swung that sword just now, did you think of every individual muscle and joint in your body? Did you control every meridian and acupoint through which your internal energy flowed?"
"No. I simply followed the natural movements I have ingrained through my training..."
As Il-mok answered the Heavenly Demon's question, he arrived at the answer on his own.
“Master, are you planning to add Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride as a guide to help people reach the realm of Wounding by Intent?”
That flawless sword swing Il-mok just did was the result of endless practice.
Thousands upon thousands of repetitions. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast, searching for the optimal path until it became second nature.
Of course, his swings were ridiculously slow and completely inefficient compared to now.
But thanks to all that brutal training, he didn't even have to think about his form anymore; he just thought 'cut the enemy,' and his body automatically executed the perfect strike.
And if the Heavenly Demon's words held true, the same applied to Qi.
If you practiced crushing an opponent with your Qi while constantly visualizing it in your head over and over again, wouldn't there come a day when merely conjuring the image would be enough to execute the true Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride?
As if to confirm Il-mok's deduction, the Heavenly Demon nodded.
"Correct. Anyone who has reached a realm like this old man's can do it effortlessly, but if you look at it backwards, practicing this move is the perfect way to bring one closer to such a realm."
"...If it is a realm like yours, Master, does it have a specific name like the Realm of Truth?"
"Hahaha. Those who have reached a realm like this old man's were generally the Zenith of their era, so there is no commonly used name like the Realm of Truth. Daoist sects sometimes refer to it as the Realm of Divine Beginning (入仙境). Buddhist schools refer to it as Supreme Enlightenment (無上正覺). And in the secret manual of the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts, this realm is called the Realm of Heavenly Communion (天通境)."
After answering, the Heavenly Demon seemed to ponder deeply for a brief moment before adding.
"Furthermore, the true essence of the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts lies exactly there. By breaking down the exact moves you can use once you have reached the Realm of Heavenly Communion, those who practiced the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts may enter the Realm of Heavenly Communion once they successfully achieve Transcendence.”
The symbol of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, which only those selected as Cult Leader through the succession struggle were permitted to learn.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Arts (天魔神功).
The Heavenly Demon had just imparted teachings about the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts to a disciple who was far from being a Cult Leader and had barely turned twenty.
'I didn't directly reveal the mnemonics, so it shouldn't violate the doctrine.'
The Heavenly Demon told himself as much, then smiled gently at Il-mok and said. "Come to think of it, didn't you want to learn the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride? Since the instruction record for the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride hasn't been added to the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts yet, I can teach you a thing or two right now."
It was a loophole that wasn't quite a loophole.
Or perhaps it was simply the favoritism of an aging Heavenly Demon.