The Regressed Sword Demon Changes the Future

On a quiet, moonless night where not even the sound of insects could be heard, an unidentified figure was climbing over the walls of the Mysterious Profound Sect pavilions and entering.

"Tsk, that old man sure makes a fuss just for losing a little money playing Go-Pa…"

The one grumbling and calling the master of the Mysterious Profound Sect's main hall, where he resided, the Sect Leader of Mysterious Profound Sect, Ju Yulgok, an old man, was a short-haired woman who looked to be just over twenty.

Her name was Cheong Yeonah, the youngest of the second generation of Mysterious Profound Sect and currently the troublemaker who was always at the center of the incidents and accidents in Mysterious Profound Sect.

A few days ago, she had secretly taken her master, Ju Yulgok's, emergency funds and gambled it all away at a gambling den in the market. When a furious order was issued, she had taken refuge in the streets for a few days and was just now on her way back.

"Ah~ if only I had gotten a slightly better hand there, I would have won…!"

Although Cheong Yeonah was a bit thick-skinned, she was not a completely evil person. She believed that she had borrowed, not stolen, her master's precious emergency funds.

"Tsk, I didn't know the hand I bet everything on would turn out to be a bust…"

The same excuse of those who borrow other people's money and gamble!

If they hit the jackpot, they'll pay back with a little extra from the winnings. If they don't win much, they'll just pay back the principal. If they lose a little, they'll somehow make up for the lost part!

And if they lose everything?

"Can't be helped if that happens~!"

Cheong Yeonah, who had a larger age gap with her junior brothers of the same generation than Sohyun of the third generation, was always doted on not only by her senior brothers of the same generation but also by the elders of the first generation, who were the current key figures of the sect, just as Sohyun was now.

As a result, Cheong Yeonah's sense of propriety was unfortunately far below the average of martial artists.

But despite that, Cheong Yeonah, who had outstanding natural comprehension and martial talent, was also a person who received the expectations of the sect's people while causing trouble from time to time with her outstanding achievements that did not match her age.

An outstanding achievement of reaching the peak in her early to mid-twenties, not falling behind even the successors of famous and powerful sects!

To the ears of such a martial artist who had achieved such outstanding achievements, a sharp sound that cut through the silence of the pitch-black darkness came.

"Huh? Is there someone who's not sleeping at this hour?"

Cheong Yeonah ran towards the source of the sound with a small question.

The place she arrived at was an old training ground.

Although Mysterious Profound Sect was not a very great sect in the grand scheme of Sichuan, it was one of the top three sects within Gangjeong County. As such, the scale of Mysterious Profound Sect was quite large, and like the place Cheong Yeonah had just arrived at, there were a few places that had been used in the past but were not properly managed and were left floating in the process of new construction and structural changes.

And in the center of that unmanaged, old, and small training ground, a boy was moving violently and hitting a wooden dummy.

'Is he practicing a fist technique?'

Cheong Yeonah thought so as she watched the boy's movements, but that was not it. What was hitting the wooden dummy and making a sound was not the boy's fists, but his shoulders, chest, back, waist, neck, and thighs.

The boy was making a sound by hitting the wooden dummy with his entire body in a strange motion.

'It's not… grappling either…'

Unlike ordinary fist and foot techniques, grappling was a martial art that used various parts of the body to fight, not just hands and feet, but also shoulders, back, wrists, elbows, knees, and even the head.

But the boy's performance in the training ground was different from that.

The parts used in grappling, although more difficult to use than hands and feet, were by no means unsuitable for combat.

But the performance the boy was showing in the training ground was not like that.

From the waist to the neck, thighs, chest, and calves, no matter how much one thought about it and how much one trained, they were parts that were completely unsuitable for attack.

'But the sound of hitting the wooden dummy is not ordinary…'

He was twisting his whole body to somehow make each part hit the wooden dummy hard, but even though the parts were not hard enough to make such a powerful sound, a powerful sound was coming from all of the boy's attacks. But…

'Huh? But this sound, it's not quite like the sound of hitting a wooden dummy…'

Just as Cheong Yeonah was thinking that…

"I don't know who you are, but if you've watched this much, wouldn't you show yourself now?"

The boy, who had finished his mysterious performance at some point, was looking at Cheong Yeonah.

The Dansim Art.

Its essence was to stimulate the body with its unique and strange movements and to hit the stimulated body against a wooden dummy.

What was really important here was not just simply hitting the wooden dummy with force in one's flesh.

The moment a part of the body and the wooden dummy collided, a weak internal energy strike was unleashed at the point of impact!

And not towards the wooden dummy, but into oneself!

People usually thought of internal energy strikes as techniques that were naturally unleashed from the hands. At most, those with some knowledge knew that those who used kicking techniques or foot techniques also used internal energy strikes with their feet, but that was the extent of it.

But just as one could emit qi from the whole body and wrap oneself in a protective aura, it was of course possible to unleash a strike with various subtleties beyond just a simple protective aura with other parts of the body that could emit qi!

Of course, it was not a simple matter. No, to be precise, it was a technique of insane difficulty.

It was difficult enough to use an internal energy strike from a part other than the hands and feet, but the power had to be precisely controlled, and at the same time, the internal energy strike had to be made to return to oneself using the rebound of the impact. This part gave a glimpse of how absurd a training method this Dansim Art was.

And what about the pain?

No matter how much the internal energy strike was controlled so that the inside was not damaged and was only tempered, an internal energy strike was an internal energy strike!

Every time he hit his body, a groan would leak out from between his clenched teeth, and after a few exchanges, cold sweat would pour out from his whole body due to the pain. After about half a quarter of an hour, his nose would start to bleed, and if he continued for a quarter of an hour like a madman, it was a training method so painful that blood would flow not only from his nose but also from his mouth and ears.

Literally a crazy training method that was outside the normal category!

But as if in exchange for that pain, its effect was also excellent.

By repeatedly hitting and recovering the acupoints in the body with a weak internal energy strike, the acupoints were made strong and at the same time clean. One might not feel a big difference right away, but as one grew, one would continue to see its benefits.

And decisively, it even cultivated innate qi!

If it weren't for this overwhelming performance, Jang Baekseo had been continuing this crazy energy circulation, which he wouldn't even look at, for nearly half a shichen now.

This was possible because he was a martial artist of the realm beyond the heavens who had reached the transcendent realm before his regression. There was not a single deviation in the internal energy strikes he unleashed from his whole body, and at the same time, he accepted the internal energy strikes that entered his body in such a way that they did not harm other places and only tempered his acupoints and blood vessels. He soothed and recovered the acupoints and blood vessels that had been beaten in that way by flowing his internal energy at the exact same time as he used an internal energy strike with another part of his body.

Normally, a cycle of the Dansim Art training was to train for half a quarter of an hour, then soothe the acupoints and blood vessels for half a shichen, and then repeat the training. But Jang Baekseo was ignoring that cycle and was doing the training and recovery process in parallel in real time.

But even that was difficult for more than half a shichen.

Even for Jang Baekseo, if he did more than this, he could suffer internal injuries or, in the worst case, fall into qi deviation.

And above all, Jang Baekseo's nerves were not thick enough to be able to train calmly with a spy watching him from behind.

That's why he decided to call out the uninvited guest.

"I don't know who you are, but if you've watched this much, wouldn't you show yourself now?"

At the call of the boy, Jang Baekseo, Cheong Yeonah jumped down from the roof of the pavilion attached to the training ground with a movement as light as a feather.

"Ahem, sorry. I wasn't trying to peek."

Seeing Cheong Yeonah who had revealed herself, Jang Baekseo's eyes widened for a moment.

Cheong Yeonah, who met his eyes filled with the shock of seeing a dead person come back to life, was momentarily flustered.

'He was so calm even after noticing me peeking, so why is he so surprised to see my face?'

Then Cheong Yeonah realized with an 'Ah!'

'Aha~! This young junior brother must have fallen for my beauty!'

Some might call her shameless if they heard her, but Cheong Yeonah had the beauty to at least deserve to say such a thing.

Although it was short, her silky hair, her deep and flawless beautiful brown eyes that were slightly upturned, her high and cute nose, and her charming lips, all of which were in harmony on her slender face, made Cheong Yeonah a beauty by anyone's standards.

"Ahem, well, I'm used to this kind of gaze, but if you stare at me any more than this, I'll get a little embarrassed, so let's stop there."

Hearing those words, Jang Baekseo was startled and lowered his eyes.

Cheong Yeonah, who looked at Jang Baekseo's appearance as if it were cute, spoke again.

"I heard the sound of training late at night and came to see. I'm Cheong Yeonah, the youngest of the second generation. And you must be Jang Baekseo, the senior disciple of the third generation, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

Jang Baekseo, who still had his eyes lowered, answered in a calm voice.

"Fufu, you must be Senior Brother Cheongmu's disciple. As far as I know, there was no training method or martial art like the one you just showed among Senior Brother Cheongmu's martial arts or training methods. I was waiting to ask if such a study originally existed in the main sect."

"The training I'm doing is called the Dansim Art, one of the training methods left by the sect's founder. I happened to discover this training method in the Mysterious Scripture Hall and am trying to learn it, albeit clumsily."

As if waiting for Cheong Yeonah's question, Jang Baekseo immediately gave an answer.

Cheong Yeonah nodded her head as if satisfied with Jang Baekseo's answer. She could have gone to the Mysterious Scripture Hall, where the books related to the sect's martial arts were kept, to confirm the truth of his words, but she didn't feel the need to go that far as he didn't seem to be lying.

'It must be some kind of external training. As I heard, his physique is good for his age, so it wouldn't be bad for that child to learn it.'

As Cheong Yeonah, who had organized her thoughts, turned to leave the old training ground, Jang Baekseo called out to her again.

"Don't you have something to say to me?"

"Huh?"

"Didn't you peek at my training without a proper reason?"

"Th-that's…"

Jang Baekseo's words were not wrong.

In the martial world, peeking at another's training without permission was a serious matter that could lead to a life-and-death struggle.

But weren't they members of the same sect?

Moreover, Cheong Yeonah's generation was higher than Jang Baekseo's!

"Junior Brother, that's only…"

"Of course, we are people of the same sect, and you are my senior aunt whose generation is higher than mine, so I know well that it is not my place to hold you responsible."

"Uh!? Uh, y-yes…"

"However, even if it is not a matter to hold you responsible for if we argue about it, since you yourself have admitted that you were peeking, I think it would be good for your honor to do what you should do for your own sake. My master and your senior brother, Master Cheongmu, also always said that it is right to show one's conviction for one's own honor, regardless of profit or loss."

Before she could even refute, he pushed on, starting with her own honor and adding the teachings of her senior brother, Cheongmu. Cheong Yeonah couldn't refute it.

In the end, after struggling by herself for a while, Cheong Yeonah bowed her head as if she had given up and said.

"Alright, I'm sorry for secretly peeking at your training, you brat!"

Although she apologized, Cheong Yeonah was fuming until she left, as if she was very angry and couldn't accept it.

After confirming that Cheong Yeonah had completely disappeared, Jang Baekseo let out a sigh of 'phew~'.

The moment he saw Cheong Yeonah, Jang Baekseo was so surprised that he couldn't maintain his composure at all.

As a result, he showed such an emotional turmoil that Cheong Yeonah thought he was completely smitten with her beauty. To gloss over it, Jang Baekseo had tried to divert Cheong Yeonah's attention to something else by mentioning Cheong Yeonah's honor, which was not even relevant, and the advice that his master, Cheongmu, had not even given.

Even after doing all that, Jang Baekseo could not completely regain his composure even at this moment when Cheong Yeonah had completely disappeared from the old training ground.

'Cheong Yeonah…'

That name was an unforgettable name for Jang Baekseo.

Before his regression, when the Righteous-Demonic War broke out and Sichuan was conquered in two years, the small and medium-sized sects in the land that had fallen under the rule of the Demonic Cult had to make a choice.

Would they die a proud but meaningless dog's death, or would they crawl under the legs of the Demonic Cult in misery to continue their peace…

And Jang Baekseo was on the side of crawling under the legs in misery to protect peace… and Cheong Yeonah was.

'The one who chose an honorable dog's death.'

(End of Chapter)