Chapter 23
Just as there are four seasons in nature, human cultivation is also like the repeating four seasons.
Spring blooms, summer is full of life, autumn falls, and winter withers.
And then spring comes again.
This was the first thing Lingbao taught Agong when he taught him the Nine Gates True Scripture.
The Return of the Four Seasons.
This was the essence of the Nine Gates True Scripture that led to the Nine Gates Harmonious Art, the ultimate of the Nine Gates True Scripture.
Those who practice martial arts, regardless of the depth of their study, all reach winter and collapse.
Agong's withered body was also winter, just like the end of ordinary martial artists.
But those who had learned the Nine Gates True Scripture could make their dying bodies bloom again from winter to spring through training, so the Nine Gates True Scripture, which was achieved through the return of the four seasons, was a martial art that dreamed of the perfection of harmony.
Rumble!
But Agong was now looking at a peerless divine art that directly denied the essence of the Nine Gates True Scripture.
Eternal peak.
Tongtian's Manifest Demon True Art, if compared to the four seasons, was an endlessly continuing summer.
Since the sun never set, summer could not go away, and there was no need for circulation.
A power that does not restrain and does not weaken.
The Manifest Demon True Art was the essence of demonic martial arts and their answer to the endless pursuit of strength.
Although it was only the Heavenly Demon Hand and the Heavenly Demon Reigning Steps displayed with this level of internal energy, Agong was so crushed by Tongtian's suffocating momentum that it was difficult for him to open his mouth.
"To attack while using footwork, you must not think of the footwork and the attack separately."
Although he was demonstrating in front of Agong while displaying the Heavenly Demon Reigning Steps, not the Nine Palaces Divine Steps, every move that Tongtian said and displayed contained a deep teaching, from the basics of attacking and defending to the subtleties that connected to supreme martial arts.
It was a completely different hand movement from when he was fishing.
"Do you understand?"
After displaying a couple of moves and lightly shaking his hands, a dusty wind swirled around Tongtian, creating a vortex.
"I don't understand at all."
Tongtian handed Tonglin back to such an Agong.
"Now, try to display the Heavenly Demon Hand as I did while doing the Nine Palaces Divine Steps."
"I can't even do it properly."
"I will be the judge of that. Try it."
As Tongtian didn't seem to be particularly angry that he had been secretly practicing the Heavenly Demon Hand, Agong began to imitate Tongtian's Heavenly Demon Hand, which he had been doing alone.
For someone who had learned by stealing glances alone, Agong was following the movements of the Heavenly Demon Hand quite well.
Although it was the technique of the Heavenly Demon Hand that he had displayed while fishing, so he was not imitating the complete form of the Heavenly Demon Hand, even this much could be said to be quite excellent.
"Now, try it while taking the steps."
Agong, as Tongtian had told him, set up a stone target again and threw the fishing rod to catch it with Tonglin.
"Ugh!"
Trying to display the Nine Palaces Divine Steps while imitating the Heavenly Demon Hand was incomparably more difficult than shooting a bow.
"No. From there, like this."
Tongtian naturally took a posture next to Agong.
As he followed the proper form of the Heavenly Demon Hand right next to him, Agong felt his jumbled hands and feet gradually stabilize.
"Not only when displaying the Heavenly Demon Hand, but also when drawing the bowstring, the mind, qi, and body must be connected as one."
Soon, Tongtian recited the direction of the qi that connected from the acupoints of the eight extraordinary meridians to the acupoints.
The internal energy of the Nine Gates True Scripture, which was naturally wriggling in Agong's dantian, rotated in the dantian along the blood and qi that Cook Li had told him, and this time, as Tongtian said, the internal energy began to move throughout his body from the tips of his toes to the tips of his fingers.
As the qi of his whole body completed a full circulation, Agong felt a refreshing feeling that he had never felt before, and at the same time, he felt his whole body's energy rise explosively.
The Nine Palaces Divine Steps, which had been displayed with intermittent flows of qi until now, drew a trajectory, sweeping the ground with a firm force from his ankles to his toes.
Agong's body shook slightly and then moved in an instant, and only a hot heat remained in the spot where he had been standing.
The Heavenly Silkworm Silk of Tonglin pierced through the stone target and then, following Agong's hand, rotated, twisting the target and cutting the wind.
At that moment, following Tongtian's movements, dozens of shadows appeared and began to display different movements.
"Ah, ah!"
It was a strange sight, overlapping with the movements that Tongtian was displaying, yet appearing as several different afterimages.
Agong suspected that his eyes were wrong.
"What are you doing, not concentrating!"
As soon as his concentration wavered, Tongtian's thunderous roar fell.
As Agong focused his mind, the afterimages that had been overlapping with Tongtian increased even more and began to display different forms of the Heavenly Demon Hand.
The afterimages of Tongtian, who was displaying dazzling movements, gradually increased and soon exceeded ten.
Agong, who was following Tongtian's Heavenly Demon Hand, felt his vision spin at the increasing afterimages.
But even though dozens of afterimages were dizzying his eyes, he only focused on Tongtian in front of him and followed his movements.
Agong, even though he had only followed a few movements like that, felt his breath getting short and the strength in his whole body gradually draining away.
Although he was somehow holding on, the initial excitement soon disappeared somewhere, and like a dried-up stream, his internal energy was cut off in strands, reaching a point where it was difficult to follow the movements.
"Let's stop here."
Tongtian, as if he had noticed Agong's condition, slowly stopped his strikes and composed his posture.
Thump!
As soon as Tongtian's words ended, Agong knelt down and sat down on the spot.
It was certain that he had displayed the Heavenly Demon Hand while taking the Nine Palaces Divine Steps, following Tongtian, but he couldn't remember what movements he had made and how he had moved, what he had just done.
It was a strange feeling, as if he had been dreaming.
But his rough breathing, trembling hands and feet, and the messy dirt floor proved that he had experienced and also practiced something just now.
"How does it feel to have experienced true study?"
"Study?"
"You have just displayed the Heavenly Demon Hand while taking the Nine Palaces Divine Steps using the internal energy of the Nine Gates True Scripture. You sent the internal energy accumulated in your dantian to the eight extraordinary meridians and displayed the strikes with the internal energy flowing throughout your body. This is martial arts."
"Martial arts..."
The Nine Palaces Divine Steps he had learned from Cook Li.
The Heavenly Demon Hand he had learned from Tongtian.
The Nine Gates True Scripture he had learned from Lingbao.
Agong had thought that he had learned martial arts until now, but they were not complete in the end.
Only when all of this was displayed as one was the study that could be called martial arts completed.
Agong, as if moved, trembled lightly without realizing it.
When he had first learned the cultivation method from the Slender Moon Squad, he had thought that he had learned martial arts and had been intoxicated with a small sense of excitement.
This was a completely different experience from that.
Tongtian watched for a moment, letting Agong enjoy that feeling.
"Did you see this old man's afterimages?"
"Yes."
From the moment the afterimages began to appear, Agong had felt a sudden fatigue and his hands and feet had become heavy.
"That is the proof that you have reached the beginning in practicing the Heavenly Demon Hand. When you train, the ever-changing nature of the Heavenly Demon Hand is visible without reservation, so the training is difficult."
"Then will it continue to be like that?"
"If you reach the ultimate of the Heavenly Demon Hand, the afterimages will gradually decrease and eventually return to a single movement. If all the afterimages of the Heavenly Demon Hand disappear, you will reach the martial prowess of grasping the world with the hand of the Heavenly Demon."
At Tongtian's voice, which was giving teachings on the training of the Heavenly Demon Hand with the demeanor of a great master, Agong thought deeply and then, startled, looked up at Tongtian again.
"Then are you teaching me the Heavenly Demon Hand now?"
"What did you think you were doing until now?"
"You said I couldn't unless I took you as my master and joined the cult."
"I did."
"But why..."
"You can think about joining the cult slowly. Even the righteous path accepts lay disciples, so there's no law that says I can't."
"Then what about taking you as my master?"
"Is this old man not enough to be your master?"
Agong shook his head vigorously.
"At first, I understood because you said you wanted to show respect to your writing master, but it's hard to accept that you would distance yourself from me after receiving teachings from the Taoist Lingbao."
"Th-that's..."
As Tongtian brought up Lingbao's story, Agong had nothing more to say.
Even if you learn only a little, you are a master. Even if he tried to deny it, by learning the Nine Gates True Scripture, he had half-forcibly formed a master-disciple relationship.
Since he had formed a master-disciple relationship with the Taoist Lingbao, there was no clear reason for Agong to refuse a master-disciple relationship with Tongtian, whom he liked.
'But is it okay...'
Strangely, Cook Li's warning lingered in his ears.
Never to associate with the people of the Hermit's Valley, and that the most to be wary of among them were the Non-Duality Gate and the Sea Isle Sect...
"I can't teach everything to a disciple who hasn't joined the cult. But if you have received my teachings, it is the way of a person to show proper respect."
To refuse any further after he had shown such kindness was truly not the way of a person, and he couldn't handle the consequences of refusing.
Agong respectfully composed his posture and bowed to Tongtian.
"Disciple Agong greets Master."
As Agong performed the nine bows, Tongtian nodded.
"Although you have not joined the cult and are not a member of the Divine Cult, since you have become a disciple of the demonic path, you must help your brothers and strive for the demonic path's world."
At the dignity that Tongtian showed, Agong felt himself shrink. Who, seeing this sight, could think that he was an old man who wore shabby clothes and fished in the Hermit's Valley?
Agong, without knowing the meaning, just answered Tongtian's words like a parrot.
"Yes."
"The Manifest Demon True Art is a treasure of the cult, so think of the cult master of the Manifest Cult (Zoroastrianism) as your martial uncle and the cult members as your martial brothers."
"Yes, Master."
Agong, thinking that at this point, it was as if he had joined the cult in all but name, tilted his head, but he didn't say it out loud.
Although it was not a form where he had accepted him as a disciple because Agong had pestered him, in the end, Tongtian had accepted him as a disciple as he had originally intended.
If Lingbao found out that Tongtian had taken Agong as his disciple, he would surely go on a rampage.
Tongtian was inwardly sad that, unfortunately, since Agong had started to build his foundation with the Nine Gates True Scripture, it would be difficult for him to learn the Manifest Demon True Art.
Although it would be painfully painful, if he broke his dantian, he could rebuild his foundation. Tongtian wanted to do so right away if he had his way, but if he did such a thing, the Taoist Lingbao would not stand still, so he could not act rashly.
Although he had learned the Nine Gates True Scripture as his internal energy cultivation method, it was not as if there were no cases of masters of the demonic path who had practiced the internal energy of the righteous path.
If he learned the supreme martial arts of the demonic path, including the Heavenly Demon Hand, Agong would gradually grow and be able to become a respectable master of the demonic path.
'There is no need to compare which is the number one in the world, the Manifest Demon True Art or the Nine Gates True Scripture.'
Tongtian gently stretched out his hand and shared a little of his true energy with Agong.
Agong, at the hot energy transmitted to his Mingmen acupoint, felt his tired body come to life and, led by Tongtian's hand, stood up from his seat.
"Now, let's go to the lake with me."
"Now?"
"We will be fishing for something else today."
How long had Agong been waiting for fishing?
He also wanted to try the Heavenly Demon Hand that he had formally trained, and he had also recovered his energy with Tongtian's touch, so there was no need to hesitate.
"Yes!"
Agong hurriedly packed a basket and some snacks and then moved his feet towards the lake with Tongtian.
Swoosh.
In the spot where they had disappeared, someone secretly appeared and slowly moved his feet.
His steps were so light, like a feather, that no sound could be heard from his movements.
"Tsk, tsk... in the end..."
Cook Li, who had revealed himself, frowned.
He had stealthily revealed himself as soon as Tongtian had disappeared.
Despite his advice, the young Agong could not refuse the sweet dumpling right in front of him.
Perhaps this situation had been expected from the moment he had associated with Tongtian.
Cook Li, looking at the dirt that had been churned up by Agong's training, could close his eyes and imagine the infinite variations of the developed Nine Palaces Divine Steps at once.
"A child touched by the hands of both the Mountain Peak and the Sea Isle..."
Cook Li lightly lifted one foot and firmly stepped on the messy dirt floor in one go.
Thump!
"Since it has come to this, should I teach him the Nine Palaces Divine Steps properly..."
The traces of the footwork that had been drawn in the scattering dust were cleared up in an instant.
Cook Li once again spewed out a curse at Hongjun, who had dragged him into this mess.
(End of Chapter)