Chapter 102 – Heavenly Demon’s Disciple (24)
“…What?”
At the sound of that name, the man’s gaze finally turned toward me.
Clack.
All the countless swords that had been flying around attacking me froze in mid-air.
Pure, unmistakable shock.
“Mao Zhai! I just want to talk!”
I lowered my weapon so as not to provoke him and quickly scanned the surroundings.
‘Holy… is this for real?’
In a place where the ground was carpeted with the corpses of the Blood Demon Guard, an absurd number of breathtaking beauties were gathered together.
In the original novel, these were the heroines of the Central Plains who were constantly being kidnapped, only for the protagonist to appear at the last moment and interfere.
But because the protagonist had changed, every single one of them had actually been abducted.
“Waaah!”
“Waaah!”
And they had all borne the Blood Demon’s children.
The more recently captured ones—like Emei Fairy, Emei Divine Sword, and Sword Phoenix—hadn’t given birth yet, but most of the women were cradling infants in their arms.
‘Where’s the Blood Demon? Ah!’
I hadn’t arrived just in the nick of time.
“You… came… urgh!”
The Blood Demon, his side deeply slashed and his right arm completely gone, was huddled in a corner, shielded by the women.
Very villain-like of him.
He was using powerless women and children as living shields.
‘Is that actually fortunate?’
If Mao Zhai had been some hypocritical magical-boy type like Choi Kang-min, he would’ve ignored the women and children and charged straight in. Instead, he was only keeping them surrounded with his Sword Control Technique.
“Such skill… from the Hidden Dragon?”
“Hidden Dragon?”
“Yes. It has to be the Hidden Dragon.”
Tang Sayang, still on my back, had clearly recognized Mao Zhai from over my shoulder.
Hidden Dragon (潛龍).
The Sleeping Dragon.
A vague nickname given to the most promising young bachelor in the martial world.
In the original <Is This Heavenly Demon for Real?>, the protagonist was called “Demon Dragon” because he was the Heavenly Demon’s disciple, while the title of Hidden Dragon went to the lazy bachelor of the Wudang Sect.
‘You absolute idiot…!’
The moment I realized that Mao Zhai, the possessor, had failed to become the Heavenly Demon’s disciple, I should’ve immediately checked the current Nine Dragons and Five Phoenixes roster!
I cursed my own stupidity.
“Who are you? How do you know my name?”
The Hidden Dragon acknowledged his identity and asked.
“My name is Kang Moon-soo. From Wudang.”
Shhk—
I gently set Tang Sayang down from my back as I answered.
“Wudang?”
“Yes.”
“What business does someone from Wudang have with me…?”
“You are currently trapped in a dream where you believe you’ve become the protagonist of the wuxia novel <Is This Heavenly Demon for Real?>.”
“You even know the title of the novel?!”
I was extremely careful not to agitate the confused Mao Zhai.
Failure was not an option.
The man who had single-handedly demolished the Blood Demon Palace was far beyond my level.
‘If we fight, I die.’
And if I died this time, my real-world body would become so weakened that continuing as an athlete would be impossible.
I absolutely could not die.
“Mao Zhai, think rationally and calmly. If this novel world is real, that would make the author who wrote it a literal creator god. Doesn’t that sound absurd by any common sense?”
“Rationally?”
“Yes. Rationally.”
Mao Zhai glanced at the swords orbiting around him like satellites and shot back.
“What if the novel is the fake one?”
“…Huh?”
What kind of logic is that?
“What if the life I’ve lived as Mao Zhai is the dream?”
“…”
“The knowledge from <Is This Heavenly Demon for Real?> has certainly been helpful. But the life I’ve lived as Mao Zhai has been far more useful.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“The Sword Control Technique that took the novel’s protagonist over ten years to master? I achieved it in five years, without a master and without the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.”
“Ah…?”
Now it was my turn to be stunned.
‘The Heavenly Demon said Mao Zhai had no talent…’
None of this made sense.
“Even the most abstruse martial arts manuals—I understood them after reading once or twice and mastered them perfectly.”
“What the…?”
He’s a monster.
“The Heaven-and-Earth Yin-Yang Body is nothing more than an auxiliary tool. If it weren’t, the protagonist in the novel would have shown the same growth.”
“I don’t under—”
Smack!
I reflexively swatted away a sword that had suddenly flown at me with the back of my hand.
“Kang Moon-soo, you’re from the same era as me. You’re the same as I am.”
“Me?”
“Martial artists with a hundred times more inner energy than you just died failing to block an attack on that level.”
“That’s because…”
I’m an athlete?
But that was only my own guess from someone who barely knew martial arts.
“The origin of martial arts lies in Buddhism and Daoism. The goal is to comprehend the laws of nature and the universe and become a Buddha or an immortal. Martial techniques are merely a byproduct.”
“No way…?”
Mao Zhai’s explanation was starting to make sense.
The laws of the universe.
It felt like scattered puzzle pieces in my head were finally clicking together.
“Martial arts manuals describe the laws of nature and the cosmos. But you and I already know them. The Central Plains is only a part of the world; we know how life is born and how vast the universe truly is…”
“…You’re right.”
I already know how insignificant humans are.
“The knowledge that martial artists vaguely imagine through masters and books—we learned it in school. And if you’ve ridden a spaceship or an airplane, you understand it even more vividly.”
“Ah…”
Now I understood why I had grown so explosively strong the moment I started cultivating inner energy.
I began at the highest realm!
I already possessed the enlightenment that martial artists spend their entire lives barely attaining.
So?
“Kang Moon-soo. Reality is here. We simply reached the truth through a strange dream.”
“A strange dream…”
“You seem to have experienced the same dream through Wudang’s mysterious insight.”
“…”
Mao Zhai was now the one trying to convince me.
***
“Hidden Dragon. As you demanded, I will give you the Star-Absorbing Great Law and my life. In exchange, spare the women and children.”
While we were talking, the Blood Demon—who had managed to staunch his bleeding—interrupted.
Women and children.
Even if it had been forced, were they still wives and offspring with whom he had shared affection? It was a request unbefitting the worst villain in the <Is This Heavenly Demon for Real?> universe.
‘What’s his angle?’
Mao Zhai, clearly harboring the same suspicion as me, looked at the Blood Demon with wary surprise.
“You said you couldn’t trust me and refused just moments ago. What changed your mind?”
“Nothing changed. It’s simply that someone trustworthy has arrived.”
The Blood Demon glanced briefly at me and Tang Sayang as he spoke.
There was no way we had that level of trust between us, but I did agree that innocent women and children should be spared.
“Hmm…”
Mao Zhai stroked his chin, pondering the Blood Demon’s logic, then let out a soft sigh.
“It’s not my fault, but I do feel a debt toward them—for not rescuing them in time like the novel’s protagonist did.”
“I don’t understand what you mean, but I’ll take that as acceptance?”
“…Fine.”
At the Blood Demon’s confirmation, Mao Zhai nodded.
Shhk, shhk—
The encirclement formed by the Sword Control Technique slowly dissolved.
“Number One Beauty of Sichuan. I know it’s shameless of me, but please look after my family.”
“…Understood.”
I was reluctant because Emei Divine Sword and Emei Fairy were glaring at me like I was their mortal enemy, but I couldn’t turn my back on women and children the Blood Demon had risked his life to protect.
At that moment—
“I changed my mind a little. I’ll spare everyone except Sword Phoenix.”
“Mao Zhai…?”
I wasn’t the only one shocked by his sudden whim.
“Young Hero Hidden Dragon?!”
Sword Phoenix, who had just begun to relax thinking she was safe, fell into panic.
Shhk, shhk—
The countless blades floating in the air via Sword Control Technique all turned their tips toward Sword Phoenix as Mao Zhai spoke.
“In <Is This Heavenly Demon for Real?>, Sword Phoenix’s constant disdain for men always pissed me off. And then the way she fawns over the protagonist made me want to puke.”
“Wait a second! That’s something to take up with the author, not Sword Phoenix herself!”
The reason he wanted to kill her was absurd.
If a character’s personality bothers you, shouldn’t you curse the writer who created her? That’s just common sense!
But my objection fell on deaf ears.
“The author? Ah! Then I should also hold the parents who raised Sword Phoenix wrong accountable.”
“You’ll die…!”
At the mention of killing her parents, Sword Phoenix’s eyes flipped with rage and she charged straight at Mao Zhai.
A suicidal rush no different from leaping into a pit of fire.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The swords that had been circling her, tips pointed, shot forward in unison.
‘No!’
Whoosh!
I kicked off the ground and leaped to stop Mao Zhai’s rampage.
But—
“Ugh?!”
The same pressure technique the Heavenly Demon had once used on me crushed my body like lead.
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!
Because of it, I couldn’t even mount a proper defense. Countless blades pierced straight through me.
“Young Master Kang?!”
Tang Sayang screamed in horror and rushed to my side.
Thud.
She caught my collapsing body, now riddled with swords.
“Kang Moon-soo. I saw your weakness the moment I laid eyes on you. Simply suppressing you with inner energy is child’s play. Even without that, you’re no match for me.”
“Cough! Cough!”
In real life, wounds this severe would have killed me instantly.
The only reason I was still breathing was pure inner energy keeping me alive.
‘Sword Phoenix…?’
Clang.
Her headless body—both arms already severed by Mao Zhai’s Sword Control Technique—toppled to the ground.
Murder?
I’m not proud of it, but I’ve killed plenty of people myself, so I’m used to it. But this… this was something else entirely.
“Kang Moon-soo. Your attempt to save Sword Phoenix wasn’t wrong, so I spared your life.”
“Urgh!”
Pain screamed from every inch of my body.
“Your mistake was being weaker than me.”
“Damn it… cough!”
“Look after the women and children the Blood Demon entrusted to you and live out the rest of your days. I’m leaving.”
Whoosh!
Having killed Sword Phoenix simply because she annoyed him in the original novel, Mao Zhai turned away without a shred of hesitation.
“I leave them in your care.”
“Blood Demon…”
The Blood Demon willingly walked after Mao Zhai, the man who had just taken his arm.
***
“Young Master Kang! Don’t move—the wounds will reopen!”
“…”
I didn’t have the strength to move even if I wanted to, so I obediently let Tang Sayang treat me.
“How long are you all just going to stand there and watch?!”
Her hands soaked in blood, she exploded at the beauties who remained frozen even after Mao Zhai and the Blood Demon had left.
Even her own beloved disciples, Emei Fairy and Emei Divine Sword, just stared blankly.
“Did I raise you to—ugh?!”
Tang Sayang staggered and collapsed while shouting at them.
Right after that—
(Grandson of the Heavenly Demon! Well done coming. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to keep my promise to teach you sorcery in exchange for our alliance.)
“Blood Demon?”
(But I value promises above all else. Be very grateful. I will introduce you to a teacher far greater than myself!)
“What…?”
The Blood Demon had followed Mao Zhai. Yet an overwhelming premonition told me this was far from over.
“Waaah!”
“Waaah!”
The beauties didn’t even try to soothe their crying babies and began moving as one.
What the hell are they doing now?
Drip… drip…
They bit their own wrists and their children’s, then started drawing intricate geometric patterns on the ground with the flowing blood.
(Number One Beauty of Sichuan, thank you for arriving in time. This ritual cannot be activated without a sorcerer nearby.)
“A ritual…?”
(And since you also possess the gift of sorcery, the conditions are perfectly met.)
Like puppets on the Blood Demon’s strings, the women formed a horizontal line that completely encircled the bloody geometric array.
“Waaah!”
“Waaah!”
The babies wailed in pain from having their wrists bitten, but their mothers stared blankly only at the center of the pattern.
“What on earth are they trying to—”
Using Tang Sayang’s voice, the Blood Demon spoke.
(According to legend, That One was born from the womb of a celestial maiden who received the Blood Demon’s seed. I could handle the Blood Demon part myself, but the “celestial maiden” condition was too vague. So I kidnapped every famous beauty in the Central Plains to eliminate variables.)
He ruined countless women’s lives just to reduce statistical deviation.
Classic villain logic.
“That One?”
(The son of the Blood Demon who drenched the Central Plains in blood upon birth—the tragic demonic god feared by all and ultimately sealed away: the Heavenly Demon!)
“…Wait, hold on—”
This was the exact line the Blood Demon screamed in volume 215 of the original novel when he was cornered.
Wooooong—
The geometric pattern drawn in the blood of women and children began glowing with an ominous hue.
“Descend!”
“Descend!”
Shrrrrrip~
The beauties stripped completely naked in unison and prostrated toward the center of the array.
Once, twice, three times…
It looked exactly like the collective frenzy of a cult worshiping a devil.
(Descend!)
“Descend!”
Shrrrrrip~
Even Tang Sayang, her face entranced, stripped and joined them.
“Even Miss Tang…”
I give up. I have no idea anymore.
“Waaah!”
“Descend!”
The babies’ cries and the women’s chants mixed into pure chaos.
Sluuuuurp…
The blood flowing from the corpses of the Blood Demon Guard slowly crawled toward the center of the pattern, as if being sucked in.
And then—
(The time has come!)
The Blood Demon announced His descent.
BOOM—
A strange premonition struck, as if a meteor had just crashed into the heart of this world.
The “meteor” that rose from the exact center of the array looked around at the naked women lying flat in worship and spoke.
“You know your manners.”
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Then, spotting Mao Zhai returning while controlling countless swords with Sword Control Technique, He said,
“But you do not.”
Stab!
The one the Blood Demon had summoned—the moment He descended upon this land, He immediately sent Mao Zhai right back out!
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