Those who seek to deepen their Kung-Fu must rely on their own talent and training.

For there has never been one who reached the profound mysteries of enlightenment or the peak of Kung-Fu solely through forced lessons and instruction from a master.

–John Locke1

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“There are plenty of Kung-Fu techniques that can counter a move using the power of tools without needing to go as far as the Big Dipper Shift or the World Denial.”

The Cogwheel Method, which I also used while treating Watson, is a unique Baritsu martial art that rotates Essence in a cogwheel form to change the flow of another’s Essence.

The Brain Stopper that traveled through the telephone line was pushed back by the cogwheel-like Essence in my palm and returned along the same path, shooting out as a form of a fist blast near his ear.

“No…! Impossible…!!”

When the shocked Young violently swung his arm, the bandages unraveled, revealing a large wound under the lights.

There was a mark twice the size of an ordinary fist on his wrist.

If I hadn’t noticed that the fist blast reproduced from the diaphragm spread wider and became larger than the fist, I would still be searching for a non-existent giant.

“Phantom Fist Timothy Young. Your attempt to assassinate the Postmaster General in London was your downfall.”

Timothy Young, who tried to take Sir Fawcett’s life, had prepared multiple layers of insurance due to his meticulous nature, ultimately giving me an important clue.

Thanks to knowing that Sir Fawcett was his next target, I was able to easily devise a countermeasure.

He didn’t infuse Brain Stopper into the fist blast during the assassination attempt to prevent me, who was investigating the case, from discovering which trick was used for the murder.

The moment I realized this, I was able to deceive him by pretending to know nothing.

Interestingly, Young himself considered the possibility that using his fist blast trick might not successfully kill Sir Fawcett.

He anticipated that even if the assassination attempt failed, we would gather and protect the involved parties in one place.

While he was likely reassured by the thought that it would be good if he succeeded and that he could look for another opportunity if he failed, this complacency was what ensnared the Phantom Fist Demon.

“Lacking even the basic chivalry expected of a gentleman and committing murder for personal gain. It seems you’ve accumulated an excess of power, but the rest is substandard.”

The concept of remote murder itself is something to consider, but that’s where the limit lies.

The successor of the Heavenly Demon is not so weak as to feel threatened by an opponent of this level.

“A lowly detective like you managing to counter the Telephone Punch that was revealed by him?! I cannot accept this!!!”

Yet, Young, struggling to steady his faltering body, suddenly shouted.

“…Him?”

No matter how I thought about it, it was nothing more than a desperate attempt to hide his own weakness, but there was something unsettling in his anger.

“Did you have a master who taught you Demonic arts?”

The Phantom Fist was not angry that his crime had been exposed.

He was only furious that the move he learned from another had been countered.

‘Seeing his obsession with a single move, it seems he wasn’t formally apprenticed but rather gained a bit of teaching from a hermit.’

I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

There was someone else who had taught Timothy Young the art of killing using the telephone and Brain Stopper.

The fact that an ordinary elite executive of a telephone company could create a technique that the old men of the White Chess Piece would dismiss as sorcery from the Left Wing was absurd from the start.

Using a telephone to take a person’s life is an idea that not even Sir Fawcett and the Post Office’s boxers could have conceived.

Such an outlandish idea couldn’t possibly have originated from the mind of an elite young master who had lived an unremarkably ordinary life.

‘Pathetic.’

I tried to be as cautious as possible not to underestimate a killer, but it seems I overestimated Timothy Young.

However, I found myself becoming more interested in the one who conceived the trick he used.

The true mastermind behind this incident, which was analyzed based on the move the Phantom Fist called the Telephone Punch.

Its characteristics overlapped with a certain criminal I had tracked for a long time before my regression.

High level of knowledge, boldness in application, and the malice focused solely on killing the opponent by any means necessary.

For a moment, I suspected that the shadow behind the Phantom Fist might be the man I was imagining.

‘I shall need to verify that.’

I could surely take him down if I seized the moment when he couldn’t control his body properly.

However, I waited for him to regain his stance.

Even though it deviated from my plan, if I could confirm his true nature and extract information about the one hiding behind him, it was worth taking the risk.

“Telephone Punch, huh. What a grandiose name. To think you would attempt to insult Kingswood’s 1200 Inch Punch with such a shallow trick.”

“…Do you think you have the right to say that when you’ve never contributed even a speck of internal energy or enlightenment to me!!”

His face flushed red, as if about to explode from a simple provocation. He was certainly groggy, yet his recovery was astonishingly quick.

“This is getting more interesting.”

Sir Fawcett, who was observing the situation, displayed a friendly smile. Whether it’s appropriate to say a blind man is observing is another matter.

“Yes, that’s how you should have come at me from the start.”

As if he was drawing on Innate Essence, a powerful energy seeped from his acupoints, creating a shimmering haze.

Even Lestrade, who usually rushed headlong for arrests, was wise to stop in surprise at the sharp aura as he approached from the blind spot.

“Graaaah!!”

While I waited, Timothy Young somehow managed to compose himself and began to unleash a fierce Brain Stopper.

-Bzzzzt!!

Like a diligent student from the academy, it seemed he was hiding 30% of his skill, and his momentum was incomparable to before.

However, at some point, the Essence surrounding him began to take on a distinctly different color from the Brain Stopper I knew.

It was not the blue lightning of the Kunlun Sect’s secret technique, but a sinister Essence reminiscent of dark red blood vessels.

I knew it.

I was very familiar with, and even welcomed, the nature of that power.

“By George, I knew it!”

The corners of my mouth began to rise involuntarily.

To think I would encounter a gentleman walking the same path in a place like this.

However, it seemed I was the only one who felt glad.

“Shut up and die!”

The fist of the Phantom Fist, cloaked in tyrannical energy, came flying at me without a moment to breathe.

“Baritsu, Bare Knuckle Style―”

With a broad smile, I grasped his wrist and accepted the power I had been desperately searching for.

A new fertilizer to enrich my elixir field.

“Gravitation.”

The corrupted energy of the Phantom Fist transformed by Demonic arts.

-BOOOOM!!!!

In the next moment, the murky internal energy began to flow rapidly through my acupoints into my elixir field.

“You…you’ve mastered Demonic arts?!”

Timothy Young shouted, visibly flustered.

From someone at a similar level to a demon, merely accepting such a Demonic attack would typically cause one’s Essence to collapse, sever their meridians, or disperse their power externally, yet here I was, holding onto his wrist and appearing perfectly fine to anyone watching.

Moreover, I leisurely unfolded a grapple, restraining him from moving recklessly.

To Timothy Young, who knew nothing, it must have looked like I had mastered Demonic arts.

“To think you couldn’t even recognize this. Your insight seems shallower than expected.”

Of course, I am indeed practicing it.

No matter how pure my Essence is, the method I used to accumulate it is indeed a Demonic art.

However, the reason I was unharmed had nothing to do with the Renewal Lionheart Method.

“This technique is actually Orthodox Kung-Fu.”

-Thump!

As soon as I finished speaking, when I matched the wavelength of the Essence, Timothy Young’s corrupted Essence instantly wrapped around my arm and began to be absorbed through my acupoints.

“What… Did you say…?”

The Phantom Fist, experiencing Essence loss, reacted with perfect predictability.

“Ugh…!!”

He gasped for air like a fish out of water, eventually falling to one knee.

“How about it? Even Orthodox Kung-Fu can be quite useful, right?”

The Star Absorption Technique,2 Gravitation, is an infamous martial art known throughout the world.

The reason people fear this skill so much is because of its name, which implies absorbing stars, and the fact that it absorbs others’ internal energy.

In the martial world, individual martial prowess determines everything.

Therefore, for a gentleman, having their accumulated internal energy taken away is as good as being mortally wounded or killed.

“You’re…absorbing my power…?”

“Exactly.”

The fact that many in the martial world consider the Star Absorption Technique to be black magic or a Demonic art is a testament to its fearsome reputation.

However, when those who know who created the technique witness it firsthand, the first thought that comes to their minds is as follows:

“What kind of Orthodox Kung-Fu is this… Aaaah!!!”

The Phantom Fist let out a scream of agony, twisting his entire body.

This is because the longer the Star Absorption Technique makes contact with the opponent, the faster it absorbs energy, causing the victim to be engulfed in proportionate pain.

“Let’s see.”

Meanwhile, I was analyzing the nature of the fierce Brain Stopper flowing into my body from the acupoint in contact with my palm.

Unlike normal Essence, it was a destructive energy altered by Demonic arts.

He had accumulated a considerable amount of Essence for his age, but it didn’t meet my expectations.

“The Demonic Essence is still quite faint.”

Timothy Young’s internal energy wasn’t as severely corrupted as I had thought, likely because he hadn’t been practicing Demonic arts for long.

That’s probably why he was able to keep his identity hidden until now.

‘This level of Demonic Essence shouldn’t even trigger any side effects.’

I let out a sigh of relief internally.

My master once said that the true side effects of the Lionheart Method are not just the withdrawal symptoms from stopping the intake of elixirs, but also the effects triggered when coming into contact with powerful Demonic Essence.

Fortunately, the level of Demonic arts that Timothy Young had mastered was not as high as the Orthodox Kung-Fu he usually practiced, so the King’s Specter showed no reaction.

This was fortunate for both of us.

If the concentration of Demonic essence had been stronger, my body might have acted out of control and killed him instantly.

“…It’s just a weak attempt. I don’t know who taught you or where you learned it, but calling this Demonic arts is embarrassing.”

In less than two seconds, the energy resembling a red lightning that he channeled into his fist transformed into pure Essence and flowed into my elixir field.

This was thanks to the Lionheart Method’s ability to voraciously consume and assimilate all kinds of Essences.

1. TL/N: The original quote is as follows—No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience. ️

2. TL/N: The move ‘Star Absorption’ is the same move as ‘Gravitation’ Sherlock performed earlier. The difference is that Gravitation is used in English, while Star Absorption is used in Chinese or Korean…since this is a Korean series ️