Chapter 19: Side Effect (1)

I guess my idea was decent enough, because Master ordered us to head back right after breakfast. Which meant…

"Run well on your way back."

Once again, the hellish training began.

Just like when we came to visit Aksu, I returned to the main headquarters after alternating between riding in a carriage three times and running according to the principles of lightness skill.

"Huff..."

While I was struggling to catch my breath, Master leisurely stepped down from the carriage and spoke with a gentle smile.

"Well done. You've done enough lightness skill training for today, so we'll skip the training with me in the afternoon."

Master spoke as if bestowing a great favor.

But after all that agony, was I supposed to be happy with that? Hell no.

"Whew. Master, when will I get the Explosive Demonic Pill?"

I hadn't forgotten the promised elixir, a symbol of fortuitous encounters in every martial arts novel.

He had promised to give me that elixir if I successfully completed this business trip.

'If I consume the elixir, it will be much easier to enter the Hall of the Demonic Way.'

And once that hurdle was cleared, I wouldn't have to endure this relentless schedule. My dream—work-life balance—would finally be within reach!

However, Master shook his head.

Just before the word ‘liar’ could unconsciously slip out, the shameless old man added.

"Your dantian is not yet sufficiently developed to handle the Explosive Demonic Pill. I will bestow it upon you once your dantian is more stable and your meridians are strengthened."

"Is that so...?"

A naturally disappointed tone slipped out.

'He's not trying to just brush it off with words and forget about it, right?'

My past experiences as Seo Ji-hoon had made me inherently distrustful.

'Surely this isn't like those shitty small companies that don't keep their promised performance bonus?'

While the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was a massive organization, dwarfing even South Korea's largest corporations, their haphazard way of doing things made this a legitimate concern.

However, I couldn't carelessly run my mouth.

Setting aside the evil corporate chairman geezer, the fanatic Jin Hayeon was likely to unleash her sword dance upon me.

Shortly after Master left...

Knock, knock.

A knocking sound echoed through the door of Windrock Palace.

Following that, a familiar little face peeked from behind the door. After nervously scanning the room, her eyes lit up upon seeing me.

"Big Brother~!"

I patted Little Seon-ah's head as she ran over and jumped into my arms, "Did you study and train hard while I was gone?"

In response to my question, Seon-ah beamed at me and started chattering a mile a minute.

About the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's doctrines she had learned over the past two days, and about how to kill people using the Blood Fox Crimson Claw Art.

"..."

The fuck are these lunatics teaching a kid?

As I wondered in dismay, I realized that it was unavoidable given that this was a cult-like martial organization.

I sighed internally. Then, I noticed the sudden silence. Seon-ah had finished her excited recounting and was now gazing up at me expectantly.

"Our Seon-ah really worked hard to keep her promise with Big Brother. Then, I should give Seon-ah a present, shouldn't I?"

I rummaged through my belongings and took out something I had picked up in Aksu.

It was a hairpin.

I’d picked it up for her last night while patrolling Aksu.

I thought of the little girl who would be waiting for me and bought a hairpin.

I carefully placed the hairpin in her long, crimson-tinged hair.

'Hmm. Is this how you do it?'

It felt somewhat off since I had never used a hairpin myself nor put one on someone else.

But Seon-ah looked nothing but happy after receiving my gift.

As I was watching Seon-ah's brightly smiling face with the crooked hairpin. A cold voice penetrated my ears.

"Lady Seon-ah, would you excuse us? The Young Master has been running on a tight schedule since yesterday and hasn’t had enough time for his studies.”

Seon-ah's eyes darted nervously between Jin Hayeon and me.

It wasn't a pleasant situation for me.

In this madhouse of a Demonic Cult, the two things keeping me sane were my diary and this adorable kid. However, openly siding with Seon-ah would only exacerbate the tension between them.

“Today, instead of learning anything new, I’m just going to review on my own. But I do have something for you to prepare, Miss Jin.”

"What would you like me to prepare?"

"A mock interview."

"A mock interview, you say?"

Jin Hayeon asked back as if she were hearing the term for the first time.

I’m sure that she would have never heard of it.

"I want you to prepare a mock interview based on the material you've taught me over the past fortnight. It will serve as practice for the Hall of the Demonic Way entrance examination and help me identify any gaps in my knowledge."

The mock interview was not something I just thought of on the spot. I had been thinking for some time that it would be good to do it since the second week of my studies.

From my long years as a student, I knew there were various memorization techniques.

Scientifically speaking, memorization is ultimately the process of converting short-term memory into long-term memory. And the most important thing for converting short-term memory into long-term memory is repetition.

Repetition was key, but not just mindless repetition on the first day of learning.

The most efficient way is to revisit it once in a while when you're about to forget it.

Review what you learned once that day, once the next day, once a week later, once a month later, once three months later, and once a year later.

In that sense, mock interviews or mock tests were quite important.

They allowed you to pinpoint weak areas and forgotten information without wasting time rereading already memorized content. It improved both test-taking skills and the efficiency of review.

And for this, the quality of questions in the mock test was paramount.

"Please prepare questions that are likely to appear in the actual Hall of the Demonic Way entrance examination. Cover all the material we've covered in the past fortnight, leaving no gaps."

At my instructions, Jin Hayeon showed an expression of wonder uncharacteristic of her as if she hadn't expected me to think about such detailed matters.

"I plan to conduct mock interviews once every fortnight from now on. Ah, while we're doing mock interviews, it would be good to have Seon-ah participate as well. After all, Seon-ah is also studying the doctrines for the Hall of the Demonic Way entrance examination, isn't she?"

I turned to Seon-ah, "Well then, shall we check tomorrow how well Seon-ah kept her promise?"

At my words, Seon-ah gulped and her eyes trembled anxiously and after a moment of hesitation, Seon-ah suddenly broke free from my arms.

"I, I'll go study a bit more and come back." And with that, she scurried out of Windrock Palace.

The hairpin that wasn't properly fixed and swayed back and forth particularly caught my eye.

* * *

Il-mok's daily routine pretty much stayed the same. The only special event was a mock interview we held.

As instructed, Jin Hayeon prepared a devilishly difficult set of questions, all of which Il-mok answered flawlessly.

"Wow! How do you remember all that, Big Brother?"

Seon-ah, who had been roped into participating, exclaimed in admiration.

That's not to say Seon-ah couldn't answer any questions at all.

Being the precious daughter of the Hyeokryeon Family, a prestigious family in the Demonic Cult, Seon-ah had already read the doctrine books several times. But she was still just a kid, so her knowledge was all based on memorizing stuff word-for-word.

She answered Jin Hayeon's questions with short, verbatim recitations from the texts.

In contrast, Il-mok's answers were eloquent and comprehensive. He effortlessly connected different passages, drawing parallels and employing various analogies.

''...His request for a mock interview wasn't solely for Lady Seon-ah's benefit.’ Jin Hayeon realized, observing Il-mok with a newfound appreciation.

She couldn't believe he had actually memorized and understood every single thing they'd covered in the last two weeks, without missing a beat.

She recalled his insightful observations during their visit to Aksu County.

'Perhaps Young Master Il-mok is truly a genius...'

Unbeknownst to her, he was simply a man accustomed to studying. Regardless of her misconception, Il-mok's routine remained unchanged.

His martial arts training with Jin Hayeon was progressing smoothly, and he was starting to gain muscle. The same was true for the martial arts training with the Heavenly Demon.

Thanks to becoming accustomed to the lightness skill while traveling to and from Aksu, he had recently been engrossed in training to execute the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword in conjunction with them.

He spent his remaining time cultivating his internal energy through breathing exercises. After about fifteen days, his dantian, once the size of a grain of millet, had grown to the size of a bean.

"Now, it’s about the time to start training you in handling internal energy."

The news brought by the Heavenly Demon filled Il-mok with anticipation.

But before teaching him the martial arts right away, the Heavenly Demon preached the greatness of Demonic Arts.

"Haha. There's no need to be surprised; the amount of energy you have right now would’ve taken those hypocrites in the Central Plains a good two years to build up with their basic breathing exercises. Even with their so-called ‘Divine Arts,’ it would've taken them at least three months to gather that amount."

An absorption rate three times faster than the Central Plains' ultimate arts.

But Il-mok understood that this was a scam.

‘Yeah, but you left out the part about the side effects.’

Of course, he wisely kept his reservations to himself.

"Indeed! The Demonic Arts of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult are truly unparalleled, Master."

"Haha. You understand very well."

Pleased, the Heavenly Demon let out a hearty laugh and slowly drew his Heavenly Demon Sword.

He demonstrated the Soul-Departing Sword, which was both the first form of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword and a sword-drawing technique, while reciting its key principles. After sheathing his sword, he repeated the demonstration, this time explaining the principles in detail.

“As you grab the sword with your right hand, you pull energy up from your dantian and channel it to your Qihai Acupoint. From there, the flow of energy…"

As he completed his explanation in the time it took to draw his sword once more, Il-mok asked in a puzzled tone.

"Is, is that all?"

Whether it was the key principles themselves or their explanation, it seemed remarkably brief and simple.

"Hahaha. Demonic Arts value efficiency. Those self-proclaimed hypocrites make their manuals long and complicated, like some kind of secret code, because they’re paranoid someone will steal their moves. Our Demonic Arts are different. The same applies to the flow of internal energy. They use these ridiculously complex pathways, but we don’t bother.”

"Is there a reason the orthodox sects purposely use internal energy in such a difficult way?"

"Because they are cowards. They’re trying to avoid all the dangerous meridian points, so of course their routes are going to be a convoluted mess.”

"Ah..."

So basically, Demonic Arts just plows straight through the dangerous meridian points instead of going around them.

'No wonder people call them crazy...'

As he was reminded of the danger of Demonic Arts, the Heavenly Demon told Il-mok, "Since the key points are as simple as you said, you must have already memorized them all. Now try performing it yourself."

Il-mok took several deep breaths to calm his nerves and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Since it's your first time, try to perform it slowly while recalling the key points."

Even without the old man’s advice, Il-mok had planned to do so.

Since it was said to pass through dangerous meridians, recklessly performing it could risk becoming crippled.

"Hup."

After taking one last deep breath, Il-mok held his breath and slowly drew his sword.

In his head, he recalled the key points that the Heavenly Demon had taught him, and operated his internal energy according to the technique’s principles.

Ziiiing.

To his astonishment, despite the slow draw, a sharp ringing resonated from his sword as he completed the Soul-Departing Sword form.

It signified the immense power imbued within the movement.

Il-mok stared at his vibrating sword in wonder and repeated the stance several times. However, his still-developing dantian quickly depleted.

“Do a round of energy circulation. Let's start again after filling your dantian."

Following the Heavenly Demon's instructions, he recovered his internal energy through circulation and performed the technique using his internal energy again several times.

As the principles were ingrained into his body, at some point, he was able to perform the technique at the same speed as when he usually swung his sword.

Whiiing.

As the speed increased, Il-mok, who was looking at the sword that was emitting an even more resonant sound, soon frowned.

Then with an uncomfortable expression, Il-mok turned his gaze and began looking around.

"What's wrong?" the Heavenly Demon asked, puzzled.

"Um, my position seems a bit strange," Il-mok replied.

"Position?"

Instead of answering, Il-mok abruptly took a step to the right. "Huu… This is the exact center of the Windrock Palace. Being slightly off-center was… uncomfortable…"

Cold sweat ran down Il-mok's back as he suddenly stopped speaking.

'Fuck.'

Il-mok realized that the side effect of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword had begun.