The three options which appeared in front of his eyes made him more worried than ever.
Last life…
This is the last.
Unlike until now, there was no other next time he could prepare for. So no adventures.
Then the answer? The first one?
The second one will lead to the third.
I cannot be too sure of that.
Seol-Hwi looked at the situation up until now.
If he took the first choice, it would be the three choices the Earth Demon suggested, and to choose between being an escort warrior or secret warrior, which he never took.
So how could he be sure about its chances of survival?
Being a secret warrior was a dangerous position which needed confidentiality for the missions which are carried out at the most unusual times.
The reward would also be generous and his position would rise, but that would only put him in more complicated and dangerous missions. It meant that the chances of dying would be high.
And the position of secret warrior… is closest.
But the problem was—
The Earth Demon is in an unstable position right now.
Even if he was an escort to the Fourth Disciple who had no power right now, he would most likely be stuck with the Earth Demon who had a possibility of being ambushed or targeted.
The chance of such situations may not be high themselves, but if such a situation did happen, the risk of dying was high.
Also, an escort warrior is someone who sacrifices himself to save their master.
“Phew.”
Eventually he came to the conclusion that he had to choose one of the other two.
One was where the future was unseen or even unimagined, but it would be an option which can move according to the situation.
The other was dangerous, and if one knew the future and could prepare for it, it would be a better option.
The former or the latter?
One was where he would have to stay hidden from the Supreme Pavilion.
If it were not for the ill feelings Seol-Hwi had against the Supreme Pavilion Lord—if it hadn’t been a fight where they moved head on and destroyed everything around them—
Goo Jong-myung would have been quietly waiting, and Seol-Hwi could have escaped.
Or, he could have delayed the killing a bit.
Seol-Hwi thought a little more.
Before his death, even when the Supreme Pavilion Lord was a mess and then when he fought with Goo Jong-myung, no other warriors came in.
The reason was the Earth Demon.
Not just the secret warriors of the Supreme Pavilion, but he made sure any warriors around were being handled to make the task easier, so no one came at all during the fight.
No matter how skilled Goo Jong-myung was, if such a person showed up in the center of the Demonic Sect, the other warriors should have moved.
And if they came, then Seol-Hwi could have saved himself.
“Right. If I prepare properly I can solve it. Besides…”
Come to think of it, there was one thing that came to his mind, and that was how to regain his lost life.
After contemplating for a long time, Seol-Hwi made a final decision.
<Load record of ‘98th Heavenly Year. Self Story_Fateful day’.>
And pure light—
He moved to where the recorded time was.
His vision brightened, and a door appeared before him.
The Earth Demon.
Seol-Hwi soon realized what this was.
After rescuing Ma Taryong with Songhwa, it was when he was reporting what had happened.
Drr
Upon entering, the Earth Demon welcomed him as usual.
“Captain, you have done so much this time.”
The Earth Demon comforted him as before.
“Thank you. Next time, I will be careful to not cause such a dangerous situation.”
As expected, after the formal greeting came the words.
“It isn’t that I don’t want to become a secret warrior.”
“…?”
“What you spoke about last time. I thought about it.”
“Ah…”
The Earth Demon nodded his head awkwardly. He must have been a bit shocked at the sudden mention of it.
“I see. Then why didn’t you join right away?”
“There is a challenge I haven’t solved yet.”
“Challenge?”
“Yes.”
There is no need to repeat the failures which happened. What he will get from the previous one is the position he held.
So this time he was going to make use of what he had.
“Actually, changes are happening within my body. Perhaps it is about me rising to the next realm.”
“To the next realm?”
“Yes. My master always said that if I use fire and ice in harmony I can reach a higher level. I have followed her words until this point, but as I began to understand the origin of the martial arts of Hidden Truth Corps, something strange began to happen.”
“Strange?”
The Earth Demon looked curious.
The rise in the realm of a person with harmony of ice and fire—just saying that meant he had learned the White Light Body Demonic Martial Arts.
As a warrior, it would be strange if he was not interested in this.
“I am definitely a member of the Demonic Sect. So it is normal for me to have a body full of demonic qi. But somehow, I have risen in level in a strange manner.”
“…What?”
“Simply put, pure qi was created when the demonic qi was used. And it didn’t even stop there, I came to be able to communicate with the airflow in nature through my dantian. As a result the demonic qi in the dantian can no longer be grown further.”
“….”
The Earth Demon went silent for a moment. It looked like this situation felt completely absurd to him.
“Could you give me your hand?”
“Of course.”
Seol-Hwi obediently held out his hand.
Tak
The Earth Demon immediately touched his meridian in the wrist, and he felt a slight tingle at that point.
The Earth Demon exclaimed in surprise.
“Huh! Th-this is…!
The martial arts of the Unified Elimination Demonic Martial Arts was an old one. And it was known to add a stronger force as it had lost its original essence.
As an analogy, they picked up a broken wooden chair and cut out its rotten parts and made a smaller chair, but it would be one which wouldn’t break like the previous one.
But Seol-Hwi had taken the small chair apart and made it into a bigger chair by using the discarded rotten parts and revived it into its old form.
“I cannot believe this, Captain, what did you do?”
“Honestly, I am not sure.”
“…Well, of course that was a stupid question to ask.”
The Earth Demon smiled.
Seol-Hwi spoke like he was scared of this and yet spoke about everything, but if he spoke confidently, then it would be difficult for the Earth Demon to understand it.
What Seol-Hwi said was that two demonic arts combined had created this, but wasn’t that absurd?
At such a bizarre thing, if the example, Seol-Hwi, wasn’t in front of him, the Earth Demon would have passed this up like a funny joke.
“This is the reason why I couldn’t respond to your proposal right then. I was trying to handle it myself, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t solve it by myself.”
Anyway, the fact that things had turned complicated in the past wasn’t forgotten, so Seol-Hwi used that as an excuse..
It was not just because he didn’t want to do it, but his body wasn’t feeling normal, was what he said.
“So, I am informing you of this now, Fourth Disciple. My body right now is a ball which can bounce at either side. And with a body like this, if I moved to carry out the missions the Lord gave, it would be tough.”
“Right… you have been through a lot. All alone.”
As if the Earth Demon had understood it, his expression looked sad. Seol-Hwi went one step further.
“Yes. Having said that, can you give me some advice? In the meantime, I have been going around trying to find anything to help myself, I heard of something like cultivation.”
“Cultivation huh…”
A way to harmonize the yin and yang in the body and make it more viable to use. However, the level of difficulty was very high.
The harmony of yin and yang was not an easy thing to achieve, and it was a technique which could be hard to master. Even more so when the body was one tainted by demonic qi, so the harmony experienced outward conflicts.
It would be much more efficient to just use one of the two types of qi instead of seeking both.
“Hmm.”
If it were the other elders of the Demonic Sect, they would have asked him to just do that instead, but the Earth Demon was different. Hearing the words of Seol-Hwi, he was in deep thought.
As I thought.
Seol-Hwi chose the right person to talk to.
The Earth Demon, the Heavenly Killing Star.
There are multiple martial arts and there are those absolute ones too, but there are various theories about each one. Be it martial arts or demonic martial arts, they are both unique and they have different ways of using them.
And he asked hoping there was something which could help him.
But—
“You mean Taiji.”
“Uh?”
“The source of all things and qi, is Taiji. It refers to yin and yang not of two energies but as one. Through Taiji you can fuse them within.”
“Ah…”
“To try to break through the situation where there is a lack of skills. Right, not bad. Not a bad thought. I think the taiji concept of Wudang fits you.”
He spoke of the answer, but because it was not what was expected, both the Earth Demon and Seol-Hwi had stiff faces.
Did he actually mean for Seol-Hwi to learn another sect’s martial arts?
This was close to impossible…
Just in time, the Earth Demon turned around and opened a drawer and brought something out.
“Have this.”
“This is…”
“Taiji Cultivation arts.”
“…!”
Seol-Hwi went wide-eyed at this. It was the martial arts of another sect!
And the Earth Demon had it with him!