The next day, Lee Ahn found me with a flustered look on her face.
"How did I get back yesterday?"
"You carried me on your back. I don't remember how I got back."
At that, Lee Ahn's cheeks turned red.
"Don't lie to me. I wasn't that drunk. Was I heavy? I'm sorry, Young Master."
"I'd be lying if I said you were light. But you weren't so heavy that you need to be sorry. Look at these arms!"
"Goodness, your already thin arms have gotten even thinner."
"Look at these bulging muscles properly!"
After we exchanged jokes, Lee Ahn bowed her head.
"Thank you, Young Master."
"Let's drink again sometime."
"Yes, Young Master."
As she was about to turn away, she asked again.
"If I happened to misspeak, please find it in your generous heart to forgive me. Honestly, I don't remember what I said."
"You didn't make any mistakes, so don't worry. Ah, but if you do make a mistake next time, use your right to a pardon."
"A pardon? What's that?"
"It's the right to be forgiven even if you make a mistake or do something wrong to me."
"Did you give it to me? I don't think I received it."
I held out my hand to her.
"A handshake."
Lee Ahn took my hand with her large one.
"There, I just issued it."
"If you're going to give me one, can't you be generous and give me ten? I'll be following you for the rest of my life, won't one be insufficient?"
"No! Just one. So use it wisely!"
"Yes! Young Master!"
Her eyes, smiling brightly, disappeared into the flesh of her cheeks.
'If anyone in this life needs to be forgiven, it's me, not you.
You're the one who should issue me about fifty pardons…'
That night, I was sitting alone, practicing my energy emission.
While I was probing three places at once, the energy I sent to my left detected a person.
These days, I was thoroughly enjoying the fun of figuring out what kind of person someone was through their energy.
When I sent out my energy and found someone, I would start by scanning them from head to toe.
How tall they were, what weapon they used, and what their level of martial arts mastery was.
This time was no different, and just as I was about to examine the person.
The person subtly stepped aside.
Thinking it must be a coincidence, I sent my energy toward them.
But the person moved to the opposite side again, avoiding my energy.
'Surely they don't know and are avoiding it?'
This thin, stealthy thread of energy was something an opponent should never be able to detect.
But the person began to dodge here and there, as if they could feel my energy.
Who in the world?
I was curious about the person.
I continued to emit my energy as I left the room.
I practiced emitting energy even while moving.
Of course, it required several times more mental energy than emitting it while standing still, but in a real fight, I would more often have to emit energy while on the move.
I felt the person retreating.
I chased after them as they slipped away just as I was about to catch them.
The place I arrived at was the pavilion in the inner palace.
The moment I confirmed who was standing there, I let out a sigh of relief without realizing it.
"Father!"
The person who had led my energy all the way here was my father.
"Of course. I was tense, thinking someone else had detected my energy."
"What's so great about your energy? Even the dog sleeping under that wall over there would notice it."
"Aren't dogs just naturally perceptive creatures? But what brings you to my residence?"
"I was just passing by."
Though he said that, it was clear he had come looking for me.
"To meet you like this, even by chance, truly shows that we have a fateful relationship."
"That's enough of that nonsense."
"Yes!"
I shut my mouth and quietly added my gaze to the night sky my father was watching.
A moment later, I asked.
"When will you decide on a successor?"
"In a hundred years. You all still have a long way to go."
"Let's make it a hundred days. I think I've just about arrived."
"If that were the case, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon wouldn't have sought you out."
"How did you know?"
It was a private meeting, yet my father knew.
In other words, it meant he was watching me.
Then again, he had also known I was afflicted by the energy-dispersing poison.
"The Blood Heaven Blade Demon came to see me right after meeting you."
"What did he say?"
"He wanted me to punish you."
"What?"
I was startled by the unexpected words.
Could it be that the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had gone straight to my father to ask for my punishment?
"It was unexpected. He's not the type of person to come to me with such a request just because his disciple died."
"Why on earth would he do that?"
Though I feigned ignorance, I could guess the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's true intentions.
He was trying to test the relationship between my father and me.
To see if my father would really punish me, and if so, what kind of punishment it would be.
He was trying to find out if my father considered me a successor.
"So I plan to punish you."
"You have no justification to punish me. That disciple of his was a man who deserved to die."
"Justification can be created."
I drew my sword and etched a long line on the ground.
Then, I drew another line about a tenth of the way and said.
"The Blood Heaven Blade Demon told me that this long side represents the extent of your regard for him. Did your justification perhaps come from this length?"
Instead of answering, my father repeated the question I had asked him at the hunting grounds.
"Did you not ask who I trusted most among the Demon Sovereigns?"
"Yes."
My father answered that question now.
"I trust no one."
I could tell.
With this answer, he had also simultaneously replied that the line drawn by the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was not accurate.
"Which side are you on? The side that trusts people, or the side that doesn't?"
"That would depend on what kind of person they are."
"And how can you know what kind of person they are?"
"Don't you get to know them as you spend time with them?"
"A foolish thought. A person's heart is something you can never know. No matter how transparent someone seems to be by your side, you must never think that you know them."
Suddenly, I thought of Lee Ahn.
It was the same principle as how I thought I knew her well, yet I kept discovering new sides to her.
"I will keep that in mind."
"Did you say you need to establish discipline in the Main Sect?"
"Yes."
"Cut the nonsense about catching corruption. Tell me your honest thoughts."
"May I be truly honest?"
"Have you ever spoken falsely before?"
"That's not it, but I feel that this answer, in particular, might be a disrespectful one."
"Speak."
"I believe that at some point… we lost the Demonic Path."
The skin beneath my father's eyes twitched.
It was not something to be said in front of him, of all people.
"What is the Demonic Path in your mind?"
"The Demonic Path, in my mind, is…"
After a brief pause, I revealed the thoughts I had kept buried for a long time.
"I believe it is the Main Sect's unique conviction to crush absolute evil."
As if it were an answer he hadn't expected, my father turned to me with wide eyes.
"... The Main Sect's conviction to crush absolute evil?"
"I don't believe that the Righteous Sect is what stands in opposition to us."
"Then what is?"
"Absolute evil."
It was clear that what I was about to say would not be easily accepted by my father.
Nevertheless, I calmly conveyed my thoughts to him.
"In this world, there exists an evil so cowardly, vicious, and wicked that humans cannot handle it. An absolute evil that would make even a demon click its tongue and turn away. I believe that the justice and righteousness championed by the Righteous Sect may be able to suppress small evils, but they cannot handle this absolute evil. This is because the Righteous Sect is fundamentally rooted in forgiveness. As long as they hold affection for humanity, how can they possibly handle an evil that has abandoned its own humanity and runs rampant in madness?"
My father was gazing at me.
It was the first time I had ever seen him concentrate so intently on my words.
Perhaps, deep in his heart, he was thinking something like this.
—Wasn't that absolute evil us?—
No, Father.
In my world, I hope the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect is not the absolute evil.
I will make sure it is not.
My words continued.
"The only existence in the martial world that can annihilate vile and vicious evil in an even more vile and vicious manner—I believe we must find our reason for existence here. Whether we are good or evil is not important. Sometimes with the face of good, sometimes with the face of evil. When the great evil that the Righteous Sect cannot handle kneels and trembles before us, only then do I believe the true Demonic Path will be established. Only then will the martial world truly bow its head before the might of the Main Sect. They will ask for our help when they cannot solve their problems themselves, saying that only the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect can save the martial world. This is my idea of the Demonic Path."
I can say with certainty that my father had never once in his life had such a thought, nor had he ever heard such a thing.
This thought was not something I had learned or realized within the Main Sect.
It was something I had felt myself while wandering the Central Plains my entire life.
"If we don't properly establish the Demonic Path, we won't last long. In order for us to survive… we must punish ourselves."
Even my father, who was skilled at hiding his emotions, could not conceal his shock at this moment.
This was the father who would send a gust of wind at my face to check for lies.
But at this moment, he showed no reaction at all, even though a story had unfolded that would have warranted ten such gusts of wind, if not more.
My father was lost in deep thought.
I had lived a longer life than him, but I couldn't guess what he was thinking right now.
But one thing I felt for certain.
Though only a few days had passed since I regressed, both my father's and my own destiny were changing.
We had begun to turn in the direction of a different future.
Finally, my father broke the long silence.
"Do you have any more insolence left to spout?"
"No, not for today."
I scratched my head and smiled awkwardly.
"I think I know why the Blood Heaven Blade Demon came to me and asked me to punish you."
"Why is that?"
My father's eyes, filled with conviction, shone intensely.
"He read something in you. That's why he's trying to test you through me."
"He probably read my potential to become the successor."
"It could also be the risk that you'll ruin the Main Sect."
"Whichever it is… that old bag of bones is sharp, I'll give him that."
After staring at me for a moment, my father, as if he had made a decision, strode out of the pavilion.
"Follow me."
My father took me to the deepest part of the Heavenly Demon Hall.
It was a place I had heard of and knew well.
A small plaque hung above a stone grotto.
Little Heaven Grotto.
I was shocked and shouted at my father.
"Surely you're not telling me to go in there, are you?"
This place was for the successors who would become the Heavenly Demon, a kind of training grotto.
Usually, the disciples or children of the Heavenly Demon would enter when they were put to a test.
One should never underestimate it just because it was a training grotto.
You could go in as you pleased, but coming out was another matter.
I had heard that if you couldn't break through the gates, you would never come out of that place.
The success rate was half.
In fact, half of the Heavenly Demon's bloodline who had entered this place had lost their lives here.
That was why even my overly ambitious brother never dared to mention entering this place himself.
However, it was also a place one had to pass through at least once to become the Heavenly Demon.
All those who had become the Heavenly Demon had passed through here.
Looking at it this way, being the Heavenly Demon was one of the most extreme professions.
"I also entered this place when I was your age."
"So how long did it take for you to come out?"
"Two months."
"Good heavens. You want me to spend two months of my shining youth in this dark and damp place?"
"Don't get the wrong idea. It was two months because it was me. The average time to break through is three years."
My father was regarded as having the greatest martial talent among all the past Heavenly Demons.
The Heavenly Martial Body was likely possible because I inherited this father's blood.
"Father, why are you doing this to me?"
"Didn't I tell you earlier? That I plan to punish you."
"Isn't this punishment too harsh?"
"The Yang Po you killed will spend eternity underground."
"To the cheers and applause of the people he tormented."
But my father had already made up his mind.
Father.
Are you really sending me to a place where I could die? Just because that old Blood Heaven Blade Demon said to punish me?
Suddenly, I recalled the 'poisonous heart' my father mentioned during the hunt.
'Does it not matter to you if your son dies? Or are you hoping I'll come out stronger?'
It was a place that would be a punishment if I didn't make it out alive, but could become a reward if I did.
'Or are you trying to protect me from the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, now that I've started to stick out like an awl in a pocket?'
Because my father never revealed his true feelings, I couldn't know his intentions.
My father placed his hand on a stone slate attached to the side of the cave and infused his unique inner energy, and the stone gate opened.
Rumble.
At my father's gaze, which told me to get in without any more complaints, I stopped resisting.
"Fine. I'll get out of here faster than you did."
Rumble.
Through the closing stone gate, my father spoke with a heartless yet annoying smile.
"Don't you dare die."