We did not have to go far to hunt.

The mountain behind our Cult was famous for its treacherous terrain. Defensive formations and mechanical traps were installed throughout it, making it inaccessible to anyone in the first place. In this deserted place, Father and I were the only two people.

'Ah, three, actually.'

Father's personal bodyguard, Hwi, would be following us from somewhere in hiding.

I called him Uncle Hwi. I had seen him often as a child, but the older I grew, the fewer opportunities I had to see him. Hwi was the personal bodyguard Father trusted absolutely. Just as I had Yi An, Father had Hwi.

I raised my qi and searched our surroundings, but could not detect his presence. He truly was a master who had reached the pinnacle of concealment. Of course, even Hwi... had died at Hwa Mugi's hands that day.

These were Father's first words to me that day.

"What is all that ridiculous baggage?"

I was carrying a leather bag nearly as large as my body.

"Things we'll need for a few days."

"A few days? I intend to return after one day."

"You never know. You might enjoy hunting with me so much that you'll want to stay a few more days."

Father's expression made no attempt to conceal how absurd he found that possibility.

"You certainly dream big."

I had spent less than half a traditional two-hour period with Father, but I had already discovered something I had not known: my memories of him were considerably distorted.

I remembered him as a man who hardly spoke. Yet he was more talkative than I had expected.

"You were better than I expected."

He was assessing my performance against Gu Pyeongho in the duel. Though I had moved without internal energy, the skill I had accumulated before my regression must have shown through. I made no particular attempt to deceive him.

"I was hiding my skills."

"So it seemed."

Carried along by the mood, I added a little joke.

"I'm not a hissing cat. I'm a beast hiding its claws."

Father stopped and turned to look at me.

"If you're a beast, why hide your claws?"

"Ah, I hadn't considered it from that perspective."

"That's why you're a cat."

Just as he was about to turn away, Father abruptly asked,

"What level have you reached in the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art?"

The Heaven-Soaring Sword Art was passed down to the Heavenly Demon's blood kin. While it could not compare to the Nine Calamities Demonic Art, which was taught only to the Heavenly Demon, it was a supreme martial art regarded as comparable to those practiced by the Demon Supremes.

Of course, learning a superior martial art did not necessarily make someone stronger. Depending on who wielded it, even a weaker martial art could readily kill someone who possessed a stronger one.

Having decided I could not deceive Father, I answered honestly.

"I've achieved complete mastery."

At that instant!

ZIP!

A stream of finger force shot from Father's fingertip and skimmed past my cheek. Had I not instinctively turned my face aside, it would have pierced a hole through it.

Father spoke with a startled look.

"You really have mastered it!"

Rubbing my cheek, which burned from the force of the attack, I all but shouted,

"Good heavens! You fired that at me without even believing me? What if I hadn't dodged?"

"Then you would have paid for lying. If you had mastered it, you would be able to dodge."

"A scar wouldn't suit this handsome face I inherited from you!"

Father gave a derisive snort and resumed walking.

'No wonder I was afraid of him back then.'

What father in the world would fire finger force at his child without hesitation? At his face, no less! It would not have killed me, but it would have inflicted a serious wound if I had failed to dodge.

Walking ahead, Father spoke without looking back.

"Complete mastery at your age... is impressive."

Even in my previous life, I had not achieved complete mastery until well past my thirties, so his surprise was only natural. In any case, Father was utterly serious about martial arts, making that remark the highest praise.

"Thank you."

After that, we climbed for a long while without speaking.

Had we been sitting in a room together in such silence, it would have been suffocating. Climbing a mountain was different. Simply walking quietly together felt like a wordless conversation.

I was the one who broke the long silence.

"Who taught you to hunt?"

After a brief pause, Father answered.

"My older brother."

"You had an older brother?"

"He's dead. I killed him when he was your age."

Silence fell for a moment. Instead of offering polite condolences, I said what I honestly thought.

"You did the right thing."

Father stopped and turned a piercing gaze on me.

"Otherwise, I would never have been born."

He stared coldly at me for a moment, then resumed walking.

Surely even Father carried emotional scars from fighting his own flesh and blood. I had seen it often in my previous life: the stronger people appeared on the outside, the deeper their inner wounds could be.

That was why he had blurted it out, as though draining pus from a wound.

There was a lesson I had learned in my previous life.

Bury the dead, but do not bury your emotional wounds.

Perhaps that was why I could hear Father say something like this.

"Back then, I... could not find a way."

I understood what he meant. He had been unable to find a way to win the succession struggle without killing his brother.

My answer was firm.

"Don't expect it of me, either."

Father glanced back at me. His eyes were colder than before, but I said my piece.

"I can't accomplish what you couldn't. Besides, you should have given me a brother worth agonizing over before saying that. You know how despicable and cruel he is."

"You're quite good at speaking ill of him behind his back."

"He deserves it."

In truth, even that was not enough, considering everything my brother would do to become the successor.

"He's enduring hardship on the frontier while you sit in comfort insulting him."

"The First Young Master of the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon wouldn't suffer hardship even locked in the farthest cell of an underground dungeon, let alone on the frontier."

My brother was currently away carrying out Father's orders. At this point, he had yet to reveal his true colors, and he was quite capable in his own right, so Father trusted him more than me. Moreover, many of the Cult's demonic martial artists were striving to attach themselves to him.

"He'll never yield the succession. Thinking I can become the successor while keeping him alive would be foolish arrogance."

Father's expression seemed to ask, 'Were you always this sort of child?' My unwavering gaze answered, 'Yes!'

He resumed walking.

I had never married in my previous life. As a result, I did not know exactly what emotions having a child stirred in a man.

That was why I wondered.

What did I mean to Father?

How long had we been climbing?

"Shh."

I raised my head at Father's signal. He was pointing far ahead.

"Do you see it?"

I opened my eyes wide, but saw nothing except dense forest.

"No."

"I do."

"What's over there?"

"Dinner."

"Then we'd better catch it."

As I reached for the bow hanging from my leather bag, Father checked my haste.

"How do you intend to catch something you can't even see? First, close your eyes and feel your surroundings."

"Yes, Father."

Masters assessed others through disturbances in the air around them. This was what people commonly called someone's qi presence.

I could feel only one presence nearby: Father's. It was tranquil. That was what made it frightening. I knew better than anyone how ferocious it became when he was angry. Beneath that peaceful sea slept a typhoon capable of overturning the world.

"Now send out a strand of qi. Just one strand."

I emitted a strand of qi as he instructed.

"Slowly, without breaking it. Think of your body as a ball of thread, and release it slowly, as though drawing out the thread."

Before my regression, I had never sent qi forward in a strand as thin as thread. There was a clear reason to emit qi: to use my presence to overwhelm an opponent's force. Now, however, I was releasing it in a way I had never imagined.

"Thinner. Don't let it break!"

This was also the first time I had realized that qi emitted from my body could extend so far.

"Farther, farther, farther."

Without Father encouraging me from beside me, I could never have extended my qi this far.

Then, in the next moment, it touched something.

"Did it touch something?"

Father noticed the contact just as quickly as I did.

"Yes. I can feel it."

"What do you think it is?"

"I think it's a tree."

Amazingly, I had a sense of what it was. It truly was just a sensation, so I did not know how to explain it. But it was definitely a tree.

"Explore around it. Slowly."

It felt as if the entire ball of thread had unraveled and the strand might slip free at any moment. Yet I did not lose my concentration.

I extended my qi still farther and searched the surroundings. Then I discovered a living presence beneath the tree.

"Is it a wild boar?"

When Father did not answer, I cautiously opened my eyes. He was staring at me in surprise.

"Or is it a bear? Its bristly fur and elongated body made me think it was a boar."

"It is a boar."

I looked toward the place my qi had reached. I still could not see it. I had detected a wild boar in the forest far away.

"It's not easy to identify it on your first try at this distance."

Father seemed to find it difficult to believe even after witnessing it himself.

Thinking it over, the method I had just used was not merely a miscellaneous hunting skill. It was an extraordinary secret technique that could be applied to martial arts.

"You were planning to tease me when I failed, weren't you?"

"Of course. You should have failed."

"I am your son."

"Even I couldn't identify it on my first attempt."

"But I have the Heavenly Martial Physique, don't I?"

At the mention of the Heavenly Martial Physique, Father's gaze changed slightly.

Back then, I had harbored this resentment toward Father over my Heavenly Martial Physique.

—You pursue strength so relentlessly. You even hold tournaments to find someone capable of crushing your own children, all to find a strong successor. So why have you neglected me when I have the Heavenly Martial Physique? Why won't you support me?

I had even wondered whether Father was jealous of me. Yes, I had been that petty back then.

But now I knew.

The world did not revolve around my wishes.

Rather than asking for special treatment because I possessed the Heavenly Martial Physique, I needed to make good use of that body and become someone special through my own efforts. Only when everyone's hopes and aspirations rested on that distinction would the Heavenly Martial Physique truly become a blessing bestowed by Heaven. Now I understood that.

"What are you doing? Do you intend to go without dinner?"

I loosed a powerful shot toward the place where I had felt the presence.

TWANG!

A campfire blazed in the darkness, and neatly dressed boar meat was cooking over it.

"When did you learn to dress game?"

"I learned from a book."

"You seemed rather practiced for that."

Father, the wild boars alone that I had caught and eaten must have numbered in the hundreds.

I quietly changed the subject.

"I brought what you're sitting on to butter you up. It was worth straining to carry it."

Father was sitting on the tiger pelt I had packed in my leather bag.

At my bid for credit, his lips curled slightly. It was hard for a sneer to suit anyone's face that well, but Father managed that difficult feat with ease.

"Did you ask to hunt with me because you wanted to win my favor and become my successor?"

"No. I know perfectly well that wouldn't work on you."

"I'm glad you know."

"I can get myself chosen as successor without your help."

"You're certainly confident."

"Of course, my greedy, cruel, foul-tempered brother will get in my way."

"There you go bad-mouthing him behind his back again."

"Of course I am. How often do I get the chance to openly bad-mouth him in front of the judge who awards the points?"

Father, if you truly wanted peaceful brotherly affection in the family, you should have settled it from the beginning. This person is the successor; don't entertain any foolish ideas. Even when that is settled in advance, succession struggles bring fighting, killing, and utter chaos, don't they?

"Why did you want to hunt with me?"

"There are two reasons. First, I wanted to learn something—anything—to become stronger. I think I've succeeded in that."

"And once you're stronger?"

His challenging gaze asked whether I intended to take his position. I answered quickly.

"I don't want to become stronger because I want to be the Heavenly Demon. You're still in your prime. I don't want to waste my youth obsessing over becoming the Heavenly Demon. I'll be satisfied if I can become your successor and learn the Heavenly Demon's martial art."

Given our ages, Father would still see both my brother and me as far too immature to become his successor. Indeed, he had chosen my brother about ten years from now.

As I was now, I could not wait ten years. It was not enough to be an awl whose point showed through its bag. It was time to pull that awl out and start stabbing it here, there, and everywhere.

That was why I had to inherit the Nine Calamities Demonic Art as quickly as possible and achieve complete mastery. No, I had to reach a realm beyond that. Even Father, who had mastered its tenth level, had lost to Hwa Mugi. I needed to master the twelfth.

"Sometimes I imagine it. How maddening would it be to encounter a bastard I really wanted to beat to death, only to be unable to kill him? I want to become stronger just to avoid that."

Father's expression did not change, so I could not tell what he was thinking.

"And the second reason?"

"I wanted to spend time alone with you. This is our first time, isn't it?"

The sneer at Father's lips deepened again.

"Cheap sentimentality like that will get you killed."

"How can it be cheap when I'm with the greatest man under heaven? If we sing, it'll be the greatest song under heaven. If we drink, it'll be the finest liquor under heaven. Even if we take a shit..."

"That's enough."

"Yes, sir! I'll keep my mouth firmly shut for the next two hours."

Our eyes met, and I smiled happily. It was probably the first time I had smiled in front of Father, though he coldly turned his head away.

'When I thought of you, Father, I had no fond memories at all. Memories of being afraid don't count, do they? In this life, I won't let my memories become so desolate. But don't let that please you. I'm doing it for myself, not for you.'