I rose early, packed everything, and spoke to Father.

“We should head back.”

“Head back where? You’ve come hunting with none other than the Heavenly Demon. We ought to catch at least one tiger before we leave.”

Could that really be the reason? It meant he hadn’t minded spending time with me.

“That’s a relief.”

“What is?”

“I came prepared for a second day, too.”

“Enough nonsense. Lead the way.”

“Yes, Father.”

Father and I ventured deeper into the forest.

How long had we been walking?

Father spoke to me again.

“Close your eyes again.”

“Yes, Father.”

“The target is a hundred jang away, to your right.”

Farther than last time.

“This time, feel the wind.”

“I can feel it.”

Once again, he said something I had never heard in either of my lives.

“Let the wind carry your qi.”

Since first learning martial arts, I had never once thought of letting the wind carry my qi presence. No one had ever suggested it. No martial arts manual had ever mentioned it.

The thrill of learning something new coursed through my body.

Of course, knowing something and putting it into practice were two different matters.

“First, emit your qi.”

I carefully released my qi, just as I had when searching for the boar yesterday.

“If you’re this slow and cautious, it’s nothing more than a trick. To use it in actual combat, you must extend your qi all the way out there as quickly as possible.”

But letting the wind carry my qi wasn’t easy. I could feel the wind, and I could feel my qi. How was I supposed to bring together two things moving independently?

Besides, the wind Father spoke of wasn’t a gust blowing hard. He was calling the currents of air around us wind. Among those currents, I had to find the one flowing straight ahead and let it carry my qi.

Even as I struggled for a long while, Father offered no further advice. Nor did he urge me to hurry. He simply gazed at the distant mountains with his hands clasped behind his back.

Why did a person’s back seem to reveal the life they had lived? I should have sensed the strength of an absolute ruler in Father’s back, but instead I felt loneliness and desolation.

“Not bad.”

“Pardon?”

At that moment, the qi I had emitted abruptly snapped off a hundred jang to my right.

'Huh? When did my qi get all the way over there?'

Apparently, while staring absently at Father’s back, I had unconsciously sent my qi out on the wind. Thanks to the considerable insights I had gained in my life before regression, even things that seemed difficult came easily.

“I did it without realizing.”

Father stared at me, his eyes stirred with emotion. Whether by chance or luck, it couldn’t have been something so easily done.

Then he spoke as though it were nothing.

“It doesn’t matter. The beast has already fled far away.”

As the sinking sun brought on twilight, we encountered the beast we had lost earlier.

“That’s the one from before!”

I could only take Father’s word for it. I had no way of knowing; I couldn’t even see it. I could only marvel at how precisely he had determined the size and qi of something so far away.

“A hundred and fifty jang away. Find it on the wind.”

I emitted my qi again and tried to let the wind carry it.

Judging by my earlier, unwitting success, this wasn’t particularly difficult at my level. Ultimately, it was a matter of the mind.

I tried one approach, then another.

Then realization struck.

I had only been trying to lay my qi onto the wind. That was the problem: the deliberate act of placing it on top.

I sent my qi along the path of the wind, as though walking side by side with a friend. I released it with the feeling of letting it mingle and play with the wind.

They traveled separately at first, but soon the wind and my qi began to move together, like two dragons flying entwined around each other.

'Ah! This is it!'

I realized that riding the wind wasn’t like a person mounting a horse. It meant letting the two intertwine like this.

With a soft rushing sound, my qi rode the wind a hundred and fifty jang away in an instant.

The moment I identified the beast, a mighty tiger’s roar rang out in the distance. I flinched, and the long strand of qi snapped.

“It really was a tiger!”

The tiger surprised me, and I surprised Father. Apparently, he hadn’t expected me to grasp his teaching so quickly.

Father, this is only the beginning. I want to stroll leisurely beside a lake with you, but we must ride the current. We must brave the rapids and plunge over the waterfall. Because the enemy we must face may, even at this very moment, be battling a typhoon alone in the middle of a distant sea. Father, send me out to sea.

“Do not neglect practicing the emission of qi. The more strands you can produce, the longer you will live.”

“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

I will produce more than you, Father. I have to.

“This time, close your eyes and feel my qi.”

I closed my eyes and extended my qi presence to sense Father’s.

Just as my qi presence had found the tiger, it sensed his.

Slowly. Very slowly.

I examined each strand of qi spread around him with care.

My mouth slowly fell open.

“Father? What on earth is this?”

Father stood at the center of a spiderweb. Dozens of strands extended from him in every direction, reaching farther than I could even explore.

Anyone trying to sneak up on him would have to avoid that web, and that was utterly impossible.

Hwa Mugi had defeated Father when he had reached such a realm? How?

Much as I hated to, I couldn’t help marveling at the bastard once again.

* * *

That night.

“This is my secret weapon.”

What I took from my leather bag was liquor. Father’s favorite, no less.

I brought out the clean cups I had carefully wrapped and filled them.

“Excellent.”

“It’s too strong for me.”

In truth, I liked drinking and could hold my liquor. Throughout my lifetime of searching for the materials for the great art, I had sipped a drink whenever things got hard, and before I knew it, my tolerance had grown considerably. I merely called it strong because I had no intention of boasting to Father about how much I could drink. If we drank all night, he would be the first to collapse.

“No demonic martial artist whines about liquor being too strong.”

“What’s wrong with not being much of a drinker? A ruthless heart matters more than potent liquor.”

“A ruthless heart?”

Father scoffed at the phrase and asked,

“Could you kill me to save yourself?”

After a pause, I answered.

“No. How could a child kill his own parent?”

Honestly, that was a lie, too. If there were sufficient reason, I could kill Father. Today was the first time we had ever had a proper conversation. How could he possibly be more precious to me than my own life?

This time, I asked him.

“Could you kill me, Father?”

“If that gives you pause, you shouldn’t speak so lightly of a ruthless heart.”

I could tell from his eyes. He could kill me without a moment’s hesitation.

“Then I suppose I should learn to handle potent liquor instead.”

Father watched me with an odd look as I drank and grimaced at its strength.

That night, I sat alone, practicing the qi emission Father had taught me.

'This is fun.'

By now, I could send my qi far away on the wind quite quickly.

My qi roamed through the pitch-black darkness, exploring. It was tremendously exciting.

'This is a tree, and there’s a rock beneath it...'

I could even sense the movements of a tiny insect crawling there.

I sent my qi elsewhere. The more I practiced, the faster it moved.

As it swiftly explored my surroundings, it suddenly stopped. It had passed through something that felt out of place.

'What was that?'

I pulled my qi back, then sent it through the same spot again.

But the strange presence from before was gone.

I opened my eyes and stared toward that spot. I sensed no sign of anyone in the darkness.

'What on earth was it? There was definitely something there.'

Father was watching me from where he lay.

“You weren’t asleep?”

“Why were you looking over there?”

“I sensed something over there, but I’m not sure what it was.”

Father looked at me with a flicker of surprise, then rolled over to face the other way.

“Let’s sleep now.”

“Yes, Father.”

I lay down with the campfire between Father and me.

'What could it have been?'

Judging by his reaction, Father clearly seemed to know something—

'!'

In that instant, I understood.

'Hwi! It was Uncle Hwi!'

I had sensed Father’s personal bodyguard in hiding. When I tried to sense him a second time, he had moved out of the way.

A shiver ran through me at the thought.

I had detected his presence, something I could never have done just two days ago. Of course, Hwi hadn’t been desperately trying to conceal himself, but even seeing through his ordinary concealment was a tremendous improvement.

If I kept training until I could emit dozens of strands of qi at once like Father, I would render any concealment art useless. There would be no need to search. Here, there, over there. They would simply be detected.

Perhaps because I hadn’t drunk quite enough, I couldn’t easily fall asleep that night.

When I grew weary of searching for the materials for the great art, I would drink, and often gaze at the stars in the night sky. The stars that had shared my loneliness back then were shining as steadily as ever tonight.

Father, too, was unable to sleep.

I couldn’t know exactly what he was thinking, but perhaps he was deeply stirred by my talent for absorbing martial arts like blotting paper soaking up water.

“Which of the Demon Supremes do you trust most, Father?”

I hadn’t necessarily expected an answer, but Father responded.

“Why do you ask?”

On the day our family was annihilated, Hwa Mugi laid waste to the Heavenly Demon Hall.

The Heavenly Demon Hall.

A place guarded like a fortress by three arcane formations, six sets of mechanical traps, and handpicked demonic martial artists.

Around the hall, the Eight Demon Supremes and their followers guarded the Heavenly Demon from eight directions.

To the north were the Demon Swords of the Northern Heaven Sword House, led by the Single Flower Sword Supreme.

To the south were the Saber Fiends of the Southern Saber Sect, led by the Blood Heaven Saber Demon.

To the east were the Iron Fists of the Eastern Fist School, led by the Invincible Fist Demon.

To the west were the ghost sorcerers of the Western Illusion Formation, led by the Soul-Seizing Demon.

To the northeast were the Faceless Wanderers, who aspired to be like the Wicked Laughing Demon.

To the southeast were the drinkers, drunk alongside the Great Drunken Demon.

To the southwest were the Poison Fangs, researching all manner of poisons with the Poison King.

To the northwest were the mad monks, enthralled by the Demonic Buddha’s deceitful teachings.

At the time, I had thought the enemy had broken in from outside.

But that wasn’t true.

I later learned that the outer defenses had never been breached that day. Someone among the Eight Demon Supremes had undoubtedly admitted Hwa Mugi into the inner compound where the Heavenly Demon Hall stood.

There might have been one traitor, or more. Their identity was never uncovered, but it didn’t matter who it was.

I considered all Eight Demon Supremes traitors.

After Father’s death, the Eight Demon Supremes chose to seal the Cult’s gates rather than seek revenge. Not one of them stepped forward to avenge him. Had even one of the eight done so, I wouldn’t have felt so betrayed.

Yes, I understood. Faced with Hwa Mugi’s overwhelming martial prowess as he stood on the Heavenly Demon’s corpse, they wouldn’t have dared dream of revenge.

You’re human, too. I understand. I do.

So you must understand as well.

Even if I use you however I please from now on, even if I treat you as expendable tools to be used and discarded, I hope you’ll understand. Wouldn’t that be fair?

“If I become the Heavenly Demon, I will bring the Eight Demon Supremes to heel and hold their leashes tight.”

“What?”

Father abruptly sat up. Under the force of his presence, the flattened grass around us rose all at once. I quickly sat up as well.

“Why?”

Because they are much farther away than you think, Father. You know exactly where a tiger hides a hundred jang away, but you don’t know how distant the hearts of those smiling before your eyes really are.

I couldn’t bring myself to say that, so I offered another reason.

“Corruption surrounding them is rampant. Not just among the Supremes themselves, but also among those who throw their weight around under their protection.”

Father listened silently, so I continued.

“Of course, we must acknowledge their authority to keep the Cult running smoothly. But they have crossed the line.”

Even at this point in time, there had been various incidents involving the Eight Demon Supremes.

“Isn’t it time to impose some proper discipline?”

Father said nothing, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

From his attitude, I could guess what he was thinking.

He, too, agreed to some extent. He clearly had grievances with the Eight Demon Supremes. Otherwise, he would already have thundered at my insolence for suggesting that the Demon Supremes needed disciplining.

“Reach too greedily, and you’ll tear yourself apart. Eat too much, and your belly will burst and kill you.”

“Haha, I have far too much life ahead of me for that. I’ll walk slowly and eat sparingly.”

He had called it greed, not nonsense or outrageous talk.

I could guess his true feelings. Father’s blade, though still undrawn, was pointed in the same direction as mine.

Don’t worry, Father. I know them better than anyone.

I had returned to the Cult and spent many long years there to obtain the final material, the Secret Demon Soul. That had been far in the future from now, so I knew everything about the Eight Demon Supremes—what lives they had lived, and what ends they had met.

'I’ll make sure they fall properly into line.'

And so the night passed, filled with as many thoughts as there were stars in the sky.