The next day, Yi An came to find me, looking flustered.

“How did I get home last night?”

“You carried me home on your back. I don’t remember how we got back.”

Her cheeks reddened.

“Don’t lie. I wasn’t that drunk. I was really heavy, wasn’t I? I’m sorry, Young Master.”

“I’d be lying if I said you were light. But you weren’t heavy enough to apologize for. Look at these arms!”

“Oh dear, your arms were already skinny, and now they’re even thinner.”

“Take a proper look at these bulging muscles!”

After we traded jokes like that, Yi An bowed her head.

“Thank you, Young Master.”

“Let’s have another drink sometime.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

She was about to turn away when she asked another question.

“If I said anything out of line, please be generous and forgive me. Honestly, I don’t remember what I said.”

“You didn’t, so don’t worry. Oh, if you do slip up next time, use your pardon pass.”

“Pardon pass? What’s that?”

“The right to be forgiven if you make a mistake or wrong me.”

“Did you give me one? I haven’t received anything.”

I held out my hand to her.

“Shake my hand.”

Yi An took my hand in her large one.

“There. Issued just now.”

“Since you’re giving them out, couldn’t you be generous and give me ten? I’ll be following you around all my life. Won’t one be too few?”

“No! You get exactly one. Use it wisely!”

“Yes, Young Master!”

As she beamed, her eyes disappeared into the flesh of her cheeks.

‘If either of us is going to need forgiveness in this life, it’ll be me, not you. You ought to issue me about fifty pardon passes...’

* * *

That night, I sat alone, practicing qi emission. While probing three places at once, the strand traveling to my left detected someone.

Lately, I had become thoroughly absorbed in the fun of figuring people out through my qi. Whenever I found someone while sending out qi, I began by scanning them from head to toe: how tall they were, what weapon they used, and how advanced their martial arts were.

Just as I was about to examine this person, they slipped to one side.

Assuming it was a coincidence, I sent my qi toward him. But he moved in the opposite direction this time, avoiding it again.

‘Surely he isn’t dodging it on purpose?’

This qi was as thin as a thread and so stealthy that the other person could never detect it. Yet he began dodging this way and that, as though he could actually sense it.

Who on earth was he? Curious, I left my room, continuing to emit qi.

I was practicing emitting qi while moving, too. Of course, it demanded several times more mental effort than doing it while still, but in actual combat, I would more often need to emit qi on the move.

I sensed him retreating and pursued him as he slipped away, always just beyond my reach. Eventually, I arrived at the pavilion in the inner compound.

The moment I recognized the person standing there, I let out an involuntary sigh of relief.

“Father!”

It was Father who had led my qi all the way here.

“I should have known. I was on edge, thinking someone else had detected my qi.”

“As though your qi were anything impressive. Even that dog dozing beneath the wall would notice it.”

“Dogs have keen senses to begin with, don’t they? But what brings you to my residence?”

“I was passing by.”

That was what he said, but he had undoubtedly come to see me.

“The fact that we meet even by chance like this proves ours is a fated bond.”

“Enough of that nonsense.”

“Yes, sir!”

I shut my mouth and quietly joined him in gazing at the night sky.

After a while, I asked,

“When will you choose your successor?”

“In a hundred years. Neither of you is anywhere near ready.”

“Make it a hundred days. I believe I’m already there.”

“If you were, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon wouldn’t have paid you a visit.”

“How did you know?”

It had been a private meeting, yet Father knew about it. In other words, he was keeping an eye on me. Then again, he had known about my being poisoned with energy-dispersing poison, too.

“The Blood Heaven Saber Demon came straight to me after meeting you.”

“What did he say?”

“He wanted me to punish you.”

“What?”

The unexpected words startled me. Had the Blood Heaven Saber Demon really gone straight to Father and asked him to punish me?

“It was unexpected. He isn’t the sort to come to me with such a demand over something as trivial as a disciple’s death.”

“Why would he do that?”

I feigned ignorance, but I could guess what the Blood Heaven Saber Demon was thinking. He wanted to test my relationship with Father: whether Father would actually punish me, and if so, what punishment he would choose. He was trying to find out whether Father considered me a potential successor.

“And so I intend to punish you.”

“You have no grounds to punish me. That disciple deserved to die.”

“I need only create the grounds.”

I drew my sword and traced a long line on the ground. Then I marked a point about a tenth of the way along it.

“The Blood Heaven Saber Demon told me that this longer side represented how much you valued him. Did those grounds come from this length?”

Rather than answer, Father repeated the question I had asked him during our hunt.

“You asked which of the Demon Supremes I trusted most, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Now he gave me his answer.

“I trust none of them.”

I understood. With that answer, he had also told me that the line the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had drawn was not accurate.

“Which are you? Someone who trusts people, or someone who doesn’t?”

“That would depend on what sort of person they are.”

“How can you know what sort of person they are?”

“Can’t you tell after spending time with them?”

“A foolish notion. A person’s heart is something you can never truly know. However transparent someone at your side may appear, never think you know them.”

Yi An suddenly came to mind. I thought I knew her well, yet I kept discovering new sides to her. It was the same principle.

“I’ll remember that.”

“You said the Cult needed discipline restored?”

“Yes.”

“Spare me the nonsense about rooting out corruption. Tell me what you honestly think.”

“May I truly speak frankly?”

“Have you ever spoken falsely to me?”

“No, but I fear this particular answer will be disrespectful.”

“Speak.”

“I believe that somewhere along the way... we lost the Demonic Path.”

The flesh beneath Father’s eyes twitched. It was not something I should have said, at least not in his presence.

“What does the Demonic Path mean to you?”

“To me, the Demonic Path is...”

After a pause, I voiced the thoughts I had kept to myself for so long.

“I believe it is our Cult’s own conviction to crush absolute evil.”

Perhaps he had not expected that answer. Father turned to me, his eyes wide.

“... The Cult’s conviction to crush absolute evil?”

“I don’t believe the orthodox factions are our true opposite.”

“Then what is?”

“Absolute evil.”

What I was about to say would certainly not be easy for Father to accept. Even so, I calmly shared my thoughts with him.

“There is evil in this world so cowardly, vicious, and relentless that humans cannot contend with it. Absolute evil that would make even a devil click his tongue and turn away. The justice and chivalry championed by the orthodox factions may be able to subdue lesser evils, but I do not believe they can withstand this absolute evil. Forgiveness lies at their very foundation. As long as they cherish humanity, how can they contend with evil that has abandoned its humanity and runs madly rampant?”

Father was staring at me. I had never seen him listen to my words so intently. Perhaps, deep in his heart, he was thinking this:

‘Were we not that absolute evil?’

‘No, Father. I hope the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon in my world will not be absolute evil. I will make certain it isn’t.’

I continued.

“The only force in Murim capable of annihilating vile, vicious evil by being still more vile and vicious—I believe that is where we must find our reason for existing. Whether we are good or evil does not matter. Sometimes we wear the face of good, sometimes the face of evil. Only when the great evil that the orthodox factions cannot handle kneels before us, trembling, will I believe the true Demonic Path has been established. Only then will Murim truly bow before our Cult’s might. When they cannot solve their own problems, they will ask us for help, saying that only the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon can save Murim. That is what the Demonic Path means to me.”

I could say with certainty that Father had never once considered or heard such an idea in his life. These were not thoughts I had learned or arrived at within the Cult. I had come to them myself, wandering the Central Plains all my life.

“If we fail to establish the Demonic Path properly, we will not last long. To survive... we must punish ourselves.”

Even Father, so adept at concealing his emotions, could not hide his shock at that moment. This was a man who would send finger force at my face to determine whether I was lying. Yet now he showed no reaction, even after hearing words that could have provoked ten such attacks or more.

Father was deep in thought. Though I had lived a longer life than he had, I could not guess what was going through his mind now.

But I could feel one thing with certainty. Only a few days had passed since my regression, yet both Father’s fate and mine were changing. We had begun turning toward a different future.

At last, Father broke his long silence.

“Have you any more insolence left in you?”

“No, not today.”

I scratched my head and smiled sheepishly.

“I believe I know why the Blood Heaven Saber Demon came to me asking that I punish you.”

“Why?”

Father’s eyes shone fiercely with certainty.

“He saw something in you. That is why he is trying to test you through me.”

“He must have seen my potential to become your successor.”

“Perhaps he saw the danger of you ruining the Cult.”

“Whichever it was... that old bag of bones is perceptive.”

After regarding me for a moment, Father strode out of the pavilion as though he had made a decision.

“Follow me.”

* * *

Father took me to the deepest part of the Heavenly Demon Hall. I knew the place well from all I had heard about it.

A small plaque hung above the stone cave:

Lesser Heaven Cave.

Startled, I cried out to Father.

“Surely you aren’t telling me to go in there?”

This was a kind of training cave for promising young martial artists who would become the Heavenly Demon. Usually, the Heavenly Demon’s disciples or children entered when they were put to the test.

It was by no means something to take lightly just because it was a training cave. You could enter whenever you wished, but leaving was another matter. I had heard that anyone who failed to overcome its trials would never emerge. The success rate was half. In fact, half the Heavenly Demons’ blood relatives who had entered had lost their lives here.

That was why even my ambitious brother had never volunteered to enter.

Yet anyone who wished to become the Heavenly Demon had to pass through it once. Every person who had attained that position had done so. Viewed that way, being the Heavenly Demon was one of the most grueling jobs around.

“I entered this place at your age, too.”

“How long did it take you to come out?”

“Two months.”

“Good heavens. You want me to spend two months of my radiant youth in this dark, damp place?”

“Don’t misunderstand. It took two months because it was me. The average time to complete it is three years.”

Father was regarded as the most gifted martial artist among all the Heavenly Demons in history. My Heavenly Martial Physique was probably only possible because I had inherited his blood.

“Father, why are you doing this to me?”

“Didn’t I tell you earlier? I intend to punish you.”

“Isn’t this punishment too harsh?”

“Yang Po, whom you killed, will spend eternity underground.”

“To the cheers and applause of everyone he tormented.”

But Father had already made up his mind.

Father. Are you truly sending me somewhere I could die? Because that old Blood Heaven Saber Demon told you to punish me?

Suddenly, I recalled the ruthlessness Father had spoken of during our hunt.

‘Do you not care if even your son dies? Or do you hope I’ll emerge stronger?’

If I failed to come out alive, it was a punishment. But if I survived, it could become a reward.

‘Or are you trying to protect me from the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, now that I’ve stuck out like an awl through a pouch?’

Father revealed nothing of his heart, so I could not tell what he intended.