Chapter: 937
“…”
It’s an unfamiliar ceiling.
That was the impression I had as soon as I opened my eyes.
No, it’s a ceiling I must have seen somewhere before, but it’s more accurate to say that it doesn’t look all that familiar.
Perhaps it’s the ceiling of the place I’m staying.
It must be the space set up behind Shin Noya. I’ve hardly been here before, so I don’t really know much about it.
‘You must have come to sleep here at some point.’
Ever since I came to the Volcano Sect created by Shin Noya, I have never actually slept here.
I don’t think I’ve ever slept at all, let alone in a room meant for rest.
I was always either busy doing something or organizing things, so there was no time to sleep.
Since my body isn’t something that can be ruined by a lack of sleep for even a little while, I just stayed awake, doing this and that.
Living like that meant I never had a chance to see the place properly. Hence, the ceiling felt unfamiliar.
The ceiling is just a ceiling anyway, let’s just get up.
Thinking that, I tried to push myself up with my arms.
Crack!
“…!!!”
I nearly screamed without realizing it because of the pain that shot through my body.
“C-crack…”
I forced myself to hold back a groan as I spat out that sound.
The pain was quite extraordinary; it was tough to keep from crying out entirely.
I remained still for a while, my body frozen in place.
My body wasn’t responding, shaking uncontrollably.
Just when the trembling finally started to subside.
“Haah…”
I let out a heavy sigh, drenched in cold sweat.
“What…?”
The level of pain was bewilderingly high.
What is this?
Not only did my whole body hurt, especially my left arm which felt as if it were on fire.
Why did it suddenly feel this way?
‘…Ah.’
I recalled what happened before I lost consciousness and pieced together the reason.
“Is that it?”
The last moment where I somehow tied together my inner strength.
I had used the friction and pressure that occurred within it to harness power.
Somehow, I managed to fire out my energy.
And then…
‘Did I pass out from exhaustion?’
I had completely lost strength, collapsing as if fainting.
‘And all that for just one shot.’
At best, it was just a single energy release. No, I couldn’t even extend that properly.
The posture was messy, merely a half-hearted swing of a fist.
But…
‘And yet, that was enough.’
The result of that pathetic punch was beyond what I had imagined.
Of all the martial arts techniques I knew, this might be the most destructive.
That thought occurred to me naturally.
It might even be expected.
‘Because it was all combined.’
The firepower of the Nine Flames Fire Rune Technique and the compression and explosive power of the Two-faced Man Technique.
Plus, the intrinsic power I gained through training.
Also the mystical thread that tied them all together.
It was the culmination of everything I could muster.
Simply using just the Nine Flames Fire Rune Technique wouldn’t yield such destructive power by itself.
And using the Two-faced Man Technique would never produce such wide-ranging firepower.
And yet, by combining them, it would make sense for such an outcome to occur.
“Guh…”
I swallowed my frustrations and looked at my body again.
I had no idea how long I’d been out, but judging by my state, it was quite a sight to behold.
My energy felt roughly contained, but even then, it was only half-full. My insides, especially the meridians, were swollen all over.
And what about my joints?
‘They’re not broken, but they’re on the verge of being pulverized.’
How long had it been since I faced such a catastrophic mess in battle?
Even if my abdomen were pierced, my body would regenerate shortly thereafter.
A fight, or more precisely, not even a proper fight but a proper scuffle had left me in this condition?
‘Hmm…’
For now, this certainly couldn’t be used in a real fight.
I was convinced of that.
The casting time didn’t add up now, and the level of completion was downright horrendous.
If Shin Noya hadn’t been waiting for me to use my technique, I would have likely been beheaded long ago.
Just concentrating power in one spot caused this intense agony.
Releasing it, and my body ended up like this.
In the end, it meant that I would need to act with the resolve to fight for my life.
This meant that it was totally unfeasible in actual combat.
But still…
“…Ha-ha…”
I couldn’t suppress the laughter that escaped me.
“See? I was right, wasn’t I?”
I was right.
Even though my body felt utterly wrecked and my energy was depleted.
‘But in the end, I succeeded.’
I somehow made it work.
I felt an exhilarating rush from that realization.
That what I had set out to do was not wrong.
And that the outcome of that was actually good.
‘Should I even say it’s good?’
I wasn’t sure if calling it “good” was appropriate, but I thought it was good.
The destructive power was impressive in proportion to the energy I had expended and the state of my body.
‘More than I anticipated.’
If this could succeed, just how amazing might it turn out?
I had thought about this before.
The results exceeded all previous imaginations.
‘Though I ended up forcing myself into something unusable in the first place. Something this good had to happen.’
It was a gamble I shouldn’t have taken.
What kind of person would willingly try mixing two inner energies together?
To begin with, an ordinary body couldn’t even hold two inner energies simultaneously.
‘Even if they could be accommodated, my body wouldn’t withstand using them together.’
This reality was something I had known since the very first attempt, even before today’s success.
‘…Regular bodies usually can’t endure it.’
It’s only because my body has grown stronger that I’m holding together now; if it were my former life’s body, it would have exploded at the slightest pressure and buckled under the strain.
Even as I wondered why I had to resort to such desperate measures…
‘The friction coming from that despair becomes power.’
Ultimately, martial arts are the power generated through the friction and pressure produced by a body filled with energy in motion.
This idea came from the concept of Paejun, where quick and precise movements create immense waves.
What are martial arts?
Someone said that they are about embodying one’s beliefs within the body and expressing those beliefs through energy.
‘What absolute nonsense?’
I couldn’t grasp that narrative.
Martial arts were powers that were born to defeat and destroy others.
So instead of getting hung up on some pretentious enlightenment of the uninformed.
I believed it made more sense to focus on how to efficiently incorporate it into my body.
‘Martial arts consist of the friction and pressure of energy. Plus rotation. And release.’
If I could enhance the friction, apply greater pressure, and create stronger rotations to disperse, surely that’d be the answer, right?
That’s how I defined the strength of martial arts.
So where should the increased friction and pressure come from?
Drawing simply from the imagery I possessed could be one way, but I believed there was another method available.
That’s right.
‘Collision.’
The internal clash of energies and essence.
I considered whether the friction and pressure generated by this could be utilized.
If I could maintain this and eventually release it, wouldn’t that yield incredible power?
I pondered this thought.
If I achieved that, it would be unique to me alone.
Only I could cause different inner energies to collide and generate force.
No one in the Central Plains could accomplish this; only I could.
I felt entirely absorbed by this concept.
Could I possibly achieve that?
No one but me had the chance to succeed.
Curiously enough, I found myself drawn toward this possibility.
In the moment I succeeded, the exhilaration I felt was beyond my wildest dreams.
‘To call it success is almost absurd, though.’
If I can’t utilize this power in reality, it ultimately equates to failure.
Still, I couldn’t help but take satisfaction in the fact that I managed to bring it to fruition.
Even if my body came apart at the seams in the process.
“… Huuuuuu…”
With a painful grunt, I finally made myself rise.
It hurt, but I could endure it.
Let’s get out first. I thought, trying to get out of bed when…
Softer.
“…?”
My hand, which had touched the floor, grasped something.
It didn’t feel like fabric.
What on earth is this softness?
I directed my gaze downward.
“…”
There, my eyes met with someone’s gaze, who was lying down and staring at me.
It was the celestial demon.
She was lying next to my bed, gazing up at me.
And there I was, inadvertently touching her chest.
A few seconds passed as we locked eyes like that.
“Hello.”
The celestial demon greeted me flatly.
“Whoa, what the fuck–!”
I had to let out a scream and fall out of bed.
*
After screaming at the top of my lungs for a while.
“…What kind of expression is that?”
This was what Shin Noya had to say as soon as he saw me emerge. I squinted at his comment and responded.
“…What sort of expression do I have?”
“You look like you’ve bitten into bug poop.”
“…”
I frowned more as I remained silent, which caused Noya’s expression to shift into something a tad odd.
“Did something happen during the long night?”
This old geezer?
“Nothing happened.”
I sighed as I said it.
Even if anything had happened, what could it have been?
‘It’s not a lie.’
At least not during the night.
It was only during the day that something ridiculous had unfolded.
“Hmmm… Really?”
“It’s true, so please don’t give me those strange looks.”
At my words, Noya chuckled softly.
Because it was just ridiculous.
“What on earth…?”
I stared at Noya and eventually had to ask the question I didn’t want to ask.
“What do you mean by ‘what’?”
“…Why is she lying next to me?”
Noya’s eyes popped wide at my question.
“What? We slept together?”
It sounded surprised, but just hearing it made my brows knit like wrinkled paper.
“Don’t make jokes like that…”
Noya’s expression was overly exaggerated. It felt like he already knew everything that had transpired.
“Tsk.”
Noya let out a short click of his tongue, clearly displeased that I had caught on.
“That’s no fun.”
“Are you seriously joking about this now?”
“What if I tease you a little? Didn’t you claim nothing happened?”
“…”
I didn’t even know where to start or what to say.
I just had a headache.
‘Oh, great.’
The earlier scene just wouldn’t leave my mind.
Especially how she happened to be right next to me. How I made eye contact with the celestial demon.
And then…
“…”
Squish.
The feeling that linger there continued to trouble me.
I had to force myself not to focus on my hands.
The sight of Shin Noya watching me like that was one of disappointment.
“My dear.”
“…Yes.”
“Yesterday, right after you collapsed, that girl was there to support you.”
“…”
“Don’t you remember?”
I recalled the encounter. How could I not? The last thing I had seen before fainting was the celestial demon’s eyes and her touch.
“Then she helped you up and disappeared. I wondered where she had gone, and it seems she went off in that direction.”
“No, didn’t you stop her…?”
“Stop what?”
I was utterly baffled by what Shin Noya was saying and couldn’t utter a single word.
“I was so busy dealing with your antics that I didn’t even notice; how could I have stopped her?”
Noya was pointing to some corner like he was defeated.
“Do you have any idea how hard it was to return everything to how it was?”
I glanced at where Noya was pointing.
“…Huh?”
My eyes widened at the sight.
I saw an empty field; it was clearly the chaotic spot from yesterday.
The power I’d released had been so immense it had ravaged a massive area.
But there wasn’t a trace of that chaos left at all.
“…What…How?”
How did they manage to restore that mess in just one day?
Could it be that several days had passed instead? When I pondered this bewilderment…
“That Kukung or whatever put in some work.”
Noya explained while stating it matter-of-factly.
‘Kukung?’
The infamous black creature who had been called the master of the bottomless pit.
It was implied that he used his abilities to repair that area.
“It was amusing to see him struggle for once after such a long time.”
Noya chuckled.
With a teasing look on his face. I wasn’t particularly fond of that expression either.
“…By the way, Noya.”
So, I decided to tease him.
“Did you finally pull your sword?”
“…”
At my words, Noya clamped his mouth shut.
“You’d said you wouldn’t draw your sword in such situations, yet here you are.”
Despite saying he would never do it, in the end, Noya had drawn his sword.
My intentions were to provoke him lightly.
“True enough.”
Noya responded, but it was unlike anything I’d expected.
“You forced me to pull my sword. Truly a remarkable feat.”
I found myself momentarily speechless as he shared that solemn remark.
His expression was entirely devoid of any humor, now serious.
“Let me ask you, dear.”
“…Yes?”
“What on earth did you create?”
“…”
What on earth had I created?
Noya’s eyes held a mixture of doubt, slight curiosity, and an indescribable emotion.
“…Why? Did it seem weird even to you?”
“It was weird. What kind of lunatic would dare create something like that?”
Noya replied as if questioning why such obvious inquiry was necessary.
He seemed to comprehend how I had manipulated my powers.
“I kept calling you crazy, but I never thought you’d go and pull something like this. Have you lost your sense of judgment?”
Embarrassed, I scratched my head at his admonishing tone.
“…It’s not like I don’t think it turned out well.”
“It did turn out well, but what if it hadn’t?”
“Well, that’s something I planned to figure out down the line.”
“Ha.”
Noya sighed dismissively at my useless response.
“Is that really a statement worth saying right now…?”
His tone reflected genuine frustration, and just as he was about to say something else…
“…”
Suddenly, Shin Noya fell silent.
What was that? I had to wait for him to speak, wearing an incredulous expression.
A moment stretched out.
“Phew…”
Noya expressed a deep sigh, as though suffocated by something.
And then.
“…Alright.”
He shook his head like he had given up on whatever thought had crossed his mind.
“Okay then… why don’t you tell me the name of that thing?”
“Excuse me?”
What name — where did that come from all of a sudden? I couldn’t grasp his abrupt comment.
“Didn’t you say you created something? But you haven’t even named it yet?”
“Ah.”
I puzzled over what he meant.
“…I didn’t really think of a name or anything.”
I understood his logic, but I still couldn’t wrap my mind around why we were discussing names suddenly.
“Then just give one a try. Since you’re already attempting this, at least name it.”
“…”
Only after hearing this could I truly grasp the meaning behind Noya’s suggestion.
It was an encouragement to follow through with what I had just set out to create.
Which implied…
‘You are truly honoring my choice, then.’
This felt like Noya’s rough way of acknowledging something.
“…A name… A name.”
But why was he asking me for a name out of nowhere?
This was a power I hadn’t even put to practical use yet.
And besides…
‘I have no intention of using it barehanded.’
If possible, this was a technique I intended to use while pretending to be the celestial demon.
Even if I mixed in some magic energy, it would still be evident when employing the Nine Flames Fire Rune Technique or the Two-faced Man Technique, so I’d planned to utilize something like this.
‘Then… since it’s related to Cheonma…’
Perhaps it could be named by intertwining it with Cheonma?
I rummaged through all sorts of words.
I spun my brain around for ages, yet ultimately, the only name I could think of was the one that had been floating in my mind since the beginning.
So finally.
“…Cheonma Shingong (Heavenly Demon Divine Art)?”
“…”
I blurted out the name I had initially thought of, and instantly, I saw Shin Noya’s face sour.
Why?
I thought it was somewhat cool…?
Was it not?
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