The Mad Demon stood before Ha Jin's door, arms folded, wearing an expression of utter incomprehension. A single question was looping through her mind—tens, hundreds of times over.
'Why? What possible reason is there to refuse yours truly's offer?!'
Because he was Ghost Hand's disciple? Loyalty to a master was important, certainly. But to refuse the chance to have the legendary Mad Demon personally teach him superior martial arts? A martial artist?
It wasn't as though she was asking him to betray or sever ties with his former master. All he had to do was learn.
'Could it be because of the strike I seriously threw at him?'
She recalled the moment Ha Jin had coughed blood and collapsed. If that was the reason, she had nothing to say. But hadn't she given him a precious spiritual medicine and cleanly resolved the matter? Wasn't that settled?
No matter how she turned it over, the Mad Demon's common sense could not produce a satisfactory explanation. In the end, unable to contain herself any longer, she erupted.
"Why are you refusing to become yours truly's disciple?!"
Her violet eyes bored into Ha Jin with relentless intensity. She clearly had no intention of backing down until she received a definitive answer.
But Ha Jin merely regarded her in silence, offering nothing. No affirmation, no denial, no readable emotion whatsoever—just empty, inscrutable eyes.
The silence only deepened the Mad Demon's bewilderment. If he would at least give a clear reason, she could try to persuade him. But this unfathomable silence—what was she supposed to do with that? Her brow creased deeply.
Meanwhile, beneath the Mad Demon's relentless gaze, Ha Jin's mind was spinning faster than it ever had.
'The Mad Demon's disciple......'
For an ordinary martial artist—no, for any cadet belonging to the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect—this was the stuff of dreams. There wasn't a single reason to refuse.
Becoming the disciple of the Mad Demon, one of the Five Demon Lords, was tantamount to securing the most certain and powerful fast track to advancement within this hellish Demonic Sect.
But he was not ordinary.
Becoming the Mad Demon's disciple meant more than simply learning powerful martial arts. It meant being branded as the Mad Demon's person. He would instantly gain a patron no one in the Divine Sect could ignore.
'And naturally, that comes with an equal measure of surveillance and restriction.'
Acting as freely as he did now would become impossible. Leaving the Demon Path Hall, let alone his every minor action, would fall under the Mad Demon's watchful eye.
For someone who needed to eventually leave the Demon Path Hall to open an inn, it was the worst possible shackle.
Immediate safety versus future freedom. He had no choice but to weigh the two.
Ha Jin swallowed dryly. Rash acceptance would become a chain, and he hadn't yet fulfilled his purpose of honoring Yu Jin-bang's dream.
Above all, he hadn't gotten a proper read on the Mad Demon as a person. For now, refusal was the right call.
Preferably in a way that wouldn't make the Mad Demon lose her temper.
"I am still lacking, and so I cannot make such a choice lightly."
A supremely humble expression—lowering himself while elevating her. A perfectly reasonable, perfectly polite refusal. But the Mad Demon did not receive it as such.
She was the Mad Demon precisely because she defied convention. Her violet eyes narrowed.
'Lacking?'
Inside the Mad Demon's head, Ha Jin's words began to twist into a completely different interpretation.
'Is he saying that yours truly's offer, on its own, isn't enough? That he wants to see what more I can put on the table?'
Under normal circumstances, such arrogance would be deeply offensive. But a smile began to creep across the Mad Demon's lips.
This was a man who had reached a level where he could block her attacks without ever cultivating inner arts—purely through physical conditioning. As a martial artist, he had earned the right to be arrogant. That was her reasoning.
'Bold. But I like boldness.'
She had always found brazen negotiators far more entertaining than fawning sycophants. The Mad Demon was willing to play along with this push and pull.
"Very well. I see what you want. Yours truly will teach you the Boundless Heart Method."
The words that left the Mad Demon's mouth were anything but trivial.
She had just offered to pass down her signature martial art—a technique renowned within the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect as a peerless divine art.
The Mad Demon was now certain Ha Jin could no longer refuse. She waited for his answer.
But Ha Jin's mind was a near-total blank when it came to martial arts. His knowledge extended only to the most universally famous techniques from martial arts novels.
"......What is that?"
The Mad Demon's self-assured expression froze in place.
"Don't tell me Ghost Hand—that stubborn old geezer—never told you a single thing about the Demon Lords?"
Ha Jin thought to himself.
'Obviously not. I never learned anything special from him.'
He nodded honestly. At this, the Mad Demon let out a laugh of sheer disbelief. Deciding that further explanation was futile, she swiped the sword from Ha Jin's waist in one fluid motion.
"I'll borrow this."
"Huh?"
She tossed the sword high into the air. It spun end over end, reached its apex, then plummeted with vicious momentum.
The Mad Demon casually placed her bare forearm in the sword's path. The blade came screaming down.
"That's—!"
CLANG—!
A piercing crack of impact rang out. The Mad Demon's arm bore not a single scratch. Instead, Ha Jin's sword shattered against her arm and scattered in every direction.
The Mad Demon brushed off her forearm and addressed the stunned Ha Jin with supreme confidence.
"This is the Boundless Heart Method—the foundation of yours truly's body-protection art. It absorbs the energy of nature and converts it into inner arts. A remarkable heart method. Within the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect, it is considered comparable in value to the Heavenly Demon Heart Method—which only the Sect Leader may cultivate."
The Mad Demon folded her arms and lifted her chin. Her violet eyes seemed to ask, "Now do you understand how extraordinary this is?" She was certain Ha Jin would immediately drop to his knees and beg to become her disciple.
But Ha Jin's mind was racing in an entirely different direction.
'Absorbs the energy of nature and converts it into inner arts? If I modify the principle just a little, couldn't I use it to recover mana too?'
Moments ago, taking the spiritual medicine had taught him something. What martial artists called inner arts and what he called mana were not so different.
They might even be branches of the same tree.
'Becoming her disciple...... might not be so bad after all.'
Producing spiritual medicines as mana potion substitutes was important, but if a heart method could directly recover his mana, every problem he was currently agonizing over would simply evaporate.
One phrase—"I'll become your disciple"—and everything would be settled. Modifying the Boundless Heart Method would certainly be challenging, but at the very least, the key to escaping mana depletion was right in front of him.
But Ha Jin couldn't bring those words to his lips so easily. He had to be wary of bitter poison hiding behind a sweet offer. Behind his blank expression, he was calculating furiously.
'The offer is almost too good to be true......'
The Mad Demon still bothered him. Why was she going to such lengths to take him as her disciple?
Simple curiosity about Ghost Hand's student? That wasn't enough to explain it. Curiosity might prompt an offer of discipleship, but not an offer to pass down one's own martial art.
For a martial artist, one's martial arts—especially a signature peerless technique—were a treasure beyond price.
He couldn't fathom why she would cling to him with such an offer over mere curiosity. The Mad Demon's behavior was excessive to the point of being irrational.
'Why is she so fixated on me?'
Questions chased questions endlessly in his head.
'Does she want to keep me under her thumb and torment me? Is that it? Or is there some other purpose I'm not seeing......?'
This was the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect, and his counterpart was a Demonic Sect member. And in the martial world, they said to beware the elderly, children, and women.
Naturally, a woman who was also a Demonic Sect member warranted double the caution.
Ha Jin stared squarely into the Mad Demon's violet eyes. He couldn't carelessly grasp a hand extended by someone who required twice the wariness. His caution deepened further.
'Her behavior is so erratic and willful that I can't figure out what she's after.'
In the end, Ha Jin decided to ask directly.
"Why do you wish to take me as your disciple?"
At the blunt question, the Mad Demon blinked, then smiled with interest and looked him up and down.
"Because you're like an untempered, raw blade. Those types are the most satisfying to teach. The ones who've been neatly polished into shape are no fun at all."
Midway through her answer, the Mad Demon seemed to realize how undignified she sounded and grumbled to herself.
"Though saying it like this makes it sound like yours truly is begging. How unpleasant."
"My apologies. I tend to be rather suspicious by nature."
Ha Jin immediately lowered his head. The Mad Demon was being patient for now, but the wise approach to a genuine eccentric was not to provoke them.
Since her counterpart was even apologizing, the Mad Demon couldn't very well press further. And she understood, in a way.
'Ghost Hand was an assassin. An assassin's disciple would naturally be suspicious.'
She accepted Ha Jin's attitude as reasonable and spoke with finality, arms folded.
"In any case, say that you'll become my disciple. I won't wait any longer."
At last, Ha Jin nodded as though he had reached a decision.
"Understood. Master."
"Good. Yours truly shall make you—"
"However, might I add just one more condition?"
The Mad Demon's brow twitched.
"Another condition......?"
Irritation began seeping into her voice. In all her years, Ha Jin was the first person to impose conditions on her—twice. Ha Jin, reading her mood, pressed ahead with brazen composure.
"Yes. The spiritual medicine I took earlier—could you give me one more?"
"A spiritual medicine?"
"Yes."
The effect of the earlier medicine had been extraordinary. But considering the mana he had burned through in his brief exchange with the Mad Demon, one pill's worth of recovery was woefully insufficient.
And to repair the fractures in his mana wellspring, that amount was nowhere near enough.
Of course, he couldn't openly talk about mana. Ha Jin put on the most pained expression he could muster and said.
"Your strike was so tremendous, Master, that my internal injuries don't seem to have fully healed yet......"
At this brazen excuse, the Mad Demon was momentarily struck speechless. Since the entire mess was her fault, she had no grounds for rebuttal.
"Ngh......"
She clutched her forehead with a pained groan. In the end, she conceded.
"I suppose that can't be helped. Fine, I'll give you one. But I can't hand it over right now. Come find me after you've formally entered the Transcendence Hall. I'll have it ready for you then."
Even for the Mad Demon, carrying rare spiritual medicines at all times wasn't practical. She planned to bring one when Ha Jin came to the Transcendence Hall. But Ha Jin's answer once again veered far from her expectations.
"Oh, I was actually planning to go to the Thousand Days Hall."
"......What? The Th-Thousand Days Hall?"
The Mad Demon doubted her ears. She stared at Ha Jin with an expression of disbelief. And then the shout she had been suppressing ripped free.
"What the hell kind of nonsense is that?!!"
The Mad Demon's sanity was a single thread away from snapping entirely.