“Excellent! That’s the spirit!”
The Heavenly Demon burst into loud, delighted laughter, clearly pleased with my answer.
“When this lord offers to teach you personally, only the greatest fool under heaven would refuse.”
I had very nearly become that fool.
In the end, getting swept along by the moment had actually worked in my favor.
Should I push my luck a little further?
“If possible… please teach me something truly extraordinary.”
“What? Something extraordinary? Hahahaha!”
The Heavenly Demon repeated my words and laughed again.
I hadn’t meant it as a joke, but since things seemed to be going well so far, I quietly celebrated to myself.
“Something extraordinary… What would suit you?”
To my surprise, he actually fell into serious thought over that single remark.
I’d assumed he was offering to teach me martial arts for his own amusement and nothing more, but perhaps that wasn’t all this was.
“Yes. That would do nicely.”
After a long moment with his brows drawn together, he finally spoke.
“I shall teach you Demon Phoenix Soaring Step.”
What?
What did he just say?
I nearly screamed.
I’d never imagined that martial art would come out of the Heavenly Demon’s mouth.
This is insane.
Demon Phoenix Soaring Step.
Am I really allowed to learn that?
Shock and joy hit me at once, so hard my mind practically went blank.
And for good reason.
Demon Phoenix Soaring Step was the exclusive martial art of the Demon Empress.
The only woman in the history of the Demon Cult to stand on equal footing with the Heavenly Demon himself.
During an age of chaos, when the Heavenly Demon had been absent, she had appeared out of nowhere and held the Demon Cult together.
The cultists, united in their reverence, had praised her as the Demon Empress and offered her absolute loyalty.
That legendary ruler—who later yielded the throne to the newly born Heavenly Demon and then vanished from history—was the Demon Empress.
She was only mentioned briefly in the novel, but I remembered her clearly.
A few lines had been enough to make her unforgettable.
I just never imagined I’d one day inherit her martial art.
“The beginning of all Lightness Skills lies in making the body light.”
The Heavenly Demon raised both arms, bent his knees slightly, and settled into a poised, spring-loaded stance.
It resembled a horse stance, but higher and looser.
“What are you doing? Are you not going to follow?”
“Huh? Yes!”
Up until then, I’d still been dazed.
I barely even remembered how I’d made it back to the training grounds.
“I am not a patient man. Watch carefully.”
Right.
Opportunities like this did not come twice.
When else would I ever learn martial arts directly from the Heavenly Demon?
I crushed down the wild pounding of my heart and hurried to copy his stance.
“Phoenix Spreading Wings. Open your wings lightly, and guide your circulating internal energy to the point in the sole of the foot according to the verse.”
Following his instructions, I drew internal energy up from my dantian, sent it racing through the Ren and Du meridians, then guided it along the specified pathways until it reached the point beneath my foot.
“Rising into the Air. The phoenix spreads its wings and takes flight. Beat your wings with all your strength, and gently expel your internal force through the sole.”
Maybe the sword training had helped.
Moving internal energy through that point proved easier than I’d expected, and I gave a small hop in place.
“The principles of Demon Phoenix Soaring Step are elasticity, solidity, and harmony.”
Bang!
The instant the Heavenly Demon finished speaking, something exploded beneath my feet.
“Ahhh!”
In the next instant, the entire world had changed.
I jerked my head around in confusion—
and found myself looking down at the tops of trees.
The ground was absurdly far below.
I was floating alone at a dizzying height.
“Oh, Grandmother!”
The moment I realized where I was, my concentration shattered and I dropped.
So this was what bungee jumping must feel like.
The dizziness was bad enough, but my stomach lurched so violently I thought I might throw up.
Whoosh!
Then something shot beneath my feet and caught me.
Thanks to that, I barely managed to steady myself.
When I looked down, I saw that a slender tree branch was supporting me.
I’m alive.
“Th-thank you!”
I was so shaken I shouted my thanks to the Heavenly Demon without thinking.
If he hadn’t intervened, I might actually have died on the spot.
Balanced precariously on the branch like a tightrope walker, I suddenly noticed something strange.
What in the world was holding this branch up in midair?
Was this that legendary technique of controlling objects with qi—the thing I’d only ever read about in novels?
No, wait.
Since I was standing on a branch, did that make this branch-riding flight?
Unbelievable.
Whatever it was, I was flying through the sky.
Yes.
This was exactly the kind of Lightness Skill I had wanted.
This is insane. Absolutely insane. What is happening to me?
Even if it wasn’t something I could do entirely on my own yet, I was utterly spellbound by the sheer thrill of Lightness Skills—the kind of thrill I’d never experienced in my life.
I’m going to master this.
From then on, I threw myself into learning with more focus than I had ever shown in my life.
Perhaps the Heavenly Demon found that pleasing, because he taught me with genuine sincerity, just as he had promised.
Bang!
Dust burst up beneath my feet as I shot forward.
A single step carried me nearly three meters.
This is unbelievable.
The Demon Empress’s martial art was so extraordinary I could only think one thing.
It was incredible.
“Do you remember what I told you the principles and hidden truths of Demon Phoenix Soaring Step were?”
“Solidity.”
I answered while deliberately making my body as supple as possible.
“And elasticity.”
The instant I pressed into the ground, bent my knees, and exploded upward with internal force from the sole of my foot—
whoosh!
The scenery around me flew backward.
“Now blend the two in harmony.”
This elastic burst of motion, mixing softness and power, truly did resemble the unrestrained beating of a phoenix’s wings.
Ah, this is fun.
The more I practiced, the stronger the urge became to break out of the training grounds altogether.
This place no longer felt large enough.
I wanted to use Demon Phoenix Soaring Step properly—
out in a much wider space.
Perhaps he noticed.
“Would you like to climb the mountain behind the palace?”
“Really? Am I allowed?”
“If you have learned it, you ought to use it. Isn’t that so?”
Jeok Igeon had watched from beginning to end while I learned martial arts from the Heavenly Demon.
At that, the Heavenly Demon flicked a glance at his son, as if asking what he thought.
“Will you be all right?”
If I was hearing concern in Jeok Igeon’s voice, then I must truly have lost my mind.
Either that, or the joy of inheriting the Demon Empress’s martial art had clouded my judgment a little.
“Of course I’ll be fine. If you’re learning martial arts, torn skin and broken bones are only to be expected. I’m prepared for that.”
I rattled it off as if it were my own conviction, even though it was really something I’d once read in a novel.
So if you have any sense at all, please let me go already.
My whole body is itching to run wild right now.
“That attitude is good. Let us go.”
“Let us… go? Don’t tell me the Second Young Lord is coming too?”
“Father cannot go.”
“That’s… true.”
Had learning even one martial art from him somehow made me bolder?
The idea of casually heading out with the Heavenly Demon of all people should have been absurd, yet lately my nerve really had grown.
“Then, Father, we’ll return shortly.”
Jeok Igeon didn’t even give me time to object.
I was just about to say I’d be perfectly fine going alone, but against all reason, my body had already started running after him.
*****
“Heh. What fortunate timing.”
The training grounds fell utterly silent the moment Seolha and Jeok Igeon left.
“To grasp the deeper principles of Demon Phoenix Soaring Step in only a few days… the more I see of that child, the more remarkable she becomes.”
For some reason, as the Heavenly Demon stared toward the wall Seolha had passed over, a deep trace of regret lingered in his eyes.
“Doesn’t she resemble her so much? In face, and in temperament. She was exactly the same at that age.”
Though no one was visibly present, the Heavenly Demon spoke as if carrying on a quiet conversation.
“If her daughter had lived, she would be about that age by now.”
“…Do you regret it?”
A voice answered him from the empty air.
“Well.”
The Heavenly Demon gave a low, soft laugh.
“I wonder whether this feeling can truly be called regret.”
He was silent for a moment.
“I do not know. But one thing is certain. Even if I returned to that time, I would make the same choice again. When a man is blinded by love, he becomes a fool. Even when he knows it will one day tighten into a noose around his own neck.”
It had been something done in the heat of youth.
Back then, he truly had not known that winning a woman’s heart could be so difficult.
Nor had he known that he would carry that heart with him for the rest of his life.