The moment he confirmed the match results, Chu Ga-o, the leader of the dark factions, immediately mobilized his subordinates.
Even though he had been under double and triple surveillance, making escape impossible, the young Fist Demon waiting in his house was prepared for death.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have said such a thing upon seeing him.
“Did you make a lot of money?”
Rage flared up in Chu Ga-o.
“You will not die a peaceful death.”
He had suffered a huge loss this time.
It wasn't just his own money he had lost.
He had pulled in funds from other organizations, so a single misstep could put his own life in danger.
On top of that, this young fighter was twisting his insides even more.
“I told the owner of this fighting ring about this as well. You know who’s backing this place, don’t you?”
Chu Ga-o’s expression hardened.
He was so afraid of their backer, the Unorthodox Alliance, that he only secretly fixed matches when it was absolutely critical.
He had done well so far, but this time he had gotten terribly entangled.
This was the first time he had encountered such a madman.
He knew the kid had a temper, but he never dreamed he would do something like this, even after being scared with that huge scar on his chest.
“You young brat, you don’t know the value of your own life.”
“As if your life is the only one that’s precious!”
Through this ordeal, the Fist Demon had made a decision.
No matter what kind of life he lived from now on, he would never make friends or family.
How great was this? He could act on his own temper like this, even in the face of the man’s dirty threats.
Of course, it was a pity.
Since he would die here today, he wouldn’t be able to put this resolution into practice.
Chu Ga-o gave an order to his subordinates.
“Bring that bastard to his knees before me.”
Chu Ga-o had no intention of letting this damn bastard die peacefully.
At the order, dozens of men from the dark factions drew their weapons in unison.
Though he was a Fist Demon who had a winning streak in the fighting ring, the number of opponents was too great for a man without inner energy to handle.
Nevertheless, the Fist Demon was not intimidated in the least.
“For every one of you I kill, I’ll fight with the mindset that I’m saving a person.”
The Fist Demon took a pair of gloves out from his clothes and put them on.
Something sharp like an awl was embedded in the front of the gloves.
“They’re coated with a deadly poison. A single scratch and you’ll have to live the rest of your life in bed, eating nothing but porridge.”
It was a lie.
This would probably make the men hesitate in their actions.
Among the gathered men of the dark factions, those who had fought the Fist Demon before flinched in surprise.
Last time they fought, they had been injured and knocked out, a complete mess, and now his fists were coated with poison?
“You cowardly bastard!”
At Chu Ga-o’s words, the Fist Demon shouted back.
“Why? You guys can run wild with swords, but I can’t wear something like this? You trashy dark faction bastards! Come at me, all of you!”
Chu Ga-o shouted.
“Kill him! The first one to kill him gets three hundred Nyang!”
With a reward that trumped all else, the men of the dark factions rushed in, swinging their swords.
The Fist Demon fled toward the backyard.
The leading men of the dark factions, who were excitedly chasing him, suddenly plunged downward.
“Aaaargh!”
He had dug a trap in the yard and embedded spear blades at the bottom.
The Fist Demon had come prepared to fight properly today.
He hadn't planned on fighting with just his fists.
The Fist Demon’s goal was to survive, and if he were to die, he intended to take at least one more of them with him.
Although a few men fell into the trap and died, the men of the dark factions were also veterans of battle.
It might be a different story if their opponent was a martial artist, but he was a green youth without inner energy.
They clung to him tenaciously, swinging their swords.
If they could just embed a sword in his body, the huge sum of three hundred Nyang would be theirs.
The men, mad for money, charged like lunatics.
The Fist Demon’s movements were incredibly fast.
He dodged the flying swords and threw punches.
The men struck by his awl-like fists screamed.
Curses flew from all directions, and the men of the dark factions rampaged in a frenzy.
They charged with bloodcurdling screams, even as blood dripped from their bodies.
The Fist Demon rolled on the ground to avoid the blades flying from all directions.
Leaping to his feet, the Fist Demon ran toward a wall, then turned and threw a dagger.
The dagger lodged in the body of a man following him.
He also threw stones from the ground and even picked up their swords to swing them.
Chu Ga-o shouted.
“So you’ve abandoned the honor of a fighter!”
He had deliberately provoked him to prevent him from using other weapons, but it didn’t work at all.
“I abandoned it because of you. So it’s you who’s killing your own subordinates!”
The Fist Demon fought really well.
He punched, kicked, rolled on the ground, and leaped up to kick.
He rampaged like a wounded beast.
But there were too many men from the dark factions.
No matter how naturally gifted the Fist Demon’s movements were, he was outnumbered.
Blood spurted from the Fist Demon’s arm and side.
He had no time to check where or how badly he was injured.
He just crazily swung his fists while dodging the swords flying from all directions.
Thwack!
Just then, a kick flew in, sending the Fist Demon flying.
He crashed through a pile of luggage in the yard and collapsed.
It was a strike from Chu Ga-o, who had been waiting for an opportunity.
“Get those gloves off him first!”
They rushed in from all sides and ripped off the Fist Demon’s gloves.
In the process, the Fist Demon bit a chunk out of one man’s neck.
The blood he spat out splattered everywhere.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
A flurry of punches left the Fist Demon’s face a bloody mess.
Chu Ga-o looked down at the Fist Demon.
“I’ve never seen such a stubborn bastard.”
Just as Chu Ga-o was clicking his tongue at his subordinates.
The Fist Demon suddenly threw something from a bottle at him.
Chu Ga-o waved his hand to block it.
Sizzle.
The liquid that flew at him burned through his sleeve.
What had been thrown at him was Bone Melting Powder.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
His eyes turning red, Chu Ga-o began to stomp on the Fist Demon.
He had almost gotten his face covered in Bone Melting Powder.
Although the Fist Demon curled up, trying to protect his vital points, he sensed this was the end.
‘This is the end of this life.’
Now that he was actually facing death, he felt a sense of fear.
It was also unfair and infuriating to be killed by a man like that.
When the beating paused for a moment, the Fist Demon opened his eyes.
Chu Ga-o was pulling out a dagger.
“I won’t let you die peacefully.”
With a dazed look, the Fist Demon raised his eyes to look at the night sky for the last time.
He thought he should at least see the stars or the moon before he died.
‘Huh?’
Beyond Chu Ga-o’s shoulder, on a tree branch far behind him, a man sat looking down at him.
Thinking it might be a hallucination, the Fist Demon closed his eyes and opened them again.
But the man, sitting with the bright full moon at his back, was still looking down at him.
He looked a few years older than himself.
The Fist Demon’s eyes met his.
He had never once felt fear looking at a person, but the moment he saw this man’s cold gaze, he felt terrified.
‘Is he the god of death come to take me?’
He even had such a thought.
But he was not the god of death.
One of the men from the dark factions had spotted him.
“Hey! There’s someone over there!”
As everyone’s attention focused on him, the man leaped down from the tree branch.
He had jumped from a considerable height, but not a single footstep was heard.
At his incredible movement technique, both the men of the dark factions and the Fist Demon were stunned.
The man walked slowly and looked at the Fist Demon.
He didn’t even glance at the men of the dark factions.
He asked the Fist Demon.
“Can you fight?”
The Fist Demon nodded and pushed himself up.
His whole body ached as if it were broken, but he gritted his teeth.
“I can fight.”
Then, the man looked at Chu Ga-o.
“Is it right to be so cowardly against a fighter?”
Knowing he was a fighter, it seemed he wasn't just a passerby.
The man already seemed to know why this situation was unfolding.
“Where have you come from?”
Chu Ga-o was extremely tense inside.
He was worried that a master from the Unorthodox Alliance might have appeared because of the match-fixing.
Then, the young man said something unexpected.
“Fight fair and square.”
Swoosh.
Before he had time to dodge, a strike from the man’s finger suppressed Chu Ga-o’s inner energy.
The technique of suppressing an opponent's inner energy with a single flick of a finger was a level of mastery one only heard about in tavern stories.
Startled, Chu Ga-o reflexively shouted.
“Kill him! Kill this one too!”
But no one dared to rush at the man.
Even without the skill he had already shown, there was an air of dignity about this man that made it impossible to act recklessly.
The man looked at the men of the dark factions and gestured for them to form a circle.
As if possessed, the men formed a circle.
A small fighting ring was thus created.
The Fist Demon, who had gotten to his feet, clenched his fists.
He didn’t know who the man who helped him was, but he only thought that if he missed this chance, he would die.
Chu Ga-o also realized that he had to kill the Fist Demon to survive.
Fortunately, though his inner energy was suppressed, his dagger and sword had not been taken away.
‘Then I have a chance!’
There was no chance.
Chu Ga-o swung his dagger, lost it, and then drew his sword and swung it, but eventually had his sword taken away as well.
In the end, it became a fist-to-fist fight, but he couldn't handle an opponent he couldn't beat even with a sword with his bare hands.
Thwack! Thump! Crack! Pow!
The Fist Demon’s furious punches slammed into his entire body.
“Why! Why do you torment people who are just living their lives! Why!”
Chu Ga-o’s jawbone and ribs were broken.
Finally, unable to endure any longer, Chu Ga-o collapsed, gasping for breath.
The Fist Demon opened his shirt and showed his scar.
“You told me to look at this scar whenever I had a foolish thought, right? You look at it all you want and die.”
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
Under the barrage of fists, Chu Ga-o’s breath stopped.
The Fist Demon, panting heavily, stood up and looked at the man.
At that moment, a sword floated up in front of the man.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang.
In front of the young man, the sword split, creating sword-shaped Sword Qi, which all rose into the sky at once.
Just as the members of the dark factions were looking up at it with curious expressions.
Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh-swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
The Sword Qi floating in the air rained down on the men of the dark factions.
Their heads, faces, and chests pierced by the Sword Qi, the men of the dark factions collapsed in unison.
The man did not leave a single member of the dark factions alive.
Geom Mugeuk, who had been listening to the Fist Demon’s story, shouted.
“The Seventh Form of the Flying Heaven Sword Technique, Flowing Heaven Form! It was my father!”
“That’s right. It was the Cult Master.”
Geom Mugeuk was startled.
He hadn’t known that it was his father who had discovered the Fist Demon.
“He was the Cult Master at your age. The Cult Master before he was even named as the successor.”
Geom Mugeuk felt a strange sense of emotion at the fact that his father had saved the Fist Demon.
“Standing there amidst the scattered corpses, the Cult Master said this to me. ‘Wouldn’t you like to turn those baby fists into real man’s fists?’”
“Ah!”
Geom Mugeuk now understood where the phrase ‘baby hands’ that the Fist Demon used to say to him came from.
“So what did you say?”
“I said no. How would I know who he was to follow him? What if he was an assassin? A great evil of the age? I am truly grateful for you saving my life, but no, I said.”
He thought the Fist Demon was amazing for saying no in that situation.
The Fist Demon in his youth felt so full of life.
This vibrancy was hidden in this man's heart.
Who would have known that the Fist Demon, who silently watched over his subordinates' training every day, looking so stuffy and rigid, had such a youth?
“So what did my father say?”
“He just turned around silently with a look that said, ‘Suit yourself.’ As I was watching the Cult Master’s back, it suddenly struck me that this wasn’t right. If I didn’t follow him, I would never be able to escape this fighting ring for the rest of my life. I was lucky to survive this time, but someday I would die while suffering this kind of dirty ordeal again.”
The Fist Demon recalled that moment.
His fate had been changed by the decision of that brief moment.
“Maybe if the Cult Master had tried to persuade me to come with him, I might have stubbornly refused until the end. Back then, I thought being defiant and stubborn was cool. But watching the Cult Master's back recede into the distance, my body moved instinctively. I ran after the Cult Master. I said I was sorry. That I had changed my mind. The Cult Master looked at me then and smiled. You know it too, right? That unique Cult Master’s….”
“You mean that scornful smile that looks down on people?”
“That’s right, that smile.”
“My father is probably the person in the world who suits that smile the most.”
“Honestly, the Cult Master that day was cool. He had a different kind of coolness than you.”
“Am I cool too?”
The Fist Demon pretended not to hear my words and continued his story.
“The Cult Master brought me to the Main Sect and put me in the Eastern Fist Hall without another word. And after that, he never came to see me even once.”
“That’s just like my father.”
“I went from White Fists to Black Fists all by myself. I really put in a blood-boiling effort back then.”
A natural sense and talent for Fist Technique, coupled with effort.
The Fist Demon of that time must have been the center of everyone’s attention.
“On the day I achieved Black Fists, the Cult Master came to see me. As if he had been watching me, he came on that very day. And do you know what he said to me?”
“What did he say?”
Recalling that day, the Fist Demon’s voice trembled slightly.
“I will become the Heavenly Demon, so you will become my Fist Demon.”
The special bond between the two wasn't just because they were people crazy about martial arts.
It was because of this hidden past.
Geom Mugeuk imitated his father and said.
“I too will become the Heavenly Demon, so…”
“Too late. I’m already the Fist Demon.”
“Ah! That’s right. I guess this is something I should say to Cheon So-hee. Please wait a moment. I will find words that suit us.”
The Fist Demon stared at Geom Mugeuk.
The image of the young Heavenly Demon, Geom Woojin, overlapped with Geom Mugeuk's form.
Two people, similar yet different.
If Geom Mugeuk was light, Geom Woojin was darkness.
If one person was so light he seemed about to fly away, the other was so heavy he seemed he would sink forever.
But the Fist Demon also felt it.
That this light and darkness were not so different.
That they were dark yet bright, and bright yet dark.
“The Cult Master took me from this place, but you brought me to this place.”
The Fist Demon had met the two young Cult Master candidates, connected by blood, in this very place.
He felt that this was some great destiny.
At that moment, Geom Mugeuk looked at the Fist Demon calmly and said placidly.
“I shall become a disciple, so please become my Master!”