Before my regression, the Blood Flame Fist Demon was a demon who lived up to his name in both skill and temperament.
The memory of the first time I saw him is still vivid enough to prove that point.
A monster who burned through all the support sent by the Orthodox-Unorthodox Alliance, then burst into mad laughter atop the charred black corpses.
The Blood Flame Fist Demon, who lit up the night sky red with the flames he himself had raised, swung his fist the moment he spotted me approaching alone.
It was a surprise attack, but since I hadn't let my guard down either, I managed to block it without much difficulty.
The problem was the Fist Energy that followed, carrying an extremely yang nature.
Condensed internal energy rippling like burning fire is what they call a Qi Flame, but the Blood Flame Fist Demon's Qi Flame was genuine fire itself.
My killing intent was constricting him, and I was trying to sever that stiff neck with my sword.
The Blood Flame Fist Demon's fist deflected my blade, and its heat—so intense that even opening my eyes was difficult—sought to burn me alive.
There was no exchange of words. The moment our eyes met, we were simply trading Killing Moves to end each other's lives.
The old man, whose eyes weren't even properly focused, as if he had truly lost his mind, kept bursting into Mad Laughter even as sword wounds began to etch themselves across his arms one by one.
I hadn't been struck directly, but the ever-intensifying heat was rapidly draining me both mentally and physically.
I was certain that if things continued this way, I would be the first to fall, so I forced my body out of the exchange and returned to Tang So-wol.
The few battles that followed felt much the same.
For that reason, to me, the Blood Flame Fist Demon was a mad arsonist, a cruel Demonic Cultist who found solace in burning people alive, and one of the few powerhouses I had failed to surpass by a hair's breadth.
I had heard that he only targeted opponents weaker than himself and would flee at any moment if necessary…
Regardless, to me he was strong and troublesome, and that much more unhinged as an opponent. But.
"Then I'll take another path."
"Huh?"
Without a moment's hesitation, the Blood Flame Fist Demon twisted his body and leaped into the river.
The sight of someone with not even a speck of pride made me flinch for an instant, and my reaction came too late.
Wasn't this too different from before the regression?
Back when he fought me, he was a madman who would burn everything before his eyes even if it meant turning himself into kindling…
Seomun Hwa-rin. The moment she realized there was a Harmony Realm martial artist stronger than her, she fled as if she had been waiting for just that.
Yes. I had known. I knew she was that kind of person.
The reason I remembered the Blood Flame Fist Demon from before the regression as a formidable enemy was because she had recognized me back then as an opponent worth fighting.
I had known. I had known, but…
"You call yourself an elder of the Demonic Cult with that attitude?!"
Splash!
Instead of an answer, what came back was the sound of the Blood Flame Fist Demon throwing herself into the river. So she hadn't gotten that far away yet.
I stepped the Thunder Step at full force toward the direction of the sound.
A body that had taken a single step into the Transcendent Peak was far more resilient than before, allowing me to unleash far more internal energy through the Yongcheonhyeol with greater ferocity. This, in turn, translated directly into even greater speed.
CRASH!
My body surged forward with a sound that now resembled thunder. My vision stretched like taffy, and the riverbank that had been far away closed in with a single stride.
The water's surface rippled with gentle waves. The river was quite wide, so if she was fleeing by swimming, she should still be crossing it.
In other words, she hadn't made it all the way across—there was a high chance she was hiding somewhere.
"Tch."
I clicked my tongue and released all the killing intent I had been holding in check.
A dense killing intent blanketed the entire area. But nothing was caught. Only the scattered, anchored fishing boats swayed gently.
My Qi Sense, connected to my killing intent, could pick up even the finest details, but its range was only average.
In the end, I stood by the river with a frown, and in the meantime Seomun Hwa-rin, having killed and subdued the other Demonic Cultists and assassins, approached.
"Where did the brat go?"
"I don't know. I only heard that he fell into the river."
"Wait a moment."
Closing her eyes briefly, Seomun Hwa-rin spread a thin thread of energy in all directions, just as she had done when she first located the Blood Flame Fist Demon.
The Qi Sense of a Harmony Realm martial artist was vast enough to blanket a small town like this in an instant. No matter how skilled the Blood Flame Fist Demon was, he couldn't completely escape it. But then—
"…This is troublesome."
Seomun Hwa-rin narrowed her eyes and stared at the flowing river.
"Why are you doing that? Surely not…?"
"It's not that. Even the Slaughter King, called the pinnacle of assassins, cannot be completely free from my Qi Sense. Naturally, I can feel the Blood Flame Fist Demon's location. However."
Seomun Hwa-rin let out a deep sigh with a look of disbelief. She pointed toward the downstream of the river and continued.
"It seems he has learned a Water Skill. He is submerged in the middle of the river, quickly moving away."
"What?"
"He is still caught in my Qi Sense, but in a little while, even that will be lost. Chasing after him… it seems too late."
"Even with your speed, Senior Seomun Hwa-rin?"
"If we chase him on land, we'd catch him for sure. But the bastard has hidden himself in the deep water."
According to Seomun Hwa-rin's continued explanation, running across the water's surface with Water Surface Running or through the air with Air Stepping slows one down.
Even with the current aiding him, their speed was insufficient to catch the Blood Flame Fist Demon as he employed his Water Skill.
And chasing him along the riverbank while firing Fist Force was out of the question—the river was simply too wide.
"Unless I had mastered the Hundred Step Divine Fist, hitting him would be difficult."
"Ah…"
Once one reaches a certain level of mastery, it becomes possible to maintain the form of internal energy released outside the body.
Tang So-wol, upon reaching the Peak Realm, had become able to channel internal energy into her hidden weapons, and I myself had managed to protect Seol Ri-hyang from the Blood Flame Fist Demon by imbuing my sword wind with Sword Qi, hadn't I?
It varies depending on one's natural aptitude, but it's something anyone can do upon reaching the first-rate level at the earliest, or the Peak Realm at the latest.
However, since it involves projecting internal energy outside the body, its efficiency is inevitably diminished.
No matter how powerful the internal energy imbued, the problem remains that its flight speed is relatively slow.
Unless one has mastered a special martial art like the Force Qi Skill, which focuses entirely on manipulating internal energy itself, or the Shaolin's Hundred Step Divine Fist that Seomun Hwa-rin mentioned, one cannot be free from this problem.
In the end, as Seomun Hwa-rin said, it's impossible to catch the Blood Flame Fist Demon right now.
I sheathed the sword I had drawn and quietly looked at Seomun Hwa-rin.
"Wh-why are you looking at this young lady with such eyes?!"
"It's nothing."
"Nothing, my foot! If you have something to say, say it without holding back!"
"There's nothing to say. …Well, there is something I've been thinking about."
"Argh! Then tell this lady what you've been thinking about right now!"
Seomun Hwa-rin stomped one foot in irritation. I stared blankly at that oddly petty gesture for a moment before slowly opening my mouth.
"It's just… considering how confidently Senior Seomun spoke, I thought the results were a bit underwhelming."
"Kyaaang!"
Seomun Hwa-rin collapsed on the spot, clutching her flat chest. It was pitiful, if anything, so I patted her shoulder. It was round and soft.
"Don't be too disheartened. It's not that Senior Seomun isn't helpful—you just had a bit of bad luck, wouldn't you say?"
"Don't look at me like that! I'm not some pitiful thing!"
"It's fine. I don't blame Senior Seomun. You'll do better next time."
"Can't you say something that agreeable when it's not a moment like this?!"
"We missed the Blood Flame Fist Demon, but you did manage to catch quite a few other Demonic Cultists. It's a bit disappointing, but this is still a fine result. We'll interrogate them for whatever information we can get, then hand them over to the Paeng and Eon Clans. As for the Blood Flame Fist Demon… well, there will be another chance."
"Hmph! I'll catch him! Remember this—I'll definitely catch him next time! Got it?!"
Seomun Hwa-rin let out a huff and hopped in place. From the look of it, she wanted to punch something, but couldn't bring herself to, so she just started swinging her arms around wildly.
I curled the corner of my mouth into a smirk at the sight and turned around.
"Of course, I'll remember. Now, let's head back. Everyone's waiting."
"…Ahem. That will do."
With Seomun Hwa-rin finally calmed down, we returned to where the others were waiting.
Some had died instantly at Seomun Hwa-rin's hands, but most were merely crippled—their limbs shattered—and still alive.
Peng Woo-jin and Eon Ga-hye bound the writhing figures tightly so they couldn't even attempt suicide, Tang So-wol neutralized them with poison, and Seol Ri-hyang lined up the fallen in a neat row.
As I smiled with satisfaction at the sight of the Demonic Cultists sprawled in a line on the ground, Seol Ri-hyang asked in a reluctant voice.
"Cheon Hwi. Don't you think you're enjoying this a little too much?"
"Think about what they did to that village last time. Of course I'm enjoying it."
I shrugged once to brush off Seol Ri-hyang's gaze, then crouched down in front of the nearest Demonic Cultist.
"Greetings."
"Ghk…!"
"Hmm. Even so, interrogation is meaningless if you can't speak. Tang So-wol. Can you free up his mouth?"
"That's no trouble at all."
Tang So-wol pulled a Cow Hair Needle from her bosom and, without hesitation, stabbed the face of the Demonic Cultist who lay before me.
She wasn't performing acupuncture, though—the needle rippled with a faint purple hue, as if merely meant to absorb a trace of poison. A moment later, the bastard finally regained the ability to speak and opened his mouth.
Grit.
The moment he opened his mouth, he tried to bite his own tongue, so I quickly shoved my fingers—protected by internal energy—between his teeth to stop him.
"Don't even think about it. From now on, you'll need my permission just to kill yourself."
"Mmgh! Mmmgh!"
The bastard was biting down on my fingers while spewing curses in my direction. Though, with something stuck in his mouth, his pronunciation was too garbled to make out. Honestly, I didn't need to understand anyway.
A Demonic Cultist, poisoned and writhing weakly in defiance. I placed my hand on his chest. And then.
Thrum!
I poured my internal energy into him in an instant, running it through the Meridians in the order I remembered.
This was a technique that simultaneously broke both the Demonic Cult's seal and Godok—something the Orthodox-Unorthodox Alliance had racked their brains over before my regression.
The internal energy I used now was on a completely different level from what I'd displayed in front of Tang Jincheon before, and it tore through the Demonic Cultist's body relentlessly. And then.
Puhwuk!
Blood suddenly burst from his mouth, and the Demonic Cultist stared blankly into the air as if his soul had fled his body.
He looked like he'd suddenly become an idiot, and if left alone, he truly would be one soon.
But until then, he would have no choice but to answer every question I asked honestly.
Fortunately, there were plenty of people to question, so I decided to extract as much information as possible, one by one.
"First question. What was your purpose in hiding in Hebei Province?"
"W-we… the Paeng Clan and the Eon Clan…"
The man muttered in a low voice. At their comrade's sudden betrayal, the surrounding Demonic Cultists began to stir and rage. But.
"Release the power in your eyes."
You're next.