Chronicles of the Reincarnated Demon God - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Summoning Order

In the Clear Wind Tavern, an establishment not far from the Nine Dragons Branch Family…

“It wasn’t just once or twice. How did you do it again and again?!”

“What can I say? Just consider it a valuable life lesson,” I advised Tang Gon before taking a sip of liquor and patting him on the back.

Maybe it was because I hadn’t had any in so long, but the taste of the bamboo liquor was outstanding. I ordered another one right away.

“Anyway, in the end, I was the one who won the bet.”

It would have been impossible if I’d had to fully comprehend all the Wild Wind Dance’s deep nuances like with the Shadow Step, but simply memorizing the form had not proven difficult.

Thanks to having a highly awakened upper dantian, I was capable of remembering the entirety of the Heavenly Demon Archive. In comparison, memorizing a single technique was no trouble.

In other words, this was a bet that Tang Gon had never had any chance of winning.

Not that he could have known that. Heh heh!

「He’s like us. His life was ruined by getting entangled with the junior lord.」

「This is why one should always be more suspicious when something seems too good to be true. Tsk tsk.」

I heard the ghosts spouting nonsense, but I decided to let it slide so as to not sour the good liquor.

Getting some fresh air felt incredible.

If only things could continue this way…

When I’d first stepped outside the manor, Namgung San-yeong’s warriors had tried to stop me, but that had been easily solved.

Tang Gon had defended me. He had said, “As the second young master’s martial instructor, I’m taking him outside for training. Is there a problem?”

Namgung San-yeong’s warriors couldn’t defy Tang Gon, not when she had been the one to nominate him as my instructor.

By now, she should have gotten word that things were not going as she’d imagined… but it was already too late.

“It’s thanks to me that you got to leave the manor. Why don’t you buy the drinks, Second Young Master?”

“Don’t wanna.”

“Then at least give me back my money!”

“Hey, I won this money fair and square. Why should I give it back?”

“Because now I’m flat broke!”

I looked at him with pity. “Then you should have won.”

“Ahhhhhh!” Tang Gon rose from his seat and pointed at me. “You said it yourself! That the purpose of the bets wasn’t money!”

“I didn’t say I don’t want money either.”

“Come on! You said you wanted my recognition!”

“And I got that. So there we go.”

“Grrrrr!” Tang Gon rubbed his temples, frustrated by the feeling that he was talking to a wall. “Then at least stop ordering more food! You’re ordering the entire menu!”

As a note, the servers had been bringing food nonstop for a while.

Because a normal table was unable to accommodate such large quantities of food, they had combined four additional tables.

The owner couldn’t stop smiling at how he was raking it in.

“I’m just trying to feed my empty stomach. This is the first real food I’ve had in two months!”

“But I don’t have any money! You already robbed me of everything…!”

“Sorry not sorry…?”

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Tang Gon jumped up and down.

‘I guess he really enjoys sharing a drink with me.’

My subordinates at the Junior Lord Hall used to react the same when we were drinking. ‘This is why being Mr. Popular is so hard.’

“Barkeep! Bring all the bamboo liquor you have!” yelled Tang Gon.

“Wow. I thought you were broke. Aren’t you going overboard?”

“Don’t worry about me, Second Young Master. I’ll figure it out! I really need a drink. I might go mad if I stay sober right now. Just be glad I haven’t bonked you on the head yet!”

“Oh my… Thanks, I guess.”

“Barkeep! I said to bring more booze!”

Tang Gon started chugging down the liquor, saying that talking to me was raising his blood pressure.

Bottle after bottle, he kept chugging it down. It appeared that Tang Gon was quite the drinker.

Chuckling, I drank another glass myself.

The light burning sensation of the liquor going down my throat felt refreshing.

Amidst all the fun, I secretly drew a tiny mark under the table.

The mark was of a skull impaled by two swords.

The ghosts, recognizing the mark, could not help but tremble.

「Junior Lord, isn’t that…?!」

It was a summoning order, calling for all the cultists around Jiulong County to gather.

The skull indicated that it was an urgent order, and the number of swords indicated my status.

One sword meant it was from an elder. Two meant the junior lord. Three meant the lord.

In other words, I was summoning cultists with the authority of the junior lord.

As “Yeon Woon-hwi” should be considered dead or missing along with my master, this might cause a commotion.

Those aligned with the Society or one of the Nine Great Demon Sects wanting independence might try to set a trap.

That was why I made the mark so it could only be seen by followers of the “Demon-Worshipping Divine Fire Sect.”

The Demon-Worshipping Divine Fire Sect was the sect that my master and I had been part of. It had also cultivated the greatest number of cult lords in history.

Currently, it was the only place I could trust.

But what if it was also tainted by the Society?

Then… finding Master and restoring the cult would be almost impossible.

That was how crucial the Demon-Worshipping Divine Fire Sect was to the cult, and also why I had faith that no matter what happened, they would remain unchanged.

Once I finished marking where the gathering would take place, I was able to relax and focus on drinking.

“Next time… I will… shake you… down… Zzz…”

After downing five whole barrels, Tang Gon passed out, hitting his head on the table in the process.

Would you look at that?

「This ungrateful fool is trying to get out of paying for the drinks, Junior Lord! Give me the order and I will dump him in an outhouse right now!」

「Him being covered in feces will make the trip back to the manor unpleasant. Instead, let me go grab some ice water and douse him, sir!」

The ghosts were competing with each other to demonstrate their loyalty.

“I’m not letting you off the hook, you know,” I told Tang Gon.

“…”

“Are you asleep?”

“Zzz…”

“He really must be asleep.”

I chuckled and called over one of the servers.

“You called, sir? What would you like next?”

Even though I called for a server, the one who came was the owner of the tavern.

He was highly attentive—high rollers like us were certainly not an everyday occurrence.

“The tavern looks full right now. How many customers do you have?”

“Eh?” Unphased by the unusual question, the owner replied earnestly, “Well, we’ll have to count to know the exact number, but as we are the biggest tavern in Jiulong County, I would guess around 300 people.”

“So we’ll make quite a lot of people happy if we buy a round of drinks for everyone—”

“Ahahaha! That nap really sobered me up. Let’s continue drinking, Second Young Master. I would like to have a real heart-to-heart!”

“??”

The owner was surprised by Tang Gon suddenly jolting awake.

I changed my request. “I really like this five-spice beef & pork. Let me order another, and can you prioritize it over my other orders?”

“Of course, sir! We’ll get right on it!”

There was nothing in the world more fun than retail therapy.

After sending the owner away, I noticed Tang Gon staring at me with a dead look in his eyes.

I chuckled and said, “The world sure is a scary place, isn’t it? People try to take advantage if you let down your guard for even a moment.”

“You really would have done it?”

“Yes indeed.”

After a short pause, he sighed. “Damn it. Seems like I really fell for it, huh.”

With another surge of frustration, Tang Gon chugged more bamboo liquor.

Smirk!

With a grin on my face, I snatched away the liquor bottle.

“Twisting Grasp” of the “Flying Willow Palm.”

It was one of the techniques I’d learned from Tang Gon today.

“Come on. Chugging alone is no way to enjoy liquor. You need to share it,” I told him.

As I refilled our cups with bamboo liquor, Tang Gon silently stared at me. More specifically, at my hand.

“…You’re already able to freely utilize it?”

“By twisting the flow of energy from the Red Lotus Divine Palm’s ‘Hundred Revolving Dispersing Strikes’ to ‘Hundred Snapping Strikes,’ I noticed that it weaves into the Dark Chasing Hand’s ‘Torment Feint.’ I’m surprised by how it all connects.”

I was pleased to see Tang Gon’s surprise as I demonstrated with hand motions.

“…At first glance, the martial arts of the Tang Clan might all seem disjointed,” Tang Gon explained, “but like parts making up a machine, they can be combined into dozens or even hundreds of permutations. It is a result of wielding a variety of different weapons.”

“And the Wild Wind Dance is meant to be a lubricant that makes combinations faster and more explosive, right? Thanks to it, I can now see their flow better.”

Among all the different martial schools, sects, and clans in the Central Plains, there was likely none that used a wider variety of tools than the Sichuan Tang Clan.

Because assassination weapons could only be used once per throw, they could create openings between moves, as one needed to either retrieve the thrown weapon or draw another.

This was a critical flaw on the battlefield, where an instant could be the difference between life and death.

To overcome this weakness, the Tang Clan had conducted much research, and the fragmentation of their techniques was one of the results of that research.

All of the Tang Clan’s techniques were short, making it possible to quickly pivot into a different technique, even one from a different martial art, depending on the situation.

As they were familiar with not just assassination weapons and poisons but also machines, the Tang Clan approached martial arts like it was a machine.

Thanks to that, the Tang Clan’s martial arts could be combined in a variety of ways, and they could substitute a flawed technique for another anytime.

Techniques that were substituted out were either improved or disposed of.

The Wild Wind Dance was the final formulation of such combinations.

Faster. More powerful.

It was a one-hit lethal move where the user gave their all to end a fight.

But what happened in the case of failure?

Well, of course the user had no choice but to stand there and look like an idiot as they were defeated.

That was its critical weakness. However, it seemed this wasn’t considered a true weakness. It was that powerful of a move.

I also didn’t mind this weakness. I felt like I could more than make up for it somehow. The Wild Wind Dance would be a good part of my arsenal once I found a way to supplement its weakness.

In addition, I thought I might be able to apply this to the Heavenly Demon’s Nine Swords, which was also fragmented like the martial arts of the Tang Clan.

I definitely had to master the Wild Wind Dance, but I also needed to start working on the Heavenly Demon’s Nine Swords.

“Incredible. To be able to see all that already,” Tang Gon complimented me.

“It’s because I had a truly amazing martial arts instructor.”

“If you really mean that, why don’t you foot the bill for me?”

Though Tang Gon was grumbling, he was unable to hide his smile as he downed another shot.

“No can do. When will I have a chance to rip off the mighty Fierce Gale Warrior if not today?” I said while refilling his glass.

“I guess it’s true that the richer you are, the stingier you are!”

Tink.

This time, we clinked our glasses and took a shot together.

“So, where did you gain such insight?” Tang Gon asked.

“I thoroughly read and reviewed my textbooks.”

“…You want to keep it a secret, I see. I feel like you have a martial arts master you’re hiding.”

I simply smiled in response.

“Fine. Fine! I won’t pry into it,” Tang Gon said, giving in.

“This is the first time we’ve really talked, but I feel like we’ll become close friends, Tang Gon.”

“If that happens, I won’t just be bankrupt but also homeless!”

“Then you can come stay with me. I will always spare a bed for a drinking buddy.”

Tang Gon sighed. “I can’t believe how far I, the Fierce Gale Warrior, have fallen to be treated like this.”

If I started talking about my master, I might not be able to stop. I could genuinely talk about him for days. The way he looked, the way he talked, his warmth and kindness, his laugh, and even his habits…

He was such a radiant being for someone like me, who was as lowly as a weed growing in an alley.

He was everything I wanted to learn and become.

Eventually, Tang Gon said, “But I know one thing for certain.”

“What is it?”

“The master that taught you, Second Young Master…”

So he’d gone from guessing to being certain. Huh.

I silently watched him to see what he would say.

“I bet he is a very good person.”

Those words made me choke up.

“…What makes you say that?” I asked.

“Because you’re able to smile like this, sir.”

“…”

All sorts of emotions stirred up a whirlwind in my mind.

Tang Gon proceeded to chuckle as he poured another drink.

Meanwhile, I silently mulled over Tang Gon’s words while consuming a plate of food.