Chapter 56. Living Without the Mask

The grand master, who didn't look like he was on a small stage of the Black Dao Sect but rather as if he were seated on a throne, examined me and extended his hand.

"Welcome."

Thinking of the Red Demon who had died, I asked the grand master how he was doing.

"Master, is your back any better lately?"

The grand master nodded.

"Not bad."

"Is there any discomfort in your legs?"

"There is some, but one must endure such things as one ages. When I fight, it gets better, so there's no need to worry."

"True. Do you sleep well? Living in the martial world consumes a lot of mental energy, so it's important to get enough sleep."

The grand master nodded in agreement.

"Sleep has become shorter as I've aged. When I die, I'll sleep for a long time, so there's no need for you to worry excessively. And who did you kill this time?"

The grand master spoke to me as if I were the Red Demon.

"I killed a few of those fools who were running around aimlessly."

The grand master sighed briefly.

"My cherished disciples have died, so I must now seek revenge."

"Of course, you must."

"What was the Red Demon's last moment like?"

"He fought a wall and only his head broke. He's probably standing in line somewhere at the entrance to hell."

"He was my most cherished disciple, and I feel regret."

I asked the grand master about something I had been curious about.

"I've always been curious about something. Could you give me an answer?"

"Go ahead and ask."

"Why do you wear this mask? The Red Demon was curious about it until the end."

The grand master smiled, showing his teeth.

"Interesting. Very interesting."

"..."

"Until now, no one has ever asked me about this in detail. Even though I had many disciples. It's a simple story. Wearing a mask makes it easier to do bad things. It blurs the line between whether you are doing the bad things or the mask is doing them."

The grand master leaned forward from his seated position.

"Only those chosen by me can wear the mask. By assigning ranks, it encourages competition among them. This is the nature of fools."

The grand master smiled, showing his large teeth.

"Also, it's an old tradition. My master's master was a performer who wore masks. He had to wear a mask to earn a living. But he never mastered the skill of quickly changing masks and was eventually expelled. That expelled person was my master."

"Ah."

The anger of the weak spreads like a disease, causing suffering to many and leading to the emergence of such people.

The grand master smiled and said to me.

"Since I've revealed the secret of the mask, show me your face. One of us will die, so that's not too much to ask, is it?"

"Ah... my face."

I stroked the Red Demon's mask and replied.

"I'm about to do something bad, so I can't."

I laughed along with the grand master.

The longhorn beetle laughed, the dead Red Demon laughed somewhere, and I laughed. We laughed, each thinking about the other's death.

The grand master stood up and said,

"A disciple like you should have been mine."

"Even if I had been your disciple, I would have run away and become a waiter somewhere."

"Why would you do such a lowly job?"

"What you do isn't important. While cleaning, I would have constantly thought about my incompetent master. Eventually, I would have learned martial arts to kill you and come back. And just like today, I would have asked you why you made me wear the mask."

The grand master nodded.

"Right. A man should live that way."

As the grand master descended the stairs, his sleeves fluttered in the wind.

While I was carefully observing his sleeves, the grand master came very close to me.

He did this to show his confidence.

It was also a psychological tactic.

If I tried to create distance by stepping back, the grand master would have taken the initiative and attacked.

The grand master was shorter than me.

And he was rather ugly.

I know people who are as ugly as the grand master, but I also know that a person's charm isn't just about their face.

I was quite handsome, yet I wasn't popular with normal beauties.

Suddenly, anger...

The grand master smiled.

"What will you use to fight? Palm techniques, fist techniques, saber techniques, sword techniques, or internal energy? Any of them is fine. I'll give you the choice since I've practiced martial arts longer."

"What are you confident in?"

"The old man's internal energy. This will be a disadvantage for you, so choose something else."

The grand master smiled thinly, as if he were playing a psychological game.

I nodded.

"Let's start with internal energy."

The thought of an internal energy battle made my heart race.

The grand master laughed heartily and slowly extended his left hand.

"If you have no regrets, let's touch hands."

An internal energy battle is something only the top-tier crazy people do.

No soldier or man in any country fights this way.

Only crazy monkeys stake their lives, believing in their internal energy, despite their vulnerabilities.

I slowly moved my right hand while observing the grand master's expression. We were so close that if either of us broke the agreement and launched a surprise attack, it wouldn't be strange.

But the grand master and I didn't launch surprise attacks; we simply touched palms.

The grand master's palm was as hard as touching a longhorn beetle.

We both remained silent.

The amount of internal energy we injected into each other's dantian increased gradually, as if we had negotiated the detailed rules of the internal energy battle on the spot.

To those who don't know martial arts, two grown men standing still with their hands touching would look like lunatics.

But to those who look closely, they are even more serious lunatics.

Because they are staking their lives.

I remained cautious of the grand master's right arm.

He might have attached a sharp spike to his severed arm to stab me at any moment.

The two hands that were touching began to tremble, and the grand master's smiling face wavered like the surface of water.

The Red Demon's mask I was wearing also trembled.

The grand master's eyes looked at my left hand, and I looked at his empty sleeve.

The intensity of the internal energy increased slightly.

I prepared for a long battle with the power of the Wood Element, then switched to the power of the Fire Element. As my palm turned red, the grand master's eyes focused on the touching hands.

The tendons in the touching hands were about to burst.

The grand master's right arm moved naturally.

This indicated that he had reserved some strength during the internal energy battle.

Of course, I had also reserved some strength.

I moved my head to the right and grabbed the grand master's arm. A silver blade extended past my neck by a hair's breadth.

It seemed he had attached a blade to his severed arm.

I injected internal energy into the grand master's hand and arm.

The grand master was cunning, but cunning alone doesn't win all battles.

In an internal energy battle, the one with deeper internal energy wins.

I injected the power of the Fire Element into my left hand, which was holding his arm, and the sleeve burned like it was on fire.

Only then did I notice the shape of the arm.

A metal cover was attached to the severed part, and a blade was attached to it.

A specially made blade for surprise attacks, designed for the grand master.

I looked at the grand master and used the Fire Element's power with my right hand and the Absorption Technique with my left.

The Mind Division Technique, which even dullards can't perform.

Internal energy flowed into my left hand from the grand master, while my Fire Element's power heated his arm on the right.

A brief regret for the Ice Technique flashed through my mind.

Deciding to practice more with the grand master, I used the Absorption Technique with my right hand and the Fire Element's power with my left.

The severed arm was defenseless, and the right side of the grand master's clothing began to burn.

'This is it.'

The grand master's internal energy level was not much lower than mine, but he was visibly flustered as I used the Mind Division Technique and the rare Absorption Technique. Moreover, the lack of one arm was clearly a disadvantage.

He must have often won internal energy battles with that blade.

Despite this, the grand master was holding on with the internal energy he had accumulated over a lifetime.

At this moment, a clicking sound came from the grand master's mouth.

'Poison or a hidden needle.'

Some people hide poison pills in their missing teeth.

As the grand master inhaled and exhaled...

I pulled my hands and headbutted him.

Thud!

The Red Demon's mask cracked.

Thud!

This time, the white mask cracked.

Thud!

This time, my forehead shattered the grand master's nose.

Only then did I see the grand master's face, now covered in blood. His front teeth were broken, and his nose was flattened.

I had never killed anyone with a headbutt, so I used the Absorption Technique with both hands.

The grand master's internal energy, which he had built up over a lifetime, began to flow into me like a dam breaking.

When using the Absorption Technique, which I obtained through a combination of chance and inevitability, I have a personal rule.

I don't take lives with this.

I gave half of the grand master's energy to Tianyu as prey and then released my hands.

As soon as I released my hands, the grand master collapsed to the ground.

He was still breathing.

The grand master's eyes swept over my face, now with a look of curiosity satisfied.

I looked down at the grand master and said solemnly,

"Nice to meet you. I am Li Zha, the leader of the Xiaomen Sect."

The grand master muttered as if hearing my name for the first time.

"Li Zha..."

"If we had fought like this from the beginning, the lives of your foolish disciples might have been spared."

The grand master spat out a mouthful of blood and asked,

"Who is your master?"

In that short question, there was a hint of not understanding how I could be so young and strong. I squatted down and met the grand master's eyes.

"No one."

"You're lying."

"I will now take over the Twelve Constellations and everything you managed. You didn't have the qualifications to be the leader of these fools. Even if you don't want it, everything will come under the Xiaomen Sect. As a leader who led a group, say a few words to your disciples."

"You killed them all. Where are the disciples?"

From where the Black Cat Sect's subordinates were, Hong Shen and Jin Hai appeared with troubled expressions.

Almost simultaneously, Bai Ren, Qing Jin, and Bai You, who had survived, appeared on the wall. They had no intention of interfering in the one-on-one fight but had been listening from behind the wall, curious about the outcome.

The grand master sighed and looked around at his still-living disciples, then spoke honestly.

"You've saved many lives. That's impressive."

I confirmed that the grand master's eyes had brightened again as they had before.

It was a sign of a dying person's last moments of clarity.

The grand master straightened his back and spoke to his living disciples.

"Disciples, you've suffered a lot serving an incompetent master. From now on, serve the leader of the Xiaomen Sect sincerely. You should now live without the mask. More than me..."

The grand master's words trailed off.

He met his death with his eyes open.

I looked at the grand master for a long time after his breath stopped. His face, once ugly, now had a sense of peace. Thinking that he had thought of his disciples in his last moments, I reached out and closed the world he was looking at.

The grand master's eyes closed.