Chapter 384: Good Work (5)

Just one.

That’s what Father said.

He said he would tell me where my mother was if I managed to land a single attack on him.

…Can I do this?

I accepted his challenge, but honestly, I wasn’t confident.

In fact, my confidence was at its lowest point right now.

Usually, I wouldn’t back down on any challenge given to me, but I obviously had a limit as well.

How should I even do this?

The air was calm.

With only a light breeze passing by the field Father and I stood in, we stared at each other from a distance

The serious atmosphere was no longer present, and was instead replaced by a cold one.

Father stood still while staring at me. Because of the moonlight casting a shadow on his face, his red eyes seemed to shine brighter than usual.

“Come.”

I began charging my Qi.

Heat rose and filled my top Dantian in an instant.

“Ha…”

Steam came out of my mouth. It was proof that my body was heating up. After I prepared myself for battle, I asked Father a question.

“Are you not going to go easy on me at all?”

Father tilted his head after hearing my words, and then put one of his hands behind his back.

“I’ll only use one hand.”

I now had a huge advantage.

Considering how Father was a close combat martial artist like I was, not using one of his hands meant that he would give up on his perfect balance, while also giving me more openings.

“…How about one of your legs instead?”

I wanted to be greedier. I would have an even greater advantage if I restrained one of his legs instead of an arm.

“…”

“I guess not. I understand.”

Though of course, I gave up right away after seeing Father’s expression.

Perhaps I was being too greedy?

After being onesidedly disappointed, I gazed at Father once more with a serious expression.

He’s not using his left hand huh.

Judging by how he had his left arm behind his back, it seemed like he was only going to use his right arm.

Then, it would be best for me to attack his left side.

Rumble-!

I focused my Qi into my feet after planning my attack.

Starting from my feet, flames started to wrap around my body.

I lowered my body to increase my speed.

I had no plan to test him.

I had to go all out from the beginning.

After all, I had no idea if I would succeed even with my full power.

Right as I was about to charge at father using my heat as propel..

Swish-!

“…!”

Father’s figure disappeared from my sight.

I quickly turned my head around.

I couldn’t sense his presence anywhere, though not that I was able to feel father’s presence in the first place.

At this moment, I could only rely on my instincts.

I was right in doing so, as something quickly skimmed past my cheek.

It was Father’s arm.

Slam-! Craaack-!

It was so fast that I was only able to see Father’s movement only after barely dodging it.

I managed to narrowly avoid it. However, judging by the aftermath and the noise behind me…

It would’ve ended right there if I didn’t dodge.

He wasn’t playing around with his attacks.

And not only that…!

I frowned after looking at Father.

He definitely had his left arm behind his back, but he used his left arm to attack.

I obviously thought that he was going to attack using his right arm.

He got me

Did he do that on purpose to trick me?

I clicked my tongue and started to move.

If he used his left arm and couldn’t use his right arm, it meant that his right side was my best approach.

I twisted my body aiming towards his right…

Swoosh-!

But flames suddenly poured out from Father’s body and blocked my sight.

I immediately sharpened my senses in a narrower radius in an attempt to get a clear position of where my father stood.

I felt something on my chest. It was too late to dodge so I focused everything into my defense.

Craaack-!

I felt a great impact and my defense was shattered in an instant.

Was it Father’s knee? It was hard to judge.

Clang-!

My defensive barrier shattered and I was launched backwards.

Chh-!

I knew it would all end if I fell down like this, so I used the friction from my feet in an attempt to slow myself down.

I could still see right in front of me. I was still on the lookout for Father’s follow-up attack, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Shoot…!”

I let him escape my sight. Where did he-

Thud-!

“…!”

As I continued sliding backwards, I suddenly stopped, as if my back hit a wall.

But I was standing in a field, which meant there wasn’t any wall present.

That meant…

I quickly turned my body around after feeling a chilling sensation…

Slam-!

But Father’s fist was already making contact with my chest.

“Ugh…!”

As soon as I was hit again, I flew away and hit the ground with a greater impact than last time.

However, it wasn’t too painful taking into consideration that he landed an attack on me while I had my guard down.

It seemed like Father controlled his strength.

The horrifying truth was, if Father didn’t hold back there, I would’ve died on the spot.

I quickly got up from the ground and looked for Father once again. He was simply gazing at me, standing in the same spot he hit me from.

Was he waiting for me?

I became speechless and soon after, asked him a question.

“You didn’t say you were going first.”

“I didn’t say that I was going to let you go first either.”

“…Damn, you aren’t wrong.”

I guess it was my fault that I assumed he would let me go first.

That was one of the problems, but it wasn’t the biggest.

The gap between our levels is too wide.

What was this?

I may have had some ways to go until I reached the perfected form of a Fusion Realm martial artist, but isn’t it a bit unfair for the gap to be this large?

Moreover, he was also only using one arm.

He was really playing with me as if I were a toy.

No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t help but be speechless.

When I stared at father hopelessly, Father too looked at me back with a strange expression.

“Not bad. You let your instinct control your body over your calculation, and that wasn’t the wrong decision to make.”

Was he judging my movement?

It almost seemed as if he was teaching me.

“However, you don’t seem too used to controlling your heat very well.”

Father wasn’t wrong.

My Destructive Flame Arts nearing the 7th rank, but I didn’t currently have a high understanding of this martial art.

I only knew to increase my speed using my heat, and increase my destructiveness using my flames.

It may have been absurd for a Fusion Realm martial artist to lack knowledge about their own martial art, but it was also understandable.

“I never really had anyone to learn it from.”

“…”

Father’s expression slightly changed after he heard my response.

I was guilty of my lack of training, but Father didn’t give me much attention when I was young either.

Father looked away after hearing my response.

Now.

As soon as Father looked away for an instant, I exploded my flames and charged at him.

At the same time, I focused Qi into my palm.

The flames wrapping around my body quickly moved towards my hand to form a Flaming Sphere.

Just like that, I reached my arm out to throw it at Father…

Tap-!

“Huh?”

But Father swung his hand and slapped away the Flaming Sphere on my palm.

The Flaming Sphere then flew towards a forest nearby the field.

Slaaam-!

Shortly after, its explosive sound echoed loudly through the field.

Huh? What just happened?

When I stared at Father speechlessly, he spoke to me.

“You created that quite fast. The power contained in the sphere wasn’t bad either.”

“…Ah, thank you.”

“However, it lacked density.”

After he spoke, something started to form on his palm.

Rumble-!

It was a Flaming Sphere.

However, it was different from the one I made.

He created it much faster. Rather than gathering flames to form it like I had done, it appeared on top of his hand in an instant.

Moreover, it was bigger and a deeper crimson red.

I felt an overwhelming amount of power from it. My body started to shake against my will.

I’m being pulled in?

Father’s Flaming Sphere was pulling on my body.

A Flaming Sphere was able to do this?

“Creating it isn’t the end of the process. You must continue to make it spin inside.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I was certain about one thing.

If I was hit by that thing, not even my bones would be left.

As I thought about how I needed to deal with this situation, Father flung his Flaming Sphere in a random direction.

Then…

Slam-!

The Flaming Sphere landed in a random area.

A few seconds later…

-!!!!

Flames shot high up towards the far away sky, and the ground greatly trembled.

It was completely different from the Flaming Sphere I made.

What was that…?

As I looked up at the flames with a shocked expression, Father continued to speak.

“Remember to maintain the sphere’s rotation. Always remember the meaning of the Destructive Flame Arts’ Ring, and strive to embody that will.”

Destructive Flame Arts.

Depending on the martial artist’s level, rings of flames formed inside their body. Moreover, the ring’s rotation speed became faster depending on their power.

I wondered why it had to form rings of all things, but I never once thought about the meaning that was contained inside the fact.

Yet, something like this was possible…

Could I use the ripple of these rings to enhance all of my other techniques?

…Why have I never realized this before

In a way, it was one of the most basic ideas and yet, I only realized the meaning behind its name at this very moment.

I only focused on compressing my Qi and failed to realize the importance of its rotation.

Wait…

A thought entered my mind.

For some reason, rather than a fight, this felt more like…

A lesson.

Was I just mistaken?

But it didn’t feel like I was.

Father spoke to me as I stood confused.

“How far can you go?”

“Huh?”

“Use everything you have on me.”

I then wondered something in my mind after hearing Father.

Perhaps…

Is he bothered by the fact that I said I never got to learn from anyone?

Perhaps he was trying to teach me something because I told him that I never learned from anyone in the past?

I was already planning to ask Father about my martial arts, so this worked out for me.

“But my Lord…”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t we in the middle of a fight?”

“Yes, we are.”

I wanted to say that he wasn’t in a situation to teach me anything, but I held myself back.

I needed this, and I saw it as a positive thing.

I instantly charged my Qi that was flowing in my top Dantian.

I then shot it into the sky. Shortly after, the sky started to change color.

Red Heaven.

I used another one of the Gu Clan’s Secret Arts.

Heat started to fill the area underneath the newly colored sky.

Kngg-!

The ring of flames in my body continued rotating.

He told me to focus on its rotation.

I felt like I had gotten the hang of how to properly form a Flaming Sphere, but I didn’t know what to do with Red Heaven.

I then began to move once more.

While he may have been teaching me a few things, we were still fighting against each other.

Thanks to the Red Heaven, my speed increased.

I charged into him, aiming for his right side.

During this, Father was observing the Red Heaven I made.

He didn’t even need to keep his attention on me huh?

This was embarrassing in many ways.

I poured my all into my attack on his right side.

Despite Father having a huge physique, he moved nimbly and dodged all my attacks.

He didn’t use any special moves or anything.

He was simply faster than me.

Slam-!

I stomped on the ground with my left foot and initiated the Fiery Fangs of the Beast technique. I increased its size by pouring even more of my Qi into it.

It wasn’t the most practical use of the technique, but it was the most effective way for me to land one hit on him.

Right before I could explode my flames, Father’s palm blocked my sight.

“You are quick to gather your flames, but are late in pouring it out.”

“…!”

Swoosh-!

Flames exploded from his hand.

It wrapped around my body and went past me.

I clenched my eyes and put my guard up, but it was too late.

At least that’s what I thought, but I didn’t feel any pain.

Thinking something was wrong, I slowly opened my eyes. Flames did indeed come out from his hand, but it was swept by everything but me.

“…”

How should I say this…

It was enough to kill my morale. He overpowered me in every way possible.

At this point… It would’ve been faster for me to ask my Father to kill the Heavenly Demon in my steed.

When I made a hopeless expression, Father asked me a question with a calm tone.

“Are you already done?”

“…”

Perhaps he was telling me to give up. Truthfully, it would have been right for me to do so…

“No.”

But I unfortunately had no intention to give up just yet.

“You asked me to give it my all against you.”

“…”

“I still have a few tricks left up in my sleeve.”

Father nodded after hearing my response.

He was letting me continue.

I still had a few things to show my father.

I realized that I couldn’t only use the Destructive Flame Arts against him, so I had to try something else.

I couldn’t afford to use Demonic Qi or Blood Qi either. I didn’t think I would win against him even if I used those, but I didn’t want to use that power against my father.

Then, there was only one thing left.

…Ugh, he told me not to use this.

Master once warned me that I wasn’t allowed to use this in a fight until I got his approval…

But its always easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.’

I had no other choice but to use this.

Maybe he’ll forgive me considering my situation, right?

And what will he do if he doesn’t?

That wasn’t going to stop me anyway. The Dishonored Venerable had said that besides me, there wasn’t anyone else capable of learning his martial art.

With that thought…

Woong-

“…!”

I used my Destructive Flame Arts along with another energy.

“…This is.”

He must have sensed it because his eyes had widened to the largest I had ever seen in my life.

Was it really that shocking?

I focused on my Qi while observing Father’s reaction.

Then, the Dishonored Venerable’s Heaven Destruction Art started to merge itself into my body.

“Phew…”

I breathed out loud like before, but the steam that came out now contained a dense Combat Qi.

I immediately started to feel pain in my body as well, but I was able to endure it like always.

After I finished my preparation, I spoke to Father.

“Thank you for waiting. I shall go aga- “

I was about to finish my sentence, but Father’s fist was right in front of my eyes for some reason.

“Huh?”

Pow-!

At the same time I felt a great impact, my consciousness flew away.