Failed Possession Chapter-22

## Chapter 22

—

Floating Clouds drift.
Clouds drift freely across the vast sky.

Wind and Clouds Dance.
The wind follows the clouds. The clouds scatter and dance with the wind.

Dark Clouds Swallow the Moon.
Clouds cover the dark sky. The widely spreading clouds swallow the moon.

Thundercloud Dragon Fang.
From thunder-boiling clouds, a dragon bares its fangs.

“These four forms together make one Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist.”

Bakered, who had been concentrating on the secret manual for several hours, opened his mouth.

“Though it’s called a fist art, there’s no need to use only your fists. Sometimes the hands, sometimes the fists. What the core principles emphasize is freedom, so you must not be bound by the name or frame of ‘fist art.’”

Yuri listened while lying shamelessly on the ground. It couldn’t be helped. For hours up to now, he had been put through grueling abuse under the pretense of external body training by Bakered.

“Unlike mages, martial artists store inner energy in the dantian within the body and spread it through the meridians to generate power. If one’s inner energy is deep and profound, even a woman with slender jade hands could shatter a mountain with a single punch.”

Bakered folded his arms as he looked down at Yuri, who was breathing roughly.

“But you mustn’t rely only on inner energy. When inner energy conditions are equal, life and death are decided by external training and one’s mastery of martial arts.”

“…”

“Work hard. Don’t try to squeeze out your shallow inner energy and rely on tricks.”

“I never used tricks.”

Yuri abruptly sat up and grumbled. Until now, since there was a big age gap and he was the one learning martial arts, he had been speaking politely, but being so exhausted made his speech come out short and sloppy.

“I did everything you told me. Ran laps, and those, those things.”

In one corner of the garden were piled exercise machines Bakered had brought. They were the kind of equipment you’d only see in a gym that Lee Su-hyeok had once peeked into a few times.

“I did it all. Just like you said. No tricks. Didn’t use inner energy either.”

“Good.”

“But, you see, muscles don’t exactly grow fast just because you work hard, right?”

“Did you bite your tongue while exercising? Your way of talking’s weird.”

“I didn’t bite it.”

He quickly corrected his speech.

“What I’m saying is, back when I was in Aldor, I did work out a bit. I didn’t have inner energy or martial arts back then, so I figured I’d at least bulk up. But muscles didn’t come easily.”

“What do you think is the biggest difference between then and now?”

“Inner energy?”

He answered, but tilted his head since he wasn’t confident it was right. Bakered stroked his beard and nodded.

“That’s right. Now that your dantian has opened and you possess inner energy, you’re a completely different person from before.”

“…”

“If you train your external body and Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist every day and cultivate your heart method, your body will naturally grow to match the martial path you seek. Even I didn’t have this kind of body before I entered martial arts.”

That was true. Seronis wasn’t a kind game that even provided illustrations, but the Bakered who appeared as an NPC wasn’t this heavily muscled like now.

“Yuri. How old are you?”

“Twenty.”

“I first learned the Vajra Shattering Fist at twenty-four.”

“Why did you learn fist arts?”

Seeing a chance, Yuri asked.

“I heard from Ha-ryeong. They said that twenty years ago, you were in the Sairan guard and used a spear as your weapon.”

Bakered didn’t answer and just stared at Yuri for a moment. Since assassins and information were inseparable, it wasn’t surprising that an assassin from the Salho Gate knew about something from twenty years ago.

Perhaps they even connected Bakered abandoning the spear and becoming a wanderer with the tragedy of the Laspion family. But there was no way they knew he was the Laspion family’s illegitimate child.

“There’s no need for you to know.”

Even if they had reached such speculation, Bakered would not acknowledge it.

He had no intention of revealing an old secret to Yuri, whom he was merely teaching fist arts out of mild interest.

‘Not close enough yet, huh.’

His attitude had softened compared to when they met at the auction house, so Yuri had probed once, but it seemed still too soon.

‘If not, I’ll just have to look into it separately.’

Thinking that, Yuri rubbed his aching thighs.

“Done resting?”

“Pardon?”

“Looks like you’ve rested enough. Stand up.”

It wasn’t an atmosphere where he could say no. As Yuri stood, Bakered raised both fists.

“Don’t tell me you want to spar?”

“I won’t use inner energy.”

“Huh.”

“I’ll attack with Wind and Clouds Dance. So you respond with Floating Clouds drift.”

After telling him the technique he would use in advance, Bakered moved his fists. Not only did he not use inner energy, he barely put any strength into the punches as they moved toward Yuri.

Even so, the movement of the fists was eerie and strange. The speed wasn’t fast at all, yet Yuri couldn’t read their motion.

‘It’s only two fists.’

Now he understood why he was told to counter with Floating Clouds drift. If Wind and Clouds Dance focused on chaotic changes, Floating Clouds drift was relaxed and soft. It was also the form Yuri was most familiar with.

Carefully, he extended his left hand to meet Bakered’s fist. It wasn’t easy. He still couldn’t see that movement.

Before becoming Yuri, he had learned about fighting for a long time from Lorellia. That helped him greatly now, but this required something more.

‘Read the changing trajectory, discern what’s hidden and unseen, predict where it’ll move.’

He had thought he was familiar with Floating Clouds drift, but that was a mistake. This move deflects or brushes aside the opponent’s attack and then drives one’s own fist in. There were too many prerequisites to accomplish that.

‘Floating Clouds drift is the first form of Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist. It represents what this fist art is.’

The most basic of basics, the essence.

Which is why it was difficult. If he couldn’t do this, the other forms were out of the question.

—The game didn’t implement individual forms.

The martial art Padlip-Immune learned as Lee Su-hyeok was simply “Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist.”

Just learning it greatly increased agility stats and added additional evasion bonuses beyond stats. Activating it increased evasion percentage again, and each successful dodge dealt counter damage proportional to the enemy’s level and attack power.

For Padlip-Immune, who didn’t wear armor, agility and evasion were extremely important, so his initial build was packed full of agility, evasion, and counter skills.

As a result, he lacked decisive attack power, and against enemies like Heavenly Thunder Orca who were immune to physical attacks or used magic attacks instead, he was too helpless.

Eventually, Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist was discarded during build trimming. In the game, the number of learnable skills was limited, so it couldn’t be helped.

But what about here?

Unlike the game, attack power didn’t seem lacking. Right now Yuri had not only Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist but also the Evil-Quelling Heavenly Principle Technique. He hadn’t used it in real combat yet, but he also had an offensive move called Blazing Burst Fist. If he steadily raised his rank and formed aura, he could supplement his attack power further.

‘In reality there are no agility stats, no evasion bonuses. No probability-based dodges or counters.’

He had to do everything himself.

Tap, tap, tap.

Bakered’s fists kept slipping past Yuri’s arms and striking his chest. He still couldn’t counter even once against those slow changes.

He didn’t grow impatient. Yuri focused his mind and watched how Bakered’s fists moved. Clouds follow the wind. The two fists were clouds and wind. One movement responded to the other. Everything was connected. It was one dance.

‘What about me?’

Floating Clouds drift. Clouds drifting freely across the vast sky. The principle of Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist is freedom. Am I free? His body was stiff. Both arms felt slow, as if blocked by something. His eyes? His mind?

‘Freedom? How?’

He wasn’t wildly swinging punches alone. He had even been told beforehand how the attack would come. Yet he was still bound.

Could one be free even in real combat where life and death crossed?

[Stand on the ground and look at the sky. A cloud-filled sky seems terribly low. Climb into the sky and stand among the clouds. The ground remains far below, and the sky is never low.]

The same scenery changes depending on where and how you see it.

‘Ah.’

The first thing bound was his eyes. Eyes bewildered by chaotic changes. He was only watching the fists. That was wrong. What Yuri faced wasn’t fists but a person.

See the whole. Beyond the fists—forearms, shoulders, chest, waist, knees, feet, and gaze. That information connected together inside Yuri’s head.

‘The sky is space.’

The gap where fists moved was the sky of Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist. This sky widened or narrowed depending on how Yuri moved.

‘Freely within my spacing.’

A completely different sensation from skills used by moving mouse and keyboard. Something he had never done, never wanted to try, never thought possible, didn’t even know existed.

Yet why was this unfamiliar thing so enjoyable and thrilling?

“Ha.”

Bakered’s fist lightly touched Yuri’s.

‘I see.’

Now he understood the importance of external training. It only touched lightly now, but if this were a real fight, Yuri’s fist would’ve shattered.

‘We touched, but I lost. No—I died.’

In real combat, that would’ve been it.

“Haha…”

Yuri laughed without realizing.

‘What’s with this kid…?’

Bakered couldn’t laugh. He opened his eyes wide and looked at their touching fists. In real combat, it would’ve ended here. Bakered knew that too, but that wasn’t important right now.

Wind and Clouds Dance of Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist. Bakered wasn’t familiar with it either. He had only studied the manual and copied the form; there was no depth yet. But “Fist Wolf Bakered” was a 6th Rank martial artist. Even just copying the form today, his understanding of martial arts—especially fist arts—had already reached a profound realm.

Try countering with Floating Clouds drift. He had said that, but he hadn’t expected Yuri could actually do it. He wasn’t doing this to torment him.

A master personally lowering his strength and facing you with only forms. He thought that simply experiencing it would surely allow Yuri to gain something.

But this kid gained far too much.

Failing to read, failing to discern, failing to predict—those were only natural.

‘He read it.’

Not perfectly. But he roughly read the changing trajectory. Before it touched his body, he blocked the fist with his own. If this were real combat, it meant he gave up the fist but avoided death.

“Huh… huhuhu.”

Bakered let out a belated chuckle. He felt a cold sweat run down his spine. A guy who had only entered martial arts just yesterday…

‘At the end he even mixed in footwork.’

Yesterday.

While practicing Floating Clouds drift, he had seen him deploy footwork on his own. He had wondered whether he could use it even during sparring…

‘He actually did it.’

It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered testing him, but he hadn’t expected much.

Which made the shock he felt now even greater.

‘It’s different from Storm-wind Steps. But the essence is the same. Purely—added because it was necessary—footwork.’

After staring at their touching fists for a moment, Bakered gave a small nod and withdrew his fist.

“Yuri.”
“Yes?”

Yuri, who had been grinning, hurriedly straightened his expression.

‘He’s not going to scold me for grinning like an idiot, right.’

After touching it, he understood. If he got hit by one of Bakered’s fists, it would hurt like hell.

“If you use all the forms of Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist to deal with my punches, I’ll give you a gift.”

“A gift?”

“Yes. Don’t ask what it is.”

Grinning, Bakered stepped back a few paces and raised his fists again like before.

“Let’s try again. I’ll attack with Wind and Clouds Dance—”

“I’ll counter with Floating Clouds drift.”

Even without knowing what it was, the word gift made his heart flutter. For Yuri, who had lost his parents young and rarely received gifts in his life, it was even more so.

The fists drifted like clouds.

*

*

There’s a song that was popular a few years ago about how twenty-four hours aren’t enough.

It’s about time passing too quickly with a lover, making a day feel short, but for Yuri, twenty-four hours weren’t enough because there was simply too much to do.

Wake early every morning and circulate energy.
Prepare Elena’s breakfast.
External body training.
Fist training.
Sparring with Bakered.
External training again.
Prepare Elena’s dinner.
Fist training.
Review the sparring and meditate.
Energy circulation.

Elena insisted she could handle her own meals, but Yuri stubbornly prepared breakfast and dinner. Making meals didn’t take long or require much effort.

And simply eating together with Elena was enjoyable.

“The results are quick, as much as you work hard.”

While Elena was at the Magic Tower, Haryeong, who said she had spare time, also came every day for a short while to watch Yuri’s external training.

“You’ve gained quite a bit of muscle too.”
“Please stop watching.”
“Someone would think you’re stripping naked or something. It’s not like you’ll wear out from being seen. Why are you so bothered? I’m not even watching the Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist.”
“It bothers me.”
“I’m fine, so you don’t need to worry. Now, thirty seconds passed. Again, one, two…”

The cold and fearsome assassin truly had no blood or tears. Training external conditioning to her counts, noon would arrive, and Bakered would come.

“Then I’ll be off.”

After Haryeong left, he unfolded the forms of Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist in front of Bakered.

“Your shoulders are stiff.”
“I did shoulder exercises earlier.”
“Stop talking nonsense and relax.”

After Yuri performed the forms, it was Bakered’s turn.

“Your shoulders are stiff.”
“…”
“Not stiff—just muscles.”

After watching Bakered’s forms and reviewing his own, they sparred.

“Wind and Clouds Dance into Thundercloud Dragon Fang.”
“I’ll counter with Dark Clouds Swallow the Moon.”
“Why not use Floating Clouds drift?”
“Why?”
“You’re bad at Dark Clouds Swallow the Moon.”
“I improved since yesterday. Maybe today I’ll finally get that gift.”
“You’ve only improved your nonsense.”

Before Elena returned, he washed up, prepared dinner, and ate together.

In his room he refined the fist art again, reviewed, meditated, circulated energy.

Collapsed into bed and slept like passing out.

He lived like that for a month, though not every single day. They said overworking the body wasn’t good, so one day a week he rested fully.

On those days Yuri went out alone and wandered the city. Ate alone, looked around shops, walked the streets.

He visited the library several times and stayed for long hours.

He also learned about the tragedy that overturned Sairan twenty years ago.

‘The Laspion Tragedy.’

An old prestigious family massacred overnight, their family’s secret sword art lost. Even after twenty years, the culprit hadn’t been revealed.

Only suspicions remained—three people, and perhaps it was the work of possessed ones.

‘Sword, magic, spear…’

Common things in this world.

‘Only Bakered survived.’

The game and reality are different.

In the game, to enter the hidden field of the Laspion family, you needed the emblem that Bakered dropped by probability.

But in reality, the Laspion family wasn’t any hidden field. Even without an emblem, if you had the strength, you could simply barge in.

‘Could it be FS?’

FUCKINGSEXY.

Among the possessed Yuri knew, the only one who used the Laspion secret sword style as a main skill was FS. But that didn’t mean he could be certain FS was the one who massacred the Laspion family twenty years ago.

The Laspion secret sword style was famous in the community as a high-value skill, so another possessed could easily have done it.

‘If it was FS…’

If it were Chuk Shin-do, who openly went around with his name exposed, wouldn’t he know something? If FS was the culprit who annihilated the prestigious sword family Laspion and even had companions… maybe he’d had contact with Chuk Shin-do.

There was no way to confirm.

Bakered remained in Lutran to spar with Chuk Shin-do.
He hid that he was the Laspion family’s illegitimate child.
The spar was Bakered’s personal desire, unrelated to the family.

Yuri stopped making hasty guesses. If he ever needed to uncover the truth—then, once he had sufficient strength, he could just ask Chuk Shin-do.

‘But seriously, is that bastard even coming?’

Elena said he might be coming as a guest of the Ascad family, but someone who hadn’t even set a date—was he really coming at all?

The promised month of training passed. But Bakered showed up the next day as if it were obvious.

“Full Moon Play hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Seems like you really want to give me that gift somehow.”
“Don’t want it?”
“No way.”

Twenty-four hours aren’t enough.

Lyrics he couldn’t quite sing circled endlessly in his head.

“Yuri.”

That evening at the dinner table. Elena, whose expression had been stiff ever since returning home, cautiously opened her lips.

“Let’s go out together tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“The Tower Master wants to see you once.”

What now.