Chapter 973: It’s Me, You Fuckers (9)

In Qing’s mind’s eye, fragmentary images of extreme destruction kept flashing past—clouds blooming into mushroom shapes and the like.

At the same time, she clutched her head and rolled left, then rolled right, and without meaning to, a KYYAAAAH scream leaked out of her mouth—

Right in that moment.

Ximen Surin stared blankly down at her own fist.

Because the fist that had struck her disciple’s iron head was throbbing with a dull ache.

It was backlash from colliding with her disciple’s protective aura.

Protective aura—what was it?

A protective aura was the skill of perceiving an incoming attack through senses like sight, recognizing it with the mind, identifying where it would land, and then concentrating internal energy there to reduce bodily damage.

But in a battle where killing intent flew past in split instants, that whole sequence was far too long. Even if you responded with superb senses and a brilliant mind, the fatigue was overwhelming.

So, after countless sects obsessed over improving it, they discovered something astonishing:

Through training, you could omit the entire process.

At the extreme, protective aura no longer needed the mind at all. Body and energy moved on their own through instinctive reaction.

The completion of the Protective Meridian.

And Qing had previously completed the Protective Meridian in exchange for humiliation, so the fluttering, semi-transparent scraps of cloth that showed everything were still Qing’s favorite sleepwear—her absolute favorite nightgown, apparently.

So when that vicious fist fell and drilled into Qing’s head, her Protective Meridian activated on its own. Energy surged, wrapped her brain, and bound her skull tight.

In that moment, Qing’s “eternally cold iron” head evolved into a super-premium “refined sky iron” head.

No matter how much Ximen Surin’s fist was a nuclear fist, it still had to challenge refined sky iron—burned as it fell, impurities incinerated, self-refined.

So it couldn’t come out as unscathed as before.

At this level, she should be at the end of Harmonization—full completion of the Harmonization Realm, or somewhere near it.

Good heavens. How long had it even been since she reached the Harmonization Realm, and she was already at its edge?

Her disciple’s achievements had surged.

As a master, how could Ximen Surin not feel proud?

And once she felt that, a lot of the irritation drained away too.

Her disciple’s behavior—actually gathering all of the Ten Great Demonic Arts—was infuriating beyond measure, but in a way, it was also... inevitable.

Back when she was ignorant about Murim and picked up anything and ate it, maybe.

But once she had a righteous great elder as her master, she would’ve realized she couldn’t just learn other righteous sects’ martial arts indiscriminately.

And if you excluded righteous martial learning, then most famous heterodox styles were demonic arts anyway.

So maybe her disciple had thought: rather than half-baked junk, wouldn’t it be better to take what had already been “verified,” where infamy was also fame—the world’s Ten Great Demonic Arts...

Ximen Surin was so pleased she automatically started defending her disciple and forcing the logic into place, and she couldn’t help but smile, satisfied—

But.

A master smiling happily while looking down at a disciple rolling around howling in pain?

To anyone else, it was a scene begging to be misunderstood.

Anyway, a little later—

Qing, still teary-eyed, dared to lay her head sideways on her master’s thigh.

Ximen Surin gently stroked that tiny head.

It was a strange behavior that had started appearing naturally after Nuclear Forehead Flicks at some point, but both of them treated it like it was normal now—like it naturally became this posture without either of them even questioning it.

“This brat. Somehow your dramatics grow by the day.”

“It really hurts—ngh.”

“Honestly.”

SMACK.

It was a playful little tap on the swelling bump, but Ximen Surin’s hand had always been viciously heavy.

No. It really hurt...

“Still, you know it, don’t you? Your divine art is not something you can show in front of others.”

“Yes. Probably.”

Qing was thoughtless, but she wasn’t stupid.

The Northern Sea Divine Art and seed-extraction demonic arts were different, but to outsiders, it was all the same.

And even if she tried to explain—My Northern Sea Divine Art isn’t like seed-extraction demonic arts! Mine is the real thing!—it wouldn’t land.

It wasn’t like the case with the Priestess Divine Hand.

Because even if she explained Minor Water Demonic Art as “Priestess Divine Hand,” almost no one truly believed it.

They didn’t truly believe it.

They just got crushed under affection and authority.

To a righteous person, it was far better in every way to say the Heavenly Flower Sword learned the Priestess Divine Hand than to say she learned Minor Water Demonic Art.

So it went roughly like this:

—That’s not Minor Water Demonic Art, right?

—No, it isn’t.

—Good. Keep it up.

To someone who wasn’t righteous?

The Martial Alliance guaranteed it, and Murim’s big shots guaranteed it personally—number one under heaven, the Martial Alliance Leader, the number one woman under heaven.

So if someone said, Don’t scam us. Priestess Divine Hand my ass—it’s just Minor Water Demonic Art—

That was the same as saying they wanted to fight those guarantors.

Even if it was filthy and unfair, what could you do?

All they could do was spit and curse—

Fine. You righteous bastards learn demonic arts and just insist it isn’t. Dirty bastards.

Because, hey.

If you didn’t like it, you should’ve become righteous.

And besides, if the Heavenly Flower Sword had learned Minor Water Demonic Art... so what? Did it change much?

People already said she inherited the martial arts of the Martial Emperor Who Defies Heaven, and that she had the Tathāgata Divine Palm, and that she had the prototype of the Moon Maiden Sword—she already had several divine arts.

One more demonic art on top of that wouldn’t feel uniquely shocking.

But the Northern Sea Divine Art was different.

If she said she could beat even a Transcendent Realm master one-on-one, do you think they’d sit still?

The reason the Blood Cult reacted by spreading not-quite-false rumors was because the Heart-Eating Demon Emperor and the Sword Demon had gotten hit.

And it wasn’t only the Blood Cult that had demonic masters.

Even among the Ten Great Masters, third place was the leader of the dark world. Fifth and sixth were also great demonic masters of the dark world.

And like her master had said—because the dark world specialized in hiding their strength, there was almost certainly at least one Transcendent Realm demonic master who concealed their realm. Even the Alliance believed that.

Of course, even then, it wasn’t really a problem.

Can’t use it in front of others? Then use it in secret.

Use it only on people who deserve to die—and eliminate the witnesses.

But.

“It is good that you understand. Then first... we must clear out the trash. I cannot continue to watch those who dare to act insolent in front of our sect.”

Ximen Surin’s voice turned icy.

Qing didn’t know this yet, but when Ximen Surin was young, she’d been a martial artist called a rabid dog.

Murim’s rabid dog—Mad Dog Ximen Surin.

Then one day she heard her own nickname and, with a deeply satisfied smile, declared:

“A woman can be a rabid dog too. Never look down on women again.”

After that, people started calling her the Female Mad Dog, allegedly.

That was right.

Her brand of insanity was not ordinary insanity.

Of course, Qing didn’t know that legendary epithet, but she knew very well her master wasn’t someone to take lightly.

And the only reason her master had stayed still up until now was because... there had been the chance her disciple really had taken seed-extraction demonic arts.

So she’d been enduring it.

“Um... what are you going to do?”

“We must smash a few of them as examples, so they can never again put such vile slander into their mouths.”

Huh. Didn’t she just say “smash” like that?

“Tsk. There was a time when no man dared raise his head at the mountain gate of the Priestess Order. Disciple, remember this well. Men are a stupid breed who forget and start acting up again unless you beat them down thoroughly at regular intervals.”

“...What?”

“The reason men look down on women is because they believe that even if they mistreat women, they will not be beaten for it. So a powerful woman must step forward, beat the men, and shatter that rotten perception. Men who know they can be beaten by women never treat women lightly.”

“Uh... yes.”

“Good. Always remember this: the women’s standing of the Central Plains rests on your fist.”

If Qing translated “women’s standing” into the language of her hometown, it was basically women’s rights.

So “remember it” meant... go around beating men whenever possible?

“Anyway, you have nothing to worry about. The Alliance will not overlook this either. No one will dare speak your name carelessly.”

Separate from that, Qing’s chest tightened.

It wasn’t like she’d done anything wrong.

And yet—her master, Seolga-nom volunteering so readily, the Martial Alliance people who would naturally step in like it was their own problem...

Of course she was grateful.

But... was it really okay?

What Seolga-nom said—

And yes, she couldn’t deny Seolga-nom’s discernment now—

Anyway, the solution for suppressing this false rumor was to crush it outright with overwhelming force.

Her master included—righteous Murim’s high masters, and even the Martial Alliance itself—would stake their names and release a declaration:

Anyone who keeps running their mouth about the Heavenly Flower Sword—under my name, I will smash you for sure.

No one wanted to make enemies out of more than half of Murim.

So the rumor would be suppressed, at least for now.

But...

It felt like it shouldn’t be done that way.

In the Central Plains, they had the saying “Four Knowings.”

Even if it’s only something the two of us say, heaven hears, earth hears, you hear, and I hear—four knowings.

It meant there were no secrets in this world.

The rumor that she had learned seed-extraction demonic arts was completely false, but to the one being hit, it wouldn’t feel all that different either way.

If the Martial Alliance staked its name and issued a declaration, and later someone found that the Heavenly Flower Sword truly drained internal energy—

What would the righteous Murim think?

They’d say the righteous side covered for a demon who learned evil demonic arts because she was “one of theirs.”

Well... that would be true, but still.

And then they’d go further and claim there must be more righteous martial artists who learned evil demonic arts too.

Righteous Murim’s trust would shatter.

And that wasn’t the only thing that bothered her.

Did the Blood Cult really pull this stunt without anticipating that?

Maybe they were just furious after getting beaten and thought, Fine, we’ll smear your name with filth.

But there could also be a deeper aim.

If she thought that way, then “Shut up unless you want to die” didn’t feel like the best solution.

And besides, people only shut their mouths on the surface. Rumors still spread.

“Only you know.” “Just between us.”

That’s exactly how they spread.

Seolga-nom had already said it—once a rumor spread, it was hopeless.

Because that was what rumors were.

Right.

Rumors were hopeless.

So... haaa, seriously...

Central Plains people.

Got it.

It’s so pathetic I want to die...

Qing wasn’t from the Central Plains.

She wasn’t even from this world—let alone this era.

And in her world, rumors were far more vicious than anything in the Central Plains.

In her hometown, rumors didn’t travel mouth-to-mouth.

They spread as words on a screen—something you could encounter sitting, standing, moving, even while working, even while driving.

And those words on a screen even shattered language barriers.

Qing had lived in a world where the reach of rumor was simply on another level.

Of course, she hadn’t worked in any profession tied to rumors.

But the people of her world consumed countless real cases born from rumor every day.

So it was like they had whole casebooks memorized—examples upon examples of how rumors spread and how they evolved.

This was the power of human civilization.

Any three-year-old knew the obvious common sense:

Human civilization began with the discovery of satellite communication technology.

So for primitives from before civilization to dare wage an opinion war against a civilized person...

They were still four hundred years too early.

Honestly.