Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Passos Island’s Dianes

Seeding Festival.

The festival, also known as the Demeter 1 Festival, which marked the busy farming season, was also a grand event celebrated on Passos Island.

Therefore, during the Demeter Festival, even the Temple of Zeus would suspend its previously strict curfews and labor duties, giving the children free time to enjoy the festival with the money they had earned while working.

However, it seemed that there would be no such event this year.

“Clean it thoroughly, kids!”

“Isn’t there dust accumulated here? You need to make it shine!”

“Those who haven’t washed yet, speak up quickly! If you get caught later, you won’t even be able to give me excuses anymore!”

Like a military unit that heard the news of the commander’s arrival, the priests also rolled up their sleeves and cleaned the temple, and the children also had to busy their hands without a moment to enjoy the festival.

“Hey, hey, Dianes. Did you hear that story?”

“What is it, Talus?”

In my past life, I was a Heavenly Demon or whatever. Now I was just one of the ordinary orphans, working hard with my hands, when suddenly, a red-headed kid clung to my side.

That kid’s name was Talus.

He often liked to boast that he was the son of the War God Ares, and his self-praise wasn’t entirely unfounded, as he had quite a knack for fighting.

When I first came to this temple, he and his gang tried to intimidate me but ended up in a mess.

Maybe he changed his approach after that, as he occasionally came to me, busy boasting about this and that.

He claimed to be the son of Ares and a prince from a distant kingdom.

And that soon his servants would come to escort him.

They were picking on me for being an orphan with no connections, but honestly, no matter how much this kid acted up, to someone like me who had rolled through the history of thousands of years of warfare in the martial world of the Central Plains, it was just cute.

“So, what’s the matter today?”

“Hehe... Don’t you know? Why everyone is so busy?”

This punk must have sneaked into the high priest’s room and eavesdropped again.

Judging by his actions, he seemed more like the son of a Thief God than a War God.

“What’s got you so excited? If you’re not going to tell me, then stop bothering me and get lost.”

“Ugh...! You’ll regret treating me like this later! When Master Chiron arrives at the festival...!”

“Chiron?”

Even though the period I lived as the Heavenly Demon in the Murim world of China was significantly longer than my time on Earth, my first life on Earth had not faded from my memory.

And even in that distant memory, the knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology, which I had often glanced at, was quite helpful at times like this.

Chiron.

A centaur, a race that was half-human and half-horse, unlike the usual members of their kind, was well-versed in knowledge and highly skilled in martial arts, raising numerous heroes and being remembered as the mentor of heroes.

Was such a great figure coming all the way here?

“Hmph! No doubt he’s coming to take me, the son of Ares! Just wait. When I become a hero at Chiron Academy, I’ll make sure that arrogant...”

“Thanks for the valuable information.”

In an instant, I sealed Talus’s pressure point, shutting his noisy mouth, and kicked his butt.

I thought about Chiron.

A centaur, a descendant of Kronos, the God of Time and the former king of the Titans, and the mentor of many heroes.

That was as far as I could clearly remember.

In the original myth, I wondered if there was a story about that half-human, half-horse coming this far, but nothing came to mind. While I was spacing out, I stopped my hand and got a light knock on the head for no reason.

Thus, as the day’s tasks roughly came to an end and the crescent moon rose in the night, I carefully sneaked out of the room where the other kids were sleeping and grabbed a wooden sword.

In my head, there were countless martial arts forms, regardless of being orthodox or unorthodox, but whatever the martial art, it was best to train during the early dawn when the energy of the heavens and earth was the most refined and pure.

Especially since the body of a child had fewer impurities in the blood and qi pathways, and the muscles and bones were still growing, training with this clear qi would undoubtedly speed up the recovery of my past life’s accomplishments.

I never skipped dawn training for a single day.

-Woong!

“I said stay still.”

Although I had become a feeble little kid now, I was once capable of creating a spirit guardian with just my demonic qi and had shown the pinnacle of internal qi.

Suppressing the qi contained in such an arrow was no problem at all for me.

When I drew my energy from my dantian and infused it into the arrow, the moonlight-like qi contained within the arrow raged.

I thought about extinguishing it right away, but somehow, it felt like a waste.

“With such pure energy...”

Given that my own qi was already insufficient, wasting such refined qi, which was within my grasp, seemed like a shame.

“Come. Come to me.”

Following the profound principles of the Martial Spirit Divine Art, I slowly enveloped the qi contained in the arrow and drew it into my body.

True to the Martial Spirit Divine Art, which embraces both Demonic Arts and Justice Arts, I could easily guide the unfamiliar qi and slowly transfer it into my qi meridians.

The qi that entered my body tried to twist my innate qi and blood.

But that struggle was quickly bound by the Unification Demonic Arts, I operated and slowly pulled into one side of my dantian.

“Phew... I’ll digest this slowly later... Now let’s see.”

The arrow in my hand no longer shone as beautifully as before since the qi had dissipated, but it was still incredibly beautiful, as if it had been crafted by melting moonlight into an arrow.

Even in the past, when I reigned as the Heavenly Demon, the God of Ten Thousand Mountains, countless rare tributes pleased my eyes and ears, but this arrow was one of the most beautiful among those I saw there.

“...Truly in the realm of divine craftsmanship.”

As I quietly looked at the arrow, a familiar sharp qi once again targeted and rushed at my back.

-Shhwoook!

There was a hint of malice in the arrow this time, as if angered by the first one being blocked, making my skin prickle.

“Tsk, I wondered if it was done by mistake.”

But a master capable of imbuing such qi into an arrow wouldn’t confuse their target.

-Thwack!

The swiftly swung arrow accurately deflected the incoming one.

“Ugh... As expected, my body still can’t keep up...”

Since it was made of the same material, the arrow didn’t break as easily as the wooden sword from before, and it could be blocked with a bit of internal qi.

However, my still-growing body couldn’t handle the force, and my bones cracked.

“Tsk... With a day’s rest, this should heal, but do you have more?”

A presence subtly appeared from the direction the arrow came.

It must be the one who shot the arrows at me.

I moved my hand to fix the broken bone and aimed the arrow at the sound of footsteps.

-Rustle!

“It seems like you are not an ordinary person... Why did you shoot an arrow without warning?”

As I infused qi into the arrow and stayed alert, the culprit hiding in the forest shadows slowly revealed himself.

“Hmph...!”