Gwilyeongja silently stared at the late-night visitor.
As the master of Gwimun who had traversed Dosan Geomrim, he had faced intruders many times.
They were of many sorts. Men of great vigor, meticulous men, skilled fighters, men adept at schemes, and occasionally even men who possessed great vigor, were meticulous, fought well, and were adept at schemes. Of course, even they could not leave this estate alive.
But the man before him was different from the intruders he had faced until now.
Gazing into those exhausted eyes that had tasted every bitter flavor of life, only one thought arose.
'Damn, is today the day I die?'
Gwilyeongja hid his anxiety and asked calmly.
"Have we met?"
"No."
The man's voice was low and truly pleasant to the ear.
"Then what business brings you here at this hour?"
Please, let those fine lips not utter the words, "Today is a good day to die, you ghost bastard"!
"I have come with a request."
Gwilyeongja, feeling as though he had been pushed to the gates of hell and back, asked with inward relief.
"Speak."
And then, from the man's mouth flowed a request more astonishing than any he had heard in his entire life.
"Send me to the past."
A moment of silence fell.
Gwilyeongja, who had been observing his counterpart with a subtle gaze, asked in a low voice.
"How can a human defy time?"
"That I do not know. You, the only one in this world capable of performing the Grand Regression Technique, must tell me."
Gwilyeongja did not deny the fact.
"How did you know I am capable of performing it?"
The Grand Regression Technique was a secret art passed down in strict secrecy only within his clan.
"Seojin."
At the yearned-for name, Gwilyeongja was overcome by emotion.
"How do you know my younger sibling?"
"We were comrades in my wanderer days."
"Where is she now?"
"Dead."
"Ah!"
Gwilyeongja let out a deep sigh. The Grand Regression Technique had been researched and handed down in his clan for hundreds of years. Since it had remained incomplete even in his father's generation, he and his younger sister had aided their father since childhood, striving to complete the Grand Regression Technique.
And ten years ago, unable to endure any longer, his sister had left the clan, almost like a fugitive fleeing in the night. Gwilyeongja understood his sister. Under the false name of the clan's great undertaking, she had devoted her blooming twenties entirely to research.
"How did Jin die?"
"I have already avenged her, so you need not concern yourself. Before she died, she asked me to deliver this message to you: that she lived a life without regrets. That she hoped her elder brother would do the same. Not to live a life devoted solely to the Grand Regression Technique, but to live his own life."
Gwilyeongja fell into deep regret.
The man waited until he had collected his emotions before posing today's most important question.
"Have you completed the Grand Regression Technique?"
Gwilyeongja slowly nodded.
"Indeed. It has finally been completed in my generation."
In that instant, joy flashed across the man's face. When he broke into a bright smile, it was plain to see that he was quite the handsome, amiable sort.
"How far back can I go?"
"That cannot be determined. You might go back ten years, or thirty. You might return to when you were a baby, or if your luck is poor, even to yesterday."
"I am rather fortunate, so I shall not worry."
"You think you can return at once."
A bitter smile crossed Gwilyeongja's face.
"The Grand Regression Technique is impossible. Had it been possible, I would have already gone back."
"Did you not say you had completed it?"
"I was unable to obtain all the necessary ingredients."
"I shall procure them."
"It is impossible."
"Tell me."
"Of the ninety-nine ingredients required for the Grand Regression Technique, there are five I ultimately could not obtain. Even the first is absolutely unobtainable. Have you heard of the Eumroe Bell?"
"The divine artifact of the Pungcheon Cult?"
"Exactly. That is the one."
The Pungcheon Cult was the successor to the Blood Cult and possessed the greatest power in the land beyond.
"To perform the Grand Regression Technique, the sound waves produced when the Eumroe Bell rings are needed. However, the Eumroe Bell is a treasure of the Pungcheon Cult, placed behind the cult leader's throne. Even so, do you claim you can bring it?"
Gwilyeongja had not even dared ask to borrow the Eumroe Bell. To do so would mean the annihilation of his clan at the hands of that foul-tempered Pungcheon Cult leader.
"I shall procure it."
With a resolute reply, the man turned around without even time to be stopped and left the place.
"Is this man mad?"
That is what Gwilyeongja thought at the time, regretting that he had not been able to ask more about his sister.
The man returned years later.
One sleepless night, while lying awake tormented by insomnia, the man—who had vanished like a midsummer night's dream—appeared before Gwilyeongja once more.
He was shouldering an enormous Eumroe Bell on his back. The demons carved upon the bell looked even more hideous, as if enraged by the long journey from the land beyond to this place.
"Shall I strike it once?"
Gwilyeongja examined and re-examined the Eumroe Bell with wide eyes.
"Incredible! Ahh! Incredible!"
Although difficult to believe, this was a genuine Eumroe Bell through which the blood qi of the Blood Cult faintly flowed.
"Such madness! How in the world did you obtain this?"
"I am a man who does what he says. What is the next ingredient?"
The man's composed yet confident gaze showed that his bold declaration was no mere boast.
'He is no ordinary man.'
But Gwilyeongja soon sighed.
"Even though you have fortuitously brought the divine artifact of the Pungcheon Cult, the next ingredient is something you cannot obtain."
"What is it?"
"It is the Sino Hyangno, the divine artifact of Sinryongga. The Grand Regression Technique requires the incense that arises from the Sino Hyangno."
Sinryongga.
It was the symbol of the newly risen Righteous faction after the Sealing of the Murim Alliance, and the clan possessing the greatest power. A force known to be even stronger than the Pungcheon Cult.
"Understood. I shall hear of the third ingredient after I have brought the incense burner."
"You mean to leave the Eumroe Bell in my care? What if I run away with it?"
"I shall inform the Pungcheon Cult that you fled with the bell."
After leaving words that amounted to "try it if you dare," the man busily departed the place.
And time flowed on once more.
—Would he really bring it this year?
The doubt that arose each time the year changed. After that doubt had repeated some five or six times, one autumn, the man returned with the Sino Hyangno.
"You truly brought it!"
Gwilyeongja could not believe it even as he looked directly at the Sino Hyangno.
"How on earth were you able to obtain it?"
"Were it written out in full, it would fill some five or six volumes."
"Tell me. I would read ten volumes. I am curious!"
"There is no time for that."
What enabled this man to turn the impossible into the possible? With such ability, he could live well enough in this life. And yet, to think he wanted to go back so badly...
"Is your reason for going back revenge?"
"It is."
"With your skill, would revenge not be possible even in this life?"
"It is impossible."
"Then who on earth is your enemy?"
A name flowed from the man's lips.
"Hwamugi."
"Ugh!"
The name that made a groan burst from Gwilyeongja's lips.
Hwamugi.
He possessed two aliases. The first was Sambong. An alias befitting a venerable scholar of profound learning and skill. But the 'bong' in his Sambong was not the 'bong' of a mountain peak. Nor was it the 'bong' of obeisance. Hwamugi's 'bong' was the 'bong' of sealing.
Jeongdo Murimmaeng, sealed.
Sado Yeonmaeng, sealed.
Cheonma Singyo, sealed.
The leaders of the three greatest powers supporting the martial world had all died by his hand. The Murim Alliance Leader had died, the Unorthodox Alliance Leader had died, and the Heavenly Demon had died. Their families and the experts who had refused to surrender had all died as well.
Therefore, his second alias was 'the Greatest of All Ages.'
The Greatest of All Ages, Hwamugi.
The absolute being of this era.
After sealing those three places, Hwamugi declared his own estate the 'Number One Under Heaven Alliance,' and thousands of experts who revered him gathered to his side. People called him, who had achieved the unification of the martial world, the 'Immortal Martial God.'
"Good heavens! Even with regression, he is an opponent you cannot defeat!"
"I will kill him without fail."
"How? He is the greatest martial genius to appear since the inception of the martial world."
"I, too, grew up hearing myself called a genius."
"He possesses the Heavenly Martial Body, granted by the heavens!"
"I, too, possess the Heavenly Martial Body."
"What? Who on earth are you?"
"The Heavenly Demon, who died by his hand, was my father."
"!"
At the man's words, Gwilyeongja received a great shock. He had never dreamed that this man was the son of the deceased Heavenly Demon.
Only now did Gwilyeongja understand what the man had accomplished earlier. He had known the man was no ordinary person, but to think he possessed such status.
"Then how did you survive?"
At that, the man undid his robe. The scar left upon his chest was so fatal that Gwilyeongja nearly cried out, "Dear me, are you not a ghost?"
"When I opened my eyes, I was in a pile of corpses. I crawled out from there just before being buried alive."
"I see."
"The reason I cannot forgive Hwamugi is not because he tried to kill me. Nor because he killed my father, nor because he killed my treacherous elder brother. What does it matter to die by another's hand when one lives a life branded as demonic?"
"Then?"
"That day, Hwamugi killed everyone. The servant women who knew no martial arts, the skilled hands, even the children. He even killed every dog and cat he had raised. He annihilated every living thing before his eyes."
"A lie! I cannot believe it."
"It is no concern of mine whether you believe me or not."
Gwilyeongja could feel that the man's words were true. The man he had observed until now was not one to lie about such things.
"What kind of person he is no longer matters. In truth, he may be a great hero with grand ambitions. To some, he may be applauded for rooting out the demonic cult. But to me, Hwamugi is merely the enemy who killed my family, a cold-blooded man without a shred of mercy. No matter how much I calculate, I cannot kill him in this era. Therefore, I must go back and kill him. I must ask him before I kill him: why did someone as strong as you have to kill even the children?"
Gwilyeongja stared at the man with a dazed expression. He had never dreamed that the man harbored such a story.
The man placed his hand upon his own chest.
"That day, my guard died with a hole pierced through him here as he tried to protect me. A friend who had never once properly kept a friend, let alone taken a wife. Guarding me day and night, you see. So, do not waste any more of my precious time and tell me. What is the third ingredient?"
"You truly are..."
"A busy man. So, the next ingredient!"
Gwilyeongja let out the deepest sigh he had heaved since meeting the man.
"No matter who you are, this time you cannot bring it."
"What is it?"
"The inner core of the Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp. The last recorded sighting of a Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp was three hundred years ago. It may no longer exist in this world."
"A damnable technique, indeed. Shall I simply cut you down right here?"
"Please restrain yourself."
"I must restrain myself. After all, look how far I have come. Wait for me. This time, it may take quite a while."
"I say! Do you think a Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp will simply bite the hook the moment you cast a line?"
"It is a carp, is it not? It must be in some body of water in this world. Wait for me. I shall certainly obtain it."
Watching his back as he walked toward the impossible, Gwilyeongja realized that stories about his sister, or even the man's name which he still did not know, were no longer so important.