Divine Lord Yama opened the Ledger of Slaughter.
Then he took out a small vessel of blood, dipped his brush into it, and wrote my name beside Extreme Evil Soma’s.
The look in Divine Lord Yama’s eyes, which earlier had made him seem half out of his mind, changed. It seemed as though he had returned to normal, and yet it also seemed like the gaze of a man who had gone completely mad.
“Since our names are written side by side, I suppose we’ll die together as well.”
At my words, Extreme Evil Soma laughed.
Seeing our composure, the eldest of the Three Lords of the Blood Road, who had been examining the Blissful Enchantress’s corpse, roared.
“You bastards! Don’t laugh!”
He rose from where he stood and glared coldly at me.
“The Enchantress has never once failed in her soul-bewitching arts. So what happened?”
“It seems Elder Sister saw that this younger brother’s inner force was lacking and wished to add to it.”
“Enough of your nonsense!”
He was truly enraged. And I could feel it. That anger was deeply personal. It seemed the second and third of the Three Lords of the Blood Road really had been supposed to call the Blissful Enchantress sister-in-law.
The eldest looked at Extreme Evil Soma and said,
“You knew. You knew that Second Young Master would not fall to her.”
Of course Extreme Evil Soma had trusted me.
Extreme Evil Soma looked at me. Our gazes tangled in midair as we exchanged transmitted voices.
—Now confess with that mouth of yours. Say that I killed the Soul-Bewitching Demon Venerable.
—No such thing happened.
—Someday I’ll hear it from you.
Extreme Evil Soma’s eyes were smiling within the eyeholes of his mask. Seeing us calmly looking at each other and smiling, the eldest of the Three Lords of the Blood Road revealed his fury.
“Fine, laugh. Laugh like that even as you go to hell.”
I said to the eldest of the Three Lords of the Blood Road,
“Did that man tell you this before driving you all to your deaths? That Lord Soma and I killed the Sword Emperor Baek Manggi.”
“What?”
Not only the eldest, but the other villains there were also startled. They knew there was no guarantee they could kill the Sword Emperor Baek Manggi even if they attacked him together. And now even the Blissful Enchantress was dead.
“That man probably never believed you could kill us. He merely used you to wound us or exhaust our inner force.”
The remaining ones looked at one another. This time, I did not give them a chance to form a plan through transmitted voices.
I said to Blood Wolf Saber,
“Blood Wolf Saber, a life-and-death duel.”
I returned to him the exact words he had spoken to Extreme Evil Soma earlier.
“You said you spent your whole life wandering in search of the strong, didn’t you? Well, the man you were looking for has come.”
As I drew the Black Demon Sword, I said to Extreme Evil Soma,
“Please kill anyone who interferes with this spar.”
Originally, this should have been a fight I yielded to Extreme Evil Soma. But now was a situation where no variables could be permitted. We had to deal with them without taking injuries if possible, then leave this place. The true enemy was waiting for us outside.
Extreme Evil Soma also guessed my intent, so he willingly yielded this fight to me.
“I will.”
There were still four left besides Blood Wolf Saber, yet Extreme Evil Soma answered with confidence.
If anything, the one most flustered in this situation was Blood Wolf Saber. After seeing me reverse-absorb the Blissful Enchantress’s inner force, he must have felt fear deep down. The momentum was in my favor. I pressed him even harder.
“If you had truly set out in search of the strong, could you have remained alive until now? If that was truly your heart, why didn’t you go find the Murim Alliance Leader? Why didn’t you come find my father?”
“……”
“You don’t want to fight me, do you? And yet your whole life, you forced duels on people who didn’t want to fight. Now, suffer the same yourself.”
The moment I finished speaking, I charged toward Blood Wolf Saber.
Blood Wolf Saber drew his straight saber.
Though he had been suppressed in momentum at the start of the fight, Blood Wolf Saber was not a man with a false reputation. His saber art was fast, precise, and powerful.
His saber came flying in with enough force to break my sword.
When sword and saber clashed, there was no ringing clang, but thunderous booms. Inner force was infused into both sword and saber, turning it into a contest of internal power. The shame of having been struck at his sore spot rode upon his saber.
He hammered, and hammered, and hammered again.
He pressed me like a madman. If it had been any other martial artist, their sword would already have broken, or their wrist would have snapped.
But I blocked, and blocked, and blocked again.
Beyond the colliding sword and saber, I saw his expression change from moment to moment. The composure he had shown at the start, when he thought he had seized the initiative, gradually turned into impatience. His wrist was likely beginning to ache.
Now, slowly, our positions began to change.
I became the one hammering. The Black Demon Sword began to strike down on his saber. It was not a contest of dazzling techniques, but the very contest of inner force he had intended, and I drove him into it.
Because I struck down with my sword so quickly, he could not dodge, nor could he unleash another technique.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Just then, amid the heavy impacts, a wretched scream mingled with the blows.
“Kuaaaargh!”
His wrist, overpowered in inner force, had broken.
But my sword did not stop.
On the next move, his saber, unable to receive inner force, broke, and on the move after that, his body was cut in a long vertical line.
“Wasn’t this the life you wanted? To die fighting someone stronger.”
But I saw it. The resentment and regret reflected in his eyes at the final moment. Yes, words were easy, but truly living such a life could not have been easy.
Blood Wolf Saber toppled forward as blood sprayed in a straight line from the crown of his head to his navel. He had spent his whole life forcing duels on others, and in the end, he died by receiving back the very method he had used.
Divine Lord Yama and the Three Lords of the Blood Road watched this in silence. It was partly because of Extreme Evil Soma, but also because they had found no chance to interfere in this brute-force contest.
They likely had not expected Blood Wolf Saber to lose to me. After all, a head-on contest of inner force was Blood Wolf Saber’s specialty.
I said again to Divine Lord Yama,
“Did you write it down? Blood Wolf Saber’s name too?”
Blood Wolf Saber had died before his eyes, but he was not frightened in the least.
“After writing your name, there wasn’t enough space, so I couldn’t.”
When he stepped toward me, the eldest of the Three Lords of the Blood Road stopped him.
“Madman. Your opponent is over there.”
The eldest of the Three Lords of the Blood Road intended to kill me and avenge the Blissful Enchantress.
With my blood-dripping sword lowered, I walked toward them. Naturally, Extreme Evil Soma faced Divine Lord Yama.
“Did you write your own name in advance?”
At Extreme Evil Soma’s question, Divine Lord Yama shouted in a ringing voice,
“I am the envoy sent by the King of Hell. The King of Hell seeks you!”
Puaang! Kwaang!
Divine Lord Yama’s palm strike collided with Extreme Evil Soma’s Demonic Extreme Berserk Palm.
The aftermath sent a fierce wind rushing over us, and my fight with the Three Lords of the Blood Road began as well.
The three men charged at me at the same time.
The eldest’s sword aimed for my face, the second’s for my chest, and the third’s for my legs.
Clang! Clang! Claang!
I knocked away the incoming swords almost simultaneously. I was fast. No, I had to be fast. Their attacks were at a speed where, if I was not fast, some part of me would inevitably be pierced.
The directions of their thrusts kept changing. This time the eldest aimed for my chest, the second for my stomach, and the third for my face. The next time, it changed again.
It seemed their order of attack had already been set through dozens, hundreds of practices and experiences. This combined assault was perfect, having thoroughly studied the opponent’s mind. Truly, if it had not been me, I would have been stabbed several times by this merciless attack.
Clangclangclangclangclang!
I was continuously pushed back as I knocked away their attacks.
Then, seizing an opening, I attacked.
When the Black Demon Sword stabbed toward the eldest, the second joined in defending, while the third thrust at me.
Because they had fought together all their lives, though their bodies were three, they fought as if their minds were one. It was like fighting a monster with three heads and six arms. They were far more difficult opponents than Blood Wolf Saber, whom I had fought earlier. I was certain. Of the four villains who had come today, they were the most troublesome to face.
Four swords wove together, moving above and below. An exchange continued in which not even an inch of error was allowed.
I had no intention of dragging this fight out. That was why I thought of one method I had never used until now.
At the very moment they were pressing me—
Ssssst.
The startled second hurriedly looked around. The eldest and third had suddenly vanished, and he was standing alone with me in a field.
Through the Space-Time Transposition Art, I had moved only the second to a new space.
To the eyes of the eldest and third left behind, our forms must have vanished in an instant.
The second shouted at me,
“Is this an illusion art? Cowardly!”
“Well, by your standards, I suppose one-on-one is cowardly.”
I charged toward him. Even the three of them together had failed to kill me; alone, he could not possibly face me.
Outside, the eldest and third were looking around in shock.
If only their opponent had disappeared, that would have been one thing, but even the second had vanished with me.
At that moment, the second’s corpse appeared as if dropping from thin air. The instant the third was flustered by the corpse that had suddenly appeared before his eyes—
Swish! Thunk!
The Black Demon Sword pierced through the corpse’s armpit and stabbed into the third’s heart. Considering their skill, it was an utterly empty death, but their opponent was none other than me, who had incorporated the Space-Time Transposition Art into actual combat.
Without even letting out a single scream, the third also collapsed.
I thought the eldest would lose his reason and charge in like a madman.
But what he chose was escape. He tried to break through one wall of the inn and flee, but in a flash, I blocked his path with Flicker Step.
Startled, he turned again and fled. He threw the Blissful Enchantress’s corpse, which lay on the floor, at me. He had intended to kill me to avenge her, and yet—
“No matter how urgent it is, that’s not right, is it?”
“Shut up, you bastard!”
As though he judged the fight had already turned against him, he went berserk in order to live. He shouted and swung his sword like a madman. But there was no way such struggles would work.
Before even five moves had passed—
Thuk!
The Black Demon Sword pierced his heart, and even faster than that, cut off his wrist.
Thud.
In the fallen hand was a pouch. It was a poison pouch he had meant to scatter at me. The instant he was stabbed by my sword, he had tried to spray poison at me and perish together.
I had known from the start that they were such vicious men. I simply thought their end had come far too late. After committing all manner of evil their entire lives, they only died now, in their later years. If I had not regressed, they would not even have died here.
Isn’t this too unfair? That is why everyone laments that even the heavens are indifferent.
When my fight ended, Extreme Evil Soma’s fight had ended as well.
Divine Lord Yama was already dead, his forehead pierced by the Blood Calamity Finger, his face buried in his own ledger. The blood flowing out soaked his Ledger of Slaughter.
“You spent your whole life pretending to be the envoy of the King of Hell, but when the King of Hell actually sees you, he’ll say this: Who are you? When did I ever send you?”
At my words, Extreme Evil Soma laughed and asked,
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine. What about you, Lord Soma?”
“I’m fine as well.”
Though it might have seemed we had won easily, in truth, they were powerful enemies against whom it would not have been strange if either of us had died.
But we handled it well, and once again passed safely through a crisis. With him, unintentionally, I kept crossing the boundaries of life and death like this.
“Your skills have improved again while I wasn’t watching. Just how strong do you intend to become?”
“I intend to go all the way to the end.”
“If you learn the Nine Flames Demonic Art on top of this, there will be no one under heaven who can face you.”
I truly hoped so. Truly, sincerely, I hoped no one would be my match.
Before going outside, I placed money on the counter at the entrance of the inn. It was enough to repair the damaged inn and buy new furnishings. It was money for the innkeeper, who must have fled somewhere. What happened today had likely been forced upon him.
“Now, this sight no longer seems strange.”
“As you know, the demonic path I pursue is a demonic path that does not break tables.”
“Do you believe we can become good people, Second Young Master?”
“I do not wish for us to become good people.”
“Then?”
“I am trying to uphold at least what must be upheld. Shouldn’t we at least become human first, and only above that can there be the demonic path, the orthodox path, or the heretical path? That is all I want.”
Extreme Evil Soma stared at me silently for a moment. I could not know what thoughts he was looking at me with, but at the very least, it was certain that he was gradually becoming accustomed to the person I was.
“Let’s go out.”
“Let’s.”
Together, we walked out of the inn.
Outside, there were no passersby at all. The street was truly empty.
Before us stood a man wearing a white mask.
He was merely standing there, yet I felt an overwhelming presence from him. A presence no less than that of the Sword Emperor Baek Manggi.
I could tell. This man was the fake who had impersonated Extreme Evil Soma, and at the same time, the mastermind behind this trap.
“Have you forgotten your manners now that you’ve been associating with those of the demonic path?”
Extreme Evil Soma stared at him for a moment with complicated eyes, then spoke in a calm tone.
“I greet Senior Martial Uncle.”
He was someone I also knew. He was Liang Qiji, the senior disciple-brother of Extreme Evil Soma’s master. Before my regression, when I had formed a connection with Extreme Evil Soma, he had once told me about this senior martial uncle.
Liang Qiji spoke to Extreme Evil Soma in a commanding tone.
“Take off your mask.”