Heartless time flowed on, heedless and unstoppable.
The world still belonged to Hwa Mugi. Rumor had it that Hwa Mugi had grown even stronger. Through endless training, he was walking toward the ultimate essence of martial learning.
The ones who governed the Heavenly Alliance were twelve absolute masters among his followers. The world called them the Twelve Zodiac Kings.
An absolute being had unified the martial world, but life did not improve. All manner of injustice ran rampant wherever the Twelve Zodiac Kings were involved. Those who curried favor with them gained fame, and those who defied them lost their lives. If anything, life became harsher than it had been when the world was divided into righteous, unorthodox, and demonic factions.
Meanwhile, the Murim Alliance, the Sado Alliance, and the Demon Cult still could not lift their sealed gates. Everyone said that unless Hwa Mugi died, they would never be able to open them again.
Around the time he began to think the man must have died in some nameless valley, the man returned.
When they had first met, the man had been in the prime of youth, but now he was a middle-aged man with gray at his temples. He exuded a composure far more mature than before, beyond comparison.
He had changed. As though he had traveled the whole world, his face and body were darkly tanned, and there were several scars that had not been there before. He had become fearsome, yet those eyes—cold and clear, plain and deep—were exactly the same as when he had first come to him.
“Here. The inner core of the Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp.”
Inside the box he held out truly lay the inner core of the Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp.
“It really existed!”
Gwiryeongja’s voice trembled.
“How in the world did you obtain it?”
“I searched every place it might possibly be. I can say with confidence that when it comes to climbing mountains, swimming, diving, and camping in the wild, I am an absolute master. I could probably draw a map of the Central Plains with my eyes closed.”
“Truly remarkable.”
“What’s remarkable isn’t that I obtained it. It’s that I didn’t go mad in the process.”
A thought suddenly occurred to Gwiryeongja. Perhaps this was not the inner core of the Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp, but this man’s will itself. Just as he was imagining the strange sight of a sky-blue will surging out of the man’s body and forming an inner core, the man urged him again.
“Now, what is the next material?”
“Do you not wish to boast of it?”
How many extraordinary tales of adventure must there have been in obtaining the materials he had gathered so far? If it were him, he would have been unable to resist bragging about such successes to anyone who would listen.
“I’ll boast later, after I kill that bastard, to his corpse. I’ll say the same thing again and again, turn him into a mummy, and do it for the rest of my life. All so I could kill you, you see…”
“It feels strange to hear you make such a joke.”
Gwiryeongja wanted to laugh and chatter with this man, to talk of the martial world and life. But the man was, as always, busy.
“Now, what is the fourth material?”
“Money.”
At the unexpected answer, the man asked,
“How much do you need?”
“Five million taels.”
It was a sum beyond imagination, but the man’s reaction was unchanged.
“I will return.”
Gwiryeongja knew that even if he had said one hundred million taels, or one billion taels, that man would have sprung to his feet and said he would return.
At most, he might have added a joking remark while looking at him. Should I just kill you outright and give up on all this?
But he was a man who would silently advance toward his goal. Gwiryeongja was witnessing the ultimate example of how terrifying a person’s will could become when he was truly enraged.
“Wait a moment.”
“What is it?”
“I will provide the money. For the sake of this Great Art, my family has saved money for generations. I will use that money.”
“Why?”
“Because making this Great Art succeed is also the long-cherished wish of me and my family.”
“Good. Thank you. Truly, thank you. This will save a great deal of time.”
The man was genuinely pleased.
“Then will you drink with me for today?”
“I’ll have only one cup and then leave.”
“What a cold-hearted friend you are.”
He brought liquor, and they sat side by side on a rock in the courtyard, pouring it into large cups and drinking. The two of them slowly savored the wine.
“When we first met, both you and I were in our prime.”
“My body may be aging, but my heart remains the same. I am desperately striving to live young.”
“Why make such an effort?”
“Because I will return to the me of my youth. Whether I go back at fifty, at sixty, or at a hundred years old, I am still the man who came to find you that day. My time stopped on that day.”
If he had heard those words when they first met, he would have thought, As admirable as the effort is, how could such a thing possibly be? But now, he knew better than anyone just how extraordinary this man’s willpower was.
“If the Great Art truly succeeds, and you can go back to the past, may I ask one favor of you?”
“Speak.”
“If you return to the past, please make sure to come find me.”
“And once I do?”
Gwiryeongja let out a long sigh and said,
“Stop my marriage.”
At the request he had never expected, the man burst into laughter.
“Hahaha.”
It was the first time the man had laughed since they had met.
“I am not joking. Please, you must stop it.”
“Is that more important than five million taels?”
“To me, it is more important. Tell me to live alone for the rest of my life. Make sure you do that.”
“Very well.”
Gwiryeongja told him the year in which he would marry, then urged him again.
“Promise me. Promise you will stop it.”
“I promise.”
The two of them emptied the remaining liquor.
“What is the final material?”
“It is something you know as well.”
“What is it?”
“The Secret Demon Soul.”
Because he knew what it was, the man’s gaze sank.
“It is a sacred object of your late father.”
“I know. My father never let it leave his person for even a moment.”
“Do you have it?”
The man shook his head.
“Do you know where it is?”
“I do not.”
“What if, by any chance, Hwa Mugi has it?”
“Then all these years will have been nothing but wasted hardship. Even if, fortunately, it remains in my cult, obtaining it will not be easy.”
At present, the Demon Cult remained behind sealed gates and was being led by a new cult leader.
Although they could not lift the seal under the pressure of Hwa Mugi’s might, the Demon Cult had spent the intervening years strengthening itself and solidifying its foundation.
There was no reason they would welcome him simply because he returned as the son of the previous cult leader. Rather, at the appearance of someone thought to be dead, the new cult leader would try to kill him.
“Even so, let us hope it is in your cult.”
“Do not take too long. I am old now too.”
“Do not die before I return. Thank you for the wine.”
After draining the last of his drink, the man left.
Gwiryeongja stood there for a very long time, watching the man recede into the distance.
The man who left like that did not return. Nor did any news arrive of a calamity in the Demon Cult. Even so, Gwiryeongja always kept his ears open.
Years flowed by and flowed on, until Gwiryeongja too had aged, and the flowers of the underworld bloomed across his face.
Today as well, he sat blankly on the wooden floor, staring at the place where the man had always stood.
Then Gwiryeongja rubbed his eyes as though he had seen a phantom.
He saw someone staggering toward him.
It was that man.
The man who had left to obtain the final material had returned.
He had changed beyond recognition. His face was severely ruined, making him look like another person, and he had lost his right eye and his left arm. His body, soaked in blood, looked as if it would be covered entirely in wounds if his clothes were removed.
At the sight, Gwiryeongja was left speechless.
After handing over the Secret Demon Soul, the man collapsed where he stood.
“You… how in the world did you obtain the Secret Demon Soul?”
“… Let us go to the place where the Great Art can be performed.”
He did not even have the strength to answer.
Gwiryeongja supported him and went to the space prepared for the Great Art.
Everything had already been made ready there.
The final material he had awaited for so long.
Gwiryeongja took the Secret Demon Soul and placed it in the center. Then, like the finishing touch that brought a painted dragon to life, the Secret Demon Soul shone brightly, and all manner of strange pictures and characters began to appear around it.
Gwiryeongja stood before it and began to chant an incantation.
Blue and red light began to envelop the surroundings. The Yin Thunder Bell rang, and incense rose from the Divine Five-Fragrance Brazier.
At the moment Gwiryeongja’s incantation reached its peak, the main materials merged and became one, and a wavering cluster of light appeared there. It looked like an entrance leading somewhere.
“I did it!”
Emotion overflowed across Gwiryeongja’s face. It was the moment he fulfilled the long-cherished wish of his family, passed down over hundreds of years.
Gwiryeongja approached the man, who sat leaning against a pillar. Perhaps because he had lost so much blood, he was unconscious. Instead of waking him and supporting him, Gwiryeongja spoke in a low voice.
“… I am sorry.”
He had decided to return to the past himself.
“I am truly sorry.”
He was all the sorrier because he knew full well how much suffering this man had endured to obtain the materials. But these were things that could never be obtained again.
“I will make sure to find you and tell you of the disasters that will befall you. I promise.”
Gwiryeongja rose and turned toward the cluster of light.
“Returning to the past was my family’s lifelong wish. It was my wish as well.”
Just as he was about to walk toward the light—
“Ugh.”
Gwiryeongja flinched and froze in place.
Before he knew it, his demonic acupoint had been sealed. He could not even tell when it had happened.
A languid voice came from behind him.
“How could you do this?”
The man he had thought unconscious rose from where he sat.
“My friend.”
Gwiryeongja’s voice trembled.
The man staggered over and stopped before Gwiryeongja.
“You, of all people… how could you do this!”
The man seized Gwiryeongja by the throat. Gwiryeongja’s old and feeble neck looked as though it might snap at any moment.
“… I must have lost my mind. Huhuhu, I am sorry. I am truly sorry.”
Gwiryeongja thought the man would kill him. Yes, even if anyone else might have done such a thing, he should not have. He alone knew how painfully this man had prepared the materials for the Great Art.
Then the man released the hand gripping Gwiryeongja’s throat.
“I am a selfish man too. I could only gather all those materials because I care for no one but myself. So it is all right. If it had been another bastard, I would have struck him dead with one blow, but you, at least, I understand.”
The man did not reproach Gwiryeongja. Instead, he spoke warmly, with sincere eyes.
“Thank you for waiting for me all your life.”
At the man’s heartfelt words, tears welled in Gwiryeongja’s eyes. Regret and sorrow mingled together. They could have had a finer farewell. Truly, they could have.
It was at the very moment Gwiryeongja’s tear fell.
As if by a lie, the world stopped.
“Huh?”
Startled, the man looked around. All movement had ceased. A butterfly in flight hung in the air like a painting, and the blades of grass swaying in the wind remained bent over, not rising again.
Gwiryeongja, standing before him, was the same. Even the tear he had shed floated in midair.
The man wondered if he was hallucinating from having lost too much blood.
It was then. In that place where time had stopped for all but the man, an old man appeared.
“You have passed all the trials.”
At the old man’s words, the man asked in shock,
“Who are you?”
“The one who can send you to the past.”
“!”
“How could human power defy the principles of Heaven? Did you think mere spiritual creatures and rare treasures could make such a thing possible?”
When the old man raised his hand, the five objects the man had spent his life gathering reappeared around him and floated up. They were the materials that had vanished with the Great Art moments before.
In that instant, the man understood. The old man was a being beyond humanity.
“The true materials for this Great Art are not these objects, but the effort you devoted to gathering them.”
When the old man waved his hand, the objects vanished like smoke.
“You passed the trial. You sacrificed yourself all your life and lived for one purpose alone. And forgiving Gwiryeongja was the final trial. In truth, it was the most difficult trial, but you passed it most easily.”
The man’s entire body trembled. All his life he had believed Heaven to be indifferent, and so he had believed there was no such thing as Heaven. Yet a being who seemed to be Heaven itself now stood before his eyes. Soon, his astonishment turned to anger.
“Are you a being who only answers when someone works this hard? Are you so high and mighty?”
“Do not be so furious. People have an easier time seeing me than you do. There are even those who meet with me every day. But a wish of your magnitude is not something I can grant so easily, now is it?”
That much, even the man had to concede. It was neither about becoming rich nor marrying a beautiful woman. His wish was to return to the past.
“Send me back.”
“Back to do what?”
“I will kill those who must die, and save those who must not die.”
Killing Hwamugi and saving everyone was the first.
And there was something just as important.
“And… I wish to live my life properly. Perhaps the reason I so desperately wish to return is that my life is every bit as regrettable as my rage toward Hwamugi.”
“What is so regrettable?”
“Everything. From birth until now, my life has not been one I led, but one I was swept along in. Pushed this way and that, swept along until it ended… Was it you? The one who pushed me?”
The old man asked with an awkward smile.
“What kind of life do you wish to live once your revenge is complete?”
“I do not know. Whether I succeed my father as the Heavenly Demon, turn my back on the world and live quietly, become a lecher who claims every beauty in the world for his own, leave the cult to live beating trash senseless, or become trash myself… I have decided upon nothing.”
“I too am curious what kind of life you will lead. I look forward to that new life.”
“My thanks.”
“When next we meet, let us share a drink.”
With those words, the old man vanished.
‘Next time?’
He felt a premonition that the old man might appear before him once more someday.
At the same time, the halted time began to flow once more. The butterfly, which had been still, beat its wings and soared into the sky, the grass swayed in the wind, and the Guilyeongja’s tears, suspended in the empty air, fell to the ground.
“I am sorry. Truly.”
The man silently gazed upon the Guilyeongja shedding tears of apology. Little did he know, not even in his dreams, that his Supreme Art was one that touched the will of the heavens. The final decision would be heaven’s to make, but there was no doubt that the Guilyeongja’s Supreme Art served as the medium connecting to that heaven.
The Guilyeongja pleaded with a desperate look.
“Ah! It is a shameless request, but do not forget your promise to me! You have to stop my marriage!”
The man let out a short laugh. Even at this old age, with death looming before him, he was still making the same request.
“Is it still hell?”
“A hell even hotter. I am ashamed, but I ask nonetheless. If you do not heed me until the very end, I shall rip your dick off.”
“To that extent?”
“Even more.”
“Good. Then that should suffice as punishment for trying to betray me. Suffer through that hell once more.”
“Aah! I say! Please!”
The man walked toward the light, leaving behind the wailing Guilyeongja.
Watching the light embrace him and begin to scatter radiantly, the Guilyeongja was overcome with passion, but ultimately, what he wanted to say was this:
“I want to go too! Uwaaaaaaah! I said I want to go!”