“Lord Soma!”
I threw myself toward Geukak Soma with Flash Step.
Fortunately, I was able to catch his form before he collapsed.
After laying him down comfortably, I injected a thread of internal energy into his chest and examined his insides. His qi and blood were blocked and twisted, leaving him with severe internal injuries.
It was more serious than I had thought. The moment I tried to pour internal energy into him for treatment, my heart sank. My inner power had been drained from using the Gwicheonsik.
I gathered what little inner power remained in my body as if wringing it out. A small amount of internal energy flowed into Geukak Soma’s body again. I tried carefully to open the blocked places, but I lacked the power. If he was left like this, his qi and blood would begin to run wild, and there would be no turning back.
Before I knew it, my heart was pounding and panic was rising inside me. So when I drew up every last bit of inner power I had left, blood surged up into my throat. My own body was far from normal, thanks to the injuries I had suffered fighting Yaryul Han and the exhaustion of my mental strength, but now was not the time to look after myself.
After I regulated his insides with all my strength, Geukak Soma regained consciousness and opened his eyes.
I spoke in my usual bright tone.
“That fight was incredible, wasn’t it?”
The two eyes behind the mask smiled. If not for Geukak Soma, I would never have achieved such a magnificent fight, nor such a magnificent result.
“…Yes, it truly was incredible.”
His voice was weak, unlike usual. He was sensing his own end.
“Second Young Master.”
“Yes, Lord Soma.”
“…I was glad to have met you, Second Young Master.”
The instant his eyes began to slip shut, I wrung out even the very limit of the internal energy I could squeeze forth and injected it into him. Like a single drop of water in the desert, that handful of internal energy precariously held on to his life.
“When I become the Heavenly Demon, you have to protect me.”
Geukak Soma’s eyes trembled. His gaze, filled with sorrow, spoke to me. That he was sorry. Sorry that he would have to leave without seeing me become the Heavenly Demon.
“You know my temper, don’t you? You know I’ll never give up on you, Lord Soma. Unless you intend to take me with you too, hold on. I can’t let you go like this. So come to your senses.”
Geukak Soma tried not to give up as well, but this was not a situation he could do anything about.
“If you die like this, I’ll blame myself for the rest of my life. So don’t die!”
At that moment, he coughed and spat blood. His qi and blood had begun to run wild. If I could not calm it down, he would die.
“No!”
At the thought that Geukak Soma might truly die, I felt as if I would go mad.
“Please! Lord Soma! Hold on!”
I wrung out my internal energy, then wrung it out again. All I could think of was saving Soma somehow. I had regressed so that I would not lose anyone… I could not lose Soma like this.
But no more internal energy remained in me, and Geukak Soma convulsed even more violently.
In that instant, my vision blurred. My eyes had filled with tears.
Had I ever cried before?
Then Geukak Soma grasped my hand. He must have realized it. That I cared for him this much. I realized it too. That I had cared for him this much.
Geukak Soma slowly lifted his hand and brought it to his mask.
He was trying to show me his face at the very end.
Within the eyeholes, Soma’s eyes were smiling. They smiled more brightly than any smile he had ever shown before.
I caught his hand and stopped him from taking off the mask.
“I won’t look! I won’t look at that face because I feel like you’ll be better-looking than me! Show me fifty years from now!”
Geukak Soma laughed, then vomited blood again.
With his last strength, he left me these words.
“Second Young Master… you will become a good Heavenly Demon.”
Even as life faded from him, he was smiling at me until the very end.
“I do not regret the time I spent with you, Second Young Master.”
For the first time, I prayed to the heavens.
Please let him live!
Even when I wandered the Central Plains unable to obtain the materials for the great art, even when I was so lonely and exhausted that I wanted to simply die, even when I was in danger and on the verge of death… I had never prayed to the heavens.
But now, for the first time in my life, I prayed.
Please! Let him live! Help me just this once!
It was at that very moment.
Thud.
As the dead Yaryul Han sat with his head drooping, something fell from his bosom to the floor.
It was a box.
Seeing what protruded from the open box, I ran toward it.
Astonishingly, it was a Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng. It seemed he had brought it as a birthday gift for the Five Thunder Divine Sword.
‘If it’s this!’
I brought it over and helped Geukak Soma sit up. Then I placed the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng in his mouth.
“Hold on with the energy of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng! Just hold on until I complete one heavenly circulation!”
Under ordinary circumstances, it was a choice that should never be made. Taking a potent elixir like Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng while suffering severe internal injuries could instead ruin the body even more.
But this was the only way. I trusted the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, and I trusted Geukak Soma.
“Lord Soma, chew and swallow it with the last of your strength!”
Soma’s eyes met mine.
Do not give up!
Geukak Soma struggled to chew and swallow the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng.
I immediately circulated my true qi through one heavenly cycle. It was the most desperate qi circulation of my life. The time felt unbearably long.
‘Please! Please!’
I must have said the word “please” more today than I had in my entire life.
After completing the fastest heavenly circulation of true qi in my life, I injected internal energy into Geukak Soma again and examined his body.
It was a relief. Geukak Soma had succeeded in using the energy of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng to hold back his rampaging qi and blood. But he had not refined the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng’s energy into inner power; he had merely suppressed it temporarily with that enormous energy.
There was no telling when his qi and blood would run wild again. I had to take him to the Demon Physician as quickly as possible.
“Thank you, Lord Soma.”
Moisture clung to my voice. I was grateful to him. Grateful that he had held on. Grateful that we had become the kind of people where I could give someone a Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng and be the one to say thank you.
Geukak Soma’s eyes spoke to me.
Thank you, Second Young Master.
What more needed to be said?
I untied the Supreme Heavenly Silkworm Thread that had bound him and me at the chest.
Then I carried Geukak Soma on my back and bound him tightly with the Supreme Heavenly Silkworm Thread.
He had done his part, so now it was my turn.
Soma, who said you could leave as you pleased? On the day some bastard like Yaryul Han boards the boat to the afterlife, do you think I’d let you ride that boat with him?
After wrapping him in my energy so that Geukak Soma’s body would not shake and would remain comfortable, I began to run.
I ran with all my might, as if I had learned Swift Step precisely for this moment.
* * *
Bi Sain was sitting before the gate of the manor.
Ilang Baek Cheolgi arrived there.
“You must not go around alone like this. Did you not promise you would not?”
“Please let it pass just this once.”
Bi Sain had called only Ilang here. The only person in the world he trusted was Ilang.
Ilang’s gaze turned toward the manor behind him. Judging by the smell of blood flowing out through the broken walls, there was no doubt that a fierce battle had taken place here.
“No matter what you see inside, do not be too surprised.”
“This is not the smell of one or two people’s blood. Just what is this place?”
Bi Sain answered quietly.
“The place where my future will be decided.”
At that, Ilang said as he went inside,
“Then my future will be decided as well.”
The place, turned into a sea of blood, still bore every trace of the fierce battle.
As Ilang looked around, he discovered Yaryul Han’s corpse and was shocked.
‘Yaryul Han!’
So startled was he that Ilang stood blankly for a moment, looking down at the body. He could not believe it even after seeing it with his own eyes.
Yaryul Han was dead? That Yaryul Han?
Truly, one phrase was enough to describe Yaryul Han. That Yaryul Han.
And that was not all.
Another corpse caught Ilang’s eye.
‘Even the Five Thunder Divine Sword!’
The Five Thunder Divine Sword.
He already knew that the man had been in league with Yaryul Han. He did not know whether he was stronger or weaker than Yaryul Han, but at least one thing was certain. If one were to compare his strength, Yaryul Han had to be the standard.
‘He died with his torso split in two?’
It was truly a sight difficult to believe, even while seeing it with his own eyes.
And how could that be the only shocking thing?
He was startled when he saw the Blood Wheels fallen on the ground.
‘Those weapons are Blood Wheels. The only one who uses Blood Wheels is the Blood Wheel Calamity, isn’t it?’
After the Blood Wheel Calamity, Ilang also recognized the Three Evils.
‘Triplets worthy of keeping company with these people would be the Three Evils!’
At this point, Cha Hwan’s death was hardly surprising.
Ilang came back out of the manor. Bi Sain was still sitting before the main gate.
“Just what in the world happened here?”
“Sit.”
Ilang sat beside him. His trembling heart had still not calmed down.
“With these people, they could have declared war on the Murim Alliance.”
Of course, it was an exaggeration, but it was not empty boasting.
If these people attacked someone, what murim sect could possibly stop them?
When Bi Sain first saw this sight, he had been as shocked as Ilang.
Even when Geom Mugeuk said he would kill Yaryul Han, a part of his heart had still held the doubt, ‘Can he really kill him?’
Yet he had truly done it.
This unbelievable deed had been accomplished by the man who had nagged him to eat a balanced meal.
‘You really are…!’
It finally struck him anew that the man was the son of the Heavenly Demon. And he had accomplished something no successor in history could have done.
“Who did this?”
At Ilang’s question, Bi Sain answered.
“I did.”
“What?”
Ilang was startled.
“This will be handled as something I did.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. I promised to take care of the aftermath.”
“Who on earth killed them?”
“You do not need to know that. For your sake as well, it is better that you do not know.”
Ilang was confused, but that was not what mattered now.
“Very well. Let us say that is the case. But will the Alliance Leader believe that you killed Yaryul Han?”
“That is why I called you, Ilang.”
“What?”
“From now on, we have to handle the aftermath. We have to decide how to make them believe that I dealt with Yaryul Han.”
Ilang understood. As Bi Sain had said earlier, Bi Sain’s future and fate were tied to this matter.
“My lifelong archenemy is dead, but my battle begins now.”
Bi Sain had once imagined the Demon Cult invading someday. Would Geom Mugeuk, the Heavenly Demon, truly be able to stop the Demon Cult?
And where did this baseless certainty that such a thing would never happen come from?
Bi Sain wanted to see Geom Mugeuk. Though he was such a terrifying man, he wanted to see him. He wanted to hear his frivolous banter.
How is it? I told you to leave this matter to me, didn’t I? Now it’s your turn. I trust you’ll do well. Eat a balanced meal!
It felt as though his voice were sounding by his ear.
If he became the leader of the Evil Alliance, he wanted to be sure to tell him.
What his evil path would be.
‘So you must become the Heavenly Demon too.’
* * *
Even when night fell, Geom Mugeuk and Geukak Soma did not return.
Seo Daeryong could not leave the courtyard out of anxiety.
Then the Mistress of Cheonhwaru came out to the courtyard.
“It seems the two of them are having a drink to celebrate killing Yaryul Han.”
At Seo Daeryong’s absurd joke, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru smiled and replied.
“It seems so.”
“Did you perhaps have a new dream?”
“No.”
“Then your face looks at ease.”
“You said it would not work, Investigator Seo.”
Seo Daeryong let out a light sigh.
“That was until before the sun set.”
The Mistress of Cheonhwaru asked Seo Daeryong,
“Are you worried?”
“The Pavilion Master has never once failed to return on time. He is always someone who opens the door and strides back in as if nothing at all happened.”
At that exact moment, someone opened the door and entered.
Seo Daeryong and the Mistress of Cheonhwaru looked over in surprise, but unfortunately, it was a martial artist of the Demon Cult who managed the safe house.
“This is an urgent message sent from Tongcheon Pavilion.”
Startled, Seo Daeryong hurriedly took the message and read it.
“It says the Pavilion Master went ahead to the main cult because Lord Soma was injured.”
At that moment, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru’s expression hardened. Looking at her, Seo Daeryong cautiously added,
“There was no report on how badly Lord Soma was injured.”
Then the Poison King walked out from behind them and said,
“He must be badly hurt. Seeing as they went straight to the main cult.”
The Poison King did not say anything to reassure her.
“You prepare to leave at once.”
“Yes.”
Seo Daeryong was worried about the Mistress of Cheonhwaru, but since he had received the Poison King’s order, he moved quickly.
Seeing the Mistress of Cheonhwaru filled with worry, the Poison King abruptly made an unexpected suggestion.
“Let us go together.”
At the Poison King’s words, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru was startled.
“You have never been to the main cult, have you?”
“That is true, but…”
“Then take this chance to have a look.”
The Mistress of Cheonhwaru understood. Though he did not say it aloud, the Poison King was saying this.
‘It may be the last time, so go and see him.’
The Mistress of Cheonhwaru bowed her head politely and said,
“I will follow the words of one so esteemed. Thank you truly for your great consideration.”
“No need. That man Soma will also like it if the Tower Mistress is there when he wakes.”
“I will be fortunate if he does not scold me, asking how I dared come.”
“You know better than anyone that there is no way he would do that, do you not, Tower Mistress?”
The Poison King snapped his fan open with a sound and, waving it lightly, went inside to gather his things. Watching his back, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru bowed her head once more.
Then she immediately went inside and said farewell to the rescued women. The martial artists of the safe house would see them safely home.
A short while later, the three of them boarded the carriage.
Seo Daeryong, on the driver’s seat, shouted,
“Now, we’re departing.”
The gaze of the Mistress of Cheonhwaru, looking out of the carriage, deepened. She was worried about Geukak Soma. She wanted to see him so badly. Though she could see many things, she could feel nothing regarding Geukak Soma’s fate.
At times like this, she grew angry. She could see the fates of others so well, yet often could not see her own fate at all.
Was she afraid of going to the Demon Cult? Of course not. If only she could see Geukak Soma, she would have climbed aboard without hesitation even if this carriage were bound for hell.
‘Orabeoni, don’t die.’
And the words she had always said to Geom Mugeuk as a joke, she now said in earnest.
‘Please take good care of our orabeoni.’
Because the one holding the reins understood her heart better than anyone, the carriage began to race toward the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult faster than ever before.