Eldest Young Master Geom Muyang stood alone at the edge of the Daecheonsan cliff.
Far in the distance, the buildings of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult looked small.
Geom Muyang reached out his hand. Grasped like this, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult fit into one hand.
He opened the empty fist he had clenched in the air and recalled something Geom Mugeuk had once said.
—There’s no coexistence between brothers in a power struggle? In the end, they’ll kill each other? Who decided that? Why should we be swayed by the precedents and suspicions of pathetic bastards who couldn’t even control their own desires? So don’t even dream of being swayed by it. If you ever feel anxious that I might kill you, come find me.
Then he should have gone to him ten times over. Lately, he had been having nightmares often. Each time, in his dreams, Geom Mugeuk killed him with a smile.
—Hyung, you’re so naive. Did you believe everything I said? Well, I suppose that’s why you ended up like this. Did you think power could be shared? The greatest power in the murim, no less? I’m grateful you’re this naive, but still. How pathetic. Truly pathetic.
Whenever that happened, he would wake up cursing him. He hurled every insult imaginable, but the one who lost every time was himself. And Geom Muyang knew. Those words Geom Mugeuk spat out were, in the end, his own thoughts.
Geom Muyang had been living busily these days as well.
He handled affairs within the cult, met demonic practitioners of various ranks, and went out to take care of external matters. He was doing all sorts of work, cutting even into his sleeping time.
But he could not keep up with Geom Mugeuk’s unrestrained stride.
When he opened his eyes, Mugeuk had become the Fist Demon’s disciple. When he opened his eyes, he was wandering the Thousand Poison Forest searching for poisonous insects. When he opened his eyes, he had left the cult with the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon. And when he opened his eyes again…
Because he himself was not someone who could bark in the training ground, nor someone who could carry the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon on his back and run until he was on the verge of death.
Waaaaaaaah!
It was as if the people’s frenzied cheers for Geom Mugeuk rang in his ears. He did not want to become petty and mean-spirited, but it was hard to endure this maddening jealousy.
Just as he felt like shouting at the top of his lungs, the Demon Buddha arrived there. His short stature and golden radiance were unchanged.
“You called for me?”
“Welcome.”
The Demon Buddha stood beside him at the cliff.
“The Extreme Evil Smiling Demon has awakened.”
“I heard as well.”
Geom Muyang’s voice was dry. The Demon Buddha could tell. He was not in a good mood. With the Demon Venerables turning to Geom Mugeuk one by one, it was only natural that he could not be.
The Demon Buddha understood Geom Muyang’s feelings better than anyone.
“The Fist Demon still supports you, Eldest Young Master.”
The corner of Geom Muyang’s mouth curled up slightly.
“Though his disciple is Mugeuk.”
He had already judged that even the Fist Demon’s support would not last long.
“The Fist Demon is a man who distinguishes between public and private matters. He will not carelessly change words he has spoken.”
The Demon Buddha quickly added.
“The Poison King will also support you, Young Master.”
“While barking in the training ground with Mugeuk?”
“That is why the Second Young Master has grown even farther from becoming the successor. Someone who will become the Heavenly Demon should not have done that.”
“Are you saying that knowing Mugeuk’s popularity within the cult rose even higher after that day?”
“What matters is not popularity, but the Cult Leader’s will. Eldest Young Master, you are unquestionably the Cult Leader’s eldest son, and since childhood you have given people faith that you would become the successor.”
The Demon Buddha tried to give him strength, but Geom Muyang asked in a drained voice.
“When I look at you and myself lately, Demon Buddha, this is what I think. A defeatist and a groundless optimist. Isn’t that so?”
“Who is the defeatist?”
At the Demon Buddha’s question, Geom Muyang’s expression creased slightly.
Did Geom Muyang know or not? That in his relationship with him, the Demon Buddha had been frustrated and disappointed so many times that he had nearly fallen into true defeatism? That he had steadied his heart again and again to come this far?
The Demon Buddha asked calmly.
“I have never been optimistic, but even if I were, why do you think it is groundless?”
“Then do you believe I can become the successor?”
The Demon Buddha stared into Geom Muyang’s eyes and answered firmly.
“I do.”
“That is the problem. Your eye for judging the state of affairs is this dim. While we were stagnating and rotting, Mugeuk burst forth like a waterfall and flowed out to the sea.”
“No matter how outstanding the Second Young Master may be, we only need to do one thing well.”
“What is that?”
As if shouting from a mountaintop, the Demon Buddha raised his voice.
“The Eldest Young Master is better suited for the seat of Cult Leader!”
His shout echoed and rang out several times.
When the echoes faded, the Demon Buddha spoke.
“That is all we need to convince everyone of. There is no need to have your pride wounded because the Second Young Master has won the hearts of the Demon Venerables, and no need to be angry. Eldest Young Master, you need only accomplish that one thing.”
Geom Muyang burst out in frustration, his tone somewhat raised.
“You are truly stifling! Demon Buddha, do you really think I am better suited for the position of Cult Leader?”
The Demon Buddha spoke as if certain.
“Yes. You are better suited.”
“This is what I mean by groundless conviction. Were you not simply left with me because Mugeuk did not choose you?”
Geom Muyang spat out words he absolutely should not have said, words that would deeply wound the Demon Buddha, without filtering them at all.
Unexpectedly, the Demon Buddha did not take much offense. Because those words sounded like a scream.
Until now, Geom Muyang had dealt with him while hiding his true feelings. He had made him wonder what he was thinking. But now, he was screaming that he was in pain.
“Those words are the ones without any basis.”
When the Demon Buddha answered composedly, Geom Muyang took a small medicine bottle from his robes.
“Do you know what is inside this?”
“What is inside?”
“The Formless Deadly Poison.”
At the words Formless Deadly Poison, the Demon Buddha was startled.
“Are you saying you will kill the Second Young Master with that?”
Geom Muyang answered without hesitation.
“It is not as though I can’t.”
The Demon Buddha stared at him and asked.
“Then why take it out here? Ask the Second Young Master to share a drink with you and mix it in! Feed it to him! Kill him!”
After driving him into a corner like that, the Demon Buddha soothed him with all sincerity.
“You know you must not do that, don’t you? The Second Young Master declared that he would fight for the succession without bloodshed. If you poison him to death, no one will follow you, Eldest Young Master. Not the Demon Venerables, nor the demonic practitioners beneath them.”
Geom Muyang looked down at the medicine bottle and said,
“That is why… I am considering using it on myself.”
Slap!
Geom Muyang’s head snapped to the side.
The Demon Buddha had leapt up and slapped him mercilessly across the cheek.
Startled, Geom Muyang looked at him. He had never dreamed the Demon Buddha would lay a hand on his body, so he was more than shocked.
The Demon Buddha held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
Along with golden radiance, a cold aura was pouring from the Demon Buddha’s body.
Geom Muyang had never seen it before. The Demon Buddha getting this angry in front of him.
“Give it to me!”
Overwhelmed by his force, Geom Muyang handed him the medicine bottle.
The Demon Buddha opened the stopper and poured it straight down the cliff. Then he threw the bottle away as well.
For a long while, neither of them spoke.
“That was the first time I’ve ever been hit.”
“It was also my first time striking the Cult Leader’s blood kin.”
He had thought the prideful Geom Muyang would go mad with rage, but unexpectedly, he was calm. If he had struck him when he said he would kill Geom Mugeuk, perhaps he might have exploded.
“That poison cost a great deal. What a waste.”
“What was wasted was the time you spent thinking such futile thoughts.”
The corner of Geom Muyang’s mouth, which had been curled upward all along, returned to its place. Geom Muyang sat down. Until now, he had been speaking while looking down at the Demon Buddha, but only now did their eye levels meet.
“Eldest Young Master, look at the sky once.”
The Demon Buddha looked up at the sky.
Geom Muyang, who had only been gazing at the distant Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, also turned his eyes toward the sky.
Originally, the Demon Buddha had not been this kind of person. Geom Muyang felt it. That he himself, and the Demon Buddha as well, had changed a great deal. Everyone was changing as they became entangled with Geom Mugeuk.
“You must overcome your anxiety to become the successor. If the Second Young Master has swept in like a typhoon, then you, Eldest Young Master, must become a boulder. Become a boulder that stands firm even against a typhoon.”
Geom Muyang’s eyes trembled. This man, the Demon Buddha, was sincere.
The last Demon Venerable remaining to him.
Come to think of it, the Demon Buddha had been there from the beginning.
He was the Demon Venerable who had remained from the beginning to the end.
“I am not a boulder, but merely a pebble rolling in the typhoon. Elder, you should go to Mugeuk too! Mugeuk will understand your heart better. He will speak better than I do, and he will be more considerate too.”
“That is why I dislike it. That is my role, so why should the Second Young Master do it? I am the older one, so I should be considerate and I should understand. Just as I am now trying to understand you, Eldest Young Master.”
Geom Muyang choked up.
The last time he had met Geom Mugeuk, he had said this.
—If you think the Demon Venerables are your people just because they are smiling in front of you, that is a grave mistake. In the end, at the final moment, they will make the choice that benefits them.
He had lived with such a heart until now.
“Why did you choose me?”
The wind that blew in shook the hems of their clothes.
“It seems I like you better than the Second Young Master, Eldest Young Master.”
The Demon Buddha said it with a joking smile, but Geom Muyang did not smile.
When his life had been driven all the way to the edge of a cliff, someone had been protecting him before that cliff.
The Demon Buddha, who was only half the height of an adult, was standing in front of him like a giant, blocking the way.
“Then I will go down first.”
The Demon Buddha gave his farewell and turned around.
“Demon Buddha.”
“Yes?”
“Actually, that medicine earlier was not the Formless Deadly Poison. It was an internal injury remedy made by the Demonic Physician. I had not the slightest intention of drinking it.”
“I know.”
Geom Muyang was startled.
“You knew?”
The Demon Buddha took an identical medicine bottle from his robes.
“I have one too.”
“You hit me even though you knew?”
The Demon Buddha gave an awkward smile.
“When else would I ever get a chance to hit you, Eldest Young Master?”
Without waiting for an answer, the Demon Buddha quickly turned and descended the mountain.
Watching him, Geom Muyang eventually let out a dumbfounded laugh.
Geom Muyang also rose from his seat. Instead of looking at the distant Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, he looked up at the sky.
“…If I go on like this, I will lose in the end.”
Perhaps he had already lost.
Still, he could not simply lose. He thought he would have to do his best until the very end.
For some reason, he felt that at least today, he would not have nightmares.
* * *
“Are you going to keep getting on my nerves?”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon, who had been reading a book, lifted his head and looked at me.
I had been pacing back and forth in the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s room.
“I’m in the middle of an important dilemma.”
“So why are you having that important dilemma here?”
“Maybe because there are so many books here, but I feel like I’m getting smarter.”
“Then go into the Heavenly Demon Library and think there. You’ll become the smartest person in the world.”
“But you’re not there, Elder.”
I stealthily approached the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
“What can I do when you’re the one who comes to mind whenever I’m in a crisis?”
“Don’t you have that masked fellow you like? You’re close enough to yield ten-thousand-year snow ginseng to him. Go ask him.”
I forcefully held back my laughter.
This stiff, fussy man would get jealous in ways that didn’t suit him. The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was especially jealous of the Smiling Demon.
“Who could compare to our elder? Tell the Smiling Demon to sit over there in the Valley of Villains and stare at the wall.”
“That’s not it, is it? You’re just not disturbing him so he can have a good time with the woman he came with.”
“So you know that the Mistress of Cheonhwaru has come too.”
“Even if I don’t want to know, reports of every kind fly in all day.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon read his book.
“So take that Golden Grand Operation or whatever it is to the masked fellow or the drunkard and discuss it with them.”
I sat on the floor beside the window seat where the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was reading.
“I gave the operation a grand name, but I haven’t made a single detailed plan. Since you’ve read so many books, there must be a method inside one of them.”
“You brat, books are where I come to rest from those ridiculous operations. Find your answer there.”
“Good. Then I’ll stay here until I find the answer!”
“Who said you could?”
The moment I threw myself onto the bed, an invisible force pushed me away.
“Don’t lie on the bed in clothes you wore outside!”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon moved me to the door with telekinesis.
I leaned against the window beside the door and pondered.
“What exactly is troubling you?”
“What makes this operation difficult is that it isn’t about blindly making the Demon Buddha my person.”
“Why can’t you make him your person?”
There was no way the Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not know the reason.
“Because if I take even the Demon Buddha away, I’ll be pushing my brother too far into a corner.”
That was why I had been worried my brother might make a move he should not.
But the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was looking at this situation from a different perspective than I was.
“Is that really so?”
“Is it not?”
After a brief pause, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon spoke.
“If even the Demon Buddha turns away, wouldn’t the Eldest Young Master give up cleanly? I had thought the Eldest Young Master was at least that much of a person.”
“!”
It seemed I had trusted my brother less than the Blood Heaven Blade Demon did. It was probably because he had tormented me when we were young. I had a prejudice that if driven into a corner, he would end up doing something vile and petty.
But apart from me, there also existed my brother’s relationships with the Demon Venerables. To the Demon Venerables, my brother was someone who stepped back when it was time to step back.
“You must give the Eldest Young Master a proper chance to admit defeat. The things you’re worried about will instead happen when lingering attachment remains.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon, who had been speaking while looking down at his book until now, raised his head and looked at me.
“When you step on someone, you step on them properly. For the Eldest Young Master’s sake as well.”
I looked at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon without a word.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I say this all the time, but I was thinking how I would live without you, Elder.”
“And I always say this, but you’d live well sharing ten-thousand-year snow ginseng with the masked fellow.”
“You are persistent.”
“Yes, so worry about the grudge on this side. Why are you worrying about those people’s relationship? So impertinent.”
I bowed respectfully to the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I found the answer.”
The Blade Demon was right.
Only when I faced him with all my strength would my brother laugh hollowly and acknowledge his defeat.
Half-hearted consideration would only wound my brother’s pride. I would make the Demon Buddha unquestionably my person. Rather, only then would the relationship between my brother and the Demon Buddha reach a new point as well.
Leaving the Blade Demon’s residence, I headed straight toward the Demon Buddha’s quarters, bustling with mad monks.