Had there ever been a time in recent days when he had been this excited?
His heart pounded like mad.
Hwa Mu-gi.
At last, the moment has come when I will see a fragment of you.
Where are you now, and what are you doing? How strong are you now?
The moment he thought of him, rage boiled up through his entire body like lava. Had that violent emotion been sensed?
Sssssss.
Tree branches stretching out from every direction closed in on Geom Mu-geuk as if to crush him. There were hundreds, thousands of them—an offensive he could neither evade nor cut down in full.
At that very moment!
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Something revealed itself in four directions around Geom Mu-geuk—front, back, left, and right. Astonishingly, they were the four evil spirits of the Guhwa Demonic Art’s First Form, the Annihilation Form.
As the evil spirits blocked them like shields, the branches did not dare rush in and instead retreated. They had been frightened by the vicious aura the evil spirits exuded.
Geom Mu-geuk had truly not expected the four evil spirits to appear within the Wood King’s aura and protect him. Those fearsome, handsome, mysterious, and clever beings. If they were already this much, then what in the world would the Heavenly Demon Soul be like?
At the same time, Baek Cheon-gyeong was sinking into an abyss.
‘To possess such an aura at so young an age?’
No matter how far he entered, there was no end. Just as Geom Mu-geuk had walked endlessly into the forest, he swam down into an endless abyss.
He wondered what lay at the end of that darkness.
His instincts tried to stop him. If he went any farther down, it would be dangerous.
But Baek Cheon-gyeong simply could not suppress his curiosity. He had a premonition that something tremendous lay deep within that darkness.
His breath was being choked off, and the pressure growing stronger and stronger felt as though it would burst his body apart, but Baek Cheon-gyeong continued descending.
Just as he was about to give up, thinking he could endure no more—
Flash. It felt as though the world had gone dark and then lit up again.
Baek Cheon-gyeong was standing in the middle of a battlefield. Blood flowed like rivers, and corpses lay scattered everywhere. Among the corpses were humans, evil spirits, and demons. Nothing was alive. No—there was one person.
A man standing with his back turned, looking up at the sky.
Was it Geom Mu-geuk?
But the man’s back was the kind that could only belong to someone who had overcome every hardship in the world. No matter if he was the Young Cult Leader of the Demon Cult, Baek Cheon-gyeong did not think someone so young could possess a back that carried such years.
Then who was it?
The very moment he tilted his head in puzzlement,
that space vanished, and Baek Cheon-gyeong was once again in the deep abyss.
Swaaaaaaash.
And then he was dragged upward toward the surface at terrifying speed. The instant the abyss spat him out, Geom Mu-geuk’s aura vanished.
At the same time, Baek Cheon-gyeong’s aura also disappeared.
Geom Mu-geuk, who had been in the forest, and Baek Cheon-gyeong, who had been in the water, both returned to reality.
The two stared at each other in silence.
Geom Mu-geuk’s chest was still surging.
You who followed Hwa Mu-gi.
What are you doing here now?
There were so many things he wanted to ask him. But he could not ask any of them.
Whether he killed him or spared him, whether he investigated what lay behind him, once Hwa Mu-gi was involved, he had to be cautious.
Turning his boiling rage into a relaxed smile, Geom Mu-geuk greeted him first.
“I am Geom Mu-geuk, from the Divine Cult.”
“Baek Cheon-gyeong.”
Without any explanation, he gave only his name.
“Your disciple told me about you on the way here.”
At that, Baek Cheon-gyeong’s gaze turned toward Jin Ha-gun. In that instant, Jin Ha-gun grew tense inwardly. He was worried about what Geom Mu-geuk would say.
“What did he say?”
“He said you were the person he trusted most.”
Baek Cheon-gyeong’s gaze moved from Jin Ha-gun back to Geom Mu-geuk.
“You said you came to see Ha-ryeong?”
“I came a long way to find the woman I love.”
To Baek Cheon-gyeong, those words sounded like a joke, so he stared into Geom Mu-geuk’s eyes with his small, narrow ones. As he looked into those deep eyes, the back of the man he had seen earlier within the aura overlapped with Geom Mu-geuk.
This young and bright appearance and the man within the aura seemed far too different.
‘Who was that man?’
Baek Cheon-gyeong walked over to the table for receiving guests.
“Sit. Since a guest has come, I should serve tea.”
“I will brew it, Master.”
“I will do it. Sit there.”
“Yes, Master.”
Jin Ha-gun sat together with Geom Mu-geuk. He did not meet Geom Mu-geuk’s eyes at all. He focused thoroughly on his role for the day, while sharpening all his senses toward the current flowing between Geom Mu-geuk and his master.
Baek Cheon-gyeong brought the tea.
“Thank you.”
Geom Mu-geuk tasted the tea he had brewed. Seeing him drink without even checking whether it was poisoned, Baek Cheon-gyeong asked,
“What if there were poison in it?”
“Did you put any in?”
As he said that, he took another sip.
Jin Ha-gun could feel it. Within this seemingly trivial conversation, a strange battle of nerves was unfolding.
As Geom Mu-geuk drank his tea, he looked around the workshop.
“You seem fond of woodcraft.”
All around the workshop were decorations Baek Cheon-gyeong had carved. Arcane energy that he would never have sensed had he not cultivated the Guhwa Demonic Art was seeping from here and there.
How that tiger carved from wood would transform and pounce could only be known by fighting it.
Then Geom Mu-geuk’s gaze turned toward a display stand covered with black cloth.
“What is beneath that? May I open it?”
When Baek Cheon-gyeong said nothing, Geom Mu-geuk rose from his seat and walked over to it. Since he had not stopped him even then, Geom Mu-geuk took it as permission to open it.
Geom Mu-geuk pulled away the cloth covering the display stand.
The dolls were still engaged in battle, but Jin Ha-gun noticed a change.
‘The positions of the dolls have changed!’
The hero doll his master had called Geom Mu-geuk was on the opposite side. It was right beside the Jin Ha-gun doll that had been lying fallen.
In the place where the hero doll had originally stood, a new doll now stood. Judging by its appearance and features, that doll was unmistakably Baek Cheon-gyeong himself.
In the end, Baek Cheon-gyeong was speaking through the dolls. He believed Geom Mu-geuk and Jin Ha-gun were on the same side.
When the cloth was lifted, Baek Cheon-gyeong revealed his true thoughts.
“Young Cult Leader, did you come to kill me?”
Baek Cheon-gyeong did not believe that Geom Mu-geuk had come because of Jin Ha-ryeong. It was a question he could ask only if he believed Geom Mu-geuk was targeting him.
Even at that sudden question, Geom Mu-geuk did not become flustered.
“If you thought that, why did you permit this meeting?”
“If the Demon Cult seeks to kill me, where in this gangho would there be anywhere to hide?”
When Baek Cheon-gyeong’s gaze turned toward him, Jin Ha-gun showed his sense of injustice.
“You still do not trust me to the end.”
Geom Mu-geuk spoke while looking over the dolls on the display stand.
“That must be because your master has never truly liked a woman before. Do not worry. I came to the Martial Alliance only to see Lady Jin. If I had intended to kill you, would I have gone through such an unnecessary and complicated process? Do not forget what kind of Young Cult Leader I am.”
That was also why this meeting had been arranged today. He wanted to know exactly what Geom Mu-geuk’s intentions were.
“By the way, these dolls are truly well made.”
Geom Mu-geuk lowered himself and looked closely at the dolls.
“They seem as though they might come alive and leap out at any moment.”
Geom Mu-geuk knew. More than any other craftwork in this room, these little wooden dolls were the most terrifying existences. He was not making dolls; he was carving subordinates. Surely these were not the only things he had carved in his lifetime.
Then Geom Mu-geuk pointed at one of the dolls and asked,
“Who is this doll?”
The one Geom Mu-geuk, seeing the dolls on this display stand for the first time, pointed to was neither the hero doll, nor the Jin Ha-gun doll, nor even the opposing Baek Cheon-gyeong doll. It was one of the countless dolls standing around them!
“This is the only doll whose face was not carved.”
It was the faceless doll Geom Mu-geuk had seen within Baek Cheon-gyeong’s aura. It was surely a doll with some kind of meaning.
“Who did you make this as? You?”
Surprise flickered across Baek Cheon-gyeong’s face. It seemed he was astonished that, among so many dolls, Geom Mu-geuk had fixed his attention precisely on that one.
“It could be anyone.”
At Baek Cheon-gyeong’s answer, Geom Mu-geuk bent down and looked at the doll more closely.
“It seems this one alone is not caught up in the fight.”
Even without an expression, a sense of ease could be felt from the doll.
Behind him, Baek Cheon-gyeong asked,
“If there are those who fight, there are also those who watch like that. Are you someone who fights, or someone who watches?”
After watching the dolls for a moment, Geom Mu-geuk picked up one of them. It was none other than the Jin Ha-gun doll that had been lying beside the hero doll.
Geom Mu-geuk looked back and forth between the doll and Jin Ha-gun. Anyone could tell it had been made with Jin Ha-gun in mind.
Geom Mu-geuk set the Jin Ha-gun doll upright beside the hero doll.
He had shown directly that he was neither someone who fought nor someone who watched, but someone who raised another back up like this.
Jin Ha-gun looked at the doll of himself that had been set upright. It was nothing at all, yet for some reason, emotion surged in his chest.
No, from the beginning, it had not been nothing. His master, who had taught him for ten years, had made a doll of him and left it fallen over.
“I have seen enough.”
After covering the display stand with the cloth that had originally covered it, Geom Mu-geuk turned toward Baek Cheon-gyeong.
“The reason I came today is because the Demon-Extermination Squad Leader here said that if I wanted to meet Lady Jin, I absolutely had to meet you, so I had no choice but to come. Now, say whatever you have to say quickly. I must go meet Lady Jin.”
Jin Ha-gun sent a sound transmission to Baek Cheon-gyeong.
—Master, please tell him firmly enough to frighten him.
Even at his sound transmission, Baek Cheon-gyeong said nothing. Instead, he turned his gaze away from the two of them and looked out the window.
“If you have nothing to say, then I shall take my leave.”
Without hesitation, Geom Mu-geuk walked outside.
Jin Ha-gun wanted to stay behind and demand why he had not said anything, but Baek Cheon-gyeong’s gaze was still fixed outside the window. It was an order to leave, telling him not to be bothersome, so Jin Ha-gun quietly left as well.
Once outside, Jin Ha-gun walked together with Geom Mu-geuk. When they had moved away from the workshop, Jin Ha-gun finally asked,
“Is he someone who should be killed, or someone who should be spared?”
Jin Ha-gun was curious how Geom Mu-geuk had seen his master.
“I thought you said you did not trust my words?”
“I will only use them as reference.”
Of course, he was someone who had to be killed.
But instead of answering, Geom Mu-geuk showed Jin Ha-gun what he was holding in his hand.
“When did you bring that out?”
The reason Jin Ha-gun was startled was because what Geom Mu-geuk had brought out was the doll from the display stand. It was none other than the faceless doll.
“Why did you bring it out?”
Geom Mu-geuk stared intently at the doll.
“Aren’t you curious? Who he had in mind when he made this doll?”
“If you were curious, you should have left it there.”
“I am thinking of carving this face myself.”
“What?”
What in the world was he talking about? To Jin Ha-gun, Geom Mu-geuk was truly someone impossible to understand no matter how much he tried.
“One thing is certain: your master is no ordinary man. At the very least, I clearly felt that he is someone who should not be the master of the Martial Alliance Leader’s grandson.”
“Did you perhaps exchange sound transmissions with Master?”
Geom Mu-geuk shook his head.
“Then what was it about Master that made you think that?”
“To be honest, after seeing him just once like this, I still do not know whether he is an evil man, and therefore someone who must be killed.”
Of course, he would die by his hand. It was only a question of when and how.
“But his attitude toward you, at least, was a problem.”
Geom Mu-geuk pointed out the part Jin Ha-gun would be able to accept most easily.
“The look in his eyes and his attitude toward you could not be called that of master and disciple. They were cold and detached. Even if you had committed a great wrong, when an outsider is present, he should cover for your flaws, but your master focused only on me. No, perhaps he was focused on himself. That man does not regard you as his disciple.”
Jin Ha-gun had thought that once he heard a conclusion, in whatever form, his heart would feel at ease. But his heart remained exactly as it had been.
This time, Geom Mu-geuk asked,
“What was the master you saw like? You must have had many thoughts as well.”
Jin Ha-gun revealed his honest feelings.
“I do not know. I still find Master suspicious, and I still find you suspicious.”
The feeling of being lost came precisely from this point. He had felt that his master had changed, and his instinct for danger had stirred, yet without any proof that his master was a bad person, he had called Geom Mu-geuk. What if he was being used? What if he had judged wrongly? Those thoughts kept trapping him in fog.
As if he understood him, Geom Mu-geuk said calmly,
“That is why a definite enemy is better than an ambiguous friend.”
Jin Ha-gun realized that he was suffering because he did not know who was friend and who was foe. Why, of all people, did the one to awaken him to this have to be the Young Cult Leader of the Demon Cult?
Geom Mu-geuk stopped at a fork in the road.
“Go on ahead. I have somewhere to stop by for a moment.”
“Where are you going?”
At that, instead of answering, Geom Mu-geuk said something unexpected.
“What I said about having a good sense of direction and never getting lost was a lie.”
This was what he wanted to tell Jin Ha-gun.
“I panic and wander too. I lose my way often. Maybe because I am like that, people who loudly insist that this path is definitely the right one… I do not like them very much.”
“Why are you suddenly saying that?”
“It just suddenly came to mind.”
After saying that, Geom Mu-geuk launched himself away with lightness skill.
Watching him vanish into a dot in an instant, Jin Ha-gun looked up at the sky. He remembered what Geom Mu-geuk had said. To find the way, ask people, look up at the sky, and if even that did not work…
This is madness, he thought as he took off his shoe.
Then he threw it upward. The direction the falling shoe pointed was the direction in which Geom Mu-geuk had just disappeared.
‘Of all directions.’
Even coincidence was saying that following Geom Mu-geuk was right? Not a chance. The first round was always a practice round.
Jin Ha-gun threw the shoe once more. He threw it higher than before. But coincidence overlapped again. He threw it again, and again.
Only when it finally pointed in the direction he intended to go did he put his shoe back on.
“As if you would really panic and wander. Do not comfort me for nothing. I will find my path with my own strength.”
Jin Ha-gun strode vigorously toward his residence.
Even though he tried not to think about it, the image of his doll that had been lying down and then raised back up kept coming to mind.