After leaving the Thousand Poison Forest, the place I headed for was the Great Drunken Forest.
As always, Yeobin of the Three Great Drunkards guided me to the Drunken Demon.
As we crossed the lake by boat, I asked her.
“Does the Drunken Demon still drink a lot these days?”
“He cut down quite a bit for a while, but lately he seems to be drinking heavily again.”
The look in her eyes was hoping I would try to stop him. Yeobin was the only woman who liked the Drunken Demon and sincerely cared for him.
We arrived at the island and went up to the Drunken Dream Pavilion.
The Drunken Demon was already drunk.
“Still, how could you really come to me last? I’m last among the Demon Supremes, aren’t I? Otherwise, this makes no sense.”
The Drunken Demon made no attempt to hide his hurt feelings.
“I have to meet you last, brother, so I can drink comfortably.”
“Nice excuse.”
“Come on, brother, be understanding. It’s been a tiring day.”
I sat down comfortably in front of the Drunken Demon with my legs stretched out.
“You know what? I’m most at ease when I’m with you.”
“You mean I’m easy to deal with!”
“Is that it?”
Shaking his head as if I was hopeless, the Drunken Demon poured me a drink. Before I knew it, his expression had softened. Rather than a long-winded excuse, sometimes a single “Is that it?” could prove far more powerful.
We drank together.
As the strong liquor slid down my throat, my insides burned. It was stronger than the alcohol the Drunken Demon used to drink before.
“They said you’d cut down, but you’ve been drinking even stronger liquor.”
“If it’s too strong, drink this.”
The Drunken Demon brought over another bottle from the ones piled up in the pavilion and poured it for me. Then he drank the strong liquor he had been drinking before.
What on earth was troubling him?
I was curious, but I did not ask first. There are only two ways to hear the truth from a drunkard. Make him sober up, or make him drink more.
“Here, another cup!”
Whatever his worry was, drinking with the Drunken Demon after so long put me in a good mood.
“The atmosphere is incredible.”
Tonight, the thick water mist and the moon glowing hazily among the clouds heightened the mood even more.
“Even when I was away, whenever I thought of drinking, this place always came to mind. Is brother drinking? Is he floating around in the lake?”
“It’s cold now, so I don’t go into the water much.”
“Time really flies.”
It had been spring just the other day, and now it was already cold. For a while, we each fell into our own thoughts and drank. The Drunken Demon was definitely drinking more than usual.
“Lady Yeo was very worried that you’ve been drinking too much.”
“Yeobin worries every day.”
“Be good to her while she worries about you. Don’t regret it later.”
“Regret?”
The Drunken Demon gave me a look asking what I meant, but I did not answer. Why ask when he already knew? It might seem as though he did nothing but drink all day, but the Drunken Demon was a delicate and sensitive person. How could he not know that Yeobin liked him as a man? He was probably just pretending not to know.
Come to think of it, not a single one of the Demon Supremes had formed a family. At least the Fist Demon had recently gained a daughter. The rest were all living alone like this.
Was it because, as the Blood Heaven Blade Demon always said, family was an enemy? Or because family was a weakness?
“Come with me for a moment. There’s somewhere we need to go.”
The Drunken Demon put me on a boat.
He rowed to the lakeside opposite the entrance and moored the boat. After getting off, the Drunken Demon walked into the forest. I always came only to the Drunken Dream Pavilion, so I had forgotten that the Great Drunken Forest was also an extremely vast place.
After walking for quite a while, the surroundings became shrouded in mist. Something felt strange, so I examined it and realized it was not mist.
It was alcohol qi. It was the first time I had ever seen alcohol qi spread out like fog.
“If someone is exposed to this place, they become drunk and collapse. It isn’t alcohol qi that can be drawn out with inner force either, so ordinary people can never pass through. Stay close behind me and follow.”
As the Drunken Demon walked, the alcohol qi parted and formed a path.
As though it were alive, once we passed, the alcohol qi that had parted joined back together and the path disappeared.
We could not run through with lightness skill either. The alcohol qi blanketed the area like fog, making it impossible to see ahead, and the path was as complicated as a maze. In the end, this road was a forbidden ground of the Great Drunken Forest that only the Drunken Demon could traverse.
After we made it through the maze, the alcohol qi finally cleared.
A single building stood before us.
“This is where generations of Great Drunken Demons brewed and drank their alcohol.”
I followed him inside. The place was arranged like a brewery. The facilities looked old and worn, but every single one of them seemed extraordinary. In display cabinets along the walls were stored the liquors favored by the previous Drunken Demons.
“As for me, I like drinking all kinds of alcohol, so I don’t drink much of the liquor here. Besides, though I have talent for drinking, I don’t have much talent for brewing. So I come here sometimes to rest.”
In the center of the brewery was a strangely shaped wine cup.
Looking down at it, the Drunken Demon said with a grave expression.
“Not long ago, the wine essence spoiled.”
Indeed, a rotten smell was coming from it.
“Since I became a Demon Supreme, this has never happened before.”
The Drunken Demon added with a dark expression.
“It’s ominous.”
Only now did I understand why the Drunken Demon had seemed so troubled.
“Do you think I’m going to die?”
“I guess you don’t want to die.”
“There’s still so much alcohol I haven’t drunk yet.”
“Don’t worry. If you die, I’ll buy every kind of liquor in the Central Plains and pour it over your grave.”
The Drunken Demon let out a sigh. In his heart, which had sensed ill omen, flocks of birds must have taken flight and herds of animals begun to run before an earthquake. Truly, I had never imagined he would be so serious over something like this.
“What kind of Demon Supreme believes in superstition?”
“My master once said something like that. If the wine essence spoils, something terrible will happen. Either something will happen to the Great Drunken Demon, or something will happen to our cult. Of course, I didn’t believe it.”
But now that the wine essence had actually spoiled, he seemed unsettled.
“If it bothers you that much, tell Father.”
“No! I’ve only just cleared up the misunderstanding with the Cult Leader.”
Originally, the Drunken Demon had misunderstood that Father disliked him. But after learning that it was not him Father disliked, but his master, the misunderstanding had been resolved.
“I’ve even been giving the Cult Leader alcohol as gifts. We’ve been getting along well all this time. But if he hears that the wine essence has spoiled, won’t it leave a bad taste in his mouth for no reason? ‘Of course. Like master, like disciple. Unlucky drunkards, the lot of them.’”
It made me wonder why he was worrying over even something like that, but that was how delicate the Drunken Demon was. At least when it came to his relationship with Father, even more so.
“Father will dismiss it as superstition and drink. That’s the kind of man he is.”
I examined the cup containing the wine essence and asked.
“How do we clean this up? Don’t try to scare me by saying I broke it by accident and it was a treasure of the Great Drunken Forest passed down for a thousand years.”
“Why? Are you going to clean it now? Forget it. I’ll do it later.”
“Why later? You’ll clean it while thinking every gloomy and terrible thought by yourself. Clean it up quickly while I’m here.”
Together with the Drunken Demon, I emptied the spoiled wine essence from the cup.
While I drew water and washed the cup, the Drunken Demon prepared to brew new liquor.
As I washed the cup, I said to him.
“It didn’t spoil because of you, brother. There’s someone trying to disturb our cult these days. It must have spoiled because of that unlucky bastard.”
“You don’t have to make things up just to comfort me.”
“I’m not making it up. I’ve even mobilized the Yellow Springs Pavilion and the Heaven-Piercing Pavilion to investigate him.”
“There really is a bastard like that?”
“There is. I guess I can’t look down on my brother. You even guessed something like this.”
Even so, the Drunken Demon’s expression did not relax. I could not just stand by and watch a Demon Supreme get devoured by superstition.
“Brother, do you think a person’s future is set in stone?”
“To some degree.”
“I don’t. Depending on what I say to you right now, my relationship with you changes immediately. So what exactly is set? I think the wine essence spoiled because fate was trying to make you bring me here. If that hadn’t happened, I would never have known that a place like this existed. How can anyone know the affairs of the world? Someday, I might fall into danger and end up fleeing here. This isn’t an ominous warning, but a great message of destiny meant to save your younger brother’s life.”
“You really do have a talent for forcing things to fit.”
He laughed in disbelief, but thanks to that, much of his ominous mood seemed to ease. The Drunken Demon’s expression brightened.
“You waited for me so eagerly because you wanted to hear something like this, didn’t you?”
The Drunken Demon readily admitted it.
“It was more than I expected.”
“Please continue to make frequent use of me in the future, customer!”
As I placed the clean wine cup back where it had been, I said.
“The price for using my services is one cup of alcohol and one superstition-loving big brother.”
* * *
When I returned to my quarters, the night-shift guards greeted me warmly.
“You look tired.”
After returning from the Gangseo Branch, I had met people almost without rest until now. And it was not as if they were ordinary people.
“I’ll be resting from now on, so don’t disturb me.”
I entered my room as though I would throw myself onto the bed at once, but instead of sleeping, I opened the Space-Time Transposition Art.
My way of dealing with ominous feelings? Training.
If something ominous happens, I simply erase it. I endure by becoming someone even misfortune cannot do anything about. I’m working this hard to endure. Misfortune, what can the likes of you do?
Within the Space-Time Transposition Art, I once again activated the Secret Art of Time and made time flow differently.
Through painstaking effort, I had managed to obtain twice as much time as the outside world. I did not hope for infinite time. The final goal of the Secret Art of Time was exactly a tenfold difference in time. Just enough time to reach the twelfth-star great completion of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art, please.
Today’s training was the Nine Calamities Demonic Art. Until now, I had repeatedly trained only the first form, but I instinctively felt that the time had come to learn the second form. Such was the level of martial attainment I had reached.
Nine Calamities Demonic Art, Second Form.
Great Annihilation Form.
If the first form, the Human Annihilation Form, was an attack aimed at a single person, the second form, the Great Annihilation Form, was a technique for facing many opponents.
When I executed the second form, one evil spirit silently appeared before me with its back turned.
It was the most terrifying-looking of the four evil spirits that appeared in the first form.
For an instant, its body seemed to tremble slightly.
Srrrk.
The evil spirit split apart. The number it split into was three in total.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The three evil spirits thrust out their swords and swept forward.
Nothing remained in the place they passed through. It was an attack that swept away whatever stood there.
The higher my mastery of the second form rose, the greater the number of splits would become.
Later, it would become a technique that split into dozens and swept away everything visible before my eyes.
Of course, the amount of inner force consumed would also increase according to the number of splits.
How many can Father split into?
I will surpass the number Father can create.
Just what is my limit?
When I imagined the evil spirits sweeping through everything before my eyes, my chest surged with excitement.
Once that image came to mind, I could not sleep.
I devoted myself to training the second form until morning, and by the time the sun rose, I was nearly exhausted.
Now it truly was time to rest.
I released the Secret Art of Time and activated the Space-Time Transposition Art again. My most cherished space unfolded.
A hot sun, a blue sea, a pure white sandy beach, and a comfortable chair beneath a broad-leafed tree.
It had truly been a long time. I had deliberately saved it. For a day like this.
I sank heavily into the chair as though lying down.
Looking at the blue sea and sky, the same color as my sword aura, put my heart at ease.
Whether the wine essence had spoiled, whether Sa Ujong was acting up, whether there was someone behind him. At least for this moment, I forgot it all and rested.
I placed the secret coffer from my robes beside me. I had drawn eyes and a mouth on it like a person’s face. It was a brightly smiling expression.
Though I had said I would tell it “open, open” every day until I forced it open, ever since obtaining the secret coffer, I had never actually said the word open to it.
“You rest too. For all those long years, people must have urged you to open and open. How exhausting must that have been? You rest, and I’ll rest too.”
Sleep washed over me. The demon of sleep guided me to a being I had not seen in a long time.
In my dream, I was standing in the sky.
Above a sea that resembled the heavens, within my own aura.
Then a shadow fell, and the world darkened. When I turned around, something enormous was blocking the sun. At first, I thought it was a tidal wave as high as a fortress wall, but it was not.
The Heavenly Demon Soul.
The thing that had shown itself to me several times had appeared in my dream. The Heavenly Demon Soul was looking down at me with its arms crossed. Because the sun was behind it, I could not see its face clearly.
But I knew instinctively. This was my Heavenly Demon Soul.
I stared piercingly at the Heavenly Demon Soul, wanting to see its face. But at this moment, even the Divine Eye Art did not work.
“Do you also want me to reach you more quickly?”
The Heavenly Demon Soul merely looked down at me in silence.
* * *
Three days later, I received the first report in Seo Daeryong’s office.
“Even after thoroughly examining Sa Ujong’s financial situation, we found nothing particularly suspicious.”
“No trace of money having changed hands?”
“No. Judging by his habits of saving and spending, he is not someone with much interest in money.”
Seo Daeryong asked cautiously.
“Could he really have been trying to die at the hands of the Soul-Capturing Demon Supreme?”
I shook my head.
“That would actually be an even worse case. What you’re saying means he was moved by something other than money, doesn’t it? If he were a chivalrous hero, he might have acted for a great cause, but he isn’t that kind of person.”
“Young Cult Leader, you believe there is someone behind him.”
“I’m keeping several possibilities in mind.”
Considering Baek Cheongyeong of the Mok Cheon Family, who had infiltrated the Martial Alliance, I could not guarantee that our cult had no such person. From now on, in any incident that occurred, I had to always keep in mind the possibility of someone behind it.
“This is the record of Sa Ujong’s daily routine.”
I calmly examined the day written on the paper. In a daily life no different from that of ordinary martial artists, one thing caught my eye.
“What’s this flower garden?”
“They say he’s been going to that flower garden often lately. He goes there and sits blankly for a while before returning. Since he was someone who helped the One Flower Sword Supreme tend flower gardens, it probably isn’t strange for him to visit one.”
“No, it is strange, isn’t it? If it were me, I wouldn’t even want to look at flowers. If he had instead gone off out of nowhere to learn the geomungo, I wouldn’t have suspected him. But he regularly visited a place everyone naturally accepted without suspicion?”
“Now that you put it that way, it does seem suspicious. Ah, I’m truly glad you aren’t my classmate, Young Cult Leader. I would never have entered at the top of the class.”
I laughed at his banter and rose from my seat.
Since it was obvious where I was going now, Seo Daeryong looked at the flowerpot by the window and said.
“Number Three, looks like you’re going to make a friend.”