It was a small lump of iron.
It was not round like the black crystal of the Pungcheon Cult that Bigwe had first absorbed. This one was a fang-shaped ornament that looked as though it might have fallen from some iron beast. It was too heavy to wear around one’s neck, so it could only be set up and used as decoration.
“I’ll take this.”
Bisain looked at Geom Mugeuk in surprise.
“Are you serious?”
“I am.”
“May I have a look?”
“As much as you like.”
Bisain examined the ornament closely. No matter how he looked at it, it was just a fang made of iron. But there was no way Geom Mugeuk had chosen it at random.
“Why do you want this?”
“I was simply drawn to it.”
“You truly are impossible to understand.”
It was not as though this had happened only once or twice since meeting Geom Mugeuk, but this was the most incomprehensible case yet.
“Did I not receive the Sun-Moon Sword from you, and the Fighting God from the Alliance Leader? This is enough for me.”
“And yet you worry your mystique will disappear. The question of why you chose this alone will last me a lifetime.”
Geom Mugeuk and Bisain left the treasury together.
“I truly never dreamed I would go through such things with you.”
And was it only Bisain? Even Geom Mugeuk himself had never imagined he would live this kind of life after regressing. Whenever he had grown weary wandering the Central Plains alone in search of materials for the great art, he had soothed himself by thinking of the life he would have after his regression. How could he have imagined that he would walk side by side out of the Sado Alliance’s treasury with the Young Alliance Leader of the Sado Alliance?
“There will be many more things we never expected. Let us live our whole lives being surprised like this.”
Though younger than him, Geom Mugeuk was someone Bisain could always rely on.
There was one thing he wanted to ask such a Geom Mugeuk.
“Are you not afraid?”
“Of what?”
“Those who are plotting such schemes against us. We do not know what else they might do while hiding in the darkness, do we?”
Since Bisain believed that the King of Fighters had escaped alive, perhaps this fear was only natural.
Now that the frantic battle had ended and he had caught his breath, Bisain realized just how perilous this whole affair had been. If not for Geom Mugeuk, he would have died several times over by now.
Young Cult Leader, just what kind of thoughts do you have?
Geom Mugeuk answered calmly.
“What is there to fear? I am sure I am living more diligently than they are. If I still fall victim after doing the very best I can, then there is nothing to be done about it, is there? I should gladly die.”
“!”
They were words that would become a milestone for Bisain’s life from this day forward.
Even as he gave him such grateful words, Geom Mugeuk instead expressed his own thanks.
“Thank you for keeping your promise.”
When he thought of all the gratitude that had filled the basket of accounts, this moment only made him feel terribly sorry and ashamed.
Bisain strode ahead and said,
“Just do not be late for the evening banquet.”
* * *
Geom Mugeuk returned to the guest hall provided by the Sado Alliance.
After entering the room, he locked the door and closed the windows as well.
He placed Bigwe and the iron fang he had brought from the treasury on the table. Since he had already experienced it absorbing the black crystal once, he would not be surprised by what was about to happen. In any case, it seemed you absorbed things even when they were shaped differently.
“You were hungry, weren’t you? Now, eat up!”
But Bigwe did not move at all.
“Eat. Why aren’t you eating?”
It had definitely vibrated, but Bigwe did not absorb the iron ornament.
“Did your face change to the other side while I wasn’t looking?”
He changed its direction and placed the fang ornament on another side, but it still did not absorb it.
“What is this? Was it not this one? Was it the one beside it?”
Of course, that could not be. It had clearly reacted to this.
He tried this and that, but nothing worked.
In the end, Geom Mugeuk gave up.
“You must be full.”
Bigwe merely wore the bright smile he had drawn on it.
* * *
That evening, guided by In-gung, Geom Mugeuk walked down the corridor leading to the Alliance Leader Hall.
When In-gung naturally stopped in one spot and looked back, sure enough, Geom Mugeuk had come to a halt before the steel wolf.
“After today, you will not be able to see it again, so please take a moment to say farewell. I will be waiting at the Alliance Leader Hall.”
He felt sorry that he had not given Geom Mugeuk proper time, despite how much he liked that wolf statue. Of course, it was also consideration born of goodwill for his having saved the Alliance Leader.
“Thank you. I will come soon.”
Once In-gung disappeared, Geom Mugeuk bade the wolf farewell.
“I won’t be able to see you anymore either.”
He did not know why this wolf kept drawing his steps.
Was it because he felt that his past life before regression resembled this lonely wolf? Perhaps it was.
“I suppose I will have no reason to see you again. Be well.”
After stroking the wolf’s head, Geom Mugeuk was about to turn away when he flinched and stopped. A thought had suddenly struck him like lightning.
Geom Mugeuk took the fang ornament from his robes.
“Surely not? No, it can’t be.”
Geom Mugeuk placed the fang into the steel wolf’s open mouth.
Even when he fit it into the place where a fang should go, nothing changed. The other side was the same.
“I knew it.”
He was about to leave, but since he had already tried, he placed it among the upper teeth as well.
At that very moment, blue radiance burst from the wolf’s two eyes.
Swaaaaaaak!
In that instant, it felt as though the wolf had come to life.
Geom Mugeuk drew up his inner force and retreated. Fortunately, the wolf did not attack him.
Instead, with a clank, something rolled out from inside the wolf’s mouth.
When Geom Mugeuk saw what it was, he was startled.
What had come out of its mouth was a bead tinged with blue light. If the one absorbed earlier had been a black crystal, then this was a blue crystal. Even its size was exactly the same.
This fang had been the key to retrieving the bead hidden inside the steel wolf’s body. Only now did he understand why he had been so drawn to this wolf statue. It had not been him, but Bigwe that had led him here. Or else the energy of the black crystal it had absorbed earlier had drawn him.
Wooooong.
Bigwe, inside his robes, vibrated in response.
He took out Bigwe and placed the blue crystal on top of it.
Sssrk.
As if it had been waiting, Bigwe began to absorb the blue crystal. The hard bead seeped into Bigwe like liquid.
After absorbing all of the blue crystal, Bigwe vibrated once.
Sssssss!
Something tinged with blue energy began to emerge from Bigwe.
It was the same as with the black crystal. It was not smoke, not liquid, not inner force, and not light. That indescribable something passed through Geom Mugeuk’s hand and arm, then spread throughout his entire body.
This time as well, the Heavenly Demon Protection Art did not activate. Rather, a refreshing sensation spread through his body. Geom Mugeuk’s instincts were certain of this: whatever this energy was, it would certainly not harm him.
The moment the energy spread from head to toe, radiance burst from Geom Mugeuk’s body. It was a light so intense he could not open his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again after having closed them, that blue energy had already been completely absorbed into his body. Through Bigwe, he had absorbed a second energy.
Even so, there was no change in his body. The two energies did not meet and mingle either. They merely lay quietly asleep, each deep within his body.
He had the feeling that this was because he had not yet absorbed all the energies needed to bring about some change.
Bigwe spat out the blue crystal after absorbing all its energy. It had now become an ordinary stone. After putting Bigwe, the stone, and even the fang he had inserted into the wolf statue away in his robes, he thanked the wolf statue this time.
“At the very least, I will not let what you held within you be used in vain. Thank you, Blue Wolf.”
The wolf stood proudly as usual, as though it had never emitted blue energy from its eyes.
Geom Mugeuk slowly moved his steps toward the Alliance Leader Hall.
* * *
Seated in the grand chair, Baek Jagang was thinking of the Heavenly Demon, Geom Ujin. That gaze, as though looking down on him, was still vivid in his mind. He had met him twice, and both times, the gaze had been the same.
Would a third time be any different?
In the past, he would have refused flatly. The reason he was hesitating like this was not because of the current conspiracy. Nor was it because he wished to grow close to Geom Ujin. It was because of Geom Mugeuk.
“He raised a son like that? That Geom Ujin?”
He could not believe it. He wanted to meet him in person and confirm it. That such a son had been born and raised like a mutation, not because he had been influenced by Geom Ujin. If Geom Ujin had truly raised him that way? That would genuinely infuriate him.
“What do you think?”
Bisain, who stood below the grand chair, answered calmly.
“I would like you to go.”
“Your reason?”
“Because I trust you, Alliance Leader.”
“Because you trust me?”
“Because you are the only person in this world I trust.”
Baek Jagang looked down at his disciple with an unexpected expression. He had never been one to say such things, but he had changed.
“After meeting the Young Cult Leader, I have thought often that I must change.”
“Because you can only win if you change?”
He thought that would naturally be the case, but Bisain held a different thought.
“No, I do not intend to win.”
“Not that you lack the confidence to win?”
“I have changed the dream itself. Not a dream of winning, but a dream of walking together. Perhaps, for me, that will be an even more difficult battle than one of victory or defeat.”
Just as it was harder for a martial artist not to draw his sword than to draw it.
“It will be very difficult beside someone that exceptional. I will be compared to him, my pride will be wounded, and I will feel plenty of self-loathing. But I still want to go. Rather than being satisfied as the head of a snake, I want to entwine myself with a dragon and dream of ascending to the heavens. Even if I fall and die in the process, I will have seen the sky before I die, so I will have no regrets.”
Bisain said all he wished to say without shrinking back at all. This was also the first time he had spoken so much before the Alliance Leader.
Baek Jagang was inwardly satisfied.
His disciple’s words were right. Right now, whether he won or lost was not important. What mattered was momentum.
Rather than boasting that he would definitely win just to curry favor with him, it was better to see him express his own convictions like this.
He had lived his whole life without children. Because of that, there were times in his old age when he occasionally felt regret.
But there stands a child.
That was how he felt. His disciple, like a son to him, was saying that he would walk a path Baek Jagang had never taken. Yes, no matter how large a snake became, it was still only a snake.
At that moment, news came that Geom Mugeuk had arrived, and soon after, the doors of the Alliance Leader Hall opened and Geom Mugeuk entered.
When he arrived before the grand chair, Baek Jagang asked first,
“Did you rest well?”
“Thanks to you, I rested comfortably.”
He must have heard what Geom Mugeuk had chosen from the treasury, but he did not ask about it.
Once he had given permission, that was the end of it. That heart which did not look back resembled his father’s a great deal. That was why he hoped the two might get along well.
Instead, he asked something else.
“What kind of person do you think I am?”
At the sudden question, silence flowed for a moment. Bisain was also curious what answer Geom Mugeuk would give.
After being lost in thought for a moment, Geom Mugeuk broke the silence.
“It has not been long since I met you, so honestly, I do not yet know what kind of person you are. However, the fact that you proudly lead the orthodox path of the unorthodox while competing with my father is enough to show that you must be an extraordinary person.”
It was a humble answer, yet it elevated both his father and Baek Jagang.
“And since you are the person this friend respects most, you must be someone worthy of my respect as well.”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze, which had briefly turned toward Bisain, fixed on Baek Jagang.
“However, what I just said was an answer formed through others. I would like to give you the answer I feel purely for myself. I want to know more about what kind of person you are, Alliance Leader. So please come to my tavern and have a drink.”
Baek Jagang looked down at Geom Mugeuk and fell into thought. If he went, he would meet Geom Ujin. This decision could change not only him, but even the fate of the Sado Alliance.
At last, Baek Jagang made up his mind.
“Tonight’s banquet is canceled.”
Then he added a startling reason.
“We will drink at that tavern you frequent.”
At Baek Jagang’s refreshing decision, a bright smile spread across Geom Mugeuk’s face.
“Thank you very much, Alliance Leader.”
“Instead, as you said, you must resolve the matter of the Martial Alliance yourself. After that, we will set a specific schedule. However, if the Martial Alliance does not accept it, this decision is canceled.”
“Understood. I will contact you as soon as it is resolved.”
Geom Mugeuk knew. He knew just how difficult a decision this had been for the leader of the Sado Alliance. Would anyone leap into enemy territory knowing how the situation might unfold? He had just wagered his life.
“I still do not know exactly what kind of person you are, Alliance Leader, but I must say this.”
“What is it?”
“You are magnificent.”
Since goosebumps did not rise at his ears, it seemed the Young Cult Leader genuinely thought him magnificent.
“I have no need for flattery.”
With a smile, Geom Mugeuk bowed politely.
“Then please take care until we meet again.”
Geom Mugeuk left the Alliance Leader Hall.
The leader of the Sado Alliance was someone he had not known well before his regression, but it turned out he was such a straightforward man. I like him.
After waiting for a short while in front of the Alliance Leader Hall, Bisain came out after him.
“Are you leaving right away?”
At Bisain’s question, Geom Mugeuk nodded.
“Where will you go now?”
“I must stop by the safe house and bring someone back to the main cult. I also need to meet the Poison King. After stopping by the main cult, I will go to the Martial Alliance again. If things go well there, I will send word immediately.”
“You are truly busy.”
He was a man whose specialty was suddenly appearing and suddenly leaving, but this time, Bisain felt regret at parting with Geom Mugeuk.
“If you go, you will meet Squad Leader Jin as well.”
Jin Hagun had been disappointed that he could not follow them to the Sado Alliance, and now Bisain had ended up in the opposite position.
“Come with me.”
“Do you think the Martial Alliance Leader would be pleased to see the three of us together? If I go for no reason, I will only irritate him. Why are you looking at me like that?”
Then came Geom Mugeuk’s surprise question.
“When will you dance?”
Bisain’s flustered face flushed hot.
“Surely the Young Alliance Leader of the Sado Alliance would not go back on words spoken by his own mouth?”
“I will keep it. I said I will keep it!”
Now even his ears had turned red. In any case, when he was with this Geom Mugeuk, he could not let his guard down for even a moment.
Fortunately, Illang came and saved him. Illang handed over the sword box he had been keeping.
Bisain then passed it back to Geom Mugeuk.
“Here is the Sun-Moon Sword you left in my care.”
“Thank you for the gift.”
Just as Geom Mugeuk’s lips twitched, about to ask about the dance again.
“I am currently in possession of two swords.”
“Then I will hold back. I must.”
This playful and persistent man would tease him over this for a long time to come. In the end, he would have to dance someday.
After decorating their final banter with talk of dancing, the two parted in good spirits.
“I will absolutely persuade the Martial Alliance Leader, so let us meet at our main cult.”