The purple radiance signaled the use of a forbidden demonic art.
The Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art, which forced a truthful answer from one’s opponent, had been unleashed.
The Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art was a forbidden martial art that could not be used on members of the cult unless the Cult Leader granted permission.
Because the martial art itself could read an opponent’s mind and even draw answers from them, there were far too many ways it could be abused.
And yet the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable had broken the taboo and cast the Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art.
All high-level ghost arts practitioners could use the Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art, but its success rate differed according to each practitioner’s skill and internal energy. The higher their skill, the deeper the purple hue.
The dazzling purple light made it clear that the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable’s Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art could draw out even memories the target himself did not recall.
“Who are you?”
“I am Geom Mugeuk.”
“How do you know about me?”
“I investigated you. From your personality to everything else.”
The Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art, which infiltrated through the eyes, had no effect on me after I had taken the Blood-Eye Essence.
Even so, I answered as though I had been caught in the Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art. By seeing what he asked, I too would learn something about him.
“Is the Cult Leader behind this matter?”
“No.”
Relief flashed across the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable’s face. As expected, the one he feared most was Father.
“Why did you come?”
“To kill you.”
“Did you tell anyone you were coming here?”
“I told no one.”
The Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable released the Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art. It seemed he had decided that if the Cult Leader had not ordered it, there was no reason to keep expending internal energy on the art. The internal energy and mental strength consumed by the Mind-Reading Soul-Stealing Art were greater than any other sorcery.
From his question about whether I had told anyone I was coming here, I could tell.
He had decided to kill me.
“Second Young Master, as of today, you will disappear from your world.”
“Never mind me. Do you think you can handle the aftermath after killing me?”
“Why would I handle the aftermath? The Blood Heaven Blade Demon will. I won’t be the one killing you. You will die by his hand after trying to kill him.”
He meant that he would cast a soul-seizing spell on me and order me to kill the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. Since he believed I could not defeat the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, his conclusion was that I would ultimately be killed by him.
“That is so like you.”
“What do you mean, like me? Why do you keep speaking as though you know me so well? You investigated me? The very fact that you think you can kill me means your investigation was worthless.”
The moment he finished speaking, the world spun round and round.
Lights so dazzling and intense that I could not open my eyes came flying at me, and before long I was standing alone in a dark space. Someone whispered beside my ear.
—Kill the Blood Heaven Blade Demon!
Those words repeated endlessly.
At first, it was in the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable’s voice. Then in Father’s voice, Ian’s voice, Seo Daeryong’s voice. The words repeated in every voice I knew. I even heard my own voice, and the voice of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
Even when I covered my ears, those words dug into my head. It was as though the command was being hammered straight into my brain. My head hurt as if it would burst.
Even with the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art activated, it was this bad. If I were an ordinary person, I would already have fallen under the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable’s spell.
I looked around.
In the pitch-black darkness, I saw a bluish light far away. Instinctively, I felt that light was the way to break this soul-seizing spell. I walked toward it.
The closer I got, the larger the light became, until it was big enough for a person to pass through.
Without hesitation, I walked into it.
Outside, the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable was standing there. He stared at me with a startled expression.
“How did you open your eyes on your own?”
It seemed the act of walking out through the light was, in reality, the act of opening my eyes.
“You should never be able to open your eyes before the soul-seizing spell ends.”
“It seems I’ve grown quite fond of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. I don’t want to kill him.”
Once again, the surroundings spun round and round as an intense light flew at me. I was in the darkness again.
—Kill the Blood Heaven Blade Demon!
It was an even more powerful soul-seizing spell, into which he had poured more internal energy. If the first spell had hammered the command into my brain with a small hammer, this one was pounding it in with a large one.
But the bluish light still existed, and I was able to escape through it. Even after coming out, my head was dizzy enough to feel as though it would split apart, so I could tell just how powerful the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable’s spell was.
“Why in the world are you not falling under the soul-seizing spell?”
“I told you, it’s because of my deep bond with Elder Blade Demon.”
“Nonsense!”
“You’re anxious, unlike yourself.”
“Then I suppose I, who have no such bond, will have to step in personally.”
The next moment, the surroundings darkened.
Something wriggled in the darkness.
The floor heaved, and pitch-black shadows raised themselves up. Their eyes and mouths were split long, and their limbs were stretched out in a grotesque fashion—monsters that chilled the liver and guts with a mere glance.
Those things, as though they had crawled up from hell, rushed at me.
I cut them down with the Black Demon Sword.
Bluish lights were marked like dots on the bodies of the pitch-black monsters. Some were on their heads, some on their bellies, and some on their arms. The Blood-Eye Essence showed me precisely how to break this sorcery.
When I stabbed the lights accurately, the creatures turned into clusters of white light and vanished. Had I not struck their vital points precisely, they would have been evil spirits that never died and attacked their target to the end. They were enemies that could never be stopped by mere martial prowess alone.
After I cut down every monster, the dark surroundings brightened, and I saw the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable standing there with a grave expression.
Without saying a word, he unleashed the next sorcery.
When it darkened and then brightened again, I was startled.
I was standing on a massive log in the middle of the sea.
It was real seawater. It was surely an illusion created by manipulating the human mind, but it was also a real sea in which I would die if I fell.
Then came the sound of waves from far away.
When I turned my head, something was bearing down on me from the distance. Astonishingly, it was a gigantic tidal wave.
Swaaaaaaaaaah!
The wrath of nature, which human strength could never hope to block.
I could clearly understand why the orthodox faction considered the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable the most troublesome opponent. How could a mere human possibly overcome an illusion this immense?
The tidal wave surging closer was as high as a cliff. It was so high that its end seemed impossibly distant.
But nowhere on the tidal wave could I see a way to break the spell.
There was nowhere to dodge, so I was swept away by the wave.
A tremendous impact struck me, and I sank into the water as though being crushed. If the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art had not been active, I would have lost consciousness from the shock.
Regardless of my will, I was tossed about underwater.
How much time had passed?
“Pwah!”
I pushed my face above the surface and exhaled the breath I had been holding.
Just as I thought I could finally live—
Another tidal wave began surging toward me from far away. If this tidal wave kept repeating, even the greatest master would eventually be exhausted and die. Before that, I had to find the way to break the spell and escape.
I looked around, then dove underwater to search for a bluish light. But beneath the sea, there was only darkness.
I was swept away by the second tidal wave as well. After minimizing the impact with the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art, I raised my head above the water again. No matter how much I looked around, there was nothing but the boundless sea.
Searching this vast sea for a way to break the spell seemed nearly impossible.
Where on earth could it be? There were no seagulls, no rocky islands—truly nothing but seawater and me in this endless sea.
‘I need there to be something if I’m going to find it.’
At that very moment, a thought flashed through my mind. Now that I thought about it, there was one thing.
‘Surely not?’
I launched myself out of the water. Kicking off the seawater, I flew upward and searched for that one thing. But I failed to find what I was looking for and was swept away by the third tidal wave.
Before the fourth tidal wave came, I once again flew up above the sea and diligently searched for that one thing.
And in the end, I found what I had been looking for.
‘Please! Let this be it!’
What I found was the log I had been standing on when I first entered this place.
When I turned the log over, there was a bluish light shining on its underside.
The Blood-Eye Essence had always shown me the way to break a spell accurately and quickly, but this time, the darkest place had been beneath the lamp. In the vast open sea, the very thing that had been protecting me was the way to break the spell. It made sense.
Or perhaps the light had originally been shining on top, but as the log turned in the waves, the light ended up facing downward.
Just before the fourth tidal wave struck, I cut the log with the Black Demon Sword.
At that very instant—
The tidal wave that had been surging in vanished as though it had been a lie, and at the same time, the sea disappeared.
It must have been his hidden trump card, but the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable did not show me any despair.
A new space immediately unfolded. The Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable was pouring out the lethal secret arts he possessed.
Around me stood some thirty mirrors.
My life was reflected in them.
There was a mirror showing me as a child, one showing me as I was now, one showing me in middle age, and one showing me as an old man. It was as though the mirrors were showing my entire life in intervals of three or four years.
I slowly walked forward and looked at myself in the mirrors. Most of the ages were ones I had experienced at least once before my return, but from a certain point on, they showed ages even I had never lived through. In particular, the me reflected in the last mirror was so old that it was difficult even to recognize him as myself.
I was on the verge of death.
I asked the me in the mirror.
“What do you regret so much?”
The me in the mirror was withered and dry, lying alone in a large room, staring blankly at the ceiling with hollow eyes. There was no one to accompany me in death. It was truly a lonely and desolate death.
This is not my future. It is an illusion created by the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable. Perhaps someone with a quick temper would have broken this mirror. And if they had, the situation would likely have grown even worse.
I reached out and slowly stroked the old man in the mirror.
“You lived with so much blood on your hands. Did you expect a happy death? That is greed, Mugeuk. If you killed Hwa Mugi and saved the people who should have been saved, then even a death like this is fine.”
I comforted myself. What would my actual death be like? Would I die alone and desolate like that? Or would I die smiling, comforting those left behind?
“It’s all right, so go in peace. I know you.”
I stroked the me in the mirror, but perhaps I was actually comforting my present self. Telling myself it was all right, that I was doing well.
I returned to the front and stood before a mirror showing my youth. It was me from a few years later, and a bluish light was hovering around the mirror.
“Now then, shall we leave?”
Crash!
I swung the Black Demon Sword and shattered the mirror.
Beyond the broken mirror, I saw the startled Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable.
“How did you know it was that mirror?”
Among the dozens of mirrors, only one was a mirror through which I could leave that place.
“If you broke the wrong one, the number of mirrors would double. If you broke another wrong one, they would double again. You would never escape from there for eternity.”
“I’m lucky.”
“You escaped because you were lucky? That is not something luck can break!”
The Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable’s expression had completely hardened. His surprise had now turned into shock, and he had reached the one conclusion that must have hovered in his mind throughout each failed attack.
He asked in a trembling voice.
“Did you truly learn the Nine Flames Demonic Art?”
Before I could even answer, he decided that I had.
“That insane Cult Leader! He already chose his successor without telling us?”
That was how he misunderstood the situation. He had no choice but to. There was only one case in which his sorcery would not work.
The Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable burst out in fury.
“Damn it! He uses his own child as the blade to kill me? That filthy bastard! The Cult Leader never once showed his true thoughts. Always striking people in the back.”
“Wait. Let’s clarify one thing. Aside from this matter, when has Father ever struck you in the back?”
“What?”
“You said he always strikes people in the back. Tell me about another time.”
The Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable said nothing.
“Father said the person the orthodox faction fears most is you. That means he holds you in high regard. Would he really have struck someone like you in the back? I don’t think so.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying don’t run your mouth just because you’re angry. Father hesitated until the very end about killing you. Perhaps I might even lose points with him over this matter.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“I thought about it carefully. Farming, doing business, attending academies, going to martial halls. They were just ordinary people living decent lives. But one day, without even knowing why, they were dragged here and had their hearts torn out while still alive? Wouldn’t that be too unjust?”
“Life is unfair by nature. If they feel wronged, they should become masters.”
“Then today, you can take all of that injustice upon yourself.”
Even though he misunderstood that I had learned the Nine Flames Demonic Art, the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable was not cowed.
“You said you investigated me? Yes, you did well. I am a man who has lived with a desire to live long. Did you think a man like me would not have anticipated that a day like this might come? The day the Cult Leader betrayed me and came to kill me?”
He still believed Father had orchestrated this situation.
“Do you know why I immersed myself in the Heart-Soul Great Art? Do you think it was just to gain a little internal energy?”
“Was it not?”
“Of course not.”
A black, smoke-like energy began rising around the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable’s body.
“Did you say I became a monster? Have you ever even seen a real monster?”
Within the black energy, he began to change. It was a transformation in the truest sense. His body grew larger, and his skin turned black. From his long, slit eyes flowed a pure white radiance, and his ears rose like those of an evil spirit. Within his chest, a large red heart could be seen pounding.
Was that an illusion, or was it real?
Transformed, he exuded a completely different presence from before. It was cold and solid. I grew tense. This demonic art was a lethal move prepared against the Nine Flames Demonic Art. That meant it was correspondingly powerful.
“I will tear your precious Nine Flames Demonic Art to shreds!”
The demonic energy he released swept through the surroundings. It was not mere demonic energy, but Dark Demonic Energy.