Geomugeuk and the Sword King walked down the dark passage.
This time as well, all manner of patterns, characters, and drawings were inscribed on the walls. The style was both similar to and different from the paintings they had seen earlier. It did not seem as though the same person had drawn them, but judging by the similar feeling they gave off—
‘Were they fellow disciples?’
He thought that might be the case.
Having found the method to break through in the previous paintings, he did not pass over even a single character lightly.
“Look here.”
There was a drawing where Geomugeuk pointed. The very pattern that had served as the key to breaking through earlier was drawn here as well.
“It seems to be a pattern that held meaning for the ones who made this place.”
The Sword King merely nodded once and said nothing else.
It was when the two of them had reached roughly the center of the passage.
Ssssss.
The instant he felt the formation activate, their surroundings changed in the blink of an eye.
‘Where is this?’
A blue sky reflected beneath his feet. This place, where it felt as though he were standing in the sky, was the same place that had appeared when Geomugeuk released his qi force.
And so below was the sea. Above, an endlessly clear and peaceful sky; below, an unfathomable abyssal sea.
“Master!”
Geomugeuk called out, but the Sword King was not there.
“Should we have tied the rope again?”
Of course, it was a joke. Even if they had tied a rope, he would not have been able to enter this space together with the Sword King. This trial was undoubtedly one each person had to overcome on their own.
“You aren’t making only me suffer while you sit back and watch for fun, are you?”
Just as Geomugeuk’s voice rang out resoundingly, someone appeared before him.
Amazingly, the person was Geomugeuk himself. Yet even though another version of himself had appeared, Geomugeuk was not surprised.
He knew well that old illusions and formations often used this method, making one’s own self appear. This trial was likely one that tested the strength of the inner self.
This place is inside my own heart. So trust yourself.
Steeling his heart like that, Geomugeuk approached himself first.
After staring quietly at that face, Geomugeuk spoke to himself.
“It’s been a while.”
At that greeting, the other Geomugeuk looked puzzled.
“I see you from time to time.”
If someone else heard it, they might think he was mad, but in truth, whenever Geomugeuk took time to rest alone, he would sometimes stand face-to-face with his lonely self from before his regression.
Once, he had even stood across from himself with a vast hole between them and told him not to fall into it.
“You came today to put me in trouble, didn’t you?”
The instant the other self’s eyes flashed, the place where he stood changed in the blink of an eye.
Geomugeuk was running.
‘Where is this?’
The place he was heading toward was the Heavenly Demon Hall within the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
‘Father!’
It was that day. The day all the people of the Heavenly Demon Hall were killed by Hwa Mugi!
Calling desperately for his father, Geomugeuk was blindly running toward the Heavenly Demon Hall. He should not have done that, but the self of that time had been far too agitated to make any other judgment.
Corpses lay collapsed everywhere. Not only martial artists, but even those who did not know martial arts—all the people of the Heavenly Demon Hall had fallen. The sight only drove him into greater agitation.
‘The outer court is intact, so how in the world was the Heavenly Demon Hall breached?’
As if answering that question, a single person appeared.
A man stood on top of the wall surrounding the Heavenly Demon Hall, arms folded as he looked down over the place. He was the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable of the past.
It was a sight he had not seen that day in the past. An illusion visible only now, inside this formation.
Because he had regarded him as a traitor, his figure must have appeared. After all, this place was his own heart.
In the distance, Hwa Mugi’s figure appeared.
His face could not be seen. But Geomugeuk could feel that he was smiling coldly in his direction.
A single streak of sword qi flew at him without a word.
He also saw Ian hurl himself in front of him.
‘Ian.’
He felt the sword qi that pierced Ian’s chest pass through and pierce his own chest as well.
Because they had fallen collapsed one atop the other, Ian’s hot blood flowed down to his own chest.
That day, which he had tried not to recall because he had been so utterly powerless, was being vividly reenacted within the formation.
Then someone walked over to his fallen self and looked down at him. It was neither Hwa Mugi nor the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable.
It was the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, with a great saber strapped to his back. His eyes were colder than anything.
Beside him stood the Extreme Evil Lesser Demon, looking down at him. The smile beneath his mask felt unfamiliar. The other Demon Venerables gathered around his dying self.
He saw the Fist Demon’s massive fists, and the heavily made-up face of the Ilhwa Sword Venerable. The stench of alcohol poured from the Drunken Demon, and from the Demon Buddha’s body radiated not golden light, but a crimson glow. The drawings on the poison pouches at the Poison King’s waist were not their current cute forms, but had been shaped into something terrifying.
They were all looking down at him, laughing at him.
Geomugeuk could tell. This formation was trying to deceive him. Telling him that everyone that day had been a traitor.
—Be enraged!
It was trying to make his blood boil like lava.
If he had been his ordinary self, not someone who had regressed, that anguish and hatred would have dominated him. The unknown energy emitted by the formation was endlessly numbing his reason, drawing out suspicion and rage. It was an energy an ordinary person could never withstand.
This formation was the Blood Wave Mad Soul Formation, which drove people mad by stimulating the anger and hatred deep within their hearts.
But it did not work on Geomugeuk.
‘From the very beginning, when I first regressed, I thought all of them were traitors anyway.’
He had come this far with that in his heart.
And yet, why had he treated them with such sincerity? Because this life was a different life from the last.
It did not matter who had betrayed him in his previous life. The Demon Venerables of this life were different people from back then. He had made them into different people. All their fates had changed.
Looking up at the sneering Demon Venerables, Geomugeuk instead smiled brightly.
“Is there something interesting to see?”
Geomugeuk rose to his feet. Before he knew it, Ian’s corpse had vanished, and so had the wound that had pierced through his body.
When Geomugeuk faced them with a smile, the formation dug into another weakness.
—Do you truly intend to protect them all?
When he turned around, others had appeared before he knew it.
Not only the Demon Venerables, but Ian, Seo Daeryong, Jang Ho-hyung, and even his friends had appeared. Bisa-in, Jin Hagun, Jin Haryeong, Han Seol as well. The escort warriors and even Jo Chunbae. Everyone he knew had appeared.
—You are arrogant. Life is difficult enough when one simply protects oneself and survives, yet you say you will live while protecting all those people.
Another version of himself walked toward Geomugeuk.
—Admit it. That it’s hard. Admit that it’s truly so hard you can’t bear it anymore.
Splash.
The Demon Venerables began grabbing Geomugeuk by the arms and legs and hanging on. Geomugeuk began to be dragged down into the abyss beneath his feet.
All the others rushed in as well and began pulling Geomugeuk down. They were all shouting for him to save them.
And so Geomugeuk sank into the abyss.
Just as the other Geomugeuk looked down beneath the water with a satisfied expression—
Fwaaaaaak.
Geomugeuk burst back up from within the water.
Everyone who had been pulling him down had lifted him up and risen to the surface with him.
They were not the people created by the formation who had been dragging Geomugeuk down moments ago. They now wore the expressions of those who were together with Geomugeuk in the present.
The formation could not dominate Geomugeuk’s heart.
“I am not struggling.”
—Do not deceive yourself.
Geomugeuk could feel it. The moment he admitted that it was hard, the person caught in the formation would collapse.
At the same time, he understood that the way to break this formation was to refuse to admit it. In a way the formation itself could accept.
“It’s not as hard as I thought. Once you learn that being alone is harder.”
“!”
This time, Geomugeuk walked toward the other version of himself.
Behind this Geomugeuk stood everyone, while the other Geomugeuk was alone.
Geomugeuk looked at the other self. He was not merely an illusion created by the formation. He was Geomugeuk’s self from before the regression.
“Because you existed, I was able to make these people. I mean that.”
That was why the gaze with which he looked at himself was gentler than anything.
“Is it not hard? It is. Do I not want to go somewhere alone? At times, I do. But if you are me, then you know too.”
Now Geomugeuk was no longer speaking to himself, but to the one who had created this trial.
“You must never have lived a life alone. You must never have passed so many nights by yourself, nor walked an endless road while speaking only to your own footprints. If you experience that dreadful loneliness, you come to understand. That time alone is not so wonderful, nor does it give such a sense of freedom. Only when there are people walking with you does that time alone finally gain value. Surely you know that too, do you not?”
With an even gentler gaze, Geomugeuk spoke to himself, and to the formation.
“This formation does not work on me, so withdraw now.”
The moment those words ended, astonishingly, the formation began to break.
Ssssss.
The people around him began to vanish one by one.
Geomugeuk turned and looked at them as they disappeared. They had been born from his heart, and were now disappearing back into his heart.
“I’ll see you all back at the cult!”
The others disappeared first, and the Demon Venerables vanished last.
Because they had been created by his own heart, they disappeared in the forms Geomugeuk wished for.
The Blood Heaven Saber Demon vanished while sitting with his great saber planted in the ground, holding out a cup of liquor; the Extreme Evil Lesser Demon while removing his mask. The Drunken Demon staggered drunkenly and fell flat. Sorry, hyung. The Poison King vanished crouched down, staring at a venomous insect; the Ilhwa Sword Venerable while drawing her sword and aiming it at him. The Demon Buddha vanished while making a Buddha statue. The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable while greeting him warmly.
And his father, as always, while wearing that sneer.
The moment his father disappeared, the formation vanished completely, and Geomugeuk was once again standing in the dark passage.
“Phew.”
After letting out a light sigh, Geomugeuk slowly moved forward and walked to the end of the passage.
Clank.
Then the door at the end opened.
He had passed through this trial even more easily than the first. Because his heart was firmer than anyone’s, the Blood Wave Mad Soul Formation had been unable to dig into his mind.
But the Sword King had still not appeared there.
Geomugeuk did not enter through the door. Instead, he sat down with his back to it, looking at the passage he had come through.
“Stop wandering and come out already.”
Geomugeuk sat there and closed his eyes.
How long did he wait like that?
“Phew.”
Letting out a long sigh, the Sword King appeared.
From that sigh, Geomugeuk could tell how difficult this trial had been for him. Who had it been that had seized him and dragged him into the abyss?
“Fortunately, you shook them off.”
Seeing that Geomugeuk had come out first, the Sword King asked with a surprised expression.
“Was it not hard for you?”
“My life is quite simple, after all.”
The Sword King gave him a look that seemed to ask, Is that really so? Then, looking at the open door behind him, he asked again. The scent drifting out from there was one no martial artist could endure: the distinctive pleasant fragrance given off by spiritual medicines.
“Why did you not go in alone?”
“Because I have enough loyalty to withstand that much.”
As the Sword King approached Geomugeuk, he said,
“In recognition of that loyalty, I’ll give you half again this time.”
The Sword King flung the door wide open.
When Geomugeuk and the Sword King looked inside, they were once again unable to say a word.
An even greater emotion than in the first room blossomed across both their faces.
“What you said was right. That room was not the one we were meant to savor.”
This room was the true space for a martial artist. All manner of spiritual medicines were displayed on stands on every side.
Geomugeuk slowly stepped forward.
“May I truly take half?”
The Sword King nodded.
“These are items one cannot buy even with money, and still?”
No matter how much money one had, obtaining the spiritual medicines here would not be easy. Of course, it was possible. If one paid tens of thousands of nyang, hundreds of thousands of nyang, or millions of nyang for a single spiritual medicine.
The Sword King nodded and said,
“I have that much loyalty too. Now, I’m hungry, so let’s eat some first. If we leave it behind, it will only benefit someone else.”
The Sword King tossed a spiritual medicine in front of him to Geomugeuk.
The spiritual medicine he had casually thrown was, astonishingly, the Divine Fire Pill, which possessed effects equal to ten-thousand-year Snow Ginseng.
“I never refuse spiritual medicines offered to me.”
“I told you, half is yours.”
“I will eat it with gratitude.”
Geom Mugeuk chewed and swallowed the Shinhwadan, then asked,
“Is it all right to just hand out elixirs to someone you’re supposed to fight?”
“That’s why I’m eating one too, isn’t it?”
The Sword King also chewed up a spirit pill.
Geom Mugeuk sat down first and began circulating his qi, assimilating the medicinal effects.
The Sword King was about to do the same, but instead approached Geom Mugeuk.
He stood in front of him and silently looked down at him.
Since Geom Mugeuk was in the middle of circulating his qi to dissolve the medicinal effects, now was the perfect chance to attack. Naturally, a strange tension hung in the air.
“What would you do if I ambushed you while you were circulating your qi?”
Geom Mugeuk kept his eyes closed and said nothing.
The Sword King bent at the waist, peered into his face, and spoke again.
“You can talk while circulating qi, can’t you? You can move too.”
When there was still no answer, the Sword King abruptly jabbed toward his eyes. At that moment, Geom Mugeuk snapped his head aside to avoid it and opened his eyes.
“I trust that you’re not that kind of person.”
The Sword King shook his head with an expression that said, as expected. Speaking while circulating qi, moving freely—he was a young cult leader who had already surpassed ordinary martial artists.
When the Sword King sat cross-legged beside him, this time Geom Mugeuk asked,
“What if I finish first and attack you?”
The Sword King closed his eyes and said,
“Then do as you like.”
As if he truly trusted Geom Mugeuk, he began regulating his breath and circulating his qi.
After watching him for a moment, Geom Mugeuk closed his eyes again.
Thus, the two of them focused on circulating their qi and fully assimilated the medicinal effects.
After finishing, the Sword King tossed another elixir to Geom Mugeuk.
“This one tastes good too.”
This elixir was the Jeogundan (Accumulated Cloud Pill).
“Judging by the nature of their medicinal effects, I think these two can be assimilated together.”
He tossed another spirit pill to Geom Mugeuk. This one was the Somyeongdan (Radiant Clarity Pill).
“You really want us to eat them all?”
“You don’t want to? If you don’t, then don’t.”
When the Sword King held out his hand as if asking for them back, Geom Mugeuk popped the pills in his hand into his mouth one after another.
“As if that would be the case.”
The two of them repeated the process of taking elixirs and assimilating them, then taking more and assimilating them again. To think there would come a day when they felt full from eating elixirs.
When they finally finished circulating their qi, both their eyes were clearer and deeper than ever.
In particular, Geom Mugeuk’s internal energy was just like his aura. It was so clear and deep that its quantity could no longer be measured.
Even so, there were still elixirs left there, so Geom Mugeuk set aside his share.
“Who are you gathering all those for?”
“Surely there are people I could give them to.”
“It’s all wasted effort, no matter whose mouth you put them in. Just eat them all yourself while you can.”
But Geom Mugeuk carefully tucked them into his robes, then stood before the door again.
Beyond it lay a passage of darkness, exuding an even more intense energy than before.
Geom Mugeuk could instinctively sense it. This was the final trial.
What the Sword King desired must be beyond that. The core of this underground treasury was not the treasures or the elixirs, but that place.
“At this point, you should confess. ‘In truth, I was capable of passing through all these trials, but I pretended to struggle in order to test you. Now that your test is over, I’ll simply let you pass through the final trial.’”
The Sword King made a different confession.
“I nearly died back at the last trial.”
“……”
“……”
Geom Mugeuk entered the dark passage first and asked him,
“Will you give me half this time too?”