I went to the Maga Village sub-branch on business and stopped by Pungryu Tavern.
As always, Jo Chunbae greeted me warmly.
“Welcome, Pavilion Master.”
“I dropped in because I was feeling a bit hungry.”
“I’ll prepare your favorites and bring them up nice and tasty.”
Jo Chunbae, who had been about to hurry to the kitchen, suddenly turned back and asked,
“Pavilion Master. May I ask you something?”
“Ask anything you like.”
“Someone of your standing could go to a much finer tavern, so why do you always come to ours?”
“You still don’t know?”
“Please tell me.”
“The liquor is good, the food is good, the atmosphere is good, you bring me what I like without my having to say a word, and the owner is handsome. Do I need more reasons?”
“That is more than enough. I’ll make it delicious and bring it right up.”
He smiled broadly and hurried off to the kitchen, his steps light.
He would never know how important I considered this place. This Maga Village was the very foundation of the demonic path I intended to build.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader who was here now, and the Eight Demon Venerables as well, were not as important as Jo Chunbae and the villagers here. The moment I forgot this place, no matter how well I dressed it up, it would not be easy to find how I was any different from the Eight Demon Venerables.
A short while later, just as Jo Chunbae brought out the food,
a commotion broke out outside.
I went to the window and looked down. A man had fallen to the ground, and in front of him a large, burly man was raging. One glance was enough to tell he was heavily drunk.
“Why the hell are you glaring at me, you bastard?”
“I wasn’t glaring.”
“You were glaring.”
The brute did not hesitate to strike him.
“You lying bastard!”
The man being beaten had been walking with his family. His wife stepped forward to stop it.
“Please stop!”
“Get out of the way! A wench like you, bringing bad luck!”
The bastard did not go easy on her just because she was a woman. The woman, shoved roughly aside, fell to the ground, and a child of about six or seven ran to her.
“Mother!”
Seeing his father and mother beaten, the child was utterly shocked.
Even with the child there, the hulking man did not stop. Rather, when the child cried, he grew irritated.
“Shut up, you little bastard!”
The moment he raised his hand high to strike even the child—
Thud!
The brute was sent flying backward.
The man who had been lying on the ground had leaped to his feet and landed a blow on him.
His wife and child ran to him.
The woman was startled that her husband had knocked the brute down.
“How did you do that?”
“My fist moved before I knew it.”
The man who had thrown the punch looked bewildered as well.
“Let’s hurry and go.”
“Let’s.”
The family left the place, avoiding the brute.
After they had gone, the brute belatedly came to his senses and got up.
“That bastard! Where did he go? I’ll find him and kill him, his bitch, and his kid, all of them. Anyone know who that guy was? Talk!”
He grabbed a spectator by the collar and began causing a scene.
Then a voice came from the second floor.
“Is that really something worth going that far over?”
At those words, the brute looked up toward the source of the voice.
“Who was the bastard who just mouthed off?”
The person waving from the second-floor window was none other than me.
The drunken man did not recognize me. Among the lower-ranked martial artists, there were countless who did not know my face.
Behind me, Jo Chunbae whispered that the man was a bastard who usually caused all sorts of trouble in the marketplace. Even without his telling me, I could tell what the man’s usual conduct was like. Among the spectators, there were several who recognized me, yet none of them were warning him.
“I’m asking whether meeting someone’s eyes is a reason to beat a father in front of his child.”
“Where does a green little bastard like you get off lecturing me? And you bastard, I got hit too!”
That had been my doing.
If I had stepped forward and punished him myself, that child would have had to live the rest of his life remembering the sight of his father and mother being beaten.
So, as if moving an object through the air, I moved the man’s body and made him throw that punch. I wanted the child to remember his father as brave.
“You got hit once, so you’ll slaughter his whole family? Is that really something that should go that far?”
“Come down here! I’ll kill you instead.”
“I was planning to come down anyway.”
When I lightly leaped down, the brute seized that moment and threw a punch at me.
After slightly dodging the incoming fist, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it. Crack, crack, crack! In an instant, his arm twisted like wet laundry being wrung out.
“Aaaaargh! It hurts! You bastard. You!”
As he charged at me like a madman, I did not hesitate to twist and crush his other arm as well.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
He screamed that the pain was killing him. If he had not been dead drunk, he would already have fainted, but he was enduring it on the strength of the alcohol.
“Right? This wasn’t something worth going this far over, was it? Meeting someone’s eyes wasn’t a reason to hit him, getting hit once wasn’t a reason to massacre his family, and getting drunk and acting like a lunatic wasn’t a reason to end up with crippled arms. So why the hell did you do it? It was something that could have passed without anything happening.”
Instead of begging for forgiveness, the man glared at me as if he would kill me. A life spent beating and tormenting others could not display even a single moment of wisdom, right up to the very end. Later, he would regret it and say it had been because of the liquor.
“Die!”
When the bastard threw himself at me to headbutt me, I shattered even his dantian, and only then did he lose consciousness.
I had the martial artists of our cult who were on patrol transport the man to Hwangcheon Pavilion. I intended to uncover every crime he had committed so far and imprison him in the underground prison with the heaviest possible sentence.
Despite his miserable state, the people who knew him wore expressions of satisfaction.
I spoke to the spectators.
“There is no law anywhere in our cult that says a demon may commit evil deeds. If anyone like this appears among our cult’s martial artists in the future, report them over there……”
I pointed to the Hwangcheon Pavilion sub-branch across from the tavern.
“Report them to that place!”
Starting with Jo Chunbae’s applause, everyone cheered and clapped. Without exaggeration, in Maga Village, my popularity surpassed even Father’s.
Jo Chunbae came over with a delighted face and said,
“Today’s meal is on me.”
Just then, someone behind me said,
“May I be treated as well?”
When I turned around, to my surprise, the Pungcheon Cult Leader was standing there.
I looked at Jo Chunbae and said,
“If you refuse him, you’ll be dragged off to the Outer Lands. He is the Pungcheon Cult Leader, after all.”
Jo Chunbae’s eyes widened as if he might faint. Thanks to me, he had received several great figures as guests lately, and now even the Pungcheon Cult Leader had appeared as a customer.
On the second floor, at the seat where I always sat, I faced the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
“What you said earlier—did you mean it? That demons should not take evil deeds for granted.”
“Yes.”
“That does not sound like something that should come from the mouth of the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
“I dislike being bound by convention. Young people these days are like this.”
“So I was old-fashioned after all.”
“Keep young people by your side. With an open mind. Thanks to that, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon has been getting younger lately.”
“Is that so? Hahaha.”
As the Pungcheon Cult Leader laughed heartily, I filled his cup and said,
“By the way, it seems the rumors were wrong.”
“What rumors?”
“I heard that you never take even a single step away from your sacred relics, Cult Leader, but I seem to see you outside quite often.”
It had been that way when he visited last time, and it was so now as well. The Pungcheon Cult Leader was breaking his own principles.
“Perhaps I trust the cult leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult more than the cult leader of the Pungcheon Cult?”
He meant that he trusted Father. Though he said it like a joke, it was likely sincere. At the very least, it was because he believed Father would not stand by and allow his sacred relics to be stolen within the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
I smiled and picked up my chopsticks.
“Now then, please eat.”
I had expected the food here not to suit the palate of the Pungcheon Cult Leader, who ate only high-class cuisine, but he emptied his bowls cleanly. I thought he might be less concerned with formality than I had expected.
“The taste is quite good.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
After finishing our meal, we drank tea instead of liquor. The Pungcheon Cult Leader not only disliked drinking with meals, but always drank tea immediately after eating.
“Have you tried using the Space-Time Transposition Art?”
“Yes.”
“Everyone fails at first, so do not take it too much to heart.”
He believed I had failed to create the space. Since he had said the first attempt would take several days no matter how fast one was, the fact that I was here now naturally led him to think I had failed.
“I succeeded.”
“What?”
“The space was splendid. I think I’ll become deeply absorbed in this martial art from now on.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader was startled out of his wits.
“You have already manifested it?”
“Yes.”
“How long did it take you to manifest it?”
“About two shichen.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader was shocked. He was so surprised that he even let out a short gasp.
“Is that true?”
His face said he could not believe it at all.
“It seems to be a martial art well suited to me.”
“To be honest, I cannot believe it.”
“Why would I lie?”
“If one is not a genius of martial arts, that is…… No, even for a martial arts genius, two shichen is impossible!”
I no longer insisted that it had taken two shichen and simply sipped my tea.
“Is it truly so?”
I nodded.
“Can you show me later?”
As a matter of courtesy, one should not disbelieve someone so openly and dig into it this persistently. But because I understood his suspicion, I readily nodded.
“Very well.”
“Thank you.”
Perhaps his insides were burning, for the Pungcheon Cult Leader drank his cooled tea in one gulp.
I waited a moment for him to calm down, then asked quietly,
“By the way, why did you come to see me today?”
“I have something to ask of you.”
“Please say it.”
“Mabul is trying to send me back to the Outer Lands.”
“What is the reason?”
“You.”
“Because of me?”
“He is wary that you and I might join hands. So give me a pretext to remain here.”
I had a feeling that was not the only reason he had come to see me. How could he come looking for me without knowing whether I could create such a pretext or not? This was an excuse to grow closer to me. There was a way to confirm whether that was truly the case.
“What will you give me in return?”
“That is rather cold between us.”
“There is no ‘between us’ yet, Cult Leader. There was one transaction, though.”
I left him no opening. I had to show him I was thorough to lead any deal with him in my favor. That was also why I had told him I opened the Space-Time Transposition Art in two shichen. To give him boundless confidence that he could trust me.
“What do you want?”
“May I choose one of the sacred relics you brought?”
In that instant, the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s expression hardened.
“Are you insane?”
I answered calmly, as if asking in return.
“Surely not as much as you, Cult Leader, who seeks to advance into the Central Plains amid this chaos after a Demon Venerable has died.”
* * *
I entered his residence together with the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
He had accepted my proposal. As I expected, he intended to join hands with me. Even by giving me one of his precious sacred relics. This was not payment for a request; it was a gift.
Why was he going this far, straining himself like this, to join hands with me? There had definitely been some change in his state of mind.
In the room, a man wearing shackles sat with his back turned, looking at the Yin Thunder Bell.
When I had taken the Blood Eye Essence, I had briefly thought about how I had been unable to free him. I had believed I would not meet him again in this life, but now here we were, meeting once more.
“Who is that man?”
When I asked the Pungcheon Cult Leader while pretending not to know, I saw it. The way the Pungcheon Cult Leader looked at him. It was not the gaze one used to look at a subordinate or a slave.
The man, too, did not offer any greeting even though the Pungcheon Cult Leader had entered. Normally, one would turn and greet him.
I became certain that the relationship between these two was not that of an ordinary master and servant.
“He is a subordinate who guards the Yin Thunder Bell.”
“I see.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader looked over the sacred relics lined up there and said in a low voice,
“Among the sacred relics, you must not ask for the Yin Thunder Bell or the Blood Buddha.”
“Yes, I understand. So that bell is the famous Yin Thunder Bell of the Pungcheon Cult.”
I walked toward the Yin Thunder Bell as if seeing it for the first time.
The moment I had brought this Yin Thunder Bell back in my life before the regression flashed past my eyes like a revolving lantern. It felt as if the demon engraved on the bell were looking at me and saying, “You again?”
“How is it, seeing it in person?”
“It is magnificent.”
As I said so, I glanced down at the shackled man. In truth, I was more interested in this man than in the Yin Thunder Bell. I had approached this way as an excuse because I wanted to see him up close.
Just then, the man who had been lowering his head slightly lifted it and looked at me. Through the long hair hanging over his face, our eyes met. He was much younger than I had imagined, and his gaze was clear.
The man lowered his head again. It had been a very brief meeting of eyes, but somehow, it was a gaze not easily forgotten.
“Now, choose.”
“I shall.”
I slowly examined the display stands on which the sacred relics had been placed. Of course, I knew very well what all the sacred relics here were.
I chose one of them.
“Please give me this.”
In that instant, the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s expression went rigid.
And then I saw it.
At the very moment when the Pungcheon Cult Leader was about to say no despite himself, he flinched and closed his mouth.
I could feel it instinctively. A fact as important as the sacred relic I had chosen.
‘The shackled man sent a voice transmission to the Pungcheon Cult Leader!’