Cheonae Geosa reacted to the words “the embodiment of revenge.”
He was a man who, no matter how much Geom Mugeuk provoked him, had only ever reacted faintly, yet to these words, he reacted greatly.
“Wait!”
By the time he shouted it out, Geom Mugeuk had already opened the door and left.
Cheonae Geosa ran over and hurriedly opened the door, but Geom Mugeuk had already vanished without a trace.
Instead of Geom Mugeuk, a middle-aged man was walking toward him from the end of the corridor.
“My Lord, is something the matter?”
The one who walked over was Chief Administrator Ju, the general manager of Musojang. He was a man who had lived his whole life for Cheonae Geosa and Musojang, as if he were there yet not there.
The chief administrator’s name was Zhou Shaoming.
“Have you seen the Young Cult Leader?”
“No, I have not seen him.”
He had been walking down the corridor, yet Geom Mugeuk had disappeared, evading his very eyes. Since all the corridor windows were closed, he had vanished like a ghost.
Since it was Geom Mugeuk who had entered while evading the eyes of those countless martial artists, one might have thought it only natural for him to disappear like this.
“He even evaded your eyes and disappeared.”
It was a remark that showed, surprisingly, he trusted the chief administrator’s eyes even more than those of all the martial artists who had been guarding this place earlier.
At that, Zhou Shaoming’s gaze began to change. It was a gaze he had never once shown to visitors of Musojang.
As his usually friendly eyes grew fierce and cold, Zhou Shaoming became a completely different person. It was the moment he was no longer Chief Administrator Zhou Shaoming, but a long-trusted subordinate of Hwaryulcheong.
Zhou Shaoming surveyed the corridor again. He inspected the closed windows and the ceiling.
Soon Zhou Shaoming shook his head. Nowhere were there any traces of the Young Cult Leader having slipped out.
In other words, he had passed right by him and escaped.
“An unbelievable level of skill.”
Cheonae Geosa’s gaze turned toward the window.
“Yes, a man hard to believe.”
Just as his voice had changed to a low, deep tone, so too did his eyes change. It was a gaze and a voice he had never once revealed when he was with Geom Mugeuk.
Now even his aura changed.
Originally, his aura had been a lone flower blooming proudly in a snowfield where snow fell.
The color of the falling snow changed to a deep gray. Now what fluttered around was not snow, but ash scattering after burning something.
Screams filled with pain rang out from all directions.
On the ground where the piled snow had vanished, corpses were strewn everywhere, and blood flowed like a river. The scattering ash was the ash of burning corpses.
He stood in the center of the battlefield where only sorrowful resentment lingered.
His gaze looking over the battlefield was boiling intensely. One wondered how he had hidden this heat and lived.
This was his true aura.
“The Young Cult Leader knows about me.”
Understanding what that meant, Zhou Shaoming’s expression hardened as well.
“There is no way. He must have guessed. Is he not an exceptionally clever man?”
Cheonae Geosa nodded and revealed his true feelings.
“‘Clever’ is not enough. Had I been ten years younger, my true identity would have been revealed.”
He had been shaken by Geom Mugeuk. The Young Cult Leader possessed something that stirred people’s emotions. Because when you looked into his two eyes and listened to his words, something would surge up within you.
But he did not know.
That even without being ten years younger, he had ultimately revealed his true identity.
That Geom Mugeuk was standing right before his eyes at this very moment.
Specifically, it was Geom Mugeuk within the Spacetime Displacement Technique.
Moments ago, when Geom Mugeuk opened the door and came out, sensing someone approaching from the end of the corridor, he had entered the Spacetime Displacement Technique.
It was a momentary thought that if someone remained in this place after everyone else had left, they might share something important.
And that prediction had hit the mark.
Even though he had known that Cheonae Geosa was the mastermind, because he had put on such a perfect act, a faint, lingering doubt of “what if” had remained, but now it was definitively revealed.
Outside the Spacetime Displacement Technique, a man of Hwaryulcheong looked at him and spoke.
“Geom Mugeuk, you will become the villain of this stage. The Great Righteous-Demon War will eventually happen, and you will be its cause.”
Geom Mugeuk stood before him with cold eyes.
*Fine, I’ll play that villain.*
He had no intention of stepping onto this grand stage for free.
*Instead, the appearance fee is your life.*
* * *
Jin Pacheon stood in the garden in front of his residence, hands clasped behind his back, looking up at the sky.
The back of the man who upheld the Righteous Faction felt particularly lonely today.
He had lived a life without knowing fear.
He had feared neither villains nor experts, neither the Demon Cult nor the Sa Domeung, nor anyone in the world.
Going through this matter, he felt an inexplicable sense of helplessness. If he had lost through martial arts, he would not have felt this sense of loss. Because he could just train more. Because he could train and win again.
What tormented him now was that his judgment was no longer what it used to be.
*Have I grown old now, too?*
In the past, he felt he would have made a decision several times over by now, but he was still hesitating to decide between Geom Mugeuk and Cheonae Geosa.
He tried to excuse it as a matter requiring decisive evidence, but in the past, he would have already known instinctively—whose words were correct.
It was by that blade-sharp instinct that he had upheld the righteous martial world until now.
But he felt that instinct had dulled.
There, one person entered, guided by the guards of the Alliance Leader’s manor.
It was Geom Mugeuk, wearing a bamboo hat pulled low. Geom Mugeuk removed his hat and greeted politely.
“I greet the Alliance Leader.”
He had naturally expected to meet at the Alliance Leader’s manor, but the Alliance Leader had him come to his own residence deep within.
He had not thought he would be led here in the current situation, unless it were around the time of the Tripartite Meeting.
Then a woman entered.
“It’s been a while.”
Seeing her, he could understand why he had been made to come this far. She was none other than Jin Haryeong.
Seeing her for the first time in a while, she had matured even more. She had been beautiful to begin with, but now she looked stronger, with added experience and training. Her accomplishments could be felt.
“I sense the harsh winds of the martial world on you?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s greeting laced with a joke, Jin Haryeong asked with a smile.
“Is that a compliment?”
“Of course.”
Now, even after a long time apart, the two could treat each other comfortably like friends.
There was a clear reason for her change.
*Everyone’s changing by the day because of someone. I can’t be the only one left behind, can I?*
It was the result of efforts born from that mindset.
“Have you been well?”
“I haven’t been well, thanks to someone. I can’t leave the inner courtyard here.”
Because of Geom Mugeuk’s prediction that Jin Hagun and Jin Haryeong could be targets, she had been unable to leave the inner courtyard of the Alliance Leader’s manor. Even within the inner courtyard, martial artists of the Martial Alliance guard corps surrounded her in layers.
“At first, I thought you guys were raiding us.”
That was really how it seemed. While they were having a gathering of junior experts, the guards of the Alliance Leader’s manor rushed in and took her out. The martial artists who had been with her must have thought some major problem had occurred in the Alliance.
“If we had raided you……”
“You think everyone at that gathering would have died?”
When she looked at him with feigned suspicion, Geom Mugeuk smiled and waved his hands.
“No! I’m not someone who breaks up gatherings, so don’t worry. You know how much I like it when people gather, right? Come to think of it, it’s about time we all met up, isn’t it? I need to hear about Saini and Han Sogungju, too.”
Jin Haryeong smiled at Geom Mugeuk’s words. She knew from her grandfather how serious the recent situation was.
But Geom Mugeuk never lost his smile, even in this situation. How could she not like him?
Jin Pacheon silently watched the two converse. He suddenly recalled the moment when Jin Haryeong had brought Geom Mugeuk as the one she would marry.
*Should I have made them get married back then?*
Back then, he had truly thought it was absurd, but now he was thinking this.
*What would have happened if I really had?*
Would this current worry have been different?
Thus, as the reunion of the two ended, Jin Pacheon asked Geom Mugeuk.
“Have you met that man?”
“Yes, Alliance Leader.”
Seeing him ask in front of Jin Haryeong, it seemed she had heard everything about the situation.
“What did you find out?”
It was a question not so easily answered, yet the answer came out far too quickly and decisively.
“I confirmed that he is the mastermind.”
A heavy silence flowed.
Both of them knew well that Geom Mugeuk was not someone who would lie about such matters.
“Did the Hermit really join hands with the masterminds?”
Jin Haryeong asked Geom Mugeuk with a truly surprised expression.
Rather, compared to her, Jin Pacheon merely gazed at Geom Mugeuk without revealing any emotion.
“He did not join hands with them—he was the mastermind himself. If it were not so, he would never have betrayed the friendship with the Alliance Leader.”
These were also words for Jin Pacheon. That this was not a matter of friendship.
“This is not a betrayal. He merely entered the Alliance Leader’s life and acted from the very beginning.”
The moment he heard those words, Jin Pacheon felt as though a small hole to breathe had been pierced through his suffocatingly frustrated and complicated heart.
Geom Mugeuk began to dig that hole even wider.
“It is merely one of countless conspiracies occurring in the martial world. It only lasted long because the Alliance Leader is such an extraordinary person. So please do not attach any meaning to this matter. Even without him, how many things are there that deserve your attention?”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned to Jin Haryeong. He was speaking through his actions. Was there not a precious person who truly deserved his attention and heart?
Of course, Geom Mugeuk knew well that this matter could not be healed with a few words. Therefore, he devoted himself to widening that hole further in his own way.
“It is not even worth wasting your mental energy over. Rather, you need not attach more meaning to it than to a friend of five years, ten years, or even one you made just yesterday. This is not a matter of friendship. The longer the duration, the more meaningless it becomes. Having endured for decades? That is madness, not friendship.”
Though he knew these were obvious words said for his sake, they certainly helped Jin Pacheon. Because he could feel the breathing hole growing little by little.
“This is not a matter of whether the Alliance Leader saw through him or failed to. You are a martial artist, not an actor. This is not a problem on our side, but on theirs. The problem is their ambition to devour the martial world. The problem is their persistence in hiding their identity for decades. None of them are normal.”
Geom Mugeuk added finally.
“So you can just say this: ‘You bastard, you worked so hard forcing a friendly face all this time. You worked so hard.’”
Jin Haryeong could feel it. That Geom Mugeuk was trying his hardest to ensure no wound remained in her grandfather’s heart. Yes, this was the kind of person he was.
Jin Haryeong asked Geom Mugeuk as if pressing him.
“What if you were the villain!”
Of course, she completely trusted Geom Mugeuk. These words were on behalf of her grandfather’s heart.
“Then all hell would have broken loose.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s answer, Jin Haryeong nearly burst out laughing. Because those casually spoken words hit home so hard. Yes, then it really would have been utter chaos.
Geom Mugeuk said calmly to her.
“But if I had caused chaos, it wouldn’t have been this way. I wouldn’t have plotted a scheme while being suspected until the very end.”
As if making an excuse, Geom Mugeuk said to Jin Pacheon.
“If I had plotted a scheme, it would have been a more comfortable and exciting one!”
Feeling the same way, Jin Haryeong looked at her grandfather. You know too, right, Grandfather? That this man’s words are true. That if he really plotted a scheme, he wouldn’t create a situation like this in the first place. We probably wouldn’t even know it was a scheme and would just fall victim to it. We would have already been done for!
Jin Pacheon silently looked at Geom Mugeuk. How could he not know? The sight of him trying so hard for his sake.
Through this Young Cult Leader, he was constantly reaffirmed that trust was not a matter of how long you had known each other.
“Why do you try so hard for me?”
Then Geom Mugeuk glanced at Jin Haryeong and gave an unexpected answer.
“He is my friend’s grandfather, isn’t he? Then he is no different from my own grandfather.”
Jin Pacheon looked at Jin Haryeong. If it were not for Geom Mugeuk, neither his granddaughter nor his grandson would be alive in this world now. Looking directly at Jin Haryeong, he could once again feel how great a deed saving her had been.
Though that matter was unrelated to the truth of this incident, it had a great influence on this decision.
If it were not for Geom Mugeuk, these children wouldn’t be here either, and his life would have become meaningless. Why had he been unable to trust this person?
“Tell me about that comfortable and exciting scheme you plan to plot from now on. I can’t afford to fall victim to it.”
At those words, Geom Mugeuk smiled brightly.
Finally, Jin Pacheon believed him.
Geom Mugeuk bowed politely.
“Thank you for believing me.”
“I apologize for being late in my decision.”
“If it were me, I would have agonized for another ten years.”
Jin Pacheon smiled. This Young Cult Leader was making him smile at the very moment he had decided his friend was a traitor. Yes, he would believe him and go forward.
Jin Haryeong looked at Geom Mugeuk and smiled.
*Thank you, friend. I will definitely repay you for what you did for Grandfather today.*
Geom Mugeuk answered with a bright smile as well.
Once the decision was made, Jin Pacheon did not look back. He intended to trust Geom Mugeuk and handle this matter.
“What is the reason you asked to see me today? Did you come to ask permission to kill him?”
Having been told he wanted to meet and having met, he thought he might be seeking permission to kill him.
“No. I will show the Alliance Leader clearly. That he is truly the mastermind.”
Jin Pacheon shook his head, saying it was unnecessary.
“I believe your words.”
“That is precisely why I must show you. Because you are someone who believes in me, I must show you.”
The Alliance Leader’s breathing hole was wide open. But now, in that place, another small hole would be pierced.
A hole of doubt.
If he handled it without confirming directly, that hole of doubt would never be filled. He had no intention of continuing his relationship with the Alliance Leader in that manner.
Now Geom Mugeuk began the work of filling that hole.
“I intend to stand on the stage with him.”
And this was the request he had come to make of the Alliance Leader today.
“Please be the audience for that stage.”
Absolute Regression, Chapter 655.