The person who arrived at Cheongun Forest was Cheonae Geosa.
He walked through the misty bamboo grove. The one waiting in the pavilion visible in the distance was Geom Mugeuk.
Leaning against the railing, Geom Mugeuk silently watched Cheonae Geosa walk toward him. Then, when his eyes met Cheonae Geosa’s, he waved in greeting.
Geom Mugeuk did not postpone his bout with him.
‘I’ll kill him today!’
Not that any enemy he had faced until now had ever been easy, but this Cheonae Geosa was also an opponent as troublesome as any.
He could not know the potential of the man’s true form, nor did he know who might leap out to help him.
Cheongun Forest.
This was the stage Geom Mugeuk had chosen.
Since it was the place Murim Alliance Leader Jin Paecheon loved most, he thought it the most suitable stage for his final battle with Cheonae Geosa.
There was one more practical reason as well.
The mist that flowed through Cheongun Forest in every season.
Within that mist, a special peerless formation had been laid today.
The Unmu Eunhyeong Formation.
Originally, the Unmu Eunhyeong Formation was a formation for concealment, one that raised mist and allowed people to hide within it. Once the formation was activated, even a master could not find those hidden inside unless he knew how to break it.
Moreover, when deployed within mist, it was said that even a formation expert could not tell whether it was real mist or an activated formation. It was a top-grade formation, and one of the formations possessed by the Murim Alliance.
Within the Unmu Eunhyeong Formation now spread through the mist was Jin Paecheon. Thanks to this place and the formation, they had been able to create this stage without revealing the existence of the Spacetime Transposition Art.
This stage was the most important stage that would decide everyone’s fate, and Jin Paecheon was the most important spectator.
Cheonae Geosa came up into the pavilion. After greeting him, Geom Mugeuk admired the scene unfolding before his eyes.
“I think I understand why the Alliance Leader likes this place. The mist flowing between the bamboo is truly fantastical.”
Cheonae Geosa silently looked at Geom Mugeuk, who was gazing outside. Though his back was turned, there was not a single opening to be found.
Cheonae Geosa raised his hand and touched the air. It could not be seen, but he could feel it—the energy Geom Mugeuk had spread out like a spiderweb.
Though his back was turned, the Young Cult Leader had complete control over him and over this space. And he did not bother hiding that fact.
The heated fervor that flickered past Cheonae Geosa’s eyes vanished the moment Geom Mugeuk turned around.
“Our dear Geosa, welcome!”
Cheonae Geosa took a few steps forward, then stood beside Geom Mugeuk and looked out at the bamboo grove.
“The mist is thick today.”
It sounded as if he had been here often, so Geom Mugeuk asked him.
“Have you been here before?”
“I come here from time to time as well. It’s a place my friend likes.”
The two of them treated each other calmly, as if they had both forgotten all the tension of their first meeting.
“Why don’t you ask? Why the Alliance Leader isn’t here, and why I am?”
Today’s meeting had been one Jin Paecheon had arranged with Cheonae Geosa.
Cheonae Geosa merely wore an expression that said, “It’s obvious without asking,” and said nothing.
“I asked the Alliance Leader to let me meet you. Last time, you were so firm when you said there would be no next time.”
Cheonae Geosa turned his gaze toward Geom Mugeuk.
“You didn’t call me here to kill me?”
His eyes and tone seemed to say that he had come even though he knew that might be the case.
“If that were so, would you have come, Geosa? You came because you judged it wasn’t, didn’t you?”
From Cheonae Geosa’s reaction, Geom Mugeuk could tell that he had expected this situation, with Geom Mugeuk waiting in Jin Paecheon’s place. In that case, although the invitation had come from this side, this stage was also his stage.
A joint stage for him and himself.
‘What have you prepared for this stage?’
Who would be able to walk down from this stage alive would be decided by whose preparations were more thorough.
“Even if you were going to kill me, I had to come.”
“You’d come even to die? Why?”
Cheonae Geosa answered calmly.
“Because my friend called me.”
His gaze was somehow hollow and lonely.
If Geom Mugeuk had not seen his true form within the Spacetime Transposition Art, he would have been confused even at this moment. That was how sincerely the man spoke.
“If that friend told me to die, I could die.”
They were words that would pain Jin Paecheon if he heard them. In truth, he was surely watching this scene even now with a heavy heart.
“That’s impressive. If Hagin tried to kill me, I have no intention of meekly letting him.”
Cheonae Geosa’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“That is because you did not share friendship with Captain Jin, but tried to use him.”
As if for someone to hear, he brought up the rumors circulating in the world.
“When I heard the rumor that the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult had approached the leader of the Demon-Extermination Unit and was building a friendship with him, I had already seen through your intentions. Your intention to use blood ties to bewitch Alliance Leader Jin.”
Geom Mugeuk received his words with ease.
“That is an insult to your friend. The Alliance Leader is not someone who would fall so easily into a scheme.”
“That is why you tried to use his blood kin.”
Cheonae Geosa continued digging into that point.
“I understand that aside from the leader of the Demon-Extermination Unit, you also approached Haryeong. Even so, will you say you have no ulterior motive? Just what is your goal?”
If one really heard only these words, he would look like a thoroughly wicked man. That was why this fight was troublesome and difficult. He was someone who used even such points thoroughly.
“As you know, my goal is to reveal your identity, Geosa.”
“How laughable. The Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult comes to Wuhan and says he will reveal the identity of someone who has lived for decades as a righteous faction man. Even a passing dog would laugh.”
“There are no passing dogs, so I’ll laugh for you.”
Geom Mugeuk smiled brightly. A blade was hidden within that composure.
“It is only the two of us here. Is there really any need to hide your identity to this extent?”
“I will say it again. I have no identity to hide.”
Geom Mugeuk asked the thing the man would be most curious about.
“Why don’t you ask? Why I called you the Incarnation of Revenge.”
Surely those words should have drawn some kind of reaction. But he did not seem curious at all.
“Revenge? I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Geom Mugeuk perched on the railing and spoke as if to himself, like he was making a deduction.
“Yet you were the Geosa whose composure shattered at those words. Even though it is just the two of us, why do you hide your identity to this extent?”
Geom Mugeuk already knew the answer.
“You know what kind of place this is.”
In that instant, he did not miss the sharp gleam in Cheonae Geosa’s eyes.
He knew there was a spectator on this stage. He also knew that spectator was Jin Paecheon.
That was why he was choosing only words that would shake the Alliance Leader’s heart.
“You used his blood kin and bewitched him with all manner of words, but it will not work on me. I will protect my friend to the end.”
Geom Mugeuk understood. He could not move him with words. Especially if the man knew that Jin Paecheon was watching.
Now was the moment to throw out a decisive move that was not words.
Geom Mugeuk’s eyes sank coldly, revealing an atmosphere different from before.
“It doesn’t matter. I can make you reveal your identity.”
At those words, even Cheonae Geosa reacted. The gaze he directed at Geom Mugeuk contained this emotion: You? How?
“There was the fastest and surest method, but I couldn’t use it for one reason.”
That reason had to do with Jin Paecheon.
“To use that method, I needed the Alliance Leader’s permission.”
“What permission is that?”
Geom Mugeuk’s eyes turned cold.
“Permission to kill you.”
The moment his words ended, an aura burst from Geom Mugeuk’s body.
In the next instant, Cheonae Geosa realized that he was standing beneath a blue sky.
Of course, it was not the sky, but above the sea. Because it was so clear, the sky was reflected upon it, making it feel as though he were standing in the heavens. Such was Geom Mugeuk’s aura.
The aura had changed from before.
The sea was even clearer. And the endless abyss beneath his feet was even deeper and darker.
Splash.
Cheonae Geosa sank into the sea.
An invisible force seized him and dragged him deep beneath the water.
His breath was stifled. It was too powerful to call the aura of a mere man.
Cheonae Geosa also released his own aura.
His aura began to push back Geom Mugeuk’s.
The area around him, which had been in the dark abyss, grew brightly lit.
Around him, he saw snow scattering across a pure white snowfield.
Then his surroundings darkened again.
Pressed down by Geom Mugeuk’s aura, he had begun to be dragged back into the abyssal sea.
Cheonae Geosa drew up his inner power and released his aura even more powerfully. His surroundings brightened again, then darkened once more.
Like a lamp going out and being lit again, darkness and brightness alternated.
Each time it grew bright, the blizzard was raging even more fiercely. The lone flower blooming there was perilously fragile.
From darkness to brightness, then back to darkness, and again to brightness.
It was at that very moment.
Shhiiik!
A sword flew at Cheonae Geosa’s eyes in a surprise attack.
Crack.
Cheonae Geosa shattered the pavilion railing and flew backward, avoiding the sword. Geom Mugeuk, who had been engaged in a clash of auras, had launched a sudden attack.
Standing at the edge of the pavilion with his sword in hand, Geom Mugeuk looked down with a chilling gaze.
“If you do not reveal your original aura, you will die by my hand.”
Despite Geom Mugeuk’s warning, Cheonae Geosa was not frightened. Rather, a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.
“Can you truly handle what comes afterward?”
“When have the Demonic Cult bastards you know ever worried about what came afterward before doing something?”
Shhiiik.
Geom Mugeuk lightly launched himself from the pavilion and flew toward Cheonae Geosa.
Cheonae Geosa did not dodge. He drew his sword and clashed with him.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Blades struck blades, and the sounds of fierce impacts and sparks burst forth one after another.
A dozen exchanges passed in an instant.
Shhiiik!
Cheonae Geosa narrowly avoided the final strike that flew in with an irregular change.
It was an attack that truly would have severed his neck if he had failed to dodge. The killing intent carried in Geom Mugeuk’s sword was real.
“I told you before. With someone like you, killing you first and handling what comes afterward isn’t a bad method.”
Geom Mugeuk’s swordsmanship was neither the Ninefire Demonic Art nor the Flying Heaven Sword Art. They were simply attacks that thrust and cut, yet Geom Mugeuk’s martial learning was contained in those simple sword strokes.
Freed from fixed forms, Geom Mugeuk’s attacks were incomparably fast and fierce. The strength granted by freedom was being displayed without reserve in this moment today.
Paht!
Blood sprayed from Cheonae Geosa’s arm. He was as famous as the Alliance Leader, but he was not famous because he was as strong as the Alliance Leader. He was famous because he was Jin Paecheon’s friend, and also because he was a great chivalrous hero.
He could not withstand Geom Mugeuk’s momentum as he pressed him with terrifying force, as if he truly meant to kill him.
Even though he was driven into danger, he did not reveal his original form.
He had one certainty.
‘You absolutely cannot kill me!’
Just as Geom Mugeuk had thought, Cheonae Geosa understood exactly what kind of place this was today.
‘Because you have to show Jin Paecheon my identity. The more you try to kill me, a righteous faction master, the greater his suspicion of you will become.’
With every drop of blood he shed, the suspicion toward the Young Cult Leader would grow greater.
Cheonae Geosa was certain of it.
And Geom Mugeuk was also certain.
‘You will definitely show your true form.’
Because he would never want to die here in vain. After enduring for the past several decades, how could he die so meaninglessly?
Shhiiik!
Geom Mugeuk’s sword flew toward his neck.
Cheonae Geosa did not dodge.
‘In the end, he will stop.’
Because he would never kill him.
It was like two carriages charging toward each other.
Two carriages racing without stopping, each certain that the other would surely pull the reins.
Dudududududu.
And at the final moment, one of the two pulled the reins and changed direction.
Kaaang!
An ear-splitting metallic sound erupted.
Geom Mugeuk was knocked backward and retreated.
At the final moment, Cheonae Geosa had swung his sword and counterattacked. And this counterattack was incomparably faster and more powerful than the skills he had shown until now.
Like a true madman, Geom Mugeuk had not withdrawn his sword until the very last instant. It was not because he truly intended to kill him, but because he believed the man would surely evade.
No matter how strong Cheonae Geosa’s will was, there had to be something that would betray him.
That was his “survival instinct.”
He believed that the survival instinct of such a powerful master would surely make him survive, even if it meant disregarding his own will.
Just as, no matter how much Geom Mugeuk himself tried to die, the Heavenly Demon Protective Divine Art would not simply stand by and watch.
In the place where Cheonae Geosa had been standing stood another man.
Though he was the same person, the one exuding a completely different aura was Hwa Yulcheong. As he fully revealed himself, his presence could not be compared to before.
He was standing in the middle of a battlefield.
Instead of flying snow, ash from burned corpses drifted around him.
It was different from the aura Geom Mugeuk had seen that day at Musojang.
If the aura then had been a war that had occurred in one region, the aura now was a war that had occurred across the entire Central Plains.
Blood flowed like rivers, and corpses were piled like mountains.
In the midst of it, Hwa Yulcheong stood with eyes as hot as lava.
“You won’t step out even when he is trying to kill me?”
The person Hwa Yulcheong addressed was not Geom Mugeuk. He spoke toward the mist.
Then someone’s voice came from within the mist.
“I decided to trust that friend instead of you.”
The owner of the voice was, of course, Jin Paecheon.
Was it because he had expected it from the beginning? Even though Jin Paecheon appeared, Hwa Yulcheong’s eyes showed no fear at all.
“You trust the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, not the friend you have known for decades?”
His words contained not regret and disappointment, but mockery and anger. After all, Jin Paecheon had seen his true self.
Jin Paecheon’s voice gradually drew closer.
“That man is not the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult today.”
Soon after, Jin Paecheon fully emerged from the mist.
“Today, he is my grandson’s friend.”
Absolute Regression, Chapter 656