When Jinhyu’s breath ceased, the world he had created began to vanish as well.
Sssssss.
The place that revealed itself was the main hall where they had first arrived.
Jinhyu’s corpse, collapsed on the floor, finally made it clear that everything was over.
‘At last, we’ve returned to our world.’
Relieved, Jin Hagun first checked on his injured comrades.
For subordinates with severe wounds, he fed them medicine for internal injuries and personally applied wound salve.
There were more than a few wounded, but fortunately, none had suffered fatal injuries.
Then, among the uninjured subordinates, he sent the one with the best lightness skill to his grandfather.
“Tell him we are safe!”
He had no intention of going to help his grandfather. If he went with his exhausted, injured body, he would only get in the way. Since Geom Mugeuk was with his grandfather, it would be enough to let him know that he was safe.
Great Master Hwasong expressed his apologies to Jin Hagun.
“I have no face to show you.”
No matter that Jinhyu, their former comrade, had been a villain and had caught them off guard, they had been far too helpless.
Jin Hagun did not reproach him. What mattered was what they did from now on. If one had fallen, one had to get back up.
“We must use this incident as an opportunity to further develop the Great Orthodox Soul-Returning Art. Master Hwa, please take charge of that task.”
Hwasong nodded with a face full of resolve.
Before leaving that place, Jin Hagun expressed his gratitude to the Cult Leader Pungcheon.
“Thanks to you, we survived. Thank you, truly.”
The warriors of the Demon-Slaying Unit also cupped their fists in unison and bowed.
“Thank you.”
Truly, if not for the Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign and the Cult Leader Pungcheon, every warrior of the Demon-Slaying Unit would have died here in this main hall.
He himself would have become a hostage used to threaten his grandfather. It was a situation he did not even want to imagine.
“I will never forget this grace you have shown us today.”
At that, the Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign turned the credit to Geom Mugeuk.
“Repay that grace to the Young Cult Leader.”
Jin Hagun smiled and nodded.
The gazes with which the two looked at each other were gentle. At least for today, they were friends and comrades who had broken through the gates of death together.
In particular, Jin Hagun could not forget what she had said to him. Those words she had spoken when he had felt endless helplessness within the world of soul-bewitching.
—Once it is fully grown, what one fears is a tiger, not a serpent.
Those words had been a great comfort to him. And they had made him form this resolve.
Let us meet again when I have become a true tiger.
Just then, the Cult Leader Pungcheon’s booming voice rang out from behind.
“Why repay the grace to the Young Cult Leader? You should repay us. Repay me!”
Jin Hagun turned toward him. He had not come to know the Cult Leader Pungcheon well through this incident, but at the very least, he could tell that the man was pleasant company.
“Someday, I will come visit you with a list of things the Young Cult Leader has taken from me.”
At Jin Hagun’s joke, the Cult Leader Pungcheon burst into loud laughter. He had not forgotten how, when they first met, Pungcheon had teasingly asked him what the Young Cult Leader had taken from him.
“Let’s hold a grand gathering of victims! And naturally, I’ll be the head of that gathering!”
The Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign, who had been listening, smiled as well. There would be quite a few people who belonged in that gathering.
Through this incident, she was sincerely impressed by her master.
There was a saying: when watching someone do something, if it seemed too easy, then that person was a true master.
Others might not know, but she alone could understand. Her master had made it look as though he had dealt with Jinhyu easily, but that was absolutely not the case.
It was only because he had used the other party’s psychology and possessed the insight to see through the surrounding circumstances and the heart that he had been able to kill him.
Soul-bewitching arts were martial arts that deceived the human heart. Today, her master had shown the essence of those very arts.
In this world, he was the head of the victims’ gathering; in that world, he was an absolute being. That was her master.
“Well then, I will see you next time.”
After parting with the two of them, Jin Hagun left the main hall and said to Gwak Ju,
“Now, let us go meet your sister.”
Gwak Yeong was currently at a safe house of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. First, he intended to meet Geom Muyang and hand Gwak Ju over to him.
Gwak Ju asked in a trembling voice,
“Why are you going this far for me?”
No matter how dangerous the situation, the warriors of the Demon-Slaying Unit had taken care of him.
Who was he, after all? He was merely the younger brother of an iron forge artisan. Merely an ordinary man who knew not a scrap of martial arts. And yet they had valued him more than their own lives.
Jin Hagun turned toward him. The gazes of all the Demon-Slaying Unit warriors around them turned to him.
“Our mission today was to save you. Even if everyone here had died and only one person remained, that one person would have saved you.”
Gwak Ju looked at the members of the Demon-Slaying Unit standing around him.
Ah, so these are the warriors of the orthodox faction.
In that dazzling, chaotic world, they had silently protected him and brought him back to this reality. People who would keep their promise no matter what.
Gwak Ju bowed deeply to all of them and expressed his gratitude.
After they left, only the Cult Leader Pungcheon and the Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign remained there.
The Cult Leader Pungcheon was looking up at the sky with his hands clasped behind his back. The Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign also looked up at the sky from a step behind him.
She was recalling what her master had said earlier.
The effort to live differently strengthened my world.
Then, the Cult Leader Pungcheon opened his mouth. When he had been looking at the sky, his face had been incomparably serious, but before she knew it, his expression was full of mischief.
“We should go meet the man who put us through all this trouble and hasn’t even shown his nose. The man who forgets about us until he needs us, and then summons us—we should meet him and say, ‘That cult leader from back then is here.’”
His words were like that, but his face was full of anticipation at the thought of meeting Geom Mugeuk. It had truly been a long time since they had last met.
“The Young Cult Leader must be fighting a difficult battle as well.”
When they first arrived and the Cult Leader Pungcheon had badmouthed the Young Cult Leader, Jin Hagun had said the same thing. Of course, the Cult Leader Pungcheon did not think so at all.
“As if he’d be in trouble. Your Young Cult Leader is a kite, a kite.”
The Cult Leader Pungcheon began walking first and added,
“A kite that flies higher the stronger the wind blows.”
* * *
Hwa Yulcheong, the Cheonae Geosa whose identity had been revealed, demanded that Murim Alliance Leader Jin Paecheon kill Geom Mugeuk.
If he wanted to save his grandson, he had to kill him.
But Jin Paecheon refused the proposal.
He said he had come here today as an audience member. At the very least, Geom Mugeuk would not turn this stage into a tragedy.
And when Hwa Yulcheong expressed his confidence that it would be a grave miscalculation if they were counting on the Poison King and the Demon Buddha to save them, Geom Mugeuk displayed even greater confidence.
“Do you think they really went to help my friend?”
In Geom Mugeuk’s words were confidence and certainty that Jin Hagun would be safe.
“Do not bluff, Young Cult Leader.”
Hwa Yulcheong’s composure was met by Geom Mugeuk’s composure in turn.
“Bluffing is something people do when they have nothing. By now, your remaining wing is probably falling off too.”
It was said with the certainty that So Jeongnak was already dead, and that the master of soul-bewitching arts was also being dealt with.
Hwa Yulcheong stared at Jin Paecheon. His target today was, from beginning to end, Jin Paecheon.
“The judgment is yours to make. Just do not regret it later.”
He knew. To Jin Paecheon, who had already lost his own flesh and blood, the safety of his grandchildren was the greatest weakness—one that could not help but shake him.
But he had overlooked one thing. Jin Paecheon’s trust in Geom Mugeuk was far greater than he had imagined.
Jin Paecheon answered firmly.
“My judgment has already been made.”
He had already decided to trust Geom Mugeuk.
When Jin Paecheon’s gaze turned to him, Geom Mugeuk answered with confidence.
“If the person I sent cannot save Hagun, then even if you and I were there, Alliance Leader, we would not be able to save him either.”
At those words, Jin Paecheon thought of one person.
“Did you perhaps send the Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign?”
Geom Mugeuk nodded. Relief came at the same time as unease.
Hwa Yulcheong stabbed at that unease.
“The whole murim knows the new Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign is still a greenhorn. The Young Cult Leader is only trying to make it look good—as if he attempted to save Hagun.”
How could Jin Paecheon not know about the young Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign? Compared to the previous Demon Sovereign, she was bound to fall short.
And yet the reason he showed no agitation was not because he trusted that young Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign.
“It will be all right, won’t it?”
“Of course.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s resolute answer, Jin Paecheon nodded.
Hwa Yulcheong sighed mockingly.
“Foolish! Truly foolish!”
Then Geom Mugeuk spoke.
“The foolish one is you.”
When Hwa Yulcheong looked at him as if asking what he meant, an unexpected statement came out.
“You didn’t know I suffer from anxiety, did you?”
“Anxiety?”
The Young Cult Leader of the Demon Cult had anxiety? Young Cult Leader and anxiety—two things that absolutely did not go together.
“This anxiety is the suffering that torments me, and at the same time, my greatest strength. It goes like this. Ah, what if I send only one person and something goes wrong? The opponent might be stronger, right? What if another fellow comes to help him? What if an unexpected variable appears? I’m the sort of person who worries about every possible thing like that. And the result of that worry is this.”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned to Jin Paecheon.
“That is why I sent the Cult Leader Pungcheon as well.”
The moment he heard those words, Jin Paecheon’s expression relaxed.
If it had been the Soul-Subduing Demon Sovereign alone, then yes, he honestly would have been uneasy. But if even the Cult Leader Pungcheon had gone?
Geom Mugeuk was right. If the opponent used soul-bewitching arts, those two were better suited than himself and Geom Mugeuk.
“Then it is enough.”
The thought that it truly was enough came naturally to him.
In contrast, Hwa Yulcheong’s expression hardened.
“Bluffing again.”
Hwa Yulcheong tried to persuade Jin Paecheon.
“The Young Cult Leader is lying right now to survive.”
Jin Paecheon looked at him quietly and said,
“You are the one who fears you might die.”
Displeasure flashed across Hwa Yulcheong’s face. Since he had already revealed his true identity, he no longer concealed his emotions as thoroughly as before.
Jin Paecheon stared at Hwa Yulcheong and continued speaking.
“Until now, I never once tried to read your emotions. Thinking about it now, that was arrogance.”
Was it because he was busy as Alliance Leader?
No. It was because he had never needed to.
He had lived a life in which he did not have to read other people’s moods. Everyone else had watched his.
He had lived a life in which it had taken him decades to finally realize that the Cheonae Geosa had never once gotten angry at him and had always accommodated his feelings.
“All of this is something I brought upon myself.”
But that did not mean he had any intention of forgiving the man who had lived behind that mask.
“The moment you schemed using my grandson’s life, every bond between you and me was already severed.”
There was no need for more words, but he was curious about one thing.
“Let me ask only this at the end. The chivalrous righteousness you practiced your whole life—what sort of heart did it come from? Was that too all a pretense?”
At Jin Paecheon’s question, a sneer formed at the corner of Hwa Yulcheong’s mouth.
“Why? Does your righteousness seem real, while mine seems fake? Be honest. There must have been times when you were conscious of me. Times when you disliked me, who was revered as a more respected chivalrous hero than you, the Alliance Leader. Am I wrong?”
Jin Paecheon could not deny it. There truly had been times like that. But those had been fleeting emotions. He had soon composed himself and treated his friend with goodwill.
Hwa Yulcheong dug into Jin Paecheon even more persistently.
“If you kill me, what will the people who survived thanks to my help think? Will they truly believe that I was a villain who concealed his identity for decades? Or will they think that you killed me out of jealousy? Will they respect and follow you as they did before?”
Hwa Yulcheong shook Jin Paecheon. Having watched Jin Paecheon from his side for so long, he knew better than anyone what words would become daggers.
Jin Paecheon silently nodded.
“Yes, they may look at me with different feelings.”
Jin Paecheon somehow seemed detached. But that was not because Hwa Yulcheong had shaken him.
“Even so, it is all right. My era is now drawing to a close.”
The moment he heard those words, Geom Mugeuk understood. Jin Paecheon was finally intending to establish Jin Hagun as his successor.
Perhaps Jin Hagun, among the three of Majeongsa, would be the latest to become a successor, yet the first to become the Murim Alliance Leader.
“Yes, I acknowledge your righteousness. You lived an admirable life.”
At that moment, Geom Mugeuk cut in.
“I do not acknowledge it.”
How dare you try to shake the Alliance Leader with that pathetic glib tongue of yours? If it is a glib tongue you use, then I will answer with a glib tongue!
“You seem to want to insist that your chivalry was real, but it was fake, wasn’t it? For you, the more chivalrous deeds you accumulated, the more trust you built with the Alliance Leader—it was a kind of mission. You’d be better off claiming you’re a loyal and diligent servant of the Dark Palace. I’ll acknowledge that much.”
Hwa Yulcheong’s eyes twitched at the words that struck him dead on. He had lived thinking exactly that.
“If that chivalry had truly been real, then you should have stopped So Jeongnak, who protected you, from killing innocent people with poison art experiments. You should have stopped him from harming people with Soul-Bewitching Art and forcing them to take their own lives in the end. If you wanted to say that at least that chivalry was real, then you should have targeted only the Alliance Leader by yourself, without such subordinates.”
Hwa Yulcheong could not refute Geom Mugeuk’s continuing words.
In truth, these words were not being said to Hwa Yulcheong, but to Jin Paecheon. He was telling him there was no need to suffer from being stabbed by a poisoned dagger drawn from a sheath engraved with chivalry.
“What? You say even fake chivalry accomplished something? That it was better than nothing? If not for you, someone better would have been there to perform chivalrous deeds in your place. A true knight-errant, one without subordinates who used poison and Soul-Bewitching Art. So do not speak of chivalry to the Alliance Leader with that vile mouth of yours.”
A faint smile formed at the corners of Jin Paecheon’s lips. How could he not know? Those words had been spoken for his sake.
Hwa Yulcheong, on the other hand, glared at Geom Mugeuk with terrifying eyes. So many words had been spoken, yet he had not been able to refute even a single one.
The emotion contained in his gaze was a dark energy deeper than killing intent.
“Yes, this is who you are, isn’t it?”
Hwa Yulcheong revealed himself.
The aura of Hwa Yulcheong, now exposing his true presence, was incomparable to before.
An absolute master of the Dark Palace, who had cultivated his power in darkness for the past three hundred years.
Then Jin Paecheon spoke in a calm voice.
“Though I came as a spectator, it seems I must intrude upon this stage. Would that be all right?”
Geom Mugeuk smiled and replied.
“From the beginning, this stage was yours, Alliance Leader.”
Geom Mugeuk took one step back, and Jin Paecheon stepped forward.
“Ah, and I will be the one to lower the curtain on this stage.”
Then, looking down at his own sword, he said something unexpected.
“After becoming the Murim Alliance Leader, I could not display my true swordsmanship. An Alliance Leader could hardly wield such rough and violent swordsmanship without dignity.”
So it seemed the aura he revealed would be even more violent, but instead, it was still.
It was not the sea swept by fierce winds so powerful one could not even open one’s eyes, like his usual presence.
The sea within the darkness was utterly still.
And that made it all the more frightening. Because there was no telling what would happen in that sea from now on.
The dark energy flowing from Hwa Yulcheong’s body grew even stronger. Under its influence, the bamboo around them began to wither.
“I have no intention of sending the likes of you into Ha Gun’s era.”
Now calling Hwa Yulcheong “the likes of you,” Jin Paecheon properly stepped onto the stage and slowly drew his sword.
“I will have you exit together with the closing of the curtain on my era.”
Absolute Regression, Chapter 664