This was no longer a matter of whether he hated Jin Paecheon more or less.
Because the curtain of darkness being torn apart before Hwa Yulcheong’s eyes was something that absolutely must not be torn.
Amcheon Pasimsul (暗天破心術).
Once trapped within it, one would wander through a darkness without an exit, eventually falling prey to inner demons and exposing a weakness. It was a secret art.
Fine, even if he conceded a hundred times over and admitted that Jin Paecheon could break it, he should not have been able to rip his way out this easily.
Shwaaaaaaak.
Jin Paecheon emerged from the torn darkness and asked,
“Why are you standing in the light?”
It meant: rather than trapping me in darkness, shouldn’t you be the one hiding in it?
Once Jin Paecheon had made up his mind to kill his opponent, he focused only on that.
Yes, this had always been his nature. If he killed, he killed without fail; if he spared, he spared without fail. It was because he had been such a man that he had risen to the position of Alliance Leader.
At this moment, Jin Paecheon felt light. It was as if he had found the self he had forgotten, and he felt a strange pleasure from this long-awaited deviation and freedom.
Sssssssss.
The place he had torn through gradually spread with light, and the darkness that had descended vanished completely.
Then Geom Mugeuk, who had been in the darkness, also revealed himself.
Hwa Yulcheong asked in a trembling voice,
“How did you get out?”
Then one martial art name came from Jin Paecheon.
“Ilsim Gwanggeom (一心光劍).”
At those words, Hwa Yulcheong’s face filled with shock.
“You mean you achieved the great completion of Jeongsimgyeol (正心訣)?”
Jeongsimgyeol was the Murim Alliance’s protective mental art that warded off evil energy. If the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had the Cheonma Hosingong, then the Murim Alliance had Jeongsimgyeol.
Jeongsimgyeol was an oral formula passed down only to the Murim Alliance Leader, and it was known to be extremely difficult to achieve great completion in it. Even among past Alliance Leaders, those who had done so could be counted on one hand.
Ilsim Gwanggeom could only be used upon attaining the great completion of that Jeongsimgyeol. Jin Paecheon was far stronger than Hwa Yulcheong had known.
“You never once told me you had achieved the great completion of Jeongsimgyeol, did you?”
At once, Hwa Yulcheong’s gaze turned vicious.
“You hid your strength.”
Over the years, while remaining friends with Jin Paecheon, he had thought he had investigated much about him.
But he had been wrong about the most important part. Jin Paecheon had hidden far too much of his strength.
Jin Paecheon answered calmly.
“Surely not as much as you.”
Thinking about it, it was not as though he had deliberately hidden his strength. It was only natural for a martial artist not to reveal all of his martial prowess, and because he was not the type to display and boast of his martial arts, Hwa Yulcheong simply had not known of his achievements.
Perhaps the fact that they had known each other for so many years had instead hindered him from truly knowing Jin Paecheon.
“Besides, you still have more hidden away, don’t you?”
Jin Paecheon’s question was not merely a guess.
Even though the Amcheon Museong Sword Art had failed, and even the Amcheon Pasimsul had failed, Hwa Yulcheong had not attempted to flee. He clearly had one move hidden up his sleeve.
“Hoo, how frustrating.”
As if he truly was frustrated, Hwa Yulcheong lightly launched himself into the air.
He landed atop a small leaf at the tip of a tall bamboo.
Jin Paecheon also lightly launched himself and landed on a leaf some distance away from him.
Geom Mugeuk climbed onto a bamboo stalk far away from the two of them.
Above was the sky, below was the bamboo forest, and all around, the falling rain.
It was truly a magnificent stage.
When Geom Mugeuk looked up at the sky, it seemed the rain would soon stop. By the time the rain ceased, this fight would probably be over as well.
“You cannot stop our revenge. No one can.”
Hwa Yulcheong had certainty in the path he walked.
“You understand, don’t you? What this emotion is.”
When Hwa Yulcheong once again dug into Jin Paecheon’s pain, Geom Mugeuk stepped forward.
“You’re different.”
Hwa Yulcheong’s cold gaze turned toward Geom Mugeuk.
“Your revenge is a misguided revenge. Ah, I suppose it isn’t your fault. It would be the fault of the person who raised you all as incarnations of revenge.”
Hwa Yulcheong’s expression hardened. Those words were even more unpleasant. They meant that he was not the subject of his own will, but someone manipulated by another’s hand.
“Did you ask the Alliance Leader whether he understands your revenge? How could he? The Alliance Leader is not the sort of man who would place a sword in his grandson’s hand and tell him to continue revenge through the generations. From that point on, you people were wrong.”
Hwa Yulcheong shouted furiously,
“What would the likes of you know about revenge!”
What did I know about revenge? If he knew what efforts I had made to take revenge on Hwa Mugi, he would not be able to say such a thing.
But now, my mind had changed.
Though it had begun with nothing but the desire for revenge, in this life, revenge was only a part of life.
Was it said that the finest revenge against someone was to live happily and well?
Geom Mugeuk said with a smile,
“You’re right. I don’t know much.”
At that moment, Jin Paecheon saw it. Geom Mugeuk’s two eyes were shining more brightly than ever. For some reason, they were deep eyes that seemed to understand the emotion called revenge better than anyone.
Those shining eyes began to pierce through Hwa Yulcheong’s intentions.
“Why don’t you stop talking about revenge now? That isn’t real either, is it?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s questioning, which sounded like an interrogation, Hwa Yulcheong flinched in surprise.
“This affair isn’t because of revenge, is it?”
Geom Mugeuk knew well what kind of lives the forces behind them had lived before his regression.
They had become the Twelve Zodiac Kings and ruled the murim. There had never been a single announcement saying that they had killed the three leaders of the Demonic, Orthodox, and Evil factions for the sake of revenge.
“At first, perhaps it began because of revenge. But at some point, it must have changed. If that heart had not changed despite being passed down for three hundred long years, that would be the stranger thing.”
Geom Mugeuk gazed into Hwa Yulcheong’s eyes and said,
“So say it proudly. Say that you want to take this murim. Because it was that kind of dream, you were able to hide beside the Alliance Leader for so long.”
From Hwa Yulcheong’s reaction, Jin Paecheon could tell. Geom Mugeuk’s words were true. Their goal was the unification of murim.
In a grave voice, Jin Paecheon said to Hwa Yulcheong,
“Now there is nothing left for me to understand about you.”
Jin Paecheon launched himself toward him.
Chang! Chang! Chaaang!
The two clashed as they raced together across the bamboo.
Jin Paecheon’s fighting changed.
Until just a moment ago, he had been incomparably rough and domineering, but now he had returned to his usual calm, dignified sword.
“Why has your way of fighting changed?”
At Hwa Yulcheong’s question, Jin Paecheon said calmly,
“Earlier, I faced you with personal feelings.”
As an old friend who had betrayed him. As one who sought revenge by using his grandson’s life.
But now, it was different.
“If you people dream of unifying murim, then as the Murim Alliance Leader, I must naturally face you as such.”
Now, sword lines that were not rough at all, but perfectly refined, embroidered the air. The style had changed.
He did not merely press forward; when it was time to retreat, he retreated decisively. The rhythm of the performance shifted, growing faster and slower in turn.
So had Jin Paecheon become weaker?
No. On the contrary, compared to when he had been pressing forward savagely, Jin Paecheon’s swordsmanship had become even harder to face. It was sturdier and left no openings.
Hwa Yulcheong was certain that by normal methods, he could never defeat him.
Chaaang!
Hwa Yulcheong roughly knocked aside an attack and descended to the ground as if fleeing. Jin Paecheon landed before him with footwork that was neither fast nor slow.
The trump card Hwa Yulcheong had hidden away was not martial arts.
“Do you not want to know?”
It was truly something no one could have expected him to say.
“Who killed your son.”
In that instant, Jin Paecheon’s expression stiffened. The most shocking words since they had met had flowed out.
When Geom Mugeuk had killed the Wood King last time, he had heard about that affair from the Alliance Leader.
Jin Paecheon’s son and daughter-in-law had been killed by the Mokcheon Clan.
When Jin Paecheon rushed to the Mokcheon Clan to take revenge, the place had already been exterminated. At that time, Jin Paecheon had said he had thought it truly fortunate. If not, he might have exterminated them himself.
Afterward, Baek Cheongyeong, the sole survivor of the Mokcheon Clan and the younger brother of the clan head, became Jin Hagun’s master and dreamed of revenge.
Back then, Geom Mugeuk had been suspicious. He had thought that those bastards had used Baek Cheongyeong. Perhaps the deaths of the Alliance Leader’s son and daughter-in-law were also connected to them.
And now, that suspicion had appeared as reality.
Hwa Yulcheong was certain that this truth, at least, was something Jin Paecheon could never ignore. At least when dealing with Jin Paecheon, this was the strongest weapon.
“Do you truly think it was the Mokcheon Clan’s doing?”
Embedded in this question was already the implication that the Mokcheon Clan had not been the culprit.
“I alone know who it was.”
Hwa Yulcheong savored this moment. He had imagined that such a day would come someday. How shocked would Jin Paecheon be? This moment, when he could toy with him while looking at that startled face.
He would never be able to kill him.
“If you do not let me go, that matter will be buried in secrecy forever.”
Jin Paecheon’s heart pounded violently. Other matters were one thing, but when it came to something related to his son’s death, he could not easily calm his mind.
At that moment, Geom Mugeuk stepped forward.
“It does not matter if you do not know.”
Geom Mugeuk was the only person at that moment who could slow Jin Paecheon’s heartbeat.
“If you are swayed by words that may or may not be true, Alliance Leader, you will spend the rest of your life with your feet bound by shackles in the name of revenge. That is what this man wants.”
He was not merely telling him to endure for the sake of the greater cause. Geom Mugeuk had a solution.
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze toward Hwa Yulcheong was colder than anything.
“It does not matter if we do not know who killed them.”
There was a clear reason he could say such a thing.
“After all, we’re going to kill all of you. If there is someone, it will be one among them.”
“!”
Hwa Yulcheong’s eyes wavered.
‘This man is speaking in earnest.’
And he felt that Jin Paecheon was being shaken by his words.
Hwa Yulcheong shook not Geom Mugeuk, but Jin Paecheon.
“That man is an outsider. How could he understand your grief? How could he understand that boiling paternal love?”
But Geom Mugeuk had an even more powerful blow than that.
“Do not become obsessed with who it was. If you attach meaning to that, the person who will inherit those shackles will be Hagun.”
“!”
If he could not find the culprit, then in the end, Hagun would live his life searching for the enemy who killed his parents.
It also meant that it would become no different from the revenge of the Dark Palace.
Those words were decisive.
Jin Paecheon nodded. It was not an easy decision, but Geom Mugeuk was right. Finding the culprit who had killed his son and daughter-in-law was important, but the grandchildren they had left behind were more important.
Once the curtain fell on his stage, there would never again be a performance with them. Hagun must never have to step onto this stage.
‘Yes, all of you will go with me.’
All of you, die on my stage.
“I will not dwell on the past.”
Because Hwa Yulcheong knew that once Jin Paecheon made a decision, he was a man who never looked back, he was truly furious.
Because of this damned Young Cult Leader, his plan to escape this place had gone awry. Even if he cut off that cursed neck, that hateful mouth would probably live on and keep talking.
Jin Paecheon spoke as if declaring it.
“I need not know!”
Looking into Jin Paecheon’s eyes, which did not waver even by an inch, Hwa Yulcheong shouted,
“If you thought the martial arts of the Dark Palace were only for darkness, you were gravely mistaken.”
The moment those words ended!
Hwaaaaak!
The entire world shone brightly with light. The light was so powerful that they could not open their eyes.
Gwangcheon Myeoran (光天滅眼).
It was the final secret art he had hidden away.
Within that blinding light, Hwa Yulcheong’s final attack flew in.
In that place where even sight was cut off, a soundless sword flew toward Jin Paecheon’s heart.
Chaaang!
His sword did not reach Jin Paecheon’s heart.
Jin Paecheon had struck aside the incoming blade.
Hwa Yulcheong was aghast. What shocked him was not that Jin Paecheon had blocked his attack.
Jin Paecheon had his eyes open within this Gwangcheon Myeoran.
“How on earth?”
The next moment!
Shiiiiing!
Along with a refreshing, crisp sound of wind that cooled the ears, sword lines flashed before his eyes.
Clack.
As Hwa Yulcheong stared blankly at Jin Paecheon retrieving his sword, he felt his chest grow hot.
He slowly lowered his head and looked down at his chest.
When he loosened his collar, he saw a character engraved on his chest in red lines.
Jeong (正).
It was the character for righteousness.
The first form of the Imperial Sword Forms, Muinjirro (武人之路).
The most basic and first sword form of the Imperial Sword Forms had been unleashed.
When Hwayulcheong slowly raised his head, Jin Paecheon spoke with a calm gaze.
“I did not win because I was strong.”
The belief that had upheld Jin Paecheon his entire life.
“We won because we were right.”
The moment those words ended—
Pshaaaaaa!
Blood spurted from the characters carved into Hwayulcheong’s chest.
His body slowly began to collapse.
The last thing he saw before his life was extinguished was Geom Mugeuk standing before Jin Paecheon, who had turned away from him, smiling brightly.
Geom Mugeuk did not look at him as he lay dying.
It was all because of that bastard that they had failed here in the Murim Alliance. And he wouldn’t even spare him a glance? You son of a bitch! Look at me! You should at least say something!
With that resentment, Hwayulcheong’s breath ceased completely.
It was the moment when the three people who had infiltrated the Murim Alliance for many long years—Hwayulcheong, So Jeongnak, and Jin Hyu—met their deaths.
Geom Mugeuk’s and Jin Paecheon’s gazes intertwined in the air.
“Thank you.”
At Jin Paecheon’s thanks, Geom Mugeuk politely cupped his fist and paid his respects.
“That is what I should be saying. Today, Alliance Leader, you showed me a new realm. It will be of great help to my advancement in martial arts.”
It was not a joke, but something said in earnest. The Alliance Leader’s fight had possessed dignity, and had properly shown the essence of the orthodox martial world.
At that, Jin Paecheon put on a deliberately troubled expression.
“It would be a problem if you kept growing stronger.”
Geom Mugeuk laughed loudly, and a smile appeared at the corners of Jin Paecheon’s mouth.
Just then, a guard from the Alliance Leader’s Hall came over and delivered a piece of news.
“We have received word that Captain Jin and the Demon Extermination Squad are all safe.”
Jin Paecheon was truly glad. He had believed Geom Mugeuk when he said that even the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable and Cult Leader Pungcheon had gone, but deep down, he had still been worried. Fortunately, they were safe.
Before long, Jin Paecheon steeled himself to a decision.
“Do you know why I did not pass the Imperial Sword Form on to Hagun?”
Jin Paecheon had not passed this powerful Imperial Sword Form on to Jin Hagun in advance.
That was why Jin Hagun had once taken the Wood King as his master and learned martial arts from him.
He had told him to become the successor fairly and by his own strength, without his grandfather’s martial arts, but in truth, there had been another reason he had not taught him the Imperial Sword Form.
“I was afraid the boy would become intoxicated by this powerful martial art and lose control of himself. I had intended to pass it on when he was older and more mature.”
Jin Paecheon himself had been that way. In his youth, trusting only in the strength of his martial arts, he had nearly caused several great incidents. Fortunately, heavenly luck had been with him, allowing him to reach this day.
“It seems the time has come to teach him now.”
Geom Mugeuk understood. Jin Hagun would now formally become the successor of the Murim Alliance.
“Hagun will be truly delighted. We friends should hold a banquet to celebrate.”
Geom Mugeuk rejoiced as though it were his own affair.
Jin Paecheon, gazing at that bright face, lifted his eyes to the sky. The falling rain had stopped before they knew it.
“Before you return to the Cult, stop by and see me.”