“How long will it take to undo the seal?”
At Hwa Mugyeong’s question, Gaye looked up at the stars on the ceiling. After one constellation had been completed, no more constellations had lit up.
“I cannot say. I have never heard of anyone breaking the seal of the Seventy-Two Stars Soul-Forbidding Formation by their own power.”
If the person trapped inside had been anyone other than him, she would have answered that it was absolutely impossible. But if it was the man who had awakened on his own within this seal?
“At the earliest, it may take a few months. At the latest, it may take years. You must prepare countermeasures at once.”
Fear could be heard in her voice. The fear that, once he awakened, they would all die had ruled over her for a very long time.
Hwa Mugyeong, on the other hand, was calm. Earlier, he had been shocked and disbelieving at the fact that he had awakened, but if it was certain that he had, then what needed to be done was already decided.
“We do not have much time.”
And this was what had to be done in that allotted time.
“We have one final chance. If we can recover the Six Paths Primordial Qi before he breaks the seal, we should be able to control him.”
Hwa Mugyeong immediately called someone.
“Hui!”
Then a black circle appeared on the floor, and the black-clad man from before revealed himself once more.
“Go and deliver the message. Tell them they must recover the energy at all costs.”
“I obey!”
The black-clad man vanished into the floor.
Gaye looked up at the ceiling again. In her mind, she saw every constellation on that ceiling blazing with light.
“I am afraid.”
At her honest words, Hwa Mugyeong slowly moved his feet and walked toward the secret coffer set in the corner.
He slowly raised his hand and stroked the coffer. Even the back of his withered hand was deeply lined with wrinkles.
Deep remorse filled the eyes with which he gazed at the coffer. He seemed to have many things he wanted to say, but as he had always done until now, that remorse did not come out through his mouth and instead seeped into the folds of his deep wrinkles.
“I like that honesty of yours. When you are startled, you show it. When you are afraid, you say you are afraid. You do not have the affectation of your predecessors.”
The darkness that had scattered in fright gathered once more around Hwa Mugyeong.
As if it knew its master’s mood, the darkness did not play about as it had before. It became an exceedingly deep, cold darkness and settled around him.
“Yes. We should do it while trembling in fear. This is the matter of taking possession of the murim, after all.”
* * *
Geom Mugeuk was looking up at the signboard.
Eunwol.
Whenever he saw this signboard, only one emotion came to him.
Apology.
Because he knew better than anyone how hard Gowol had worked for a building bearing this signboard to stand in the main headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
That was why Cult Leader Pungcheon’s nagging about matters related to Gowol was more welcome than anything else. It always reminded him not to forget Gowol’s contributions.
Geom Mugeuk entered the building. There were no warriors guarding the entrance.
Instead, mechanisms of the highest caliber had been installed on both walls of the corridor. When he had introduced this place to Gowol before, they had not yet been functioning, but now they were in operation.
After passing through the long corridor where those mechanisms had been installed, the operations room finally appeared.
“Welcome, Young Cult Leader.”
Gowol greeted Geom Mugeuk respectfully.
“You look better than when I last saw you.”
“Is there not someone who looks after my health even more diligently than I do?”
He meant that Cult Leader Pungcheon was taking good care of him.
“How has Cult Leader Pungcheon been lately?”
“He has been busy trying to lose belly fat these days. Every day, he pesters me to tell him at once if there is any information about martial arts for losing belly fat. He says even demonic arts would be fine.”
Knowing that he truly would have said that, Geom Mugeuk laughed.
“Now, please take a look around.”
The inside of the operations room was bustling with activity.
Information arriving from all over the Central Plains was coming in through dozens of holes in the walls, and on one side it was being sorted again.
It truly felt like a miniature Tongcheongak.
“There is somewhere I need to inspect.”
Geom Mugeuk opened the door inside Gowol’s office. It was a space where only a single bed had been placed so that Gowol could rest.
“I knew it! I knew this would happen.”
Books and documents were piled up beside the bed.
Flustered, Gowol made an excuse.
“They are things I look at when I cannot sleep.”
“At times like that, just keep your eyes closed.”
Geom Mugeuk brought out all the documents that had been there.
“From now on, this is an order.”
“Yes! I will be sure to obey.”
Whose order would he dare disobey?
After looking around Eunwol like that, Gowol showed him the materials he had prepared in advance.
“These are the major incidents that occurred in the murim while you were at Daecheonsan.”
Geom Mugeuk slowly read through the materials Gowol had organized.
The hidden forces had even used the energy of Jeokjeong in an attempt to capture him, but they had failed.
They were surely plotting some new conspiracy, so there had to be something among these incidents connected to them.
“Are there any incidents worth paying special attention to lately?”
“Yes. There is one matter that has drawn attention recently.”
“What is it?”
“Have you perhaps heard of the Sword Tomb?”
Geom Mugeuk nodded. In the murim of the present age, there was only one meaningful Sword Tomb.
“Isn’t it the place where the masters of the previous generation gathered to fight and, in the end, all died?”
“That is correct. It became famous because it was said that the reason those masters fought was over treasures and artifacts so valuable that risking one’s life for them was not considered a waste.”
In his life before his regression, Geom Mugeuk had also entered that place. Of course, it had not been because of the treasures of the Sword Tomb, but because he had been searching for someone who had gone inside.
“Recently, rumors have spread that a treasure map marked with the location of the Sword Tomb has been discovered, and the movements of the murim have become unusual. There has already been a succession of people dying while fighting over it.”
Geom Mugeuk’s eyes sharpened.
The timing of the Sword Tomb’s appearance was wrong. The Sword Tomb had emerged much later than now and brought a bloody storm upon the murim.
‘The Sword Tomb is opening now?’
Gowol read the gravity in Geom Mugeuk’s expression.
“Is something troubling you?”
The timing of such a major incident had been moved far ahead.
It might be related to the forces behind the scenes, and even if it was not, it was certainly an incident that deserved attention.
“Investigate this under the assumption that it is connected to them.”
“Yes, understood.”
Gowol did not question him. In handling information until now, he too had experienced it. He knew how many different methods those people used to weave their conspiracies.
“Now, distribute these to the strategists.”
Geom Mugeuk took a stack of envelopes from his robes. Inside were promissory notes worth a fairly large sum.
“Since ancient times, nothing has raised morale like this.”
After saying it loudly enough for everyone to hear, Geom Mugeuk raised the envelopes high, and the strategists who had been working broke into bright smiles.
“It is said that a person’s lifespan decreases in proportion to the time he spends sitting. Everyone, stand up often and sleep well.”
After bidding farewell to the strategists of Eunwol in that way, Geom Mugeuk left the place.
Gowol followed him out to the entrance of Eunwol.
“Thank you truly for your concern.”
Before leaving, Geom Mugeuk gave Gowol a separate reminder. Gowol was always too devoted to his work.
“Your health is the most important thing. If your health deteriorates, the tens of thousands of pieces of information gathered here will become worth less than this one piece of information known to everyone in the world.”
Geom Mugeuk emphasized that one thing.
“Health is the most important.”
* * *
After leaving Eunwol, Geom Mugeuk went to the residence of the Ilhwa Sword Venerable.
“Sword Venerable.”
The door of the thatched hut opened, and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable came out.
“Young Cult Leader, welcome.”
The Ilhwa Sword Venerable greeted Geom Mugeuk warmly.
“It has been a long time since I saw you, yet our Sword Venerable’s beauty remains unchanged.”
“It feels very good to hear your flattery after so long.”
Now that she no longer attached meaning to her appearance at all, she could speak of it more comfortably instead.
“Come often and say such things to me, even if they are empty words.”
“Of course. I will come every day and say them for you. And they are not empty words!”
The two looked at each other and laughed.
“You must check how diligently I trained before coming down.”
At that, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable made an unexpected suggestion.
“Shall we do it here?”
She meant that they should hold their sparring match here in the yard, not at the training ground.
Geom Mugeuk looked around.
Rows of flowerpots with blooming flowers stood there, and there were several jars filled with food. On the clothesline stretched long across the center of the yard, the Sword Venerable’s pure white clothes swayed in the wind.
In other words, she meant that they should spar without breaking anything. It meant they would not conduct the kind of sparring they had done until now, but a sparring match of an even higher level.
“Very well.”
Naturally, Geom Mugeuk readily accepted.
The two drew their swords at the same time.
From the way he held his sword alone, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable could tell what the results of his training at Daecheonsan had been.
With their swords drawn, the two slowly moved their feet.
Just then, as they moved with the clothes hanging on the line between them, the wind blew and the garments fluttered.
Swish!
Geom Mugeuk’s sword flew in through the fluttering clothes.
Clang!
The Ilhwa Sword Venerable swiftly swung the Ilhwa Sword and struck his blade away.
It had clearly been a sword that flew in without any inner force, yet it was heavy. Truly heavy.
‘The momentum carried by his sword has changed.’
Swish!
This time, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable’s sword flew in, brushing past the clothesline.
Clang!
Geom Mugeuk likewise could tell that the momentum in the Ilhwa Sword Venerable’s sword could not be compared to before.
Clang! Claang!
The Black Demon Sword and the Ilhwa Sword swiftly moved back and forth among the laundry.
Their swords collided with perilous force, but neither the clothes nor the clothesline were torn or severed. The white garments merely fluttered in the sword wind.
The two moved again, exchanging sword blows.
Though it was not a sparring match where they poured everything out and pressed forward as before, it was far more tense and dangerous.
Their swords came and went in front of the pile of firewood stacked in the corner.
A log that had not yet been split flew up into the air.
The two swords flew in, each aiming for the other with the log between them.
Thudududuk.
The log fell as firewood. This was not a game in which they attacked together and made firewood.
Making firewood was an obvious condition both understood without needing to say it, and upon that condition, truly perilous moves came and went. It was, in every sense, a feast of swordsmanship unfolding within controlled movements.
They kicked off from the flowers in the pots and flew up, but not a single petal fell, and when they landed on the roof, there was not even the sound of a footstep.
Without using any proprietary sword arts, they sparred only with basic swordsmanship, but this sparring match was far more dangerous than a fight in which sword qi and sword aura ran rampant.
Whoosh.
After completing a clash that circled the yard in this way, the two returned to their original positions.
The objects around them were no different from before the sparring match. Nothing was broken, and there was not even the faintest mark of a sword grazing anything.
“Thank you truly for your instruction.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s respectful greeting, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable also cupped her fist with courtesy.
“Congratulations on the great completion of the Nine Flowers Demonic Art.”
She too first showed respect not to Geom Mugeuk, but to the Nine Flowers Demonic Art.
“How did you know?”
Her realization that he had achieved great completion was different from Geom Ujin’s or the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s.
“In your sword before, I could feel that you were hiding your ability. There was a sense that you were trying to protect me.”
Even as she said such words, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable was surprised by her own heart, which did not feel wounded in its pride.
“But just now, I felt none of that. It felt as if you were doing your utmost.”
“Then would that not mean my skill has instead decreased?”
“No. It means you have now reached a realm where you can fight with all your strength and still not harm me.”
This time, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable cupped her fist while holding her sword.
“It was a sparring match for which I am deeply grateful.”
She had an intuition that this sparring match had greatly affected her and would be of great help in advancing to the next realm.
And she was amazed. To think she would witness the Nine Flowers Demonic Art brought to great completion twice in one generation. When had it been that she had seen the Cult Leader smile after reaching great completion?
“I, too, learned much. Thank you, Sword Venerable.”
After finishing their sparring match, the two sat side by side on the small wooden platform in the yard and drank tea.
“By the way, I intend to leave the cult tomorrow.”
“Where are you going?”
At that, a name he had already heard once today flowed from her lips.
“They say the Sword Tomb has appeared in the murim.”
Geom Mugeuk turned to look at the Ilhwa Sword Venerable. She was looking at her own teacup.
“As someone who uses a sword, should I not go and take a look?”
She would not be going because she coveted the treasures or artifacts said to be there.
She did not seem like someone who would get involved in this kind of matter.
Geom Mugeuk asked casually.
“Would it be all right if I went with you?”
The Ilhwa Sword Venerable looked surprised.
“You?”
“I wish to go with you, Sword Venerable. Am I not also someone who uses a sword?”
The Ilhwa Sword Venerable nodded readily.
“I would like that. Rather, it is something I would want to ask of you. But you have only just come down from Daecheonsan. Will you be all right?”
“Did I not confirm it this time? To my frustration, the cult runs far too well even without me.”
At those words, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable laughed pleasantly.
“Then I will see you at dawn tomorrow.”
* * *
At dawn the next day, Geom Mugeuk and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable met at the main gate of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. Geom Mugeuk was carrying a leather pack stuffed full with luggage.
Who in the world would believe it? That the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult would leave the cult carrying so much baggage like this. He was someone who, if he went out with a single sword, could obtain anything in the world.
“Let us go.”
“Please wait a moment.”
Geom Mugeuk bowed his head deeply to the Ilhwa Sword Venerable.
“I will apologize in advance.”
“Why? Are you unable to go with me?”
The Ilhwa Sword Venerable thought Geom Mugeuk had to go somewhere else. That was why he had so much baggage.
“No. It is the opposite. This time, I caused the trouble first, and I am apologizing now.”
Just as she looked at him as if to ask what he meant, the trouble Geom Mugeuk had mentioned came walking toward them.
Walking over with a sullen face and grumbling, carrying a huge greatsaber on his back, was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
“Where in the world are you dragging me at this hour of dawn?”