After parting from the Ghost Shadow Squad, Geom Mugeuk returned to his quarters.
Twelve guards, including the chief guard Jeok Yeon, were waiting for him in full uniform.
“Young Cult Leader, welcome back.”
They stood in formation before his residence and greeted him in unison. Their ringing voices were filled with joy; ever since he had called each of them by name and drunk with them last time, their respect for the Young Cult Leader had deepened even further.
“Have you all been training hard?”
Jeok Yeon answered confidently on everyone’s behalf.
“We have been training diligently for the day we may serve you, Young Cult Leader.”
Indeed, several among the guards had advanced to the next stage in their martial arts, and a few others were in the midst of that transformation.
In the process of discerning their levels, Geom Mugeuk confirmed that his own abilities had improved even more. He could assess their realms with greater detail and accuracy than before.
On the other hand, among the guards, the first to notice the change in Geom Mugeuk was Jeok Yeon.
“But Young Cult Leader, it seems something about you has changed.”
Jeok Yeon had achieved great mastery in the Ghost Eye Art, which allowed him to detect those in hiding. Naturally, he noticed Geom Mugeuk’s change faster than anyone else.
“I suppose my growth spurt still isn’t over. I keep getting taller.”
He said it like a joke, but Jeok Yeon clearly sensed the change. Even so, he did not go so far as to think Geom Mugeuk had undergone rebirth.
“It’s been a while since we met, so I should see how much your skills have improved, shouldn’t I?”
Geom Mugeuk had them display their martial arts. One by one, he corrected their flawed movements.
He pointed out exactly one thing for each subordinate, but how could that one thing be anything ordinary?
The guards were moved once again by his instruction. The Young Cult Leader was the one they were to serve, and at the same time, he was their master.
When the individual lessons were over, Geom Mugeuk said to them,
“Guard duty is good, and training is good too, but don’t forget this. Right now is the brightest time of your lives. Later on, you’ll have to stand guard until you’re sick of it, so for now, find hobbies, meet women, take vacations and travel. Live that way. I don’t want you to spend your whole lives standing guard and then die.”
They heard such words every time, but even so, they could not neglect their training. They wanted to stand proudly at the Young Cult Leader’s side as soon as possible. The more they heard words like these, the sooner they wanted to serve him.
Geom Mugeuk took a bamboo tube from his leather pouch.
“I’m going to the Thousand Poisons Forest now. Prepare to go out.”
He deliberately took the guards with him. They were waiting for him like this, even dressed in uniform. Even if they could not accompany him outside the cult, they should at least accompany him at times like this.
Geom Mugeuk led the guards as he walked through the cult grounds. Passing martial artists greeted him respectfully as they went by. The guards’ chests naturally swelled with pride.
He even brought the guards into the Thousand Poisons Forest.
“It’s your first time in the Thousand Poisons Forest, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“If you lose your way here, you can assume you’re as good as dead. It’s vast, and deadly poisonous creatures swarm everywhere.”
The guards walked tensely, pressing close to Geom Mugeuk.
Fortunately, Geom Mugeuk knew the complex paths of the Thousand Poisons Forest better than anyone.
Whenever they came across a poisonous creature he recognized, he explained it to the guards.
“See that snake coiled around the branch over there? That’s a poisonous snake called the Flower-Willow Snake. It’s an essential ingredient in making Flower Poison. Jeok Yeon! There’s a poisonous insect on your shoulder!”
“Please don’t joke abo—aaagh!”
Geom Mugeuk flicked away the poisonous insect that had climbed onto his shoulder with a finger. Everyone pressed even closer around Geom Mugeuk.
Meanwhile, they arrived at the Poison King’s residence. After having his subordinates wait outside, he entered.
The Poison King happened to be mixing poison in the front yard of his laboratory.
“Poison King! I’m here!”
But the Poison King was so focused on his work that he did not even lift his head.
“I knew you would be like this, so I prepared this. You have no idea how hard I struggled to obtain this fellow. Even while fighting to the death against my enemies, I thought only of you, Poison King, and worked hard to protect this poison tube. Poison King, are you listening to me?”
Of course, the Poison King did not so much as pretend to hear him and remained absorbed in his work. He was not deliberately pretending not to hear; he was truly immersed.
Geom Mugeuk slightly opened the stopper of the bamboo tube.
Rustle, rustle.
As the smell of rotting corpses flowed from the tube, the Poison King reacted. Only then did he raise his head.
“This smell? Could it be?”
The Poison King set down what he was doing and rushed over to Geom Mugeuk, peering inside the poison tube.
Inside was a poisonous insect that resembled a centipede. When he had caught it beneath Mount Cheonmok, he had put it away to bring to the Poison King, and he had not forgotten.
“It’s a Corpse-Blood Poison Centipede!”
The Poison King’s face lit up brightly. At that sight, Geom Mugeuk could only shake his head.
‘Our Poison King, who knows nothing but poison!’
The Poison King took out the Corpse-Blood Poison Centipede with chopsticks. Between the chopsticks, the centipede writhed. It was so repulsive and frightening that merely looking at it was enough, yet the Poison King gazed at it with utter affection.
“See the spot on its belly here? The ones with round spots are females. They’re several times harder to obtain than the males.”
Indeed, a round spot could be seen on its belly. He only knew because the Poison King told him; otherwise, he would never have had any reason to look at the belly of such a terrifying, revolting creature.
“You neglected me all this time because Demon Buddha brought you all those poisonous herbs, didn’t you? Now, the age of Demon Buddha is over, and my age has arrived.”
Just then, a voice came from behind him.
“Why do you keep sending away someone who is standing still?”
Geom Mugeuk turned to see Demon Buddha walking out of the warehouse. He was carrying a large poison jar.
“Why are you here? No, what is that poison jar? Was having you dig up poisonous herbs not enough, so now he’s making you move poison jars too? Were you deceived by the Poison King again and having your labor exploited?”
Then unexpected words flowed from Demon Buddha.
“I am learning poison arts.”
“Pardon?”
Demon Buddha said again,
“I said I am learning poison arts from the Poison King.”
“You, Demon Buddha?”
Demon Buddha nodded.
“As I dug up poisonous herbs, I became interested in poison arts. So I’m learning from the basics.”
Demon Buddha learning poison arts was truly something he had never imagined.
“If you start using poison arts too, Demon Buddha, who is supposed to stop you?”
“I’m not learning it to use on others. I’m simply studying.”
Demon Buddha set the poison jar he had brought down beside the Poison King and went back into the warehouse. Geom Mugeuk trotted after him.
“Isn’t it tiring?”
“It was tiring when it was my main occupation. What’s tiring about doing something I can quit at any time?”
Like someone who had attained enlightenment in Buddhism, Demon Buddha’s expression was peaceful.
But Geom Mugeuk sensed a hidden torrent beneath that lake-like serenity. Carving stone statues and learning poison arts. Was something boiling within him so fiercely that he had to work this hard to find repose?
“This side of you feels unfamiliar, Demon Buddha.”
Demon Buddha paused his hands for a moment and lightly sat atop a jar. Geom Mugeuk also sat on the jar beside him.
“True. In the past, it is something I would not have done.”
“Then why did you change your mind?”
After a brief pause, Demon Buddha brought up words Geom Mugeuk had once said.
“You said it before. Not to spend my time carving stone statues. To move among people, understand their hearts, persuade them with passion, and fight with all my strength for my goal.”
“Yes, I did.”
“……But it did not go well. Should I say it felt as though the ember in my heart had gone out? A life from which dreams have vanished leaves behind only habitual routine.”
Demon Buddha looked at Geom Mugeuk and asked,
“How can an extinguished ember be revived?”
Yes, how could a person change so easily? He had once been someone who ran around several times harder than ordinary people with those short legs of his.
Geom Mugeuk seemed to ponder for a moment, then suddenly said,
“How can you revive an extinguished ember? Abandon your attachment to the warmth left in those ashes.”
“!”
In that instant, Demon Buddha’s heart sank. It felt as though Geom Mugeuk had struck him at the core. Yes, he was still rummaging through the ashes in search of an ember.
“Now is not the time to light a fire, but the time to chop firewood. Start anew by gathering wood.”
A surge of emotion passed through Demon Buddha’s eyes. He had only thought of reviving the ambition that had passed, never of starting again from the beginning.
“If there was an ambition suited to that time, then there must be an ambition suited to the present as well. And that ambition does not have to be burned up in a roaring blaze to be magnificent. There is also a kind of elegance in stacking firewood high and not lighting it.”
In Geom Mugeuk’s words, Demon Buddha saw the path he had to take.
As long as his feelings for the Eldest Young Master continued, realistically, there would be no way for him to set his ambitions roaring again. Instead, he would continue longing for the ambition that had passed.
But now, Geom Mugeuk was telling him this: do not think of the ember as having gone out; think of it as choosing not to light the fire. Change from a passive way of thinking to an active one.
Demon Buddha had a premonition that this small difference in thought would greatly change his life.
Demon Buddha turned his head and stared intently at Geom Mugeuk. As if he had been waiting for that very moment, Geom Mugeuk asked,
“Has nothing about me changed?”
“Did you cut your hair?”
“No, please look more closely.”
“I don’t know.”
His expression showed that he truly did not know, not that he was joking.
“No, you can find poisonous herbs like a ghost, so why can’t you notice my change? Look at my skin. Smell me too.”
“What would I look at a man’s skin for? Disgusting.”
Demon Buddha got down again and went out carrying a poison jar.
“No, I’m asking you to look just once!”
This time, Geom Mugeuk tried asking the Poison King. But the Poison King was absorbed in extracting poison from the Corpse-Blood Poison Centipede Geom Mugeuk had given him. Unless his father came, it seemed impossible to disturb his concentration.
In the end, Geom Mugeuk withdrew without even getting to boast once about his rebirth.
“I’m busy today, so I’ll just pay my respects and be on my way. I’ll visit again.”
After bowing politely, Geom Mugeuk left the place with his subordinates.
Demon Buddha looked up at the sky and said,
“Rebirth, is it? The Young Cult Leader may truly be someone sent by the heavens.”
Demon Buddha had known everything and merely pretended not to.
Only then did the Poison King raise his head in surprise.
“The Young Cult Leader underwent rebirth?”
The Poison King had failed to notice because his attention was on the Corpse-Blood Poison Centipede. Even if that had not been the case, he was also someone who had no interest in others.
Setting the poison jar down beside him, Demon Buddha said,
“We may have to begin preparing soon as well.”
At the Poison King’s gaze, which asked what he meant, Demon Buddha calmly answered,
“The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult of this era possesses the greatest military strength of any generation in history. Do you truly think the Cult Leader will let this opportunity pass?”
The Heavenly Demon, who had achieved grand completion of the Twelve Stars, and the Young Cult Leader, who had achieved grand completion as well. Even the Eight Demon Venerables had each broken through their own limits.
The Cult Leader was not someone who would stack firewood high and leave it unlit.
“The Cult Leader’s dream is drawing closer and closer to reality. The more the Young Cult Leader tries to stop it, the more I feel that fate may move in that direction.”
* * *
After leaving the Thousand Poisons Forest, the place Geom Mugeuk went next was the residence of Cult Leader Pungcheon.
Seeing that he had even brought all his guards with him, Cult Leader Pungcheon flinched in surprise.
“What is this? Have you come to arrest me?”
“If I intended to do that, would these children be enough? All the elites of our cult would have to be mobilized.”
Cult Leader Pungcheon laughed pleasantly, then stiffened his expression. It always began with pleasant talk like this, and by the time he came to his senses, something had been taken from him.
“What have you come to take from me now, when I’m penniless?”
“Take from you? I came because I wanted to see you, Cult Leader.”
“You came to check if I happened to acquire anything in the meantime, didn’t you?”
Cult Leader Pungcheon looked at Geom Mugeuk with suspicious eyes. Then he flinched in surprise.
“You?”
He wondered if Pungcheon had noticed his rebirth.
“You’ve gained weight!”
Then he burst into loud laughter.
“If you don’t manage yourself like me, you put it on in no time.”
Now that he looked, Cult Leader Pungcheon did seem to have lost a little weight. Only a very little, though.
“You’ve lost a great deal of weight. Your features are shining.”
“Does it really look that way?”
At the words that he had lost weight, he gave a pleased smile. Geom Mugeuk’s divine art of flattery was displayed for the first time in a while.
“Even now, when you walk through the cult, do you not feel their gazes?”
“Gazes? What gazes?”
“The gazes of women, of course. They’re only being cautious because this is inside the cult. If you went out to the Central Plains, women would follow you in lines.”
“Oh, there’s no need to go that far.”
“Come out to the Central Plains with me sometime. I’ll prove it to you.”
“You always say that and never do.”
“No. The three of you should go get some fresh air with Strategist Go.”
“That’s a promise.”
“Of course.”
Geom Mugeuk subtly revealed his true colors.
“In that spirit, may I ask one favor of you?”
Cult Leader Pungcheon gave him a look that said, I knew it.
“Call it an ulterior motive, not a favor. So, what is it you want?”
For once, Geom Mugeuk could not get the words out and hesitated.
“For a shameless man like you to hesitate this much, it must be a request I absolutely cannot grant.”
With a sigh, Geom Mugeuk revealed what he wanted to ask.
“There is someone I wish to teach the Space-Time Transposition Art to.”
To his surprise, Cult Leader Pungcheon knew who it was.
“To the Cult Leader?”
Startled, Geom Mugeuk asked him,
“How did you know?”
“You held out quite a long time. I thought you would come asking much sooner.”
He spoke as though he had guessed it from the beginning.
“That’s right. From the start, I wanted to teach it to my father.”
“Then why did you not ask?”
“Because it would be a burden to you, Cult Leader.”
“And now?”
“The situation has changed. Now it is time for their leader to appear. As you know, he is no ordinary man.”
Of course, Cult Leader Pungcheon would also assume that opponent was the Dark Palace Lord.
“So I wish to give my father a hidden trump card.”
He had expected him to say absolutely not.
Yet for some reason, Cult Leader Pungcheon readily agreed.
“Very well. Do so.”
“What? You’re giving me permission?”
“I am.”
Geom Mugeuk stared at Cult Leader Pungcheon in surprise.
“May I ask why you are allowing it so readily?”
Then came an unexpected answer.
“For your father’s sake.”
He had thought it was out of goodwill or respect toward his father, but it was not.
“He brought you into this world and allowed me to form a bond with you, so I suppose I can give him this much of a gift.”
Geom Mugeuk was genuinely moved. Could there be any reason more touching than that?
“When it comes to the Space-Time Transposition Art, I am your disciple, am I not? Since my father will be learning from me, that makes you his grandmaster. From now on, I shall call you Grandmaster! Grandmaster of Space-Time!”
Cult Leader Pungcheon asked with an intrigued expression,
“Do you truly think your father will learn it obediently?”
Considering Geom Ujin’s pride, he would never try to learn it willingly. Teaching him would not be easy either.
“I do have one method in mind.”
“What is it?”
If he said it was to prepare for some unforeseen danger, it would only have the opposite effect. If he said he wanted to take a walk with his father inside the Space-Time Transposition Art, the first thing he would get was mockery.
No complicated plan would work. But there was one way to provoke his father—the simplest and most provocative way.
“How long did you say it took you to master the Space-Time Transposition Art?”