Geom Mugeuk stared intently at the Martial Emperor Divine Sword.
He looked vivid, like a truly living person.
“Pardon me, but may I touch you just once?”
Such composure, even after hearing he would be trapped here forever? From the moment they had first met, this Young Cult Leader had been a truly inscrutable man.
“This is no time for that. The time given to you is only one shichen.”
Unfortunately, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword did not know the way out. Could the Young Cult Leader truly escape this hellish place?
“Truly. I never imagined I would meet you here.”
In truth, there had been intent behind Geom Mugeuk’s coming here.
Earlier, while fighting Hwa Mugi, Geom Mugeuk had felt as though his soul kept slipping out of his body.
He had sensed something strange then, and he could have retreated with Flash Step. Throughout the fight, he had kept in mind the possibility that Hwa Mugi might use some hidden trump card.
Just as he was about to avoid it, the mysterious energy within his body reacted. It was the first time since meeting Hwa Mugi that such a thing had happened.
In the end, being trapped here had been his own instinctive choice.
When he met the Martial Emperor Divine Sword in this place, Geom Mugeuk felt that his choice had been correct. The energy of the Six Paths Origin Qi was clearly related to these souls.
“I believe my coming here is fate as well.”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword nodded. Yes, how could meeting as souls inside the body of the Heavenly Slaughter Star not be fated?
“Can you see or hear what is happening outside from here?”
When they had come out by borrowing Hwa Mugi’s body, they had known the situation outside.
“There is a separate place where that can be done.”
“Would you take me there?”
“Follow me.”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword took the lead, pushing through the fog.
Following behind him, Geom Mugeuk asked,
“Why are you helping me? I am the successor of the Divine Cult.”
Without looking back, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword answered,
“Think of it as repayment for the heart you showed in wanting to treat me to a meal.”
As if that could be the reason.
—Alliance Leader, your ambition saved the murim.
Geom Mugeuk had said the words he had wanted to hear from someone’s mouth.
—Please forgive yourself now.
At those words from Geom Mugeuk, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword forgave himself. Even if he died now—though he was already no different from dead—he would have no lingering regrets.
As they left the fog-filled place, the scenery around them began to reveal itself.
The first thing that caught his eye was the sky.
When he raised his head, the sun and moon were floating there at the same time, and mountains hung upside down. Waterfalls within the mountains were flowing upward from below. It was truly a sight one could only see in a dream.
To the left was a swamp. If the Poison King had come in with him, he would have run straight toward it. All sorts of poisonous creatures were swarming in the swamp.
Beyond that swamp, on a hill, stood a huge castle. It was a castle with an atmosphere that truly seemed as though ghosts might appear at any moment.
On the plain to the opposite side, corpses were strewn everywhere, and smoke was rising from a small village beyond them. The stench of blood that had filled the air came from that place.
There was also a space where walls stood like a maze, and a place where blades grew so densely like a forest that one could not enter. White bones hung from spearheads set up along the path.
“A strange place, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I never imagined it would be a place like this.”
He had thought the souls would be trapped somewhere like a cramped room, but they had been living in a world of their own.
“This place is constantly changing. It is completely different now from when I first came. Now that you have entered, it will change again.”
It was clear that the inside of this place changed according to Hwa Mugi’s thoughts or emotions.
After walking farther, they came to a sheer cliff. When he looked down, he could not see the bottom.
As they crossed a shabby wooden bridge hanging between cliff and cliff, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword said,
“At first, it was hard to believe. That such a place existed within a person’s heart. Sometimes I find myself wondering. What sort of places would exist within my own heart?”
Though much of his heart had been eased through Geom Mugeuk, he was still afraid. People would come and see what lay in the heart of the Murim Alliance Leader.
“Would there not be things even more hideous and harsh than this?”
At that, Geom Mugeuk spoke as if declaring it.
“There would not.”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword stopped in the middle of the bridge and turned back. The wind that blew in shook the bridge, but Geom Mugeuk spoke calmly to him.
“If you were someone who had such scenery within you, you would not have come to help me like this. And even if it was a little more desolate than expected, so what? ‘You brats, it became that way because I wandered battlefields for the sake of the murim. It all ended up that way because I was doing it for you.’ That is what you should say.”
How wonderfully simple. A smile formed on the lips of the Martial Emperor Divine Sword.
“You have a talent for making people feel good.”
“Isn’t it thanks to that talent that I am receiving your help like this, Divine Sword?”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword once again took the lead and crossed the bridge.
“Your heart must be filled with warm scenery.”
The gaze of Geom Mugeuk, who walked behind him, deepened.
“Would it truly be?”
After crossing the cliff, they arrived at a field where a large white circle had been drawn on the ground. Around that circle, unknown diagrams and letters were drawn densely.
A wondrous energy flowed around it. This place felt like a space separate from the places they had passed through before.
“This place is called the Heart Circle. From here, one can see and hear the situation outside. However, he has completely cut off the outside from this place. It seems he has no intention of opening it until he has fully trapped you.”
Though he did not know for certain, the outside must be in chaos right now. After all, he would have suddenly collapsed in the middle of the fight.
Still, he was not worried. It was filled with people he could truly trust, so he believed they would handle it well on their own. Right now, he had to focus only on matters here.
“How do I speak with him?”
“He can hear whatever we say from anywhere.”
“Then he must be hearing the conversation we are having now.”
When the Martial Emperor Divine Sword nodded, Geom Mugeuk looked up into the air.
“I should say something to him.”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword expected something like, You cowardly bastard, trapping me like this—what a waste of the name Heavenly Slaughter Star! But instead, Geom Mugeuk shouted in a cheerful voice.
“Heavenly Slaughter Star, I have safely entered your heart! Thank you for showing me around this place! This is the first time in my life I’ve experienced something like this. It’s probably an experience I wouldn’t have even until the day I died. And thanks to you, I’m very happy to meet the Martial Emperor Divine Sword again here.”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword looked at Geom Mugeuk. He was not being sarcastic toward the Heavenly Slaughter Star. Geom Mugeuk was genuinely pleased.
“When the fight is over, you promised we would talk to our hearts’ content. Make sure you keep that promise!”
After shouting that into the air, he asked the Martial Emperor Divine Sword,
“Does he answer too?”
“Sometimes.”
It was then. From behind, someone walked toward them and said,
“What kind of dogshit trick is this?”
Among the souls here, there was only one person who would spit out such words as his first sentence.
The person who appeared was indeed the Demon Cult Leader, Hyeok Docheon. He too looked exactly as he had in the past before being sucked into the secret coffer. His anger was not directed at Geom Mugeuk, but at the Martial Emperor Divine Sword.
“Were you planning to escape alone?”
When Hyeok Docheon questioned him, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword looked dumbfounded.
“You are once again trying to fault someone with utter nonsense.”
From that brief exchange, one could tell how the two had been getting along.
Geom Mugeuk greeted Hyeok Docheon.
“I pay my respects to the Cult Leader.”
Hyeok Docheon’s gaze turned to Geom Mugeuk.
Geom Mugeuk had not said a single kind word to him. He had called him cruel and infamous, and had even said that if he had not been drawn into the secret coffer, the situation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult would have become even worse.
He had also offended him by saying that a true Heavenly Demon would not have done something like breaking a wine cup.
Even so, the reason Hyeok Docheon welcomed Geom Mugeuk was this.
“You said you might be able to get me out of this place, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Did you come in here to take me out?”
At the expectant look in his eyes, Geom Mugeuk answered,
“I wish that were the case, but I was captured and brought here too.”
“You fool!”
Hyeok Docheon’s expression twisted at once. If you cannot get me out, there is no need to bother looking good to you. Just as Hyeok Docheon was about to shout,
“If luck is with us, I may be able to take you out of this place. Perhaps it might even be easier from the inside.”
The anger rising in Hyeok Docheon subsided. If he could get out of this place, he could do anything.
Having experienced what kind of person the Young Cult Leader was, he could not easily discard the hope that he might be able to take him out.
“You said you do not desire unification of the murim, did you not?”
He had said that if Geom Mugeuk let him out, he would achieve the unification of the murim for him, but Geom Mugeuk had refused.
“I do not.”
“Why? You are a man who will one day become Demon Cult Leader, yet you do not even have the ambition to seize the murim in your grasp?”
“I do not.”
He could endure other things, but that was difficult to tolerate.
“How did someone as soft as you become the Young Cult Leader of our cult? If it is the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, then all people under heaven should tremble merely at hearing its name! That is the status and dignity of our cult!”
At that, Geom Mugeuk asked calmly,
“What are you afraid of?”
“What?”
“Isn’t trying to become an object of fear to others done in order to protect yourself? ‘I am a frightening person, so do not challenge me.’”
Thinking he was being treated like a coward, Hyeok Docheon shouted,
“It is not because I am afraid! It has always been that way. We are such beings!”
“In the long history of the murim, wouldn’t it be fine for there to be at least one Demon Cult Leader who is loved by the people of the murim?”
“You lunatic!”
Rage boiled up inside Hyeok Docheon, but he forced himself to endure it. For now, he still had to place his hope in this Young Cult Leader.
“Fine, enough nonsense. Then what is it that you want?”
What Geom Mugeuk wanted was nothing grand.
“Please help me for just one shichen. Only if I get out can the Cult Leader get out as well.”
“Say anything. I will do it.”
“First, please call everyone else here.”
At that moment, another voice came from behind.
“There is no need. We have all come.”
The Cheonui Palace Lord and the Evil Dao Alliance Leader, Ju Gasin, walked toward them. However, the final soul, Hyeok Docheon’s Heavenly Demon Soul, did not appear.
Perhaps he had almost no interaction with them, or perhaps he did not appear when Hyeok Docheon was present.
The Cheonui Palace Lord said to Geom Mugeuk,
“You acted so high and mighty all by yourself, but it seems you are no different after all.”
Though he spoke that way, there was no great hostility in his eyes as he looked at Geom Mugeuk. It was because he had heard that Geom Mugeuk had personally closed the eyes of the Guardian Palace Lord.
Geom Mugeuk readily acknowledged the Cheonui Palace Lord’s words.
“Isn’t it said that an empty cart makes the most noise? I will need all of you to fill that cart.”
Everyone looked at Geom Mugeuk with expressions that asked what he meant.
“As all of you know, any sorcery has a method of undoing it.”
Geom Mugeuk knew well that the stronger the sorcery, the easier it could sometimes be to find its weakness.
“If all of you help me, I will try to find a way to take you out with me.”
Everyone looked at Geom Mugeuk in surprise. Even when he had told Hyeok Docheon earlier that they could get out, they had not believed him. They had thought he said it merely to provoke Hyeok Docheon. In truth, they still did not believe him now.
“How do you intend to get us out? Are you going to put us into someone else’s body?”
To the Cheonui Palace Lord’s question, Geom Mugeuk could have given them false hope by saying he would. But he did not.
“I do not know.”
“You do not know?”
“It is only a premonition for me as well. If fate guided me to this place, then perhaps it meant for me to take all of you out.
If that succeeds, whether you will enter other people’s bodies after leaving this place, be reborn, or go to paradise or hell—I do not know. Only the heavens would know.”
At those words, Hyeok Docheon’s expression hardened.
“I will certainly go to hell. If that is the case, it would be better to remain in this body.”
It was the same for the Cheonui Palace Lord and Ju Gasin.
At that, Geom Mugeuk said something unexpected.
“I believe all of you will at least not go to hell.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because you have already been trapped in hell for three hundred years.”
“!”
A heavy silence flowed through that place.
After giving them a moment to think, Geom Mugeuk spoke again.
“I would not dare claim to know what kind of lives all of you have lived over the past three hundred years, nor what thoughts you hold now. I will not forcibly take anyone who does not wish to go. If you remain…”
Depending on the result of this battle, their fate would be decided as well.
“You will either spend this life together with the Heavenly Slaughter Star, or die together with him today.”
The Cheonui Palace Lord asked with a suspicious gaze,
“How can we believe you will be able to do it?”
“There is no need for you to doubt and worry in advance. In any case, if I fail to get out…”
Geom Mugeuk let out a light sigh and added,
“You will be able to nag me for the rest of my life.”
Everyone nodded. After all, the person in the greatest hurry right now was Geom Mugeuk himself.
The one still most actively helping Geom Mugeuk was the Martial Emperor Divine Sword.
“How should we help?”
Geom Mugeuk could feel it. The heart with which the Martial Emperor Divine Sword helped him was not because he wanted to leave this place. He was helping out of a pure wish to allow Geom Mugeuk to get out.
At first, Geom Mugeuk had wondered whether he should run all over this place with Rapid Step to search for the method of undoing it. Finding such a method in this vast place within one shichen would not be easy.
But there had been a reason he had asked for everyone to be called here.
If fate had truly led him here, did that not mean he was meant to receive the help of these souls? Yes, do not try to do it alone. Receive their help.
“Is there perhaps any strange place inside here? Somewhere that stands out, or some special thing whose nature you do not understand.”
“As you saw on the way here, this place is full of strange things.”
At the Martial Emperor Divine Sword’s answer, Geom Mugeuk spoke as though he had realized something.
“Then I should ask the opposite. Is there perhaps a place that is not special?”
Everyone tried to recall whether such a place existed. Because they had been here for far too long, no place easily came to mind.
At that moment, someone suddenly answered. It was a person who had not said a single word since meeting Geom Mugeuk here.
“There is such a place.”
It was none other than Ju Gasin.
“Since we came here, this place has continued to change, but…”
Even ordinarily, he had almost never revealed his thoughts or emotions, so it was impossible to know whether he truly wanted to leave this place.
That man looked at Geom Mugeuk and calmly added,
“There is exactly one place that has remained the same from the beginning until now.”