The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword held out his hand to Hyeok Docheon.
“Let me clasp hands with you once as well.”
Since he had held hands with the Lord of the Heavenly Will Palace while flying earlier, he meant to hold Hyeok Docheon’s hand last.
“You and I fought quite a lot.”
Hyeok Docheon was in a hurry, so he did not refuse and seized the hand at once. Right now, all he wanted was to get out of this place as quickly as possible.
Of course, even as he took his hand, he did not forget to say one thing.
“You were the one who acted so frustratingly.”
In the past, he would not have let that pass, but the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword merely smiled.
“You two, hurry up and take hold too. If we’re too late and can’t get out, you’ll all die by my hand!”
At Hyeok Docheon’s urging, the Lord of the Heavenly Will Palace and Ju Gashin also took hands. They all knew there was no time, so they moved swiftly.
As the four of them formed a circle and clasped hands, Geom Mugeuk began to circulate the mnemonic chant.
As his true qi moved according to the chant, the energy of the Six Paths Primordial Qi traveled through Geom Mugeuk’s hands and was transmitted to them.
Hyeok Docheon’s eyes flew wide at the energy entering his body. Never in his life had he felt such power.
It was the same for the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword beside him and the other two. They instinctively knew that this was not an energy of the human world.
As the true qi flowing out from Geom Mugeuk passed through their bodies, a mysterious radiance began to emanate from them, united as one through the chant.
It was right then.
Hwa Mugi appeared there once more.
“What kind of trickery is this!”
While his attention had been briefly drawn to the Cult Leader of Pungcheon, something completely unexpected had been taking place inside him.
Hwa Mugi knew instinctively. This was something he absolutely could not allow. With almost one shichen having passed, what they were doing was surely an attempt to break the Dark Heaven Soul-Binding Art.
Hwa Mugi rushed at them and tried to tear apart their clasped hands.
Judging from their appearance, they were undoubtedly using some mental cultivation method, so he had to separate those hands and sever the flow of true qi.
But the radiance pouring from their bodies blocked any approach from outside.
Because his original body was in a state where its internal energy had been suppressed, his soul likewise could not use internal energy.
Even if he could use martial arts, it did not seem he would be able to pierce through this light, but—
“Stop!”
Hwa Mugi did not give up and tried to force his way into them, but it was useless.
The only hope left to Hwa Mugi now was time.
Nearly one shichen had already passed. There was not even enough time left for a single stick of incense to burn down.
‘One shichen must pass before their circulation ends!’
The four of them felt changes arising within their bodies. The sensation of holding hands grew faint, and they even forgot the existence of the mysterious energy that had entered them.
Feeling as if they stood alone in an empty space, the days they had lived flashed by in an instant. All the emotions they had experienced brushed past each of their hearts.
The energy of the Six Paths Primordial Qi, which had moved as one, split apart and scattered into different lights.
The pure white energy of the White Essence wrapped around the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s body. He looked as though he were vanishing into a thick fog.
“Thank you, Young Cult Leader.”
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword smiled brightly and disappeared together with the white light.
What wrapped around Hyeok Docheon was the pitch-black energy of the Black Essence. He seemed to walk down a dark night street and vanish into the darkness.
“You’re too soft! The Demon Cult must be rough and strong!”
Somehow, from the final shape made by the darkness enveloping him, the image of the Heavenly Demon Soul seemed to flash past. If that was true? Even now, may it remain with him to the very end.
The energy that wrapped around Ju Gashin was the energy of the Red Essence. The crimson energy blazing like fire took the shape of a red wolf, then disappeared with him.
“Still, for a Demon Cult bastard, you weren’t bad.”
That was the final thing he left for Geom Mugeuk.
The light that wrapped around the last one, the Lord of the Heavenly Will Palace, was golden. The sight of him turning away looked as though he were walking lonely into the sunset. A final lingering attachment he had never been able to cast off.
“Even so, there is heavenly will. I hope the heavenly will granted to you can change the world.”
And so the Lord of the Heavenly Will Palace disappeared as well.
Even Geom Mugeuk could not know where they had gone.
“May you have gone to the place you wished!”
Geom Mugeuk bowed respectfully toward the place where they had vanished. It was the moment an affinity that had continued for over three hundred years came to an end.
At that very instant, exactly one shichen passed.
Swaaaaaaak.
In that moment, Hwa Mugi’s expression brightened radiantly.
Geom Mugeuk’s innate true qi, internal energy, and martial arts had begun to enter his body. At the fact that the Dark Heaven Soul-Binding Art had not been broken, Hwa Mugi rejoiced greatly.
“Yes, I don’t need them. You can take their place!”
Hwa Mugi laughed loudly. What delighted him even more was the nature of the internal energy entering his body.
‘To think such pure internal energy exists?’
Even the internal energy of the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword, an absolute master of the orthodox faction, had not been this pure.
Geom Mugeuk’s innate true qi, internal energy, and even his martial arts were all absorbed into Hwa Mugi’s body.
It was right then that something even more astonishing occurred.
Swaaaaaaaa.
The internal energy of Hyeok Docheon, the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword, the Lord of the Heavenly Will Palace, and Ju Gashin, which he had obtained earlier, also began to fill him again. In the reality outside, that internal energy had already been completely exhausted.
Perhaps, as their souls left his body forever, all that power was being restored once more.
‘The heavens are helping me!’
When that innate true qi and internal energy combined with Geom Mugeuk’s, he felt a truly tremendous power. With this strength, he felt confident he could fight the entire murim alone.
“I am the greatest of all ages!”
With this power, even without using the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World that he had originally planned, he felt as if he could go out and kill them all.
Hwa Mugi said to Geom Mugeuk,
“If there was a way to break it, you should have gone out alone instead of trying to save them. That half-baked desire to be a good person to others has trapped you here for the rest of your life.”
Geom Mugeuk readily admitted it.
“Yes, I know that the desire to be a good person can become a great weakness.”
Had he given up on everything? Geom Mugeuk was calm.
“But what can I do? I’m greedy, and I want to be that kind of person. I’m someone who cares terribly about how others see me and wants them to tell me I’m impressive.”
Geom Mugeuk’s calm did not come from despair. Though all his innate true qi and internal energy had been drained away as if by a lie, the energy of the Blue Essence and the energy of the Violet Essence still remained within his body. He could feel them vividly, as though this was not yet the end.
Wooooong.
Sure enough, the energy of the Blue Essence within Geom Mugeuk’s body began to circulate on its own.
Then a blue radiance poured from Geom Mugeuk’s body.
It was not just light.
The light began to absorb all the innate true qi and internal energy in Hwa Mugi’s body, as well as every martial art he had learned.
“No!”
Hwa Mugi gritted his teeth and resisted, but it was a force he could not refuse. The moment he was exposed to the light, he could not move so much as a finger.
Only now did he realize that the Dark Heaven Soul-Binding Art had already been broken. The reason Geom Mugeuk had obediently given up his internal energy earlier was to gather all that power in one place and absorb it all at once.
“Young Cult Leader! You son of a bitch! Stop! I said stop!”
He tried to leave the world of the mind, but that too was impossible. From the beginning, he could not resist the power of the Six Paths Primordial Qi. It had been destined the moment he accepted the souls of the past into his body.
Hwa Mugi did not give up. He drew up all the murderous intent he possessed.
“I’ll kill you!”
Hwa Mugi’s two eyes burned crimson, and the most powerful killing intent burst forth. He had revealed astonishing killing intent many times before, but none of it could compare to the killing intent now.
All of Geom Mugeuk’s innate true qi, internal energy, and martial arts had returned, and the innate true qi and internal energy of the other four masters had been absorbed.
When that power combined with his own internal energy, Geom Mugeuk could understand why Hwa Mugi had shouted that he was the greatest of all ages.
Hwa Mugi held on as if in a desperate struggle. He did not give up.
‘I can’t let it end like this.’
The house they had been in disappeared, and the village disappeared as well. The mountain that had been floating upside down in midair crashed to the ground, and the swamp overturned, scattering all manner of poisonous creatures in every direction.
As the sun and moon that had floated in the sky at the same time vanished, the sky grew dark. The world sank into pitch-black darkness.
At that very moment!
Twinkle.
In the midst of it, a single star began to shine.
The Heavenly Slaughter Star.
The light of Heavenly Slaughter poured down upon Hwa Mugi.
Now, from Hwa Mugi’s eyes, there poured a murderous intent that was no longer human.
The final power arranged by fate was granted to Hwa Mugi in this moment.
‘Please! Just once! Leave me only enough internal energy to use that!’
At the very moment that will reached the Heavenly Slaughter Star, the light of the Heavenly Slaughter Star severed Geom Mugeuk’s blue light.
In that instant, Hwa Mugi disappeared.
***
“Neither of them has opened their eyes yet.”
Even though one shichen had passed, both Hwa Mugi and Geom Mugeuk remained with their eyes closed.
Everyone could feel it. The two of them were fighting within Hwa Mugi’s mind.
“Young Cult Leader, come out quickly.”
The Cult Leader of Pungcheon was beside Geom Ujin together with the Sword King. The Sword King had forcibly brought him there, saying it was dangerous to stand right in front of Hwa Mugi.
The Cult Leader of Pungcheon stood beside Geom Ujin, his nerves on edge, ready to act the moment Geom Ujin did.
Geom Ujin had seemed as though he would kill Hwa Mugi the instant one shichen passed.
In the end, however, Geom Ujin did not kill Hwa Mugi.
The Fist Demon could tell how difficult a decision that had been.
‘This is the first moment the Cult Leader has failed to keep words he himself spoke.’
Jin Paecheon, Baek Jagang, and the Poison King had also come near Geom Ujin.
Jin Paecheon was of the mind that they should trust Geom Mugeuk and wait, while Baek Jagang believed it was dangerous to keep dragging things out like this.
The Poison King silently stared at Geom Mugeuk, who lay there unmoving.
As such suffocating tension flowed through the air—
Hwa Mugi opened his eyes first.
He did not hesitate. He had no leisure to think of what came after. If he did not kill them first, he would die. Before Geom Mugeuk woke up, he had to sweep them all away.
The moment Hwa Mugi raised his hand and thrust it forward—
Flash!
It was the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World.
The whole world turned white. As if the sun had exploded, no sound could be heard in that enormous detonation.
Though he had not killed Hwa Mugi, Geom Ujin had not let down his guard.
The instant Hwa Mugi awoke and unleashed the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World, he erected the Great Demonic Wall and then also used the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World.
Flash.
The situation everyone had feared most unfolded.
Blocking with the Great Demonic Wall, then the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World.
That very situation in which both sides would perish together.
The two men’s Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World were different.
Unlike Hwa Mugi’s Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World, which annihilated everything visible to the eye, Geom Ujin’s Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World became a single pure-white sword and flew forth.
Far behind Hwa Mugi, the main altar, where demonic flames were rising, could be seen. He could not blow away that place too.
It was the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World he had once shown Geom Mugeuk before, proving that if one achieved great completion of the Twelfth Star, such control was possible.
A sword of light flying without a sound.
Hwa Mugi’s Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World was erasing everything, but the sword created by Geom Ujin’s Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World continued to fly. The sword flew on without being annihilated even by the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World.
Puaaaaaak!
It pierced straight through Hwa Mugi’s chest.
Now the problem was on this side.
Swaaaaaaaa.
The Great Demonic Wall was melting. It was a Great Demonic Wall of the Twelfth Star’s great completion, but from the start, the Great Demonic Wall could not block the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World.
Geom Ujin and the Fist Demon stood at the very front.
The Cult Leader of Pungcheon prepared to use even the Space-Time Transposition Art.
But he could feel that even the Space-Time Transposition Art could not block the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World. Any demonic art or sorcery in this space would all be annihilated.
When the Great Demonic Wall had almost completely melted away, the Cult Leader of Pungcheon could no longer hold back and revealed his true feelings.
“Even if we all died, we should not have killed that Hwa Mugi.”
Without even thinking of the fact that Geom Mugeuk’s body lying there would also be annihilated, he protected the Second Young Master, the Young Cult Leader, until the very end.
“The Young Cult Leader would somehow have survived and escaped that body, and he would have created a murim better than ours.”
Then came a welcome voice from behind him.
“It feels awkward to make my entrance when you aren’t cursing at me.”
The Cult Leader of Pungcheon turned around in shock and saw Geom Mugeuk standing there.
“I’ll greet you properly in a moment!”
Geom Mugeuk immediately erected a new Great Demonic Wall behind his father’s.
Swaaaaaaak.
His father’s Great Demonic Wall melted away, and now Geom Mugeuk’s Great Demonic Wall endured the Heavenly Demon Annihilates the World.
Those standing behind watched the astonishing sight of a second Great Demon Wall holding back Heavenly Demon World-Annihilation. It was a scene that had never existed in the history of the martial world before, and would never appear again.
Geom Mugeuk looked at his father.
“Father.”
Geom Ujin merely stared in silence at the Great Demon Wall his son had unfolded. If his eyes met his son’s, it would reveal just how worried he had been, so he kept looking straight ahead.
The Fist Demon was certain. The reason Geom Ujin had unleashed Heavenly Demon World-Annihilation at the Heavenly Slaughter Star was because he had sensed that Geom Mugeuk had awakened. Surely he had been the first to realize his son was awake.
Ssssss.
The pure white gangqi that had tried to pierce through the Great Demon Wall slowly vanished.
Geom Mugeuk’s Great Demon Wall had endured Heavenly Demon World-Annihilation.
Because his father’s Great Demon Wall had already blocked it once, and because he had absorbed all of the innate true qi and internal energy dwelling in Hwa Mugi’s body, he had been able to stop Heavenly Demon World-Annihilation.
As the light that had illuminated the world so brilliantly disappeared, Hwa Mugi’s figure came into view.
He lay on the ground with a gaping hole through his chest.
“In the end, Father killed him for us.”
Geom Ujin had kept his word that they would kill the Heavenly Slaughter Star together.
Geom Mugeuk slowly walked over to Hwa Mugi. He was still breathing.
Geom Mugeuk looked down at him. When villains died, he had never tried to attach any meaning to their deaths, had not even looked at them—but he could not do that with Hwa Mugi.
“If you have anything to say, say it now.”
Hwa Mugi spoke, blood pouring from his mouth in great mouthfuls.
“......You madman.”
When he had seen him walking over, he had thought he would hurl curses and maledictions at him, but thinking about it now, he had already cursed him to his heart’s content.
“......I resent you.”
Geom Mugeuk, meanwhile, looked down at him with deep eyes.
Hwa Mugi could feel it. There was no ill will contained in those eyes.
I tried to kill you, and I tried to kill your father and everyone you hold dear.
“......Why don’t you resent me?”
Because I resented you enough in my life before regression.
“They say resentment always has two edges. That’s why. So I get hurt less. So don’t resent me too much either.”
“You, to the very end............”
Hwa Mugi could not continue. Just as his breath was about to cease.
Something astonishing happened.
Swaaaaaak.
The last remaining energy of amethyst within Geom Mugeuk’s body flowed out and wrapped around Hwa Mugi’s body.
Geom Mugeuk could tell that this energy of the Six Paths Origin Qi—no, those heavens—intended to take him away as well.
Geom Ujin and the others watching looked on in astonishment. Perhaps Geom Mugeuk had been fighting a far more difficult battle than any of them had imagined.
Hwa Mugi, whose breath had been fading, opened his eyes again.
He had been granted a moment to share a final farewell.
When Geom Mugeuk had first set out on this path, he had imagined a final moment where he would ask why Hwa Mugi had killed even children who knew no martial arts, then shatter him to pieces in cathartic vengeance. But his farewell with him had arrived before him in this form.
“May you live an ordinary and happy life with her in your next life.”
From the way Hwa Mugi’s eyes widened in surprise, it was clear she had been the woman the person he killed had loved.
“How did you know?”
“I saw belongings in your room that belonged to a young woman.”
Even in the midst of all that, he had seen that—thinking this, Hwa Mugi let out a hollow laugh before he could stop himself.
But in his final moment, he did not want to show Geom Mugeuk a smiling face.
“In my next life............ I’ll definitely kill them all.”
But that vicious killing intent no longer remained in Hwa Mugi’s eyes.
Geom Mugeuk looked at him and smiled brightly.
“That’s fine. The person who’ll suffer to stop you then won’t be me.”
As violet light scattered radiantly, Hwa Mugi disappeared along with it. Like a star vanishing from the night sky, leaving behind countless fragments.
After meeting Hwa Mugi, he had called him the Heavenly Slaughter Star and had not once called him by his name.
For the first and last time, Geom Mugeuk called his name.
“............Farewell, Hwa Mugi.”