〈Chapter 330〉 The Demonic Realm. (4)
The stench of burning filled the surroundings.
The rising smoke was sparse, but the smell was foul.
Crackle, crackle.
The sound of embers burning reached my ears.
It was a unique sound, one made when burning firewood.
Watching it, I whispered.
“How disappointing.”
Pat, pat.
I dusted my clothes, and something black came off.
Disgusting.
The clothes held no meaning anyway, so I wiped them off roughly.
I nudged what lay on the floor with my toes.
The body that had thrashed wildly had grown still with time.
The voice that had shrieked in agony no longer reached my ears.
His breath had completely stopped.
“For someone whose mouth was heavier than I thought, you weren’t very tenacious.”
It was something I said to someone.
But no answer would come.
Looking at what had now become a mere trace of something that was once human.
I extinguished the flames.
Fwoosh!
With the flames gone, a charred human form was visible.
It would crumble with a single touch.
Gazing indifferently at such a thing.
I lowered myself and sat, watching quietly.
I had killed him with the extreme agony I desired, leaving not even his shape behind, but.
“I don’t feel anything at all.”
It was much more dispassionate than I had expected.
He was someone I had wanted to kill so desperately.
He was the first purpose I had conceived for my life since returning.
It was something I had wanted to do so badly in my previous life.
I had wanted to see him scream.
I had wanted to see him kneel beneath my feet and wail, but.
When I actually made it happen with my own hands.
Rather than the ecstasy I had imagined.
A silent emptiness took precedence.
Tap.
When I nudged the foot of what had been Jang Seonyeon, it crumbled with a crunch.
He had stopped breathing long ago.
Unlike my plan to divide it into three stages and take it slowly.
When I tried to enter the second stage, he was already dead.
That was a bit of a shame.
As time passed quietly while I stood there, my heart slowly grew cold.
“It was duller than I thought. Less fun than I expected.”
This was the extent of the impact Jang Seonyeon’s death had.
I wondered why.
Shouldn’t I feel refreshed and exhilarated?
This was one of the things I had wanted so badly.
‘Is it because you’re not the Yuseonggeom?’
The current Jang Seonyeon is not the Yuseonggeom of that time.
Jang Seonyeon, who holds no memories entangled with mine.
Is a different person from him.
Thus, this death is, in the end.
Like removing an obstructive existence beforehand for the things I must do.
No thoughts come to mind.
Perhaps only a vague unpleasantness lingers.
As that thought flashed by, I had to click my tongue briefly.
‘Above all, I couldn’t get much information either.’
There was much to hear from Jang Seonyeon.
But I heard less than expected.
Since I figured restrictions would naturally be in place, it couldn’t be helped, but.
Should I say it was more trivial than I thought?
Rather.
It might have been better to corrupt him into a demon and use him, but.
‘That would be a bit disgusting.’
Thinking of how even Namgung Cheonjun had been unpleasant.
There was no way I could do that with Jang Seonyeon.
Leaving aside whether he was useful or not.
I simply hated the fact that this bastard breathed the same air on this land.
‘If there is one thing that bothers me.’
During the torture bordering on torment, something he said bothered me.
“Guaaaa…! Keuuuugh!”
“How did you think of ambushing me when all the instructors were down?”
“— ... —”
While repeatedly asking.
It was when I started burning him gradually from the tips of his feet.
He had not answered most of what I had asked earlier.
I hadn’t really been asking expecting answers anyway.
Since this was an era where the field of restrictions had developed significantly.
It was difficult to make someone open their mouth.
The Tang Clan or certain families specialized in lifting restrictions and torturing to extract information.
But even that wasn’t perfect.
When I was a demon.
Restrictions placed on an opponent.
Would have vanished with a single gesture of the Heavenly Demon.
It is a bit different now.
In the end, to extract something from an opponent now.
I must either dismantle the restriction.
Or corrupt them into a demon.
I find it difficult to apply my inner qi delicately enough to dismantle restrictions.
I hadn’t learned such techniques.
And I didn’t want to make him a demon.
This was ultimately closer to an excuse to torment him.
“Keuugh… Heu… Heu…”
Jang Seonyeon, screaming as he was consumed by flames.
Mixed a small laugh into his screams.
“Have you gone mad? Why are you laughing all of a sudden?”
“Heu… Heuheu… You ask why I did it…?”
“Oh? You’ll talk?”
“Ye… Even if you escape this place by heavenly fortune and return… It’s already too late. In the end, you who can do nothing… Kkeureureuk!”
My eyes narrowed slightly at the words Jang Seonyeon spat like a curse.
It seemed this wasn’t something he had done thoughtlessly after all.
It appeared he had set something up.
“What did you do?”
“Do you think… Do you think I would die in a place like this…?”
“I asked what you did!”
Since he kept spewing nonsense, I grabbed the part fiercely burning and applied force.
Squelch.
“Keuup…!”
His eyes widened, and he let out the scream he had been holding back.
Hearing that, I spoke again.
“If you keep this up, the last words you spit out will be begging me to kill you. If you don’t want that, let’s hurry this up.”
With those words, I intensified the flames again, but.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep my word.
Until the moment his breath stopped, he only screamed and never asked to be killed.
If he had even begged for his life, it wouldn’t have ended like this.
At this point, I couldn’t tell if his mouth was sealed by restrictions.
Or if he simply refused to open his mouth to me even at the cost of his death.
Thinking that far, I rose to my feet again.
‘It seems he did set something up, but.’
Unfortunately, there was something he didn’t know.
I will return.
And no matter what happens, I won’t be late.
After I disappear, at most only a few days will have passed, no?
It was the same in my previous life.
Even during the displacement incident when hundreds disappeared into the Demonic Realm.
The Murim Alliance and the families and sects of those taken were thrown into chaos.
Those hundreds returned like a lie after a few days.
Appearing exactly where they had disappeared.
I said it then as well.
That there were no survivors inside the Demonic Realm except me.
But those who returned were everyone who had disappeared.
Everyone had died.
But everyone came back alive.
The time I had experienced in that place.
Must have been at least a few years.
Without a single person looking older.
They had even returned without anyone retaining memories of that time.
If asked how that was possible.
It was related to the name I had given this world.
False world.
Fake world.
That alone was explanation enough.
I don’t know the reason, but the timeline between this place and where I originally was had been twisted.
It’s not exact, but… wouldn’t a few years here be about a day in the Central Plains?
No, it might be even more than that.
How many years had passed?
From around the time the roughly counted years passed seven.
I stopped counting the days here.
Because it felt meaningless.
Even if it was a place with many stories, incidents, and things worth calling memories.
There is nothing more joyless and miserable than a memory only one person remembers.
It was a place I wanted to forget.
Because by now, that memory bound like shackles made it so that I could not lose anyone.
Beneath the crimson-stained sky.
Wind blew.
The blowing wind carried a faint scent of blood.
That is the characteristic of this world.
What is seen. What is heard. Even the fragrance that can be smelled.
This is a world where not a single thing is normal.
Taking in that ominous scent, I turned back.
“Since I’ve come anyway. I should do what I came to do.”
There was a reason I had to come to this world, even using Jang Seonyeon and the Cheoljiseon.
While obtaining information, I had also wanted to kill Jang Seonyeon, but.
That wasn’t the main point.
That was merely passing through the process.
The purpose of my coming.
Was what I had encountered in this world in my previous life.
Moreover, I had to meet the damned tree that had made me catch the Heavenly Demon’s eye in my previous life.
‘You’re watching anyway. Yet you won’t show yourself.’
As far as I know, this world is one that guy created.
It’s something that guy said himself. Though it might not be true.
But that tree is surely watching me right now.
Seeing that it won’t appear.
‘Does it mean I should come find it myself?’
It was the same then.
Watching countless rising experts being devoured by the demonic beasts of this place and perishing.
Only when I ended up being used as a discarded pawn by them and was on the verge of being devoured in a gap between demonic beasts.
Did it reveal itself.
“So you won’t appear easily?”
Fine, let’s see who wins.
We both have plenty of time.
I dusted off the remaining ashes with pats.
I set my direction and moved my steps.
Then I suddenly looked toward Jang Seonyeon’s side.
His remains lay on the floor, not moving in the slightest.
Of course.
Since I had burned him until he turned pitch black.
That was also a kind of control.
I had tried not to burn him easily.
But finely controlling it was still difficult.
I gazed at it silently, then turned my head away again.
‘He was vile and filthy. Let’s not see him again.’
Meeting that bastard twice is enough for one lifetime.
I hope it’s truly over now.
With that wish, I moved my steps.
Thud.
I surveyed my surroundings as I took a step.
It was to check once more where I should go.
I took another step.
I wrapped inner qi around myself.
I intended to leap quickly and fly away.
Though the surging demonic beasts of the Demonic Realm were unpleasant, I wasn’t very afraid.
Now, to leap.
When I was about to take the final step.
Thud.
Uung….
“…!”
At an unpleasant feeling I couldn’t identify.
I turned around quickly. I felt I had to look there.
All that remained in that place was still the burned corpse of Jang Seonyeon.
Why?
Uung.
A sound reached my ear.
This visceral resonance.
Should I call this a sound? It was somewhat different from what could be expressed as a sound.
Because I could feel a vibration.
I could tell where this was coming from.
The dantian.
Or rather, somewhere a bit deeper.
“…Blood qi?”
It was the place where blood qi had been embedded. The blood qi began to surge as if reacting.
The energy I had thought unusable after crossing over to this world.
Began resonating on its own.
Then.
Passsuk….
“…What?”
Jang Seonyeon’s body, already charred black beyond recognition.
Began to move little by little.
Each time it moved, black ash flowed down.
Yet it didn’t stop moving.
Sseusseu… Sseusseu…
The body rises.
Jang Seonyeon’s body, burned to the point where it could no longer move, let alone contain life.
Began to raise its upper body.
How can it move?
And what is this wretched feeling coming from it?
Just when I wondered if I should smash it right away.
Jang Seonyeon, having raised his upper body.
Turned his head this way and that.
His face was completely burned, so he shouldn’t be able to see.
Yet it was as if checking his surroundings.
Creaking with every slight movement, it looked anything but normal.
At that fleeting moment.
The face of Jang Seonyeon that had been looking around.
Turned toward me.
My body flinched on its own.
It was a form with no expression left, yet.
For some reason.
I thought it was smiling.
[Ah….]
A sound is heard.
Rather than a voice, it was a sound closer to a telepathic transmission.
[So this was the problem. I had wondered why the connection had been severed.]
A voice I had heard before.
Where had I heard it?
A brief question flashed by, but I could recall the answer immediately.
On the last day of the friendly martial arts tournament.
Around the time I was tearing Jang Seonyeon apart.
Even then, he had spoken to me through that guy’s body.
Jang Seonyeon looks at me and nods.
No.
That can’t be called Jang Seonyeon.
Because he clearly possessed a different name.
[It’s been a while. Did you remember me?]
At the question of whether I remembered him.
I quietly whispered his identity.
“Blood Demon.”
[Tsk tsk tsk.]
He seemed pleased with my answer.
He let out a laugh.
!.. ! ..
One of the Five Great Swordsmen Under Heaven.
Cheonghae Ilgeom, the leader of a sect among the so-called Nine Sects One Faction.
Was quietly looking at the grove in front of the Divine Dragon Hall’s leader chamber.
“Hmmm….
Cheonghae Ilgeom let out a sound like a sigh.
He looked this way and that into the air, but his expression was still full of questions.
This was the place where Ouyang Tian had said he found the secret vault the other day, but.
From Cheonghae Ilgeom’s perspective, no trace or energy could be felt at all.
Jamryong said that upon solving the formation, a door had appeared in the air.
How could even such traces be left?
“I cannot know.”
If it was at a level he couldn’t detect no matter how much he spread his energy.
Either Jamryong and Ouyang Tian were lying.
Or it had disappeared so cleanly that traces truly couldn’t be found.
As if it had vanished like a place that never existed.
Credibility seemed to lie with the first reasoning, but.
Cheonghae Ilgeom did not think those children had told lies.
“A secret vault… how could a secret vault be in a place like this?”
The details were something he would have to go to the Murim Alliance to find out.
He didn’t think they would obtain proper information and explain.
“Even if it existed, who would have thought that child would be the one to find it.”
Ouyang Tian was a child Cheonghae Ilgeom had been concerned about lately.
His talent was visibly outstanding, but.
That wasn’t the reason.
‘He said he got information from the Beggar’s Union; is that side involved too?’
That part was hard to believe.
Cheonghae Ilgeom, who knew the Beggar’s Union leader well, could believe it even less.
‘Then… what of his martial arts?’
He had guessed the child held many secrets.
Those entangled with him were not simple people.
Like father, like son, as they say.
“…I decided to call him again later. I must make sure then.”
Cheonghae Ilgeom let out a deep sigh and stroked his beard.
The sighing that hadn’t stopped even when he was young.
Felt like it had increased now that he was old.
Right now, the pupils had all gone out for field practice.
It seemed good to walk around this place that had quieted down a bit.
To soothe his dizzying mind.
Just when he thought he might take a short walk.
Geugeugeuguk-!
“What…?
In the qi sense Cheonghae Ilgeom had spread across the entire Divine Dragon Hall.
Something was felt.
Immediately, Cheonghae Ilgeom circulated inner qi throughout his body and drew his sword.
An energy that nauseated him just by sensing it.
It reeked of the demonic arts unique to the evil faction.
Feeling that, Cheonghae Ilgeom let out a hollow laugh.
“I must have grown old indeed.”
With this Cheonghae Ilgeom guarding it.
For insignificant demonic bastards to bare their teeth and come.
This was something he couldn’t have dared imagine when he was young.
Recalling such thoughts, just as Cheonghae Ilgeom tried to leap in the direction the energy was felt.
“Excuse me.”
A sound was heard from around Cheonghae Ilgeom.
“Might you be Cheonghae Ilgeom?”
At the lightly asked question.
Cheonghae Ilgeom’s sharp inner qi spread around.
It was an energy he hadn’t felt until it came right behind his back.
‘How on earth?’
Cheonghae Ilgeom’s qi sense was spread across the entire Divine Dragon Hall.
How could it penetrate that qi sense and come to his back?
Raising his fighting spirit to the limit, Cheonghae Ilgeom asked the owner of the voice.
“Who are you?”
Cheonghae Ilgeom sized up his opponent.
A considerable giant.
Wearing dark martial arts clothing. Draped in something made of unidentifiable beast hide.
A deep, long scar could be seen on his neck.
Just looking at it made him feel a spine-chilling energy.
Cheonghae Ilgeom realized immediately.
This was an opponent whose measure he couldn’t gauge.
‘Who on earth is he?’
A figure of such realm, yet he couldn’t know his identity.
A line of cold sweat ran down Cheonghae Ilgeom’s back.
Amidst the tension.
“It seems I’m right. Pleased to meet you.”
The man looked at Cheonghae Ilgeom and smiled.
As his huge mouth opened, yellowed teeth came into view.
Cheonghae Ilgeom raised his tension to the limit and looked at the opponent.
All that came to mind was escape.
A martial artist’s pride wasn’t important.
The fact that such a figure had intruded meant.
‘The children are in danger.’
It meant the other hall disciples belonging to the Divine Dragon Hall were in danger.
Cheonghae Ilgeom had to find a breakthrough, leaving aside victory or defeat.
Because he had to protect the other children.
At that moment.
“You seem to have many worries, Cheonghae Ilgeom. Your eyes are shaking.”
“…!”
“That is fortunate. It means I am still dangerous to you. I shall take that as a compliment.”
“I ask again… who are you?”
“Me?”
The giant smiled as if pleased by Cheonghae Ilgeom’s question.
“Ah, I’m excited to say this after so long.”
Huffuuu-!
Using the giant’s body as a bow, fierce energy exploded in every direction.
“I sincerely hope you remember me.”
As the energy began to devour the surroundings.
The giant pulled out a greatsword and struck it into the ground with a thud.
“I am called Heukryonggeom.”
“…!”
“Your expression says you know me.”
Cheonghae Ilgeom’s eyes widened to their limit upon hearing the giant’s sobriquet.
Because it was a name Cheonghae Ilgeom knew as well.
However, he had died long ago.
The giant clicked his tongue as if enjoying Cheonghae Ilgeom’s surprise.
Soon he raised his greatsword and aimed it at Cheonghae Ilgeom, speaking.
“Shall we have a sword dance?”
At the thought of dancing with a sword after so long.
Heukryonggeom smiled as if joyful.