Cheolya Assassin Corps.
It was infamous as the most dangerous and ruthless assassin unit among the countless assassin groups in the Central Plains.
Moreover, it was also known for refusing to side with either the righteous or the demonic.
In the Central Plains, assassin units were tantamount to tacit acceptance.
What this meant was,
though they were clearly groups that took money and stole others' lives,
the fact that the Alliance knew of such beings and did not bother to capture them served as a kind of proof in itself.
At times,
it was an open secret that the great houses—families called prestigious—raised dark operatives and directly created such groups internally for their own use.
This was something one could see even among the pillars of the orthodox faction, the so-called Four Great Clans.
Take the Tang Clan of Sichuan, called the hegemon and master of Sichuan:
The Tang Clan, a family that primarily dealt with poisons and steel, had not been part of the orthodox faction just a few centuries ago.
When the Bloody Calamity ended and the Bloody Demon vanished,
those who considered the achievements of Tang Jemun, the Tang Clan head and one of the heroes,
decided to bring the Tang Clan into the orthodox fold.
There had been a request from Yeon Ilcheon, who had founded the Martial Alliance and ascended to the position of Alliance Leader,
and it was thanks to Tang Jemun himself also saying he would do so.
Afterward, the Tang Clan acted as an orthodox faction belonging to the Martial Alliance and became a prestigious house called one of the Four Great Clans,
yet they had not abandoned their inherent nature for very long.
Martial arts specialized in torture and assassination,
and physical traits honed over long years to match.
The Tang Clan was still filled with corners too dark and damp for a so-called orthodox faction.
Moreover, even if they had quit such affairs and turned their steps completely toward weapon crafting,
rumors were rampant that only the outside had changed while the inside remained the same.
Could it really be just a rumor?
I knew.
I knew how the Tang Clan's interior operated.
Anyway, what I meant was that it wasn't only the Tang Clan among the Four Great Clans that was like this.
The Nangong Clan was a given. I didn't know about the Murong Clan, but at least the Peng Clan probably made use of them too.
The lower-tier Huangfu Clan would likely be the same.
As for the Gu Clan, I didn't know.
I had understood they didn't use them, but this damn household was something I ought to know about.
Even the Martial Alliance, said to be the center of the orthodox faction, made application of assassination squads.
In such a situation, the figure called the Dark King of the Cheolya Assassin Corps was one who had been deified among them.
King of Assassins.
A flawless existence to the extent that no one would dare raise an objection even if one called him the ruler of the night.
That was the Dark King (暗王).
'Why is someone like that here?'
It was said that in the entire Central Plains, there was no one who knew the Dark King's true identity.
His age.
Whether the gender was female or male.
Height, face, voice.
Not even the martial arts he used were properly known.
'And I ended up knowing all of it.'
It was absurd.
No, rather, it wasn't as if I knew anything properly.
Gender, face, voice—if one wished, all could be hidden.
If there was anything known about the Dark King,
it was that judging by his active period spanning decades, he was likely not young.
That was all one could know.
For such a Dark King to not only be here,
but to have found me through the Sword Empress was completely unexpected.
Moreover...
'The one who intervened at that moment must have been the Dark King as well.'
The martial artist called the Black Dragon Sword underwent an inexplicable change.
In the instant he transformed into a monster,
the being who appeared in a flash, cleaving him apart and saving me, was also the Dark King.
Had he come here with a separate purpose?
The moment I realized the Dark King's identity,
the Dark King spoke to me.
"-I've seen your face. That's enough. Be on your way."
Whether satisfied that I had realized his identity, the Dark King spoke thus.
To which I...
"-...If all you wanted was to see my face, why did you call for me?"
Ah, this damn mouth.
The mouth that couldn't shed its old nature acted on its own and caused trouble.
Why couldn't I pass it through my brain once before speaking?
Only after letting it out did I realize I had caused an accident.
It was a close call.
At the very least, if I had known who it was, I should have watched my words.
-...
Hearing my words, the Dark King looked at me with eyes that had grown slightly, if subtly, larger.
What should I say?
Just as I wondered if I should start with an apology,
-Ha.
The Dark King burst into laughter.
"-You speak exactly like that old man."
-...Hmm?
Hearing that, I responded briefly.
That old man?
There was usually one specific person those words brought to mind.
"-...Do you know First Elder Iljangno?"
Those connected to that old man usually spat out such words.
Did that mean the Dark King was connected to the First Elder?
Just what had that old man been doing in the Central Plains during his prime to be close to people like this....
"-First Elder? Who do you mean?"
"-Yes? Did you not mean Elder Guryun...?"
"-Guryun shouldn't be your grandfather."
"-No, that's usually what they say...."
Wait...?
If the person the Dark King said I resembled wasn't the First Elder...
"-...If not the First Elder, then who are you saying I resemble right now?"
To my question, the Dark King gave an answer as if he couldn't understand me instead.
"-Naturally, I mean your grandfather. What are you thinking?"
He meant the former head of the Gu Clan, who was said to have died before I was even born.
'Those words... meant the Dark King had met my grandfather.'
Judging by how casually he said it, he seemed to be someone who had been active in the same era.
First Elder Iljangno was also from that era to begin with.
Still, stories about my grandfather were rare, so this was rather fresh.
Perhaps finding my strangely changed expression amusing,
the Dark King smiled faintly and spoke to me.
"-I will come to find you in the near future."
The Dark King saying he would come to find me.
It was truly a strange thing to hear.
Was I supposed to wait for the King of Assassins to find me?
Just imagining it made me dizzy....
The situation was already a mess; what more could go wrong?
*Thud, thud.*
In the quiet deep night.
Alone at the center of the training ground, cracked and sunken in places, I loosened my body.
*Whooosh.*
The moment I gathered my will, my internal energy surged rapidly to my upper dantian.
The speed was considerable.
Vitality welled up in my tired body.
To be precise, I was erasing fatigue with internal energy and forcibly raising my vitality.
'I've definitely grown.'
The efficiency was tremendous.
What had developed upon reaching Hwagyeong was not just the five senses.
With my upper dantian opened and usable, the efficiency of using martial arts was maximized.
It was the realm I had reached in my previous life and where I had stayed the longest.
Not only had my internal energy increased,
but I could also achieve better efficiency with less internal energy.
And the realm where one could do more was precisely Hwagyeong.
A swordsman could levitate and wield a sword separated from his hand in midair.
This was called the Sword Control Technique.
Except for the Wudang Sect Leader, almost no one primarily used it.
No matter if one had reached Hwagyeong, the efficiency was atrocious, so that was likely why.
That was what Hwagyeong was.
A realm where one became able to do what had been impossible.
A few years after regressing,
I had reached a realm that I could only attain in my previous life by even using demonic arts.
'It's still incomplete.'
Although I had reached Hwagyeong early in the Demonic Realm,
I had lost everything I had achieved there upon returning to my present life.
I was lacking compared to then.
The sense of dissonance between the achieved realm and my current state could be called a problem,
but this wouldn't be a big issue anyway.
'That sense of dissonance had been there from the very beginning.'
The body after regression, having lost everything gained in the previous life.
I had already experienced that absurd sense of emptiness.
This was not a problem.
What was important was,
'what to do from now on.'
I had reached Hwagyeong.
To others, it would be a startling feat.
'Not enough.'
From my perspective, it was far from sufficient.
Thinking of the Heavenly Demon I had faced made that clearer.
The Heavenly Demon was an overwhelming existence.
I had already known in my head through memories of my previous life, but having experienced it again in this life, I could be more certain.
I could not defeat the Heavenly Demon as I was now.
If the Heavenly Demon put his mind to it, I wouldn't be able to endure even a little.
'Then what should I do?'
It felt distant.
I did not know the realm beyond Hwagyeong in detail.
Records said it existed, but it was unknown how many had reached it.
'What about the Samzon....
Have they reached it?'
They were the ones who might have reached it, but thinking that even they were ultimately killed by the Heavenly Demon...
I needed to reach at least the level of the Divine Sword of my previous life.
It was a headache.
Because it wasn't as easy as it sounded.
*Kuuuu.*
Lost in thought, I suddenly raised the demonic qi in my body.
As I felt my heart start to pound rapidly,
a scorching heat was felt from within.
Feeling the demonic qi bind a ring around my heart, I opened my closed eyes.
"...This still seems to work."
I couldn't see my own appearance, but my pupils were surely dyed purple.
I was currently in a state of demonization.
I could feel it even without deliberately using martial arts.
That I was now far stronger than my normal state.
I checked my body's condition one by one.
Because I hadn't been able to properly grasp it after the battle ended, I had to check now.
Physical body, of course, and how it was being applied inside.
And my mental state—I checked them all.
'The flesh seems strengthened, internal energy is surprisingly calm. Mental state is fine too.'
Moreover, the greatest gain upon becoming a demon person now was that I could return to being human.
That was probably the most important thing. I had harbored so many regrets upon becoming a demon person.
'If there was something bothering me...'
I promptly rolled up both sleeves.
There, the abnormality I was experiencing existed.
The dark red bandage wrapped around my left arm was stained black.
And on my right arm, which should have had nothing, an inexplicable mark had appeared.
'What the hell is this?'
It wasn't large. At most, about two finger joints.
The problem was its bizarre appearance.
It was almost like...
'...reptilian skin.'
That unsightly thing one might find on a lizard or snake.
This was definitely a change that hadn't existed in my previous life.
'Why did something like this appear?'
It seemed to be a change that occurred upon becoming a demon person in this life.
Why had something like this appeared?
'Do you know anything?'
I asked inwardly.
Naturally, it was directed at that beast bastard.
Just in case it knew something.
[Grrr...]
But the bastard only gave a tired response indicating it didn't know.
One more thing I could learn here was that when I activated demonization, the beast bastard somehow began showing signs of fatigue.
[Grrrr...]
'Fine. Just a little longer.'
It was clamoring so much to be released quickly.
Though the creature's whining bothered me, there was more I needed to see.
Looking at the bandage wrapped around my left arm, I uttered something else.
"Noya."
[...]
I tried calling out, but Noya still didn't respond.
I needed to ask what this bandage was doing wrapped around my arm... yet Divine Noya showed no sign of waking.
"Tch...."
I clicked my tongue briefly in displeasure and released the demonization.
As the boiling heat in my body subsided, my flesh grew slightly heavier.
Additionally, I felt a slight pain near my dantian and heart.
It wasn't intense, but... this meant,
'That I can't keep using it continuously.'
I would need to take a bit more time to see how it was being applied.
'What remains...'
There was still much left to see.
But what mattered most came to mind first.
"...Has she not awakened yet?"
I thought of Wi Seol-a, who would still be unconscious.
Thinking of her, saliva began to pool in my mouth unwittingly.
Because I was nervous.
I had acted like that even before the Dark King, yet thinking of her made me tense automatically.
'How did she...'
How was she here?
Had she also regressed like me?
When? Perhaps from the very beginning?
That couldn't be; otherwise, she would have stabbed me in the neck before asking if I wanted a potato.
Since when?
I didn't know.
And I wanted to know.
For now, the fact that all I could do was wait for her to wake up was the most frustrating thing.
I looked up at the sky.
The pitch-black sky remained the same.
It was night, so darkness was natural, but that sky was not the ordinary kind, which was the problem.
'Why isn't it disappearing?'
The Black Dragon Sword was currently subdued and imprisoned.
Most of his group had been captured as well.
Of course, there weren't many survivors.
Because I had killed more than half of them myself.
It seemed the Alliance's support wasn't coming because of that barrier....
"Do you know you're being too much?"
"...!"
I had to jump in surprise at the voice from behind while looking at the sky.
Because I hadn't sensed any presence at all.
"How could you not come see my face even once?"
How deep in thought must I have been to not notice her approaching?
"...Ah."
At my brief reaction, the eyebrows of the beauty who had approached right before me furrowed sharply.
"'Ah?' Did you just say 'ah'?"
"No, I was busy... I was about to go see you now."
"And you call that an excuse right now?"
The woman firing off words, seeming thoroughly angry, was Murong Huia.
I suppose... I hadn't gone to see her.
'I thought she'd manage fine on her own so I didn't go.'
I had heard she was alive.
I had also heard she wasn't injured anywhere, and when I heard she was busying herself among the physicians,
'Her?'
I had wondered what that calculating girl was doing there, though I did feel a bit proud.
But not going to see her after that was the problem.
"...You're really too much."
Seeing my reaction, Murong Huia made a tearful face and whimpered.
Damn, she's crying....
That cold and icy Seolbong was whimpering before me.
I must have really sinned.
"Sorry. I didn't do it on purpose."
"...I suppose so.
You didn't forget me on purpose.
If you really did, you wouldn't be human."
"..."
"Can you answer with just 'mm' from now on?"
At those words, I almost blurted something out without thinking.
"Sorry...."
"..."
At my continued apologies, Murong Huia pursed her lips.
"...I wasn't originally like this, you know?"
"Hmm?"
"The emotion of me trying to melt away like a fool over one stupid, trivial apology—it looks so pathetic."
"..."
"I came here planning to curse you out when I saw you... and yet, to do that, I had to come find you first."
"...Ah... sorr-"
"Don't apologize.
It's annoying..."
"Okay."
Was this the first time since regressing?
Seeing Murong Huia angry like that.
In my previous life, I felt like I had seen it every day, every second.
It felt rather fresh.
"Are you smiling right now?"
"You must have seen wrong in the dark."
"How could I see Young Master Gu's face wrong."
"..."
"Ah, really annoying."
As if displeased with the words she had just spat out herself, she repeatedly stomped the ground.
It looked like reason and emotion were fighting.
"...Ha, forget it... I didn't come here to do this..."
"Then to curse me out?"
"That too, but..."
Ah, right.
Murong Huia, who had been speaking, looked me up and down and asked.
"...Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No."
"...I see."
Was that what she wanted to ask?
"What about you?"
"How quick you ask.
Can't you tell by looking?"
"..."
I must have messed this up.
Seeing my blank expression, Murong Huia let out a deep sigh.
"How did I fall for such a hopeless person..."
"Hopeless..."
"You know what's going to happen from now on, right, Young Master?"
"..."
At Murong Huia's words, my mouth, which had been about to open, shut tight.
"I came because I thought the Young Master would be expecting it."
"...Ah, that?"
For a moment, I flinched, wondering if she had realized I regressed.
But that didn't seem to be it.
"To some extent... I am expecting it."
"It's not an expectation, it's a certainty.
With an incident of this scale."
Only then did I vaguely understand what Murong Huia was trying to say.
"...If we get out of here safely, they will definitely do it.
Because it's that big of an incident."
"Hmm."
"An Orthodox Assembly.
They will definitely try to hold it."
The Nine Sects and One Union and the Four Great Clans.
And the assembly of the prestigious families influencing the Martial Alliance.
An assembly that hadn't been held in decades was likely to open due to this incident.
"If that happens....
my father will come too, won't he?"
"Probably."
Since the Murong Clan was clearly one of the Four Great Clans, the Murong Patriarch, called the White Heavenly Sword Lord, would come as well.
"Before that happens."
Murong Huia subtly grabbed my sleeve and spoke.
What was she trying to say to make such a wretched face?
Just as such a question arose.
"Let's run away."
"Huh?"
I couldn't help but let out a stupid sound at Murong Huia's words.
"Otherwise, Young Master will die...!"
What kind of bullshit was this?