Why are you showing up there?
A Demon Realm Gate was what they called a rift that tore through empty space and released monsters.
How terrifying was it to have countless beasts, more ferocious than animals and ravenous only for slaughter, pour forth from it?
When the first Demon Realm Gate was discovered, it must surely have been a calamity—a feeling, for humanity, of peering within a hand’s breadth of the end.
Fortunately, it did not take long to discover that the monsters were vulnerable to the internal energy possessed by martial artists.
Thanks to that, the martial artists began joining forces to hold back the calamity.
As the years passed, the number of monsters declined, and people regained a measure of stability. Unfortunately, they were never able to close the Demon Realm Gates completely.
Demon Realm Gates were still opening throughout the Central Plains.
Centuries later, in the present day, managing these Demon Realm Gates had become the primary duty of the sword units belonging to the countless clans and sects spread throughout the Central Plains.
The Gu Clan’s sword unit was no different.
That was why the Gu Clan was called the Guardian of Shanxi.
A Demon Realm Gate closed after releasing a set number of monsters.
The problem was that the monsters which emerged through the gates were anything but docile.
The savage beasts did not merely turn their surroundings into a wasteland—they devoured every living thing they saw.
If there happened to be a village nearby, one could hardly imagine the extent of the casualties.
By now, centuries had passed since the Demon Realm Gates first appeared, and education and systems for closing them had been established, making them comparatively less dangerous.
But once every season—
there were times when a gate far larger than an ordinary Demon Realm Gate would open.
A gate that released monsters larger and stronger than the usual kind was called a True Demon Realm Gate.
That was why the head of the Gu Clan had personally taken action.
The ceremony welcoming the clan head back after he finished sealing the gate, which had begun after sunset, was quite modest.
It was the clan head’s ironclad principle that he did not want people making a great fuss over him for merely carrying out something that had to be done.
Of course, with all the members of the Gu bloodline currently in the clan gathered there, it was far from modest in the ordinary sense...
For me, however, it was a meal during which I could hardly tell whether the food was going into my nose or my mouth.
While the quiet atmosphere continued, the first person to speak was Gu Cheorun.
“I hear you’ve made progress in martial arts.”
He tossed out the words while eating. He was not looking at anyone in particular.
Of the clan head’s four children, the eldest, Gu Huibi, had long since been recognized for her exceptional talent and was away on duty as a member of the Gu Clan’s sword unit. The youngest was not currently in the clan.
It certainly wasn’t me, dead or alive.
That left one person.
“Yes. I gained a small insight and reached the Third Star a few days ago.”
Gu Yeonseo answered with a confident smile. Her expression was completely different from the one she had worn earlier when looking at me.
“You’ve advanced quickly for your age. Good. Continue to devote yourself to your training.”
“Thank you, Father.”
As Gu Yeonseo turned her head back, her eyes met mine.
Her bright smile crumpled in an instant, as though she had seen something she never wanted to see.
‘That really is the expression of someone looking at a bug.’
Gu Yeonseo was only fifteen. The Gu Clan’s internal energy cultivation method was particularly slow to produce results, so reaching the Third Star at her age was an incredible achievement.
It was a testament to both Gu Yeonseo’s talent and her efforts.
Her accomplishment was certainly impressive, but the already uncomfortable atmosphere had made my stomach feel even more bloated. I thought I might actually become ill.
My inner pocket was stuffed with the digestive medicine I had brought along during the day.
I would definitely have to take some after this ended.
The one consolation was that I could eat foods I had been unable to enjoy in my previous life, when I had been worked to the bone and could barely eat properly.
Among the feast laid out before us, enough to break the legs of the table, I picked up a glossy dumpling.
“Third.”
...Though I couldn’t eat it.
“Yes.”
I carefully returned the dumpling I had picked up to its place.
Unlike when he had praised Gu Yeonseo, Gu Cheorun was looking at me.
Could it merely be a coincidence?
“I heard you went out to the market district.”
“Yes?”
The market district? Was he talking about the first day after my regression?
I stared blankly, unsure what he meant. Gu Cheorun simply watched me in silence, as though waiting for my answer.
“Yes, I went out for a while.”
Since I didn’t think I had done anything particularly problematic, I answered lightly.
If there was anything worth calling a problem, it was that I had met Wi Seol-ah—but that was my own issue.
“Hmm.”
What was this?
Gu Cheorun said nothing more afterward, but he seemed to have something he wanted to say. I didn’t bother asking.
Why was he acting like that?
As far as I remembered, he wasn’t the type to agonize over things like this.
In the end, Gu Cheorun never said anything to me.
Before long, the unbearably difficult meal finally came to an end.
I had tried to eat something, but the gazes I could subtly feel had utterly destroyed my appetite.
Gu Cheorun left first, and Gu Yeonseo glared at me for a long while before departing as well.
I considered eating a few of the remaining dumplings, then put down my chopsticks.
The family meal I had attended for the first time in several years ended just like that.
Worried that even what little I had eaten might sit heavily in my stomach, I hurriedly poured some digestive powder into warm water and drank it.
I did feel a little better afterward.
Was I supposed to go lie down now?
‘Ah... He told me to come to his room later.’
I remembered what he had said during the day, telling me to come to the clan head’s office. What could he have summoned me for?
What had I done around this time? I had been called to the clan head’s office more than once for causing trouble, so it was difficult to guess which incident this was about.
I would just have to steel myself and go. It was probably some mess I had made anyway.
Just as I finished preparing myself mentally—
“Young Master. The clan head asked me to tell you, ‘You don’t need to come to the clan head’s office.’”
That was what the servant conveyed.
In the end, I could do nothing but remain alone at the table, staring blankly at the remaining dumplings.
What in the world...?
**************
In my previous life, I had yearned for “freedom.”
I did not want a life in which none of my choices were my own. I wanted to live a life in which my will was reflected in every action I took.
It was true that, even while living as that accursed demonic human, I had chosen to prolong my life and keep living.
But if I had known that my life would become so steeped in regret, I would have ended it without hesitation right then and there.
Yet because I had failed to do so, I had been forced to live a life in which I could not even choose the manner of my own death.
How much had I regretted it?
And how much had I come to understand?
The days when I had foolishly refused to acknowledge my own talent, made no effort, and still dreamed of becoming a Star.
The days when I had tried to vent my own incompetence upon others through arrogance and anger.
By the time I realized that such things could never conceal the ugliness underneath, I had already come far too far.
That was why, when the opportunity I had so desperately wished would return finally came to me, I could not help but seize it.
I had to live a life clearly different from my previous one.
No—I wanted to live differently.
Perhaps that was why, after regaining consciousness following my regression, my very first thought had been:
Could I kill the Heavenly Demon?
Even to me, it was an absurdly unrealistic wish.
How could I possibly kill the monster who had slain all three Venerables, whose martial realms were said to reach above the heavens, and who had burned down two of the Nine Sects and One Alliance by himself?
It had been nothing more than a momentary fancy.
The Heavenly Demon would be killed by Wi Seol-ah in the future anyway, and the Demonic Cult would disappear not long after that.
I merely wanted to live a peaceful life—or, if I allowed myself a little greed, a life that was just slightly more abundant than this.
But in the not-so-distant future, becoming entangled with the Demonic Cult would be unavoidable.
No matter how foolish I was, no matter how much of a disowned son I might have seemed, the blood of the Gu Clan still ran through my veins.
They had treated me that way in the past, after all.
Could I really avoid the reach of the Demonic Cult, whose grasp even the Four Great Clans had been unable to withstand properly?
Would I be safe if I abandoned the clan and fled? Perhaps if I hid in some remote mountain village, far beyond the reach of the demonic humans, I might be all right—
“...You fucking idiot. You’ve come this far, and you’re already thinking about running away.”
I trembled with rage at the thought that had arisen unbidden.
I wanted to slap myself across the cheek, but I couldn’t move for fear of disturbing my carefully maintained posture.
I forced myself to ignore the fear that had seized me prematurely and erased my drifting thoughts.
How long had it been since I resolved to live properly, changed from the person I had been in my previous life, and I was already thinking of throwing it all away?
I clenched my teeth into my lip and steeled my heart.
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but it was certainly well after the midnight hour.
In the center of my quarters, I sat cross-legged and drew in a deep breath. Then I exhaled the air that had filled my lungs.
The breath I released carried a faint trace of internal energy.
‘What a tiny bit of internal energy...’
After searching through my body as thoroughly as a rat hunting for food, I had finally found a small amount of internal energy tucked away in one corner of my dantian.
My younger sister, born only a year after me, had reached the Third Star at that young age. There could hardly have been a more humiliating comparison.
To put it plainly, it meant I hadn’t put in even the slightest effort.
With internal energy so faint it could barely be grasped, there wasn’t much I could do right away.
‘It’s far smaller than I expected, but it isn’t impossible.’
There wasn’t much I could do, but it wasn’t as if I could do nothing at all.
The cultivation method passed down to the Gu Clan’s bloodline, the Nine Flame Fire Wheel Art, was based on fire arts.
It resembled the Samadhi Divine Fire, which used immense internal energy to produce flames, but its essence was different.
The cultivation method slowly and solidly accumulated power within the body, and when the time came, it blossomed.
After years of training, the crimson, flickering internal energy of the Nine Flame Fire Wheel Art resembled the shape of a blazing fire.
For example, Gu Cheorun’s sobriquet was the Tiger Hero because, with flickering flames wrapped around his entire body, his violent movements resembled those of a tiger, and because he used that power to punish evildoers.
Gu Yeonseo, who would later be called the Crimson Flame Sword, was given that name because the internal energy of the Nine Flame Fire Wheel Art wrapped around her sword resembled flames.
The internal energy I possessed, however little, was certainly that of the Nine Flame Fire Wheel Art as well.
One had to reach the Fourth Star to emit even a small amount of crimson internal energy, and the Seventh Star to wrap it around the entire body.
At present, I was barely at the First Star.
Compared not only to Gu Yeonseo but also to Gu Cheorun, who must have reached at least the Seventh Star, I was utterly pathetic.
The reason I was making such a pointless effort beneath the moonlight was partly because I possessed a child’s body.
But it was also because I wanted to gather, before it was too late, the energy that had spread throughout my body due to my immature cultivation and use it as the foundation for reaching the Second Star.
I should have left behind my reckless ambition for martial arts in my previous life.
But I still needed strength to survive.
I hated even imagining the life I had lived as a demonic human, but paradoxically, I was using the martial insights I had gained back then now.
The problem was—
“...If I try any more, I really might kill myself.”
I conserved the small amount of internal energy I possessed as carefully as I could, sweeping through every energy channel in my body and drawing out the internal energy that was on the verge of disappearing.
It was not easy.
Not only did it require intense concentration, but using such a tiny amount of internal energy in this manner was extraordinarily difficult.
After manipulating my senses with such delicacy for so long, my back was already soaked with cold sweat.
It was impressive enough that I had made it this far, but if I tried to do anything more with this amount of internal energy, I was almost certain to suffer qi deviation.
“...Hoo.”
I exhaled after bringing the arduous process to an end.
Once I had let out the sigh, a satisfied smile appeared at the corners of my mouth.
It was a shame that I couldn’t do more, but it wasn’t as if I had gained nothing.
“Not bad.”
The slightly increased internal energy and the faint warmth I could directly feel throughout my body told me so.
They were proof that the Nine Flame Fire Wheel Art had reached the Second Star.
The energy that had been scattered throughout my body because I had failed to properly cultivate the art was more abundant than I had expected.
“I wonder if it’s really right to say it was thanks to my incompetence.”
Several hours had passed since I first began cultivating the technique, but having successfully reached the Second Star left me feeling refreshed.
“If I keep unraveling things one by one like this, I’ll become something eventually.”
I couldn’t wash my sweat-soaked body completely, so after giving myself a quick wash, I changed clothes and lay down on the bed.
I thought it was not a bad beginning.
‘Let’s keep going like this...’
One step at a time, carefully, but without moving slowly.
I would endure, forcing myself forward, and in the end, I would overcome it all.
It was solely for the sake of living a life different from the one in my previous life.
‘So I don’t recklessly do anything pointless and create needless changes to the future that lies ahead.’
I would quietly live my life, doing what needed to be done, until everything was resolved.
At least until the Heavenly Demon died, I intended to keep my mouth shut and live quietly.
At that moment, I was resolved to do so.
I had been.
“Ah, h-hello! I’m Wi, Wi Seol-ah!”
Why were you suddenly showing up there...?