My vision was still dark. My dulled five senses showed no signs of returning.
How much time had passed? With my five senses collapsed, even grasping the passage of time was no easy task.
All I knew was—
*Thud—!*
“Kgh!”
—that this was the ninth time.
Exactly nine times.
It was the number of times I had been killed.
Overwhelmed by dizziness, I staggered and collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
From my pierced throat, blood began to gush out as if bursting forth, and feeling my consciousness slip away, I lost consciousness.
A few seconds passed like that.
“Hah…!”
I came to my senses and shot to my feet.
What was it just now? By the feel of it, I think my throat was stabbed.
I carefully examined my neck with my hand, but I couldn’t feel any pain, let alone a wound.
‘…Damn it.’
This sensation—by now, this was the ninth time it had happened.
Dying by the Dark King’s hand, that is.
I furrowed my brow deeply and surveyed my surroundings.
I was still in the plains where I had been with Pae Jon moments ago, not a single step away.
‘What the hell is this?’
I wondered if I was experiencing some kind of illusion, yet the sensation of my throat being slit and my heart being pierced was far too real.
So too was the sensation of my throat being pierced by something sharp just now.
Seeing that, I could be certain. I had definitely died nine times.
The problem was—
‘But how am I alive?’
—that I was somehow alive.
‘Shit.’
The curse slipped out on its own.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand what was going on.
Pae Jon, that damn old man… What was he thinking, throwing me into a situation like this?
After Pae Jon disappeared, leaving behind only the words to endure, I continued to meet my death at the Dark King’s hands.
In so many ways, it felt like utter shit.
Whether it was a formation, an illusion, or whatever else, to be put through this dogshit situation in the dead of night…
“I really want to throw it all away.”
Heavenly Demon Valley or whatever, should I just throw it all away and hole up in the mountains?
The thought crossed my mind—wouldn’t that be so much better?
*Grind.*
I gritted my teeth.
I knew all too well that I couldn’t, so it was nothing more than a passing thought.
Regulating my breathing, I turned my gaze.
Tension hung in the pitch-black field of vision.
Before assessing the situation, there was something I had to do first.
‘Where is he?’
I raised my senses.
Perhaps because the backlash still remained, or because something was blocking it, my senses weren’t spreading properly. Still, it was better than not trying.
‘Where are you?’
I concentrated my senses, spreading them through every area I could cover.
Pae Jon had said—
that this, too, was part of training.
And to finish this training, I only had to catch the Dark King even once.
‘I don’t know what the hell this training is for, but…’
I knew this wasn’t a situation where I could choose not to do it just because I didn’t understand.
I just had to grit my teeth and break through.
“Hooo…”
I exhaled a breath filled with heat.
The Dark King kept attacking me, so I had been trying to seize the moment and catch him.
But it was anything but easy.
*Crack—*
“…!”
I turned my head toward the direction the sound came from. The moment I tried to reach out on instinct—
I saw that no one was in my vision.
It was a mista—.
*Thud—!*
“Kgh!?”
The pain of a blade digging into my thigh forced an involuntary scream from me.
Where had he stabbed from?
By the direction, it was from behind.
Then had the human presence in front been to lure me into letting my guard down?
It was only a stab to the thigh, but the pain felt unusually intense.
Was this, too, the power of the martial art the Dark King used?
I had thought I was quite used to pain thanks to training in Tuapacheonmu.
Yet this was at a level that made even me scream.
‘Where are you?’
Even so, I judged that moving to catch the Dark King took priority over the immediate pain.
Ignoring the pain in my leg, I turned around to find the Dark King, but—
*Crunch—!*
“…!”
Before I could, I felt the tip of the Dark King’s sword pierce my stomach.
Blood surged up to the top of my throat.
The pain of bone being pierced forced strength into the corners of my eyes.
Thanks to the pitch-black vision, I couldn’t properly see the Dark King’s figure right in front of me.
But.
I reached out anyway. Because I couldn’t avoid it.
I stretched out my fingertips hoping to touch even a little, but before they could reach anything, I saw something approaching before my eyes.
A sword tip.
The moment I recognized it and tried to move my head—
*Freeze.*
Before the tip of the Dark King’s dagger could pierce the space between my eyebrows, it suddenly stopped dead in midair.
It had been right about to touch me.
Why?
As questions flooded my mind—
“It’s over.”
The Dark King retrieved the dagger he held and stepped back.
Wondering what was over, I tried to ask him, but—
*Sssssshhhhh—!*
As if answering in his stead, the surroundings suddenly began to brighten.
The sky, which had been pitch-black until just now, brightened in an instant, and I could see the sun rising in the distance.
Looking at it, I thought:
…Has daylight broken?
‘Then what the hell was it until just now?’
It had been a space so dark I couldn’t see an inch ahead.
For it to brighten so instantly… No matter how I looked at it, the situation was absurd.
‘Could it be…’
Only then did I realize that the darkness enveloping the surroundings, aside from the deaths until now, had been the Dark King’s power.
Realizing that sent a chill down my spine.
‘He’s insane.’
They say no one can defeat the Dark King at night, but this man could create night itself.
They say assassins wait for the right time and find a suitable environment to attempt assassination.
But being able to make time and place suit himself—isn’t that too much?
‘…And.’
The thigh that had just been stabbed was clean, without a single wound.
The same went for the recent deaths, but this phenomenon was especially absurd.
‘Should this even be called martial arts?’
I thought it was a power closer to a formation than martial arts.
It couldn’t be dismissed as a simple illusion because the pain was far too vivid.
Could something like this really be called training?
It seemed closer to torture than training.
‘Though calling it torture is a bit ambiguous since the killing is too clean.’
Because the method of bringing about death was so clean, it was ambiguous to call it torture.
I gulped and looked at the Dark King.
“Today ends here.”
Saying so, the Dark King dispersed like mist before my eyes and concealed his presence.
He looked as if no further conversation was necessary.
Only after confirming that could I let out a hollow breath.
“…It’s really over?”
They said this training only took place at night.
Was that why the Dark King disappeared the moment morning came?
In other words—
“Then I have to do this every night?”
I have to be killed by the Dark King like this every day until morning?
“…”
Thinking that far, I fell into contemplation.
‘Should I really just throw it all away and run?’
I had to seriously consider it.
******************
While Ouyang Cheon was seriously contemplating escape, the Dark King had arrived somewhere in the forest with light steps.
By the time he revealed himself, he had reached his destination.
“You’re here.”
Pae Jon was sitting on a rock, drinking alone.
Seeing two cups, it seemed he had already known the Dark King would come here.
Pae Jon threw a cup toward the arrived Dark King.
The cup flying through the air suddenly changed direction, slowed, and landed on the Dark King’s palm.
Seeing that, Pae Jon let out a hollow laugh and spoke to the Dark King.
“You could’ve just caught it. Why bother using force there?”
“This is easier.”
“Tsk, tsk.”
The Dark King, having received the cup, slowly approached and sat down heavily beside Pae Jon.
*Pour—*
Pae Jon, who had been silently pouring alcohol into the Dark King’s empty cup, looked at him and asked.
“How was he?”
There was no need to ask what he meant.
The conversation they needed to have was already decided.
Pae Jon was asking about the time Ouyang Cheon and the Dark King had spent.
Hearing the question, the Dark King took a sip of alcohol and answered.
“He’s a strange one.”
“Oh?”
Strength entered Pae Jon’s eyes at the Dark King’s answer.
It was an answer rarely heard from the Dark King, who only spoke of good or bad.
“Strange in what way?”
“He’s strangely calm.”
The Dark King soon thought of Ouyang Cheon.
Though Pae Jon wouldn’t know, Ouyang Cheon was a young man the Dark King had already taken an interest in.
A possessor of talent worthy of remaining in history?
That wasn’t a story that particularly interested the Dark King.
The reason the Dark King watched Ouyang Cheon with interest was not only because he possessed something different despite being similar to himself, but also because he might hold the clue to unraveling the curse of the Yan family entangled with him.
Above all.
‘Taecheon is interested.’
He was certain that the being he so desperately pursued was interested in Ouyang Cheon.
That wasn’t all.
The reason the Dark King now told Pae Jon that Ouyang Cheon was strange was exactly this:
‘He doesn’t change at all.’
Around the time he had died by the Dark King’s hand about three times.
Ouyang Cheon’s action had been, surprisingly, attempting to catch the Dark King.
That much was understandable.
Since catching the Dark King would end the training, he had done so for that reason.
However.
‘He tried until the end.’
Until the moment the training ended at sunrise, Ouyang Cheon had continuously tried to catch the Dark King.
What was problematic about that?
During the nearly ten deaths.
From beginning to end, Ouyang Cheon hadn’t feared death in the slightest.
The Dark King could feel it.
Ouyang Cheon had tried somehow to grasp the Dark King’s movements.
He merely repeated attempts to catch him, showing no signs of fear or exhaustion.
An ordinary person would be terrified in this situation or beg for their life.
Even in a situation where he died and died and came back to life.
Ouyang Cheon’s attitude was something that couldn’t easily exist.
Even for the Dark King, the so-called King of Assassins.
It was strange.
One might say martial artists have a high threshold for enduring.
But Ouyang Cheon felt somewhat different.
He didn’t waver in the face of death and pain. To an abnormal degree.
‘And.’
The Dark King’s gaze, which had been thinking of Ouyang Cheon, turned to Pae Jon.
“You already knew, didn’t you?”
“Hmm?”
Pae Jon looked at the Dark King as if asking what he meant.
But the Dark King was already certain.
That Pae Jon already knew all about Ouyang Cheon’s strangeness.
‘Was it because he knew that he asked this of me?’
Did Pae Jon judge that this kind of training was acceptable because he knew his disciple was in such a state?
If that were truly the case.
‘You are still as wicked as ever.’
He knew that when it came to achieving martial arts, Pae Jon didn’t fall within normal boundaries either.
A master who entrusted his disciple to the Dark King and employed such a cruel training method from the beginning.
Or a disciple who didn’t protest but endured calmly and sought a breakthrough.
To the Dark King, both were strange individuals.
Thinking so, the Dark King turned his gaze from Pae Jon to the cup.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
Whatever the circumstances of the two, the Dark King didn’t care.
Just as they had their goals, the Dark King only needed to achieve his own.
This was no different from an act done simply because he had been asked.
The Dark King, having thought that far, spoke to Pae Jon.
“Don’t forget what was promised for the request.”
“Of course, I won’t forget, so don’t worry.”
Pae Jon answered the Dark King as if fed up and stood.
There was little alcohol left, and since he had watched the situation all night, he now had to go train as well.
“Ah, right.”
Before leaving, Pae Jon looked at the Dark King and asked.
“How long do you think it will take? Until that child succeeds.”
“…”
The Dark King looked at Pae Jon with strange eyes at the question.
How long until Ouyang Cheon’s hand reaches the Dark King?
To this question, the Dark King seemed to ponder for a moment, then—
“In his current state, it’s impossible.”
He answered in an adamant voice.
“How decisive.”
“It would be faster to find another path.”
He might have judged based on only a single day.
With Ouyang Cheon’s method, even if he died and woke up, he wouldn’t reach the Dark King.
The Dark King didn’t know what intention Pae Jon had in preparing this training, but at least to the Dark King, that was the case.
However, despite the Dark King’s firm denial, Pae Jon only smiled slyly.
The Dark King didn’t like that smile.
To the point that the eyebrows of the Dark King—the very picture of impassiveness—furrowed slightly.
Because whenever Pae Jon smiled like that, an unexpected accident was bound to occur.
“Well, let’s leave it at that. In any case, I look forward to working with you.”
“…”
The Dark King soon ignored Pae Jon’s words and disappeared.
Having confirmed that, Pae Jon also moved his steps.
As he walked, he thought:
‘Impossible.’
The Dark King had said it was impossible for Ouyang Cheon to reach him, but Pae Jon thought a little differently.
‘I don’t think it’s entirely so.’
He hadn’t watched him for long, but the child always showed him more than expected.
Wouldn’t this time be no different? Pae Jon harbored such expectations.
******************
As the morning gave way to noon.
It was right before the carriage departed again, while I was training after roughly eating breakfast.
I hadn’t fully recovered from the fatigue of raising hell all night, but I couldn’t rest from training.
*Thud.*
In the midst of that, upon hearing that Pae Ucheol had approached, I decided to take a short break.
I put down the massive rock I was holding and asked Pae Ucheol back.
“Who did you say came?”
“They say the Murong family has arrived.”
“Ah, so they’ve finally come.”
Hearing that, I nodded.
It seemed Murong Xiya had arrived.
I had definitely been told they would join up in a few days. Had they arrived in just one day?
Just as I thought I should go see her first since it had been a while—
“Kgh…”
I saw Cheol Jiseon lying on the ground, breathing exhaustedly.
Watching that, Pae Ucheol looked at me with strange eyes and asked.
“Uh… what happened to Hyung-nim Jiseon…”
“He looked so weak and wobbly, so I thought I’d train him a bit, and that’s the result. Tsk tsk, a man being so weak.”
“Ah, yes…”
“If you’re going to train too, do it here. You can do it with him.”
At my words, Pae Ucheol sent his gaze somewhere. There—
*Huff—! Huff—!*
—was Uhyeok, holding something slightly smaller than the rock I had been holding and moving without rest.
Though sweat poured down, he moved steadily as if there were no rest.
Perhaps because of his handsome face, even that appearance looked cool.
I look like a rat drenched in sweat. The world is truly unfair.
On top of that, he trains hard. Except for the fact that he, a Taoist, devours meat and his crazy personality, he lacked nothing.
Ah, maybe those first two are huge flaws.
But since he said he has a fiancée anyway, it probably doesn’t matter.
Even when I looked for flaws to pick, his appearance covered for him for the most part. I really hated him disgustingly.
“Damn it.”
“Yes?”
“Not you. So. Should I go now?”
“Ah, yes… But…”
Pae Ucheol said to me with an expression that suggested he had more to say.
“It seems one more person has arrived besides the Murong young lady.”
“One more person? Who?”
I tilted my head at Pae Ucheol’s words.
Who else came besides Murong Xiya?
It didn’t seem to be a servant based on Pae Ucheol’s tone, then could it be the Baekcheon Sword Lord?
‘No, no matter how much of a handful that man is, he wouldn’t come all the way here.’
I judged that the head of a family—moreover, a family called a great clan—wouldn’t follow his daughter here.
Of course… looking at that man’s personality, I couldn’t be certain.
As I looked at Pae Ucheol with a slightly worried expression.
Pae Ucheol told me the identity of the accompanying person.
Ah, fortunately, it wasn’t the Baekcheon Sword Lord.
It was someone even more unexpected.
“Senior White Lotus Sword has arrived.”
“Huh…?”
At the unexpected name that sprang from Pae Ucheol’s mouth, I had to make a blank expression.
…Why is that woman’s nickname showing up here?