“…So.”
Namgung Bia, who had been lying still, looked at my head and asked.
“…Did you…get beaten and come back?”
“...”
At her words, I rubbed the top of my head.
There wasn’t a bump, but a stinging sensation still remained.
It was exactly the spot where Moyong Huia had hit me.
“…She’s definitely not at the Peak realm.”
It still hurt. She had hit me so hard it felt like a bump would form.
Moyong Huia was definitely hiding her cultivation realm.
‘…Otherwise, there’s no way her hand could be that fierce.’
I was only half-joking, but Moyong Huia had just smacked my head outright.
Thanks to that, my head still hurt.
‘No, how could I stay still after seeing those conditions?’
From my perspective, it was a bit unfair.
Crazy conditions were laid out; how could they not be tempting?
The conditions Jang Yumyeong offered were at a level that made no sense unless he had lost his mind.
That was why words had slipped out of my mouth before I knew it.
Of course, since he had put forth such conditions, I was also trying to figure out Jang Yumyeong’s intentions.
‘Just what does that man want from me?’
What did he want from me to offer such things?
I had my doubts about that, but….
‘…With conditions like that, even if he has an ulterior motive, it’s worth accepting at least once, isn’t it?’
It was something worth going along with, whether it was a sinister motive or a hidden scheme.
Rather, if it was a sinister motive, I even had the willingness to take it with a smile.
“…But you know….”
“Yeah.”
Having heard the whole story, Namgung Bia looked at me quietly and said,
“I think you deserved to get hit….”
“...”
I had thought Namgung Bia would at least take my side, yet even she said that.
Was this really such a wrong thing to do?
Putting on an awkward expression, I spoke to Namgung Bia.
“Forget it…. How is your body?”
“I’m…fine.”
I intended to change the subject, and Namgung Bia accepted it.
“What about food?”
“…I ate….”
“Good. Don’t skip meals and eat properly.”
“Yeah.”
I spoke and raised myself up.
Namgung Bia’s condition had improved greatly. It seemed some scars might remain, but her internal injuries were mostly treated.
‘The turbid energy has also mostly left.’
I had come by often to draw out the turbid energy that formed in her body. If she had recovered this much, there didn’t seem to be any need to worry about turbid energy anymore.
She would probably be able to move freely within a few days.
“I’ll come again tomorrow if I have time.”
After greeting Namgung Bia, I handed her a set of clothes I had brought.
Namgung Bia, as if she had been waiting, took the clothes.
They were my clothes.
Namgung Bia had asked me to bring one of the clothes I wore each time I came. I had brought them upon hearing that request.
‘Why does she need that?’
I didn’t really know the reason, but since she needed it, I had brought it.
It wasn’t anything expensive, just black clothes… just what did she plan to use them for?
I shifted my gaze from Namgung Bia, who was neatly folding the clothes,
and looked at the guy lying as good as dead on the next bed in the same room.
“Are you alright?”
“…Yeesss….”
A dying voice answered my question.
It was Seongyul, wrapped in bandages all over his body.
This guy was also in terrible shape.
“Tsk tsk.”
“…Kck….”
It seemed even speaking was difficult as the guy let out a groan.
Seeing that, I firmly pressed on his chest.
“Kuaaah!! Y-Young Master, stoooop…!”
“Quit whining, punk.”
I clearly knew he was injured less severely than me, yet he was acting this pained.
It was absurd.
“If you had done it properly from the start, you wouldn’t be in this state.”
“…Krrr….”
“You got cocky thinking you could handle it, and look at you now. You lacking bastard.”
Even after that, I kept pressing here and there, and I could see Seongyul writhing.
This was partly to tease him, but also an act to check various things.
‘It seems there’s a backlash.’
It didn’t look like mere whining—his appearance was strange, as if he was suffering far greater pain than his injuries warranted.
‘Is this the aftermath of properly activating the Thousand Killing Star?’
Poke, poke.
“W-wait… Krrrrrk!”
‘Dispelling it wasn’t difficult. I hadn’t checked if he listens properly, though. If he keeps ending up like this after using it, he’ll be too troublesome to use.’
“Young Master… I… I’m really… going to die…!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ve tried this a few times, so I know. People don’t die this easily.”
“Kuaaack…!”
After that, I checked here and there a few more times.
The result was,
‘I’ll have to check one more time.’
There were still plenty of things to experiment with regarding the Thousand Killing Star.
Whether the Thousand Killing Star could come and go according to Seongyul’s will.
I knew his combat prowess rose when he entered it, but whether Seongyul could fully maintain it.
Whether I could control him in that situation, and so on.
There were still many things left to check.
‘They said it would take about a month or two to fully heal.’
Once he recovered after that, I’d have to put him to good use.
“…Huh?”
Shiver.
The moment I thought that, Seongyul’s body trembled as if he had felt a chill.
As expected, he was quick on the uptake.
‘Still, I have to do it.’
This was something that had to be gone through in order to make use of Seongyul.
If I didn’t do this properly….
‘I’ll have to turn Seongyul into a demon.’
I had to ultimately corrupt him and use him.
Therefore, this was strictly speaking for Seongyul’s sake as well.
Ah, of course, Seongyul’s opinion had nothing to do with this whatsoever.
“You…. Just heal up somehow.”
Since I had roughly finished checking, just as I was about to leave,
I suddenly remembered there was something I had meant to tell Seongyul.
“Ah, right. Hey.”
“Yes….”
“Once you’re fully healed and up, I’ll tell you what I was going to say last time.”
“…!”
Seongyul’s eyes widened to the size of lantern flames upon hearing my words.
What I was going to say last time.
It was my promise to tell him about the Cheonghae Single Sword if he won against Paeng Ujin in the martial duel.
“Y-you’ll tell me…?”
“Unlike our bet, you lost quite pathetically…. But I can show this much magnanimity.”
I hadn’t thought he would win anyway.
And it was a story he would have to learn eventually.
“Then… right now…!”
“No. I told you I’d tell you once you’re fully healed.”
I cut off the urgent Seongyul with a single stroke.
Now wasn’t the time.
If Seongyul heard the whole story now….
‘I don’t know what he might do in that physical state.’
When his body was fully healed and I thought I could control him,
it would be better to tell him then.
“...”
Seongyul made an expression that suggested he had much to say, but didn’t speak further.
He seemed to know that no matter how much he asked, I wouldn’t answer.
“Anyway, rest knowing that. Don’t do anything unnecessary. If you move around instead, you’ll become even more useless.”
“…Understood….”
Seongyul gave a reluctant acceptance.
Looking at him, I moved my feet.
‘How many Poison Heaven Pills were left?’
Thinking it was about time to slip one or two to Seongyul as well, I took stock of the number.
No, perhaps the number didn’t matter anymore now.
‘And I just received contact from the Poison King.’
Among the letters Cheoljiseon had organized, there was also news sent to me from the Tang Clan.
‘They’ve finally succeeded in manufacturing the Poison Heaven Pills.’
The Poison Heaven Pills that the Tang Clan had lost in the past.
They had succeeded in restoring them.
‘I’ll have to go to Sichuan later.’
It wasn’t a complete success. They had discovered a means to succeed, but….
‘They said one problem was holding them back.’
I decided to go and find out what the problem was myself.
If only this was resolved, tremendous benefits would follow.
The Poison Heaven Pill was a legendary pill rivaling the Great Return Pill that Shaolin supposedly produced only one or two of per year.
I barely gained anything from eating Poison Heaven Pills anymore.
‘But the others are different.’
With so many people I needed to make stronger for the future, it was inevitably an anticipated achievement.
Recalling that, I came outside.
The moment I stepped out, a leaf fell before my eyes.
It was a fallen leaf, half-changed in color.
I raised my head at this.
The once-green leaves were gradually taking on color.
The end of summer and the beginning of autumn had arrived.
“...”
I caught one of the falling leaves and recalled.
—Come in autumn.
It was because the words the Heavenly Demon had spoken in the past suddenly came to mind.
When asked why I had to come then, the Heavenly Demon had said.
Was it because the autumn leaves were beautiful?
Or because the scenery was beautiful?
I didn’t remember well, but it was roughly something like that.
Why did that thought suddenly come to me now, out of nowhere?
I didn’t bother harboring doubts about it.
Fwoosh!
I burned the leaf I was holding and tossed it away.
“...”
It was a memory not worth paying attention to.
********************
I came out of the quarters.
The merchant guild and the surroundings were still crowded with people, but slipping past their gazes was not difficult.
“…I greet the Cult Leader.”
An old man who seemed past seventy. Pilduma, descendant of the Jegal family and the Cheonra Daeju, knelt before me.
After leaving the quarters, I had come straight to see this old man.
Just as the mask I hadn’t worn in a long time felt unfamiliar, I spoke to him.
[Are things going well?]
My voice had changed, and my body was transformed via the Body Transformation Technique as well.
Perhaps because my injuries were deep, transforming hurt like hell, but I had to endure it for now.
“Yes. All preparations are complete. If you give the word, it can be activated immediately.”
[Not bad.]
“Might I dare ask one thing?”
[Speak.]
“When should the matter proceed?”
A hundred-grade demonic beast.
Pilduma was devising a plan to summon a dragon called a calamity and destroy Hanam.
Hadn’t he said they only needed to use the six steles located throughout Hanam?
‘He said a dragon was sealed in this land.’
Pilduma had said so.
I didn’t know how a dragon came to be sealed here, and had I heard it before, I would have thought it a lie.
‘But now I know.’
Now, I could tell.
That a strange resonance could be felt from beneath this land.
There was definitely a dragon within the ground. However faint, I was clearly sensing it.
‘Could this also be related to the Blood Demon?’
Given the circumstances, I expected there to be a connection, but
it was impossible to know right now.
Moreover, even if preparations were complete, whether Pilduma’s plan would actually succeed was uncertain.
However.
‘It doesn’t matter if it fails.’
It didn’t matter because I hadn’t been aiming for success from the start.
Success would be welcome; failure didn’t matter.
That wasn’t the important part.
‘He’s a descendant of the Jegal family. And such a man is doing something in Hanam.’
That was the only important part as far as I was concerned.
[Cheonra Daeju. You seem quite impatient.]
I said so with a hint of laughter in my voice.
Asking when it should be done was essentially the same as urging me.
As if proving this, Pilduma likewise did not deny it.
[Do not worry. It shan’t take more than a few days at most.]
“I speak out of an old man’s worry…. I must confess, I am concerned whether we may truly trust the Cult Leader.”
He meant that he was doubtful, not knowing what I might do.
[Haha.]
At those words, I laughed even louder this time.
[Whether you believe or not is your choice. However, as I said before, the direction this seat and you seek is the same. Furthermore.]
Woooom.
I retracted the energy I had been emitting around me and gathered it into my heart.
Only then did gasping sounds come from all directions.
[Is not the fact that your lifelines are held before this seat the very proof of that?]
“...”
I released the pressure I had been exerting with my energy. I had to do this as well, for if I lessened my momentum even slightly, suspicion would creep in.
[Do not be impatient. The time is upon us.]
“…Understood.”
Though his expression suggested he was not convinced, the Cheonra Daeju nodded to me.
As expected, he was a man of great stature; crushing him was no easy task.
This old man wouldn’t die easily unless his internal energy was completely drained.
‘Rather, that was fortunate.’
It seemed I could use him to the fullest without hesitation and then discard him.
After finishing a few more exchanges of questions and answers, I left the cave.
By the time I came outside, the sun was already setting.
I had been moving since morning, and already the whole day was spent.
‘Time sure flies.’
Too fast, in fact.
What I needed most now was time, yet time was also what I seemed to be using up the fastest.
‘I had just told Pilduma not to be impatient, yet I’m the one who’s most impatient of all…. What a sight.’
What a contradiction.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
‘Anyway…. It seems this side is all prepared.’
Now what remained was my side.
Thinking so, I looked back.
Behind me, the one who had been waiting appeared and knelt.
I was not surprised.
For I had already known for some time.
The figure was a woman with green hair and a rather exhausted expression.
It was Nahi, whom I had sent to Hubei in the past.
“Welcome back.”
As I spoke with a smile upon seeing her, Nahi bowed her head deeper.
“…I greet my master.”
Her voice was as withered as her exhausted appearance.
She appeared to have no external wounds, yet she looked utterly drained, as if she had used her internal energy extensively.
“How did things go?”
I asked the crux of the matter rather than voicing concern.
I had thought it would be troublesome if it were any later, but Nahi had arrived before it was too late.
This meant that the situation I had desired had finally been created.
And indeed. Nahi reported on this matter.
“…The First Dragon Leader has just finished the arrest and purge within the Alliance.”
Within those words was the news I had been hoping for.
At the same time, Nahi’s voice seethed with inexplicable heat.
Resentment and fatigue were strongly felt.
I couldn’t tell whether that resentment was directed at me or the First Sword Leader.
Honestly, it wasn’t very important.
“Is that so?”
There was only one thing important to me right now.
‘The final preparations are complete.’
The snare was well laid.
Now it was time to scatter the bait.
Bait so tantalizing and rich that starving beasts couldn’t help but gather. I would scatter such bait.
“I must inform the Hwangbo Patriarch.”
The time to raise hell in Hanam had come.
It was finally time to tell him so.