Episode 182. Is It Finally Complete?
When we thought we had dealt with most of the remnants, Yukhap Seonsaeng flicked the blood off his sword onto the ground and spoke.
"……Even after all this, those who escaped still have long lifelines, so it can't be helped. What shall we do? Chase them further? Or should we join Yuhwa Valley right away?"
I shook my head.
"Why bother? This is enough. Anyway, since the man who was essentially their leader is dead, even if the Third Young Master tries to get to the bottom of the situation, it's unlikely he'll suspect Yuhwa Valley."
"Why is that?"
I mentioned Old Man Jang, who had been annihilated by Ilwol Gwangcheon.
"Old Man Jang was quite strong, you know. He wasn't a man that the Valley Lord of Yuhwa or the Valley Lord of Woohyang could kill in the first place. It would have taken a considerably famous expert from the dark path to kill him. And with so many corpses scattered about, torn to pieces by my technique, it'll be hard to figure out the cause of this situation immediately. He'll probably think the Valley Lords died together as well."
"That may be true, but if there are survivors, they will come looking for you."
"Don't try too hard to wrap things up perfectly. There's no such thing as a perfect ending. If a smart and meticulous man could solve worldly affairs perfectly, Zhuge Liang wouldn't have lost at Qishan every time. Let's take it easy."
After all, I was already in the middle of a war. It was a situation where having the enemies come to me was more convenient than having them go to Yuhwa Valley.
Yukhap Seonsaeng, who had been thinking about something for a moment, spoke.
"I have somewhere to go and come back from; what will you do?"
"Where?"
"I need to go to Yukhap Gate to retrieve some things."
"Yukhap Gate?"
"To be exact, the shrine where the ancestral tablets are enshrined. It's at the old Yukhap Gate's location."
I looked at Yukhap Seonsaeng's expression and said.
"I'll be bored, so I'll go with you. We can discuss swordsmanship along the way……"
It would be problematic if one of us were unlucky enough to run into the Third Young Master. After all, someone called the Great Lord in the Demonic Cult wouldn't be wandering around alone. Setting aside his maternal family, there must be separate experts accompanying or guarding the Third Young Master.
We left the corpses behind and headed toward Yeongbo Mountain.
* * *
Yukhap Seonsaeng climbed to the mountainside, opened a door disguised with vines, and went in. It wasn't a place that had been excessively hidden, so as soon as the door opened, several buildings standing isolated in an empty space came into view.
Yukhap Seonsaeng, who had been looking around as we walked, pointed to a place that couldn't be distinguished as an empty lot or a training ground.
"We mainly trained over there."
In the desolate training ground where tall weeds sprouted here and there, stones that had gathered from a long time without sweeping were scattered about.
"It seems there weren't many fellow disciples."
It was my first time visiting and looking around a ruined sect as well.
Yukhap Seonsaeng nodded.
"There were times when there were many. After the Eldest Martial Brother executed several villains notorious for their evil deeds, there was a time when disciples suddenly increased in number. Though most of them couldn't endure long and disappeared."
"I suppose they left because the training was hard."
"In the end, only disciples with nowhere to go, like me, remained."
The truth is, not just anyone can become a murim warrior.
Those who had entered the sect because it looked cool, because they wanted to become strong, would often hit the wall of reality and return to their own places.
Because these were people without the special circumstances that would require them to arduously train in martial arts. This is how most people are when they lightly admired something and easily gave up.
Yukhap Seonsaeng stood silently in the training ground for a moment.
He seemed to be recalling his martial brothers with whom he had swung swords together in this training ground.
Yukhap Seonsaeng spoke.
"……Our Master was physically infirm, so the Eldest Martial Brother mainly guided us. The Eldest Martial Brother was scarier than our Master. I wondered if there could be such a strict and cold-hearted person in the world, but if the Eldest Martial Brother hadn't been strict then, I would have died many times over by now."
I, too, recalled Yukhap Seonsaeng's younger days and imagined the martial brothers who had swung swords together with him.
Perhaps because this was a mountainside where cool winds blew from time to time, whenever I shifted my gaze and imagined, I could see Yukhap Seonsaeng's martial siblings laughing while cooling their sweat, and the Eldest Martial Brother with his stoic expression.
Yukhap Seonsaeng, who had been gazing at the empty training ground for a moment, spoke while nodding.
"……Let's go inside. It's been a while since I've guided a guest."
Yukhap Seonsaeng guided me into Yukhap Gate.
* * *
Yukhap Seonsaeng had placed five swords taken from a storage chest before his knees and was gazing endlessly at the ancestral tablets.
It seemed the things he needed to retrieve were his martial brothers' swords.
Suddenly, Yukhap Seonsaeng stood up, brushed away the cobwebs on the ancestral tablets and tables with his bare hands, then returned and knelt down.
I, too, looked at the ancestral tablets.
On the very top was placed the tablet of the person presumed to be Yukhap Seonsaeng's master.
Below that were five tablets lined up side by side, and looking at the names, they were tablets with no shared surname. They seemed to have been born in various places and formed the bond of martial brothers.
Because Yukhap Seonsaeng said nothing, I had nothing particular to say either.
Yukhap Seonsaeng, who had been gazing at the ancestral tablets for a long time, looked at me.
"……"
I nodded once, then approached the tablets and took out some incense.
Since I didn't know any particular etiquette, I burned the incense as Yukhap Seonsaeng had done and then placed it in a bowl filled with fine soil. The incense placed by Yukhap Seonsaeng and the incense I placed began to emit smoke side by side.
I cupped my hands in salute toward the ancestral tablets.
"This junior is Ijaha, Leader of Haomun. Going forward, I shall eradicate the Demonic Path together with the last disciple of Yukhap Gate, so please watch over us from Heaven."
After speaking briefly, I returned to my place.
Yukhap Seonsaeng spoke in a calm tone.
"Thank you. It's been so long since a guest came, so they must be pleased."
"Not at all…… Are those five swords the ones your martial brothers used?"
Yukhap Seonsaeng smiled faintly while looking at the ancestral tablets.
"Yes. It was thanks to these familiar swords that I could properly carry out my revenge. Whether they realized the swords were fine blades or not, those dark path bastards carried them around without discarding or selling them. Like trophies, you see. Thanks to that, I could find them with certainty, take my revenge, and retrieve the swords."
"How many years did it take to kill them all?"
"Honestly, I can't remember. Only that it took a long time……. Find and kill, find, torture, find out, kill. I had lost track of the years."
Yukhap Seonsaeng stared blankly at the five swords.
I asked.
"Are you planning to take them with you instead of storing them here now?"
Yukhap Seonsaeng nodded.
"If I could rebuild Yukhap Gate, it would be right to keep them here. But now, I intend to take them."
Yukhap Seonsaeng cupped his hands in salute toward the ancestral tablets and spoke.
"Eldest Martial Brother, I shall take your swords and our martial brothers' swords. I shall find five disciples who resemble your disposition and deliver each sword to them. Let me say this in advance: they will not be disciples of Yukhap Gate. Yukhap Gate's clean name…… I have already ruined it. The moniker Yukhap Seonsaeng that I used while seeking revenge became stained with the infamy of being a fiendish demon, a vengeful ghost. Though I achieved my revenge, why did I end up sullying Yukhap Gate's clean name? Unable to find the answer, I have not come here all this time. I beg forgiveness from our Master and the Eldest Martial Brother."
Listening from the side, it seemed Master Liuhe had been the second disciple of the Liuhe Sect.
Master Liuhe looked at me and said with a smile.
“I intend to pass the swords on to my disciples later.”
“That would be best.”
“I should give them the epithet the Five Swords of Zhongnan.”
It was amusing that Master Liuhe was already thinking of an epithet before he had even found any disciples, so I simply smiled without a word.
Master Liuhe spoke toward the memorial tablets.
“Eldest Senior Brother, I am not qualified to become the sect leader of a newly established sect. It would not do for rumors to spread that the sect leader of a sect meant to begin anew is Master Liuhe, who committed slaughter. I will leave the position of first sect leader to a disciple, and until the end of my life, I will remain the last disciple of the Liuhe Sect.”
It sounded to me as if Master Liuhe’s voice was trembling more and more.
“Eldest Senior Brother… I still do not truly understand why I had to become the last disciple of the Liuhe Sect. The grace you showed in taking in an orphan without any conditions—I will repay it by taking in orphans as my disciples and teaching them martial arts. The heart with which you took me in… I think that is the only way I will be able to understand it. I will return again someday.”
Master Liuhe rose and bowed toward the memorial tablets.
Just how many times was he planning to bow?
He bowed to his master, to his eldest senior brother, and to each of his junior brothers. Suddenly, it seemed as though Master Liuhe was holding back tears, so I opened my mouth.
“……You pathetic fool. Cry as much as you want. It will be hard to come here again for a while.”
Perhaps my words were absurd to him, because Master Liuhe shed tears with a smile on his face.
“I suppose I should.”
Master Liuhe wiped away the tears flowing down his face with his hand, then tied the bundle containing the five swords tightly, stood, and slung it over his shoulder.
Master Liuhe left his farewell.
“Master, Eldest Senior Brother. I am leaving. You junior brothers, take care as well.”
I left the shrine with Master Liuhe, whose eyes had gone bright red, looked around the old residence of the Liuhe Sect once, and said.
“Don’t think of coming here to stay later. Move the memorial tablets to Mount Zhongnan. Your senior and junior brothers should at least have the pleasure of seeing the disciples you raise.”
Master Liuhe laughed with his head tilted back, then answered.
“That would not be bad either.”
As I slowly descended Mount Lingbao, where the Ghost Demon of my previous life and the Liuhe Sect slept, I said.
“It would be best to include Liuhe in the name of the sword art.”
Though he surely knew the reason, Master Liuhe asked me in return.
“Why?”
“Even if no one else knows, your disciples should know where their roots lie.”
“Liuhe is a common term.”
“Once attached to a sword art, it will no longer be common, so do not worry.”
Because Master Liuhe’s mood was far too dark, I armed myself with nonsense and began a grand festival of saying whatever came to mind.
“Do you know the name of my favorite sword art?”
“I do not.”
“The Three Powers Sword Art.”
“Why?”
“The person who created the Three Powers Sword Art was probably an outstanding swordsman, in truth. If all he knew were movements like thrusting, slashing, and striking downward, would he have dared attach the name Three Powers to it?”
“What in the world is this nonsense?”
“What I mean is…… Three Powers Sword Art is a name made to teach someone. And perhaps it was made for teaching those with absolutely no talent. These bastards are impossible to teach. Three things are the limit. Thinking that, he must have come up with the name Three Powers Sword Art. In any case, even if they were idiots, they would have liked receiving a sword art that had a proper name.”
After pondering my words for a moment, Master Liuhe burst into laughter.
I immediately refuted what I had just said.
“But that may not be the case.”
“What?”
“If he truly believed that one had to properly master those three things before advancing to the next realm, then the person who created the Three Powers Sword Art must have been an incredible master.”
“Hm.”
“That side of it is closer to the principle of the Liuhe Sword Art. At any rate, we can no longer know forever who created the Three Powers Sword Art. It is one of the difficult questions the jianghu has yet to solve.”
“Are there more things like that?”
“Do you know since when the Demonic Cult has existed?”
“Who can say?”
“It must have existed in every dynasty. They say there were even times when there were several Demonic Cults. So when they merged into one, the epithet Heavenly Demon must have been born. It would not be mentioned in history, but there was probably one even during the Yin or Zhou dynasties. In any case, most religions forbidden by a dynasty were called demonic cults. Especially during periods when dynasties changed, many people must have died. Rebels and their relatives would have followed their leaders, endured through faith, and adhered to the laws of the old dynasty. Then, before they knew it……”
Master Liuhe stopped walking and looked at me.
“Before they knew what?”
“A clever leader would have erased the old history and told them to worship him. That is the corruption of religion. For example, the fellow called the Heavenly Demon must have erased the original history and created the name Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. Those Demonic Cult bastards have erased history and killed people so endlessly that they have likely forgotten where they originally began.”
I urged Master Liuhe.
“So even if you settle down in Zhongnan later, do not forget your roots. The Liuhe Sect, where your master and senior and junior brothers cared for you, is your root. It is fundamentally different from the demonic path.”
“It is different from such heretical devils.”
Master Liuhe sat down on a lone rock for a moment and said to me.
“I need to rest for a while.”
He did not mean he was resting because his stamina had run out. It looked as though he needed meditation, so I also chose a nearby rock and sat in the lotus position.
I, too, closed my eyes for a while and emptied my mind.
After struggling against drowsiness for quite some time, I heard Master Liuhe’s voice.
“Sect Leader.”
“What?”
“Even if we are defeated by someone, our disciples will be able to win later, won’t they?”
With my eyes still closed, I rebuked Master Liuhe.
“Liuhe, that is not the right mindset. You cannot go into it with that kind of ridiculous bullshit attitude.”
“Then what mindset should I have?”
I opened my eyes, then conveyed my mindset to the Ghost Demon of my previous life.
“The mindset that you will drag every last bastard who deserves to die down to hell. Until then, you cannot lose.”
The Ghost Demon quietly opened his eyes as well and looked straight at me. Only now did I feel as if I was forming a spiritual alliance with the bastard Ghost Demon from my previous life.
“Sect Leader of Haomun, Master Liuhe… names like those can roll around beside filth for all I care. The mindset that even if you have to fight dirty, petty, and underhanded, you will beat them all to death. That is what you need.”
The Ghost Demon grinned and said.
“Now that I hear it, I like that much better.”
I nodded, then let out a long breath.
At last, was it complete?
Now the Mad Demon, Poison Demon, Lecherous Demon, and Ghost Demon could join forces in full.
The Previous-Life Villains’ Association.
Since I was the only one who knew this organization existed, it was fair to say that a mysterious force unlike any seen before in the history of the jianghu had been born. One member did not listen all that well, but every organization naturally had someone like that.
In any case, I had become the leader of a slightly idiotic but impressive mysterious organization.
.
.
.
A mysterious organization, a gathering of villains, pork backbone, they all used to have quite the temper, but I’m still the boss, successful, chills, that is me.