Chapter 211. I Opened My Eyes to a Dazzling Light.

When you cannot hear a single sound and even close your eyes, it naturally feels horrible.

That was the situation I was in now. I repeatedly slapped myself, who was trying to open my eyes again and rush forward at once.

‘Please, hold it in, you lunatic. Not now.’

There was no sharp smack, but the sensation of my cheek swelling was vivid enough, so I realized that I was still alive.

My hearing and sight had vanished, but fortunately, being beaten had allowed me to confirm that my sense of touch was still intact.

Feeling my cheek swell, I recalled Sword Demon’s expression and gaze, as well as the shape of his mouth telling me to circulate my qi and meditate.

‘Confirmed! Confirmed! Confirmed that this is a situation in which I have to circulate my qi and meditate! Please, confirm! Confirm again! Don’t forget—confirm! Calm your breathing first. Stay composed.’

I convinced myself that I had to leave the matter of how many enemies remained to the villains for the time being. This was why being stubbornly headstrong made life so difficult. Since I had to persuade myself before I could focus on circulating my qi and meditating, I desperately suppressed both my impatience and madness.

Trust them.

I had to trust these bastards.

I had to trust the man mad about swords, the man mad about women, and the ugly man.

Leave it to the villains for a little while.

They could hold out.

Because they were villains I acknowledged.

Maintaining deep breaths, I stared into the oppressive darkness before me. Then I watched the flames that began to rise from within that darkness.

It must have been a hallucination or illusion that I could see because I was no longer in my right mind.

Since I was already suffering qi deviation, I had no choice but to keep staring at the flames. I approached the increasingly bright light and examined it, only to find the Zaha Inn burning away in an empty, desolate place.

“Damn it... Burning again? For fuck’s sake. Take it easy, will you?”

Was this a flame that would replay forever in my heart? Had I arrived here to extinguish that fire? Perhaps the Zaha Inn had been permanently engulfed in flames within my heart. If malicious bastards had set the fire, then putting it out was only natural. It did not matter whether it belonged to me or not.

I asked the darkness,

“What other bastards set the fire this time? What were you thinking, setting a fire when someone might be sleeping inside?”

Before I knew it, the culprits holding torches were approaching me. I examined each of their faces one by one.

Every one of them was someone I had killed.

There were Jo Ilseom, Jo Igyeol, and Jo Sampyeong, whom I had beaten to death in Ilyang County, while Great Rakshasa, Scholar Su, Lord Yiryeong, and the Leader of the Defeated Sword Society were also holding torches.

“Was it you?”

A thought suddenly occurred to me. If I had killed bastards like Cha Seongtae, the Four Divine Generals, the Leader of the Southern Alliance, the Leader of the Southern Heaven Alliance, the Blue Sword, and the White-faced Young Master, then they would have come looking for me with torches as well.

In any case, the men who had died by my hand appeared before me with astonishing confidence.

“Yi Zaha, you pitiful errand boy.”

The silent dead passed me by without paying me any attention, then threw their torches toward the Zaha Inn.

The moment I saw it, I shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Enough already. I said, take it easy!”

The flames grew increasingly fierce, and the Zaha Inn blazed a vivid red. As Jo Ilseom threw his torch, he said to me,

“Zaha, isn’t it absurd? You killed us over a lousy inn like this.”

Jo Igyeol said,

“In the end, you ended up like this too. I expected you to rampage through the martial world until someone beat you to death, but you merely suffered qi deviation and ended up just like us. This is what they call karma. Heh heh heh.”

I looked around at the dead and said,

“Karma, my ass. I didn’t kill you because of the inn. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

“Then why did you kill us?”

I looked at the Zaha Inn engulfed in flames and said to the dead,

“It wasn’t because of the inn. You had no shame.”

“No shame?”

“Why would a rich man take money from the poor? No matter how wicked you were, if you had shown even a hint of remorse or regret, I wouldn’t have killed you. You had no shame until the very end. That is why you died.”

I unleashed palm force infused with the Moon Shadow Formless Art at the three Jo brothers, who suddenly charged at me simultaneously. The moment all three brothers were engulfed in white chill, I glanced around once.

“......!”

The Zaha Inn that had been burning had vanished without a trace. Before I knew it, the entire area had become a white snowfield. Even white breath was spilling from my mouth.

“Haa.”

From not far away came the sound of footsteps, crunching through the snow.

Groups of assassins I had killed at Jeongpyeong Lake, the Ilwi Crossing River group, and the bandits I had massacred en masse had joined together and were approaching me. Everyone was trembling as though they had wandered the snowy plain for a long time. They looked like people being punished in the Icebound Hell.

Someone in the group said,

“Hey, Leader of the Hao Sect. You know more about qi deviation than we do, don’t you? You overdid it. You didn’t sleep properly, and you took in more inner power than you could handle. You even used martial arts that went against the natural order to slaughter us all. We’re certainly guilty of serious crimes, but you’re no less guilty than we are. Come with us to seek forgiveness for our sins. We grew tired waiting for you. It’s all over now.”

I snorted.

“Do you think I care about what a bunch of dead bastards have to say? Nice seeing you. Let’s meet again the next time I suffer qi deviation. Now piss off.”

The bastard who had lied to me until the very end by the lakeside said,

“Sect Leader, it’s a snowy plain in every direction. Look at us. You’ll soon end up like this too. How do you plan to escape?”

“You idiots, this isn’t a snowy plain.”

“Then what is it?”

I informed the dead,

“This is the Heavenly Prison. It seems the Heavenly Prison is trying to test me, but that won’t work.”

“You spouted so much nonsense before, and you’re still spouting nonsense in a situation like this. Why don’t you come and see for yourself? See where this place is.”

The dead seized my limbs and hair and dragged me through the snow. For some reason, everyone here was stronger than me. My entire body was shivering, yet I suddenly began to laugh.

“Why are you laughing? Is this still funny to you?”

The dead stripped off my clothes, leaving me naked. With every last piece of clothing taken from me, I rolled through the snow. A horrifying chill surged over me.

“I need to take a piss. Stop rolling me around, you son of bitches.”

Even after I concentrated my mind, the dead did not disappear, so I accepted them as they were.

Chuckling, I stood up while brushing the snow off my body.

“Heh heh, you’re a funny bunch of bastards. You shouldn’t have set fire to my inn.”

“Ah, in the end, it’s that inn again?”

“No. That’s not what I mean. Everyone, focus on what I’m saying.”

I slapped the cheeks of the dead around me and kicked them in the butt, then drew their attention.

“All right, focus. Listen carefully, everyone. From the very beginning, I was confident that I could beat every one of you to death somehow.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“That’s impossible.”

“It is possible. From the moment I was mopping floors at the inn, I was confident that I could kill every one of you if I put my mind to it.”

The dead laughed as one. I continued speaking.

“Don’t laugh. It’s the truth. The same goes for the experts of the jianghu. No matter how late I entered the path of martial arts, I was confident that in the end, I could beat every last one of you to death.”

“Why?”

“That is who I am. Why did you provoke me? Why did you ultimately make me harbor killing intent? The moment the inn went up in flames, the place where I stood became the jianghu. Did you think that after losing everything, I would beg like an idiot? No. Martial arts are nothing special. I would have learned them anywhere, somehow, and by any means. All I had to do was harbor killing intent and willingly suffer. The moment the inn burned down, I had already decided to hunt down and kill every last one of you bastards. It was punishment for looking down on the weak.”

“Is that so?”

“You bastards, I knew I was a madman even before I went insane. You forced me to become the Mad Demon.”

“Were you originally a madman?”

“It wasn’t just me. Everyone had a conscience, which was why they couldn’t bring themselves to kill people. There are countless people like me in this world. They only endure because there is something they must protect. You don’t understand that? Why the hell don’t you understand it!”

My voice resounded across the snowfield. As I looked around at the countless dead, I conveyed my innermost thoughts.

“Not once have I ever thought myself weak. Whether I was scrubbing floors because I came from a poor family, or swinging a sickle to earn my living. Whether I was hauling heavy loads or living off the scraps I received at gambling dens. Even when I knew nothing of martial arts, I was always a strong man.”

“Sect Master, stop boasting.”

“It isn’t boasting. My feelings are an unbreakable conviction. I never cared about my occupation, environment, or circumstances. Not once have I ever been ashamed of my unfavorable conditions. I say this to those I killed, and to the dead trapped in the Heavenly Prison. I was a stronger person than all of you from the very beginning. So quit this damn qi deviation already. I have to go fight, so keep it reasonable.”

“You’re trapped too. It’s over for you now.”

“How can you say I’m trapped when I have always lived with my heart open? If you don’t stop this nonsense, I’ll detonate the Ilwol Gwangcheon inside the Heavenly Prison. May your souls be annihilated as well.”

“Then you’ll die.”

Remaining in the lotus position, I formed Amitabha’s hand seal.

“Let’s see who dies. Fine. Heavenly Prison or whatever the hell it is, I’ll finish it all. May you be reborn in paradise.”

With the Ilwol Divine Art circulating in both hands, I began preparing the Ilwol Gwangcheon.

Crackling!

Suddenly, the dead charged at me. Ignoring them, I combined the light coiling around both my hands into a taiji. The moment the charging dead collided with my body, they crumbled like breaking ice. Blades drove toward my face, and one of the dead strangled my neck, but I stoically endured it all.

In the end, I created the Ilwol Gwangcheon in both hands.

In an instant, both my hands were engulfed in light. Strangely, the dazzling radiance was so bright that I opened my eyes in the real world.

“……!”

***

As though I had been staring at the sun for a long time, my vision slowly recovered, and the objects around me gradually came into focus. Unable to tell whether I was dreaming or awake, I saw the Sword Demon fiercely battling three old men.

Even as sword clashed against sword, I could hear nothing.

I rotated my neck once, then looked at the Lust Demon and Ghost Demon seated in front of me.

Both were heaving their shoulders as they breathed harshly, their clothes torn to ribbons.

How much time had passed?

The Lust Demon and Ghost Demon also looked as though they had just fought a battle with the experts of the Demonic Cult.

Turning my gaze behind me, I saw Sambok lying on the ground with his chest heaving, while the Third Young Master sat cross-legged with a pale face and his eyes closed. It seemed these two had also been through a fierce battle.

But beyond them lay countless shields and corpses with their limbs severed. It seemed that one direction of the battle formation had been completely annihilated.

I spoke to the Lust Demon and Ghost Demon.

“I’m back.”

The Lust Demon and Ghost Demon whipped their heads around and stared at me in astonishment.

“Are you all right?”

“You… crazy bastard.”

At that moment, my ears were still ringing, so I slapped my own cheek. Amid the sound of the smack, a terrible tinnitus continued. Before long, the ringing gave way to the ghostly wails erupting from the Bright Light Sword.

As soon as I fully recovered my hearing, I heard the Sword Demon muttering.

At that moment, something black and spirit-like spread out from beneath the Sword Demon’s feet, where he had driven the Bright Light Sword into the ground. In that opening, the three old demonic leaders’ swords struck the Sword Demon’s body. Yet I heard no sound of blades piercing flesh.

Having taken all three swords with his entire body, the Sword Demon muttered.

“Elders, this is the Demonic Sword Soul Battlefield.”

In an instant, the spirits of the Bright Light Sword that had flowed through the ground stretched out in the shape of arms and seized the three old demonic leaders. They clawed, grabbed, covered their faces, scattered, and then gathered again, seizing and tearing the old demonic leaders apart. The old demonic leaders swung their swords furiously, cutting through the spirits, but it was useless. The spirits continued attacking them, scattering and re-forming over and over.

Now I could hear the old men’s screams very clearly.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!”

They let out truly horrifying screams through throats thick with phlegm. Blood spurted from here and there, and the elders, their bodies senselessly hacked apart, collapsed across the ground. After a moment, the pitch-black spirits crawled back and were absorbed into the Bright Light Sword. A frigid silence settled over the area.

I couldn’t help sighing as well.

‘Those bastards. They foolishly provoked Big Brother, and ended up dying horribly.’

The moment the Sword Demon let out a deep breath and pulled the Bright Light Sword from the ground, a beam of light flew toward him from ahead. The visibly exhausted Sword Demon struck the beam with the Bright Light Sword he held in both hands, and with a thunderous boom, his body came flying straight toward us.

“Master!”

I passed the Lust Demon, who had leaped to his feet, and caught the flying Sword Demon with my left hand. The Sword Demon stared at me, breathing heavily.

“Third, what about circulating your qi?”

After helping the Sword Demon regain his balance, I answered.

“I wasn’t circulating my qi. I just passed out and woke up. I had a ridiculous dream.”

The Sword Demon moved his shoulders and laughed, apparently unable to hold back a snort of amusement. I chuckled along with him, then looked toward the Demonic Cult.

A man who looked to be in his late thirties or early forties had appeared.

I briefly examined the Sword Demon’s condition. His once-neatly arranged clothes had been torn to shreds, as though he had been slashed dozens of times. Even if one had come close to attaining invulnerability to blades, the attacks of an expert would still cause pain internally. The Sword Demon also looked exhausted from killing the elders.

I patted the Sword Demon’s back several times.

“You’ve worked hard.”

I sent the Sword Demon behind me, then exchanged gazes with the Demonic Cult expert.

“Whew… I nearly died because of qi deviation. Who are you?”

The moment he opened his mouth, I spoke first.

“Shut up! Now that I think about it, I’m not curious who you are.”

At that moment, the man facing me shifted his gaze behind me. His expression was too serious for it to be a trick, so I had no choice but to turn around as well. From the area strewn with corpses, I saw a group of people approaching.

The flag carried by one of them bore these words:

Nam Myeong Association.

Namgarak, the leader of the Nam Myeong Association, walked at the head of the group and addressed the Demonic Cult’s forces.

“I heard some damned bastards were giving the Hao Sect Master a hell of a time… Was it you?”

I glared at Namgarak for a moment.

“……”

It seemed I had briefly forgotten that this bastard belonged to the black道.