Chapter 43. When Bad Thoughts and the Busboy Meet

I didn't bother nagging Cha Seong-tae, who had lost to Sama Bi ten times over. Sama Bi had always been the stronger man, so it was only natural.

He could take defeat as humiliation and awaken. Or accept it as inevitable and grow complacent.

That was Cha Seong-tae's choice to make.

If he chose to accept it as humiliation and awaken, I had half a mind to help him.

Until then, I had no intention of concerning myself with it either.

Because if a person is to change, they must take the first step themselves.

On my way back, I stopped some distance away and looked back at the Maehwaru once more, then soon passed quietly near the Yongdu Forge. While the folks from my hometown each went about their business, I turned my steps toward the Heukmyo Sect.

Right now, the Haomunju's urgent task lay with the Black Path.

Steadily crushing and cleaning up the Black Path forces that were broadly surrounding Ilyang Hyeon.

Having overexerted my qinggong because of Martial Sister Hongsin, I walked slowly on the way back. As I turned onto a secluded trail, over ten martial artists were approaching from ahead in silence.

They all had their mouths shut and seemed to be moving in the direction I had come from—that is, toward Ilyang Hyeon.

I looked at the group of martial artists, and in the moment we passed each other, the group collectively turned their gazes to me.

After the dozen or so men crossed paths with me as if swapping places and I had taken a few more steps…

The group of martial artists stopped first.

I turned around too.

Looking around, they were all men thick with killing intent.

While I was staring blankly at the group of martial artists, one man took something out from his clothes and checked it.

I figured he was looking at a wanted sketch. Sure enough, the man who had checked the sketch raised his head and examined my face once more.

"Looks like I Ja-ha."

Several men gathered around the one holding the sketch and checked it together. The leader of the group, whose complexion was unusually dark, spoke to his subordinates.

"Is it him?"

"It's him."

"They said he couldn't be seen in Ilyang Hyeon, so what's he doing there?"

"I don't know."

What in the world was this conversation about?

It meant that the men looking for me were on their way to Ilyang Hyeon, where I was not.

I asked the leader of the group.

"Are you the riffraff from Heukseonbo?"

The leader answered my question with a question.

"You're I Ja-ha, right?"

Question collided with question, yet neither side offered an answer.

For some reason, the atmosphere was different from the Twelve Divine Generals' subordinates. The Heukseonbo had a unique atmosphere. Generally speaking, the Heukseonbo were men who exuded the air of someone who had been rotting in a gambling den for ten-odd days, then emerged after a long while with a blade in hand.

One man asked the leader.

"What should we do? We didn't expect I Ja-ha to be here."

Without thinking, a snort escaped me.

Reading between the lines, I realized they were on their way to Ilyang Hyeon to cause trouble.

I felt strange.

A feeling of heaviness settling in turmoil, perhaps.

Truthfully, ever since regressing, the mad affliction from my previous life had felt as though it never existed.

That was because the very fact that I had returned to the past felt like a somewhat pleasant diversion.

The leader of the group, who had been observing my expression, stepped forward.

"I am Dokgo Saeng of the Heukseonbo. You killed Neung Ji-seok, Wi Seon-u, and Gu Yang-su, did you not? The master of Heukseonbo has put up a bounty of thirty gold pieces. The ones who took the commission are the Hosobang and the Maegyeom Samja. We were on our way to post wanted notices in Ilyang Hyeon as well; read it for yourself."

Dokgo Saeng jerked his chin at a subordinate, and one of them came up to me and held out a written notice.

It was only right not to accept what the Black Path offered.

When I didn't take the notice, Dokgo Saeng continued.

"There were rumors that you had disappeared from Ilyang Hyeon, so we were searching for you. If you boldly come to the Heukseonbo and confront us directly, the master will pay appropriate compensation to the Hosobang and the Maegyeom Samja and withdraw the bounty. What say you?"

This was the usual method of the Black Path: tormenting those around the target so the person in question couldn't run away.

These bastards had probably gone into Ilyang Hyeon to cause a ruckus before posting the notices. The more confident the Black Path was, the more they suggested the concerned parties meet face-to-face to resolve matters—similar to how the Geumbong Pavilion Master had called for me and died.

I counted their numbers and replied.

"There are eleven of you in all. That's far too many just to put up some wanted notices."

Dokgo Saeng answered.

"Rumors say you're quite skilled, so we just came in a group, that's all."

"A fine excuse. Going to meet your master right this moment is a bother. I'll come looking for him soon enough."

Dokgo Saeng glared at me.

"If you don't go, we go to Ilyang Hyeon."

I scratched my chin with an impassive expression.

"I told you, I'll go later."

"It would be better to go with us now."

I picked my nose with my pinky finger and replied.

"Dokgo Saeng, why are you trying to die right now alongside your ten subordinates? Let me ask you the reason."

"You killed Neung Ji-seok, Wi Seon-u, and Gu Yang-su as you pleased, and now you say you'll come by later to explain—how are we supposed to accept that attitude?"

"That isn't the point of this conversation right now."

There are days when you feel strange.

Some days, you could beat someone to death at random and feel nothing; other days, you want to avoid killing without much thought—and today was one of those days.

I didn't know the reason.

If my actions were consistent, I wouldn't have been called the Mad Demon.

I was someone who had simply lived day by day according to my feelings and become a Mad Demon.

Perhaps it was because I had often imagined leading the Heukmyo Sect to clash with the Heukseonbo.

But things in this world never go as one intends.

Dokgo Saeng did not fear death.

"Whether you kill us all and go to the Heukseonbo later, or go to the Heukseonbo with us now, it's the same. Either way, the later you go, the more you'll have to deal with the Hosobang and the Maegyeom Samja first. It's all the same trouble either way. I Ja-ha."

At this, I decided.

"Let's go to the Heukseonbo."

A contrary wind blew within my heart.

A mood that had originally wanted no killing was gradually being pressed down by something, as if being heated over a fire.

Being erratic, swinging this way and that, was me as well.

With the mask on, the Heukmyo Sect Leader who expanded Black Path influence.

With the mask off, apparently a life that would become the Mad Demon once again.

In Ilyang Hyeon, I was the Haomunju, but as I grew farther from Ilyang Hyeon with the group from the Heukseonbo, I found myself unable to think normally.

When bad thoughts and the busboy I Ja-ha combined, a Mad Demon was born.

It was a sorrowful thing.

The evil karma of my previous life had been considerable, but I had no idea how I was supposed to bear the evil karma of this life.

I suddenly thought of the unidentified man presumed to be imprisoned in the celestial realm’s prison. It was only a guess, but I had a feeling the cell next to his would probably be mine.

That was the sort of sinful man I was.

Most of the things I did in the name of protecting the weak involved killing people.

I understood why the Murim Alliance had hated me so much in my previous life.

I arrived at the lower reaches of the Iryong River (螭龍江) with the Black Ship Fortress group and boarded a boat. After gazing for a while at the long-missed, rolling waters of the Iryong River, I waved toward Ilyang County, shrinking in the distance.

“Farewell. My hometown, I’m leaving to make money. I’ll come back successful. When I do, make sure you welcome me warmly. And so, the waiter set off by boat.”

As I kept waving toward my hometown and spouting nonsense, the Black Ship Fortress men looked at me with frowns. Their thoughts sounded like auditory hallucinations.

‘Is he insane?’

I looked at the Black Ship Fortress underlings one by one with a calm expression, then said,

“You’re all truly ugly. I wonder if you do ugly things because you look ugly, or if you look ugly because you do ugly things. The ways of the world are hard to know.”

“…….”

No one answered me, but I went on saying what I wanted to say.

“Then again, when I see a handsome bastard I know doing ugly perverted things, I suppose a face doesn’t have much to do with ugly deeds. Even taking that into account, it’s truly fascinating how every last one of you looks so damn unpleasant. Maybe it’s because you rotted away in gambling dens. Come to think of it, you probably didn’t look this fucking awful when you were young. Most likely, because all you saw around you every day was fucked-up shit, it affected your faces. Things like slave auctions, I mean.”

One fellow, who had been listening while barely holding back his temper, said to me,

“Can’t you just shut your mouth and go?”

I studied his physiognomy and replied,

“Why do you have so little eyebrow? You’ve got the face of a rat. Your eyes are gloomy. Your skin looks like a battlefield. The moment you open your mouth, the rotten stench reaches all the way here. Why are you clinging to Black Ship Fortress? If you need to make a living, then work, you bastard. What did you think when you watched the slave auction?”

The bastard answered me.

“I thought I should earn some money and buy myself a slave too.”

The Black Ship Fortress underlings burst into laughter all at once.

“Hahahaha.”

I suddenly looked at Dokgo Saeng’s expression. Dokgo Saeng had not smiled once from beginning to end.

“Dokgo Saeng, why aren’t you laughing?”

At my question, Dokgo Saeng poured abuse onto his subordinates.

“Shut your mouths. Before I kill you, you crazy bastards. This is a man the Fortress Lord is going to deal with, and you worthless idiots are laughing at a guest? Anyone who opens his mouth before we arrive gets his arm cut off.”

At Dokgo Saeng’s threat, the underlings all snapped their mouths shut.

Dokgo Saeng said to me,

“Keep talking. You have a pleasant voice.”

I nodded, then asked Dokgo Saeng,

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Married?”

Dokgo Saeng sighed.

“What marriage? I live in the black path.”

It was an answer that meant: with a life where he never knew when he might drop dead, why ask about something like marriage?

This bastard wasn’t normal either.

Sure enough, as if his temper had suddenly flared, Dokgo Saeng looked at me and unleashed a stream of curses.

“How old are you? Why are you asking about marriage? You deranged bastard. Why did you kill those three? Why did you kill them and make things so exhausting? Are you that good at fighting? You’re a madman, aren’t you? You’re plenty capable of killing all the idiots here and me too, aren’t you? I understand. But how did you think you’d take on the entirety of Black Ship Fortress by yourself, killing people without thinking of the consequences? You lunatic. Do you even know how many people Black Ship Fortress has?”

I answered briefly.

“How many?”

“I don’t know either, you little bastard. More than five hundred.”

The man beside Dokgo Saeng abruptly cut in.

“There are over six hundred.”

Then, without a word, Dokgo Saeng kept striking the head of the man who had answered. After punching him until the man’s face was covered in blood, he said,

“When someone tells you something, understand it. For once. Did I tell you to shut up, or didn’t I?”

In the next instant, Dokgo Saeng suddenly grabbed the bloodied man by the collar and threw him into the Iryong River. With a splash, the man cried out,

“Squad Leader! Please save me. I’m not good at swim—”

Dokgo Saeng shouted fiercely,

“If you can’t swim, then die, you bastard.”

I watched the man floundering in the river along with the Black Ship Fortress crowd.

The river looked deep.

I looked pityingly at the man who had fallen into the water.

“The fish need to eat too. Attain Buddhahood. Ruthless black path bastards, honestly.”

Saving him would have been bothersome for me too.

Dokgo Saeng asked his subordinates,

“Anyone else want to run his mouth?”

I answered Dokgo Saeng’s words in their place.

“Would there be?”

I looked at the rolling Iryong River and let out a deep sigh.

“Ah, I should have charged in splendidly with the Black Rabbit Gang and finished them off. Or else I could have tied them up with Great Rakshasa and aimed for mutual destruction. In the end, things turn out like this. Human affairs can’t be predicted.”

At that moment, Dokgo Saeng took a small smoking implement from his bosom, containing either Forget-Worry Grass (忘憂草) or Hallucination Grass (幻覺草), and expertly lit it before taking a puff.

The white smoke that came from Dokgo Saeng’s mouth scattered emptily over the waves of the Iryong River. After taking several deep pulls and exhaling the smoke, Dokgo Saeng asked me,

“So, I Jaha, are you going to let us live?”

Dokgo Saeng waited for my answer as he deeply inhaled the smoke again. Having asked a question that did not suit his tone or his behavior at all, Dokgo Saeng waited for my reply.

His attitude was as though he had expected this from the moment we first met.

Dokgo Saeng spoke again.

“I’m asking you. Are you going to let us live?”

I shook my head, then looked at the rolling river. To calm my madness, I forcibly erased my wicked thoughts.

If a person wants to change, he must take the first step himself. Thinking that I should not live like the Mad Demon of my previous life, I answered,

“I’ll spare the one who survives. I promise. Decide among yourselves.”

It meant they should kill one another.

You ask if something like this works?

The moment my words ended, everyone, including Dokgo Saeng, grabbed their blades to kill each other.

That was what the black path was like.