Chapter 334. The Identity of the Man in Black

‘Where did he go?’

Among the specters watching from the sidelines, the man in black bothered me the most.

It irked me that he had been watching me the entire time, so several times I tried to break through with my wooden sword, but each time the specters blocked my path as if protecting a king.

Was there a king even among specters?

They were bastards who even killed their own fleeing comrades, yet they often died to the Sword Demon or me while trying to protect the man in black.

For some reason, this thought occurred to me.

Grand Duke Yang, who had withdrawn, had been commanding the specters, but the center of the board they had set up now seemed to be that man in black.

Even while fighting the specters, I met the man in black’s eyes several times and felt something strange.

It was as if I were reading the look in his eyes, and he were reading mine.

He was clearly an expert I had never known even in my past life……

Yet I felt there had to be something connecting him to me.

‘What the hell is that bastard?’

If these bastards had been people of the martial world, I would have asked them directly, or they would have run their mouths somehow, or perhaps the fight would have stopped altogether.

But fighting the specters felt like fighting some foreign tribe on a battlefield, one whose language I could not understand.

First of all, conversation was utterly impossible.

Was that why they were called specters?

In truth, some of the specters’ appearances were often alien, as if they had been born in distant homelands far from here. As if the Demon Cult had captured pitiful outsiders and raised them as slaves.

The moment the man in black vanished without a trace……

As though they had lost the purpose of protecting something, more and more specters began to flee. As if their king had withdrawn, and they had decided to retreat.

Of course, it was also because new reinforcements had appeared.

Why the hell was that bastard fighting here?

Watching the Fist King of my past life, Lee Gunak, grab a fleeing specter by both arms and tear them off left me bewildered.

Were specters ultimately human after all? With Lee Gunak’s inner force, external force, and physical arts combined, the exhausted specters’ limbs were twisted, broken, and ripped free.

In the midst of it all, the massive fist-shaped qi created by the Fist King of this era slammed into the weary specters.

The sight of master and disciple running rampant was truly exhilarating.

A moment later, a saber wielder soaked by the rain asked me from nearby.

“Sect Leader, are you all right?”

Only after I saw the saber wielder cleave a specter in two with a single stroke did I realize this bastard was not a specter, but the Saber King.

I was too exhausted to bother answering.

Just then, as I thought of the man in black, something inside me surged up, and I vomited a great deal.

“Uegh……”

I had never swung a sword while vomiting before, but that was what I was doing now. It wasn’t that I lacked cultivation, nor had my strength hit rock bottom, yet a strange fatigue came over me.

Was it the aftereffect of the fury that had risen to the crown of my head when I faced the Four Heavenly Kings, or was it the fatigue rushing in after using the Zixia Divine Art?

I let my sword hang for a while and steadied my breathing.

It was a strange form of qi deviation.

Because not even when I ate the chicken-head noodles I had made had my stomach ever turned over like this.

The Four Great Villains would be more at ease if I moved, but I was human too, and I needed rest. Fortunately, the Fist King master and disciple and the Saber King were running wild, so the battle had turned greatly in our favor. Since the specters were already exhausted, they seemed hard-pressed to withstand the Saber King’s blade.

I stood still and looked around, then spotted Cha Seongtae.

‘Could I have already been done in by the specters?’

The thought that there was no reason for that bastard to be fighting here dominated my mind. I couldn’t tell whether I was dreaming or awake, so I called out to him.

“Seongtae.”

Cha Seongtae answered as he approached.

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

“It’s been a while.”

“It has.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was dealing with the remnants.”

“Why?”

“Experts in good condition are still a bit much for me.”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

Cha Seongtae looked me up and down, then said.

“You look very exhausted. Please rest for a while. I will stand guard.”

Just then, a specter bleeding all over its body was approaching this way, and Cha Seongtae suddenly struck both hands together, producing a crackling sound.

Listening to it, I could tell it was lightning qi around the second stage of the Ten-Stage Hundred Battles Art. More than its power, the sound was thunderous, so the specter turned direction, only to have its head taken off by the Sword Demon.

Before I knew it, the Four Great Villains had also gathered around me.

For now, the surroundings were a complete mess, and my condition was also a complete mess.

There were so many specters that we had no strength left to pursue and kill even those retreating.

Everyone was too exhausted, so we left the fleeing specters alone.

A moment later, the Ghost Demon came nearby and collapsed into a sitting position, while the Lust Demon also lay face down, breathing roughly.

The Sword Demon was still watching the surroundings as if on guard when he said.

“……Someone deliberately spread the fog.”

The rain was already pouring down, and just as the Sword Demon said, the fog continued to thicken, so even the slippery White-Robed Scholar, who had been watching from atop a building, could no longer be seen.

The Fist King’s voice came from within the fog.

“Sect Leader, where are you?”

“Here.”

When I answered, the Fist King, Lee Gunak, and the Saber King came over and sank down onto the ground where rainwater was overflowing.

Curious about how they had joined us, I asked.

“How did you know to come?”

The Fist King answered.

“On our way back, we ran into the Demon Cult’s forces. They looked like they’d been waiting for something. After we killed them all and thought about it, if there was an ambush like that, the other kings would likely be attacked on their way back as well. We were heading back to the Murim Alliance when we met the Saber King.”

The Saber King nodded.

“It was similar for me.”

The Fist King looked at Cha Seongtae.

“This young fellow helped us bravely. Said he was the chief administrator of Hao Gate……”

I looked at Cha Seongtae with a bewildered expression.

“You helped Senior Fist King?”

“Yes. Is that so strange?”

The Sword Demon asked about my condition.

“You were vomiting earlier. Is it an internal injury?”

“Hm. It isn’t an internal injury. Why did I vomit? Ah, hold on. It’s coming up again.”

As I thought of the man in black, I sprang up, walked a few steps away, then bent over and retched again.

When I once again threw up what was inside me, the Ghost Demon said.

“What is this? Weren’t you poisoned?”

As I stared at the flowing rainwater, there wasn’t much that had come out of me. I pondered the cause of this nausea. I didn’t know whether it was because of the rain or because my body temperature had dropped, but goosebumps rose on my skin.

For no clear reason, I could vaguely infer why the wraiths had tried to protect the black-clad man. Lying sprawled in the muddy water, the moment I closed my eyes, I lost consciousness.

* * *

When I opened my eyes…….

I saw an unfamiliar ceiling, and it was warm around me. When I sat up and looked around, a few people were lying about inside an ordinary inn, and someone was cooking in the kitchen as well. I spoke toward the kitchen.

“Seongtae, give me food.”

Cha Seongtae answered from the kitchen.

“Understood.”

After coming fully to my senses and looking around again, the Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon were circulating qi and regulating their breathing. The Sword Demon was standing by the window, looking outside. I thought we had come a long way, but it seemed to be the same inn where the White-Clad Scholar had been hiding.

I asked the Sword Demon, who was watching the outside.

“Eldest Brother, the Emperors?”

The Sword Demon answered.

“We assumed the other Emperors had likely been attacked as well, so they went to provide support. Since you lot were injured, I couldn’t go.”

In short, the Sword Demon was standing watch. It was not a safe situation, since the wraiths might reorganize and return, or the Demonic Cult’s forces might come. But not only I, but the Ghost Demon and the Lust Demon also needed time to recover, so the Sword Demon was quietly keeping an eye on the situation.

I was about to ask the Sword Demon about the black-clad man, then stopped.

But perhaps he had reached the same point of concern, because the Sword Demon spoke first.

“This is only my guess, but…….”

“…….”

“It seems the Cult Leader sees you as material for the Heavenly Jade.”

“Me?”

The Sword Demon nodded while looking out the window.

I casually asked what I had been wondering all this time.

“How is the Heavenly Jade made?”

After pondering for a moment, the Sword Demon answered.

“Only the Cult Leader would know.”

Oddly enough, from the Sword Demon’s answer, I was able to infer the black-clad man’s identity, at least roughly.

In my opinion…….

The black-clad man is the Heavenly Jade.

It sounds strange, but in other words, perhaps he is the person in the state before the Heavenly Jade is completed.

There was a possibility that he himself might not even know he was material for the Heavenly Jade.

Who knows their own fate?

Except for me, who had seen the future and come back, it was only natural that no one knew their own fate.

Only if the black-clad man was at least material for the Heavenly Jade…….

could it explain why the wraiths had gone to such lengths to protect him. If the being protected by wraiths who held reverence only for the Cult Leader existed, then it could only be connected to the Cult Leader.

Only if he were a living elixir the Cult Leader intended to consume would there be sufficient reason to protect him. The fact that the state before becoming the Heavenly Jade was a living person made me nauseous. And perhaps the reason I felt sick was because I had consumed that and regressed.

In truth, there was no way to know the correct answer.

But the direction of my reasoning, at any rate, flowed toward the conclusion that the black-clad man and the Heavenly Jade were somehow connected.

The wraiths protect the Heavenly Jade’s original body.

The Cult Leader turns that body into the Heavenly Jade.

And the body that will become the Heavenly Jade is targeting me?

It was a hellscape.

Thinking about it, couldn’t the Cult Leader make me into the Heavenly Jade, or make the black-clad man into the Heavenly Jade?

In other words, the way to stop the Cult Leader is…….

First, I must not become material for the Heavenly Jade.

And second, the black-clad man must not become material for the Heavenly Jade either.

My conclusion was that if these two things were prevented, the Heavenly Jade would not appear. And in truth, this was also the fundamental reason I had returned to the past.

While I was continuing my deductions and inferences like a madman…….

Cha Seongtae came out carrying a bizarre dish in a large pot, with all sorts of ingredients mixed together. The Lust Demon, who had seemed to be circulating qi and regulating his breathing, twitched his nose, then opened his eyes. The Ghost Demon also looked at the food.

Cha Seongtae set it down on the floor and looked at us.

“……Please eat.”

Without lifting my backside, I shifted over and looked down into the pot.

“Why is there a hellscape spread out in here?”

“Calling food a hellscape? That’s a bit harsh.”

Cha Seongtae handed out bowls and chopsticks.

The Ghost Demon, who looked so exhausted he might collapse at any moment, still took a silver needle from his clothes and stuck it into the mishmash rice, stirring it this way and that.

“……There may be poison in the ingredients. It’s not that I particularly suspect Chief Steward Cha.”

Cha Seongtae nodded.

“I know. Please stir that side a bit too.”

Because we were tremendously hungry, we sat around and began picking at the dish that looked as though it had wraiths in it. Now that I looked, it was mishmash rice made by cramming in every ingredient in the inn.

People of the martial world are not actually anything all that special.

Because if they cannot eat, they are people who starve to death.

I asked Cha Seongtae.

“There’s alcohol, right?”

“Yes, there was quite a lot of alcohol.”

“Good. You need to fill your stomach before drinking. Let’s think positively.”

The Sword Demon spoke while eating the mishmash rice.

“It’s edible enough in its own way.”

The Lust Demon, who had been eating quietly, asked the Sword Demon.

“Master, why did they attack simultaneously in multiple places?”

The Sword Demon looked at me.

“……It seems they intended to cut off his hands and feet, then truly take the Sect Leader away. Saying they would retrieve the sword or whatever was just an excuse.”

The Lust Demon replied.

“Why go that far…….”

The Sword Demon explained with a troubled expression.

“It seems they see the Sect Leader as material for demonic arts.”

“Is it because he has accumulated yin and yang internal energy?”

“Probably.”

The Lust Demon nodded and spoke as if making a firm resolve.

“I will continue cultivating only ice arts.”

“…….”

I nodded and looked at that pants-shitter.

“Smart. My, my, since when did this bastard get so smart?”

The Ghost Demon spoke while eating.

“When we were in danger earlier, we received the White-Clad Scholar’s help. I don’t know where he went. In any case, if the Cult Leader appears in person, can we stop him? What do you think, Eldest Brother? I’ve never seen the Three Calamities’ skills firsthand, so I can’t gauge it.”

The Sword Demon answered calmly while eating.

“It would be difficult. He wouldn’t appear alone.”

“What if we attack instead? Together with the Murim Alliance or the Emperors.”

The Sword Demon smiled slightly.

“Would that be possible? No matter the scale, more than half would end up dead. And even then, it wouldn’t necessarily mean we could kill the Cult Leader. For this standoff to end, someone will ultimately have to surpass the Three Calamities. Since neither side can overwhelm the other, in a way, it’s merely a string of minor incidents continuing through years of training.”

The Sword Demon looked at me as I diligently ate my meal.

“As I see it, the third is growing quickly. So quickly that he’s surpassing everyone’s expectations. Whether the Cult Leader takes the third away, or whether we protect him so he can grow even further—one could say that such a structure is hidden beneath all this as well.”

Cha Seongtae asked,

“Has the Sect Leader become that strong? When did that happen?”

I met Cha Seongtae’s eyes, then answered.

“Can’t you tell just by looking?”

Cha Seongtae stared at me blankly, then nodded.

“Yes, I cannot.”

I looked around at the Four Great Villains and Cha Seongtae, then picked up my chopsticks.

“……Let’s eat.”

I forced the man in black out of my mind and looked down at the hodgepodge rice.

“…….”

It was one of those days when I suddenly missed Brother Deuksu. People really should live doing what they’re good at. Isn’t that the role of the Hao Sect Leader? As I confirmed that Cha Seongtae’s cooking skills were worse than his fighting skills, I shoved the rice into my mouth.

Making a living is this hard.