Chapter 1184

“We… No. You are the main assault.”

“……!”

The moment Jeok Cheongang’s quiet voice reached him, Jin Taekyung went rigid.

At the same time, the fog clouding his mind finally began to lift.

But the reality emerging beyond it was neither as hopeful nor as beautiful as he’d wished.

“What… what does that mean?”

A question was supposed to express uncertainty and seek an answer that would clear it up.

But Jeok Cheongang knew there was no uncertainty in the question Taekyung had just asked. Only denial.

Taekyung wanted to hear himself deny a reality he couldn’t bear to believe.

“You already know what this old man means.”

The old master looked at his Disciple, his gaze grave. Then he spoke slowly, giving weight to every word.

“Everything we did was for us. For you.”

“……You mean—”

“Xinjiang is Dark Heaven’s domain. No, not just this land. Their eyes and ears have been hidden everywhere under Heaven. We had to consider every possibility.”

Together, they were strong. Scattered, they were vulnerable.

Even so, they hadn’t split their mighty army of more than a hundred thousand into three forces solely for practical reasons like supplies or marching speed.

“We had to keep one last dagger hidden until the very end, in case it came to that.”

That dagger was Jin Taekyung.

Not the sharpest in the world, nor the most precious—but against Dark Heaven, more lethal than any other weapon.

No. Perhaps the Lord of Heaven’s only Adversary, chosen by Heaven itself.

“That’s why everyone agreed. The Sword Saint, the Emperor. And…”

Jeok Cheongang looked around at the silent group and added,

“We did, too.”

Only then did Taekyung realize that not one person gathered here had objected.

The Slaughter Saint and the Bow Saint. Ju Hwaran and Song Ilseom. Cheongpung, Gung Gibang, even Hyuk Mujin.

Some watched him in silence, their faces dark. The others lowered their heads, unable to meet his eyes.

“You deceived me. From the very beginning.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jeok Cheongang’s apology was so sincere that anyone who knew him even a little would have doubted their eyes and ears.

But for Taekyung, this wasn’t something an apology could settle.

A hundred thousand.

More than a hundred thousand lives were still out there, beyond the darkness outside the window. Among those whose fate was now unknown were people bound to him by ties deeper than time.

Comrades he could trust with his back. Friends he’d gladly lay down his life for. Brothers who shared no blood with him but had become family all the same.

“I’m going back.”

Taekyung rose from his seat, his voice strained.

Perhaps it was the shock of what he’d just heard that churned his stomach and made his head spin. He gritted his teeth.

He had to go back and save them. Find them.

……Even if all he found were their bodies.

But before he could take a step, Jeok Cheongang’s voice stopped him again.

No—it struck his frozen heart.

“Do we have time for that?”

“……!”

“The agreed date has passed. We can’t hesitate any longer. If we delay even a little more, what comes next will be even harder to contain.”

Those weren’t just words. It was reality.

A merciless reality Taekyung understood better than anyone.

Everything was already collapsing, like a massive dam giving way.

The modern world. Murim.

Until he cleared the Quest, the bridge between the two worlds would remain broken. And nothing could turn back the flow of time, already thrown so far out of alignment.

No. There was only one way left.

Close his eyes, keep his mouth shut, and move forward.

Then, at the end of this journey, defeat the source of every disaster waiting there: the Lord of Heaven.

But…

Even if I succeed at everything, I’ll regret this for the rest of my life.

That wouldn’t change even if he were hailed as the savior of a new humanity and gained immense wealth and fame.

He might gain everything in the world, but it would all slip through his fingers like sand.

Even now, after all he’d accomplished, Taekyung still sometimes had nightmares.

He still trembled at the roar of the Black Wyvern—a monster he could kill with One Strike now. He still wandered through that dark cave, where his companions’ screams rang out without end.

And so Taekyung made his decision.

“I’m sorry.”

He steeled himself. He would go back, even if only a day’s travel. Even if only half a day’s.

If that half day ruined everything, he would accept it as his damnable fate.

If he couldn’t save even the few people closest to him, then all of this was nothing but some being called a god playing a sick game.

Watching his Disciple, Jeok Cheongang muttered bitterly,

“So this is how it ends up.”

“You know what I’m like.”

“I do. That’s why I took you as my Disciple.”

Hearing the sincerity in his master’s voice, Taekyung smiled faintly.

“I’ll be back soon.”

“I’m sorry.”

Taekyung shook his head.

He wanted to tell his master that none of this was anyone’s fault. It was simply a matter of choice; there was no need to apologize.

But for some reason, the words wouldn’t leave his lips. And the step he’d already taken wasn’t followed by another.

What’s going on?

The question surfaced as Taekyung breathed hard.

At some point, his heart had started pounding like mad. The skin around his eyes burned as though pressed against torches, and his vision shimmered with heat haze thicker than in the midday desert.

Then, through that warped and rippling world, an unexpected voice echoed.

“No need to get worked up. You’ll feel at ease soon.”

A calm tone. A troubled look.

Confused as he was, Taekyung had no trouble recognizing the speaker.

“Why…?”

To the question Taekyung barely managed to force out, the Slaughter Saint returned the very words he’d spoken a moment ago.

“Because I knew what you’re like.”

“……!”

“And don’t blame that Hyuk brat later. He’s as stubborn as his superior. It took me ages to convince him.”

Taekyung saw Hyuk Mujin behind the Slaughter Saint, his head bowed, and finally understood.

Mujin’s odd insistence on checking that he’d taken the pill. The special fasting pills the Slaughter Saint had made.

Poison?

But something was wrong with that.

If he’d been poisoned, the System would have warned him immediately, and the Myriad-Poison Ring on his finger would have begun detoxifying him.

It was a perfectly reasonable question.

The problem was that the man before him—also known as the Divine Physician—knew those things just as well as he did.

“Poison and medicine are one and the same. Only the slightest difference separates them.”

The man who had used that slightest difference to make a medicine perilously close to poison let out a quiet sigh.

“I didn’t want to go this far. Truly.”

Taekyung answered in a cracked voice.

“I understand.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“Then I hope you’ll understand me, too.”

“What do you—”

The Slaughter Saint sensed something amiss and was about to ask when—

Whoom!

Taekyung’s fist came hurtling toward his face with a heavy rush of air.

Boom!

Compressed air exploded in the wake of his lightning-fast punch. The gust sent dust billowing up from the floor.

The Slaughter Saint twisted his body out of its path at the last moment, his eyes wide.

He can barely keep himself upright. How?

Taekyung’s strength and speed were hard to believe from someone who was, for all practical purposes, poisoned.

But unlike the Slaughter Saint, Taekyung had no intention of answering his question.

More precisely, he had no time.

He left the startled Slaughter Saint behind and charged through the dust cloud toward the window—only for someone else to block his path.

Shing!

Two streaks of light flashed.

At their tips lay enough force and momentum to cleave through a boulder of solid iron in a single stroke, but Jin Taekyung twisted his upper body without a moment’s hesitation.

As if he’d seen it coming.

Shhk.

Blades swept past him with a low, chilling hiss.

In the same instant, he struck.

Crash!

His two palms met the Bow Saint’s twin sabers.

With a boom like an exploding cannonball, the Bow Saint’s sunken eyes appeared reflected on the trembling blade of her curved saber.

“Stop.”

Taekyung gritted his teeth instead of answering.

Crk.

Pain shot through his jaw, jolting his fading mind awake. It lit a fire in the body that had not yet fallen asleep.

Grind.

His palms drove forward against the blades.

At the same time, the Bow Saint began to slide backward with her treasured weapon as Jin Taekyung’s perfect, massive muscles flexed—too large to hide even beneath his thick robe.

It was the strength of some ancient giant. A will that refused to give out.

But that was as far as he could go.

As far as his heart and body could endure.

“I’m sorry. Truly.”

The moment Jeok Cheongang’s tearful voice came from behind him, Jin Taekyung felt every bit of the strength boiling inside him like lava turn cold.

Faces blurred before him, as indistinct as his vision. Memories of the time he’d spent with them rose one after another, clouding his sight more densely than any fog or dust.

Drip. Drip.

Rainwater fell from somewhere and wet the floor. At last, the old master caught his Disciple as he crumpled.