Chapter 178

“The inn is old. Rain’s leaking in.”

I stared up at the blameless ceiling.

“It is a little run-down.”

Of course, no rain was falling. The ink-dark sky was perfectly still.

It wasn’t the inn that was old, but Jeok Cheongang’s heart. Remembering the painful events of long ago had sprung a leak in his eyes.

I thought the old man had neither blood nor tears in him.

Fire King Jeok Cheongang.

I had never imagined that this irascible Supreme Peak master had a past like this. I also had to revise my assessment of Jopil, whom I had dismissed as merely insane.

He was even crazier than I thought.

He had thoroughly used and discarded the Master who had saved him from the brink of death. From what I’d heard, he clearly hadn’t felt a shred of guilt, even at the very end.

I was shocked that anyone could be filled with such pure malice—and relieved that Jopil no longer existed in this world.

“But he still managed to escape alive. The Nangong Family must have been keeping a close eye on him.”

The Nangong Family—a staple of martial arts novels.

They were one of the Five Great Families, an organization said to rival the Nine Sects and One Gang. I might not know the details, but hunting down and killing a single fugitive should have been nothing to them.

Unless someone had helped him.

“Could it be…?”

At my question, Jeok Cheongang calmly nodded.

“I went to the Azure Sky Sword King and asked for his help. It was the last duty I could perform.”

The Disciple had abandoned his Master and left, yet the Master had protected him to the very end.

The more I heard, the more unbelievable their Master-Disciple relationship became.

“…That’s incredible.”

“Incredible? I raised a Slaughter Saint like him as my Disciple, then let him loose upon the world because I was blinded by personal affection. It was a foolish choice.”

Jeok Cheongang continued with a self-deprecating laugh.

“The Azure Sky Sword King told me the same thing. He said I would regret it. He was right. Every moment of the past ten years has been filled with regret.”

“If you could go back to that day, what would you do?”

His answer came without hesitation.

“I would save him. And I would regret it all over again. Even if I were given a hundred chances, the man I was then would make the same choice every time.”

The me back then would have done the same?

That was a loaded choice of words. It also meant that the Jeok Cheongang of today was different.

Could it be…?

Perhaps those ten years had been his time to prepare.

To prepare himself to personally kill the Disciple who might still be committing atrocities somewhere in the world.

If that was the case…

A thought flashed through my mind, and I asked carefully—very carefully.

“Um…”

“Speak.”

Jeok Cheongang’s voice was low. His fathomless gaze seemed to see through everything, and my heart began to pound.

I swallowed, then opened my mouth.

“I believe there’s something you want to ask me.”

We hadn’t sat down face-to-face just to reminisce about the past.

He had questions for me, and I had questions for him.

We each had things to ask and answers to give. And I wasn’t the one holding the sword hilt.

“I’ll answer you. Whatever you ask.”

“…”

Jeok Cheongang, the one holding the sword hilt, silently ran his fingers over his empty wineglass.

The silence seemed as though it might never end. Fifteen minutes? The time it took to eat a meal? Half a shichen? I had no idea how much time passed.

A cold wind howled outside, but whether from tension or something else, my entire body was drenched in sweat.

At last, the long silence broke.

“…Is he dead?”

His voice was terribly hoarse. He was trying to sound calm, but the question held a jumble of emotions.

When I nodded, the old man’s gray eyes trembled.

“I see. So that’s how it ended.”

Jeok Cheongang unconsciously tried to tip back his wineglass, then noticed that it was empty and gave a hollow laugh.

“I suspected as much. I sensed traces of our sect in you.”

It was because of the internal energy I had gained from the Blazing Flame Divine Pill. Just as his internal energy had led me to suspect that he was the Fire King, mine had told him the same thing.

“Did he die peacefully?”

“That…”

I pictured Jopil thrashing as blood streamed from his seven apertures.

After drawing on even his innate qi, he had fought me to the death and died with half his upper body blown away.

When I hesitated, Jeok Cheongang waved a wrinkled hand.

“Enough. It was my fault for asking a pointless question. What peaceful death is there in a battle between martial artists?”

“His suffering would have been brief.”

“A man who spent his life inflicting pain on countless others received a better death than he deserved.”

Despite his words, his expression was bitter.

If Jeok Cheongang had found Jopil, he would have used the finest move at his disposal.

He would have granted him the swiftest, most painless death possible.

Maybe that was why he returned to the world.

But Jeok Cheongang had failed to achieve his goal. Jopil had encountered me before his former Master could reach him, and lost his life.

How would Jeok Cheongang react—

“I owe you a debt.”

“Pardon?”

“Did you not hear me? I said I owe you.”

“No, I heard you. It’s just…”

I was dumbfounded.

Never in my wildest dreams had I expected those words to come from him so easily.

As I blinked at him, wondering what on earth was happening, Jeok Cheongang continued.

“Someone had to stop that child. You did in my stead what I should have done ten years ago. And…”

Jeok Cheongang’s lips suddenly twitched, as though he had never said anything like this to anyone before.

After a brief hesitation, he finally spoke.

“I’m sorry. I sincerely apologize to all of you for acting so rashly before.”

My voice burst out before I could stop it.

“Whoa.”

“Whoa?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. I was so surprised that it just slipped out.”

“Is it truly so astonishing for this old man to apologize?”

It seemed plenty astonishing to me. Besides, he’d looked incredibly uncomfortable saying it, so what was he complaining about?

“…Well, you see…”

I trailed off awkwardly, then saw Jeok Cheongang’s face beginning to contort and quickly changed my tune.

“The renowned Fire King, Great Hero Jeok Cheongang, personally apologizing to a junior as young as me! I can only bow before your magnanimity and humility.”

“…”

“…”

Just look at his face. Jekyll and Hyde were fighting it out right there.

Every muscle in Jeok Cheongang’s face conveyed his fierce inner struggle over whether or not to hit me. Eventually, he sighed.

“I cannot make heads or tails of you. You may leave now.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And take those children with you.”

Cheongpung was fast asleep with his forehead pressed against the table, while Hyuk Mujin was still sprawled facedown in the courtyard.

Before Jeok Cheongang could change his mind, I quickly gathered up the two deadweights and headed for the second floor. Then I remembered something.

Oh, right. I have to return the Flame Divine Palm martial arts manual and the sword.

I had already swallowed the Blazing Flame Divine Pill, so there was nothing I could do about that, but I still needed to return the other items.

I desperately wanted to settle everything between Jeok Cheongang and me once and for all today.

“Um, Sir Jeok. I’m sorry, but there’s one more thing I need to tell you…”

I turned back, my voice as tiny as an ant, then stopped short.

Glug, glug.

Left alone, Jeok Cheongang was pouring drinks.

One glass, then another. He placed the second wineglass before the empty seat across from him and began drinking in silence.

I watched him for a moment, then suddenly thought:

He looks small.

The back of the giant known as the Fire King looked small and lonely.

I quietly turned away and climbed the stairs.

Once the presence behind him had disappeared, Jeok Cheongang muttered,

“You deserved to die.”

Jangcheon had killed dozens in Anhui alone. There was no telling how many people had fallen victim to his Disciple over the past ten years.

“You called it Might Makes Right, didn’t you? You’re the same. In the end, you died at the hands of someone stronger than you.”

No one remained strong forever, just as no one remained weak forever.

Even Jeok Cheongang, a Supreme Peak master, was weaker than someone.

Yet some people forgot that fact. Drunk on their own strength—or on blood—they strayed down the wrong path.

“What a pathetic fool.”

Jeok Cheongang drained his drink. His Disciple’s words from that day long ago seemed to echo in his ears.

I have never changed. Not once, from the day I first met you until now.

Over the past ten years, he had turned those words over in his mind countless times. That single sentence had lodged near his heart like a dagger and tormented him.

“Did you truly never change? Not even once?”

They had spent many years together. At times, Jeok Cheongang had been a strict teacher; at others, he had cared for his Disciple like a loving father.

No—he had believed that was what he had been.

But it had all been an illusion. If it had truly been otherwise, Jangcheon would have chosen a very different path.

“How could rice paper be black from the beginning?”

Being born into this world was like receiving a blank sheet of rice paper.

A person passed through countless moments between birth and death.

When death finally arrived, those moments came together to complete a single painting. The painting Jangcheon had created was… entirely ink-black.

Jeok Cheongang had watched it from the closest distance, yet he hadn’t known.

“Cheon.”

The old man stared at the seat across from him, where a wineglass had been set. One by one, phantomlike figures appeared in the empty chair.

A child hunched over as he stuffed dumplings into his mouth. A boy clutching the wooden sword his Master had made for him, his cheeks flushed bright red.

His limbs lengthened, and his gaze sharpened. Before long, a tall young man stood glaring at the old man.

Kill me.

That day, Jeok Cheongang had been unable to answer his Disciple’s cutting words.

But if he ever met his Disciple again, there was something he had desperately wanted to say.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Whoooosh.

A cold wind slipped through the door of the old inn and brushed across the wineglass.

“Benefactor!”

I awoke to a terrible racket. Cheongpung, practically bursting with excitement, was bouncing up and down.

“This is my pavilion, so why… Ah.”

Right. This wasn’t the Jin Family of Taiyuan. It was an inn.

At the same time, the events of the previous day flashed through my mind like a panorama. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say I had crossed the boundary between life and death.

Well, that aside—

“Stop jumping around. There’s enough dust in here already.”

“I’m allowed to jump today!”

How was anyone supposed to sleep through this?

Hyuk Mujin, who had been curled up like a shrimp in one corner of the floor, blearily opened his eyes.

“Is this… paradise?”

That bastard started talking nonsense the moment he woke up.

It was absurd, but then I remembered that yesterday, after trying to escape on his own, he had been knocked unconscious by a duck bone Jeok Cheongang flicked at him.

“You awake?”

“Captain?”

Hyuk Mujin’s eyes widened when he saw me. Then he sighed.

“So this isn’t paradise.”

“…What the hell is that supposed to mean, you bastard?”

“It was a joke. A joke. I’m just glad to see you alive again.”

“Says the guy who tried to run away on his own.”

“Come on. Why do you have to put it like that?”

Grinning shamelessly, Hyuk Mujin looked around. More precisely, he looked at Cheongpung, who was running laps around the room like a train.

“What’s all this commotion so early in the morning? What good thing happened to make him run around like that?”

“No idea. He says he’s allowed to jump today.”

“He must’ve eaten something tasty.”

“…”

It was obviously bullshit, but since we were talking about Cheongpung, its credibility skyrocketed.

Giving him a doubtful look, I asked Cheongpung,

“What day is it today?”

Cheongpung, who had been circling the room and driving me crazy, stopped dead.

“Benefactor, you don’t even know that?”

“…Let’s refrain from saying things like that. It hits ten times harder coming from you.”

“It’s the first day of the new year. New Year’s Day!”

Hyuk Mujin and I nodded at the same time.

“Ah, so it’s New Year’s Day.”

“Right. It’s already New Year’s Day.”

“I thought it was something els—”

“Yeah. A whole year has already pass—”

After a brief silence, a profound realization struck us.

Ah. The Jin Family of Taiyuan.

At that moment, Wipeng’s threat from before I left the family rang vividly in my ears.