“Let’s talk.”
I gave a small nod at the Sound Transmission in my ear and loosened my grip on the reins.
The beast understood and gradually slowed. Jeok Cheongang drew alongside me, then spoke.
“Is it true the Lord of Heaven has taken a particular interest in you?”
“Yes.”
“Huh. Strange. This old man is hearing about it for the first time.”
“I suppose so. It’s the first time I’ve mentioned it, too.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You never asked.”
Honestly, I expected to get hit for that. I even snapped into a defensive stance.
But Jeok Cheongang only stared at me for a moment before muttering, almost to himself, “You didn’t tell me because I didn’t ask… Well, I can’t say you’re wrong.”
What had gotten into him?
“Um, Old Master?”
“What.”
“Are you… sulking?”
“What? Sulking? Me?”
“Yes.”
Jeok Cheongang laughed as though I’d told him a marvelous joke.
“Why would I sulk? I’m not five years old. Of course, we had plenty of time to discuss it over the past three days, and I held back from asking out of consideration for you. But that doesn’t matter in the slightest, so don’t give it another thought. The fool is the one who didn’t ask, isn’t he? Hahaha.”
“…”
“People in the martial world say a master and disciple should keep no secrets from each other. But that hardly applies to us, so pay it no mind. If you think about it, I needed someone to carry on the Fire Gate Clan’s lineage, and you needed martial arts. We both got what we wanted. That’s enough. Talking about the bond between master and disciple in this day and age is laughable anyway.”
“…”
“I ran my balls off getting to Nanman because I was worried something might happen to you. Even plucked out every hair on my perfectly good head to hide my identity. But I’m fine. My balls didn’t fall off, and my hair will grow back soon enough. Of course it will.”
“…”
“Why would this old man sulk just because he didn’t hear some goddamn story? A thirsty man should dig his own well. If I waited for you to tell me when the time was right, wouldn’t I end up dried out and dead just like this old man? Hahahaha.”
Watching Jeok Cheongang laugh like an immortal, I thought, He’s really fucking sulking.
Could a person even sulk this much?
Forbes could name him the World’s Most Sulky Person, and no one would object.
“I remember the day I first met you. I wasn’t in my right mind then, what with the infirmities of old age. I suppose that’s why they say old people ought to die…”
The pressure was suffocating.
I finally managed to interrupt Jeok Cheongang’s runaway train of a speech.
“What I said earlier was a joke. I had too much on my mind to tell you. I needed time to sort through it myself.”
“Hm.”
Jeok Cheongang narrowed his eyes. Sounding a little more like himself, he asked gruffly, “So was the part about the Lord of Heaven a joke too?”
“Unfortunately, that part’s true.”
“What proof do you have?”
I told him what had happened. He’d already heard a brief version while we were at the Nanman Beast Palace, but this time I went into far more detail.
By the time I finished, his brow was furrowed.
“Those bastards tried to capture you?”
“Yes. But when that didn’t work, they tried to kill me. The Great Snow Fiend and Black Hand Fist Demon at the Poisonblood Grounds, and the Southern Heaven Demon Empress too.”
“Did they try to capture you on the Lord of Heaven’s orders?”
“That…”
I thought back for a moment, then shook my head.
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“If the Lord of Heaven had ordered her to capture me, the Southern Heaven Demon Empress wouldn’t have tried to kill me. Not even if she had to face her own death alone.”
“Loyalty that outweighs her life… Hard to believe.”
“It wasn’t just loyalty.”
I answered quietly as I recalled everything about the Southern Heaven Demon Empress. The look in her eyes. Her expression. The rapture in her voice, and all she had said and done.
What I’d sensed from her that day couldn’t be described as mere loyalty.
It was…
“Fanaticism. To the Southern Heaven Demon Empress—no, to Dark Heaven—the Lord of Heaven is a living god.”
“…!”
“Everyone in Dark Heaven fears and reveres him. If he ordered them to capture me at any cost, that would be a divine command no one could defy.”
The Blood Lord, for all his power. The Western Heaven Demon Lord. Even the Southern Heaven Demon Empress, who had now met her end.
All of them had bowed before the Lord of Heaven and called themselves his servants.
Each was a monster capable of tearing an ordinary Supreme Peak master apart with their bare hands. And the Lord of Heaven was the king—the god—those monsters worshiped.
“I can’t be certain, but I think the Southern Heaven Demon Empress tried to capture me simply because the Lord of Heaven had shown an interest in me.”
“To win his favor?”
I nodded. Jeok Cheongang let out a low groan.
“Fanatics…”
The word faded into the wind.
Seated on the tiger’s back, he watched the scenery rush past in silence. Then he spoke again.
“Have you ever seen a member of the Demonic Cult?”
“Do I look sixty to you?”
“Yes. At your age, it would be natural that you hadn’t seen one. You were born long after the Great Faction War ended.”
“Then why ask?”
“A thought occurred to me. We might be better off fighting the Demonic Cult of those days all over again.”
“…!”
“They were fanatics too, of course. But their leader, the Heavenly Demon, was still a man. The hundred thousand followers of the Demonic Path beneath him knew it. To them, he was the Cult Leader who led them. He was not a god.”
I understood what Jeok Cheongang meant.
To the Demonic Cult, the Heavenly Demon had been flesh and blood. To Dark Heaven, the Lord of Heaven was a god.
They would fight for that god without fear of death. They would die smiling, even with countless spears and blades buried in their bodies.
“This will be a more terrible war than any we’ve known.”
Jeok Cheongang fixed me with a grave look.
“Especially for you.”
“Because the Lord of Heaven is watching me?”
“Whether you wanted it or not, you’ve drawn more attention than you should have. Somewhere in the world, even now, people are speaking your name.”
“…”
“The Three Saints and Ten Kings are old names. But you are different. You possess a talent without precedent throughout history, and no one in the world can deny that you became a master despite having only just passed the age of twenty.”
His gaze held unmistakable pride—and worry.
“That is why the Lord of Heaven is watching you, too. And more importantly, he has already seen you once—your true nature and the infinite potential hidden within you.”
“…The Sichuan Tang Clan’s underground prison.”
“Yes. He used some unknown supernatural power to look at you through the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s eyes.”
How could I forget?
Stone dust raining onto my head. Blood spattered across the stone wall.
And the words of the Western Heaven Demon Lord, standing there as he looked at me.
No. The words of the Lord of Heaven, who had borrowed his servant’s body for a moment.
Interesting. Very interesting.
He had been smiling then. Even as his entire body turned into a handful of ashes and scattered away, he had not forgotten to offer me one final greeting.
I’ll see you again.
The memory still made my heart sink.
Jeok Cheongang watched me draw a slow breath, then said, “Perhaps… the Lord of Heaven has some inkling of the secrets you’ve never told anyone.”
“…!”
“That’s why I can no longer avoid asking.”
The world seemed to stop, as though someone had pressed pause. Jeok Cheongang spoke slowly.
“Can you tell this old man everything you’ve been hiding?”
Jeok Cheongang raised his head to the sky.
After three days of unbroken rain, it was blue and clear—nothing like the turmoil in his mind.
The realm of immortals…
The words he could not bring himself to say faded within him. What else was there to say? How was he supposed to make sense of it?
He had lived a long life. Suddenly, all those years felt of no use at all.
If you were here, I could have steadied this confused heart in no time.
He thought of the friend who had died several months ago. A monk who loved drink and meat and scarcely behaved like a monk at all, yet had been called the Dharma King because he cared more deeply for people than anyone.
Then Jeok Cheongang shook his head.
The Dharma King was gone. And even if he were alive, he could no longer look up at that blue sky and read its heavenly patterns.
You said the heavenly patterns had already gone awry. That the sky no longer gave anyone any answers. You definitely said that.
The Dharma King had also foretold a great war. A force that would throw even the heavens into turmoil would spread across the world, then sweep through it like fire.
But his prediction had not ended there.
The Master of the Morning Star.
A new star rising to light the troubled heavens.
The Dharma King had identified a young man as the Master of that Morning Star, and afterward Jeok Cheongang had gone to Mount Jiuhua and made that young man the successor to the Fire Gate Clan’s lineage.
“…Hah. And I thought you were just a monk who liked talking nonsense.”
His hollow chuckle vanished into the air. He let the cool wind wash over him, then glanced to his side.
A beast raced onward. Strapped securely to its saddle with sturdy leather, a young man lay facedown, fast asleep.
No. Not just any young man.
His one and only Disciple.
What an infuriating brat. He caused all this trouble, and now he’s sleeping like a baby.
It was absurd. But after hearing Jin Taekyung’s account, Jeok Cheongang had no strength left to be surprised.
Another world, wholly separate from Murim. And a young man who traveled between Murim and that place, which sounded so much like the realm of immortals.
What an infuriating brat. He caused all this trouble, and now he’s sleeping like a baby.
It was absurd. But after hearing Jin Taekyung’s account, Jeok Cheongang had no strength left to be surprised.
Another world, wholly separate from Murim. And a young man who traveled between Murim and that place, which sounded so much like the realm of immortals.
He could not understand it all. Still, he had accepted that every word of the unbelievable story was true.
Could this brat be a Little Immortal?
Just then, a long strand of drool hanging from Jin Taekyung’s mouth landed squarely on his cheek.
Splat.
“…”
Jeok Cheongang’s fist tightened on its own.
But instead of rapping his sleeping Disciple on the forehead, he sighed and straightened the young man’s posture.
Yes. Sleep soundly. You’ve been through a lot.
No. That wasn’t quite right.
In a voice soft enough for only one person to hear, Jeok Cheongang murmured, “Go on. Come back safely.”
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