Chapter 121 - How Easily We Forget

Yi An and I continued our journey. Our destination was the Ghost Gate, the Ghost Adept’s family home. There was still time before the wedding, so we were enjoying our travels while keeping to a schedule that would get us there in time.

Along the way, we met all sorts of people. There was a lecher who preyed on her, and an innocent young gentleman who claimed he truly loved her and would devote his life to her. A wealthy old man even came bearing gold to propose. The lecher died, the young gentleman cried, and the old man was humiliated.

Meeting so many people was a pleasant new experience, but, unexpectedly, what she enjoyed even more was admiring magnificent scenery and tasting the local delicacies. People might be tiresome, but on her first journey through the Central Plains, everything she saw must have been new to her.

She tried hard to remember each moment, as though she would never be able to return. She even wrote down the things that happened on our travels.

“This dish is delicious. Try some, Young Master.”

“I prefer this one.”

“That was too spicy for me. You’ll ruin your stomach if you eat too much spicy food.”

“You’d never survive in Sichuan.”

“Still, I’d like to try authentic Sichuan cuisine.”

We no longer paid any attention to the eyes around us. People still stole glances at her beauty, but since we paid them no mind, they might as well not have existed.

“But, Young Master, is it all right for us to be enjoying ourselves like this?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“The First Young Master must be working to win the Demon Supremes over right now.”

“I’m sure he is.”

“What if the Blood Heaven Saber Demon has joined forces with him again?”

“Please, let him. Think how much fun it would be to win him back.”

“You’re so carefree that it makes me anxious.”

“Don’t be. If I’m destined to become the successor, I can take my time returning. If I’m not, meeting the Demon Supremes every day won’t change that. Besides, aren’t I doing something far more important than winning them over right now?”

“What’s that?”

“Feeding the fish I’ve already caught.”

She pointed at herself, and I nodded.

How often we make that mistake. How easily we forget that without the fish we caught first, we would never even have had a chance to catch another. How readily we take people’s kindness for granted. What could possibly compare to the gift of someone letting themselves be caught first, then staying by our side?

She smiled.

“This fish has certainly been eating well lately.”

“Then no complaining later! No saying I didn’t give you enough affection or trust!”

“In that case, order me one more of those!”

“Order the dish beside it, too!”

Of course, we didn’t neglect our martial training during our travels. Running, leaping, sparring—we devoted every moment to training except when we were eating or enjoying the magnificent scenery.

Lately, in particular, I had been reflecting on the essence of the martial teachings left by the Sovereign of Myriad Evils whenever I had a spare moment. Those insights, working in tandem with my twelfth-level complete mastery of the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art, were stirring something within me. I knew that this sort of tingling always led to growth, so I never neglected my training for an instant.

Yi An was equally engrossed in her own training. With her conception and governing meridians opened, she had reached the very end of the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art’s eighth level. Just a little more effort would bring her to the ninth.

Alongside sword practice, lightness-arts training was a constant.

“Aaaaaah!”

Yi An still screamed as she fell from the cliff, but her movements had changed. Her arms and legs, once flailing wildly, now moved calmly.

At the last moment, she twisted her body several times and landed on the ground. She staggered and fell forward, but she had successfully descended the cliff on her own.

“I did it!”

She jumped up and down with delight.

I followed her down and landed beside her. She was astonished when, at the very end, I walked through the air as though descending an invisible staircase.

“I’ve jumped down after you so often that I’ve improved a little myself.”

“Must you make me feel so inadequate? I went through all that chaos to get down, and then you do this!”

“I’m only human. I want to show off and brag, too.”

“You’re impressive enough without showing off.”

“Ah, now I want to keep showing off just to hear you say that again.”

“Go ahead. I’ll never tire of saying it.”

Devoted to me though she was, she loved having fun. She was cheerful, bright, and quick-witted, and valued her own life and happiness. That made me appreciate and like her all the more.

Yi An drew her sword.

“Now, you owe me payment for those compliments. Please give me a lesson.”

We fought a fierce bout. I deliberately took the fight up the cliff using lightness arts. Sword qi flew through the air as we dodged it and kicked off the cliff face to soar higher.

Several times, she felt herself on the brink of death. She fell from the cliff, climbed back up, and found sword qi flying toward her. Narrowly evading it, she released sword qi of her own and had to keep climbing the cliff.

This was a fight between true experts. Though I had arranged the situation and guided the fight, she responded admirably. I could feel her skills improving. Teaching her was giving me insights of my own, too.

We ended the bout when we reached the top of the cliff again.

“Since my conception and governing meridians were opened, the movement of my true qi and the power of my moves have changed.”

“You know how important this stage is, don’t you?”

“I do.”

Her eyes were filled with determination. She enjoyed magnificent scenery and delicious food, but she, too, was a born martial artist. Nothing could compare to the joy of feeling her martial skills grow.

“You’re doing well.”

“With a master like mine, how could I not?”

Her eyes shone with gratitude and respect as she looked at me.

“You said you wanted to see a wedding, didn’t you? Our destination is just beyond that mountain.”

“But why are you debating whether to stop it?”

“Someone asked me to. To stop the wedding.”

“Who?”

“Someone who helped me a great deal.”

I could explain everything else, but this part was difficult.

In truth, I had coldly told him to get married and live through that hell all over again, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Without the Ghost Adept, I could never have regressed. I understood why he had tried to betray me and go back himself. A chance to return to the past—how could any human resist that temptation? Perhaps the reason he had wanted to return, even at the cost of betraying me, was to avoid that marriage.

I would make my final decision after meeting him, but unless there was good reason not to, I intended to stop the marriage. He had been so desperate.

“Is this someone who loves the bride?”

“I doubt it.”

There could hardly be worse enemies. The Ghost Adept had described his married life as hell.

“Besides the wedding, there’s someone I want to see, too.”

Seo Jin.

My only friend during my years as a wandering martial artist. If she, the Ghost Adept’s younger sister, hadn’t told me about the Great Art of Regression, I would never have learned of its existence.

“Come on. Let’s go and see.”

I leaped off the cliff. Yi An’s shout came from behind me.

“I’m actually afraid of heights, you know! You can’t just go rushing off like that!”

Despite her words, she leaped after me without hesitation.

* * *

Night had deepened over the Ghost Gate.

Since becoming its successor, the Ghost Adept, Seo Gong, had grown so busy that he barely had time to sleep. By day, he had to learn the secret ghost arts passed down only to the Ghost Gate’s successors, and by night, he had to research the Great Art of Regression. It had been his family’s cherished ambition for generations, and the materials handed down to him alone numbered in the thousands of volumes.

Tonight, too, he was reading late into the night when a familiar voice came from behind him.

“If you’d put this much dedication into swordsmanship, you’d have become the greatest swordsman under Heaven.”

Still looking at his book, the Ghost Adept replied,

“If you’d practiced swordsmanship in the time you spend meddling like this, you would have become the greatest.”

The person who had entered the room was his younger sister, Seo Jin.

“You’ll make yourself ill working this hard. If you collapse, all that work will fall on me, Brother.”

“Don’t worry. I made an agreement with the ghosts. They won’t take me until I finish this research.”

“The ghost I met didn’t say anything of the sort.”

Only then did he look up from his book and turn toward her.

“Good grief, Brother. You were ugly enough already, but being tired has made you even uglier.”

“I’m not that bad-looking, am I?”

“Only your mirror will indulge that delusion, dear brother.”

The Ghost Adept laughed loudly. In the repetition of his daily routine, his sister was the one person who gave him a little room to breathe.

Seo Jin set the booklet she had brought on his desk.

“Here. I’ve organized everything you asked me to.”

“You worked hard.”

“I certainly did. I’m not a genius like you, am I? I have to read something five times when you only need to read it once. Why does it all have to be so needlessly difficult? It’s exhausting.”

“I know. I know.”

He felt sorry for his sister, spending the bloom of her youth doing nothing but research. She was attractive, too, and above all, refreshingly straightforward. She was popular whenever she went out, but lately she had spent all her time shut away in the research room.

Seo Jin brought up a subject she had never raised before.

“Brother, do you really believe the Great Art of Regression is possible?”

“I do.”

He answered without hesitation.

“Even though it defies the laws of Heaven?”

“I still believe.”

How could he not know why his sister was asking these questions?

“It’s hard, isn’t it?”

“I feel trapped. If we keep researching like this and pass it down to our children... will they spend their whole lives locked in this research room, too?”

“I will succeed in my generation.”

“If you’re going to do it, please do it before I get any older. Otherwise...”

The Ghost Adept could sense that his sister was nearing her limit. She had always been active by nature. Though she had no choice but to obey their father’s orders, there was no telling how long she could endure it.

Seo Jin turned to leave, then stopped at the door.

“Fine. Let’s say the Great Art of Regression is possible, just as you claim. Then what? What happens when you go back? What will you do in the past? Shut yourself away and research again? Once you’ve achieved regression, will you start researching reincarnation?”

He was taken aback.

“If you thought of doing something else instead... then, Brother, we’re living the wrong lives, aren’t we? We should be doing those things now, shouldn’t we? The lives we want to go back and live—that’s what we should be living, isn’t it?”

The Ghost Adept could say nothing. Seo Jin had much more to say, but she stopped pressing him.

“Get to bed early. You really do look worn out.”

After she left the research room, he sighed and leaned back in his chair.

His sister was right. If he lived his present life to the fullest, he would have no reason to go back. But achieving the Great Art of Regression was his family’s cherished ambition. Now that he had become the successor, it was a destiny he could not escape.

Just then, a servant arrived with welcome news. The person he had been longing to see would arrive here tomorrow.

* * *

Yi An and I arrived at an inn in the village where the Ghost Gate was located. Her mask hung at her waist, and she wore a veil that left only her eyes exposed.

After securing a room with two beds, we ordered a meal. Whenever we stayed at an inn on our travels, we shared a room like this. Even when I asked whether it was uncomfortable and told her she could sleep separately, Yi An actually preferred it. She said she enjoyed talking about this and that until we fell asleep.

We were eating together on the inn’s ground floor. Around us, the other guests were discussing the Ghost Adept’s upcoming wedding. It seemed the marriage was by far the village’s biggest topic of conversation lately.

“I never expected the Ghost Gate to become in-laws with the Im Sword School.”

“I was surprised, too. Hasn’t the Im Sword School married into sword families for generations?”

“They say Miss Im persuaded her father.”

“A union between the Ghost Gate and a sword family. Interesting indeed.”

“Ah, isn’t that the Ghost Gate’s successor over there?”

Yi An and I followed their gazes outside.

A man appeared on the street. At the sight of him, emotion surged within me. It was the Ghost Adept in his youth. I had known him from middle age onward, and all the features I remembered were there.

‘Good to see you, Ghost Adept.’

In my life before regression, we had met only a few times, briefly, but those meetings had spanned decades and come at the most important moments. The hardships I had endured gathering materials for the great art came back to me unbidden.

The Ghost Adept was looking toward the other end of the street, as though waiting for someone.

A little later, five or six people arrived on horseback. When the woman leading them dismounted, those following her did the same. From the look of them, they were martial artists attending her.

The Ghost Adept ran toward her.

“Miss Im!”

She was his fiancée, Im Hyang.

“Young Master? What are you doing here?”

“I heard you were coming, so I came to meet you.”

His eyes brimmed with sweetness as he gazed at her.

“Thank you for accepting my proposal.”

“I made my decision because I trust you.”

“And your father?”

“He gave his permission, but... I think he still needs a little more time.”

“I will win him over. I promise.”

Ignoring the eyes of those around them, the Ghost Adept declared loudly,