Chapter 147 - Just Who Have You Joined Forces With?

“No.”

The Wicked Laughing Demon refused firmly.

“You dare defy your Senior Martial Uncle?”

The sheer shamelessness of saying that after unleashing the villains of Villains’ Valley to kill the Wicked Laughing Demon told me exactly what sort of man he was.

“What’s so important about this lousy mask?”

Yang Cheogi took off his mask, revealing a wrinkled old man. He was truly ugly—a stark contrast to the Wicked Laughing Demon’s handsome face, which I had seen before my regression.

“Take it off, now!”

“No.”

“Yes, you’ve always looked down on me.”

Apparently, the Wicked Laughing Demon had been on reasonably good terms with his master. Given his temperament, he was probably hearing his Senior Martial Uncle out so meekly only because the man was his master’s senior brother.

“The moment my junior brother died, you lost the right to wear that mask.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were a member of the White Mask Sect only while your master was there to defend you. You are no longer one of us. I will expel you.”

The Wicked Laughing Demon had learned his martial arts in the White Mask Sect, a sect of the unorthodox factions. Later, he had joined the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon and become a Demon Supreme. Becoming a Demon Supreme had been his master’s dream, and the Wicked Laughing Demon had fulfilled it in his stead. I had heard all of this while spending time with him before my regression.

“You cannot cast me out on a whim, Senior Martial Uncle.”

“Shut up!”

Killing intent poured from Yang Cheogi’s body. It was not meant merely to intimidate his opponent; it carried a genuine resolve to kill.

“Of course. You’ve even killed the Sword Emperor, so why would you fear your Senior Martial Uncle? When I first heard that you two had killed him, I couldn’t believe it. Or I thought perhaps something had been wrong with him. But seeing you walk out of there completely unharmed, I suppose that wasn’t the case.”

Even so, he showed no fear whatsoever. Clearly, he had something to rely on.

“Why are you trying to kill the Laughing Demon if you’re his Senior Martial Uncle?”

The Wicked Laughing Demon answered my question calmly.

“His dream was to become leader of the Unorthodox Alliance. He blames me for preventing him from achieving it.”

“Of course it was your fault! You ruined my lifelong ambition. A Demon Supreme and the leader of the Unorthodox Alliance cannot come from the same sect!”

He blamed the Wicked Laughing Demon for his failure to become the leader of the Unorthodox Alliance. It had happened quite some time ago, but apparently he had continued to nurse that resentment.

“You couldn’t make a move while my master was alive, but now that he’s passed away, you’re doing this.”

“Shut up! I only held back because you were under a restriction and stuck in the Demonic Cult. It had nothing to do with my junior brother!”

Yang Cheogi had been a loser all his life. In his youth, he too had joined the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon to become a Demon Supreme, but he had failed to adapt and left under circumstances little different from expulsion. He had wanted to become leader of the White Mask Sect, but the Wicked Laughing Demon’s master had inherited that position. Finally, even his ambition to lead the Unorthodox Alliance had gone unfulfilled. His had been a life spent dreaming beyond his abilities.

“How pathetic.”

The Wicked Laughing Demon and Yang Cheogi turned to look at me.

“Blaming others, using others to try to kill someone. You really are pathetic. How is your unhappiness the Laughing Demon’s fault? It’s your own fault for ruining your life by blaming everyone else.”

Cold killing intent poured from Yang Cheogi, but I said everything I had to say.

“Was it really because a Demon Supreme came from your sect that you failed to become leader of the Unorthodox Alliance? I think that’s an excuse. If you’d shown the qualities and abilities suited to the position, you would certainly have become its leader. Isn’t that just an excuse you made up for yourself?”

Yang Cheogi could not argue back.

“With such a petty mindset, even if you had become its leader, you would have made a mess of the Unorthodox Alliance. In the end, someone within the Alliance would have assassinated you. You should thank the Laughing Demon, not resent him. Repeat after me. Thank you for saving my life. Thank you, Laughing Demon!”

Yang Cheogi’s gaze had gone utterly cold. I could feel his determination to kill me at all costs. Something I had said must have hit a sore spot.

I stared straight into those eyes, which were struggling to conceal his shame, and said,

“That isn’t the only reason you’re trying to kill the Laughing Demon, is it?”

Yang Cheogi flinched. The Wicked Laughing Demon, standing beside me, asked,

“What do you mean?”

“Petty men like him always put their own interests first. They won’t risk their lives for revenge. Who have you joined forces with? What did they promise you in return? Did they offer to fulfill that last dream of yours?”

Yang Cheogi could not deny it.

“What a clever mouth you have, boy. The Demonic Cult has a bright future indeed!”

His shame turned into anger directed at the Wicked Laughing Demon.

“So you went to the Demonic Cult and became the Wicked Laughing Demon? Let’s see just how wicked you really are.”

Yang Cheogi snapped his fingers as a signal, and people emerged from hiding one after another. There were dozens of them, all masked, and all members of the White Mask Sect.

“Go on, then. Kill all your fellow disciples.”

I was startled. I had never imagined he would resort to this.

He had brought these people less to kill us than to torment the Wicked Laughing Demon. Their masks made it impossible to tell their ages, but judging by their qi presences, there were quite a few young masters among them.

What choice would the Wicked Laughing Demon make?

If they rushed us with intent to kill, I would have no choice but to act as well. They might belong to an unorthodox sect, but it was the Wicked Laughing Demon’s own sect. Could I really kill them freely? And how would he respond?

I glared at Yang Cheogi. These were precisely the people I meant when I spoke of absolute evil. Not someone forced into an unavoidable choice, but someone malicious enough to deliberately break another person’s heart. Someone who used his sect’s disciples as sacrificial pawns without the slightest remorse. You will die by my hand.

Just then, the Wicked Laughing Demon spoke in a voice that rang out loud and clear.

“Listen, my senior and junior brothers, senior and junior sisters, and martial nephews and nieces. Though I left our sect and placed myself under the Divine Cult’s protection, I remain the late former sect leader’s chief disciple. He never expelled me during his lifetime. As a disciple of the White Mask Sect’s rightful line of succession, I command you. All of you, withdraw!”

The White Mask Sect’s disciples looked at one another, exchanging glances.

Yang Cheogi shouted,

“What are you doing? Kill them, now!”

The Wicked Laughing Demon shouted even louder.

“Yang Cheogi, the traitor who recklessly mobilized our sect’s disciples for his personal desires, will die here today. So withdraw!”

“I said kill them!”

At that moment, someone unleashed finger force.

FWIP.

The Wicked Laughing Demon twisted aside to avoid it. The shot had been a warning, not an attempt to kill.

“Senior brother!”

The Wicked Laughing Demon recognized the man who had fired it as his senior brother at once.

“You recognized me?”

“How could I not?”

As their gazes met, they held memories of childhood and a longing for those days.

“Take the disciples and go home, senior brother.”

“I cannot defy our Senior Martial Uncle’s orders.”

“He has already betrayed our sect. Can’t you see that he has joined forces with Villains’ Valley and intends to use you and the disciples as fodder for their blades?”

They had heard everything I had said to Yang Cheogi earlier, so they knew what was happening.

“This battle has only two possible outcomes. You die fighting me, or you kill us and the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon annihilates our sect. Is that what you want, senior brother? To drive everyone to their deaths?”

Yang Cheogi shouted for them to hurry up and kill us, but the Wicked Laughing Demon and the man he had called his senior brother simply stared at each other in silence.

“That old man, who is using his seniority as a weapon to destroy our sect, will die by my hand. So go home without worrying. You know what sort of man I am, don’t you?”

“I do. You always kept your word, junior brother.”

“Let’s meet again, senior brother.”

The Wicked Laughing Demon’s senior brother shouted to the disciples,

“We’re going back!”

The White Mask Sect’s disciples leaped away after him.

I was genuinely impressed by the Wicked Laughing Demon’s composed handling of the situation. I had just seen a new side of him.

—“You resolved it without a single casualty. That was the most admirable thing I’ve seen you do since we met.”

—“You found it admirable that the Wicked Laughing Demon didn’t spill blood? That feels rather strange.”

It occurred to me that perhaps he, too, was changing through his time with me.

“Imbeciles!”

As Yang Cheogi vented his fury, the Wicked Laughing Demon said teasingly,

“I seem to have been more fortunate in my senior brother than my master was.”

“Shut up!”

At Yang Cheogi’s irritated response, I added my own comment.

“They left because they dislike you. They probably only came here because you forced them to obey. Just how much must they dislike you to listen to the Laughing Demon, who left the sect ages ago? Do you think they don’t realize you’re dragging them to their deaths simply because you’re a senior in their sect? You’d be better off just dying here today.”

Yang Cheogi sneered.

“I know you killed the Sword Emperor. Did you think I would face you alone? You’ve been waiting a long time. Grotesque Demon, please come out now.”

A man emerged from a building across the street. He was an old man who had not aged gracefully. Malice filled the creases between his wrinkles, and his eyes held nothing but killing intent.

The name Grotesque Demon startled me.

He was a demonic practitioner who had learned demonic arts but did not belong to the Cult.

He was infamous for going about slaughtering people with those arts, until the Cult and the Orthodox Martial Alliance had finally cooperated to form a force to hunt him down and kill him. He had disappeared afterward, only to show himself here today.

I asked Yang Cheogi,

“Just who have you joined forces with? Who could you possibly have joined forces with for even the Grotesque Demon to pop out?”

But before I could hear his answer, the Grotesque Demon stepped forward with an icy gaze.

“Pop out? What a foul-mouthed brat. Is that how your father taught you?”

He was bringing up a parent in this situation? My father, of all people?

“It’s shameless behavior like this from old men that leaves Murim’s veterans with less and less standing. You came to kill us, yet you expect courtesy as well? Fine. I’ll observe every courtesy from now on. I greet you, Senior. Please cherish our shared bond as demonic practitioners and spare this humble junior’s life! Well, then? Will you spare me?”

The Grotesque Demon could not answer. The corner of one eye twitched.

“Then quit spouting bullshit about manners. Where the hell did you pop out from to throw this fucking fit?”

I was deliberately provoking him as harshly as I could. They had come to kill us anyway. In that case, the more I provoked him, the more advantageous it would be in battle. The higher the level of the combatants, the more inevitably emotion became a liability. That was probably why he had mentioned Father to rile me up, too.

Yang Cheogi said to the Grotesque Demon,

“Break every bone in his body. Let’s see whether he still acts so insolent then.”

“Too much trouble. Take a good look at him now. Soon, there won’t be a trace of him left.”

However wretched their characters, both men’s martial prowess approached that of the Sword Emperor, Baek Manggi. If the two of us were facing just one of them, that would be one thing, but facing both would not be easy.

It happened just then.

CLANK, CLANK.

The sound of chains came from somewhere.

I turned to see a powerfully built man emerge, a blood-red chain wrapped around his wrist and hanging down to drag along the ground.

“The Iron Chain Wielder!”

He was a villain known as the Iron Chain Wielder, a man who had once plunged Murim into terror. Countless masters had died with their bodies burst apart by that red chain of his. His imposing presence was no less than that of the Grotesque Demon who had appeared before him.

My heart sank at his arrival. Facing the first two would already have been difficult. Now that the Iron Chain Wielder had appeared as well, the odds were overwhelmingly against us.

With a sigh, I said to the Wicked Laughing Demon,

“This is all my fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Blood Heaven Saber Demon told me I would stir up trouble and wake all sorts of hidden masters. I really never imagined I would meet the Grotesque Demon and the Iron Chain Wielder here.”

“This time, I think I woke them, not you, Second Young Master.”

“Then you can take the stronger one.”

The two eyes behind his mask smiled at my refusal to forget my jokes even in this situation. It was the worst possible situation, yet strangely, knowing I was with the Wicked Laughing Demon made me feel reassured.

“Oh, but first, I should ask this.”

I looked at Yang Cheogi.

“Which one will you join to gang up on us?”

Of course, I had asked with the intention of preventing him from joining the attack.

Yang Cheogi smiled leisurely.

“You needn’t prod my pride like that. I won’t intervene. Now, I’d better take a good look at our Second Young Master’s face and body. Soon, he’ll be a bloody pulp and disappear.”

Since the Grotesque Demon intended to face me, the Iron Chain Wielder naturally became the Wicked Laughing Demon’s opponent.

I thought that was for the best. Both were formidable enemies, but I expected the Grotesque Demon to be a little stronger.

I looked at the Wicked Laughing Demon.

I did not ask whether he was confident. That would have been an insult to him. I kept my easy composure to the last.

“Let’s wager on who kills his opponent first.”

The Grotesque Demon laughed at my words. The Iron Chain Wielder laughed, and Yang Cheogi laughed too.

“I don’t know why those bastards are laughing when you haven’t even reacted.”

Only then did the Wicked Laughing Demon laugh, and finally, I laughed as well.

I drew my sword and let it hang at my side. The Wicked Laughing Demon lightly flicked the blade of the Black Demon Sword with a finger.

TING!

Listening to that clear metallic note, which carried his wish for us to fight well, I stepped forward into the most difficult battle I had faced since my regression.