Chapter 206 - Will They Be the Only Ones to Refuse?

After meeting Father, I went straight to the Demon Physician’s clinic.

He was treating a patient in critical condition. The injuries must have been severe: not only the patient but everything around him was drenched in blood. The first smell to greet me on my return had been the metallic scent of the smithy. The next was the smell of blood.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I’m fine.”

I stood well back and watched him work. Covered in blood, the Demon Physician was doing everything he could to save the patient’s life.

Whether it was Gwak, the head of the smithy, or the Demon Physician, people who had reached the pinnacle of their fields gave off a similar impression. His effort and concentration, his determination to save a life, resembled Gwak’s determination to forge a fine sword.

At last, the Demon Physician finished the treatment, which had been like a battle, and walked over to me.

“Have you been waiting long?”

“Not at all. Should I really be allowed to witness the miracle of a dying man coming back to life for free?”

“He would have lived anyway.”

Could that possibly be true, after all the effort it had taken to save him? His good fortune in having the Demon Physician as his doctor had saved his life.

The Demon Physician washed his hands and face in the water he had set aside in a corner of the clinic. Seeing his painfully thin arms made my heart ache.

“I’ve used being busy as an excuse not to visit you often. I’m sorry.”

“Not at all. Seeing you now and then like this is enough. I’ve been hearing all about you. Thank you for making me feel, each time, that I made the right choice.”

“It’s all thanks to you, Medical Sage.”

“Are your eyes all right?”

“There’s nothing wrong with them. If anything, I see too well.”

“That’s a relief.”

Once I resolved to kill Yelü Han, I wanted to see him.

Part of the reason I had come to the Demon Physician was to bolster my courage after hearing Father say, [“Absolutely not!”] I wanted to tell him that I intended to kill Yelü Han, starting now, but that would have to wait until I had Father’s permission.

“Since you’re here for the first time in a while, have some tea before you go.”

“I’d love to.”

I talked with the Demon Physician about this and that. I had hoped to catch him up on everything, but another patient arrived, so I had to get up and leave.

“I’ll come visit again.”

“There’s no need. You’re busy.”

I would certainly be back soon.

* * *

The next person I visited was the Blood Heaven Saber Demon.

He had planted his great Blood Heaven Saber in the courtyard and was seated with his back against it, engaged in qi-circulation meditation. The heat of his training still lingered in the surrounding air. Even while I was off slacking with the Fist Demon, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had kept training without a break.

“Elder! I’m back.”

I greeted him excitedly, as though returning home in triumph, but he received my greeting as indifferently as if he had seen me yesterday.

“You should rest after such a long journey. Why have you come here?”

“Why else? Even if I didn’t greet anyone else, I had to come greet you. And I have something to report.”

“What report?”

I sat down facing him.

“I’ve become the Fist Demon’s disciple.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon glanced at me without saying a word.

“What’s with this flat reaction?”

“What reaction were you expecting?”

“An angry outburst: ‘You went and became his disciple without my permission?’ Or jealousy: ‘If you’re going to become someone’s disciple, it should be mine.’”

Then the Blood Heaven Saber Demon said something unexpected.

“No Demon Supreme but the Fist Demon would take you as a disciple.”

“What do you mean?”

“In terms of temperament.”

“What about you?”

“I prefer a disciple like Daeryong. One I can work as hard as I like while teaching him.”

“Ah! Poor Investigator Seo.”

“That’s the price of grabbing someone’s trouser leg without thinking.”

He said that because their master-disciple relationship had begun when Seo Daeryong got drunk at the Merry Life Tavern and grabbed the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s trouser leg.

Of course, I knew that despite the way he talked, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon cared deeply for Seo Daeryong. Otherwise, he would never have chosen him as the next Blood Heaven Saber Demon.

“With you as my disciple, I’d be sick with anger within a month.”

“I can’t deny that.”

“The Fist Demon, on the other hand, wouldn’t.”

“Why is that?”

“He’s never had any intention of driving someone hard in the first place. If the cult leader and I are fire, he’s water.”

I had thought the Fist Demon was fire, like Father, but the Blood Heaven Saber Demon saw him as water. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps being fire and water was precisely why he and Father had gotten along so well.

“To be honest, I was worried you might feel hurt.”

“Worried that a petty old man might sulk?”

“Petty? Not at all. It’s simply because you care so deeply about me.”

“Once, I would have. The man I was before I met you would certainly have felt hurt.”

“And now?”

“Now I’ve changed. Because of you.”

“Because of me?”

“How can you ask that when you’ve made it impossible for a petty old man to keep walking beside you?”

“...!”

I had never dreamed he thought that way.

“After forming a bond with you, I began to look back at myself. You never stopped challenging me. At first you irritated me, then you surprised me, and now you’re spurring me into action.”

“Is that part of why you’re training?”

“Yes. I have a feeling that if I swagger around relying on the skills I already have, I’ll be swept away by the wind and rain. You’ve already begun your ascent to the heavens.”

When we first met, he had told me that an ascending dragon was bringing wind and rain. Back then, it had only been a metaphor. Now it had become reality.

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon gazed at me with serious eyes, and I didn’t joke about being a loach as I once had. He was right. If we swaggered around trusting in our existing skills, we would all die.

That was why I had to keep moving forward.

“I’d like to use the first of my thirty-three favors.”

He blinked at my words and asked,

“Thirty-three favors? Did we have an arrangement like that?”

“Of course not. I just thought I’d need your help thirty-three times over the course of my life. I chose the number myself.”

“Who gave you the right?”

“Until you’ve granted all thirty-three favors, you’re not allowed to catch so much as a cold. Understood?”

My unreasonable demand also held my wish for him to live a long life, so the Blood Heaven Saber Demon simply gave a little chuckle, as though I was beyond help.

“What’s the favor?”

“Please persuade Father.”

“The cult leader? To do what?”

“I want permission to eliminate Yelü Han of the Unorthodox Alliance.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon wasn’t surprised. He was so calm that I wondered whether it was really possible to be that unsurprised.

“Why aren’t you surprised?”

“Because you’re a lunatic. I figured you were capable of something like this.”

“So this isn’t the wind and rain brought by an ascending dragon?”

“No. This is just madness.”

“Then please let me do this one mad thing.”

“Let me at least hear your reason. Why do you want to kill him?”

I told the Blood Heaven Saber Demon how Yelü Han’s subordinate, Ji Saeng the Golden Pig, was using Immortal Debt to lead the young people of Murim to ruin.

I couldn’t tell him about the Demon Physician’s revenge. That was a deeply personal matter.

“If that’s your reason, the cult leader won’t give his permission.”

“That’s why I’m asking you.”

After a pause, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon asked,

“If you get permission... are you confident you can kill him?”

“I’ll have to try.”

“He’s formidable enough himself, but the subordinates guarding him are no pushovers either. And if things go wrong, it could escalate into a war between the Cult and the Unorthodox Alliance.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon, too, was worried about war breaking out.

“Is it worth taking that risk?”

“Young people just stepping out into the world are deceived by those hardened scoundrels, forced to commit all kinds of evil, and ultimately die as sword fodder or take their own lives. Is it worth it? Yes, it is.”

Even apart from my promise to the Demon Physician, Yelü Han’s crimes would continue.

In my life before the regression, I had been too busy gathering materials for the great art to pay much attention to the Unorthodox Alliance. Yet even then, I had constantly heard rumors of evil deeds involving Yelü Han’s subordinates.

If fate had placed me before him at this point, I believed it was right to deal with him now.

“Why was someone like you born in the Cult, rather than as the Martial Alliance Leader’s son?”

“Probably so I wouldn’t have to fight you.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon sighed softly.

“There’s someone in the Unorthodox Alliance who will help me.”

“Who?”

“Bi Sain, the Unorthodox Alliance’s successor.”

Bi Sain would certainly help me, if only to repay his debt from our past dealings, and he would make an excellent ally.

After considering it for a moment, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon said the same thing the Fist Demon had.

“To change the cult leader’s mind, all eight Demon Supremes will have to step forward. If you demonstrate that much ability, he’ll have grounds to relent.”

My heart grew heavy, since this was the opinion of the two people who knew Father best.

“Getting all Eight Demon Supremes will be difficult. For a start, the Demonic Buddha and the Poison King support my older brother. They won’t help me.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon pulled his saber out of the ground and said,

“Will those two really be the only ones to refuse?”

As he went into his house, he added,

“Perhaps the true test of your relationships begins now.”

* * *

It was just as the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had predicted.

The Single Flower Sword Supreme refused at once. Her refusal was as clean as her swordsmanship.

“I can’t do that.”

Her reason was equally clean-cut.

“Second Young Master, I’ll be honest because it’s you. I don’t want to fall out of the cult leader’s favor over something like this.”

I could understand. Ever since her youth, her respect for Father had been greater than anyone’s. She didn’t want to go out of her way to ask him for something he would never allow.

“I understand, Senior.”

To be honest, I had expected her refusal to some extent. I felt that I was a step more distant from her than from the other Demon Supremes. Apart from sparring, I’d never had an opportunity to build a deep personal relationship with her.

“Are you hurt?”

If I answered too earnestly, I would only make her feel genuinely hurt.

“Yes, I am. How could you!”

The Single Flower Sword Supreme smiled.

“Please understand.”

Only then did I smile to show that I had been half joking, half serious.

“I do understand. Father is hardly an ordinary man, is he? I know how much pressure you must feel, Senior.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“I’m sorry, but this might not be the end of it. I may come back to try to persuade you again.”

“Feel free.”

But getting someone I considered a step closer to me to agree wasn’t easy either.

The next person I visited was the Drunken Demon. The moment I asked him to persuade Father, he suddenly started pretending to be drunk.

“Ah! The drink’s suddenly gone to my head.”

He put his head down on the drinking table and pretended to fall asleep.

When I drank in silence, he spoke without lifting his head.

“I’ll grant any other request. What can I do for you? I’ll buy you drinks for the rest of your life if you want. Should I lend you money? Go to Villains’ Valley and beat those bastards up again?”

“Forget all that. Persuade Father.”

At that, the Drunken Demon sprang up from the table and plunged into the lake.

He swam madly from one end of the lake to the other, then climbed back into the pavilion. Dripping wet, he sat in his original seat and declared with grim resolve,

“I’d rather give up drinking.”

The Drunken Demon offering to quit drinking? I could only laugh in disbelief.

“Is it that difficult?”

“What do you think the cult leader will think if I go to him? ‘Look at this bastard. He knows perfectly well that I’m against it, yet he comes here to try to persuade me?’ He already dislikes me as it is.”

“Why would Father dislike you, Brother?”

“He does. The cult leader dislikes drunks, and he dislikes people who use poison. He’s a man with very clear likes and dislikes. I can’t do it! Absolutely not! I’m sorry, little brother.”

I stopped pestering him. Another matter might have been different, but this involved Father. How could I not understand? Even if Father hadn’t been the reason, I couldn’t force someone to do something they didn’t want to do.

“If you’re sorry, no drinking for ten days starting today!”

“I won’t drink! I’m sorry!”

“What do you have to be sorry for, Brother? I’m the one who should apologize for pestering you with an unreasonable request.”

“This mustn’t come between us!”

“Brother, it’s not my asking a favor or your refusing it that would damage our relationship.”

“Then what would?”

“Not being honest. All you have to do is tell me honestly, as you just did, ‘I can’t do it for this reason.’ But imagine you’d said yes just to spare my feelings. Trying to do something you don’t want to do would leave you irritated and seething. Eventually, you’d come to hate me too.”

The Drunken Demon nodded with an expression that said that was exactly what would have happened.

“You were right to refuse, Brother. I’m going to ask you for plenty of favors in the future. Come help me beat someone up. I’m lonely, so have a drink with me. Help me persuade someone. You have to be just as honest with me then. Never think, ‘I turned him down last time, so I have to force myself to do it this time!’ That’s when a rift would open between us. Understood?”

After gazing quietly at me, the Drunken Demon said,

“From today onward, you be the older brother. I mean it.”

“No, thank you. How can you say that to a little brother who lives for the pleasure of teasing you, Brother?”

“Good grief. I’m the most embarrassing older brother in the world.”

“Anything else might be different, but being afraid of Father is nothing to be ashamed of. I’m off. I’ll probably come back about this again. See you then.”

With that, I left the Drunken Demon’s residence.

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon had been right. Perhaps persuading the Demon Supremes would be harder than persuading Father.

Even the Single Flower Sword Supreme and the Drunken Demon, whom I considered on my side, were difficult to persuade, yet Father would only give permission if all eight went to speak to him? A sigh escaped me, but this was no time to despair. It was time to find a way.

My next destination was the home of my comrade in battle. I wondered how he would react.