Chapter 238 - Now It’s My Turn

“Laughing Demon!”

I launched myself toward the Wicked Laughing Demon with Flicker Step. Fortunately, I caught him before he fell.

After laying him down comfortably, I sent a thread of internal energy into his chest to examine him. His qi and blood had become blocked and twisted, leaving him with severe internal injuries.

It was worse than I had expected. Just as I tried to channel energy into him to treat him, my heart sank. Using Return to Heaven had depleted my internal energy.

I wrung together what little internal energy remained in my body. A small amount flowed into the Wicked Laughing Demon once more. I carefully tried to clear the blockage, but I lacked the energy. If I left him like this, his qi and blood would run wild, and there would be no reversing it.

Before I knew it, my heart was pounding with mounting urgency. When I drew on every last scrap of internal energy, blood surged into my throat. Between the wounds I had suffered fighting Yelü Han and the strain on my mind and body, I was far from well myself. But this was no time to look after myself.

As I did everything I could to stabilize his insides, the Wicked Laughing Demon regained consciousness and opened his eyes.

I spoke in my usual cheerful tone.

“That was one hell of a fight, wasn’t it?”

The eyes behind his mask smiled. Without him, neither that magnificent battle nor its magnificent outcome would have been possible.

“... Yes. It truly was.”

His voice was weak, unlike usual. He sensed that his end was near.

“Second Young Master.”

“Yes, Laughing Demon?”

“... I’m glad I met you.”

Just as his eyes began to drift shut, I squeezed out the absolute last of my energy and channeled it into him. Like a drop of water in the desert, that tiny handful of energy kept his life hanging by a thread.

“You have to protect me when I become the Heavenly Demon.”

His eyes trembled. Filled with sorrow, they told me he was sorry. Sorry he would leave without seeing me become the Heavenly Demon.

“You know what I’m like, don’t you? You know I’ll never give up on you. Unless you intend to take me with you, hold on. I won’t let you go like this. Stay with me.”

He tried not to give up, too, but this was beyond his control.

“If you die like this, I’ll blame myself for the rest of my life. So don’t die!”

Suddenly, he choked and spat blood. His qi and blood were beginning to run wild. If I couldn’t calm them, he would die.

“No!”

The thought that he might truly die was driving me mad.

“Please! Laughing Demon! Hold on!”

I wrung out my energy again and again. All I could think of was saving him somehow. I had returned to the past so I wouldn’t lose anyone... I couldn’t lose him like this.

But there was no energy left, and his convulsions grew worse.

Suddenly, my vision blurred. Tears had filled my eyes.

Had I ever cried before?

Then the Wicked Laughing Demon took my hand. He must have realized how deeply I cared about him. Now I knew, too. I knew just how deeply I cared.

He slowly raised his hand toward his mask. He wanted to show me his face one last time.

Through the eyeholes, his eyes were smiling—more brightly than they ever had before.

I caught his hand, stopping him from removing the mask.

“I won’t look! I think you might be better-looking than me, so I won’t look at your face! Show me in fifty years!”

He laughed, then vomited blood again. Summoning his strength one last time, he left me these words.

“You... will be a good Heavenly Demon.”

Even as the life faded from him, he smiled at me to the very end.

“I don’t regret the time I spent with you.”

For the first time, I prayed to heaven.

‘Please spare him!’

When I wandered all across the Central Plains, unable to find the materials for the grand art; when I was so lonely and exhausted that I wanted to die; when danger brought me to the brink of death... I had never prayed to heaven.

But now, for the first time in my life, I begged.

‘Please! Spare him! Help me just this once!’

It happened just then.

THUD.

Something fell to the ground from the robes of Yelü Han’s corpse, still seated with its head hanging down. It was a box.

When I saw what protruded from the open box, I rushed toward it.

Astonishingly, it was ten-thousand-year snow ginseng. He must have brought it as a birthday gift for the Divine Sword of Five Thunders.

‘With this!’

I brought it back, propped the Wicked Laughing Demon into a sitting position, and placed the ginseng in his mouth.

“Use its energy to hold on! Just hold on until I finish one full circulation!”

Normally, this was something I should never have done. Taking an elixir as potent as ten-thousand-year snow ginseng with such severe internal injuries would only damage his body further.

But this was the only way. I trusted the ginseng, and I trusted the Wicked Laughing Demon.

“Laughing Demon, use the last of your strength to chew and swallow it!”

Our eyes met.

‘Don’t give up!’

He struggled to chew and swallow the ginseng.

I immediately sent my true qi through a full circuit. It was the most desperate qi circulation of my life. The time felt unbearably long.

‘Please! Please!’

I must have said “please” more times today than in the rest of my life combined.

After completing the fastest full circulation of true qi in my life, I channeled energy into him again and examined his body.

Thank goodness. He had succeeded in using the ginseng’s energy to keep his qi and blood from running wild. But he hadn’t assimilated that energy into his internal energy. He had merely used its enormous power to suppress them temporarily.

They could run wild again at any moment. I had to get him to the Demon Physician as quickly as possible.

“Thank you, Laughing Demon.”

My voice was thick with tears. I was grateful to him. Grateful that he had held on. Truly grateful that our bond was such that I could give him ten-thousand-year snow ginseng and still be the one thanking him.

His eyes spoke to me.

‘Thank you, Second Young Master.’

What more needed to be said?

I unwrapped the supreme-grade heavenly silkworm silk from his chest and mine. Then I hoisted him onto my back and bound him securely with it.

He had done his part. Now it was my turn.

Who said you could leave, Laughing Demon? On the day trash like Yelü Han boards the boat to the afterlife, do you think I’d send you aboard it, too?

I enveloped him in my qi to keep him comfortable and prevent his body from jostling, then began to run.

I ran with everything I had, feeling as though I had learned Swift Step for this very moment.

* * *

Bi Sain sat in front of the estate’s main gate. First Wolf, Baek Cheolgi, arrived there.

“You mustn’t go about alone like this. You promised you wouldn’t.”

“Please let it slide just this once.”

Bi Sain had summoned only First Wolf. He was the one person in the world Bi Sain trusted.

First Wolf looked toward the estate behind him. Judging by the smell of blood drifting through the broken walls, a fierce battle had undoubtedly taken place here.

“Whatever you see inside, try not to be too shocked.”

“That isn’t the blood of just one or two people. What is this place?”

Bi Sain answered quietly.

“The place where my future will be decided.”

Heading inside, First Wolf said,

“Then mine will be decided here, too.”

The place was a sea of blood, with all the traces of the fierce battle still intact.

Looking around, First Wolf spotted Yelü Han’s corpse and was horrified.

‘Yelü Han!’

So stunned was he that he stared blankly down at the corpse for a moment. Even seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn’t believe it.

Yelü Han was dead? That Yelü Han?

Truly, that one phrase said everything necessary about him. That Yelü Han.

And that wasn’t all. Another corpse caught his eye.

‘Even the Divine Sword of Five Thunders!’

The Divine Sword of Five Thunders.

He already knew the man was allied with Yelü Han. He didn’t know whether he was stronger or weaker, but one thing was certain: to measure his strength, Yelü Han had to be the benchmark.

‘He died with his torso split in two?’

It was truly a sight difficult to believe even with his own eyes.

Nor did the shocks end there. He was startled by the Blood Wheel lying on the ground.

‘That weapon is the Blood Wheel. The only person who uses it is the Blood-Wheel Calamity, isn’t it?’

After identifying the Blood-Wheel Calamity, First Wolf recognized the Three Evils as well.

‘Triplets who would associate with these men—the Three Evils!’

By now, even Cha Hwan’s death hardly came as a surprise.

First Wolf came back out of the estate. Bi Sain was still sitting before the main gate.

“What in the world happened here?”

“Sit down.”

First Wolf sat beside him. His pounding heart still hadn’t settled.

“These men could have declared war on the Orthodox Martial Alliance.”

It was an exaggeration, certainly, but no empty boast. If these men attacked, what sect in Murim could possibly stop them?

When Bi Sain first saw this scene, he had been just as shocked as First Wolf. Even when Geom Mugeuk said he would kill Yelü Han, a doubt had lingered in a corner of his mind: Could he really kill him?

Yet he had truly done it.

The man who had accomplished this unbelievable feat was the same man who nagged him to eat a balanced diet.

‘You really are something!’

It struck him anew that Geom Mugeuk was the Heavenly Demon’s son. And he had accomplished something no successor in history could have done.

“Who on earth did this?”

Bi Sain answered First Wolf’s question.

“I did.”

“What?”

First Wolf was startled.

“We’ll handle this as my doing.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. I promised to take care of the aftermath.”

“Who actually killed them?”

“You don’t need to know that. For your own sake, it’s better that you don’t.”

First Wolf was confused, but that wasn’t what mattered now.

“Very well. Let’s say that’s settled. But will the alliance leader believe you killed Yelü Han?”

“That’s why I called you here.”

“What?”

“We have to deal with the aftermath now. Work out how to make him believe I eliminated Yelü Han.”

First Wolf understood. Just as Bi Sain had said earlier, his future and fate depended on this.

“My lifelong nemesis is dead, but my fight is only beginning.”

Bi Sain imagined the Demonic Cult invading someday. Could he possibly repel a Demonic Cult whose Heavenly Demon was Geom Mugeuk?

And where did this groundless certainty that such a thing would never happen come from?

Bi Sain wanted to see Geom Mugeuk. Fearsome as the man was, he wanted to see him. He wanted to hear his frivolous banter.

‘Well? I told you to leave this to me, didn’t I? Now it’s your turn. I believe you’ll do well. Eat a balanced diet!’

He could almost hear his voice.

When he became the leader of the Unorthodox Alliance, he wanted to tell him what his own unorthodox path was like.

‘So you must become the Heavenly Demon, too.’

* * *

Even after night fell, Geom Mugeuk and the Wicked Laughing Demon hadn’t returned. Too anxious to leave, Seo Daeryong remained in the courtyard.

Then the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion came outside.

“Perhaps they’re having a drink to celebrate killing Yelü Han before coming back.”

At Seo Daeryong’s absurd joke, the mistress smiled and replied,

“Perhaps they are.”

She actually looked calmer than he did.

“Have you had another dream, by any chance?”

“No.”

“But you look at ease.”

“You told me it wouldn’t work on them, Investigator Seo.”

Seo Daeryong gave a small sigh.

“That was before the sun went down.”

The mistress asked him,

“Are you worried?”

“The Pavilion Master has never failed to return on time. He always opens the gate and strides in as though nothing happened.”

Just then, someone opened the gate and entered. Seo Daeryong and the mistress turned in surprise, but disappointingly, it was a Demonic Cult martial artist who managed the safe house.

“An urgent dispatch from Heaven-Reaching Pavilion.”

Startled, Seo Daeryong hurriedly took the dispatch and read it.

“The Pavilion Master has gone ahead to the Cult because the Laughing Demon was injured.”

The mistress’s expression froze. Looking at her, Seo Daeryong added carefully,

“It doesn’t report how badly he was hurt.”

Then the Poison King walked out from behind them and spoke.

“He must be badly hurt, if they went straight to the Cult.”

He offered her no reassuring words.

“Prepare to leave immediately.”

“Yes.”

Seo Daeryong was worried about the mistress, but having received the Poison King’s orders, he hurried to act.

Seeing the worry that filled her face, the Poison King suddenly made an unexpected suggestion.

“Come with us.”

His words startled her.

“You’ve never visited the Cult, have you?”

“No, I haven’t, but...”

“Then come take a look.”

The mistress understood. Though he didn’t say it aloud, the Poison King was telling her:

‘It may be your last chance. Go and see him.’

She bowed respectfully and said,

“I will accept your gracious invitation. Thank you so much for your great consideration.”

“Not at all. He’ll be glad to see you there when he wakes up, too.”

“I’ll be fortunate if he doesn’t scold me for daring to come.”

“Surely you know better than anyone that he would never do that?”

The Poison King snapped his fan open and gently waved it as he went inside to pack. Watching his retreating back, the mistress bowed once more.

Then she went straight inside to say goodbye to the rescued women. The safe house’s martial artists would see them safely home.

A little later, the three of them boarded the carriage. From the driver’s seat, Seo Daeryong called out,

“All right, we’re leaving.”

The mistress’s gaze deepened as she looked out of the carriage. She was worried about the Wicked Laughing Demon. She wanted so badly to see him. Though she could see many things, she could sense nothing about his fate.

Times like these made her angry. She could see other people’s fates so clearly, yet so often she couldn’t see her own.

Was she afraid to go to the Demonic Cult? Of course not. If it meant seeing the Wicked Laughing Demon, she would have boarded without hesitation even if the carriage were bound for hell.

‘Dear brother, don’t die.’

And now she meant the words she had always said to Geom Mugeuk as a joke.

‘Please take good care of my dear brother.’

The man holding the reins understood her feelings better than anyone, and the carriage began racing toward the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon faster than ever before.