Chapter 246 - Out of That Cramped, Stifling Place at Last

“I’d like to have some more fun.”

The Demonic Buddha nodded at Geom Mugeuk’s words.

“Then let’s do that.”

The Demonic Buddha had pinned all his hopes on changing Geom Mugeuk’s mind.

“But let’s leave this place. I don’t want to wander around somewhere crawling with venomous insects without the Poison King.”

“Of course.”

Geom Mugeuk and the Demonic Buddha retraced their steps. With the Poison King gone, the Demonic Buddha looked much more at ease. Apparently, he too had felt uncomfortable around the Poison King.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“You came all the way here to see me, didn’t you?”

“You’ve seemed to be having a hard time lately.”

“I haven’t swum or gone for a walk in so long. I feel much better now. How about you, Demonic Buddha?”

“I enjoyed it too.”

But the Demonic Buddha wasn’t feeling all that good. Now that even the Poison King had declared his support for Geom Mugeuk, his sense of urgency had only grown. There was just one option left: changing the mind of Geom Mugeuk himself.

“They say you need practice to know how to have fun. I wanted to have a great time with you today, but even that isn’t easy.”

The Demonic Buddha answered his candid remark.

“You’re young, so you need to do something to feel you’re having fun. At my age, resting is how you have fun.”

He paused and looked up at the sky.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve rested like this.”

Even that brief glance at the sky showed how constantly tense his life was. He looked as though he had surfaced from the depths of the sea to catch a breath. When he stood beside Mugeuk’s older brother spouting venom, he had seemed like nothing more than another vicious Demon Supreme...

“The Saber Demon always tells me to stop and rest when things get hard.”

The Demonic Buddha looked at him.

“Do I look as though I’m struggling?”

The answer was unexpected.

“Whenever I see you, I think you must have worked harder at life than anyone.”

This wasn’t the Divine Art of Flattery. He meant it.

“You’ve endured so much to get this far.”

Though the Demonic Buddha would probably take it as flattery.

This was precisely what Geom Mugeuk had been trying to do lately: say what needed to be said to someone without putting it off. The Demonic Buddha, too, would want someone to truly acknowledge his struggles, so Mugeuk had put it into words.

You’ve had a hard life, Demonic Buddha.

The Demonic Buddha could feel it—the sincerity in Geom Mugeuk’s eyes. He tried hard not to show his feelings, but a surge of emotion flashed through his gaze.

‘Damn it!’

How could someone so young look at another person with such depth in his eyes?

The Demonic Buddha started walking first, and Geom Mugeuk followed quietly. They walked in silence for a long while before stopping at a scenic spot.

“Let’s rest here for a little while.”

“Very well.”

Geom Mugeuk dipped his feet into the clear, flowing stream.

“It’s wonderfully cool. You should put your feet in too.”

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“Of what?”

“Isn’t the Thousand-Poison Forest full of poisonous creatures? Who knows what might be in that stream?”

“The Poison King told me before that there aren’t any in the flowing streams. Come on over.”

“I’ll pass.”

“When was the last time you dipped your feet in a stream?”

The Demonic Buddha couldn’t even remember. When had he done it, except as a very young child? Had he really never done it since?

“It’s my one wish! Join me just this once.”

“Have you nothing better to wish for?”

“I want to brag about it later. ‘Back in my younger days, I dipped my feet in a stream with the Demonic Buddha, went on walks with him, wagered on finding poisonous herbs. We did it all.’”

The Demonic Buddha laughed in disbelief.

“These feet have spent enough time splashing through blood. They deserve a little luxury once in a while.”

As Geom Mugeuk tugged insistently at him, the Demonic Buddha made a show of giving in, removed his shoes, and dipped his feet into the water. They were small and gleaming.

“Life certainly brings all sorts of experiences.”

It was the same for the Poison King. He had called it the strangest of strange experiences.

“Nice and cool, isn’t it?”

The Demonic Buddha stared intently at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“At times like this, you don’t seem like a young man.”

“That’s because I grew up constantly watching my father’s moods. You know what my father is like.”

“He’s not an easy man to deal with.”

Father really was a cure-all. Whenever something was hard to explain, blaming him made it at least somewhat understandable.

“When have you enjoyed yourself most in your life?”

The question made the Demonic Buddha pause to think. When had it been?

The years flowed through his mind like the stream in which his feet rested. Yet he struggled to recall any happy memories. Surely there had been some.

Instead of answering, he turned the question back on Geom Mugeuk.

“And you?”

“I’ve had quite a few happy moments recently. As you know, I’ve been running around getting involved in everything. If I had to choose just one, I enjoyed going hunting with my father.”

That was hardly the only time he had enjoyed himself. He simply didn’t tell the Demonic Buddha about his experiences with the other Demon Supremes.

“What did the Cult Leader say while you were hunting?”

“He scoffs at me every time I open my mouth. You know how he is.”

Geom Mugeuk mimicked his father’s mocking expression, and the Demonic Buddha nodded.

“That’s quite close.”

“I’ve been on the receiving end so often that I’m good at imitating it now.”

The Demonic Buddha still couldn’t recall a happy moment of his own, so Geom Mugeuk came up with more pleasures.

“I also enjoyed leaving the Cult and pretending to be someone else. Oh, and there’s Investigator Seo, my right-hand man. Teasing him is fun too. You know the sort of person who takes all your teasing? Not because he’s a fool, but because he’s bighearted. Oh, there’s someone else. Yi An—the prettiest subordinate in the Central Plains. She’s beautiful, clever, and kindhearted too. Just thinking about her makes me happy. And... I enjoy being alone in peace and quiet too.”

Even during all this, the Demonic Buddha hadn’t managed to think of anything.

“What about you?”

“Never mind me.”

“No matter how happy you were, if you can’t remember it, it just slips away, doesn’t it? What a waste that would be. Try to think of just one thing, however small.”

Geom Mugeuk was relentless.

“If it were me, I’d give some kind of answer just to stop the pestering.”

Just then, the Demonic Buddha suddenly blurted out,

“A cave.”

He had remembered his childhood, long, long ago.

“There was a mountain behind our home that I often climbed as a child. It had a small cave. I felt good when I was inside it.”

His gaze deepened.

Small from childhood, he had been different from the other children. He could endure his friends mocking and shunning him. But the fact that even his parents and siblings treated him no differently from everyone else had left a deep wound in his heart.

The day he first discovered the cave was the first day his younger brother had beaten him. He was so small that he was no match in strength even for a brother several years younger. What angered and hurt him more than the beating was that his older brothers had watched without intervening.

He wandered the mountain alone, crying.

That was how he found the cave. His small body allowed him to enter. The entrance was so narrow that even children struggled to get through, but he could manage it. Beyond it was a little space where the young Demonic Buddha could sit, and a gap through which he could see outside.

Being there soothed him and made him feel safe. From that day on, it became his hiding place.

“I remember feeling good when I was in that cave.”

Geom Mugeuk’s heart ached for him. He had asked about a happy moment, and the man had to go all the way back to his childhood?

“Could you describe the cave and the scenery around it in detail?”

“Why?”

“Just because.”

The Demonic Buddha gave a rough description, but Geom Mugeuk kept asking questions to draw out the details. He stopped only when he had heard enough to paint a picture.

“Why on earth did you ask?”

“Don’t be startled.”

SNAP!

The instant Geom Mugeuk snapped his fingers, the two of them were standing before the cave.

The Demonic Buddha was astonished. It was the cave from his childhood—his own sanctuary, where he had crawled inside to hide from the world.

“Is this an illusion?”

His voice trembled. He had known Geom Mugeuk was an exceptional martial artist, but he hadn’t known he could create illusions too.

“It’s a martial art called The Art of Space-Time Transposition.”

At Geom Mugeuk’s frank answer, the Demonic Buddha asked in a trembling voice,

“Is it perhaps the Wind Heaven Cult Leader’s art?”

“It is.”

“Ah!”

Having once been the person closest to the Wind Heaven Cult Leader, he knew about the art as well.

“He taught this to you?”

“Yes. Apart from the Wind Heaven Cult Leader, only one Demon Supreme knows I’ve learned illusion arts. It’s a secret even from my father.”

“!”

The Demonic Buddha was stunned.

“Why would you tell me a secret like this?”

“Because I had to tell you to bring you to this cave.”

The Demonic Buddha pulled his feet out of the stream and sprang to his feet.

“Second Young Master!”

He was genuinely angry.

“This is what worries me. This emotional side of you! These impulsive feelings that make you reveal a secret like this to me, your enemy!”

Still gazing at the stream, Geom Mugeuk said,

“Why are you my enemy?”

“!”

“You will be my Demon Supreme. Just like the others.”

Geom Mugeuk slowly turned his gaze toward him. Their eyes met. Seated as he was, Geom Mugeuk was at almost the same eye level as the standing Demonic Buddha.

That let the Demonic Buddha see clearly: his gaze was firmer and more intense than ever. The bantering Geom Mugeuk was gone. Here was Geom Mugeuk, the man who intended to become the next Heavenly Demon.

“Please become my Demon Supreme.”

The moment he heard those words, emotion welled up in the Demonic Buddha’s chest. The feelings swelling within him mingled with his urge to reject what he had heard.

Geom Mugeuk continued calmly.

“It’s true. There are Demon Supremes I like more. People I look up to as parents or masters, people I think of as older brothers or friends. Take the Poison King earlier—I was happy to become a dog and bark alongside him.”

“Yes, but why? Even if I’m not your enemy, as you say, I would be last in line among the Demon Supremes you cherish. Why did you tell me your secret?”

Geom Mugeuk’s gaze returned to his feet in the stream.

SPLASH, SPLASH.

Swishing his feet as though playing in the water, he answered calmly.

“To be honest, I don’t know either. Whether I ought to declare grandly, ‘This is my decisive gambit!’ or whether it’s nothing more than impulsive emotion, as you said. Or whether it’s respect for your loyalty to my older brother.”

He stopped splashing his feet.

“Or whether it’s the cheap sentimentality my father said would get me killed. I don’t really know.”

The Demonic Buddha spoke softly.

“One day, these feelings will make you commit a terrible mistake.”

“Then stop me when that day comes.”

“!”

“I’m working to build that kind of relationship with you. When I told you I’d cleaned the Poison King’s quarters, you said I should be more selective about the work I do, didn’t you? No. Even after I become the Heavenly Demon, I’ll clean the Demon Supremes’ rooms if they need it. That’s the kind of Heavenly Demon I’ll be. Stay beside that emotional Heavenly Demon and stop him. Tell him, ‘You can’t do that, you emotional fool of a Heavenly Demon!’”

After a pause, the Demonic Buddha refused.

“No.”

His loyalty to the First Young Master remained unwavering.

Neither spoke for a while. Then the Demonic Buddha suddenly said,

“Make the cave entrance bigger. I’d like to go inside. Oh, and there was a small gap at the front of the cave through which I could see the village down below.”

Geom Mugeuk changed the cave as instructed, and the Demonic Buddha crawled inside.

“Do you like it?”

“Not particularly. It’s so cramped and stifling I can barely breathe.”

What had he liked so much about this stifling cave that he had come here every day?

He gazed at the village for a while. Geom Mugeuk had recreated everything with such care that even cooking smoke rose in the distance.

After sitting like this, he used to leave the cave and stand where Geom Mugeuk was now, looking down the path that led up the mountain. He would cling to the faint hope that his mother or an older brother might come to find him and call him home to eat. Of course, that hope had never once been fulfilled.

Then one day, rather than taking the path back down, he descended the other side of the mountain and left his hometown. He had never returned.

The Demonic Buddha looked at Geom Mugeuk through the narrow gap. Mugeuk had turned to sit facing the village below.

“If you think about it, I’m sure you’ve had many happy moments. Surely an old memory like this shouldn’t be the best of them. The first time you learned martial arts, perhaps, or the day you became a Demon Supreme. There must have been a day when someone truly acknowledged you. I’m sure there were many happier days that you simply can’t remember right now. How was today? Didn’t you enjoy it?”

Golden radiance poured through the narrow gap in the cave.

“Who in the world are you?”

Still with his back turned, Geom Mugeuk replied,

“The man who will become your Heavenly Demon. So come out of that cramped, stifling place now.”

It would have been no surprise if the Demonic Buddha had begun with, “Oh, you rascal of a Second Young Master!” Instead, he emerged without a word and sat beside Geom Mugeuk.

For a while, they gazed down at the distant village. Then they looked up at the sky and saw a bird flying overhead.

“It’s that bird from before. You little rascal, I don’t envy you one bit now!”

At Geom Mugeuk’s shout, the Demonic Buddha thought he really needed to find some way to describe him other than “crazy bastard.”

Geom Mugeuk flopped onto his back.

“I’m going to lie down for a while.”

A great billowing cloud drifted across the blue sky.

“Look at that cloud. I made it myself, but isn’t it magnificent? Ah, this is nice.”

He had looked up at the sky with the Demonic Buddha several times lately, but this moment felt the most relaxed. He could sense the Demonic Buddha’s ever-taut tension easing.

Yes, this was enough. That easing was enough.

Geom Mugeuk wasn’t doing this to become the successor. He cherished the Demonic Buddha because he, too, was a man who would become his Demon Supreme. All he hoped was that these feelings would reach him.

Just then, the Demonic Buddha slowly lay back as well. Resting his head on his arms, he gazed up at the sky. Then he closed his eyes.

He remembered lying here as a child, looking up at the sky. The grass tickling his back, the birdsong and the sound of the stream he had heard then. The ants tickling his feet. Those memories merged with his present sensations and came vividly to life.

Watching a faint smile form on the Demonic Buddha’s lips, Geom Mugeuk closed his own eyes, his heart at ease.

A cool breeze blew, and sleep stole gently over him.