Chapter 282 - What Kind of Person Are You?

Had he been this excited at any time recently? His heart thrashed like mad.

Hwa Mugi.

At last, the moment had come to see a fragment of you.

Where are you now, and what are you doing? How strong are you at this point?

At the thought of him, rage boiled through his entire body like lava. Had that violent emotion been sensed?

SSSSSH.

Branches reached toward Geom Mugeuk from every direction, closing in as if to crush him. With hundreds, thousands of branches, this was an assault he could neither evade nor cut down in its entirety.

At that very moment!

SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

Something appeared in each of the four directions around Geom Mugeuk—front, back, left, and right. Astonishingly, they were the four evil spirits of Human Annihilation, the first form of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

When the evil spirits blocked the way like shields, the branches dared not attack and drew back. They had been frightened by the vicious force the spirits exuded.

Geom Mugeuk had never imagined that the four evil spirits would appear within the Wood King's qi presence to protect him. Those terrifying, handsome, mysterious, and clever spirits. If even they were capable of this much, what might the Heavenly Demon's Soul be like?

At the same time, Baek Cheongyeong was sinking into the abyss.

'Such a qi presence at his age?'

No matter how far he ventured, there was no end. Just as Geom Mugeuk had walked endlessly into the forest, he swam down into an endless abyss.

He wondered what lay at the end of that darkness.

His instincts tried to stop him, warning that going any deeper was dangerous. But Baek Cheongyeong simply could not contain his curiosity. He had a premonition that something tremendous lay deep within that darkness.

He was beginning to suffocate, and the mounting pressure felt as though it would burst his body, yet he continued downward.

At the very moment he was about to give up, thinking he could endure no more, he felt the world flick off and back on.

Baek Cheongyeong stood in the middle of a battlefield. Blood flowed like a river, and corpses lay strewn everywhere. There were human corpses, evil spirits, and demons. No one was alive. No—there was one man.

A man stood with his back turned, gazing up at the sky.

Was it Geom Mugeuk?

But the man's back was one that only someone who had overcome every hardship in the world could possess. Young as Geom Mugeuk was, Baek Cheongyeong thought that even the Demonic Cult's young lord could not have a back that carried such a weight of years.

Then who was he?

Just as he tilted his head in puzzlement, that space vanished, and Baek Cheongyeong was back in the depths of the abyss.

WHOOOOSH.

Then he was dragged toward the surface at a terrifying speed. The moment the abyss spat him out, Geom Mugeuk's qi presence vanished.

Baek Cheongyeong's qi presence disappeared at the same time.

Geom Mugeuk, who had been in the forest, and Baek Cheongyeong, who had been underwater, both returned to reality.

The two stared at each other in silence.

Geom Mugeuk's heart was still surging with emotion.

You who once followed Hwa Mugi.

What are you doing here now?

There was so much he wanted to ask. But he could not ask any of it.

Whether he killed the man, let him live, or investigated his background, he had to proceed cautiously now that Hwa Mugi was involved.

Replacing his seething anger with an easy smile, Geom Mugeuk greeted him first.

"I am Geom Mugeuk, from the Divine Cult."

"Baek Cheongyeong."

He gave only his name, without any explanation.

"Your disciple told me about you on the way here."

Baek Cheongyeong's gaze turned to Jin Hagun. Hagun tensed inwardly, worried about what Geom Mugeuk might say.

"What did he say?"

"That you are the person he trusts most."

Baek Cheongyeong's gaze shifted from Jin Hagun back to Geom Mugeuk.

"I hear you came to see Haryeong?"

"I have traveled a long way to seek the woman I love."

To Baek Cheongyeong, that sounded like a joke, so he fixed his small, narrow eyes on Geom Mugeuk's. As he looked into those deep eyes, the back of the man he had seen within the qi presence seemed to overlap with Geom Mugeuk.

This bright young man looked so different from the man in that vision.

'Who was that man?'

Baek Cheongyeong walked over to the table where he received guests.

"Sit down. Now that I have a guest, I ought to serve some tea."

"I'll make it, Master."

"I will do it. Stay seated."

"Yes, Master."

Jin Hagun sat down with Geom Mugeuk, avoiding eye contact with him altogether. Concentrating entirely on his role for the day, he paid close attention to the undercurrents passing between Geom Mugeuk and his master.

Baek Cheongyeong brought the tea.

"Thank you."

Geom Mugeuk tasted the tea he had made. Seeing him drink without even checking for poison, Baek Cheongyeong asked,

"What would you do if it were poisoned?"

"Did you poison it?"

He took another sip as he spoke.

Jin Hagun could sense it: a peculiar battle of nerves was unfolding beneath this seemingly trivial conversation.

Geom Mugeuk looked around the workshop as he drank his tea.

"You enjoy woodcraft, I see."

Baek Cheongyeong's carvings decorated the workshop. A mysterious energy emanated from them here and there, something Geom Mugeuk could never have sensed without learning the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

He would have to fight to discover how that carved wooden tiger might transform and spring at him.

Then his gaze turned to a display stand covered with a black cloth.

"What is underneath that? May I take a look?"

When Baek Cheongyeong said nothing, Geom Mugeuk rose and walked over. Since the man still did not stop him, he took it as permission.

He pulled the cloth off the display stand.

The figurines were still engaged in battle, but Jin Hagun noticed a change.

'The figurines have been moved!'

The hero figurine his master had called Geom Mugeuk was on the opposite side, right beside the fallen Jin Hagun figurine.

A new figurine stood where the hero had originally been. Judging by its appearance and features, it was unmistakably Baek Cheongyeong himself.

Ultimately, Baek Cheongyeong was speaking through the figurines. He believed Geom Mugeuk and Jin Hagun were on the same side.

Once the cloth had been lifted, Baek Cheongyeong revealed his true thoughts.

"Young lord, have you come to kill me?"

He did not believe Geom Mugeuk had come because of Jin Haryeong. It was a question he could ask only if he thought he himself was the target.

Geom Mugeuk was not flustered by the sudden question.

"If that is what you thought, why did you agree to meet me?"

"If the Demonic Cult seeks to kill me, where in the martial world could I hide?"

When Baek Cheongyeong looked at him, Jin Hagun let his sense of injustice show.

"You refuse to trust me to the very end."

Geom Mugeuk spoke while examining the figurines on the display stand.

"That must be because your master has never truly loved a woman. Do not worry. I came to the Orthodox Martial Alliance only to see Miss Jin. If I intended to kill you, would I have gone through such an unnecessarily complicated process? Do not forget which organization I am the young lord of."

That was also why this meeting had been arranged: Baek Cheongyeong wanted to know exactly what Geom Mugeuk intended.

"Incidentally, these figurines are exquisitely made."

Geom Mugeuk stooped to inspect them closely.

"They look as though they might come to life and leap out at any moment."

Geom Mugeuk knew. These small wooden figurines were more fearsome than any other crafted object in the room. The man was not making figurines; he was carving subordinates. Surely these were not all he had carved over his lifetime.

Then Geom Mugeuk pointed to one figurine and asked,

"Who is this figurine?"

Seeing the figurines on this display stand for the first time, he had pointed neither to the hero nor to Jin Hagun, nor even to the Baek Cheongyeong figurine facing them. It was one of the countless figurines standing around them.

"This is the only one without a carved face."

It was the faceless figurine he had seen within Baek Cheongyeong's qi presence. It undoubtedly held some significance.

"Who did you model it after? Yourself?"

Surprise flickered across Baek Cheongyeong's face. Apparently, he was astonished that Geom Mugeuk had singled out that particular figurine among so many.

"It could be anyone."

At his answer, Geom Mugeuk bent down to inspect the figurine more closely.

"This seems to be the only one who is not caught up in the fighting."

Though it had no expression, the figurine conveyed a sense of ease.

Behind him, Baek Cheongyeong asked,

"Where there are people fighting, there are also people watching like that. Are you someone who fights, or someone who watches?"

After studying the figurines for a moment, Geom Mugeuk picked one up. It was the Jin Hagun figurine lying beside the hero.

He looked back and forth between the figurine and Jin Hagun. Anyone could tell it had been modeled after him.

Geom Mugeuk stood it upright beside the hero figurine.

He had shown directly that he was neither someone who fought nor someone who watched, but someone who helped others stand back up.

Jin Hagun stared at his figurine, now standing upright. It was nothing, yet for some reason emotion welled up in him.

No, it had never been nothing. The master who had taught him for ten years had made a figurine of him, then left it lying fallen.

"Thank you for letting me look."

Geom Mugeuk covered the display with its original cloth, then turned to Baek Cheongyeong.

"I came today only because the Demon-Slaying Squad commander here insisted that I meet you before seeing Miss Jin. Now, say what you have to say. I must be off to see her."

Jin Hagun sent Baek Cheongyeong a sound transmission.

"Master, speak firmly enough to frighten him."

Even after that transmission, Baek Cheongyeong said nothing. Instead, he turned his gaze away from the two and looked out the window.

"If you have nothing to say, I shall take my leave."

Geom Mugeuk walked out without hesitation.

Jin Hagun intended to stay and demand why his master had said nothing, but Baek Cheongyeong kept his eyes on the window. It was a dismissal, telling him to leave without being a nuisance, so Hagun quietly left as well.

Outside, he began walking with Geom Mugeuk. Once they were some distance from the workshop, he finally asked,

"Is he someone who should be killed, or allowed to live?"

Jin Hagun wanted to know what Geom Mugeuk thought of his master.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't trust my word?"

"I will merely take it into consideration."

Of course, he was someone who had to be killed.

But instead of answering, Geom Mugeuk showed Jin Hagun what he held in his hand.

"When did you take that out?"

Hagun was startled because Geom Mugeuk had brought out a figurine from the display—the very one without a face.

"Why did you take it?"

Geom Mugeuk studied the figurine intently.

"Aren't you curious whom he had in mind when he made it?"

"If you were curious, you should have left it there."

"I think I might carve its face myself."

"What?"

What on earth was he talking about? To Jin Hagun, Geom Mugeuk truly was a man he could understand one moment and find incomprehensible the next.

"One thing is certain: your master is no ordinary man. At the very least, I felt certain that he is not someone who should be the master of the Martial Alliance Leader's grandson."

"Did you exchange sound transmissions with him?"

Geom Mugeuk shook his head.

"Then what on earth did you see in him that made you think that?"

"Honestly, after meeting him just once like this, I still cannot tell whether he is an evil man, and thus someone who should be killed."

Of course, the man would die by his hand. It was only a question of when and how.

"But there was certainly a problem with his attitude toward you."

Geom Mugeuk pointed out what Jin Hagun would find easiest to accept.

"The way he looked at you and treated you was not that of a master toward a disciple. He was cold and unfeeling. Even if you had made a grave mistake, he should have shielded you from blame in front of an outsider. Yet your master focused only on me. No—on himself, I suppose. That man does not regard you as his disciple."

Jin Hagun had thought that hearing a conclusion, whatever it was, would put his mind at ease. But he felt no different.

This time, Geom Mugeuk asked,

"What did you think of the master you saw? You must have had much on your mind as well."

Jin Hagun told him honestly how he felt.

"I don't know. I still suspect my master, and I still suspect you."

That was precisely why he felt lost. He had sensed a change in his master, and his instincts had warned him of danger, but he had summoned Geom Mugeuk without any proof that his master was a bad man. Was he being used? Had he misjudged the situation? Those thoughts kept trapping him in a fog.

Looking as though he understood, Geom Mugeuk said calmly,

"That is why a definite enemy is better than an uncertain friend."

Jin Hagun realized that he was struggling because he did not know who was a friend and who was an enemy. Why did the person opening his eyes like this have to be the Demonic Cult's young lord?

Geom Mugeuk stopped at a fork in the path.

"Go on ahead. There is somewhere I need to visit briefly."

"Where are you going?"

Instead of answering, Geom Mugeuk said something unexpected.

"When I said I never lose my way because I have a good sense of direction, that was a lie."

This was what he wanted to tell Jin Hagun.

"I flounder and wander, and I often lose my way too. Perhaps that is why I don't much like people who loudly insist... that their path is unquestionably right."

"Why are you telling me that all of a sudden?"

"It just came to mind."

With that, Geom Mugeuk launched himself away using his lightness arts.

Watching him shrink to a dot and vanish in an instant, Jin Hagun looked up at the sky. He recalled what Geom Mugeuk had said. To find your way, ask people, look up at the sky, and if even that fails...

Thinking that this was madness, he took off a shoe.

Then he tossed it into the air. When it landed, it pointed in the direction Geom Mugeuk had just disappeared.

'Of all directions.'

Even chance was telling him that following Geom Mugeuk was the right choice? Not a chance. The first round was always practice.

Jin Hagun tossed the shoe again, higher than before. But the coincidence repeated itself. He tossed it again, and again.

Only when it finally pointed in the direction he wanted to go did he put it back on.

"As if you ever floundered or wandered. Don't try to comfort me for nothing. I will find my way by my own strength."

Jin Hagun strode briskly toward his quarters.

Though he tried not to think about it, he kept remembering his figurine, which had lain fallen and then been stood back up.