Chapter 283 - Whose Place Is This?

Moonlight settled over the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon’s safe house.

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon had planted his Heaven-Destroying Great Saber in the courtyard and was drinking as he leaned against it. Nothing, after all, put him in a better mood than drinking with his back against that saber.

Just then, a welcome voice came from behind him.

“You always have a book in your hand. How come it’s a wine cup today?”

A smile formed on the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s lips as he drank.

Geom Mugeuk sat down beside him. At first, he had always sat across from him, but now sitting side by side felt more comfortable.

“Pour me a cup, too.”

He drank the liquor the Blood Heaven Saber Demon handed him.

“Ah, that’s good.”

“Aren’t you busy with things over there?”

“No matter how busy I am, I have to see the people I miss. You’ve been bored without me, haven’t you?”

“If I’m bored, I can read. If I’m still bored, I can drink.”

“Where’s my master?”

“He’s training in the backyard.”

Apparently, he was training alone because he couldn’t attend the Late-Night Training Group. Come to think of it, Cheon Sohui must be training by herself, too. No, perhaps she was enjoying her freedom and having fun.

“What’s troubling you?”

How perceptive he was.

“Can you read the secrets of heaven or something?”

“An old man ought to have some intuition, at least. Why? Has all of orthodox Murim mobilized to capture you? Are they setting up an all-encompassing net?”

“If only. Then I wouldn’t have anything to worry about. All I’d have to say is, ‘Run, Elder!’”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon was the person I sought out when my thoughts grew tangled. Not because I wanted an answer, but because simply being with him like this put me at ease. Often, talking things over with him helped me find an answer, too.

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon spoke as he filled my cup.

“Don’t try so hard to do everything perfectly.”

“Is that how I look?”

He nodded. I must have grown tense without realizing it. Since this involved Hwa Mugi, I was being very cautious.

“When you die someday, do you think you’ll be thinking, ‘I should have done better back then’? Not a chance. ‘I should have seen that person one more time. I should have said one more kind word.’ That’s how people die. That’s life.”

The more I learned about the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, the more unexpected sides of him I saw.

When I first met him, could I ever have imagined him saying something like this? Of course, meeting me had changed him in some ways, but I thought it was all his reading that enabled him to say things like that.

“Then I’m doing well. I came to see you so I wouldn’t have any regrets, Elder.”

Though pleased inwardly, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon didn’t forget his usual remark.

“As if you ever think about me. You’re too busy thinking about that mask fanatic, that booze fanatic, that fist fanatic, and that sparring fanatic.”

Geom Mugeuk laughed and looked up at the moon.

“Perhaps that big saber is blocking your view, but you’re always at the very front of that line, Elder.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon laughed, too, and joined him in gazing up at the moon.

“What do you think you’ll regret most, Elder?”

His gaze deepened slightly. Was he remembering his youth, when things might have worked out with the Single Flower Sword Supreme? Or some other lingering attachment he couldn’t speak of?

“I have neither regrets nor lingering attachments.”

A faint smile formed on Geom Mugeuk’s lips. Yes, I hoped he would live without regrets. Not merely a life he claimed was without regrets, but one truly free of them.

“I met Jin Hagun’s master today.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s gaze sharpened at Geom Mugeuk’s words. He knew Baek Cheongyeong held the key to this affair.

“How was he?”

“No ordinary man. In either his scheming or his martial arts.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon nodded.

“If he were, we’d have had no reason to come all this way.”

“However we deal with him, I think we’ll have to be careful.”

“It won’t be easy. You may be careful, but your opponent won’t be.”

“What do you mean?”

Then the Blood Heaven Saber Demon said something unexpected.

“Anyone who makes an enemy of you will inevitably grow anxious and afraid.”

“It feels good to hear you praise me for the first time in a while. Give me some more! Don’t worry, I won’t get conceited.”

“You could stand to be a little conceited.”

Geom Mugeuk laughed aloud, and the Blood Heaven Saber Demon laughed with him.

The two drank.

It would have been nice to do nothing but enjoy their drinks like this, but Geom Mugeuk had come for a reason today.

He took something out of his robes.

“Have you ever seen this?”

It was the figurine he had taken from Baek Cheongyeong’s workshop.

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon shook his head.

“An unpleasant-looking fellow.”

With its perfectly carved body and blank face, it must have looked all the more unsettling.

“Do you happen to know about the Wooden Form Thousand Souls Art?”

The mention of the Wooden Form Thousand Souls Art startled the Blood Heaven Saber Demon. His gaze immediately turned to the wooden figurine.

“Don’t tell me this figurine is used in that art?”

As expected, he knew about the Wooden Form Thousand Souls Art. His information and knowledge about Murim’s various sects and martial arts were exceptional.

“Baek Cheongyeong practices it. He carved this figurine, too.”

“Impossible!”

There was a reason for the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s surprise.

“The Wooden Form Thousand Souls Art belonged to a mysterious sect called the Wood Heaven Clan. But that clan was wiped out. You’re telling me someone who practices their art is still alive?”

“Wiped out?”

Geom Mugeuk knew about the Wooden Form Thousand Souls Art, but he hadn’t known that its clan had been destroyed.

“More than ten years ago.”

“How did it happen?”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon shook his head.

“Almost nothing is known about it. As befitted a mysterious sect, even their end was shrouded in secrecy.”

Baek Cheongyeong was a scion of the destroyed Wood Heaven Clan? An unexpected fact had just come to light.

“The master of the Martial Alliance Leader’s grandson is a scion of the destroyed Wood Heaven Clan? That’s certainly no ordinary matter.”

“Jin Hagun knows nothing about it. I suspect the Martial Alliance Leader doesn’t know, either.”

“I’ve heard the Wood Heaven Clan’s secret arts are as subtle and elusive as the qi of a forest. If he deliberately concealed it, they might not have known. But how did you find out?”

“The Nine Calamities Demonic Art reacted. Apparently, the martial roots of the Wooden Form Thousand Souls Art lie in demonic arts.”

After all, the Nine Calamities Demonic Art was the absolute demonic art that took precedence over every other, the pinnacle of all demonic arts.

A scion of a destroyed, mysterious sect had infiltrated the Orthodox Martial Alliance? And not in some ordinary position, but as master to the alliance leader’s grandson—with Hwa Mugi behind him, too?

“What should I do? Give me an answer, Elder!”

However much I made a show of distress that wasn’t entirely a show, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had no answer to give.

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve spent my life killing everyone without thinking about the consequences.”

He tipped back his cup and added,

“That’s why a novice finds it hard to kill, while an expert finds it hard to keep someone alive.”

* * *

At that same moment, Jin Haryeong was meeting with Jin Hagun.

“How did it go?”

He hesitated before answering his younger sister. It wasn’t easy to say that his master didn’t regard him as a disciple. So he relayed only part of what Geom Mugeuk had said.

“He said it was only their first meeting, so he couldn’t tell yet.”

Jin Haryeong sensed two emotions in her brother’s expression at once: anger and hope. She could guess whom each was directed toward.

“Brother.”

“What?”

She wanted to tell him she believed in him, and that he should therefore believe in himself. But she knew his temperament. In a situation like this, those words would only hurt his pride and have the opposite effect.

“I suppose you really are a martial artist at heart.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your eyes sparkle when a crisis comes.”

Jin Hagun smiled bitterly. It was his sister’s eyes that were sparkling. He knew what his own eyes looked like without having to look in a bronze mirror.

“But don’t try to carry that crisis all by yourself. The idea that you’re only impressive if you do everything alone? I call that showing off.”

The little girl who had always cried for him to carry her on his back had already grown enough to comfort him like this.

“If you’re struggling, could it be because your trust is only halfway there?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you’re going to trust Geom Mugeuk, you need to trust him completely, but you can’t bring yourself to do that. Why not just put your full trust in him? You asked for his help because you trust him anyway, didn’t you?”

“And what if he takes everything from me?”

“If he can take it from you that way, wouldn’t he be able to take it even if you didn’t trust him?”

“!”

“Whenever I’ve looked at Geom Mugeuk, I’ve never felt that his door was closed. It was wide open, and that actually made me feel I couldn’t just walk in as I pleased. If the other person can open it anyway, wouldn’t it be better to get rid of a flimsy lock? Ah, I’ve talked too much for no reason. Get some rest.”

As she was about to leave, Jin Hagun spoke.

“Thank you.”

Jin Haryeong felt that her brother was growing. He neither bristled nor took offense. In the past... Though, back then, the atmosphere wouldn’t have allowed her to say any of this in the first place.

She mimed holding a large ball against her chest, just as Jin Hagun had previously done when comparing himself to Geom Mugeuk—no, a much larger ball than that.

“To me, you’re this great a person!”

* * *

The next day, I went to see Baek Cheongyeong.

He showed no surprise, as though he had expected my visit.

“The young lord has plenty of time on his hands.”

Now that I knew he was a scion of the destroyed Wood Heaven Clan, he struck me differently than he had yesterday.

Baek Cheongyeong, what are you doing here?

The same question felt different now. And I wouldn’t be getting the answer from him. Last night, after leaving the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s quarters, I had immediately sent an urgent carrier-pigeon message to Go Wol. It instructed him to work with the Heaven-Reaching Pavilion to find and send me all available information about the Wood Heaven Clan. I would get my answer from Go Wol.

“Unless we go to war with you, what would a young lord have to be busy with?”

“Do you have time to see me? I’d have thought you were too busy meeting Haryeong.”

“Squad Leader Jin blocked me, shouting at the top of his lungs. He said I absolutely couldn’t meet his sister until his master gave permission. That the moment I made contact with her, war would break out.”

“You stroll around the Orthodox Martial Alliance as the Demonic Cult’s young lord, yet you seem afraid of war breaking out.”

“It wasn’t that transparent threat that frightened me. As a fellow man, I’m being understanding toward Squad Leader Jin’s wish to protect his younger sister.”

Baek Cheongyeong turned and went inside. Leaving the door open meant I was to enter, so I followed him in, voicing an idle complaint.

“Even so, he shouldn’t act like this. His own sister was the one who invited me.”

Pretending not to hear, Baek Cheongyeong sat down and began carving wood. Ever since I had first come here, carving wood was all he had shown me.

But now I knew just how frightening these moments were. Every time we met, he was creating more subordinates.

He asked as he carved,

“If I tell you not to meet her, will you go home?”

I wandered around the workshop and asked in return, as if it were of little consequence,

“Will you?”

I didn’t think he would. He would try to use me in whatever way benefited him.

“Of course. I ought to respect my disciple’s wishes.”

“You must cherish your disciple a great deal.”

Baek Cheongyeong neither affirmed nor denied it. What did he truly think of Jin Hagun deep down? Did he intend to use him for all he was worth and discard him? Or did some part of him genuinely regard Hagun as his disciple?

“I won’t back down until you let me meet her. Once I say I’ll do something, I do it.”

As I spoke, I removed the cloth covering the display. The figurines’ positions had changed again since yesterday.

All the figurines stood in a circular formation, surrounding someone. Their weapons were drawn in attacking poses; they were clearly poised to attack an opponent.

But there was no figurine at the center.

“Whose place is this?”

“That will depend on how you act. You might stand there, or Hagun might.”

“Why leave yourself out?”

Baek Cheongyeong raised his head and stared at me.

“Didn’t you say yesterday that you hadn’t come to kill me?”

“Yes. I did.”

“In that case, it’s more likely to be you.”

I took a figurine out of my robes. It was the faceless one I had taken yesterday.

“Or it could be this person.”

Perhaps he already knew I had taken it; he made no particular comment about that.

“I’d like to carve this figurine’s face myself.”

That, however, drew an immediate response. Baek Cheongyeong looked at me and asked,

“Whom will you carve?”

“You made it in the first place, so you should know who it is.”

Our gazes met in the air between us.

“He could be anyone.”

“Would you teach me how to carve? I’ll finish it.”

As though that wasn’t even worth answering, he began carving again.

SCRITCH, SCRITCH.

I put the faceless figurine back inside my robes.

Then I took another carving knife and a piece of wood from the workbench and imitated what he was doing.

“A carving knife is still a blade, isn’t it? I know a thing or two about working with blades.”

I roughly copied his movements to make my own figurine.

Could he move something I made, too? Surely he could? It was made of wood, after all. Or perhaps, because he hadn’t made it himself, it wouldn’t move at his command.

“This is harder than it looks.”

I spent a good while carving the figurine. Once it had taken on a roughly human shape, I showed it to him.

“What do you think? It looks fairly convincing, doesn’t it?”

Baek Cheongyeong seemed utterly unable to understand my behavior.

“What is your real purpose?”

“To win Miss Jin’s heart.”

He was only half convinced. He couldn’t quite believe me, but if he didn’t, he would have to wonder why I was doing all this.

“If you give me permission to meet her, I’ll repay you.”

“Repay me?”

“If I receive something, shouldn’t I give something in return?”

“I wouldn’t want anything from a demonic martial artist, even a thousand pieces of gold.”

“What if I gave you something more important than a thousand pieces of gold?”

Curiosity flickered across Baek Cheongyeong’s face.

“The Heavenly Harmony School, for example?”

Surprise flickered around his eyes, as though he hadn’t expected that.

“I know you connected the Heavenly Harmony School’s master with Squad Leader Jin. Why did you act on the school master’s behalf?”

I brought up the Heavenly Harmony School at an unexpected moment and watched his reaction.

“I merely tried to save the school master’s son from your clutches.”

“You must have known that son was an evil man. Aren’t you part of the orthodox factions?”

“Good and evil are relative concepts. Frankly, aren’t you the more evil man?”

“Indeed. They certainly do seem to be relative. I have the impression that you’re more evil than I am.”

A faint smile formed on his lips. It could have been a derisive smile of denial, or a smile of acknowledgment.

With that, Baek Cheongyeong turned his attention back to the wooden figurine he was carving.

SCRITCH, SCRITCH.

He was endlessly creating subordinates. What did he intend to use all those figurines for? Just what was he planning to do?

“I’ll come back for another lesson tomorrow.”

* * *

After Geom Mugeuk left, Baek Cheongyeong eventually finished the figurine he had been carving.

He gazed down at it, turning it in his hands for a while, then rose and slowly walked over to the display.

“That figurine could be anyone...”

Placing his newly carved figurine in the surrounded center, Baek Cheongyeong spoke in a voice as subdued as his gaze.

“And anyone could end up here.”

The completed figurine was a young woman.