A short while later.
The Poison Demon Sect's sect leader's chambers.
Ryeon-hwi asked cautiously.
"Hyeok, are you...... all right?"
Un-hyeok, both eyes swollen shut in bruises, was rubbing his eyelids with a hard-boiled egg.
"Did I not tell you? Everything has been resolved."
After seeing the state of the guest hall.
Ryeon-hwi had flown into a blind rage.
'At least Yi So-ye sent that letter in time. I nearly died.'
Ryeon-hwi spoke in a voice that was practically crawling along the floor.
"That may be so, but given everything you've done before...... you can't expect me to simply believe......"
A sharp glare.
The moment Un-hyeok fixed him with a triangular glare, Ryeon-hwi hung his head low.
"You're right, this father was in the wrong. Regarding this incident, I have nothing to say even with ten mouths......"
Good grief.
Getting all deflated just because his own son scolded him.
'What a strange sect.'
According to the information So-ye had provided, the Poison Demon Sect was nothing like what Un-hyeok had known.
How to put it.
They didn't feel like a demonic cult at all.
Those who dealt in poisons were usually either sinister or had a screw loose somewhere. Even Tang Wi-hyeon, the former patriarch of the Sichuan Tang Clan, had been that way.
Yet the Poison Demon Sect's atmosphere was nothing of the sort.
This was said to be the influence of the sect's founding patriarch, the Cosmos Poison Demon — Dok Pae-cheon.
— Poison is no different from a blade.
— Does it carry justice?
— Does it carry killing intent?
— That depends solely on the one who wields it.
Something about always carrying the pride of a poison wielder in one's heart, or so they said.
At any rate.
"Hyeok, I'm sorry for doubting you."
A father who admitted his wrongs and bowed his head without resistance.
Not a sight a sect leader would easily show, but Un-hyeok rather liked that about him.
'Better to apologize than to play ignorant after making a mistake. That's the true composure of the strong.'
Un-hyeok rose from his seat.
Ryeon-hwi looked up at him.
"......Are you leaving?"
"Yes. I don't know who did it, but someone beat the living hell out of me. Every bone in my body is aching."
"......"
Ryeon-hwi's gaze carried visible guilt.
Un-hyeok smirked.
"I'm joking. It's late, isn't it? You should get some rest."
The meeting would end here.
The letter So-ye had sent included the location and time for their next meeting.
They would discuss the matter of U Mun-so then.
'But there's something I need to prepare before that.'
Un-hyeok bowed his head and turned away. The moment he grasped the door handle to leave the sect leader's chambers.
"Thank you."
Un-hyeok stopped in his tracks.
He slowly turned around.
"For what?"
"For everything."
Countless emotions, too many to name.
But those feelings were not meant for Un-hyeok.
They belonged to Dok Un-hyeok — Ryeon-hwi's real son.
Un-hyeok thought for a moment about how to respond, then offered a gentle smile.
"Rest well."
"......All right."
CLICK—!
Un-hyeok closed the sliding door and stepped out.
Above him, the Milky Way embroidered the night sky.
***
A short while later.
The Dark Archive.
Deep in the night, while everyone slept.
Un-hyeok stood before the Poison Demon Sect's martial archive, staring at the sight before him in disbelief.
"Well, well. The sect's really running like a well-oiled machine, isn't it?"
He had come to review some texts before beginning proper martial training.
"SNOOORE...... PHWEEEE...... SNORK...... GUH!"
"Heh heh heh...... tonight's on me, I say! Bring more wine! Let's drink until our noses go crooked!"
Not only were they dead asleep.
They were even sleep-talking.
Un-hyeok ground his teeth.
"Would you look at these clowns?"
How utterly undisciplined had things become?
Un-hyeok had no intention of letting this slide.
"Wake up."
"Mm, mmm...... who's making noise......"
"Everyone, wake up!!"
When Un-hyeok bellowed, the sentries jolted awake.
"N-nothing to report, sir!"
"What's going— g-gasp! Y-Young Sect Leader?!"
Un-hyeok glared at them like a demon incarnate.
The sentries exchanged glances and put on awkward smiles.
"Young Sect Leader, what brings you here at this hour......"
"Must be nice, living this easy. You should be guarding the Dark Archive with your eyes peeled, and here you are — sentries, all of you — fast asleep in a neat little row."
"Huh? N-no, that's......"
WHACK—!
Un-hyeok kicked one of them in the shin, and the sentry hopped on one foot with a yelp.
"Worthless lot! Do you have any idea how important an archive storing martial arts secret manuals is?!"
To a martial artist, secret manuals were as precious as life itself.
Every sect and family therefore stationed only their most trusted personnel at their archives.
"If the sentries guarding the Dark Archive are at this level, I can only imagine what the rest are like."
"W-we're sorry!"
He wanted to tear into them right then and there.
But now was not the time.
Un-hyeok issued a warning.
"Watch yourselves. If I catch you like this one more time, I'll take your heads as an example."
"Y-yes, sir! Understood!"
They froze stiff — clearly the message had landed.
Leaving the two at attention behind him, Un-hyeok entered the Dark Archive.
The musty scent of old texts greeted him, and he surveyed his surroundings.
'So this is the Dark Archive.'
Countless texts lined the shelves.
An old man who appeared to be the archivist sat reading by candlelight.
'That must be the Dark Archive's archivist, Song Yeom.'
Knock, knock—
At the sound of someone tapping his desk, Song Yeom raised his head.
"Hm......?"
"Reading something interesting, I see."
"Y-Young Sect Leader?!"
Startled, Song Yeom sprang to his feet.
"What brings you to the Dark Archive at this late hour?"
"Thought I'd borrow some books for the first time in a while. What were you so absorbed in that you didn't notice me come in?"
"Ah, you mean this?"
Song Yeom smiled faintly and showed the cover.
"The Chronicle of the Cosmos Poison Demon......"
The cover was so worn it was clear how many times it had been read.
Song Yeom spoke.
"On a lonely night, nothing soothes the longing for the Poison Demon Sect's once-glorious past quite like this."
"Hmm. Could I have a look too?"
"Of course."
Song Yeom handed over the book.
Opening the first page, Un-hyeok felt a strange sense of connection.
'They said my martial art resembled the Cosmos Poison Demon's so closely that I was falsely accused of learning his demonic art.'
The nameless art.
A cultivation method Un-hyeok had stumbled upon by chance in the Tang Family Archive.
Wi-hyeon had only ever permitted his hunting hounds access to flawed and incomplete martial manuals.
When Un-hyeok found it, the nameless art had been torn to shreds throughout its pages.
But.
'The nameless art was no ordinary cultivation method. Even I could tell that, despite knowing absolutely nothing about martial arts at the time.'
And so Un-hyeok had risked his life mastering it.
Forced to patch together the martial principles on his own, he had nearly died from inverted meridians more times than he could count.
Yet through innate comprehension and sheer tenacity, Un-hyeok had achieved full mastery of the nameless art, and ultimately became the greatest poison arts practitioner in the world.
"Hmm."
Having skimmed through the pages.
It certainly was similar.
Which was why he wanted to verify something.
"Archivist Song. Is it possible for me to see the Founding Patriarch's secret manual?"
"That would be difficult, I'm afraid."
"Why?"
Song Yeom hung his head low.
"I regret to say that the Founding Patriarch's secret manual is no longer intact."
"What do you mean?"
"Would you follow me? I'll show you directly."
Song Yeom led the way and stopped before a particular bookshelf.
When he slid it aside, a secret stone staircase descending underground revealed itself.
"Please, enter."
After a long walk, they arrived at a cavern.
When Song Yeom lit the surroundings, there in the center sat an ornate chest, reverently enshrined.
"Please, open it."
Un-hyeok nodded and opened the chest.
Inside were a few torn scraps of paper.
"This is......"
"This is the secret manual left behind by the Founding Patriarch — the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art."
"......But why is it in this state?"
"Young master, are you familiar with the Phantom Divine Thief?"
"The legendary thief who made a name for himself centuries ago?"
"Indeed. Do you know what his very first exploit was — the one that launched his fame across the realm?"
At that, Un-hyeok remembered.
"When he robbed the Poison Demon Sect's secret manuals......"
"Correct. At the time, the Poison Demon Sect was at the height of its power. The thief decided to rob this place to make a name for himself."
"So the Founding Patriarch's manual was lost during that incident."
At the humiliating memory.
Song Yeom's face was scrunched in distaste.
"......Yes. What remains here is only a portion of the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art that the Phantom Divine Thief left behind."
Tch, rotten bastard.
If you're going to steal it, steal the whole thing.
Leaving scraps behind as if to taunt them.
Un-hyeok slowly read through the contents of the papers.
'He really did tear it up all over the place. There's zero consistency to the content — if Song Yeom hadn't told me, I'd have never known this was the Cosmos Poison Demon's cultivation art.'
But why was this?
From those seemingly useless scraps of paper, Un-hyeok caught a strangely familiar scent.
"Hmm......"
Was he spellbound?
Un-hyeok applied the verses of the nameless art to what he was reading.
And suddenly, everything clicked into place.
'Wh-what?!'
Everything Un-hyeok had painstakingly learned through trial and agony.
Breathing methods, qi circulation patterns.
How to efficiently channel poison energy, and more.
'The precise reasons and methods are laid out right here.'
And at a level one stage higher than the answers Un-hyeok had arrived at on his own.
'The martial principles align perfectly!'
Un-hyeok's heart pounded.
This could not be explained away as mere coincidence or similarity.
A fateful encounter.
At last, Un-hyeok understood.
His martial art was not merely similar to the Cosmos Poison Demon's.
'The nameless art was the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art from the very beginning!'
Then a question remained.
Why had the nameless art been found in the Tang Family's archive?
"Hmm......"
He didn't know.
But Un-hyeok did not force himself to find an answer.
The bond connecting him to the Cosmos Poison Demon was clearly no ordinary thing.
Perhaps someday the answer would come on its own — that was his idle thought.
Something to uncover at his own pace, later.
'For now, I'll focus on the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art.'
Faded, weathered brushstrokes.
Un-hyeok carefully traced his fingers over them as he read.
It was a wondrous thing.
Each time a fragment fell into place, his consciousness drifted further and further away.
"......"
In an instant, Un-hyeok was consumed by the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art.
The sentences of the manual rippled, then began to move before his eyes as if they were living things.
And a viscous whisper brushed against his ears.
「Kill.」
Screams filled every direction.
「Kill, and kill again. Make a river of blood, and build a mountain of corpses.」
It was sweet.
Unbearably, irresistibly so.
「You desire revenge, you say? I shall lend you that power. So accept me as I am.」
An intoxicating sensation.
A laugh spilled from Un-hyeok's lips before he even realized it.
'Yes, that's right. Slaughter everything in sight.'
Just as Un-hyeok was being swallowed by the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art.
"......ter."
THWACK—! THWACK—!
The sound of something striking him.
Un-hyeok's brow furrowed.
'......Who is it? Interrupting me at the most critical moment.'
"......Leader."
The voice hammering at his ears grew louder and louder.
"Young Sect Leader!!"
At last, Un-hyeok snapped back to his senses and drew a deep breath.
"Gasp!"
A sudden pain surged through his arms.
"Ugh, what the......"
"Young Sect Leader, are you all right?!"
"Old man Song......?"
CLATTER—!
Song Yeom threw down the cane he had been holding and rushed to support Un-hyeok.
"Forgive me. After the Young Sect Leader looked upon the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art, your entire body began radiating an ominous energy."
"......What?"
"I judged the situation dire and had no choice but to be discourteous. Please, take my life for it."
A divine art left behind by an existence beyond the heavens.
Un-hyeok had been bewitched by it without even realizing.
Cold sweat soaked his hands.
'If I'd gone any further, the demonic energy would have seeped into my marrow and driven me mad.'
Un-hyeok expressed his gratitude to Song Yeom.
"Thank you. You saved my life."
"......Pardon?"
Un-hyeok staggered, and Song Yeom caught him.
"Are you all right? Shall I take you to the infirmary at once?"
"No need. It's not that serious."
"But......"
"And there's no time for that."
As the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art had gazed into Un-hyeok, so too had Un-hyeok gazed into it.
'So that's how it bewitches people.'
He had a rough grasp of it now.
'All the better.'
Had he tried to learn it blindly, things could have gone terribly wrong — but not anymore.
The difference between having experienced something once and never having experienced it at all was as vast as heaven and earth.
Even so, he could not afford to let his guard down.
"Archivist Song."
"Y-yes?!"
"You must have read every secret manual in the Dark Archive. Who do you believe is the origin of our sect's martial arts?"
"Well......"
After a moment's thought, Song Yeom gave his answer.
"That would be the Founding Patriarch, the Cosmos Poison Demon — Dok Pae-cheon."
Then it was simple.
If he traced the branching tributaries upstream, he would eventually reach the source.
'If I read through every secret manual in the Dark Archive, it should help me learn the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art.'
Un-hyeok made a request.
"Archivist Song, bring me every secret manual you have."
"Pardon? Whatever for......"
"I have something I need to do."
For revenge.
Un-hyeok could not afford to remain at the same level as before.
He needed overwhelming strength.
And in the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art, he had seen the possibility.
'I can become stronger. So wait for me, Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art.'
Competitive fire blazed in Un-hyeok's eyes.
'I will master you.'