Meanwhile, the Poison Demon Sect's training grounds.
Though the sun hung high in the sky, not a single one of the Poison Demon Sect's warriors was training.
Half of them were sprawled in the shade, napping the day away.
The few who were awake chattered idly, setting up gambling tables.
The Ink Shadow Captain, Neung Ja-pil, watched it all with undisguised contempt.
"What a disgrace."
The Poison Demon Sect of old had never been like this.
At this hour, the training grounds would have been filled with warriors' battle cries.
But the true talents had all left, and only dregs remained.
'If not for Dok Un-hyeok, the Poison Demon Sect would never have fallen this far!'
Un-hyeok's downward spiral had dealt the Poison Demon Sect a devastating blow.
His debauched lifestyle had drained the sect's entire fortune, so naturally there were no funds to pay the warriors' monthly stipends.
And so they had all left the Poison Demon Sect to find a living elsewhere.
"Damn it! This monthly stipend's barely a pittance. How are we supposed to put food on the table with this?"
When one warrior griped, his companion chided him.
"Look, if you've got complaints, nothing's stopping you from leaving. The Sect Leader himself said he's sorry and won't hold anyone back."
"Ah, I'm just saying. Where else can you laze around all day and still get paid on time? Nowhere but the Poison Demon Sect."
The warrior snickered.
"True. Hard to find a cushier gig than this."
Listening to it all, Ja-pil's blood boiled.
'I ought to beat manners into those—!'
But he soon let out a sigh.
'......No point stirring things up. I'm leaving the Poison Demon Sect anyway.'
That was when it happened.
From the distance, someone came sprinting at full speed, shouting.
"Captaiiiin!"
"Hm?"
A man skidded to a halt, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Ja-pil waved the dust away with a scowl.
"Gwak Jeong, what an entrance."
Gwak Jeong, Ja-pil's subordinate, gasped out his question breathlessly.
"Huff, huff...... is it really true?"
"Is what true?"
"That you're joining the Black Slaughter Sect!"
Damn. Word had spread already?
Neung Ja-pil nodded.
"It has been decided."
Gwak Jeong beamed and pulled Neung Ja-pil into a hug.
"Oh, congratulations, Captain! Truly!"
"Wh-what's gotten into you? Get off me, that's disgusting! Let go!"
Ja-pil shoved him away, but Jeong did not easily detach.
"Is the sun going to rise in the west tomorrow? Captain, you have no idea how thrilled our unit is at the news!"
Gwak Jeong finally peeled himself off.
"All this time, other sects have tried to recruit you, and you turned every last one of them down. You said it was loyalty to the Poison Demon Sect."
"......That I did."
"Did you know? You've always been our favorite topic over drinks."
"What do you mean?"
"Heh heh heh. Everyone called you a stubborn fool. They'd all grumble about how frustrating you were."
"What? Those bastards—!"
Gwak Jeong shrugged.
"They're not wrong, are they? With your skill, you'd be far better off going somewhere else than rotting away in a crumbling sect."
"......"
"In any case, good decision!"
Jeong was delighted as if it were his own affair, but Ja-pil himself felt nothing but a hollow ache.
"A good decision, he says. Is it, really......"
The Poison Demon Sect had been everything to Ja-pil.
Decades ago.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had waged war against a place called the Blood Cult, and countless children lost their parents.
Ja-pil had been one of them.
'If the Poison Demon Sect hadn't taken me in, I probably wouldn't exist today.'
They had fed him, sheltered him, clothed him.
Taught him how to live like a person.
'The debt I owe the Poison Demon Sect is immeasurable.'
Memories of his childhood were carved into every corner of this place.
A kind of lingering attachment.
"That aside, Captain."
At Jeong's call, Ja-pil broke from his thoughts.
"But what changed your mind? All this time, you wouldn't budge no matter how many sects came knocking."
"No particular reason. I simply realized something at last."
"......?"
Anger threaded through Ja-pil's voice.
"As long as the young sect leader exists, the Poison Demon Sect will never change."
Gwak Jeong nodded.
"Ah, right. There's no way the young sect leader would give up wine and women. He's always been too fragile. Still can't get over the shock of his mother's death."
"Which is why I intend to place my hopes in someone else."
Ja-pil's gaze turned toward a corner of the training grounds.
SWISH—! WHIRL—! SLASH—!
Drenched in sweat, a boy swung a wooden sword alone with fierce determination.
Dok Mu-won.
Ryeon-hwi's second son — and the only hope Ja-pil had found.
"I wish to stand at his side and lend him my strength."
"Huh?"
"The candidate entering the Demon Cultivation Grotto on the Poison Demon Sect's behalf will be Young Master Mu-won, I expect."
Gwak Jeong watched Dok Mu-won with a pained expression.
"I suppose so. With the young sect leader the way he is, Young Master Mu-won has no choice but to enter, young as he is."
A place where the odds of returning alive were less than one in ten.
Mu-won was only twelve years old — it would have been natural to feel anxious.
Yet without a single complaint, he simply pressed on in silence.
"Actually, the young master just sparred with me."
"Wh-what?!"
"Look closely. You can see the bruises peeking out from his sleeves."
"I can see that, but...... shouldn't we stop him, then? What if he collapses?!"
"You think I didn't try?"
Ja-pil watched Mu-won, who was reviewing the spar through practice.
"The young master's stubbornness rivals a bull's. Once he sets his mind to something, he won't rest until he sees it through. He said he felt on the verge of a breakthrough from the spar, so he went straight back to training."
"Ah......"
What exactly had he realized?
As both Ja-pil and Jeong stared intently at Mu-won.
Something transparent rippled along the edge of Mu-won's wooden sword.
Ja-pil narrowed his brow.
'That's......'
SLASH—!
The wooden sword bit deep into a training dummy.
'Sword qi!'
Clumsy as it was, there was no doubt he had grasped the first thread of it.
Ja-pil's eyes went wide.
Not yet even twenty, and already reaching for the path of a first-rate fighter.
'Insane talent.'
And so Ja-pil resolved himself.
"Gwak Jeong. Someday, when Young Master Mu-won truly becomes the young sect leader of the Poison Demon Sect, I will be at his side to lend him strength."
"Captain......"
"In this rotting Poison Demon Sect, I cannot sharpen my dulled senses. So I plan to go to the Black Slaughter Sect, hone myself, and return."
And someday, at Mu-won's side.
He wanted to be part of restoring the Poison Demon Sect to its former glory.
But at that very moment.
"I'm telling you, the Young Sect Leader has changed!"
The source of the commotion was Yang Geon, one of the Dark Archive sentries.
He had been telling his fellow warriors about getting caught dozing off by Un-hyeok the night before and being thoroughly chewed out.
But no one was buying it.
"Come now, does that even make sense? A dog might quit eating shit before the Young Sect Leader would give up his debauchery and visit the Dark Archive at that hour."
"Absolutely not. Bwahahaha!"
"Are you sure you didn't dream it and mistake it for reality?"
At the mockery, Yang Geon yelled back.
"Have you all been living under a rock?! I'm telling you, you need to be careful around the Young Sect Leader!"
The reason Yang Geon had frozen the night before when Un-hyeok reprimanded him.
It was because of Un-hyeok's frigid gaze.
A gaze with not a shred of hesitation.
A warning that if this happened again, he would take their heads.
'That was absolutely real.'
But not one among the warriors believed him.
He was going absolutely mad.
In the end, Yang Geon gave up trying to warn the others.
"You'll regret it. I warned you clearly. But choosing not to listen — that's on you."
"Sure, sure. We hear you. So, Yang Geon, why not tip back a drink? Once you've got a buzz going, you won't be having nonsense dreams like that."
"I'll pass."
Yang Geon rubbed his neck for no particular reason.
"I'd like to live a long life."
"Where did that come from?"
"I've got the night shift at the Dark Archive again tonight, so I'll be heading out."
The warriors watched Yang Geon leave with bewildered faces.
"He's not one to skip a drinking session. Is the sun rising in the west? Wonders never cease."
"Leave him be. He's obviously sulking because we teased him."
Having overheard Yang Geon's story by chance, Ja-pil too could not bring himself to believe it.
But no one yet knew.
The storm Un-hyeok was about to bring upon the Poison Demon Sect.
***
Meanwhile.
In the Dark Archive, Un-hyeok stretched wide.
"Ngggh. Finally done."
Today marked the seventh day since he had started eating and sleeping in the Dark Archive.
Un-hyeok pressed his fingers against his swollen eyelids.
"Can't sleep properly, just reading texts nonstop...... I'm dying."
"You've finally finished, I see."
"Ah, Archivist Song."
Song Yeom took a seat across from Un-hyeok and offered him a cup from the tray.
"Chrysanthemum tea. It should ease your fatigue."
"Mm, thank you."
Un-hyeok took a sip.
The floral aroma bloomed across his palate, and his mind cleared a little.
"That's much better."
"Are you feeling all right?"
Song Yeom wore a worried expression.
"You've barely slept, only catching naps here and there, and barely eaten. I'm concerned you may have overexerted yourself...... and might collapse."
"Hahaha! Don't worry."
Un-hyeok rolled up his sleeve to reveal his scrawny arm.
"Believe it or not, my stamina's holding up just fi—"
That was when something dripped from his nose.
'Huh?'
He wiped it with his sleeve, and bright red came away.
"Y-Young Sect Leader, your nose is bleeding......! This won't do! Let's go to the infirmary at once. I'll call the sentries!"
"Don't make a fuss."
Un-hyeok tore a small corner from the front page of a text, rolled it up, and plugged his nostril.
"It's just a nosebleed. See? All better."
"But......"
"I said I'm fine. Who goes to a doctor over a nosebleed?"
"Yet the ancient medical texts teach that even the smallest symptom is the body's signal. Please, whatever else happens today, do return to your quarters and rest."
"All right. I was about to head back anyway."
When Un-hyeok drained his cup and rose from his seat, he felt Song Yeom's unwavering stare fixed on him.
"Why are you staring? Something on my face?"
"No, it's just......"
Song Yeom smiled gently.
"The Young Sect Leader seems like a different person."
"......"
"I won't lie — when you first came here, I was worried."
"Why? Afraid I'd cause trouble?"
It was meant as a joke.
But Song Yeom said nothing, and Un-hyeok was caught off guard.
"......Really? You actually thought that?"
"Yes...... I am ashamed to admit it, but I assumed the young master had come to steal texts to fund a visit to a pleasure house."
What kind of life had Dok Un-hyeok been living?
How was it that every single person he'd met.
Had the exact same reaction?!
"But the Young Sect Leader did nothing but devour secret manuals day in and day out. I was shocked. I never imagined you would actually read every last secret manual in the Dark Archive."
Innate comprehension and relentless tenacity.
Those were the foremost reasons Un-hyeok had been able to read through every text in the Dark Archive in one week.
Song Yeom kept his true feelings hidden.
'The Young Sect Leader may not realize it.'
Outwardly, he still looked as if a breeze could shatter him.
But Song Yeom had sensed something within Un-hyeok — a fortitude beyond words.
'That in the seven days I attended the Young Sect Leader, this humble servant saw hope.'
Song Yeom let slip a quiet smile.
"Young Sect Leader, did you find what you were looking for?"
Un-hyeok nodded with a grin.
"Yeah."
Studying the derivative martial arts had given him an even clearer picture of what the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art truly was.
'Now, I think I can do it.'
Mastering the Myriad Streams Return to Poison Divine Art!
As Un-hyeok prepared to leave, Song Yeom offered his respects.
"It has been an honor to serve the Young Sect Leader this past week."
Surely, when the day came that the Poison Demon Sect reclaimed its strength.
If someone asked when it had all begun — Song Yeom could feel it was today.
"Well then, shall I get going?"
An existence beyond the heavens — the Cosmos Poison Demon.
All preparations to receive his legacy were complete.