Hundreds of martial artists were unable to even breathe properly, endlessly confessing their sins with tears streaming down their faces.
Some had already fainted, their faces pale and bluish from lack of air.
A few were instead sitting in full lotus position, likely trying to circulate their inner energy to resist this bizarre phenomenon.
[They must be directly exposed to Saweol’s mental projection.]
“This… is her mental projection?”
Back in the disciplinary chamber, when I met the Heavenly Demon, I felt as though my mind was about to unravel, regardless of my own will. If Skybreaker hadn’t intervened, my consciousness might have collapsed completely.
When facing a Transcendent Peak master, if your will isn’t fortified, your mental defenses collapse.
That’s why one must always maintain strong intent when confronting a Transcendent Peak expert.
A mental projection isn’t like a sharp blade stabbing an opponent—it’s more like swinging a toy hammer.
But depending on who wields the toy hammer, even that can become a fatal blow. Or if the hammer is huge to begin with, it’ll have exceptional destructive power regardless.
They never imagined that Saweol had already reached Transcendent Peak.
Even a small hammer can be lethal if you’re caught off guard.
Terrifying talent.
Saweol hadn’t been in this realm for a day, or even several hours—just a few dozen minutes.
There was no way she could yet wield her mental projection with enough control to force it onto others.
That’s how overwhelming the power of an author’s “setting” could be in this world.
What kind of mental world did Saweol possess to make so many so completely helpless?
Still, it seemed Saweol was focused to the extreme. She was likely projecting her inner world and had withdrawn deep into herself—so much so that she didn’t even notice I had arrived.
Otherwise, her projection would have extended to me as well.
Even I was beginning to feel a strange tickling sensation in my chest. If this continued, I might end up like those martial artists too.
[Use your inner energy.]
Uuung!
Following Skybreaker’s advice, I circulated the qi of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and the sensation in my chest vanished as if washed away. In its place, a firm confidence settled within me.
I cast my gaze beyond Saweol—far past her.
To the edge of the cliff.
There stood Sado Gwang, leaning against his wheelchair, face pale.
A translucent dome surrounded him. That must be what was shielding him from Saweol’s mental projection. Some treasure or spiritual artifact, no doubt.
I approached him.
[Brother.]
“Brother.”
Sado Gwang gave a faint smile.
“Drop the act, Mujin.”
Mujin.
The name of the protagonist of Return of the Murim, the one whose soul had swapped bodies with Sado Hwan.
Apparently, Sado Gwang mistook me for him.
Well, soul-swapping was already fantastical. To think that three souls had swapped bodies was likely beyond anyone’s comprehension.
I couldn’t explain the truth, so I decided to go along with it.
“So you figured it out.”
“The Murim Alliance tried hard to hide it… but one of the troupe’s survivors told me.”
In the original story, Mujin had belonged to a wandering performance troupe. It was impressive that Sado Gwang's intelligence network had uncovered that.
“To think the Soul Separation Technique written in the ancient texts was real.”
“I have a question.”
I passed along Skybreaker’s question word for word.
“To you, what is Sado Hwan?”
“Hmm?”
“The original owner of this body—what was he to you?”
Sado Gwang tilted his head.
“Why does that matter? The soul that once inhabited this body must’ve returned to its original vessel and perished, scattered into nothing.”
“If I had to say… he was a pitiful one. I cared for him quite a bit.”
Skybreaker began trembling.
[As I thought… Brother…]
But the next words froze that trembling still.
“He was a useful pawn. You wouldn’t know this, but that body—was crafted by me through the forbidden art of Defying the Heavens. A perfect replica of my own. Technically, you could say I’m his father.”
Sado Gwang grinned twistedly.
“If I had known the Soul Separation Technique was real, I wouldn’t have forced him to learn the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. I could’ve raised him slowly and swapped later. How could I not feel regret?”
[......!]
Skybreaker couldn’t say a word, his body trembling violently.
“Still, how did you pull it off? Even if the soul swapped, that body should have blocked your meridians. And yet you’re at Transcendent Peak? Are you acting? Could you have deceived even the Heavenly Demon with your act?”
Genuinely puzzled, Sado Gwang tilted his head in curiosity.
I couldn’t keep my expression neutral anymore.
The way Skybreaker trembled in my hands—it felt like he was sobbing.
“What’s that expression for? Do you pity that soul? Did you sneak a peek at his journal? He used to keep it under his bed, you know. Probably thought no one would find it. How foolish.”
“You… really enjoy playing with people’s hearts.”
“Hearts?”
Sado Gwang sneered.
“That’s just an illusion, a concept made by the weak. Look at these pathetic fools.”
He pointed to the martial artists still kneeling and confessing.
“They committed sins without remorse, yet now they wail for forgiveness. If something truly exists, it must be immutable. Does the sun change? Does the moon?”
“The very fact that the heart changes is what makes it a heart.”
“Exactly. It’s imperfect—thus a concept of the weak.”
He was twisting the Divine Cult’s doctrine with his own warped logic.
How many people had suffered because of that tongue?
“Do you have any intention of confessing your sins?”
“I have no sins. How can I confess something that doesn’t exist?”
This wasn’t about whether he had sinned or not. Sado Gwang genuinely believed he was innocent.
There was no reaching him.
Skybreaker.
[……]
“It has to end. That man is no longer your kind brother—he’s a monster. If he lives, we die.”
[……]
“Look around. The Peak-level masters are starting to regain their senses.”
Even for Saweol, it seemed impossible to hold them all under her mental projection indefinitely.
Some Peak-level experts had begun to tremble—signs they were almost done circulating their inner energy. Once they awakened, things would become dangerous.
“If they come to their senses—”
[With my own hands.]
Skybreaker slipped from my grasp and unsheathed himself.
[I’ll strike him down.]
The despair in his voice was so deep, I couldn’t say a word.
Seeing the floating blade, Sado Gwang raised an eyebrow with interest.
“Trying to mimic Transcendent Peak? That won’t pierce this treasure. It’s reinforced with formations—strong enough to block several blasts of sword energy.”
But when sword qi surged from Skybreaker’s blade, Sado Gwang’s brow twitched.
He sensed something was wrong.
And then—
Kiiiiing!
The revolving sword qi technique—Flowing Current.
Goooo!
Do Il-gwang’s Intent of Supreme Reign.
Both powers manifested on Skybreaker’s blade.
Sswaeeeeek!
Skybreaker flew at lightning speed—and ripped straight through Sado Gwang’s barrier.
Kwaduduk!
Not just the barrier—everything behind it collapsed in a hemispherical crater.
“Kuhhk—!”
Sado Gwang coughed up blood from the impact.
Skybreaker’s blade stopped a mere inch before his heart.
[Brother…]
Skybreaker wept.
I stood back, silently.
Even then, Sado Gwang sneered.
“Are you expecting me to give you some parting words?”
His words struck Skybreaker like a dagger.
[I believed in you. I followed you. I wanted your approval.]
But Sado Gwang didn’t hear him.
“There are no last words. The sun may appear to set, but it rises again after night. That is the unchanging law of the world.”
[I am Skybreaker—Breaker of Heaven! Born to shatter those very laws! So—!]
Skybreaker roared—not like a person, but like a wounded beast.
“And so, I will not change. I am the principle that will reform this unjust world.”
[You who made me—by my own hand!!]
That was the moment—
Kkrrrshhh…!
The weakened cliff edge suddenly crumbled.
Sado Gwang, wheelchair and all, began to fall.
[?!]
Skybreaker dove after him—impaling his blade into the wheelchair and anchoring both of them to the cliff wall. It seemed like pure instinct.
Now, Sado Gwang dangled from the cliffside, barely suspended.
Below, the sheer drop was immeasurable.
Jagged currents, likely swollen by recent rain, raged below. A fall there would mean certain death for anyone not at Peak-level or higher.
Skybreaker said nothing.
I couldn’t speak either. Killing someone you had once called your brother—it wasn’t something a normal mind could do.
If he wavered and saved him at the last second, could I even criticize him?
“First you try to kill me, and now you want to save me?”
Sado Gwang mocked again.
And then—
“…Great Lord.”
Saweol appeared.
Likely shaken from her mental projection by the destruction Skybreaker had caused.
“Thank you for letting me end this with my own hands.”
She leapt from the cliff and walked down its sheer face, heading straight for Sado Gwang.
“Don’t delude yourselves!”
Sado Gwang gritted his teeth and shouted.
“Do you think this farce ends me? I am Sado Gwang! The one who will remake this rotten world!”
He moved his fingers.
Saweol kicked off the cliff in haste—
Clack!
The wheelchair’s lock disengaged.
Sado Gwang was sucked into the canyon below.
[……]
Skybreaker remained embedded in the cliff, saying nothing.
“Sado Gwaaang!!”
Saweol dove into the canyon after him.
After multiple dives and struggles, she returned, climbing the cliff.
In her hand was only a scrap of his outer robe.
“I will find him.”
Blue demonic fire burned in Saweol’s eyes.
“Even if it’s just his corpse—I will recover it.”
She jumped back down.
I clenched my teeth as I watched her.
“He’s not dead. Not yet.”
This world, Return of the Murim, was ruled by clichés.
Anyone who falls off a cliff comes back stronger. I’ve never seen it go otherwise.
“I need to prepare. We don’t know when he’ll reappear.”
But this time, he’d taken meaningful damage. He wouldn’t show himself so easily again.
If I act quickly, there’s still time to prepare.
But for now—I couldn’t move hastily.
Skybreaker still hadn’t budged from where he was lodged in the cliff.
I said nothing.
Instead, I walked to the edge of the precipice and stood there.
For a long time, I stood silently—saying nothing at all.
And far off in the distance, dawn began to break.