***
A short while later, Dakam came out of the hut with a dejected expression.
“I am truly sorry. I did not know he would go that far. You came all the way here, and I do not even know how to apologize.”
Bi Sa-yeong replied with a smirk.
“Well, consider it a funny show thanks to you. Still, seeing that the old man is so lively, it is a relief that he does not seem like he will die immediately.”
Following his words, I also spoke to him.
“If you need us again next time, come to the Flying Dragon 13th Unit and find us. We will help you as much as you need. In exchange, it might be a bit much to ask, but could we visit you if we need something?”
At my words, he brightened and nodded vigorously.
“Yes! Of course! I will help you as much as I can!”
I smiled inwardly at his simple and honest appearance.
Just by putting him in my debt, I had sufficiently achieved the purpose of coming this far. Creating a connection where I could ask for help in finding detoxification herbs or being guided through the interior of the jungle—that was my original goal.
The matter regarding the old man’s identity weighed on my mind a little, but as long as the person himself was that stubborn, there was nothing that could be done.
I spoke to the squad leader with a much more refreshed mind.
“Then let us return, Squad Leader. If we go now, we will have plenty of time.”
However, Squad Leader Seol Poong did not answer my words.
He was staring at the hut with a gaze that suggested he was deep in thought.
“Squad Leader?”
Then, he suddenly began to walk toward the hut again.
We exchanged glances with bewildered expressions.
Squad Leader Seol Poong began to speak to the Poison Elder in front of the hut.
“Elder, it seems there is a misunderstanding.”
Then, the same angry voice from before was heard from inside.
“What misunderstanding! I told you to get out right now! You damned rascals!”
But Squad Leader Seol Poong continued to speak, unbothered.
“First of all, I am indeed part of the Flying Dragon Unit, but I am not an Orthodox sect member. And I did not come to exploit anything; I came specifically to help you.”
“Shut up, you rascal! Where do you get off telling such lies?! You are in the Flying Dragon Unit but not an Orthodox member! Why don't you just say you are a son of a bitch but not a beast?!”
It was an incredible verbal abuse, but the squad leader did not get angry at all. Instead, he gave a slight smile and spoke again.
“Then would you like to make a bet with me? If I can prove that I am not an Orthodox member, you will let us examine your condition.”
“What?!”
“Then I will assume you have permitted it and enter.”
As the squad leader went inside, Young Lady Cheong-yeon, who was watching him, asked Bi Sa-yeong.
“Was the squad leader not an Orthodox member?”
Bi Sa-yeong shrugged his shoulders.
“I do not know well either. I have never heard anything regarding the squad leader’s sect.”
Not just Bi Sa-yeong, but probably no one in the 13th Unit knew the squad leader’s true colors. At least not yet.
I suddenly recalled the events of my past life. His true identity, which I had learned on the day the front completely collapsed….
That identity was truly astonishing.
I vividly remembered the eyes that emitted a red glow and that overwhelming martial prowess.
At that moment, the startled voice of the old man was heard from inside the hut.
“Red...?! Why on earth are you in the Flying Dragon Unit?!”
I had seen the squad leader receive that question in my past life as well. At that time, the squad leader had answered like this:
That he had been running away from himself, but before he knew it, precious things had been created.
A short while later, we were able to enter the hut again.
Inside the hut, the squad leader was already taking the old man’s pulse and performing a diagnosis.
However, his expression was very serious.
Beside him, Dakam and his siblings were watching the scene with bated breath.
“Hmph! Did I not tell you? It is not a condition that a fellow like you can do anything about! You are only wasting your effort in vain!”
The old man was still grumbling with a dissatisfied face.
But I could feel that his voice was much softer than before, and I could sense a streak of apology and concern mixed within it.
After a moment, the squad leader, having finished the diagnosis, let out a deep sigh.
“I am sorry, Elder. Just as you said, I cannot do anything with my abilities.”
Then, while Dakam and his siblings made pained expressions, the old man snorted.
“Of course! What could a fellow like you do about something that even I, who have studied medicine and martial arts my entire life, cannot solve?”
The squad leader now stood up and apologized to Dakam as well.
“I am sorry, Dakam. My abilities did not meet your expectations.”
“Ah, I-I see....”
As Dakam lowered his head with a disappointed face, the squad leader bowed to the old man and turned his back.
“Now, let us truly return.”
It was then.
The old man laughed with an oily expression and asked the squad leader.
“Your identity, your personality—you truly are a strange fellow. Do you intend to not tell those rascals until the end?”
When the squad leader turned back to the old man with a heavy expression, he continued to speak. Words that made all of us aghast….
“The fact that I am a Demon Master of the Blood Cult.”
It was a shocking statement.
Bi Sa-yeong glared with wide eyes and shouted.
“Wha-what?!”
Bi Sa-yeong’s enraged voice was trembling.
“You.... are a Demon Master of the Blood Cult?!”
Squad Leader Seol Poong looked at him with a heavy gaze.
To be honest, it was a fact I had already guessed. Excessive knowledge about demons and a personality that hated the Orthodox sects terribly. I had thought there was a high probability he was a retired Blood Cult Demon Master.
And judging by her expression, Young Lady Cheong-yeon also seemed to have guessed it.
But according to Dakam, he had already been working hard to save the Miao people for a long time. He was currently the protector of Dakam and his siblings.
So, I had intended to pretend not to know that fact as long as he was not a wicked person, but it was natural that Bi Sa-yeong, whose sect had been nearly annihilated by Blood Cultists, could not do so.
“Squad leader, what is the meaning of this?! Is that man truly a Demon Master of the Blood Cult?!”
Seol Poong, having let out a sigh, answered.
“I am sorry, Sa-yeong. Thinking of Dakam and his siblings, I could not bring myself to tell you.”
Then, Bi Sa-yeong looked at the squad leader with a gaze full of betrayal, and soon drew his saber with a look of rage.
Chang!
“Demon Master of the Blood Cult! The squad leader may not, but I cannot forgive you!”
Then, the startled Dakam and his siblings hurriedly shielded the old man with their bodies.
“No, you cannot! We were wrong! Please forgive us!”
“No! Please save him!”
The old man snickered and mocked Bi Sa-yeong.
“Yes, yes. That is the Orthodox sect I know. Are you not the kind of people who only feel satisfied when you exterminate demons and destroy evil in any situation, regardless of whether young children are left alone?! Khahaha! Exterminating demons and destroying evil! What a truly laughable phrase!”
“Shut up, Demon Master!”
Bi Sa-yeong raised his saber as if he would strike at any moment, but his hand was trembling violently as if caught in a storm.
Dakam and his siblings now began to cling to his body and plead.
“Please forgive him! Please!”
“Do not kill the Poison Elder, Great Hero!”
“No, he is our grandfather!”
Bi Sa-yeong looked at the old man with a distorted face at the children’s desperate gestures.
But the old man was still snickering and mocking him.
Then, Bi Sa-yeong shouted with an enraged face.
“Demon Master of the Blood Cult! You! How on earth can you mock the Orthodox sects?! What did you do that was so right?!”
But the old man did not back down. His gaze was also burning with rage.
“How can I mock them?! Why can I not mock them?! I can mock them as much as I want! You hypocrites! I, who lost everything to you rascals, can mock you as much as I want! Do you think I will only mock you?! I will wipe you out from the world! Come on! Even if I am not in my right mind, a fellow like you is no problem at all!”
“Is that so?! Fine! I will grant your wish!”
“Aaak! No!”
“Please save him!”
Bi Sa-yeong, who looked as if he would strike with his saber at any moment, ultimately could not shake off the children who were clinging to him and crying.
His expression was changing several times in a short moment.
Eventually, he looked at the children with a distorted face and powerlessly lowered his trembling hand.
Then, he said as if spitting the words out.
“I am Bi Sa-yeong, the eldest disciple of the Bi-jong Sect. In my sect, there are junior disciples just like these children. To hide behind children like this, you are a truly cowardly fellow. Well, I suppose that is why you are a Demon Master of the Blood Cult.”
Having said that, Bi Sa-yeong sheathed his saber with a vacant expression and turned his back.
“I will erase today’s events from my memory. I have never seen you, you Blood Cult Demon Master.”
It was then.
The old man, with an expression as if he had been shocked by something, suddenly asked Bi Sa-yeong in a trembling voice.
“The Bi-jong Sect? Are you perhaps talking about the Bi-jong Sect of Guangxi Province?”
Bi Sa-yeong, with his back turned, replied with a snort.
“Hmph, is there another Bi-jong Sect elsewhere?”
Then, the old man muttered softly.
“The Blood Incident of the Martial Emperor’s Tomb.”
Those words finally triggered Bi Sa-yeong’s anger again, which he had been trying to suppress.
“What?!”
The enraged Bi Sa-yeong turned around and shouted with a burning gaze.
“Do you dare to speak of that event in front of me?!”
But it seemed the old man had not said those words to make Bi Sa-yeong angry.
Having let out a deep sigh, he descended from the bed using only his one movable arm and leg, and then struggled to kneel in front of Bi Sa-yeong.
“I lost my family and my everything to the Jeomchang Sect and the Orthodox rascals. I never regret my revenge, but yes. A descendant of those who died unfairly at the Martial Emperor’s Tomb would have the right to kill me.”
“...What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
In front of Bi Sa-yeong, who asked with a confused gaze, the old man confessed calmly. It was an astonishing confession that we had never imagined.
“I am the one who planned the Blood Incident of the Martial Emperor’s Tomb along with Mu-gwang. I am the enemy who killed the elders of your sect.”
Boom!
It felt as if a drum had sounded in my head.
What? The one who planned the Blood Incident of the Martial Emperor’s Tomb?
Did the name Mu-gwang he just mentioned refer to the Blood Cult Leader, Evil Wisdom Blood Demon Jeon Mu-gwang?
We could not close our open mouths.
Bi Sa-yeong asked with a trembling gaze.
“What, what kind of nonsense are you talking about? You planned the Blood Incident of the Martial Emperor’s Tomb? What kind of nonsense is that?! Why is such a person doing this here?!”
The old man answered calmly.
“There is no need for you to know my circumstances. I will not ask you to understand. Just.... I am sorry. So kill me and settle your resentment.”
Bi Sa-yeong shouted as if screaming.
“Shut up! Do not speak as you please! I will be the one to judge whether to understand or not! You, speak! Tell me everything that happened!”
At Bi Sa-yeong’s scream, the old man looked at him with a heavy gaze and slowly opened his mouth.
The old man’s name was Seok Gyeong-dal, and he said he had been the chief manager of the Jeon Family Manor, which was an Orthodox sect in Yunnan in the past.
And he was also close friends with Jeon Mu-gwang, who was the head of the Jeon Family Manor at the time.
At that time, the Jeon Family Manor was in a state where the Lightning Sword Style—the unique martial art of the Lightning Swordsman Jeon Pyo-seung, who was one of the ten greatest swordsmen in the world a hundred years ago—had been lost, and thus restoring that Lightning Sword Style was a long-cherished wish of the Jeon Family Manor.
Jeon Mu-gwang, who had been pursuing the restoration of the Lightning Sword Style with his long-time friend Seok Gyeong-dal, one day discovered a secret training room of his ancestors.
And there, he was finally able to recover the lost Lightning Sword Style.
It was an incredibly joyous occasion. Everyone in the Jeon Family Manor was overwhelmed with joy.
But they did not know then. That it would become the seed of disaster….
The pretext was that the place where the secret training room was located was the territory of the nearby Ma Family Manor.
Ma Yong-cheok, the master of the Ma Family Manor at the time, claimed that since the training room was in his territory, the Lightning Sword Style also belonged to his Ma Family Manor.
It was an absurd matter. Did that mean if the remains of ancestors were in their territory, the ancestors became members of the Ma family?
Jeon Mu-gwang dismissed it as nonsense.
Then, Ma Yong-cheok brought in the Jeomchang Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects and the master of Yunnan Province, to make a judgment.
Even then, Jeon Mu-gwang was confident. He believed that even though returning accidentally obtained martial arts to their original sect was the ethics of the martial world, the Jeomchang Sect, the pinnacle of the Orthodox sects, would not side with Ma Yong-cheok.
But Jeon Mu-gwang did not know then. That Ma Yong-cheok’s son, Ma Won-ung, was the top disciple of the Jeomchang Sect Leader….
The Jeomchang Sect eventually sided with the Ma Family Manor. Then, they began to apply pressure on Jeon Mu-gwang to return the Lightning Sword Style to the Ma Family Manor.
It was truly a shocking matter.
Seok Gyeong-dal, who was the chief manager, suggested to Jeon Mu-gwang then that he would secretly go to the Murim Alliance. He said he would go to the Murim Alliance and ask them to mediate.
Jeon Mu-gwang, who had no other choice, saw Seok Gyeong-dal off with tears, and Seok Gyeong-dal went to the Murim Alliance as quickly as he could.
But that was the end of it. Whether the Jeomchang Sect had already taken measures, no one would meet Seok Gyeong-dal.
He could not meet a single person, not the Alliance Leader who was said to be the world’s greatest hero, nor the elders.
His voice was completely cut off.
Seok Gyeong-dal, who was stomping his feet in frustration, suddenly received tragic news. It was the news that the Jeon Family Manor had been attacked by unknown assailants.
When he returned in shock, the Jeon Family Manor had already been turned into ruins.
Jeon Mu-gwang was alive, but not a single other family member had survived.
The same was true for Seok Gyeong-dal’s family.
To Seok Gyeong-dal, who was crying tears of blood and calling for revenge, Jeon Mu-gwang said with a weak shake of his head:
That they had taken Jeon Mu-gwang’s young daughter. They warned that if he did not stay quiet, he would never see his remaining daughter again.
After that, the people Jeon Mu-gwang and Seok Gyeong-dal met while wandering in search of a way to take revenge were the remnants of the Blood Cult. To them, they were the only remaining means of revenge, even though they were the public enemies of the martial world.
Having heard that far, we could not bring ourselves to say anything.
To a martial artist, revenge for one’s acquaintances was like a law. How much more so for their revenge, having lost their families and clan entirely—how could anyone curse them?
I spoke while lamenting that tragic secret story I was hearing for the first time.
“So that is why you planned the Blood Incident of the Martial Emperor’s Tomb. You targeted the Jeomchang Sect from the beginning. Knowing they would never fail to act out of greed regarding events occurring within Yunnan Province.”
The old man nodded with a vacant laugh.
“Yes. It was a natural thing. Those fellows acted exactly as we thought. So I have never once regretted that incident. But....”
He looked at Bi Sa-yeong with a heavy gaze and said.
“I did not expect those fellows to drive every martial artist gathered there into the Martial Emperor’s Tomb to kill them all. I did not think they would try to kill even the powerless martial artists who were not very threatening. But all of this is merely an excuse. What is certain is that my revenge ultimately ended up creating people like me again. So you have the right to curse me. You also have the right to kill me. Now, kill me. Just as I sacrificed the elders of your sect to settle my resentment, you also kill me to settle your sect’s resentment.”
At his words, spoken calmly, Dakam and the children clung to him.
“Poison Elder!”
“Grandfather, you cannot!”
But the old man did not budge like a rock. He was just looking at Bi Sa-yeong calmly.
Bi Sa-yeong, who had been staring blankly into space with a vacant gaze, suddenly asked.
“But why is such a grand person doing this here? Were you betrayed?”
“...I left. My goal was only revenge, but in the meantime, it seemed Mu-gwang developed another dream. I could not watch it, nor could I stop it.”
Then Bi Sa-yeong asked mockingly.
“So you have been living here caring for Miao children? To atone?”
At those words, the old man shook his head with a weak laugh.
“How many lives have I killed? Would caring for a few children count as atonement? It was just.... they were on my mind.”
Hearing that, Bi Sa-yeong began to giggle and laugh.
“Just on your mind? Hehehe, hehehehe.”
Then he shouted out.
“Damn it! Do you have any idea how I lived because of you! Do you even know how my junior disciples are living?! Thinking of the masters who took me in when I was an orphan, I could not even leave that place even as it was perishing! I did everything from being a waiter to a delivery boy! Was that all?! I even begged! Because my sect ran out of food! I went around begging so as not to let my junior disciples starve! Even now, my junior disciples live that way! But they were on your mind?! They were on your mind?! Why?! Damn it, if you are a Blood Cult Demon Master, you should have lived like a Demon Master until the end! Why the hell are you doing this kind of thing?! Why the hell are you living like this?!”
Tears were streaming down from Bi Sa-yeong’s eyes as he wailed like that. The old man just kept his head lowered with his eyes tightly closed.
After crying while looking into space for a long time, Bi Sa-yeong suddenly began to giggle and laugh again.
“Do you know what is truly funny? When I met Ju Tae-gyeong, the fellow who claims to be a disciple of the prestigious Jeomchang Sect, I also told him I was a member of the Bi-jong Sect. Then the fellow asked back where that was. So I told him the story of the Martial Emperor’s Tomb. I did not want much. I just wanted to see even an expression of apology. Then that son of a bitch not only mocked my master but also tried to kill me. But.... now I have met a Blood Cult Demon Master, and that Demon Master says he will kneel before me and apologize with his death just by hearing the name of the Bi-jong Sect. Damn it. This.... this is truly too much, isn't it? Isn't this truly too much?”
No one could say anything.