In the distance, a waterfall poured down with a thundering roar.
Below the sheer cliff, following the cold, glinting stream downward, one's gaze came to rest on a lake as smooth as a mirror.
“......Fallen Star Lake.”
Cheon Su-rin realized he was standing there.
Had he been dragged into that terrible dream once again?
But something felt off.
He had clearly been in the middle of a life-or-death melee with the Black Tiger Gang.
Losing consciousness and dreaming in the middle of a fierce battle made no sense.
Above all, something was different from usual.
The lake was utterly clear and transparent.
It should have been stained dark red with the blood of the Heaven-Subduing Hundred Saints Corps, and the corpses floating like buoys should have filled his vision.
But now, only he stood alone upon the lake, where silence had settled.
‘It's...... not a dream?’
He stepped forward without thinking. Only then did Cheon Su-rin become aware that he was walking on the surface of the water.
On a glassy surface where not even a ripple stirred.
“It's a dream.”
A hollow laugh burst out of him.
He had not reached the realm of Treading Wind and Water, so it was impossible for him to walk on water so naturally.
In other words, this place was an illusion.
He must have been swallowed up by the memories of the Heavenly Slaughter Calamity, Jeok Geon-ho.
“It is not a dream.”
Just then, a chilling voice came from behind him.
Cheon Su-rin whirled around in shock.
‘Who is that?’
An old man with long, snow-white hair and a dazzling Taoist robe stood there.
As if an immortal had descended, a mystical energy that seemed not of this world flowed from the old man's entire body.
“Nor is it reality.”
“......?”
“Pleased to meet you, Jeok Geon-ho. Or rather, should I call you Cheon Su-rin now?”
Cheon Su-rin's eyes filled with shock.
He had called him Jeok Geon-ho. No one could say that without knowing his past life.
“Who...... are you?”
“Are you asking my name, or how I know of your past life?”
“Both.”
“I am the Nameless One.”
The Nameless One. It meant one who had no name.
Naturally, it could not be his real name.
“May I take that to mean you do not wish to reveal your name?”
“It is a little different from that.”
“......?”
“I, too, once had a name. But I abandoned it a very long time ago. That is why I simply call myself the Nameless One.”
Abandoned? Was a name something one could throw away simply because one wished to?
Cheon Su-rin simply assumed the old man was a reclusive eccentric master who did not wish to reveal his true identity.
“Understood. Then I will call you the Nameless One. Where is this place?”
“It is called the Star Domain.”
“I have never heard of such a place.”
“Think of it as a space of consciousness wrought by the Heavenly Slaughter Star.”
Cheon Su-rin's pupils shook violently.
He had not expected that cursed name to come from the Nameless One's mouth.
“You must be confused. This place is, after all, a forbidden realm the living cannot set foot in.”
“Are you saying I have died?”
“You are alive. It is merely that as the Heavenly Slaughter Star within you manifested, you and I found a point of contact.”
“Manifested...... Do you mean that I have become the Heavenly Slaughter Star again?”
The Nameless One quietly nodded.
To Cheon Su-rin, that affirmation sounded like a death sentence.
“That cannot be! It may have been so in my past life, but it has nothing to do with me now!”
“Have you not faintly sensed it yourself recently?”
“......!”
“The sensation of someone other than yourself taking hold of your entire body.”
He could not refute it.
The killing urge within him that had grown thicker the longer the fight with the Black Tiger Gang dragged on.
Cheon Su-rin had already felt it on his own skin, that some enormous being was encroaching upon his body.
“If things remain as they are, you will be completely dominated by the Heavenly Slaughter Star. Just as in your past life, you will become a mad murderer who craves nothing but blood and slaughter.”
The Nameless One's voice was benevolent, but its words were cruel.
Cheon Su-rin got goosebumps at the fact that the man knew his past life and even saw through his innermost anxiety.
“In each generation, there is only one Heavenly Slaughter Star. When the life of the previous one ends, that baleful force moves on in search of its next vessel.”
“Then...... are you saying the Heavenly Slaughter Star chose me once again?”
Cheon Su-rin's expression twisted in deep despair.
His past self had even thrown away his own life to escape that curse.
And even that was not enough?
If what the man said was true, it was far too cruel a fate.
“......Am I never to escape this shackle?”
At this rate, it would be a repetition of the same tragedy.
A miserable life of repeated slaughter that would end with him having to kill himself.
“You have already awakened as the Heavenly Slaughter Star. Unless you die, there is no way out.”
At the Nameless One's firm words, even the last shred of hope was broken.
In truth, Cheon Su-rin himself knew that best.
If there had been a way, would Jeok Geon-ho have taken his own life like that?
Even so, desperate enough to clutch at straws, Cheon Su-rin gazed at the Nameless One.
“Do you wish to live a life different from your past one?”
The Nameless One asked again.
The hope that had died out rekindled like an ember.
“Did you not say there is no way?”
“There is no way to escape the Heavenly Slaughter Star. But there is a way not to be completely dominated by it.”
“Is that possible?”
“If your mind is not ruled by the killing heart, the Heavenly Slaughter Star will not be able to wield your body as it pleases.”
The Nameless One's explanation was simple, but in reality it was close to impossible.
For the Heavenly Slaughter Star tempted one toward slaughter without end, and the strength of a human mind could not withstand the will of that enormous star.
“Of course, it is not as simple as it sounds. For you, it will be especially difficult. There must be a reason the Heavenly Slaughter Star chose you again.”
A vessel easy to dominate.
He did not want to admit it, but considering the history of how his past self had gone from an ordinary servant to a murderer called the Heavenly Slaughter Calamity in the blink of an eye, he had nothing to say.
“Yet it is also thanks to that that you and I were able to meet.”
At the Nameless One's words, which suggested that this meeting held meaning, Cheon Su-rin felt a faint hope.
“......What must I do?”
“From now on, I will teach you a martial art. It is a martial art called the Starlit Night Heart-Sealing Formula.”
Each time the Nameless One's lips moved, transparent characters were driven into Cheon Su-rin's mind.
When the heavens sink low and the earth is dyed the color of blood,
Lock the gate of the heart and imprison the teeming stars.
Let the baleful star sleep in darkness, and let only the Silver River flow.
All things shall grow still, and only the silence of eternal night shall remain.
“This is the essence of the Starlit Night Heart-Sealing Formula.”
It was a strange sensation.
Though the content was profound and complex, he was able to memorize it in a single pass.
No, rather than memorizing it, it felt as though the Nameless One had driven the Starlit Night Heart-Sealing Formula straight into his mind.
“Whenever killing intent clouds your reason, recall this mental formula. It will be the shield that protects you from the temptation of the Heavenly Slaughter Star.”
Cheon Su-rin performed a clasped hands greeting and bowed deeply.
Even so, his doubt did not clear.
Why would this transcendent being help him without asking anything in return?
“Why do you show me such grace?”
“I am merely doing what I must. It is less bestowing grace than something closer to atonement.”
Atonement?
At that moment, the Nameless One's figure blurred like mist.
“It seems the time has come.”
“Where are you going?!”
Instead of answering, the Nameless One gave a sorrowful smile.
“If the chance arises, we will meet again.”
With those final words, the clear scenery of Fallen Star Lake crumbled, and Cheon Su-rin's vision sank into pitch-black darkness.
***
As the lingering image of the Star Domain scattered, Cheon Su-rin returned to reality, gasping for breath.
The cold, damp air of the cave stabbed into his lungs.
“......It wasn't a dream.”
The encounter with the Nameless One was seared into his mind as vividly as a brand.
While gathering himself after that strange sensation, Cheon Su-rin happened to look over his own body and froze on the spot.
His entire body was sodden with dark red blood.
As if he had been wearing a red martial arts uniform from the start, the blood had soaked into every inch without a single gap.
When he turned his gaze, an even more gruesome scene unfolded.
The cave floor was strewn with corpses hacked apart so badly that their human forms were hard to recognize.
“......Did I really do this?”
They may have been the most wicked thugs of the Black Tiger Gang, but he could not believe he had butchered them this cruelly.
Only the memory of that moment had vanished entirely, as if carved out with a knife.
Had he not met the Nameless One in the Star Domain, he would never have admitted this was his doing.
‘I've awakened the Heavenly Slaughter Star.’
It was an undeniable reality.
He had no memory of it, but the blood on these hands and the corpses strewn everywhere were the proof.
Cheon Su-rin clenched his trembling hands and engraved that horrible truth upon his heart.
-Kill.
Just then, an eerie hallucinated voice scraped at his mind.
Now he knew. That this was the temptation of the Heavenly Slaughter Star, which had raised its head within him.
From somewhere deep inside, a hot killing urge surged up once more.
Though it had already taken countless lives, the thirst did not subside. Instead, it tried to gnaw at his reason even more sharply.
‘I won't let that happen!’
Cheon Su-rin sat cross-legged in the middle of the pool of blood and closed his eyes. Then he desperately recited the secret formula the Nameless One had left him.
The seething killing intent touched the cold energy of night and gradually faded.
The hallucinated voice clouding his mind drifted away, and soon an endless silence settled in.
Only once he felt that the killing urge had been fully contained did Cheon Su-rin slowly open his eyes.
‘I never imagined it would be this effective.’
It was a truly astonishing result.
He would have been satisfied if it had shown even a slight calming effect, yet it had put that enormous malice, which had been trying to swallow him whole, to sleep in one stroke.
The Nameless One's words had been true.
He even felt certain that as long as he had this, his mind and body would never be dominated by the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
With the most urgent fire put out, someone he had forgotten suddenly came to mind.
Cheon Su-rin's gaze, which had been frantically sweeping his surroundings, stopped at one spot.
“Du-chil!”
Bong Du-chil was there.
At the sight of him lying motionless, Cheon Su-rin's heart sank.
“Don't tell me I even hurt you.......”
If he had harmed even his precious younger brother with his own hands in this storm of slaughter, it would be a sin he could never wash away for the rest of his life.
Overwhelmed by guilt, Cheon Su-rin hung his head without realizing it.
“......Hyung, are you crying?”
Just then, a strained yet playful voice came from the floor.
Cheon Su-rin stopped sobbing and jerked his head up.
“......You're alive?”
“Of course. Don't tell me you wanted me dead?”
“......Why'd you have to scare me like that?!”
Bong Du-chil gave a sheepish grin.
Then, breaking the silence, a growling stomach echoed through the cave.
Bong Du-chil muttered in embarrassment.
“The meat...... Is there any of my share left, by chance?”
Going on about meat amid all this carnage.
He was so dumbfounded that a laugh burst out of him, yet at the same time, a hot surge of relief welled up from the bottom of his heart.
“Even if there isn't, I'll make you some.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. So let's go back now.”
Not to this cave reeking of blood, but to the Heavenly Way Martial Arts Academy, where a peaceful life awaited.
Cheon Su-rin vowed that he would protect this peace no matter what.