Book 15 Chapter 1

The Three Jewels (三縱三擒)

The Seven Deadly Sins.

諸葛亮 let go of 孟獲 seven times and caught him again seven times.

"Kaaahhhh!"

The sound of another life being taken from this world forever assaulted Ipung's eardrums. The intermittent beeping of the terminal had barely died down.

I wanted to cover my ears, and even my tear-fogged vision couldn't hide the hopelessness of this horror-filled situation. I might as well have plucked out my eyeballs and torn my eardrums.

There's no way around it!

I can't think of a more accurate description of the current state of affairs. How many times has this happened?

Thirty…? Forty…? Or… Fifty?

I had long since given up on counting. I had to count too much, too often.

But he didn't seem to have to worry about that anymore, because now it was just a matter of subtracting one from the bag. It was a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation, but the weight of the lives it contained was almost too much to bear.

The luxury of warlike emotion was already gone. The hatred and anger that had fueled his warrior spirit with so much efficacy were worth less than a speck of dust in the face of untold horror. The tip of his sword pointed to the ground, his gaze to the sky.

Jab, jab, jab!

The sound of fallen leaves being crushed by the Reaper's footsteps echoed. To Yi Feng's ears, it sounded as if the leaves of the soul were letting out a terminal scream.

Hour after hour, as the god of death approached, he stood as still as a puppet whose strings had been cut. At the cost of ninety-nine lives, he had finally realized the futility of resistance.

"Did you make eye contact?

Squeak!

The underside of my knees burned like they were on fire.

"Boom!"

An unexplained pain that cut off his screams and swallowed his groans raced from his knees through his limbs and into his entire body.

'Nothing…, I didn't see anything…….'

The body's instinctive defense mechanisms didn't work. I couldn't even figure out what was going on, let alone function.

Yuck.

Ilfeng's body collapsed onto the ground.

Ironpuck.

The man lay down on his own blood.

The man was the last. He was the last man standing. After him, no one stood on the earth with two feet. Except for the landscaper who created this hellish landscape, the silver-masked reaper…….

'He' turns his head and slowly looks around.

Dozens of corpses lay strewn across the ground. Few of the corpses had limbs still attached, and the red blood oozing from the severed flesh had pooled together into a great river with dozens of tributaries.

The thick stench of blood that paralyzes the sense of smell, the scattered bits of guts that make you feel sick to your stomach. It was a gruesome and horrifying sight, like hell brought to life, but there was not a shred of emotion in his eyes behind the silver mask. It was a scene he'd seen countless times, a scene he'd created countless times, and there was nothing special about adding another one.

To him, this city in front of him, this hellish landscape he was treading on, was just a meaningless, boring routine.

"Human…, human… no……! Human……."

A man raises his head from among the pile of bodies and lets out a groan. His head is in a pool of blood, but he's still breathing, though his bloodied hair stings his eyes. His legs are completely hollow below the knees. It was a breeze.

"Is the author…, is the author… truly the devil incarnate……."

As if chasing an invisible mirage, as if grasping at thin air, the man stretches out his right hand in a futile attempt to reach him, the one responsible for this mess.

"Kool-Aid!"

A handful of fresh blood spurted out of Ilfeng's mouth. His eyes are so red and bloodshot that one wonders if his blood vessels have already burst. Even a ghost's eyes could not be more miserable.

"Madam…, it's drunken night……."

The amulet pouch on his right wrist suddenly caught my eye.

It was a gift from his son, who had been initiated into the Order a decade earlier, beaming with pride, and he hadn't forgotten a word of it.

"As you know, our shamanic talismans are very effective. The spirit of the Taisang Clan and the Ancestor of Taisi, Zhang Sanfeng, will surely protect your father's life."

His son, now grown and distinguished as a swordsman among young talents, was always a 10-year-old cutie.

"취야……."

Ten years since then…, during which time it has saved him from countless crises and boasted of its brilliance……. Apparently, the amulet had a shelf life.

'If I'd known there was a time limit, I should have pestered him to buy me an extra one…….'

A bittersweet smile tugs at the corners of my mouth, and a flood of tears rolls down my cheeks.

Parrrrr!

His right hand, outstretched in a bitter rage, trembled like an aspen tree. The hand was a mess of cuts, dirt, and blood.

"You… monstrosity……."

My vision was blurring from the excessive blood loss. The reflection in my eyes shook like the surface of a lake after a stone had been thrown.

If you're righteous, if you're right, if you're upright, then everything is fine. "Enough," I thought. But that was too complacent.

The exercise of power without justice is violence. But justice without power also rings hollow.

Not enough!

That being said, I couldn't be more resentful of that fact right now.

"This one… this one… you can never let go of……."

His face turned this way for a moment, a mirage in the distance, something you could chase forever and never grasp. Masters of great power……. Was it an illusion to think for a moment that their eyes met? His hand shook for a moment, a small light flickering from his fingertips.

Pod!

A burning sensation on his brow, and at the same time, a pitch-black darkness washed over him.

'Qu Ya…, please become a master of the sword…….'

In his fading consciousness, he breathed a final wish and sent it up into the sky.

Poof!

With a dull thud, a scarred hunk of meat fell to the floor, lifeless. There was no life left in it.

Bam!

The silk pouch cracked and the shattered yellow paper was blown away by the heartless wind and scattered into the air.

It was the last of the Fallen Peak's last stand, the last of the Shaman Swordsmen's Invincible Sword Gongsong Il Feng, who formed a white army to protect the iron cage.

"Coming!"

A young woman sat on a rocky outcropping on one of the peaks of Nakan Peak, watching the mountain below. Her voice was quiet, but determined.

Is it a woman or a man?

Fine lines of a face chiseled from white jade, dark eyes of immeasurable depth, a slender waist, long, slender arms and delicate fingers……. She had a slender figure that would be better described as fragile than lithe. At first glance, one could easily mistake her for a woman, let alone a teenager. The blue sword and red saber strapped to his waist were awkward, as he looked so weak that one wondered if he could even kill a fly. However, they were far from ornamental, as they contained too much divine energy.

This handsome young man was dressed in an unusually colored robe that looked like a mixture of crimson flame and blue-white ice, and the hair that fell over his shoulders was a mysterious silver-blue, as if it had been ground into a celadon and sprinkled over ice.

Behind the young man's back stood another young man of imposing bearing, with hair like a black lion's mane, the bravery of a lion in his eyes, and a fierce speculation welling up throughout his body.

They were two very contrasting people.

"The time has finally come!"

The young man's words, reminiscent of a black lion, carried a strong will and a past vow.

His eyes drifted back to the slender shoulders of the young woman staring down the mountain. A back that looked as if it might break if he touched it. But don't be fooled by that frail appearance, for it would be recklessness of the highest order……. How many people have paid dearly for being fooled by that frail appearance? It has long since become incalculable, and it might be faster to count the grains of sand in the river.

Perhaps nine of the old school's best writers could never defeat him. But the fools of Meng don't know that. Or perhaps they do, but they close their eyes and ears and refuse to admit it.

"Frogs in a well. They think they can cover the sky with their palms……! What? They always say they're working for Kang Ho's future? How can you believe such sophistry when their words and actions are completely different? They try to cover the sky with their palms…….'

Effort is not a word, but a deed. And yet they sit in their safe places, content to feed the madness of a few followers, and talk about the future of the mighty with only their mouths and tongues.

Those idiots are the reason why Kang Ho is in the shape he's in now. I can tell you for sure. Compared to their frail-looking master, they're trash. Worse than maggots.

"That sucks!"

Rin frowned, not bothering to hide the bitter accusation. His gaze remained fixed on the mountain below.

"Distressed? What do you mean?"

With a blade of grass in his mouth, Hyuk the Black Lion replied.

A self-deprecating smile tugged at the corners of Lin's mouth.

"Look at yourself in the eye, and realize that for once you can't sell yourself short!"

That was what it meant to look yourself in the eye, but such a tender demeanor was anathema to a young man with the eyes of a fierce beast, his black mane whipping around him.

"Pfft, I don't care if you have the ability to escape reality, living in a fog of dreams and illusion doesn't change the cold hard reality!"

It was a chillingly unrelenting venom, but it was true.

"Whoops, sorry, my apologies!"

Lin readily admitted his error. But there was no sign of remorse.

Hyuk knew it was empty words from the start. But the fact that the self-help was so close to the truth only fueled his anger.

"It takes a lot of courage to look yourself in the eye. Only the courageous can recognize the walls in front of them and break through them."

The plasterer knew full well that this world was full of people who didn't even know that walls existed. He patted him on the shoulder exaggeratedly.

"Eh, eh, eh… the future of the martial arts……. That must be a lot of weight. I wonder if I'll get nerve pain, back pain, and shoulder arthritis all at once!"

Hyuk nodded in agreement.

"I agree! To pass through the three gateways created by the Zheng family in such a short time……. A monster is a monster after all……."

Hyuk paused, then resumed.

"Chet, I was hoping so hard that it wouldn't be our turn… but apparently my prayers were in vain. Damn it!"

I could feel the presence of 'him', still hundreds of photos away, so clearly that my skin crawled and I stood up.

"Apparently, knowing your own abilities is more painful than you think, especially when you realize they're not up to par!"

Hyuk was well aware that it was an objective fact, not an insult.

"But to know it and still be able to face the truth is true courage; to know one's own fraction and to fight 'on faith' to surpass it, that is true courage; before that, it is not courage at all, but recklessness and 'all-purpose'."

A year of desperate attempts to avoid being overpowered, to avoid repeating the failures of the day. The time had finally come to showcase his secret weapon.

"A year…, it's been a long time……."

It was a time that could have been longer, or shorter. But to them, it seemed like an eternity.

There was a moment of silence.

"You… didn't forget."

After a long moment of silence, Hyuk's mouth opened again. A blade-like gleam flashed in Lin's black eyes.

"Of course! How could I ever forget that disgraceful memory, and if I could erase it by simply cutting open my brain and rinsing it in cold, icy water, I would do it without a moment's hesitation right now, if I could erase that memory, that disgrace!"

The eyes of the two men, who were both brothers-in-arms and comrades-in-arms, met at a single point. They still remembered the disgrace as vividly as if it were yesterday, stamped on their hearts like a flame.

two years ago.

The memory of being surrounded by three hundred enemies, the horror of which still lingers like a reverberation, came back to me with vivid clarity.

Two years ago…….

Disheveled hair, a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, torn clothes, and blue-red wounds beneath. He was silently looking at the two young men, who could not be called healthy even if they were lying. Currently, the chest pockets of his shirt were split diagonally, and a thin red line could be seen through them.

One finger of his right hand gently skims over the red line, as if sensing it. One corner of his mouth, exposed beneath his silver mask, slowly curled upward.

"I can't believe you hurt me……. Was there still a man of your caliber left in a ship that was a wreck on the verge of sinking?"

'He' seemed more amused than angry, a distinctive voice that seemed to emanate from the depths of the abyss and rise with countless echoes.

"It's been a long time since you've seen your own blood, and I don't know where it came from or who taught you, but you've learned well, you've learned well, your skills and potential are beyond any other unmanned people I've ever met!"

It was the highest praise he could have asked for, but neither man was pleased. They were well aware that of all the uninhabited peoples he had encountered, none were still alive except those who had fallen into his service, and any praise from the one who would soon take their lives would be perceived as little more than mockery. It would be impossible for them to say, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, this is an honor that will never be repeated in this life, and I will pass it on to my descendants!

"Damn it!"

Bam!

The dull thud of iron chains rang out and…….

"Kill him!"

With lion-like eyes, Hyuk shouted in a guttural voice. In his outstretched hands, the blood-colored saber, a demonic sword that had once called for countless bloodsheds, was now silent, having lost its ferocity.

There was no way they could move. Their bodies were now encircled by eight strands of thick, inky chains, like the beasts of hell.

"I apologize. I didn't feel confident enough in my ability to seal your movements with just my powers, so I had to resort to such a cumbersome method. I hope you'll bear with me if it's a bit heavy and uncomfortable!"

'He' was kind enough to ask for your forgiveness. Are you playing with me……. Hyuk gritted his teeth. At the same time, he felt sorry for his friend, who had been trapped along with him.

"I'm sorry, Rin, I didn't capitalize on the opportunity you created for me, failure!"

Rin shook her head at the deep regret in his voice.

"Nay, the injury to the author's body is worth enough, and besides, the fault lies in my inexperience. If only I had given him a better chance……. my ugliness for not risking my life!"

There was nothing better than a lindo revolution. Even his mysteriously unique red-blue hybrid robes were now tattered and no better than rags. However, even his disheveled appearance could not completely obscure his splendor.

The young man's eyes still burned endlessly with a fierce will to fight, and as if to reflect that will, even now that his entire body was bound in chains, he still clutched tightly to his left sword, Bing Lu, and his right sword, Red Flame, and refused to let go of them. It might have been his last expression of will.

'I'm furious! If I had a second chance, I'd do it again…….'

But the next time was a chance that didn't exist. Perhaps he had been overconfident, and he hadn't done his best. Lin chewed on his lip and swallowed the bunru.

'If only I hadn't ducked that blow to my abdomen and taken it fearlessly… then maybe Hyuk would have had a better chance while it was tearing through my guts…….'

But assumptions alone cannot change the present. The past cannot be reversed by the breath of a god.

You lost. You lost.

Only death awaits the loser. But they were not afraid of death. They only feared that the hope that rested on their shoulders would die with them, but they had no strength left to struggle.

One hundred of the elite Raiding Stars that had come with them were dead, and now it was just the two of them. And now they were stepping on the corpses of their comrades-in-arms, surrounded by three hundred Dosan Sword Forests, and facing an entity more terrifying than all three hundred of them combined. It would be futile and pointless to search for Saint Luo here.

Eek!

Then 'he' turned his gaze back to Rin's face. Curiosity, it seemed, was an unfamiliar emotion that occasionally cropped up in this reaper of death and blood.

"You……."

He only had one question.

"Is it a woman?"

Hyuk squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to cover his ears as well, but with the way his hands were shaped, he had to give up. As expected, a deafening sound soon erupted.

It was a cry more ferocious than the roar of a beast.

"Gal! Woman, woman! I am a man! Can't you see? Are your eyes ornaments? Where do you think I look like a woman?"

Lin shouted, her face bright red. Hyuk's eardrums tingled.

'Bam, I knew this was coming and wanted to cover my ears…….'

But he didn't even have a moment to regret it. Forgetting that his limbs were bound, Lin lunged for 'him'.

"Uh-oh!"

Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp!

The six men holding the six strands of chains that held Lin in place were unable to handle the force and were dragged away.

Gain!

My feet dug into the ground, digging deep furrows as I struggled to brake. It was an unimaginable amount of power, emanating from such a frail body.

"Was it a man after all? That's… a bit of a waste!"

Hyuk stiffened in anger. He almost forgot his predicament and nodded in agreement.

The idea was dangerous and ominous. If I agreed to it, I would have a very difficult time in the afterlife. But what can you do, it's just the way things are, even to a sighted person, in every way. For a moment, forgetting his own predicament, Hyuk thought.

"What if I'm a man and what if I'm a woman? From what I've heard, you don't get a pass because you're a woman. Kill me now."

But "he" shook his head.

"Tsk, tsk, I can't believe you lost your composure at that little provocation……. How can you still call yourself an uninitiated, when you don't even know the most basic key to mastering a sword?"

"That… that's……."

Lin's face turned bright red with embarrassment.

Immobility!

It would be an exaggeration to say that there are no sword practitioners who do not know this, but only a few who can put it into practice. This is because there are only a few who have the ability to bridge the gap between knowing and doing.

"It must have been a lot of work to raise you guys. I think I sent you out as a last ditch effort, but it didn't work, so now what?"

It's a shame that it's not some blind old raccoon who recognizes their value, but the biggest baddie of all, "he.

"Hmmm…, what could be good about this?"

'He' muttered in a tone of deep distress.

The sentence of death had not yet been pronounced; the one who held their leash had not yet lost interest in them.

Hyuk was furious.

"Damn it! I won't take insults. Kill him quickly. What's with all the shallah-shallah!"

I could tolerate death, but I could not tolerate insults. It was better to die clean than to be mocked.

"You have a short fuse, so you recklessly rush in with a half-cooked, half-dead man. There's no need to hasten his demise. Humans die anyway. There are only speeds and slownesses in between……. I am the judge of your life and death at this time. If I choose survival, you will live even if you try to die; if I choose destruction, you will die even if you try to live."

Was this really what the infamous blood god looked like? It was hard to believe in person. He had envisioned something more like a bloodthirsty beast, covered in wounds, with blood dripping from his body. That was the limit of Hyuk's imagination. But in reality, 'he' stood before him looking nothing like that. The only thing that stood out was the mask of white silver that covered half of his face, and the two terrifyingly swirling eyes that glowed within it.

"Is that how you want to die?"

He raised his right hand, and a blinding white light emanated from his fingertips. It seemed to be some sort of lesson.

"Kill him!"

They didn't want to be old. Hyuk and Lin quietly closed their eyes and waited for their fate to come to them.

Wham!

The mouth beneath the white-silver mask formed a smile, and his hand flicked lightly. Then something amazing happened.

Hooray!

The heads of both Hyuk and Lin shook like they had been struck by a gale. At the same time, the iron chains that held their bodies together snapped like rotten cords and fell to the floor in a heap.

After a moment, Hyuk and Lin's closed eyes gently opened. Dazed for a moment, they began to inspect their bodies. There were no wounds, and now they could see the pieces of iron scattered across the floor, the nightmarish chains that they had been unable to break free from, no matter how hard they struggled, were no better than sugars in his hands.

'What an amazing power…….'

It was easy to tell that these chains were something out of the ordinary by their faintly dull, low sheen. They were probably made of jade steel. It's amazing how a child's hand can do this……. Indeed, he was called the 'Terrifying of the Heavens' and was synonymous with fear and death in a living, physical body.

"What kind of a joke is this?"

Hyuk was dumbfounded by his newfound, or reclaimed, freedom.

"It's just a little whim. This raid was unfortunate. The lifeblood of surprise is speed and stealth. Only when you have those two things can you unleash your personal power. Next time, try to be more misty and stealthy, and move like a lightning bolt. It would be a shame to spoil the fun by being spotted as easily as you did this time! You've worked hard for your toys, and they shouldn't be easy to break, should they?"

He was laughing. A creepy laugh. If the devil smiled, it would be like that. Hyuk and Lin couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines.

'He' said again.

"Let's play a game of tag. What did I tell you about the Seven Deadly Sins? Perhaps it was a test of swallow resonance? In the future, I will let you go three times. Even if you don't want to, you can't. I am the winner and you are the losers. Rules are made by the winner, no matter how high the stakes, so it's me who sets the rules. The loser cannot go against the rules set by the winner. Struggle and struggle and struggle while I let you go three times. If I let you go three times and you are caught all three times, you will die on the spot."

"My lord, these are men who have sought your life, and you must not let them go."

One of the warriors holding the siege shouted. It was Amber, the leader of the three hundred siege troops. His eyes were filled with the light of Wen Poison as he stared at the two of them. A long, diagonal slash. The searing pain was still overwhelming his entire body. A trace of a strike, as if it had been set on fire. This was the work of Lin's Wudo Hongyan.

"I'll take no names, lightning, who am I?"

Under that majestic glare, Amroe immediately bowed to the spot.

"He is a mighty law and a god."

'He' nodded.

"Are you willing to transgress the law?"

"Lord… I am guilty of death, I am sorry, Lord!"

There was a chill in the pit of my stomach and silence. No more names were offered. They knew what the Other Mountain Stone was.

"Farewell, struggler! I expect you to entertain me more next time we meet."

Shamed enough to want to kill themselves, they clenched their molars together. They could not die… not yet. They still had responsibilities to fulfill.

"You will regret letting us go!"

"I expect it!"

'He' replied, still in a calm voice.

The two men took these last words to heart and vowed to never forget them.

"As long as my soul and life are on fire, I will make sure that no words of regret come out of his mouth about this!

They made a vow in the heavens.

It may have been a ridiculous farmyard joke, but the person who played the biggest role in their discipline was none other than the God of Fear himself.

Without his presence, without his maneuvering, they would not be as strong as they are. No, they would not even be standing here now, for they had already died once, two years ago.

A life prolonged by the cheap pity of the enemy. It was a life of perks. There was nothing to waste. There was nothing to fear.

He gritted his teeth. He endured the pain of crushed flesh and shattered bones. With a desperate heart, he cultivated with great diligence. Rain or shine, hot or cold, clear or cloudy, they never felt the need to rest. They had a goal to reach. They had enemies to defeat.

Stronger, stronger, stronger!

There was a giant wall in front of them, and if they couldn't get over it, they would die in disgrace. There was no other way, no second choice, no such thing. So they risked everything just to get over that wall. And in exchange for their lives, they finally accomplished one thing.

"Hey, Lean!"

At the summit of Nakanbong, Hyuk, awakened from his past, called out Chinwoo's name.

T'ien-t'ai Ch'ien Yue Lin, commonly known as Lin.

He was a man of imposing stature, with dazzling silver-blue hair that stood out like a sore thumb, but the strength and swagger that radiated from his shoulders and back was not the shallow "showmanship" that is often found in the untrained.

"What? Why but?"

Lin answers, but doesn't look back.

He has a history of misunderstandings and incidents due to his beauty, which could be mistaken for that of a woman, so you have to be very careful with certain words in his presence (though he's mellowed out a lot).

"Is that… done?"

At the Black Lion's cautious question, the young man called Lin nodded silently. But his eyes, which were fixed on the mountain below, were fixed as firmly as if they were nails in the air, on a single point. There was a great power there. After a brief moment of resistance, the force had lightly removed the last obstacle and was leisurely ascending toward them. There was no sign of urgency.

"Barely! It was close. Hyuk, what about you?"

I ask, still not turning my head. Hyuk, a young man reminiscent of a black lion, nodded.

"Same here. If we don't complete it, we have no chance of winning, and we wouldn't be standing here. We'd be dead, dead, dead. I fought to stay alive, and the impossible became possible. Hmph, foolish worms, wriggling like worms, trying to get out of the swamp of death…recognize……."

The young man's voice, called Hyuk, was filled with self-help.

"Don't say that! By completing it, we've just given ourselves a one-in-a-hundred chance of winning!"

The future of the Murim is at stake here.

"Do your job……. That's more of a hopeful observation than anything. Fighting with the fate of the entire Martial Kingdom on my back……. It's too much for my back, and it's a fight I don't want to do again, and besides, those fools in Meng will never know of our efforts!"

"I totally agree, but even if those idiots don't know, someone has to do it, and you can't trust them…."

There are things in this world that are worth trusting, and there are things that are worthless that should never be trusted.

"건곤일월합벽……!"

Lin said in a quiet voice.

"You did it, Rin!"

Hyuk's voice quivered with barely contained excitement.

"You've got me!"

"So you've finally broken through the 'wall of dreams'? Congratulations, I'm sorry it's a bad time."

Life scattered like dust at the Reaper's sinister gesture. The blood-soaked earth trembled, the air screamed, and the thick scent of blood consumed the mountain winds. It was hard to say it was a good time.

"Hyuk, I have a favor to ask of you!"

Lin said.

"What?"

It was extremely unusual for him to ask for a favor.

"If I die here today and you survive, let my enlightenment and 'my last will and testament' remain unbroken! If I lose here today, it will prove that even 'it' didn't work for him, but I don't want my last will and testament to be destroyed."

Hyuk shouted in exasperation.

"Shut up, don't 'holler' at me! A true victory is when the enemy is annihilated and I survive, otherwise it's a crushing defeat, nothing more, nothing less!"

The words came out fiercely, but deep down, Hyuk agreed with the idea. He had to consider the reverse as well. He knew that if he were to die and Lin survived, the only person who would be able to pass on his "final wishes" to future generations would be the man in front of him.

Only those who have crossed the wall can see the world beyond. Those who have not crossed the wall cannot understand it, even in death. You can't tell a frog in a well about the world outside the well and expect it to understand.

They both knew this better than anyone else, and both needed a friend who could see beyond the barriers and recognize each other as equals in order to keep the "secret" from being lost.

"When I first saw him, I thought he was a total asshole……. He's a guy, he looks like a girl, he's shy, he doesn't talk, he doesn't know what he's talking about, and I decided I should never get close to him……. Well, he's no more of an asshole now than he was then……."

Hyuk's confession of the past was poignant. But Lin didn't lose. Was her competitive spirit ignited?

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's me too, with hair as black as a chicken's skin, and a look that made me think I was a wild-eyed, muscle-bound idiot."

"Huh," Lin said, smiling. Her voice was a smirk, a shadow of the seriousness she'd shown earlier.

"What? How dare you harbor such a foolish notion against my Majesty? You're so arrogant."

"Don't talk about your in-laws! Are you shy or do you have a black eye?"

I remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday.

The two men, who seemed to be as unlikely to mix as water and oil, were now comrades-in-arms who trusted each other with their lives. Their faces were contorted as if they were about to engage in a fistfight, but with the sound of a 'pick', they were instantly united.

"Hahahahahaha!"

The two men looked at each other and laughed out loud. Whatever their past, they were now comrades in arms, entrusted with life, honor, and pride, the most trustworthy and most reliable people in this world.

"I swear to you. Even if one of us stays behind, I will never let the veins of our two visions be severed, and I will work for the future of the Kangho to the extent that the other remains. Not for personal or organizational gain, but for the sake of the entire clan, and for the sake of the future!"

He was a man who worried about the well-being of the entire army before the well-being of himself, and in the face of such high-mindedness, even the rough-and-tumble Gal Zhonghyeok could not help but ponder.

"Very well, I swear by the thunder of my mourning and the red blood that flows through my body!"

Hyuk responded with a curious shout.

As a token of their pledge, the two men exchanged a scroll containing their respective honorifics. Exchanging one's pride and lifeblood for another was tantamount to entrusting one's soul to a friend.

Then Hyuk swore.

"Even if the heavens fall and the earth is split, even if the seas overflow and the rivers dry up, as long as the flame of my life remains unquenched, this promise will be kept, and not even the power of a king will be able to break this oath!"

"Thanks, buddy!"

They were true friends.

The old man sighed, staring at the moon with lonely eyes. The man in the ramshackle council chamber was none other than Hyuk No Ya. His hair, once the mane of a black lion, had now turned to ash, and his only soul mate was nowhere to be found in this world.

"What a cheating friend. Leaving the heavy lifting to others and running off on your own……."

There was a deep mournfulness in the old man's voice.

"It's not something you can carry alone."

The future of the Murim. It was something so heavy that it dared not be quantified.

"You're like a fucking friend……."

The only Ziggy who could have shared that burden was not here now, and that fact made his void even bigger.

"And two troublesome bequests! Two troublesome bequests in one troublesome will……. What a lowly business!"

He's grumbling under his breath, but he doesn't seem to mind.

The old man dusted himself off and stood up. Moonlight poured down overhead.

It's a bright night.

There was still a lot of work to be done. We'll just have to take it one step at a time.

"Come on, let's go keep our promise to our friend, who was surely… over there?"

After orienting himself to a spot, the old man didn't hesitate and started walking towards it.

"Hmm…, I wonder if we should do something about those two red and blue guys……."

This one, that one, and the other one are just a bunch of troublemakers. They were really troublesome sages.

Mo Yonghui was also gazing at the full moon in the autumn night sky.

The pale, round shape of the moon shining over a pitch-black lake can sometimes feel like a mirror of our own dark abyss.

Are these feelings just an illusion created by a weak mind?

A moment of shame that you want to hide, that you want to forget, but that you can't forget, is projected through a mirror of moonlight.

To leave her in the care of a friend, not even sure of the existence of something beyond the darkness, and then turn his back on her……. Even if it was in the name of saving Silver Snow Lan, he still couldn't fully forgive himself.

Of course, he didn't think he had any chance. He knew that there was an unknown, unidentifiable force within her body that even he could not grasp. But even so, the presence beyond the darkness was too powerful. There was no excuse for leaving her behind, for it was a gamble. What if he hadn't come back alive? Mo Yonghui would probably never forgive himself.

Since then, he'd spent a lot of time alone like this. It was the first time he'd ever felt anything like it. A shame that made his face flush red and tore at his heart.

If Bi Ryuyeon hadn't come to their aid, the moonlight that covered them that day would have been the last moonlight of their lives. And never again would their pupils hold dawn in their eyes. Let alone a sunset…….

I couldn't protect her. You put your friend in danger.

"But what is the best sword material?"

I was miserable. I was devastated.

"We can't do this, we have to be stronger!

The moonlight mirror pulls him back to a time in his past. He recalls the face of Eunseulan in his arms. Her face, glistening in the moonlight, shone like a pristine white pearl. The sight of it had choked him with nostalgia. Mo Yonghui vividly remembered that feeling.

Mo Yonghui swore by the heavens he looked upon and the earth he trod.

"I am strong!"

All the more to protect her!

Mo Yonghui shouted at the moon.

Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle!

Then, behind his back, where no one should be, a clap rang out. It came out of nowhere, as if dropped from the sky.

"Who are you?"

It wouldn't have been out of line to shout "Who are you?" but this young man, who is very polite, wasn't about to be rude.

A human figure stepped out from the shadows of the shrubbery. As I strained my eyes, the figure became clearer and clearer. To my surprise, the figure was an old man. And not just any old man.

"Excellent, excellent, excellent, Zheng Chen has one grandson, a man should have that kind of willpower!"

The unexpected visitor who praised Mo Yonghui in a pleasant voice was surprisingly a familiar face. The mysterious old man introduced himself as Hyuk No Ya. Whenever he dealt with this old man, no matter how icy his sword or how fiery his saltiness, he was always cautious and respectful.

He must have had a history, because it was said that there were as many kin in Kangho as grains of sand.

"Oh, you must be Mr. Noh."

The ever-polite modifiers rushed in to say yes. But my mind was racing with questions.

What was this old man doing in this secluded place at this late hour, and what was his name? Even the most polite of us couldn't help but feel a little offended and bewildered at the same time.

From the context, it was clear that he was referring to his grandfather, Mo Yongzheng, whom he revered like the heavens. The old man didn't seem to have any qualms about the fact that he was referring to one of the Three Heavenly Immortals as a child.

What is the identity of this old man?

"But how did you get to this place……?"

Mo asked, but all he could confirm was that not all questions come with answers.

"Do you think it is possible for one human being to be both yin and yang in the same body?"

However, there was absolutely no correlation between the two.

Mo Yonghui didn't hesitate to answer.

"I suppose it's possible, for now!"

"'For now' means……. Huh? Why?"

The old man asked with interest.

"Because there was someone who showed me with his body that it was possible!"

More than a hundred years ago, while wearing human flesh, he wielded the yin and yang qi freely and used his powers to save the Martial Kingdom from crisis.

However, no one has since succeeded in realizing it.

But existence precedes essence. Even if Xue Yue Lin was the only god in all of ancient China, he had directly proved that the unity of yin and yang was possible as long as he was a human being.

"What you say is correct from a certain point of view, but it's not the answer Nobu wants!"

"So?"

"Have you ever heard of the phrase "the opposite of the greatest good"?"

"Where are you going, Noya?"

Yeom-do asks Hyeok-joong, who's stumbling back to his quarters. He's not asleep yet, either.

"What, Redhead, you're still asleep?"

If it had been anyone else who had uttered the epithet, I would have been furious, but with this old man, not even a fiery dog chowvan salt could do that.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep, so I was moonlighting for a while."

"Did you have that kind of culture? I can't believe it."

The old man spoke so bluntly. Yin Dao smiled a little bitterly.

"So what brings you out on this late night……?"

"I went for a walk. I had some courting to do."

"Courting…what?"

Yeomdo asked, his expression contorting into a grotesque grimace.

"Yes, courtship, but… dumped!"

Yeomdo's eyes widened.

"Did I get kicked out?"

The old man nodded vigorously. He looked like he was having a blast, for a man who'd been hit by a car.

"Exactly. I was so confident, and I got kicked out in style. Hahahahaha."

An old man's merry laughter echoed through the moonlit hills.

"Why are you smiling?

It was a mystery to him why the old man who said he had been kicked out was so happy. He stood beside him for a while with a puzzled expression on his face.