What Had Tormented Me So?

I stared for a long while at the blade of the Demon Wail Sword, which held a pitch-black glow.

“…….”

The Demon Wail, wrapped in a black mist-like aura, still writhed as though it wanted to devour me.

My impression after wielding the Demon Wail for the first time was roughly this. I hadn’t realized it while training, but I could probably control it to some extent now.

Was I finally seeing the results of my training?

The caliber of my body was still far below what it had been in my previous life, but in this life, I’d spent more than a month practicing how to suppress and restrain the Demon Wail’s power as much as possible.

When it came purely to controlling the Demon Wail Sword’s power, it was only natural that I was better at it now than in my previous life.

I recalled the pitch-black One Flash that had shot forward during the battle just moments ago.

It had probably taken on that ominous color because the sword qi was mixed with spirits and demonic energy.

If I had to come up with a name for it on the spot……would Black Spirit Demon Wail One Flash (黑靈魔鳴一閃) be the most appropriate?

‘Ah……that’s not it.’

Then or now, I had absolutely no talent for naming things.

If I shortened my newly coined name into something that sounded a little more like a proper technique, it would become Black Spirit One Flash (黑靈一閃). Shorten it even further, and Black Flash (黑閃) would be the final name of the technique.

I forgot long names almost immediately anyway, so something shorter and easier to say was always better.

That was also why I’d given my sect such a shitty name.

I’d always been far removed from anything elaborate or profound. You could say I was……a heaven-sent ugly bastard. The Ugliest Under Heaven (天下第一醜), perhaps.

After spending some productive time naming my technique and even considering what epithet I might one day be known by in the Kangho, I sheathed the Demon Wail again.

A fresh wave of exhaustion suddenly came over me. Was it really reasonable for my mental strength to be this drained after swinging a sword only a few times?

At this rate, all these blows to my psyche might swell into a massive inner demon and come crashing down on me, so I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes.

The pathetic remnants of the Heavy Serpent Gang and Long Serpent Gang were still gathered in front of me, but…….

Remnants or whatever the fuck, I needed to regain my peace of mind first.

I still remembered the inner demons I’d suffered in my previous life. An inner demon wasn’t anything complicated.

One day, when the sickness in your heart grew too great to endure, that itself became an inner demon. And when that inner demon spread like wildfire until it began affecting the body, that became qi deviation.

In my previous life, I had spent a long time living in a state of qi deviation. Looking back now, it was a truly horrific memory.

There was no need for that in this life.

I intended to live as cheerfully as possible. I would laugh as much as I could, and even when I got angry, I would answer it with laughter.

The moment I suddenly closed my eyes and sat cross-legged……the murmuring voices of the men around me drifted into my ears.

From what I could make out, they were suggesting ridiculous things like attacking me by surprise or making a run for it.

Unfortunately for them, I wasn’t a man who would fall for a surprise attack, nor was I a man who would allow them to escape, so I spoke in a calm voice.

“……Quiet. Everyone sit down.”

The air around us seemed to freeze in an instant as a heavy silence descended.

Still keeping my eyes closed, I continued with the solemnity of a Buddha teaching foolish sentient beings.

“All of you stay on your knees until I give you permission to move. And just in case, if there’s any brave martial artist among you thinking of an ambush or sneak attack, step forward now. I’ll make you look just like the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader.”

“…….”

“If there aren’t any, good.”

Truthfully, considering how horribly the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader had died to the Demon Wail Sword, it would have been stranger if anyone actually stepped forward.

Soon came the rustling of clothes, and the surroundings fell silent in an instant. I cracked my left eye open to check the situation.

“…….”

Every last one of those men was already on their knees. Thanks to that, I began circulating my qi with a considerably lighter heart.

‘That’s a relief. Looks like I won’t have to beat these bastards down myself.’

I closed my left eye again and accepted the boundless darkness spread across my vision.

I did every damn thing I could think of to calm my chaotic mind and maintain an unwavering state of mind.

Of course, it didn’t work in the slightest. My mind remained shrouded in pitch-black darkness and hopelessly unsettled.

How much time passed like that? About two hours?

Within my imagination, I faced the Cult Leader once again.

The Cult Leader was still smiling at me, and I was still thrusting my sword at him. What had tormented me so?

The Sword Demon knew his attacks would never reach him, yet he still faced the Cult Leader, sometimes laughing like a madman or muttering to himself.

At last, just as my blood-soaked body was about to be shattered by the Cult Leader’s ultimate technique……the imagined scene changed in an instant, and everything around me became a pitch-black void.

I collapsed where I stood. Even moving my body was difficult, leaving me unable to do anything.

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine. I looked ahead and saw a man shrouded in pitch-black darkness emerging from the void.

The man approached, abruptly seized me by the neck, and twisted hard.

Even as my breath was cut off, I stared directly into his face. For some reason, the man wore a grotesque smile despite his face otherwise showing no trace of emotion.

I simply glared at him with burning eyes.

After all, I couldn’t simply surrender my body. Not even to the being who had given me this new life.

Only after my breathing returned to a steady rhythm did I finally manage to open my eyes in reality.

When I lifted my eyelids, the night was already gone and the morning sun was rising. When had so much time passed?

“…….”

I looked around and found the pathetic men fast asleep while still on their knees.

A sigh escaped me on its own.

Still, being pathetic wasn’t a crime worthy of death, so I began waking them all up.

“……Wake up, all of you. I told you bastards to stay on your knees, so why the hell are you all sleeping?”

Once I smacked each of them on the head with the Demon Wail Sword’s sheath, the men finally began waking one by one in alarm.

The first to wake was a skinny young man whose face looked vaguely familiar.

I wondered where I’d seen him before……then realized he was the insolent bastard who had written and sent me that arrogant letter.

Unlike back then, the young man was now looking at me with frightened eyes. I asked him,

“What’s your name?”

The young man hesitated for a moment before answering.

“My name is Ju Myo-rang. But why do you ask……?”

“Judging by your clothes and the way you talk, you seem fairly capable. What’s your rank in the Black Serpent Gate?”

“Ah, I’m not part of the Black Serpent Gate. I belong to the Heavy Serpent Gang. I was its Deputy Gang Leader.”

“Ah.”

I looked at Deputy Gang Leader Ju Myo-rang and let out a faint sneer.

“What should I do with all of you now?”

“……Could you not spare us just this once?”

“Why? You openly tried to kill me. And now I’m supposed to show you mercy? You people are quite the strange lot, I’d say.”

“Ah…….”

At the utterly merciless response, Ju Myo-rang’s face went pale.

Perhaps because he’d been the Deputy Gang Leader, he certainly looked smarter than the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader, who had only been good at stuffing his face.

Even now, his eyes were darting around as he desperately searched for some way to survive.

Generally speaking, smart people had an easier time making a living even on the Black Path.

But there were exceptions. When they met someone like me, clever brains or whatever the fuck else they had all got split open in a single blow.

In the middle of all those thoughts, hunger suddenly struck me out of nowhere. Come to think of it, I’d spent the whole night raising hell with these bastards without even getting to eat dinner.

Why was I suddenly getting angry?

‘Goddamn it…….’

I slowly walked over and sat in the chair the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader had occupied while alive, then began heartily tearing into the hind-leg meat he’d left unfinished.

It had gone cold and was a little tough, but it still tasted decent enough, making for a reasonably satisfying meal.

After cleanly devouring one whole hind leg without leaving a scrap of meat behind, I spoke.

“Think hard. If you can’t come up with a reason for me to spare you by the time I finish eating all this, you’re all dying together. The lives of all these men are in your hands.”

“…….”

Ju Myo-rang’s expression grew even more anxious.

Not that I cared. I started tearing into a second hind leg.

The meat tasted good, there was alcohol, and I didn’t particularly feel sleep-deprived. This was truly the most leisurely leisure imaginable.

As a rule, whatever you had felt even more valuable when you flaunted it in front of people who lacked it.

Perhaps because every bastard beside me was standing at the crossroads of life and death, agonizing over the greatest dilemma of his life, this otherwise unremarkable break felt exceptionally sweet to me.

After finishing the second piece of meat as well, I finally picked up the last hind leg.

Now the fate of every Heavy Serpent Gang and Long Serpent Gang member rested on each bite of this hind leg.

The moment I brought the final bite toward my mouth……Ju Myo-rang shouted urgently.

“Wait!”

I lowered the meat again and looked at Ju Myo-rang indifferently.

“……Come up with an answer?”

“Hear me out first, then decide.”

“Go ahead. Oh, and just so you know, trying to buy me off with money won’t work.”

Ju Myo-rang, who now looked like some grand strategist standing in enemy territory, swallowed dryly once before beginning his explanation.

“……We’ll betray the Black Serpent Gate.”

“How am I supposed to trust that? For all I know, you’ll betray me next and stick a knife in my back.”

“You’ll be going to war with the Black Serpent Gate soon anyway, won’t you?”

“That’s true.”

Ju Myo-rang began drawing on the ground with a branch I had no idea when he’d picked up.

“Now that both Gang Leaders are dead, once this gets out, the rest of us are as good as dead too. That’s the kind of man the Black Serpent Gate Master is.”

“Keep going.”

“But even so, it would be difficult for you to simply trust us without question, Sect Master.”

“That’s also true.”

Ju Myo-rang continued drawing like a commander explaining a battle plan, then, shockingly, said,

“……Then I’ll personally write a letter declaring war. I’ll put my own name and the names of my subordinates on it.”

“……!”

That surprised even me, and his subordinates were even more shocked.

“Deputy Gang Leader?”

Ju Myo-rang rebuked his subordinate in a firm voice.

“Quiet. This is our only way to survive. Sect Master, what do you think?”

“…….”

Truthfully, I couldn’t completely trust these bastards.

But I couldn’t simply kill them when I didn’t even know exactly what crimes each of them had committed, and the sight of Ju Myo-rang desperately trying to save his comrades kept weighing on my mind.

After thinking it over for quite a while longer……I eventually offered a middle-ground solution.

“……Fine. I’ll accept your proposal.”

“Really?”

“But. There’s a condition.”

“……By condition, you mean……?”

I raised one finger and looked Ju Myo-rang straight in the eye.

“From now on, shut down all the businesses the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader and Long Serpent Gang Leader were running. Anyone left without work can help with our sect’s affairs instead. We’re seriously short on manpower.”

Ju Myo-rang listened closely, then immediately understood what I meant and answered.

“Understood. I’ll send the letter today, and we’ll gradually wind down the businesses and sort out the wealth we’ve accumulated. By the way, what sort of work do you mean when you say the sect’s affairs?”

I slowly looked around at the men.

“Nothing particularly special. Just work up a sweat, receive fair pay, and use that money to buy whatever you want to eat. That’s all.”

Since I’d already decided to let these pathetic bastards live, I seriously admonished them.

“Instead of taking what belongs to other people like the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader and Long Serpent Gang Leader did. Do you understand?”

Ju Myo-rang gave me a strange look before answering briefly.

“……Understood.”

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

Since I’d already decided to spare these pathetic bastards……I wanted to help them live new lives as well.

I’d been given a new life myself, so perhaps this could be my way of repaying that gift.

If the men I spared turned over a new leaf and lived lives far removed from the Demonic Path, wouldn’t that in itself mean I’d defeated the Cult Leader?

Of course, if not, whatever.

After handing Deputy Gang Leader Ju Myo-rang and the rest of the riffraff over to Gongson Han to deal with, I lay down on my bed.

I’d been sleeping uncomfortably for days and getting nothing but short naps, so I couldn’t help it.

A thought suddenly occurred to me. If I were smart, I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep Gongson Han alive.

After all, the reason I’d spared him was so I could work him to the bone on anything that required using a brain.

In the end, Gongson Han had my stone head to thank for saving his life. That was what I was saying.

Just as I realized my train of thought seemed to be heading somewhere strange, the bedroom door opened and Gongson Han suddenly appeared.

“Sect Master, I’m here.”

“Yes. Our stone-headed Chief Steward Gongson Han. What is it?”

“What?”

I’d actually been calling myself a stone head, but the thoughts had gotten tangled up inside my brain and it had somehow come out as a strange insult aimed at Gongson Han instead.

This was exactly why I was a stone head.

I cleared my throat slightly to change the subject.

“I asked what you wanted. I was just about to sleep.”

Gongson Han, carrying several documents, began his report.

“For now, I’ve assigned most of the people from the Long Serpent Gang and Heavy Serpent Gang as laborers rebuilding the Sword Name Gate.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“They had quite a few illegal businesses tangled together in different directions……but that ponytailed Deputy Gang Leader is remarkably clever. Most of them have nearly been sorted out now.”

“Ah.”

“Also, the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader and Long Serpent Gang Leader had quite a lot of wealth. What should we do with it?”

“Yuh-huh.”

“……Sect Master?”

I was so drowsy that I’d answered without thinking, and Gongson Han glared at me sharply.

In the end, I simply waved a hand and gave him a proper answer.

“Keep only enough to keep the sect running, and use most of the rest as compensation for merchants who suffered losses because of the Sword Hero Gate or Righteous Sword Gate. If there’s still money left after that, reinvest it however you see fit.”

“Are you sure that’s all right?”

Sure, I’d rather live as a rich man if given the choice, but I wasn’t doing all this to make money. Besides, I don’t particularly need that much of it right now.

In that case, it was only right to distribute the money I’d earned to people who actually needed it.

I was getting so sleepy I could barely stand it, so I spoke carelessly with the sole intention of getting him to leave.

“Handle it yourself. Managing the sect’s assets is partly your job too.”

“Why do I have so many responsibilities?”

“Because you’re competent. If you don’t like it, try being incompetent.”

Gongson Han glared at me before dipping his head slightly.

“……I’ll take my leave. Get some rest.”

“Yeah. Go trip over a rock on your way out.”

Just as Gongson Han was about to close the door and disappear, I lay flat on the bed with my eyes closed and moved only my mouth.

“……If I catch you skimming even a single piece of silver.”

“…….”

“Then you’re fucking dead.”

Whether he understood how I felt or not, Gongson Han coldly shut the door and left.

For some reason, I could vividly imagine Gongson Han cursing me out from the other side of the door.

A laugh escaped me before I knew it.

Maengung Manor. In the dead of night, with not even the chirp of an insect to be heard, a group of men in black arrived and began digging through the earth at the center of the manor before one of them shouted.

“We found them! It’s the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader and the Long Serpent Gang Leader!”

The first to react was a long-haired man who had remained behind the men in black the entire time.

His hair hung long around him, his eyes were narrow and sharply slanted, and although he was exceptionally tall, his body was gaunt.

The Black Serpent Gate Master, who had come personally after losing contact with the two Gang Leaders, examined the badly mangled corpses from different angles.

“……His neck was broken. He died instantly.”

The subordinate examining the Long Serpent Gang Leader’s body answered.

“Yes. We believe he died from a single blow. The Heavy Serpent Gang Leader, on the other hand…….”

The Heavy Serpent Gang Leader’s corpse was so gruesome that the subordinate couldn’t bring himself to approach it. In the end, the Black Serpent Gate Master stepped forward himself.

With a bloodless, gaunt hand, the Black Serpent Gate Master examined the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader’s mangled corpse.

Old, sticky blood that had darkened to a blackish red smeared across his hand.

“……It almost looks like he was mauled by a beast. Or beaten by a bear. Either way, it’s hard to believe a human did this to him. Who did you say these two met?”

“Dokgo Mu-jin.”

“Who’s that?”

“He was originally the young Sect Master of a minor sect called the Sword Name Gate, but he has since absorbed the Sword Hero Gate and Righteous Sword Gate and created a new sword sect called the Dokgo Gate.”

“Are you saying that Dokgo Mu-jin killed the Sword Hero Gate Master, the Righteous Sword Gate Master, the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader, and the Long Serpent Gang Leader all by himself?”

“……Judging by the circumstances, yes.”

The Black Serpent Gate Master flicked the blood from his hand and rose to his feet.

“……That makes no sense. Find out more about this Dokgo Mu-jin. What a madman.”

“Understood.”

At that moment, an urgent voice came from a subordinate on the opposite side of the Black Serpent Gate Master.

“Sect Master!”

“Speak.”

“A letter declaring war just arrived at the Black Serpent Gate!”

“……What?”

The Black Serpent Gate Master turned and stared at the subordinate who had hurried over.

“Was it my martial brothers? Where did they send it from?”

“No. It wasn’t sent by them.”

“Then where did it come from?”

“…….”

But the subordinate who had come to make the report couldn’t bring himself to speak. It was a strange sight, a man sent to report something hesitating to actually give his report.

The Black Serpent Gate Master glanced around before urging him on.

“Answer me. Why can’t you say it?”

Finally, the reluctant subordinate told him the truth about the brazen man who had sent the declaration of war.

“……It came from the Dokgo Gate. The name of Ju Myo-rang, the former Deputy Gang Leader of the Heavy Serpent Gang, was written on it as well.”

“……What?”

The Black Serpent Gate Master was unable to speak for a long while. His subordinates were the same.

Not a single one of them could bring himself to open his mouth. The situation was simply too bewildering.

Amid the long silence……only the Black Serpent Gate Master let out a low laugh, as though he found the situation amusing.

Perhaps it was the metallic rasp mixed into his laughter, but beneath the moonlight, the Black Serpent Gate Master dressed in black truly looked like a single black serpent.