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“Oof.”
I grimaced, rolling across the floor.
The Valley Lord had flung me down.
When we first met in my past life, he’d been calm. He’d gotten rough in the time apart.
Wait, since this is earlier than then, was he originally rough and later grew calm?
‘Anyway, where is this place?’
Rubbing my body, I looked around.
It was a dark cave with faintly glowing night-pearls studded here and there.
Did Demon Valley have a place like this?
Night-pearls aren’t cheap. How much are all those worth?
“Get up.”
The Valley Lord spoke in a voice like scraping iron.
“Earliery, you said you were called Baek-ga.”
“To be exact, I said Baek Su-gyeong.”
“That’s still Baek-ga!”
“I suppose so, old man.”
“Address me as Valley Lord!”
“Yes, Valley Lord.”
“Did Seol Yu-won send you?”
“No.”
Earlier, I’d told the Iron-Gold Wi patrol and Im Yeon it was a secret order from the Heavenly Demon.
But I couldn’t answer that way now.
If I said he sent me, I wouldn’t get the Demon-Gathering Stone I came for.
“Surely Seol Yu-won sent you. Speak the truth.”
“I said no.”
“Lie, and I’ll smash your skull!”
As if not bluffing, he raised his gaunt arm, and a heavy surge of Qi gathered on his fist.
I flinched without meaning to.
If that hit, I’d bid this world farewell.
‘He won’t actually strike… right?’
Normally I wouldn’t be afraid, yet I felt uneasy.
The Valley Lord was very different from how I remembered.
His eyes gleamed with malice and madness, which made him look as if he was ready to do anything if crossed.
‘Why is he like this?’
In my past life I made three escape attempts.
During the second, I hid in Demon Valley to evade pursuers.
As before, I fought a madman, seeing a horde nearing a hundred, I felt death looming.
But then, the Valley Lord suddenly appeared.
—Are you perhaps the Heavenly Demon Seol Yu-won’s disciple?
He swiftly saw I was the Heavenly Demon’s disciple.
He asked my situation, and learning I meant to leave the Demon Cult, let me remain in Demon Valley.
Not once while I stayed did he show savagery. Rather, he was dignified, unlike a cultist.
So what was this now?
Meeting points differ from my past life, but this gap is extreme.
“So truly Seol Yu-won did not send you?”
“Truly.”
“So he didn’t send his disciple here because of the pact?”
“I don’t even know what pact that is.”
Truthfully, I know a bit.
Admitting no one to Demon Valley.
That was the pact the Valley Lord made with the Heavenly Demon.
Had I not been his disciple, I couldn’t have entered either.
“You don’t know the pact? Why would Seol Yu-won send a disciple ignorant of it? There’d be no way you wouldn’t know. Yet perhaps it’s better that he doesn’t know?”
Muttering nonsense, the Valley Lord suddenly lowered his voice.
“Hm. It seems I have misunderstood.”
In that instant, he returned to the man I knew.
The feral killing aura washed away, and a clear, stately sage like aura emanated from him.
‘Hoo…’
I let out a sigh of relief inside.
In truth, the Valley Lord loathed the Heavenly Demon immensely.
No, ‘hated’ fits better.
For some reason, his hatred was far deeper now than six years later.
Hence that violent reaction.
“Sit there.”
He pointed to a side of the cave.
There was a table and chair carved from rock.
“There’s only one chair?”
“That’s because I use it alone. I’m fine; you sit.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Yes, that’s the Valley Lord.
Look at him yielding his only chair.
It’s a gentleness you don’t find among cultists.
“It’s embarrassing, but I’ve no tea or food to serve a guest here. Forgive me.”
“Oh, think nothing of it.”
“You said the Heavenly Demon didn’t send you. Why would a promising youth set foot in a perilous place?”
I felt at ease.
Each word carried character.
“I have business with you, Valley Lord.”
“Business? With me?”
“Yes. I want to make a deal with you.”
Demon Valley had a hidden side quite unlike its reputation.
Demon-Gathering Stones exuding Demonic Qi lay everywhere. There were nearly a hundred peak masters here. There was even a tremendous, yet unknown, fortuitous chance laying here.
For now I needed only the stones. I’ll come back later, for that chance as well.
“You speak as if you knew me before. Few know a Valley Lord exists in this Valley.”
“Ah, while researching, I happened on a text. It said that Demon Valley was not as people think.”
“Heh. A text recording this Valley? That’s unlikely. The Heavenly Demon tipped you off, did he?”
The Valley Lord asked with a smile.
I smiled back.
“I heard nothing from my master. He’s not someone who chats warmly anyway.”
“LIIIIES!!!!!”
KWAANG!
He blasted Qi into one wall.
Stone shards flew; my hairs stood on end.
He switched again.
Foam gathered at his lips as he shouted.
“Seol Yu-won means to alter the pact! Else how would a whelp like you conceive to come and go in my Valley like your bedroom? Your skull isn’t moss-ridden, is it!”
I couldn’t answer.
My head was full of how wrong this was going.
No matter how I saw it, he wasn’t normal.
His emotions swung so wildly, it was like a street thug and a sage shared one body.
‘Not good.’
Moments ago, I thought his change was simple.
That it was from his hatred for the Heavenly Demon.
But now it seemed far worse.
It resembled demonic-fiendization.
As Demonic Qi eats at you, your mind falters until madness is a fair judgment.
Like him now.
‘Yet six years later, he was fine.’
I grew confused.
If this state was from fiendization, in six years he should be fully a fiend.
Yet then he was saner than any cultist. What happened?
‘First, calm him.’
It’s wise to ease his mania first.
Or I’ll suffer before getting any Demon-Gathering Stone.
“Answer this Valley Lord’s question!”
He wreathed his hands in Qi again.
He might swing at me any moment.
I raised both palms to soothe him.
“I think you’re mistaken, I’ve been his disciple only a short time.”
“So what?”
“Which means he wouldn’t send me to Demon Valley with that pact or whatever.”
“True. Seol Yu-won isn’t sloppy. If he’d press the pact, he’d come himself. Then why did he send you?”
“No, I told you, he didn’t send me.”
Exasperated, I cut in on his muttering.
He rolled his eyes, warning me not to talk back.
‘This won’t do.’
Seeing no sign of calm, I decided to go a step further.
As said, he hated the Heavenly Demon.
From that, I learned something important before.
“I’ll be frank. I also dislike the Heavenly Demon, like you.”
“Hmph, you expect me to believe that?”
“Who likes someone as black-hearted as him? He’s lied to me more than once.”
“…You truly think so?”
Surprisingly, his force abated.
The key fact that I learned was…
That he secretly likes hearing the Heavenly Demon slandered!
“Absolutely. And his stubbornness? Tougher than a whale’s tendon. There’s no expression on his face. You can’t read him.”
I badmouthed him for a while.
Maybe it was from the resentment piled from my past life. Once I opened my mouth, it flowed.
“I see you judge better than Seol Yu-won. I’ll believe you didn’t come by his order. Heh heh!”
The Valley Lord laughed heartily.
Luckily, the strategy worked. The thug went in, and the sage came out.
My palms were damp. Only a few moments since my regression had rattled me so.
In my past life, just chiming in on his gripes was enough to get along.
He’d spent long years with madmen who couldn’t converse.
He must’ve been lonely, how glad must he be to have someone to actively empathize with.
‘Forgive me, Master.’
I was a good for nothing disciple.
I’d just sold his name, and now I was slandering him.
But it couldn’t be helped.
This way I live, and so do you!
If I die, who’ll stop your fiendization?
The Valley Lord asked kindly,
“You said a deal. What do you want from me?”
“Demon-Gathering Stones.”
“Demon-Gathering Stones? Hm.”
He quickly furrowed his brow.
I feared he’d switch back to a thug, but he continued calmly.
“So that ‘research’ of yours had you chasing a vain dream it seems. You must be seeking it for the Demonic Qi it holds, right?”
“In a way, yes.”
“Fools once tried to absorb its Demonic Qi. Know what became of them?”
“Roughly. They most likely became like the madmen we saw earlier.”
“Not madmen, monsters. With no wits at all, how can they be called human?”
Why was it?
His tone had grown so forlorn?
“Those monsters can’t do a thing without my order. I must tell them to eat, and to relieve themselves or they soil their pants. If you don’t want to end up like that, give up on the Demon-Gathering Stone. Choose the greater road over shortcuts. That’s the safe way to your goal.”
“I don’t plan to absorb the Demonic Qi. There’s another way to use the stone.”
“I declare there’s no such way. Especially not for you.”
“For me?”
“On the way, through your pulse gate I examined within. Your Qi and blood holds a potential to rampage anytime. You suffer the True Blood Severed Meridians, yes?”
As expected, he’s no ordinary man.
Even sprinting that fast, he read me exactly.
“The True Blood Severed Meridians and artificial Demonic Qi are at odds. Force absorption, and your Qi and blood will overturn.”
“You’re right, but there is a wa—”
“I said there is none!”
KWAANG.
Qi shattered an innocent wall.
The sage was gone, and the thug glared.
“Seol Yu-won ordered you to seize my stones! Without doubt!”
“What are you—haah.”
I stopped and exhaled deeply.
A sudden throb pounded my head.
“That’s not it at all. Please calm down.”
“Do I look calm! Twenty-seven years ago, that snot-nosed brat locked me here. He took everything! Not enough—now he’d take my Demon-Gathering Stones and Demon Valley!”
“That’s why you hate the Heavenly Demon?”
“Yes!”
I was flabbergasted.
At present, he’s in his early forties.
As an unprecedented genius, he became Cult Leader in his thirties and has ruled nearly ten years.
Twenty-seven years ago puts him early to mid-teens. He imprisoned the Valley Lord who was in his fifties?
Even for him, that makes no sense.
The Valley Lord isn’t easy prey.
“Hmph, you don’t believe me. Then I’ll show you how fearsome Seol Yu-won is. Why do you think he took you as a disciple? To use you!”
“…Use me?”
“He taught you the Nine Heavens Demon-Ascension Art. Did he not?”
I was struck speechless.
Because he knew too exactly.
He continued without waiting.
“They say that martial art touches the source of Demonic Qi. Achieve mastery, and you may grasp that source. If you do, Seol Yu-won will take it from you! He certainly can!”
“But no one in history has mastered it.”
“It matters not. That sly man will try to glean something from the process itself. He sees you as a test subject, not a disciple. That much is certain!”
What kind of logic is that?
Hate him all you like, this is absurd.
Honestly, I did doubt his intent.
If I was asked if he took me in as his disciple with pure intent, ‘no’ springs first.
But how about the him in this life?
—At least it wasn’t boring.
Smiling as he turned the Heretical Alliance’s Nanzhou branch upside down for me.
—Walk.
Right after arrival, wordlessly showing the Cult is a place people live.
—Circulate your Qi before you go. The way back might be dangerous.
Standing guard for me with concern when I visited with a bottle after the reception.
Is that how you treat a test subject?
‘No way.’
I don’t know his true heart.
Why he made me a disciple, what he truly wants from me.
It’s something I must learn someday.
But it must be heard from him directly.
Others’ guesses mean nothing.
“That’s enough. You’re seeing my master far too badly.”
“Hardly. He certainly used you. Not just you. Think you’re the first he taught that art? There may be dozens, hundreds across the Cult training it in rows! Admit it. Now!”
Qi swirled around both his hands.
He was threatening to pulp me with one strike if I didn’t concede.
I scowled at him.
We hadn’t been bad in my last life, but I couldn’t indulge this.
“You’re impossible to humor.”
“What!?”
“Do you have the right to say that? Aren’t you the manager of those madmen outside? You demean them as monsters, not people, yet complain the Heavenly Demon ‘uses’ a disciple?”
“N-no, that… Why turn the arrow on me? Who was insulting Seol Yu-won moments ago?”
“Even with a crooked mouth, you should speak straight. Old man hurled the insults. I offered fair criticism.”
“Not ‘old man’—Valley Lord!”
He stamped the ground.
In a blink, a Qi-wrapped fist surged to my nose.
I rolled on the floor in a panic.
KWAANG!
A deep crater marked where I’d stood.
‘I almost died.’
I swept my chest.
Does the Heavenly Demon know I’m risking my life because of him?
“Come to think, the True Blood Severed Meridians limit using internal energy—at most seven minutes, yes?”
The Valley Lord chuckled.
“I’ll experiment on you in my own way. The experiment is to attack you and verify whether that seven-minute limit is true.”
“…Suddenly? And when the check is over?”
“I’ll kill you.”
I sensed it.
He was serious.
‘What do I do?’
Cold sweat ran.
I was like a mouse before a cat.
At this rate, my second life ends.
‘I can’t go out this vainly.’
I racked my brains.
They say even in a tiger’s jaws, keep your wits and there’s a way.
The same holds true now.
There must be a way to live.
‘Wait. True Blood Severed Meridians? Seven minutes?’
A good idea flashed across my mind.
With this, I might flip the situation entirely.
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