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Before me stood a burly man.
A face white as snow, with jet-black eyes in stark contrast.
An emotionless face that seemed it would never change, no matter what happened.
A pure white robe without a speck of dust.
An oppressive presence that overwhelmed its surroundings merely by existing.
The one who possessed such flawless majesty without a hint of disorder was none other than the Heavenly Demon.
My pupils quivered.
I couldn’t believe it, so I rubbed my eyes hard with the back of my hand.
But no matter how many times I rubbed, nothing changed.
The Heavenly Demon, who had died before my eyes, was standing upright.
Looking exactly as he was before.
‘Am I dreaming?’
I wondered if the dead could even dream, but it didn’t matter.
I was simply relieved to see the Heavenly Demon as he once was before my consciousness faded.
If the last sight I had of him had been that of him consumed by demonic qi, how pitiful it would have been.
‘I did the right thing, didn’t I?’
I had pierced the Heavenly Demon’s heart with my sword.
Though I died with him, I had no regrets.
If I faced the same situation again, I would make the same choice.
He was the number one under heaven, my benefactor, and my only master.
I couldn’t let a man like that live miserably, broken by mere demonic qi.
He, more than anyone, would never have wanted that.
“You look well. Your left arm’s attached nicely too.”
I chuckled faintly and tapped the Heavenly Demon’s left arm.
Then, the Heavenly Demon, who had been quietly staring down at me, spoke.
“Is there something wrong with my left arm?”
I tilted my head.
It was too vivid to be a dream.
If it were truly him, he would have added something here.
Something like—
“This arm has never once been separated from my body.”
Yes, something that cold and humorless.
‘Huh?’
It felt like cold water had been poured over my head.
This wasn’t just vivid.
It was reality itself.
‘Something seems off?’
I looked around me.
A man tripping over a rock while carrying water buckets, a customer and merchant brawling mid-argument, a child crying in his mother’s arms.
Every scene was familiar.
Of course.
This was the moment my life had changed.
And I had never forgotten it my entire life.
‘Wait.’
I lowered my head and looked down.
My hands and feet were small, my limbs thin.
It used to be a body hardened with blood-soaked training.
As if possessed, I ran toward the stream flowing beside the road.
I looked down at my reflection on the surface.
I clearly saw a younger version of myself than before my death.
I looked about seventeen.
The hair on my body stood on end.
Then I realized.
This wasn’t a dream—it was reality.
‘Could it be… I’ve gone back to the past?’
It was an absurd thought.
But there was no other way to explain this.
‘Come to think of it…’
I was too shaken before, but I think the Heavenly Demon said something earlier.
-“Your talent is usable. Follow me.”
‘That’s impossible!’
This was the exact moment I became the Heavenly Demon’s disciple.
Before dying, I had wished to live once more.
It had been an empty wish, yet it became reality.
I could hardly believe it.
To think I had returned to the past.
And that that Heavenly Demon was real.
‘How could something like this happen to me?’
I was confused, but at the same time, a shiver ran through my body.
That was because I understood the meaning of this regression.
Along with wishing to live again, there were two things I desired.
One was to live free from the chains of my severed meridians.
The other was to prevent the Heavenly Demon from being consumed by demonic qi.
I could accomplish both!
I turned my head toward the Heavenly Demon.
His figure once again filled my sight.
Clothes that were not soaked with blood, but clean.
Eyes that were not clouded by corruption, but cold and piercing.
Not the pitiful form devoured by madness, but the natural arrogance that radiated from him.
Yes, this is how it should be.
This was the Heavenly Demon I knew.
“Phew.”
I let out a deep breath.
I didn’t know why such fortune had come to me.
I’d likely never know for the rest of my life, but that didn’t matter.
The fact that I could live a new life made me nothing but happy.
“…Just now, you told me to follow you, saying my talent was usable.”
I asked the Heavenly Demon in the tone of a seventeen-year-old.
He replied in his usual flat tone.
“I did.”
“Why?”
“…?”
“Why me?”
There was something I had always wanted to ask in my past life.
Why had the Heavenly Demon chosen me as his disciple?
He said my talent was usable, but I never lived up to his expectations.
My mastery of the Nine Heavens Demon-Ascension Art stopped at the seventh stage, I left the Demon Cult, and in the end, I killed him.
By any measure, it wasn’t a proper master-disciple relationship.
Then what had he seen in me at this time to take me as his disciple?
“Because I value your talent highly.”
“That’s it?”
The Heavenly Demon’s brow furrowed faintly.
Maybe it was my tone, maybe the question itself.
Either way, it didn’t matter.
I just wanted to hear his answer.
“……”
The Heavenly Demon gazed at me with unreadable eyes.
What kind of answer would he give?
My heart began to beat faster.
And yet—
“That’s it.”
“…?”
“That is the entire reason.”
My heart pounded even harder.
Of course, not for the same reason as before.
I had half-expected he wouldn’t answer honestly.
But I’d asked anyway because I couldn’t move forward without hearing it for myself.
This answer was far too insincere.
‘Should I just give up on this man?’
Looking back, I’d done more than enough.
I’d risked my life to grant my master peace after he was consumed by demonic qi.
I was only twenty-seven then. It was an age too young to die.
And yet, had I sacrificed everything just to hear something like this? The thought made me bitter.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue softly.
His answer lacked sincerity, but I couldn’t just walk away either.
I didn’t want to witness the sight of him losing himself to demonic qi and building a mountain of corpses again.
But more importantly was me.
My path to survival lay within the Demon Cult.
The three elixirs that could cure my severed meridians.
One of them was deep within the heart of the cult, a place ordinary followers couldn’t even step into.
Without the Heavenly Demon’s backing, I could never obtain it.
“I’ll hear you out first. I’ll decide whether to become your disciple after that.”
I said it with a touch of defiance.
No matter how I tried, my tone refused to sound polite.
“Very well.”
The Heavenly Demon nodded.
“Follow me.”
I walked alongside him.
Our destination was a nearby inn.
On the way there, I kept glancing around.
I had walked this same road with him before my regression.
Just like back then, an orange sunset dyed the sky.
“What is it you’re looking around for?”
I was slightly startled.
The Heavenly Demon was a man who rarely spoke of anything outside training and martial arts.
Why was he suddenly speaking as if concerned?
Had my regression somehow changed his reactions too?
“Sit here.”
We sat facing each other in the center of a spacious room.
“What is your name?”
“Baek Su-gyeong.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“No.”
Of course I knew, but I answered that I didn’t.
“So you followed me without even knowing who I am.”
“You looked strong.”
“You saw well. I am Seol Yu-won, the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
“I see.”
The Heavenly Demon silently stared at me.
I realized my mistake immediately. My reaction had been too dull.
In my previous life, the moment I learned his identity, I had frozen solid.
Because in the Murim, the Heavenly Demon was the embodiment of fear.
“Ah. The cult leader of the Demon Cult, or rather, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?”
I feigned surprise belatedly.
His eyes took on a subtle look.
I guess my acting was poor.
“Earlier, I spoke of your talent. There is a talent within you that even you do not know. It is…”
“The True Blood Severed Meridians, right?”
“……”
The Heavenly Demon’s eyes widened slightly.
He seemed to be wondering how I knew.
The True Blood Severed Meridians was an exceedingly rare condition.
A street rat like me shouldn’t have known about it. In my past life, I hadn’t.
“A wandering monk told me.”
That never happened.
“So some bald monk was wandering around here, huh? Did he also tell you the cure?”
“No. He said it was difficult to cure.”
The Heavenly Demon’s eyes returned to normal.
He looked somewhat relieved, was it my imagination?
“True Blood Severed Meridians is an illness born from an imbalance among the upper, middle, and lower dantian. Because of that, you cannot properly use internal energy, and your lifespan is short. The only cure is to cultivate the Nine Heavens Demon-Ascension Art—a secret inner cultivation method allowed only to the Heavenly Demon and his disciples.”
The Heavenly Demon quietly looked at me.
He seemed to be waiting for me to say something.
Perhaps to ask him to take me as a disciple, or to teach me the Nine Heavens Demon-Ascension Art.
But I had no desire to ask what he wanted to hear.
I threw out my words like a challenge.
“That sounds like a lie.”
And indeed, it was.
“Are you sure that’s the only cure? There’s no other way? And if I train in it, will my meridians truly be cured? Isn’t it actually so difficult that I’ll spend my life training like a corpse every day—only to fail and die in the end?”
As I spoke, all the resentment I’d buried inside spilled out.
I must have been holding too much in.
“……”
The Heavenly Demon’s face turned cold.
I flinched.
Sensing danger instinctively.
To me, he was a master I had grown attached to, but to him, I was just some insolent child.
And I had overstepped badly.
‘He wouldn’t kill me for being impudent… right?’
Cold sweat ran down my back.
The Heavenly Demon didn’t enjoy killing, but he wasn’t merciful either.
He was a man of the Demon Cult before he was the Heavenly Demon; mercy wasn’t in his nature.
He could end my life with a mere flick of his finger.
I hurried to speak, to apologize before it was too late.
But the Heavenly Demon spoke first.
“You…”
“I—I was wrong—”
“Do not waste your mind on needless worries.”
“…Huh?”
“No matter what it takes, I will save you.”
“……”
For a moment, I was stunned.
His reply was utterly unexpected.
How should I put it, my chest began to ache.
Though I had never mastered the Nine Heavens Demon-Ascension Art, the Heavenly Demon had opened a path for me to live.
Because of him, I left the Demon Cult and met the divine physician who gave me the cure.
The day I left the Demon Cult flashed through my mind.
That moment when, with a wounded face, he told me to seek the divine physician.
Had he considered that possibility from the very moment he took me as his disciple?
Had he trained me with all he had, and, failing that, planned to send me to the divine physician?
‘And I cursed him, not knowing any of it.’
I had said I hated the Heavenly Demon most of all.
And yet, he let me go.
‘Why?’
The Heavenly Demon, as I said, was not a merciful man.
Not even to his closest followers or disciples.
Yet somehow, he was different toward me.
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve heard the Heavenly Demon is a villain beyond compare. I thought you’d kill me for my rudeness, so why are you saying something kind instead?”
Why did the Heavenly Demon treat me differently?
Even now, right after my regression.
“……”
The Heavenly Demon closed his mouth firmly.
He didn’t seem inclined to answer.
I pressed on regardless.
“Say something. Hey, are you listening?”
The Heavenly Demon’s brow twitched slightly.
Then, as if annoyed, he spoke.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you believe there’s a reason, find it yourself.”
A response so very like the Heavenly Demon.
Fine. One day, that day will come.
Because I’ll find the answer myself.
“…Alright. I’ll be your disciple.”
The Heavenly Demon nodded.
His nonchalant attitude irked me a little, but I stayed silent and listened.
“Do you have any family?”
“No. I’m an orphan.”
“I see. Then bow before me.”
“Yes.”
I stood up and performed a deep bow to the Heavenly Demon.
The Heavenly Demon quietly accepted my bow, then rose and bowed toward the northwest.
“From this moment on, Baek Su-gyeong is the seventh disciple accepted by Seol Yu-won, the nineteenth cult leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. Ancestors, please look kindly upon him.”
The Heavenly Demon spread his palm wide.
As if on cue, a flying wine bottle landed neatly in his waiting fingers.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he scattered the wine into the air.
Chiik!
In the blink of an eye, the air turned white.
It was a mist formed from the wine he vaporized with his internal energy.
Within it, only the Heavenly Demon’s gaze remained clear and sharp.
“From now on, call me Master.”
“Yes.”
“……”
“Master.”
Thus the concise ceremony ended.
A strange emotion welled up inside me.
I had come full circle back to the past, and once again the Heavenly Demon and I were master and disciple.
It was the same beginning as my previous life, but I would live a different future.
I would cure my severed meridians, and prevent the Heavenly Demon from being consumed by demonic qi.
These two aims were not separate.
For the first to be possible, the Heavenly Demon was needed, and for the second to be possible, my meridians had to be healed.
‘This time, I’ll watch closely.’
The Heavenly Demon would not have been consumed by demonic qi overnight.
There must have been signs beforehand.
I hadn’t noticed them in my previous life, but this time would be different.
The Heavenly Demon’s consumption by demonic qi would occur ten years from now.
It would be decided before then.
Whether I could save the Heavenly Demon—or would I have to kill him again—remained to be seen.
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