Embracing The White Moon (2)

I had a dream.

It was a strange dream, one where I was aware I was dreaming.

Uwaaaaah!

A snow-covered hill, armies of fire surging in from all sides.

One man charged toward them as they drew their blades and screamed in frenzy.

‘Who is that?’

His presence was overwhelming. I had seen many martial artists, but never one who radiated such spirit and dominance.

How could a dream feel so vivid?

‘A martial artist? No… a king? A general? Who is he?’

His attire was ambiguous. It looked similar to that of a military officer, yet not quite the same.

Then, in a flat tone, he spoke.

“Today, Tian Shan^¹ will fall.”

Jjjjeooong!

Though he had spoken calmly, the majestic voice rolled across the hills and echoed into distant peaks.

It was a voice so intense it chilled my spine. But what startled Gyeong Se-hwi wasn’t its authority.

‘Me?!’

That drowsy, archaic, spine-chillingly resonant voice. No matter how I thought about it, it wasn’t mine.

Yet that voice was spilling from my throat. It was as if I had been reborn as someone else.

I was still reeling when suddenly a conversation, between ‘me’ and some man, rang in my ears.

“Serve under me. I will make good use of you.”

“You’re mad! How could I crawl under the heel of a fiend who burned my brothers and sect alive!”

“If there is a next life, then join me in conquest.”

“Shut up and kill me already!”

A sword split the air.

Flash!

Light exploded, and the world shifted.

‘Where am I?’

An endless wasteland.

Not even a withered stalk of grass was to be found. And there, countless wolves circled me.

‘He’—no, I—shouted.

“Die!”

Puhk!

Gyeong Se-hwi’s body trembled violently.

With something barely fit to be called a blade, closer to an iron club, I crushed a wolf’s skull. The sensation lingered vividly in my hand for a while.

‘Wh-what is this!’

I had never harmed so much as an animal. I hadn’t even brawled in an alley as a child.

The feeling of smashing a living creature’s skull, it was vile and horrific.

That wasn’t all.

The dream showed me many worlds, time scrambled beyond reason.

At times I was young, at times middle-aged.

The scenes varied. Sometimes I unfurled a map, discussing tactics with unknown warriors, other times I drew my sword and plunged into savage battle.

Gyeong Se-hwi was overwhelmed.

In each scene, the main figure was himself. And with each passing moment, the memories, emotions, and cries seeped into his body.

Goosebumps rose across his skin.

The process of ruling the world, something he had never experienced, stained his mind and body red.

‘Stop.’

Through his hand, my hand, the enemy’s skull shattered.

‘Enough!’

Through his hand, my hand, a rebel’s body was torn apart.

‘I said stop!’

Through his hand, my hand, ancient history and culture went up in flames.

‘Uwaaaaaah!!’

A terrible scream burst from deep in my throat.

Destruction, and more destruction.

Death, and death again.

The idyllic conquests of a tyrant fused with blackened desire were not something Gyeong Se-hwi’s mind could endure.

He thrashed, desperate to escape this hellscape of violence and ruin.

But he could not.

The more he struggled, the sharper the sensations grew, the more the emotions seeped in like fog.

How much time passed?

A hundred years? A thousand?

His body shriveled, hair turned white, eyes oozed pus, bones withered.

His thoughts dulled, his senses numbed. He had grown utterly old.

All that remained were the turbulent days of some nameless tyrant.

‘I don’t know.’

Why am I here?

Who am I?

How did I become this?

‘I’m so tired.’

After countless cycles, he could no longer separate himself from the tyrant of the dream.

The self collapsed. He could no longer define who he was.

The annihilation of existence loomed before him.

‘Let it end…’

At last, in that moment, he gave everything up.

That was when…

‘Even if I die and become a ghost, I will never yield to my desires.’

Flash!

A voice, both familiar and faint, shook his mind.

And in that instant, he awoke.

“Huff! Huff!”

The moment he woke, he realized he was running like mad.

‘What?’

His mind was hazy.

Even in the haze, he felt his breath catching at the brink.

‘Why am I?’

Breath on the verge of breaking, limbs flailing as his body sprinted forward.

His joints felt ready to shatter, his heart pounded from overexertion, his lungs filled and emptied with scalding steam.

From his brain, through his spine, out into his limbs, countless threads of light flared. It wasn’t blood, but a clear fluid that screamed as it collided within him. Even the marrow in his bones seemed to boil.

He felt it all.

His senses had become razor-sharp.

He could read exactly how each part of his body worked, even the secret organs unknown to medical experts.

It was torment.

To feel every sound from within his body was like being cast alone into a hell filled with demons’ screams.

Even a glimpse of that would drive an ordinary man insane, yet Gyeong Se-hwi kept running.

Is it there? No.

Doubt and denial crossed in an instant.

Gyeong Se-hwi did not know where this was. And yet, it felt all too familiar.

‘From the southwest, cross the river downstream, then head southeast.’

The path opened naturally.

It wasn’t his memory. These were the memories of a conqueror who once roamed the world as though it were his own home.

Instinctively, it showed him the shortest way forward.

Much had changed over the hundred-odd years, but the terrain itself had not.

Gyeong Se-hwi moved according to the whispers of the ghost.

‘Where am I even heading?’

His consciousness voiced its doubt.

At the same time, the ghost whispered.

「Run.」

It was a commanding voice.

Its overwhelming authority crushed all petty doubts. The voice of a conqueror who had once ruled not hundreds of thousands, but millions, was itself no different from a decree.

And so, Gyeong Se-hwi ran.

His pace slowed, and he stumbled again and again, his body covered in scrapes.

Yet every time he rose, a new strength welled up. That unknown force kept him running.

How long had he been running?

Rain began to fall.

Ssshhhhh!

What began as a drizzle became a downpour in an instant.

Craaaack!

Thunder roared from somewhere in the dark sky, and blue lightning seethed inside the black clouds.

“Haaah… haaah!”

His breathing grew rough, though the sound itself quieted.

His body was entering extreme exhaustion. A normal man would faint at this point, or worse, lose his life.

Wooooom!

What held on to Gyeong Se-hwi’s lifeline now was Qi.

The unknown Qi coiled in his dantian grew in quality and quantity each time he collapsed and rose, each time his consciousness flickered out and returned.

It was internal energy. True qi.

‘What is this power?’

It was then…

Before the ghost could answer, Gyeong Se-hwi himself recalled what this power was.

‘Body-Refining Qi.’

The Body-Refining Art, a cultivation method that began at the dantian below the navel and encompassed the body’s core.

It was the first martial art the dead conqueror had ever learned, perfected through heinous feats and built upon blood and corpses.

As the quantity and quality of true qi grew, his body brimmed with strength, and his mind naturally cleared.

“Haaah… haaah! Where is this?”

He couldn’t even feel the flow of time. It felt like he had run not three, but perhaps even five days.

Gyeong Se-hwi struggled to look around.

It was a dark night. A cliff on a mountain.

‘This is a place from my memories.’

It felt familiar.

It wasn’t the memory of the Conqueror, but a place from Gyeong Se-hwi’s own memory.

Brrr!

A chill ran through him in the pouring rain. His teeth chattered.

Gyeong Se-hwi looked around with a pale, frightened face and felt a sudden chill.

Shaaahhh…

He sensed an unknown presence from somewhere.

He turned his head like lightning, and in the distance, countless lights appeared.

‘There?’

It was strange.

Seeing lights that far away in such heavy rain was unusual. Even a master of the martial world would find it difficult.

But Gyeong Se-hwi could see it. Despite the pouring rain, a fairly large city with lanterns lit here and there.

Streets lined with extravagant taverns and inns. The more he focused, the clearer it became.

Beyond the buildings and streets, he even saw a single gigantic tree.

“!!”

Gyeong Se-hwi’s eyes turned bloodshot.

A whisper reached him.

「Go.」

What is this voice?

「Go and kill.」

Kill? Who?

「Settle your grudge.」

Chiiik!

A pale heat shimmered from Gyeong Se-hwi’s body.

A burning heat filled his entire body. It grew stronger and stronger.

Keuk!

A single stream of evil energy surged from his stomach, shaking Gyeong Se-hwi’s head.

It was murderous intent.

Gyeong Se-hwi, who had never even thrown a punch, genuinely felt a desire to kill.

The murderous intent was poisonous. Even the trees and grass groaning under the heavy rain seemed to flinch.

‘Divine Iron Merchant House.’

Behind a massive tree was a gigantic clan, unimaginable for a simple blacksmith. That was the Divine Iron Merchant House.

The clan had taken him in when he was on the brink of starving to death. When the young worker showed talent in ironwork, they immediately adopted him as a son and let him wield a hammer. They were his true benefactors.

It was there that he was given the family name Gyeong and the name Se-hwi, in Sichuan’s finest ironworks.

‘Divine iron…’

Then, a voice stained with hatred echoed in his mind.

‘How is it? Cold? My hand burns hot. Stained with your lowly blood, it feels though it’s on fire, and disgusting.’

The face of his brother sneering as he plunged a dagger into his stomach.

Recalling that face, more evil than the demons of endless hell, his healed wounds throbbed.

The ghost whispered.

「Kill.」

The murderous intent emanating from Gyeong Se-hwi grew stronger.

‘I will kill!’

Step!

He took a step on the wet muddy path.

Another voice echoed from the depths of memory.

‘That’s right! Well done! Hahaha! That’s it!’

‘You brat, is it so hard for you to call Do-cheon your brother? Well, brotherhood doesn’t come easily. I, too, fought with my younger siblings that way.’

‘Finish all the orders scheduled for today.’

‘Do as you wish. And there’s no need to visit every day. I’m busy.’

Gyeong Se-hwi’s eyes, once stretched wide like a ghost’s, returned to normal.

‘Father.’

No, adoptive father.

Shaaahhh!

He looked at the clan with trembling eyes.

His adoptive father’s face came to mind. That hearty, laughing face.

Gyeong Do-cheon’s face appeared, mischievously playful.

The hearty laugh turned into cold mistrust; the playful face was tainted with disgust and jealousy.

Kwarrrr! Shaaahhh!

How long had it been?

After staring at the clan for a long while, Gyeong Se-hwi turned his body.

The ghost spoke.

「Go and kill.」

‘Get lost.’

「I will give you power. Kill.」

‘I said get lost.’

「Can you forgive them?」

‘…….’

「You’re not that kind of good person.」

A dry voice escaped from Gyeong Se-hwi’s lips.

“Even if I’m not a good person, I know gratitude.”

「They tried to kill you.」

“If it weren’t for them, I would’ve been dead long ago.”

「That doesn’t matter.」

“It does matter.”

The ghost laughed mockingly. Or at least it sounded like a mockery.

「Are you letting old affection bury even your own grudge?」

“The one who suffered is the fool.”

This was a statement that the Gyeong Se-hwi of the past could never have imagined making.

The ghost, also momentarily speechless in shock, soon spoke in a chilling voice.

「Now you can make them into fools.」

“If we meet again, and we’re still bound by ill fate.”

「That time is now.」

Gyeong Se-hwi raised his head.

Amid the pouring rain that stung his skin, he saw something blurry.

“Get lost, you wandering ghost bastard.”

Shaaak.

The ghost vanished.

Gyeong Se-hwi knew. That wasn’t a ghost.

He realized it was a facet of his own desire, manifested from the Conqueror’s memories of his turbulent days.

Shaaahhh!

After standing in the rain for a long time, Gyeong Se-hwi looked back at the clan once more.

It was gone.

The city and clan, which had once been so vivid, now seemed erased.

He turned and walked down the mountain.

The splashing muddy water soaked his already wet clothes, making them even dirtier.

‘Aaaaah!’

‘Heeheehee.’

‘Hahaha!’

Each splash of muddy water transformed into tiny, ant-like people, surrounding Gyeong Se-hwi.

Their faces were both strange and familiar.

Those who had died by the Conqueror’s hand.

Countless faces flashed chaotically. With every splash, the restless spirits clawed at him, screaming curses.

Gyeong Se-hwi paid them no mind. He just walked down the mountain with weary steps.

Because he didn’t care, the clinging illusions of the spirits disappeared.

How long had he walked like that?

‘…….’

Feeling dizzy for a moment, Gyeong Se-hwi looked around.

‘Where am I going right now?’

He turned around.

His eyes widened slightly.

‘When did I?’

The rain had stopped.

No, the location had changed. He was walking along a side road next to the main road.

The eastern sun rose. The stretching sun was beginning the day.

Gyeong Se-hwi, looking around, was astonished.

‘But this path is over a hundred li² long.’

He had walked, forgetting the passage of time. His rain-soaked clothes had long since dried. The mud on his pant legs had hardened, scattering fine dust with every step.

Realizing the situation, his expression darkened.

‘Is this a dream, or reality?’

He felt like he had lost his mind.

Tiredly trudging along, Gyeong Se-hwi collapsed against a huge wall.

“……I had definitely died.”

How did I survive? Why am I alive?

Am I Gyeong Se-hwi? Or am I the Leader of the Eight Desolation Alliance?

Kkiiik!

Next to the wall, he heard the sound of a large gate opening.

“Hmm? I clearly heard someone’s voice… Gah!”

A middle-aged man stepped out through the gate and spotted Gyeong Se-hwi.

He ran over, panting, and shook Gyeong Se-hwi by the shoulders.

“Hey! Are you alright?”

Gyeong Se-hwi looked up at the middle-aged man with blurry eyes, eyes wide with surprise.

“Tianshan Sword Sect?!”

“!!”

The middle-aged man’s face immediately stiffened.

Gyeong Se-hwi, stunned by the man, immediately dropped his head. He had fainted.

From the mouth of the middle-aged man, staring at Gyeong Se-hwi with a stern face, came a groan-like voice.

“…Who are you?”