I suppose I'll have to set things straight.
"If you don't kill the First Young Master, you will die."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon still remembered it vividly.
Geom Woojin's answer when he had said those words, and his expression too.
"I don't want to kill my brother."
These were words one could never hear from the Cult Master of today.
He couldn't even imagine a Cult Master who hesitated to kill someone.
Yes, the Cult Master also had a time like this.
"I know."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon was someone who had felt the passion that resided in Geom Woojin's heart.
Within the sect, Geom Woojin was more popular.
Cold, dispassionate, and proud, all the demonic practitioners adored him.
He was handsome, intelligent, and above all, possessed a heavenly genius for martial arts.
He had all the elements that demonic practitioners loved, and was said to be the most outstanding of all the past Heavenly Demon bloodlines.
The First Young Master had joined hands with his master to kill Geom Woojin because he knew he had no chance of winning if things continued as they were.
"Alright, let's try to resolve this without killing the First Young Master somehow."
But Geom Woojin had spoken resolutely.
"Stay out of it, brother. This is my fight."
How could Blood Heaven Blade Demon not know he was saying this out of concern for him?
Blood Heaven Blade Demon shook his head.
Now that his master was involved in this matter.
"The moment I told you of the First Young Master's and my master's plan, this became my fight too."
Their gazes locked in mid-air.
Eyes filled with a youthful fire that could no longer be replicated.
"I want to live as a Demon Sovereign in the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect led by you."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon still remembered the tremor he felt at the moment he said those words.
He wanted to return to that time.
To that youth, as hot as a midsummer's night and as refreshing as an autumn breeze.
To those days when he risked his life for nothing in return, when he could still read the emotions on the Cult Master's face.
The one who pulled him back from the past was Gyo Cheon.
"Meeting you was the greatest misfortune of my life."
At his master's words, the image of the young Geom Woojin vanished.
In its place appeared the angry face of his master.
Even if his master hadn't said it, he had lived with that sentiment.
The words he had spoken to Geom Mugeuk, that his entire life had been accompanied by misfortune, had come out because of his master.
Though it was to save the Cult Master, he could never escape the yoke of having betrayed his master.
"Do you know why I came at your summons, Master?"
"You must have come to kill me."
Despite the mocking reply, Blood Heaven Blade Demon was calm.
"If I intended to do that, I would have contacted the Cult Master."
But Blood Heaven Blade Demon had come here to Central Capital quietly, alone.
Gyo Cheon looked at Blood Heaven Blade Demon with eyes that asked for a reason.
And the reason was something Gyo Cheon had never expected.
"I missed you, Master."
"!"
The deep wrinkles on Gyo Cheon's face twitched.
It was Blood Heaven Blade Demon's true feeling.
Of course, it wasn't due to a typical sense of longing.
How should he express this feeling of missing him?
Was it like his younger self reaching out to him, now standing at the twilight of his life?
Yes, this wasn't a summons from the master before him, but from his younger self.
Gyo Cheon laughed.
The corners of his mouth had more wrinkles than anywhere else, making it difficult to know what he was feeling when he laughed.
But this time, the laughter was clearly a sneer.
"You know why I'm here and you still say such things?"
The sneer soon turned into open laughter.
Was it due to old age? Or had he contracted some illness? A grating sound, like scraping metal, came from his cracked voice, and the laughter soon led to a coughing fit that wouldn't stop.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon waited for him to stop coughing.
"You missed me?"
Gyo Cheon slowly rose from his seat and loosened his robe.
His body was wrinkled and shriveled.
A body that made one worry if it could even perform martial arts.
And for that very reason, it was also a more fearsome body.
When one considered the immense power contained within that insignificant frame.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon's gaze was fixed on the center of his chest.
There was a large scar there.
A scar much larger and deeper than one from a sword wound.
"Here, look."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon stared at the wound in silence.
Then, he conveyed the words he had held in his heart for a long time.
Words he had never spoken to anyone, words he had never once uttered.
"I am sorry, Master."
"|"
He knew that even if it wasn't him, his master was always willing to take another as his first disciple, and he knew that if he had continued to disobey, his master would have killed him.
But above all, it was to save Geom Woojin.
Even so, he was sorry.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon bowed his head respectfully.
The head that bowed only to Geom Woojin was now lowered.
A glint shone from Gyo Cheon's eyes as he looked at him, and his fine wrinkles deepened.
"You... you've been insincere since you were young."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon understood his master.
He was a man who would not believe that he purely admired Geom Woojin, nor would he believe his apology.
But it didn't matter.
In the end, conveying these words was for his own sake.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked up at the sky.
'Thank you for letting me say the words I had intended to deliver only in hell.'
Gyo Cheon did not believe Blood Heaven Blade Demon's apology was sincere.
And even if it were, what meaning could it have now?
"Help me kill the Cult Master, and I will spare your life."
"What lingering attachment could this old life have?"
At that, Gyo Cheon used Seo Daeryong as a threat.
"If you do not listen to me, I will kill your disciple."
"Is that why you brought that child here as well?"
Of course, this threat did not work.
"Then his life, too, will be one without the fortune of a good master."
A mixture of love and hate filled Blood Heaven Blade Demon's eyes as he looked at his master.
"You used to look at me with those eyes in the past as well."
"This is also a misunderstanding. Because you hate the me of today, you distort the past entirely."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon had a premonition.
The end of this affair could only be one of two things: either he died, or his master died.
So there was nothing he couldn't say.
If he had spoken of love before, what he was about to say now was hate.
"One might think one grows wiser with age, but that is not the case. Judgment becomes clouded, and stubbornness only grows stronger. I try to prevent it, at least a little, by reading books diligently, but it's not easy to stop my mind from going blank."
After a brief pause, Blood Heaven Blade Demon spoke.
"It is likely much worse for you, Master. An outsider looking at you would think, how incredible that old master must be, what immense wisdom he must possess, he must see right through a person's heart, and his insight must be extraordinary. They would have such thoughts. But I know. Your mind, Master, is filled with a murky fog."
A flicker of anger rose on Gyo Cheon's twitching face.
"Within that fog, only hatred must be shining brightly. Without even that, you would have lost your way, Master."
"Showing off again, are you?"
"You distort again. I have never once shown off to you, Master. Then tell me. The Cult Master, me, and the events of that day. Have you ever had a single thought besides those? About the history of the martial world or the affairs of life, or even something as simple as, 'summer is gone, autumn is coming.' Have you ever had such an interest?"
Gyo Cheon's gaze grew colder, but he could not offer any rebuttal.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon continued to say what he wanted to say.
"In the past, I wouldn't have known. But recently, I have felt something through the Young Cult Master. I realized I had been habitually walking through a fog. Because the path was so familiar, because the fog was so familiar, I walked without stumbling. But the fog was growing thicker with each passing year."
After meeting Geom Mugeuk, his stagnant heart began to flow again.
He trained in martial arts more diligently, read more books, took on a disciple, and his relationships with the other Demon Sovereigns changed.
He even tended to a flower garden.
All of it was an effort to clear the fog.
Though it was not easily cleared even with effort.
"That is why I am not afraid of you, Master."
And so, he did not speak his other true feeling, that he was afraid of his master.
If only Geom Mugeuk had met his master a little earlier, could his master's heart have changed?
He thought that perhaps it might have.
If it were Geom Mugeuk? Perhaps that brilliant young man might know a way to resolve this deep-seated grudge.
It seemed he felt that much regret.
His master, who had remained as a deep wound in his heart.
This fate, to meet again like this and have to open the final chapter without any intermediate process, seemed too pitiful.
"Insolent fool!"
On the other hand, Gyo Cheon was angry.
How could his life be described with such words?
But he couldn't think of a rebuttal.
Countless words swirled in his mind, yet...
It was truly as if a thick fog had risen, and he did not know what to say.
In that place, only the emotion of hatred shone brightly.
"What if I say I will kill that precious Young Cult Master of yours?"
Blood Heaven Blade Demon laughed. *Go ahead and try to kill him.
You'll probably grab your neck and collapse while talking to him before you get the chance.*
"That sounds like a threat you should save for the Cult Master, so please keep it."
Threats did not work on Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
"But how on earth do you plan to kill the Cult Master? He's not someone you can kill just because you want to, is he?"
Blood Heaven Blade Demon was curious about what kind of move he had prepared.
"The Cult Master is also human. All humans are bound to die."
As he said this, Gyo Cheon took something out from his robes.
It was a small box.
It flew through the air by telekinesis and came to Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
When he opened the box, inside was a single small medicine bottle.
"Put that in the Cult Master's wine."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked down at the bottle and asked.
"What is this?"
"You don't need to know. You just need to put it in the Cult Master's wine."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon was truly dumbfounded.
Did he really think such a trick would work? Was his master truly wandering in a fog?
"You're right. He is someone who cannot be killed without using such methods. Sowing discord with the Righteous Path, threatening to kill a disciple, and now, poisoning. But did you really think I would do such a thing?"
"Did you not just say you were sorry?"
As if there was no more value in talking, Blood Heaven Blade Demon prepared to pour the contents of the medicine bottle onto the floor.
The moment he was about to open the stopper, he froze.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon's gaze turned back to Gyo Cheon.
"You must have predicted that I would pour it out."
An ominous thought flashed through Blood Heaven Blade Demon's mind.
"Surely not?"
Blood Heaven Blade Demon threw the medicine bottle far away.
Crash.
From the exposed liquid, a poisonous fume billowed up.
If he had poured it on the floor, that fume would have instantly enveloped him.
"This was meant to kill me."
Gyo Cheon's eyes were filled with killing intent.
"I cannot let you die peacefully."
From the way he spoke, it was no ordinary poison.
A poison that inflicted extreme pain.
Although he knew his master intended to kill him, seeing him use poison so ruthlessly made him feel a sense of disappointment.
And such a vicious poison at that.
He was reminded once again that it is human nature to feel disappointment even in a situation where they were to kill each other.
"Do you hate me that much?"
"Did you not say it yourself? That nothing but hatred remains in my mind."
Looking at his master, he truly felt like he was facing a solid wall that wouldn't listen.
He had wanted to somehow ease his heart.
And that was not for himself, but for his master.
Of course, his master would not believe him.
He would think it was a ploy because he didn't want to die.
'Master, you once again give me no choice.'
Gyo Cheon slowly clapped his hands.
At that, a door on the left wall opened, and someone walked out from it.
Dressed in a blazing red robe, he was an old man of a similar age to Blood Heaven Blade Demon, and he too wore a great blade.
Just by his walk, one could tell.
That he had practiced the Heaven-Slaying Demon Blade technique for many long years.
It seemed he was someone his master had newly taken as a disciple and taught his martial arts to.
He was not the only one who appeared.
The door on the opposite side opened, and someone else walked out from there as well.
This time, it was an old man in a blue robe, and the level of skill he exuded was not at all inferior to the old man who had come out before.
And the two possessed opposing auras.
If the first old man was fire, this old man had an aura like water.
And Blood Heaven Blade Demon knew instinctively.
'They are those who have achieved Great Mastery in the Heaven-Slaying Demon Blade technique.'
They were individuals who possessed skills at the level of a Demon Sovereign.
Since they were raised by his master with a heart full of vengeance, he could guess their skill without even seeing it.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon's eyes grew heavy.
He foresaw that this would be anything but an easy fight.
Gyo Cheon looked at Blood Heaven Blade Demon and spoke.
"The betrayal suffered at a disciple's hand must be repaid by a disciple."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not lose his composure.
"I suppose I'll have to discipline my junior martial brothers."
Gyo Cheon sneered and said.
"Who said they are your junior martial brothers? You were excommunicated long ago."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon replied calmly.
"Because I have not excommunicated you, Master."
Gyo Cheon's face twitched again.
His master would misunderstand and be angry, but that was Blood Heaven Blade Demon's poignant affection for his master.
"My desire to see you again was sincere, and my apology was also sincere. My wish for you to simply step back now and live quietly is also sincere. And this, too, is sincere."
Blood Heaven Blade Demon slowly drew his Heaven-Slaying Blade and said.
"For his sake, I can kill again."