The person who arrived at the Azure Cloud Forest was the Heavenly Wandering Hermit.
He walked through the misty bamboo forest.
Waiting in the distant pavilion was Geom Mugeuk.
Leaning against the railing, Geom Mugeuk silently watched the Heavenly Wandering Hermit walk towards him.
When their eyes met, he waved cheerfully.
Geom Mugeuk would not postpone this battle.
‘I will kill him today!’
Among all the enemies he had ever faced, none had been easy, but this Heavenly Wandering Hermit was as tricky an opponent as any.
It was impossible to know the potential of his true form, and there was no telling who might suddenly appear to help him.
Azure Cloud Forest.
This was the stage Geom Mugeuk had chosen.
Since it was the favorite place of the Martial Alliance Leader, Jin Pae-cheon, he thought it most fitting for the final battle with the Heavenly Wandering Hermit.
There was one more practical reason.
The mist that flowed through the Azure Cloud Forest all year round.
Today, within this mist, a special Killing Formation was laid out.
Cloud Mist Concealment Formation.
Originally, the Cloud Mist Concealment Formation was a formation for concealment, allowing one to hide within the rising mist.
Once the formation was activated, no matter how skilled a master was, they could not find the person hidden within unless they knew how to break it.
It was known as a supreme formation, one of the best the Martial Alliance possessed, as even an expert in formations would not be able to tell if it was real mist or an active formation once it was deployed within the fog.
Within the Cloud Mist Concealment Formation currently spread through the mist was Jin Pae-cheon.
Thanks to this location and the formation, Geom Mugeuk was able to set this stage without revealing the existence of his Space-Time Displacement Art.
This was the most crucial stage, one that would decide everyone's fate, and Jin Pae-cheon was the most important member of the audience.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit ascended to the pavilion.
After greeting him, Geom Mugeuk marveled at the scene before his eyes.
“I think I understand why the Alliance Leader likes this place. The mist flowing through the bamboo is so dreamlike.”
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit silently watched Geom Mugeuk, who was looking outside.
Although his back was turned, not a single opening could be found.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit raised his hand and touched the empty air.
Though invisible, he could feel it.
The energy Geom Mugeuk had spread out like a spider's web.
Although his back was turned, the Young Cult Master was in complete command of himself and the surrounding space.
And he made no effort to hide that fact.
The intense heat that flashed in the Heavenly Wandering Hermit’s eyes vanished the moment Geom Mugeuk turned around.
“Welcome, Elder!”
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit took a few steps forward and stood beside Geom Mugeuk, gazing at the bamboo forest.
“The mist is especially thick today.”
Since it sounded like he had been here often, Geom Mugeuk asked him.
“Have you been here before?”
“I come here occasionally. It’s a place my friend likes.”
As if they had forgotten all the tension from their first meeting, the two men treated each other calmly.
“Why don't you ask? Why I am here instead of the Alliance Leader?”
Today's meeting had been arranged by Jin Pae-cheon to meet with the Heavenly Wandering Hermit.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit simply wore an expression that said, ‘It’s obvious even if I don’t ask,’ but said nothing.
“I asked the Alliance Leader if I could see you. You were so firm last time, saying there would be no next time.”
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit turned his gaze toward Geom Mugeuk.
“You didn’t call me here to kill me?”
His gaze and tone suggested he had come despite knowing that might be the case.
“If I had, would you have come, Elder? Didn't you come because you judged that not to be the case?”
From the Heavenly Wandering Hermit's reaction, Geom Mugeuk could tell that he had anticipated this situation of him waiting instead.
In that case, although the invitation came from his side, this stage was also the Hermit's.
A shared stage for him and Geom Mugeuk.
‘What have you prepared for this stage?’
Whoever’s preparations were more thorough would determine who would walk off this stage alive.
“Even if you intended to kill me, I had to come.”
“You’d come even if it meant death? Why?”
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit calmly replied.
“Because my friend called me.”
His eyes held a hint of emptiness and desolation.
If Geom Mugeuk hadn't seen his true form within the Space-Time Displacement Art, he would have been confused even at this moment.
He spoke with that much sincerity.
“I would die if that friend told me to.”
They were words that would pain Jin Pae-cheon to hear.
Indeed, he was likely watching this scene with a heavy heart right now.
“That's remarkable. I have no intention of dying quietly if Ha-gun tried to kill me.”
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit’s eyes glinted coldly.
“That’s because you didn’t share a friendship, you tried to use Branch Master Jin.”
As if intending for someone to overhear, he mentioned the circulating rumors.
“When I heard the rumor that the Young Cult Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect was approaching the Demon Slaying Branch Master to build a friendship, I already saw through your scheme. A scheme to deceive Alliance Leader Jin using family ties.”
Geom Mugeuk received the words with composure.
“That is to say you think too little of your friend. The Alliance Leader is not someone who is easily ensnared by such schemes.”
“That’s why you tried to use his family.”
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit continued to press this point.
“I know you approached Ha-ryeong as well, not just the Demon Slaying Branch Master. Will you still say you have no ulterior motives? What is your purpose?”
Hearing only these words, he would look like a complete villain.
This was why this fight was so tricky and difficult.
His opponent was someone who would thoroughly exploit even these aspects.
“As you know, my purpose is to reveal your true identity, Elder.”
“Ridiculous. For the Young Cult Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect to come to Wuhan and reveal the identity of someone like me, who has lived as a member of the Righteous Path for decades? A passing dog would laugh.”
“Since there are no passing dogs, I will laugh for you.”
Geom Mugeuk smiled brightly.
A blade was hidden within his leisurely demeanor.
“It’s just the two of us here. Is there really a need to hide your identity to this extent?”
“I'll say it again. I have no identity to hide.”
Geom Mugeuk asked about what he would be most curious about.
“Why don’t you ask? Why I called you the Incarnation of Vengeance.”
He should have shown some reaction to those words, yet he showed no curiosity at all.
“Vengeance? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Geom Mugeuk sat on the railing and spoke as if reasoning to himself.
“You lost your composure at those words, Elder, so why are you hiding your identity so thoroughly even when we are alone?”
Geom Mugeuk already knew the answer.
“You know, Elder. You know what kind of place this is.”
For a moment, he didn’t miss the sharp glint in the Heavenly Wandering Hermit’s eyes.
He knew there was an audience for this stage.
And that the audience was Jin Pae-cheon.
That was why he was carefully choosing his words, only saying things that would sway the Alliance Leader’s heart.
“You deceived him with all sorts of words using his family, but it won’t work on me. I will protect my friend to the end.”
Geom Mugeuk knew.
Words could not move him.
Especially since he knew Jin Pae-cheon was watching.
The moment had come to throw a different kind of challenge, one beyond words.
Geom Mugeuk’s eyes grew cold, his atmosphere completely changing.
“It doesn’t matter. I can make you reveal your identity.”
To those words, at least, the Heavenly Wandering Hermit reacted.
A look in his eyes towards Geom Mugeuk seemed to say, You? How?
“There was a faster and more certain method, but I couldn't use it for one reason.”
That reason was related to Jin Pae-cheon.
“To use that method, I needed the Alliance Leader’s permission.”
“What permission?”
Geom Mugeuk’s eyes turned icy.
“Permission to kill you.”
The moment he finished speaking, an aura erupted from Geom Mugeuk’s body.
The next moment, the Heavenly Wandering Hermit realized he was standing in a blue sky.
Of course, it wasn't the sky, but the surface of the sea.
It was so clear that the sky was perfectly reflected, making it feel as if he were standing in the heavens.
It was Geom Mugeuk’s aura.
The aura had changed from before.
The sea was clearer.
And the endless abyss beneath his feet was deeper and darker.
Splash.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit fell into the sea.
An unseen force grabbed him and dragged him into the deep waters.
He couldn't breathe.
It was too powerful to be the aura of a mere man.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit also released his own aura.
His aura began to push back against Geom Mugeuk’s.
His surroundings, which had been a dark abyss, brightened.
Snow flurried around him on a pure white field.
Then, his surroundings darkened again.
Pressed by Geom Mugeuk’s aura, he began to be dragged back into the abyssal sea.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit drew up his inner energy, releasing his aura even more powerfully.
His surroundings brightened again, and then darkened once more.
Like a lamp flickering on and off, darkness and light alternated.
Each time it brightened, the snowstorm raged more fiercely.
A lone flower blooming there seemed incredibly precarious.
From darkness to light, back to darkness, and then light again.
It was at that moment.
Swoosh!
A sword flew at the Heavenly Wandering Hermit’s face in a surprise attack.
Crack.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit shattered the pavilion’s railing and flew backward, dodging the sword.
Geom Mugeuk, who had been engaged in a battle of auras, had launched a surprise attack.
Standing at the edge of the pavilion, Geom Mugeuk looked down with cold eyes, sword in hand.
“If you don't reveal your true aura, you will die by my hand.”
Despite Geom Mugeuk’s warning, the Heavenly Wandering Hermit was not afraid.
Instead, a smile played on his lips.
“Can you really handle the aftermath?”
“Since when do those bastards from the Demonic Sect worry about the aftermath before they act?”
Swoosh.
Geom Mugeuk leaped from the pavilion and flew toward the Heavenly Wandering Hermit.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit did not evade, drawing his sword to meet him.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
Blade met blade, and a continuous series of clashes and sparks erupted.
A dozen exchanges passed in an instant.
Swoosh!
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit narrowly dodged the final, unconventional strike.
It was an attack that would have taken his head if he hadn't dodged it.
The killing intent in Geom Mugeuk’s sword was real.
“I told you before. For someone like you, killing you first and dealing with the aftermath later isn’t a bad method.”
Geom Mugeuk's swordsmanship was neither the Nine Calamities Demon Art nor the Flying Heaven Sword Technique.
It was simple thrusting and cutting, but within those simple slashes lay all of Geom Mugeuk’s martial knowledge.
Freed from forms, Geom Mugeuk's attacks were incomparably fast and fierce.
The strength that came from freedom was being displayed without reservation at this very moment.
Spurt!
Blood spurted from the Heavenly Wandering Hermit’s arm.
He was as famous as the Alliance Leader, but he wasn't famous for being as strong as the Alliance Leader.
He was famous because he was Jin Pae-cheon’s friend, and also a great hero.
He could not withstand the momentum of Geom Mugeuk, who was pressing him with a frightening intensity, as if he truly meant to kill.
Even while cornered, he did not reveal his true form.
He had one certainty.
‘You can never kill me!’
Just as Geom Mugeuk had thought, the Heavenly Wandering Hermit had accurately grasped what kind of situation this was.
‘Because you have to show Jin Pae-cheon my true identity. The more you, a master of the Righteous Path, try to kill me, the greater his suspicion will grow.’
With every drop of blood he shed, the suspicion towards the Young Cult Master would grow.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit was certain of it.
And Geom Mugeuk was certain as well.
‘You will definitely show your true form.’
Because he surely wouldn't want to die so meaninglessly here.
After enduring for decades, how could he die so futilely?
Swoosh!
Geom Mugeuk’s sword flew towards his neck.
The Heavenly Wandering Hermit did not dodge.
‘In the end, you will stop.’
Because he would never kill him.
It was like two carriages charging at each other.
Two carriages racing forward without stopping, each convinced the other would surely pull on the reins.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
And at the last moment, one of the two pulled the reins and swerved.
Kaaang!
A ear-splitting metallic sound erupted.
Geom Mugeuk was thrown back, retreating.
At the last moment, the Heavenly Wandering Hermit had swung his sword to counterattack.
And this counterattack was incomparably faster and more powerful than the skill he had shown until now.
Like a true madman, Geom Mugeuk did not withdraw his sword until the very last moment.
Not because he truly intended to kill, but from the belief that the other would surely dodge.
No matter how strong the Heavenly Wandering Hermit's will, there was something that would betray him.
That was none other than the instinct for survival.
He believed that the survival instinct of such a powerful master would override his will and force him to survive at all costs.
Just as the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art would not simply stand by and watch Geom Mugeuk die, no matter how much he tried.
Another person stood where the Heavenly Wandering Hermit had been.
It was the same person, but he was emitting a completely different aura.
It was Hwa Yul-cheong.
As he began to reveal his true form, his presence was incomparable to before.
He stood in the middle of a battlefield.
Instead of blowing snow, the ashes of burnt corpses drifted around him.
It was different from the aura he had seen at the Martial Pavilion that day.
If the aura then was a war in a single region, the aura now was a war across the entire Central Plains.
Blood flowed like rivers, and corpses were piled like mountains.
In the midst of it all, Hwa Yul-cheong stood with eyes as hot as lava.
“You still won’t step forward, even when he tries to kill me?”
The person Hwa Yul-cheong spoke to was not Geom Mugeuk.
He spoke towards the mist.
Then, a voice was heard from within the mist.
“Because I've decided to trust that friend over you.”
The owner of the voice was, of course, Jin Pae-cheon.
Perhaps because he had expected it from the start, Hwa Yul-cheong showed no fear even with Jin Pae-cheon’s appearance.
“You'd trust the Young Cult Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect over a friend of several decades?”
His words were filled not with remorse or regret, but with ridicule and anger.
After all, Jin Pae-cheon had seen his true form.
Gradually, Jin Pae-cheon’s voice grew closer.
“That person, at least for today, is not the Young Cult Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect.”
Shortly after, Jin Pae-cheon fully revealed himself from within the mist.
“Today, he is my grandson's friend.”