Chapter 441: With the Blade Once Drawn, Against All
It had been a long time since I last visited Western Illusion Formation.
The ominous energy that shook the human heart could be felt not only from the towers and bizarre decorations scattered all around, but even from the flowers swaying in the wind throughout the flower garden.
That aura remained the same, but the ghost artists I passed by were no longer hostile as they had once been. They greeted me with courtesy appropriate for the Young Cult Leader.
Following the ghost artist who guided me, I walked between the snail shell-shaped houses.
They were so bizarre and flashy that any martial artist who wasn’t well-trained would have to close their eyes to walk without getting dizzy.
At the end of the path stood a cone-shaped building. This was the dwelling of the Soul Reaper Demon Supreme.
Walls, ceiling, and even the floor. In a room full of spiraling patterns, the Soul Reaper Demon Supreme welcomed me.
“Young Cult Leader, you’ve arrived?”
The ominous energy flowing in her eyes was even more intense than the last time I saw her.
“I believe this is our first meeting in this place.”
“Are you alright? If it’s uncomfortable, we can speak outside.”
The swirling patterns of the room made it unsettling just to be inside.
She was being considerate, in case I felt discomfort. Of course, the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Technique, which had reached great mastery, was shielding me, so her worries were unnecessary.
“When the former Demon Supreme was here, this place was nauseating and dizzying. But now, it feels beautiful and mysterious.”
I knew she was doing well. Though she had ascended to the position of Demon Supreme at a young age, she had already completely taken control of Western Illusion Formation, and had earned recognition from the ghost artists as their new leader. What remained was to achieve full mastery of her unique martial arts and to accumulate experience as the Demon Supreme.
“What brings you here today?”
She was different from other Demon Supremes. Still so young, she was closer to being my Demon Supreme than my father’s.
This was the very moment when the next generation’s Heavenly Demon and Demon Supreme stood face-to-face.
I told her the current situation exactly as it was. I neither left anything out nor added anything, respecting her as one Demon Supreme to another.
“To get straight to the point, only one Demon Supreme has taken my side.”
I hadn’t said who it was, but to my surprise, the Soul Reaper Demon Supreme guessed correctly.
“Could it be the Evil Smiling Demon?”
“How did you know?”
She said that during the Three-way summit, she had sensed a kind of kinship with the Evil Smiling Demon, who had stood alone, separated from the other Demon Supremes.
“During the last Three-way summit, the Evil Smiling Demon said he envied me. Because I’m young, I’d be able to serve the Young Cult Leader for a long time. It made me think perhaps he was the one, given how deeply he thought of you.”
She still vividly remembered the conversation they had that day.
“Do you know what I told him in return?”
“What did you say?”
“I told him, ‘You really do like difficult things, don’t you?’”
I laughed heartily. The stiffness she used to show when speaking to me was gone. Now, she could speak comfortably. It meant her position had stabilized, and she had gained confidence.
Like the other Demon Supremes—no, even more so, since she still had a long path ahead—she was growing faster than anyone.
“If it weren’t for the Young Cult Leader, I would never have risen to the position of Demon Supreme.”
“That’s not a reason for your decision. Make your choice as you wish, Demon Supreme.”
At that, the Soul Reaper Demon Supreme asked with a curious look.
“Do you mean that?”
It was a gaze laced with playfulness, as if to ask, *You really don’t need my help?* Of course not. If that were true, I wouldn’t have come.
“No. I desperately need your help, Demon Supreme.”
At my honest reply, the Soul Reaper Demon Supreme smiled. Her silent smile now suited the ominous aura she gave off quite well.
“As I mentioned, the situation is unfavorable. I might even fall out of favor with my father.”
That was the most important concern for other Demon Supremes—but not for her.
“There’s no need to worry about that. I’m already out of the Cult Leader’s favor.”
She didn’t mean her father hated her. Rather, it meant she still needed more time and effort to gain his recognition. In my father’s eyes, she was still an incomplete Demon Supreme.
She understood exactly where she stood, and what kind of person my father was.
“Is someone like me truly acceptable?”
I placed my fist respectfully to my palm and said,
“You may stand outside my father’s gaze, but to me, you stand before me.”
That was enough. The ominous energy flowing from the Soul Reaper Demon Supreme’s eyes grew even more intense.
“All the ghosts of the Cult will follow the Young Cult Leader.”
The Demonic Buddha was crafting a statue in a small clearing slightly removed from the Golden Buddha Temple.
Using a chisel and hammer to shape the stone, the sight of the Demonic Buddha fit the scene—and yet, somehow felt unfamiliar.
The surrounding buildings, statues, and towers were all gilded in gold, but the statue he was making now was of ordinary stone.
“Three to two, I’m winning.”
I threw out some bluffing to the Demonic Buddha. Of course, it didn’t work.
“Since when did you start lying so much?”
“You’re as sharp as ever, Demonic Buddha.”
That, now *that* was the lie. The Demonic Buddha had grown noticeably gentler. Had he attained some enlightenment of the heart?
I stood for a moment, watching the stone-carving Demonic Buddha. He wasn’t only good at gathering herbs—his sculpting skills were exceptional too.
“But how did you know? That I only had two?”
“Because even two is a lot.”
At that, I couldn’t help but laugh. How could I deny it? After all, my opponent was my father.
“There’s at least one good thing about all this. I’ve gotten to meet all the Demon Supremes, and learn what they’re each thinking. Perhaps this is exactly what Father intended. *Know your place and wake up to reality!*”
Bang! Bang!
The hammering paused for a moment. Beyond the hammer, the Demonic Buddha glanced over at me.
“Did the Cult Leader create this stage just to show that many Demon Supremes support him?”
The Demonic Buddha used the word *stage*. In other words, he believed Father had deliberately orchestrated this situation.
“Could it be that he hoped I’d grow closer to the Demon Supremes?”
Bang!
As if to say *that’s wrong*, the Demonic Buddha’s hammering rang out crisply.
“Or maybe, is this an opportunity for Father to reflect on his relationship with the Demon Supremes?”
Again, as if to say that was incorrect, only the sound of the hammer echoed through the air.
Just how did the Demonic Buddha see this situation? Though now he stepped back and acted like someone who had attained enlightenment, he had once been the most political and pragmatic among the Eight Demon Supremes.
“Please tell me. Why did Father create this stage?”
The Demonic Buddha paused his hammering and examined the statue. Perhaps the balance was off—he frowned and shook his head.
Right, how could one focus on their work while having this kind of conversation?
The Demonic Buddha laid down his hammer and turned toward me.
“To seat us in the audience of that stage.”
It was an unexpected answer. If he had seated the Demon Supremes as the audience—
“Don’t tell me? Does that mean Father plans to fight me on that stage?”
The Demonic Buddha looked at me with a face that said *isn’t that obvious?*
At that moment, I recalled something the Fist Demon King had once said.
—The Cult Leader has already begun the war.
Could the war the Fist Demon King mentioned have meant a war *with me*?
“They say no parent can win against their child, don’t they?”
And then, a surprising remark flowed out.
“The Cult Leader isn’t going to lose to you.”
I could sense that the Demonic Buddha saw my father the same way the Blood Heaven Blade Demon did.
“Ordinary people think it’s foolish to make another enemy when they already have one, right?”
“Isn’t it?”
“For ordinary people, yes.”
“Then what about Father?”
The Demonic Buddha lifted his gaze to look far off at the Heavenly Demon Pavilion.
“The Cult Leader plans to cut down everyone with the blade he once drew.”
“!”
“He’ll persuade you in front of the Demon Supremes, eliminate the forces behind you with the strength unified as one, and with that blade dripping with blood, strike down both the Martial Alliance and the Unorthodox Alliance.”
No words came from my mouth like *that can’t be true*.
Instead, a single image surfaced in my mind.
The empty Throne.
Father, who always remained in that seat, had left it vacant. That sight was far more terrifying than the image of him holding the Heavenly Demon Sword dripping with blood.
“Is there a reason you’re so certain?”
“There is.”
A radiant golden light burst strongly from the Demonic Buddha’s body.
“Because the Cult has never been this powerful.”
If what the Demonic Buddha believed was true…
Then in the end, I was the one who moved Father.
“Young Cult Leader!”
The person looking at me with startled eyes was Gowol.
After meeting with the Demonic Buddha, I immediately used the Star Light Step and rushed toward where Gowol was. Truly, I had run like the wind.
Even while I had been in the Northern Sea, Gowol had continued moving between the Cult and the outside world, strengthening Hidden Moon even further.
The branch I arrived at today was half a day's sprint away with the Star Light Step.
“You must be busy. What brings you here?”
His desk was, as always, piled high with documents.
“How is there so much work? I told you to delegate everything to your subordinates.”
“I do delegate it to them.”
“Then just drink tea and nag them a little.”
Knowing that wasn’t in his nature, I added one more sentence today.
“Military Strategist Go. You know how important you are to me, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“Then don’t make me worry about your health too.”
I already knew that the escorts were elite martial artists sent by the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult, so I wasn't worried. The Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult must have taken great care in watching over Gowol.
But when it came to health, I still had to nag.
“You must be busy meeting with all the Demon Supremes—how did you manage to come all the way out here?”
As expected, Gowol was well aware of the internal affairs of the Cult.
“I came because I wanted to see you. Come on, let’s get a little fresh air.”
I stepped out of the office with Gowol. Exiting the backyard, we came directly to the marketplace. We walked side by side where people bustled about.
“Don’t stay seated too long. They say your lifespan shortens the more you sit, don’t they? At least get up once every two hours and walk around.”
“Understood.”
“Is it too much nagging after not seeing each other for so long?”
Gowol smiled without denying it. I knew full well how much Gowol liked to tease the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult. If it were the Cult Leader who’d given him this nagging, his response might have been very different.
“Do you hear from the Cult Leader often?”
The Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult had stayed behind to support his disciple and the current Cult Leader. I had thought he’d return in a couple of months, but he’d remained for quite a while. Their relationship had clearly been restored, and he likely had much he wished to teach.
“I occasionally receive letters. Half of them are complaints about his disciple.”
“And the other half are criticisms of me?”
“How did you know?”
We laughed together.
“Seeing how the intervals between letters are getting shorter, I think the Cult Leader must be getting frustrated. I suspect he’ll be back soon.”
“I miss the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult too.”
As we continued walking, making small talk, I finally broached the true reason I’d come.
“While meeting with all the Demon Supremes this time, I kept having one thought.”
“What thought was that?”
“Do I truly have the right to shatter my father’s dream?”
All the Demon Supremes understood Father’s aspiration. Even if they didn’t express it as openly as the One-Slash Sword Supreme, they likely felt the same way. The Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s worries stemmed from that, and surely the Evil Smiling Demon was no different.
“Then why do you still want to stop it?”
Because too many people would die.
But that answer didn’t come easily. Just as the Poison King had found it difficult to say, *Because I like poison*, I, too, couldn't easily say the words.
Are you really someone who worries about the lives of every martial artist in the world?
That question was the first to rise in my mind.
Originally, I should say this:
The reason I regressed was to save those who must live and kill those who must die.
But if war breaks out, people who shouldn’t die will end up dying. And no one knows who that will be.
It could be one of the Demon Supremes. It could be Lee Ahn. It could be Seo Daeryong. It could be Gowol right in front of me. It could be the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult. It could be Jo Chunbae, or even the customers of the Flowing Wind Tavern. This won’t end with just a table being broken.
And beyond that, there was also what I felt for my father.
In my life before regression, I had experienced many things. I’d lived through different lives, felt the extremity of loneliness. I endured sufferings that were hard to bear and crossed the threshold of death many times.
I endured all of it for revenge.
This is what revenge is.
Killing someone creates that kind of vengeance. Humans are such that they can’t forget someone who wounded them with just a few harsh words—how could they possibly forget the loss of countless lives?
Friends of the dead. Their companions, their family.
From war, thousands, tens of thousands of vengeances would be born.
Tens of thousands of me.
Tens of thousands of Hwa Moogi.
That burden would fall on the shoulders of my father—the one who started the war. I do not want him to carry the weight of all that resentment. I do not want him to stand at the tip of those countless blades of vengeance.
Isn’t it his dream? Isn’t it his greatest wish?
Just like I had been before the regression, I believe my father was the same.
Neither of us was given the chance to dream of something else.
He lived as the Heavenly Demon who could open his heart to no one, and I lived as someone who lost that Heavenly Demon, my own flesh and blood.
We are people stronger than anyone else, but people who have never truly dreamed.
And along with those thoughts, I had one more belief.
The heavens didn’t give me this chance to regress so that I would push countless lives into death.
My thoughts turned, returned, and eventually circled back to where they began.
“Because too many people will die from that war.”
Gowol looked silently at the passing people for a moment.
Then he looked back at me and spoke softly.
“Isn’t that reason alone enough to risk everything to stop it?”
Yes. That was the very thing I had wanted to hear from Gowol. That was why I had dashed here like the wind across such a long distance. Just to hear those words from my strategist.
Now, the time had come to return and meet my father.
“It seems I’m ready to step onto the stage too.”