Chapter 758: The Ties Were Short and Life Was Long
Brother Ak, were you joking with me? If you were going to do that, you should have killed him at the very beginning!
Geom Mugeuk did not shout that aloud; he had felt a deeper story behind the sight of the man standing with blood pouring down him. He had vaguely suspected that such a situation might unfold.
Why had he protected the Sound King till now?
Because of that, even after the death of another of the Twelve Zodiac Kings, he was not happy at all.
Then the Sword King, soaked in blood, turned toward Geom Mugeuk.
“Listen carefully to what I’m going to say now, Mugeuk.”
Urgency could be felt in the Sword King’s words and expression.
“He had completed the final piece. And that piece was not the sound-art he had intended to perform earlier.”
At that moment, the sound of a quiet performance began to come from somewhere. It seemed to come from the left, then from the right. The sound grew gradually.
The lively, cheerful melody did not at all suit the Sound King’s death. It was a melody that gave the impression that the fight was not over. No — it felt like the battle was about to begin!
The Sword King wore an expression that showed he had already anticipated this situation. Through his mouth, an unknown fact was revealed.
“The Dark Palace Master gave him the Heavenly Will Divine Pill. The Heavenly Will Divine Pill was not a simple elixir. It was truly the one-and-only greatest elixir of the Heavenly Will Palace, imbued with the energy of all things in heaven and earth. The palace master used something he had treasured.”
The Sword King’s gaze moved toward the fallen Sound King. Considering what he had taken, his death seemed far too pointless; the blood flowing from his corpse had stained his pipa red.
“After taking the Heavenly Will Divine Pill, he completed the final piece. Ever since that piece was finished, that piece had always been played around him. It was just that we could not hear it.”
Geom Mugeuk could infer that the tune the Sound King had been playing all along was indeed that final piece.
“It was the Soul-Exchange Melody.”
The astonishing secret of the revealed Soul-Exchange Melody.
“While the Soul-Exchange Melody was being played, if you killed him, his soul would swap with the person who killed him.”
Only now did the meaning become clear. He understood why the Sword King had so desperately tried to stop him from killing the Sound King.
“From the beginning, he had intended to die by your hand. That was his goal.”
So that was why he hadn’t reacted when Blade King died.
“Does that mean… he will take over brother Ak’s body now? You killed him because you had a contingency, right?”
The Sword King could not answer in the affirmative. There had been no contingency.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Even by transmitting it in sound, if you had warned me—”
“And what if I had warned you?”
Geom Mugeuk could not answer.
“You surely would have tried to kill him yourself.”
There were only Geom Mugeuk, the two Demon Supremes, and Sword King who possessed the skill to kill that man here. In that situation, Geom Mugeuk would never have sacrificed someone else.
“Somehow, you must have killed him, thinking you would overcome it. You probably did not hesitate to slash him.”
Geom Mugeuk sighed.
The Sword King had seen it clearly. Mugeuk had trusted himself, and he had trusted the Nine Calamities Demon Art even more, and for that reason, he had to kill the Sound King himself.
“You all overestimate me too much. Why would I kill? I knew full well what a terrible result it would bring.”
Because he had said that, Sword King was convinced even more that Mugeuk would have killed the Sound King. Not only the Sword King, but Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme knew as well. The Young Cult Leader would surely have slashed him.
“No matter who you are, you could not overcome the Reverse Soul Melody.”
“What about brother Ak?”
The Sword King’s expression was calm, as if he had already thought this through.
“Kill me before he takes over my body.”
“!”
The Sword King had tried to save Geom Mugeuk and sacrifice himself.
That was why he could not have killed the Sound King in advance. If he had, ‘he’ might have approached Geom Mugeuk disguised as the Sword King and done who knew what.
It was best to kill that man in front of Geom Mugeuk and reveal the truth like this.
The Sword King’s gaze turned to Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme.
“I would have preferred to have cut him down before you two had to suffer, but I hesitated. I kept wondering and searching for some other way besides this one.”
It had been a matter of life and death. He had truly not wanted to cut him until the very end.
The displeased look that Blood Heaven Blade Demon had worn had now softened.
“I understand.”
Not only Blood Heaven Blade Demon, but One-Slash Sword Supreme was inwardly surprised. When they were with Geom Mugeuk, they went through all sorts of unexpected things, but today’s matter had been completely unimaginable.
That such a powerful expert had been willing to sacrifice himself for Geom Mugeuk, without even being from the same Cult.
They had guessed there was a reason he protected that man, but they could not imagine it was for this reason. He had fought with that heart, and he had endured being misunderstood as annoying for that very reason.
He could have led them to kill him while pretending to know nothing, while excluding Geom Mugeuk. But he had not pushed that task onto others even at the cost of his own life.
Geom Mugeuk asked the Sword King.
“Why did you go this far?”
Yes — he had asked himself that question countless times.
Did he really have to go this far for Geom Mugeuk, the Young Cult Leader? And honestly, he had really struggled with the answer. He did not even know how much he had deliberated.
His bond with Geom Mugeuk had been short, and his remaining life was endless.
Yet he had chosen to save Geom Mugeuk. He had simply wanted to. He had been his first friend and his only friend in his life.
The Sword King gave a different reason.
“If that man took over your body, this martial world would be annihilated.”
If Geom Mugeuk’s identity and everything he had built up to that point were to be seized by them, the result would have been catastrophic.
“No, why worry about the martial world? Were you brother Ak always that sort of person! You had aimed to leave the martial world!”
The Sword King wore a lonely smile.
“Indeed. I should have left long ago.”
He had tried to leave. But when he learned that the Dark Palace Master had even used the Heavenly Will Divine Pill to confront Geom Mugeuk, he had ultimately given up on leaving.
He told Geom Mugeuk to kill him, but the Sword King had known.
“I know that you could not kill me.”
The Sword King drew his sword. He intended to take his own life.
“Wait! Stop!”
At that instant, Geom Mugeuk rushed like lightning and grabbed his arm. It was the fastest of the Wind God’s Four Steps he had ever shown.
The Sword King responded, “Just imagine me even using the sound arts of the Sound King. Even you would not be able to handle that.”
The union of the Sword King and the Sound King? It would have been a truly formidable enemy. Moreover, what if Muguek hesitated and been unable to bring himself to cut the Sword King’s throat, then those standing with him might have been sacrificed. Still, Geom Mugeuk was certain.
“I can handle it.”
“No!”
Geom Mugeuk shouted angrily.
“I said I can, you bastard!”
Geom Mugeuk fixed the Sword King with a heated gaze.
“I can handle it! So do not be hasty!”
Then his voice calmed and he returned to a more polite tone.
“If this choice is brother Ak’s, you should give me the chance to choose too. If you end your life in front of me, it would leave me with a lifetime of grievance.”
The Sword King’s eyes wavered.
“Even if he took over brother Ak, I would definitely restore you to your original state. If brother Ak’s soul fell into hell, I would go to hell and fetch it back.”
Yes—because Geom Mugeuk had been that sort of person, he had made this choice. He had no regrets about his decision.
“Trust me. If it truly becomes impossible, I will kill you with my own hands. At that time, you can happily die at my hands.”
The Sword King did not fully believe those words. That was why his gaze went past Geom Mugeuk’s shoulder to One-Slash Sword Supreme.
If a time comes later when you must kill me, please be sure to do so.
One-Slash Sword Supreme could read the desperate plea contained in that look.
She nodded silently.
At that moment, Geom Mugeuk turned that serious, gloomy atmosphere into suspicion.
“But something still feels off.”
Staring intently at the Sword King, Geom Mugeuk suddenly asked.
“You are not our brother Ak, are you?”
What sort of prank was he trying to pull in this situation? The Sword King looked at Geom Mugeuk with that thought in mind.
“You already took over our brother Ak, didn’t you? Some time have passed—there’s no way he would have left brother Ak alone, right?”
Now that he thought about it, quite a bit of time had passed while the Sword King was explaining everything. When everyone’s gaze focused on him, the Sword King suddenly looked flustered.
“No. I’m still me.”
He had expected there to be some process — the enemy’s soul invading and him struggling to resist it. Would he suddenly transform into that man at any moment?
Would the change occur the moment the music, which still played in the background, came to an end?
“Brother Ak, where did we first meet?”
The Sword King shook his head with a baffled look.
“The fact that you didn’t answer means you really are brother Ak. Everyone ignores me and pretends not to hear.”
The Sword King turned his gaze again toward the Sound King’s corpse. Was something truly wrong?
Then Geom Mugeuk spoke unexpected words.
“That man probably won’t enter brother Ak’s body.”
“I wish that were true, but my willpower isn’t strong enough to block his sound-art, perfected through the Celestial Divine Pill.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
Geom Mugeuk said something none of them had expected.
“I don’t think this was their real plan.”
“What?”
Not only the Sword King, but everyone else turned their ears to Geom Mugeuk’s words.
“I kept wondering too — why was brother Ak acting this way? My first thought was: could it be that killing him would also kill the mastermind? Was this some kind of cursed melody? That’s what I suspected.”
But it wasn’t that. Because their goal had not been to kill him, but to steal the energy residing in his body.
“I even considered this situation. Could it be that their souls would switch? But I quickly discarded that theory.”
“Why?”
“Because of brother Ak”
The Sword King looked puzzled.
“If that were the case, why would they have let brother Ak come to us? The palace master knew that last time, we parted ways without killing each other, didn’t he?”
“I told them that I couldn’t kill you because retrieving the Secret Box was the priority.”
“Do you really think the palace master believed that?”
There was reason for Geom Mugeuk’s doubt.
“They’ve staked everything on this plan. If I were the Dark Palace Master, I wouldn’t have chosen anything that carried even the slightest risk.”
It was clear that Geom Mugeuk had realized something.
“Then what are you thinking?”
Ssshhk!
Instead of answering, Geom Mugeuk swung his sword.
“Why don’t you answer that?”
The flash of sword energy slashed toward none other than the Iron-Masked Man.
Kaaang!
Screech—!
A single line was drawn from the Iron Mask’s forehead down to his chin.
Astonishingly, even under Geom Mugeuk’s sword energy, it was only a surface mark — the mask itself was not cut through.
Then a voice echoed from beneath the mask.
“So you finally decided to take an interest in me. How disappointing, Young Cult Leader.”
The voice was different from the strong, confident tone that had earlier led the gathered warriors.
The heavy aura he exuded did not suit the cowardly figure who had darted about to avoid death during the previous battles.
He slowly removed his iron mask.
A middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance was revealed, so plain that any kind of expression could have suited him.
Geom Mugeuk knew who he was. Shockingly, yet another member of the Twelve Zodiac Kings had been present all along.
The Eleventh King of the Twelve Zodiac Kings — Iron King, Gi Sahu.
He was a man who fought using all kinds of crafted mechanisms. He mainly dealt with iron, but by mixing it with other metals, he created alloys as strong as Millennial Cold Iron.
He was a genius inventor of mechanical devices — one who not only employed countless hidden weapons but also bizarre contraptions never before seen in the martial world to kill people. The martial world called him the Ruler of Iron.
With the appearance of the final Zodiac King, this was now the moment when they had finally faced all twelve.
“I thought you, Young Cult Leader, would have noticed a bit earlier.”
The Iron King was smiling. Even though his identity had been exposed, there was not a hint of tension or embarrassment in his expression.
They should have recognized him earlier, but at the time, they hadn’t.
He was exceptionally skilled at concealing his aura, and rather than being a pure martial artist, he was closer to a craftsman — albeit a terrifying one capable of killing masters with ease.
Moreover, afterward, they had been too focused on the Sword King and Sound King to imagine that four of the Twelve Zodiac Kings could be present in the same place.
But just moments ago, a thought had struck him — if they had truly staked everything on this, would they have left the last one out?
“So, it’s you — the one who’ll bring this chaos to an end.”
The Iron King nodded as he listened to the music that continued to play.
“This piece… doesn’t it sound beautiful?”
Then his gaze turned to the Sword King.
“The palace master already knew you would betray him.”
Geom Mugeuk spoke to the Sword King.
“It’s because you’ve been walking around barefoot — like someone ready to leave at any moment. Who’d trust a man like that?”
The Sword King’s emotions were complicated. Though it was fortunate that he had survived, a far greater conspiracy was clearly unfolding.
And through the Iron King, a new truth was revealed.
“This piece is not the Soul-Exchange Melody, but the Soul-Return Melody.”
The Soul-Return Melody — didn’t that mean a song that returns one’s soul?
“It’s a piece that was completed, yet never truly finished.”
With those cryptic words, an astonishing truth flowed from the Iron King’s mouth.
“The Soul-Return Melody becomes complete only through the death of its performer. In other words, it’s a song that can be played to its end just once. So listen carefully — because you’ll never hear it again.”
The music flowing around them was lively yet dreamlike, cheerful yet chilling.
“To summon a soul, wouldn’t a sacrifice from the living be required? The performer must offer their own life, and the one who kills that performer must also be someone willing to sacrifice for another. With that desperate devotion, the soul from the afterlife is called forth.”
“!”
It meant that the Sound King’s death and the Sword King’s sacrifice together had completed the melody.
“The higher the quality of the one who sacrifices, the purer their heart in that act of sacrifice, the more souls are summoned.”
Geom Mugeuk looked at the Sword King with worried eyes. His qualities were far too high.
“Who in the world were they trying to bring back?”
Just then, the music that had been playing reached its peak and abruptly stopped.
Clang.
A metallic sound echoed from behind, and Geom Mugeuk slowly turned around. His gaze fixed on the distant puppet that had been standing still. The puppet made a metallic noise as it began to move.
Screech—
The puppet slowly turned its head toward them. It was the Battle King.
Its eyes flickered once, then changed — becoming like the eyes of a living being. When it saw Geom Mugeuk, it exuded killing intent.
“Young Cult Leader!”
From that blazing gaze, Geom Mugeuk could tell at once. The real soul of the Battle King had entered that puppet.
“Seems brother Ak liked me a little too much.”
The one that began to move was not just the Battle King.
Drip, drip.
The blood that had been floating in the air fell to the ground, and from the Blood King’s eyes, a crimson aura began to flow.
Srrrk—
Wooden tendrils sprouted from the Wood King’s body, writhing and twisting, while from the gate the Illusion King had opened, ghostly wails began to echo.
Crack—
The Fist King’s clenched fists made a bone-cracking sound, and the Dark King’s carriage door opened slightly, revealing gleaming, sinister eyes within.
The Killing King, who had been floating in the air, gently descended to the ground. Finally, the sun and moon embedded within the Black Blade and Blood Blade of the Blade King began to shine once more.
As grand and exhilarating music filled the air again, every puppet of the Twelve Zodiac Kings turned their heads toward Geom Mugeuk.