Seeing that sight, the Ghost Lord was reminded of the old days.
But he didn’t seem as strong as he used to be.
Normally, with that kind of power, Soul-Slicing Ghost should’ve been shattered to pieces.
‘Did he turn into a baby, grow back up, and get weaker?’
I looked at the Ghost Lord.
“You changed your appearance. If you undo it, your real face will come out, right?”
The Ghost Lord was frantic.
Had I really gotten weaker?
If so, had my pursuit speed slowed too?
So that he could always be ready to run, he had learned the fastest movement art of all—Lightning-Flash Gale Divine Steps.
Not just learned it. He’d trained only that art like a madman until he mastered it perfectly.
He gathered every last bit of energy into his legs.
He’d get one chance.
“Young master?”
Taecheon stepped outside and called me, and my head turned toward him.
‘Now!’
The Ghost Lord poured all his inner power into his legs and unleashed Lightning-Flash Gale Divine Steps with everything he had.
He couldn’t go back to the Ghost-Slaying Corps.
He had to escape far away, then change his identity again.
He couldn’t be an assassin anymore.
That bastard who called me his little brother was going to search the whole world, digging up every killer in existence.
The scenery tore past so fast it felt like everything was stretching out in a blur.
The Ghost Lord clenched his teeth and ran with everything he had.
Then he glanced back.
No way he followed me, right?
The moment he turned his head—
His heart nearly stopped.
I was right behind him, closing in with a wide grin.
“Ghk!”
He was so shocked his blood and Qi surged backward, his true energy tangled, and he face-planted right into the ground.
CRASH-CRASH...
“Cough! Cough!”
Thick blood sprayed from the Ghost Lord’s mouth.
His blood and Qi had reversed and slammed his insides.
I didn’t care. I squatted down and asked,
“You’re Muryang, right?”
“N-no.”
“You are. Jin Muryang.”
“N-no.”
“Yeah? Got it.”
I stood up.
“W-what are you going to do?”
“Huh? Make you remember the old days. Even after seeing you again for the first time in a while, your nature’s still trash. You guys were always like that. You only got a little nicer after you got beaten.”
“Y-you’ve got the wrong person!”
“Really? Hmm. If you’re not my little brother, there’s no reason to let you live.”
Chill.
My momentum turned even more savage than before.
There wasn’t a trace of emotion in my eyes.
Those were eyes that could kill a person without feeling a thing.
“Sorry, guess I mistook you for someone else. As an apology, I’ll send you off in one hit.”
I clenched my fist.
The Ghost Lord felt it instantly.
The insane force packed inside that fist.
Weaker than before?
No.
I was definitely stronger than before.
Right as my fist was about to swing down—
“Senior Brother!”
He screamed while bowing flat.
KABOOOM—!
A chilling current ran from my head down my spine and into my legs, raising goosebumps all over my body.
I slowly lifted my head and looked back.
The mountain behind us was gone—blown clean away.
RRRRRUMBLE—.
What remained crumbled down in slow collapse.
I still wasn’t human.
And that definitely hadn’t been my full strength.
“Ah, damn it. You called me Senior Brother, so my heart went soft. Let’s do it again.”
“N-no! Senior Brother! I’m Jin Muryang! I really am!”
He ripped his mask off and shouted.
“You look different.”
“I altered myself with the Thousand-Faces Bone-Shrinking Art.”
“Yeah? Then go back to your original body.”
“Y-yes!”
CRACK— SNAP—.
His muscles twisted violently, joints cracking and folding, and then his body stretched back into a tall, upright frame.
I grinned.
“Knew it. Jin Muryang.”
Back in his real body, Jin Muryang immediately bowed flat again.
“S-senior brother! Your little brother Jin Muryang greets you!”
“It’s been a while. Twenty years, right?”
“Y-yes.”
“Where are the others?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Really?”
“I-I swear! I really don’t know. After we scattered, we cut all contact completely.”
“The scent was gone.”
“Th-that... Ye Yahyeon developed a pill that erases the Ten-Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense.”
“Oh. So that’s why I couldn’t smell you.”
I fell into thought.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Thinking I was an idiot for trying to find you by scent. So I’d already prepared another way.”
Jin Muryang stayed quiet.
He didn’t want to know what that ‘other way’ was.
“Ghost-Slaying Corps. You made that organization?”
“Y-yes. I’ll go disband it right away.”
“No. Leave it.”
“Pardon?”
“Keep growing it, just like you have been.”
“J-just like this?”
“Yeah. And look for the other kids too.”
“U-understood.”
“And thanks.”
“...What?”
Jin Muryang looked even more flustered, so I said it plainly.
“Because you guys turned me into a baby, I got parents.”
“Th-that happened?”
“Yeah. So even though you ran, I’m giving you one more chance. Because I’m grateful.”
“Th-thank you.”
He bowed again, then asked carefully,
“Those parents... they aren’t the Sect Master of the True Martial Sect, are they?”
“They are.”
“And the Lord of Heavenly Martial Castle...?”
“My grandfather.”
Jin Muryang lowered his head.
He’d once planned to take revenge on the Lord of Heavenly Martial Castle, but that road was gone forever now.
Still, looking at things, it seemed like I was going to let him live.
The moment he escaped this place, he’d run as far away as possible.
The Ghost-Slaying Corps?
Who cared about that trash.
I grinned and pressed a hand against his body, murmuring.
Warm energy seeped in, and his whole body felt like it was melting.
“S-senior brother? Did you do something to me?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you do?”
“I breathed a little of my energy into you.”
“...What? You’ve learned inner power?”
“No. Not inner power. More like a kind of spell.”
“Then what exactly did you do to my body?”
“I left a mark. So I can find you no matter where you are.”
I named it the Heavenly-Weather Seal.
Since I couldn’t sense the Ten-Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense from the Four Heavenly Demon Lords anymore, I figured they’d pulled some kind of trick.
So I made this mark ahead of time for when I met them again.
The mark is always active, but only I can see it.
Seeing it isn’t hard.
A beam of light stretches all the way to the end of the sky, and at the very top, the marked person’s name shines there.
That makes it easy to find where someone is.
How can I read a name that high up?
My eyes can see a thousand miles.
What if they’re inside a building, or underground?
I still see it.
Everything is part of nature. My sight passes through it.
Hiding is pointless.
If I dig straight down along the line of that light, the person will be there.
“A mark between us? Why would you need that? Erase it. Right now.”
“Nope.”
“Erase it! Now!”
He’d been about to run, and now I’d put a mark on him.
Annoyed, he shouted without thinking.
I clapped once.
“Ah!”
Like he’d remembered something, I laughed.
“It’s been so long I forgot.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You guys were the type who never listened to words, right?”
Oh, shit.
“S-senior brother! Th-that mark is wonderful. You don’t have to erase it.”
“No. I think I need to carve who I am ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) into you again. It’s been a while.”
“N-no! It’s already carved in! Plenty!”
“Yeah. No.”
My fist shot out.
SMACK—.
“Guhk!!”
It’s been a while.
This pain was as if his soul was splitting apart and his mind was being emptied.
Why had he forgotten and said too much to his older brother?
He was overcome with regret.
But it was already too late.
“It’s our first reunion in forever, so let’s take hits for four hours.”
“P-please spare me...”
“I’m not killing you. Why would I kill my beloved little brother?”
The way I smiled looked like a demon.
‘Just... kill me...’
He couldn’t say it out loud.
If he did, I might really kill him.
The Senior Brother he knew was that kind of person.
****
When I returned to the Mok family forge,
A man stood beside me, face black-and-blue and swollen, politely keeping his posture.
“Who is that?”
At Chu Sowon’s question, I snorted and answered,
“The guy who tried to kill you earlier.”
“...What? The Ghost Lord of the Ghost-Slaying Corps?”
“Yeah.”
“But his body’s completely different.”
“He’d reshaped himself with the Thousand-Faces Bone-Shrinking Art. This is his real body.”
No one even had to ask why his face looked like that.
The one who had crushed the Blood-Dance Death God in a blink was now showing up beaten half to death.
Taecheon asked,
“Earlier it looked like you knew each other. How do you know the Ghost Lord of the Ghost-Slaying Corps?”
I looked around at everyone.
How was I supposed to explain this?
Say this guy fed me a weird pill and turned me into a baby?
Would they believe that?
And if my parents found out?
If they learned I wasn’t really a baby, but a grown man inside?
Would they be disappointed in me?
While I was hesitating, Jin Muryang stepped forward.
“Senior Brother. May I explain?”
“Huh?”
“Leave it to me.”
“Fine.”
Jin Muryang swept his swollen eyes over everyone and spoke.
“In truth, Senior Brother...”
Everyone leaned in.
“...was reincarnated.”
They all stared blankly.
“Reincarnated?”
“Yes.”
They looked at Jin Muryang like he’d lost his mind.
“You expect us to believe that? You looked shocked the moment you saw his face.”
“I was shocked because he reincarnated with the same face. I wasn’t sure at first, but after seeing how he moved, I became certain.”
“So... Young master was reincarnated... and you served him before that?”
“That’s right. He was my Senior Brother, whom I served.”
Taecheon turned to me.
“Young master, seeing how you reacted... does that mean your memories from your past life remain?”
I stared at Jin Muryang in disbelief, then hurriedly fixed my face and answered,
“R-right. Looks like my memories stayed?”
Everyone eyed me with doubt.
Too many things were suspicious.
That ridiculous strength, that body, that brain.
I must’ve been strong even in a previous life.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be shaking like that.
By any rough count, Jin Muryang looked past sixty.
He was strong enough to pin down the Blood-Dance Death God effortlessly.
If someone like that called me Senior Brother and feared me this much, then I had been just as strong back then.
“Whatever. No need to think too hard. Right now, I’m Jeok Wigang.”
They were still confused, but they nodded anyway.
A voice came through sound-transmission out of nowhere, and Jin Muryang’s eyes went wide.
Somewhere else?
Could you store inner power anywhere but the lower energy center?
There were the middle and upper energy centers, but they weren’t places to store inner power.
They only redistributed what was stored below.
So where the hell was he storing it?
Jin Muryang couldn’t hold it in.
Five-Element Mantra Method?
A ring in the heart?
What the hell was that?
I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Then what happens now? Do we serve you, young master?”
At Taecheon’s question, Jin Muryang nodded.
“From today on, the Ghost-Slaying Corps will follow only Senior Brother’s commands.”