Amidst mountain ranges piercing through the clouds, at the edge of a steep, razor-sharp cliff, a small, hunched man sat alone.
He was gazing regretfully at the drifting white clouds, silent.
“…Hm?”
Then his eyebrows twitched upward, and the words he spoke lingered in the air.
“Yong Soa… No, I should call you the Azure Celestial Sword now, shouldn’t I? For such a noble figure to come all the way out here…”
Before he could even finish his sentence, a man clad in spotless, pure-white martial robes appeared before him in a flash of movement, as if emerging from thin air.
Tap.
The man known as the Azure Celestial Sword, spoke with a voice as deep and imposing as his majestic appearance.
“Are you Jin Sowoon, Commander of Sojeongdae?”
“Commander, you say…”
Still gazing at the clouds, the man called Jin Sowoon replied:
“…Have all the members of Sojeongdae died?”
“…”
“Then I suppose I am the Commander. If they’re alive, I’m not.”
“I asked if you are Jin Sowoon.”
“You already knew who I was before you came. Why bother asking?”
At those words, the Azure Celestial Sword unsheathed his sword.
“I’ve come to reclaim something.”
“….”
Jin Sowoon finally raised his head to look at him, then turned his gaze back to the floating clouds.
Even in the face of obvious killing intent, his voice was calm.
“I already restored all the lost records of the Murim Alliance, didn’t I?”
“You’re in possession of records you were never meant to have.”
“Most of what I restored was useless junk and irrelevant data.”
“We know you have retained the records from Simhyeongak.”
“…”
Simhyeongak.
The archive where the Murim Alliance’s top-class secrets were stored.
Accessible only to a few, including the Alliance Leader and the Chief Strategist.
It was the very reason the current Murim Alliance Leader—the Azure Celestial Sword—had come this far.
Jin Sowoon spoke in a emotionless voice.
“Damn it all… I said I wouldn’t look. But I figured it’d end like this.”
“…”
“So… did you really come all the way from the Northern Sea just to kill one third-rate martial artist? Evading the eyes of the Demonic Cult?”
“For the sake of justice in the martial world, it’s something that must be settled thoroughly.”
Jin Sowoon chuckled dryly and nodded.
“What happened to the rest of Sojeongdae?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hmph. Of course not. From the beginning, we were just disposable tools to people like you.”
“It was all for the greater cause—”
Damn that “greater cause.”
It was that so-called cause that had thrown them into certain death.
Jin Sowoon’s voice filled with mockery.
“Did your grand cause bring prosperity in the Northern Sea?”
The tip of the Azure Celestial Sword’s blade trembled.
The martial world had changed hands. The Murim Alliance had collapsed.
Its high-ranking members had barely escaped to the Northern Sea, barely keeping their name alive.
Cough.
Jin Sowoon’s frail body staggered toward the Azure Celestial Sword, prompting him to step slightly aside.
Even the pristine white edge of his robes withdrew.
Jin Sowoon scoffed as he looked at him.
“So, in the end, you failed.”
“The Murim Alliance will rebuild a new stronghold for the martial world.”
“I may have once belonged to the Murim Alliance, but I sincerely hope such a wretched world never rises again.”
“…You’ve been tainted by the Demonic Cult.”
Just as the Azure Celestial Sword raised his sword to take off Jin Sowoon’s head in one swift stroke—
Wham!
Like someone sensing a ghost creeping up from behind, he suddenly shuddered and whipped his head around.
It was someone he never expected to appear in this place.
“…Why is he here?!”
The Azure Celestial Sword turned his glare back to Jin Sowoon.
“So you’ve been colluding with the Demonic Cult this whole time?”
Still relaxed, Jin Sowoon turned his head to look off into the distance.
“Come on now. A nobody like me? You think I could get someone that important to move? Just a coincidence.”
“…”
“Well, are you going to keep standing there?”
Before the words had fully left his mouth, the Azure Celestial Sword kicked off the ground and vanished.
But he didn’t leave completely—he positioned himself atop a peak overlooking the cliff.
Moments later, footsteps approached.
Step. Step.
This time, a man in black martial robes slowly walked toward Jin Sowoon.
Without turning, Jin Sowoon spoke.
“Black Lion, Gwak Goong.”
The man called Gwak Goong couldn’t hide his surprise.
Jin Sowoon had his back turned the whole time.
“How did you know?”
“Strange. So many visitors today. On such a nice day, too.”
“I asked how you knew.”
“The Demonic Cult’s Vice Lord uses a unique footwork style—Blood Serpent Steps. Hidden within the third step is a twist that lets one shift in eight directions.”
Gwak Goong’s face twisted in astonishment.
“Huh, have we met before?”
“Sojeongdae once stood as a meat shield against the Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit. Ring any bells?”
“Heh… who knows. Back then, everyone in the Murim Alliance was just meat shields to us. But I must say—it’s impressive, this claim that you remember everything.”
“Not a useful talent for a martial artist.”
Gwak Goong’s gaze turned toward the Azure Celestial Sword, standing ready atop the peak.
“So, did the Murim Alliance come to save you? All the way from the Northern Sea?”
At his question, Jin Sowoon shook his head.
“He says there’s something he has to take back from me.”
“?”
Looking like he didn’t even have a single coin to his name.
“And what might that be?”
“This useless head.”
Gwak Goong glanced up at the peak and clicked his tongue knowingly.
“Tsk. I heard Sojeongdae risked everything to keep you alive because your mind holds everything the Murim Alliance ever had.”
“That’s not it… They say it was because I wanted to live the most.”
Jin Sowoon muttered to himself, “Fools.”
“Touching camaraderie.”
At Gwak Goong’s words, a spark lit up in Jin Sowoon’s eyes.
“Demons aren’t the kind of bastards whose names you can just toss around lightly.”
“Interesting.”
Even though Jin Sowoon radiated killing intent, Gwak Goong didn’t flinch. On the contrary, he looked like he was daring him to try harder.
But soon enough, Jin Sowoon withdrew his killing intent, as if he had lost the will.
“…Do you also desire something like the Taechung Divine Sword? If he’s watching right now, the Martial Alliance might even hand over everything.”
“What value could that kind of information possibly hold for the current Divine Cult?”
“…Fair point. Then what brings you here?”
“I’m here to capture the commander of the Sojeongdae—the Divine Cult’s most persistent enemy.”
Jin Sowoon nodded a few times.
His composed demeanor puzzled Gwak Goong.
“You’re not afraid?”
“…Would someone for whom life is hell fear death?”
“But didn’t you desperately want to live? And yet life turned out to be hell?”
“You’re a smart man. Try imagining a life where you remember everything. A life filled only with endless deaths and defeats…”
Gwak Goong paused, then gave a slow nod.
“Hm. You must’ve lived a tough life.”
“Heh heh heh.”
“What’s so funny?”
“It’s just… I’m laughing because the demonic bastard I hated so much is now pitying me.”
“You can be proud. You and the Sojeongdae were the most persistent enemies of the Divine Cult.”
“So the Martial Alliance, who abandoned us so-called third-rate warriors, ends up recognized by the Demonic Cult. I guess the Martial Alliance was doomed from the start.”
Jin Sowoon went quiet for a moment before speaking again.
“But I’m curious. Why did the young lord himself come just to catch one third-rate warrior? Did you know the Taechung Divine Sword would show up?”
Gwak Goong gestured to Jin Sowoon’s wrist, ignoring the nearby leader of the Martial Alliance entirely.
“That bracelet you’re wearing.”
Jin Sowoon looked down at the jade bracelet.
A peculiar dragon pattern was carved into the pale green band.
It looked completely out of place with his ragged clothing.
“That’s a sacred relic of the Divine Cult.”
“…Is that so?”
Jin Sowoon raised his arm, examining the bracelet closely.
His eyes were filled with longing, as though reminiscing.
Lives sacrificed, exchanged for fleeting achievements.
“When we caught the Law King of the Tiger Sect…”
We thought the Martial Alliance—and the world—would change.
How foolish we were.
Jin Sowoon let out a mocking laugh at himself.
“Any last words? If you die at the hands of a Divine Cultist, the Demon God grants your wish.”
“Heh, only a bunch of true lunatics could find faith in a load of nonsense like that.”
“Our god is real.”
“A wish, huh… Then I wish to be born in a world without the Martial Alliance that abandoned us—or the Divine Cult that slaughtered us.”
“My, what a difficult wish. This world already belongs to the Divine Cult.”
Jin Sowoon’s body floated into the air and was sucked toward Gwak Goong’s hand.
Guh.
Jin Sowoon instantly felt the demonic energy coursing through his body.
Agonizing pain—as if his nerves were being shredded and his bones crushed.
Ahh, what a life filled with regrets. May the karma of this life end here and now.
His senses began to fade, and the world grew dark.
“…That definitely happened.”
I definitely died.
My memory has always been sharp, but I remember that day so clearly I can even recall the smell of the wind.
That bastard appeared, and then he killed—
My back itched. I reached out instinctively.
Scratch, scratch.
The cooling relief—the sensation was so vivid.
“What the hell is going on?”
I, who had died at the hands of the Black Lion Gwak Goong, had somehow returned—thirty years into the past, to when I was nineteen.
Not Jin Sowoon of the Sojeongdae in the Martial Alliance—
But Jin Sowoon from before the war began.
Not the era when the Heavenly Demon Cult turned the world upside down—
But when the Martial Alliance still ruled the martial world.
“Could that wish thing have actually worked?”
I recalled my final conversation with Gwak Goong.
I never believed that a sketchy god, indistinguishable from a cult figure, could really grant a wish…
But maybe it actually had some effect?
“But… True to a demon god, it completely reversed the interpretation.”
‘I wish to be born in a world without the Martial Alliance or the Heavenly Demon Cult’—and yet, it sent me back to before that hellish war ever began.
As expected, nothing good ever comes from anything with the word “demon” in it—be it the cult, the demonic energy, or the demon god itself.
“Haa…”
I’ve regained my youth, but I feel no joy.
Because I clearly remember the hell that’s about to unfold over the next thirty years, and I’m still just a Tae’eul Sect disciple barely capable of becoming a second-rate martial artist.
And I can’t help but think: this whole going-back-to-the-past thing doesn’t feel like some divine signal telling me to save the world.
“If it were, they’d have at least given me some special power or maybe attached the soul of someone like Zhang Sanfeng, right?”
Damn demon god.
The Heavenly Demon Cult will rise again.
No—that’s wrong. It already has. I’m just the only one who knows it.
The Martial Alliance, overconfident in its power, will be swept away like falling leaves.
And those who trusted in that alliance will fall with them.
My own sect, trusted the Martial Alliance.
So we were wiped out too. Damn it.
“Just remembering it is painful enough… Do I really have to witness those horrors all over again?”
Putting together everything that’s happened, there’s only one conclusion I can reach.
In short—
“I’m screwed.”
I can’t shake the feeling that somewhere, that demon god bastard is laughing its ass off at me.
Why? Because if I were in the demon god’s position, I’d be doing the same.
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