The Madman (5)
“Was it several years ago…” she continued, her voice soft yet laced with distant bitterness. “When the One-Gate clan was being hunted down. Why didn’t the Integration-grade cultivators stand in our way? I used to wonder about that.”
“Apparently, in the vicinity of the human domains, a colossal fate wave shook the entire Gwanghan Realm. The rumor spread that the gates of the Immortal Realm had opened. All the Integration cultivators’ eyes turned toward the human domains.”
Kim Yeon playfully tapped my shoulder. “It only resolved recently. Can you guess what happened?”
She drew a deep breath. “They say the Golden Thunder Gate that Jeon Myeong-hoon-dojang visited was wiped out by a True Immortal’s assault. The fate wave… the opening of the Immortal Realm’s gate was simply a precursor. Hahaha… Only that dojang survived the terrifying True Immortal bombardment, went half-mad, and has been wandering everywhere ever since. The strangest part is that lightning always falls wherever he goes. Thanks to him, he earned the title of ‘Lightning-Downer.’ I heard that.”
For some reason, a bitter shade lingered on her face. “The Lightning-Downer Jeon Myeong-hoon is out there somewhere hunting for something, and any clan, any individual who blocks him… he erases them all without mercy. That’s why so many grudges piled up. He’s been chased around, then he turns around and exacts revenge, wipes out a clan… and he’s been repeating the same thing for years. They say his notoriety has spread far and wide. But compared to us, it’s nothing.”
Click!
The moment she moved her fingers, the puppets moved, dragging the corpses of the species before us.
Kugugu gugu!
Up in the sky, [she] had already spread the momentum of an Integration-grade aura and was watching everything from all directions. After subjugating the One-Gate clan and reinforcing everything in the Gwangryeong Lake with the materials she had gathered, not only [she] herself but every puppet inside the Wondrous Castle had seen its overall strength rise dramatically.
“Anyway, since every single Integration-grade cultivator in the human domains has been wiped out, the Wondrous Castle’s power has only grown stronger. Several Integration-grade puppets have already been born. It means we are still a very long way from escaping the hands of the monster army.”
The battlefield was soaked in blood. The puppets were moving, cleaning up the field. Kim Yeon sat on the puppet throne she had built from them, with me standing beside her, and continued to talk.
“Later on, I really want to meet that dojang again. Do you think he’d understand my feelings? The pain of losing someone precious? Ahahaha…”
She laughed helplessly and buried her head in my chest. “Kang Min-hee noona is currently roaming the entire Gwanghan Realm with the Black Ghost Valley. They say she commands hundreds of millions of ghost hordes with just one hand. Thanks to that, there isn’t a single person in the whole Gwanghan Realm who doesn’t know her name. If we’re famous for our infamy, then she’s famous for her tremendous renown. They say a bunch of spies from the Demon Realm, Blood Demon Realm, and Ghost Realm attacked trying to assassinate her. Hahaha…”
Through Kim Yeon’s mouth, the latest news about our comrades trickled out one after another.
“The company captain is blazing a trail at Changcheon Gaebyeokmun. He’s the direct disciple of Changhoja, the founder of the sect, and he’s been acting righteously under his name. Maybe he’ll even join the alliance that’ll eventually fight the monster army. Hahaha… Being saved by our comrades isn’t such a bad thing, right?”
She kept staring at me as she spoke, while “General Seo” simply looked away, following the monster army’s orders and continuing to watch the battlefield.
“Hye-seo noona… Oh Hye-seo noona… I haven’t heard anything about her. The rumors say she married Hearyongwang Seo Hyul and became his dragon princess. Seo Hyul is causing a stir as a military advisor for the Jinryong Alliance, but not a single word about Hye-seo noona. It’s so strange, isn’t it? They caught a bunch of dragons from the Jinryong Alliance and asked them, but not one of them knew anything about her. It’s almost like all the information is deliberately blocked. Hahaha… The monster army said it himself. Seo Hyul must have something to do with it. That guy is more sinister than anyone else in this world… Even if he’s a madman, he doesn’t deserve to speak ill of others.”
*Thud, thud!*
She patted General Seo’s body, then suddenly grabbed it tightly.
“Jang-bu… Well, obviously, there’s no news about him. If there was a way to contact someone on the lower realm, I’d know it… He might still be alive. Ah, now that I think about it, wasn’t Eun-hyun oppa sent away somewhere by the monster army with Jang-bu? What do you think happened to Jang-bu, Eun-hyun oppa?”
“……”
“Op-pa…?”
“……”
“I’m asking you.”
*Crunch…*
Kim Yeon’s will began to waver.
“I’m asking you… Answer me! Why aren’t you answering! Why! Answer! Answer, Seo Eun-hyun! Answer me!!!”
Kugugu gugu!
When she flew into a rage, the sky shook and the ground trembled. Even though she was only at the Cheonin rank, her power, amplified by her massive will, had reached the Sachuk level. A heaven-sent disaster struck, and the four directions of the world shook.
“Why! You left me behind! Why!!! Please! Please answer me! Eun-hyun oppa, didn’t I tell you about my comrades? Is there anything else you’re curious about? I’ll tell you. Please… Answer me… Comfort me like you used to…”
Kim Yeon sobbed wildly, clutching General Seo’s shoulder, and howled until her voice cracked.
“Hwaaaaaaaa!”
And from the side, I felt that agonizing pain and ground my teeth together in silence.
It had been eighty years since I became General Seo. It had also been eighty years since I began trying to seize control of the General’s soul circuit.
Uwooong!
The circuit inside my dantian had finally been mastered to a certain degree. Now, as I ascended to the dantian, the soul-replicating energy clusters were instantly shattered the moment they entered, becoming available resources for me.
But I still couldn’t express anything outwardly. The circuits near my face and neck were still untouched. The more I mastered them, the more consciousnesses connected to those circuits surged in. And through those consciousnesses, the “living atmosphere” of the Wondrous Castle was being delivered from countless distant places.
The monster army had, for eighty years, swept through every corner of the Gwanghan Realm, subjugating species and mass-producing puppets.
Ten billion.
Around ten billion puppets had newly settled into the Wondrous Castle, and their “living atmosphere” grew even larger. Every time I mastered one circuit, another gateway for the living atmosphere opened. As time passed, the size of that atmosphere only continued to swell.
The immense pressure made me feel as if I was about to lose my mind at any moment.
But I clenched my teeth and endured.
“Please… Answer me…!”
‘I cannot receive your heart.’
But…
‘Even so, you keep giving your heart to me….’
This heart of mine…
‘I will definitely return it to you someday.’
For the one who cried for me, if I do not repay her…
This life would have no value.
Even if I had no intention of receiving her heart…
I hoped that the one who cried for me would be saved someday.
To achieve that, I would definitely survive…!
Aware of Kim Yeon sobbing beside me, I poured even more strength into mastering the circuits.
And…
Five hundred years passed once more.
* * *
Kim Yeon had reached the Sachuk realm.
The monster army’s Wondrous Castle had grown even larger, and now over fifteen Integration-grade puppets existed within it.
The monster army’s name was known throughout the entire Gwanghan Realm, and Kim Yeon, his direct disciple, had no one left who didn’t know her.
But the light in her eyes had faded even further. The times when she held onto General Seo and wailed like a madwoman, or when she drenched herself in insanity and repeatedly muttered “I love you,” had become frequent.
“Eun-hyun oppa, I heard more news about my comrades. Do you want to hear it?”
“……”
“Thank you for listening. I really only have oppa. Heehee…”
And at some point…
Kim Yeon began muttering to herself while staring at me.
I said nothing, yet it felt as if she was imagining things and creating words on her own.
Five hundred years.
During that time, I had been lost, living with puppets inside the monster army’s Wondrous Castle, absorbing the insanity of the Wondrous Castle. She had gone mad.
“The Lightning-Downer Jeon Myeong-hoon has become famous for slaughtering entire clans. Anyone who disturbs his mood erases the whole species and becomes a madman. Well, Jeon Myeong-hoon was already famous in that way, so I’ll skip that…”
*Crack, crack…*
Kim Yeon put her fingers in her mouth alongside the monster army and chewed loudly while continuing her story.
“Kang Min-hee noona! Ah, poor Kang Min-hee noona. She’s reached the level of commanding tens of billions of ghost hordes after mastering the Ghost King Technique. But she took in too many ghosts and went insane. She swallowed her own sect, the Black Ghost Valley, wiped it out, and consumed the entire Black Ghost Valley region. Only one Seopmyeong Ship managed to escape. They say Integration-grade cultivators gathered to exterminate her. Hahaha… The Wondrous Castle didn’t even try to exterminate her, only tormented the ambiguous Kang Min-hee noona. The noona who ate, commanded, and became a powerful ghost creature is now established somewhere in the Sap-pung Territory and is about to undergo a heavenly ascension as a great existence. Hahaha…”
*Crunch, crunch…*
Chewing her fingers, Kim Yeon kept talking.
“Since Changhoja died, the company captain has become very unstable. He’s been drowning in wine, women, and drugs, they say. I never thought the most reliable man at the company would fall apart like this. He was the happiest person under Changhoja’s watch… Who could’ve known that losing one person would break him like this? Well, everyone breaks when someone precious dies, right?”
*Thud, thud…*
Blood flowed from her hands.
“Jang-bu is still missing… Well, I guess he’s dead. Hahaha… And Hye-seo noona…”
*Thud, thud…*
“There’s still no news at all! No news!”
*Thud!*
“That’s good news, right?”
*Thud!*
“Good, isn’t it? Hye-seo noona, answer me. Jang-bu must be dead, I’m crazy, Jeon Myeong-hoon is crazy, Kang Min-hee noona is crazy, Eun-hyun oppa is like this… Hye-seo noona, at least Hye-seo noona should be happy! Right? Everyone else is a madman. At least Hye-seo noona…”
*Thud, thud!*
“Without this miserable life, beside Hearyongwang, happily, loved, living… Right? Right? Answer me. We’re all like this, so at least one person should be happy, right? Right, Eun-hyun oppa?”
*Thud, thud…*
Her hands were now drenched in blood.
But…
*Shiiiing…*
Spiritual energy wriggled, regenerating her Sachuk body.
“Op-pa… Please… Answer me… Please… For how long… For how long…”
Her will spread chaotically in every direction.
She had not yet achieved mastery of the Strange Star-Mind Scroll.
If she had, she would never have failed to notice me, still inside the puppet, staring back at her. Even when facing the monster army, her enlightened gaze had hidden my inner image, but in front of Kim Yeon she had always revealed it. If she had mastered the Strange Star-Mind Scroll, she would have noticed.
I understood why.
‘By controlling the Wondrous Castle’s puppets with a clear mind, I’m gradually letting their “living atmosphere” seep into their consciousnesses, staining them with insanity… apart from the Wondrous Castle’s own insanity.’
The Strange Star-Mind Scroll itself was an excellent will technique.
But if I stepped into insanity before mastering it, I would never be able to take that final step.
‘I guess the monster army went mad after mastering the Strange Star-Mind Scroll.’
Watching her eyes cloud with insanity, I organized my emotions.
During the past five hundred years, while mastering General Seo’s circuits, I had learned several things.
First, all the puppets created by the monster army possessed artificial souls. Not just puppets made from corpses without souls, but even those made from wood, stone, or iron. They contained mass-produced energy clusters that mimicked the artificial souls of other puppets.
Those artificial souls and energy clusters made the puppets exude will-like spiritual waves among themselves.
And the monster army’s energy circuits were linked with those of the other puppets. Through that linkage, the puppets exchanged spiritual waves imitating will.
That wave bound all the puppets together, allowing even the monster army—who was not as mentally powerful as Kim Yeon—to control the entire Wondrous Castle.
The bound puppets lived “normal lives” inside the Wondrous Castle, strengthening the will-like waves they had imitated.
When an artificial soul emitted joyful emotions and a child puppet played with other child puppets, the spiritual wave was slightly amplified.
When hundreds of millions of puppets performed the same action, the amplification rate skyrocketed.
The miraculous spiritual waves of the amplified energy wove the entire Wondrous Castle together, gradually drawing it toward the center.
As it approached the center, the emotional waves became more compressed and amplified, resembling true will.
The emotions at the center of the Wondrous Castle’s core, though created by merging the artificial souls of hundreds of millions of puppets, were almost indistinguishable from real human emotions.
At the very center of that swirling mass of emotions existed [she].
I followed the monster army’s actions inside his puppets and guessed at his goal.
‘Maybe the monster army is gathering true wills to create [she]’s soul.’
[She] had no soul.
Or rather, after living under the monster army for five hundred years, I had learned that [she] was not even a biological puppet.
She was simply a powerful puppet made by coating ordinary materials with various rare ingredients. Nothing more than a puppet created to reflect her late lover’s appearance as closely as possible.
The monster army’s two strongest puppets were the two Sachuk-grade puppets he had reinforced from the lower realm to the Integration peak.
[She]. And [the Wondrous Castle].
Through the Wondrous Castle he controlled countless puppets, wove their artificial souls into true will, and through the Wondrous Castle refined that will to gradually complete [she]’s soul.
‘By doing so… is his created lover truly his lover…?’
I clicked my tongue at the monster army’s insane goal.
My own interest in the monster army’s purpose was small. Creating a human soul was a great taboo, but my real concern was simply breaking free from his orders.
The reason I mastered the energy circuits was to make the circuits stop supporting his orders.
And I had succeeded in mastering the upper half of “General Seo”’s energy circuits.
Even now, if I moved his arms, I could pat Kim Yeon’s shoulder.
But…
‘The monster army will notice.’
Energy circuits were linked with those of the other puppets. Through those linked circuits, spiritual waves intertwined, binding the entire Wondrous Castle under the monster army’s hands and completing [she].
Therefore, no matter how far apart I was, no matter how much control I had over General Seo’s circuits, if I acted against his orders on my own, the monster army would immediately notice.
‘And when the monster army realizes this, he will try to tear my soul completely out of this puppet.’
I could not allow that.
So what should I do?
During the past five hundred years, I had found a way.
‘Through the linked circuits, I will gradually master the other puppets of the monster army.’
It was possible through the Strange Star-Mind Scroll.
‘While mastering them, I would only carry out the orders he gave, and the monster army would never notice.’
I didn’t need to master the entire Wondrous Castle.
Just the puppets around General Seo.
Just to the extent that I mastered the areas where those puppets lived.
‘Even if the puppets followed the monster army’s commands as one, there would be a few small errors. Those errors would be corrected by the Wondrous Castle itself and would not reach the monster army.’
And after mastering one area…
If I piled small errors onto General Seo alone, for that short window I would be able to control his body beyond the monster army’s gaze.
‘It’s definitely possible.’
Unfortunately, I had only mastered the energy waves of General Seo, not his will, so mastering the puppets had been slower than expected.
Moreover, if I spilled my will outward, the Wondrous Castle would notice the abnormality, so I had not told Kim Yeon even a single word.
“Hoo, hee…”
I looked at her for a moment, lost in thought.
‘Ten thousand puppets… I still can’t move General Seo’s body.’
I made my decision.
‘But… one arm…’
*Clank, clank, clank…*
Ten thousand puppets simultaneously caused tiny, insignificant errors.
‘Now that I’ve found a way…’
And those small errors were corrected by the Wondrous Castle itself.
*Clank, clank, clank…*
Through the puppets’ linkages, I funneled all those errors into General Seo’s left arm.
*Clank, clank, clank!*
It looked as if General Seo’s arm was twisting, but my will had seized control of his arm.
And…
‘It took a long time.’
Forgive me.
Starting today, I will continue to express myself to you.
Pat, pat…
“?”
After five hundred years, General Seo’s arm, at my will, patted Kim Yeon’s shoulder.
‘Using errors, I can even control the mouth a little…’
It was dangerous, but for an instant…
When Kim Yeon looked at me…
I slightly lifted the corner of General Seo’s mouth.
And the error was immediately corrected, returning my actions to normal.
But Kim Yeon’s eyes widened.
“Op-pa…?”
For an instant, the eyes of the insane woman cleared.
Perhaps she had not truly believed it.
She had simply needed something to hold onto.
But she clung to the hope.
Seeing the small action I had shown her, she trembled and grabbed General Seo’s arm with both hands.
“There… You’re there?”
Five hundred years as the monster army’s direct disciple.
She already knew the puppet-making method and what happened to the beings created from puppets.
“The artificial soul… behind it… is still there?”
But even knowing that, she looked at me with hope in her eyes and asked.
I had used all the available errors and could not answer, but tears welled in her eyes. They were different from the turbid tears she had previously sobbed out.
“Ah, you’re there. Right? Eun-hyun oppa… You finally… finally answered me?”
*Thud, thud…*
Five hundred years had passed without an answer, but now she bit her teeth and embraced General Seo’s body.
“Thank you… for answering… for staying…”
It may have been only a tiny signal, but she clung to it and repeatedly thanked me.
Inside the monster army’s Wondrous Castle.
One of the madmen inside the madman’s fortress.
Had begun to return.
*Patatatat…*
Her will cleared.
And the insanity that had blocked her achievement vanished.
Kim Yeon’s Strange Star-Mind Scroll bloomed fully.
‘Ah…’
And at last…
I and she faced each other’s eyes.