The Name I Bear
I had walked the Cemetery Plain for a long while.
The gravestones in the Cemetery Plain stretched endlessly into the distance, and no matter how far I walked or how many times I flew through the air, the horizon never came into view.
‘Well, that isn’t a problem.’
The real issue was that the ‘Ghost Kings’ Seo-hyuk had spoken of could not be seen, even by a hair’s breadth.
‘Where exactly am I supposed to go to meet those Ghost Kings?’
Whether I left this place or not, I had to start with meeting them if I was ever going to make sense of it.
‘This is a strange space.’
I stood on the endless plain of gravestones and reflected.
It was impossible for the space to end like this.
Even in the Gwanghan Realm, the plains were this vast, yet if I kept moving, something should change, at the very least the flow of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy.
Yet this strange space stretched on without end, untouched by any such variation.
‘And… I feel a strange familiarity….’
Looking at the Cemetery Plain stirred an inexplicable sense of déjà vu in me.
At first I hadn’t noticed, but the longer I stared, the more it felt as though I had been here before.
‘Hmm…’
I focused on my Nascent Soul and walked a little further.
That was when I noticed something was off.
“Wait a moment….”
Whoosh!
I spread my fingers and stirred the demonic energy inside me.
The demonic energy flowed from my fingertips, forming the shape of a mirror before me.
And when I looked into it, I could not help but startle.
‘My face…!’
For some reason, the reflection was no longer Yu-you’s but my own real face—Seo Eun-hyun’s.
Even my clothing had changed.
Instead of Yu-you’s blood-red official robe, I wore the simple robe I usually kept on.
The only thing that had truly changed was the color of the robe.
It had turned pitch black.
‘When did my appearance change? More importantly, if it changes like this, won’t my true nature be exposed? No….’
I observed myself and finally understood why I had suddenly reverted to my original form.
‘Ah. This Cemetery Plain reflects the soul’s appearance. Even if I use Seo-lip’s name, I am still ultimately Seo Eun-hyun, so my original form naturally manifests.
I would probably return to Seo-lip’s form the moment I left this place.
‘But there’s something strange here….’
I stared at the pitch-black robe.
‘Why has it turned black?’
Then, without knowing why, an answer formed in my own mind.
‘Death… The change in my appearance here is tied to death. Perhaps everyone who came here, whether wearing black robes or not, has had their clothing turn black….’
Suddenly, the word ‘death’ made me realize why I could not see the Ghost Kings.
‘When I was searching for Seo Ran and the Seopmyeong Ship… the minor ghosts living near the ship called me the “Great Ghost”….’
Perhaps my accumulated ‘death’ had grown even stronger than before, triggering something.
‘For example, maybe the Ghost Kings aren’t invisible at all—they fled upon sensing my aura…’
There was something plausible about that idea.
“Hmm…”
If that was the case, there was only one way.
I assumed the lotus posture and took a deep breath.
If the Ghost Kings were fleeing because they sensed me, then…
‘I just need to chase them faster than they run.’
Until now, I had treated this Cemetery Plain as some holy land of Black Ghost Valley and walked slowly or flown without using flight techniques.
But perhaps I had been too polite.
‘Those damned brats… just because a guest has arrived, they can’t even greet him politely…’
I began circulating my inner pure qi to form Ganghwans around me.
‘You dare flee without even offering hospitality?’
One… two… three… four…
Seven… eight… nine…
And then.
Ten… eleven… twelve…
The Ganghwans around me began to multiply endlessly.
In the world of thoughts, my clones gradually increased.
At the Deungbongjogeuk stage, the maximum was nine Ganghwans.
At the peak of the Integration stage, the Invisible Sword dissolved them completely.
At the Nascent Soul stage, they combined with my Dan and allowed up to ten Ganghwans in accelerated movement.
Of course, at the Nascent Soul stage, I no longer needed more than ten because the Invisible Sword’s acceleration already multiplied efficiency by ten.
And now, at the Star Shattering realm.
I felt that the number of Ganghwans I could create had become ‘squared.’
The Invisible Sword had awakened its ‘heart’ and produced ten Ganghwans.
I myself had produced another ten.
And as the two intertwined, my mind amplified, allowing 10 times 10—exactly one hundred Ganghwans.
One hundred thought-clones appeared around me.
“Heop!”
Whoosh!
One hundred thought-clones rushed toward me, and the world began to slow.
My body in the Yu-you form could not output full power even with the Invisible Sword.
But accelerating with Ganghwans was no problem.
Flash!
I used the flight technique at one-hundredfold acceleration and shot toward a distant point like a madman.
Ku gu gu gu gu gu!
This speed far surpassed Heavenly Person mid-stage and reached early Four Pillars level!
How far had I flown through the Cemetery Plain?
I smiled upon confirming the waves of thought energy rippling far ahead.
‘As expected, I found them!’
The Ghost Kings weren’t invisible—they had fled upon sensing my aura.
Gradually, the terrified thought-clones grew closer.
And I sensed the terrifying cry of a ghost valley.
[Kiiiiaaaaaaaa!]
[A great ghost has come!!!]
[Run! Run away!!!]
“Hmm…”
Flash!
I quickly struck one of the brats.
I aimed at one that looked to be mid-stage Heavenly Person and raised the aura of my palm to seize its soul, then caught it.
The Ghost King at mid-stage Heavenly Person immediately began to wail.
[Hiiiaaaaaaaa! Hwaaaaak! Kkwiaaak! Hii, hiiiaaaaaak!]
“……”
I watched the trembling creature and worried what to do.
‘The Baekran Chukseongmun is the best for calming the mind….’
To restore this frightened mind, the Baekran Chukseongmun was perfect.
Yet I could not shake the bad feeling that using it would cause the Ghost King to dissolve completely.
‘Let me try a little….’
Whooooong!
I released a tiny Baekran Chukseongmun the size of a fingernail and blew it into the creature.
And I had to endure an even more terrifying ghost cry than before.
[I’m going to die!!! Kiiiaaaaaak! Hiiiaaaaaak!]
“……”
The Baekran Chukseongmun carried the property of subduing evil, so injecting it into a Ghost King filled with Yin energy must have been fatal.
‘This damned brat… what do I do?’
I hesitated for a moment, then activated the Eumhon Gwijumun.
Ku gu gu gu!
A thick aura of curse energy rose around me.
‘If I inject this into the thing, it will writhe in agony….’
I could not simply add the opposite of anti-evil energy.
The essence of the Eumhon Gwijumun was ‘suffering,’ and no matter the nature of the ghost, the creature would be overwhelmed by pain.
After thinking briefly, I transformed the Eumhon Gwijumun into a law power and blew Yin law power into the Ghost King.
At the same time, I circulated the Yin law power in the manner of the Baekran Chukseongmun and began to calm the Ghost King’s mind.
Tsu tsu tsu t!
After a while, the screaming Ghost King gradually quieted its cries and smacked its lips.
[U… a…]
“Are you all right?”
[Eh…]
“…You seem strange.”
The first time I used Yin law power to calm the mind, the creature had clearly entered an abnormal state.
‘I didn’t calm the mind; it felt more like I had cast a hypnotic spell….’
“Please say something.”
[Talk.]
“…Damn it.”
The moment I muttered a curse, the Ghost King suddenly burst into tears.
[I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was rude to the noble one, rude, rude, I’m, I’m sorry…]
“Enough, stop crying. Why are you doing this?”
I watched the Ghost King finally form proper words and felt a wave of joy.
My question prompted a reply.
[Wh, what… what do you want to know?]
“First, why are all of you fleeing when you see me?”
[Because… because you are the noble one. Please, please, don’t take us to the Netherworld.]
“…Have you ever stammered like that in your entire life?”
The creature’s constant trembling made me impatient, so I asked again.
The Ghost King shook its head while crying.
[No, no. When I meet a great ghost like you, the subordinate ghosts beneath me usually lose their reason.]
“You lose reason?”
[That’s right.]
As I added more Yin law power and surrounded its soul with my aura, the creature gradually stabilized and began to speak haltingly.
[The core of the Gwidogongbeop. The more powerful the Yin energy accumulates, the more clearly you perceive the Netherworld, and the stronger the ghost becomes. And the stronger the ghost, the easier it is to command weaker ones. When a strong ghost approaches, a weak ghost’s reason declines, its mind becomes hazy, and only instinct remains—making it obey the strong ghost or flee, one or the other.]
“Hmm…”
Only now did I understand why Ghost Kings of at least Nascent Soul level had lost their minds when they saw me and fled.
“…Wait. I once met the remnant soul of an elder from Black Ghost Valley named Song Jin. He stayed calm even seeing me….”
Suddenly, I realized that at the time I had met Song Jin, I was not yet as dead as I was now.
[If the elder’s remnant soul remained sane after seeing the noble one… then one of two things must be true…]
The Ghost King now answered in a dazed voice as if completely hypnotized.
The feeling was like the law power of the Eumhon Gwijumun had been ingested.
[I said remnant soul, but in reality it was a clone of a living being… or it may have been connected to the Seopmyeong Ship.]
“Because of the Seopmyeong Ship….”
The Seopmyeong Ship seemed to have more than just simple spatial transmission.
I asked the Ghost King.
“First, the reason you all flee when you see me… is because I am a ‘Great Ghost’?”
[That is correct. Noble one… are you not perhaps a Naraka or Yaksha from the Netherworld, or a Asura or Yama? Has the messenger of death from the Underworld descended into Black Ghost Valley?]
“No… I am not.”
[What kind of words are those… Please do not belittle us Ghost Kings as lowly minor ghosts… Although we do not understand the essence of death as well as the true Immortals, we are the remnant souls that have walked the path of reincarnation and come to perceive the Netherworld.]
It seemed that the term ‘Ghost King’ referred to any remnant soul capable of perceiving the ‘Netherworld,’ regardless of cultivation level.
“I am sorry for the misunderstanding. I am merely an ordinary disciple who just entered Black Ghost Valley, not a Great Ghost.”
[If you have not received the gaze of the gods from the very bottom of the Underworld, you cannot bear the weight of such a great death. Noble one, you are joking that such a thing is possible with the body of a living person. The noble one must be one of the high-level messengers of death who served the gods of the Netherworld…]
“Ugh…”
[Please do not blame us too harshly for not following the predetermined fate and remaining in the mortal world. We are only building this Cemetery Plain and crafting an ark for future generations, waiting for the cycle of heaven to turn.]
Even in his fully hypnotized state, he spoke fluently without being intimidated by my aura.
[Although twelve thousand years ago those scoundrels destroyed all twelve Seopmyeong Ships of the Gwanghan Realm branch, since I guided the Seopmyeong Ship from the Water Realm, retrieving the remnants of the Middle Realm at the end of the world is no problem… Even the great ones of the Netherworld would not wish us gone… Please spare Black Ghost Valley…]
The Ghost King, mistaking me for a messenger of death come to punish Black Ghost Valley for refusing death, began to beg tearfully for forgiveness.
I released the sobbing creature first.
It seemed true that a high Ghost King caused lesser ghosts to lose reason.
The moment I escaped the influence of the Yin law power, the creature began to wail as if it had forgotten everything we had discussed.
[Hiiiaaaaaak! A great ghost! A great ghost!!! Hiiiaaaaaak!]
The moment it finished speaking, the creature fled into some distant part of the Cemetery Plain, and I clutched my aching head.
‘Damn it, chaos everywhere.’
I frowned at the sudden change that had occurred on my own body side.
* * *
“…What is this?”
‘I’ stared at the letter sent to me while frowning.
After sending a message to Jeon Myeong-hoon asking him to come to Heavenly Mountain on Cheonin-do, I had received the letter.
The spirit elder who delivered it clicked his tongue.
“This is a letter sent by the leader of the Jijok Jinryongmaeng.”
“…Why on earth would he send me this…?”
“I have no idea. Think about what grudge he might have against you.”
I sighed as I received the assassination threat letter.
The letter was filled with murderous intent soaked in dragon blood, and even the handwriting made my skin crawl.
‘That damned Seo-hyul.’
It seemed he had passed my death on to Gyu-ryeon.
―I will kill you as soon as possible. Wait for it.
“…I’m going insane.”
I clutched my head over the letter from Gyu-ryeon.