Chapter 47: Fill the Void Yourself
Chapter 47: Fill the Void Yourself
A moment later, Neung Hyu entered the room.
“This subordinate has come at the Demon Lord’s summons.”
My eyes shifted toward his waist. As expected, the Ghost Fan that practitioners of the ghostly arts usually carried was missing.
“Where is your Ghost Fan?”
“I lost it yesterday.”
At those words, the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord tossed the Ghost Fan he had been holding toward him. Neung Hyu caught it, his expression flickering with confusion.
“This is mine. Where did you find it?”
He didn’t dare ask the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord directly, so he directed the question to me instead.
“Several corpses were discovered yesterday,” I replied. “This was found with them.”
Neung Hyu flinched. It wasn't the typical surprise of someone finding out their belongings were at a crime scene; it was something else entirely—a flicker of recognition.
Furthermore, Neung Hyu didn't ask where the bodies were found or what the cause of death was.
Ah, so Neung Hyu is the one in charge of disposing of the bodies.
It was the moment I confirmed that the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord had indeed been performing the Heart-Soul Great Law.
“Since this is the case, you’ll have to come with me for questioning.”
Neung Hyu didn't seem afraid of me. He looked toward the only person he truly feared, awaiting his orders. The Soul-Seizing Demon Lord merely stared at him in silence, but I could tell he was sending a Voice Transmission in a peculiar manner.
Soon after, Neung Hyu spoke to me.
“Understood. Let us go.”
He didn't protest his innocence or resist; he allowed himself to be taken into custody quietly. I bowed politely to the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord.
“Thank you for your cooperation. I shall see you again.”
The Soul-Seizing Demon Lord nodded without a word. His expression was perfectly serene, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
*
As soon as we returned, I ordered an investigation into Neung Hyu. The special investigators took turns interrogating him, but he said nothing other than the fact that he had lost his fan.
“It doesn’t look like he’ll open his mouth easily.”
I nodded at Seo Dae-ryong’s words. I could tell just by looking at the man's eyes. His loyalty to and fear of the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord were so profound that no amount of persuasion or interrogation would break him.
“Since we have no evidence that he committed the murders, we won’t be able to hold him for long.”
“He’s just a pawn anyway,” I said. “If we want to catch someone, it has to be the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord.”
Perhaps sensing the intensity in my gaze, Seo Dae-ryong spoke up worriedly.
“Please be careful. Your opponent is the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord.”
“Do you remember what I told you all when I first took this post? That I’d go after even my father if he did something wrong.”
“Yes.”
“Then he’s the one who should be careful. Go and tell him. Tell him to watch his back.”
“I wish I had the courage to do that,” Seo Dae-ryong muttered.
That day, an unexpected visitor came to my office. Seo Dae-ryong rushed in with a startled face, even stammering his words.
“The... the Cult Leader has arrived!”
I was also taken aback. I never dreamed my father would visit this place.
“Bring him in at once.”
Seo Dae-ryong hurried out, and shortly after, my father entered the office.
“Father? What brings you all the way here?”
“I happened to be passing by.”
There was no way. He had come because he had something to say to me.
“I have tea, and I have liquor.”
“Who drinks liquor at midday? Let’s have some tea.”
I prepared the tea myself. While I did, my father stood by the window behind my desk, looking out at the sect grounds.
“Please, have some tea.”
Father continued to look out the window as he spoke.
“You must not touch the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord. Not yet.”
I knew it. He had come specifically to say this. He knew I had gone to the Seohwan Formation and arrested Neung Hyu. And he knew that now that the bodies had been found, I wouldn't let the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord be.
“Why not?”
“Because you cannot kill him with your current martial arts.”
“I can just cut him down when he lets his guard down. If that doesn't work, I'll stab him in the back if I have to.”
“Standing behind his back will be harder than killing him.”
“Is the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord really that strong?”
“He is both the weakest and the strongest.”
I understood what those words meant. If one could overcome his Soul-Seizing Technique—meaning, if one mastered a martial art that rendered his sorcery useless or reached a realm of martial arts where sorcery no longer worked—he would become the easiest opponent. Without his sorcery, the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord’s martial arts wouldn't be much to speak of.
From that perspective, the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord was likely the weakest Demon Lord to my father. His sorcery wouldn't work on my father at all.
“Will you help me surpass him?”
“It is impossible in a short period of time.”
“As you’ve seen so far, aren't I a faster learner than you expected?”
“That is not enough. There are two ways to block the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord’s sorcery. The first is to learn the Nine Calamities Demonic Art. The degree of protection depends on the practitioner's talent, but for someone like you, reaching the fifth stage would make his sorcery ineffective.”
“I don’t want to hear the second way. Let me block it with the first.”
My father ignored my plea to be named his successor and stated the second method.
“The other is to achieve Great Achievement in the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art. Since both are impossible for you right now, I am telling you to back down.”
At that moment, a solution flashed through my mind. There was one method I knew because I had regressed.
Father, there is actually a third way.
A way that is a hundred times easier than the first or second. The problem, however, lay elsewhere.
“Is the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord absolutely necessary for the Cult?”
My father must have felt it—the killing intent embedded in my calm question.
“Among the Eight Demon Lords, the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord is the one the Orthodox Faction finds most troublesome.”
He was speaking indirectly, but he was saying the man was necessary.
“Even though he is ripping the hearts out of living people for his ritual? Did you know about this?”
Father shook his head. “I only found out this time as well.”
I wondered how he would handle this. Would my father actually tolerate someone who pulls out hearts while the victim is still alive? However, from his position as the leader of the Cult, he couldn't easily eliminate someone who would be one of their strongest assets when facing the Murim Alliance.
This wasn't a matter to be left to my father; it was a problem I had to solve.
“You told me to tell you before I killed a Demon Lord, didn't you?”
That was the promise my father had exacted when he allowed me to teach the Flying Heaven Sword Technique to Lee An.
“I am telling you now. I am going to kill the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord. Among the Eight Demon Lords, he will be the first to die.”
In the world before my regression, the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord was the one who lived the longest. Now, he would face the exact opposite fate.
“This isn't like killing someone in a fit of rage because I don't like them. It’s worse than a madman wandering around killing people. This is someone killing people systematically and regularly with a clear mind. I could understand if the goal was grand, but isn't all this bullshit just so he can get a little stronger? This isn't a human being, Father. You have your position with the Eight Demon Lords to consider, so leave this to me. You gave me the sword hilt, so let me swing it to the end.”
I didn't know how much my father would empathize with what I said. I wanted to walk the same path as him, but for this matter, I chose to think of it this way: On a long journey, there are times when you must temporarily part ways with your companions before meeting again further down the road.
My father stared at me in silence for a long time before leaving the room with an unexpected remark.
“If you have that level of skill... you will be the one to fill his void, so there shouldn't be any major issues.”
“!”
It was permission to kill him. It was both advice to act only if I was capable and pressure to fill the resulting vacuum myself.
A smile played on my lips. Since he had already left, I offered my thanks in my heart.
Thank you, Father.
As expected, my father was indeed my father. Yes, this wasn't a journey that would end over something like this. My father and I were still walking the same path.
It was unlikely to happen, but I briefly thought that if I ever became a father in this life... I would want to give my son the same kind of thrill my father had just given me.
Though, of course, I planned to live alone in this life as well.
*
“Please, please spare me. I have children. If I die, my children will...”
The man stared quietly into the eyes of the pleading woman. The woman looked at him, paralyzed with terror. The gaze of this ordinary-looking man was terrifying.
But she summoned her courage for the sake of her children. She was raising them alone. If she didn't look after them, her young children wouldn't survive the winter.
“Please let me go. I’ll do whatever you say. Just please let me go. Please! Spare me!”
Tears streamed down the woman's face. At that moment, she saw the man's pupils turn black. Within that black shadow, she saw her children.
For a split second, she smiled brightly in relief, but soon her face began to contort with agony. The children suffered from hunger, were beaten by other beggars, and were dragged away by a madman to endure horrific pain.
“No! Please! No!”
The man's eyes were cruel. As if to extract every ounce of her sorrow, he staged the children's final moments. The children were collapsing and dying on the cold winter streets. The words “Mom, I’m hungry” drifted from their lips.
“Aaaaah! No!”
When her grief and despair reached their peak, her very heart was snatched away. Her heart was beating in the man's hand. The sorrow of being unable to see her children again, even greater than the sorrow of losing her own life, splattered in all directions as tears of blood.
Her breath ceased, and the ordinary-looking man’s internal energy increased by a tiny fraction.
*
The next day, I took Neung Hyu from the interrogation room and went to the Seohwan Formation.
I had decided to use the third method to kill the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord. However, to do that, I needed about two months. I had to arrive at a certain place by a fixed date. I needed to buy time somehow until then. Just two months.
This time, I only took Seo Dae-ryong with me. I had to drag him along because he insisted he wouldn't go out of fear. I had to keep him by my side. The future Huangquan Pavilion Master needed various experiences.
The black pupils of the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord who greeted us had grown unnervingly large.
“I have ruled Neung Hyu innocent. We found no evidence that he killed them.”
“Then you should have just released Neung Hyu. Why have you come?”
“I have something to tell you.”
“Speak.”
“Please dismiss your attendants.”
I had Seo Dae-ryong wait outside. What I was about to say was important enough that the opponent might react by trying to silence me forever. Once we were alone, I spoke to him.
“I know that you are performing the Heart-Soul Great Law, Demon Lord.”
“What is the Heart-Soul Great Law? I’ve never heard of it.”
He lied without a single flicker in his eyes. Having risen to the position of Demon Lord by manipulating the human heart, he showed no emotional agitation whatsoever.
“Stop the ritual.”
“Second Young Master, what on earth are you talking about?”
His voice echoed loudly from all directions.
“If you refuse my proposal, you will die.”
As the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord laughed as if it were absurd, my own words echoed back at me mockingly.
— If you refuse, you will die... refuse, you will die...
The word "die" sounded like the voices of several people I knew. I composed my mind with the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Art and spoke firmly.
“It won't be me who kills you.”
— Not me... not me...
Again, my words were repeated in various voices, mocking me.
“I will persuade my father.”
The moment my father was mentioned, the echoes stopped abruptly. Silence filled the room.
The one and only person he feared. The only one who could restrain him, even if only for a while, was my father.
“I will go to him every morning to pay my respects and beg him. I will tell him to kill the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord. I will go the next day and say it again. I will tell him a man who extracts the hearts of living people only tarnishes the reputation of our Cult. I will go the next day and tell him I’ll give up my claim as successor if he kills you. Day after day, I will use every word possible to persuade him. Then, on some day when you make a major mistake toward my father, he might just agree to it.”
The moment I finished speaking, the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord’s black pupils shrank to the size of dots. It was a grotesque sight, as if his pupils were being sucked into a void, leaving only pinpricks behind. Simultaneously, a powerful ghostly qi erupted from his body.
Ki-hi-hi-hi-hi.
The sound of ghosts laughing filled the air as the surroundings flickered between darkness and light. Before I knew it, the environment had completely changed.