Chapter 94: I Fight Because I Know
Chapter 94: I Fight Because I Know
Before heading out to meet the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon, I stopped by the residence of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. There was something I needed to confirm with him first.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was sitting by the window, reading a book in the warm afternoon sunlight.
“You actually read books in your spare time?” I asked.
“It’s just for show. The moment I hear your footsteps in the distance, I dash for the bookshelf.”
He set the book down and looked at me. “What brings you here?”
I didn’t go inside, choosing instead to lean against the window frame as I spoke.
“I came to ask about someone.”
“Who?”
“Do you know much about the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon?”
I noticed the Blood Heaven Blade Demon flinch for a split second.
“Why are you asking about him?”
“I’m thinking of bringing him over to our side.”
The Blade Demon’s expression soured instantly. “Dammit. That loose-lipped woman…”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t play coy with me.”
He was sharp. He immediately realized that the One Flower Sword Venerable had told me. Since the Sword Venerable wasn't the type to go around gossiping to just anyone, I spoke freely.
“It was the Sword Venerable who told me that the one who actually persuaded him wasn't her, but you, Elder. She said it for your sake.”
“It wasn't for my sake. She’s just a moral stickler for the truth.”
“Since you two know each other so well, why do you bicker so much?”
“Who fights with a stranger? You fight because you know them.”
It was an irrefutable point, so I simply let out a short laugh.
“So, what is it you want to ask?”
“How did you persuade the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon?”
That was the real reason I had come to see him today. The answer he gave revealed a surprising fact.
“He came to me first,” the Blade Demon said.
“The Smiling Demon approached you?”
“Yes. Why would I go out of my way to ask a favor from a creep like him?”
“Then the Sword Venerable was wrong.”
“What did she say?”
“She thought the persuasion worked because you’re both villains.”
“What? She lumped me in with a guy like that?” The Blood Heaven Blade Demon bristled, clearly offended.
It might have seemed like I was treading on thin ice by reporting her words, but this was part of my effort to reconcile the two. I had to keep mentioning them to each other—reminding them that they hadn't forgotten one another, even if they still claimed to be enemies. Only then, when the right opportunity arose, would all these pieces fit together. Peace never happens out of thin air.
“What conditions did he set?” I asked.
“He said he’d cast his vote for Cheong-seon, provided I help him when he asks for a favor later.”
“And you accepted, knowing he might ask for anything?”
“He’ll probably ask for something for his own benefit. If he asks for something ridiculous, I’ll just refuse.”
“Why didn't you try to claim credit with me? You could have said you took on a debt for my sake. Why stay silent?”
“Claim credit? For what!”
When I first met the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, he was a calculating and meticulous man. He seemed like the type who would demand recognition for every favor and collect every debt.
But once I opened the door to his heart and stepped inside, I found a different man—a man who tossed things like 'claiming credit' into a corner and preferred to enjoy a book in the sunlight.
“Elder, you have to show off a bit for people to know what you've done.”
“They don't need to know. Besides, I didn't get the feeling he helped this time just to ask me for a favor later. Why would the Smiling Demon bother with me?”
The Blade Demon looked at me with an expression that said, 'Even you know that doesn't make sense.'
If his intuition was correct, then why did the Smiling Demon help us?
“Anyway, thank you. I’ll be off to meet him now.”
As I bid him farewell, the Blade Demon reopened his book as if he had been waiting for the conversation to end.
“I’m going to meet the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon. Aren't you worried?”
“About who? You? Or the Smiling Demon?”
I turned away with a smile.
*
After leaving the Blade Demon’s residence, I headed toward Villain Valley, located in the northeastern part of the Inner Court.
Villain Valley was exactly what the name suggested—a valley. It wasn't a natural formation, but an artificial one. Along a stream, various residences for the Faceless Guests lined the left and right banks.
Though the buildings seemed placed at random, the valley was actually a fortress designed with meticulous planning, organized according to the skill and status of the Faceless Guests and fortified against outside intrusion.
When I announced my arrival at the entrance, a Faceless Guest wearing a white mask guided me inside.
The Smiling Demon’s subordinates were known as Faceless Guests. They all wore white masks with nothing but eye slits. The slits were shaped like crescent moons lying on their sides, mimicking a smile. But because the real eyes behind the smiling slits were not laughing, the dissonance was inherently chilling.
The Smiling Demon’s residence was located at the deepest point of the valley. The building itself was modeled after the white masks. A single window sat where the eyes would be; that was likely his personal quarters.
Feeling as though I was being swallowed by the Smiling Demon, I walked through the entrance where the mouth would have been. I climbed a spiral staircase to reach his room.
The moment I stepped inside, I was struck by a sense of dread.
The walls, the ceiling, and even the floor were painted entirely white. The room was empty. No tables, no cabinets—not even a chair or a floor cushion.
In that void of a space, the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon stood alone.
Facing the wall and dressed in white robes, he was so perfectly assimilated into the environment that I might not have noticed him if not for the black hair visible at the back of his head.
Even though I had entered, he continued to stare at the wall. I walked slowly and stood beside him.
“What are you looking at?”
The Smiling Demon turned his head toward me. He wore a white mask just like his subordinates, and through the smiling eye slits, his gaze was clear and cold.
His mask was specially crafted so that his eyes couldn't be seen from the outside, but my New Eye Technique pierced through the darkness to see them clearly.
Finally, he spoke. “I was looking at nothing.”
His low, resonant voice was pleasant to the ear, and his tall stature and long limbs gave the impression of a refined gentleman. Contrary to his title, he was remarkably polite.
He was the kind of man who was terrifying because he was polite.
“It has been a long time, Elder.”
In truth, this was our first meeting in this life. Aside from seeing him from a distance at official functions, this was our first private encounter.
“Elder? I am still young, so please, feel free to treat me like a friend.”
“I wonder how many people have departed this world after being deceived by those words?”
The Smiling Demon laughed. True to his name, he was a man who laughed often.
“What about you, Second Young Master? Are you usually the one being deceived? Or the one doing the deceiving?”
“If I had to choose, I’m the type to pretend to be deceived.”
The Smiling Demon gave a habitual chuckle.
“Isn't it exhausting to always laugh like that?” I asked.
For a moment, a strange light flickered in his eyes behind the mask. “Why would laughing be exhausting?”
“I thought laughing might be harder than crying. It’s easy to live while weeping, but difficult to live while smiling, isn't it?”
“Finally, someone has appeared who recognizes my hardship.”
He laughed again. This time, it was a loud, exaggerated guffaw, like a street performer.
I didn't trust his laughter. That laugh was like the bioluminescent lure of a deep-sea fish. If you let yourself be mesmerized by the swaying, colorful light, you would eventually find yourself being sucked into a massive maw.
I had to remember: he wasn't laughing because he liked me.
“Second Young Master, why have you come to see me?”
I couldn't reveal that the One Flower Sword Venerable had broken the rules and told me about the vote.
“We’ve never had a conversation like this, have we? I came to seek your wisdom and learn what kind of person you are. To be honest, I also came in the hopes that you might support me instead of my brother.”
“Shall we walk for a moment?”
The Smiling Demon began to pace slowly along the white wall. “I walk like this whenever I need to organize my thoughts.”
I followed behind him. The string tying his mask dangled at the back of his head. It was a knot so simple a child could untie it, yet no one in the Murim had ever managed to undo it.
As he walked, he spoke. “If you answer one question for me, I will consider supporting you favorably.”
“Ask away.”
“How did you kill the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord?”
He tossed out this crucial question as if it were a triviality. I followed behind him and answered just as calmly.
“I did not kill the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord.”
“No. You definitely killed her. What I’m curious about isn't whether you killed her, but how.”
He was certain of my guilt.
“Second Young Master, I will keep it an absolute secret from everyone else. Just tell me. I’ll give you my vote, just as I did for Cheong-seon.”
“I repeat, I did not kill her.”
The Smiling Demon stopped abruptly, turned around, and strode toward me. He stopped right in front of me and extended a hand.
“Let’s be friends.”
I knew well that he was a man of sudden, erratic actions. And this was the second time I had heard these words from him.
In my previous life, when I had returned to the Main Cult to find the materials for the Great Regression Art, our paths had crossed. He had said the exact same thing to me then.
“I refuse.”
“Why?”
Because everyone who became his friend ended up dead. Everyone except for one person.
“Because there are three reasons why we cannot be friends.”
“Oh? Three reasons?” He showed genuine curiosity. “What is the first?”
“If we act like friends, I will eventually make a mistake. Familiarity inevitably breeds rudeness. Formalities will prevent me from slipping up.”
“What’s wrong with a few mistakes?”
“Nothing, as long as the person I’m offending isn't the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon.”
The Smiling Demon laughed loudly. “Our Second Young Master is even more interesting than the rumors suggest. Then, what is the second reason?”
“Because the Huangquan Pavilion Master and the Extreme Evil Smiling Demon do not belong together.”
“They say good and evil are like two sides of the same coin. If you learn evil from me, it will help you preserve the good.”
“Those words were likely invented by the side of evil.”
“What do you mean?”
“How could good and evil be stuck together like the sides of a coin? Evil resides in a bottomless abyss, while good sits atop a high mountain peak. It’s nothing more than a phrase villains made up to justify themselves.”
Of course, his metaphor was meant to imply that good and evil coexist within a single human heart. But I intentionally separated them, speaking only of absolute good and absolute evil.
“Then you must think of me as a hypocrite.”
“Hardly. How could a man who proudly puts 'Evil' in his own title be a hypocrite?”
“Then do you think I am impressive?”
“Evil can never be impressive under any circumstances. The only time evil is impressive is when it suppresses another evil.”
He laughed. He roared with laughter, but the eyes inside the mask were cold and sunken. If not for my New Eye Technique, I wouldn't have known. It was astonishing that a man could laugh so joyfully while his gaze remained so dead.
“The rumors were true,” he said.
“Which rumors?”
“The ones saying the Second Young Master has become a stiff, suffocating Orthodox nobody.”
“If you feel that way, it’s likely for this reason: at some point, we became worse than those stiff, suffocating Orthodox nobodies. So, I intend to set things right.”
The Smiling Demon, who had been chuckling softly, asked, “Is this the new Demonic Path you dream of?”
“You could say that.”
“Then we can never coexist. I will continue to support the First Young Master.”
“It can't be helped, then. I shall take my leave.”
I bowed politely and turned to go. Then, from behind me, he asked, “By the way, what was the third reason?”
I stopped my walk toward the door and turned back to him.
“I don't make friends with people who wear masks.”
It was a moment where a laugh should have followed, but he didn't laugh.
I saw it. Though he made no sound, his eyes inside the mask were laughing. That meant he was truly furious.
Until now, he had never removed his mask in front of anyone. Consequently, no one had ever seen the face beneath it. No one knew what he looked like or how old he was. Asking him to remove the mask was a taboo—his reverse scale.
But even a man like him had shown his face to someone once in his life.
To me, in my previous life, when I had come to find the materials for the Great Ritual. To me, the only person who had ever survived becoming his friend.
I had seen the face behind that mask.