Mother's Resurrection
It had been a few days earlier.
A cool night breeze drifted in through the open window.
"Hmm. Really now. Just what kind of bastard are those Blood Sect freaks trying to birth—or revive—through the Hundred-Eight Seven Nights Ritual of Martial Oblivion? What's all this ruckus for?"
So Yeomgyo had long made a habit of slicing fruit at night, popping pieces into her mouth while theorizing about the Blood Sect's Guardian that Ryu Hwasa was trying to create anew.
Beside her, I silently polished the Seven Sects Black Pearl Gauntlet with an oiled cloth.
"Wasn't it just about making a simple gem?"
At my words, So Yeomgyo turned her head.
"You know how prestigious wealthy houses keep the fire in their kitchen hearth burning for generations? Believe it or not, they even say each house's fire has its own unique character. The Guardian's gem is like that. It's not mere martial power—it's color, identity, a focal point, a symbol. If they're going to make one, they'll pour everything into embedding that symbolism rather than just whipping something up."
Her black hair, bound up, swayed over her pale nape.
"In that sense, if I were the Blood Sect's strategist, it'd be one of two options. One: base it on the most recent Guardian, where there are clear, detailed records allowing a perfect transmission and restoration—a complete rebirth. The second: since they're going through the trouble of birthing one, forget symbolism and legitimacy and just revive the strongest existence in history. Honestly, if they manage to revive it this time with all this effort, they can pass that Guardian gem down through generations like a wealthy family's hearth fire."
With her feet propped on the table, she rocked her chair and muttered.
"But they're not some rural outfit—they're one of the great powers known as the Orthodox, Demonic, and Blood. Of course they'll value history, so they'll base it on old oral traditions. Circumstantially, they'll go for restoring the most recent Guardian."
Her bangs slipped down, brushing the bridge of her nose and fluttering past her earlobes.
She organized her thoughts and continued in a calm, whispering voice.
"The most recent Blood Sect Guardian would be... of course, from the Orthodox-Demon Great War, one of the five Guardians who were simultaneously slaughtered by the Heavenly Demon Cult's Guardian—the strongest of all time, the only one praised as 'the one who surpassed the Mother'... so this time, the Blood Sect's Guardian would be the Hundred-Headed Yaksha. Yeah, that fits. The sacrifices prepared so far all line up with that."
She was stringing the scattered fragments of clues from the scene into a single necklace.
"Then... this sacrifice centers on a hundred and eight children plus additional adult human offerings... Even if it is born, it might be a bit much, but with my Flame Eye I could handle it on my own. There'd be life-or-death crises, sure... but even in the worst case if it is born, I could somehow resolve it."
So Yeomgyo nodded with a languid expression, twirling a strand of black hair around her finger.
"Ah, I read this seven years ago, so I don't remember well. Getting older, my memory's not what it was. Back then I could recall martial arts manuals from fourteen years prior without a hitch."
"...Seven years ago? Fourteen years ago?"
It was a moment that made me keenly realize what a true genius in this world looked like.
So Yeomgyo crunched on her fruit as she dug through her mind.
"Still, as I dig, it comes back piece by piece like pulling potatoes. Up to chapter eight was the Blood Sect's history, and the history of their sorcery was this, and in chapters eight and nine the origins with the White Lotus Demon Sect was that, and it was interesting so I read this too, and when the Guardian ascends there was content about that in the hypotheses—."
So Yeomgyo's words stopped.
Her rocking chair stopped.
The half-bitten fruit in her hand froze as if iced over.
At her sudden halt, I looked at her.
"...Bi, just in case I say this. There isn't really, truly... some absolute madman in the Blood Sect or anything, right?"
"Why all of a sudden?"
Her large eyes blinked as she stared at me.
Then she laughed and waved it off.
"Nah. Haha. There won't be. Honestly, even for the Blood Sect. Haha.... Ahaha. Come on...! This would make things way too big. I was overthinking it. This is why you shouldn't think at night. Even for a martial artist of the jianghu, something like this would definitely bring in the imperial court. Crazy. No way. Of course not. Unless the board completely breaks while going for the Hundred-Headed Yaksha, who'd be mad enough to do that?"
Biting into the fruit, So Yeomgyo said,
"...The Ten Thousand Blood Emperor is different in origin, but the scale of sacrifices needed is on a whole other level from the Blood Sect's Hundred-Headed Yaksha."
"So Yeomgyo?"
After that, So Yeomgyo said nothing more.
Bang!!
Ryu Hwasa slammed his forehead into the ground.
Kneeling, he drove his forehead hard into the earth.
Crash!
He slammed it again.
Bang! Bang bang bang!!
He smashed his forehead into the ground over and over. His forehead split, and red blood flowed down it. In that frenzy, an hourglass slipped from his robes and fell to the ground.
Clatter!
The hourglass shattered into pieces.
Whoosh!
Boom! Boooom...!
Flames were rising all around. The fires the Blood Sect members had set while massacring were now fully blazing up. Everything was burning. Even the tower of corpses piled in the center of the arena began to catch fire. The stadium and spectator seats were filled with fallen corpses.
"..."
Ryu Hwasa had carried out the eve of the Hundred-Eight Seven Nights Ritual of Martial Oblivion as a surprise attack. I could bet that in this plan he had coordinated to some extent with the superior landlords of the Jeolhae Five Branches of the Black Path who had roots in the jianghu, but it had not been a perfect prior agreement from start to finish. That much was clear from the fact that while most of the people filling the stadium as sacrificial targets were ordinary spectators, a significant portion were Black Path members from the Jeolhae Five Branches who had been helping run the tournament.
Even amid the rising flames all around, there were no few members of the Jeolhae Five Branches who had fought back or fled while shouting "Why?" only to be butchered by the scythes of the Blood Sect members seized by madness. Here, where the eve of the Hundred-Eight Seven Nights Ritual was to take place, an unprecedented situation had unfolded: all the humans to be offered as sacrifices had broken through the Blood Sect's encirclement head-on and escaped.
Though unseen, fires would surely be breaking out not only underground but also outside Shaanxi as well. To divert attention from the great massacre happening here today, Ryu Hwasa had said he would artificially start simultaneous great fires. Since it was a rotten world anyway, if there were many places to clean up—especially a massacre like this where he had "specially selected only the weak"—neither the Orthodox factions nor the imperial court would turn their eyes here. He had boldly declared as much.
The sad thing was that it would become reality. And so everything was proceeding as he said, and originally it would have gone according to his plan. The eve would have succeeded, and through the Grand Ritual the Blood Sect's Guardian with perfect power would have been revived in an instant. But that had been shattered to pieces in an instant by my intervention. That was why Ryu Hwasa was even more enraged.
Massive flames and black smoke began to engulf the buildings.
"It's over, Ryu Hwasa. You who ran around spouting about madmen and whatnot—in the end."
I looked around and then back at him.
"The title of Seventh Palace Lord is wasted on you. That bastard Jeokmaryeong of the Heavenly Demon Cult, whom people always mentioned alongside you, was crazy in a different way, but at least he had pride. But you have nothing. For the first time, looking at you, I feel the phrase 'not even worth killing.'"
"..."
I cut him off coldly with a cynical remark.
"But at the same time, I'm no such fucking saint. So I'll kill you. Get up. At least in your final moment, I'll snap your neck while looking you square in the face."
Red blood flowed. With his split forehead pressed to the ground, Ryu Hwasa didn't move a muscle.
This isn't right.
Gurgle. From behind my shadow, I felt a massive black wild dog rising like mist.
Whine. The black wild dog's red eyes narrowed as it seemed to scan the surroundings.
"Mumyeong?"
Ends recognize ends, Host. That one's mental realm was extreme in its own way. I know. As much as I...
Mumyeong trailed off.
He was never the kind of trash-level mentality to despair like that over the mere failure of a scheme like this. Which means.
"...!"
My eyes narrowed.
Hum! From deep in my dantian, I felt a certain amount of internal energy being sucked out all at once, as if water were draining from below.
And something's been off here for a while.
The mist in the form of a black wild dog gazed into the air. It took a sniffing posture, as if smelling. Its ears pricked up.
For a while now... I've been hearing something like a regular heartbeat, and it's really unpleasant.
It was the specific sensation Mumyeong used when expanding his sensory domain greatly by staking a certain amount of internal energy, as he had during the Heavenly Net Earthly Trap Formation at the Namgung Family battle.
Don't take your eyes off Ryu Hwasa. And you're too close right now. Step back half a pace.
"..."
Swoosh. With a red afterimage, I exhaled once and, with each faint sway of my body, retreated half a half-pace at a time, as subtly as water flowing. It was extremely unnoticeable.
Keep your gaze fixed on Ryu Hwasa, move only your eyes to observe the surrounding Blood Sect members. Not in terms of martial arts or combat meaning.
Around me, Blood Sect members stood frozen like statues here and there, clutching scythes crusted with dried blood.
Remember when you learned about verbal sparring from Jegal Sea, about probing the opponent? Same as then. Especially, though most wear beast masks, occasionally there are those who have taken them off. Observe those ones particularly carefully. See anything strange?
Mumyeong spoke as if a blind person were meticulously feeling every object around with fine tactile sense to map the terrain in their mind, probing everything. And I realized something was off.
These bastards.
At first I thought the Blood Sect members were just terrified by my martial prowess, stiff and standing by watching the standoff between me and Ryu Hwasa. That was half right and half wrong.
Tremble tremble. They were sensing something. They were extremely anxious.
"Ah, aaaa. No way. No way, no way. It can't be. It can't."
"This is... why are all the dolls around the stadium turning red? This is that..."
Their legs were shaking like aspen leaves.
Clack, clack, clack!! The dolls surrounding the stadium, half painted blue and half red, were turning one by one to show their red faces toward the arena. All the Blood Sect members' gazes had at some point shifted from me to Ryu Hwasa.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Hahahahaha....ha."
Shiver. It was laughter. That laughter was flowing from Ryu Hwasa, who had his head planted in the ground. Ryu Hwasa's shoulders were shaking. It was the forgotten laughter. The laughter I had heard when I first faced him.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Hee. Hoo. Heh. Hahee. Hahahahahaha."
Host.
Mumyeong said.
Prepare.
Ryu Hwasa muttered.
"At first I was angry. The eve really was completely wrecked, after all. That's a fact. Yeah, of course. I designed this for six years just for this. But after cooling my head, you know."
Ryu Hwasa chuckled.
"I realized it. Moyong Bi-gun. This was the true gift you gave me. Originally, a new birth comes after a great fire, but without realizing it, everything was going too smoothly and I had grown complacent..."
Rumble rumble rumble.... The ground began to shake.
Thud, thud. The Blood Sect members began to kneel.
"From the moment I was born, I had forgotten two emotions. Those two emotions are fear, and rage. And ones with the word 'intense' attached."
Ryu Hwasa slowly lifted his blood-soaked forehead. Along his wet bangs, as if a tomato had been crushed and smeared on his face, flesh ground by stones and torn scraps flowed down with spurting blood.
"And just now I felt both at the same time. I love you, Moyong Bi-gun. As expected, you're the best. You complete me. Your mighty power clearly impressed me, and truly, I judged that you are a disaster fitting for the new world I will create."
"..."
La la la.... Ryu Hwasa hummed a tune through his nose. In the blood-soaked mess, he wiped his bloodied face with his palm. His white eyes gleamed. His pupils darted left and right madly.
"I'll also create a world fitting for you. Ah, I don't know why you have that black lightning. By any chance, has anyone else besides me properly seen that black lightning? Oh, no one. Your expression says so."
"..."
"That black lightning, you know."
Licking his lips, Ryu Hwasa said.
"Of course, even the same black lightning, only someone with sharp eyes like me would recognize it, but if they just recognize it.... the Heavenly Demon Cult guys would go absolutely crazy with joy. If they saw that black lightning, wouldn't they almost deify you? Have you heard of the Heavenly Demon Emperor?"
"...!"
Certainly, when I was wandering in unconsciousness, I had seen that phrase.
"The Heavenly Demon among Heavenly Demons... the first child said to have surpassed the Mother, the White Lotus Demon Sect, the unparalleled strongest Guardian of the Heavenly Demon Cult who was ultimately discarded like a hunting dog after the hunt and strangled to death, a pitiful bastard not even recorded in the Demon Cult's history.... Uwaha ha!! Well, who cares. Anyway, that's a story only moldy old book diggers like me know."
.....
In the shadows, the black wild dog kept silent quietly.
Ryu Hwasa continued.
"Right now you look truly magnificent. Then I'll also present you with an opponent befitting your level. Since the eve was wrecked this badly, even if the Blood Sect's Guardian is born, it'll just be a weak half-baked Guardian. To hell with the Blood Sect's legitimacy."
Boom!
An ominous red blood-colored mist swirled around Ryu Hwasa. It reminded one of a poisonous fog that would melt skin on contact. I stepped back. Seeing me like that, Ryu Hwasa smiled.
"Ha—, to me the Blood Sect was just an outer shell anyway. So right now, at this moment, the only method I have is one—. That is."
What he pulled from his robes was a mandala-shaped eerie red stone fragment and a red dagger. As if alive, the light on Ryu Hwasa's palm changed from red to black.
Thump, thump. It pulsed like a living heart.
This! That's of the White Lotus Demon Sect!!
Mumyeong screamed.
Host! Snatch that!
"...!"
With black lightning, I kicked off the ground. Ryu Hwasa grinned so wide his mouth seemed to tear.
"Only the Mother's resurrection."
With all his strength, Ryu Hwasa stabbed the mandala along with the dagger into his own heart.
Flash.
The entire world was wrapped in white light.
Screeeech..... What rang in my ears was the death scream of cicadas. A burning twilight filled my vision. Against the background of a blood-colored twilight, a man was smiling before my eyes.
"Where is this."
"Ah—. Young Master Moyong Bi. Have you been well of late?"
Standing before my eyes was the man with yellow eyes, Mara Jin.