The Shadowless Divine Thief
The old man approached me.
Under the bluish-white glow of the moon bead from the ceiling, each facial feature of his deeply shadowed countenance gradually emerged.
It was a robe of gray hue worn thin by countless years.
His gray hair, neatly combed, revealed a high nose bridge.
A sparse beard covered his cheeks.
Wrinkles crisscrossed his forehead.
The old man spoke.
“Exactly as I was told. I can tell at a glance. Sturdy build, eyes like a winter lake.”
A twitch.
A wisp of black dog shadow swirled behind my back.
It whispered in my ear.
[...Host.]
I swallowed hard.
My eyes shot wide open.
My pupils contracted like a snake's, sensing something.
[That old man... he makes no sound at all with his footsteps....]
I clenched my fists.
“Who are you?”
The pressure was far greater than the corpse I had faced earlier.
My left foot slid back.
My right foot advanced, my shoulder swinging around the old man into a straight line.
A flick.
Within the black robe that enveloped me, my right hand descended toward the silver belt at my waist.
A dull thump.
My momentum, as if about to explode upon the lightest touch, filled the entire interval.
“Hmph.”
The old man halted his steps, surprised by my aura.
“Was the young master brought in for nothing but a whim? Here we have a complete bastard who crashes in uninvited, steals like a thief, and now demands to know who dares intrude on his home before anyone else. Even if the principles of the jianghu have fallen to the ground in the present age, this is too much. Did your master teach you such manners?”
For a moment, my tongue tied in every sense.
I barely steadied my wandering gaze.
I composed my voice.
“Do you know our master? He is the owner of this place, yes?”
Even Mumyeong remained silent, tense.
For him, complete restoration of memory was a second burden beyond survival.
It was almost impossible, but if the soul before me hailed from the place we thought, it would be a catalyst for the greatest upheaval of all.
Most importantly, in context, the old man before us felt like the one who had once known our master, Asura of the Eight Guardian Immortals.
The old man wore a displeased expression.
“Hah, what a question. Is there still someone related to that cult of the blind that perished six hundred years ago? Pathetic. You were born with a life of no martial talent. Don't speak of going out to do business. Just looking at you, you'll be scammed out of everything within two months. And you ask if I know your master?”
The old man picked up a fist-sized silver ingot that had rolled at his feet.
I watched my Adam's apple bob involuntarily.
I, who had felt the true value of money to the bone more than anyone else, gulped.
With a chuckle, the old man tossed the ingot toward me.
It flew straight.
No malice in it, yet the intent contained within was immense.
My left hand blurred.
I slid leftward in a wave of vibration, using my thumb as pivot, and snatched the ingot.
Watching me, the old man spoke.
“If your master is the Eight Guardian Immortals, then of course it is Asura, the supreme of swiftness. A little tiger cub born under the fate of extinction, reeking of blood from head to toe.”
My breath caught.
The old man scratched his head with a sigh.
“No, how that pot-bellied middle-aged man bargained with me. Even if he is one of the Eight Guardian Immortals, outwardly I am the older one. Still thinking I am the ten-year-old brat I was when we first met. If it had to come to this, I should have eaten the peaches of the immortal of the Blackwind Mountain. Hmph. Tsk tsk.”
I could not remain silent.
“Have you seen our master? Where is he right now—”
“Due to karmic ties, he cannot manifest in this world. Since our paths crossed, I have rarely seen him with my own eyes.”
My heart sank.
Recalling the face of my master, always good-natured and smiling, rubbing his protruding belly.
The words he had spoken when passing on Suradaemyeolgeopjin: that I would never meet him directly again.
The old man said.
“He asked me to intervene with the karmic cycle for him. So you understand now?”
I straightened my posture.
I cupped my hands.
“How could I possibly strike at my master's old connection? I believe you. However.”
“However?”
“My master asked me to assist him with something regarding me, yes?”
Casually, the old man said.
“You're dead.”
“Huh?”
“Within two days, you will die. He asked me to save him, saying he cannot intervene himself.”
I laughed.
The old man frowned.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Ah, that. I'm sorry to say this, but I have heard that same line many times before. Naturally, you wouldn't know, but Mara Jin once warned of my death too. Yet I always survived—”
“Enough. You spin such a perfect lie.”
The old man cut me off coldly.
“This rotten thing. Do you think me on par with a corpse-selling merchant demon like Mara Jin? A legendary sword saint who, since the days of the Beautiful Monkey King, has mocked the peach orchards of Queen Mother of the West and the heavenly realm from the vaults of the Great Five Families and the imperial treasury? You dare question whether I am Wuyeong-sintu?”
The name from ancient texts, yet one no martial artist could forget.
A legendary thief who moved like a ghost, stealing what no one could touch, whose fame shook the jianghu from the vaults of the Great Five Families to the imperial treasures, though his whereabouts had long been a mystery.
And here he stood before me now.
The old man, Wuyeong-sintu, took a small crystal orb from his bosom and spoke in an irritated voice.
“That one... was just a made-up plan and hope. This is the prophecy seen through the Great Luminous Silk Illusory Jade I took during the Queen Mother's vault robbery. Do you see the difference? If your master felt that strongly, would he have begged me? In any case, that's why martial artists are all alike—able to cut with a blade at best, whether immortal or mortal.”
The Great Luminous Silk Illusory Jade in his hand swept over my body again, glowing blue.
It felt as soft as cotton wool.
No threatening aura.
Yet the old man's continuous grumbling dripped with pure annoyance, but there was no malice.
I asked cautiously.
“Do I really die? Master Wuyeong-sintu? If you help me, what exactly are you helping with?”
“One word from me is the spark that changes everything. But it cannot be spoken now.”
“What?”
Wuyeong-sintu examined the images reflected in the crystal orb carefully.
“Speaking of the future makes it meaningless. Do you understand how delicate the future is? Wait just a little. Right now... I am confirming that moment again. Even the smallest difference cannot be allowed. Only the exact moment, within that brief flicker when the willow seedlings sway, can I insert that ‘statement’ to decide whether the future changes. And even that alone cannot alter the death awaiting you. This future is as solid as death itself. How did your master know to come to me for this?”
Wuyeong-sintu handed me something with his wrinkled hand.
“This...?”
“Guardian Wheel. A special item that guarantees you will never die once. Expensive.”
The item I held was a black headband made of iron that could be worn on the forehead.
“If you are attacked and it breaks, it means you should have died from that one blow. Since it is in your hand, we can test it once more... Damn, you show no fear even with this mere toy to avoid death. I suppose I should say it after all.”
I blinked.
“Even the Guardian Wheel that blocks one death is not enough to escape my end? No, what does that—”
Wuyeong-sintu tucked the Great Luminous Silk Illusory Jade back into his bosom and nodded.
I said.
“What exactly is happening?”
“You know, idiot. Why ask again? Is there not a monster here that might come looking? A sorcerer in purple flames.”
My eyes widened.
“Jeokmaryeong?”
“Three days from now is the turning point. After you leave here, if you meet him in the outside world within two days, your life ends in inevitable death. But if you meet him after two days, you live. If you really don't want to, you can hide here until he retreats.”
I answered without hesitation.
“That is impossible. I must return to Cheonsubaekryeonsa within three days. For the sake of a perfect ending.”
When I spoke of the perfect ending, I bit my lip tightly.
As if he had known all along, Wuyeong-sintu said sharply.
“Of course. That makes sense. That's how it must be for a martial artist who will meet an end. What else can martial artists do? In this simple world, seeing the prophecy, is it not just a prophecy?”
“I have already fought against Ilmanhyeolje. I believe I can somehow handle even Jeokmaryeong.”
Wuyeong-sintu looked at me with infinite disappointment.
“How did you answer exactly as your master foretold without missing a single detail.”
I fell silent, dumbstruck.
Facing me, Wuyeong-sintu said.
“Is Jeokmaryeong connected to the White Lotus Demon Sect?”
“That... why are you suddenly asking?”
As if he had read every detail, Wuyeong-sintu poked my chest repeatedly.
“Can you summon the one inside you? The battle with Ilmanhyeolje and the situation itself are different. What comparison is that?”
It was the crux.
Mumyeong had said the Heavenly Demon Cult's battle with Ilmanhyeolje would raise the next manifestation from the depths of deep sleep.
But that was merely a possibility. The Supreme Heavenly Demon, estimated as the strongest Guardian of the Heavenly Demon Cult at present, was currently sleeping deeply in the abyss.
Of course, after manifestation, my body had become incomparably stronger than before, with black lightning, and my constitution had crossed the peak of the Extreme Demon stage into the Demon Escape realm. Yet the power I had briefly experienced of the Supreme Heavenly Demon was clearly from another world.
I said in a tense voice.
“Is there no way?”
“I have been waiting for you here since three months ago for that method. You stupid child.”
The old man grumbled.
“But it's only been a week since I understood. How did your master get involved in all this? I don't know. Maybe time will tell.”
“What?”
The old man looked up.
“No. Do you remember the space technique my puppet corpse unfolded? The one that tore the air with a boom and vanished twenty steps away, then reappeared.”
I recalled the Transcendent Peak martial art that closed the gap in an instant.
“Ah... that one...!”
“It is called Extreme Night. The end of night. A technique that moves by crossing the very space within twenty steps.”
A clap of thunder.
Wuyeong-sintu vanished.
He reappeared exactly twenty steps away, tearing through empty space again.
That movement of squeezing between spaces themselves, not mere footwork, was unforgettable.
After using it several more times, Wuyeong-sintu said.
“This sequence is simple and imposes no burden, but it is extremely difficult and its content is vast. Casting and acquiring it is straightforward. If you master it to perfection during the remaining days and train under me, your survival probability against Jeokmaryeong will increase dramatically.”
My face brightened.
“Then...!”
“Of course, it is impossible. It is the representative lifeline that created me as Wuyeong-sintu. Can you learn it in one glance?”
A clap!
A clap!
A thunderous boom that threatened to shatter ears.
Wuyeong-sintu reappeared before me.
“There is no time, so I truly wanted to teach you, but it is unfortunate. First, we set that aside. As an alternative, I have a training method in mind...”
“Understood. I have already learned it. However, I seem to have trouble casting and acquiring it.”
“Of course. Then that is the way. So we abandon Extreme Night and train with the alternative...”
Wuyeong-sintu stopped.
“Huh?”
I nodded and said again.
“I have memorized the entire sequence of Extreme Night.”
In my eyes as I finished speaking, the red glow that had flared began to fade.
The old man, Wuyeong-sintu, continued to mutter to himself, his wrinkled hand already tucking the crystal orb away.
“Useless old thing. The future is too fragile... but still, a plan is a plan. Even if it is only a puppet, it is better than nothing. Hah. Tsk tsk. These martial artists and their endless delusions.”
I felt a strange warmth in my chest.
I turned to leave the hall.
Behind me, the old man called out once more.
“Hey, you. If you survive and meet Jeokmaryeong, tell him that the one who killed his left arm still lives. And if you can, bring me the head of the blood emperor. That would be worth something.”
I did not turn around.
I simply answered without looking back.
“I will remember it.”
And I walked out into the night.