Three Lives, Three Loves (Part 1)
It was a dream.>
Just a bad dream.>
A soldier tumbling down a hill after a surprise attack by the enemy.>
Yet the dream I had while in a coma was shockingly vivid.>
The first life had been a wuxia world.>
I had been born into the collateral line of the Namgung Clan.>
My mother died giving birth to me, and I entered the family with no protection whatsoever—only the title of a Namgung child.>
I endured countless slights and discrimination, yet I stubbornly learned the clan’s sword.>
I had no talent for martial arts, but the knowledge I had accumulated from reading countless wuxia novels revealed that the Namgung sword in this world was missing something.>
The Namgung’s goal was the sky itself.>
A vast sky that embraced everyone but would one day bring thunder, disaster, and take lives.>
To look down arrogantly from the sky—that was what being Namgung meant.>
But the current Namgung Clan had devolved into nothing but ruthless swordsmanship and destructive power, with no one left who truly understood the original intent.>
The moment I grasped that true intent, the root of the Namgung sword, I was finally able to wield it.>
I soon vanquished even the direct-line disciples, concluded there was nothing left to learn, and left the family.>
Then I battled countless experts until I believed no one was left who could face me.>
“The Heavenly Wolf Sword Demon… so you are the one discarded by the Namgung Clan?”>
I met her at last.>
Jeok Hwa-ryeon of the Blood Sect, the Blood Demon.>
Walking toward me veiled in a red curtain, her figure was strikingly voluptuous even at first glance.>
“Most great experts have fallen to your hands, haven’t they? Come on, let’s see if you can beat me, Blood Demon Jeok Hwa-ryeon.”>
She was extremely arrogant, as if to say that anyone whose name contained the character “ma” couldn’t possibly lose.>
“It wasn’t the Namgung Clan that abandoned me. I was the one who abandoned the Namgung.”>
“That will become clear the moment we fight.”>
The result was a hollow victory for me.>
The problem was that unlike me, Jeok Hwa-ryeon was a Blood Demon, and her minions had relentlessly pursued me after I defeated them and made them serve a new master.>
“Heavenly Wolf Sword Demon-nim, I’m sorry, but could you please spar with the Lord again?”>
There was a letter on my pillow the next morning begging me to fight just once more.>
They kept leaving letters wherever I went for days on end.>
She was completely different from the Blood Demons I knew from novels.>
What even was a Blood Demon?>
Wasn’t it some madman trying to flood the world with blood?>
It turned out the current Blood Demon had inherited incomplete martial arts because the previous one had died suddenly from illness.>
The wicked followers who once worshipped only the old Blood Demon had all left in disappointment, leaving behind just the Blood Demon Corps…>
With such a pitiful situation, I decided to fight her again.>
“Fine. Fine… I’ll fight again. Come.”>
Jeok Hwa-ryeon had grown a little stronger, but she still couldn’t stand against me.>
“How are you so strong…”>
“Blood Demon, why do you hold that sword?”>
“Why… for the revival of the Blood Sect and my master…”>
“I hold the sword because I want to become the sky.”>
The sky was Namgung, and Namgung was also the sky.>
The instant I understood its true essence, I learned the unknown Heaven-Destroying Sword and casually used the Imperial Sword Form.>
“The first Blood Demon probably thought he could wash the world with blood. I don’t know what he wanted to wash, but Jeok Hwa-ryeon, you haven’t truly understood the original intent because you’ve been obsessed only with the revival of the Blood Sect.”>
Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s eyes changed after my words, as if she had gained some realization.>
“I really… can’t win. I give up… I give up!! This era can never dominate the Murim.”>
Jeok Hwa-ryeon collapsed to the ground and sulked, then herself set down the Blood Demon Sword.>
“M-Master!”>
“It’s fine. If that guy just wanted to die, I’d be in the Yellow Springs too, along with everyone else. Unifying the Murim in this lifetime is impossible.”>
The Blood Demon Corps panicked over Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s surrender, but she spoke with brazen arrogance.>
‘I let go of the sword along with the responsibility and duty that had bound me.’>
“So, what’s your name?”>
“Namgung Cheon.”>
“Namgung Cheon… the sky of the Namgung Clan. Good. Will you marry me?”>
“W-what…?”>
“No, from the righteous path to the demonic path. Aren’t you curious? How strong will the child born between the Heavenly Wolf Sword Demon Namgung Cheon and the Blood Demon Jeok Hwa-ryeon be?”>
Jeok Hwa-ryeon said with a triumphant expression.>
“Does that mean you accept me and my family?”>
The life I had been living in a special forces unit had long since ended.>
I missed my parents and little sister so dearly, but now I had to live as a complete Murim person.>
After abandoning the family and being pursued by the Blood Demon Corps, I finally realized the truth.>
‘Living alone is inconvenient.’>
If I had harbored malice and spread the Heavenly Net, I might have been unable to use the bathroom and had to sleep on the ground for weeks while fleeing.>
No matter how strong I became, overwhelming a majority was still impossible.>
“Family… yes. I want a family.”>
“That’s all I need. Jeok Hwa-ryeon.”>
I lifted the veil covering Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s face.>
A high nose bridge and blood-red eyes.>
Lips that glowed with seductive allure curved into a smile.>
A beauty so exquisite it could make the world stop in its tracks.>
“See? You did well promising to marry me.”>
“Ugh…”>
Her triumphant words made me unconsciously affirm it too.>
I had once heard rumors that the first Blood Demon, despite being male, looked like a gigolo.>
Was that true?>
Even now, I still don’t know why I fell for Jeok Hwa-ryeon, a Blood Demon I didn’t even know by face, in an instant.>
It could have been the sense of loss for my family, or perhaps the pure humanity she and the Blood Demon Corps showed me.>
I had never seen such people treating child abuse and the casual killing of children as normal, even though I had been looking down on them as if they weren’t even human.>
Time passed by so quickly I barely noticed.>
One year later, we held a wedding ceremony.>
The furious Namgung Clan Head and my half-brother came to find me, but after tearing their arms off and destroying their dantian, I sent them back, and the Namgung Clan never came looking for me again.>
The Murim Alliance Leader who had once lost to me also saw me paired with Hwa-ryeon, clutched his head in despair, clinked glasses with me in a toast of lament, and occasionally came to drink.>
“Honey, what should we name our child?”>
Jeok Hwa-ryeon asked while gazing at her swollen belly.>
“Hwa-ryeon, let’s name it whatever you want.”>
“Then… let’s call it So-ye… So-ye.”>
“So-ye? That’s cute.”>
“Isn’t it?”>
Later, I learned the truth: even after revealing herself as a Blood Demon, Jeok Hwa-ryeon had been suffering for days because I hadn’t killed her.>
It was strange how a representative of the righteous path like me had been spared, yet the Blood Demon Corps had been so frustrated they chased me relentlessly and lost again in a daze during our first fight—but they had seen me offering advice and realized the man with the same eyes was looking at them as fellow humans.>
No matter whether it was the righteous path, demonic path, or even the Blood Sect trying to flood the world with blood, that man was still looking at them the same way.>
That was the decisive reason I had asked her to marry me.>
I lay in bed and smiled at the sleeping Jeok Hwa-ryeon.>
I was already living a happy life without saying a word.>
I wondered how beautiful our future child would be.>
I was a little worried, but I was sure we could overcome any hardship.>
“If only these moments could last forever…”>
That hope of mine was shattered in an instant.>
“Here…?”>
When I opened my eyes, I was in yet another world.