Chapter 1075
Sa-u entered Langya Pavilion alongside So-jeon.
Though Neung Gak's help had cured his lung disease, that was all.
His prolonged illness had caused him to miss the crucial period when his body should have grown and developed,
and in the end, he was left with a constitution ill-suited for mastering Advanced Martial Arts.
Yet he refused to give up.
He devoted himself tirelessly to martial arts.
To transform his frail physique, he wandered through deep mountains and secluded valleys under the pretense of traveling the martial world.
Then, by chance, he discovered traces of Treasure Spirit Grass—
a rare herb said to grow only near where the Ten-Thousand-Year Child Ginseng took root.
"The Ten-Thousand-Year Child Ginseng is here."
Sa-u's expression swelled with emotion.
Peerless treasures like this could never be obtained without fate's intervention.
If he could consume it, even if not perfectly, his frail constitution might improve to some degree.
"Haa. Haa."
Without rest, Sa-u pushed through the rugged mountain terrain, searching for signs of the Child Ginseng.
"It can't really be alive and moving on its own, can it?"
Legend had it that the Ten-Thousand-Year Child Ginseng possessed spiritual awareness—that it could sense seekers and relocate itself.
"Even if that's true, there has to be an end to it."
Relentlessly, Sa-u pursued the traces of the Treasure Spirit Grass.
Finally, a sheer cliff, towering as if piercing the heavens, came into view.
The higher he climbed, the more abundant the Treasure Spirit Grass grew, and Sa-u instinctively knew—
the Child Ginseng must be atop that cliff.
"This rockface is the only way up."
Having wandered deep mountains and secluded valleys in search of spirit medicine, Sa-u was nearly as skilled as a professional herb gatherer.
But this cliff was on another level.
One misstep, and he would plummet a thousand feet to his death.
Whoosh.
Without hesitation, Sa-u reached out.
Though his body was frail, he was still a disciple of Langya Pavilion.
Fearless and unwavering, he began scaling the cliff barehanded.
Gritting his teeth through ragged breaths, surviving near-death slips time and again, he stubbornly climbed upward without pause.
"Got it."
At last, he reached the summit.
But the sight that greeted him was unexpected.
The opposite side of the cliff was another sheer drop, and the Treasure Spirit Grass stretched along the rockface below.
"Damn it all."
Sa-u carefully began descending again.
Halfway down, he froze in disbelief.
There, nestled in the damp, frigid crevice of the cliff, was a figure collapsed on the rocks.
Their robes were caked in dust and blood, the original color indiscernible.
Long, pale hair spilled across the ground as if dragged through dirt,
and their body, slumped against the rock, emitted not even the faintest whisper of breath.
'Did they fall while searching for the Child Ginseng?'
Swish. Thud.
Sa-u swiftly descended to the base of the cliff.
When he finally landed,
he saw a trail of fresh blood staining the rocks,
and at its end—a shadowy figure, still bleeding from deep, jagged wounds as if vomiting blood.
Long hair obscured their face, but
the exposed skin suggested they were not very old.
Perhaps they had already lost too much blood.
Even in the cold air, the faint metallic stench of blood lingered.
"Your body is weak."
The half-dead figure's eyes flashed through the tangled hair as they spoke to Sa-u.
"You've risked life and limb searching for spirit medicine... and followed the traces of the Ten-Thousand-Year Child Ginseng here."
Astonishingly,
they had perfectly discerned Sa-u's physical state and desperate resolve.
"Who are you?"
"Who knows."
The shadow chuckled lowly.
"A Heavenly Martial Bone, hm? Should this honored master remake that frail body of yours into perfection?"
'Honored master?'
Sa-u frowned.
"I have no intention of changing my constitution by relying on others."
"Your lung disease may be cured, but your body is thoroughly ruined from years of illness. Not to mention, both the Innate Reversal Art and the Crown-Opening Great Method failed."
Incredibly, they had grasped Sa-u's history at a glance.
"Langya Pavilion is too busy brawling day in and day out... No wonder their execution of Great Arts is lacking."
Rage flared in Sa-u's eyes.
He could endure insults to himself, but never to his sect.
"Count yourself lucky you're injured."
Sa-u had never let an insult to Langya Pavilion go unanswered.
But he couldn't bring himself to strike someone on the verge of death, so he turned to leave.
"Disaster always stems from the mouth. Had your body been intact, I would never have let this slide."
Sa-u turned away coldly.
But then—something was wrong.
Just from turning, a chill ran down his spine, and his entire body broke out in goosebumps.
When he glanced back,
the figure who had been bleeding to death
had somehow become a colossal shadow, one eye wide and blazing.
"There's no choice left."
An inhuman power that absolutely could not be refused radiated from that single, wide-open eye.
"Not a perfect vessel, but since the body is completely shattered..."
'What...?'
As Sa-u sensed the ominous aura and stepped back, the blackened, massive form that had once been a one-eyed figure swallowed him whole.
"Be grateful."
"That you shall become this venerable one's vessel."
"You think this body would fall prey to the Mind Seizing Secret Art?"
Sa-u scoffed instead.
Though his frail constitution had prevented him from deeply mastering practical martial arts, he was the one who had studied more martial secret manuals than anyone else in Langya Pavilion.
Had he not even mastered the Beast Path Secret Art—something no one had ever taught him—simply because his body was weak?
There was no way someone like him would have his mind stolen by something like the Mind Seizing Secret Art.
Zzzziiing— zzzziiing—
As his head buzzed hollowly, Sa-u realized—this shadow was not using the Mind Seizing Secret Art.
It was the ancient Soul-Crushing Secret Art.
"Preposterous."
Sa-u focused his mind, but—
The power emanating from the shadow was an unprecedented, monstrous force unlike anything he had ever experienced.
He instinctively knew there was no escaping it.
"Ghk—!"
He tried to scream, but only a metallic groan escaped his throat.
At that moment, an invisible hand shattered the locks of his mind and plunged into his deepest depths.
And like a tyrant storming a fortress—
It rampaged through Sa-u's memories, tearing them apart indiscriminately.
The accident on that cold winter's day, his memories with So-jeon... all his precious recollections collapsed helplessly.
And in their place—
Ancient wars, stars shattering, battles against incomprehensible beings—
Horrifying yet grand memories rapidly filled the void.
'Ahh...'
Sa-u's trivial joys and sorrows scattered like dust before the eternal eons contained in that single eye.
Everything that had proven his existence was being denied.
Crrrrack.
While his mind was being violated—
His flesh, as if swallowing the flames of a furnace, was melting from the inside out.
Agony seared through his entire body, as if every piece of his flesh was being disassembled and reassembled.
Muscles twisted against his will, bones screamed as they tried to escape their rightful places.
Thud-thud, thud-thud.
His heart no longer beat for Sa-u—it pounded like a drum, madly heralding the arrival of its new master.
And in that moment, he saw.
That in the end, not just himself—but even this world—
Was merely a fragment of a far greater existence.
He was no longer Sa-u. He was everything, and everything was within him.
A rapturous shudder coursed through his newly reforged body.
Even with his eyes closed, he could see all things in the world. Even with his ears covered, he could hear the whispers of the cosmos.
Flicker.
Finally, his newly tempered eyelids slowly lifted.
His pupils held the birth and death of stars within them.
The smile spreading across his lips was not the joy of a human—it was akin to the blessing bestowed by the very origin of existence.
"Ahh..."
An unbearable ecstasy surged through his entire being.
The shadow that had appeared before him—
Was no human, but a wicked demon wearing the mask of one.
How much time had passed?
Sa-u regained consciousness.
"......?"
The moment he opened his eyes, a splitting headache struck him, and nausea welled up.
The eerie euphoria he had felt moments ago was already fading—
What was this revolting, disgusting sensation now?
"Hurk—!"
In the end, Sa-u vomited ceaselessly, black liquid gushing out.
After retching for a long while, he stared down at his hands in bewilderment.
His palms were drenched in fresh blood, and fragments of human remains were wedged beneath his fingernails.
And from his throat rose a nauseating stench—metallic, mixed with the rancid odor of blood.
"What the—"
Alarmed, he quickly rose to his feet.
But something felt wrong.
His previously tall, gaunt frame, was covered in firm, elastic muscle.
And wasn't an explosive surge of energy bubbling up inside him?
"What the hell—"
Blinking rapidly, Sa-u lifted his head—and froze like ice.
Because before him lay an unbelievable sight.
Hell Island.
A hellish landscape stretched before his eyes.
The village had long lost its shape, most houses reduced to rubble.
Pillars had been uprooted entirely or split in two with terrifying precision.
Walls had crumbled into debris, and the ground was littered with dark-red soil and unrecognizable fragments.
And then there were the people—
No, they could no longer be called people.
Some were crushed beyond recognition, others charred black like lumps of coal in lingering flames.
Severed legs were trampled beneath cart wheels, skeletal hands frozen in midair as if still clawing at nothing.
Blood had pooled into stagnant puddles or seeped into the parched earth, transformed into dark crimson stains.
All that remained was a silence so suffocating it stole one's breath.
Yet there was one strange detail.
Though their bodies had been shattered beyond recognition—
their faces alone
were untouched by any wound, not even a speck of dust.
Upon those pristine faces,
only the terror of their final moments before death remained, etched with horrifying clarity.
Whoooosh...
Each time the wind swept through the ruins,
Creak... creak...
Only the desolate groaning of a broken gate echoed in response.
"This..."
Sa-u stared down at his own trembling hands.
The tips of his fingers, crusted with dried blood.
At last, he understood.
Those wretched corpses. Those traces of devastation... they had all come from his hands.
"I..."
Sa-u shook his head violently.
"You're telling me I did this?"
He staggered back, hands instinctively clutching his temples.
Grriiiind—
At that moment, his skull burned as if a rusted saw were scraping against bone—a horrific sound tearing through his eardrums.
Pain like ten thousand needles stabbing at once erupted from his temples, piercing through his entire head.
Tremble...
Unable to even groan, Sa-u's body began to convulse.
Blue veins bulged across his forehead, his eyes rolling back until only the whites were visible.
Then—fragmented shards of memory slashed through his mind like blades.
In flashes of black and white, unfamiliar faces of villagers flickered past.
Ragged breaths, the stench of blood, the clang of steel, and then—warm smiles and sorrowful tears.
These were someone else's memories.
The Baekri Clan... the True Demon...
And then, secrets and knowledge of the martial world—things he had never known—came crashing in like a tidal wave.
"Uuugh... AAAAAH!"
Sa-u let out a howl like a wounded beast.
"The Three Attendants..."
When his eyes opened again, he was on his knees, teeth clenched.
"The True Demon's servant... Pa-myeong..."
An unbearable truth had seized his spirit.
"He used my body... to slaughter all these people?"
An indescribable guilt surged through him, threatening to tear his consciousness apart.
The one who had fallen to the bottom of the cliff, dying—
The one who had called himself by the title the True Demon's followers used—
Honored Master—
That being was none other than Pa-myeong, an attendant who had yearned to become the True Demon.
Using the True Demon's Secret Arts, he had stolen Sa-u's body—
Then committed countless atrocities to restore his own ruined form.
"I became... a puppet of the devil."
Unable to bear the agony, Sa-u curled in on himself.
Zzzing—
Another memory pierced his mind.
Amid the slaughter—
A man clad in deep, all-consuming blue robes had appeared, as if he had drained the color from the world itself.
Without a word, he approached Sa-u and slowly drew the sword at his waist.
For an instant, the balance between heaven and earth seemed to shatter—
And then, a radiant light of life flooded the world.
That man in blue was no human.
He was like a celestial god descended to set the world right.
"This is not your sin."
A low, resonant voice rang out.
Though quiet, it pierced Sa-u's soul like thunder—
A single phrase of salvation, trembling like an offering to a condemned man.
SHINK!
And then, a blade had pierced his flesh.
Sa-u had thought that was his death.
But what the man in blue had severed was not his life—
It was the secret art that had bound his body to Pa-myeong's control.
When he opened his eyes, the chains that had ensnared his soul had been severed in an instant.
And Sa-u, now revived, had regained his clarity.
"Since he couldn't obtain the Chain of Reincarnation..."
Gritting his teeth against the flood of knowledge in his mind, Sa-u pressed a hand to his throbbing forehead.
Pa-myeong's possession was not a complete theft of the body—merely temporary control.
"He's refining an art... to implant his soul into another's body."
He was attempting to perfect the Soul Return Art—
A forbidden technique to transfer his soul into a living vessel, seeking immortality like the True Demon.
"No amount of death could atone for this."
Once he regained his senses,
Sa-u carefully gathered the corpses of Mokga Village's people, burying each one with reverence.
The only small mercy was that most of the village's youth had been away, gathering wood for charcoal.
"My spirit is already fractured anyway..."
Pa-myeong's incomplete Soul Return Art had left his spirit and mind in ruins.
The technique, in essence, forced open a hole in an intact soul to plant the seed of another.
That hole could never be sealed.
Before long, his spirit would collapse entirely.
And then—he would become a Killing Ghost once more, slaughtering indiscriminately.
Shhhhk—
Drawing the sword at his waist, he channeled his internal power into it with all his might.
Crunch. Thud.
The sword shattered into dozens of fragments, scattering across the ground.
Thunk. Thunk.
Sa-u picked up the broken pieces and drove them deep into his own acupoints.
To ensure there was no chance of survival.
To grant himself a perfect death.
He embedded the blade fragments into thirty-six major acupoints, piercing them as deeply as he could.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Bleeding profusely, he stood at the edge of a dizzyingly high cliff, not far from Mokga Village.
Below, a raging river churned violently, its furious waves crashing against jagged rocks that jutted from the water, creating whirlpools in their wake.
Sa-u's vacant eyes stared blankly at the sky, devoid of any spark of life.
All that remained was his seething hatred for Pa-myeong and his own self-loathing.
'I have to end my life quickly—to give even the slightest relief to the resentment of Mokga Village's people.'
Due to the Three Attendants' Great Art, his body had become unimaginably resilient.
He had reached the absolute limit of what a human could endure.
Even after executing the Forbidden Blood Needle Technique—driving sharp metal fragments into thirty-six major acupoints to sever his life force—he had still managed to climb this cliff unscathed.
Whoosh!
Drawing upon his Internal Power, Sa-u severed his Heart Meridian. His body collapsed limply, plummeting over the edge.
Splash!
A small spray of water erupted as he hit the turbulent rapids, but the river continued its relentless flow as if nothing had happened.
Sa-u's consciousness, submerged in pitch-black darkness, began to resurface.
'.......'
'Am I... still alive?'
With great effort, he forced open his leaden eyelids.
The first thing that greeted him was a suffocating darkness and a pungent, musty stench that assaulted his nostrils.
The air was thick with the scent of aged wood, dust, and stale incense—damp yet arid, seeping into his lungs.
'Ugh...'
The moment he tried to move, agony wracked his entire body as if his bones were crumbling.
At the same time, a scorching thirst burned in his throat.
'Why didn't I die?'
Fragmented memories flashed through his fading consciousness—
The dizzying height of the cliff.
The freezing river swallowing him whole.
He had been certain it was the end. And yet, here he was, still alive.
Was this, too, part of Pa-myeong's curse?
"Ugh..."
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself upright and blinked.
A bizarre sight greeted him.
Countless coffins filled the space around him.
And the surface beneath him? A mortician's table—used to prepare the dead.
'A funeral director?'
Sa-u was dumbfounded.
Did this mean he hadn't survived—but instead became a jiangshi?
"Ghk—!"
Suddenly, nausea surged. He lurched forward, burying his face into a large wooden basin, and began retching violently.
"Hah... hah..."
What he vomited was a thick, black liquid.
After expelling it for what felt like an eternity, his strength drained away, and his consciousness blurred once more.
Thud.
He collapsed, unconscious again.
Hmmmm...
At some point, a low vibration hummed in his ears.
Simultaneously, warmth began seeping into the thirty-six acupoints where he had embedded the blade fragments.
It was soothing—gentle and comforting, as if cradling his exhausted body and spirit.
Yet his mind remained foggy, and his body refused to move even a finger.
—To take one's own life is a grave sin.
A quiet sigh echoed in his ears.
—If you have sinned, you must endure suffering and pain, living to atone for your crimes. Is that not so?
'If I have sinned... I must live to atone...'
—It is only a pity that despair and sorrow have left the cracks in your Spirit and Mind unsealed.
Even in his haze, the old man's voice resonated deep within Sa-u's heart.
These were not mere words of advice.
They carried the weight of an eternal truth—piercing the very essence of redemption.
Not the judgment of man, but the mercy of a divine verdict.
'A god...'
At death's door, Sa-u had encountered the Absolute.
How much time had passed?
Gasp—!
Sa-u jolted awake, sitting up abruptly.
He was still lying on the mortician's table, surrounded by coffins.
But unlike before, the fractures in his Spirit and Mind had partially mended, and his wounds had been meticulously treated.
"This place..."
Sa-u stepped outside, pushing open the door.
His eyes lifted to the worn-out signboard hanging above the entrance. He murmured under his breath:
"Pyeong-an... Funeral Parlor."
The courtyard was stacked with urns, but there was no trace of human presence.
Judging by the rows of coffins and the shabby interior, this was clearly a place that handled the poor and those who died away from home—barely scraping by.
"Standing at the boundary between life and death..."
Even if the Heavenly Emperor himself had intervened, the holes in his Spirit and Mind, corroded by Pa-myeong, could not have been fully repaired.
And a funeral parlor was no place for the living.
"In the end... the god..."
Thud.
Sa-u fell to his knees.
Unable to bear the weight of his sins, he had sought eternal rest in the river's embrace.
But the god had decreed otherwise—
Live. Atone.
And so, from the threshold of death, he had been cast back into the world.