Arrogance and Sloth (4)
The heart of Gwilyeongsan, Mujuhyeol.
It was a scene that had already crossed into another world, far beyond the reach of human hands.
Thick fog slithered across the ground like venomous serpents, and the air hung heavy with the metallic stench of blood and the thick aura of malice.
At the center of that space stood beings so monstrous they defied imagination.
KWAAAAAANG!
Three colossal yokai stood in a perfect triangle.
The demonic energy radiating from their bodies weighed down on the entire mountain like an avalanche.
The first was a pitch-black wolf-like beast. Its shoulder height alone was twice that of a grown man. Every strand of its fur was obsidian, yet the tips shimmered with a silvery hue. With every movement, faint bolts of silver lightning crackled along those silver tips. Its eyes burned a savage crimson, and faint sparks of electricity danced from its snarling maw as it growled low.
The second was a gigantic serpent with three heads. Each head bore scales of a different color. The three necks twisted and writhed around one another; when the creature slammed its tail against the ground, the earth itself trembled. Its body was so thick that several adult men linking arms could not encircle it, and its scales looked as hard as solid rock.
The third was a massive, ferocious toad covered in writhing tentacles. Its bulk rivaled a boulder, and its swollen, dark-blue hide rippled with every breath. Dozens of irregular eyes blinked across its back, while crimson tentacles sprouted from various parts of its body, slithering across the ground like living snakes. Viscous, energy-laden mucus dripped from their tips.
All three were powerful entities at the level of great yokai.
They stood in a triangular formation as if the arrangement had been prepared long ago.
At the very center where their energies intersected, a single egg radiated an intense glow.
The egg was transparent like crystal. Inside, something stirred slowly. Gentle pulses of light traveled across its shell in a steady rhythm, like the beating of a living heart.
This was the divine beast that would soon awaken.
Before that mystical egg stood a young martial artist who looked no older than twenty. His eyes gleamed with ambition.
“Kuhahaha! At last, it’s almost complete.”
His gaze shifted toward the sorcerer beside him.
The old sorcerer was bound to an altar inscribed with complex barriers and talismans, completely immobilized. His arms and legs were tied with red ropes, and massive acupuncture needles pierced his forearms, thighs, shoulders, and even his chest. Those needles were ritual weapons designed to seal the flow of internal energy.
The old man’s meridians were utterly blocked. He could not even twitch a single finger.
“Rejoice, Master. The time has come for me to complete your research.”
Shockingly, the young man called the elderly sorcerer his master.
In the gangho, a master was akin to a parent.
To have subdued such a figure in such a ruthless manner—
The old sorcerer coughed up blood and cried out in agony.
“Cough! So Ji-myeong! Stop this now…”
The sorcerer was a hunchback, his back bent at a grotesque angle. It was not from torture, but a congenital condition. One shoulder sloped sharply downward, his limbs were withered and bony, and his face was a horrifying mess of deep wrinkles and liver spots.
So Ji-myeong looked down at his own master as if he were nothing more than an insect.
“Kuhuhu! Consider it an honor to witness this moment with your own eyes, old man. If I didn’t still need your vital essence, I would have killed you long ago.”
He no longer showed even the minimum respect due to a former teacher.
The elderly sorcerer simply closed his eyes in exhaustion.
He was already closer to death than life. His body resembled a withered tree stripped of all vitality, and his breathing was faint and precarious.
At that moment, the air within Mujuhyeol shook once more.
All three yokai lifted their heads at once, staring at the egg and letting out low, mournful howls.
KWAAAAAARRRR!!
The energy pouring from the egg grew increasingly intense.
As time passed, the egg began to show a clear change.
What had once been transparent and radiated a sacred aura slowly became stained with darkness. Like ink spreading through clear water, the pure spiritual energy was being corrupted by black demonic qi.
The egg’s pulses grew violent. The once clear and gentle energy took on a sinister, foul nature.
With every throb, the surrounding air rippled, sending grotesque waves in every direction.
“Kuhuhu! Yes, that’s it.”
So Ji-myeong’s lips stretched into a grin so wide they looked ready to tear.
His eyes burned red with excitement.
“With this, I will become an existence that surpasses my previous life.”
He pointed at the egg with a trembling finger and shouted in ecstasy.
“Corrupt further! Deeper! Blacker…!”
Before he could even finish speaking, the three great yokai howled in unison once again.
KWAAAAAARRRR!!
They instinctively sensed the egg’s corruption. The energy gradually turning into a demonic creature felt like the sweetest fragrance to them.
But at that very moment—
RUMBLEEEEE!
A tremor traveled through the earth from far away.
So Ji-myeong’s expression hardened instantly as he scanned the surroundings.
“What is that? What’s happening?”
His eyes narrowed to slits.
An unfamiliar presence was rapidly approaching.
Soon after, a tremendous roar erupted from outside.
BOOOOOOM!
The barrier shattered, and yokai poured in like a tidal wave.
KWAAAAAAAH!
GRRRRRR!
Grotesque birds that split the sky, malformed monsters crawling across the ground, and spectral figures resembling humans—all of them charged toward Mujuhyeol in a frenzied horde.
Dozens, no, hundreds of yokai rushed forward in a mad stampede.
“How dare you!”
So Ji-myeong’s voice thundered through the cavern.
“Insignificant little creatures dare bare their claws before me? Slaughter them all!”
At his command, the martial artists surrounding him sprang into action.
Dozens of warriors unleashed their techniques at once.
Excluding So Ji-myeong himself, every one of them was an expert at the Peak realm. Their internal energy carried unique properties specifically tuned to combat yokai.
BANG!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
[KRRRAAAAH!]
[KIIIEEEEK!!]
The incoming yokai were sliced apart in an instant. Every arc of a sword sent their bodies exploding into gray mucus and blood.
“Insolent vermin, daring to challenge me!”
So Ji-myeong flicked his wrist once, severing the neck of a massive monstrous bird that had lunged at him in a single clean stroke.
SWWWWISH!
When he swung his sword in a wide arc, the explosive force that erupted sliced through every yokai in the vicinity at once.
BOOM!
After dozens of yokai were butchered in the blink of an eye, the rest hesitated, fear finally taking hold.
GRRRRRR!
Before the brutal massacre, the yokai began to slowly retreat.
A few hid themselves back within the fog, growling, but none dared charge again.
“You idiots! You couldn’t even guard a single boundary properly?”
So Ji-myeong ground his teeth and glared at the cultists standing behind him.
“To let these filthy things reach this far! Are your eyes just for decoration?”
The subordinates lowered their heads, sweating profusely.
“Forgive us, Young Master. We never imagined the barrier would collapse…”
“Shut your mouths. Useless fools!”
When So Ji-myeong stretched out his hand, something bizarre began to happen.
Flames suddenly erupted from his subordinates’ bodies, releasing an intense heat in an instant.
WHOOOOSH!
“AAAAAARGH!”
Those set ablaze rolled across the ground in agony, but the flames refused to extinguish. In the end, every last one of them was reduced to blackened ash.
The old sorcerer watching this let out a tormented scream.
“No! Why! How could you!”
Even at his master’s desperate cry, So Ji-myeong remained coldly indifferent.
“They were nothing but baggage now that we’ve come this far. I no longer have any use for them!”
It was then that a voice echoed from the far side of the cave.
“So that’s how it is.”
So Ji-myeong’s head snapped up.
An unfamiliar presence. An unknown voice. A strange energy.
“Who goes there!”
He roared like thunder.
At the edge of his vision stood a man faintly illuminated by moonlight.
Seomun Hwan had already infiltrated the area.
He stood there as casually as if he had been present from the very beginning. With a relaxed expression, he observed So Ji-myeong and the old sorcerer, then rolled his eyes slightly and spoke.
“I wondered who could have created such a formation. So it was the remnants of the Mosan Sect?”
A slow smile crept across Seomun Hwan’s lips.
The old sorcerer had massive needles driven into his body, his internal energy completely sealed, barely clinging to life. Yet Seomun Hwan recognized him instantly.
“Mok Sa-cheon, former leader of the Mosan Sect.”
Seomun Hwan tilted his head.
“I was certain you were dead.”
It was an unexpected face.
The leader of the Mosan Sect, a faction that specialized in sorcery. While his level of sorcery had been no match for Hwan, in terms of sheer knowledge, even Hwan had to admit the old man surpassed him. He had been such a nuisance that Hwan had personally taken his life in the past.
And now here he was, alive and standing before him once again.
“…Do you know this old one?”
Mok Sa-cheon’s voice was faint, on the verge of death.
Seomun Hwan turned his gaze to So Ji-myeong standing beside the old man.
He looked no older than twenty. Yet the aura emanating from him was anything but ordinary.
Was there someone like this in the gangho?
The most outstanding rising stars Hwan had seen were Namgung Cheon-hwi and Moyong Gwang. Yet the young man before him seemed far stronger than either of them.
Could he have undergone Rejuvenation?
With his current internal energy, this was not an opponent he could handle lightly.
In that case…
Seomun Hwan drew his sword and shouted in the manner of a righteous hero.
“I am the Divine Condor Hero, Seomun Hwan! I came after hearing that wicked yokai were running rampant! Who are you people to cause such a disturbance?!”
He looked exactly like an arrogant, spirited young hero in his early twenties.
As expected, So Ji-myeong snorted at the sight of him.
“Divine Condor Hero? Heh heh heh! I’ve heard the rumors. So the new rising star of the ruined Kunlun Sect has finally shown himself.”
Having learned his identity, So Ji-myeong laughed with genuine amusement as he looked Seomun Hwan up and down.
“The heir of Kunlun walking straight into my lair… Now this is a rare spectacle. But tell me… was Taeheo Singeom really still alive? I always thought those were nothing but empty rumors.”
“…”
“I remember him. Quite the impressive old man. The sight of him gouging out his own eyes, losing an arm, and throwing himself off a cliff is still vivid in my mind.”
Seomun Hwan’s eyes flashed.
A sudden sense of unease washed over him.
“How… could you possibly know that?”
The final moments of Taeheo Singeom were something only he should have known. Yet So Ji-myeong was describing the scene with far too much ease.
It didn’t sound like something he had heard from another. It sounded like he had witnessed it himself.
“There was definitely no one else around at the time.”
In response to the question, So Ji-myeong slowly twisted his lips into a smile.
That smile was arrogant—and at the same time, deeply unsettling.
And for some reason, it felt eerily familiar.
“Why? Does it bother you that I know too much? That I know things only your master should know?”
“…”
“Puhaha! Of course I do. Because…”
So Ji-myeong’s eyes grew chillingly cold.
“I’m the one who did that to your master.”
Seomun Hwan’s pupils trembled faintly.
“What?”
It was undoubtedly his past self—Hwanma—who had defeated Taeheo Singeom.
So why was So Ji-myeong claiming he had done it?
Was it simply a lie?
But he spoke with far too much confidence for that.
“Don’t tell me…”
A truly shocking hypothesis flashed through his mind.
At that moment, a strange wave of energy erupted from So Ji-myeong’s body.
For an instant, it felt as though even the demonic energy filling Mujuhyeol had fallen silent.
His black cloak fluttered wildly despite the lack of wind, and thick malevolent energy began rising from its edges.
“Heh heh heh… You still don’t understand?”
His voice rang low yet clear throughout the space.
“I am…”
He raised a hand and pointed at his own heart.
There, a strangely twisted pattern was faintly glowing beneath his skin.
“The reincarnation of the one and only Phantom Demon.”