Arrogance and Sloth (7)
"What did you say?"
Mok Sa-cheon's eyes snapped wide open. The statement was so unexpected that his reaction was violently intense.
"You want me to serve you?"
Seomun Hwan nodded with an utterly indifferent attitude.
"That's right. Haven't you already lost everything? But if I help you, that can change."
Mok Sa-cheon's expression twisted into a complicated knot.
"You mean for me to bow my head to you?"
Seomun Hwan smiled with leisurely confidence.
"Yes. I'm giving you a chance to rise again."
At those words, Mok Sa-cheon stood frozen in a daze for a moment before his voice began to tremble.
"You bastard... Phantom Demon......"
Mok Sa-cheon's voice was low and quivering.
Yet that tremor didn't stem from fear. It arose from deep, seething rage and hatred.
"I still haven't forgotten the day you stormed into the Mosan Sect. Everyone there was annihilated. You were the one who reduced the entire sect to ashes without leaving a single foundation stone behind."
Mok Sa-cheon's eyes burned bloodshot.
As he drew in a deep breath, the old metallic stench of blood brushed his nose like a phantom.
In his memories, the Phantom Demon of that day had been disaster itself.
The Mosan Sect's grounds had been wrapped in dozens of layers of sorcery arrays and yokai barriers, yet they tore apart like sheets of paper before him.
With nothing more than a casual flick of one finger, dozens of disciples and yokai had vomited blood and collapsed in a chain.
The expression on the Phantom Demon's face as he carried out that massacre remained vivid even now.
A perfect void, devoid of either pleasure or fury.
The face of a true demon who regarded the act of extinguishing lives as something as natural as breathing.
Even when Mok Sa-cheon summoned evil spirits and unleashed every secret art at his disposal, it had been useless.
The Phantom Demon had erased them all with a single gesture, as if they were nothing more than boring toys.
"The one who so mercilessly uprooted the foundations of a sect built over hundreds of years was you! I barely escaped, endured every humiliation imaginable to rebuild the Mosan Sect, and yet here you are again......"
Red veins stood out sharply across his eyes.
His body shook with rage, and his sorcery-infused fingers twitched as if trying to seize the air, only to stop.
His body was completely suppressed.
The realization that he could no longer harm Seomun Hwan only deepened his fury.
Yet Seomun Hwan didn't even blink.
"How amusing."
In his previous life, he had toppled countless sects.
He had shattered the balance of power and, when necessary, severed his enemies' lives through schemes and plots.
Looking back now, destroying the Jegal Clan in particular had been an act of excessive cruelty.
But the Mosan Sect had been different.
From beginning to end, they had been the worst of the unorthodox factions.
"Do you truly believe you have the right to say such things?"
Mok Sa-cheon ground his teeth.
"...What?!"
Seomun Hwan continued with a cold, mocking smile.
"Do you think you're some kind of victim? You know better than anyone what kind of sect the Mosan Sect truly was."
Seomun Hwan's gaze was ice-cold, as if regarding filth.
"A sect that raised evil yokai to slaughter people and sacrificed children as offerings whenever it suited their interests. After committing such atrocities, did you really believe you could live in peace? Your kind was destined to fall from the very beginning. If not by my hand, then by someone else's eventually."
Mok Sa-cheon's eyelids trembled violently.
"Those who build their power through force and violence will only be destroyed by the same violence in the end. I simply sped up the process. If you resent that, you should have defeated me on the spot that day."
The final words were spoken softly, yet they carried a venomous bite.
Mok Sa-cheon opened and closed his mouth as if choking, but in the end, no retort emerged.
Even as rage boiled within him, he had no choice but to acknowledge that Seomun Hwan's words rang true.
Finally, Mok Sa-cheon ground his teeth and turned his head away.
"Kugh!"
With a mixture of fury and humiliation, Mok Sa-cheon's shoulders slowly slumped.
"Is there still resentment lingering? Very well. I'll give you the chance to take your revenge."
"What?"
It was at that exact moment.
Snap!
When Seomun Hwan flicked his finger, something astonishing occurred.
The massive restraining needles embedded throughout Mok Sa-cheon's body began pulling themselves free, falling to the floor one after another.
Clang! Clang!
The metallic clatter rang out repeatedly as they struck the stone floor.
The gaping holes left behind began healing at an astonishing speed.
Even the twisted bones realigned themselves, and the torn flesh writhed like living waves, knitting back together.
Mok Sa-cheon slowly rose to his feet.
Like a sorcerer awakening from an ancient death, his aura gradually began to radiate outward.
Wooooong!
A sinister yokai energy began to seep up around him.
Mok Sa-cheon examined his own body in disbelief.
"This is......"
Even with the needles removed, the recovery rate was unnaturally fast.
It was clearly one of Seomun Hwan's tricks.
Seomun Hwan tilted his head casually.
"I'll show you the difference in our realms. So stop talking and come at me."
Mok Sa-cheon slowly clenched his fist. Veins bulged across the back of his hand, and his breathing grew ragged.
His eyes swirled with rage, shame, and wounded pride.
"...Even So Ji-myeong couldn't face me head-on."
Mok Sa-cheon's low voice carried the weight of absolute conviction.
"He only managed to defeat me by waiting for me to lower my guard and striking from behind. He knew he couldn't win otherwise."
There was unshakable pride in those words.
And why wouldn't there be? He was a Transcendent realm expert who had trained for decades.
Among sorcerers of his school, he stood at the pinnacle.
A man who had studied every existing form of sorcery and reached perfection in controlling his body's qi and blood flow.
"Your internal energy is barely at the Peak level. You only defeated So Ji-myeong by exploiting a moment of carelessness. And you think you can beat me?"
Mok Sa-cheon infused his final words with heavy pressure, as if issuing a warning.
Yet Seomun Hwan simply let out a soft chuckle.
Mockery danced in his eyes.
"So what?"
"...What?"
"Your tongue is too long. If you have time to run your mouth, use it to attack me instead. I didn't come here for a war of words."
Seomun Hwan took one step forward and lightly extended his hand into the empty air.
In that instant, the atmosphere seemed to freeze, thick with tension.
"If you were merely a regular Transcendent expert, I might not be able to win. But you're a sorcerer, aren't you? No matter the gap in our internal energy, there's no way I would lose."
Mok Sa-cheon's eyes flashed at those words.
Seomun Hwan's provocation caused decades of suppressed pride to surge toward explosion.
"Fine... don't regret this."
The moment the words left his mouth, a powerful force erupted from Mok Sa-cheon's body.
"Burning blood soul, pierce this bastard's body according to my will!"
⟨ Blood Soul Spear ⟩
A sharp incantation rang out as countless blood-red spears materialized in the air.
Clang!
The energy fused yokai power with the force of blood souls.
It was a powerful and wicked sorcery that would cause flesh and organs to rot with even the slightest graze.
"Die!"
No matter how exceptional Seomun Hwan might be, Mok Sa-cheon believed his current internal energy could never block this power.
But Seomun Hwan remained completely unshaken. He simply raised his hand slowly.
"Tsk tsk! You haven't made any progress at all. Your sorcery is always like this."
His fingertip brushed the air with microscopic precision.
Then something bizarre happened.
The blood-red spears that had been flying straight toward Seomun Hwan suddenly staggered in mid-air. As if they had lost their way, they tangled together and collapsed.
"What?!"
Mok Sa-cheon hastily redeployed his sorcery array, but the situation only deteriorated further.
The faster he cast his spells, the more chaotically the spears swirled through the air.
The incantations were completely beyond his control.
Seomun Hwan smiled with open mockery.
"The more you try to suppress sorcery with brute force, the more tangled and unstable its flow becomes. Especially with delicate, sensitive curse arts like yours. If even one formula gets disrupted, the entire thing collapses easily."
"Shut your mouth! Who do you think you're lecturing?!"
"Tsk tsk! Watch carefully. This is how sorcery is truly used."
Seomun Hwan moved his finger slowly, drawing something through the empty air.
It was a delicate motion, like carefully retying a disheveled string.
Mok Sa-cheon watched with wide eyes.
Seomun Hwan's fingertip traced the air.
The movement was neither fast nor forceful. Instead, it was soft and unhurried, like a master weaver gently handling threads on a loom.
Then the complex sorcery array Mok Sa-cheon had constructed began to unravel as if its warp threads were coming loose.
The blood-red lines of the incantation loosened one by one. The intricate knots of the barrier slowly came undone.
The taut flow of yokai energy slackened, and the tangled threads of sorcery unraveled like a ball of yarn, spilling out into the air.
Mok Sa-cheon's eyes shook violently.
"This is... impossible......"
The knots of his own sorcery, the complex form of the blood soul, weren't being forcibly torn apart or destroyed. They were unraveling with terrifying naturalness.
As if Seomun Hwan had been the one who created the sorcery in the first place, based on perfect understanding.
"It's too early to be surprised."
When Seomun Hwan slightly altered his hand movements, the unraveled skeins of yokai energy began weaving themselves back together in the air.
The thin threads intertwined to form new knots, restructuring into an entirely different flow.
In an instant, the sorcery barrier Mok Sa-cheon had controlled fell completely into Seomun Hwan's grasp.
With a mocking smile on his lips, Seomun Hwan spoke in a low voice.
"Sorcery is a power that deceives principles, alters flows, and moves the world itself. The most important factor is how deeply and accurately one understands those principles."
Finally, Seomun Hwan gently pressed down with his finger.
Crack!
The rampaging blood-red spears exploded simultaneously in the air. The backflowing yokai energy surged toward Mok Sa-cheon.
"Uaaaaagh!"
Mok Sa-cheon screamed as he collapsed to the floor.
The sorcery array surrounding his body shattered instantly. The patterns etched into his skin emitted smoke as if burning away.
He had fallen victim to his own sorcery.
Seomun Hwan asked with an expression of complete composure.
"Do you still require further proof?"
"Kugh!"
Mok Sa-cheon looked up with a face full of frustration and resentment.
He wasn't in perfect condition.
Hadn't his entire body been pierced by those sharp restraining needles just moments ago?
Even though the wounds had vanished, he could only use a fraction of his original power.
If he had been at full strength, the outcome might have been different.
"...Those would all be excuses anyway."
Regardless of his condition, his opponent was merely a Peak level martial artist.
He had been utterly crushed not in power, but in the principles and theory of sorcery.
There was no excuse he could offer.
Soon, Mok Sa-cheon asked again in an exhausted voice.
"...You want me to follow you?"
"Yes."
"Do you truly believe I hold any value to you right now?"
Seomun Hwan answered without the slightest hesitation.
"Of course. At least far more than you imagine."
Mok Sa-cheon said nothing more.
He simply stared at Seomun Hwan's face, lost deep in thought.
Yet the faint light that had rekindled in his eyes already seemed to have found its answer.
"...Very well."
"A wise choice."
Seomun Hwan raised his hand and drew something gently through the air.
In that instant, a strange wave extended from his fingertips and burrowed into Mok Sa-cheon's body like a snake.
"Ugh!"
Mok Sa-cheon's body shuddered violently.
Seomun Hwan's energy seeped along his meridians and settled deep within him.
It was no ordinary internal energy. It was a spiritual imprint.
The sorcery energy intertwined with Mok Sa-cheon's own power, winding around it like thread and connecting back to Seomun Hwan's hand.
"No, this is—?!"
Mok Sa-cheon ground his teeth, but resistance was impossible.
Seomun Hwan had begun to completely dominate him.
That energy slowly eroded his core power and took root deep inside his body.
"It's finished."
Seomun Hwan smiled as he murmured softly.
Mok Sa-cheon realized while breathing heavily.
If Seomun Hwan wished it, he could destroy his core power in an instant.
He had fallen completely into Seomun Hwan's grasp.
Their souls and energies had intertwined, forming a spiritual bond.
"Khk!"
Mok Sa-cheon glared at him fiercely, but Seomun Hwan spoke calmly.
"You didn't think I'd accept you without this level of restraint, did you?"
Theirs was not a relationship of trust or faith.
Though he appeared powerless now, Mok Sa-cheon was no ordinary figure.
Without such a safeguard, they could not work together.
"Excellent."
Seomun Hwan was wearing a satisfied smile when—
Crackle!
At the sound of something breaking, he turned his head. The spirit creature was beginning to awaken.
"Now that I think about it, that's why I came here in the first place."
He had forgotten while dealing with So Ji-myeong and then Mok Sa-cheon in succession.
The once transparent shell was now covered in a dense network of fine cracks. From within came the rhythmic throb of a pulsing heartbeat.
The light flowing along the eggshell throbbed like a heart, growing steadily stronger.
Seomun Hwan slowly twisted the corner of his mouth.
If my internal energy had been sufficient, I wouldn't have needed that little performance earlier.
Because his power had been lacking during the fight with So Ji-myeong, he had been forced to induce carelessness.
Had his internal energy been adequate, he would have simply crushed him with overwhelming force.
If I can obtain this inner core... I'll gain internal energy that would normally require decades of cultivation.
Ordinary spiritual herbs could not elevate the Phantom Demon Divine Art.
But with a spirit creature of this caliber, the story would be different.
That was why So Ji-myeong had invested several months into the endeavor.
"Hehe!"
His mouth watered at the prospect.
No matter how powerful the spirit creature, a newborn was still weak.
That was why even the yokai had competed so fiercely for this egg.
Right after hatching, it would be perfectly obtainable.
Besides, if it's a spirit creature tainted with evil energy, it doesn't matter if I have to kill it.
Seomun Hwan let out a light breath and looked at the egg once more.
It was then.
Crack!
The cracks on the egg's surface deepened, and the shell finally began to split open.
The moment of hatching had arrived.
Mok Sa-cheon lifted his head as well. Even the three yokai stretched their necks, instinctively watching the birth of the spirit creature.
"At last!"
As the egg crumbled, the form of the spirit creature inside began to reveal itself.
What appeared first was a pitch-black beak.
As if pecking its way out, the sharp beak poked slightly through a gap in the shell.
Then, with a sharp crack, pieces of the eggshell began to fall away.
The spirit creature's eyes became visible.
...Clear?
Seomun Hwan's eyebrows twitched slightly.
Since it had been contaminated with evil energy, its eyes should have been filled with ferocious malice.
Yet what appeared before him now was far too clear and transparent.
They were pure, shining eyes—like those of an innocent child.
Crack! Crackle!
Finally the eggshell split wide open, and a small body emerged from within.
"...A bird?"
It was a small, adorable bird.
Completely different from what Seomun Hwan had expected.
There was no aura of a monster tainted by evil energy, nor any heavy killing intent.
The little bird shook off the remaining eggshell fragments clinging to its body,
then tilted its head and stared straight at Seomun Hwan.
And then...
"Cheep!"
With a clear, pure cry, the tiny bird smiled at him with its eyes.
"...Huh?"
Bewilderment was written plainly across Seomun Hwan's face.
He could only stare silently at the spirit creature bird that had just smiled at him.