Chapter 159. In China.
Once we were back in the village and gathered in the assembly hall, I didn't bother hiding my displeasure.
"Coincidence or not, we're headed to China after all..."
Finding Lee Jong-hyun in that vast country wouldn't be impossible, but it would take time. We had Reni, whose tracking skills were practically a sixth sense, so running him down was still on the table. Cassius offered his opinion while I was still weighing the options.
"I know you despise the Celestials, Commander, but how about making use of them?"
"Making use of them?"
"Yes. Grab them by the throat and make them come to us."
Cassius had a point. The Celestials who had already shown themselves to me deserved to die anyway.
"Hm... not a bad idea."
Jia spoke up next, turning another possibility over in her head.
"Oppa, couldn't it end with that bastard joining forces with the Celestials?"
"Honestly, I'd prefer it if he did."
"You think so...?"
I shot Jia a sly, villainous grin.
"If they're all huddled together, they're easier to clean up in one go."
"..."
"That was a joke."
Still, the ideology of a man obsessed with "equality" and the Celestial doctrine that "all are equal under the Heaven God" really were eerily similar.
Judging by the bastard's pace, if I factored in sleep, he'd probably reach China in about two weeks, more or less.
"Sir, shouldn't we head to China before those two weeks are up, then?"
"No. We'll go once the bastard's gotten comfortable. Then we'll order those winged pigeons to track him down."
"And if even they can't find him..."
Once again, I put on a villainous smile and gave a little "what do you think" kind of shrug.
"First, I'll need to recruit brothers to stand with me from North Korea."
Lee Jong-hyun, having slipped from Cheon Sihu's grasp, fled frantically until he drew close to Pyongyang. But from what he remembered, the Cheon Sihu he'd known wouldn't bother chasing him this far.
After all, the deaths of his brothers at Cheon Sihu's hands had all come about because of commissions from the kingdoms. Naturally, Lee Jong-hyun felt not a shred of guilt for the massacres he himself had carried out.
"Tch. Foolish bastards..."
The survival skills, the swordsmanship—everything he'd relied on in his previous life came back to him, and he faced no real hardship. Whenever he was hungry, he simply hunted wild game to fill his belly.
"In the end, we banded together and enlightened an entire kingdom..."
He cloaked his deeds in self-justification, wrapping the truth in "enlightenment" rather than slaughter.
A place to realize the utopia of equality—and his first step would be North Korea. A land that professed the ideals of communism, its philosophy was different from the madness-steeped equality he pursued, yet similar enough in spirit.
But contrary to his expectations, North Korea was empty.
"Don't tell me they all starved to death?"
Convinced that true equality would have built a utopia where every belly was full, he felt genuine pity for them.
He sensed he could delay no longer and decided to cross straight into China. It would be a considerably long journey, but that didn't bother him in the slightest.
To him, this journey wasn't simply a matter of crossing a border. Enlightening the ignorant was his mission.
Over a week had passed since Lee Jong-hyun crossed into Chinese territory. Piecing things together with his meager knowledge of Chinese characters, he confirmed the place was the city of Chengde.
Lee Jong-hyun, who had set enlightenment as his goal, found reality falling short of expectation as he made his way toward China's capital. He had already passed through desolate, depopulated stretches while crossing North Korea, and once inside China he found almost no survivors either.
"Their population doesn't even compare to ours, so I figured there'd be a fair number of survivors..."
At first, he assumed many had simply died because of poor infrastructure. But no matter where he went, the thronging survivors he'd expected were nowhere to be found. That thought lingered as he used the mountains to pass through Chengde and continued until he entered Beijing.
He realized there was no point in wandering without a plan. He began passing the time in a shabby cabin halfway up a mountain. Surrounded by serene scenery, his eyes were heavy with exhaustion, but his inner conviction remained unshaken.
"Compared to my previous life, this power is pitifully weak... but my conviction will not be broken."
Today, as always, he solved his food problem by hunting wild game. But the stillness was soon shattered. Along with a faint whisper of wind, a strangely tense energy began coiling through the air.
"What is this...?"
He couldn't place it, but the flow of the air had changed. Sensing something off, he stepped outside the cabin and looked around—and saw an intense light. At any other time that wouldn't have been strange, but a light like that in the middle of the night made no sense.
When the light faded, he beheld Celestials—beings he'd only ever heard rumor of in his previous life. Their forms resembled humans, but the most striking difference was the wings on their backs.
The Celestial at the very front looked down at Lee Jong-hyun with open contempt and muttered to himself.
"Hmm... there shouldn't be any humans around here. Why are you here?"
Realizing at last why there had been no humans, Lee Jong-hyun concealed his surprise. And for some reason, their words reached his ears in Korean.
'So it really was them...'
He'd already heard countless rumors about the Celestials, and he could feel it now. Their power clearly surpassed anything he could handle. Lee Jong-hyun had no choice but to acknowledge that fact.
And one of the rumors he'd heard was—
'All things are equal—except for God...'
It was similar to the equality he championed, yet utterly different from true equality. They set themselves up as God's agents and spouted the sophistry that all beings except God were equal.
Having already been broken once by Cheon Sihu, he kept his true thoughts hidden for the moment.
"Can you not hear me?"
The voice rang clear and resonant, but to Lee Jong-hyun it only sounded like arrogance made audible. He lowered his eyes and adopted a humble demeanor. Knowing he couldn't defeat the Celestials, he needed to lower their guard first.
"I was running from the zombies... and I ended up here..."
He disguised himself as a survivor who had barely managed to flee the zombies. The Celestial regarded Lee Jong-hyun with an utterly unimpressed expression.
"Angels... please, just help me once... if you help me, I'll live always giving thanks to God!"
At the mention of God, a smile began to spread across the face of the one standing at the head of the group.
"That is correct. Our God bestows loving mercy upon all who worship him."
"..."
Outwardly he seemed to sympathize with the creed of "equality except for God," but deep in his heart he was already waiting for the day he could drag them down.
'One day, you bastards too...'
Hiding his true feelings, he felt relieved to have found a place where he could hide from Cheon Sihu.
But the unfortunate truth was that the clash between the Yearning and his ego had erased a considerable portion of Cheon Sihu's memories. He didn't know what had transpired between Cheon Sihu and the Celestials, nor did he know that even the Celestials couldn't handle Cheon Sihu.
I was looking at the calendar. The day we were set to head for China was right around the corner. The two women who were the only survivors of Lee Jong-hyun's group were adapting well to the village. Something was beginning to flicker between them and Min-cheol and Seok-hyeon, but that was their business to sort out for themselves.
"Old man, we ought to start heading out soon, don't you think?"
"Yes, I'll tell them to get ready ahead of time."
Reni cut into our conversation.
"Commander! So we just need to find the owner of that smell, right?"
"That's right."
I answered while stroking Reni's hair. Even among beastkin, her talent for tracking people by scent was exceptional. I once asked her how she was so good at it, and she said it had always been like that and she didn't really know herself.
'That was such a Reni answer.'
"Commander, how do you plan to organize the personnel for this mission?"
"Those two women, Reni, the old man, and me—that should be enough, don't you think?"
"Understood."
We'd been talking about going forever, and now we were really going. When I informed the British and American sides, they asked if there was anything they could do to help. I told them we weren't going to fight a war, just making a brief visit, but they didn't look particularly convinced.
Finally, just before departure, we gathered in the assembly hall. The president voiced a question.
"By the way, Representative, how exactly do you intend to find the Celestials in that vast Chinese land?"
"I'll make them come to us."
"Is that possible?"
The Celestials react with extreme sensitivity to the presence called "me"—more than to anything else. If I flared my presence in the middle of China where they dwell, they'd come seeking me out as their highest priority.
Cassius spoke carefully.
"If the Celestials come looking for us first, their plan will be obvious."
Given the Celestials' nature, they'd never submit completely. They'd try to preserve as much of their pride as possible.
"Even so, we'll have to steer the situation in the direction we want."
Jia still wore a worried expression.
"Honestly, I talked it over with Chaeyeon-unnie, and wouldn't we just get in the way if we came along...? They'll have the numerical advantage too."
I smiled and said,
"Numbers don't matter. What matters is that I already know what they're afraid of."
Cassius looked at the two of them as well and smiled.
"That's right. Just having you ladies at the Commander's side is enough."
"..."
"Is that so..."
Cassius's words were apparently embarrassingly corny, because both of them turned red.
"I understand what the ladies are worried about, but the choice always lies with the Commander regardless."
"Whether to bring them to the negotiating table, or to eliminate them."
At my words, the assembly hall fell silent for a moment.
Everyone seemed to feel the weight of what I'd said.
"Well then, let's start getting underway."