Chapter 397

The Azure Wolf Festival was beginning.

Had they said there was only one day left? This was after the Moon Immortal Sword had shown up, needlessly poured oil on the fire, and left.

—Which masterpiece is better?

His own disciple.

Or me, the one said to have inherited the Sword Saint’s legacy.

That simple, childish question about which of us was superior.

At those petty words, I reacted without even realizing it.

I’ve gone mad.

Yeah. I had.

There was no way I would have gotten tangled up in something like this if I hadn’t.

To hell with the Azure Wolf Festival.

The contest for Young Sect Leader? Ridiculous. I wasn’t curious about that in the slightest, and I didn’t want to know either.

The Silver Moon Sword?

The same went for that bastard’s identity. Normally, I wouldn’t have taken any interest in a person like that either.

Bow Ghost, the Death King.

I’d had more than enough of getting involved with bizarre things. The same should have applied to the Silver Moon Sword.

So what if he’s the Moon Immortal Sword’s disciple?

A masterpiece worthy of the Moon Immortal Sword’s proud declaration? A monster with exceptional talent?

What do I care?

Whatever such a person was trying to do, it should have had nothing to do with me.

...That’s how it should have been.

Where had it all gone wrong?

“Damn it...”

Where had it gone wrong? Yucheon Gil. Everything had started going wrong the moment I met that old man.

And at this point, the problem was just me.

“Idiot. I’m an idiot.”

And a complete one at that.

There I was, some fool who had caught a strange fever.

“Why am I getting worked up over this?”

Since when had I ever been a martial artist?

All I’d wanted was to live a quiet life, and somehow that goal had gotten twisted far beyond recognition.

...At this rate, it would’ve been better to get tangled up with an evil ghost instead.

In a world where blades and blood flew everywhere, I wanted to dig my way right into the center of it.

Have I lost my mind?

If Chief Baek or my grandmother from my previous life had known, they would have laughed at me.

After all that talk about wanting to live an ordinary life, this was what I was doing now.

“Ha.”

I let out a self-mocking laugh.

And even then, something inside me was speaking.

—But it’s fun, isn’t it?

Aren’t you enjoying it too?

“...”

I ran a hand back through my hair. Someone passed through my blue eyes.

Yucheon Gil, grinning at me in that unpleasant way of his.

That damned old man.

He was definitely hiding somewhere, cooking up some bizarre scheme again. If not, there was no way things would have ended up like this.

“...Hoo.”

I let out a sigh.

It was a sigh steeped in every kind of emotion.

And the biggest of them was acceptance.

Accepting that I had gone mad.

That was the acceptance I’d just reached.

“I came to a mad world, so I went mad too.”

That was how I consoled myself.

I turned my eyes toward the window.

On a night with a blue moon hanging overhead, light filtered in through the gap in the frame.

“...”

I stared at it for a while, then lay down on the bed.

There’s too much to think about.

Bow Ghost. The Death King. The Tyrant. The Murim Alliance. The Young Sect Leader.

And—

My brother.

The Bang Family’s young patriarch. Even the matter of my infuriating older brother getting tangled up with the supreme master of assassination.

There was this much I needed to look into.

And even knowing that—

Right now, I was only looking at what lay directly in front of me. It really didn’t suit me at all.

Normally, I would have set a plan and followed it through exactly.

I’ve been tainted.

—What are you hesitating over?

Everything.

—Just do what you want.

That old man rubbed off on me.

Thinking of that broad-shouldered man with blue eyes, I closed mine.

What I wanted to do right now.

Without realizing it, I was already heading toward it.

*****

“...”

I opened my eyes. Before I knew it, I had crawled back into the dream-vision from yesterday.

“...”

With calm eyes, I looked ahead. It was the same again. Amid a field of mangled corpses, Yucheon Gil was sitting on the rock.

The young Yucheon Gil looked at me.

I focused on that gaze.

“Hm...”

His gaze was different from last time.

“You... what are you?”

Even his words were different. Last time, he had recognized me. This time, it was different again.

Which meant—

His awakened mind got reset again.

Last time, the dream-vision had shattered, and he had seemed to awaken on his own. It looked like things had changed again after that.

Even so—

Shrrng.

I drew my sword.

Then I looked at Yucheon Gil and reminded myself:

Nothing changes.

There was only one thing I had to do anyway.

“Hm?”

At my attitude, Yucheon Gil tilted his head.

“You’ve got spirit. So you want to give it a try?”

The instant I drew my sword, a smile rose to his lips.

Creeeak.

The massive sword at his side came into his hand. It wasn’t the Full Moon.

It was just a gigantic sword.

Not posture.

The sword itself.

Gripping it, Yucheon Gil rushed me in an instant.

The moon split, and the blade flashed into view.

CRACKLE—!!

By then, my body was already activating Moonbolt.

The Azure Moon Heart Art coursed through every meridian in my body. I felt my body grow light, and my mind slipped into a state of complete absorption.

Moon Eye grasped Yucheon Gil’s sword path.

Whoosh—!

I dodged the strike. The sword brushed my cheek.

At once, I twisted my waist with the recoil. Blue force sank into the Divine Sword.

Moon Wave.

Just as I was about to fire the crescent slash at Yucheon Gil—

Slice—!

My field of vision split in half.

“...”

Staggering, I tried to regain my stance.

“You... what are you?”

That same voice sank into my ears.

Yucheon Gil was sitting far away, back in the spot where he had originally been.

“Ah.”

I died. It looked like Moon Wave had failed and I died.

Good.

“This isn’t it.”

I stacked the information into my head.

“Yeah. This is it.”

With a smile twisted through that sickening, nauseating sensation, I laughed. Ah, right. This was it.

“What?”

Yucheon Gil narrowed his eyes at me.

At his question, I drew my sword and answered:

“It’s nothing. Nothing important.”

Crackle. This time, unlike before, I activated Moonbolt first.

“I’m just pissed off thinking about how much suffering this is going to take.”

“...Hm?”

“Let’s get moving.”

There was no time.

The night that would not end

was going to be far longer than I had imagined.

*****

Chirp—! Chirp chirp—!

I opened my eyes to the sound of birds.

Eyes heavy with exhaustion scanned the ceiling, and before long I pushed myself up.

“...Mm.”

I rose while touching my neck.

“...It’s been a while.”

How long had it been? The moment I saw that ceiling, all sorts of emotions passed through me.

How much time has passed?

In real time, at most only a few hours could have gone by. But what I felt was dozens of times longer than that.

What number was it?

My throat cut. My heart ripped out.

My waist cut through, or my body sliced apart vertically and horizontally—how many times had that happened?

Altogether, there was no way to count it.

And counting them one by one had become too revolting midway through, so I stopped.

I just knew I had died a hell of a lot.

After dying like that for a long, long time, I woke from the dream-vision.

The reason was ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) simple.

“There’s no answer.”

There was no way to beat that version of Yucheon Gil.

“There’s no strategy at all.”

Just how many times did I have to die?

And how many times did I have to throw myself at him? I had agonized over that for ages, wondering if some method would appear.

“There isn’t one. There’s nothing like that...”

He was a monster.

At least, from what I had managed to learn from the fight—

He’s thirty.

Thirty.

That Yucheon Gil was thirty years old.

That level at thirty...?

The second-generation disciples I had met at Mount Hua.

Or the second-generation disciples within the Azure Moon Sect.

Their ages were right around there.

Even the late-blooming members of the third generation would be around thirty.

But the level is completely different.

Compared to people like that, Yucheon Gil was just a monster.

A vessel destined to become the greatest under heaven.

The younger Yucheon Gil was proof that as he aged, he had only grown into even more absurd strength.

No method works.

Unlike before, when there had at least been some kind of opening, the thirty-year-old Yucheon Gil was an iron fortress itself.

No matter what methods I used, everything I had still wouldn’t reach him.

If I could at least see some kind of opening, then maybe I could try something.

At this rate, even my drive was starting to go cold.

“Damn it.”

I lay back down. I couldn’t sleep, so I tried to keep myself awake.

If I fell asleep like this, I’d see that mad monster again.

“What am I supposed to do?”

I truly didn’t know.

“...Is there really no method at all?”

Unlike before, when even brute-force methods had at least let me push through somehow, this dream-vision was truly insane.

That was the conclusion I had reached.

Maybe—

Is this just impossible at my current level?

I had entered the dream-vision, yes, but maybe at my current level there simply was no answer.

That really does seem to be it.

No matter how much I thought about it, that was it. That had to be the right answer.

“Hmmm.”

I rubbed at my face over and over with dry hands.

“No.”

I rejected that conclusion at once.

“It’s not that there’s no method.”

It wasn’t that the current me couldn’t do it.

“It’s that I haven’t found it.”

I just hadn’t found it yet.

I dragged myself back from the attempt to escape reality out of sheer frustration.

“There is a method.”

There was a way to deal with even that monster. I just hadn’t found it yet.

“Hoo.”

I had never thought I would win in a single day.

“Let’s see it through.”

I would find it, no matter what. Just as I was thinking that—

Knock knock.

I heard someone outside.

—Unit Member Bang, are you there?

“Ah, yes.”

—I’ve come under the Sect Leader’s orders. He says it’s about time you started getting ready.

“Ah...”

At the words telling me to prepare, I rose to my feet.

“I’ll get ready now.”

The Azure Wolf Festival.

It was the day I had to go there.

*****

I washed up lightly and put on the prepared martial uniform. The moment I did, I realized there was a problem.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?”

“Could you bring me a different uniform? This one doesn’t fit.”

“What do you mean by—?”

The third-generation disciple looked puzzled at my words, then checked me and froze.

“Ah... uh... ah...”

“You can fall apart later. First, I’d appreciate it if you handled this.”

“Ah... Ah! Understood...!”

I sent the disciple back after he stiffened at the sight of my face, and he brought another martial uniform.

The sleeves and pant legs didn’t fit, so I had to change into new clothes.

So this is one inconvenience.

I’d never paid attention to that kind of thing because I thought I would never grow any taller.

This was the problem caused by rebirth making my body larger.

Not bad.

Well, this was a pleasant sort of problem. I nodded to myself in satisfaction.

Once I was fully dressed—

“All right. Let’s go. Where do I need to be?”

I started moving, following the disciple.

*****

Boom—! Boom—! Boom—!

The sound of drums rang out. It was a place where the Azure Moon Sect’s disciples had gathered in force.

Every one of them wore a face full of tension and heat.

Third-generation disciples. Second-generation disciples. Even first-generation disciples, who normally would be away on missions or unseen, had gathered here.

Above them stood the elders and the Moon Immortal Sword, the Sect Leader himself.

“The disciples’ reactions are pleasing to see.”

Baekyeon said quietly while watching them, and the Moon Immortal Sword gave a slight nod at those words.

“Of the Lesser Moon Unit, everyone has entered the Azure Wolf Festival except the three currently away on top-secret missions and the Lesser Moon Unit leader.”

In the middle of that, the Lesser Moon Unit leader made the report.

Only members of the Lesser Moon Unit were permitted to attend the Azure Wolf Festival.

If possible, they had intended to recall even those away on top-secret missions and make them attend, but most of them were unable to return, so things had to proceed as they were.

“All members are assembled and ready to enter.”

“Then proceed.”

Preparations had already been completed. The moment the Moon Immortal Sword gave his permission, the Lesser Moon Unit leader shouted in a booming voice:

“All unit members! Enter—!”

With a shout filled with inner qi, the Lesser Moon Unit began walking in from the distance.

Starting from the lowest-ranked member at the very front, they entered one by one.

“...The Silver Moon Sword... He truly has returned.”

“And Moon Dancer is still...”

A pageant of blue eyes.

As the Azure Moon Sect’s elite force—the group said to be its strongest martial body—an overwhelming pressure poured off them.

Still—

“Something... feels strange.”

One of the watching disciples voiced a doubt.

“Doesn’t it seem like... like they’re watching their surroundings?”

The gazes of the disciples belonging to the Lesser Moon Unit were strange. Most of them kept glancing back behind them.

“You’re right. Why are the senior brothers acting like that...?”

The question did not last long.

“Huh...?”

“...Ah...”

At the very rear of the Lesser Moon Unit’s procession—

Step.

The sound of footsteps following them at the slowest pace rang out with unusual clarity.

Step.

A young man walking forward with a blank expression.

The moment that young man appeared, the air froze.

The atmosphere was different.

It was as though someone standing alone high above the heavens had appeared, drawing every gaze to himself.

“Who... who is that...?”

“How can someone be that handsome...? No... I’ve seen him somewhere...”

“Moon Hero...? Isn’t that Moon Hero?”

“Moon Hero?”

Moon Hero Bang Seongyeon.

He was walking forward while pouring out an overwhelming presence.

“Ha ha.”

Seeing that, the Moon Immortal Sword let out a short laugh aloud.

“...!”

Beside him, Baekyeon’s eyes widened when Baekyeon saw the smile on the Moon Immortal Sword’s face.