Chapter 75: The Song of Light and Shadow (1)

“There are nine sword forms in the Demonic Heaven Arts. Starvation Death is the first form, as I’m sure you’re aware.”

“I am.”

“Next is Thirst Death.”

“Thirst Death...”

“Yes, child from outer

murim

. You’ve done a decent job of demonstrating Starvation Death. So if you devote yourself to training, you’ll be a good—”

“Hold on.” I raised my hand. “Wait a minute, please.”

I felt bad about cutting her off, but I really had to. She just sat there and tried to act like nothing had happened, but I couldn’t let her gloss over something this big.

“... What?”

“What did you just say? A

decent

job?”

The Heavenly Demon pursed her lips.

“Huh, that’s strange. I thought I did pretty well, but that was just decent to you...? Ah! I’m sorry, my pride and confidence suddenly disappeared. I feel so discouraged.”

“You...” The Heavenly Demon’s eyebrows twitched. “...Okay, I’ll admit it. You performed Starvation Death quite well. Just don’t go around and arrogantly say that you mastered the Demonic Heaven Arts.”

“What? ‘Quite well’?”

“Are you trying to ridicule me!?” the Heavenly Demon shouted. “It seems you’ll only be satisfied if I give you the Nine Bows. You really don’t know what a limit is, do you. Fine! You can be the teacher! I’ll be your disciple.”

I had her hook, line, and sinker. Now I had to gently reel her in.

“Oh, so you’re saying that you accept me as your disciple, right?” I asked, nonchalantly. “I’m not an outer disciple but an inner disciple. Your authentic, direct, inner disciple, right?”

The Heavenly Demon couldn’t answer. One second. Two seconds. After a slight pause, she said, “Refrain from chit-chatting, child. I’m going to start my lesson, so focus.”

So I’m right,

I thought.

The Heavenly Demon had forced herself to ignore what I said. She was stubborn, but it was rooted in her sincerity. I could see why she was actually hesitating.

She’ll never say that she’s going to make me her disciple.

The Heavenly Demon already considered me her disciple in her heart, but she never said it out loud. Though I never really felt it from the Guardian because I always bickered with him, it seemed that becoming master and disciple was a very serious matter to the Heavenly Demon and the people of

gangho

.

A serious relationship could sometimes be a frightening thing.

That was why the woman of the Heavenly Demon Cult didn’t declare that she was my teacher. She hadn’t even met me before this, and I wasn’t even from the Central Plains. She wasn’t sure if she could really open up to a person like me—she wasn’t sure if she could bring a little hope back into her life.

Soh Baekhyang, the leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult, was at a crossroads.

“Listen carefully. If you’re able to use Starvation Death to that level, you should be able to get something out of what I’m about to tell you. But...”

Show me the character window.

Name: Soh Baekhyang

Affection: 51

Liked genre: Murim

Disliked genre: Classics, legends, history, fairy tales

Liked characters: Grassroots, rivals

Disliked characters: Oppressors, hypocrites, bums

Liked plot points: Full power fight

Disliked plot points: Fleeing, oblivion, meaningless death

State of mind:

My disciple? It’s time to choose... N-no! That’s wrong! I should be satisfied with getting to fight Namgung Woon. I’m near the end of my life, so taking in a disciple is too greedy. I should act my age and refrain from this unsightly greed.

Her heart was the complete opposite of her calm appearance.

I suppressed a smile.

Yes, please agonize.

I got my green light.

Please be more conflicted.

I was the one who showed her the crossroads. Was she going to continue the hopeless Great War of Good and Evil with the Murim Alliance's leader? Or would she take in a disciple and ensure that the Heavenly Demon Cult’s doctrines were passed down to the next generation? What choice would allow her to avoid a meaningless death?

Please don’t give up your life like this.

Words carried no weight. They could only be used to take care of people who carried no burdens. No, they were no different from refusing to take responsibility.

Please live.

They were very empty words.

Even if the world is doomed and you’re left alone in murim, I hope you’ll still live.

No amount of words could carry weight.

I hope that I can be your reason to live a little longer.

I didn’t say these useless, meaningless words out loud. The Heavenly Demon didn’t declare that she was my teacher, likely for the same reason. Words should be tied to actions to have any sincerity or else vanish without meaning. Neither the Heavenly Demon nor I had worked hard enough to say what we wanted to say yet.

It’s not time to make up my mind,

the Heavenly Demon thought to herself.

I can’t make her choose yet,

I thought to myself.

The Heavenly Demon and I looked at each other.

“Child, you don’t look like you’re paying attention. Are you listening?”

I was watching her.

“Yes, I’m focused. What are you talking about?” I smiled gently.

“You’re serious, not joking?”

“Yes. I swear to the Jade Emperor, Yama, and everyone else.”

We exchanged glances. Unlike how hands sometimes met, glances crossed each other even after they met. In a way, glances were a bit like a person’s heart. After her and my glances crossed several times, the Heavenly Demon said, “Okay. Since you seem so confident, I think I can start your next trial right away.”

She dusted the snow off of her and strode away.

“Don’t follow me. I have a lot of work to do.”

That was all she said before she left. She walked across the snowfield, but there were no footprints left in the snow. This was Traceless Snow, a demonstration of what she had mentioned on the first day I had fallen into this world.

—I want to fight her,

the Guardian suddenly said.

I really want to fight her, just once.

I absently turned around.

What?

—

Did you stuff something in your ears? I want to have a duel with her.

It was the first time I’d seen such a look on the Guardian’s face.

—Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

The Guardian was genuinely angry.

You know what, Zombie? The demonic cult in the murim I was born in was super weak! The only joy I had was beating up those demonic cult minions! There was a guy who claimed to be Heavenly Demon, but the moment I shoved his ass into the ground, he had to change his title to Earthly Demon! Fuck! Hundreds of those so-called “grandmaster” scumbags had to change their last names because of me! Ah! Shit!

It was different from the look he’d worn when he lost our bet. He was angry, yes, and he threw a tantrum back then too, yes, but... his anger was much more intense right now.

—I'm so jealous of the Murim Alliance's leader of this world! If I were that bastard, I would say, “Let's see who leaves here alive. You or me?” Then

bam!

After that, I’ll climb up any snowy peak! Up there, I’ll have a bowl of liquor and a piece of sweet and sour pork as I look down at gangho! That’s true pleasure!

His desire to win was as raw as freshly killed meat.

—Seriously! Only if I wasn’t a ghost!

I closed my mouth and found myself slipping deep into thought. I stared blankly at the floor, my chin resting on my palm. My head was filled with thoughts. I needed help.

—Huh? Zombie, why do you look like a zombie again? Are you worried that someone won’t call you a zombie anymore? Ah, I get it. You’re sulking because I called you a sparrow. Do you want me to stick to zomsparrow?

“...That’s it.”

—What?

“That is it.” My head rose. “Miss Chemist makes the plague cure, and I’m officially recognized as the Heavenly Demon’s disciple. Those goals are all good...but I felt like something was missing. That was supposed to be the finale, but you just gave me the perfect idea.”

—Uh...

“Nice job, Mr. Sword Emperor.” I grinned.

For some reason, the Guardian backed away from me.

“What’s wrong?”

—No... It’s just... It’s like whenever you smile like that, I become disastrously unlucky. Something that’ll tarnish my reputation happens.

“I respect you very much, Mr. Sword Emperor. You know that, right?”

—Thank you. Is that my turn to vomit on your face?

I looked at the distant sky, my hands clasped behind me. “There is one unsettled debt between us.”

The Guardian froze.

—...Debt? What debt? I’ve never been in debt in my entire life. Come on, don’t start that mojo with your mouth, Gong-Ja. Don’t do that. You know, it might come back to bite you!

“‘Let’s bet how many times I’ll die until I clear the nineteenth floor,’” I quoted. “And you bet that I would die less than one hundred times. My bet was that I would die less than ninety-nine times.”

—Wait...

“Right?” I smiled, the very picture of a saint.

—Wait, that was ages ago—

“Unless my memory is failing me, it took me ninety-seven deaths. And ninety-seven is closer to ninety-nine than one hundred if my math isn’t wrong. Right?”

—...

“Mr. Sword Emperor.”

—Why do you keep doing this to me...

“Do me a favor.”

—Okay, you bastard. Shoot me. Bite me. Do whatever you want with me.

The Guardian looked like he was about to cry.

I had received an undeniable surrender.

***

The Heavenly Demon returned. She had been alone when she went into the snowfield, but she came back with company. A zombie was dangling off of her back. Just like the Palm Wind zombie, this zombie was wearing a black training suit.

“My cult has a group of elites called the Blood Demon Unit. They’re my best assassins and exist only to carry out my orders.”

In other words, fighting this zombie was going to be my second duel.

I held my holy sword and took a stance. “It was a promising Peak-Tier master last time, and it’s your best assassin now? The difficulty level certainly jumped.”

“Don’t worry. I brought you an opponent who’s at the right level for you.”

She must have scoured the snowfield and examined hundreds of zombies one by one. It would have taken a lot of work and was a deeply considerate thing to do. I gratefully accepted it as her way of complimenting me.

“What you have to demonstrate is no different from what you did this morning. Fight the

jiangshi

soldier...”

“...And only thirst and the pain of thirst should be on my mind,” I finished.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The Heavenly Demon smiled. “Precisely. I forbid any other emotion or thought to be on your mind!”

“Understood!” I charged forward. “I’ll show you this time too—”

[You have died.]

[Rewinding twenty-four hours.]

“...It’s fucking strong! Damn it!”

I did show her the quickest death in the universe. Fuck.

“Miss Chemist and Mr. Medicine King, why don’t you proceed with the research of the zombie virus cure like...”

“Wow! It’s just like my research! No, it’s like my research was decorated so beautifully that it’s practically royalty!”

“What is this? You... Death King or whatever. Are you from Silicon Valley too? This looks exactly like how I would organize something...”

First, I updated the cure research as always.

“

Monster Legion Reincarnation

!” I decided to seclude myself and train in the snow again. Just like before, I summoned Preta and the skeletons to collect the dead. Although I told them to find thirsty corpses instead of starving ones this time, the order wasn’t really that different from before.

“Go. Go and gather the thirsty corpses.”

“Yes, Master,” Preta answered.

This was where it was different from before.

“I have one more job for you all.”

Preta tilted her head. “One more job? You mean...”

“There will be martial artist

jiangshi

scattered around the area.”

I wasn’t talking about the forest of corpses I had witnessed when I had first fallen into this world. For the past three years, the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance's leader had been the only ones who fought in the Great War of Right and Evil. During the war, they had lost their subordinates’ bodies one by one. With every raging blizzard or long nights, the Heavenly Demon Cult and the Righteous Faction’s force dwindled little by little.

These missing bodies were the

jiangshi

I was talking about right now.

“Find the demons in black training suits and the warriors in white,” I said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re a hundred or three hundred meters away, send out the skeletons and find the

jiangshi

. No, actually, make a map and mark their locations.”

Preta looked puzzled. “Why are you trying to save those people, Master...?”

“Two people are still fighting in a doomed world, and they want a proper ending to their battle. Unfortunately, it’s just a pretend war in my eyes.” I looked up at the night sky where the moon hung. “Since they want a proper ending, I should give them a real war.”

“A real war?”

“Yes.” I couldn’t suppress my smile. I felt like Santa Claus getting Christmas presents ready. “I’m going to prepare a proper Great War of Good and Evil.”