Chapter 804: Where is my son?

The surroundings grew dim as night fell.

It was around the time when darkness settled, waiting for the dawn that would slowly approach.

I hadn’t bothered to light a lamp. Since I hadn’t even tidied it up separately, overgrown bushes were visible.

I hadn’t been paying attention, but it seemed like I’d have to tidy it up sometime.

Of course, it wasn’t something I’d do myself…

That brat Woohyeok is sick right now, so I guess I can just order Cheoljiseon.

Anyway.

Jjireureuk-! Jjireureuk-!

It was the time when only the chirping of insects could be heard amidst the quiet atmosphere.

Lightly stepping through the bushes, I stopped somewhere.

Right next to where the moonlight shone.

I carefully stopped my steps beside it.

When did it start?

I mean, avoiding just watching the moonlight quietly, and standing beneath its light.

I already knew the reason.

It was such a ridiculous reason that I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh whenever I thought about it.

“What the fuck is this bullshit.”

I burst into a sneer, finding myself laughable. There’s no greater display of foolishness than this.

You’d think it would be okay by now. But look at me, still acting like this.

No matter how much I aged, I felt like I was still stuck in that place.

“…”

This is enough.

So, even as I tried to step into the moonlight, I felt my toes hesitate.

Seriously, there was no bullshit like this bullshit.

“Tsk.”

In the end, I pulled my feet back and stopped in place again.

It was because it was strange to be trying to do anything in particular.

Since I didn’t come here just to do things like this anyway, I just needed to get to the point.

“Hoo…”

After letting out a small sigh, I closed my eyes.

And then, I released all the senses I had bound.

Hoooong-!!

The senses I had confined through my inner energy instantly awoke. Their range rapidly expanded, and all sorts of information flooded in.

Sounds felt clearer, and even the sensation of the wind brushing against my skin was amplified, becoming much more sensitive.

It was much better than before, but the sensation was still just uncomfortable.

I wanted to stop right away, but there was something I needed to check, so I released it to the maximum.

Saaaaaaa—-!!

Jjireureuk-! Jjireureuk–!!

Countless sounds pierced my ears.

It wasn’t that sounds got louder just because my senses increased. It would be more accurate to say I could hear more sounds.

I needed to figure out from what range and at what distance they were coming.

Getting that far was still beyond my capabilities.

‘Hmm.’

After a little while, I felt a headache.

Separate from the maximization of my senses and firepower. It seemed my mind wasn’t ready to easily accept it.

Seueu.

I repeatedly took deep breaths, regulating myself from the inside.

The reason I released everything like this, when I should have been taking it slow, was simple.

‘Well then…’

I thought I might be able to figure it out by now.

‘Where could they be?’

My released senses spread out densely like a spiderweb around me. They spread out meticulously, as if determined not to leave a single gap.

Sounds, movements. Even the information contained within them.

Although it was filled with pain to accept, I endured and grasped it.

It felt like the only way I could know.

After a long while.

No, after a moment that felt like a long while.

‘Ah.’

Amidst the countless streams, I finally managed to find what I was looking for.

To put it truly, it felt like finding a tiny pearl in a field of gravel.

It was so minuscule, I wondered how I even found it.

To put it another way.

‘Is this what it takes?’

That the formation of senses needed to be this much to be graspable.

‘This is ridiculous.’

It was truly at a level that only elicited hollow laughter.

Jjirit.

“…”

I frowned at the pain I felt.

My headache was also reaching its limit.

I immediately used my energy to close my senses again.

Huuk-!!

As soon as I closed them, the information that had been pouring in stopped, and I could finally exhale the breath I’d been holding.

Wow, this is tough. If I had pushed it any further, I probably would have broken out in a cold sweat in this weather.

Shaking my head repeatedly, I brushed off the lingering effects.

I carefully opened my eyes and looked towards a certain spot.

Visually, there were only overgrown weeds and dense bushes. It looked like nothing was there.

There wasn’t even space to hide, so I wondered what could possibly be there, but…

“You’re a little late.”

My senses were clearly pointing there, so I spoke, deciding to trust them.

Then.

Seuuk.

‘Crazy.’

A human figure suddenly appeared in the seemingly empty space.

Black martial attire and snow-white skin.

Shining hair close to white, and deep black eyes that didn’t match.

A young man, appearing to be around twenty years old, materialized there.

His expression was unreadable.

It was a face that gave no clue as to what he might be thinking.

The identity of this young man was none other than the one called the Master of the Night in the current Central Plains.

The king of all assassins, the master of the Central Plains’ number one assassin squad.

An individual capable of killing anyone, including the Three Venerables, if he so desired.

He was the Dark King (暗王).

‘…Done.’

And seeing him, I too swallowed dryly and recalled.

Just as Naxi had said, the Dark King had arrived, and I had heard he was heading towards my residence.

So, I tried it just in case.

‘Did it work?’

I had located the Dark King in a spot that seemed to hold nothing.

The Dark King’s presence, which was originally impossible to even detect.

This meant I could now grasp even a sliver of it.

Perhaps the Dark King also recognized this outcome, as he watched me silently and spoke.

“It seems you have obtained a fortuitous encounter.”

As expected, he seemed to have noticed immediately.

“I managed to snag something good recently.”

“Congratulations.”

“…You don’t exactly look congratulatory, but thank you.”

There wasn’t a single change in his expression. Congratulating me in that state was incredibly awkward.

Moreover.

“Where did you leave your other eye?”

“…”

For some reason, the Dark King had a bandage over one eye.

Judging by the look of it, something seemed to have gone wrong.

“You also arrived later than the agreed time. It seems you had some business to attend to.”

“That’s correct.”

As he spoke, the Dark King stroked his bandaged eye.

“It was for a transaction.”

“A transaction?”

What could he have bought that cost him an eye?

And this transaction…

‘This means he wasn’t beaten up somewhere.’

Well, of course. The Dark King isn’t the type to get beaten up.

He’d kill someone before getting killed himself.

However, if there was a problem here…

“It seems it doesn’t regenerate?”

The fact that the Dark King’s eye wasn’t coming back to life.

He had clearly told me that he couldn’t die even if he tried.

With his absurd regenerative abilities, I thought he could just regenerate it even after giving it away.

“Yes.”

The Dark King calmly told me that it did not regenerate.

“This seems to operate independently of the curse.”

“…Is that so? Then, couldn’t he have died if things went poorly?”

A situation where his eye didn’t regenerate even after being given away.

That meant the Dark King’s goal could have been achieved.

The Dark King’s goal was death itself.

It should have been an unparalleled opportunity for someone seeking peace, so I wondered why he appeared like this.

To my question, the Dark King replied:

“That is not peace.”

“Not peace?”

“The eye isn’t gone; it was given to him. And seeking the peace you speak of from him is impossible.”

“That’s a bit difficult to understand. Could you explain it more simply?”

“If I were to give my life, just like I gave my eye, I would be ended by him and live for many more years.”

“…”

Hearing this, I furrowed my brow.

Giving one’s life doesn’t mean dying.

Rather, does it mean being ended by the other party and living a life devoid of anything?

‘What is he talking about?’

It felt like I almost understood, but not quite.

Furthermore.

‘The curse Yeon Ilcheon received was cast by Blood Demon, but for someone to break through that curse and steal an eye…’

Continuing my thoughts, I pressed the Dark King for more information.

“You said you were going somewhere. What exactly did you see?”

The Dark King, who had left saying he suddenly needed to visit the Demonic Mirror.

What on earth did he experience there to return in this state?

When I asked about it, he replied:

“I went to the Demonic Mirror of Taechen and met its master.”

The Dark King answered.

“There……”

But.

“…”

“Dark King?”

He paused mid-answer, his brow furrowing as if lost in thought.

I found the change in the Dark King’s expression curious and watched him. It was the first time I’d seen him frown like that.

After a brief moment passed.

“I see. It seems I cannot proceed further.”

“What?”

Abruptly, the Dark King uttered something strange.

Udeudeuk-!

“…!?”

He suddenly grabbed his left pinky and ring finger with his right hand and tore them off.

It happened so quickly that I couldn’t properly grasp what was going on.

“…Dark King. Why all of a sudden?”

Wondering what he was doing, I looked at the fingers the Dark King had torn off.

Chiiik-!!

“Huh?”

Suddenly, black smoke enveloped them, and the fingers simply vanished.

Seeing that, I looked back at the Dark King.

“Is it a restriction?”

“…”

He didn’t answer, but I knew the answer.

Was this the price for saying something I shouldn’t have?

Two fingers for a few words of information.

It was quite an inefficient trade. Moreover, I could tell that wasn’t martial arts.

‘More like sorcery.’

Now that I could recognize the difference between the two, I was even more certain.

That was the domain of sorcery, not martial arts.

Seueuk-!

The Dark King’s fingers healed instantly, but they didn’t regenerate.

I heard regeneration was possible, though.

“…My apologies for this.”

As I felt a pang of guilt for him losing two fingers just to answer me,

“Blood Demon’s goal is to dismantle the world’s rules.”

“What?”

As before, the Dark King suddenly began to speak again.

“He doesn’t yet have the qualification to directly head to the other world, but the time is near, and the rulers of the other world are wary of it.”

“Dark King, what are you doing right now?”

“To possess this qualification, one must first… the apostle…”

Ttuk.

This time too, he stopped mid-sentence.

And then…

Pasak-!

Without anyone touching it, his left arm below the shoulder, where the fingers were torn off, vanished entirely.

Confirming this, I spoke to him.

“Are you insane…?”

After discarding his fingers just moments ago, now he’s throwing away his entire left arm?

I was so dumbfounded, I couldn’t even think of what to say.

“That was information worth exactly one left arm.”

The Dark King remained utterly calm.

His reaction was like that, even after sending his own left arm flying before my eyes.

“I apologize that I cannot tell you everything. However, it won’t take long until you find the rest.”

“It’s not like you’re giving me homework. What is this…? Since you intend to die anyway, you don’t care about losing your arm?”

“Yes.”

“Ah?”

It was such an easy answer.

“It was the information of the lowest value I could offer.”

“…This is what you mean.”

Blood Demon’s objective.

It was too drastic a statement to casually mention after such a long absence.

‘Blood Demon’s objective…’

A monster from the past who caused calamities and bloodshed, and someone still plotting something even now.

Blood Demon’s objective, as discovered by the Dark King, is to shatter rules?

‘…Rules.’

What kind of rules could he be talking about?

And why would Blood Demon want to break them?

Questions began to sprout.

A few years ago, I too had heard about Blood Demon’s objective.

And that too, directly from him.

No, it wouldn’t be accurate to say directly from him. Because it was a different place from here.

Even so, it was undeniably Blood Demon.

He had clearly told me:

-Paradise.

That he dreamed of paradise. That it was his objective.

But if the information the Dark King brought back is indeed correct,

‘What connection do rules and paradise have?’

What relationship exists between these two things, and what could the paradise Blood Demon speaks of possibly mean?

Furthermore, the most important thing is:

‘Paradise for whom?’

The paradise Blood Demon speaks of… It was about who it was for.

“…”

I calmly shifted my thoughts.

Then, I raised my head and looked at the Dark King.

“Dark King.”

“Yes.”

“You mentioned something, didn’t you?”

“What was it?”

“About how if I made Tang Soyeol stronger, you would let me kill you. That’s what I mean.”

“Yes.”

“Could we postpone it a little longer?”

“…”

“It won’t take too long.”

No answer came.

I wasn’t speaking because I expected an answer.

Right now, I just needed to remind myself.

The task I had been putting off with the excuse that there were too many things ahead.

The most important things I needed to do.

I had to remind myself of them, and now was the time to refocus on what needed to be done for that purpose.

“I have a favor to ask.”

---

Time passed.

To be precise, two more days had passed since the Twin Phoenix Swords incident, and another day had passed since I finished selecting the members for the Sacred Dragon Unit.

Even immediately after causing the incident, I had to go to the Alliance and recruit more members.

As I mentioned last time, the problem was that although I was told to recruit ten people, the number was insufficient.

One way or another, I recruited three more to make ten.

Next, ten more were added from the Alliance’s personnel.

After completing the twenty.

The remaining five had separate business and needed to be taken along.

And so, the Sacred Dragon Unit was formed.

“We greet the Commander of the Sacred Dragon Unit.”

“…We greet the Commander.”

“Yes. Yes.”

Today was my first day reporting for duty as the Commander.

Reporting for duty. The very word itself felt incredibly crappy.

I walked through the Alliance headquarters, receiving various stares.

By this point, the incident with the Twin Phoenix Swords had already spread through rumors; they said the guy was still bedridden, unable to regain consciousness.

With the perpetrator walking around so openly in such a situation, everyone seemed to find it strange.

Even I found it strange.

I naturally expected I wouldn’t be allowed in for a while, or perhaps would be frequenting the interrogation room, but it seemed like something was being done, just as Mukyeon had said.

Thanks to that, I could still enter and exit the Alliance, and as a result…

“…We greet the Commander.”

“Yes. It’s nice to meet you.”

“This is something prepared by the Alliance…”

Before the words were even finished, I grabbed the robe handed over by a martial artist and put it on.

Peolreok-!

The robe, feeling slightly large, settled on my shoulders.

It was a robe that the Martial League only gave to Commanders.

It was made using thread from a special demonic beast.

Not only was it resistant to fire and water, but it was said that inner energy permeated it well, allowing it to be used as a shield with protective energy.

It was a high-quality item I never thought I’d wear in my life.

‘I saw Moyong Hi-ah wearing something like this, though.’

Moyong Hi-ah, given her family background, tended to wear such things.

‘A Commander’s robe.’

The sensation on my shoulders felt incredibly strange.

I never imagined I’d end up wearing something like this in my life.

In my past life, I served as a Commander in the Demonic Cult.

And now, serving as a Commander in a righteous sect.

I guess you could say I’ve come a long way.

‘I don’t know about that, but I did become a real dragon.’

After spewing some nonsense internally, I moved forward.

As soon as I put on the robe, I was guided to a place that I heard was originally used by the First Dragon Unit.

Kkiiik.

Opening the door, I saw people already gathered inside.

They were positioned neatly divided in half across the wide courtyard. It looked like one side consisted of external volunteers, and the other side was composed of people sent by the Alliance.

The atmosphere wasn’t good, as if they were facing off against each other.

Ttubeok.

Watching them, I slowly walked forward.

As soon as I arrived, all eyes turned towards me, and I calmly accepted their gazes.

Reaching the center, I put my hands behind my back and looked at the two groups.

First impressions are important, after all.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve done this, maybe I should try being a little friendly?’

Thinking that, I smiled and spoke.

“Hello?”

I said it with the utmost friendliness I could muster.

But.

Heumchit-!!

Seeing my smile, they inexplicably heightened their guard.

…Hoho, fuck.

I felt a little hurt after a long time.