“This really is a monster.”

“That hurts my feelings. I am clearly a human being, Senior.”

“...Tch.”

Clicking his tongue, Nocheonmyeong asked the question he had to ask.

“How dangerous are the Return-of-Life Society?”

“Hard to say. In my judgment, at this point in time they are not particularly dangerous.”

“And later? What exactly do they do?”

“They start a war.”

“A war?”

“Yes. At first, the Yang Empire and an Enemy State begin with a small clash. Then the scale grows, and the Moonbright Kingdom joins in. The war between the three nations expands into the martial world, and the Murim League and the Sacheon League begin fighting. Naturally, other countries that had remained silent also ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) enter the war, and in the end, nothing remains but ruins.”

“Ruins...”

“Three nations collapse, and the Murim League and the Sacheon League are both half-destroyed. Gun Mugyeol becomes the final victor and the true ruler of the martial world, but another person later rebuilds the fallen Sacheon League, dividing the martial world in two once again. Do you want me to continue after that?”

Nocheonmyeong shook his head.

“It will probably all change anyway, so what is the point of hearing it.”

“Then may I say something from my side now?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why did you kill him?”

Nocheonmyeong blinked.

“I do not know who the Society Leader of the Return-of-Life Society is. What I know are the three, perhaps four, Return Decree who serve directly under that leader.”

“...Ah...”

“I was planning to capture him and resolve some questions I have been holding onto, but now that opportunity is gone.”

“...Well... ahem.”

Nocheonmyeong walked over and threw an arm around Seol Unhwi’s shoulders.

“I did it to keep you alive.”

“...”

“It looked like he had a dagger. If that thing had flown out and injured you... eh? And what if there had been poison on it... ha... whew...”

Nocheonmyeong scratched his head.

“Sorry, you brat. That was my mistake.”

Seol Unhwi shook his head.

“It is fine. They will approach again anyway. We can capture them then.”

“He might come bowing his head instead.”

“If that happens, then the situation will change. But even then, a price must be paid.”

“So what should I do?”

“Protect my people.”

Nocheonmyeong smiled.

“Of course I will. But tell me, what did you do in that previous life of yours?”

“I unified the martial world.”

“...Oh...”

“And I learned how to play Go.”

Nocheonmyeong burst into a hollow laugh.

“Let’s go.”

“Alright.”

Seol Unhwi walked quietly, but Nocheonmyeong did not.

Perhaps it was because he was pleased to share Seol Unhwi’s secret, but during the entire return to Yangnyeong City, the smile never left his lips.

***

Clearwater Village.

Half a day on horseback from Yangnyeong City.

It was a small village, yet among the many villages belonging to Yangnyeong City, the number of people traveling to and from this place could easily be counted among the highest.

“...What will you do about the Return-of-Life Society?”

At Chief Seong’s question, Seol Unhwi gave a short reply.

“Hard to say.”

There was already plenty to do, and tracking them down one by one would be inefficient.

“For now, we will observe.”

“Understood.”

Before long, the two arrived at the entrance to the village, and someone approached them.

A middle-aged man.

He looked like an ordinary merchant, but his eyes were sharp.

The man performed a deep cupped-fist salute.

“It is an honor to meet you for the first time. I am Jeonbi, branch head of the Clearwater Village branch of Heavenly Forest.”

Seol Unhwi nodded.

“Is the black market running well?”

“Yes. Many nearby forces come to visit.”

Jeonbi explained.

“We sell information, trade goods. The name of Heavenly Forest carries quite a bit of weight.”

“That is good news.”

“In the end, it is all thanks to the Commander granting permission.”

Having said that, Jeonbi immediately continued.

“Seo Hyo asked me to convey their regards.”

“Are they doing well?”

“They are doing well, though they say they are busy.”

“That would make sense.”

Seo Hyo was effectively responsible for operating Heavenly Forest while holding the position of Vice Leader of the Heavenly Alliance.

It was only natural that they were busy. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“Can you show me what you mentioned in the letter?”

Jeonbi’s eyes lit up.

“Of course. Please come this way.”

Following Jeonbi’s lead, they arrived at a building on the outskirts of the village that looked like an abandoned house.

“You moved the location, it seems.”

“Yes. Even though it was underground, too many people passed through the area. It became necessary to relocate it.”

That made sense.

Before long, Jeonbi walked toward one side of the wall.

“From the outside, this place looks like an abandoned house.”

Jeonbi knocked on the wall.

Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.

With a rumbling sound, the wall slid open.

A hidden door.

“Please come inside.”

As they stepped in naturally, a narrow passage appeared.

A staircase leading downward.

After descending for quite a while, a wide space opened up.

An underground laboratory.

There were several rooms, and from each of them strange energy drifted out.

Jeonbi explained.

“This is the laboratory.”

Seol Unhwi looked around.

Medicinal materials were piled everywhere, and strange instruments could also be seen.

“It is over there.”

Jeonbi pointed to the innermost room.

It was sealed with an iron door.

Jeonbi opened it.

Kraaaang—

The heavy door opened with a harsh sound.

Chief Seong held his breath.

Something lay on a massive iron bed.

A person.

No, something that had once been a person.

Its entire body had turned pitch black, and its skin looked as hard as stone.

Its eyes were closed, yet its chest moved faintly.

It was alive.

“A Demonic-Path Heavenly-Man.”

Jeonbi spoke in a quiet voice.

“More precisely, it is a zombie created from a Chaotic-Heaven human.”

“A Chaotic-Heaven human...”

Seol Unhwi looked at it.

A barbarian of the northern lands.

A being from the Chaotic-Heaven Region.

They had turned it into a zombie.

“How did you obtain it?”

“We brought it from the Snow Palace.”

“Explain in detail.”

“We acquired the corpse of a Chaotic-Heaven human who died in the north through the Baekryeong Guard.”

So that was why Heavenly Forest had been acting so suspiciously.

Jeonbi continued explaining.

“Chaotic-Heaven humans naturally possess twisted heaven-and-earth spiritual qi. If that energy is used, they can move again even after death.”

“As a zombie.”

“Yes, as a zombie. But we cannot control it completely.”

Jeonbi wore an awkward expression.

“Even when we issue commands, it does not properly obey, and sometimes it runs berserk.”

“Runs berserk?”

“Yes. That is why it is currently being kept dormant.”

Jeonbi pointed at the Demonic-Path Heavenly-Man.

“In this state it cannot be used. It must be controlled perfectly, but...”

Jeonbi trailed off.

“That control is extremely difficult.”

Seol Unhwi approached the Demonic-Path Heavenly-Man and examined it closely.

Black energy seeped faintly from its entire body.

Twisted heaven-and-earth spiritual qi.

The distinctive energy of the Chaotic-Heaven humans.

Seeing it in person made it even more peculiar.

To control this...

Seol Unhwi thought carefully.

In his previous life, the Demonic-Path Heavenly-Man appeared ten years later and then vanished from the world after completely revealing itself.

That left two possibilities.

Either the control had become perfect, or another problem had occurred.

In the distant future, Yucheong boldly rebuilt the Thousand-Year Demonic Sect.

Seol Unhwi did not know every detail of that process, but he did know that Yucheong had numerous collaborators.

Heavenly Forest was one, and the Mukse Society another.

And there was no way those two organizations were the only ones.

By Seol Unhwi’s intuition, Yucheong must certainly have possessed a unit composed of Demonic-Path Heavenly-Men.

Thinking about it, Yucheong had used Yang Seoljin to seize control of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace.

At first, Seol Unhwi had believed that was because of the Heavenly-Origin Spirit hidden within the Snow Palace.

But after directly comparing the Yucheong who had hidden so much in the previous life with the Yucheong of this life who was revealing everything openly, Seol Unhwi could clearly feel the gap between the two.

The man named Yucheong never moved for the sake of gaining only one thing.

He only acted when there were at least two benefits to be gained.

If so, what else could Yucheong have gained besides the Heavenly-Origin Spirit?

The geographical advantage of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace?

No.

The Chaotic-Heaven Region.

In the end, the Demonic-Path Heavenly-Men created from Chaotic-Heaven humans had been his objective.

Yucheong had tried to eliminate Seo Hyo.

Why had he tried to kill them?

Because they had begun to harbor ambition.

They had placed their own desires into the dream Yucheong intended to realize and had begun eyeing that position, which was why he tried to kill them.

But the Demonic-Path Heavenly-Men were different.

Demonic-Path Heavenly-Men at the Heaven-and-Earth Fourfold Realm level who obeyed only commands, and Demonic-Path Heavenly-Men at the Martial God Five Realms level.

Everything connected.

In his previous life, Seol Unhwi knew nothing about the Chaotic-Heaven Region. That region had already been completely dealt with by then.

All the Chaotic-Heaven humans, numbering in the hundreds or thousands, had been eliminated, along with the Chaotic-Heaven King, and the gate through which they appeared had been sealed.

Why had it been sealed?

To monopolize it? Or because it had to be sealed?

And was the reason Seo Hyo died really so simple as merely harboring ambition?

He shook his head.

If these Demonic-Path Heavenly-Men had been Yucheong’s core force, then he would have wanted to hide that fact as much as possible.

If Yucheong was the sort of person who only acted when he could gain at least two benefits, then seen another way, it meant he required two reasons to kill someone.

This was not a stretch. The situation itself pointed that way.

In the previous life, the Celestial Way Master must have turned a blind eye to all of this.

Why had they allowed it?

Seol Unhwi stroked his chin.

Questions spawned further questions.

Some reached clear answers, while others ended only in speculation.

It was complicated, but he had already made up his mind.

Once he dealt with the matter he had postponed with Gun Mugyeol, Seol Unhwi intended to head to the Chaotic-Heaven Region.

“...Commander?”

Seol Unhwi looked at Jeonbi.

“Is something wrong?”

“I am fine.”

As he said that, Seol Unhwi looked at the Demonic-Path Heavenly-Man’s forehead.

A small talisman was attached there.

“That talisman?”

“It is a control talisman.”

“You tried to control it with a talisman?”

“Yes. We had no other method...”

Seol Unhwi shook his head.

“Talisman will not work.”

“...Pardon?”

“Although this is the first time I have seen a Chaotic-Heaven human in person, their energy is twisted heaven-and-earth spiritual qi. Something like an ordinary talisman cannot control it.”

“I see...”

“Talisman are tools that handle normal heaven-and-earth spiritual qi. If something like this had worked, that would have been the strange part.”

“...You said an ordinary talisman. Does that mean a special talisman could work?”

Seol Unhwi nodded.

To be clear, this was by no means an easy task.

Chaotic-Heaven humans were beings that possessed no reason from the outset, and the energy they used was extremely twisted.

This could not be handled through ordinary methods.

However, the sorcery arts of the Heavenly Gate might make it possible.

Their talisman were more specialized in manipulating heaven-and-earth spiritual qi than anything else. Even twisted heaven-and-earth spiritual qi might be partially controlled by them, making it possible to command a mindless zombie.

The problem was that such a feat would require someone at least at the level of the Heavenly Gate’s sect leader.

Even after only a little thought, that path was clearly far too difficult.