A record of three years.

Moon Immortal Sword received the letter Yoo Yul had brought and checked the information with a hardened expression.

It didn’t take long.

Even if it had been three years, there wasn’t that much in it.

After reading it all, Moon Immortal Sword looked at Yoo Yul.

His narrow eyes curved like crescents as he smiled.

Watching him, Moon Immortal Sword asked,

“So that is why you requested to return. What exactly do you mean when you say his movements have become strange?”

The final line.

The reason Yoo Yul had returned to Blue Moon Sect was what mattered.

One of the Five Kings of the World.

The Evil King, Hyeonhwa.

He was one of the figures who had shut himself away in the mountains years ago and vanished from sight, and considering the organization he belonged to and the things he had been doing, he was someone worth keeping an eye on.

In the last line, Yoo Yul had written that the Evil King’s movements were strange, and that was why he had chosen to return.

“What happened?”

“...Hmm.”

At Moon Immortal Sword’s question, Yoo Yul scratched his cheek.

“I’m not entirely sure myself.”

“What?”

“The Evil King stayed at the mountaintop and never showed himself. In those three years, I only saw him with my own eyes three times.”

About once a year.

Only then had he been able to see the Evil King.

“I wrote down the other unusual details. But... the most important thing is those three times.”

That once-a-year encounter with the Evil King.

That was where the problem lay.

“Each time, the atmosphere was strange.”

“The atmosphere?”

“Yes. The atmosphere of the mountain was strange. I know the mountain itself is strange to begin with, but... especially on those days, not just the internal energy in the air, even the animals in the forest shrank back.”

As if recalling it, Yoo Yul twisted his face.

“And that was without the Evil King seeming to do anything in particular.”

“Is it possible the Evil King had noticed your movements?”

“It’s not impossible. But...”

Yoo Yul paused, then smiled again.

“That can’t be it. I’m confident, after all.”

“...”

Moon Immortal Sword nodded, as if he accepted that.

If it was Yoo Yul, he would not have been discovered.

If it was that Yoo Yul.

“So I tried to determine a little more clearly why it felt that way, but...”

Yoo Yul, who had been about to continue, hesitated for a moment.

Moon Immortal Sword did not hurry him. He simply waited.

“In the last year, a problem arose.”

“What problem?”

“Someone came looking for the Evil King.”

During all those years of observing him, not a single person had ever come there.

It was a place no one but Yoo Yul could have even approached in the first place.

And now someone else had come there?

“Did you identify them?”

Who could it have been?

Moon Immortal Sword asked, curiosity in his voice.

“...It was.”

Yoo Yul narrowed his brow as he answered.

“Gunggwi.”

“...!”

“The Heaven-Beyond-Heaven of the North Sea came looking for the Evil King.”

It was an answer Moon Immortal Sword had not expected.

*****

While Yoo Yul and Moon Immortal Sword were deep in conversation, I was outside, walking around with my aching body.

“...Ah, fuck.”

My body was still tingling.

The places Yoo Yul had hit felt awful.

It doesn’t even feel like I got hit that much.

Yeah.

How much had I even gotten hit, really?

All I had done was struggle like hell trying to counterattack, and outside of that I had done absolutely nothing.

What kind of person is he?

Seriously, what the hell was he?

It had been a while since I’d felt a wall like that.

I hadn’t run into that many sword paths recently.

And on top of that—

Not exactly my age, but still.

The age gap wasn’t even that big.

So how could he display that many sword paths?

...There aren’t even that many rumors about him, and I hadn’t paid much attention because I heard he’d been out on a mission for years.

And then he suddenly showed up and did this to me.

What the hell is he?

He was a strange son of a bitch.

There were plenty of weird bastards in the world, sure.

But there’s something especially off about him.

Not just strange.

Really strange.

And—

...He had way too much spiritual energy around him.

He didn’t look like he himself had divine power.

But for some reason, he was absolutely loaded with traces of spiritual energy.

What, did he spend years rolling around in a den of evil ghosts or something? 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

He didn’t look like he had gotten overwhelmed by them. His own force felt strong enough.

But with that much spiritual energy—

What the hell has he been doing to end up like that?

To me, it had gone way past mildly unsettling.

I don’t want to get involved with him.

His whole atmosphere was bad enough, and the spiritual energy around him was even worse.

He was exactly the kind of person I didn’t want anywhere near me if I could help it.

As I forced down the chill crawling up my skin—

“Young Master Bang...!”

I ran into Cheon Eujin, who had apparently been waiting for me.

“Ah, yes. Young Master Cheon.”

“Are you all right...?”

“Me? Nothing happened.”

All I had done was go in, explain the situation, and come back out.

What else would there be?

“...That’s a relief.”

Cheon Eujin let out a sigh of relief.

Watching him, I asked,

“What’s with that guy?”

I didn’t need to say who.

We both knew who I meant.

“...Ah, you mean Senior Brother Yoo?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t know?”

“No, it’s not that I know nothing. I know the name... but that was my first time seeing him in person.”

“That makes sense. Senior Brother Yoo has been outside Blue Moon Sect on a mission for the past three years.”

Three years.

That was a damn long time.

A long-term mission was one thing, but—

What kind of mission takes three years outside the sect?

I was curious what kind of absurd mission could drag on that long.

Just curious, though.

“I didn’t expect a guy like that to come back and pick a fight the moment he returned.”

“...Ahaha.”

If he was back, he should have quietly rested.

Why the hell did he come after me the moment he got here?

“Well... Senior Brother Yoo has always had a bit of that side to him.”

“Picking fights out of nowhere?”

“Mm... put kindly, he’s a very curious person.”

“Put less kindly, you mean he’s a weirdo and a strange bastard.”

“...Haha.”

Cheon Eujin didn’t deny it.

Just from one look, it was obvious the man was strange.

But more importantly—

He’s strong.

Strong enough that it was weird there weren’t more rumors about him.

I didn’t know whether he belonged in the ranks of the absolute masters or not, but even from crossing blades with him once, I could tell.

And it’s weird as hell that someone like that is only known this much.

He was just strange.

His very existence was strange.

“Um, Young Master Bang.”

“Yes.”

While I kept souring further and further on Yoo Yul in my head, Cheon Eujin spoke carefully.

“Senior Brother Yoo is certainly a little unusual... but he isn’t a bad person.”

“...”

At that, I stared at Cheon Eujin.

That’s interesting.

It was pretty unexpected for Cheon Eujin to take Yoo Yul’s side in a situation like this.

Because Cheon Eujin was exactly the kind of person who seemed like he would take my side no matter what.

“Do the two of you have some special relationship?”

“Hm?”

“I’m asking whether you and Yoo Yul have some kind of special relationship. Are you close?”

“Ah... not especially close.”

Cheon Eujin awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“It’s just that when I was young, he helped me a few times.”

“I see.”

He called it just a little help, but judging by his eyes, it had been something much bigger than that.

He’s not exactly a bad person, huh.

That was probably true.

More than bad, he’s just a strange bastard.

What I felt from Yoo Yul wasn’t outright hostility.

It was more like pure reluctance.

“Don’t worry. I’m annoyed because he picked a fight with me, that’s all. I’m not judging him too negatively yet.”

That was where I was at.

For now, I was only looking at the fact that he had pulled some bullshit on me.

I still didn’t know enough about him to judge anything else.

That’s the most dangerous thing, after all.

Jumping to conclusions.

Not once had that ever turned out well for me.

“Anyway. Were you waiting here just to tell me that?”

“Ah...”

So that was it.

He had been waiting to tell me not to misunderstand Yoo Yul.

That made me laugh.

Yoo Yul, huh.

What kind of man was he, exactly, that Cheon Eujin would go this far to defend him?

Now he’s got me thinking about him.

If he had just been a simple asshole, I would have let it go.

But he was too strange for that.

And on top of that—

...Somehow.

I had a very strong feeling

I was going to get tangled up with him again.

*****

Night came.

During the day, I spent my time trying to teach Myriad Blossoms Scattering Rain to that Poison Dragon bastard and then training under the Sword Emperor.

Maybe because Yoo Yul had returned, the Small Moon Unit Leader had business to attend to and couldn’t join us.

Which meant I had time for personal training.

Tap.

I lowered my sword.

My body was soaked in sweat, and rough breaths ran through all of me.

“Hoo...”

I shoved the sword back into my belt and wiped the sweat away.

This is hard.

Training wasn’t going well at all.

What should I have done?

I kept replaying the fight with Yoo Yul over and over, but the answer didn’t come right away.

That sensation.

That fight.

What I should have done then.

I still couldn’t clearly grasp it.

No.

I know. I just can’t do it.

Even if I didn’t know the action itself, the result was simple.

I should have been faster. And I should have been stronger.

The gap in strength and speed.

That had been the simple cause of everything back then.

Even after reaching Transcendent Peak, I still can’t use it properly.

That was what both Yoo Cheongil and the Sword Emperor kept telling me.

That even if my realm had risen, it still didn’t fit my body.

Then what the hell am I supposed to do about it?

They said I had to assimilate it.

Like that was easy.

If it were easy, I’d already have done it.

I knew that better than anyone.

“...Tch.”

I clicked my tongue.

Even after reaching Transcendent Peak, there were still monsters everywhere that didn’t fit the subject at all.

Funny. I didn’t know that when I was living as a third-rate martial artist.

Back when I had been a third-rate martial artist, I used to think I’d have no more wishes if I could just become second-rate.

...If I had stayed at second-rate, I’d have just been trampled like a bug.

The higher your realm rose, the more you knew the world, the more terrifying it became.

And besides—

...Those heretic bastards.

The things that had made my previous life miserable were tangled up in this too.

Which meant I couldn’t just sit around and do ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) nothing.

I don’t care about anything else.

Now that I knew they were connected to the DIVINE RELIGION, I couldn’t leave them alone.

Because it won’t stop at the world going to shit.

If I were honest, I would rather stay still.

But they would never let that happen.

And if—

If there’s someone among them who knows me.

More precisely, if there’s someone who knows who I was in my previous life—

...They’ll tear everything upside down looking for me.

Obviously.

That was what happened in my previous life too.

Tch.

I slowly rubbed the area around my heart.

At the very least, I couldn’t loosen the chain bound there anymore.

I’ve already gone too far.

If I loosened what I had barely managed to bind again—

they’ll notice.

At that point, it would stop being a question of fighting evil spirits.

“...I’ve got too much to do.”

Living comfortably, which had originally been my goal, was already ruined.

And if I wanted to live comfortably later, even then—

I have to get stronger.

I had no choice but to become greedy for strength.

That thought had just crossed my mind when—

[Ah, my whole body’s killing me.]

“...!”

A large spirit.

Yoo Cheongil, who had vanished, suddenly appeared.

“...Old man, where the hell have you been all day—”

I was just about to say something to the man who had disappeared for the entire day when—

[Found it. Let’s go.]

“...What?”

He said it out of nowhere.

Let’s go?

“Go where...?”

[I told you already.]

Yoo Cheongil spoke in that blunt tone of his.

[Reforging the Body. We have to do that.]

“...?”

Right now...?