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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: cyno
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There exists an abyss within the human heart.
We call it the subconscious.
“Huh… First time seeing this place. My son-in-law’s subconscious, huh…?”
Jin Woo-yong’s footsteps landed on the mist-covered ground.
Unlike the hellscape of Byeok-rak’s memories or the battleground of his past lives—
This place was nothing but an empty void.
Yet Jin Woo-yong felt an even deeper eeriness in this hollow space.
An empty void was no different from the cosmos.
In some ways, it was even more grotesque than hell or war.
“There’s really nothing here. Just endless emptiness.”
But within this subconscious—
“…Except for that.”
Why was that here?
Step, step—
In the vast, empty expanse of Byeok-rak’s subconscious, as boundless as the universe itself—
There was a single, tiny sphere.
No larger than a fist, yet the light radiating from it was blinding, enough to illuminate the entire subconscious space.
Jin Woo-yong bravely approached it.
Poke—
“You, what are you?”
He prodded it with his finger.
Poke, poke—
“I asked what you are.”
Twitch—
The sphere flinched, then—
“Haaaam… I was sleeping so well. Who are you?”
Stretching out its limbs, it transformed into the figure of a little girl.
“So it wasn’t a ‘he’ but a ‘she.’”
The girl looked up at Jin Woo-yong, studying his wrinkled spiritual form before sighing.
“Oh! It’s Elder Jin Woo-yong!”
“…? You know me? I don’t know you—how do you recognize me?”
“Huh? You don’t recognize my face? Look again! Still don’t know?”
“Hmm… I’ve never seen a girl like you… Wait, why are you here?”
As Jin Woo-yong compared her face to people he knew, his expression shifted to intrigue.
The girl bore an uncanny resemblance to someone from Byeok-rak’s memories.
“You don’t need to know that yet! What’s the current timeline? If Elder Jin Woo-yong is in this man’s subconscious, it must be around the Seven Flowers Tournament, right?”
“Not ‘around’—it’s during the tournament.”
“Then that’s fine! It’s not time for me to do anything yet! I’ll just go back to sleep!”
Cheerfully declaring this, the girl curled back up.
Though she had been forced awake by Jin Woo-yong’s disturbance.
“Hey! What’s the big idea! I’m tired and need my sleep!”
“Wait, just one question.”
Jin Woo-yong slowly sifted through his memories.
Byeok-rak’s memories.
Specifically, the moment his personality had changed.
“Are you the one who changed my son-in-law’s personality?”
“Yep! That’s right!”
“…How bold.”
“It’s not like you can kill me anyway!”
The girl’s bright response sent an inexplicable chill down Jin Woo-yong’s spine.
Her cheerfulness felt artificial—unnervingly so.
“You must know about my son-in-law’s regression memories… since you live in his subconscious?”
“Of course! Aren’t they impressive?”
“…You’re not sane either, are you?”
“Thanks for the compliment!”
Staring coldly at her shadowless smile, Jin Woo-yong asked:
“There were no discrepancies in his regression memories—anyone hearing this would call it a lie.”
“Wow! Really? His memory is amazing, isn’t it?”
“But after the regression ended, during his three years in the Namgoong family… there were bizarre gaps. Aside from his bloody fight with the Blood Cult’s vice-leader, nothing major happened.”
“Obviously! Because I made it that way!”
“…”
“Oh, wait! Not me, but my main body did it! Our main body is incredible too, right?”
Jin Woo-yong, about to ask if she had done it, closed his mouth in resignation at her shamelessness.
Instead, he posed another question.
“Main body? What main body?”
“Ah, I’m just a sort of avatar! The main body planted me here to monitor this guy and intervene in his emotions when the time comes!”
“…”
“The main body complained so much about how hard it was to infiltrate a transcendent-level master’s subconscious! But you wouldn’t know about that, would you?”
“…”
The barrage of shocking statements made Jin Woo-yong quietly furrow his brow.
He was deep in thought.
After pondering for a while, his eyes flashed as he pieced together her words.
“So, if what you’re saying is true… you’re the one who turned my son-in-law into a pushover, the memory gaps happened because of that, and now you’re here to change his personality again? Did I understand correctly?”
“Yep! Though that was my main body’s doing!”
“Hah, this is hard to believe. Fine, one last question.”
Jin Woo-yong, still struggling to comprehend, asked:
“Why did you do all this?”
“Ah, the reason?”
“If you hadn’t changed his personality, he wouldn’t have ended up like this. That ‘little brother’ of his only started scheming after that.”
“…”
“What was the point? What did you gain from altering Byeok-rak’s nature? Sure, it helped me awaken, but… why would you do that to him? And where did you even get the power to do so?”
Jin Woo-yong’s rapid-fire questions.
The girl listened quietly, then—
“The reason… It’s nothing special.”
Peeling off her smiling mask, she answered with an expressionless face.
Her voice was eerily calm.
“In this bleak, horrifying, pitch-black, miserable, utterly hopeless and despairing world—”
“…”
A hollow chill, eerily similar to Byeok-rak’s, forced Jin Woo-yong to shut his mouth.
He was overwhelmed.
Jin Woo-yong, the unrivaled master of the martial world, was being overpowered by a mere avatar of a little girl.
“I just… wanted to create one not-so-bad ending.”
The golden cheerfulness from before was gone—the girl had turned gray.
A monochrome gray.
“For the sake of a single conclusion.”
“…”
“Hehe, how about it? Kind of cool, right?”
In this decaying gray universe—
“…”
Jin Woo-yong felt a strange dissonance.
Meanwhile, the girl cheerfully brightened again and exclaimed:
“Anyway, Elder Jin! You should head back now!”
“I came here to rest—why are you telling me to leave?”
Of course, feeling overwhelmed didn’t mean Jin Woo-yong was cowed.
Snapping back at her like he often did with Byeok-rak, the girl pointed at the cosmic space and spoke.
“This guy’s about to go boom any second now!”
“What do you mean…?”
“You need to cut it off at the right moment! Go, quick!”
The girl started pushing Jin Woo-yong away with both hands.
An exaggerated gesture, but her strength was nothing to scoff at.
“Y-You brat…! I came here to rest…!”
“If you’re curious, come back next time! I won’t let you off so easily then, so be prepared!”
The next moment—
Before he knew it, Jin Woo-yong had been ejected from the subconscious space.
He stood there, dumbfounded.
### —
“Come in.”
A low, growling voice echoed through the room.
The voice of Dokgo Gupae, leader of the Mount Hua Sect.
Baihua, trembling with fear, responded as meekly as possible.
“…Yes.”
If she angered him, her life would be in danger.
But she had already crossed the line long ago.
Click—
“…!”
“Ugh… Ah… S-Sister…”
“Sit there. I’ll interrogate you properly.”
“S-Sect Leader…? Wh-What is this…?”
“Why aren’t you kneeling yet?!”
Crash—!
Under the crushing pressure of his overwhelming energy, Baihua dropped to her knees without resistance.
As she lay on the floor, unable to even breathe, Dokgo Gupae began his interrogation, radiating killing intent.
Beside him lay Jianlong, the Sword Dragon—who had been teaching Baihua the Dokgo Nine Swords in exchange for intimacy—now battered and bloody.
“Did you know your senior brother was leaking our sect’s martial arts to outsiders?”
“…”
“Don’t even think of scheming. He’s already confessed everything. I’m just verifying.”
“…! M-My apologies! But this disciple knew nothing!”
“You knew nothing? Is that so? Really…?”
Dokgo Gupae’s right foot stepped onto Jianlong’s leg.
Crunch—!
His foot crushed Jianlong’s leg.
“GAAAAAHHH!!!”
“You tell me. Did your junior sister really not know about your deeds?”
“Guhh… Y-Yes! She knew! She knew everything!!”
“…To betray your own like this—you’re worse than scum. To think I raised trash like you…”
Letting out a deep sigh, Dokgo Gupae stomped down again.
Crunch—!!
“……!!!”
This time, it was his left leg.
As Jianlong writhed in agony, unable to even scream, Dokgo Gupae spoke softly to Baihua, who was trembling in place.
“In the Mount Hua Sect, those who leak our martial arts are punished by having their limbs torn apart.”
“S-Sect Leader! I-I really didn’t know! I swear to heaven!”
“And those who learn forbidden techniques through underhanded means—”
Whoosh—!
Dokgo Gupae extended his palm.
A terrifying gravitational force erupted from his hand, instantly pulling Baihua toward him.
“—have their dantian destroyed, never to practice martial arts again.”
“W-Wait! Sect Leader!”
“I’ll hear how you learned the Dokgo Nine Swords later.”
“Sect Leader! Sect Leader! I’m Baihua! The Baihua of the Seven Flowers!!”
The moment Baihua’s abdomen touched his palm—
Boom—!
The gravitational force instantly reversed into repulsion, the conflicting energies swirling and ravaging her dantian.
“…!!”
“Don’t exaggerate the pain. I sealed your pressure points beforehand so you wouldn’t die from the agony.”
“……!”
“Don’t be moved. I only did it to extract the truth. Not out of any concern for you.”
Baihua, who had lost a lifetime’s worth of cultivation in an instant—
‘…No.’
She wanted to deny the horrific reality, but—
‘Wh-What do I do now…?’
The emptiness in her dantian kept dragging her back to the cruel truth.
Unlike Jianlong, whose limbs were being torn apart, her life as a martial artist was over.
“Now, speak.”
“S-Sect Leader… I-I really didn’t know anything…”
“One more lie, and I’ll rip your mouth apart. Think carefully before you speak.”
“…!!”
“The Dokgo Nine Swords you used against the Taiyuan Jin Family’s Sword Flower… How did you learn it?”
Of course, she couldn’t tell the truth.
If she confessed to the tiger of the martial world, Dokgo Gupae, she would never leave alive.
Everything she had done—learning martial arts, selling her body—was to survive.
That couldn’t end now.
“I told you not to scheme—!!”
But when Dokgo Gupae roared like a furious beast, her mind went blank.
She was terrified.
Dokgo Gupae, one of the Twelve Supreme Masters, was seething with rage—
Daring to lie to him was unthinkable.
“I-I’ll tell the truth! I’ll talk! I’ll say it!!!”
The fear of losing her dantian?
It was nothing compared to the terror before her.
“…So… it was… him…”
“Y-You crazy bitch! Shut up! Shut your mouth!!”
“Shut your trap…! You’re worse than a rabid dog…!”
“H-He… did it… and I… just went along…! I-I had no choice…!”
Driven by panic, Baihua impulsively blurted out everything about her dealings with Jianlong.
Learning the Dokgo Nine Swords in exchange for intimacy, his bribes from other sects in exchange for leaking Mount Hua’s techniques, his promiscuous behavior—everything.
Jianlong screamed and thrashed, but Dokgo Gupae sealed his pressure points, rendering his curses useless.
As Baihua’s confession continued, Dokgo Gupae repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists in irritation.
Finally, her long, wretched tale came to an end.
“…You damn mutts—no, worse than mutts…!”
Dokgo Gupae’s first reaction was, of course, fury.
Disgusted by the depravity committed under Mount Hua’s name, he couldn’t even stand the sight of them.
He wanted to tear them apart limb by limb.
But he knew.
“Sigh… Get out.”
“…Huh?”
“S-Sect Leader…? G-Get out…? What do you mean…?”
“Leave before I change my mind…! Unless you want to be carried out as corpses…!”
At this very moment—
Someone far angrier than him was waiting outside.
The quiet, murderous aura he had sensed since earlier.
“Get out! Now!”
Dokgo Gupae knew exactly who it belonged to.
How could he not? It was the energy of his son-in-law—the man who had taken his only daughter.
The Number One Son-in-Law of the Central Plains.
“Eeek! Y-Yes!”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
Mistaking this for mercy, the two bowed repeatedly before scrambling out of the annex.
Dokgo Gupae watched them leave with a burning gaze.
Then, he spoke softly to the figure waiting outside.
Their first conversation in years.
“Come back when you’re done.”
There was no reply, but after a pause, he added:
“There’s something I need to discuss with you.”
—
“Huff… Huff… Huff…!”
“Sister… Sister… Help me…! I can’t walk on my own…!”
Jianlong grabbed the hem of Baihua’s skirt.
She coldly shook him off and sneered.
“Hmph! You called me a bitch earlier—why call me ‘sister’ now?”
“S-Sister? Sister…! Sister…!”
“Live on your own, you crippled bastard.”
“Sister! What are you saying! Where are you going without me!”
Once intimate, exchanging martial arts and bodily pleasures—now, they turned on each other without a shred of loyalty.
A fitting end for them.
Of course, their true end was yet to come.
“…Why?”
“…!”
“Gah! You scared me! When did you get here?”
A man appeared behind them.
Pale, ghostly complexion, short white hair.
And blue eyes.
A face they had seen during the Seven Flowers Tournament.
“B-Baekdo-gaek? Why are you here…?”
“Baekdo-gaek! Help me! I lost my legs—just take me to the village doctor! I’ll reward you—!”
“Shut up. You damn parasites.”
The white-haired man’s icy voice silenced them.
For a moment, they felt their bodies go numb.
“Why… Why do trash like you cling to life like parasites…?”
Byeok-rak’s gaze swept over them.
He had no reason to know Baihua and Jianlong, but they had already died hundreds of times to him.
During the Great War, they had often sided with the Blood Cult.
“The people I wanted to save the most beg for death…”
Byeok-rak’s eyes filled with deep, genuine contempt.
“Yet the ones I never cared about—leeches like you—fight tooth and nail to survive, doing whatever it takes…”
He recalled Baihua’s earlier confession.
A laughable tale.
Selling martial arts for money.
Selling her body for techniques.
The one who taught the Fourteen Plum Blossom Swords to the Taiyuan Jin Family’s elders was none other than Jianlong.
The one who used forbidden poisons and the Dokgo Nine Swords to push Jin Gayoung to the brink of death was Baihua.
The Mount Hua Sect’s head disciple, the most likely successor.
One of the Seven Flowers, the Flower of Mount Hua.
And yet, both were Taoists.
“…And these are the people?”
People make mistakes.
But when those mistakes repeat dozens, hundreds of times—
No one would call them mistakes anymore.
“And you dare call yourselves ‘righteous’…?”
Step—
Whoosh—
Byeok-rak took a step toward them.
The oppressive aura made them too afraid to even answer.
“…Since I saved this world, I should be the one to clean it up. Even if unintentional… at least I can do it now.”
It had been an eventful day.
Starting with Jin Gayoung’s mortal wound.
Losing his temper at Cheonjon, whom he had respected all his life.
Forgiving Okhwa, who had irritated him so much.
Being cruel to his ex-wife, Yoo So-eun, against his own feelings.
Yet, not once had he drawn blood.
Though his emotions had been unstable, those he faced weren’t inherently evil.
He had drawn a line and not crossed it.
Even if frustrated, he had stopped at the boundary of morality.
But the two before him were undeniably evil.
“You damn parasites.”
He had long grown numb to killing.
Slaughtering hundreds of bandits under Jin Gayoung’s orders, maiming countless members of the Black Path—none of it had stirred him.
Those were battles between factions, not matters of good and evil.
But this was different.
True evil from the core.
Enemies of the world who deserved death.
Hypocrites who had earned their punishment.
“You won’t die cleanly.”
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