Chapter 1 :

Chapter 1: The Third-Rate Warrior Who Remembers Everything

Between mountain ranges soaring through the clouds, at the edge of a sheer, razor-sharp cliff, a small man sat hunched over.

The man was gazing wistfully at the white clouds drifting by in silence.

“……Hm?”

Then the man’s eyebrows lifted, and the words that left his mouth lingered in the air.

“Yong Soa……. No, should I call you the Taechung Divine Sword now? So a noble personage has come all the way here?”

No sooner had the man finished speaking than a man in spotless, pure-white martial robes appeared before him from empty space, using an elegant movement art.

Tap.

The man called the Taechung Divine Sword asked him in a deep voice that suited his dignified appearance.

“Are you Jin Soun, captain of the Sojeong Unit?”

“Captain, captain…….”

The man called Jin Soun asked while still looking at the clouds.

“······Did all the members of the Sojeong Unit die?”

“······.”

“Then I suppose I am the captain. If not, then I am not.”

“……I asked whether you are Jin Soun.”

“You must have come here knowing that, so why bother asking?”

At Jin Soun’s words, the Taechung Divine Sword drew his sword.

“I have come for something that must be returned.”

“…….”

Jin Soun lifted his head and looked at the Taechung Divine Sword, then shifted his gaze once more to the clouds floating before his eyes.

Even though clear killing intent was visible, Jin Soun’s voice was utterly relaxed.

“Did I not restore all the lost records of the Murim Alliance?”

“There are many records that should not be in your possession.”

“Most of what I restored for you should have been useless records and materials, no?”

“I know that you remember the materials of Simhyeon Pavilion.”

“…….”

Simhyeon Pavilion.

The archive where all of the Murim Alliance’s highest-level secrets were gathered.

The innermost place of the Murim Alliance, where only the Alliance Leader, the chief strategist, and a few designated individuals could look inside.

It was the very reason that had moved the current leader of the Murim Alliance, the Taechung Divine Sword, all the way here.

Jin Soun spoke in a hollow voice.

“Those damn bastards. I said I wouldn’t look, over and over. I knew I’d end up like this.”

“…….”

“So…… you came all the way from the Northern Sea to kill one third-rate warrior? While avoiding the eyes of the Demonic Cult bastards?”

“For the justice of the martial world. And above all, because this is something that must be dealt with beyond any doubt.”

Jin Soun chuckled and nodded.

“What happened to the members of our Sojeong Unit?”

“I do not know.”

“Heh-heh. Of course you don’t. From the beginning, chaff like us were nothing more than tools to people like you.”

“It was all for the greater cause…….”

That damned greater cause.

That hollow greater cause that drove us into certain death.

Jin Soun’s voice was thick with sarcasm.

“Did that splendid greater cause bring you prosperity in the Northern Sea?”

The tip of the Taechung Divine Sword’s blade trembled.

The ruler of the martial world had changed, and the Murim Alliance had fallen.

The major figures of the Murim Alliance had fled all the way to the Northern Sea and were barely keeping its name alive.

Cough.

As Soun’s small body shook and lurched toward the Taechung Divine Sword, the Taechung Divine Sword slightly moved aside.

The hem of his spotless, pure-white martial robe also retreated with him.

Jin Soun looked at the Taechung Divine Sword and sneered.

“Yes, in the end, you must have failed.”

“The Murim Alliance will raise the banner of the martial world once more.”

“Though I belonged to the Murim Alliance, I sincerely hope such a dreadful world never comes again.”

“……You have been tainted by the Demonic Cult.”

Just as the Taechung Divine Sword was about to cut off his head with a single stroke.

Abruptly!

As if he had sensed the presence of a ghost behind him, the Taechung Divine Sword shuddered and turned his head like lightning.

It was the appearance of someone he had never imagined would show up here.

“……How could that man be here!”

The Taechung Divine Sword glared at Jin Soun again.

“Were you already colluding with the Demonic Cult?”

Jin Soun leisurely turned his head and looked at one point.

“Who knows? What am I, that someone so important would move for my sake? It must be a coincidence.”

“…….”

“At any rate, are you planning to stay?”

No sooner had Jin Soun finished speaking than the Taechung Divine Sword kicked off the ground and disappeared.

However, he did not leave completely, instead taking a position atop a peak overlooking the cliff.

A moment later, the sound of footsteps could be heard.

Step. Step.

This time, a man in black martial robes was slowly approaching Jin Soun.

Without looking back, Jin Soun spoke.

“Black Lion Gwak Gung.”

At Jin Soun’s call, the man called Gwak Gung could not hide his surprise.

Jin Soun had clearly had his back turned.

“How did you know?”

“There are strangely many guests today. On such a fine day, too.”

“I asked how you knew.”

“In Blood Serpent Dance Step, the unique footwork of the Demonic Cult’s young cult leader, there is a hidden principle that lets one twist the third step and advance in eight directions.”

Gwak Gung gasped in astonishment.

“Ha. Have we met before?”

“Our Sojeong Unit once stood as meat shields against the Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit. Do you remember?”

“Heh-heh, who knows? In those days, everyone in the Murim Alliance was nothing more than a meat shield to us. In any case, they said you remembered everything in the world, and it truly is astonishing.”

“It is a useless talent for a martial artist.”

Gwak Gung’s gaze turned toward the Taechung Divine Sword, who stood proudly atop the peak and watched them.

“So the Murim Alliance came to save you? All the way from the Northern Sea?”

At Gwak Gung’s question, Jin Soun shook his head.

“He said there was something he needed to take from me.”

“?”

No matter how one looked at him, he appeared to be in no state to even possess a single silver coin.

“What is it?”

“This worthless head.”

Gwak Gung looked toward the peak and clicked his tongue as if he understood.

“Tsk. I heard the Sojeong Unit kept you alive until the very end because your head contained everything about the Murim Alliance.”

“That’s not it······ They said it was because I wanted to live the most.”

Jin Soun muttered to himself, “Those foolish bastards.”

“Touching camaraderie.”

At Gwak Gung’s words, a fire lit in Jin Soun’s eyes.

“They are not men a demon like you can speak of so lightly.”

“Interesting.”

Even though Jin Soun scattered killing intent, Gwak Gung did not react.

If anything, he seemed to be saying Jin Soun could do more, if he was able.

But soon, perhaps because Jin Soun had lost his strength, he withdrew his killing intent.

“……Do you also want the same thing as the Taechung Divine Sword? If it is now, while the Taechung Divine Sword is watching, I could give you everything about the Murim Alliance.”

“What value would such information have to the Divine Cult as it is now?”

“……That is true. Then what brings you all the way here?”

“I came to capture the captain of the Sojeong Unit, the most tenacious enemy of our Divine Cult.”

Jin Soun nodded a couple of times.

At Jin Soun’s calm attitude, Gwak Gung could not hide his puzzlement.

“Are you not afraid?”

“……Would one whose life is hell fear death?”

“You said you wanted to live so badly, yet life was hell in the end?”

“You are capable, are you not? Try imagining a life in which you remember everything. A life in which you remember nothing but countless deaths and defeats…….”

After a brief pause, Gwak Gung nodded.

“Hmm. You must have lived a life that was far from easy.”

“Khhh.”

“What is so funny?”

“How could I not laugh when a demonic bastard I hated is pitying me?”

“You may take pride in it. You and the Sojeong Unit were the Divine Cult’s most tenacious enemies.”

“To think third-rate warriors abandoned by the Murim Alliance would be acknowledged by the Demonic Cult. The Murim Alliance’s downfall must have already been decided.”

After pausing for a moment, Jin Soun opened his mouth.

“But I am curious. Why did the young cult leader personally come to capture a single third-rate warrior? Did you know the Taechung Divine Sword would come?”

As if he had no interest in the nearby leader of the Murim Alliance, the Taechung Divine Sword, Gwak Gung pointed at Jin Soun’s hand.

“That bracelet you are wearing.”

Jin Soun lowered his head and looked at the jade-colored bracelet.

A jade-colored bracelet engraved with a strange dragon pattern.

It did not suit his shabby clothing at all.

“That is a sacred relic of the Divine Cult.”

“……Is it?”

Jin Soun raised his arm and stared closely at the bracelet.

His eyes were filled with longing, as if he were recalling something.

Countless lives that had fallen away, and the things they had achieved in exchange for their lives.

“When we captured the Guardian Dharma King…….”

I thought the Murim Alliance, and the world itself, would change.

How truly foolish of me.

Soon, Jin Soun snorted as if mocking himself.

“Do you have any last words? If you die by the hand of one of the Divine Cult, the Demon God will grant your wish.”

“Heh-heh. Seeing how you can form faith from that absurd nonsense of a doctrine, you truly are a group of madmen.”

“Our god is real.”

“A wish…… Fine. In my next life, I want to be born in a world without the Murim Alliance that abandoned us and without the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult that killed us.”

“Oh dear, what a truly difficult wish. The world now belongs to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”

Jin Soun’s body floated up and was pulled neatly into Gwak Gung’s hand.

“Kgh.”

Immediately after, Jin Soun felt Gwak Gung’s demonic energy flowing into his entire body.

It was pain as if his nerves were being torn to shreds and his bones were being crushed into pieces.

“Ah, life full of regret. May the karma of this life end with this life.”

His senses slowly began to vanish, and the world grew dark.

#

“……I am certain that happened.”

I definitely died.

My memory had always been good, but especially when it came to the day I met my death, I remembered it so clearly that I could even recall the scent of the wind.

So, I was certain that bastard appeared and killed me…….

My back itched, so I reached out a hand.

Scratch, scratch.

A refreshing sensation, an incredibly vivid feeling.

“What on earth happened?”

To my bewilderment, I, who had died at the hands of Black Lion Gwak Gung, had returned to a time thirty years ago, when I was nineteen.

Not to the time when I was Jin Soun of the Murim Alliance’s Sojeong Unit.

But to the time when I was Jin Soun of the Taeul Sect.

Not to the era when the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had overturned the world.

But to the era when the Murim Alliance ruled the martial world.

“Was that talk about a wish true?”

I recalled the final conversation I had shared with Gwak Gung.

To begin with, I had not believed that some worthless god, indistinguishable from a cult’s false deity, would grant a wish…….

Could it actually have had some effect?

“But…… as expected of the Demon God, he really does not listen to people properly.”

I said, “I want to be born in a world without the Murim Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult”……. Yet he sent me back to before that hellish war between the orthodox and demonic factions broke out.

As expected, whether it was the Demonic Cult, demonic practitioners, or the Demon God, one should never associate with anything that has “demonic” in it.

“Phew…….”

I had regained my youth, but I was not happy about it at all.

Because the hellish reality that would unfold over the next thirty years remained vivid in my head, and I was still merely a disciple of the Taeul Sect, one who could at best become a second-rate warrior.

The fact that I had returned to the past did not exactly seem like a sign telling me to save the world.

“If that were the case, he should have at least given me some special ability or attached the soul of Patriarch Jang Sambong to me or something, right?”

That damned Demon God.

In the future, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult would return.

No, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had already returned. Everyone except me simply did not know it yet.

The Murim Alliance, which absolutely believed in its own strength, would be swept away like fallen leaves in the autumn wind.

Those who believed in that Murim Alliance would be swept away along with it.

My own sect, the Taeul Sect, also believed in the Murim Alliance.

And so, it was swept away as well. Damn it.

“It is painful enough just remembering it. Am I supposed to see those horrific scenes again?”

After putting together everything that had happened to me so far, there was only one conclusion.

In other words, to put it simply—

“I’m screwed.”

For some reason, I felt as though that bastard Demon God was watching me from somewhere and laughing at my situation.

Why?

Because if I were in the Demon God’s position, I would want to do the same.