I was hungry.
So I swung my sword. An orphan with nothing but his body had few choices.
Fortunately, I had talent. That was the only reason a man who had never learned a proper martial art reached Transcendent Peak.
I swung my sword mindlessly, cut down people, quenched my thirst with the price of their blood, and swung my sword again…
Then one day, amid those repeating days, I suddenly realized something.
I was no longer hungry. And people called me the Sword Demon, trembling in fear of me.
I never did anything worthy of being called a Demonic Head. But I had seen too much blood. That was the problem.
I had shown no mercy at the tip of my blade, nor any compassion, so it was only natural that the karmic debts, growing ever more tangled the longer I survived, bound my entire body like a spider's web.
In the middle of that blood-soaked path, I realized something. That the affairs of this world could not be settled with a single sword.
And just as the alias "Sword Demon" was beginning to spread, the Demonic Cult rose to power.
They were a group that had often invaded the Central Plains even in normal times, but they had never been much of a threat.
That was only to be expected, for the Demonic Cult's foundation was a gathering of those who had suffered injustice at the hands of martial artists and dreamed of revenge.
Strictly speaking, weren't they little more than a collection of losers? They had no proper martial arts, no money, and no backing.
All they possessed was a vicious resolve to kill their enemies no matter the cost. And so, they were always a group that earned pity from the Orthodox Sects and ridicule from the Unorthodox Sects.
…That is, until one who called himself the Heavenly Demon appeared.
He was like a natural disaster that burned the entire Central Plains to the ground.
The Nine Great Sects and One Gang, boasting a long history, either abandoned their foundations and fled, or were annihilated on the spot.
The Five Great Families, whose glory was said to be enough to knock birds from the sky, were left without a single cornerstone.
The Black Alliance, a union of Unorthodox Sect martial artists, was no different. Setting aside his temperament, the Lord of the Black Alliance had been undeniably capable—yet he was killed in an instant, and the survivors either threw themselves at the feet of the Demonic Cult or fled to who knows where.
Absolute masters who had reached the Harmony Realm died one by one, hollow and meaningless, and even when they later joined forces, they could not handle the Heavenly Demon alone.
By any measure, he was the greatest of all time, past and present.
Even when the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects set aside their long-standing grudges and joined forces, stopping him was impossible.
And so, at the end of an era where even the infamy my lifelong karmic debt had earned me crumbled into insignificance, and all anyone sought was their own survival─
I fled to survive, and at the end of that endless flight, I arrived in Hebei Province—and there I met a woman.
Poison Lady Tang So-wol. Despite the divide between our origins—she from the Orthodox Sects, I from the Unorthodox—we understood each other well.
Perhaps it was because a man born with nothing and a woman who had lost everything needed no particular excuse to grow close.
But those days, tolerable as they were, came to an end when the Heavenly Demon crushed even the Imperial Court's forces and finally set foot in Hebei Province.
If I fled any further, my only options were Liaoning Province or the Outer Murim. I was already thinking of leaving the Central Plains entirely to escape the Heavenly Demon, but…
Tang So-wol chose to fight the Heavenly Demon.
"Do you truly have to go?"
"Many of my household gave their lives to save mine."
"I consider them admirable people. All the more so because they made a choice I would never have made."
"Favor is repaid twofold. Grudge is repaid tenfold. Since that day, I have not forgotten the Tang Clan's Family Code for even a moment. I could not forget it."
"Pity. The deaths of all those people will have been for nothing."
"But Sword Demon, you can still be saved. You're thinking of running away, aren't you? Rest assured, you'll have enough time to buy yourself."
"…You knew."
I let out a deep sigh and looked up at the sky. The cloudy night sky dimmed even the moonlight.
Tang So-wol stood beside me, looking down at the ground. As if she had committed some wrongdoing.
For a while, the two of us stared silently in different directions, but before long, our averted gazes turned toward each other.
After the Tang Clan's extermination, her hair had turned white. Her long bangs covered the right half of her face, and in her green eyes, which had changed color like her hair, deep fatigue and guilt were reflected.
"May I see your face for a moment?"
"…If it's you, anytime."
Tang So-wol obediently offered her face toward me. When I gently brushed her bangs aside, the half that had melted away hideously was revealed.
A scar that twisted a beauty that would have been enough to be called peerless. She had told me that when she was young, in a life-threatening situation, she had pushed her poison art beyond its limits and ended up like this.
It was a scar that even Tang So-wol herself was reluctant to show, but that was no reason for me to shy away from her.
For a long while, I looked at Tang So-wol's bare face. Not just to remember it in detail, but to carve it into my very mind.
And when Tang So-wol's face had flushed slightly, I made my resolve.
"Come with me."
"I can't."
"Why? Is it because I'm not in the Harmony Realm like you, Poison Lady? Even at Transcendent Peak, someone of my level should prove quite useful, I'm confident of that."
"Sword Demon. You have no reason to risk your life. Haven't you always said it? That surviving is what matters, that you want to live to enjoy wealth and glory."
"True enough. I've never changed my mind that even rolling in a dung heap in this world beats the afterlife."
But what I had shared with Tang So-wol over this time was more than just words.
Born a worthless orphan, I had lived my life relying on a single sword. Having met a woman I could share my heart with at the end of that road, I could no longer live as I once had.
Tang So-wol had already covered half her face again without my noticing. I carefully took her hand.
Tang So-wol flinched for a moment, but she didn't pull her hand away. Instead, she hesitated before clasping my hand in return.
Perhaps it was because I wasn't used to such things. I couldn't bring myself to look at Tang So-wol, so I turned my head away for no particular reason.
Feeling the cold night breeze cool my flushed body heat, I opened my mouth.
"The night is dark today. I had expected a full moon to rise, but it seems not."
"Thinking this is the last night sky I'll see, it's a bit disappointing."
"When a clear day comes someday, let's come see it again. …Together."
"Hm?"
Tang So-wol tilted her head for a moment, but soon understood my meaning and gave a faint smile.
"Do you know? All of the Tang Clan's buildings burned to the ground, and the pond we were so proud of has dried up—but that makes it the perfect spot to build a new hall."
"What do you mean by that, all of a sudden?"
"What do I mean? I'm saying we should build a building to watch the moon together."
"You and me?"
"Yes. You and I."
Rebuilding the fallen clan together. The moment I understood what that meant, my mind went blank.
At my frozen expression, Tang So-wol let out a giggle, then gently tugged at the hand she was holding.
"Come this way."
"…Where do you think you're going?"
"It's my room. I have many stories I want to share, and many I want to hear, but it's a bit awkward out here."
"Ah… I see."
As if bewitched by something, I followed Tang So-wol into her room.
And so, we shared our time with each other through the night. Like people for whom tomorrow would never come, we spoke without rest, sharing the past that led us to this meeting, and planning the future we would walk together.
If this were a tale told by a storyteller on Market Street, we would have miraculously struck down the Heavenly Demon and reached a happy ending.
But no miracle occurred.
Tang So-wol stood before the Heavenly Demon, resolved to burn her very life away—for her clan's revenge, and to step into tomorrow.
The last flower of the Sichuan Tang Clan fell, her heart pierced through—right before my eyes.
A swamp of poison energy dyed the surroundings purple. At its center, Tang So-wol lay dying, helpless. Her face was twisted viciously with pain and the vengeance she would never see fulfilled.
But the moment her eyes met mine, an awkward smile bloomed across her face, as if to cover her poison energy. Then came a whisper, formed only by her lips.
'Please live.'
With those words as her last, Tang So-wol reached out toward the departing Heavenly Demon with her poison ashes.
Poison energy so intense it could melt even the body of a Poison Human who had reached the Harmony Realm. The purple swamp around her responded, boiling violently.
The final technique Tang So-wol unleashed by detonating everything she had. The Poison Mist, which melted anything it touched, swallowed the Heavenly Demon whole.
Even the Heavenly Demon could not escape unscathed—his skin slowly burned away. But.
Boom!
One powerful step scattered everything.
The final Intent Tang So-wol had poured out, the mist formed from the poison she had built up over a lifetime—even her corpse left nothing behind, vanishing completely from this world.
"…Ah."
Tears she had thought she would never shed again streamed down her cheeks.
Bitter tears hot enough to burn. The fading, pungent scent of poison. A roar closer to that of a beast. And, as always, a single sword in my hand.
Murderous intent so fierce it seemed to swallow the world dyed my vision red.
"I'll kill you!!"
Burning through everything I had left—my internal energy, my lifespan, my sanity—I charged in a straight line toward the Heavenly Demon.
Yet even so, I could not cut through the Demonic Qi of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, which had reached its absolute peak.
"…"
He looked at me—at the one who couldn't even pierce the Protective Qi he always wore.
A gaze so desolate it was almost unbearable. The moment I peered into that abyss, I understood. Not just me—even Tang So-wol meant nothing to the man before my eyes.
But what did that matter? This was a life I'd already decided to end today. I poured out what little Innate True Qi remained without hesitation…
The Heavenly Demon flicked his fingers with a bored expression.
Woong—!
Aura falling from above. I gritted my teeth as the sky, stained black, seemed to collapse upon me.
"…I couldn't reach it."
If only I had a little more talent, a little more time, a little more advanced martial art.
If I had… would anything have changed? Could Tang So-wol have survived? Could I have cut down the Heavenly Demon?
Regret scattering into nothing. This is my last memory.
That is how it should have been.
***
"Kuh-keok!"
I swallowed my breath, groping at the neck that should have been completely severed.
The sensation was hazy, as if I had just woken from a deep sleep, or as if I had been drinking all night and only now come to my senses.
Had I dreamed of the time before my regression for the first time in a while? That would explain why my sleep had been so restless.
That's right. Without knowing the reason or the principle, I had not died but regressed to the past. To my childhood, nearly twenty years ago.
I surveyed my surroundings with a foggy mind.
The pitch-black cave walls. A peculiar stench that stung my nostrils. A body trembling uncontrollably. A dantian completely empty.
Neither the environment nor my physical state could be considered normal in any way. As I realized this, the events of yesterday began to surface belatedly.
Having regressed as an orphan barely scraping by day to day, I had lived my second life with considerable diligence.
Relying on the enlightenment I had reached at the Transcendent Peak, I trained my martial arts rapidly, and I secured funds by destroying the black path organization that had tried to lure me into the world of unorthodox martial artists.
…And so, pouring every ounce of the power and wealth I had gained in such a short time, I succeeded in capturing Tang So-wol, who had just made her Murim debut.
"Mm! Mmmph!"
I looked down at Tang So-wol writhing at my feet.
Her Tang Clan green robes were in complete disarray. To prepare for the possibility of her Acupoint Sealing being released, I had bound her arms and legs tightly with thick rope, and to prevent her from taking her own life, I had fitted her with a gag.
But even in such a situation, Tang So-wol glared at me with fierce, blazing eyes.
"I've really done it now."
It was unavoidable if I wanted to save Tang So-wol, but if I were to objectively summarize what I had done… Yeah.
I kidnapped the youngest daughter of the Sichuan Tang Clan.