I was deprived of my body after being consumed by the Blood Demon.
My consciousness was gradually eroded as my thoughts became hazy. At the same time, my heavenly blood points were pressed.
Both blood points were pressed simultaneously, and voices emerged ringing into my head.
-Wonhwi! Wake up! Get up!
-Yah! The guy who managed to come back to life after death now loses to a ghost?
What ghost?
They were too strong to be considered just a ghost. Do you think it would be easy to overcome the madness and killing intent that the spirit had?
-You can hear us!
-Wonhwi!
In a flash, it all returned to me. I could hear voices around me as my consciousness returned to normal.
This felt strange, though.
As I regained consciousness, I felt my body moving not of my own will but from some other strong desire.
There was a flame that was controlling my body, something that was more than I could handle.
This strange power was much different from either internal or innate qi.
-Quickly take back your body!
The Short Sword urged me to take action.
How was I supposed to get it back, though?
The spirit had taken over my body and moved it according to its desires.
So how could my simple will beat that?
Let’s try it.
Why not, after all?
I focused all of my senses on the Blood Demon’s flame in my body. I could take my body back if I could understand and deal with it.
Ahh!
Thanks to the shocks to my blood points, I regained a feel for my body’s flow. If this was the case, I could follow his flame’s flow and restrain his movements.
-This is my body, demonic spirit.
‘You!’
I succeeded.
I interfered with his movements as he panicked and tried to use his flame to stop me.
It was no use. Thanks to his panicked action, I was able to gain an understanding of the flame’s power.
This flame was closer to the power of thought rather than a manifestation of will, and it was different from innate qi.
The flames then transformed into a soul.
‘Your body and soul are mine!’
-I told you it is my body.
An entirely different voice sounded from inside my head.
[Even the flames can be controlled by reasoning. The heavenly points have been opened.]
Ah!
Right, I’d heard this voice before. However, unlike before, an odd thought occurred to me.
This felt odd, but this voice was what taught me about the Heavenly Authority as well as Mindfulness of the Flame’s nature.
Heaven and Earth.
Heaven.
The Flames of Mindfulness were a power belonging to the top. As I realized this, the madness, resentment, and grudges held by the sword began to corrode.
-Get lost. This is my body!
“Kuaaaak!”
The flames then rose up as the blue flames enveloped the grudge of the Blood Demon. He was clearly suffering from this.
Then a strange thing began to happen.
The Blood Demon’s grudge that was being engulfed by the blue flame slowly transformed into the same color. Before long, all of the blue flames began to swirl and rushed into my flame of mindfulness.
Ack!
Blue flames surrounded me as various things surged into my head. They were the Blood Demon’s memories and desires.
“Ahhhhhh!”
At that moment, I was able to return to my senses, as if I had just woken up from a dream.
The blood-stained world I had witnessed vanished, and I looked straight at Hae Ack-chun and Kwak Hyung-jik’s tense faces.
‘Ahhh!’
I had managed to take control of my stolen body.
I had almost died after this unknown spirit took over my body. Was my body already harmed?
‘Uh?’
I couldn’t hide my shock as I checked my physical condition using internal qi.
Considering how much internal energy had been forcibly pulled out, I thought my body would have paid a severe toll. On the contrary, however, my body was feeling much better than before.
It was as if my body had gone through a body reformation.
‘This cannot be…’
My innate qi also seemed to have increased by over three-tenths of its original force. I felt shocked at this.
-I am out! Hahahaha!
At that moment, mad laughter rang in my head, which prompted me to turn toward the direction of the sound. It had come from the Blood Demon Sword in my hand.
‘… you are the Blood Demon Sword.’
-Uh? What? Human? You can hear this voice of mine?
Did he ask me if I could hear his voice? This guy was more arrogant than I thought. He was referring to himself as if he was some kind of king.
-What is with that cocky attitude? How dare you, a human, talk to this body of mine! Should I stimulate your blood to run out of control and kill you?
‘Ha!’
-But today is a good day for me, so I will let this go, human.
‘So what?’
-Because you, human, had provided me with an escape from those hellish days I spent trapped in this body by that terrible grudge.
Considering his words, it seemed like living with the consciousness of the Blood Demon must have been difficult. His newfound freedom was making the sword excited.
-But you are quite amazing, human.
‘What?’
-Even the voice of that resentment couldn’t hear my voice. However, you, a mere good-for-nothing human, could hear my voice.
‘Because I can hear the voices of swords.’
-Hoo. That is quite a skill you have. Good.
‘What about it?’
-I owe you something, and people like you are hard to find, so I will accept you as a subordinate of mine.
‘… stop spitting out nonsense.’
Each sword had its own character, but this one was probably the most arrogant I’d ever met.
-Yah. What are you to accept Wonhwi as your subordinate?! I won’t mind if you take him as an owner.
Short Sword mumbled in annoyance. However, she wasn’t being too serious.
-What? You are a short sword? How dare such a little thing interfere when an elder is talking.
-What!
The sound of them fighting filled my head.
But strangely, after realizing the soul, I could control how the voices resonated in my head according to my will.
Instead of not hearing them, they were now closer to background noise.
“Demonic spirit? Or Wonhwi?”
I glanced over at Hae Ack-chun, who was asking this. His hands were clenched tightly, ready to swing another punch if I replied wrong.
And to him, I said.
“Teacher. It is me.”
“Ha.”
This made him sigh a breath of relief, and even Kwak Hyung-jin sat down on the ground.
“We succeeded.”
This was definitely a shock. Two skilled warriors of opposing factions had worked together to restore my consciousness.
“You. If you came back! Shouldn’t you at least say it!”
Hae Ack-chun said this as I saw just how much he had risked his life to bring me back.
His messed-up fist was proof of it.
‘Haa…’
Something changed in my heart.
This crazy old man was going this far for me. I immediately bowed to him.
“Thank you. I express my gratitude to my teacher and Warrior Kwak. I managed to return to normal because of you.”
“Huh! I don’t need that.”
Hae Ack-chun snorted, and Kwak Hyung-jik smiled.
“Yah!”
I then heard a familiar voice. Looking behind me, I saw Song Jwa-baek, who was pointing to a passed-out Sima Young leaning against a tree.
“This is what you did. Idiot!”
“…”
It wasn’t really me, but I still felt sorry about it, so I couldn’t answer him. It disturbed me as I recalled how Sima Young could have died trying to save me.
Thud!
At that moment, I felt my head pound.
Looking at the back of my hand, I saw that the Big Dipper now had four dots. Their color was also changing from red to blue.
-Are you fine?
‘I am fine.’
I realized why this had happened. The stars that had been maintaining the flame of the Blood Demon had accepted it entirely.
If this continued, I might lose consciousness again.
Shhh!
After some concentration, the last red point finally also turned blue. Song Jwa-baek then looked at me with wide eyes.
“You… your hair color?”
“What?”
I had no idea what he was talking about, as even Hae Ack-chun looked at me strangely.
-Wonhwi, your hair is turning back to black.
Iron Sword told me.
-Right! Even your eyes are turning back to normal
Short Sword chimed in as well.
Could this be happening because the Blood Demon’s grudge was being dissolved?
My hair color was changing like Baek Hye-hyang’s.
‘Ha!’
As far as I knew, this kind of thing only happened if one learned the Blood Heavenly Great Technique.
-Uh? How do you know that?
Short Sword asked as she wondered, but the answer didn’t come from me. Instead it came from the Blood Demon Sword.
-You stupid thing. It is because he absorbed the soul that contained the will of grudges into himself.
Look at this guy.
He was almost acting like an ego sword. I knew I had absorbed everything left of the Blood Demon. As this sword said, I had even absorbed his memories, both the good and the bad, as well as the martial arts.
-Oh! Is that the power you got?
‘No. It is a bit different.’
-What is that supposed to mean?
The fourth star was simply the ability to possess the Heavenly Authority. This means that I could control the ego that stayed within a sword.
In a sense, the ability was superior to simply reading a sword’s memories. If any traces of the sword remained, I could use it, whether it was swordsmanship or memories.
-Isn’t that amazing?
However, this was only possible when I used the power of the Heavenly Authority.
It was temporary too. Just like the number of times I could see a memory was limited, so was this.
-Still, isn’t this convenient? If you can implement a sword technique without having to learn it…
Sure, it was convenient, but only to the extent of implementing a sword technique. I would not be able to use my own original techniques.
Still, I would say this was a good ability. It was not because of the Flame of Mindfulness but because I could absorb the Blood Demon’s grudge that had grown over hundreds of years.
‘Then with this, can I use the historical techniques of Blood Demon?’
I was wondering about this as Hae Ack-chun asked me a dubious question.
“You, are you really fine?”
He looked at the Blood Demon Sword in my hand. He must be questioning why I wasn’t showing any visible change despite holding the sword, not knowing there was no longer any spirit in it.
“I am fine.”
He Ack-chun looked at the sword and then at me. His eyes, which clearly thought this was strange, turned to Kwak Hyung-jik.
“Leave.”
“What?”
“I said you should leave. It will get more dangerous if you do not leave now.”
At the unexpected suggestion, Hae Ack-chun frowned.
Kwak Hyung-jik shook his head.
“How can I keep you all here on my own? I am just worried that the sword will get taken away.”
Having said that, he pointed to his disciple, Jang Myung. It seemed like he wanted to confirm his condition, and his face turned dark.
‘Ahh…’
The boy’s condition did not look good.
His captivation by the Blood Demon Sword had made him use all of the energy in his body. Additionally, all his blood vessels seemed ruptured, and it was dubious if he could ever cultivate internal qi again.
It was a completely different result from me.
“Hmm.”
Hae Ack-chun put on a worried face, and I could guess the reason why.
-Why?
Why? It was because he had joined hands with this man for my sake despite being enemies.
Even if Kwak Hyung-jik let us go now, if he went and disclosed what happened to the Murim Alliance, a group would inevitably be sent to track us down.
‘And…’
My real identity would also become known.
We had overcome one crisis to only end up facing another. Hae Ack-chun clearly wanted to just leave but knew that the rational choice for the sake of the sect would be to kill both of them.
So I said, “Teacher. Can you leave this to me?”
“To you?”
Hae Ack-chun looked taken aback but nodded. It seemed like he trusted my decision as I approached Kwak Hyung-jik.
“Warrior Kwak.”
Kwa Hyung-jik looked at me.
“Go Disciple So. You have nothing to worry about.”
Ahh.
I felt horrible about my plan now. This man was already promising to do nothing before I could even negotiate.
Who could be more worthy of the title of a great warrior?
“Do you not believe me?”
“No. How can I not believe the person who saved my life?”
“Then why aren’t you leaving? Thinking and waiting here would be dangerous.”
“Will you be fine?”
“What do you mean?”
“Wouldn’t you be in trouble if you chose to keep the truth hidden?’
My eyes turned to the dead members of the Alliance around us. Among them were disciples of Hwangbo Do-hyung, whose family held a position within the Murim Alliance.
“I can handle that.”
It did look like he could handle it.
Due to his upright personality, he would likely claim that his disciple was captivated by a spy. His statement might also be accepted, even if it was a lie.
And I looked at Jang Myung.
“He will be held accountable.”
Even if it wasn’t the boy’s fault, this wasn’t a situation where both the teacher and the disciple could be let go. The Murim Alliance and the families of the deceased would try to hold them accountable for our escape.
They might even ask for Jang Myung’s life in return.
At my words, Kwak Hyung-jik bit his lip as I said, “I will be honest.”
“What?”
“Come with us.”
Kwak Hyung-jik looked at me as if I was insane.
“I said I would send you. I think you didn’t…”
Before he could finish his sentence, I took something out of my sleeve and gave it to him.
His eyes widened at this.
It was the Great Doctor’s plaque. He could not take his eyes off it as I handed it to him.
“We need to heal your disciple.”
