Chapter 513: I Suppose I'll Have to Discipline Them

TL: FoodieMonster007

"If you don't kill the First Young Lord, you will die."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon still remembered it with perfect clarity. He recalled Geom Woojin's expression and his reply to those words.

"I don't want to kill my brother."

These were words one could never hear from the current Cult Leader. A Cult Leader who hesitated to kill was simply unimaginable.

Yes, the Cult Leader once had a time like this.

"I know."

After all, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was the one who had sensed the passion burning within Geom Woojin's heart.

Geom Woojin was more popular inside the cult. The demons all admired him for his cold, aloof, and proud nature. He was handsome, intelligent, and most importantly, he possessed a natural talent for martial arts.

He had every quality the demons admired and was considered the most exceptional member of the Heavenly Demon bloodline in history.

The First Young Lord allied with the Master to kill Geom Woojin because he knew he had no chance of winning if things kept going as they were.

"Alright, let's try to figure something out without killing the First Young Lord."

Geom Woojin spoke firmly at that suggestion.

"You stay out of it. This fight is my fight."

How could the Blood Heaven Blade Demon not understand that he was saying this out of concern for him?

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon shook his head. Not as long as the Master was involved in this matter.

"From the moment I told you about the First Young Lord's and the Master's plan, this became my fight too."

Their gazes locked in midair. Their eyes were filled with a youthful passion that could no longer be faked.

"I want to live as a Demon Supreme in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult that you lead."

He longed to return to that time. To that youth, as hot as a midsummer night and as refreshing as an autumn breeze. The Blood Heaven Blade Demon still remembered the thrill of that moment when he spoke those words, having risked his life for nothing. He wanted to go back to the days when he could read the emotions on the Cult Leader's face.

The one who pulled him from his memories was Gyo Cheon.

"Meeting you was the greatest misfortune of my life."

At the Master's words, the image of the young Geom Woojin faded away.

In its place, the image of an angry Master appeared.

Even if the Master had not said it, he had lived with that same feeling.

The words he had spoken to Geom Mugeuk, about living his entire life with misfortune, were also because of the Master.

It was to save the Cult Leader, but in the end, he could not escape the shame of having betrayed his master.

"Do you know why I came when you summoned me, Master?"

"You must have come to kill me."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was calm despite the mocking reply.

"If that was my intention, I would've contacted the Cult Leader."

However, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had come to Chongqing quietly and by himself.

Gyo Cheon looked at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon with eyes that demanded a reason.

The reason was something Gyo Cheon had never anticipated.

"I missed you, Master."

"!"

Gyo Cheon's deep wrinkles twitched.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was being sincere. Of course, it was not an ordinary kind of longing.

How could he describe this feeling of missing him?

Was it like his younger self reaching out to him, as he now stood in the twilight of his life?

Yes, this was not a summons from the Master before him, but a call from his younger self.

Gyo Cheon laughed. The corners of his mouth were especially wrinkled, making it difficult to know what emotion was behind his laughter. This laugh, however, was clearly a sneer.

"You know why I came, and you're spouting such nonsense?"

The sneer soon became an open laugh. Was it because of old age? Or had he caught some illness? A sound like scraping metal came from his cracked voice, and the laughter quickly turned into an unstoppable cough.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon waited for him to stop coughing.

"You missed me?"

Gyo Cheon slowly rose from his seat and loosened his robes.

His body was wrinkled, a body that made one worry if it could even perform martial arts. For that very reason, it was also a more frightening body, considering the immense power contained within such a frail frame.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's gaze fell to the center of his chest.

A large scar was there. It was a scar much larger and deeper than one from a sword stab.

"Here, look."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked at the wound without saying a word.

He then conveyed the words he had held in his heart for a long time. They were words he had never told anyone, words he had never once spoken aloud.

"I'm sorry, Master."

"!"

He knew the Master would have taken another disciple at any time if it was not him. He knew he would have been killed if he had kept disobeying. Above all, he knew it was to save Geom Woojin.

Still, he felt sorry for him.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon bowed his head respectfully. The head that bent only for Geom Woojin was now lowered.

A glint shone from Gyo Cheon's eyes as he looked at him, and his fine wrinkles deepened.

"You… you've been pretentious since you were young."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon understood his master. He was the kind of person who would not believe he genuinely liked Geom Woojin, nor would he believe his apology.

But it didn't matter. In the end, he had said those words for his own sake.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked up at the sky.

Thank you for letting me say the words I intended to deliver only in hell.

Gyo Cheon did not believe the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's apology was sincere. Even if it was, what meaning could it possibly have now?

"If you help me kill the Cult Leader, I'll spare you."

"What lingering attachment could this old life have?"

At that, Gyo Cheon threatened him with Seo Daeryong.

"If you don't listen to me, I'll kill your disciple."

"Is that why you called that child here as well?"

Of course, this threat did not work.

"Then he, too, will live a life with no luck in masters."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's gaze toward his master was filled with a mix of love and hate.

"You used to look at me with those eyes in the past, too."

"That's also a misunderstanding. I suppose since you hate the man I am now, you distort the past as well."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon had a premonition. This affair would end with either his death or the Master's death. There was nothing he could not say. If he had spoken of love before, the words he was about to say now were of hate.

"One might think people grow wiser with age, but that's not the case. Judgment becomes clouded, and one only grows more stubborn. I've tried to prevent it by reading books diligently, but it wasn't easy to stop my mind from going blank."

After a short pause, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon continued.

"It's probably much worse for you, Master. Someone who doesn't know you would look at you and think, 'How great that old master must be, he must possess incredible wisdom. He must see right through people's hearts. How amazing must his insight be?' They would think such things. But I know. Your mind, Master, is probably filled with a murky fog."

Anger flared on Gyo Cheon's twitching face.

"And in that fog, only hatred must be shining. Without even that, you would've lost your way, Master."

"Showing off again, are we."

"You're distorting things again. I have never once acted pretentiously towards you, Master. Then tell me. Have you ever thought of anything other than the Cult Leader, me, and the events of that day? Whether it's murim history or life's affairs, or even something as simple as 'Summer has passed, autumn is coming.' Have you ever had even that much interest?"

Gyo Cheon's gaze grew colder, but he could not offer any rebuttal.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon continued saying what he wanted to say.

"In the past, I wouldn't have known either. But recently, I've realized something through the Young Cult Leader. I've been habitually walking through a fog all this time. I only managed not to fall because the path was so familiar, the fog so familiar. And yet, the fog was growing thicker with each passing year."

After meeting Geom Mugeuk, his stagnant heart began to flow. He trained more diligently in martial arts, read more books, took on a disciple, and his relationships with the other Demon Supremes changed. He even tended a flower garden.

All of it was an effort to clear the fog. It did not clear easily, though, even with effort.

"That's why I'm not afraid of you, Master."

And so, he did not speak his other true feeling, that he was afraid of his master.

If Geom Mugeuk had met the Master even a little earlier, could the Master's heart have changed?

He thought that perhaps it might have been possible. If it were Geom Mugeuk? Perhaps that brilliant boy might have known a way to resolve this deep-seated grudge.

He seemed to feel that way because the situation was so regrettable. The Master had remained a deep wound in his heart.

This fate, to meet again like this and have to open the final chapter without any steps in between, seemed so very regrettable.

"Insolent whelp!"

Gyo Cheon, on the other hand, was furious. How could his life be explained with such words?

However, he could not think of a rebuttal. Countless words were surely swirling in his mind.

It was truly as if a thick fog had bloomed, and he did not know what to say.

In that place, only the emotion of hatred shone brightly.

"What if I say I'll kill that precious Young Cult Leader of yours?"

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon laughed, thinking that Gyo Cheon should go ahead and try. He would probably just grab the back of his neck and collapse before they even finished talking.

"That sounds like a threat you should save for the Cult Leader."

The threat did not work on the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.

"But how on earth do you plan to kill the Cult Leader? He's not someone you can kill just because you want to, is he?"

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was curious about what move he had prepared.

"The Cult Leader is human too. All humans are bound to die."

As he said that, Gyo Cheon took something out from his robes.

It was a small box. It flew to the Blood Heaven Blade Demon using telekinesis.

Opening the box, he found a small vial inside.

"Mix that into the Cult Leader's drink."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked down at the vial and asked.

"What is this?"

"You don't need to know. You just need to mix it into the Cult Leader's drink."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was truly dumbfounded. Did he really think such a trick would work? Was the Master truly wandering in a fog?

"That's right. He is someone who can't be killed without resorting to such methods. Sowing discord with the orthodox sects, threatening to kill a disciple, and now using poison like this. But did you really think I would do such a thing?"

"Didn't you say you were sorry to me?"

As if it was not worth talking about anymore, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon moved to pour the vial's contents onto the floor. The moment he was about to open the stopper, he flinched and stopped.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's gaze turned back to Gyo Cheon.

"You must have expected me to pour it out."

An ominous thought flashed through the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's mind.

"Don't tell me?"

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon threw the vial far away.

TINK.

Poisonous smoke billowed up from the exposed liquid. If he had poured it on the floor, that smoke would have instantly enveloped him.

"This was meant to kill me."

Gyo Cheon's eyes were filled with killing intent.

"I can't let you die a peaceful death."

Judging by his words, it was not just any poison. It was a poison that inflicted extreme pain.

He knew his master was trying to kill him, but seeing him use poison so ruthlessly made him feel a sense of disappointment. And such a vicious poison at that.

He was reminded once again that human relationships were such that one could feel disappointment even in a kill-or-be-killed situation.

"Do you hate me that much?"

"Didn't you say it yourself? That nothing but hatred remains in my mind."

Looking at his master, he truly felt like he was facing a solid wall that he could not communicate with.

He had wanted to ease his heart somehow. That desire was not for himself, but for his master.

Of course, the Master would not believe him. He would probably think it was a ploy because he did not want to die.

His Master, he realized, was once again giving him no choice.

Gyo Cheon slowly clapped his hands.

Then, a door on the left wall opened, and someone walked out.

Dressed in fiery red robes, he was an old man of a similar age to the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, and he too carried a giant dao. One could tell just by his gait. He had been training in the Heaven Destroying Demonic Blade Technique for a long time.

He seemed to be someone the Master had newly taken in as a disciple and taught martial arts to.

He was not the only one to appear. The door on the opposite side opened, and someone else walked out from there as well.

This time, it was an old man in blue robes, and his perceived skill was in no way inferior to the old man who had appeared first.

The two men possessed opposing auras. If the first old man was fire, this one had an aura like water.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon knew instinctively.

They were masters who had achieved complete mastery of the Heaven Destroying Demonic Blade Technique.

They were truly individuals with skills on the level of a Demon Supreme. Since the Master had raised them out of vengeance, their skills could be surmised without even seeing them in action.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's gaze darkened. He sensed this would be anything but an easy fight.

Gyo Cheon looked at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and said.

"A betrayal by a disciple must be repaid by a disciple."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not lose his composure.

"I suppose I'll have to discipline my juniors."

Gyo Cheon sneered.

"Who says they're your juniors? You were excommunicated long ago."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon replied calmly.

"Because I have not excommunicated my Master."

Gyo Cheon's face twitched again. The Master would misunderstand and be enraged, but this was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's poignant affection for his master.

"My desire to see you again was sincere, and my apology was also sincere. My wish for you to just retreat now and live quietly is also sincere. And this, too, is sincere."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon slowly drew the Heaven Destroying Dao and continued.

"For his sake, I can kill again."