Chapter 131: Kindred Spirit
Goeong's hand tightened further around my throat.
“Who are you?”
His voice was cold.
“And where is this place?”
It wasn't the Goeong I knew.
There wasn't a trace of emotion in that unfamiliar voice.
His eyes, dyed blood red, stared straight through me.
Hostility.
Killing intent.
And beneath both of them...
a confusion he couldn't explain.
It was as though he saw me as an enemy who needed to die...
while at the same time, he couldn't understand what I was.
His grip tightened again.
Kugh...!
It felt like the bones in my neck were screaming.
At this rate... I'm really going to die.
My thoughts instinctively went to the sword at my waist.
Should I draw it?
No.
The moment I did...
that hand would probably twist my neck and snap it.
This was the Heavenly Demon.
A man before whom even the Ten Demons knelt.
With my current strength, resisting carelessly wouldn't create a path to survival.
It would only make my death come faster.
Then a desperate voice rang out.
“Cult Leader!”
It was Yeom Yuhwa.
She hurried over and immediately dropped to her knees.
“This follower is Yeom Yuhwa.”
“Cult Leader, please calm yourself.”
But Dokgo Jinak didn't even look at her.
His eyes remained fixed solely on me.
His grip dug deeper into my throat.
It was getting harder to breathe.
Kugh.
I needed something that could stop him.
Something Goeong remembered.
No.
Something that Heavenly Demon Dokgo Jinak would react to.
And then—
...!
One word flashed through my mind like lightning.
I forced my voice out with everything I had.
“...The flame....”
The instant I said it...
Dokgo Jinak's eyes trembled ever so slightly.
"..."
I didn't miss the opening.
“The thing... you were looking for....”
Even while suffocating, I forced the words out.
“The flame...”
“I told you... I'd find it for you....”
"...?!"
His fingers loosened slightly.
I sucked in a ragged breath and kept talking.
“I promised...”
“I said I'd find... the flame for you....”
At that moment...
the Heavenly Demon's face, twisted with murderous intent, wavered.
For just an instant...
the face of the Goeong I knew seemed to pass over it.
“A promise...?”
Dokgo Jinak muttered in a low voice.
His red eyes shook without rest.
Like someone groping through an ancient memory buried at the bottom of an abyss.
“The flame....”
His hand slowly loosened.
I didn't waste the chance.
I quickly pulled myself backward.
“Cough! Cough!”
My throat felt torn apart.
My vision swayed.
Supporting myself with one hand on the floor, I coughed for a long while.
Meanwhile...
Dokgo Jinak stared blankly into the air and muttered to himself.
“The flame...”
“The sacred flame...”
“It has to burn again....”
Then came the next words.
“The workings of heaven... must be protected....”
My heart dropped.
Protect the workings of heaven?
It was the exact same thing True Immortal Cheongun had warned about beneath the Abandoned Martial Hall.
I stopped coughing and stared at Dokgo Jinak.
He was still looking into empty space with unfocused eyes.
“Inside the flame....”
"...hidden...."
"...darkness...."
Taken separately...
the words made little sense.
But when those three pieces came together...
a chill ran down my spine.
“Must... stop it....”
Then—
Thud.
Heavenly Demon Dokgo Jinak suddenly lost all strength and collapsed forward.
“Cult Leader!”
Yeom Yuhwa rushed toward him.
I instinctively reached out as well.
Together, we barely caught him before he hit the ground.
The body in my arms was limp.
So limp that it was difficult to believe this was the same monster who had nearly crushed my throat moments ago.
It felt like I was holding nothing more than an exhausted old man.
I stared down at the unconscious Dokgo Jinak.
Dokgo Jinak...
What the hell happened to you?
We moved the unconscious Dokgo Jinak to one side of the Heavenly Demon Hall and laid him down.
About two gak passed.
Then...
his eyelids slowly began to open.
The first thing he did was stare blankly at me.
“Mujin... my friend....”
His voice was hoarse.
Dokgo Jinak...
no.
He was Goeong again.
The red light I'd seen in his eyes had completely vanished.
His gaze had returned to the one I knew.
Empty, yet innocent.
Innocent, yet somehow lonely.
“Why am I lying down?”
He blinked at me.
“And why does Mujin look so tired?”
I almost laughed from sheer disbelief.
Tired?
He looked like he had absolutely no idea he'd nearly killed me.
I moved closer.
“Goeong. Are you okay?”
“Goeong is strong!”
He shot upright immediately.
Then looked at me with concern.
“Mujin looks sick instead!”
His voice suddenly rose.
“Did someone bully you?!”
Seeing that reaction...
he really didn't remember anything.
Who bullied me?
You did.
I only muttered it inwardly.
Then I asked,
“Goeong.”
“Do you remember anything?”
He widened his eyes.
“Remember?”
“What do you mean?”
His face showed genuine confusion.
I was wondering where to even begin explaining when Yeom Yuhwa spoke from beside me.
“Mujin.”
I turned toward her.
“Even if you ask the Cult Leader, he will not remember what just happened.”
I immediately asked,
“Then what exactly was that?”
Yeom Yuhwa looked at Dokgo Jinak for a moment.
There was a familiar resignation in her eyes...
mixed with an old sadness.
“Ever since the Cult Leader extinguished the Sacred Flame...”
Her voice lowered.
“his mind has remained unstable like this.”
Then she added,
“And occasionally, he goes berserk as he just did.”
Berserk....
Was that why Dokgo Jinak had ordered himself confined inside the Heavenly Forbidden Prison?
That thought led to another question.
“You're saying the Cult Leader's mind collapsed simply because he extinguished the Sacred Flame?”
I frowned.
“Is that even possible?”
No matter how highly the Demonic Cult revered it...
wasn't it ultimately just a flame burning over a brazier?
The Heavenly Demon lost his mind because a fire went out?
That was difficult to accept.
Yeom Yuhwa shook her head.
“The Sacred Flame is not an ordinary fire.”
Her voice was firm.
“It is a holy gift bestowed upon our cult by the Creator.”
Her conviction left little room for argument.
I fell silent.
If she's that certain... maybe there's something about it I don't know.
Then again...
mysterious things existed in this world that couldn't be explained normally.
I was living proof.
I'd experienced reincarnation and regression.
I'd met the embodiment of intent left behind by True Immortal Cheongun, a man dead for two hundred years.
And now...
I carried the Flow he had left behind within my own body.
Yeom Yuhwa continued.
“The Sacred Flame was originally an immortal flame that could never be extinguished.”
She looked toward the cold brazier.
“The only person capable of extinguishing it...”
“is the Heavenly Demon, inheritor of the Creator's will.”
That naturally raised another question.
I looked at her.
“If the Sacred Flame that your people treasure so deeply went out...”
“isn't that an enormous crisis?”
Yeom Yuhwa's face darkened instantly.
“Yes.”
She answered without hesitation.
“If this becomes known within the cult, enormous confusion will spread among the followers.”
Her voice grew quieter.
“At present, only the Ten Demons and I, as the Flame Attendant, know that the Sacred Flame has gone out.”
I glanced toward the cold Sacred Flame Altar.
“But you can't hide it forever.”
The Demonic Cult was large enough to threaten the entire martial world.
And what held it together was loyalty to the Heavenly Demon...
along with fanatical faith in the god they worshipped.
If the Sacred Flame, the symbol of that faith, had disappeared...
the very foundation of the cult could shake.
As though she'd read my thoughts...
Yeom Yuhwa nodded.
“No.”
“It cannot remain hidden forever.”
She looked troubled.
“If word spreads, it will be a tremendous shock to the followers.”
Strangely...
despite those words...
she looked almost too calm.
And sure enough...
her next sentence explained why.
“...However, the Sacred Flame has not disappeared completely.”
I blinked.
What did that mean?
Hadn't she just told me herself that Dokgo Jinak had extinguished it?
I asked,
“What do you mean?”
Yeom Yuhwa slowly began to explain.
“On the night before the Sacred Flame went out...”
“the Cult Leader left me one separate message.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“A separate message?”
She didn't answer immediately.
For a moment...
she simply looked at me in silence, steadying her breathing.
What's in it that she's hesitating this much?
Then she reached inside her robe.
She pulled something out.
It looked like a letter.
Yeom Yuhwa held it toward me.
“Read it.”
“It is a message the Cult Leader secretly entrusted to me.”
I took the letter.
The moment I unfolded it...
a strange tension ran through my fingertips.
Only one short sentence was written inside.
聖火, 承天魔遺志之知己前, 復燃也.
I slowly translated it in my head.
The Sacred Flame... will burn again before the kindred spirit who inherits the Heavenly Demon's will.
I unconsciously looked up.
“A kindred spirit who inherits the Heavenly Demon's will?”
The sentence itself wasn't especially difficult.
The problem was...
who it referred to.
A jigi.
A close friend.
Someone who truly knew another's heart.
I naturally looked toward Yeom Yuhwa.
“If that's what this says...”
“shouldn't the first thing you do be find someone who was close to the Cult Leader?”
I glanced at the letter again.
“If you find that person, wouldn't the Sacred Flame revive?”
But Yeom Yuhwa immediately shook her head.
“The Heavenly Demon is one who stands alone above heaven and earth.”
Her tone was absolute.
“How could such a being have an ordinary friend?”
Well...
she had a point.
The Dokgo Jinak I knew from my previous life had been an absolute master who contended with Righteous Alliance Leader Moyong Cheonhwi for the title of strongest under heaven.
Was there really anyone in the world such a man would acknowledge as a friend?
I looked down at the sentence again.
承天魔遺志之知己前, 復燃也.
But the message clearly said it.
A kindred spirit who inherited the Heavenly Demon's will...
would make the Sacred Flame burn again.
Then something flashed through my mind.
Wait.
Don't tell me...
At that exact moment...
Goeong's voice came from beside us.
“Friend! Why are you talking so much?”
He pouted.
“Stop talking and come play with me!”
And almost at the same time...
Yeom Yuhwa's voice entered my ears.
“There is only one person in this world whom the Cult Leader has acknowledged as his friend.”
I slowly turned toward her.
Yeom Yuhwa looked directly into my eyes.
“Mujin.”
Then she said it again.
“The Cult Leader's one and only kindred spirit...”
Her gaze didn't waver.
“is you.”
