Tie Yantai blinked his eyes, thought for a mont, and then said, "That day... you, Young Lord, were distraught all day. You were packing this and that..."
Aigoo... Tie Tou... what is 'this and that'? How is that helpful?
"What did I pack?"
"They were the records you had written until then. Things you wrote about martial arts, about the Blood Sect, about the cult, and so on. You packed quite a lot."
"Where did I put all that?"
"You took them to the secret archives of the Divine Palace."
Hmm, so I made thorough preparations in case I lost my mory.
As expected... I am smart.
If I can just find that...
"But... the Divine Palace was destroyed... I searched everywhere... but I couldn't find it."
"What? The Divine Palace was destroyed?"
"You, Young Lord, smashed it all. The secret archives were also completely blown away."
Aigoo... why did I put it there... I should have hidden it well in a distant cave...
Perhaps I kept it close because I thought I wouldn't be able to find it if I lost my mory...
To have blown it all away...
It feels like my entire past has been blown away.
Tie Yantai, whether he knew of Baekji's bitter feelings or not, continued to speak.
"Around evening, you left the Young Lord's quarters. You were leaving, but you hastily ca back, wrote a few words, and entrusted this to ."
"What did I say?"
"It wasn't anything special. You just told
to hold onto it and not to forget to give it to you when you ca back."
"Hmm..."
The Blood Cult Leader had borrowed Hyuk-ryeonjong's body and had entered the competition for the position of Young Lord.
Among the Twelve Guardian Families of the Divine Cult, the So family and the Hyuk-ryeon family were the most powerful, and Soya-hu and Hyuk-ryeonjong were the leading candidates for Young Lord.
If it hadn't been for Soya-hu, Hyuk-ryeonjong would have beco the Young Lord and would have later taken over the Demonic Cult.
'So that's why he chose Hyuk-ryeonjong...'
No, that's not it.
If it were that simple, I wouldn't have turned back to leave a note while on my way to reincarnate.
If I wrote it down in case I lost my mory...
It must have a aning.
"The Hyuk-ryeon family... what kind of family is the Hyuk-ryeon family?"
Tie Yantai looked at Baekji with a pitiful gaze.
"You really don't rember anything at all. The Hyuk-ryeon family is the second-ranked of the Twelve Guardian Families, and their power is very strong. The head of the Hyuk-ryeon family is..."
"...What are their martial arts?"
"The Dark Soul Divine Art, the Soul Origin Art, the Soul Heaven Shattering Emperor Sword Technique..."
"..."
Although Tie Yantai told him what he knew about the Hyuk-ryeon family, nothing ca to mind.
"...After the Hyuk-ryeonjong incident, the authority of the Hyuk-ryeon family was diminished..."
"Stop. That's enough, tell
about the organization of the cult."
"Our cult, under the wise Cult Leader, has the Left and Right Brightness Emissaries, the Four Divine Generals, the Eight Great Martial Generals, and the Twelve Martial Forces, and the Guardian Families also operate their own martial forces. There is an Elder Hall centered on the Twelve Guardian Families..."
Tie Yantai recited the organization of the Demonic Cult.
After asking other things he was curious about, Baekji said, "While you're here, you can't even utter the 'ma' of Demonic Cult."
"I understand. We originally call ourselves the Divine Cult. You don't have to worry."
"Divine Cult? Divine Cult is also not allowed. Anything with 'cult' in it is absolutely not allowed."
"Yes."
After giving a firm warning, Baekji sent Tie Yantai back.
It was a night of shock after shock.
"I have to sleep. Let's think after I sleep."
That night, he was tornted by a dream of fighting, covered in blood, all night long.
* * *
The next day, Baekji, with hollow eyes, drank the tea that nghua brewed and had a chat with Tie Yantai.
nghua, who knew Baekji's identity, couldn't even breathe properly in front of him.
Tie Yantai was moved by the fact that he was sharing tea with the Young Lord.
"What kind of person was I?"
"You, Young Lord? Your resourcefulness could deceive ghosts, and your martial arts reached the heavens..."
"...Isn't that a bit too much flattery?"
Tie Yantai said with an embarrassed face, "That's how it was to ."
Of course it would be. Tie Tou...
"Tell
the truth. No more, no less... how did I spend my childhood?"
"I don't know that. You lived in the Cult Leader's quarters. No one can enter the Cult Leader's quarters, so there's probably no one who knows. From what I've heard, you were the number one prodigy of the Demonic Cult and only trained in martial arts."
"..."
"Sotis, when you were teaching martial arts, you would say so. 'When I was young...' and then you would beat us... according to those words, you trained day and night. It was probably like that. That's why your martial arts were so outstanding."
So I only dug into martial arts. I do tend to do that when I get hooked on sothing.
"The first ti I saw you, Young Lord, was at the heir competition martial arts tournant. Most of the cult mbers would have been the sa. You were very handso... you were like a single sword. Strange... you're very different from now. Is that why I didn't recognize you? Do I have to get older?"
Of course. Now I'm in a natural state... do you an I acted like a sharp sword in a rustic way?
"How was I back then?"
"I don't know well."
"Hmm. It seems Tie Tou's status was low."
"No. You, Young Lord, were not in the cult."
"?"
"After the Hyuk-ryeonjong incident, you went out to catch the Blood Sect and would visit the cult once or twice a year, and later, once every few years."
Ugh...
"You said you were my trusted subordinate... didn't you follow
around and stuff?"
"Hmm. I started following you, Young Lord, after the Blood Sect caused a calamity. You, Young Lord, led the Four Divine Generals and fought the Blood Sect. Among them, you, Young Lord, trusted
the most. You kept
close."
Hmm. Could it be because my head was the dullest, so it was difficult to assign
outside work?
"A full twenty years... it was a really long fight. It reached its peak with the bloody battle of Mount Yuling. It's a great pity that you don't rember that battle. The saying 'a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood' was not an exaggeration. At that ti, I beca your right-hand man, Young Lord, and killed three of the Eight Great Demonic Generals."
Pride flowed from Tie Yantai's eyes.
Is killing people sothing to be proud of...
I think I need to ask another brat.
"Who was my left-hand man?"
"I was the only subordinate that you, Young Lord, trusted and relied on. You would sotis call for the Western Divine General, Jian Yi, but you would always get angry and hit him."
You said my beating was an expression of affection... did I then pour excessive affection on that old scholar?
I don't think so...
"After the Blood Cult Leader fled, you, Young Lord, and we continued to pursue him. But that brat is truly a master of hiding. He becos a different person in an instant..."
Baekji was no longer listening.
Hearing about his life before reincarnation, he felt pathetic.
To have spent most of his life learning martial arts when he was young and chasing the Blood Sect after he ca of age.
What on earth did I do?
Perhaps it was because he couldn't feel the betrayal of Hyuk-ryeonjong now.
If you are betrayed by a bosom friend and even lose your lover, wouldn't it be natural to go on a rampage of revenge?
'Byeok Un-seol...'
Her na is the sa as Tang Yunseol.
Could that be why I readily tried to save Tang Yunseol, whom I t on the street?
When I heard it from the Demonic Advisor, a pain as if my heart was being stabbed arose.
When the scar on my forehead newly appeared, when I wanted to overturn everything with rage...
The sad eyes that ca to mind...
―Don't do that...
What does it an?
Did she know that I would waste my life clinging to resentnt and anger?
'Chasing the Blood Cult Leader my whole life... I even chose to reincarnate...'
The Blood Cult Leader...
I must kill that brat...
To have ruined my entire life...
* * *
Baekji, accompanied by Tie Yantai and nghua, went to the Hongng Brothel.
"Everyone, gather on the fifth floor."
Even so, there were only a few people.
Tie Yantai, the Demonic Advisor, the Hongng Twin Fairies...
"Demonic Advisor, tell . There must be sothing you've found out about the Blood Sect's movents in the anti."
"I have found out sothing very important."
The Demonic Advisor shrugged his shoulders and spread his fan.
"Don't strike a pose. You'll get hit."
"Yes."
The Demonic Advisor quickly folded his fan and said, "It seems the great art of the Blood Sect has evolved a step further."
"...?"
"Although the 'Blood Blood Demonic Art' has the effect of rapidly increasing one's internal energy, it is easy to leave traces because it consus lifeblood. But these days, it seems they are using a great art that increases internal energy by only taking the soul."
"What is that? Taking only the soul. It's not like a fox spirit eating a liver... is that possible?"
"Not long ago, I received a strange report about a deep mountain village in Mount Maje. It was a village isolated from the outside world, and when soone who had left his hotown returned, all the villagers had beco different people."
"Different people?"
"His own wife was living with a friend, and his parents and siblings didn't recognize each other. There was even a house where a brother and sister were living as a married couple."
"What's wrong with that? It's sothing that can happen between a man and a woman, isn't it?"
"It ans it has exceeded the bounds of normalcy. A sister-in-law living with her brother-in-law, a brother and sister living as a married couple, and even raising each other's children... and yet, there was no trouble at all. It's as if they have beco new people and are living in new relationships."
"..."
"There was not a single person who recognized him. And he hadn't even been away for a few years. Moreover, and this is the crucial part... the old and the young were almost at the level of idiots, with no mory of anything before a certain point in ti."
That is truly a strange thing. An entire village losing their mories? So they don't even recognize their spouses and don't know their parents and siblings?
"When I heard the report, my sensitive intuition was triggered. Ah, there's sothing! So I went and investigated myself. As a result..."
The Demonic Advisor seed to have a chronic habit of boasting and using a narrative style that heightened the dramatic effect.
Baekji's hand went to his bamboo staff.
The Demonic Advisor's eyes wavered for a mont, and his speech quickened.
"I was able to form an amazing hypothesis... what if all of them had their souls sucked out? I had such a suspicion."
"Hmm..."
Baekji let out a groan.
"Are they fine other than losing their mories?"
"Yes... since they beca simple, they were rather living without any lack."
The Demonic Advisor, 'ehem', cleared his throat and said, "I imdiately thought of the Blood Sect. A person's soul has the Thought accumulated over a lifeti. That Thought contains will, so it is called soul power. When we say we put our heart and soul into sothing..."
"Speak simply."
"To extract soul power and strengthen one's own soul... haven't you heard of this technique sowhere? Yes, that's right. It is the technique of the Blood Sect. The reason the 'Blood Blood Demonic Art' burns lifeblood is to take the soul power. But the Blood Sect has found another way. I have temporarily nad this the 'Borrowed Soul Demonic Art'."
"Is that from the 'Great Art of Borrowing Souls'?"
"It will be similar."
"And the person who suffers it becos a blank slate?"
"That's right. A person's mories are engraved on the soul, so if the soul is pulled out, no mories remain."
"They don't die?"
"They don't die because they have a spiritual soul. Should I say a new soul is created? You can think of it as being born again and living again."
"Hmm..."
In a word, they beco like Baekji.
'Wait...'
At a thought that suddenly crossed his mind, Baekji asked the Demonic Advisor, "The martial art of the Hyuk-ryeon family is the 'Dark Soul Demonic Art'..."
"Yes. That's correct!"
The Demonic Advisor, as if praising him, slapped his fan and made a 'very good' expression.
"I knew you, Young Lord, would notice right away. You are indeed brilliant."
This brat?
Baekji looked at the Demonic Advisor, suppressing the urge to beat him up.
The Demonic Advisor, caught up in his own excitent, raised his voice.
"In order to find you, Young Lord, I looked into all your past actions. While looking at the records of the Hyuk-ryeonjong incident, sothing suddenly caught in my sharp brain. Why Hyuk-ryeonjong? But when the incident in the mountain village of Mount Maje occurred, I realized. The Blood Cult Leader had stolen the 'Soul Weaving Art' of the Hyuk-ryeon family."
"..."
Now it was certain.
And he realized the reason why the Blood Sect was revealing itself.
'That bastard, the Blood Cult Leader... he's preparing to shed his golden cicada shell...'
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