Word that I had killed a disciple of the Blood Heaven Saber Demon began spreading rapidly through the Cult. Yi An’s worries grew along with the uproar.

“It’s absolute chaos. Everyone I meet talks about you and Yang Po, Young Master.”

She sighed and added, “... And about me, too.”

Since she had been the cause of the fight, it was only natural that people would have plenty to say about her.

“Being famous is a good thing. Don’t we martial artists do all kinds of crazy things just to make a name for ourselves?”

“I don’t like it.”

“You’re going to get even more famous. What will you do then?”

Yi An let out a small sigh, but her expression wasn’t gloomy. Perhaps it was because something positive lay at the heart of all this uproar: change.

“I’m worried because the Blood Heaven Saber Demon values honor so much. I just hope he lets this pass.”

“Who says he values honor?”

“Pardon? Doesn’t he?”

“Would someone who values honor turn a blind eye to his disciples’ scummy behavior and condone it?”

“Perhaps he doesn’t know?”

“Then you’re seriously underestimating our esteemed Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s attention to detail.”

“You did this before, too. You keep speaking as though you know him well.”

“I know enough about the other Demon Supremes, too, not just him. I am the Heavenly Demon’s son, after all. I ought to have done at least that much research.”

Yi An stared at me with wide eyes. She must have thought she knew everything about me, so she was probably wondering when on earth I had conducted all that research without her knowing.

“Then why does the Blood Heaven Saber Demon let his disciples misbehave?”

“Well...”

There was a definite reason, but it wasn’t something I could explain to Yi An. Instead, I offered another reason she could accept.

“Because it’s convenient.”

“Pardon?”

“Greedy, selfish bastards are easier to handle than well-behaved disciples. The Blood Heaven Saber Demon has kept his disciples competing for years without choosing a chief disciple. Why? Because that makes it easier to use them as expendable tools. Just watch. Yang Po’s vacancy will be filled within days.”

“The Saber Demon is a frightening man.”

“I find his disciples more frightening. They know perfectly well what kind of man their master is, yet they still flock to him.”

“I’m glad I get to serve you, Young Master.”

“Of course you are. How could you even compare us? Yi An, shall we have a drink? It’s been a while.”

She looked at me in surprise.

“Why are you so surprised?”

“It hasn’t been a while. This would be our first time.”

“Our first?”

“Yes.”

I’d never shared so much as a drink with you? What on earth drove you to throw yourself in harm’s way for me?

“Let’s go. Tonight, we drink ourselves to death!”

I went with Yi An to Demon Family Village.

It was a settlement that had grown around the Cult in all directions. What had begun as a small village for demonic martial artists’ families had now become a large city.

I took her into the finest, most expensive tavern in Demon Family Village.

“This is a historic occasion. Let’s drink somewhere nice.”

“I’d be happy with somewhere small and shabby.”

Crowded places made her uncomfortable. Wherever she went, she immediately drew people’s eyes, so of course she disliked them.

Out of consideration for her, I chose one of the tavern’s separate private rooms.

“How much can you drink?”

“Not very much.”

“Let’s find out tonight. Don’t worry. If you get drunk, I’ll carry you home on my back.”

“I’m... heavy.”

“That’s all right. Look at these arms.”

“They’re half the size of mine.”

“That’s because I haven’t flexed yet!”

Since this was our first time drinking together, I ordered plenty of fine liquor and food.

“I’ve never tried any of these dishes. This one, or that one.”

“Try everything, and we’ll order more of whatever you like.”

“My stomach is going to be shocked.”

“You’re so busy guarding me that you just grab whatever you can, don’t you? Take more care with your meals from now on.”

“Look at me. With a body like this, I’m fine eating whatever’s handy.”

She raised her thick arm and grinned.

“Eating without thinking makes you gain more weight. What am I eating? What ingredients went into this? The more attention you pay to your food, the less weight you gain. If you want to lose weight, you have to become a gourmet.”

“Oh! I didn’t know that! I’ll do that from now on.”

But I knew. No matter what she ate, even if she starved herself every day, she wouldn’t lose weight. Food wasn’t what had made her fat.

Of course, she knew that perfectly well, too. She only said that because she thought I didn’t know about the side effects. She could have told me and made at least one joking complaint... but she had been forced to grow up far too young.

“From now on, you can learn by eating good food with me.”

Yi An looked straight at me and asked, “Please tell me your secret.”

“What secret? To cooking?”

“No. How a person can change this much.”

I gave her a faint smile.

“Why? Do you want to change, too?”

“That’s not it, but...”

She emptied her cup. How could she not want to change? The image of her childhood self would forever have a place in her heart. Whenever things were hard, she would remember those days, and that would only make it harder.

‘Once you regain your original appearance, you won’t need any secret like that. Everyone in the world will adore you.’

As she respectfully accepted the drink I poured for her, Yi An asked, “Young Master, how do you intend to become the successor?”

She had never asked that before. Perhaps she was asking now because she could see that possibility in me.

I raised my cup and said quietly, “Flattery is the only way to survive!”

Yi An smiled and raised her own cup, clinking it gently against mine.

“Make sure you melt the cult leader’s heart!”

We drained our cups together.

For someone who claimed she couldn’t drink much, Yi An drank quite well.

Of course, I had to pay the price for getting her drunk: I had to carry her home on my back.

All the way home, she shouted from my back, “Don’t worry! I’ll protect you, Young Master. You can count on me!”

“I wasn’t worried at all, but hearing you say that over and over is making me worry.”

“I told you not to worry! I’ll protect you!”

“All right. I’m not worried.”

“You should be. You ought to worry. But don’t worry! Because I’ll protect you!”

“Hahaha.”

Just then, a window opened and someone shouted, “What brainless bitch keeps repeating herself out there?”

I looked at the man sticking his head out of the window.

“Let it slide for my sake.”

“Who are you?”

“The Second Young Master of the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon.”

He stared blankly at me for a moment, then an apology came flying out at the speed of light.

“Oh! My apologies, Young Master!”

At the same time, the window slammed shut even faster than it had opened.

Yi An had fallen asleep on my back, breathing softly.

‘I’m sorry it took me this long to carry you.’

Back at my residence, I laid her on a bed and went outside. I sat in the courtyard with my legs stretched out and looked up at the moon.

Looking back now, I had sunk into a profound sense of defeat while living on the run after my family’s destruction. My depression had been so deep that I couldn’t keep living unless I was working toward the goal of returning to the past.

What if I hadn’t met Seo Jin then? What if I had never learned about the Great Art of Regression? Would I eventually... have killed myself? Or I would have gone looking for Hwa Mugi, only to die miserably at his followers’ hands without ever meeting the man himself. Yes, that was how it would have ended.

While I was lost in those thoughts, something flashed in the moonlight right beside me.

When I slowly turned my head, an enormous blade was beside my face. My tense face was reflected in the edge of the absurdly large saber.

The blade slowly tilted flat, revealing its owner behind it.

The wrinkles on the rough, bony hand gripping the saber were furrows of age, proof that the years had not been kind. Beyond those valleys, sharp eyes glared at me.

It was the Blood Heaven Saber Demon.

I was inwardly startled. I hadn’t expected him to visit so suddenly.

The saber poised as though to sever my neck was his signature weapon, the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber. Ranked among the martial world’s Ten Great Weapons, it shattered most other weapons upon impact, earning it the nickname Weapon Destroyer.

The cold demonic qi pouring from it engulfed our surroundings. A chill so icy it seemed to stop my breath made every fine hair on my body stand on end.

‘If that saber comes swinging at my neck, can I dodge it?’

I couldn’t readily answer. No matter how profound the insights I had gained in my previous life, my internal energy was overwhelmingly inferior now.

At the moment the tension reached its peak, the icy qi enveloping us vanished in an instant.

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon smiled and poked my side repeatedly with the butt of the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber’s hilt.

“Why’d you do it?”

He meant, why had I killed his disciple?

A moment ago, his qi presence had been that of an assassin sent to kill me. Now he was grinning like a friendly old neighbor and prodding my side.

“Because he acted like an idiot.”

At my matter-of-fact answer, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon stared at me. His gaze resembled Father’s, yet it was different.

While Father’s eyes gave no clue as to what he was thinking, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s were perfectly clear.

Hostility.

I saw flames blazing in his eyes.

“What kind of idiot comes looking for trouble with the cult leader’s youngest son, whom he cherishes so much he could put him in his eye and feel no pain?”

WHOOSH!

The saber resting across the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s knees sprang up and pointed at my neck again.

“Shall I cut off this head and take it to the cult leader? Tell him to put it in his eye and see whether it hurts?”

The chilling killing intent flowing along the blade conveyed its owner’s will: it might have sounded like a joke, but it wasn’t.

“I don’t think my head would fit into those frighteningly narrow eyes of Father’s.”

When I backed down a step, the qi flowing along the blade instantly disappeared toward the hilt. Remarkable. To control such formidable qi so freely with that skeletal body.

This time, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon drew a long line on the ground in front of where we sat with the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber. Then he drew a vertical mark about a handspan from its left end.

“From here to here is our Second Young Master. From here to the far end is me.”

The line was divided in a ratio of nine to one.

“What is this?”

“How much the cult leader values us.”

He was the nine. I was the one.

With my finger, I drew a new mark about two-thirds of the way along the line.

“Even so, I am his son, after all. This side should be me, and that side should be you, sir.”

Now I was the seven, and the Blood Heaven Saber Demon was the three.

He gave a sly smile.

“We could put it to the test. If I take your head to the cult leader, will he kill me or spare me?”

“Aren’t you underestimating the Heavenly Demon’s love for his son?”

“That’s why I’m saying we should test it.”

The Heaven-Destroying Great Saber slowly moved toward me again.

I pressed my palm firmly against the flat of the saber, stopping it from approaching my neck. It was cold. However brightly the Blood Heaven Saber Demon might smile, this coldness was his true nature. Forget that, and I would die.

“There’s no need for a test. He has two sons, but only one of you.”

The Blood Heaven Saber Demon grinned.

“You’re no idiot like my disciple, Second Young Master.”

“If your disciple had taken after you, he would still be alive.”

He placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it a few pats.

“Second Young Master, this old man has lived with ill fortune his whole life. Best not to see me too often.”

With that, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon vanished. His body shot up beside me and dropped into the darkness far away.

Once he was gone, I checked my side first. A dark blue bruise had formed where he had jabbed me with the saber’s hilt. They had looked like playful little pokes, but to me they had felt like heavy blows. His parting pats on my shoulder had been no different.

“Shit. Damn old bastard.”

I hadn’t let my guard down for a moment while dealing with him. Returning to the past did not change the fact that I always had to beware the dangers created by unexpected variables.

He had said twice that he would take my head to Father. That meant he genuinely had the possibility in mind.

At first glance, he seemed to act on a whim, but he wasn’t a capricious man. He always calculated everything thoroughly, then calculated it again. If he seemed unpredictable, even that unpredictability was calculated. That was what made him so difficult to deal with.

I had plenty of information about him, but knowing someone well did not mean I could handle him well. Information was only information. Something could happen at any time to overturn that advantage.

‘Anyway, why did he come to see me?’

Was it a warning for killing his disciple?

No. As I had told Yi An, he wasn’t someone who valued his reputation.

He had come to take a look at me. My performance in the dueling arena would have impressed him, and my wish to go hunting would have struck him as unusual. Then I had even cut down his disciple, so he must have felt the need to test me. He had come to taste me for himself, to see whether I tasted sweet or like shit. To see whether I could become the successor.

‘How did I taste?’

To me, he tasted spicy. I had only touched my tongue to him once, but it burned. Still, it was a delicious kind of heat.

‘Will the Blood Heaven Saber Demon be my first opponent?’

Perhaps he would. After all, I had been sent back to the very day I dueled his disciple.

‘Perhaps that enormous saber of yours stood out particularly well to Heaven’s eyes.’