The next morning, Yeon-jin appeared looking pale, carrying the breakfast tray.
"You… you don't look well."
Seeing that she was genuinely sick, Woo's expression turned serious.
"I had an upset stomach. Did you know that if your stomach's really bad, your head can hurt too? I just learned that."
Yeon-jin chatted lightly, as if it wasn't a big deal. But the dark circles under her eyes showed that even after resting, she had been suffering.
Woo's heart sank. There was no way Yeon-jin had skipped work by chance, so he started to wonder if someone had slipped something strange into her food.
Whether she wanted it or not, she had gotten caught up in this conspiracy. All because of him.
"Yeon-jin…d-do you know how to read?"
"I wanted to learn, but it was not possible."
Yeon-jin shrugged.
"T-Then... I guess there's no helping it…"
Woo muttered. Writing it down and burning it afterward would've been the best, but now that things had turned out like this, he had no choice but to say it aloud.
"Listen to me… carefully."
His voice lowered significantly. Yeon-jin looked puzzled, but since it was the first time Woo was acting like this, she nodded.
"There's a place in the Central Plains called Yonghwa Battlefield. It's a very, v-very small battlefield."
"Yonghwa Battlefield."
When Yeon-jin murmured those words, Woo brought a finger to his lips. It meant not to speak loudly even by mistake. Yeon-jin tensed up immediately.
"Among the branches of Yonghwa Battlefield, look for the one with a carving of fl-flying three birds next to the signboard. Then, make sure to summon someone ranked as a Chief Officer or higher. You can loudly claim you're entrusting a fa-family's treasure, o-or even desperately beg to borrow a large sum of money—it doesn't matter. But no matter what, you must bring out a Chief Officer or someone above that rank."
Yeon-jin couldn't figure out why Woo was saying all this, but she silently mouthed the words to memorize them.
Yonghwa Battlefield. Make contact with someone ranked Chief Officer or above.
Seeing Yeon-jin quietly murmuring, Woo continued.
"And… bring up the weather. The Chief Officer probably won't react much and will just talk about the recent weather. Then, Yeon-jin, say that red thunder struck all the way on your journey here."
At the mention of red thunder, Yeon-jin's brow furrowed slightly. It's not lightning, but thunder? How could thunder be red?
Yeon-jin was certain that she wasn't being mocked by these cryptic words, and the only reason she listened carefully was because she had personally experienced Woo's humanity.
The man Yeon-jin knew was far too full of secrets to be just a mere servant.
"H-Hey, say that the thirteenth scops owl has returned. That'll get a response. If they ask what you want, ask for…for a new identity, a safe house, and funds for a new beginning."
A new identity, a safe house, and funds for a new beginning.
Yeon-jin's eyes widened. It was because she realized what Woo was trying to convey. He was telling her of a place that could ensure her safety, just in case. Along with it, a code phrase to secure her future.
The thirteenth scops owl...
"H-How could you know something like this...?"
"You must not forget a single word I said. It must be Yonghwa Battlefield. No other place will do. You must also check the signboard. Got it?"
Yonghwa Battlefield. The carving of flying three birds. Approach someone ranked at least as a Chief Officer. The weather and red thunder. And the return of the thirteenth scops owl.
Yeon-jin nodded with her lips pressed together.
"From now on, make sure you... prepare all your meals yourself. Never eat anything given by others."
The ever-cautious Woo muttered with a face full of guilt.
"I'm really sorry for dragging you into this… I truly am."
Woo muttered with a face full of guilt.
There wasn't a trace of moisture around his eyes. They were completely dry. Even so, Yeon-jin couldn't shake off the thought that this man looked sorrowful.
Yeon-jin placed her hand over Woo's.
"I wouldn't say I expected it to turn out like this from the beginning."
She began with a resolute expression.
"I got involved in this for myself. I knew it would be dangerous. I knew I'd cross a line. But I have no family to look after me, so what guilt would I feel for living for myself?"
She regrets the day she held the First Internal Officer's hand. But she doesn't regret it.
"Still, it seems even someone like me was given a blessing."
Yeon-jin smiled. Her expression was firm to the extreme.
"Meeting someone like you…I think it's the kind of luck that won't come twice in this life. I'll always keep what you told me in mind. If things get dangerous, I'll make sure to run and survive."
Her hand tightly gripped Woo's.
"So don't add my share of guilt to your sorrow. Let me take responsibility for the foolish choice I made myself."
Yeon-jin's expression was calm as she said that. She seemed composed for someone who'd just heard that her sickness might have been caused by poison.
From the moment she held Seomun Geum-ryeong's hand, Yeon-jin hadn't expected a good ending. She knew she was about to walk a dangerous tightrope, and she had confidence in her ability to carry it through.
But that certainty came from a time when she hadn't yet realized that she was not someone who could be heartless to the end.
Not because she was weak, but because she had overlooked her own conscience. Born and raised like someone who'd fallen alone into the world, she thought she had the right to make selfish choices more than anyone else.
But when the moment actually came, Yeon-jin found that her conscience was stronger than her selfishness.
She thought it was fine to report the maid's every little move. Even bringing him porridge with unknown contents felt unpleasant, but she thought she could do it.
Yet in the end, what Yeon-jin did was cut off surveillance through herself and throw away the porridge that the First Internal Officer had been handing over daily.
Even someone uneducated, unable to read, had enough judgment to tell right from wrong. And if they were shown grace, they had the decency to remember it.
At first, she thought it was a foolish act. A mere servant had defied the First Internal Officer's command and even betrayed her, so she feared retaliation, trembling with dread. But now, Yeon-jin came to realize that what she had done was a decision only someone truly strong could make.
She had never held the hilt of a sword. She didn't know her parents, so she'd never benefited from family ties. Of course, she had no money and little knowledge. And yet, she tried to do what was right.
It was something that required more courage than strength.
Day by day, Yeon-jin became more proud of her choice. There was a time when she had spent nights tossing and turning in anxiety, but now she fell asleep the moment she lay down. Her appetite returned, and she faced everything with motivation.
Even though she knew the First Internal Officer might one day retaliate, her heart was at peace.
Even if yesterday's collapse was due to poison, she had no regrets. Yeon-jin now understood what it meant to refuse the First Internal Officer's hand, to betray her and protect her benefactor. She could no longer go back to how things were before.
"…Are you telling me this because… you're really leaving?"
She asked, knowing full well that Woo and the Third Disciple had spoken about Woo leaving House Of Joy immediately.
Woo slowly nodded.
"An invisible trap will soon close in on House Of Joy. Y-Yeon-jin got caught up in it because of me, so I th-thought the least I could do was to ensure your safety."
Seeing that face, Yeon-jin felt conflicted. What Woo had told her was information that could help anyone make a fresh start. That meant he could use it for himself as well, so why wasn't he using it?
"That's not the kind of information you'd share with just a servant."
Woo knew he couldn't deceive Yeon-jin with a lie. She was quick-witted and sharp. She was the one who had recognized Woo, who had been more withdrawn than anyone else, and spoken to him. Her instincts would be able to tell the truth from falsehood.
Maybe not right away, but eventually.
"Yeon-jin isn't just… just a servant."
Woo whispered to her.
"You… you recognized me, didn't you?"
That secretive whisper flowed out in a rough voice.
Yeon-jin slowly blinked.
"You may not know what I am… but you must've sensed something. You've been curious and… and observing me all this time."
"…"
Yeon-jin remained silent.
"This… is a re-reward for keeping my secret."
"You're being too generous. You've already saved me from the Third Disciple. And ever since then, you've helped me in ways no one else even noticed. It just doesn't sit right, receiving so much grace without any way to repay it."
Woo responded to Yeon-jin, who was shaking her head.
"I'm just giving you back the 'opportunity' you lost when you stood up to the First Internal Officer for me."
Opportunity.
What a sweet word. For some reason, Yeon-jin felt a strange tightness in her throat.
She had never wished for great wealth. Nor to be born into a noble bloodline, or to possess outstanding talent in martial arts. All she had ever wanted was the opportunity to make something of herself with her own strength. It was because of that thirst that she had thrown herself into Seomun Geum-ryeong's offer when she recognized her.
And now Woo had recognized that and voiced it aloud. Just as she had been watching him, Woo had been observing her too.
"I'll keep it engraved in my heart. If the day ever comes when I'm on the brink of death, I'll be sure to use it. And someday, I'll repay your kindness."
Yeon-jin swore. She hadn't cut her finger to mix blood, nor placed a bowl of purified water and sworn before Heaven and Earth. It was a promise made with words only.
Even so, Woo could feel the weight in her words.
"If there is a next time."
Woo smiled, his face suggesting he wouldn't allow any further questions. It seemed he didn't believe there would be a next time.
But…
Yeon-jin, strangely, had a feeling there would be a next time. A strange certainty that the opportunity to repay his kindness would come to her too.
***
Woo had learned the name of the servant who had taken over the evening shift in Yeon-jin's place. She was a woman named Jin-jin. After asking Yeon-jin to summon her separately, Woo got straight to the point.
"Take me to your master."
If she was someone the First Disciple had planted in the House of Joy, then it would be natural for her to have a way to take Woo out. There was no way Mo Yong Yu-woon would've attempted contact without preparing something like that.
"Master? I don't know what you're talking about."
The woman, feigning ignorance, used honorifics, but her tone carried sarcasm. She seemed to hold some dislike toward Woo. Well, Yeon-jin having affection for him, a servant, was a rare case after all.
"Take me to them."
Each syllable that came out of Woo's mouth carried weight. Even though the servant was momentarily overwhelmed, she looked puzzled, unable to figure out why. Since the situation and his position weren't good enough to suppress someone with sheer force of presence alone, Woo had to add a quiet threat.
"Or should I report to the Th-Third Disciple that you secretly brought the note from outside into the House of Joy?"
"...Please follow me."
Since Kang-oh had been summoned to Honamgak, a quick step out during that time should be fine.
Thinking that, Woo followed behind Jin-jin.
Sure enough, if Mo Yong Yu-woon had intended for Woo to respond, then steps must have already been taken to guide him directly to a specific place. Jin-jin walked confidently, and no one stopped them as they slipped out through the back door. The path remained quiet the entire way.
Only after they reached one of the rarely used outer buildings of the Black Sky Clan did Jin-jin step back. Woo looked around the shabby interior. It seemed like they had tried to find a quiet place, but...in fact, it was precisely the kind of place that would be perfect for someone to secretly keep watch.
Before the wait could drag on, Mo Yong Yu-woon arrived. For Woo, who had to return to the House of Joy before Kang-oh came back from Honamgak, it couldn't have been more fortunate.
"I... I received the note."
"I'm glad it was delivered properly."
Thinking that an untrustworthy subordinate had actually handled the task properly, Yu-woon opened his mouth.
"Our youngest disciple has been rather unruly, so I was concerned whether you were doing well."
Mo Yong Yu-woon reached out, grabbed Woo's chin, and gently lifted it. His sharp eyes swept over Woo, as though appraising a precious item.
The more he scrutinized him under the broad daylight, the more shocked he became. He couldn't understand how such a refined, handsome man had become so terribly ruined. Could it be that he fell victim to fire after he went missing?
Besides his appearance, there was something else that weighed on his mind. Compared to the earlier attempt of Woo to deceive him by bowing his head servilely, this more composed attitude was preferable but the stammering and rough voice subtly grated on his ears.
"Was bringing down Yeo bul-hoe your suggestion?"
Woo felt Yu-woon's hand, which was holding his chin, tighten. It wasn't painful, but it was enough to feel the pressure.
Instead of frowning, Woo met Yu-woon's gaze head-on.
"I-It was just a taste."
Even though it had been Kang-oh's doing, Woo spoke as if it had been his own scheme.
"Oh dear, it seems I've earned quite a bit of hatred."
Yu-woon spoke while laughing as if he were cheerful. But his eyes had sunk coldly.
"Because you keep poking around..."
"Did it bother you that much?"
Woo didn't answer. Did it bother him? He felt a sense of crisis so great that it couldn't be described that way. He had chosen to live in hiding, but now that his identity had been exposed, how could he feel at ease?
Mo Yong Yu-woon, perhaps having drawn his own conclusion, spat out words of rebuke with a smiling face.
"Still, using Kang-oh to eliminate Yeo Bul-hoe, that was too much. I had to bear considerable losses."
"A-Are you… asking me to repay that?"
"No."
Yu-woon shook his head.
"Come to my side."
"..."
It was truly the words of a madman.
"The old men may be slow to move, but if they do act, recruiting a few more like Yeo Bul-hoe wouldn't be a problem."
The man smiled sweetly. It was rather surprising that someone with such neat and elegant features, enough to be called Master Mo, could wear such a soft expression.
"If it were me, I could help you."
Mo Yong Yu-woon said, as if seducing Woo.
"I can help you recover what you've lost. Meeting your subordinate is possible too."
"And what do you want in return? Su-Support to become the Grandmaster of the Black Sky Clan?"
Woo's cold tone made Mo Yong Yu-woon smile in amusement.
"I'll rise on my own, without needing that much help."
To stand shoulder to shoulder with the world-renowned Dan Woo-Hyo, he needed to at least become the Grandmaster of the Black Sky Clan. And Mo Yong Yu-woon wanted to accomplish that entirely with his own strength. If he needed Dan Woo-Hyo's help to become the Grandmaster of the Black Sky Clan just to stand beside the White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster, how could he bear to face him without shame?
That wasn't what Yu-woon wanted.
What he wanted was to reclaim what was lost due to the downfall of the Mo Yong family through Dan Woo-Hyo. He longed for the prestige and honor that he rightfully should have had as a Righteous path martial artist.
Rather than being despised for being from the Demonic Path murim, he wanted to be admired.
He didn't become the Grandmaster of Black Sky Clan's disciple by choice. That man had merely saved his life. He was struggling to protect what was his here, when a bastard, presumed to be the Master's illegitimate child, rolled in. Watching Jin-rang shower unprecedented affection onto Kang-oh burned Yu-woon up inside.
Everyone said he was firmly established as the successor. But Yu-woon, who had long served Jin-rang as his master, could sharply perceive the emotional texture others couldn't see. Jin-rang looked at the youngest disciple as though seeing a blood relative lost ten years ago. If he asked, Jin-rang would pluck down the moon or the stars for him.
It couldn't be more frustrating. Yu-woon couldn't let himself be pushed aside. He was full of ambition. Kang-oh didn't desire anything, yet simply by receiving Jin-rang's affection, he was in a position to take everything away from him. Yu-woon's pride was too high to accept such a precarious situation.
To Woo, he couldn't understand Yu-woon at all. Saying he didn't want any help and only wanted to maintain a friendship wasn't enough to justify how much effort he was putting in.
If you grabbed any random passerby and said that the servant Woo was Dan Woo-Hyo, Grandmaster of the White Virtue Clan, they'd say you were crazy. And yet, Yu-woon was filled with certainty.
It wasn't strange that Kong Yool had recognized him. That man had the instincts of a beast, and he had spent quite a fair amount of time with Woo. But the First Disciple, Mo Yong Yu-woon, was not Kong Yool. The two were barely even acquainted and had almost no interaction. So what on earth had he seen that made him so certain Woo was Dan Woo-Hyo, the Grandmaster of the White Virtue Clan?
"How… how did you recognize me?"
At Woo's low question, Yu-woon fell silent for a moment.
"You are Dan Woo-Hyo, Grandmaster of the White Virtue Clan. Tell me, who in the martial world wouldn't have kept watch over the young Grandmaster of the White Virtue Clan? You were so beautiful and strong, and held a power envied by many."
"…"
"I was no different."
Yu-woon's voice gently filled with nostalgia.
"There was a case of missing martial artists, so I had to go to Sichuan. That was when I saw you atop a pavilion overlooking the Yangtze River. Your long hair fluttered in the wind, and the veil over your face fluttered as well. It was a scene I couldn't possibly tear myself away from."
Yu-woon's lips parted as if to say it was truly beautiful, and in his gaze, there was a visible heat. Being admired by others was not unfamiliar. But he had forgotten it during the past ten years in the Black Sky Clan.
The memory Yu-woon spoke of was far too old to dismiss him as just a mere admirer.
"No, it wasn't just me. Anyone who was there wouldn't have been able to take their eyes off you."
Yu-woon's gaze bore persistently into Woo, who's hesitant.
"I will return to you what you rightfully should have had. I know everything. I know that you're being held back by Master and unable to leave Black Sky Clan."
At Yu-woon's words, Woo looked stunned. Jin-rang was holding him back? He was the very one who desperately wanted Woo to leave.
But there was a reason why the First Disciple had come to such a conclusion.
It was the day Kong Yool returned from searching for the White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster and shared a dinner with Jin-rang and the three disciples. Yu-woon persistently clung to Kong Yool. He was trying to hint to him that Dan Woo-Hyo was in Black Sky Clan. At the very least, he wanted Kong Yool to take interest in the servant he had seen while passing by Suwolgak.
Seung-han, perhaps sensing something suspicious, gave a strange look. And Kang-oh, as always, sat there blankly. Yu-woon thought he'd be able to get the reaction he wanted from Kong Yool if things went on like this.
But unexpectedly, the one who intervened in Yu-woon's actions was Jin-rang, the Grandmaster of Black Sky Clan. He made it seem as if Kong Yool had been caught up in a formation and even stopped Yu-woon from following him.
Jin-rang, asking them to be drinking companions, kept pouring into his glass. Every time his first disciple drank down his cup in one gulp, he refilled it again. It was at the point where it felt dangerous if he didn't start using internal energy to drive away the drunkenness.
Because he knew Kong Yool would soon be leaving the Black Sky Clan, Yu-woon's heart was full of anxious impatience. He had to hurry and follow him, to give a hint regarding the White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster who had been captured and turned into a servant.
"Master, this disciple will slowly get up now."
"Sit down."
Jin-rang spoke as he pushed away the fifth empty bottle of liquor.
"…"
"I won't ask how you found out."
Yu-woon's eyes widened.
His master must have known that Dan Woo-Hyo, the White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster, was acting as a servant in the Black Sky Clan.
"Whatever it is you're planning, stop it."
"Master!"
He had believed. No, at the very least, he had wanted to believe.
Even when everyone in Black Sky Clan secretly mocked Yu-woon, calling him a frail young master from a noble family of the Righteous path, and even when Jin-rang did not particularly protect his first disciple and left him neglected, he believed it was all intentional.
Even when he accepted Seung-han, the second disciple, from a financially powerful family, he thought they could still maintain a close bond as senior and junior fellow disciples, if that was what his Master wished.
But Jin-rang brought Ye Kang-oh, and from that point on, Yu-woon's faith began to waver.
His master wasn't simply showing a little more affection to the youngest disciple.
Yu-woon quickly noticed that Jin-rang was not fickle when it came to Kang-oh. It was truly despairing.
That affection was endlessly deep, like a great river flowing to the sea, and a vast embrace that would shield the youngest disciple no matter what he did.
Yu-woon felt a sense of crisis.
If Jin-rang were to cast Yu-woon aside in order to give everything to Kang-oh, he would be left with no choice but to leave Black Sky Clan.
So, growing anxious, he began taking on every task available to the First Disciple in Black Sky Clan and started building up his influence.
It was a continuous string of days spent walking a tightrope between what was right and what was wrong.
Even so, somewhere deep inside, Yu-woon still believed in Jin-rang.
Even though the missing White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster was found within Black Sky Clan, even though he was in a state so miserable he couldn't use any martial arts, Yu-woon complacently thought that his master might have nothing to do with it.
Even though there was no way something could happen in Black Sky Clan without Jin-rang knowing.
He had suspected it, but because he couldn't be sure, he had contacted Kong Yool right under Jin-rang's nose. He thought that if, in a formal setting, Kang-oh raised questions about the suspicious servant he discovered in Black Sky Clan, Jin-rang might pretend to give in and allow the search.
But now he knew.
Jin-rang had clearly known Dan Woo-Hyo's identity all along, and yet, he had blocked Yu-woon, who intended to expose it.
"Why would you do that?"
"Because I made a deal with him."
"..."
"There's no room for you to interfere in this deal."
Jin-rang's voice was stern. It had been a long time since he had spoken in such a manner.
That day, during the downfall of the Mo Yong Clan, Jin-rang had spoken to his enemy in that same cruel yet indifferent tone.
"If I want to save him... then what will you do?"
Jin-rang slowly filled the last cup and slid it toward Yu-woon.
"If there's something you want to do—then do it."
"..."
"But you will, one day, come to know. That the desire to save someone else… is ultimately nothing more than an illusion…"
His face was cold, but that voice truly sounded lonely.
Yu-woon could tell that some complicated situation, which he couldn't quite grasp, was clearly entangled between his master and Dan Woo-Hyo, who had ended up in the role of a servant.
Yu-woon, having emptied the final cup of liquor poured by his master, staggered back to his own quarters.
He could have found out about servant Woo's past just as easily as Kang-oh had. How much the Third Internal Officer had abused him, and under whose watch that violence had been allowed to happen. He could have learned all of it.
'Master...'
However, Mo Yong Yu-woon had been able to take a step further than Ye Kang-oh. Because he knew Woo's true identity. Dan Woo-Hyo, the vanished Grandmaster of the White Virtue Clan. That's why it was possible.
Moreover, Yu-woon had met Jin-rang much earlier than Kang-oh did.
Right after the Mo Yong family's tragedy, Yu-woon had begun following Ye Jin-rang, and while accompanying him, had once met Dan Baek-hoon.
He had vaguely known about the relationship between his master and Dan Baek-hoon. But upon hearing the news that Princess Yeongrin, Seol Bu-yong, would marry Dan Baek-hoon, he thought their relationship had ended. However, the moment he saw Jin-rang's face, he realized it had been a one-sided breakup.
He could not forget Jin-rang's face as it collapsed so quietly. He neither cried nor got angry. He didn't speak of betrayal, nor did he seek out Dan Baek-hoon. It simply looked as though it had ended just like that.
At the time.
'You... that man… Have you not forgotten his betrayal?'
It was a moment when the great hero of demonic arts felt like a mere human.
Yu-woon found that the liquor Jin-rang personally poured was no longer enough. For days afterward, he stayed in his quarters, pouring alcohol down his throat.
He had admired Jin-rang with feelings different from how he looked at Dan Woo-Hyo. Jin-rang had been his savior and his master.
Sometimes, realizing that Jin-rang was a person who, consumed by hatred, could do unjust things, to Yu-woon, it felt like having his chest carved open by a knife.
The thought of wanting to save someone…was just an illusion?
Was it just something he said because he himself couldn't get over betrayal?
He believed he could do better than Jin-rang. He would return to Dan Woo-Hyo the things he had taken from him… And in the end, even make Black Sky Clan his own.
He would not become a foolish man like Jin-rang, who, despite having that kind of power, was bound by mere emotions. He would become stronger than anyone, and never again have anything taken from him by others.
The fortress Yu-woon built during his childhood was destroyed by the Blood Cult. So he had no choice but to find a new protector.
However, Yu-woon didn't know that Jin-rang was a man capable of crumbling on his own. Ever since Jin-rang had shown his skewed affection toward Ye Kang-oh, it had become clear that he was not the perfect protector for Yu-woon.
That's why he desired Dan Woo-Hyo.
A man of such noble lineage that he could be counted among the finest in the Righteous path, who had achieved greatness without equal among his peers, and who was beautiful…truly beautiful.
He seemed like someone who would never collapse. A man molded from pure admiration itself, frozen at some point in the past as a perfect image. Surely he wouldn't become a fraud like the noble house he was born into or Jin-rang who raised him.
At least, Yu-woon wanted to believe so.
"Take my hand."
Yu-woon whispered earnestly to Dan Woo-Hyo. His eyes weren't looking at Woo, the stammering servant with burns and a limp, but at the peerless beauty beyond that, Dan Woo-Hyo, the Grandmaster of White Virtue Clan.
"And let's go back to how things were. Both you, and me."
The desperation that had been hidden behind that painted-like face peeled away, revealing itself before Woo's eyes. Mo Yong Yu-woon's raw, unfiltered gaze even carried a faint sense of anxiety.
Woo pushed his hand away.
"Back to how things were…"
How sweet and absurd those words sounded.
His eyelashes trembled slightly. A faint smile bloomed at the corner of his lips.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't shaken by the man whispering of the brilliance of the past. But Woo knew very well that he could not return to that time.
Humans always just keep walking forward. There was no way to turn back time.
If one were to collapse in longing for the past, they would neither return nor move forward. They would only let the years slip by with their eyes closed and ears shut.
Cough.
Woo let out a cough. Slowly raising his hand, he saw blood smear onto his hand.
It was certainly a bad sign.
He held out his palm towards Yu-woon. The man, who had half-suspected it from the metallic scent of blood at the tip of his nose, widened his eyes.
"I-it's too late."
Woo murmured. Strangely, it was as if he could read the end of his life like reading an open book.
His body was rapidly deteriorating. It wasn't just the constant headaches. He could feel his strength slowly draining from his fingertips. Each day, he felt it becoming harder to move his limbs.
It was only natural. His body had barely been kept alive by the medicinal elixirs that Ye Jin-rang had been regularly feeding him. Now that he had entered the House of Joy, even that had come to an end. Solitary Poison was embedded in his body. In a body so frail it couldn't even overcome a cold, poison had taken root. It was only natural that his lifespan would wither away like a dried-up stream during a drought.
"Because I… will die soon."
That was why he had shown Yeon-jin a way to begin a new life. Like anyone who knows their end is near, he was settling his affairs.
Watching Woo's endlessly calm demeanor, Yu-woon's face repeatedly twisted in a strange way, then returned to normal, again and again. The man slowly shook his head and muttered like he was talking to himself.
"No… That can't be true… It's a lie."
"But you will, one day, come to know. That the desire to save someone else… is ultimately nothing more than an illusion…"
For some reason, those words Ye Jin-rang had said to him a few days ago came to mind.
"I didn't want anyone to know about my final journey. That's why I stayed in Black Sky Clan."
Woo spoke calmly, his face pale.
"So please, Young Lord Mo Yong, forget me."
What? No, how?
Mo Yong Yu-woon thought as he looked into Woo's eyes. They were so clear and radiant that it made him think that if there was anything unbroken in that man, battered and tattered with nothing intact, it would be those two eyes. They were like a deep and dark ink painting, or like a night reflected in a well in the darkest of places. Always with his head bowed, they were like jewels unseen until your eyes met his.
But the brutal realization that that dark light would soon fade away disturbed Yu-woon's mind and made his heart sink.
As the last surviving direct descendant of the Mo Yong Clan, Yu-woon had no choice but to cling to Jin-rang to survive. He had survived because Jin-rang had taken him in as a disciple, but the world he came to face afterward was completely different from what the boy had known.
Some treated him as a parasite leeching off the absolute ruler of the Demonic Path. And to the people from the world he once belonged to, he was treated as if filth had been smeared all over him.
He had already become far too close to the Demonic Path to dream of reviving the Mo Yong Clan.
But what were the Righteous Path and the Demonic Path anyway?
Did crossing that shallow boundary really mean he had to be cast out like this?
Sometimes, the gazes of Righteous Path martial artists looking at him resembled those of his dead siblings.
'Why were you the only one who survived?'
'Yu-woon, why are you over there?'
Those gazes that once spoke to him, their light gradually fading away.
Every time he returned to being the child who hid silently beneath the floorboards, Yu-woon thought to himself that since things ended up like this anyway, he would take the Black Sky Clan for himself. He merely became Jin-rang's disciple after being saved by him, but if that meant he could never return to the Righteous Path, then he would climb to the top of the Demonic Path's martial world.
Even though he had embraced such a ruthless resolve, Yu-woon often missed the Righteous Path martial world. The place he was born and raised in, the roots of his bloodline, and the foundation of his ideology were all in the Righteous Path. Jin-rang's teachings were useful, but his cruelty and the casual way he taught things like sorcery would often chill Yu-woon's heart.
Others often called Yu-woon a peony, but he alone thought he was more like a sunflower. A flower that endlessly gazes at the sun and then bows its head when night falls.
Until he saw the young Grandmaster of the White Virtue Clan, Yu-woon hadn't even known what that "sun" was, living only wrapped in the cold of night. But the moment he saw Dan Woo-Hyo, Yu-woon simply couldn't take his eyes off him.
Everything he'd lost as a child…Dan Woo-Hyo had it all.
Noble blood, outstanding martial arts, mastery of forbidden calligraphy and painting, and the top seat of the renowned Righteous Path martial world. Every step he took was followed by people's praise. Only glory had ever been promised to Dan Woo-Hyo.
Yu-woon's gaze toward the White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster was admiration, longing, and projection all at once. It was like the one rope that made him unable to let go of the thought, 'What if?'
He was someone who made him imagine, just a small yet strangely guilt-ridden thought: What if the Blood Cult hadn't trampled the Mo Yong Clan that day? What would have happened?
And now, that person is going to die?
A strange groan escaped from Yu-woon's lips. Even though he knew how disgraceful he must have looked, swayed by emotions he couldn't even understand, he couldn't swallow the turmoil.
But to Yu-woon, it was a shock like the world going dark in an instant. The fact that Dan Woo-Hyo would no longer exist in this world, along with the admiration, the longing, and even the secret fantasies that reflected his own self—all tangled together and felt as if they were slowly crumbling.
"What if… I can't forget you?"
Yu-woon forcefully swallowed the noisy turmoil inside him and opened his mouth.
"No, even if you were to die, you don't necessarily have to be by the youngest disciple's side, do you?"
This behavior felt foreign to Yu-woon. Clinging to others itself was something strange to him. No matter how bad the situation, he had always walked with his back straight.
"There's no reason I have to be by the First Disciple's side either."
The White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster, disguised as a servant, cut Yu-woon off coldly.
"I had no intention of being seen by anyone. I never imagined you would recognize me. But if you're planning to stir things up any further, or t-try to threaten me again…"
Woo silently stared at Yu-woon. The meaning contained in that gaze was obvious. It was a sign that if Yu-woon kept threatening and trying to make contact, Woo wouldn't just sit back and do nothing.
As their eyes met, Yu-woon suddenly burst into laughter.
"Ah... haha... hahahaha!"
Then he lifted his head and completely erased the laughter from his lips. In his glistening eyes, there was only Woo.
"What could someone like you possibly do now? You have no martial arts, can't even meet with your loyal subordinate, and you're even under a restriction imposed by the Grandmaster of the Black Sky Clan."
The one who had acted as if trying to flatter him with polite words suddenly changed his tone, and though it would be natural to be surprised, Woo remained calm. Though he hadn't looked into Yu-woon deeply enough to read his innermost thoughts, it wasn't the first time Woo had faced a situation like this in his life.
Some people, even if they act sweet like the tongue in your mouth, are bound to change the moment they don't get what they want.
Just like now.
"I may not have anything, but the F-First Disciple has more than he realizes. I have no cards to play, so even if I overturn the board, I have nothing to lose. I can just stir things up and die."
There was more than one method that came to mind right away. If he was willing to wager even the White Virtue Clan, then getting someone like Mo Yong Yu-woon permanently expelled from the Black Sky Clan wouldn't be too difficult.
For instance, what if the missing White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster had secretly written a letter to Kong Yool, and in it, he claimed that the First Disciple had been holding him captive?
And before sending the letter through a secret channel, he entrusts his safety to him, just as Yu-woon had wanted. Then, around the time Woo dies, Kong Yool would discover the letter and inform the White Virtue Clan.
It would be only natural for the White Virtue Clan to demand custody of the First Disciple in order to avenge the humiliation suffered by the vanished Grandmaster before his death. At that point, depending on Jin-rang's decision, a war might break out between the Black Sky Clan and the White Virtue Clan.
Of course, that was an extreme example. Woo, no, Dan Woo-Hyo knew of ways to trip up Yu-woon without taking things that far. If he dug through the names related to the Third Internal Officer's ledger and exposed Yu-woon's connection to Yeo Bul-hoe to the authorities, it would cause him serious trouble. The uncle that Woo-Hyo knew detested those who encroached on his authority. At the very least, if such matters became public, he would not let them slide.
This too was a card he hadn't played for Jin-rang's sake.
Though it was the vitality of someone dying, and thus wouldn't last as long as that of an ordinary martial artist, Innate True Qi was precisely what enabled one to surpass even the power of their prime, even if only for a brief moment. If he used it, he could even kill Yu-woon before he revealed his secret. Of course, Woo-Hyo, having squeezed out his life force, would also meet death… But if he could hide his identity with a life already forfeit, then it was worth trying.
If Jin-rang hadn't saved him and taken Kang-oh in to raise him, Woo would have acted on his thought without hesitation. He was, by nature, the son raised by the cold-hearted politician Seol Bu-yong, and the disciple of Dan Baek-hun, the hero who won the war against the Blood Cult. Once he considered someone an enemy, he showed no mercy in his actions.
The slumbering dragon, who was hunched over, slowly lifted his eyelids. A piercing gaze locked onto Yu-woon as if it would pierce and devour him. Even without stirring his internal energy or showing any aura, his mere spirit was so overwhelming, it felt as if it would swallow him whole.
"If you still have lingering attachments to becoming the Grandmaster of the Black Sky Clan… then please, just give up on me. Let me die in such a way that everyone forgets I even existed."
It was a threat disguised as a plea. And yet, Yu-woon could not go against it.
Because he simply couldn't understand it.
That someone who once held the highest position of the Righteous Path now wished to die like a mere insect. And that, in order to do so, he was threatening him.
He was someone who had been lying flat, hiding his identity, and feigning ignorance even under repeated interrogation. And yet, when offered the chance to return to his original position of power, he instead revealed his true identity, held venom in his mouth, and told him to get lost. For Yu-woon, it was a choice he couldn't understand, nor did he want to.
"Are you not afraid… that no one will know of your death?"
"What I fear…"
Woo quietly closed his eyes and murmured,
"…is that they will know about my death."
He saw the face of Kong Yool, and the furrowed brows of his martial sister, Namgoong Ji-yak. He even remembered Peng who was always loyal and blunt, striking with her sword with a face twisted like a demon. And even Seol Bu-yong. She, of all people, might remain calm even at the fact that her son is dying.
And lastly, what surfaced in his mind was Dan Baek-hoon, already dead and gone from this world. Had he known Dan Woo-Hyo would die here in Black Sky Clan like this? If he had, he might not have passed on his inner energy before his final journey. If so, he could have met his attackers in full strength and perhaps returned alive.
Perhaps Dan Woo-Hyo wouldn't have become the White Virtue Clan's Grandmaster so soon. Peng would've gone on living serving her lord, and Seol Bu-yong might still be secluded in the White Virtue Clan with a bit of mystery around her. His martial sister Namgoong would challenge Woo-Hyo to spar, and Kong Yool would look on listlessly, wondering when to join in, fiddling with his spear shaft.
Such distant days. And to Woo, it was also a past he could never return to.
In a world where nothing changes, only the dead can live. Only they, having been given a full stop, can live in an unchanging past.
Woo raised his hand in a fist salute—a gesture that now even felt unfamiliar to him.
"I'll take my leave now. Please don't come looking for me again."
Yu-woon parted his lips as though he had something to say, but in the end, didn't stop Woo from turning away. Woo walked briskly, as if being chased.
Was it because of the lingering gaze that followed him? A chill clung to his back, sending shivers down his spine.
Woo's limp and tilted gait was indeed dull and unsightly. Yet Yu-woon couldn't take his eyes off him.