Chapter 561

When I was truly furious.

It was probably the angriest moment of my entire life.

Everything felt unfair.

Everything made me angry.

I was going half-mad from wanting to grab anyone at all and beat them to death. Around the time I was rampaging with that exact feeling pouring out of me—

Chief Baek said to me,

—Crazy bastard.

That look of disbelief. The tongue clicking in pity. At the sound, I turned my gaze toward him.

—Look at your eyes. Keep that up and you’ll kill people too. Take it easy, you punk.

—...

At his words, I loosened my grip.

Grrraaaah.

Whether it was a scream, a scorched sound—

Or the wail of something else entirely, I could not tell. What I was holding in my hand was a vengeful spirit.

Someone’s vengeful spirit, already torn open and thoroughly ruined.

It had been packed full of malice, but it had been beaten down into an evil ghost beyond recognition.

—I get that you’re angry. But can you really go on rampaging like this?

—...Is this my fault too?

—Who said it was your fault? I’m just telling you to take it easy. Can’t you see?

Chief Baek looked around as he spoke.

—Jongno’s turned into a complete mess.

Jongno 3-ga. The whole area around it had been crushed into some unrecognizable shape.

The city had been destroyed. There probably weren’t any living humans left. They had been evacuated long before, at least.

—You little shit. That’s why I told you to take it easy. Even the company can’t clean this up.

—...I didn’t do it. An evil god was going berserk. What was I supposed to do?

—That bastard going berserk was your fault too. I told you to just stay quiet.

—How was I supposed to stay quiet?

Crunch.

I put strength into my hand. The evil ghost caught in it disappeared as it was.

—He was my enemy.

—...So did you catch him?

I had not.

That was why it was an even bigger problem.

—The company’s going to love you. This time, it won’t end with disciplinary action. You know that, right?

—That’s too bad. It’s not like they can fire me anyway.

At most, disciplinary action. No matter how severe the punishment they handed down, the company could not fire me.

They would not be able to lock me up either, and there was a good chance it would end with them docking my pay a little.

It was ridiculous.

—...What about the people?

—They all evacuated. You’re worried about that in the middle of this? After turning the city into this?

—I’m human. What am I supposed to do about this? I just...

I just used it a little.

That was all. It had only reached this level because I used it.

The world was already on the verge of destruction. What did one city disappearing matter? As long as people had not died, that was enough.

As I thought that and steadied my breathing—

—Monster. Don’t you die.

Chief Baek said that to me.

—Why?

—Because if you die and turn into a vengeful ghost... I feel like the world really would end. If you become a ghost, I don’t think it’ll stop at the level of an evil god.

—That’s one hell of a curse you’re putting on me.

I was dumbfounded.

—And.

Chief Baek, who had been joking, added one more thing.

—Hold your anger in a little too.

—...I was holding it in, though?

How was I supposed to hold it in more than this? I had been living like that for years.

—Ah, I said that wrong. I’m not telling you to hold it in. I’m saying let it out once in a while.

—What?

—Don’t bottle it up until you make a mess like this. If you think you’re about to get screwed, let it out in the middle, you punk. That way—

Chief Baek looked up at the sky. The firmament had turned red from the traces of the evil god.

Buildings and towers had been wrecked by the disaster.

He looked at that cruel landscape and said,

—...this won’t happen.

—...

Do not hold your anger in too much. If it feels like you are about to be screwed, let it out once.

No matter what form it takes, let it out at least once.

Whether I listened to those words or not was my choice. But in the end, I did listen. It did help me later.

Was that why? Once the thought that I had to do it sank in, it became a kind of habit.

Maintaining my emotions so they would not move past a certain point became instinctive.

That was why.

“I was already irritated enough.”

Whenever it burst once in a while, I ended up letting it out a little too excessively.

“You picked the wrong day.”

I smiled as I looked at Heavenly Sword.

*****

I had already been irritated because nothing was going right.

How many times had I gone through absurd events and done nothing but search for ways to resolve them?

Every accident that exploded was enormous, and trying to handle them was wearing on my mind.

I had even repeated the process of throwing things up and swallowing them back down several times.

It was necessary.

I had to live that way if I wanted to survive.

Enduring was familiar, and bursting was clumsy.

Choosing the familiar path was faster and more convenient.

That was the kind of life it had been. It had been that kind of life, but—

“I still have to do what needs doing.”

It was not that I never let things out.

I had merely been restraining myself in this life. It was not completely absent.

If I counted the times, maybe four.

I think I had exploded about that many times. And each time, an incident did happen.

A fairly serious one, at that.

“Cough.”

Heavenly Sword, who had been rolling across the ground, raised himself. Bewilderment lay in his eyes.

“...Haha.”

He laughed and lifted his head.

“Interesting. When did you get clo—”

“Interesting, my ass.”

Crack!

Before he could finish speaking, I kicked him in the jaw. His head snapped up toward the sky.

“There are always bastards with personalities like this.”

They were the kind that always turned up, one or two at a time.

“Can’t you just live quietly? Why do you people keep showing up in front of me and pissing me off?”

One more time. I was about to load hard aura into my foot and kick him as he was.

Whoosh!

Heavenly Sword’s body moved. He took a stance and evaded my attack. Twisting his body, he slipped past it.

Distance opened between us.

Drip, drip. Blood flowed from Heavenly Sword’s nose. He wiped it roughly with the back of his hand.

“When a person is talking, shouldn’t you at least let him finish?”

There was almost no damage. I had still hit him fairly hard, but it seemed he had avoided it even in that opening. No wonder the impact had not felt clear.

“Are you the impolite type?”

“Manners are originally something you reserve for people worth showing them to.”

“Oh. Good words. I’ll remember that.”

Slowly, Heavenly Sword lowered his sword.

“Now let us do what needs doing.”

“You want to fight?”

“You were the one who started it, were you not?”

“No.”

I looked at Poison Dragon. Seeing him beaten half to death was pitiful enough.

“You’re the one who keeps provoking me. Pretending otherwise is shameless, don’t you think?”

“You think quickly. Your subordinates were not like that.”

Subordinates, he said. How hurtful to the subordinates listening.

“Why do you keep trying to scrape at people?”

I asked because I was curious.

“Did I do something wrong to you? I don’t think we know each other.”

“No, we do not. I have never seen a face as handsome as yours.”

“I’m not exactly easy to forget.”

“High self-esteem, I see. Admirable. I rather like people like that.”

“I don’t like men.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

Wooooong.

A sword cry rang out. It came from the sword in Heavenly Sword’s hand. Hearing it, I narrowed my eyes. I had not thought he would be weak, but it seemed his realm was higher than it looked.

And.

I recalled what Cloud Dragon had said.

His sword.

That it resembled the Azure Moon Sect’s sword. I wanted to see that.

The moment we faced each other with swords in hand, the wait did not last long.

Because I had no intention of waiting.

Fwoosh!

I immediately closed the distance. I wrapped inner qi around my whole body.

My sword drew a horizontal line.

Clang!

Before my sword path could continue, Heavenly Sword’s blade drove in. Friction erupted. Screeeech! Sparks flew, and the fight began.

Hard aura—

A shallow layer of sword force coated his blade. Sword Auras of different colors drew lines through the air.

However.

The color is different?

Radiant Moon Flash Aura. I had heard it resembled that light, but—

It’s different.

His sword force was scarlet. At the very least, it was not something anyone would mistake for the Azure Moon Sect’s sword.

Had Cloud Dragon misunderstood something? I continued the battle as I thought that.

I raised my speed. Every time I added force, his speed rose with mine.

How far could he go?

I already knew that we were testing each other.

Was it about time to stop?

He’s different.

Whether from Gyo Yeon, Woo Young Jin—

Or any of the others. This guy was different. I could feel a clear gap.

A Heavenly Demon candidate.

I began to feel the weight of a name I had not been able to grasp at all.

Crackle.

So I decided to do it properly. At this point, it was not even venting my anger anymore.

Radiant Moon Flash Aura.

The Moon Immortal sword path.

Moonbolt.

I spread out every method I could use. I had used too much inner qi in the fight with Gye Mun, but I still had half of it left.

It replenished quickly.

I did not know about other heart arts, but the Azure Moon Heart Art recovered inner qi quickly too. Yoo Cheongil, that insane old man, had definitely done something to it.

That aside.

Just as I wondered whether he could keep up with my overwhelmingly increased speed—

Slash!

Hm.

My sword lightly cut across Heavenly Sword’s chest. It was shallow. Shallow, but it reminded me that the difference in our speed had widened.

A little more.

I moved faster, intending to seize the first move in that opening.

If I do this—

Could I use the sword path?

As I thought that and tried to move along the sword path—

Hm?

At that moment, I suddenly saw Heavenly Sword’s eyes. Even though the attack had landed, he did not care. He was looking at something.

My hand. My chest. My range of movement. His eyes focused, as if searching all of it.

Seeing that, I frowned without realizing it.

That—

That was a face I had seen often somewhere.

I stopped using the sword path. I would overwhelm him using my elevated physical ability instead.

Thinking that, I raised my output further.

Grip!

“Guh!”

A momentary increase in speed. Using it, I drove into his arms.

Then I struck his abdomen with the hilt.

The bastard, hit directly, folded over.

Seeing that, I hooked my foot around his leg joint and broke his posture.

The guy, who was a handspan taller than me, bent forward. The angle was perfect. I grabbed his face in my palm.

Boom—!!!

And slammed him into the ground. Heavenly Sword’s body jolted from the energy-wrapped blow.

His head was planted in the earth, but only his body bounced upward. At that moment, I pulled back the hand gripping his face, clenched it into a fist, and—

Boom!

“Guh-heok!”

I landed another direct hit on his abdomen.

Blood burst out.

Then his rebound stilled.

“...”

I watched him for a moment, then slowly stood.

After putting distance between myself and the bleeding Heavenly Sword, I looked down at him. He was lying there as if he had fainted, but—

“Stop pretending to be dead and get up.”

“...Ahem.”

At my words, he gave a dry cough.

Then he raised his upper body.

“You have a sharp fist. I thought I was going to die.”

“Bullshit. Cut that out and do it properly now.”

“What do you mean? I have always been sincere.”

“I’m not planning to show you anything fun. Use the martial arts you actually know. Otherwise, this is boring.”

“Hmm?”

Heavenly Sword tilted his head as if asking what I meant.

At that reaction, I spoke with a sigh mixed in.

Now that I had kept watching, I understood. That look he had been giving me. I had seen it somewhere many times before.

“I’m not going to let you steal it, so use the martial arts you know. This isn’t fun like this.”

“...”

At those words, Heavenly Sword’s expression disappeared.

His face turned cold and chilling.

“Well.”

Heavenly Sword’s gaze as he focused on me. His breathing. I had wondered where I had seen it before, but now I knew.

This bastard.

“How did you know?”

He was the same as me. No, slightly different.

Heavenly Sword’s ability. Unlike my own trait of absolute memory, what he possessed was—

Imitation.

The bastard had been stealing martial arts from me.