Free Web NovelA heavy silence filled the office.
The people who had been staring at me with their mouths open for quite a while finally came back to their senses—
and the first was the Black Lotus Sect Lord, who let out a disbelieving laugh as he spoke.
“So you intend to deal with One-Blade Asura simply because you dislike him?”
He frowned, taking a moment to rub his brow before continuing.
“If my memory is correct, One-Blade Asura doesn’t cause major trouble as long as he gets his protection fees. That’s how I remember him.”
“Well. That’s what I heard too.”
“That’s not very convincing. It seems you’ve never even met him, yet what kind of grudge do you hold to go this far?”
“Pardon?”
“No, think about it. You just said you’re going to crush the martial arts One-Blade Asura has built his entire life, destroy his sect—the Supreme Asura Gate—and even poison him afterward. To anyone, that sounds like a deep grudge…Wait. Hold on. You mean—without any major grudge, simply because he annoys you, you plan to handle him while you’re at it…??”
Mid-sentence, the Black Lotus Sect Lord’s expression twisted in disbelief. His eyes even trembled.
I lifted the corner of my mouth and nodded.
“Even I wouldn’t destroy One-Blade Asura for no reason at all. When I say he’s always bothered me, there are valid reasons behind that.”
“Haaah… Good. Even you’re not insane enough to surprise the Unorthodox world itself…”
“I see the physiognomy of a traitor in him.”
“……What?”
“Surely, when the decisive moment comes and our side is at a disadvantage, he will switch over without hesitation.”
“What kind of nonsense ‘physiognomy’ is—”
“I, Cheon Hwi, White Moon Sword Lord, may betray the world—but I will never allow the world to betray me.” fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
“…This lunatic.”
This time, Sama Yuryeon’s face turned pale.
Understandable—she must have instantly recognized whose words I had borrowed.
She urgently whispered something to the Sect Lord, who then nodded gravely.
“I see. Many in the Unorthodox faction call themselves tyrants, inscribing the character ‘’ in their titles or sect names. I did the same. I walked my own Path of Tyranny to build the Black Lotus Sect, and gave the name ‘Tyrant Hall’ to those who followed behind me…But it seems most of us in the Unorthodox world will have to rename ourselves after today.”
“What does that mean?”
His voice took on a half-mocking, half-serious tone.
“If the true tyrannical path stands before us, then all the posers need to take their signs down.”
“I forgot to mention this earlier, but the dark practitioners who killed my parents were collecting tribute money to join the Supreme Asura Gate.”
“…Damn it! You should have said that first!”
“How was I supposed to remember everything in order?”
“I thought you were just drunk on your own strength and wanted to beat everyone up!”
“To be precise, they weren’t actually part of the Supreme Asura Gate yet. They were gathering money to join. So technically, One-Blade Asura and I don’t have a direct grudge. I simply dislike him and have the strength to beat him—so I will.”
“You—! Even if it doesn’t make sense logically, emotionally I can at least work with… ah, forget it. In all my years rising to this position, I’ve met countless people, but you are the first one whose mind moves so… uniquely. I should have known you would never behave predictably.”
“You truly lack the fortune of attracting the right talent.”
“Ha! Indeed. I have no talent luck. I tried all sorts of methods—organizing martial tournaments, allowing recruitment regardless of background as long as they had ability, sometimes even waiving tribute payments. I gathered many good people that way, but…”
“That seems more than enough, doesn’t it? From what I hear, your direct subordinates are exceptional warriors and deeply loyal.”
In this era, I wasn’t entirely sure how it worked yet, but in the previous life, when the Orthodox–Unorthodox Alliance first formed, the Black Lotus Sect Lord had three Sub-Perfection masters who would gladly lay down their lives for him.
Each commanded their own elite squads full of Peak Stage martial artists.
Even in the Unorthodox world, where alliances shifted with profit, gathering subordinates like that was proof of his excellence as a leader.
Indeed, I remembered clearly: before my regression, he was quite proud of this accomplishment.
Which made his dismissal of his own achievements now all the more baffling.
The Sect Lord let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
“I am not dissatisfied with my subordinates.”
“Then…?”
“But I cannot live forever. Eventually, I must retire and pass the position of Sect Lord to someone else.”
“I see.”
“And yet, no matter how hard I looked, I found no one suitable. The one person I finally found… unfortunately belonged to the Orthodox faction.”
“What? Wouldn’t that make it easier? If he’s talented enough to be worth recruiting, he must’ve had friction with the Orthodox factions already. Staying there would probably be uncomfortable.”
“That’s what I thought! So I helped him during his hardships, gave him the Black Lotus Medallion, told him he could come to me at any time! But the brat must be blessed with ridiculous luck—he found himself a good partner and ended up settling down!”
“…I see.”
I shook my head sympathetically for a moment.
Then Tang Sowol tugged on my sleeve.
“Brother Cheon. Brother Cheon.”
“Hm?”
“He means you.”
…Ah.
Now that she said it, it made perfect sense.
But I couldn’t help feeling a little awkward.
Before my regression, the reason the Sect Lord liked me and half-treated me like his successor was simple:
I had the ability and talent.
I had the ruthlessness to overwhelm most Unorthodox masters.
Using bloodlust and fear? That was a virtue in the Black Lotus Sect. A terrifying successor meant no rebellion during succession.
But in this life, the abilities of mine that the Sect Lord had seen were nothing impressive.
Just things like:
A Peak Stage martial artist cutting down dozens of Peak and first-class fighters alone, then killing the Black Heaven Sword Sect Lord and stepping into Sub-Perfection.
Or descending to Yunnan after my fiancée was kidnapped and annihilating the Thousand Poison Gate, defeating even the Poison Demon whom Flowering Stage masters hesitated to face, reaching the realm of an absolute master in my twenties.
Or facing the Heavenly Demon—whose power even the Sect Lord struggled against—compressing my qi stupidly and slicing his sleeve, forcing him to step back as promised.
Or now, planning to go around “educating” the Flowering Stage masters of the Unorthodox faction.
Ah.
Thinking about it, I had already surpassed my previous life’s track record.
So this life, he also considered me to be his successor.
I felt a mixture of embarrassment and nostalgia as I looked back at the Sect Lord with a silly smile.
“Ha. You only just realized? Well, if the heavens gave you talent and fortune, they could take away your sense of awareness.”
“I never imagined you’d look at me that way, Sect Lord.”
“You truly have a talent for saying things that make people’s skin crawl.”
“I’ll rephrase. I didn’t know you were seriously planning to hand your succession to someone outside your bloodline.”
In my previous life, I had been half a successor.
Yes—half.
He treated me like one, but he never formally announced it.
And then one day, Sama Yuryeon began standing at his side.
What did people think?
“I assumed the successor would be a child born between you and Strategist Sama Yuryeon.”
“A child…?”
The Sect Lord gave a wry smile.
“That would’ve been nice, but I cannot have children.”
“What?”
“All martial artists of the Unorthodox world face madness deviation at some point.”
“Not all, but… yes, quite a lot.”
“The same happened to me. In the chaos when Orthodox and Unorthodox forces clashed, innocent civilians were torn apart, some turning to the Orthodox, some to the Unorthodox, some to the Demonic Cult…Somewhere in that cycle, I briefly lost my mind.”
That was before I was even born.
The only reason the Central Plains had been peaceful before the Demonic Cult’s invasion was because the past had been so turbulent.
And the Sect Lord had lived through the worst of it.
He’d lost his parents to the Green Forest bandits, sought power, wandered through the murim, survived through countless grudges, and eventually became someone others held grudges against.
“Eventually, I realized I’d become no different from the bandits who killed my parents. That must’ve been why I fell into madness deviation.”
It made sense.
Anyone active in the Unorthodox world long enough dealt with physical or mental scars.
“I resolved something then. I decided that I would end the conflict between Orthodox and Unorthodox factions. All the tragedies I experienced—I would bring them to an end myself.”
“That is…”
“Once I wandered the murim, I realized the Orthodox and Unorthodox are inseparable.”
He was right.
Not all Orthodox warriors were righteous.
A victim who suffered injustice—not mad enough to join the Demonic Cult—would naturally drift to the Unorthodox faction.
Even I had taken up the sword for the same reason.
As long as martial power exists, both factions will always exist.
Two sides of a coin. Light and shadow.
Inseparable.
“And so I split them apart. After the Black Lotus Sect was founded, peace came for a while. My coffers also filled nicely, and many things happened that would take too long to list.”
Of course.
Many tried to unify the Unorthodox world in history.
Only he succeeded.
“I truly risked everything. The Path of Tyranny begins by rising atop one’s own blade. To not fall off, to not be cut by one’s own path, one must sacrifice many things.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Yes. During my unstable period after madness deviation, I forced my qi pathways too far, and that caused… issues.”
A common story.
In the Unorthodox world, a perfectly healthy body often meant a damaged mind, and vice versa.
If someone possessed both, they would’ve stayed in the Orthodox world.
If I was the former… then the Sect Lord was the latter.
“So now, even if I wished to, I cannot have children.”
“Oh.”
The Sect Lord was not a man who shunned women.
Even after meeting Sama Yuryeon, he hadn’t been prudish.
But never had anyone claimed to be his illegitimate child—not one true case.
I thought it was because he was careful.
But no—he literally could not have children.
Looking back, in my previous life, he and Sama Yuryeon had been close, yet never had a child.
They never even searched for medicines to help with conception.
I had assumed they were just eccentric.
But they simply couldn’t.
“Wait. Then you were considering giving the succession to me because…”
“If you agreed, I planned to adopt you.”
“Although… a son barely ten years younger than me would be strange, I was prepared to follow the Sect Lord’s wishes.
But that resolve appears to have gone to waste now.”
Sama Yuryeon shrugged casually.
Now that I thought about it—in my past life, she always treated people formally except for the Sect Lord and me.
Her scoldings back then… were practically parenting.
I hadn’t realized because I’d long since forgotten what it was like to have parents.
Only now did everything align, hitting me like a shock at the back of my head.
I had always had someone worrying for me.
When I was young, it was my parents.
As I grew, it was Seol Lihyang and Seorin.
After that, the Sect Lord and Sama Yuryeon.
And after their deaths—Tang Sowol.
No matter how great a person is, no one can live alone.
Everyone is interconnected in some way.
And that web of connections… that is what we call the world.
I closed my eyes and etched the realization into my heartscape.
Reflection could come later. For now, I simply held the understanding.
“What—! Did you seriously achieve enlightenment because I revealed I became impotent?!”
The Sect Lord’s incredulous voice came from beside me, but that wasn’t important.
After settling my thoughts, I slowly opened my eyes.
“I will remain as the Tang Clan’s son-in-law. I have no intention of calling you ‘father,’ nor becoming the successor of the Black Lotus Sect.”
“I know.”
“But neither can I ignore the goodwill you both have shown me.”
“Hm?”
I met their eyes with firm resolve.
“This matter—I will complete it perfectly.”
The Sect Lord was silent for a moment before turning his head slightly, as if avoiding my gaze.
“…It would be fine if you showed a little less enthusiasm.”
So shy.
***
—Srrrk.
I drew my sword and sliced through the signboard of the Supreme Asura Gate.
As the shattered sign rolled across the ground, I looked at the stunned gatekeeper and said:
“Tell them this—today, I will show which stands higher: sword or blade.”
The gatekeeper remained frozen, still unable to understand the situation. freёwebnovel.com
So I repeated myself.
“Tell the Gate Lord to come out.”
