Having returned from death, I chose to walk back into hell on my own.
Back to the place that forged me into a warrior—the front lines of the Blood Demon Sect.
In this life, I will lose nothing.
Not friends, not family, not even my own life.
And I will shatter it all.
The Blood Demon Sect that stole everything from me.
Blood Demon Sect Frontline, Flying Dragon Thirteen / Winter Firefly
Episode 1: The Sunwoo Clan – Part 1
Three Swords’ Radiance.
Shu-haak!
The eighteen-blade technique of the Pointed Spear Sect split the light, severing three heads in a flash.
Blue Wind Waves.
Shaaaak!
The Blue Star Sect’s Blue Wind Sword technique sliced through the chests of the attackers, blood splattering everywhere.
Yet, those who charged me died silently, their bodies torn apart without a single scream.
I felt no joy in their deaths.
Instead, bitter tears streamed down my face.
Because they were not enemies—they were my own kin, the members of the Sunwoo clan.
My family, my friends, my subordinates.
“Hahaha! What an amusing fellow! The head of the Sunwoo clan, yet you only use the Blue Star and Pointed Spear techniques day and night! Have you forgotten the famed Sunwoo Thirteen Swords?”
The Blood Demon Sect’s leader, the Black Blood Demon Doodang, mocked me.
He was the one who had turned my clan into puppets to attack me.
“Ah, now that I think about it, only this guy was taught that technique, wasn’t he? You must have forgotten.”
Beside him stood my younger brother, Sunwoo Gi, the previous head of the Sunwoo clan, frozen and expressionless.
I had heard he went missing during the Blood Demon Sect’s assault, but to see him now as Doodang’s puppet…
And that wasn’t all.
“Slaughtering your own kin so mercilessly—what a ruthless guy you are. From the Flying Dragon Thirteen, right? Those Flying Dragon guys, tsk tsk.”
Doodang clicked his tongue, surveying my stunned family.
“Now, who should I send to make you surrender without killing you outright? Ah, yes, this one will do.”
His gaze landed on someone.
My younger sister, Yeonha.
She had stood by me even when I was called the clan’s disgrace, the useless pig.
I had hoped they wouldn’t touch her…
Perhaps my expression twisted too much, because Doodang clapped his hands and laughed brightly.
“Good! Seems I chose well! Now, kill this one cruelly too! Sunwoo Jin, last head of the Sunwoo clan!”
Yeonha stepped past the Blood Demon Sect members surrounding me, slowly approaching.
In her hand was Baekro, the beloved sword I had gifted her.
I glanced around.
Blood Demon Sect members surrounded us on all sides, and behind the wall they had built stood Doogang, proudly displaying the puppeteered Sunwoo clan members, sending them out one by one with applause.
There was no hope left.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“I’m sorry, Chief. It seems I could never be like you.”
The face of my eternal chief, Gwangpung Biryong Seolpung—the man who had turned me from a wreck into a warrior—suddenly appeared in my mind.
His words echoed too.
Whenever I despaired, he would smile and say:
“Jin, are you shrinking back again? I’ve told you before—you’ve already done your best. That’s enough. The outcome isn’t your responsibility. So straighten your shoulders now.”
I opened my eyes again, sharp and clear.
Strength returned to my gaze.
The chief always said to do what you can until the very end.
If you never give up, even in defeat, you’re not truly a loser.
He was right.
Losing doesn’t make you a loser.
I wouldn’t defeat them today, and I wouldn’t survive.
But there was still something I could do, something I had to do.
If I were captured, my body would become Doodang’s puppet, just like my family.
And someday, he would do to the chief what he did to me.
I couldn’t allow that.
Being a burden to the chief and my friends was unbearable.
“Yes. If I must die, I will do so on my own terms.”
I made my decision.
Gripping my sword backward, I raised it to my chest.
The Hongyeon Sword—the symbol of the Sunwoo clan’s head, said to hold the power of the breaking dawn—pointed at my heart.
Doodang’s smile finally vanished.
“What are you trying to do?!”
This time, I had made the right choice.
I snarled back at him.
“You may kill me, but you will never use my corpse. And Doodang, I will never let you live. Even as a ghost, I will find a way to kill you!”
With that, the tip of the Hongyeon Sword pierced my heart.
Poke!
A burning pain seared through my chest and body.
But it wasn’t agony.
Even as my mind blurred, I felt a strange relief.
The Hongyeon Sword, known as a divine blade in Sunwoo clan history, had pierced my heart—there was no way he could use my body now.
And regret washed over me.
If I had known this, I would have lived harder.
I wouldn’t have run away, making excuses to avoid fighting my brothers.
I would have unleashed my talents more freely…
In my hazy mind, a piercing voice stabbed my ears.
“Ahhh! Murder!”
Right, I had killed.
Killed many, and even committed suicide.
So could you please keep it down?
It’s too noisy to die in peace.
“It’s murder! Sunwoo Jin killed Dan Hasang!”
Though my head felt heavy, hearing that voice made me frown deeply.
Dan Hasang? What era is this even from?
Just thinking about it still keeps me awake at night.
But as the noise grew louder and people began to gather, I realized something was off.
I slowly opened my eyes.
To my surprise, I could see.
“Huh?!”
I was confused.
I was definitely dead.
So why could I open my eyes?
And the first thing I saw was a mess of scattered bottles and food, and across from me, a young man’s body slumped over.
A sword was plunged into his back.
I knew him well.
His name was Dan Hasang.
He had promised to become my younger sister Yeonha’s husband, but died over ten years ago, the year I turned twenty-one.
And yet here he was, dead right before my eyes.
“What… what is this…?”
I stared blankly at him.
I couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
Was my foggy mind from alcohol, or from the sheer impossibility of this situation?
I glanced at my hands.
They were plump, like a bear’s paws.
“These… aren’t my hands.”
My brows furrowed involuntarily.
These chubby hands were definitely not mine.
I thought I had left these hands behind forever after losing weight at twenty-two.
“Is this a dream? What is this? Where does it end?”
As I muttered, a crowd suddenly poured into the room.
They gasped at the corpse, then shouted at me.
“Master Sunwoo! Why did you kill Master Dan?!”
Hearing that, I looked again at the sword lodged in the corpse’s back.
It was my sword.
Captured, I was bound tightly and forced to kneel in the center of the large hall.
Sunwoo clan elders and members stood at a distance, watching.
Kneeling with my heavy frame, my legs throbbed painfully.
‘No way… this can’t be a dream.’
The vivid reality made me swallow hard.
Then, a middle-aged man standing on the dais in front of me roared like fire.
My father, Sunwoo Jung, head of the Guiju Sunwoo clan.
“Jin, you brat! Do you have anything to say?!”
No, I had nothing.
Not because I had no excuses, but because this was too absurd.
My father, whom I last saw at twenty-one and never again, was now yelling at me.
Just as I remembered him.
“By refusing to speak, are you admitting you killed Dan Ga, the third son of the Dan family and your future brother-in-law?!”
No, absolutely not.
I could never admit that.
Back then, drunk and shocked, I couldn’t speak.
But after years of sleepless nights and reflection, I had reached a conclusion.
‘He was never killed by me.’
That was it.
I had no reason, no ability to kill him.
He was my only friend, who treated me—considered the clan’s disgrace—with kindness.
Thanks to him, I was even betrothed to my sister Yeonha.
I had been eagerly awaiting the day he would become my brother-in-law.
Why would I kill him?
Besides, he was a promising martial heir, while I was nothing but a pig.
Even drunk, it was impossible for me to kill him.
And…
‘More than anything, I have one solid proof I didn’t kill him.’
That day, I didn’t bring my sword to the drinking party.
As a prodigy with a perfect memory, I could swear to that.
In the end, Dan Hasang’s death was clearly a conspiracy.
A conspiracy to kill him and pin it on me.
Yet despite all this, the words that slipped from my mouth were nothing like the thoughts racing through my mind—they were the exact same words I spoke when I was twenty-one.
“I don’t remember.”
Unsurprisingly, that answer only poured more fuel onto my father Sunwoo Jung’s raging fire.
He shouted in fury.
“You idiot! Is that even an answer?!”
Then, the young men standing beside Sunwoo Jung—my brothers, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time—laughed incredulously.
“That fool’s gotten into trouble drunk more than once, but I never imagined he’d cause such a massive disaster.”
“Really? I knew. After he set that fire last time, I wondered what reckless stunt he’d pull next to disgrace the family. Turns out, killing someone while drunk was the way to go. Though I never thought he’d kill the man who was supposed to be his brother-in-law.”
“Honestly, I’m surprised he could even hold a sword with those pig-like hands of his. And to think he could actually kill someone.”
Their chuckles were laced with unmistakable contempt.
It was a scene identical to the one etched in my memory.
I swept my cold gaze over them.
‘One of them must be the one who killed Dan Hasang and framed me.’
Judging by what was said, the second eldest brother, Sunwoo Hyuk, who claimed to have known all along, seemed the most likely culprit.
But I suspected someone else.
Then my father, Sunwoo Jung, bellowed again.
“I don’t know how to punish you! How can you atone to the Dan family?! Should I just kill you and send your corpse to them?!”
I simply bowed my head deeply and remained silent.
If this truly was a return to the past, the outcome was already set—whether I spoke or not.
As expected, my brothers began to offer their opinions with sly smiles.
“Killing him won’t ease their anger. Better to cripple him and send him back alive, so they can vent their rage directly.”
That was the eldest brother, Sunwoo Seong.
“Why should we bother? Just disown him and kick him out. They’ll handle the rest.”
That came from the second brother, Sunwoo Hyuk.
But the decisive suggestion, just as I remembered, came from the fourth brother, Sunwoo Gi.
“How about this? Send the third brother to the front lines.”
“Huh?”
“What did you say?”
The idea was so unexpected that not only my brothers but even Father Sunwoo Jung widened their eyes and stared at Sunwoo Gi.
He continued.
“Wasn’t there a recent request from the Martial Alliance? They asked for one direct family member to be sent to the front lines. So, we send the third brother there.”
Father Sunwoo Jung asked gravely.
“With Jin’s martial skills, if he goes to the front lines, he’ll be dead in no time at the hands of the Blood Demon Sect.”
“Does it matter? He’s already a dead man walking. If he dies there, it’ll be an honorable death. It raises the family’s honor and pays his dues—two birds with one stone.”
When he finished speaking, I muttered silently one more reason he didn’t say aloud.
‘And one of you won’t have to go to the front lines.’
The front lines referred to the border area where the Blood Demon Sect, which had taken over Yunnan Province, was being held back.
Over ten years ago, the Blood Demon Sect had toppled the Jianzhang faction of the old Great Sect in Yunnan and tried to advance into the Central Plains.
The Martial Alliance had organized a punitive force to confront them head-on—that was the Bloody Battle.
After a fierce struggle in which the Alliance’s leader died, they barely managed to stop the Blood Demon Sect’s advance into the Central Plains.
But they couldn’t reclaim Yunnan, which had become the Blood Demon Sect’s territory.
Since then, the Martial Alliance recruited valiant warriors near Yunnan to monitor the Blood Demon Sect’s movements, calling the area the Great Blood Demon Sect Front.
‘But that was over ten years ago. Now… tsk.’
Over time, the front lines, once a place where brave warriors volunteered eagerly, had become a dangerous, thankless posting with no glory or gain.
Eventually, the Martial Alliance had to forcibly conscript warriors to maintain the front.
For this reason, all sects in Guizhou Province under the Martial Alliance were required to send one direct family member to the front lines in Yunnan.
Our Sunwoo family was no exception.
‘Originally, one of my three stronger brothers should have gone. But now, using this incident as an excuse, they can send me—the one they don’t care if he dies.’
For my brothers, there was no better outcome.
Having recalled this moment thousands of times, I was convinced that the fourth brother, Sunwoo Gi, was the mastermind behind the conspiracy.
The decision quickly unified the room.
It was a choice that cost no one and benefited the remaining brothers immensely.
We agreed to offer the Dan family some material compensation, and I would be sent to the front lines in Yunnan as soon as possible.
The same decision made over ten years ago, when I was twenty-one.
After that, I was locked in a prison cell.
The pale moon hung alone in the black night sky, faintly glowing.
It was the last moon of my hometown I would see for a while, even after going to Yunnan.
Suddenly, a thought came to me.
‘I used to cry endlessly looking at that moon.’
But now, having returned, I no longer did.
Because I already knew two people would visit me tonight.
And I had to get something from one of them.
One of them was already approaching cautiously.
My kind younger sister, Yeonha, who had been my only refuge in our thorny, uncomfortable home.
“Brother Jin, are you alright?”
Seeing her face, I was reminded of how she had been just before I returned to the past—puppet to the Blood Demon Sect—and felt a surge of tenderness.
I smiled gently.
“I’m fine, Yeonha. Are you alright?”
“What could possibly be wrong with me? Brother, you have to stay strong. I believe you’re not the culprit.”
Even then, that kind child had said those words.
Back then, I could only cry and say thank you over and over.
Now, I could say it confidently.
“That’s right, Yeonha. Brother is not the culprit.”
Yeonha’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Huh?”
“Yeah? Why do you ask?”
“No, I just wondered why you’re so sure…”
Huh? Why am I so sure?
“I would never kill the only friend I have, the man who would become your husband. Besides, Dan was drinking facing me. The sword was stuck in his back—the very sword I never even held.”
Yeonha swallowed hard and replied.
“I see. Then why did you say otherwise in front of Father?”
“Because leaving the family and going to the front lines seemed the better choice for me.”
“What?!”
That was it.
Looking back, my life could be divided into before and after being sent to the front lines.
The life before—the life within the family—was anything but that of a true warrior.
‘No, not just unworthy of a warrior, but unworthy of being called a person.’
Just recalling those memories made my chest tighten painfully.
Among the Sunwoo brothers, I was the only one without a mother—she died when I was very young.
But that wasn’t the real issue.
The real problem was that I had no powerful maternal family backing me.
As a child, I was known as a prodigy thanks to my exceptional memory.
And from then on, I had to realize one thing.
‘The more I showed my abilities, the more hated I’d become, and the shorter my life would be.’
The cold stares from my brothers’ mothers.
The suffocating pressure tightening around me.
Though young, I felt it all too well.
So I had no choice but to hide my talents and play the fool.
But one day, pretending to be a fool, I realized I had truly become one.
Trying to appear lazy, I became genuinely lazy.
Trying to seem carefree, I learned nothing at all.
I laughed off being called the family’s disgrace, indulged in vices, and ruined myself.
That was my life for the past twenty-one years.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
‘Yeah, honestly, I deserved to be called a pig.’
So to change that, I had to leave the family.
And go to the front lines to meet him.
My idol who transformed me from the family’s disgrace into a true warrior—Gwangpung Biryong, Seol Poong.
That was why I said nothing and took the blame.
Of course, I never intended to carry that false charge forever in this life either.