Chapter 160
Jianzhang Mountain, Yunnan Province — The Office of the Sect Leader of the Jianzhang Faction.
Gu Yuyinma, one of the Five Blood Demons and among the Thirty-Six Stars of the Martial World, was currently trembling weakly on the floor, completely prostrated.
Even someone as close to an absolute power in the martial arts world as him was utterly overwhelmed by the oppressive aura pressing down on him.
And that overwhelming force wasn’t even directed at him.
Crack! Clang! Smash!
Objects in the room floated up into the air before shattering with sharp sounds.
The sturdy walls of the office seemed to bulge outward, as if about to burst.
If this continued, the entire office might explode.
At that moment, the source of all this chaos, Xue Ma Zhan Wuguang, muttered quietly.
“So, Hwa Sayu and Yu Sang… they’re dead? Is that confirmed?”
Gu Yuyinma pressed himself even flatter against the floor, struggling to answer.
“I was shocked too, and as soon as I heard the news, I rushed to investigate… but it seems certain. I’m sorry, Supreme One!”
Xue Ma clenched his fist tightly and spat out the name with venom.
“Son Eunsang!”
Crack!
At that instant, the table in front of Gu Yuyinma, already slowly buckling, shattered completely with a crunch.
Even Gu Yuyinma, who feared nothing in the world, couldn’t help but swallow hard at the invisible pressure.
But it wasn’t confusion—only fear.
No, Gu Yuyinma could actually understand the fury Xue Ma was showing.
He knew exactly what Gu Yusang meant to Xue Ma.
He was the true heir whom Xue Ma had cherished and nurtured with genuine affection.
At least, far closer in blood than the missing grandson Mayu-gyeom.
So Gu Yuyinma wasn’t surprised at all when Xue Ma seemed ready to ignite the Second Bloodline War immediately.
“Perhaps the sect’s advance into Central Plains will be sooner than planned.”
But just as Gu Yuyinma thought this, the fierce aura radiating from Xue Ma suddenly vanished as if it had never existed.
It was such a sudden change that Gu Yuyinma, startled, instinctively lifted his head to look at Xue Ma.
He saw that Xue Ma’s face had regained its composure.
Calm and collected, Xue Ma asked him,
“Did you say the Martial Alliance is stirring up trouble in Guizhou City?”
To his surprise, Gu Yuyinma admired how quickly his master had regained his calm and bowed his head again to answer.
“Yes. Not only Yu Sang’s followers but also the agents planted across the region have been almost completely wiped out. It seems they’ve obtained all the information about the seeds those bastards planted in Guizhou City. So getting accurate intel was… possible.”
“Hmm.”
Xue Ma pondered for a moment before speaking again.
“Yuyin, it’ll be difficult, but can you go to Guizhou City and retrieve the bodies of that child and Hwa Sayu?”
Without hesitation, Gu Yuyinma replied,
“Of course, Supreme One. I’ll leave immediately!”
But just as he was about to leave, he hesitated and asked,
“Supreme One, won’t you take revenge on that Son Eunsang woman?”
The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew heavy again.
The pressure was an unconscious outburst from Xue Ma.
But this time, he didn’t unleash a storm of rage like before.
With sharp eyes, he looked at Gu Yuyinma and said,
“If you or Cheokgang can handle Son Eunsang, then taking revenge now wouldn’t be a bad idea. What do you think? Is it possible?”
Gu Yuyinma couldn’t bring himself to say yes.
Facing someone like her, one of the Heavenly Four Demons on par with Xue Ma, revenge was impossible.
If it were the foolish Cheokgang, he might have charged in recklessly, but he’d end up dead like Hwa Sayu.
So Gu Yuyinma prostrated himself again and shouted,
“I’m sorry, Supreme One! We are incompetent!”
Xue Ma burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! What’s there to be sorry about? If you could take on Son Eunsang, you wouldn’t be under me in the first place.”
Then, wiping the smile away, he spoke quietly.
“In a few years, the opportunity will come. We’ll soon leave Yunnan Province. Revenge won’t be too late then. By the way… Son Eunsang was staying at the Seonwoo Clan, right?”
“Yes, Supreme One. It’s also the place Yu Sang declared he would take over after the Yun family. Would you want me to wipe them out while I’m there?”
Xue Ma thought for a moment.
“Hmm.”
For someone like Gu Yuyinma, wiping out the Seonwoo Clan wouldn’t be too difficult.
That might at least ease his mood.
But after a moment, Xue Ma shook his head.
“No, there’s no need to provoke the Martial Alliance further. Besides, Son Eunsang might still be there. Just quietly bring back the bodies.”
Where Son Eunsang was now was unknown.
No one knew because No Samryong, acting on Seonwoo Jin’s orders, had spread false rumors.
They wanted to create the illusion that Son Eunsang might still be at the Seonwoo Clan to prepare for any possible provocations.
That arrangement had actually prevented Gu Yuyinma’s attack.
Seonwoo Jin had no way of knowing, but it was a fortunate turn of events.
Gu Yuyinma bowed respectfully.
“Yes, Supreme One.”
As Gu Yuyinma disappeared, Xue Ma Zhan Wuguang was left alone in the room, suddenly recalling the secret arts of the Blood Sect.
The Blood Sect possessed not only martial arts but countless secret techniques.
Poison arts, soul manipulation, zombie arts, necromancy, soul summoning, and even the Great Soul Separation Technique—various mystical arts close to sorcery.
The technique Xue Ma was thinking of now was one of them.
The Soul Summoning Technique.
He muttered,
“If only I could summon Yu Sang’s soul and bind it to a blood demon’s body…”
Of course, the chances of success were almost zero.
In the long history of the Blood Sect, only one person had ever succeeded in reuniting a dead soul with a body.
But the fact that one had succeeded meant it wasn’t impossible.
And Xue Ma himself was someone who had made many impossibilities possible.
Moreover, Gu Yusang was someone he cared for deeply enough to challenge the impossible.
“Hmmm.”
Xue Ma’s thoughts deepened.
Guizhou City, Seonwoo Clan.
Several days had passed since Seonwoo Jin was appointed the new clan head.
In that short time, the Seonwoo Clan, which had suffered many external threats, was quickly regaining stability.
Unlike before, power was now concentrated in the hands of clan head Seonwoo Jung, and the new clan head had overwhelming support from the clan elders.
It seemed only good things lay ahead for the Seonwoo Clan.
They had merged with the Ha family to become the true rulers of Geyang, repelled the Blood Sect’s invasion to earn renown in the martial world, and rumors spread that the lustful Son Eunsang was protecting them.
Even whispers circulated that a marriage alliance with the Jegal Clan was imminent, leading gossipmongers to speculate that the title of Guizhou’s top clan was already decided.
Perhaps because of this, the clan’s reception hall was bustling daily with martial artists hoping to join.
Clan head Seonwoo Jung, the elders, and the Grand Elder Shin Eungdae were so busy they barely noticed time passing.
Meanwhile, Seonwoo Jin, now the clan head, was preparing to return to the front lines.
When he visited Seonwoo Jung’s office to announce his departure, Grand Elder Heo Jin-guk looked at him with a regretful expression.
“Must you go, clan head?”
Heo Jin-guk was someone who had died protecting the Seonwoo Clan in his previous life.
Yet even at his last moment, he hadn’t been fond of Seonwoo Jin.
Seeing him look at him with such regret now stirred a strange emotion in Seonwoo Jin.
He smiled and replied,
“My leave is almost over. If I stop by the Sichuan Sect and then return to the front, time is tight. It would be shameful for the clan head of the Seonwoo family to desert the front lines.”
“Hmm, that’s true.”
Heo Jin-guk sighed deeply and nodded.
The other elders around him also nodded with regret.
Then Seonwoo Jung smiled gently and spoke.
“Four years isn’t that long. If you keep working like this, you’ll be back before you know it. You might even run out of time to show how much the clan has changed when you return.”
Heo Jin-guk chuckled and nodded.
“That’s true, clan head. We should tell you to take your time coming back.”
Seonwoo Jin looked at Heo Jin-guk’s relaxed smile with satisfaction.
To joke like that—Heo Jin-guk had truly changed a lot, even compared to his previous life.
Perhaps the reason he had always acted like a lone wolf was because he never truly liked the Seonwoo Clan he had loyally served.
He was a sincere and devoted retainer of the clan.
At that moment, Seonwoo Jung suddenly asked Seonwoo Jin,
“So, when do you plan to leave?”
Though his expression was calm, Seonwoo Jin could see the deep regret and worry in his father’s eyes.
Things he had never seen in his past life.
“No, maybe my father always looked at me like this, and I just never noticed.”
A warm feeling spread through his chest.
Suddenly, he didn’t want to leave home, didn’t want to leave his father’s side.
Sun Woo-jin forced a smile and replied,
“I’m planning to leave right after lunch.”
“I see. Then I’ll gather everyone for lunch today. It’s better to greet them all at once than to go around saying goodbye individually, don’t you think?”
“Yes, I’d appreciate that.”
In truth, there weren’t many people Sun Woo-jin needed to formally greet. Just the elders, the senior disciples, and the wild sorceress So Nan-so. The first and fourth wives of Sun Woo-jung, as well as his brothers, who were still around, would probably find it more awkward to see Sun Woo-jin than the other way around. Lately, they barely even met his gaze.
“But well, if it puts Father’s mind at ease, I suppose I should do it.”
As he returned to his room, Sun Woo-jin thought briefly of them. Until recently, he had been wrestling with how to handle their treatment—whether to get rid of them all or leave some be. Especially the first wife, Lady Gok, who was tied to his mother’s death and could be considered an enemy. The eldest brother, Sun Woo-sung, wasn’t exactly a villain worth cutting off, and the fourth wife was soon to be married off to the Jegal family as a son-in-law, so they could be left alone. But Lady Gok—Sun Woo-jin couldn’t bring himself to simply leave her be.
Originally, he had considered bringing about her downfall, but recently he’d abandoned that idea. The reason? The wild sorceress So Nan-so.
Thinking of her, Sun Woo-jin smirked.
“Senior So really is something else.”
After the second and fifth wives were locked away in the prison, Lady Gok, thinking her rivals gone, had grown quite arrogant. She flaunted her power everywhere, even confronting So Nan-so, who was staying in a separate building.
“Who the hell are you, living here like this? You fox-faced woman, are you some new concubine the master brought in?”
At first, So Nan-so looked at her with puzzled eyes, but then she smiled slyly. Having been through countless battles, including aerial combat, she wasn’t about to let such provocation slide.
With a mock-shocked expression, she replied,
“What’s this? Some pig-like man dressed in women’s clothes causing a scene? A pervert? Help! There’s a pig-like pervert here!”
Lady Gok, who hated being called fat more than anything, was furious to be called a pig-like man.
“You—how dare you!”
She lunged at So Nan-so, but predictably ended up rolling on the ground, her clothes nearly torn to shreds. Eventually, sobbing, she went to see Lord Sun Woo-jung, only to be met with cold indifference.
“I’ve heard the news. I understand you dared to pick a fight with Lady So, our family’s benefactor, and even called her a fox like the previous mistress here.”
Lady Gok froze, her tears drying up under his icy gaze.
“You seem to be greatly mistaken. The son of the previous mistress is the current head of our family’s So branch. And as far as I know, he knows why your mother died. Frankly, I’m more surprised that he’s still tolerating you, especially since he knows you’ve been colluding with the traitors.”
Trembling, Lady Gok had no choice but to flee the lord’s quarters.
From then on, So Nan-so began visiting Lady Gok daily, as casually as going for a stroll. The reason was obvious: to torment her.
Once, when Sun Woo-jin watched So Nan-so teasing Lady Gok with curiosity, she winked at him mischievously. That was when he realized she knew all about the Sun Woo family’s affairs, just like she had known about his mother’s fate. She intended to torment Lady Gok just as his mother had been tormented.
That settled it for Sun Woo-jin.
“It’s better to just leave her be.”
It seemed that for her, life outside the prison was more tormenting than being locked away.
So, Sun Woo-jin could finally say his duties within the Sun Woo family were done.
But just as he was about to enter his room, he suddenly turned his head toward the one person he still felt uneasy about.
Since that day, Jegal Seo-yul hadn’t stepped outside her room once.
She barely ate.
She was too miserable to leave or even eat.
Inside her room, she endlessly replayed the events of that day—the foolish hope she’d become his wife despite losing the duel, and his firm declaration in front of everyone that he could never marry her.
“How could I have been so stupid…”
She felt pathetic, ashamed, and utterly broken.
For someone who had always been admired by others, that day’s humiliation was unbearable.
She couldn’t face anyone.
It felt like everyone was mocking her.
At times, she even thought it might be better to just die.
But after days of contemplating suicide, she ultimately decided against it.
Instead, she resolved to take revenge.
She would devote her entire life to destroying Sun Woo-jin, who had toyed with her and made her a laughingstock.
“I will use everything I have to shatter everything he holds dear!”
Her eyes, now filled only with cold determination, glowed blue in the darkness.
Come to think of it, she had many options.
She was the daughter of Jegal Ji-gang, a military commander of the Martial Alliance.
With the power of the Jegal family alone, she could easily overwhelm the Sun Woo clan. And if she worked hard, she could even call on the Martial Alliance’s strength.
“Not only that, if I marry into a powerful martial faction, I could wield their power as well.”
For Jegal Seo-yul, who had pledged everything to revenge, marriage was no longer important.
A faint smile curved her lips.
Just imagining the downfall of Sun Woo-jin and his family lifted her spirits.
As she began to lay out her plans, a voice suddenly came from outside her door.
“Miss Jegal, are you in there?”
Her heart dropped.
It was his voice.
He had come looking for her. Had he already discovered what she was plotting?
Swallowing hard, Jegal Seo-yul held her breath, hoping that if she pretended to be absent, he might leave.
I was watching Jegal Seo-yul through my clairvoyance.
I knew she was inside, but she remained silent and still.
It seemed she was waiting for me to leave.
I sighed.
“Huu…”
I could understand why she was avoiding me.
Of course, I’d always been cold and distant, so it was natural she didn’t want to marry me. But there’s a big difference between rejecting someone and being rejected.
She must have felt deeply humiliated.
I hadn’t expected her reaction to be this severe—shutting herself away for days, barely eating.
It made me uneasy.
She was someone who hadn’t even spoken out about her friend’s death, but at least she wasn’t a bad person.
I knew well enough how children of martial families were raised to obey their clans without question.
“Well, Miss Dang was the same.”
So maybe I had been too harsh in blaming her.
Part of it was to keep my distance.
I had already planned that we’d duel but not marry.
I thought if she refused me, she’d be relieved.
In fact, it might be for the best.
But I’d clearly underestimated a woman’s sense of shame.
“Women are just too complicated for me.”
Not that it was entirely my fault.
In both my lives, I’d had very few dealings with women.
The only advice I’d ever gotten came from people like Jo Jang, Bi Sa-young, and Bae Jong-gwan.
Just thinking about it made me feel lost.
“But Miss Jegal probably won’t understand my situation.”
That was only natural.
So I had to try to fix this on my own.
I spoke up.
“It seems you don’t want to talk to me.”
But I didn’t know what else to say.
Suddenly, the situation reminded me of a similar one in the past—when Miss Cheong-yeon refused to talk and I waited outside her door.
“Back then, I kept waiting and eventually got her to agree to talk later.”
But that later never came.
A heavy feeling settled in my chest.
I decided to say what I wanted to say right here, right now.
And I would speak as sincerely as I could.
I didn’t know how Miss Jegal would take it, but I had to try, or I’d regret it later.
Slowly, I began to speak.
“You might not know this well, and honestly, I didn’t until quite recently either, but before I was even born, the Sunwoo family nearly fell from grace once. All the masters of the clan were murdered, and at that time, my father had to become the head of the family at a very young age to protect our legacy.”
I wasn’t sure if she was really listening, but I calmly began to recount the past.
Why my father had to bring so many families under his wing, and why my mother had passed away.
“As I returned home, I thought that even if it wasn’t for revenge, I had to rid the family of the external forces that were pulling the clan in different directions. And I had to purge the Blood Sect in Guizhou Province that had taken control of the Yun family. So, I planned to borrow the strength of the Jegal family to accomplish all of this. Yes, that’s right. Just as you said, it was all part of my plan.”
After confessing that much, I let out a sigh.
“Hoo…”
I didn’t think it was wise to reveal all of this.
I hadn’t harmed the Jegal family, and since I had a legitimate reason to purge the Blood Sect, there was no real cause for complaint. But if she were to tell Jegal Jikang about me, it would surely draw his attention.
Still, I wanted to be honest—just lay it all out as it was.
It felt like the only way to ease my own heart.
“When I criticized you earlier about your actions… it wasn’t truly how I felt. Even if what you did wasn’t exactly right, I understood that you had no other choice as yourself. I only thought that by doing so, it might lighten your heart, knowing that you wouldn’t marry me later. That’s why I deliberately kept my distance.”
Having said that, I chose my final words carefully.
“I don’t regret any of what I’ve done. Purging the forces trying to control the clan, avenging my mother, cleansing the Blood Sect—all of it succeeded. But I do feel sorry for you. I never considered that this might deeply humiliate you. I’m truly… sorry.”
With that, I pushed myself away from the door I’d been leaning against.
I felt I had said all I could.
If she still couldn’t forgive me, what more could I do?
Just as I was about to turn and leave, one last thought struck me, and I added quietly,
“I don’t know how this will sound, but it’s true that I came back to get my father’s permission for the marriage and made a promise to the head of the Sacheondang Gate. So, it was never because of you that I didn’t consider marrying you from the start. I hope you won’t take it too hard.”
After finishing those words, I finally stepped away.
If I thought about it more, I might find other things to say, but it seemed better to leave quickly.
From inside, I heard soft sobbing.
A sound so heartbreakingly sorrowful…
It seemed my words had failed to ease her heart.
As always, a woman’s heart was far too difficult for me to understand.