Chapter 186: The Opportunity for Redemption

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They say the repetition of coincidence becomes inevitable.

Cheol Ryu-heun thought.

No.

He was certain.

That all the connections woven around himself, who was experiencing a miraculous reborn life, were fated inevitabilities.

Could it be heaven’s will?

That Tae Sa-ja’s Blood Star Physique, whom he had brought along as a worker, along with Namgung Sang-rin’s Nine Grade Martial Bones, Hae Su-yeon’s Heavenly Demon Incarnation, and Mun Bin’s True Ink Heaven Meridians had appeared one after another by his side as if connected by a thread?

If it were once or twice, that would be one thing, but by this point it couldn’t be dismissed as mere coincidence.

Just as the troubled times bloodshed on a two-hundred-year cycle, which had already occurred five times, felt the same way.

That owners of rare constitutions had not only appeared simultaneously in the same era but were gathering by his side and receiving help was itself meaningful.

As if the vast knowledge and experience accumulated over the past thousand years as the Divine Martial Sword, the supreme divine weapon, had been thoroughly arranged to be used in this way.

‘If my revival is also heaven’s will…’

His mysterious body, which had never once been born in martial history, must be the starting point of fated inevitability.

But then.

He didn’t know why heaven had schemed such a thing.

Do as you please and take revenge to your heart’s content?

Could the mysterious Wanderer be the culprit who would bring about troubled times?

So his personal revenge and the connections disguised as coincidences were included as part of that destiny?

Was killing and eliminating the unidentified Wanderer the method to prevent the arrival of troubled times that would call forth the blood of countless people, and he was the one and only being who could accomplish that…?

As he propped his chin and mulled over his thoughts, an incident from a while ago came to mind again.

When the signs of Feathered Ascension to Immortality had unexpectedly appeared.

-This is not a place for you to come!

A majestic voice that had echoed from some high place, either heaven or elsewhere, and a truly enormous palm that had descended pressing down on his head while emitting a ray of light.

That had forcibly stopped the Feathered Ascension to Immortality.

Somehow that was the feeling.

As if there was still unfinished work to do while remaining in this land.

‘So it’s telling me to do as ordered. Whether it’s a celestial deity or whatever…’

Anyway, from the beginning he himself had no intention of ascending.

Rather, he was grateful it had been blocked.

Setting aside heaven’s will, he didn’t want to leave this world until he found the Wanderer.

Suddenly.

SWISH, SWIIISH…

The dark red haze that had been wrapping around Tae Sa-ja’s body while emitting faint sounds began to gradually fade and disappear.

Cheol Ryu-heun, casting his gaze, murmured inwardly.

‘That fellow is quite fast.’

Tae Sa-ja had finally reached true awakening as well.

It was a satisfying achievement.

On the other hand,

He was not yet satisfied with his own achievement.

It was natural.

Since the goal was different from the start.

To perfectly subdue the Wanderer in the future, there were martial gates and barriers he had to repeatedly break through.

Although based on his body that displayed unprecedented power, he had recently obtained the Void-Shattering Realm, the ultimate cultivation achievement – he would only be able to exact revenge if he reached an even higher level.

The reason was simple.

Setting aside having a body with absurd abilities, the peak of his pure martial prowess still remained below the five individuals of the historically strongest rank, including the Heavenly Demon.

If it were anyone else they wouldn’t know, but as the Divine Martial Sword, he knew well just how strong the perfected-level power those five had emitted in the past was.

The supreme level of Void-Shattering that accompanied Bone Replacement and Marrow Cleansing was something the Heavenly Demon and others had already realized, so naturally he couldn’t be satisfied…

However,

Someday, from the point when his pure martial prowess became equal to those five, he would truly pioneer a realm of divine martial arts unparalleled in martial history.

‘Going forward, if only I could wield bizarre divine powers in addition to this mysterious body…’

The red eyes he had seen through the mirror when the signs of Feathered Ascension to Immortality appeared were suspected to be connected to the divine powers from his time as the Divine Martial Sword.

If that was truly lying latent within his body, it needed to be continuously researched.

Therefore,

He would definitely seek a method to approach the Wanderer’s terrifying martial prowess… No, to surpass him.

Another important element that couldn’t be neglected for his ultimate goal of revenge was the development of his members.

Each of them needed to be made capable of protecting themselves.

Because there was nothing he could currently know about the limits of the terrifying power the Wanderer possessed, or what forces lurked in the background.

If he had thought of them as mere tools for his revenge journey to be used and discarded, he wouldn’t have even considered such a series of efforts.

Whether it was heaven’s will or whatever, he had been revived by borrowing the body of Cheol Ryu-heun, the direct disciple of White Peak Sword Sect.

Therefore, it was difficult to abandon the accompanying sense of responsibility and duty.

In truth, the soul of Cheol Ryu-heun, who had been in a vegetative state, had dissipated and essentially gifted him a body as an opportunity for revenge.

Developing the members of White Peak Sword Sect was the minimum duty and courtesy toward the original owner of the body.

Setting aside that it would be helpful for his revenge journey.

So he had set a grand goal.

To give birth to a powerful martial sect like a superhuman group unparalleled in an age.

‘If rebirth is heaven’s will, then this life is my share… Let’s see where this end lies.’

Before long, a quiet sound drummed in his ears.

“Inhale, exhale…”

Tae Sa-ja was regulating his breathing.

The long Energy Circulation had finally ended.

Soon he gently opened his eyes, discovered Cheol Ryu-heun at the nearby table, and sprang to his feet.

“Oh? Sect Leader!”

“How does it feel to have finished Energy Circulation?”

“Ah… Yes. It’s a somehow marvelous feeling. Or rather, maybe it would be more accurate to call it strange.”

When Tae Sa-ja came close and scratched the back of his head, Cheol Ryu-heun replied with a nonchalant face.

“It’s a natural phenomenon.”

“Pardon…?”

“The massive energy inside your body, I mean.”

“AH! Did you already know this would happen?”

“It’s thanks to the effect of the spiritual medicine.”

“…!”

“I had you take it when you were unconscious.”

“HUH? Wh-when…?”

“Well, that’s not important.”

With those words, Cheol Ryu-heun took out and showed a booklet.

<Mad Blood Yaksha Sword.>

Tae Sa-ja’s expression transformed.

“Ah, this is…!”

“Right. It’s the exclusive sword study of the Great Yaksha Demon Sword.”

“OH! Th-thank you!”

“There’s a long way to go. True study begins from now. Memorize everything.”

“Yes! Sect Leader!”

“And starting tomorrow, learn sword basics through the executives.”

Tae Sa-ja answered resoundingly again and again, clenching both fists tight.

‘At last, I too will walk the path of a proper swordsman!’

Before he knew it, Cheol Ryu-heun was heading toward the door and spoke.

“The other ten guys will also realize the essence of the cultivation method by around tomorrow.”

“Ah… Did they also consume spiritual medicine?”

“Yes, today. You will now become Yaksha Squad, a special operations organization under this sect.”

“Yaksha Squad…!”

It was a scary but cool name.

Tae Sa-ja shouted with eyes full of motivation.

“Yes! I will train hard! And I will absolutely be reborn as the sect’s elite fighting strength!”

“Everyone works hard. Results explain the process.”

Immediately after, Cheol Ryu-heun responded indifferently and disappeared.

Tae Sa-ja turned his head and vacantly gazed at the Mad Blood Yaksha Sword booklet on the table.

‘I was just a third-rate bandit… Yet I’m studying the true transmission of a previous-generation Absolute Being…’

It was truly like a dream.

Great Yaksha Demon Sword, Helian Ryung.

A figure who owned the Divine Martial Sword about eighty years ago, and a powerhouse who had reigned as the undisputed martial world absolute.

The teachings he left were now placed before his eyes.

The moment Tae Sa-ja touched the first page.

WELLING UP.

Suddenly, tears surged.

Because the face of the one person he most wanted to see came to mind.

‘Mother…’

His heart grew hot.

Guilt.

That’s right, even a bandit is a person.

Everyone has a family.

Thinking of his mother, who must be continuing a weary life, his heart felt anew like it was being torn apart.

-Oh dear, you punk! How did I raise you… What is all this money! If you steal from others, did you think this mother would be overjoyed!

-Damn, you could just accept it, why all the nagging…!

-You, you… Saying that to your mother…

-Money is money, what’s the point of distinguishing clean or dirty!

-Live a bit more! That’s not all there is! SOB… It’s my fault for spoiling you more after you lost your father! My fault!

-AH, SHIT…! Then you should have raised me well, shouldn’t you!

Since he was young, his mother had always said.

That even if they lived without much, they shouldn’t covet what belonged to others and should live with money earned honestly through blood and sweat – that would be enough…

But Tae Sa-ja had ultimately become a bandit.

Well, I’ll just live like this roughly and be done.

I’m just a low-life.

Nothing will get better.

It’s more comfortable to live having given up.

Work hard?

Ha, why would I work hard?

It’s easier to take what others have than to struggle and earn through blood and sweat.

It’s already too late to go back.

Because I’ve come to know the pleasure of living without much effort.

Life is unfair from birth anyway, so what’s the point of living honestly?

Yeah, that’s just being stupid.

He had lived like that, rationalizing his choices and turning away from reality.

It was a pathetic mindset.

A foolish indulgence in choices that eroded not only his own life but his mother’s life as well.

When he was young, it was like that.

He treated everything lightly and lived as if there was no tomorrow.

But then.

The wall of reality that he had deliberately ignored began to weigh heavily on his heart as he entered middle age.

Realizing that once he got older, even this bandit life would be impossible, he lived with sighs constantly on his lips.

How long could he last, wasn’t there some con to make a fortune?

Days passed by meaninglessly.

Then he met Cheol Ryu-heun as if by miracle.

At first he just thought it was a bad fate.

-Consider this an opportunity for redemption that will never come again in your life.

Having recalled what Cheol Ryu-heun had said, he began to cry out loud, sobbing.

“SOB… SOOOB… Mother… Mother…!”

Memories from childhood swept past alongside.

The image of his mother, leaving for work after drinking water with just a few grains of rice because there wasn’t enough rice to eat, was still vividly imprinted in his mind.

Another time, she had injured her ribs.

But with that pained body, she went out to work in someone else’s field, trying somehow to earn daily wages.

-Look at this. I bought the rice cakes my son likes.

From morning to night, his mother’s life was a continuous hardship, yet Tae Sa-ja himself had rarely gone hungry.

He hadn’t known.

Gratitude.

He had lived forgetting.

That great heart of hers.

If he had understood that early on, come to his senses, and worked normally – whether that money was much or little, his mother would have smiled brightly and been happy.

“SOB… SOOOB… Mother… Mother… Raised me… Well. It was I who… I walked the wrong path.”

His face a mess of tears and snot, he kept sobbing loudly and said.

“SOOOB… I didn’t know! That just as it was my first time… Living as a child, it was also Mother’s first time… Living as someone’s mother… SOOOB, SOOOOB… Thank you… For giving birth to me. Thanks to that… I met Sect Leader Cheol too. Now I’ll really… Try to do my part as a son. Even though it’s too late… Please forgive me.”

Thus with his face buried in his sleeve, Tae Sa-ja cried and cried until his voice went hoarse.

As if gradually washing away the regrets that had piled high in his heart.

* * *

At the same time, Chief No Gong, having been summoned by Red Cat Merchant Guild Head Hui Bu-yong, entered the office.

“Guild Head. You called?”

“Take this.”

When Hui Bu-yong, seated at the desk, abruptly held out a piece of paper, No Gong hurried to check its contents.

“This is… A list, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. The families of the White Peak Sword Sect workers.”

“Why is this…?”

“Sect Leader Cheol instructed me earlier. He said he plans to relocate all the families to Baizhou. He’ll prepare homes and money, all of it.”

“…!”

“Ha. He really has a big spirit, doesn’t he? Anyway, send our company’s personnel by tomorrow at the latest. And tell everyone to treat them with the utmost courtesy.”