Chapter 290: Great Ming (3)

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For a moment, I was at a loss for words. I knew that losing words in a moment like this was practically an admission, yet the words would not come easily.

Apart from my tongue freezing, my mind spun furiously. Where exactly had I been found out? Had there been someone with strong energy before I mastered All Streams Return to the Source? Or after? I could not tell at all.

“Junior Brother.”

“…Yes.”

Myeong-gyeong’s gaze seemed to hurt me more than any sword aura. Because of that, I could not properly meet Myeong-gyeong’s eyes.

Where had my shamelessness gone, the thick face that had carried me through even when my embezzlement was exposed?

But I was not the only one anxious. When I glanced at Myeong-gyeong, his pupils were shaking as well.

“Say something.”

“What am I supposed to say?”

“…Junior Brother, are you by any chance a spy of the Demonic Cult?”

From Myeong-gyeong’s trembling voice, I could discern one thing.

The fact that I possessed demonic qi was something Myeong-gyeong had known far longer than I had thought. His tone carried the sense that he had held the question for a very long time.

From some point on, Myeong-gyeong must have wanted to keep asking me. But he had not. Or perhaps he could not. Whether that came from fear or from some other feeling, I did not know.

For now, I decided to remain calm. Myeong-gyeong was shaken. I could not shake as well.

“I am not a spy.”

“…Truly?”

“A spy’s role is to extract information and pass it along. I have never once handed Wudang’s information to the Demonic Cult.”

I looked at Myeong-gyeong. No matter how much of a merchant I was, I could distinguish when to lie and when not to.

No, rather because I was a merchant, the distinction had to be clear. A merchant who lied at every turn was bound to fall.

So now was not the time to lie.

“And no organization uses its leader as a spy.”

“…!”

Myeong-gyeong’s eyes widened. Receiving the Heavenly Demon’s aura had not been my own will, but at least the Demonic Cult revered me, so I could be called its leader. I did not want to dodge that with clever words.

“I am called the Heavenly Demon by the Demonic Cult.”

Myeong-gyeong was speechless. He had thought that because I possessed demonic qi, I was a demonic practitioner, but he could never have guessed the legendary Heavenly Demon of lore.

I gave Myeong-gyeong time to accept it. No matter how much time I gave, it probably could not be accepted. That was perhaps my last consideration for the Senior Brother I cherished.

“I… I…”

Myeong-gyeong stammered. I thought that even if Myeong-gyeong drew his sword and swung it at once, it would not be unreasonable.

I had not become the Heavenly Demon of my own will, nor had I tried to deceive Myeong-gyeong from the beginning, but I judged I could not make him understand. Once trust was broken, it was like spilled water. That was what I believed.

“…I have to understand. I have to understand you, Junior Brother. At least I must. Yes. Explain so that I can understand.”

Now it was my turn to be stunned. I had never expected the word understand to come from Myeong-gyeong’s mouth.

People often pretended to be logical, but in the end understanding was something like post hoc analysis that followed far behind emotion. Myeong-gyeong would surely be the same. He must have felt tremendous betrayal and shock, yet he was holding those emotions back with superhuman restraint.

“How should I help you understand?”

“I cannot do that. You have to tell me, Junior Brother.”

“…I will try my best.”

I sighed. Then I slowly arranged the sequence of events so that I could help Myeong-gyeong understand. From when I first sensed demonic qi, and when I became the Heavenly Demon.

“First, I need to know this. When did you learn that I had demonic qi?”

“When we went out to Wuhan together. When you said you were starting a merchant company.”

“That is ages ago.”

That was older than I had thought. Was it not shortly after I became aware of my demonic qi?

I barely groped through the distant past. It was so long ago that I could not recall it well. Then at some point, a guess formed.

When I treated Hyeong Tae-seong’s daughter, my demonic qi had run wild once. At that time, my demonic qi had filled the room and left stains. I had thought I suppressed it as much as possible so it would not leak outside, but apparently not.

“When I was treating the lord’s daughter?”

“That is right.”

My guess was exactly right. Myeong-gyeong added more.

“I felt a strong uneasy aura, so I opened the door and went in. That was when I saw demonic qi flowing from your body, Junior Brother.”

“You did not strike me down with your sword then. Impressive.”

“In that instant, I thought you were doing something like the legendary qi absorption of the Great Demon, and I drew my sword. But when I saw that child’s complexion improve, I came out and stood guard. You looked pained and desperate, so I thought it was treatment.”

Myeong-gyeong continued.

“So I fell into confusion. If someone had demonic qi, he was a demonic practitioner, and if he was a demonic practitioner, he was a bad person. Yet why was he saving people? And the Junior Brother I knew was not a bad person. Why did he have demonic qi? Too many thoughts came while I stood guard.”

“That is understandable.”

“In the end, I decided to keep watching you. If you turned out to be a bad person, I even planned to tell Master at once. But no matter how I looked, you were not a bad person.”

“Thank you for seeing me that way.”

“It is not something to thank me for. I judged based on what you did, Junior Brother.”

Even though Myeong-gyeong said that, I was still astonished. Could a child really make such an independent judgment?

“Perhaps I watched more because I had been in the Imperial Palace. While I was there, I saw Minister Myeong-jae coveting page boys, and I also saw clearly fine people imprisoned. I learned then that what appears in the world is not everything. And I too was someone with a hidden side from you and the others of our martial generation.”

“I see.”

I now understood why Myeong-gyeong was trying to understand me. Myeong-gyeong too must have had constant anxiety about his own hidden side. When that hidden side was revealed, the world must have felt as though it were collapsing, just as it did for me now.

But I understood Myeong-gyeong, and so Myeong-gyeong was trying to understand me in turn. One could also say what I had done was coming back to me, but if the other party had not been Myeong-gyeong, such goodwill might never have returned.

And when I received goodwill again, I had a duty to return it. I had to help Myeong-gyeong understand as much as I could.

“First, what I can tell you is that I did not have demonic qi from the very beginning.”

“…I see.”

“But that was something even I did not know at first. To be precise, I only learned when you learned I had demonic qi, Senior Brother. Until then, I did not even know I possessed it.”

“If that is true, it is somewhat reassuring.”

“It is true.”

“Yes. I know. You are not the sort to lie right now, Junior Brother.”

Fortunately, Myeong-gyeong was trusting me. No, rather than trusting me, he knew me when I lied and when I did not.

“I was flustered too. Why did I have demonic qi? And on my own, I began tracing my demonic qi. Without letting anyone in the sect know. Then somehow I came to realize I was not simply one with demonic qi, but one who bore the Heavenly Demon’s aura. My connection to the Demonic Cult came after that.”

I continued carefully. I had probably never tried this hard to shape my words without the slightest exaggeration or room for distortion. Because Myeong-gyeong had shown me sincerity, I had to try as well.

“That was something I agonized over as well. Would there come a time when I had to speak? In truth, I wanted to hide it for life. But in the end, there was no such thing as a lifelong secret.”

“Exactly. I felt the same. So are you connected to the Demonic Cult now, Junior Brother?”

“The Demonic Cult follows my orders. But the Demonic Cult is not one giant group, as you know, Senior Brother. There are many factions, and I am connected to one of them.”

“I see.”

Myeong-gyeong swallowed. I stole a glance at his eyes. Myeong-gyeong’s eyes were sunk deep in thought. He was probably reviewing everything I had said.

After some time passed, Myeong-gyeong’s lips parted.

“If everything you said is true.”

“Yes.”

“Then I understand.”

“…Thank you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Myeong-gyeong shook his head.

“I have been saying this, but it is not something to thank me for. I simply wanted two things. That you had not deceived me from the beginning, Junior Brother. And that you had not deliberately misled me for some gain. But you seem to be neither.”

“Of course.”

“Yes. Truly, truly. I hoped you were not. For years. I kept wanting to ask, but I held back. But if not now, I felt I would never be able to ask.”

“You have suffered. I made you worry for nothing.”

“No. I am so grateful. That you told me like this, Junior Brother. And that you were not a bad person.”

Myeong-gyeong lowered his head and sobbed. They seemed tears released as tension eased. It was a scene that showed how much Myeong-gyeong had suffered alone carrying my secret.

I was sorry, and so deeply grateful that I embraced Myeong-gyeong. After crying for a while, he pushed me away.

“Pretend you did not see this.”

“Of course.”

Perhaps ashamed of having cried before me, Myeong-gyeong’s face reddened. I held back laughter.

“Do not laugh.”

“I did not.”

“…Hoo.”

Myeong-gyeong wiped the remaining tears from the back of his hand and clapped his palms together.

“Good. The misunderstanding is all cleared up. Then you can go and come back, Junior Brother.”

“You will be all right alone?”

“I am not a child, Junior Brother.”

You poor thing. The words rose to my throat, but I did not want to wound even Myeong-gyeong’s small pride. And it was true that once a main-sect disciple of Wudang reached that age, there were few people one could treat lightly.

“Hide if you sense anyone’s presence as much as possible. Stay here until I come out.”

“I said I am not a child.”

Myeong-gyeong lifted his chin and tapped his sword scabbard. Doing that with swollen eyes was not convincing in the least, but he was cute enough that I decided to let it pass.

I waved to reassure him and entered the fake Forbidden City.

I passed through the Meridian Gate, the main gate of the Forbidden City, and cautiously advanced inside. As I had seen from outside, demonic qi was certainly thick. If Myeong-gyeong had entered here, he would have fallen into deviation at once.

“…Haa.”

The moment I passed through the Meridian Gate, I sighed.

I had hoped that at least the Forbidden City would not be fully reproduced. Was the Forbidden City not famous for having 9,999 rooms? Trying to search all of them would take far more than a few days.

I did not know whether the interior had been fully reproduced, but the Forbidden City I saw after passing through the Meridian Gate was no different in size from the real one.

As quickly as possible. As quickly as possible.

With Myeong-gyeong waiting outside, I could not delay.

Step by step, I advanced deeper into the massive Forbidden City where demonic qi lurked.