Chapter 714

“Kill me, Hyung.”

The moment he heard those words, the Beast Miao King closed his eyes without realizing it.

His chest went numb, and he couldn’t breathe. The request from his one and only sworn brother—after decades—felt like a sharp blade stabbing through his lungs.

‘Hyung. He called me Hyung.’

He had wanted to hear those words so badly.

But now he wanted to cover his ears.

He wished he could become a fool who had never seen or heard anything. Even if he became an incompetent Palace Lord—if it meant he could avoid this moment.

If only he could.

“Old memories are coming back to me.”

The Beast Miao King opened his eyes at the quiet voice. Baek Sang, wearing a faint smile, was reflected in them.

“Back then, we were young, and I—who wanted to become the Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace—was always impatient because I couldn’t beat you, Hyung.”

“…Yes, that’s how it was.”

It was their boyhood, when they were so green they were no different from blood clots.

Baek Sang saw the Beast Miao King, a few years older, as a rival. The Beast Miao King found Baek Sang adorable. Born an only child, he had no siblings.

“But I never caught up to you, Hyung. Just when I thought I was getting close, you were already far away.”

“That’s because you were younger than me. If we were the same age…”

“Even then, the result wouldn’t have changed. From the beginning, our innate talents were different.”

Even so, Baek Sang didn’t give up. He challenged him to a contest every day, and even though he always lost, he returned the next day as if nothing had happened.

“And one day, I suddenly realized. That big oaf, who was two heads taller than me, I didn’t hate him as much as I thought.”

Baek Sang remembered it clearly—the sight of the big boy picking him up after he fell and brushing the dirt off him.

The shadow of someone secretly leaving medicine in front of his residence on nights when he lay groaning in pain.

“So, I asked for a final contest.”

The result was no different that day.

Baek Sang fought with all his might, more than ever, and he lost.

If it had ended there, it would have been just another ordinary day.

But Baek Sang didn’t shake off the hand that reached out to help him up as usual, and he didn’t stomp back to his residence grumbling.

Instead, he took out two bottles of stolen fruit wine and muttered,

“I have wine, but no one to drink with. If you’re interested, come along.”

At the Beast Miao King’s low voice, Baek Sang widened his eyes for a moment, spat blood, and laughed.

“Cough. You still remember that?”

“How could I forget? You were only twelve, but you were the only kid in my life who said something that cheeky.”

“Then you must remember that I emptied both bottles all by myself.”

“Emptied both bottles?”

The Beast Miao King couldn’t help but chuckle. His eyes, curved like crescent moons, were already wet with moisture he couldn’t name.

“Well, I vividly remember a kid who couldn’t even finish one glass and collapsed. And the words he said while looking at me with unfocused eyes.”

Baek Sang nodded weakly.

His blurry eyes searched those days.

“I said I would be satisfied as the Great Chieftain, so you should become a great Palace Lord. I had to drink so I could tell you that, because I couldn’t say those words to you, Hyung, unless I was drunk.”

“Were the words you said after that also words you couldn’t say unless you were drunk?”

“Of course not.”

Baek Sang continued quietly.

“Hyung… was just my Hyung. Maybe from the day we first met.”

The two boys, tasting alcohol for the first time in their lives, fell asleep like that, and from the moment they opened their eyes in an old shrine the next morning, they became sworn brothers closer than anyone else.

In the mountains. In the fields. In the rivers and swamps.

And even on the battlefield, they were together.

Until the terrible fate that came one day tore them apart.

“Hyung.”

“On the day we became sworn brothers, you swore to me, Hyung. That you would become a Palace Lord better than anyone else. That you would fight for the Southern Barbarian Region, and for the people of this land, more than anyone else.”

“Stop. Stop it.”

The Beast Miao King already knew why Baek Sang was bringing up these stories. He knew what Baek Sang was trying to say.

“Are you really going to make me… kill you with my own hands?”

Baek Sang nodded slightly.

“Too much blood has already been shed. It’s all because of my wrong choices.”

Executing the traitor who betrayed the Southern Barbarian Region and countless tribesmen.

That was what the Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had to do directly, and it was the only way to keep the oath made long ago in that old shrine.

“Didn’t you swear? That you would become a Palace Lord better than anyone else.”

The hand he lifted with difficulty pointed past the Beast Miao King, who had become rigid like a stone statue.

His trembling finger pointed past the collapsed rubble, toward the countless tribesmen and warriors pouring back into the Inner Palace.

“Everyone is watching. You and me. And us.”

Baek Sang’s words were the truth without an inch of falsehood.

The crowd flooding into the Inner Palace knew the disaster was over and began to cheer.

Then they froze at the sight before them.

And finally, they fell silent when they saw their returned Palace Lord—and the traitor collapsed before him.

No, they were furious.

“I can feel it. Their anger toward me.”

It was the moment Baek Sang feared the most, and at the same time, the moment he desperately wanted.

If this moment had come, it meant someone had stopped him. It meant the grand plan of Dark Heaven and the Southern Demon Empress had gone to waste.

That’s why he could laugh out loud. That’s why he could lift his dying body and squeeze out the last of his strength to shout.

“Remember this clearly!”

Eyes blurry as if they would go out at any moment.

But the shout that burst from his lips was clear and loud enough for everyone in the Inner Palace to hear.

“Although the grand plan has failed, one day the sky of Dark Heaven will surely devour the Southern Barbarian Region!”

The resounding shout rolled over the rubble and the mountains of corpses, ringing in everyone’s ears.

With every syllable, blood spilled between his teeth, and strength drained from his whole body.

But Baek Sang didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.

Because he was a traitor who betrayed everyone and caused a disaster.

A sinner who committed an unforgivable crime had to die as a sinner, without sympathy or story.

That was… the last thing Baek Sang could do.

“The day that will come soon…?”

Baek Sang swallowed the blood welling up and gritted his teeth as he kept shouting.

“Those vile Han bastards and you uncivilized Southern Barbarians will all kneel before the feet of the great Heavenly Lord and submit!”

Baek Sang curled his blood-soaked lips and smiled brightly.

At this moment, he was the most loyal servant of the Heavenly Lord, a dog of Dark Heaven.

And for such a sworn brother, there was only one choice a sworn brother could make.

Thwack!

A fist shot out, cleaving the air, crushing flesh and breaking bone.

The fist buried deep in his chest carried green aura, like the wide fields where they had rolled around together as children.

‘Thank you, Hyung.’

‘As promised, you have become a very great Palace Lord.’

With a murmur no one could hear, Baek Sang stared at the face of the one person visible beyond his fading vision.

‘But why…’

‘Why are you crying?’

The great Palace Lord who executed the traitor and prevented the disaster was crying—so painfully, like a child who had lost something precious.

And he shouted, almost like a wail.

“I have executed Baek Sang, the traitor who colluded with Dark Heaven!”

The cheers of the people, echoing faintly, rang in his ears. Baek Sang’s helplessly tilted head turned toward the sky.

It was clear and blue.

This world was no longer dark.

‘Isn’t that right, Hwi?’

Recalling his son who had lost his reason and plunged a sword into his father’s chest, recalling the child who was already smiling brightly and waiting for him in another world, Baek Sang smiled peacefully.

Thud.

His body collapsed, strength leaving him.

The world was still bright, and the cheers continued endlessly.

And instead of the sworn brother who wasn’t even allowed to wail, one person closed his eyes for him.

“…Damn it. What are you smiling about like you did something good.”

Jin Taekyung muttered, then suddenly looked down at something old in his hand.

‘I don’t know.’

‘He’s definitely a guy who deserved to die. A bastard who did something worth dying for.’

‘So why do I feel like this? Why did I bring this?’

‘Damn it.’

Swallowing curses that wouldn’t come out, Jin Taekyung covered Baek Sang’s face with what he held.

Hundred Heavens.

The old silk, filled with someone’s time and wishes, fluttered in a cool breeze that came from somewhere.

Amid the endlessly echoing cheers, and the shouts that rolled in from afar like reverberations—

“Captain!”

“Pavillion Leader—no, Young Master Jin!”

“Taesan is here! Taesan is sorry for being late!”

“Hey, you bastard! Are you alive!”

‘Is it a hallucination?’

Jin Taekyung turned around with the question in his mind, stared blankly at the familiar faces approaching, then finally smiled faintly.

And then he collapsed.

—

I had a very long dream.

A terrible nightmare.

Even in the dream, I struggled. In the modern world, I fought monsters. In the Murim world, I fought Dark Heaven.

And when I defeated the Southern Demon Empress after a battle so fierce it felt like I’d already lived it once, a masked guy appeared and said this.

-To think you would defeat even the Southern Demon Empress after the Western Heavenly Demon, you’re quite something.

I was thinking, ‘Who is this bastard who rolled in from nowhere?’ when the masked guy continued.

-But the Western Heavenly Demon and the Southern Demon Empress are only the weakest of our Eight Great Heavenly Kings.

-?

-I am the Eastern Heavenly Demon in charge of the east. Right below me in the hierarchy is the Eastern-Western Heavenly Demon Empress in charge of the east and west.

No, damn it, four directions should be enough, why is there an Eastern-Western Heavenly Demon Empress?

I was speechless at the sheer brain fart.

I was suffocated by fear that even if I returned to the modern world, the Dongducheon Demon or the Incheon Demon Queen might be waiting for me.

But what could I do? Even knowing it was a dream, I fought like crazy.

And with every step I took toward him, those I had killed—or those I had failed to save—appeared and blocked my path.

-Just a little bit. Just a little bit more……

-If you had moved faster, we could have lived.

-We could have returned to our families.

-Why did you survive and we have to die?

-Why. Why. Why?

I stopped without a word, and they sank their teeth into my torso.

Slowly. But without rest.

And I could only watch, frozen like a statue.

Because among them—mutated—was a face I knew.

A face that shouldn’t have been there at all.

-I cherished you more than anyone else, but in the end, you couldn’t save me.

It was Jeok Cheon-Gang.

He approached with both arms gone and a hole through the center of his chest, then sank his teeth into my neck.

As Jeok Cheon-Gang greedily swallowed flesh and blood, he whispered into my ear in a low voice.

-By the way, when is this detestable bastard supposed to wake up?

And at that moment, I snapped my eyes open.

A strange ceiling came into view, along with a strong, unfamiliar smell.

As I blinked blankly and reality began to settle in, a familiar voice pierced my ears.

“If you confess willingly now, I’ll end it with just a light branding. You—are you a quack?”

“Ah, no, I’m not.”

“It’s been seven days and nights and the kid hasn’t woken up. Does that make sense? Call Beast Miao King.”

“Huk. Th, that is……”

“Call Yal Cheok!”

At the resounding shout, I turned my head and saw Jeok Cheon-Gang grabbing the doctor by the collar and shaking him violently.