Camellia 94

Seolyeong blinked in confusion. Sahyeol Amje looked at him with an indifferent gaze. At some point, one of his eyes had turned gold, glowing faintly. Seolyeong asked,

“Is the imugi coming out now? Is the one standing here not my husband, but… the imugi-nim instead?”

He still remembered the sight of his husband throwing off his robe and running out of the room naked.

Hearing his bride refer to the imugi with such bizarre courtesy made Tang Yujae let out a dry laugh. The imugi also seemed to find it amusing, because the tattoo across his face twitched with subtle movement.

“I’ll play with you later.”

With a snap of his fingers, Seolyeong’s body slid backward, unable to resist the crushing pressure. Before he could do more than go, “Ah,” the heavy iron doors of the Gwanju Hall bedroom opened wide and pushed him out.

Bang! The door slammed shut behind him.

Seolyeong scratched the back of his head, blinking blankly.

“Do I go back in or not…?”

He had come straight to see Sahyeol Amje after meeting with Peng Rang, to keep his promise to Si Pungwoon. He needed to find out if Si Pungjae had really been sentenced to death, and if not, where he had disappeared to.

Making up his mind, Seolyeong stood and faced the iron door.

“Hus, band! Your wife must see you immediately!”

He called out in a deep, resonant voice, using his breathing to project with internal force. The sound pierced the door and reached Yujae’s ears. His golden eye gleamed like a beast’s.

The imugi chuckled from within him.

–He seems to have something to say. Why not let him in?

What a joke. The same creature pretending to be kind now was the one who would, without hesitation, turn on his bride and try to kill him. It was only ever merciful toward humans, everything else, it slaughtered without blinking.

Yujae ignored it entirely. Instead, he motioned toward the Saseogyeong.

“The last section is unraveling.”

There was a hint of unease in his tone.

“Why now?”

His vision hadn’t evolved. The Qi circulating within him hadn’t reached a new state either. And yet, the undecipherable lines were becoming clear. Something inside him had changed.

The imugi spoke in a soft, coaxing voice.

–Read it. If you do, you’ll understand why the text revealed itself to you now.

Yujae focused his attention on the Saseogyeong, feeling the surge of Qi within him. The bastard was right.

Sensing his anticipation, the imugi exhaled Yin energy and stirred Yujae’s mental state. Cold air blanketed the room. The Saseogyeong, left behind by the last Cheonma, the one and only human the imugi had ever wished to promise eternity to, was now opening its last chapter. The imugi seemed almost elated, eager to see what confessions that dying man had left behind.

At last, the final section spread before Yujae’s eyes.

I always wanted to rule the world.

It felt like the voice of a man he’d never seen before echoed inside his skull. Yujae could feel the surge of power.

A record written by a man once called the greatest under heaven, it carried destructive waves with its very presence.

Was I ever worthy of holding the world in my hands?

The Saseogyeong was no martial manual. It was a personal chronicle, a reflection of the Cheonma’s life. And finally, Yujae understood what the man had clawed toward until his death.

The question sparked a thirst for the future. Who had become the true overlord of this world? Had he become a god in the end? Had he ascended to heaven? Yujae found himself wanting to reach across time and see how his story ended.

His pitch-black hair fluttered as if stirred by unseen wind. A sharp jolt raced down his spine.

I will tear through the web of time that binds past, present, and future, and I will peek into my fate and indulge in it.

The Cheonma had not died in a duel against Yuhoon, the so-called savior of the martial world, as legend claimed. He had succumbed to qi deviation after coveting a realm no human should reach.

Tang Yujae, already at the threshold of transcendence, had pursued the Saseogyeong hoping it held clues about Hayeon.

The so-called righteous masters of the martial world knew little of what happened during the fall of Tang clan. They claimed the clan head had betrayed them, that they’d harbored the Cheonma’s bloodline and brought about their downfall.

But Yujae knew the truth. He knew that his father had been obsessed with Hayeon’s mother. That his love had turned caused her misery, and she had taken her own life. Hayeon had been born from that woman, an unwanted child carrying the blood of Tang clan’s head.

“…I should’ve finished off that Murim Alliance Leader when I had the chance.”

He muttered bitterly. The imugi cut in.

–He’s still alive, isn’t he?

“Barely.”

When Yujae attacked Namgung, he hadn’t restrained himself. The leader of the Murim Alliance had thrown himself into the slaughter to stop the madness and ended up unconscious. The one supposedly leading the alliance now was Namgung Shin, his daughter, struggling to hold the fractured factions together.

The Cheonma’s record now turned to his discovery, how he found a way to glimpse the future.

Yujae’s pale hand flipped through the pages, then paused. He addressed the imugi.

“If the one you loved saw himself die as a mortal and came back to change that fate, only to dig his own grave trying to escape it…”

His white fingertip pointed at a section. The imugi hummed thoughtfully.

“…Then that must mean I too can glimpse another timeline.”

He felt like he’d finally found a usable thread. Yujae read faster. Clear lines etched themselves into his mind.

Offer the Yang energy of the Gyeokroe-do,¹ the Yin energy of the Ruyi Pearl, and a human’s true Qi to open the Gate of Heaven. A rift will form, and a semi-transparent net of time will appear. By moving along that net with Step of Water-Kicking and Shadow-Dancing, one can defy fate. I can feel myself going mad as the cost of trying to surpass destiny.

Step of Water-Kicking and Shadow-Dancing, Chuksu-buyeongbo, was a technique devised by the Cheonma while in the Western Region. A sharp, fluid movement where the body moved like a rising splash and shadows danced like waves.

The Lightning-Strike Blade’s Yang was the Fire Dragon Sword. The Ruyi Pearl’s Yin was found in the Heaven-Energy Transfiguration Technique’s Golden Dragon Grasp. The human Qi came from the Proper Heart Technique.

Yujae could perform the footwork, the grasp, and the heart method. But he lacked the Yang.

I tried to return to the past and stop the future-seeking version of myself, but I failed. A soul arriving from the present can affect nothing in the past. I was nothing more than a ghost watching my own mistakes. Powerless. Helpless.

The final chapter ended.

This body was only a fool, trapped by a hollow dream. I miss the one I loved.

A lonely confession soaked in blood.

Tang Yujae closed the Saseogyeong and slowly looked toward the iron door. The imugi, realizing what he intended, whispered knowingly.

–So you plan to give your spoiled little bride the Fire Dragon Sword.

The imugi tattoo shrank back into a mere dot. The imugi, who had been burning with excitement over the Cheonma’s final record, was calming down. Its eyes, once brilliant gold, turned pitch black again.

Yujae broke the silence.

“…Why was I able to read the final chapter?”

The near-divine being answered almost instantly.

–Because you now possess the Imoogi’s power, and someone you love.

The Saseogyeong was written in mutable script. Its contents changed based on the reader. Only those who matched the writer’s state could read it fully.

The imugi laughed quietly.

–Clever human.

Then, a sly question followed.

–So, how does it feel, to fall in love on the brink of death?

1. Lightning-strike sword ↩︎