Camellia 144

The moment Tang Yujae realized that his life had been nothing more than a puppet show played out under a predetermined fate, his emotions did not erupt in rage as one might expect. Instead, his heart sank low, like the depths of the sea, and remained in a state of colorless calm.

The events played through his mind in order, from the moment he left the Tang clan, which had become a sea of fire, to his arrival in the distant land of Haedong and his meeting with Gyo Seokryun. Doubt took root. What he had believed to be a fortuitous encounter bestowed by the world might have been a meeting orchestrated from the start.

With a quiet sigh, Tang Yujae clasped his bride’s hand once more, though it was clear that Seolyeong was more deeply shaken than he was.

Seolyeong flinched at the sudden touch. He quickly turned his head and met his husband’s gaze.

When he had climbed Yeonhu Mountain alone, the first time he met Sahyeol Amje, there had been a dark fire in the man’s black eyes. That same fire now grew in size once more. Having watched the fall of the Tang clan beside him, Seolyeong could no longer see the man before him as merely grim and foreboding.

Suddenly, he recalled the image of Sahyeol Amje from deep within a cave. With a face calm beyond all measure, standing before warriors turned to ice statues, he had asked,

‘What do you think, Ahyeong. Do I still seem like someone who wants the martial world to perish?’

That face, which had seemed to have lost all light of humanity, flashed before Seolyeong again. He could not suppress the words that rose from within.

“…I’m sorry.”

His voice trembled with unshed tears. Though it was Yujae who had lived through the massacre, losing his entire clan to the flames, it was Seolyeong who murmured, overcome with sorrow.

“I’m sorry, my husband…”

It simply felt like something he needed to say. As if someone, anyone, had to apologize to the man before him.

Yujae, whose heart had shattered countless times and been reduced to dust, answered at last.

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for.”

Tang Yujae, if anything, felt relieved.

He could finally see a way out of the endless void. As he slowly turned over the purpose that had defined his life, he looked up at the sun-streaked sky.

Uncovering the truth behind the Tang clan’s annihilation. Discovering the true nature of Hayeon’s death. Whether she had truly been of Cheonma’s bloodline, whether she had been struck down by heaven’s own hand.

Tang Yujae felt he could now bring everything to an end.

“As I once told you… there was a time when I hated your martial world.”

The testimony of the orthodox sects had been true. The Tang clan head had betrayed the martial world and acted as a spy for the Cheonma Divine Sect. The woman of the Namgung clan had been the lover of the Cheonma, and the leader of the Martial Alliance had kept silent even after learning his sister had conspired with the enemy.

His younger sister had truly been the living legacy of the former Cheonma.

“I definitely felt hatred.”

He added those words as he gently wiped the tears from his wife’s cheek.

“But even that, I grew tired of long ago.”

Leader of the Cheonma Divine Sect. Sahyeol Amje. The Cheonsin.

“Finally, I met you. And through you, I gained a chance at freedom.”

In that moment, Sahyeol Amje was no longer the man who had slaughtered tens of thousands to claim the title of the world’s strongest. He was simply a kind man named Tang Yujae, showing his true face.

“Your kindness is what saved me.”

He had taken in a noisy, overdramatic bride and fallen in love. As a result, he had been able to decipher the Saseogyeong. After glimpsing into the past, he understood it even more deeply.

That the blood fiend, who had no sense of propriety and constantly overstepped, had been his salvation.

My radiant, blazing monster.

“Wait here for a while. When I finish what must be done, I’ll return and change the color of your eyes.”

May your life without me bloom like a flower. May your days never be touched by hatred again.

As Tang Yujae’s Qi rose slowly, the threads of time unraveled. The scenery of Gyehong Mountain shifted into a blurred palette, and the sky collapsed downward without warning. A deafening crash of thunder rang out.

Time’s net was torn apart, and as their clasped hands began to slip apart, Tang Yujae pressed a gentle kiss to his bride’s cheek and leapt beyond the sky.

“Wait! Just wait a moment…!”

Seolyeong tried to follow, but failed. The world turned pitch black. Left alone in an empty void without even a speck of dust, Seolyeong sprang upward, adding strength to his ankles, but hit an invisible wall.

Even swinging Seonwol-do in every direction did nothing.

Damn it. He was completely trapped, in a strange realm created by Sahyeol Amje.

An ordinary man might have despaired and dropped his sword. After all, the greatest warrior of the era had imprisoned him and fled. Believing he could follow might itself be arrogance.

But Seolyeong acted differently. He began to burn with resolve. A strange fury rose within him. That damned Sahyeol Amje had always imposed his own standards on Seolyeong’s life.

What was that about changing his eye color?

He had never asked for ordinary eyes. What he wanted was not eyes that would blend in with the martial world, but a life beside the one he loved.

“There’s a limit to how selfish one can be!”

Gripping Seonwol-do, Seolyeong gathered his Qi in his upper danjeon. The intense surge of energy called forth a moment of extraordinary insight. He could feel his inner strength trembling, seeking to break through to the next level.

Amje had taught him that refusing to deny one’s resentment and hatred could make one stronger. Seolyeong had never fully believed that. But today, he did not just believe it, he was ready to act on it.

“I hate you the most, you bastard.”

Seonwol-do reacted first to the rising power. The brilliant blade pulsed with dazzling white energy, urging its master onward. Let us find a new realm together.

Steadying his breath, Seolyeong moved into his sword form with unprecedented clarity. His waist turned smoothly, his forearms filled with power. A mysterious principle flowed from the tip of the sword. The rage and bitterness that had threatened to erupt now fused with a pure love, a single conviction focused into the blade’s edge.

Seolyeong resented Sahyeol Amje, who had no attachment to life, for making him fall in love even as he stood on the brink of death. It was disgraceful. It was cruel.

But that did not mean his feelings had changed.

Rather, he now wanted to show Amje what peace could feel like. Just as the children of the Murong clan had taught Seolyeong how warmth and comfort could ease loneliness, he too wanted to cradle even the most guarded parts of that man. That cold-hearted man who claimed hatred made one stronger, Seolyeong wished that he might become strong through love instead.

Qi like heavy snow colored the pitch-black world. As the darkness recoiled in fear, brighter light began to pour in. Seolyeong’s sword aura now gleamed in a hue like the eternal snows conjured by Sahyeol Amje. As the world lit up, Seolyeong found himself longing for Yeonhu.

That one beam of light that had sought him out in the frozen snowfield.

If he walked toward that light, he believed he would find his beloved waiting at its end.

“That child…”

The distorted space shifted back to the axis of the past. Seolyeong let out a sigh as he saw a boy wandering through Gyehong Mountain in a wrecked state.

The boy wept until his eyes burned, collecting shattered remains of corpses. That boy was his husband, Sahyeol Amje. Staggering, he still did not stop. Shivering, he picked up a piece of leather lothing. The very garment Sahyeol Amje had always worn when his form regressed under the effects of Yangcheonju.

After leaving the ashes of the Tang clan behind, the boy boarded a ship to Haedong. There, he met Gyo Seokryun and began his training to become a killer. He treated the destruction of his clan as the price of his own weakness and punished himself accordingly.

In time, he became so numb to death that he could no longer cry or laugh from the heart.

Seolyeong saw him reunited with Yuwon and dropped his sword. Then, he sat down and wept.

For the snake of the demonic sect, who had never once allowed himself to cry.

Perhaps, as a fellow monster, he could finally understand why Yujae waited for death.