Chapter 99. The Blood Demon’s Hope

“The Blood Demon told the terrified sorcerer that he had just tried killing her, and rejoiced that she truly was someone who could create a time passage. When he threatened to kill Yeonju if she didn’t come with him, the sorcerer immediately fled back into the water. And astonishingly, at that very moment, Yeonju disappeared. The Blood Demon was neither surprised nor disappointed. Instead, with a joyful face, he looked at his empty hands, then reached into the water and pulled out the young sorcerer.”

The Alliance Leader continued as though he were speaking of something extremely difficult.

“But the young sorcerer emerged with a sword stabbed into her own throat. I had never seen the Blood Demon so agitated before. The face that had remained calm even when he lost an arm or when his entire fortress burned twisted into rage. He kept shaking the girl, shouting for her to come back to life, and then… the girl opened her eyes. But before the Blood Demon could do anything, she stabbed her throat again.”

The Alliance Leader ran a hand over his forehead and lowered his gaze.

“A sorcerer can also return to the time they desire by killing themselves. But that is the final cycle. It seems the sorcerer must have returned to the moment she died—just before she was captured by the Blood Demon, after sending Yeonju back. She used up the opportunity given to her immediately, turning back only a fleeting moment of time.”

“……”

“For that clan, the newly granted time was truly a punishment.”

The Alliance Leader let out a hollow breath.

“The Blood Demon screamed in despair. He didn’t know when that capricious god would choose another sorcerer. And even if one were chosen, he had no way of knowing who it would be.”

“……”

“When one of the Blood Demon’s subordinates asked if they should kill all the remaining sorcerers in the Yeonju group to check, the Blood Demon said to leave them alive. Well, he had already drastically reduced their numbers, so he probably couldn’t kill any more. If the clan went extinct before the god chose again, the Blood Demon would lose his chance forever.”

The Alliance Leader spoke in a bitter voice.

“I watched the Blood Demon return and did nothing. He left Jin Yin Mountain with just three guards, and I simply took in that rare opportunity with my eyes.”

Meeting his weary gaze, So-hwa asked him.

“Then what did you do?”

“I went back to Kunlun.”

He answered with a slight smile.

“I no longer resisted the set flow of time. I just cherished the things that were precious to me more deeply and spent my final time tidying things up well. When I returned to Kunlun, I was confined in isolation for a week, unable to eat anything, and was harshly scolded—but even that time was happiness. I trained at my own pace, even if my skill didn’t improve, and even when my fellow disciples made mistakes, I was thankful and proud of them… It’s contradictory, but I lived each day with gratitude.”

Resignation.

But So-hwa could not condemn him.

How could she blame someone who had fought alone, isolated in time? She could understand how arduous the time he didn’t speak of must have been.

She remained silent, letting him finish his words.

“Now, it’s all a blur, but time flowed much like in my first life. I became the Alliance Leader again and received all kinds of martial world news from across the Central Plains. It felt bitter seeing how everything unfolded the same way again. To think the life I struggled so hard to return to ended up being the same as my first—That tragic life is now the most peaceful one I can enjoy.”

The Alliance Leader took a deep breath and suddenly smiled at So-hwa.

“But, starting three years ago, news began to reach me—news I had never heard before.”

He looked at So-hwa and spoke slowly.

“At first, I wondered if the Blood Demon had changed his plans. But the Blood Demon is not someone who would ever show himself in the Central Plains of his own will. In all the lifetimes I repeated, not once did he ever make such a choice. And yet recently, the martial arts of the Five Palaces of the Outer Regions and even Five Minerals Powder have surfaced. And at the center of it all—was you.”

His slowly moving gaze studied So-hwa’s face.

“I clearly saw with my own eyes the chosen sorcerer die.”

In a calm voice, the Alliance Leader asked,

“Has that capricious god chosen a new sorcerer?”

So-hwa did not answer.

“I’m not admonishing you for your regression, nor am I asking you to tell me who the new sorcerer is. Rather, I called you here to let you know.”

“……”

“Don’t place your hopes in things that won’t change, and don’t endure suffering for them. Just accept them.”

So-hwa, out of courtesy to the Alliance Leader who had shared such a long story, took a moment to reflect on his words.

There had been times it felt overwhelming. The hope she held in her hands seemed instead to choke her—each day filled with anxiety and fear.

The sorcerer clan’s description of it as a punishment didn’t seem wrong.

If this life were not an opportunity, but a punishment for defying the will of that god…

If so, if she could never achieve what she desired in this lifetime…

Then—

The Tang Clan would fall, and her retainers would be unable to escape a painful death.

That was what he was telling her to accept.

After a long silence, So-hwa parted her red lips.

“Have you ever met that god?”

“No. I must have lived for several centuries by now, yet I’ve never once seen that being.”

“Then is it not all just speculation, not something you’ve been told directly?”

The Alliance Leader narrowed his eyes.

“What do you mean by that?”

The daughter of the Tang Clan Head, sitting across from him, looked at him with cold eyes.

A chilling impression, inhuman in its stillness.

The Blood Demon’s image flashed across her face.

A voice without rise or fall, one that suited that expression, followed.

“If that so-called god chose a new sorcerer and created a new turning point in time—”

Her calmness made her sound audacious.

“Then wouldn’t everything that changes because of that also be within that god’s will?”

So-hwa listened to the silence, then opened her mouth again.

“If, as you say, this is punishment, and a murderer cannot achieve their desire, then the Blood Demon will not succeed either. Didn’t he kill that young sorcerer just to confirm it? He’ll never get his hands on a sorcerer again. And even worse, he imprisoned and exploited the one chosen to act on behalf of that god. If I were that god, I’d punish the Blood Demon too.”

So-hwa spoke as the Alliance Leader listened silently.

“If the Blood Demon’s goal is to seize the world, then he will never grasp it. And if your goal was to kill the Blood Demon, then you won’t succeed either. But my goal is not the Blood Demon—it is the Tang Clan. Not the Central Plains, not the Murim Alliance—only the safety of the Tang Clan. The Blood Sect is just a weed that needs pulling to protect that.”

“…….”

“Even if I cannot achieve what I want, as you said, I can kill the Blood Demon. And in the same way, even if you cannot kill the Blood Demon, you can protect the Tang Clan.”

The Tang Clan Head’s daughter boldly made a proposal to the Alliance Leader.

“I will kill the Blood Demon. So please, protect the Tang Clan.”

The Alliance Leader let out an incredulous sigh.

After he’d gone so far as to share his secret to advise her not to burden herself, she stubbornly clung to her will and even tried to drag him into it.

It was so absurd, he laughed.

“If you insist on walking that path, then go ahead. Someday, through experience, you’ll come to understand.”

“Please come with me.”

“…Have you, by any chance, ever been called shameless?”

After all he’d confessed, now she was asking him to walk that road again.

She seemed to lack empathy—no sign of pity, not even a flicker of compassion.

But then again, she’d always been like this. When he tried to take the Black Sky Demon to Jin Yin Mountain, she had poisoned him, keeping him bedridden for days at the Tang Clan estate. The shameless Black Sky Demon had even apologized to him in embarrassment. In that light, the Master of Ten Thousand Poisons was perhaps an even more ruthless person than the Black Sky Demon himself.

The Alliance Leader laughed inwardly and waved his hand.

“As I said, I no longer wish to be involved in the whims of that fickle god. The more effort you make, the quicker and more tragic the outcome will be. I won’t stop you if you want to test the god’s creativity, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Though the Alliance Leader refused, his voice was warm.

Suddenly, he fell silent.

“Do you hear that?”

So-hwa, just about to reply, held back her words and listened closely. But she heard nothing—only the occasional chirping of birds.

“I only hear bird calls.”

The Alliance Leader’s lips curved slightly.

“That’s the sound the Blood Sect uses to communicate. I’ve hardly slept for days since the start of the Martial Arts Tournament, with all the noise. Many messages have passed, and your name has come up often.”

The old man clicked his tongue.

“They’re watching your every move—but strangely enough, they’re also guarding you, wary of the Blue Blood Hall Lord.”

“The Blue Blood Hall Lord?”

“One of the Blood Demon’s most treasured subordinates. You and Haerak already seem well acquainted, and I don’t dislike him. In one life, I even relied on him to reach the Blood Demon. But even after repeating countless lives, I’ve never seen Haerak try to protect you.”

Though surprised, So-hwa showed no reaction. The Alliance Leader knew Haerak’s identity.

Seeing her stiffen, the Alliance Leader chuckled.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you surprised. Once, you even helped me. I survived thanks to the antidote pill of the Master of Ten Thousand Poisons. Though, to be fair, you’ve given me much more trouble than help.”

So-hwa had no reason to doubt his words, but hearing an old nickname she hadn’t heard in ages, she felt certain.

The Alliance Leader had also turned back time, just like her.

Though she only remembered him as he was now, there must have been a time when he, too, held onto hope as she did.

In the moment she felt sympathy for him, the Alliance Leader spoke again.

“When the finals begin, the crowd will rush to the arena, and security will loosen. That’s why those Blood Sect bastards are getting anxious. Even now, they’re whispering about how you’ve been in the Alliance Leader’s chambers for so long—wondering if the Blue Blood Hall Lord might have worn a human-skin mask and gone in instead. Such insolence! There’s a limit to how much one can disrespect the Murim Alliance—how dare they compare the Alliance Leader to that lowly wretch?”

Though his words were harsh, the Alliance Leader was smiling.

“Today, I’ll call you and the Divine Physician to my quarters. I’m supposedly gravely ill and on the verge of death, so I’ve brought in a Tang Clan physician for aid. My side is the safest place—stay here for now. The Blue Blood Hall Lord can be handled by Haerak, so let’s leave those Blood Sect bastards to tear each other apart.”

So-hwa turned the suggestion over in her mind, then asked,

“Do you happen to know why the Blue Blood Hall is chasing me?”

It was something she had been wondering.

Why was a Blood Sect member after her?

Since the Alliance Leader had spent lifetimes trying to thwart the Blood Sect, she thought he might know.

“The Red Blood and Blue Blood Halls are devout beyond reason. If the Blood Demon commands them to die, they’ll slit their own throats without hesitation. So their motives are never that complicated. This is likely the Blood Demon’s order.”

“Because I revealed the Blood Sect’s resurgence?”

“No, the Blood Demon isn’t reckless enough to target a Tang Clan direct descendant over something like that. If you knew just how obsessively he wants to take the Central Plains in one flawless sweep, you’d probably suggest we just hand it over to him.”

When So-hwa responded with a deadpan face to the ridiculous joke, the Alliance Leader laughed and added,

“In any case, for the Blood Demon to act so unreasonably… it means he suspects something.”

He spoke with certainty, as though echoing the Blood Demon’s own thoughts.

“He must think you’ve found the new sorcerer.”

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(T/N): Ooooh, so was she the new sorcerer? Not Namgung Hyun? Or are they both?

( ╹ -╹)?

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