The World's Greatest is Dead

“......”

I froze for a moment as I looked at the being who had appeared.

What was this?

Was I seeing wrong?

Otherwise, this made no sense.

It was absurd in every possible way.

It had to be.

The one standing in front of me right now was unmistakably Yoo Cheongil.

Which meant he was someone who could not possibly be here.

“......Old man...... Elder?”

“It has been a while.”

His hands were clasped behind his back, and an irritating smile hung on his face.

It was definitely that annoying old man I knew.

“Look at those eyes of yours. We meet after so long, and that is the face you make? Still as ill-mannered as ever.”

“......No, why. Why are you here?”

Was he real?

He was actually real?

He felt far too vivid to call him fake.

“What a curious place. So you were hiding somewhere like this.”

Yoo Cheongil looked around.

He glanced over the space filled with flowers, then examined what stood behind me.

“What is that?”

“......”

“Is that the secret you carry?”

Hmm.

Yoo Cheongil looked at it for an instant with interest, but strangely enough, he stopped himself from coming closer.

“It does not seem like something I should look at, so I shall not pry.”

“......You’re not going to look?”

“Why? Do you want me to? If you wish it, I can.”

“That’s not it.”

I was only puzzled because he said he would not.

“Good. It seems the rebirth took properly. Judging by your appearance, the shell cracked cleanly.”

“......”

He examined my changed body.

By the time I noticed, Yoo Cheongil was already right in front of me.

With his large hand, he tapped my shoulder and several other places.

“Your body is not bad, either. Your energy seems to have increased as well. You are in good condition.”

“......What are you doing?”

“Your frame still needs to grow more...... Are you training properly? You have too little muscle.”

“That’s because I got taller. I’m already working myself to death.”

“Are you? If so, good. Still, do not skip it. You have many places left to go.”

“......”

Unbelievable.

“If I have that many places to go, where exactly have you been, Elder?”

He had not shown even the tip of his nose for months, and now he was saying this?

The fact that he had appeared now was strange enough.

How many disasters had happened already?

I threw the words out like a protest toward Yoo Cheongil, who had vanished.

“There were reasons of my own. Even now, I do not have much time.”

“......What?”

“So I will tell you only what I must and leave.”

“You’re leaving again? Where are you going?”

Was he going to disappear completely at this rate?

I spoke with a little urgency.

“Hah. What is this? You once mocked me and told me to go pass on peacefully, but now that I might disappear, you are sorry to see me go?”

“......”

My hand flinched at those words.

Right.

I had only ever been watching for a chance to escape him.

It was strange for me to say something like this now.

While my own head went blank from how alien the situation felt, Yoo Cheongil chuckled and placed his hand on top of my head.

“The Heavenly Demon. What has that bastard been saying?”

“......He does say things.”

“What does he say?”

“He told me to become the Heavenly Demon.”

“Hahahahahahaha—!!!”

At my words, Yoo Cheongil burst into loud laughter.

It was so loud that the flowers around us shook.

“Haha. Amusing. That is exactly the kind of thing that bastard would say.”

“......Are you pleased?”

“I am. If that bastard took a liking to you, child, that also means you are not half bad.”

“So, what? It doesn’t matter if the Sword Saint’s inheritor becomes the Heavenly Demon?”

“If you want to, become it. It would be amusing.”

“You insane evil ghost.”

Was he seriously saying that?

“Then what, instead of becoming the greatest under heaven or the Azure Moon Sect Leader, I should just become the Heavenly Demon?”

“Who told you to do that?”

“You just told me to become the Heavenly Demon.”

“Yes. I told you to become the Heavenly Demon.”

“How is that......”

“Just do all of it.”

“What?”

My eyes widened at Yoo Cheongil’s words.

What was he saying now?

Do all of it?

“Do whatever you want, if you wish to. What I want from you is not something you cannot do just because you become the Heavenly Demon.”

“......I’m losing my mind.”

The hero of the Central Plains was telling his own inheritor to become the Heavenly Demon if he wanted.

He really was an insane evil ghost.

“Well, do whatever you like with that......”

Yoo Cheongil nodded as if he did not care in the slightest.

Then—

“Right now, I must quickly tell you what I came to tell you and leave, so focus.”

“Where exactly do you keep saying you’re going......”

“Child, what you must do from this point on is nothing else.”

His blue eyes shone as he looked at me.

My body flinched for a moment beneath that gaze.

“Open the final door of the vault in the Azure Moon Sect.”

“......All of a sudden?”

The final door of the vault?

Was there something else behind the tree?

“And take what you obtain there and leave for the North Sea.”

“......”

“I left the final piece in the North Sea. You must take it into yourself.”

“You say that so lightly, like you’re telling me to go for a stroll.”

What was this sudden talk about the North Sea?

......So that was true?

The information that Yoo Cheongil had another vault in the North Sea.

I had heard it before, but that was really true?

“How am I supposed to go to the North Sea?”

Entry there was forbidden.

For a martial artist, it might as well be a place they could not go.

Even the Demonic Cult had never looked toward the North Sea.

Yoo Cheongil grinned.

“Why would there be no way? The best method is right beside you.”

“......Method? Ah, wait.”

My eyes widened.

“......Are you telling me to use Bow Ghost?”

“You understand well.”

“......”

Someone from the North Sea was right beside me.

Though she now had a completely different atmosphere from when I first met her, Bow Ghost, a member of the North Sea, was at my side.

He was telling me to use her to enter the North Sea?

“Is it something I have to go that far for?”

“Likely, child. It will be something you absolutely need.”

“......Then what about you, Elder?”

“What?”

Yoo Cheongil looked puzzled at my question.

“What about me?”

“What are you going to do, Elder? Are you just not going to appear again?”

“Hahaha—”

Yoo Cheongil roared with laughter at my words.

The laugh was extremely irritating.

“Why? Are you sorry that I might vanish?”

“I’m not sorry. You made this mess, so you should take responsibility for it.”

He had shoved me into the Azure Moon Sect as he pleased and made me stronger as he pleased.

“You’re using me because you have your own purpose. So what are you doing, leaving me alone like this?”

“Keulkeulkeul......”

Yoo Cheongil laughed again at my words.

The difference was that the mood was a little different from before.

“Child.”

“Yes.”

“This is largely your fault.”

“......What?”

“Putting aside what you are hiding, there is a problem within your family, so there is no helping it.”

“......What does that mean?”

“You are trying to dig into it yourself anyway, so there is no need for me to point it out...... but be careful.”

Yoo Cheongil warned me.

That warning felt strangely alien.

That Yoo Cheongil was telling me to be careful.

“What is in my family?”

“Find that yourself. If I could, I would like to roll you around to my heart’s content...... but I cannot.”

Tap.

Yoo Cheongil tapped my forehead with his large index finger.

Then—

WOOOONG—!

An unknown energy brushed through my body and entered.

“It is not exactly an arrangement...... but I will give you one gift. You will be able to see the rest when you open the Azure Moon Sect’s final door.”

“......So in the end, you’re telling me to open that damned vault.”

“The more assignments you have, the better, no?”

“Better, my ass.”

“Keulkeulkeul.”

Yoo Cheongil’s blue eyes shone faintly.

“Whatever choice you make, child, it is your freedom. But do not make a choice that leaves regret behind.”

“Are you saying that because you lived that way yourself?”

“No.”

Sssss—!

Yoo Cheongil’s body began to shine little by little.

“I say it to you because I lived with more regret than anyone.”

“......”

Regret.

It felt like the word least suited to Yoo Cheongil, so hearing him mention it felt strange.

“Ah, and when you return, start resolving that as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know. The reason you became entangled with me in the first place.”

“......That is.”

“My death. Begin resolving it. The time has come when it is necessary.”

“......You told me not to concern myself with it for now.”

“The time has come. That is all.”

I did not know what he meant by that time.

If there was anything I could understand at all—

The time that man speaks of.

It was focused less on what benefited him, and more on my growth.

Recently, I had begun to realize that bit by bit.

“Then I shall see you next time. Finish the assignments I gave you properly.”

Tap, tap.

His hand ruffled the top of my head.

“You are doing well. You have reached a level where you can just barely call yourself this Yoo Cheongil’s inheritor wherever you go.”

“What is this? It’s unpleasant......?”

“......This brat, even when I praise him.”

Yoo Cheongil glared at me as if he was dumbfounded.

He still looked terrifying enough to kill someone with that face alone.

“In any case, I have given you what I had to give. I shall see you next time. Until then.”

He grinned as he spoke.

“Devote yourself to your training.”

Rustle.

Yoo Cheongil disappeared right in front of me.

Since I had never sensed his presence in the first place, I could not find it again no matter how I tried.

“Hoo.”

I let out a sigh.

“How can he really be that self-centered?”

He had never once appeared properly or normally.

Maybe that was how he managed to become the greatest under heaven.

The person who killed Yoo Cheongil.

It seemed the time had come to make that part clear as well.

After dealing with the vault. As for heading to the North Sea, I don’t know about that.

While I sorted out the things I had to handle before then—

“First.”

I decided to resolve the most important thing.

I approached what lay before me.

“I’m sorry. It looks like you need to stay a little longer.”

If possible, continuously.

It had to remain as it was.

Because this was the final bulwark for maintaining the life I wanted.

“......”

Its gaze turned toward me.

No.

It had been looking at me from the beginning.

It was not a gaze asking me to release it.

Nor was it a gaze full of resentment.

It was simply looking at me.

Sssss—!

Chains formed in my hand.

“I’m sorry.”

I offered an apology that would not reach.

Because this was the only thing I could do.

Clank.

The chain locked into place.

I felt that sensation identically around my heart.

HWAAAAAA—!!

Petals surged into the sky.

Wind blew.

A wind that had not existed before was born in the space that had begun to quiet down.

Life.

That had appeared in this space.

Life had been fastened into a place where silence had once been everything.

That was what this was for.

If there is life here.

It proved that, for now, this was still a human soul.

“......See you next time.”

I spoke with a bitter smile.

I fastened the final chain and let out a breath.

And then—

“......”

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the cave where I had originally been.

“Hoo.”

I steadied my breathing.

Then I checked my soul.

It was to confirm whether it had been properly bound.

“......Hm?”

Something was wrong.

Very wrong, in fact.