The Return of the Crazy Demon

If one closes their eyes in a situation where nothing can be heard, they are bound to feel terrible.

Now. This is my current situation. I open my eyes again and punch myself, getting ready to run ahead.

‘Please hold back now, idiot. Just not now.’

I couldn’t hear the sound when I hit myself, but my cheeks started to swell. The pain served as a reminder that I was still alive.

Both my sight and hearing vanished, but, fortunately, I could still feel the sensation of pain.

As I feel my cheeks swell, I remembered Sword Demon’s expression, his mouth telling me to cultivate.

‘I confirm. I confirm. I confirm! Make sure to be in a state where I can cultivate! I confirm! Please! Do not forget! Breathe calmly! Hold your mind.’

He reassured me that the enemies should be left to them to handle. Stubbornness is such a hard characteristic to live with. Since I have to convince myself to cultivate, I try to suppress the growing feeling of nervousness and madness.

I will believe.

In those guys.

The one insane about swordsmanship, the one insane about women, and the ugly one. They have to be trusted.

Let’s leave it at that.

They can handle it.

It is because they are the ones who can do it.

I stare at the bleak darkness, holding my breath, and I watch the flames rise from within. This has to be a hallucination of some sort. Or maybe even a fantasy one sees when they aren’t in their right mind.

Since I am already in a state of losing my mind, I have no choice but to look at the flames. When I get closer to the increasingly bright light, I come to realize that it’s the Zaha Guesthouse burning in a desolate place.

“Damn it… burning again? This is. Man, there needs to be a limit on how many times I see this.”

A flame which is burning forever in my heart? Did I come here to put the flame out? Perhaps, this guest house is permanently engulfed in flames within my heart. If the bad ones start the fire, it is normal to put it out. It doesn’t matter if the thing is mine or not.

I ask the darkness.

“Who is the bastard who started the flame? There could be someone sleeping in there, so why set it on fire!”

Before I know it, men holding onto torches begin to approach me. I look at their faces. The men I killed.

I could see Jo Il-seom, Jo Il-Geol, Jo Sam-Pyung, who were all beaten to death, and a couple more.

“Is it you?”

Suddenly, I have a thought. If I had killed Cha Sung-tae, Sa Shin-jang, Byuk Geom and more, they would have walked to me with torches too.

Well. The dead proudly come out toward my direction.

“Lee Zaha, you pitiful server jerk.”

The dead pass by, ignoring me, and throw their torches at the guesthouse. As soon as I see that, I scream,

“Stop it. I am telling you to act in a limit.”

The flames grew stronger and the guesthouse burning in red. Jo Il-seom throws the torch as he says,

“Zaha, aren’t you shocked? Killing us for an inn like this.”

Jo Il-geol says,

“In the end, you will end up like this. I expected you to be beaten to death when you went rampant in Kangho, but you will end up being subjected to the same fate as us. This is called lawful retribution. Hehehe.”

I look at the dead ones.

“You speak of such things. I didn’t kill you because of the inn. Do not be mistaken.”

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“Then why did you kill us?”

Looking at the dead and the flaming guesthouse, I say,

“It isn’t because of the guesthouse. You people have no shame.”

“Shame?”

“Why is a rich man collecting money from the poor? I wouldn’t kill people if they showed signs of remorse. You didn’t care till the very end. That is why you died.”

I immediately get ready to use the Shadow Moon Martial Arts towards the three Jo brothers, who rush in at the same time. And soon the three of them are met with cold air.

“….!”

Zaha Guesthouse, which had been on fire, disappears entirely. Everything in the vicinity becomes engulfed in white. A situation where our breaths could be seen in the cold air.

“Haaa.”

I hear the sounds of footsteps. The sound of snow being stepped on.

One day, I killed bandits at Jung-pyung Lake. The bandits I happened to slaughter there were approaching me. Everyone is trembling as if they were walking in the snow for a long time. They look like those who were being punished in the cold depths of hell.

Someone in that group says,

“See now, Low-Down Sect Leader. Don’t you know better than us? This is too much. I didn’t get good sleep, and too much of my internal qi was taken. You even used martial arts that goes against the natural order of the universe to annihilate us. Our sins are heavy, but the burden of your sins don’t weigh any less. Come with us to repent for your sins. We are tired of waiting for you. It ends now.”

I snort.

“Do you think I care what you idiots say? I had a great time meeting you. Let’s meet again next week. Now go.”

The guy who spoke, says,

“Sect Leader, there are snowfields all around. Look at us now. Even Sect Leader will soon turn into us. How do you plan to escape that?”

“You fools, this is no snowfield.”

“Then what is it?”

I tell the dead.

“This is heaven. It looks like the heavens is trying to test me, but nothing is happening.”

“You speak so much nonsense even in this situation. Are you properly looking at this place? Where is this place?”

The dead begin to reach for me through the snow grabbing onto my limbs and hair. Somehow, everyone here seems stronger than me. My body shudders which makes me laugh.

“Why are you laughing? Is this fun?”

The dead take my clothes off, turning me naked. I roll in the snow with no clothes, and I can feel the coldness settle in.

“Time to test. Stop rolling now. Fucking bastards.”

Even though I was concentrating, the dead were refusing to disappear. So, I just accept them.

I get up laughing and brush the snow off my body.

“Hehe, you are funny bastards. You shouldn’t have set the guesthouse on fire.”

“In the end, it is all about the guesthouse?”

“No. That isn’t the point. Everyone should just pay attention when I speak.”

I slap the cheeks of the dead around and kick them onto their butts.

“Now, now, concentrate and listen, everyone. In the first place, I have the confidence to beat you all to death anyway.”

“Such bluff.”

“It makes no sense.”

“Enough. Ever since I was stuck mopping the guesthouse, I had the confidence to kill all of you if I wanted to.”

The dead laugh as a group and I continue to talk.

“Do not laugh. I am speaking the truth. The same goes for the warriors of Kangho. No matter how late I stepped into martial arts, I have the confidence to beat you all to death.”

“Why?”

“Because that is me. Why touch me? Why end up making me want to kill you? The moment the guest house burned; I was in Kangho. Did you think that I, who lost everything, would beg? No. Martial arts isn’t anything special. It can be learned anywhere, in any form, and any time. I just have to have the will to kill and then be prepared to face the consequences. The moment the inn was burning, I was thinking of finding and killing each one of you anyway. It is the punishment you get to pay for ignoring the weak.”

“Is that so?”

“You bastards, I knew I was insane before I was going insane. You were the ones who forced me to turn into the Crazy Demon.”

“You were always crazy?”

“It wasn’t just me. Everyone has a conscience, so they can’t handle people being killed. People like me are huge in numbers around the world. Everyone has something to protect, so we all endure it. You know, right? How can one not know that!”

My voice echoes around the snowfield. I convey my internal thoughts as I look around the countless dead.

“I never once thought of myself as weak. Whether it was mopping because our family wasn’t well off or dying trying to earn a living. Whether it was to carry heavy loads and living by receiving little tips from gambling houses. Even when I didn’t know martial arts, I was always a strong person.”

“Sect Leader, stop bluffing now.”

“It is no bluff. It is the belief that my heart will not be broken any time soon. I don’t care about the job, environment, or position. I have never been ashamed of my poor state. I speak to those who I killed and to those who have already died and are imprisoned in the Heavenly Pearl. From the beginning, I was a stronger person than you people. So, stop beating around. I need to fight, so let us put an end to this.”

“You are locked up too now.”

“I always live with my heart open, so how can I be trapped? If you do not stop doing this now, I will explode the Light Sky of Sun and Moon inside the Heavenly Pearl. And then burn your soul.”

“Then we die.”

I make the gesture of Buddha while sitting cross-legged.

“Let’s see who dies. Fine. It is the Heavenly Pearl, and I will end this. And live in paradise.”

I prepare the Light Sky of Sun and Moon in both hands.

*Crackle!*

Suddenly, the dead rush toward me. While I ignore them, I condense the light around my hand into Taiji qi. And the moment the dead people rush at me, they crumble like breaking ice. A sword thrusts towards my face, and some dead man strangles me, but I persevere.

I finally manage to use Light Sky of Sun and Moon in both hands and, in an instant, both hands become embraced by the light. Strangely, I become so dazzled with the light that I open my eyes back to reality.

“….!”

As if I had been looking at the sun for a long time, my vision takes time to adjust, and I begin to see things around me more clearly. In a situation where I can’t figure out if this is a dream or reality, Sword Demon is fighting with three men.

I can’t hear a single sound from their collision. And I turn my neck to look at Pervert Demon and Ghost Demon sitting in front of me.

Both of them shrugging their shoulders from breathing heavily with torn clothes.

How much time has passed?

Both these two seemed to have fought with a skilled warrior of Demonic Cult.

Looking back, Sam Bok is lying with his chest going up and down and the third young lord was lying across with a pale face and eyes closed. Looks like they fought too.

But beyond them, countless shields and corpses with severed limbs could be seen. So, it seems that one section of the circle was annihilated.

I say to Ghost Demon and Pervert Demon,

“I am back.”

To which they turn their heads in surprise.

“Are you alright?”

“You… idiot.”

For a moment, I feel deaf and slap myself on the cheek. In the midst of the slap, a terrible ringing follows, and it soon leads to a deafening voice.

As soon as I fully regain my hearing, I hear Sword Demon mumble.

In an instant, something like black qi spreads from Sword Demon’s feet, who had his Light Sword embedded into the ground. In that distance, the sword of the opponent hits Sword Demon. But I couldn’t even hear a whimper.

Sword Demon mumbles as he receives three swords with his body.

“Elders, Demon Sword Soul Battlefield.”

In an instant, the Light sword qi that flowed through the ground stretches out in the forms of three arms. Scratching, grabbing, blocking their vision, scattering, and reuniting, they grabbed and tore the old men’s heads apart. The elders fiercely swung their swords and cut the qi but nothing worked. The soul qi, which scattered and gathered, continued to attack.

I could hear the screams of the men very well.

“Kuaaaak!”

He let out a terrible scream. Blood gushed out from here and there, the bodies of the elders scattered onto the ground. For a while. The dark soul moved like they were crawling and were retrieved with the Light sword. A silence lingers in the air.

I let out a sigh.

‘You bastards, you messed around with my hyung and then died horribly.’

The moment Sword Demon exhales and pulls out the Light Sword, a beam of light flies from the front. The moment when Sword Demon strikes the beam of light with the Light Sword held in both hands, Sword Demon’s body flies in a straight line with a roar.

“Master!”

I pass Pervert Demon, who had jumped up, and catch the falling Sword Demon with my left hand. The Sword Demon looks at me while breathing heavily.

“Third one, cultivation?”

I answer after helping Sword Demon regain his balance.

“I didn’t get to cultivate; I just fainted and woke up. I had a disgusting dream.”

Sword Demon laughs as his shoulders move. I laughed with Sword Demon and looked at the Demon Cult.

A man in his late 30s and 40s appears.

I check the state of Sword Demon. His well-worn clothes were torn to shreds as if he was stabbed dozens of times. No matter how close the strikes of the swords came, the blows are bound to give pain. Even Sword Demon looked exhausted from killing them.

I tap Sword Demon’s back several times.

“You did well.”

I send Sword Demon to the back and exchange glances with the warriors of the Demonic Cult.

“Phew… I almost died because of the flame. Who are you?”

The moment he opens his mouth, I speak out.

“Shut up! Come to think of it, I don’t care who you are.”

In an instant, the gaze of the one confronting me gets redirected behind me. His expression is too serious to be considered a trick, so I turn my head and see people flocking in groups from places where the bodies were lined up.

The flag held by one of them reads,

Southern Ming Association ¹.

Southern Ming Association’s leader walking ahead speaks to the troops of Demon Cult.

“I heard some bastards are harassing Low-Down Sect Leader…. Is that you guys?”

I stare at Nam Garak for a while.

“…”

I must have forgotten for a moment that this guy is from the unorthodox side.

Editor’s Notes