Chapter 2
"Daddy!"
The adorable little girl waved her hand with a beaming smile.
Beside her, his long-missed wife placed a crown of flowers on their daughter's head.
Yeo Un-hwi smiled and waved back, but a daze still clung to him.
*Is this real?*
Yet even after several days had passed, Yeo Un-hwi still couldn't believe the current situation.
The unreality of it all did not fade. This was beyond illusion. Beyond comprehension..
His mind raced through all sorts of possibilities.
An illusion technique? A formation?
But they seemed unlikely.
The men on Great Snow Mountain claimed to be righteous practitioners, for better or worse.
Would such people use this kind of illusion technique?
Yeo Un-hwi quickly shook his head.
They might curse and call it an evil technique, but there's no way they would actually use something like this.
These were people who cared about appearances above all else.
Besides, even if there had been a separate shaman, it made no sense for them to use this kind of illusion technique in front of so many members of the righteous.
Besides, this was beyond even what infamous demonic leaders like the "Rakshasa Demoness" or the "Young Master of Lustful Dreams," who were famous for their illusion techniques in the demonic faction, could imitate.
Yeo Un-hwi, who had fought and ultimately beheaded them, knew this fact better than anyone.
*So then...*
His thoughts soon fell into place.
Though he didn't know under what conditions or for what reason this phenomenon had occurred, it was clear.
*This must mean...*
*I've regressed.*
It was a strange thing.
The memories of being the Blood Demon were not a dream, and now that he had regressed, everything had returned to as it was in the past, yet only he remained the same.
He wasn't the ordinary scholar Yeo Un-hwi who didn't know even the basics of martial arts, but the Blood Demon driven mad by revenge.
The sensations from his days of rampaging through the entire martial world for revenge were still vivid.
Even his unquenchable thirst for vengeance.
*However...*
Among all the lives he had taken, he swore to the heavens that not once had he taken a life without reason.
Those who died at his hands were all, without exception, trash who deserved to die.
Although he had bloodied his hands many times, he felt no guilt for any of it.
The Blood Demon, Yeo Un-hwi, was neither weak nor foolish enough to regret the past.
"Hehehe."
Suddenly, his eyes fell once again on his wife Peng Seo-yeon and daughter Yeo So-yul.
*Revenge.*
*Revenge, huh...?*
"I suppose... there's no need for revenge anymore."
One way or the other, he had regained the wife and daughter he had lost.
His very reason for revenge had essentially disappeared.
He could now see those he had longed for so desperately.
It was a strange feeling.
Having spent such a long time utterly consumed by revenge, living in the most miserable way possible, he now had to let go of all of that.
It felt like struggling to sheathe a sword he had been gripping so tightly that his hands were bruised.
It wasn't easy, but it was something he had to do.
He had a new purpose now.
To protect his wife and daughter. His family.
Why would it be difficult?
He was given a second chance at life.
Though he didn't know how he had obtained this chance, or what awaited him at the end, Yeo Un-hwi decided to live solely for that one goal he had just set.
*For that very purpose...*
Yeo Un-hwi looked at his hand as he clenched it tightly.
There was something he needed to do first.
"I've packed some rice balls and jerky for you to have on the way. Make sure to eat them on the way."
Early in the morning, Yeo Un-hwi's wife, Peng Seo-yeon, handed him with a smile.
"Thank you."
"You said it would take about fifteen days, right?"
Yeo Un-hwi nodded.
"I don't know what it's about, but take care of your business and come back safely, okay?"
"I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly like this."
Peng Seo-yeon shook her head.
"It's fine. You're not the type to do anything reckless, so just return safely."
"I will."
"Daddy! When are you coming back? Can't I go with you?"
Yeo Un-hwi picked up Yeo So-yul, who was tugging at his clothes and whining.
"Daddy needs to take care of some urgent business, okay? I'll be back soon, so can our Yul-i wait just a little bit?"
"Uung. But I want to go with Daddy."
"Yul-a, once Daddy leaves, should we go to the market today? I'll buy you the candy you like."
"Really?"
"Yes. Should we have two of them today?"
"Yay, yay!"
So-yul, who had been looking gloomy until now, immediately brightened up at the thought of candy.
"Haha."
Every little gesture of hers seemed incredibly endearing to Yeo Un-hwi.
For him, it was regaining a daughter he had already lost once, so his feelings toward her were even more tender.
"Well then, I'll be off."
Yeo Un-hwi set out on his journey.
After walking for a bit, he glanced back only to see his wife and daughter still waving.
Even when he gestured for them to go back inside and rest, they just waved more cheerfully.
At such a lovely sight, Yeo Un-hwi couldn't help but smile.
Though they would have to be apart for a while, he would miss them. Very much so.
Of course, he didn't want to be separated from his beloved family even for a moment.
But it was an unavoidable choice.
*For the future.*
Yeo Un-hwi didn't want to lose his family again.
*Never again.*
For that, he needed power more than anything else. Enough power to never fear losing his family to anyone.
But Yeo Un-hwi didn't have that kind of power right now.
Only Yeo Un-hwi's soul had regressed. The power he possessed during his time as the Blood Demon was no longer with him.
It was quite regrettable.
At this rate, he would have to just watch as the same events from before repeated themselves.
That would be too horrific, even for him. So much so that death might be preferable.
That's why he decided to act immediately.
He had to gain power.
How would he do it?
The reason why Yeo Un-hwi, who had been an ordinary man without even know the basic knowledge of martial arts, could become known as the Blood Demon.
And how it was possible for him to cause a bloody storm in the martial world teeming with countless masters.
It was because Yeo Un-hwi had obtained the Martial God's fortuitous encounter.
And the cave where everything of the Martial God, who was called the Foremost Person of All Time, was hidden.
He was the only person in this world who knew the location of that place.
In this life, he intended to find it much faster.
It was a memory from long forgotten past.
\- - -
"...Chase him! He couldn't have gone far."
Numerous men wielding swords and torches were searching the area.
"Huff, huff."
Yeo Un-hwi, who had barely managed to evade their notice, clutched his blood-soaked arm and ran madly somewhere.
*Damn it, damn it, damn it all!*
He had failed.
Failed to kill the rotten martial artist who had burned down the village where he lived.
And now he was fleeing, barely clinging to life after being wounded by the martial artist's sword.
He had been lucky.
Because his opponent had been poisoned, he was barely able to escape.
If not for that, he would have lost his life on the spot.
Yeo Un-hwi hadn't learned any martial arts.
That was why he had prepared even more thoroughly.
But even so, his assassination attempt had failed.
His opponent was a master known to have reached the pinnacle.
Facing such a master in person, he realized how monstrous they truly were.
When the few tricks he had prepared in advance didn't work, there was nothing he could do without martial arts.
*To think I'd be this powerless...*
It was a moment when he keenly felt the limits of his strength.
But he couldn't die like this.
He had to kill the bastard who had burned down the village and killed his daughter.
And in order to do that, he needed to survive somehow.
If he could survive, then another chance would surely come someday.
"Huff, huff..."
Even though he had lost enough blood to kill an ordinary man, his obsession with revenge was that great.
He fled like a man possessed.
But escaping wasn't easy.
To avoid pursuit, he had to hide somewhere people would never find him.
And so Yeo Un-hwi ended up taking shelter in a cave that no one had found for hundreds of years.
"Phew. I found it."
\- - -
Unlike his past life when he had been covered in blood and in a terrible state, a perfectly normal-looking Yeo Un-hwi stood before a cave deep in the mountains.
It took him three days of walking to arrived here.
With a smile on his face, Yeo Un-hwi wiped away the sweat trickling down his forehead.
"My memory was hazy, but I'm glad I found it."
In fact, it could hardly be called a cave entrance, as it was so overgrown with vegetation that the opening wasn't even visible.
With thorny vines covering it as well, it was a place neither animals nor humans would bother entering.
But that's why it had served as a refuge in his past life.
Back then, he had forced his way through the thorny vines as they were, getting his whole body pricked and scratched up.
Though it wasn't enough to make him bleed profusely, his condition had already been miserable at the time, making the pain and memory of that day even more horrific.
But now, many things were different from then.
"Well then."
*Rustle, rustle.*
Yeo Un-hwi slowly began to create a space to squeeze into the cave.
There was no need to tear everything away.
It was enough to push aside the thorny vines and vegetation to one side.
Before long, when the entrance was adequately cleared, Yeo Un-hwi slowly poked his head inside.
*But then...*
"Ugh! Cough, cough!"
Suddenly, dust rushed into his nose and mouth, nearly choking him.
He hadn't noticed it back then due to his desperate state, but now he realized the air at the entrance was truly terrible.
Just breathing it in made him feel like he'd contract lung disease.
It seemed that without any human presence for hundreds of years and having been blocked by vegetation and vines, the place had virtually no ventilation.
*However...*
This much is nothing.
Such things couldn't stop Yeo Un-hwi's steps.
He was already accustomed to the pain of his entire body being torn and bleeding.
Covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve, Yeo Un-hwi entered without hesitation.
His eyes shone brighter than ever before.
Inside lay the legacy of the Martial God, the one called the strongest throughout all of history.