◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 458: The Seed of Evil (6)
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As the days passed, the dreams grew clearer.
What had once seemed like hazy dreams soon became vivid images.
“The Sect Leader… P-Please hide… Cough!”
Before long, they felt as real as reality itself.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp.”
The child jolted awake, gasping for breath.
He quickly looked around.
Thankfully, the moon was not hidden behind clouds.
The family estate had not been swallowed by flames.
No one was dying amid agonized screams.
‘It was a dream… Just an ominous dream…’
The more these strange signs appeared, the more anxious he grew, but each time, he forced himself to calm down.
Maintaining peace of mind was the beginning of all training.
He wanted to live up to the expectations of his beloved family and its people.
“Oh my, Young Master, why do your clothes smell so sweaty? Take them off at once.”
“It’s fine. I’ve only worn them for a day.”
“I can’t allow that. A person must always keep their appearance and clothes neat if they want to focus properly on their work.”
Even when he said he did not want to give the maid more work, she put on a fierce expression and changed his clothes with gentle, affectionate hands.
Knowing she had been going to the stream every other day to wash clothes by hand, he took a small wooden box from a drawer.
“This is a gift.”
“Pardon?”
The maid froze as she looked at the wooden box adorned with a jade ornament.
“I asked Old Man Song to buy it. They say all beautiful women use jade hairpin powder.”
“I know what jade hairpin powder is. But… this is very expensive.”
“You said you were going to see the flowers with Seokho, right?”
“What? How did you know?”
The child hesitated before making up an excuse.
“…Unit Leader Geum has been spreading it around.”
Unit Leader Geum was known as the family gossip.
Unit Leader Geum talked so much that they never remembered what they had said, which made them useful for excuses like this.
“Really! I told Unit Leader Geum to keep it a secret.”
“Put it on when you go see the flowers. I thought it would look nice.”
“Pardon? What would?”
The child immediately realized his mistake and shook his head.
“The jade hairpin powder. I thought it would look nice.”
Watching the moon every night became a habit.
That event had happened on the night of a full moon, when clouds covered it.
As the moon gradually changed from a crescent to a half-moon, his unease grew stronger.
“Seokho promised to marry Joryeong?”
He heard the shocking news from the maid, who was mopping with a deep pout.
‘What happened?’
In the vivid dream he had seen, Seokho and the maid had shared happy smiles.
“Joryeong smiles far too easily at men. Hmph! That idiot doesn’t even know that…”
Things he saw in dreams had unfolded differently at times, but they had never failed to happen entirely like this.
He felt sorry that the maid had been hurt, but an inexplicable relief bloomed in his heart.
Perhaps this meant that not every event he saw in his dreams would come to pass.
“Don’t worry. Everyone has someone meant for them.”
“I never thought that person was meant for me!”
He composed himself and continued living his daily life.
Yet as the moon filled, the anxiety in his heart kept growing.
So much that he did not even understand why he was so afraid.
“You seem unable to sleep these days.”
His father and mother looked at him with concern when they met during his nightly walk.
“Is something worrying you?”
“…N-No.”
“You may be clever and bright, but you are not yet old enough to bear everything alone. A wise person speaks with an elder and shares their worries at times like these.”
Touched by his father’s warm gaze and words, the child cautiously spoke of his dreams for the first time.
“Hoho, so that was what worried you.”
“I’m sorry for burdening you with my concerns.”
His parents, who had only seen him act older than his years, found his childlike side endearing instead.
Parents naturally wanted to see their young child act spoiled a little longer.
A large hand gently stroked his head.
“It is the kind of worry everyone has as a child.”
“Is that so?”
“Your father used to worry every night that a tiger would carry him away.”
“…”
Perhaps the tiger story had been too childish after all.
“The Martial Alliance is stronger than ever, the martial world is stable, and the land is at peace. Our duty is to preserve that peace and keep the people safe.”
His father comforted him in words suited to a child.
“So you need not worry.”
The child quickly understood what his father truly meant.
“Thank you, Father.”
As his father said, it was something that could not realistically happen.
He felt pathetic and unmanly for being frightened by nothing more than a dream.
He stopped watching the moon every night.
He reassured himself that it was something that could never happen in reality.
He no longer woke in a cold sweat.
He lived each day diligently.
Until the moon grew full.
“…Sob.”
“Why are you crying?”
“Seokho said… He said he couldn’t marry a woman as extravagant as me… I only put on the jade hairpin powder because I wanted to look pretty.”
She had acted as though she had no feelings for Seokho, but perhaps she still had lingering feelings.
“…I’m sorry.”
He felt guilty, thinking he had done something unnecessary.
“No, Young Master. It isn’t your fault. It was the first gift I’d ever received.”
And so life continued.
Then, on the night the moon became full…
“Y-Young Master!!!”
Flames swallowed the family estate.
People were dying amid agonized screams.
“The Sect Leader… P-Please hide… Cough!”
Just as in the dream, the maid was bleeding.
The maid who had always nagged that one’s clothes, as well as one’s appearance, must remain clean was staining her clothes red with her own blood.
“Don’t worry. There’s a place under the floor… A place to hide…”
He saw the bleeding maid run out the door. After that, people captured her…
“Young Master! Young Master!”
When he came to his senses, the maid was pointing at the gaping hole in the floor, blood running from her lips.
“Get inside. Q-Quickly…”
But something was wrong.
“Why… Why aren’t you coming in?”
“Don’t worry about me. I have another way to escape.”
It was a lie.
She had to operate the mechanism from outside. That was why she could not go inside with him.
And the future awaiting the maid who operated the mechanism from outside…
“Then I’ll… I’ll come with you.”
“Young Master!!”
Startled by the strange force in the maid’s shout, the child stared at her in confusion.
She winced at the pain wracking her body, then gave him a warm smile.
“Don’t worry… Everything will be fine.”
“…”
Though he knew it was an obvious lie, he could not say anything.
The maid’s pale hand stroked his head.
“When this is over, let’s go see the flowers. I’ll wear the jade hairpin powder you gave me… again then.”
Her eyes were so desperate.
She spoke as if begging him not to realize.
And the child was far too perceptive.
He could not say anything.
“Young Master… So please, please remember my name.”
“…”
Along with the wavering heat rushing through the open gap…
“Soa… Soa! You must never forget my name.”
Without waiting for an answer, the maid…
Bang!
Closed the door.
Rumble!
Soon, the mechanism began to operate, and the noise slowly faded away.
Aaaah!
With Soa’s scream, which he had heard in his vision, the hidden chamber sank into complete silence.
#
He did not know how much time passed in the hidden chamber, where sound and light were cut off.
It was not only because the child was mature that he did not feel fear.
The darkness was not simply darkness.
Within it, he saw vivid images, scenes as real as reality, over and over.
They were clearer and sharper than anything he had ever seen in his life.
He did not worry that the murderers would kill him.
In the vivid images he had seen, he ultimately survived.
“…”
At the same time, he wished those events would not become reality.
Because if he survived…
It would mean that everyone in his family had died.
He only wished…
That he could quietly die here.
Click.
Yet cruelly, what he had seen in his dreams came true in reality.
The mechanism separated, and light streamed in.
Looking toward that light, the child murmured.
“There is a survivor here.”
“There is a survivor here.”
With vacant eyes, he repeated the words he knew he would hear.
“Bring them out at once.”
“Bring them out at once.”
It had come true in the end.
And that meant…
He would see the despair he had already seen.
“…”
Every building had burned down and become ash.
The blood splattered everywhere had hardened, as though showing how much time had passed.
His family, blood relatives, and servants were all dead, their faces frozen in fury.
“Hey! How can you just bring the child out here?!”
Criticism poured down on the man who had let the sole survivor see the family’s corpses. He hurriedly tried to take the child’s hand.
“Come on. Don’t look at this…”
The child lightly avoided his hand and walked forward.
He needed to confirm what he had seen inside the hidden chamber.
“W-What?”
As the man who had failed to catch him stared at his own hand as if possessed…
The child headed toward one place.
Toward where adults in identical martial robes had gathered.
“Those cruel bastards…”
“Why did they only brutalize this woman so horribly…?”
“Judging by her clothes, she seems to have been only a maid…”
The child passed the adults and went inside.
Startled by his sudden appearance, they tried to stop him.
“Hey!”
“Catch him!”
“Huh?”
But the child evaded every reaching hand with mysterious movements and continued forward.
“What in the world…”
“Who is that child?”
“The only survivor.”
“Huh… I heard he was exceptionally gifted, but was he really this remarkable…?”
“F-First, please catch the child.”
They wanted to keep him from seeing the horrific scene, so everyone reached for him.
“Wait a moment.”
True Person Cheongsu stopped them.
“…Martial Uncle.”
“That child has no tear stains on his face.”
“…”
The child finally stood before the woman.
And he saw them.
The countless signs of torture.
The woman who had died smiling through agony that even strong men could not endure.
He saw again the exact vivid scene he had witnessed in the darkness.
“Did you know this woman?”
The child did not answer True Person Cheongsu’s question.
He only stared at the woman’s hand, every fingernail torn out by force.
“Young one…!”
Then he began to pry open that hand.
He wanted to know what she had held onto until the moment she died.
To confirm the one thing he had not seen in the darkness…
Tap.
“…”
A wooden box adorned with a jade ornament tumbled out from her hand.
At that moment…
“Ah… Ah…”
The child’s expression, which had remained numb until then, crumpled.
“Ah… Soa, Soa… Aaaah… Aaaah!”
He thought he had already poured everything out in the darkness, but grief surged over him like a vast sea, and he screamed.
“Aaaah!”
Then the child lost consciousness.
#
A memory from the past, one he had thought long forgotten, suddenly surfaced.
Was it the influence of the maze formation?
Unable to find the Living Gate, Yong Soa gathered his internal energy and struck at the weakest point with his sword.
Boom!
A wall of the Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation crumbled.
His gaze naturally fell upon the sword tip that had struck the wall.
It was not a sword that could be damaged by a mere wall within a maze formation.
What drew his attention was the dark red blood staining its tip.
‘Jin Sowoon.’
The contamination left behind by Jin Sowoon, who had charged ahead while tearing apart his own body.
It was strange.
His mind had always remained as cold and still as a lake or ice, preserving a state of clear mirror and still water. Yet whenever he encountered Jin Sowoon, it was shaken.
It felt as if waves rose, storms raged, and heaven and earth were overturned.
‘Why?’
Jin Sowoon had headed for Geoncheong Hall while leaving behind the danger that was Yong Soa.
The sight of his back stirred an oddly unfamiliar feeling.
He was clearly a foolish fugitive fleeing with an enemy at his back.
Yet he did not look humiliated or miserable at all.
Instead, his exposed back looked like a hedgehog bristling with thorns.
It gave the impression that anyone who touched him carelessly would pay dearly.
What was that man trying to protect, moving so desperately?
Strangely, every time Yong Soa looked at his back, unfamiliar emotions stirred within him.
For the first time in his life, he became curious about his own feelings and another person’s intentions.
“…”
But this was not the time to leisurely satisfy his curiosity.
“Gu Songbaek.”
There was someone he had to kill.
Yong Soa had not seen the demonic being, but he had seen Gu Songbaek.
That made the threat posed by Gu Songbaek more certain.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The presence of demonic qi grew denser.
“I’ll have to move faster.”
It would take time to eliminate Gu Songbaek and the demonic being.
At the very least, he had to kill Gu Songbaek while Jin Sowoon dealt with the demonic being.
The energy around Yong Soa’s fist compressed again and again until it gathered into a single point.
Ping!
The released energy pierced through five walls in an instant.
Crash.
Yong Soa shot through the collapsed walls like the wind.
#
When the child regained consciousness, he was in an inner chamber he had never seen before.
True Person Cheongsu had waited nearby in case the child was frightened by the unfamiliar surroundings, but the child’s first question shocked him.
“Is this Wudang Sect?”
“Oh…”
It was already surprising that he had kept calm after surviving the massacre alone.
Yet he knew something no one had told him.
True Person Cheongsu could not hide his curiosity about the child.
“How did you know?”
“I just… knew.”
“Is that so?”
As True Person Cheongsu looked at him with fascination, the child fell to his knees.
“I wish to become your disciple.”
It was a request he had expected.
“Do you wish for revenge?”
“I will not lie.”
“Bold words.”
Though still young, the boy was the survivor of a family massacre.
How could his thoughts differ from those of others who had endured the same pain?
True Person Cheongsu understood his feelings, but he could not simply leave a child carrying such resentment alone.
If he only sharpened his blade for revenge while the murderers remained unidentified, he would eventually succumb to inner demons.
Just as he thought to teach him a small lesson before accepting him as a disciple…
“If you intend to teach me a lesson, I will go to Shaolin Sect.”
“What?!”
The unexpected words left him dumbfounded.
The child seemed to know exactly what he was about to say.
True Person Cheongsu tilted his head.
“And if Shaolin Sect refuses you?”
“Then I will go to Mount Hua.”
“Do you believe those places will accept you?”
“I am only telling you that empty words will not soothe my resentment.”
Despite the massacre, no anger showed on the child’s face.
Resentment lingered within him, yet he was strangely calm.
It was hard to believe that such conduct belonged to a child not even ten years old.
True Person Cheongsu considered it, but his conclusion came quickly.
If he let Shaolin Sect take a child with talent like this, it would be a lifelong regret.
“Very well. I will not waste words on you.”
True Person Cheongsu said no more.
The child became Hyeoncheong, a disciple of Wudang Sect.
He no longer turned away from what he saw.
The Dragon Eye was imperfect.
But experience had taught him to look beyond those imperfections.
What he saw sometimes unfolded differently. He did not see everything, and some things changed for reasons he did not know.
But the events themselves always came to pass.
He knew his ability was imperfect and had forcibly turned away from his dreams.
Yet that dream had become reality and brought unbearable despair.
When he turned away from what was going to happen, all that awaited him was despair.
So now, even a fragmented dream could not be dismissed as a mere dream.
He could not carelessly embrace false hope.
“Yong Soa. Master is calling for you.”
If he did not want to despair, he must never turn away.
“…Senior Brother Hyeonyeong, why do you call me Yong Soa? Is my Taoist name not Hyeoncheong?”
“Everyone… calls you that. Master does too, as does Martial Granduncle. Why? Do you dislike it?”
The child vowed never again to run from what appeared before his eyes.
“No…”
Then he made another vow.
“Because I think it will let me keep remembering someone.”
He would never forget the last smile he had seen that day.
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