Blood Demon of the Past Life – Chapter 206

Chapter 206: The Third Person （3）

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

His heart pounded like crazy.

Seo Mun-ho hadn’t been sleeping lately.

His routine consisted of frantically searching for Peng Mujeong from sunrise to sunset, then collapsing somewhere and sleeping as if he had fainted. Even then, he couldn’t sleep peacefully. When he woke up drenched in cold sweat after having a nightmare, he would clutch his face and sob, praying and praying that the worst wouldn’t come.

Even the worst he imagined couldn’t compare to the present.

Never finding Peng Mujeong, or finding him dead.

He had thought those were the worst possibilities, but he never expected Peng Mujeong to choose the method of erasing his own memories.

Suddenly.

He got up from his seat.

Then, he slammed Peng Mujeong against the wall and asked with murderous eyes.

Bang━

“You son of a bitch. You really don’t remember anything?”

“W-what the… why…?”

“You killed my wife! You couldn’t control your filthy lust and raped your own sister, then to pin the blame on me, you killed all the innocent villagers! And you say you don’t remember? You dragged my life into hell, and I burned down the entire world looking for you. What? You ask why you have to suffer like this?”

He felt like he was going insane.

He had been looking forward to this day.

The moment he would look into Peng Mujeong’s fear-filled eyes and take his revenge, carving out his flesh piece by piece!

But this wasn’t it.

As expected, Peng Mujeong’s eyes were filled with fear, but his gaze showed that he truly didn’t remember anything.

“Ah, aagh!”

He crumbled.

He buried his face in his hands and clutched his head.

“This can’t be. You should have survived somehow. If you abandoned everyone to save your own life, you should have clung to that pathetic life no matter what. Uwaaagh!”

“I-I’m sorry.”

For a moment.

He froze.

Seo Mun-ho’s body stiffened.

As he slowly looked up, he saw Peng Mujeong speaking with a sincere expression.

“I-I’m truly sorry that I don’t remember anything. But if I really did such an unspeakable thing, I have no excuse, but I’m truly sorry. I didn’t know I was that kind of person. With the restriction that I can’t escape from this place, I just thought every day was so hard.”

It was the worst.

Those words, “I’m sorry,” shouldn’t have come from his mouth.

He jumped to his feet.

Grab.

“Uwaah!”

He dragged Peng Mujeong.

He headed straight outside, threw him onto the rain-soaked ground, and shouted in rage.

“Fine, I don’t care if you remember or not. Your body still exists in this world, so I’ll bring back your memories one way or another.”

Swish.

He took out torture devices.

Holding a sharp awl, he strode towards the terrified Peng Mujeong.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

One year had passed since then.

At the place where he had thrown Peng Mujeong.

Peng Mujeong was tied to a chair, his limbs bound. His soul seemed completely gone, and his eyes, unfocused, stared blankly at some unknown point.

“Uh, uh……”

His mouth was slightly open.

He had no teeth left.

The same went for his fingernails and toenails.

From his sparsely remaining hair to his red, bruised skin, his appearance showed just how cruel the torture had been.

Yet, he hadn’t regained his memory.

At first, he begged for forgiveness. Then, at some point, he started cursing Seo Munho, just like his true nature. After six months, he completely lost his mind. It seemed like he no longer felt pain. He had reached a point where torture was meaningless, but Seo Munho couldn’t bring himself to end Peng Mujeong’s life.

When night fell, he would somehow keep him alive.

He poured nutrients into his mouth and disinfected his wounds to prevent them from worsening.

One day, when Peng Mujeong trembled from a heart attack, Seo Munho even pushed his own internal energy into him, saving his life.

It was a hellish year.

Revenge… was not revenge.

“…Truly, you are cruel.”

He stared blankly at the sky.

It was clear.

Perhaps during the year he had disappeared, the Murim had regained its peace.

From the moment he found Peng Mujeong, there was no longer any reason to slaughter people. But emptiness filled his heart, and despair surged through him like crazy. What had he lived for all this time? The bodies of the people he had killed for revenge piled up like a mountain, yet he had gained nothing from Peng Mujeong.

An empty shell without a soul.

It was just as Peng Mujeong had said.

It was perfect revenge.

No matter how he thought about it, there couldn’t be a worse situation than this.

Cling.

He curled up his body.

He grabbed his head as if to tear it apart.

“Why, why did I become like this?”

It had been a happy life.

Some might define the measure of happiness by wealth, but even though they weren’t as rich as others, he believed he could do anything with his wife by his side. Thinking he would raise his children well, he worked harder. When he walked through the marketplace, his eyes were drawn to small, curious shoes for children. He secretly bought them and hid them, hoping to show them to his wife when she gave birth. In the end, he couldn’t bring them out.

Screams rang in his ears.

He trembled with helplessness, unable to do anything as he heard his wife’s voice, wailing and as if she were being torn apart.

Swish.

He turned his head.

He looked at Peng Mujeong.

It was meaningless.

There was nothing more to gain from torturing him.

“You won. You…”

Emotions welled up inside him.

Let’s say he lost.

He wanted to tear Peng Mujeong to shreds.

Seo Munho’s eyes were gradually stained with madness as rage erupted within him like an active volcano.

It was Qi Deviation.

Especially for those who had mastered the Blood Demon Art, Qi Deviation was extremely dangerous, to the point of turning them into demons.

“Yes, you won in this life. But the next life will be different.”

He trembled.

He suppressed the sickening surge of murderous intent.

He didn’t want to be manipulated by Peng Mujeong’s intentions until the very end.

Thud.

He stepped forward.

Looking into Peng Mujeong’s unfocused eyes, he stared as if to force his emotions into them.

“Go to the afterlife and be reborn as a human. If I am also reborn as a human…”

Swish.

He lifted his sword.

And then.

“I will surely chase you down and make you feel the same pain I felt.”

He stabbed under the chin.

Not Peng Mujeong’s chin.

His own.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

Thud.

He collapsed on the floor.

He didn’t feel any pain.

Even as he watched the blood spreading on the floor, his consciousness hadn’t completely faded.

It was a tenacious life force.

The regenerative power of the Blood Demon Art tried to keep his body alive, but the blow that pierced his brain was quickly killing him.

That’s when it happened.

Whoosh━

In the distance.

A light appeared.

At first, he thought it was a sign leading to the afterlife.

There was no way to explain the bright light other than a supernatural phenomenon, but soon, a bizarre creature emerged from beyond the light.

Thump.

Growl.

It was a monster.

With a head like a wild dog, it sniffed around, looking around.

Seo Mun-ho couldn’t move.

His body wouldn’t budge, and he could only watch the scene unfold thanks to his head turned in the direction of the monster.

Thump-thump-thump.

The monster approached.

It reached close proximity.

A disgusting smell wafted over him, but from then on, he couldn’t see the monster because of the angle of his head.

However.

Crunch, crunch.

He could hear the sound of something being chewed.

It must have been Peng Mujeong.

Peng Mujeong’s feet, visible to him, were trembling, and the faint moans he let out made it clear that he was being chewed alive, even though he had forgotten pain. Why? In the midst of all this, Seo Mun-ho found himself smiling. He thought Peng Mujeong couldn’t feel pain, but his trembling toes were definitely in agony.

He didn’t know what the monster was.

But he was glad.

As long as it was a being that inflicted pain on Peng Mujeong, it didn’t matter if it wasn’t human.

Growl.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

They increased in number.

They approached, pouring out into the bright light, and now they bared their sharp teeth at Seo Mun-ho as well.

Crunch.

Crunch, crunch.

There was no pain.

It was a miserable

It was a desperate ending.

But only one emotion remained for Seo Mun-ho.

Regret.

Only that one emotion burned intensely within his fading consciousness.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

Suddenly━

Crash!

He jumped to his feet.

The chairs tumbled over with a loud noise, and for a moment, the eyes of the representatives from each country were focused on him.

“Ka, Kang San-nim?”

“Kang San-nim! Are you alright?”

They looked at him with worried eyes.

It was a confusing moment for Kang San.

As Peng Mujeong’s memories flooded his mind, a sudden wave of disgust surged within him.

“…I, I need a break.”

He turned around quickly.

He found what appeared to be a restroom and went inside, then plunged his head into the toilet and vomited everything in his stomach.

“Ugh━Ugh!”

Splatter.

He vomited for a long time.

Kang San, who had emptied his stomach as if he was going to throw up his insides, leaned against the toilet and looked blankly.

“Huh, huh.”

A hollow laugh escaped his lips.

Finally, the puzzle pieces fit together.

The monsters that appeared at the end.

They were monsters.

That meant that the Murim world, just like the current world, was destroyed by the sudden appearance of monsters. It was only natural when he thought about it. Yeon Woo-bin’s past life, Luca Bellino’s past life, Troy Baker’s past life, and even Roman Bednar’s past life. They weren’t from unrelated worlds, but people who had faced the same disaster and eventually died in agony.

The link between the present life and the past life was that humans despaired at the gateway of God’s Trial.

Seo Munho’s world was the same.

Although Seo Munho died as soon as it began, because a Link occurred, a connection was formed between his past life and his present life.

The problem was that it wasn’t just him.

Now he seemed to understand.

Luca Bellino.

Her truth.

‘Her life has been repeated. That means she got a chance to take God’s Trial repeatedly, and according to Troy Baker’s memories, she got that chance because she destroyed another world. She says her purpose is to save this world through me? Nonsense. As long as my past life is Blood Demon Seo Munho, that can’t happen.’

The last moment.

The feelings of resentment were vivid.

The thing that rejoiced in Peng Mujeong’s pain even as its own body was being torn apart was an undeniable malice that could never be shaken off.

And, one puzzle piece clicked into place at this moment.

Eric Roberts.

The President of the United States definitely remembered his past life.

That was the only way he fit the condition of being the most likely person to lead to destruction, and seeing how he treated Kim Mu-hyeok, the afterlife of Cheon Kang, as his subordinate, there was only one person that came to mind. In fact, it wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about it before. It was just that he wanted to turn away from the truth, probably because of the repercussions that would follow.

Peng Mujeong.

It was Peng Mujeong.

If Eric Roberts was the afterlife of Peng Mujeong, what would happen when he met him?

Destruction.

It was impossible to know how the body, imbued with Seo Munho’s will, would go berserk the moment it encountered Peng Mujeong.

And that wouldn’t simply end as a fight between individuals.

Eric Roberts, as the President of the United States, held immense national defense power in his hands, and even now, he was a righteous figure working for the safety of the world. Kang San was also called the Hero of Kitakyushu, and with the birth of the Kang San Religion, he was no longer just an individual but a massive force.

Large-scale Link.

The clash of these two figures in this chaotic situation would bring an unbearable disaster to humanity.

Victory wasn’t important.

Whoever won.

Whoever lost.

The picture of the losing side’s forces being destroyed was directly linked to the downfall of humanity.

It was a perfectly orchestrated plan from beginning to end.

Luca Bellino intentionally sought out Seo Munho’s afterlife.

‘It’s certain.’

Eric Roberts.

And himself.

The two heroes who were supposed to save this world.

‘They can never coexist in the same world.’

The deeply etched emotions proved the clear reality.