Not only the Dark Palace Master, but everyone was shocked.
Even at that moment, the Dark Palace Master still had his hand stretched toward the Secret Box.
The quick-witted Geom Mugeuk grasped the situation immediately.
“Trying to break it? Not a chance. It’ll never break.”
After all, three hundred years ago, even when the Heavenly Demon Hyeok Do-cheon punched it like a madman, the Secret Box had not budged at all.
“And as you can see, hostage tactics won’t work on those cruel and heartless Demon Supremes!”
Then he shouted toward Demonic Buddha.
“Break it, you say? Smash it to pieces, you say?! I was inside that thing!”
Drunken Demon looked at Soul Reaper Demon Supreme and finally made a gesture that it was time to put on earplugs. At the sight, Soul Reaper Demon Supreme smiled.
With Geom Mugeuk’s appearance, the atmosphere changed instantly.
“Still unable to give up on my older brother?”
Deep relief could be felt from Demonic Buddha. Although he had bluffed boldly at the Dark Palace Master, how could he have truly meant it?
He had spoken loudly because he was certain the Dark Palace Master could never break the Secret Box. He had already suffered internal injuries and even vomited blood, so that Secret Box was his last hope.
Of course, he had been certain, but who could know what might happen in this world? What if the bastard really shattered the Secret Box? Demonic Buddha’s heart had nearly burst from pounding.
At this moment, the person most glad to see Geom Mugeuk was him.
Of course, he expressed it like this.
“You could have become the successor, Great Young Master. What a pity.”
Demonic Buddha glared at the Dark Palace Master as he spoke.
“Why hesitate so much? You should’ve smashed it.”
Geom Mugeuk turned to the Dark Palace Master.
“See? There are people this vicious.”
Despair flickered across the Dark Palace Master’s face.
Three Demon Supremes who were completely fine—and even Geom Mugeuk on top of that.
Meanwhile, his Greed Annihilation Art had disappeared, both his ultimate demonic arts—the Dark Heaven Star Soul Art and the Evil Heart Subjugation Art—had failed, and he had even suffered severe internal injuries.
Now, there was only one move left to him.
Only that single move he had saved for the final moment of his life.
Geom Mugeuk looked at Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme and pretended to be surprised.
“Oh? Why are the two of you here?”
Blood Heaven Blade Demon shook his head with a dumbfounded expression. It was truly just like Geom Mugeuk. Even when surprising people, he did it in a way only he could.
“We heard someone jumped inside a lump of metal and caused a huge commotion.”
“I didn’t jump in—I was dragged in. If you knew what I saw there, you’d be shocked.”
Geom Mugeuk glanced briefly at the Dark Palace Master. The man was staring at him with eyes shrouded in darkness.
“Curious about what I saw?”
Geom Mugeuk looked as if he were about to tell him.
“I’m not telling you.”
For a moment, the Dark Palace Master’s face twitched. Truly, the moment this Young Cult Leader returned, he was once again reminded how infuriating the brat could be.
Watching this, One-Slash Sword Supreme smiled.
“It doesn’t seem like the Young Cult Leader changed inside the Secret Box.”
Geom Mugeuk asked her,
“Did you enjoy your trip?”
“It was the most enjoyable journey of my life.”
Standing naturally beside her, Blood Heaven Blade Demon wore a pleasant smile.
“You shouldn’t let this be the only one. You should travel often.”
“That’s the plan. Next time, I’m thinking of going to the southern regions.”
Geom Mugeuk didn’t forget the phrase Blood Heaven Blade Demon liked the most these days.
“You look even younger than the last time I saw you!”
He awkwardly avoided eye contact, but his smile only grew deeper.
After greeting the two of them, Geom Mugeuk next checked on Soul Reaper Demon Supreme.
“Sould Reaper Demon Supreme, are you alright?”
“Yes, Young Cult Leader.”
She had also suffered internal injuries, but they were not severe.
“Those two didn’t bully you for being the youngest, did they? Didn’t make you charge ahead into danger?”
“On the contrary, I was overprotected.”
Seeing Geom Mugeuk again made Soul Reaper Demon Supreme extremely happy.
Since she had survived, the opportunity to become the first Demon Supreme of the next generation’s Cult Leader had survived as well.
And now she intended to add one more thing to it.
The next Demon Supreme, most trusted by the Cult Leader.
Just as the current Cult Leader had the Fist Demon King, she wanted to stand in that position beside Geom Mugeuk.
Geom Mugeuk looked at Drunken Demon and belatedly made a fuss.
“What?! Who did this to our Lord Drunken Demon?”
He glared at the Dark Palace Master.
“Was it you? It was you, right? You bastard!”
At that moment, Drunken Demon’s voice came from behind.
“Stop acting.”
“Acting?”
Drunken Demon finally shouted.
“If you were really that worried, you should’ve come to me first! You should’ve checked on me first! I’m the one who got hurt the worst! And you come last pretending to worry?!”
Geom Mugeuk approached and lightly touched Drunken Demon’s broken arm.
“What kind of Demon Supreme goes around with a broken arm?”
The three Demon Supremes who had arrived later could guess just how fierce the battle had been just from that alone. For someone at the level of a Demon Supreme, breaking an arm was almost unimaginable.
“I fell while drunk.”
“You should be more careful.”
Drunken Demon looked at Geom Mugeuk’s hand holding his arm.
From the slight trembling of that hand, he could feel Geom Mugeuk’s emotions.
Thank you for surviving, brother.
At that moment, Demonic Buddha spoke calmly.
“Drunken Demon saved us.”
Soul Reaper Demon Supreme nodded in agreement.
“That’s why I came late. The protagonist appears last, and the protagonist gets saved last.”
Leaving the self-satisfied Drunken Demon behind, Geom Mugeuk turned toward Evil Smiling Demon. Drunken Demon shouted from behind.
“I wasn’t the last one!”
Pretending not to hear, Geom Mugeuk looked at Evil Smiling Demon.
It was clear he had brought the two Demon Supremes who had joined after guarding the outside. His precise judgment had surely saved everyone.
Evil Smiling Demon smiled.
“Did you have a good trip?”
Because Evil Smiling Demon had been here, Geom Mugeuk could go to the world of three hundred years ago with peace of mind.
“Thanks to you, I returned safely.”
The Dark Palace Master watched with his own eyes, yet still could not understand their relationship.
He had heard countless reports that Geom Mugeuk was close with the Demon Supremes.
But seeing it directly was shocking.
They exchanged jokes like this? They looked at each other with such trust?
It was a gaze he had never experienced even once.
Not even from Hwi, his own right-hand man.
When Geom Mugeuk finished greeting the Demon Supremes, Blood Heaven Blade Demon asked with curiosity,
“What exactly happened inside that lump of metal?”
Although he had said he wouldn’t tell the Dark Palace Master, he spoke honestly to Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
“The Secret Box showed me the time three hundred years ago when the Heavenly Will Palace started the war.”
He didn’t say he had actually gone to three hundred years ago. They would simply assume the Secret Box had shown him the past.
While everyone was astonished, Geom Mugeuk asked the Dark Palace Master.
He no longer hid the name.
“What kind of person is Hwa Moogi?”
“!”
It was the first time he had directly mentioned Hwa Moogi to anyone.
The Dark Palace Master’s eyes widened. He had never imagined that name would come out of Geom Mugeuk’s mouth. Even Priestess Palace Master Gaye had only known of the existence, not the name.
“The Secret Box told me that name.”
The Demon Supremes understood.
That vague existence Geom Mugeuk had once feared was precisely this man—Hwa Moogi.
The Dark Palace Master was not the final enemy.
The Dark Palace Master’s gaze turned to the Secret Box.
“This Secret Box is our divine relic. Why would it respond to you?”
“To be precise, it’s the divine relic of the Heavenly Will Palace. You’re just a descendant of the Dark Palace that existed under that Heavenly Will Palace.”
The Dark Palace Master was curious.
Why had the Secret Box absorbed Geom Mugeuk instead of him?
How had the Secret Box revealed the truth?
What else had it told him?
“Do you have nothing to say to me?”
The Dark Palace Master gave no answer.
Geom Mugeuk did not hesitate and drew the Black Demon Sword.
“Fine. I respect your decision.”
Behind him, the three Demon Supremes simultaneously raised their internal energy in preparation.
Seeing them ready to charge at any moment, the Dark Palace Master quickly spoke.
“He! He’s not someone the likes of you can handle!”
Of course, Geom Mugeuk knew exactly why he was so confident.
Those five souls and that immense internal energy were within him—how could he imagine losing to anyone?
“If you heard about him, you should know this isn’t the time to be relaxed.”
The Dark Palace Master tried desperately to separate Geom Mugeuk from the others and send him to the main division.
That was the only thread of hope he had left to survive.
“Wondering why I am not rushing to my father immediately? I will go. But before I go, I’ll kill you. I’ll watch you die completely before I leave. That was the reason I came out here in the first place.”
That place was important, but this place was important too.
But the Dark Palace Master interpreted Geom Mugeuk’s calmness differently.
“Or maybe not. If your father dies, you’ll become the Cult Leader.”
The eyes of the Demon Supremes darkened.
Not because they suspected Geom Mugeuk of such intentions—but because of Hwa Moogi’s strength.
From the conversation, Hwa Moogi seemed to possess power capable of killing the Cult Leader.
Even Geom Mugeuk seemed to acknowledge it.
“As you can see, the bloodline in our family isn’t the type to give up their position easily.”
The Dark Palace Master sneered coldly. In his mind, Hwa Moogi’s defeat had never existed from the start.
“You’ll all die anyway. Not just you—both the Martial Alliance and the Unorthodox Alliance will be wiped out. You’ve ruled this martial world for far too long. A new era will begin.”
Geom Mugeuk stared at him.
“Even if that happens, it won’t be your success. It won’t be your era either. At best, you’ll just become Hwa Moogi’s subordinate.”
The Dark Palace Master’s anger surged. That was the thing he hated hearing the most.
“Do you know why you failed?”
And the words he hated had only just begun.
“You stayed in the darkness for far too long. The darkness devoured you.”
“Of course it did. I am the Dark Palace Master.”
“That’s exactly why you should’ve stepped into the light. Only when you faced the light could you have truly seen what your darkness was.”
Geom Mugeuk began shaking his mind.
“Since it’s the end anyway, I’ll speak honestly. When I met you in person, I was disappointed. You weren’t as impressive as I expected. Of course, after seeing the methods you’ve chosen so far, I already suspected you’d be unimpressive. But I thought maybe meeting you in person would reveal some other kind of greatness. But there wasn’t any. And I realized why.”
The Dark Palace Master felt humiliated and disgraced.
“You’ve been stuck in that darkness so long you’ve fossilized. You’ve even forgotten what it means to be impressive.”
“Shut up!”
Overwhelmed by the barrage of blunt insults, the Dark Palace Master shouted.
“I sacrificed my entire life for the grand cause of this palace! I lived solely for revenge!”
But that cause meant nothing to Geom Mugeuk.
“Then why didn’t you leave a successor?”
“What?”
“If your true goal was that grand cause, you should have left a successor. If you couldn’t achieve it yourself, you should’ve passed the will to your successor so they could accomplish it. Even if time passed, that noble will wouldn’t change. But you never left a successor. Want to know why? Because you weren’t fighting for any grand cause. You just wanted to become the hidden ruler and dominate the martial world.”
The Dark Palace Master glared at him fiercely.
Unless one experienced it personally, they would never know just how infuriating Geom Mugeuk could be.
Eventually, the Dark Palace Master began speaking about himself.
“This was my father’s dream.”
For a moment, faint memories flickered across his face.
Soul Reaper Demon Supreme immediately understood.
Earlier, when she had entered his mind during their fight, the person smiling brightly while looking up at him had been his father.
Had he come this far with only that single good memory?
“The power we obtained was not something ordinary humans could bear. Because of that power, countless people died. When we discovered that only those born with the energy of the Heavenly Killing Star could accept it, we spent our entire lives searching for that destiny. Then, to control that power within the Heavenly Killing Star, I spent a long time trying to find the Six-Origin Energies. And you—who lived comfortably after being born the son of the Heavenly Demon—dare mock my life?”
The Dark Palace Master’s fury exploded. His internal injuries flared again, blood spilling from his mouth.
Geom Mugeuk, however, remained calm.
“You’re trying to fulfill your father’s dream? What a filial son. Meanwhile, I’m the unfilial son trying to stop my father’s dream.”
He meant it sincerely.
But to the Dark Palace Master, it sounded like mockery.
Dark energy flowed from the Dark Palace Master’s eyes. It was clear he had made a decision.
“How do you think I planned my final moment?”
“You’re not the type to end things stylishly. You’ll probably try to die together with everyone somehow. Something boring like a Self-Destruction Art.”
He had guessed the man had prepared a self-destruction technique.
And he was correct.
The characters engraved across the Dark Palace Master’s face began to glow.
Geom Mugeuk had thought it was a technique meant to steal the Six-Origin Energies within his body.
But it wasn’t.
Ghost Script Heaven-Exploding Art.
It was far from an ordinary self-destruction art.
It was the most powerful self-destruction technique—one that even borrowed the power of ghosts.
As the characters on his face and body glowed, strange symbols began to carve themselves into the ground and air.
Those inside the room became trapped within a space filled with characters.
“You’ll all descend into eternal darkness with me.”
The moment he was about to unleash the Ghost Script Heaven-Exploding Art—
The three Demon Supremes had already moved.
Shuk!
Bang!
A streak of finger wind shot toward his face.
It was Evil Smiling Demon’s Blood Disaster Finger.
The dark energy that always protected him blocked it.
“You cannot stop me!”
While the dark energy surrounded him defensively, the ghost symbols engraved on his body and surroundings shone even brighter.
At the moment the Dark Demonic Art self-destructed, paradoxically it shone brighter than any martial art.
Shuk! Shuk! Shuk! Shuk!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Blood Disaster Finger flew like light and struck the exact same spot again and again.
Pierce!
The continuous strikes finally penetrated the dark energy.
Bang!
The instant the Blood Disaster Finger struck the Dark Palace Master’s face, the dark energy weakened.
Pierce!
As if waiting for that moment, the One-Slash Sword pierced straight through his chest.
Slash!
At the same time, the Heaven-Extinguishing Saber split him cleanly from shoulder to chest.
Craaaack!
His body split apart as blood erupted like a fountain.
Already suffering internal injuries and hiding only within dark energy while trying to activate his self-destruction art, the Dark Palace Master could not possibly stop the attacks of the three Demon Supremes.
Geom Mugeuk walked toward the man collapsed on the ground.
With fading consciousness, the Dark Palace Master left his final words.
“…You will not be able to stop him.”
Geom Mugeuk admitted it calmly.
“Yes. I probably won’t.”
And he felt no shame saying it.
“But my father will stop him. The Alliance Leaders will stop him. The Demon Supremes will stop him.”
Geom Mugeuk looked back at the six Demon Supremes standing behind him.
After meeting each of their gazes one by one—
“Just like the people here did.”
His gaze returned to the Dark Palace Master.
“Your darkness hid while sacrificing all your subordinates. Darkness that refuses to face the light is darkness that should disappear from this world.”
The Dark Palace Master opened his mouth as if to speak.
But instead of words, only blood poured out.
Geom Mugeuk’s final words were polite.
“So abandon your lingering attachments to this world and return to the eternal darkness you love.”
Regret still lingered in the Dark Palace Master’s eyes.
But he could not resist the call of death.
His eyes slowly closed.
And soon his breath stopped.
The faint dark energy lingering around him scattered into the air and vanished forever.
At last, the final leader—the Dark Palace Master—had died.
Now only one person remained.
Hwa Moogi.
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