NOVEL NEXT chapter 98 - The Chosen Sorcerer
“What did you do then?”
Sohwa swallowed the question that had risen all the way up her throat. It was because the Alliance Leader’s expression had darkened completely. He closed his eyes, as though recalling an unpleasant memory. Sohwa waited patiently for him to speak. How he had gone to the past. What exactly he had seen. If she could hear that answer, she could wait as long as needed.
“……When I saw that woman, I was startled, but she spoke with a very sorrowful face, as if she had known I would come. She asked if I had come to kill her. So when I said I had come to kill her if she was the Blood Demon, the old woman looked at me curiously, opened her silk robe, and exposed her nape. She said that if I wanted to kill the Blood Demon, I would have to kill her first.”
The Alliance Leader closed his eyes again. He furrowed his brow as if in pain and spoke in a voice heavy with regret.
“At that time, I wasn’t in my right mind. Having seen too much blood, I was agitated, and my judgment was clouded by my anger toward the Blood Demon. Thinking it was a cultist’s words to protect the Blood Demon, I cut the old woman down in one stroke. I naturally assumed she was at least an elder of the Blood Cult.”
The silence that followed painted the scene. The old woman seemed to have done nothing and accepted death. The Alliance Leader was a Daoist. It seemed he felt guilt over killing someone unarmed and without killing intent.
“Yet though I was the one who clearly killed the woman, I lost consciousness. And when I awoke again—”
After a long moment, the Alliance Leader opened his eyes again.
“I had returned to the day I first received my Daoist name. It was the day my senior brothers, the ones I foolishly failed to protect, congratulated me. One of the best memories of my life, and a day I had missed dearly.”
A glint of vitality returned to the Alliance Leader’s eyes. Slowly, he turned his head. Facing Sohwa, he asked in a low voice, “What do you think I did after returning to the past?”
Sohwa had already known since he spoke of his dream that the Alliance Leader had realized his regression. So his question sounded different to her. What will you do in this life?
“You must have tried to avenge yourself on the Blood Demon and protect Kunlun.”
The Alliance Leader gave a faint laugh at Sohwa’s answer.
“Yes. I did. Having gained such a precious chance, I thought the heavens were on my side. Using the future I knew, I quickly accumulated fortuitous encounters, trained, and eliminated the Blood Cult vermin spread across the Central Plain one by one. It went smoothly. Around the time I turned thirty, I had completely grasped the structure of the Blood Cult, and together with my comrades, I crossed the Passage through Mount Giryeon and went to Geumeunsan to kill the Blood Demon.”
Speaking as though drunk on his past triumphs, he continued slowly.
“The Passage leading out of the Central Plain connects to dozens of Outland Passages. It’s very complex. Along the path to Geumeunsan, various Blood Cult groups served as shields to protect the Blood Demon, but since I already knew that path, I devised a perfect strategy, annihilated the cultists, and achieved a great victory.”
As he spoke of victory, the Alliance Leader’s voice gradually grew quieter.
“Having already once been to Geumeunsan, I entered not the most heavily guarded area but the foremost hall. The shock I felt then is still vivid. Have you ever smelled the stench of rotting blood? Between walls drenched in blood lay his bed, and on it, he was lying there, quietly gazing at us.”
“Of the nine-tenths of our forces who entered Geumeunsan alive, most perished in the Blood Demon’s hall. A few survivors tried to flee, but he toyed with us, tearing at our blood. I abandoned the Alliance members who had trusted and followed me and fled from the hall. While the Blood Demon was busy feasting on others’ blood, I ran desperately toward the hall where the old woman was.”
“……”
“I had vaguely realized even then that the old woman was a pitiful person imprisoned by the Blood Demon. Yet without a moment’s hesitation, I killed her again to seize another chance. Extreme fear makes people very small. I thought that if I grew stronger and destroyed the Blood Demon sooner, it would free her too, so it would also be good for her. In truth, in my third life I became stronger, and with stronger comrades I again headed for Geumeunsan.”
The Alliance Leader repeatedly paused and resumed his words. He looked as though he was in great pain.
“But even in the third life, I could not kill the Blood Demon. Only after countless repeated failures did I realize I could not defeat him. It must have been over a hundred times. Still, out of habit, I went to Geumeunsan. Once, instead of seeking the Blood Demon, ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ I went to meet the old woman. Hearing my comrades’ screams as the Blood Demon tore them apart, I asked the woman how to kill him. The old woman said the same thing she had told me the first day we met—that if I wanted to kill the Blood Demon, I must kill her. She probably wanted me to learn the method of turning back time. Empty inside, I confessed that even returning to the past, I could not kill the Blood Demon. Then disappointment spread across her face.”
Unable to endure the long silence, Sohwa asked, “So what did the old woman say then?”
“She asked whether the Blood Demon had killed her.”
At the incomprehensible words, Sohwa furrowed her brow.
“I made that same expression. But there was a reason the sorcerer said that.”
The Alliance Leader smiled faintly.
“I thought returning to the past was an opportunity, but in their world they call it punishment. They said it was a time of repentance—to realize that a messenger chosen by their god cannot be killed by a human. Murderers like me return to the past thinking they can change the future, struggling with their lives on the line. Even if they fail, they think there will be another chance, so they try again, kill the god’s messenger again, live that time again…… and then, in the end, they realize they have become trapped within time itself. Unable to change anything.”
The Alliance Leader looked at Sohwa and continued.
“In the end, what you most desire can never be achieved. No matter how hard you try, it only differs in timing, but it happens all the same.”
“Even if the timing changes, if one keeps repeating, can’t the future be changed?”
When Sohwa asked coldly, the Alliance Leader curved his lips.
“As I said, it’s punishment. The god that clan speaks of is not merciful. That god knows what you want. The more you repeat your life and accumulate karma, the more cruelly that god takes away what you desire.”
“But didn’t the Blood Demon repeat time and change the future? In the end, he swallowed all of Outland.”
The Alliance Leader smiled faintly.
“That wasn’t what he wanted.”
Silence spread across the pavilion. The Alliance Leader let out a breath heavier than silence itself.
“As I remember, the Blood Demon never once killed the old woman to restart time. That means he never needed to return, and by his standards, he never once failed. He simply found the god’s messenger and kept her by his side in preparation for the day he might fail.”
“What is the Blood Demon’s goal?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t close enough to him to have such a deep conversation.”
The Alliance Leader brushed off Sohwa’s words with a laugh.
“But it seems the Central Plain is not his end.”
“The Western Regions?”
“Well, who knows. There’s no way to tell what his goal is. I’m not mad enough to fathom the mind of a lunatic. I was more cowardly and weak than I thought, and the Blood Demon was more honest and strong than I imagined. He never once tampered with time, and with the same methods and thoughts, he defeated me easily each time. Meanwhile, those who trusted and followed me died more brutally with every cycle. When the old woman told me it was punishment, I understood why the pain deepened the more I repeated life. So I had no intention of killing her again. Knowing I had given up, the old woman wept and begged me—begged me to kill her just once.”
The Alliance Leader paused again. He drew a deep breath, then opened his mouth once more.
“She said she had a way to end her punishment. Their god is extremely fickle—after choosing someone, he sometimes takes back that power. If a chosen sorcerer gives up her own life, the god withdraws his favor, and the sorcerer can no longer connect time.”
“……”
“The old woman asked me to turn time back for her. She said that when she was fifteen, she had been under the care of a physician in Qinghai, and told me the content of a letter to send there. To open a door so that the physician could return to his own time before she was captured by the Blood Demon, and that since the Blood Demon would eventually find and imprison her, she should take her own life.”
When Sohwa narrowed her brow, the Alliance Leader sighed.
“She tempted me, saying that if the sorcerer died, the Blood Demon would lose his Passage through time. At that time, my hatred for the Blood Demon was immense, and I wanted to see him suffer.”
“……You killed the old woman again.”
The Alliance Leader nodded.
“As soon as I returned to fifteen, prepared to have my limbs and meridians severed, I left Mount Kunlun without hesitation and went to find the physician in Qinghai the old woman had mentioned. Her words were too unsettling to entrust to a letter, and I was curious why she wanted to be sent back specifically to age fifteen. Pretending to be a messenger delivering a letter, I joined the Yeonjuda troupe. Yeonju was a kind physician and gave me a room so I could rest a few days after my long journey. In the next room was the old woman. Though her face was wiped clean of time, I recognized her at a glance—the same gentle energy.”
“……”
“I left the letter in her room and quietly watched. That night, the sorcerer went to Yeonju, said something to him, and Yeonju hurriedly packed his belongings. The two went out through the back door, and I followed immediately. But rather than just going to a nearby village, they traveled very far.”
Sohwa listened to the Alliance Leader’s words with uneasy anticipation.
The Alliance Leader smiled at Sohwa.
“They arrived at Mount Emei. It was a place with a large lake between two valleys. The young sorcerer entered the lake without hesitation. After a long while, she called for Yeonju to come into the water. To be honest, I still don’t know what she did. The sorcerer went in with a small throwing knife, surfacing only briefly for air each time. Thinking back now, she must have been carving letters into the stones at the bottom. Sorcerers complete their spells with their own script, after all.”
The Alliance Leader, who said he hadn’t known then, soon gave the answer.
“While the girl dove again, strange bird cries sounded from all directions. Knowing what it was, I grew tense—it was the sound the Blood Cultists made. When the bird cry sounded about five times, the body of Yeonju, standing alone by the lake, suddenly floated up. The Blood Demon had appeared and seized Yeonju by the throat. Just as the sorcerer surfaced to breathe, she recognized the Blood Demon—and froze completely.”