Try Living Well Without Me

There are such people in the world.

People who, tied to a vivid memory from their childhood, live their lives with an obsession close to a belief.

You might call it determination, or stubbornness, or even madness.

I would call it foolishness.

“Damn, it’s just ruining my mood.”

Yuwha is exactly that type of person.

In a good light, you might say she has steadfast willpower; in a bad light, she’s unbending and closed-minded.

“How can someone who can’t even tell what is evil talk about destroying it? What a joke.”

Yuwha is someone who simply cannot live without evil.

That’s her life’s goal. Her aim isn’t like the monks who preach about leading the world into righteousness, and it’s not like mine either, which is to save the world.

Yuwha lives ‘to destroy evil,’ a naive and deluded human if there ever was one, though she doesn’t realize it.

And while it has been the driving force that propelled her to the level of mastery she has achieved, it’s also why she hasn’t been able to progress further and why she’s stagnated.

“…Damn, it frustrates me.”

Probably because of this, she decided to call me evil without any real reason.

Since she’s someone who can’t live without evil to destroy.

When the Blood Cult, which had been around for ten years, disappeared, she must have felt this unconscious compulsion to find new evils.

And with me right in front of her, she probably deemed me as evil in satisfaction.

“Deluded human.”

She is not justice. And it’s harder still to see her as someone who cultivates the Dao.

She reached this level of mastery, yet cannot detach herself from her past memories, falsely claiming to walk the righteous path, only to become another source of evil herself.

Of course, compared to other hypocrites of the wulin world, she’s somewhat better. After all, at least her foundation is that she truly believes doing evil is wrong.

However, that doesn’t justify her unconscious hypocrisy. At the very least, from my perspective, it leaves me feeling skeptical and disappointed.

If I reflect that this is the reception I get as a thanks for my reincarnation, it just makes it worse.

“Hey…”

Back in the days of the Kunlun Sect, Yuwha showed me mercy. According to her standards, it was tremendous mercy. Of course, this was because she arbitrarily thought of me as an evil person and spared my life.

“Filthy human!”

However, this is not the treatment I deserve.

I’m not asking for too much. I don’t even need a feast where the table legs break under the weight of food.

All I wanted was for her not to be hostile towards me.

“How could she not know that I am not evil?”

Do you still think I don’t know that much? Yes, gratitude is gratitude, but this situation is different. Being told to leave by someone with whom I shared the longest time as close friends, someone who once said they would cut my head off the next time we met, is an experience I will never forget.

“Hmph, why am I even like this again?”

Until recently, I thought I had no feelings for Yuwha and considered her not an unpleasant person.

They say a person’s heart is like reeds in the wind, and apparently, it’s not entirely far from the truth.

“How can she act like this towards me after all this time?”

Yuwha may be deluded, but she’s no fool.

After watching me for a full ten years, there’s no way she could have believed the rumors about me.

However, the reason she clung to them as the truth is… likely because her own nature wanted it to be so.

She, someone who must have evil to destroy, used me as a punching bag for her emotions.

A convenient one she could always beat whenever she wanted.

Even though plenty of evil people still exist in the world, I haven’t heard of her exterminating them during the last three years.

It’s surely because of instinct.

If you look at it from Yuwha’s perspective, it’s a simple matter.

During the war with the Blood Cult, she always had convenient evil to destroy.

But then, that kind of evil abruptly disappeared.

Unlike me or the monk who seeks enlightenment, for her, evil is an indispensible existence.

Because without evil, she would have no purpose in life.

Despite her words of destroying evil and slaying demons, deep down she’s afraid of losing evil.

Afraid that it might disappear again.

Because once all the evil people across the land are gone, her purpose in life would vanish as it did after the war against the Blood Cult ended.

Indeed, after the war ended, she showed signs of being unmoored and confused for some time.

“Surely, she is deliberately turning a blind eye to her own actions. What a deluded and hypocritical human.”

That’s why she decided I am the evil.

I, Insung Namgung Cheolbin, am the wall she can never surpass.

A wall she cannot destroy yet can continuously vent her frustrations upon due to my lifelong existence.

Even if she continues to do so, I won’t disappear.

“Could it be she let me live for that very reason?”

Believing it was mercy when in reality it was fear of losing evil?

If that’s the case, then she truly is an ugly person.

She has become the exact type of person the monks always warned against and feared.

“Disgusting.”

I can feel the force in my breathing increasing.

My emotions seem to be overwhelming. If I want to kill her, the ignited emotions won’t simply subside.

“Why must I save people like her? Everyone disgusts me, especially myself.”

The peace that I worked so hard to achieve infuriates me because of how they treat me.

I feel disillusioned with the hypocritical, ugly, and corrupt human society represented by Yuwha.

– You’re reverting to your old personality again, huh.

“…”

The usual mocking voice of Jin Woo-yong sounds in my ears.

– You’re storing up so much anger; no wonder you keep breaking out in uncontrollable bursts. Pitiful thing.

“Are you going to tell me again that Yuwha has no fault and that I should endure?”

– Don’t misunderstand. I’m not here to admonish you, daughter-in-law or not. I’ve seen everything that girl does, every last bit of it.

“…Even so, isn’t it uncouth of you to curse like that without any class?”

– In this era, you’re the only one who cares about class, you fool. Idiot.

“…”

However, unlike before, this time my emotions don’t quickly subside even after hearing his voice.

I am aggrieved and restless.

– The look on your face tells me something’s about to explode soon.

“Is that so?”

– Yes. You won’t be able to suppress it forever. The emotion will always erupt. Although I don’t know why, the gentle-minded you from the last three years at the Namgung estate is eventually fading. Besides, you can’t suppress it anyway; it is something to be accepted.

“Is this what you mean by a natural phenomenon, then? So why did you try to stop me?”

– Because it was too radical. Haven’t you ever heard that sudden changes can kill a person?

“I feel like I’m changing rapidly enough now.”

– It’s not as simple as that. There will be bloodshed. The cruelty from the time you regressed, the pain you suffered back then, and the resentment built up over the last three years—are all going to explode at once. Haven’t you experienced this twice already, though in different ways?

“…? What do you mean I’ve experienced it?”

– When you tried to die at Yuwha’s hands, and when you tried to kill yourself in the river after leaving the Namgung estate, wasn’t that the real you? As a normal person, someone who builds resentment would typically vent it elsewhere, not harm themselves. Naturally, extreme choices like suicide wouldn’t cross someone’s mind at all.

“…”

– Back then, you were a fool. What made you think being a fool was a good thing? Because you didn’t know how to get angry at others and only knew how to suppress your anger, you attempted to take your own life. You wanted to see blood but lacked the proper justification against others. If you had been from the righteous or evil path, you would have killed Namgung Bin without hesitation, but as someone of the righteous path, you couldn’t kill without justification. That is what you have always been taught, hasn’t it?

There’s nothing I can say in response. Each of his words stabs directly into my core, making them hard to deny.

Then, if you mean there’s going to be bloodshed…

– I don’t know what happened at the Namgung estate, but since you’ve changed since then, you should know it, don’t you? That personality of yours from the regression era is coming back: experienced, unfeeling, more concerned with genuine reason over perceived righteousness, and more willing to pass judgment.

“Are you saying I’ll kill someone?”

– I can’t say for sure. This is just speculation based on my observations. However, one thing is certain: the anger you’ve been suppressing within yourself for three years will now be directed outward. After accumulating and accumulating, your immense anger won’t be quelled until you see blood.

“And what should I do?”

– Do nothing and be careful. Pray that the blood you see will be that of those truly evil. You could end up like Yuwha.

“What a wretched world and what wretched people. Ignorance and naivety may not be sins, but they have erred against me. Would it matter if such people were to die?”

– This isn’t for the sake of others. It’s for you. After the incident, your old personality will return—though there’s no guarantee of that. It may fluctuate, and no one knows exactly how it will turn out. But regardless… can you live peacefully seeing the blood of an innocent? You, who exerted so much effort to save even the daughter of your enemy?

“Damn… I almost wish for less moral upbringing from the Namgung household. They’ve made me too ethical.”

– Remember one thing, I’m on your side. Our descendants are on your side too. The human mind is brittle, but with some support, it’s not so easy to crumble. This knowledge alone can help you keep your sanity.

“Ah, that’s right. Miss will be waking up soon.”

– Are you, a bodyguard, forgetting your lord’s wake-up time?

“I lost track due to losing my composure.”

Anyway, this isn’t exactly normal either.

I had surpassed emotions and entered the realm of indifference when I reached this level, so why am I being overwhelmed by them now?

I’ll need to look into this further at some point.

For now, I need to wake Jin Guyoung…

Clack—Bang!

“Uncle! Haven’t you woken up yet?”

Oh, she’s already awake, is she?

“No, I was just lost in thought for a moment.”

“Really? What could Uncle possibly be worried about?”

“There’s nothing. What about you, have you thought about what happened yesterday?”

“What happened yesterday? Was there something?”

“Yuwha’s offer.”

Jin Guyoung tilts her head in confusion.

As if she doesn’t understand what I’m talking about.

A little later, she brightens up as if remembering something.

“Surely… you’ve forgotten it, haven’t you?”

“Haha, I decided to reject it, so I forgot about it. My brain is too small to remember such useless things.”

“You’re planning to reject? It’s from Yuwha, no less.”

“Hmm… at first, I did consider accepting it. From no one other than Yuwha, and with an appealing offer, I wanted to give it a try. It might be tiring, but as it was about justice, I thought it would be okay.”

“Then why did you reject it?”

“Well…”

In response to my question, Jin Guyoung rested her chin for a while, deep in thought, and then whispered cheerfully into my ear.

“Yuwha’s eyes were just too terrifying.”

“…”

I let out a light chuckle, unable to suppress it.

Guyoung’s breath tickled my ear, but it was pleasant.

“Her eyes didn’t look like they belong to someone cultivating the Dao, right? It was more like… something akin to a white rose? A little too fierce?”

“Haha!”

Maybe thanks to Guyoung understanding just the right thing to say, a certain sense of relief washed over me.

– As expected, your grandson has discerning eyes. Truly remarkable.

In some secluded alley of the martial world.

A place that most martial artists either don’t know about or avoid stepping into even if they do.

The land of those who have witnessed the most bloodshed in the land.

The main headquarters of the Assassination Pavilion.

“Are they all here?”

A girl with pink hair resembling a lotus flower questioned the gathering of Assassin Pavilion’s high-ranking officers.

The oldest among them, standing at the forefront, replied respectfully.

“Yes, the supreme assassins, first-class assassins, and branch leaders have all answered the Pavilion Master’s summon.”

He is known as the Thousand Kill Sword King, the Pavilion Master of the Assassination Pavilion and one of the Five Great Sages of the land before his defeat three years ago at the hands of the current Star of Assassins.

“Good job. Before we delve into the main topic, I’d like to ask about the previous task. Crimson Sword Demon, have you located the whereabouts of the Sword Sage?”

Draped in a pink glow, the Star of Assassins spoke.

The man seated to her left immediately stood up and proclaimed.

“Yes! He currently goes by the name of White Blade Wanderer while staying with the Taewon Jin family and is at the Wudang Sect where the Seven Flowers Tournament is being held!”

“Good, very good.”

Satisfied with her loyal subordinate’s answer regarding the Crimson Sword Demon, the Star of Assassins began her main announcement.

“With all preparations complete… the reason why this Pavilion Master has summoned you here today is because there is a special order for you all.”

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