Episode 110: Ghost? Is That You?
It was the massive eye of a giant reptile. Quite literally, it was as large as an ox.
In front of it sat something resembling an altar—an offering seemed to be presented to that eye.
Its vertically slit pupil and yellow sclera radiated a menacing aura. Red sparks crackled from its gaze, threatening me—
‘Wait… it’s scared?’
It wasn’t threatening me—no, it was trembling.
The floating eye quivered in place, its gaze darting around nervously when it met mine. Anyone could see it was scared.
“Why? Is it the Heavenly Demon Divine Art again?”
I posed the question to Skybreaker, but there was no reply.
“Skybreaker?”
Come to think of it—Skybreaker, which had been in my hand, was gone.
“What… what the hell?!”
I looked down at my hand. It wasn’t the hand of a trained martial artist.
Panicking, I touched my face—it wasn’t mine! I could feel it clearly: this nose wasn’t my prominent one.
This was Kim Dong-yoon’s face.
Even the clothes were a suit—the same one I’d worn to an audition to play the role of a degenerate chaebol heir.
“Ghost? Is that you?”
A voice called out suddenly from behind.
A man stood there with a face sculpted like a god’s masterpiece.
A trace of coldness and stubbornness in his lips.
Eyes that seemed to hold unknowable depths.
It was Skybreaker?
“Ghost?”
The man—Skybreaker—ran forward and grabbed my hand.
“It really is you, Ghost?”
“What the hell, Skybreaker?!”
“I’m not a sword now, call me Sa Dohwan.”
“No way…”
“Still, it’s good to see you like this. So that was your true form all along?”
Hearing Sa Dohwan’s voice not as a thought but aloud confused me.
“You look pretty human for a Ghost. Is this a transformation?”
Just like Sa Dohwan had taken on his real appearance, I too had returned to my original form in this space.
“I told you I’m not a Ghost.”
“And I told you I don’t trust a word you say.”
Then Sa Dohwan smirked.
“Still, it’s good to see you like this.”
“It’s… a bit awkward, but yeah.”
“Hah… To actually breathe again—who knew it would feel this good?”
Sa Dohwan ran his hands over his body, visibly emotional.
Understandable.
He had suddenly been trapped in sword form for months.
Even this relatively calm reaction was proof of how much his inner strength had grown. If it were me, I’d be throwing a tantrum.
“Anyway… what is this place?”
“I have a rough idea,” I replied, pointing toward the eye.
“Remember how Hyuk Mun kept going on about the ‘Great Red Dragon’?”
“That’s… the Red Dragon?”
“Probably its spirit.”
Which meant Sa Dohwan and I hadn’t switched bodies—we had simply returned to our true forms within this space.
“If that’s the case… why is that eye so scared of us?”
At my question, Sa Dohwan fell into thought, then spoke.
“It has to be the Heavenly Demon Divine Art again.”
“Again with that?”
“One of the nicknames passed down from the First Heavenly Demon was ‘The Hunter’.”
“The Hunter?”
“They said the First Heavenly Demon hunted many spirit creatures and divine beasts. Maybe the Red Dragon knows of him?”
“So it senses that aura… and trembles in fear? Even if only part of it remains?”
“If the origin of the Hyuk Clan was a group of followers who once trailed the First Heavenly Demon, then it’s not impossible.”
I nodded at Sa Dohwan’s reasoning. It was quite plausible.
“Then what’s with this altar?”
“Probably the secret behind the Hyuk Clan’s martial arts.”
He laid out his theory.
The Hyuk Clan’s martial arts were strangely uniform—even among transcendents.
And the martial art was named Red Dragon Divine Manifestation.
“So… they offer themselves to the altar to gain their martial art?”
“Those who can endure it become transcendent. Those who can’t remain beneath them.”
“That’s practically sorcery, not martial arts.”
“Have you forgotten? This is the Demonic Cult. If it makes you stronger, nothing’s off-limits.”
“True.”
After all, one of the Six Demon Clans was a house that specialized in spirit-capturing sorcery—
“Wait. Spirit-capturing?”
“What’s wrong?”
“I just had a crazy thought…”
“What is it?”
Sa Dohwan laughed in disbelief at my words.
“That really is a stretch.”
“It’s not impossible, though.”
“But it’s not exactly likely, either. A Red Dragon resurrection?”
My theory was that they were trying to resurrect the Red Dragon.
Infinite Heavenly Flame was a direct descendant of the Vermilion Bird. One of the Vermilion Bird’s traits was its ability to resurrect endlessly.
What if that resurrection trait were transferred to the Red Dragon’s remains to bring it back?
And surely… the Hyuk Clan wouldn’t come up with that on their own.
“You’re talking about Chu Taesu, aren’t you?”
“Whether resurrection is possible or not—if someone had that idea, Chu Taesu would be the first person to consider it, right?”
“Hm…”
Sa Dohwan stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“In the long history of martial artists, resurrection has never once happened. Even the Ice Witch—her case was only possible because her body was made of ice.”
“I’m not making this up. You remember that emotionless protector Chu Taesu kept around?”
“I do. It was unsettling.”
“You know what that was?”
Sa Dohwan shook his head. Understandable—he wouldn’t know at this point.
“It was a Yin Corpse.”
“…Yin Corpse?”
“Yeah. A Yin Corpse.”
Yin Corpse—an undead martial artist resurrected in grotesque form. In wuxia, they were typically portrayed as beings who retained their martial arts and followed their master unconditionally.
Chu Taesu creates the Sun-Moon Yin Corpse, doesn’t he?
In the second half of Return to the Martial World, during the war between the Jianghu and the Demonic Cult, Chu Taesu brings out his trump card: an army of Yin Corpse.
He strikes the Demonic Cult from behind just as the Heavenly Demon leads a royal expedition.
And the most terrifying among them is the Sun-Moon Yin Corpse, a powerful Yin Corpse wielding both extreme yin and extreme yang energies, strong enough to overwhelm even transcendent masters.
Extreme yin energy was created from the Ice Witch’s ice core.
In the original, the Ice Witch defects to the Demonic Cult, but after provoking the Heavenly Demon, she’s killed—and her ice core’s fate is left ambiguous.
Later, it’s revealed that Chu Taesu used it.
As for extreme yang… What if that was Infinite Heavenly Flame’s core?
Finding a material infused with such powerful extreme yang energy—equal to the Vermilion Bird’s lineage—would be nearly impossible otherwise.
And the original protagonist never heard about the firebird when he arrived at the Demonic Cult—so it’s plausible.
“What if they were lured in with talk of reviving the Red Dragon, but the real goal was to use that to strengthen a Yin Corpse?”
“Possible… but I wish it were just a stretch. If that’s true, then just how far ahead was Chu Taesu planning? Casting sorcery on us wasn’t even the end of it.”
“To earn the title of ‘0.7 Sa Dogwang,’ you’ve got to go that far.”
“Then… what if Hyuk Mun was also under sorcery?”
“It’s likely. Even for the Hyuk Clan, going this far off the rails is strange.”
Calling the Heavenly Demon a “wench,” trying to take on three transcendent-level fighters—none of that was normal.
If it was sorcery, it made sense. Normally, a transcendent wouldn’t be affected by a mental-type curse—but Chu Taesu might have found a way.
Which meant Hyuk Mun also needed to be scorched by Mugeuk’s flames to snap out of it.
“So, how exactly do we get out of here?” Sa Dohwan asked with a frown.
He had a point.
We were having a casual chat, but just moments ago, I’d been fighting Hyuk Mun—and losing.
This space with the altar and the eye was a cave with no exit. It looked much like the one where I first met the Skybreaker Sword.
In other words, no way out.
“Hey, are we stuck here? Can’t we use martial arts in spirit form? Isn’t the cliché that you get super strong in the mental world?”
“I don’t know what that word means, but… no.”
“Too bad. Would’ve been epic to break the mental world and escape.”
“You really are a Ghost. You don’t use spells, but you speak nonsense like one.”
“You just don’t get it.”
Clearly, using martial arts to break out wasn’t an option.
“Then the clue must be in the eye and altar.”
I walked toward the altar. As I did, the eye flinched and backed away.
“Hm?”
On the altar lay a small booklet.
[Record of the Red Dragon]
I skimmed through it—and instantly scowled.
In short, it claimed that one day, the Great Red Dragon would manifest again and smite all with crimson lightning—except for the Hyuk Clan and their chosen slaves.
Basically, divine punishment out of nowhere.
No wonder Mugeuk-i hated the dragon claw.
“Should I just burn this?”
I happened to have a lighter in my suit pocket.
The eye shook violently in protest. It clearly understood me.
I put the book down and dusted off my hands.
No point triggering a butterfly effect just because I was a little annoyed.
As I set the booklet down, the eye slumped in apparent relief.
Something felt… off.
“Hey, Sa Dohwan.”
“What?”
“Doesn’t it look like it shrank?”
“Hm… I can’t really tell.”
“I had to draw logo designs under Director Kim. My senses tell me—it’s definitely smaller.”
“Still don’t see it.”
“Maybe the Skybreaker Sword is absorbing the dragon claw?”
That was the plan when I stabbed it.
“I’d rather it didn’t.”
“Same.”
Any other divine beast, maybe—but the Red Dragon, who rained down lightning on the world? No thanks.
I had a feeling the Skybreaker Sword could digest it, but it was unsettling.
“When I get back out, I’ll have to expel it all.”
That crimson lightning was the Hyuk Clan’s signature—too risky to use anywhere else.
I sighed, wondering how we were going to get out.
Suddenly, the cave trembled, and cracks formed in the ceiling.
Soon—
BEEE-EEP!!
A familiar bird call echoed through the air.
Sa Dohwan and I exchanged glances.
“Ghost.”
“What?”
“We’re about to return. Thanks for taking care of me while I was here.”
Sa Dohwan’s expression was calm.
But behind that calmness was joy at briefly having his body again—and sorrow at returning to the sword.
Sa Dohwan… had grown.
“You’re human now.”
“I’m a sword again.”
“Whatever.”
Through the widening cracks in the collapsing cave, flames seeped in.
When I came to, Mugeuk was spewing flames at me and Hyuk Mun.
That must have jolted me awake.
Hyuk Mun, like I had been, stood dazed—struck by Mugeuk’s flames. He was probably regaining his senses now.
[The Red Dragon’s energy entered me. I need to expel it.]
Skybreaker, now back in sword form, murmured.
Since the dragon claw was still embedded, it made sense that anything he expelled would be mistaken as the claw’s doing.
[I’m going to release it.]
A monstrous red lightning burst from the Skybreaker Sword.
But the lightning began to take on a shape.
“A… Red Dragon?”
But instead of dispersing like natural energy—it bowed its head to me.
Hyuk Mun, still dazed, stared blankly and muttered,
“Manifestation…?”
Looks like there’d been another misunderstanding.