I felt my hands trembling involuntarily.

I had always felt doubts about my father’s disappearance.

It must have been the same for others.

Though from the distant past, Nam Gung Cheon was also a person of outstanding talent who had disappeared.

He vanished from the world in an instant, just like my father.

Although there was no connection between them, I researched what kind of person he was, grasping at straws.

So I also knew that Nam Gung Cheon, who had disappeared, ultimately never returned to the clan.

‘Uncle Dagger is Nam Gung Cheon…?’

Uncle Dagger said he had committed a crime.

But the Nam Gung Cheon I had investigated was a person full of righteousness.

He was definitely not someone who deserved to be punished by being trapped in a dagger.

Uncle Dagger spoke as if he understood my doubts.

[You may read that book.]

Uncle Dagger continued.

[The crime I committed is written there.]

I carefully opened the book.

What was written there was a diary written by Uncle Dagger.

I eliminated loneliness. Control of my body passed to me. I have reached the realm of Hwa Gyeong.

If someone is reading this, I must be dead.

Death should have come earlier. I hoped someone would defeat me.

I must take revenge.

The writing was disorganized.

I discovered a path that could reach the sky. I saw the end of nothingness.

But the smell of blood on my hands did not disappear.

I cannot close my eyes until I behead the Blood Demon and take it.

I cannot die. I cannot leave.

In the silent cave, Uncle Dagger’s voice echoed in my head.

My name is Nam Gung Cheon, I was called the greatest genius born in the Nam Gung clan.

The story of one man began.

Nam Gung Cheon.

It was an incredibly arrogant name.

Born in the Nam Gung clan that created swords reaching the sky, he possessed talent of a thousand years.

As soon as he was born, his father closed his eyes and shed hot tears.

“This child will write a new history in the martial arts world.”

As his father had prophesied, Nam Gung Cheon’s talent reached the sky.

There were no rivals around him.

There was nothing to fear, nothing to be sad about, nothing difficult. The martial arts world was a world generous to those overflowing with talent.

Nam Gung Cheon became a young man.

His name began to echo throughout the martial arts world.

He lived his life as if looking down on the earth from above the sky.

[There was nothing to fear. I thought the world was beneath my feet.]

He found it boring.

His fame only grew higher. In ten, twenty years, he would be called the ‘World’s Greatest’. That was the predetermined future.

He thought nothing would particularly change.

[If I hadn’t met the Blood Demon, that is.]

At Uncle Dagger’s words, I froze in place.

The Blood Cult, the arch-enemy of Ji Cheon Wu, the Heavenly Demon Lord.

Their appearance was a bit further in the past. The battle between the righteous factions, the demonic cults, and the Blood Cult that happened long before I was born.

I heard that countless martial artists died.

I heard that they made mountains with countless corpses. The righteous factions and demonic cults joined forces.

It was to counter the Blood Cult.

Uncle Dagger continued in a calm tone.

[I had never seen such a being before.]

The Blood Demon was truly a monstrous existence.

Nam Gung Cheon, who had feared nothing in the world, felt fear for the first time that day.

He was defeated by the Blood Demon.

If the Blood Demon had taken his life, Nam Gung Cheon would have accepted it.

He was a martial artist, and it was natural to be defeated and killed by someone stronger than himself.

But the Blood Demon did not kill him.

[The Blood Demon fed me loneliness.]

What Nam Gung Cheon suffered was not ordinary loneliness.

He had his body taken by that worm.

At Uncle Dagger’s next words, I covered my mouth.

[Then he made me kill my comrades.]

It was not his will.

But he killed his righteous faction comrades with his own hands.

Unfortunate or fortunate? No one recognized Nam Gung Cheon’s appearance. His face was soaked in blood. The one who thought he would be called the world’s greatest in the righteous faction in his youth gained a different name.

[At some point, people began to call me the Blood Hand Heavenly Lord.]

He came to be called the most hateful person of the Blood Cult.

I quietly closed the book.

My eyes blurred at the horrific truth. A tear drop from my eyes fell and touched the dagger.

I understood the crime Uncle Dagger spoke of.

[I reached a realm that could touch the sky, but I chose to be trapped in this dagger rather than go there.]

He confined himself in the dagger to punish himself.

[It was to take revenge on the Blood Demon.]

‘Hundreds of years have passed. I heard the Blood Demon was badly wounded and hid himself.’

Of course, the Blood Demon was still alive. I hadn’t read Ji Cheon Wu to the end. Because I had the accident before that.

But I remember seeing up to the last chapter, the scene where Ji Cheon Wu confronts the Blood Demon.

[The Blood Demon is alive. Don’t you know?]

A fact I wanted to deny flashed through my mind.

Uncle Dagger’s words were right. The Blood Cult was alive.

The Blood Cult’s methods are vicious.

They tried to kill me to make grandfather fall into the demon’s heart. And they kidnapped Uncle Dagger and controlled him.

Thinking that far, I had a question.

‘Is my father really dead?’

Uncle Dagger went through exactly the same thing as my father.

He was reported missing, but was actually alive.

My father was the same.

He disappeared.

They said they couldn’t find the body.

People talked about how he must have died without even leaving a corpse.

‘Was it really the demonic cult that attacked my father and Nam Gung Hyun Jong…?’

They said my father sacrificed himself to buy time for Nam Gung Hyun Jong to escape from the demonic cult members.

One day, a drunk Nam Gung Hyun Jong came to me. With reddened eyes, he mumbled while looking at me.

[Hyun died because of you. It’s because of you that I became unlucky.] [Yes, that’s right. It’s not my fault!]

People said it was an honorable death befitting Nam Gung Hyun. They said how noble a death it was to sacrifice oneself for one’s brother.

But I remembered.

[I will never leave your side.] [I will come back.]

The words my father said to me before leaving. My father would never have stayed behind of his own will.

My father was not someone who would leave me voluntarily. Then what was Nam Gung Hyun Jong’s testimony?

I gripped the dagger tightly.

Strength entered my eyes.

I felt an unbearable anger boiling up.

“How can a person do such a thing?”

[Mandu…]

“How could they do that?”

How could a person…

I felt something breaking inside my heart.

I couldn’t forget my father’s warm touch.

Although it was just a brief contact. Now it’s a touch that can never be found again.

His faint laughter, his voice making promises for me…

As a child, I resented him.

I hated him for saying he would return but never coming back.

Where could my father be now?

There was no mention of Nam Gung Hyun appearing in the final chapter of Ji Cheon Wu. So I thought my father was really dead.

But what if, like Uncle Dagger, others just didn’t notice?

[“I will protect you.]

What if with the hands that promised to protect someone, he killed those dear to him?

I can’t forget his warm hands. Because that was the only memory of my father left to me.

I had often imagined it. The life where my father didn’t leave that day.

Then could I have always felt that touch? Some days I even resented him.

Why did father leave me? Why doesn’t he come back?

But if he’s alive.

And if he wants to return, but can’t…

If it wasn’t his will.

Father. I swallowed the cry rising to my throat, unable to utter that word.

Uncle Dagger’s voice reached my ears.

[It’s alright, Mandu.]

I raised my head.

[I remained here to prevent what you’re worried about. I won’t let anyone else go through what I did.]

When afflicted by loneliness, Uncle Dagger wished someone would kill him. He said he wanted someone stronger to appear and behead him.

[Because dying would have been better than killing loved ones with my own hands.]

Uncle Dagger was moving my body.

[There should be a bottle and a pouch on my body.]

I moved my body as Uncle Dagger guided. I saw the bottle on his chest.

And there was a bottle that looked extraordinary at a glance.

“This is…”

[It’s Empty Clear Stone Oil.]

It was a milky liquid. Empty Clear Stone Oil.

Although it might be thought of as a common elixir frequently appearing in martial arts novels, it was an incredible elixir that could cause a bloodbath in the martial world if it appeared even once.

‘By the way, even Ji Cheon Wu could only drink it once in the original work.’

Even Ji Cheon Wu, who was called an elixir manufacturing machine for consuming many elixirs, would be surprised to see Empty Clear Stone Oil.

Such an incredible elixir was in front of me.

It was what Uncle Dagger had prepared to fight the Blood Cult.

[I originally intended to give it to you in the more distant future, but it seems we don’t have time. Besides, it’s not bad since you now have time to gather your energy.]

Uncle Dagger continued.

[Power always comes with a price. If you drink this, your life from now on will be different.]