Chapter 617: Get Up

WHOOSH!

The chilling winter wind swept over the windowsill once more. Out beyond the grilles, the First Apostle’s figure blurred and reformed inside the room soundlessly.

Anyone else would have recoiled in horror at such a stealthy display , but Baek Suryong stared at the former trainee standing before him unflinchingly.

“Did you expect me to visit?” the First Apostle asked, his voice dry.

“I was prepared for it. Knowing you, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you walked in on me at any hour.”

“Your defenses are sloppy for a man who was prepared.”

“Could I have stopped you even if I had been prepared? I didn’t want to create unnecessary casualties, so I didn’t tell anyone.”

“Bold. Or perhaps reckless.”

“I reckon I need both to sit across from you like this.”

The conversation flowed smoothly even though they were meeting for the first time. Oddly, neither man found that the least bit strange.

“Sit down. You must have a lot of questions for me.”

Baek Suryong gestured to the chair opposite him, and the First Apostle obliged.

The two men sat facing each other across a table. At this distance, they could see each other’s faces and even the expressions their own faces reflected in the other’s eyes.

For a long while, they quietly observed each other.

“...It’s been a long time,” Baek Suryong finally said, thinking of the day he reunited with Sagon. Sagon had come alone that day and asked many questions. One of them had haunted him ever since.

Back then, he hadn’t been able to give Sagon a proper answer. He had just sat there, downing cup after cup, unable to speak.

Now was different. A great deal had happened since that night, and he had had more than enough time to think things through. He could now face Number One’s scarred features without flinching.

“Did you come alone? I don’t sense the others. If they’re keeping watch from a distance...”

“Azure Dragon Hero,” the First Apostle interjected.

Baek Suryong fell silent. His former trainee’s voice was arid, devoid of emotion.

Tapping a finger against the table, the First Apostle stared at the man across from him as if he were something that shouldn’t exist. “You are a peerless master who appeared in the jianghu overnight. You have sabotaged our cult’s plans at every turn and decapitated several Elders. Our cult has suffered immeasurable damage because of you. You even drove one of our own Apostles to apostasy. In the history of our cult, has there ever been a more vicious enemy than you?”

He stopped mid-sentence, his face contorting in agony.

Baek Suryong saw his stiff expression reflected in his former trainee’s eyes, but he said firmly, “If you’re fishing for answers, then stop. You’ve observed me for several days already. I don’t believe you still don’t know who I am, Number One.”

Number One.

The First Apostle murmured his designation—a name that had only ever existed to distinguish him from the others—and leaned toward Baek Suryong until they were close enough to feel each other’s breath.

Glaring, he bared his teeth like an animal and snarled, “Only three people in the world are permitted to call me that. The rest of them died a very long time ago.”

“I am...”

“But I’ll let the name slide.”

The First Apostle’s lips curved into a crooked smile, and the scars across his face crinkled along with it. The dim moonlight carved deeper shadows into them.

“Let us assume, just for a moment, that what you claim is true.”

“...What are you doing?”

“You should have killed me back then.”

The First Apostle took a step back and waved his hand through the air. Dust rose from the room and coalesced into small shapes. Above his palm, they took the form of five figures the size of a finger. This delicate artistry was born of qi controlled to an absolute degree, a feat that none but a peerless master could hope to replicate.

The largest of the five figures turned to face the other four, who dropped to their knees.

“That’s me and you kids, ” Baek Suryong murmured, his voice cracking slightly at the sight. The First Apostle had brought decades of the past back into the room and staged it as a puppet show.

A finger-sized version of himself swung a whip at his former trainees. The four figures of dust and ki collapsed to the floor and hauled themselves upright, over and over. As the show went on, the small figures grew until they were as tall as their master.

Next, new figures appeared and rushed at each other across the First Apostle’s palm.

“This is most likely my old instructor’s final memory,” the First Apostle said plainly, a cold sneer on his face as he watched his own creations.

Baek Suryong recognized this scene. This was a reenactment of the fight that took place the day he had tried to escape the Blood Cult. He and his four masters were surrounded by Blood Cultists, with his own former trainees pointing weapons at them.

“...Enough.”

Frowning, he swept his hand through the air, unwilling to watch another second of this farce. The figures scattered in a dust cloud.

“Why are you showing me this?” he demanded, his eyes bloodshot.

None of that made the abuse he had endured any less agonizing.

The First Apostle returned his gaze with a peculiar expression. “After our old instructor died, one question lingered in my mind for a very long time. If you truly are his reincarnation, can you answer it?”

Baek Suryong nodded solemnly. He dreaded whatever was about to come out of that mouth, but he wasn’t going to hide from it or run away anymore.

“Why didn’t he kill us first?”

“...What?”

For a moment, the First Apostle sat frozen, as if he had forgotten to breathe. Soon, his shoulders began to shake, and he started laughing in short bursts.

“We stood in his way when he was discovered fleeing the underground prison. That doesn’t make any sense. He must have been planning to escape the cult for a long time.” The First Apostle looked out the window as if recalling every detail of that fateful day. “Had he wanted to, he could have escaped long before we grew strong enough to threaten him. He could have poisoned our food. He could have ambushed us while we were circulating our qi. There must have been dozens of other methods available to him.”

“......”

“But he did nothing. We were clearly the biggest obstacle to his escape, yet our old instructor pretended he didn’t notice. He just left us behind and took off on his own.”

A bottomless anger sat behind the First Apostle’s glassy eyes. His long exhale turned white in the night air.