Yongcheon Pavilion, a sect affiliated with the Justice Alliance.
Once a prestigious academy that trained promising young disciples from the sects and noble families under the Alliance.
It also served as a place where affiliated medical practitioners were trained and where patients were treated.
This specific place was called Buhsingak (Pavilion of Renewal).
On one of its beds lay Sabi Gang, who suddenly opened his eyes wide as if waking from death.
"Gahk! Hahh! Huff! Huff!"
His body flailed violently on the bed like a fish out of water.
After a prolonged fit of convulsions, he finally stilled and slowly sat up.
Sweat dripped from his chin.
"Huff... Huff... Huff..."
As he caught his breath, he groped at his upper body.
Bruises, dark blue and purple, marked his skin all over.
Clenching and unclenching his fists, he slowly lifted his head.
A strange—no, familiar—sight met his eyes.
Doorposts and latticed windows, things he hadn't seen in the Demonic Realm, filled his vision.
A place he'd been away from for a long time.
That's likely why everything felt both unfamiliar and eerily nostalgic.
"I'm… alive. And…"
He had returned!
He didn't know the exact time, but it was clear—he was back in the Central Plains.
His body trembled once more.
An uncontrollable surge of euphoria welled up within him.
"I did it… I actually did it! Kukuk. Hahaha. HAAHAHAHAHA!"
Throwing back his head, Sabi Gang let out a thunderous laugh to the sky.
Years of resentment and bitterness melted into that laughter and dispersed into the air.
How long had he laughed like a madman?
Suddenly sensing a presence, Sabi Gang turned his head—and nearly leapt in surprise.
"Huh?! W-Who are you?!"
Right beside him, an old man stood wide-eyed, staring at him with a grim expression.
Having just returned, Sabi Gang was still disoriented.
He hadn't even thought to check his surroundings.
The vaguely familiar landscape had overwhelmed him with emotion.
But to think someone had been watching him from up close all this time—
Sabi Gang quickly combed through his memory.
In preparation for moments like this, he had memorized his most critical memories through magic while in the Demonic Realm.
Thanks to that, he recognized the old man almost instantly.
"Buhsingak Pavilion Master…?"
"Pavilion Master…?"
"…sir?"
Jin Baek, the master of Buhsingak, frowned, then shook his head.
"They said you got beaten so badly by those thugs you nearly lost your mind. I see now—they might've been right."
It made sense.
The man had flailed like a snake the moment he awoke and then suddenly burst into mad laughter.
From Jin Baek's perspective, it was reasonable to suspect that Sabi Gang had suffered a qigong deviation.
Sabi Gang scanned his body again.
Bruises, tears, and welts all over.
There wasn't a single spot left untouched.
One thing was certain—these weren't wounds from the Demonic Realm.
"The Demon King's sword pierced my heart… so these injuries must be…"
Clicking his tongue, Jin Baek asked,
"Can't remember a thing, can you?"
Sabi Gang searched his memory again.
Beaten by thugs?
Come to think of it…
Yes, he remembered now. It had happened.
He had heard a fellow student had been dragged off by street thugs from the nearby village.
He had rushed out to save them, only to be ambushed and beaten unconscious by masked men.
Of course, there had been no student there.
It had been a cruel prank by his fellow trainees who looked down on him.
If this was that time—
"That was… about ten years before those bastards showed up, wasn't it?"
As Jin Baek quietly studied his face, he sighed lightly and stood up.
"How long are you going to let those kids trample on you? You need to toughen up. These days, they don't fear anything. Backed by their sects and families…"
But he trailed off mid-sentence.
He instead stared blankly at the now-standing Sabi Gang.
Thin for a martial artist.
Despite his average height, he had always looked somewhat frail.
But now, something about him had changed.
His expression, once lifeless like a dying animal, was sharp—his eyes keenly scanning his surroundings.
Jin Baek squinted suspiciously and asked,
"You… alright?"
"Do you have a mirror?"
Sabi Gang responded with a question of his own.
In the past, he'd never had the guts to look a superior in the eyes, let alone answer them so curtly.
But now he replied with a question?
Caught off guard, Jin Baek fetched a mirror and handed it to him, feeling like he was dealing with a completely different person.
"Here. But… are you sure you're alright?"
Sabi Gang studied his reflection from various angles.
He looked younger.
A somewhat gaunt face with a meek expression.
"Pathetic. Was this really what I looked like? I can't even bear to look at myself."
He handed the mirror back.
"I'm fine. Thank you, Pavilion Master."
"I-I see. Ah, I told the Pavilion Head you'd be resting here for a couple of days."
"Well, thanks."
Sabi Gang answered bluntly and walked off with firm steps.
"Two days… I should use that time to organize my thoughts."
Jin Baek watched his retreating figure, clicking his tongue again.
"Looks like he's had a major psychological shock."
***
Back in his room for the first time in ages, Sabi Gang swept his cold gaze across the interior.
His expression was stiff, but deep inside, he was deeply unsettled.
Here, he had once spent his days sometimes laughing, sometimes worrying, and sometimes crying.
Recalling those memories…
"I was pathetic. Stupid and worthless."
Sabi Gang shook his head.
Looking back, his former self was nothing short of pitiful.
Always watching others' reactions, always shrinking back.
But he couldn't just keep blaming the past forever.
Now, he had to live in the present.
"Everything begins now."
Sabi Gang's gaze sharpened noticeably.
The next ten years.
He had to prepare everything by then.
Ten years—enough time for mountains and rivers to change.
But against the Demon King's army that would one day invade the Central Plains, it was barely enough time to prepare.
"Still… I will kill him. I'll build an undefeated army before that. I always pay back what I owe!"
He gently rubbed his chest.
Even now, he could still feel the ache from where the Demon King's sword had pierced his heart, just before his return.
Just as he was sitting down in his chair—
"Um… Instructor, are you inside?"
Sabi Gang turned toward the door.
"Who is it?"
"This is Yeon Woogyeong from Class Cotton, First-Year."
Yeon Woogyeong?
Sabi Gang furrowed his brow for a moment, then nodded in recognition.
It was that very student he had rushed out to save after hearing she was dragged off by thugs.
"Come in."
Yeon Woogyeong timidly opened the door and stepped inside.
The moment she saw Sabi Gang, she flinched.
He was seated in a chair with his feet propped up on the table.
Sabi Gang had never shown such arrogance in front of anyone before.
Not even a student.
As she stood there awkwardly, Sabi Gang frowned slightly.
"What do you want?"
"Ah, well… I wanted to apologize…"
"For what?"
"I heard you were badly hurt because of me."
"Who said that?"
"Pardon?"
"I asked, who told you I got hurt because of you?"
"O-other students…"
"What nonsense. It wasn't because of you, so don't worry about it."
"But still, while trying to save me…"
"You weren't even there. The ones who should be apologizing to me are the students who lied and said you were kidnapped. Unless, of course, you did something else that you need to apologize for?"
"Eh? N-no, nothing like that…"
"Then are we done here?"
"Pardon?"
"If you've got nothing else to say, you can go."
"Oh… okay."
Yeon Woogyeong bowed politely and turned to leave.
Just as she reached the doorway, she glanced back at him.
"By the way… I heard there was a meeting in Yongdam Hall, led by the Dean. It seems those students are going to be disciplined."
"Discipline? Discipline, huh. Hmph. What a joke."
Sabi Gang let out a cold laugh.
Though he had returned to his homeland after so long, he already knew well the state of the place.
A place so rotted from prolonged peace that it was decaying from within.
In truth, the instructors here couldn't even touch the promising scions.
They were too busy bowing to the sects and noble families backing those students.
Even so, his former self had harbored a shred of hope.
That the students would be punished justly, and that no one would torment him again.
How foolish he had been.
"Hmph…"
"Um… Instructor?"
When he looked back, Yeon Woogyeong was still standing there, staring at him.
"Didn't I tell you to leave? I just came back from a long journey—I'm tired."
"Journey?"
She looked puzzled, but Sabi Gang's expression hardened coldly.
It was his way of saying don't ask anything else.
After Yeon Woogyeong finally left the room, Sabi Gang stared into empty space, lost in thought.
After a moment, he suddenly stretched out his hand and focused.
A blue energy coalesced into a bead in the center of his palm.
Chiiit. Chijijik.
A radiant orb gleaming with jade light.
If anyone had seen it, they would have been mesmerized.
But Sabi Gang nonchalantly dispelled it and muttered with dissatisfaction,
"Tch, only about Second Circle? As I thought—I need that."
He was only able to manifest even this much because, at the moment of death, he had absorbed some of the demonic energy emanating from the Demon King's blade, carrying it with him into this life.
Sabi Gang laced his fingers behind his head and sank back into thought.
After being abducted to the Demonic Realm, he had survived countless hardships.
Through conspiracies, betrayals, and chaos, he had clawed his way up to become a Grand Duke of the Demon Realm.
He had known the Demon King's interference would begin eventually.
But he had grown arrogant.
He wasn't prepared enough.
Subordinates who had been like extensions of himself had died in droves trying to protect him from the Demon King.
Had he not made returning his last contingency plan, he never would have been granted this second life.
"First, to ensure both vengeance and preparation, I need to properly rebuild my body. And for that—I'll need that. I'll start by collecting what's nearby."
At last, he slowly closed his eyes.
It truly had been a long, long journey.
He wanted to rest—just a little.