I returned from death, only to walk back into hell of my own will.
To the place that had once forged me into a martial man—
the Great Blood Demon Cult Frontline.
In this life, I will lose nothing.
Not my friends, not my family, not my life.
And I will shatter it.
The Blood Demon Cult that stole everything from me.
Blood Demon Frontline: Thirteen Flying Dragons / Winter Firefly
Chapter 1 — The Seonu Clan
Three-Sword Light Split.
Shuhaak!
The peerless technique of the Jeomchang Sect's Eighteen Splitting Swords divided light itself, and three heads fell at once.
Cheongpung Slash.
Shyaaaak!
The peerless technique of the Cheongseong Sect's Cheongpung Sword ripped open the chests of the onrushing shadows, spraying blood.
But even as their bodies split and they died, none of them screamed.
And I, the one who killed them, felt no joy either.
Instead, tears of grief fell from my eyes.
Because every one of them was not an enemy—
but my family, my kin, the people of the Seonu Clan.
My family, my friends, my subordinates.
"Khahahaha! What an amusing fellow! The head of the Seonu Clan, yet you do nothing but use Cheongseong and Jeomchang martial arts day and night! Have you forgotten the famous Thirteen Swords of Seonu altogether?"
The Blood Demon Cult's demon, Black Blood Phantom Demon Dudang, mocked me.
He was the one who had turned the Seonu Clan's people into puppets and sent them to attack me.
"Aha! Now I recall—it was only passed down to you, wasn't it? I had forgotten."
Beside him stood my younger brother, Seonu Gi, the previous head of the Seonu Clan.
He had gone missing during a Blood Demon Cult raid… only to now stand here, stiff and blank-eyed, reduced to one of Dudang's puppets.
And he wasn't the only one.
"To slaughter your own kin so ruthlessly—what a vicious man you are. They say you're from the Flying Dragon Unit, yes? Hah, as expected of Flying Dragon men. Tsk, tsk."
Clicking his tongue, Dudang looked over my dazed family members.
"Now then, whom should I send to finally break your will and force you to surrender? …Ah, yes. That child, perhaps?"
His gaze landed on her.
My younger sister, Yeonha.
Even when I was branded the shame of the Seonu Clan, called a useless pig, she had stood by me until the very end.
And I had prayed—prayed desperately—that at least she would be spared.
But perhaps my twisted expression gave me away, for Dudang clapped his hands and laughed brightly.
"Perfect! I chose well! Now then, have this child brutally kill you as well, Seonu Jin—the last head of the Seonu Clan!"
My younger sister Yeonha walked slowly toward me, passing through the circle of Blood Demon Cultists.
In her hands, she carried Baengno—the beloved sword I had once given her as a gift.
I looked around.
Every direction was sealed off by the cultists.
Behind them, Dudang had lined up my clan's people—his puppets now—sending them at me one by one, laughing and clapping all the while.
There was no hope left.
I shut my eyes tightly.
'I'm sorry, Captain. It seems I could never become like you after all.'
The face of my eternal captain, my benefactor who had raised me from a cripple to a martial man—Wild Wind Flying Dragon Seol Pung—flashed before me.
And the words he had always told me…
Whenever I despaired, he would smile and say:
'Jin, are you curling up again? I've told you many times—you've already done your best. That's enough. The outcome is no longer your responsibility. So lift your head.'
My eyes snapped open.
Strength filled them once more.
My captain had always said—
to keep doing what I could, until the very end.
That if I did not give up, then even in defeat, I would not be a loser.
Yes, he was right.
To be unable to win did not mean I had to be a loser.
I could not win today, nor could I hope to survive.
But there was still something I could do. Something I must do.
If I were captured, my body too would be turned into Dudang's puppet, like my family.
And one day, he would do to my captain what he did to me.
That, I could never allow.
To become a burden on my captain and my friends—that was unbearable.
'Fine then. If I must die, I will die cleanly—by my own will!'
I made my decision.
I reversed my grip on my sword, raising it before my chest.
The Hongyeon Sword, symbol of the Seonu Clan head and said to bear the aura of demon-slaying, now pointed toward my heart.
At last, Dudang's smile vanished.
"You… what are you trying to do?!"
Perhaps, for once, I had chosen rightly. Smiling fiercely, I answered him.
"You can kill me, but you cannot use my corpse. And Dudang—
I will never let you live. Even as a ghost, I will hunt you down and kill you!"
With those words, I drove the Hongyeon Sword into my heart.
Puk!
Agony, as though fire seared my chest, raged through my body.
And yet, it wasn't suffering.
Even as my mind dimmed, I felt relief.
The Hongyeon Sword—the divine blade of the Seonu Clan's long history—had pierced my heart. Dudang would not be able to use my corpse.
And regret came, too.
Had I known, I would have lived harder.
I would not have run away, claiming I didn't want to fight my brothers.
I would have embraced my talent fully….
***
In the haze of fading consciousness, a shrill scream stabbed into my ears.
"Kyaaaah! Murder!"
Yes… I had murdered.
Killed many… and even taken my own life.
So could you be quiet?
It's too noisy to stay dead.
"Murder! Young Lord Seonu Jin has killed Young Lord Dan Hasang!"
Even with my head unbearably heavy in death, the words made me frown.
Dan Hasang? What era are they even talking about?
Just the thought of that incident still keeps me awake at night.
But as the noise around me swelled and footsteps rushed closer, I realized something was off.
I cracked my eyes open.
And shock struck me—my eyes opened.
"…Huh?!"
I was stunned.
I had died.
So why could I see?
And what I saw was chaos—
scattered wine bottles, half-eaten food… and across from me, the corpse of a young man collapsed face-first.
A sword stuck in his back.
A man I knew all too well.
His name—Dan Hasang.
The one who had been promised to marry my younger sister Yeonha… the man who had died more than ten years ago, when I was twenty-one.
And here he was, dead before me again.
"What… is this?"
I stared blankly.
I couldn't comprehend.
Was my daze from drink, or from this impossible situation?
I looked at my hands.
Plump, fat hands—like bear paws.
"These… aren't my hands."
I frowned instinctively.
They weren't the hands I had now.
These were the hands I had parted ways with forever when I slimmed down at twenty-two.
"Is this… a dream? What is real? Where does it end?"
As I muttered blankly, people burst into the room.
They saw the corpse and shouted in shock.
"Young Lord Seonu! Why have you killed Young Lord Dan?!"
I turned my dazed gaze to the sword in his back.
It was my sword.
***
Dragged away, I was bound tightly and forced to kneel in the center of the clan hall. Elders and household members of the Seonu Clan stood at a distance, watching.
Even kneeling, my fat body made my legs ache unbearably.
'No way… this isn't a dream, is it?'
The crushing realism made me gulp.
Then, from the dais, a middle-aged man roared like fire.
My father—Seonu Jung, head of the Seonu Clan of Guiju.
"Jin, you wretch! Do you have anything to say?!"
No. Nothing.
Not because I had no defense, but because this entire situation was so absurd.
The father I last saw at twenty-one, never again afterward—
was now scolding me again, exactly as I remembered.
"You mean to say nothing? Then do you admit it—that you killed Young Lord Dan, third son of the Dan Clan and your future brother-in-law?!"
No. Never.
That, I could never admit.
Back then, at twenty-one, I had been too shocked, too drunk, too lost to defend myself.
But for years afterward, sleepless, I had thought and thought… until I reached a conclusion.
'He was not killed by me.'
Yes.
I had neither the motive nor the ability.
He was my only friend, the one who treated me without scorn despite my status as family disgrace.
He was also the reason my sister Yeonha and I were to be bound by marriage.
So why would I ever kill him—the man whose wedding I awaited eagerly?
And besides, he was a promising young scion of a martial clan, while I was nothing but a pig.
Even drunk, it would have been hard—no, impossible—for me to kill him.
And most of all—
'I had one certain proof that it wasn't me.'
That night, I hadn't brought a sword to the banquet.
My memory had been sharp since youth, enough that they once called me a prodigy for it.
Of that much, I was certain.
Therefore, Dan Hasang's death was undoubtedly a plot.
A scheme to kill him and frame me.
Yet despite all of this, the words that left my mouth were nothing like my thoughts—
they were the exact same words I had spoken at twenty-one.
"I… don't remember."
Naturally, that answer only poured fuel onto my father Seonu Jung's fury.
"You stupid fool! Do you call that an answer?!" he roared.
Beside him, the young men standing—my brothers, whom I hadn't seen in so long—laughed in disbelief.
"That idiot's caused drunken accidents more than once, but I never dreamed he'd cause something this big!"
"Really? I expected it. Last time he set a fire, so I wondered what kind of debauchery he'd pull next to disgrace the clan. Murdering someone while drunk seemed most likely. I didn't think he'd kill the man set to become his brother-in-law, though."
"I'm honestly surprised. I didn't think our pig-handed brother could even hold a sword. Let alone use it to kill someone."
Their sneering voices dripped with scorn, their eyes unable to hide contempt.
The scene was identical to my memories.
I swept my cold gaze over them.
'It must be one of them. One of them killed Dan Hasang and framed me.'
From their words, it seemed most likely to be my second brother, Seonu Hyuk, who'd claimed he "already knew."
But my suspicions leaned elsewhere.
Then my father thundered again.
"I don't even know how to punish you! How am I to atone to the Dan Clan? Shall I kill you and send your corpse to them?!"
I kept my head bowed in silence.
If this truly was my return to the past, then whether I spoke or not, the result was already set.
And sure enough, my brothers began offering their sly suggestions.
"Would killing him appease their anger? Better cripple him and send him alive, so they can vent their wrath themselves," said the eldest, Seonu Seong.
"Why bother at all? Just cut ties and drive him out. They'll handle it on their own," said the second, Seonu Hyuk.
But as in my memory, the decisive words came from the fourth—Seonu Gi.
"How about this? Send Third Brother to the Frontline."
"…What?"
The others, even Father, widened their eyes at the unexpected proposal.
Seonu Gi continued.
"Didn't the Alliance request it not long ago? That every clan send one direct descendant to the frontline. So send Third Brother."
Father's face darkened.
"With Jin's martial skill, if he goes to the frontline, he'll be killed by the demons instantly."
"So what? He's as good as dead anyway. If he dies there, it will be a glorious death. It will raise our clan's honor and pay for his crime. Isn't that killing two birds with one stone?"
As he finished, I muttered the unspoken reason in my heart:
'And it means none of you will have to go yourselves.'
The frontline was the boundary against the Blood Demon Cult, who had occupied Yunnan Province.
More than ten years ago, the Cult destroyed the Jeomchang Sect and tried to invade the Central Plains.
The Martial Alliance had organized an extermination force, clashing in a desperate war—the Great Blood Battle.
Though the Alliance's leader died in that struggle, they barely prevented the Cult's invasion.
But Yunnan itself was lost. The Jeomchang Sect's territory became the Cult's domain.
Afterward, the Alliance stationed righteous warriors near Yunnan to guard against further incursions. People called it the Great Blood Demon Cult Frontline.
'But that was more than ten years ago. Now… tch.'
At first, it had been a place for chivalrous volunteers, but over time, it became nothing but danger with no fame or profit.
Now it could only be sustained by forcing clans to send their own.
And so the clans of Guiju, including the Seonu Clan, were each required to send one direct descendant.
'Originally, one of my three brothers should have gone. But now, with this "crime" as pretext, they can send me—the useless one they don't mind losing.'
For them, nothing could be better.
I had replayed this moment thousands of times in memory, and every time I concluded:
The one who plotted against me was most likely the fourth, Seonu Gi.
The decision was unanimous.
To the Dan Clan, they would offer monetary compensation.
As for me—I was to be sent swiftly to Yunnan's frontline.
Exactly the same judgment as when I was twenty-one.
Afterward, I was locked in the dungeon.
Outside, the black night sky held a pale moon, shining faint and lonely.
That was the last moon of my homeland I would remember—
the same one I later recalled so often at the frontline.
And I remembered.
'Back then, I used to weep endlessly beneath that moon.'
But not this time.
Because now I knew: tonight, two people would visit me.
And from one of them, I had to obtain something.
One was already approaching, carefully.
The only person in that thorny household who had ever been my comfort—
my kind little sister, Yeonha.
"Brother Jin, are you all right?"
Her face reminded me of the last sight I had seen before death—
her, turned into a Blood Demon Cult puppet.
It made me cherish her all the more.
I smiled softly.
"I'm fine, Yeonha. But are you all right?"
"Of course I am. But you, Brother… stay strong. I believe you are not the culprit."
Yes. Even then, that kind child had spoken those words.
At the time, I only wept and thanked her over and over.
But now—I could say it with confidence.
"You're right, Yeonha. Your brother is not the culprit."
She blinked in surprise.
"What?"
"Hm? Why do you look that way?"
"No, it's just… why are you so certain?"
Why?
"Because I would never kill my only friend—the man who was to be your husband. Besides, we were drinking face-to-face. Yet the sword was in his back. And it was a sword I hadn't even brought."
Yeonha swallowed hard.
"I-I see. Then Brother… why didn't you say that before Father?"
"Because leaving the clan for the frontline seemed the better choice."
"What?!"
Yes.
Looking back, my life was divided into two: before and after the frontline.
Before the frontline… my life in the clan was nothing a martial man could be proud of.
'No… not even a martial man. Not even a proper human being.'
Just remembering it suffocated me.
Among the Seonu brothers, I alone had no mother. She had died when I was very young.
But that wasn't the real problem.
The problem was that I had no powerful maternal family behind me.
As a child, I was once hailed as a prodigy, thanks to my memory.
And from then, I learned a bitter truth.
'The more talent I showed, the more hatred I drew—and the shorter my life would become.'
The cold eyes of my brothers' mothers.
The suffocating pressure tightening around me.
Even as a child, I understood it all too well.
So I had no choice.
I hid my talent. I chose to play the fool.
But one day, I realized—
that in pretending to be a fool, I had truly become one.
I pretended to be lazy, and became lazy.
I pretended to waste time, and learned nothing.
Branded the shame of the clan, I laughed it off.
I drowned myself in drink and pleasure, ruining myself.
That was the life I lived for twenty-one years.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
'Yes. To be called a pig—honestly, I deserved it.'
So if I wanted to change, I had to leave the clan.
I had to go to the frontline.
And I had to meet him.
The man who turned the disgrace of Seonu into a martial man—
my idol, Wild Wind Flying Dragon Seol Pung.
That was why I had kept silent and accepted the false charge.
Though this time, I had no intention of bearing that stigma to the end.