Under the night sky, in a cheap tavern where the smell of blood and alcohol mingles. At some point while serving customers, Jeom So-i recalls that he is a man who will one day be called the 'Mad Demon' and will stain the world with blood. The moment the memories of the past flood in, the time he has lived until now and the time he will walk in the future all become distorted. The Naver web novel by Yoo Jin-seong, 'Return of the Mad Demon', starts from this point. What can a madman do when he returns to the moment before he goes insane? And can he struggle not to go mad again, or will he make the world go mad this time? This question runs through the entire work.
In his first life, Jeom So-i was already a being feared by the world. An unmatched martial skill, unpredictable madness, and countless nameless individuals who perished at the tip of his sword. However, what he gained at the end of that mad life was closer to emptiness than victory. As much as he shook the world, the character within him was shattered. When he opens his eyes, what he holds is not a blood-stained sword but a table of drinks and a bottle of alcohol. He has returned to the time when he was doing menial work in a small tavern before stepping into the martial world. The moment the monster, driven only by raw desire and hatred, regains a body closer to the ordinary, the work begins its second life with a strangely bittersweet humour.
Unusual 'Reformation'
However, the 'ordinary life' does not last long. The very space of the tavern is already deeply connected to the outskirts of the martial world. Most of the customers who come to drink are figures from the martial world. Disciples of famous sects, assassins operating in the shadows, and masters whose affiliations are unknown. Jeom So-i, in the body of Jeom So-i, manages their affairs while reading the breath and momentum of his opponents with the senses he built in his first life. Scenes where he can gauge the level of martial skill just by observing their speech, gait, and drinking habits are repeated, allowing the reader to view the martial world through the eyes of someone who has 'gone mad once'.
The perspective of this world is also interesting. It is not an era where the familiar systems of the Nine Great Sects and the famous righteous sects are already established, but rather a chaotic period before that. Each faction is still tangled without names or forms, and the boundaries between demonic and righteous paths are not as clear as they are now. Jeom So-i falls into this transitional period. Holding the direction of the future that only someone who has lived a life to the end can know, he crosses between forces and figures that are just beginning to emerge. In this process, the reader observes how he lays the groundwork for what will later become 'standardised history'.
The main conflict begins with Jeom So-i's internal struggle. In his first life, he was swept away by madness and killed countless people, ultimately collapsing himself. After his return, he lives with that memory intact. Therefore, he could become even more brutal, or conversely, try to change completely. In reality, he remains sharp and cruel, but when he sees those with distorted dispositions, he cannot easily cut them down as he did before. Those he would have killed thoughtlessly in the past, he now keeps close and watches. Even knowing that they are individuals who could betray him at any moment, he becomes more deeply involved and builds relationships.
Is the enemy from a past life now a 'brother'?
The dynamics of character relationships are also unique. Around Jeom So-i gather eccentric masters from the demonic sect, problematic geniuses from various sects, and reclusive masters who have closed their hearts to the world and only gaze at nature. Most of these individuals are entangled with Jeom So-i in a bad relationship from his first life or are those who passed by without a name. In this life, he encounters these figures again. However, instead of drawing his sword as before, he tries to lead them in a new direction. The 'Three Disasters', who will one day leave a significant name in history, also appear in conjunction with this narrative. The moment the three calamities that shake the world reveal themselves, the story leads to a massive turning point that changes the shape of the world, rather than just a personal atonement. It is much more thrilling to read until the end to see where this turning point converges.
As the work progresses into the latter half, Jeom So-i's struggles transcend simple confrontations. He faces one by one the choices he made in the past that turned him into the Mad Demon, and the atmosphere and structure of the era that created those choices. He does not dismiss his madness as merely a 'crazy personality'. There is an underlying awareness that madness may be the result of the world pushing people into a corner. Therefore, in his second life, while he cuts down enemies, he listens to the stories of those who have become enemies until the end, and sometimes spares them to draw them to his side. The process of problematic individuals gathering to form a single force, which will become the foundation for changing the history of future generations, is a rare long-term design within the genre of martial arts.
Unbelievable Writing That Makes Characters Convincing
The greatest strength of 'Return of the Mad Demon' is not simply that it has adopted the framework of a reincarnation story. It takes the device of reincarnation, which has already been consumed countless times, and combines it with the character of the 'madman', leading it in a completely different nuance. While most reincarnation protagonists are cool strategists who calculate efficiency and gain without hesitation, Jeom So-i is, in a word, the opposite. He knows more than anyone and has already reached the top of the world once, yet he is still easily swayed by emotions, gets angry, and acts unpredictably. Strangely, that impulsiveness becomes a massive driving force that moves the world.
This impulsiveness, combined with Yoo Jin-seong's unique writing style, creates the persuasiveness of 'madness'. Jeom So-i's monologues are often scattered and disjointed. He expresses anger in one sentence, talks about emptiness in the next, and then contemplates restaurant menus. The dialogue and inner monologues flow almost like a stream of consciousness, but the problem is that these scattered thoughts naturally coalesce into a single narrative flow over time. When lines that were thrown out as strange jokes in the early stages gain new meaning in the latter half, intertwined with the character's past, the reader realises that the language of the 'madman' is actually built on meticulous design.
The worldview is also quite ambitious among Korean martial arts web novels. This work does not merely record events of a specific era but rather shows the origin stories of settings that will later be consumed as 'obvious premises' in other works. Before clichés like the Nine Great Sects and the righteous sects, and the Great War of Righteous and Demonic Paths become solidified, it depicts the process where someone's choices and coincidences overlap to fixate on a single 'constant'. The point where the sects, martial skills, and rules of the world that later appear too obviously in other martial arts works feel like the result of the butterfly effect left by Jeom So-i and his associates is the charm of this work. The more familiar the reader is with martial arts clichés, the more they will laugh and empathise deeply.
The battle descriptions also have a slightly different texture. While many web martial arts novels display combat power by listing stages and numbers like 'lightness skill - internal energy - sword technique', 'Return of the Mad Demon' uses almost no quantified hierarchy. Who is stronger is revealed not by training years or levels but through the momentum, psychological warfare, and context of the fight that emerge in the scenes. By the time Jeom So-i draws his sword, numerous words, expressions, and changes in atmosphere have already accumulated, so when the actual fight occurs, the superiority of the characters is clearly felt with just a few lines of description. As a result, the battles read more as an extension of emotion and narrative than as technical explanations.
However, the work does not always maintain perfect balance. Being a considerably lengthy piece, as it progresses into the latter half, the scale expands significantly, while the narratives of supporting characters that were carefully built up in the early to mid-stages become somewhat faint. Characters with their own wounds and desires leave a strong impression in the beginning but may feel like they retreat into the background in the final major scene. While the structure of the narrative converging around the protagonist and the 'Three Disasters' is convincing, there is certainly a lingering disappointment that some characters the reader has invested affection in do not receive sufficient closure.
Another barrier is the familiarity with genre conventions. This work is not particularly friendly to newcomers to martial arts. It starts with the premise that it shares a certain level of understanding of terms and sensibilities that have repeatedly appeared in Korean martial arts web novels, such as the Nine Great Sects, demonic paths, and the Great War of Righteous and Demonic Paths. Therefore, for readers encountering martial arts for the first time, it may take quite a while to understand why this world operates as it does and why people accept these values as obvious. Conversely, for readers who have read several web martial arts novels, simply witnessing the process of the symbols that existing works used as 'premises' being born one by one can provide a strong thrill.
Nevertheless, the reason 'Return of the Mad Demon' continues to be discussed among many readers for a long time is ultimately due to the human charm of the characters. Not only the protagonist but also those who become his companions through bad relationships, and even the characters who pass by briefly, all have their own stories and desires. Some gather around the Mad Demon to survive, some to forgive themselves, and others simply because it seems interesting. The process of these individuals laughing, fighting, betraying, and reconciling creates a portrayal of human figures that is compelling enough even without the genre's decorative elements. Thus, the real enjoyment of this story lies not in the journey to become the 'greatest in the world', but in watching a once mad human stand among people again.
For those who have ever recalled a 'dream abandoned in flight' in life, this novel resonates heavily. Whether it is studying, sports, or daily life, if there is a memory of having let go of something without going all the way, the scenes where the reincarnated Jeom So-i faces the past will feel like someone else's story. If he were to return, would he ultimately make the same choices, or would he walk a slightly different path? As you turn the pages holding onto that question, you may find yourself attempting a small reconciliation with your own past.
For those who easily tire of relationships and the world, the 'mad humour' of this work may provide a strange comfort. Setting aside the gaze that sees the world too seriously for a moment, the experience of watching characters who somehow live on while holding their inner burdens offers a surprisingly great sense of liberation. You will find yourself laughing, yet feeling a pang from a single sentence, and experiencing moments of unexpectedly warm eyes in the midst of bloody battles. For readers who wish to willingly traverse such emotional ups and downs, 'Return of the Mad Demon' will undoubtedly remain an unforgettable reading experience.
