Baek Cheon-gyeong looked at the doll.
Geom Mugeuk focused on the change in his expression. Had the doll been the cause? The vacant look in his eyes cleared. It was the dying flash of lucidity that came just before death.
Baek Cheon-gyeong’s reaction was unexpected. He smiled when he saw the doll.
“Why are you laughing?”
Baek Cheon-gyeong’s gaze shifted from the doll to Geom Mugeuk.
“I should have taught you when you asked me to teach you carving.”
It meant he had made it that badly.
Geom Mugeuk smiled and said,
“Isn’t this excellent for a first work?”
“Just don’t go around saying I taught you.”
Even as he spoke clearly, blood kept spilling from his mouth. He was not even aware that he was coughing up blood. Geom Mugeuk felt a pang of regret. He had not wanted to kill him.
“I feel dizzy.”
As Baek Cheon-gyeong’s body slowly collapsed, the trees that had filled the surroundings began to sink back into the earth. The two were freed from the sealed space created by his final secret technique, and sunlight shone upon Baek Cheon-gyeong’s pale face.
“Just tell me if it was that man!”
Baek Cheon-gyeong, on his knees, looked at the grass around him. As his life faded, the grass and trees around them were dying as well.
“You gave me hell… Why should I tell you anything?”
It was not simply resentment at being killed. To die while harboring the suspicion that he might have lived as someone’s puppet for the past ten years—that was surely hell.
He raised his head and looked at the wooden dolls set up all around them. Those dolls, too, were losing their mystic force. The dolls he had carved over the past ten years had not been carved for his own sake?
“……Don’t spout nonsense.”
He denied Geom Mugeuk’s words.
The grass and trees around them shook violently, as if a wind had blown through. It was because his rage had seeped into them, yet they looked as though they were mourning his death.
Geom Mugeuk slowly walked over and sat facing him. Their eyes met.
“I will take revenge. I’ll take your revenge too. So tell me!”
Geom Mugeuk knew it. The more desperate he became, the more Baek Cheon-gyeong would be enraged. But he had no choice. Whether he heard those words or not was far too important.
Baek Cheon-gyeong’s eyes began to close.
“No! Don’t die!”
Geom Mugeuk placed his palm against Baek Cheon-gyeong’s chest and poured internal energy into him. Baek Cheon-gyeong coughed, splattering blood across Geom Mugeuk’s face and body, but Geom Mugeuk did not stop infusing him with energy.
Baek Cheon-gyeong opened his eyes again.
“Right… You said you wanted revenge too, didn’t you?”
Geom Mugeuk held the doll out in front of him again. He said nothing, but Baek Cheon-gyeong understood. The face carved into the doll was Geom Mugeuk’s enemy.
At last, the truth flowed from Baek Cheon-gyeong’s mouth.
“Your revenge has nothing to do with me. The one who approached me… was not that man.”
Geom Mugeuk was startled.
“It wasn’t this man?”
“He… did not look like this.”
In the final moments of his life, he did not appear to be lying.
“Then who was it? How do I meet that person?”
But Baek Cheon-gyeong did not tell him about that person. The last person he thought of before death was Jin Ha-ryeong.
“……I’m sorry to Ha-ryeong.”
Deep regret filled his face.
“I told them to kill her if I did not return on time.”
Geom Mugeuk, shocked, shouted urgently.
“Where is she?”
He had never expected that Baek Cheon-gyeong would have given an order to kill her.
“……It’s already too late.”
“Where is she!”
Baek Cheon-gyeong used the last of his strength to look in one direction. At the same time, Geom Mugeuk flashed away, flying toward that place with Swift Steps.
“……I will apologize to that child in the underworld.”
With those words, Baek Cheon-gyeong’s head dropped.
When he died, every tree around them withered and died with him.
Now only the wooden dolls, their mystic force completely gone, silently watched over his death.
* * *
The moment Jin Ha-ryeong saw Chorim enter the room, her heart dropped. The look in Chorim’s eyes as he gazed at her was different from usual. It would have been better if they had held killing intent; instead, there was apology in them.
“You’ve come to kill me.”
Chorim readily admitted it. Since his master’s strict order had been given, he had to kill her.
“I bear you no personal grudge.”
For the first time, Jin Ha-ryeong felt death. I’m going to die? It did not feel real.
“I don’t want to die in such a stifling place. Let me see the sky just once before I die.”
When Chorim hesitated to answer, she pleaded again.
“Please.”
“Very well.”
The instant Chorim turned around and opened the door, Jin Ha-ryeong lunged.
Shiiik! Paat!
Jin Ha-ryeong swung what she held and stabbed at Chorim’s neck. What she held in her hand was a wooden peg that had been embedded in the bed.
The moment she realized Chorim had dodged and her strike had missed, she kicked open the door and threw herself outside.
After rolling across the ground, she sprang up and tried to run, but then she froze.
From the hut behind her, Chorim walked out, touching his neck.
“I understand.”
Blood was flowing from his neck, but the wound was not deep. Chorim was an expert, and no matter how sudden the ambush had been, it was not easy to kill him with a body that had no internal energy.
Even as he walked out behind her, Jin Ha-ryeong did not flee. No, she could not flee.
Dozens of warriors were waiting in front of the door.
Jin Ha-ryeong turned back to Chorim.
“What exactly do you understand? You’re not the one dying. I am. Are you trying to ease your conscience by acting so refined? You’re worse than some vile street thug.”
“I understand it all.”
“Fine. If you really do understand me, as you say……”
Jin Ha-ryeong raised the wooden peg. With her internal energy sealed, she was no match for them anyway, but she had not the slightest intention of dying while simply staring up at the sky.
“Surely you’re not going to kill me while my internal energy is sealed. Release it. Let’s fight properly.”
Even if he released her internal energy, there were too many enemies, so the chances of her surviving were slim. Still, she tried to find some way out.
“If you release my internal energy, I’ll fight with this as my weapon. Your subordinates are watching too. You should act like a leader.”
She hoped to provoke his pride and make him release her internal energy, but Chorim had no intention of doing so.
“You are Hubei’s finest rising star. If I carelessly release your internal energy, how could I handle you?”
“So? You’re going to kill a woman resisting with a wooden peg while her internal energy is sealed, like a coward?”
Even if she died, she would not die quietly. She would at least scratch at his pride and leave a wound in his heart.
Chorim said in a slightly irritated tone,
“This makes me feel a little better.”
Jin Ha-ryeong charged. Even with her internal energy sealed, she had the skill to reach the finals of the Little Dragon Tournament. The wooden peg in her hand stabbed sharply through the air. Naturally, she aimed for vital points that could subdue an opponent at once, such as the eyes and throat.
After they exchanged a dozen or so moves, Chorim’s fist flew straight into Jin Ha-ryeong’s face.
Thud!
Jin Ha-ryeong was sent flying.
“My apologies. I struck the face of Hubei’s greatest beauty.”
The subordinates watching burst into laughter. Chorim and his men alike were all enjoying this situation.
Touching her face, Jin Ha-ryeong rose from the ground.
“Live honestly from now on. This is who you are. Kidnapping, beating, killing, and gleefully mocking people.”
Chorim did not deny it. As she said, he was not a good person. Not only he, but everyone here was the same. They were people who had committed crimes and were being hunted. They bore deep grudges against the Murim Alliance, and they were people who could not live in the light. If not, they could not have hidden here for the past ten years.
Baek Cheon-gyeong had promised them. Once he killed the leader of the Murim Alliance, he would pardon all their crimes.
Shiiik! Shik!
Jin Ha-ryeong’s attacks only grazed the empty air.
Amid the laughter of those watching, Jin Ha-ryeong aimed for only one move.
A lucky strike.
But Chorim was not someone against whom luck would work.
Thud!
This time, she was struck in the stomach and sent flying. It hurt so much that even getting up was difficult, but she sprang to her feet and charged again.
After toying with her a few more times, Chorim decided to end it. Tree roots grew from the ground, binding her legs and arms and restraining her so she could not move.
When Chorim raised his hand, a leaf flew from somewhere into his grasp.
When it had flown over, it had been an ordinary leaf, but once it was in his hand, a chilling aura coiled around it.
“Your death will not be in vain. After you die, you will become fertilizer for these trees.”
Jin Ha-ryeong shot back coldly,
“Why? Because filthy things like you aren’t even fit to be fertilizer?”
At those words, Chorim revealed his true nature. With an evil look in his eyes, he said to her,
“If I hadn’t been ordered to be respectful to you and never lay a hand on you, you would have died after receiving the love of all of us.”
Regret flickered across Chorim’s face. Because she knew what that meant, Jin Ha-ryeong felt the greatest killing intent of her life. She truly wanted to kill him. It was too unjust to die at the hands of someone like this.
Chorim raised his hand high, intending to cut off her head with the leaf sword.
Even at the moment of death, Jin Ha-ryeong did not close her eyes and glared straight at him. She tried not to show fear, but her heart was filled with despair.
“So this is how I die.”
She had not known her end would be like this. She had thought she would die at least a little more splendidly than this.
When she died, she had hoped to look back on her life and die with dignity. Thinking of how her grandfather and elder brother would grieve made her even angrier.
If her grandfather lost his granddaughter now after already losing his child, his heartbreak would be beyond words. Her elder brother, too, would lose the only person to whom he could open his heart.
If they had done this to her, then they must have been prepared to harm them as well.
When that thought occurred to her, the person who came to mind was Geom Mugeuk.
“You’re the only one I can trust.”
To think she would face death while thinking of him at the last moment.
Just as the leaf sword was about to fly in and cut her neck—
Swaeeeeeeek!
Along with a wind that tore at the ears, screams erupted.
Puh-puh-puh-puh-puhk!
A gigantic great saber swept through the warriors as it flew toward them.
Chorim retreated and dodged the great saber that had flown in, cutting down his subordinates as it came.
Boom!
The great saber embedded itself in the stone wall behind him.
Startled, Chorim looked in the direction from which the great saber had come. A path had been carved through his subordinates, and a dozen or so of them lay collapsed on either side, mangled masses of blood and flesh.
“Raise the Ironwood Barrier!”
Chrrrrrrrk!
In the direction from which the blade had flown, wood rose from the ground and began to form shields.
The wall erected in front of Chorim was the largest and thickest. After raising the wall, he approached Jin Ha-ryeong again.
“No matter what happens, I will kill you!”
At that moment, Jin Ha-ryeong saw it.
From the other side of the great saber embedded behind Chorim, someone lightly leaped up toward them.
The movement was so light and nimble that it made not a whisper of wind.
Only when that person landed directly behind Chorim did he finally sense their presence and turn around.
What he saw was a single line.
Shiiiiik!
Slice.
The swiftly drawn sword struck his neck and sent it flying.
Chorim could not even let out a death scream before his head fell.
The person who appeared before the fallen Chorim was none other than Ian.
The great saber that had flown in was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s Heaven-Destroying Great Saber.
Ian had been clinging to the back of the great saber and had flown in with it. Because the blade was larger than a person, they had missed the fact that she had been pressed against the far side of the blade as she came in.
It was a feat possible only because it was powered by the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s internal energy, and possible only because Ian had reached the ninth form of the Flying Heaven Sword Art.
At Chorim’s death, one of the warriors shrieked as if having a fit.
“Kill those bitches first!”
They rushed at Jin Ha-ryeong and Ian. Ian had no leeway to release Jin Ha-ryeong’s internal energy.
Ian cut down the warriors charging at them. After she cut down four in succession, the enemies changed tactics. They used as her weakness the fact that she was trying to protect Jin Ha-ryeong.
“Release sword energy!”
The warriors capable of unleashing sword energy released it all at once.
Ian shouted to Jin Ha-ryeong,
“Behind me!”
She could not dodge. To save Jin Ha-ryeong, she had to neutralize all the incoming sword energy.
Swaeeeeeeek!
At the same time, over a dozen streams of sword energy surged toward Ian. Ian was not confident she could block so much sword energy at once, but she did not dodge. She could not let Jin Ha-ryeong die.
At that desperate moment—
Shiiiik!
Thuuud!
Something came down and embedded itself in front of the two women, blocking the incoming sword energy.
Boom! Kwaang! Kwakwa! Kwaaang!
The sword energy struck one after another, but it could neither pierce nor break through it, and all of it dispersed and vanished.
Ian saw it. The enormous great saber blocking the way. And the man who had driven it into the ground.
Astonishingly, it was the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon, who had flown there at some point, had pulled the great saber from the wall and landed firmly before the two of them.
At the same time, a thunderous roar exploded.
Ruuuumble! Kwaaang!
The Ironwood Barrier they had raised behind them shattered, and those nearby were swept away along with it. The one who had destroyed the Ironwood Barrier, which they had been certain would never break, with a single punch was none other than the Fist Demon.
In front was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon; behind was the Fist Demon.
One of the enemies shouted while looking at the Fist Demon.
“Kill that monster first!”
The moment those words ended, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon said briefly with a look of pity,
“Oh dear.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon grabbed Ian and Jin Ha-ryeong, whose bodies had been outside the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber, and pulled them behind it.
The next instant—
A thunderclap that tore at the ears sounded.
Kurururukwakwaang!
It was the first time in their lives that Ian and Jin Ha-ryeong had heard thunder so loud and terrifying. It was enough to make them want to cover their ears.
The next moment—
Huaaaaaaaang!
Beside the upright Heaven-Destroying Great Saber, an immense torrent of force energy swept past. If the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had not braced the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber with both hands and poured internal energy into it, even the great saber would have been ripped free and sent flying.
A single peal of thunder.
And then, silence.
Ian and Jin Ha-ryeong cautiously poked their heads out from behind the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber.
The scene spread outside shocked both women.
No one there had survived. With a single blow, everyone there had been swept up by the force released from his fist and turned into corpses.
The Fist Demon stood alone, his massive fists hanging at his sides.
At that sight, even Ian, who was on the same side as him, felt fear. It was completely different from when they trained together. The Fist Demon in real combat was truly another person. Today, Ian saw clearly why the Heavenly Demon trusted him the most among the Demon Venerables.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon pulled the Heaven-Destroying Great Saber from the ground and slung it over his back, and the Fist Demon began walking toward them through the corpses.