What I Want to Show You. (2)
Around the time the duel between Guyangcheon and Moyong Huia began.
The current Murim Alliance Leader, Jangcheon, was facing his son.
The teacup that had been full of warm tea was long since empty.
Jangcheon merely held the empty teacup, feeling nothing but hollowness.
The silence continued.
And it was Jangcheon who broke it.
"Why did you do so."
His low question was laced with force.
At that question, Jang Seonyeon raised his bowed head.
"My son."
"...Yes."
"Have you forgotten your promise to your father?"
"I have not forgotten."
"Then why did you make such a choice."
"..."
Jang Seonyeon closed his mouth.
It was not because he had nothing to say.
It was because they were words he did not wish to speak.
There were countless words he could have uttered, but he knew those words would circle back and dig into him.
"Did I not tell you, that power is dangerous. Dangerous enough that you might gradually be consumed by it and lose yourself."
At Jangcheon's words, a writhing was felt from Jang Seonyeon's dantian.
As if angered by his father's words, it thrashed violently.
Since it was a power he had drawn out after a long time, it seemed it had not yet fallen back to sleep.
His father did not know the details of this power.
He bore the name of the Alliance Leader, but in the end, he was one who had not received the baptism, so it was only natural he would not know.
He probably could not even feel it.
He had merely noticed because of what was shown in the duel.
"You cannot have forgotten that I permitted you on the condition that you would not use it until you had passed your twentieth year. How could you do this."
At Jangcheon's words, Jang Seonyeon thought of Namgung Bia.
The question of why he had done so—Jang Seonyeon threw countless questions at himself internally, but only one answer arose.
'I got scared.'
He had simply gotten scared.
He had been afraid of that woman who shone ever brighter, and had drawn it out in order to somehow escape.
'...What a filthy feeling.'
The woman's gestures that knew no retreat.
The woman's gaze that looked beyond him at something.
The confident steps without a hint of doubt.
All of it was nothing but revolting.
And even Guyangcheon's gaze as he held that woman and looked at him.
Why did he have to feel this way?
He had merely used the power given to him.
Why did he have to feel so ashamed and stinging?
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This was a power obtained in order to become light.
This was being chosen.
Therefore, he was qualified to shine brighter than anyone else.
But how could that woman shine so brilliantly all on her own?
'What a childish emotion.'
What welled up within him was clearly the jealousy of one who had been chosen.
It was the reality he could not avoid, though he hated to admit it.
Was it because the late-generation disciples of the orthodox faction, whom he had judged to be trivial, had been far more outstanding than expected?
Among them, Yuseong had clearly spoken to him.
That he was the star of the era indicated by the Heavenly QI.
"Two bloodlines, and the flow is yours."
"Even time will slide past you; how could you fail to become a star?"
They were words he could not understand as of yet.
But they had pointed at him and called him a star.
Surely it was so.
It had to be so.
Without fail.
"I am sorry, Father."
Jang Seonyeon smiled quietly and forced his thoughts into order.
His father knew nothing.
Or perhaps he knew but was deliberately turning a blind eye.
It mattered not.
"So that I do not bring disgrace to Father's name... I will not make such a mistake again..."
Eventually, when the time came, his father would understand him as well.
"..."
Jangcheon uncharacteristically made no reply to Jang Seonyeon's words.
Was it because he had not paid too much attention, knowing his son was capable?
A subtly changed atmosphere about Jang Seonyeon caught his eye.
Had something changed?
Jangcheon closed his eyes and thought.
That he must meet with the Abbot again.
North Sea Ice Palace.
To the north, a land full of snow and ice where winter never faded throughout the year under the influence of the ice essence that had burst forth from the demonic border.
The master of the North Sea.
The place where most of those who reigned over the throne of the snow plains belonged.
They used ice techniques for their martial arts, befitting the frigid environment.
It was also a place that produced powerful masters to the extent that there was a legend that when the former palace lord, Seolui Wangha Binguigun, appeared in the Central Plains, a single gesture of his hand drove away summer and brought winter.
And Moyong Huia carried the blood of the Ice Palace.
Her mother was the wife of the Moyong family head and the fourth daughter of the Ice Palace Lord.
Her father had loved her mother dearly.
Therefore, he likely took no concubines and looked only at her mother.
As the head of one of the Four Great Families, his declaration that he would take no concubine, let alone form a marriage alliance with the North Sea, was tantamount to making an enemy of the elders.
It meant that his love was more important than the family's well-being.
As if to prove that this was the truth, he had borne all the troubles that occurred thereafter by himself.
Moyong Huia could not understand her father until she grew older, until her appearance became that of a woman rather than a girl.
How could love be more important?
Was it important enough to protect while losing so much?
It was something she could not understand logically or emotionally.
Behold, their love had made the renowned family called Moyong fall behind the other Four Great Families.
It had caused the name Moyong to gradually lose its power.
If there was anything their love had left behind.
It was a shattered glory that now wavered in the grip of the Martial Alliance.
It was her father, left alone after her mother's death.
And was it not herself, who had to live by draining the backbone of the family?
Her father and mother could not have known that their daughter, born with such difficulty, would suffer from a severed meridian condition.
They could not have known that the blood of the Ice Palace would bring about such a result.
In an era where even the incurable Nine Yin Severed Meridian of old could be treated.
To say it was an untreatable illness.
What nonsense was that?
'Truly a laughable story.'
It was also a futile tale.
Thanks to it, she had come to struggle just to survive, but the world turned indifferently.
Like others who possessed the severed meridian condition, Moyong Huia developed outstanding talent whether in martial arts or sensory aspects, but...
It was a cheap trade-off hardly worth calling an equivalent exchange.
The geniuses scattered around her were far greater, after all.
Even the boy right before her eyes was proof of that.
"That's a bit too much..."
A single sphere burning fiercely, as if it had condensed all the flames in the world.
A sight so intense that calling it a little sun would not be strange.
Moyong Huia made a hollow expression as she looked at it, yet held a slight smile.
It was a smile that came because the nagging curiosity about Guyangcheon's true worth seemed to slightly resolve itself.
And a hollow expression burst forth because she could tell at a glance that the level was different.
"So that's what the apology meant."
Faintly understanding, she found it even more absurd.
If that was the apology, wasn't it too cowardly?
Moyong Huia drew her sword and raised her internal energy.
The desire to give up kept rising, but she could not allow that.
Moyong Huia might be allowed to, but Seolbong was not.
Cold energy settled at the tip of her sword.
The Moyong family's martial arts were represented by the internal energy cultivation technique, the Uiryong Biseon Gong.
And led by that, they used the Uiryong Biseon Sword.
However, unlike the martial arts of the other three families, where lightning qi or fire qi grew stronger as one's mental cultivation realm rose higher, the Moyong family had no relation to cold qi.
It was closer to something else instead.
Thus, cold energy was a characteristic only Moyong Huia possessed.
Not to mention her differently colored pupils.
The cold energy contained in her martial arts as her realm rose was likely also due to the influence of the Ice Palace blood.
As she raised her internal energy to use her martial arts, she felt a sudden chill.
To block it, she had to wrap internal energy around her body as well.
This was different from the cold one felt in winter.
It was because her body could not endure the cold energy growing from within.
A cold that could not be resolved even with a blazing flame before her nose or layers of thick clothing.
A cold that froze the surroundings at the cost of life, reeking of death.
It was the cold Moyong Huia hated most.
"It's terrifyingly, dreadfully chilling."
Moyong Huia looked at the little sun before her eyes.
The suffocating heat choked her breath, and her face naturally scrunched up.
Even though her body was wrapped in internal energy, and cold energy was even emanating to the surroundings.
The heat Guyangcheon emitted devoured Moyong Huia's cold energy as if it were nothing.
She wondered how it could be so, yet it was only natural.
It was simply because Guyangcheon's heat was hotter than her cold.
"How can he use it in such a way?"
Moyong Huia had outstanding senses.
This helped her greatly in reading people's expressions and emotions.
But the more substantial part was that it helped her figure out the martial arts her opponent used.
It was not a sense on the level of a divine bestowal like the Heavenly Martial Constitution recorded in history.
But it meant she could grasp it to a certain degree.
Seeing it through that lens, Guyangcheon's martial art was difficult to explain.
It was not that it was a difficult martial art.
Looking at the method, it was rather a simple martial art.
However, the necessary conditions seemed extremely demanding.
First, an immense amount of internal energy was required to use it.
Additionally, a strengthened body capable of seizing and controlling rampaging flames was needed.
She examined Guyangcheon's body.
"...It doesn't look like a body that was trained that well."
In Moyong Huia's eyes, Guyangcheon's body was frail compared to the other late-generation disciples.
Not to mention his muscles, his small stature also played a part in making him appear that way.
If so, where did that control come from?
Calling it simply a talent was too vague.
Denying it left no way to explain it.
It looked like the product of an absurd world.
That was how it appeared to Moyong Huia.
Because she was someone who had known that fact for a while, she merely smiled without attachment.
"Even before such flames, I'm still cold."
Suddenly, could it be because she had the sun before her?
Such a thought briefly passed by.
She took her stance.
The duel had begun, after all.
The moment her sword filled with cold energy was about to pierce into the heat following Moyong Huia's movements.
"Huh...?"
Moyong Huia stopped dead in her tracks.
Guyangcheon's flames were still blazing, yet Moyong Huia forgot even that and stood stock-still as if turned to stone.
"Wh-... what... what?"
An awkward tone burst forth, utterly unlike Moyong Huia, who was usually wrapped in arrogance.
Moyong Huia couldn't help it.
"Wh-... why am I suddenly not cold?"
The cold energy settled at the tip of Moyong Huia's sword remained.
Even though she was bewildered, her internal energy had not been disrupted.
She should still be feeling the cold, yet for some reason, the cold she had felt had vanished without a trace.
Her fingertips trembled from confusion.
Because something like this had never happened in her life.
Even the best of the Tang Clan had been unable to rid Moyong Huia of her cold.
On the contrary, he had merely left a large scar on her back.
Why was this happening all of a sudden?
"Then as now."
A voice reached the ears of the flustered Moyong Huia.
"You sure think a lot. Why do your eyes get so big whenever something goes wrong?"
At Guyangcheon's words, Moyong Huia asked what he meant, but Guyangcheon merely made a wry expression.
"It's nothing. I wasn't speaking to the young lady Moyong. Someone just came to mind. Anyway, your ears are sharp too."
She hadn't heard the voice, but the shape of Guyangcheon's mouth seemed to have clearly said that.
Guyangcheon glanced around and continued.
"I think this is enough of what I wanted to show."
"...Young Master Gu?"
"And since you've waited this long, I suppose this much waiting suffices."
Following Guyangcheon's words, the flames moved.
The flames that had formed a sphere changed shape at his gesture.
Rather than changing shape, they began to wrap around Guyangcheon's arm.
It was a form that looked dangerous at a glance.
Probably not just in appearance but in reality as well.
Since he had compressed those massive flames onto one arm, it definitely wouldn't be weak.
Setting aside the shocking matter of no longer feeling cold, Moyong Huia broke into a cold sweat.
It was all because things seemed to be flowing strangely.
Guyangcheon asked.
"You aren't going to forfeit, right?"
Unlike the heavy atmosphere felt at the beginning, it was an endlessly light question.
"No... that's..."
"Right, I asked something strange. I didn't think you would."
Even while wondering what he was doing mid-duel, Moyong Huia had to feel a slight regret.
Because she had been contemplating forfeiting while looking at the flames wrapped around that arm.
Moyong Huia urgently turned her sword to take a stance.
But before she could step forward, Guyangcheon moved first.
The arm wrapped in flames moved lightly.
"It won't hurt."
Fwoosh.
The rippling heat was so intense that space itself seemed to distort.
So it won't hurt...?
If I don't get hit head-on, that's not exactly a relief, is it?
"Probably."
Along with Guyangcheon's smiling words.
A massive flame covered Moyong Huia's vision.
That was the last thing Moyong Huia saw before losing consciousness.
The duel ended with a single flame.
He had thought she would endure at least two or three exchanges, but for some reason, Moyong Huia collapsed in one blow.
"I felt it before, but she always thinks too much. That's her weakness."
What on earth had she been pondering so deeply?
To me, the behavior of smart humans was always something I couldn't understand.
The moment the referee declared victory, loud cheers erupted from the surroundings as if they had been waiting, but...
Still, I felt no particular excitement.
"Maybe I should have gone a little easier."
Only a small regret remained.
After using martial arts meant for others to see, a hollow feeling with unknown cause filled me like this.
In my previous life, it had been worse.
There had been times when I obsessed over raising the flames to show something more.
Because I knew all too well where such flames had been used, and what they should have been used for.
In this life, I hadn't wanted to do that.
"What are you thinking? Nothing ever goes according to plan anyway."
Regression aside, my life from then until now.
Not a single part I had wished for had come true.
Now I had to become free of all thoughts.
However.
I raised my gaze to look at the high place.
Who was there?
I raised my senses to examine.
This time, as if I didn't care if I was discovered.
And so, several figures immediately entered my sight.
The Alliance Leader was not there.
The Shaolin Abbot was not in his seat either.
Was it because the duel they wanted to see had ended, or for another reason?
Whatever it was, I could see them tomorrow.
Now that it had come to this, the words Elder Lee had said before coming to Haenam suddenly came to mind.
"If you're going to cause trouble, make sure you do it thoroughly."
Crude words to have come from an elder of a great family.
I had thought so even when hearing them.
But looking back now, I felt it was Elder Lee's foresight.
"I suppose I should do just that."
If I had caused too big a fuss.
I could just use Elder Lee as an excuse.
It was Elder Lee who told me to cause trouble, and I'm just a good boy following orders.
I made sure Moyong Huia safely descended from the dueling stage before I moved.
Since I hadn't unleashed that much power compared to what was visible, she probably wasn't badly hurt.
Right now, I had to go to the medical hall instead.
Because by now, that person would have woken up.