EP.39 The Way Back. (2)
Returning (2)
Rooooar—
It rains.
The downpour piercing the sky is incredibly fierce and rough.
The moon had long been hidden by the dark clouds, vanishing without a trace, and the rain falling from the sky felt overwhelmingly heavy.
I ran frantically through the dark forest path where not a single ray of light entered.
No matter how much I wrapped myself in internal energy, my feet felt heavy.
As I ran for a while, I thought.
How long have I been running?
How much time has passed?
How much, how much...
‘How long did I hold out...?’
Legs slashed and torn by blades scream out.
They yell at me to stop running, to halt, but I didn't stop.
No, I couldn't stop.
Something drips down my hand.
Rainwater?
I foolishly harbored such hope, but it wasn't.
It was too warm to be cold rainwater.
At that sensation, I gritted my teeth. I absolutely could not stop.
[Wake up!]
I shouted, but there was no response from my back.
Because of that, I circulated more internal energy to my feet.
Time was running out. It felt like more blood was flowing over my hands than before.
[Fuck.... I said wake up!]
I screamed with all my might, but the result was the same.
So I put more strength into the hands carrying her on my back.
As if I would never let go.
Why the hell am I suffering like this because of this fool? The thought kept swirling in my head.
Why didn't I leave this wretched woman behind?
It was obvious she'd become dead weight, so why did I carry her on my back and run?
Why must I still run for my life without abandoning her now?
I don't understand any of it.
I just ran.
The blood vessels in my eyes all burst.
A stinging sensation below my navel signaled that my Dantian had been completely emptied because I had drawn out all my internal energy.
My heart pounded like crazy.
Around that time, I felt something draining from my body.
It was because my internal energy had run low, causing me to tap into my Innate Qi. My lips trembled at the sensation of my energy being sucked away.
[....Fuck, seriously.]
The sound of breathing felt on my back gradually grows fainter.
While the sound of my own heart grows louder, the heartbeat felt from my back grew slower and slower.
The presence chasing us had disappeared, but I couldn't stop my legs.
Because I wasn't certain I had escaped that monster.
Where am I? Where is this place?
Any sensation in my stumbling legs had long since vanished.
A cave is visible among the forest path in the distance.
With no time to hesitate, I immediately dashed through the rain and into the cave.
It was a place where I couldn't even see its proper location.
But I had no other choice at the moment.
After going in quite deep, the sound of rain faded, leaving only silence inside the cave.
Dragging my exhausted body, I reached a relatively wide-looking terrain within the cave.
As soon as I released the energy cloaking my body, I flopped down.
Every joint in my body screamed, but first, I laid the person I was carrying flat on the ground.
Blood streamed down the long slash across her upper body.
She barely held onto her life, but even that was faint.
With trembling hands, I placed my hand on the injured person's body and infused internal energy.
Because my Dantian was completely empty, it was energy close to Innate Qi, but there was no room to hesitate.
[Fuck.... Why won't the bleeding stop....]
Even as I infused it, blood just kept flowing from the wound.
Suddenly, my body swayed.
It was because I had consumed too much energy in too short a time.
[How, just how....]
Someone weakly grabbed my hand that was forcing energy in.
[S...top...]
It was a voice almost devoid of life.
I spoke, filled with anger at this bullshit situation.
[Stop what! Just shut up!]
[...If this keeps up... you'll die... I'm.. fine...]
[Don't bullshit me, who told you to do what nobody asked for! You ended up like this because you acted on your own, so I'll do as I please too.]
So please, just shut your mouth and think about living.
I couldn't say these last words. Because she immediately lost consciousness again.
I had to live.
I couldn't die in a place like this.
I had to save her.
I couldn't let her die in a place like this.
[What the hell am I supposed to do.... Fuck....]
If I infused any more energy, I would lose consciousness.
Then she would die.
I grit my teeth and endured, but my wrung-out heart wouldn't wait for me.
[Please.... Please...!]
It was desperate, beyond urgent, turning into sheer desperation.
This fucking world had never once offered me a proper helping hand.
That remained the same even now, as I was pushed to the edge of a cliff.
[Just once.... You could help just once.]
If you've been cruel until now, you could help just this once.
No matter how absurd it is, how could you not help even once?
Questioning and begging the heavens doesn't give me an answer.
They were never on my side to begin with.
How long have I been like this? How much of my lifeline is left?
Just as I was growing exhausted like that.
[How truly hideous.]
The energy I was pushing in was severed.
Not by my will, but by another's.
My entire body stiffened at the short phrase coming from behind me.
Since when...?
There was only one entrance to the cave.
No matter how much I was pouring my energy out, was it even possible that I didn't sense a single presence?
[...It wasn't a very good entertainment. For a game of tag, it was incredibly boring.]
Instantly, my breath was caught.
Just by him standing there, every muscle in my body screamed, and I fell under the illusion that the world's air had vanished.
Turning my trembling head, I looked back at him.
Despair (絶望).
Despair stood where I looked.
[There is nothing as hideous as a human chasing futile hope.]
[You, what the hell are you....]
[Your mouth is fouler than expected.]
That was a monster. It was an existence that couldn't be explained otherwise.
He looked at us and smiled.
To be precise, he was smiling at me.
I couldn't see what he looked like, nor could I recognize what the voice I was hearing was like, but strangely, I could tell he was smiling.
[This is quite amusing, that even in this state, you can bare your fangs at me.]
The pitch-dark cave brightens.
No... this wasn't brightening.
A greater darkness devoured everything, making it so that darkness no longer existed around us.
[...Fuck.]
I spat out a curse without realizing it.
I tried hard to ignore the fear, but what was slowly eating away at my body was definitely fear.
This was not something possible with human capability.
Looking at me trembling in fear, he spoke.
[Did you ask who I am?]
Inside the space-distorted cave, an alien Black Wind (黑風) swirled from his fluttering black robe.
It swallowed the few hopes I had.
And even overturned the barely maintained bravado.
One step.
Just by him taking a single step toward me, I could tell.
That if he set his mind to it, he was an existence that could take everything from me with a single gesture.
Yet, he was showing leniency simply because he found it interesting.
[I am.]
With his leisurely and slow voice, I fell under the illusion that my heart had stopped.
My barely enduring mind started to fade away.
This must have been the moment.
[The Heavenly Demon (天魔).]
The moment my world stopped.
******************
I think I've been running for about half a shichen carrying Wi Seol-ah.
Thanks to my increased internal energy, I could run much faster even while carrying a person on my back.
"I think it's a bit fast, are you okay?"
I asked Wi Seol-ah, who had buried her face in my back.
There was no answer.
"...Did you not hear me?"
Thinking she didn't hear, I asked again, but there was still no answer this time.
Feeling something was off, I stopped running for a moment.
I wondered if she couldn't hear me because of the wind.
"How is it, does it seem fas—."
*Snore.*
"....Huh?"
When I stopped running for a moment, I heard a subtle sound from my back.
Turning my head slightly, to my disbelief, Wi Seol-ah was snoring softly.
It turned out she hadn't failed to hear me, but had simply fallen asleep.
"...You must be quite comfortable, huh?"
I spoke teasingly, but Wi Seol-ah was too busy snoring to answer.
Feeling pointlessly annoyed, I considered waking her up for a moment, but just let out a snort and moved my body again.
Even after running this long, I still had plenty of internal energy left.
Rather, it kept recharging in the middle, showing an astonishing recovery rate.
I had heard that Daoist sects, which considered dense and clear internal energy as their standard, possessed this kind of internal energy.
For me, who was far, far removed from Primordial Qi or Daoist Qi, it was a sensation that didn't suit me at all.
'Not that it's a bad thing.'
Good is good; honestly, I thought anything was fine as long as it wasn't Demonic Qi.
As long as it wasn't that fucking energy that slowly turns a person into a madman, I didn't care about anything.
I accelerated my speed even more.
I had passed the Tang Sect long ago.
I had finished my business there to begin with, so just going fast was more important.
Ah... on the day of the Tang Sect's martial competition, the Patriarch of the Tang Sect steps forward in person, so I should have at least shown my face.
But when an opening to escape appeared, I just got out first.
I felt like I would get an earful from the Administrator, asking what the hell I even went there and did.
'Still, I got everything I could get.'
I somehow prevented the Gyecheon Sect from taking the Bigo.
Thinking about it now, the fortuitous encounter the Gyecheon Sect Master must have obtained was ultimately that bead the snake spat out.
I wasn't sure if the energy of this bead could reach the Transformation Realm, but...
If I were to guess, that must have been it.
Looking at it that way, I was also quite impressive for managing to absorb only half a gabja from an energy that looked to be at least three to four gabja.
Actually, I was thankful even for that.
'It's better than getting nothing.'
The luminous pearl... Ah, let's not think about this.
The moment I thought of the luminous pearl, my internal energy wavered. If I thought about it more, my wicked mind might cause me to fall into Qi Deviation.
I see a village in the distance.
From here on, it seemed I should walk, so I stopped and set Wi Seol-ah down on the ground.
"Wake up, we're here."
"Umm...?"
Wi Seol-ah rubs her eyes, struggling to open them.
With good intentions to wake her up quickly, I flicked her forehead.
"Ugh!"
Wi Seol-ah's eyes snapped wide open at the sudden flick.
"A servant falls asleep on her master's back and even snores!?"
"I, I snored...!?"
Wi Seol-ah was utterly startled by my words that she snored.
Seeing that, I grinned.
"You snored very well. If anyone heard, they'd think a tiger was roaring."
"T-t-t-that's a lie!"
"I'm saying this swearing upon the Gods of Heaven and Earth, so my words are true."
Of course, she didn't snore like a tiger.
But since I swore upon the heavens, Wi Seol-ah's face turned into a scowl.
As she followed behind, I heard her muttering in a small voice, 'N-no way... no way...'
Well, who told her to ride on someone's back and even fall asleep?
Dragging the half-asleep Wi Seol-ah, I entered the village.
I had to find the people of the Gu family, who would be somewhere around here.
It wasn't a particularly difficult task.
My internal energy had increased, so the range of my perception had also expanded.
I just needed to find Muyeon's presence without mistake.
But it's closer than I thought...? It was even getting closer.
"Young Master!"
Someone wearing the uniform of the Gu family ran from afar.
I don't know how he knew, but Muyeon was coming.
Muyeon's expression as he ran up, panting heavily, was filled with both relief at my appearance and resentment.
"How... just where have you been for the past few days...!"
Muyeon, who had started speaking, clamped his mouth shut.
He must have noticed the changes in me. Muyeon asked with bewildered eyes.
"...What... happened to you?"
At Muyeon's words, I awkwardly scratched my cheek.
"Should I say I just had a bit of a fortuitous encounter... well..."
I was also as surprised as Muyeon.
Reaching this realm, I could tell better.
Muyeon was a far more outstanding martial artist than I thought.
'...Crazy, at that age, he's at the tail end of the First-Class?'
As far as I knew, I heard Muyeon's age was just past twenty.
It was strange.
For a martial artist with that level of talent to remain unknown until I died.
Even though he was a figure of the Gu family, the fact that I didn't know about him was quite peculiar.
Did something happen in this case too?
"I'm sorry, there were various things going on."
"No, still, no matter what, you should have taken me with you. What if something had happened to you, Young Master? Do you know how worried I was!?"
"Sorry, but look, nothing happened, right?"
Actually, even when I went to the Bigo, nothing much happened and there was no issue.
The fact that I ran off without a word for three days was my fault, so I had nothing to say to that.
That aside, I had something to ask Muyeon first.
"...But you know."
"Yes...?"
"Can I ask you one thing?"
"Yes.... What are you trying to ask...?"
"Why are there two unnecessary presences?"
In the place where the Gu family members were gathered. There were two more presences of martial artists who were absolutely not welcome.
Muyeon made a face at my words, as if he didn't understand what I meant.
"Didn't you call them, Young Master?"
"Me, those... I mean, those people...?"
"They said so themselves, so I..."
I swept my face at the absurd situation.
I could sense two familiar presences from the inn in the distance.
None other than Nangong Bi-a and Tang So-yeol.
Their presences were felt from over there.