The Great Severing Ghost (5)
At the collision’s thunderous impact, Ya Hyeoljeok’s body was driven backward.
“Fuck…!”
Struggling to regain his balance, Ya Hyeoljeok swung his saber.
Whoosh!
Saber qi filled with internal energy swept in all directions, but the one it should have struck slipped out of range with light footwork.
A brief step backward, followed by a leap.
Ya Hyeoljeok’s saber cleaved through the air without pause.
With his innate strength and the body of a peak-level martial artist, his strikes were by no means slow.
But they still cut through nothing but empty air.
I slipped inside his reach, and my fist dug into Ya Hyeoljeok’s abdomen once more.
“Th-This…!”
Despite his solid muscles, the fist sank deep, and flames immediately surged from it.
Fwoosh!
“Gueeeeeeegh!”
Overcome by agony beyond anything he had imagined, Ya Hyeoljeok hurriedly swung his hand, trying to shove me away.
But by then, I had already widened the distance.
“Huff… huff…!”
Ya Hyeoljeok panted harshly.
“…You little brat….”
The way he clutched his abdomen suggested that he was feeling the pain quite clearly.
“I heard you were one of the Gu clan’s brats. Why are you interfering?”
I gave no answer to his question.
KRAAAASH!
I circulated the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique, spewing flames in every direction.
He swung his enormous saber to block them, but he could not stop them all.
The flames burrowed in madly, as though they had no intention of leaving even a handful of ash behind.
I did not miss the openings they created and rushed through them.
From between the flames surrounding him, I reached out and seized Ya Hyeoljeok by the throat.
I wrapped flames around my hand.
I intended to burn his head clean off.
At that moment, Ya Hyeoljeok suddenly released his internal energy and created distance between us.
The heat climbing up his throat made him cover it with one hand.
“Huff… huff….”
Perhaps because he had been inside the flames for so long, wisps of smoke rose from his body.
‘…I missed him.’
[Calm yourself…!]
Old Man Shin’s urgent cry continued to echo in my ears.
‘I am calm.’
[How can you say you are calm when I can feel the turmoil boiling inside you so clearly?!]
What a strange thing to say.
I was certain I was calm.
I was merely disappointed.
The sensation of having grasped that man’s throat still lingered in my hand.
I should have burned him right then and there.
That man seemed to have more tricks than I had expected.
‘Ya Hyeoljeok.’
That was the name of the man staring at me while holding the great saber.
I knew him.
The deputy commander of the Black Wolf Unit of the Heavenly Demon’s direct forces.
A demon who wore a muzzle over his mouth and an eyepatch over one eye.
Rather than this snarling appearance, he had been a man who obeyed only the unit commander’s orders, almost like a jiangshi.
He seemed very different from the man before me now.
‘Was he from the Black Night Palace?’
There were too many demons with complicated pasts, so I had never gone out of my way to take an interest in them.
I had been too busy trying to survive myself. Why would I worry about anyone else?
I lightly brushed my hands together.
‘What about Namgung Bia…?’
When I checked the place where she had been lying earlier, she was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, she must have moved.
When I first arrived, Namgung Bia had been lying on the ground.
Seeing her like that had reminded me of the Sword Demon Empress’s final moments.
The time when she had quietly breathed her last in my arms.
If I had been even a little later, I might have had to witness the same sight again.
Fwoosh.
Perhaps stirred by my emotions, the flames wrapped around my body surged violently.
[…Brat!]
I took a step toward him.
At once, the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique began rotating rapidly.
I planted force in the tips of my feet and leaped.
Sparks scattered around me.
Ya Hyeoljeok’s saber was fast as he swung it as though moving to meet me.
His innate strength and peak-level physique allowed him to build speed even while wielding such a heavy weapon.
He increased its speed by infusing his body with internal energy.
I blocked his vision with flames.
Ya Hyeoljeok swung his great saber through the flames, as though mere fire could not stop it, but—
his saber path was disorderly, leaving plenty of openings.
And if there were none, I only had to force one open.
It seemed my flesh had been cut shallowly.
I could give him that much.
Crack!
“Grrrgh!”
His body was sturdy, so pulling out an arm or breaking something would be difficult. Thus, I targeted a single spot.
[…Come… to your… senses…!]
The blade he swung grazed my collar.
His side was left open, so I wrapped my fist in flames and struck.
“Ugh!”
Ya Hyeoljeok’s stance reeled violently.
I stepped on his leg joint and brought him down.
With a heavy thud, one knee slammed to the ground.
He swung his arm, trying to shove me away, but my fist reached him first.
Bam!
His thick head snapped sideways.
I struck him once more without stopping.
Bam!
Perhaps because he had taken two blows in succession, Ya Hyeoljeok’s eyes became bloodshot.
Then internal energy gathered within his body, as though he intended to widen the distance between us.
“You little… brat…!”
KRAAAASH!
The internal energy released through his body sent me flying backward.
Perhaps because its sole purpose had been to create distance, it carried no forceful impact.
I merely dusted myself off and faced Ya Hyeoljeok again.
‘…How much do I have left?’
[…]
I was asking about my internal energy.
Old Man Shin did not answer.
Perhaps because I had been running my technique almost recklessly, there did not seem to be much left.
Ya Hyeoljeok rose to his feet and spat something from his mouth.
The thing that rolled across the ground amid the blood was one of Ya Hyeoljeok’s molars.
At the sight of it, Ya Hyeoljeok’s face twisted into that of a yaksha.
To be beaten by a mere brat because he had been cowed by his presence.
The Great Severing Ghost, Ya Hyeoljeok, no less.
‘…What the fucking hell is this…!’
Crack.
He had clenched his teeth so hard that the grinding sound rang out clearly.
His grip tightened around the saber’s hilt.
There was not much time left.
Even so, I wanted to kill that bastard somehow.
The Divine Physician and the Namgung girl no longer mattered.
Ya Hyeoljeok wrapped internal energy around his feet, leaped, and charged.
Seeing that, I once again surrounded my body with flames.
For an instant, a stabbing pain arose from my dantian, but I ignored it.
My head felt dazed, as though shrouded in fog.
For now, I had to focus on nothing but destroying something.
I deflected the blade path coming for my head with flames.
Taking advantage of his disrupted stance, I struck his solar plexus.
It must have gone deep, because I felt the sensation of bone breaking.
Ya Hyeoljeok immediately spat blood.
When he tried to seize me with his enormous hand, I struck him once more and sent him back.
The ring revolving around me spun faster and faster.
At the same time, the stabbing pain in my dantian intensified.
The pain spreading throughout my body from my dantian was the same sensation I had felt on the way to Mount Hua.
Back then, I had been unable to breathe properly before losing consciousness, but now I could still move without difficulty.
What was the difference?
I did not know, but for some reason, I felt relieved.
It meant that the pain was not interfering with my movements.
[…Ah….]
At that moment, my eyes opened slightly at the voice that rang inside my head.
‘Old Man Shin?’
I thought it was the voice of Old Man Shin, whose voice I had not been able to hear.
He was the only one who could speak to me in this situation.
[…Eat….]
But it was not Old Man Shin’s voice.
It sounded like a child’s, yet in another way, it resembled the voice of an old man who had lived through many years.
The agony rising from my dantian to the crown of my head vanished along with the voice.
[…I’m hungry.]
A weak voice.
‘You….’
I tried to ask who it was, but I could not.
My consciousness abruptly cut out.
******************
Namgung Bia leaned against a wooden pillar, gasping for breath.
Part of it was because the pressure-point seal had been applied and then released, but her body was also utterly drained of strength from her broken arm and the internal energy she had expended.
‘…I have to go help him….’
The Gu Yangcheon she had seen was strong.
She had seen him effortlessly defeat her younger brother, and she had watched him overcome the swordsman known as either Yeongpung or Yongpung.
He was probably stronger than she was.
Namgung Bia did not merely expect this—she was certain of it.
‘…But I can’t.’
Even so, this was a different matter.
From the stench emanating from the giant she had fought, and from the wavering energy surrounding him, she could tell that he was not someone who could be easily confronted.
They had to join forces until the people from Mount Hua arrived.
—Boom! Boom!
The ear-piercing sounds did not stop, proving that a fierce battle was underway.
It could not have been all that long, but to Namgung Bia, it felt like an eternity.
When she finally forced herself to rise and reached the place where the sounds were coming from—
“…Ugh!”
Namgung Bia staggered at the vile stench.
Was all of it coming from that giant?
She did not remember it being this bad.
‘…It’s too much.’
She had never encountered such a terrible stench before.
It was so strong that the world itself seemed to spin from the smell.
Bam!
Staggering, Namgung Bia finally reached the source of the sound.
“…!”
The sight before her was impossible to believe.
She did not know what had happened, but the surroundings were a complete mess, as though a gigantic monster had rampaged through them.
And at the center of it all, Gu Yangcheon continued smashing his clenched fist into Ya Hyeoljeok’s body.
Bam!
Blood sprayed the moment his fist landed.
The man’s face had long since lost all semblance of its original shape.
‘The stench….’
The foul odor that had emanated from the giant had already disappeared.
A corpse did not give off a stench.
Then, the foul odor filling this place was….
“…No… no!”
At Namgung Bia’s voice, Gu Yangcheon stopped his fist mid-swing.
Then he slowly turned his head and looked at her.
“…!”
Namgung Bia met his eyes and screamed without a sound.
Gu Yangcheon’s irises had been dyed purple.
It was certainly a beautiful color, but when Namgung Bia met those two eyes, she felt gooseflesh spread across her entire body.
They were eyes steeped in dreadful ominousness.
Gu Yangcheon looked at Namgung Bia for a moment, then swung his fist again.
He continued striking the giant’s corpse, even though its owner had long since breathed his last.
Namgung Bia watched him and gripped both her trembling shoulders, trying to calm herself.
She did not know why she felt such terror.
Only strange, violent sounds filled her ears, amid the stench that made her feel as though she might vomit.
Ignoring her trembling body, Namgung Bia ran forward and wrapped her arms around Gu Yangcheon’s back.
It felt like something she had to do.
Even after grasping his arms, Gu Yangcheon continued trying to strike the giant’s face, as though he were broken.
“Please…! He’s… already dead…!”
Perhaps he had heard Namgung Bia’s words.
Gu Yangcheon’s body, which had been moving without a word, came to a stop.
Then he collapsed as though his strings had been cut.
Namgung Bia caught him with trembling hands and held him in her arms.
“Haa… haa….”
Perhaps this was the turning point. The stench that had been growing denser suddenly faded.
She had to suppress the nausea rising at the sight of the giant’s mangled corpse beside them.
She could not believe that human hands had made it look like that.
Namgung Bia took Gu Yangcheon’s hand with trembling fingers.
It was covered in blood, but she did not mind.
She felt that she would not be able to calm herself unless she did at least this much.
After a brief moment passed, the disciples of the Mount Hua Sect appeared.
******************
Inside a cave in the Shaanxi branch of the Black Night Palace.
Bae Chong was calming his anxious heart as he waited for Ya Hyeoljeok, who had yet to arrive.
It was not because he missed him or was worried about him—those would have been ridiculous reasons.
‘It’ll soon be time to take the medicine….’
Only the branch master possessed the medicine that could suppress the gu writhing inside his body.
Three days’ worth had just run out, making Bae Chong all the more desperate.
The sun would set soon.
If Ya Hyeoljeok did not return before then, his intestines would melt and he would die.
As he waited restlessly, he suddenly sensed a presence near the entrance.
Bae Chong leaped up in surprise and ran over.
Tap—.
The footsteps sounded strangely quieter than usual, but Bae Chong had no time to worry about such things.
A moment later, the door opened and someone entered.
“Branch Master…!”
Bae Chong immediately drew his sword.
It was not the branch master.
‘An old man…?’
A thin old man with a small, frail frame stood there.
The old man slowly began looking around the room.
“You…. What are you?”
“…So this must be the place.”
“What are you, I said—”
He could not finish his sentence.
Bae Chong’s body collapsed straight to the floor.
His head, still wearing the expression of someone shouting, had been severed from his neck and rolled away behind him.
The old man was not holding a sword.
Yet this was the work of a sword wielded by the old man.
The old man’s name was Wi Hyogun.
The Sword Venerable, who had received a request from the Plum Blossom Immortal, stood there.