Chapter 123. Because We Are Real Men

Elder Heo Gyeom replied to my ill-mannered words.

“……Indeed, in my younger days, this old man was a real man. That was already more than half a century ago.”

I nodded.

“I don’t know what you expect of me, Elder, but if the Blood Night Palace intends to remain a demonic-path force, I cannot help you.”

Elder Heo Gyeom nodded.

“As I said, the Blood Night Palace will change into a force that does not torment, kill, or squeeze the lifeblood from the weak. If it changes into such a force, Sect Leader, you will help us. I intend to spend what remains of my life nagging for that purpose. Fortunately, the Palace Lord tends to listen well to this old man’s words, so it will not be in vain.”

I was originally the sort of man who spouted plenty of nonsense, but when it came time to make something like a promise, my heart grew heavy.

Yet for some reason, I could not easily avoid this old man’s burning gaze.

“Elder, let us do that.”

“Will you make that promise, Sect Leader?”

I looked into the old man’s eyes and made the promise.

“Let it be a promise between an admirably aged real man and a young real man. The Blood Night Palace will leave the demonic path, and Haomun will help such a Blood Night Palace.”

With just a few words, I had found myself helping the Blood Night Palace.

I wondered if this was right, but as I watched the old man’s smile slowly spread, I felt as though I had been checkmated.

Elder Heo Gyeom was not merely an old man who had lived many years.

“I have no particular interest in whatever organization of the gangho the Blood Night Palace fights. However, if you do not oppress those who have not learned martial arts, Haomun will help you.”

Elder Heo Gyeom replied.

“I will remember those words.”

In any case, the initiative in this place rested entirely in the hands of old Elder Heo.

Suddenly, when Elder Heo Gyeom flicked his finger, a young man waiting nearby approached.

“Yongmyeong.”

“Yes.”

Everyone watched Elder Heo.

“Can you guess what I am about to have you do?”

The young man named Yongmyeong replied.

“I believe I know. Please give the order.”

“The third bookshelf, sixth row, thirteenth book. Bring it.”

“Yes.”

After hearing the explanation, Yongmyeong left the main hall at a brisk pace, and Elder Heo Gyeom looked at me.

“Sect Leader.”

“Yes.”

“There are not many martial disciplines in the world that combine extreme yang martial arts and extreme yin martial arts. There are also few people of the gangho who have researched it. Though I lost my internal energy, I did not neglect my study and investigation of martial learning. Among them, there is a book in which I organized, in my own way, the combination of qi at two opposite poles.”

I looked at the old man with my arms crossed.

“Mm.”

“The important point is that you should use it only as reference. Martial learning is not a definitive field of study where one declares, ‘This is this, and that is that.’ Each person’s physical condition, environment, and type of internal energy differ. Do you understand this?”

“Yes.”

“I will explain the combination briefly. If you hold water in your right hand and water in your left hand, then bring them together, what happens?”

“It would simply flow down.”

“What if you held a snowball in each hand and brought them together?”

“The snowball would grow larger.”

“What if one hand held a stone, and the other a snowball?”

“Its power would increase.”

“It is a book that organizes such simple principles from the perspective of the manifestation and harmony of qi. With what texture should one manifest and handle qi? How should it actually be combined for something called power to arise? I distinguished between handling it within the body and handling it outside the body. My experience, my fights, and what I learned by being beaten with this old body have been organized in it rather haphazardly. In truth, I did not expect I would ever personally hand this to someone, so I only wrote in a temporary title for the book. It is simply a study on yin and yang.”

In an instant, Heo Gyeom poured out martial theory like a sudden shower, but in truth, I understood all of it without missing a single word.

Because it was theory that precisely matched the very concerns I had in practice.

Elder Heo added an explanation.

“The same is true of the Taiji principle spoken of in Daoism. It sees the most efficient instant when yin and yang meet as Taiji. The moment two forces interlock in any form, there is bound to be an explosive instant. To counter this, the demonic path has long studied Reverse Taiji, but in the end, when one strives to reach the highest point, one realizes that one is pondering the same thing. Whether it is reaching the pinnacle or escaping the demonic, they are merely signposts placed near the road toward completion.”

Elder Heo’s words seemed to give not only me, but also the Sword Demon, the Lust Demon, the Palace Lord, and Gyoyeong—who all trained in martial arts—something to think about.

Before long, Yongmyeong returned and offered the book to Elder Heo. Elder Heo took it, then held it out to me without revealing any conditions or emotions.

“Sect Leader, examine it and use it as reference.”

Since I had said I would help the Blood Night Palace, I calmly accepted the book.

“I will read it well.”

“Yongmyeong, we should withdraw now.”

When Elder Heo looked at Yongmyeong, Yongmyeong helped Elder Heo to his feet.

Elder Heo looked around at those present and said.

“Then please continue your conversation. And when you strike Saryugok, taking Yongmyeong here with you will be of help. At the very least, I have taught him so that he will not be a nuisance.”

People looked at the young man named Yongmyeong.

Judging by the flow of the conversation, it meant he was a young disciple to whom Elder Heo had been teaching the culmination of his martial learning.

The Blood Night Palace Lord rose from his seat and spoke to Elder Heo.

“Elder, please take care on your way.”

Elder Heo comfortably met everyone’s eyes and then said this.

“If one wishes to live long, one must sleep early. I will go ahead.”

Those ordinary words no longer sounded ordinary, so everyone rose from their seats.

“Rest well, Elder.”

“Elder Chief Strategist, we will see you again.”

“Please take care.”

I called the old man and Yongmyeong to a brief stop.

“Wait a moment.”

I placed the book the old man had handed me on the table, then spoke.

“Elder, I will support you to wherever you are staying.”

Yongmyeong, who was supporting the old man, looked at me and Elder Heo with a flustered expression. When Elder Heo Gyeom nodded, Yongmyeong stepped aside.

As I approached Elder Heo, I said.

“An old real man and a young real man will walk together, so no one interfere.”

I stuck close to Heo Gyeom’s side and supported his gaunt body. His body was so light that it felt as though I could lift him with a finger.

Heo Gyeom lightly patted the back of the hand with which I was supporting him.

“Sect Leader, let us go.”

I moved my steps very slowly with the old real man. Since it seemed it would be a short yet long journey, I quietly wet my lips.

“Elder.”

“Please speak.”

“You are at least half a century senior even to my late grandfather. My grandfather suffered long years at an inn, while you survived the Demonic Path, so you must have come through a truly remarkable journey. You must have seen plenty of madmen along the way.”

Elder Heo let out a hearty laugh.

“Need you ask? There was much strife within the Cult as well, so I met all manner of fiends.”

Only then did we arrive at the main hall and look outside. The clean, sprawling path through the inner courtyard felt truly distant.

If I carried the old man on my back, we would pass through it in an instant, but we were real men, so we kept walking.

“My grandfather up in heaven would be quite shocked if he saw me these days.”

“Why is that?”

“A brat who couldn’t even make noodles properly and only mopped floors is now going around beating gangho people to death. How could he not be shocked? Even if I had simply inherited the inn and worked there day after day, he would have worried. And seeing me roam the gangho like this, he would surely have many worries as well.”

“Do you regret coming to the gangho?”

I shook my head.

“I like things as they are now.”

“This old man does as well. If there is such a thing as the next life, and if the gangho exists there too, I will live in the gangho without hesitation.”

I nodded too.

“Same here.”

As I walked along with the old man, nameless flower petals fluttered before our eyes, so we stopped for a moment.

Only after the scattering petals had passed did we begin walking again.

“It took me more than half a century merely to understand the world and realize the foolishness of people, myself included. I saw many who grew more crooked the more they were pressed, blamed, and scolded. It should not have been that way. There were times when I fell into despair upon realizing that killing and killing would never bring an end to it.”

“I’m a foolish real man myself, so if I had met you earlier, I would have been scolded quite a lot.”

“Sect Leader, from when did you become so crooked?”

I chuckled as I searched my memories.

“Who knows? From the time I could understand words, I suppose I heard the drunken nonsense of drunkards far too often. Even for my young self, it is too long ago. I must have been crooked since I was very little. I used to think that when I grew up, I would start by beating up those idiotic drunkards… What about you, Elder?”

“I spent my entire life in training and battle. I had no leisure to look back. Only after I lost all the martial arts that had sustained me one day did the world look different. There was a time when I thought martial arts were everything, but only after losing that everything did I realize it was not everything. My nature was dull, so I realized it far too late. Fortunately, perhaps because they thought I had many accomplishments, there was no one in the Cult who tried to kill me.”

“That must have been so. No matter how fiendish they are, real men must be respected.”

“When such a man as I one day firmly resolved to kill the Cult Leader, it was already after I had lost my martial arts. I had grown so old that I briefly forgot the fact that I had lost them.”

I replied with a laugh.

“How wonderful it would have been if you had fought the Cult Leader in your prime.”

“It was not easy to deny the place to which I belonged and think differently.”

“You speak the truth.”

Following the old man’s gaze, we arrived not at a splendid annex, but at a neat wooden house with a training space arranged in its front yard. I slowly looked around the frugal dwelling of a retired master of the old Demonic Path.

The old man said,

“I will sit on the wooden platform for a bit.”

I guided the old man to the platform and sat beside him.

Sitting there and looking out, it was a dwelling from which the main hall where the Palace Lord stayed and the scenery of the inner courtyard could be seen well.

“Sect Leader, your progress is swift, but do not grow careless.”

“I won’t.”

“I taught my disciple Yongmyeong something like this. Keep it in mind.”

“I will listen carefully.”

“When you meet a person whose vessel is greater than yours, serve him as your master. When you meet a person whose vessel is smaller than yours, leave without regret. However, if you discover an outstanding person you truly cannot tolerate, cling to him with utter loyalty and first become his friend. A blade thrust one day by a friend who has shared his heart deeply is difficult for any master to stop. Do you know what sort of logic this is?”

I met Elder Heo Gyeom’s eyes, then nodded.

“It is truly the logic of a ruthless assassin.”

Elder Heo Gyeom said,

“That is correct. Yongmyeong is the last assassin I taught. He is a man who will approach the target he means to kill and devote his whole life to him, then recall his mission only at the most certain moment. This is a method used when one must assassinate a target who is absolutely difficult to kill. In other words, he is the disciple I taught with the Cult Leader in mind. The fight between the Cult Leader and me is not over yet.”

I touched Elder Heo Gyeom’s hand. He had lost his internal energy, but the thick calluses on every joint of his fingers remained.

“Were you the First Instructor who struck Saryugok, Elder?”

“I did often think about how I failed to catch the Seventh Instructor back then, but I never imagined he would reappear in this manner. You must be careful as well, Sect Leader. Just as I raised Yongmyeong, it means the Seventh Instructor of that time also taught someone.”

I nodded and gazed at the distant sky.

“There are enemies on every side. I have been sleeping poorly because of assassins. How should I overcome this? These days, I even nod off while eating…”

The old man sank into thought, then replied,

“There is no method. For assassins as well, enduring sleepiness is the hardest thing. Holding out for three or four days is bearable, but lasting more than ten days is difficult even for a first-rate assassin. You have no choice but to contend in endurance while recognizing that you, who can at least snatch some sleep, are in a more comfortable state than the assassin. Make good use of your subordinates as well. The best thing would be to have an assassin guard you, but even that will not be comfortable if a person’s heart is covered in suspicion.”

Sickened by the old man’s answer, I let out a sigh.

“Surviving is not easy.”

“Living so fiercely is also one of life’s joys.”

“True. That is the life of a real man.”

When I rose from the wooden platform, Elder Heo looked up at me.

“Sect Leader, come see this old man once more before he dies.”

I took Elder Heo’s wrinkled hand as he held it out.

“Our old real-man senior, keep surviving for a long time. I will come see you again.”

Elder Heo nodded, then grinned.

“I will be waiting.”

Because we were real men, we merely nodded a few times and parted just like that.