Episode 127. To Think I Would Arrange Such a Meeting
Even staring at the night sky for too long will drive you mad. I drew Heukmyo-a and advanced onto the battlefield swept clean by Ilwol Gwangcheon.
As the Sword Demon had said, Ilwol Gwangcheon was not perfect.
The time required to prepare and launch it was too long by expert standards, so the quick-witted among them would have found some way to brace themselves. They would have raised body protection skills or thrust out palm force, or quickly hidden behind yellow earthen walls to minimize the damage.
There would be bugs that survived.
If we had come to bludgeon the Heukdo, we might have finished things offhandedly, but there is no mercy for assassins.
As I entered the devastated area with my sword drawn, my companions scattered to finish off the remnants.
Only then did something fall from the sky.
Thud, thud......!
Weapons that had been sent flying by the explosion, parts of bodies, shreds of torn clothing, finger joints, and other miscellaneous debris poured down like rain.
Yongmyeong let out a brief exclamation.
“Wow... Now they’re falling.”
I moved about, seeking out assassins who still drew breath.
“......Kneel while you still have the chance to be spared. Right now, you won’t even be able to move your knees. It’s too late for regrets.”
At that moment, we looked up at the night sky. The one-armed old elder, his clothes torn to shreds, was falling from the heavens.
Having soared to an incredible height due to the explosion of Ilwol Gwangcheon and the palm force he had used to block it, he was now descending.
I too let out an exclamation of admiration.
“Wow... not bad for an old man?”
The only pity was that his long, flowing hair had been unsightly singed and torn away as if scorched by flames.
As the one-armed old elder landed on the ground, the Sword Demon spoke.
“Were you not Elder Deung, who supported the Second Young Master?”
The old elder nodded.
“So you recognize me now.”
“What was your relationship with Instructor Chil?”
“Naturally, he was my master.”
“So you gathered traitors and led a group of assassins.”
As I approached with Heukmyo-a in hand, the one-armed old elder spoke.
“Sect Leader.”
“What.”
“If you join forces, killing me will not be difficult. However, since it has come to this, I wish to have one last fight with the Sword Demon, who rose to the position of Left Emissary at a young age. He was the young expert we old men admired. As his status grew ever higher, there was never a chance to cross blades. Though we have both become traitors, I wish to fight as the guard of the former Left Emissary and the Second Young Master. Will the Left Emissary grant my request?”
I looked at the Sword Demon.
‘There’s no need to go that far.’
But I already knew what answer the Sword Demon would give. He would not dream of avoiding such a one-on-one duel in the slightest.
The Sword Demon nodded.
“Guardian Deung, so be it.”
The old elder smiled crookedly, revealing his unsightly, gap-toothed teeth.
“Thank you. Tell me, when the Second Young Master was being pursued with his household, were you among the pursuers?”
“I was.”
“Whom did you kill then?”
“The Heukrangdae who blocked the way.”
“The result?”
“I recall that they were all killed, of course.”
“Were you not on friendly terms with the Heukrangdae Captain?”
The Sword Demon nodded.
The one-armed old elder, watching the Sword Demon’s expression, burst into laughter.
“Very well. So even the Sword Demon of legend is a man capable of regret.”
“That is not the case.”
“You do not regret it?”
“Regret that you are weak. The instructors would have taught you to think thus even in death. I yield the first move, Guardian Deung.”
I folded my arms.
It is only proper to watch a fight after watching a fire. If he survived by deflecting Ilwol Gwangcheon with palm force, he must be quite the fighter. But anyway, he must have expended a considerable amount of internal energy blocking that incomplete supreme technique. This was not a fight where the outcome was of much importance.
In any case, since the Sword Demon now wielded the Gwangmyeong Sword, I expected a fight of a slightly different character than when he had faced the Alliance Leader.
Meanwhile, that Saekma bastard, seemingly uninterested in his master’s duel, wandered about cutting the throats of surviving assassins.
I observed the one-armed old elder and the Sword Demon.
* * *
The one-armed old elder, who had been at the edge of the ruins, performed strange movement arts that seemed to sweep across the ground as he closed the distance, then rose into the air.
His movement was so fast he appeared almost as a ray of light.
“Huh?”
The old elder’s sword, drawn in midair, reached the Sword Demon’s chest first.
Tung......!
A menacing metallic sound rang out.
The Sword Demon, appearing to have deliberately allowed the strike, simultaneously drove the Gwangmyeong Sword into the old elder’s abdomen and lifted him into the air with the blade.
Puaak!
Immediately, black sword qi emanating from the Gwangmyeong Sword clung to the old elder and tore away at his body.
No matter how much a demonic art it was, I had never seen sword qi (劍氣) with such a gruesome form.
Ordinarily, sword qi emulates the shape of a sword, but this sword qi resembled black specters shaped like human limbs, faces, and gaping mouths. When these specters instantly enveloped the old elder, blood spurted from every part of his body. Yet even that blood was reached out for and devoured by bracken-like hands extending from the sword.
I made my mouth round.
“Ooh......”
Then, the old elder’s body, pierced by the Gwangmyeong Sword, disassembled in midair, and the black specters that absorbed him clung to the sword before vanishing in an instant.
Then the Sword Demon let out a deep sigh.
“Haa......”
It was a strange tone.
A sigh that seemed both regretful and tormented, as though he had committed a wrong.
I watched the Sword Demon’s conflicted expression with my arms crossed.
‘......This is quite the serious demonic art.’
No wonder even the Cult Leader had failed to keep him.
The Sword Demon wielding the Gwangmyeong Sword properly was a very precarious man.
Watching him grow stronger in that manner, I had an unfounded thought that he might be devoured by the Gwangmyeong Sword at any moment.
I asked the Sword Demon as I pleased.
“Senior, is it truly alright to keep using such martial arts? It looks dangerous.”
The Sword Demon looked at me.
His pupils, which had turned pitch-black, were slowly returning to their original color.
As the Sword Demon returned to being human, he spoke.
“I try not to use it if I can help it, but it turns out this way whenever competitive spirit flares. I must train with the wooden sword as soon as possible.”
Truly an impressive statement.
There was no doubt he was a strong man, yet at the same time, a side of him as a very weak man was visible.
How can a person possess both strength and weakness at the same time?
This man called the Sword Demon was like that.
I asked.
“Are the side effects not severe?”
“They are, rather.”
“What side effects, specifically?”
The Sword Demon looked at the Lust Demon as he replied.
“The side effect would be that the Guangming Sword’s greed knows no end. I tried to teach it to my disciple as well, but gave up.”
I recalled the tattoos engraved on Zuo Shi’s body.
“Was that why Shitpants had tattoos?”
The Sword Demon shook his head.
“It is a similar martial art. A body-protection art.”
Suddenly, as if all he needed was rest, the Sword Demon sat cross-legged. He was not circulating his qi and regulating his breathing, nor did he appear injured, but to my eyes, the Sword Demon looked like a man utterly exhausted.
The Lust Demon, who had returned after dealing with the wounded assassins, said to the Sword Demon.
“Master, are you all right?”
The Sword Demon nodded.
“I am all right.”
I also sat near the Sword Demon and looked for a while at the assassins’ hideout, now turned desolate.
Long Ming spoke to the three of us, who had stopped.
“Please rest a little longer. I will range farther out and deal with the remnants.”
I nodded, then looked at the Sword Demon.
The Sword Demon looked back and forth between me and his disciple, then suddenly opened his mouth like a man looking back on his past life.
“I have often lived feeling humiliated, thinking that it was not I who was strong, but my weapon. I tried not to use it if I could help it, but turning away from such power is no easy thing.”
Now, of all times, the Mad Demon, the Lust Demon, and the Sword Demon rested after killing assassins.
It seemed a type of inner demon (心魔), different from the qi deviation I had experienced, was tormenting the Sword Demon.
A desire to win and emptiness.
He must have used the demonic sword because he hated losing.
And once he used the demonic sword, he was left feeling humiliated.
Because he hated defeat more than death, death itself—when it would come, no one knew—seemed to linger by the Sword Demon’s side.
Suddenly, this thought occurred to me.
Perhaps in my previous life, the Sword Demon had met death somewhere, alone.
Not killed by someone else.
A delusion seized me—that perhaps, in some lonely and desolate place, he had vanished from the world together with the Guangming Sword.
The Sword Demon’s problem seemed truly complicated, so I could not come up with a clear answer either.
Should he fight with an ordinary longsword and die, or should he carry the demonic sword, triumph again and again, and live like a devil?
I wondered whether there was such a thing as a clear answer in life.
“Senior Sword Demon.”
The Sword Demon looked at me with eyes emptier than ever before. With eyes like that, even if he cut down hundreds—no, thousands—of men with his sword, he would likely feel no pangs of conscience. At least his nature was calm and cold to begin with, so he did not seem to run wild.
The Sword Demon said.
“Speak.”
“Your inner demon is visible even to my eyes.”
“That is the state I am in.”
“Will you fight with a wooden sword and die, or will you keep suffering from qi deviation while carrying the demonic sword? It seems like a choice between those two.”
“It is more complicated than that, but summed up, yes.”
“There is someone I can introduce you to. Would you meet him?”
“Are you saying he can cure my inner demon?”
“He probably can’t.”
“And yet you tell me to meet him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I folded my arms as I replied.
“This is a question of whether you will sit still and become a devil, or whether you will actively search for a way to become human by going out to meet someone. Of course, no one will be able to cure you easily. But I think the very intention of someone seized by an inner demon to search for a way to become human is itself a clue that can change the situation… What do you think? I won’t force you.”
The Sword Demon replied.
“I have no intention of listening to the words of old men who sound as if they have mastered all the affairs of the world.”
I nodded.
“Fair enough. But the person I will introduce is a young man.”
The Sword Demon looked at me with the face of a man who had taken a blow.
“A young man?”
“If you hate the stale words of old men, and you also hate the foolish words of young men, then from now on, Senior, your fate is to sit in the wilderness circulating your qi until you die a dog’s death far from home. Don’t feel burdened. Just meet him. I’m not expecting much from the result either…”
While the Sword Demon was looking at me with an uneasy expression, the Lust Demon offered advice from the side.
“Master, you should meet him once. If he is an insolent brat, I will teach him a lesson myself.”
I looked at the Lust Demon.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Who are you going to teach a lesson? You lunatic.”
Suddenly, the Sword Demon, who had recovered a bit of strength, stood up and said.
“Then let us first check for the remnants again, kill them all, and leave. Work must be handled thoroughly. The wounded ones could not have gotten far.”
I nodded, then said to the Sword Demon.
“Break off a tree branch or something and use that.”
The Sword Demon answered obediently.
“I will.”
* * *
“Doctor, Doctor, Doctor Murong! I have arrived.”
I barged into the Murong Medical House and called out to Murong Bai with confidence. Bringing Long Ming along as well was unnecessary, so I had sent him back to the Blood Night Palace on the way. We had agreed that the Blood Night Palace would collect the spoils from Saryu Valley and then divide them, so Long Ming had plenty to do.
There came a crashing sound from somewhere, and Murong Bai ran out with a startled expression.
“Sect Leader, you have come?”
“Are you busy?”
“No.”
Murong Bai looked at the people on either side of me, then asked with a tense expression.
“And the gentlemen beside you are?”
I glanced at the Sword Demon and replied.
“…I brought a patient.”
The Sword Demon let out a sigh.
Murong Bai asked me, looking as if he had no idea what was going on.
“Ah, you brought a patient, but why do you look so pleased?”
“True. Now that I think about it, I do.”
Murong Bai introduced himself.
“In any case, welcome. I am Murong Bai of the Murong Medical House. But…”
“…”
Murong Bai examined the Lust Demon and the Sword Demon, then asked in a grave tone.
“Which one is the patient?”
For a moment, I was startled and replied.
“Oh, what a sharp question. This one, for now. A severe case.”
I pointed at the Sword Demon.
Murong Bai gestured toward his office and said,
“Please, come in.”
I met the eyes of the Sword Demon, who looked as though he were being dragged to a slaughterhouse, then gave him a thumbs-up.
“……Listen well to the doctor, Senior.”
“…….”
“He’s like a sworn brother to me, so don’t hit him just because you get angry.”
“That won’t happen.”
After the Sword Demon and Murong Bai entered the office, two unfamiliar women approached me and bowed.
“Sect Leader, it has been a long time.”
“Have you been well?”
I looked at the medical women who had greeted me and asked,
“Who are you?”
The girls replied with flustered expressions.
“We are Heibai Xiaoxiao.”
“Hei Xiaoling and Bai Xiao’e.”
Only then did I realize that the girls’ faces had changed a great deal. Of course, they looked far better than before.
“Ah, so it was you. You look better, so I didn’t recognize you.”
“If we look better, why didn’t you recognize us?”
“Shut up.”
“Yes.”
“Go inside and tell the other medical women not to show so much as the tips of their noses around here today. Everyone is to wear a mask while working.”
“Pardon?”
I frowned.
“Who said you could talk back? Get inside, now. The greatest pervert in Jianghu is here.”
I waved my hand and drove the girls away.
The Lust Demon, seated in a chair, glared at me with a cold gaze.
“Hey, Sect Leader.”
“What?”
“Do you think I’d lay a hand on girls even in a place like this? Don’t overdo it.”
“Mongrang, you have no intention of fixing yourself, so you don’t even qualify as a patient. Sit quietly before I call the medical women and start telling them your stories.”
The Lust Demon replied with a bewildered expression.
“My stories? What are you talking about?”
“…….”
When I kept my mouth shut, the Lust Demon seemed to catch on at last, and his face turned bright red. I looked at the Lust Demon through narrowed eyes and snorted.
It seemed he had only now realized it was the story whose beginning, development, turn, and conclusion all came down to shit.
Pathetic bastard.