Chapter 330. The Guangming Sword and the Decoction Ingredients
It was only natural that the Demon Cult would try to retrieve the Guangming Sword.
Why had I failed to think of that?
Because I alone had been thinking of them as decoction ingredients. In any case, the one-armed wraith in Daoist garb who had suddenly appeared and the Sword Demon seemed to know each other.
The Sword Demon said,
“If I spared your life, you should have stayed at the main headquarters until you died of old age. Why did you crawl out here?”
It seemed the one who had cut off that bastard’s arm and sent him back to the old main headquarters had been Eldest Brother. They appeared to have been superior and subordinate, and at the same time, enemies now.
The one-armed wraith muttered something, then raised the sword in his hand. Perhaps he had infused it with inner power, because the sword shot up from its scabbard.
Shing...
The one-armed man caught the sword that had risen on its own and charged at the Sword Demon, beginning the fight.
As soon as Eldest Brother drew the Guangming Sword, he seized the initiative and slashed the wraith’s body, but strangely, it looked as though he were striking tough leather. Only the clothes were torn; there was no sense that the flesh had been cut.
When the one-armed man counterattacked by swinging his fluttering sleeve, the Sword Demon tilted his head back. Bizarrely, the man swung his sword while using his empty sleeve like a whip. It was an utterly graceless yet vicious movement.
Since Eldest Brother was fighting one-on-one, none of us felt like interfering right away.
Of course, if the Sword Demon started losing, I intended to jump in, to hell with the principles of the martial world and whatever else.
Still, what in the world was that one-armed wraith bastard muttering? I pricked up my ears to hear what sort of chant the wraith was reciting. His voice was low, breaking off and continuing again, but when I focused and listened, it roughly meant this.
“I will cut off your arm and attach it to my shoulder. I have not forgotten. Every time I touch my arm, your face comes to mind, so how could I forget? A bastard who was once merely called Number Thirteen... dared to humiliate me. I shall make you remember the past.”
He was spewing curses like a madman out of his mind.
The Sword Demon seemed to have roughly understood the muttering by now as well, for he smiled as he swung his sword.
“What are you babbling about?”
As I watched the fight, I asked the one-armed wraith,
“Did Eldest Brother cut off your arm?”
“……”
“Was it not enough to lose only your left arm, so you came here hoping to have your right arm cut off too? No answer, huh.”
I drowned out the wraith’s muttering with my nagging.
“So that means you were weaker than Eldest Brother even back then. Were you perhaps a candidate for Sword Demon? You would have been happy just eating and shitting with the wraiths at the main headquarters until you died. Yet here you are, deliberately hastening your death. Was running errands for your senior wraiths that unbearable? If possible, I’d like to spare you out of pity, but since you harmed a Daoist of the Kunlun Sect on your way here, I can’t forgive you. Even if you defeat Eldest Brother, I’ll be the one to cut off that right arm.”
As I spoke, the one-armed wraith’s face was gradually turning a deep leaden color.
Inwardly surprised, I muttered,
“So you cultivated a demonic art that only changes the color of your face. Why in the world would anyone learn something like that?”
“It is a body-protection art called the Blue Jade Art (靑玉功). Once mastered, it has its uses.”
“What leisurely bastard is that?”
At the sudden voice, I turned my head and saw a man of very small build walking over.
He was an eerie man, with youth and age carved into a single face, as though his growth had stopped when he was still a boy. His face was youthful, but his eyebrows were white. Moreover, his attire was so neat it did not suit the word wraith at all. As though he had no intention of joining the fight, he stopped at an appropriate distance and watched the duel between the two.
Without even looking, the Sword Demon acknowledged the newly appeared man.
“Grand Duke, you have come.”
“Left Envoy, it has been a long time.”
I looked at the man called Grand Duke and, since he seemed older than me, greeted him politely.
“Grand Duke, welcome.”
The Grand Duke looked at me and gave a slight nod.
“Good to meet you, Hao Clan Master.”
“You don’t seem to be the Cult Leader’s child, so it’s curious that you’re called Grand Duke.”
When the man called Grand Duke chuckled, a sigh suddenly escaped me. Now that I thought about it, if the Left Envoy called him Grand Duke and used polite speech, there was a possibility he was the child of the previous Cult Leader.
If so, the White-Clad Scholar and the Chief Strategist’s predictions had all missed the mark.
Of course, mine had as well. I had thought there would be openings because they were wraiths, but not only the one-armed wraith, even the man called Grand Duke was in a more or less sound state of mind.
‘This isn’t good...’
When I tried to focus on the Sword Demon’s fight, the Grand Duke bothered me.
When I tried to watch only the Grand Duke, I became curious about the Sword Demon’s fight, so my gaze kept wandering of its own accord.
The one-armed wraith in the middle of the fight opened his mouth.
“...Grand Duke, will you not help me?”
The Grand Duke replied,
“It seems like a fitting duel, so continue. You must avenge yourself.”
Just by listening to their conversation, it was clear that the man called Grand Duke was more frightening than the one-armed wraith. Whenever I looked at that aged youth, my desire to make jokes quickly vanished.
Had they known in advance that the Sword Demon was staying at the Murim Alliance?
It looked as though they had been maintaining a wide encirclement not too far away before appearing.
While watching the fight, the Grand Duke looked at the Lust Demon.
“You must be the Left Envoy’s disciple.”
The Lust Demon chose his words for a moment, then answered in a curt tone.
“I am.”
The instant the Lust Demon answered informally, the Grand Duke lightly waved his hand. When something like a pale blade flew toward him, the Lust Demon crossed both palms to block it, only to be lifted into the air and slammed into a building.
Kwaaaaang!
I looked at the building with a hole punched through it. The Lust Demon was walking out while moving his head this way and that, and he was smiling as he brushed off the dust.
“...Ah, I let my guard down.”
I warned the Grand Duke, who had roughed up Fourth Brother.
“Grand Duke, do not attack recklessly.”
The Grand Duke ignored my words, took out a small piece of metal from his robe, and flicked it with his finger. It must have been an object that produced a tremendous sound when wind passed through it, for it shot upward while emitting an ear-splitting shriek.
The Ghost Demon looked up at the sky and said,
“Looks like more wraiths will come. What are you going to do?”
“What do you mean, what? We kill them all. Eldest Brother is fighting, so we can’t run away.”
The Grand Duke looked at me with a cold gaze.
“Clan Master, your confidence is as great as I have heard.”
I calmly examined the Grand Duke’s manner of speech, tone, gaze, and presence, then asked,
“Grand Duke.”
“What is it?”
“Are you perhaps the Cult Leader’s half-brother or something? Or his cousin?”
“Why? Do we look alike?”
“You look a little alike, except for that sack-of-shit height of yours.”
The Grand Duke’s eyes sank coldly.
Just then, a tremendous boom rang out, and the Grand Duke, who had been glaring at me, turned his gaze toward the Sword Demon.
The one-armed wraith, struck by the Guangming Sword, vanished after smashing through several walls, then reappeared and muttered,
“Grand Duke, help me a little.”
The Grand Duke snorted.
“Noisy. Shameless bastard.”
I looked around before gazing back toward the center of the road.
“Here they come again.”
This time, an old man hobbling with a cane and a strange figure in a dark changsam were approaching with unsteady steps, as if they had just crawled out of a grave. They looked like patients who had just escaped from a clinic. I wondered if it was a miracle they had made it all the way here with bodies that infirm.
I watched the way the two were walking, and my temper flared.
“Aren’t you going to hurry up? You’ll die of natural causes before you get here. You old geezers, why did you crawl all the way out here?”
The two specters arrived with steps that looked ready to give out and spoke.
“Daegong, we would like to kill that one.”
Daegong spoke.
“If you capture him alive, I will forgive your crimes and allow your return.”
“Understood.”
The two who had received the order moved toward me. The atmosphere was like ghosts approaching, so I backpedaled to create distance.
‘Capture me alive? That’s absurd.’
It felt as if I had been promoted from an ordinary decoction ingredient to that of a Dragon Phoenix Decoction.
The old man holding the cane began to move faster, but he was still dragging one leg. The figure in black beside him also looked physically infirm, yet his walking speed was fast. However, this one too seemed to be missing a leg, as he hopped closer.
This was a moment where each of us had to survive on our own, so there was no time to check on the Four Great Evils. For now, I entered an alley, turned right twice, and slipped out in an instant.
I reappeared on the main road where the Sword Demon and the specters were fighting.
I crossed the center again and ran into the alley on the opposite side. This time, after turning left twice and slipping out, the Sword Demon was tormenting a specter, bringing the Guangming Sword down vertically.
Going round and round—such is the Jianghu.
I ran at full speed and leaped up. The moment I grabbed the head of the one-armed specter who was being thrashed by the Sword Demon, I unleashed the Baekjeon Sipdangong and spread the Jeeunjong. Taking the opportunity, I yanked out all the specter’s hair and shook him violently.
“Kuwaaaaaack!”
As I fled with the specter in my grasp…….
The Sword Demon attacked the cane-wielding old man and the figure in black who had emerged from the alley, as if taking turns. While fleeing, I glanced at Daegong, but he merely watched with a smile and did not move.
The one-armed specter’s scream was truly horrifying.
The sound of a cauldron boiling, a scream, and a pig being slaughtered all overlapped. I used the Jeeunjong to create distance, looked around, stepped on the one-armed one’s arm, and poured Baekjeon Sipdangong into both hands, burning his head.
“……Ah, noisy.”
Even if one masters body protection arts, brain attacks are difficult to block. Even if one masters demonic arts that seem to cover the entire body in thick leather, brain attacks seep through. Crackle— The sound rang out loudly, and I felt something sink in deeply. When I looked, the one-armed one’s head was charred black.
I couldn’t let my guard down against a specter, so I stomped on him and smashed him to pieces.
I picked up the Kunlun Sect’s sword and approached Daegong. Daegong was watching the Sword Demon’s fight with his back turned, and when I approached, he opened his mouth.
“Munju, who do you think will win?”
“Obviously, the Sword Demon will win.”
“I believe so as well.”
I went to Daegong’s side and looked down at this small bastard. Daegong watched the Sword Demon’s fight with his arms crossed.
Daegong spoke.
“They said to recover the Guangming Sword and Ilsal, capture the Haomunju, absorb the Sword Demon disciple’s extreme yin energy, and kill the one traveling with him.”
“Who said such wicked things?”
“Wh—….”
The moment Daegong spoke, I uncrossed my arms and slashed horizontally with the Kunlun Sword I had picked up. This tiny bastard raised his left hand and stopped the Kunlun Sword’s blade with his fingers.
Tak!
Daegong glared at me sidelong. The moment internal energy surged through the Kunlun Sword, I let go and used the Jeeunjong to leap away. In the meantime, the Kunlun Sword fell to the ground in two pieces.
From a distance, I spoke to Daegong.
“Daegong, why are you being so leisurely? Do you have some other scheme in mind?”
This dwarf bastard clasped his hands behind his back, looked around, and spoke.
“I am surrounding the area because you seem confident in escaping. Doesn’t the street seem rather empty?”
“…….”
I looked around with the Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon. Sure enough, there were no particular sounds to be heard.
I proposed to Daegong.
“I’ll let myself be captured for now, so let the other three go.”
“Don’t lie.”
“Sharp.”
Seeing through it so quickly meant he was a man of outstanding resourcefulness as well. I had thought only specters were coming, but it seemed one capable of commanding specters had come too.
For starters, the very title of Daegong was like that. If the eldest brother speaks politely to the Daegong, he is a man in a position similar to the Blood Night Palace Lord. Rather than the former cult leader’s child, he strongly gave the feeling of being a relative by marriage to the cult leader, or something like the cult leader’s wife’s elder brother. In any case, his behavior made him look like an insufferable aristocrat.
Daegong, who had been watching, gave advice to the specters.
“The Sword Demon’s left arm is a trap. It seems to be in an invulnerable-to-blades state.”
I looked at the Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon.
I had merely looked, yet Daegong spoke while watching the Sword Demon.
“Will the three of you rush in?”
“Shall we?”
I rubbed my palms together and blew wind into them. Then, as if wary of something, Daegong turned his body around and fixed his gaze clearly on my hand.
“Munju, I heard you possess a formidable technique.”
“…….”
I rubbed my hands three or four times before lowering them. Somehow, it felt as though the blade-shaped force that had previously sent the Lust Demon flying would come at me before I could even combine the Ilwol Gwangcheon. Yet this wasn’t a situation where the three of us could immediately rush in and quickly settle the score with Daegong.
In this stifling state, I had no choice but to watch the Sword Demon’s fight for now.
When I stayed still, Daegong spoke again while watching the Sword Demon.
“Left Emissary, if you are going to use the Guangming Sword like that, wouldn’t it be more convenient for both of us if you simply returned it? I do not know why you are being so stubborn.”
While Daegong was prattling on, I looked around and saw that the number of specters had increased. Every single one of them had bizarre appearances that were uncomfortable to look at. Their ugly faces were so hideous that one might think they had not become specters after going to the old main stronghold, but had been born as specters from the very beginning. Rather than mountain beasts, marine creatures—things like relatives of squid—had swarmed in.
Daegong spoke to the specters.
“The Munju’s qinggong is outstanding. Do not let your guard down. Since his techniques are said to be powerful as well, do not cluster together.”
Among the specters, I saw familiar faces. It was Jeok-in Wang and Cheongji Wang.
Had I been a bit too arrogant?
I couldn’t think of any jokes. At that moment, I heard something fluttering and fixed my gaze on a building a short distance away. Following my gaze, the specters turned their heads, and Daegong, who had been watching the Sword Demon the whole time, also turned and looked up at the building.
“…….”
A brazenly arrogant man with his chin slightly raised was looking down at all of us with an expressionless face.
Daegong asked.
“Who are you?”
The white-robed scholar crossed his arms and spat. The pale glob of saliva arced through the air and fell toward the Archduke’s head. When one of the wraiths waved a hand, the spittle vanished from midair without a trace.