Chapter 331. Not Today.
The one who had watched to see how strong a human could become was the White-Robed Scholar. Of course, the subject of that observation must have been Cheonak.
The one who had watched to see how mad a human could become was also the White-Robed Scholar.
Of course, the subject of that was me in my past life.
As I looked at the White-Robed Scholar, who had suddenly appeared, this thought came to me.
That bastard is not the sort to let Cheonak or me die. Because if his studies vanished, he would have no way to satisfy his curiosity.
Had he come to save me out of a pure heart?
Not yet.
That bastard has a frightening obsession with what he does not know. In how he waits until he finds out, analyzes, studies, and endlessly peers into things, he suits the essence of a scholar better than anyone. And for the sake of that scholar’s work, he is naturally capable of casting aside the mercy, manners, and compassion a person ought to have—he is even a bastard who killed his own master.
On top of that, the man who was supposed to be the administrator of a faction had even committed the disgrace of entering the Murim Alliance. He must have been unable to bear his curiosity about Im Sobaek’s martial arts.
In other words, that bastard is someone who cannot bear the sight of me dying.
Because he has yet to grasp the Zaha Divine Art and me. Don’t I know that bastard’s nature better than he knows it himself? In truth, he had come because he could not allow me to die, but that unpleasant feeling had dripped away as white saliva and disappeared.
To be precise, the White-Robed Scholar is observing me, and I am standing on top of the head of the White-Robed Scholar who is observing me.
The Grand Duke, who had been scrutinizing the White-Robed Scholar as closely as I had, though in a different sense, opened his mouth.
“It does not matter who you are.”
“……”
“You cannot even tell whether this is a fight you may interfere in or not. Dead Beast.”
As soon as the words Dead Beast ended, a man sprang out from among the wraiths like an animal. In a single bound he leaped halfway up the building opposite the one where the White-Robed Scholar stood, then surged forward like a wild beast pouncing, force wrapped around both hands, even letting out a roar like a tiger charging.
The White-Robed Scholar, watching him, held out his hand and smiled.
The moment the Dead Beast’s body, soaring like a streak of light, touched the beam of radiance that burst from the White-Robed Scholar’s finger, his body split left and right.
Splat!
The cleaved corpse fell like torn wings stained with blood. The heavier pieces reached the ground first, and after the scattered blood followed with a pattering sound, silence flowed for a moment.
The White-Robed Scholar smiled broadly from the rooftop.
“When he comes up, he is human. When he comes down, he is not.”
The Grand Duke spoke while examining the corpse.
“……Among the scholar’s lot, there is an expert outstanding in finger techniques. But unless Cheonak comes, he will not be able to leave this place, so surround him and kill him. I will deal with the Left Envoy.”
In that instant, the Grand Duke whipped his head around.
“……!”
Above the heads of the wraiths fighting the Sword Demon, the Lust Demon hung upside down, thrusting out both palms. In that interval, the Sword Demon and the Ghost Demon simultaneously struck off the necks of the two wraiths that had begun to freeze.
This time, two heads without even blood fell one after another.
Thud! Thud!
The Lust Demon lightly landed between the headless wraiths, then glared at the Grand Duke and slung an arm around a headless corpse’s shoulders.
“Let’s see who dies.”
Seeing how the corpse caught by the Lust Demon continued freezing, it looked as though he meant to use it as a weapon. In any case, that bastard had also risen all the way to Left Envoy in the Demonic Cult, so he was not the sort to blink at a surrounding net like this.
The White-Robed Scholar opened his mouth in a calm tone.
“Valley Master Yang, it seems being treated as a meritorious subject has made you far too arrogant.”
“Mm.”
“A man who calls himself a recluse is not a true recluse. I am someone who keeps watch over bastards like you. Why? Are you surprised I recognized you?”
Indeed, the Grand Duke was staring at the White-Robed Scholar with astonished eyes.
“……”
The White-Robed Scholar spoke as though taunting the Grand Duke.
“Does the world look laughable to you now that you’ve made the Cult Leader your brother-in-law? You stay out of this today. Let’s do it this way. In exchange, I will not interfere in this fight either. The victory here will be left to the wraiths and those four.”
The Grand Duke replied.
“Do you think that is possible?”
“It has to be. Because if you reject my proposal one more time, here and now, you will immediately find yourself competing with me in qinggong.”
The Grand Duke glared at the White-Robed Scholar.
“What do you mean?”
The White-Robed Scholar looked down at the Grand Duke and said,
“Why ask when you know? We’ll have to run to scenic Shenyuan Valley. I will go there and burn everything living. You shameless son of a bitch, keeping one foot in the demonic path while building yourself a cozy family. I intend to help you walk the true demonic path. If there is something you gain, there must be something you lose. You must have lived far too happily until now, but if you show off like this today, that happiness will not last long. Because your misfortune is my joy. Grand Duke Yang, Valley Master Yang, my good man…… why did you crawl out?”
As expected, the White-Robed Scholar is a difficult bastard to deal with.
Out of nowhere, the Grand Duke sought the Sword Demon’s opinion.
“Left Envoy, is what he says true?”
Being treated as a meritorious subject meant that, together with the Sword Demon, he had raised the current Cult Leader to the position of supreme leader. In other words, the Sword Demon and the Grand Duke seemed to be old comrades.
The Sword Demon answered.
“Grand Duke, you already know the answer.”
The White-Robed Scholar said,
“Valley Master Yang, even if I take you on, the result of the fight will be much the same. Stand down.”
I waited for the situation with patience, then clapped my hands and sorted things out.
“Now, now, let’s settle this.”
“……”
“The Scholar and the Valley Master will spectate. The wraiths and we will decide the outcome. The reason we waited was to give the people nearby time to flee. By now, anyone who wanted to live should have all run away.”
In how he first used petty schemes rather than resolving things with force, the White-Robed Scholar was certainly different from Cheonak.
In truth, rather than the wraiths, I was the one who looked likely to smash the surroundings to pieces.
The Grand Duke, who had been quietly sweeping his gaze around, rapidly shot into the air and, in a single move, took his place on the building opposite the White-Robed Scholar.
I looked anew at both sides of the buildings.
‘This isn’t exactly better.’
We had removed the Grand Duke from their fighting strength, but having him look down at us together with the White-Robed Scholar did not feel all that pleasant. Looking at it this way, that White-Robed Scholar son of a bitch was neither helping nor not helping.
‘Goddamn bastard……’
But I trust the White-Robed Scholar’s malice. If we kill all the wraiths, he is probably the sly bastard who will join forces with us and kill the Grand Duke. However, the Grand Duke’s attitude was still relaxed, too, so it felt as if two old foxes were watching us.
For the moment, I accepted that the Grand Duke’s skill could not be bad, given that the eldest brother was at least showing him courtesy.
Unpleasantly, the Grand Duke announced the opening of battle.
“Kill them.”
In truth, I was at the very rear, watching the wraiths charge and the Sword Demon, Lust Demon, and Ghost Demon rush in. I drew my wooden sword and walked forward, but my body kept stiffening because I was bothered by the White-Robed Scholar and the Grand Duke.
“……”
What was this feeling? Come to think of it, no one was attacking me either. That was because the Grand Duke’s purpose was to retrieve the Sword of Radiance and the wooden sword, kill the Four Great Villains, but take me alive.
By the way, was it really possible to capture me alive? Instinctively, I checked the Grand Duke’s expression.
When our eyes met, the Grand Duke grinned.
“Sect Leader, what is the matter? Hurry up and fight. I am curious about your skills as well.”
Only then did the enemies I had to face appear before my eyes. The Jeogin King and the Cheongji King, who had surged up from among the wraiths and landed, revealed themselves.
A chill ran down the back of my head, so I turned around……
The Baekcheon King and the Heukmyeong King, who had been nowhere to be seen, appeared and blocked my retreat. Their bearing and atmosphere were certainly heavier than when I had seen them before. As if their mouths had been sealed, they surrounded me without saying a word.
“It’s been a while. Nice to see you.”
“…….”
To think I’d be surrounded by the Demonic Cult’s Four Heavenly Kings……
At this point, I thought it might be better to just get captured. But I had a feeling that if I were dragged away, I would become material for the Heavenly Jade. I already carried the Heavenly Jade within me; if they melted me down and put me into the Heavenly Jade, it wouldn’t be strange for the world to perish.
I wasn’t doing this shit to save my own life. I was doing this shit because I couldn’t let the martial world be destroyed.
I wanted to wrack my brain a little more, but……
The Four Heavenly Kings charged at me all at once.
I was not joking; the only thought in my head was that I had to run. Fleeing into an alley looked dangerous too, so I dashed into the inn I had been eyeing since earlier. Fortunately, there were no pitiful waiters in the inn, nor any innocent customers.
Was it an occupational disease that, even in the midst of this, the inn’s tables and chairs felt welcome to me? I found myself wanting to set the toppled chairs upright.
The structure was familiar, so I first ran up the stairs, entered a room on the second floor, and looked toward the window. Suddenly, the Cheongji King appeared before my eyes and swung his sword.
I clashed swords with the Cheongji King for a moment.
Whether he had gotten some scraps to eat at the old main headquarters, he parried my sword rather well. Then the Baekcheon King appeared, smashing through the door, and since the wall had also been broken through, inside the cramped room I unleashed the cold energy of the Moon Shadow Heartless Art as a wave of qi and swung my sword.
As cold energy burst from my body……
Amazingly, the Four Heavenly Kings retreated in all directions, pouring out palm winds or swinging their swords.
In the meantime, I swung my sword, smashed through the ceiling, and shot upward. I had wondered why this fight felt so stifling, and it was because I had been fighting down low. My paranoia had flared up, making me constantly conscious of the White-Clad Scholar and the Grand Duke up above. As I fled, I climbed stairs, sometimes leaped upward, and eventually reached the roof of the building.
At that moment, a man’s hand appeared on the rooftop railing, and the Cheongji King surged up again. Below, the other Four Heavenly Kings were in the middle of climbing up.
Only then did the Cheongji King open his mouth for the first time.
“Sect Leader, I will escort you to the Divine Cult. The Cult Leader wishes to see you, so come with us. He said that if you refuse, cutting off an arm or a leg would be acceptable.”
I answered while sidestepping like a crab.
“Sure. I’m busy right now, so I can’t go. Give him my regards. Tell him I’ll see him later.”
The rooftops spreading out across the buildings were all at different heights, but to my eyes, they looked like colorful mountain ridges. For now, I ran. I leaped over rooftops, leaped over laundry, dropped onto low buildings, then sprang up onto taller ones. In the midst of it all, I could see the Four Great Evildoers fighting the wraiths, and the smiling faces of the Grand Duke and the White-Clad Scholar as they watched me flashed past as well.
Why on earth was I living like this?
It was ridiculous, sad, infuriating, and funny. As my mind grew complicated and hazy, I ran across the roofs without reaching any conclusion about what I should do. Come to think of it, it wasn’t that the Chief Strategist seemed like a thief; I was the thieving bastard.
Fortunately, I was rather confident in my lightness skill, so I ran around with the Four Heavenly Kings trailing behind me like a tail. Suddenly, I sprang through the air toward a rooftop that was some distance away, turned back, and unleashed sword qi.
The Cheongji King, who had been following busily without much thought, raised his sword in midair and was blasted in the opposite direction with a roar.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
Using the recoil, I landed on the rooftop and laughed.
“Ah, life is beautiful…….”
In truth, though I had never said it to anyone in detail, it had been quite a while since I had maintained my sanity. It was partly because I had stayed comfortably at the Murim Alliance, and partly because I had found a cowardly sort of consolation in Im Sobaek, who lived in as much torment as I did.
If I had gone on living like that, could I have lived like a normal person too?
While dodging hidden weapons flying at my back, I tripped on a mound and staggered, and at that moment, sword qi fired by the Four Heavenly Kings came flying. When I sprang up awkwardly to avoid it, this time palm force came rushing in.
The instant I swung my wooden sword and knocked it aside, I was pushed back, crashed into the wall of some building, and rolled across the ground. My back hurt, the back of my head hurt, and my heart hurt too……
Today, of all days, I thought of Yoran.
The faces of Brother Deuksu and Junior Sister Hong, eating a meal with Yoran, also came to mind.
I also thought of Uncle Gwak Cheolyong, who was probably hammering a piece of heated iron somewhere. The sound of him striking that iron was now ringing in my head too, clang, clang. With my sword sheathed, I swung both palms and shot into the air. Even in the midst of this, I was smashing someone else’s household belongings to pieces……
Come to think of it, the inns and houses, teahouses, and ordinary homes I had already passed through had bloodstains, disheveled bedding, and toppled chairs.
It seemed they had already been attacked.
After I waited a moment, the Four Heavenly Kings, whose lightness skill did not fall greatly behind mine, appeared and blocked all four directions with precision. I felt slightly strange, but unlike when I had gone mad before, my surroundings were not dyed purple.
My reason still remained.
As I recognized the Four Heavenly Kings slowly approaching, I drew my wooden sword and poured the power of the Heavenly Jade that I had drawn from within my body entirely into the blade.
Even though the blade, which had been shining white, was dyed purple, my mind remained intact.
“…….”
The Four Heavenly Kings looked at my sword and stopped simultaneously. Even in the midst of this, I remembered the sensation of the path through which the extreme yang and extreme yin energies I had drawn up from the Heavenly Jade had moved. The Moon Shadow Heartless Art and the Golden Turtle Leisure Art had manifested within my body at the same time, without even a single instant of delay.
I said to the Four Heavenly Kings.
“I’ll go meet the Cult Leader later. Not today.”