Chapter 332. Farewell.

A single raindrop fell from the sky and, of all places, touched the blade dyed in violet. Ordinarily, a raindrop falling onto something hot would vanish with a hiss—but the drop that touched the wooden sword disappeared without a sound.

Was it because the surroundings were noisy?

Or because I had missed the tiny sound?

I looked around at the Four Heavenly Kings with puzzled eyes, and for some reason, I ended up sharing that question with them.

Even in a moment when we had to kill or be killed, the Red Man King asked me.

“Sect Leader, just what martial art is that?”

It was not easy to answer. If I lost even one breath while speaking, it felt as if all four of them would rush in at once.

“…….”

With soft pattering sounds, the rain began to fall thinly. But I, too, needed to see the Four Heavenly Kings’ attacks before I could choose how to counter, so I opened my mouth.

“This is……”

All four attacked at the same time. I shattered the floor with the palm force in my left hand and shot upward. Before the ceiling could even collapse, all four of them had risen into the air.

Having surged diagonally upward, I swung the wooden sword wreathed in Purple Haze Sword Qi at the Red Man King. In that instant, the Red Man King’s sword was cut apart like tofu. As the Red Man King pulled his shoulder back to avoid the sword qi, he plummeted to the floor, and I landed on an intact outer edge and glared at the other three.

When I split the Red Man King’s sword in two with a single strike, the Four Heavenly Kings’ expressions were worth seeing.

I watched the rain grow slightly heavier, then belatedly answered.

“……The Purple Haze Divine Art.”

The White Heaven King replied.

“Congratulations.”

The Black Life King also threw out a word.

“Congratulations.”

A silence flowed by, then the three of them rushed in from the air at once, while the Red Man King’s palm force surged up from below. I pushed off the precarious rooftop wall with my foot and moved to the opposite side.

In that instant, the sky flashed.

Lightning would soon fall. I extended my left palm toward the three of them and poured out the thunder energy of the Hundred Battles Tenfold Art.

It had no particular meaning.

I was merely pretending to launch a coordinated attack with the heavens.

Krrrzzzzzzzt!

The sound of thunder swallowed every other noise.

While the three of them poured out sword qi to deal with the thunder energy, the window below them shattered, and the Red Man King appeared, erupting with palm force.

‘Brave.’

I released all the sword qi that had been coiled around the blade toward the Red Man King’s body.

Shwaaaaaak!

The Red Man King, who had been pouring out palm force with a hand motion as if trying to seize the sword qi in midair, struck the wall several times and crashed down to the floor.

The White Heaven King looked at me and said.

“Red Man, are you all right?”

An answer came from below.

“No.”

I heard a door open, then the sound of the Red Man King—presumably injured—coming up the stairs.

I remained standing at the edge, watching to make sure the Four Heavenly Kings could not cross over.

As the sound of the Red Man King approaching grew louder and louder.

From a distance, the Blue Earth King, the White Heaven King, and the Black Life King each unleashed sword qi and palm force as if displaying their ultimate techniques. While I was fending off the three men’s techniques with the wooden sword, two hands pierced up from beneath my feet.

When the Red Man King’s hands wrapped around my ankles, I adjusted my grip on the wooden sword and immediately drove it into the floor. The moment I heard a thud, the three of them kicked off and flew toward me. As soon as I released the wooden sword, I raised an ice barrier of the Moon Shadow Heartless Art in front of me.

The instant the ice barrier shattered, I threw the Flash Dagger I had drawn from my robes at the Blue Earth King.

As soon as I dodged the Black Life King’s sword, I clashed left palms with the White Heaven King.

After confirming that the Flash Dagger had lodged in the Blue Earth King’s palm, the White Heaven King and Black Life King continued their assault.

It was a coordinated attack that was nearly impossible to evade.

Since I had already lost the initiative, it would not have been strange for a hole to be pierced through some part of my body. I bent my upper body completely backward, then barely pushed myself one step away with the Jeun Jong. Floating horizontally like a lying ghost, I moved aside, then struck the floor with my left palm to rise—but the three men’s attacks were already waiting for me again.

I wreathed both palms in the Flame Realm Great Handprint and discharged it forward.

They responded as if striking a shield with their swords, or met it with palm force.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

As the shockwave surged into my face, my clothes and hair fluttered, and the rain suddenly began to pour harder.

While facing off against the Four Heavenly Kings, I asked after the Red Man King.

“Is the Red Man King dead? He should have my wooden sword.”

The Blue Earth King was bleeding from the hand where the Flash Dagger had stuck, and now that I thought about it, I seemed to have pierced that bastard’s hand before as well. In any case, it meant he was not in perfect condition either.

The White Heaven King and the Black Life King were relatively unharmed. But the Red Man King, who appeared late, was truly in a miserable state. The wooden sword embedded in his shoulder had emerged outward near his forearm.

In that state, the Red Man King went to the White Heaven King and said.

“Pull it out.”

The White Heaven King looked at me.

I had no intention of using this wretched sight as an opportunity to attack, so I nodded slightly.

“Pull it out.”

When the White Heaven King drew out the sword, the Red Man King’s face twisted. In the meantime, the rain grew even fiercer, and we were drenched through.

Originally, neither the Four Heavenly Kings nor I were people who shed tears. But as we let the pouring rain fall on our faces, we all looked as if we were crying.

I spoke, surrendering to my emotions.

“Heaven, Earth, Man, and Life—those names probably weren’t given so you could kill people. You have to live too? I don’t know. Have any of you ever been forgiven by someone? I don’t know. I was thinking of asking the ordinary people who were here whether you were bastards who deserved to die or not, but I can’t see them. Where did they all go? It isn’t time to go cook a meal. Let’s say your lives won’t be ended by me, but decided because the people who were here are nowhere to be seen. Let’s see this through.”

The White Heaven King, who had been staring at me blankly, threw the wooden sword to me.

I silently caught the wooden sword that flew toward me.

The White Heaven King spoke to me as if asking for forgiveness.

“Sect Leader, we do not know any other way to live. That has frustrated me all this time, and only now do I feel I have found a little of the answer. Why it was so frustrating, I mean. Spare Red Man.”

The White Heaven King grabbed the severely wounded Red Man King by the nape and lightly threw him outside the building. It was hard to tell whether that meant he should live or die, but even to my eyes, he was not the sort of bastard who would die immediately from falling from a place like this. Still, the Red Man King fell while shouting something.

The Blue Earth King, soaked through with rainwater, pulled the Flash Dagger from his palm and threw it to me.

“……Take it.”

“……!”

In that moment, I thought my eyes would flip over. If these bastards had any shame to begin with, why had they lived in such a wretched way?

“You pathetic bastards…….”

The Black Life King said.

“We have no excuse, for we could not stop some of the vengeful spirits from running wild, saying it had been so long since they last slaughtered.”

I blinked because rainwater had gotten into my eyes, then confirmed that violet rain was pouring down from the sky.

“……So this is why I can’t live with a sane mind.”

For some reason, it wasn’t only anger I felt; there was also a sorrowful ache toward the Four Heavenly Kings layered over it. Cheongji King, in particular, was a man who had killed many sect leaders of great and small factions in my previous life. Was the Cheongji King of then a different man from the Cheongji King of now? I was in such a deranged state that even swinging my sword a few times was difficult.

I nodded.

“Come in. No matter who dies, let’s meet again in the next life.”

The three exchanged glances, then rushed at me like falling rain, splashing muddy water. Even as I swung my sword, I had the sensation of cutting through space.

Perhaps because of the Purple Haze Divine Art, everything was severed.

I cut my opponent’s sword, cut the rainwater, and before I knew it, I was cutting off limbs. I was drenched in rainwater and drenched in blood, but it was all the same anyway. Even Cheongji King’s torso, which seemed to be protected by armor, could not withstand the wooden sword.

I cut down the Four Heavenly Kings so hollowly that I could not tell whether I was killing them with my own skill or helping them commit suicide.

It felt as though we had fought only for an instant, and also as though we had exchanged hundreds of moves in the rain. When I came to my senses a little, the severed bodies of the Four Heavenly Kings were strewn all around, and perhaps because of the innate energy of the Purple Haze Divine Art, a blood-red mist rose around me as if evaporating. Was it because the rainwater and blood had mixed and were burning, or because I was in a state where I could no longer distinguish colors?

I spoke to Cheongji King, Baekcheon King, and Heukmyeong King.

“……Farewell. I must go kill the wraiths now.”

Only then did I notice the Flash Dagger lodged in Baekcheon King’s chest. When had that gotten stuck there? I pulled out the Flash Dagger and put it away, but when the three gave no answer at all, my temper flared.

“Pass on. Pass on!”

Was it because I had fought in such a high place? I could not even tell where I was. I went to the railing and looked down at the carnage spread out in the lower world. Frozen corpses stood here and there like stone statues. The wraiths, the Sword Demon, the Ghost Demon, and the Lust Demon were tangled together, plunged into hell.

When I suddenly raised my head, a man like the chief jailer of hell was staring at me. One was a chief jailer in white robes, and the other was a chief jailer with white eyebrows. Only then did I recall their epithets.

I looked at the White-Clad Scholar and the Grand Duke, then said,

“What are you staring at, you sons of bitches?”

I pointed my wooden sword at the Grand Duke.

“You should get lost now. If you don’t, I’ll ask the Scholar where Simwongok is right this second and run there. Scholar, where is Simwongok? Speak. Do you want to die too?”

The White-Clad Scholar looked at me.

“Sect Master, come to your senses. You’re suffering qi deviation.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. I should be cold-headed.”

I steadied my breathing, then let out a trembling exhale as I looked at the Grand Duke.

“It’s not qi deviation yet. White-Clad, let’s kill the Grand Duke.”

The White-Clad Scholar looked at the Grand Duke.

“Grand Duke, withdraw for today. If you do not leave, I will go down just like this and kill Jeogin King first. If you are a general, you should know how to retreat as well.”

“…….”

Grand Duke Yang looked at us, let out a short sigh, and bid farewell.

“See you again.”

The Grand Duke leaped backward, then jumped down between the buildings. To my eyes, it looked as though he were falling into another hell.

The reason I let the Grand Duke go was that it would be better to rejoin the Four Great Evildoers quickly. If I fought the Grand Duke for too long, the Four Great Evildoers might be done in by the wraiths. If asked whether killing or saving came first, saving came first.

I now looked at the White-Clad Scholar, who remained alone.

“Martial Emperor, you help too. Our opponents are wraiths.”

“Why should I?”

“If you are the Martial Emperor, you should avenge the former Murim Alliance Leader. If you are the Scholar, you should avenge the Sword God. If you are my comrade, you should help my sworn brothers. Just what kind of bastard are you? With those skills, you just watch like some pervert. Let’s go down together. Comrade, I’m asking you.”

The White-Clad Scholar grinned.

“Now that is something meaningful to hear. You are asking me?”

“If I can borrow the Martial Emperor’s strength, of course I should ask.”

In the rain, the White-Clad Scholar laughed.

“The Hao Sect Master is a man who clearly distinguishes gratitude and grudges, isn’t he?”

“Don’t you know my personality?”

At that moment, a thunderous roar erupted, and as I looked below, I bid farewell to the White-Clad Scholar.

“I’ll go to hell first.”

“Go on.”

I stood precariously at the edge of the building’s rooftop, then fell straight down. I dropped headfirst, and when the ground came into view, I rotated my body and landed. Perhaps because the rain had poured down in such a short time, the ground beneath my feet splashed wetly.

Walking through the rainy hell, I set out in search of the evildoers.

They must have committed many sins, which was why they were fighting in a place like this. The same was true for me. Evildoers and those who had forgotten whether they were evildoers or not clung to one another, painting a scene of hell.

It was like a hell of ice overlapping with a hell where the punishment was having one’s body cut apart.

I drew my wooden sword and asked,

“Eldest Brother?”

The Sword Demon’s answer came from somewhere.

“I’m here.”

I thrust my wooden sword into the neck of a wraith that was still breathing and asked,

“Second Brother.”

The Ghost Demon answered from somewhere to the left.

“I’m here.”

I nodded, then struck off the neck of a frozen wraith.

“Shitbag?”

Nearby, the Lust Demon roared at the top of his lungs.

“Pffft! You son of a bitch, I’m here. Why aren’t you coming already!”

“So you finally realized it. What kind of bastard you are. Not bad.”

Amid the wraiths, the Four Great Evildoers were dancing. To survive in a hell like this, one had to dance well. If I didn’t go to hell, who would?

I danced a wild, improvised dance as I entered hell, then raised my sword toward the pouring rain.