There Are No Truly Evil Madou (5)
One does not become a madou simply because they learned demonic arts.
A martial artist earns that title only after committing acts so heinous they provoke the wrath of both heaven and man.
“No matter how much I think about it, I still don’t get it.”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind.”
Why on earth was the Blood Saber Asura, Gwak Mu-sam, trying to massacre the people of this village?
After watching the village for several days, the only impression I’d gotten was that they were ordinary, somewhat generous country folk. Of course, there was a fairly high chance they were actually martial artists hiding their identities—something that would be obvious to anyone from the Wulin at a glance.
Then again, maybe he really was just the insane bloodthirsty killer he’d appeared to be when he met the protagonist in the original story. This village had simply had the terrible misfortune of crossing his path.
“But are we really going to keep sitting here? There’s nothing around…”
“Hmm…” It was hard to give her a proper answer. The time for Gwak Mu-sam to appear was drawing near, but since I had no idea which direction he’d come from, all I could do was sit on a rock near the main path.
Even after sharpening my senses with aura, I still couldn’t detect any presence. The frustration was mutual. Still, this was the only thing I could do right now, so I had to make the most of it.
Unless… I called the bastard over myself.
“Hye-ryeong, Mok-gyeong. Follow me from about twenty paces back.”
“Okay~”
“Understood, my lord.”
I was grateful they followed without complaint. I stood up from the rock and moved forward first. Then, slowly, I began drawing aura from my mana core.
Thin. Delicate.
My aura slipped out through my skin and spread gently across the mountain. It wasn’t enough to blanket a truly vast area, but it would still leave my scent across a fairly wide zone.
Just enough to convince anyone lurking in these hills that someone was here.
How long had I been walking? I realized I’d reached the middle of the slope and looked ahead.
A presence.
Was it Gwak Mu-sam, or someone else? I focused my aura into my eyes and pierced the darkness. A haggard male silhouette came into view.
“Who the hell are you? Enemy? Enemy? Enemy?”
“...He’s completely out of his mind.”
The thick stench of blood riding the wind stung my nose. This man had killed far more than once or twice.
Anyone whose body reeked of blood like this had to have taken at least two digits’ worth of lives.
And those who killed that freely fell into one of two categories.
They were either already madmen, or well on their way to becoming one.
No matter how barbaric this era might be, slaughtering people by the dozen was never normal. I knew that better than anyone—having beheaded well over a hundred men myself on the battlefields of the Middle Ages.
“Mister?”
“Hye-ryeong, Mok-gyeong. Some lunatic’s latched onto us, so stay back.”
I rested my hand on the hilt of my sword.
Immediately, a ferocious killing intent poured over me.
So that’s it. This guy just wanted to kill people.
For a ronin who hadn’t even earned a proper nickname yet, staining his blade with blood was hardly strange if he wanted to survive. But when someone who’d never learned proper martial arts fell prey to psychological trauma, the end was always…
“...I’ll have to ask around once I get back.”
Whether I brought his head or dragged his whole corpse with me.
I drew my sword as I listened to the footsteps growing rapidly closer.
“Why is that man suddenly attacking him?!”
“...He doesn’t seem to be in his right mind. More importantly, I’m curious how my lord knew that man would come here in the first place…”
He’s clearly hiding something… but it’s not my place to pry.
Since he was deliberately concealing his reasons, there was no need to dig deeper. Mok-gyeong didn’t want to create any awkwardness between himself and his benefactor. He simply wrapped his eyes with inner energy and watched the battle between William and the unknown martial artist who was suddenly radiating murderous intent.
According to the original story, the Blood Saber Asura’s realm is barely touching the Peak level.
A ronin’s path to greater strength is always perilous.
Most of the martial arts available to people from the bottom rung of society belonged to the Demonic Sects, and the majority had learned dangerously unstable inner energy methods.
For those who practiced low-quality arts, the only way to raise their realm was through brutal, life-or-death combat.
Fight. Kill. Fight. Kill.
Only by repeatedly dancing on the edge of death could they seize even a single grain of enlightenment and climb higher. But a realm built that way was like a castle made of sand—easily toppled by the smallest wave.
And once that realm collapsed, it became a downhill path straight into Qi Deviation.
Having somehow reached the Peak—a rarity among ronin—Gwak Mu-sam had eventually broken.
Boom!
William’s sword deflected Gwak Mu-sam’s saber to the side. The blade, still crusted with dried blood that hadn’t fully flaked off, scraped past in a shower of sparks.
It was a strike driven purely by murderous intent.
Yet the senses he had honed through countless life-and-death battles allowed him to immediately regain his stance and continue the assault, even in madness.
“Can you even understand me?”
“I’m not going to die!”
“...There’s no talking to him at all.”
I hadn’t expected much, but the way Gwak Mu-sam charged at me like I was his mortal enemy made me grimace. I caught the saber flying toward my neck with the flat of my blade. Sparks flew as sword and saber locked together.
A momentary stalemate.
But that was only because I was the stronger one.
William twisted his arm outward in a wide arc, shoving Gwak Mu-sam’s saber aside. Then, without mercy, he thrust his sword toward the man’s throat.
A single move aimed at ending the fight.
But even though he was insane, he was still a battle-hardened ronin. Without hesitation, Gwak Mu-sam rolled across the ground and barely avoided the strike.
“...Why do all these bastards keep doing the naryeotagon?”
“Die! Die already…!”
Rolling in the mud was simply part of a ronin’s survival instincts.
The moment Gwak Mu-sam got to his feet, he kicked off the ground.
His saber scattered red energy along with killing intent as it aimed for William’s waist.
A simple, honest attack.
But William never believed for a second that the man would attack so straightforwardly.
An experienced martial artist never uses an obvious move.
No matter how crazy he was, the instincts his body had learned through experience wouldn’t disappear. That was why William lightly received the saber in an ox stance.
A light impact traveled through his hands.
A feint.
The instant he confirmed the sword was blocked, the opponent would roll across the ground and target his left ankle. Any ordinary martial artist would have been caught off guard by such a bizarre movement, but unfortunately for Gwak Mu-sam, his opponent was a knight who had survived far more brutal battles than that.
“I never thought I’d see someone pull this kind of stunt in the Wulin.”
William immediately wrapped his left foot in aura and stomped down mercilessly on the saber. The moment the blade aiming for his ankle was crushed into the ground by overwhelming force, he swung his right foot and kicked Gwak Mu-sam square in the face.
Gwak Mu-sam barely managed to block the kick with his palm, but the impact still sent him flying backward. Even then, he didn’t let go of his saber.
William lightly rotated his slightly sore ankle—stiff from having forcibly blocked the blade—and walked toward Gwak Mu-sam, who had slammed into a tree and fallen.
“Guh…!”
The shock that rattled his internal organs tore through Gwak Mu-sam’s body. Yet he rose again after only a moment.
For a ronin, even that was commonplace.
He pushed himself up from the ground once more.
Because it still wasn’t over.
...Should I give it a try?
It was still only half-baked footwork. If it worked as he had envisioned, it would become a truly terrifying technique, but he couldn’t yet guarantee success.
Still, the true value of a new technique could only be tested in real combat.
He stepped forward with his right foot and pulled his left foot back.
The stance wasn’t all that different from longsword swordsmanship.
After all, every martial art ultimately revolved around the lower body. That was only natural.
Even as blood dripped from his mouth, Gwak Mu-sam charged at him with the face of a vicious demon. William stared straight at him.
The volcanic energy flowing along his saber made it painfully clear that he was releasing his full power. Though his realm was still shallow and the energy unrefined, it was still a sufficiently threatening attack.
Without changing his expression in the slightest, William drew a thick clump of aura from his mana core and began wrapping it around his body.
The distance closed.
Thirty paces now.
Twenty-five.
Twenty…
Fifteen.
William’s body shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, slicing through the dark night in an instant.
While deploying his ultimate technique—Aura Armor.
A dense layer of defensive energy coats the body, rendering it virtually impervious to physical attacks, internal strikes, and explosions.
Caught off guard by the unexpectedly fast charge, Gwak Mu-sam simply swung his saber at William’s heart.
But Gwak Mu-sam didn’t know.
He didn’t know that Aura Armor existed on an entirely different level from ordinary body-protection techniques.
He was sent flying like a man struck by a charging bull. William, who had left a deep furrow in the ground as he came to a stop, let out a sigh as he watched Gwak Mu-sam tumble across the earth nearly five jang away.
Still only half-baked. I couldn’t stop in time.
If he hadn’t used Aura Armor, that charge would have been suicide.
With a disappointed expression, William sheathed his sword and approached Gwak Mu-sam.
“...At this rate, it might be more accurate to call it a killing move than footwork.”
He had overshot the intended distance by two cheok, so the footwork was a failure.
I didn’t expect to succeed on the first try, but still…
Creating a new movement technique was never going to be accomplished in one go.
“Ugh… ugh… I don’t want to die… I’m not going to die… I have to go back home…”
But the time left to him had already run out.
His limbs had lost all function, and every rib protecting his upper body had been shattered. The fragments had pierced his internal organs in countless places.
A fatal wound that even Hua Tuo would shake his head at.
William watched the light of life slowly fading from Gwak Mu-sam’s eyes, then turned to Hye-ryeong and Mok-gyeong, who were watching him.
“Let’s head back for now.”