Betrayal (2)
“Hmm….”
Whoosh…
I pulled my upper body free from the shattered rock and brushed the dust from my shoulders.
“Indeed, it seems you are no ordinary intruder.”
It had not been the crimson torrent that hurled me back.
The moment my body touched the crimson river, the pure qi flowing through my meridians reacted on their own and flung me away.
In short, the crimson torrent had only brushed my skin.
What threw me and pinned me was purely the power surging inside my own body.
“Hmm, it seems the same applies to you.”
The spider woman—Yuhwa, if I remembered correctly—lifted her arms with her eyes closed.
A sword scar from my invisible sword marked her forearm, and blood trickled from it.
“I never imagined you would slip straight through my defenses.”
“I never thought my internal laws would obey anyone else’s will either… but how did you manage it?”
“Would a master willingly teach his own secrets? Discover them for yourself. I, too, have done my best to study the power of that sword.”
“Oh? You identified it as a sword?”
How could you tell what I carried when I held no form?
“Though it lacks form, the intent behind it is so clear. How could you not sense what I hold?”
“As expected of a man who understands himself.”
I raised my invisible sword and pressed forward to overwhelm her.
Yet every time the crimson torrent brushed my body, I was sent tumbling in all directions.
As if my own body was no longer mine.
Boom!
I felt the strange sensation of hovering and tried to close the distance with her, but the crimson torrent remained the obstacle.
Boom, bang, bang, bang, bang!
My invisible sword swept through the air like a storm, turning the audience hall into a battlefield of shards. Yet I ignored it all and focused solely on reaching her.
How long had we been clashing in such a fight?
“Wait…”
She suddenly smiled faintly.
“Perhaps it is time to stop.”
“Hmm?”
She withdrew her hands from the floor and raised both palms.
“There is no need for us to continue fighting.”
“What nonsense. When two warriors meet…”
Only then did I realize I had no idea whether Yuhwa was even a martial artist.
“I know what you seek. Even within the Shimzog domain there are many like you. You wish to prove yourself by clashing with others’ manifestations, or perhaps you simply love sparring for its own sake. Many, many people. My own Venerable holds the same preference, after all.”
“…Then why not continue?”
“Because I do not belong to that category. While I am interested in your sword, my true calling lies in infiltration, espionage, deception, and rebellion.”
“Hmph…”
“Rather than meaningless struggle, how about sharing information constructively?”
I looked at her and grinned.
“Is fabrication one of your special skills too?”
“Eh?”
Boom!
I gripped my invisible sword backward and swung it straight at her head.
The blade sliced through her skull and severed a strange frequency that should have reached my soul.
Shuk!
Only then did I feel the sensation of reality snapping back.
The scene had not changed much.
We still faced each other.
But everything from the moment I was flung into the rock by her torrent and lay shattered—every trace of our exchange—had vanished.
“Impressive illusionary arts.”
The feeling I had sensed while fighting her—that my body was no longer mine, that I was hovering—had all been an illusion.
“I tried to keep fighting inside the illusion for fun, but when you demanded information outright, saying you had no desire to fight me even in dreams, I had no choice but to come out.”
She had offered information, but I had no guarantee the exchange inside the illusion was real.
She turned her head toward me with eyes still closed and spoke calmly.
“Strictly speaking, what you saw was not an illusion. I put you to sleep, induced a dream, and guided it in the direction you desired.”
“And during that process you also slipped in questions.”
“I deny nothing.”
“Your tone changed quite a bit from last time.”
“As a Shimzog spy, I do not speak in any manner that would draw attention. I have practiced changing both voice and speech as much as I please.”
“Controlling sound freely… is that your inner stage? Or manifestation stage two?”
Boom! Shuk!
I slipped my invisible sword into her hand on the floor and cut her palm.
She had been trying to put me to sleep while we talked.
She glanced at the wound on her own arm and laughed.
“I cannot explain it easily. You are neither Tian nor Jizu, nor clearly one or the other.”
“True… then that is settled. Will you not fight me after all? Even if you obtain my information, it would still be beneficial to you.”
“That is correct.”
Yet she smiled slyly.
“However, in this situation where there are already two Four Pillars Jizu on the floor above us, challenging me in full force would reveal everything. A spar would be meaningless.”
I caught her drift.
“If there is an advantage, then you would spar with me?”
“If there is one, I would not refuse.”
“Good. Speak your request.”
“You are currently staying in the palace of the Haeryong clan, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I am aware that Baekyeong, a member of the Baekyeom clan that I rescued and tried to extract from the Shimzog domain last time, is being held there. If you assist me in freeing him, I will not refuse a single spar.”
“…Uhm…”
Held?
Was that the right word?
Her expression turned grave as she hid her inner stage.
She misinterpreted it and clicked her tongue.
“Did I make too great a request? If you feel a sense of belonging to the Haeryong clan…”
“No, that is not it.”
I recalled the Baekyeom clan near the Yunshinho Sea, where I once drove the whip as the dominant force.
The name Baekyeong, who commanded them, made my thoughts hazy.
“…Tomorrow or the day after, Seo Hyul will leave the Jinryong Alliance to undergo the Foundation. After that, I will arrange for you and Baekyeong to meet.”
“Ah…!”
“However… hmm. I am not sure I can assist in his extraction. I can have the Haeryong patrol force allow you entry and ensure your escape, but you will have to handle his transport yourself.”
“Thank you. That is more than enough help.”
I smiled brightly and looked at her fondly, then asked curiously.
“If I were trying to deceive you, why bother? With the same inner stage as me… or manifestation stage two, I could lie as well, right?”
“Hehe… Have you never sparred with someone of my inner stage before?”
“…No.”
“Well, that is fortunate. I can teach you after all.”
“?”
She placed her hand on the floor.
“We will spar while controlling each other’s strength. As I said, there are two Four Pillars Jizu on the floor above, and a formation is in place in the audience hall. Even if the Golden Seal of Yeoseonru suppresses consciousness, we could still be discovered. So we will control strength to the early Qi Condensation level and only clash in the power of our manifestations.”
“Very well.”
A pure clash of comprehension was exactly what I welcomed.
The next instant.
Boom!
Her floor trembled, and my sword sliced through the air.
But I immediately resisted the urge to change posture and strike.
‘I’m sleepy!’
An overwhelming sleep demon descended upon me.
‘Even with power restricted to Qi Condensation level, it is this severe…’
Without any restriction, if we had properly fought at the same inner stage as before, I would have fallen asleep in a dream without knowing when.
Dong! Boom, dong! Boom!
Yet her performance was only beginning.
Gradually the floor pulsed, and notes began to form. My entire body’s power scattered, and my eyelids grew heavier than a thousand catties.
“Kuheuhueup!”
Bang!
I forced my body upright and glared at her.
Whoosh whoosh!
A faint crimson torrent of light began to flow around her.
“This is my lower chord—Illusory Banquet of Flowing Crimson. Please enjoy it.”
It was not a torrent of crimson.
It was the sunset.
The evening glow that signaled the end of the day and the start of rest.
Ting!
I struggled desperately, drove the sleep away, and executed the Mountain and Sea Melody’s first form.
My invisible sword transformed into a wave, its sword name shattering my consciousness and restoring my mind.
Yet even as my mind cleared, I realized I was slipping back into the demon of sleep.
“A terrifying… technique.”
It was sleep induced by merely the power of Qi Condensation, driving me to the brink of unconsciousness.
Even a Heavenly Person at the Cheonin level would fall asleep the instant he heard her prepared performance.
Even a single finger movement was an effort.
‘It is especially deadly to me.’
I am sleepy.
I want to rest right now.
If I lay down and slept now, I could finally sleep without worry after such a long time.
‘Since entering under Seo Hyul’s shadow seven years ago… I have not slept properly once.’
Moreover, in my previous life when I was an overseer in the Demon Realm, and even when I was beaten black and blue on the Day the Heaven and Earth Split Open, and even when I was captured by Goe-gun and transformed, suffering for a thousand years—I had never slept properly.
‘No, before that had I ever slept?’
I could not even guess how many years had passed since I had last truly rested, aside from those fleeting moments when my heart softened beside Hyang-hwa.
I want to rest.
I want to sleep deeply.
Yuhwa’s manifested inner stage was fanning the primal desire I had carried all this time.
‘Maybe a little rest would be fine.’
Yet.
Grin…
“Resting is…”
Crunch!
I drove my invisible sword into my shoulder.
The sharp pain snapped my eyes open.
“Even death is resting, right?”
I gripped the sword and laughed cruelly.
“If I gain enlightenment this morning, death in the evening is fine. Hold on, Seo Eun-hyun! Will you throw away this good opportunity? I will let you rest even in death! Open your eyes!”
I roared and twisted the sword embedded in my shoulder.
Psh! Psh!
Pain flooded my shoulder.
Yet with bloodshot eyes I wrenched the sword free and pointed it at Yuhwa.
“Very good. Shall we continue?”
“…As you wish.”
The next instant I tore through the space and struck her with my invisible sword.
The blade momentarily took on the shape of an axe and pierced her.
Yet once again her crimson torrent blocked it.
However.
‘I cannot block it.’
Swish!
My invisible sword passed straight through the sunset light and struck her.
Boom!
She leaped backward like a grasshopper, holding the floor.
I changed my stance right after swinging.
My posture lengthened, and the sword became a spear.
‘I fire!’
The next instant.
The colorless spear in my hand launched like a cannonball and drove three piercing winds into her surroundings.
Boom, dong, boom!
Yet she kept manipulating the floor.
The sunset torrent surged, and every invisible sword that touched it simply scattered and vanished.
‘That is…’
I understood the principle of her defense and was stunned.
‘She is treating my invisible sword as a living object and [putting] it to sleep?’
It was not merely scattering.
The more my invisible sword touched her sunset, the more it fell asleep.
Gradually I felt my own sword’s energy dropping below Qi Condensation.
If things continued I would be weaker than merely using sword gang.
‘How interesting.’
Old memories surfaced.
When I was still too weak to become a Peak Martial Artist and followed Kim Young-hoon.
Kim Young-hoon had traveled the various sects of Yeon Kingdom, tearing down signs and calling himself their chief.
Naturally the result was victory after victory.
Among the sects he had sparred with, there had been one that relied primarily on sound techniques.
Kim Young-hoon had once called the leader of that sect the most difficult opponent he had ever faced.
The memory revived.
[Phew, the hardest opponent.]
[Even my brother called it difficult.]
[Well, it was hard to find sound masters. Those who had dabbled in sound were basically idiots, but someone who had reached Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown and truly used sound in our view would be terrifyingly powerful.]
[I do not know what that “view” is, so I cannot say.]
[Ah, that is right. I was about to tell you.]
I recalled Kim Young-hoon’s advice.
[Sound is ultimately sound. How does sound harm the opponent? It is no different from poison.]
[Poison, you say?]
[Yes, poison. The moment you hear the opponent’s sound, qi enters the opponent’s sound. The moment the opponent’s sound waves enter your body, resonance begins. The body collapses at the corresponding frequency.]
[Terrifying.]
[Indeed. So when facing sound masters, the first strike was to suppress and kill before they could fire. If you allowed them to fire…]
[I would have to find the antidote.]
[A physician’s method, yes. True, I likened it to poison… but my method is different.]
The wave of sunset rushing toward me.
What Yuhwa used was not fundamentally different from sound techniques.
In fact, it was an evolved version of sound that had been pushed several steps further.
Perhaps the moment I first heard her sound at Yeoseonru that day.
I had already fallen under her poison.
The poison of “I want to sleep.”
‘The first strike is impossible, and what she inserted into me is the very intent itself. Antidote is out of the question.’
Then the only remaining method was one.
[Turn the poison into your own. Perfectly control the body’s qi and you can command the waves inside as well. Spar with the opponent, constantly circulate and move your qi, and transform the waves they insert into something completely different!]
I began accelerating my thoughts through the invisible sword connected to my body.
Gradually time slowed, and I sped up.
Kwaang, kwaang, kwaang!
Horizontal slash with the Peak Sword.
Immediately afterward I accelerated and dove sideways, thrusting with the Rising Tomb.
All blocked.
But I accelerated again, fell from above, and executed the Dragon Vein’s downward slash.
Kugugugung!
During the downward slash the invisible sword was again blocked by her sunset torrent.
Touching that torrent simply “transformed” the power itself; penetration was impossible.
Yet the next instant.
Psh!
A small wound appeared on her cheek.
Even if transformed, the invisible sword that had pierced her sunset had still wounded Yuhwa’s face.
Swish!
The next moment a crimson wave rushed toward me, so I retreated.
I am sleepy.
I feel like I will collapse any moment.
This was my own intent, but it was also the poison she had subtly inserted through her inner stage.
Then I would turn this poison into my own!
‘It was not sleep. It was facing my limit.’
And when you face your limit…
You can surpass it!
Boon, boon, boomboom!
Gradually the speed of my invisible sword increased.
‘Every time I endure sleep, the limit appears.’
Yuhwa likewise manipulated the floor and relentlessly pushed her torrent at me.
‘But every time I face the limit and overcome sleep, I break through the limit.’
The intent inside me changed, and sleep became spiritual enlightenment.
‘Therefore, every time I overcome sleep, I grow stronger!’
My true inner power did not increase, nor did I learn new sword techniques.
But was not true martial arts the definition of oneself?
Then.
‘I am growing!’
While restricted by Qi Condensation, my speed gradually increased.
I sought to control power even more perfectly and find ways to maximize the subtlety of strength.
Single Blade Cut, Peak Mountain and Peak Sea!
The sword qi of my invisible sword spread like a chessboard and shot toward her.
When she again struck the floor, the sunset wave twisted and blocked my sword.
My forms seemed to transform, but that was not the end.
Psh, psh!
Veins appeared across her entire body.
Gradually the “sleep” intent she performed no longer took hold in my invisible sword.
I was turning her sleep into “growth opportunity” and fighting her.
‘If this continues… I will win!’
That was when.
Grin…
“Sparring with the lower chord of an inner stage… has been a while… it seems it will not do.”
A thick smile appeared on Yuhwa’s lips.
It was joy.
The emotion of exchanging blows with me was overwhelming joy!
“I could make it rougher if you like.”
And the next instant.
Countless white spider threads burst from behind her.
Her spider legs on the lower body moved, weaving and hurling spider threads in every direction.
Soon the entire audience hall was wrapped in spider threads.
And.
Boom!
The moment she moved her spider legs and struck one thread.
Jiiing!
“…!!”
The spider threads she had scattered across the hall vibrated all at once.
And sunset light began to rise across the entire surrounding space.
‘Grrr…!’
Even if I tried to distort her intent inside my mind, new poison continued to seep from outside.
‘Damn it…!’
I am sleepy.
I am so sleepy it is maddening.
‘My vision is fading.’
I had long since become dazed at the boundary between dream and reality.
Yet my body continued to swing the invisible sword exactly as before.
At the same time I saw the audience hall before me vanish and the surroundings transform into a bizarre mountain valley.
‘At the boundary between dream and reality, are you trying to suppress my spirit through the dream?’
Whoooa!
The fog of the mountain valley enveloped me as if alive.
At the same time, in reality the torrent rushed over me.
Dazed though I was, I split my mind, severed the fog of the mountain valley, and dodged the sunset with a half-conscious body.
And her overwhelming counterattack followed.
The mountain valley before me had become an ocean that surrounded me, waves crashing down.
Then a sandstorm engulfed me on a scorching desert.
Yet my real body kept leaping about, constantly striking her with attacks completely different from those in the dream.
With mind split, I was forced to fight in two completely different environments.
‘Amazing.’
It was a form technique that, if the matchup was right, could kill a Heavenly Person at the Cheonin level in one-on-one combat.
Of course, if it was a sneak attack, no matchup mattered; it would inflict fatal damage.
While matching the vision of reality and the vision of the dream, I endured the sleep and kept exchanging blows with her.
‘The crimson torrent is the materialized dream of her melody.’
Touching that torrent would make my “power” itself fall asleep, and the sleep intent would be inserted into my body, ultimately putting me to sleep.
I barely distorted the intent and balanced dream and reality, but a direct hit would obviously leave me unconscious.
‘The torrent itself possesses physical power, the power itself is not strong, but touching it puts you to sleep—this terror… and the spider threads like her floor spread everywhere so any melody can be played…’
The entire audience hall was filled with crimson.
I had to barely find gaps in the crimson to hide and wait for her opening, while she rained down explosions from every direction.
‘How enjoyable.’
Yet the crimson she shot was each one a light ray that read the opponent’s intent and spirit and struck the optimal path.
My invisible sword was the same. As we exchanged blows I gradually felt excitement rising.
Our clashes grew fiercer.
And I could sense golden intent radiating from her as well.
It was enjoyable.
It was fun.
And at some point.
I entered the world fully filled with crimson torrent in the dream realm.
‘This place is…’
Drip…
Every time I dipped my foot in the torrent, overwhelming fatigue crashed over my mind.
—I am tired.
—I want to rest…
—Please, even a little…
‘This is…’
When two inner-stage practitioners collided, it seemed their intents merged so deeply that they shared each other’s spirits.
I waded through Yuhwa’s spirit and felt her fatigue.
Fatigue.
That was the very essence of the enlightenment she had reached.
‘This is…’
And with the vision of inner stage as well as my own Jizu vision.
The flow of yin and yang in this spirit rotated and showed me fleeting scenes.
It was Yuhwa’s life.
She was born into the half-human spider race.
Her race was famous for spitting spider threads and flicking them to create beautiful sounds.
Of course, aside from that they possessed no abilities, and by nature they could not endure the violent flow of spiritual energy, so they could not cultivate the Kunshu art.
Therefore the race was treated as slaves and sold throughout the Gwanghan Realm.
Yuhwa was sold from place to place, learned to play the zither, and was forced to play constantly with no time to rest.
Her zither-playing skill was truly excellent, and her owner profited as much as the performance time, so he never let her rest.
When she was tired he gave her spiritual elixir to remove fatigue, and when she tried to slack he threatened to grind her into pills. So she played nonstop for five years.
Yuhwa gradually began to go mad.
Who could keep playing zither without rest and extract talent?
—I want to sleep.
She wanted to sleep properly, not just doze off in other venues.
She desired it, desired it, desired it again.
The rest she craved never came easily.
But if she even dozed during a performance, her owner would grind her into pills on the spot.
He had been injecting spiritual elixir to forcibly remove fatigue, so the excuse of being tired no longer worked.
Yet for years she had not slept.
Now she thought that if she did not sleep, her mind would break.
She found a solution.
The solution she found was to go mad for something else.
She poured all her madness into playing the zither.
Her zither skill grew to a level unmatched even among her own half-human spider race.
She sought ever more perfect performances and ever more perfect tones.
One day she realized how to infuse qi into sound.
And again, one day.
She realized that when playing sound, colors of emotion appeared in the sound. From that day she could see the intent of the guests who came to listen to her music.
Yet again, one day.
She saw countless emotions merge into one and form a single consciousness domain.
From then on she understood that her music possessed direction.
And to reach that direction she practiced until her hands and feet bled.
And at last.
The day the zither reached the ultimate intent through perfection upon perfection.
She combined the basic qi she possessed with the intent flowing through the zither, and she succeeded in manifesting the thing she had desired for years and years.
I want to sleep.
Her music that manifested the “rest” she had never properly obtained in her lifetime put all the guests who had come to listen to her, her owner, and herself to sleep.
While still asleep she continued playing, and she used that time to kill her cruel inner-stage owner who had never allowed her a moment’s rest.
In that way she awakened as a Shimzog.
Later she fled to the Shimzog domain and joined the Shimzog.
That was her story.
Kwaaaaang!
Flash!
I opened my eyes.
My invisible sword now touched the tip of Yuhwa’s neck, and her zither lay shattered in two.
“You have lived a colorful life.”
Only now did I understand why she had accepted my spar.
When two Shimzog of the same inner stage sparred, they could see the opponent’s spirit and the opponent’s essence contained within it.
After receiving her promise to help me meet Baekyeong, had she been checking whether I was a trustworthy person by challenging me to a spar?
‘It was not a test to see whether I would accept the spar. It was always going to happen the moment she saw me.’
What a bold woman.
I looked down at her and she laughed brightly.
“You seem to have lived a life no less colorful than mine. When I entered your spirit… I really thought I was going to die.”
“My spirit is indeed a bit difficult.”
True.
The reason I could escape her dream and spirit and defeat her was because she had entered mine as well.
Entering the Descent Hell of the Underworld had left her concentration frayed.
“Still, it was interesting.”
I looked at the woman with closed eyes and spoke.
Until now I had only thought she was simply closing her eyes, but reading her spirit and memory in an instant confirmed it.
“It was not simply closing her eyes. She has been asleep the entire time?”
True.
She had not closed her eyes. She had simply been asleep the whole time.
From the moment she swallowed the pill, she had not woken once.
She slept continuously, controlling her own body in her dreams and moving as a strange existence.
“Oh my, deep sleep is truly important. If you have never rested even once in childhood, is it not natural to sleep as much as possible just to receive compensation?”
“No, that is not the issue… It is fine now.”
How was it even possible to control one’s own body in a dream while sleeping…?
“Still… you read my memory, I assume? I felt that sticky Jizu vision sweeping through my head…”
“Apologies. The vision cannot be controlled by me.”
“It is fine. Your spirit may belong to a madman, but I could clearly sense that you yourself are not evil. Your transparent lower chord alone proves it.”
“What exactly is a lower chord?”
“It refers to manifestation. When Shimzog meet each other they still use terms like manifestation stage one, two, three for the sake of unity… but honestly every Shimzog calls it a different word for ‘manifestation.’ I simply call mine lower chord.”
‘I see…’
It felt the same as my “inner stage.”
At that moment.
She asked me with eyes closed.
“So, what did you think of me? My evaluation?”
“Ah…”
True.
I looked at her and organized my thoughts.
This time, using both the Tian vision that reads the opponent’s spirit and the Jizu vision that reads the trajectory of the soul.
When combined, it was like when I reached the Nascent Soul realm and saw my life’s milestones through the yin-yang trajectory.
I realized I could see another person’s life in an extremely short time.
“A difficult life, indeed.”
I continued looking at Yuhwa.
“The difficulty has ended and the wish has been fulfilled. It is a life worth celebrating.”
My words made her smile brightly.
“Thank you for the praise.”
And the following words left me stunned.
“Likewise, I have briefly glimpsed your essence. After this mission ends,
if you wish, I will formally take you into the Shimzog domain as a member of the Shimzog.”