Chapter 652: Back to the Central Plains (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 652: Back to the Central Plains (4)
Ughhh…
A low, pained groan echoed through the darkness.
The sound came from Woo Hyuk, huddled inside a prison cell unlit by even a single torch. Not even fifteen minutes had passed since Gu Yangcheon had begun his ‘talk’ with him, but what had transpired in that short window was difficult to describe with words.
“Hahh… Hah…”
The guard stationed outside the cell had collapsed to the floor, his face pale from the sheer brutality he’d just witnessed. It was far too savage to be a mere scuffle between acquaintances. The cramped space was thick with the sound of snapping bones and the metallic stench of blood. The lamp that had barely illuminated the room was gone, extinguished at some point during the violence.
The scene was shrouded in pitch black, but the faint silhouettes were more than enough to terrify the guard.
Crack.
A coarse sound cut through the groans—the sound of a broken bone setting itself back into place.
Seeing this, a flicker of interest appeared in Gu Yangcheon’s eyes. It was a strange sight to behold: a bone mending itself without any external intervention.
‘I broke it in a way that would be easy to set, but still. His performance is pretty damn good.’
It wasn't just the external wounds; Woo Hyuk’s internal injuries were healing at an incredible rate. Regeneration—it was a power that truly lived up to its name.
‘If I rip his arm off, will that regenerate too?’
He recalled that Yuseon and Mang had been capable of such feats. He wondered if Woo Hyuk shared that level of vitality.
‘I’m curious.’
Flinch!
As Gu Yangcheon stared with clinical interest, Woo Hyuk must have sensed the dark thought, as his body visibly trembled.
“Ugh… Cough!”
Woo Hyuk violently coughed up a spray of blood. It wasn't from a new injury, but rather a byproduct of his internal organs knitting themselves back together.
‘It’d be a problem if he doesn’t heal, so let’s skip the limb-ripping for now.’
He was curious, but it wasn't a necessity. ‘If it were my own body, I would’ve tried it.’ Since the body belonged to Woo Hyuk, he decided to let it go. Gu Yangcheon nodded to himself, satisfied with his own restraint.
“…Huu… Hu…”
After trembling for a long while, Woo Hyuk finally managed to get his breathing under control. He looked up at Gu Yangcheon with an expression of utter exhaustion.
“…I’m sorry.”
The first words out of his mouth were an apology. It wasn't the reaction one would expect from someone who had just been beaten to a pulp.
Gu Yangcheon let out a deep, weary sigh.
‘I thought beating him up would make me feel a little better.’
Instead, he felt even more frustrated. Still, his boiling rage had simmered down into a dull annoyance. He realized how meaningless the violence was.
He looked down at Woo Hyuk and asked, “Why did you do it?”
“…”
“As crazy as you are, I don’t think you would’ve done it without a reason. So explain. In a way I can actually understand.”
It wasn't so much a conviction that a good reason existed, but rather a desperate hope that there had to be one. Woo Hyuk had to convince him here and now.
“A reason…”
At the question, Woo Hyuk slowly closed his eyes. To recall the reason, he had to look back into the depths of his past—
“Ah, don’t you dare start a flashback.”
At Gu Yangcheon’s sharp interruption, Woo Hyuk’s eyes snapped open again.
“It’s a waste of time. Give me the three-line summary. I’m busy.”
“…”
Woo Hyuk stared at Gu Yangcheon, looking completely dumbfounded. Gu Yangcheon merely scowled back.
“What, you bastard?”
“Normally… in a situation like this, wouldn’t you wait for the story?”
“Why would I be curious about your entire life story? Just tell me why you did what you did. And keep it short.”
“…”
It sounded logical, but for some reason, it felt incredibly grating. Even so, Woo Hyuk had already resigned himself. He had known for a long time that trying to understand this bastard was a fool's errand. Perhaps that was why it was easier to just talk.
Woo Hyuk gave a weak, sheepish smile. “Three lines might be a little tough.”
“It’s just an expression. Just keep it reasonably brief…”
“When I was young, my father tried to kill me.”
“Hell of a way to start a story. Alright, go on.”
Gu Yangcheon was about to get angry again but instead shifted his posture. He plopped down on the floor, ignoring the fact that the ground was slick with Woo Hyuk’s blood.
“My mother was having an affair behind my father’s back. And my brother… he preferred the company of men.”
“…”
The words coming out now made Gu Yangcheon feel even more uncomfortable. He let out a discreet, dry cough. This was a much heavier story than he’d anticipated—so much so that he wondered if he had heard correctly.
“Furthermore, my father was a man who dreamed of treason. I had noticed all of these things.”
“You must have been a sharp kid.”
It wasn't so much that he was sharp, but that he had overheard things no child should ever hear. Woo Hyuk didn't bother to clarify.
“When I was young, I didn’t know there were things I shouldn’t know. I ran my mouth about what I’d found out. That was the root of the disaster.”
His mother’s adultery. His brother’s secret. His father’s dark ambition. He resented his younger self for not being able to hold his tongue—for not knowing that silence was survival.
“The man my mother was seeing was killed by my father. My brother was locked away, hidden from the world.”
It was an inevitable conclusion. Had the secrets remained buried, things might have been different, but once they reached his father’s ears, blood had to flow. His brother, dragged away by warriors, had looked at Woo Hyuk with pure resentment. It was a secret he might have carried to his grave.
Watching that, Woo Hyuk learned the weight of words. But it was already too late.
“And I, the one who had spilled those secrets, was forced to live in isolation, separated from the family.”
His father must have been terrified—scared that the boy might discover his own secret of treason. Woo Hyuk had already known, of course, but by then, he had learned to keep his mouth shut.
A lonely life began. The days were quiet, yet the silence was deafening.
Perhaps…
[My name is Yuri.]
If he hadn't had something—anything—to hold onto, Woo Hyuk’s life would have ended then. Because he had something to grasp, he could endure. He could keep breathing. He tried to live with that thought, but…
“A problem arose.”
“A problem?”
“Yes. The last wall that allowed me to hold on, even in that confinement, crumbled.”
“What kind of nonsense is—”
“It means I wasn't my father’s blood.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Gu Yangcheon swore under his breath.
He’d mentioned his mother’s affair, and this was how it connected.
“The moment my father realized that fact, he moved to kill me immediately.”
The wall had crumbled. The only thing holding the man back—the belief that Woo Hyuk was his son—was gone. His father moved to dispose of the "evidence" without hesitation.
It was a bitterly cold, chaotic night. Vicious sounds filled the air, and Woo Hyuk fled to escape the slaughter. But how fast could a child run? He couldn't have escaped skilled warriors on his own. If it hadn't been for someone's intervention, that would have been his end.
An arrow struck his shoulder. As the young Woo Hyuk lay collapsed in the snow, bleeding and enduring the pain, a figure appeared before him.
[Young Lady, is this the young master?]
A white-haired man stood there, having effortlessly defeated the warriors. He had pale blue hair that caught the moonlight and piercing blue eyes.
“Uh… wait. Could it be?”
“That’s right. It was Master.”
That was the first meeting between the Monster of Wudang, Namgung Hyung, and Woo Hyuk. And standing next to him…
[…That’s right. It’s him.]
…was a young girl with hair even whiter than the old man’s.
“…”
Listening to the story, Gu Yangcheon gave a slow nod.
‘I wondered how someone from the North Sea not only came to the Central Plains but also managed to join the Wudang Sect.’
So the Monster of Wudang had brought him from the North Sea in the first place. ‘What was that old man doing in the North Sea?’ A question briefly surfaced, but the answer followed quickly. ‘Ah. Was it because of Thunder Fang?’
It was simple if he recalled what the Monster of Wudang had been carrying at the time. Back then, he possessed Thunder Fang, and he was someone who could hear the voice of Namgung Myung contained within the blade.
‘…The Namgung Myung in Thunder Fang did say his main body was in the North Sea.’
If he had traveled to the North Sea for that reason, everything fit. And thanks to that, Woo Hyuk’s life was spared. Gu Yangcheon roughly understood the circumstances now.
But.
“So you fled and lived in the Central Plains… Then why did you cause this incident?”
He still hadn't heard the most important part. Hearing the question, Woo Hyuk smiled bitterly.
“…It was for revenge…”
The moment Woo Hyuk offered that as his reason, Gu Yangcheon promptly smashed his fist into the man's head.
BAM!
“Gah!”
“You were doing so well, and now you’re spouting bullshit. You want to die?”
He couldn't stand the lies. Revenge? What a joke. He knew Woo Hyuk wasn't the type to be consumed by such things. ‘If it were me, maybe. But this guy isn’t like that.’
“You’re deliberately leaving out the most important part. I’m trying to be patient here, so are you going to keep fucking with me?”
Grind.
Gu Yangcheon ground his teeth and leaned in. “Yuri.”
“…!”
“Why do you keep leaving her out of the story?”
At the mention of the Second Young Lady, Woo Hyuk’s eyes widened. Gu Yangcheon knew Woo Hyuk was intentionally avoiding her name. He understood the kid’s life was miserable and that he’d lived a pitiful existence, but even while explaining all that, Woo Hyuk hid the core truth. Anyone else might have thought he’d hidden it well.
“That shit doesn’t work on me, you bastard.”
It was useless against Gu Yangcheon for one simple reason. ‘Because I’m the one who’s done it the most.’
Hiding one’s true feelings behind a pathetic excuse, constantly putting oneself down—it was what Gu Yangcheon had done his entire life. And he would probably continue to live that way. The fact that Woo Hyuk was pulling the same pathetic stunt pissed him off. He was the only one allowed to be this miserable.
“You said you couldn’t summarize it in three lines? Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t even need three lines, you moron.”
“You…”
“Let’s just be blunt. ‘I did something stupid because of a girl. I’m sorry.’ That one line is all it takes.”
“…”
Woo Hyuk was rendered speechless. It was a statement that pierced through everything.
“How…”
“What do you mean, how? This is frustrating, Woo Hyuk. Do you really want another beating?”
Should he hit him again? Before, it just left a bad taste in his mouth, but hitting him now felt like it would be genuinely refreshing. How did he know? What was there to know?
‘The way he acts is just like me.’
To be precise, it was subtly similar to how he had acted in his past life.
“You said you had a fiancée. That was that girl… no, the Second Young Lady, right?”
“…!!”
Woo Hyuk’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. For fuck’s sake, what was the point of hiding it when he was going to react like that?
“But the Second Young Lady herself didn’t seem to know… Is it a one-sided crush?”
“…”
“Look at that disgusting expression. It must be true, huh?”
His friend having a one-sided love gave him the creeps.
“It’s not like that.”
“‘Not like that,’ my ass. What kind of crazy bastard would start a war to save a woman he doesn’t even like?”
He didn't know in his past life, but looking at it now, it was obvious. Men were, by nature, incredibly simple creatures.
“A reason like that is more than enough.”
It wasn't about some grand justification or a complex narrative. A simple, idiotic reason like that was all it took.
“So, I’m going to ask you again, Woo Hyuk.”
Gu Yangcheon leaned down, meeting Woo Hyuk’s eyes. He spoke as if there would be no second chances.
“Why did you do it?”
The same question, but with a different weight. As if to say no more lies would be tolerated, an intense pressure emanated from him. Answer honestly. Faced with such clear intent, Woo Hyuk remained silent for a moment before finally speaking.
“…The day the First Young Lady began to run rampant, she told me. She said if I didn’t do it, she would kill the Second Young Lady.”
Finally, the truth.
“Kill her?”
“The bloodline of the Ice Palace. She said she could trigger the illness they’re afflicted with.”
Gu Yangcheon frowned. ‘He means she can mess with the Curse of Ice Crystals.’ That was likely because Mang had interfered with her. Which meant… ‘Don’t tell me, the sudden worsening of the Palace Lord’s curse was also…?’
It was a plausible theory. The problem was why Yuseon had approached Woo Hyuk specifically. ‘Really, why him of all people?’
Of all the people she could have chosen, why Woo Hyuk? ‘Did she think threatening him with his sister-figure would work?’ It wasn't a bad motive, but it didn't have to be him. If she needed a puppet to stand at the front, someone else would have been better.
‘Besides.’
The fact that she had locked up the First and Second Young Masters was also suspicious. The Palace Lord’s illness worsened. A rebellion occurred, and her two sons went missing. The only one left by her side was the Second Young Lady, Yuri.
If that was the case… ‘The only person who could be sent to the Central Plains was Yuri, so sending her was the natural course of action.’
It was as if… ‘It’s like she created a reason to send Yuri far away.’ As if she had manipulated events to get Yuri out of the North Sea, no matter what. But was there any reason for Yuseon to go to such lengths?
After thinking this far, Gu Yangcheon asked Woo Hyuk, “Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Were you close with the First Young Lady too?”
It was a bit strange to call her that now that she was dead, but still. When he asked about his relationship with Yuseon, Woo Hyuk tilted his head for a moment.
“A little, when we were young?”
“Be specific.”
“There’s nothing to be specific about. I just saw her a few times with the Second Young Lady.”
“Really? Nothing happened? No incidents?”
“…I don’t think so.”
Woo Hyuk looked genuinely clueless. Gu Yangcheon reluctantly nodded. What could he do if the man didn't know?
“So, you couldn’t resist the threat, so you started a rebellion, cut off your master’s arm, and stabbed a kid in the stomach. Is that it?”
“…”
Woo Hyuk’s eyes trembled at the unvarnished, blunt words. He looked pathetic.
“Why are you acting all pitiful? Get a grip.”
What he did, he did. Gu Yangcheon had no intention of looking at it favorably.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Cut the apologies. Just explain your reasoning.”
It was what he had been asking from the start. More than useless apologies, he needed to hear the logic.
“…At the time, I thought that was the best course of action.”
“And the reason?”
“Master was ganged up on while trying to stop the First Young Lady. That’s when she made her offer, holding both Master’s and the Second Young Lady’s lives as collateral.”
At least it wasn't Woo Hyuk who had taken down the Monster of Wudang. That was a small relief.
“So, you had no choice if you wanted to save them?”
“…It’s just an excuse.”
“That’s right, it is an excuse.”
The same went for what happened with Namgung Bi-ah. He was listening to the reasons, but these were things he already knew. He knew Woo Hyuk had twisted the escape route to make it easier for Namgung Bi-ah to flee. And when she was on the verge of failing, Woo Hyuk had stepped in to cause a scene.
However.
“You know that adding some grand reason to it is meaningless at this point.”
“…”
“And that’s what pisses me off even more. What? You’re just going to stay here? You’re not going back to the Central Plains to atone for your sins?”
GRAB!
Gu Yangcheon’s hand shot out and seized Woo Hyuk by the collar, dragging him forward.
“What sins? Are the faces of the dead in the North Sea haunting you?”
“…Yangcheon.”
“Woo Hyuk, stop your fucking bullshit. Rotting in a prison cell for the rest of your life isn’t atonement. That’s just running away, you half-wit.”
Gu Yangcheon glared at Woo Hyuk with snarling eyes.
“If you want to atone, you might as well just cut your own throat and die right now. Wouldn’t that be more fitting?”
“…”
“What? You have lingering regrets? What’s haunting you so much that you can’t bring yourself to die? What could it be? Ah, right. Is it the Second Young Lady?”
At the mention of Yuri, strength returned to Woo Hyuk’s eyes.
“Then, if I kill that girl, will your regrets finally end?”
“You—!”
The moment Woo Hyuk’s energy flared, Gu Yangcheon swung his fist and slammed it into his solar plexus.
THWACK!
“Keuk—!”
“So the woman is precious to you? Precious enough to forget your own wrongdoing and get angry?”
Displeased by Woo Hyuk’s attitude, Gu Yangcheon’s face twisted into a demonic scowl.
“I was the same way, you fucking bastard.”
Gu Yangcheon threw Woo Hyuk against the wall. CRASH! Woo Hyuk’s back hit the stone, and he slid down to the floor.
“Do you have any idea who you messed with?”
He tried to suppress his emotions, but they kept threatening to spill out.
“You wouldn’t know. You still don’t know. I was the same way back then. That’s why I want to make you understand, but I can’t, so I’m holding back.”
Heat began to flow out, filling the prison cell. Feeling it, Gu Yangcheon focused on his heart, forcing the energy back down.
“I’m barely holding it in. The only reason I’m not killing you right here, right now, is that one fucking reason—that you’re my friend. That’s why I’m letting you live.”
He suppressed his killing intent, again and again.
“Then you should be atoning, reflecting, and begging for forgiveness from me. Not from some nameless people in the North Sea.”
“…”
“Can’t you do it even after hearing me out? I guess not. You’re not a wicked bastard like me.”
He knew it well. Woo Hyuk wasn't that kind of person. That’s why he had to be certain.
“Then just live like that. Because I’ll make you.”
“…What does that mean…”
“In the first place, if I was going to leave you behind just because you said no, I wouldn’t have bothered with that tedious act with the Palace Lord.”
Step.
Gu Yangcheon slowly approached Woo Hyuk.
“Woo Hyuk. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me at all. I can’t be bothered with the annoying task of trying to change you now. So I’m just going to take the easy way.”
He walked over, then bent his knees to meet Woo Hyuk’s gaze.
“You have to help me and live this time anyway. So just follow me quietly.”
“Yangcheon. I’ll say it again… I don’t want to leave this place—”
“If you don’t come with me, I’ll kill Yuri.”
“What?”
Hearing his words, Woo Hyuk’s voice turned ice-cold. His gaze was incredibly sharp, but Gu Yangcheon didn't care in the slightest.
“There was a condition attached to me taking you from the Palace Lord. Do you know what it is?”
It would be a lie to say he had planned this from the start. The situation had just fallen into place.
“I have to take the Second Young Lady to the Central Plains.”
“…!”
“And since I was asked, I really do intend to take her.”
He couldn't be bothered with some bullshit play on desperate friendship or pretending to shoulder Woo Hyuk’s guilt. Gu Yangcheon was more comfortable doing things his own way.
“If you still want to stay here knowing that, then fine. But keep thinking. If I take her to the Central Plains like this, there’s no telling what I’ll make her do.”
Or, he could just get rid of her.
As he spoke, a wave of self-loathing washed over him. What he was doing to Woo Hyuk now was the same as what the Heavenly Demon had done to him in his past life. Even so, he had to endure it. It wasn't as if he could fall any further, anyway.
After delivering his message, Gu Yangcheon stood up.
“You have until tomorrow to think about it. Do whatever you want.”
With those final words, Gu Yangcheon broke his gaze, turned his back, and walked out of the prison.
As he walked, Gu Yangcheon thought to himself.
‘This isn’t easy.’
Whatever ‘this’ was. Nothing was ever easy.