Death is Fair to All (8)
Beon Jak was not merely a man whose martial arts were strong.
From the beginning, to grow strong in martial arts, one needed the mental fortitude to endure that hardship. Whether through fortunate encounters or otherwise, the martial arts of masters who had trained to the extreme were accompanied by enlightenment, and that enlightenment in turn drew out the growth of their mental strength.
That was why peak masters did not so much as blink at ordinary matters. Even when startled, they did not act rashly. It was because they always maintained a state of harmony between body and mind.
The problem was Beon Jak’s current condition.
He had pushed his Fire Essence to its limit, suffered severe internal and external injuries, and above all, had lost far too much blood.
In other words, the harmony of his body and mind had been disrupted. No matter how strong one’s mental fortitude, flaws were bound to appear in such a state.
Beon Jak stared silently at Yeon Hojeong.
Yeon Hojeong gave a faint smile.
“No answer, then.”
“Say whatever you like.”
“Cheon Gang was the same. So were the other Martial Generals who died by our hands before. Do you know what I personally found most amusing?”
“……”
“The way you all declare that you are staking your lives—it was unbearably light.”
Beon Jak’s eyes twitched slightly.
“I once had Cheon Gang briefly removed from the prison. There were things I needed to verify. But that fellow was vicious. He truly seemed ready to throw his life away.”
Of course. The Eighteen Martial Generals were not positions one could reach merely by being strong in martial arts. Before martial prowess or temperament, one could never become a Martial General without absolute loyalty and faith.
“It was amusing. So I truly tried to kill him. After all, a hostage with no information worth extracting was worthless. If I sent him back, he would only point his blade at us again, so there was no reason to let him live.”
“……”
“Aren’t you curious how he reacted then?”
Even without finishing the sentence, the tone alone made it clear that Cheon Gang had feared death.
Beon Jak’s lips trembled.
“Enough with these petty tricks.”
At some point, Yeon Hojeong’s expression had turned indifferent.
“The deaths you all proclaim are always like that. Just like the Scorching Sun Art you cultivate—like that weightless flame, they are light.”
“Then, would you like to test it?”
“A test sounds good.”
“No matter what you do, you will not obtain even a shred of information from my mouth.”
Beon Jak’s voice was filled with conviction.
Yeon Hojeong nodded.
“So you’ve already accepted that there is no way out. A good attitude.”
“……!”
It was exactly as Yeon Hojeong said.
In truth, there was nothing Beon Jak could do now. His torn and pierced thighs could not be restored even with the Fire Essence, and even if he attempted a surprise attack in desperation, the internal energy sealing his wounds made it difficult.
Perhaps a single strike staking his life would have given him a chance, but even that was impossible. With his current internal energy, he could not even reach Yeon Hojeong, let alone Pae Yul who stood at a distance.
If he had possessed the strength for one final strike, he would have launched it long ago.
In other words, Beon Jak was in a situation where he could neither do this nor that.
His life now rested in Yeon Hojeong’s hands.
“Senior.”
“Hm?”
“Please make sure no insects approach. No one must intrude here.”
Pae Yul’s eyes gleamed. He had realized that Yeon Hojeong was about to make a decisive move.
“I’ll do that. But I can’t guarantee it. Your battle has already laid waste to the entire area. If they launch simultaneous attacks across this vast region, it’ll be hard to block them all.”
He would not die. But he was saying that Yeon Hojeong, who intended to stir up trouble, might suffer damage.
Yeon Hojeong shook his head.
“There’s no need to fight. Release your combat stance and simply maximize your senses. The moment you detect an enemy’s approach, just inform me.”
It meant not blocking the enemy, but channeling all internal energy into his senses to serve as an alarm.
Pae Yul nodded.
“Understood.”
Whoosh.
He moved about ten jang away from Yeon Hojeong and Beon Jak and sat in a lotus position. It was to make his senses extremely sharp.
Wu-woooooong.
A faint true energy rose from Pae Yul’s body, soon spreading outward like an invisible net in all directions.
Yeon Hojeong turned his gaze back to Beon Jak.
Beon Jak’s expression was resolute. He believed Yeon Hojeong was about to torture him.
But he was wrong.
Swish.
Using the art of Void Grasping, Yeon Hojeong retrieved the long spear and lowered his stance.
Without a single word, he began swinging the spear.
Shhhhhh!
A movement without internal energy.
Neither fast nor particularly slow. Even an ordinary person untrained in martial arts could clearly see the flow of the form.
‘What is this?’
Beon Jak was puzzled.
Instead of torturing him, the man was suddenly demonstrating martial forms. He wondered why this fellow was doing such a thing all of a sudden.
Parararak! Bang! Pararak!
The pacing of the spear technique was perfect.
But it was not a spear technique. Even amid his confusion, Beon Jak realized that Yeon Hojeong was executing fist and palm techniques, not spear arts.
And he felt a chilling sense of déjà vu from Yeon Hojeong’s movements.
At the final point of the thrust, Yeon Hojeong rotated his wrist halfway.
Whoosh!
Following the rotation, the dust on the ground rose in a gentle swirl.
In that instant, Beon Jak’s eyes widened as if they would tear apart.
“Do you recognize it?”
Returning to his original stance, Yeon Hojeong shrugged.
“It’s the martial art Cheon Gang demonstrated. And it’s also the form of the fist-and-palm technique you used against my martial arts just moments ago.”
“……
You—where did you get that?!”
“I just told you. It’s the martial art Cheon Gang demonstrated.”
“That’s impossible!!”
It was a natural reaction.
Cheon Gang was not mad enough to reveal the forms of the Shinwha Sect’s martial arts. It would have been better to hand over a single piece of information about the sect’s movements than to reveal the forms of their techniques in such detail. That was sheer madness.
“Then it seems someone infiltrated the Shinwha Sect’s main base and stole a martial arts manual.”
“……”
“Well, that’s not what’s important.”
It was important. For Beon Jak, it was more critical than anything else.
But after hearing Yeon Hojeong’s next words, he lost even the strength to open his mouth and shout.
“What’s important is that your martial arts, your strategies, and your tactics all follow a single pattern.”
Beon Jak’s eyes shook as if struck by an earthquake.
Yeon Hojeong did not miss that moment.
‘As expected.’
Beon Jak had known. This flow, this diagram—if one knew how to break it, it was an absolute weakness that could be thoroughly destroyed.
Yeon Hojeong smiled.
“I was right.”
The reason he had deliberately not countered according to the breaking method during the fight with Beon Jak was to see this reaction. Of course, he had also been confident in his victory.
Meanwhile, Beon Jak realized that his reaction had given the opponent certainty.
‘Damn it.’
But this reaction could not be helped. Even if his condition had been perfect, the opponent would have noticed.
The reason was clear. He had believed that no one in the Central Plains could discover this ‘pattern.’
More precisely, he had thought no martial artist would bother to investigate such a thing. This was not a war between sects, but a war to seize territory. Where would one find a madman leisurely investigating something like that?
‘How did this bastard learn of the Solar Array Map?!’
Yeon Hojeong stroked his chin.
“I won’t explain how I found out. But if you, the leader of the Eighteen Martial Generals, know of it, then the higher-ups above you must all know as well.”
“……!”
“In other words, whether in martial arts, strategy, or tactics—even when executing an operational retreat—you cannot escape the movements of this diagram. At the very least, we can assume that deviating from the diagram carries a certain level of risk. Whether you can afford to take that risk and break away from the diagram’s movements, I don’t know.”
Beon Jak swallowed dryly without realizing it.
The dizziness from excessive blood loss vanished in an instant. His mouth went dry, and goosebumps rose along his spine.
A fact that absolutely must not be known had been discovered by the commander of the Martial Alliance’s special forces.
No—Yeon Hojeong was not the only one who knew. Surely the Martial Alliance’s leadership was also aware of the Solar Array Map to some extent.
Flash!
A desperate will to survive ignited in Beon Jak’s eyes.
‘I must inform them. I absolutely must!’
He had not intended to avoid death.
Meeting Yeon Hojeong here by chance had been unfortunate, but he had never thought he would lose.
Yet he had lost, and what remained was death. He had not wanted to believe it, but Beon Jak had decided to accept that his life ended here.
Not anymore.
As long as Yeon Hojeong and the Martial Alliance’s leadership knew about the Solar Array Map, he could not die here. If he died here, the Shinwha Sect, unaware of this critical fact, would suffer a fatal blow.
Contrary to his inner thoughts, Beon Jak spoke in a mocking tone.
“Quite the discovery you’ve made.”
“I think so.”
“We move according to that diagram? That’s true. But something so trivial……”
“We weren’t certain. So the Martial Alliance made a decision. We decided to stake our lives on an experiment.”
“……What?”
“We’ve sent someone to the imperial palace. A spy from the martial world that you could never possibly detect. He will roam the palace and relay any unusual findings. I don’t know what you’ve done to seize control of the palace, but whether it’s ideology or tactics, if it follows this diagram, then the spy’s reports will be extremely useful, won’t they?”
Thump! Thump!
Beon Jak’s heart pounded with powerful contractions and relaxations. It was a heartbeat he could not suppress even with internal energy.
‘This bastard is lying.’
Beon Jak thought so.
‘He’s trying to shake me. Sending a spy to the imperial palace? Even if he did, they would all be caught.’
But looking into Yeon Hojeong’s eyes, that confidence-filled thought crumbled more easily than a sandcastle.
“There was considerable risk involved, so I was worried. At first, I only planned to touch the outer palace…… but after seeing your reaction, I’ve changed my mind. If we relay the situation here, we can obtain faster and more precise results.”
“……!!”
“With this, the Shinwha Sect has been sealed off.”
Beon Jak’s face turned pale.
Yeon Hojeong’s words were decisive and carried an astonishingly natural confidence.
“No matter what you do, we will always be one step ahead. Even if the Dark Sound advances and the Mad Blood runs rampant, there will be no place for the Shinwha Sect in that blood-soaked war.”
Grind.
Blood vessels bulged in Beon Jak’s eyes. Unconsciously, he ground his teeth.
Yeon Hojeong smiled.
“Why? Not in a good mood?”
“……You bastard.”
In that moment, Beon Jak recalled Mak Won’s words.
‘This land, this place—where people stake their lives on a single blade to survive—if it is a fight they can win, why would they need to side with frauds like you?’
Could it be that Mak Won had also known this fact?
Just then, Yeon Hojeong spoke in a low, chilling voice.
“But you see, we’d also like to make things a bit easier.”
“……?!”
“The Ten Immortal Emperors, and the Three Lords. Tell me who you’ve won over, who you’ve killed, or who your next target is. If you do……”
“……”
“I’ll extend your life by one day.”
He did not say he would not kill him. Beon Jak would not believe it anyway, and Yeon Hojeong himself had no desire to lie and promise to spare the opponent.
“Have your subordinates bring me credible evidence regarding the Sacred Heavens Thirteen Seats, whether by force or otherwise. Then I’ll release you for exactly one day. During that day, I won’t pursue you.”
“……Do you think I would believe your words?”
“Is there any way you can afford not to? When you’re already dying?”
“……”
“I said I’d release you for one day. I didn’t say I wouldn’t inform the Alliance that I released you.”
Swish.
The spearhead of the long spear touched Beon Jak’s throat.
“Whether this single day of life weighs your wisdom or your loyalty—that is entirely your judgment.”
“……”
“Will you accept the deal?”