Chapter 48: Tang Family Sword Peak-4
Chapter 48: Tang Family Sword Peak-4
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
Ma Yu-gyeom's crimson sword qi and my violet sword qi collided, scattering sparks into the void.
Ma Yu-gyeom, our blades locked, shouted with a look of shock.
"Peak level?! When did you reach the peak level?!"
After receiving instruction from the Sword Saint Elder and sinking into meditation for some time, I had been able to attain enlightenment.
The truth that the energetic force was not about compressing sword ki, but about projecting it thinner and stronger — just as a jet of water fired with immense pressure could slice through rock.
The Sword Saint had used water as an example to make me realize this.
And then, after we were both knocked back in opposite directions, we charged at each other once more and began exchanging sword thrusts like beams of light.
Ma Yu-gyeom's sword stabbed toward me at a speed that seemed to pierce through space itself.
Shiiiik!
It was truly a speed that felt as though it could pierce even the sun.
As the ultra-high-speed thrust came at me, creating three afterimages, I swung my sword desperately and barely managed to deflect it.
Ting-ting-ting!
"Urgh!"
It seemed that while I could block his energetic force now that I had reached the same peak level as him, I still couldn't match his skill as a swordsman.
"Uhahaha! You're still green! Your energetic force is utterly shoddy!"
Ma Yu-gyeom sneered and stabbed at me with his sword like a shower of rain.
Shwi-shwi-shwi-shwi-shweek!
He was right. I still wasn't accustomed to generating energetic force, so the internal energy consumption was too high and its stability was lacking.
It was fortunate, at least, that I had replenished my internal energy with spirit medicine immediately after reaching the peak level.
"Uhahahahat! Die!"
"Keurgh!"
Ma Yu-gyeom now seemed completely confident of victory.
I couldn't even mount a proper attack, too busy mindlessly blocking those stabs like rays of light.
I was also now realizing that the compatibility between the Lightning Thirteen Swords, an illusion sword style, and the Sail Sword Technique, an ultra-high-speed quick sword style, was poor.
The Lightning Thirteen Swords, as an illusion sword style, was useful against multiple opponents of similar or lower martial prowess, but against a single opponent of higher martial prowess, those illusion swords ended up exposing openings instead.
Sssak!
"Keurgh!"
His sword qi grazed my left arm forcefully as it passed, and blood splattered.
My clothes were already completely torn to tatters, and my body was covered in scratches everywhere his energetic force had grazed me.
"Uhahahahaha! Is this your limit?! Pathetic!"
With maddened eyes, he was pouring on an increasingly faster onslaught.
Crunch!
I gritted my teeth.
But the situation was too dire.
The difference in skill was clear, and with the massive consumption of internal energy, I couldn't tell how much longer I could hold out.
It was only thanks to my superior movement technique that I was barely enduring.
Then, a method suddenly came to mind. There was one.
Something I had never once executed before.
'The Fourteenth Form and Fifteenth Form of the Seonwoo Thirteen Swords.'
The Fourteenth Form and Fifteenth Form I had discovered in the hidden portion of the book — I had never once executed them.
This was because they were fundamentally forms that could only be performed once one could use energetic force.
So that meant I could execute them now.
But....
I hesitated.
Was there any point in executing forms I only knew in theory?
Wouldn't I just end up burning all my remaining internal energy and losing my chance?
On the other hand, a thought like this suddenly occurred to me.
'Should I just run away?'
If I fled now, coldly speaking, while I still had some internal energy left, Ma Yu-gyeom's movement technique wouldn't be able to catch up to me.
And on top of that, after expending more internal energy here, even that would become impossible.
Of course, if I did that, I'd have no choice but to give up on Lady Dang, but wasn't she someone who held that much significance to me anyway?
She wasn't one of the comrades I so desperately wanted to save — just a colleague from the Thirteen Squads whose face I recognized.
It didn't feel like I needed to risk my life for her.
The option of running away, once it surfaced in my mind, was rising ever more appealingly in my head.
After finally coming back, wouldn't it be too empty a death if I died here, fighting not even a demon head of the Blood Cult, but Ma Yu-gyeom?
It was while I was thinking such thoughts.
"Haaaaap!"
Shu-haaaaak!
As Ma Yu-gyeom poured his onslaught onto me, I caught sight of a slight gap opening in his sword strike.
Not wide enough for a counterattack, but a gap just perfect for slipping away.
My eyes flew open.
'This is my chance!'
I instinctively tried to fling my body.
If I missed even this chance, I might not be able to even flee anymore.
"Hik!"
But just as I was about to launch myself, I ended up hesitating, unable to move.
Because suddenly, Myeong Sa-hyeon's face surfaced in my mind. His face — handsome even to a fellow man's eyes — that had cheerfully approached me, apologizing for inwardly looking down on me.
'I'm going to abandon the woman he loved enough to overcome the Soul Captivation Art, and run away?'
That was impossible.
My feet absolutely would not move.
And astonishingly, that hesitation ended up saving my life.
"Haaaaap!"
Shu-haaaaak!
Ma Yu-gyeom was projecting a dazzling flash in the exact direction I had been about to fling myself.
A sword qi like a beam of blue light pierced through space.
It was a One Strike executed at the peak level.
Watching the spear of light pass right before my eyes, I could understand in an instant what had happened.
He must have already predicted I would try to flee. So it seemed he had deliberately created an opening for escape and was preparing to execute the One Strike, but because I hesitated at that moment, his attack went wide.
"Wha, what?!"
Ma Yu-gyeom's eyes were tinged with panic.
An opening had been revealed in the all-out strike he had poured his full strength into.
I clenched my teeth.
I couldn't miss this chance.
"Hap!"
The Fourteenth Form of the Seonwoo Thirteen Swords.
Vermilion Bird Manifestation.
Shu-haaaaak!
My violet sword qi transformed into a bird made of flames.
It was the first time I was executing the Fourteenth Form, the Vermilion Bird Manifestation.
The sword qi transformed into the shape of a blazing bird and surged toward Ma Yu-gyeom, engulfing him.
All the internal energy in my entire body was draining out at once, swoosh.
"Keurgh!"
The violet bird, spreading its wings wide, opened its beak and loosed a cry as it enveloped Ma Yu-gyeom.
— Piiiiiiik!
"Uhaaaaap!"
Ma Yu-gyeom, too, whirled his sword with desperate force.
It was the Whirlwind Willow Forty-Eight Swords, suited for defense among the Jeomchang Sword Techniques.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
A grand explosion erupted, mingling violet and crimson energetic force.
Watching it, I could only gasp for ragged breaths, my entire body filled with utter exhaustion.
"Hah, hah, hah."
The explosion subsided, and I, now without a single shred of internal energy remaining, clenched my teeth.
It was because I caught sight of Ma Yu-gyeom's figure, still standing there ahead.
His appearance was a wreck, as if he'd met a storm, but at the very least, he didn't seem to have sustained major injuries.
If only my internal energy had lasted to the end, I could have finished it....
It was so regretful.
Just now, I hadn't been able to complete the form to the very end, lacking internal energy.
No, it was probably more a matter of proficiency than internal energy.
But that wasn't what was important right now.
Ma Yu-gyeom ground his teeth and said to me.
"That last move was decent. I very nearly died."
Then he smiled fishily again and continued.
"But now, it looks like you'll be the one to die."
Damn it.
He was right.
With my internal energy bottomed out, I couldn't fight, let alone flee.
It seemed my second life, too, was likely to end here.
"Farewell, Seonwoo Jin."
It was just as Ma Yu-gyeom said that and raised his sword.
Suddenly, a voice rang out.
"Well, I think a little differently. In my opinion, it's you who should be saying farewell, Ma Yu-gyeom."
I turned my head, startled, to look — and there was Lady Dang, who had gotten back on her feet rigidly at some point, aiming her sword at Ma Yu-gyeom.
She glared at Ma Yu-gyeom with cold eyes and said.
"You dared to try and do vile things to me."
From her sword, a pale green sword qi, befitting someone of the Tang Family, was blazing and blooming.
And the light of seething hatred in her cold eyes was no less intense than the sword qi.
In Ma Yu-gyeom's eyes, the light of fear was now rising. It was a very pleasant face to behold.
Just as the superiority between him and me had been clear, the superiority between those two was also clear.
The reason he was the leader of the Fourth Squad and Dang Yeoeun was the leader of the Third Squad was because her skills were superior.
And on top of that, he must have been exhausted from fighting me, so he would be even less able to handle her.
"Uuuurgh."
Ma Yu-gyeom, who had been falteringly stepping backward, threw his body into flight and fled.
"Uwaaaaaaah!"
Leaving only a wretched scream behind, he vanished just like a beam of light.
By the feel of it, he seemed even faster than when he had chased me.
"Haaaah."
I let out a sigh and collapsed, plopping down.
I really thought I was going to die.
No internal energy, no strength, my whole body aching everywhere.
I smiled weakly and spoke toward Dang Yeoeun.
"I'm alive thanks to you. It's a relief you came to your senses just in time...."
But I couldn't finish those words.
It was because Lady Dang collapsed, losing consciousness right then and there.
"Lady Dang?!"
I barely managed to run over and hold her, and her entire body was burning with fever while drenched in a cold sweat.
It seemed she had overexerted herself in an already mentally excruciating situation.
I was at a loss.
My own internal energy and stamina were also bottomed out, so I had no confidence I could carry her back.
And on top of that, if Ma Yu-gyeom were to come back in this state....
"Urgh!"
I barely managed to carry her and searched for a nearby secluded hiding place.
I had to hide, just in case Ma Yu-gyeom returned.
It was fortunate, at least, that I had the scented pouch that repelled poison creatures.
I found a hollowed-out spot between the trees and went inside. Originally, a snake had been there, but as I approached, it had scurried away in a flash from the poison-repelling incense.
It felt unpleasant, but there was no helping it.
After roughly covering the surrounding area with underbrush and holding her, her body began to grow cold.
Even then, her forehead was burning up while only her body was growing cold.
And on top of that, perhaps because her body was in pain, she began muttering delirious nonsense again.
"I'm sorry... for being born, Mother. I should have died.... I'm sorry."
And moreover, it seemed the Soul Captivation Art that Ma Yu-gyeom had cast on her earlier hadn't been completely broken.
"I am Dang Yeoeun. Dang Yeoeun is Ma Yu-gyeom's...."
I absolutely couldn't leave her like this.
Suddenly, I recalled talk that in times like this, it was best to take off clothes and maintain temperature with each other's body heat.
But I couldn't bring myself to go that far.
Instead, holding her tightly in my arms, I tried to warm her body by rubbing it with my hands.
And then I kept whispering into her ear.
"Lady Dang, Dang Yeoeun, is a precious and valuable person. I am truly glad you were born. Myeong Sa-hyeon hyung would certainly think so too. Dang Yeoeun belongs to Lady Dang herself. No one else can be Dang Yeoeun's master."
It was an act born purely from the desire to somehow bring her back.
But in my two lives, this was the first time I had ever been pressed so close to a woman's body.
Though she was a trained martial artist, the sensation of her body felt infinitely soft, and moreover, from the same person came a fragrance so sweet it was hard to believe it was a human scent.
It was not easy to keep my mind pure.
Furthermore, seeing her face up close, right beside me, as she lay unconscious—it was truly, devastatingly beautiful.
She seemed like a goddess incarnate.
I felt as though my soul would fly away if I kept gazing at her, so I shut my eyes, only to find them opening again of their own accord to look at her once more.
All sorts of impulses rose within me, but I barely managed to suppress them by thinking of Na So-jeo and Myeong Sa-hyeon.
I had no sense of how time was passing.
I held her body tight through the night, trying to warm her, whispering continuously into her ear. Unable to perform any breathing exercises at all, dawn broke.
Thankfully, her body temperature now seemed to have returned to normal.
When I finally confirmed that she was breathing peacefully with a serene expression, I carefully laid her down beside me and collapsed onto my back like a plank.
I was utterly exhausted, beyond any further thought.
And then I promptly fell asleep.
In my dream, I thought I heard Lady Dang's voice saying thank you.
And an unknown man's voice as well....
- Hmm, it seems I've finally found a worthy successor. Quite satisfactory.
It was a man's voice I had never heard before, but it was probably just an auditory hallucination.
Given how exhausted I was, that was entirely possible.
I could fully understand that.
***
When I awoke from sleep, she had already risen and was sitting up. As I stirred, she turned her head and spoke awkwardly.
"Thank you... I suppose."
"Th-there's nothing to thank me for. It was only natural, hahaha, haha...."
In that awkward state, unable to exchange another word, we returned to the Thirteen Squads.
By then, Ma Yu-gyeom still had not come back.
It seemed he might have simply departed for good.
I went straight to Ma Yu-gyeom's quarters, broke down the locked door, and entered.
And there, I discovered the letter his mother had left behind, a secret manual, and spirit medicine.
Seeing those, I was at last able to grasp the full picture of the affair.
The tangled threads of fate connecting the Jeon Family Estate Bloodbath, the Jeomchang Sect, the Blood Demon, and Ma Yu-gyeom's mother.
I felt I could somehow understand why Ma Yu-gyeom had broken down.
That the Jeomchang Sect and his father—his very pillars of identity—were the ones who had ruined his mother, that in return they had given birth to the monster known as the Blood Demon of Four Seas, and that the monster was, in fact, his own maternal grandfather.
I could not even begin to imagine what kind of feelings the man who had hated the Blood Cult and the Blood Demon more than anyone must have experienced.
But understanding did not mean I could condone his actions.
I immediately conveyed everything to Squad Leader Seolpung, and an emergency officers' meeting was hastily convened.
It was the first officers' meeting I had ever attended.
The squad leaders and vice squad leaders assembled in the conference room were so shocked by the facts that none could utter a word.
That Ma Yu-gyeom, who hated the Blood Cult more than anyone, was the Blood Demon's grandson. That he had drained Mae Yeo-kyeong through Essence Absorption and killed her, and had even tried to soul-possess Lady Dang.
They simply could not believe it.
I glanced over at Dang Yeoeun.
Even while listening to the account of what Ma Yu-gyeom had attempted to do to her, she sat with the same cold, composed expression as always, as if nothing were amiss.
I was relieved that she seemed to have recovered considerably.
Having first confirmed her condition, I was the first among the squad leaders—none of whom were speaking—to open my mouth.
"Judging by the circumstances, I suspect that Ma Squad Leader mastered the techniques written here and became eroded by demonic energy. His eyes did not appear normal. After suffering such a great shock and having his mind collapse, he must have been consumed by demonic energy and abruptly changed."
I could say this because I had once heard from the old man Seok Gyeong-dal that the martial arts of the Blood Cult destroyed the minds of those who learned them.
Upon hearing my words, Second Squad Leader Sa Gun-il shut his eyes tightly.
As a fellow disciple of the Jeomchang Sect along with Ma Yu-gyeom, his grief seemed all the greater.
Gam Ji-in, the vice squad leader of the Second Squad, who had been looking at Sa Gun-il with pity, spoke.
"Then, how about we keep this fact to ourselves for now? It would be too great a shock for the Fourth Squad members, and indeed for all the Thirteen Squads."
At his words, the squad leaders seemed to ponder for a moment, but I shook my head and spoke firmly.
"We must not."
"Pardon?"
"If Ma Yu-gyeom approaches again while the squad members or members of other squads are unaware of this fact, what do you think will happen?"
At that, everyone fell into grim silence.
He was a peak-level master who could use Essence Absorption and the Suggestion Technique. If he approached other members who were not on guard against him, a terrible catastrophe could occur.
"I too pity his situation, but this must be disseminated to all fronts as quickly as possible."
At my words, the officers in the conference room all nodded with heavy expressions.
In the end, the meeting concluded with the sole decision to spread the news of Ma Yu-gyeom's situation as quickly as possible.
With this, Ma Yu-gyeom could never return to the frontline again.
I suddenly became worried about what course he would take in the future, having turned to the Blood Cult far earlier than in my previous life.
I was also concerned about how the Murim Alliance's Heavenly Brain, Jegal Ji-gang, would react to this news.
Once this fact became known, the old history between the Blood Demon and the Jeomchang Sect would inevitably come to light, and I suspected he would not want that at all.
'Perhaps he might even try to take extreme measures. Like what he tried to do to Miss Cheongyeon.'
The problem was that I had no particular means of stopping it.
All I could do was pin my hopes on the Sword Saint Elder, who was returning to the Murim Alliance.
After that, the atmosphere of the Thirteen Squads remained grim.
The overall mood, of course, but the atmosphere of the Fourth Squad, which had abruptly lost both its squad leader and vice squad leader, was scarcely distinguishable from a funeral.
Fortunately, Lady Dang, about whom I had been worried, seemed to be enduring well with steadfast resolve.
In fact, I heard that she was even competently handling the duties of Vice Squad Leader Myeong Sa-hyeon, who had originally been the one to look after people.
That was a relief.
A few days later, I decided to go and visit Lady Dang.
This was because I needed to ask her about Hwagolsan, on account of the Iron Shield Fist that would soon appear.
Hwagolsan, a substance used to dissolve human corpses and erase all traces, had the effect of weakening the Iron Shield Fist's skin.
This was a fact I had learned in my past life only after countless sacrifices.
'In the old days, I had no connection with her whatsoever and couldn't ask, but now things are a bit different, aren't they? After all, I am technically her lifesaver.'
That was my reasoning.
I went to the Third Squad and asked the members, and they said she was alone at the training grounds.
It seemed she preferred to be alone when training.
I suddenly wondered, 'Is it all right for me to go when she trains alone?' and hesitated.
But I decided to go anyway.
I figured it would be more comfortable for me to make the request when she was alone, too.
"Hup! Haah, haah, haah."
At the training grounds, she was swinging her sword, breathing heavily.
Her expression was still as icy cold as ever, but her sword strokes exuded an inexplicable desperation and sorrow.
It suddenly occurred to me.
'She... hasn't truly recovered at all.'
Indeed, it defied common sense that someone could be perfectly fine after an ordeal like that.
Perhaps it was only natural.
She seemed somewhat exhausted when she finally stopped her sword and caught her ragged breath.
I carefully spoke.
"Um, Lady Dang."
At that, she turned her head and looked at me.
"Ah!"
And in that moment, her cold face crumbled away.
***
Dang Yeoeun had been exerting all her strength lately to maintain her usual appearance.
Myeong Sa-hyeon was gone; she could not afford to crumble herself.
She had to somehow pull her body and mind together and show her squad members a reliable image.
But that was never easy.
Not only for herself, but in managing the squad members, Myeong Sa-hyeon's absence loomed far too large.
Approaching people warmly and caring for each and every one of them was a task terribly difficult for her.
Moment by moment, she wanted to simply collapse where she stood.
She wanted to burst into tears, crying out that she could no longer go on, that she was struggling too.
But she could not.
Just as he had said, she herself was the person Myeong Sa-hyeon had loved with his very life.
Because showing herself crumbling would be an insult even to Myeong Sa-hyeon, who had loved her.
So whenever it grew hard, she repeated those words to herself countless times, like an incantation.
The words he had whispered into her ear.
'I am a person of worth. I am a precious person. And so... I can do this.'
The words Seonwoo Jin had whispered to her throughout that night were the sole strength that sustained her.
Words she had never heard in her entire life, words that nearly brought tears to her eyes.
Even now, Seonwoo Jin's voice circled vividly in her mind.
Leaning on that voice, she barely managed to endure each day.
But even so, there were moments that could not be helped.
When she began her personal training early in the morning and saw the training grounds standing utterly empty, with nothing placed there, she would suddenly realize it once again.
That Myeong Sa-hyeon was no longer in this world.
That he had left her behind....
At times like that, she would clench her teeth and swing her sword.
Lashing herself that she absolutely could not crumble, for Myeong Sa-hyeon's sake as well.
But....
It was so terribly hard.
She was so terribly sad and anguished.
Today was the same.
She bit down on the tears threatening to burst forth and swung her sword.
Whether she was training properly or not did not matter.
The only thing that mattered was not breaking down right now.
Because she was the one Myeong Sa-hyeon had loved.
For his sake as well, she could not ever crumble.
Just then, a voice reached her.
It was the same voice that had always lingered in her mind.
"Um, Lady Dang."
Startled, she turned her head and looked toward the source of the voice.
And there he stood.
Myeong Sa-hyeon was gone, but the one who had whispered to her all night that she was a person of worth, a precious person—Seonwoo Jin—was there.
"Euh-heuk!"
Dang Yeoeun burst into tears against her will. She herself did not know why.
She simply could endure it no longer. Like a child who meets its mother and feels its heart at ease, like someone who discovers a single ray of light in pitch-black darkness.
Covering her face with both hands, she wept without end. The tears would not cease.
"La-Lady Dang?!"
Seonwoo Jin rushed to her in alarm.
Gone was the cold and strong image she normally presented; she was sobbing, looking small and frail.
Her slender, trembling shoulders had never seemed so pitiful.
Seonwoo Jin, who had watched her with a pained expression and hesitated for a moment, slowly wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her.
For a long while afterward, Dang Yeoeun shed tears endlessly in Seonwoo Jin's embrace.
And Seonwoo Jin whispered into her ear once more.
"Lady Dang is more precious and worthy than anyone. And even now, you are doing more than well enough."
It could only have been the words and the voice that Dang Yeoeun had wanted to hear above all else.