Chapter 41: In the Human World, April's Fragrance Ends (12)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 41: In the Human World, April's Fragrance Ends (12)
Crack!
Yeon So-wol’s Demon-Slaying Sword bit into a Black Path warrior’s neck, sending his head spinning into the air. In the same breath, his outstretched Sword Secret Finger struck another’s blade, shattering the steel into shards.
“Wha—!”
“Keuk!”
Amidst the panicked cries of the Black Path, Yeon So-wol’s Sword Secret Finger and Demon-Slaying Sword danced in a lethal rhythm.
Stab! Crack!
Thud!
After felling three men in an instant, Yeon So-wol kicked off the ground. He moved harder and faster than before, his body weaving through the ranks of the disoriented Golden Powder Gang.
They could no longer find the space to evade him. When they thrust their blades, their heads flew. When he jabbed with his Sword Secret Finger, they collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.
“Ha!”
It was a gruesome, bloody spectacle, but a smile spread across Yeon So-wol’s lips. His arms and legs moved exactly as he willed. The bodies of the Black Path warriors fell exactly as he wished.
He felt the sensation of extending with his sword, of treading with his feet. Sometimes hard, sometimes soft. With every step, his mastery manifested in a kaleidoscope of transformations, like a willow leaf caught in a shifting gale.
The feeling was absolutely electrifying.
I’m so light! I feel so free…!
“Stay. Focused.”
Thump!
Just as Yeon So-wol was about to leap forward using the Willow Leaf Step, Eun-yeong’s fist struck the back of his head. He hadn’t even realized she had caught up to him.
“Ah.”
“Stay. Focused.”
Only then did Yeon So-wol snap out of his trance and reflect on his state.
Just now… did I feel free? Like I could do anything?
⌜V. Do not become intoxicated.⌟
⌜There will be times when you feel you can become lighter, freer. You must be most careful then. For that is a sensation that leads not to freedom, but to annihilation.⌟
Recalling Lee Yu-baek’s warning sent a chill down his spine.
That… that was close.
As a cold sweat soaked his back, Eun-yeong spoke again.
“The difficult way. Still. Try it. Again.”
“…Yes.”
In that brief pause, the Golden Powder Gang members had reformed their ranks, grinding their teeth in fury.
Get a grip. Don’t get carried away. My goal is to break through them and escape with Young Miss Eun-yeong.
Yeon So-wol exhaled a puff of white breath and initiated the Willow Leaf Step once more.
Lightly at first. Then forcefully as he kicked off the ground to change direction. Finally, he channeled a hint of power—not into his toes, but into the very tip of his sword. Throughout the entire process, he kept his Sword Secret Finger held straight, remaining calm and refusing to be intoxicated by the slaughter.
Shhh-shk!
Like a leaf fluttering in the wind, he strolled through the ranks of the Black Path. Everywhere he passed, swords shattered, men silently collapsed, and severed heads flew into the sky.
“Stay. Focused.”
“Yes!”
Whenever Yeon So-wol’s vision narrowed and he began to get drunk on the sword, Eun-yeong would rap her fist against the back of his head. Thump!
Thanks to her, Yeon So-wol regained his senses each time, calmly executing his footwork. He returned to his initial mindset, channeling his mastery with absolute focus. As he repeated the process, his movements grew increasingly proficient.
Yeon So-wol’s motions became ethereal, ever more subtle. It was as if he were achieving a year’s worth of training in a single day, forged in the fires of this ferocious, real-world battle.
The members of the Golden Powder Gang couldn’t keep up with him at all.
“Gah!”
“Kugh!”
Those pierced by the Demon-Slaying Sword tumbled to the ground with sickening thuds. Those grazed by the Sword Secret Finger crumpled like puppets whose strings had been severed.
But…
I can’t break through…
No matter how many he killed, the number of Black Path warriors only seemed to grow. For every member of the Golden Powder Gang he cut down, more warriors from the streets, drawn by the commotion, arrived to take their place.
Yeon So-wol bit the inside of his lip to hide his exhaustion and steadied his breath.
However, he wasn’t the only one who was stunned.
“What the hell is that…”
“Fucking hell…”
“They said he hasn’t even been learning martial arts for a year? That monster?”
The members of the Golden Powder Gang and the Black Path warriors who had rushed over were at a loss for words. The number of corpses strewn at Yeon So-wol’s feet had already surpassed forty. Among them were third-rate thugs, but also a fair number of experts who had reached a state of mastery.
Yet all of them now lay equal in death.
The Golden Powder Gang had already suffered a devastating blow. Though their total numbers had increased with the influx of warriors from the streets, their overall quality was plummeting.
However, even knowing this, the Black Path members refused to be intimidated. Instead, their eyes grew bloodshot with fury. They were genuinely enraged, genuinely aggrieved.
The Black Path of Xinxing County roared their condemnations at Yeon So-wol.
“Yeon So-wol! You killed Elder Brother Mu-ryang for no reason, and now you cause another bloodbath!”
“What have we ever done to you!”
“How can you be so cruel!”
Every time he heard their shouts, a bitter taste filled Yeon So-wol’s mouth.
That’s not what happened.
It was about Seo Mu-ryang and the silver ingots.
He was the one who came after me and Eun-yeong when we were innocent.
But no matter what he said, it would only make him look ridiculous. The karmic bonds tangled between people were burning hot with the flames of resentment and obligation. In the face of that, words were meaningless.
So he had to kill them. He had no other choice.
“Breathe.”
A cold palm slapped Yeon So-wol’s shoulder as he gasped for air. As if waking from a dream, Yeon So-wol steeled his resolve once more.
I have to hold on. To the very end.
It was strange. He had fought so hard, for so long. Lee Yu-baek was nowhere to be seen. And yet, the thought of running away by himself never truly took hold. The thought had crossed his mind a hundred times, but his feet refused to move in that direction.
If anything… for some reason, this moment felt fulfilling.
His life hung by a thread, but existence itself only seemed to grow more vivid—a bizarre sensation.
I could fight like this forever…
It was different from the State of Selflessness. It was as if he had become a third-party observer, watching himself.
Yeon So-wol forced more strength into his trembling arm. He raised the tip of his sword and, with a shaking hand, barely managed to form the Sword Secret Finger, when—
Thud.
A man, his long dopo fluttering, landed before Yeon So-wol. He reached back, wrapped his hand around the flat of the Demon-Slaying Sword, and gently pushed it down.
Yeon So-wol felt his breath catch in his throat.
“…Father.”
Lee Yu-baek glanced back at Yeon So-wol.
“I was late.”
A complex expression crossed his face before he turned back, his features hardening into a solemn mask. A heat haze shimmered from his entire body as he gazed silently upon the horde of Black Path warriors.
“Lee Yu-baek?”
“It’s Lee Yu-baek…”
“In the end, Lee Yu-baek shows up…”
“Shit! Lee Yu-baek or not, we can’t let this go! Kill them all! Let’s see who lives and who dies today!”
The Black Path members flinched at first, but their malice soon burned even darker. They were too aggrieved to back down now. Their pride had been deeply wounded—or so they believed.
In the face of that murderous atmosphere, Lee Yu-baek scoffed.
“A whole swarm of insects. And here I thought you were the hardest ones to gather in one place.”
In that instant, the Black Path warriors felt a strange sense of unease. To be precise, they felt an instinctual terror.
Fight?
Fight him?
Fight… that?
The moment the thought crossed their minds—
Fwoosh!
Though there was no wind, the hem of Lee Yu-baek’s robes billowed out. The heat haze around him intensified as if flames were erupting from his skin. A faint, pale green light gathered at the tip of the sword he had drawn at some unknown point, and then—
Whoosh!
Lee Yu-baek vanished.
He reappeared in the very center of the Black Path horde. His sword danced. Pale green sword-light scattered like willow branches.
They fell. Clutching their necks. Clutching their arms. From the right and the left, blood sprayed forth, painting red rainbows in the air. By then, Lee Yu-baek had already taken his next step.
Sway.
Like a leaf fluttering in the wind, the pale green sword-light dipped and weaved among the warriors. The Black Path of Xinxing County collapsed, blood streaming from between the fingers they used to clutch their wounds.
This wasn’t a fight. It was a slaughter. This was the difference between a properly trained first-rate expert and the second- and third-rate fighters of the Unorthodox Faction.
“Shit! Run!” someone finally screamed.
“You bastard, Lee Yu-baek! I’ll never forget this day!”
The Black Path members abandoned the hopeless fight, grinding their teeth as they fled in all directions.
But.
Thwiiiip!
“Gak!”
Thwack!
“Kegh!”
Arrows and javelins, flying from the rooftops, pierced the fleeing warriors, pinning them to the ground.
“Where do you think you’re going, you bandits!”
Jang Wi-san, the Junior Rank 9 County Inspector, leaped down from a roof while swinging his spear. He chased down the Black Path members, stabbing them in the back one by one and nailing them to the earth.
“Waaaaah!”
The government soldiers and military officers let out a thunderous war cry. Having secured the rooftops and blocked the alleyways, they began to hunt the Black Path members with bows and spears.
“Wh-What the hell! Why are the government troops here?!”
“Sh-Shit!”
“A trap! It’s a trap!”
Panic-stricken, the Black Path members began to fight with the desperation of the dying, trying to carve a path out.
However—
“Kill them! Let none escape!”
As the voice of Shin Ja-eon, the Severing Sword Sect Leader, rang out, disciples of his sect emerged from all sides. They blocked the path of the fleeing warriors once more.
“Time to vent our frustrations! Don’t miss a single one!”
The blood-soaked inner disciples of the Pungryu Martial Arts Hall also vaulted over the walls to join the fray. At their head stood the Three Gentlemen of Pungryu, their faces grim and terrifying.
The Three Gentlemen and the inner disciples displayed remarkably superior lightness techniques. Like hawks snatching their prey, they leaped across the rooftops, descending upon the Black Path members to hunt them down.
Yang Ik-seon, the Senior Rank 8 Head Commander who held military authority in Xinxing County, watched the scene unfold before raising his voice in a command that shook the air.
“Hunt down every last one of these bandits! They have colluded with the Mount Cheonro Bandits, so leave none alive!”
Of course, not all of the Black Path members had colluded with the Mount Cheonro Bandits. Yang Ik-seon knew this well. The Black Path of Xinxing County were certainly villains, but they were careful not to leave much evidence. They knew how to toe the line just enough to avoid being subjugated.
If one were to blindly follow the laws of the state, this ambiguous group should not have been slaughtered like this. But his gaze lingered for a moment on Lee Yu-baek—specifically, on the military tally of the Chief Daoist of Yanggwang that dangled from his waist.
Head Commander Yang Ik-seon bellowed once more.
“Don’t let the men of the Jianghu take all the credit!”
The Black Path was utterly annihilated. Their fatal mistake had been flocking to capture Yeon So-wol as if it were a festival. Faced with the government army’s organized encirclement and blockades, combined with the swift lightness techniques of the Severing Sword Sect and the Pungryu Martial Arts Hall, very few managed to escape.
Those who had entered the Golden Powder Gang’s grounds to confront Yeon So-wol directly were no exception. Every single one of them died.
It was safe to say that the power of the Black Path in Xinxing County had been uprooted this day.
“…Thankfully, you held out.”
When the situation was mostly resolved, Lee Yu-baek let out a long sigh and turned back to Yeon So-wol and Eun-yeong. His eyes slowly scanned Yeon So-wol.
“You truly are Yeon Seon-hong.”
The name, which originally meant ‘vivid red’ for how he stood out, now described the state of him, drenched in blood from head to toe.
“You’ve done well. Thank you. So much. And truly… it’s infuriating.”
After staring at Yeon So-wol with a deeply troubled expression, Lee Yu-baek slowly turned his gaze to Eun-yeong. Now, his eyes held only pity.
“Young Miss Eun-yeong. You have been a great help. Thanks to you, we were able to kill Seo Mu-ryang and wipe out the Black Path of Xinxing County in one fell swoop. This is the best possible outcome, one I had only dreamed of.”
“…”
But Eun-yeong did not reply. She simply leaned slightly against Yeon So-wol’s shoulder, one hand resting on it, her expression vacant and silent.
A look of devastation crossed Lee Yu-baek’s face.
“…Thank you. You may… rest now. Just how long… have you been like this?”
Only then did Eun-yeong’s eyes slowly turn toward Lee Yu-baek. Her lips parted slightly.
“…I protected him.”
“…You did.”
Yeon So-wol felt a strange sense of wrongness in their conversation.
“Young Miss Eun-yeong?”
He turned to look at her and saw a trickle of blood—black, dead blood—drip from her lips. The hand that had been resting on his shoulder lost its strength. Her knees buckled.
“Young Miss!”
Yeon So-wol hurriedly caught her. She was light. Terrifyingly so.
“Young Miss!”
Eun-yeong’s dark eyes stared unblinkingly at Yeon So-wol’s face before her eyelids slowly drifted shut.
“So… complicated…”
Like a sigh, she left behind only a small, unintelligible whisper.
“Young Miss…?”
She was twenty-two years old. Though she herself never knew it.