Chapter 49: In the Human World, April's Fragrance Ends (20)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 49: In the Human World, April's Fragrance Ends (20)
Yeon So-wol had just finished visiting the last house when he saw the man.
At every home he visited, the residents, grateful for being remembered, had insisted he stay for a drink. He’d had a cup at each, sometimes two or three, and the day had grown late.
Ordinarily, his next step would have been to take the gifts he’d received back to the Pungryu Martial Hall, pay the workers who had helped him, and inspect the hall. Only after all that would he have leisurely made his way to the valley.
But then, a man came running toward him.
He reeked of a sour, foul stench.
The Yeon So-wol of old, while not overtly shunning him, would have subtly tried to keep his distance. But one look at the man’s expression, and he couldn’t.
It was a face fraught with urgency, yet simmering with rage. A face filled with worry, yet hardened by resolve.
“Are you Young Master Yeon?”
“I am. What is it?”
Sensing instinctively that something was wrong, Yeon So-wol tensed as he replied.
The man spoke, his voice ragged. “That son of a bitch Hang In-woo has betrayed the Great Hero Lee Yu-baek. The Mount Cheonro bandits have joined him and surrounded the people of the Pungryu Martial Hall.”
!!!
Yeon So-wol’s shoulders jolted. He crouched low, looking as if he might bolt at any second.
“A man named Jin Geol sent me. He had a message for you.”
“...What is it?”
Though his body twitched with impatience, Yeon So-wol strained to listen.
“This is what he said.” The man took a deep breath and relayed Jin Geol’s words. “Run.”
“...Pardon?”
“He said, ‘Even if you come, you can’t turn the tide. Not even if every martial artist in Xinxing County showed up. Not even if there was another Pungryu Martial Hall. We can’t win. The Mount Cheonro bandits are stronger than we ever imagined. Don’t throw your life away for nothing. Retreat, and avenge us later.’”
Yeon So-wol gritted his teeth. What kind of nonsense was this?
“He also said, ‘That’s just how the world works. Things you don’t expect are always popping up. So just accept it and leave Xinxing County.’”
“Ha...”
“To be honest, I think so too,” the man added. “The spirit of those Mount Cheonro bandits was no joke. I saw the Severing Sword Sect on my way here, and it looked like they were going to intervene on Pungryu’s behalf, but... I still don’t know.”
Yeon So-wol felt the strength drain from his shoulders. “...And Jin Geol? What did he do?”
“...When I last saw him, he was up in a tree with a bow, shooting at the bandits.”
“Ha.” Yeon So-wol shook his head. And he’s telling me to run?
What a ridiculous man. A ridiculous friend. Truly.
Yeon So-wol looked intently at the man who had delivered the message. His face was slick with sweat, as if he had run without a moment’s rest. His grimy clothes were soaked through, and rivulets of filth ran down to the ground, releasing a vile odor.
Without a word, Yeon So-wol stepped forward, gripped the man’s shoulders, and pulled him into a tight embrace.
“Thank you. I truly thank you. I will never forget what you’ve done for me today.”
“...It’s nothing. I was paid to do it.”
Yeon So-wol shook his head slightly. Since falling into this world, he had seen and learned many things. He now knew that not everyone who is paid for a job does it as promised. In a situation like this, most people would consider it natural to just take the money and run.
“Thank you.”
Yeon So-wol bowed his head once, then turned.
Fwoosh!
He stoked the flames within him with all his might, focusing on his Fire Phase. The faint sound of tapping bamboo echoed in his mind, along with the scent of burning incense.
His body, tempered to its very limits, felt weightless. Each push off the ground with his Willow Leaf Step was blindingly fast.
Whoosh!
Like a weightless wind, Yeon So-wol vanished into the distance, leaving behind only a small cloud of dust.
“Wait! That’s the way to—!”
The man watched Yeon So-wol disappear toward the valley and sighed. “He’s going to die...”
He hesitated, then thought of the gold taels in his chest. “...Agh. Well, gold doesn’t come easy. The least I can do is recover his body. It’s the right thing to do.”
Wiping the sweat dripping from his face with a filthy sleeve, he turned and started walking toward the valley.
*
The battle in the valley was drawing to a close. To any observer, the defeat of the Severing Sword Sect and the Pungryu Martial Hall was unmistakable.
“Sect Leader Shin! I told you, didn’t I? There’d be nothing to gain and everything to lose!”
“...”
The tide of the battle had been turned by the difference in experience and stamina. The Mount Cheonro bandits were martial artists who, whether they liked it or not, had experienced countless life-and-death duels in their life of banditry.
In contrast, more than half of the disciples from the Pungryu Martial Hall and the Severing Sword Sect, however profound their martial arts, had never once experienced a true fight to the death. At first, the difference wasn’t obvious. But as time passed, the gap began to feel like an insurmountable wall.
Even their breathing was different.
“Heok... heok. Keoheok...”
“Hoo-wook. Hoo...”
Real combat drained a person’s stamina far more than one could imagine. When an enemy of comparable skill came at you with a sword, intent on killing you, your heart pounded, your breath grew ragged, and you expended far more energy than necessary.
While the difference wasn't apparent at first, once their stamina began to fail, it became unmanageable. Furthermore, the Pungryu Martial Hall’s techniques, with their many feints and varied movements, had the distinct disadvantage of consuming stamina much more quickly.
It had reached a point where some of the inner disciples could no longer stand properly, their legs trembling uncontrollably.
The Mount Cheonro bandits, on the other hand, were at ease. They had all killed before and endured numerous fierce battles. They had been pacing themselves from the start. Moreover, bandits spent their days trekking through mountains, giving them naturally high stamina.
And that wasn’t all. The infamous bandits from the Eighteen Strongholds who had recently joined were scattered among them, making their underlying strength far greater than imagined. There was a reason Lee Yu-baek had tried to rally martial artists from all over Guangdong to face them.
Thanks to this, even the White Dragon Gang members had overcome their initial disadvantage and regained their composure. With their disciples being pushed back so hopelessly, even first-rate experts like Lee Yu-baek, Shin Ja-eon, and Kang Mu-hyeok couldn’t focus on their own duels.
“Fucking hell...” Shin Ja-eon spat a curse.
While the Pungryu sword style relied on dazzling footwork to create openings, the Severing Sword Sect’s style broke the enemy with the sheer power and skill of the blade itself.
Woooong!
A shimmering aura, like heat haze, formed a new blade at the tip of the Severing Sword Sect Leader’s sword, extending it by half a foot.
Injuring Others with Sword Qi.
It was a pinnacle of qigong, where the aura condensed on a sword was enough to harm a person. But that in itself wasn’t what made it so incredible.
Shin Ja-eon’s cultivation realm was Fierce Fire Piercing the Heavens. It was a skill that Lee Yu-baek—who had already surpassed that realm and reached the state of Lingering Fragrance, his sword qi shimmering with light—could also use with ease. Hang In-woo, who was also at the Fierce Fire Piercing the Heavens realm, could use it without much difficulty as well.
But neither could wield it as efficiently or as freely as the Severing Sword Sect Leader. The art of manipulating sword qi was, after all, a secret art of the Severing Sword Sect. Sometimes long, sometimes thin, sometimes whipping like a lash—the sword qi was versatile.
In a many-against-many battle like this, the Severing Sword Sect Leader’s blade was a terrifying force. Despite this, the number of wounds on Shin Ja-eon’s body was steadily increasing.
Schlaaack!
Blood burst from Shin Ja-eon’s thigh.
“Kagh!”
“Sect Leader Shin! Feeling some regret now?” Hang In-woo blocked him from the front while the Mount Cheonro bandits struck and retreated from behind. In the distance, his disciples were dying.
The martial studies of the Severing Sword Sect, lacking the dazzling footwork of Pungryu, made it difficult to endure such a situation without injury. For every enemy he struck down, he took on more damage himself. It was becoming more than he could bear.
“Kuaaah!”
Swinging his sword qi in all directions to force his enemies back, Shin Ja-eon staggered backward. “Haa... heok... Were the Mount Cheonro bandits always this strong?”
He raised a blood-soaked sleeve to wipe the sweat from his brow, smearing a red shadow across his wrinkled forehead.
“Hooo... Hoo-wook...”
Lee Yu-baek, struggling to control his deepening internal injuries, couldn’t even speak, only gasp for breath.
“Hmph. I’ll push a little harder. Sect Leader Shin, you should catch your breath for a moment.” Kang Mu-hyeok alone stood firm, gripping his sword and stepping forward.
Shin Ja-eon clicked his tongue as he watched his back. “The way I see it, you’re the one who looks like he’s about to die.”
It was true. A pool of blood was forming at Kang Mu-hyeok’s feet from his dripping wounds.
At that moment, Lee Yu-baek considered his options. My Innate True Qi... If I can just ignite it...
The last image of Eun-yeong flashed through his mind. If he used all the remaining energy from the Injury Healing Pill, he thought he might just be able to force open his Eight Extraordinary Meridians and ignite his Innate True Qi.
The problem is, I can’t do it as stably as Young Miss Eun-yeong...
It was a terrible gamble. If he ignited his Innate True Qi incorrectly, his entire body could be consumed by flames. He could easily waste his last chance to fight and simply die a futile, self-inflicted death.
If I ignite my Innate True Qi, I have to take Hang In-woo with me at the very least. And if possible, I need to take one more first-rate expert with me as a companion to the afterlife...
He hesitated, unable to judge if it was possible. He had never once in his life tried to ignite his Innate True Qi. He had never even learned the method; he was just hoping he could brute-force it with the help of the Injury Healing Pill’s energy.
Meanwhile, Shin Ja-eon was preparing for his own end.
“Boys,” he said to his direct disciples. “I don’t think we’ve lost yet.”
“Master...”
“You don’t know. You don’t know how tenacious that bastard Lee Yu-baek is. I’ve lived in Xinxing County for a long time and watched him. He’s not the type to end like this. He’s struggling now because of his internal injuries, but he must have another trick up his sleeve. So it’s not over.”
“...”
“But for me, there’s a high chance this is the end.”
“Master!”
“So, if I die and Lee Yu-baek lives, stick to him. After we helped him like this, he’ll never turn his back on you. That’s the kind of man he is.”
“Master!”
“Keheh. Great Severing Sword Bu-myeong. Middle Severing Sword In-so. Small Severing Sword Hyeon-seung. You all know, don’t you? For a man of the Jianghu to live this long, doing this and that, and then to die like this... this is a good death. A damn good one.”
His gaze finally landed on Resentful Dog and Jeon Tae-gwang. His heart was a tangle of complex emotions.
After many disciples had died tragic deaths, Shin Ja-eon had changed his training methods. But Jeon Tae-gwang, who had grown up under this new method, resented him for it. He was the only one who became the Weak Severing Sword.
The whole world was laughing at him. He had wanted to be strong, too. He would have rather died than be this weak. That was how his disciple had gone astray, so far astray. Of all his fingers, he was the one that hurt the most.
Unable to contain all the emotion in his heart, Shin Ja-eon adopted a playful tone instead. “And our... Weak Severing... Tae-gwang. This master has... to you...”
He had only gotten that far when it happened.
“Fuck.”
Jeon Tae-gwang spat the curse right in his master’s face.
“Hm?” Shin Ja-eon was taken aback.
“Youngest!”
“Junior Brother! Master is speaking!”
“Tae-gwang!”
As his three senior brothers shouted in shocked anger, Tae-gwang exploded.
“I can’t fucking take it anymore. Weak Severing Sword, Weak Severing Sword, that goddamn Weak Severing Sword. Fucking hell. Every last one of you. Master, seniors. You all think I’m a joke, right? It’s hilarious, isn’t it?”
Jeon Tae-gwang’s senior brothers were stunned. Has our junior brother lost his mind? What is he saying right now?
“Tae-gwang!”
But by then, Jeon Tae-gwang was already moving. Before anyone could stop him, he kicked off the ground, using his lightness technique to break away.
Leaving the formation all by himself, he began to run straight toward Hang In-woo.
“Tae-gwang!”
“Laugh all you want! Go on! Laugh your fucking heads off!”
Ignoring even the calls of his senior brothers, his eyes gleamed with a strange madness.