I'll Show You All How Great I Am
Ilmanhyeolje charged straight at me.
—Kwaaang!
I clenched my teeth and held on.
"Khack! Khack!!"
I spat blood mixed with shreds of flesh. My head whipped from side to side as if it would burst. His side kick buried itself deep into my gut.
"…Waaargh!!"
I crumpled, palms planted on the ground, and vomited a bowlful of blood. The distance left was less than half a fingernail. Right in front of me lay the line he had carved with his sword.
Surrender! Cross the line and run, damn you!
Ilmanhyeolje seized my blood-soaked hair, squatted down, and locked eyes with me.
Just touch the line. You don't even have to cross it. Twitch your hand a little. Look—the line is right in front of your fingers. Not even half a pinky nail away.
I blinked blood-drenched eyes.
"Fuck off."
Oh?
Ilmanhyeolje shot to his feet and kicked me square in the face.
—Kwaaang!
I tumbled backward. Then the beating began again in earnest.
—Crack.
An eerie sound, and bone shattered.
—Crunch.
With every blow my mind grew hazier. Ribs splintered and stabbed into my organs.
—Wheeze, huff…
I had not been able to breathe properly for a while. I tried to inhale and nothing came. It felt like a rib had punched a hole in my lung. Even my trained hands were shattered and trembling. My nose was so swollen I could not draw air. My face was so ruined I could no longer even blink.
I've never once met a bastard who wasn't honest in the face of death! You think you're special? No! You're not special at all!
Ilmanhyeolje—no, Ak Ryu-yeop's eyes filled with greater fury the longer I endured. His punches were no longer refined techniques. They were pure killing intent, raw emotion, nothing but the will to beat me to death.
—Thud! Thud! Thud!
Even his mocking voice faded. My head shook. My body shook. The sound of the blows receded. The pain receded. Everything receded.
I wondered, distantly, whether I was still breathing or had already stopped. At some point my body was still being shaken, yet I felt no sensation at all.
—Clank.
The sound of chains.
—Clank.
Again, chains.
I lifted my head and saw blue sky. I was bound in iron chains, half-submerged in black, stagnant water at the bottom of a dry well, staring up at that arid blue.
Just what are you trying to prove by doing this?
A black dog sat at my feet.
We met by chance, yet we shared the same priority—survival. That was why we clashed more fiercely than anyone, and why, for the same reason, we understood each other better than anyone. But right now I simply do not understand you.
The black dog with crimson eyes spoke with rising passion.
If this continues, Host will truly die. Die. Nothing will be left. It is not too late. Plan for later. Open your eyes. Look ahead.
Open my eyes…?
I opened them. I closed the eyes that had been gazing at the blue sky from the bottom of the dry well and forced open my real eyes, the eyes of the present.
—Hss… hss…
I tried to open them while submerged in a pool of blood. There I was—every bone broken, gasping, trying to push myself upright.
I peeled open sticky eyelids. I was sprawled on the ground. The boundary line lay right in front of my face. A thick drop of blood fell from my eyelid and rolled across the dirt, tumbling straight into the carved line. That was how close it was.
"Hah. Hah."
There is no shame in this. Reach out. Cross the line. Then you live. Host has already done his best.
I tried to rise. I slipped in the pool of blood. My bangs, soaked, stuck to my forehead.
For an ordinary person, this much is more than enough.
"…"
If you couldn't do it today, do it tomorrow. Why the rush?
"…"
My nose and mouth were pressed into the blood-slick floor; every ragged breath burst scarlet droplets in every direction.
Why live every day under the whip like a racehorse? Give up. Just give up. Giving up is easy. What are you struggling so hard to prove and show?
"Hah… hah…"
And there, staggering, I stood. Again I collapsed amid a spray of blood droplets.
Stop… stop!!!
Ilmanhyeolje roared.
Stop getting up! Stop getting up, you dog bastard!!
—Woom…!
Unlike every previous blow, violet mist now coiled around his fist.
"Ah."
—Thud.
His fist slammed into my face.
"…!"
My vision reeled massively.
……
…
.
I thought everything had been buried in darkness.
—Clank.
Chains rang out. Suddenly I felt exhausted. I wanted to lay everything down. I wanted to give up.
—Clank.
Chains again. The place I stood was a well filled to the navel with black, rotting water. I raised my head. Far above the impossibly deep mouth of the well, blue sky showed. I would never climb out of there. Thick, heavy, rusted chains that felt as if they had bound me for centuries wrapped my arms and legs. A massive chain circled my neck as well. Before I could even wonder why such things bound my body, I closed my eyes, and that scenery sank once more into eternal oblivion.
What I… want to prove…
I muttered again in the dark.
I…
My old life had been a life steeped in people who either prayed for my failure or simply never looked at me.
When will he come…
The woman I had believed was my only family—my mother—had never once looked at me, not even as she froze to death.
Not a single grain of internal energy at that age? What exactly were you doing while others were building theirs?
I had been beaten and driven out of the examination grounds of minor sects.
Aaagh.
Blood had run down the hand I pressed to my nose. After I protested, a servant had clubbed me with a stick.
Gross.
That was the answer I received when I finally mustered the courage to say hello to the oil-shop girl in the capital I had briefly liked.
I can see you're trying hard enough, but you don't seem… particularly talented.
That was what the martial hall instructor I visited every day, eating humble pie just to train, had told me one afternoon.
Why not give up the path of the martial artist, young hero? I say this out of concern. It's time to face reality and grow up instead of chasing dreams. Frankly, you look pathetic. This is all for your own good.
A thoroughly drunk civil official I met at an inn had left me those words.
Kid's got big dreams. You really think something that hard is possible? If it were, I'd have made it long ago and be living with the five great beauties of the Central Plains. Heh heh. Why go looking for hardship?
That was how the young charcoal burner had smirked when I told him I had come to earn money for martial training.
That was the life I had lived. Every day the cold, damp dawn arrived without fail. When my body was a wreck, I would move my hands and feet in the morning. Starting by wiggling my toes—ah, I'm still alive today. Flexing my fingertips—I have to endure again today. Breathing through my mouth—I have to live again today. And so I continued a life without hope.
Walking toward a dream while wondering whether the dream was right, whether it would ever come true, whether this was even the correct path. Enduring days of walking through an endless cave filled with the sneers of people who had no interest in my success and only hoped for my defeat. Living a life where I could not even die when I wanted to. Driven by spite, I simply endured day after day so I would not die. I had lived like a cornered animal.
Then I met the Heavenly Demon Jade, and countless things happened. They flashed through my mind one after another like a lantern show.
Whoa, our mongrel little brother. You eaten? Name's Moyong Ryu.
Jin Muje. Wudang Sect. Don't talk to me, low-life trash. I'll kill you.
It had been a clumsy start, yet I began forming bonds with people.
Don't hate them too much. They still split the caning you were supposed to take alone. They limped away afterward.
That was what Pahwanggun of Cheonsubaekryeonsa, who guided my first training, had said. He had protested to his superiors on my behalf and ended up imprisoned for it.
Survive here and I'll promote you to something like a young master I keep as a hobby. How about it? Not bad, right?
After the duel with Gwak Ido, Baekho of the Blood Death Sect had said that with a grin.
Uncle, do you know how to make red-bean fish buns? Mom said they taste good in winter.
It had been a winter of fine snow. A girl I met at the Namgung Family had asked me, on a freezing night, to make fish buns.
Is this much salt right for the dish? No, wait—this is how you knead it?
Uncle! Do it properly! You're so good at martial arts, why are your hands so useless!
Ah, well, I've never cooked before in my life.
Namgung Sogyo had hopped around beside me in an apron while I clumsily stirred corn flour.
The standard for pushing Host in this training will match the absolute elites of the Heavenly Demon Cult—the level of the Seven Battle Command Units.
Before the hellish training in Amyeondong, where time stretched tenfold, Mumyeong had given me that warning.
—Craaack!
On the three-hundredth day of training, the massive granite boulder finally split with a roar before my bloodstained bare fists.
My… my martial art, Heaven and Earth Great Shift…! Impossible!
Before Jeokmaryeong's bulging eyes, the Heaven and Earth Great Shift I had copied erupted from my body with violet lightning.
—Boom!
A night of brilliant fireworks. A ruined shrine. Eun Seollyeong had turned, silver hair streaming.
No one knows this place anymore. Everyone swore they would remember, yet now only I come here.
Far away fireworks burst; a single tear traced down Eun Seollyeong's cheek before the collapsed shrine.
Ah! That! Fetch that, Slave Number One!
Beneath a red sunset, in a noisy market street, So Yeomgyo had pointed at a glittering cheap bracelet.
Good work today. The waiter already brought food. Ah, go wash up first before you sit.
So Yeomgyo, reading a book, had smiled as I opened the door.
You were unlucky enough to meet me today and learn martial arts! I speak of none other than myself—A Man Must Strengthen Himself—the genius martial artist Gang Ilbi!
Gang Ilbi had thrown out his scrawny chest and laughed heartily. I had covered my face in embarrassment and groaned.
One against twenty!
What?!
Under a blue sky, everyone had looked at me.
If I win one against twenty, then So Cheonpa himself will plant his head in the dirt and apologize to every man here who fell trying to live as the head of a household and as a man!
Before the Jegal Family, the Hwangbo Clan, and the entire crowd, I had clenched my fist.
Let this become the proof that righteousness and chivalry still live in this jianghu!
I had roared at them all.
That was how it had been. That was the life I had lived. That was unmistakably the life I had lived.
Even if everyone laughed. Even if they called those values outdated and no one respected them anymore. I had lived by chivalry. I had valued righteousness. I had tried to respect people.
That was who I was—
I…
I…
……
…
.
—Grrasp!
Ilmanhyeolje seized my skull and lifted me. My entire body, black martial clothes and all, rose dripping with blood.
In the end you never surrendered and became half a corpse… Boring. I'll finish this.
His eyes, looking at my limp form, stopped on my left hand.
This iron-woven gauntlet. It's been bothering me. It deflected my long sword before. Some kind of artifact, is it?
Ilmanhyeolje roughly stripped the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap from my bloodied left hand and flung me aside. I collapsed and twitched on the ground. He examined the gauntlet.
Oh, would you look at that.
—Click, click-click.
As the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap partially separated and fitted far more easily onto his own hand, Ilmanhyeolje's eyes lit with interest. He clenched a fist sheathed in the black gauntlet and smiled in satisfaction.
Meeting a wretched end by your own cherished weapon… It's a shame it isn't the shape of humiliating surrender I had imagined, but still rather satisfying.
He clenched the iron-clad fist. He aimed it at my face.
Die nicely to your own weapon, trash.
He threw the punch at my face.
……
…
.
I saw a sky full of twilight. I saw a ruined temple. A courtyard overgrown with weeds.
"Hard, isn't it?"
A middle-aged man with a kindly face rubbed his protruding belly, smiled broadly, and circled me while supervising my training. Under Asura's guidance I was gasping, a broken wine jar on my back.
"It can't be helped—technique, unlike talent, grows by feeding on blood and effort. Right now you're in the stage of stacking technique. Of course it's hard."
"…Master."
Asura looked down at me with that same good-natured smile.
"You started late, you only reached this state through luck, and so on—the various negative voices that have spoken of you since your past. Do not listen to them. You need only walk your path, one step, one span at a time."
"But, Master."
I lifted my sweat-soaked face toward the middle-aged man.
"It wasn't just one or two people. If it had been only one or two, of course I would have ignored them. But after hearing it for so many years, I can't help thinking… maybe they were right after all…"
"You feel diminished. The fight with Ilmanhyeolje, and every life you have lived until now—though you pretended otherwise, it all became a burden, didn't it?"
"…!"
Behind the middle-aged man, beyond the temple sky, red twilight glowed. My sense of time wavered. I no longer knew where the present ended and reality began. A drop of sweat from the hard training slid down my forehead. I could not tell whether the memory was past, present, or future. Asura circled my fallen form with his kindly smile.
"But…!"
I muttered.
"But!!"
I clenched my teeth.
"I pretend otherwise, but I'm tired. My age is my age, and people never stop telling me to face reality whenever they get the chance…. They hold truths even I can't deny! They—!"
I shouted through gritted teeth.
"They endlessly point fingers saying I did something useless, something foolish, so I can't look away—!"
"The reason they point fingers—!!"
Asura roared. It was the first time I had seen his face contorted with fury.
"—is so that they themselves, who have done nothing and stand frozen in place, can feel better by criticizing and condemning you! You need not fear them. Why? Because you are not a coward standing still! You are a person in progress who is walking forward! Why? Because you are the direct disciple of me—Asura of the Eight Legions of Devas! And…"
Asura strode closer.
"The fact that you are saying such things means you still do not understand what fate you have stepped into."
"What…?"
Asura spread his palm toward my forehead.
—Clank…!
The next moment I stood inside the dry well. Asura's voice rang out.
"If that longing of yours is real! If the emotion you felt while being beaten by Ilmanhyeolje, and the resentment you just relived by looking back over your entire life—if that deeply etched feeling is truly real…!"
Far beyond the horizon a massive storm cloud was approaching. Thunder rolled. The black water lapping at my knees surged.
"Even for a moment, you should be able to seize control of that body by overcoming the watchdog that guards the flesh! And if you can seize control of the body even once! Then every one of your worries will end in a single stroke!"
—Clank! Clank! Clankclankclank!!
Every chain shook.
What? The sealed flesh of the Heavenly Demon Emperor shouldn't be able to move…?
In the darkness a crimson gaze flickered and a hoarse voice echoed.
No, that's impossible. He's clearly not even at the Demon Escape stage yet.
The black dog in front of me muttered in a voice that refused to believe.
—Bubble-bubble-bubble!
The black water began to boil. The water level rose rapidly.
—Rumble… crash.
Black clouds swarmed in, blotting out the blue sky. Together with the chains, my body began to thrash madly. Black lightning boiled up with the thunder.
—Clank… clankclank!!
My body convulsed as if in a seizure. The black dog raised its head and looked up at the sky above the well. Its crimson eyes wavered.
…Truly?
The rusted chains began to shake as if they would snap.
Even though the original owner of the flesh is right here.
I began to thrash. I tried to break the chains and leap out of the well. The surface of the black water surged upward.
—Thud!
My hands and feet slammed into the well wall. I tried to climb. I fell.
—Thud!
Even so I tried to climb. The chains yanked me back.
—Crackle…!
Stone dust fell as the chains struggled as though they would snap at any second. Mumyeong shouted.
It's futile! One hundred and four years… Day and night for one hundred and four years I tried to pull them free…! That is a restraint that will not even tremble under ordinary obsession and grudge. Something no one can pull free—!
—Crash!!
Black lightning stabbed down from the sky.
—Clankclankclankclank!!
The shackles around my neck, arms, and legs began to thrash and shudder as if in a fit.
—Craaaack!!!
The chains were ripped out by the roots. Once one came free, the rest were torn out one after another. Mumyeong muttered blankly.
Good heavens. What is happening right now.
Asura's cry shook the dry well and the entire world filled with black lightning.
"To every single one of them who always told you you couldn't! Who told you to face reality! Who ignored you! You…! You!!"
—Rooooar!!!
The voice of Asura of the Eight Legions of Devas rolled like thunder.
"What will you show them?"
I raised my head. From inside the dry well I shouted toward the sky filled with black lightning and clouds.
"I'll show all of you just how great I am!!!"
……
…
.
Die nicely to your own weapon, trash.
Ilmanhyeolje smirked and launched a fist wreathed in violet mist. He poured internal energy into the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap and drove the massive punch forward. So Yeomgyo screamed.
"No, Bi!!!!"
In that instant—
—Kwa-rung!!
A single pillar of black lightning that tore the world apart.
"Uwaaaah!!"
I kicked off the ground. The black lightning coiling around my outstretched fist was different from every black thunder I had ever used. It was a black so deep it seemed to suck in every light in the world. Ilmanhyeolje's eyes filled with shock.
…! Wait—this is definitely that bastard from our era—!!
Sensing something wrong, dense violet energy erupted from his dantian. His hand reached into empty air. His twin swords flew toward him.
But it was too late.
—Crunch.
My fist met Ilmanhyeolje's massive, energy-charged fist clad in the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap. The Chiljong-heukjusa-gap crumpled. Ilmanhyeolje's fist crumpled. His wrist snapped. His elbow shattered. His shoulder dislocated. His arm was ripped free. His waist twisted. The instant his huge frame lifted, his entire body spun.
—Zzeeeong!!!!
With a colossal boom, Ilmanhyeolje's right arm, together with the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap, was blasted into fragments and sent flying.