A Disaster We Must Stop
Even after Mumyeong finished speaking, I remained silent for a long while.
“…Is that so?”
I began eating the roughly roasted steamed rice and jerky.
“Now I finally have a sense of the situation I’ve walked into. Why Jegal Sea made such a fuss, and why Eun Seollyeong sought cooperation with me even to the point of forming the Covenant of the Sacred Mountain.”
I moistened my throat with the water I had drawn earlier, once every three bites.
“In short, they’re corrupted Guardians who’ve degenerated into heretical arts—filthy hard to catch, the kind you have to stake your life against no matter what—and without even the jade, so unless you’re a complete idiot you treat them like a disaster to be avoided at all costs. And right now, we have to stop that bastard.”
After tossing only a small amount of food into my mouth—just enough to stave off hunger—I rose from my seat.
I stripped off my upper garment.
“Yeah. And I need to focus on what I have to do. As always.”
I loosened my body by repeatedly sitting and standing. I rotated my wrists. From the pile of logs I had stacked earlier, I selected two large chunks and brought them over.
-Crunch, whoosh…!
I arranged the additional logs in a triangular formation beside and atop the already burning one. The flames no longer flared higher; instead they were trapped between the gaps, maintaining a steady, constant fire. From experience I knew this arrangement would last until dawn without needing more wood.
I stepped back a little from the campfire, clenched my fist, and spoke.
“Alright. Then let’s start today’s training as I said earlier. It’s been a month since I last trained, so my body will be thoroughly dull.”
I nodded.
“Start at sixty percent.”
-Thud…!
A measured amount of internal energy circulated through my body. Every muscle contracted and expanded.
“Heup!”
-Creak…!
The yin and yang meridians pulled as if they would snap. My whole body tightened as though seized by cramps. Trained back muscles swelled and dragged my upper body; chest muscles resisted and pulled in opposition. Triceps contracted to straighten my arms as if to break them, while biceps contracted against them to fold the arms shut.
“Guh… uuuugh…!”
In the crushing pain that felt as if my body would be pulverized, bloodshot veins rose in my eyes of their own accord and I instinctively reached for internal energy.
The energy rising from my dantian was severed all at once, as cleanly as if cut by a blade.
“Keok!”
My face flushed deep red, as though I were pinned at the bottom of a deep lake under crushing water pressure.
“Damn… it! This antagonistic muscle resistance training feels absolutely miserable no matter when I do it!”
In that state I began building the training from the ground up. Unable to take even a single free step, I forced myself through high-difficulty postures and bodyweight exercises.
-Creak… creak-creak!
-Crack! Pop!
Every time I lifted a foot to take a step, my knees and ankles protested with sharp sounds. Every push-up made my elbows, shoulders, and wrists scream as if they would snap. Before even a short while had passed, my bare upper body was drenched in sweat and wreathed in white steam.
“Haap! Hap!”
I chained together Hyeol-yeong-mu-hwan-sin-sul, Polar Night, and Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong.
“Keuk! The fight with that monster Jeokmaryeong was helpful after all…!”
In the battle against Jeokmaryeong I had keenly realized the true value of footwork and exactly what I needed to fix first. Jeokmaryeong was a pure combat master. After only a few exchanges he had struck precisely at the transition points between the three footwork arts I had learned. Without Polar Night’s space-transcending technique, my neck would have been broken long ago.
Muyeong-sintu had originally wanted full integration of the three footwork styles before the fight with Jeokmaryeong, but time had been far too short. In the end he had changed course midway and focused on prioritizing mastery of Polar Night alone.
“Haa! Haa! After lying around for a month my body has gone completely dull!”
In just one shichen I was rolling on the ground, gasping as if dying.
Mumyeong spoke with complete indifference toward my heaving form.
And so the first night passed. I collapsed in total exhaustion. As the sun rose I felt my whole body cooling, closed my eyes for a moment, and simply fell asleep.
Then, exactly one shichen later, golden sunlight startled me awake.
“Crap, I overslept…!”
I hurriedly extinguished the remaining embers, roughly erased the campfire’s traces, and once more relied on the map Jegal Sea had given me to cross the mountain ridge.
When dusk fell again I prepared camp and resumed training. On the night of the third day I finally sank to the ground and spoke.
“Mumyeong, I think the antagonistic control is off.”
I brushed sweat-soaked bangs from my forehead and clenched and opened my fist.
“From a while ago there’s been no break at all between movements. It’s still hard, but the pressure is gone.”
I shook my head.
“I’m not some bamboo in the rain. There’s no way I’d get used to this in three days.”
Mumyeong explained calmly, as if he had already known the reason.
“Right?”
The mountain wind of deep night now felt cool, almost chilly.
“Then what?”
The black dog rested its chin on its front paws.
That stirred complex emotions in me.
“It means getting stronger. Whatever.”
I cut Mumyeong off and spread my hands before the red campfire, then clenched them.
“The way things are going, this is already the shape of participating in a war between Guardians. If I don’t get even a little stronger by any means necessary right now, I’ll die immediately. In this situation, what can’t I do?”
During the Ilmanhyeolje incident, even if only briefly, I had felt the Great Heavenly Demon Emperor—the Heavenly Demon Cult’s Guardian—within my body. Now it had sunk once more beneath the waters of the abyss and could no longer be sensed, yet even without drawing out the true body’s full power I had felt that vast strength.
A feeling of being me, yet not me.
If I could make it my own power, even if it took a long time…
It might become some kind of answer to this life that turns like a wheel of blood.
Watching the third sun rise, I set out on the road again.
A small change appeared in my destination on the afternoon of the fourth day.
“Hey, buddy! Walking alone so leisurely in a remote place like this?”
From the secluded mountain path a group of bandits poured out in a swarm. Their number was close to twenty. The large bandit right in front licked his tongue along the blade of his saber.
“Hehehe, fortune keeps rolling in one after another today?”
The bandits shouted over one another.
“A real man walking this mountain path without even a sword—must be crazy in the head, boss?”
“Women?! Are there no women? My body’s not fully loosened yet!”
One of them gripped a small child’s neck in a thick hand.
“Keok, keoeok….”
The child thrashed as if unable to breathe properly, then went limp.
I let out a sigh.
“Mumyeong? Why didn’t you warn me in advance?”
There was no answer. Come to think of it, the constant presence I always felt when he was conscious was also gone.
“…Now he falls asleep without a word. Or maybe he’s hiding another scheme and doing something.”
Still silence. I realized that if I kept relying solely on Mumyeong’s warnings, I might someday walk straight into disaster.
“Huh?”
Suddenly a faint scent of blood rode the wind. I tilted my head and looked past the bandits. Beyond the grass thicket a cart loaded with goods lay smashed. Further in the undergrowth, martial artists who had been mercilessly stabbed lay dead. Spilled rice and silk were scattered about.
It seemed the bandits had already attacked a merchant group before turning on me. When I approached they had hurriedly rushed out. With neither internal energy nor killing intent, they had been difficult to sense in advance.
“Hoo.”
I lightly dusted my hands.
“Is that bastard crazy? Suddenly staring off somewhere and muttering to himself?”
I spoke shortly toward them.
“Asking if there are women? No, no women. Asking if I have a sword? Ah, that I do.”
I flicked my hand downward.
-Clank.
Myeolseom, stored along my wrist, drew out a blade half a span long and settled into my grip.
“…What’s that, a dagger for little kids?”
“Don’t tell me he’s trying to fight us with that?”
The bandits looked at one another. They checked once more the blue-edged swords and sabers in their hands—each as long as an adult’s upper body—then spoke toward me.
“Can’t you see these?”
“I see them just fine.”
I showed a short smile.
-Flinch.
A few of the bandits flinched. Immediately afterward they looked around in confusion, as if they themselves did not understand why they had reacted.
I spoke calmly.
“You used those to commit the atrocities behind you, didn’t you? There won’t be any government army protection this far out, and martial artists wouldn’t bother interfering in an outer region that doesn’t make money. Right? So you’ve been living however you please in this forest as if you were emperors.”
“Is this bastard crazy? What’s he muttering alone?”
“So what I’m trying to say is—”
The smile vanished from my face. My voice dropped, infinitely cold and heavy.
“Don’t expect to die cleanly, cut down neatly by a single splendid slash the way martial artists usually do. You bastards.”
-Kiiiiing!!!
As the words ended, Myeolseom’s counter-rotating double serrated blades began vibrating madly.
“What the hell is that saw-like dagger?!”
The bandits clamored.
“Since it’s a bother, come at me all at once.”
Whir—the dagger flipped into a reverse grip. As I raised Myeolseom, my eyes filled with the same crimson glow as the black dog’s.
“I’ll tear you all to shreds and kill you.”