Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Nine Deaths One Life (17)
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How could a mere candle flame withstand a storm?
No matter how sturdy the wax candle, it was still just a candle in the end. Even as the gale approached, the blind fools failed to realize they were lamps flickering in the wind.
The nameless elder had tried to uproot the great evil entrenched in the murim world, only to fail miserably in the end. He lost everything he had built up over his lifetime.
Having barely clung to life, he retreated to a remote mountain with no ties left. There, he even considered ending it all. After all, there was no hope left in the murim world.
Every time he thought of the blood kin and close comrades who had died because of his own incompetence and failings, his heart felt like it was shattering into pieces. Yet the reason he survived was...
"The Vertical Slash rises high and crashes down like lightning, its form akin to the heavens delivering divine punishment. The Horizontal Slash sweeps broadly, like the vast earth that holds all things..."
He had simply felt a sun-like brilliance in the child he whimsically saved from a tiger. His wounds from the bloody battle with those fiends were so severe that he didn't know how much longer he could live anyway.
Even if it meant burning his very last breath as kindling...
As long as he could pass on this ember.
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"......"
The sight of the medicine pouch tied to a rope and hanging there was just like something out of a historical drama. Thanks to that, I quickly realized I was lying in the clan's infirmary.
As the pungent scent of medicinal herbs stung my nose, I sank into thought. Now that I knew where I was, all I needed was to figure out how and why I was lying here.
Fortunately, someone who could explain entered the infirmary. It was an old man with a distinctive snub nose, dressed in white healer robes. His hair was white and lifeless.
Exaggerating a bit, he looked for a moment like the grim reaper come to fetch me. Thankfully, he wasn't—he was Moyong Su, the physician of the Moyong Clan infirmary.
Seeing me awake, he startled in surprise, then fixed me with a displeased glare. He pulled out his needles and jabbed them into my arms and legs. Surprisingly, it hurt quite a bit.
"You look about my age at a glance. At our age, do you really have to push yourself that hard?"
"...Pardon my rudeness, but how old are you?"
"Sixty-six this year."
Damn it all.
I'd just been called a peer by someone who'd lived a full thirty years longer than me. And as a physician, he must have noticed something while treating me directly?
"A martial artist's body is impressive indeed. Purely in terms of physique, you look under thirty... Could this be that legendary 'shedding bones and exchanging marrow' or whatever it's called?"
"......"
Damn.
I gave up on any explanations as Moyong Su ground my face in alongside the herbs. Forget the trivial stuff for now—time to ask the important questions first.
"Why am I here?"
"The young lady sleeping face-down next to you came rushing in, carrying you on her back."
Where he nodded toward, right beside me, Sua lay sprawled out, sleeping soundly. Stunned by the unbelievable truth, I asked again with a bewildered expression.
"...Sua did?"
"That's right! She wailed so loud the heavens nearly split and shook me like crazy. Just thinking about it makes me dizzy even now."
"And what of the Moyong Clan Patriarch?"
"The great hero sliced him down splendidly. But as they say, even a rotting fish has its head—looks like the Patriarch wasn't easy prey either? I heard you lost consciousness right after the duel ended."
Moyong Su must have found infirmary duty boring. Spitting as he explained, he helped paint a rough picture in my mind of how things had unfolded.
In the end, I'd succeeded in cutting down the Patriarch at the last moment. But he, resolved to mutual destruction, had unleashed his technique on me as well. The aftermath had caused me to black out.
Still, purely in terms of results, it was highly encouraging. My opponent had been at least transcendent realm or higher, while I was peak realm at best, even being generous.
The only thing that didn't add up was how I'd bridged that realm gap. Even a single realm difference made victory incredibly difficult. Piecing it together roughly...
'Martial arts have a solid foundation and roots, nearly impossible to overcome head-on. Demonic arts are unstable from the basics, so I targeted that gap... That explanation isn't entirely off.'
For a fleeting moment, I wondered if I'd reached transcendent or even harmony realm. But if so, I wouldn't have passed out mid-duel.
'In any case, Sua did help me—that much is fact.'
"The young lady fretted over you so much, she stuck to your side like glue and wouldn't leave. She even helped with my work quite a bit, so life here wasn't half bad."
"There must be other wounded besides me."
"Indeed. And among them, no small number are critically injured, hanging on the brink of death."
Perhaps sensing my gaze on Sua, Moyong Su grinned and told me about her. Honestly, her crying over me was quite surprising.
"Mm......"
"Awake, are you?"
"...Great Hero?"
"Yes, it's me."
Woken by the commotion, Sua rubbed her eyes and slowly sat up. Staring blankly at me for a moment, she suddenly threw herself into my arms.
"I was so worried night and day that something might happen to you!!"
"Nothing of the sort happened, so calm down!"
"Whoa there, I'll take my leave. I have patients to tend."
"You're running off alone right now?!"
Her concern hadn't been empty words. It took a good while to soothe Sua, who burst into tears in my arms, before I could finally hear the full story.
Shockingly, a tiny faction within the Moyong Clan had called for my punishment. Likely the families of the warriors who'd lost their lives by my hand.
"We can't even help the benefactor who saved the Moyong Clan, yet some plot to stab him in the back? Those scum aren't fit to call themselves martial artists!!"
Fortunately, Moyong Hyeon, acting as interim Patriarch, flew into a rage upon hearing it. He personally whipped them and even exiled every last one who'd spoken up.
"Thanks to you, young hero, I can sleep without fear of a knife in the dark."
"This isn't something to laugh off. You should reveal the truth to everyone even now...!!"
"Let it be. What more is there to say here?"
I wasn't sure exactly what truth Sua meant. In the first place, I had no energy to meddle in the Moyong Clan's politics. Besides, they'd already been punished and exiled.
On the face of this battle's outcome, it was my victory.
But it wasn't a clean win.
Of course, up until he went mad with demonic arts, I'd held back out of mercy, trying to subdue him. But the moment he fell to the demonic arts, even going all-out only led to mutual destruction.
I'd even blacked out midway. What if the Moyong Clan warriors had attacked me then? Or even if not, what if I hadn't killed him in one strike?
In the end, I'd won purely by luck.
So I could understand the rumors.
But it wasn't cause for despair. My opponent hadn't been in his right mind due to the demonic arts, and I'd passed out too. Still, I'd claimed a clear victory over a transcendent expert.
'No time to waste now. I need to claim my reward of martial arts and inner pellets from the Moyong Clan, then hurry back for training.'
A little more effort, and I'd reach a higher realm.
No proof, of course—just a gut feeling.
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When the bloody storm over the Moyong Clan finally subsided, Sua was shocked for an entirely different reason. That the great hero Nameless had rent the heavens was an unchangeable truth, even if the earth and sky were remade.
Yet, aside from herself, not a single soul had witnessed it with their own eyes. Did that even make sense? That razor-sharp sword energy had cleaved the sky itself!
Because of that, an overwhelming result had twisted into a paper-thin margin. To Sua, who knew all the facts, it seemed like a pathetic attempt to cover the sky with a palm.
"They say even masters' battles are decided by a hair's breadth, and how true that is."
"If the great hero had lost... I don't even want to imagine what came after."
"We must humbly accept this horrific outcome. It's our fault for standing by as injustice unfolded."
"No, listen!! That fight was the great hero's perfect victory!!"
They spouted nonsense no one who'd seen that heaven-cleaving strike could agree with. Sua felt like she'd lose her mind from frustration.
In the end, to defend the great hero's honor, she'd told him directly what she'd witnessed. But even his reaction completely defied her expectations.
"Let it be. What more is there to say here?"
Ah, I see.
Only then did Sua understand the great hero's intent. Sigh until the earth caves in, and it won't; curse the heavens, and they won't fall.
The world steadfastly holds its place unchanging. Cease your vain struggles—who is a sparrow to know a phoenix's will? When needed, he could prove it anytime.
It aligned perfectly with the great hero's teachings. Despite reaching the peak realm, he never mocked even deploying the basic Three Disasters Sword Art.
'...But one thing nags at me.'
Half a month ago—right after the great hero's overwhelming victory in the deathmatch with the Patriarch. It was Sua herself who'd hoisted his unconscious form and rushed him to the infirmary.
As the savior of the Moyong Clan, the great hero warranted no questions. Physician Moyong Su had begun treatment immediately. But the results were unexpected.
[I've checked thoroughly, but there's no external injury at all, and the internal damage isn't that severe. Yet the meridians show faint ruptures... Looks like that demonic art or whatever targeted his internals.]
'But that doesn't make sense. The great hero ended the Patriarch in one strike. Demonic arts or not, he wouldn't have had a chance to counterattack.'
Sua's monstrous comprehension quickly reached a hypothesis. What if the great hero's inner energy was so vast and potent that his body couldn't withstand it?
What if he'd knocked himself out with his own power?
...No way. That couldn't be possible.