Chapter 33
Chapter 33
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: The Truth of That Night
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"I didn't know wolf meat was this delicious."
Bing-seol said as she tore into the hind leg. Her hands were busy picking fur from the leather scraps stuck to her mouth.
It wasn't just Bing-seol. Gong Cheon-ak and Dang Yak-ran, of course, along with Hyeon-gak who had finally come to his senses, were all clad in fur garments.
Originally, Yeom Jin-sang had only planned to make ones for Gong Cheon-ak and Bing-seol.
But Heuk Do-san had ordered him to make one for Dang Yak-ran too, citing her injured hand. Otherwise, he threatened to spill everything about why the sailing ship sank.
And that wasn't all. After sweating buckets to skin enough for Dang Yak-ran, Gong Cheon-ak then insisted on one for Hyeon-gak too, claiming, "If that fat monk freezes to death, it'll put Bing-seol in danger."
In the end, Yeom Jin-sang, who had the worst injuries, had to skin five pelts all by himself. It was hard work, but not a total loss. Since he'd lost the most blood, everyone yielded him the best cuts of meat.
"Meat is all about the gallbladder."
Yeom Jin-sang said.
He picked up a nicely roasted piece of gallbladder, popped it into his mouth, and chewed slowly.
Bear or snake, a gallbladder was the ultimate stamina booster. A Blood Wolf's would be no different.
"By the way, what is Master Hyeon-gak doing?"
Bing-seol said.
While everyone savored the Blood Wolf meat, Hyeon-gak was off to one side, having gathered the dead wolves in a pile and chanting sutras.
In his hand was a wooden clapper—no, a shell clapper made from yesterday's conch shells—that he kept striking rhythmically.
"I'm worried he'll starve himself into some big trouble."
At the end of her words, Bing-seol subtly glanced at Dang Yak-ran. The implication was clear: they needed to force some meat into him.
"It's no use. Refraining from killing is the first of the five precepts a Buddhist disciple must keep. Telling the master to eat meat is the same as telling him to break his vows."
"He kills but won't eat meat? What a joke. That's why I call him a stone monk."
Gong Cheon-ak said.
He ripped into a hunk of leg meat with gusto.
"So, what now?"
Yeom Jin-sang asked Heuk Do-san.
"As planned, we stay here tonight and head down the cliff at dawn tomorrow, straight into the white sandalwood forest."
"Nothing happen by then?"
"Who knows."
He was referring to the Blood Wolves lurking and watching from the forest. No one could shake their worry about the wolves.
Just then, Hyeon-gak stopped chanting and returned. His face was flushed with excitement.
"The beasts are suddenly vanishing."
Everyone dropped their meat and stood up.
Hyeon-gak was right. The lights filling the forest were winking out one by one.
"What the hell is going on?"
Bing-seol asked.
"Ferocious beasts are most dangerous when they hide. Looks like they're waiting for us to let our guard down or get exhausted. Their plan's gone wrong, though."
"So what do we do?"
"What do you mean? We take turns on watch and sleep in shifts. That was the plan anyway. First rule for surviving a battlefield: fill your belly when you get the chance. Let's eat first."
With that, he slapped a heart onto the hot stone slab.
* * *
Night deepened.
Having filled their bellies with Blood Wolf meat, they decided to set two people on watch duty. But Hyeon-gak and Gong Cheon-ak argued fiercely over the method.
Hyeon-gak wanted to pick based on who had the most internal energy left. Gong Cheon-ak wanted those with the lightest external injuries first.
There were reasons.
Picking by internal energy would mean Gong Cheon-ak and Heuk Do-san first. Heuk Do-san hadn't cultivated internal energy, but Hyeon-gak didn't know that yet.
Either way, it gave Hyeon-gak a chance to circulate his qi and recover.
Picking by injury severity would also put Gong Cheon-ak and Heuk Do-san first.
Gong Cheon-ak had been bitten on the wrist throwing his spear to save Dang Yak-ran and fighting Blood Wolves barehanded. It wasn't severe compared to others, so it went unnoticed.
Ultimately, both agreed deep down they wanted Heuk Do-san first. They just couldn't agree on his partner.
The first watch was the hardest. Exhausted from the Blood Wolf fight and stuffed full, sleep came heavy.
The second shift could rest in between. If the wolves attacked again, they'd have better odds of survival.
But in the end, their debate was pointless. Heuk Do-san declared they'd draw lots fairly.
"Pluck one hair each."
"Why hair?"
Bing-seol asked.
"We'll have a hair-pulling contest."
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
Gong Cheon-ak bristled.
"You wanna argue all night?"
"Well..."
"We don't have hair."
Gong Cheon-ak shoved his shiny bald head forward. Beside him, equally bald Yeom Jin-sang stared at Heuk Do-san.
"Armpit hair then."
And so, in the dead of night, a hair-pulling duel among martial masters began.
The winner was Heuk Do-san, whose stiff wire-like hair snapped everyone else's like twigs, claiming overwhelming first place.
Bing-seol, Dang Yak-ran, and Yeom Jin-sang took second, third, and fourth.
"Damn it!"
"This is invalid!"
Hyeon-gak and Gong Cheon-ak vented, but the water was spilled.
While the others slept, Hyeon-gak and Gong Cheon-ak sat facing each other across the campfire.
As leaders of their factions, their emotions ran deep. Never since drifting had worst and best coincided like today.
Worst: the brutal fight against Blood Wolves, sustaining injuries. Best: gaining meat and warm furs instead.
No more starving or freezing to death, at least. But dangers remained.
Nearest: Blood Wolves who could strike anytime. Then the North Murim folk who'd passed through here.
If they were foes, who knew what would happen. And finally, return to the Central Plains. They'd crossed countless brushes with death getting here—and still were.
What awaited on the remaining journey? Where exactly was this place?
How had the Righteous-Demonic Great War gone?
Could they return safely?
Lost in tangled thoughts, the night wore on.
"Can we make it home?"
Gong Cheon-ak tossed a stick into the fire and asked. Hyeon-gak glanced at him before replying.
"No matter how vast the world, it's all within Buddha's palm. Feels like we've come far, but maybe we're just circling in place—human folly."
"What're you talking about?"
"Wherever this is, it's still our world. In the end, it's all about mindset. Namo Amitabha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva."
"You saying you don't wanna go back to the Central Plains?"
"Go if I go, stay if I stay."
"Talking out your ass like a crippled kickboxer. Tch, bone-deep stone monk."
Gong Cheon-ak snapped another log in half and fed it to the flames.
Hyeon-gak looked up at the night sky.
His only blood kin, his father, died when he was young. He'd stormed out of Shaolin Temple over a decade ago.
No one back in the Central Plains to welcome or wait for him.
But this wild horse was different. How much he must wonder about his Demonic Cult brothers now.
"How'd you end up a Demonic Cultist?"
"How'd you end up a monk?"
"Just happened."
"Drop it."
"Not 'cause I don't wanna talk. It really just happened. Became a monk by chance, learned martial arts by chance, joined the Great War by chance. If there's a reason, call it fate."
Looking back, life's turning points were defined by big choices.
There must've been reasons then, but time erased them all.
"Same here. Joined the Demonic Cult by chance, became Seventh Star Lord by chance, shipwrecked by chance, now bullshitting with a stone monk like you. Really, just happened."
"I've heard the rumors. 'The Seventh Star Lord can never be king, but whoever claims him can seize the throne.' That's about you, right?"
"......"
"In short, not heir material but perfect as a sword. Always wondered. Heard you're a brute, but how dumb do you have to be to get excluded from succession from the start? Hah!"
"Your body's itching, huh? Want me to punch a hole in your gut with my spear?"
Gong Cheon-ak spat provocations, but Hyeon-gak was used to it by now.
"Later for that. Anyway, meeting you confirms it. But I admit one thing: whoever has you can take the throne."
"......?"
"That night of the battle off Shandong coast, I slipped from the main force to capture the Heavenly Demon, rowing alone in a small sailboat. Problem was, no clue which ship he was on. You know better—your Demonic Cult hides his position meticulously."
"Absurd. You, daring to target the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Leader? Count yourself lucky you never crossed him. Your body would've been ashes by now."
"Stop interrupting. This story's best uninterrupted."
"You open your mouth, I'll open mine. Best my ass."
"Anyway, then I saw a monster of a man charging like the wind on an assault ship toward somewhere. Rumors and his freakish look—I knew instantly who."
"Who was it?"
"The Heavenly Demon's most trusted Protector Lord Commander, wielder of the Demonic Cult's mightiest force, the Heaven-Exterminating Death Squad—the Seventh Star Lord."
"Hmph, not blind as a mole."
"If I'm right, you rushed to save the Heavenly Demon's ship when it was in peril. But that lured in a swarm of righteous faction assault ships."
"......!"
Hyeon-gak spoke truth.
That night, as battle raged, Gong Cheon-ak heard the sacred Heavenly Demon—the world's greatest, revered by a hundred thousand demonic devotees—had been surrounded. He charged instantly. Dozens of enemy ships trailed him, of course.
That must've been around then.
When sudden meteor showers poured from the sky, upending the sea.
Hyeon-gak continued.
"But it was a trap. The Righteous Alliance Leader and top experts on thirty-odd ships followed you right in. Then boom! All gone."
"Trap meaning?"
"No Heavenly Demon on that ship."
Gong Cheon-ak was dumbfounded.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Leader was definitely aboard.
Center of the Nine Heavens Illusion Grand Ancestral Formation, an impregnable fortress no enemy ship could breach. He'd never left it since battle's start.
That's why he'd charged full force when ordered to protect it. The meteor shower just turned everything to ruin.
What was this stone monk babbling?
"Why think that?"
"I saw it."
"Saw what?"
"Just before the meteors, a flying bird ship slipped from the fog. Coincidentally, it grazed my sailboat at blinding speed, like it'd slice it."
A flying bird ship was a sleek, narrow vessel like a lotus leaf. Low to the water, nearly invisible amid waves—even more at night.
"The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Leader was aboard?"
"Of course."
"How do you know?"
"I saw him."
"How sure was that your Leader?"
"A white-haired, white-bearded sage of immortal winds and dao bones stood at the prow like driftwood. Waves crashed endlessly, yet he didn't budge on that tiny craft. Incredible lightness skill."
"Hah, what an idiot monk. White-haired old masters aren't rare."
"Our eyes met, and my heart dropped. Never felt such majestic aura in my life. Couldn't twitch a finger as it passed close. Only after it vanished into fog could I whisper, 'Heavenly Demon!'"
Boom!
An explosion in Gong Cheon-ak's mind. Hyeon-gak had truly seen the real Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Leader.
White hair aside, only one under heaven could paralyze Shaolin's 18 Arhat monks with a glance like frogs before a snake: the Heavenly Demon.
While he rushed to save him, the Leader escaped?
What utter nonsense. If true, it was huge.
The problem: it felt true. Pieces clicked.
No support from main force. Charging alone. Meteors exactly then.
The Cult's formation masters waited for peak power in the Nine Heavens Illusion Grand Ancestral Formation to lure and obliterate righteous ships in one spot. He'd been bait.
'Why me...!'
Gong Cheon-ak bit his lip. Fists trembled.
Lifetime of loyalty repaid as sacrificial pawn?!
"Shocked, eh."
"......?"
"Didn't expect me to see through it? Thanks to you, I've suffered enough for ten lifetimes."
"I'm suffering too."
"Why'd you do it then?"
"......"
"You shouldn't have gone. No meteors, no falling overboard, no boarding that doomed ship, no ending up in this godforsaken place. But you went. Only one reason."
Hyeon-gak stared piercingly mid-sentence. Gong Cheon-ak flinched inwardly.
'He knows I was discarded?'
Abandoned by the Heavenly Demon, betrayed by Cult brothers, now scorned by a Shaolin stone monk.
How'd it come to this?
Hyeon-gak continued.
"You wanted to throw yourself to save your lord and rescue brothers from annihilation. Didn't expect a guy like you in the Demonic Cult. Different paths, but I respect that sacrifice. Doesn't erase deluding the masses or slaughtering countless, though."
"......!"