I Was Crazy Too, Then. (8)
The two groups that had been soaking Hangzhou’s ruined ground in blood suddenly fell still, though for very different reasons.
“…Bishop….”
Jeokil’s jaw was shaking so badly it looked as if it might split apart. Anyone who didn’t know who he was would have found the sight pitiable.
His duty had been to make sure these filthy unbelievers never dared disturb the Bishop’s rest. That was what a Law Enforcement Messenger serving the Bishop was supposed to accomplish.
But he had failed to fulfill even that simple mission. At last, their blades had been pointed at the Bishop himself. That fact drenched Jeokil’s entire body in unspeakable terror.
The Demonic Cultists under Jeokil’s command were no different. All of them stared blankly at Dan Ja-gang, who stood alone in the ruins.
And the Mount Hua disciples, who had forced Jeokil and the others into such a disastrous mistake, were looking at Dan Ja-gang for an entirely different reason.
What is that?
Confusion flickered across Baek Cheon’s face.
That man is the Bishop?
The man standing alone before them was far too different from the Bishop Baek Cheon had imagined. The Bishop he had seen in the Northern Sea had been a being that could only be described as a monster. A thing that wore the skin of a human being, but was in no way human at all—a condensed mass of malice so vast it defied description. That was the Bishop Baek Cheon remembered.
But the one before him now….
He’s different.
His height and unnaturally thin frame were eerie in their own way, but he did not have that inhuman presence Baek Cheon remembered. If anything, he looked like some wandering swordsman you might see anywhere on the road.
But still….
Cold dread.
Not in his mind alone. His body understood it clearly.
Something enormous was hidden beneath that utterly ordinary exterior. A deep, dark abyss so thick and so gloomy that merely facing it felt like being crushed beneath its weight.
Baek Cheon bit down hard on his lip and glanced around. The faces beside him had gone pale and stiff as well. They felt it too.
His gaze came to rest on the back of Cheong Myeong. Even while standing opposite a Bishop, that back did not tremble in the slightest.
Dan Ja-gang slowly looked down at the cup in his hand.
The red liquor inside had already been coated over with dust, turning muddy and turbid. It was as if it were saying that no matter how far they marched onto the lands of the Central Plains and claimed this place, those who worshiped the Heavenly Demon were never meant to drink fine wine.
Dan Ja-gang silently stared at the cup for a long moment before slowly raising it to his lips. Then he tipped the liquor back.
The fragrant sweetness that had once teased the tip of his nose was gone. Stripped of scent and taste, it was nothing more than foul, muddy slop with only the flavor of dust and earth left behind.
But Dan Ja-gang did not recoil from that disgusting slop. He swallowed it whole, because what they had always drunk was not all that different from this foul mire to begin with.
As he savored the nauseating taste and stench on his tongue, Dan Ja-gang slowly opened his hand around the cup.
Crash.
The falling cup shattered into pieces and scattered across the ground.
“How sad.”
Dan Ja-gang glanced at the fragments of white porcelain, then shifted his gaze forward, toward the two men standing before him.
A loud, clownish fool and a cold-eyed swordsman clad in black robes.
Then he took in the people behind them, and the cultists staring on in fear. Dan Ja-gang’s eyes remained as dark and unreadable as ever, giving nothing away.
Does that mean not even a sliver of what you enjoy can be granted to me?
Dan Ja-gang gave a low chuckle. From their perspective, he was nothing more than an invader who had come to snatch away everything they possessed.
“B-Bishop!”
Then Jeokil let out a scream and threw himself to the ground.
“The Bishop need not move personally. I shall deal with these men!”
Dan Ja-gang shot Jeokil a sideways glance. He was a complete mess. The corner of Dan Ja-gang’s lips twitched faintly.
“Please forgive my incompetence and grant me the chance to make up for my mistake….”
“Stand down.”
“B-Bishop….”
Dan Ja-gang’s eyes drifted to Cheong Myeong and Jang Il-so, who stood at the front.
He could feel two utterly different currents of energy. One was so clean and refreshing it inspired repulsion; the other was so wicked and loathsome it made him want to retch. Like oil and water, the two presences were bitterly opposed and could never mix.
Yet what lay in those two pairs of eyes was the same.
Clear hostility.
Feeling that naked hostility pouring at him, Dan Ja-gang slowly spoke.
“To come all the way here….”
But he stopped himself before finishing.
He had realized that he was trying to “talk” to them.
Of course, he had spoken with many Central Plains martial artists until now. But that had never truly been “conversation.” Merely stating one’s position was nothing more than a one-sided declaration.
But now, Dan Ja-gang was not trying to declare anything to these people. He was trying to ask them something, and hear their answer in return.
Dan Ja-gang slowly closed his eyes.
I’ve become blurred.
He could no longer deny it, even if he wanted to. No matter what happened now, he would never return to being the Bishop Dan Ja-gang he had been when he left the sect.
But even so….
That was when it happened.
“You’re a young one.”
The black-robed swordsman at the front gave a crooked smile. His sharp eyes glittered fiercely.
“What a joke.”
“…….”
“You’ve never even seen the Heavenly Demon, and yet here you are licking the soles of some nonexistent Heavenly Demon’s feet.”
If this had been the Dan Ja-gang of not long ago, he would have felt indescribable rage at those words. Just like the cultists behind him, who could not dare spit out the boiling fury in his presence and were forcing it down instead.
But absurdly enough, the Dan Ja-gang of now did not feel much anger at all. He himself thought the words were not entirely wrong. Even knowing that his own faith had collapsed because of that very thought.
And because of that, he became curious.
“Let me ask you something, swordsman.”
“Doesn’t seem like we’re close enough to be exchanging questions like this.”
Dan Ja-gang let out a low laugh.
“Consider it a request, then.”
At that, something unusual flickered in Cheong Myeong’s eyes.
A hundred years….
Once again, he was reminded just how long that time had been. Who would have thought he’d live to see a Bishop saying something like that with his own eyes?
“Spit it out.”
A brief silence fell.
After staring at Cheong Myeong and Jang Il-so without a word, Dan Ja-gang slowly opened his dried-out lips.
“Why… do you not flee?”
“What?”
Dan Ja-gang’s indifferent gaze pierced Cheong Myeong.
“A man of your level must have already felt it. You should understand.”
His tone was so certain it sounded as though he were stating an established fact.
“The difference in strength is obvious. You cannot stop me.”
This was not a threat. At least, not from Dan Ja-gang’s point of view.
“And yet why do you not run? Why do you choose to resist? Why do you insist on fighting a battle whose outcome is already decided?”
This was foolishness.
He acknowledged that they were strong. To that extent, they were the sort of experts even the sect would struggle to oppose unless one counted a Bishop among their ranks.
But precisely because of that, the moment he faced them, he could clearly understand one thing: they had no chance of winning.
Then why do they look so unshaken?
Why could they cling so stubbornly to their own path even before such an overwhelming existence that could not possibly be resisted?
It was a meaningless question, perhaps, but for Dan Ja-gang, it was one he could not help asking.
Yet the answer he received was a little different from what he had expected. What came back to him was open ridicule.
“What a damn stupid question. Did you Demonic Cult bastards spend so long in the backwaters eating dirt that you’ve turned into philosophers?”
It was far too rude and unrestrained an attitude to show a Bishop. Cheong Myeong laughed out loud and asked Dan Ja-gang in return.
“So what? Because the enemy is strong, we should bow our heads and crawl?”
“…….”
“Listen up, you idiot. Cowards like you might be scared to death and tremble before some nonexistent Heavenly Demon, but I’d rather die than do that.”
“……You are not afraid of death?”
“Of course I’m afraid, you idiot.”
Cheong Myeong laughed as if the whole thing were ridiculous.
“It’s just that being forced to submit is even more disgusting than dying. Especially to bastards like you.”
Just as Dan Ja-gang was about to speak, a faint snort brushed past his ears.
“Hmmmmm.”
Dan Ja-gang’s gaze shifted to Jang Il-so beside Cheong Myeong.
Blood-red lips, slashed across a face that was otherwise bone-white, curved into a chilling smile.
“You’ve been going on and on about a Bishop, a Bishop, a Bishop. I thought you must be some remarkable man.”
Jang Il-so paused, then let out an exaggerated sigh.
“This is a little disappointing.”
Dan Ja-gang’s brows twitched unpleasantly.
“Remember this, child.”
Jang Il-so spoke in a voice so wicked it seemed to stain the air around him. The eerie look on his face was enough to make even Dan Ja-gang frown.
“The moment you admit that someone naturally exists above you, a person is finished.”
“…….”
“That’s the difference between the one who rules and the one who is ruled. And I’m not afraid of those who are ruled. No matter how strong they are, in the end, they’re all the same—human beings who choose to submit.”
Clack.
Jang Il-so’s rings grated harshly against one another.
“So. What kind of man are you?”
Listening to him, Dan Ja-gang smiled quietly.
A man who will not be ruled….
He slowly shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
“…….”
“Neither do you. The answer I seek is not in either of you. No… perhaps I may never hear the answer from anyone in this world.”
A hollow voice slipped from Dan Ja-gang’s mouth.
“Will not be ruled. Will overcome. Will resist.”
The longer he murmured, the more Dan Ja-gang’s face distorted.
“Those are the words of people who have never truly faced fear, never truly faced greatness, never truly faced divinity.”
Black demonic qi began to seep out beneath Dan Ja-gang’s feet. A darkness so dense it seemed beyond this world rose up and wound itself around his toes.
“And if you still insist on spewing such words….”
Whoooooooooosh!
The demonic qi pouring from Dan Ja-gang spun faster and faster, until it became a massive whirlpool, writhing with savage force.
“Then I will show you.”
Dan Ja-gang’s voice, too, had grown rougher. His eyes flared with a vicious, blood-red light.
“What true despair is!”
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The black demonic qi shot skyward like a black dragon.
At last, Dan Ja-gang cast himself wholly into madness, and from his mouth burst a howl fit for a demon from hell. It was a scene beyond overwhelming—beyond even shocking.
Before that horrifying banquet of demonic qi, the world itself began to turn pale with fear.
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