There's No Choice But to Believe It (3)
The air split with a sharp, whirring roar.
Something shot up into the sky, spinning violently. Every eye on this island was drawn to it and could not look away.
The object kept whirling without pause, spraying bright red blood in all directions, before at last it lost its strength and fell.
Thud!
Everyone stared at the sight, stunned.
An arm.
The arm of a hardened martial artist had been driven into the sandbar. Blood leaking from the severed end had turned the white sand a dark, muddy red.
No one could even breathe properly.
Even with their own eyes, they could not quite understand what they were seeing. The silence settled so heavily that even the sound of swallowing saliva rang out like thunder.
Fwoooosh!
Then, with a sound that made the skin crawl, the Black Dragon King lurched backward.
“Ggh…….”
Having lost his treasured weapon, the Black Dragon King clutched his own shoulder with his left hand. Blood burst through the gaps between his thick, splayed fingers.
“Ghuh…….”
Everyone stared at him, dumbfounded.
The Black Dragon King’s right arm.
The arm that had once brandished a massive crescent blade and ruled the Yangtze River with a bellowing roar had been cut off just below the shoulder. The instant Cheong Myeong’s sword had come for his neck, he had raised his arm to block the fatal blow, but the arm had been cleanly severed all the same.
Disbelief and shock. And fear.
His face was a mess of emotions he could no longer control as he stumbled back, and then back again.
“Y-you…….”
Watching him, everyone else seemed to lose their souls.
Who could possibly have imagined it?
The arm of this man—once the head of the Shinjwa Opae, the one who had ruled like a king over the Yangtze, and now one of the deputy lords of the Evil Tyrant Alliance—had been cut off by the sword of a third-generation Mount Hua disciple.
But no matter how many times they shut their eyes and opened them again, the sight did not change. The moment they realized this was all real, a terrible sense of wrongness began to creep over everyone on Maehwado.
Everyone except one group.
“As expected!”
“Damn it!”
Muted cries of awe spilled from the mouths of Mount Hua’s disciples.
Their shoulders, released all at once from unbearable tension, shook uncontrollably. Barely suppressing the urge to shout with joy, they clenched their fists in unison.
Baek Cheon, too, stared fixedly at Cheong Myeong’s back, his fist tightly locked.
“There’s no choice but to believe it.”
“Exactly.”
“Mm!”
Jo Geol and Yoon Jong nodded hard. Even Yu I-seol’s shoulders gave the faintest twitch.
Anyone from Mount Hua who had watched what Cheong Myeong had done over the past three years could never imagine him losing. If what they had endured had been hell, then what Cheong Myeong had endured was, quite literally, the abyss of hell.
And yet, separate from that belief, the ones in Mount Hua’s black robes were trembling with a joy that seemed ready to burst straight out of their heads.
It felt like their efforts had been answered.
Cheong Myeong had proven it before their very eyes. What they had done all this time had not been in vain. Everything they had painstakingly built over those years was standing here now, together with their swords.
But to the swordsmen of the Namgung Clan, who did not know Cheong Myeong nearly as well, the scene itself was nothing short of a shock. Their faces were colored with emotions no words could fully describe.
“H-how could…….”
“Heavens…….”
They knew how strong the Black Dragon King was.
Their former clan head, Namgung Hwang, had burned with fighting spirit against this very opponent. The terrifying force of the martial aura he emitted had been proved with the deaths of those who bore the Namgung name.
And now that same Black Dragon King was staggering, his arm severed by a swordsman from Mount Hua.
The result of the battle was too clear to deny.
“Grrrgh…….”
With bloodshot eyes, the Black Dragon King staggered backward. But the water bandits who saw him did not rush to help; instead, they recoiled in terror and scattered in all directions.
Cheong Myeong gave his sword a quick twist, then lowered the tip.
Grgrgrk.
Dragging the point of the blade along the ground, he slowly advanced toward the Black Dragon King.
Everyone was excited. Everyone was shocked.
But Cheong Myeong’s eyes had not changed in the slightest from the start. He only watched the Black Dragon King with a gaze so chilling it seemed frozen, and moved toward him at a measured pace.
“Ugh…….”
The Black Dragon King’s jaw trembled violently.
His emptied mind could no longer think. He could not even tell what he was supposed to do now. He had never once imagined himself in a situation like this.
And then—
Cheong Myeong did something no one had expected.
Kang!
He kicked the Black Dragon King’s crescent blade, which lay on the ground. The blade shot into the air and dropped neatly at the Black Dragon King’s feet.
“…….”
As the Black Dragon King’s wavering eyes darted between his weapon and Cheong Myeong, a cold voice reached his ears.
“Pick it up.”
Cheong Myeong’s tone carried no emotion at all as he continued.
“We’re not done yet.”
He spoke as though stating the most obvious thing in the world.
That casual tone, with its hidden chill, sent shivers down the spines of everyone watching.
“Your arm got cut off?”
“…….”
“So what?”
Killing intent flickered in Cheong Myeong’s eyes.
Watching a man tremble just because one arm had been chopped off made his stomach turn.
“Pathetic bastard.”
They did not know. Those who had lived only in comfort could not know, could not understand.
Who had guarded the Jianghu. How desperately they had fought. What it felt like to pull a blade from a comrade’s body after he had been pierced through and swing it again.
What thoughts drove those who crushed a severed arm beneath their own feet and tore at an enemy’s throat with their teeth.
Those who knew nothing were strutting about as though they were kings of the martial world. Watching that spectacle made bile rise in his throat.
No, there was no need to speak of the past at all.
Cheong Myeong tilted his chin toward the rear.
“Namgung…….”
The moment that name left Cheong Myeong’s mouth, the swordsmen of the Namgung Clan tightened every muscle in their bodies.
“They kept fighting even after their arms were cut off. Even until the moment their necks were severed.”
The Namgung swordsmen bowed their heads and clenched their teeth.
Those words sank deep into their chests. Deeper than any comfort ever could.
They still remembered the faces of their comrades who had thrust their swords into the enemy even with their bellies split open, who had seized an opponent’s ankle even as their own necks were being severed. Because of them, the ones standing here now were still alive.
“Pick it up.”
“Ugh…….”
“Pick it up, you dogshit bastard.”
The Black Dragon King gritted his teeth and grabbed the crescent blade with his one remaining arm.
And in that instant—
Kaaang!
Cheong Myeong’s sword lunged forward and smashed into the crescent blade. The Black Dragon King was sent flying helplessly backward, crashing into the mass of water bandits.
As the terrified bandits scrambled away to either side, the Black Dragon King seized one who was trying to flee from his side.
“S-s-stop him.”
“Black Drag—”
“Stop him! I said stop him, you bastards! Block that bastard! Block hiiiim!”
The Black Dragon King shrieked in a frenzy. But no one stepped forward to stand between Cheong Myeong and him.
That was only natural.
The reason they had obeyed the Black Dragon King had been fear. They had feared the punishment that would come if they disobeyed him.
But hadn’t the Black Dragon King’s end already been decided? Then why should they hurl themselves into death just to save him? Why would they sacrifice themselves for that?
The water bandits, pale as ghosts, were busy retreating. Even when they fell backward on their asses, they crawled away on all fours. Before long, no one remained around the Black Dragon King.
“You worthless idiots! Didn’t I tell you to stop him? Stop hiiim!”
He screamed as though tearing at the sky, but his voice only scattered emptily into the air.
“Tch.”
Spitting out the blood pooled in his mouth, Cheong Myeong walked toward him with cold indifference in his eyes.
The Black Dragon King, who had been glaring at the water bandits like a demon, saw Cheong Myeong approaching and instinctively staggered back again. The fingertips of his remaining hand began to shake uncontrollably.
“U, ugh…….”
A groan escaped him as he clutched the crescent blade with all his strength.
How had things come to this?
Until just before Mount Hua had arrived, everything had been unfolding according to his will. So how had it all gone so horribly wrong?
The thought did not continue for long.
Before he could even get his body fully upright, Cheong Myeong rushed him and kicked his jaw.
Bang!
The Black Dragon King’s jaw shattered, and he bounced across the ground like a skipping stone before flying away.
Crash!
He slammed miserably into the sandbar and clawed at the sand in agony.
“Gghhh…….”
He barely managed to turn his head and saw Cheong Myeong still approaching with slow, even steps.
And behind him, Mount Hua’s swordsmen were following. It was as though they were escorting Cheong Myeong as he walked through the very midst of the water bandits. Sunlight flashed off the swords they held, blindingly bright.
But now…… there was no one left behind the Black Dragon King.
“Ugh…… ugh…….”
No one helped him.
The water stronghold he had built over a lifetime only watched his approaching death from afar. Not a single one of them would risk their life for him.
“You ungrateful maggots! Aaagh, aaaaaagh!”
He roared in rage. Just then, the death god bearing a sword arrived before him.
“…….”
The Black Dragon King stared blankly up at Cheong Myeong.
“I see how it is.”
“…….”
“You can’t even hold a candle to Namgung Hwang.”
“Ugh…….”
“Water stronghold?”
Cheong Myeong snorted.
“This is the sandcastle you built, you moron. Someone weak like you is less than a worm. No one’s going to fight for you.”
“Aaaargh!”
The Black Dragon King reached out to seize his blade again, but Cheong Myeong’s sword sliced across his wrist.
Shhk!
“Aaaahhh!”
Before the wretched scream could even end, the sword that followed raked across his entire body.
Shhk! Shhk!
As if to leave as many wounds on him as there had been Namgung swordsmen who died.
“Aaaahhhhhh!”
The screams poured out without end, enough to make even a listener wince.
If he had been his usual self, he never would have screamed like this, even if it meant his body was crushed to pieces. But with his mind already broken, how could he possibly resist?
“Shut your damn mouth!”
But Cheong Myeong had no interest in sympathizing with his condition.
Thrust!
The sword pierced the Black Dragon King’s shoulder and twisted. The pain of severing every muscle in his body made the giant frame tremble violently.
Phat!
And when Cheong Myeong sliced through his knee, that massive body pitched forward and collapsed.
Cheong Myeong pinned his head beneath his foot and leveled his sword at the Black Dragon King’s throat.
“A worm should die like a worm—crawling. Don’t you think?”
“Ugh…… ugh…….”
“Go rot in hell.”
Cheong Myeong brought his sword down without a shred of hesitation.
But at that very moment—
Kaaaang!
With an enormous metallic clash, Cheong Myeong’s sword, which had been dropping toward the Black Dragon King’s throat, was knocked aside.
Cheong Myeong, still standing on the Black Dragon King’s head, turned his gaze.
At the end of that ice-cold stare was a small skiff slowly approaching the island’s edge.
More precisely, it was the man standing in that skiff.
“A worm, you say……”
Standing alone on the tiny boat, Jang Il-so smiled as though he found it amusing and looked at Cheong Myeong.
“I can’t say I disagree with that, of course…… Mount Hua Divine Dragon.”
The crescent curve of his eyes fixed on Cheong Myeong, sharp and direct.
“But unlike you…… there are people in this world who need those worms.”
The skiff that had carried Jang Il-so touched down on the sandbar of Maehwado.