Chapter 70. The World Where Constellations Died (2)
Chapter 70. The World Where Constellations Died (2)
4
'Cold.'
In the middle of the snowfield, So Baek-hyang thought.
Buried in the white snow, the world became colorless, odorless, and silent.
The world was simply a cold blank page.
'So cold.......'
Her flesh was cold. Her bones were cold. Her blood was cold too.
So Baek-hyang thought.
'My stomach feels numb.'
'Mom?'
'It feels like my insides are filled with ice.'
'Mom.'
'It's so cold here.'
She thought and thought. As the thoughts repeated, her organs slowly froze. Eventually, even the inside of her head that was thinking those thoughts grew cold.
Cold.
A world that was only cold.
The fading back of her mother.
How much time had passed?
-...Well now.
The silence broke.
-How strange. Truly strange.
Then the odorlessness broke.
-It has already been ten days since the snow fell and stopped in this area. Even measuring only the depth of the snow, it reaches five cheok. How is it that this child still draws breath?
Finally, even the colorlessness broke.
So Baek-hyang looked ahead with young eyes. An old man was standing there. He had dug through the snowfield, which had made the noise. He had grabbed her wrist, which was why the old man's scent had wafted over her. The old man's eyes, looking at her, were black.
-You are no ordinary child.
The old man was an aged master of the Demonic Cult.
-You were born with the Ice-Snow Constitution. The cold of the world is, to you, internal energy. Strange, and strange again. A little child who survived ten days in the snowfield eating nothing but snow—is this not the Extreme Yin Constitution I have only ever heard of in texts!
-.......
-Child, what is your name?
So Baek-hyang spoke.
-I don't know.
She could not remember her name.
-How old are you?
-I don't know.
-How did you come to be buried in this snowfield?
-I don't know.
-.......
She could not remember anything.
It was cold. Her thoughts had frozen, and the head that thought her thoughts had frozen, and so all the words contained in her head and heart seemed to have frozen as well.
-Poor thing. So young, and already buried in the Realm of Creation.......
The old master groaned.
-But you are a vessel without equal for learning martial arts. The Palace Master of the North Sea would pay any price to take you. A fortuitous encounter (奇緣)! But what kind of fate is it? Whether our cult will be a fate to you, or whether you will be a fate to our cult—these old eyes find it very difficult to gauge.
So Baek-hyang did not understand. She could barely comprehend anything the old man had been saying. The person before her spoke only in words that were far too difficult.
Pat.
The old man stroked So Baek-hyang's head.
-Child, will you follow me?
-.......
-I will feed you and give you a place to sleep.
Those were words that were easy to understand.
When she slowly nodded, the old man spoke.
-You give off no scent at all. With no name and no known origin, you must surely be a child born of the snow. I shall give you my surname. And I shall call you Baek-hyang, the fragrance of snow.
The fragrance of snow.
-From now on, you are a member of the Demonic Cult, So Baek-hyang.
So Baek-hyang was silent for a while.
Then she spoke.
-Where will I be going?
The old master smiled.
-To a place where children like you gather.
5
"...Out of the question!"
The Heavenly Demon said.
"In all my life, I have never once taken a disciple. No matter how far the world has fallen into this wretched state, my principles do not change. A disciple! Absurd!"
The hot spring cave.
We had left the snowfield and arrived at the heart of the last survivors remaining in this world. The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Master were surprised, saying, 'To think there were still survivors...' but they willingly welcomed us as guests.
But only as guests.
They showed no intention whatsoever of accepting us as disciples.
"Hey. Demon, why are you being so stingy?"
The Murim Alliance Master chewed noisily on a Fasting Pill nearby.
"It’s admirable that children from beyond the border survived. Not only did they survive, but they fought their way through this treacherous jianghu to reach you and ask for your teachings—that deserves admiration plus affection. Is there any need to be so rigid like the old days?"
"Admirable and lovable though they may be."
The Heavenly Demon let out a huff.
"Nevertheless, the law of master and disciple is a stern law! Our cult does not admit people carelessly. Only children abandoned by their parents and cast out by the world may enter the Demonic Cult."
"Tsk, tsk. These people call us old fogeys every day, yet they're pickier about people than we are."
The Murim Alliance Master shook his head.
"Child, so she says. Since things have come to this, how about leaving the shabby Demonic Cult behind and taking me as your master? I am Namgung Un. The Retired Clan Head of the Great Namgung Clan and the leader of the orthodox murim. If you become my disciple, I will shower you with affection......."
"Why can't you accept me as your disciple, Heavenly Demon?"
I asked, ignoring the old man. The Murim Alliance Master seemed slightly shocked and cried out, 'Why! Surely my name hasn't failed to spread beyond the border......!' It was a little pitiful, but I left him alone.
The Heavenly Demon narrowed her brow.
"Did I not just say? Only children cast out by the world may enter the cult."
"The world has changed."
I said.
"Because of a mysterious plague, people have turned into jiangshi. The sects and clans of the murim have all fallen together. The world has abandoned humanity, so we are all cast out by the world now. Whether we like it or not."
"......."
"Heavenly Demon, wouldn't you say the condition for entering the cult has been satisfied on its own?"
The Heavenly Demon closed her lips.
Probably because I was right.
More than anything... I was a hunter. An orphan who had abandoned the outside world and thrown himself into the Tower. It was a little embarrassing to say that I had been cast out by the world, but I could say that I had cast the world aside. The [condition for entering the cult] the Heavenly Demon spoke of would be sufficiently satisfied.
"...Very well."
The Heavenly Demon rose from her seat.
"If you are so confident, then demonstrate the Three Calamities Sword Art, or something of the sort."
She looked down at me with steady eyes.
"I shall judge with my own eyes whether you are qualified to inherit our cult's teachings. Though it is obvious you will only be all talk."
"......."
I also rose from my seat.
"Thank you for giving me the chance."
I drew the Holy Sword. Shring! The sound of the blade rang through the wide cave. People were looking at me. They were quietly waiting to see what swordsmanship I would demonstrate.
Of course, I had not the slightest intention of showing off something like the Three Calamities Sword Art.
[Activating skill.]
Demonic Heavenly God Art.
Because there was a technique I had acquired precisely for this moment.
"...Hoo."
When the divine art activated, countless movements unfolded in my mind.
Strange and wondrous sword paths.
But seeing a road before your eyes and driving on that road were entirely different matters. I had not yet deeply comprehended the Demonic Heavenly God Art. If I tried to show off swordsmanship as I was now, my body would simply tear apart like a crow-tit chasing a stork.
'If I'm going to tear apart anyway.'
So I recalled.
'I should tear apart properly.'
The landscapes of [trauma] I had experienced so far.
I drew them one by one in my mind as I swung the sword.
In order to unleash the demonic art.
There were groans and screams I had witnessed—had ended up witnessing—while climbing the Tower. They were always raw, always vivid. I recalled them as if I had heard them only moments ago and dyed my heart with their voices.
「Please save me.」
「Please save me, please. I'm hungry. Something to eat, please.」
The basement of some mansion.
I recalled the voices of the children who had been locked up and tortured there.
「I want to live.」
The children had been bound in chains. When the mansion caught fire and blazed. The children could see the flames burning right before their eyes, but they were held by the chains and could not flee. They could only be burned alive where they stood.
「I wanted to play a little longer.」
I held the children's screams in my heart and swung the sword.
"D-Demon! That sword art is......."
"......."
I faintly heard the Murim Alliance Master's flustered voice nearby. But I ignored it. What I needed to hold in my mind's eye right now was not the Murim Alliance Master's voice.
Slowly, sluggishly, inch by inch.
I swung the sword as I recalled what I needed to recall.
「Burn it!」
「Burn the witch's nest to the ground!」
The outskirts of some continent.
I recalled the voice of Agwi, who had tried to save the sick there.
「Why?」
「You are human too.」
Agwi shed black fluid from her eyes. The paradise she had made. A small village was being burned. The sight of people burning people, and people being burned by people, was seared into Agwi's eyes.
「You too are human, and you know how to shed tears. So how...」
「Did you call them monsters? And so, did you feel no hesitation in burning them?」
「Are you alone human?」
I held Agwi's outcry in my heart and swung the sword.
"......."
"......."
My sword grew faster and faster. The Demonic Heavenly God Art that I had obtained through death took form. The trauma I had received through death pulsed as intent. At times I felt I would lose my way, but then I drew up my Aura and forcibly connected the sword path.
-Look at this bastard......?
The guardian spirit said that demonic arts were claws that scratched at the world.
But the more I unleashed the Demonic Heavenly God Art, the more my thoughts shifted.
Perhaps it was closer to a scream or an outcry than to claws.
-Wow.
My sword path connected and connected, until at last it became a sword dance (劍舞).
-If he'd been born in the murim, he would have joined the Demonic Cult without a doubt, now that I see it.
My sword dance was by no means beautiful. It was unskilled. It was clumsy. It gave off no fragrance of flowers, only the smell of something burned. If swordsmanship had a face, my sword was the face of a person who had suffered burns.
Only a scream.
No matter how wondrous the principle of yin and yang, the world born from it is only sorrowful.
No matter how profound the lines of the Four Books and Three Classics, they cannot overcome a single scream let out by a lowly human.
A sword stroke that holds the world's sorrow is sharper than a sword art that holds yin and yang.
A sword swung along a single scream is stronger than a sword that moves along profound truths.
The deeper the sorrow, the lowlier the scream, the stronger the sword becomes.
Therefore, we are strong.
The strong survive.
That was the doctrine of the Demonic Cult.
「Speak.」
「Martial arts have forgotten chivalry, and chivalry has lost martial arts. Say it.」
「If you say it, I will kill you as you wish.」
The Heavenly Demon is the heaven of such a doctrine.
The highest heaven.
Rightly, the Heavenly Demon must know all the screams of the cult's members, and must be able to release them all through the sword. Every line of the sword path the Heavenly Demon unfolds must be a scream directed at the world.
Thus proving that somewhere in this world, there were those who screamed and cried out.
「The whole world has become emptiness.」
「Decades of life, futile and futile again.」
Even such a heaven.
Even the Heavenly Demon screamed at the final moment.
「Ahaha. Heh-heh, hahaha!」
She laughed madly.
「Hahahahaha! Ha, ahahaha.......」
I held that laughter in my heart and swung the sword.
"...Stop."
I swung the sword.
"Stop it."
I swung the sword.
"Did I not tell you to stop!"
Before I knew it, my sword had stopped.
It had not stopped because I wanted it to. A switch. The Heavenly Demon had raised a wooden stick and was pressing firmly against my blade, holding it still. Dark internal energy coiled around the switch, rippling.
"You bastard......."
The Heavenly Demon muttered in a low voice.
"Where did you steal and learn our cult's secret art?"
Her eyes were pitch black.
"You cannot deceive my eyes! No matter how sloppy and unskilled the form, what you just displayed was unmistakably the Demonic Heavenly God Art. In this world, the only ones who can learn the divine art are demonic practitioners, yet I have never seen your face."
"......."
"Speak. Where did you steal it?!"
Only then did I realize that I was more exhausted than I had thought. I was out of breath. My whole body was drenched. The Holy Sword in my right hand felt as heavy as a boulder.
I looked around. Not only the Murim Alliance Master, but the people of our party were watching me with bated breath. Through the open ceiling of the cave, starlight from the night sky poured down. Perhaps far more time had passed than I had felt.
"Do I......."
I managed to speak.
"Do I have the qualifications?"
"......."
"Do I have the qualifications to become your disciple, Heavenly Demon?"
The Heavenly Demon was silent.
After a long silence, the woman turned away. The Heavenly Demon walked toward the far end of the cave. Her retreating back itself seemed to reject people, and no one could follow her.
If I had just a little more strength left, I might have chased after her, but.......
"D-Death King?"
Thud.
My knees buckled.
"Death King! Are you all right, Death King!"
My consciousness was hazy. I thought, in my dazed head, that it was because I had consumed far too much Aura at once. I would probably pass out like this for the whole night.
I tried to smile at the Pharmacist to reassure her, but even that was difficult. My vision was already dark.
-Tsk, tsk.
Just before I lost consciousness. I heard the guardian spirit's voice.
-You unleash a martial art that doesn't match your level and end up half dead, you crow-tit bastard. This is why I've told you over and over that a person has to build up from the basics.
The guardian spirit sighed.
-Well, but.......
And then.
-You weren't half bad for a crow-tit. An admirable little shit.
I lost consciousness.