Chapter 15
Chapter 15
************************-
Translator: uly
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Ghost of the Second Son
************************-
"...Yeah, it was an accidental death..."
"...The death god... suspects..."
The voices brushed past from right under my feet. I spun around gracefully, barely steadying myself.
The wall was tall, but not impossibly so. For a man in black clothes running along it, it was a spot guaranteed to give him away.
I desperately summoned my internal energy. Unfurling Ghost Spirit Step, I slipped through the gaps in the patrols.
Internal buildings came into view.
Just a little further...!
---Sruk.
Something caught at my toe. I flailed to right myself.
But the toppled balance wouldn't return. My tilting body plummeted straight down.
The ground rushed up to my nose. The impact would surely echo loudly.
But just before it touched, Number 20 snatched my clothes.
"......"
I signaled my thanks with a glance to her, who had casually hauled me back atop the wall. She primly turned her head away and pointed to the building roof.
We immediately leaped off, using the wall as a springboard to grab the eaves. At last, atop the roof we'd barely climbed, we caught our breath.
We vaulted over several buildings just like that. Thanks to how they were packed tightly together, hopping the gaps wasn't hard.
We raced under the moonlight. At last, we reached our target.
The central building.
The dwelling of the Black Heaven Axe Sect Leader, Maeng Cheon.
Number 20 drew her sword. She thrust it into the roof tiles and neatly sliced them away.
We crawled into the revealed hollow interior.
A voice rang out.
An enraged voice.
"Bring more food, you bastards! Are the sect leader's words a joke to you?!"
I exchanged glances with Number 20.
It was him.
The firstborn son of the Black Heaven Axe Sect Leader...
Maeng So-un.
. . .
Maeng So-un heaved for breath frantically.
Without circulating his qi, even moving his body was a struggle. This was no different from before.
Maeng So-un stopped chewing his meat and called for a servant.
"Fetch White Teacher."
"Yes, young master."
"Who said young master?"
Crack.
He seized the servant's throat. Growling into the choking man's face, Maeng So-un snarled.
"I'm the sect leader."
"S-sorry... Sect... Leader...!"
"Get out."
The servant bolted from the room. Maeng So-un devoured all the remaining food.
His body grew ever more massive. But within, his internal energy was steadily accumulating.
Maeng So-un raised his hand. He summoned his qi and lightly clenched the air.
Bang!
The sound of bursting air.
Maeng So-un grinned wickedly.
This was true power. On another level from the Black Heaven Axe Sect's axes.
White Teacher had been right. Who would believe this martial art had been mastered in a mere two months?
That pathetic father of his. Why hadn't he fetched something like this sooner himself?
Maeng So-un chuckled as he spotted the shadow at the door. Without a word, the figure entered.
"White Teacher. I didn't say you could come in."
"Sect Leader, that's unkind. What does that make me if you say such things now?"
"...Keh heh. Fine, I'll let it slide. Because it's you, White Teacher."
The slender man sat before Maeng So-un. He naturally filled an empty cup and asked.
"Why summon me so late at night?"
"I have a question. White Teacher, as you said, I absorbed Father's vital energy. But my body won't slim down at all. No sign of it. Why?"
"Sect Leader, everything takes time."
"Didn't I bring you here to shorten that time?"
"......."
The one called White Teacher downed the filled cup in one gulp.
"Sect Leader, how's your progress with White Demon Body?"
"As you said, I ate passing dogs every night. I've kept consuming food nonstop. I vaguely feel it. That I'm far stronger than those things out there."
Maeng So-un chuckled.
"I like it. But with all this pig fat piling up, I look pathetic, don't I? White Teacher, didn't you say all this was just temporary side effects? So when the hell do those side effects go away?"
"As I said earlier, once time passes..."
"I can't wait!"
White Teacher fell silent at the thunderous roar.
He soon spoke softly.
"Sect Leader, as I mentioned, everything has its order. The first day we met, weren't you seeking a martial art beyond the Black Heaven Axe Sect's?"
"......."
"Ever since, I've always given you what you wanted. Put aside your anger. Unlike when we first met, you've surely grown stronger, haven't you? Your current prowess is a realm the sect's arts could never reach. Surpassing first-rate in two months and eyeing peak-don't you feel the profundity of that art yourself?"
"...Can't argue with that."
"Sect Leader, now you've even claimed the Black Heaven Axe Sect's vital energy for yourself. But absorbing it all at once would be the strange thing. It's what the previous sect leader honed his entire life. Its demonic purity rivals even the orthodox sects'. Absorbing something like that in an instant? Impossible."
"......."
"Sect Leader, just trust and follow me as before. Have you stored the vital energy as I instructed?"
"Put it in my lower dantian. It clumped up on its own into a hard pill-like core."
Maeng So-un snorted.
"Feels like carrying an spirit pill in my body."
"Can't you see it slowly melting away? No need to worry, Sect Leader. Once that energy fully integrates, you'll gain a new body. Patience. More patience."
"...Hmph."
"Are you steadily practicing White Demon Body?"
"Do I need to? White Teacher, this body is mighty just moving. No need to learn forms. The air warps from a single swing-what more could I want?"
"......."
White Teacher covered his mouth, laughing.
"If you think so, nothing to be done. Separately, there's something I must receive from you, Sect Leader..."
"Our deal? Fine, I'll give it. With this body, what wouldn't I give?"
White Teacher.
The man called Disciple of Myriad Sages Divine Healer, bound by contract.
"Having gained martial arts and a fitting position, this Maeng So-un pledges to join Myriad Gods Sect."
"The Second Demon will be pleased."
"Keh heh. I'm grateful the Second Demon recognized my worth."
"Only possible because you were born a martial prodigy, Sect Leader. If not, I wouldn't have approached first."
True enough. Maeng So-un bellowed with laughter, his anger melting away.
Right. I'm chosen. Father was the fool for trying to teach a chosen one nonsense like the sect's arts.
Now he didn't even have to hear that nagging anymore. Pure joy.
"I eat what I want, embrace women freely, and no one dares speak up. This is the high expert's life. Haven't been this happy since that day."
"That day..."
"There was this one guy always grating on me. My brother, but so unmanly in every way. Hated his every move."
Maeng So-un still remembered that day vividly.
Forcing back laughter amid tears-how could he forget?
"'Big brother, big brother'-voice so thin. So I shoved him. Watched him flail in the lake till he went limp, then called Father."
"...I see."
"That's what a demon is. I was born strong. No one could touch me. Born the Black Heaven Axe Sect's firstborn, later the only son-no one could ignore me."
Maeng So-un's laughter cut off abruptly.
"Now seated as sect leader and joining Myriad Gods Sect, nothing but triumphs ahead. The seat beside the Second Demon-I'll claim it in one leap with this body."
"Well said. Before that, Sect Leader, may I ask something?"
"What?"
"Have you increased your guards by any chance?"
"What nonsense? After Father died, the warriors protecting me vanished. Those scum suspect me. No one follows me. On the day I officially inherit, I'll round them up and crush them."
"...Then who is hiding in the ceiling right now?"
"What?"
White Teacher flicked his hand. Hidden weapons shot out, embedding in the ceiling with a spray.
A section of ceiling collapsed. A man and woman tumbled out, steadying their forms.
White Teacher's face hardened.
"...Two? I sensed only one... You've wielded a sword before, girl. Where'd you come from?"
"Wh-what?! Who the hell are you! Sneaking into the Black Heaven Axe Sect's building?! Urgh!"
Maeng So-un hurled the table instantly. It smashed the door amid a clamor.
The intruders dodged the table and rose outside. The sword-drawn one muttered.
"...I get it now. Number 30. These filthy sons of bitches... Worse than human trash."
"......."
"Proof I'm still human despite training as an assassin. Do what you want. I won't stop you."
Her sword hummed coldly.
"I'll handle the side."
At the chilling sword cry, White Teacher rose quietly.
"Call for men, Sect Leader."
"What?! For those punks? Call the sect warriors on ones White Teacher spotted because they couldn't hide their presence?!"
"The man, maybe. But the woman is different."
White Teacher toyed with a hidden weapon between his fingers.
"...She's a master. This won't be easy."
. . .
In an instant, Number 20 vanished. The man called White Teacher disappeared almost simultaneously.
Sword cries rang. Clashing hidden weapons scattered everywhere, and Number 20's sword sang.
Masters.
Both standing at realms beyond measure.
Number 20 seized the one called White Teacher and hurled him to another building. Watching them speed away, I caught my breath.
Number 20 had set the stage.
And I dared not refuse it.
"Who the hell are you! Who, I said!"
A pig bloated with fat. Yet his voice brimmed with internal energy all the same.
Like a massive aura given form. Repulsive in appearance, but the presence within was undeniably vast.
Foul, repulsive qi.
A beast gnawing its own flesh, oblivious that its rampaging target scattered wildly.
I sensed the faint energy within it. I felt it. As death neared, my Heavenly Tribulation roared fiercely within me.
Heightened senses from it. My exhaled breath squeezed tight by pain sharpened it further, snaring the subtle energy in my qi sense.
「So-hong! They say Disciple of Myriad Sages Divine Healer is nearby! Heard he'll arrive by tonight!」
The Black Heaven Axe Sect Leader.
Maeng Cheon's energy.
"...You're..."
I ground my teeth.
"Killing your own bloodline to sate your greed... and feel no guilt...?"
"...Heard it all? No matter. Corpses don't talk."
Maeng So-un's body writhed. Swelling larger, tangible qi blazed over the sticky fat.
"The strong devour the weak. That's the Divine Cult. Black Heaven Axe Sect is a Divine Cult branch. What's wrong with a strong son eating his weakened father?"
"...No... no wrong at all."
"...What?"
I drew my sword. Exhaled.
"You're... you're not wrong at all. You merely acted on what you've always wanted."
"......."
"So I'm not here to judge you. I've abandoned my parents in my heart too-we're the same. Even if I didn't kill them, it's as good as murder inside me. Can't look down on a fellow sinner. This is just a clash of positions."
"What bullshit!"
"My name is Wang So-hong."
I uttered the false name.
It was fake. Just a nonexistent person's name I'd made up on the spot.
But...
If my second son had grown up, I thought he'd be like you.」
You made it real.
"Tonight, I'll be Maeng Cheon's second son."
"What...?"
"The dead ghost has come to kill the living."
Bloody afterimages flickered at my sword tip.
"Come. Maeng So-un. The strong devour the weak. Same between us. One of us won't live to see dawn."