Chapter 31
Song Wol’s eyes were bloodshot. Yet his gaze was not on me. It was fixed entirely on Jin Mu-heon.
The one who broke this strange standoff was Jin Mu-heon’s voice.
“Baek Mugeuk? What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t the Alliance Leader tell you anything?”
“The Alliance Leader?”
It seemed the Murim Alliance Leader had concealed my whereabouts perfectly. Jin Mu-heon took my answer in, then nodded as if everything had clicked into place.
“I see. So you’re an ally sent by the Alliance Leader? Where are the others?”
“Allies?”
Jin Mu-heon seemed to think the Alliance Leader had sent me. I couldn’t decide whether he was just stupid or merely quick to read a situation when it suited him.
“That bastard is my enemy. Get out of the way.”
“That, I’m afraid, isn’t possible.”
“…….”
At my words, Song Wol’s eyes grew steadily redder. It looked like the blood vessels in them had swollen to the point of bursting.
“You know what you’re saying to me right now, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.”
“And yet you still stand in my way!”
Along with Song Wol’s roar, the inner force poured into his sword grew even more ferocious. It still wasn’t enough to overwhelm me, though.
“I was thinking Jin Mu-heon might be useful.”
“Useful?”
Jin Mu-heon blurted it out reflexively. He wore a puzzled look.
“I hear you were put in charge of investigating the Songwon Sect.”
“That isn’t what matters right now. Baek Mugeuk is a stain on the righteous factions! Killing him comes first. I’ll help.”
“Don’t move. If you move now, I won’t stop this man’s sword.”
“What the hell are you talking about? He’s a stain on the righteous factions. He’s the man who killed many of their members!”
“I already know that.”
“You know that, and still—?”
“What does that have to do with me?”
Jin Mu-heon looked dumbstruck at my answer. But soon the veins in his neck stood out and he raised his voice.
“Do you know how irresponsible that sounds as someone from the righteous factions? If you won’t help me, I’ll report this to the Alliance Leader!”
“Haah... Do you really have no sense at all?”
“Cut the crap and help me, Baek Mugeuk.”
“You need a beating before you’ll come to your senses.”
The instant I finished speaking, I swept away the sword I’d been meeting Song Wol with. In that same moment, Song Wol’s sword came crashing toward Jin Mu-heon like a rabid hound.
Jin Mu-heon started dodging wildly. And before long, he even showed off Naeryeotagon.
“Go ahead if you can. That is, if you can survive and make it back.”
“Baek Mugeuk, you’re righteous too! Hurry up and help me!”
While still using Naeryeotagon, Jin Mu-heon snatched up one of the Hyeonmu Guard swords lying nearby. Then he braced himself and began deflecting Song Wol’s blade again. Even so, he looked hard-pressed to withstand the increasingly violent pressure of Song Wol’s sword.
“I don’t care whether it’s righteous or demonic. Guarding this prison is your Murim Alliance’s job to begin with. And whether you’re righteous or demonic, if you live by the sword, you’d better be prepared to die by it.”
“You insane bastard!”
“The answer’s simple. If you want my help, tell me what you know.”
“I know nothing! I was nothing more than a lowly investigator!”
“Really? Then I’ve got no reason to save you.”
“I’ll pay you! No, I’ll use my connections to get you into the Murim Alliance!”
“Then I’m done here.”
The moment I turned away, Jin Mu-heon’s sword was knocked aside again, and Song Wol’s blade drove into his arm.
“Aaaagh! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything I know!”
The instant I heard that, I lifted the corner of my mouth and turned back. Then, this time, I thrust my sword toward Song Wol.
When my blade shot toward him, Song Wol pulled back the sword embedded in Jin Mu-heon’s arm and met mine head-on. His eyes were completely red now, so bloodshot they no longer seemed to be looking at anything at all.
“So you truly mean to stop me!”
“I told you. There’s something I need to hear.”
“Those righteous-faction bastards... Then I’d better kill you first, Baek Mugeuk.”
“See that, Jin Mu-heon? He says he’s going to kill every righteous-faction bastard he sees. Hurry up and talk.”
“Take down Song Wol first! Then I’ll tell you everything I know!”
“What the hell kind of nonsense is that? Why should I trust you? If you don’t tell me what you know, I’m not stopping this man anymore.”
As I spoke with Jin Mu-heon, I kept swinging my sword without pause.
I knocked Song Wol’s blade toward Jin Mu-heon’s direction and looked straight at him. It was silent pressure. He had very little time left.
Jin Mu-heon clenched his teeth hard.
“If I tell you, he’ll definitely kill me.”
“If you don’t, you’ll die right now.”
He had no choice.
If death was certain either way, he had no option but to choose the path with even the slightest chance.
Realizing I wasn’t bluffing, Jin Mu-heon finally blurted out, “There is someone. Someone who ordered the Songwon Sect matter to be buried!”
“Who is it?”
“He is...”
Jin Mu-heon fell silent for a moment and scanned the surroundings. There was no one here besides me, Song Wol, and the few surviving Hyeonmu Guard martial artists. Even so, he kept looking around as if someone were watching him.
“The head of Mosan Sect!”
Hooked. A big one.
The name that came out of Jin Mu-heon’s mouth wasn’t even enough to describe as a big catch. Mosan Sect was even connected to the tomb of the Thief God.
That made it certain. I didn’t know how far back it went, but Mosan Sect was tied to Tiger Mask. It had to be, because traces of Mosan remained in the events that would happen in the future.
“The head of Mosan Sect...”
At Jin Mu-heon’s words, Song Wol’s wildly moving sword came to a halt as he began muttering to himself. Taking that opening, I stepped up to Jin Mu-heon and pressed a finger to his Jeongsu Acupoint.
“Sleep a little.”
“What are you—”
He tried to say more, but his eyes rolled back and his head sagged to the floor. I looked at Jang Won-sul and nudged Jin Mu-heon with my foot.
“Take care of your captain.”
“Huh? Ah, yes!”
Jang Won-sul hurriedly hoisted Jin Mu-heon onto his shoulder and fell back.
“Don’t go too far.”
“Ah... yes. Understood...”
I turned again to face Song Wol. He was still repeating the name of the head of Mosan Sect under his breath.
“So it was the head of Mosan.”
“Yes. It was the head of Mosan... the bastard who killed my family!”
“It’s too early to be certain, but there’s a connection.”
“I see. I see... Now I know the way.”
Song Wol, who had stood still for a moment, lifted his head. He was smiling. Just like when he had first spotted Jin Mu-heon.
“Baek Mugeuk. I thank you. So I won’t kill you.”
“Not sure whether I should thank you for that.”
“So move aside. I have to continue my revenge.”
Song Wol’s eyes turned back to Jin Mu-heon. I couldn’t really blame him for that. In the end, that bastard had played a part in the Songwon Sect affair too.
But the only answer I could give was this.
“No. I can’t let him die.”
“Don’t be foolish. You know I’ve been showing you mercy. I’m only sparing you because you helped me escape from the mechanism and told me who my enemy was. If you keep trying to stop me, I won’t hold back any longer.”
He spoke as if he were being generous, but his face was already alight with the pleasure of imagining his enemy torn apart.
So I gave up on explaining. There was no point telling him that I had to keep that bastard alive in order to restore Songwon Sect’s honor.
“Song Wol. You’re no longer human. Do you understand that?”
“You’ll see. What I’ve become once I’m no longer human.”
There was nothing more to say. Only the sound of sword striking sword rang out again and again as steel cleaved the air.
Lightning crackled from the sword Song Wol wielded. It was the same sword art I’d seen when watching him fight the Hyeonmu Guard.
It was certain. Song Wol’s sword was the sword of Namgung.
More specifically, it was Cheonrae Jeowang Sword, the technique passed down only to the head of the Namgung clan.
I couldn’t understand how Song Wol was using that martial art. But I didn’t have time to wonder about it. Subduing him came first.
My sword shot toward the weak points all over Song Wol’s body at high speed. Yet Song Wol blocked each strike with uncanny precision, while at the same time aiming for my own vital points.
I blocked his sword in turn. To anyone watching, it would have looked like a perfectly even exchange. But what I felt was different.
Lightning was wrapped around Song Wol’s sword, and that lightning was trying to bore into my body and burn through my eight extraordinary meridians.
As I pushed back his lightning while fighting him, my movements gradually began to lose pace against his speed.
When my blade struck his body, Song Wol started muttering to himself again and again.
“Cut him. Cut him. Cut him. Cut that bastard down!”
He had looked insane before, but now he truly was no longer human, just as he himself had said. He was going completely mad, as if he had become a sword himself.
“Pity. Song Wol.”
“Cut him down. Cut off Baek Mugeuk’s head!”
The more Song Wol swung his sword, the more violent lightning burst from his entire body. Along with it, a burning stench began to rise. When our blades crossed beyond a certain point, I could finally see his body beginning to blaze red.
It couldn’t be helped. People only knew the Namgung head family’s martial art as the King Sword Form. Most didn’t even know that Cheonrae Jeowang Sword existed at all.
Song Wol was showing me why. Cheonrae Jeowang Sword was a sword that burned its wielder in order to destroy the enemy. Convert your inner force into lightning, send it through the eight extraordinary meridians, and then unleash it through the sword? If your body stayed perfectly intact, that would have been the strange thing.
That was why the Namgung clan had always designated Cheonrae Jeowang Sword as both the head family’s art and a forbidden technique.
“What made you this mad?”
“Die. Die. Kill him!”
“Song Wol. A warrior is someone who swings the sword, not someone who’s swung by it.”
“Put your neck forward, Baek Mugeuk!”
“Die as a human being, Song Wol.”
Song Wol’s body had burned nearly to the point of complete ruin. He was hardly someone I could call alive anymore. And yet his sword never stopped, while the lightning only grew fiercer.
I forced up the inner force in my dantian. In that instant, lightning also coursed through my body. But it was different from the monstrous lightning exploding out of Song Wol’s body.
The lightning in my body raced like mad, but it didn’t burn me. It wasn’t hot.
I thrust my sword toward Song Wol. It was a light strike, one you wouldn’t think had been swung with much force at all. But as the blade fell, its speed kept increasing, and the sword energy pouring from it grew larger and larger.
“...The King Sword Form?”
The words slipped from Song Wol’s mouth. But this was not the King Sword Form.
“Baek Family Seven Sword, Second Form: Strong.”
Song Wol flung lightning wildly toward the massive sword energy coming at him, but the sword energy swallowed the lightning instead and expanded its might further still.
It swept over Song Wol like a colossal wave. He brought his sword up against it and tried to force it back, but the power dragged him backward without end.
“Hoo.”
I’d released too much inner force at once, and my breathing had gone off rhythm. By the time it steadied again, the dust thrown up by the sword energy was beginning to settle.
At the end of it, I saw Song Wol.
He was on one knee, his sword driven into the ground as he struggled to hold himself up.
I walked toward him one step at a time.
Then that small voice came again.
“I have to cut them. I have to cut them all down.”
He was still a sword.
When I stood before him, he strained with everything he had to move. But he couldn’t. I lightly touched his hand.
Then his fingers began to crumble away like paper caught in fire.
With the hand that had held the sword gone, Song Wol’s focus seemed to return to his eyes. He looked at me and spoke.
“Why. Why do you stop me from killing the men who must die?”
“The moment you harmed the innocent simply because they were righteous-faction members, you lost the justification for revenge. You became nothing more than a sword meant only to cut. That isn’t right. Even if you were going to take revenge, it should have been Song Wol doing it as a human being.”
“What the hell do you know? How am I supposed to face my family if I die like this? Why did you stop me!”
“......”
I didn’t answer him. Nothing I said now would reach him anyway. Slowly, he closed his eyes.
The dead have no voice. That was why he should never have become a sword. Revenge was not the role of a tool.