No Wonder I Wanted to Kill Him
It was a study in contrasts.
The giant remained as expressionless as ever. Sun Wukong, on the other hand, was smiling.
They shared something, too. Look past the surface, and they wore the same eyes.
Hostility.
Their gazes became blades, and each was pointed at the other.
Sun Wukong stared at the giant for a long time. The thick, viscous red thread was vivid and repulsive. A sudden surge rolled through his chest.
He was honest with his emotions. If he hated something, he hated it. If he liked something, he liked it. That did not mean he let his feelings sweep him away. Of course, when he was young, he had. He had done whatever he pleased — turned Heaven upside down and rampaged across the mortal world in a glorious, deafening riot.
"Not hiding your emotions is one of your finest qualities, Wukong. But remember this. It is not the heart that moves your mind and body — you must be the one who rules it. Remember that you are the most complete being, born of your own accord from the harmony of heaven and earth."
Sanzang, that guy.
All he was ever good for was getting kidnapped and bawling his eyes out. But for someone who was supposedly one of the smartest humans in the mortal world, he sure had a way with words.
Sun Wukong pushed the rising memory aside and cracked his knuckles.
"I don't know what you were in your past life, or how we came to be enemies..."
He let the words trail off. The emotion welling up in him was disgust. A profound, visceral revulsion. Unmistakable hostility. It surged even harder than when he had faced Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi.
Sun Wukong let the feeling run wild. He would not be swept away. Sometimes rage was the thing that drew out greater power. He would rule his emotions completely.
"You. Better hope I don't find out who you used to be."
Sun Wukong grinned.
"'Cause if I do, I'll beat you so bad even your soul won't survive."
The giant still wore that indifferent face as he extended his blade.
"There's a limit to how much incomprehensible nonsense I'll put up with."
"Whatever you were, I must've killed you in your past life. I'll start with an apology. Having to kill the same bastard twice... that's your karma."
Sun Wukong stretched out his hand. From a crimson point at his fingertip, yoryeok flowed out like smoke, wrapping from his fingers all the way to his shoulder. It was as if he had draped himself in flame — or a veil of blood.
A faint crack appeared on the giant's still-indifferent face.
Both were ready. The hostility was unmistakable. The only conclusion was collision.
The blade was long, the body wide. The giant's great saber carved a massive arc — and it was fast. He did not defend perfectly. He left no openings through swift, bold offense.
Whoom. Whoom-whoom!
Dark saber qi surged. Even a graze would be fatal.
"Then I just won't get hit, right?"
Sun Wukong cackled as he dodged. Whoom! Whoom! The saber qi skimmed past him by a hair.
"Whoa there! Aigoo!"
He called out like a performer, his body swaying as if he were dancing. He looked for all the world like a drunk who could not keep his feet.
Ripples began to spread across the giant's face. No matter how cold and indifferent he was, he could not fail to realize he was being mocked. Sun Wukong cackled at the increasingly twisted expression.
"Relax that face, pal. You're already ugly — scrunching it up just makes you look pathetic."
"......"
Whoosh!
The saber barely missed Sun Wukong's waist. The giant swallowed dry. He had definitely cut him. But Sun Wukong had already appeared behind him and smashed him across the back of the head.
Crack! His skull snapped sideways. Sun Wukong clutched his wrist and shouted in a voice that could have been admiration or mockery.
"Damn, your head's made of rock. Actual rock."
"Ngh!"
The giant's face twisted violently — he had never imagined he would take a blow to the back of the head in a life-or-death duel. His great saber grew rougher, now carrying rage and humiliation. Sun Wukong flicked and weaved through the merciless counterattacks.
"Huh? See, if it comes from the left, you just — whoosh! — to the right! From below, diagonal — hup! Horizontal slash, hop! Man, my body's light today."
"Could you maybe shut that mouth and just fight?"
"Ahaha, what, are we fighting to the death? We're fighting 'cause fighting's fun."
"I said shut up."
"Alright, watch this. Left!"
Sun Wukong's voice exploded. The vibration rattled eardrums.
Smack!
"Ghk!"
The giant's face whipped around. His left cheek blazed scarlet, a molar sent flying. His mind went blank for a moment.
A slap...?
He had never dreamed he would get slapped across the face in a life-or-death duel. People had always called him a statue — a man without emotion. Even he was trembling now, from the absurdity, the shock, and the wave of humiliation crashing over him from somewhere deep inside.
Feeling emotion was a luxury. He did not even have time to tremble from the humiliation.
Sun Wukong's voice thundered.
"Right!"
"......!"
Now he knew what was being called out. Sun Wukong was announcing which cheek he was going to hit. Telling your opponent where you would attack, then executing the technique? Well — a slap was not exactly a technique. The giant felt a desperate urgency, as if he had to defend against some supreme martial art.
He clenched his teeth. Internal energy boiled from his dantian. Every sense in his body sharpened to a terrifying degree. He wrung and twisted his muscles.
Dodge, then sever the wrist.
The giant's great saber dropped from above.
Crack! The giant's eyes flew wide. A burning pain seared his left cheek. Not the right. He had been hit on the same left cheek again — the one he had not expected at all. With his neck still twisted, he rolled his eyes to glare at Sun Wukong.
"Ah, you sweet, innocent thing. You actually fell for that."
Sun Wukong clutched his stomach and cackled. If this had not been a fight, he would have been rolling on the floor. The giant's hands and feet shook from the humiliation rising up his spine.
"You son of a—"
"Ah, was I being too loud? My apologies. I'll seal my mouth and fight you properly."
"What...?"
Before the question could finish, Sun Wukong's fist slammed into his gut.
The giant's eyes bulged. He could not even groan. Before he could make a sound, Sun Wukong's fists rained down without mercy. The two fists wreathed in blood-red energy were vicious. The giant had definitely raised his protective qi to guard his vitals, but he was stunned to find it could not even dull the pain.
"Urgh, ngh."
He swung the great saber to counter, stepped through footwork to dodge, tried everything to break free — all in vain. The giant shuddered as he understood. This fight had been decided from the start. He had been toyed with from the beginning. Like a plaything.
He admitted it freely. He could not win. That meant he had to escape alive.
He bit down hard on his lip. The taste of blood filled his mouth. His eyes burned crimson. Magma erupted from his dantian.
In that instant, Sun Wukong's merciless barrage of fists stopped cold.
"Huh? Well, look at this."
A startled laugh escaped him. Sun Wukong stepped back slightly and watched the giant's transformation with narrowed eyes.
"Doing the same damn thing as Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi?"
Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi had done this too. For just a moment, when driven into a corner, his energy had exploded. But under Sun Wukong's indiscriminate violence, that surging power had collapsed before it could even extend.
The giant was different.
Potential? It feels like something's throwing the bolt open.
Energy roared around the giant. Like the eye of a vortex, tremendous internal energy flooded the arena. It was a remarkable technique. But Sun Wukong was not just standing there admiring it.
In that moment, he peered inside the man with his Fiery Golden Eyes.
Just as with Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi before, the instant that bolt was thrown open, the man's soul became vivid.
Indeed...
"......"
A faint smile touched Sun Wukong's lips.
"You..."
The past life he saw through the Fiery Golden Eyes. Bursting muscles. A shaggy beard. A grotesque, nauseating grin.
A demon. He was a demon. Sun Wukong laughed.
"No wonder I wanted to kill you."
Sun Wukong held to the precept against taking life. He had been shaped by his master Sanzang, and he himself was a Buddha. At the same time, he was a judge. He judged and destroyed evil and demons.
There was only one moment he harbored killing intent. When he faced an evil that could not be forgiven.
When had it started? The higher-ups in Heaven believed Sun Wukong had taken on the role of judge after receiving Sanzang's teachings. Sun Wukong thought somewhat differently.
Before that — when Sun Wukong first recognized the violence within himself.
That bastard. The first time he had felt such fierce rage. The first demon he had ever killed. That was probably the moment Sun Wukong had awakened as a judge.
The one who, while I was away, slaughtered my monkeys, plundered them, and enslaved them.
That bastard's soul was reflected before him.
The corner of Sun Wukong's mouth curled into something cruel.
He felt the yoryeok writhing in his dantian. He raised it slowly — by will, by intent. Sun Wukong's own inner art, the one that added razor-sharp fangs to extremely precise control, responded to the giant's internal energy and bared its teeth.
His hair surged and rippled, and the world drowned in gold. Through that gold, crimson demonic qi bled and mixed, staining everything the color of blood. The compressed crimson point that had begun at Sun Wukong's fingertip grew larger and larger. Blood-red smoke enveloped the surroundings, instantly devouring the giant's internal energy that had been shaking the arena.
A vacuum domain unfolded from Sun Wukong's center.
"I figured out what to name it."
In the intense vacuum, all of the bastard's energy was swept away and vanished. He was falling into a space of pure emptiness. Like a swamp, there was no escape.
"......!"
The Great Demon, one of the Seven Great Sages, king of demons — Sun Wukong felt a paradoxical sensation. Sun Wukong, the great demon who kills demons.
He nodded.
"I destroy demons with yoryeok, so I'll call it Myeol-yo-gong — the Demon-Destroying Art."
The Demon-Destroying Art. As if answering its own name, the technique blazed to life. Yoryeok loaded into Sun Wukong's fist.
The giant — no, Honse-mawang — who had been charging wildly on the energy erupting from his dantian, went suddenly rigid. The fist that shot out in a straight line carved a vacuum path along its trajectory, and all of Honse-mawang's energy vanished as if sucked away.
Shock spread across his face. Into that face, Sun Wukong's fist exploded.
"I've got a lot of questions, so I'll leave you just enough to open your mouth."
He would not kill him. For now, at least.
Honse-mawang lost consciousness. As Sun Wukong withdrew his fist, blood dripping from it in thick drops, hurried footsteps approached from behind.
"Ah..."
It was Muhwa. Not just Muhwa — several Namgung Clan martial artists as well. Sun Wukong looked at them and spoke.
"This bastard was after the Blue Chivalry Hall. He's probably the leader of those underworld thugs."
Muhwa wordlessly examined the fallen Honse-mawang. His face was caved in — unrecognizable. It was astonishing he was even still breathing. This was precision work. He had left the breath intact while shattering the face. Muhwa swallowed dry and looked at Sun Wukong.
The usual playful, smiling eyes were gone. He looked uncharacteristically grave.
"Do you know this man?"
"We knew each other in a past life. This time around, not so much."
"Pardon?"
"Eh, we're strangers."
Meanwhile, a Namgung Clan martial artist examining the giant widened his eyes.
"Could this man be... Hon-am-do?"
"Hon-am-do?"
Muhwa was startled.
"This long scar on his chest. Isn't this the wound the Mount Hua Sect's Plum Blossom Swordsman inflicted during the Great War?"
Muhwa's gaze sharpened.
"This man is back in the martial world?"
The fallen Sama Order. And a former executive of the Sama Order. Why had he appeared here? And Sun Wukong, who had reduced such a man to this state...
Muhwa whipped his head toward Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong shrugged.
"Guess he's a famous villain."
"His infamy is well known."
"Then that's one less thing to worry about."
"......?"
"The problem's solved. We didn't steal their interests through dirty tricks — we saved the Blue Chivalry Hall from being wiped out by a villain."
"......!"
Surprise spread across Muhwa's face. Sun Wukong said it offhandedly.
"Could a Blue Chivalry Hall that's been completely demolished even hold onto its interests? They'd have to hand those interests over to rebuild the sect, wouldn't they?"
Sun Wukong smiled lightly. Muhwa's body trembled.
...This was the plan all along?
An indescribable light rose in Muhwa's eyes as he looked at Sun Wukong.