Chapter 280
Chapter 280
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 280
Chapter Title: A Blood-Soaked Life, and Blue Clouds
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A heavy thud filled the surroundings.
Watching the most powerful Dragon Subduing Palms he'd seen yet, Namgung Myeong whispered softly to Hyeon-gong.
"You know? I taught him those Dragon Subduing Palms."
Hyeon-gong didn't respond to Namgung Myeong's words. How could a mere Peak Realm warrior add such a footnote while an Absolute Peak Realm expert was demonstrating his prowess?
Hyeon-gong savored the sight of the Twin Extremes Blood Elder's body collapsing for a moment, then felt a chill crawl up his nape.
This wasn't the time to leisurely watch Hong Geolgae's fight.
'Guiwang!'
Hyeon-gong whipped his head around, eyes wide.
But Guiwang, who should have been right there, was nowhere to be seen.
'···?'
Namgung Myeong, Jinhae, and Hyeon-gong scanned their surroundings.
Far off in the distance, they spotted Guiwang fleeing.
Dang Mujin's group had already seen Guiwang run away three times.
Once when they escaped the Demonic Cult and ran into Fire Blaze Nun, once at Mount Gong, and now.
Guiwang had astonishing instincts for danger, and he fled without a shred of hesitation. His body seemed to react before his mind could even process it.
Jinhae, spotting Guiwang a bit later, shouted.
"That bastard has no shame, turning tail like that!"
"After him!"
Without a word from anyone, Dang Mujin's group took off in pursuit of Guiwang. They had to finish him off now that they held the advantage.
Even while running, Dang Mujin displayed his astonishing skill, hurling flying wheels.
Three flying wheels traced individual arcs, flying stealthily toward Guiwang.
But Guiwang was a true master of escape.
A master escapist possessed three virtues.
Ice-cold decisiveness, swift feet, and lastly, a sharp sensitivity to threats even while fleeing.
True to his expertise, Guiwang sensed the flying wheels coming from behind. He twisted his body and flailed his arms, knocking all three out of the air.
In fact, Guiwang had anticipated the flying wheels even before fleeing.
Hadn't the Twin Extremes Blood Elder sacrificed his right arm at Mount Gong, leaving the lesson to watch for flying wheels while escaping?
Guiwang didn't even flee along the path.
That too was the judgment of an escape expert. Fleeing down the path risked running into enemies coming from the opposite direction.
Instead, Guiwang began madly climbing the treacherous mountainside.
"That, that idiot!"
To Dang Mujin's group, it looked utterly bizarre. Why abandon the wide path for the mountainside?
Mount Giryeon wasn't some gentle hill—it was notoriously rugged and steep.
Climbing like that would soon lead to a dead end, trapping him like a rat in a hole.
"After him!"
Dang Mujin's group charged up the mountainside after Guiwang.
After running until their breaths reached their throats, an expected cliff appeared.
No, it was subtler than a sheer cliff—something between a vertical drop and an extremely steep slope.
But the slope was so steep and dizzying that jumping down would surely leave them battered.
Jinhae yelled.
"Guiwang! Surrender and face your punishment!"
But Guiwang made a firm decision. He leaped straight off the cliff—or rather, the extremely steep mountainside.
Guiwang ran a bit, then tumbled and rolled down toward the base. Jinhae felt his energy drain away.
'Is the chase over? We lost Guiwang, but catching the Twin Extremes Blood Elder is a huge win.'
But only Jinhae thought that.
First, Dang Mujin and Hong Geolgae hurled themselves after Guiwang. They descended the slope in clumsy fashion rivaling Guiwang's.
Hyeon-gong followed suit, and finally, Namgung Myeong stood beside Jinhae.
As Jinhae hesitated, Namgung Myeong shouted.
"Jinhae, let's go!"
"Where? To the afterlife?"
"To catch Guiwang!"
"That's foolish!"
"So, you're not going?"
Jinhae hesitated for a moment. He recalled the subtly cool story Hyeon-gong had told him earlier.
Somehow interpreting that hesitation, Namgung Myeong grabbed Jinhae's arm and leaped down the slope.
Jinhae's feet left the ground. Every hair on his body stood on end.
'Why the hell am I doing something this stupid!'
But it was already done.
Jinhae desperately tried to keep his balance as he dashed down the slope—or so he thought, but in reality, he was half-tumbling down just like the others.
"Ugh, ugh!"
He grabbed at a protruding rock only to lose it, scraped his leg jumping over a sharp stone, balanced briefly then lost it again.
He clutched a small shrub, but the withered plant pulled free uselessly.
Still, he twisted desperately to avoid truly dangerous outcrops.
It was an utterly pathetic display for a martial artist's movement technique, but there was no need to worry about appearances. Everyone was descending the cliff the same way.
Amid the pain, Jinhae felt a small thrill. If they made it to the bottom, they might catch Guiwang.
But Guiwang was no ordinary foe.
"Huuuuph!"
With a mighty exhale, Guiwang twisted in midair and unleashed an incredibly bizarre lightness skill.
It was as if his soles stuck to the slope—he began running down the steep incline sideways.
A grotesque sight, like a man lying on his side and sprinting. Jinhae and the entire group gaped in silence.
Someone cried out.
"That's—what kind of lightness skill is that! Ugh!"
But no one could imitate Guiwang's technique.
All they could do was tumble and roll while watching Guiwang vanish into the distance.
A bit more time passed, and the group finally came to a stop at the base.
They'd rolled so violently their clothes were in tatters, like perfect beggars—five of them.
Jinhae looked up at the cliff they'd jumped from and let out a sigh of relief.
Surviving the descent was heavenly luck.
'···Glad I'm alive.'
His whole body ached like he'd been beaten with a club. Something trickled from his nose. Wiping it with his hand, sure enough—nosebleed.
Jinhae gritted his teeth against the pain and propped up his upper body.
But unlike Jinhae, Dang Mujin and the others lay still without rising.
They weren't unconscious, nor more injured than Jinhae. They could stand if they wanted. But they just lay there.
Jinhae scanned the four men's faces in turn. Dang Mujin, Namgung Myeong, Hyeon-gong, Hong Geolgae.
Regret filled their expressions, but no other negative emotions. If anything, they looked refreshed, or as if this was perfectly natural.
Jinhae puzzled over their faces for a moment, then cleared his mind.
Whatever. They didn't seem about to move anytime soon.
'Ah, whatever.'
Jinhae flopped back like the other four and stared at the sky.
Decayed leaves cushioned his back softly, warm sunlight bathed his face.
Plenty of time to catch their breath had passed, yet no one stirred.
Jinhae started to rise first, then gave up.
On second thought, there was no reason to.
Even running down the cliff wouldn't catch the fleeing Guiwang.
Instead, Jinhae lay still, gazing at the blue sky.
Fluffy clouds drifted lazily by. His mind relaxed, grew languidly at ease, joyful for no reason. Soon, Jinhae burst into laughter.
"Pffft."
He reflected on the past few days.
It had started well.
They'd begun the pursuit with grim resolve, fought fiercely, seized the advantage. Hong Geolgae had even stepped toward the next realm. Jinhae had lent a hand in taking down an Absolute Peak Realm expert.
A grim, intense life. It was exactly the martial world life he'd heard and pondered while staying at Qingcheng Sect.
But the ending was so anticlimactic. Not only did they lose Guiwang, but tumbling down a steep slope, nose bleeding, lying here like this.
Jinhae had never heard such a martial artist's tale anywhere. It wasn't the life he'd imagined for a martial artist or a Qingcheng Taoist.
Yet somehow, this moment didn't feel bad.
The throbbing pain like a thorough beating felt good, and the leisure of lying dazed, staring at the sky, was nice too.
He glanced aside and saw Dang Mujin. Fearing the moment might shatter, Jinhae asked softly.
"By the way, what of that old woman?"
"She was already gone."
Regret seeped from Dang Mujin's voice.
Dang Mujin let out a thin sigh. A long breath carrying regret into the air, vanishing somewhere.
A thin sigh suited mourning the nameless old woman and shaking off lingering thoughts of her vast medical knowledge better than loud lamentation.
Jinhae mourned her briefly, then closed his eyes. Even beneath his eyelids, clouds seemed to float by.
Gazing at those clouds, Jinhae drifted into thought.
What was a martial artist's life? What was the life unfolding before him?
Was it the grim, desperate life he'd imagined training at Qingcheng Sect?
Or was it this moment—losing Guiwang, lying idle, watching clouds?
"The sun's setting."
Jinhae opened his eyes at Namgung Myeong's words.
A red sunset approached from the western sky, devouring half the heavens.
Jinhae gazed endlessly at the scene of crimson sunset mingling with blue sky.
It was a vista too beautiful to feel of this world.
The intensely vivid red sunset. And clouds drifting leisurely atop it, utterly indifferent. Jinhae murmured.
"Since entering Mount Giryeon, I've seen dozens dead. My body's throbbing, hands still shaking. But lying here, it feels like the fight was a lie."
Namgung Myeong replied.
"That's martial life, I suppose. People think it's all blood-soaked, but living it, it's not always. No one walks only on sticky blood. But don't fear blood too much. Sometimes you must get bloodied to see certain things."
"Martial life···."
A hazy yet familiar tale. Jinhae listened closely.
"Swinging a sword like a fiend makes you a human butcher. Fleeing blood-soaked life makes you a cowardly loafer, a thug. I feel the martial life lies somewhere between blood-soaked intensity and these shabby, foolish moments."
"What do you call falling off a cliff to stare at the sky like this?"
"Well···."
Namgung Myeong pondered Jinhae's question, then answered.
"Doing stupid things bravely when needed, then purely embracing and enjoying the failure. I think that's romance."
Jinhae shot up unthinkingly.
Namgung Myeong's words subtly connected to what Elder Yeongheo had said before executing the Body-Sword Unity Art.
'Stay true to the sword path, but don't cling too tightly.'
'The sword path is fraught with peril. But remember not all paths are perilous—those parts hold deep meaning and value too.'
Suddenly, Jinhae wondered. Wasn't the insight Elder Yeongheo left at the end not about swordsmanship, but life?
An itchy feeling, like grasping enlightenment.
Then he saw the sky split between red and blue.
The red sunset evoked a blood-soaked life.
The deepest insight—that one must burst the foe's heart—came to mind, along with Dang Hang's twin lights vomiting blood and collapsing.
Memories of the Kongtong Sect, forgetting all and fighting to the death. Martial artists snarling, swinging blades. Guiwang and Twin Extremes Blood Elder charging to kill, and Dang Mujin's group.
But as Namgung Myeong said, a martial life couldn't always be bloodstained.
The blue sky dyed by sunset evoked a martial life cleansed of blood.
This moment of lounging, sky-gazing, melted into the blue.
Roadside wildflowers seen traveling between Wudang and Kongtong surfaced.
The sect leaders' ugly, wary faces. Dang Mujin's group leaping off the cliff despite knowing it was foolish.
But soon Jinhae realized the sunset and blue sky weren't sharply divided—they blended softly.
In that blend, Jinhae saw the martial life Elder Yeongheo meant.
Jinhae sprang up and drew his sword.
No need to tense solely on washing blood with blood.
Sometimes, shed burdens, relax a bit. No need to be consumed by blind images of "martial artist." No one swings a blade from birth to death. It's obvious.
Jinhae recalled Elder Yeongheo's insight. Finally, certainty dawned.
No need to overthink.
What Elder Yeongheo shared last wasn't some sword path jargon—it was life's tale.
Old stories and small realizations a master tells his disciple, lumped together.
Jinhae had narrowed his view, mistaking it all for swordsmanship metaphors.
Jinhae's sword traced an arc. Not rigidly straight, but sometimes softly enveloping.
Like a cart with one wheel, jolting in place—Jinhae's sword path now advanced slowly.
Accepting a clumsy life, Jinhae's sword flowed leisurely.
The boundary where blue clouds and red sunset mingled.
Now the young Taoist could finally unleash the complete Azure Clouds Crimson Sunset Swordsmanship.
For a long time, Jinhae mourned his departed master with slow sword dance.
Namgung Myeong glanced sidelong and finally sighed in relief.
*
Deep night. Finally ending his sword dance, Jinhae shared his realization with Dang Mujin's group.
He'd gained insight through their actions, so it was right to share it with them.
No—on reflection, they might have known this insight long ago.
Finishing his tale, Jinhae smiled leisurely.
"After reaching Peak Realm recently, I'd been endlessly constricting myself. It was natural I couldn't properly perform my master's Azure Clouds Crimson Sunset Swordsmanship."
But then Hong Geolgae reached out, halting Jinhae's words.
"Hold on. Your story has a contradiction."
Wondering if it held new insight, Jinhae paused and asked.
"A contradiction···? What do you mean?"
Everyone but Hong Geolgae leaned in for his next words. Surely they held the realization from ascending to Absolute Peak Realm.
Hong Geolgae spoke in a voice heavy with dignity.
"From my life so far, three expressions in this world can never stand."
"First. A grown infant."
"Second. A husband who gave birth."
"Lastly, a Peak Realm expert."
Hong Geolgae shot to his feet.
With ages of solemnity, in a voice booming like thunder across heaven and earth, he roared.
"How can a Peak Realm warrior be called an expert?!"