That’s not how I am. (5)
“Ah…”
Tang Soso let out a dazed exclamation.
The figure of Jang Ilso, who had been hurled through the air and come crashing down, and Hye Yeon’s broad back, standing proudly before her, occupied Tang Soso’s entire field of vision.
The astonishment would not subside.
Who could be unaware of Hye Yeon’s extraordinary talent?
He was a prodigy whom even the Thousand-Year-Old Shaolin acknowledged, pouring every available resource into raising him. Had that man named Chung Myung not suddenly fallen out of the sky onto Hwasan one day, the position of the next Number One under Heaven would have practically been Hye Yeon’s already.
Of course, the proud men like Namgung Dowi or Jin Geumryong might not concede so readily, but even they could not deny that Hye Yeon was ahead of them.
Hye Yeon’s genius was that well known to everyone, yet even Tang Soso, who knew it better than most, could not help but be shocked at this moment.
‘His opponent is… none other than Jang Ilso.’
If Hye Yeon was one who would vie for the title of the world’s best in the future, Jang Ilso was at present the greatest of the Evil Sects – indeed, the one closest to the pinnacle right now.
And yet that very Jang Ilso had been put into disgrace by Hye Yeon’s attack. It was hard to believe even though she had seen it with her own eyes.
“Monk…”
Was Hye Yeon’s ability truly at this level?
Tang Soso sent him a gaze full of shock. But Hye Yeon’s gaze was not directed at her. He did not even look at Jang Ilso.
With his eyes closed, he kept reciting sutras in a barely audible voice.
After chanting for a while in Shaolin’s characteristic half-palm stance, Hye Yeon slowly opened his eyes. His gaze settled on the fallen Jang Ilso.
“You’re making too much of it.”
Though Jang Ilso lay prone, there was not the slightest hint of carelessness in Hye Yeon’s eyes.
“I know that someone like you would not be flustered by something this trivial, Siju.”
Hearing those words, Jang Ilso slowly raised his upper body. His disheveled hair slipped down softly.
He pulled one knee up, rested his arm on it, and sat down. It was a leisurely posture, entirely out of place on this battlefield. He even looked languid. Jang Ilso let out a short chuckle, as if air had softly escaped his mouth.
It was not a laugh of disbelief, nor a self-mocking snicker at being beaten by some green youngster. It was not such a simple emotion.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Well, I’m not quite sure myself. Why does the laughter rise up?”
Jang Ilso slowly swept back the hair that had fallen forward.
“Hmm. Very well, if I had to explain it… I suppose I’m realizing it anew.”
“What do you mean?”
Jang Ilso rose fully to his feet. Then, gripping his loose hair firmly with both hands, he tied it up tightly and smiled faintly.
“Even if I told you, would you understand?”
Hye Yeon’s brows twitched slightly.
“Granted… we’re not exactly on friendly terms, are we?”
“I’m not belittling you, so don’t be offended. I meant it exactly as I said.”
Jang Ilso let out a low chuckle. He slowly clenched and loosened his fist.
Even in this situation, Hye Yeon exuded a tremendous pressure that was enough to make one’s scalp tingle. It was a power strong enough to keep even someone like Jang Ilso fully alert.
Hye Yeon spoke.
“It is hard to understand.”
“It’s nothing much. I just found it a little unreasonable, that’s all.”
“…Unreasonable? What do you mean?”
Jang Ilso dropped his arms to his sides. As he lazily moved his fingers, the rings clinked lightly against each other.
“Hmm, think about it. Of all times, some completely unexpected presence blocks my path in a situation like this. From where I stand, isn’t that downright unfair?”
As he said this, Jang Ilso pulled an exaggeratedly mournful face and let out a deep sigh.
It was a strangely irritating sight.
Yet even amid all this, Hye Yeon’s immovable mind [부동심(不動心)] stood firm as a great mountain.
“There is nothing unfair about it.”
“…Hmm. Nothing, you say?”
“Indeed. All of this is merely the karmic retribution of your own deeds. Even if it were not me, someone would have stood in your way. The Central Plains stretch wide, and righteous warriors overflow within them.”
Jang Ilso looked up at the sky with eyes that had darkened slightly. From the dark cloudy sky, rain was still falling.
Observing him, Hye Yeon suddenly thought the scene before him looked like a painting.
A black sky, falling rain, and beneath it Jang Ilso standing alone.
In truth, this differed from reality. Undoubtedly, Jang Ilso currently stood with numerous subordinates at his command.
One need only shift their gaze a little to see lines of men ready to lay down their lives at Jang Ilso’s command.
Yet for some reason, in Hye Yeon’s eyes Jang Ilso always seemed to be standing alone.
It was then.
“Khuk……”
A low chuckle slipped from Jang Ilso’s lips. A cold chill ran down Hye Yeon’s spine. It was not from feeling a threat or an overwhelming force.
‘What is this…?’
The residue of some emotion too hard to name, contained in that brief laugh, shook even Hye Yeon’s immovable mind.
“Siju.”
“Righteous warriors, is it…….”
Jang Ilso lowered his head, then looked at Hye Yeon and smiled brightly. The perfectly pure smile was utterly out of place on this battlefield.
“Right. Such things do exist in this world.”
His voice sounded very different from his usual tone.
A slight tremor flickered at the corner of Hye Yeon’s eyes.
What Jang Ilso revealed now was clearly mockery. By nature he mocked all things, yet how was one to interpret the lone thread of bitterness and anger woven within?
“Hahahahahaha!”
Then Jang Ilso burst into a loud laughter. It wasn’t greatly different from his usual manner, and it quickly pulled Hye Yeon back into reality.
“It was an amusing tale.”
Jang Ilso raised the corners of his mouth. Between his crescent-moon eyes, his pupils narrowed chillingly, carrying an eerie icy coldness.
“But… do you truly believe that?”
It was a strange thing.
Hye Yeon raised a wall within himself against Jang Ilso. Thus, no matter what the man said, it ought not to shake him. For before a resolute, immovable mind, every delusion and worldly trouble is rendered meaningless.
“Truly?”
Yet, strangely, Hye Yeon could not answer readily. His lips would not part, as though sealed shut.
Jang Ilso let out a soft laugh.
“That’s why you’re still a child, you see. How long will you keep saying what you yourself do not believe in?”
“…Amitabha.”
“This Central Plains you speak of – where exactly is it?”
Step.
Jang Ilso took a step towards Hye Yeon.
“Righteous warriors? Here?”
“…”
“This place is where hungry ghosts* dwell. They swarm at even the smallest opening, eager to sink their teeth in and drain one’s blood. If that Avici Hell** you Buddhist lot speak of truly exists, it must be here.”
Jang Ilso’s red lips parted, revealing white teeth in a chilling gleam.
“Righteousness? As if such a thing could exist. This rotten world holds no value whatsoever. Sacrifices made for something worthless are meaningless from the start.”
Hye Yeon could not comprehend it – neither Jang Ilso nor his thoughts. Most of all, he found it difficult to accept the contradictions within his words.
“It does not add up.”
The words slipped from Hye Yeon’s mouth before he knew it.
“If nothing in this world holds any value, Siju, why do you covet the Central Plains so greatly?”
“…”
“Isn’t it you, Siju, who speaks of something he himself does not believe?”
At last Hye Yeon saw it.
Jang Ilso’s face, which had been twisted with an exaggerated grin, momentarily hardened into a cold and indifferent expression.
It was a reaction Hye Yeon had never anticipated.
Jang Ilso was a cool-headed man. He could not possibly be unaware of his own contradictions. And even if he were, he was not one to let another glimpse that fact.
Because of that, Jang Ilso’s expression now felt all the more unexpected.
Jang Ilso tilted his head slightly.
“…It isn’t exactly wrong.”
As if his face had never hardened, Jang Ilso once again wore a gentle smile.
“Yes. Perhaps what I wanted was never to possess it.”
“What…….”
“Maybe all I really wanted was to burn it down with my own hands. All these hateful things.”
For some reason, Hye Yeon felt as though something were pressing down on him. It felt like something thick and viscous was slowly creeping over him, making the ground beneath his feet collapse, pulling him endlessly into an infinite abyss.
‘I must pull myself together.’
He bit his lip until it bled and hastily recited a sutra in his mind, yet once a heart has shrunk it does not easily regain its calm.
Why was he feeling so overwhelmed? After all, this was just a villain. Merely a cunning being who used sinister words to deceive others.
“If you still don’t understand, then I have no choice but to make you understand.”
Jang Ilso slowly raised his hand.
“That dreams are only dreams.”
Fwoosh.
With those words, Jang Ilso suddenly appeared right before Hye Yeon. Startled, Hye Yeon’s eyes opened wide.
‘Vajra Immovable Technique [금강부동신법(金剛不動身法)]…?’
Shaolin’s Vajra Immovable Technique: not moving, yet it moves. The pinnacle of Swapping One’s Position [이형환위(移形換位)] – which can be considered a type of transcendent state – shaped into the form of martial arts – and regarded as Shaolin’s signature renowned technique [성명절기(成名絕技)].
That very Vajra Immovable Technique’s profound principle [묘리(妙理)] was what Jang Ilso had just displayed, and with even greater precision than Hye Yeon himself had.
Hye Yeon’s heart sank. Yet, even amidst his shock and urgency, his body, trained to its absolute limit, instinctively unleashed Arhat Fist [나한권(羅漢拳)] towards Jang Ilso.
A straight punch packed with condensed fist-force shot towards Jang Ilso’s solar plexus. But at that instant, Jang Ilso’s hand flowed in smoothly, pushing Hye Yeon’s fist aside.
Whoosh.
Feeling his fist strike only empty air, Hye Yeon instinctively tried to withdraw, but Jang Ilso’s hand, swift as a serpent, slid up Hye Yeon’s arm and seized his elbow as though biting into it.
Crunch.
His fingers dug into Hye Yeon’s elbow, piercing flesh and muscle.
Even through the searing pain, Hye Yeon saw an opportunity: fists locked at point-blank range – this was his territory.
A golden light burst from Hye Yeon’s body.
Wooong!
His feet drove into the ground, and golden fist-force bloomed on his knuckles. To gather inner strength maintaining such short distance was nearly the same as inviting the enemy’s strike, yet Hye Yeon was fully prepared for that.
To sacrifice flesh to shatter bones. Facing Jang Ilso, that much resolve was essential.
Hye Yeon’s five fingers, fully spread, began to curl inward, converging at a single point.
Neither fist [권(拳)] nor claw[조(爪)], but a bizarre shape like a bird’s beak.
Yet, this seemingly childish gesture served as the vessel for one of Shaolin’s most lethal martial arts.
All his energy concentrated into one point, a resolve aimed at annihilating the enemy. It was a technique manifesting the greatest possible killing intent permitted within Buddhist Path.
Lion’s Roar Mudra/Seal [사자모니인(獅子牟尼引)].
Golden energy gathered at his fingertips, shining coldly like metal, aimed straight at Jang Ilso’s throat.
‘If not me…!’
Then who would descend into hell?
At the very instant Hye Yeon’s Lion’s Mudra, having shattered the Precept of Killing [살계(殺戒)], was about to touch Jang Ilso’s neck…
“Hmmm.”
A familiar, chilling nasal sound bored into Hye Yeon’s ear.
Whoosh.
Then, before Hye Yeon’s eyes, three identical images of Jang Ilso appeared, each adopting a different posture. Without realizing it, Hye Yeon’s mouth dropped open.
“An… illusion…?”
His Lion’s Roar Mudra pierced ‘Jang Ilso’ in front of him – but there was nothing there. In truth, there had never been anything before him at all.
All he saw was empty air – and, a little way off, Tang Soso staring at him in a daze.
“What has you so startled?”
Hye Yeon froze where he stood. The soft voice had come from directly behind him.
His instincts screamed warnings frantically.
“Jang Ilso!”
Hye Yeon desperately twisted his body around
At that same instant, Jang Ilso’s hand burrowed into his solar plexus – a devil’s hand wreathed in blue flames.
‘I have to dodge……’
Yet, contrary to the thought in his head, Hye Yeon’s body stopped, as though roots had grown beneath his feet.
Crunch!
Drops of blood splattered onto Jang Ilso’s pale white face. Hye Yeon stared blankly at that face, smeared with his own blood.
At frighteningly close range, he could see Jang Ilso’s smiling eyes – somber like a gloomy moon.
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*아귀(餓鬼) – hungry ghost (preta). Jang Ilso is throwing buddhist terms at Hye Yeon, because it refers to the beings of the underworld who are condemned to suffer from constant hunger, with stomachs as large as mountains and throats as narrow as needles.
**무간지옥(無間地獄) previously also mentioned by biga as 아비지옥(阿鼻地獄) which is the same thing (아비지옥 is a transliteration from Sanskrit). The lowest level of hell for the worst sinners.
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edit: does it seem like there are too many parallels between jang ilso and heavenly demon in this chapter?
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