Who I was in the past and who he will become in the future. (3)
Vividly clear. Yet, precisely because of that, the red filling his vision felt only more ominous.
It wasn’t anything special. Nothing remarkable. But the eerie sensation arising from that red hue strangely sent a shiver through Jang Ilso.
“Did you say you wished for a world in flames?”
A chilling coldness radiated from Chung Myung’s hand as it covered Jang Ilso’s face. It was a chill that seemed not of this world.
“What you desire is nothing more than a past that once existed.”
“Ghh……”
“Everyone risked their lives to save that world that had been burned to ashes. And now… you dare speak of bringing it back?”
Crunch.
Chung Myung’s hand squeezed Jang Ilso’s face with overwhelming force.
“A clueless punk who doesn’t even realize what he’s doing.”
Jang Ilso reflexively kicked at Chung Myung. But his foot pathetically sliced through empty air. Chung Myung had already retreated far back, staring back at him with emotionless eyes.
“Cough!”
Jang Ilso coughed repeatedly, spattering blood as he clutched at the ground.
Pain as though all of his flesh had been torn to pieces engulfed him. Blood vessels burst under unbearable agony, staining both his eyes red.
“Ugh.”
Yet, Jang Ilso still forced himself up. His appearance was a wreck. He was covered entirely in dust and dirt. Now devoid of any composure, his eyes filled with vicious malice.
“What the hell…”
Grinding his teeth, Jang Ilso fixed Chung Myung with a murderous glare.
“What the hell is this?!”
It wasn’t just about being strong. It felt as if someone was looking down on him from high above. An overwhelming despair unlike anything Jang Ilso had ever experienced before in his entire life.
He couldn’t comprehend what was happening. The only thing he knew was that this wretch – who should have been nothing but a half-dead corpse – had now gained a strength that Jang Ilso could not even dream of challenging.
Crack.
Jang Ilso clenched his pierced hand so hard that it seemed it might shatter.
He had come so far. Just one step remained. But here, of all places?
“Don’t make me laugh!”
Jang Ilso kicked off the ground violently, rushing at Chung Myung. Blue flames erupted violently, enveloping his entire body.
He looked like a wounded tiger rushing forward with its body wrapped in flames. It was a terrifying sight, one that could freeze anyone in place, yet in this moment, the one feeling oppressed was ironically Jang Ilso himself.
A swordsman without the slightest hint of hesitation.
Chung Myung’s piercing gaze, exuding an eerie presence as he calmly stared back, was suffocating Jang Ilso.
“Oooooooh!”
Jang Ilso’s fist was pulled back fully before thrusting forward as if to pierce through Mount Tai itself.
The essence of the martial arts he had perfected over his lifetime was poured into that single punch. The fiercely swirling internal energy condensed further and further, until it could no longer be contained and flared up like an explosion. Wrapped in blue flames, his fist left a trail like a comet, flying straight towards Chung Myung.
And at that very moment, Chung Myung’s sword moved slowly.
Clang!
Jang Ilso’s eyes widened as if they would tear apart as he was certain the opponent’s reaction would be late.
Not the blade, but the pommel*. With a reversed grip, Chung Myung casually deflected Jang Ilso’s oncoming fist. The punch that had been thrown with everything he had twisted away far too easily under that single strike.
But at the same instant, Jang Ilso’s left fist burst forth from close range. A blow delivered as if he’d anticipated this.
It was a strike he could deliver only because, suppressing his explosive rage, he admitted the opponent was stronger than him.
But in that split second, Jang Ilso saw it – or rather, he felt it.
Even before his left fist, pulled back with all his strength, could shoot forward towards his opponent’s chest, Chung Myung’s sword had already reached his body.
Boom!
Jang Ilso was sent flying back faster than he had rushed forward.
Had he not instinctively concentrated the Unyielding Blue Slaughtering Flames, his body would have been split in two by that single strike.
Craaaash!
His foot, slammed into the ground, shattered the earth beneath him. Gritting his teeth, Jang Ilso desperately steadied himself and attempted to step forward once again. Or rather, he tried to.
Bam!
But just as he pulled his tilted body forward, Chung Myung’s fist had already flown into his face.
Booooom!
Jang Ilso, slammed into the ground, bounced up into the air from the rebound.
“Kuh…!”
Red blood sprayed from Jang Ilso’s mouth like a fountain.
‘…What on earth?’
Every attempt he made, Chung Myung was already there. Everything was being read in advance.
Chung Myung anticipated his every move, always acting a step ahead. It was as if he were sitting in the palm of Chung Myung’s hand. This wasn’t simply the fear of facing someone stronger – it was a completely different kind of despair, a paralyzing helplessness so overwhelming he couldn’t move a single finger.
Boom!
Trying to shake off that helplessness, Jang Ilso kicked off the air itself. He hurled himself towards Chung Myung, unleashing countless fist shadows that enveloped his opponent completely.
‘Reading my moves?’
Then he’d simply make them unreadable. Or, even if read, make them impossible to counter.
A barrage without form, with no set pattern or technique. If even Jang Ilso himself didn’t consciously shape the blows, how could someone who read intentions possibly respond?
But the outcome only brought him an even greater despair, incomparable to anything before.
Facing the countless blue fist energies bearing down upon him, Chung Myung showed not the slightest hint of disturbance. As if slicing time itself, Chung Myung slowly raised his sword while watching the incoming strikes.
Swish.
Chung Myung’s sword thrust forward. The blade, trembling lightly as if it was just mockery, traced a small blossom in the air.
A delicate blossom, far too fragile to confront the incoming storm of blue flames. But at the very moment that flower swayed gently in the breeze, dozens, then hundreds, of blossoms bloomed in midair.
Rustle.
They bloomed. Bloomed again. And again, endlessly blooming.
Endless flowers blooming and petals swirling chaotically. That dazzling spectacle of blossoming was, in another sense, perfect chaos.
Countless petals swallowed Jang Ilso’s powerful fist energies whole. Though his fists crushed the fragile petals without mercy, but for every dozen flowers destroyed, hundreds more bloomed.
It was at that moment Jang Ilso finally realized the mistake he’d made.
At the very least, he should have never challenged Hwasan’s sword in the realm of change and illusion [변(變)과 환(幻)]. Driven into a corner, he had forgotten even such an obvious truth.
The fist energies he created melted away. The petals that swallowed his attacks advanced even further, as if intending to engulf Jang Ilso himself.
A scene of unparalleled beauty. But in Jang Ilso’s eyes, it was no different from vengeful spirits howling and rushing towards him.
“Haaaaah!”
Boom!
Jang Ilso desperately flung his body backward with all his strength.
As he momentarily widened the gap, his eyes caught sight of flowers that had not yet fully bloomed.
‘I’ll break through with force!’
Grinding his teeth, Jang Ilso firmly planted his feet into the ground.
His left hand clawed at the air with a beastly growl, and his right hand shook violently, like a powder keg about to explode.
Whoooooosh!
Blue flame energy, bristling fiercely like the fur of a menacing beast, swirled violently, concentrating in Jang Ilso’s right hand.
Rumble!
Jang Ilso’s body trembled uncontrollably, like a leaf in the wind. His flesh, unable to withstand the excessive use of internal energy, screamed in agony, and crimson blood spilled from his mouth like a waterfall.
Yet Jang Ilso drew out even more power. He judged that if he could not turn the tide with this one strike, victory would be impossible.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
His right and left fists crossed in an instant, and he unleashed a blow filled to the absolute limit with his internal energy, plunging into a state of egoless trance [무아지경(無我之境)**].
Heaven-Shattering [붕천(崩天)] Unyielding Blue Slaughtering Flames.
Boooom!
A blow that seemed to bring down the heavens shattered the earth as it surged forward. A magnificent blue vortex – perhaps better described as a flash of lightning – shot straight towards Chung Myung.
The plum blossom sword energy Chung Myung had unleashed shattered and crumbled the instant it touched the blue flames. Even the most splendidly blooming plum blossoms were powerless against the swirling torrent of blue fire.
The blue blaze obliterated the plum blossoms Chung Myung had created in an instant, engulfing even Chung Myung himself, who stood behind them.
As Jang Ilso watched the scene past his outstretched right hand, what filled his eyes was not triumph, but desperate hope.
Flash.
A single streak of red light etched itself across heaven and earth.
Darker than the crimson dawn, deeper than the ochre earth – a chilling yet strangely sorrowful red line. Like paint splattered across a black and white landscape, the red line split the world with unsettling discord.
Even Jang Ilso stood frozen, entranced by the spectacle.
Slash!
‘What…?’
For a moment, unable to comprehend what had happened, Jang Ilso wore a dazed expression.
Then, with sudden and excruciating pain, blood gushed out from his chest.
A deep sword wound had appeared on his body, stretching diagonally from his right shoulder down to his left side.
Instinctively, his hand rose to clutch at his chest. He tried desperately to hold himself upright, but it was futile. His legs lost strength, buckling beneath him until one knee hit the ground.
Yet, even in that moment, Jang Ilso couldn’t tear his eyes away – away from the black-clad swordsman who had casually cut through his strongest strike and was now calmly approaching him.
More than the pain radiating from his body, more than the crushing fatigue that swept over him as the price for pushing his energy beyond its limits, it was that sight that pressed down on Jang Ilso most heavily.
What was this?
What was he facing right now?
He was confronting something beyond explanation – something that defied all reason. The sheer pressure of it forced him to experience something entirely new, something he’d never felt before in his life.
At last, Chung Myung’s emotionless gaze settled upon Jang Ilso. Then, after a brief pause, his lips parted slowly.
“Yes…”
“…”
“This is how it feels.”
Chung Myung’s footsteps halted.
At that moment, Jang Ilso felt something strange. In Chung Myung’s eyes, as he looked at him, was a peculiar sense of familiarity. Not mockery, nor intimidation – just a faded sense of kinship.
Chung Myung, who had been silently looking at Jang Ilso for a long while, let his sword drop and slowly looked up at the sky. His slumped shoulders, his weary appearance – it felt as though it might draw Jang Ilso in entirely.
“That helplessness… and despair.”
“…”
“We struggled desperately within that despair. We threw our lives away for a hopeless victory.”
Surely, it was an illusion.
But Jang Ilso saw it. Countless hands gripping Chung Myung, chains forged from blood-stained hands wrapped tightly around him as he barely managed to breathe.
At the sight of this chilling vision, Jang Ilso shuddered involuntarily.
“The world as it is now is the price we paid.”
“…”
“The world you’re trying to destroy.”
Chung Myung lowered his gaze, glaring at Jang Ilso. The dreadful chill within those eyes pressed down heavily upon him.
“Hah.”
At that moment, Jang Ilso let out a hollow laugh.
“What a pathetic thing to say.”
Grasping desperately at the ground, Jang Ilso forced his battered body to rise. Chung Myung watched silently, eyes devoid of emotion.
Wounded so badly he could barely control his own body, and yet, Jang Ilso still stood up.
Just like ‘him’ in the past.
The essence [정화(精華)] of a twisted will.
Like yin and yang – alike, yet different – ‘he’ now stood before Chung Myung.
________
*검수(劍首) – the pommel of a sword, or more specifically, the end part of a sword’s hilt (handle).
**Several similar states can be found in martial arts novels. 無我之境 (무아지경) – deep, immersive state where one loses all sense of ego. 無我相經 (무아상경) – The Sutra of No-Self-Form, a Buddhist scripture concept – refers to a Buddhist teaching that emphasizes detachment from the concept of the “self” and the illusion of appearances (form). 無我夢中 (무아몽중) – a dream state where the self has disappeared — a poetic way of describing deep unconscious immersion, often emotionally or artistically.
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Return of the Mount Hua 
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