You can do it. (6)
“Oooooooh!”
At the very front, Jin Geumryong, leading Jongnam, charged at a terrifying speed.
“Damn it!”
His legs wouldn’t respond. His body was exhausted to the very limit. Those following behind him would be the same. They’d been dragged here just as they were about to catch their breath.
But it didn’t matter.
“Grit your teeth! Don’t show any weakness! Don’t let those Hwasan’s bastards run rampant on their own!”
He was Baek Cheon’s older brother, and at the same time the man destined to become Jongnam’s Sect Leader.
Jin Geumryong could not allow this war to end with only Hwasan standing tall. It was the duty of one under Jongnam’s banner, and the pride of a martial artist.
As if sharing that resolve, Jongnam’s swordsmen wrung out every last drop of strength, slamming their feet harder into the ground. What they finally faced were the faces of the Red Dogs, contorted with despair they had never shown before.
“With all your might…”
Veins stood in Jin Geumryong’s eyes as he clenched his teeth.
“Smash them head-on!”
Booooom!
A blast that should not have been heard seemed to ring clear in everyone’s ears. A corner of the Red Dogs’ formation collapsed completely, and Jongnam forced the gap wide open.
Like the instant a drop of water falls onto one pan of a scale that had been barely holding its balance, triggering an irreversible collapse.
“Don’t let a single one make it back to Gangnam! Here, we rip out the roots of Sapaeryeon!”
Jongnam’s sword. Their ancient swords, the toughest under heaven, pressed the Red Dogs down.
Unadorned, without flourish, but steadfast. Perhaps to the Red Dogs it would have been an easy sword to face. Had their stamina been intact, had their minds been clear, Jongnam’s sword, so focused on solidity, would have been the very orthodox way [정도(正道) – just sect’s path] they found easiest to devour.
But not now. To Red Dogs worn down to the limit, that steadfastness felt entirely different. Because it wasn’t rushed, it revealed no openings, steadily crushing its opponents with relentless pressure. It was suffocating.
Even the Red Dogs who had barely pressed their despair down with hatred began to crumble before it. All the more since they were already being torn apart by Diancang, they lost even the strength to resist.
“Aaaagh!”
Over the collapsing foes, the blazing snow [눈불길] that Jin Geumryong unleashed came raging through.
⠀⠀
“Sasuk! It’s Jongnam!”
“…Yeah, I know.”
Baek Cheon forced strength into the legs that were about to buckle. A wave of weakness washed over his body – born from relief.
As if to hide it, he twisted his expression and fixed his gaze on the Red Dogs. Before him, he saw a sight he had grown rather accustomed to: white petals scattering in the air.
“…He sure got here fast. That damned Hyeong.”
“Still, you’re calling him ‘Hyeong’ now.”
It wasn’t “Hyeong” with respect, but “that damned Hyeong*,” yet he called him brother all the same.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
With his left hand Yoon Jong casually wiped the liquid – blood or sweat, he couldn’t tell – running down his face. He wanted to smile wider and toss a joke, but unfortunately, he had no strength left for that.
“Don’t let your guard down yet.”
“…Yes?”
Baek Cheon glanced at Chung Myung in his arms.
“See it through to the very end. That’s Hwasan’s way.”
“Since when were you so meticulous.”
“What?”
“…..Nothing.”
“You seem a little different, you know?”
“Not as much as Sasuk.”
Yoon Jong smiled weakly and clutched his sword tight. Now it was time to see the end of this war.
⠀⠀
The Blood Palace Lord’s gaze was trembling without end.
‘Damn it.’
He should have moved. He should have fled without looking back. A single moment of hesitation was bringing about a most fatal result.
There was no room left to hesitate. Even if it meant incurring the Bishop’s wrath, for now he had to preserve his life.
“Retreat! Right now!”
The Blood Palace Lord raised his voice in a hurry. The Blood Palace warriors, who had been waiting only for the retreat signal, turned without looking back.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Lee Songbaek swung his sword swiftly, but it did not reach the backs of the blood cultists fleeing for their lives. Or perhaps Lee Songbaek lacked the cruelty to unleash a full-force strike at the back of someone running away.
The moment the Blood Palace Lord, having confirmed his men’ retreat, moved to kick off the ground without a second thought…
Before he could, a vivid, white streak of sword energy flew for his face. Startled, the Blood Palace Lord twisted his head aside as he tried to slip away.
Shrrk!
The sword energy grazed his face. The bandages wrapped around his face were cleanly cut, and a long wound from a sword was carved into his features.
Throb!
A body that had long forgotten pain shuddered at the shock of the skin of his face splitting.
“What…”
Bewilderment welled in the Blood Palace Lord’s eyes. Before he could even pick out with his gaze the one who had launched that sword energy, a voice sunk deep and low sounded right beside his ear.
“Where might you be going?”
“…Y-You, you are…?”
The Blood Palace Lord’s pupils trembled. The one who revealed himself was a white-haired swordsman clad in black-and-white Taoist robes [도의(道衣)].
“Heo Do…”
The Blood Palace Lord breathed the name out like a groan.
Heo Do Jinin, the previous Sect Leader of Wudang, stood there with a quiet, surging wrath. His gaze was fixed solely on the Blood Palace Lord.
“I am already a dead man. No – one who ought to be dead. So I made Wudang my grave and vowed never to leave it for the rest of my life.”
Heo Do Jinin glanced back over his shoulder.
At the end of that gaze lay Mount Wudang, billowing black smoke. Or rather, the ruins of its halls, reduced to ash at its peak.
“But now the grave where I was to rest has vanished.”
“…”
“You, at least, I will not spare and send back alive. Blood Palace… no, should I call it the Blood Cult? I hear you lot practice such vile tricks.”
Wooong.
The Pine Crest Ancient Sword in Heo Do Jinin’s hand let out a low hum.
“Then it is only fitting that you be punished by a wraith that crawled out of its grave by those very same tricks.”
Cold sweat formed on the Blood Palace Lord’s body, a body that was now hardly even human.
“Damn it…”
Heo Do Jinin was strong. Who would dare look down on a swordsman counted among the top three of his generation?
Yet the Blood Palace Lord was not one to fear Heo Do either – were it not for the present circumstances.
With enemies closing in from behind, and his followers having long since fled the battlefield… His face twisted into a grim snarl.
“Filthy Taoist bastards…”
Grrk.
He ground his teeth. Then, from his fingertips, a long blade of qi hardened like steel.
“Open the way. Unless you wish to die in the most horrible manner.”
“A mere riffraff of the Evil Path… how dare you spit such nonsense, and at whom.”
A proud, overbearing aura flowed from Heo Do Jinin’s body.
“I am Heo Do.”
“…”
“Come. I shall sever that sinful life.”
“Insolent…”
The Blood Palace Lord’s eyes flared with a blaze of crimson murderous light.
“Do not belittle the Cult, you lowly wretches!”
With both hands blazing with crimson steel-like qi, the Blood Palace Lord hurled himself forward with all his might, charging straight at Heo Do Jinin.
❀ ❀ ❀
“Aaaagh!”
No matter how drained you are, a sword is still a weapon that can stab and cut a person.
A Red Dog’s blindly swung blade rammed into Jongnam’s disciple’s chest. A wound deep enough to make him sense death in an instant. The swordsman’s eyes lost their light and he collapsed on the spot.
“Saje!”
“Uaaagh! Saje!”
Jongnam’s disciples, screaming, rushed in and hacked the Red Dog who had struck him into pieces.
“U-Ugh! Damn it!”
Just as Jongnam’s fury was soaring to the heavens, a steady, cold voice pierced their ears.
“What are you standing around for? Move!”
At the same time, a small figure in black martial robes slipped into their midst.
Krrrk!
A snow-white hand dug into the wound, then mercilessly pried it open to either side. Everyone froze in shock at that ruthless touch, which showed not a moment’s hesitation.
“W-What are you doing, you lunatic!”
“Shut up and just press the acupoints! Unless you want to be handling a corpse!”
A disciple of Jongnam who had been about to pull her away flinched at her force, and in that instant someone recognized her and shouted.
“F-Five Swords – Hwasan’s Soso!”
“What?”
“Do as she says! She’s a physician!”
No matter what was being said beside her, Tang Soso didn’t spare it a glance. She was wholly absorbed in examining Jongnam’s disciple’s wound. Having found the damaged area and stanched the bleeding, Tang Soso doused the spot with poison alcohol [독주(毒酒)]. Then, using suctioning qi, she flushed his abdominal cavity in one go and swiftly began to suture the wound.
Only then, when she briefly lifted her head, did the distant figures of Baek Cheon, Hye Yeon, and Yoon Jong fighting come into her view.
‘Sasuk. Sahyeong.’
She wanted to go there. She wanted to tend to their injuries. But she knew she must not. The place she had to be was at the sides of those who had taken the gravest wounds.
Having resolved to live as both a martial artist and a physician, this was her fate.
‘Father.’
Tang Gunak’s face flashed before her eyes. Had her father felt this same loneliness? Tang Soso did not know. She would not know, even going forward.
“Cheon!”
“H-Here! I’m here!”
Jongnam’s disciples hastily tore their own uniforms. Tang Soso snapped, fierce and sharp.
“Use something clean! Do you want to kill the patient?”
“S-Sorry.”
Flustered, they apologized and began ripping from the cleanest spots they could find.
“Aaaargh! You filthy bastards!”
Just then, a Red Dog who’d been run through by Jongnam’s sword suddenly kicked off the ground and, in a flash, charged straight at Tang Soso.
Startled, Jongnam’s disciples failed to react in time. A massive sword, smeared with flesh and dark-crimson blood, came flying for her face.
Tang Soso’s expression hardened.
She could dodge. But if she let go of the wound she was holding now, this man would die.
The physician Tang Soso and the martial artist Tang Soso collided within her. Which choice should she make?
It was as she bit down hard on her lip and stared straight at the onrushing crimson blade.
Kaaang!
Suddenly, the blade that had been hurtling in shot up into the air, and the Red Dog’s head was cleanly severed, rising after it.
“You all right?”
Tang Soso, her face drenched in hot blood, turned her head blankly. There stood Yu Iseol, her face likewise stained with blood, yet still wearing her signature impassive look.
“Sago? Why……?”
She was asking why she was here.
“Continue.”
Yu Iseol, seeming to feel no need to answer, stepped forward and took position in front of Tang Soso.
In Tang Soso’s sight now, the view of Yu Iseol’s back overlapped with the distant figures of Baek Cheon and the others fighting.
Yu Iseol would want to be fighting there as well.
“Sago. You can go. I’m fine…”
“Same here.”
“…Yes?”
“There are juniors we have to protect here, too.”
“…”
The corners of Tang Soso’s mouth trembled slightly.
“Continue.”
“Yes, Sago.”
Shaking off the stray thoughts that kept creeping in, Tang Soso swiftly resumed stitching up Jongnam’s disciple’s wound. The thread at the tip of her needle pulled taut.
‘I’m not completely alone, Father.’
Even if the road was one she walked alone, there were those who moved forward alongside her. For now, that was enough.
❀ ❀ ❀
How long had they been swinging their swords? It felt as if all sensation had left his body.
Panting, Baek Cheon stared blankly ahead. Hwasan’s white robes had, before he knew it, been soaked through with the enemy’s blood, dyed deep crimson.
Yoon Jong and Hye Yeon, covered in wounds, looked around with half-dazed eyes.
At some point, there was no one left to fight. None in sight.
The enemy lines that had once packed the horizon from end to end – the ranks of Sapaeryeon – were gone. All that met their eyes now were the welcome, familiar figures of Cheonumaeng’s members.
“Ugh…”
Thud.
With a groan, the sword slipped from his weakened hand and fell to the ground. It was something that should never happen to a swordsman, but Baek Cheon, as he was now, didn’t even realize he had let go.
It was over.
“…..Is it… real?”
“Amitabha….”
The war that had seemed like it would never end had, at last, shown them its conclusion.
As if he couldn’t believe it, Yoon Jong blinked several times. It felt like he needed to confirm the sight before his eyes again and again before his heart could be at ease.
Such was how harrowing the battle they had endured was.
“Really… it’s all… over?”
Thump.
Speaking slowly, stopping and pausing, Yoon Jong collapsed to the ground on the spot. Then, abandoning all pretense, he sprawled flat on his back.
“Kuhk.”
Baek Cheon, who had been looking down at the sprawled-out Yoon Jong in disbelief, put Chung Myung down almost mindlessly, his knees buckling as he sank to the ground beside him. Even Hye Yeon, unable to hold out any longer, sat down on the spot, crossing his legs.
“Really…..”
Baek Cheon looked around, emotions surging and mixing within him.
“It really… is over.”
His gaze drifted naturally to the side – to Chung Myung, lying limp, whether fainted or asleep he couldn’t tell.
Unlike the three of them, now covered in blood, Chung Myung’s body had not suffered a single new wound since his fight with Jang Ilso.
“Damned bastard. Won’t wake up even once.”
Baek Cheon let out a faint snort and then sprawled out the same way as Yoon Jong. As he caught his breath for a while, Yoon Jong’s weary voice reached him.
“……Sasuk.”
“Yeah.”
Yoon Jong had merely called to him, but Baek Cheon already knew what he was going to say.
It was something so obvious – and something he had wished for.
“Let’s go back. To Hwasan.”
Tilting his gaze slightly while lying down, he could see Jo Geol, Tang Soso, and Yu Iseol running towards them. Behind the three, the sky had cleared completely, the clouds swept away, leaving it impossibly, brazenly blue.
________
*Baek Cheon is calling Jin Geumryong Hyeong-nom 형놈 instead of Hyeong-nim 형님. -nom is a disrespectful suffix often used in words like 이놈/저놈/놈들 in this novel. Sometimes 개놈 (dog-like bastard).
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WAR IS OVER ㅠ_______ㅠ
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