Why are you so surprised? (2)
“So, you want to confirm something.”
Jwa Gohak shook his head with an undisguised sneer.
“I will respect that unrelenting fighting spirit of yours, but what exactly will change because of it?”
Looking at that composed demeanor, he could not be certain so easily. But Baek Cheon thought he had clearly found a clue.
‘It never made sense in the first place.’
Jwa Gohak was strong. Baek Cheon, who had clashed with him directly, knew that better than anyone.
But the problem was precisely that martial prowess.
‘Can someone really be this strong? Even if, as he says, he has learned martial arts more advanced than ours?’
No, that was impossible.
If Jwa Gohak had been someone who had devoted himself solely to martial arts, Baek Cheon might have reluctantly acknowledged it. But was Jwa Gohak not a Confucian scholar rather than a martial artist? Someone who had studied scholarship and martial arts at the same time beating Baek Cheon, who had trained in martial arts all his life, so one-sidedly that he could not even counterattack? Could that really be explained by a difference in talent or martial arts?
‘If that were true, I should just drown myself in a puddle.’
That would be denying all the effort he had put in himself. Baek Cheon would sooner lose his head than acknowledge it.
Then only one possibility remained.
“He is not actually that strong.”
“Hm?”
“That has to be it.”
Whatever was before his eyes now, that was the truth. He first had to begin by believing that.
Jwa Gohak let out a hollow laugh, as though Baek Cheon had just said something utterly absurd.
“Have you finally lost your mind?”
“…I almost wish I had.”
He knew. He knew how nonsensical this sounded after having been beaten senseless until just moments ago.
But Baek Cheon had no doubt that this absurd claim was the truth.
‘Otherwise, there is no way that bastard would be standing there grinning like that.’
The expression Chung Myung had worn a moment ago. It had been the look of someone certain of Baek Cheon’s victory. If that had not been the case, that lunatic – not Jwa Gohak – would already have been raging about beating Baek Cheon to death. He would surely have been rolling in a fit of rage with a sword in his mouth, screaming about how Baek Cheon had dragged Hwasan’s name through the mud.
Baek Cheon smiled faintly.
“If you think it is nonsense, why not confirm it for yourself? If there is nothing to hide, there would be no reason for you to hesitate.”
“Hesitate? I was showing you some consideration, and yet… This is why even generosity must be bestowed with care, depending on the recipient. Knowing gratitude is one of the most important virtues a person can have.”
Jwa Gohak scoffed and raised his sword again.
“I shall give you, Taoist Master, a special lesson in gratitude.”
“Should I be thanking you for that?”
“No need to hold back!”
Jwa Gohak closed the distance in an instant and shot towards Baek Cheon.
Paaaat!
Without the slightest hesitation, Jwa Gohak thrust his sword at Baek Cheon. After stabbing through the air two or three times as though issuing a warning, the sword seemed to split apart in an instant, piercing Baek Cheon’s entire body.
It was still dazzling and solid, a sword technique so close to perfection that no weakness could be found within it.
But now Baek Cheon could see it. The sense of incongruity hidden within that perfect sword technique.
Clang.
Baek Cheon’s sword barely managed to block Jwa Gohak’s incoming blade.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
As though he had expected Baek Cheon’s response, Jwa Gohak immediately launched a series of attacks at Baek Cheon’s entire body. Each time Baek Cheon’s response lagged by the span of a single breath, red streaks of blood were carved across different parts of his body.
Although he did not inflict any fatal wound, it was undeniable proof that Jwa Gohak was overwhelming Baek Cheon.
“Sasuk!”
“Damn it! Nothing has changed!”
“A-Amitabha.”
Cries of confusion burst from the mouths of Hwasan’s disciples, who had allowed themselves a brief moment of hope. To their eyes, Jwa Gohak was still overwhelmingly strong, and Baek Cheon still seemed unable to find a way to deal with him.
“Wait.”
But Yu Iseol alone saw one change with perfect clarity.
Unlike before, Baek Cheon’s eyes did not waver in the slightest.
Clang!
Baek Cheon barely managed to block Jwa Gohak’s sword once more. It was now painfully obvious that even keeping up with Jwa Gohak’s sword strikes was more than he could handle.
‘He is nothing special.’
A triumphant smile appeared on Jwa Gohak’s face.
There was great significance in breaking Hwasan’s sword with the sword of a Confucian scholar like himself. But on a personal level, it was just as satisfying to force this obnoxious bastard to his knees.
‘It is almost over!’
A couple more times. Within the next couple of exchanges, he would be able to break Baek Cheon for certain. Everyone, including Jwa Gohak, thought so, and just as expected, Jwa Gohak’s thrust shot towards Baek Cheon’s shoulder at a speed too fast for him to evade.
And it was at that very moment.
Fwoosh!
Baek Cheon’s sword, which until then had struggled to keep pace with Jwa Gohak’s onslaught and block it, suddenly changed direction and flew towards Jwa Gohak’s chest. Instead of his sword, Baek Cheon abruptly thrust his left hand out before Jwa Gohak’s blade.
‘What?’
With a cry that was almost a scream, he hurriedly twisted his body aside. But his reaction had been just a fraction too slow, and a long cut opened across his chest. Droplets of blood sprayed into the air.
Startled out of his wits, Jwa Gohak retreated and glared at Baek Cheon as if demanding to know what kind of madness that had been. Receiving that glare, Baek Cheon merely smiled calmly.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“…..You.”
“That is not what you said before. You claimed you could predict all of my sword strikes. No… Even if you could not predict them, you said it would not matter as long as you were fast enough to keep up, did you not?”
“What in the world was that? If I had not changed the path of my sword just then, your wrist would have been severed. Do you not understand that?”
“I do.”
Baek Cheon replied indifferently.
“So what?”
“…W-What kind of idiotic thing is that to say?”
“It is not idiotic. I was simply certain.”
“What?”
The corners of Baek Cheon’s lips curled upward into an irritating grin.
“A bookworm like you would never risk getting a hole punched through your chest just to cut off one of my wrists.”
“…”
“If it were me, I would have cut it off without a second thought.”
At Baek Cheon’s words, delivered as though they were the most obvious thing in the world, Jwa Gohak gaped in disbelief.
“What kind of insane nonsense are you talking about?”
“Well, it was a little reckless. I admit it. But you need not worry. This has made it certain.”
“…”
“I wasted enough time already. Come on, then. Let’s see what you’ve got. I’ll smash you to pieces.”
Jwa Gohak ground his teeth.
‘This impudent bastard succeeded once with a reckless gamble*, and now he has become unbearably conceited.’
It was nothing more than a desperate struggle. A situation like that would not come so easily again. Now that he knew his opponent’s method, all he had to do was prepare for it.
“We shall see how long that confidence lasts!”
With a fierce shout, Jwa Gohak charged at Baek Cheon once again.
He feinted a thrust towards the face, twisting the path of his sword two or three times, while the real attack was a wide horizontal slash aimed to carve deep into the wrist.
‘Here.’
Everything about the way these people wielded their swords was decided at their wrists and fingertips. In other words, by targeting the wrist and forcing repeated blade-to-blade exchanges, he could shut down the opponent’s greatest strength.
Clang!
Just as expected, Baek Cheon’s sword, which had been about to form Plum Blossom Sword Energy in midair, failed to unfold fully and was blocked by Jwa Gohak’s blade. The instant their swords met, Jwa Gohak lightly knocked Baek Cheon’s sword aside and swung again.
‘The possible responses here are a direct clash, a deflection, using the rebound force to evade sideways… or, if not that, throwing oneself beneath the sword and gambling everything on it.’
He knew. He knew how his opponent would respond. All he had to do was continue his attack accordingly….
“What?!”
At that moment, Jwa Gohak’s eyes widened so much they looked ready to pop out of the sockets.
The instant he thrust his sword, Baek Cheon simply pulled the deflected blade back without any attempt to counter it.
Whoooosh!
Jwa Gohak’s sword cut futilely through empty air. With Baek Cheon’s sword withdrawn, there was nothing blocking the attack. If Jwa Gohak had merely extended his thrust a little farther, he could have inflicted a wound. But the moment he panicked, the sword in his hand ceased to perform any change and simply followed the trajectory he had originally intended.
Paaaat!
And through the opening created by that hesitation, Baek Cheon’s sword cleaved through like a flash of lightning.
Clang!
The situation had been completely reversed. Baek Cheon’s sword stabbed repeatedly towards every part of Jwa Gohak’s body.
Yet the same Jwa Gohak who had effortlessly blocked Baek Cheon’s attacks only moments before was now drenched in cold sweat. Even defending against Baek Cheon’s attacks seemed more than he could handle.
“W-What is this?”
“Why is he suddenly acting like that?”
“Did that man’s sword suddenly become stronger or something?”
The scholars watching were even more bewildered by the strange situation than Jwa Gohak himself.
They knew better than anyone how perfect Jwa Gohak’s Ten Thousand Swords technique was. In fact, the technique was even more formidable in defense than in offense. Yet they could not understand how Jwa Gohak, who had mastered such a technique to its very pinnacle, was unable to properly respond to his opponent’s seemingly unremarkable sword.
But if they had been in Jwa Gohak’s position, they too would have had no choice but to suffer the same fate.
Because…
‘This lunatic!’
A silent scream escaped Jwa Gohak.
The sword that had been slowly creeping towards his lower abdomen spun pointlessly through the air two or three times, then abruptly dropped towards the top of his foot.
When he hastily moved to block his foot, it swayed up and down a few times before slipping uselessly backward. The moment he tried to pursue it without understanding what was happening, the blade stopped retreating and began spinning in circles through the air.
‘What kind of sword technique not even a dog butcher would use!’
Jwa Gohak felt as though he were going mad with frustration. Every single one of Baek Cheon’s sword forms was an absurd waste, a barrage of terrible moves whose purpose was impossible to comprehend.
Third-rate, no. Not even third-rate. Not even a novice who had held a sword for ten days would use sword forms like these in a spar.
“What are you doing?! Fight properly!”
“Why would you say something so hurtful? I am really trying my best.”
“Y-You bastard!”
“Why? Did you not say that sword techniques are merely the repetition of predictable movements, so you could anticipate them all?”
“U-Uaaaagh!”
Realizing that he was being toyed with, Jwa Gohak let out a furious cry and blindly thrust his sword forward. At that very instant, Baek Cheon’s sword, which had changed its momentum in a flash, savagely tore into his shoulder.
“Argh!”
Jwa Gohak let out a scream of agony.
“Tsk, tsk. To lose all your dignity over such a little cut.”
“You horse-faced bastard!”
“Come now, were you not the one talking about benevolence and propriety, as a Confucian scholar?”
Baek Cheon smiled faintly and swung his sword once more.
Dripping cold sweat, Jwa Gohak barely managed to block the sword flying at him along its bizarre trajectory.
‘Stay calm.’
This bastard was deliberately using absurd sword forms so that they could not be predicted. He was acting outside all common sense to throw him into confusion.
Then all he had to do was not get confused. No matter how much his opponent tried to act unpredictably, there were only so many things one could do while exchanging swords. So first, stay calm and…
Paaaat.
Then Baek Cheon’s sword shot towards Jwa Gohak’s face several times faster than before. At that speed, changing its course was impossible. Jwa Gohak, too, set aside his doubts for that moment and struck Baek Cheon’s sword upward with all his strength.
‘Got it!’
Baek Cheon’s thrusting sword was knocked away. Now, if he seized this opening, he could regain the upper hand…
“Huh?”
The sword… His own sword was going up too high? Huh?
The instant he struck it upward, he felt not the slightest bit of resistance from his opponent’s sword. Having put his full strength into knocking away the swift blade, Jwa Gohak’s sword naturally soared helplessly into empty air.
‘He let go of his sword?’
By the time Jwa Gohak had barely grasped what was happening, Baek Cheon – having completely let go of his sword – lunged at Jwa Gohak’s wide-open upper body.
Jwa Gohak gritted his teeth. He could evade it. He could still evade…
Smack!
Suddenly, right in front of Jwa Gohak’s face, Baek Cheon brought his palms together. Jwa Gohak, who had been wound tight with tension, ready to dodge whatever attack came his way, flinched and recoiled as though pricked by a needle.
“Huh?”
And in that instant, Baek Cheon broke into a broad smile and drove his massive fist straight into Jwa Gohak’s face.
“Kweeeeeeeeeeeeeek!”
With a shriek like that of a pig being slaughtered, Jwa Gohak was sent tumbling across the ground, rolling over and over.
________
*Jwa Gohak is using a Chinese idiom 李代桃僵 – literally – the plum tree withers in place of the peach tree. It means to substitute something, sacrifice one thing to save another, accept a lesser loss to avoid a greater one.
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