Then let’s die. Hwasan. (3)
Common sense would tell that it was only natural.
The Demonic Arts [마공(魔功)] collectively refer to martial arts that make one stronger through abnormal means. If Orthodox Arts [정공(正功) – ‘just’ sects arts] pursue the path of righteousness [more so ‘justice’ 정도], and Unorthodox Arts [사공(邪功) – Sapa ‘evil’] pursue convenience, then the Demonic Arts pursue the path of domination [패도(覇道) – hegemonic path], growing stronger by any means.
Martial arts that pursue nothing but strength, even at the cost of accepting ‘some’ side effects. That was precisely what the demonic arts were.
The problem was that the side effects of demonic arts were far too severe to be described as merely ‘some.’ Those who practiced demonic arts gradually lost their humanity in proportion to the strength they gained. They became more violent, more cruel, and more narrow-minded.
These were the ordinary demons [마인(魔人) – demonic martial artist] the world spoke of. These days, they were generally called followers of the Demonic Cult [or just demonic cultists 마교도(魔敎徒)].
Then what, in turn, was a Bishop?
A Bishop was one who had transcended the shortcomings of the demonic arts. It is a title given to one who has broken through the wall of despair that every demonic martial artist must one day confront and reached the realm of Talma [탈마(脫魔) – Transcending the Demonic].
That was why three kinds of demonic martial artists existed within the Demonic Cult. The Heavenly Demon, the Bishops, and the cultists.
But surely there were also those who belonged to none of those categories.
They were the most defining manifestation of the demonic arts. Those who had touched the ‘wall’ commonly known as Geukma [극마 – Overcoming the Demonic/Extreme Demonic]*’.
Those who had reached the highest place attainable through the demonic arts, yet had failed to overcome a one final wall and thus had not become Bishops.
Baek Cheon slowly opened his mouth.
“An exceptional cultist or a half-baked Bishop.”
A red gleam seeped through the cultist’s long bangs.
“Which of the two should I address you as?”
At Baek Cheon’s question, he subtly twisted the corner of his mouth.
“It matters not what mere unbelievers of the Central Plains call me. But…”
The cultist’s massive blade scraped across the ground with a harsh screech.
“Being called a half-baked Bishop is rather irritating.”
“The truth has always been bitter to hear.”
“Haha.”
The cultist let out a short laugh and shrugged.
“Well, that may be true.”
At his ready admission, Baek Cheon stared at the man standing before him with a peculiar look. After all, if he were a demonic cultist, the normal response at this point would be to fly into a rage, screaming that he would kill Baek Cheon.
As if he had noticed Baek Cheon’s doubt, the demonic cultist spoke.
“You don’t need to look at me like that. I dislike Central Plains’ people and Taoists alike, but there is exactly one thing I do like.”
“…..What is that?”
“Someone I can actually have a conversation with.”
The demonic cultist casually pointed behind him with his thumb. It was a relaxed gesture.
“As you can see, the situation is what it is.”
“…I hate myself for actually empathizing with you.”
Baek Cheon thought he understood what the man meant.
The man before him was clearly retaining his reason [이성(理性)]. It was impossible to know exactly how much remained, but he was certainly capable of speaking and thinking like a human being. So he had to be considered to possess at least the bare minimum required to qualify as human.
If someone like that… had to live surrounded by people who, comrades though they might be, could no longer maintain their reason? How agonizing must that be?
“But I don’t see why we need to serve as your refuge. Aren’t there people above you who can hold a conversation?”
“Above me? Hahaha. You Central Plains’ people really know nothing.”
“Hm?”
“The ones who are truly out of their minds are up there. Even more so than those wretches behind me.”
Baek Cheon squeezed his eyes shut.
‘Damn it.’
He had never realized how important it was to be able to communicate. That alone was enough to make him feel a strange sense of familiarity with the enemy he had only just met.
Trying to shake off that feeling that kept welling up and clinging to him, Baek Cheon spoke with as much hostility as he could muster.
“So… what might the Heavenly Demon’s esteemed dog wish to discuss?”
“That is quite an insolent remark.”
The cultist immediately shook his head.
“How could we presume to call ourselves His dogs? That would be far too great an honor.”
There was not the slightest trace of sarcasm or humor in his words. That fact sent a chill down Baek Cheon’s spine.
“As for your question about what I wish to discuss… Well, I don’t know. What could you and I possibly talk about?”
“There are things I can ask.”
“Ask?”
“Yes. I have a question, though… How many people like you are there in the Demonic Cult?”
Upon hearing the question, the cultist chuckled.
“How many, you say… What a ridiculous question.”
“What’s so amusing about it?”
“Look, man of the Central Plains.”
Demonic energy like dark storm clouds poured from the cultist’s body. It was so dense that it seemed almost suffocating. Even before the oppressive sensation inherent to demonic energy itself, the sheer force contained within that energy bore down on Baek Cheon.
“This is the power of one who has reached the Demonic Wall [마벽(魔壁)].”
A chill ran through him.
Of course, it could not be compared to the insurmountable colossal strength the Bishop emitted.
But if asked which one felt more threatening, it was actually this one. After all, a person was bound to fear a blade pointed directly at them more than a mountain collapsing in the distance.
“We refer to those who have reached the pinnacle by number.”
“By number?”
“To become a Bishop is to earn the right to be called by a name. We have not earned names. But we have risen above being mere nameless [무명(無名)] members of the Cult. And so, we are given numbers.”
The cultist bared his teeth in a grin.
“Since you asked first, I’ll ask you in return. What number do you think I am?”
“…Thirty?”
“Hahahahahahahaha!”
The cultist shook with laughter. He looked as though Baek Cheon’s answer was so amusing that he simply could not contain himself. Then, with amusement still lingering on his face, he spoke.
“You were a little off.”
“A little?”
“Yes. There’s no need to bother remembering it. You’re going to die anyway. But I’ll tell you. My number is Four-Nine-One [사구일(四九一)].”
Baek Cheon’s eyes widened.
“The 491st** to reach Geukma [극마] of the Seventh Heavenly Demon Vessel [제칠(第七) 천마기(天魔器)***]. That’s me.”
“Four hundred…?”
A chill swept through Baek Cheon’s entire body.
If that man was the 491st… didn’t that mean nearly five hundred people had reached this level?
“Could that possibly be…”
“There’s no need to be afraid. Of those five hundred or so, only a mere dozen have obtained the position of a Bishop.”
Blood-red light burst from Four-Nine-One’s eyes.
“And fewer than twenty have avoided being devoured by the Demonic Wall and are still clinging to life.”
“.…Devoured?”
“Heh…”
Four-Nine-One let out a laugh. It seemed to contain a mixture of many emotions.
“You don’t know. You couldn’t possibly know. Just how desperately glad I am to see you right now.”
“…”
“You call the Demonic Wall the Wall of Despair, I hear. Hahahahahaha. That’s a truly perfect name. It is exactly what it says. For one who has touched the Demonic Wall, only two paths remain. Overcome it, or fall.”
Four-Nine-One’s face suddenly twisted like that of a wrathful demon.
“To overcome it, one needs more. More blood, more lives, more deaths…!”
Baek Cheon gritted his teeth at the demonic energy pouring from him. The madness within it was so intense that even a momentary lapse in concentration seemed enough to send his mind reeling.
“A cultist cannot covet the life of another cultist. And we could not set foot in the Central Plains. Do you understand? I’m asking if you understand! Do you think you can understand the lives we lived wanting to grow stronger, only for that growth to ultimately mean our downfall [전락(顚落)]!”
“Madman…….”
“Haha! But that’s fine. It doesn’t matter anymore. Because now you’re standing before me!”
Through the hair fluttering wildly in the surging energy around him, Baek Cheon could see Four-Nine-One’s eyes.
What dwelled in those eyes… was an almost unbearable desire, the appetite of someone who had starved for a long time, the survival instinct of someone clinging to the edge of a cliff, and something akin to the desperate scream of a person watching their child fall into a well.
And at that moment.
Crackkk!
Four-Nine-One’s left arm suddenly began twisting of its own accord. Bones shattered and flesh tore apart, spraying blood in every direction.
“…W-What is that?”
Baek Cheon instinctively recoiled. He could not tell whether it was a demonic art unknown to him or some other form of attack.
But after watching for a moment, he realized it was neither.
“Ghhhhhhhhhh…..”
Four-Nine-One clutched his arm, his entire body trembling like an aspen leaf. The cold sweat that had instantly covered his face was enough to show how terrible the pain he was enduring must be.
“Aaaaaaaaaaagh!”
Four-Nine-One’s face repeatedly twisted in agony before relaxing again. It was not merely physical pain. He was resisting something. That something was probably…
‘Being devoured.’
It was not a metaphor.
Those who failed to overcome the wall did not simply remain there. Unable to withstand the demonic arts and madness filling their bodies, they literally fell.
They either lost their reason and became true monsters. Or, having forgotten even the martial arts they had accumulated until then, they ended up like the ‘wretches’ he himself had called them.
“Hah… Hahahahaha!”
Four-Nine-One suddenly burst into manic laughter.
Boooooooom!
Along with the tremendous explosion, a wave of energy swept in every direction. It was a horrifyingly violent force, brimming with murderous intent. Black demonic energy streamed from Four-Nine-One as blood-red light blazed from his eyes.
At the same time, the arm that had been twisted began rapidly returning to its original shape. It was a sight difficult to believe even while watching it happen.
Four-Nine-One smiled brightly, as though speaking to someone else, and said.
“It’s all right. It’s all righ…. Ah!”
Then his gaze locked onto Baek Cheon.
“They’re right in front of me. Right here before me, things to be devoured in my place!”
Baek Cheon suddenly felt every hair on his body stand on end.
“Raaaaaaaagh!”
With a scream beyond description, Four-Nine-One charged at Baek Cheon. His enormous but battered blade came hurtling down and collided with Baek Cheon’s sword.
Claaaaaaaaang!
A tremendous force beyond anything he could have imagined.
Had he not added the softness he had learned from Heo Do, his arm would have been crushed by that single blow.
But the attack did not end with one strike.
Krrk! Krrrk!
With Four-Nine-One’s blade still locked against his, Baek Cheon was driven backward. No, even saying that he was driving him back did not quite describe it. Four-Nine-One was simply still charging straight at Baek Cheon. It was only because Baek Cheon’s sword stood in his path that Baek Cheon was being shoved backward along with it.
Ssshhhkk.
Baek Cheon’s feet dragged across the ground as he was forced farther and farther back. Even when he planted his feet with all his strength and braced himself, the speed at which he was being pushed back only continued to increase.
‘This…’
For a moment, fear surfaced in Baek Cheon’s eyes.
“Graaaaaaagh!”
Even as he pressed forward with his blade, Four-Nine-One kept reaching out with his free hand as though trying to seize Baek Cheon.
The intense craving in that gesture was almost unreal. Merely confronting it at such close range made it difficult for Baek Cheon to hold his ground.
“Cut it out already!”
Baek Cheon twisted his sword. There was no need to meet an opponent’s strength with strength alone. That was the path Baek Cheon had chosen.
Swish.
As Baek Cheon twisted his sword and redirected the force, Four-Nine-One’s body lurched along with it. At that instant, Baek Cheon drove a powerful palm strike into Four-Nine-One’s side with his left hand.
Baaaaaam!
It was a blow powerful enough to crush every one of his ribs. But the instant he struck his opponent, Baek Cheon instinctively sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.
His palm strike had definitely connected with Four-Nine-One. The powerful impact he felt in the center of his palm proved it. No matter that his opponent was a demonic cultist – even if he was a demonic martial artist who had reached Geukma* – in the end, he was still human. There was no human who could not be broken by a blow.
But there was something else.
A demonic martial artist was human, yet not human. And so…
Snatch.
Four-Nine-One seized Baek Cheon’s hand, which was buried in his side.
“Ugh……”
Demonic cultists did not stop even while their bodies were being split in two.
Whoosh.
Baek Cheon’s body soared into the air. For an instant, the vast expanse of the sky filled his vision.
Strangely, he thought the sky looked unbearably beautiful, and then Baek Cheon’s body was slammed into the ground at a terrifying speed.
Booooooom!
A sound no human body should have been capable of producing rang loudly across the parched earth.
Special Spinoff Chapter 67 >>>
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*So the problem here is that THERE IS NO HANJA provided for it (극마의 벽), but we can speculate that it is either 극마(克魔) or 극마(極魔) from what I have found (different novels apparently use different hanja for it…). 극마(克魔) means ‘Overcoming the Demonic,’ 극마(極魔) means ‘Extreme Demonic.’
So 마인(魔人) demonic martial artist -> encounters the wall of overcoming the demonic (the wall of extreme demonic) geukma 극마의 벽 -> reaches the state of transcending the demonic talma 탈마(脫魔) (a highest demonic realm).
“even if he was a demonic martial artist who had reached Geukma” – here Biga also treats Geukma as something to ‘attain/reach’ – 극마에 오른 마인.
For other terminology hanja has been in this chapter, or has been provided previously.
**His ‘name’ is literally separate numbers 4-9-1, while when he is elaborating on it he actually says the four hundred and ninety first (사백구십일 번째).
***I really think this is something Biga invented cause I can’t find anything remotely similar to 천마기(天魔器). Depending on the context 器 can mean tool, utensil, weapon or vessel. In this novel, for example, gi-器 has been used for am-gi – hidden weapons and do-gi – vessel of the Tao. And it’s just two examples. Without any context I can’t say what this seventh cheonmagi is for sure.
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