Then let’s die. Hwasan. (4)
Crack.
A sound as if something were being crushed came from within his body.
Had Baek Cheon not gone through body transformation in the previous war, his life would have ended long ago. The blow was powerful enough to make him instinctively certain of that.
“Ugh…..”
His blood vessels burst, and blood gushed from his mouth and eyes. The instant the world was dyed red, a crimson light darker and deeper than blood itself shot towards Baek Cheon.
Bang!
Four-Nine-One’s fist came crashing down on Baek Cheon.
Booom! Booom! Crack!
Each time the thunderous crash erupted, Baek Cheon’s body jerked violently.
‘This…. bastard!’
Four-Nine-One continued striking him, roaring like a beast. No, like something so vicious that could not even be compared to a mere beast. With every successive attack, Baek Cheon’s body sank deeper and deeper into the ground.
‘I…. can’t……. hold out….’
“Raaaaaaaah!”
Rooooaaaaarrrrr!
At that moment, a golden fist force that came flying from somewhere swept over Four-Nine-One.
“Keugh……”
Four-Nine-One flailed his hand as though trying to resist the fist force, but in the end, he could not block it and was sent flying.
“Graaaaaaaaaaah!”
As Four-Nine-One went flying, leaving the space open, Yu Iseol and Tang Soso darted in like flashes of lightning and supported Baek Cheon.
“Sahyeong.”
“Sasuk!”
“Uuuh…”
After coughing up another mouthful of blood, Baek Cheon drove his sword firmly into the ground. With their support, he barely managed to haul himself upright. The spot where he had been driven into the ground had collapsed under Four-Nine-One’s tremendous force, leaving a massive pit.
“Are you all right, Sasuk?”
Baek Cheon managed to nod.
It was impossible to define exactly what ‘all right’ meant, but at least he was still alive. That was enough. He had been in a situation where the slightest mistake could have cost him his life.
“…..Geukma.”
His reeling mind went blank.
‘The Bishops and the cultists alone are enough to bring the world to ruin. That is the Demonic Cult. But to think there are monsters like this one too…’
And the Heavenly Demon, who could be called the very embodiment of everything the Demonic Cult was, had not even shown himself yet.
But faced with a Demonic Cult like this, could they truly hope to fight and win?
“Sasuk?”
“I’m fine.”
The moment Yoon Jong opened his mouth in concern, Baek Cheon quickly waved him off. As though trying to conceal the weakness that had momentarily shaken his resolve.
‘We aren’t doing this because we can.’
They were doing it because they had to. Just because their opponent was stronger, they could not simply surrender their lives and offer up their necks.
Fight and resist until the very end. That was the duty of the living.
“Sasuk. That bastard is no pushover. I’ll help!”
“….No. I’ll handle him.”
At the unexpected answer, Jo Geol flinched and turned to look at Baek Cheon.
“Sasuk, that’s…..”
“I’m not being stubborn. If both of us pull away, it’ll be difficult to handle the cultists.”
Jo Geol bit down hard on his lip.
It was not wrong. If the two of them were occupied by that man, things would become even more difficult, no matter how capable the disciples of Hwasan were.
“But, Sasuk…”
“There’s nothing to worry about.”
Baek Cheon grinned and tightened his grip on the sword embedded in the ground. The blood flowing down his wrist streamed along the blade.
“Even so, he isn’t a Bishop.”
“…That’d be more convincing if you didn’t look like that.”
“I was only testing him a little.”
“Test him twice and you’ll end up dead…”
While Jo Geol looked thoroughly unconvinced, Baek Cheon shrugged lightly.
“Either way, I’m the only one who can do it.”
“…”
“You know that, right?”
“Damn it.”
Jo Geol ground his teeth and spun around.
“If you die here, you won’t be able to enter the Ancestral Hall. I’ll throw away your memorial tablet myself.”
“….Guess I’d better survive, then.”
“Why don’t you just keep your mouth shut.”
Jo Geol cast Baek Cheon a brief glance before running forward. Watching him, Baek Cheon grinned.
“How cute.”
Of all the threats he could come up with, he threatened to throw away his memorial tablet. If it were Chung Myung, he would have threatened to grind up his corpse and scatter it over Jongnam.
“Whooo.”
Baek Cheon drew his sword and gave it a light twirl. His battered body felt as though it had already been torn to shreds, but still…
‘This much is nothing.’
He was a man who had fought even after losing his martial arts and everything he had. He had been through far too many hardships to whine over an injury like this. So…
“Buy me some time and hurry back, all right?”
No sooner had Baek Cheon finished speaking than Four-Nine-One, who had been lying sprawled in the distance, raised his upper body.
“Hmph….”
Four-Nine-One ran a palm over his face. His long bangs fell apart to either side, briefly revealing his face.
At that moment, Baek Cheon’s expression stiffened slightly. He had suddenly felt something strange. The face of the man who had seemed so much like a demon or monster was, in reality, just slightly more youthful than Baek Cheon’s.
The man who met Baek Cheon’s eyes smiled.
“Ah, sorry, sorry. You know, right? Demonic arts. I can’t really control it, so I lose my reason from time to time. I didn’t mean to get that violent.”
“You sure talk a lot.”
Baek Cheon let out a hollow laugh and leveled his sword diagonally.
“Come at me. I don’t mind if you get even more violent. This isn’t everything you’ve got, is it?”
“Of course not.”
Four-Nine-One leisurely rose to his feet. Then he stared straight at Baek Cheon.
“But… there’s something I don’t quite understand.”
“What?”
“Why are you still alive?”
“…”
“You should already have been dead by now.”
Four-Nine-One tilted his head as though genuinely confused, and Baek Cheon bared his teeth in a grin.
“Why? Are you asking because you don’t know?”
“…Hmm?”
“It’s because you’re so damn weak.”
“…”
Four-Nine-One’s shoulders twitched slightly.
“Yes. This is exactly why I wanted to come to the Central Plains….”
A vicious killing intent, like that of a wrathful fiend, welled up in his reddened eyes. Something he himself could not contain seemed to be seething within him. Four-Nine-One’s feet slowly began moving towards Baek Cheon.
Rrrrruuuuumble.
Black demonic energy swirled violently.
If Hwasan’s martial arts were dazzling, Wudang’s were fluid, Jongnam’s steadfast, and Shaolin’s grand…
Then the martial arts of the Demonic Cult could best be described as ‘overflowing.’
An immense power that the human body could never withstand is forcibly crammed into it, defying the natural order and flow. The tremendous force he has jammed inside himself can overflow at any moment, sweeping through everything around him and staining it black.
One did not need to watch for long to know that it was unmistakably wrong. That black demonic energy was like an ‘unnatural’ itself taking shape in an extremely condensed form. To Taoists who pursued the very essence of nature, it was something unbearably revolting.
But the fruits [과실(果實)] borne of defying the Heavens [역천(逆天)] were plain and unmistakable.
Rrrrruuuuuuumble!
Four-Nine-One kicked off the ground with all his might.
The ground shattered and collapsed mercilessly beneath every step driven into it by his overflowing demonic energy. The air was torn to shreds wherever his body passed, and the blade he brought down moved with tremendous force, as though it could smash the world apart.
This was Geukma [극마(極魔)*] in the truest sense. Humans who contain within their bodies a power that, though human in origin, no human should ever possess.
The aura emanating from that demonic martial artist who had reached Geukma** made even Baek Cheon himself forget to breathe.
It shatters. It splits. It crumbles.
Baek Cheon’s gaze sank deeply.
❀ ❀ ❀
Clang!
Baek Cheon’s body went tumbling helplessly across the ground.
His emaciated, withered arms could not support his falling body. After disgracefully rolling across the ground, Baek Cheon ground his teeth as he spat out dirt and dust.
Then he looked up at the person who had kicked him moments ago.
Heo Do Jinin looked down at him with a face seemingly devoid of all warmth.
“You continue to doubt.”
“…”
“Was that overflowing resolve of yours, in truth, nothing more than sheer spite at refusing to lose? To think you cannot even trust the path you yourself have chosen.”
Baek Cheon’s gaze trembled faintly.
“Then it is all meaningless. Go back.”
“Cough.”
After letting out a dry cough, Baek Cheon forced his battered body upright.
“I have never doubted Wudang.”
“…”
“I do not doubt the Sect Leader… No, I do not doubt you, Dojang.”
“Then what?”
“What I doubt is merely my own body.”
Baek Cheon looked down at his arm.
A body with not even a trace of internal energy left, and arms withered to skin and bone. Anyone could see that he was no longer capable of fighting.
That was why he had struggled so desperately. He had tried to fight even harder, with every last ounce of strength.
But the more he learned, the more painfully he came to realize it. With this body… he could not help but eventually reach his limit. Never again, for as long as he lived, would he become strong.
“I….”
“For what purpose does Hwasan take up the sword?”
Baek Cheon flinched at Heo Do Jinin’s abrupt question.
“And for what purpose does Wudang take up the sword?”
“…”
“Beyond that, for what purpose does a martial artist take up the sword?”
Heo Do Jinin continued speaking with a somewhat hollow expression. Baek Cheon could only remain silent and listen.
“To become stronger? To become strong and look down on the weak? To rise higher than anyone else?”
“Dojang.”
“…That cannot be it.”
Heo Do Jinin smiled faintly.
“Everyone is bound to forget. I am no exception. But in the end, martial arts are merely a means for the weak to fight the strong.”
Heo Do Jinin gazed at Baek Cheon’s arms before speaking in a heavy voice.
“Listen. As you said, it may be that your body is no longer capable of containing ‘strength.’”
Even as he said this, Heo Do Jinin wore a faint smile. It was the smile of a man who seemed to have gained it only after losing so much.
“But if one must possess strength in order to face the strong… then how pitifully insignificant our martial prowess [무(武)] is?”
“Insignificant……..”
“One does not necessarily have to be stronger. That is what it means to stand against someone.”
Baek Cheon, who had remained silent, nodded.
“I’m ready.”
It was difficult to understand it all completely.
His body still retained the sensations of the past. The sensations from when he had been infinitely stronger. But…
‘That is a good expression.’
Baek Cheon looked straight at Heo Do Jinin, who stood facing him.
Well. If he could one day wear a smile like that himself, then perhaps he might come to understand what this man was trying to say.
❀ ❀ ❀
Baek Cheon opened his eyes.
Black demonic energy immediately filled his entire field of vision.
It was savage and ravenous, demonic energy like that of a Malevolent God***. And it was overwhelmingly powerful.
Baek Cheon’s sword shot towards that tremendous force without hesitation. There was not a moment’s doubt.
The instant the enormous demonic energy and Baek Cheon’s sword met in midair…
Salyang Balcheongeun [To move a thousand jin with four liang [사량발천근(四兩撥千斤)] – Wudang’s martial art]? Neung Yujegang [To overcome strength with gentleness [능유제강(能柔制强) – also Wudang’s martial art]? Softness [부드러움]?
Who knew. He knew only one thing. That one did not necessarily need overwhelming power in order to face overwhelming power.
Because martial arts were, from the very beginning, the weapon of the weak.
Krrrk.
The sword twisted as though it would snap the instant it met the demonic energy. The densely concentrated demonic energy was rough and brutal, as though thousands of shards of iron were being violently churned together.
The ‘overflowing’ power surged with enough force to pulverize everything it touched. It shook as though it would shatter Baek Cheon’s sword and grind his body into dust.
And then Baek Cheon’s sword moved smoothly to the side. Rather than resisting the heart of that overflowing force, it rode over it.
Rrrruuuuuuumble!
The power that had overflowed so excessively that even Four-Nine-One could barely control it suddenly slipped free of its wielder’s will and shot out wildly. The demonic energy poured violently past Baek Cheon, like a river surging over its banks.
‘What?’
Four-Nine-One, who had never doubted that his demonic energy would crush Baek Cheon, stared wide-eyed in shock.
Fwoosh!
Crimson blood sprayed like a fountain from Four-Nine-One’s chest.
He kicked off the ground with his heel, instantly widening the distance between himself and Baek Cheon, then looked back and forth between his blood-soaked chest and Baek Cheon.
Baek Cheon slowly opened his mouth.
“I’m curious.”
“……What?”
“What kind of smile I’m wearing right now. Well… I suppose I could never become quite like that man.”
With a confident smile, somewhat different from Heo Do Jinin’s, Baek Cheon shifted his sword into a reverse grip.
“Come at me, monster. I’ll show you how humans fight.”
Four-Nine-One’s face contorted hideously with rage.
Special Spinoff Chapter 68 >>>
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*We got hanja for Geukma! 極魔, where 極 – highest point, extremity, peak; 魔 – demon. The realm of Extreme Demonic. Thank you everyone, who tried to help with it.
**극마의 마인 – [Geukma][OF][ma-in] – the person who had reached Geukma isn’t ‘geukma,’ cause I’ve seen confusion in this too. Here it’s clearly stated that ‘demonic martial artist-of-geukma(level)’.
So it seems like in this novel they go into Geukma realm, reach the Demonic Wall. And from there they have two choices: surmount and reach Talma (Bishop level) or die.
***흉신(凶神) – a Malevolent God/Deity. The opposite to 길신(吉神) an Auspicious God. This connects to Korean astrology. There are different Deities under both umbrella terms.
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