Had he truly been this strong? (2)
Kwoooom.
Baek Cheon’s gaze darkened slightly as he looked upon the golden Buddhist light surging towards the heavens.
‘Monk…’
He knew all too well how the intent [심의(心意)] within that Buddhist light had changed.
A faint pang of sorrow settled in his heart. Of course, it was presumptuous of him to lament Hye Yeon’s change. Hye Yeon was more than capable of deciding his own path and martial way. There was no doubt that everything was a choice he had made for himself.
And yet, even knowing that, Baek Cheon could do nothing about the trace of bitterness welling up inside him.
If the world had not been like this, if there had been no Demonic Cult running rampant in its bid to bring the world to ruin… would Hye Yeon truly have chosen to walk that path of his own accord?
Baek Cheon quietly closed his eyes.
This was not a feeling directed at Hye Yeon alone. Even before Hye Yeon and Baek Cheon, countless others must have chosen this path. Perhaps some had even perished before they could properly walk the path they had been all but pushed into choosing.
And things like this would continue to happen in the future.
Baek Cheon opened his eyes once more.
Sorrow alone could change nothing. He had to spend that time doing what he could. He had to take up his sword so that no one would ever again be forced into choosing a path they did not want.
Baek Cheon stared at Four-Nine-One as he approached. He saw the man’s face twisted like that of a vicious fiend, murderous intent pouring from him, but… well. He did not find him particularly threatening.
If anything…
“You’re first, I suppose.”
With his sword hanging loosely at his side, Baek Cheon slowly walked towards Four-Nine-One.
“Grr…….”
Had he read Baek Cheon’s reaction? Four-Nine-One unleashed a ferocious aura.
“Y-You… you wretched….. bastard!”
The damage to his physical body was not severe. That was only natural, since Baek Cheon’s sword had been less about crushing his opponent than using his opponent’s own strength to push him back.
But there was no chance of such a thing remaining in Four-Nine-One’s mind. The only things dominating his thoughts now were the despair and terrible helplessness he had felt when countless plum blossom petals had engulfed him and driven him back. Those were the only two emotions he had.
As if to display Four-Nine-One’s fury, pitch-black demonic energy boiled and churned wildly.
Four-Nine-One, as if set ablaze, and Baek Cheon, calm and composed. A stark contrast could be felt between the two men facing each other on the parched earth.
“Grr…….”
Anger surged through him. He wanted to surrender everything to the torrent of emotion and let go of his reason. The veins stood out all over his face, teeth bared in a snarl.
And yet, Four-Nine-One did not recklessly unleash an attack upon Baek Cheon. No, it would be more accurate to say that he could not bring himself to charge.
The aftereffects of demonic arts paralyzed reason. The desire to tear Baek Cheon’s body to shreds and drink his blood right then and there threatened to swallow his mind.
Even as he was tormented by a desire that seemed to set his entire body aflame, Four-Nine-One desperately clung to both his reason and his physical self.
‘No.’
His ability to reach Geukma had not come from having greater talent than others. The Demonic Cult was a place overflowing with those more talented than he was, and those stronger than he was.
And yet, Four-Nine-One had surpassed them and risen to the realm of Geukma. Even among those who had reached the same realm, he had managed to survive until now.
The reason was simple. It was because he possessed the self-control to endure precisely in moments like this.
Dangerous. That was definitely dangerous.
A moment ago, that man had done something he could not understand. In the Demonic Cult, a single moment’s judgment could mean losing one’s head. Four-Nine-One, who had survived in such a place, knew all too well what it meant when there was something he could not understand.
Watching Four-Nine-One hesitate despite his fury, unable to bring himself to charge, Baek Cheon twisted the corner of his mouth.
“So, you may act like a beast, but you’re not actually one.”
It would have been easier to deal with him if he had simply charged without thinking. Baek Cheon’s sword was specialized in dealing with people like that, after all.
It was a shame, but that was all right.
‘This won’t be enough anyway.’
Baek Cheon had to surpass even a Bishop. Otherwise, he would spend the rest of his life staring at Chung Myung’s back.
“Let’s not drag this out. I still have a long way to go.”
Whether this quiet provocation had worked, or whether the demonic arts had finally swallowed Four-Nine-One’s self-control, was impossible to know.
Whatever the reason, Four-Nine-One finally rushed at Baek Cheon with tremendous speed. He radiated an even more savage and vicious aura than before. The fierce blood-red light pouring from his eyes was more than enough to plunge anyone who faced him into despair.
But Four-Nine-One’s opponent now was Baek Cheon, and he was far too familiar with despair.
“Haaaaaaaah!”
From above to below, his blade came crashing down with tremendous force. It was a blow into which he had wrung every last ounce of his strength, as though he were facing not a single swordsman but an army of thousands. The sheer obsession imbued in that blade felt even more chilling than the power it carried.
Watching this, Baek Cheon calmly took a step forward.
‘This is a strange feeling.’
Nothing in particular had changed. All he had done was lay out everything he had and successfully execute a single sword strike that had bordered on a stroke of luck. To be honest, if he were asked to perform it again, he was not confident he could execute it as perfectly as he had moments ago.
And yet, how should he put it?
‘I can see it.’
It did not mean that he could clearly see something with his eyes. If he had to give it a name, it would be perception [관(觀)].
– Martial arts begin with observation. Those idiots try to swing their swords before they can even see properly, so of course they accomplish nothing.
He finally grasped, however faintly, the meaning behind the words Chung Myung had endlessly repeated. Simply by looking at the powerful blow descending upon his head, he felt as though he could understand half of what lay at its core.
Then did Baek Cheon possess a secret move capable of stopping a strike imbued with that much internal energy?
Well, of course not. There was no such thing.
He simply understood.
Baek Cheon slowly lowered the tip of his sword. Tensing his lower abdomen, he drew up his internal energy, then resolutely swept his sword upward as though scattering something into the air.
Clang!
As though he had swung his sword against the boundless sea, his strike was swallowed helplessly by his opponent’s power. Yet Baek Cheon swung his sword again.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Even in the fleeting moments that allowed not so much as a blink, Baek Cheon’s sword shot upward through the empty air again and again.
As Baek Cheon watched the dazzling spectacle of countless sword energies spreading across his field of vision, Chung Myung’s back suddenly appeared before his mind’s eye. The sight of him unleashing a barrage of strikes in a split second against an enemy’s crushing blow.
‘Damn bastard.’
Everywhere Baek Cheon had walked, he had found an answer. And everywhere he had yet to go… Chung Myung’s back was there before him.
A trace? No, it would be more accurate to call this a ‘manual’ rather than a mere trace.
A true and proper path, built up over long years in advance for those who would one day set foot here.
Baek Cheon swung his sword towards that true path.
Booooom!
The layers of sword energy he had built up collided violently with his opponent’s demonic energy. And in that instant, Baek Cheon’s sword energy shattered into countless fragments, transforming into a myriad of flower petals.
‘So this is what it means to see.’
The black demonic energy was dense and deep, looking almost like an abyss. But Baek Cheon could see it. Even within that dense demonic energy, there was clearly a flow. That flow, whirling ferociously. The plum blossom sword energy Baek Cheon had scattered suddenly focused on that ‘flow*.’
‘Stronger, more intense…’
Power enough to crush an opponent beneath it. It was a temptation any martial artist was bound to fall prey to at least once, and Baek Cheon had been captivated by it as well. What had that damned bastard Chung Myung said back then?
– Why the hell do you even need something like that?
When he had heard those words, Baek Cheon had felt his stomach twist more violently than ever before in his life.
Because it had sounded like an offhand remark from a hawk soaring through the sky to a mountain beast yearning to leap higher.
Yes, it had felt like someone who already possessed everything looking at someone who had nothing with genuine bewilderment, unable to understand them in the slightest. That was why Baek Cheon had felt a faint sense of humiliation, anger, and jealousy.
But looking back now, that hadn’t been the case.
“At any rate, that damned bastard…’
Chung Myung had simply said exactly what he meant. He truly must have been unable to understand why someone would struggle so desperately to obtain something they did not even need.
Only after reaching this height did he understand.
Claaaaaang!
The demonic energy blanketing the surroundings cracked apart for an instant.
To meet that powerful demonic energy head-on with sheer force, Baek Cheon would need equal strength. Or else, as he had moments ago, he would need something immense enough to match it.
But…..
– I’m telling you, why do you need something like that?
“Yeah, you were right about every single thing. You damned bastard.”
Claaaang!
Cracks spread through the demonic energy covering the sky, and a portion of it split wide open. With movement as fluid as flowing water, Baek Cheon launched himself towards the breach.
There was no need to meet it head-on. No need to counter it, nor to shatter it entirely.
After all, a human being would die if a sword pierced their flesh. What one person needed to fight another was not some tremendous power capable of covering the heavens.
At the center of the surging black demonic energy. Baek Cheon burst through the small opening he had pierced in an instant and saw Four-Nine-One, unable to hide his bewilderment.
Right. This must have been the very expression Chung Myung always saw whenever he broke through an enemy’s energy and charged forward.
And then…
Baek Cheon thrust his sword straight towards Four-Nine-One’s face in one swift motion.
At that, as though the bewilderment he had shown moments ago had all been a lie, Four-Nine-One swept his blade horizontally in a lightning-fast slash.
It was entirely different from the bold strikes he had been hurling until now. A strike focused solely on speed. It was a strike designed to swallow Baek Cheon in a single instant, as though Four-Nine-One had dug a trap and waited solely for this one moment.
The ferocity of a wild beast now dwelled on Four-Nine-One’s face. The thrill of sinking his teeth into his opponent, along with a deep sense of satisfaction, could be felt at once.
But contrary to his expectations, Baek Cheon’s sword had already reached the path along which Four-Nine-One’s blade was coming.
‘What?’
At the very instant their razor-sharp edges were about to meet, Baek Cheon’s sword dipped slightly downward.
Sssht.
The moment sword and blade touched, Four-Nine-One’s blade slid along the flat of the Plum Blossom Sword. With its speed pushed to the absolute limit, catching such a minute shift would have been impossible for anyone, even for Four-Nine-One.
Thus, when the blade had reached about the middle of the Plum Blossom Sword’s flat, Baek Cheon raised his sword and gently pushed the enemy’s blade upward.
Twang.
With a faint sound, Four-Nine-One’s blade shot up into the air. Even at that moment, Four-Nine-One could not understand it. Why his blade had strayed from its intended course and gone soaring up.
“Because……”
Baek Cheon took a light step forward and turned his body. Rotating the sword as though drawing it towards his body, he sent it sweeping around himself and thrust the sword towards Four-Nine-One’s chest.
Shraaaak!
A sword strike as beautiful as an illusion slashed horizontally across Four-Nine-One’s chest. Blood poured from his split-open chest as Four-Nine-One staggered backward in a frenzy.
Tap.
Kicking lightly off the ground to close the distance, Baek Cheon continued.
“…because I have my eyes on a higher place than you do.”
At a perilous distance where their shoulders nearly touched, countless plum blossoms sprang into bloom from Baek Cheon’s sword.
Lethal, yet magnificent.
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*Here Biga uses the word ‘결’ which literally means grain. But it’s not ‘grain of rice’ it’s like the grain in wood or the directional flow within a material. So I used the word flow for clarity.
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