That’s a different story, isn’t it? (5)
“Ugh……”
Heavenly Executioner suddenly opened the fist he had been clenching tight.
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
Booooom!
An explosion of demonic energy engulfed even Heavenly Executioner himself, blasting Baek Cheon and Yu Iseol away at the same time. Despite instantly unleashing their own energy to brace for the impact, they were unable to fully withstand the force and were sent flying like cannonballs.
Whoooosh.
It was a formidable attack, but it did nothing to prove that Heavenly Executioner was left unscathed. Perhaps because of the aftershock from the blast he himself had unleashed, blood gushed like a fountain from the gaping hole in Heavenly Executioner’s shoulder.
“Ugh…….”
A vicious murderous aura poured from his eyes.
“You baaaaaastaaard!”
Booooom!
Heavenly Executioner kicked off the ground and shot forward like a streak of light. He had pushed off so hard that the earth beneath him burst apart, sending debris flying nearly three jang into the air.
The blood-stained fangs of the wounded beast were aimed at none other than Baek Cheon. Ignoring even Yu Iseol, who had sunk her own fangs into him, Heavenly Executioner charged ferociously at Baek Cheon.
With his present abilities, Baek Cheon would surely struggle to block this attack. But that was no problem. He had already bought more than enough time.
Clang! Claaang!
Two swords crossed directly in front of Baek Cheon and caught Heavenly Executioner’s fist. Golden energy followed close behind them, bearing down on Heavenly Executioner’s charge.
“Uhh…….”
Taking advantage of the opening, Jo Geol and Yoon Jong grabbed Baek Cheon and swiftly retreated.
“Are you all right, Sasuk?”
“No, this lunatic…!”
“Um…. Sahyeong. Isn’t that a bit harsh on Sasuk?”
“Precisely because he IS our Sasuk!”
“…..Right.”
As Yoon Jong ground his teeth, Jo Geol – overwhelmed by the sheer intensity – instinctively shrank back.
To be honest, even Jo Geol thought they had gone too far. Perfect coordination be damned. One wrong move and they both would have died. No, it was astonishing enough that the two of them had charged at Heavenly Executioner on their own and somehow come back alive.
A split second. A mere hair’s breadth. Yes, that was all the room they had. If they had allowed even that much error, neither of them would still be alive. When the tiniest mistake by someone else could cost you your head, how could you swing your sword to its very limit without the slightest hesitation?
This wasn’t a matter of trust or coordination.
‘They’re just out of their minds!’
And yet, astonishingly, it was precisely that insanity that had kept them alive. Them, and the others too.
The disciples of Hwasan raised their swords and stood on guard around Baek Cheon, as though protecting him. At the sight, Heavenly Executioner clenched his teeth.
‘Damn it……’
He clutched his pierced shoulder. Even now, the regenerative power unique to the demonic arts was mending the torn flesh back together, but the wound was too severe for even that ability to handle fully.
But Heavenly Executioner was not grinding his teeth merely because the likes of them had wounded him. They were not the only reason he had been hurt.
“Is it still with me… The scar that damned bastard left behind.”
He was not speaking only of a wound to his body.
Of course, even Heavenly Executioner could not heal the deep sword wound across his chest in such short a time. Naturally, he was now engaging in battle despite that injury.
There was nothing unusual or remarkable about that.
To believe one could enter every battle fully prepared was a fantasy held by those who had never known war. War meant fighting whenever you were still alive and able to move. Injuries to the flesh could not even serve as an excuse.
It was not the physical wounds that had allowed that blow to land.
In that moment. The moment that pale-faced bastard called Baek Cheon made plum blossoms bloom right before his eyes, Heavenly Executioner had faltered without realizing it.
Throb.
He did not want to admit it, but he had no choice.
His body remembered that damned sword. Like a buffalo from Wu panting at the moon*. Just like a man startled by a pot lid after being frightened by a turtle, his body, once ravaged by Chung Myung’s blade, instinctively recoiled at the sight of Baek Cheon’s similar sword technique.
“Damn it….”
The realization mercilessly crushed Heavenly Executioner’s pride.
To be overwhelmed not by the enemy himself, but by the lingering memory he had left behind – what could be more humiliating for a man like Heavenly Executioner?
“….How pathetic. Me, of all people.”
He had believed he could trample the Central Plains whenever he wished without suffering a single wound. He was certain that only the Cult’s worn-out doctrines held him back, and that he had amassed more than enough power to erase the very name of the Central Plains.
And yet, look at him now.
Less than ten days after setting foot in the Central Plains, his body bore two great wounds, the likes of which he had scarcely suffered throughout all the wars before.
And he had spoken of passing judgment? In this state, he had spoken of the Central Plains’ destruction?
“Ugh……”
Heavenly Executioner’s eyes grew red.
No, he could not accept it.
He could accept that he himself had been a frog in a well. But if Heavenly Executioner were reduced to an insignificant, trivial human being, would that not make light of all the suffering the belivers had endured for so long in that barren land?
So he had to show them. He had to prove how immense their hatred, their anger, and their longing were. By tearing those before him to pieces.
“Hwasan……”
Those who scatter these accursed plum blossoms.
“…I acknowledge it. You are the Cult’s most bitter enemies.”
In the past and now alike, those who stood in his way were always those loathsome swordsmen of Hwasan.
“This war will not end until I have wiped you all out.”
Hearing this, Baek Cheon let out a low chuckle.
“You’re stating the obvious. We’ve lived for a long time with nothing on our minds but killing every last one of you.”
“…”
The seething rage on Heavenly Executioner’s face vanished as though it had been washed away.
“Yes, it was like that from the beginning.”
He spoke almost to himself as he slowly moved.
“I had merely forgotten that fact for a moment, steeped as I was in endless monotony.”
Pitch-black demonic energy began to whirl savagely around Heavenly Executioner.
The disciples of Hwasan felt it clearly.
Until moments ago, all they had sensed from him was immense power. Now they sensed unmistakable hostility.
The fierce hatred Heavenly Executioner poured towards the disciples of Hwasan made them shudder. He was still immense and overwhelming. A single wound to his body had changed nothing.
And yet the expressions on the faces of Hwasan’s disciples as they looked at Heavenly Executioner were unmistakably different from before.
Because they had seen it with their own eyes. Because Baek Cheon and Yu Iseol had proven that even insects like themselves could wound that colossal being if they struggled hard enough.
“Sasuk.”
“Hm?”
“….How did you do it? What you did just now.”
Baek Cheon let out a weak laugh.
“Well. If I could explain it in words and get the idea across, don’t you think I’d have spared myself all this trouble? Haha.”
“…You can laugh at a time like this?”
Jo Geol shook his head.
Even so, he did not press Baek Cheon or blame him, because Jo Geol knew that it was not something words could convey.
So what else could he do?
‘I’ll just have to try it myself?’
Whether it worked out or not, he had no choice but to give it a try. And if he failed and lost his head? That would only mean Jo Geol was not good enough.
“…I think I’d actually feel more at ease if I just resigned myself to dying.”
“You can’t die. If we’re even one person short, the rest of us will probably die too.”
“So… you’re saying we have to attempt something we’ve never done before – something we’ve never even imagined – while walking a razor’s edge, and we absolutely can’t die?”
“Yes.”
Jo Geol smiled faintly.
“I’m going to lose my mind.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
With an uncharacteristically chilling smile, Yoon Jong stepped forward.
“We’re used to this sort of thing.”
“I suppose we are.”
It did not matter that they could not do it now. They would have to push past their limits. While swinging their swords.
There was no need to worry about failing.
“If I die, then that’s it.”
“…I don’t think that’s a very good mindset.”
Before long, the disciples of Hwasan all wore much the same expression as they fixed their eyes on Heavenly Executioner. Then, they advanced.
Baek Cheon grinned and spoke.
“I feel like I ought to say something… Whether we see each other again alive, or after we’ve all kicked the bucket, either way, let’s meet again.”
“If only you’d kept your mouth shut.”
“Amitabha. Please shut your trap, Siju.”
“…M-Monk?”
Leaving the flustered Baek Cheon behind, Hye Yeon charged forward, golden Buddhist radiance streaming from him. As if answering the challenge, Heavenly Executioner rushed straight at Hye Yeon, a step ahead of him.
As Hye Yeon gained speed, his face contorted.
‘I had always wondered.’
The Buddha statues he had seen always wore gentle smiles. As though that was the face of one who had attained enlightenment. Hye Yeon, too, had spent his life taking it for granted that a Buddha would naturally wear such an expression.
But another memory remained just as vivid in his mind.
Life-Size Buddha – Deungsin-bul [등신불(等身佛)**]. Those who had offered themselves to the Buddha.
When Hye Yeon first saw them, all he felt was shock. He could not understand why the faces of those who had willingly offered up their lives were so steeped in pain.
If that offering, that Buddhist Path, had truly come from their own hearts, should its end not have been filled with joy? Why, then, could he sense nothing but pain in those who had performed the most holy act a Buddhist could undertake?
The existence of Deungsin-bul had shaken Hye Yeon’s world. That was why he had tried to forget them. That was why he had tried to erase them from his mind.
But now he understood.
Doing what one desired above all else did not mean the path would be filled only with joy. Sometimes, to attain what they sought, people walked willingly towards suffering.
How strange.
He was opening a path of slaughter by his own choice, piling sin upon sin. Because of this choice, he would once again spend countless years bound to a cycle filled with suffering, striving to cleanse himself of those sins.
The thought pained him terribly. And yet, at the same time, it brought him immense joy.
Ah. The path lies within oneself, after all. Depending on how one views it, the very same road can swing between ecstasy and the abyss.
Hye Yeon’s eyes widened slightly.
A world steeped in dense demonic energy. From the far end of that world, which had seemed like a purgatory devoid of even a single ray of light, crimson flowers began to spread.
Crimson plum blossoms drawn forth by someone were sweeping through the blackened world, winding themselves around his path towards purgatory. A faint smile touched Hye Yeon’s lips.
‘Perhaps… perhaps it does not lie only within me.’
Words no one would hear. But words conveyed with all his heart.
“Amitabha.”
Having murmured the Buddhist invocation almost under his breath, Hye Yeon slowly spread both hands to either side.
Supreme Great Power [무상대능력(無上大能力)].
Hye Yeon’s body shone gold, while myriad expressions passed across his face. At times compassionate, at others steeped with agony, yet what dwelled upon that face was not so much the Buddha as a human being. A human being through and through.
Golden Buddhist power [불력(佛力)] entwined with crimson petals surged majestically towards the demonic being, consumed by the flames of his own hatred.
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*오우천월(吳牛喘月) – “A buffalo from Wu pants at the moon.” It has been worked harshly under the sun, and it becomes frightened when seeing the moon, thereby pants. An idiom (Wu – East China).
**Some monks subjected themselves (out of their own volition) to extreme practices, from fasting, to constant meditation, to deliberate death – as an offering to the Buddha. It was a culmination of their religious practice. When such a monk died and it was possible, their body was preserved and encased as a “living statue.”
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Oh, wow. I did not expect to love this chapter so much. “Shut your TRAP” – go off, Hye Yeon, I don’t remember him being so rude ㅠㅠ he was finally fed up with them.
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