So that’s why. (4)
“Raaaaaah!”
The disciples of Hwasan, who had made their grand entrance onto the battlefield, raced across the vast expanse of land, clad in black martial uniforms embroidered with plum blossoms, the symbol of Hwasan.
In the past, even just a few years ago, this sight would hardly have seemed remarkable. But things were different now. There was not a single person in the world today who would dare look down on them.
Hwasan. The sword sect of Shaanxi that stood proud before the world. A sect that had reclaimed its former glory through its own efforts. They now carried a weight that even Hwasan of old had never possessed.
The sight of Hwasan’s swordsmen drawing their swords in unison and charging forward was powerful enough to steal the breath of everyone watching.
But… The eyes of the charging disciples were actually trembling as though an earthquake had struck.
“We’re doomed. We’re doomed. We’re doomed.”
“We’re screwed!”
“Run! Run faster!”
Of course, there were bound to be a few among them who had no idea what was going on.
“W-Wait, do we really need to hurry this much?”
“What?”
“Is it really that urgent right now? Why are we running ourselves ragged… Getting here was already hell.”
“Have you lost your mind? Can’t you see Jongnam over there, you bastard?”
“Huh?”
Having finally spotted Jongnam’s martial robes, the disciple of the Chung generation began to look just as shaken as the others.
“Those Jongnam bastards got here before us. Do you seriously not understand what that means? Don’t you know who’s going to go berserk?!”
At that shout, all the color drained from Hwasan’s disciples’ faces.
An image of Chung Myung approaching them, licking a gleaming sharp sword with his tongue, naturally sprang to mind.
– You bastards call yourselves my Sahyeongs, and you show up later than our sworn enemies? Oh, sure. You’re telling me to just drop dead? Fine, I’ll drop dead. But I can’t die alone. Can I?
“Eeeek! We’re really going to die.”
“We’d be lucky if dying was all we had to worry about.”
“Run! Run, dammit! Better to die at the hands of those Demonic Cult bastards!”
“That’s why I said we should head this way in the first place!”
“But they told us to go around the back! Those were our orders!”
When they had first arrived here in high spirits, they had been grinning with delight, imagining the Five Swords looking at them as though they were their saviors. But that foolish hope vanished without a trace the moment they saw the densely packed ranks of Jongnam Sect up ahead.
Of course, Hwasan had done nothing wrong. If they were guilty of anything, it was following orders too well.
“No, didn’t they tell us to gather at Zhengzhou?!”
Their only crime was going where they had been told to go. They had followed orders, while all the other sects had ignored those orders entirely and rushed north. Surely that wasn’t Hwasan’s fault.
But at the same time, they all knew.
They had countless excuses. But they would only get to list them from inside their coffins.
Above all, Jongnam was the problem. Now that they had arrived later than Jongnam of all sects, their only chance of survival was to fight like mad and prove they had been more useful.
“Aaaaaaah!”
“Fight with every last bit of strength you’ve got!”
“Don’t you dare die either. He’ll beat you again in hell!”
Half out of their minds, the disciples of Hwasan barely even registered the Five Swords standing in their path.
It was just as Baek Cheon drew his sword and shouted firmly.
“Now, everyone of Hwasan…!”
“Get out of the way!”
“Ah! You’re in the way. Get lost, Sasuk!”
“Stop getting in our way! Damn it, we haven’t got time for this!”
“Huh?”
Watching his fellow disciples race off into the distance without paying the slightest attention to anything he said, Baek Cheon blinked his large, almond-shaped eyes in a daze.
“W-Wait for me, you bastards!”
“Ah, I said we’re busy! If we waste any more time, we’re all as good as dead, damn it!”
The disciples of Hwasan, looking completely out of their minds, plunged headlong into the battlefield.
“W-What’s going on?”
“The Demonic Cult?”
Startled by the overwhelming, oppressive aura suddenly surging from behind them, the disciples of Jongnam spun around in alarm. A bunch of lunatics had appeared out of nowhere, looking no different from demonic cultists in their desperate frenzy, except that their clothes were a little cleaner. No, judging by their eyes, this lot might actually have been even crazier…
“Out of the waaaaay!”
And their eyes weren’t the only sign that they had lost their minds.
These bastards had no respect for rank or seniority, and looked ready to plunge their swords into the backs of even the most senior elders if they didn’t clear a path immediately. Overwhelmed by their ferocity, the disciples of Jongnam recoiled in alarm and hastily scrambled aside.
“W-Wait!”
But Jongnam’s elders saw things somewhat differently. Having experienced demonic cultists’ strength on the front lines, they could only see these young, inexperienced swordsmen’s headlong charge as an act of utterly reckless youthful bravado.
“No! They’re no easy opponents! You’re not strong enough yet…”
Boooooooom!
It happened at that very moment. As the elder shouted his urgent warning, he saw demonic cultists’ bodies burst into pieces and fly through the air.
“……Or perhaps you are?”
Jongnam’s elders blinked.
“Slaughter every last one of them!”
“We meet again, you Demonic Cult sons of bitches!”
“We haven’t forgotten Hangzhou! This time we’re really going to kill you all!”
“These aren’t the same bastards from back then, though?”
“Who gives a damn! The Demonic Cult is the Demonic Cult. Just kill them all!”
Having charged into the center, the disciples of the Hwasan were cutting down demonic cultists as if they were nothing more than lowly, disposable thugs from some Evil Sect.
Jin Chobaek muttered with a groan.
“What on earth… this is impossible…”
Hadn’t they already experienced it themselves? The bodies of those demonic cultists were anything but normal. More precisely, the tenacity of the demonic energy coursing through their bodies was beyond imagination. Their flesh was so tough that only a sword enveloped in sword aura [검강 – geom-gang] could properly cut through it.
That was why the burden was far too great for young swordsmen who could not maintain sword aura throughout an entire battle. Or it should have. A clan like Namgung, which primarily employed powerful sword techniques, could sever those tough bodies through sheer strength and force, but Hwasan was not a sect that wielded such a sword, was it?
Yet the scene unfolding before his eyes was nothing like he had expected.
Swooooosh!
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
“How dare you open your foul, stinking mouths – you damned Demonic Cult bastards!”
“Shove your swords down their throats!”
“Ugh. I don’t want spit on my sword…”
Spewing profanities that were hard to imagine coming from Taoist monks as naturally as they breathed, the disciples of Hwasan wielded their Plum Blossom Swords with supernatural grace, swiftly cutting down demonic cultists.
Jin Chobaek was dumbfounded.
It made no sense. Yet it was clearly happening. Then there had to be a reason that could explain it.
Just then, a shout bordering on a hysterical outburst erupted behind him.
“Hey, you bastards! This is going too far, how dare you ignore ME? You disrespectful little shits!”
Jin Chobaek flinched and turned around. An all too familiar face came into view.
“D-Dong……”
“Move!”
“Huh?”
His eyes bloodshot, Jin Dongryong, or rather Baek Cheon, swept past Jin Chobaek without so much as acknowledging him and charged forward to join Hwasan’s swordsmen.
“You damned bastards! I’m still the Head Disciple!”
“Dongryong…”
As Jin Chobaek stared at Baek Cheon’s retreating back with a hollow expression, the remaining Five Swords passed by him, bowing politely.
“Well… um, hang in there.”
“…”
“But honestly, Elder, you’re partly to blame for this…”
“Shh. Quiet. Can’t you read the room.”
“Amitabha.”
Jin Chobaek watched his son’s friends with sorrowful eyes as they hurried past, stealing wary glances at him.
“Oh, come on, Sasuk!”
“You unfilial brat.”
“You could at least say something to him before you go!”
“Amitabha……”
The Five Swords joined Hwasan’s vanguard as it pierced through demonic cultists. Then, as though on cue, they began unleashing powerful sword energy in unison.
Jin Chobaek’s eyes went wide.
‘What is that?’
Whenever the swords of the Five Swords at the forefront sank into demonic cultists’ bodies, fleeting traces of an energy he could barely describe shone through.
Unless his eyes were deceiving him, every flash of that energy made the dark, sinister demonic energy shrouding the cultists melt away like snow in sunlight.
‘…Is that immortal energy?’
Jin Chobaek was, after all, an Elder of Jongnam Sect – a sect that had its roots in the Taoist tradition [도가(道家)]. Of course, it had now become so secular that speaking of its Taoist traditions was almost laughable, but it had not declined so far that its elders could no longer recognize immortal energy.
“Isn’t that. Immortal Energy?”
Naturally, Jin Chobaek was not the only one to recognize what was extraordinary about the disciples of Hwasan. The other Jongnam’s elders were visibly flustered, unsure what to do.
“B-But immortal energy is an energy that even elderly Taoist masters can barely wield after attaining enlightenment, h-how can children so young…”
“Even so… it’s no more than a fingernail’s worth.”
“Even if it were a grain of sand’s worth, immortal energy is still immortal energy!”
While the elders argued, Jin Chobaek kept his lips firmly pressed together and watched the scene unfolding before him.
‘This..’
Immortal energy is the hallmark of a Taoist who has led a life of purity and virtue. It was said to be an energy that even Taoists who had severed all ties with the secular world and spent their entire lives living in harmony with nature could only barely attain in their twilight years.
It was a remarkable achievement. But that was because immortal energy bore witness to the life its wielder had lived, not because the energy itself had any particularly extraordinary properties.
And yet…
‘Those children’s immortal energy is clearly driving back demonic energy.’
So clearly that he could see it with his own eyes.
Had immortal energy always possessed such an ability, or was there something special about the immortal energy those children wielded?
He could not tell. Jin Chobaek had no way of knowing. The only thing he could be certain of was that the disciples of Hwasan were now proving to be something close to the natural enemies of the Demonic Cult.
That alone was enough to weigh heavily on Jin Chobaek’s heart. Hwasan’s only weakness at present was that its disciples were too young to wield power equal to that of the elders of other prestigious sects.
But what if those young disciples could now display extraordinary strength against demonic cultists, who could be called the only force threatening the world?
‘Then wouldn’t the only advantage we have disappear?’
Put another way, that meant Hwasan’s sole weakness would disappear. Hwasan without a single weakness? What kind of absurdity was that?
As Jin Chobaek struggled to conceal his dismay, a certain sight caught his eye. Young swordsmen sweeping through demonic cultists in unison, without the slightest trace of fear. At the forefront of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, whose sword tips sent plum blossoms scattering through the air, one person was swinging his sword with bold determination.
“Dongryong…”
His third son, who had left Jongnam of his own accord. There he was at the forefront of Hwasan, leading them all.
As Jin Chobaek watched him as though under a spell, his lips parted slightly before he knew it.
“Maybe it’s not… such a bad thing.”
“Pardon?”
“A-Ahem.”
“Sahyeong, what did you just say…”
“Enough!”
At a loss for words, Jin Chobaek suddenly snapped. His face was bright red.
“What are you all standing around for! Are you just going to watch while another sect’s young swordsmen risk their lives! All of you, support Hwasan from the back!”
“Support them from the back?”
“N-No, that’s not… I mean! Help them! Fight! And don’t let them outdo us!”
“….Sahyeong?”
“Now!”
“U-Understood.”
Watching the disciples of Jongnam reluctantly rush forward with puzzled expressions, Jin Chobaek repeatedly cleared his throat, as though trying to conceal his embarrassment.
________
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