Chapter 111: Chapter 111
* * *
Having climbed the stairs, Jo Sang-ryong received a greeting from his subordinate standing in front of the door. He then opened the door guarded by the subordinate and stepped inside.
It was originally a teahouse, but now the Soaring Eagle Squad was requisitioning and using it. In truth, everything in this village had been requisitioned by them. Yet, even while having their stored liquor and food plundered, the villagers could offer no resistance. Law was far away and blades were close, and those very blades belonged to the ones enforcing the law.
Stepping through the opened door, Jo Sang-ryong saw Chae-yun and her two children. The children stealthily hid behind her, but she stood with her back straight, glaring at Jo Sang-ryong. Meeting her gaze, Jo Sang-ryong soon noticed a clean plate on the side table and smirked.
“I see you’re eating well.”
“It is food the villagers worked hard to cultivate. It shouldn’t be wasted.”
Jo Sang-ryong noticed that her words were a rebuke aimed at the Soaring Eagle Squad, who consumed the village’s food every day. However, since it didn’t affect him in the slightest, he merely smirked, which only infuriated Chae-yun even more.
“…Is this funny to you? The people being plundered by you and your men are all folks with nothing much to their names! And this is the very place where you grew up as a child! Butcher Kang, Auntie Yu at the teahouse, Grandpa Yang at the tavern! They are all elders who know your face! How is what you are doing right now any different from bandits!”
But Jo Sang-ryong was not even properly listening to her rebuke. While she spoke, he had walked over to the window, poured lukewarm tea from the table there, and began sipping it. Seeing this, Chae-yun closed her mouth in dumbfounded disbelief, and only then did Jo Sang-ryong look away from the window to gaze back at her.
“Done? Then stay quiet. If you try to run away like you did two days ago, those brats won’t be safe either.”
Chae-yun’s eyes trembled at his harsh threat as she shielded the children behind her back.
“…What are you waiting for?”
“What else? I’m waiting for your husband and Master to return. If possible, that ronin named Jang Geon as well.”
“…Haven’t half of your men already died? If those three return together, it will be dangerous for you.”
Jo Sang-ryong sipped from the teacup he held, replying nonchalantly.
“That would be true if those three were in peak condition. But Master has severe internal injuries, and that ronin was already gravely wounded. Neither of them has injuries that heal in three days. In a battle between experts, a paper-thin difference decides life and death. Let alone injuries severe enough to hinder movement—that goes without saying.”
“…My husband remains.”
“Ah, Sang-woon? His martial arts are nothing to be threatened by. A single move is enough for the likes of him.”
He smirked.
“But they will come. At least Sang-woon definitely will. With his nature, he wouldn’t be able to abandon you and flee.”
Chae-yun did not answer, but she knew it would happen just as he said. Her husband would surely return. He would not stand by and let her and the children remain in danger for long.
Yet she rather wished he would abandon her and the children and run away. Watching Jo Sang-ryong over the past three days, he was no longer the cheerful and generous young man from seven years ago. Already, three young men from the village had been killed simply because they resisted the violent actions of the Soaring Eagle Squad.
If Dan Sang-woon returned and was captured, it was obvious that Jo Sang-ryong would not treat him gently.
Just then, the door burst open and a member of the Soaring Eagle Squad entered. He bowed to Jo Sang-ryong and spoke.
“Someone is coming.”
At those words, Jo Sang-ryong turned his eyes toward the window and narrowed his gaze. Out on the distant plain, a single dot was approaching the village. Jo Sang-ryong intuitively felt that it was one of the three who had escaped.
“Appearing alone after three days… Is he trying to create an opening? Tell all the squad members to hide and keep watch in every direction. I will greet that man myself.”
“Yes, Commander.”
The man bowed in reply and immediately turned to leave. Jo Sang-ryong, about to follow him out, noticed Chae-yun and her children looking at him with anxious eyes.
“Don’t even think about escaping. If you take a single step out of this room, all Sang-woon will see is your corpses.”
Leaving them with that light threat, he walked out of the room without waiting for an answer. As the click of the locking door sounded, Chae-yun and the children quickly rushed to the window to watch the dot drawing closer in the distance. Chae-yun’s eyes trembled with anxiety.
* * *
The noon sun was scorching.
Not a drop of rain had fallen over the past few days, leaving the air dry and stifling. The sky, devoid of a single cloud, was so blue that it appeared pale rather than azure, and the breeze brushing past the face was lukewarm and unrefreshing. Below, on the deserted streets, drab buildings stood densely packed like tombstones.
Right down the middle, someone wearing a bamboo hat rode in at a clop-clop pace. Stopping his horse at the entrance of the village, he casually dismounted. His wide cape kicked up a cloud of dust with the movement.
As he gave the horse’s rump a light slap, the animal ambled off to a corner on its own. Having sent the horse away, he slowly crossed the street.
The intense sunlight created a stark contrast with the shaded areas. The darkness in the shade rejected the light as if possessing a solid texture, while everywhere the sun hit blazed brightly enough to hurt the eyes. With nothing moving, the street resembled a landscape from a painting depicting the desolation of the New Continent.
And at the end of it stood a man waiting.
“Surprising. To think you came alone.”
The man standing alone on the deserted street, Jo Sang-ryong, spoke while frowning, perhaps due to the glaring sunlight. He seemed to recognize who the person wearing the bamboo hat and cape was. At that, the one who slightly lifted his bamboo hat to reveal his face was Dan Sang-woon.
“We meet again, Senior Brother.”
An unwavering voice, calm eyes. Yet within them swirled a fierce brilliant light. Facing that, Jo Sang-ryong’s eyes twitched and narrowed.
“You…?”
The next moment, Jo Sang-ryong’s narrowed eyes widened. He wore a surprised expression as if realizing something, and asked again.
“Master… What happened to Master? Where is he?”
Dan Sang-woon slowly drew back his loose cape, revealing both arms as he spoke.
“Master has passed away. Leaving Senior Brother in my hands.”
“…That damned old man…”
Jo Sang-ryong distorted his face fiercely upon hearing the answer. It looked like the expression of someone who didn’t know what to do with the anger and resentment boiling inside his heart. In his distress, he suddenly realized that a sword was held in Dan Sang-woon’s hand.
“…So that dying Master passed his internal energy to you? You must have been lucky, Sang-woon. Did that Primordial Scripture you were foolishly cultivating reach peak mastery?”
“No. Internal energy alone cannot complete the peak of the Primordial Qi Cultivation Art. What I have achieved is merely the ninth realm.”
Jo Sang-ryong gave a dry laugh as if feeling helpless.
“Heh, even so, it’s just a health-nurturing art, and it’s just the Mind-Fasting Sword. That sluggish sword art. What does that accomplishment matter? Throw away such outdated martial arts, and what became of Master’s true martial arts, Junior Brother? His true ultimate technique, the Imperial Army’s martial arts, I mean.”
Dan Sang-woon showed no particular reaction to his words dismissing his martial arts. He merely pulled out a glossy manuscript from his bosom and held it up.
“You want Master’s martial arts? Everything is contained right here. But if you wish to have this, you will first have to fight me.”
“…I don’t know what you’re thinking, Sang-woon. Do you truly believe that receiving Master’s internal energy allows you to fight me with a third-rate martial art like the Mind-Fasting Sword? You’ve never beaten me in the past either. And even if by some miracle you defeat me, what will you do then? Do you believe you can overcome the remaining Soaring Eagle Squad all by yourself?”
Jo Sang-ryong spoke while spreading both arms wide. At that, figures silently rose up on the roofs of the buildings along the empty street. Appearing from various places in the village centered around the teahouse, they were the Soaring Eagle Squad. The spears and blades they drew glinted sharply in the bright sunlight.
However, Dan Sang-woon calmly tucked the manuscript back into his bosom and drew his sword. Tossing even the scabbard aside to one spot, he aimed his sword at Jo Sang-ryong and spoke.
“I did not come alone.”
At that moment, rumble—thunder roared.
A startled Jo Sang-ryong turned his head toward the sound, spotting a subordinate falling from below a roof and a man standing tall above him. Jo Sang-ryong shouted.
“You fellow!”
Standing on the roof with a buzzing saber lowered was Jang Geon.
“You bastard! How dare you—”
“Your opponent is over here, Senior Brother!”
Jo Sang-ryong, who was about to move toward Jang Geon immediately, flinched and froze at the momentum that suddenly surged like a wave to engulf him. He could not move recklessly. Surprisingly, Dan Sang-woon had stopped Jo Sang-ryong’s movement simply by pointing his sword at him.
Jo Sang-ryong looked at Dan Sang-woon with disbelieving eyes, feeling as though Dan Sang-woon’s sword pointed at him would pierce his forehead at any moment. Stopping another’s movement through sheer momentum alone. That was a supreme realm that only grand elders might display.
“Senior Brother, shouldn’t you settle things with me?”
“…Heh, settle things. Are you saying you intend to hold me accountable for the sin of betraying our master?”
Dan Sang-woon shook his head.
“Master expelled Senior Brother first, so such a grand sin cannot be held against you.”
“Then?”
“This is merely revenge.”
Jo Sang-ryong smirked at those words.
“Right, now it doesn’t matter who is right or wrong. Only returning what was received remains.”
He raised his left hand, pointed at Jang Geon, and shouted.
“Soaring Eagle Squad! Teach that vagabond the order of the Alliance!”
Seeing his subordinates move, Jo Sang-ryong gripped the blade behind his shoulder and faced Dan Sang-woon. At that moment, unlike the surroundings that began to move rapidly due to the Soaring Eagle Squad, the street where Jo Sang-ryong and Dan Sang-woon faced each other became hushed as if time had stopped. It was as if that spot and the surrounding space had been divided into two.
The two martial brothers stared at each other with bloodthirsty eyes.
* * *
Primordial Unity, Primordial, is a term expressing this entire world or the universe itself.
Rather than dividing and categorizing extremes into Taiji or Three Elements, it refers to the vague and chaotic world itself. Thus, Primordial has no fixed perspective. The positions of you and me are constantly changing, and the world seen from this spot is not the same as the world seen from that spot.
A child who dies young at age nine seems to have lived an eternity in the eyes of a mayfly, and an old man who has lived past ninety is no different from a flickering spark in the eyes of Mount Tai rising over millions of years. Every person and existence sees the world from their own place.
If one truly wishes to become free within it, one must fast the mind, purge all thoughts, sit in oblivion, empty oneself, and unify with the Dao. If one accepts that there is no absolute standard, one finally comes to understand Primordial, and having not leaned toward any extreme within it, one conversely realizes a single thread of force penetrating heaven and earth.
The most fierce dialogue between heaven and earth, the Thunderbolt.
With a rumble, Jang Geon’s blade split both the spear and body of a member of the Soaring Eagle Squad at once. As he leapt over the roof, his breath was cut off immediately, and he fell without being able to set foot down.
Jang Geon composed the buzzing Blue Dragon and thought to himself. It was amusing that the most fierce power could only be gained by comprehending the most quiet principle. It was like how, in the past, studying slow martial arts had allowed him to gain a faster blade instead.
If this thunderbolt were contained in a blade, it would be the Primordial Thunderbolt Blade, and if contained in a hand, it would be the Primordial Thunderbolt Hand.
Daoist Wang must have instinctively felt with his natural talent that it was contained within the essence of the Primordial Scripture. However, having already grown accustomed to the Imperial Army’s martial arts, he had not tried to take proper steps, and an incomplete Primordial Scripture would not have granted him a proper thunderbolt.
Yet it was true that the contents of that scripture had shattered his rigid mindset. That was why he could harbor doubts about his loyalty to the Emperor and later regret those days. For a person to change, look back on past deeds, and reflect was not an easy thing.
Thinking of Daoist Wang, who had passed all his internal energy to Dan Sang-woon and died with a peaceful smile, Jang Geon sprang into the air upon seeing members of the Soaring Eagle Squad leaping across the roofs ahead.
The thunderbolt of the Primordial Scripture was similar to yet different from the Samadhi True Fire of the Subduing Dragon Palm. While it was the same up to internal energy dividing into Yin and Yang, unlike the Subduing Dragon Palm where those two forces rotated fiercely, the thunderbolt seemed to be in a form where internal energy reaching a certain point instantly stopped all movement and transformed into a single ray of lightning, pouring out explosive power.
And the power extending out like that could not be stopped.
Once again, with a thunderous rumble, another member of the Soaring Eagle Squad was cut down. Unlike last time when five rushed at him together, standing sparsely between buildings, despite their greater numbers than before, each had to face Jang Geon individually.
Fighting one-on-one like that, Jang Geon had no reason to lose even without the Primordial Thunderbolt Blade.
“You! Ronin!”
Just then, two members of the Soaring Eagle Squad stood occupying the front and back of Jang Geon on a single roof. Other squad members further away were also climbing up to that spot with nimble movements.
Seeing them, Jang Geon gave a faint smirk. At the same time, he flashed forward toward the squad member in front.
The man standing behind sprang as soon as he saw Jang Geon move. The rear was the biggest blind spot. Even if he dealt with the squad member in front, the short moment it took for Jang Geon to turn around would be enough for him.
The squad member in front focused his mind with the thought of holding out by any means until the squad member behind Jang Geon attacked—that is, enduring just one move. But at that moment, seeing Jang Geon’s blade coming divided into five paths, he had no choice but to be dazed. Five blades swept across his neck and limbs. The correct answer was the neck.
Having dealt with the enemy in front, Jang Geon immediately leaped from that spot and flipped his body. The squad member who had rushed close behind him found himself facing Jang Geon upside down in midair.
Even while feeling flustered, the squad member immediately thrust his sword toward Jang Geon’s head. However, through that single moment of fluster, Jang Geon’s blade, approaching first, split his head vertically.
Swinging his blade forcefully, Jang Geon spun around with that momentum and hovered in midair. Seeing that he was still in the air, the rest of the Soaring Eagle Squad kicked off walls and roofs to leap up. Their blades and swords targeted Jang Geon.
At that moment, Jang Geon, who had been spinning, changed the direction of force through the elasticity of his body. Moving as if there were a stepping stone in midair, Jang Geon leaped straight into the front of the approaching squad member. That member tried to swing his sword, but because Jang Geon had already approached too close, there was no proper space, so it amounted to nothing more than flailing. Into that opening, Jang Geon’s palm entered and struck his chest.
With a crunch, the squad member whose chest collapsed fell to the ground as his breath ended, and receiving that recoil, Jang Geon changed direction in midair once more and flew toward the last squad member.
That squad member looked up with dazed eyes at the blade Jang Geon held high against the sun as he approached. His body instinctively tried to unleash the martial arts he had cultivated until now, but faster than that, a thunderbolt struck down. A belated thunder rumbled out.
Having cut down the last member of the Soaring Eagle Squad, Jang Geon spun around and landed on the roof again. Touching down on the surface, he remained still for a moment. From his intense movements, blood was seeping out from his flank and shoulder.
Enduring the pain for a moment, he soon stood up and looked down at the street. The two martial brothers were still facing each other, glaring at one another.