Chapter 124: Chapter 124

A glint of interest flowed in the monster’s blue eyes as he looked at Jang Geon. His gaze looked back and forth between the unextinguished brazier fire and Jang Geon standing beside it.

He spoke. It was a low, thick voice like an echo in a cave.

“An uninvited guest has arrived.”

Son Gwang, who had collapsed with weak legs, shivered violently as if feeling a chill. Though the thick monster’s voice was clearly a pleasant sound to hear, the moment it resonated in his ears, all strength suddenly drained from his body, and feeling an inscrutable coldness, he involuntarily huddled himself up. Son Gwang thus came to lower his body regardless of his own will.

The monster’s words continued:

“That you emerged from that passage… means you met Elder Zhuge. What did you do to him?”

“If you mean the bookstore owner, he is dead.”

At Jang Geon’s simple answer, the monster fell quiet. Instead, the chill of the basement grew twice as strong at that moment, pressuring the unextinguished brazier fire and Jang Geon.

Son Gwang, lying face down behind Jang Geon, realized that steam was condensing from the breath he vomited while trembling violently, and fell into shock. Weather where steam condensed in broad daylight had already passed several months ago. No matter if this was a basement, for steam to condense in weather where summer was in full swing made no sense. Furthermore, if that was an environment created by just one person’s mood, even more so.

“Did you kill him?”

“I did.”

“…Though he didn’t even practice martial arts.”

Unlike his serene tone of speech, as his words continued, the pressure of the air grew fierce. Son Gwang, already lying face down, felt that even breathing was not easy now. Additionally, inhaling air that was too cold made him feel as if his airway was freezing. His consciousness gradually dimmed, and the sensation in his hands and feet also grew dull.

However, the next moment, Son Gwang felt all that pressure and coldness vanish at once, and a faint warmth surround the area. At the suddenly comfortable breath, his mind snapped alert, and Son Gwang, looking up in bewilderment, could see Jang Geon standing at the center of that warmth. The weakening brazier fire flared up fiercely again, and warm air was slowly rotating centered on Jang Geon.

“He threw hidden weapons, so I merely returned them.”

The monster’s blue eyes in the darkness deepened. It was unclear whether that was because of the words Jang Geon spoke, or because of the energy holding off the coldness of the basement.

“Who are you?”

“Jang Geon.”

The monster’s eyes took on a subtle gleam.

“…I heard your name last night. It seems Murong White Snake’s scheme went awry. Have you met her already?”

Jang Geon nodded, and the monster sighed lightly as if knowing what had become of Murong San-san from that alone.

“The Murong Patriarch will mourn. For a granddaughter to go like that… Though such is the life of a snake. Walking on a razor blade, even if you succeed a hundred times, giving up your life over a single minor failure. Whatever she accomplished in the past, it has now become a matter of no account… Can you understand such a life? A life where a mistake equals death, I mean.”

Jang Geon shook his head.

“I know that such a life exists. Since right now there are those who really live like that. But that does not mean I understand and pity her.”

“Why? Because she is a demonic practitioner of the evil Palace?”

“Because she would not have pitied those she killed with her own hands either.”

The monster’s blue eyes glinting in the darkness drew a strange curve. He seemed to smile.

“…That is correct. None among us, including myself, would mourn killing the Emperor’s dogs. No, if possible, I want to herd the Emperor and all his civil and military officials into a pit, burn them to death, and hold a feast beside them. Thinking of them burning to death in the flames while screaming, I feel like I could get drunk even drinking plain water.”

The monster said so and took a step forward. The light of the unextinguished brazier lit part of his face.

“My name is Namgung Cheon. In the Palace, I hold the unique position of General Namgung.”

“I repeat, I am Jang Geon. A wanderer.”

The monster’s face was revealed in the brazier light. Neatly combed-up hair and a full beard continuing from his sideburns gave a solemn impression to the middle-aged man. Had that hair and beard not been a faded gray hue, and had those two eyes inside not been glinting blue, along with his majestic build, the title of General truly suited his impression.

His gaze looking at Jang Geon went down. Down there was Son Gwang lying face down on the floor, reading the room.

“What is your name?”

Son Gwang, even while reluctant, involuntarily used honorifics and answered:

“…Pardon? Ah, that… I am called… Son Gwang…”

“Are you a descendant of the Son Family?”

“I live… having severed ties with the family…”

“Blood ties are not so easily severed. If your family happens to offend the Emperor and suffer extermination, the Imperial Army will relentlessly hunt you down to hang you. Regardless, the character Son is stamped in front of your name. That is not something easily severed just because you sever it.”

“Y-Yes…?”

Even at Son Gwang’s dumbfounded question back, Namgung Cheon’s gaze returned to Jang Geon. Lowering his blue eyes even bluer, he spoke:

“Right, having already dealt with Murong White Snake who used you, you must have a reason for relentlessly searching all the way here. Having cut the grass, do you wish to pull up the roots?”

Jang Geon answered his question silently by gripping the scabbard of Azure Dragon with his left hand. Seeing that, Namgung Cheon also nodded as if that was answer enough. From the moment Jang Geon took the bookstore’s secret passage down to this basement, from the moment Namgung Cheon turned around and their eyes met, a battle between two martial artists was foreseen. Neither man had any intention of avoiding it.

And watching the two, Son Gwang only then thought that searching for the remnants of the Palace with just Jang Geon alone had been a mistake. Because Jang Geon’s majesty since last night had been so magnificent, he hadn’t realized it, but they were trying to sweep away those who had exterminated numerous native tribes and were planning to overturn Gowon City with just the two of them. They should have somehow obtained support from the tribe alliance, or waited for support from the Imperial Army or the Martial Alliance.

His thoughts reaching that point, Son Gwang quickly whispered to Jang Geon:

“W-Warrior Jang… If that man is one of the arch-fiends of the Palace as he says… he will be a monster beyond ordinary… Rather, right now let us withdraw and get support from the Alliance’s Great Warrior…”

“Do you think you two can escape from here?”

“Keuk!”

Son Gwang gritted his teeth, supporting the floor with his hands at the immense force suddenly pressing down on his shoulders. The momentum erupting from Namgung Cheon had pierced Jang Geon’s protection and concentrated on him. He felt great panic and fear at that power subduing him without extending a single hand. He wondered if this was really martial arts.

At that moment, Jang Geon took a step forward.

“Heok…”

Only then did the pressure vanish, and Son Gwang instead lost strength and collapsed. In a very short moment, his energy had been completely drained.

“I have no intention of escaping. I intend to eat dinner comfortably at the inn tonight.”

A subtle smile appeared on Namgung Cheon’s face facing Jang Geon again.

“Intend to eat dinner comfortably… If you lose to me anyway, you’ll have to eat dinner in the underworld.”

“Then I can eat comfortably there.”

Namgung Cheon looked at Jang Geon scattering his momentum as if finding it truly amazing, and continued speaking:

“Judging by your momentum and attitude, you really don’t seem to be from the Imperial Army. I don’t know where a martial artist like you came from. Are you perhaps affiliated with the Martial Alliance?”

“Does that matter?”

At Jang Geon’s brief answer, Namgung Cheon chuckled and shook his head.

“…Right, you and I have already become enemies. There’s no need to talk further.”

Having finished speaking, his hand moved slowly. That hand grasped the heavy sword hilt at his waist. Jang Geon’s eyes twitched. Even for an instant, he had not noticed that a sword was girded at his waist. Furthermore, as he slowly drew the sword, the ruthless chill that pressed upon the entire basement vanished like a lie. Instead, what remained there was a single cold sword as if all that chill had been condensed into one.

Facing him, Jang Geon’s posture, except for gripping the scabbard with his left hand, stepping his right foot forward a pace, and turning his body slightly sideways, was exceedingly serene. At a glance, it looked almost as if he were merely standing askew.

However, Namgung Cheon facing him pulled up the corners of his mouth in a smile as if feeling something in that indifferent posture. His heterogeneous blue eyes gleamed.

Son Gwang lying on the floor blinked and raised his head. As if the severe cold momentum from moments ago had been a lie, the brazier fire was crackling nonchalantly while throwing off sparks, and the two men revealing only half their faces in that faint light had no movement whatsoever as if time had frozen.

However, having no movement was true only when viewed from a third party’s position.

Jang Geon and Namgung Cheon’s gazes pierced through the dark shadows of the basement and the wildly shaking brazier light, searching for each other’s openings. Their muscles were frozen in extreme tension like suppressed coil springs, but the momentum that had been manipulating space earlier had now become sharp blades clashing. It was a prelude without any sound or movement.

And the moment that clash of momentum exceeded violence and finally exploded, though Son Gwang heard no sound, he felt a ringing tinnitus in his ears.

When he flinched and grabbed his ears in pain, Jang Geon and Namgung Cheon had already swapped places.

“Uh… uh, uh…?”

Son Gwang gaped and made a silly noise seeing Namgung Cheon’s figure appearing right before his nose and Jang Geon far away over there. But Namgung Cheon turned around to look at Jang Geon as if not caring about his appearance at all. Jang Geon, who had drawn Azure Dragon, was also slowly looking back at him.

In exact opposition to earlier, Namgung Cheon revealed his body near the brazier fire, and Jang Geon looked over here half-buried in shadow. Looking down at his hummingly vibrating sword, Namgung Cheon spoke:

“From the start, Murong White Snake miscalculated your martial arts. It is by no means martial arts to be used once and thrown away.”

“Are you afraid?”

“Afraid? Hahaha! This friend is quite an amusing fellow!”

From the body of Namgung Cheon laughing like that, the momentum and chill that had vanished earlier began to erupt again. Now the brazier fire, which had grown too far from Jang Geon, shook in that chill and died down.

“Do you not know who our enemy is? It is the bloodline of that thief Emperor and the hundred thousand Imperial Army that follow him, and the martial arts they practice. While I agree your martial arts are extraordinary, to begin with, the counterpart of divine arts is the master of the Central Plains. The orientation is different.”

The brazier fire quickly died down, and Son Gwang, still lying face down, rolled away with his body starting to shiver again, trying to get as far from Namgung Cheon as possible. As the basement grew dark, the radiance erupting from Namgung Cheon’s two eyes flashed even more eerily in contrast.

“This Northern Imperial Sword Form can be called the essence of the Namgung Family’s martial arts accumulated over the past hundred years for that purpose. You called yourself a wanderer with your own mouth? It can be said to be an overly undeserved sword for such a wanderer.”

However, even while the underground space grew dark and the severe cold chill rushed in again, Jang Geon was looking at him with calm eyes.

Imperial Sword Form, or also called Imperial Sword Form. The sword technique commonly known in Jang Geon’s past life as the exclusive sword art of the Namgung Clan. Unlike the Namgung Family demonic practitioner he faced in Gamsan City in the past, this man called General Namgung was showing something similar to that Imperial Sword Form, although much different.

However, the mindset Jang Geon engraved at that time did not waver. It could not.

In the demonic practitioner glinting blue eyes before him, there was no imperial majesty or freedom of the blue sky. There was only ruthless, merciless chill and violence pressing down on enemies with it. The sword of Namgung living and breathing in Jang Geon’s heart and that demonic art were as far apart as the New Continent and the Central Plains.

However, that too was the real martial art of the Namgung family.

In truth, the martial art inside Jang Geon’s heart was ultimately a formless shadow created by warp and weft woven from the dreams and imaginations of those who could not learn real martial arts. Jang Geon, reborn and living on this land in person, could have dismissed those shadows as hopeless nonsense, unachievable delusions. Because he was the one who had personally learned martial arts with his own body.

However, Jang Geon did not do so. Though nobody commanded him to, even against gazes that viewed him strangely, he steadfastly revived those martial arts. So ultimately he was able to reach a higher realm, look beyond, and reproduce the dreamt-of martial arts with his own body. In there, rather than survival or the intent to kill the opponent, there was only the romance dreamed of by a boy.

Naturally, their Imperial Sword Form and the Imperial Sword Form he would reproduce were bound to be different.

Taking a deep breath, Jang Geon lowered Azure Dragon. The blade of Azure Dragon vibrated lightly with a hum, pushing away the dust on the floor with a swoosh.

Simultaneously, a powerful qi wave surged centered on his body. The chill freezing the underground space was shoved away by that power. Along with it, even the torches and brazier fire that had gone out rekindled flames again, illuminating the place brightly. The dark shadows were pushed into corners at once, and the entire underground space became clear.

“…Mm.”

Namgung Cheon ended up stepping back a pace at the pressure as if space itself pushed him in an instant. He who had looked relaxed until moments ago froze in expression at the tingling sensation on his skin.

Looking at him, Jang Geon said calmly:

“You called it the Northern Imperial Sword Form? Over here, we simply call it the Imperial Sword Form.”