Chapter 81: Chapter 81

Jeo-ryang, who was riding near the carriage, shouted.

“Th-that bastard! He’s coming this way!”

Hun-ma, who was snapping the reins on the driver’s seat, turned back at those words. Sure enough, a black horse and its rider were charging forward while spewing thick black smoke.

Muttering a short curse, he grabbed Jeo-ryang by the scruff of his neck and pulled him toward the driver’s seat.

“Wh-what, why are you doing this?”

“Take the reins!”

“M-me?”

“Then do you want to fight that bastard yourself?!”

At Hun-ma’s shout, Jeo-ryang took the reins without further complaint. Having handed over the reins, Hun-ma drew his large sword and stood near the carriage whose roof had been blown off. Standing there, the evil spirit’s red face caught his eyes once more.

“Damn it…”

Catching up to them at tremendous speed, the evil spirit was already drawing the bowstring of a bow it had pulled out at some point. Hun-ma swallowed hard. He too guessed that it was that very arrow that had blown away the carriage roof. Surprisingly, the wanderer Jang Geon seemed to be an expert who had somehow managed to deflect it, but Hun-ma lacked the confidence to block it like that.

Still, he could not simply die without doing anything. Hun-ma balanced himself as best he could on the violently swaying carriage and gripped his sword with both hands. Far behind, he saw Jang Geon charging forward at a speed as terrifying as the evil spirit’s. If he could hold out just once, it seemed Jang Geon could catch up.

Watching the evil spirit’s arrow aiming squarely at him, Hun-ma slowly calmed his breathing. Just once, let’s block it just once, let’s at least save Jeo-ryang, he’s a decent enough guy so if he survives he’ll probably take care of my family. Thinking so, he grit his teeth. He saw the evil spirit’s bowstring pulled all the way back.

The next instant, the arrow left the bowstring.

Hun-ma reflexively parried the incoming arrow. And the arrow, which earlier had smashed the carriage like a cannonball, this time merely bounced off with a *ting* sound. Hun-ma’s expression turned bewildered.

[You—! You are not a Central Plains person—! For a child of the earth to become a pawn of the Central Plains people—!]

Such a shout echoed inside the dazed Hun-ma’s mind. Standing blankly for a moment unable to grasp the situation at that voice, Hun-ma soon gasped and swung his sword.

[There is only death for traitors—!]

Hun-ma barely managed to deflect the evil spirit’s spear that lunged in before he knew it. However, the sheer aftermath of that thrust sent him flying into the corner of the carriage.

[Die—!]

The evil spirit’s spear thrust down toward Hun-ma rolling inside the carriage. Hun-ma hurriedly rolled to the opposite side to dodge the spear, and the stray spear further smashed the already half-destroyed carriage. Holding the reins, Jeo-ryang looked back at the sound and screamed.

The evil spirit’s eyes turned toward Jeo-ryang. At that moment, hearing the same monstrous roar Jang Geon had heard, Jeo-ryang’s eyes went unfocused. The evil spirit’s spear aimed for him this time.

At that moment, Jang Geon’s blade, charging as if flying, slashed through the evil spirit’s flank.

No red blood spurted forth. The evil spirit merely uttered an ear-splitting shriek and dispersed into black smoke in an instant, just like before. Raising his head, Hun-ma gaped at the astonishing sight, unable to say a word.

At that moment, Jang Geon shouted.

“Get a grip and take care of that gentleman! And do not stop!”

Even as the carriage rattled frantically, his voice rang out loudly, echoing in Hun-ma’s ears. Snapping to his senses, he quickly pulled the dazed, swaying Jeo-ryang to lay him down on one side of the carriage and grabbed the reins. The carriage was broken here and there, but the wheels and wheel axles were still intact.

Jang Geon slowed Jojo down and watched them rapidly pull away.

Jang Geon had also seen the scene where Hun-ma deflected the arrow earlier. He did not know how that ghost’s power worked, but he could tell that it became enormously stronger when dealing with people of the Central Plains. Thinking of it that way, it might actually have been better for Hun-ma to fight it rather than himself. However, Jang Geon had no intention of passing the fight off like that.

Halting Jojo and watching the receding carriage, Jang Geon turned his head. Far off in the distance stood the evil spirit, standing stock-still. Because of the smoke, the black horse and the rider looked like a single mass.

At that moment, a voice sounded inside Jang Geon’s mind.

—…The scent of the earth comes from your body. The smell of water, soil, and trees. Have you received grace from the spirit of the valley?

Jang Geon’s eyebrows twitched. The voice he heard now was different from the evil spirit’s voice he had heard earlier. It was a far calmer and more rational voice. Jang Geon could soon feel that it was not the rider’s voice, but the black horse’s.

“You were not a single entity. Who are you?”

—I am the field. I am the dry grass, and the sandstorm blowing in the wind. And I am the mother of the slaughtered children.

At that answer, Jang Geon’s eyes sank even deeper.

“…I heard the screams. What happened?”

—Lies of the Central Plains people, bundled tightly with deception, betrayal, and malice. All my children died, and I too had my heart stolen. The resentment that lost its body and the flesh that lost its purpose became one, and now all that I—that we—will do is merely revenge.

[Kill the Central Plains people—! Tear them apart—! Rip out their hearts—! Take revenge on every Central Plains person on this land—!]

Raising the spear in his hand high, the red-faced rider shouted. His red face was no longer just red, but bright red liquid was streaming down. That thick, sticky substance—it was blood.

Watching him, Jang Geon kept his mouth closed and said nothing. He did not say that not all Central Plains people were so evil, nor that evil people could exist anywhere whether Central Plains people or natives. He felt such words would not work on a ghost consumed by grudge rather than a living person.

Jang Geon simply listened silently to those shouts and screams. He quietly listened to the resentment flowing poignantly through his mind and blood vessels.

Meanwhile, the dark clouds in the sky grew darker, crimson blood gushed down from the rider’s red face, and the black horse that had conveyed a calm voice also breathed heavily with both eyes flashing red. The two soon shouted with a single voice.

[—Kill the Central Plains people! Kill them! Kill them!]

It seemed they had merely regained their senses briefly upon feeling the spirit energy from Jang Geon.

Watching them with deep eyes, Jang Geon slowly raised his lowered sword and aimed it at the evil spirit. Thereupon, the evil spirit abruptly stopped its shouts as if pierced by that sword. And the next moment, the black horse and rider charged straight toward Jang Geon while uttering an ear-splitting shriek.

Watching them, Jang Geon raised his internal energy throughout his entire body. Taking a deep breath, he recalled Shaolin monk Jin Gyeon’s Lion’s Roar from the previous day and emitted a long, low sound. As if an echo were returning in the deep mountains, a massive reverberation filled the open plain.

As that vibration reached the black horse and rider, the black smoke enveloping their bodies dispersed like candle flames blowing in the wind. The furiously galloping black horse halted while screaming in pain, and the rider also grabbed his head while shouting a scream far more human than before.

Without missing that moment, Jang Geon moved Jojo and swung his sword in a flash. The blue-glowing blade swept past the rider’s body.

Unlike before, there was a sensation on the blade. When Jang Geon glanced back, the rider’s flank had split wide open, gushing out black smoke.

Galloping straight ahead before turning smoothly, Jojo faced them once more. Jang Geon’s blade was also glowing blue with internal energy poured into it.

Yet right before that blade was swung again, the red-faced rider swaying in agony abruptly turned his head toward Jang Geon. At the same time, a crimson blood mist poured forth from that face toward Jang Geon’s face.

Jang Geon immediately closed his eyes and stopped breathing. The sword he was swinging did not stop.

[Kk-aa-ah-ah-!]

Immediately after the sensation in his hand, the evil spirit’s scream echoed. However, Jang Geon could not open his eyes because of the blood mist stinging and trying to dig into his facial features. Thanks to blocking his pores and orifices with internal energy, it could not enter his body, but neither did it disperse easily. His vision was completely blocked, his breathing was cut off, and sounds were hard to hear.

Just as Jang Geon raised a hand to disperse it, Jojo suddenly moved hastily. Within his faint senses, Jang Geon could feel a spearhead flying aimed at him. Immediately after, he raised his sword to deflect the spearhead, but with his five senses blocked, he could not completely absorb the recoil. Jang Geon nearly fell off the saddle.

It was Jojo who bore that burden. Moving as if becoming Jang Geon’s legs, the horse caught Jang Geon as he swayed.

[Die—!]

As if determined not to give Jang Geon an opening, the evil spirit attacked again. A spear imbued with thousands of pounds of force struck at Jang Geon. Yet even while blind, Jang Geon raised his sword and parried the attack. Having lost its point of impact, the evil spirit’s force rattled the air with a rumble.

Beneath dark clouds on the vast open plain where no one was watching, the two riders began flashing their weapons against each other.

The evil spirit’s spearhead aimed for Jang Geon like a storm. Simple yet exquisite short-spear techniques combined with brute strength, seeking to tear Jang Geon’s body apart. The sound of wind splitting hummed loudly.

Confronting it, Jang Geon had no leeway to brush away the blood mist covering his face. Yet with his faint senses and Jojo’s solid support beneath his waist, he parried every single attack of the evil spirit. His sword and the evil spirit’s spear rubbed against each other, showering yellow sparks in all directions.

And at a certain moment, the red-faced rider had his left forearm severed clean off by a counterattack that suddenly poked through between spearheads.

As the rider shrieked tearing screams, Jojo slammed his head into the black horse below. Both the black horse and rider staggered, and taking advantage of that opening, Jang Geon’s blade drew a lightning-like flash once more.

That light split the rider’s red face in half.

The moment his face was split in half, the rider froze in his tracks, and the feather-adorned hat worn on his head cracked in two and fell to the ground. The black horse carrying him then struggled silently on its own before faltering backward. Along with that, the blood mist obscuring Jang Geon’s senses dispersed.

Sensing the sting vanish, Jang Geon opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath he had held from the moment he was covered in blood mist until now. His suppressed lungs gasped to take in fresh air.

Regulating his breathing, Jang Geon looked at the faltering black horse. The rider whose head was split vertically in two was merely draped over the black horse, limp like a puppet with severed strings. Ever since Shaolin’s Lion’s Roar echoed, the black smoke enveloping them was nowhere to be seen. The black horse kept swaying as though even standing was difficult.

Jang Geon’s situation was not good either. He was drained from holding his breath for so long while awakening all internal energy in his dantian, and facing monstrous spear technique with faint senses left his head feeling damp and heavy. The hands and arms that faced that force were even trembling minutely.

Just then, the limp rider twitched and began to move again.

Raising his trembling hands, he grabbed his head split like a snake’s tongue and brought it back together. However, something already split was not going to reattach. With a crooked line drawn down the middle of his face, the rider shivered as he looked at Jang Geon.

[—…You, Central Plains person. Originally, the ones living on this land were us.]

“That is true.”

[—…Was our revenge not justified?]

Jang Geon answered as he slowly calmed his rough breath.

“Since you massacred even innocent people, it would not be justified.”

[Then what of our wrath? How were we to soothe the sorrow of the slaughtered? Is blood not meant to be repaid with blood?]

Tears streamed down from the rider’s eyes. Not tears of blood like earlier, but real tears. Yet watching him, Jang Geon let out a soft sigh and spoke quietly.

“Drop the excuses. Pouring out that wrath even onto unrelated people was no different from the actions of the scoundrels who deceived and massacred you.”

[Ah-ah…]

Hearing that answer, the red face slumped limp again as if despondent. And his black body slowly began to crumble like burnt charcoal. The black horse beneath him also lost strength in its legs soon after and collapsed on the spot.

Just then, sunlight squeezed through the dark clouds in the sky and descended. That bright light illuminated the crumbling rider and black horse.

Jang Geon gazed intently at them crumbling beneath that sunshine before opening his mouth again.

“Who did it?”

The rider’s eyes turned toward Jang Geon. Meeting the gaze of Jang Geon’s deep eyes, he answered.

[—…The Central Plains person who came from the east.]

Jang Geon said no more. Yet whatever the crumbling rider read in that silent gaze, his face turned far more peaceful the next moment. After that, the moment the dark clouds completely cleared and the plain brightened again, they collapsed and crumbled all at once.

Watching them vanish with sunken eyes, Jang Geon soon realized that something was left in that spot. Dismounting from Jojo’s back, he approached straightaway and picked it up. It was a black spearhead.

He could tell right away that the spearhead was no ordinary object. From the moment he picked up the spearhead, a strange reverberation echoed inside his mind, so there was no way he would not know.

Squatting down to look at the spearhead, Jang Geon soon turned his head to look north. He saw Hun-ma and Jeo-ryang, who had fled, returning. They were approaching while rattling in the half-destroyed carriage, looking around anxiously.

Smiling faintly as he watched them, Jang Geon tucked the spearhead into his chest fold and stood up. His eyes looked a bit further north. If it were an issue related to martial arts, Jang Geon could handle it on his own. But matters like evil spirits or land spirits were not his specialty. In fact, if he had not known Shaolin’s Lion’s Roar, there was no telling how fighting this evil spirit right now would have turned out.

Jang Geon suddenly recalled the golden eyes that had looked at him. It was the moment his next destination was decided.