Chapter 297: Promise (4)
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The imperial audience chamber was frigid. Before the Emperor, I had killed the Emperor’s right hand. The Emperor had even commanded me not to kill him. Yet I had defied that command.
“……You, you bastard.”
The Emperor’s face flushed as though it might burst.
He had likely been born into the imperial clan and had never suffered such an insult in all his life.
“This will serve in place of the price for driving us to our deaths.”
I shook the blood from my blade and sheathed my sword. The officials all bowed their heads before the Emperor’s trembling fury. To subordinates, the Emperor’s wrath was like a natural disaster.
When I sheathed my sword and turned around, Myeong-gyeong’s eyes were startled as well. But Myeong-gyeong quickly regained composure in her gaze. Even that alone showed how much she had grown.
“Do you know this? You have just insulted me.”
“I believe Your Majesty knows as well. Compared to the attempt on both our lives, this is an inadequate price.”
“No. You cannot exact a price from me. That sort of talk only fits between equals. My role is to bestow, and yours is to receive from me one-sidedly.”
“Even death as well?”
“Of course.”
He was right. In truth, the Emperor was said to bestow poison pills upon subordinates who had committed crimes deserving death.
But perhaps because defiance had already taken root in my heart, even that sounded unfair.
“You dared insult me before the Emperor’s very face. That is not something your life alone can answer for.”
“Are you saying you will take my life here?”
“There is no reason not to.”
The Emperor shot to his feet. I looked around. I was searching for a path to grab Myeong-gyeong and flee.
“You dare think of running?”
The Emperor sneered. I instinctively looked up at the sky. A powerful aura was falling toward me like a meteor shower. I leapt back at once.
Boom!
Dust billowed thickly over the plaza of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. I narrowed my eyes. It was a familiar aura. An overwhelmingly strong aura.
“To return alive from there. A rascal is still a rascal.”
“It has been a long time.”
“Heh heh. Indeed. I did not think we would meet again.”
The one who had fallen was the old man who had driven us in with the Lion King Banner Formation.
“Grand Tutor. Bring that fellow to heel.”
The Emperor spoke with blazing eyes. Only then could I learn the old man’s identity.
“So you are the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master.”
“That is right. The Emperor was in such a hurry that he even dragged out an old man from the back room.”
“Why don’t you just stay in the back room for the rest of your life?”
“I wanted to as well.”
Prince Xian had said the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master was the Grand Tutor. To think this shabby old man was the Grand Tutor who had taught the Emperor. Then again, seeing that strength, he certainly had the qualifications of a Grand Tutor.
I drew Bright Elegance again. The old man, the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master, snorted.
“It has not even been a month since you and I last met. Do you feel nothing of what you felt then?”
“They say that after three days apart, one must meet again with refreshed eyes. If he is a scholar, he ought to have changed enough after three days that his opponent must rub his eyes and look again.”
“Are martial artists not the people farthest removed from scholars?”
“In the sense that each walks his own path, they are not so different.”
“There is nothing that throws the world into chaos quite like giving meaning to killing.”
The Grand Tutor was a typical palace martial artist. Seo Jong-haeng had been the same. To him, martial arts themselves were nothing but killing techniques. I neither affirmed nor denied that. As I said, each person had his own path.
We had already walked far along diverging roads. Further words were unnecessary. And the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master knew that as well.
The Palace of Heavenly Worship Master charged at me without a word. Fitting for one who denied the martial path itself, he showed no respect for the martial artist he faced.
The Palace of Heavenly Worship Master’s sword curved in like a serpent. I turned my body and evaded it. But his sword kept curving in, relentlessly targeting my death acupoints.
I kept turning, evading the sword’s trajectory, and when I could evade no longer, I struck it aside with my own blade.
“Hoh.”
A gleam entered the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master’s eyes.
“You truly are a sight worth beholding with fresh eyes.”
He could not help but be surprised. By the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master’s standards, less than a month had passed since we met. Before, I had been unable even to follow his movements, yet now I was keeping up with his speed and matching him.
“Your growth is astonishing. You truly are someone who cannot be left alone.”
The Palace of Heavenly Worship Master’s eyes turned grave. He seemed to have raised my threat level in his own judgment.
Sword met sword, and each clash rang with explosive sound. Astonishingly, the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master paid not the slightest attention to the safety of the officials around him.
Though many officials stood behind me, he would unleash sword aura in bursts, and when I unleashed sword aura in turn, he evaded without considering who might be behind him.
“Uaaahk!”
“Kuhk!”
The officials could not flee because the Emperor stood before them. They could only duck their heads and prostrate themselves. If luck was bad, they died. That was all.
It was not a pleasant sight to see unrelated people die, but while fighting the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master, I could not afford to consider such things.
“Are you not being too merciless?”
“What nonsense is that?”
“Your subordinates are dying.”
Unable to bear it any longer, I spoke. The Palace of Heavenly Worship Master laughed loudly.
“When you walk, do you consider whether ants beneath your feet are being crushed?”
“They are not ants. They are human beings.”
“To me, they look much the same.”
“You have lost your mind. Unfortunately.”
“You too will understand once you reach that level.”
The feeling of looking down from above was quite unpleasant.
But unpleasant was unpleasant, and the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master was indeed a considerable master.
Even after achieving growth over this past year that truly warranted fresh eyes, his speed and strength still surpassed mine.
Before long, I could not hold back any more strength. I had to preserve enough strength to flee.
“Your movements have become passive.”
The Palace of Heavenly Worship Master immediately noticed the change in my mind. Action was always influenced by the mind. No matter how much I narrowed that gap, to a master’s eyes it could only be seen clearly.
The moment he noticed my mind had changed, the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master pressed even more aggressively. His sword began to shine gold. That was a typical trait of palace martial arts.
The Palace of Heavenly Worship Master drove me back. Wounds began to appear on my body.
“Junior Brother!”
When blood sprayed from my body, Myeong-gyeong cried out in alarm. Yes, yes. Cry out in an even more urgent voice.
This was a trick I used once against every strong opponent. I hoped it would work this time too.
As the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master flew in with attack alone, I immediately detonated the internal energy in my feet and lunged forward.
The second form of the Hunwon Muhui Sword Art, Extreme, shot toward the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master as a single point.
‘Got him!’
Watching the sword aura touch the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master’s heart, I smiled inwardly. It was a method that worked surprisingly well. Induce all-out offense, create an opening, then deliver a fatal wound with the method of severing flesh and breaking bones. Especially against the strong—the stronger they were, the more certain they were of victory, so the better it worked.
“……!”
As though flustered by my sudden shift to offense, the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master immediately withdrew his sword to defend his heart, but it was already too late.
My form was faster than the speed at which the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master’s sword turned.
Of course, even in the midst of that, the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master showed miraculous body technique, twisting to avoid his heart. Even if he somehow avoided his heart, he would not be able to avoid serious injury. That was enough.
Sssshriek!
Then beside my ear came the sound of an arrow tearing through the air, along with a powerful gust.
My shock step could not advance any farther. The sword I had unleashed was blocked. What blocked my sword was, astonishingly, the fingers of a middle-aged man I was seeing for the first time. He had caught my blade between his fingers.
“Empty-Hand Seizes the White Blade……”
Myeong-gyeong murmured. The art of trapping a blade between two fingers.
I was stunned. Were there still people left in the Central Plains who could snatch my blade with the technique of Empty-Hand Seizes the White Blade?
“You are bringing shame upon the Immortal Realm.”
When the middle-aged man released my blade with his fingers, my body swayed. They were only fingers, yet he had been holding it with that much strength.
Even more astonishing was that the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master bowed his head the moment the middle-aged man appeared. Was he someone higher than the Palace of Heavenly Worship Master? The old man who had intervened said he was bringing shame upon the Immortal Realm. Did a place called the Immortal Realm exist separately?
“What is this child?”
The moment I met the middle-aged man’s eyes, I felt for an instant as though my heart had stopped. Ordinary eyes carried emotion within them. As a merchant, I was someone specialized in reading that.
But in those middle-aged man’s eyes, there was nothing to read. It was the very height of emptiness.
The middle-aged man pointed at me indifferently with his finger. For a moment I wondered what he was doing, and then an enormous killing intent tightened around my body as though squeezing it.
“……Huhk.”
My breath caught and the corners of my eyes trembled. So this was Injuring Others with Directed Qi.
“You endure well. That is surprising.”
The middle-aged man spoke in an emotionless voice. Indeed, an ordinary person would likely have died with his heart bursting.
Then the middle-aged man’s complexion shifted slightly. At once, the tightening around my heart eased. Feeling as though I might collapse, I planted my sword in the ground and gasped for breath.
“Junior Brother, are you all right?”
Myeong-gyeong ran over and asked after me. I barely managed to nod.
“As expected. Not easy.”
The middle-aged man was already looking up at the sky as though someone like me was beneath his notice. Following his gaze, I saw an astonishing sight.
A white-haired old man was slowly walking down from the sky. That old man’s face was familiar.
“……Grandmaster.”
The old man descending was my grandmaster and Cheong-hwa’s master, Hyeon-wol.
“You have suffered.”
Hyeon-wol came down to the ground and stroked my head. The moment Hyeon-wol stroked my head, the tension in my body eased and new strength seemed to well up within me. It was a marvelous harmony.
“So you have broken the covenant after all.”
Hyeon-wol’s low voice echoed through the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The middle-aged man bowed his head and gave a martial salute.
“It has been long, Immortal Hyeon-wol.”
“This does not seem the time for greetings.”
“That is true.”
The middle-aged man readily agreed. A wave of energy spread from Hyeon-wol’s body. It was an enormous aura. The officials around us foamed at the mouth and fainted. Even the Emperor, with the Grand Tutor beside him, turned pale and gripped the armrest tightly.
“Did the Realm Lord also agree to this?”
Hyeon-wol asked. He seemed to be speaking of the master of the Immortal Realm.
“You know as well as I do, Immortal, that the Realm Lord offers no opinion. He only lets things flow as they will.”
“You will regret it.”
“Regret is a human emotion.”
The middle-aged man murmured. Hyeon-wol glared at the middle-aged man, then spun around and came toward us.
“If anyone lays a hand on my grand-disciple again, I will let him feel that emotion again after so long.”
A cold voice echoed through the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The middle-aged man closed his eyes and did not answer. Hyeon-wol continued.
“And I declare this to the Peach Garden from today onward. The Penglai Covenant is……”
A brief silence ruled the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Even the Emperor’s face was tense.
“Broken.”
At those words, for the first time, the middle-aged man’s expression changed.