Chapter 344: Fire Demon (4)
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In Daoism, a human being is said to be a single cosmos. And the Taiji Wisdom Sword was the unfolding of that very cosmos.
However, the cosmos of Daoists who had cultivated for a long time in Daoism and my own cosmos were bound to differ. Because I possessed the Heavenly Demon’s energy.
My cosmos expanded, erasing the Illusion Demon’s formation. For now, it was still a small size not even amounting to a single plot of paddy field, and it even wavered subtly. That meant although I had blossomed the Taiji Wisdom Sword, I had not yet mastered it completely.
Of course, blossoming alone was sufficient for the Illusion Demon to feel threatened.
Looking closely, it appeared the Illusion Demon could maintain his overwhelming strength only within his own formation. In that case, if I could shatter the formation itself, the Illusion Demon was no match for me.
“The Taiji Wisdom Sword? No, it is somewhat different.”
Being a martial artist himself, the Illusion Demon also recognized the Taiji Wisdom Sword.
Without answering, I leaped toward the Illusion Demon. Right now, I was in the middle of continuously reciting the oral formulas of the Taiji Wisdom Sword. Since the formulas of the Taiji Wisdom Sword were lengthy, it was unavoidable.
Just like before, a wall of blood surged from the ground trying to block me, but my sword cleaved cleanly through the blood. Terrified, the Illusion Demon rolled across the ground with the technique of the Roll of the Lazy Donkey.
The space where the Illusion Demon had stood distorted. I gave him no respite. Immediately composing my breathing, I unfolded the Taiji Wisdom Sword with flowing movements.
As I moved, the cosmos I had unfurled moved along with me. Right now, I was the center of the cosmos.
“Hut!”
The Illusion Demon’s movements, which had been leisurely until now, grew frantic. Blood erupted like lava from within the formation, attacking me from all directions.
The blood that tried to envelop me burst and scattered into mist beneath my sword strikes. The streams of blood welling up from the formation constantly blocked my path, but cleaving through them all with a single sword, I closed in on the Illusion Demon.
As I narrowed the Illusion Demon’s formation with the Taiji Wisdom Sword, the Illusion Demon’s tactics changed drastically. He shifted to a purely defensive stance, avoiding attacking as much as possible. It was safe to view this as the second act of the battle.
However, the Illusion Demon’s formation, which had devoured countless corpses, was not so fragile as to vanish entirely before the Taiji Wisdom Sword. The Illusion Demon’s formation and the space unfolded by my Taiji Wisdom Sword precisely bisected the open area at the entrance of Mount Wudang.
We continued to clash between those two spaces. Since the Illusion Demon’s territory disappeared the more I stepped on his formation, the Illusion Demon desperately tried to hold that boundary.
The tide of battle between the Illusion Demon and me had reversed. If earlier the Illusion Demon had pushed me into a corner through relentless offense, now I was the one constantly assaulting the Illusion Demon.
However, just as I had managed to defend with difficulty when the Illusion Demon attacked, the same applied to him. Our combat prowess was thus evenly matched.
The Illusion Demon blocked my sword time and again. Although the profound strikes of the Taiji Wisdom Sword continuously carved wounds upon the Illusion Demon’s body, the energy welling up from the formation restored those wounds, making my efforts completely moot.
We clashed continuously to the point of exchanging nearly three hundred bouts in a single quarter-hour. Around that point, I began to sense a feeling of incongruity.
If earlier the Illusion Demon had shown a will to end the battle, now he seemed to have no intention of ending the fight at all.
No matter how defensive one was, if it was a fight that ended only when one won, one had to cram in at least a single offensive form. Yet the Illusion Demon merely blocked my attacks as if his sole purpose was to stall for time.
Just as that suspicion deepened, I felt a powerful burst of energy along with gray smoke staining the sky in the far distance toward Jun County.
“Were there more of the Blood Cult?”
“When hunting the Heavenly Demon, how could your dignity be upheld if only a single member of the Nine Demons came?”
The Illusion Demon laughed heartily. Although I did not know how it happened, the disciples who had fled from the Wudang Sect seemed to be in Jun County. And those in Jun County were fighting another group from the Blood Cult.
The Illusion Demon’s smile deepened. From now on, the anxious one was rather me. I had to dispose of the Illusion Demon quickly and head over to where my martial brothers were, but with the Illusion Demon tenaciously clinging to me, it was not easy.
Whenever I tried to pull back, the Illusion Demon stuck behind me and swung his sword, making it impossible to show my back and flee.
“Whew.”
I pulled away from the Illusion Demon for a moment and steadied my breath.
I could no longer charge in and attack recklessly. It was a situation where I had to ponder how best to break away.
Glaring at the Illusion Demon, I raised my sword once more.
It was the third act of the battle.
* * *
At first, Cheong-ui could not believe the group of people who had suddenly come to visit the Wudang Sect.
Not being able to believe them was only natural. It was obvious that hearing sudden news that the imperial palace and the Demonic Cult had colluded to attack Mount Wudang would be difficult to believe.
“Why should I believe your words, Young Lady? In the first place, I do not even know who you are. If the people of the Wudang Sect vacate Mount Wudang swayed by the words of an unidentified person, the entire Central Plains will mock us.”
That was how Cheong-ui had reacted initially.
“It is entirely understandable that the Sect Leader would take it that way.”
The woman dressed in green martial attire nodded as if she understood.
Cheong-ui looked over the woman carefully. The woman in green martial attire was a beauty characterized by a clear forehead and large eyes.
However, that was all. This woman did not even disclose where she had obtained that information. Yet she was suddenly claiming that the main sect of Mount Wudang would be raided.
Even if Cheong-ui issued an expulsion order right here, it would not have been strange at all, but the woman’s eyes and calm tone possessed a peculiar quality that prevented him from chasing her away recklessly.
“However, is there anything to lose? If the Wudang Sect’s main sect is attacked without any preparation, immense casualties will ensue.”
“We are the Wudang Sect. Even if a standard martial force raids us, we can fend them off.”
“This girl has come because the scale of the force is something a single sect cannot withstand.”
“First, reveal who you are, where you learned that information, and what organization you belong to.”
Cheong-ui was resolute. The beauty in green martial attire hesitated for a moment before opening her small mouth.
“My name is Gwan Seo-ye. In the past, I belonged to the Yunchang Merchant Company.”
The beauty in green martial attire was Gwan Seo-ye. Having learned of the raid on Mount Wudang in advance through an intelligence network spread across the Central Plains, she had rushed swiftly to Hubei.
“……If it is the Yunchang Merchant Company?”
Cheong-ui furrowed his brows. Since the Yunchang Merchant Company was famous enough to belong to the Shanxi Merchants’ Four Families, even Cheong-ui, a martial artist, was bound to know it.
However, the reason the Yunchang Merchant Company became even more famous was that they had gone into hiding after being exposed by the Embroidered Uniform Guard as lackeys of the Demonic Cult.
A lackey of the Demonic Cult that had suddenly vanished from the Central Plains had appeared right in front of Cheong-ui.
“Are you a demonic practitioner?”
Cheong-ui’s expression hardened. To Cheong-ui, who was an orthodox martial artist to the bone, prejudice against people of the Demonic Cult was not something easily stripped away. Gwan Seo-ye nodded her head.
“I could have concealed my identity, but the reason I speak truthfully is for the sake of trust between us and the one we serve.”
“From the very fact that you are a demonic practitioner, trust plummets drastically.”
Cheong-ui gripped the sword hilt resting against the desk. If she was a demonic practitioner, as an orthodox martial artist, she was an opponent to be executed without asking questions.
Yet the reason he did not draw his blade immediately was because of Gwan Seo-ye’s undeniable demeanor and the content of the news she had brought.
“Give me a reason why I should not kill you right now.”
“If Robber Zhi, the wicked villain of the Spring and Autumn period, had saved a child about to fall into a well, would that not still be a good deed?”
“You cite classical texts quite disconcertingly.”
“Did you think all people of the Demonic Cult were blood-crazed barbarians? This girl also read the Four Books and Five Classics in her youth.”
Gwan Seo-ye differed greatly from the appearance of demonic practitioners Cheong-ui commonly knew.
Because the Demonic Cult that occasionally stirred up turmoil in the Central Plains was mostly the Blood Cult, an entirely different branch.
“I apologize, but I too do not particularly like people of the Central Plains. I know I might be cursed at, or in the worst case, killed. Even so, there is a clear reason why I came.”
“What is it?”
“Because the one we serve is the current New Justice Association Master.”
“……What did you say?”
Cheong-ui blinked. As the saying goes, things were getting more and more absurd; she was only uttering increasingly unbelievable words.
The sudden claim that Mount Wudang would be raided was already absurd beyond measure, and now a person who revealed herself as a demonic practitioner claimed to serve his disciple, Muk Hui-yeong.
“Do you intend to drive a wedge between Hui-yeong and us?”
Cheong-ui’s suspicion was reasonable. However, Gwan Seo-ye shook her head.
“I do not wish to waste useless emotions and time. Being the Sect Leader of the Wudang Sect, I trust you will make a wise judgment. Right now, the forces aiming to strike Mount Wudang have likely already departed. Within five days, Mount Wudang will be consumed by the fire demon.”
“What do you gain by telling such a lie?”
“It is neither a lie, nor is there anything to gain. Frankly, it does not matter to me whether the Wudang Sect disappears. It is simply that the one we serve will surely grieve if the Wudang Sect vanishes, so I am merely giving a forewarning.”
Gwan Seo-ye’s words were plain and unembellished. She did not attempt to plead with Cheong-ui, nor did she ask him to believe her. Rather, that very attitude moved Cheong-ui’s heart.
Moreover, hearing that she directly served Muk Hui-yeong, the thought of drawing his sword immediately vanished. If it was Muk Hui-yeong, he surely took them in with some clear thought in mind. That was how much Cheong-ui trusted the person named Muk Hui-yeong.
“Haa. No matter how much I try to believe it, it is hard to believe.”
“That is the Sect Leader’s choice.”
Cheong-ui was also not a stubborn man. He did not harbor the archaic notion that a person of the Wudang Sect must die on Mount Wudang.
Mount Wudang was merely a symbol. A symbol could never take precedence over living people. Cheong-ui was a sect leader who held such beliefs. That was why his deliberations deepened further. Because if Gwan Seo-ye’s words were true, they had to prepare to descend the mountain right this instant.
“…….”
Cheong-ui pondered for a long time.
Soon, however, Cheong-ui knew that deliberation was useless.
In any case, if things went wrong and they were mocked, it would only be the Sect Leader alone who bore the ridicule. Cheong-ui was a man who did not consider his own personal honor important. Far more important were his martial brothers and disciples.
“Fine. I shall believe you.”
“It seems the rumors in the world were not wrong. That the Taiji Sword Emperor is a wise man.”
Only then did Gwan Seo-ye soften her stiff expression and beam a bright smile. Although the lingering uneasiness had not vanished completely, Cheong-ui decided to trust Gwan Seo-ye’s words this once.
“If you have deceived me, even for the honor of the Wudang Sect, you will die by my hand.”
“Please do so.”
Gwan Seo-ye pressed her hands on the desk and stood up first.
“Let us descend to Jun County first. If we wait in Jun County, the New Justice Association Master will likely arrive as well.”
“Hmm. Let us do so.”
Cheong-ui stood up with a reluctant expression. It was because he was unaccustomed to listening to the words of a woman who seemed to have barely passed twenty years of age.
Truly many questions arose, but what could resolve those questions was a direct discussion with Muk Hui-yeong.
After that, Cheong-ui concealed only Gwan Seo-ye’s origins and announced that they had to descend from the Wudang Sect. Several elders naturally opposed it, but Cheong-ui descended Mount Wudang declaring that he would take full responsibility.
The Martial Uncles of the Hyeon generation did not interfere with a single word in the Sect Leader’s actions. Even if his generational rank was lower, it was their respect for the Sect Leader.
And one day after the Wudang Sect disciples and New Justice Association members gathered only precious secret manuals and treasures and temporarily descended Mount Wudang to Jun County.
Black smoke rose from Mount Wudang.