Chapter 44: Scaling the Wall (5)
Oh Ja-woon, the Death Plum Blossom.
He huddled, pulling dry pine needles beneath a tree root to cover himself.
Though the campfire had gone out and even the smoke from the charcoal had died down, Oh Ja-woon did not budge from that spot.
‘…….’
For days, he had been unable to sleep or eat properly.
The internal injuries and scars he sustained while evading the dogs of the Martial Alliance were festering from exposure to the night dew.
A high fever rose along with a headache, nausea and heartburn were tearing up his stomach, and his feet had already turned black and blue, to the point where it was difficult to find any spot with their original color.
…Blink!
In a split second, he crossed the boundary between this world and the afterlife.
Had he fallen asleep for a moment, or had he died and returned to life, or had he been sane all along?
In a state where he could not even distinguish between dream and reality, this world and the afterlife, Oh Ja-woon encountered his wife.
His wife, Kang-ah.
Her face, which was already pale to begin with, had turned even paler.
The corners of her eyes, which used to droop gently, flared up to the sky with anger, and her beautiful hair stood up straight like needles.
Kang-ah vomited blood from her mouth and spoke.
‘Had I not married you, I would not have been poisoned.’
Oh Ja-woon tried to run and embrace his wife, but no matter how much he ran, the distance between him and his wife did not narrow.
After glaring at Oh Ja-woon for a long time with an expression filled with deep resentment, Kang-ah suddenly vanished.
‘Do not go, do not go, wife! Do not leave.’
Oh Ja-woon cried out desperately, but the gap between the living and the dead was not something that could be bridged by a desperate heart alone.
At that moment, another shadow appeared behind Oh Ja-woon, who was crying out at the top of his lungs.
A beauty with a cold and intelligent impression.
From her narrowed eyes, a chill colder than the north wind was flowing out.
Junior sister Maeng Yeong; she stood half-naked, just like the last time he saw her in the thatched cottage.
‘Junior Sister. Are you all right? You were alive!’
Oh Ja-woon shouted.
Then Maeng Yeong, instead of answering, untied the coat strings that were covering her chest.
Before long, a vivid sword scar was revealed before Oh Ja-woon’s eyes.
A deep scar that carved into her white, soft skin in the shape of a plum blossom.
The blood dripping from there was dyeing her entire lower body red.
‘Had I known it would be like this, I should not have loved you. No, I should not have even gotten involved with you at all……’
Maeng Yeong looked at Oh Ja-woon with a sorrowful expression.
‘Junior Sister! Junior Sister!’
Oh Ja-woon rushed toward Maeng Yeong, but before he knew it, a cliff much wider and deeper than Heartbreak Cliff had formed between them.
Maeng Yeong stood sorrowfully, waiting for Oh Ja-woon, but in the end, she slowly turned her back.
‘…….’
Without saving either his wife or his junior sister, Oh Ja-woon just stood there blankly like a fool.
Just.
Cuckoo—
Only the cry of the exhausted cuckoo faintly echoed in the dark space.
* * *
“……Gasp!?”
Before long, Oh Ja-woon opened his eyes.
The cold morning dew broke his light sleep, which was as thin as thin ice.
Inside the extinguished campfire, the half-burnt firewood and ashes were damp and wet.
Cuckoo—
In the distance, the soul of Wang Di cried.
In the dark mountains where not even wild beasts came, only Oh Ja-woon remained alone.
“…….”
Oh Ja-woon let out a sigh.
His missing left arm felt cold.
Every time his severed joints throbbed, he thought of the nightmare he had just dreamed.
His wife Kang-ah, and his junior sister Maeng Yeong.
What kind of catastrophe would his destiny, entangled in the deaths of the two women, face in the end?
‘Perhaps it will not be a very comfortable end.’
He might be stabbed countlessly, have both eyeballs gouged out, have his head cut off and put on display, or otherwise be thrown into a cold river.
‘……But that is not right now.’
Oh Ja-woon gritted his teeth and stood up.
The sun was setting and the road was long, so he had to act against reason.
The path to go was far, and it was difficult to follow the natural order.
Suddenly, Oh Ja-woon felt a sense of anxiety.
‘The man named Chui whom I am waiting for right now. What kind of person is he anyway? Is he someone I can trust?’
He, who had introduced himself as Chui, was full of secrets from head to toe.
It was impossible to know where his sect was, what his past was like, or what his real name and identity were.
Just a person who silently cleared the path ahead of him.
Someone who seemed like he would leave at any moment, yet surprisingly stayed by his side consistently.
However, Oh Ja-woon did not fully trust Chui.
Although he had offered a memorial service for his father, cleared the weeds around the grave on his behalf, and defeated the pursuers…… nevertheless, there was more than one suspicious thing about him.
‘There is no way he is from the Demonic Cult. In the first place, the Demonic Cult would not even know that I have been designated as a public enemy of the martial world and am being pursued. In such a situation, why would they come to greet me?’
Oh Ja-woon probed Chui several times, but Chui never spoke of anything related to the Demonic Cult.
Had he made some excuse instead, he would have left without a doubt, but the fact that he steadfastly made no excuses or explanations actually gave him a strange sense of trust.
……However, that he felt trustworthy yet untrustworthy at the same time was the complex mind of a fugitive.
In an ambivalent situation where he could neither fully doubt nor fully trust, Oh Ja-woon recalled the last words Chui had spoken.
‘I will let you inside that fortress wall within half a day.’
That voice so full of confidence. That expression. That attitude.
Oh Ja-woon hesitated once again at that back, which made him strangely rely on it when he was by his side.
‘That he will let me inside that fortress wall…… surely he does not mean to have me captured by informing on me?’
Even when trust was built, the demon of doubt reared its head again.
Since he was buried alone in the darkness of the quiet forest, such thoughts arose even more.
‘Should I rather kill that man, Chui, and run away alone? Even now……’
Instantly, Oh Ja-woon was startled by his own thought and shook his head.
What a terrible thought this was toward the person who had helped him until now.
Even if he were a betrayer, considering the grace of offering Bamboo Leaf Green liquor and dried anglerfish fillet at his father’s memorial service, he must not dare do so.
Besides, even if he tried to kill Chui, it did not seem like he would die easily.
“…….”
Oh Ja-woon recalled Chui’s staff, which had blocked his sword so easily.
An iron wall that seemed utterly impenetrable.
A dark red lake where not a single ripple arose no matter how many stones were thrown.
Chui was exactly that kind of feeling.
‘I lack the confidence to kill him, I lack the confidence to leave alone, and I also lack the confidence to go with him. Ja-woon. Oh Ja-woon. Were you such a weak and pathetic human being?’
Oh Ja-woon lamented.
The sword tips of the pursuing party targeting him might gleam from that darkness at any moment.
At the chilly breeze brushing through the bamboo grove, he hid, emerged, sat down, stood up, lay down, and leaned his back, literally tossing and turning.
Right at that moment.
“Oh Ja-woon.”
A voice was heard from beyond the darkness.
Oh Ja-woon was startled and almost drew his sword.
No, he actually drew and even swung it.
Clang!
A single plum blossom blooming in the darkness was blocked by the pitch-black ink bamboo.
Beyond Oh Ja-woon’s sword tip, Chui stood without his expression changing even a bit.
“I have broken through the pass. Let us go.”
At that moment.
Oh Ja-woon saw a single ray of dawn blazing beyond the darkness.
‘They said I raped and killed my junior sister.’
‘There is no way that is true.’
Even if all the beasts in the world turned their backs on him, there was one human being looking at this side.
* * *
“Why are you crying?”
“I am not crying.”
This was the conversation that Physician Dong Go-gong shared with the waiter, Hwang Nul.
Of course, these were the disguised identities to pass through the fortress gate.
That is, originally, it was the conversation between Chui and the Death Plum Blossom.
They just passed through the chaotic Zhaoguan Pass.
The strict guard captain, Won Wol, did not stop the two but just left them alone.
The warriors of the Mount Hua Sect and the Wudang Sect also seemed to pretend not to see, as if they did not want to get involved with the Hegemon Society.
Like fish caught in a net escaping through a torn mesh into the blue sea, Chui and the Death Plum Blossom blended into the crowds on the street.
“…….”
The Death Plum Blossom put strength into his steps.
Coming to a place bustling with people after being alone in the cold mountains, it felt like his body was warming up.
His swollen and bleeding feet were squeezing out their last ounce of energy.
Before long, the Death Plum Blossom asked Chui.
“Just what kind of trick did you use to pass through this heavily guarded Zhaoguan Pass like this?”
Chui briefly explained to the Death Plum Blossom what had happened in the meantime.
All of it, from taking the pass and the herb carrier from the physician named Dong Go-gong, to passing through the Zhaoguan Pass and causing a ruckus at Fuchai Pavilion.
The Death Plum Blossom’s mouth fell wide open.
‘……To pass through the Zhaoguan Pass, he touched the private faction, the Hegemon Society? Amazing. Is this a strategy one could take in their right mind!’
Beating the grass to startle the snake in this situation; even so, he never expected him to touch the ‘private’.
This was a blind spot that Oh Ja-woon had not thought of at all.
Turning his head, he could indeed see the fire demon burning fiercely in that tall pavilion building.
With a scale of that size, even if the fire were brought under control, the entire street would likely remain chaotic for about two days.
Watching numerous guards frantically carrying and pouring water, the Death Plum Blossom spoke.
“You look young, yet how do you pull off such things so casually? Surely you must have studied under someone. If so, who on earth was the master who raised you?”
Chui shut his mouth for a moment.
This was because these were actually things he had learned during the days he followed Oh Ja-woon.
The experiences he had acquired over the shoulder while crossing the boundaries of life and death, breaking through the heaven-and-earth net of the Martial Alliance.
These were now, ironically, allowing Chui to teach Oh Ja-woon.
Chui briefly recalled the past.
‘…….’
The east gate of the Mount Hua Sect where only crows flew around.
The sotdae covered in thick dust.
The waves of the Zhejiang River flowing gently as if nothing had happened.
And the red blood plum blossoms blooming in profusion in the mountains.
The inner feelings he felt back then, which he could not tell anyone, Chui now put into words.
“I only return as much as I received.”
“……?”
The Death Plum Blossom did not understand the meaning of the words Chui spoke.
However, from this very moment, he came to truly believe in Chui.
Among the people busily moving to watch the fire, the Death Plum Blossom clasped his hands in salute toward Chui and bowed his head.
“They say that easing another person’s hardships is called benevolence, and saving someone in difficulty is called courage. You are a person who possesses all of these. I am ashamed of myself for having doubted you all night last night.”
“…….”
Chui waved his hand.
Just as he felt when dealing with the courtesans of the Wave Market and the courtesans of Fuchai Pavilion, he indeed had no taste for playing the hero.
Before long, the Death Plum Blossom asked.
“Yes. Where do you intend to go from now on?”
Hearing those words, Chui once again recalled the past.
In the past, whenever they broke through a rough pass, Chui would always ask Oh Ja-woon where they were going next.
And every time, there were words that Oh Ja-woon would habitually say.
“First, let us go eat some food.”
Isn’t it all just to make a living, after all?
Unrivaled Spear Ghost