Chapter 50: Loss of a Child (1)
Chui crossed the bridge with a leisurely pace.
Upon arriving at the island, Hwang Chun’s spear ghost whispered.
[The Eight Formations of the Rapids…… the Eight Formations of the Rapids…… Rapids……]
Chui slowly nodded.
“I wondered what you were whispering about since earlier.”
Hwang Chun’s spear ghost was warning Chui.
Indeed, it was about the formation deployed on this island.
“…….”
Chui paid attention to the strange rocks arranged on the island and the water mist flowing between them.
The path toward the inner garden was hidden within a formation designed like a maze.
The numerous paths inside would guide visitors to different doors respectively, and most of them would be the death gate, while only a very few would be the life gate.
Chui turned all the guards of the Hegemon Society he collected, including Hwang Chun, into spear ghost and interrogated them.
Each of the spear ghost talked about what they knew regarding the formation.
[The name of the formation is Sixty-Four on the Eight Sacrificial Vessels.]
[The sixteen formations of the Heaven-Thrusting are on both ends……]
[The twelve formations of the Earth-Axis are in the middle……]
[The four formations of the Heaven-Front-Thrusting are on the right……]
[The four formations of the Rear-Thrusting are on the left……]
[The six formations of the Earth-Front-Thrusting are in the front……]
[The six formations of the Rear-Thrusting are in the back……]
[The eight formations of Wind are attached to Heaven, and the eight formations of Cloud are attached to Earth, making eight formations in total……]
[The Heaven-Thrusting combines the Front and Rear Thrusting to make twenty-four formations, and combining the eight formations of Wind to attach to Heaven makes Thirty-Two Yang……]
[The Earth-Axis combines the Front and Rear Thrusting to make twenty-four formations, and combining the eight formations of Cloud to attach to Earth makes Thirty-Two Yin…… the twenty-four roving soldiers are behind the sixty-four formations……]
[The Front-Thrusting is Tiger Wing, the Wind is Coiling Snake, and the tiger and the snake are both toward the northwest of Yin……]
The information the spear ghost told him was fragmented, but when gathered together, it was quite useful.
Thanks to that, Chui was able to avoid all the traps in the formation and emerge through the life gate just by walking leisurely as if taking a stroll.
Swoosh……
As he escaped through the path of life, a cool wind blew over.
When the water mist cleared, the island on the lake finally revealed its true appearance.
There were three luxurious pavilions that looked as if Yueyang Tower had been scaled down and moved.
Between them, a training ground, a garden, and small ponds were visible.
Only maidservants were busily moving back and forth there, and no one carrying a sword was visible.
Chui emerged from between the strange rocks and shifted his steps toward them.
Several maidservants cast wary glances, but they soon looked relieved upon seeing Chui’s attire.
“Are you a First-Class Guard? You look young……”
“What is the commotion that happened at the bridge beyond the formation? I think I heard screams. It is so scary.”
“Just what on earth is happening outside?”
“Where did all those who went out earlier go, and why did you return alone?”
The maidservants ran over and asked Chui various questions.
Seeing that they had neither seen nor heard anything until now, they seemed to be in a position where they could not go outside the formation.
Chui only asked one question back to those maidservants.
“Those who were kidnapped and brought to the Hegemon Society. Raise your hands.”
“……?”
Then, the maidservants looked at each other’s faces.
Chui spoke once more.
“It is fine, so speak. If there are those whose presence here was not by their own will……”
However, unusually, Chui stopped speaking mid-sentence.
It was because all of the maidservants were raising their hands.
“Is that so.”
Chui nodded.
As expected, they were all kidnapped women.
Before long, Chui shifted his steps toward his own path.
“Ah! You must not go that way! The Leader said to let no one in……”
The maidservants tried to stop Chui, but it was useless.
Whether they stamped their feet or not, Chui continued to go inside the manor.
Before long, Chui came to face the innermost pavilion before his eyes.
Creak……
Upon opening the main gate, the central staircase leading to the upper floor was visible.
the spear ghosts of the guards collected from the Hegemon Society pointed their bloody fingers in unison toward that place.
That was exactly where Do Mak-saeng was.
* * *
The wooden railing made an old groaning sound.
Creak, creak, creak—
Chui slowly climbed the stairs.
On the fifth floor, the top of the pavilion, a deep scent of incense was spread.
Beyond the walls of elegantly standing screens, a faint shadow was visible.
生死路隱 此矣 有阿米 次肸伊遣
-The road of life and death is here, and I dread it
吾隱去內如辭叱都 毛如云遣去內尼叱古
-I go, without even saying the words, did you leave?
於內秋察早隱風未 此矣彼矣浮良落尸葉如
-Like leaves floating and falling here and there in the early wind of some autumn
一等隱枝良出古 去如隱處毛冬乎丁
-Born of the same branch, yet not knowing where we go
阿也 彌陀刹良逢乎吾 刀修良待是古如
-Ah, I who will meet you in Mitra’s land, will wait while polishing my blade
Hearing the verses of the poem sung to a tune, Chui raised his staff.
Crash!
The black staff was swung, tearing the screens to pieces.
Then, beyond the layers of mourning drapes, the figure of a giant man was visible.
Do Mak-saeng, the Hegemon Society Leader.
He was kneeling, sitting before a wooden fish and an incense burner.
Before long, Do Mak-saeng slowly turned his head.
Sunken cheeks.
A face as pale as sheet paper.
However, only from his eyes was vitality overflowing.
Yet, that vitality was somewhat alien.
Like the feeling when a liver is taken out from the belly of a freshly slaughtered cow and sliced, that raw vitality.
It was erupting in streaks from Do Mak-saeng’s blood-red eyes.
“……It was only the Buddha and the Primordial Heaven Lord who were easy to deal with.”
Do Mak-saeng spoke toward Chui in a dry voice.
“Those things that are not enough even if killed and killed, and killed repeatedly over eons. When I think that they took my son, it was no different from having my eyes closed even when open, and open even when closed.”
He stood up.
Befitting the alias of Giant Force Tyrant Blade, his build was huge enough to reach the ceiling.
Do Mak-saeng looked at Chui and spoke.
“Well come. Thank you for being alive. Thank you for allowing me to hate you, and for allowing me to tear you to death with my own hands, and for allowing me to place meat salted in blood made of your flesh on my son’s memorial table, I sincerely thank you.”
He was pressing down a beast-like cry as if enduring a torture.
Surging wailing, eternal capital punishment, primal hatred.
The raging brutality inherent in life seeped stickily into the bloodshot veins of his sharply bristled eyeballs.
Do Mak-saeng let his voice flow like blood dripping when chewing raw liver.
“In the ‘Mencius,’ the term ‘widower, widow, orphan, childless’ appears.”
Chui also knew this passage.
‘Widower’ refers to a man who lost his wife.
‘Widow’ refers to a woman who lost her husband.
‘Orphan’ refers to a child who lost their parents.
‘Childless’ refers to parents who have no children.
So, a man who lost his wife is called a widower.
A woman who lost her husband is called a widow.
A child who lost their parents is called an orphan.
“……Here, there is no word that refers to parents who lost their child. Is that not so?”
‘Childless man’ or ‘childless woman’ originally only referred to a man or woman who had no children.
A word referring to a man or woman who lost a child they once had did not exist.
That would be because they could not find a vessel that could fully contain the meaning of the word, the meaning of that sorrow.
However, Chui did not show any particular reaction to this.
He only answered shortly in a dry voice, as usual.
“Do not sell sympathy.”
“…….”
“Both of you, father and son, are the same. Have you not drawn countless tears of blood from the eyes of others’ parents, sons, and daughters? If this is the price, it is a cheap one.”
“…….”
Hearing Chui’s answer, Do Mak-saeng slowly stood up.
Before long, he picked up the giant sword that was on the floor.
Sizzle……
A liquid-form gangqi that only peak experts could emit.
The ‘sword’s tears’ called the tears of the sword.
It began to drip from Do Mak-saeng’s blade tip, sticky like honey and red like blood.
He spoke in a low voice toward Chui.
“I say it once again, but you really did well to come. If you bastards had just passed by Chu River County, I would have chased you with hounds even to the end of the Yellow Springs.”
“…….”
Chui silently stroked his chin once.
Deciding to clean up the Hegemon Society before crossing the wall of Hubei Province was an excellent choice even thinking about it again.
If they had left them in the rear, they would surely have colluded with the pursuit groups of the Martial Alliance, and if they had done so, formulating a strategy would have been twice as difficult.
Even if they had not colluded, shaking off the hounds of both the orthodox and heterodox factions at once was no easy task.
Rather, now when they were separated without knowing each other’s existence was the easiest moment to handle them.
Meanwhile, Do Mak-saeng growled as he drew his sword.
“I will make pressed meat from the flesh carved from your body, and I will make salted fish from the intestines dragged out from your belly. I will offer that on my son’s memorial table next year.”
The father’s wrath, which had lost its place to go until now, was precisely focused toward one spot.
Before long, Do Mak-saeng’s sword was drawn long from right to left.
…Flash!
Along with a red light, a crescent-shaped slash was violently shot.
“……!”
Chui quickly bowed his head to escape the cutting trajectory flying upward.
Rip!
The wall standing behind Chui was split into two pieces.
Of course, that was not all.
Boom, crash, bang!
Another pavilion on the opposite side of the window was cut whole.
The inner wall, pillars, roof, and the utensils inside were visible enough to see clearly.
‘Indeed.’
Chui kept his body low in the bowed posture.
Seeing him cut a whole tall pavilion, the alias of Giant Force Tyrant Blade was not attached for nothing.
He was indeed a man who was known as a worthy rival to the Blade King in his youth.
‘……But that is the story of when Giant Force Tyrant Blade and the Blade King were still novices. Now, the two would have a difference like heaven and earth.’
The Blade King and the Sword King were the current rivals.
And Chui had experience fighting against the Sword King, Namgung Cheon.
—The Fifth Move—
Recalling the last attack he exchanged with Namgung Cheon, Chui emitted momentum from his body.
Whoosh!
Spear Ghost crawled out from deep within Chui’s dantian, shedding red tears of blood.
Of course, to ordinary people, it only appeared as a red energy emitting like a haze.
“……!”
Do Mak-saeng winced at the sharp killing intent rising from Chui’s entire body.
Aside from hatred, it was a look of utter disbelief.
The question of how on earth he could possess this level of martial arts at such a young age.
However, regardless of that, Chui drew up the internal energy in his dantian to the maximum.
The Grand Patriarch of the Namgung Clan, Namgung Cheon.
The realm of Chui, who had survived against such a formidable enemy, was currently at the second stage of the Towering Vessel.
While Chui and Do Mak-saeng confronted each other.
Rumble! Crash!
Beyond the window, the pavilion split by Do Mak-saeng’s sword completely collapsed.
Creak, crack, creak—
And the current pavilion where the two men were engaged in a battle of wills was also precarious, as if it would collapse at any moment.
At this rate, both were in danger of being crushed by the debris of the collapsing building.
Before long, the low groan uttered by Do Mak-saeng broke the silence first.
“Let us go out.”
Meaning they should clash in a wide place.
Chui also handled a long weapon, so fighting in a narrow space was disadvantageous in many ways.
Since there was no particular reason to refuse, Chui followed Do Mak-saeng toward the garden outside the pavilion.
Indeed, the life-and-death battle of peak experts from which there was no retreat was about to take place.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost