Chapter 56: Begging for Bones (1)
Chui spoke.
“Drop your sword. Unless you want to kill your son twice.”
Usually, a hostage is meaningful when they are alive.
Only then would the threatened person do something to save the hostage.
Since the hostage was already dead, room for negotiation had flown out of the window.
Under normal circumstances, it was something hard to accept.
……However.
If the body of the deceased was that of a son, and the one being threatened was a parent, the story could be different.
“S-Stop. He is a pitiful child. Do not insult him any further. Is he not already dead?”
The moment Do Mak-saeng raised his hand, the sword held by Chui cut a little deeper into Do Jwa-yoon’s neck.
Chui’s voice grew even colder.
“I could just cut off this head and run away. What do you think a barbaric savage like me would do if I took this head? Huh?”
“…….”
Do Mak-saeng stopped trembling.
His sword was held firmly in his hand without the slightest movement.
Chui spoke.
“Last warning. If you do not listen to these words, your son’s head will fall. And you will never be able to retrieve it again.”
“…….”
Do Mak-saeng shut his mouth and bowed his head.
However, he still did not let go of the hand holding the sword.
Suddenly.
He opened his mouth.
“Anyway, if I die, there will be no one to hold a funeral for my son.”
“You are quite rational.”
“No. I am a person far from rationality. It has always been like that. If there was something I wanted, I took it. I used any irrational method without hesitation.”
Do Mak-saeng’s posture lowered.
He held the saber in a reverse grip and tucked it at his waist.
And he took a drawing stance.
Do Mak-saeng glared at Chui, his eyes flashing.
Chui’s face filled his bloodshot, bulging eyes.
“Have you ever heard the public’s evaluation of me?”
“Do you mean that you are trash?”
“……Not that. Things like being the Saber King’s rival.”
Chui nodded.
That Hegemon Society Leader Do Mak-saeng had been known as the rival of the Saber King of the Hebei Peng Clan in his youth was a fact Chui already knew.
Do Mak-saeng continued to speak.
“The gossips say. That in our youth, the Saber King and I were evenly matched. But now, the Saber King is far above me.”
“…….”
“But those words, you see, are only half true.”
“……?”
Chui knitted his brows.
The sword was still slightly dug into Do Jwa-yoon’s neck.
Do Mak-saeng lowered his posture further.
And he put even more strength into the hand gripping the sword hilt.
“It is true that the Saber King’s current realm far surpasses mine. However, the words before that are not true. The part about the Saber King and me being evenly matched rivals in our youth.”
Soon, a sticky energy gathered at the tip of Do Mak-saeng’s saber.
Tears of the Blade of incredibly dense concentration began to flow down the spine of the blade and drip.
Before long, it hardened, eventually forming a solid shape beyond liquid.
Peak Mastery.
The supreme territory that can only be reached by surpassing High Mastery.
……What kind of change in state of mind occurred?
……What kind of realization did he obtain?
Like a butterfly trying to escape a stifling pupa, Do Mak-saeng was about to emerge from the stage of High Mastery, which had been his lifelong aspiration.
His lungs heated up like a furnace.
He spoke in a voice bubbling like molten iron.
“Back then. The Saber King was below me.”
“…….”
“It was youthful vigor. I visited the Hebei Peng Clan and met the Saber King, who was younger than me. Back then, he didn’t even have the moniker of Saber King. In a training ground with no onlookers, he and I exchanged over five hundred blows.”
“…….”
“And I won. Though it was but a single day of my youth, I clearly won back then. Because he knelt before my feet and admitted defeat.”
Soon, Do Mak-saeng continued.
“The final move that brought the Saber King to his knees back then. That single move is this.”
Light erupted from Do Mak-saeng’s eyes.
Simultaneously, the saber Qi gathered at the tip of his blade gradually changed from gas to liquid, and from liquid to solid.
An expert who had transcended High Mastery and entered Peak Mastery.
Trump card executed by such an expert with a desperate state of mind, containing a sincere wish, and risking his all.
Strength that could pull up mountains, energy that could cover the world. A single decisive throw to determine heaven or earth.
His strength was indeed enough to uproot a great mountain, and his energy was overflowing enough to cover the world.
It was a single move worthy of decorating the very end of ends, where a hero threw his entire body to determine whether it would be heaven or earth.
That was what was about to be unleashed from the tip of Do Mak-saeng’s saber right now.
“I will kill you. And I will save my son.”
As if believing that he could revive his dead child merely by killing Chui, a strange heat was emitting in streams from Do Mak-saeng’s two eyes.
……Right at that moment.
[Quit your bullshit.]
Do Mak-saeng abruptly turned his head at the whisper reaching his ear.
But nothing was visible to his eyes.
The voices merely drifted into his ears.
[Hehehehe—what a fine sight. The father and the kid are both about to die together.]
[You kill your living subordinates like dogs, yet you treasure your already dead son’s corpse like a precious gem! Disgusting bastard!]
[Mak-saeng—Do Mak-saeng—how long are you going to keep fondling your dead son’s balls?]
[Anyway, your son’s corpse will be torn to shreds, mixed with manure in the outhouse, and used as pig food.]
[Oh! I am the heavenly punishment itself. I have come to punish you and your son!]
[He probably didn’t know when he was born in a golden cradle and worshipped by numerous people, did he? That he would be torn to pieces and become food for wild dogs. Is this not all because he was born as your son?]
[Your son is trapped in the Boiling Cauldron Hell, which is said to be the most painful even in the Nine Springs of Hell! I saw it! Hehehehehehehe!]
The numerous ridicules shed by the Spear Ghosts were ringing loudly in Do Mak-saeng’s ears.
“H-How are you guys……?”
Do Mak-saeng’s eyes shook.
How could he not know the owners of the voices drifting into his ears?
They were all the guards of the Hegemon Society.
In an instant.
“Keu-heok!?”
Do Mak-saeng vomited a bowl of blood.
The internal energy loaded onto his sword seemed to shake unstably, and then quickly began to scatter.
Shhhhhh……
Strength was draining from his body.
Feeling his internal energy drying up, Do Mak-saeng opened his eyes wide as if they would tear.
“W-Why!? Why of all times now!?”
The butterfly that was trying to molt rapidly lost its strength.
…Splat!
Blood was gushing out from his chest.
Blood that had turned black before long.
“My blood is poison.”
Chui spoke as he looked at Do Mak-saeng’s chest.
“You were stabbed earlier, right? Lung. Diaphragm. Liver. Pancreas.”
Chui had stabbed the awls into Do Mak-saeng’s chest several times before entering the pavilion.
The awls smeared with his own blood, that was.
“Because your build is large, it takes a long time for the effect to circulate. How is it, do you feel a bit intoxicated now?”
“……! ……! ……!”
Do Mak-saeng staggered.
Thud—
The heavy saber fell to the floor.
Was it because of the Spear Ghost’ ridicule? A mind demon had visited his mental world.
The moment a butterfly is weakest is immediately after it has just molted from its pupa.
Even the mental state of an expert who had risen to the realm of Peak Mastery softened at this very moment.
Furthermore, with his only son lost, if he was even ridiculed for it, maintaining his composure would be impossible.
The poison of Chui that had begun to circulate in his body at that point was indeed exerting a terrifying effect.
“Ka-hak!?”
Do Mak-saeng was spurting blood not only from his mouth but also from his eyes, nose, and ears.
His Qi and blood flowed backward, pushing everything inside his body outward.
Do Mak-saeng trembled as he stood.
Toward him, Chui opened his mouth.
“Do Mak-saeng.”
“…….”
“Do Mak-saeng.”
“…….”
“Do Mak-saeng.”
“…….”
Three Calls. He called him three times.
Do Mak-saeng instinctively felt it.
That the only place he could go now was the Yellow Springs.
“……Is that so. Three Calls of the Yellow Springs.”
He let out a hollow laugh.
And then he dropped his head low.
Right at that moment.
Crack!
Chui’s hammer struck Do Mak-saeng’s head.
Several bone fragments pierced through the caved-in scalp.
Hot blood began to burst out like a hot spring.
…Splat! …Splat! …Splat!
Blood and brain matter spurting like a geyser.
However, Chui’s hammer blows did not stop.
Crack! Crack! Crunch!
With each hammer blow, a person’s face floated up.
The haggard faces of the women he had met in the temporary market.
And the eyes of the six-year-old girl, Baekli Yeon.
‘……Thank you. Thank you.’
The thank-you of the courtesan who somehow resembled Baekli Yeon, whom he had met when the Fuchai Pavilion was burning, also came to mind.
…Thud! …Thud! …Thud!
Separate from his reminiscence, the hammer blows continued.
Do Mak-saeng’s head no longer maintained a spherical shape.
Right at that moment.
“……W-Wait.”
Do Mak-saeng’s lips fluttered and moved.
“A…… moment……”
Chui stopped his hammer for a moment.
Do Mak-saeng spoke in a dying voice.
“A…… favor…… the last……”
He raised his hand.
No, it was closer to dragging it up rather than raising it.
Chui turned his head to where Do Mak-saeng was pointing.
There lay the fallen corpse of Do Jwa-yoon on the floor.
“My…… son’s…… funeral…… handling…… with my own…… hands…… please……”
Do Mak-saeng’s breathing gradually grew rapider.
“If I…… am gone…… no one…… my…… son……”
He raised his face, which had become unrecognizable from being covered in blood.
And he crawled with difficulty toward Chui’s feet.
Grab—
Do Mak-saeng grabbed Chui’s trouser hem.
And he begged, rubbing his half-crushed skull.
Begging for bones. Could the desperation of the woodcutter in the ancient past, who begged to borrow a skeleton, compare to this?
Chui nodded.
“Understood.”
He had spared time he did not have.
Although he had no intention of granting a long time, he could at least allow a brief moment to catch his breath.
“Instead. Admit that you have lived your life wrongly until now. And apologize to everyone you harassed and killed.”
Do Mak-saeng did not reply.
He merely nodded his head while dripping blood.
Soon.
Do Mak-saeng stood up with difficulty toward the stairs stained with the maidservants’ blood.
…Thud!
He fell to the side while standing up staggeringly, but eventually raised his body again.
One bow.
Do Mak-saeng stood up again from the prostrate posture.
Because he fell several times during this process, he eventually had to stand up by leaning against the wall with his blood-covered hands.
Two bows.
Do Mak-saeng, who squeezed out all his strength to offer two bows to those he had killed.
Only after that could he go to his son.
Staggering and falling a few more times.
Do Mak-saeng hugged his son’s fallen corpse.
Do Jwa-yoon, who closed his eyes as if asleep.
“Son…… my son……”
Do Mak-saeng’s mouth opened.
“I love…… you…… please…… in that place……”
His hand moved slowly to the side.
Trickle—
The fragrant oil that was inside the lamp was sprinkled over Do Jwa-yoon’s body.
Soon, the flame of the lamp caught onto Do Jwa-yoon’s body.
Whoosh!
The red burning flames consumed Do Jwa-yoon, the entire coffin, and before long, the ceiling of the pavilion.
Soon the fire began to spread to the entire pavilion.
Looking at his son who slept with his hands neatly gathered, Do Mak-saeng murmured.
“The tree…… branch…… shakes in the autumn…… wind……”
Tears of blood flowed from his eyes.
Was it anger, regret, atonement, longing, or a simple physiological phenomenon?
“The leaves…… where they go…… I do not know……”
Chui, holding the hammer, did not know.
…Thud!
And he did not care much either.
* * *
The Hegemon Society’s pavilion burning fiercely just like the Fuchai Pavilion.
Do Mak-saeng’s corpse, slumped over Do Jwa-yoon’s corpse, also became a piece of firewood.
“…….”
Leaving behind the firelight staining the night sky red, Chui came out of the pavilion.
Oh Ja-woon was waiting there.
Chui asked.
“What about Hae Baek-jeong?”
“She ran away.”
“I see.”
It was a simple summary of the situation.
Oh Ja-woon looked up at the burning pavilion and spoke.
“Though his spirit as a parent is commendable, if one knows that their own child is precious, they should also know that other people’s children are precious. Ultimately, that ruined not only himself but his child as well. How foolish.”
Chui had already turned his head away from there long ago.
“There is no time to indulge in sentiment. Move quickly.”
“Move? What for?”
“I will put up placards.”
“Ah. To widely publicize the evil deeds of the Hegemon Society.”
“That too.”
“……? Do you have another purpose?”
When Oh Ja-woon asked, Chui slightly turned his head.
Then, he replied in a calm voice no different from usual.
“I will provoke the dogs of the Martial Alliance and wipe them out.”
Hearing Chui’s words, Oh Ja-woon slapped his knee.
“Indeed, you are crazy.”
Unrivaled Spear Ghost