Chapter 91: Repeated Injunctions (1)
Deep inside a person’s heart, within the forest of the subconscious, various trees of mental imagery grew.
A dense forest situated in the darkness.
Chui was facing a forgotten memory of his childhood there.
…Whoosh!
A burning ritual hall.
A shaman wearing a mask carved with a beast’s face danced in front of the flickering flames.
A red face, protruding tusks pointing upward, a copper head and an iron forehead, four eyes, six arms, a bear’s back, and a bull’s horns and hooves.
Inside the full-body mask of bizarre appearance, the shaman swayed his body and sang loudly.
Qiāngǔ qícái héng kōng xián
-A sage of a thousand ages whose wondrous talent covers the heavens,
Kě kān bìng lùn Yán Huáng jiān
-How could even the Flame Emperor and the Yellow Emperor compare to him,
Wǔ bīng xíng fǎ jūn shǐ diǎn
-As the five weapons, punishments, and laws all began from him,
Jiǔlí shēng qì chōng yún tiān
-The morale of the Jiuli people pierces the cloud-filled sky,
Xí juǎn Zhōngyuán Huá Xià lián
-Sweeping through the Central Plains and overcoming the Huaxia coalition,
Xuè rǎn jiāng hé wǔ qiān nián
-The blood-dyed rivers flow for five thousand years,
Yīng míng bù yīn Zhuōlù bài
-The hero’s glorious name cannot be obscured even by the defeat at Zhuolu,
Lǎo hēi shí shān bǎi huā xiān
-The various flowers of Old Blackstone Mountain are still fresh.
Numerous people, wearing the same masks, followed the shaman’s movements.
It was the same for the young Chui as well.
At that moment.
An arrow flew out from the forest.
Thwack—
An arrow pierced the neck of the dancing shaman.
Chaos instantly spread among the people.
People wearing black masks appeared from the forest.
They were all armed with spears, swords, and arrows without exception.
After that, the massacre began.
The flames spread everywhere, and the masked men killed the villagers relying on that light.
Chui fled.
He could not even remember the faces of his parents and siblings.
He simply ran and ran toward the dark forest, not knowing what lay ahead, evading the arrows that grazed the back of his neck.
Screams echoed from all over the forest.
They were the death rattles uttered by children of his age in the final moments of their lives.
Chui clenched his teeth and ran.
He ran, ran, and ran again, to the point where both of his lungs felt like they would burst.
The darkness before his eyes seemed like it would never end, and an arrow felt as if it would pierce his back at any moment.
Right then.
Chui tripped over a tree root and fell.
Death began to flicker before his eyes.
Just as Chui hurriedly got up and tried to run again.
…Thud!
An arrow pierced straight through Chui’s neck.
* * *
“……!”
When he opened his eyes, it was an unfamiliar ceiling.
Chui slowly raised his body.
A dim limestone cave.
A small campfire was lit in a pit on the floor.
Hearing the sound of the river flowing outside, it seemed to be a place not very far from the main stream of the Yangtze River.
Chui realized that he was buried naked in a pile of fallen leaves.
And also the fact that someone else was lying next to him.
Rustle—
Soon, the fallen leaves scattered, and someone poked their head out from within.
“You are awake.”
Sword Flower Namgung Yul. She was looking down at Chui with a complex and subtle expression.
Chui sat up.
As the fallen leaves cascaded down, Chui’s upper body was exposed as it was.
Namgung Yul blushed.
“Your body is still cold. You need to lie down a bit longer to raise your body temperature.”
“Why are you here?”
“I have been chasing you ever since the incident with Great Hero Oh Ja-woon. Meeting you here was a coincidence, though.”
Namgung Yul threw a few dry twigs into the campfire.
Come to think of it, she was also in a state that was practically half-naked.
Becoming aware of her own attire, Namgung Yul blushed once more.
“I-I had no choice in order to raise our body temperatures……”
“…….”
To raise body temperature, it was effective for two or more people to press their bodies together.
It was common sense in times of distress.
Chui picked up his clothes silently.
Swoosh……
As he circulated his internal energy, the moisture on the clothes dried up in an instant.
Chui stood up from his spot and draped the bone-dry cloak over his body.
“Why did you follow me?”
“Is there no such thing as a word of thanks?”
Namgung Yul seemed to feel hurt by Chui, who began questioning her immediately upon waking up.
“I jumped into the water risking my life too. To save you.”
“I never asked you to save me. And conversely, I almost died from being caught in a snare.”
Chui tapped the red mark on his neck with his finger.
It was a mark left behind in the process of Namgung Yul throwing a rope lasso and pulling it.
Namgung Yul blushed once again.
“I am sorry about the lasso. I threw it in a hurry, but even I didn’t know it would happen to catch on your neck of all places……”
“Forget it.”
“But still, you survived thanks to me anyway, didn’t you? If I had left you alone, you would have either drowned or frozen to death, one of the two.”
“…….”
Chui also furrowed his brow.
“What do you want?”
“…….”
At Chui’s words, Namgung Yul shut her mouth for a moment.
Eventually, after much deliberation, she offered an answer.
“After meeting you, my view of justice was shaken to its very roots.”
Going through the matters of Namgung Paeng-saeng and Oh Ja-woon, she had received a shock greater than all the shocks she had received throughout her life combined.
The justice of her own family, which she had always believed to be right, was overturned, and the justice of the Orthodox path, which she had followed as a matter of course, was also denied.
‘I am right, and you are wrong.’
Every group was bound to exist by this kind of logic.
Experiencing several instances that contradicted that basic premise, Namgung Yul was feeling extreme confusion regarding the organization she belonged to and its view of justice.
“My uncle Namgung Paeng-saeng, whom I thought of as a chivalrous hero, was an ugly villain, and Great Hero Oh Ja-woon, whom I thought of as a public enemy of the martial world, was a righteous man.”
“…….”
“I also read all the notices you posted after punishing the Black Path Gang, the Cao Family Manor, and the Hegemon Society.”
Eventually, Namgung Yul bowed her head before Chui.
“I want to follow you around and see the wider world. In order to truly cultivate an eye that can distinguish between right and wrong.”
Chui’s brow furrowed even further.
It was a blatantly annoyed look.
“What do you plan to do after cultivating such an eye?”
“I will probably be able to become stronger.”
“Why must you become stronger?”
Chui intended to listen to her words to a reasonable extent and then cut off Namgung Yul’s request.
However, Namgung Yul offered a rather unexpected answer.
“Because I must become strong to do my part when the Demonic Cult stirs up in the future.”
“…….”
Namgung Yul’s answer was quite principled.
Chui recalled the Yuan-Demon War in his memory.
The Demonic Cult’s invasion of the Central Plains, and the countless people who died because of it.
Had Chui not already experienced that living hell of a tragedy in his past life?
Namgung Yul spoke.
“My grandfather said so. That the wicked scoundrels of the Demonic Cult are revealing their wild ambition to invade the Central Plains at every moment even now. That a wind of blood will blow sooner or later.”
Sword King Namgung Cheon was one of the few people who knew how to accurately grasp the trends of the martial world.
However, Chui was thoroughly aware of the detailed inside stories that even such a man did not know well.
‘The Demonic Cult will invade the Central Plains. But their purpose is not simple domination.’
It was exactly as he thought.
The Demonic Cult infiltrating the Central Plains was not just to dominate the Central Plains martial world.
In fact, rather than that, their primary goal was to capture and execute the traitor who had shaken up the Demonic Cult’s headquarters and fled.
And that traitor was none other than…….
‘Blood Demon Hong Gong. The rebel who absorbed the power of the Demonic Cult and founded a new religion.’
Chui recalled Hong Gong’s face in his mind.
Hong Gong, who was once the Right Divine General Messenger of the Demonic Cult.
He was currently being pursued by the Demonic Cult even at this very moment.
And the one dispatched to the Central Plains to execute him was none other than the Death Plum Blossom Oh Ja-woon, who would later become the Left Divine General Messenger.
‘Hong Gong is probably seeking refuge in the Heterodox Alliance to escape the assassins of the Demonic Cult.’
In the process, there was a high possibility that he used the Tiger Butcher of the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union as his test subject.
In order to establish his own forces within the Heterodox Alliance.
“…….”
Chui swept his hair back.
Hong Gong, who would be hiding in the Heterodox Alliance to escape the Demonic Cult and doing the groundwork for his own wild ambitions.
If he could not find and kill him, the tragedies of his past life would be repeated in the exact same way.
Thinking of the countless tragedies he would cause in the future, Chui’s brow furrowed even more.
At that moment.
“……?”
Chui felt Namgung Yul’s gaze staring intently from the side.
Namgung Yul, who was staring intently at Chui’s profile, hastily lowered her eyes the moment their eyes met.
Namgung Yul had rarely seen Chui’s face properly until now.
It was because Chui had always covered his face by being covered in blood or having soot smeared on his face, and Namgung Yul herself had always had her neck grabbed or been slammed to the ground in urgent moments.
But now, Namgung Yul was looking at Chui’s bare face from very close by.
For her, who had never been close to a man in her entire life, it was an extremely unusual experience.
“…….”
“…….”
An awkward silence hung over the cave for a moment.
Eventually, Namgung Yul spoke first.
“Where are you going now?”
“…….”
“If you don’t have a specific destination in mind…… how about going to the Namgung Clan together?”
As Chui raised his head, Namgung Yul hurriedly waved her hands in denial.
“Of course, I will clear the false accusations that were placed on you.”
“…….”
“I can also block the pressure from the Heterodox Alliance to some extent. I heard that the leader of the Heterodox Alliance was enraged by the matters of the Black Path Gang and the Hegemon Society.”
Compared to the Martial Alliance, which valued justification, the Heterodox Alliance valued practical interests relatively more.
They would probably not leave Chui alone after he destroyed the Black Path Gang and the Hegemon Society and even killed Staff Ghost Gu Gang-ryong.
Moreover, had Chui not caused a great commotion at the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union?
Namgung Yul continued speaking.
“A wanted order has already been issued throughout the entire Heterodox faction. As an individual, it will be exhausting for you to hold out.”
“…….”
“Come with me. The Namgung Clan will become your backing.”
When the Namgung Clan, a pillar of the Fifteen Pillars of the Orthodox Path, was protecting him, who would dare stretch out their evil hands?
Confidence was fully evident in Namgung Yul’s voice.
However.
“No.”
Chui flatly rejected her proposal.
To catch a tiger, one must enter the tiger’s den.
Clashing with the Heterodox Alliance was indispensable in order to catch Hong Gong.
Namgung Yul urged him once again.
“Although you probably have a separate plan, I think that if the Namgung Clan supports you, you will be able to achieve what you want much faster and more efficiently.”
“…….”
“I saved your life once, didn’t I? So, give me the benefit of the doubt and trust me just this once.”
She was asking him to accept her help since she had saved his life.
It was a somewhat absurd demand.
“…….”
Chui contemplated for a moment.
Namgung Yul was swallowing her dry saliva at a nervousness whose reason even she did not know.
Eventually, Chui spoke in a low voice.
“……I did intend to stop by the Martial Alliance once anyway.”
In an instant, Namgung Yul’s expression brightened up completely.
And immediately after that, she was startled by herself.
‘What is this? Why am I happy?’
However, her confusion continued after that as well.
Because Chui dusted himself off and stood up.
“I am going back. I have to wrap things up.”
“Ah……”
As Chui said he was leaving the cave, a sudden sense of emptiness rushed in.
She was about to stand up to follow Chui, but stopped and hastily pulled the hem of the cloak to cover her body, which had its chest fully exposed.
‘How strange, what is wrong with me since earlier.’
She was experiencing the regret of leaving this cave and the confusion arising from it at the same time.
‘C-Could this be that? The phenomenon where, when nursing a patient by their side, sympathy turns into feelings of affection and love……? Yes, it must surely be that. It is just a temporary side effect. Yes, it has to be.’
Namgung Yul gathered her inner feelings, even recalling the theory she had learned in a liberal arts class at the Ascending Heaven Academy.
* * *
Chui went up to the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union immediately upon coming out of the cave.
Finding the way was easy.
Because he only had to climb up following the huge flames burning on the peak.
Eventually, Chui and Namgung Yul stood in front of the burning mountain fortress.
After entering deep into the ashes where the embers glowed for a long time, a half-collapsed pavilion came into view.
There stood Jeok-hyang and Gyeon Sul.
In front of the collapsed gray wall, Jeok-hyang was crying, and Gyeon Sul was turning his head away with a complex and subtle expression.
The room beyond the wall, the stench wafting from it.
“…….”
Chui kept silent.
Because he could immediately understand what the situation was.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost