Chapter 39: The Way Back. (2)

The Way Back (2)

Swaaaaaa-

It’s raining.

The rain, pouring down as if piercing the sky, was incredibly fierce and rough.

The moon had long since hidden behind the storm clouds, disappearing without a trace, and the rainwater falling from the sky felt so heavy.

I ran like crazy down the dark forest path where not a single light shone.

No matter how much I wrapped my legs with Ki, my feet felt heavy.

As I ran like that for a long time, I thought.

How long have I run?

How much time has passed?

How much, how much…

‘How long have I held on…?’

My legs, cut and torn by the sword, screamed.

They yelled at me to stop running, to just stop, but I didn’t stop.

No, I couldn’t stop.

Something dripped down my hands.

Was it rainwater?

I foolishly harbored that hope, but it wasn’t.

It was too warm to be the cold rainwater.

At that sensation, I gritted my teeth. I absolutely couldn’t stop.

[Snap out of it!]

I yelled, but there was no reaction from behind me.

Because of that, I wrapped my legs with more Ki.

Time was running out. It felt like there was more blood on my hands than before.

[Fuck… Snap out of it!]

I screamed in anguish, but the result was the same.

So, I put more strength into the hands carrying her.

As if I would never let go.

Why am I going through all this hell because of this foolish thing? The thought kept swirling in my head.

Why didn’t I leave this worthless bitch behind?

Even though she was clearly going to be a burden, why did I pick her up and run?

Why am I still running for dear life, not abandoning her?

I don’t understand any of it.

I just ran.

The blood vessels in my eyes all burst.

The area below my navel ached, signaling that my dantian was completely empty from using up all my Ki.

My heart pounded like crazy.

Around that time, I felt something leaving my body.

My Ki was running low, so I had touched upon my innate Ki. My lips trembled from the sensation of energy being drained.

[…This fucking sucks.]

The breathing I felt on my back grew fainter.

My heart pounded louder, but the heartbeat I felt from my back grew slower.

The pursuing presence had vanished, but I couldn’t stop my legs.

Because I didn’t have the certainty that we had escaped that monster.

Where am I? About where am I?

My legs, which had been stumbling, had long since lost all feeling.

Far ahead, between the forest paths, I saw a cave.

There was no time to hesitate, so I immediately broke through the rain and dashed into the cave.

It was a place I couldn’t even see properly.

But I had no other choice right now.

As I went deeper inside, the sound of the rain faded, leaving only the silence within the cave.

Dragging my exhausted body, I reached a relatively spacious area of the cave.

As soon as I released the energy surrounding my body, I collapsed onto the ground.

Every joint in my body screamed, but first, I carefully laid the person I was carrying onto the floor.

Blood flowed down from the sword wound that ran long across their upper body.

They were barely breathing, and even that was faint.

With trembling hands, I touched the injured person’s body and infused them with my Ki.

Due to my empty dantian, it was Ki close to my innate energy, but there was no time to hesitate.

[Fuck… Why isn’t the bleeding stopping….]

As I kept infusing it, blood just kept flowing from the wound.

In that moment, my body swayed.

It was because I had consumed too much energy in a short amount of time.

[Why, why on earth….]

Someone weakly grabbed the hand that was forcefully pushing Ki in.

[St…stop…]

It was a voice almost devoid of life.

I said, filled with indignation at this shitty situation.

[Stop what? Just shut up!]

[…If you keep this up…you’ll die…I…I’m fine…]

[Don’t bullshit me! Who asked you to do something you weren’t asked to do! This happened because of what you started on your own, so I’ll do as I please too.]

So please, just shut up and focus on staying alive.

I couldn’t say that last part. She had lost consciousness again almost immediately.

I had to live.

I couldn’t die in a place like this.

I had to save her.

I couldn’t let her die in a place like this.

[What the hell am I supposed to do…. Fuck….]

If I infused more energy, I would lose consciousness.

Then she would die.

I grit my teeth and try to endure, but my heart, being squeezed, doesn’t wait for me.

[Please…. Please…!]

It was desperate, bordering on pleading.

This fucked-up world had never offered me a single proper helping hand.

That was still the case even now, cornered at the edge of a cliff.

[Just once…. You could help just once, couldn’t you?]

If you’ve been cruel this far, you could help just once, couldn’t you?

No matter how absurd it is, how can you never help at all?

Pleading and arguing with the heavens yields no answers.

After all, they were never on my side.

How long have I been like this? How much longer do I have to live?

Just as I was getting exhausted.

[How truly pathetic.]

The energy I was infusing stopped.

It was cut off not by my will, but by someone else’s.

My whole body stiffened at the short remark that came from behind me.

When…?

There was only one entrance to the cave.

Even pouring all my energy into it, could it make sense that I didn’t feel a single presence?

[…It wasn’t much of an entertainment. For a game of tag, it was exceedingly boring.]

Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.

Just him standing there made every muscle in my body scream, giving me the illusion that the air in the world had vanished.

Trembling, I turned my head and looked back at him.

Despair (絕望).

Where I looked, despair stood.

[There’s nothing more pathetic than a human chasing futile hope.]

[You, what the hell are you….]

[Your mouth is rougher than I expected.]

That was a monster. A being that couldn’t be explained otherwise.

He looked at us and laughed.

More precisely, he was laughing at me.

I couldn’t see what he looked like, or discern the nature of the voice I was hearing, but strangely, I knew he was laughing.

[This is somewhat amusing, that even in this state, you can bare your fangs at me.]

The pitch-black cave brightened.

No… it wasn’t brightening.

A greater darkness consumed everything, leaving no other darkness in the surroundings.

[…Fuck.]

I spat out a curse without realizing it.

I tried hard to ignore the fear, but it was undeniably fear, slowly creeping into my body.

This was not possible by human means.

Seeing me tremble in fear, he spoke.

[Did you ask who I am?]

Inside the distorted cave space, an alien black wind (黑風) surged from his fluttering black robe.

This swallowed the little hope I had.

It even knocked down the bravado I had barely mustered.

One step.

Just by him taking one step towards me, I knew.

That he was a being who could take everything from me in an instant with just a gesture if he wished.

Yet, he was showing mercy simply because he found it interesting.

[I am.]

At that leisurely, slow voice, my heart felt like it stopped.

The consciousness I had barely maintained began to fade.

It was probably around this time.

[The Heavenly Demon (天魔).]

That my world stopped.

---

I think I ran for about half an hour carrying Wi Seol-ah.

Thanks to the increased Ki, I could run much faster even carrying a person.

“I think I’m going a bit fast, are you okay?”

I asked Wi Seol-ah, who had buried her face in my back.

There was no answer.

“…Did you not hear me?”

Thinking she might not have heard, I asked again the same way, but still, there was no answer.

Sensing something was wrong, I stopped running for a moment.

I wondered if she couldn’t hear because of the wind noise.

“How is it, fast…”

Gororong.

“….Hmm?”

When I stopped running for a moment, I heard a subtle sound from my back.

Glancing slightly over my shoulder, I saw Wi Seol-ah was snoring softly, unbelievably.

It turned out she wasn’t unable to hear; she had fallen asleep.

“…You must have been quite comfortable?”

I said it teasingly, but Wi Seol-ah was too busy snoring to reply.

I briefly considered waking her up out of annoyance, but I just chuckled and started moving again.

Despite running for so long, I still had plenty of Ki left.

In fact, its ability to replenish itself every so often was astonishing.

I heard that Daoist sects that consider dense and pure Ki as their standard possessed this kind of Ki.

It was a sensation that didn’t quite suit me, being so far removed from innate energy or Daoist Ki.

‘But it’s not bad, is it.’

Good is good, and honestly, as long as it wasn’t demonic Ki, I figured anything was fine.

As long as it wasn’t that damned energy that gradually turns people into madmen, I didn’t care what it was.

I gradually increased my speed.

I had already passed the Tang Clan’s territory.

Since I had already finished my business there, getting away quickly was more important.

Ah… on the day of the Tang Martial Arts Convention, the Tang Clan’s head himself appeared, so I should have at least shown my face.

Since an escape route opened up, I just took it and got out.

I figured the Steward would scold me, asking what exactly I did after going there.

‘Still, I got everything I could.’

I managed to prevent the Gyecheon Sect from taking Bigo.

If I had to guess now, the fortuitous encounter the Gyecheon Sect Leader obtained was probably the bead spat out by that snake.

I wasn’t sure if the energy within this bead could reach the Hwagyeong realm, but…

If I had to guess, I thought that was it.

Looking at it that way, it was quite something that I, who only managed to gain half a gapja from an aura that seemed at least three or four gapja, was still considered great.

Honestly, I was grateful even for that much.

‘It’s better than getting nothing.’

The Night-Illuminating Pearl… Ah, let’s not think about that.

The moment I thought of the Night-Illuminating Pearl, my Ki wavered. If I thought about it any longer, I felt like I might fall into deviant cultivation due to my greedy heart.

I saw a village far in the distance.

From about here, I figured I should walk, so I stopped and gently placed Wi Seol-ah on the ground.

“Wake up, we’re here.”

“Mmm…?”

Wi Seol-ah rubbed her eyes, which wouldn’t open easily, with the back of her hand.

With the good intention of waking her up quickly, I flicked her forehead.

“Eek!”

Startled by the sudden flick, Wi Seol-ah’s eyes flew open.

“A servant snoring while being carried on their master’s back!?”

“I… I snored…!?”

Hearing my words about snoring, Wi Seol-ah jumped in surprise.

Seeing that, I grinned.

“You snored quite loudly. Anyone who heard it would think a tiger was roaring.”

“L-liar!”

“I swear on heaven and earth, my words are the truth.”

Of course, I didn’t mean she snored like a tiger, but…

When I invoked the heavens, Wi Seol-ah’s face fell.

As she followed behind, I could hear her muttering in a small voice, ‘No… it can’t be… it can’t be…’

Well, who told you to fall asleep while being carried?

I pulled the half-conscious Wi Seol-ah along as we entered the village.

I had to find the people of the Gu family somewhere in this village.

It wasn’t particularly difficult.

My internal energy had increased, so my detection range had expanded too.

All I had to do was find Mu-yeon’s presence.

But it’s closer than I thought…? It was even getting closer.

“Young Master!”

Someone wearing the Gu family’s martial attire ran over from a distance.

Mu-yeon was coming, somehow knowing.

Mu-yeon, who ran up breathlessly, had an expression mixed with relief that I had appeared and resentment.

“No… Where have you been for the past few days…!”

Mu-yeon, who started speaking, shut his mouth.

He had noticed the change in me. Mu-yeon asked me with a bewildered look.

“…What… happened to you?”

At Mu-yeon’s words, I awkwardly scratched my cheek.

“Should I say I just had a bit of a fortuitous encounter… How should I put it…”

I was just as surprised as Mu-yeon.

Having reached a new level, I could understand better.

Mu-yeon was a far more outstanding martial artist than I had expected.

‘…Crazy, at that age, the peak of first-rate?’

As far as I knew, Mu-yeon had just passed his early twenties.

It was strange.

That a martial artist with that level of talent remained unknown until my death.

It was truly peculiar that I didn’t even know him, despite him being a member of the Gu family.

I wondered what had happened this time as well.

“Sorry, various things happened.”

“No, even so, you should have taken me with you! What would you have done if something happened to you, Young Master? Do you know how worried I was!?”

“Sorry, but look, nothing happened, right?”

In fact, nothing happened even when I went to Bigo, and there were no particular issues.

It was true that disappearing without a word for three days was my fault, so I had nothing much to say.

That aside, I had something to ask Mu-yeon first.

“…But, you know.”

“Yes…?”

“Can I ask just one thing?”

“Yes… What did you want to ask…?”

“Why are there two extra, unnecessary presences?”

In the place where the Gu family members were gathered. There were two more martial artist presences that were definitely not welcome.

Mu-yeon wore an expression of not understanding what I meant by my words.

“Weren’t you the one who called them, Young Master?”

“Me, those… No, those people…?”

“Since the two of them said so, I…”

In the absurd situation, I ran a hand down my face.

From the inn far away, I sensed two familiar presences.

None other than Namgung Bi-ah and Tang Soyeol.

Their presences were felt from that location.