Chapter 9 – Brush with Death(9)
It seems that things have gotten seriously tangled.
I was sprinting at full speed through trees and bushes with Sua firmly tucked under my arm. I felt sorry for Sua who had suddenly become a bundle to carry, but there was no better option at the moment.
‘At least I managed to knock out the most dangerous one.’
Of course, judging by their aura, the other martial artists weren’t easy opponents either. Particularly, the most dangerous martial artist was fortunately the one I had knocked out first – the warrior named Murong Sa.
It wasn’t simply because he was a squinty-eyed character that often appears in fictional works. Literally, I could feel on my skin that he was the most dangerous among all the martial artists gathered there.
So I chose to somehow knock him out through a sudden ambush and escape. Killing him outright was also an option, but killing intent had many restrictions surprisingly.
Reading and preparing for the opponent’s killing intent was a common development in martial arts novels. If you’re a living being beyond just being human, you’re bound to be sensitive to death.
What if I had wielded killing intent, but the opponent read it in advance and blocked my attack? I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen after that. That’s why I stopped at just knocking him out.
‘If I had at least reached Peak level, I could have given it a try.’
“This can’t be happening, Brother…”
“Calm down.”
“But…!!”
“Sua, listen to me carefully.”
Perhaps because something unexpected had happened to a beloved family member? Sua’s eyes were shaking severely like reeds. Because of this, I had to stop momentarily to calm her down.
I put Sua down, knelt on one knee, and looked directly into her eyes. The trembling I felt through my hand on her small shoulder was proof of how anxious she was.
“Your brother is still alive.”
“What? But I heard he was captured…”
“He said he was captured, not that he was dead. They probably took your brother hostage to try to capture you.”
“Then…”
“Yes, so we just need to go find him and rescue him.”
In truth, I couldn’t be absolutely certain. There was still the possibility that they had already killed him and were using deception. But there was no need to mention such worst-case scenarios.
Fortunately, my words seemed to help significantly. As if by magic, her eyes that had been trembling like a candle in the wind had now settled into calm as she quietly looked at me.
“I apologize for my unseemly behavior, Great Warrior.”
“Do you have any suspicions? Even if it’s trivial, tell me everything you know.”
“First of all, Master Murong Sa is the leader of the Righteous Dragon Vanguard Corps.”
“Is the Righteous Dragon Vanguard Corps Vanguard under the Righteous Dragon Hall?”
“Yes. We often shorten it to just Righteous Dragon Corps.”
In martial arts novels, a squad leader is typically portrayed as lower in rank than a party leader. Of course, it could be different if their abilities were recognized and they led an independent unit. But she specifically mentioned they were under direct command.
‘So this means there’s a high possibility that the martial artists pursuing us are lower in level compared to the martial artists of the Righteous Dragon Hall?’
Well, suddenly I felt my confidence soaring sky-high. But I shouldn’t be overconfident. The current me hasn’t reached a level where I can afford to be arrogant yet.
Sharp killing intent had been continuously stabbing my back for a while now. I raised my head to look in the direction where I felt the killing intent. About five people. No, is it six?
When they first surrounded the thatched cottage, the number of martial artists was easily over 10. But since about half of them came in pursuit, it seems the other half were tending to their leader.
It seemed that those who could move immediately chose to pursue. I couldn’t keep on being followed like this. If the tail gets too long, eventually you’ll step on it.
Moreover, I’m alone and I have a child to protect. So rather, now is the optimal opportunity when their forces are divided. With a hardened expression, I drew the sword from my waist.
“I have no choice.”
“To protect you, there’s no other way. I’ll try to restrain myself from killing, but if I think they’ve crossed the line, I won’t hesitate to take their lives.”
“For someone like me, you would go that far…”
“Now turn around and close your eyes for a moment.”
It’s not that I particularly enjoy killing. Rather, I’d like to avoid taking lives as much as possible. But judging by the killing intent I’ve been feeling, it seems they don’t intend to let this slide.
Then, an eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.
I too have no choice but to use my full strength to kill my opponents.
Eventually, sharp sword energy began to flow along the blade.
◇
In the martial arts world, meeting a peak master is harder than catching a star in the night sky.
It was a joke often shared by martial artists clinking glasses at inns. Though somewhat exaggerated, meeting a supreme master in the martial arts world was indeed much more difficult than one might think.
One reason was the extremely rare number of supreme masters. And even those extremely rare supreme masters usually secluded themselves in family compounds or sects for training or focused all their energy on raising disciples.
Therefore, it was perhaps natural that frogs in wells who didn’t know their place appeared, calling themselves supreme masters. If you were an ignorant country bumpkin, you might have been fooled.
However, this didn’t apply to the Murong Family’s Righteous Dragon Vanguard Corps. At the very least, the Murong Family had Murong Jin, an outstanding supreme master, and they had even received direct guidance from him.
“An old man living alone on a mountain with no connections is a supreme master?”
“That’s nonsense. The young master must have been mistaken.”
“Well, the young master hasn’t even fully reached the first-class realm yet.”
“Haha! My friend, the same goes for us too, doesn’t it?”
When Murong Hyun first reported that he had received help from a supreme master, the martial artists belonging to the Righteous Dragon Vanguard Corps didn’t believe it. A supreme master secluded in a backwater place they’d never even heard of?
It was nonsense from a common sense perspective.
He must have mistaken a first-class master who had washed his hands of the martial arts world. That happens sometimes. Cases where people mistake the mystery and experience emanating from an elderly master.
And that became even more of a certainty thanks to Murong Hyun’s testimony that he had not actually seen the sword energy, the symbol of supreme mastery. But a first-class master is still a master, not to be underestimated.
The Righteous Dragon Vanguard Corps, having received orders from the family head, directly went to the mountain to retrieve the young lady. In fact, their leader Murong Sa had many complaints about the order, but he did not disobey.
It was an easy mission.
Retrieving the young lady from an unidentified old man.
Yes, it certainly should have been that way.
By the time they realized something had gone wrong, it was when their leader Murong Sa was knocked out with one strike. Murong Sa was undoubtedly a first-class master, the leader of the Righteous Dragon Vanguard Corps and their most skilled member.
Yet, such a Murong Sa was defeated with a single strike? It was at this point they noticed things were going wrong, but there was too much at stake to turn back now.
The family head had promised them something when giving this order. If they handled this mission properly, the family would promise full support to help them reach the first-class realm.
“He must have been caught off guard.”
“Right. If the opponent were truly a supreme master, we would all have been dead already.”
“And yet he chose to run away. I wonder why?”
They suppressed the creeping anxiety and began the pursuit. Other martial artists advised waiting and observing the situation since their leader had been taken down with one strike, but they were adamant.
There were surprisingly many martial artists who awkwardly straddled between second-class and first-class. Hence, they knew more painfully than anyone else that there’s nothing more agonizing than ambiguous talent.
Despite lifelong efforts, they couldn’t even definitively say they could fully reach first-class, let alone supreme. How many times had their hearts been torn and torn again by that fact? They didn’t even dare hope for supreme.
‘If only I could fully reach the first-class realm… I would gladly give even my life.’
They came here with a desperate determination to willingly give up even their lives. There was no longer a way back for them. So when they noticed the anomaly, it was already too late.
It felt like their skin was freezing in the face of a ferocious flow they had never experienced before. Only then could they clearly confront it: the sharp sword energy flowing along the blade of the unremarkable old man.
Sword Energy
The ultimate technique and symbol of supreme mastery that only masters who have reached supreme can use. Surprisingly, none of the martial artists immediately recognized that it was sword energy.
“Is that… could it be sword energy?”
“Im-impossible! It can’t be!”
“That’s not just sword energy flowing along the blade. It’s completely enveloping the sword. I’ve never even heard of something like this…!!”
Cognitive dissonance. Sword energy incomparable to what they had seen many times during guidance from the elder at the family compound. If the elder’s sword energy was like a calm stream flowing in the mountains.
The sword energy of the unremarkable old man before them was literally like the sea. And not just any sea, but a vast ocean where land is not visible. And the emotion felt by people adrift in the vast ocean is only one.
Despair.
Eventually, Mu-myung raised his sword high and swung it with all his might. That’s all it was. A simple vertical slash with no mystery or form imbued in it. However, its power was extraordinary.
Vertical Slash
A powerful storm of sword energy not only tore apart the fragile flesh of the martial artists but also carved away part of the mountain, causing a tremendous explosion that shook the mountain and sky.
As the dust settled, Sua, who had been watching everything from behind, was astonished. As if an earthquake had occurred, the ground was hollowed out with roots clearly exposed!
‘So this is the full power of a supreme master that I’ve only heard about. I’m so frightened that my legs are about to give way.’
Only then could Sua truly realize how lofty and fearsome the supreme realm that she had only heard about was. So high that there’s nowhere higher to go, in other words, the immovable realm.
Does a mountain tremble when a butterfly flaps its wings?
Does the sky crumble when the earth shakes?
Not compromising to any external pressure, carrying in the heart an unwavering conviction that the path one walks is absolutely right. That is why they are called supreme masters.
Which means, in other words…
‘Second-class types who can’t even use sword energy.’
It meant that Mu-myung’s misconception was unlikely to be corrected for the foreseeable future.
