Chapter 174 :

The Black Flame Dragon Who Swallows the Sea of Blood (4)

Darkness receded, and the approaching dawn began to shed its light, but an ominous red energy still filled the area.

"...Amitabha."

Despite the compassion in his voice as he invoked the Buddha's name, Ilgak's eyes were sharp as he watched the red energy.

Powerful energy gathered between his palms, pressed together in prayer.

He extended one hand and slowly pushed forward as if shoving space itself. An enormous Thousand-Handed Tathagata Palm unfolded in the shape of his hand and began driving back the sorcery.

Though neither side had a tangible form, the enormous golden hand and the red space clashed in midair, producing a strange sound like flesh being torn.

Riiip—

"Aaaaaaah!"

As the unidentified red space tore apart, the screams spilling out violently shook his mind.

Through deep practice in wall-facing meditation and vows of silence, he had thought he'd tasted transcendence. Yet even this small trace of wickedness shook him so severely that Ilgak felt deeply disappointed in himself.

"How did it come to this...?"

Troubled thoughts, something he rarely indulged in, filled his mind.

But that wicked sound wasn't the cause.

It was his deep regret over what he had overlooked.

No—his contempt for himself for reassuring himself that everything would be fine and refusing to face the truth.

"They say regret comes too late, no matter how early it arrives..."

He glanced around.

Numerous Shaolin disciples and disciples of its affiliated sects clutched their heads and recited Buddhist scriptures.

They were desperately resisting the strange sounds and illusions invading their minds.

They were the fortunate ones.

The disciples of Diancang and its affiliated sects, who had accompanied them, were convulsing with their eyes rolled back and foam spilling from their mouths.

Even Hyeseong, their only hope, was clutching his head alongside Myeonghyeon. Seeing that, Ilgak felt overwhelmed by the helpless realization that there was nothing more he could do.

"Could there be a more worthless fool than me?"

He'd had a chance.

When Jin Sowoon's letter arrived.

At the very least, he should have seriously considered the "dangerous threat" Jin Sowoon had described.

Even when Myeonghyeon and Hyeseong had reacted with contempt and outrage, he should have considered it.

If he couldn't oppose them, he should at least have maintained strict vigilance.

And this was the price of dismissing all those uneasy feelings as worldly distractions.

"Amitabha..."

Repeating the Buddha's name would solve nothing.

And yet all Ilgak could do now was clear his mind and invoke it.

"Amitabha."

He drew upon the Bodhidharma Tendon-Changing Scripture, further amplifying the Thousand-Handed Tathagata Palm.

Golden radiance spread in all directions, but the wicked forces showed no sign of retreating.

His energy was already running low, leaving him unable to strengthen the palm technique further.

But if he withdrew it, he couldn't guarantee the safety of those behind him.

Step. Step. Step. Step.

The sudden sound of disciplined footsteps deepened Ilgak's unease.

"Don't tell me..."

Through the red space, figures clad in blood-red robes from head to toe began emerging in formation.

With the red space obscuring them like a curtain, he couldn't even tell how many there were.

"Is this the end...?"

Throughout his life as a Shaolin disciple, Ilgak had never imagined meeting an end like this.

Rather than a desperate desire to survive, his heart was filled with regret over a life in which he had failed to put his enlightenment into practice.

Clang-clang-clang!

The blood-robed men drew their heavy swords in unison.

Between his own death and the deaths of the others, Ilgak's choice of the former was only natural.

"Amitabha..."

The blood-robed men approached slowly, like hunters preparing to slit the throat of prey struggling in a trap.

At the sight of death approaching so leisurely, even Ilgak, who had attained an unshakable mind, could only close his eyes.

Soon, he would feel cold steel pierce his neck...

Just as he thought that—

Bang! Boom!

A tearing sound rang out, followed by a heavy impact.

Ilgak opened his eyes and saw that the formation of approaching blood-robed men had been completely shattered.

"What in the world...?"

Whoosh—

The sound of something cutting through the wind rang beside Ilgak's ear.

His large earlobe stung as something flew past his eyes.

"An arrow?"

The blood-robed men must have seen it too. They raised their heavy swords, gathered internal energy, and tried to knock it aside.

Bang! Boom!

The arrow should have been cut apart by a sword imbued with internal energy.

Instead, it pierced the body of the man swinging the sword and continued flying.

Its penetrating power was unbelievable, even as he witnessed it.

"Venerable, are you all right?"

"..."

Turning his head, Ilgak found Moyong Jaehwa watching him anxiously with bloodshot eyes.

A bow was in his hand. Apparently, he had fired the arrows.

How had he avoided falling victim to the illusion formation?

As Ilgak stared blankly at him, wondering—

"Benefactor Jaehwa..."

"Ah! Your ear!"

Ilgak felt his ear and discovered a small cut on his earlobe, bleeding.

"I'm sorry. It was so urgent that I couldn't aim properly."

"I-it's all right."

Jaehwa looked toward the blood-robed men.

"I'll push them back for now. Please wake the others."

"Wake them? What do you intend to do after waking them?"

The enemy used wicked sorcery, and their numbers were unknown.

People whose minds had already been shaken by that sorcery couldn't simply get up and fight them.

"We'll evade them and hold out."

"Hold out...?"

Looking at Moyong Jaehwa's face—his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion, his lips cracked and bleeding—Ilgak felt his own foolishness all over again.

Even if they gathered everyone, there was no way they could escape.

The enemy's numbers alone made that impossible.

"...I'm sorry, Benefactor Jaehwa. This is all my fault."

At Ilgak's remorseful words, Moyong Jaehwa shouted,

"Venerable! Pull yourself together! You can't fall apart now!"

Seeing Moyong Jaehwa trying to offer even empty hope made Ilgak feel even more ashamed.

"We only need to hold out a little longer. Just a little longer, and everything will be resolved."

"What do you mean...?"

Moyong Jaehwa spoke with conviction.

"Brother Sowoon will come."

"Sowoon? You mean Representative Jin Sowoon?"

They were already surrounded by unidentified blood-robed men.

The second and third lines were probably in the same situation.

No one could make their way through such a hellish battlefield.

Yet Moyong Jaehwa's gaze remained firm.

"Didn't he clearly say in his letter that he would come?"

"He... did, but... this place is already..."

Ilgak spoke with doubt written across his face, but Jaehwa firmly shook his head.

"Brother said he would come! Then he'll come."

Moyong Jaehwa repeated it, just as Ilgak himself had repeated the Buddha's name.

The difference was that he believed his own words with absolute certainty, as though they were an undeniable truth.

"..."

As Moyong Jaehwa drew his bowstring, his unwavering eyes fixed on the blood-robed men, Ilgak could no longer bring himself to invoke the Buddha's name.

I recalled the routes the Corpse-Mountain Blood-Sea Cult had taken in my previous life.

At the same time, I overlaid them with the routes the Martial Academy students had taken in this life.

When the two maps, drawn from different timelines, aligned, the result was grim.

"Damn it..."

The first line was facing the Corpse-Mountain Blood-Sea Cult's main force.

Another moving unit of the cult would be blocking the road ahead of us.

Charging into it would be no different from coating myself in oil and leaping into a fire.

My thoughts grew even more tangled.

"And I can't ask the Green Forest for any more help, either."

I'd already escaped one crisis with the "help" of the Green Forest strongholds. Expecting anything more from them would make me no better than a thief.

And unlike them, I wasn't a thief.

As I desperately tried to devise a way through, Nam Hwaseong spoke.

"There's something I want to ask."

Had this bastard really left all his sense back home?

"Now?"

"Yes. Now."

"Do you really have to ask a question in the middle of this crisis?"

"I do."

"You damn bastard..."

He nodded, his face more rigid than ever.

Fine. Let's hear it.

"Go ahead."

"Moyong Jaehwa and Eun Seollan aren't members of your sect. Why are you going this far?"

"What kind of bullshit is this now?"

"You know it too, don't you? Against enemies like these, they've probably already..."

"What? Been killed?"

Nam Hwaseong silently nodded, apparently confirming that was what he meant.

Well, anyone else might naturally give up at this point.

"But we haven't confirmed that they're dead."

"..."

"They could be desperately holding out right now, waiting for someone to rescue them."

"...Isn't that too optimistic?"

"Until I see their bodies, they're not dead to me."

I looked at Nam Hwaseong.

"And if they're not dead, I'll go to rescue them. No matter when."

"..."

Nam Hwaseong continued.

"...Is that because they're your people?"

"You bastard, are you not tired enough? Should we pick up the pace?"

"Jin Sowoon! This is an important question."

"..."

Even after everything I'd put him through, he still hadn't learned his lesson.

His guts seemed to be on par with Go Tae of the Sojeong Unit.

In the end, I surrendered and answered.

"Yes. Because they're my people."

"..."

Nam Hwaseong still looked as though he didn't understand.

Of course he didn't.

No—he couldn't understand, even if he tried.

To understand this, he would have needed to experience terrible loneliness.

During the Righteous-Demonic War, the Sojeong Unit had no one to rely on.

Neither had I, after the Taeul Sect was annihilated.

That was why, even when we were stranded alone behind enemy lines, we couldn't so much as hope that someone would come to rescue us.

And it hadn't been just us.

Moyong Jaehwa had been the same.

So had Eun Seollan.

Everyone who had devoted themselves to the Martial Alliance from the shadows had been alone.

I had watched them die alone.

That was why I didn't want to repeat any of it.

"Because they're my people."

So they wouldn't be left alone.

So I wouldn't be alone.

So that even if the Demonic Cult destroyed the murim world again, I wouldn't have to face that terror alone.

"I don't let my people die alone."

A brief silence followed.

Then Nam Hwaseong slowly opened his mouth.

"Then why did you save me?"

This bastard, seriously...

"Are you going to be satisfied only after I throw you back into that illusion formation—"

Nam Hwaseong suddenly shouted,

"Answer me, Jin Sowoon! You could have left me behind. So why did you save me?"

Why was he suddenly getting angry?

He was making this awkward.

I looked at his face.

And at the sight of his eyes, staring at me as though yearning for something, I had no choice but to tell him the truth.

"Following my orders means entrusting your life to me, doesn't it? Then as long as you follow my orders, you're one of my people."

"..."

With a serious expression, Nam Hwaseong finally shut his mouth.

Then units of the Blood-Sea Cult came into view ahead.

"They've already made it this far?"

Some of them must have noticed us. Shouts rose among the blood-robed men, and several drew their weapons.

No matter how good the World-Solitary Divine Movement was at escaping, breaking through that encirclement would be asking to become a pincushion.

In the end, one of us would have to throw the unit into confusion while the other crossed that killing ground.

"Why doesn't the Taeul True Scripture have something like a cloning technique?"

As I indulged in that absurd attempt to escape reality, Nam Hwaseong spoke again.

"Leave that bundle to me."

"...What are you talking about? You're already exhausted."

"I just have to deliver it to Moyong Jaehwa, right?"

Nam Hwaseong took the bundles from my back and shouldered them himself.

"...What are you doing?"

"One of us has to break through, don't we?"

Nam Hwaseong pointed to the cult's forces ahead.

"It pains me to admit it, but I'm not confident I can stay here and fight those bastards. And I'm not confident I can resist their sorcery... But I can run like hell and deliver these things to Moyong Jaehwa."

Had this bastard suddenly taken something?

What had gotten into him?

"...You could die if you go alone. No, you almost certainly will. Are you all right with that?"

Nam Hwaseong deeply furrowed his brow.

"I'll deliver them even if I have to become a ghost."

He nodded as though making a solemn vow.

I didn't know why he was suddenly volunteering to throw himself into mortal danger, but we had no other option right now.

At times like this, you had to trust someone even if you weren't certain of them.

I'd trusted those cheating gamblers from the Sojeong Unit. Why couldn't I trust Nam Hwaseong?

"Fine. I'll draw their attention as loudly as I can."

"Understood. See you up ahead."

Grateful that he'd volunteered, I offered him some encouragement.

"Survive this time, and I'll give you five talismans."

Running ahead, Nam Hwaseong glanced at me, then turned forward and shouted,

"You fucking bastard!"

Nam Hwaseong swore, apparently feeling quite motivated.

Had he wanted those Demon-Subduing Talismans that badly?

I began running in the opposite direction from him.

"You bastard children of the Blood Demon Sect! Over here! There's a promising righteous hero of the righteous faction right here!"

I'd give them a proper spectacle.