Chapter 49 :

First-Rate Warrior Peering into the Darkness (2)

If one were to list the causes of defeat in the Righteous-Demonic War, countless reasons could be named, but among them, the most fatal was “demonic energy.”

The countless demonic arts derived from the Heavenly Demon Scripture, the foundation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

The unique demonic energy emitted by those demonic arts was even more fatal to those attacked by it than to those who had learned demonic arts.

What could resist demonic energy was high spiritual cultivation or innate true energy.

However, amid the many changes over the past five hundred years, in murim history, where deep mental cultivation had come to be regarded as a left-path technique, people had focused only on cultivating techniques rather than spiritual cultivation, and internal energy rather than innate true energy.

And the result was the destruction of the righteous murim world.

Weak demonic energy could be driven out easily with immense internal energy, but the moment that balance collapsed, demonic energy would devour the body in an instant.

Demonic energy was more fatal than poison.

Since there was no specific antidote, the infected person had no choice but to drive it out using their own bodily ability.

“At this rate, he will die.”

Leaving aside the wounds all over his body, he did not have even a trace of energy left to drive out the demonic energy right now.

The best solution I could think of now would be to go to Wolhyang’s tomb and cleanse his body with innate true energy.

But if he moved even a little, there was a high chance he would die from internal shock.

There was the Fire Monkey’s inner core right here, but if I fed him the Fire Monkey’s inner core now, when his energy was depleted, all his internal organs would melt.

“Is there no way?”

I wanted to save him somehow.

I wanted to give true comfort to Moyong Seol, who had come to me and talked on every hardest night.

Though it was a future that had not yet come, to me it was the past, and I wanted this to become consolation for that time.

“Mm?”

At that moment, the Heavenly Demon Supreme Ring worn on my right side, no, the item now called the Red Phoenix Ring, was trembling faintly.

Since I did not know what effect it had all this time, I had merely shaved away the words “Heavenly Demon Supreme Ring” engraved inside and kept it with me.

And strangely enough, as the Red Phoenix Ring trembled faintly, it began drawing in Moyong Sangwon’s demonic energy little by little.

Only then did I realize what the Red Phoenix Ring’s effect was.

The Red Phoenix Ring, which had not budged no matter how much internal energy I poured into it, reacted only to demonic energy.

I slowly pushed internal energy into the Red Phoenix Ring.

Then the vibration of the Red Phoenix Ring, which had been trembling, slowly grew stronger, and it began pulling in the demonic energy that had been encroaching on Moyong Sangwon’s body little by little.

I worried that the demonic energy it drew in might poison my body, but fortunately, it only pulled in and swallowed the demonic energy, without emitting it again.

“Phew.”

How much time had passed?

Moyong Sangwon vomited out dead blood contaminated by demonic energy like a fountain.

“Whew.”

Seeing his complexion slowly return, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, all the demonic energy that had been encroaching on Moyong Sangwon’s entire body was removed.

But because his energy was still faint, I could not move Moyong Sangwon carelessly.

“He will have to recuperate here for a while… A spiritual medicine to immediately boost his energy…”

I searched through the murim spiritual medicine book in my head and looked for a spiritual medicine that could treat Moyong Sangwon, but the nearest spiritual medicine was a full six days away.

“It is still too risky to go bring a physician, too.”

Seeing him intermittently open and close his eyes, he was in a state where it would not be strange for his breath to stop at any moment.

If I left to prepare medicine, I might return only to see a corpse.

At that moment, Moyong Sangwon regained a little consciousness.

With a voice clearer than before, he tried to convey his will.

“I… have a request…”

Seeing him try to lift his head, I was shocked and said,

“Please stay still for a moment. If you try to move recklessly right now, your condition may worsen.”

“No… I am anyway…”

I covered the mouth of the patient who would not listen.

Right now, conserving even a little energy was the best thing.

“At least it is fortunate I have this.”

I took a dagger from my robe.

It was something I occasionally used when sleeping outdoors, so the blade was honed sharp.

And I cut my palm in one stroke.

Most of the spiritual medicines I had eaten until now had been converted into internal energy through the Taeul True Scripture.

Even so, because the amount I had eaten was so vast, there was still spiritual medicine energy remaining inside my body.

Moreover, since I had digested it once and removed the toxicity, it was not unreasonable to give it to a patient.

“Please live. If you die, that person will have no place to lean on when she suffers.”

With a desperate heart, I squeezed the blood from my hand.

#

Moyong Sangwon thought of his end and recalled the past.

His son Moyong Jaehwa, who had talent and passion for martial arts but had always been weaker and lacking compared to his elder sister, was a painful weak spot to him.

He had fed him countless spiritual medicines, but perhaps because he was born that way, even though his internal energy increased, his constitution itself did not change.

Then, a famous physician invited from the Murim Alliance checked Moyong Jaehwa’s pulse and clicked his tongue, saying he had been fed spiritual medicines that did not suit his body.

According to the famous physician, compared to a man’s body, his fire energy was lacking, leaving his physical harmony unbalanced, so if he took a spiritual medicine full of fire energy, he would gain a strong and vigorous body beyond recognition.

After that, he spread word in every direction to seek a spiritual medicine of fire energy and released wealth, but because it was before the Murim Academy exam, spiritual medicines were drying up.

Then, after hearing reliable information that a Fire Monkey had been discovered on Mount Huang, Moyong Sangwon personally stepped forward.

Together with two guard warriors, he entered Mount Huang where the Fire Monkey had reportedly been sighted, and after the hardship of camping in the mountains for several weeks, he finally discovered the Fire Monkey.

Moyong Sangwon succeeded in driving the Fire Monkey to one side together with the two guard warriors, and in the end, he succeeded in obtaining the Fire Monkey’s inner core.

The moment he thought all his worries had been resolved,

unknown people ambushed them.

At first, Moyong Sangwon did not think much of their attack.

He thought they were small fry aiming for the Fire Monkey’s inner core.

‘Wh-What kind of martial art is this?!’

Their chaotic martial arts, which differed from the martial arts of the Central Plains, and the unidentified energy that ate away at his body as if he had been poisoned.

Seeing the guard warriors who tried to protect him vomit blood and die instantly, he felt death closing in for the first time in his life.

With desperate resolve, he fled all the way to an unknown mountain, but in the end, with a sheer cliff behind him, he was surrounded by the attackers.

“Who are you! Do you know who I am to dare do such a thing!”

He tried speaking in order to obtain even information about the other side, but the attackers only continued their assault without a word.

In the end, Moyong Sangwon threw himself off the sheer cliff, and while suffering from whatever the attackers had infected him with, he was dying below the cliff.

How many days had passed like that?

‘Father, this girl feels uneasy. Would it not be better if you did not go?’

He recalled the sorrowful face of his daughter, who had worried for his safety as he left the family.

He had laughed it off, saying that a child who was all grown up and soon to be married was worrying too much.

But now, he came to think that if he could see her just one more time, he would pay any price.

Through his fading consciousness, a figure was descending the valley by a rope.

And the moment the person who descended like that searched his robe and discovered the Fire Monkey’s inner core,

perhaps because his daughter’s face had come to mind,

Moyong Sangwon did something he should not have done.

He revealed his family without realizing it.

Moyong Sangwon sensed the end.

‘Haah, how foolish. To invite death like this.’

The Fire Monkey’s inner core was a spiritual medicine precious enough to be counted among the top ten spiritual medicines in the murim world.

There was no way a warrior capable of descending the valley would not covet such a spiritual medicine, and furthermore, the moment he knew Moyong Sangwon was a member of the Moyong Family, there was no way he would not silence him to eliminate witnesses.

Rather than save the Moyong Family and return the Fire Monkey’s inner core.

Because eating the Fire Monkey’s inner core and becoming stronger himself would bring him greater profit.

‘My foolishness has brought about my own death. I am sorry, Seol… I suppose it will be difficult to see you again.’

The moment he closed his eyes, sensing the end,

the man began doing something strange.

He started taking off all his clothes.

‘At least send me off with dignity! What use would clothes already reduced to rags be to you!’

He shouted desperately, but the only sounds that came out of his mouth were “Uu— uu—.”

And then, when the young man placed his hand on his middle dantian, Moyong Sangwon began to feel the suffocating energy eating away at his body slowly draining out.

The poisonous energy spread throughout his body escaped through his pores, and the poison lodged in his organs burst out through his mouth.

Puhuk!

Once he spat out all the poisonous energy, his mind returned clearly.

‘Wh-What is this?’

Moyong Sangwon looked at the face of the suspicious man before him… no, now at the face of a righteous hero burning with chivalry, utterly unconcerned with something like the Fire Monkey’s inner core.

Though there was still a youthful look left on his face, he was a striking young man, clear-featured and masculine, yet harmonized with a somewhat feminine aspect.

The young man looked at the Fire Monkey’s inner core, then back at Moyong Sangwon’s face.

Moyong Sangwon realized the young man’s intent and was horrified.

Although some of the poisonous energy had been drained, the poison had already been absorbed into his body, and if he consumed a spirit pill full of fire energy in that state, it would be no different from pouring oil onto a fire.

Fortunately, the young man put the wooden case down again.

The young man glanced up the cliff, as if gauging whether he could climb back up.

The hope that he might live lasted only a moment. He did not think the young man could climb such a high cliff while carrying him.

Moreover, going back and forth from this place to treat him was an even more distant possibility.

Thinking that, his heart grew calm.

‘This is the end for me here. If only he would deliver my last words to my daughter, and to my son…’

With the energy that had returned, he barely opened his mouth and spoke.

“I… have… a request…”

Before Moyong Sangwon could finish speaking, the young man shook his head.

“Please stay still for a moment. If you try to move recklessly right now, your condition may worsen.”

“No, anyway, I…”

In the end, the young man covered Moyong Sangwon’s mouth with his hand, then placed a finger to his own lips, signaling him to be quiet.

‘I am asking you to deliver my last words!’

Moyong Sangwon felt frustrated, but he had no strength to express it.

The young man took out a dagger and cut his own palm.

Then he brought his palm, flowing with red blood, to Moyong Sangwon’s mouth.

‘Who… exactly is this man? For a complete stranger he has never met…’

Among the stories passed down among common people, there was one about a child whose elderly, sickly father had reached the brink of death, so the child cut his finger and fed him blood to buy time until the physician arrived.

Moyong Sangwon also knew that story.

As with all such tales, he had thought it was made up to emphasize filial piety, so the truth was that it had not moved him much.

But as the blood flowing into his mouth spread through his stomach, he felt his entire body grow warm and energy rise within him.

‘The legend was true?’

At that moment, the young man’s voice reached Moyong Sangwon’s ears.

“Please live. If you die, that person will have no place to lean on when she suffers.”

He could not tell what the young man was talking about, but he could feel clearly enough that the young man was desperately clinging to the act of saving him.

#

While Jin Sowoon shed blood and gave it to Moyong Sangwon, he realized he had made one mistake.

‘I should have struck his sleep acupoint.’

Anyone who has learned martial arts is obsessed with spiritual medicines.

In the past, there had even been demons who caught someone who had eaten spiritual medicine, boiled them whole, and ate them.

If Moyong Sangwon found out that Jin Sowoon’s blood was filled with the energy of spiritual medicines…

‘No, surely not… He is still the young family head of the Moyong Family…’

Jin Sowoon had to work hard to remove the useless distracting thoughts that kept entering his mind.