A First-Rate Warrior Peering into the Darkness (5)
As Moyong Sangwon was heading toward the Cheongmyeong Escort Agency in Wugang, he suddenly stopped in his tracks at a certain unease that flashed through his mind and looked back.
‘Surely not…….’
He soon shook his head.
Even for the most righteous hero in the world, it was not easy to sacrifice one’s life for someone they had only just met.
Moreover, it was hard to believe that a young man not even yet of age had willingly become bait to save him.
Moyong Sangwon charged into the Cheongmyeong Escort Agency at full speed.
At the bizarre sight of him rushing in with disheveled hair and clothes reduced to rags, the warriors guarding the main gate were startled, but they soon recognized him as Moyong Sangwon, who had visited this place a few days earlier.
“Young family head!!”
Though it was an escort agency, there was no luggage inside at all.
Instead, escorts and warriors were gathered in large numbers, ready to head into battle at any moment.
“What on earth happened to you? The people of every branch in Henan Province have been searching for you, young family head.”
“Jin Sowoon! Has a man named Jin Sowoon come here by any chance?”
“Who?”
It felt as though his ominous premonition was somehow coming true.
Had that child truly sacrificed his life for him?
“……No, that cannot be.”
If one of the two of them had to die, it should have been him.
He was already in a situation where he owed Jin Sowoon his life once.
He could not go through the same thing twice.
“Young family head. Are you all right?”
Ignoring the branch leader’s question about his well-being, Moyong Sangwon asked.
“How many people have gathered here?”
“Everyone from the nearby branches has gathered, for a total of three hundred people, and the Namgung Family has also sent one hundred reinforcements.”
“The Namgung Family?”
Only then did Moyong Sangwon turn his head and see people in different attire lined up on one side.
And at the very front were Namgung San, whose expression had hardened, and Namgung Seonhwa, who had turned deathly pale.
“San, Seonhwa.”
“……I greet the young family head.”
“It is a great relief that you seem unharmed.”
“You even came here as well.”
Namgung San went straight to the point.
“By any chance, is the Jin Sowoon you mentioned Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect?”
“You know that child?”
Namgung San and Namgung Seonhwa exchanged glances.
“What happened?”
“I was attacked by unidentified enemies at West Lake Peak.”
“Did Young Master Jin remain behind alone?”
Namgung Seonhwa, who usually did not step forward, suddenly cut in.
Namgung San was about to say something, but when he saw her ashen face, he stopped.
She did not even seem to have the leisure to care about what kind of rudeness she was committing.
“……I hope that was not the case, but somehow, I think it was.”
Moyong Sangwon briefly explained the situation when they last parted.
“If it is that person…… he would be more than capable of making such a choice.”
“……I hoped he would not.”
“Young family head. We should move quickly.”
“Yes. Let us go.”
#
[You want to live the most among us. So you survive.]
After leaving the Sojeong Unit, I continued to survive.
But that did not mean I had obtained peace.
While I left the murim world and shut myself away deep in secluded mountains and valleys, I was not at peace for even a single moment.
During the time when I met no one, I had to meet everyone in my memories.
The countless Demonic Cult enemies that swarmed in, the hypocritical leaders of the Murim Alliance who merely stood with their hands behind their backs even when a crisis was right before their eyes.
The comrades I had grown close to while rolling on the ground together dying helplessly on the cold blades of demonic practitioners, and even the dogs of the Demonic Cult who laughed at those comrades’ miserable deaths.
I had to die tens of thousands of times inside those memories.
One day, I recalled the memory of Go Tae, the successor of the Vajra Sealing Body, blocking the sword of the Red Demon-Eye Unit.
Because it was a memory I had repeated hundreds of times, the opponent’s weakness appeared for the first time.
One single point I had never seen before then.
If I stabbed my sword into that place, I felt as if I could see a different ending.
I poured into that memory the imagination of thrusting the Small Heaven Sword Art into it.
The Red Demon-Eye Unit member died with his death point pierced, spraying a fountain of blood.
Then, even if only for a moment, relief washed over me.
On another day, I recalled the memory of Yaryul Jae, the successor of the Flowing Cloud Divine Art, sending a member of the Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit flying.
There, too, I saw a weakness, and I poured in the imagination of swinging the Flashing Thunder Sword Art and cutting the opponent’s throat.
When I added the imagination of being able to respond to the hellish memories of each day that rose so clearly, I could fall asleep without suffering anymore.
Like that, one day, ten days, a hundred days, a thousand days.
I studied ways to deal with every enemy the Sojeong Unit had faced and practiced responding by pouring imagination into them.
I spent my entire life thinking about strategies I would never have to use again.
Because while I was thinking about those things, I did not have to spend my days in pain.
“Back then, it was nothing more than a futile act to escape suffering.”
I never imagined that the contemplation I had done merely to free myself from pain would one day be used like this.
The corpses of the Red Demon-Eye Unit were scattered everywhere.
In the past, had I ever seen this many corpses of the Red Demon-Eye Unit?
“If those bastards had seen this, they would have made a huge fuss about bringing wine and meat and holding a feast. Crazy bastards.”
Before I could even sink into the feeling of having killed nearly twenty people, a faint laugh escaped me.
I buried the corpses of the Red Demon-Eye Unit in the mountain and left only a few behind.
If I said that I, a disciple of the Taeul Sect, had dealt with all of them, it was obvious that I would only invite unnecessary suspicion.
Once I roughly finished the work, my tension loosened.
“The Blue Dragon Ring is not almighty after all.”
Fatigue had been surging in since right after the fight ended.
I had absorbed all the internal energy and innate true energy of those bastards, who were full of demonic energy, but as expected, what entered my body was pure true energy.
However, perhaps because of that, even though more than half of my internal energy still remained in my dantian, an unbearable drowsiness was rushing over me.
It seemed that as the Blue Dragon Ring detoxified the demonic energy, an irresistible fatigue had accumulated in my body.
“Taking a short nap, just a very short one, should be fine, right?”
For some reason, I felt that if I slept now, I might be able to see the old Sojeong Unit bastards.
The faces of those bastards I had hated seeing, now it did not seem so bad to see them for a short while.
“It is not that I want to see you bastards. I want to see Young Lady Moyong Seol.”
I briefly leaned my body against a rock and closed my eyes.
#
“Young Master Jin Sowoon!”
“Young Master Jin Sowoon!”
The mountain night was dark.
Piercing through that darkness, hundreds of torches were illuminating every part of West Lake Peak.
“This is the path.”
Moyong Sangwon retraced the path he had taken and spread the people out ten jang in every direction.
There might still be attackers left, and he did not know where or how Jin Sowoon might be hiding.
Namgung San, who was running closest to Moyong Sangwon, asked.
“Young family head, could you tell us what happened?”
Namgung Seonhwa on the other side also looked as if she desperately wanted to hear it.
“I met attackers at West Lake Peak and was in danger of dying. At that time, a friend named Jin Sowoon saved my life.”
“…….”
“But on the way to Wugang with that friend, the ones who had attacked me were waiting.”
“……Heup!”
Namgung Seonhwa unknowingly drew in a breath.
“We were able to escape from those bastards thanks to Sowoon’s ability to adapt, but as you can see, my condition was far from good, so we decided to split up and run away.”
“Then…….”
“But…… I keep thinking that the child became bait for my sake. It makes me uneasy.”
No sooner had Moyong Sangwon finished speaking than Namgung Seonhwa’s steps began to quicken.
Namgung San started to say something, then soon closed his mouth.
Because he himself felt the same way as Seonhwa right now.
“There are traces of a fight here.”
The escorts who had been sent ahead were gathered in one place.
Moyong Sangwon quickly approached.
It was the place not far from where he had first split up from Sowoon and fled.
“The amount of blood is quite large…….”
“Hmm.”
Moyong Sangwon’s brow furrowed deeply.
“There are traces here as well!”
“There is a large amount of blood here.”
When they followed the warriors who had found the next traces, that place was exactly where Jin Sowoon and Moyong Sangwon had parted.
“He actually went and did it! He went and did it!”
Moyong Sangwon’s emotion was closer to anger than sorrow.
What was he to him that he would go this far? His life had already been saved once anyway, and being able to deliver news should have been enough.
Namgung San’s expression was unusual as he examined the scene of the fierce battle.
“Too much blood is scattered around.”
“What if one person shed all of it?”
“……They would not have survived.”
“A corpse…… no! Traces! Find traces! Whether they are traces of Jin Sowoon or traces of the attackers, find them all!”
“Yes, sir!”
The escorts and warriors moved more swiftly than ever.
They instinctively sensed that the young family head of the Moyong Family had now made up his mind in a grave way, whatever that might mean.
“Ah…….”
Namgung Seonhwa sank to the ground as if she could no longer endure it.
Namgung San barely managed to grab her arm and stop her from collapsing.
“Get a hold of yourself. Nothing has been found yet.”
“But, Orabeoni…….”
“Do you not know that friend? If that friend were someone who would end so easily, he would have ended long ago.”
“…….”
“People are watching. Stand up.”
“……Yes.”
Moyong Sangwon, who had been listening to the two of them from the side, sensed something strange and asked.
“What kind of connection do you have with Jin Sowoon?”
In his own case, Jin Sowoon could be called his life’s benefactor, so he owed him a debt he could never repay.
But were these two children of the Namgung Family not acting similarly to him?
“Do you know about what happened at Maling Plateau?”
“I heard about it far too late. I am sorry. Fortunately, I heard there was a benefactor?”
“Yes. That benefactor was Young Master Jin Sowoon.”
“The one who entered the Infinite Buddha Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation countless times to save people was…….”
“Yes.”
“Huh…….”
He understood why Namgung Seonhwa had almost lost strength in her legs.
To think that the righteous hero who had saved everyone at Maling Plateau, regardless of whether they belonged to the righteous faction or dark faction, was Jin Sowoon.
“Truly…… why did he have to save me…….”
Now Moyong Sangwon was even beginning to feel ashamed of himself.
If he had simply died early beneath that cliff, Jin Sowoon could have taken the inner core of the fire tiger back and become a hero whose name would remain forever in the murim world.
If Jin Sowoon truly died like this, would that not mean he had caused tremendous harm to the murim world?
“What is the life of a mere middle-aged man worth?”
Regardless of whether the children of the Namgung Family were watching or not, tears streamed down Moyong Sangwon’s face.
And then, at that moment.
“O-Over here!!”
“Is-Isn’t that a person?”
“It is a person! There is a person here!”
A small voice came from the opposite side of the forest.
Moyong Sangwon, Namgung San, and Namgung Seonhwa.
The moment the three of them met eyes, they kicked off the ground like the wind without anyone needing to go first.
“Where! Where is he!”
Moyong Sangwon pushed wildly through the escorts and warriors and rushed ahead.
Then, on one side of a small clearing, he saw Jin Sowoon covered in blood and sitting while leaning against a rock.
“Is he alive?”
“He is all right, right?”
“Is he alive?”
At the barrage of questions from Namgung San, Namgung Seonhwa, and Moyong Sangwon, the escort who had first checked whether Jin Sowoon was alive nodded.
“He is breathing.”
Moyong Sangwon approached and checked Jin Sowoon’s pulse.
Fortunately, his pulse was beating strongly.
Wondering if he had been wounded, he rolled up the clothes on his arms, abdomen, and legs to check.
Fortunately, aside from bloodstains stuck to him, there were no wounds.
Around then, Jin Sowoon woke up.
As if he had accumulated a lot of fatigue, he spoke with half-open eyes.
“Haa, you came?”
At Jin Sowoon’s carefree reaction, Moyong Sangwon let out a hollow laugh.
“My friend! What on earth happened? Did you really become bait for my sake?”
“Ah…… Well, I had set up a few more traps on this side, so I thought I could make use of them. While thinking that.”
“Haa! And then?”
“After dealing with them for a bit, fortunately, they ran away.”
“Haha. If you survived like that, you should have returned immediately. Why are you sleeping here!”
“I am sorry. I was too tired.”
Jin Sowoon apologized with a sorry expression, realizing that this many warriors and escorts had moved because of him.
Moyong Sangwon hugged Jin Sowoon and said.
“No! No! As long as you are alive, that is enough. Truly, what a relief! Yes, it is a relief indeed.”
“Ugh, why, why are you doing this?”
Jin Sowoon, suddenly wide awake, struggled to slip away, but Moyong Sangwon did not easily let him go.
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