Unrivaled Spear Demon
Chapter 44 - Scaling the Wall (5)
The Death Blossom, Oh Ja-un.
He was curled up under a layer of dry pine needles he had gathered beneath the roots of a tree.
The bonfire had died, and even the smoke from the embers had dissipated, but Oh Ja-un did not move an inch from his spot.
‘….’
For days on end, he had neither slept nor eaten properly.
The internal injuries and scars he’d sustained while evading the dogs of the Martial Alliance festered in the night dew.
A high fever came with a throbbing headache, nausea and heartburn churned his insides, and his feet were so black and blue that it was hard to find a spot of their original color.
…Blink!
For a fleeting moment, he crossed the boundary between this life and the next.
Had he briefly fallen asleep? Had he died and been revived? Or had he been lucid all along?
In a state where he could not distinguish between dream and reality, between this world and the next, Oh Ja-un came face to face with his wife.
His wife, Kang-a.
Her already pale face had turned even whiter.
The corners of her gentle eyes were now raised to the heavens with rage, and her once-beautiful hair stood on end like needles.
Kang-a spoke, spitting blood.
‘Had I not married you, I would not have been poisoned to death.’
Oh Ja-un tried to run and embrace his wife, but no matter how much he ran, the distance between them did not close.
After glaring at Oh Ja-un for a time with a look of deep resentment, Kang-a suddenly vanished.
‘Don’t go, don’t go, my wife! Please, don’t go.’
Oh Ja-un cried out desperately, but the chasm between the living and the dead could not be overcome by a broken heart alone.
Just then, as Oh Ja-un screamed until his throat was raw, another shadow appeared behind him.
A beauty with a cold and intelligent air.
A chill colder than the north wind flowed from her narrowed eyes.
His Junior, Maeng-yeong. She stood half-naked, just as he had last seen her in the grass hut.
‘Junior Sister. Are you all right? You were alive!’
Oh Ja-un shouted.
In place of an answer, Maeng-yeong untied the ribbon that covered her chest.
And then, a clear sword wound was revealed to Oh Ja-un’s eyes.
A deep scar, carved into her white, soft skin in the shape of a plum blossom.
The blood that flowed from it had stained her entire lower body red.
‘If I had known it would come to this, I would never have loved you. No, I should never have gotten involved with you at all…….’
Maeng-yeong looked at Oh Ja-un with a sorrowful expression.
‘Junior Sister! Junior Sister!’
Oh Ja-un ran toward Maeng-yeong, but in an instant, a cliff far wider and deeper than the Intestine-Severing Cliff had formed between them.
Maeng-yeong stood in a tragic pose, waiting for Oh Ja-un, but eventually, she slowly turned her back.
‘….’
Oh Ja-un could save neither his wife nor his junior sister, and could only stand there, foolish and dumbfounded.
Cuckoo
The weary cry of a cuckoo was all that echoed faintly in the dark space.
* * *
“…Hah?!”
At last, Oh Ja-un opened his eyes.
The cold morning dew had shattered his paper-thin slumber.
In the dead bonfire, the half-burnt firewood and ashes were damp.
Cuckoo
In the distance, the spirit of Emperor Wang cried.
In the dark mountains where not even a wild beast roamed, only Oh Ja-un remained.
“…”
Oh Ja-un let out a sigh.
His missing left arm felt cold.
Every time the severed bone ached, he was reminded of the nightmare he’d just had.
His wife, Kang-a, and his junior sister, Maeng-yeong.
What kind of catastrophe would his fate, entangled in the deaths of these two women, ultimately face?
‘It will likely not be a peaceful end.’
He might be stabbed to death by countless blades, have his eyes gouged out, be beheaded and have his head displayed on a pike, or perhaps be thrown into a cold river.
‘…But that time is not now.’
Oh Ja-un gritted his teeth and pushed himself up.
*The sun sets, but the road is long… I must defy the natural course.*
The path ahead was far, and following the proper order was difficult.
Suddenly, Oh Ja-un felt a sense of unease.
‘This man I’m waiting for, Chui. Who is he, really? Is he someone I can trust?’
The man who had identified himself as Chui was a complete mystery, from top to bottom.
He didn't know which sect he belonged to, what his past was, or what his real name and identity were.
He was simply someone who silently opened the path before him.
A presence that seemed like it would leave at any moment, yet surprisingly, stayed by his side.
But Oh Ja-un did not fully trust Chui.
Although he had performed the memorial rites for his father, tended to his grave, and fought off their pursuers… there were still one too many suspicious things about him.
‘He can’t be from the Demonic Cult. The Cult wouldn't even know that I’ve been branded a public enemy of the martial world and am on the run. Why would they send someone to meet me in such a situation?’
Oh Ja-un had tried to sound Chui out several times, but Chui never uttered a single word related to the Demonic Cult.
If he had made some sort of excuse, Oh Ja-un would have left without a second thought. But the fact that he stubbornly offered no excuses or explanations paradoxically inspired a strange sense of trust.
…But the complex mind of a fugitive was such that the very fact he felt trust made him untrusting.
In this ambivalent state of being unable to fully doubt or fully trust, Oh Ja-un recalled Chui’s last words.
‘I will get you inside those walls within half a day.’
That voice, so full of confidence. That expression. That attitude.
The sight of his back, which strangely made one want to rely on him, made Oh Ja-un hesitate once more.
‘When he said he’d get me inside those walls… he didn’t mean he’d turn me in to be captured, did he?’
Just as trust began to form, the demon of suspicion reared its head again.
Being buried alone in the silence and darkness of the forest only amplified such feelings.
‘Should I just kill that man, Chui, and escape on my own? Even now…’
For a moment, Oh Ja-un was startled by his own thoughts and shook his head.
What a terrible thing to think about the person who had helped him so much.
Even if he were a traitor, considering the grace he showed by offering bamboo leaf liquor and dried anglerfish at his father’s memorial, he could not dare to do such a thing.
Besides, Chui did not seem like someone who would die easily, even if one tried to kill him.
“…”
Oh Ja-un recalled Chui’s staff, which had so easily blocked his own sword.
An iron wall that seemed impossible to breach.
A dark red lake upon which not a single ripple would form, no matter how many stones were thrown.
That was the feeling Chui gave off.
‘I lack the confidence to kill him, the confidence to leave on my own, and the confidence to go with him. Ja-un. Oh Ja-un. Were you always such a weak and pathetic man?’
Oh Ja-un lamented.
At any moment, the glint of a pursuer’s blade could flash from the darkness.
He hid at the sound of the desolate wind rustling through the bamboo forest, then emerged, sat down, stood up, lay down, leaned his back against a tree, he was literally tossing and turning, unable to find peace.
It was at that very moment.
“Oh Ja-un.”
A voice came from beyond the darkness.
Oh Ja-un was so startled he nearly drew his sword.
No, he actually did draw it and swing.
Clang!
A single plum blossom that bloomed in the darkness was blocked by a jet-black bamboo.
Beyond the tip of Oh Ja-un’s sword stood Chui, his expression unchanged.
“I’ve breached the gate. Let’s go.”
In that instant.
Oh Ja-un saw a single ray of dawn bursting through the darkness.
‘They say I raped and killed my junior sister.’
‘That’s impossible.’
Even if all the beasts of the world turned their backs on him, there was one person who still looked his way.
* * *
“Why are you crying?”
“I’m not crying.”
This was a conversation between Doctor Dong go-gong and the attendant Hwangnul.
Of course, these were identities they had assumed to pass through the gate.
In reality, it was a conversation between Chui and the Death Blossom.
They passed straight through the chaotic gate.
The strict Guard Captain Wonwol did not stop them, but simply let them be.
The martial artists from the Mount Hua and Wudang Sects also seemed to be pretending not to see them, not wanting to get involved with the Paedo Sect.
Like fish that had been caught in a net escaping through a tear into the vast blue sea, Chui and the Death Blossom blended into the crowd on the street.
“…”
The Death Blossom put strength into his steps.
After being alone in the cold mountains, coming to a place bustling with people seemed to warm his body.
His swollen, bleeding feet were squeezing out their last dregs of strength.
At last, the Death Blossom asked Chui.
“What on earth did you do to pass through such a heavily guarded gate just like that?”
Chui briefly explained to the Death Blossom what had happened.
Everything from taking the pass and the rack of medicinal herbs from the doctor named Dong go-gong, to passing through the gate and causing a ruckus at the Bucha Pavilion.
The Death Blossom’s jaw dropped.
‘…You provoked the Paedo Sect, a private faction, just to pass through the gate? Incredible. Is this a plan a sane person could come up with?’
To beat the grass and startle the snake in a situation like this… no matter what, he had never imagined Chui would touch a ‘private’ power.
This was a move Oh Ja-un had never anticipated.
When he turned his head, he could indeed see flames blazing from the tall pavilion in the distance.
At that scale, even if the fire was extinguished, the entire street would likely remain in chaos for a couple of days.
Watching the countless guards frantically carrying water, the Death Blossom spoke.
“You look so young, yet how do you accomplish such things so nonchalantly? You must have been taught by someone. If so, who is the master that raised you?”
Chui remained silent for a moment.
It was because these were, in fact, things he had learned while following Oh Ja-un.
Experiences he had picked up over the shoulder while crossing the line between life and death, breaking through the inescapable net of the Martial Alliance.
Now, those very experiences were allowing Chui to teach Oh Ja-un.
Chui briefly recalled the past.
‘….’
The East Gate of the Mount Hua Sect, where only crows flew.
The village guardian pole, piled high with dust.
The waters of the Zhejiang River, flowing calmly as if nothing had happened.
And the red blood plum blossoms that had bloomed in profusion across the mountains.
The feelings he had then, the thoughts he could never voice to anyone, Chui now spoke them aloud.
“I am only returning what I received.”
“…?”
The Death Blossom did not understand the meaning of Chui’s words.
However, from this moment on, he came to truly trust Chui.
Amidst the people bustling about to watch the fire, the Death Blossom performed a fist-and-palm salute to Chui and bowed his head.
“It is said that to relieve another’s hardship is benevolence, and to rescue one in peril is courage. You possess both of these qualities. I am ashamed of myself for having doubted you all last night.”
“….”
Chui waved his hand dismissively.
He had felt it when dealing with the courtesans of the Pasi and the Bucha Pavilion, but as expected, he had no taste for playing the hero.
After a moment, the Death Blossom asked.
“So. Where do you intend to go from here?”
Hearing those words, Chui once again recalled the past.
In the old days, after they had broken through some perilous pass, Chui would always ask Oh Ja-un where they were going next.
And every time, Oh Ja-un would always say the same thing.
“First, let’s go get something to eat.”
We do all this to eat and live, don't we?
0 Comments