17 – 01# Narrow Escape (17)

How could a mere candle flame withstand a storm?

No matter how sturdy the candle, it was still just a flame. Even with the storm raging, these blind fools don’t even realize they are in a perilous situation.

The nameless old man tried to uproot the entrenched evil within the martial world, but ultimately failed miserably and lost everything he had built.

Barely clinging to life, the old man retreated to a mountain with no ties to him, intending to take his own life. After all, there was no hope in the martial world.

When he thought of those as close as family who had died because of his incompetence and inadequacy, his heart felt like it was shattering into dust. Yet, the reason he remained alive was.

“Vertical stance, raised high and struck down like a thunderbolt, its form like the heavens delivering punishment, horizontal stance, its path as vast as the earth, a vessel containing all creation…”

Because he felt a radiance like the sun in the child he saved from the tiger on a whim. A life where he didn’t know how much longer he would live anyway, due to the severe injuries sustained in the battles with those fiends.

Even if it meant using the last embers of my life as kindling,

If only I could pass on this spark…

◇

“…”

The medicine pouch tied to a rope, hanging there, looked just like the ones I’d seen in historical dramas. It wasn’t hard to realize the place I was lying in now was a traditional clinic, an *uibang*.

The pungent smell of medicinal herbs stung my nostrils as I drifted into thought. Now that I knew where I was, all I needed to figure out was how and why I was lying here.

Fortunately, someone entered the *uibang* who could explain the reason. An old man with a prominent bulbous nose, dressed in a white medicinal robe, his hair white and lifeless.

To exaggerate only slightly, for a moment I even thought the Grim Reaper had come for me. Thankfully, he wasn’t the Grim Reaper, but Mo Yong-su, the master of the Mo Yong clan’s *uibang*.

He saw that I had woken up, startled slightly, then looked at me with a displeased expression. He took out acupuncture needles and stabbed them into my arms and legs. More painful than I expected.

“Judging by appearances, you seem to be around my age. Why push yourself so hard at your age?”

“…Excuse me, but how old are you?”

“Sixty-six this year.”

Oh, hell.

I was even being called a contemporary by an old man who had lived a full thirty years longer than me. But even if he was a decrepit doctor, he should have noticed while treating my body, right?

“A martial artist’s body is good indeed. Judging by the flesh alone, you look to be under thirty… Could this perhaps be that legendary bone-changing, something-or-other?”

“…”

Damn it.

Seeing Mo Yong-su crushing my face along with the herbs, I gave up on explaining. Right now, such trivial things didn’t matter. I should ask about the most important things first.

“Why am I here?”

“That young master lying passed out beside you carried you here, running like mad.”

He nodded in the direction he was pointing, and there, right next to me, was Su-ah, fast asleep, sprawled out. I asked, with a dubious expression at the unbelievable truth,

“…Su-ah, you say?”

“Indeed! The young master cried and pleaded, shaking me so hard I’m still reeling from it.”

“Then, what happened to the Mo Yong clan’s head?”

“Grand Warrior, you sliced him down handsomely. But even a rotten *junchi* fish is still a *junchi*. Seems the head was no pushover either. I heard that after the life-or-death duel, Grand Warrior collapsed, losing consciousness immediately.”

It seemed his *uibang* work had been rather dull. Thanks to Mo Yong-su, who even spat while explaining, I was starting to get a picture of how things had gone.

Roughly, I had succeeded in slicing the head at the end, but the head had also swung a move at me, resolved to die together. As a result, I had lost consciousness at the very end.

But looking at the results alone, it was quite encouraging. Because the opponent was at least a master of extraordinary skill, while I, at best, was only at the pinnacle level.

What I couldn’t understand was how I had overcome the difference in levels. Even a single stage difference in levels makes it very difficult to win. If I put the pieces together…

‘Martial arts have a solid foundation and roots, making it nearly impossible to overcome head-on. However, demonic arts are inherently unstable from the start, so I exploited that gap… If I say it like that, it’s not entirely unreasonable.’

For a fleeting moment, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps I’d reached some ultimate, transcendent state. But if that were so, I wouldn’t have passed out midway through a life-or-death duel.

‘Regardless, it’s true that Su-ah helped me.’

“My lady was so worried about you, Grand Protector, she stuck to your side like glue, never thinking of leaving. And she helped me with my tasks too, so I managed well enough.”

“There must be other wounded besides me.”

“Indeed. And among them, not a few are gravely injured, hanging by a thread.”

As if sensing my gaze on Su-ah, Mo Yong-soo grinned and spoke about her. Honestly, the fact that she’d cried because of me was quite unexpected.

“Ummm…”

“Awake?”

“…Grand Protector?”

“Yes, it is I.”

Seemingly awakened by the commotion, Su-ah rubbed her eyes and slowly sat up. She stared at me blankly for a moment, before launching herself into my arms.

“I was so worried that something terrible would happen to you, Grand Protector, I was constantly terrified!”

“Nothing like that has happened, so calm yourself!”

“Oh my, excuse me. I must tend to the other patients.”

“Are you running away on your own accord now?!”

It seemed her words of worry weren’t empty. It took about an hour to soothe Su-ah, who had even burst into tears in my arms, before I could finally hear what had happened.

Surprisingly, there were a very few voices within the Mo Yong Clan calling for me to be punished. Presumably, they were the families of the warriors who had lost their lives by my hand.

“To not help the benefactor who saved the Mo Yong Clan, but instead to try and stab him in the back, taking advantage of his weakness. You are not worthy even to call yourselves martial artists!!”

Thankfully, Mo Yong-hyun, who had taken on the role of acting Clan Head, was enraged upon hearing those words. He personally lashed them with a whip, and, not satisfied with that, banished all those who had voiced the suggestion.

“Thanks to you, little hero, I can at least sleep without worrying about a knife in my back.”

“This is not something to laugh off. You must reveal the truth to everyone, even now…!!”

“Just leave it be. What more is there to say here?”

I’m not entirely sure what truth Su-ah is referring to, but I don’t have the energy to concern myself with the Mo Yong Clan’s internal politics. Besides, those individuals have already been punished and banished.

Looking solely at the outcome of this fight, it was my victory.

But it was difficult to see it as a complete win.

Of course, until he succumbed to the demonic arts, I had fought with restraint, trying to subdue him in any way I could. But once he was consumed by the demonic power, all I could manage, even using my full strength, was a mutual destruction.

I even passed out midway through. What if, in that state, the Mo Yong Clan warriors had attacked me? Or what if I hadn’t been able to kill my opponent with a single strike?

In the end, I only won because I was lucky.

So, I understand why people are talking.

But it’s not a reason to despair. Even though my opponent wasn’t in his right mind because of the demonic arts, and I did pass out, I still managed to achieve a victory, albeit a narrow one, against someone at the peak of mastery.

‘Now is not the time to waste precious hours. I must receive the martial arts and inner core as recompense from the Murong Clan, and return swiftly to my training.’

With just a little more effort, a higher realm seems within reach.

There was no certainty, just a feeling, hanging in the air.

◇

When the storm of blood that had engulfed the Murong Clan finally subsided, Sua found herself surprised, in a different way altogether. That the Nameless Hero had cleaved the sky itself was a truth unshakeable, even if heaven and earth were to be reshaped.

And yet, excluding herself, not a single soul had witnessed it with their own eyes. Could such a thing be? That a qi so sharp it could cleave the heavens had manifested, and yet…

Because of this, the overwhelming victory was being twisted into a victory by a hair’s breadth. To Sua, who knew the whole truth, it seemed a pathetic attempt to block the sun with one’s palm.

“They say the difference between supreme masters’ battles is paper-thin; those words ring true.”

“If the Hero had been defeated… I shudder to even imagine the consequences.”

“We must humbly accept this dire outcome. It is, ultimately, our fault for standing by and watching injustice unfold.”

“No, listen! It was the Hero’s complete and utter victory, I tell you?!”

Spouting such nonsense with impassive faces, when anyone who had witnessed that spectacle of a single technique rending the sky would be hard-pressed to agree, drove Sua to the brink of madness.

Ultimately, Sua, to protect the Hero’s reputation, decided to relate her experience directly to him. However, even the Hero’s reaction fell far outside of her expectations.

“Let it be. What more is there to say on the matter?”

Ah, I see.

Only then did Sua grasp the Hero’s intent. Lamenting till the earth sinks will not cause the earth to sink, nor will blaming the heavens cause them to crumble.

After all, heaven and earth remain steadfastly in their place. Do not move foolishly, how could a sparrow understand the phoenix’s ambitions? She could prove the truth, readily, if necessary.

It was a sentiment aligned with the Hero’s teachings. Even as a master who had reached the pinnacle, the Hero never looked down upon even the simplest forms of the Three Calamities Sword Art.

‘…However, there is one thing that lingers in my mind.’

Two weeks prior, when the Hero had claimed an overwhelming victory over the Clan Head in their life-and-death duel, it was none other than Sua who had hoisted the unconscious Hero onto her back and rushed him to the infirmary.

The Hero was the savior of the Murong Clan. Thus, Physician Murong Su had begun treatment without hesitation. However, the results of the examination had proven unexpected.

[I’ve examined him thoroughly, and there are no external wounds to be seen. Nor are there any severe internal injuries. But judging from the minute ruptures in his meridians, it seems his insides were attacked by that demonic art or whatever it was.]

‘But that makes no sense. The Hero ended the Clan Head with a single strike. He wouldn’t have even had a chance to use any demonic arts.’

Sua’s monstrous comprehension allowed her to arrive at a single hypothesis without difficulty. What if the Hero’s internal energy was so vast and so powerful that his body couldn’t withstand it?

What if he had fainted from his own strength?

…Impossible. Such a thing couldn’t be.