Chapter 143
"Quite an impudent young fellow. While we do like children, we don't particularly care for ill-mannered ones, so you'd best be careful."
"If I'm careful, will you spare my life?"
"You'll just die a bit less painfully."
Wei Yan-ho chuckled softly.
"That's about the same thing."
"No, it's very different."
The Ghost Demon smiled with a sinister expression completely unlike before and took a step closer to Wei Yan-ho.
"If you could hear the screams of those I've killed when I put my mind to making them suffer, your knees would buckle and you wouldn't be able to stand properly. It's a pity I can't let you hear those sounds. Or perhaps I should say, I'll get to hear the screams that will come from your mouth shortly?"
"Yes, understood."
Wei Yan-ho waved his hand dismissively as if annoyed.
"So what did you do up ahead, and what's that blood on your sleeves? I'd like to hear about it."
"Hoho."
The Blade Demon quietly opened his mouth.
"What would you do if I said I got this way from catching rabbits?"
"Old man."
Even though he'd been told not to call him 'old man,' Wei Yan-ho stubbornly continued to do so.
"Do you know why I called you that?"
"…I have no idea."
"Among all the people I've met so far, you two are the first to reek so heavily of blood."
"Oh?"
The Blade Demon looked at Wei Yan-ho with interest.
"The scent is so thick it feels like my nose might rot."
Gong Mujin's face hardened.
What Wei Yan-ho called 'scent' probably wasn't referring to an actual smell. It likely meant that the killing intent embedded in their bodies was that dense.
"What did you do?"
Gong Mujin's voice had become utterly rigid.
Seeing Gong Mujin's reaction, the Ghost Demon frowned.
"Tsk tsk, this is why I wanted to just leave. When you act like this, it becomes difficult for us to hold back as well. No matter how patient we are, we're not such virtuous gentlemen that we'd laugh off insults from brats who haven't even lived half our lives."
"I understand, so just tell me what you did up ahead."
At Wei Yan-ho's words, the Ghost Demon let out a hollow laugh.
"If you're dying to know, I suppose I should tell you."
The Ghost Demon stroked his beard as he spoke.
"Nothing like what you're thinking happened. I simply did what needed to be done naturally."
"What needed to be done?"
"Yes. Perhaps I even carried out what Mount Hua teaches."
Gong Mujin's eyebrows twitched.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Don't Taoists and Buddhists want the world to turn naturally? It's natural for humans to die and be buried in the earth, so it wouldn't be wrong to say I practiced Taoist teachings. Hehehe."
Gong Mujin gripped his sword hilt tightly.
The smell of blood.
A village.
And sending people to their deaths.
With just those three things, it wasn't difficult to guess what had happened.
"You! May you be damned!"
Gong Mujin drew his sword.
"Damnation… Can you bring damnation upon me? Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I've seen Mount Hua blood. Blade Demon said that when you cut Mount Hua disciples, their blood smells like plum blossoms. I've never had the chance to smell such a fragrance. I suppose I'll get to smell what scent comes from your blood."
Sseureurung.
Gong Mujin drew his sword.
Heat rose to his head until he could barely think straight. The Ghost-Blade Twin Demons weren't opponents he could handle alone. How could he possibly deal with masters who had terrorized the world half a century ago?
But he couldn't retreat after hearing such things.
"Master."
Lee Seol-hwa drew her sword and stood beside Gong Mujin.
Seeing Lee Seol-hwa's face, the boiling blood within him seemed to cool in an instant. With his head cleared, Gong Mujin spoke.
"Seol-hwa, listen carefully."
"Yes."
"Those fiends are stronger than us. If we fight as things stand, we'll have almost no chance of winning."
"Yes."
"But if we close our eyes and plug our ears when faced with such evil, what would be the point of learning the sword? If one is a martial artist, and if one calls oneself a chivalrous warrior, there are times when one must strike stone with an egg."
"I will remember this."
Hearing Gong Mujin's words, the Two Dragons and One Phoenix also quietly approached and stood behind him.
"Those were moving words."
"I feel enlightened. A chivalrous warrior should naturally be this way."
Namgung Hye drew her sword and spoke.
Eon-hyo also grinned and added a word.
"I thought we lacked justification for returning, but this works out perfectly. With the heads of the Ghost-Blade Twin Demons, even the instructors won't be able to say anything, right? This is what they mean by 'life's misfortunes can become blessings'—a chance to achieve great merit has come."
Everyone nodded at Eon-hyo's words.
'Indeed.'
Gong Mujin couldn't help but admire the Two Dragons and One Phoenix behind him. If they knew anything about the Ghost-Blade Twin Demons, they would know that even with everyone's help, victory couldn't be guaranteed.
Yet they were all filled with righteous spirit and stepped forward to help him without hesitation.
'The chivalrous spirit of the martial world lives on.'
But then…
"Aigoo."
Wei Yan-ho sat down on the carriage step as if standing there was too tiring.
'That one has neither chivalrous spirit nor lacks it… '
He was starting to get confused about how to evaluate that behavior.
"These youngsters are quite entertaining."
The Ghost Demon chuckled, then raised his hand that had been hidden in his sleeve.
Seeing his hand glowing blue-green, Gong Mujin's expression darkened.
'It's close to deep green.'
The Ghost Demon was famous for his Poison Demon Hand technique. The Poison Demon Hand was known to be more powerful the deeper the green color on the hand. Half a century ago when the Ghost Demon was active, his hand was only a pale green, not the deep green it was now, so he probably possessed incomparable martial prowess compared to then.
'Still, he'll help, won't he?'
Gong Mujin was never a reckless person. If Wei Yan-ho hadn't been there, he would have chosen to flee rather than face the Ghost-Blade Twin Demons.
He couldn't let fresh young lives be lost meaninglessly on the roadside, not when he was alone.
"If you hadn't been greedy in your old age, you could have kept that life. At your age, what difference would obtaining the Sword Emperor's legacy make?"
"What?"
The Ghost Demon spoke as if dumbfounded.
"Do you even know what kind of person the Sword Emperor was?"
"…I heard he was the greatest swordsman of all time."
"Child, you don't know. The Demonic Cult's catastrophe took away too much. The Sword Emperor we heard about in our youth is vastly different from the Sword Emperor you hear about now. If you knew what kind of person the Sword Emperor was, you would understand what tremendous significance obtaining his legacy holds."
"Mount Hua's sword is not inferior to the Sword Emperor's sword."
"Tsk tsk tsk."
The Ghost Demon looked at Gong Mujin as if he were pathetic.
"Even if Il-yang-ja returned alive, he wouldn't dare say such words, yet this youngster's pride is sky-high. I'll show you that Mount Hua's sword doesn't even reach me, let alone the Sword Emperor."
That was the end of it.
Though he thought there would be more conversation, the Ghost Demon rushed at Gong Mujin with his Poison Demon Hand leading, looking like a malevolent spirit in complete contrast to the leisurely demeanor he'd shown until now.
"Kuk!"
Gong Mujin gritted his teeth and gripped his sword tightly.
He deployed Falling Plum Blossoms (Nakmaebunbun), the most efficient defensive technique from the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Techniques, but the Ghost Demon's Poison Demon Hand easily penetrated the flawless Falling Plum Blossoms that Gong Mujin had deployed.
"Master!"
Lee Seol-hwa instantly drew her sword to help, but stopping the Ghost Demon's hand was impossible.
"Tat!"
At that moment, sharp blade energy shot out from behind Gong Mujin with a short battle cry.
"Hmm?"
When red-tinged blade energy and blue sword energy flew at him simultaneously, the Ghost Demon stopped his hand that had been reaching for Gong Mujin's throat and deflected the blade and sword energy.
"The Peng Family's blade and Namgung's sword too?"
Having identified his opponents' identities with just one exchange, the Ghost Demon clicked his tongue and shook his hands.
"Mount Hua, the Peng Family, and Namgung… I can't tell if I've met fortune or misfortune."
Unlike the Ghost Demon who had regained his composure, the faces of the remaining people were not good at all.
'Now I understand why they're called old monsters.'
Even if everyone here joined forces, it didn't look easy to handle the Ghost Demon alone. And there wasn't just the Ghost Demon here—there was also the Blade Demon.
If those two fought together, even if there were twice as many people here, it would be certain defeat.
Gong Mujin's face flushed red.
'To think it would be to this extent.'
His sword, honed over a lifetime, had been penetrated so powerlessly. The Ghost-Blade Twin Demons had been famous throughout the world since before he was even born, so it was natural if you thought about it, but…
"…Did you eat some ginseng or something?"
The Ghost Demon frowned.
"As you age, your internal energy naturally accumulates. No matter how brilliant a child might be, they can't overcome the years of experience in the martial world."
Hearing this, Gong Mujin's gaze turned to a peculiar place.
"That's what he says—what do you think?"
Wei Yan-ho kindly answered Gong Mujin's question directed at him.
"It's not wrong."
"Oh?"
"No matter how skilled I am, I couldn't defeat a 300-year-old ghost. If I trained for another 300 years or so, maybe, but since that won't happen, I'd have to say I could never win in this lifetime."
"I see. I understand that a 300-year-old monster refers to your master. So what did that incredibly powerful and ghost-like master of yours say to do when meeting such people?"
Wei Yan-ho answered with a stern expression.
"Don't worry about it and just leave them be."
"What?"
"'You're not a judge, nor are you someone who decides the world's principles. Everyone has their own life, and if someone is wicked enough to require punishment, someone other than you will deal with them even if you don't, so just focus on your own affairs,' he said."
"…What did you say your master's name was?"
"I told you, you wouldn't know him."
Wei Yan-ho sighed and stood up from his seat. Then he slowly began to draw his sword.
Finding it strange that his words and actions differed, Gong Mujin spoke.
"Then why are you drawing your sword?"
"That's simple. I may be my master's disciple, but I'm also my father's son. My father is the Righteous Hero Sword, and if I told him I just passed by after seeing such demon heads, he'd scold me for three days and nights straight."
"That would be the case."
The Righteous Hero Sword's chivalrous nature was already famous throughout the martial world.
"And my master also said something else."
"What?"
"Deciding whether to use the sword is entirely a matter of mood."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, he said a lot of things, but the point is very simple. To put it simply, it's like 'If you're in a foul mood, just draw your blade and cut them down.'"
"…"
Wei Yan-ho looked at the Ghost Demon as he slowly drew his sword and approached.
"And right now, I'm in a very foul mood."