It’s nice that it’s simple, isn’t it? (4)

Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!

“Kkh… uuuh….”

The last remaining member of Sapaeryeon let out a pained groan as his body, now riddled with holes, collapsed helplessly to the ground.

‘Wow…..’

Baek Sang’s eyes trembled. He could not hide his shock at how, in an instant, the members of Saparyeon had been smashed, making their own desperate struggles seem almost meaningless.

‘As expected…… Jin Geumryong is Jin Geumryong.’

Although his fame had diminished after successive defeats by Chung Myung and Baek Cheon, Jin Geumryong was still someone who had once competed with the likes of Namgung Dowi and Mu Jin for the title of greatest among the younger generation’s top talents.

Simply put, he was someone whom Baek Sang wouldn’t even dare to compare himself to.

Feeling keenly aware of the vast gap between them once again, Baek Sang ultimately nodded.

‘Anyway, for now he’s on our side.’

Baek Sang was well aware that Jin Geumryong and Baek Cheon didn’t have a good relationship. Yet what Jin Geumryong was showing now seemed quite removed from that fact. At least to Baek Sang’s eyes, Jin Geumryong looked furious that Baek Cheon’s life had been threatened.

Even had Jin Geumryong worn nothing but a cold expression, Baek Sang’s judgment would not have changed much.

And with a good reason: Jin Geumryong was drenched head to toe in blood and sweat. One look at him told how desperately he had been searching for Baek Cheon.

‘Is blood truly thicker than water?’

At that moment, Jin Geumryong turned and strode towards Baek Sang.

“What is it?”

“…Yes?”

At the cold voice, Baek Sang instinctively shrank back and tensed up.

‘I-I’m not scared just because he’s from Jongnam.’

He hated that reaction, but there was nothing he could do.

Had the opponent been Jongli Gok, he might have puffed out his chest and played the madman. But with Jin Geumryong there was no chance. Seeing someone who looked exactly like Baek Cheon wearing such an icy expression was like facing an enraged Baek Cheon himself. How could he possibly keep his composure in front of that?

“Who are those kids? What on earth were they doing here?”

Jin Geumryong furrowed his brows, indicating the children with a jerk of his chin. Baek Sang hesitantly opened his mouth.

“Well, you see…”

Once he finished his explanation as briefly and concisely as possible, Jin Geumryong’s face was distorted quite badly.

“You’ve risked your lives over something like that? Without even considering your own condition?”

To be honest, Baek Sang had never felt any warmth towards Jin Geumryong. But this time he could agree with him completely.

It wasn’t that the children of Diancang weren’t important, but anyone with sense ought to look after their own life as well.

‘You have to understand that your own life is as precious as anyone else’s.’

But it seemed that damned Sahyeong of his didn’t grasp even such an obvious truth.

“Um, by the way……”

“Hmm?”

“Do you have any idea… what that is?”

As Baek Sang hesitated and asked, Jin Geumryong furrowed his brow again. He, too, didn’t know exactly how to answer.

A massive surge of inner strength was raging.

No – calling it ‘inner strength’ wasn’t quite right.

Rather than that, it was more like…

“Should I call it vital energy [생기(生氣)*]? No……”

“Huh?”

Baek Sang asked again, but Jin Geumryong only deepened his frown in silence, lost in thought.

This was a phenomenon Jin Geumryong had never seen before. No matter how closely he looked at it, all he felt was an extreme sense of discord.

‘Yes. The term external energy [외기(外氣)] is more accurate than vital energy.’

It refers to the source of inner strength, where the energy spread throughout the world is refined through cultivation [운공] and gathered into the body.

‘But external energy never gathers in a single place like that.’

If it could, would martial artists spend their whole lives desperately striving to accumulate inner strength?

Yet before the eyes of Jin Geumryong and Baek Sang, that impossible thing was happening. Indeed, something that ought not gather in one place was gathering, so feeling an intense dissonance was only natural.

Jin Geumryong spoke in a low voice.

“I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but at the very least, it won’t do him any harm.”

“It’s not like I didn’t know that……!”

“What?”

Baek Sang instantly drew his neck in.

A face strikingly similar to Baek Cheon’s, yet this man was far colder. There was no room for jokes with him at all.

Baek Sang was about to mumble an awkward excuse when a sudden change occurred.

“Huh?”

“This is…”

Both of their gazes snapped to Baek Cheon.

They had sensed it at the same time. The energy was subsiding. Even ‘subsiding’ didn’t quite capture it – it was plummeting, as if it would vanish at any moment.

The light enveloping Baek Cheon diminished visibly and grew faint.

They didn’t know the exact reason, but one thing was certain. This was not because the process had reached the end. It had collapsed halfway through because it couldn’t make it to the end.

Like a candle that burns brightly but suddenly goes out when its wick breaks midway, the energy surrounding Baek Cheon rapidly scattered.

Baek Sang, his face gone pale, shouted.

“What, what is this!”

“……Damn it.”

Jin Geumryong bit down hard on his lip.

“It’s not enough. He doesn’t have the strength to keep going.”

“What? Th-Then what happens now?”

Baek Sang’s eyes widened.

“But still… even if it cuts off like this, he’ll be better than before, right?”

“…”

“Why aren’t you answering? It’s true, isn’t it? Right?”

Jin Geumryong couldn’t bring himself to answer. He didn’t have the composure for it.

If a caterpillar crawling through the mud is forced to halt in the middle of its metamorphosis into a butterfly, could you really say it’s better off than before? Wouldn’t that be an even more certain and terrible death?

At this rate, Baek Cheon would die. Without a doubt.

Baek Sang read the answer in the silence and, flustered, stammered desperately.

“W-We have to do something! Right. Power! If he’s short on power, we can add ours! We can help. If we channel our energy into him…”

“Not enough. With just us…”

Jin Geumryong bit his lip. Baek Sang, growing in frustration, suddenly burst out.

“No! We have to at least try!”

It wasn’t as if Jin Geumryong wasn’t anxious. But he couldn’t just act recklessly. If giving all of his inner energy would surely save Baek Cheon, Jin Geumryong would have done it without hesitation.

But this wasn’t a situation that could be solved with desperate hope alone.

‘Most of all…’

With only the strength of those present here, it was impossible to fill what Baek Cheon now lacked. What Baek Cheon needed in his depleted state was, quite literally, power from the very source itself.

Yes, to put it simply, he needed the natural force [자연의 힘] that Taoists pursue.

From the beginning, it’s impossible for a person to wholly command the power of nature. But the ‘immortal energy [선기(仙氣)]’ of Taoism – the transcendent energy cultivated by Taoist practices – was the closest a human could come to harnessing nature’s power. And that energy was desperately, urgently needed.

If there were anyone here who could handle even a bit of Taoist immortal energy, there might have been hope. Even more so if it was a master of Hwasan, whose energy was most akin to Baek Cheon’s.

But there was no master of Hwasan nearby. Baek Sang was here, but his power alone was nowhere near enough. At the very least, it would take someone whose inner energy rivaled Hwasan’s best just to attempt it.

But if they left now in search of such a person, Baek Cheon would die before they returned.

“This is insane! So we’re just supposed to stand here and watch him die? After coming all this way?”

“…”

“Just move aside. I’ll try it myself if I have to.”

“Stop. If you do that, you’ll die too.”

“I said move, you bastard. If someone’s dying, it’ll be me!”

“Damn it! That’s not going to save him!”

Jin Geumryong’s roar slammed into Baek Sang’s ears. His eyes were ablaze as he glared at Baek Sang.

“If it were possible, I’d have done it myself already! No matter the price I had to pay!”

Grit.

Jin Geumryong’s teeth dug into his lip.

If they weren’t careful, those trying to save Baek Cheon would be dragged in and die as well. That was the last thing his brother would ever want. Jin Geumryong himself didn’t care if he died, but he absolutely had to prevent those damned Hwasan’s disciples his brother treasured so dearly from dying along with him.

“Then… then what are we supposed to do…?”

Jin Geumryong clenched his fist tight.

“You damn bastard. In the end it’s come to this…”

If only the elders of Cheonumaeng had been here, they might have been able to come up with another solution. The experienced and wise would certainly have found a way. Not just the Taoists of Wudang – even if just the elders of Jongnam were present, perhaps things could have turned out differently.

But right now, it was only them. In the end, Baek Cheon’s choice to never look after himself had driven him straight to his death.

Crack.

Jin Geumryong clenched his fist so tightly his knuckles turned white.

‘This is why that thing called righteousness……’

He didn’t expect anything in return. But, at the very least, no one should have to pay the price for harboring goodwill.

Without realizing it, his lower lip, pressed tight, began to bleed. Then, in a suddenly hollow voice laden with anguish, he spoke.

“You foolish little brother… What were you thinking…?”

It was just as Jin Geumryong was about to plummet completely into despair.

“That’s right. Utterly foolish.”

At the voice from behind, Jin Geumryong spun around.

It was a voice he wasn’t exactly familiar with, but still knew. Yet the owner of that voice should never have been here.

He turned with disbelief, only to be shocked by what he saw. It wasn’t an illusion. The man was really there. Though haggard in appearance, his expression was firm and resolute.

“But that’s exactly what makes that child Baek Cheon.”

“S-Sect Leader…?”

Baek Sang muttered in disbelief.

There stood Hyun Jong, the Retired Sect Leader of Hwasan.

“W-Wait, Sect Leader, how did you even…?”

Baek Sang blinked, dazed. Even with Baek Cheon’s life hanging by a thread, he couldn’t take his eyes off Hyun Jong. That was how unexpected his appearance was.

Hyun Jong gave no answer, looking silently at Baek Cheon.

In the moment when it seemed all hope had collapsed, the only person who flashed through his mind was the one he himself had cast aside – the one he’d hoped could survive, even if it meant being apart.

Yet the one who would never follow Hyun Jong’s wishes.

Hyun Jong knew as well that his presence here was irresponsible, that he must not place a single disciple above the whole of Hwasan.

But knowing all this, Hyun Jong was still here. In the instant he let go of everything that had sustained – and perhaps constrained – him, his heart simply moved of its own accord.

Only the desire to do so. For the first time in his life, he followed not what he had to do, but what he wanted to do. Thus Hyun Jong arrived here.

Hyun Jong quietly closed his eyes.

‘Perhaps it is Heaven’s will.’

As if denying the thought that had briefly surfaced, Hyun Jong immediately shook his head.

There was no such thing as Heaven’s will. Even if some lofty purpose did exist, people do not act solely in accordance with it. The reason he was here now was simply because his own Tao had led him here.

“Baek Cheon-ah.”

Hyun Jong cast a pitying gaze at Baek Cheon.

The disciple he had driven out, even after shedding the shell called Hwasan, was still upholding Hwasan’s Tao. No – by now the boy’s own will might well have become Hwasan’s Tao.

If so, what Hyun Jong had to do was clear. Without hesitation, he approached Baek Cheon.

“Help me.”

“Is it possible?”

A question that might have seemed rude slipped out. Yet seeing the earnest desperation in Jin Geumryong’s eyes, no one could call him out for discourtesy.

“Alone, it would have been difficult. But…”

Hyun Jong’s gaze turned to Jin Geumryong.

“But we have you, do we not?”

“I have not cultivated Taoist inner strength.”

“That is precisely why you are needed. After all, the world itself is a blend of Tao and secular ways.”

“…”

“Let us try.”

Jin Geumryong nodded.

“M-Me too!”

“You state the obvious.”

Hyun Jong, Jin Geumryong, and Baek Sang moved towards Baek Cheon’s body. As they drew near, the light still pouring out stabbed at their eyes even more fiercely.

At last, the three who had come forward reached out to Baek Cheon’s back. Baek Sang was first, with Jin Geumryong following after.

Hyun Jong paused, gazing at Baek Cheon’s back, where both hands were now placed. It was as precarious as when they had first met, but now, seeing how much broader those shoulders had grown, a corner of his heart ached.

Then Hyun Jong too placed his hand on Baek Cheon’s back.

At that same moment, a light far stronger than before began to pour from Baek Cheon’s body.