From now on, I’ll be the one to face you. (4)

A fierce wave of energy slammed into Baek Cheon’s body.

‘Strong!’

Was it because they had posted strong guards to watch the hostages? The doubt flashed across his mind for an instant, but Baek Cheon soon laughed bitterly.

‘Impossible. I’ve simply grown weaker.’

Strength is a relative concept. Though Baek Cheon had grown weak, until not long ago he would never have called an opponent of this level ‘strong,’ for his eye for measuring others’ strengths had not changed.

But now, even his judgment was being dragged down to the level of his ruined body.

Therefore, what Baek Cheon had to overcome was not merely his weakened body.

Every little thing he never would have considered a threat before now loomed over him as overwhelming fear.

‘But so what of it!’

He grit his teeth. He forced power into hands that had none left to give.

There was only one way not to be devoured by fear: to face it, exactly as it was, head-on.

Instead of retreating, Baek Cheon chose to take one more step forward.

“Taaah!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he charged at the enemy.

Behind him Baek Sang’s startled scream pierced his ears – the cry of someone telling him to stop and let him take the front. But Baek Cheon had no intention of yielding the position in the vanguard to Baek Sang.

There was only one reason.

‘Sang alone can’t handle this.’

He might have grown weak, but his ability to assess the situation calmly hadn’t vanished. If Baek Cheon didn’t do his part now, this plan would end in failure.

Baek Cheon suddenly found himself confused. Was what he was feeling a sense of crisis, or was it relief that there was still something he could do?

Clang!

The instant his sword collided with the foe’s blade, Baek Cheon’s sword was thrown back pitifully. It wasn’t even a strike full of power – just a blade hurriedly swung upward – yet even the force behind that crude slash was more than the current Baek Cheon could bear.

“What’s with this crippled bastard?”

For an instant triumphant smiles flickered across the tense faces of Sapaeryeon’s warriors. They believed they had measured Baek Cheon’s limits with that single exchange. Now any hesitation was gone. One of them swung his blade as if to cleave Baek Cheon in two at once.

Swish.

At that moment, Baek Cheon’s sword path suddenly bent diagonally.

Clang!

Blade met blade. As Baek Cheon’s sword spun in a small circle, the blade that had been plunging down was forced to veer sharply to the side.

Thud!

Baek Cheon’s sword tapped lightly against the back of the enemy’s blade.

It was no more than a coin’s weight of force, but the instant that force was added, the blade that had been moving exactly as intended betrayed the will of the hand gripping it.

“Hk!”

The startled Sapaeryeon’s warrior’s eyes widened. He realized something had gone wrong, but it was impossible to recover a blade that had been swung with all his strength.

Baek Cheon did not miss the opening. Like a lightning flash, he drove his blade straight for the enemy’s throat.

Crunch.

It was neither Hwasan’s Plum Blossom Sword nor Wudang’s Pine Crest Ancient Sword – a nameless form that now perfectly symbolized Baek Cheon. The sword pierced the Sapa’s neck without even a hair’s breadth of error.

“Grrrk….”

With the cold sharp blade lodged in his throat, the member of Sapaeryeon rolled his eyes back and let out a pained groan. His face twisted, not in resentment, but in pure shock. Until his final moment, he couldn’t comprehend what had happened to him.

“You bastard!”

The member of Sapaeryeon beside him, who had watched it all, swung his blade in a frenzy.

Baek Cheon hastily withdrew his sword and blocked the attack, but it was insufficient. His battered body no longer held the strength to withstand such force.

Kwaang!

Craack!

Baek Cheon’s body twisted like a bow drawn to its limit, a sound like something shattering echoing inside him.

Yet instead of collapsing he stubbornly swung his sword. There was scarcely any inner strength behind it. All that his strike managed to do was slightly bother his opponent.

In the past, Baek Cheon would never have attempted such a meaningless struggle. But this time, he had someone to give that struggle meaning.

“Uaaahp!”

Baek Sang, who flew in like a thunderbolt, stabbed his sword in a single breath. Saparyeon’s warrior, his stance broken as he dodged Baek Cheon’s sword, had no way to evade.

“Kugh!”

Saparyeon’s member sucked in a desperate gasp, raising his blade with all his strength to block Baek Sang’s sword with its wide surface. But Baek Cheon did not remain idle. His blade bent the other way and drove into the enemy’s chest.

Seeing the swords flying at him from both sides, the Sapa spat a futile curse. In that instant Baek Cheon’s sword mercilessly slashed through his heart.

Paaaat!

Blood gushed furiously from the long wound.

Thud!

In that instant, as Baek Cheon stepped forward, he rammed his shoulder into the collapsing Sapa. The body whose soul had been slipping away was hurled backward instead of crumbling to the ground. Because of that, the other enemies who had been about to charge hesitated and lost their moment to strike.

And Baek Sang did not miss the gap.

“Haaaap!”

Pararararak!

The Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique burst forth in a flash. In an instant, numerous plum blossom sword energies filled the dark cave.

“Urgh!”

Even in a wide open space, the Plum Blossom Sword of Hwasan is hard to evade. There was no need to explain the fate of those who faced it in the confines of a cave, where movement was limited.

Pararararak!

The plum blossom sword energy swept the enemies away in the blink of an eye.

Agonized screams echoed. Where the brilliant blossoms had vanished, three fresh corpses now lay.

“Sahyeong! Are you all right?”

“Cough.”

“Damn it, blood! Why do you keep pushing yourself so hard?”

Baek Sang cried out in anguish. Baek Cheon carelessly wiped the blood trickling from his lips with his sleeve. His ribs were broken. It was hard to breathe. But having taken care of those bastards all at once, he considered it a bargain.

“Don’t make such a fuss… It’s not over yet, so let’s move.”

“…I should just keep my mouth shut.”

The look in Baek Sang’s eyes as he watched Baek Cheon was clearly one of undisguised dismay. It had been like this before, but now it was worse, as though Baek Cheon believed he possessed thirty lives to spend.

‘And yet…’

Baek Sang sensed that something was off. A faint doubt flickered in his eyes as he looked at Baek Cheon.

Of course, he couldn’t be certain. Baek Sang didn’t have the skills to properly assess Baek Cheon’s martial prowess. But still…

‘Strangely, no matter how I look at him, he seems stronger.’

He knew the thought made no sense. Naturally Baek Cheon’s prowess had become pitiful compared to the past.

And yet, how to put it?

If the Baek Cheon of the past had possessed a body as crippled as this, he would never have been able to do what the current Baek Cheon was doing – doing it, moreover, as though it were nothing.

Martial arts skill is made of technique, inner strength, and the body. Now that his inner strength and body were ruined, only his technique had risen to an intangible level.

‘Damn it.’

Thinking about it, Baek Sang felt such regret he could almost curse aloud. What might have happened if Baek Cheon had reached this level without ever being injured?

‘Not only Young Lord Namgung… but he might have been able to take on even Monk Hye Yeon.’

No – perhaps he could reach even farther than that.

Baek Sang knew all such thoughts were useless longing. Baek Cheon could never regain the body he once had.

“What are you doing?”

“I-I’m coming.”

Baek Cheon dashed forward ahead of Baek Sang. Watching that back, Baek Sang bit his lip.

It was truly strange. By now Baek Sang was the stronger one, yet it felt completely natural for Baek Cheon to lead the way.

A moment ago Baek Sang would have shouted that it was dangerous, but this time he kept silent. Much as he hated to admit it, the thought suddenly struck him that this might be the last time he would see Baek Cheon’s back.

Like a candle burning brightest before it goes out, Baek Cheon – charging so fiercely one forgot he was wounded – burst through a narrow passage into a broad space at a single bound.

“Who…”

Thunk!

Baek Cheon thrust his sword straight into the chest of Saparyeon’s warrior who had leapt to his feet. Caught off guard by the ambush, the enemy collapsed without even a proper scream.

“Y-You bastards!”

The other Sapas scrambled to their feet.

To the current Baek Cheon it should have been an overwhelmingly threatening sight, yet his gaze was not on them.

His eyes were fixed on a single point: at the very back of the rather spacious chamber, there was another narrow opening. The area was blocked off with a rough barricade of wood.

And through the gaps he could clearly see them – the pale faces of those who had not yet fully grown.

Grip.

Baek Cheon’s hand tightened around his sword. His lips, stained with blood, broke into the clearest, brightest smile.

“We came to the right place. There you are.”

But to others, that smile was probably more grotesque than reassuring, and Sapaeryeon’s members facing him flinched.

“You wretches… did you come here to die? Do you even know where you are!”

“A place to die, huh…”

Baek Cheon echoed the words.

They probably just blurted out whatever came to mind, but to Baek Cheon, it was particularly jarring. He couldn’t just ignore it.

Baek Cheon himself had wondered once: was he now desperately searching for the place where he would lay his life to rest?

Day after day, unable to accomplish anything meaningful, simply enduring life itself as a punishment – was that what he was doing? Perhaps, deep down, he’d started to believe that it would be better to end his life while striving for something, rather than let it simply fade away.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Absolutely not.

“I’ll cling to life like a leech until the very end. Even if I have nothing left! Just surviving is meaningful in itself.”

“What are you babbling about!”

Of course, to the members of Sapaeryeon it sounded like a complete nonsense. Baek Cheon laughed faintly and raised his sword.

Wuuung.

At the tip of his blade, a sword energy different from any before surged forth. This was not simply the force of will. His fractured dantian could no longer hold his inner strength, and it was leaking out uncontrollably.

He could feel it. He’d told himself over and over that this was his limit, but now, it truly was. If he unleashed his sword here, his dantian would shatter completely, and he would lose even the bare minimum needed to practice martial arts.

Bang!

At that moment Baek Cheon kicked off the ground and charged at Sapaeryeon’s warriors.

‘If I am to burn out, let it be here, let it be now.’

Paaaat.

Baek Cheon’s sword trembled violently for an instant.

It was not a clean, refined vibration. It was a precarious, unstable tremor, as if something might shatter at any moment.

Yet even within that, the plum blossom bloomed.

Twisted, broken, and far from being vivid – but still, no one could possibly deny it. No matter the shape or color, these were the Plum Blossoms of Hwasan.

Plum blossoms as red as his will bloomed brilliantly, pouring towards the unprepared enemies.

‘Ah……’

For a moment Baek Cheon stood dazed, blankly watching the spectacle.

Once, it had been so natural, but ever since he was injured, it felt endlessly distant. And yet, now, his sword had, for a brief instant, recreated the sword energy of his past.

Just as the surging emotion threatened to swallow him whole…

Crack.

A small, yet piercing sound spread through his body.

CRACK!

And then.

A sound, akin to porcelain shattering in an instant, rang like a thunder in Baek Cheon’s mind.