Chapter 80: The Scent of Snow (3)

Teacher couldn’t receive the surgery right away.

“I’m sorry. I-I need to rest for a little while...”

The Murim Alliance's leader’s surgery had finished only a moment ago, so both the Chemist and the Medicine King were exhausted. She collapsed and fell asleep right away, and he was blankly sitting in the hot spring, his mouth hanging open.

Teacher frowned and looked down at the Murim Alliance's leader. “I heard you lost your dantian, so I came here to see that in person, old man.”

“Nonsense right from the first visitor. Alright, look all you want.”

“How are you feeling?”

Lying on a mat, the Murim Alliance's leader giggled. “I feel as light as a feather. I feel like I’m going to transcend.”

“Too much crap is also an illness. You haven’t even gone through metamorphosis...”

The Murim Alliance's leader quietly laughed on. “You look lighthearted as well, demon. Have you decided to receive the surgery?”

“...Yes, I have.” Teacher sighed. “I just poured out a year’s worth of my qi to wield my sword as freely as I want for the last time in my life.”

“Wow!” The Murim Alliance's leader’s eyes sparkled. “It must’ve been a spectacular sight. It’s a shame I didn’t get to see that because I’m stuck in bed. So? What did you cut?”

“I tried to cut the winter, but I couldn’t. I’m far, far away from the Life and Death Tier.”

“Oh, what a pity. Well, don’t let it get to you. No one’s ever reached that level. If it were as easy as all that, the history of

murim

would have changed six times already.” The Murim Alliance's leader laughed heartily.

Teacher gave him a long, thoughtful look. “Namgung Woon, you...”

“I don’t regret it at all,” the Murim Alliance's leader firmly stated. “The world is a mess; it’s a wonder that we endured for three years. The wonderful doctors from outer

murim

came to treat us.

“I had thought the Righteous Faction was going to die out, but I took in a disciple. It’s wonderful! Wonders form a miracle, don’t they? I’m just grateful for the miracle I received. Hmm. The only regret I might have is that I didn’t get to end the Great War of Good and Evil with you, demon. But, well, there’s no such thing as a perfect life. I’m sure our disciples will finish it nicely.”

“Yes, I’m sure they will.” Teacher smiled slightly, but it was bittersweet. Still, when she turned to me I could see the faith in her gaze. “I can accept this ending.”

That wasn’t the face of a person who was happy—she was simply willing to accept her ending. No matter how sweet a candy was, it should be allowed to melt in the mouth before swallowing it. Perhaps Teacher was chewing over her coming end.

I nodded. “Teacher, I’m going to be away for a bit.”

“What are you talking about? Where would you go in this ruined world?”

“Your disciple is going to get some fresh air. Don’t worry.”

“...That makes me even more worried for some reason.” Teacher’s eyebrows furrowed. “Are you trying to get involved in something dangerous?”

“Teacher, I’ll return before your surgery is over. I’ll make sure of it.” I gave her the

bao quan

salute. It was awkwardly executed, but I was confident that it had all of my heart in it. “Don’t worry about anything, Teacher. Your disciple will be waiting right by your side when you open your eyes after the surgery is over.”

Teacher accepted her ending. Now it was time for me to give her her life back.

***

I left the cave and crossed the snowfield. As I walked, I thought about how this world had looked before its fall. Would

murim

have been a thick, vast forest? Had

gangho

had rivers and lakes?[1]

Past what would have been part of a thick forest with rivers, Preta waited, kneeling.

“Master, I have completed your order.”

“You found them all?”

“Yes,” Preta answered with her head bowed. A dusting of snowflakes lay on her hair, showing how long she had been waiting. “I did as you ordered me, Master.”

I had given Preta an order before;

“There will be martial artist jiangshi sporadically scattered around the area.”

“Find them.”

“Find the demons in black training suits and the warriors in white.”

Many

jiangshi

were lost in snowstorms in the last three years of the Great War of Good and Evil.

“We’ve found a total of 917 missing

jiangshi

. 439 of them are those you called demons; 478

jiangshi

are warriors in white.

“There were 560 demon

jiangshi

and 521 Righteous Path

jiangshi

gathered nearby.” Preta bowed her head deeper. “We’ve brought all of the 1998

jiangshi

here.”

Behind her slender shoulders,

jiangshi

were lined up on the snowfield, my skeleton army holding down each of the

jiangshi

from both sides. It was morning, and

jiangshi

were weak to sunlight, so they wouldn’t move, but even if clouds covered the sun, the

jiangshi

wasn’t going to go out of control instantly.

“Okay. Good.” I nodded. “Bring the

jiangshi

to me one by one.”

“Yes, Master.”

The skeletons dragged one of the

jiangshi

in front of me. When it arrived, I had already drawn my holy sword. The winter was cold, but my slash across the winter air would be colder.

...Whish...

A wind blew over us. Just as rainfall gathered into a lake, the wind blew into the valley we were in. During its stay in the valley, the wind took after a human voice.

...Whish...

The wind recited a prayer carried from far away. All of the sounds that fell into the valley were hauntingly human. I let the wind blowing through the valley whisper into my ears and swung my sword.

...Iwish...

The

jiangshi’s

head was split open in one strike.

I let out a deep exhale as I cut down those who were now corpses. The

jiangshi’s

heads burst open with a messy explosion of fragments.

“Next!”

“Understood!” Preta gestured at the skeletons, who quickly brought the next

jiangshi

.

When I was on a roll, Preta quickly brought the

jiangshi

in front of me, but slowed down when I looked tired.

“Faster! I’ll finish this before sunset today!” I shouted.

“Yes, Master!”

We carried on with our execution ceremony as relentlessly as the wind carried its sound. We had a total of 1998 corpses. Even though they didn’t move or resist, it wasn’t easy to do it all with one sword.

I panted.

For a long time, I had been thinking about how I could make the perfect ending. What kind of ending would satisfy Teacher completely? How could a person’s life be complete? I wanted that for Teacher with all my heart, and that was why I was able to come to a conclusion.

It wasn’t enough for me to become her disciple.

The bad ending was if Teacher went mad. That was undoubtedly bad, but did that mean that becoming her disciple was the happy ending? Would Teacher be satisfied with this ending?

No—this was a normal ending. Actually, me becoming her disciple barely met the standards of an ending. Although even if I were to declare that it was over right now, the Indoor Librarian would probably accept it and this world would become the twenty-second floor... I would never be satisfied with it.

“Master, please endure a little longer! Only half of them are left now!”

[Shiny cheers for you as hard as she can!]

The sun was already setting. The sky turned red, and the snowfield was colored purple. I wasn’t sure how long it had been now. It had to have been around seven or eight hours. Anyhow, I swung my sword without stopping. My clothes were soaked with sweat and pieces of flesh.

“These are the last ten, Master!” Preta shouted.

I looked up, and indeed, only five each of the demons and the followers of the Righteous Path remained. I tightly gripped my sword despite my labored breath.

A little more.

“Only five are left!”

Just a little more.

“This is the last one!”

When I crushed the head of a demon in the black uniform, its frozen brain shattered like ice. Immediately after cutting down the 1,998th

jiangshi

, my knees gave out and I collapsed into the snowfield, my lungs burning.

“Great work, Master! That was quite a trial!” Preta was so happy that she almost jumped up and down, even though she had also been worked to the bone for nearly half a day.

Preta had always been emotionless since I had taken her under my shadow. This seemed like the first time I had seen her so genuinely happy.

“Why are you so happy?” I asked after catching my breath.

When Preta realized that she was smiling, she quickly regained her poker face. “... My heart swelled when I imagined what you’re going to show everyone, Master. I haven’t met your teacher in person, but I’m certain that she’ll be happy... very, very happy.”

“Yeah.” I smiled, lying on the snow. “I hope she’ll be very happy.”

The cure was developed, and I was officially Teacher’s disciple. Lastly, I also had the Guardian’s permission. By no means had it been easy to get here, but finally... I was ready to see the ending of this world.

***

A week passed. Teacher and the Murim Alliance's leader had spent it recuperating. Fortunately, there was no need to arrange separate recovery facilities. This cave with its hot spring was already perfect.

“Hmm, I feel so empty now that my dantian is closed.”

“I can’t even accumulate a spoonful of qi even if I do Qi Alignment. Now that I don’t have any qi, I feel uneasy for no good reason. This must be what those people who can’t use martial arts feel like...”

“Actually, I feel at ease now. These last years didn’t feel like living! I had to block the acupoint, make my heart beat, and on and on.” The Murim Alliance's leader settled into the hot spring and let out a long, weary sigh. “I feel like I’m finally living my life again because I can just breathe without needing to do anything else! This is all thanks to those children from outer

murim

.”

“T-thank you for waiting...” The Chemist stammered as she slowly wrapped up Teacher’s examination. “Today’s check-up is over. I found no issue in either of you. I think we can say that you two are completely healed. E-even if you get bitten by a

jiangshi

again, you won’t get infected again...”

“Thank you.” Teacher patted the Chemist’s head, making the younger woman’s shoulders twitch in surprise. “That old man and I owe your lives. It isn’t easy to help complete strangers.”

“N-no... I did what I had to do as a medical practitioner.”

“That’s an incredible way of thinking; it’s even more amazing to actually practice what you think. You’re an amazing child.”

“Ah. So, that’s...” The Chemist couldn’t move away from Teacher’s caress. Although she looked very embarrassed, she didn’t seem to hate it.

It felt good to see them as close as sisters. However, I couldn’t just stand around smiling.

“Hmm. Miss Chemist, is it okay for the two of them to move now?”

“Oh. Yes, yes! I scheduled the recovery period a little longer just in case. They can move around or exercise without any problems.”

Okay.

“Teacher; sir. Why don’t we go for a walk together?”

“A walk?” Teacher tilted her head. “I’m very happy to get some fresh air with my disciple... but why are you asking that old man too? Gong-Ja, even a pleasant walk will feel like trudging through a pig pen if you go with that old man.”

The Murim Alliance's leader scoffed. “I’d refuse a walk with an old demon and a young demon before you could even offer. Have a good time. You and your student’s dullness will be a great conversation topic during your stroll.”

Their reaction was as expected.

“No.” I shook my head quietly. “I need both of you to come with me.”

“Hmm...?”

Teacher and the Murim Alliance's leader locked eyes. They seemed to have noticed that I wasn’t suggesting an ordinary walk. They looked like they didn’t have any idea what I could be up to but seemed intrigued nonetheless.

“Alright. It seems my disciple is up to something. Although I don’t feel like going for a walk with that old man, I’ll gladly play along.”

“Well, it’ll be trivial if it’s something that the young demon planned. I don’t expect much.”

We left the cave. It was cold; just like the first day we fell into the

Heavenly Demon Chronicle

, today was also winter. The only difference from that day was that neither Teacher nor the Murim Alliance's leader could use their qi. Never again.

I held Teacher’s hand with my right hand and the hand of the Murim Alliance's leader with my left. That way, I could use my aura to deliver warmth.

“Teacher,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“Sir.”

“Yup,” the Murim Alliance's leader answered.

“You two said that your only regret is that you couldn’t finish the Great War of Good and Evil. Instead, it is something that your disciples will have to finish...”

Relying on the warmth I delivered, we crossed the snowfield in the cold winter. Perhaps it felt awkward to come out for the first time after a week, or it could be that they weren’t used to having to walk without their qi. Teacher and the Murim Alliance's leader walked a little awkwardly.

“But I don’t agree. The Great War of Good and Evil is your war. Even if I and the OJP Sect Master fight, it’s just a match, not a great war. You two are the ones who have protected the Heavenly Demon Cult and the Righteous Faction until now. Only your fight can be the Great War of Good and Evil.”

“Gong-Ja...?” Teacher gave me a confused look.

We arrived at the snowfield.

“Thank you for not giving up for three years.”

The shadowy forest of

jiangshi

was now just an empty snowfield without a single jiangshi.

“Thank you for finding and collecting the

jiangshi

every day. If the two of you had given up and treated them as mere corpses, leaving them to disappear, I would never have been able to get them back.”

I slowly opened my mouth to give them back the lives they lost and the sight they deserved to enjoy.

“

Monster Legion Reincarnation

.”

My shadow spread across the snowfield.

[Activating the Skill

Monster Legion Reincarnation

.]

One by one, snowman-like figures rose from my shadow. Some figures were wearing black martial arts training suits while several others had fluttering white sleeves. As they slowly took on the form of a human, the figures looked down at their hands, surprised.

But none of them would have been surprised as Teacher and the Murim Alliance's leader were.

“Gong-Ja, what in the world is this...?”

“You can think of it as a dream or a side effect of losing your dantians. You could also imagine that I know a strange Taoist technique that can temporarily recreate the dead by bringing back their memories and bodies.” I squeezed their hands. “Lady Heavenly Demon, and Sir Righteous Faction Leader.”

The activation of

Monster Legion Reincarnation

was complete.

One thousand elite demons of the Heavenly Demon Cult stood on the snowfield. One thousand elite warriors of the Righteous Faction were facing the demons.

“The Heavenly Demon Cult’s rule isn’t over.

Murim

hasn’t forgotten its honor, and honor hasn’t been lost in

murim

. The Heavenly Demon Cult’s fate isn’t something that corpses can eat away, nor shall the Righteous Faction’s

murim

fall because of

jiangshi

.”

These two people’s wish was to have a true Great War of Good and Evil.

“When the Heavenly Demon Cult disappears, it should be by the Righteous Faction’s sword. If the Righteous Faction should end, it has to be brought down by the Heavenly Demon Cult’s hands.

“I beseech the heaven of the Demonic Cult and the leader of the Righteous Faction.” I smiled and offered them my

bao quan

salute. “Please decide the last ruler of

murim

.”

1. Gangho’s hanja: (江湖). Gangho means ‘a world’, but its hanja are a mix of rivers+lakes. ☜