Chapter 243. Within Ten Paces, You'll Find A Fragrant Flower (14)

There were twelve Paragons in Martial Heaven.

Of the twelve, the Great Justice Palace Master, the Great Evil Palace Master, the Great Dark Palace Master, Mu Hu, the Sword King, and the Saber King had lost their lives. Only six remained: the Forgetful King—the sole survivor among the Three Heavenly Martial Kings, the Four Great Attendants, and Eun Dang-Hwi.

Of course, that was as far as Martial Heaven knew. They were unaware that Woo-Moon had killed Eun Dang-Hwi, so in reality, there were only five left.

One of the five, the Forgetful King, slowly approached Woo-Moon while leaving his subordinates behind.

'Damn it! Just where the hell is she?'

Although he had thus far managed to avoid involving the Martial Heaven higher-ups by using the made-up identity of Yang Cheon-Hwi, he still had to find Jin-Jin quickly. Moreover, if he wasn’t able to match timing with the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor, then saving the latter’s younger sister would also be impossible.

'Damn it! Just where is she?!'

In complete contrast with his impatient and chaotic thoughts, Yang Cheon-Hwi’s external display was lively, confident, and full of energy. In the meantime, he had killed another two Absolute Masters in a single blow.

When he had covered about half of the vast Martial Heaven headquarters, the jig was finally up.

Swish!

‘He’s here...’

A dagger flew in stealthily, but easily Woo-Moon caught it.

"You! You morons, this guy isn't whatever Yang Cheon-Hwi, he's Song Woo-Moon!" shouted the Forgetful King, immediately revealing Woo-Moon’s identity.

"Forgetful King!" Woo-Moon shouted back in anger.

How could he have forgotten the grudges of the Heavenly Demon Mound?! He ran toward the Forgetful King and swung his great cleaver wildly.

BOOM!

Thousands of arcs of saber qi formed in the air and flew toward the Forgetful King.

Astonished by the speed and power of the saber qi, the Forgetful King only barely managed to dodge.

"T-that bastard is a Zenith Master!! Hurry up and call the Lord of Heaven!"

The Lord of Heaven.

The Lord of Martial Heaven.

In other words... the Martial Heaven God.

Woo-Moon grew incredibly anxious when he heard the Forgetful King's order. It would be disastrous if the Martial Heaven God got involved.

'No, this can't happen. I have to save Mother first!'

How could he fight an opponent like the Heaven God while his mother was still held captive? Woo-Moon felt incredibly anxious.

'For now, I should kill this bastard quickly!'

The situation was completely different from before.

The Forgetful King couldn't even think of fighting Woo-Moon, instead running around hoping to keep his life at the very least. He regretted his actions in the past, or rather his lack of action.

'I should have been more thorough back then. Damn it! Just how did he advance to the Zenith Realm so quickly?'

He never could have imagined this. To think that Woo-Moon, who was a child compared to him, could have reached the mythical Zenith realm before him!

To Woo-Moon’s dismay, an obstacle appeared in his way the moment when he was about to finish off the Forgetful King.

“Forgetful King! I'll help you!"

Twang, thwip, thwip, thwip!

Countless attacks flew through the air, and countless moves were made to defend against them. Then, the defending Woo-Moon shot out an attack toward the one who had interfered. Unable to defend against Woo-Moon's attack, the man fled backward, furiously trying to dispel the attack.

This new enemy was one of the Four Great Attendants, Second Attendant Yu Chi-Sang.

Thanks to his intervention, the Forgetful King was able to catch his breath, and the two distanced themselves from Woo-Moon.

In that gap, the others from Martial Heaven filed in. In an instant, about three thousand Peak and Transcendent experts lined up in front of Woo-Moon.

No fewer than fourteen Absolute Masters rushed to assist them.

As the number of allies reached the level of an army, Second Attendant Yu Chi-Sang shouted, "Kill him! All of you, attack and kill him!!"

The Absolute Masters took the lead and rushed toward Woo-Moon.

'More Absolute Masters. How many of them do you have, Martial Heaven?!'

"Bastard! You dog of the Imperial Palace, how dare you come here?!"

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Chop him apart!"

Woo-Moon sneered.

Then he firmly drew Lightflash and pointed at the numerous masters rushing toward him.

"Feel this."

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Fourteen Absolute Masters and a full thousand Transcendent and Peak experts rushed at him while cursing. The distance between them grew closer and closer.

"And repent before your deaths."

There were some among them who had actually never committed any evil deeds with their own two hands. Many of them had stayed inside the Martial Heaven headquarters, waiting for the moment the Martial Heaven God decided it was time—the day that would spell out the end of the

murim

.

However, that didn't mean that they hadn't committed a mortal sin.

Being part of Martial Heaven, going along with Martial Heaven’s crazy plan, and waiting for that day itself was evil. There was not the slightest doubt in Woo-Moon’s mind; this organization was a calamity and had to be destroyed at all costs.

The group of Martial Heaven warriors reached one zhang away from Woo-Moon.

The Absolute Masters of Martial Heaven thought they would be able to crush him. They had been practicing martial arts by themselves for a long time, waiting for the moment they’d emerge to conquer the world, so they were incredibly happy that they suddenly had a chance to see blood.

Then... Woo-Moon made his final declaration.

“This is the sword that contains the universe. The sword that brings down judgment. All the Myriad Things in the World!"

The three thousand Peak and Transcendent experts and the fourteen Absolute Masters.

All of them opened their eyes so vast that they were almost torn apart. Before their eyes was a sword so vast that they couldn't see it in its entirety.

It was as if the world itself was enveloping them.

And then... there was no “then.”

Shing.

What broke the absolute silence was the sound of Woo-Moon sheathing his sword.

In front of him stood nobody.

"Ugh...

cough, cough

... W-what a terrifying sword."

No, actually, there was one person still standing: the Forgetful King.

“You despicable bastard. You only barely managed to survive by hiding behind that other bastard.”

Indeed, at the last second, the Forgetful King had pulled the Second Attendant in front of him.

The moment Woo-Moon was about to draw his sword once more and take the Forgetful King's life, the thing he had been most afraid of happened.

Someone shouted from behind him, “Stop right there, Song Woo-Moon! You didn’t forget that we have your mother, did you? The moment you make a move, your mother dies!"

Swoosh!

Woo-Moon’s Golden Dragon emerged from the heart of the one who had just spoken before returning to its master.

'Damn it! I thought she would be right next to him.'

He had thought that the one threatening him actually held his mother, and he tried to save her by attacking like a bolt of lightning. However, it turned out that wasn't the case. That bastard had just been standing there alone.

Woo-Moon lowered both hands, gesturing that he wouldn't resist.

Then, another warrior shouted in anger, "This is the last fucking trick you pull! One more move and she’s dead, you get me?"

"I understand. We'll do things your way."

Woo-Moon wracked his brain as quickly as he could, even while surrendering, trying to find a way out of this situation as quickly as possible.

'Fuck.... At this rate, the Martial Heaven God will show up, and there'll be no turning back.'

However, no matter how much he thought, no good ideas came to mind.

In the meantime, the Forgetful King staggered as he walked closer to Woo-Moon.

"

Ke... keke

. Good. In the end... Yes, that's right. You idiots of the

gangho

always end up getting swept up by your emotions...There's no need for such things in the true world of martial arts."

'You fanatic bastards!'

While Woo-Moon cursed inwardly, he did not so much as bat an eye outwardly. His mother’s life was at stake.

If he were to close his eyes right now, he could still see his mother, and he could still feel her warm touch and motherly affection. He could still vividly feel the comfort and warmth he felt inside when he would lay on his mother's lap as she dug out his earwax.[1]

This wasn't about filial piety or whatever other social values. Woo-Moon truly loved his father and mother, and he couldn't bear ever to lose them.

'But if I die, then... what about the gangho? No, forget about the gangho, what about the rest of my family? My disciples? All the people I love?'

The right thing to do was to give up on saving his mother’s life and kill every single person in this compound before fleeing. Then, he could duke it out with the Martial Heaven God when he was ready.

He knew that. It was the logical thing to do.

But his body refused to do it.

He couldn't even move a finger. The moment he tried to move, all he could think about was his mother falling to the ground, bleeding.

'Just, just, just what the hell can I do?!'

Even though he had used Second Attendant Yu Chi-Sang as a shield, the Forgetful King hadn't gotten through Woo-Moon's attack unscathed. He was covered in wounds that would have killed him if he wasn't a Paragon.

However, since he

was

a Paragon, and he was not dead, he was very much recovering. Although Woo-Moon's qi still remained in his wounds and was slowing down his recovery, he was going to be fine, eventually.

And the Forgotten King knew that he had to kill Woo-Moon, even if it meant pushing himself and aggravating his injuries.

'This is my chance. I have to kill Woo-Moon right now, no matter what!'

The Forgetful King walked right up to Woo-Moon, took out a dagger from his bosom, and aimed for Woo-Moon's throat.

Woo-Moon still couldn't move. He was stuck with his thoughts even as death approached.

However, just before the Forgetful King's dagger was about to sink into Woo-Moon’s throat, a completely unexpected voice rang in his head.

—I got Jin-Jin!

***

A few days ago, at the Heavenly Demon Mound.

Sang-Woon dusted off his clothes, which were covered in mud from digging his way out of the rubble.

"Tsk, tsk, to think one of the Eight Heavenly Martial Emperors could fall to this state."

Crack, crack, crack.

As Sang-Woon stretched to relieve his spine, a violent bone-crunching sound rang out of his entire body.

"Ugh. Oh.

Agh.

My back! A man's lifeblood is his back, oh dear."[2]

As he grumbled, Sang-Woon suddenly locked eyes with five people.

"Oho, well met, gentlemen! You must be mountain bandits, am I correct?"

The five bandits, who were trying to grill something to eat, looked incredibly shocked.

“A-are you a ghost?”

“Yes.”

The bandits’ faces turned pale at Sang-Woon’s calm answer.

"L-look. I told you we shouldn't h-h-have come to the Heavenly Demon Mound," one of the bandits stammered.

After the Heavenly Demon Mound collapsed, both Martial Heaven and the Heavenly Demon Cult lost interest in the area. Afterward, the other forces searched for a while to see if there was anything special, only to give up as well after a while.

This place was nothing more than an ordinary ruin now, and these five bandits used it as an occasional hideout.

Sang-Woon’s eyes turned to the bandits’ weapons.

"Looks like there's some blood on your weapons. So, who did you just kill?"

The bandits flinched at his question.

“T-that's not it. This is nothing.”

"We just hunted a wild boar."

Of course, Sang-Woon wasn’t the type who couldn’t tell the difference between pig's blood and human blood. These five bandits had actually killed two people. It wasn’t that the people fought against the bandits or anything; the bandits robbed them, then realized they had too little money and killed them in a fit of anger.

Sang-Woon gave them his signature sly grin.

“No matter how much time passes, you guys are still the same.”

Thud!

As Sang-Woon walked away, circulating his qi, the headless corpses of five bandits were piled up neatly behind him.

As he moved, Sang-Woon organized the enlightenment he had gained from spending so long in the dirt.

'So this is what it feels like to be one with nature... Amazing. But now that I think of it, why does it feel so much like what those assassin bastards do?'

As a result of his enlightenment, Sang-Woon was able to make himself invisible better than even the best of assassins using the best stealth and concealment techniques.

Even if his opponents were far more skilled in martial arts than he was, if Sang-Woon didn’t want to be noticed, then he would not be noticed. Even if they were to look straight at Sang-Woon, they wouldn't notice him. And even if they noticed him, they wouldn't even recognize him as human, much less figure out who he was.

All they would see was the surroundings.

As he strolled into the forest while circulating his qi, Sang-Woon was suddenly struck by an idea of how to use this newfound enlightenment.

‘Martial Heaven’s headquarters. Yup. There’s definitely something good there.’

Naturally, Sang-Woon wasn't aware that Dae-Woong, Jin-Jin, and Gun-Ha had been kidnapped by Martial Heaven. Unlike Woo-Moon, however, he had a good idea where the headquarters was. He had been hunting Martial Heaven members for a while, and he knew the general area.

For that reason, Martial Heaven was out to kill him as well.

Sang-Woon went to the place he had last explored and, in a state of being one with nature, wandered around the area, looking for traces of Martial Heaven.

1. This is normal in Korea. It's a sign of affection. ☜

2. An old precept—a man needs his back to be healthy enough to do the baby-making stuff, hehe. ☜