Chapter 115: Too Late for Regret (7)

The inside of the closed-door training cave had been completely torn apart.

A vast reek of blood poured out of it, along with a plum fragrance so thick it made the mind reel.

And inside...

a blood-soaked mass sprayed blood upward, tipped to one side, and collapsed.

THUD—!

From the sound alone, it was obvious that body was not Soyak’s.

Looking more closely, the owner of that headless corpse...

was the Dark Emperor.

Soyak stood in front of it, leaning heavily on her sword, which she had planted into the ground.

That overwhelming stench of blood was coming from the fallen body.

From the severed neck and limbs.

"...Plum Fragrance Without Measure."

Jeonggang murmured softly.

That child had used the ultimate art of the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.

A form allowed only to an absolute master who had reached the Transformation Realm—

only to one who could call forth Sword Force.

"Soyak."

"Yes... Grand Master..."

There was no strength at all in Soyak’s voice.

Even though she knew it was Elder Jeonggang calling her—

even though she remembered the voice that had once patted her back when she hiccupped—

Soyak still could not answer properly.

Jeonggang walked toward her slowly.

So carefully it was almost excessive, as though he meant to make sure not even the breeze stirred by his sleeves would touch her.

When the others started to approach from behind, Jeonggang quietly waved them back.

Do not come.

Blackened blood was running from the corner of Soyak’s mouth.

The cave had been shredded apart by the Plum Fragrance Without Measure she had unfolded with those tiny hands.

But there was one place—

only one—

that had been left untouched.

The place where Zhuge Won, Cheongpyeong, and Jang Yul lay.

That had probably made her internal injuries even worse.

On top of a body already ruined after burning through all of her Innate True Qi...

"...Are you all right?"

"If I was... going to die anyway..."

"Do not speak. I am here now."

Soyak gave a slow nod...

and then collapsed limply to the ground.

Jeonggang caught her and lifted her into his arms.

He sheathed Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge properly and laid it against her as he carried her small body outside.

"...Soyak!"

Eunsong’s eyes widened.

He had never expected her to defeat the Dark Emperor.

But even more than that...

he had never imagined she would go so far as to use Innate True Qi to do it.

"Why... why would you go that far...?"

Zhuge Yeon’s eyes were shaking too.

So were Great Madam Ak Jayeon’s.

This was the child who had just vowed to become the blade of the Reverse Heaven Society.

The child who had sworn she would become the sword that cut down and killed the Sword Sovereign.

And yet...

"If you die, that’s the end."

Soyak muttered it in a small voice.

Eunsong and Zhuge Yeon both sank to the ground where they stood.

Jeonggang stared down at Eunsong for a moment, then sighed and shook his head.

"Set your worries aside."

"But, Great Grand Master. She drew on Innate True Qi. At this level..."

Almost all of it.

At that point, this was no longer a question of a martial artist’s life.

It meant the shortening of her life as a human being.

But it seemed his Great Grand Master had some kind of answer.

Jeonggang narrowed his eyes.

"Eunsong."

"Yes, Great Grand Master..."

"How much do you believe this little girl can grow?"

Not what do you think.

Not what do you expect.

Do you believe.

It was a question of trust.

He was asking for Eunsong’s intuition—his deepest instinct.

"Without fail... she will be able to kill him."

Eunsong answered through clenched teeth.

What good did that do now?

Cheon Soyak had been broken.

She was no longer a sword that could keep its edge.

"Yes. And I cannot."

"...Great Grand Master?"

"Once you have steadied yourself, return to Mount Hua. I will take Soyak with me."

"Where are you going...?"

Jeonggang gave a faint smile.

Then he brushed back Soyak’s hair as she struggled to breathe in his arms.

"The age of old men is nearing its dusk. Is it not the duty of the old to pour oil onto the torch of a new age? I will be at Wudang Mountain. Do not come."

"If Wudang Mountain, then...?"

"I need to see the Medicine Sage."

Medicine Sage Jang Uitae.

He was the very Hua Tuo of the age, the man who had restored Namgung Byeok’s shattered dantian and even reconnected the severed tendons of his limbs.

But even he should not have been able to reverse the loss of Innate True Qi.

And yet if Jeonggang was going to him, then he must have some sort of plan.

Eunsong and Zhuge Yeon bowed their heads where they stood.

"...Please, Great Grand Master."

"I ask the same of you, Elder."

"...I am not doing this to be thanked by the two of you. This little child stood against that vile thing... I simply do not believe the result of such hardship and trial should be a miserable, squalid ending like this. So continue with what you were already doing. I will hone the sword for you."

The sword.

The sword that would break the Sword Sovereign, cut him down, and kill him.

Eunsong and Zhuge Yeon nodded again.

At that moment, Great Madam Ak Jayeon called out to Elder Jeonggang.

"...Mount Hua Sword Emperor."

"Speak. If it is your sons, I saw them with my own eyes. They will be here soon."

"Th-thank you..."

A mother had only one thing to ask about.

And just as he had come, Jeonggang launched himself away again.

Like a crane flying off through the clouds.

*****

"You’re leaving already?"

Jang Uitae asked Namgung Byeok, sounding genuinely disappointed.

Namgung Byeok gave a crooked smile and shrugged.

"Did seeing another person make you start missing human company?"

"Tsk, listen to this man trying to lecture people. I’ve lived twice as long as you have!"

Jang Uitae jabbed his cane at Namgung Byeok as he shouted.

But there was no malice in it.

Namgung Byeok chuckled and answered lightly.

"Don’t lie, Elder. I know you’re only pushing eighty now. I’m already past fifty."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. It’s a figure of speech! The way you keep snapping back like that, you’re not even twenty yet. Not even twenty."

Medicine Sage grumbled as he tapped the ground with his cane.

But again, Namgung Byeok did not simply let himself lose.

Their connection ran far too deep for that.

Medicine Sage and Namgung Byeok were close—close enough to seem almost excessive.

"I’d love for my age to be a little lower. Thanks to you, Medicine Sage, it looks like I might actually get that wish."

"You never let a single word go, do you? Tsk."

Just as that regretful, slightly bitter farewell was about to settle between them,

someone came rushing in from the distance.

At incredible speed.

As though running on the sky itself.

Even from here, they could see the sleeves of white robes streaming in the wind.

Namgung Byeok narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the figure approach.

His hand moved to draw the sword at his waist...

then stopped.

"That’s...?"

"It looks like Mount Hua robes."

Pure white.

And faintly visible on the left breast, crimson embroidery.

The design itself was hard to make out from this far away, but it was clear enough that the robes matched Mount Hua’s.

And that Lightness Art—

look at it.

As though he were treading on clouds.

The closer the figure came, the clearer it became who it was.

It was Jeonggang, the Mount Hua Sword Emperor, one of the Three Emperors beneath the One Sovereign and above the Seven Lords.

"Medicine Sage—!!!"

"Would you look at that bastard, shouting my name like that!"

Jeonggang was sixty-two.

Medicine Sage was seventy-seven.

But of course, the two of them were already close enough to speak freely.

Both were old men of the martial world.

Medicine Sage had reached his heights through medicine.

Jeonggang had reached his through the sword.

Tap.

A moment later, Jeonggang landed hard in front of the cave halfway up the mountain where they stood.

He must have run here at terrifying speed.

For the first time in his life, Jang Uitae saw cold sweat on the Mount Hua Sword Emperor.

"...You’re sweating? From running?"

"That is not what matters right now."

Jeonggang pulled Soyak out from his arms.

Her small body was already drenched in cold sweat.

Her breathing had already weakened until it was barely audible at all...

the blood had drained from her lips until they had turned violet,

and her cheeks were already going pale. ℯℯ𝘭.

Jang Uitae understood instantly why Jeonggang had come to find him.

He had brought him a patient.

Naturally, that meant he wanted her healed.

And Medicine Sage was not the kind of man who refused Jeonggang.

"Lay her down first. I need to examine the symptoms, and then—"

Jeonggang cut him off.

That was unusual.

When it came to patients—and when it came to medicine—Medicine Sage was a genius who came close to Hua Tuo himself.

"There is no need to examine her."

"What?"

"It looks like she burned through all of her Innate True Qi. I came here on the chance that if it was you, you might still be able to do something."

Medicine Sage Jang Uitae’s face went pale.

Because this was bad.

Not because he could not treat it...

but because the timing was wrong.

"Did you not restore a shattered dantian before, and reattach severed tendons?"

"I did, I did. Even now, I can rejoin severed tendons whenever I please, but..."

Medicine Sage pointed behind him.

At the black, rounded silver kettle, with wild ginseng burning beneath it like firewood.