Chapter 198: Perilous Road (9)

It was the first warm, soft bed Soyak had enjoyed in days.

Though it was still early evening, she had already spread out the bedding and lain down.

The more she thought about lying in a bed at a Buddhist monastery, the stranger it felt.

But the comfort of her body soon swept even those idle thoughts away.

A cup of warm tea and a comfortable place to sleep.

Soyak barely managed to keep her eyes from drifting shut.

She had not even eaten dinner yet.

And it would be rude to let anyone find her asleep without even changing her clothes.

Just then, someone knocked on her door.

Soyak slowly sat up.

She climbed out of bed and opened the door.

“...Been a while?”

It was Seongeung.

Soyak stared at him for a moment, then opened the door a little wider.

“Do you still talk strangely these days?”

“I do not!”

Soyak remembered perfectly well how Gong-eop had once smacked Seongeung on the head.

She remembered exactly how he had acted back then, too.

What she could not guess was why he had come looking for her.

At most...

Had he assumed Cheongak must have come with her?

Apparently that was exactly it, because Seongeung immediately began looking around the room.

Once again, this was a guest room at Shaolin.

If there was something in here Seongeung did not know about, Soyak would not know about it either.

Which meant that if he was searching like that...

“Are you looking for Brother Cheongak?”

“...No? Absolutely not.”

Soyak narrowed her eyes.

Seongeung flinched slightly under her gaze.

He had heard the rumors about her.

A master who had reached middle-stage Transformation Realm.

The merciless hand that had ended Ak Jupae, the Flame-Saber Lord, with a single stroke.

“...Are you sure?”

“I’m really, really not.”

“Then why are you here?”

Seongeung clamped his mouth shut.

Judging by his expression, there was clearly something he wanted to say.

Of course, he was probably curious about Cheongak’s whereabouts and how he was doing.

But there seemed to be something more than that.

Soyak sighed.

“Sit down first. Would you like some tea?”

Even a guest room was not completely bare.

There were decent teacups and a tea caddy filled with properly pan-fired green tea leaves.

Following what Gong-eop had done earlier, Soyak covered the kettle with one hand and began heating the water inside.

Seongeung’s eyes widened.

He was somewhat startled to see Soyak performing a trick he had only ever seen his own Master use.

“When did you learn that...? Did Master teach you?”

“He did not.”

Though if someone demonstrated something once in front of Soyak, it was practically the same as teaching her.

She saw no need to add that part.

The principle was similar to the Samadhi True Flame.

She simply fed internal energy into her palm until just before the point where flames would ignite, creating an effect similar to a blazing yang art.

Unlike an ordinary blazing yang art, however, there was no established mnemonic formula, no formalized forms, no fixed path of technique.

It had to be controlled entirely through concentration.

“Anyway, there’s something I wanted to ask...”

“Why are you hesitating so much? You are already a man entering the room of a woman resting alone.”

“...Huh? Wh-What? You absolutely cannot say that in front of Master!”

Seongeung’s face went pale.

What were the two acts Buddhism condemned most strongly?

Sexual misconduct and killing.

“What exactly are you worried about?”

“Well, because Master might...”

“Gong-eop is not a fool. What exactly could you possibly do to me?”

For a moment, Seongeung’s expression went blank.

Well...

This guest from Mount Hua was a middle-stage Transformation Realm master who had cut down even Ak Jupae, the Flame-Saber Lord, in a single stroke.

If Gong-eop was not an idiot, there was no chance he would misunderstand the situation.

Which meant Soyak had just been teasing him.

Seongeung realized it a moment too late, and his ears flushed red.

“You...!”

“So tell me why you came. It will be time for dinner soon, won’t it?”

“...Well, that’s...”

Soyak sighed again.

She was beginning to grow frustrated.

“Seongeung. If you truly do not intend to say anything, would you mind leaving?”

“...Back then, you came here with the Flame-Saber Lord.”

Only then did Soyak understand why Seongeung had sought her out.

Whatever else might be said, Ak Jupae, the Flame-Saber Lord, had saved Seongeung’s life.

He had...

The right to ask about the death of his benefactor.

The code of martial honor was not the same thing as justice.

Justice concerned the broader principles by which people ought to live together in society...

Martial honor meant settling favors and grudges clearly.

Seongeung might not have been particularly deep or thoughtful, but he understood that much.

“What... happened to him?”

Soyak looked up at Seongeung in silence.

Telling him the truth was neither frightening nor particularly difficult.

But...

It meant opening up something buried deep inside her.

Of course she hesitated.

Seongeung was anxious.

Soyak could guess where that anxiety came from.

In this terrible affair, one of the two had to be the villain.

Was the man who had saved his life an evil man?

Or...

“...He was my enemy.”

“What?”

Soyak decided to tell him the truth.

There was no point hiding it behind lies.

The story spreading through the martial world was simply that she had “executed a traitor corrupted by the Demonic Cult”...

And people were content to gossip over such a vivid, sensational tale.

But Seongeung had thought further.

Why had Ak Jupae, the Flame-Saber Lord, gone to kill Cheon Soyak?

Why had he stormed Mount Hua with that ominous saber drawn?

There had to have been a reason.

The world had dismissed Ak Jupae as nothing more than a madman corrupted by the Demonic Cult...

But Seongeung, who owed the man his life, could not allow himself to do the same.

He had a duty to know.

Whether Ak Jupae had truly gone mad...

Or whether there had been a reason.

“Ak Jupae came to Mount Hua because of me.”

“...What are you talking about?”

“I was the enemy who killed his son.”

Silence fell for a moment.

Soyak poured the heated water over the tea leaves in the teapot.

Only the quiet sound of water falling echoed through the room.

Seongeung looked as though he could not decide whether to believe her.

It was far too grim to dismiss as a joke.

Who would joke about something like that?

But if it was not a joke...

If he was supposed to take her seriously...

“That makes no sense.”

It did not.

It truly did not.

Why had Ak Jupae joined the Demonic Cult?

Naturally, Seongeung knew.

The story had swept through the entire Central Plains martial world at the time.

His dead son’s killer.

He had joined the Demonic Cult in search of clues leading to that enemy.

Some people had understood him.

Most had condemned him.

Some had asked how he could possibly have known the Demonic Cult possessed such information before joining them...

Others had said that no matter the reason, how could he betray the righteous factions and throw in his lot with the Demonic Cult?

And now Soyak was telling him that the enemy Ak Jupae had been seeking was actually Cheon Soyak herself.

Worse still, Ak Seo-il had died long ago.

Before Soyak had even entered the Mount Hua Sect.

“...Don’t lie. That isn’t funny.”

“Does it sound like a joke?”

Soyak slowly poured the steeped tea into Seongeung’s cup.

Seongeung could not find anything to say.

He simply accepted the tea.

Soyak glanced at him and gave a bitter smile.

How many people had she killed by now?

She slowly counted them in her head.

Every one of those deaths would become another thread of favor or vengeance.

The martial world was a place where countless martial artists lived tangled together.

There would be moments like this.

There would probably be more in the future.

“...How did you kill him? No, before that... why did you kill him?”

“Because he was the son of my enemy.”

Soyak slowly took a sip from her own cup.

Seongeung now looked as though he could barely follow the conversation at all.

Even across the rim of her teacup, Soyak could clearly see his eyes trembling.

He simply could not understand what she was saying.

A moment ago, she had said she was Ak Jupae’s enemy because she had killed his son...

And now she was saying Ak Jupae had also been her enemy.

Of course, both could be true.

But Seongeung was still a teenage monk who had grown up in Shaolin without ever getting so much as a drop of blood on his hands.

Such a horrifying possibility...

Had never even occurred to him.

“Your enemy? You mean Elder Ak was your enemy? But you just said it was the other way around...”

“Both are true, Seongeung.”

Soyak slowly set down her cup.

Truth was always cruel.

And at the end of it waited a human hell where gratitude and hatred became hopelessly intertwined.

When they first met, Seongeung had been fifteen.

One year older than her.

Now he was eighteen.

It was about time he learned what the favors and grudges of the martial world truly meant.

That terrible feeling Soyak herself knew so well.

The feeling one could not release even while knowing how horrific it was.

“...Ak Jupae, the Flame-Saber Lord, was the man who annihilated our Flower-Halo Sect under the orders of the Alliance Leader.”