Chapter 202: Perilous Road (12)

Dreams were not something one could freely choose to have.

Nor could one freely choose to wake from them.

But for a master of the Transformation Realm, a dream was little more than a world within the mind.

Soyak slowly opened her eyes.

Circulation practice alone could not erase fatigue completely.

Reaching the Transformation Realm did not transform a person’s flesh into internal energy.

Sleeping properly for the first time in a while had left her body more relaxed...

But not her mind.

“...Haa.”

Soyak slowly sat up.

Cold sweat covered her forehead and back.

She was used to it.

She wiped her forehead with the damp cloth she had prepared before going to sleep.

When she opened the wooden shutters and looked outside, the sun was already rising beyond the mountain ridge.

Morning had passed by a little.

She was already halfway to her destination, so there was no need to hurry...

Yet for some reason, Soyak had a feeling it would be better not to linger here.

And at the center of that feeling was Seongeung.

He would undoubtedly be curious about what had happened between her and the Flame-Saber Lord...

And she had yet to learn whether he could keep his mouth shut.

Of course, Great Master Gong-eop would make sure he did.

Not merely because they were close.

If a Shaolin warrior monk went around spreading the private affairs of someone he had questioned...

It would be no different from branding all of Shaolin as a nest of loose tongues.

The sunlight pouring through the shutters grew steadily brighter.

It was about time to leave.

Mount Song was not her final destination. There was little reason to remain any longer.

Soyak slowly began packing.

There was one thing she needed to decide.

Should she put her Mount Hua martial uniform back on?

Or continue wearing the ragged clothes that made her look little better than a wanderer?

Soyak sighed and chose the Mount Hua uniform.

Her disguise had already been seen through by a Beggar Union disciple on the road.

Anyone with less discerning eyes than that would hardly pose a threat to her in the first place.

And anyone dangerous enough to matter would probably possess eyes sharp enough to see through it anyway.

Soyak changed into her clean martial uniform and stepped out of the room.

It was time to take to the road again.

******

“You’re leaving already?”

When Soyak went to bid farewell to Monk Gong-eop, he put on his shoes and came out to see her off.

It did no good when she told him there was no need.

Apparently, letting a guest leave alone was simply not proper hospitality.

“The longer I stay, the longer I impose on you.”

“Shaolin would never consider it an imposition, no matter when you came or how long you stayed, Benefactor.”

A faint laugh escaped Soyak at Gong-eop’s words.

But the corners of her mouth did not rise.

If anything, the bitter future she could already imagine filled her with sorrow.

Once she openly set herself against the Sword Sovereign...

Once she led the Reverse Heaven Society, declared the Martial Alliance the root cause of the problem, and called for its destruction...

Every renowned sect and household in the martial world would have to choose.

Which side would they stake themselves on?

Life was ultimately an endless succession of choices.

That did not change simply because one happened to lead others.

A single wrong choice could cast every dependent under one’s roof out onto the streets.

A single wrong choice could...

Bring about horrific consequences.

Sometimes, even a choice that had not been wrong at all.

When that time came, what would Shaolin do?

Whose hand would Great Master Gwanggyeong, the Abbot, raise?

And what would Monk Gong-eop and Monk Seongeung choose?

When that day came, would she still...

Remain a guest who could come to Shaolin whenever she wished and stay for as long as she liked?

Soyak let out a quiet sigh.

Then she looked up at Gong-eop.

“Monk.”

“Yes, Benefactor?”

“After I leave, go speak with Monk Seongeung. Hear what he has to say.”

“Pardon?”

Gong-eop blinked.

It was exceedingly rare for someone to openly tell another person to investigate them behind their back.

But Soyak wanted Gong-eop to make his choice only after he had heard the full truth.

Whether he chose to stand with her...

Or not.

“I mean exactly what I said. If you still feel you don’t know enough afterward, you may ask the Beggar Union about me as well.”

“...Benefactor Soyak. I am not that kind of man.”

“I know. That’s precisely why I’m telling you this. Once I give you permission, it stops being an investigation behind my back. I think you need to know more about me, Monk Gong-eop. Including the... less admirable parts.”

Gong-eop shook his head.

Then he quietly looked down at her.

“I trust you, Benefactor Soyak. You are a good person.”

“Do you know that I was born under the Heavenly Killing Star?”

“...You were?”

Gong-eop’s eyes widened.

Not many people knew Soyak was a Heavenly Killing Star.

Of course, everyone at Mount Hua probably knew.

And anyone who had investigated her even a little might know as well.

But at Shaolin?

Perhaps Great Master Gwanggyeong, the Abbot, knew.

Gong-eop, however...

The Little Divine Monk Gong-eop was almost foolishly upright.

He judged only by what he saw with his own eyes, heard with his own ears, and felt in his own heart.

That was why he did not investigate others.

One could call it an admirable refusal to be swept along by the currents of the world.

Or one could call it a vulnerability to the world’s cunning.

At the very least, Soyak wanted Gong-eop to know the truth about her.

So that if he ever chose her side, he would not later feel that he had been deceived.

“Yes.”

“...That does not make me think poorly of you.”

“I... killed a blood relative of the man who murdered my parents, willingly, to take revenge on him.”

“...Benefactor.”

Gong-eop called to her quietly.

Then he looked into those deep black eyes.

Soyak stared back at him with the same expressionless face.

Within those black pupils—within that endless abyss, that darkness with no visible bottom—Gong-eop saw something.

It was...

Soyak’s hatred of herself.

She did not hesitate to spill blood for the sake of avenging her parents...

And the more corpses piled into mountains and blood ran in rivers, the more fully her innate nature awakened.

She hated that part of herself.

Gong-eop released a long sigh and pressed his palms together.

“Benefactor.”

“Yes, Monk.”

“You said you were born under the Heavenly Killing Star. Have you ever killed anyone simply for amusement?”

“...There have been plenty of people I wanted to kill.”

Gong-eop fell silent for a moment.

Then he slowly shook his head.

“But you did not act on those desires.”

“...No. But I...”

“You mean to tell me that you were the one who killed Ak Seowon, the Flame-Saber Lord’s son?”

Even Gong-eop could not be completely ignorant of rumors circulating through the martial world.

And Ak Seowon’s death had caused an enormous stir at the time.

Ak Jupae had nearly lost his mind over it.

Just now, Soyak herself had said that she had killed a blood relative of her parents’ enemy in revenge.

And to avenge his son...

Ak Jupae had entered the Demonic Cult.

After entering the Demonic Cult, Ak Jupae had gone to Mount Hua...

And died in a one-on-one battle with Soyak.

It was not difficult to piece together the truth from the clues he had been given.

Still...

There was one thing Gong-eop wanted to ask.

“Did you truly just come across Commander Ak Seowon on the road, rush at him without cause, and stab him with your sword?”

“...No.”

At the time, Soyak had been traveling from the Gwak Household toward Mount Hua with her Master, Eunsong.

And that village...

Was being exterminated merely because one martial artist from the Reverse Heaven Society had been born there.

Nor were they being granted merciful deaths.

The villagers had been locked in place so the entire village could be burned with them still alive.

Soyak had confronted Ak Seowon to stop that atrocity...

And in the end, she had killed him.

“I won’t ask what happened. But the Benefactor Soyak I know is not someone who kills without reason.”

“...After I cut him down, I felt nothing. No fear. No guilt. Do you still trust me?”

Gong-eop quietly nodded.

“In Buddhism, killing karma is considered a grave sin. From a monk’s perspective, very few people in this world truly commit a crime deserving death. But... you are not a Buddhist. And at the time, you had not even become a Daoist yet, had you? Besides, in this brutal martial world, who can live an entire life without staining their blade with so much as a drop of blood?”

“...Monk.”

“You think far too highly of my goodness, Benefactor Soyak. Do you truly believe my fists have never been stained with blood?”

Only then did Soyak understand.

The Little Divine Monk Gong-eop...

Was someone who understood her.

“Whatever else may be true, you are the benefactor who saved my disciple’s life. I would rather you did not think me the sort of man who could forget such a debt.”