Translator: Cuties Editor: Sasha
3.
The world as they knew it was collapsing, yet the two Righteous and Demonic sect people had no intentions of stopping their war.
This alone was enough to render me speechless, but… There was a separate scene that was even more shocking.
It was the scene of the two fighting.
“The scholar does not cover his brush, and the warrior does not cover his sword.”
The Heavenly Demon said to the Murim Lord.
The wooden stick was still in her hands.
“Although the great me is only holding a wooden stick upon forgetting to bring a sword, I can still send an old man like you beyond the yellow river.”
“Come on then!”
The Murim Lord held his cane and shouted vehemently.
“Let’s fight for the last time and determine who will lead the Righteous and Demonic sects once and for all!”
Thus the two Righteous and Demonic sect people clashed.
Perhaps the term “confrontation” was a little too much.
The two people’s tactics were nothing more than mere drabbing.
“Heavenly Demon Limbo (天魔君臨步)!”
[T/N: Basically the leader of the demonic cult. Cheonma is the heavenly demon]
“Huh! Sky Piercing Yellow Moon!(黃M破天)!”
The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Sect Lord faced off with fairly specious words. But that was all there was to it.
What the two people had in their hands were only wooden canes, and the sound of them clashing was rhythmic and cheerful.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Their canes broke even before the climax of their fight. Then the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Lord rushed at each other, with a fierce glare in their eyes. The Heavenly Demon caught the Murim Lord’s beard, and the latter grabbed her by the hair.
I was speechless.
“What the hell is this…”
And then it got more interesting.
With all of us dumbfounded,
-Oh, that’s weird.
Bae Hu-ryeong gave an unusual response.
-They’ve got the right posture. Those guys.
‘What?’
-They’re breathing properly with correct movements. Even in my world, they’d be considered masters.
I looked at the duel again. The Murim Lord was about to poke the eyes of the Heavenly Demon, and the latter was hurriedly covering her face with both hands.
‘Those two?’
-You don’t know that fundamental principle? That Divine Dragon’s claw poking the eyes is trying to steal the Vile Dragon’s pearl can be called Two Dragons Fighting for a Pearl (雙龍爭 珠). And that one defending his face can be assimilated to Buddha covering the faces of the humankind and can be called Thousand Sound Observing (千式親音)…
[T/N: the first one refers to a Chinese myth where fairies were bathing in the heavenly pond and got attacked by demons but were rescued by 2 dragons. When the Queen heard of this she bestowed them a precious pearl that would grant them immortality and ultimate cultivation. None of the 2 Dragons ever gave up the pearl for the sake of the other and so they kept trying to snatch it from the other’s claws eternally.
The second is a Buddhist belief that Buddha Listens to the sufferings of 1 000 people at once and answers them by covering their eyes. The meaning of the closed eyes in Buddhist philosophy is a conception that one is not exposed to the evil around. Hence, one doesn’t indulge in any kind of crime. One remains immune to villainous acts and thus protected from all kinds of misgivings and ill-fortunes as a result.
(Face covering = closing eyes = relief from suffering) ]
Thus went Bae Hu-ryeong’s explanation.
I raised one hand to block the last of it.
‘But why are they having a dog fight in such a sloppy manner?’
-That’s why it’s weird. If they’ve reached that stage, they should follow the flow of qi, so they should be filled with righteousness.
It’s because they don’t have any energy in their movements, that’s why they cannot summon a single flex of Aura and were flailing their arms in that slovenly manner. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been like that if their Dantians were crushed…
Seeing Bae Hu-ryeong constantly tilting his head, I thought of one possibility.
Perhaps the only possibility.
‘You’re just making fun of me, Sword Emperor, aren’t you?’
-Hey, you zombie. I’m not some kind of a sicko, I don’t joke around with stuff like this.
The Sword Emperor smacked me.
-No, damnit, can you really not see that? of all things I had to go into closed-doors cultivation and draw out my form and thought with my drained aura. Tsk tsk. well, I guess that’s why I needed you in the first place…
Spending many years behind closed doors cultivation upon fighting the Devil King of Fall Rain was only natural. Anyway, the Sword Emperor was serious.
And there was one more serious person.
“That old woman… she’s pretty good.”
The Poisonous Snake was squinting his eyes.
“That bite is following the principle of the Jiwangsa, and that arm strike follows the principle of Onwolyong.”
-Heeya, he says he’s “real,” but I guess a warrior is still a warrior. Yes, like a giant snake biting the King of the Earth, and then going on with a dragon-like skin. Did you see that zombie? Unlike you, I have eyes that see through everything.
I went through the Venomous Snake’s thoughts silently
Chen Mu-mun Master was seriously thinking with his arms folded.
「If I were to analyze it with my [Unrivaled under the heaven] skill… I’d say it’s right.」
「Those movements could also be explained as [It’s good to be born as a hell‘ji’hound (Cerberus) and keep the gates of the Demon King‘wang’ castle, but both sides were the rebirth ‘sa’ of the troublemakers and the class president, so I’m the one stuck between them] And [the hero of the ‘on’line game, a male high school student along with his younger classmates who skipped a grade‘wol’ and a popular cartoonist, has decided to be a true warrior‘yong’]. I’m sure.’
[ T/N: Jiwangsa and onwolyong appear in the hangul of the previous sentence]
The Sword Emperor was dumbstruck.
The unknown Alchemist tilted her head.
“Is… is that so, Lord? It just looks like a little fight between young kids…”
“Fuck. If it could be clear to anyone then what’s the difference between the master and the follower? It’s only obvious to the eyes of people like me.”
「Oh, my God. Just how many skills do they hold? At this rate, those two are above the Sword Saint grandpa. 」
「I feel like I’m going to level up just by looking at them. I got things to teach my disciples when I go back」
Eum.
‘Sword Emperor.’
-Yes, zombie…
‘All rivers meet in the ocean, right? There’s a lot of formulas to come up with the same answer. That’s the point of martial arts.’
-Yes, thank you…
Fortunately, this strange scene in which the Murim Lord and the Heavenly Demon were having a dogfight, the Emperor of Light novels coming to a realization while watching that, and above all, this strange scene in which I consoled the Sword Emperor, did not last long.
“Achoo! Aigoo I’m freezing to death!”
The Medicine King screamed.
“Hey, you bastard and wench! How long are you going to be fighting? Can’t you see us in front of you? Tsk tsk, look look, what a narrow-sighted pair! You’re just like young children, exactly like young children!”
They stopped at the Medicine King’s deafening roar.
The Murim Lord scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed face.
“Well, we haven’t had a visitor in a long while. Surely this is not the proper behavior to exhibit.”
The Heavenly Demon also coughed awkwardly.
“For now, I will guide you to the cave, where the great me is staying.”
4.
It wasn’t long before the dark clouds cleared up. I no longer needed Shiny to light the way.
The zombies were again as hard as stone in the sun, and we were able to escape the snowfield safely.
“Huff, huff….”
“Oh… haah…!”
However, the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Lord. The poor physical strength of the two people was a hindrance.
The two of them were obviously not ordinary Righteous and Demonic sect people, but the heads of the Demonic Cult and the Righteous Cult. They were the ones who had to show off that they had this world’s most powerful martial arts. The Sword Emperor and Chen Mu-mun Master even guaranteed their military service through different arguments.
And yet somehow… The two people were totally out of shape.
They were gasping for breath even though they had only walked a little in the snow.
“Uhm.”
I said discreetly because I couldn’t stand seeing it.
“Can I give you a piggyback, if you don’t mind?”
“Plea, please. It’s not easy to practice Mind Control (心法) today.”
In the end, as I did earlier, I carried the Heavenly Demon, and the Venomous Snake carried the Murim Lord.
The Venomous Snake said solemnly.
“Death King. That’s not right.”
“What?”
“This is how it should be.”
“It is only right this way.”
“Yes…”
I didn’t have the strength to argue, so I decided to go along with it.
It was then.
‘Huh?’
I was seized by a strange feeling as I was carrying the Murim Lord and walking.
‘It’s strange.’
Bae Hu-ryeoung tilted its head.
-What’s weird?
‘He feels warm.’
-Hm?
‘…His body feels very warm. But isn’t the weather so cold now? If we don’t use our Aura we’ll freeze. But he’s so warm.’
-…….
The Sword Emperor looked thoughtful and silent. I followed his example and was lost in thought.
Is he protecting his body with his Aura just like we’re doing? But why didn’t I feel a single speck of internal energy from his attacks in the battle that just took place then?
‘What is it? Things don’t add up.’
Something was strange.
But as I was failing to notice exactly what was strange, we crossed the snowfield.
“This is the home of the great me.”
The cave that the Heavenly Horse pointed at was not far from the snowfield.
There was a wide hole in the ceiling, and the glow of the sunset poured in.
“Wow….”
The Alchemist’s mouth was wide open with shock. Her eyes glistened over the frosted spectacles.
“I-It’s a hot spring, isn’t it?”
There was an open-air bath in the cave.
A deep pond had settled on the bottom of the cave. Water vapor rose from the surface of the pond. The natural hot spring was supposed to overcome the freezing cold and warm the surroundings with the consolation of sunset. With the hot spring flowing down, I thought it was a beautiful sight.
“The great me had found it a long time ago.”
The Heavenly Demon smiled like she was glad.
“I didn’t expect to welcome strangers from the Sae-Wae as guests. Wash first. I’ll look for food to serve you in addition to drinking water with that oldie.”
“Huh. Is there anything else we can serve other than energy bars?”
“Didn’t I say let’s go look for something? Old man, are your ears deafening as you age?”
“Old man, old man, old man,… you always call me that, but if you look at it, there’s not much age difference between you and me!”
“If you’re offended, then you should’ve also grown some wisdom instead of getting old in vain.”
The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Lord wobbled away to the other end of the cave.
We stayed in the hot springs and looked at the two with curious eyes.
“Th, that’s amazing. They were engaged in a life-or-death battle just a while ago…”
They had been fighting for three years. There must be some affection or respect they grew for each other while fighting.”
The Medicine King grumbled.
“But it’s warm and nice around here. Eey. As soon as I came to this world, I was so embarrassed to hold a man’s hand. Now get away from me a little, Chemu-mun Master.”
“How did the Sword Saint become friends with someone like you?”
“Oho! Get your facts right. I allowed Marcus to become friends with me!”
“What the… Well, I guess you and the Sword Saint are both weirdos. Frick, you’re two of a kind.”
So we went into the open-air bath and took a rest.
After we finished taking a bath, the two Righteous and Demonic sect people served us food.
“Well, I don’t think we have any other food to serve you.”
“It’s an energy seed. Eat lots.”
What the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Lord served us were kernel beads. It was Hwan (九).
/* T/N: Hwan is a round medicinal pill that is made from natural substances. */
It looked like Cheongsimhwan, but the grain was a little bigger.
/* T/N: Cheongsimhwan is a medicine that clears a person’s heart. */
“Once upon a time, I could hunt prey like a wolf. These days, animals are so hard to see, let alone catch. I don’t even know how the world came to be like this.”
“No, thanks for your hospitality.”
I received the plate politely. It had been three years since the world collapsed. There’s no way there’d be any other type of food around.
Our party carefully nibbled at the Hwan.
“Blegh!”
“Ugh.”
The Venomous Snake and the Medicine King had a constipated face on. I almost coughed, too. The old beans tasted raw. They could barely be considered as food.
“You haven’t really been surviving on this, have you…?”
The Alchemist picked up the Hwan and looked around as if she were amazed.
“Almost so.”
“For, for how long?”
“Uhm.”
The Heavenly Demon stared at the cave wall. The wall was inscribed with numerous calendar markings. Perhaps the two had kept track of the date one stroke a day when they began to live in this cave.
“It’s been more than two years since we’ve been eating only the Hwan.”
“2 years…”
The Alchemist was speechless. Two years… They said they had eaten only grains for two years.
The Alchemist groaned as if it was difficult for her to understand this.
“Th-That’s ridiculous. Then you won’t be able to get proper nutrition. Without proper coordination of sugars and lipids, proteins, and vitamins and minerals, the human body…”
“Hmm? I don’t know what you mean, but it’s still edible.”
“I can’t stand it!”
The Medicine King shouted back.
Standing up suddenly, the Medicine King took something out of his pocket. He pulled out all sorts of things, like burners, meat, seafood, and so on.
“Watch and learn, you idiots! Tch tch, you don’t even have the energy to cross the snowfield. You not thinking about your bodies is the same as when I was young. Is there any water?”
“Oh, the water, we melt snow and drink it, or once in a while, when the sun shines for a few days in a row, water runs through the stone in there….”
“It’s driving me crazy. It’s driving me crazy. 70% of the human body is water, but you drink that kind of water occasionally. You need to drink water that is full of minerals…”
The Medicine King, who set fire to a burner, took out bottled water and poured it into the pot.
The Alchemist was surprised to see the bottled water.
“You’re using Bling H2O, aren’t you? That expensive thing…”
“What’s so expensive about this? It’s good for cooking, so I just use it. When I was outside the tower, I couldn’t even see water. Tch tch, if it weren’t for Marcus…”
The Medicine King tilted his head over the cooking pot that he pulled out of nowhere.
-Hey zombie. What’s a Bling H2O?
‘Well, maybe it’s like Evian.’
-What is Evian? Is that some kind of Elixir of Life?
‘What’s an Elixir of Life?’
-There’s this crazily expensive water.
Then it must be similar.