Tangmunjeon - Chapter 280



Only Noblemtl

Episode 280: Bloody Life and Blue Clouds

A dull echo filled the surroundings.

Looking at the most powerful Hangryong Shippangjang he had ever seen, Namgung Myung whispered softly to Hyungong.

“You know what? I taught you that Hangryongsippaljang.”

Hyun-gong did not answer Nam-gung-myeong’s story. He thought, “How can a mere warrior of the highest level add such a footnote when a master of the highest level is demonstrating his skills?”

Hyun-gong watched the body of the twin-headed dragon crumble for a moment, and then suddenly felt a prickle on the back of his neck.

Now was not the time to leisurely watch the Honggeolgae fight.

‘Ghost King!’

Hyun-gong opened his eyes wide and turned his head.

But the demon king who should have been there was nowhere to be seen.

‘···?’

Namgung Myung, Jin Hae, and Hyeon Gong looked around.

In the distance, I could see the ghost king running away.

Dang Mu-jin and his party have already seen the ghost king running away three times.

Once when I encountered Hwayeonshinni while escaping from the Demonic Cult, once at Gongdongsan, and now.

The Ghost King is a person with incredibly quick wits, and he doesn’t hesitate an inch when running away. It’s almost as if his body reacts before he even thinks about it.

Jinhae, who discovered the ghost king a little late, shouted.

“That guy, he doesn’t even know shame and turns his back on me!”

“Let’s follow!”

Without saying who would go first, Dang Mujin and his party started running after the ghost king. When they seized the opportunity, they had to definitely cut off his breath.

Dang Mu-jin showed off his amazing talent of throwing a flying wheel while running.

The three flying dragons each drew their own orbits and flew stealthily, aiming for the Ghost King.

However, the Ghost King is a true expert in running away.

There are three virtues that an expert in escape must possess.

Cool determination, quick feet, and finally, a keen sense to watch for threats even as you run away.

The Ghost King was able to expertly detect the flying dragons coming from behind, twist his body and stretch his arms this way and that, and was able to shoot down all three of them.

Even before he ran away, the Ghost King had guessed that the Flying Wheel would fly towards him.

Didn’t the twin bloodline sacrifice his right arm in the common mountain and leave behind the teaching that one must be careful of one’s fate when escaping?

Even the ghost king did not run away along the road.

This was also a judgment worthy of an expert in running away. If you run away along the road, there is a chance that you will be caught by an enemy who appears on the other side.

Instead, the ghost king started running madly up the rugged mountain slope.

“Hey, you idiot!”

Of course, it was a very strange sight for the party. Why were they climbing up the mountainside instead of the wide road?

Even Mt. Giryeon is not an ordinary, short mountain, but a very steep and rugged mountain.

If you climb the mountain like that, it’s obvious that you’ll soon reach a dead end and end up like a rat in a cage.

“Let’s follow!”

Dang Mu-jin and his party followed the ghost king and ran up the mountainside with all their might.

As I ran until I was out of breath, a cliff appeared as expected.

No, it was a bit too subtle to be called a cliff. It was more like something between a sheer cliff and a very steep slope.

But the slope is very steep and steep, so if you jump down from here, you will definitely not be able to recover.

Jinhae shouted.

“Ghost King! Surrender and pay the price!”

But the ghost king made a firm decision. He jumped straight off the cliff, or rather, from a very steep mountainside.

The ghost king ran a little and rolled a little as he headed down the mountainside. Jinhae felt his strength draining away.

‘Is this the end of the chase? We lost the Ghost King, but catching the Ssanggeuk Blood King is a great achievement.’

But Jinhae was the only one who thought that way.

First, Dangmujin and Honggeolgae followed the Ghost King and flew down the mountainside. The two of them went down the mountainside in a clumsy manner that could be compared to the Ghost King.

Following this, Hyeon-gong also flew, and finally, Nam-gung-myeong stood by Jin-hae’s side.

As Jinhae hesitated, Namgung Myeong shouted.

“Jinhae, let’s go!”

“Where? To the afterlife?”

“We must catch the Demon King!”

“That’s stupid!”

“So, you’re not going?”

Jinhae hesitated for a moment. This was because he remembered the subtle yet wonderful story that Hyungong had told him earlier.

Namgung Myung, who somehow accepted that hesitation, grabbed Jin Hae’s arm and threw himself down the mountainside.

Jinhae’s feet were lifted into the air. The hairs on his entire body stood on end.

‘Why on earth would you do something so stupid!’

But the deed has already been done.

Jinhae thought he was desperately trying to keep his balance as he ran down the mountainside, but in reality, he was no different from the others who were half-rolling down.

“Ugh, ugh!”

You seem to grab a slightly protruding rock and then miss it, you try to jump over a sharp rock and get scratched, you seem to find your balance and then lose it again.

I grabbed hold of a small, protruding shrub, but the withered, twisted shrub was pulled out without any strength.

But the really dangerous rocks were desperately avoided by twisting my body.

It was an extremely ugly situation for a martial artist to move in, but there was no need to be concerned. Everyone was going down the cliff like that.

Jinhae felt a small sense of joy even in the midst of the pain. After all, he thought that if he went all the way down like this, he might be able to catch the Demon King.

But the ghost king was an extraordinary author.

“Ugh!”

The Ghost King twisted his body in the air with a loud breathing sound, and performed an extremely strange magic technique.

It was as if the soles of his feet were glued to the slope, and he began to run down the steep slope.

A bizarre sight, as if a person was running while lying on his side. Jinhae and all of the party members were speechless.

Someone shouted.

“That’s, ugh! What kind of divination method is that! Ugh!”

However, there was no one who could follow the ghost king’s method of repentance.

All the group could do was roll around, watching the Ghost King disappear into the distance.

After a little more time, the group was finally able to stop at the bottom of the mountainside.

They were rolling around so loudly that their clothes were tattered like rags. They looked like five beggars.

Jinhae looked at the cliff from which they had jumped and sighed in relief.

It’s a stroke of luck that I made it this far without dying.

‘···I’m glad to be alive.’

My back ached as if I had been beaten with a club. I felt something flowing out from under my nose. I ran a quick glance at it with the back of my hand, and sure enough, there was blood flowing from my nose.

Jinhae endured the pain and raised his upper body.

But unlike Jinhae, Dangmujin and his friends did not get up and just lay there quietly.

They weren’t knocked out, and they weren’t injured more seriously than Jinhae. They could have gotten up if they wanted to. But they were just lying there.

Jinhae looked at the faces of the four men one by one. Dang Mujin, Namgung Myeong, Hyeon Gong, and Hong Geol Gae.

Their expressions were filled with regret, but there was no other negative emotion at all. Rather, they looked a little relieved, or as if it were a very natural situation.

Jinhae pondered for a moment why the group was making such expressions, then emptied his mind.

Whatever it was, it didn’t seem like he would get up and move right away.

‘Hey, I don’t know.’

Jinhae lay down on his bed like the other four and looked up at the sky.

Old fallen leaves softly supported my back, and the warm sunlight shone on my face.

There is ample time to catch one’s breath, but no one is getting up.

Jinhae tried to raise his body first, but then gave up.

After thinking about it carefully, there was no reason for it to happen.

Even if you run off the cliff, it doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to catch the escaped ghost king.

Instead, Jinhae lay still and looked up at the blue sky.

He saw the clouds drifting by. His mind became relaxed, then relaxed to the point of laziness, and then joyful for no reason. Soon, Jinhae burst into laughter.

“Phehheh.”

And I looked back on the past few days.

Everything was good at first.

He started to pursue with a serious expression, fought fiercely, and seized the opportunity to win. Hong Geol-gae even stepped into the next realm. Jin Hae also helped in beating the ultimate master.

A life of tragedy and fierceness. This was the life of a martial artist that Jinhae had heard and thought about while staying at Cheongseongpa.

But the ending was so disappointing. Not only did he miss the Ghost King, but he ended up rolling down a steep mountainside and lying there with his nose bleeding.

Jinhae had never heard of a story about a martial artist like this anywhere. This was not the life of a martial artist or the life of a Cheongseongpa Taoist that Jinhae had imagined.

But somehow I felt like this moment wasn’t so bad.

I liked the stinging pain of being beaten up, and I also liked the leisure of lying down blankly and staring up at the sky.

When he looked to the side, he saw Dang Mu-jin. Jin-hae was worried that this moment would be broken, and asked in a small voice.

“By the way, what happened to that old woman?”

“He was already dead.”

There was a deep sense of regret in Dang Mu-jin’s voice.

Dang Mu-jin let out a thin sigh. The feeling of regret that flew into the air with his long breath and disappeared somewhere.

A soft sigh was more appropriate than a loud lament to commemorate the nameless old woman and to shake off the longing for the vast amount of medical knowledge she must have possessed.

Jinhae also mourned the old woman for a while and then closed his eyes. Even when he closed his eyes, it felt like clouds were passing by under his eyelids.

Jinhae stared blankly at the clouds beneath his eyelids, lost in thought.

What is the life of a martial artist like? What is the life that unfolds before me?

Could the life I imagined while training in Cheongseongpa be the life of a martial artist, that is so tragic and desperate?

Or is this moment of missing the Ghost King and lying down, gazing at the clouds, the life of a martial artist?

“The sun is slowly setting.”

Jinhae opened his eyes while listening to Namgung Myeong’s story.

Before we knew it, a red sunset was approaching from the western sky, taking up half of the sky.

Jinhae gazed endlessly at the scenery of the red sunset blending with the blue sky.

It was such a beautiful sight that it didn’t feel like a human landscape.

The red sunset was an incredibly intense color. And the clouds drifted leisurely, seemingly uninterested in the sunset. Jinhae muttered as he spoke.

“I’ve seen dozens of dead people since I entered Mt. Giryeon. My whole body aches and my hands still tremble. But lying here like this, it feels like the fight I just had just happened is a lie.”

Namgung Myung answered.

“That must be the life of a martial artist. People think that only a bloody life is the life of a martial artist, but when you actually live it, it’s not always like that. People can’t just walk on sticky blood. But you shouldn’t be too afraid of blood. Sometimes, you have to get covered in blood to see things.”

“The life of a martial artist···.”

It was a strange story, but it felt like something he had heard somewhere before. Jinhae listened to Namgung Myeong’s story.

“If you live your life swinging your sword like a rascal, you’ll become a human butcher. But if you run away from a life full of blood, you’ll become a cowardly rascal, a bully. I feel that somewhere between a life full of blood and these dirty, foolish moments, the life of a martial artist lies.”

“What should I call this moment when I fall off a cliff and look up at the sky?”

“well···.”

When Jinhae asked, Namgung Myung thought for a moment and then answered.

“I think it’s romantic to bravely do something stupid if necessary, and then purely enjoy and accept the consequences of failure.”

Jinhae sat up from his seat without realizing it.

Namgung Myung’s story strangely overlapped with the story that Yeong Haja had told him before he started practicing martial arts.

‘You have to be serious. You shouldn’t stray from the path of the sword, but you don’t have to be too attached to the path of the sword.’

‘The path that the swordsman takes is extremely difficult. However, remember that not all paths are difficult, and that even those paths have deep meaning and value.’

Suddenly, Jinhae thought. The thoughts that Yeongheoja left behind in his last moments were not explanations of swordsmanship, but rather, perhaps, they were about life.

A tingling feeling as if I’m about to realize something.

At that time, the sky was divided into red and blue.

The red sunset reminded me of a bloody life.

The deepest conviction that he had to burst his opponent’s heart at all costs came to mind, and the image of Dang Hang-ssang-gwang collapsing and spitting out blood came to mind.

Memories of the fight to the death in the Gongdongpa came to mind. The sight of the martial artists swinging their swords and shouting at each other. The Ghost King, the Ssanggeukhyeolong, and the Tang Mujin party rushing to kill each other.

But as Namgung Myung said, the life of a martial artist cannot always be stained with blood.

The blue sky dyed in the sunset reminded me of the life of a martial artist who had wiped away blood.

This moment of lying down and gazing at the sky has melted into the blue sky.

I remembered the wild flowers along the road that I had seen while going back and forth between Mt. Mudangsan and Gongdongpa.

I remembered the expressions of the long-legged men looking at each other with a slightly ugly and shabby expression, and the image of Dang Mu-jin and his party jumping off the cliff even though they knew it was a stupid thing to do.

But soon Jinhae realized that the sunset sky and the blue sky were not clearly separated, but were gently blended together.

In the meantime, Jinhae saw the life of a martial artist that Yeongheoja had wanted to talk about.

Jinhae jumped up from his seat and picked up his sword.

There was no need to tense up just thinking about the moment when the blood would be washed away.

Sometimes, you have to let go of something and live a little less. There was no need to be consumed by the blind image that the name of a martial artist carries. There is no martial artist who only swings a sword from birth to death. It is so obvious.

Jinhae thought back to Yeongheoja’s thoughts. Jinhae finally gained confidence.

There was no reason to think too hard about it.

In the end, what Young-Heo-Ja told was not a story about the sword of martial arts, but a story about life.

It was a collection of old stories and small insights that the master told to his disciples.

Jinhae’s vision was so narrow that he mistook it all as a metaphor for swordsmanship.

The sword of Jinhae drew a curve. It was not a straight line, but sometimes it gently curved around the surrounding area.

Jinhae’s sword, which had been rattling and spinning around like a one-wheeled cart, slowly began to move forward.

Jinhae’s sword, which had accepted a slightly awkward life, flowed leisurely.

The boundary line where blue clouds and red sunsets intertwine.

The young Taoist was now finally able to fully display the Blue Cloud Red Cloud Sword Technique.

Jinhae mourned his departed teacher for a very long time, dancing slowly to the sword.

Namgung Myung glanced at the sight and was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

*

Deep into the night, Jinhae finally stopped his sword dance and told his group about his enlightenment.

Since he was able to gain enlightenment through the actions of Dang Mu-jin and his group, he thought it would be right to share his enlightenment with Dang Mu-jin and his group.

No, come to think of it, I think Dang Mu-jin and his party may have known about that insight for a long time.

Finally, after finishing all the stories, Jinhae finally finished his story with a relaxed smile.

“Since I became a top-tier master a while ago, I’ve been constantly strangling myself. It was only natural that I couldn’t properly use the Cheongunjeokha Sword Technique that I learned from my master.”

But at that moment, Hong Geol-gae reached out and stopped Jin-hae’s story.

“Wait a minute. There’s a contradiction in your story.”

Jinhae stopped talking and asked Hong Geol-gae a question, wondering if there might be some new insight there.

“Contradiction… What are you talking about?”

Everyone except Hong Geol-gae listened to Hong Geol-gae’s next story. Hong Geol-gae’s story must have contained the enlightenment he gained while reaching the peak of his power.

Hong Geol-gae spoke in a voice full of deep authority.

“From what I’ve felt throughout my life, there are three expressions that can never be true in this world.”

“First. A grown newborn baby.”

“Second. The husband who gave birth to the child.”

“Finally, the climax.”

Hong Geol-gae jumped up from his seat.

And with a voice that seemed to shake the heavens and earth, he shouted with a long sorrow.

“How can a master of the highest level be a master?”