A powerful force that could not be resisted descended upon Lim Joon.
As if his windpipe were being tightly squeezed shut, Lim Joon’s face turned pale.
‘Despite putting everything I had into that burst of energy…! Even that was blocked…?’
Cutting through steel is what a blade’s energy does, and cutting through that blade’s energy is what pure energy does. In short, unless it was energy of the same kind or greater mastery, it couldn’t be stopped.
The exclusive domain of supreme martial artists. That was pure energy.
‘Co, could this be defensive pure energy…? Even then, the rebound force just now, what was that…! Damn it, how can I possibly break through this predicament…!’
Even as his life was threatened, he desperately sought an escape plan. Realizing Lim Joon’s thoughts, Byul Rak stopped attempting to snap his neck and instead slammed it into the floor.
BOOM!
“Keh!”
“Are your thoughts on the brink of death merely about your well-being?”
Byul Rak growled at Lim Joon, who was struggling to draw breath.
“At the very least, if you’re human…! No, even if you’re not human, but a beast…”
Lim Joon retorted, receiving that ferocious and evil aura head-on.
It was an instinctual action, like flailing in defense when one’s life is threatened.
“Th, then what exactly do you expect me to do!? White Blade Wanderer, you start a slaughter without even giving a reason…”
At that moment, the last thread holding Byul Rak’s mind snapped. Byul Rak, mounting Lim Joon who was sprawled on the ground, grabbed his collar and shouted.
“You’re wrong! You should have apologized to the children you captured! That’s the very least you should have done!”
His face was horribly contorted. Lim Joon’s mind swirled in confusion. The giant’s anger made his heart palpitate violently and coarsely.
‘They saw those children…! Damn it!’
“I, I had no choice! Damn it!”
“What?”
“I had no choice! To satisfy the desires of those beastly brats, I had to capture even war orphans and use them like that! If not, dozens of vile men would gather and do some unspeakable deeds!”
Lim Joon pointed with his finger at the pile of headless corpses.
Byul Rak smiled bitterly as if it were absurd.
“Nonsense.”
“Weren’t the maids who prepared your meal tonight also among them? If there hadn’t been those children, they wouldn’t have existed! The maids would have been targeted by those filthy bandits’ desires! There wouldn’t have been delectable meals either!”
“Don’t grovel and make excuses! What’s the difference between yielding to such desires and beasts!”
“They were individuals caught in an environment where they couldn’t grow up any other way! All I could do as their leader was to minimize the harm they would incur! If we left them be, they would have gone down to the village and violated women. What would you do then if the imperial army were summoned?”
“There’s no such environment in this world! The reason humans are human is because they maintain their morality no matter what difficulties and hardships they face! It’s merely the excuse of a cowardly failure who has fallen to their desires!”
Roaring coarsely, Byul Rak recollected his own past.
The past he realized not too long ago, at Mu Cheon Valley.
“Something that blooms like a flower among blood and violence, that’s what it means to be human. You, who aren’t even as much as a beast.”
“Hah! So virtuous, aren’t you. Screw you, I didn’t touch those kids, so don’t mistake that. Everything I said to you was the truth, and I still feel sympathy. If you’re going to punish me, punish me differently from those beasts! Don’t lump us together with your subjective judgment!”
“…Do you feel sympathy, you bastard?”
“Not long ago, your hand did something, didn’t it?” muttered Lim Joon, looking into Byul Rak’s hand. The one which had just been squeezing his neck. “What the hell did you do to me?”
“I asked you. Why did you stand idly by? I’m asking the reason why you condoned the behavior of the bandits and let them go unchecked.”
“What the hell do I gain by doing it? Those kids are far less useful than faithful bandits.”
“Hmph, I knew your master, the venerable owner of the Green Forest.”
The mention of the Green Forest owner by Byul Rak changed Lim Joon’s expression.
Lim Joon, known for respecting and revering the Green Forest’s Great Sage.
“Is there some relationship between you, White Blade Wanderer, and our master?”
“The Green Forest’s Great Sage I remember was a righteous hero. He robbed corrupt officials to give to the poor, opposing tyranny. It was his uprightness that led him to teach you the martial arts.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
“That’s the righteousness of bandits, and the difference between ordinary bandits and ‘Green Forest’. Why do countless heroes flock under the Great Sage of Green Forest’s banner? Is it merely because he’s strong? No, it’s because he’s a hero, a chivalrous man who bears the heart of a thief!”
“…”
That was a humbling remark for Lim Joon.
As the foremost disciple of the Green Forest Great Sage, Lim Joon has lived trying not to tarnish his master’s name. That’s why he specifically brought in unnamed children and locked them away in a place without even a glimmer of light.
However, people are more adept at denying and excusing their own faults than admitting them.
“The times have changed.”
“The times,”
“Righteousness? Do you think you can survive in this harsh martial world with such softness?”
“Tch, we can’t communicate.”
“The martial world of the time when your master was active was an era of romance. People lived in poverty, but their hearts were rich, and deep within everyone’s hearts lay righteousness and chivalry. I know that too.”
“Then, if you know that, why?”
“But after ten years of the Blood War, that era is over. People’s hearts have become savage, and those who should not have lost have started to unearth their ugly side deep within their hearts. That’s the present era. A weak world where chivalry cannot survive.”
“Don’t undermine the world. This world is by no means at your level.”
“Chivalry has become a crude joke in this era, the present martial world.”
“…”
Trying to argue back, Byul Rak soon gave up and raised a fist.
Meaningless discourse is meaningless. It’s because our perspectives on the world differ.
What’s needed now is punishment. The thunder of the heavens.
Byul Rak, with a fist raised above Lim Joon’s head, said,
“Is that your belief?”
“If… so, what will you do?”
“Just like you let children be sacrificed due to your beliefs, I’m going to punish you based on my beliefs.”
“My belief is nothing special. I simply pick up and dispose of trash when I see it along my way. Conveniently, your mountain camp happened to be in my way today.”
“Hurry, kill me already. If you’re going to kill me anyway.”
Lim Joon closed his eyes in resignation. Although he had said all he wanted to say in the face of death, his fear remained the same.
He earnestly hoped that he would be quickly killed to feel less pain.
“Master! Master!”
However, as it had always been, the world favors neither good nor evil but the ‘strong’.
“Here, there’s some goldwater! This seems extremely precious!”
In this situation, the strong one was Byul Rak.
“Ah, wait! That is…”
“Goldwater? Ah, was that what you were bathing in just now?”
With the memory of Lim Joon’s actions, Byul Rak smiled and spoke.
“You wanted a quick death? No, I can’t give you that because I’m not a utilitarian like you.”
“Master! What should we do with this goldwater? Should we take it with us?”
Rejecting Hong Ryun who had come bearing the bathtub on her head with cheer, Byul Rak responded.
“No, bring it here. I need it urgently.”
“Here it is! By the way, I already spread oil throughout the mountain camp! Just a spark will turn this place into an inferno! Of course, there will be no trace left!”
“You go ahead and set it on fire. I’ll be fine here, so don’t worry about that. Set it on fire big enough to burn everything away.”
After Hong Ryun sent a worried glance and nodded, she left. She left behind the bathtub filled with goldwater.
To her, as a martial assassin who took orders as a given, Byul Rak’s command was absolutely authoritative.
After Hong Ryun left, the mountain fortress was soon engulfed in flames. The grand tent in the center of the mountain fortress where the feast had just taken place was no exception.
In the heat that thoroughly filled the surroundings, Byul Rak approached Lim Joon, holding the golden bathtub in one hand. Lim Joon’s legs were bound by an unknown technique used by Byul Rak.
“When people die, they undergo reincarnation. Their species in their new life is determined by the karma they accumulated in life.”
“…What are you planning?”
“Karma and merit are all settled at that time. Even for abysmal beings like you.”
“…”
“But I absolutely cannot bear the sight of you getting a new life. What if the children you killed meet you in the afterlife? I’m incredibly afraid of that.”
“Since I have to go to the afterlife anyway, I’ll go without resistance. If that’s your intention, I’ll accept it gladly.”
“Not that, quite the opposite.”
Byul Rak flicked his fingers lightly. Simultaneously, Lim Joon’s two round pupils were pushed out of their sockets by an unseen force. A small amount of blood was expelled.
PUHAK!
“AAAHHH! AAAAAHHH!!”
“Don’t dramatize it. The children who were used by you departed feeling hundreds of times the pain you’re feeling now.”
“Just kill me! If you’re going to kill me, just do it! Why the hell are you playing games? Just smash my head like you do with others!!”
“… Quite the opposite.”
Instantly losing his vision, Lim Joon, lying face down, clutched the empty holes and screamed. Like a pig being led to slaughter, he cried out desperately and thrashed around.
Byul Rak approached him closely. Though Lim Joon couldn’t see him, he could sense his presence nearby.
“Damn it! Would it hurt to just kill me? What are you planning to do now!?”
Just then, something hard and sticky began to enter Lim Joon’s ‘holes’.
“UUUGH! UUUUUUGH!”
It was an extremely horrific sensation. The feeling of something entering where it shouldn’t. His entire body screamed in agony, convulsing wildly.
However, Byul Rak’s punishment was as absolute as the disparity in their martial prowess. The golden stream Byul Rak created using his internal energy was poured into Lim Joon’s seven orifices.
“UUUUUGH!! S, stop…”
“When people die, the soul escapes through these seven orifices.”
The nostrils, mouth, ear holes, and eyes. The seven openings on a human’s face.
Each of these crucial openings, whose absence would cause fatal issues, was being filled with a thick golden liquid, slowly and gruesomely.
‘Sh, what the hell kind of guy is this!’
“If I block these openings, your soul will wander the earth endlessly, even after death.”
“UUUUGGGHH!! UUUUGGHHH!!”
The overwhelming sensation filling him to the brim combined with the heat spreading throughout his body, further amplified by the fierce flames roaring nearby, escalated Lim Joon’s despair and fear.
DROPSplash!
After enduring a prolonged torture with the golden fluid, the bathtub eventually emptied. Lim Joon’s seven orifices were completely filled.
Byul Rak fortified the filled openings with an internal energy barrier, sealing them tightly. Despite desperately clawing at his face, the barrier was far too strong to be penetrated.
“Burn thoroughly in this fire until you’re completely annihilated. Along with your soul.”
The flames drew closer. Lim Joon, incapacitated without the use of his legs, could only sense the impending doom through touch, unable to see or hear anything.
“………!! ……!!”
Silent screams and wails echoed through the chaotic feast grounds. Byul Rak turned and walked away, laden with a heavy heart.
Just then, the support pillar holding up the tent collapsed, consumed by the flames, and the burning fabric fell onto Lim Joon’s body.
Byul Rak glanced back momentarily.
“You’ve always been so fond of gold, and now you’re disappearing after being filled with gold. A fitting end.”
And with that, he strode through the mountain fortress enveloped in flames.
While carefully praying for the peaceful repose of the innocent children who should have already been guided to the paradise by the spirit guides—
