Chapter 22 – Sword of Men (2)

Blood burst into the air. Mae Hong-sung quickly bowed over. As he looked down, he saw a spear in between his legs. He had been attacked, his legs cut right off under his knees. His upper body, having lost its momentum, was slowly leaning forward. It was a situation where it would have been acceptable to curse the Heavens, but he didn’t. Even before he could overcome his shock, his suffered from pain so great it left him speechless. 

“Oahhhhh!”

Searing pain ran through his body, as if it were a fire ant gnawing at his bones. It was a rough and crude pain that could not be expressed as anything but blistering. Mae Hong-sung wanted to get up and protest. But his two legs were cut off, so he could only scream and roll around. 

Looking at him, Woon-seong laughed, revealing his white teeth. Of course, he had a cold smile. 

“God, you brat! How dare you!” Mae Hong-sung screamed like the devil.

Woon-seong was indifferent. “What do you mean?” The boy slowly approached him, spear grasped in one hand. 

Mae Hong-sung’s heart pounded with each step Woon-seong took towards him, each thump louder and louder. In near disbelief, he realized he was trembling. He was afraid of this body, a fear that ran down to the bone. At this moment, he was a lamb at the mercy of a tiger.   

“Damn you!”

Mae Hong-sung tried to crawl away with his arms, but the boy was faster. Woon-seong lifted his feet and stepped on the shoulders of the Sword of Men, squishing him in place without a fuss. 

“We fought and I won. Isn’t one arm and one leg usually cut off in fights like these in the martial world? Did you think we were going to just laugh and shrug it off after a fight to the death?” From the body of the boy, a dark qi was flowing out. Thanks to it, Mae Hong-sung’s anger melted back into dread. “I am the winner, you are the loser. And from now on, I will exercise my rights as the winner.” Woon-seong flipped the man over, feet now planted on Mae Hong-sung’s chest. “Between you and me, there’s no way we could ever just laugh it off.”

Mae Hong-sung once again questioned how he knew this boy. From the first moment, the boy had talked as if they had known each other. Weirdly, he could not erase the feeling of déjà vu either. 

Woon-seong patiently waited for the other to recognize him, he had already thrown the bait. 

“You, are you…Are you the successor of the Spear Master Sect?!”

“Yes, I am the successor of the Spear Master Sect!” Woon-seong chuckled darkly. 

“That’s impossible! The Spear Master Sect is a sole apprentice sect!”

Woon-seong laughed at his cry. “If that’s what you think, that’s good. As I said before, I intend to exercise my rights as the victor.” 

Mae Hong-sung trembled at the coldness of the iron felt under his chin. He could not think properly because of induced fear from the ‘intimidation qi’ and the presence of death. In his mind, there was only fear. Thanks to that, the pain was reduced — funny how true fear dulls all the senses. 

“Let me  ask, why did you attack the Spear Master Sect at that time?”

“What are you talking about?” Now Mae Hong-sung was confused. Everyone knew the answer to that question. “They practiced a vile demonic art that even the lowest and filthiest of the demonic people refuse to touch!”

Obviously, that was not the answer Woon-seong wanted to hear. For such a dumb answer, Woon-seong cut Mae Hong-sung’s left arm off. The severed limb was thrown into the air, tumbling several times before it fell to the floor. 

The boy stood above with a sinister smile. “Do not lie. I know we were framed. Tell me what you know.”

The ‘intimidation qi’ stimulated fear. And fear stimulated the brain. Even if you didn’t think, you could throw out the facts just by being horrified. 

With his eyes flashing like a gold mine, the boy faced him once again. “If you tell the truth, I will at least kill you without pain,” Woon-seong promised. 

With his legs cut off and arms cut off, Mae Hong-sung feared this pain more than his inevitable death. In the end, he had no choice but to spit out all that he knew. “I don’t know, I don’t know anything! That’s all I heard!” He shouted as if he was warding off evil spirits. “I just followed my master’s orders! Our only order that day was to surround the mountain so the master and apprentice of the Spear Master Sect, who learned the ‘Silent Ten Skills of the Demon’, could not run away!”

Woon-seong stared at his eyes and judged. There were no lies in his eyes. This was a man who knew he was already dead, but was afraid of suffering. These eyes could not lie. 

Thus, the boy judged his words as the truth and continued to the next question. 

“Then let me ask something else, why are you here?” Woon-seong increased the pressure of his foot on Mae Hong-sung’s chest, who choked for air. “Why are you fucking around and teaching petty thieves martial arts?”

“Fuck if I know!” Mae Hong-sung shook his limbs, as if in exasperation. Except for one arm, the only things left were up to his elbows and knees, it was a ridiculous sight. Except, Woon-seong was not amused. “I just did as my master told me. I was only told to go and raise them as guerilla forces.”

At that, Woon-seong gave an even colder look.

What are you thinking about? What kind of work was the Sword of Heaven planning in such a remote place? The boy really could not understand. 

In the end, he had obtained no useful information. He had only got revenge on one of his enemies. Am I allowed to be satisfied with this?

Woon-seong stared up at the Heavens, hoping that counting the stars in the sky would help answer his questions. 

As he did so, Mae Hong-sung desperately grabbed at his leg. “Oh please, if the questions are over, kill me as promised!” 

“Why should I?”

“What? You promised! You promised a merciful death!”

Woon-seong nodded in agreement, he certainly had. However, “You aren’t a man worthy of a death like that.” 

The boy extended his hand in place of a spear and pierced the man’s body. 

“Ohhhh!” The man screamed, freakishly twisting his whole body. 

Woon-seong then pressed some other points, forcefully shutting the man up. 

Left to convulse on the floor, silent screams continued to pour from the mouth of Mae Hong-sung. 

What Woon-seong used was a technique known as ‘Crushed Bones and Squeezed Muscles’. It was a bizarre and quite awful sort of torture that had been collected by the Spear Master Sect. Once used, the victim would feel extreme pain up until their death, wishing that they would die already. The one that Woon-seong used at this point was a bit more special. The victim would continuously feel pain and be unable to faint for at least two hours before dying. 

Suitable for the death of an enemy.

Woon-seong watched the scene of Mae Hong-sung pitifully twitching, then turned his back and descended down the hill. 

Sitting before a fire, he brought out a blank book and a brush with ink. 

Although his revenge had just begun, everything was already so frustrating. 

Of course, it could have been worse. With a little less determination, Woon-seong could have died in the Cave of Latent Demons. Even worse, the grudge could have melted away over the years. 

Woon-seong closed his eyes and blew out a breath. 

He had failed to get any information about the others from Mae Hong-sung. What a useless guy. 

Woon-seong wrote the names of all his enemies one by one on this empty book. No, it was not just a book anymore — this was a promise. He vowed to never forget these names and not miss a single one. He would move forward with firm steps. If anything stood between him and his revenge, it would be obliterated. 

With such a pledge written into the book, Woon-seong lifted the brush and drew a line across a name. 

Mae Hong-sung (Sword of Men). 

That one was dead already. The boy was now — officially — a murderer.

At some point in time, he would draw a line over every single name in his book. His revenge was just beginning. 

In the future, this book would be called “Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon”.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Il-Hwang, 일황]

[Translator – betterdays, moonchildkhz]

[Proofreader – Mayank]