WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈
Chapter 19: Chapter Three - Companions, Ghost Valley (4)
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The two followed the direction in which the girl had disappeared.
Even the faintest traces, such as footprints, had faded away, and all that lay ahead was dense forest. Still, they kept going.
Then they encountered jiangshi.
Thump.
The figures hopping across the withered brush were clearly people who had once lived here.
Their clothes were far too ragged and shabby to have belonged to martial artists of either the Blood Heaven Cult or the Martial Alliance.
“They really are jiangshi.”
Mok Ri-won smiled bitterly.
He spat out the poison-repelling bead, gripped his sword, and said to Dang Hwa-seo, “Forgive me for being stubborn.”
“It’s all right. I didn’t stop you because I, too, thought Young Hero Mok had a point.”
Dang Hwa-seo smiled as she spoke.
She had been right, and they had encountered enemies after all, yet she did not feel upset.
“Still, isn’t this fortunate? There wasn’t a lost child here.”
Mok Ri-won was touched by her words.
A faint chuckle escaped him before he stepped forward.
“Stay back. I’ll handle this alone.”
“Will you be all right?”
“There aren’t as many as you feared. They don’t look strong, either.”
There were fifteen jiangshi in all.
Their movements were direct and slow. Even a second-rate martial artist seemed capable of handling them.
Just as Mok Seon-o had once said.
“They were ordinary people, weren’t they? It’s time to let them rest in peace.”
They had been terribly weak people.
* * *
Slash.
Mok Ri-won cut down the first jiangshi rushing toward him.
It was a simple horizontal slash, without technique or flourish.
Even so, the jiangshi’s head came off cleanly.
An attack came for his back.
Mok Ri-won twisted aside with the smallest movement and severed that one’s neck as well.
Slash.
His expression darkened.
No, it would have been more accurate to say he looked sad.
There was only one reason.
For the first time since learning the sword, for the first time while fighting someone in a battle of life and death...
‘...There’s nothing.’
He could not sense any Killing Intent from his opponents.
It was not that they concealed it well.
They truly had no desire to kill anyone.
They simply charged mechanically at anyone who entered their range, repeating the process until they fell apart.
He did not know whose intention lay behind it.
He did not know why they had been left here.
Mok Ri-won found it heartbreaking.
‘...Though they may be pitiful people, the world does not listen to the voices of the weak.’
Just as Mok Seon-o had said, it grieved him that their screams had reached no one.
Slash.
The final jiangshi’s head fell.
Mok Ri-won steadied his breathing.
The difference in skill had been so overwhelming that he had not needed to shed a single drop of sweat.
Once it was over, Mok Ri-won sheathed his sword and lowered his head.
He slowly closed his eyes and spoke inwardly.
‘Rest now.’
It was a moment of silence for the dead.
Only silence remained in the brush.
Mok Ri-won continued his silent tribute for a long while before opening his eyes.
‘Master, I think I understand a little now.’
He had found an answer to the question that had taken root within him long ago.
It was an answer firm enough to leave no room for hesitation.
‘Why must a chivalrous hero be a martial artist?’
‘Because the voices of the weak cannot reach anyone.’
‘What is Chivalry for?’
‘It is for speaking on their behalf.’
And so, the path he had to take was clear.
‘So that fewer people will perish because they lack strength.’
It was Chivalry after all.
* * *
Dang Hwa-seo watched the entire process in silence.
It had ended so easily that she could not think of anything to say. She simply waited while Mok Ri-won paid his respects.
Then...
Thud.
Mok Ri-won collapsed to the side.
“Young Hero!”
Dang Hwa-seo rushed over and checked his condition.
His face was deathly pale.
His breathing came in ragged gasps, and the ends of his brows trembled.
What had happened so suddenly?
Then she remembered something she had forgotten.
‘The poison-repelling bead!’
From the beginning of the battle until now, Mok Ri-won had not kept one in his mouth.
‘What an idiot...!’
The curse was directed at both Mok Ri-won, who had gone without the bead, and herself for failing to notice.
It could not be helped.
The Valley of Meager Blood was a land saturated with Poisonous Qi and deathly energy.
Even as a peak martial artist, Mok Ri-won could not endure this place unprotected.
These were unmistakable symptoms of poisoning.
Dang Hwa-seo reached for his travel pack.
She intended to put a new poison-repelling bead in his mouth and stop any further poisoning.
Yet as she searched through the pack, her expression quickly crumpled.
‘There aren’t any.’
The bead he had been using until moments ago appeared to have been the last one.
‘He hid it from me?’
He had concealed that fact from her.
The reason was easy enough to guess.
Though he knew it was time to turn back, he had insisted on pressing forward.
He had considered this more important than the Poisonous Qi spreading through his body.
It was a foolish, idiotic choice, and one that suited him perfectly.
‘Damn it...!’
It was the worst choice he could have made.
Dang Hwa-seo hurriedly considered what to do.
‘How...?’
She looked around.
They stood in the heart of the Valley of Meager Blood.
Even if she used her lightness art and ran at full speed, it would take more than half a day to escape.
Leaving immediately was the right choice, but there was no guarantee Mok Ri-won’s condition would remain stable until then.
His life was not in danger. The problem was the permanent harm that could follow if the Poisonous Qi seeped deep into his organs.
Dang Hwa-seo clenched her teeth and reviewed what had to be done.
‘Draw out Young Hero Mok’s Poisonous Qi, escape the Valley of Meager Blood, and restore his health.’
His recovery could be handled by feeding him the Human-Faced Spider’s inner core.
That meant she only had to consider the Poisonous Qi and their escape.
She had to slow the poison’s progress as much as possible.
Then she would carry Mok Ri-won out of here.
Dang Hwa-seo calmly repeated the tasks to herself.
Then she slapped Mok Ri-won’s cheeks.
“Young Hero Mok! Can you hear me?”
“Mm...”
She lifted his eyelids and saw pupils that had already gone half unfocused.
Still, his eyes turned toward her. He had not completely lost his senses yet.
“Listen carefully. I’m going to draw out your Poisonous Qi. I’ll handle getting us out of here, so focus on one thing only.”
Dang Hwa-seo drew a dagger from her robes and pierced Mok Ri-won’s left index finger.
Fresh blood welled up in droplets.
Once she saw it, she continued, “Drive the Poisonous Qi toward the wound I just made. You must not lose consciousness. Blink twice if you understand!”
Her voice was nearly a shout.
Mok Ri-won blinked twice in reply.
Dang Hwa-seo nodded, then lifted him onto her back.
She looped one of his arms around her neck and took his wounded index finger into her mouth.
“Mmph, then we’re off!”
Faint dark-green Qi Waves spread across Dang Hwa-seo’s body and gathered in her legs.
The next instant...
Whoosh!
Dang Hwa-seo shot forward.
* * *
The wind was strong enough to sting his face.
Soft hair fluttered around him, brushing against his cheeks.
And at the tip of his left index finger, he felt something soft and warm.
“Slurp.”
Mok Ri-won registered those sensations through a hazy mind.
His eyes remained half closed.
His stomach churned, and each breath came with difficulty.
His head throbbed so badly that he could not remember ever being in such pain.
‘Poisonous Qi...’
He had to drive out the Poisonous Qi.
It was not a judgment Mok Ri-won had reached himself. He was only recalling Dang Hwa-seo’s words through his daze.
He had lied to her and fought the jiangshi anyway. If he failed to listen even now, Dang Hwa-seo would surely scold him terribly.
It was fortunate.
Mok Ri-won’s violently turbulent energy still raced through his Blood Channels despite his body being saturated with Poisonous Qi.
Inner power flowed from his dantian, rising through his Blood Channels.
It gathered the Poisonous Qi spread throughout his body, carrying it from his waist through his chest, shoulder, and arm, then driving it toward the tip of his index finger.
Then...
“Slurp.”
With a prickling sensation, something damp and warm, like soft flesh, wrapped around his finger.
Even in his muddled state, Mok Ri-won thought it felt strangely ticklish and pleasant.
Aside from how ill he felt, everything was warm and comfortable.
The soft hair brushing against his cheeks carried a scent unlike his own.
Being held tightly by someone seemed to ease the tension from his body.
A faint smile touched Mok Ri-won’s lips.
As he savored that comfort, he finally realized something.
‘Miss Dang’s scent.’
The subtle sweetness that had always drifted around Dang Hwa-seo.
The smile came as he realized it was her natural scent.
“Slurp.”
That sound came again, accompanied by the sensation at his fingertip.
It was the last thing Mok Ri-won felt.
As his stomach gradually began to settle, he drifted off to sleep.
* * *
At a stream marking the end of the Valley of Meager Blood, there were a woman drenched in sweat and a man lying peacefully on the ground.
Unable even to catch her breath, the woman checked the man’s complexion. She scooped water from the stream and poured it into his mouth, then wiped the sweat from his face with a scrap of cloth. Only then, as though her tension had finally eased, did her exhausted body slump.
Anger rose to the woman’s face.
Yet it was not the anger of someone about to harm the man.
She raised her right hand, pinched his cheek hard, and began tugging it.
Her lips moved as if she were scolding him, but whether he knew it or not, the man remained asleep with a faint smile on his face.
Someone watched it all from a distance.
It was the very girl Mok Ri-won and Dang Hwa-seo had seen earlier in the village within the Valley of Meager Blood.
“Heh heh, that brat sure sleeps well.”
Her laugh sounded like one an elderly person might make.
Her shaking shoulders showed just how pleased she was.
Riiip.
The girl placed a hand over her face and peeled away her skin.
Beneath it was the gently featured face of an old woman.
“Here. Keep it safe.”
The old woman handed the skin, a human-skin mask, to the masked man standing beside her.
He accepted it and asked, “Are you all right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you lose the Human-Faced Spider? And the jiangshi as well...”
“Forget it. I only raised that Human-Faced Spider to nourish my body, and I left the jiangshi alone because clearing them out was troublesome. Besides, didn’t we get to see something interesting?”
The old woman spoke as she gazed warmly at Mok Ri-won in the distance.
“That Mok fellow went and made someone just like himself.”
The masked man quietly lowered his head at her words.
“Yes. It seems the Sword Star has done something remarkable again.”
“Sword Star, my foot.”
The old woman snorted.
“He’s just a childish old fool.”
With a crack of her back, the old woman straightened, clasped her hands behind her, and turned away.
“Let’s go. We’ve confirmed what we came to see.”
“You mean...”
“I won’t touch him.”
The masked man looked toward Mok Ri-won.
‘He passed.’
Was he simply fortunate, or truly that special?
The masked man knew how exacting the standards of the old woman walking away with her hands behind her back were.
She looked like any ordinary grandmother, but she was a terrifying person.
Yeom So-so, the Killing Star.
One of the Four Stars and Six Kings, the ten great masters of the Orthodox Sects in the Martial World.
A dark star revered as a chivalrous hero despite living as an assassin who punished evildoers beneath the cover of night.
On the day the Bloody Affair ended, she had been one of the ten people who determined the fate of the man born beneath the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
“I shall watch over this child until he grows up. If he shows signs of turning wicked after entering the Martial World, I will take his life myself.”
Those had been Yeom So-so’s words that day.
Judging by the way she was leaving now, Mok Ri-won must have won her favor.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
“I’m coming.”
The masked man discarded his thoughts and followed Yeom So-so.
Their steps continued.
After Yeom So-so and the masked man crawled upward for a long while from the entrance to the cave where the Human-Faced Spider lived, they reached a crevice.
They passed through it, crossed another forest path, and pushed through a bank of mist.
There lay Killing Valley.
The Martial World’s darkest star hid behind that poison-laden land even today, choosing her prey.
Footnotes:
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