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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 347: Revenge (3)

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"Untangle it properly!"

"..."

"Didn't they teach subtle energy control at Shaolin Sect?"

"Th-they did. I even received good marks in it."

"Then why can't you untangle it?!"

Ilgak spoke as though he had been wronged.

"I-it's tangled far too intricately. Besides, it's buried in the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear's flesh, so it won't come loose easily."

"Solving that is what skill is for!"

"Th-then Benefactor Jin... no, Unit Commander Jin, you try it."

"Fuck, can you really say that after looking at the state I'm in?"

I showed him my hand, which had been reduced to a rag after fighting the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear.

"...You aren't injured that badly..."

"What was that?"

"N-no, nothing. Why won't this come loose? Ngh..."

What a miserable life.

I made him the Unit Leader of the First Unit, and now he was struggling because he couldn't even untangle Heavenly Silkworm Thread.

"To be honest, you look fairly intact for someone who charged at the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear barehanded."

Come to think of it, when had all my wounds healed?

"...Do you think I charged at it because I wanted to?"

"Still, it's fortunate that you survived... The unit members were very worried. I barely managed to stop them from all coming after you."

"..."

If I told them to run, they should've just run properly. Why did they want to come back?

Since when were they close enough to me for that?

"Then hurry up and untangle it! Were you planning to run off and leave me behind again if we encountered another demonic beast?"

"L-leave you behind and run?! No, wasn't it Unit Commander Jin who gave the order in the first place?!"

"You actually left just because I told you to? You heartless bastards."

Ilgak's scalp turned redder than it had when it was covered in blood.

"N-no! Obedience to orders... Wow... Unit Commander Jin..."

"Just untangle it already!"

Sweating profusely under my scolding, Ilgak finally managed to free the tangled Heavenly Silkworm Thread from the Flying Dragon Claw after about thirty minutes.

I looked at Ilgak as he caught his breath.

"Don't go around saying you know how to control energy. You'll only disgrace Shaolin Sect."

"..."

Yet Ilgak said nothing despite my jab.

What, was he sulking?

Mm, mentioning Shaolin Sect might've gone too far after all...

"Unit Commander Jin. How about caring for yourself a little more?"

What was that supposed to mean?

"Sometimes, you seem far too precarious. Like a candle burning itself away to light the darkness."

Ilgak's face held more pity than I had ever seen from him.

"I'm worried."

Worried? About what...

"I'm worried that the flame is so strong, it might burn out too soon."

For a moment, I was stunned by his words.

The mood had grown oddly heavy, so I gave a small laugh and lightly tapped his shoulder.

"Wouldn't that be better for the Orthodox Society?"

"Someone may wish for that."

I had only been joking.

Knowing someone truly wanted that stung a little.

"That's a bit harsh..."

"But I don't want that. I hope Unit Commander Jin remains beside us for a long time."

His expression grew utterly serious.

Soon, he met my gaze with steady eyes.

"Because I want to see what path Unit Commander Jin will open in the future."

The sudden, embarrassing words made goosebumps rise on my skin.

I turned away and muttered.

"Then do the job I gave you properly. If you had caught the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear, I wouldn't have had to risk my life."

"No, it's Unit Commander Jin who's strange for catching a monster like that in the first place..."

"Enough."

I cut Ilgak off and surveyed the path ahead again.

"What are you doing?"

With a sullen expression, he tried to support me.

"Isn't it difficult for you to walk? I'll carry you."

"Sure, carry me, but there's something we need to do first."

"What..."

I pointed at the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear.

"???"

Ilgak still looked as though he had no idea what I meant.

Had he grown up too comfortably at Shaolin Sect to know what needed to be taken?

People raised without hardship were hopeless.

"We went through all that trouble hunting it. We need to take its inner core."

"..."

"What are you waiting for?"

"...Are you asking a monk to cut open an animal's stomach?"

Ah, perhaps that was a little much.

Still, what else could I do? I didn't have the strength to move.

I shrugged.

"Right now, aren't you Ilgak, Unit Leader of the First Unit of the Life-and-Death Unit, rather than Ilgak of the Orthodox Society?"

"..."

"Then obedience to orders comes first, doesn't it?"

"You were just saying..."

"Think of it as lending me your hands. The inner core is mine anyway."

I had no idea how fortunate I was that Ilgak had come.

If it had been anyone else, they definitely would've asked for a share.

#

There was no inner core inside the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear.

Not even one the size of a fingernail.

"...Damn it. Damn it. Damn it."

Unable to believe it, I had Ilgak pull out all its entrails, then searched through everything again from the beginning. In the end, there was still no inner core.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

I even suspected Ilgak of secretly swallowing it.

"Namu Amitabha..."

But Ilgak had not changed at all.

Besides, his arms were covered in blood. If he had secretly eaten it, there would've been evidence.

"Amitabha."

"Shut up!"

"Unit Commander Jin is louder. Please stop cursing. A person's habits are shaped by the words they repeatedly speak..."

"Wouldn't you feel cheated too? I risked my life to catch a Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear, yet not even a fingernail-sized inner core came out. Does that make any sense?!"

"It may all be the Buddha's profound intent..."

"Don't bring up the Buddha right now! I feel like I'd start resenting even the Buddha."

"..."

Honestly, I wanted to stay up all night and search more thoroughly, but I couldn't waste any more time.

If I became any more separated from the group, there was no telling what might happen to the Life-and-Death Unit.

"Unit Commander Jin, get on my back."

Following them wasn't difficult, thanks to the Life-and-Death Unit opening a path as they went.

If there had been no path, Ilgak couldn't have come alone in the first place.

Even at a fairly quick pace, he hardly swayed.

I should've bounced up and down, but the ride was smooth, as though I were gliding across ice.

I hadn't known the Vajra Immovable Body Art had such a use.

Shaolin Sect truly was the Mount Tai and Northern Dipper of the Central Plains martial world.

I was marveling at Shaolin Sect's martial arts when his pace gradually slowed.

"What, are you tired already?"

A grave voice came from above his shining head.

"Who do you think they are?"

Was he really worrying about that now?

This was why people shouldn't be given time to think on a battlefield.

"Who does Unit Commander Jin think they are?"

"I don't know... Does it matter?"

"..."

I was comfortable on his back, so I didn't want to disturb his unmoving mind.

Still.

"Isn't getting back alive more important right now?"

As expected, Ilgak's body began to sway little by little.

My body, which had been so comfortable, began bouncing along with him.

His steps revealed his feelings. This was why Shaolin Sect's martial arts were so troublesome.

His voice trembled as much as his unsettled heart.

"Unit Commander Jin... You know, don't you?"

"If I knew, I would've already dealt with them."

"...Unit Commander Jin doesn't handle things this way."

I had thought he was just an oblivious bald monk, but he was no ordinary person after all.

Ilgak's voice reached me calmly.

"You identify the cause, twist the outcome, and create an answer. The best possible answer you want."

The best possible answer...

"That is why moving without knowing the cause or who the enemy is doesn't suit Unit Commander Jin."

When had he figured me out so thoroughly?

He acted like a dull bear, but his mind had been working quickly all along.

I pressed down gently on his trembling shoulder.

"There are times when that matters and times when it doesn't."

Ilgak bore my weight and asked softly.

"...Are you saying this isn't one of those times?"

"Even if we know, it's not like they'll go easy on us when they attack."

I tried to brush it off, but Ilgak's body began swaying even more.

I wasn't even on a boat, yet I was starting to feel seasick.

"Will you stop overthinking? I'm injured, you know."

"..."

The shaking eased a little, but his gait remained unsteady.

Why did he have so much to worry about?

He wasn't normally like this, was he?

In my previous life, he had only been a puppet who moved exactly as the Orthodox Society ordered.

"Could it be... because of the Martial Alliance?"

What was he talking about now?

"Are you worried the Martial Alliance will use them for its own benefit?"

Though he had been overshadowed by Ilmyeong, Ilgak had also been an indispensable figure in the Orthodox Society.

And he was just as much a person who did whatever the Orthodox Society ordered.

Yet lately, he had begun harboring irreverent thoughts about the organization he belonged to.

Why?

"Isn't it impossible that Unit Commander Jin failed to feel what I felt?"

"Say something I can understand..."

"Demonic qi."

"...!"

"What they used was demonic qi, wasn't it?"

Ilgak had never encountered demonic beings before.

His steps, which had been gradually slowing, eventually came to a complete stop.

"Whenever I face them, the unpleasant feeling doesn't stop. Without intending to, I find myself reciting the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic in my mind. And when I look at them, all I see is something stained black from head to toe."

"..."

"Unit Commander Jin, who cultivates the Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force, couldn't possibly have failed to notice it."

He really was a fox pretending to be a bear.

Or had he turned into a fox?

"They... are people of the Demonic Cult, aren't they?"

There seemed little reason to hide it any longer when he had noticed this much.

I answered without hesitation.

"Yes. That's what I think too."

"!"

Ilgak whipped his head toward me.

His eyes were wide open like a rabbit's.

If he had expected it, why was he so surprised?

Uncomfortable under his stare, I slowly turned his head forward again.

"But so what? Does knowing who they are change anything?"

"B-but..."

"Why? Do you think the Academy students will suddenly become braver if we tell them the Demonic Cult, which has hidden for five hundred years, considers us sacrifices and has begun hunting us?"

"..."

Ilgak's scalp twitched.

He was surely thinking hard.

Still, I wished he would start walking again.

I was worried about the others too.

But he was quite persistent.

"That isn't what you're truly worried about, is it?"

Ilgak's voice was heavier than ever.

"...Do you distrust the Martial Alliance that much?"

The Martial Alliance, the Martial Alliance...

Ha. I had listened long enough. This was becoming unbearable.

"Why are you trying to sweep it all under the name of the Martial Alliance?"

"..."

"If you want to face reality, do it properly. Otherwise, keep pretending not to know anything and live as a puppet like you always did. Pick one."

It was contradictory.

I had to say cruel things to someone whose back I was borrowing, someone who was helping me.

Even so, my memories never grew unclear.

The person he was now overlapped with who he had been in the past, and I couldn't control my emotions.

"What I care about is the Orthodox Society. The White Path Society, and the Twelve Peak Alliance too. They were always the ones who used enemies for political purposes."

"...Not every member of the Orthodox Society does that."

"If you were so confident, you shouldn't have used the words 'Martial Alliance' instead of 'Orthodox Society.'"

Even seeing his slumped shoulders and bowed head, I couldn't stop.

Cowards who refused to make choices would ultimately be swept along by the majority.

"In Yueyang, it was Mount Cang Sect that committed evil while wearing the mask of the Demonic Cult. Of course, the public was told it was the wrongdoing of a few affiliated lay sects."

Ilgak could not say anything at the truth that spilled from my mouth.

"Even when the real thing didn't exist, things like that happened all the time..."

He doubted the Orthodox Society, but he still could not leave it.

So all I could do was make him face reality.

"What do you think will happen when the real thing appears?"

The same chaos as in my previous life.

And the rulers who would see that chaos as an opportunity.

The Martial Alliance's failure to respond properly because of them, and the countless powerless people who would be sacrificed.

I had struggled all this time to avoid repeating that same past.

"Then... do you intend to hide it?"

"Who said anything about hiding it? At the very least, no words that would provoke confusion will come from me. And I have no intention of leaving alone anyone who tries to use this confusion as an opportunity."

"..."

We had made it this far comfortably, and then he had to ask pointless questions.

It probably wasn't right to keep borrowing his back in this situation.

"Put me down. I'll walk now."

"N-no. I'll start walking again."

Ilgak began moving once more.

He was still jerking around.

He was trying to act as though nothing had happened, but it looked unbearably awkward.

I felt like I would throw up if this continued, so I finally said something.

"Like when you joined the Life-and-Death Unit, think about only one thing. Not what benefits your sect or organization. Think about which choice can save the most people."

"Isn't that what you want in the end?"

"..."

He didn't answer, but somehow, the small vibrations disappeared.

He really did need a lot of looking after.

#

Whether we had delayed too long or the others had walked diligently, it took quite some time before we rejoined the Life-and-Death Unit.

"Put me down now."

"No. Your body hasn't fully recovered yet..."

"If the Unit Commander can't even walk properly, do you think their fighting spirit will hold?"

"Ah..."

After carefully lowering me to the ground, Ilgak inspected every part of my body.

Then his eyes widened.

"What is this..."

"Why? Is there a serious wound somewhere?"

Thinking I had an injury I didn't know about, I looked over my body.

"No... Your wounds have healed."

"They healed?"

I spread apart the torn martial uniform and inspected the wounds.

The severe injuries near my arm, which had left it nearly shredded to rags, had almost completely closed.

I had continued circulating the Healing Wounds Formula through qi circulation, but there hadn't been enough time for my injuries to recover.

Even if there had been, I had only been following behind the Life-and-Death Unit.

Such bizarre recovery.

It was like...

'The Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear...'

I remembered that monster's horrifying healing power.

Had I recovered while using the Azure Dragon Bangle?

Ilgak asked with a worried expression.

"Isn't there something wrong?"

I changed the subject as though it were nothing.

"I secretly ate some bear gallbladder just in case. It must've worked."

"Y-you mean bear gallbladder?"

"It's a bear. Of course I had to take its gallbladder."

I really did have the bear gallbladder tucked inside my clothes.

Ilgak kept muttering, "Eating it raw... And raw flesh from an animal that was just killed..." with an incredulous expression.

Fortunately, he let the matter of my recovered wounds pass after that.

Once we ran a little farther, I began sensing the presence of people.

As Ilgak and I carefully approached, the members of the Eighth Unit, who were guarding the rear, welcomed us when they saw us.

"U-Unit Commander! The Unit Commander is back!"

"Really?"

"You actually survived?!"

"How did you do it?!"

From all around us came fervent greetings, as if they had expected me to die.

"Don't break formation, you idiots."

I shouted at them, but the Academy students surrounded me without any intention of backing away.

"Unit Commander! Are you all right?"

"I really thought you were dead this time!"

"Why is the commander always standing at the very front...?!"

Only after each of them had their say did they return to formation.

A faint laugh slipped out at the sight.

"Then keep up the good work."

As I was about to head forward, one member grabbed my shoulder.

"Are you planning to go to the front again?"

"I have to open the path."

My calm response made the member's grip tighten.

"...Then at least take this."

They took a long robe from their pack and handed it to me.

"Right now, I can't tell whether what you're wearing is clothing or a rag."

It would be strange to keep wearing this, too.

"I'll wear it well."

When I twisted my way through the formation afterward, the Academy students all stepped aside at once.

Whenever Ilgak and I passed, they each offered a word.

"Command this time. Don't let us nearly lose our commander twice."

"If we don't have a commander, how are we supposed to fight without worry?"

"I heard we're almost there. We've already passed through the Demonic Realm, so you don't have to push yourself anymore. You've done more than enough to keep the promise you made."

Their sects and affiliations were all different.

That was why they had guarded themselves against one another.

But now...

For some reason, warmth seemed to fill the space between them.

Feeling that warmth wrap around me, I walked in silence.

Past those who spoke to me and those who only met my eyes.

Until I reached the Fifth Unit, where my companions were.

"..."

Everyone looked at me, but unlike the other Academy students, none of them greeted me.

The looks they gave were so complicated that I couldn't easily bring myself to speak either.

In the end, I chose to leave.

My place had originally been at the vanguard anyway.

Just as I was about to move.

"...Senior Brother."

Saryeon called to me.

"Please don't make us send bad news to the Outer Hall Lord."

"..."

"You can do that... can't you?"

Anxiety and fear carried in her faintly trembling voice.

There was only one thing I could say now.

"Don't worry. That will never happen."

Saryeon and the others did not add anything else.

When I made my way past the Academy students again and reached the very front, those who saw me let out sighs.

"Seriously, you're the worst commander."

"I never want to belong to a unit like this again."

"Why? I think I'd do it again."

For some reason, the Academy students were grumbling.

Then Yang Japyeong welcomed me.

"At least that's fortunate. I can bring the captain good news."

"Good news?"

"We're nearly there."

My eyes opened wide at his words.

"You mean we've arrived?"

"Yes. This is the end of the Demonic Realm."

Finally. We had finally arrived.

After walking for about half an hour, the spirit vein's energy noticeably weakened.

There was no trace of the Demonic Realm, and even compared to Mukrim, the spirit vein's energy was faint.

The natural formation had disappeared long ago.

Another half hour later, we finally escaped Mukrim as well.

We had finally left Mukrim, the place we had wanted so desperately to escape, but no one cheered yet.

Our final goal was to break through the enemy's encirclement.

Only after leaving Gourd Gorge, the final barrier, could we relax.

"Wait."

I halted the Life-and-Death Unit's march in front of the narrow passage at the gorge's center.

If Yang Japyeong was right, the enemy would be waiting beyond this point if they had formed an encirclement.

I closed my eyes and examined my body.

For some reason, the more I walked, the faster I recovered. More than half my body had recovered already.

In a way, escaping through the Demonic Realm might have brought a good result.

The question was whether it would end with a good result.

'We were fast enough. No matter how much they hurry, those who went around the Demonic Realm can't arrive before us.'

The moment we entered the Demonic Realm, their operation had failed.

If so, rather than suffering greater losses by chasing us for no reason, it would be easier for them to hide the evidence if they gave up and returned.

'...I'm being fucking optimistic. Since when did I start seeing the world this way?'

Even I found it absurd.

If they were capable of such rational thinking in the first place, they wouldn't have entertained insane ideas like conquering the Central Plains.

So I looked only at the facts with a cool head.

'We ran as hard as we could.'

Then I stepped forward.

As I always had, toward what lay ahead.

Step. Step. Step.

I spread the energy sense from my dantian and swept the area ahead.

No matter who was there, all we had to do was deal with them as we had after passing through Mukrim.

Their operation had already failed.

Having come this far, their identities would become known throughout the Central Plains.

At that moment.

I stopped.

At the edge of my energy sense, I caught an ominous presence.

As I climbed a small hill, a broad open space came into view below.

'Fuck...'

My prediction had only been half right.

As expected, they had failed to establish an encirclement because they had gone around the Demonic Realm.

But.

Step.

Not all of them had failed to get ahead of us.

I stopped on the hill and looked down. Three people, each with their own distinct presence, stood below.

"I can't believe you really passed through there..."

I studied the three of them.

The man standing in the middle was someone I had seen recently.

'That lunatic who tried to kill the Northern Dipper Sword Corps while searching for some ring.'

I didn't know the woman standing to the left, but the man on the right...

"You're hideous. Are you a jiangshi[1]?"

His skin, from his face to his hands and feet, looked mismatched, as though patches of different cloth had been sewn onto torn clothes.

The stitching made him look even more grotesque.

"Kikiki, do you really not know? Or are you pretending not to know?"

The woman and the man in the middle giggled as though something amused them, while the jiangshi-like man trembled all over.

Come to think of it, he looked familiar.

'Familiar... to me?'

It was one of the sensations I didn't have, one I couldn't possibly have.

With my absolute memory, uncertain memories simply did not exist.

Except in special cases like Moyong Sangwon.

Yet he looked familiar?

At that moment.

An overwhelming killing intent burst from the ragged man's body.

Then he called my name in a dreadful metallic voice.

"Jin... Sowoon..."

[1] Jiangshi: a Chinese undead corpse, commonly depicted as stiff-bodied and reanimated.

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