Chapter 503

A curse laid upon him by time.

The infirmities of old age.

Mungyeong silently rolled the words over his tongue. They left a dry, bitter taste, though he never spoke them aloud. Jeok Cheongang’s voice was just as bitter.

“I intend to leave. I’ll rest my body and mind at Mount Jiuhua.”

“…!”

“If anyone understands why, it’s you. Please don’t try to stop me.”

Just as Jeok Cheongang said, Mungyeong knew exactly why he wanted to leave.

He’s afraid of becoming a burden.

The infirmities of old age would come for Jeok Cheongang again and again. If his mind went hazy at a crucial moment, everyone beside him would be in danger.

His enemies feared the Fire King Jeok Cheongang, not an old man who couldn’t remember his own name or where he lived.

More precisely, he’s afraid his Disciple will be in danger.

Everyone had something precious they could not afford to lose.

To a beggar begging in the marketplace, a half-crushed dumpling was his life. To an emperor who commanded all the civil and military officials, the jade seal symbolizing his authority and power was more precious than a thousand or ten thousand subjects.

Jin Taekyung was that precious to Jeok Cheongang.

Someone he would trade his life for. Someone he could not lose, no matter what.

“You’re awfully fond of your Disciple.”

“My Disciple. Yes, my Disciple.”

“If you’re going to spout the same nonsense you did last time, spare me.”

Jeok Cheongang gave a bitter smile at Mungyeong’s hard tone.

“No, you’re right. He’s this old man’s one and only Disciple.”

“So you think you’re a burden to him? You’re so afraid of that you’d leave him of your own accord?”

“It’s the only choice. I’m doing it for the boy.”

“There are other choices. The imugi’s¹ inner core you obtained, for one.”

“You know as well as I do that acquired qi from elixirs can’t cure this. Besides…”

Jeok Cheongang looked down at his wrinkled hands and muttered,

“This old man has grown too old. Even if the imugi’s¹ inner core could help, I can’t use it on an old man like me on the slim chance that it might work.”

“…!”

“Patch the bottom of an old boat, and water will still leak through somewhere else in the hull. But the boy—my Disciple—is different.”

Light entered his downcast eyes. Joy and hope. Mungyeong could see everything Jeok Cheongang felt for his Disciple in them.

“I have no choice. Please grant this old man’s request, so I can leave with peace of mind.”

“…You have no choice. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Will you look after the boy for me again?”

Mungyeong stared at him for a moment, then said, “Take a boat east from Zhejiang and you’ll come to a small island country.”

“An island country?”

“You must have heard the name. The Wa Kingdom.²”

“…?”

“You haven’t?”

Jeok Cheongang blinked at the sudden question.

“Of course I have. Wa pirates have been coming here to raid us for ages.”

“Have you ever seen one?”

“No, but I hear they’re strange-looking fellows. They carry swords as long as their own bodies, shave half their foreheads back, and walk around wearing rags like undergarments.”

“Whoever told you got it right.”

“But why bring this up all of a—”

“A long time ago,” Mungyeong cut in, “I fought the finest ninja in the Wa Kingdom.”

Jeok Cheongang had heard of ninjas. They were much like the assassins of the Central Plains: not especially skilled in martial arts, but excellent at concealment techniques and at using hidden weapons such as throwing blades.

“There’s no need to ask how it turned out. So are you boasting that you killed the finest ninja in the Wa Kingdom?”

“I didn’t kill him. My objective was to capture him alive.”

A captured target had two choices: speak after a little pain, or speak after terrible pain.

No matter which one he chose, death waited at the end. In the end, the difference was only how painfully he died.

“He chose the latter.”

As befitted the Wa Kingdom’s finest ninja, he held out for quite some time. Unfortunately for him, Salcheonmun—the sect Mungyeong belonged to then—was unquestionably the finest assassin sect in the Central Plains.

They used every torture method they knew. Amid pain worse than death, the ninja was forced to spit out every piece of information he possessed. Not just information, but every memory buried in his mind.

“That was when I heard about a custom in the Wa Kingdom.”

“A custom?”

“Did you know some people there abandon their elderly parents in the mountains?”

“…I can’t say I’m surprised, but those bastards ought to make heaven and earth furious.”

“I was told it was to have fewer mouths to feed. They leave their parents there without caring whether they starve or get torn apart by wild animals. They’re too old to work anymore.”

Abandoning the parents who had raised them simply because they had grown old—if it was true, those people were vicious beyond belief.

Commoners sometimes broke even the bonds between parent and child during terrible disasters. But for it to be a custom was another matter entirely.

Mungyeong continued flatly. “The ninja I captured said he’d abandoned his mother the same way. What do you think she said to her son as he left her deep in the mountains?”

“You fucking bastard.”

“…”

“You motherless bastard.”

Seeing Mungyeong’s face harden until it was stiffer than Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron, Jeok Cheongang continued with a laugh in his voice.

“That boy Taekyung would answer like that. But she was different. A mother doesn’t stop caring for her child so easily, even when he abandons her. So what did she say?”

“She told him to go slowly. It might get dark and he could fall, so he shouldn’t hurry. He should watch his step on the mountain path.”

Jeok Cheongang could understand what that mother had felt. His decision to leave was rooted in something similar.

He wasn’t being abandoned like the mother in Mungyeong’s story, but he, too, wanted to go before he became a burden to someone precious.

And if the Slaughter Saint is telling this old man such a story…

Relief and bitterness mingled in his eyes as he looked at Mungyeong.

“May I take that to mean you’ll grant my request?”

Mungyeong always called himself a medical apprentice. Jeok Cheongang thought he had brought up a past he hated remembering to compare him to the ninja’s mother—and, in doing so, tacitly accept his proposal.

Then Mungyeong shook his head.

“What does that mean?”

“I thought shaking one’s head meant the same thing everywhere, in every age. Is it different in the Fire Gate Clan?”

“Then why tell me that story…?”

“I forgot to tell you the ending. The ninja’s mother lived out her natural lifespan and was buried in a sunny spot. Her last words brought her unfilial son to his senses, and he went back and brought her home.”

“…!”

At that moment, Jeok Cheongang’s body abruptly froze.

At last he understood what Mungyeong had been telling him. How foolish the thought that had consumed him was.

Even as she was being abandoned, the ninja’s mother worried about her son. And I was going to leave that boy of my own accord.

Jeok Cheongang hadn’t wanted to burden Jin Taekyung, his one and only Disciple. That was all.

But this wasn’t a selfless act for his Disciple’s sake. It was the stubborn delusion of a proud old man thinking only of himself.

When had it been? He remembered a conversation he had shared with Jin Taekyung one ordinary day at Mount Jiuhua, when they had lain side by side on a broad rock.

You’re holding up better than I expected. Is your body made of iron?

I’m Iron Man.

For spouting nonsense, I’m adding two hundred geun² of iron balls.

…Ah.

Ha! I’m joking. Strange. I’ve grown so used to your nonsense that it doesn’t even annoy me anymore.

It’s fine. Put the iron balls on me later.

Must you make me say it twice? I said I was joking.

I’m serious.

Hmm?

There’ll be plenty of people stronger than me once we leave. I don’t want to be treated like a burden later on for no reason. They say the iron balls weigh less if you put them on early, so just add them.

Look at you. Add two hundred geun, and you think you’ll never be a burden?

No, but I should at least try as hard as I can. That way, if I collapse someday, you’ll pick me up, won’t you, Old Master?

Now you’re proudly calling yourself a burden. Fine. If this old man does that, what will you do for me?

If you ever collapse, Old Master, I’ll carry you on my back.

Hah. You think this old man will collapse?

If you get tired, I could at least support you, couldn’t I? So tell me when it gets hard.

……I hear you’re an arrogant, impertinent brat. Five hundred geun of iron balls added.

Are you insane, human?

It had been an ordinary conversation on an unremarkable day.

Yet Jeok Cheongang had often thought back to it. How he’d barked at the boy, turned away, and let out a quiet laugh. How he’d added more iron balls, then hidden nearby to watch, worried the boy might hurt himself.

Even now, at this very moment, Jin Taekyung’s voice from that day echoed in Jeok Cheongang’s ears like a distant refrain.

If you ever collapse, Old Master, I’ll carry you on my back.

He had always pictured himself in front, Taekyung behind him. All the more reason he could never collapse.

If you get tired, I could at least support you, couldn’t I?

He hadn’t wanted Taekyung to see him stagger, either. Like every father, he wanted to be invincible, at least to him.

It had been the same on the day he charged forward ready to die.

Dance of the Fire God and Demon… That’s a pretty cool name.

Y-you bastard, how did you—

You should’ve crushed his head. Made sure of it.

Cough!

Old Master!

But Jeok Cheongang wasn’t invincible.

Only after waking from his long sleep did he learn what his Disciple had endured with his fallen, pitiful Master on his back. How many times Taekyung had risked his precious life and fought through desperate odds.

So Jeok Cheongang had resolved never to collapse again. Never to become a burden that put his Disciple in danger.

But he had been wrong.

We were walking side by side. Following the same path, from the beginning until now. Always together.

One thought filled his mind.

Then dark, damp memories surged from the depths of his past and clouded his vision.

Fwoosh!

Countless memories and emotions stretched back to a beggar boy struggling to pick up a single dumpling.

Rage and despair. Sorrow and guilt. They crashed over Jeok Cheongang like waves and gripped his entire body.

But why did he feel no pain?

The tightness in his chest that always came when he recalled the past was gone. So was the headache that felt as if it would split his skull.

What is this?

For the first time in a very long while, he felt at peace. A cool breeze brushed against him from somewhere, carrying voices with it.

Oh, that feels good.

Ahem. This is the finest auspicious site on Mount Jiuhua, personally selected by this old man.

“This rock is practically a Jangsu stone bed.³ Five stars.”

Ahem!

Warmth. Brilliant light seeped in.

The darkness that had crouched deep in Jeok Cheongang’s heart for decades was slowly scattering.

The Heart Demon.

That was the name of the darkness he carried within himself, the chain that had bound him. And all it took to drive it away was a cool breeze on a clear day at Mount Jiuhua, and someone’s voice.

Fwoosh!

Old Master.

Light swallowed the darkness. Swallowed the Heart Demon. Though his eyes were closed, everything around him shone so brightly it dazzled him.

A faint smile touched Jeok Cheongang’s wrinkled lips.

Yes.

His snow-white hair stirred in a breeze that had blown from somewhere. It was neither an illusion nor a mistake.

Fwoooosh!

At last, the giant had broken his chains and risen to his feet. Wind poured from the Fire King Jeok Cheongang and swept out in every direction.