Chapter 70: The World Where Stars Died (2)

Chapter 70: The World Where Stars Died (2)

It’s cold, Soh Baekhyang thought.

While she lay buried in the white snow, the world was colorless, odorless, and soundless. She realized that the world was just a cold, blank sheet of paper.

It’s cold...

It felt cold in her flesh, bones, and blood.

My stomach hurts, she thought. Mom? My insides are filled with ice, Mom. It’s so cold here.

As her mind wandered on and on, her organs gradually froze. The cold soon reached her head where her thoughts were.

How long had it been since her mother had left her behind in this world of endless cold?

“...Oh.”

The silence was broken.

“Strange. How very strange.”

Then, the smells returned.

“It’s been ten days since it snowed here, and the snow is over five chis[1] deep. How are you still breathing?”

Finally, the world regained its color.

The young Soh Baekhyang looked at an old man standing over her. He had dug through the snowfield, creating noises. When he had grabbed her wrist, his scent had wafted toward her. The eyes the old man peered at her with were black.

“You aren’t ordinary, child. You survived ten days in the cold by eating snow.”

The old man was a master martial artist from the demonic cult.

“You were born with the Icesnow Body. The world’s cold is your qi. You possess the Ultimate Yin Body that I’ve only heard about in books! Child, what is your name?”

Soh Baekhyang opened her mouth. “I don’t know.”

She couldn’t remember her name.

“How old are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“How did you end up buried in the snow?”

“I don’t know.”

The old man kept asking questions, but she couldn’t remember anything. It was all cold and frozen. Her thoughts were frozen, freezing her mind where the memories were. The cold got to her heart and turned everything inside into hard ice.

“You poor thing. You’re young, but you already lost yourself in trance...” the old man bemoaned. “However, you have the perfect vessel for learning martial arts. If the princess of the North Sea Palace saw you, she would pay a fortune to take you. How lucky! But I wonder what kind of luck it would be. Are you lucky to be in the demonic cult? Or will the cult be lucky to have you? It’s very difficult for me to judge because of my old age.”

Soh Baek-hyang could barely understand what the old man was saying. His words were too difficult.

The old man patted her head. “Will you come with me, child? I’ll feed you and give you a place to sleep.”

That was something she could understand. Soh Baekhyang slowly nodded.

“You have no scent nor name,” the old man said. “Even your birthplace is unclear. It must be because you’re born from the snow and have the scent of snow. I’ll give you my last name, and I will call you Baekhyang.[2]”

The scent of snow.

“From now on, you’re Soh Baekhyang, a follower of the demonic cult.”

After staying silent for a moment, Soh Baekhyang asked, “Where will I go?”

“It’s a place where children like you gather.” The old martial artist smiled.

***

We left the snowfield and were now at the hot spring cave, the shelter of this world’s last survivors. The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance's leader had been surprised to see other survivors, but they gladly welcomed us as guests.

“...Nonsense!” the Heavenly Demon said. “I never had a single direct disciple in my life. No matter how much a mess the world has become, my rules haven’t changed. My direct disciple? Ridiculous!”

Unfortunately, their welcome ended at hospitality. It seemed like she had no intention of accepting me as her direct disciple.

“Hey, Demon. Why are you being so petty?” The Murim Alliance's leader sat beside her chewing on a grain pill. “I think it’s commendable that the children from the outer murim survived. He even traveled across this harsh gangho to learn from you, so he deserves extra praise. Do you really need to be so strict like you were before?”

He had said that the demonic martial arts were made to claw at the world. However, I began to think a little differently as I practiced the Demonic Heaven Arts. It was closer to a scream or a cry, rather than a claw.

—Wow.

My sword continued on and on until it finally became a dance.

—Now that I look at you, you would’ve definitely joined a demonic cult if you were born in murim.

My sword dance wasn’t beautiful at all. It was crude and clumsy. It didn’t smell anything like flowers, it gave off the smell of fire. If swordplay was a person, my swordplay would be screaming from the burn.

The principle of yin and yang may be marvelous, but the world born from it only held sorrow. Even though the lines of the Four Books and Three Classics contained insightful wisdom, they couldn’t end a single scream.

A swordplay that contained the world’s sorrow was sharper than the sword that moved based on the principle of yin and yang. A swing that followed a single scream was stronger than a swordplay based on exquisite principles. The deeper the sorrow and the louder the scream, the stronger the sword would become. That was why we were strong.

The survival of the strongest was the Heavenly Demon Cult’s doctrine.

“Say it.”

“Murim forgot its code of honor, and its code of honor has been lost in murim.”

“Say it. Then I’ll kill you as you wish.”

The Heavenly Demon was the highest heaven of her cult. She knew all about her followers’ screams, and knew how to release them through her sword. Each movement of her sword would scream at the world as proof that people cried out somewhere in this world.

“The world has no meaning.”

“These last decades couldn’t have been more meaningless.”

Even the highest heaven, the Heavenly Demon, had screamed at the last moment.

“Hahaha! Ha! Ha. Hahahahahaha!”

She had gone mad and burst into laughter. Holding her laughter in my heart, I swung my sword.

“...Stop.”

I continued.

“Stop it.”

I kept going with my sword.

“I told you to stop!”

My sword stopped. Not because I stopped, but because the Heavenly Demon was blocking my sword using a wooden stick that rippled with dark qi.

“You... How do you know my cult’s ultimate arts?” Her pitch black eyes bored into me. “You can’t fool my eyes! Your forms were messy and crude, but you were unmistakably using the Demonic Heaven Arts. Only demons can learn the arts, but I’ve never seen you before. Speak. How do you know it!”

Only then did I realize that I was more out of breath than I had thought. I was soaked in sweat, and the holy sword felt as heavy as a rock in my right hand. I looked around and saw the Murim Alliance's leader and the Hunters watching me with bated breaths. From the hole in the cave’s ceiling, I could see the starlight pouring down. Perhaps it had been much longer than I had thought.

I opened my mouth with difficulty. “Am I... Am I qualified? Am I qualified to be your disciple, Lady Heavenly Demon?”

The Heavenly Demon was silent for a long moment. Eventually, she turned and walked deep into the cave. It was obviously a rejection, so no one even considered following her. If I had just a little more energy, I might have gone after her...

“M-Mr. Death King?”

My legs gave out.

“Mr. Death King! Are you okay, Mr. Death King?”

My mind hazy, I thought to myself that I had used too much aura at once. I would probably be out all night once I lost consciousness. I tried to smile reassuringly at the Chemist, but even that was difficult. The world around me already felt dark.

—Tsk, tsk.

Just before I passed out, I heard the Guardian’s voice.

—Of course you’re half dead when you use martial arts way above your level, little sparrow. This is why I always say that people need to be solid with the basics first.

The Guardian sighed.

—But, well...you weren’t too bad, kid. You did well.

And then I fainted.

1. A traditional Chinese unit of measurement. About 1/3m. ☜

2. The raw is 백향(白香). 白 means snow white. 香 means scent. ☜