Chapter 17: Was It Right Then, and Is It Wrong Now?
-Those two standing behind him are clearly members of the Bright Cult’s Thirteen Bloods.
-The Thirteen Bloods!
-Yes. Among the Thirteen Bloods, the one famed most for violent ferocity is Cold Blade Blood, and the one whose sword speed has few equals is clearly Flashing Light Blood.
At the Beggars’ Sect disciple’s voice transmission, a somber light settled in the eyes of the Taiji Sword Emperor of Wudang as he looked at Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood.
The Bright Cult’s Thirteen Bloods were, by the standards of the Hundred Paths, figures on the level of great sect masters or supreme masters.
Therefore, if two of them were present, the Beggars’ Sect’s Thirty-Six Strike Unit—originally meant to deal with the coachman and the guide—could not possibly handle them.
If one were to somehow even out the balance, at the very least the Four Vajra Guardians would have to be committed as well just to tie them down.
The problem was the Monk Eightfold Confusion.
If he intervened, the remaining reinforcements—the Eighteen Arhats and the Seven Swords of Wudang—would be unable to exert any power at all.
Moreover, if he were to intervene in the fight against the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult as well, the Taiji Sword Emperor would be guaranteed defeat. This was not the time to clash with the Monk Eightfold Confusion.
In other words, no matter what, the Monk Eightfold Confusion had to be kept out of this affair.
For that purpose, the Taiji Sword Emperor spoke cautiously.
“There seems to be some misunderstanding, but we have no business in Tibet.”
“Then why are you treading upon land in Tibet where you have no business?”
“It is a matter between us and him. If you step aside, we will resolve matters with him and immediately leave Tibet. I swear it upon my name.”
No sooner had the Taiji Sword Emperor finished speaking than the Monk Eightfold Confusion turned to Yul Han, smiled faintly, and said,
“See? I told you they came looking for you.”
Seeing the Monk Eightfold Confusion seemingly about to withdraw, Yul Han let out a bitter smile and stepped forward.
“What is this about?”
“In the name of the Hundred Paths, we intend to execute the demonic head!”
At the Taiji Sword Emperor’s words, Yul Han’s expression hardened.
‘In the name of chivalry, I shall punish evil!’
Those were the very words he himself had shouted when he began his final battle just before his breath was cut off in his previous life.
To be honest, he had never even met the opponent he drew his blade against. Naturally, that person had never caused him any harm.
And yet, the reason he stepped forward was this: upon hearing that a notorious demonic head was passing through the town where his sect had settled, the sect master raised the banner of punitive justice, and the disciples—including himself—agreed with the sect master’s will.
The result was the deaths of the sect master, himself, and their fellow disciples.
Frankly, he did not feel wronged.
It had been a choice he made for righteousness and chivalry.
But…… when the same thing happened in reverse, a slightly different thought arose.
Was it truly the right action?
Unlike back then, he could not readily give an answer.
He did not even properly know what his opponent had done wrong when he drew his blade.
Naturally, he did not know exactly what he had set out to punish.
Was the banner merely one of chivalry, while in truth he sought fame and honor by killing a notorious demonic head?
In the murky depths of his heart—depths he himself had never noticed—had such desire been hidden?
Nothing had changed except that his position and another’s had been reversed, yet the once-clear standard wavered.
And so he asked.
Hoping that he might find an answer, even here.
“What have I done wrong, that I am a demonic head?”
At Yul Han’s question, the Taiji Sword Emperor replied in a cold voice.
“Do you feign ignorance? Countless warriors of the Hundred Paths have died at your cruel hands and become wandering souls!”
Hearing his courteous question returned with a cold rebuke, Yul Han slightly furrowed his brow and asked,
“Then why did they die? It is not as though I sought them out out of boredom to kill for amusement, is it?”
“T-That is…….”
Was it because it was a sudden question he had never even considered receiving?
Unable to immediately respond, the Taiji Sword Emperor faltered, and Yul Han continued,
“When a fight breaks out, I kill to protect myself and to protect my companions. At times, I have raised my blade for revenge and seen blood. Is that not the same for you as it is for me? Then why is it only I—only we—who are demonic heads?”
The Taiji Sword Emperor hesitated briefly, then hardened his expression and answered,
“We fight for righteousness and chivalry. You are different!”
“Righteousness and chivalry? Are you certain? Not interests and fame?”
At the blunt question thrown again, the Taiji Sword Emperor felt his words choke in his throat. It was an issue he himself had agonized over deeply.
To him, Yul Han said,
“Go back. I do not wish to kill anyone in a meaningless fight.”
At Yul Han’s words, the Taiji Sword Emperor faltered.
Seeing this, the leading monk of the Four Vajra Guardians stepped forward.
“It seems you seek a way out with honeyed words, but today you will not leave this place alive!”
“A way out? Do you truly think I am the one who needs that?”
“There is no need for further words. Disciples of Shaolin, force the demonic head of the Demonic Cult to his knees!”
At the leading monk’s shout, the Eighteen Arhats flew through the air and descended, occupying all directions around Yul Han.
As the warriors of the Martial Alliance moved thus, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood also attempted to move.
Blocking their movement were the Beggars’ Sect’s Thirty-Six Strike Unit.
Though they knew they could not manage on their own, the Thirty-Six Strike Unit steeled their resolve and moved without hesitation.
The Four Vajra Guardians supported them.
As a result, the steps of Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood—who had thought they could break through immediately—were halted.
It was because the Beggars’ Sect’s Lesser Dog-Beating Formation and the Four Vajra Guardians’ Vajra Subduing Demon Formation perfectly blocked their movements.
In that state, the Seven Swords of Wudang, growing anxious as they watched the Taiji Sword Emperor still standing as if unable to decide, finally joined the Eighteen Arhats with a glance from their leader, First Sword, and encircled Yul Han.
It was a measure taken because they knew the Eighteen Arhats alone could never stop him if Yul Han moved.
They could not allow themselves to hear that Shaolin’s Eighteen Arhats had been killed at the hands of the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult because Wudang hesitated.
Thus, without sparing even a glance for the Eighteen Arhats and the Seven Swords of Wudang surrounding him, Yul Han kept his eyes fixed on the Taiji Sword Emperor, who still seemed unable to decide.
As a result, the fiercest fighting broke out where the guide and the coachman—namely, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood—were being blocked, an area that had not initially been the focus.
Even though the Thirty-Six Strike Unit and the Four Vajra Guardians had joined forces, their opponents were the Thirteen Bloods, the very core of the Bright Cult’s strength.
Whenever Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood moved, blood splattered everywhere, and the Beggars’ Sect’s Lesser Dog-Beating Formation and Shaolin’s Vajra Subduing Demon Formation shook violently.
Both formations had been created to face a single opponent, so they struggled to handle two.
Even so, they held on because the two formations compensated for each other’s weaknesses. Had either tried to block them alone, they would have been broken through long ago.
That was how overwhelming the martial might of Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood was.
It far exceeded the Taiji Sword Emperor’s expectation that they could be blocked without great difficulty once the Four Vajra Guardians joined in.
During the five years in which the Vice Cult Leader had remained holed up in his residence, the Bright Cult had drastically curtailed its external activities.
From the Bright Cult’s perspective—believing itself defeated in the previous war—clashing with the Hundred Paths, which had secured superiority both in quantity and quality, without the support of the Vice Cult Leader, who was surely the strongest under heaven, was a heavy burden. Thus, they made that decision.
Because of this, the Bright Cult’s warriors, all but confined within the Heavenly Mountains, devoted those five years to nothing but desperate cultivation of martial arts.
There was nothing else they could do.
The Hundred Paths had failed to realize the extent of the Bright Cult warriors’ improvement born of those years.
With strength elevated beyond comparison to five years prior, they charged headlong, trying to break through the Thirty-Six Strike Unit and the Four Vajra Guardians blocking them.
On one side, a truly blood-splattering battle raged, but around Yul Han there was only silence, though a blade-sharp tension surrounded him.
It was because Yul Han himself did not move, gazing steadily at the Taiji Sword Emperor, who seemed unable to decide.
That said, they could not charge him with only the Eighteen Arhats and the Seven Swords of Wudang.
Without the Taiji Sword Emperor, they would be nothing more than a pack of wolves before a tiger.
Knowing this all too well, the gazes of the Eighteen Arhats and the Seven Swords of Wudang were fixed on Yul Han whom they encircled, but all of their attention was directed toward the Taiji Sword Emperor behind them.
His decision was the most important.
After waiting thus for half a quarter-hour, as screams increasingly escaped from among those surrounding Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood, First Sword finally lost patience and sent a voice transmission to the Taiji Sword Emperor.
-Senior Uncle! While our Wudang stands by, the disciples of the Beggars’ Sect and Shaolin are being injured.
At the voice transmission from First Sword, the formation leader of the Seven Swords of Wudang, the Taiji Sword Emperor finally raised his head, checked the place where Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood were fighting, then turned his gaze to the Monk Eightfold Confusion.
“Why are you looking at me? Why, are you worried I might intervene? That fellow and I aren’t close enough for that—at least not yet.”
Perhaps taking those words as a pledge, the Monk Eightfold Confusion clicked his tongue at the sight of the Taiji Sword Emperor firming his resolve and preparing to move.
“Tsk tsk. To think the decision you finally make is to get yourself killed and send your comrades into a dead end. All the fame of Great General Malko was nothing but empty wind. This is why rumors can’t be trusted.”
Those words stopped the Taiji Sword Emperor in his tracks.
It bothered him all the more because, at a glance, the speaker was clearly not beneath him.
Unable to take another step forward, the Taiji Sword Emperor slowly turned his gaze and asked Yul Han,
“How about one-on-one?”
At the Taiji Sword Emperor’s words, Yul Han let out a faint chuckle and moved his foot. At that moment—
Thud!
From far away, the Monk Eightfold Confusion’s shoulder twitched.
An overwhelming pressure poured down from the heavens, powerful enough to restrict even the Monk Eightfold Confusion, known as the strongest in Tibet.
Absurdly, the source of that pressure was the single step Yul Han had taken forward.
As the Monk Eightfold Confusion stood stunned by the unbelievable phenomenon, the fighting around Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood came to a halt. Of course, it was not by their will.
In a situation where merely standing upright was burdensome, it was impossible to swing swords or leap about in all directions.
Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood fared better than the Four Vajra Guardians or the Thirty-Six Strike Unit, but in the end they too could no longer move.
To the Bright Cult, Heavenly Demon Descends—that is, the Sovereign’s Stride—was identical to the personal advent of the Heavenly Demon they worshiped as a god.
After all, the only ones who could perform the Sovereign’s Stride were the Heavenly Demon, revered as a god by the Bright Cult, or the Blood Demon, who succeeded him as the second Cult Leader.
Thus, in the past, whenever the Sovereign’s Stride unfolded, Bright Cult warriors without exception had to lower their heads and prostrate themselves upon the ground.
Of course, since the art had fallen into disuse after the Blood Demon, the submissive rite of absolute prostration disappeared.
Thanks to that, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood could stand upright even as the Sovereign’s Stride was unleashed, as they were now.
Even so, reverence did not vanish. Even if it was the second time witnessing it, the awe and fear were no different.
Amid the two men’s awe-filled gazes, Yul Han leisurely walked out of the encirclement formed by the Eighteen Arhats and the Seven Swords of Wudang.
Though they saw it clearly, the Seven Swords of Wudang and the Eighteen Arhats could do nothing but stare blankly, unable to so much as twitch a finger.
The harrowing experience the Dianchang Sect’s warriors had suffered not long ago was now being reenacted in full upon Shaolin’s Eighteen Arhats and Wudang’s pride, the Seven Swords of Wudang.
Thus, having walked out of the encirclement, Yul Han came to face the Taiji Sword Emperor.