Chapter 296 – Ten Soldiers. Broken Weapons…… (3)

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“Uuurk!”

At the foreign sensation in his mouth, Dong Hwa-woon violently shook his head trying to spit it out. But he couldn’t overcome Dam-ho’s strong grip.

CRACK!

Dam-ho’s fist exploded against Dong Hwa-woon’s jaw.

His jawbone was completely crushed, and his teeth shattered. And the iron ball went down his esophagus.

“Grrgh!”

Dong Hwa-woon looked ahead while bleeding.

The black beast named Dam-ho was looking at him like a grim reaper.

“It’s… useless. The Nine Heaven Fire Soul Bullet will never explode without my sound technique. Hehe!”

Dong Hwa-woon forced himself to laugh.

His appearance laughing while bleeding was eerie beyond words.

Even if he had taken the Nine Heaven Fire Soul Bullet, it wouldn’t explode if it didn’t go off. Dam-ho had no way to detonate the Nine Heaven Fire Soul Bullet inside his body. That’s why he could laugh. He had that much viciousness in him.

Blood vessels bulged on Dong Hwa-woon’s forehead. With bloodshot red eyes, he glared at Dam-ho.

“Now what are you going to do?”

“Are you sure?”

“About what?”

“That it really won’t explode?”

“What do you mean?”

An inexplicable sense of foreboding made Dong Hwa-woon’s eyes widen.

CRACK!

At that moment, Dam-ho’s fist exploded into Dong Hwa-woon’s abdomen.

“Gack! It’s useless…”

WHOOSH!

Suddenly flames shot up from Dong Hwa-woon’s throat. It was hellfire.

“AAAAHHH!”

Dong Hwa-woon screamed as he rolled on the ground. But his screams quickly disappeared. The hellfire had burned his vocal cords first.

Engulfed in hellfire, Dong Hwa-woon looked up at Dam-ho.

‘How?’

Even in the hellish pain that burned his entire body, he was looking at Dam-ho with puzzled eyes.

He couldn’t understand how the Nine Heaven Fire Soul Bullet had exploded inside his body when he hadn’t deployed his sound technique.

‘How on earth?’

But his questions were brief, and soon he writhed in agony.

If he had been an ordinary person, his life would have ended by now. Like the villagers he had burned to death until now.

But he wasn’t an ordinary person. He was the owner of internal energy powerful enough to deploy protective energy. Such powerful internal energy barely kept him alive in the hellfire. But because of that, he had to taste even more hellish pain. With vivid consciousness.

“Ah!”

“Hmm!”

Eum Yu-kyung and Shin Moo-wol let out sighs watching that scene.

Dong Hwa-woon didn’t understand, but they who objectively watched the situation could tell that Dam-ho had used a type of penetrating energy.

Intense penetrating energy had clearly destroyed the iron ball inside Dong Hwa-woon’s body and caused the hellfire.

Dong Hwa-woon died in hellish pain. The two couldn’t bear to watch that scene to the end. But Dam-ho didn’t take his eyes off the dying Dong Hwa-woon for even a moment.

His face was dyed red by the flames that arose from Dong Hwa-woon’s body. He only looked at Eum Yu-kyung and Shin Moo-wol after Dong Hwa-woon became a handful of ash.

“Ten Soldiers?”

“That’s right.”

“Now nine remain.”

“……”

“Broken weapons…”

At Dam-ho’s words, Eum Yu-kyung and Shin Moo-wol flinched. They couldn’t say anything.

Dam-ho walked toward them. Close enough to feel his breath.

“What are you afraid of?”

“Well…”

“Is it ghosts of the past? Or the thorny path waiting ahead?”

Eum Yu-kyung and Shin Moo-wol couldn’t say anything. Throughout Dam-ho’s confrontation with Dong Hwa-woon, they had done nothing.

Dong Hwa-woon was their childhood selves. Filled with rage, and what they had abandoned.

Dam-ho’s cold voice continued.

“If you’re afraid, go back.”

“I…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The two people flared up.

“There are still nine more guys like this left. Can you face them with that mindset?”

“We can face them.”

“That’s right!”

Eum Yu-kyung and Shin Moo-wol answered convulsively. In their eyes was a subtle anger.

Dam-ho looked into their eyes and said:

“If this kind of situation happens again in the future, I’ll kill you first.”

“……”

His killing intent was sincere.

‘What on earth?’

The two people’s bodies began to tremble. Even though they raised their internal energy, their bodies didn’t calm down easily. Dam-ho’s killing intent was that frightening.

Only then did the two people feel they could understand the fear of Dong Hwa-woon who had to face Dam-ho.

Having said what he needed to say, Dam-ho turned around. But the two people couldn’t move easily.

The name Dam-ho was pressing down on their shoulders like Mount Tai.

***

“Cough!”

The old man vomited blood. Then a considerable amount of blood poured out, staining his chest. The man beside him hurriedly supported him.

He asked carefully.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

The old man said while wiping the blood flowing from his mouth.

Though he said he was fine, his complexion wasn’t very bright. His face was pale as paper without a drop of blood, and his vitality was weakened, making him constantly gasp for rough breaths.

The man said.

“You’re very tired. Please rest a little.”

“There’s no time for that.”

“Time can be made. If you don’t rest now, it will actually be delayed.”

The old man looked at the man.

He had an honest face that didn’t match his seven-foot tall frame. But if you looked closely at the honest face, you could see lion-like intimidating eyes and tightly closed lips.

“Yul-cheon.”

“Please speak, Wind Moon Emperor.”

“Alright. I’ll do as you say.”

“You’ve thought well.”

The large man answering with a smile was none other than Geom Yul-cheon. He had called the old man who vomited blood Wind Moon Emperor.

The old man’s name was Dan Gong-wol. But hardly anyone in the current era remembered that name. Many people called him by his alias Wind Moon Emperor, and even that was rarely remembered after such a long time had passed.

Dan Gong-wol sat down on a fairly flat rock.

“Whew!”

Dan Gong-wol quietly sighed and then was greatly startled.

Usually he was someone who absolutely never sighed. He had never shown a weak appearance under any circumstances. Even when his life was hanging by a thread.

The very fact that he was sighing was proof that he had weakened. And indeed, he had weakened.

Dan Gong-wol raised his head to look at Geom Yul-cheon.

Unlike himself, Geom Yul-cheon still maintained a solid appearance. An unwavering appearance that seemed capable of overcoming any trials, firm will, and the vigor of youth that made it possible. Dan Gong-wol envied such youth in Geom Yul-cheon.

“Why are you looking like that?”

Geom Yul-cheon asked for the reason, feeling burdened by Dan Gong-wol’s gaze. Then Dan Gong-wol shook his head.

“It’s nothing!”

“Please practice energy circulation at least. This rest might be the last.”

“No! Even if I practice energy circulation, it won’t help me much now.”

“But…”

“I know my own body best.”

“I… understand.”

Geom Yul-cheon reluctantly nodded.

He was a great senior who had ruled the martial world even before Geom Yul-cheon was born. Though he was old and wounded, his spirit hadn’t disappeared, so he had to be respected.

Dan Gong-wol smiled looking at Geom Yul-cheon.

“Thank you!”

“For what?”

“Thanks to you, I could come this far. That’s why I’m grateful.”

“There’s nothing to be grateful for. Anyone who met you would have done the same.”

“But no one else could have brought me this far like you did.”

Dan Gong-wol’s face looking at Geom Yul-cheon was full of trust. He believed in Geom Yul-cheon that firmly.

On the way here, they were attacked by the Ten Soldiers. Their martial arts were truly formidable. Even if Dan Gong-wol’s body had been intact, it wouldn’t have been easy to face them.

But Geom Yul-cheon had brought the wounded Dan Gong-wol through the encirclement to this place. In the process, he even inflicted serious wounds on several people including Baek On-woo. It was truly impressive martial prowess.

‘This child will surely become an absolute master of the martial world.’

Dan Gong-wol was certain of this.

He suddenly turned his head to look at the mountain visible in the distance.

The season was already approaching the threshold of summer. Yet the peak of the mountain visible in the distance was covered with pure white snow.

Snowy mountains with perpetual snow that didn’t melt throughout the four seasons. That place was Dan Gong-wol’s final destination.

Geom Yul-cheon also looked at the snowy mountains.

Though it was far away, he could already feel the cold air of the snowy mountains.

When Geom Yul-cheon first met Dan Gong-wol, he was truly in tatters. He was dying from injuries that were difficult to recover from.

He was a complete stranger he was seeing for the first time. If he had wanted to, he could have easily ignored him. But he couldn’t do that because of Dan Gong-wol’s eyes.

He could see earnest desire and obsession that absolutely couldn’t be seen as the eyes of someone dying. That’s why he extended a helping hand.

He gave him the spiritual medicine he had to help him recover somewhat. It was only later that he learned the person he saved was Wind Moon Emperor.

‘Four Divine Emperors.’

It was now a forgotten legend.

Beings that had existed as legends for so long that even Geom Yul-cheon wouldn’t have recalled them if he hadn’t met Dan Gong-wol.

Dan Gong-wol was one corner of that legend.

A legendary martial artist called by the alias Wind Moon Emperor.

He was wind, and he was moon.

He was free like the wind, and like the moon, he was an existence that gently illuminated all places in the world.

He loved elegance and was more angry at injustice than anyone. That’s why he was respected by everyone, and he was an existence who knew how to return the respect he received as love.

The alias Wind Moon Emperor was the greatest tribute that martial world people offered to such Dan Gong-wol.

Dan Gong-wol lived freely all his life. Like his alias Wind Moon Emperor, like wind, like moonlight.

If the Righteous-Demonic War hadn’t broken out, he would have lived like that all his life and died quietly. But unfortunately, war broke out between the Demon Cult and the martial world, and Dan Gong-wol’s wishes turned to bubbles.

Eventually Dan Gong-wol jumped into the war with the Demon Cult and established remarkable reputation. His fame grew like a snowball, and there was no one among martial world people who didn’t respect him.

At some point, he had become a member of the Four Divine Emperors.

Blood Light Death God Ho Cheon-san.

Wind Moon Emperor Dan Gong-wol.

Western Queen Mother Yong Hwa-seol.

Iron Blood War God Lee Gwan.

They were those who achieved the most remarkable merit in the war with the Demon Cult, and they were known as the strongest throughout the orthodox martial world at that time.

The existence of four such people was the rise and fall of the martial world. Because they existed, the martial world could gain the upper hand in the war with the Demon Cult.

The martial world united solidly around the Four Divine Emperors and drove the Demon Cult from the martial world. Thus Dan Gong-wol became a true legend of the martial world.

But from Geom Yul-cheon’s standpoint, Dan Gong-wol was a mortal enemy.

Though he had left the Demon Cult and was walking an independent path, his roots were in the Demon Cult.

If the Four Divine Emperors hadn’t existed, if Dan Gong-wol hadn’t existed, Geom Yul-cheon might not have had to walk such a difficult path as now.

Yet he stayed with Dan Gong-wol. Because Dan Gong-wol’s brief words moved him.

—Please help me reveal the truth.

Those words moved Geom Yul-cheon. That’s why he came this far. Overcoming countless difficulties and lines of death.

Geom Yul-cheon’s eyes looking at the snowy mountains sank heavily.

‘The truth is in that place?’

It was when strength naturally entered his fists.

“You…”

Dan Gong-wol called him.

When Geom Yul-cheon looked, Dan Gong-wol smiled and said.

“I want to hear your story.”

“……”

“Even though we’ve traveled together until now, I don’t know you. What kind of person are you?”

Geom Yul-cheon quietly closed his eyes. Images of his childhood passed through his mind like a revolving lantern.

After a long while, his mouth opened.

“I am…”