Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 214 - Aboard a Ship (4)

Chapter 214 – Aboard a Ship (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Moonless Void Sword.

It was the sword move written on the paper Blue Spirit had hidden in the treasury of Corpse Blood Valley.

She had said that the Moonless Void Sword was one of the Five Great Sword Arts that had symbolized the old murim.

‘Ah!’

The trajectories of sword intent drawn across Mok Gyeong-un’s pupils.

Watching them, in Mok Gyeong-un’s mind the peerless swordsman he had seen in the state of selflessness overlapped with the old man before him as the mnemonic formulas etched themselves into memory.

-Chwachwachwak!

The cool sword path, calling to mind the full moon. It produced a thrill so powerful that it eclipsed the memory from back then.

He had experienced the state of selflessness through the imprints of the sword arts Blue Spirit told him to memorize in the treasury of Corpse Blood Valley, but this sword move created a thrill incomparable to any of those.

-Chwak chwak!

‘It is different.’

What shocked Mok Gyeong-un even more was the difference in the sword forms.

Even the sword moves he had seen in the state of selflessness contained no unnecessary sword paths, and each and every sword path had been beautiful while remaining completely focused on killing the opponent.

Yet the sword move the old man displayed went even beyond that and broke free from the very framework of existing sword paths.

‘Ahhh……’

It felt as though he were seeing a new world.

Confucius said that upon reaching seventy, one could follow what the heart desired, go where the heart led, and do what the heart wished without straying from any rule, decorum, system, or principle.

The old man’s sword was just like that.

It had broken free from the framework of existing moves and evolved the move freely.

And yet, astonishingly, it was still the Moonless Void Sword.

‘……..I have never thought of it this way before. So a move can be unfolded like this.’

It completely shattered existing common sense.

Mok Gyeong-un could only admire it from the bottom of his heart.

This was not a sword one could wield simply by imprinting it in the mind and remembering it.

Mok Gyeong-un was not the only one struck by this shock.

Though she no longer possessed a physical body, Blue Spirit too had been an outstanding swordswoman in life, and the moment she saw it, she was shocked and awakened.

‘So this is the sword…’

It was she who, after seeing two forms of the Moonless Sword Skill, had gained an insight and created sword forms of the moon.

Yet seeing this now, a new sword intent bloomed in her mind.

At that moment, a single gap opened between Blue Spirit and Mok Gyeong-un.

Unlike Blue Spirit, who was trapped inside the wooden puppet and watched only the sword move itself in pure form, Mok Gyeong-un was also watching how the surrounding aura moved every time the sword was swung.

That difference could be said to be quite large.

-Swoosh!

After a short while, the old man stopped swinging the sword.

When he stopped, a faint radiance flowed from the blade of the Evil-Answering Sword.

It was as if even the demon sword called the Evil-Answering Sword were paying its respects to the astonishing sword move the old man had displayed.

Looking at that Evil-Answering Sword, the old man opened his mouth.

“Excellent. Thanks to you, this old man’s sword was able to shine all the more.”

-Uuuuuung!

At those words, the Evil-Answering Sword trembled and rang out.

Seeing that, Mok Gyeong-un clicked his tongue inwardly.

If the sword-heart of that demon sword, which was so quick to discriminate among people, reacted like that, then the old man seemed to have mastered the supreme pinnacle of the sword.

The old man looked at Mok Gyeong-un and asked,

“Did you see it?”

“Yes.”

“How much do you remember?”

At those words, Mok Gyeong-un was about to answer that he remembered everything, but then stopped.

He felt that the meaning contained in the old man’s question was not that simple.

Of course he remembered all of it.

He could even reproduce the exact motions the old man had shown.

But that would be nothing more than an outer shell.

So Mok Gyeong-un answered,

“I do not remember it clearly.”

At that, the old man’s eyes narrowed.

Inwardly, he was surprised.

He had shown Mok Gyeong-un the sword, but had thought there would be limits to what the young man could comprehend.

Yet he had not expected such an answer from him.

“You do not remember it clearly?”

“No.”

“……..I see.”

The corner of the old man’s mouth twitched.

He had thought that, for one who handled the sword, this alone would be enough of a repayment.

Yet it seemed the man’s aptitude exceeded even what he had imagined.

So the old man lifted the sword again.

Then,

“Then look again.”

-Chwachwachwachwachwak!

Again, just as before, he unfolded a sword dance.

Yet as before, the trajectories of sword intent were beautiful beyond words.

What had changed, however, was that the sword path had grown even simpler.

If before it had been the full moon at its height, now it was as though it had become a half-moon, the sword form becoming simpler and yet clearer.

Unlike before, the sword move now ended at only about half its former extent.

After lowering the sword, the blade of the Evil-Answering Sword trembled even faster.

The old man asked Mok Gyeong-un,

“And how is it now?”

“…….Even while watching it, I cannot remember it.”

Hearing that, the old man’s lips curled higher.

Then he once more took the Evil-Answering Sword and formed a stance.

“I see. Then watch once more.”

No sooner had those words ended than the old man displayed the sword move yet again.

This time the sword move was markedly different from the last.

It was even simpler, to the point that it was no longer especially beautiful, but closer to simply swinging the sword.

And yet Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes did not leave the path of sword intent.

His gaze looked as though he had fallen into the state of selflessness.

-Chwak!

The old man’s sword ended even more quickly than the second time.

It had not even reached half of that.

After finishing the swing like this, the old man stared directly into Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes and asked,

“How is it?”

At that, Mok Gyeong-un let out a long breath.

Seeing that, the old man’s eyes lit up even more.

He was able to tell, from that single breath alone, that Mok Gyeong-un had gone with him.

At last, Mok Gyeong-un spoke.

“My aptitude is lacking. Even after seeing it with my own eyes, I forgot it all.”

‘!!!!!’

Hearing that, the old man burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahahahahahahaha!”

After laughing for a long time, the old man finally stopped and said to Mok Gyeong-un,

“I only meant to offer a small repayment, yet this has become amusing.”

“……..For a small repayment, it seems excessive.”

“This too must be your fortune.”

At the old man’s words, Mok Gyeong-un was suddenly reminded of it.

For some strange reason, he had felt the Moonless Void Sword from the old man’s sword, and had sensed it overlapping with the peerless swordsman he had seen within the mnemonic formulas in the treasury of Corpse Blood Valley.

So he wanted to ask.

“Elder, could it be that the Moonless…”

“Huh huh huh. I nearly took this with me by accident.”

“What?”

-Srrng! Clack!

Before Mok Gyeong-un could even ask, the old man cut him off and sheathed the Evil-Answering Sword.

Then he tossed the sword toward Mok Gyeong-un.

When Mok Gyeong-un lightly caught it, the old man said,

“It seems I have repaid enough, and it seems you need to digest that as well, so this old man will take his leave now.”

“What?”

At that, Mok Gyeong-un frowned.

They were still in the middle of the river, so where exactly was he planning to go?

With a current this fierce, no matter how strong an internal martial arts master was, he could not help but be swept away.

So Mok Gyeong-un said,

“Would it not be better to disembark after the boat reaches shore?”

“This old man is not heading for the opposite bank.”

“But this is…”

“It is all right. And do not cling too much to a passing fate.”

With those words, the old man placed the bamboo fishing rod on his shoulder and moved to step toward the deck.

It was utter madness.

Mok Gyeong-un could not let him go like this when he had not even learned his identity yet.

So he moved to stop the old man.

“Eld…”

-Srrk!

At that instant, the old man’s figure disappeared.

At once, Mok Gyeong-un hurled his body toward the deck the old man had been heading for.

Then he looked outside the boat, but could see nothing at all.

No matter how dark the river was or how violently the rain was falling, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyesight differed from that of ordinary people.

And yet there was nothing visible around him.

‘…….What in the world?’

Could he really have been a living human?

He had vanished in an instant, and there was no way of knowing where he had gone.

-Blue Spirit, did you see?

-………

At that, Mok Gyeong-un asked Blue Spirit.

But Blue Spirit gave no answer.

Thinking that something had gone wrong, he touched the wooden puppet in his robes, yet she remained sealed inside it.

That meant she was lost in thought so deeply she could not even hear him.

‘Did Blue Spirit also realize something after seeing that?’

It seemed likely.

In truth, he himself wanted to sort out what the old man had shown him just now.

After looking around for a long time and failing to find any trace of the old man, Mok Gyeong-un gave up and sat down cross-legged on the deck.

Then he closed his eyes and from the beginning recalled the sword the old man had shown.

* * *

The bow of the ship.

Seop Chun, Third Guard Captain of the Heaven and Earth Society’s main hall, gulped down the liquor from the bottle gourd Ja Geum-jeong, the vow-breaking monk, had handed him.

“Kheu. This is killing.”

“Heh heh heh. You do know your liquor.”

“Hahahaha! If one does not know liquor, can one even be called a man? Standing on a ship tilting as if it may overturn, drinking under the pounding rain, the taste is exquisite.”

“Liquor is best drunk in a place like this.”

“Well said.”

“Then one more drink in that spirit!”

-Gulp gulp!

“Hey now. Is that one drink? Are you planning to drink it all by yourself? Let me have some too.”

The two got along absurdly well.

Before long they had even put arms around each other’s shoulders, drinking a mouthful at a time in high spirits.

Watching them, Mong Mu-yak, the vice society leader’s son, clicked his tongue.

‘Idiots.’

With the rain pouring down like this, could they even tell whether the liquor was entering through the nose or the mouth?

In any case, they were men who did not suit him.

As he was looking down on them like that, it happened.

-Thunk!

At once Mong Mu-yak closed his eyes and collapsed to the floor.

And it was not only him.

Even Seop Chun and Ja Geum-jeong, who had been linking shoulders in high spirits, closed their eyes and lay down on the floor, falling asleep.

Seeing that, Ha Yun, the resentful spirit holding the rudder, furrowed its brow.

It was strange that they had all collapsed at once so suddenly.

Then,

“I nearly forgot you.”

At the voice beside him, the resentful spirit Ha Yun was so startled that it turned its head at once.

There stood the old man in the bamboo rain cloak, a bamboo fishing rod resting on his shoulder.

Seeing him, Ha Yun immediately tried to kneel on the floor.

-Elder!

But before it could do so, the old man shook his head and stopped the resentful spirit Ha Yun from kneeling.

Then the old man said,

“If this old man had been a little more attentive, your grave would never have been dug up. I am sorry.”

-No. How could that be your fault, Elder? It happened because I lacked virtue.

At that, the old man shook his head.

“Even after all this time, you remain the same. It should be time for you to let yourself go.”

-No. I still deserve more punishment.

“Do not be like that. That child would not have wished this for you either.”

-………

The resentful spirit Ha Yun bowed its head in silence, its eyes bitter.

The old man patted its shoulder as if in encouragement.

Then the resentful spirit Ha Yun raised its head again and said,

-Forgive me. Your grief should run deeper than mine, Elder, yet you still comfort this wretched one. I can only be moved.

“There is no need to be moved. Do you understand?”

-……..

“In any case, the matter was safely resolved, and after seeing your face again for the first time in a long while, this old man should now be going.”

At those words, the resentful spirit Ha Yun could not hide its sorrow.

It had hoped this year too not to see the old man, yet not once had he failed to come every ten years to tend the grave and the shrine.

For Ha Yun, that was not such a bad thing, but for the old man it was not so.

-……Have you still not found them?

At that question, the old man shook his head.

“It is not easy.”

-Then perhaps I should obtain the body of some suitable human and assist you, Elde…

“No. What helps this old man is for you to stop driving yourself so hard and go to a better place.”

-……..Elder.

“There is no need to be so troubled. Today I am in a good mood because old memories returned.”

At that, the resentful spirit Ha Yun asked in puzzlement,

-By old memories, you mean?

“I greeted the young man who carried out what this old man meant to do, and it made me think of that one again.”

‘!?’

At those words, a strange light appeared in the eyes of the resentful spirit Ha Yun.

-By that one, do you mean your son-in-law?

At that, the old man gave a faint smile.

It was a sign of affirmation.

At that sight, the resentful spirit Ha Yun could not suppress its inward shock.

It had been a truly long time since that person had been mentioned by the old man himself.

That meant the old man too had judged that unusual young man very highly…

-For him to remind you of that person, is he truly to that degree?

At that question, the old man recalled the earlier scene and said in a meaningful voice,

“In terms of talent alone, he was enough to make even that one pale.”