Chapter 50
A Tear’s Worth of Internal Energy (1)
“How are you feeling? Is your body doing any better?”
Ak So-gun came to visit ten days later.
By then, Baek So-cheon could barely manage to sit up. Even so, he could not sit without support and had to lean against the wall.
“Alliance Leader, please forgive my discourtesy.”
“What are you talking about? Lie down and make yourself comfortable.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“I deliberately stayed away because I was afraid my visit might interfere with your treatment.”
His voice was calm, and his gaze was gentle.
The Alliance Leader was the sort of person who made others feel at ease simply by being near him.
Ever since Baek So-cheon had first formally greeted him after becoming the leader of the Iron Sword Corps, Ak So-gun had always been a source of strength to him.
“So-cheon.”
“Yes.”
Ak So-gun took Baek So-cheon’s hand.
“Thanks to you, the war is over. The Cheokcheon Alliance has proposed a ceasefire.”
Ak So-gun’s voice was full of joy as he delivered the news.
Baek So-cheon, however, gave an unexpected response.
“You must not accept the ceasefire.”
“What do you mean, we must not?”
“The Leader of the Black Heaven Alliance was severely injured in his fight with me. You must finish him now.”
“Are you saying we should continue the war? Have the sacrifices we have already suffered not been enough for you?”
“No. Please do not misunderstand me. What I mean is that the Leader of the Cheokcheon Alliance will eventually start another war anyway. When that happens, we will suffer even greater losses than if we finish things now.”
“How do you know that? Did he tell you he intended to start another war?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“It is my intuition.”
Ak So-gun released Baek So-cheon’s hand, his expression hardening.
“We cannot restart a war that has already ended based on nothing more than intuition.”
His reaction was so strong that Baek So-cheon did not speak of it again.
“I understand, Alliance Leader.”
“You must be tired. Get some rest. I will come again.”
Ak So-gun rose and left the room.
Baek So-cheon wanted to tell him that he had not meant it that way, but the anger visible in Ak So-gun’s retreating figure kept him silent.
Had the Alliance Leader ever become this angry before?
Was saying that they should take this opportunity to end the war truly enough to provoke such fury?
Suddenly, Baek So-cheon remembered the red point he had seen in Ak So-gun’s pupil that day.
***
Ten days later, Baek So-cheon was able to leave his room for the first time.
Of course, he still could not walk. He had to sit in a wheeled chair that someone pushed from behind.
Physicians passing through the courtyard bowed respectfully to him.
“We are glad you survived.”
“It is thanks to all of you physicians.”
This was the medical clinic inside the Alliance headquarters, overseen by the Divine Physician.
When Baek So-cheon went out into the clinic’s rear courtyard and looked up at the sky, the suffocating feeling in his chest eased somewhat.
As he gazed at the clear, cloudless sky, the long war seemed almost like a dream.
But it had not been a dream.
Just as someone who had lost a leg might suffer phantom pain, Baek So-cheon would often instinctively attempt to draw up his internal energy, only to scream from the resulting agony.
At that moment, Ak So-gun entered the courtyard with his guards.
He dismissed the person pushing the chair and took hold of it himself.
“Your body is too precious for this. You are making me uncomfortable.”
“It is fine. You are not just anyone.”
“Alliance Leader.”
“I am sorry I lost my temper the last time we spoke.”
“No. I was the one who misspoke.”
“No, I was wrong. It was only natural for you to say such a thing. I was overly sensitive.”
“That is not true.”
On the day Ak So-gun had left in anger, Baek So-cheon had resented him deeply.
After thinking it over, however, he could understand the Alliance Leader’s burden.
As the man responsible for leading the righteous martial artists, Ak So-gun must have wanted to end the war even a single day sooner for everyone’s sake.
“I heard everything from the Divine Physician. Do not worry. I will search every corner of the Central Plains if I must, but I will find a way to heal you.”
“Your words alone mean a great deal to me.”
His sincerity was unmistakable.
“So-cheon.”
When they were alone, Ak So-gun would sometimes call him by his given name like this.
“Yes, Alliance Leader.”
“Thank you. You saved us all.”
Yet after that day, Ak So-gun did not visit Baek So-cheon for quite some time.
That did not mean he had abandoned him entirely.
Baek So-cheon was given a great reward, and he was still allowed to retain his position as Master of the Secret Pavilion.
From the Alliance Leader’s ambiguous behavior, Baek So-cheon considered two possibilities.
The first was that Ak So-gun had fallen victim to a soul-controlling art.
If the Alliance Leader had been afflicted by some sorcery like soul manipulation, Baek So-cheon had to help free him.
However, that possibility seemed unlikely.
Aside from his relationship with Baek So-cheon, Ak So-gun continued handling every other matter just as competently as before.
The timing also did not fit.
After the Leader of the Cheokcheon Alliance had torn out Baek So-cheon’s dantian and departed, Ak So-gun had immediately rushed to the scene.
When could anyone have ensnared him?
Had it happened after Baek So-cheon lost consciousness?
Had another person done it?
Or was there some other explanation?
It was the second possibility that tormented Baek So-cheon.
That the Alliance Leader had discarded him because he was no longer useful.
If that were true, then leaving him in the position of Secret Pavilion Master was likely only for the sake of appearances.
The thought that he had been abandoned deeply wounded his pride and filled him with unbearable anger.
It was truly miserable.
After everything he had done.
After fighting so tirelessly for the Murim Alliance and the entire martial world...
A bleak thought came to him.
Perhaps his unconscious mind simply refused to accept that he had been discarded, so he had invented fantasies about soul-manipulation arts and other conspiracies.
There was one more source of anguish added to the confusion caused by those two possibilities.
The torment of losing his internal energy.
He had not been an ordinary martial artist.
He had once been the greatest martial artist under heaven, and now his internal energy was gone.
That was why Baek So-cheon’s wandering during the first year had been true aimlessness.
There had been no intention behind it.
It had been pure, directionless wandering.
Through that wandering, Baek So-cheon came to understand something.
He had been called a hero because he was good at fighting.
Without that strength, he was merely an ordinary human being.
His wandering after that, however, had been somewhat deliberate.
Even if there is only the slightest chance...
If it was true that the Alliance Leader had fallen victim to a soul-controlling art, Baek So-cheon might be the only person capable of saving him.
He could not allow his wounded pride to make him ignore the possibility that Ak So-gun was truly in danger.
In that case, he needed to step down from his elevated position.
If there was a conspiracy, whoever was behind it would likely try to eliminate him while he occupied an important seat.
That was why his later misconduct and demotions had also been partly intentional.
Even while unconscious and lost in a deep sleep, Baek So-cheon continued recalling only events connected to that day.
***
Swoooosh.
After being immersed in six different medicinal liquids, Baek So-cheon was finally lifted from the last one.
Ban Yun-saeng carefully washed his body and laid him on the bed.
Then he covered Baek So-cheon’s entire body in a medicinal paste.
After inserting a thin tube into his mouth to create an airway, he covered him completely.
All that remained now was to wait.
Ban Yun-saeng had done everything he could.
He had staked everything on this single Great Art.
It was also the stage upon which the correctness of his entire life would be judged.
Not only Baek So-cheon’s fate, but Ban Yun-saeng’s own fate depended upon it.
Heavens above, please take pity on this old man and allow the Great Art to succeed!
***
“The operation has failed!”
The carefully planned Iron Sword Corps operation ended in failure, and the First Unit of the Iron Sword Corps became trapped within the Cheokcheon Alliance’s inescapable net.
The enemy flooded the surrounding area like enraged ants pouring from a disturbed nest.
When eighteen experts from the Cheokcheon Alliance appeared before them, they realized that they had walked into a perfect trap.
“Commander, you must at least escape!”
But Baek So-cheon, who had broken through the inescapable net to save his subordinates, refused to abandon them.
He fought with everything he had.
Squelch!
After piercing an opponent’s heart, Baek So-cheon yanked out his blood-red sword and shouted,
“Who’s next? Come at me!”
Thirteen experts stood before Baek So-cheon.
Five corpses had already gone cold.
It was the kind of situation that appeared often in stories of the martial world.
The kind of boast men commonly made while drinking.
A battle of one against eighteen.
Yet not even the greatest braggart would ever casually name these eighteen men as his opponents.
They were the most infamous swordsmen in the Cheokcheon Alliance.
The Eighteen Ghost Swords.
It was the moment when the Eighteen Ghost Swords became the Thirteen Ghost Swords.
“Come on! Come at me, you bastards!”
Blood flowed from Baek So-cheon’s mouth as he brandished his sword and roared.
He had suffered severe injuries while killing five of the Ghost Swords.
His pale face showed that his internal energy was almost completely exhausted.
This had been before he became the greatest martial artist under heaven, back when he was still Commander of the Iron Sword Corps.
He had not yet been the greatest under heaven, but it had been the height of his rise.
Despite his pale face, Baek So-cheon remained imposing.
“Who wants to come first? You? Or you?”
None of the thirteen experts moved.
They could feel that whoever stepped forward would die.
They believed they would only be able to kill Baek So-cheon after three or perhaps four more of them had died.
Even if they attacked together, two or three would certainly perish.
Baek So-cheon had proven that with his own skill only moments earlier.
The surviving Ghost Swords exchanged wary glances.
This was a golden opportunity to kill the Commander of the Murim Alliance’s Iron Sword Corps.
“I can take at least five more of you with me.”
“That would be impossible in your condition.”
“Then why don’t you test that yourself?”
Still, none dared to step forward.
They had just watched him kill five comrades who were equal to them in skill.
Baek So-cheon advanced.
“Either get lost or attack.”
At that moment—
Bang! Bang!
Fireworks exploded nearby.
It was the signal that the Iron Sword Corps martial artists had broken through the inescapable net and were approaching.
In the end, the thirteen surviving Ghost Swords withdrew.
The moment they disappeared from sight, Baek So-cheon vomited a large mouthful of blood.
His startled subordinates were about to cry out, but Baek So-cheon quietly stopped them.
If the enemy realized how severe his internal injuries were, they would return.
He swallowed the blood in his mouth and started walking.
“Let’s go.”
He managed only a few steps before staggering and nearly collapsing.
Two subordinates supported him from either side.
One of those two was Hwang Il-bi.
Back when Hwang Il-bi was a new recruit in the Iron Sword Corps, Baek So-cheon had been its commander.
“...I need to sleep for a while.”
Baek So-cheon’s eyes slowly closed.
“Commander!”
“It’s fine. I’m fine. I won’t die...”
He fell asleep.
“Please don’t die!”
“You cannot leave us!”
Their retreating footsteps quickened.
This battle would later become the decisive victory that earned Baek So-cheon his promotion to Master of the Secret Pavilion.
Hwang Il-bi shouted desperately,
“Please open your eyes!”
***
Baek So-cheon’s eyes snapped open.
It was not a dream he usually had.
It was a dream from the days when he had been at the height of his glory.
Why had he dreamed of that particular day?
For some time now, his dreams had only been about the day he fought the Leader of the Cheokcheon Alliance and what happened afterward.
He had dreamed only of the leaders of the Murim Alliance and the Cheokcheon Alliance.
When he tried to sit up, his entire body hurt as though he had been beaten.
It felt just like the day he had regained consciousness in the Alliance clinic after the war ended.
Mud covered his body, the bed, and the floor.
When Baek So-cheon sat up, he saw Ban Yun-saeng sitting dazedly in front of him.
Upon seeing that Baek So-cheon had awakened, Ban Yun-saeng spoke tearfully.
“I am sorry. I am truly sorry.”
He had poured everything into the procedure, yet it had produced no results.
He had used everything he had studied, researched, and learned throughout his life, yet Baek So-cheon remained unchanged.
The fact that he had regained consciousness at all was already something to be thankful for.
“I am glad you survived.”
But for Ban Yun-saeng, this was the moment his entire life was denied.
He had performed the Great Art on the most suitable person imaginable, yet it had still failed.
That meant the Great Art itself had been flawed from the beginning.
What have I been doing with my life?
He could think of nothing except that his life had been wasted.
It felt as though he had awakened from a dream only to discover himself standing naked in the marketplace.
That was why everyone had called his claims madness.
That was why everyone had distanced themselves from him.
Everyone except him had known.
They had all known that this would be the result.
After silently examining his own body for a long while, Baek So-cheon slowly spoke.
“Please do not cry.”
His deep, quiet voice echoed through the cave.
Ban Yun-saeng, who had been hanging his head, looked up.
Seeing the old man’s eyes filled with tears, Baek So-cheon spoke in a trembling voice.
“Your Body Reformation failed... but the body reformation I wanted succeeded.”
“...What?”
It was not the legendary Body Reformation in which one’s bones, skeleton, and internal meridians were completely transformed.
Yet something inside Baek So-cheon had changed.
Behind the place where his dantian had been torn away, something new now existed.
As though his desperate wish had somehow been answered, a new dantian had miraculously formed.
And as if to tell him that he could now begin accumulating internal energy there, he could feel an exceedingly faint trace of power within it.
It was no greater than the teardrop hanging from the corner of Ban Yun-saeng’s eye.
Now Baek So-cheon understood why he had dreamed of the days when he had been at his peak.
That single drop of internal energy had created the dream.
It had called back the glorious days his unconscious mind had struggled to bury.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Baek So-cheon said,
“Elder, I can feel internal energy inside my body.”
It was an incredibly small amount.
But it was the first internal energy he had felt in three years.