#74: Those Who Come Are Not Kind, Those Who Are Kind Do Not Come. — A Dragon Lives in Kunlun

When he returned to Cheonghae Village, all Gyo-ha saw were rotting corpses and pitch-black ash.

Birds had flown in to peck at the corpses, but took to the air when Gyo-ha approached.

Degeureureu.

A wine bottle rolled along.

He was too late.

Many of the moored boats were gone as well.

Then a faint sound reached Gyo-ha’s ear.

There was someone alive.

One house looked intact, unlike the others.

Gyo-ha walked in that direction.

It was not just one presence.

He could hear two men chatting all the way from outside.

Gyo-ha opened the door.

“Hey, what took you so long? Some random guys from the Alliance came earlier. What are we supposed to do if everything ends before…”

One of the men frowned when he saw Gyo-ha.

“Wh-who are you?”

But Gyo-ha was not looking at him. People were huddled in a corner.

Both men and women had been stripped naked.

The men seemed to have been beaten, with not a single uninjured spot left on their bodies..

The women looked more intact than the men, but they were even worse off.

Their faces and eyes were filled with nothing but despair.

Not one of them even turned their eyes when Gyo-ha came in.

It was hard to believe they were the same people who had greeted him with bright smiles in the village.

Gyo-ha bit down hard on his lip.

“What are you supposed to be!”

The man who had spoken drew his saber.

At that moment.

Kwaang!

The man’s head vanished.

Gyo-ha slowly turned his head. Only then did the other men react.

One man dead left three.

As one of them charged in, Gyo-ha reached out his hand.

He grabbed the hand holding the saber and twisted it.

“Gyaah!”

The man screamed.

Metal hilt and flesh tangled together. Gyo-ha did not stop there and slammed his knee into him.

As his knee buckled, the man collapsed.

Seizing that opening, a saber thrust for the space between Gyo-ha’s brows.

He twisted his body and the blade slammed into the door.

Pak!

The door split apart and the saber came whistling back.

But snagging on the door had slowed it.

In such a cramped space, bare hands were better than a saber. Of course, if you had overwhelming power, pillars and walls did not matter anyway.

But his opponents did not have that kind of power.

Gyo-ha drove his fist into the man’s elbow.

“Khuk!”

With the impact, bone punched through flesh.

Then he broke his leg in the same way.

In truth, he could have killed both of them if he had wanted to.

But he had not.

When he turned his head, the last man flinched.

“W-we are…”

“I know you are from the Lake Tai Gang.”

At the calm reply, the man’s face twisted, but he soon steeled himself and stepped forward.

Of course, the result was no different.

He writhed on the floor like the other two.

“…Be-nefactor?”

Someone recognized Gyo-ha.

Only then did the people huddled in the corner raise their heads.

“…I am sorry.”

It was not Gyo-ha’s fault, yet he could not deny that things had escalated because he had intervened.

At his apology, people’s eyes grew red.

“What should we do with them?”

Gyo-ha pointed at the fallen men.

There was only one reason he had not killed them. There were others who needed to take revenge.

Hatred rose in the eyes of the survivors.

Their gazes turned vicious.

Even if they chewed them alive the way those men had done, their resentment would not fade.

At that moment.

“…Benefactor, I am ashamed yet I must ask. Just because beasts bite us, we cannot bite like beasts ourselves.”

The one who seemed to be the eldest stepped forward.

At his words, the men forced down their anger.

He was right.

Gyo-ha nodded and dragged the fallen men outside.

Some turned their heads away, unable to stand the sight, but most followed after him.

They wanted to see how it ended.

Gyo-ha finished them off one by one.

Very slowly.

So they could feel pain as they died.

This was all he could do for them.

Then he hurled the corpses far outside the village so beasts could eat them.

Letting out a brief sigh, Gyo-ha looked back at the villagers.

They stood dazed, staring at their burned-out village and the bodies strewn everywhere.

But there was still something Gyo-ha had to do.

“…I am sorry, but I have a favor to ask.”

At his words the villagers lifted their heads. Gyo-ha spoke to them.

“I would like to take a boat to Mount Putuo.”

If there were no fog, he could have swum there if he had to. But with the fog, that was impossible.

In theory it might still have been possible, but the risk was too great.

He could not gamble in that way.

At his words, the villagers looked at one another.

Fear surfaced on their faces.

It was only natural.

They knew where the ones who had done this to their village had gone.

If they went to Mount Putuo, the same thing might happen to them.

Seeing them hesitate, Gyo-ha scratched his cheek.

‘…Looks like I will have to swim.’

He could not force them into something they feared.

He nodded and was about to turn away when someone among the crowd raised a hand.

“I will take you.”

“Eun-sil!”

It was a young woman. People tried to stop her.

But she turned to them and spoke.

“My husband is already dead. I have no intention of serving a new man. I will enter Mount Putuo. If Mount Putuo burns, I will lay down my life there as well.”

At her words, the villagers fell silent.

“You do not even know how to read the currents. What makes you think you can handle a boat? You think a transport ship is the same as a fishing boat?”

“Uncle.”

A middle-aged man scolded her.

Then he looked at Gyo-ha and spoke.

“I will go. I am the fastest in this village.”

Several people nodded.

“Uncle, but…”

“You expect to go in that state? You are my only niece left, I cannot send you off like that. If it is to be the last time, you should go looking pretty.”

The young woman swallowed a sob.

The man looked at her, then turned to an old man.

“Elder Brother, lend me your boat. Yours is the sturdiest.”

“Use it as you like.”

The man nodded and turned back to Gyo-ha.

“Get on. I am going to see for myself how those bastards die.”

His voice shook with rage.

Gyo-ha nodded at his words.

And so Gyo-ha boarded the boat with the man.

The Putuo Sect.

It had only made its name known in the Central Plains a few decades ago, but its history was long.

Mount Luojia and Mount Putuo were Buddhist holy lands said to have been the abode of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva.

Once, the mountains had been filled with temples and shrines.

But as the Wokou pirates¹ rampaged, their numbers dwindled.

In the end, it became hard to find monks on Mount Putuo at all.

But not all monks were like that.

Some had endured the age of turmoil wielding a single sword instead of prayer beads.

They were the Zhushan Sword Sect.

They fought the pirates and began protecting women, and those women in turn gathered and formed a community.

That was the beginning of the Putuo Sect.

For that reason, the Putuo Sect had disciples who practiced only the Buddhist dharma, and sword disciples who trained in sword arts.

The sword disciples stood high upon the mountain, gazing out past the sea.

Iron swords that did not match their worn monastic robes hung at their waists.

“Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva.”

Someone recited a Buddhist phrase.

Yet it also voiced the feelings of them all.

Mist floated above the sea.

It was clearly a bad omen.

And then.

“So something has happened in the village after all.”

It had been only a day since they had seen smoke beyond the mist.

Now they could see boats coming, skirting around the fog.

It was visible to the eyes of a few who had trained in the eye techniques.

They were not coming to fish as usual.

There were not only people on the boats, but horses as well.

“Those who come are not kind, and those who are kind do not come.”

Those who come here are not good, and those who are good do not come.

Mount Putuo was a forbidden place.

The Putuo Sect did not force anyone to stay away, but those who knew of its circumstances refrained from entering out of respect.

Which was why there was no reason for so many to be coming.

“Sajeo, we must decide now.”

One of the nuns spoke cautiously. The other nuns were all looking to one spot.

A nun sat with her eyes closed.

The old monk, whose face was lined with wrinkles, opened her eyes.

Her eyes were so deep that their bottom could not be guessed.

“Report to the Sect Leader. The Buddhist disciples must be evacuated. The young sword disciples as well.”

At those words, the nuns’ expressions darkened.

It meant the danger was that great.

“The rest of you will come with this old one.”

“Yes.”

She began to walk slowly.

The nuns followed behind her.

As she walked, she lifted her gaze to the sky.

A sky heavy with clouds.

It seemed to foretell their fate.

“Today, I will have to break the Buddhist precepts.”

The old monk murmured softly. Though the nuns heard it, their expressions did not change.

It was something foretold from the day they swore to become sword disciples.

To harbor evil and fall into hell.

For the sake of the wretched in this world, they would bear all evil and fall into hell.

She would be at the very front of that descent.

‘Even if this body is burned in the fires of hell.’

She was the Sword Queen of this generation.

And among the nuns following behind her was Yeon-gyeong.

In accordance with the Sect Leader’s order, the Buddhist disciples evacuated.

Meanwhile, the sword disciples stood on the shore, preparing for the enemy’s arrival.

A grave resolve hung over their faces.

At a glance, the number of people on the boats clearly exceeded theirs.

Sabak, sabak.

At the sound of footsteps, they turned to see an old monk walking toward them.

“Sect Leader.”

“That will do.”

As the sword disciples hurried to press their palms together, the Putuo Sect Leader waved a hand.

“I told you to have me hide, did I not?”

“Ah, just because I am old, you bully your only Sect Leader.”

At the Sect Leader’s retort, the Sword Queen let out a sigh.

The position of Putuo Sect Leader had always been held by a Buddhist disciple.

Sword disciples were sinners who would break the precepts of not killing. They could not be allowed to lead the Buddhist order.

Naturally, not a trace of martial aura could be felt from the Sect Leader’s body.

“With things like this, those who are old should just die. Or do you object because I am younger in years?”

“…Sect Leader.”

Even at the Sword Queen’s quiet call, the Putuo Sect Leader only chuckled.

“Sago². Those here are my martial aunts as well, and my fellow martial siblings. There are even my martial junior disciples.”

The Sect Leader met the eyes of each person standing there.

“I cannot fight at your side, but I can at least chant sutras for you. Who knows. If the King of Yama hears my chanting, he may send me along with you. Even if you fall into hell, it will not be lonely if this old one is there. Is that not so, my martial aunts?”

“True. If our junior, the Sect Leader, is there, we will never be bored.”

The old monks laughed and nodded.

Though they were called juniors, they did not seem much younger than the Sect Leader.

It was because they had trained in martial arts.

Time flowed differently for martial artists than for others.

The Sword Queen, unable to argue further, closed her eyes.

“At the very least, none of you should fall into hell before this old one.”

That did not apply only to the Putuo Sect Leader.

The Sword Queen’s gaze turned to the sword disciples.

Even if you die, die after me.

There was not a single disciple who failed to understand the meaning.

“Our guests are arriving. Let us prepare to greet them.”