Absolute Darkness And The Silence Of Despair (2)

Returning to simplicity meant a stage of hiding the extraordinary within the ordinary. Byeon Bong was confident. Now that he had Neung Je-gang before him, Neung Je-gang did not look that strong.

He thought this. It was only because Neung Je-gang’s assassin-like abilities were outstanding that he had been able to torment him and his subordinates so much until now. In the end, now that he had revealed himself, Byeon Bong thought he would be able to subdue him easily.

But there was something he had forgotten, deceived by Neung Je-gang’s outward appearance. It was the rumor about Neung Je-gang that every martial artist in the Central Plains knew. Wasn’t Neung Je-gang’s true nature that of an absolute master who had learned Heaven-Shattering Thunderbolt Sovereign?

Kunlun’s representative martial arts could be condensed into two types. One was the sword represented by the Taicheong Sword Art, and the other was the lightness art represented by the Cloud-Dragon Nine Forms. But aside from those, Byeon Bong had also hidden away one more secret martial art. It was a bitterly strange martial art that, under normal circumstances, a Taoist figure should never learn: the Violet Lightning Demon Art.

When the Violet Lightning Demon Art was unleashed, it had the effect of forcibly suppressing the opponent’s weapon. Since most martial artists used metal weapons, when they faced the Violet Lightning Demon Art, they were often bewildered by the intense magnetism and then struck down.

When facing an opponent of similar skill, being unable to handle one’s weapon as one wished meant one could already be considered dead.

“Hm?”

Neung Je-gang also felt that sensation. It felt as though the sword fastened at his waist was being pulled away.

Unless Byeon Bong was an absolute master capable of Airborne Object Seizing, there was only one reason.

“It is the Violet Lightning Demon Art.”

“Hehehe! If you know, then just repeat after me that you are dead.”

Byeon Bong’s confidence swelled even further. He thought Neung Je-gang could not even dare draw his sword.

Neung Je-gang put his hand into his robe and took something out. He wrapped it with his sleeve to hide it, then concealed it behind his back. Because of that, he ended up standing with his hands behind his back before his enemy.

Neung Je-gang clicked his tongue toward Byeon Bong.

“Tsk, tsk!”

Byeon Bong thought he was being mocked. To stand with one’s hands behind one’s back at a moment that divided life and death was an attitude that said the opponent was not even worth facing. Rage forced him to attack first.

“Taixu Dragon-Slaughter!”

At last, Byeon Bong’s attack began. The force of the sword energy whirling from his sword flew in as if it would sever Neung Je-gang’s neck in a single stroke.

Swish, swish.

Neung Je-gang calmly moved his body and avoided Byeon Bong’s attack. When he received training at the Eastern Depot’s Depot Martial Academy, he had the opportunity to study analyses of the martial arts of the leading sects of the martial world. Naturally, Kunlun’s martial arts were also among those subjects.

Among them, Kunlun’s Taixu Dragon-Slaughter was included as well. Though powerful, it was a sword art that could not be seen through to the end unless one’s internal energy supported it.

Byeon Bong had devoted his entire life to the Taixu Dragon-Slaughter Sword. It was because he had been fascinated by its strength. However, he had been unable to achieve great completion. He could not cultivate the internal energy that the sword art demanded.

In the end, he had no choice but to learn the Violet Lightning Demon Art. To defeat completed swords with an incomplete sword, he had no choice but to use such an expedient method.

Neung Je-gang avoided Byeon Bong’s sword without difficulty. Unexpectedly, there was no difficulty at all in dodging it. Byeon Bong’s slashes were far slower than he had expected. It felt as though he was having a practice spar.

“Was the Taixu Dragon-Slaughter Sword originally this slow of a sword art?”

Without even considering that he had become faster after reaching the realm of returning to simplicity, Neung Je-gang simply thought the Taixu Dragon-Slaughter Sword had originally been slow.

Hearing Neung Je-gang’s mutter, Byeon Bong spat fire from his eyes. His martial art had been mocked again. His pride as a martial artist was being shattered. The martial art he had refined and polished his entire life was being treated as something insignificant.

“Uwaaaa! Die, die, die!”

Byeon Bong’s slashes became even more intense and faster. It was the result of using every ounce of strength he had.

Papapak, ching!

Neung Je-gang no longer merely dodged. At last, the thing he had hidden behind his back revealed itself.

Its identity was Pungroe, the mysterious short cudgel that had been forced on him by the Black Cloud Demon.

Whatever material Pungroe was made of, it was not affected by the Violet Lightning Demon Art. That was also the reason Neung Je-gang had chosen Pungroe as his weapon. The sword at his waist was trying to be pulled toward Byeon Bong, yet for some reason, Pungroe inside his robe did not even budge. It was not affected by the Violet Lightning Demon Art at all.

Byeon Bong’s sword was knocked away by Pungroe. If it had been a metal weapon, it should have stuck to the sword.

“Wh-what is that?”

Byeon Bong was startled. The Violet Lightning Demon Art was still being operated, yet the dark, grimy weapon lightly knocked away his sword and was not pulled in.

“Who knows? I do not know either. Anyway, you need to be beaten for quite a while. This fellow seems to want that.”

When Pungroe contained internal energy, it emitted force energy. But otherwise, it was just a cudgel.

Tak, chang!

“Keuk!”

It was not difficult to hit Byeon Bong’s slow-as-molasses hand. Byeon Bong was struck on the hand by Pungroe and dropped his sword.

Puk.

“Hueok!”

Pungroe mercilessly struck his side. Perhaps several of his ribs had broken.

Puk, puk!

“Kuaak!”

Pungroe became faster and faster. The places it struck also became more varied. Whether bones broke or flesh burst, it flew wherever it pleased and beat Byeon Bong’s body indiscriminately.

Pukpukpukpukpukpuk.

“Kkeuuaak!”

The sound of his screams grew longer and longer.

Pupupupuk.

“Why did you do it? Why did you kill our happy parents? Hm? You did not have to go that far, so why? Just why?”

A single stream of tears flowed from Neung Je-gang’s eyes as he beat Byeon Bong. He remembered that time when his parents and the villagers had suffered a terrible disaster. It was his past self, who had had to hide in a secret place underground and tremble in fear in order to survive.

The one who had made him that way was now crawling on the ground, being beaten like a dog.

Puk, puk, kwajik!

There was a sound as something, somewhere in Byeon Bong, who was being beaten, broke loudly.

“Kkeuaaaaak!”

Byeon Bong’s scream grew even louder. However, Neung Je-gang’s beating did not stop. He had no intention of stopping either.

“Scream louder. Louder than the screams the villagers let out as they burned to death. Louder. Louder. Hurry!”

Bang!

Now Neung Je-gang began kicking Byeon Bong. Byeon Bong rolled this way and that wherever his foot struck.

“Pl……”

Byeon Bong, who was nearly dead, grabbed Neung Je-gang’s leg. Then he tried to say something, but since Neung Je-gang had not spared his face while beating him with Pungroe, only a sound like leaking air came from his mouth.

“What? You still have something to say? You? Someone like you?”

Puk.

Neung Je-gang’s foot struck Byeon Bong’s abdomen hard.

“Keuhuk!”

Byeon Bong’s body folded in half and flew away before crashing down.

“Huuuu!”

Neung Je-gang looked at that sight and let out a low, long sigh. Only then did his excitement subside a little.

Byeon Bong was twitching. It was a tenacious life. At this point, even if he simply died, no one would have anything to say.

Neung Je-gang approached Byeon Bong. Byeon Bong was continuing to mutter something. Neung Je-gang raised his internal energy and listened carefully to what Byeon Bong was saying. Because his mouth was in ruins, it could not be heard clearly.

“K-kill me, you bastard!”

It was a plea to be killed. Byeon Bong wanted to die.

“You want me to kill you? If you try to live, I will kill you, but if you wish to die, then I absolutely cannot kill you. I have no intention whatsoever of granting an enemy’s request.”

Neung Je-gang stretched out his hand.

Whoosh.

Byeon Bong’s sword, which had fallen and rolled on the ground, flew over and was caught in his hand. It was truly perfect Airborne Object Seizing. It was the effect of a terrifying level of internal energy that even he could not gauge.

“If someone saw me now, they would call me a monster.”

Neung Je-gang assessed himself that way, then held the sword and approached Byeon Bong.

“Do not resent me for being cruel. All of this is the price of the sins you committed in the past. In my heart, I want to throw you into the Forbidden Demon Prison and make you suffer until you die, but the Forbidden Demon Prison is far away, and I still have things left to do, so I will punish you simply now.”

Seogeok.

“Eueueu!”

The sword was swung once. Sword energy flew out and cut off Byeon Bong’s right arm just below the shoulder. Neung Je-gang stopped the bleeding from the wound.

Seogeok.

The opposite arm was also cut off below the shoulder. Now Byeon Bong did not even groan. He had not died, but he had lost consciousness.

Neung Je-gang cut off all of Byeon Bong’s arms and legs that way. Now he had become someone who could not move without another person’s help.

“Not yet. Not yet. This much will not resolve the resentment of the villagers you killed.”

Neung Je-gang brought the sword to Byeon Bong’s face.

Sseuk.

When the sword moved shortly from left to right once, red blood flowed down from Byeon Bong’s closed eyes. He would never be able to see anything again.

Lastly, Neung Je-gang deafened both of Byeon Bong’s ears. Only then did he throw the sword he was holding far into the thicket, as if everything was finally over.

“Ah! There is still one thing left.”

Neung Je-gang extended his finger and struck Byeon Bong’s mute acupoint. Byeon Bong’s mouth, which had been clenched shut, opened halfway on its own. Unless someone released that acupoint, it would never close again.

“You must live like this. In absolute darkness where you can see nothing, and in the silence of despair where you can hear nothing, in a state where you cannot do a single thing by your own will, you must live that way. If you live that way and atone, and if you recover the heart you had when you first entered Kunlun…… Hehe! Then perhaps you might become a true Taoist.”

Neung Je-gang picked up Byeon Bong and launched himself away. If he simply left him there, would he not starve to death?

He set Byeon Bong down in Gonghwa, which he had encountered on the way to Seon-yeong. It was a corner of the marketplace where people’s footsteps were most frequent. Then, without lingering attachment, he moved his steps toward Seon-yeong.

Now Byeon Bong’s fate was entrusted to the hands of others. If the one who found him cherished human life, then he could survive even like that, and if the one who found him, like the old Byeon Bong, considered human life worth less than a fly’s life, then they might beat him to death for being disgusting.

Absolute darkness and the silence of despair. Within them, Byeon Bong had no choice but to wait for the fate that would come.