Chapter 1390: Thinking Lightly Of People (Part 5)

Slowly, the gaze that followed the bowed head falls on his hands.

A hand holding a sword. The hand was trembling slightly.

'Have I run out of stamina?'

No. It couldn't be.

He had rested enough. Even if the enemies swarmed endlessly, his stamina wouldn't be easily depleted.

His cultivated pure inner strength provided endurance beyond that of the past.

Nevertheless, the reason he felt as if he had hit his limit was probably because his mind, not his body, was worn out and falling apart.

Why?

He couldn't understand.

In the face of numerous challenges, Chung Myung had never faltered. He had faced situations more severe than this, always overcoming and prevailing.

While his body had experienced limits during those trials, his mind had never hit a single limit.

But why?

"Over there!"

From the thickets, enemies sprang forth endlessly. In an instant, Chung Myung, whose gaze has settled like a blade, leaped towards the oncoming foes.

Plunging a blade into the back of a fleeing opponent was easier than anything else. If one truly wants to confront an enemy, unpredictable actions must be taken.

Just like right now.

"Aaaah!"

Perhaps the enemies didn't anticipate Chung Myung rushing towards them, as the struggling enemies screamed and fell. Red blood spurted, accompanied by desperate cries.

These two things will attract more enemies to this place.

Or maybe they already had.

Chung Myung's sharp gaze turned towards his back. The enemy forces were likely maneuvering to surround him. More instinct than senses.

Pa-a-a-t!

Chung Myung kicked the ground and swiftly moved towards the rear.

"Dieeee!"

As if the enemies had been waiting, they rushed towards him, covering his field of vision entirely.

After only a few sword strikes, it was clear that these opponents, who had managed to approach his back in that short time, were undoubtedly skilled.

Unmatched, sharp attacks flew towards him. Embedded in each strike was the intent to carve his flesh, break his bones, and annihilate his soul.

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

Like a whirlwind, Chung Myung's sword, as brilliant as a flash, deflected the weapons coming at him one by one. In a brief moment of countless clashes, the sparks from the colliding pieces of metal lit up the dark forest.

In the light born in the midst of the darkness, the grim reaper's blade pierced the neck of an enemy.

Slish! Slish! Slish!

Without confirming the life or death of the three beheaded opponents, Chung Myung, without hesitation, dove into the fallen bodies.

His sword, wrapped in their flesh, swung around his body like a tempest, creating a semi-circle of bloody crescents around him.

Pa-a-a-t!

With a tearing sound that shattered eardrums, those who were rushing towards him became lifeless bodies, collapsing to the ground as their waists were cut.

"Huff!"

A rough exhale escaped from Chung Myung's lips. However, there was no time to catch his breath. Immediately, he kicked the ground and charged forward. The spears that were thrown where he stood were embedded into the ground one after another.

- You easily obtained everything. What was difficult for others was simple for you.

Something flickered in all directions.

A sword, a spear, a heavy staff with a long chain attached to it.

Numerous weapons were flying towards Chung Myung, all aiming for him alone.

- People admired you for that and feared you as well. Perhaps you felt the same.

Chung Myung bit his lips until they bled.

"Aaaah!"

Blood-red plum blossoms exploded around his body. In an instant, the spreading crimson plum blossoms resembled not so much flower petals as blood droplets bursting from wounds.

- But, Chung Myung, you haven't gained anything on your own. Perhaps all of it was just given to you. It was in your hands even if you didn't want it.

'So what?'

Chung Myung's eyes glowed with madness. What difference did it make? What did it matter at all?

Quaang!

Breaking the ground as if smashing it, Chung Myung charged forward. There was only one way. Straight ahead. The thickest barrier was the one directly in front of him.

Without a single moment of hesitation, Chung Myung, filled with an indescribable frustration, charged at the enemies and swung his sword down.

Ka-a-ang!

The heavy blade blocking his sword was instantly shattered. Before the eyes of the one holding the blade could widen, Chung Myung's Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword sliced through the entire body vertically.

Blood gushed from the split flesh, coating Chung Myung's whole body. So scalding felt like it would peel off his skin. The screams of lives extinguished poured out like a broken dam. All of it piled up layer by layer at the tip of Chung Myung's sword.

- That's why I hoped you understood the weight of it. The value of what you obtained through your own efforts and sacrifices.

"It's me!"

I haven't obtained anything without doing anything!

It may look that way in your eyes! But I! At least, I...

- But, Chung Myung.

At that moment, the tip of Chung Myung's sword wavered.

- On the other hand, I'm afraid. When you truly gain something valuable, when you understand the meaning of something not given to you, but what you create with your own hands.

The sword sliced through the air.

Without changing a single thing, his sword pierced the enemy's neck and pierced their heart.

Just...

- Whether you can remain as you are now. Whether you can continue to live like this.

Squelch!

The broken blade of the sword embedded in his shoulder. The vivid sensation of the thick blade cutting into flesh. In that eerie pain, Chung Myung stamped his foot.

'Sect Leader Sahyung.'

Chung Myung gritted his teeth.

Cheon Mun was always like this. Chung Myung liked him that way. But he never quite understood what those words meant.

Because the places they looked from were so different.

'You truly...'

Pa-a-at!

Chung Myung's spinning sword stabbed in all directions.

"Kraaaah!"

"Aaaah!"

Those who were rushing towards him stumbled and collapsed with wind holes in their bodies. In the exploding blood, Chung Myung absentmindedly looked up at the sky.

'Did you wish to become an adult?'

It seemed so. Now he finally understood.

Cheon Mun always told him to see more. To understand more and stand in the same place as those who were not like him.

Always. Yes, always.

But only now, standing in this place, could Chung Myung truly understand what Cheon Mun's real feelings were.

He always told Chung Myung to understand others, but perhaps he secretly wished that Chung Myung would never stand in the same place as others, maybe for eternity.

Cheon Mun understood what burden Chung Myung would have to bear the moment someone like him understood others.

Cutting away at oneself and moving forward.

Because Cheon Mun had walked that path before anyone else, because he understood how arduous and painful that path was, perhaps...

Perhaps, he hoped that Chung Myung would never walk the same path forever.

Even if it went against the duty of a Taoist.

"Hu..."

A life that prioritized others over oneself.

Cheon Mun walked that path throughout his life. Someone else was always first, and another's words were prioritized over his own.

If sacrifice was needed, he sacrificed himself first, and if someone else had to be sacrificed, he sacrificed the one he cherished the most.

'With what kind of heart... did you endure that? Sahyung?'

It was impossible to know.

But he felt like he knew.

"Over there!"

The entire forest was instantly covered with surging murderous intent.

Facing the incoming energy, Chung Myung's hands trembled once again.

'Ah...'

At that moment, Chung Myung understood.

Why his hands kept shaking. Why he was facing limits he never felt in the past.

'I am now...'

Chung Myung's gaze sank. Colder than ever.

'I am afraid.'

He had never thought of death as something to be afraid of. If there was a limit to life, it was enough as long as he did what needed to be done. Because he didn't consider life to have such a great value.

What he feared was not death itself, but an incomplete and awkward end to his duties. That was all.

However, now Chung Myung was feeling a fear he had never experienced before—the fear of dying for the first time.

Never being able to meet them again.

Those he knew.

He couldn't return to the place that was once so familiar, and he couldn't laugh with ridiculous jokes. If he turned his head, the faces that should naturally be there were absent.

Everything remained the same place.

Only Chung Myung was nonexistent in that place.

Chung Myung blocked his mouth.

Suddenly, a sense of nausea rushed in. Despite there being nothing in his stomach, his body kept trying to vomit something.

What was the reason he tried to protect everyone?

Yeah, he was afraid. Afraid of creating a gap in those precious relationships he had built.

Names like Baek Cheon, Yoo Iseol, Yoon Jong, Jo Gol, Tang Soso, and Hye Yeon disappearing from their world.

Suddenly turning his head, the void where they didn't exist frightened him more than anything in the world. How terrifying the absence of those who once existed was, and he felt it more acutely than anyone else.

But...

Was it really good with their existence? What meaning would be left if Chung Myung disappeared?

If everything disappeared the moment Chung Myung disappeared, wouldn't it better for him to survive?

Wouldn't losing some of them be better than losing everyone?

It wasn't too late even now.

With his current physical condition, he could escape from this encirclement. If he ran forward without looking back, he could survive.

Even if most of the people here chased after Mount Hua and Southern Island, even if the Southern Island Sect was destroyed and he would never see some of the faces he knew again, he could still live...

"Uweeeeek!"

Red blood flowed from Chung Myung's mouth in streams. He looked at the blood-soaked hand covering his mouth with blurred eyes and let out a low, chuckling laugh.

"...Even the Heart Demon came filthy." [not sure]

Yeah. It was scary.

Death was too frightening.

What was even scarier was dying alone again with nowhere to reach. Feeling that again vividly, as if dying alone in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Enemies rushed at him like dark waves.

"Hey, Sahyung. Are you watching?"

Chung Myung looked up at the sky.

"Come to think of it, I've never done anything that Sahyung wished for."

Chung Myung gripped his sword. His foot dug into the ground. As if trying to tie down the foot that was about to fall involuntarily.

"So... don't wish. I'm naturally that kind of guy."

Enemies closed in.

His trembling hand still hadn't calmed, and his heart was still screaming.

But even so, Chung Myung held his ground.

The thick regret that remained inside him would be connected to what he had protected. Even if he no longer existed where his past and future met, it didn't matter.

One's life wasn't something that could be sustained by willpower.

Paaat!

The calm sword pierced through the air.

It was the sword of the Sword Demon and also the sword of the Sword Saint.