Bamboo Peak was shaped like a bamboo. The path up was so steep that it was almost at a right angle. But at the summit, there was enough flat ground to move around freely.
It was exactly the shape of a bamboo cut straight in the middle.
The disciples of the Single-Instant Sect enjoyed duels here.
They would lure famous martial artists. They would provoke passing travelers to draw their weapons.
The Sect Master did not interfere in these matters.
The disciples of the Single-Instant Sect trained in a state of complete neglect. They were free to do whatever training they wanted. Even if they had a real duel, he would not stop them because it was the path they had chosen.
The disciples of the Single-Instant Sect always fought at Bamboo Peak.
Bamboo Peak was difficult to climb, and because it was a place not revealed to the world, there was no fear of their ultimate techniques being exposed.
The fewer people who knew about a killing blade, the better.
However, Bamboo Peak was in a sense an execution ground.
Those who climbed Bamboo Peak had climbed the mountain, sweating hard, to die.
At least, that was how it looked in the eyes of the disciples of the Single-Instant Sect.
But Bamboo Peak was not the highest mountain in the area. There were three other mountains higher than Bamboo Peak.
Heavenly Peak was one of them.
From Heavenly Peak, you could see Bamboo Peak clearly. You could watch all the faces of the people moving on Bamboo Peak.
Of course, it wasn’t always so visible. In the past, you couldn’t see Bamboo Peak from Heavenly Peak at all. They dug tunnels, cut down trees… and after trimming Heavenly Peak in a few places, Bamboo Peak began to be visible.
“Watch carefully. This is the lesson of death that your master is teaching you for the first and last time.”
The middle aged man said.
“I’m watching.”
“You won’t be able to see it well with your eyes, will you?”
“I can see it well.”
The middle aged man glanced at the child out of the corner of his eye.
The movements on Bamboo Peak were not clearly visible even to the middle aged man’s eyes. He could see the movements, but he could not feel the detailed breaths. It was just to the extent of seeing them move this way and that.
But the child watched without even blinking an eye.
He focused fiercely, as if reading the breaths, the exhalations, the energy rising from the blades.
When the Single-Instant Sect Master had asked him to take care of the child, he had thought that he would not be an ordinary one.
Becoming a disciple of the Single-Instant Sect Master was as difficult as plucking a star from the sky.
With an ordinary bone structure, you couldn’t even bring it up. The same was true for those who had been called geniuses. To an ordinary person’s eyes, they might look like geniuses, but to the Sect Master’s eyes, they probably looked like ordinary people.
But he had accepted a child as a disciple?
He was not an ordinary one. He would have a deep killing intent, as deep as the three disciples the Sect Master had taken, and a strong obsession with martial arts.
The middle aged man could not read such things from the child. The child he saw was just innocent. He was still at an age where he would be whining while sucking on his mother’s breast.
But seeing him focus on the fight, he felt that he was indeed not an ordinary one.
The Single-Instant Sect Master had a secret line.
It was a secret person prepared for when the Single-Instant Sect Master was in real danger, when the situation was so desperate that he could not get through, to ask for just one favor.
Many Sect Masters had used the secret line so far.
There were almost no Single-Instant Sect Masters who had died of natural causes. There were a few, but not many. They almost all died on the road, struck by a blade, or died lonely in an unknown place.
The person who appeared at that time and listened to their last words was the secret line.
Naturally, the secret line followed the Sect Master like a shadow. Whenever he went out, he always watched from a distance.
Only the Sect Master knew of the existence of the secret line.
The Sect Master had three disciples, but even they did not know anything about the secret line.
Normally, he farmed at the foot of the mountain.
He lived a lonely life, unmarried and alone, reeking of a bachelor.
The Sect Master would sometimes come down from the mountain and be his drinking companion.
The Sect Master’s wife would also leave wild animal meat or hides. A bachelor was living alone, wasn’t he?
The secret line had to be hidden in secret, but the two of them had helped him both materially and spiritually, without caring about their identities being exposed. Rather, he, who was receiving the help, was anxious.
He had hoped that the day to repay the favor would not come.
For the secret line to play its role, to repay the favor, meant that the Sect Master would die a violent death.
But that had happened now.
The Sect Master had used the two two hour periods he had obtained from his disciples to meet with him.
The Sect Master had come down the mountain. And he had entrusted him with a little kid who was not even sensible.
“His name is Heo Heun. But call him Ah Geol.”
The old man had said the child’s name was Ah Geol several times. He had heard it repeated so many times that his ears were ringing.
He must not be seen by the Sacred Sword Sect.
He must not be seen by the disciples of the Single-Instant Sect.
“Leave immediately. Take the child and leave. Go without ever looking back. Later, if the child obtains the Single-Instant Blade, I don’t know, but before that, don’t let him make any judgments or seek revenge. Before he obtains the Single-Instant Blade, he must not meet anyone. Go to a place where there is no one and live in hiding.”
He had not listened to the Sect Master’s words.
He had found the child as the Sect Master had asked, but instead of going down the mountain, he had come up to Heavenly Peak.
Did he know what it was like to live as a secret line for his whole life?
No one knew the pain that the secret line had to endure. He had to live with loneliness always. There were times when he was tired of boredom. He had to do whatever it took to live, but at the same time, he had to be ready to leave at any time.
Being a secret line was a painful thing.
He had lived with the Sect Master for almost twenty years. So he knew the nearby mountains in detail.
Then he had also learned that the disciples of the Single-Instant Sect held duels at Bamboo Peak. It wasn’t that someone had taught him, but he had found it out himself while wandering the mountains.
After that, he had immediately worked to be able to look down from Heavenly Peak.
He had brought the child because there was such a place. The child had to watch his master’s last moments. And the secret line also had a duty to watch the Sect Master’s last moments.
“You don’t have to watch with bated breath like that. You can’t even hear most of the sounds.”
“Yes.”
The little boy answered perfunctorily.
The child’s eyes were still on Bamboo Peak. He was watching intently. It seemed he was thinking of observing even the movement of the fine hairs.
“Watch carefully.”
“I told you I’m watching carefully.”
“Remember all the movements.”
“I’m remembering.”
The child’s concentration was miraculously strong.
As expected, the material the Sect Master had chosen seemed to be different in some way. Well, if he was a descendant of the Sacred Sword Sect Master, there was no need to even mention his bone structure. The things to watch were his will, interest, hobbies, and so on, and the child seemed to have a great interest in martial arts.
‘I don’t know who you are… but it seems the two of us will have to get to know each other for a long, long time.’
He also followed the child and focused on the movements on Bamboo Peak.
* * *
Heo Dogi took a sword drawing stance.
He lowered his stance, his eyes on Namso, and his fingertips on his sword.
“Senior, please say your last words.”
“Thank you.”
Namso did not refuse.
“My dear, is it alright if I go first?”
Namso said without even turning her head.
The Single-Instant Sect Master was behind her. It was the moment she had to part with the person she had lived with her whole life.
“Huhu! We’ll have to go together anyway. Just retie your shoelaces. I’ll follow you soon.”
“I was happy, and thank you.”
“We just lived with a worried heart. Let’s rest well now.”
“You’re a really boring person. At times like these, shouldn’t you at least say that you were happy too?”
“Of course I was happy.”
“Pfft! It’s like getting a bow after prostrating. That’s enough now. It’s rude to keep a guest waiting for a long time.”
Swoosh!
Namso raised her sword and aimed at Heo Dogi.
The Single-Instant Sect Master did not stop her.
There was one fact that would not change today. One was that the Sect Master and his wife would die. Whether they died in a fight or from the Three Cause Poison, they would die before the hour of the horse.
So he did not stop her.
He would watch Heo Dogi’s sword while sending Namso off first. After figuring out what kind of sword it was, he would do his best. Still, nothing would change. As long as he was poisoned by the Three Cause Poison, there was nothing he could do. In his current state where his internal energy had dropped to less than half, he could not handle Heo Dogi.
Whether they died together or separately, there was only a difference of a single breath.
Namso held the sword with both hands. She held the sword body straight in the center of her body. She opened her mind’s eye and gave freedom to the sword. She released it so that the sword body could extend as it pleased.
How long had she lived with the Single-Instant Sect Master? Although she had never specifically taken time to train in martial arts, her insight into understanding martial arts had become much deeper. But then!
Chut!
Heo Dogi moved. Without hesitation!
What is this? Why are you blocking the way so cumbersomely? Why are you holding the sword so blandly?
Heo Dogi’s movements even had a hint of disregard for his opponent.
Pat! Thud!
Heo Dogi passed by Namso. In between, he had drawn his sword, cut her chest, and sheathed it again.
Namso had lost her life in an instant.
There was no pain. It was such a fast death that there was not even time to feel the pain.
Swoosh!
Heo Dogi, who had cut Namso, immediately turned towards the old man.
He had cut Namso without hesitation, but the Single-Instant Sect Master was someone he had to be sufficiently wary of.
The two moved quickly.
Chut! Chut! Chut! Chut!
He stepped forward half a step as if to attack, and then immediately retreated. He circled to the side to attack again, and then pulled back.
They were looking for an opportunity to attack, but neither side could easily seize an opportunity.
Heo Dogi straightened his back as if to readjust his stance. And he again gently held the hilt of his sword with his fingers. The hand that was holding the sword was very slow. Very slowly, slowly… he held the sword.
‘It’s an attack!’
Anyone could predict it. The moment Heo Dogi held the sword, the attack would be made. He had already made up his mind.
The Sect Master just stood there holding his blade.
But his form was so firm. It looked as if his two feet were stuck to the ground. No, it even gave the illusion that he had dug into the ground up to his ankles.
The old man’s two feet would not move under any circumstances.
No. They would move. He had to move to receive Heo Dogi’s sword. He could only launch a counterattack if he moved. It just meant that he would not waver until Heo Dogi’s sword entered the killing range.
“Cough!”
The old man coughed.
The Three Cause Poison was melting his five viscera and six bowels. A fierce pain, as if his intestines were being torn, surged. In that instant,
Paek!
Heo Dogi held his sword. He had already shot his body forward, and had grazed the old man’s body.
* * *
“Did you see?”
“Yes.”
“What did you see?”
“The fight.”
“Is that all you saw?”
“I’ve decided one thing for sure.”
“What is it?”
“I’m thinking that I shouldn’t learn something called martial arts. If you want to live a long life, you should never learn it.”
“Do you want to live a long life?”
“No.”
“What?”
The middle aged man looked at the child as if he were teasing him.
The child looked at the middle aged man with bright eyes and said, “I thought my master would tell me when I grew up, but he passed away like that without saying anything. I have something I’m curious about, can you tell me?”
“What is it?”
“Who are my parents?”
“…!”
The middle aged man just blinked his eyes as he looked at the child.
He felt like he was not looking at a child, but at a monster. Was this child really seven years old? Wasn’t there a cunning snake in his stomach? How did he know about his parents whom no one had told him about?
The child read the middle aged man’s expression and said again, as if he understood what he was feeling.
“Before I left home, I heard my master and my parents talking in the yard. Actually, I was awake at that time. When my master entered the yard, it felt like a very scary beast was entering, so I woke up without realizing it… and my parents called me ‘young master’. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I came here. I think I was raised by my adoptive parents. Who are my real parents?”
“…How old are you?”
“Seven. I’ll be eight after winter.”
The middle aged man looked at the child with a dumbfounded expression.
‘This rascal, he’s a complete old man in a child’s body. What’s in his head?’
“…I’ll tell you later. Later. First, let’s go. They were your master and your master’s wife for a short while, but you can’t just leave them to become food for the birds. You have to go and bury them with your own hands, right?”
The middle aged man stroked Heo Heun’s, no, Ah Geol’s head.
(End of Chapter)