Namgung Heavenly Demon - Chapter 42

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 42

 

The gentle mountain path leading to Yungjoong.

 

The carriage wheels rolled over the dirt road, creating a rhythmic noise.

 

Normally, that noise would have been mixed with Mujin’s chatter or the sound of him snoring in his sleep.

 

But today, the inside of the carriage was eerily quiet.

 

Namgung Cheon, who had been keeping his eyes closed, slightly opened them to look at Mujin.

 

Mujin was staring blankly outside, which was unlike him.

 

An unfocused gaze.

 

It wasn’t his usual eyes filled with laughter.

 

‘Has it already been half a day?’

 

Right after leaving Wuhan.

 

Mujin’s talkativeness had drastically decreased.

 

He didn’t chew jerky while cracking jokes, nor did he play mischievous pranks on Baekheun.

 

Jegal Seoyeon, having also sensed this strange atmosphere, was keeping her eyes closed in silence like Namgung Cheon.

 

The air inside the carriage had grown heavy.

 

That’s when it happened.

 

“…Young Master.”

 

Mujin broke the silence and opened his mouth.

 

Since it had been so long since he spoke, even Baekheun, who was at the coachman’s seat, was startled and perked up his ears.

 

“Speak.”

 

Mujin moved his dry lips while still not taking his gaze away from outside the window.

 

“Could we perhaps stop for a moment?”

 

Where his gaze reached was a narrow side path branching off from the road, and the low mountain ridge that continued beyond it.

 

It was an ordinary mountain with nothing special about it.

 

But Namgung Cheon didn’t ask for a reason.

 

“Stop the carriage.”

 

Baekheun immediately pulled on the reins.

 

Screech—.

 

The wheels scraped against the dirt as the carriage gradually came to a stop.

 

Mujin let out a deep sigh.

 

It was a long and heavy breath, as if he was exhaling air he had been holding in for a long time.

 

He rose from his seat and slowly opened the carriage door.

 

The mountain breeze that blew through the crack disheveled his hair.

 

Mujin didn’t get out immediately but hesitated for a moment while holding the door handle.

 

Complex emotions could be felt clearly from his back.

 

After a moment, Mujin slowly turned his head to look at Namgung Cheon.

 

“Would you perhaps come with me?”

 

Namgung Cheon looked straight into Mujin’s eyes.

 

Mujin’s gaze was wavering.

 

Namgung Cheon silently rose from his seat.

 

Then he approached and stood beside Mujin.

 

A bitter yet relieved smile spread across Mujin’s lips.

 

“You’re truly consistent.”

 

Mujin’s gaze briefly turned toward Jegal Seoyeon.

 

Then Jegal Seoyeon opened her mouth as if it was nothing.

 

“I’ll wait here.”

 

She spoke in a deliberately bright voice.

 

“Anyway, all the Heterodox Faction around this area were wiped out long ago, so there’s no one to target the carriage, and I’m capable enough to take care of myself.”

 

At those words, Mujin showed his gratitude.

 

“Thank you, Miss Jegal.”

 

“Don’t mention it.”

 

Mujin turned his body again toward the mountain path.

 

A narrow side path overgrown with weeds, too embarrassing to even call a road.

 

It looked like it had been a long time since people had walked on it.

 

Mujin walked up that rough path with large strides as if he was familiar with it.

 

And Namgung Cheon silently followed behind him.

 

Rustle. Rustle.

 

Only the sound of stepping on dry fallen leaves echoed through the quiet forest, and soon the two figures disappeared completely into the green foliage.

 

* * *

 

The two walked the mountain path for quite a while.

 

Eventually, the dense forest ended and an open space appeared.

 

And Namgung Cheon’s eyes narrowed at the scene that unfolded there.

 

‘A village? No… it would be more accurate to call it ruins.’

 

Collapsed stone walls, houses burned down leaving only their frames, broken pottery shards scattered about messily.

 

When the mountain breeze blew, the weeds swayed like waves.

 

Mujin stared blankly at that scenery from the village entrance before opening his mouth.

 

“This was my hometown.”

 

His voice was calm.

 

“As you can see, no one is here now.”

 

Namgung Cheon slowly moved his steps and entered the ruins.

 

Sword marks remaining on the walls and black scorch marks burned into the ground.

 

All of it pointed to one fact.

 

Not natural decline or migration.

 

‘It was a massacre.’

 

Mujin followed behind and opened his mouth.

 

“Originally, it was quite a large village. Passing merchant groups would rest here, and people lived peacefully gathering medicinal herbs and cutting wood. But…”

 

He stopped at the collapsed well.

 

“Long ago, some Heterodox Faction bastards came and made it like this.”

 

Mujin’s hand stroked the well’s railing.

 

The rough texture of stone was transmitted to his fingertips.

 

“That day, I was hiding inside this shallow well. Like a coward, I just held my breath and listened to the screams coming from above. The sounds of my parents dying, my friends dying.”

 

Namgung Cheon looked at him.

 

This wasn’t the usual cheerful and cunning Mujin.

 

In his eyes, it seemed as if the flames of long ago were reflected.

 

But in those eyes, resignation and emptiness were more deeply layered than anger or resentment.

 

“You got your revenge.”

 

At Namgung Cheon’s quiet words, Mujin nodded.

 

“Exactly. It was more than ten years ago.”

 

He sat down in the middle of the ruins.

 

“I learned the sword from my master and found those bastards to cut them all down. I stormed into their stronghold and wiped out their entire lineage.”

 

Mujin’s eyes gazed into the distance.

 

“Ah, by the way, I wasn’t alone that day.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Some crazy bastard was ransacking their storehouse.”

 

Mujin chuckled.

 

“That was Jang Gwang.”

 

“Janggang Gyoryong?”

 

“Back then, he was just a young bandit who couldn’t even imitate a lesser dragon, let alone a flood dragon. I went to cut off their heads, and he came to steal their money. Our purposes were different, but since we had the same enemy, we ended up fighting back to back.”

 

A scene of blood-splattering slaughter.

 

A swordsman mad with revenge and a bandit blinded by greed joined hands by chance and annihilated an entire Heterodox Faction.

 

It was the beginning of a strange and enduring bond.

 

“That day we drank wine over their corpses. He laughed, saying he’d made a big score, but I couldn’t do the same.”

 

Mujin took out a wine bottle from his chest.

 

But instead of drinking the wine, he slowly poured it onto the ground.

 

The smell of wine mixed with the acrid scent of dust and scattered into the air.

 

“I thought I’d feel relieved standing over their corpses, covered in blood. But I didn’t.”

 

He continued speaking while fidgeting with the empty bottle.

 

“After that, I met my master again. Seeing me soaked in blood, he said this: ‘You still haven’t emptied your heart.'”

 

The Wandering King.

 

A reclusive master and Mujin’s teacher.

 

“Perhaps it was due to my lack of talent, but when my master taught me the Way of Extinction, he meant for me not to seek revenge. But in the end, I did.”

 

Mujin looked down at his sword.

 

“Because of that, my master left. He told me not to seek him until I understood the meaning of extinction.”

 

His voice trembled faintly.

 

“I wandered for ten years after that. I swung my sword countless times and thought I had emptied everything. That’s why I was afraid to come here. I feared that coming here would revive the nightmares of that day and devour me.”

 

Mujin raised his head and looked around.

 

Collapsed house foundations, a courtyard overgrown with weeds, moss-covered pillars.

 

His gaze swept over every corner of the ruins.

 

After remaining silent for a long while, Mujin let out a hollow laugh.

 

“Hah…”

 

A sigh-like word flowed from his lips.

 

“But this is all there is.”

 

“…”

 

“The place I’ve been running from for ten years, the hell that tormented me in my dreams every night… was just this pile of stones overgrown with weeds?”

 

Mujin stood up as if he couldn’t believe it and wandered through the ruins.

 

He felt no resentment, no anger, no sadness.

 

“How futile. So utterly futile.”

 

Mujin tapped his chest lightly.

 

“I thought this would hurt as if it might burst, but instead it feels empty, as if nothing’s wrong. Like I’m visiting someone else’s house.”

 

He caressed the sword at his waist.

 

“The emptiness my master spoke of wasn’t about forcibly erasing things. It was simply… knowing that there was originally nothing there. That must have been extinction.”

 

Namgung Cheon silently gazed into Mujin’s eyes.

 

The eyes that had been filled with fear when they climbed up had changed.

 

A calm gaze from which all the burdens he had carried for so long had disappeared.

 

Looking around the ruins with those eyes, Mujin let out a long breath.

 

“Whew…”

 

It seemed as if the knot that had been lodged deep in his chest was flowing out with that breath.

 

“Let’s go, Young Master. This is enough. There’s nothing more to see.”

 

He turned around without any lingering attachment.

 

His steps going down were lighter than when he had climbed up.

 

* * *

 

That night, the group lodged at a small inn at the foot of the mountain.

 

In the deep night when everyone was asleep.

 

Mujin stood alone in the backyard of the inn.

 

Holding his sword, he stared blankly up at the night sky for about an hour.

 

At a second-floor window.

 

Namgung Cheon leaned against the window frame, silently looking down at that figure.

 

He could have helped.

 

He could have subtly offered his insights or forced open a path by crossing swords with him.

 

But Namgung Cheon didn’t do so.

 

‘This too is part of the sword.’

 

Mujin had seen today.

 

That the substance of the fear that had weighed him down for ten years was nothing more than a handful of ashes.

 

Then what remained was one thing.

 

To cut down that illusion himself and overcome the wall.

 

That was entirely Mujin’s responsibility, something no one else could do for him.

 

Just then, sensing a presence, Mujin turned his head and looked up at the second floor.

 

His eyes met with Namgung Cheon’s.

 

Mujin smiled bitterly and held up his sword.

 

“It’s still heavy.”

 

“…”

 

“Even after seeing the ashes, this thing’s weight remains the same.”

 

Namgung Cheon didn’t answer.

 

Then Mujin continued calmly.

 

“However, now I understand. This weight isn’t the spirits of my dead family and friends.”

 

He gripped the scabbard tightly.

 

“It was simply the weight of attachments I couldn’t let go of.”

 

Mujin’s eyes changed.

 

“I know you have no intention of doing so, but I’ll ask anyway.”

 

“Speak.”

 

“Please don’t try to help me, Young Master.”

 

A resolute voice.

 

“This is the karma I’ve shouldered, so shouldn’t I lighten it with my own hands? Only then will I have the face to meet my master.”

 

A faint smile spread across Namgung Cheon’s lips.

 

If he had realized that what had been weighing him down wasn’t the past, but himself being bound to the past.

 

‘Overcoming it will only be a matter of time.’

 

Namgung Cheon nodded lightly.

 

Then, as he was about to close the window, he quietly threw out a remark.

 

“I’ll look forward to it.”

 

“…”

 

“The day when your sword becomes light.”

 

Thud.

 

The window closed.

 

Left alone, Mujin stared at the closed window for a long while.

 

Then he slowly drew his sword.

 

Shing—.

 

The blade gleamed coldly in the moonlight.

 

The sword was still heavy. A corner of his chest still felt stuffy.

 

But Mujin no longer hesitated.

 

‘I’ll cut it down.’

 

Until the day this sword becomes as light as a feather.

 

Swoosh—!

 

Under the moonlight, Mujin’s sword cut through the air.

 

His sword dance didn’t stop until deep into the night.

 

And the next morning.

 

“Young Master, aren’t you going to eat this? Then I’ll have it.”

 

Mujin swiftly snatched the food placed in front of Namgung Cheon.

 

The shameless sight of Mujin devouring the food before his eyes in the blink of an eye.

 

Namgung Cheon, who had been watching this scene, let out a quiet sigh.

 

“You seemed to be in better condition yesterday.”

 

“Ah, such hurtful words.”

 

Mujin smiled brightly with food still around his mouth.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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