Chapter 213

Chapter 213

“……Ugh.”

“Why is young miss doing that?”

Hwayonghyeon. Uicheonmun headquarters.

At the sudden chills crawling up her neck, Seohwa flinched and looked at Baek Riseon, who was leisurely lighting a campfire beside her. A cold sensation crawling up her spine to an eerie degree.

“I don’t know. Somehow I get a strangely chilling feeling…….”

“It might be intuition. Somewhere, someone related to young miss might be in danger.”

“……Is that some kind of superstition?”

“It’s superstition, but sometimes it hits the mark. Here.”

Baek Riseon, who smiled faintly, held up two nicely roasted birds, handed one to Seohwa, and took a bite without even seasoning it.

“Mm, delicious.”

“……You’re eating it without even seasoning.”

“Haha. I’m what you’d call a gourmand. I can eat anything deliciously. More than that, young miss looks like she wants to ask me something.”

“Don’t be shy, why not ask? If it’s something I can tell you, I’ll tell you anything.”

“Will you tell me everything?”

“Well, except for things I shouldn’t tell?”

Looking at Baek Riseon shrugging his shoulders, Seohwa hesitated for a moment then let out a sigh and accepted the bird. A doubt suddenly surging up.

“By any chance, is Baek Riseon Sabae-nim…… a sorcerer?”

“I can use sorcery. But I’m not a sorcerer.”

“Even though you can fold the earth to run and use sorcery to deceive even the Ten Heavens?”

“Haha. Anyone can do such things in simplified form. If they just understand the principles well.”

“You don’t seem to understand very well. Then shall I elaborate a bit more?”

[Cause and Effect]

Looking at Seohwa making a blank expression, Baek Riseon chuckled and picked up a tree branch to write characters in the dirt. Writing drawn in dark color on dry earth.

“Do you know about cause and effect?”

“You mean cause and result, right?”

“That’s right. To be precise, it’s like this. If there’s a cause, there’s a result, and if there’s a result, there’s also a cause. Cause and result are mutually complementary.”

“Let me give an example. Suppose at this moment I stab young miss with this stick.”

“Yes.”

“Then what would young miss do? You’d block this stick, right?”

“Well, of course…….”

Isn’t that obvious?

Looking at Seohwa staring at him with a blank expression, Baek Riseon smiled gently and tapped the stick on the ground.

“But if what I’m stabbing isn’t young miss but the ground like this, young miss wouldn’t particularly block the stick. Young miss blocks the stick only when there’s a ’cause’ of being threatened, resulting in the ‘result’ of blocking the stick.”

“That’s…….”

“That’s right. It’s natural. Not even worth putting into words. Then what about the reverse case?”

“……The reverse case?”

“Conversely, if there’s a ‘result’ of young miss blocking the stick I’m stabbing, doesn’t that mean there must be a ’cause’?”

“Ah…….”

It seems like I might understand but also might not.

At Baek Riseon’s strange words, Seohwa let out a sigh and racked her brain. And looking at that appearance, Baek Riseon smiled faintly.

“Young miss doesn’t know well, but sorcery is something far more primitive and simple than martial arts.”

“……Don’t you have to learn many things to master sorcery?”

“Many people misunderstand like that. Mm. But actually, it’s a bit different. Learning this and that knowledge for sorcery is ultimately just to formalize sorcery itself so that even those who don’t ‘understand’ can use sorcery. Because sorcery itself is actually very simple.”

Cause, a powerful desire strong enough to twist even cause and effect.

Result. Achievement of desire.

“Do you understand?”

“……No.”

At Baek Riseon writing characters on the ground, Seohwa shook her head. Words that made no sense at all.

“There’s a saying in the world: If you wish for it, it will come true. This statement is strictly speaking, the truth. That a human, or an intelligent being, wishes for something is in itself a powerful cause.”

“But wishing for something alone doesn’t make it come true.”

“Usually that’s true. But if the size of that desire is so powerful that it goes beyond consuming oneself and transfers to others, and ultimately becomes powerful enough to affect the world, what then?”

“……Is such a thing possible?”

“It’s possible. Very possible.”

Yin-Yang, Three Powers, Five Elements, Six Harmonies—all of these are to process that desire into a form that can easily reach the world. If you can properly execute what you want, understanding of sorcery isn’t necessary.

“I can execute desires upon the world without theory. So sorcery isn’t particularly necessary for me. That’s why I’m not a sorcerer.”

Having said that much, Baek Riseon tapped the ground.

“Is that all you’re curious about?”

“There’s more. That Divine Maiden you mentioned earlier…….”

“Ah, that’s something I can’t tell you.”

“Yes?”

“If it were only my story, I would have just told you, but that’s not a story that only applies to me. You’ll have to wait for Un or San-i to tell you directly. No, San-i probably doesn’t know, so you’ll have to hear it from Un’s mouth.”

Baek Riseon, who smiled slightly, waved his finger.

“Anyway, I can’t tell you with my own mouth. Well, you’ll hear about it soon enough.”

“……You said you’d tell me everything you could tell me.”

“I can’t tell you, so there’s nothing I can do. It’s okay for me to tell, but I’ll get scolded by Un. Is there anything else you want to ask?”

“There’s one more thing left.”

Seohwa, who paused for a moment, stared quietly at the bird she hadn’t taken a bite of yet. A dissonance somehow crawling up the nape of her neck.

“Why are you helping me?”

“Well, isn’t it because we have a connection?”

“I don’t think it’s simply for that reason.”

“Oh, why do you think so?”

“Because it doesn’t feel like you’re wandering aimlessly.”

Would someone wandering aimlessly without purpose know the Blood Cult’s plans inside and out and leave letters?

Of course, they might have known by chance, but that probability would be extremely low. Leaving a letter means they knew how that plan would unfold and who would get involved.

“If you have some plan and are moving according to that plan, couldn’t helping me like this also be part of that plan?”

“Hmm.”

“Is my speculation wrong?”

Looking at Seohwa’s eyes shining brightly, Baek Riseon stared blankly for a moment then turned his gaze to the campfire crackling and burning. Soon, the answer flowing out.

“Un really got a good disciple. Quick to absorb.”

“……That means.”

“Young miss’s thinking is correct. Though there’s no grand plan, it’s also true I’m not wandering without purpose. This is also part of that purpose.”

“What purpose?”

“Well. It’s hard to say definitively. But if I had to put it into words, I suppose I’d have to say this.”

Survival.

Baek Riseon, who smiled forlornly, looked at the giant rampaging far away. The appearance of the Zone Master in the midst of fierce battle with Bulgwae.

“Before long, young miss will also know.”

What must be done to survive in this harsh world.

Baek Riseon, who muttered quietly, bit into the bird again.

The unseasoned bird that had no taste.

Martial arts seem omnipotent at first glance, but are never truly omnipotent.

That’s because fundamentally, martial arts originated from struggles to survive. Not created to crush opponents, but created to survive from predators—that’s the history of martial arts.

Therefore, early forms of martial arts were structured centered on survival. As they gradually developed, attempts to embody with martial arts the world one sees, the world one desires, increased, but that fundamental intent hasn’t changed. 

In that sense, that thing has gone far beyond the realm of martial arts. It’s even gone beyond the realm of sorcery.

Right.

If I had to categorize it, I’d have to say it’s in the realm of innate authority.

Kiaaaaaaaaaa-!!!!

Looking at the Water Dragon far away, roaring and slaughtering the Waterway Strongholds’ water bandits, I raised my internal energy and pressed my sword edge to Black Dragon Lord’s neck. Then Black Dragon Lord looked at me without even turning around.

“You helped and now you point a blade at me. Wasn’t that troublesome?”

“I wasn’t troubled enough to desire your help. And that and this are separate matters. Isn’t that right?”

“Indeed. That’s not wrong.”

Looking at Black Dragon Lord leisurely watching the Water Dragon rampage far away even with a blade at her neck, I put strength into my grip. It was absolutely a situation where I couldn’t let my guard down.

‘That’s not martial arts.’

It’s not martial arts. Martial arts can’t cause such supernatural phenomena. Then is it sorcery?

That’s not it either. It’s not even sorcery. Though my knowledge of sorcery isn’t deep, I can tell. Sorcery also has form and law. Folding space so casually and moving others—that’s not within the realm of ordinary sorcery.

In the first place, I’ve seen this scene several times. Cutting space, darkness covering the sky, even the moon illuminating the night hiding its face.

Because I don’t feel yokai energy, because I don’t see hostile energy, I thought it wasn’t. Yet I was thinking it was strange. But I can’t deny it after seeing that scene.

That this Black Dragon Lord before my eyes is the Great Yokai, Black Night.

“What thoughts brought you crawling in here? Black Night.”

“You only recognize me now. I haven’t hidden anything though.”

Black Night, who chuckled, covered her mouth while her silk rustled. Silk hanging long behind Black Dragon Lord like a fox’s tail.

“I merely came to spectate. Child. Don’t show such hostility so much.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“If you don’t believe it, what can I do? Do you think you can capture me here? With your internal energy also restricted?”

Kagagagak!

Black Night, who snorted, raised her finger and pushed away the sword edge containing sword energy. The sound of sparks flying and the sword edge being pushed back.

“Child. You cannot defeat me. Even without restrictions it would be the same, but in a restricted situation, even more so. The sorcery of this place doesn’t affect me.”

“What are you scheming?”

“Didn’t I say? I’ve hidden nothing. I merely came to spectate. The things happening here. Look. Isn’t it interesting?”

At Black Night’s words, I turned my gaze to look at the Water Dragon rampaging far away. The Waterway Strongholds’ water bandits flying about.

The Water Dragon, nothing but an illusion, strikes down the Waterway Strongholds’ water bandits. Though some prepare for impact by tearing their bracelets, most have their limbs broken and dantians shattered without even tearing their bracelets. A cruel and vicious scene. Indeed, a scene a yokai would enjoy.

“You wouldn’t have the hobby of spectating something like that.”

I know.

Black Night isn’t a third-rate Great Yokai who would feel pleasure spectating something like that. She’s someone who has transcended even the yokai characteristic of feeding on fear, having literally reached the realm of Yokai Immortal—that’s Black Night.

“You’re quite reluctant to believe. I truly came only to spectate. I just didn’t come to spectate something like that.”

“What then?”

“The situation that will unfold ahead.”

Black Night, who smiled faintly, twirled her finger and pointed at the sky. The answer that followed.

“Soon the Demonic Heaven will open.”

“It’s perfect weather to spectate the opening of creation. Isn’t it?”

“What on earth does that…….”

“Shh.”

It’s audible.

Black Night, who whispered quietly, whispered to me softly. And.

“Look. Isn’t it inter──.”

Seoseok!

“A wretched thing has come.”

The next moment. Black Night’s neck was severed.

Still with a smiling face.