studiobondurri Chapter 79: The Scent of Snow (2)
Chapter 79: The Scent of Snow (2)
Chapter 79: The Scent of Snow (2)
The Heavenly Demon and I made our way back to the Hunters and the Murim Alliance's leader after a long time.
The two of us were silent as we walked through the cave.
“... It’s very dark in front of us, so be careful where you step,” the Heavenly Demon said.
“Yes, Teacher, ” I replied.
That was the end of our conversation. She looked to be deep in thought. What was the Heavenly Demon—no, what was Teacher thinking?
Show me the character window.
It was said that a disciple shouldn’t even step on their teacher’s shadow, but it was hard to resist my curiosity. Could it be that Teacher had become cautious around me after I showed my weak side? That wasn’t what I wanted.
Name: Soh Baekhyang
Affection: 81
Liked genre: Murim
Disliked genre: Classic, legend, history, fairy tale
Liked characters: Grassroots, rivals
Disliked characters: Oppressors, hypocrites, bums
Liked plot points: Full power fight
Disliked plot points: Fleeing, oblivion, meaningless death
State of mind: Judging from my remaining qi... I’ll be able to live for another year and six months if I use it sparingly. One and a half years! Woah, this is hard! I’ll have to teach everything to my disciple within one and a half years...
Peeking into my Teacher’s mind without her permission made my conscience sting... but that wasn’t the only reason. I felt embarrassed, but I was also a bit touched. I didn’t really understand what I was feeling, but I could feel my face getting warmer. Maybe I really was weak to goodwill.
—Man, Zombie! Today is really my day! I couldn’t have asked for more!
Naturally, the moment didn’t last long because a ghost came along and obliterated the mood.
—Well! It’s a different world, but the murim guys seem no different from those in my murim. The martial arts manuals aren’t that different. Still, it felt good to read them. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that. Man, this is great! Oh, right. Did your Nine Bows go well? the Guardian asked.
—Huh? What’s with that sulky look? You’re already ugly, but you look even uglier with that face, Zombie. You could use some beauty treatments.
If someone could see my affection, they would probably see it drop by ten points right now. Seriously, this ghost didn’t understand human emotions.
[Shiny manages to stop sobbing and looks up at you.]
Shiny finally stopped trembling. As expected, a Constellation understood human emotions. My Affection for Shiny just went up by thirty points.
“Hey, you guys are back,” the Viper said, his one eye on me. “Are your Nine Bows over?”
“Yes, I’ve officially become a disciple of the Heavenly Demon Cult.”
“Congratulations.”
“So how did you end up becoming a student of the Murim Alliance's leader?”
The Viper crossed his arms and chuckled. “Well, it just happened.”
“That’s what you said back then.”
“What? You want to hear the details?”
“Yes, if it’s okay.”
Standing like an impregnable wall, the Viper smiled, then shook his head.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.” The Viper calmly continued, “I just asked him to be my teacher. Nothing else really happened.”
Since the match was over, nothing held me back from opening the Viper’s character window.
State of Mind: The dying old man... No. He’s my teacher now. Anyway, he’s much more skilled than me but he even bowed to me. He said he doesn’t have much time left to live and he wants to give the Heavenly Demon a reason to carry on. How can I say no to that...?
I felt like someone hit me on the back of my head. The Viper was a real man.
State of Mind: Phew~ Maybe it’s because I lied, but I can remember the moment vividly. I saw the occasional spar between the Murim Alliance's leader and the Heavenly Demon, so I always thought that those guys were amazing. That’s why I discussed martial arts with him when we were sitting together.
The Chemist had to force herself to finish the explanation. “They have to be removed through surgery.”
“... Are you saying that you’re going to remove the tumor from our lower dantians? That’s fine,” Teacher said, trying to be optimistic. “We’ll lose some of our qi, but people like us can quickly recover from that much.”
“No, your lower dantians will be removed completely. You don’t have to worry about the surgery failing. A trial surgery has already been done. I’m not a specialist in surgery, but Mr. Medicine King is, and I’m still good enough to assist him, so...”
“Their skills are amazing,” the Murim Alliance's leader interrupted. “I don’t know much, but I think I’ll be looking for a doctor from outer murim the next time I need one. I watched the surgery from the side, and it was incredible. Demon, you should also come and watch when you get the chance.”
“Namgung Woon.” Teacher turned to look at him.
“I...” The Murim Alliance's leader coughed. “I’m going to have the surgery. Even if I’m going to lose my qi, it’s only a handful. It isn’t much to worry about. It’s fortunate that I could take in a disciple near the end. Even after closing my dantian, my mind will still be clear, so I’ll be able to teach my disciple. He’s a genius like no other and absorbs my teaching like a sponge.”
The Murim Alliance's leader looked at his old rival. “We’re martial artists. Martial arts are about the mind. If we still have our clear minds, our martial arts remain. Aren’t I right, Baekhyang?”
Try as she might, Teacher couldn’t answer him.
The Murim Alliance's leader's surgery went on all night. At dawn, the Chemist and the Medicine King told me that the surgery was complete and had been successful.
***
Dawn decorated the snowfield in shadows.
“Teacher.”
She stood alone at the cave’s entrance, looking down at the dimly lit world. As distant as the scene was, she seemed even further away. Her long black sleeves fluttered in the wind.
“Teacher,” I repeated.
“...Is the surgery over?”
“Yes, it is.”
“How did it go?”
“He’s well.”
“Is that so?”
“It went well.”
“I see.” Her gaze was fixed on the air. “My disciple.”
“Yes, Teacher.”
“I wanted to slay all of the cold in the world,” Teacher said. “Since I was young, I resented winter and the snow that fell during the season. Why does the world have to have seasons? And why did winter have to be one of them? Why did people’s lives have to perish at the end of every season? I always wondered.”
The world was now frozen in eternal winter, but the woman born with the Icesnow Body and the Ultimate Yin Body hated the season that was most like her.
“I can’t cut the cold, but I was confident that I could punish those who froze the world. That is when I first went out into murim. It was the middle of winter back then, too.”
I knew that something was different about Teacher. She was holding a sword in her right hand. It had no guard, consisting only of the hilt and the blade. Unlike the other swords that were polished to a mirror sheen, Teacher’s blade was pitch black almost as if it refused to be clear.
I could surmise what the sword was.
“The Bloodbane Demon Sword...”
“When I first went into murim, there was something I tried. I was acting childish, but I embraced the world’s cold literally and decided to cut down a snowy mountain.” Teacher exhaled deeply, her breath emerging as puffs of white.
High, white mountains scraped the bottom of the dawning sky.
“Back then, I couldn’t even cut off the foot of the mountain...” The Teacher raised her sword. “I wonder what I’m like now.”
Teacher slowly swung her sword. Her sleeves were long, so they fluttered behind the blade with an almost exaggerated slowness. It seemed as if time stopped as her sleeves swam through the air.
“Whish, whish, iwish.” The shaman of the sword danced with her sword. “My heart is a candle, and it’ll burn this place.”
And then it was cut. The snowy peak had no trees, exposed rocks, or any significance except for its mere presence, but it was cut down all the same. The mountain’s scream was like thunder. As it echoed outward, a rush of white blood burst out as the peak collapsed; the waves of snow overlapped with one another, furthering the mountain’s fall. A human-made snowstorm blotted out the dawn.
Teacher’s cloudy breath drifted through the air.
“In my mind, I cut down the entire mountain, but I couldn’t. I only managed to cut down the peak this time. I’m far away from achieving Mind-Kill. This is the final level I’ll be able to reach.”
The huge, white mountain crumbled.
“My disciple.” Teacher looked back at me. “I’ll have the surgery.”