“What were you thinking while you killed the demonic beasts?”
Seolhwa asked, her sword held upright.
“You knew why the monkeys became demonic beasts.”
“…You told me.”
“How did you feel? While killing those demonic beasts.”
Cheongun could not answer. The sensation of cutting down the demonic beasts was all that tingled sharply at his fingertips.
“Among those demonic beasts, there must have been a monkey who watched its child’s brain get eaten right before its eyes.”
To humans, the sound of the bell signaled freshness, but to the mother monkey watching, it was the sound that announced the last moments of her child’s life. When the jingling sound of the bell finally stopped, what must the mother monkey's heart have felt?
“It must have been like that when Father lost me.”
When the child’s cry was swallowed by the fierce current. What must his emotions have been, listening to the cry of his falling child with all his senses on edge?
“Isn’t that what it means to be powerless? Grief and resentment are, in the end, just proof of weakness.”
Grieving because one is weak, resentful because one is weak. If one had power, one would fight back and take revenge, but without such power, one can only nurture grief and build up resentment. Most of the Blood Sect followers in his previous life had been like that.
Even when they suffered injustice and resentment, they had no power to fight the injustice, no opportunity to resolve their resentment, so they were always filled with rage. Rage became blood, staining the world with blood and creating more injustice and resentment. It was a cycle.
A cycle that no one could break, one that only grew tougher and more unyielding over time.
“…Seolhwa…”
In Cheongun’s eyes, Seolhwa looked lonely. The loneliness of a child standing alone was so profound that his chest ached. Just as Cheongun reached a hand toward Seolhwa, her figure moved swiftly.
“…!”
Clang!
Namgung Cheongun reflexively raised his sword to block the blade rushing toward him. It was a strike aimed precisely at the nape of his neck. A blow that would have surely cut him down in a single stroke if he had not blocked it.
“Seol…”
Clank!
“…hwa!”
Cheongun took a sharp breath.
Clang! Kang! Clang!
The child’s sword did not stop, relentlessly striking at Cheongun’s vital points. Cheongun retreated, blocking the child’s sword. As he parried her blade, Cheongun felt his throat tighten.
The child’s sword was steeped in deep sorrow. A terrible grief and resentment could be felt from the sword the child wielded. It was as if she was resentfully asking why he had lost her, why he had not been able to hold on to her, why he had not protected her.
As if she was pouring out all that resentment.
Clang!
“Keuk…”
The child unleashed her sword. Sparks flew from the clashing blades, and within those sparks, Cheongun saw a person.
Kang!
It was a single falling lotus blossom. It was a white snow crying out for her father.
Clang!
It was himself, kneeling at the edge of a cliff, writhing in misery.
“Father.”
Seolhwa’s sword was unbelievably heavy for a thirteen-year-old child.
“I want you to become the Family Head.”
It was as heavy as the child’s wish.
“And a Family Head with power, if possible.”
It was a heavy, heavy sword. Cheongun gritted his teeth, tightening his grip on his sword.
Clang!
He forcefully parried the child’s strike. If Seolhwa had poured out her resentment, Cheongun had poured out his grief.
“Just being with you is enough for me. Having you, Seolhwa, alive by my side is enough to make me happy. Is that not enough? Must you insist on clawing your way up to such a dangerous position?”
Kagagagak…
The swords locked, and their wills locked.
“You can’t achieve anything with such a half-hearted attitude.”
Was it not enough?
‘Of course not.’
In his previous life, the Family Head of Namgung had been Namgung Cheongsan. Namgung Cheongsan had not been sufficient to lead the Namgung. He, too, had done his best, but it had not been enough.
While the Namgung that Cheongsan failed to protect was collapsing, Cheongun wandered the Martial World in search of his daughter. And he died at his daughter’s hand. What a futile death it had been.
“What must be achieved? Does becoming the Family Head achieve something? For what reason must I covet that position?”
“What if it can prevent a futile death?”
If it can prevent the deaths of the Namgung person who fell in vain? If it can save your life that was thrown away in vain?
“I don’t want to feel the misery of losing my family while protecting something else ever again. If I become the Family Head, I’ll have to protect everyone. But I only need to protect you. If I can just protect you, my daughter, then everything else…!”
The child swung her sword. The clouds retreated, and the energy roiled. Like a single swallow soaring into the blue sky, the child’s sword, and the red energy flowing from her, wrapped around the sky.
The sword technique of Namgung. Azure Sky Flying Swallow Sword. First Form, Heavenly Sky Dance.
Watching the sword pour down as elegantly as a dance from the sky, Cheongun put strength into his lower body, planting his feet on the ground.
Kaaaang!
He poured all his strength into receiving the child’s sword. He received the child’s wish.
Kuuuung!
The red energy and the blue energy clashed with enough force to shatter the peak.
“I need it.”
Amidst that fierce momentum, Seolhwa’s cold voice cut through Cheongun’s grief.
“I need power. I need the family. I need a fence to protect me.”
Some would say that the life he dedicated to finding a daughter whose fate was unknown was foolish. They would say that the end of his life, being killed by his own daughter’s hand, was pathetic. They would say he had given up something great for something small.
However, Seolhwa did not think so. What parent, what mere creature, could remain still after hearing the sound of its own child dying as its brains were gouged out? What could be prioritized over hearing the cries of one’s own child calling for them as they fell?
“Please take power into your hands. Please take strength. Please rule the Namgung. With that…”
Even a mere creature builds up resentment. How could a human remain still?
“Protect me.”
However, in this life, I will not let your devotion be in vain. I will not let your life, dedicated entirely to your child, end in a futile death. Having cut down the past and cut down resentment, all that remains is to move forward.
If the existence of your daughter is what moves you.
“Become the Family Head. Father.”
I will make you stand at the summit for my sake. The swords separated. Seolhwa moved a few steps away from Cheongun.
The energy of the two subsided, and silence fell. Cheongun touched his forehead and let out a long sigh. His face was already soaked with ceaselessly flowing tears.
“Ha…”
It was not easy to understand the daughter who had returned after eight years. What in the world was she trying to do? What was she thinking?
He felt as if a hundred-year-old serpent was inside that small body.
However.
“Alright.”
If that was his daughter’s wish. If that was the way to protect his daughter.
Willingly.
“I will do it.”
I will do it with all my life. For that is the very reason I live. And just as Cheongun raised his determined gaze.
“…?”
Something caught his eye. It was the ground, revealed between the clouds that had been briefly scattered by the sudden battle with Seolhwa. The spot where the clouds, which would not have scattered had they not crossed swords, had cleared.
The exposed ground was glittering.
“Wait… wait a moment! Seolhwa!”
Hastily sheathing his sword, Cheongun knelt down toward the ground where the clouds were beginning to fill in again. Cheongun fumbled with something, as if groping through the gathering clouds. His hand, which had been wandering in the clouds for a while, suddenly stopped.
Click.
From beneath the dense clouds, the sound of something moving could be heard. Cheongun looked at Seolhwa with an emotional gaze.
“It’s a formation.”
“…”
“It was a formation, Seolhwa!”
Soon, the clouds that had filled the peak slowly dispersed, revealing the ground. Namgung Cheongun’s eyes widened even further. The ground that formed the peak was not ordinary earth.
The peak, made of a mineral that both absorbed and reflected light, received the full light as the clouds moved away and sparkled brilliantly in seven colors.
‘A rainbow…!’
It was the celestial palace. The colors filling the peak were those of a rainbow. And in the spot where the clouds had receded, at the end of the rainbow, a turtle-shaped figure the size of a human palm stood steadfastly.
It was a place that could never have been found if the clouds had not disappeared.
“The, the Heavenly Palace… Turtle Head…!”
Cheongun’s face was painted with utter astonishment. The Heavenly Palace Turtle Head, which had only been spoken of in legends, actually existed, and they had truly found it. A bright smile spread across his face as he looked back at Seolhwa.
That smile, glittering with tears under the pouring sunlight, was a laugh that seemed somehow refreshed.
“You really found it, Seolhwa.”
The corners of Seolhwa’s lips curved faintly.
“You found it, Father.”