Sword God Reborn

Chapter 281 : Today is the anniversary of my death

Neung-heo clicked his tongue.

"Well, he's damn fast."

When the Blood Buddha turned his back and fled, and Cheon Mubaeck pursued him, Neung-heo also hurriedly followed.

If it was lightness skill, he was not at a level where he would be criticized for lacking it anywhere.

But in an instant, the two figures who had been in front of him disappeared, and now it was difficult to even find a trace.

"Are you human or what?"

It felt as if he had been possessed by a ghost.

But he couldn't just not chase. Because it might be a scheme where the Blood Buddha had set a trap and was luring Cheon Mubaeck.

Of course, he didn't think he would fall for a trap.

"Moreover, if it's a trap that that person would fall for, even if I go, I won't be able to break through it even if I die and wake up."

It would not be an ordinary trap. But what could he do?

"If that person dies, my life is over too."

He had been in the same boat for a long time.

Wasn't it he who was Cheon Mubaeck's right-hand man, as anyone could see?

If Cheon Mubaeck were to be defeated somewhere, it would be no different from Neung-heo's life in the martial world ending.

"In the old days, I wouldn't have been afraid of dying like that."

Neung-heo smiled bitterly.

In his black path days, when he was full of rebellion, he was not afraid of dying.

If you set foot in the martial world, and if you were a black path person who was dirtier than mud, it was a common thing to be stabbed with a sword while sleeping at dawn, so what was there to be afraid of?

"So I have to live a long, long time. Until I get old and ugly."

But now it was different. Neung-heo really wanted to live for a long time. Black path, demonic path, orthodox path, whatever.

He just wanted to forget everything and live. It was natural. Because he had a family. Like Cheon Mubaeck's fence, Neung-heo had also created his own fence.

"I have to live a very long time, until our Hang-ah gets married and I see my grandchildren, and those grandchildren have children."

To do that, of course, peace had to come to the martial world.

"To think I would be talking about the peace of the martial world."

Neung-heo grumbled as if he were dumbfounded. He anew felt how big of a mess he had gotten himself into.

Neung-heo was planning to help Cheon Mubaeck with all his might. It was not just for Cheon Mubaeck.

Neung-heo thought of himself as a selfish person.

If he was a typical black path person, he had lived and experienced that he had to live selfishly above all else.

He was not fighting for Cheon Mubaeck, but was using Cheon Mubaeck for himself.

Neung-heo thought so. He had to add his lacking strength to Cheon Mubaeck in any way.

Just today, he had met both the leader and the second-in-command of the Blood Demon Valley.

Neung-heo had realized with his unique wits.

"The real end is slowly approaching."

The leader of the Blood Demon Valley, who had been hiding, had appeared before his eyes.

The demonic path forces in the foreign lands would also slowly appear before his eyes.

It was not an ordinary force. The Blood Demon Valley might just be a lower organization, a real deal.

If Cheon Mubaeck were to be defeated by the great enemies.

There was nothing more terrible than that among the things Neung-heo could imagine.

Because it was not easy to imagine the orthodox martial world, without Cheon Mubaeck, facing the demonic path.

Neung-heo continued to follow Cheon Mubaeck, who had chased after the Blood Buddha.

Since he had already disappeared from his sight, he had no choice but to follow the traces he had left.

"This person. He's so stealthy that an assassin would be put to shame. The Blood Buddha bastard left traces because he was in a hurry to escape. But what's with the almost no traces while chasing in a hurry?"

Even with Neung-heo's sharp eyes, all he could do was to barely find and chase the traces of the Blood Buddha.

Neung-heo, who had reached the point where the traces were cut off, found Cheon Mubaeck's back.

"Heo..."

And he clicked his tongue as he saw the Blood Buddha's head rolling on the floor.

The surroundings were a complete mess.

It was a common thing for a giant tree that several adult men could not embrace even if they spread their arms to have fallen, and the floor was severely dented in places, as if a meteor had fallen from the sky.

Neung-heo clicked his tongue at the traces of the fierce battle.

And he carefully approached Cheon Mubaeck.

If it was a battle of this magnitude, Cheon Mubaeck's body would not be intact.

"Are you alright? My lord... huh?"

But Neung-heo, who was approaching Cheon Mubaeck, had no choice but to stop abruptly.

He saw an old man with white hair kneeling in front of Cheon Mubaeck.

The old man with an extraordinary appearance at a glance was difficult to guess his age. Looking at his white hair and deep eyes, he was clearly of a considerable age, but his skin was glossy like a baby's. So it was impossible to guess how old he was.

Above all, the reason Neung-heo had flinched was not just because of the old man's appearance.

"No, what is this situation again..."

The old man was weeping pitifully, wiping his face with his palm.

The sight of an old man of an unguessable age crying like a child was a scene that gave the viewer a severe discomfort.

Although it was a situation where even the great Neung-heo would be uncomfortable, Cheon Mubaeck, who was standing in front of the old man, was clicking his tongue.

"How old are you, and you're still crying like a baby? Huh?"

"..."

"Ha. You bastard, if it's not that, you should just let it go. Huh? Are you being so stubborn?"

Cheon Mubaeck, who was clicking his tongue and scolding the old man who was just shedding tears endlessly.

Neung-heo felt somehow uncomfortable at the sight of him, as if he had thrown the order between the old and the young into the mud.

The Confucianism deep in his heart was stirring.

At that moment, Cheon Mubaeck turned his head.

"Neung-heo."

"Yes."

"Say hello."

"Who is he?"

"He's my disciple."

"..."

Neung-heo's face contorted bizarrely.

* * *

The place Cheon Mubaeck headed to was naturally the Lotus Pavilion.

By now, the news that Cheon Mubaeck had arrived would have reached the Azure Star Escort Agency, but he had postponed going home for a while.

Because a more important matter was at hand.

While heading to the Lotus Pavilion, Yoo Baek-gi did not say a single word.

He just looked at Cheon Mubaeck's face with a gaze that was swirling with all sorts of emotions.

Although the Lotus Pavilion was Neung-heo's property, in a larger sense, it was Cheon Mubaeck's property.

"Close up for today."

So the opening was also up to Cheon Mubaeck.

Although Neung-heo's mouth was sticking out, he could not complain.

Because he had belatedly realized that the pitiful old man who had been crying so sadly was the Sword Venerable. Even Neung-heo did not have the guts to speak carelessly in front of the Sword Venerable, who had a great reputation in the martial world.

"That guy is challenging me?"

"Challenging? It is a just rebuttal of a persecuted subordinate."

"Do you want to be persecuted until you die?"

Neung-heo slyly changed the subject.

"What should I prepare?"

"Just heat up some wine."

"And snacks?"

"Are you going to drink wine straight without any snacks?"

"Are you going to set up a snack table?"

Cheon Mubaeck clicked his tongue.

"Wow. This bastard. It's really been a long time since I've seen him."

"It is a sign of familiarity, so please do not be angry."

"Shut up and go."

"Yes, yes."

Cheon Mubaeck heard Neung-heo go out and scold the staff, and then he looked at Yoo Baek-gi again.

Yoo Baek-gi, who was sitting opposite him, was still silently just looking at Cheon Mubaeck's face.

Suddenly, a smile appeared on Yoo Baek-gi's lips.

"It is indeed you, Master."

"Why."

"It was as if I were seeing myself and you, Master, when I was a young and foolish child."

Cheon Mubaeck's face became awkward and he narrowed his brow.

"Don't misunderstand. He's not my disciple."

"From his walking posture to the range of his arm movements, which are always ready to draw his sword. It seems all of your teachings have seeped into him."

"I just gave him a few teachings."

As Cheon Mubaeck said it as if it were nothing, Yoo Baek-gi smiled faintly.

It was a smile that somehow made him feel very embarrassed.

"Have you become a Buddha in your old age? Your laugh is very wicked. A laugh that seems to look into one's heart."

"Even when you took me as a disciple, you just said you would give me a few teachings."

"That was then. I had no intention of raising a disciple. But Baek-gi, you were overflowing with talent and your five senses pierced the sky, so I also became greedy and taught you everything. That Neung-heo guy, he's just a glib-tongued idiot with no talent. He's not a disciple, just a subordinate."

"Yes. I see."

"...I said he's just a subordinate?"

"Yes. That's right."

"Well..."

At Yoo Baek-gi's face, which was smiling as if he knew everything, Cheon Mubaeck had no choice but to just smack his lips and turn his gaze away.

"Now I understand. The reason why you, Master, did not try to raise a disciple."

"Have you now learned how to understand your master's heart?"

"You were reluctant to form deep connections. Because every time a new life repeats, the connections of the past life will remain in your mind."

"You are right. The more I could not forget the deep connections of my past life, the more a terrible demonic state tormented me in the next life. The best thing was to not form any connections."

A look of pity appeared in Yoo Baek-gi's eyes. Although Cheon Mubaeck had said it as if it were nothing, Yoo Baek-gi could not even dare to imagine it.

Severing ties was by no means easy. To think that he had to forcibly cut off the numerous connections he had formed a deep friendship with every time his life ended.

It would be different if the connections of the past were forgotten after death. But weren't they vivid in his mind?

Cheon Mubaeck did not know forgetting. Even the past events that Yoo Baek-gi's memory was hazy about, Cheon Mubaeck could take them out of his head without a single mistake.

Although it could be seen as a blessing, in Yoo Baek-gi's eyes, it looked like a terrible curse.

Family, friends, senior and junior brothers... there must have been strong connections in every life, but to think that he had to live, regenerating without forgetting all those connections.

Yoo Baek-gi was in a miserable state at the immense weight that he could not even imagine.

Just as the atmosphere was about to become infinitely heavy. Neung-heo came in with a tray of wine and wine cups.

Cheon Mubaeck looked at Neung-heo with a sullen face.

"Where are the snacks?"

"It is said that wine is to be enjoyed without snacks."

"Are you teaching me the way of wine in front of me? To be honest. There's nothing prepared right now, is there?"

"Actually, the cook hasn't come to work yet..."

Yoo Baek-gi waved his hand.

"No. Master. When you and I went up to the peak alone and just swung our swords, wasn't it enjoyable with just the aroma of the wine?"

Saying so, Yoo Baek-gi poured wine into Cheon Mubaeck's wine cup. The sight was so extremely polite that Neung-heo, who was caught in the middle, had an awkward expression.

On the outside, it was not a relationship between a grandfather and a grandson, but a relationship that looked like a great-grandfather and a great-grandson.

But to think that the old man was politely offering wine to the young Cheon Mubaeck.

Although he knew a part of Cheon Mubaeck's true identity, and he also knew that Yoo Baek-gi was the Sword Venerable.

It was a sight that he could not get used to.

Moreover, at Cheon Mubaeck's shameless face, which was receiving the wine cup as if it were so natural, a word just popped out of Neung-heo's mouth without him realizing it.

"Wow. Then this is a memorial service wine! My lord, how does it feel to receive a memorial service wine while you're alive?"

"..."

Cheon Mubaeck's eyebrow twitched. Neung-heo thought, 'Oops'. Judging from his numerous experiences, the moment Neung-heo, who had seen that the eye was the eye just before he was beaten to death, was about to quickly pull his body back.

Suddenly, Yoo Baek-gi burst into laughter.

"A memorial service wine... hahaha! That's not a wrong statement."

Cheon Mubaeck looked at Yoo Baek-gi with a strange gaze.

"Do you know?"

"What is it?"

"No matter how much your eyes and your sword are the same as my master's, I would not have easily thought of you as my master. Because I do not think such a thing is possible in the world."

"..."

"But there is one reason why I became sure that you are my master."

"What is it?"

Cheon Mubaeck became a little curious. No matter how familiar the sword and the gaze were. And even if various circumstances pointed to Cheon Mubaeck being the Azure Sky Sword God himself.

Who would look at Cheon Mubaeck and be sure that he was the past Azure Sky Sword God himself?

Even if he were his disciple.

But to think there was a reason why he had become sure.

"Well, today is the day my master returned to heaven. For me, I had no choice but to think that my master had come to visit on the anniversary of his death."

"..."

"I have always offered wine on a simple memorial service table. Master. This unworthy disciple, the Sword Venerable Yoo Baek-gi, offers you wine."

Cheon Mubaeck looked at Yoo Baek-gi for a long time and then received the wine.

"I see. Today is the anniversary of my death."

Somehow, it felt as if he were drunk on wine.

(End of Chapter)