Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 138

Tales of a Wandering Swordsman – 137

I… was furious and turned Suwol Gate into a complete mess. I inflicted serious injuries on my master but retreated upon seeing the disciples and other elders rushing in.

Everyone was surprised to see me. It was the first time they had seen me express my emotions so intensely.

“Calm down! What are you doing!”

But was it as easy as saying that?

I couldn’t, and I didn’t think I should.

My master said I wasn’t human.

But my thoughts were different.

Clearly different.

There was nothing different from humans.

Rather, it was more human than humans.

No, that child, called a failure, was more human than someone like me.

But my master treated him as dead just because he wasn’t human.

If he wasn’t human, was it okay to kill him so easily? Was it like treating him like a doll, like an object?

No.

He was human.

His origins were different, but he was human.

A human beyond any doubt.

He was human.

But I ran away.

I should have considered each point carefully, but I couldn’t.

Why couldn’t I?

Why couldn’t I speak up confidently?

I could only embrace my heightened emotions and run away from those who looked at me with suspicion.

I was foolish to think that asceticism was everything in life.

What great path could I discuss when I couldn’t even control my emotions or protect my own disciple?

Uncontrollable emotions burst out like a dam breaking in a stream.

The broken dam spewed out everything, pebbles and mud alike.

I squatted in a deserted forest, endlessly vomiting emotions.

My head was dizzy.

My body felt like it was on fire.

I went to a nearby stream and plunged in.

The water in the stream was cool and perfect for my heated body.

My back touched the bottom of the stream, and then I floated up as if I were on a cloud.

And then I sank again.

I… called Hwaran into my room.

I asked Hwaran to prepare for a long journey.

She seemed to have noticed something, as she was a bright child.

But she didn’t ask anything.

I hugged Hwaran tightly and asked her to take care of the Hwasan Sect.

And so, I left the Hwasan Sect.

Time flowed.

A month passed, and a year passed.

But there was no answer within me.

I met many people and formed many relationships, but there always seemed to be a tangled thread in one corner of my heart.

Untangling it was daunting, not knowing where to start, and leaving it alone was frustrating because it kept bothering me.

As I wandered around putting it off day after day, I discovered an island.

A strangely moving island.

Upon closer inspection, it was Guisu Mountain, and the island was full of swords.

I landed there and grabbed a sword as my heart led me.

And I came to the Sword Spirit Island.

But I thought it was for the best.

I wanted to unravel what was inside me by practicing swordsmanship here.

As time passed, the tangled thread inside me was untangled.

Now is the time to neatly tie the end of this thread.

To my father.

To convey the answer to that person.

To define who I am.

I… Yang So-peng, lost the woman I loved to my friend, and I also lost my place, but I did not give up.

In the past, I was swept away by emotions and made foolish choices.

But now it will be different.

I will return to Kunlun to correct everything and reclaim my woman.

And I will reclaim my original position and put everything back in its place.

I will also have a clear ending with Seongmong, who stole my woman.

My great path will truly unfold and begin after that.

I… Hong Kyung, still don’t know.

I still don’t know what a monster is, what a human is, or what a Taoist is.

But I realized one thing.

The value of life is the same.

Even a bug is life, a person is life, and a monster is life.

What I realized along with the mistakes of the past is that the weight of life is the same.

So I will leave this place.

I will go out and correct the weight of the lives I have extinguished, and I will use my life as atonement for it.

It took too long to realize, but it’s okay because I realized it now.

First of all, I will hold a funeral for my younger brother who died.

I don’t know if any of my family’s belongings are left, but I want to hold it.

And I will return to the Wudang Sect and spread my enlightenment.

Then someday, an answer will come.

I… Kang Ryong, thought.

I spent nearly a thousand years on Sword Spirit Island, regretting and lamenting the past.

And I came to a conclusion.

I will return to Suwol Gate.

I will go back and save the poor children who are born and disappear in Suwol.

And I will change Suwol.

I, Yang So-peng.

I, Kang Ryong.

I, Hwabung.

I, Hong Kyung.

I… I… I.

“Why don’t you answer, Daeho?”

I… shed tears.

My tears fell and dripped onto the bloodstained water.

How pathetic.

Whether I was human or not.

I am such a pathetic guy.

“Take my golden elixir… Then I can become your Changui [a spirit attendant], and you can become my master and live in peace….”

What a pathetic guy.

I can make her a ghost and be with her.

I felt relieved thinking about it.

I had that thought in one corner of my heart.

But that wouldn’t do.

If I did that, she would have to live as a ghost for the rest of her life.

Her soul would be tainted, and she would not be able to reincarnate easily, so she would either disappear or go to the underworld and turn into an evil spirit.

I couldn’t let that happen.

“Daeho….”

But her voice, as if it would break at any moment, crumbles my resolve.

“You become my… yes. Become my… mountain god, and I become your Changui and live in a mountain as our home. It would be so peaceful.”

Her eyes blurred.

She wasn’t looking at me.

“If we’re hungry, we catch mountain animals, and if we’re thirsty, we drink stream water….”

Her appearance, talking about the future with me in her dying body, was sad.

That must be why.

“Aimlessly. Aimlessly… peacefully… napping… like… that… peacefully… without… any… worries….”

Stammering.

As if about to break.

Her voice continues.

I had no choice but to choose.

Because she wanted it too, and I wanted it too.

Because that’s how it was.

Just because.

And that day.

Hwaran became my Changui.

Hwaran, my disciple, was a smart, warm, and pitiful child.

That child’s name is Charyuk, the woman I loved and lost completely.

My woman, I don’t think I can accept my father.

I am not Yunryeong now, but Hong Kyung.

I hoped that all the monsters I killed would not forget me and curse me.

That way, I feel like I’m paying for my sins.

I… I got a Changui.

By swallowing her golden elixir, I, who was just a tiger, became a divine beast.

So I lived with her and wandered around here and there.

They were happy days, but that’s when I really realized who I was.

I abandoned my previous name and became Daeho of Mount Baeksan.

Just as Daeho.

Or as a mountain god.

I became firmly determined to live like that.

My previous life was treated as a dream.

My father’s death, my mother’s death.

The hypocrisy of pretending to care about me on the outside while subtly revealing greed.

All as a dream.

So I am Baeksan’s….

I will return to the Hwasan Sect….

Kon….

I.

There is something I must tell my father, but if I go back, I will apologize to Charyuk, my friend, for my mistakes and get those children back.

I….

I.

“I resented it.”

A sobbing voice.

A woman’s voice I know well.

It was Hwaran’s.

I turned my head.

Hwaran was sitting on the floor.

“It’s hard to even appear in front of people in this ghost body.”

My heart ached.

I could feel her emotions deeply.

“Why did you make me like this?”

I said.

You wanted it too, and it was the result of me not wanting you to disappear.

But she bowed her head.

“What can’t I say in the face of death? Mountain God. Daeho… you made me like this. You made me just a ghost! You confine me by making me a ghost, and now you’re trying to make me a Sword Spirit so I can’t even leave your side!”

Hwaran, who had been wearing a simple black outfit, suddenly wore the beautiful outfit she had when she was in the Hwasan Sect and expressed her anger.

I, who was a tiger, became a human and apologized to her.

She wanted it too, but for some reason, I knelt in front of her and just repeated that I was sorry.

I could have shouted that Hwaran wanted it too, but my mouth uttered different words from my head.

Just sorry.

That I didn’t mean to.

Don’t regret it.

I asked awkwardly if the years I spent with her weren’t enjoyable.

“I was the leader of the Hwasan Sect, so how could I be satisfied with running around in the mountains and fields? Mountain God, do you really believe I was happy? Do you really think so, Daeho?”

Hwaran took a step forward.

Her feet spread like ink.

Below it was drawn as a distant abyss, as if swallowing everything.

Hwaran grabbed my shoulder tightly.

“I have never been at peace. The Hwasan I couldn’t protect, and the screams of the dead disciples and the main sect tormented me every night!”

That must have been the case.

She had a strong sense of responsibility.

She was wearing ill-fitting clothes, wearing ill-fitting decorations, and carrying heavy burdens.

Of course, that would have been the case.

“Have you ever thought that I would be so tormented? Have you ever given me a word of comfort!”

No.

I was thinking that it was a word that should not be taken out indirectly.

Implicitly, that story.

The story of that time was not brought up.

I did so, and I had no doubt that Hwaran did so too.

I didn’t know.

No, I knew but ignored it.

I guessed that it might be like that, but I didn’t want to bring it up for no reason.

To Hwaran, it was one of the wounds that would never heal.

I was scared.

In case it was like that.

I was afraid that she might regret it.

My.

The years with me.

I was constantly looking away and running away, relying on her kind heart.

Because Hwaran is kind.

“I regret it. If I could go back to the way I was then, I would have gone back a hundred times! A thousand times!”

Because Hwaran is kind.

“If I had just let you die when you were dying, I wouldn’t have become such a Changui!”

Because Hwaran is precious.

“Ah, it’s frustrating. I didn’t know that my life would be so miserably changed by just one tiger.”

So that she doesn’t get hurt.

“Let’s go. You too, become a ghost like me and live in torment for the rest of your life! Make this world like hell!”

So that my Hwaran doesn’t get hurt.

“Die. Die and die and die a hundred times and become a pathetic ghost!”

Before I knew it, I was falling into a black swamp. What was a pit had turned into a swamp, and my body and Hwaran’s body were slowly sinking.

It was a strange feeling.

The boiling emotions disappeared.

As if being sucked somewhere.

I had been pondering something intently until just now, but it didn’t matter anymore.

Hwaran is in front of me, and she is hugging me, so it’s okay.

It’s okay.

Because Hwaran is there.

Hwaran.

Hwaran….

My Hwaran.

[Stab your woman.]

Stab!