Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 544

Nangseon Gi Hwan Dam – Part 2, Chapter 253

“Has your mind changed even a little now?”

Hwa-dam’s face was filled with bewilderment.

And the Frost Severing Blade, cut and sprawled on the floor, brimming with frost.

The furrowed brow of Tam-hwa, as if deep in thought, tested Cheon-beom.

‘If I send Tam-hwa….’

What would happen?

From the Lower World, since Tam-hwa gained sentience, her bond with Ran had been strong.

Having ascended to the Upper World, he treated her like a daughter, so how could it not be so?

So, he was curious.

If she was truly herself, no matter what, she wouldn’t be able to cut down Tam-hwa.

Beom, lost in thought, soon closed his eyes and wore a bitter smile.

‘But I can’t do that.’

Even if it was necessary.

He didn’t want to see it.

“What can I do?”

“Didn’t I say? Since you weren’t coming, I came to meet you.”

Beom stroked Tam-hwa’s head as she worried beside him, then nodded.

“Lead the way.”

“Yes.”

Beom took out a talisman from his pocket, placed it in the air, and followed Ran.

Soon, the two of them departed, and Cheong-myeong, hesitatingly approaching, grasped the talisman he left behind, his worries deepening.

* * *

On a swaying rowboat.

Cheon-beom and Hwa-ran stood side by side at the bow, crossing the Geonwon Sea.

“I thought you brought some grand *Dunbo* [a type of treasure or valuable item] since you came to meet me, but it seems you don’t have anything like that.”

“Why would I bring such a treasure for someone who is so great?”

There were thorns hidden in her retort, so Cheon-beom raised one corner of his mouth.

“You don’t seem to know. I’ve become quite great in the short time you haven’t seen me.”

“Is that so? I am ignorant of worldly news and didn’t recognize you. Perhaps, could you give me a chance to broaden my horizons?”

Ran’s way of speaking, smiling slyly as she questioned, was like this:

*If you’re so great, why don’t you recite it yourself?*

For an ordinary man, it would have been an immediately unpleasant tone, but how could Cheon-beom be an ordinary man, an ordinary cultivator?

“It’s a bit embarrassing to say it myself, but it’s quite rare for someone to reach the Origin Core Realm at such a young age. My face is decent enough, and my character is also impeccable, so it’s no exaggeration to say that those who follow me could circle the walls of Tongcheon Water Palace.”

Then, Ran covered her mouth with her hand and let out a snort of laughter.

“Oh, is that so? I didn’t recognize such a great person.”

“It’s enough if you know now. I’m a man with a wider and deeper vessel than you think, so I can understand that much.”

Nodding with a smile, this time Ran opened her mouth.

“But you know.”

“What is it?”

“Why didn’t someone with such a wide and deep vessel look for a woman who left home? I heard that you abandoned your wife, who contributed to you throughout her life, gathered new women, prepared a house, and cherished them like jewels.”

Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were only cold, so Beom’s Adam’s apple naturally moved up and down.

“Well. I’m originally a man with a wide and deep vessel, so I don’t stop women who come to me, and I don’t hold onto women who leave.”

“Hoh….”

She made a strange sound, smiling as if dumbfounded.

But the atmosphere was so fierce that it felt like walking on thin ice rather than crossing the Geonwon Sea.

“Isn’t that how life is originally? Each person walks their own path.”

Even if they are a couple, lovers, or something close, in the end, don’t they each walk their own path? Even if someone walks for them, there is no meaning in that life.

“It’s just that you can help and share a little, but you can’t replace them.”

One’s life is one’s own.

“So, you’re still keeping that leech around?”

“…You’re talking about Rakshasa.”

Beom scratched his nose and asked back.

“Are you bothered by that?”

“It’s just curiosity.”

Why is she showing such hostility towards Rakshasa?

“Why, is something strange?”

“…I’m just curious why you’re so interested in Rakshasa when there are so many other things.”

She, who had been crossing her arms while holding her sword, turned her body and glanced at Cheon-beom.

Then, she took out her sword from its sheath.

*Sreung* [sound of a sword being drawn].

Her sword’s blade, reflected in the moonlight, was incredibly beautiful, and the sword path drawn like a dance was like a painting.

Clang.

*Kooong!!* [onomatopoeia for a loud crash]

A huge roar echoed from four thousand kilometers away.

Judging from the sound, it was the noise of a *Dunbo* traveling in the sky crashing.

It seemed to be the soldiers of the Four Realms or the Bung Realm nearby.

“Can’t I even ask that much?”

“There’s nothing you can’t ask. But that doesn’t mean I have a reason to answer you.”

*Chwaaaaa* [sound of waves crashing].

The sound of waves crashing against the rocks was particularly cold.

The *Dunbo* that sank into the Geonwon Sea was quite large, causing the rowboat that Cheon-beom and Hwa-ran were on to sway together.

But even so, their intersecting gazes did not stray, and they watched each other under restrained emotions.

“As someone who shared a blanket for the past years, may I ask one thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“What is your purpose?”

“Purpose… purpose. Does asking a cultivator about their purpose have much meaning in itself?”

“It seems like you have one.”

“Me?”

“If not, you wouldn’t have come to me in your current form.”

She had become stronger.

Cheon-beom’s sword, Hwa-ran.

Roughly speaking, it is so solid that there is no way to go further as a sword.

And sharp.

Her mind and body are like an impregnable fortress, so much so that he cannot see through her, and he doesn’t know what is hidden inside.

He cannot know.

“Purpose… it doesn’t seem important to you. Rather, you’re asking whether I am truly an enemy to you, or an ally.”

“I won’t deny that.”

Then Ran’s brow narrowed.

“Is that so.”

“You don’t seem to want to answer.”

“I did, but it’s gone now. They say a woman’s heart is like a reed.”

“Was it a reed, not a sword, then.”

*Pajik* [sound of something breaking or cracking].

She glared at him as if to kill him, so Cheon-beom stealthily avoided her gaze.

“Please be careful. My sword, honed inside me, is extremely sharp, so be careful. I don’t know where that sword will be directed towards you.”

“Where are you looking when you say that? My eyes aren’t there.”

“I’m telling you to be careful.”

Cheon-beom hurriedly turned his body and answered that he understood.

Then, he trudged back and plopped down in his seat, taking out a bottle of alcohol and drinking it.

Hwa-ran stood blankly at the bow, holding her sword.

‘Nothing much has changed.’

Seeing her standing in front of him, holding her sword, he felt that way.

The air surrounding them was different from before, but looking at her back, it didn’t seem much different.

She had always tried to protect him, so that back was quite familiar.

“Is it okay to show me your back?”

He asked.

“….”

She didn’t say anything.

At this, Cheon-beom chuckled.

Then, he opened the bottle, quenched his thirst, and sprinkled it on the Geonwon Sea.

From there, ripples arose, and plum blossom fragrance bloomed on the night sky’s sea route.

From the cold, wave-crashing Geonwon Sea, it transformed into a scene of crossing the middle of a lake full of plum trees.

There was no more beautiful sight than plum blossoms falling on the clear lake water.

“What are you doing?”

He asked as if wondering what he meant.

“Just to make it look good.”

When she asked what he meant,

“You could have used *Dunbo* to fly, or you could have used a teleportation formation or broken through space to go faster, but you knew that and still took a rowboat.”

It was a rowboat without oars.

If they were to cross the Geonwon Sea with only a rowboat, even though it was already a long distance, it would be impossible to guess how long it would take.

It would take at least thousands of years.

“The fact that someone who came to meet me took a method that was worse than returning means that there must be another reason.”

Ran only stared silently with an unchanging expression, as if telling him to say more.

So, Beom said more.

“You have a hidden agenda that you can’t tell me, hidden in that palace.”

“There’s nothing but a woman’s fair skin inside the palace. Do you want to see it?”

“That wouldn’t be bad either.”

But soon, sincerity settled in Cheon-beom’s eyes.

“I know you are under the surveillance of the Sword Slave. You want to say something, but you can’t. And it shouldn’t be that way.”

After exchanging a few words with her.

Something is not missing.

It means that she is the same Hwa-ran that he knew before.

Even if her strength and energy have changed a little, it is only beneficial.

It is not harmful to her and Beom.

But Ran is a woman who approached the enemy with a purpose.

He doesn’t know what that purpose is, but judging from the words and actions she showed earlier, it is by no means harming him.

“You must have heard my story roughly while coming to find me. So, now, tell me your story. Hwa-ran, whom I don’t know, whom the world doesn’t know. Your story.”

Then, instead of answering, Ran.

Drew the sword she was holding.

As if to say that this was the answer.

“I told you to answer, not to draw your sword….”

“It would be so nice if I could just do something about that mouth.”

“That’s been the case since a long time ago.”

“You were better when you were a mute Beom than you are now.”

Unlike the words she spat out as if with thorns, the corners of her mouth drew an arc.

Suddenly, old memories filled one side of his heart.

“Be careful. My sword is sharper than before, so it might cut off your unprincipled roots.”

And soon.

Ran’s sword stretched out.

A clean, single sword.

Upper slash.

A simple slash of the sword path that was neither more nor less than that.

But the one who performed it was the Heavenly Sword that had swallowed all swords, so it was as heavy as if it had contained the sky in one sword.

*Kooong* [onomatopoeia for a heavy impact].

*Chwarrreuk!* [sound of something tearing or ripping]

He defended against the single sword by transforming the Seondeung Eumseok into a folding fan, and his wrist naturally trembled.

Unlike his naturally trembling hand, the emotion contained in her single sword was so poignant that Beom’s eyes widened.

*Chwaak* [sound of something slicing or cutting].

Stepping on the bow and landing on the surface of the water, Hwa-ran also approached as if flying and stabbed her sword as if dancing.

“It’s truly seamless.”

Something natural in itself.

It is as it is, without a speck of dust. A sword strike that is neither slow nor fast, but a sword that cannot be avoided no matter where you go, and a sword that seems like it can be avoided no matter where you go.

But the thought contained in it tormented Cheon-beom endlessly.

The important thing was not the sword.

*Chwaaaaa* [sound of waves crashing].

Soon, the scenery of the lake full of plum blossoms disappeared, and Cheon-beom and Hwa-ran, located on the Geonwon Sea, appeared.

A dark night sky.

A small moonlight shone on them, but the surroundings were endlessly dark.

Only the rowboat flowed leisurely between him and her, and the fragments of the broken *Dunbo* floated aimlessly on the surface of the water, swaying.

“Ran, is that truly your will?”

He asked, but she didn’t answer.

Soon, she closed her eyes and avoided his gaze.

The sword in her hand returned to its sheath as if it had given its answer, and Cheon-beom wore a face as if the sky had fallen.

At first, it collapsed.

Then, it was distorted.

But as it collapsed again, Beom had no choice but to clutch his painful heart.

“You also know that it is an impossible wish.”

“That is my Great Dao [a cultivator’s ultimate path or principle].”

Great Dao.

It was a heinous and cruel word that returned all kinds of excuses and persuasions to nothing.

But she is also a cultivator.

What more can he say?

Nevertheless, opening his mouth is.

My small lingering attachment.

“There is no you in your Great Dao.”

He had to turn his back, uttering only those words.