Emperor’s Sword [EN]: Chapter 78

【Another Realization】

Warm affection flowed between those who sought each other’s gaze. One might think it was nothing much, but the brush with death was more than enough to awaken the preciousness of each other. It pushed what had been quietly suppressed within, something they hadn’t even realized themselves, to the surface of their consciousness. They no longer saw each other as insignificant beings destined to die by chance. Instead, it transformed their emotions—a confused mix of loyalty and affection, lacking the power to spread—into a tangible reality.

Sometimes, the mere fact of living, of steadfastly supporting the heavens, can bring boundless emotion. Pa Cheon had thought of them the moment he sensed death, and the same was true for Gwangmajon and Muyeongjon. Though they were stoic men who didn’t easily show their feelings, their eyes were clearly filled with a different color than before.

The Heavenly Demon raised his strange eyes to look at them, then twitched his lips as if to say something. However, his words were pushed back by Pa Cheon’s.

“You’ve all worked hard. And… I ask you, please, don’t die!”

What more needed to be said? That was enough. Gwangmajon couldn’t recall ever hearing such a heart-stirring sentiment, no matter how far back he searched his memory. He brought to mind the unpleasant memories of the old Heavenly Demon Church days. He had devoted himself solely to martial arts, but his greed had turned into a demon, leading him to experience an irreversible life of hardship.

When he came to his senses, they were already unleashing their anger and killing intent toward him. Though they had once been close, even knowing the reason wouldn’t have changed anything. He had to bear their justified hostility with his whole body and was imprisoned in the deepest sorrow. At that moment, as if trying to reject the situation, he confined himself in the Heavenly Demon Secret Chamber. At least at that moment, it seemed like the only refuge where he could escape their cold gazes, but even after that, the memory remained a scar for a long time.

Meeting Pa Cheon in his life had given him a new turning point. He had already experienced such a situation in the Heavenly Demon Church, and he guessed it would happen again in the future. Even if he were to be covered in blood and dirt, he would not refuse it. This emotion alone was enough. The Supreme One was not one to show his emotions easily. It was easy to imagine the inner turmoil he had gone through to utter those words and the desperate struggle to reject the decision of death.

As expected, Pa Cheon told them what had happened. Several times, he had to suppress the surging emotions and anger toward the enemy from the bottom of his heart, which would likely erupt with terrifying force when they met them. He had guessed that the man next to him, Ma Cheon, was the Heavenly Demon, but when it was confirmed by his own mouth, and that he was no longer sharing a body with Dokgo Mu, they had to pay their respects once more. Their hearts trembled with another fresh shock as they witnessed the complete resurrection of the Heavenly Demon.

“Muyeong will join the Demonic Emperor Sword Guard when they enter the Central Plains. He is relatively familiar with the situation in the Central Plains, along with Danjanghwa, so he will be more than capable of leading the charge.”

“Understood.”

“Gwangma, as I said before, you will be in charge of the Demonic Alliance. Work organically with the demonic individuals recruited by the Azure-Faced Demon King.”

“Understood.”

“Yulgeuk.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Hmm?”

Before Pa Cheon could react, the Heavenly Demon’s tightly clenched fist mercilessly struck Yulgeuk’s head.

*Thwack!*

It was a blow strong enough to have made a hole in anyone else’s head, but Yulgeuk only slightly frowned.

“Hey, you brat. Is Pa Cheon some neighborhood gang leader? Call him the Supreme One.”

“Why are you hitting me, big bro?”

Yulgeuk’s expression was truly bizarre. The instinctive fear of the Heavenly Demon and the anger at being hit were mixed together in a subtle way.

“Big bro? Hah. Look at this guy. He was like a wolf pup who couldn’t even speak properly, and now he’s trying to act like he’s on the same level. Did you call me big bro?”

“Yeah, so what…”

“Big bro? Hmm… how should I deal with this?”

Pa Cheon burst into hearty laughter as he watched the two of them.

“Hahahaha, it wouldn’t be so bad if you two got along like brothers. You’d be a good match, wouldn’t you?”

“What?”

The Heavenly Demon looked serious, and Gwangma and Muyeong, who couldn’t dare to laugh openly, kept their heads down, but the Heavenly Demon knew. Their lips were twitching, and their upper bodies were shaking as they tried to suppress their laughter… The Heavenly Demon glared at Yulgeuk again. He belatedly realized that it was pointless to expect anything from the blankly staring Yulgeuk.

“Fine. Live as you please. What can I expect from you? But from now on, call me Master Ma Cheon. Got it?”

“No, I’ll call you big bro.”

The Heavenly Demon waved his hand as if annoyed.

“Fine, I get it. Do as you please. Whether you scoop poop with a ladle or put a dog bowl on the ancestral altar.”

It seemed difficult to break Yulgeuk’s stubbornness. Pa Cheon thought that Yulgeuk’s innocent behavior and the Heavenly Demon’s unpretentious actions were somehow similar, but he didn’t voice it. The Heavenly Demon would surely be displeased.

“Now that things here are settled, I will leave for Kaifeng with the Heavenly Demon and Yulgeuk. If anything happens, contact us through the Beggars’ Sect at any time.”

“Understood!”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Heavenly Demon!”

“What?”

“Can’t you change that appearance of yours?”

“Why?”

*Do you really not know?* He wanted to retort, but he barely held back. There was no need to dampen the Heavenly Demon’s spirits. (?)

“It’s a bit of an eyesore. You can’t enter the Martial Alliance looking like that, can you?”

“I can change my face… but I can’t do anything about my hair.”

The Heavenly Demon seemed to be thinking, *What’s wrong with my appearance?* He thought he looked much better now than the weak Dokgo Mu of the past.

“It seems like you will have a lot to do, Heavenly Demon. I feel much more at ease if you take the lead.”

“It’s only natural that I help you. Just say the word anytime. Even if it means bringing the Emperor’s head…”

The Heavenly Demon trailed off, realizing his mistake. Pa Cheon’s face didn’t change much when he glanced at him.

“Muyeong!”

“Yes, Supreme One.”

“Go and bring Zhuge Cho Hong.”

“Understood!”

Muyeong disappeared outside, and inside, another lighthearted squabble between the Heavenly Demon and Yulgeuk began. As Yulgeuk’s wariness of the Heavenly Demon gradually crumbled, his mouth spewed out words that were enough to fluster the Heavenly Demon.

★ ★ ★

“Did you call for me?”

“Sit there.”

“Yes.”

“There is something I want to ask you.”

“Please, ask me anything.”

Zhuge Cho Hong fixed her eyes on Pa Cheon, waiting for his next words.

“Where is the Grand Strategist now? Why didn’t he get involved in this matter?”

Zhuge Cho Hong’s eyes sparkled even more as she stared intently at Pa Cheon. She opened her small, pretty lips and formed her words.

“Master… has gone to the Daldan.”

“Daldan?”

“Yes!”

“Why?”

“There is the legendary martial clan, the Heavenly Emperor Clan, in Daldan. I don’t know the details, but he must have gone there to negotiate with them as a representative of the Blood Demon Heaven.”

Negotiations with the Heavenly Emperor Clan?

“Is the Blood Demon Heaven trying to form an alliance with the Heavenly Emperor Clan?”

“This is just my thought… but it’s highly likely. The Blood Demon Heaven has been closely watching the movements of the Heavenly Emperor Clan and the Sasa Blood Sect for a long time, and they have always considered them their only rivals. Although the current situation in the Central Plains seems to focus on the Four Great Emperors and the Three Outer World Clans, the power of the Blood Demon Heaven, the Heavenly Emperor Clan, and the Sasa Blood Sect is actually much stronger. The Blood Demon Heaven has already taken root in the Central Plains for a long time, and the Heavenly Emperor Clan is also known to have shown some movement. Only the Sasa Blood Sect has not yet made any significant moves.”

She called it the Blood Demon Heaven until the end. Whether it was completely settled in her heart or she was intentionally trying to show it, her current behavior was a way of confirming to Pa Cheon and the others, *I am on your side.*

“Strategist.”

“Yes.”

“Do you still have the Unparalleled Poison?”

“Yes… I still have a small amount left…”

“Give it all to me. I think I need to examine its components and create an antidote.”

“This is the result of the Blood Demon Heaven’s thousand years of research. It won’t be easy to create an antidote.”

“Huhu, perhaps… but I have the best divine physician in this land. He will be more than capable… But how were you not poisoned? Did you take an antidote beforehand?”

“No. There is no antidote for this.”

She reached into her bosom and took out a small jade bottle. It was small enough to fit in one hand, and there were several tiny holes in the top when she opened the stopper.

“The method of using this is different from ordinary poison. It is the same in that it is released into the air… but if you inject internal energy into the jade bottle, the poison will seep out in an odorless, colorless, and formless state, and it can only poison specific individuals or specific areas.”

It was truly an amazing method. Even with formless poison, most of them were in the form of fine powder, or they were scattered into the air with internal energy to poison a certain area. But this one could poison only specific individuals even if 100 people were mixed together. How could one not be amazed? Pa Cheon had a serious expression.

*If I can’t create an antidote for this, there will be enormous sacrifices. No matter how strong one’s martial arts are, it’s useless if they lose their internal energy… This might be the most urgent matter.*

Pa Cheon tucked the jade bottle that Zhuge Cho Hong had handed him into his bosom. If Divine Physician Eui Noh couldn’t create an antidote for the Unparalleled Poison, he might have to focus all his efforts on destroying the Blood Demon Heaven. If they couldn’t seize the Unparalleled Poison from them, the outcome of the battle would be obvious.

★ ★ ★

Pa Cheon was alone in his quarters. He reflected on the past since he had stepped into the martial world. In a short period, he had changed beyond recognition and experienced many things almost simultaneously. He, who had been almost a blank slate about the martial world, had transformed into a master who moved the martial world from behind a huge curtain. The knowledge of martial arts he had gained through the transfer of the Heavenly Demon and Hyeneung had become incredibly rich, and its depth had also increased. At first, his personality, which had been eccentric and cruel, gradually showed signs of being controlled by necessity. Then, through the separation of the Heavenly Demon and Hyeneung, his original nature began to intervene little by little.

*I thought that the most important things in the martial world were strength and cunning, but that wasn’t all. Rather, small tricks cannot produce great power, and cunning cannot overcome great thoughts. Anyway, the most urgent thing for me now is to complete myself. Even if I can’t become perfect, I can maximize what I have. If I am not strong myself, no one can protect me, and the result will sometimes bring unexpected setbacks. If I cannot stand firm, I cannot protect those who follow me.*

This incident had left Pa Cheon with too much. It had shattered his arrogance of thinking lightly of the martial world, and it had taught him that even the most obvious things must be checked and rechecked, and that a meticulous system must be established to avoid being manipulated by the enemy’s cunning.

Pa Cheon’s eyes slowly closed, blocking out the space. He calmed his body and focused his thoughts. He examined his body and strengthened his mind. Only then did he examine his internal energy. How could he gain the power to see greater and truer things when he had not even properly understood what was happening within his own body? If his martial arts had been led by the form of *seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing*, now he felt that he had to focus on examining his nature with the mind of *seeing nature and achieving enlightenment*. One could not reach the proper level of martial arts without delving into the inner self.

It was difficult to understand the movement of the body without knowing the form of the joints, and it was impossible to discuss internal energy without understanding the flow of the meridians. It was important to understand the essence of martial arts, but it was even more important to understand one’s own body and mind and to prepare a sufficient foundation to accept it.

Thoughts arose like fire, then became as still as death, and then seemed to spread out in all directions, stirring up other thoughts. They twisted and tangled, becoming chaotic, and piled up, crushing the true mind. Then, they surrounded and threatened, preventing him from reaching deeper into the center, sometimes causing confusion and shaking him. Gradually, thoughts followed each other, dispersing into random thoughts, and the only things that showed their faces in that moment were negative thoughts such as the pain, agony, loneliness, and despair of the past. When he clung to them, they pulled him in with even greater force, arousing anger and killing intent, and now the true thoughts became lazy and sluggish. At this rate, it would be useless no matter how many times he tried.

Pa Cheon calmed his inner self and roused himself once more. And in the quiet, he began to chant the eighty-one characters of the Cheonbugyeong [a classic Korean text]. It was truly amazing that the random thoughts that had been running wild disappeared to their places at some point, and he gradually began to enter a state of tranquility. Even sound could not reach him, and even feeling had nothing to do with him. Only the world of infinite thought opened up its vast space and welcomed him. He was already sitting in the middle of it, and only then did he begin to stir his internal energy. His internal energy in his dantian [energy center] had been restored, so at the same time, his energy filled his limbs and flowed powerfully through his meridians and acupoints. Without any special concentration of consciousness, that power would know its way and swirl around.

*Even when the internal energy in my dantian was extinguished, the power originating from my meridians arose. What is its true nature?*

Pa Cheon believed that finding the cause of this was the key to solving the core problem that had been blocking his progress. It seemed that the reason he could not move from the realm of the early demon to the true realm was due to his lack of understanding of that correlation.

*The internal energy in the dantian is the universe’s energy that has been received into the body and made tangible. It is like drawing water from a well and pouring it into a jar, ready to be used at any time. The problem is the power that arises spontaneously from the meridians. Internal energy that was not extinguished even by the Unparalleled Poison. Strictly speaking, it is not mine. Then, is it the universe’s energy that was borrowed at once?*

His thoughts deepened and deepened, becoming wider and wider, and then at some point, they shook his thoughts like a flash of light. A sense of exhilaration, as if a blocked dam had burst open at once, washed over him.

*Yes, that’s it. For those who study, reading books, researching things, listening, and learning is the same principle as the internal energy stored in the dantian. The truths that the person has not seen, heard, or realized, that is, the objects of study that include all possibilities, are in line with the infinite energy of the universe.*

*The internal energy flowing through the meridians is like the familiarity, experience, worldly wisdom, and understanding of a scholar that increases as their studies deepen and their knowledge grows. It is the familiarity of accepting internal energy and adjusting its quantity and quality. That is what makes the meridians react on their own, generating power and expanding the foundation for communicating with the universe’s energy. There is a limit to the amount of internal energy that can be stored in the body. But there is no limit to the amount of power that can be generated through the meridians. It is not using one’s own power, but using the universe’s energy.*

*In the end, to reach a higher level, it is important not only to accumulate internal energy but also to make the power of the energy flowing through the meridians and the meridians themselves more precise, stronger, and familiar. It is like a scholar who has devoted his life to learning being unable to withstand a single word from the wisdom of an enlightened one through a moment of realization. This principle is the first seed that leads to the realm of infinity.*

*A child has the body of a child and thinks and acts according to their age. If an adult acts like a child, it is the same as being immature. Likewise, for one who has entered the depths of enlightenment to still cling to the internal energy residing in the dantian is the same. One must shed it. If one cannot endure the pain of breaking the old body to see the new, there is no further progress. The human body is a microcosm, so birth and death occur here, and the energy of heaven and earth harmonize with each other. One must obtain the mind to establish the body, empty the body to go out to the energy, and see all things with that energy.*

Pa Cheon sank deeper. He did not realize it, but gradually, seven-colored auspicious energy rose from his body, traveling through his pores, and his body was floating in the air on its own. His face looked more peaceful and serene than ever.

While he was holed up in his room, savoring this moment of realization, several people visited his quarters and then returned without seeing him, and at some point, the Heavenly Demon was standing guard in that room without moving. His gaze toward Pa Cheon was filled with boundless satisfaction.

*You are indeed an amazing fellow. To reach the principle that I barely reached in my entire life with just a few moments of realization… It makes me feel a bit jealous? Well, Pa Cheon, you may be the only human who can see the end of martial arts… You must not forget the will of the god who sent you into the world. I don’t know when it will be… but what you have to bear on your shoulders will be even greater and heavier… By now, Hyeneung must be creating the last seed you have to embrace.*

What could that mean?

The Heavenly Demon stood by Pa Cheon’s side for three full days. One reason was to protect him, and the other was because the emotion that kept him from leaving was holding him back.