Chapter 67: Have You Upheld Your Convictions? Part 8

Like not finding the blowing wind strange or questioning the crashing waves.

There are rules in the world that must be accepted as natural.

If you hold something in your hand, something else will slip away.

If you wish to achieve a great task, you must turn your eyes away from other things you cannot hold.

We live by choosing what to embrace.

– Tae Pyeong-ah.

As she watched Seol Tae Pyeong head towards the burning Heavenly Dragon Hall to kill the plague demonic spirit,

Azure Princess Jin Cheong Lang who couldn’t hold onto his sleeve had a thought.

When fighting to uphold your convictions and beliefs, there are things you must abandon.

If that’s the case, at the very least, I hope he won’t regret it.

As she looked at the burning imperial capital, Azure Princess Jin Cheong Lang thought so.

Whoooosh!

Every time the demonic energy of the Moon Demonic Spirit tried to fill the Heavenly Jade Hall, the blade of the Jade Leaf Sword would cut through it again and again.

Seol Tae Pyeong leaped between the rocks and dodged the demonic power of the Moon Demonic Spirit.

Whoooosh!

However, no matter how skilled Seol Tae Pyeong was, facing Jin Cheong Lang in her strongest form was not easy.

Although Seol Tae Pyeong’s skill was not yet at its peak, the demonic techniques of Moon Demonic Spirit Yoran had already reached a very high level.

If not for the Jade Leaf Sword left to him by White Immortal Lee Cheol Woon, it would have been much more difficult to face Moon Demonic Spirit Yoran.

However, Heavenly Maiden Ah Hyun who was watching the fight had already sensed it.

Seol Tae Pyeong’s talent lay in achieving victory itself.

No matter how skilled Seol Tae Pyeong was, he couldn’t win an absolutely unwinnable battle.

But if there was even a single grain of possibility to win… Seol Tae Pyeong would surely win.

No matter how powerful Moon Demonic Spirit Yoran’s strength was, it couldn’t surpass Seol Tae Pyeong’s inherent strength.

Even when displaying unbelievable demonic techniques and overwhelming him with sheer power, or trying to confuse him with various illusions.

In that eerie scene where the wind blew, rocks rose, lightning struck, and fire flared… Seol Tae Pyeong never allowed a fatal blow.

Whoooooooooooosh!

Seol Tae Pyeong who was gripping his sword tightly emerged through the smoke with a fierce glint in his eyes.

Moon Demonic Spirit Yoran twisted the trajectory of the sword with a glance, but Seol Tae Pyeong paid this no attention, kicked off the ground, and corrected the direction of his sword.

Whiiiiiiiiiiiish!

A storm raged around the Moon Demonic Spirit.

As the Moon Demonic Spirit extended its arm toward Seol Tae Pyeong and clenched its fist tightly, fragments of the shattered rock flew toward him.

Each fragment was sharpened like a blade and was capable of delivering a fatal blow if they struck a vital point.

However, Seol Tae Pyeong repelled them all with a single powerful swing of his sword.

Giving up distance meant death.

Moon Demonic Spirit Yoran must have instinctively known this, which is why it focused all its remaining power on creating distance between them.

But Seol Tae Pyeong was well aware of this fact.

The area was filled with rocks summoned by the Moon Demonic Spirit, transforming the place into a mountainous landscape.

Seol Tae Pyeong who was darting through the rocks seized the opportunity and landed right in front of the Moon Demonic Spirit.

The Moon Demonic Spirit swung its robes once more and directed its power at Seol Tae Pyeong. Flames in the shape of a dragon surged towards him, but he dispersed them all with a single strike of his sword.

In that moment, just as the Moon Demonic Spirit quickly attempted to use the shrinking earth technique to create distance.

Thud!

Its chest was already pierced by the Cold Iron Heavy Sword.

There was not a moment’s hesitation.

Facing the Moon Demonic Spirit disguised as Azure Princess Jin Cheong Lang, he feared he might hesitate even for a moment.

So, Seol Tae Pyeong gritted his teeth and drove his sword harder.

“Ugh─”

The cold air flowing from the blade of the Cold Iron Heavy Sword flowed like fog and fell down the Moon Demonic Spirit’s body.

Though the Moon Demonic Spirit’s power was immense, its physical body was not sturdy. As with most Taoists, it could not afford to allow an attack at close range.

“Huff… Huff…”

“Ugh… Huff… Huff…”

At that moment, as Seol Tae Pyeong attempted to pull his sword from the Moon Demonic Spirit’s body,

“Tae Pyeong… ah…”

The Moon Demonic Spirit with its hand on the blade of the Cold Iron Heavy Sword that pierced its body,

called out Seol Tae Pyeong’s name.

“……”

Suddenly, Seol Tae Pyeong’s fingertips twitched and trembled.

Then, the impaled Moon Demonic Spirit opened its mouth to say something to Seol Tae Pyeong.

Pat, pat.

It was a rainy forest.

Cheong Jin Myeong looked down at the corpse of his daughter Cheong Seo Rin amidst the pouring rain.

Could this be called living?

This was the question that Cheong Jin Myeong who roamed the border regions killing demonic spirits always carried in his heart.

What was the point of a life of wandering, of being despised and shunned? Of staining one’s sword with the blood of monstrous creatures that resembled humans?

Wouldn’t it have been better to abandon the Black Moon Unit, take care of his daughter Cheong Seo Rin, and live quietly on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital as if nothing had happened?

What meaning could be found in a life of killing demonic spirits repetitively like a machine?

Despite this, Cheong Jin Myeong lived as the leader of the Black Moon Unit.

He had always promised his daughter Cheong Seo Rin who would quietly poke at the fire with a poker at their campsite that he would give her a life worth living.

In order to take responsibility for the Black Moon Unit, he lived steadfastly by his belief that it was his duty.

He lived believing that was the right way.

Even on the day when half of the Black Moon Unit and his daughter Cheong Seo Rin were killed by an intermediate demonic spirit that appeared out of nowhere after he returned from a demonic spirits hunt.

On that day when the rain poured down heavily,

looking down at the blood-soaked body of Cheong Seo Rin, Cheong Jin Myeong felt his heart wrench with pain.

What was the cause of that pain?

Was it because the demonic spirits that had killed his parents had finally taken his daughter as well, igniting a burning desire for revenge in his heart?

Was it because he was furious at how he couldn’t do anything?

Was it because he could vividly imagine how much pain Cheong Seo Rin must have endured until the moment she was killed by the intermediate demonic spirit?

Ironically enough, it was none of these things alone.

– There are no signs of resistance.

Raindrops pattered against her pale cheeks.

Her hair which was scattered across the muddy ground looked like a silk blanket cradling her.

Looking at the remnants of the gruesome scene, it wasn’t difficult to infer the circumstances of her death.

The appearance of demonic spirits was always sudden and unexpected.

The intermediate demonic spirit had suddenly appeared and let out a bizarre scream as it devoured the Black Moon Unit members one by one.

Most of the Black Moon Unit members left at the campsite were injured, so they likely couldn’t respond appropriately to the sudden situation.

Most of the dead Black Moon Unit members had swords in their hands and their limbs were broken or they were covered in wounds.

However, Cheong Seo Rin didn’t even draw the sword given to her for self-defense.

In the midst of that chaos, the girl had just sat quietly by the fire and continued poking the campfire with a fire poker.

At that moment, he remembered the girl’s eyes as she quietly watched the fire.

They were blank and hollow. She was living a life of merely following her father around the campsite without any purpose. She was just existing because she was still breathing.

Shunned as the daughter of a demonic spirit hunter, living a life of tending the fire at the campsite, listening to the horrific screams of the grotesque demonic spirits twisting their bodies.

All the talk of protecting the Black Moon Unit members and taking responsibility was merely Cheong Jin Myeong’s conviction.

Cheong Jin Myeong finally realized.

It wasn’t the demonic spirit that had taken the girl’s life; it was him.

With no means to protect herself, Cheong Seo Rin had no choice but to follow Cheong Jin Myeong. This was a choice made merely for survival.

So, the girl had sat by the fire and continued to hold the fire poker.

In the forest darkened by the night.

She lived just staring at the burning logs, worried the campfire might go out.

In the eyes of the small young girl, all she could see were the dwindling sparks of the fire losing its life little by little.

Life, like a dying campfire, leaves only blackened ashes as it fades away.

The girl did not die at the hands of the demonic spirits. This was a suicide that closely resembled murder.

The demonic spirit who did it was merely the catalyst.

– Can’t we stop hunting demonic spirits?

Suddenly, he recalled the day she had asked that question in a dazed voice.

On that day, Cheong Seo Rin wanted to ask Cheong Jin Myeong if they were to continue living like this.

To uphold his conviction of taking responsibility for the Black Moon members until the end, Cheong Jin Myeong turned a blind eye to his daughter’s agony.

Because he had so many lives to be responsible for, he sought understanding first from the one person who could offer it—his daughter.

The result was the corpse of his daughter, who had found no meaning in life. A girl living like a wandering spirit.

Only upon seeing her corpse could he gauge the short fleeting life his daughter had led.

Cheong Seo Rin’s life had been empty—quite literally empty.

Since she was promised that an end would come someday, she had merely sat by the campsite fire and kept poking the logs with a fire poker.

“……”

Indeed.

The eyes of Prince Hyeon Won were just like that.

He ran away from the scene, and he tried to hide without being detected. Prince Hyeon Won had done those things simply because they were “what he had to do”.

Even when the blade was thrust right in front of his nose, Prince Hyeon Won neither trembled nor shed tears nor begged for his life.

He merely thought that the inevitable death had come to him a bit earlier than expected.

His figure as he simply looked up at Cheong Jin Myeong with empty eyes.

It was as if the image of a girl who always sat by the campfire poking at the flames with a poker overlapped with his.

So, he asked.

“…Aren’t you going to resist?”

“…Would it matter if I did?”

He simply answered Cheong Jin Myeong’s question in that way.

It wasn’t even that he accepted death; rather, Prince Hyeon Won simply didn’t attach great significance to it.

– You can never kill Prince Hyeon Won.

Only then did he seem to understand why Seol Tae Pyeong had confidently declared this to him in the wild hills of Hwalseong District.

How that man gauged his heart, he couldn’t know… but that swordsman had foreseen everything.

The fact that he helped him evade getting captured by the Black Princess and Azure Princess and turned a blind eye to the plans of the Under Councilor …

A man who hadn’t lived half as long as him had seen through everything.

Was he reading people’s minds? Or was the insight in those eyes extraordinary?

Black Moon Leader Cheong Jin Myeong in the eyes of the swordsman Seol Tae Pyeong …… He might have been completely transparent from the start.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“I am not afraid.”

Death, come forth.

Since he couldn’t find meaning in an empty life, he would only face death with his chest out.

Living just because he couldn’t die, living since there is no reason to die.

One could easily find such people while navigating through the waves of life.

Cheong Jin Myeong bowed his head for a moment.

Though it’s said that the darkest place is under the lamp, the fact that he hadn’t noticed his daughter Cheong Seo Rin being engulfed in such emptiness still pricked at his heart.

If he had known it would turn out like this, he would have told her.

Even if the campfire went out and the fear of darkness in the hills set in… to sometimes lift her gaze upwards.

Even now, when he tried to sleep late at night, the regret haunted him like a ghost over and over again.

Yes, look up and live.

The sky over the hills that he saw from time to time was filled with stars embedded like salt. And it evoked an inexplicable sense of awe in him.

Only then did he realize that the stars in the night sky shone because of the occasional darkness.

However, Cheong Jin Myeong couldn’t do that. He knew very well that if he held on to the beliefs he held in his hands, he would also lose something.

Knowing that didn’t make the regret disappear.

“………”

So, Cheong Jin Myeong…. stood still for a long time.

He stood there and just looked down at the motionless Prince Hyeon Won.

“Have you upheld your convictions?”

Seol Tae Pyeong’s brow trembled once.

The strange and eerie feeling characteristic of a demonic spirit lingered, yet even so, the Moon Demonic Spirit managed to steady its voice and ask that.

The burning imperial capital.

Jin Cheong Lang, who had pleaded for him to escape and save his life no matter what, gripped his sleeve tightly. Seol Tae Pyeong carefully pushed Jin Cheong Lang’s hand away.

And then, it was no one else but him who decided to go and kill the Plague Demonic Spirit with his own will.

Watching his retreating figure, the Azure Princess thought that if this was his noble will, then it couldn’t be helped.

If there is a conviction you want to uphold, you must leave behind what needs to be left behind.

A person’s arms have limits; they cannot hold everything.

“……”

Seol Tae Pyeong remained silent for a moment, then nodded his head a few times with his head lowered to hide his expression.

Only then did Moon Demonic Spirit Yoran smile. It lifted its cracked lips as if it had finally achieved its long-cherished wish.

“Yes, I am truly happy.”

With that, Moon Demonic Spirit Yoran’s body began to collapse little by little.

“The plum blossoms have already bloomed so fully.”

The Azure Princess who was sitting on the porch of the Azure Dragon Palace gently held a teacup on her lap and quietly looked up at the plum blossoms in the garden.

She had felt melancholic for various reasons lately, but seeing the fully blooming plum blossoms gave her a sense of comfort.

The petals fluttering down resembled winter snowflakes drifting through the air. As she watched them absentmindedly like that, Seol Tae Pyeong’s face came to her mind.

“…….”

She quietly looked at the beautiful scene of falling petals; then she thought of Seol Tae Pyeong and offered a prayer to the Emperor of Heaven.

She prayed that he could uphold his convictions to the end, even in the face of great trials.

And as much as possible, she hoped she could also embrace his convictions as her own and share in his joy.

TN: Beautiful