Book 18 Chapter 7

鍊! 鍊! 鍊! 鍊! 鍊! 修鍊(修鍊)!

-one thousand blows (一鍊一千打)

"Hmph!"

Namgungsang ran, the inner qi he had spent a lifetime cultivating now being used solely to move his two feet. Jagged, overgrown branches brushed against his cheeks, but he ran like a man who knew nothing else but to run, unconcerned by the red streaks that drew across his face. He had to go faster, lower, farther away. It was the only way to live.

"How could that happen?"

Namgungsang didn't want to believe it.

"How to……."

I wanted to cry. How could my coworkers, the people I trusted more than anyone else, betray me? How could my friends, the people who should be helping me more than anyone else, send me into a death spiral?

For a moment, the face of the woman he'd left behind flashed through his mind. But he shook his head to dismiss the bittersweet thought. He was sorry for her, but it couldn't be helped. He had to live.

The view, once obscured by dense forest, suddenly became clear and bright. The trail ended and a stream emerged. Its calm flow and gentle slope suggested it was downstream.

"Just a few more miles to go……."

It seemed possible to escape this hellish mountain. I could see a glimmer of hope for a possible escape, a light brighter than ever, but it faded faster than ever.

With a stiff expression, Namgungsang stared at the grass on the left side of the valley.

"Get out of here!"

A few moments later, a rustling sound came from the grassy area that Namgung Sang was looking at, and a person walked out. It was a gentle-looking young man dressed in blue robes, the longsword hanging from his waist engraved with a poisonous mark only a disciple of the Shaman Sect could carry, and his blue sleeves fluttering in the breeze embroidered with dragon symbols. The young man was a man of Kowloon, a close friend of his, and a vice master of the Zhu Jia Clan.

Namgung Sang's complexion darkened at the sight of his brother-in-law's face.

"Hyun-woon, was that you?"

He nodded wordlessly.

"Do you really have to stand in my way?"

When Hyun-woon didn't answer, Namgung-sang pleaded again in a mournful voice.

"Look, Hyunwoon. If you're still my friend, let me go."

Namgungsang asked in an eager voice, but Hyun-woon shook his head in disappointment.

"I'm sorry, Southern Palace. You know better than I do that I can't let you go."

"……."

"Give it up. And go home. Everyone's waiting for you."

Namgungsang shook his head vigorously and rejected the offer.

"I'll never go back there, it's hell!"

Nan Gongsang shouted in a paroxysmal voice. His words were a mixture of sincerity and desperation as he spoke from the depths of his heart, but even that desperation was not enough to break his discipline and convince him to change his ways.

"…I'm sorry, Southern Palace. But I must take you with me. And if I don't, it will be…us…who will see hell."

"You're going to… betray your friends?"

The words of the Lord of the South Palace hit a sore spot. If he had a conscience, he would feel some remorse.

"Do you think I'm doing this for the love of it? I'm in pain too."

"No! You don't know! You… you… you… you haven't been through it! If you had been through it, you would have thought the same thing I did, and you wouldn't have stood in my way like you did, because you would have known that it was not a human thing to do!"

"But I haven't, so I only have a superficial understanding of your feelings. Besides, my mission is to bring you back."

Shen Yun's will was firm. Namgungsang didn't think he could talk him out of it.

"Go back. Jean Sojae is waiting for you. You don't even feel sorry for her, do you?"

The words worked. Namgungsang was troubled. He was troubled. He was conflicted, and he was stumped. His tightly closed mouth opened.

"If she were… if she were, she'd understand me."

Hyun-woon sighed at the answer, which was the last thing on his mind.

"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you. Are you sure you want to go through? If so, I can only stand in your way."

Hyunwoon said with a hint of regret in his voice.

"Hyun-woon, do you think you can stop me?"

Nangong Shang glared at Shen Yun. A thick fleshly mist began to emanate from his entire body, and in response, Shen Yun gathered his entire body's energy.

"If you must!"

Without hesitation, Hyun-woon replied and hesitantly drew his sword.

"You can call me names. But I'm coming back with you."

He seemed to have cleared his mind of the ruminations. He who does not hesitate is always stronger.

"Hyun-woon, do shamans give swords to their friends to point at?"

Namgungsang cried out in a bitter voice.

"Namgung, I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart! Don't you think you should just go home, I don't want to cross swords with you either!"

"I've told you before, don't put words in my mouth. I'm never going back to that hell."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you're going to go out of your way to down a bottle of punishment, do you think you can handle that punishment?"

"I've never thought of myself as being outclassed by you in swordsmanship, Hyun-woon. I am still the master of the Zhu Clan."

Namgungsang drew his sword as well, and though he was a member of the Nine Dragon Sect, he had never felt that he was a match for Lin Yun, even though he was a disciple of the Great Martial Sect and had cultivated the Martial Spirit Sword to the utmost.

"Who says it's only one drink?"

Hyun-woon raised his hand, and a figure stepped out of the grass. It was a woman.

"Gung Sang, why don't you go home?"

"Sister……."

She was none other than Namgung San San, one of the Seven Peaks and the twin sister of Namgung Sang.

But that wasn't the end of it; her arrival was just the beginning.

Nohak, Youngho Geum, Dang Sam, and Moonhye Dang.

They all ate from the same pot and suffered together. His colleagues, who were like a family, stood in his way.

"Let's get back to work, Captain!"

The old man said. He sometimes called him captain, not chief.

"You need to stop doing this. By my calculations, you're doing yourself a lot of harm and no favors."

Geum advised. The phrase "according to my calculations" was always on his lips.

"It's not too late. You've been poisoned by a weak mind, and you can still detox here. But if you wait any longer, there will be no turning back. Are you sure you want to experience that hell?"

Dangsam advised sincerely.

"I agree with Dangsam, the more the poison spreads, the more it hurts."

For the first time in a long time, Dang Moon-hye agreed with Dang Sam.

"Are there others besides you guys?"

"Sure."

As he answered, familiar faces emerged from the grass.

Shaolin's Sun Gong, the volcanic Cao Tianwu and Hua Snow Jade, the Mo Yong family's Mo Yong Qu, the Dan Moxu family's Dan Moxu, and the thinly colored Yi Yun and Qing Shui, who are always confused as to whether they are there or not, and the eldest daughter of the Huang Bo family, Huang Bo Jade Yan.

Except for him and Jinryung, the entire cast was standing in his way.

Hyunwoon looked around once, then spoke again.

"I told you. A drink of punishment is not one drink. Do you think you can handle a cup of punishment for all of us?"

"I'll never, ever go back to that hell, not even if I have to drink all of that punishment liquor and pass out!"

Namgungsang gripped his sword tightly and said.

"If you go back there, you're going to get killed."

"But if we don't take you, we'll be killed. Besides……."

"And?"

"Even if you run away, you're still going to get killed. You're the one who's been torn apart the most, and you still don't know him?"

"Well, that's……."

Clearly, Hyunwoon had a point.

"So why don't you go back and resist your fate?"

Namgung Sang bowed his head deeply. The conflict in his mind was clearly visible on his face.

"But…but…but…I'm never going back."

KOOOOOOOOO!

Suddenly, with a scream, Namgungsang lunged at his fellow members of the Zhu Jiaqing.

"Yuck! It's gone! I've lost my mind!"

"Stop them all!"

The first line of defense, however, was easily breached by the invisible trio of Li Zhiyong, Qing Wen, and Huang Bojian, who were trying to reduce their own invisibility. The sword power in the Southern Palace's sword was no joke.

"Chet, you can't be ignorantly strong……."

Hyun-woon frowned. I felt a sense of urgency that the gap between us might become unbridgeable, but the thought of what we would have to go through to close it sent chills down my spine. I didn't want to go down that road.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it or we die!"

"Oops, he's going that way, stop him!"

"Waaaaaah!"

My friends pounced like a pack of dogs.

"Don't be a bunch of wimps. Unleash your passing moves! We'll take him down once and for all."

In fact, their passing skills had already been perfected. It was a skill that came naturally to them from playing against masters who were always at a higher level. But unless they were all together, their weaknesses would be exposed. Namgungsang charged toward the area he was in charge of.

"Oops!"

Normally, this would have been the responsibility of the Southern Palace, but they were too busy attacking to defend. The joint attack of the Zhu Jia Clan had been broken. Clearly, Nan Gongsang was displaying a completely different maneuver than he had just a few moments ago. They were surpassing them in every way: speed, accuracy, and strength.

"So this is the performance from hell?

Hyunwoon didn't know whether to be envious of his friend's transformation or not.

But there was only one, and they were sixteen minus two. It was a matter of dignity to miss out. There was no such thing as a friend now. There was only catch or escape. Just then, a woman stepped out of the bushes and blocked his path. The moment he lifted his head and saw her face, Namgung Sang's heart sank.

"Uh… how… did you……."

The last person to stand in his way was none other than the one and only Qin Lie. The sword in his hand lost its grip and fell to the ground with a thud.

"I'm sorry, Sang. …I can't help it."

Avoiding eye contact, Qin Lie spoke in a shaky voice.

"Anima… even you……."

It was the Qing dynasty.

Poof!

Taking advantage of Namgungsang's distraction, Hyun-woon sneaked up behind him and struck him in the back of the neck, knocking him out cold. He crumbled like a sand castle in the waves.

"Hui-yui-don't make it too hard on your friends, Nan Gung."

Hyunwoon said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Drag him away!"

On the slippery, damp mountain path, two strands of rope formed at regular intervals. Knowing or not that Namgungsang's feet were dragging on the ground, Hyun-woon and Dang-sam carried him up the mountain, one arm on each side.

Namgungsang was being dragged between Dangsam and Hyun-woon, spread out like laundry. When they released his arms, the frustrated Namgungsang sank to his knees, unable to stand on his own two legs. Hyun-woon and Dang-sam tilted their heads so that their gazes were directed upward, then spoke.

"I've got you, big brother!"

The reason they lifted their heads and looked upward was because their arch-former brother, Bi Ryuyeon, was floating in midair. It wasn't because he had some special ability to levitate; it wasn't because the qi in his body couldn't find a place to go and was expelled; it was simply because there was a thread between him and the tree, and he was lying there, leaning against it. Bi Ryuyeon's closed eyes opened slightly.

"Hello?"

With a slight tilt of her head, Bi Ryuyeon said dryly.

"Where did you catch it?"

"I caught it at the bottom of the creek."

"Hmmm, that's farther along than before."

"That's right, because last time it was caught in the middle of the stream."

Hyunwoon replied.

"How many times is this?"

Folding her fingers one by one, she asked.

"Third."

Hyunwoon held up three fingers and answered.

"If you have a weak-willed friend, isn't it your duty as a friend to be that weak-willed friend? Isn't it your duty to keep an eye on that weak-willed child? What did you say the other day about what happens if you miss again?"

"That… that's……."

Hyun-woon stammered, unable to answer. Perhaps his brain was deliberately rejecting him because something very terrible was waiting for him.

"What, you don't remember?"

"Oh, I don't think so, I definitely remember that."

"Answer me."

"T… will be taking a special training course……."

The thought of the process made me sick to my stomach. He wasn't the only one who felt sick.

At this point, we're just rehashing old training.

"A promise is a promise, right? You'll have to ask Kwok Nosa specifically. The other one will be busy from now on."

Mr. Kwok immediately pointed to the Yeomdo.

"Are you unhappy?"

"Uh, no."

They had enough grievances to last a month, but if they shirked their responsibilities and broke their promises, disaster would fall on their heads. The calamity leaped from the rope and stood before the groveling statue of the Southern Palace.

"Well, that leaves us with the question of what to do with you."

Bi Ryuyeon said as she slowly circled around the Namgung Sang.

"…at your disposal."

Namgungsang closed his eyes in despair. There was no point in resisting now that his escape to freedom had failed. No, it was harmful.

Dangsam narrowed his eyes.

'Three Strikes Law…….'

This seemed to be the future of the Namgungsang. However,

"That's great."

Bi Ryuyeon said. It was obviously directed at Namgung Sang.

"Yes?"

At this unexpected statement, Namgungsang replied with a puzzled expression, his face already tinged with a Parisian ash color as if he knew what was to come. It was tinged with the color of panic. Something unexpected had happened. Not only did Bi Ryuyeon not chastise Nan Gongsheng, she actually praised him. Nan Gongsheng looked up at the blue sky for a moment, out of a simple desire to see it one last time before it collapsed. He hadn't expected the end of the universe to come so soon, but the sky above him showed no signs of collapse for a long time.

"I admire your spirit for not giving up after failing twice. That's very good. A man shouldn't give up in a huff because he's failed once or twice. Isn't that right, courtier?"

"Nothing, of course."

Namgungsang nodded his head vigorously. A faint ray of light seemed to shine on his darkened path. But the light was still as hazy as the daze of ignorance.

Bi Ryuyeon nodded in approval.

"Well, I'm glad you know that. Failure is the boss of sick leave. It's a normal part of being on sick leave. There are some things a man must not give up on, even if it means death. You seem to know that and have practiced it."

Bi Ryuyeon patted Namgungsang's shoulder a couple of times, as if to say, "Thank you. Everyone suspected that the touch was a heavy-handed trick. Even if he looked fine, his bones might already be shattered and his internal organs injured. It was entirely possible.

"Wow, you're flattering me, big brother."

For some reason, after a few compliments, the mood shifted.

"So you shouldn't stop practicing just because you've failed a few times, should you? It's a disgrace for a martial artist to behave like that. No family would accept such a disgrace as a son-in-law. In these troubled times, what use is a coward like that as a son-in-law, don't you think, Qinling?"

The sudden mention of her name startled Qin Lie, but she couldn't just sit there and be surprised because she had to answer the question. Bi Ryuyeon's invisible gaze was pressuring her. At this point in the conversation, there was only one answer she could give.

"Well, yes, you're right a hundred times over."

Qin Ling reluctantly agreed.

"You wouldn't want to marry a coward like that, would you?"

"Well, that's……."

Qin Ling was speechless for a moment. Bi Ryuyeon didn't let up on the reins.

"What? You really want to spend the rest of your life with a coward like that? A coward who has no willpower, who defies his own expectations at every turn, who fails at anything once, who gives up, who despairs, who is afraid to try again, who doesn't have the courage of his convictions? You really, really, really want to spend the rest of your life with that?"

"No, of course not. What woman in the world would want to spend the rest of her life with a coward like that? It's not like marriage is a child's play."

Marriage is the act of sharing a soul. Dating and marriage are two different things. You can't spend the rest of your life with someone you don't trust.

"Yes, yes, yes. What woman in the world marries because she wants to be a man's wife, not because she wants to be a dunce's nanny?"

"You're right. It's bad enough that men are of a lower mental age, but when women are struggling, and you're being a conceptual asshole, it's bad enough that you're struggling. Do you have anything better to do with your life than be a struggling asshole?"

Qin Ling's words were answered, and Bi Ryuyeon turned her gaze back to the South Palace statue.

"See? Doesn't Qin Lie agree with me, Gongsang, you don't want to be that kind of coward who lets down a woman who trusts you, do you?"

Namgungsang broke out in a cold sweat.

At this point in the conversation, he couldn't say, "I'd rather be a coward," because that would be like saying, "I have no interest in marrying a spirit.

"No, of course not. How could I betray someone who trusts me?"

The answer was yes, but inside I was furious. Technically, I had already betrayed that trust three times already: because it was hard, because it was going to kill me, because it was going to kill me! Suddenly, a wave of guilt washed over me, making me feel like a terrible person.

"Then you choose."

"Moo, what do you mean?"

"You may choose to continue your practice, or you may choose to stop here. I will have no part in your choice."

Namgung Sang's eyes widened at the unexpected suggestion. Even if this was a dream, it would be easier to believe than if it was real.

"Are you sure, big brother?"

"You, did you see me lying?"

"Moe, I didn't see it."

Rather, it was the fact that she tried to make it real, no matter how crazy it sounded. She had never had to lie before, because she never had to.

"So you're not really involved?"

"Sure."

"Really?"

"Ugh, not again. Geez!"

Ryuyeon Bi replied.

"Well, then……."

Namgungsang looked at his companions around him, one by one, before answering. The last place his gaze stopped was where Qin Lie stood. The sight of her looking at him with such concern in her eyes made him feel a surge of guilt again.

Namgungsang closed his eyes in silence. He calmed his heaving chest. His stomach suddenly churned as he recalled the training he had been doing.

'Let's not think. Let's not think about it…….'

If he remembered what he had done and gone through to get to this mountain, he felt as if his barely-formed resolve would crumble.

"Yeah, you die once, not twice.

Namgungsang's closed eyes flashed open. Then, as if fearing that his mind had changed again, he quickly exclaimed, "I'm sorry.

"I will! I will sweetly accept any training! Please train me, master!"

The fact that this decision was made at all gives you an idea of how confused the mind of Namgungsang was at this time.

"Well, your resolve is hypothetical, Onya! Leave it to me. Just trust me, just trust me!"

Bi Ryuyeon nodded with a smile of satisfaction.

"What is cultivation? The longevity of cultivation is the longevity of refining. So what is refining? It's the process of hammering steel to make it stronger. A good sword goes through many refinements."

Everyone was listening to him.

"There's a saying, 'A series of one thousand blows'. It takes a thousand hammers in a flame to make a series. Therefore, a sword made of pearlized steel is steel that has been quenched a hundred thousand times. In the future, I will forge you into a sword that is even harder than a sword of lily white steel. So……."

Bi Ryuyeon took a breath and spoke up.

"Brace yourself!"

Chuckling, Bi Ryuyeon said.

Nan Gongsang felt that he had somehow fallen for Bi Ryuyeon's tricks. However, the situation had already passed the point of no return and crossed the bridge of no return. He had already passed the stage where he could bite his tongue. Thus, Nangong Shang voluntarily walked into Bi Ryuyeon's stables, not knowing what lay ahead. He didn't realize at this point that all of his painful training was only the beginning.

To open the gates of hell with one's own hands, that's what she feared.