Return of the Heavenly Sword

Chapter 4. Fire

At some point, the lantern that had been illuminating the darkness went out.

As the trajectories that had embroidered the air disappeared without a trace, a deep sense of exhaustion washed over me.

But it wasn't just empty.

Because I felt like I was beginning to vaguely understand the principle behind how the eyes opened.

It wasn't just about being on the brink of life and death. It was just that when placed on the brink of life and death, that condition was naturally fulfilled.

It seemed they only opened when my concentration reached its peak.

In that case, how would I raise my concentration?

My actions preceded my thoughts.

Slap!

I slapped my own cheek and muttered to myself.

“Get a grip, Jin Yuseong. Compared to the training in my past life, this is just a warm-up.”

Slap!

Along with the stinging pain in my cheek, my mind reawakened, pushing away the exhaustion that had been weighing down my body.

And I began to forcibly move my trembling body again.

How long had I ignored the screams of my muscles and focused solely on the sword?

Once again, trajectories began to be embroidered in the air.

“It's coming! It's coming!!”

In satisfaction, a laugh escaped my lips without me realizing it.

“Hehehehe.”

***

The next day, early in the morning.

Jin Yuseong, who had woken from his sleep, smiled faintly.

It wasn't because he was satisfied with last night's training.

If anything, it was closer to dissatisfaction.

After forcefully awakening his concentration through pain several times, at some point, his eyes wouldn't open no matter what he did.

It was as if all the mental energy he could draw upon for that day had been depleted, like a candle whose wick had completely burned down.

Nevertheless, the reason Jin Yuseong was smiling was simple.

“Maybe because it's a young body, the recovery is certainly fast.”

Although his whole body's muscles had been screaming as if they would snap before he went to sleep, now it was just a dull ache.

Additionally, only a slightly stinging and swollen feeling remained on the cheek he had slapped the most.

After moderately checking his body's condition, Jin Yuseong sat cross-legged and began to regulate his breathing using the Revolving Cloud Divine Art.

About two hours later, Jin Yuseong, having finished his morning routine, opened his eyes again.

And just as Jin Yuseong was about to leave the Black Serpent Gang’s leader's building, the main gate of the Black Serpent Gang opened.

The person who opened the gate and entered was the innkeeper.

The innkeeper was entering the Black Serpent Gang, carrying some noodles and dumplings on a tray.

“Yuseong, you should at least have some breakfast...”

The innkeeper, who was saying something, cut himself off, then his eyes went wide as he shouted.

“You rascal!? Wh-what's with your face? Did you get beaten up by the Black Serpent Gang yesterday!?”

“It's nothing like that, elder. You don't have to worry.”

“What do you mean, it's nothing!”

The innkeeper thought.

That Jin Yuseong was saying that because of his pointless pride.

Weren't most young children like that? Even when they came back from a fight with a friend, they would never admit they had been hit.

Towards the innkeeper who had a somewhat complicated expression, Jin Yuseong spoke.

“Elder, could you spare some time today?”

“Time? Don't tell me you're going to ask me to choke you again?”

Jin Yuseong shook his head.

Since he had realized a simpler method, there was no need to experience near-asphyxiation.

“Everything here was plundered from the villagers by the Black Serpent Gang, so I was hoping you could distribute these back to the villagers.”

“You rascal.”

The old man looked at Jin Yuseong with a proud expression.

Instead of taking what he had seized from the Black Serpent Gang for himself, his consideration in wanting to return it was commendable.

“I'll help, so let's return it together.”

For some reason, Jin Yuseong shook his head.

“I plan to leave the village today.”

“Leave the village? Why?”

“Because there's something I have to do.”

The old man, who had been looking at Jin Yuseong for a moment, soon seemed to organize his thoughts and approached him.

“First, eat this. I don't know what you're planning to do, but you need a full stomach to do anything properly.”

After thrusting the tray at Jin Yuseong, the innkeeper soon rummaged through the Black Serpent Gang's belongings, gathered things like copper and rice, and left.

Was he taking his share in advance? Jin Yuseong thought for a moment before dismissing the thought and picking up the spoon the innkeeper had left.

As the innkeeper said, he needed a full stomach to be able to do anything.

By the time he had finished his meal, which was closer to inhaling it, the old man returned to the Black Serpent Gang.

In his hand was a small box.

“This is medicine I got from Mr. Bang at the pharmacy.”

“It must have been expensive.”

“Hmph. Thanks to you, Mr. Bang got his stolen money back, so he should at least give this much.”

Jin Yuseong could picture what kind of tantrum the elder must have thrown at that Mr. Bang, and he burst out laughing without realizing it.

“You find this funny.”

The elder, who spoke bluntly, approached Jin Yuseong and applied the medicine from the container to his face.

‘To not show any sign of it.’

As he applied the medicine to the puffy face, the old man felt a sense of bitterness.

“You rascal. You don't have to force yourself to endure it.”

“Compared to the pain in my heart, the pain in my body is a hundred times more comfortable.”

“What's there for a sixteen-year-old to have a pained heart about.”

At those words, Jin Yuseong let out a dry laugh.

The innkeeper, who had been looking at that expression for a moment, finished applying the medicine to Jin Yuseong's face and asked with a serious expression.

“So, you're planning to leave Heavenly Sun Village?”

“Yes, elder.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I'm thinking of digging for some medicinal herbs in the mountains.”

To be precise, he was planning to go dig for a spiritual herb.

Jin Yuseong's top priority was to become stronger faster than the Seven Evils and punish them before they could commit their atrocities.

Thanks to the memories and experiences of his past life, his external techniques and swordsmanship were not a big problem.

No, rather, as his body had become younger, his physique would become even more agile and strong, and as for his swordsmanship, with the help of his eyes, he could dream of a higher realm.

The problem was inner energy.

Inner energy alone could not be rapidly developed in a short period of just one or two years. The Revolving Cloud Divine Art was not some legendary, peerless divine art.

To solve this problem, Jin Yuseong searched his past memories and was able to recall a few memories regarding spiritual herbs.

And to claim one of them, he was planning to leave the village.

‘The location was definitely Wondrous Ridge Mountain.’

Wondrous Ridge Mountain, about a six or seven-day journey from here. The Great Tiger Fortress that had settled there was originally just a run-of-the-mill group of bandits, but after the fortress leader luckily found and ate a spiritual herb on that mountain, he came to occupy the lowest seat of the Seventy-two Fortresses of the Green Forest.

In fact, he had recalled two other memories about spiritual herbs, but Jin Yuseong planned to aim for that one first.

The reason was simple. The other two were spiritual herbs that herb gatherers had luckily found and sold.

If he were to steal the reward that a diligent herb gatherer should receive in the name of catching bad guys, it would be a contradiction in itself.

On the other hand, what about the spiritual herb of Wondrous Ridge Mountain?

Not only could he become stronger quickly, but he could also snatch away the fortuitous encounter that the bandit leader would have gotten.

‘In addition to that, if there are bandits, I could also take this opportunity to wipe them out.’

It could truly be called killing three birds with one stone.

While he was recalling the events that would happen in the future, the old man's voice woke Jin Yuseong from his thoughts.

“Medicinal herbs?”

The elder was looking at Jin Yuseong with a puzzled expression.

“A rascal who was a waiter until a few days ago suddenly punishes the Black Serpent Gang like a martial artist, and now you want to become an herb gatherer?”

It was a difficult thing to explain one way or another, so Jin Yuseong could only smile awkwardly and reply.

“It just turned out that way. On my way to dig for herbs, I'm thinking of cleaning up some trash like the Black Serpent Gang in the vicinity.”

In fact, even if it wasn't for the spiritual herb, he was planning to leave the village soon.

On the first day he returned to the past, how much had he regretted it?

The life where, like a coward, he had holed himself up for decades and only trained the sword under the pretext of honing his skills.

At Jin Yuseong's words, the old man was startled and said.

“What, you rascal!? You're going to fight again? Who do you think you are to step up like that!”

At the old man's outburst of concern for him, Jin Yuseong, who had been looking at the elder for a moment, uttered some unexpected words.

“Elder. Have you ever seen a woman crying while hugging a hemp garment that is not even finished yet? That hemp garment was a dress she was making for her young daughter. For the daughter she would never see again.”

Certainly, when Jin Yuseong first started training the sword, his goal was the same. The goal of wanting to punish the black factions.

But, that was a goal born out of stubbornness, childishness, or perhaps just a rebellious nature.

Perhaps it was because of his childhood experiences.

His parents, who had died in vain because they had no money to be treated by a physician when they fell ill. The life of wandering as an orphan from the age of ten.

He had luckily met an innkeeper who treated him like his own grandson, but then there was the Black Serpent Gang, who had suddenly started to wreak havoc in Heavenly Sun Village a year ago.

Jin Yuseong had felt that the world was unfair. Thus, he resolved to learn martial arts.

He had no intention of seizing others' belongings through force like the Black Serpent Gang. He didn't want to become the same kind of human as them.

It was just a desire to resist the unfair world, even if only a little, with martial arts.

Because of that stubbornness, he couldn't give up even after realizing he had no talent.

And because of that stubbornness, Jin Yuseong, who came to wander the Jianghu, had ended up seeing too much.

“That daughter was kidnapped. By beasts worse than animals who don't see people as people, to sell the girl to a red-light district.”

The sight of children, orphaned in an instant by a mad martial artist who had killed their parents for entertainment, wailing in hunger.

The corpse of a woman who had suffered a terrible humiliation after being kidnapped by a martial artist mad with lust, who then took her own life while shedding tears of blood.

The name of a child that parents, whose child had suddenly been kidnapped by a martial artist one day, cried out as they wandered the Jianghu.

All those scenes he had seen, heard, and experienced were branded into his mind like a hot iron and would not disappear.

“Elder. There are too many villains like this in this world. Just thinking about those who suffer at the hands of such trash, a fire rages inside me, and I can't bear it.”

Jin Yuseong's tone was calm, but his eyes were not. Within his pupils, a terrifying inferno was blazing.

The old man looked at Jin Yuseong's eyes with a complicated expression.

‘That child, who has only lived with me in Heavenly Sun Village for six years, how could he know of such things...’

It was something the old man could not understand.

Suddenly, the words Jin Yuseong had said a little earlier came to mind.

‘He said it's better for the body to hurt than for the heart to hurt.’

Perhaps that child had grown up abruptly without him realizing it.

He still couldn't understand, but there was one thing that was certain.

‘...It seems it would be useless to hold onto him, asking him to stay in the village.’

He was afraid that the child, who was like a grandson to him, might come to harm, but the child had already grown up and was ready to leave his grandfather's embrace.

“Then, pack the things you'll need for the road. I'll be back at the inn for a moment.”

After saying so, the old man left the Black Serpent Gang again, and not long after, he returned holding a bundle and a bottle.

“This is medicine I got from Mr. Bang, and some cloth. And I've packed some rice balls for you to eat on the way. This is water, so drink it if you get thirsty on the road.”

He thought about refusing, but seeing the look in the old man's eyes, Jin Yuseong accepted them for now.

Then, the old man looked at Jin Yuseong's medicine-covered cheek with a pitiful gaze and said.

“I learned something while working in my kitchen. A dish that needs to be cooked over low heat for a quarter of an hour will not cook faster but is more likely to burn if you use high heat to try and cook it quickly. What's the use of it all if you push yourself too hard and your body gets hurt?”

Jin Yuseong smiled bitterly and replied.

“I will be careful, elder.”

“Yes. Travel safely.”

After finishing his farewells with the old man, Jin Yuseong left Heavenly Sun Village and headed out into the world once again.