The Terminally-Ill Side-Character Inside of a Martial Arts Novel

The not-at-all threatening sword slowly descended. The madman quietly looked at the attack I brought down, then reached out his hand and deflected the sword.

The sight of the sword flying away, powerlessly escaping my hand, was clearly imprinted. And then, his hand approached.

The madman’s hand gripped my neck. As my neck was squeezed, my breath was blocked. My feet that had been on the ground lifted off. My body was raised into the air.

My body, hanging from the madman’s hand, was limp without struggling. I looked down at him with a frown while pressing down on his hand with just my arms.

The madman was still looking up at me with dry eyes.

Even if I tried to struggle, it was useless. The hand gripping my neck like hardened iron didn’t move at all.

My breath becomes scarce and my mind becomes distant. It was a familiar sensation. Should I consider it fortunate? I wasn’t particularly scared. My body slowed down at the familiar pain and sensation, and soon, my eyes slowly closed.

Beyond my blurring vision, a bright light approaches. And a face I want to see, a smile, is drawn.

‘Sowol.’

I wanted to smile at that voice softly calling my name. But.

I’m sorry. I want to smile but I can’t. I’m too tired and exhausted to even lift the corners of my mouth. So please understand.

‘Sowol.’

A tender call. A tender voice. It was a familiar voice. He called my name in a way he had never called before.

It was a light and soft voice, as if calling the name of a close friend. Not bad, this too.

Wife, Sowol. It was nice to be called lightly, but it was also okay to be called tenderly, ‘Sowol-ah.’ In the midst of that, the voice rang out once more.

‘Sowol-ah. Sowol-ah!’

The voice grew a little louder. And it becomes clearer.

‘Sowol-ah!!’

The white-drawn world suddenly flashed, and at that moment, my eyes opened.

“Huh…!!”

The bright sky disappeared and darkness had settled again. My blocked breath burst out and all the muscles in my body screamed.

As I twisted my body, a hand firmly grabbing my shoulder supported my body. When I raised my head, a familiar face came into view.

“…Brother?”

It was Moyong Do. He nodded painfully at my call. His face was stained with tears. Moyong Do didn’t look in very good condition either, but he didn’t seem to be badly injured.

“Sowol…”

Moyong Do called my name painfully and bent his upper body to hug me. As I was embraced in Moyong Do’s warm arms, I felt my violently pounding heart calming down. I slowly put strength into my body while feeling the gentle touch stroking my back.

Moyong Do slowly released me. Looking at him, I opened my mouth with difficulty.

“What… happened?”

My throat ached when I spoke. It proved that my neck had been tightly squeezed until just now.

“What about… the madman…? What happened to the madman…?”

“Don’t worry. That person came.”

“That person…?”

When I slightly narrowed my brows, Moyong Do nodded and raised his gaze. As I turned my body towards where his gaze was directed, I saw broad shoulders and a back spread out like a mountain range. While blankly staring at that figure, I narrowed my brows and the owner of the back moved.

“Have you woken up?”

“Cult Leader…?”

The owner of that back was Hyuk Muhyeol, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Leader who should be at the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult right now. He nodded slightly with a smile at my call.

“How did you…”

“My son and daughter-in-law who went to work lost contact, so I couldn’t know if they were alive or dead and moved directly. But… the situation is very bad.”

Hyuk Muhyeol looked around briefly, then threw his gaze forward. There, the madman was standing with blood flowing from his shoulder. The madman was injured?

Hyuk Muhyeol continued speaking while looking at the madman.

“I heard my daughter-in-law was a bit sick, so I was going to bring some medicine and ask how she was doing, but for some reason, I found her being grabbed by the collar by some vagrant.”

He glanced back at me and tapped the side of his temple. When I rubbed the spot he pointed to with the back of my hand, I felt a bulge.

“My daughter-in-law looked like she was about to die, so I used a bit too much force and she flew off. I’m sorry I couldn’t catch you in time and you got injured on your head.”

So I have a bump? It felt like it might have been slightly torn too. But that wasn’t any problem. What’s a bump on the head when I nearly died just now?

“Rest. I’ll deal with that person directly and ask for his crimes, so wait.”

Hyuk Muhyeol approached him while emitting a faint demonic energy.

The madman flinched. The man who hadn’t reacted to Hyuk Dojin and Geum Hyul’s attacks was reacting to Hyuk Muhyeol. Hyuk Muhyeol spoke quietly, tinting his demonic energy with killing intent and anger.

“I’m not sure how long it’s been. 15 years?”

“…”

“Back then, you rushed at me with insignificant skills and barely survived, but in the end, you became a madman who couldn’t cross the wall of the Manifest Realm. How truly sad.”

The madman gave no answer. No, rather, as Hyuk Muhyeol approached, the madman stepped back. That alone was surprising. That tremendous monster was afraid of Hyuk Muhyeol.

“And I’m disappointed in myself too. If I had known you would change into a madman like this and threaten the lives of my son and daughter-in-law, I should have ended your breath back then even if it meant overdoing it.”

“Hyuk… Mu…”

The madman’s mouth, which had been tightly closed and never opened, opened.

Hyuk Muhyeol looked at the madman reciting his name and chuckled.

“Yes, I’m Hyuk Muhyeol. The man who gave you defeat 15 years ago.”

“Hyuk Mu… hyeol. Mon… ster…”

“No. The monster isn’t me, but refers to people like you. Just a murderous ghost intoxicated with blood and slaughter, killing people indiscriminately. People like you are demons and monsters. So, I’ll help you.”

Hyuk Muhyeol slowly drew his sword. The blade that came out of the scabbard was pitch black. A sword assimilated with darkness as if dyed by night. I had heard about it vaguely before.

The pitch-black sword said to have been made by the Cult Leader containing his original true qi. Black Crow. It was said to be the Cult Leader’s treasured sword that resembles its owner’s color and martial arts.

“So that you can die as a human.”

At that moment, I thought darkness was settling. The Cult Leader disappeared at a speed difficult for eyes to capture. Along with that, the madman also moved at a speed hard to follow with eyes, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with Hyuk Muhyeol.

“Hyuk Mu… hyeol…!”

The madman muttered his name and continued his attacks. But Hyuk Muhyeol’s martial arts were beyond imagination. It was destructive, but inappropriate to express as just destructive. It was a bit darker and deeper.

When darkness briefly settled and disappeared, the madman staggered. The pitch-black blade moved quietly as if absorbing darkness itself.

Without any rough sounds, darkness surged from sky to ground and from ground to sky. As if being engulfed by darkness, the madman’s wounds only increased without being able to do anything.

It was overwhelming martial prowess. His strength was truly at the peak of the Central Plains, enough to understand why everyone named Cult Leader Hyuk Muhyeol when selecting the strongest person in the Central Plains.

“Hyuk Muhyeol!!”

The madman, whose injuries had only been increasing, shouted fiercely and then quickly ran to one side and swung his sword.

At that moment, the darkness split and Hyuk Muhyeol revealed himself in between. Hyuk Muhyeol frowned while blocking the madman’s sword with his own.

“Hyuk Muhyeol, Hyuk Muhyeol, Hyuk Muhyeol!!!”

“…How annoying.”

Hyuk Muhyeol clicked his tongue lowly and kicked the madman away, but the madman who had already lost his reason kept rushing in as if he couldn’t feel pain.

“Kill, kill, kill!”

“Yes, yes, try to kill me.”

Even in the dangerous situation, Hyuk Muhyeol looked quite relaxed. Even as the madman attacked crazily, he deflected and blocked everything, reducing damage.

Hyuk Muhyeol gave up the attacks he had been unleashing while melting into darkness like before and faced the madman head-on.

This wasn’t martial arts or anything. It was just a brute contest using only inner power, strength, and stamina.

The tremendous inner power emanating from the two was enough to easily kill people.

“…So this is a fight between masters who have seen the extremes of the Flowering Realm and Demonic Realm…”

After blankly watching their fight, I turned my head. Moyong Do’s expression was strange. He was frowning with a pained look.

“Brother?”

When I called Moyong Do, he frowned even more and quickly sat cross-legged. Then he drew inner power from his dantian and began circulating qi and breath.

Moyong Do was protecting his body with inner power drawn from his dantian, as if trying to shake off the waves of inner power surging in.

But I was actually fine. I knew the inner power flowing from those two was beyond imagination, but it had no effect on me at all.

Moreover, looking around slightly, there were almost no people watching where the two were fighting. Some were blankly staring at the sky or turning their gazes to strange places.

Can they not see the fight between those two? Why are they looking there…

While following the tail of strange thoughts and throwing questions, suddenly, I felt my body becoming lighter. Energy slowly surging from deep inside was wrapping around my body.

My dantian, which had been completely empty until just now, was filling up again. And with inner power filled with incomparably purer energy than before.

“This is…”

As the pain and fatigue in my body faded, my senses sharpened. I could clearly hear not only their fight but also voices coming from far away.

With every breath, it felt like my whole body was breathing. The energy of nature was felt even more clearly.

-When you gather the harmony of the five energies into one and reach the realm of original qi circulation, only then will the first gate towards divinity open. That is called the Harmonization Realm. In other words, the Flowering Realm.

Could this be…

A loud bang was heard. I raised my gaze from looking at my palms to look at where the sound came from. The madman had stepped back and was glaring at Hyuk Muhyeol while kneeling.

Hyuk Muhyeol pushed the madman away, then took out a handkerchief from his bosom to cover his mouth and coughed roughly, then turned towards me and grinned.

“You’ve finally shaken off everything.”

“Does this really mean…”

“Can you now see the world properly?”

The darkness lifts. The sky, mountains, and trees that were so dark until just now. Everything came into view.

Hyuk Muhyeol was smiling underneath.

“That is the Flowering Realm.”