Chapter 254. Epilogue (2)
"So this is the place. Yes, this is the first step in my cultivation journey."
The Divine Dragon Cult was a cult that had recently emerged in the Shaanxi region and was rapidly expanding its influence. While they presented themselves as a legitimate religion, with a god that they believed in, a High Priest, and so forth, they were in fact very much a Black Hand gang.
No, the atrocities they committed—murder, plunder, rape, and the like—were much worse than what the average Black Hand gang had done in the past.
Recently, the Divine Dragon Cult's branches were being attacked and disappearing one by one at the hands of a mysterious enemy. Thus, the remaining ones were heavily guarded, and the headquarters even more so.
Right now, a young boy was talking about some cultivation journey and other ridiculous things in front of the headquarters’ main gate.
The gatekeeper was dumbfounded.
"Uh... right, right. Well, you've come to the right place."
He didn't plan on letting the boy leave just because he was young and obviously stupid. In fact, he planned to drag the kid inside and skewer him up on a spear. Watching him squirm was bound to be a good show.
Well, that was what he thought, anyway. As it turns out, reality sometimes betrays our expectations.
The boy drew the sword on his waist, showing off a brilliant sword light, and said two soft words.
"Raging Wind."
His sword moved at a speed that the gatekeeper of the Divine Dragon Cult could not even imagine, let alone avoid, and separated the man’s head from his body.
The fourth son of Song Woo-Moon then kicked the main gate of the Divine Dragon Cult with his foot and shouted, “Here I've come! Evildoers of the Divine Dragon Cult, be prepared!”
After shouting so bravely, Song Ha-Baek felt deeply satisfied. He felt that the image of the swordsman he had always imagined himself to be was finally coming to life.
'I'm the hero now. This is it!'
"What the hell, who's that idiot?"
"Oi, dumb brat what are you doing?"
Ha-Baek let the tip of his sword droop toward the ground, looking up at the sky for no reason before bursting into hearty laughter.
"Ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"
The Divine Dragon Cult warriors were looking at him wide-eyed. In all honesty, the image was indeed really funny; sadly, the person at the center of it all had no idea how ridiculous he looked.
"Is that bastard crazy or something?"
"I really don’t think he’s in his right mind.”
Ha-Baek was so absorbed in his own world that he couldn’t even hear their conversation.
"I, Song Ha-Baek, came out to the world of martial arts for the first time today, only to meet some extremely evil people and end up in danger. But I have no regrets about the sword I picked up, and I will fight for justice with no hesitation! Come, I'll put my life on the line to defeat you!"
"What the fuck..."
"Can someone please kill him now? At this rate we might all die of cringe."
The Divine Dragon Cult warriors, who had goosebumps all over from Ha-Baek's cringeworthy remarks, rushed toward the swordsman.
Clang, clang, clang!
The sound of swords clashing echoed, then six streams of blood shot into the air.
"Huh?"
A Divine Dragon Cult warrior let out a dumbfounded sound. Something was going wrong right now.
That child who called himself Song Ha-Baek... His sword was so fast that it was invisible, and his movements were so complex and mysterious that they felt dizzy just from looking at him.
His silhouette was like falling autumn leaves swaying in the wind!
And every time Ha-Baek's sword pointed somewhere, a Divine Dragon Cult warrior would fall, spewing blood.
However, Ha-Baek's words told a completely different tale.
"Ugh! You evildoers are too strong."
"When good rises by one chi, evil rises by one zhang[1]. While heroes disappear by the day, the wicked increase in number and grow even stronger!”
"I'm losing strength, bit by bit. Oh, what a crisis, is this where the great hero Song Ha-Baek will fall? No, it cannot be. For the sake of the gangho, I will make sure that before that moment comes, I will kill at least one more evildoer!"
Ha-Baek continued to say these ridiculous things while slaughtering the Divine Dragon Cult warriors.
The Divine Dragon Cult's vice leader sincerely acknowledged the boy. Well, it was the boy’s sheer insanity that he acknowledged, but that was also a form of acknowledgement.
"Y-y-you crazy bastard! What the fuck is wrong with you?! You think we’re here just for decoration? I’ll chop your head off and see if you can still spout nonsense after that!"
As soon as the vice leader finished speaking, Ha-Baek suddenly stopped. At that moment, a spear passed right by his shoulder.
Swish!
"Ugh! Is this the end? It hurts, but the pain of the people who have been hurt by your hands must have been even greater! I won't give up like this!"
The wound amounted to nothing more than a paper cut, yet Ha-Baek screamed as if he had been impaled through the stomach.
"T-this crazy..."
Song Ha-Baek's sword passed through the vice leader's throat right as he was about to speak.
"Now, Divine Dragon Cult Leader! It's your turn this time!"
Right then, the moment Ha-Baek wanted to head to the cult leader's chambers, a man in a daoist robe with a missing arm ran out of the building.
"Agh!"
"Huh? What's going on?"
Ha-Baek finally came out of his own world due to the unexpected development and looked at the man in confusion. Then, a masked young man walked out of the cult leader's dark chambers.
"Eldest brother?"
Woo-Moon's eldest son, Song Ha-Gwang, suddenly appeared in front of Ha-Baek using Illusive Shift and smacked him on the head.
"You dumb brat! I barely heard a few sentences and I already feel like vomiting! Do you want to die? How dare you bring such shame to our family?!"
While they were talking, four Divine Dragon Cult members rushed toward the two young men. However, two Silver Moon Discs flickered out of Song Ha-Gwang's sleeves and cut through the air, slitting the throats of the cult members in one fell swoop.
"Hey, what's going on? Why are you here, Hyung?"
Ha-Gwang caught the returning Silver Moon Discs.
"That bastard apparently reached the Transcendent Realm, so my mother told me to slit his throat. The Divine Dragon Cult has been going way too far. But what's going on with you? Didn't you follow Fifth Mother to the Mount Hua Sect?"
Ha-Baek puffed out both cheeks. He seemed to be extremely angry.
While they were talking, the Divine Dragon Cult leader tried to run away, leading Ha-Gwang to throw a chain sickle and Ha-Baek to throw a Dark Fragrance Petal, cutting off both his feet at the ankles.
"Mount Hua isn't for me! If I do anything, Mother scolds me, telling me I shouldn't embarrass Father. All I get to do there is learn Mount Hua's martial arts day in and day out without ever getting the chance to play."
"Then just get used to it, you little brat. You like martial arts anyway."
"No! I like Father's Gentle Celestial Sword. I'm not even a girl, so how can I move around drawing flowers with my sword? And what, I'm supposed to bring about the scent of plum blossoms when I reach a higher level? I want to be a hero, not a eunuch!"
Ha-Gwang couldn’t hold back his laughter at his little brother’s words.
"Don't laugh! Look, you're going to inherit the Assassin Gate. Second Brother will become the Heavenly Demon, and Third Brother will become the North Sea Ice Palace Master. You're all so cool! But me, I'm..."
Thwack!
Ha-Gwang smacked him again.
"You dumb brat! How could you say that? How heartbroken would Fifth Mother be if she heard you? Father and the Mount Hua Sect are her whole life."
Ha-Baek also realized that he had made a slip of the tongue and mumbled.
"I... I'm sorry... But it’s not like I was trying to speak ill of Mother's sect. It's just... it really doesn't fit me."
The Divine Dragon Cult Leader, who was listening to them squabble, felt dizzy even in the midst of his pain.
'The eldest will inherit the Assassin Gate, the second will become the Heavenly Demon, the third will become the North Sea Ice Palace Master? W-wait, that... that means... the Undefeatable Sword Immortal.... Fuck.'
"Be good to Fifth Mother. Even without you being like this, she's crying way too much...."
"I know. I would do that even if you didn't say anything, Hyung."
Ha-Baek thought of his mother, Hyeon Yu-Yeon, and made a promise to himself. He decided to work harder so that his mother wouldn't cry.
"Anyway, let's end this and go."
Squelch!
The Divine Dragon Cult Leader's heart burst open, and blood gushed out. Then, the two boys left.
On the wall of the destroyed fortress, where the two had just disappeared from, the following words were engraved:
The Greatest Hero Under the Heavens Song Ha-Baek has destroyed the Divine Dragon Cult.
Below that, there was another sentence, written as small as possible.
Song Ha-Gwang, who showed up for absolutely no reason, came and helped the Greatest Hero Song Ha-Baek a little. Really, only a little.
If Ha-Gwang ever found out about this, Ha-Baek was bound to get smacked by sweet dreams a hundred times[2].
***
A few days later, on the South Sea Islands.
A boy and a girl who looked to be about eight years old were sitting on the sandy beach, making sand castles.
A large old man walked toward them.
"You little tykes, here you were. It's been a while since you've come to see your grandpa. It seems like you like playing in the dirt more than playing with me?"
Hearing Ra Baek-Do's bitter words, his twin grandchildren giggled.
"Hehehe~"
"Grandpa, let's do this together!"
"Grandpa, can you please stop the waves? Hehe."
Ra Baek-Do was just amazed by the very existence of his grandchildren, and he couldn't pretend to be upset any longer. So he just chuckled to himself and stopped the waves.
"Fine, fine. What are your parents doing now? I haven't seen even a hint of their noses since a while ago."
The children's answers startled him.
"Who knows? Dad’s probably busy making some more siblings with the mommies right now."
"O-oh, are the other four here, too? They already have more than ten kids, do they really want to make more? I heard Mok Yong got pregnant with her second a while ago...."
Princess Mok Yong was Woo-Moon’s last wife. Initially, he had no intention of marrying her, but when the emperor brought up his past promise and asked him to marry, he didn't have the option to refuse.
He had clearly promised the emperor that apart from a few taboos, he would obey one order regardless of what that order was. Unfortunately, he hadn’t thought of including “marrying Princess Mok Yong” among said taboos.
"Hehe. It's good to have many younger siblings! Also, our mommies go visit wherever our daddy goes. They all travel back and forth from the South Sea to the Central Plain, considering it only takes like half an hour."
The children were much more mature than they appeared. They were the opposite of their mother, Ra Mi; due to all the years wasted sleeping, her thought process was a bit behind her actual age.
"When we were inside earlier, all of the mommies came to visit us, and as soon as we left, they locked the doors."
"O-oh, I see..."
"Ah! Grandpa! The waves are coming, the sand castle will... hiii."
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry."
Such was the bustling daily life of Woo-Moon’s family.
The End.
1. The original here is “when the Dao rises by one chi, demons rise by one zhang,” i.e. there will always be more evil people than good ☜
2. Do you remember this from Brother vs Brother earlier on? ☜