1.
…Baraya, baraya, agabaraya…
…The heart is a candle, so burn this place…
These were prayers that had been handed down since ancient times.
As monks chanted Amitabha, the Demonic cultists chanted Baraya.
…Baraya, baraya, agabaraya…
…The heart is a candle, so burn this place…
No one knew what 'baraya' meant. So Baek-hyang also didn't know. The old man who brought So Baek-hyang to the Demonic Cult didn't know. They memorized it without understanding.
For So Baek-hyang, Baraya was a song of the people. It was a scream. Screams originally have no meaning. So, wasn't it natural that the song of the commoners also had no meaning?
One could memorize it without understanding.
Just like how people don't have to know much in order to scream.
A person can be polite only when he learns etiquette, and he can practice justice only when he learns righteousness, but the exception is screaming. Even someone who has learned nothing could scream.
…Baraya…
…Baraya…
…Agabaraya…
Screaming was a commonality between people of all nations in the world.
The world that So Baek-hyang looked at was screaming.
-I have nothing more to teach you.
The old man said.
-It is time for you to make your appearance.
-Where should I go?
So Baek-hyang asked. A subdued voice. She had already become mature.
The 11-year-old little kid was not here. Black hair, black eyes, black uniform. The woman was as dark as a well in the night.
She wanted to be hell.
To become the people's hell, the woman advanced that much.
-Where do you want to go?
-To the place where people starve.
So Baek-hyang replied.
-I want to go where the thirsty are, where there are those who are suffocating, where there are cold people, where the drug addicts are, where the ill people are, where people are punished by the government, where people burn.
So Baek-hyang looked into the air.
-That's where I want to go.
-....
Far, far away.
The sound of prayer was heard outside the main hall. The Demonic cultists were bowing as they prayed. Their voices. Their trembling. Baraya, baraya, agabaraya… They vibrated and traveled through the wooden floor.
-Then, Baek-hyang.
The old man opened his mouth.
-You can go anywhere in this world.
So Baek-hyang. 21 years old.
She appeared in the Murim world.
That winter, 31 martial artists, 47 court officials in the court, and 55 members of powerful families in the provinces were killed.
2.
"Our sect's traditions are special."
The Heavenly Demon quietly retreated from the others. She congratulated the Murim Lord and the Venomous Snake. Then, she started to lead me somewhere with just the two of us.
"Do you know how to do the Ceremony of Nine Salutes?"
"No. I don't know how."
"In our sect, when a disciple greets his master, he bows nine times."
The place we headed for was a cave. A cave fogged up by a hot spring. I had become used to the caves like they were my own home, but I wasn't familiar with the spot that the Heavenly Demon took me to.
It was a place our party had never been allowed to enter.
The Heavenly Demon walked deep into the cave.
"Hm."
The Heavenly Demon waved her hand. Her loose sleeve fluttered once, then candles lit up the darkness. Countless candles lit up the stalagmites and stalactites of the cave.
"But it doesn't end with just bowing. The master decides whether or not to accept the nine bows. The master can demand the student to do the Ceremony of Nine Salutes as many times as they want, until they are satisfied."
The Heavenly Demon grinned.
"To sum it up, it all depends on how I feel."
"Umm… Are there any other criteria?"
"There are."
The end of the tunnel.
"Naturally, the heart is more important than appearance. Child. The reason why the time and place are important to etiquette is simply that a person's heart is cunning and light."
There was a huge library.
Every time the Heavenly Demon took a step, candles were lit on both sides of the step. The more the candles were lit, the clearer the library's true form became. A high cave ceiling. Books and bamboo poles were stacked up to reach the ceiling.
"It is not easy to grasp the lightness of the heart."
The Heavenly Demon walked.
A candle lit up by her ankle.
"Therefore, man chooses sacred times and sacred places. He relies on the time and place. It is to hold the light heart heavy by depending on the sky and the earth."
"Heavenly Demon-nim. This is…?"
"This is the sect's secret martial arts storehouse," the Heavenly Demon said.
"And it's also the martial arts storehouse of the Five Noble Clans and the Nine Great Schools. I call this place Cheonmugwan."[1]
Bae Hu-ryeong opened his mouth.
-That's awesome. It's totally a treasure trove! Zombie, I'm going to look at some martial arts books! Don't mind me and do whatever you have to do. If you can, drag it out until I can read it all!
The martial arts-crazed Bae Hu-ryeong ran to the books.
-Oh yeah! All the skills in the world are mine now! I'll get all the enlightenment, all of it! Kuhahaha!
The Heavenly Demon was calm, unaware that there was a ghost running about in her library.
"When I was twenty-one, I entered the world of martial arts. Can you guess what my first thought was when I appeared in the Murim world?"
"Uh. I'm going to destroy all the heads of the bastard do-gooders in the Righteous Sect?"
"That was my third thought."
"I'll prove that the Demonic Cult is the best…?"
"That was my second thought."
The Heavenly Demon winked with her left eye.
"What I said was this. Since I was young, I really hated the word Murim."
"Huh?"
"Murim is a word that reveres mu, the martial artists. But how can there be only martial artists in our world? There are boatmen and farmers. Merchants live here, as do prostitutes. There are countless trees that make up a single forest. Each tree has a different name and a different grain, but the Nine Great Schools and the Five Noble Clans named the forest, above all things, after the mu."
She didn't like it.
Quietly, the Heavenly Demon muttered.
"So the great me decided to take away the mu from them."
"To take away the mu?"
"I robbed them of all the martial arts texts that they worshiped like a shrine!"
The Heavenly Demon laughed raucously.
The smile on her face was playful.
"Huhu. The face the Gonryun masters made are still clear in my head. They begged with their heads hung down for me to leave the book containing the wisdom of the Cloud Dragon! I am a great person. I just buried those taoists in the ground but left their heads sticking out. And while they were watching, I wrapped up the martial arts books and left!"
Wow.
My master has such a nice personality.
"It has been decades since then. Now, this is Gonryun and the shamans. It is the 4,000 Tang Mun. It's the strongest family in the nation. It's the Mosan Sect. Since all the martial arts in the world form a forest here, this place truly deserves to be called Murim. I would…"
The Heavenly Demon slowly sat down.
"I would like to receive your bows here."
"Will you do it?"
"Yes."
"I'm not going to care about the appearance. Child of the outside world. Just bow as your body tells you to."
I did.
I took off my shoes and put them down. I got down on my knees. The moment that my forehead was about to touch the floor, the Heavenly Demon's voice flowed.
"Bow nine times, but put a different heart in each bow."
A different heart.
"The first bow should contain the heart of hunger."
"Do you understand?"
Was that so?
"Yes. I understand."
The relationship between the master and the disciple was truly precious.
In the Demonic Sect, this ritual was not simply about bowing nine times.
The Ceremony of Nine Salutes.
It was no different from the Infernal Heavens Demonic Art.
"Hoo…"
Slowly. I breathed in deeply.
I drew a picture in the center of my heart.
A farmer wielding a pickax. The riverside. Mud.
「Hunger is children waiting for the sun.」
I bowed.
The Heavenly Demon nodded. She accepted my first salute. There was no lie in my hunger, so there was no fault in my bow.
"The stages of the Demonic Cult are largely divided into four."
To me, who would soon become a disciple, the Heavenly Demon gave an ancient lesson.
"The first stage is 'ipma,' or rising demon. Rising demons are those who know how to talk about their pain. The cultists who enter our sect speak with a sword, not with words. Therefore, the rising demon is a person who knows how to speak of his pain with a sword."
I bowed again.
After hunger was thirst, and I pictured seawater in my heart.
"The second stage is gukma, or extreme demon. The extreme demon is someone who knows how to speak of the pain of others. Therefore, the extreme demon refers to a person who can use a sword to deal with the pain of others."
The Heavenly Demon silently accepted my second salute.
I bowed again, drawing the image of the drowned father in my heart.
"The third stage is talma, or elusive demon."
Again, the Heavenly Demon nodded.
She was willing to accept my third salute.
"The elusive demon is someone who knows how to talk about the pain of everyone. The elusive demon can walk down the street and easily feel what makes the person passing by him suffer."
I did the fourth salute.
"It is extremely rare for anyone to reach this level! Even in the history of our sect, the number of elusive demons can be counted on one hand. The great me is an elusive demon."
Again, the Heavenly Demon accepted my bow.
"Finally, there is the stage of sinma, the demonic god. The demonic god knows not only the suffering of all men but the suffering of all things. It is said that he can speak of the pain of all things in creation. But this is a theoretical stage! So I will just skip over that stage. In fact, no one has ever reached the stage of a demonic god."
It was when I was trying to do the fifth salute.
"Stop."
I stopped.
"Do it again."
"..."
The fifth sword of the Infernal Heavens Demonic Art was the path of poison. They were the movements of those who died from poison and addiction. I hadn't mastered the fifth sword yet. The Heavenly Demon said softly, "I told you to do it again."
I bowed.
"Do it again."
I bowed.
"Do it again."
Again. Again. Again. Again.
There was sweat on my forehead. Cool sweat ran down my back.
The Heavenly Demon's face remained calm.
"Do it again."
Number of times to bow with death by poisoning in my heart, 336.
Number of times to bow with death by illness in my heart, 189.
I had to bow 510 times with death by blunt impact in my heart before the Heavenly Demon accepted my salute.
I was sweating.
I silently knelt down and bent my back.
"…You're a straightforward child."
The Heavenly Demon smiled.
"There are children who are honest from birth. There are also children who are born with a bad omen but become honest by their own will. Child of the outside world, you are definitely the latter. I wonder what kind of life you've led to come this far."
Her smile was a little sad.
"What kind of life are you trying to lead, to become like this…?"
The candlelight flickered.
The light shook and the shadows shook.
As it swayed, the shadow of the Heavenly Demon and my shadow overlapped.
"If the sun means life, then shadows mean pain."
The thin shadow opened its lips.
"The outline of each human as they live their life is separate, but their pain overlaps again and again. Thus, humans are not one because they are alive, but because they feel pain."
It was the doctrine of the shadows.
"If you say that you will share the pain with someone, you are saying that you will be with that person for a lifetime. Therefore, those who are hurt by everyone only want to be with everyone. Child."
A doctrine with only one mouth that could share it, pass it on in this world.
"Gongja."
That mouth was talking to me.
"People don't just decide who they leave scars on. They can also decide whose scars to wear. The common people you are trying to save will never be good. The crowd you have saved will never be honorable. The one you love will never be perfect," the shadow whispered.
The whisper of the shadow carried the heat of the candle.
"Even so, if you want to be hurt by everyone. If you are willing to give them your bare skin. Think about how they scratch you with their fingernails, how they will hurt you even if they hug you too tightly."
"Life is pain. But that is only human suffering. Bara, bara. Agabaraya. This is your heart's meaning and fire. Burn it, and see the shade of others."
The candle wax dripped.
"The eighth infernal heaven is death by fire."
It flowed down.
"Gongja. Bow with a burning heart."
I.
「But you know that I'm the Flame Emperor.」
「That's why you have to die for me.」
「Goodbye.」[2]
I bowed again.
"...."
Deeply.
The shadow was silent.
336 times for the poison. 189 to the illness. 510 for blunt impact.
The words 'Do it again,' which rang in the cave 1035 times, was not heard this time. She seemed to be satisfied with my single bow for death by incineration.
"…I see."
The traces where the candle wax flowed.
A voice spread over the spot where that trace was made.
"The infernal heavens' last sword form… It is not set. It is a free style. From generation to generation, the sect leader engraves their own death on the last sword. So, the ninth sword of the Infernal Heavens Demonic Art varies greatly from person to person."
A place for one's own death.
"Bow with your death."
"...."
I.
While committing suicide 4090 times, I.
My neck hurt.
My neck, stabbed with a dagger, hurt. My hands trembled. My arms shook. I was afraid that the blade would go crooked or miss because of the trembling and shaking. I was afraid that the pain would be prolonged if I stabbed myself wrongly. So, I wrapped green tape on the handle of the dagger.
The green tape wrapped around the hilt was also wrapped around my right and left hands. It was fixed there. That way, I wouldn't tremble. I had regressed 4050 days. But I died 4090 times. I had to die. I almost gave up on the way. I had ran away from it for several days.
However, I couldn't forgive that person.
I didn't have the confidence I could forgive him and keep living.
I wrapped up the green tape again. The slower my death, the blurrier my determination became. The blurrier my determination, the more I had to die. I stopped thinking of these useless things. I disregarded my hesitant thoughts.
I desperately wanted to live, so I died desperately.
Suicide.
I drew it as the last picture in my heart and bowed to the Heavenly Demon.
"..."
The shadow shook. It was the Heavenly Demon standing up from her seat. I realized it a bit late. When I realized it, the Heavenly Demon already put her hand on my shoulder.
"Gongja."
Our shadows overlapped in the cave.
"You are my disciple."
"…Yes."
"You are my disciple."
"Yes."
"I don't care where you come from. Wherever you go, wherever you are, you are a disciple of the Heavenly Demon, So Baek-hyang. Our doctrine is in your heart. Even if society is destroyed and the world ends, as long as your heart still beats, the infernal heavens will continue."
I opened my mouth.
"—Yes, Master."
My neck hurt.
Those were painful days.
I finally knew it now.