Chapter 546

Chapter 546 – The Lazy Arrives (1)

“……”

“……”

Saha, the Historian, watched Gwanggu Shingae without saying anything. The Gwanggu Shingae also stared back at him without uttering a word.

“Aren’t their personalities a bit… strange?”

“What?”

“The personalities you’re describing now seem to differ a bit from what I knew of those lords…”

“That was all just a facade.”

“Huh?”

Gwanggu Shingae chuckled derisively.

“How could those bastards have good character? If you spend three days with Wei Yanho, even Buddha would turn his back. Do you think those who rolled with Wei Yanho for so long could maintain a normal personality? Those guys are all messed up.”

“……”

Then, a word echoed in Saha’s mind:

“Demonic trash.”

Demonic trash, demonic trash…

These were the words that Musan, the Great Master of Shaolin, called the “Living Buddha” and friend of the Radiant Martial Sovereign who saved the world, had shouted at him as he fled the room as if escaping from him.

To be called “demonic trash” by a Living Buddha…

If he hadn’t lived through that experience, he would have denied Jangil’s words. But since Saha had personally witnessed it, he couldn’t deny their truth.

“Was their personality that bad?”

“Extremely bad. In fact, calling it ‘bad’ is rare. ‘Bad’ implies that… even a child can do bad things, or that even the kindest person who has never sinned can have bad thoughts sometimes. Isn’t that so?”

“Y-yes…”

“That’s why saying they have a ‘bad personality’ doesn’t do them justice. It’s more appropriate to say that their personality is shattered, that it’s hellish, that it doesn’t belong to this world… something like that.”

“Was it that serious…?”

Gwanggu Shingae chuckled again.

“Do you know what they called that monk Musan during the war?”

“I don’t know?”

“The Bloody Butcher. The Bloody Butcher.”

“……”

“That tells you how rotten the world was… that that Bloody Butcher, who was considered more ruthless than the asuras of hell, with the passage of time and a little makeup, poof! Now he’s a ‘Living Buddha’? Living Buuuuuddha?”

“……”

Gwanggu Shingae’s face showed obvious irritation.

“To hell with all those ‘Living Buddhas’. ‘Living Buddha’? Well, in a sense he was. What is a Buddha? Someone who guides people to paradise.”

“…That’s a bit different.”

“In the end, if he takes you to paradise, he’s a Buddha. It doesn’t matter if he does it by preaching the Dharma or smashing heads. In that sense, he was a Buddha. There were not a few who reached paradise by his hand.”

Saha couldn’t articulate a word.

“Then the Great Hero Peng also…?”

He was referring to Peng Dogeuk, known as the “First Hero of the World.” Was even he a sham?

“Ah, that bastard is different.”

“Of course!”

Saha visibly relieved, running a hand over his chest. It was already shocking to learn that the Living Buddha was actually the Bloody Butcher. If, in addition, the virtuous Peng Dogeuk had been different from his image, the disappointment would have been unbearable.

“His nature was genuinely kind. Not even in the worst moments of the war did he lose his sense of justice. It’s something admirable. Even the Great Hero Wei Jeonghan recognized his heroism.”

Something sounded strange.

Why was Wei Jeonghan “Great Hero” and Peng Dogeuk only “that bastard”?

It didn’t seem to be just a matter of confidence; there was a hint of resentment in his words.

As if he had read him, Gwanggu Shingae continued with a mocking smile:

“When he wasn’t wielding his sword.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s something strange… Wei Yanho used to say as a saying: ‘Heroism without power is worth no more than dog excrement’.”

“……”

“It seems that Peng Dogeuk internalized it too much. He wanted to be heroic, but in practice it was Wei Yanho who acted as a hero. He found it hard to accept that someone who despised heroism but had power achieved more heroic acts than him, with all his determination.”

“…It’s understandable.”

Goodwill is not everything. What materializes goodwill is power. Be it martial force, authority, or violence.

“That obsession with power led him down a strange path. And right next to him was the epitome of power.”

“Are you referring to the Radiant Martial Sovereign?”

“Exactly. Wei Yanho, that clueless, irritating, and stupid idiot… but the moment he wielded his sword, he became something terrifying.”

Saha nodded. With what he had heard so far, he could understand it.

“That seems like it.”

“That impressed him deeply. But he should have stopped there. Fools never know when to stop. Like those who ruin the atmosphere by saying too much. Do you understand?”

“……”

“He went too far. Over time, the difference between his personality with and without a sword was so marked that he seemed to have a split personality. Without a sword, he was kind and just. With the sword… he became a bloodthirsty executioner. Brrr, it’s chilling.”

What could Saha say?

There were no words. Seeing the true face of the heroes of the Great War against the Demon only left him with a void.

“But their achievements are not erased. They deserve respect and admiration. But… it’s disgusting, you know? Living Buddha? Hero? Ha!”

Gwanggu Shingae let out a disdainful laugh and muttered:

“Damn it, I’m still here… An old beggar, a premature beggar, a hero beggar… If I’m reborn, I won’t even piss towards the beggars.”

“…”

Now Saha understood the origin of his bitterness.

“Changing the subject.”

As if he had overdone it, Gwanggu Shingae cleared his throat.

“Regarding the Demon Cult back then…”

“…Aren’t you breaking the atmosphere too much?”

“But we can’t take a break to talk.”

“I guess not.”

Saha resigned himself.

Let’s forget it. Let’s forget everything I just heard.

“Where did the Bishops of the cult go?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

“……”

“If you know, why are you asking? They went to the Central Plains. You know that too. They made a big fuss.”

“So, at that time…”

“That’s right.”

Gwanggu Shingae scratched his chin. Remembering that moment made him feel itchy all over. Like a wound that, despite the years, never healed.

“We were complacent.”

“They attacked us where we least expected it.”

“The war had lasted so long, we knew each other too well. That ended up being our poison. The Master of Divine Abilities believed that he already understood everything about the Demon Cult. ‘Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will not be defeated’, he must have thought. But… he really didn’t know anything.”

Saha nodded in agreement.

“It wasn’t his fault.”

“True. Without omniscient eyes, how could he know everything that was happening in the world? How could we have known what was happening in the most secret places of that distant land of Xinjiang? And above all…”

Gwanggu Shingae sighed with regret.

“That he had not appeared in the previous war caused confusion. If someone like that existed, why hadn’t he revealed himself before? Even if it wasn’t him, with just one more follower at the level of the Great Demon King, the war would have ended with the victory of the cult. Why save forces in a war you could win? Anyone would have thought the same.”

“But it wasn’t like that.”

“No. We didn’t know. We didn’t know what he was, why he had waited so long, and…”

Gwanggu Shingae looked at the ceiling. He watched the deteriorated ceiling of the hut for a long time before continuing in a somber voice:

“Why the Great Demon King took such an extreme measure.”

“……”

“We should have known.”

Gwanggu Shingae’s voice became darker.

“The biggest mistake of the Master of Divine Abilities… no, of the Central Plains, was that. In the past war, we survived thanks to the actions of the Great Demon King. But we never asked ourselves why. We only attributed his death to the merit of the Central Plains and rushed to celebrate. Now that I think about it… it was stupid.”

Saha couldn’t help but ask:

“Why did he do it?”

“Because he was human.”

Gwanggu Shingae’s answer was simple.

“The Master of Divine Abilities was also human. He didn’t want to think about it. The fatigue of a long war, the relief of surviving a lost battle… All that makes one not want to think about more dangers. One just wants to rest a little. And when that rest is prolonged, it’s already too late to understand. Even if we had investigated then, what would we have found? It was a secret too well kept.”

“I don’t understand. I still don’t know why the Great Demon King did it.”

“Mmm…”

“What was the reason?”

“Freedom? Survival? Or should I say longing?”

They were enigmatic words. Saha waited in silence. Gwanggu Shingae’s slightly trembling face and restless legs betrayed the storm of thoughts inside him.

“All that was the reason. And at the same time, none of that. Simplifying, there was only one reason: he wanted to live.”

“……”

“I also understood later why the Great Demon King did something so absurd. In his place, anyone would have done the same.”

“Ehm…”

Saha couldn’t fully comprehend. But he understood that there had been a great tragedy.

“It must have been something tragic.”

“Do you know what’s really tragic?”

“…What?”

“That the tragedy wasn’t over. A greater tragedy was approaching.”

“……”

“We should have been more cautious. We missed too many signs. Everything around us pointed to one thing. The cult that didn’t chase us, the empty cave, that sword… and also…”

Gwanggu Shingae fell silent.

With his eyes closed, his expression conveyed an indescribable emotional turmoil.

“We should… we should have known it before. But we didn’t. That was the tragic thing.”

He brought the bottle to his lips. After a gulp of strong liquor, he wiped his mouth and said:

“The price of not knowing what we should have known, of not avoiding what we should have avoided, was enormous. But it wasn’t Wei Yanho’s fault. Nor ours. Our situation was too urgent to think calmly. Besides…”

His voice trembled slightly.

“Could we have avoided it?”

“……”

“Even if we had known… could we have avoided it? I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

The hut was filled with a heavy air.