Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
49. Sport Exchange (9)
In the distant past, when Jeok-ho and Ungnyeo became linked, the Ho tribe and Ung tribe gathered their powers to fight back against foreign enemies.
The sacred Tigers, which were said to have received Heavenly God’s favor, weren’t mythological beings yet, while foreign enemies were powerful and cunning.
The foreign enemies pulled tricks, aiming at Sinin and the leaders of the Ho tribe and Ung tribe.
In the end, Cheong-ho, who protected Sinin and Eun-ho, lost numerous disciples and was gravely injured, while the Ung tribe’s head died on the battlefield.
Taking advantage of the gap created by the loss of the Ung tribe and Ho tribe’s elites, the foreign enemies covered the Korean Peninsula with Evil Darkness, and as the result of it, the voice of Heavenly God which came down through the open sky was cut off.
The one who cut the Evil Darkness summoned by those foreign enemies and returned the Heavenly God’s grace again was Baek-ho.
“Ah… So that student is wearing a white tiger mask right now?”
“Yep! Because the Byeoksa ritual recorded in the Gaecheon Myth was performed by ‘Baek-ho’. When reenacting the Byeoksa ritual from the Gaecheon Myth through the sword dance, it’s a rule to wear a Baek-ho mask.”
At Mok Uram’s question, Kim Yuri replied.
Because there were many people among the 1st year class 0’s students who didn’t know Gaecheon Myth very well, Kim Yuri briefly described the Darkness summoned by foreign enemies and Baek-ho’s Byeoksa.
In the Gaecheon Myth Kim Yuri knew, Jeok-ho and Ungnyeo’s passionate love, the Ung tribe and Eun-ho didn’t appear, but it was sufficient to explain the Byeoksa preformed by Baek-ho.
“I guess it’s starting!”
As Sawol Seeum finished his words, the person wearing Baek-ho’s mask started the sword dance.
Some thought ‘I don’t know if swinging sword to accompaniment would be any fun’, but their thoughts changed with the sound of pure white sword cutting the air and the unobstructed flow of the sword.
While the pure white sword left white traces each time it cut the air, the air gradually became lighter.
The people, who thought they just felt suffocated because of the closed dome sensed the change in the air.
The very trivial evil tricks were annihilated with each brush of the sword.
“He really seems to be using Byeoksa…”
“Looks like a high level Byeoksa skill user!”
“This is the first time I see a Person reenacting a scene from a myth. Doesn’t the skill level have to be at least 5?” [1]
While the 1st year class 0’s children purely admired, Min Geurin, who experienced such scene a few times as recreation of the national intangible assets, spoke with a great shock.
“I saw a performance of the traditional performer with over level 5 Byeoksa skill, this seems to be even higher than that…!”
Baek-ho’s sword dance cut the seeds scattered around Eungwang Stadium one after one.
The sword dance progressed, flowing like water, and lead to the scene where Baek-ho from the myth arrived at the place closest to heaven to bring down the foreign enemy, who protected the source of the Darkness which covered the Korean Peninsula.
* * *
A certain waiting[2] room in the Eungwang Stadium.
A fierce confrontation inside continued as before.
Because Hwang-ho’s barrier covered the whole waiting room, no objects were destroyed but the broken barrier had to be recovered a few times and he had to unfold blinding golden superpower wave to tie miasma emitted by the Demon priest.
The priest of Avaritia was driven into a corner, but his momentum didn’t die.
‘Hwang-ho isn’t displaying his full power… it seems he plans on capturing me, eh?’ [3]
It was a stupid move to kill a Demon using miasma in a place with so many people.
A special skill was needed to tie the poison which would spread out as the last spark of the Demon’s life, but there was no person with such skill in this game-ground.
‘Even among the Ho tribe members there is no one possessing that annoying skill. Sinin was said to possess that skill, but he left the Ho tribe a long time ago and…’
The priest of Avaritia burst with miasma while repeatedly making complex calculations.
He gritted his teeth when he sensed that over half of the seeds were cut thanks to Baek-ho.
Peuk!
“Keuk!”
The shoe toe of the Hwang-ho in a suit, burrowed into his solar plexus and pain spread through his whole body.
Hwang-ho pride-worthy Barrier Art was tied by the miasma, but if his hands slowed, or he was distracted by his thoughts even for a moment, Hwang-ho would dig into him with Taehokwon like now.
While the seeds were eliminated one after one at Baek-ho’s hands, the Demon abruptly came up with a way out.
His mind was distracted by the unexpected developments, but when making plans about this even in the Ho tribe’s Divine Realm, the priest of Avaritia didn’t forget about Baek-ho’s existence.
The seeds were planted after judging Baek-ho’s power.
‘There is still a chance!’
The priest of Avaritia, who had a lightning-like realization, opened his mouth while creating shadows.
The shadows reflected the four pillars close to the entrances at the east, west, south and north, among the pillars supporting the roof.
The pillars were on the outskirts of the main game-ground, far enough that even Baek-ho’s Byeoksa couldn’t touch them, and the miasma was hidden by the hard and firm barrier, bouncing off the Byeoksa.
“Didn’t Your close friend incur Heavenly God’s hate because he lost his True Name? It’s impossible to deal with those seeds with his current power.”
Baek-ho carried Heavenly God’s Wrath and this was only lifted when facing against the Ung tribe.
The Demon in front of the eyes and the evil seeds, which endanger the humans visiting the Divine Realm, were existences that had to be eliminated, but Heavenly God didn’t allow Baek-ho to display his full power.
“It seems that You were overconfident in Baek-ho’s power, eh? Even though I’m not able to kill as many humans as I desire right now, I can kill enough humans to defile the Divine Realm.”
Baek-ho’s Byeoksa was powerful, but it was limited by Heavenly God’s debuff.
The priest of Avaritia, who was certain that things couldn’t be touched with the current Baek-ho’s power, tried to propose a deal again.
He thought that if there is no chance of negotiation, he will control someone and kill them, to smear it on the honor of the Divine Realm’s guardian.
He thought that the enraged Hwang-ho’s superpower would be released, but his face seemed pleased.
‘… My words right now were neither a bluff nor a lie. How can you still be so relaxed!’ [4]
The mass of superpower wave in Hwang-ho’s hand became much heavier.
“I have no thoughts of responding to a sly Demon’s words.”
“… What is that sound? Are You thinking of abandoning the hostages as a guardian of the Divine Realm?”
Hwang-ho moved his hand instead of replying.
Numerous golden barriers appeared.
“Wasn’t it already said? ‘There is a human who saw through all your shallow tricks.’”
* * *
The dance of the white sword, which continued in the silence, headed towards the climax.
The flow of the pure white wavering superpower wave seemed to embody the will of Baek-ho from the Gaecheon Myth against the invisible foreign enemies.
Baek-ho, who cut the foreign enemies and lastly tried to cut the sky, soon found the gap in the Darkness.
It was a crack made in the Darkness at the request of the Moon Palace’s Moon Rabbits, who had a debt of gratitude to the Ho tribe’s head, made to Heng’e.
When the person wearing Baek-ho mask grasped the sword with both hands and raised the blade high toward the sky as if praying to Heavenly God.
‘Uh?’
In the ears of the student affiliated with the Earthly Wings Council, Bak Seung-hyeong, who watched the sword dance from the audience with his mouth wide open, a faint sound of a whistle was heard.
The riding the wind whistle sound rose towards the person in Baek-ho mask.
Bak Seung-hyeon thought that it was somewhat similar to the activation of his own Gwangrim ‘Army conducts Marching Song’.
‘… It’s similar to my Gwangrim. Why? Is it a similar buff skill?’
He thought it was similar, but his own Gwangrim could only raise the statistics a bit, so it couldn’t compare.
Bak Seung-hyeon’s doubts were reasonable.
In fact the Gwangrim activated with the target on the currently dancing Byeoksa sword dance Baek-ho was Bak Seung-hyeon’s ‘Army conducts Marching Song’.
And the person that activated that Gwangrim was Jo Uisin, who reenacted the grown version of Bak Seung-hyeon with the Player’s Trajectory.
When Demon ‘Eyes’ observed the Eungwang Stadium, Baek-ho disguised as a student entered wearing school uniform and waited in the waiting room, where communication was cut off under the pretext of facilities maintenance beforehand and then moved according to Jo Uisin’s instructions.
— Wrath of Heavenly God debuff is only released when facing against the Ung tribe.
— When facing against the Demon tribe, the debuff will stay just as before, so it’s impossible for Byeoksa’s power to reach.
— In preparation for that time, I’ll use the most powerful buff I can use in the climax part of the Byeoksa sword dance.
Baek-ho, wearing Baek-ho mask, recalled Jo Uisin’s words, while silently continuing the sword dance.
As the sound of the whistle, which started at some point, grew louder, Baek-ho superpower wave grew much stronger.
When even other audience members besides Baek-ho and Bak Seung-hyeon heard that whistle sound, they looked around searching for the origin of the sound.
At last the sword dance and the whistle sound reached their peak and Baek-ho swung White Fang as if to cut the sky.
Paat!
After the person in the Baek-ho mask swung the sword, a pure-white tiger appeared at the tip of it.
The enormous Baek-ho ran towards the sky, and the audience who kept silence before, cheered.
Whoaaaa—!
The instant the Baek-ho, who appeared from the white sword, rose into the sky, the superpower wave scattered wide and covered the game-ground.
After the white superpower wave instantly swallowed the audience vision, all lights which turned off, came back on.
It was like Baek-ho from the myth cut the Darkness summoned by the foreign enemies and returned Heavenly God’s grace under the open sky.
The dome didn’t open yet, but it seemed like the sky was opened again.
* * *
The aftereffects left by Baek-ho’s Byeoksa sword dance and the audience’s shouts, reached even Hwang-ho and priest of Avaritia.
‘It can’t be…! How Baek-ho have so much power…!’
All the seeds planted by the priest of Avaritia were destroyed by Baek-ho’s one blow.
The priest of Avaritia could do nothing but believe Hwang-ho’s words now.
The human that the arrogant Hwang-ho praised so highly truly existed and they saw through all his plans and powers.
‘There is only one way left.’
It wasn’t exactly that he wanted to die, but he refused to fall into the tiger den.
He gathered the miasma with the will that if it came to this he had to corrupt humans around and damage Hwang-ho.
Hwang-ho already realized his intentions and strengthened the Barrier Art even more.
The Barrier Art unfolded by the Divine Realm’s Guardian.
The miasma created with the life of Avaritia’s best priest.
He had no idea which side would win, but the Demon strengthened his resolve to taint the Divine Realm.
But something unexpected happened.
Paaa…
Hwang-ho lifted all the barriers, he covered the waiting room before.
Hwang-ho only put superpower wave to defend his body.
‘Why are you withdrawing the barriers? Are you thinking of abandoning the duty of the guardian?!’
When the priest of Avaritia, who put the miasma inside his body to explode, made a bewildered face.
Kwang!
At the same time when Hwang-ho withdrew the barriers, the doors to the waiting room opened as if they were waiting.
The priest of Avaritia was shocked by someone’s appearance.
‘What? No, this is…!’
The one who appeared was also a being, which the priest of Avaritia knew.
To speak precisely, the priest of Avaritia didn’t know this human, but he knew the mask he was wearing very well.
The person, who appeared right now was wearing the crow mask.
“Crow Mask…!”
The human wearing the crow mask symbolizing the Demon King of Silence and Bystanders, Sillentium.
The priest of Invidious hated the Crow Demon King extremely, but he was seriously interested in the Crow Mask and always chatted with him about it.
The person wearing the crow mask raised their hand and was drawing something.
‘No, not drawing. It’s ‘writing’!’
After the priest of Avaritia recognized what it was, he stopped his suicidal explosion and tried to attack the Crow Mask, but it was already too late.
After the Crow Mask put a period in the air, the movements of the priest of Avaritia completely stopped.
‘This is a power at the rank of Aquamarine Poet, no, more than that…!’
The skill Crow Mask used right now was ‘kotodoma’.
The power opposite of Demons.
He confirmed a few times there was not a single kotodama skill user here, but in the end he was humiliated.
“’There is a person who saw through all the tricks’. How many times these same words were said?”
Hwang-ho laughed at the Demon tied by the confinement order materialized by the kotodama.
*~*~*
[1] “This is the first time I see a Person reenacting a scene from a myth. Doesn’t the skill level has to be at least 5?” — This is not Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
[2] waiting — 대기 (daegi) has so many meanings I won’t be listening to all of them (though they all are really interesting). But there are a few that could refer to this situation: ‘atmosphere’, ‘During Joseon period, the flags called Cheongryong flag, Baek-ho flag, Jujak flag, Hyeonmu flag and Dongsa (snake/imoogi) flag, to mark east, west, south, north and the center, when giving the orders’, ‘authority/government over world (heaven and earth), great opportunity’, ‘a colloquial term for the king’s position’, ‘an outstanding genius worthy of great attention’.
[3] ‘Hwang-ho isn’t displaying his full power… it seems he plans on capturing me, eh?’ — he is back to using polite tone in his thoughts.
[4] ‘… My words right now were neither a bluff nor a lie. How can you be still so relaxed!’ — and back to casual tone in thoughts.
Translator’s note: Hwang-ho is just having so much fun here…
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