Chapter 243

Hyuk Mujin had been living a dream day after day. Every now and then, he even pinched his own cheek.

Mujin, are you really allowed to be this happy? This isn’t a dream, is it?

He had every reason to feel that way.

Just over ten years ago, he had been nothing more than a boy who admired martial artists.

No, I don’t need to go back that far.

Even two years ago, he had thought his life was a cesspool.

His working hours were long and tedious, and his martial arts had stagnated.

And when the person he saw most often was the drunken, good-for-nothing Third Young Master, anyone short of the Buddha himself was bound to take a bleak view of the world.

I held it in and held it in, then finally threw one punch.

The day he drove his fist into the Third Young Master’s jaw, Hyuk Mujin’s life changed.

Countless battles. One brush with death after another…

The Third Young Master—or rather, his Captain—was like a magnet that drew every danger in the world toward him.

Hyuk Mujin fought through the threats flying at them from every direction, and by the time he came to his senses, he had grown by leaps and bounds.

Ohhh, power! Power is surging through me!

…Patient, come over here. Your crazy spell is acting up again, so it’s time for your beating.

Bam! Ba-ba-bam!

He had taken an awful lot of beatings, too. There had even been times when he secretly set out a bowl of pure water and prayed behind Jin Taekyung’s back.

Please, please don’t let the Captain hit me anymore. Just take him somewhere far away.

Had his prayer been answered?

One day, Jin Taekyung left without warning.

As Hyuk Mujin watched him depart with the Fire King, he felt both sad and liberated.

And at last, the prime of his life began.

You’re Hyuk Mujin?

Gasp! Great Hero Wipeng, how do you know me…

Draw your sword. Let’s see what you can do.

He began receiving instruction from Wipeng, the Peak master known as the Ghost Sword.

Did you say the Jin Dragon Squad?

That’s right. It’s made up of the family’s finest. I’ve been appointed its Squad Leader.

Wow! The Jin Dragon Squad! Congratulations!

Pack your things.

Pardon?

You’re the Vice Squad Leader. This is our lord’s command, so you cannot afford a single mistake.

Gasp. I pledge my eternal loyalty to the Jin Family of Taiyuan. At your command! At your command!

He had become Vice Squad Leader of the Jin Dragon Squad, the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s most elite unit.

A young man who had once dreamed of becoming the Master of the Gatekeeper Pavilion had, in just a year or two, grown into a martial artist capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the family’s leading figures.

They truly had been dreamlike days.

…At least until a moment ago.

“You’re Hyuk Mujin, right?”

“……!”

Wild hair. A thick, unkempt beard. A muscular beggar dressed in rags.

At the words that came from his mouth, Hyuk Mujin’s hands and feet went numb.

That voice was unmistakably familiar. How had he failed to recognize it at once?

No wonder the back of his head had been itching strangely…

Where did it all go wrong?

Was it when he came to Henan as Jin Wikyung’s escort?

Or when he accepted his father’s request to inspect the Henan branch of the Hyuk Family Cloth Shop?

He didn’t know. There was only one thing he could be certain of.

I’m fucked.

Cold sweat slid down his back as he heard the words that turned his journey to Henan into a journey to hell.

“I’ll give you three seconds. Put your head on the ground.”

His mind screamed no, but his body knew better.

Hyuk Mujin, a rising talent of the Jin Family of Taiyuan and Vice Squad Leader of its most elite unit, slammed his head into the ground with a thunderous cry.

“Yessssss, sir!”

Thud!

A white stone wall, with five or six rooftops visible beyond it.

The large estate where the Jin Family of Taiyuan was staying drew steadily closer.

“This the place?”

“…Yes.”

Hyuk Mujin answered in a half-dead voice. His once-impressive martial uniform hung in tatters, and one eye was swollen and bruised dark blue.

To borrow his own words from half an hour ago, this was the price of reckless bravado.

“Oh. You found a nice place to stay. The family must be doing pretty well these days.”

I wasn’t the only one who had changed over the past year. Hyuk Mujin had changed, and so had the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s standing.

The fact that they had rented an entire estate this large with the Star-Array Grand Banquet right around the corner told me all I needed to know.

“Lead the way, punk.”

“Urgh! That hurts! It hurts!”

“I’m kicking you because it’s supposed to hurt, punk.”

I walked along, booting him in the rear.

Two Jin Family martial artists standing rigidly on guard before the estate spotted their superior and gaped.

“Gasp!”

“Vice Squad Leader!”

Hyuk Mujin subtly averted his gaze and cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Have you been keeping proper watch? This gentleman is…”

Shing! Shing-shing!

“You bastard!”

“How dare you do this to our Vice Squad Leader!”

He was the Vice Squad Leader of some newly formed unit called the Jin Dragon Squad, and apparently his subordinates thought quite highly of him.

I gave the Jin Dragon Squad members pointing their swords at me an amiable smile.

“Put those away. I’m with the Jin Family of Taiyuan.”

“Vice Squad Leader, are you all right?”

“Where did this beggar bastard come from, spouting nonsense?”

At his subordinates’ response, Hyuk Mujin nodded with a stricken expression.

“Not a beggar bastard. He’s the Third Young Master.”

Pardon?

“But no matter how you look at him, he’s a beggar…”

I could let it go once, but not twice.

Hyuk Mujin noticed my expression change and spoke gloomily.

“Hocheol.”

The martial artist named Hocheol promptly answered.

“Yes, Vice Squad Leader.”

“Put your head on the ground.”

“……”

Right. That was the least I could expect from my right-hand man.

Leaving Hocheol behind to commune with the earth, I stepped onto the estate grounds. Almost immediately, I came face-to-face with someone strolling through the courtyard.

“……!”

“……!”

His eyes trembled with emotion.

Even if ten years had passed instead of one, he would have recognized me. It wouldn’t have mattered how disheveled I looked.

That was what blood ties meant. That was what it meant to be brothers.

“Well, look who it is.”

The massive man staring at me, frozen like a statue, was Jin Wikyung. A radiant smile spread across his face.

He strode toward me and spoke.

“Are you from the Beggars’ Sect?”¹

“……”

Brothers, my ass.

“I recognized you at a glance, actually.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“I’m serious. Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize you, my youngest?”

“Do I look like a complete idiot?”

Don’t try to pull that on me. He had even asked what position I held in the Beggars’ Sect.¹

Jin Wikyung fidgeted under my stare, then turned to Hyuk Mujin.

“Vice Squad Leader Hyuk. Didn’t I send you a Sound Transmission earlier? I told you I was going to pretend not to recognize him and asked you to play along.”

“Ah, well, you see…”

“That’s what happened, isn’t it? Hmm?”

Hyuk Mujin furrowed his brow.

“Ow. Lesser Family Head, why are you suddenly stepping on my foot?”

“V-Vice Squad Leader Hyuk!”

“Aagh! It hurts!”

“……”

He was trying. He really was.

I didn’t need to look under the table to know exactly what was happening.

As I watched the two of them, a quiet laugh escaped me.

They haven’t changed.

Jin Wikyung and Hyuk Mujin.

They were the same two people I remembered. The events of the past year had lent them more experience and composure, but underneath it all, they were unchanged.

That alone was enough.

I wonder how everyone else is doing.

It didn’t take long to find out.

Jin Wikyung gave me a detailed account of everything that had happened since I left, including what had become of the people I had yet to see again.

Lee Seowol was still fighting to restore the Mount Heng Sword Sect to its former glory, while Wolhwa was building a city of entertainment in the relatively desolate reaches of northern Shanxi.

And then…

“Cheongpung is missing?”

“That’s right. Not long after you left, he set out for Huashan with the Three Plum Blossom Elites, but apparently ran away along the way.”

That wasn’t going missing. That was escaping.

From what I heard next, Cheongpung’s disappearance had caused quite an uproar.

An influential Elder from Huashan had even come in person to ask them for a favor—if they saw that Cheongpung bastard, they were to contact him.

“The sect’s most senior elder and its young prodigy vanished one after another. Their reaction was understandable. Just watching them made my heart ache.”

The Sword Saint and Cheongpung… At this point, shouldn’t I start wondering whether they were actually related by blood?

“Huashan is really thriving.”

“It’s still doing better than our family.”

“Why? Didn’t they wipe out the mounted bandits in the north and continue to prosper? That sounds like they’re doing pretty well to me.”

Jin Wikyung shook his head gloomily.

“Huashan at least has a Sect Leader and plenty of disciples. Our Family Head’s seat is vacant.”

“Oh.”

“Perhaps that’s why their situation didn’t feel like someone else’s problem. We agreed to help each other from now on. Struggling martial factions have to support one another.”

So that was how they ended up helping each other out.

I thought of the man who had been missing for years—the Family Head—then promptly erased him from my mind.

In this Murim, he might be my father, but I had never even seen his face. He was a complete stranger.

I felt no familial affection for him, much less any desire to see him.

If I see him, I see him. If not, whatever.

Instead, I was far more concerned about Jin Mukyung, whom I’d traded snarls with every chance we got.

“Come to think of it, where’s Second Hyung?² Did he go somewhere?”

Quite a bit of time had passed, but he still hadn’t appeared.

Wipeng might have stayed behind to guard the Jin Family of Taiyuan in Jin Wikyung’s absence, but Jin Mukyung should definitely have come…

“He’s in closed-door training.”

“Huh? Again?”

“Still would be more accurate.”

“…You mean he’s been in there this whole time?”

I was dumbfounded when Jin Wikyung nodded.

In martial-arts novels, everyone and his dog spent decades in closed-door training or meditating before a wall, but anyone who actually tried it would quickly realize it was nearly impossible.

Even a single year would be unbearable without extraordinary mental fortitude.

When did Jin Mukyung enter closed-door training?

It had been right after he lost his duel with Cheongpung, which meant he had been in there for a year and six months by now.

For all that time, he had not taken a single step out of the dark training hall. He had devoted himself to ceaseless training, surviving on water and fasting pills for all three meals.

“Could he have been in there so long that he lost track of the date? Maybe he didn’t know about the Star-Array Grand Banquet.”

“I went to see Mukyung before we left and told him about it. I asked if he wanted to come with us.”

I didn’t need to hear his answer. Jin Mukyung’s absence told me everything.

Jin Wikyung continued in a low voice.

“He said he wouldn’t leave until he achieved Great Completion. He asked me to tell you that.”

Great Completion…

To Jin Mukyung, the Star-Array Grand Banquet was a fruit he could reach simply by stretching out his hand.

He was already one of the foremost young prodigies in the Central Plains. If he entered, he could prove his martial arts and win even greater fame.

But Jin Mukyung had chosen his martial arts over that sweet fruit.

He’s an incredible guy.

While everyone else reached for the fruit and scrambled up the tree, Jin Mukyung had turned his back on it and devoted himself to training.

And one day, when his training was complete, he would possess not the fruit, but the tree itself.

A tree laden with fruit.

Yeah. That’s a true martial artist.

I respected his choice. I didn’t know what lay at the end of the path Jin Mukyung had chosen, but I believed its direction was more correct than anyone else’s.

That was enough.

I murmured with a sigh.

“So that’s how it turned out.”

“Are you disappointed?”

“A little. I was hoping the three of us would get together again.”

“Even without those two, the world is full of exceptional masters. The Ten Dragons and Phoenixes are right there, aren’t they?”

“I guess.”

At my lukewarm response, Jin Wikyung smiled faintly.

“Then I’ll have to turn that disappointment into joy.”

Pardon?

“I brought you a present.”

A present? As I stared at him in confusion, Hyuk Mujin rose from his chair.

A short while later, he returned carrying something long and tightly wrapped in thick cloth.

“Do you know what it is?”

Of course I did. The moment I saw it, my heart began to pound and my fingertips twitched.

It was instinct.

Not Jin Taekyung’s instinct, but a spearman’s.

“This is…”

“Fifteen days ago, Elder Jang Taebo handed this to me and said something.”

Shrrk.

As Hyuk Mujin peeled away the cloth, Jin Wikyung’s voice rang in my ears.

“He said he finally understood how Gan Jiang and Mo Ye must have felt.”³

Vrrrrm.

The spear let out a low hum.