Chapter 524

Hyuk Mujin woke up fifteen minutes after Mungyeong left.

He poked his head through the gap in the open door. The moment our eyes met, he spoke with a solemn expression.

“Your qi circulation is complete.”

“Yeah. Your life is about to be over, too.”

“Hyuk Mujin, Vice Squad Leader of the Jin Dragon Squad of the great Jin Family of Taiyuan. As the Captain ordered, I was guarding the door so that not even a single ant could get inside.”

“…Are you seriously insane?”

Look at this bastard, acting proud after letting in everything but the ants.

It was ridiculous, but I decided to give him high marks for the sheer nerve it took to lie so brazenly after snoring his head off.

“Close the door and get lost.”

“Yes, sir.”

Perhaps he felt guilty, because he didn’t offer even a word of protest before scampering away.

Just as he was about to shut the door, something occurred to me.

“Wait. What about the others?”

“Who do you mean by ‘the others’…?”

“All of them.”

Hyuk Mujin thought for a moment.

“First, the Lesser Family Head is meeting with the Sect Leaders and Family Heads of the other factions.”

“The Sect Leaders and Family Heads?”

“Yes. It seems he’s been meeting with them more often for the past two days.”

Two days ago. That was when a few of us, including Jeok Cheongang and me, had gone to the Murim Alliance.

It was about time the subject came up.

At the very least, the heads of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families should have received some warning.

With all sorts of information and problems related to Dark Heaven coming to light, it was only natural for them to put their heads together and devise a countermeasure.

“Oh, and we handed the Three Fiend over to the Murim Alliance. I heard they were going to bring in some master to interrogate him…”

“Really?”

The third of the Qilian Three Fiends, who had stained Sichuan with blood under the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s command, was remarkably hard to kill.

Plenty had happened while he was bound and brought all the way to Henan, yet unlike his two brothers, his head was still attached to his neck. That alone proved how lucky the bastard was.

It was just a different part that had fallen off instead.

If he kept saying he didn’t know anything even while they were cutting off his balls, I doubt an interrogation will get much more out of him.

Even for a Supreme Peak master—hell, for anyone—one’s balls were precious.

Gung Gibang and Hyuk Mujin had once held a hundred-minute debate over which mattered most: a man’s life, his dantian, or his balls.

Anyway, I handed the Three Fiend over as ordered. The Murim Alliance can handle the rest.

Well, what happened after that was none of my concern. I could only hope the Murim Alliance managed to obtain more information about Dark Heaven through further interrogation.

“Forget my eldest brother. What about the others? I haven’t seen them anywhere.”

“Gung Gibang moved to a different lodging.”

“He moved? When?”

“About one or two shichen¹ ago. You were busy circulating your qi, so I took the message for you.”

“…You weren’t asleep then?”

“What are you talking about? I told you I stood guard like an iron wall.”

“Ugh. Every time this bastard opens his mouth—”

I raised my fist, and Hyuk Mujin hurried on.

“The Beggars’ Sect! He said he would be staying at the Henan branch of the Beggars’ Sect, so we should come find him anytime something happens.”

I stopped just short of hitting him.

“The Beggars’ Sect? Why would he go there?”

“What?”

Hyuk Mujin looked at me as though I’d said something absurd.

“May I ask which faction you belong to, Captain?”

“What kind of stupid question is that? The Jin Family of Taiyuan or the Fire Gate Clan, obviously.”

“And Gung Gibang?”

“…Oh, shit. Right. He’s the Beggars’ Sect’s Successor Beggar.”

I had forgotten because he clung to me like a burr. Come to think of it, he had a master and a sect of his own. It would be unreasonable for him to stay with us even in Henan.

“Wait. Did Cheongpung leave too?”

“Of course.”

“…Really?”

It’ll be quiet for a while, then.

And yet I felt both relieved and disappointed. I’d keep seeing them both, of course, but without those two making a racket all the time, I could already feel the empty space they’d left behind.

“They could’ve at least said goodbye before leaving.”

At my mutter, Hyuk Mujin looked me up and down as though I were some strange creature.

“Why would they say goodbye?”

“Why are you so heartless? We’ve spent all this time together, and they just leave without saying goodbye?”

“Do they need to say goodbye when they’re only going out for a bit?”

“…?”

“They went to the marketplace to buy sweetmeats and dumplings.”

“…!”

Shit. Give me back my sentimentality.

I was momentarily speechless. Hyuk Mujin cast me a meaningful look.

“Captain.”

“Shut up.”

“I haven’t said anything yet.”

“That’s why I’m telling you to shut up.”

“I’ll stay by your side no matter what happens, Captain.”

“…Please get away from me.”

“Come on. You like it, so why are you acting like this?”

I was annoyed, but worse than that, I was embarrassed as hell.

I sighed. Hyuk Mujin, still needling me, suddenly seemed to remember something.

“By the way, you haven’t asked about Mungyeong.”

“I already saw him.”

“You did? He’s seemed pretty busy lately, too. He’s been gathering strange medicinal ingredients, boiling them, pounding them… He looked completely swamped. When did you see him?”

“While you were asleep, you bastard!”

Wham! Wham! Wham!

“Urgh! Oof! Gah!”

“Go! Get out right now!”

After taking a thorough beating, Hyuk Mujin looked at me with tears welling in his eyes.

“Do you hate me that much?”

I immediately shook my head.

“No. I want to kill you.”

“That’s too harsh. Really.”

“I told you to stand guard for a moment, and you went to sleep! You slept long enough to dream the entire Dream of the Nine Clouds.² You bastard.”

“Why do you only hate me, Captain?! I hate you too!”

“…”

Tap-tap-tap. Slam!

I was speechless as Hyuk Mujin ran off, scattering tears behind him.

What the hell.

The guy was well past his mid-twenties, and that was what he came out with? My fists were growing grander by the second.

I was letting out a heartfelt sigh when the door opened again and Hyuk Mujin poked his head through the gap.

“Um…”

“Welcome back. Our Mujin has come to pick out his burial plot.”

“No. That’s not it. I came because I was worried you might misunderstand.”

“What?”

“I didn’t shut the door that hard on purpose. The wind was strong.”

“…”

“Well, I’ll be going now. Good work, sir. Loyalty.”³

Should I really kill him?

He was acting exactly like an elementary school kid who’d just been scolded by his mother. I glared at the door as it closed again, this time as gently as a door could close, then shook my head.

I turned back to the empty space I’d been looking at before Hyuk Mujin woke up.

Item Window

System

Mungyeong’s Specially Crafted Custom Pill for Jin Taekyung

Type: Elixir
Grade: Peak
Restriction: None (effect increases if taken by Jin Taekyung)

Description: A pill focused on stability and recovery rather than increasing internal energy. If taken when internal energy is unstable, it steadies the user’s qi and greatly increases their recovery.

Special Note: Made with Jin Taekyung in mind. He will receive an even greater effect if he takes it.

“…Hmm.”

I stroked the reddish pill—otherwise known as the Mungyeong Special Jin Custom Pill—then put it back in its wooden case.

Inventory open. Store.

A System notification appeared, telling me the item had been stored.

But my mind was already on the conversation I’d had with Mungyeong before he left.

“Training ends here.”

“Pardon?”

“Why? Are you disappointed?”

A lot of emotions seemed to pass through me in that moment. After hesitating, I answered,

“…To be honest, I can’t say I’m glad to hear it.”

“Why?”

“I want to get stronger. Much stronger than I am now.”

“Greedy bastard. Aren’t you strong enough already?”

“Isn’t that how people are? No matter how much we have, we always want more.”

Mungyeong stared at me for a long time after I questioned him in return, then let out a quiet laugh.

It was the first time I’d seen him smile since we met.

“You’re finally starting to sound like a Murim practitioner.”

“I am a Murim practitioner.”

“Then let me ask you again. Do you want to become an assassin, or a Murim practitioner?”

“I want to be strong. So strong no one would dare touch me. Strong enough that everyone around me would be safe just because I’m there.”

“The Invincible… That’s an ambitious dream.”

The Invincible. The word sounded distant and grandiose.

Even the Martial God had enemies. The Heavenly Demon, master of the Demonic Cult, and the hundred thousand soldiers of the Demonic Path under his command had been the Martial God’s adversaries.

“You really do dream big.”

“Even if reality is a cesspit, your dreams should be big and lofty.”

“Funny. That’s obviously ridiculous bluster, but coming from you, it sounds almost plausible.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. And if that’s your reason, then you must not learn my martial arts.”

“Why?”

“Too much of anything becomes poison. You don’t need two wells right now.”

“…I should dig only one well?”

“Did you just speak informally to me?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“I made this decision after a great deal of thought. Keep that in mind.”

“Is it because I lack talent?”

I’d asked as Mungyeong was about to leave.

His answer was short.

“The opposite.”

“Pardon?”

“If you were weak and untalented, I’d have taught you more. You’d need to learn whatever you could to survive.”

Those words suddenly brought back my days as an F-rank Hunter.

No matter how carefully you chose your position and approached a fight, danger could be lurking anywhere.

Without a tank’s protection or cover from a mage or archer, you were ultimately on your own.

If I dropped my spear by mistake, I cut a goblin’s throat with the dagger I carried. If the dagger broke, I picked up a rock and smashed in its head.

I did whatever it took to survive.

I hadn’t picked a spear because I had any special talent for it. I’d figured that keeping some distance between myself and the monsters might improve my chances of staying alive.

“Judging by your expression, something’s occurred to you.”

“…I think I understand some of what you mean.”

“The martial arts I learned are different in nature from the Fire Gate Clan’s. I was raised as an assassin from the start, and I spent more than half my life as one. We began in different places. Even if I taught you my martial arts, you’d likely be unable to make them your own simply by following the formulas.”

“Is that why you’re ending my training? I thought we’d barely started.”

“Started? You already know everything.”

“Pardon?”

“What matters isn’t martial arts. It’s martial principles. Those principles are everything I have. They’re the foundation on which the name Slaughter Saint was built.”

I could still remember the look in his eyes. I couldn’t begin to tell what lay behind it.

And I could still remember his voice.

“There were three hundred of us at first. We all learned the same martial arts and underwent the same training. Ten years later, only twenty of those three hundred raised as assassins remained. Ten years after that, only one remained.”

I didn’t need to ask who the last person was.

Mungyeong looked back into the distant past with that inscrutable gaze, then turned away. He left me with one final instruction.

“I taught you the martial principles you needed most. Combining martial arts of different kinds is nearly impossible, but principles have no such divide. Work those principles into the martial arts you’ve learned. That’s your final task.”

Thump. Thump.

I came out of my thoughts. A familiar presence outside was knocking on the door.

“Hyuk Mujin?”

“Captain. It’s time. You should come out.”

It’s time?

The question vanished almost as soon as it arose.

I suddenly realized what day it was.

The Murim Alliance.

Today, all of Murim would stand beneath a single banner.