Chapter 41: The Wind Always Blows from Unexpected Places (1)

The terms "famous sword" and "precious sword" are often used interchangeably. They are words typically reserved for the final product of a master artisan who has devoted considerable time and painstaking effort to forge a blade, one that satisfies the creator upon completion.

Famous swords and precious swords were still within the realm of human craftsmanship. Depending on the artisan's dedication and the quality of materials, they could be produced—albeit with slim probability.

However, a divine sword transcended human capability entirely. It was a treasure that could only be forged when human tenacity, the will of heaven, and the fortunes of fate converged in perfect harmony.

By that measure, the saber currently in Eun Ha-seong's hand could rightfully be called a divine blade. The weapon radiated a presence that dominated its surroundings, emanating both a murderous killing intent and a crystalline purity from its gently curving, crimson blade.

"At last…"

Eun Ha-seong's eyes blazed with intense emotion.

Scarlet Star.

That was the name of the saber he had labored so tirelessly to obtain.

A weapon that could cut through anything, whose mere presence could elevate its wielder to become the supreme ruler of a region—a saber among sabers.

Eun Ha-seong had spent five full years pursuing the Scarl

et Star. The effort and wealth he had poured into the endeavor during that time were beyond imagination.

Whether it was due to that devotion and perseverance, he had recently discovered the Scarlet Star's whereabouts and ultimately succeeded in acquiring it.

*Whirrrr!*

When Eun Ha-seong ran his fingers along the blade, the Scarl

et Star emitted a clear, resonant cry of its own. The crystalline sound of the blade brought a momentary look of ecstasy to his face.

"Now there is nothing left to fear. Nothing in this world can stand in my way."

Muttering softly to himself, Eun Ha-seong sheathed the Scarlet Star in its scabbard.

At that moment…

"Master, it is Hyeol-san."

From beyond the door came the voice of Jo Hyeol-san, his trusted confidant.

"Enter."

"Master."

Jo Hyeol-san hurried inside. His expression appeared unsettled.

"What is the matter?"

"The Guardian…"

"What about Cheon-saeng?"

"It appears he has met with an unfortunate end. A urgent report states that his body was discovered near Hap-mil."

"Is this true?"

Eun Ha-seong involuntarily shot to his feet. The news was that shocking.

Gyeong Cheon-saeng was his most trusted subordinate.

Eun Ha-seong knew better than anyone just how formidable his martial arts were.

"Who did it? Who dares to kill Cheon-saeng?"

"We have not yet determined…"

Jo Hyeol-san lowered his head with an apologetic expression.

Eun Ha-seong's gaze deepened into a dark, cold pool. In response, Jo Hyeol-san bowed his head even lower.

It had been years since he had seen his master wear such a look of fury. Five years ago, Eun Ha-seong had worn that same gaze. As a result, countless people had perished or lost their lives.

"Find the culprit. If necessary, move *them*."

"Them?"

"You already know."

Jo Hyeol-san's head snapped up involuntarily. The word from Eun Ha-seong's lips was that shocking.

"But if we move them rashly, the Blood Forest Assassination Bureau will not stand idly by."

"It is a wall we must eventually cross regardless. We are already under suspicion. There is no reason to hesitate."

"Understood."

"There are always times like this—when everything seems to be going smoothly, only to stumble over a protruding stone and nearly lose one's balance."

His voice was colder than it had ever been.

The joy of having obtained the Scarlet Star had long since vanished.

"Cheon-saeng is dead…"

Shim Ok and Heuk-no were seated across from each other by the window of the guesthouse, enjoying tea.

"The night wind is cold."

"It is likely due to the wind flowing down from the cliff."

"If only our Blood Forest Assassination Bureau were located somewhere as refreshing as this."

"Perhaps you should suggest to the Bureau Master that we relocate here."

"If I did that, I would be the first one beaten to death."

"That is true. The Bureau Master does not show favoritism to anyone."

"Treating a son differently would be one thing, but being so harsh to a daughter is too much, isn't it?"

"That is the Bureau Master's charm. Is he not fair to everyone?"

"Fair my foot…"

Shim Ok grumbled.

Heuk-no watched her with a fond expression, as though looking upon a precocious granddaughter.

Though they maintained their usual expressions of laughter and easy conversation, their hands were moving covertly beneath the table.

Shim Ok dipped her finger in tea and wrote characters on the table surface.

[Surveillance?]

[One on the ceiling, one outside the window. Two in total.]

Heuk-no likewise wrote his reply in tea.

[Can you handle them?]

[Difficult, but not impossible.]

[Then leave it to me!]

With that final word, Shim Ok swept her palm across the table, cleanly erasing the characters.

Heuk-no gazed at her with a worried expression.

He was uneasy about Shim Ok having taken on this mission. The danger was far too great. But Shim Ok had volunteered, and the Bureau Master had permitted it. His reasoning was that as his successor, she needed to be forged through hardship.

There was no room for him to intervene. He could only follow her orders.

"I should retire for the night."

Shim Ok stood from her seat, stretching.

"Then please rest well, Young Miss."

Heuk-no likewise rose with a calm expression.

Shortly after, the lights in the guesthouse went out.

Only then did the men keeping watch on the guesthouse allow themselves a moment of relaxation.

They had been watching Shim Ok and Heuk-no all day. But the two had simply remained inside the guesthouse, showing no unusual movements.

'Seems there is nothing to worry about…'

At the very moment the watchers let their guard down…

A sudden sharp pain pierced the acupoint at the nape of their necks, and consciousness faded. Heuk-no caught the collapsing body gently, ensuring no sound was made.

Heuk-no laid the unconscious man down quietly, then subdued the other watcher as well. The entire operation was completed in the blink of an eye.

Once all the watchers were neutralized, Shim Ok slipped out of the guesthouse. She had already changed into black night-travel garb.

"Let us go."

Without hesitation, Shim Ok vaulted the wall behind the guesthouse. Heuk-no followed silently in her wake.

They departed Seocheon Mountain Villa without a sound and headed toward the cliff.

They had not been oblivious to the outside world during their stay in the guesthouse. They had discovered that a considerable amount of supplies were being brought into Seocheon Mountain Villa during their time there.

And some of those supplies were coming not from the foot of the mountain, but from above. The only mountain in the area was the cliff. Logically, there was no reason for supplies to descend from a mountaintop—at least, not for an ordinary sect.

*There is something on the mountain. Something we do not know about.*

That was the conclusion Shim Ok and Heuk-no had reached during their stay at Seocheon Mountain Villa.

The two employed their movement arts and ascended the mountain.

"This way."

Heuk-no pointed to traces on the ground.

Clear wagon wheel marks were imprinted on the earth.

"A wagon came all the way up here?"

Shim Ok surveyed the surroundings.

They had climbed at least five hundred chang up the mountain. At such a height, not even a footpath would be easy to construct, let alone a main road. The notion that a wagon could traverse such terrain was even more impossible.

Yet before their eyes, the impossible had been realized. Though narrow, a road suitable for wagons had been laid.

Seocheon Mountain Villa had used this route to bring something down from the cliff.

Once their suspicions were confirmed as fact, the two moved even faster. The place they arrived at was a cave midway up the cliff.

A cave large enough for several adults to walk abreast was situated in a hidden location. At its entrance, guards holding torches maintained a vigilant watch.

"Young Miss, you must be especially careful from here on."

"I know. You be careful too, Heuk-no."

"Then…"

Heuk-no moved first.

Clad in his night-travel garb, Heuk-no approached the entrance with fluid, almost liquid speed—natural yet swift.

The guards watching the cave did not察觉 his presence until he was practically upon them.

Without a sound, without presence, Heuk-no seeped to the cave's entrance, then moved like a bolt of lightning.

*Swish-swish-swoosh!*

The instant his hand flashed, the guards collapsed in un mükemill. Embedded in their foreheads were gleaming coins.

They died without even a scream.

It was a killing technique befitting his epithet—"Soul Sealer with a Single Hand."

Heuk-no was the most skilled practitioner of hidden weapons among those Shim Ok knew. Some even claimed that his technique rivaled that of the Tang Family's own masters.

Shim Ok followed silently behind Heuk-no. Though she usually treated him with casual familiarity, at a time like this she moved without a word of complaint, obeying his direction.

The cave was remarkably vast. Torches hung on the walls, and wagon tracks were clearly visible on the floor.

They ventured deeper into the cave. The further they went, the narrower and darker it became—like walking toward the gates of hell itself.

*What on earth is in here?*

Just as Shim Ok let out a low gasp…

"Young Miss!"

Heuk-no's hushed voice whispered urgently.

Shim Ok's gaze followed his. What came into view left her mouth agape in shock.

Her pupils trembled. Heuk-no's did the same.

A massive underground cavern spread before their eyes. Within it, countless people were digging under the watchful eyes of guards.

They appeared profoundly weakened from prolonged labor in the underground depths. Gaunt faces, shoulders caked in dust, and ragged breathing.

"Hurry up over there!"

"Don't get clever!"

Whenever they showed the slightest sign of resting, the guards' whips lashed out.

*Crack!*

"Aagh!"

The savage sound of whips biting into flesh and the screams that followed echoed throughout the underground cavern.

The sound was so brutal that the laborers froze in unyielding terror. Then the whips fell without mercy.

"Kuagh!"

As screams rang out once more, the people scrambled to resume their pickaxe work.

The guards showed no quarter. At the slightest hint of laziness, a whip would fly, and each time, screams reverberated through the cavern.

The underground cavern that Shim Ok beheld was a vision of hell.

"What on earth is buried in here?"

At first, she had assumed they were mining gold. But the workers only swung their pickaxes, showing no particular signs of extracting gold.

"It seems all the merchants and travelers who went missing have been brought here."

Heuk-no's eyes glinted sharply.

Countless people had disappeared over the years while traveling to and from the Western Regions. Some were found dead, but most had vanished without a trace.

Shim So-myung, the Bureau Master of the Blood Forest Assassination Bureau, had grown suspicious of this.

As people's anxiety increased and trade with the Western Regions declined, the losses would ultimately fall upon the Blood Forest Assassination Bureau.

They had only recently found evidence linking Seocheon Mountain Villa to the disappearances. Shim So-myung, who already viewed Seocheon Mountain Villa's growth as a thorn in his side, had dispatched Shim Ok and Heuk-no to uncover the truth.

If Seocheon Mountain Villa truly was behind the disappearances, they would have ample justification to take action.

"As expected, Seocheon Mountain Villa was behind the disappearances."

"The question is what they are after—what drove them to commit such atrocities."

Heuk-no was struggling to contain his boiling rage when…

"How disobedient you are. I told you to remain in the guesthouse, yet here you are."

A voice they had never anticipated came from behind them. The two spun around, startled, to see a familiar figure.

It was none other than Eun Ha-seong, the master of Seocheon Mountain Villa. Behind him stood his confidant Jo Hyeol-san and a line of Seocheon Mountain Villa's warriors.

Shim Ok fixed Eun Ha-seong with a glare.

"Why did you kidnap these people? How could you commit such an unspeakable atrocity?"

"I had no choice. It was the only way to find the Blood Demon's legacy."

"The Blood Demon? Surely not…"

In an instant, Shim Ok's face drained of color. Eun Ha-seong smiled.

"What you suspect is correct. The Blood Demon, who stained all of Xinjiang with blood over a century ago, sleeps here."

Though not widely known in the Central Plains, the name "Blood Demon" in Xinjiang was synonymous with death.

Rumors had even circulated that the Demonic Cult had attempted to recruit him.

But the Blood Demon, for reasons unknown, had rejected the Demonic Cult's offer and operated exclusively within Xinjiang.

At that time, countless sects in Xinjiang had been annihilated by the Blood Demon. Though he was branded a public enemy of Xinjiang, he had evaded the pursuit of numerous martial artists and vanished without a trace.

It was said that the number of Xinjiang martial artists killed by the Blood Demon exceeded a thousand—a catastrophic toll that seemed impossible for a single individual to inflict.

Even now, the name "Blood Demon" remained etched in the minds of Xinjiang's martial artists as a source of terror.

Eun Ha-seong smiled a smile tinged with killing intent at Shim Ok and Heuk-no.

"You have seen what should not be seen, and heard what should not be heard."

"Did you commit this atrocity just for the Blood Demon's legacy?"

"Just for it… Can you still say that after seeing this?"

*Shing!*

Eun Ha-seong drew the saber from his waist. The Scarlet Star radiated a sinister, otherworldly energy in all directions.

Depending on its wielder's will, the Scarlet Star could become either a divine blade or a demonic weapon.

"What is that?"

"The divine blade Scarlet Star. It was the Blood Demon's beloved weapon. I found it here in the Blood Demon's Tomb not long ago."

From Eun Ha-seong's entire body, wielding the Scarlet Star, erupted a killing intent so terrifying that Shim Ok had never experienced its like before.

In that instant, Heuk-no stepped in front of Shim Ok.

"Young Miss, flee!"

The warrior cowered at Jin Ja-gang’s cold gaze and the poker he was holding.

“P-please spare me. At home, I have a s-sick elderly mother… no, children… I have children. A sick wife…”

When Jin Ja-gang still wouldn’t lower the poker, the warrior squeezed out these words:

“Hundred Flower Valley! There are survivors from Hundred Flower Valley! Kuk kuk kuk.”

“What?”

Jin Ja-gang lowered the poker and questioned the warrior urgently.

“Where are they! Where are the survivors of our sect!”

“I don’t know. But, but the Martial Arts Alliance knows.”

The Martial Arts Alliance!

“I only know they were sent to some mine in Nanhua… kuk kuk. Beyond that…”

Jin Ja-gang lowered the poker.

Hope flickered in the warrior’s eyes.

“P-please give me the antidote. Have mercy on me…”

Mercy.

At the word ‘mercy’, Jin Ja-gang thought for a moment, then said:

“Open your mouth.”

“Uh… huh?”

“I said open your mouth.”

“Ah, ah…”

The warrior opened his mouth, foam still coating his lips.

Jin Ja-gang placed his little finger over the warrior’s mouth. A transparent droplet formed, mixed with blood, and fell.

Gulp.

After the warrior swallowed the fluid, Jin Ja-gang turned away without hesitation.

“Kuk!”

It was a deeper, more desperate groan than before.

“Urrrgh! Uaaargh!”

A sound like someone wringing out their entire body echoed behind Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang paid the warrior no further attention.

He still had work to do.

Seo Gil-pung, the Petition Supervisor, and Baek Li-jung, the Magistrate of the Martial Arts Alliance’s Yunnan Branch.

The corrupt martial artists who had colluded with the Extreme Poison Sect to socially bury Hundred Flower Valley.

They needed to be dealt with.

Jin Ja-gang was neither a righteous person nor a heroic warrior. He didn’t have the ability to enforce justice.

But he couldn’t just leave those who were accomplices and collaborators with the Extreme Poison Sect.

And he needed to find the few surviving members of Hundred Flower Valley.

He had one more reason to live.

“Hoo…”

Jin Ja-gang let out a heavy sigh.

He touched his abdomen.

The poisonous mass that had settled in his dantian had now noticeably shrunk.

Would he have enough poison left to kill them too?

Until he tried… it was still impossible to know.

With pain like his entire body’s bones were shattered, a split and bleeding sole, and a leg that limped uselessly… Jin Ja-gang began to leave the Extreme Poison Sect, walking among the corpses.

* * *

“Urgh…”

Suddenly, a body that had been lying face down began to move.

“Urrgh! Kuluk kuluk!”

Mang-ryo coughed out ashes that filled his mouth and struggled to breathe.

“Urrrk! Urrrgh!”

His airways and nose were so swollen that he could barely breathe, but somehow the swelling had subsided enough to allow him to breathe again.

“Kuhak, hak.”

Hiss, hisssss.

The charcoal on the floor still emitted heat and smoke, but Mang-ryo first registered the fact that he was alive.

‘The antidote worked!’

The antidotes he had prepared for arsenic and taken immediately after being stabbed with the poker seemed to have helped.

But he was far from safe.

His stomach churned wildly, and his head felt like it was about to split. His limbs felt numb, as if they didn’t belong to him.

His airways, which had briefly subsided, were beginning to swell again, making breathing difficult. It was truly an incredibly potent poison.

‘I’ll die at this rate!’

He needed to remove the poison that even the antidote couldn’t eliminate.

Mang-ryo spat out the remaining ashes in his mouth and desperately moved his head to look around the room for anything useful.

He spotted charcoal next to the bed in the corner. It was fresh charcoal that had been brought in to replenish the brazier’s fire.

‘Charcoal!’

Mang-ryo suddenly had an idea.

Charcoal has the property of absorbing toxins. If he swallowed it, the toxins would be attracted to it and expelled. Perhaps he could use it to expel the remaining poison.

There was plenty of charcoal and ash right in front of him, but he couldn’t eat that. The charcoal in the brazier had been covered with Jin Ja-gang’s poison.

Mang-ryo crawled across the room with all his might. He had no time to worry about the burns on his chest and stomach that were oozing fluid.

His breathing was becoming obstructed again.

With his face horribly red and blistered, skin peeling, Mang-ryo crawled across the floor.

Sizzle, sizzle.

Holding his breath, he dragged himself to the corner of the room. Even amid the terrible pain enveloping his entire body, he didn’t give up.

He stretched his barely responsive arm and grabbed the charcoal. Then, without a moment’s hesitation, he began to chew it.

Crunch!

If this charcoal didn’t absorb the toxins in Mang-ryo’s mouth and body, he would die.

No, even if the charcoal absorbed the toxins but wasn’t properly expelled from his body, he would still die.

The charcoal he was eating was bamboo charcoal, not meant for consumption. The broken pieces had sharp edges that could pierce his stomach and create holes in his abdominal cavity, causing bleeding.

But he had no choice.

Mang-ryo, with a face like a demon, chewed and swallowed the charcoal.

Crunch, crunch!

‘I’ll live. I will live! I swear I’ll live and cut your throat!’… 

***

“You may enter.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

A man dressed in scholar’s attire exchanged greetings with the gatekeeper as he left the Yunnan Branch of the Martial Arts Alliance.

It was Petition Supervisor Seo Gil-pung.

As Seo Gil-pung came out to leave work, two warriors from the Martial Arts Alliance followed him as escorts.

“Shall we go to your home?”

“Of course.”

Seo Gil-pung’s expression was deeply furrowed, and his voice was low.

Anyone could see he was in a terrible mood. Recently, his plans had gone awry and become a complete mess.

And among those issues, the one that annoyed Seo Gil-pung the most was none other than the Extreme Poison Sect.

“It’s truly troubling.”

It was because of the message delivered a month ago by a strange man in rags who suddenly appeared.

The Extreme Poison Sect had been annihilated.

That brief message had kept him busy.

As it turned out, that strange man was none other than Mang-ryo, who had been an elder of the Extreme Poison Sect.

His appearance was pitiful.

His face and body were covered with burns, and one eye was blind.

His left foot had been amputated, and his right foot was paralyzed, forcing him to use crutches under both arms to walk.

The Yunnan Branch immediately dispatched an investigation team.

The actual bloodbath had occurred more than three months earlier, according to reports. Mang-ryo had been delayed in coming due to his physical condition.

Therefore, by the time the investigation team arrived, it was almost four months after the massacre, and most of the bodies were already severely decomposed.

Miao Ligoujao, the sect leader, was found as a charred corpse with an iron hook embedded in his skull, and most of the sect’s masters and over two hundred disciples were also discovered as rotting corpses.

Though there were reportedly some survivors, they had taken anything of value and fled, leaving no witnesses to provide testimony.

It was a complete annihilation.

The Extreme Poison Sect had been silently erased.

Mang-ryo claimed that all of this had been caused by a single boy named Jin Ja-gang.

He said the boy had escaped, killing the sect’s masters, annihilated the pursuit team, and finally returned to exterminate the Extreme Poison Sect.

But Seo Gil-pung didn’t believe Mang-ryo’s words.

In his view, Mang-ryo was already half-insane.

‘That child named Jin Ja-gang…’

It had been nearly a year since that incident.

The boy who had stared at him during the trial. He truly had an uncomfortable gaze.

Of course, Seo Gil-pung had forgotten about him afterward. What could a mere child do to him?

But how, by what means could a boy of about ten years have reduced the Extreme Poison Sect to such a state?

It was nonsensical.

Therefore, Seo Gil-pung ignored Mang-ryo’s claims.

‘What force was involved in the annihilation of the Extreme Poison Sect?’

Seo Gil-pung believed another power had been involved. That was the most reasonable suspicion he could have at the moment.

To be honest, the annihilation of the Extreme Poison Sect itself wasn’t a major issue. The Extreme Poison Sect was part of the poison sect faction and difficult for other sects to confront, but in reality, it was merely a third-rate sect.

However, even such a sect was about to formally join the Martial Arts Alliance. The fact that someone had annihilated the Extreme Poison Sect meant there was a fearless group that didn’t care about the Martial Arts Alliance.

‘Who could they be?’

There were many suspects.

Poison sects traditionally stood between the righteous and evil factions. There had been significant opposition from existing sects about the policy to admit poison sects.

‘It seems the opposition faction has made a move…’

Even from Baek Li-jung, a letter had arrived urging caution in approaching this matter.

It was not an issue that could be taken lightly.

‘What a nuisance.’

Seo Gil-pung clicked his tongue and quickened his pace home.

Perhaps because he was leaving work later than usual, it was already dark.

* * *

Just as Seo Gil-pung turned into an alley.

He spotted a boy holding a small lantern on a short stick standing ahead.

‘Why is he blocking the way?’

Standing in the middle of the narrow path, he was indeed blocking it.

One of the escort warriors stepped forward and barked at the boy.

“Move aside.”

The boy with the lantern stared up at the escort warrior.

“Hey, you! I said move!”

There was something strange about the boy’s attitude.

‘Is he slow-witted?’

Seo Gil-pung craned his neck to examine the boy’s face. Since he was holding the lantern at an angle, shadows fell across his face, making it difficult to see clearly. From his appearance, his clothes were tattered and worn like a beggar’s, but his hair was cut short.

‘Huh?’

While Seo Gil-pung was wondering, he made eye contact with the boy. Just as he thought the eyes looked familiar, the boy lowered his head and stepped aside.

“Let’s go.”

The escort warrior went ahead past the boy, and Seo Gil-pung and the other warrior were about to do the same.

Swish.

The boy who had been standing with his head lowered shook the lantern. The lamp inside swayed, causing the light to flicker. Whitish smoke flowed out and drifted with the wind.

The escort warrior who had just passed the boy suddenly staggered.

“Urgh!”

The escort warrior clawed at his face, then grabbed his throat and painfully crashed against the side wall.

Thud, thud!

“Urrrgh!”

The escort warrior’s eyes bulged as he fell to his knees. Then, gradually, his body toppled sideways.

“Hey!”

The other escort warrior rushed to his fallen comrade in shock. It was natural to help when a colleague suddenly collapsed.

Seo Gil-pung, looking at the boy who stood quietly holding the lantern beside the fallen warrior, suddenly felt uneasy.

‘Wait? About ten years old?’