The Governor of Lizhou was not a post given to just anyone. Partly because it was a town at the far edge, distant from the Central Plains, and partly because an old nightmare called the Rakshasa Immortal loomed right beside it.
There could be few names that had created such fear without ever once venturing into the martial world.
The Governor of Lizhou was an important enough post that His Majesty at court personally checked the appointee's name and record.
Even if the man himself had never wanted it.
Accordingly, the Governor of Lizhou had been posted to Lizhou because he was a very capable official.
The moment he saw the First Squad of the Blood Heaven Unit, he did not simply despair but tried to understand the situation first.
So he asked his bodyguard, the Centurion.
“Please, tell me it is not them.”
“……It is them.”
“Hoo, what now?”
“…….”
Even as he asked, he was already doing the thinking himself.
What came out of his mouth was nothing but grumbling.
The easiest answer that came to mind was that they were all simply dead.
Truly, all dead. No one could get out of Lizhou alive.
Because those red blood men were the most notorious band of murderers in the Central Plains.
But they could not really just say "please, kill us."
“In that case, it is better not to escape at all. If they are there, it means the blood ghouls have surrounded us on all sides.”
“That is so.”
“It is a shame for the people who followed us all this way with such difficulty, but we must go back. At least fleeing to the mountains on the other side would be better.”
Better to hide in the hills and fields, quiet as dead mice, and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
The problem was whether they had the strength to go back.
The Governor himself had been thinking he was going to die climbing the pass.
But if they wanted to live, there was no choice.
Even if it was impossible, it had to be done.
However, there was something the Governor had to make a decision on.
“Someone will have to buy time.”
At the very least, the people needed time to hide somehow, whether in the hills and fields or in cellars.
The Blood Heaven Unit's advance did not look very fast, but that was only because they seemed to be walking.
Those who counted as masters were moving at tremendous speed and would reach the top of this pass before long.
The military officers who received the Governor's order shouted with cultivated power behind their voices.
“Everyone, turn back! The Blood Heaven Unit is coming from ahead! Flee to the mountains and fields and hide! You must somehow survive until government troops and the Murim Alliance's support arrive!”
The Blood Heaven Unit's notoriety was widely known even among the common folk.
Other Demonic Cult hordes might be stories from another world, but not the Blood Heaven Unit or the Ghost Spirit Valley.
The first people who came to the Governor's mind were the two Namgung children.
He was not sure about the brother, but the sister was certainly strong. The Centurion had said even he could not defeat her.
“I cannot tell them to go and die…….”
Martial artists were subjects of the realm too, but considering the special nature of the murim, the relationship with the government was closer to one of cooperation.
He could not give orders.
And with direct descendants of the Namgung, it made his head ache all the more.
But at the same time, precisely because they were direct descendants of the Namgung, he could ask.
***
Life starting at an orphanage, somehow getting through modern society, and then falling into the murim.
Going through all of that, I gained one small confidence.
I'm strong against bad luck.
My survival ability is anything but ordinary.
I'm confident I can survive in most environments.
As long as the bare minimum of environment and conditions is in place, and as long as it's a matter between humans.
I really can manage somehow.
The orphanage director was a pretty good person, but that doesn't mean the orphanage was a good environment. Absolutely not.
All sorts of terrible things happen in a society of neglected children.
In places the adults don't know about.
Being pure means you can also be purely evil.
Even when there was only a thread of hope among all that, I've made a way to live one way or another.
No matter how my life got twisted, I always came back around in the end.
Which means, at least so far, I've succeeded every time.
“The Blood Heaven Unit…….”
Honestly, I thought I'd be terrified too. It's a new variable.
Martial arts were the one thing outside my domain.
Heavenly Martial Body or whatever, it wasn't a problem that would be solved right away.
But that wasn't how it went.
The thought that came to my head now wasn't a sigh of "what do I do?" mixed with resignation and fear.
It was simply, coolly looking at the band of blood men coming up from below and thinking, "Couldn't I do something about this?"
The caution in me made me check whether this feeling might be arrogance.
But no matter how many times I tapped at it, it wasn't.
Right, it's not arrogance.
I opened the book slightly. The scroll only I can see floated before my eyes as if swimming.
[Constitution]
[Martial Arts]
[Consumables]
[Remaining Points: 22,378]
I have a means now.
I'm no longer in a state of being completely and flawlessly unrelated to the murim and powerless.
The means to move fate is already in my hands.
I don't know what fresh hell is coming next, but the thread to cut through it has surely been given to me already.
A thread, however small and faint, to seize the initiative in this situation and rearrange the board as I wish.
Let's think it through carefully. What more can I do?
I should be able to find something to do actively, instead of just relying on the Namgung siblings.
That's how I've survived, in Korea and in Lizhou alike.
Constitution doesn't mean anything anymore.
Even the effect of the most expensive item, the Heavenly Martial Body, didn't make me an instant fighting force.
‘But in a state where I can see everything like this, anything I learn will be easy.’
I already feel like I know what movement arts are like, because everything comes into view.
‘Then it's martial arts or consumables.’
Should I refresh again?
No, not that.
It could be a waste of points.
First, I needed to look at the list.
A small refresh within a category was relatively less risky.
Even if I used the big refresh only occasionally, it would be fine to make more active use of the small refresh.
The moment I saw the martial arts category, a hollow laugh escaped me first.
[Emperor Sword Form] -3,900 points
[Azure Vault Boundless Sword Art] -2,800 points
[Azure Vault Great Expansion Divine Art] -1,400 points
I knew every one of these names. They were famous martial arts representing the martial clan called the Namgung Clan itself.
Things that surely couldn't be worth this price.
The Namgung Clan might try to kill me just for learning these.
The cheapness brings a thought to mind.
This book probably reads the world through me. But at the same time, whatever I feed it must also be one of its ways of reading the world.
The only martial artist this book has analyzed so far is the Namgung Clan's Sword Star.
So the martial arts the book can offer me most cheaply could only be the Namgung Clan's.
I pressed Consumables.
[Azure Heaven Empty Heart Pill -400 points]
[Martial Spirit Star Treasure -500 points]
[Seven Stars Divine Pill -1,200 points]
There wasn't much time. I sorted them by what I knew. I could also just quietly ask the Namgung siblings.
Hong-hyung said that if a murim item's name has "Azure Heaven" in it, you can assume it belongs to the Namgung Clan.
The Azure Heaven Empty Heart Pill must be a Namgung Clan spirit pill, and it seems the Sword Star had it on him when he died.
The other items must be the same.
Then should I see this as the price for taking them out?
It's too cheap to be the price for making them.
I was starting to understand what the book wants.
And I was starting to understand what I can do with it.
Maybe the book wanted me to learn martial arts from the start.
I don't know if it has a will, but at least it seems to want me to cut through the world more actively.
That way, the bastard thing gets more to eat.
“Licentiate?”
I pushed the shop window aside for now.
Namgung Ran was looking at me carefully.
“What was discussed?”
It was Namgung Ho-won who answered the question.
“He said that while everyone scatters and hides, people are needed up front to lure them away. The Governor asked us too, and we accepted.”
For a moment I didn't get what he meant, and I looked down below.
The Blood Heaven Unit's blood men were walking up as if on the march.
To my eyes, their realms were somewhat visible.
The strongest on our side is Namgung Ran. If I take a Peak Master as that level, then on their side…….
There were many who, like Namgung Ran, spread qi around them to build something like their own territory.
Really many.
So many I couldn't even tell how many.
I looked at Namgung Ran, then at Namgung Ho-won.
And I looked at the other military officers around us too.
I don't know the names of their realms, but it was certain they were clearly outmatched.
The people were starting to run back down again and scatter into the mountains and fields.
There were military officers following them too.
The Governor was getting ready to do the same.
As I marveled once more at how quick he was to judge and quick to act, I watched the military officers gathering under the Governor's Centurion.
There probably hadn't been that many soldiers stationed in Lizhou itself to begin with.
Without anyone fleeing, they huddled firmly together, getting ready to move toward the Blood Heaven Unit approaching in the distance.
Even though it must be a suicide charge.
Suddenly a thought struck me.
There are so many murderers in the murim.
Life is that cheap.
But how can there also be so many people who treat even their own lives so lightly?
If they've learned martial arts, scattering and fleeing would be better.
Mere soldiers and military officers buying time for those people won't change anything.
Yet the mood here was already like that.
“Let me ask one thing first. Would neither of you consider escaping from here with me?”
“You mean abandon them and do that?”
“That's right.”
Namgung Ho-won smiled faintly.
“I cannot do that.”
“Because you're a Namgung?”
“That too, but as one who has cast himself into the martial world, how could I turn my back here?”
Namgung Ran came over and held something out.
It was a piece of cloth with her three-character name neatly written on it. It seemed she'd cut off a bit of her sleeve and written her name in blood.
I'd wondered what she was doing, and it seemed she'd been making a token.
“If you happen to meet my eldest Orabeoni, please show him this. I could not carry a Namgung Token, so this is all I can do. He will recognize it as mine.”
She's preparing to die.
It was plain to see.
And Namgung Ran wore a truly, deeply apologetic expression.
That was so funny.
These two are on their first venture into the martial world.
I've already seen how clumsy they are.
Yet the worry on their faces now wasn't about their own lives.
It was about me.
As much as the Namgung Clan has the ills that come from being rigid, they really are people who can be righteous.
Namgung Ran carefully held out the cloth on which she'd written her message in her own blood.
“Licentiate?”
***
It looks as if there's only one choice.
Right now, of course, the right thing is to join the column going down the mountain and somehow scatter and hide.
Jeong Manor got blown away, but it has a cellar, and if I look, there might be something else hidden too.
I might even run into Hong-hyung or Teacher.
Then would they help me?
They might. I put quite a lot of effort into getting close to them.
I even deliberately fell out with some of the dilettante young masters. Because Hong-hyung disliked those types.
Teacher was the same.
A scholar retired to the countryside is bound to be thirsting for recognition.
In the end, scholars who truly respect a provincial graduate who never even took office are rare.
They only see him as something like a private tutor, so few act like true disciples.
So I did.
It was always like that. I made the situations myself.
So.
There must be more choices even now.
Choices I haven't noticed yet.
Choices other than simply entrusting myself to fate and praying to heaven.
Choices that would let me burn up this body and somehow see my will through.
Like how I survived the orphanage and made it all the way to university.
Like how, after landing in Lizhou, I aimed for a chance to become a retainer at Jeong Manor even while playing beggar.
There's definitely a way.
I just haven't found it yet.
Think, and think again.
Piece together the situation and what you've been given, and piece them together again.
The moment their coherence points to one path, the way to live opens there.
My head was spinning so hard it made me dizzy.
It got to the point that I could hear a ringing in my ears.
And at the end of it, a single thought flashed by.
What this book can grant me now, and the direction in which what it will grant me will grow.
The goal is my survival and the Namgung siblings'.
Whether now or in the future, if they're alive, they're useful to me.
Is it greed?
No. I think I can do it.
I can do it.
Then I have to.
I looked down at the Blood Heaven Unit below.
Even a fool could see they meant to buy time at the risk of their lives, thinking of scattering and luring rather than fighting.
Because a battle wouldn't even be possible.
On top of that, the sky was still in chaos. Even to me, the Qingcheng Divine Sword was being pushed back. In the end, the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit would win.
Simple reasoning.
Even if I went down the mountain like this, I'd most likely die anyway. I'm still just an ordinary civilian.
But there's another way.
A situation could arise where I keep these two alive and use them as my blades.
Let's think again.
Right now, I'm the only one in Lizhou who knows the truth of the Sword Star's disappearance.
The fight between the Namgung siblings' eldest brother and Teacher came to mind.
Counting the government, this is the center of chaos where three powers, orthodox, demonic, and government, are tangled in confusion.
And none of them knows what actually happened to the Sword Star.
It was a plan that flashed by in an instant.
I made my decision.
***
“There is no need for that.”
Since the scroll was visible only to me, I swept my fingertips across the items for sale while making it look as if I were raising my hand.
If there was one problem, it was that I didn't really know which elixir did what.
First, I bought the Azure Heaven Empty Heart Pill, which was certainly the Namgung's.
I didn't know how things appeared once bought, but whatever it was, it would look mysterious.
And a box containing a pill suddenly appeared in midair.
I was startled, but I managed to grab it hastily.
The Namgung siblings stared at it with wide, startled eyes.
They wouldn't even have sensed it.
Now, what bait should I lay down?
“The Sword Star entrusted this to me just before he left.”
“Pardon?”
“What?”
Should I set it up as coincidence? No. That would actually be easy to doubt.
Rather, I need to establish a more shameless, absurd standing.
First, borrowing the Sword Star's name makes it easy to blind the eyes of orthodox figures.
If it's absurd, that's actually easier to believe. The entire situation in Lizhou is absurd anyway.
The same goes for what's happening in the sky. If fights like that happened often, I'd have given up on officialdom long ago.
To survive this chaos, from now on I have to become a mysterious figure who'd been lying in wait in Lizhou.
To the orthodox, to the Demonic Cult, and to the government too.
The big picture had been drawn.
I think I'll have to pull off one hell of a crazy act.
Since there seems to be no way to just walk out of here anyway.