There are countless enthusiasts with a keen interest in the murim.
Precisely because they can never reach it themselves, they admire and debate the martial artists who wield such fearsome power.
Ask such people how the murim is broadly divided, and they would answer in unison.
The orthodox path and the demonic path.
And the military.
And if asked to name the more familiar among them, they would inevitably mention the orthodox Murim Alliance and the Nine Sects One Gang and Five Great Clans gathered under its name.
That is because the demonic path is a horde of rebels that threatens the Central Plains by its very existence, and the Imperial Court is a superior to whom they must pay taxes and bow their heads.
So the orthodox Murim Alliance, which now and then takes care of unorthodox riffraff in the name of chivalrous deeds, feels the closest.
Even so, martial artists are like immortals, beings infinitely distant from ordinary folk.
The Murim Alliance headquarters in Henan in particular was so revered that some even held it sacred as an abode of immortals.
But even such a place was a place where people lived.
In a meeting where the entire Strategy Division, including the Chief Strategist, had gathered, the Pavilion Masters bound under the great name of the Alliance and the Captains of each combat unit were assembled.
At the head seat, as Murim Alliance Leader, sat the foremost of the Sun-Moon Seven Stars.
The Sun of the Murim.
He was an old man whose eyebrows were as long as his beard, so long that his eyes could not be seen, and who had long since lost all his hair, yet no one could take that immortal-like being lightly.
Any martial artist of attainment could clearly feel the presence now blanketing the entire Alliance.
The meeting began late at night.
The agenda concerned the rampant rise of the demonic path.
“The situation is grave. The demonic path is preparing for the Orthodox-Demonic War. The intelligence sent by the Imperial Court says the same.”
“The military must already regard it as a foregone conclusion.”
“We, too, judged it a matter we cannot stand by and watch, and so we have gathered everyone like this.”
Once the Chief Strategist broke the ice, everyone began to speak.
The Alliance Leader, who had only been quietly listening to the various opinions, was simply gazing at the tactical map.
As opinions diverged, he straightened his upper body and pointed at the tactical map on the table.
“Then is this a deployment the Chief Strategist requested on his own initiative?”
White lamps had been placed on the map.
The artifacts, called Life-Death Lamps, indicated whether the person bound to each was alive.
There were seven brightly shining white flames in all.
They marked the locations of the seven Stars, excluding the Moon, whose location had to remain top secret.
The Chief Strategist bowed respectfully with clasped hands and reported.
“That is correct. Judging that the situation could be on a hair trigger, I asked them to take up defense as a preemptive measure.”
“Well done. But the Sword Star's position is unusual.”
On the spot of the Sword Pavilion, at the edge of Sichuan, stood the lamp of the Namgung's Sword Star, the Radiant Wheel Great Heaven Sword Star.
Maintaining his respectful demeanor, the Chief Strategist began to explain.
“I judged that Qingcheng, Emei, and the Tang Clan alone might struggle to hold the fallen Sword Pavilion. As it happened, the Sword Star also wished to move, so I would say it went smoothly.”
“Is that so.”
Whenever the Alliance Leader spoke like this, everyone fell silent.
He was a martial artist who had sat on the Alliance Leader's seat for some three hundred years.
His authority was as great as that of the entire Alliance combined.
When the very Sun of the Murim spoke, no one dared make a sound.
“Then we shall continue the meeting.”
Satisfied, the Alliance Leader leaned back again in the head seat.
The Chief Strategist was a young man who had only recently taken over in a generational change, but he deftly took the situation back in hand.
“The Seven Stars who have been temporarily deployed will wage delaying actions against any crisis that may come upon us and cooperate with the authorities at each location……”
It was the first time in ages the Orthodox-Demonic War was on the agenda, yet the meeting ran exceedingly smoothly.
There should have been no reason for trouble.
Thinking so, everyone was focused on the Chief Strategist.
But the Life-Death Lamps on the great tactical map at the center could not help but catch the eye.
All the more so if one of them went out. Fft.
“……cooperate……”
The Chief Strategist stared blankly at it, repeating the words he had just said.
A silence of a different kind enveloped the room.
After a moment of stillness, the young Chief Strategist, Jaegal Hyeon, reached for the Sword Star's extinguished lamp.
He channeled his inner arts into it to check whether the artifact had malfunctioned.
The Chief Strategist's post did not require martial arts.
Rather than powerful martial arts, it demanded an eye for strategy and tactics, and proficiency in handling artifacts like this.
Of everyone present, it was the Chief Strategist who best understood artifacts like the Life-Death Lamps.
The martial artists all knew that, so they kept silent.
Jaegal Hyeon set the lamp down again and let out a deep sigh.
“There is nothing wrong with the Life-Death Lamp. The Radiant Wheel Great Heaven Sword Star, Lord Namgung Hyeon-ri, has passed away.”
Silence fell over the assembly again.
A deeper, darker silence.
Because it was unreal, and unreal once again.
So no one called out the Chief Strategist's sigh.
On the contrary, he had responded most calmly and wisely to this absurd situation.
Before the assembly could start murmuring again, the Chief Strategist continued.
“This is not what I expected to say at the first meeting I have chaired, but this means the Orthodox-Demonic War has already broken out.”
Even the Alliance Leader tilted his eyebrows.
At the weight of that look, all eyes turned to the Sun of the Murim.
“Then it has begun in Sichuan.”
“So it has.”
“There is no point in further meeting.”
“The Strategy Division has already prepared the formation for responding to all-out war, so we need only move accordingly.”
The Alliance Leader smiled.
Not even a month had passed since the young Chief Strategist took office, yet look how coolly he reported only the facts.
It befit the brain of the Alliance who would bear responsibility for roughly another century.
“Then we must fight.”
The Alliance Leader rose from his seat.
“Mourn later.”
The Pavilion Masters from the Namgung gritted their teeth.
That was right. Whatever had happened, now was not the time to mourn.
“No news has come from Sichuan, has it?”
“No. It appears to have happened before anyone knew.”
“Then it is the Hermit Forest Lord.”
Saying only that, the Alliance Leader looked around the assembly again.
Then he clenched his fist and raised it high.
Despite his aged appearance, it resonated with unmatched force.
Any martial artist of attainment would sense the cultivated power, shining like the sun, gathered in that fist.
“Do not fuss. Move. We are the shield of the Central Plains. The guardians of the murim. We must drive back the rebels of the Outer Regions.”
The fist came down.
A fierce wind pressure spun from cultivated power bore down on the assembly.
“Everyone…… to your positions!”
The resounding lion's roar spread wide enough to fill the entire Alliance.
The voice, laden with cultivated power, would wake the sleeping and announce the emergency.
Soon, everyone at the meeting knelt and lowered themselves.
Their acknowledgment rang out like a chorus.
“As you command!”
A fate of great bloody storms began to sweep across the murim.
Even in the middle of the night, the Alliance's lights never go out.
For whatever happens, it watches over the justice of the Central Plains.
If the wicked horde of the demonic path had risen unnoticed and broken off a corner of its greatest strength, that was a matter it could well respond to.
Countless messenger pigeons began to take flight from Henan.
***
For a moment, I'd wondered whether I was the protagonist.
I'd been blinded by the far-too-enormous gain that had suddenly come my way.
But at heart, I'm not someone who wishes to be the protagonist.
I'm more of a small-time everyman who hopes for a spot like the thief in the hero's party.
That's how I'd defined myself, but what had just happened couldn't possibly be explained at that level.
I couldn't sleep a wink.
Was he dead?
Do you die if the book eats you?
One of the most renowned masters in the murim, from something like that?
But the points on the scroll didn't lie.
The value conversion from swallowing an Absolute Master.
There it was, in numbers as plain as a blazing fire.
[100,978 points]
I just stared at it blankly.
For a long time.
I don't even know how I got back to my room.
In the darkness, with even the lamp out, I lay down as usual and stared at the ceiling as if trying to sleep.
I hadn't put the scroll away, so it was still glowing.
Even in the dark, it was eerily vivid, as if to show it wasn't of this reality.
Lying there dazed, I had no idea what to do.
The Sword Star was dead.
But did I kill him?
Let's say I did.
But then, could anyone know it was me?
At some point, my thoughts reached that far.
“Right…….”
There's no way to know it was me.
How could a mere scholar kill a monster so powerful he'd become a renowned figure of the murim in the first place?
Wasn't the Sword Star more of a master of killing than anyone?
What's more, he tried to kill me first, so this is even self-defense.
Only then could I barely fall asleep.
Day broke.
It still didn't feel real, but the book was still there.
Whenever I wished, the scroll rose from the book to tell me what had happened yesterday.
From far off came the faint battle cries of martial artists already up and starting their training.
The still-cold wind of late winter seeped in through the paper sliding door.
Shivering, I couldn't get out from under the blankets.
Hong-hyung came by.
“Hey, Heo Saeng. What're you doing? Not exercising today?”
I snapped to my senses.
“Ah, I should. Yes, yes. I should.”
“Why do you look so haggard? Too happy to sleep?”
I had no capacity to think, so I just played along.
“You're telling me. My heart was pounding so much I couldn't sleep.”
“Ha ha, you've got to sleep well to stay healthy. Our little brother Heo, all frame and no substance.”
The day began.
As always, I received light martial arts instruction from Hong-hyung.
It couldn't really be called martial arts.
I was only imitating the movements and breathing of basic Taiji.
The kind of martial art whose movements, at least, any medicine peddler in any market street knows.
Hong-hyung had started teaching me, saying that even if I couldn't become a martial artist, I could at least be healthy.
I had no other routine besides studying anyway.
As I calmly went about what I always did, the events of the previous night finally began to fade.
My body, moving mechanically, soon began returning to its usual routine.
It finally felt like I'd come to my senses.
‘Right. No one will ever know anyway.’
Lizhou might be in an uproar for a while.
The Sword Star's children, whom I'd briefly met, might take action or get angry.
But there was no evidence, was there?
How on earth would anyone figure out that an immortal-like martial artist suddenly died in front of me?
I just had to live on as I was.
No doubt about it.
I began walking with conviction.
By the time I'd worked up a sweat and finished breakfast, I could think about what to study today.
I went to the library and was cleaning when Teacher scolded me.
Saying that if a Licentiate did this, the bastards who hadn't even become Licentiates couldn't save face.
I took it as a joke, bowed, and left.
I went back to my room meaning to read, when I spotted the Chairman taking a walk in the distance.
In that moment, I recalled the information the scroll had been selling.
The Jeong Manor Chairman's secret.
Shouldn't I check that?
Looking on the bright side, I'd suddenly gotten over a hundred thousand points.
So shouldn't I use them?
There was no exhilaration now.
The thought that I'd accomplish something great with this was gone too.
Just calmly.
Simply as one means of survival, I pressed the item labeled as the Jeong Manor Chairman's secret.
Life might have gotten a little easier, but it wouldn't change overnight.
Don't get carried away, Heo Saeng.
To survive, you have to stay calm.
It's always been that way.
In my room, in secret, I bought the Jeong Manor Chairman's secret. Points were deducted, and the details appeared.
[Squad Leader in the Infiltration Unit of the Hermit Forest, one of the Seven Demon Heavenly Pillars of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. Carrying out an undercover mission under Captain Sa Pae-cheon.]
I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Was it something to do with the murim?
If it's the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, it must be.
After thinking it over for about ten minutes, I got up.
Hong-hyung was sweating at the training ground.
I waited a moment until he finished a technique.
Hong-hyung turned his head and came over.
“What's up, little brother Heo? Still want to learn martial arts?”
“No. I just have something I want to ask.”
“I don't know much about books, though.”
“It's about the murim.”
Hong-hyung looked puzzled as he wiped his sweat.
I usually kept the murim at arm's length on purpose.
If I couldn't become part of it, I figured taking an interest would only hurt me.
How common is it for people to die because they learned something they shouldn't have?
In an era like this without even the concept of human rights, ignorance is the best medicine.
But at the same time, the best way to learn what you don't know is to ask someone likely to know.
Dangerous? No way.
I'm just a mere scholar who knows nothing.
No one would get rid of an ignorant person just for asking out of curiosity. If they would, I'd never have had a private meeting with the Chairman.
I'd already proven my usefulness to Jeong Manor.
“What do you want to know?”
“What exactly is this place called the Hermit Forest?”
“Hm?”
Hong-hyung's expression turned strange.
***
The messenger hawk Sa Pae-cheon sent truly reached the Demonic Cult's headquarters in Xinjiang before the day was out.
Having fulfilled its duty, the spirit beast demanded food and was resting while pecking at an exceedingly precious grub.
Woken in the middle of the night, the Hermit Forest Lord scowled deeply and checked the contents.
Barely a quarter of an hour later, the Forest Lord was hurriedly waking the Cult Leader.
The awakened Cult Leader showed great displeasure, but at the news the Forest Lord brought, he first opened his mouth.
“What bullshit is this? Do you wish to be executed under the august laws of the Divine Cult?”
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was a coalition bound under its name.
The relationship between the Seven Demon Heavenly Pillars and the headquarters was close. That was why the Forest Lord could barge in and wake the Cult Leader himself.
But that did not mean it was acceptable.
Instead of answering, the Forest Lord met the Cult Leader's gaze with a serious expression.
The Heavenly Demon soon realized that what he had just heard was the truth.
A council was convened.
The entire Strategy Division was roused, and heated opinions flew back and forth.
But one thing was certain: there wasn't much time.
The Great Undertaking was at hand.
The Great Undertaking to return to the Central Plains, their rightful territory, lost for hundreds of years.
The Orthodox-Demonic War.
The prelude to that great war had been under careful, step-by-step preparation.
“It is to be regarded as fact.”
“It would be harder to believe it is a scheme of deception.”
“When something baffling happens, the simplest explanation is usually the answer.”
The strategists all said it in unison.
They too were utterly bewildered, but a strategist must find a way even in the midst of that.
Of course, the decision was the Cult Leader's.
It was him the Sword Star had asked to meet.
“Which head of the Seven Demon Heavenly Pillars is closest to Sichuan?”
“The Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit. He was moving to flatten Sichuan the moment the war began.”
“Hoo……. Of all people, him.”
Even the Hermit Forest Lord could only smack his lips in distaste at that.
The Blood Heaven Unit was a band of bloodthirsty madmen.
Even so, if anyone was to move, it was them.
Fortunately, those in high positions were not simple fools.
If one wished to indulge a thirst for blood, one had to win, and victory is not given to fools.
“Tell the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit to make contact with the Sword Star. Forest Lord, have the Captain of the Infiltration Unit simply maintain the status quo for now and not move.”
The situation was truly getting twisted.
The small stone the Sword Star had thrown was sending ripples through the Great Undertaking of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
But if it came to pass, they would begin by dealing the enemy a blow greater than anything else.
Another messenger hawk took flight from Xinjiang.
Before the dawn had deepened, the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit received the hawk.
Reading the letter, the crimson madman nodded.
The Blood Heaven Unit's march toward Sichuan quickened.