“Stories of the murim?”
“Yes. Preferably not something like the other day's Demonic Cult this and that.”
The reason I'd taken no interest in the murim was partly that the killings I'd actually witnessed were shocking, but also simply that I was busy.
You'd never pass the Youth Examination in five years if you studied while poking around in secret histories of the murim.
I'd had to learn this place's language and script from scratch.
“If one is to live as an official, one cannot be completely indifferent. Martial artists are also subjects of the realm, are they not? One must know their nature to avoid problems, or to deal with them if they arise.”
There's a problem here.
I already know the murim to some extent.
But I can't vouch for the accuracy of that knowledge.
Even terms like Five Qi Returning to the Origin or Ascending the Peak and Reaching the Pinnacle differ from novel to novel, don't they?
So the knowledge I have and this place's murim won't be vastly different, but they won't be the same either.
If I was unintentionally right in the middle of it, I felt it was about time I learned what was different.
“What you say is correct, but…….”
The girl showed considerable wariness toward my proposal.
They'd probably come to Lizhou under the pretext of rooting out a Demonic Cult spy. The eldest had said something like that when I guided them the day before yesterday.
But I said nothing and just looked at her face steadily.
Then I pointed at the rice cakes and sweets she was clutching to her chest.
“That was my money, though.”
“Ugh.”
In the end, she had no choice but to nod.
Bearing the Namgung name, she couldn't welsh on my money.
“But this is unexpected. I was taught that scholars rarely show interest in murim affairs.”
“That's because they value their lives. But the Namgung miss wouldn't use her sword on me, would she? Then there's no other chance like this for an ordinary Licentiate.”
“Ugh, I am in your debt, so it cannot be helped.”
The girl came a little closer with a small sigh.
The way she clutched that bundle of rice cakes and sweets to her chest so dearly made her look rather cute.
“Then, what about the murim are you curious about?”
If the Namgung Clan were such justice fools, it also meant they were quite pure.
She certainly looked it. Once she lowered her guard, her eyes went back to the round, youthful shape that suited her age.
Eyes so naive they looked easy to fool if need be.
“What I'm curious about is just this and that from the martial world. Anhui Province is very far from Sichuan. The Central Plains are vast, and it's hard to see it all with my own two feet, isn't it?”
That wasn't a strange thing to say.
The girl finally let her guard down completely.
“If it is something I know. Well, to be honest, I do not know much either.”
She drew a line, putting on a prim air.
I'd just watched her flounder, so acting prim now was laughable.
Still, she was holding a fairly proper conversation. That must be what made her an orthodox martial artist.
It wasn't just because I was a Licentiate.
There was none of the sharp-edged air peculiar to martial artists, whether you'd call it killing intent or something else; she had a soft, fresh feel to her.
She looked about the age of capping. Her looks hadn't quite shed their girlishness, but she wasn't merely young either.
The age of capping is twenty.
The same age I was when I first fell into Lizhou. An adult if you call her one, but also still a child.
An unstable period somewhere between immaturity and maturity.
“When you didn't know an Anhui banknote wouldn't work in Sichuan, I figured as much.”
Then, without much thought, it was clear: this trip to Sichuan was this girl's first venture into the martial world.
In fact, it couldn't be otherwise. She didn't even know how to use a banknote.
She seemed to realize it herself, and her face flushed slightly.
“It is the first time I have ever left the main estate.”
“First times are always like that. Shall we move somewhere else? You can't eat comfortably here.”
If we stayed like this, people's eyes would stay on us.
Neither of us wanted that.
As we passed, a few passersby I knew by face expressed their thanks with their eyes.
Thanks for taking the sword-carrying martial artist away.
To the common folk, who couldn't possibly know what kind of place the Namgung Clan was, this girl too was in the end just a strange swordswoman.
I too would probably have just kept my distance as usual if I hadn't heard Hong-hyung's passionate lecture.
But if the Namgung were pathologically righteous, she at least wouldn't cut down a perfectly decent Licentiate.
Even as we moved, the girl's gaze kept sticking to street stalls. Her body moved forward, but her pupils kept following them as if yanked back.
I wondered what she was looking at, and it was the cheap street food the people of Lizhou buy for a coin or two.
Yet she couldn't tear her eyes away.
After thinking briefly, I bought a few more things like chicken skewers.
The girl waved her hands in refusal, but I ignored it.
Having already been generous, it was better to go all the way.
“Thank you…….”
Going even a little way from the market toward Jeong Manor, the streets grew deserted.
A rich old man who kept plenty of martial artists as retainers would naturally want a quiet place.
Of course, it was also because it was the Hermit Forest's secret branch.
The moment I recalled that, I felt tired.
Keep my distance from the murim, my foot.
Assassins are professionals at killing, and I've lived right in the middle of them for five years, haven't I?
Even if I had no choice in the matter anyway, it's exhausting.
“There's a good place. Few people around, and a nice view. There's even a rock that's good for sitting.”
A river flows through Lizhou. Part of the river, which passes through the middle of the city and splits into several tributaries, becomes a stream running beside Jeong Manor.
Being upstream, the water is clean. It's a cool spot I often rely on in summer.
“Here, you won't have to worry about anyone's eyes in particular.”
“There is a stream.”
“It's the valley where I sometimes come to lounge around with the hyung-nims when summer gets too hot.”
What a great man Willis Carrier, the inventor of the air conditioner, was.
Without him, the only option is to bathe in a small stream.
Sichuan's summers are brutal. There's a reason so many poisonous insects thrive here.
The natural environment is harsh, so people become harsh, and that's how things like the Sichuan Tang Clan come about.
But it was the dead of winter now, so it was quiet with no one around.
Suddenly the sword fastened at the girl's waist caught my eye.
‘Alone with a martial artist in a secluded spot…….’
A perfect way to die. Just a few days ago I'd have absolutely refused.
“Miss, you probably came out without your father knowing, didn't you? I've heard rumors that your family rules are strict.”
This was simple deduction.
If the Sword Star had allowed his children to go out, the young master and young lady of the Namgung Clan coming and going from the Clear Wind Inn would already have been the talk of the beggars.
But there were only rumors without substance.
It meant the three siblings were shut up in the inn.
“That is right…….”
The girl's face darkened at once.
But looking at her knitted moth-like brows, it felt less like fear of being scolded and more like a touch of irritation.
Wasn't she past the age of adolescence? Was she a rather bold young lady, then?
“Let's exchange names. Ah, sit there. A good rock for sitting, right?”
“I am Namgung Ran.”
“I'm Heo Saeng. You can call me Licentiate Heo. Whatever you're comfortable with.”
“Thank you for your kindness to me, Licentiate.”
And I tried to carry the conversation a little further.
But once she'd settled in, the girl's eyes had already gone back to the food.
GRUMBLE.
“…….”
“…….”
We both hurriedly began pretending not to have heard, and I gestured for her to eat first.
I was starting to wonder.
And when the precious daughter of the Namgung Clan began stuffing this and that into her mouth with great happiness, I wondered even more.
She was so absorbed in savoring the food that she forgot I was even there, so I left her be for now.
Seeing her like this, it was clear she couldn't even imagine something had happened to the Sword Star.
That was actually reassuring.
Still, I felt a little guilty even now. I suppose you could say I couldn't look Namgung Ran in the face.
But the Sword Star's death was purely self-defense and not my intention.
Isn't dying an everyday thing in the martial world anyway?
So why did you point your sword at innocent me, sir?
You passed away secretly without disgrace, so I'd call that a good death.
***
The Qingcheng Divine Sword was cautious. Qingcheng's Fluttering Willow Drift was, as its name suggests, a movement art like a reed swaying on the wind.
To put it more bluntly, it let one walk the sky like a bird.
For simply traveling far, it was surely a skill vying for the best in the Central Plains, and the reason the Alliance's messenger hawk had flown to Qingcheng first.
The Divine Sword knew full well that he was a scout.
The Sword Star was dead.
Then it would not be strange for the Divine Sword to die either.
He needed to grasp, ahead of time, the information to provide to Qingcheng's main force, the Tang Clan, and Emei, who would arrive later.
Such as the size of the enemy, or what masters lay in wait.
“Troublesome.”
It was the first thing he said.
If there had at least been traces of battle, it might have been different, but if it was an assassination, it was very hard to pin down who the culprit might be.
Still, Lizhou was clearly enemy territory, so the Divine Sword had no choice but to be cautious.
“Fortunately, the Rakshasa Immortal has not moved.”
Lizhou was a more famous place among martial artists than one might think.
Not so much famous as a city in itself, but because of an unidentified master called the Rakshasa Immortal who had settled beside it.
If the orthodox had the Sun-Moon Seven Stars and the demonic path had the Seven Demon Heavenly Pillars, the unorthodox had the Three Great Calamities.
However, since "unorthodox" referred collectively to martial artists without proper affiliation, it did not mean any particular power.
And that was exactly why it could be more frightening.
It meant that the renown of individuals without even an affiliation was ranked alongside the orthodox and the demonic.
That was why, if not the Hermit Forest Lord, the Rakshasa Immortal was the first he had suspected.
That being was still occupying a corner of the mountain range surrounding Lizhou in the distance, spreading a domain filled with black mist.
It had already been there for some three hundred years, and since becoming known, it had never once left the Daba Mountains dividing Hanzhong and Sichuan.
At this point, it was closer to a feature of nature than a living master.
Yet because that terrifying domain remained in place, the name of the Rakshasa Immortal was still spoken of in the murim.
Even though who first coined that alias had been forgotten.
In the murim, old fears exist for a reason.
There was no telling what horrifying monster this old master, surely of the same generation as the Murim Alliance Leader, might be.
So for half a day after arriving, he had confirmed that fact first. Not fearing the unknown is mere recklessness.
“There are no particular traces of an Absolute Master, so I had better root out the spies.”
He was as cautious as could be.
He spent another day finding those who showed signs of having learned martial arts.
He did not interrogate indiscriminately.
What would it mean if a ginseng hunter climbing the mountain had a suspiciously high level of inner arts?
In his youth, he had roamed the world with the Sword Star Namgung Hyeon-ri and learned the methods of the demonic path. They seep silently into the Central Plains like this and become part of it.
The assassins stationed in a backwater like Lizhou could not escape an Absolute Master who approached in secret.
The Divine Sword squeezed information out of them by means an orthodox knight-errant would find somewhat awkward to speak of.
“Quite strange.”
Truly it was.
No matter how he looked, neither an Absolute Master himself nor a group comparable to one was staying in Lizhou.
These people knew nothing either. Far, far too little.
“If it were me……. no, even a fool would be preparing for an attack in a case like this.”
Bring down one of the Sun-Moon Seven Stars and believe nothing will happen?
That could not be.
So preparations for war, for the Orthodox-Demonic War, should have been in full swing or already begun.
It was far too suspicious.
Nothing was certain; it was merely a maze made only of doubts.
“Far too peaceful.”
Nothing at all was happening.
That was the problem, because that should not be.
“I must go to the Governor.”
The Governor is a post appointed to head a small city, holding even military authority in emergencies.
In a small city like Lizhou, he would enjoy power no different from a king's.
However, the Murim Alliance and the military were only allies, and the Nine Sects were by no means beings the government could ignore.
Therefore, the Governor of Lizhou bowed his head to the Divine Sword, who had suddenly appeared in his office.
For someone of the Qingcheng Sect Leader's stature, even a Governor was not of equal rank. It would take a Magistrate to be his equal.
“So you are the Qingcheng Divine Sword, Cheongheoja. What brings you so suddenly to Lizhou?”
However, that did not mean the government was one body with the Nine Sects One Gang. The Governor's words were merely the courtesy shown to an elder of high standing.
In fact, his tone carried a subtle reproach.
Meaning: how could someone who was no less than the leader of a sect be so rude?
The Divine Sword tilted his head.
The Governor could be a pawn won over by the Demonic Cult.
“Strange. It does not seem to be a lie. Do you truly not know the current situation in Lizhou?”
“If I, the Governor, do not know, then no one would know. What do you know that brings you here like this, Divine Sword?”
To the reproachful Governor, the Divine Sword spoke calmly.
“The Sword Star is dead.”
It was not a statement the Governor could immediately understand.
Instead of frowning or flaring up, he let out a light breath and had the military officers under him summoned.
Watching quietly, the Divine Sword said.
“So you truly do not know. Regrettably, neither do I. I believe it to be the Demonic Cult's intervention, but nothing is certain.”
“Then how did you learn of it?”
“The Alliance's Life-Death Lamp went out.”
The Governor's expression stiffened. He needed time to recall what a Life-Death Lamp was.
The murim's mysterious artifacts sometimes circulate in the world like legends. To the Governor too, the Life-Death Lamp was such a name.
And another such legend came to mind.
A name that had cost the timid man sleep when he was posted to Lizhou.
“If I may ask……. does the Rakshasa Immortal have anything to do with this?”
“It does not. That is why I came to investigate. Soon Qingcheng, Emei, and the Tang Clan will all arrive.”
The Governor let out a great sigh. Though he stood before the leader of one of the Nine Sects, he could not help it.
The matter was already far too big for a mere Governor to handle.
As far as he knew, if the Life-Death Lamp had gone out, it meant the Sword Star had died, or at least reached a state close to it.
“He was staying at the Clear Wind Inn. His three children are still there. Shall I send word?”
“No, I will go myself.”
And the Governor, whatever else he did not know, knew at least that the Sword Star and his children were staying here.
If Jeong Manor had been tense because it was the Hermit Forest's infiltration branch, the Governor had been keeping an eye on him for fear of some headache-inducing, exhausting trouble, or even a storm of blood.
Just then, the junior military officers who had been summoned came in.
They regarded the Divine Sword with awe, yet also with wariness.
It was a scene that summed up the relationship between the government and the murim.
Suppressing the urge to let out a long, long sigh, the Governor told them.
“Issue an emergency alert, Grade B.”
“Understood.”
“And investigate any suspicious persons around the Clear Wind Inn.”
The officers had doubts about the last order but obeyed the Governor and withdrew.
That was partly to carry out the order, but also an expression of their fear, as martial men, of being in the same place as a natural disaster in human form.
Watching this sequence, the Divine Sword first set his mind fully at ease.
At least the enemy had not reached out its hand here.
If it were going to, it would have done so already.
Moreover, Grade B was a fairly strong alert.
Considering that Grade A meant wartime itself, it was no different from preparing to fight right away.
Messenger pigeons would fly.
They would request support from the units near the Sword Pavilion and stand ready.
That is, unless the government system he knew had been completely overturned.
“Then what should I do now?”
The Governor asked.
The Divine Sword understood the initiative had passed to him.
At last, he asked the question he had wanted to ask.
“First, let me ask you: is there a suspicious group in this town of Lizhou? It is likely not a murim faction, if anything. When the Demonic Cult disguises itself, it tends instead to practice charity.”
As many orthodox martial world veterans do, the Divine Sword had once roamed the martial world.
Namgung Hyeon-ri, when he was not yet the Sword Star, and Cheongheoja, when he was not yet the Divine Sword, had been through a great deal together.
The Governor, far younger than the aged Divine Sword, listened quietly to his opinion.
Lizhou was not a small place.
There were many ways to blend in.
Several trading companies flashed through his mind, and several estates too.
Recently settled unorthodox gangs came to mind, as did the vagrants who had given him headaches and beggars who were clearly not Beggar's Gang members.
In the midst of it, what made him think of Jeong Manor was a vagrant-turned-Licentiate.
His age at passing was not especially young, but if he had studied for just five years in a remote place like this and passed in one go, he was memorable.
All the more so since, unknown to the man himself, he had placed second, just behind the top scorer.
And Jeong Manor was also the estate in Lizhou that best fit the word charity.
After telling that story, the Governor naturally added.
“However, there has been no such sign at all from the Chairman of Jeong Manor. Except for some political scheming on behalf of his son, who runs a trading company in Henan.”
“Still, it is odd to come all the way to Sichuan to do that.”
“That is true. You would know the ways of the murim better, Sect Leader.”
The Divine Sword nodded.
“I will stop by the Clear Wind Inn to check on the children and then investigate Jeong Manor. If anything happens to me, hold back and wait for those who arrive after.”
The Divine Sword vanished with the wind.
The Governor stared blankly after him.
It somewhat resembled Sa Pae-cheon's bewildered look.
What kind of bolt from the blue was this in his twilight years?
It was the same for a mere Captain of the Infiltration Unit, but it was too much for a Governor whose term was ending and who was due to move elsewhere soon as well.
“Ha, I am going to lose my mind……. This is not why I took office.”
The Governor grumbled lightly.
But it was a matter involving the rebel Demonic Cult. By the will of His Majesty the august Emperor, the Governor, as his subject and official, could not escape this responsibility.
“Bring all the documents on Jeong Manor.”
Not being a military officer, he had no choice but to investigate first.
At least he had to make a show of it.
That way, he would have something to say to the leader of one of the Nine Sects.
“Please, let this be some big misunderstanding.”
Could the Life-Death Lamp not have been faulty?
Could the Sword Star not simply have gone off on an outing somewhere?
Could Jeong Manor not be just a kind rich man's charity?
The Governor all but prayed.
If there was a risk of military conflict, the Governor, who held military authority, would become the one in charge.
And in truth, he had never wanted a promotion.
He was merely working as an official to make a living.
It was an impious thought that would anger the Emperor in Beijing, but how could everyone serve as an official with a sense of mission?