The West Heaven Society Leader lay on the floor, his body crushed almost beyond recognition.
Beside him stood Cheon Woojin, holding the dark Crescent Moon Staff.
The Asura Demon Lord swallowed hard as he watched.
...That son of a bitch, the Black Master. Even in his final years, he managed to create a monster.
No.
Perhaps he had been raising a monster from the very beginning.
After all, not even the Black Master could have produced someone like this without extraordinary innate talent to work with.
The Asura Demon Lord studied the aura emanating from Cheon Woojin and unconsciously ran a hand over his chest.
How can someone his age possibly be this powerful...?
The young man was more than worthy of being called someone born with a Heavenly Martial Physique.
And of all the people such a prodigy could have studied under, he had become the Black Master's disciple.
To make matters worse, the West Heaven Society, which had been assisting the Asura Demon Lord, had somehow managed to put itself directly in the young man's path.
Through a thoroughly unfortunate combination of circumstances, the monster raised by the Black Master was now standing right in front of him.
"...I don't know why my senior martial brother's disciple would be taking the Martial Alliance's entrance examination, but that isn't important right now."
The Asura Demon Lord carefully composed his expression before continuing.
"Whatever the circumstances, I'm your master's junior martial brother. And my senior brother, the Black Master, was always particularly fond of me."
"Weren't you just celebrating my master's death more enthusiastically than anyone?"
"..."
The Asura Demon Lord fell silent.
Perhaps he could have dealt with Cheon Woojin in his prime.
But now, afflicted with Severed Pulse Syndrome, he could no longer be confident of defeating the young man.
He thought furiously for a moment before opening his mouth again.
"...When I heard of my senior brother's passing, the memories of how harshly he treated me in life came rushing back first. My feelings were rather complicated for a moment. But I assure you, your master genuinely cared for me."
It sounded like an excuse.
Yet, strangely enough, it was true.
The memories of the Black Master remained painfully vivid in the Asura Demon Lord's mind.
—Asura, the Dark Heavenly Son has many disciples, but of all of them, you're the one I enjoy beating the most.
And so, throughout those years, the Asura Demon Lord had always received a great deal of the Black Master's attention.
Cursing inwardly, he arranged his face into an expression of wistful affection.
"Besides, I'm practically your martial uncle. Wouldn't it be absurd for an uncle and his nephew to try to kill each other in front of so many people?"
His words were polite.
His demeanor, however, was unmistakably servile.
Zhuge Lin and the martial artists of the West Heaven Society could scarcely conceal their astonishment.
The Asura Demon Lord was a disciple of the Dark Heavenly Son, one of the foremost figures among the great villains of the martial world, and a second-class public enemy.
To think someone like him could behave so submissively...
It was then.
"Kh... Keugh..."
A faint groan came from the floor.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
Astonishingly, it came from the West Heaven Society Leader, whose body had been battered into a bloody wreck.
His limbs were broken, blood seeped from the fractures in his skull, and his rib cage had caved in.
Yet he was still alive.
His tenacity was almost unbelievable.
The quick-witted Asura Demon Lord noticed this and immediately seized upon it.
"You deliberately left him alive, didn't you? Why? Because you want to discover who commissioned your assassination?"
"..."
Cheon Woojin said nothing.
The Asura Demon Lord studied his reaction.
Then he continued, eager to capitalize on the opportunity.
"Very well. How about this? The West Heaven Society ordinarily keeps no records that would reveal its clients' identities. But whenever people are involved, it's impossible for them to leave absolutely no trace behind."
"And?"
"I've spent my entire life dealing with matters of this sort. Surely I'm more experienced at it than someone who's only just entered the martial world."
The Asura Demon Lord smiled reassuringly.
"I'll personally find whoever commissioned your assassination and kill them. No, if you'd prefer, I'll cut off their arms and legs and bring them to you alive. Surely I can do that much for my dear nephew."
He paused before adding gently,
"So why don't we leave matters here for today? What do you say?"
As he spoke, the Asura Demon Lord slowly approached Cheon Woojin.
He released no oppressive aura.
Nor was there any detectable fighting spirit in his movements.
He seemed entirely sincere in his desire to avoid a confrontation.
When he had drawn a little closer, he asked,
"By the way, what is your name?"
"Cheon Woojin."
A faintly sorrowful expression appeared on the Asura Demon Lord's face.
"Ah, Woojin. So that's the name of my senior brother's disciple."
He sighed.
"Tell me where your master is buried. Your Black Master certainly tormented me more than I care to remember, but he was still my senior martial brother. Now that I've received such unexpected news of his passing, I ought to spend a night beside his grave, sharing a drink with him."
The Asura Demon Lord continued in a voice laden with emotion.
"Now then, if you would just—"
Whoosh!
A razor-sharp surge of energy suddenly shot toward Cheon Woojin's face.
Woojin casually tilted his head backward.
The blade-like energy swept past so closely that it almost grazed his eyelashes.
A profound look of frustration appeared on the Asura Demon Lord's face.
"Hah! You dodged even that? Don't tell me you've actually surpassed the Black Master!"
"Of course not."
Cheon Woojin recalled his two masters and gave a small shrug.
Still, the Asura Demon Lord's surprise attack had been rather impressive.
Ordinarily, no matter how accomplished a martial artist might be, there would always be some indication when they began circulating or gathering their internal energy.
But the Asura Demon Lord had shown no such sign whatsoever.
In other words, his ability to control his internal energy was extraordinary.
Woojin tightened his grip on the Crescent Moon Staff.
The Asura Demon Lord let out a long, weary sigh.
I've struggled so desperately to stay alive despite suffering from Severed Pulse Syndrome... and now it seems I'm going to die in a way I never could have anticipated.
Both his hands turned pitch-black.
Dead Blood Claw Technique.
It was one of the many martial arts created by the Dark Heavenly Son.
If Dark Sky Full Moon, the technique the Black Master had passed down to Cheon Woojin, represented the pride of the Dark Heavenly Son's martial arts, then the Dead Blood Claw Technique represented his shame.
Of course, even a martial art regarded as the Dark Heavenly Son's disgrace was formidable enough to have helped the Asura Demon Lord become one of the great villains of the martial world.
Nevertheless, the ensuing battle was entirely one-sided.
Every time the Crescent Moon Staff moved, the Asura Demon Lord let out a pained groan.
The staff moved so quickly that even his eyes struggled to follow it.
Crack!
The Crescent Moon Staff came crashing down, smashing through the Asura Demon Lord's claw technique.
The nails on his fingers had already been shattered to pieces.
Among the Dark Heavenly Son's disciples, the Asura Demon Lord had been one of the weakest.
He was exceptionally cunning and possessed considerable political acumen, but the Black Master had despised him for being a weakling who relied on his wits rather than his martial prowess.
And to make matters worse, he had subsequently developed Severed Pulse Syndrome.
Now, driven into a perilous situation, the Asura Demon Lord could do nothing but retreat.
Step after step, he desperately gave ground.
Meanwhile, Cheon Woojin continued swinging the Crescent Moon Staff with an utterly composed expression.
There was no urgency in his movements.
No sign of strain.
He simply advanced, striking again and again.
Then, suddenly, the Asura Demon Lord's retreat came to an end.
His back had struck a wall.
The Crescent Moon Staff rose high above his head.
At any moment, it could descend and smash his skull.
The Asura Demon Lord looked up at the weapon with an oddly detached expression, as though he had already gone beyond fear.
Then he asked one final question.
"Are you planning to kill every disciple of the Dark Heavenly Son?"
"Who knows? If I happen to meet them."
"Heh, heh..."
The Asura Demon Lord gave a faint, humorless chuckle.
"When I meet my senior brother, the Black Master, in the afterlife, I'll have to ask him something."
"..."
"Why did he hate the rest of us so much?"
Cheon Woojin did not bother answering.
It was a matter concerning his master, after all.
He saw no reason to argue about it.
The Asura Demon Lord continued.
"Well, who knows? Perhaps if you kill a few more of my senior martial brothers, I'll be able to join forces with them in the afterlife and give the Black Master a beating for once."
He chuckled again.
"We might actually stand a chance of winning against him in the next world, don't you think?"
"That might be rather difficult."
Cheon Woojin smiled faintly.
After all, the White Master was now by the Black Master's side.
And the White Master was a martial artist whose strength surpassed even the Black Master's.
He was certainly no one to be underestimated.
A moment later, the Crescent Moon Staff fell.
Thwack!
And just like that, the Asura Demon Lord died.
For a man who had carried the fearsome reputation of being a disciple of the Dark Heavenly Son, his death was remarkably insignificant.
A suffocating silence descended upon the room.
In the midst of that silence, Cheon Woojin turned toward Zhuge Lin.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, well..."
What reason could she possibly have for not being all right?
Cheon Woojin had handled absolutely everything by himself.
She had barely needed to lift a finger.
Then Zhuge Lin suddenly remembered something.
"But don't you still need to find him?"
"Who?"
"The person who hired those assassins to kill you, Young Hero Cheon. The Asura Demon Lord is dead now, and the West Heaven Society Leader is in that condition..."
Her gaze shifted toward Nam Ilcheon.
The man occasionally let out a faint groan, but calling him fully alive seemed rather generous at this point.
Cheon Woojin walked over to him.
Then he brought the Crescent Moon Staff down upon his head.
Thud!
Nam Ilcheon's skull burst apart, staining the floor crimson.
Woojin looked up.
"There's another way. I know someone who specializes in finding that sort of information."
If the Asura Demon Lord could uncover the identity of the client, then surely she could do the same.
She was a woman the Black Master had told Woojin about while he was still alive.
According to his master, there was no information anywhere in the world that she could not uncover.
Zhuge Lin glanced past Woojin toward the surviving martial artists.
"Then what about the others...?"
Cheon Woojin abruptly turned around.
An overwhelming aura erupted from his body.
The remaining martial artists of the West Heaven Society flinched.
Among them was the Red Snake Unit Commander, the man who had commanded the Tiger Hunt Team and the Annihilation Team and had been ordered by Nam Ilcheon to clean up the disaster.
He hurriedly spoke.
"I-I have a newborn child! If I die, my wife and child will be thrown onto the streets! They'll starve to death! Please, I beg you, spare my life!"
The Red Snake Unit Commander dropped to his knees.
And once he began pleading, the others quickly followed his example.
"Great Hero! I had nothing to do with any of this!"
"I was planning to leave the West Heaven Society tomorrow! I only joined the Black Path because I needed money to care for my sick, elderly mother! But I couldn't bear it anymore, so I was going to run away..."
One excuse followed another.
Soon, everyone seemed to have a desperate story to tell.
Cheon Woojin had no way of knowing which of their claims were true and which were lies.
He possessed no particular ability to distinguish between them.
Nor did he believe there was any need to.
"So?"
"..."
"Aren't you all members of the West Heaven Society right now?"
"..."
His words were no different from a death sentence.
Silence descended upon the room once more.
Then, suddenly, one of the men raised his hand high into the air.
"Actually, I'm a spy sent by the Stone Spring Black Path to assassinate the West Heaven Society Leader!"
"..."
Everyone turned to stare at him.
An awkward silence lingered.
Then Cheon Woojin tightened his grip on the Crescent Moon Staff and began walking toward them.
******
When Song Yiyeon returned to the Martial Alliance with the other young martial artists, the entire organization was thrown into an uproar.
An instructor and one of the rising talents had disappeared during the examination.
Worse still, no one knew whether they were alive or dead.
The examination was immediately suspended.
Martial Alliance tracking teams and investigators were dispatched in every direction, searching for any trace of the missing pair.
Yet several days passed without the slightest progress.
Of course, there was a reason for that.
The speed at which Cheon Woojin had moved while destroying the various organizations subordinate to the West Heaven Society was simply beyond what ordinary people could reasonably imagine.
Naturally, the Martial Alliance also launched an internal investigation.
The candidates who had received an overall A grade alongside Cheon Woojin were questioned under the pretext that they had been his competitors.
Gu Jinseok, in particular, had been involved in a public confrontation with Woojin.
As a result, he was subjected to considerably more rigorous questioning than the others.
However, in the absence of any concrete evidence, the investigation against him remained largely a formality.
By the time Gu Jinseok returned to his residence, both his mind and body were exhausted.
He turned toward the man standing nearby.
"There's absolutely no chance of them discovering anything, is there?"
"...No. The very reason that organization was able to grow so powerful was its method of handling commissions without leaving any traces behind."
The middle-aged man nodded reassuringly.
His name was Ink Guest.
He was the man who, acting on Gu Jinseok's orders, had arranged the assassination commission through the West Heaven Society.
Gu Jinseok narrowed his eyes.
"Where?"
"Pardon?"
"Where did you place the commission?"
Ink Guest lowered his head.
"My apologies, but I cannot tell you that."
"What?"
"The Martial Alliance's investigation will not be easy to deceive. Their investigators are exceptionally skilled at detecting even the smallest grain of truth concealed within a lie."
Ink Guest continued in a measured voice.
"For that reason, it would be better if you knew nothing about the organization involved. That way, no matter how thoroughly they question you, you cannot accidentally reveal anything."
"Hmm..."
Gu Jinseok sighed, feeling a suffocating tightness in his chest.
He was anxious.
And he was curious.
But he could not deny that Ink Guest's reasoning made sense.
It was then.
A sudden commotion erupted outside the residence where the examination candidates were staying.
A loud, ringing voice carried down the corridor.
"What?! Is that true?!"
It was Song Yiyeon's voice.
Gu Jinseok frowned.
That fellow had annoyed him from the very beginning.
For a martial artist, Song Yiyeon was unnecessarily handsome.
And his voice was far too loud.
Most irritating of all was the fact that every woman seemed to look at him.
Whether they were fellow applicants or members of the Martial Alliance, their attention invariably drifted toward Song Yiyeon.
Gu Jinseok found the whole thing inexplicably infuriating.
But the next words he heard made all those petty grievances seem utterly insignificant.
"Young Hero Cheon has returned?!"
For an instant, Gu Jinseok felt as though someone had struck him over the head.
He turned sharply toward Ink Guest.
The middle-aged man's complexion had also gone pale.
"D-don't worry," Ink Guest hurriedly reassured him. "Even if he's returned alive, there's no way he'll be able to uncover the identity of the person responsible."
Gu Jinseok's face flushed with anger.
"If this comes to light, my father will have you killed."
His voice had become openly threatening.
Ink Guest immediately bowed his head.
"...That will never happen."
Of course, Ink Guest knew perfectly well that whenever people were involved, it was impossible for absolutely no traces to remain.
Nevertheless, the West Heaven Society had not become such a powerful organization by accident.
Its methods were so secretive that uncovering evidence of its dealings was extraordinarily difficult.
Even if the Beggars' Sect became involved, they would never be able to discover the truth.
And Ink Guest knew something about that organization.
In his younger days, he had briefly been a member of the Beggars' Sect himself.
Unless Wildflower personally gets involved...
Wildflower.
It was the martial epithet of the leader of the Beggars' Sect.
Soon, Gu Jinseok and Ink Guest left the room.
The long corridor outside was already crowded with young martial artists who had emerged from their quarters to catch a glimpse of the returned Cheon Woojin.
At the far end of the corridor, a man was striding toward them.
Gu Jinseok cursed inwardly.
He really came back...
Cheon Woojin had returned.
And he appeared to be completely unharmed.
To make matters worse, a woman was walking beside him.
Even at a glance, she was strikingly beautiful.
She had long black hair and a small beauty mark beneath one eye.
Her figure was rather tall, and she wore a black martial robe with a small red flower embroidered along its hem.
There was something intriguing about her appearance.
Rather than seeming sinister or intimidating, she inspired curiosity.
As Gu Jinseok looked around, he noticed that the young martial artists who had gathered to welcome Woojin were also staring at the woman in a daze.
A familiar irritation began rising inside him.
He shot an angry glare at Ink Guest.
But something was wrong.
Ink Guest's face had gone deathly pale.
He looked as though he had just seen a ghost.
Following the man's stunned gaze, Gu Jinseok discovered that he was staring at the woman walking beside Cheon Woojin.
She was approaching with a gentle smile.
This pathetic fool! Even in a situation like this, all he can think about is staring at a woman?!
Gu Jinseok was just about to unleash a stream of curses when the conversation between Cheon Woojin and the woman reached his ears.
By now, the pair had drawn quite close.
"Your master was a very precious guest of mine, Young Hero. Had I known he had raised such a fine disciple, I would have come to greet you much sooner."
"I think you already knew."
The woman's eyes widened slightly at Cheon Woojin's calm reply.
But only for an instant.
Then she smiled again, as though nothing had happened.
"Hoho. I meant if I'd learned about you officially. Just as I have now."
A moment later, the two arrived directly in front of Gu Jinseok and Ink Guest.
Gu Jinseok felt as though his insides were burning.
Cheon Woojin looked at him without saying a word.
For a brief moment, their eyes met.
And under that calm, unwavering gaze, Gu Jinseok nearly collapsed onto the floor.
It was then.
The woman standing beside Cheon Woojin glanced briefly at Gu Jinseok.
Then her gaze shifted toward Ink Guest.
"Oh?"
Her beautiful eyes curved into delighted crescents.
It was the expression of someone who had just discovered something particularly interesting.