"Did you kill Machil?"
Gi Daehyo repeated his question to the unresponsive Dong Bongsu.
Looking to the side, he saw Gi Manji's face, startled by his father's sudden words.
If he were an ordinary murderer, his expression would have changed, broadcasting 'I am the killer' for all to see.
Of course, Dong Bongsu's expression remained unchanged.
Gi Daehyo silently stared into Dong Bongsu's hazy eyes.
They were foolish eyes with wavering focus, darting all over the place as if terrified by his appearance.
Even so, Gi Daehyo persistently peered into Dong Bongsu's eyes.
Gi Daehyo's gaze, so intense it seemed it might pop Dong Bongsu's eyes out, appeared to say something like this:
You are the culprit.
No, you must be the culprit!
Gi Daehyo had spent his entire life in matters of law enforcement and information, priding himself on being more skilled in this area than the Beggars' Sect, the Hao Sect, or even the officials.
He had spent the entire day visiting every location where the Suicide Plague had occurred.
The result was...
Nothing.
His son, Gi Manji, had suggested that perhaps all of this was truly caused by a plague, but Gi Daehyo had asserted that it couldn't be.
If it were a plague, shouldn't there be traces of it? Be it black spots or a rotten, foul stench, were there any signs of a plague at all?
It could not be a plague.
If it wasn't a plague, then who was the culprit? Who should it be?
He had examined every location, and each crime scene, just like the room at the Soaring Sun Inn, was a locked room.
There were no signs of anyone breaking in, only the suicide victim left alone.
It felt contrived.
It was perfect, too perfect.
As if a god, if one existed, had committed the murders.
He once again stared into Dong Bongsu's pupils.
As expected, it was a foolish gaze, impossible to tell what it was looking at.
'No. The culprit can't possibly have eyes like these.'
Gi Daehyo had come to find Dong Bongsu to check one last possibility.
Not only had he meticulously examined the scenes, but he had also met with everyone in the rooms adjacent to the locked rooms where the suicides took place.
Everyone except Dong Bongsu.
Before coming here, Dong Bongsu was already the only remaining suspect.
And now.
Even that last suspect was cleared from the list.
"Hoo. Let's go."
"Yes? Ah, yes. Father."
Hearing Gi Daehyo's words, Gi Manji wore a confused expression, unsure of what was happening, and left the stable.
Before leaving, Gi Daehyo turned his head and looked at Dong Bongsu one last time.
'It really isn't him...?'
Hands and feet that looked like they would break if stepped on, a chest that seemed it would shatter with the wrong touch.
That body was by no means one that had trained in the Bone Shrinking Art.
No, in the first place, he couldn't possibly be a master of the Unorthodox Factions in hiding.
A fellow with a body far weaker than most neighborhood ruffians.
That was Gi Daehyo's assessment of Dong Bongsu.
"Hoo-"
With a final sigh, Gi Daehyo disappeared.
He would probably not sleep easily tonight.
On the other hand, Dong Bongsu, the 'Suicide Plague carrier' and the very person who had massacred a whole gang of ruffians, would fall into a sweet slumber under the same roof as him.
Dong Bongsu's eyes followed Gi Daehyo's back until he had completely left the stable.
The bright moonlight streamed through the open door, licking past Dong Bongsu's clear and grotesque eyes.
A pity.
Gi Daehyo should have seen those eyes.
Dong Bongsu's eyes, which cast a bright shadow even under the moonlight.
Creeak.
Thud.
The stable once again became a world of quiet darkness.
Dong Bongsu's shadowed eyes could now hide their light in that pitch-black space.
For a moment, he remained in that position, mentally organizing the new laws he had been contemplating earlier.
Then, as always, he lay his body down on his bed of straw.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
"It seems things will get a little busier starting tomorrow."
Many new prey had appeared.
On the night the moonlight shone so brilliantly, the Suicide Plague vanished from Soaring Sun City without a trace.
And starting tomorrow, a new Killing Wind was set to sweep through the city.
> New Murim Online's Fourth Law: When taking out an item from the Inventory, it can be drawn out from any part of Dong Bongsu's body.
> New Murim Online's Fifth Law: Leveling up causes a white light to emanate from the body, and all wounds are healed. At the same time, all stats increase slightly.
> New Murim Online's Sixth Law: Skills have a proficiency system. That is, the more a skill is used, the more adept one becomes.
> New Murim Online's Seventh Law: The passive skill, Spiritual Eye, identifies any dangerous individuals approaching within a 20-meter radius of Dong Bongsu and alerts him.
Not long after, the Suicide Plague disappeared.
A rumor began to circulate in Soaring Sun City.
- A Nameless Righteous Swordsman has appeared and is punishing the members of the Unorthodox Factions!
These members were the enforcers belonging to the Unorthodox Factions.
The common folk often called them by another name, Stinking Trash.
No matter how much they hailed each other as heroes of the back alleys or guardians of the dark, trash was still trash.
According to them, lawlessness was their own law of survival!
They were human scum who spouted such hollow nonsense that not even a dog suffering from the summer heat would bark at, all while controlling the back alleys and marketplaces of Soaring Sun City.
Such were these men.
The people of the marketplace, to continue their livelihood and keep from starving, had no choice but to pay protection money to the Unorthodox Factions and carry on with their business.
Though their hearts overflowed with complaints that threatened to spill out at any moment, what could they do?
Poverty is a sin.
Weakness is a sin.
And having to endure it all was the greatest sin of all.
But then.
One day, they suddenly started dying.
When the first one or two died, people simply thought it was a power struggle among the factions.
But then one became two, two became four, and four became eight...
And eventually.
Of the three major Unorthodox Factions that dominated the back alleys of Soaring Sun City, the White Tiger Group and the Red Wolf Gate were annihilated, leaving only the Black Snake Society.
People did not hesitate to call him a Wandering Hero.
They praised him as a true hero who performed righteous deeds from the shadows.
Rumors followed one after another, spreading like wildfire, until there was even talk that the Nameless Righteous Swordsman had also eliminated the Suicide Plague.
Furthermore, any and all righteous deeds happening within Soaring Sun City were now attributed to him.
It no longer mattered whether the rumors were true or not.
In the hearts of the people of Soaring Sun City, he had already become a perfect Righteous Hero.
People were still curious about him, but no one knew his true identity, and no one had ever even seen his shadow.
Thus, people called him.
The Nameless Righteous Swordsman.
The Nameless Righteous Swordsman went out into the night streets again today to perform a righteous deed.
He headed for Paradise Village, the last remaining crime-ridden area in Soaring Sun City.
Paradise Village was located at the northern edge of the city, a place where dilapidated houses were clustered together like an anthill.
Calling it a village was a stretch; it was a breeding ground for all sorts of evil and, in reality, a core den of the Black Snake Society.
It was a frightening place that even the members of the Black Snake Society avoided during the day, so what more needed to be said about it at night like this?
A dreary atmosphere pressed down on the entire village.
Was it just an illusion?
The air, so thick it felt suffocating, seemed even more desolate than usual.
The Nameless Righteous Swordsman stealthily seeped into the gloomy Paradise Village.
At a certain moment.
"Ugh!"
A short scream, signaling the start of the righteous deed, echoed through Paradise Village.
"He's here! Attack! Get him! Kill him!"
As if they had been waiting for that very moment, black shadows appeared all at once from various parts of Paradise Village, causing a commotion.
They were the members of the Black Snake Society.
They had been waiting for the Nameless Righteous Swordsman to appear.
Now that he had appeared, they had to do their utmost to kill him, if only to save their own lives.
"Uaaah!"
"Kill him!"
"You son of a bitch! Die!"
Spitting out curses befitting their kind, they rushed like lightning toward the spot where the first scream had been heard.
There, indeed, stood a slender, masked figure dressed differently from them.
He must be the Nameless Righteous Swordsman.
The Nameless Righteous Swordsman, as if having anticipated their appearance, charged toward them the moment they showed up.
Swish!! Stab!
Slashing, cutting, thrusting.
With a few concise movements, a dozen members of the Black Snake Society lay on the ground, spilling blood.
The corpses lying under the moonlight soon grew cold.
The Nameless Righteous Swordsman did not stop there, but continued to charge forward, slaughtering every member in his path.
Behind him, the remaining dozens of men followed, brandishing their swords, sabers, and spears.
"Die!"
Stab.
A tall man at the very front, who had been chasing him, thrust his spear toward the Nameless Righteous Swordsman's back.
A soft sound, like air escaping, was heard.
Had he pierced the Nameless Righteous Swordsman's heart?
"...Huh?"
No.
That was merely his wishful thinking.
The one who had actually died was the man who had thrust the spear.
His eyes held a look of utter confusion, not understanding what had happened.
"Guuuh..."
A low groan escaped his lips, but it was never fully uttered.
Because a sword, deeply embedded in his mouth, was slicing through his throat.
Before he went to the netherworld, a thought flashed through his mind.
'How did a sword come out of the back of his head...'
But even that stray thought could not continue.
The sword lodged in his neck had split his brain in half.
His comrades were still some distance away, so they did not see how he had died.
That was their fatal mistake.
If they had seen it, they would have known that their opponent was not using normal methods, but attacking with strange, unconventional tricks.
Thud.
The remaining members leaped over the head of the tall man, collapsing to the ground as a corpse, and rushed toward the Nameless Righteous Swordsman.
"Uwaaaaaaah!"
Did they think their opponent would just fall over if they screamed loudly enough? They charged at the Nameless Righteous Swordsman, screaming like madmen.
Swish!!!
A concise sound, identical to the one made by the Nameless Righteous Swordsman's sword earlier, rang out.
The only difference was that this time, it was the sound produced by the weapons of the Black Snake Society's members.
"We, we got him! We got the Nameless Righteous Swordsman!"
They were ecstatic.
They had definitely felt the impact in their hands, and before them stood a masked man.
The man's body was riddled with the weapons they had swung and thrust.
Blood gushed out from the masked man's body like a waterfall.
With that much bleeding, there was no way he could survive.
"D-Did we kill him!?"
One of them said.
Most of those around him agreed.
But one man with sharp eyes noticed something different.
"N-No! Th-There's a Black Snake Society mark on his shoulder!"
At that, the rest of the men focused on the masked man's shoulder.
Sure enough, through the torn sleeve of the masked man, a black snake tattoo was visible.
It was the Initiation Tattoo, engraved when one first joins the Black Snake Society.
Which means!
"Sh-Shit!"
As if on cue, curses erupted from the mouths of the men.
And those became their collective last words.
Slice.
A flash of a sword's light swiftly swept across all their necks.
Thud.
A thin line suddenly appeared on the neck of the corpse they had thought to be the Nameless Righteous Swordsman, and the space between the line slowly widened.
Finally, the masked man's head departed from his neck and took a trip to the ground.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
At the same time, the heads of all the other men fell to the ground in the exact same manner.
Lying on the ground, their lives still lingered for a moment, as their necks had been severed so instantaneously.
Their eyes were still twitching.
Roll...
The head of the masked man they had thought was the Nameless Righteous Swordsman rolled into the center of all their heads.
Due to the impact of hitting the ground, the man's mask had already come off.
The head seemed to mock them all, with its tongue peeking out of its mouth as it stared at them.
Even with their heads severed, the men recognized the masked man's face.
It was a face they all knew well.
He was their Leader, Ganghae, who guarded the entrance to Paradise Village, and he was the one who had screamed first.
How...
With that question buried in their hearts, they all ended their lives.
The Nameless Righteous Swordsman, having hosted the meeting of heads, quietly moved on to his next target.