The moment Wi Mu-ryang received the report early that morning, he headed for a cave nestled deep in the mountains.
“Is this it?”
“Yes, it is.”
Having heard his subordinate's confirmation, Wi Mu-ryang gazed at the cave once more.
An eerie air seeped out from within.
A faint, fishy stench brushed the tip of his nose.
Soon, Wi Mu-ryang slowly began to walk.
After going some way into the cave, he suddenly stopped.
His eyebrows, which had been twitching faintly, shot up.
“......Gruesome.”
A few days ago, So-ho had gone missing.
While tracking him, Wi Mu-ryang had received a report that unidentified corpses had been found, and so he had come here in person.
Just as the report said, the inside was full of blood and corpses.
The state of them was horrific, and the stench of rot filled the air.
An ordinary person would have frowned and turned away from the sight, but Wi Mu-ryang surveyed the inside without so much as a change in his expression.
“You are saying these corpses are So-ho and his lot?”
“The bodies are so badly mutilated that it is hard to say for certain, but considering their number and when they went missing, a great deal matches.”
Wi Mu-ryang moved again.
He approached one of the corpses, bent forward, and squatted down.
Up close, the sight was even more horrific.
The body had not only rotted but was even teeming with maggots, a sight that would make anyone with a weak stomach throw up on the spot.
Shff—.
Wi Mu-ryang reached out his right hand without hesitation.
He rummaged nonchalantly through flesh crawling with insects, then snatched something and pulled it out.
“It seems to be them after all.”
Between his fingers dangled a tattered scrap of clothing.
It was soaked through with blood, but faint embroidery could be seen on it.
A black tiger, the symbol of the Black Tiger Gang.
With this, it became clear that these corpses were So-ho and his subordinates.
“Had you looked a little more carefully, you would have known at once. Could it be that you did not want to dirty your hands, so you gave it a passing glance and reported?”
“I-I'm sorry! I didn't think that far!”
The subordinate hurriedly made excuses.
Wi Mu-ryang slowly walked up to him and wiped the sticky filth on his right hand onto the man's clothes with a few strokes.
Even as his own clothes were soiled, the subordinate only stood frozen as if dead.
“Because my subordinates are incompetent, my own hands must suffer.”
“.......”
“He was not someone I could trust with anything after all.”
It was a coldness that did not so much as blink at So-ho's death.
Only after he had wiped off all the filth did Wi Mu-ryang take his hand away.
“The Heavenly Way Martial Arts Academy, was it? The brat who interfered with our business?”
“Yes, that's right.”
“It seems it was not a place to scoff at just because it is a small academy.”
Wi Mu-ryang examined the inside of the cave again.
So-ho's martial prowess may not have reached even the second-rate level, but to butcher them this gruesomely meant the opponent was by no means one to take lightly.
On top of that, it was a level of cruelty that would make even most of the dark path click their tongues in disbelief.
Wi Mu-ryang suddenly grew curious about the face of the one who had butchered them.
“I'll take care of the Heavenly Way Martial Arts Academy!”
Just then, the subordinate shouted confidently, hoping to redeem his lowered standing.
His calculation was to wash away his blunder, take So-ho's vacant seat, and win Wi Mu-ryang's favor.
“No.”
But Wi Mu-ryang lightly shook his head.
“How long do you intend to do nothing but swing your blade like an ignorant brute?”
“......?”
“The dark path I aim for is a group that makes its living not with the blade, but with this.”
Wi Mu-ryang tapped his temple with his index finger.
At some point, a cold and meaningful smile had settled on his lips.
***
After that incident, the Heavenly Way Martial Arts Academy temporarily closed its doors for a while.
It was a measure taken for the disciples' safety.
So-ho was dead, but the Black Tiger Gang still lurked behind him.
There was no telling whether they might take out their anger by harming the innocent disciples.
Cheon Su-rin judged that it would be wise to keep the academy's doors shut until the situation was settled.
Only Bong Du-chil was the exception; Cheon Su-rin had taken him in at the academy.
It could not be said that Cheon Su-rin bore no responsibility for the tragedy that had befallen his parents.
If the Black Tiger Gang moved again, Bong Du-chil, the one who had survived, was the most likely to become a target.
Cheon Su-rin intended to keep him by his side and protect him until things calmed down.
‘Thankfully, he fell asleep early tonight.’
For a while, Cheon Su-rin had been losing sleep at night.
It was because of the stifled sobs of a child he heard beside him every night.
Outwardly he pretended to be composed, but Bong Du-chil's grief was so deep that it could not even be guessed at.
It was only natural. At such a young age, he had lost his parents in an instant and become an orphan all alone in the world.
After crying through the night for several days, he seemed to have run out of strength tonight and finally fallen into a deep sleep.
“.......”
Cheon Su-rin could not fully fathom how Bong Du-chil felt.
His mother had died too, but it had been so long ago that he did not even remember it.
Each time Bong Du-chil's shoulders heaved as he cried, Cheon Su-rin simply pretended not to notice and quietly stayed by his side.
When the wave of loss crashes over you, no words of comfort reach your ears.
All one needs is time to swallow the grief and soothe it alone.
Cheon Su-rin silently waited for that time to pass.
Shff—.
After confirming that Bong Du-chil's breathing had evened out, Cheon Su-rin quietly slipped out of the room.
It was a night when the moonlight was especially cold.
He crossed the yard and sat down in a secluded corner.
In truth, Cheon Su-rin's mind was just as troubled.
A weight incomparable to what he had felt when he realized his past life was the Heavenly Slaughter Calamity pressed down on his heart.
‘I am the Heavenly Slaughter Star.’
Following his past life, he had failed to cast off that cruel shackle in this life as well.
Ever since the energy of the Heavenly Slaughter Star had manifested, strange changes had begun to occur in his body and mind.
‘The memories of my past life...... are getting clearer.’
That was the biggest change.
Until now, even though he had become aware of his past life, only fragmented scenes of Jeok Geon-ho's memories had surfaced, such as the Bloody Battle of Fallen Star Lake he had seen in his dreams.
But now it was different.
Beyond mere visions, the course of the life he had lived as Jeok Geon-ho was gradually rising to the surface.
It felt as though two souls coexisted in a single vessel.
The boundary between the two sets of memories, Cheon Su-rin's and Jeok Geon-ho's, was growing blurred, as if vanishing into mist.
‘Is this also the influence of the Heavenly Slaughter Star?’
The stronger its energy grew, the more the self of his past life, lived as the Heavenly Slaughter Star, must also swell.
It was by no means a welcome sign.
Fortunately, he had not yet lost his reason and gone berserk, but each time the killing urge raised its head deep in his chest, he recited the Starlit Night Heart-Sealing Formula to calm the boiling killing intent.
“......The Nameless One.”
That mysterious being who had helped him.
The formula passed on by one whose very life or death could not be determined had certainly been effective.
That was why the other words he had left behind were most likely not empty either.
‘How can I meet him again?’
He had a mountain of things he wanted to ask.
What he was, why he was showing him such goodwill, and how he knew so much about the Heavenly Slaughter Star in such detail.
His words, that they would meet again if the chance arose, clearly hinted at a reunion.
In other words, there was a way to meet him again.
Thinking simply, if Cheon Su-rin found himself in the same situation as before, he might appear again.
‘But for that.......’
He would have to surrender his mind entirely to the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
Walking down the path of ruin just to meet him was far too dangerous a gamble.
In the end, there was no other way but to wait for him to come first.
“......?”
Cheon Su-rin, who had been lost in thought, turned his head sharply.
After staring toward the front gate for a moment, he rose and went into his room.
When he came back out, a cold sword was gripped in his left hand.
Cheon Su-rin adjusted his grip on the hilt and headed for the front gate.
BANG—!
The gate was flung open roughly.
Outside stood a number of strangers in formation.
The moment he spotted the tiger emblem on their clothes, Cheon Su-rin's gaze turned as sharp as frost.
Shing—.
Cheon Su-rin drew his sword without hesitation.
He had expected the Black Tiger Gang to send people sooner or later.
He had killed their men, so how could they possibly sit still?
They had come sooner than expected, but he had already prepared himself.
“We have not come to fight.”
The man standing at the center of the strangers spoke first.
Instead of swinging his sword, Cheon Su-rin responded with cold wariness.
“You come swarming in at this hour of night and say you're not here to fight? Then what, did you all come out for a moonlit stroll together?”
“It seems there is a misunderstanding.”
“.......”
“I have simply come to see the Principal of the Heavenly Way Martial Arts Academy.”
A strange smile hung on the man's lips.
“You appear to be the Principal's son. Is your father inside?”
“My father isn't here.”
“Has he gone out?”
“He's been away from the academy for a few days on business.”
Doubt clouded the man's eyes.
If he had been away for several days, then who on earth had butchered So-ho and his gang?
He had naturally assumed it was the Principal's doing.
‘Well, it doesn't matter.’
He was only carrying out the Boss's orders anyway.
The man courteously performed a clasped hands greeting.
“Would you come with us for a while?”
“Where?”
“To the Black Tiger Gang.”
“Why should I go there?”
“The Boss said he very much wishes to invite the people of the Heavenly Way Martial Arts Academy.”
The intention behind the invitation was as plain as fire.
Cheon Su-rin had not the slightest intention of accepting this fine-sounding offer.
“Since when were the Black Tiger Gang and I close enough for you to invite me to your home?”
“Could we not become closer through this opportunity?”
“That won't happen.”
“The Boss wishes to talk. After all, there is bad blood between us that must be settled.”
“Then he should've come himself.”
The man's clasped hands slowly lowered.
As if Cheon Su-rin's blunt words had gotten under his skin, his eyes narrowed.
“He is a very busy man. I have come in person with due courtesy, so you too, Mister, should show courtesy befitting it.”
“Courtesy.......”
In that instant, a cold chill ran down the man's spine.
“Plundering innocent merchants and even taking the lives of the innocent. Is that what the Black Tiger Gang calls courtesy?”
“......!”
“Keep running that mouth, and today will be the day they hold your memorial rites.”
The man knew it by instinct.
That it was not the Principal of the Heavenly Way Martial Arts Academy who had butchered So-ho and his subordinates, but this boy before his eyes.
Before that indescribable, overwhelming killing intent, the man and the gang members could not move an inch, as if their limbs had been bound.
Clack—.
Cheon Su-rin sheathed his sword.
At the same time, the killing intent that had been crushing the space receded like an ebbing tide, and only then did the warriors gasp roughly for breath and feel a sense of release.
“Fine. I'll accept the invitation.”
At his sudden change of attitude, it was the man who showed bewilderment instead.
“......Are you serious?”
“Isn't that what you came here for?”
He had to settle things with the Black Tiger Gang sooner or later anyway.
Since they were the ones setting the stage first, there was no reason to avoid it.
Above all, to keep the sparks from falling on Bong Du-chil and the people around him, walking into the tiger's den himself was the best course.
“Y-yes, that is right. Thank you...... for accepting.”
Before Cheon Su-rin could change his mind, the man hurriedly led the way.
“We have prepared a carriage. Let us depart as soon as you are ready.”
Instead of answering, Cheon Su-rin closed the gate.
It was a silent sign that he did not mind leaving right away.
“This way.”
In the end, the carriage carrying Cheon Su-rin headed for the Black Tiger Gang.
Though he had carried out the Boss's orders, one corner of the man's heart was uneasy the whole way.
Was it truly all right to let this boy into the Black Tiger Gang?
The closer the carriage drew to the Black Tiger Gang, the deeper an ominous premonition burrowed into his chest like a venomous snake.