Chapter 3 — A Second Chance
***
“…I’m certain Moyong Cheonhwi cut off my head…”
Instinctively, my hand moved to my neck.
Soft skin and warm flesh met my fingertips.
There was no blood.
No wound.
It was perfectly intact.
“Haa…”
As I inhaled, cold air filled my lungs deeply.
It felt completely different from the burning breaths I had taken within the Myriad Calamity Flame just before dying.
“Don’t tell me… this is one of those deathbed hallucinations people supposedly see before they die?”
Blankly, I looked around.
Faint dawn light seeped through the cracks in the old ceiling,
And a scent I had long forgotten brushed against my nose.
The smell of straw.
The smell of old wooden floors.
Things that were painfully familiar—
And unbearably nostalgic.
Before I was kidnapped by the Orthodox Alliance,
This was the last place where I had lived anything resembling a human life.
This place was the Kunlun Sect.
More precisely, the Affairs Hall located at the farthest corner of the sect grounds.
A place where low-ranking servants responsible for chores like cleaning and cooking stayed—
And also the very place where I had first awakened after reincarnating into Murim.
“…What happened? Why am I here…?”
The flesh burning away.
Moyong Cheonhwi’s cold eyes.
My severed head falling away.
That hellish moment where everything was erased within the Myriad Calamity Flame still remained vividly engraved in my mind.
Yet the place where I had opened my eyes now
Was not that burning hell,
But the bedding of Affairs Hall where I had spent my childhood.
Still dazed, I looked around until my gaze happened to fall upon a mirror hanging near the wall beside the bed.
And there…
Stood my fifteen-year-old self.
Exactly as I had looked on the day I first reincarnated into Murim.
“Could all of that… have been nothing more than a dream?”
No.
Impossible.
It had been far too horrific—
Far too painful to endure—
To merely be a dream.
Thirty years inside the Shadow Corps.
How could those days of burning flesh and shattered souls possibly have been fake?
For a long while, I steadied my breathing and processed the reality before my eyes.
And eventually, I reached a single conclusion.
“There’s no doubt about it. I’ve returned to the very day I first reincarnated into Murim.”
Regression.
There was no other explanation.
Having already experienced reincarnation once before,
This situation of returning to the past did not feel confusing to me.
If anything, my entire body trembled with joy so intense it felt as though my chest would burst apart.
My heart began pounding wildly.
It wasn’t simply excitement over being able to start life anew.
There was only one true reason my heart raced like madness.
“I can take revenge.”
A chance had finally come—
A chance to point my blade toward those filthy hypocrites who had trampled upon my life and slaughtered thousands of innocent people.
“…Moyong Cheonhwi. Orthodox Alliance.”
The moment their names surfaced in my mind, something blazing erupted within my chest.
A flame that would never extinguish.
The fire of absolute hatred inside me—
A hatred even the Myriad Calamity Flame failed to consume.
Revenge and hatred became fuel that burned the sensations of my life ever hotter,
A razor-sharp awareness of existence that only someone who remembered hell could feel.
At that moment—
“Mujin! What are you doing? Hurry up already!”
A voice interrupted the flames of hatred inside me.
Reflexively, I turned my head.
There stood a young boy.
“Get up already! We’re seriously gonna be late at this rate!”
Shaking me urgently at my side was a young boy named Yi Sogwang.
My childhood friend who had suffered together with me in the Affairs Hall—
Sogwang.
A face I had not seen for over thirty years since being kidnapped by the Orthodox Alliance.
The fifteen-year-old boy who had existed only in my memories
Was standing before me exactly as he once had been.
That innocent expression.
Those unchanged eyes.
The moment I saw his face, something deep in my chest tightened painfully.
“When I was expelled from the Kunlun Sect… this guy cried so miserably that day.”
The flood of old memories naturally choked my throat.
“…Sogwang…”
“Hm? What’s wrong, Mujin?”
“…It’s good to see you again.”
“Huh? What’s with you all of a sudden? Are you still half asleep? Why’re you acting so cheesy?”
Instead of answering, I suddenly pulled him into a tight embrace.
“I really missed you, you idiot.”
“Hey! What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?! Did you have some weird dream or something? Anyway, if you’re awake already, hurry up and let’s get to the Martial Training Hall!”
Unlike me, who was still drowning in the lingering emotions of the moment, Sogwang urgently grabbed my arm and pulled me along.
“I’m telling you, we’re gonna get in trouble if you keep spacing out! Hurry up already!”
“Get in trouble?”
“Yeah! Today’s the day we clean the Martial Training Hall. If the senior brothers catch us being late, we’re dead!”
At that moment, memories from the past replayed in my mind.
“The Martial Training Hall cleaning… This really is the very first day of my previous life.”
The Martial Training Hall.
A place where the Kunlun Sect gave martial arts instruction once every month to the low-ranking workers serving within the sect.
— “Those who live under the sect’s protection deserve to receive Kunlun’s teachings equally.”
Thanks to the noble intentions of a former Sect Leader of Kunlun, even the servants of the Affairs Hall—who were not official disciples—were allowed to learn at least a little martial arts.
Of course, what they taught was only the basics, such as simple internal breathing methods or beginner palm techniques.
But for lowly servants, for whom learning martial arts was more difficult than plucking stars from the sky, even that much was a blessing.
That was why the Martial Training Hall was always crowded on the first day of every month when lessons were held.
“Martial arts…”
Suddenly, I remembered the overwhelming excitement I had felt when I first realized I had reincarnated into Murim.
How thrilled I had been when I learned that my new life began within the Kunlun Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects.
Before reincarnating into Murim, back in Unified Korea, I had been nothing more than a struggling D-rank Hunter barely surviving day by day.
The only joy in that miserable life had been reading web novels.
As a low-rank Hunter scraping by in harsh reality, the glamorous lives of web novel protagonists had been my source of vicarious satisfaction.
There was one novel in particular that I had been completely obsessed with for quite a long time.
F-Rank Hunter Reincarnates as the Greatest Martial Artist Under Heaven.
Just as the title suggested, it was a cliché power fantasy.
A bottom-tier Hunter accidentally reincarnates into Murim and monopolizes countless lucky encounters through a status-window ability before becoming the strongest martial artist in the world.
Those kinds of fantasy web novels about turning one’s life around were all I ever read.
So when I realized that the reincarnation settings from web novels had become reality for me—
Well, it wasn’t hard to imagine just how excited I had been.
Fortuitous encounters.
Martial arts.
Peerless masters.
And maybe even a harem mixed in there too… ahem.
Anyway, I had completely believed that all those dreamlike possibilities were about to unfold before me.
“…Of course, I realized from the very first day that my life was completely screwed.”
Shockingly, when I reincarnated into the martial world, I ended up in a body utterly devoid of martial talent.
I struggled even to learn the most basic breathing technique taught to strengthen the bodies of the Affairs Hall servants.
— “Sigh… how are you still unable to get past the basics? I guess heaven placed a broom in your hands instead of a sword.”
Even now, I could still clearly hear the sigh of the young Taoist instructor from the Martial Training Hall who had taught me back then.
“But this time, I’ve regressed too. Maybe things will be different now?”
With a faint hope in mind, I focused my energy toward my dantian.
But my expectations were pointless.
Contrary to my hopes, I felt absolutely nothing within my dantian.
Which meant—
I had no internal energy whatsoever.
“Come on, shouldn’t I at least inherit the internal energy I accumulated before regressing?”
Back during my days as an experimental subject, I had eventually managed to obtain internal energy through countless twists and turns.
It had been forcibly acquired through the Life-Stealing Pill, a medicine that increased one’s internal energy in exchange for shortening the user’s lifespan.
But now, there wasn’t even the slightest trace of internal energy within my dantian.
“So even after regressing, this useless body completely unsuited for martial arts stayed the same.”
I needed to take revenge against the Orthodox Alliance bastards who had destroyed my previous life—
But how was I supposed to do that with a body like this…?
For a moment, disappointment washed over me.
But I quickly steadied my heart again.
“No. There’s still a way. I know the future.”
The Shadow Corps that kidnapped me had been a secret organization operating in the darkness on behalf of the Orthodox Alliance.
One of their duties involved gathering information about major events occurring throughout Murim.
After surviving inside the Shadow Corps for over thirty years, I had naturally come across many of the secrets and incidents they dealt with.
Among them were rumors about miraculous elixirs and supreme martial arts manuals that would be discovered in the future.
“If I use what I know, I can find a chance to take revenge on Moyong Cheonhwi and the Orthodox Alliance.”
As I silently strengthened my resolve for revenge,
Sogwang eventually dragged me all the way into the Martial Training Hall’s practice grounds.
“I never thought I’d return to this place again…”
The moment I stepped onto the training grounds, a strange feeling washed over me.
This was the place where I first encountered martial arts after reincarnating.
The place where my heart once raced with excitement over learning martial arts—
And where I later fell into despair after realizing just how pathetic my talent truly was.
‘That damned Taoist said it himself. That my fate was to swing a broom for the rest of my life instead of a sword.’
The harsh words once thrown at me by the Martial Training Hall instructor still echoed in my ears.
Just thinking about seeing that foul-mouthed Taoist again today already gave me a headache.
In any case, on days when martial arts lessons were held, the training grounds had to be thoroughly cleaned from early dawn.
And work like this always fell upon the youngest servants of the Affairs Hall.
“Mujin, hurry up and grab a broom! Before we get caught!”
Glancing around nervously, Sogwang handed me one of the brooms he carried in both hands.
Just as I reflexively reached out—
— “Huh? Well, look at these little bastards. You still haven’t even started cleaning?”
An irritatingly delinquent voice rang out beside us.
Turning my head, I saw a group of over ten youths swaggering toward us.
As if trying to intimidate us, every single one of them wore an exaggerated scowl on their faces.
‘Haa… those bastards were here too.’
They were a group around my age who lived together in the Affairs Hall.
Arrogant punks who constantly threw their weight around simply because they had entered the hall a few months earlier than Sogwang and me.
“What are you idiots doing? If you see your senior brothers, you should bow your heads and show some respect first, huh?”
The leader of the group, Wang Dusik, spoke in a smug voice.
Even though he was just another servant doing chores in the Affairs Hall like the rest of us, the bastard insisted everyone call them “senior brothers” after hearing the term somewhere.
‘Senior brothers, my ass.’
The idea of lowly servants pretending to have ranks among themselves was laughable.
Of course, there was a reason Wang Dusik acted so confidently.
Despite his brutish appearance, he actually possessed a bit of talent in martial arts.
Among all the servants attending the Martial Training Hall, Wang Dusik was the only one who could use something vaguely resembling martial arts.
Sure, he was still mediocre at best—
But compared to the past me, who couldn’t learn martial arts at all, the difference between us had been heaven and earth.
Because of that, in my previous life I had no choice but to silently endure Wang Dusik’s bullying.
The same went for days like today, when we cleaned the Martial Training Hall.
Originally, the work areas were supposed to be divided equally among everyone.
But Wang Dusik and his lackeys always forced Sogwang and me to clean their sections too.
“What’s this? Why aren’t you answering? Do the words of your senior brothers mean nothing to you?”
“N-no! We’re sorry for being late.”
Intimidated by Wang Dusik’s threatening tone, Sogwang repeatedly lowered his head apologetically.
“Good. Looks like you finally understand human language.”
“Told you. Idiots only move once you yell at them.”
Wang Dusik’s gang sneered viciously.
I simply watched them with an expressionless face.
A few of them glared at me and shouted irritably.
“Han Mujin, why aren’t you saying anything? Did you suddenly go deaf?”
“And look at you holding your head up so high. Guess we’ll have to teach our disrespectful junior what manners are.”
Chuckling mockingly, they rolled their right arms around threateningly.
As if they were about to beat me at any moment.
‘These little shits…’
Internally, I was dumbfounded.
In my previous life, I had lived in fear of these trashy bastards.
The vague terror I felt toward the mysterious power called martial arts that Wang Dusik possessed,
Combined with the fact that they were much bigger than me physically, had left me helpless back then.
But now?
‘Give me a break. Who do these wet-behind-the-ears little punks think they are?’
What kind of life had I lived before regressing?
The underground facilities of the Orthodox Alliance, where countless people were carried out as corpses every single night.
I was someone who survived for decades within that hell.
The martial artists and assassins secretly trained by the Shadow Corps had used me as live combat practice.
On some days, I had been stabbed hundreds of times.
My body had been sliced open by blades and martial techniques tens of thousands of times already.
‘Do you idiots know what it feels like to have a sword buried in your stomach? Do you even know the smell of death?’
I was someone who endured the killing intent of true martial artists—people whose mere presence made one’s knees tremble.
How could I possibly be intimidated by a bunch of wannabe tough guys like Wang Dusik’s crew?
All I felt was ridicule.
‘Even if it was my previous life, it’s embarrassing. To think I was once afraid of pathetic trash like these guys.’
Truthfully, Wang Dusik was the only one among them who knew even basic martial arts forms.
The rest were just idiots swinging their fists wildly.
I slowly shook my head at them.
“W-What? Has this bastard gone crazy? How dare he act like that in front of his senior brothers?!”
“Senior Brother Dusik, I think this brat needs to be taught a proper lesson.”
One of the gang members stepped forward.
He was usually Wang Dusik’s right-hand man.
“Han Mujin, I’ll personally teach you what respect between senior and junior means today.”
The moment he finished speaking, his fist flew toward me.
“Slow.”
His movement was laughably crude.
I was someone who had accumulated tens of thousands of life-and-death combat experiences against Shadow Corps assassins.
There was no way I’d get hit by the fist of some clueless street thug.
I casually twisted my upper body to the side.
His right fist cut through empty air.
“W-What?!”
Shock flashed across his face.
He clearly had never imagined his attack would miss.
There was no reason for me to waste that opening.
“Clench your teeth. This is gonna hurt quite a bit.”
My right fist drove deeply into the center of his abdomen.
Thud.
His waist folded instantly, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Ghk… guhhh…”
Looking down at the guy foaming at the mouth, I spoke calmly.
“You took a direct hit to the Critical Vital Point. Better prepare yourself to piss blood for a while.”
The human body possessed 108 vital points.
And I had already mastered them.
It was practical knowledge engraved directly into my body through the countless human experiments conducted by the Shadow Corps.
I turned my gaze toward Wang Dusik’s gang, who stood there frozen in shock.
“Alright then. Who’s next to teach me about respect between senior and junior?”
“Y-you bastard…”
The confidence they had shown moments ago had vanished completely, replaced by confusion and disbelief.
In the end, they were just immature kids puffing themselves up.
One of their stronger companions had collapsed foaming at the mouth after a single punch from me, so naturally they hesitated.
Of course, not everyone was frightened.
“Looks like our disrespectful junior learned a thing or two somewhere… but too bad for you. That won’t work on me.”
The leader of the group, Wang Dusik, tilted his head and stepped forward.
Even after watching his companion get wrecked right in front of him, his steps remained calm and composed.
‘…Wang Dusik. This one’s a little troublesome.’
Before entering the Kunlun Sect’s Affairs Hall, Wang Dusik had apparently spent several years surviving at some countryside martial school.
Because of that, he knew a few basic martial arts forms and possessed at least a tiny amount of internal energy.
Wang Dusik had martial arts knowledge and internal energy.
I, Han Mujin, had neither martial arts nor internal energy.
By all appearances, I was at a disadvantage.
Even if I had accumulated countless real combat experiences before regressing, that fact remained unchanged.
But I couldn’t back down.
‘If I bow my head to trash like this, my life won’t change at all.’
Moyong Cheonhwi, the greatest martial artist alive.
The Orthodox Alliance, the strongest force in Murim.
I had sworn revenge against monsters like them—
And now I was supposed to cower before some petty thug’s intimidation?
Absolutely impossible.
‘He only learned something like the Six Harmonies Palm at best. There’s no way I’m running from that.’
So what if I lacked internal energy?
I could make up for that with practical combat experience.
I looked at Wang Dusik and spoke boldly.
“What’s wrong? Gonna keep running your mouth? Weren’t you gonna teach me about respect between senior and junior?”
‘Insolent wretch… Fine, I’ll teach you exactly what you’re asking for!’
Grinding his teeth, Wang Dusik charged at me.
His eyes overflowed with hostility.
“Han Mujin, don’t think you’re walking out of here on your own two feet today.”
At that moment, Wang Dusik’s shoulders shifted.
His right arm swung down toward me in a large arc.
The movement looked familiar.
“As expected. Six Harmonies Palm.”
I already knew the forms of the Six Harmonies Palm.
I pulled my body backward and narrowly avoided Wang Dusik’s palm strike.
“This bastard dodged that?!”
Apparently angered by his failed attack, he pressed forward even more aggressively.
Both fists, infused with internal energy, drove toward my openings.
He was clearly trying to finish me in one go.
It was dangerous.
Knowing the forms of the Six Harmonies Palm and actually dodging attacks empowered with internal energy were two completely different things.
If even one of his strikes landed, I’d collapse instantly.
And yet—
I avoided Wang Dusik’s relentless attacks with absurd ease.
“You damn rat! Let’s see how long you can keep dodging!”
Furious beyond reason, Wang Dusik swung both arms nonstop.
A storm of palm strikes exploded toward me one after another.
Every single strike carried internal energy—a ferocious assault that someone at my current level should never have been able to evade.
But…
Something felt strange.
“What the hell? Why is he… so slow?”
Wang Dusik’s fists flying toward me looked almost like a slowed-down screen.
And it wasn’t just that.
The sweat dripping from his body.
The subtle movements of the surrounding air.
Every one of my senses—sight, hearing, everything—was clearly reading all of Wang Dusik’s movements.
It felt too different to simply dismiss as the effects of my pre-regression combat experience.
“…Is it because Wang Dusik’s martial arts are just that low-level?”
Whatever the reason, one fact was clear.
The Wang Dusik standing before me right now—
“…I could practically toy with him.”
Calmly dodging his palm strikes, I smiled inwardly.
“Looks like there’s gonna be one more idiot pissing blood today.”