Chapter 32 — Questions
After delivering heavenly punishment to Baek Cheong-woo, I slipped out of his quarters undetected.
Using the Void Step in the pitch-black night air, I returned to my assigned room in the guest residence without being noticed by anyone.
I sat down on the bed in the room prepared just for me and quietly caught my breath.
In the silent stillness of the night, one thought rose to mind.
‘…It really was the same.’
During my time as a test subject in my previous life, I knew the habits of the Blood Physician Butcher Baek Cheong-woo better than anyone.
He never allowed others near him except when conducting live experiments on humans.
He always preferred to stay isolated in remote places.
It had been the same during the final war against the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Even while marching with a massive army, his quarters were always a tent set up in a secluded area.
He needed a completely isolated “zone” to hide his test subjects and freely conduct his twisted human experiments.
‘This time was no different.’
That was how I was able to create an opening tonight.
I slipped through that opening and delivered heavenly punishment to him.
And I—
Returned every single thing he had done to his test subjects without missing a single one.
The twisting of qi and blood flowing through the body, the excruciating pain of meridians and bones snapping.
The horrific agony of internal organs melting and burning, making it impossible to draw a proper breath.
The hopeless terror of having to face death alone in a space filled with the mixed stench of medicinal herbs and blood.
All of it
Became his burden today.
The terror that had filled Baek Cheong-woo’s eyes as he died was the same terror I, as a test subject, had experienced thousands of times.
“Now… you must understand at least a little.”
I muttered in a low voice.
“Just how heavy the weight of all the evil deeds you’ve accumulated truly was.”
Today, I had eliminated one evil that should not have existed beneath the heavens.
I had taken one step further along the path of revenge I had to walk.
As I was lost in thought, a question suddenly came to mind.
‘…But why did he try to kill the Sect Leader? There’s no way Baek Cheong-woo acted alone. This must be connected to the Shadow Corps… or rather, the Orthodox Alliance…’
I thought it over repeatedly, but no clear answer came to me.
One thing, however, was certain.
The Orthodox Alliance.
Behind their false reputation of protecting the peace of the Murim, something was definitely hidden.
Something extremely sinister, reeking of rot and decay.
‘Orthodox Alliance, Moyong Cheonhwi… It doesn’t matter what it is. No matter what schemes you bastards are plotting, they will all be crushed by my hand in the end.’
I made the vow quietly but deeply.
I raised my head for a moment and stared out the window.
The light of the full moon seeped through, quietly illuminating the room.
The silence was so profound that it felt eerie.
Beneath that cold moonlight, I pressed down even deeper and more firmly on the killing intent rising within me.
***
The next day.
As the morning sun rose over the mountain ridge, I stretched refreshingly and got up from bed.
I stepped outside the guest residence, thinking of taking a walk and enjoying the fresh morning air.
That was when I witnessed the entire Kunlun Sect buzzing like a disturbed beehive.
“The White-Clothed Noble Gentleman… is dead!?”
“They say he was poisoned!”
“But inside his room… they found all sorts of strange things…?”
Kunlun disciples gathered in groups, whispering among themselves.
Martial artists from the The Hall of Martial Law running around urgently.
Even members of the Orthodox Alliance delegation rushing somewhere with grave expressions.
‘…It’s finally begun.’
At that moment, I saw Sogwang running toward me in a panic.
“M-Mujin! Did you hear? They found a corpse this morning!”
“A corpse?”
I widened my eyes, pretending to be shocked.
“Yeah, they said it was one of the guests from outside… Apparently he was poisoned!”
“Poisoned?”
“Yeah. They said when the body was first discovered, it was horrific. His limbs were all twisted, his eyeballs were half bulging out, and foam mixed with blood kept coming from his mouth. How could something like this happen in Kunlun…?”
Sogwang hugged his arms as if just imagining it gave him goosebumps.
I reacted with an even more astonished expression.
“Oh my god! How could that happen?”
Sogwang glanced around before continuing in a low voice.
“But here’s the thing… They say a bunch of strange items were found in the room where he was staying.”
“Strange items?”
“Yeah. I didn’t hear the details, but… there were tons of poisons and drawings that looked like human dissections. Anyway, they definitely weren’t things a normal person would have.”
Baek Cheong-woo’s quarters still contained the thousands of “research” records left behind by that insane pervert murderer.
From poison compounding methods to experiment logs.
All of them written and drawn by the murderer’s own hand.
I had deliberately left them exactly as they were.
I asked Sogwang again.
“So what’s the situation now?”
“The area around the room where the body was found is completely sealed off. It’s not even Kunlun Sect people guarding it… Some unknown outsiders came and blocked all access.”
“…Unknown outsiders?”
“Yeah. Their clothes are different from Kunlun’s, and they barely speak… They’re just driving everyone away. Even the Hall of Martial Law can’t get in.”
“I see.”
I nodded lightly.
‘Shadow Corps bastards. They must be sweating bullets right now.’
The unknown people Sogwang mentioned were probably from the Orthodox Alliance delegation.
Some of them were undoubtedly Shadow Corps members mixed in.
That was why they had moved so quickly to seal off Baek Cheong-woo’s quarters.
Even if they wanted to investigate his suspicious death, they absolutely had to prevent the filthy “research” records left in that room from leaking out.
Everything was proceeding exactly as I had predicted.
“It’s really scary… Someone getting poisoned to death here in Kunlun. The Hall of Martial Law is telling everyone to keep their mouths shut… I’m honestly terrified.”
I put on a worried expression and said,
“We should be careful for a while.”
Sogwang nodded repeatedly.
“Yeah. I think I’ll stay inside today. Ugh, scary.”
After reassuring Sogwang and sending him off,
I slowly raised my head and looked toward the sealed area where Baek Cheong-woo’s quarters were.
With Baek Cheong-woo’s death, the Kunlun Sect people must all be in chaos.
The Orthodox Alliance side would be the same.
No, they were probably shaken even more severely.
But this chaos was only the beginning.
A fierce storm that would swallow the entire Orthodox Alliance and Shadow Corps.
This was merely a precursor to the massive storm to come.
And the starting point of that storm would be me—Han Mujin.
I quietly took a breath and repeated my resolve inwardly.
‘Now the real beginning begins.’
***
Three weeks had passed since Baek Cheong-woo’s death.
During that time, the Orthodox Alliance had urgently dispatched an investigation team to Kunlun.
Baek Cheong-woo’s quarters remained sealed until their arrival.
The seal was only lifted after the Orthodox Alliance’s investigation team took possession of the body.
Afterward, the Orthodox Alliance personnel and The Hall of Martial Law conducted a joint investigation into his death.
The final conclusion was as follows:
‘The White-Clothed Noble Gentleman died while researching poisons.’
First, there were no signs of anyone breaking in or fighting in his quarters.
The fact that Baek Cheong-woo, a high-level martial artist, had no external wounds such as sword marks also supported this.
The most decisive reason it was ruled not a murder was the various medicinal ingredients and the records of combining and researching them found in the room.
It was a well-known fact that Baek Cheong-woo had regularly compounded various herbs into medicinal baths and pills and consumed them himself.
The joint investigation team concluded that he had accidentally mixed in poisonous ingredients and died as a result.
‘They did a proper job fabricating the evidence.’
I had predicted this conclusion long ago.
Originally, Baek Cheong-woo’s room had been filled with horrific records of the live human experiments conducted by that perverted murderer.
Those records were obviously connected to the Shadow Corps.
The Orthodox Alliance bastards must have been worried that digging too deeply into Baek Cheong-woo’s death might expose the existence of the Shadow Corps or the true nature of the Blood Physician Butcher.
They had clearly poured all their efforts into resolving the situation as quickly as possible.
This was especially true since the incident had occurred in the Kunlun Sect, a place where the Orthodox Alliance’s direct influence was limited.
‘Well, that murderer was also an absolute madman.’
It was entirely possible that even the Shadow Corps members believed he had died due to a mistake while compounding poisons.
After all, within the Shadow Corps, Baek Cheong-woo was notorious for being obsessed with poison manufacturing and human experimentation.
In the end, Baek Cheong-woo’s death was quietly swept under the rug.
Martial artists expressed regret over his passing, calling it an extremely hollow death for a rising star who belonged to the Five Dragons and Two Phoenixes and bore the renowned title of White-Clothed Noble Gentleman.
Of course, my thoughts were completely different.
“Hollow? It was the perfect death for that murderer bastard.”
The one who deserved to die had died exactly as he should.
I was quite satisfied with this being the first ending I had changed after my regression.
And this was only the beginning.
Countless endings still awaited me—endings that I would have to overturn.
I would rewrite every single one of them in the direction I desired.
Without fail.
***
It had already been two months since I won the Great Assembly of Elders.
Aside from the brief commotion caused by Baek Cheong-woo’s death, the past two months in the Kunlun Sect had been remarkably peaceful.
In truth, if there were no signs of the Heavenly Demon Cult stirring, there was no place as unchanging as Kunlun.
Just like the Kunlun mountain range that stood firm no matter how fierce the storms or bitter cold, the Kunlun Sect also possessed a steadfast spirit that remained unshaken by ordinary turbulence.
However, there was one significant change.
It was the way the people of Kunlun looked at me.
After winning the Great Assembly of Elders, their attitudes had completely transformed.
The Taoist bastards who used to ignore me for being from the lowly Abandoned Martial Hall now hurriedly bowed their heads and stepped aside whenever they saw me on the path.
After I passed by, whispers would follow.
“Isn’t that him? The one who awakened the sword path of Azure Cloud True Person.”
“He’s the winner of the Great Assembly of Elders. And he achieved it in just a few weeks of training.”
“Unbelievable… Has a true genius sent from the heavens finally appeared in Kunlun?”
Gazes filled with envy, admiration, and curiosity.
My standing within the Kunlun Sect had risen to a height that could no longer be compared to before.
I inwardly enjoyed those looks to my heart’s content, but outwardly acted as if nothing had changed.
This was still only the beginning stage.
The realm I aimed to reach was far higher than this.
Even amid my changed daily life, I immersed myself even deeper into martial training and studying the secret manuals in the Abandoned Martial Hall.
I focused especially on training the Flowing Flower Sword.
It was the only martial manual left behind in Kunlun by Azure Cloud True Person, the former unrivaled expert of the world.
After learning this fact, I couldn’t help but devote myself even more.
Azure Cloud True Person.
A legendary figure who commanded the world with a single sword and ultimately ascended to immortality.
What could be more important than comprehending the true meaning of the supreme martial arts left behind by such an absolute expert?
Today, as always, I had risen at dawn and poured all my strength into Flowing Flower Sword training until now.
“Huu…”
I slowly lowered the sword in my hand and steadied my ragged breathing.
The cool breeze sweeping through the front yard of the Abandoned Martial Hall pleasantly cooled the sweat on my forehead.
My wrists throbbed lightly from the repeated sword practice since dawn, but the results were equally clear.
I could feel the flow of the fourth form of the Flowing Flower Sword I had been refining today finally settling stably at my fingertips.
The trajectory the sword should follow and the flow of energy were beginning to connect into a single faint line.
I lightly rolled my shoulders to loosen the stiff muscles, regulated my breathing, and calmed my mind.
However, as the physical fatigue gradually subsided, the lingering unease that always remained in a corner of my heart began to surface again.
A thought I could never dare voice to anyone in Kunlun.
It was—
‘…Is the Flowing Flower Sword… truly the supreme art left behind by Azure Cloud True Person?’
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