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“You brought him inside?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
It was rare to see the subordinate being flustered.
Dam Jun figured it couldn’t be helped. He was someone even the Gold Pillar found difficult to handle. A mere underling couldn’t have stopped him.
“Rest now.”
Sending the subordinate off, Dam Jun entered the branch.
“Teacher. It’s Dam Jun.”
Opening the office door, Dam Jun was momentarily at a loss for words.
In the office lit only by a small oil lamp, Jin-hyeon waiting there looked oddly bleak.
He sat with one knee raised, leaning against the wall, a large sword at his side from who knows where. His snow-white hair shimmered in shifting hues by the lamp’s flicker.
His eyes glowed in the dark with a faint blue. It had an ominous tint that looked both cold, and frenzied.
“Pebble, you’re here.”
“…Ah, yes.”
Dam Jun cleared his throat. His voice felt like it might crack for no reason.
“I was told to come find you, then heard you had come back here, so I hurried over.”
Even as he spoke, it felt off, like he was making excuses.
Jin-hyeon had no interest in Dam Jun’s feelings.
“The Mad Demon Blood Incident happened ten years ago, right?”
Straight to the point. Dam Jun nodded.
“Yes.”
“You have the investigation on that here?”
“We do. It’s so infamous that copied reports are kept at every branch.”
“Bring them all.”
“But in the Murim Histories I gave you before…”
“Not the condensed info, not the book with a few footnotes.”
“…Understood. Please wait a moment.”
He was always sharp and intimidating, but today the mood was darker still. It was hard to breathe being in the same room as him.
Dam Jun hurriedly summoned a subordinate to fetch the documents.
A short while later.
“Here they are.”
There were dozens of pages.
Silently, Jin-hyeon read through them page by page.
With nothing to do, Dam Jun fidgeted, touching the wall, sitting, standing. He wanted to leave, but the weight of the air sealed his lips.
By the time he started handling things that could wait until tomorrow.
“This part nags at me…”
A mutter to himself, not meant to be heard.
Naturally, in the silence, Dam Jun heard it clearly.
“Which part are you talking about?”
“…”
“My apologies.”
Jin-hyeon, who’d been glaring at one sheet in particular, stood.
“I’m off.”
“Eh? Ah, yes. Go safely.”
Jin-hyeon, shouldering the Indestructible Sword, stopped.
“Pebble.”
“Yes, Teacher.”
“What’s Gold Pillar Seomun doing?”
“Other than being busy with matters of the Five Tigers Merchant Guild, I’m not sure. His position keeps many things secret…”
“Then at least you, have your people do a proper investigation of the murders.”
“Eh?”
Jin-hyeon looked back at him.
Dam Jun flinched; Jin-hyeon’s eyes looked unusually clear.
“Civilians are dying. Are you not investigating it?”
“…Ah, well…”
“Why? Do you need a commission for that, too?”
Unconsciously, Dam Jun averted his gaze. He should have squarely said yes, yet the words wouldn’t come.
After quietly looking at him, Jin-hyeon turned again.
“I’m off. Make sure you eat.”
“Eh? Ah, yes. Get home safe.”
When Jin-hyeon left, Dam Jun sighed and collapsed into a chair.
“I thought I’d suffocate. What’s with him today?”
Grumbling alone, he looked down at the report Jin-hyeon had left behind.
After staring for a while, he began to read it in earnest.
With the hour of the Tiger nearly past, it reached the Rabbit hour.
Dawn would break soon. Perhaps for that reason, the market street he returned to was desolate.
Walking alone, Jin-hyeon’s eyes were clouded.
‘What was I supposed to see there?’
The upper dantian that overheated at the scent of blood had calmed. The Soul-Refining Art had ceased its extreme operation.
Thinking on it, it was strange. From the Yeo Family Ironworks to the scene was nearly five kilometers.
To catch a blood scent from that far? That was impossible.
Of course, at the level of the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader, it would be possible to determine the density of Death Qi through extreme mastery of Qi Cultivation.
Of course, such a thing was impossible for Jin-hyeon as he was now. And this was nothing like locating a concealed assassin with heart-sense. More than anything, the effective range was sharply limited.
‘How could the dead…’
The Eight Wastes Alliance Leader had died.
Body and soul.
None knew that better than Jin-hyeon. Yet having it happen twice made him suspect the Leader’s remnant will might truly be lurking somewhere.
‘Why did it lead me there?’
Whatever it was, some pull had taken him to the scene, saying it would tell him what he truly desired.
But he couldn’t know it, and he thought such a thing wouldn’t happen.
He had a clear self, controlled himself perfectly, and was achieving what he wanted one by one.
A home, and a peaceful life with my people. Isn’t that enough?
He didn’t think himself modest. To live in peace, worry-free to the end? Was there anything harder in the world?
What he actually gained there was the fact that the dumpling shop owner was a formidable master, and that he was connected to the affair, at least indirectly.
Thinking of Jeong Gyo brought his martial arts to mind.
‘That art was surely the Life-Snatching Chain-Linked Saber.’
A diagonal upward slash. In the very next shift of angle the blade drops and hacks the foe into pieces without mercy. If the opponent manages to block the first strike he is blasted back by an eruption of accumulated force. The rotation that follows feeds into a second downward cut that splits him cleanly in half in a single blow. It is a saber technique created purely for killing.
A perfectly finished killing art without the need for more or less. It was surely the Life-Snatching Chain-Linked Saber.
And the art he showed for that final powerful blow astonished him too.
‘Even the Heaven-Shattering Saber.’
Life-Snatching and Heaven-Shattering.
These were the martial arts of the two fervent vanguards under the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader, the Life-Snatching Demon Lord and the Blood-Saber Demon Lord.
Overshadowed by the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s absolute arts, yet theirs could contend with the world. The Life-Snatching Demon Lord single-handedly broke the Wudang elders’ Seven-Stars Sword Array, and the Blood-Saber Demon Lord cut down Shaolin’s Eighteen Arhats in three strokes.
‘How did both martial arts end up in one man?’
Both arts specialized in slaughter and destruction. Lose one’s steady heart and use them wildly, and one could become a peerless fiend drunk on blood.
‘I don’t know. Truly, I don’t.’
A shadow fell across Jin-hyeon’s face.
He had seen martial arts from the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s era. He was shocked, and he should have asked how he came upon them.
But he couldn’t.
Because of the gravity of the murders, and his wavering self.
‘Just what was I supposed to…’
It was then.
“Teacher?!”
Jin-hyeon lifted his head.
In the distance, Seol Hong-baek and his sword unit approached.
“Patriarch.”
He hadn’t sensed them; that was how rattled he’d been.
“Where have you been?”
“And you, Patriarch?”
“I was combing the northeast over the murders. I just came from rotating with the sects there.”
“I see.”
Jin-hyeon’s eyes flashed.
The Clan Head stood before him.
“Do you have a moment?”
“…”
After studying his face, Seol Hong-baek ordered the swordsmen,
“You go in and rest.”
Sending them off, Seol Hong-baek walked with Jin-hyeon.
“You’re out to catch the culprit as well, Teacher?”
“It turned out that way.”
“Heh, I see.”
A subtle wrath rose on Seol Hong-baek’s face.
“Whoever it is, the deed is atrocious. If we don’t catch him soon, Sichuan’s public trust will crater.”
“Patriarch.”
“Speak, Teacher.”
Jin-hyeon did not hide his turmoil.
“Why are you taking up this case, Patriarch?”
Seol Hong-baek couldn’t hide his puzzlement. The question was too obvious.
“Powerless, innocent civilians are being murdered. How could I not step in?”
“They’re unrelated to you, are they not?”
He had never imagined Jin-hyeon would say this.
Seol Hong-baek quickly calmed his surprise, thinking he had his reasons.
“They’re not unrelated.”
“Is it business, or the fear of losing influence from the shaken public trust?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why jump in with both feet? Why step out for them instead of ruling only within your fence?”
“Teacher.”
“Please speak.”
“I see them with my own eyes.”
“!”
Jin-hyeon looked at Seol Hong-baek.
His face looked very serious and firm.
“It’s not because I’m a man of the Murim or of the Orthodox. Those reasons are messy and meaningless.”
“Then for what?”
“I told you. I see those who have suffered, and will.”
“…”
“As a fellow local at the small scale, and as a human at the large, should one stand by?”
“People live for themselves. Broadly, at most for their own. But you live for no reason other than following your heart.”
“Yes.”
“Might such acts not harm those under your household?”
Seol Hong-baek smiled.
“That’s why my house is like this. Not large in power, nor in people.”
“…”
“But I have never held any of them. If they wish to leave, they leave; if to stay, they stay.”
“That is…”
“You yourself told me as much.”
For a moment, Jin-hyeon felt struck by lightning.
He recalled their talk after demonstrating the Seven Purities Sword.
‘Heh, had I been a bit better, I could’ve preserved it closer to the original. Then my swordsmen might not have left.’
‘Those bent on leaving will leave whatever you do. What matters is ‘me.’ Everything begins with the self.’
Right.
Jin-hyeon already knew the answer. More precisely, he knew the path to it.
Yet the one who’d given insight to another hadn’t looked into his own heart.
‘I…’
Then the vanished whisper returned.
「Do you need a home?」
‘I do.’
「Why do you need it?」
‘Because I want it.’
「Do you wish to be the founder of a clan?」
‘I don’t care to be a founder. Whoever that is, I just need a home.’
「How far does your fence run?」
A blaze lit in Jin-hyeon’s eyes.
‘Anywhere my eyes reach.’
A faint hint of laughter touched the voice, whether it came from the unconscious or from what remained of the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader.
「So then, what do you desire?」
Flash!
It felt like a shaft of light pierced his head.
Only now could he be certain. There was no such thing as the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s lingering will.
This whisper was his own voice as before. It slowly merged with his heart.
Perfect unity of conscious and unconscious.
In this moment, Jin-hyeon’s self was complete.
‘I already knew my desire. Why then had I hesitated?’
His gaze naturally fell on Seol Hong-baek.
‘Because of this man.’
More precisely, because of people like him.
Sichuan has many trash like men, but there are also those who shine to the eye.
To be close with them, to spare them harm, he had pressed his heart down. He needed people to polish his heart which was stained by betrayal and war as much as he needed a home.
‘But I need not set aside my desire for that.’
No, he mustn’t.
Even if it meant dying and becoming a ghost, like the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader who had vowed never to look away from his desire.
Toward the place where his dream, his goal, and his desire point, He must keep walking step by step even if a typhoon sweeps in, even if torrential rain pours down, even if a landslide comes crashing.
‘I want a home.’
A wide home called Sichuan, further a wide home called the realm.
A home where there are more people like Seol Hong-baek than trash like the Finance Hall Hall Master Gwan Hong, the murderer who killed powerless civilians, and the Sect Leader of the Black Tiger Fist Sect. A place where the heart can rest no matter where one goes.
“…”
Jin-hyeon stopped.
Seol Hong-baek, keeping pace, stopped as well.
“Teacher?”
“Patriarch.”
“Please speak.”
Jin-hyeon smiled. Seol Hong-baek smiled with him.
There was no longer confusion on the young benefactor’s face.
“You, Lady Seol, and all the Seol clan are within my sight. And so are those slain by that killer.”
“…”
“Therefore, in the clan I will build, you too are present.”
How could such absurd words sound so clear?
Seol Hong-baek burst out laughing.
“If Sichuan’s divine man bids me be kin, then I shall. As the Seol clan’s Patriarch, I gladly become a member of your clan.”
Spoken like a jest, yet not a jest. He knew Jin-hyeon had found a great insight, and half thought of the man twenty years his junior as a teacher.
The young teacher was about to take a step toward the world. Helping with full heart was a disciple’s duty.
“In days to come, I may give you cause for regret.”
“So long as the powerless do not suffer from your misdeeds, I will have no regrets.”
“Don’t take that back later.”
“Shall we wager?”
Jin-hyeon looked up and laughed.
Seeing him laugh so freely for the first time, Seol Hong-baek was surprised, then caught the good humor and laughed with him.
Behind their long laughter, the east brightened.
“Now then.”
Jin-hyeon’s eyes turned cold.
“Before this day ends, shall we catch that mad butcher first?”
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