“A fake? How can this… huh!”
Elder Man Jong sighed as he looked at the redness of the fake Blood Demon Sword.
He had thought that the real Blood Demon had committed this atrocity, but a third party had instead intervened. This reaction was expected.
In a way, it could be said that all of his fallen disciples were simply unlucky. None of them would have been victims if things had gone according to my plan.
“I need to check his face first.”
I approached the decapitated head that was on the ground. I already knew his face, but I pretended not to know and took off the broken mask.
“He looks to be someone in his mid-fifties.”
Hearing me, the elder approached. Was this his first time seeing this man’s face? No, it seemed that he recognized the man.
“This… what…”
What?
Elder Man Jong’s reaction was strange.
“Was he someone you knew?”
“Move aside.”
He bent down to closely analyze the face.
Even before I was granted my second life, I had seen many people in the Murim Alliance as a spy. This was someone I’d never seen before.
Besides, wasn’t this man someone who had crossed the wall?
Elder Man Jong then mumbled.
“Flashing Sword, Ja Gyun?”
“Flashing Sword?”
-Someone you know of?
No, I’ve never heard of that name.
If I had even a little bit of information, I would have been able to guess his identity through his martial arts. I then asked the elder.
“Was this someone you know?”
“How can this…”
Why was he looking so surprised?
I was unsure of what was happening, but then he slowly spoke.
“He was a swordsman called the Hope of Anhui thirty years ago.”
Anhui?
The land of the Namgung family?
For generations now, the Namgung family has used Anhui as the base of their strength. Yet, was there someone who overtook them and gained a title?
“This was someone who should have died, so why…”
“What do you mean?”
“I have seen this man before. Even then, the man was already close to sixty years old, so he would be close to a hundred now. But, this young face…”
Elder Man Jong’s words made me recall what happened in the Dual Martial Troops castle.
Someone there looked to be in his thirties but had called himself a teacher to someone else.
This was the second incident.
A person who appeared young but didn’t match their actual age.
“What do you mean this person should have been dead?”
“…I-I knew of the Flashing Sword, Ja Gyun. He challenged Jin Gyun but was seriously injured and had to disappear.”
“He competed against Elder Jin Gyun?”
“It was a time when such things happened. Those who became the Eight Great Warriors and gained fame were often challenged many times by people aiming for the position.”
So they had to compete against hundreds of people who had passed the wall and managed to stay in that position? Then, it was no exaggeration to say that just crossing the wall was a paltry achievement.
“It is hard for me to understand this.”
That’s right.
A famous warrior of the past, known to have died, had re-appeared with a young-looking appearance. He then disguised himself as the Blood Demon with clearly bad intentions.
Anyone would have a hard time trying to understand this.
That was unless the existence of the Golden Eye group was brought into it.
-Will you speak about it?
I cannot trust him with it. I think it would be better to dramatize it by using some trustworthy information.
I cautiously began to speak.
“…. Actually, there is something I haven’t told the elder.”
“What is it?”
“The person was trying to make me join him.”
“Make you join him?”
The elder frowned and asked.
“What do you mean?”
“He said he would make me a hero in the Justice Faction.”
“A hero?”
“He would make me the hero who defeated the Blood Demon who slaughtered your disciples.”
“Such a tainted man!”
Elder Man Jong’s face contorted in anger. It was clear that he hated how cheaply the lives of his disciples were being used.
“So what did you do?”
“How could a warrior on the side of justice ever fall for such tricks? Since I lacked the strength to fight him, I told him to stop insulting us and just kill me.”
-Haiya… he doesn’t even need ideas to lie.
Short Sword stuck her tongue out at my lies.
That’s right. I never told him to kill me. I wanted to stay alive at any cost.
However, if I was trying to appear to be of the Justice Faction, shouldn’t I at least act my part?
Elder Man Jong patted me on the shoulder and praised me.
“Admirable. With a junior like you, our alliance’s and Justice Faction’s future is bright.”
“That is an exaggeration. When I refused, however, he tried to kill me.”
“That was when the Blood Demon arrived?”
“No, he was trying to kill me, but the Blood Demon was in the trial. So who could this person be?”
“So, what happened?”
“There was something strange about the words that he used.”
Elder Man Jong stroked his beard as he made his own conclusion.
“It must be because his plan went awry.”
He was making a guess and came up with an answer. I then asked, dumbfounded.
“A plan?”
“He pretended to be the Blood Demon and tried to do something at this early hour. It is only natural to be shocked when plans don’t go as they were meant to. What happened after?”
I took out the pill that the man gave me.
“He tried to feed this to me. He then threatened me that if I ate this, I would have no choice but to follow them anyway.”
“Them?”
“Yes. He spoke as if he was part of a group and was not alone.”
“… you are speaking the truth?”
“I heard him clearly..”
“Just who would do such a thing?”
Elder Man Jong was taking this seriously.
Having fought the man directly, he had no choice but to wonder if a stronger warrior was behind him.
“I am not sure either. Who could it be if it is not the Blood Sect?”
“… this is bad. Give that to me.”
“Here.”
The elder took the pill and gauged its scent.
Would he, who was not a physician, be able to discern its smell?
He made a rough guess and said,
“Just the scent of it makes me feel dizzy. It seems they tried to make something happen by attempting to sway you.”
“I would have been in trouble. Fortunately, that was when the real Blood Demon came.”
“Huh…”
Hearing this, Elder Man Jong sighed.
“Such a tricky situation.”
He understood what I meant by saying this.
He had gotten help from the Blood Demon who they had made this trap for.
Being a man of justice, he must have mixed emotions.
“It has all become so complicated.”
“Perhaps the purpose of this person, or the organization behind him, is to ferment war between the Murim Alliance and the Blood Sect?”
“You seemed to have come to the same conclusion as I..”
This was all going the way I wanted. Now all I need to do is publicly speak of this.
However, unexpected words then came from Elder Man Jong’s mouth.
“The people behind this are a problem, but the Blood Demon is as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Flashing Sword slaughtered hundreds of my sect’s disciples and the people of the Murim Alliance, ready for an ambush. This meant that he had crossed the wall.”
“Yes, but…”
“Didn’t you see it? The Blood Demon didn’t have any wounds on him.”
…No, he suffered a lot too. There was even a hole in his stomach.
But this elder wasn’t normal either.
He had analyzed the entire thing in just seconds.
If I knew that this would have happened, I would have ripped up her clothes and made her look a bit ragged.
Elder Man Jong clicked his tongue.
“If he could subdue such a person without getting hurt, I cannot imagine how strong the Blood Demon is.”
…Hmm.
He was taking this seriously.
Was he more wary of the danger of a known enemy rather than an unknown one?
The elder looked at me and said,
“It seems that the Four Great Evils will change after 20 years.”
‘…!!’
That evening.
Inside an office within the Justice Faction.
Perhaps because of my life spent as a spy, I wasn’t staying as the Blood Demon, but someone of the Justice Faction.
“Phew!”
I had been cultivating for almost four hours.
It was getting dark.
I was not sure if it was because I crossed the wall while fighting with the Flashing Sword, but my lower, mid, and upper dantian felt bigger than before.
Every part of my internal qi seemed to have grown further. This felt strange to me.
Each level of my dantian was getting stronger, and I felt as if they were communicating with one another.
-This is such a new feeling, Wonhwi.
Iron Sword spoke as if he was thrilled.
‘Why?’
-You, who couldn’t even gather a speck of internal qi before, finally surpassed my former master.
That’s right.
In the truest sense, I had surpassed the South Heavenly Swordsman.
After overcoming the wall, I was able to use techniques that I knew. Still, I had been unable to use it due to a lack of enlightenment.
It was a state that even the South Heavenly Swordsman couldn’t achieve.
As I thought about it now, it was quite clean.
-My former master will like this.
I hoped so.
No matter what anyone said, this was also his progress. At that moment, I felt something outside.
It was a familiar feeling, so I knew who it was.
Knock!
“Yes.”
“Young warrior so. It is me.”
Sima Jung-hyun’s voice.
I hadn’t seen him when the bodies were being gathered a while ago, but he was now visiting me?
What was a person who should have been busy writing reports doing here?
“Please enter.”
As I said this, the door opened.
I bowed to him, which he returned with a light bow of his head and then asked.
“Why is the military head here?”
Sima Jung-hyun closed the door and said,
“First of all, I want to apologize to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“In truth, Elder Man Jong and I had tested you because we couldn’t trust you.”
A test.
Well, I already knew about that.
I had been told about an inaccurate ambush location. Some of this had been overheard by Iron Sword, but that no longer mattered.
I replied as if I was unaware.
“A test?”
“I had thought that you were a spy, so I gave you a different location for the ambush. Yet, thanks to you, four lives were saved.”
Four?
Was there another disciple aside from those three?
I was puzzled as he smiled faintly and said,
“Elder Man Jong would have lost his life if it wasn’t for you.”
“No! I am the one who is grateful to the elder who came and helped me survive. How can the merit be reversed?”
Hearing this, Sima Jung-hyun shook his head as he came closer and said.
“Didn’t you risk your life to buy some time? Elder Man Jong praised you a lot.”
“This is..”
I had only stunned him so I could fight freely, but he misunderstood everything. If it was being credited to me, there was nothing wrong here.
“I reported this to the Alliance Leader.”
“This situation?”
“Yes. With this incident, the reputation of the Blood Demon might grow out of control.”
I could conclude as much.
All things considered, the Blood Demon had saved the life of a Murim Alliance elder who had wanted to take him down.
It wasn’t like they were trying to confuse only one person using false information.
-What do you mean?
It was possible that they could spread things that were different from the truth, such as the Flying Sword Ja Gyun, who had dressed up as the fake Blood Demon, being a descendant of the Blood Demon.
The third military head, Baek Wei-hyang, was someone who could do that. I wasn’t sure what they would plan.
Sima Jung-hyun placed his hand on my shoulder and said seriously.
“If it is alright with you, I want to raise your status more.”
“… what do you mean?”
“There might be an unknown third force there that we know nothing about. If that wasn’t enough, the power of the Blood Sect seems to also be greater than we imagined.”
“What do you mean…”
“What do you think is important in creating a way?”
For what reason was he asking me this question?
I did not want to stand out, so anything would be fine.
“A scam.”
“That’s right, a scam.”
Uh? Was that correct? This wasn’t my intention, though.
Sima Jung-hyun took a deep breath and exhaled.
“The new Blood Demon is a symbol of the Blood Sect. Such a being existing there would increase the morale of the Blood Sect and the Forces of Evil. On our side, however, it would just demoralize our people.”
“Shouldn’t the leader of the alliance serve the same role?”
Sima Jung-hyun shook his head.
“Of course, the leader will play such a role, but he is now the center of the faction. It is not a role where he stands at the front.”
I didn’t like where this was going.
No…
“I want you to be the one who plays that role.”
“… you mean me?”
“If my eyes aren’t mistaken, you will become the symbolic hero who will lead the Murim Alliance from outside the Justice Faction.”
How do I answer this?
The person in front of him was the Blood Demon!
-If he knew, he’d go crazy.
Probably.
This was gradually shifting away completely from what I knew before my regression.
Originally, the person who would become this hero was Lee Jung-gyeom, one of the disciples of the Eight Great Warriors.
Instead, I, the leader of the Blood Sect, was being told this.
Ten days have passed since then.
I have now reached the port of Anhang County in Northern Hunan province.
Between then and now, many things have happened.
Elder Man Jong, leader of the Jeonjin Sect, left for Sichuan after a simple farewell, saying that the bodies of his disciples needed to be collected and returned.
Sima Jung-hyun, a military head of the Murim Alliance, also went with him to the branch in Guizhou. He went to treat Ja Gyun’s body to stop the decay. He had invited me to Wuhan, but I refused.
If I had gone with him, it would have been simple to join the Murim Alliance naturally, but then our goal could not have been achieved.
-Isn’t this burdensome because of that person?
That was what I felt at first. Where I was headed to now was the base of the 18 River Families of Yangtze.
It was a force necessary for the Evil Faction. Of course, I wasn’t alone.
Sima Young, Cho Seong-won of the Beggars Union, and the twins, Song Jwa-baek and Song Woo-hyun, were together with me.
These few elites who Baek Hye-hyang had referred to as being slow.
In addition to them, there were also the left guardian and other escorts of the sect leader. The rest of the retinue were assigned to other missions.
This was a party that I was most comfortable with and the most useful to move with through the Justice Faction.
Once we arrived in Anhang, we needed to find a boat. The sect operated ships, but according to Cho Seong-won, using ships meant for the upper class was the way to meet the pirates.
Certainly, the port was a crowded place since it was where merchants accessed the waterway.
-Ehh. Human! How long do I have to be in this armor?
Blood Demon Sword asked with a dissatisfied tone.
I know it is frustrating, but bear with it.
Just as when I went to the Murim Alliance if I didn’t use a scabbard that could hold multiple swords, then the Blood Demon Sword and the True Evil Sword would be seen.
-Huhuh. So frustrating. I can hear a lot of men outside. Can you take me out?
True Evil sword licked her lips and asked this.
This was why it wouldn’t work.
If I tried and used her for no reason, I would end up in trouble.
-This lowly thing.
Blood Demon Sword clicked his tongue.
-You speak so beautifully. You are not to my taste, either.
Do not fight.
When you fight, my head hurts. It was really hard because there were so many swords.
As Short Sword said before, I should consider finding them another master.
In the meantime, Song Jwa-baek said to me,
“Why don’t we stop by the inn and have a meal before we get to the ships? Our conditions aren’t so good.”
After I told him to treat me as Jin Wonwhi, not So Wonwhi, he spoke to me informally.
“You speak informally so well?”
“No, just… wanted to greet you.”
As expected, teasing Song Jwa-baek amused me.
Seeing my smiling face, he realized that he had been tricked.
“Ah-oh!”
As he said, Song Woo-hyung was staring at a guest house.
I could smell the spices and the taste of grilled food wafting from around us.
He had a strong appetite, so it seemed that he wanted a proper meal after a diet of just beef jerky for the past few days.
In response, I turned to Sima Young.
Sima Young smiled.
“Then let us eat first.”
Hearing this, Song Jwa-baek muttered under his breath.
“From now on, it would be quicker to just ask Miss Sima.”
Look at how he thinks.
Cho Seong-won stepped forward and pointed to the guest house.
“My lord. There is a guest house here that is famous for duck soup. I went there as a child, and the taste is excellent, so let’s go there.”
“… Duck soup. Nice!”
Song Woo-hyun, who opened his mouth for the first time, was almost drooling.
Cho Seong-won was useful in this kind of situation. Since he was from the Beggars Union, he knew many things.
-He knows things only related to food.
It was important to know where the good places were.
Eating was a pleasure in life.
Anyways, I followed him and entered the street leading to the guest house.
I spotted an old inn that was filled with a crowd of people. Since it was around the day, it must have been quite famous, seeing how many people were lined up for it.
We entered and truly saw how crowded it was.
We waited for a seat as a server came running.
“Come over. We have one empty table. You are lucky.”
That was good.
There was nothing more boring than waiting. We then followed the server to our table.
[There are a lot of people with those kinds of things?]
Sima Young sent me a question.
As I walked inside, I spotted a few odd people, but they were all warriors. They were also not just common warriors.
Judging by the characters engraved with letters on their bags, they seemed to be escort warriors.
[They seem to be escort warriors.]
Escort warriors carried out missions of delivering goods after receiving a request.
They were somewhat different from common Murim warriors.
It seemed like there were a lot of people involved this time. This was most likely because this was a port city.
[Ahh. So that is how escorts are. It’s my first time seeing them. I recently heard that the status of escorts had increased because of some famous names.]
I recalled hearing something like this.
Before I regressed, there was one named Myung Pyo who was rumored to be outstanding. However, since he wasn’t linked to the Murim Alliance, I never got to see them in person.
“Please sit over here.”
The server guided us to the farthest table. It was better than standing.
Cho Seong-won asked.
“Shall we ask for the duck soup?”
Everyone nodded in agreement, but only Song Hwa-baek made a different order.
“I want meat noodles!”
A man capable of saying no when everyone else said yes. Well, no matter what other people said about the food, it was true that you should only eat what you want to eat.
“Is that so?”
“I understand. I will bring it right away.”
The server rushed to the kitchen. As we waited for the food, we chatted among ourselves.
“Young lord. If you have to board a ship, how about disguising ourselves as an escort service too?”
“What?”
Hmmm…
I guess that wouldn’t be a bad idea, either. I heard that ships operated by certain troops would not accept passengers when they exceeded a certain limit.
Then, disguising ourselves as an escort service seemed to be the only way. However, in order to do so, I would need to disguise myself nicely. What should I do?
As I was thinking…
“Won-seong?”
I called Cho Seong-won using his fake name. However, he was looking at the entrance with a serious look.
I briefly wondered why, but I then looked over and spotted a group of envoys and beggars walking in together.
‘Ah!’
I knew why he made such a face.
Among the beggars was a young man with 8 strikes.
This only meant one thing.
He was the sub-leader of the Beggars Union.
‘Hong Geol-gae?’
I didn’t expect to see him here. Cho Seong-won’s eyes were burning with anger.
[Calm down.]
No matter how good a mask we wore, the other party would inevitably notice if they stared like this.
Without taking his eyes off his target, he gritted his teeth.
[…. Lord. You haven’t forgotten the promise to me, right?]
[That’s right.]
I promised him that I would let him get his revenge in return for his allegiance.
The time seemed to have arrived. I then asked him while I looked at Hong Geol-gae.
[I am curious, what would happen if the current sub-leader dies and another original candidate appears?]
Hearing this, Cho Seong-won looked at me in surprise.
