A day has passed.
On my way home yesterday.
I wondered if the kid was suffering from love deprivation, obsessed with relationships around him, especially with mine, so I watched closely, but there were no signs of that.
It’s not like he’s extremely anxious about my absence.
Kids can be complicated.
There are still four years left, so I guess I can keep an eye on him during that time.
And today, Cheonma finally arrived.
As soon as Cheonma showed up, Soo-oh clung to him and babbled nonstop about what happened yesterday. She was so chatty that Cheonma even asked me for help in the middle of it.
I found it amusing, so I pretended not to notice and went outside to exercise.
I headed towards the ruins that appear further north.
I hadn’t come all the way out here to run in a while. While thinking that, I looked around and in the middle of the ruins, there lies a corpse.
Huh?
A corpse?
Well, there are lots of bones scattered about weathering away, but this is a fresh corpse with its insides still not completely dried out.
With a hole in its head, it doesn’t seem like it was killed by a stab, does it?
Why is this person lying alone and dead in a place like this?
I approached where the corpse was. I inspected its clothes.
Nothing recognizable was found while rummaging through the garments. Or there could be things I just don’t know about. But there’s still a faint warmth lingering.
So, I smashed the chest with my hand.
Crack.
As the corpse crumbled, warmth that was about to vanish poured into me. At that moment, the light turned black and shrank, detaching from the body.
That’s when it happened.
Smack!
Suddenly, the ground surged forward.
No, to be precise, I was attacked, and my body was thrown forward. The impact hit the back of my head.
Of course, even if my body gets damaged, I won’t lose consciousness. If it were Choseol’s body, maybe, but I can’t even sleep, let alone faint.
I know that when my head flies off, I can still think, so I’m already aware that it doesn’t matter anymore.
“Damn, that demonic cult bastard. How did he catch on? Does this mean that the communication with Samho also got cut off?”
A man’s voice came from behind me as I lay down.
No one here refers to Cheonma Church as a demonic cult. It’s something said outside.
The Five Mountain Sword Faction or the Nine Factions are groups that dominate the martial world. It’s their usual lingo.
The fallen man has been sent by the Nine Factions. Of course, I know that the Five Mountains also sent several agents this time.
The man approached and kicked me away with his foot.
I had my eyes closed, so I couldn’t tell exactly what was happening, but I could hear him rummaging through my belongings.
“Oh, there it is. Where. Oh Myeong-seong, demonic cult member. Above supreme level. Threatening force. Need to assess. Ha, so he really betrayed us.”
Before I absorbed his warmth, I didn’t know, but there’s a coded record hidden in the fabric of his clothes. Looks like the person attacking me is reading that.
Soon after, his footsteps faded away.
I regenerated my severed neck back to normal and stood up.
I roughly understood the situation when I smashed the man’s chest, so I refrained from extracting the warmth of the opponent who attacked me.
Hehe, good thing I held back.
It confirms that it wasn’t just Oh Myeong-seong that brought agents into the mix. According to this guy’s memories, the intel agency he belongs to has been sending people every year around this time for the promotion battles.
To scout how the martial power ranking of Cheonma Church changes.
This time, they also intended to check on what was happening with Oh Myeong-seong.
Hehe.
Things are getting interesting. The martial world seems likely to move. Of course, given the distance, they might just respond appropriately without much ado.
Currently, the martial world is still filled with fear regarding the Martial God.
Yes. It’s about the incident that allowed Eunjai to take on the name of Martial God.
So perhaps they’ve always kept an eye on Cheonma Church.
I was only aware of this from Cheonma Church’s side, but gaining an outsider’s memories makes it clear. This is why one should stay on their toes in distant places.
Although it has faded significantly, memories of Eunjai tearing through the martial world still linger.
I never understood why the monks suddenly claimed Oh Myeong-seong’s hair color changed, and then labeled me as a ‘Martial Virtue,’ but now it makes sense.
And Oh Myeong-seong was oblivious to all this.
I understand. Of course, if I were to comb through his memories, I’d find that he learned it at a place called Hwasan, but he wasn’t particularly interested in that learning.
He merely has a vague recollection of tragedies seen by his master, meaning more of the same.
You should have thought about this more frequently to understand easily.
In other words, there were reasons to suppress the harvesting period, and now reasons have resurfaced to suppress it again.
I don’t know if they will come this far, but I hope they take it seriously and respond.
I loosened my body, ran through my usual course again, and returned home.
I intentionally arrived a bit late.
By the time Cheonma had left.
Soo-oh was half-melted, lying on the porch like ice in the sun.
Maybe it was because I had just been badgered by Soo-oh as soon as I arrived, but for some reason, my hands felt particularly rough this time.
“Did you get beaten up a lot?”
“I thought I was going to die!”
Soo-oh complained that the master was too much; she said she only asked a question, and then experienced it firsthand.
I wondered if other thoughts were mixed in and returned to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
*
Without the sun, the very cold season has come.
The forest is now partly painted in vibrant colors.
I have no idea what the latitude here is. Delving through the second world’s memories I gained, at least it’s not ancient China in faded recollections.
There are similar terms, but they’re subtly different.
No, I should just say this.
The Kunlun Mountain in this world has many floating lands in the sky.
Of course, the original memory is from Daegon, it’s something from a long time ago, so I don’t know how it is now.
Meanwhile, a lot has happened in Cheonma Church.
First, Byeongil left Cheonma Church.
He tried to establish his authority by killing those who wouldn’t follow him at Sanseokdang, but he ended up angering the other faction leaders instead.
When I asked Inshimwon, who always stuck by me when we went to a village, he told me they initially supported him as the next Cheonma, but he came to expect that support, leading to him also acquiring the disgrace charge.
Actually, several faction leaders even teamed up to kill him, but he figured it out and fled Cheonma Church.
They had intended to kill him with specialized bugs, but the bugs were already dead. Of course, Inshimwon didn’t mention this.
I just saw it from Inshimwon’s perspective. Ever since I told him I hated bugs, he doesn’t ever speak of anything related to them in front of me.
Byeongil is still running desperately to the north.
And someone is following him.
The demon guardian of Cheongung’s head, Jungjae-woo.
He left Cheonma Church under the pretext of chasing Byeongil. He claimed it was because ordinary people struggle against the harvesting period.
But he has no intention of taking him back.
Using that as an excuse to completely flee Cheonma Church.
After running far following Byeongil, he intends to cut off all communication. He knows that there are no longer bugs inside him.
How do I know this?
Did I mention? I’m following him.
He has already met Byeongil and shared his ambitions.
Then, under the pretext of keeping his distance, he’s moving further away from Cheonma Church.
It’s quite pleasant to see him moving according to his own desires.
Next is Gapjae.
Originally the lowest-ranking among the first three, but within just a year, he has climbed to the highest position within Cheonma Church.
Gapjae has become the head of Sanseokdang, which was originally Byeongil’s faction.
Unlike Byeongil, however, he’s maintaining a mild relationship. Of course, this is partly due to the radical faction leader being killed by Byeongil.
Thus, he’s smoothly learning the duties of a faction head without much resistance. He recruits people from here and there since there are few people, getting swayed by other faction leaders.
That’s a problem he has to solve.
Inshimwon is handling the affairs of Woljedang.
But it’s not entirely the same. He’s completely cleaning up issues related to Hematoma Mystic Art and has left records about severing ties with it.
And inside, there are also mentions of Tongcheon’s leader and a fish-human-like creature known as a demon.
This is information I can’t understand, so I find it hard to ask Inshimwon why he’s writing it.
So, I’m slowly gathering information.
And the girl he sought. She’s shifted away from the main tasks of Woljedang. While still belonging to Woljedang, she’s been assigned to tasks closer to Cheongung.
To put it simply, she’s been removed from difficult and dangerous jobs and placed in a much easier role.
Of course, she finds this favor very burdensome.
I have no idea how this will twist.
And Oh Myeong-seong.
He’s happily living in newlywed bliss with Gumi Mil.
On the day of the promotion battle, Cheonma appointed him to the position of Gwangmyeongwusa.
I thought it was just a simple job like a bodyguard, but little did I know, it’s actually a position held by someone likely to succeed Cheonma.
There are two persons: Gwangmyeongwusa and Gwangmyeongjwasa. One of them has escaped to a distant place under the pretext of recuperation.
Because Gwangmyeongjwasa was someone who sided with Guseongyong when he came to kill Cheonma.
Thus, Gumi Mil and Oh Myeong-seong are thinking about how to bring him back while being cautious of Cheonma’s gaze.
Cheonma, huh?
She’s leaving things be, fully aware of it. While chatting with Soo-oh during training, the topic came up that if they could politically maneuver to bring Gwangmyeongjwasa back, he might be rewarded with his position again.
Until then, they’re testing him, blatantly expressing their discontent.
“Are you thinking of making him the next Cheonma?”
One afternoon, I asked the question to Cheonma, who was sitting on the porch while Soo-oh lay sprawling as usual. But she just smiled silently at my question.
I have no idea what she’s thinking.
Meanwhile, there’s been an odd lack of news about that person from the Nine Factions who fled back then.
Usually, if the martial world stirs, Cheonma would receive word, but there’s been nothing in the reports.
At most, it’s that the blind leader of the Five Mountain Sword Faction has submitted to the Nine Factions and formed a massive faction known as the Murim Alliance?
Of course, not all factions from the Five Mountains belong to the Nine, so it’s not entirely a merging of separate factions, but still, it’s complicated here too.
If this is a sign of war, I’d welcome it, as I poked Cheonma’s cheek repeatedly, who wasn’t responding. Suddenly, Cheonma burst into laughter.
I couldn’t figure out the reason.
