Chapter 2

“……Senior Brother, what are you doing?”

I stared at Geum-pyo.

The memory of his dying body was still painfully clear in my mind.

“Geum-pyo……”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Pardon?”

Geum-pyo quickly searched inside his robes and pulled out a small pouch.

“Did you steal my taffy?”

“……”

Just what had I been doing with my life?

“……Anyway, I’m sorry.”

“But my taffy is still here…… What are you apologizing for?”

After apologizing to Geum-pyo—the junior brother I had failed to protect in my previous life—some of the guilt weighing on my heart finally faded.

“Isn’t it time for class? Why aren’t you attending your lesson?”

Geum-pyo looked at me in disbelief.

“If you know that, Senior Brother, then why are you lying around on the wooden platform?”

“My head hurts.”

“You’ve been using that excuse for a whole week.”

“Has it already been a week?”

Still, I had not simply been wasting time.

I needed to remember every disaster that would happen in the future and figure out exactly how the Taeul Sect had been destroyed—and where its downfall had begun.

“I’ve been busy too……”

“……That is difficult to believe when you are lying there like this.”

“It’s true. I was thinking deeply about the future of our sect.”

The Taeul Sect was a small sword sect located near Hefei in Anhui Province.

It had a long history, but no famous legacy.

It possessed many martial arts, but very few skilled martial artists.

When parents had to choose between sending their children to a large martial academy or the Taeul Sect, most chose the academy.

The Taeul Sect had only two real advantages.

It provided one meal a day, and it held a place among the Murim Alliance’s One Hundred Eight Peaks.

‘How we ever became one of the One Hundred Eight Peaks is the greatest mystery of all.’

Our sect had neither wealth nor power. We had never even bribed the higher-ups of the Murim Alliance.

And yet, somehow, we had never lost our position.

As long as we remained one of the One Hundred Eight Peaks, we were largely protected from territorial disputes and armed conflicts with other sects.

No matter how a conflict began, if two sects went to war, the Murim Alliance’s policy was to support the one that belonged to the One Hundred Eight Peaks.

Thanks to that protection, the Taeul Sect had avoided much of the fierce competition among the sects of Hefei.

However, that same position had eventually led to our destruction.

It was difficult to call it a blessing.

How was I supposed to resolve such a contradiction……?

“……Senior Brother!”

“……Hm?”

“The Taeul Sect is perfectly fine, so stop worrying and get up.”

“……How could a sparrow understand the lofty thoughts of a crane?”

“The Hall Master of Busaeng Hall is looking for you.”

“Why is that man looking for me?”

“……Shouldn’t you show the Hall Master a little more respect?”

The current Hall Master of Busaeng Hall was not even a member of the Taeul Sect.

He belonged to the Gyeryong Merchant Guild and was the younger brother of its guild master. His only notable achievement was that he had once been an outer disciple of the Mount Hua Sect.

So why was a man like him serving as a hall master of the Taeul Sect?

The master of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild had placed him here to watch over his son, who had become a lay disciple of our sect.

Apparently, he was afraid the boy might accidentally learn the Taeul Sect’s so-called inferior martial arts.

As absurd as that sounded, there was a reason behind it.

One of the privileges granted to the Murim Alliance’s One Hundred Eight Peaks was access to a special admission track for the Murim Academy.

Entering the Murim Academy was the first step toward gaining power within the Murim Alliance, but passing the regular entrance examination was extremely difficult.

To take advantage of the special admission privilege, the pampered young master of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild had become a lay disciple of the insignificant, third-rate Taeul Sect.

In exchange for the guild’s financial support, the impoverished Taeul Sect had accepted most of its demands.

“If a man like that cannot be called ‘that man,’ then what am I supposed to call him?”

Geum-pyo chuckled, clearly pleased by my words.

“Anyway, he said you must attend today.”

“Hmm…… Did he mention sparring?”

“……The atmosphere suggests it.”

Worry crossed Geum-pyo’s face.

Sparring lessons had become the most hated classes among the Taeul Sect’s disciples.

It was little more than a one-sided beating disguised as training.

“Tsk. Is this really the best a former lay disciple of Mount Hua can teach?”

I slowly rose to my feet.

I had no desire to see those people, but I could not stand by while my junior disciples were beaten.

Crack!

“Guh!”

The moment I entered Busaeng Hall, I saw one of the Taeul Sect’s disciples clutching his head and rolling across the floor.

Sa-ryeon hurried over, checked the child’s injury, and glared at Gye Cheol-yeong.

Gye Cheol-yeong seemed to misunderstand her gaze and smiled proudly.

“How was that? Impressive, wasn’t it?”

What an idiot.

Tsk, tsk.

I walked over to the child Sa-ryeon was helping up.

“Let me see.”

Fortunately, there was no open wound.

Head injuries could sometimes be more dangerous when there was no bleeding, but Gye Cheol-yeong was not strong enough at his current age to cause serious harm.

There was probably nothing to worry about.

“When you get home, hold a cold stone against it. That should help reduce the swelling.”

“Ah, yes……”

The child wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and bravely returned to his place.

“What is this? I thought your head hurt. Are you feeling better now?”

At Sa-ryeon’s question, I shook my head.

“No. My thoughts only became more tangled, so I came outside.”

“Pardon?”

I turned away from her and addressed Gye Yeon-seung, the Hall Master of Busaeng Hall.

“Would it not be better to end today’s sparring here?”

“What?”

“Quite a few of the junior disciples have already been injured.”

More than half the disciples were clutching their heads, shoulders, or arms.

Every one of them had been beaten under the excuse of sparring.

“Jin So-un, you arrive late and dare speak such nonsense?”

“Is this so-called sparring not merely an excuse to show everyone how impressive Senior Brother Gye Cheol-yeong is?”

“What did you say?”

I looked at Gye Cheol-yeong, who stood proudly beside his father.

“And Senior Brother Gye, no matter how poor Sa-ryeon’s judgment may be—and I mean truly poor—there is no chance she would ever like a wretch like you. Your ambitions are far too grand.”

“Jin So-un, how dare you!”

Gye Cheol-yeong’s face turned bright red, and he looked ready to rush at me.

Gye Yeon-seung raised a hand and stopped him.

“Is that truly all this sparring looks like to you?”

Anger burned in his eyes, but I continued without concern.

“I do not know what Busaeng Hall teaches these days. All we seem to do is physical training and sparring.”

“It is all meant to prepare you for real combat—”

“In that case, practicing sword forms would be far more useful.”

“What……?”

Gye Yeon-seung’s face flushed red.

“How dare you say such a thing before me, a disciple of Mount Hua?”

“You were only a lay disciple, were you not? Just like Senior Brother Gye, you paid money to learn swordsmanship.”

I had only spoken the truth, yet Gye Yeon-seung became even angrier.

Perhaps that was why people said the truth could be the sharpest weapon.

“You insolent wretch!”

Killing intent seeped from his body.

Sa-ryeon and the junior disciples stiffened. Even Gye Cheol-yeong instinctively stepped back.

Strangely, I felt no fear.

It was not because my martial arts were stronger than Gye Yeon-seung’s.

‘Compared to the monsters I faced in my previous life, this killing intent is nothing more than a child throwing a tantrum.’

After dismissing it so easily, I continued speaking.

When one lacked the strength to strike with a sword, one struck with words instead.

That was the way of the Sojeong Squad.

“Honestly, I wish both you and Senior Brother Gye would stop interfering. Then perhaps the junior disciples and I could finally learn the Taeul Sect’s martial arts properly.”

“Hah! Are you claiming the Taeul Sect’s hall masters could teach you better than I can?”

“Do you even have anything you can teach us? Lay disciples are forbidden from passing on their sect’s martial arts, and you have no real combat experience.”

“Urgh……”

Gye Yeon-seung trembled with rage.

Sa-ryeon moved closer and whispered to me.

“What are you doing, Senior Brother? Have you lost your mind?”

“I do not know. But nothing I said was wrong.”

At this point, I no longer cared what happened.

The future was filled with despair, and I had no power to change it.

Perhaps if I died beneath Gye Yeon-seung’s sword, Gye Cheol-yeong would be forced to leave the Taeul Sect. Then one of our true disciples might be able to enter the Murim Academy through the special admission track.

‘But would sending a single disciple really change anything?’

Even if that person joined the Murim Alliance, they would probably become nothing more than another low-ranking warrior used as a human shield.

Still, anyone who wanted to play an important role in the coming Great Righteous-Demonic War had to enter the Murim Academy.

Gye Cheol-yeong only wanted to enter so he could rise through the ranks of the Murim Alliance.

I could not allow him to steal such a valuable opportunity from the Taeul Sect.

“Ha…… So that is what you think?”

Gye Yeon-seung pointed toward the training ground.

“Very well. You must have the skills to support such arrogance. Step forward and prove yourself against Cheol-yeong!”

This was how these arguments always ended.

When every disagreement was settled through force, there was no reason to continue talking.

In the past, I would have lowered my head and backed down by now.

‘Fine. I suppose I should teach them a lesson.’

Even if I was only taking out my frustration on them, it would still make me feel better.

I held out my hand toward Sa-ryeon.

She quickly hid her wooden sword behind her back.

“Senior Brother, if you fight him now, you will be seriously injured. Please, just apologize.”

“Why should I apologize when I have done nothing wrong?”

Using the White Phoenix Hand, I snatched the wooden sword from her grasp and stepped forward.

“Jin So-un! Take your opening stance!”

“Why would I need one against Senior Brother Gye? Let us simply begin.”

I rested the wooden sword against my shoulder, showing that I was ready.

My careless attitude clearly irritated Gye Cheol-yeong. His expression now looked almost identical to his father’s.

“Jin So-un! How dare you behave like that in front of the Hall Master?”

“Senior Brother, stop wasting time and begin.”

“You truly need to be taught a lesson.”

Gye Cheol-yeong took an opening stance that did not belong to the Taeul Sect.

‘The Three Shadows Sword.’

In my previous life, that sword art had defeated me countless times.

He had learned it from Heonwon Su, a wandering warrior well known throughout Shaanxi Province.

I had memorized every form and technique the first time I saw them. However, at the time, I had lacked the skill to dodge or counter them.

Now, things were different.

I had thirty years of experience.

I had served as a low-ranking warrior of the Murim Alliance and fought with the Sojeong Squad against several of the Divine Cult’s armed forces, including the Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit.

There was no chance I would be helplessly defeated by the twenty-year-old Gye Cheol-yeong.

“Begin!”

The moment Gye Yeon-seung gave the order, Gye Cheol-yeong kicked off the ground and shot forward as though gliding across the floor.

It was clearly not the Taeul Sect’s footwork.

Gye Cheol-yeong’s first strike shot straight toward my eyes.

As expected of a sword art created by a wandering warrior, its movements were rough but vicious. The young disciples of the Taeul Sect immediately panicked.

‘Still……’

Compared to the bloodthirsty monsters of the Divine Cult, this was nothing more than child’s play.

Gye Cheol-yeong also lacked Heonwon Su’s willingness to risk his life and the desperation needed to perfect every technique.

Though they used the same sword art, the results were completely different.

There was no need to use any of the martial arts I had learned in my previous life.

The Minor Heaven Sword Art, which every child in Busaeng Hall knew, was more than enough.

Clack!

I knocked his sword upward with the flat of my blade, then followed with three consecutive techniques from the Minor Heaven Sword Art.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

My wooden sword struck three different points on his body in quick succession.

“Ugh!”

Gye Cheol-yeong’s eyes widened as though he had suddenly snapped awake.

I continued attacking him with the Minor Heaven Sword Art.

“Hah……”

“……Wow.”

“Isn’t that the Minor Heaven Sword Art?”

The children exclaimed in amazement when they recognized the familiar techniques.

Gye Cheol-yeong knew the sword art just as well as they did, but he was too shaken to respond properly.

His movements soon fell apart, leaving him completely exposed.

“I see an opening, Senior Brother!”

I swung the wooden sword down on his head with all my strength.

Crack!

The sound of something breaking was immediately followed by a piercing scream.

“Aaaagh!”

Gye Cheol-yeong dropped his sword, grabbed his head, and rolled across the floor.

“Aaaaagh!”

For a moment, the hall fell silent.

Then the Taeul Sect disciples burst into cheers.

“Waaaaaaah!”

“Silence! All of you, be quiet!”

Gye Yeon-seung, who had rushed over to examine Gye Cheol-yeong, released a terrifying pressure and shouted.

“Return to your places!”

The children immediately fell silent. Frightened by the presence of a powerful adult warrior, they hurried back into position.

“Aaaagh, my head!”

Gye Cheol-yeong touched his scalp, then froze when he noticed something strange.

When he lowered his hand, his palm was covered in blood.

Gye Yeon-seung saw it and glared at me as though he wanted to kill me.

“How did you do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“How did you defeat Cheol-yeong?”

“With the Minor Heaven Sword Art.”

“The Three Shadows Sword lost to something like the Minor Heaven Sword Art……”

Gye Yeon-seung suddenly stopped speaking.

No matter how much influence the Gyeryong Merchant Guild held over the Taeul Sect, there were still certain lines he could not cross.

Openly insulting the sect’s martial arts was one of them.

“The Three Shadows Sword and the Minor Heaven Sword Art are worlds apart in depth. I am asking how you overcame that difference.”

He was speaking indirectly, but what he wanted to know was simple.

How could the Minor Heaven Sword Art, a basic sword art, defeat the Three Shadows Sword, an advanced technique once used by a peak master?

“Nothing in this world is absolute. If the person using the technique is lacking—”

The words caught in my throat.

A sudden realization struck me.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult would return.

The Murim Alliance would fall.

Since the Taeul Sect belonged to the Murim Alliance, it would be destroyed along with it.

And because of my absurdly good memory, I would be used by one faction after another until I finally died.

But were those outcomes truly unavoidable?

“Since you cannot explain yourself, you must have used some kind of trick.”

Gye Yeon-seung’s ridiculous accusation pulled me from my thoughts, and my expression twisted.

“……What kind of nonsense is that?”

“The difference between a basic sword art and an advanced one cannot be overcome. Every martial artist knows that.”

“Does Mount Hua teach its disciples to make excuses whenever they lose?”

“You insolent wretch! Take back those words immediately!”

“Am I wrong?”

“Very well! Then try overcoming that difference against me.”

“……”

Contempt appeared in Hong Sa-ryeon’s eyes and in the eyes of the junior disciples.

No matter how one looked at it, this was simply an adult throwing a tantrum at a child.

“Are you serious?”

“Of course, I will not use internal energy. I will face you with technique alone. Why? Can you not prove your own claim?”

“Shouldn’t you take Senior Brother Gye to a physician first?”

Gye Cheol-yeong had been howling in pain, but he seemed to expect his father to avenge him. He immediately stopped crying and shook his head.

“I-I’m fine.”

You fool. You are still bleeding.

“I will ask you again. Can you prove it or not?”

Perhaps I had given in to despair before even trying.

My situation was hopeless, just as it had been in my previous life.

But there was one important difference.

I was no longer the same person I had been back then.

As I had said, nothing in this world was absolute.

If everything had already been decided, the Sojeong Squad could never have defeated the Divine Cult’s Guardian Dharma King.

‘I will not run away in fear like I did before.’

I raised my head and met Gye Yeon-seung’s gaze.

“What will you give me if I prove it?”

“What?”

“If I win, what will you do? An adult is forcing a child into a fight. It would be unfair if the child gained nothing from winning.”

Gye Yeon-seung’s expression hardened.

He looked as though he truly wanted to kill me.

“What do you want?”

What did I need most right now?

If I intended to make proper use of this second chance, I needed time more than anything else.

“If I win, acknowledge that I have completed my training in Busaeng Hall. I will no longer attend its lessons.”

“……Very well.”

Gye Yeon-seung walked to the side and picked up a wooden sword.

His expression was so grim that it was obvious he did not intend to stop after merely breaking one of my arms.

I raised my sword in front of me.

Now that I thought about it, Sect Leader Hong Mun-gi had only promised the Gyeryong Merchant Guild a chance to enter the Murim Academy.

The disciples of the Taeul Sect still had the right to compete with Gye Cheol-yeong for the special admission seat.

Yet none of us, myself included, had ever considered challenging him.

We had failed to protect what rightfully belonged to us.

We had simply given up.

And in the end, the Taeul Sect had been destroyed.

I could not stand by and allow that nightmare to happen again.

“Begin!”

Gye Yeon-seung’s favored sword art was Mount Hua’s supreme technique, the Plum Blossom Sword Art.

The countless paths of its blade instantly unfolded inside my mind, each one as clear as the day I had first seen it.

Along with every sword path, I could also see the flaws and weaknesses hidden within it.

Jegal Cheon-gi, a genius without equal, had studied the martial arts of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans in order to help them resist the Divine Cult.

For each faction, he had created three sets of counter-techniques: the Shattering Forms, the Ascendant Forms, and the Demon-Subduing Forms.

The problem was that by then, the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans had already been defeated and scattered throughout Jianghu.

There had been no way to deliver Jegal Cheon-gi’s Three Forms to them.

That was when the task had fallen to me—the man cursed with a useless, perfect memory.

‘My internal energy may be weak, but there is no chance Cheon-gi’s Shattering Form will fail.’

Gye Yeon-seung unleashed the Plum Blossom Sword Art.

Since he was not using internal energy, there was no scent of plum blossoms. Even so, every movement of his sword was graceful and refined.

The counter to the Plum Blossom Sword Art immediately appeared in my mind.

I followed the Shattering Form and thrust directly toward its weakness.

“You wretch!”

Just as Gye Yeon-seung’s wooden sword came down toward my head—

Thwack!

“Guh!”

His sword was knocked off course.

He stumbled in surprise and barely managed to regain control of it.

“What is this……?”

I continued unfolding the Shattering Form.

The Plum Blossom Sword Art was the technique Gye Yeon-seung trusted most. However, once I broke its flow, he could no longer put any strength behind his attacks.

Realizing that something was wrong, he began pouring internal energy into his wooden sword.

‘Too late!’

The Shattering Form had already taken control of the fight.

It broke through his strengthened technique and knocked the sword from his hand.

“……!”

The wooden sword spun through the air.

I brought my own sword down toward his head, forcing him to raise both arms to protect himself.

Crack!

“Urgh!”

A moment later, his fallen sword struck the wall.

Thud! Clatter!

It dropped to the floor and rolled away.

Gye Yeon-seung had barely managed to stop my strike with his bare arms.

Silence once again filled Busaeng Hall.

Then the Taeul Sect’s disciples burst into cheers.

“Waaaaaaah!”

They rushed forward and crowded around me.

Gye Yeon-seung remained frozen in place, staring at his trembling hands in disbelief.

I slowly looked around the hall.

None of this had happened in my previous life.

‘Yes. This life is different.’

‘From this moment onward, everything will be different.’

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