A Sea Dragon's First Steps in Murim
Rin was terrified.
It wasn't an exaggeration; she had been absolutely terrified.
She was a seasoned Second-class martial artist, just a hair's breadth away from crossing the threshold into First-class.
She had started her life in Murim by transmigrating into the body of a woman who had learned decent martial arts. At the age of twenty-two, her growth curve was slightly ahead of the Murim average.
However, considering the martial arts she had learned, this growth curve was a meager achievement that almost looked clumsy. She hadn't even realized that the Blood Cultist was constantly looking for an angle to launch a counterattack.
C-Crazy. I almost died. If Hae Sua hadn't pulled me out, my arm would have been sliced clean off. I didn't see it coming at all.
In the end, Hae Sua had saved her.
Amid the chaos, it was only after spotting the Blood Cultist's suddenly elongated left fingernails that she realized, in hindsight, how close she had come to dying.
She was already fighting with a broken sword. If she had lost an arm to that attack, she would have stood no chance of winning.
I... I think a little bit leaked out...
She had almost wet herself at her age, but...
"Whew, whew, gasp..."
"Are you tired?"
"M-More than I thought."
It didn't even matter if she had peed herself, because she was already so soaked that it made no difference.
Hae Sua had let Rin ride on her back, paddling and swimming forward at a rapid pace, widening the gap between them and the pursuing Blood Cultist.
The speed was so intense that she felt thoroughly washed clean, inside and out.
But then...
"Hmm..."
"W-What's wrong?"
"Why aren't you moving your tail?"
"My tail?"
"Don't semi-aquatic creatures usually use their tails when they swim? Like crocodiles..."
"Huh? Do they?"
Pondering Rin's advice, Hae Sua began to focus on the movement of her tail.
She didn't normally think about moving her tail when walking, but if she concentrated, she could feel it.
If so, could she take it a step further? Could she consciously force her tail to move, even if it didn't do so naturally in the water? The moment she made that decision and tried it—
"Waaaaah!"
"Kyaaaah!"
The Sea Dragon Tailcopter began to spin furiously, propelling them forward.
It was like the speed of a motorboat.
Hae Sua's manual paddling had been fast, but this was on a whole different level.
"W-What is this?!"
Hae Sua screamed in panic, but once the tail started spinning, it showed no signs of slowing down.
"S-Stop! Stop it! Stop right now!"
"H-Hold on! Don't grab my horns! It hurts, it hurts!"
Straddling Hae Sua's back like she was on a banana boat, Rin shrieked at the top of her lungs and grabbed onto the first thing she could reach. Unfortunately, those were Hae Sua's horns.
Splash-splash-splash-splash! Whirrrrr!
Hae Sua's tail made a roaring sound as it tore through the water, leaving a massive vortex in its wake.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
Terrified of being thrown off by the absurd speed, Rin screamed and gripped Hae Sua's conveniently handle-shaped horns even tighter.
"It hurts! Aaaagh!"
And whenever Hae Sua felt the pain from that grip—
Whir-whir-whir-whir-whir!
The Tailcopter would spin even faster in response, trapping them in an infinite loop of accelerating madness.
Just like that, the two girls vanished beyond the horizon.
"C-Cough..."
The Blood Cultist, who had pushed his lightness art to the limit to chase them down and destroy all evidence, collapsed to the ground and spat out blood.
"Pant, pant... I was too greedy. I almost ended up draining my innate true qi. As expected, even in human form, a Divine Beast is still a Divine Beast. I had no way to keep up..."
Thud.
He would surely get back up eventually, but for now, the Blood Cultist collapsed, completely losing the will to pursue them.
Rin's mention of the tail had boosted Hae Sua's swimming speed, and they had successfully shaken off the Blood Cultist.
Either way, the crisis was averted.
I buried my face in the sandy shore of the Yangtze River, panting heavily.
"I'm exhausted. I feel like I'm going to die..."
My butt. More specifically, my lower back ached.
I had no idea a tail could move so flexibly and violently.
Because I spun the Tailcopter without any warm-up, the muscles around my lower back, hips, and pelvis where the tail was attached were incredibly tense and sore.
"I told you to hold on gently if you had to grab them. Seriously..."
"I'm sorry..."
My horns were another issue.
She had gripped my translucent blue horns so tightly that the luster had faded in those spots, leaving clear handprints.
"Washing them makes it look a bit better."
The handprints, which had looked swollen, faded to a much better state after I washed them while rinsing the sand off my face.
"Alright, so the immediate problem is solved, right?"
Now that I confirmed my body was fine, it was time for the next step.
"What should we do now?"
"Considering everyone's safety, we should stick together. The Blood Cultist must be furious. He'll be searching for you, Miss Hae, with fire in his eyes to destroy any evidence."
"So staying in that cave doing nothing is dangerous?"
"Yes. As you probably know from going out to buy bandages and medicine, Divine Beasts aren't targeted automatically. It only starts when rumors about a Divine Beast spread in the area, and someone with the intent to hunt it hears about them."
However...
"That Blood Cultist saw you clearly, Miss Hae, and he has a strong motive to keep this quiet. There's no reason he wouldn't try to kill you and chop off your horns and tail to take them."
"Ugh..."
Hearing someone else talk about chopping off my horns and tail to use them as ingredients for herbal medicine gave me goosebumps.
The muscles around my tail, which had just started to relax, twitched in alarm once again.
"We definitely need to run. Do you have any recommendations?"
"First, I recommend you keep following me. I don't know if you're aware, but... not all Divine Beasts are as friendly to humans as you are, Miss Hae. Quite a few of them are extremely hostile."
"Ah, I think I know what you mean."
There was a user on the Murim Gallery who went by the handle SixTails.
According to her, she was a six-tailed fox aiming to become a Gumiho. She was always busy posting proof of how she killed people or who she killed this time.
I had almost thrown my phone in shock after seeing a photo of a blood-soaked corpse she posted in the middle of the night.
There was a reason people cursed her out and called her a notorious poster.
"Anyway, we can't have you lumped in with those bad Divine Beasts, right? That's why the Murim Alliance issues Identification Plaques for friendly Divine Beasts."
"They have a system like that?"
"Well, if someone decides to ambush you in the wilderness, showing them a plaque won't change anything. But when traveling through counties and mountains where the Murim Alliance or orthodox sects reside, it's much better to have one."
"So it's like a human certification. A license that says, 'This Divine Beast is capable of living among humans. Please protect them just like any ordinary person.'"
"Exactly. Usually, there's a verification process, but you don't have to worry about that, Miss Hae. I'll sponsor you."
"Really?"
"Of course. You saved my life."
There was no malice in Rin's bright smile.
Yeah, I saved her life not once, but twice. The least she could do was sponsor me.
"So, where should we go?"
"Going to Wuchang, where the Murim Alliance headquarters is located, would be the most secure option, but heading east from here is too predictable."
"Ah, they'd predict that."
That Blood Cultist knew Rin was with the Murim Alliance. He would naturally assume we were heading in that direction.
In that case...
"Wait a second."
"Yes?"
I needed to build some trust here. Rin was basically my broker for getting an ID card. It was best to show her I was reliable.
And I definitely remembered hearing about the sects located here in Hubei Province...!
"Wudang! Zhuge!"
"Oh."
"Was it the Wudang Clan and the Zhuge Sect? You're planning to go there for help, right?"
"You're close, but it's the other way around. The Wudang Sect and the Zhuge Clan."
"Ah."
"Still, that's impressive. I thought you wouldn't know much about the outside world since you've only lived in a cave."
"I have my ways. Don't underestimate the wisdom of a Divine Beast."
When I grinned at Rin, she looked like she was holding back a laugh. Well, she had just survived a near-death experience, so she had every reason to be in a good mood.
"First, we'll head toward Xingmen County. It sits at a crossroads leading to both Mount Wudang, where the Wudang Sect is, and Longzhong Mountain in Xiangyang County, where the Zhuge Clan is based. We can make our decision once we get there. Besides..."
Rin shook the broken half of her sword, which she had refused to let go of even in all the chaos. Her smile faded, replaced by a serious expression.
"I couldn't retrieve my senior's body because of the Blood Cultist. I don't want to lose my arm along with this broken sword. I'll get a new weapon in Xingmen County."
"So, will you be able to fight properly then?"
"Yes. I won't let myself be saved so foolishly or defeated so helplessly again. I will repay you properly for saving my life."
Rin nodded, her face filled with determination as she declared her intent to protect me.
Nice.
Honestly, this was the kind of scenario I had hoped for. Moving to the back mountain of the Murim Alliance, getting treated like a natural monument or an endangered species, and riding on their coattails. I had wondered if such a thing was actually possible, but...
It's actually happening.
It was really happening. I had just gained a bodyguard from the Murim Alliance.
Time to head out into Murim.
There couldn't be a better time to start my first journey into Murim. A luxurious trip accompanied by a bodyguard who owed me her life.
There's no reason for me to stay cooped up in a cave anymore.
Nearly a fortnight after arriving in this world, I was finally going to see the real Murim.
