Flashback: Dignity Amid the Ruins
The scene was utter chaos. Few things remained preserved as they were. Acquaintances, relatives, the bailiffs who would naturally be released, and swordsmen who had flocked after hearing the rumors. It was the annihilation of an entire clan.
Great houses don't vanish quietly.
"Still, this house seems to have had a certain dignity."
Jang Cheon and Cheon Sohyang blended into the crowd, stealthily observing the site. Cheon Sohyang perked up at Jang Cheon's words.
"Whether come to pay respects or just gawk, people are minding their manners, aren't they? It's hard to maintain that if the public sentiment is stingy. Even for a once-mighty house."
"Shouldn't people always mind their manners anyway...?"
Cheon Sohyang pondered. They weren't the ones seeking vengeance. Most of the crowd here probably weren't either. Annihilation meant an entire household wiped out in calamity—regardless of inner feelings, decorum must be observed.
But Jang Cheon smiled bitterly. He might be the one who had orchestrated more clan annihilations than anyone in the world. Naturally, he'd seen what followed countless times.
Suddenly, old memories surfaced. His first target of revenge. The one who had sold out his family and wife. The ones who had lured the Cheon Family Manor with connections and personally plotted the sordid deed.
What had been the end of the Seomun Clan? Renowned throughout Shaanxi, they who called themselves the Chohyang Household—a house of fragrant grass—had met their finale in...
"Listen well. A clan's dignity is rightly pursued in noble solitude, but as the ancient sages said, when a house prospers, even absent ties come knocking, and when it falls, even existing bonds vanish heartlessly. How much more so for a house without even that self-reliant dignity to lean on?"
No one has reason to visit a ruined clan. Without caring merchant groups, without fearsome warrior bands, in the rubble lacking vast networks and deep foundations, no one wishes to forge ties.
The ashes of the Seomun Clan had been just that.
The clan's downfall had been a spectacle that made even him, the avenger, chuckle in disbelief.
At least here, it wasn't like that.
Jang Cheon let the memory flow past, then suddenly realized something.
"Looks like someone placed a corpse over there. The body itself has already been retrieved, though."
A cluster of people murmured nearby. Rumors said a corpse with severed arms had been left kneeling there. As if in apology.
"Yeah, they couldn't just leave it like that... somehow..."
"Placing it in that spot... it's weird."
"Why?"
Cheon Sohyang asked. Jang Cheon had expected it, yet couldn't bring himself to answer.
Reasons could be piled endlessly. One could speculate on the killer's psyche with plausible words. They wanted to show it to someone. A plea to atone even in death.
He knew it well. Because it was exactly what he had done to the Seomun Clan.
"Even in death, you refuse to repent? Fine, then I'll make you repent myself!"
Shimmering. On the empty ground, an illusion overlays. A familiar scene from long ago superimposes.
In the ruins' center, an old man kneeling with both arms severed. A corpse defiled to repay his lifetime of greed and desire in kind.
For some reason, it was vividly pictorial. As if it had been placed in exactly that spot.
"To kill someone... in that manner, it takes more than ordinary grudge."
His words dragged. Jang Cheon reminded himself why he was here.
Rumors said the Saengsa Daeje transcended death and life. That even a sword to the heart couldn't kill him. It might be Heuk-yo, he'd thought until now.
Now, it was different. Jang Cheon was certain.
Heuk-yo's doing. Unmistakably.
If this was someone reenacting his deeds.
If the sword was calling him, then the next step was set.
Jang Cheon's first revenge target had been the Seomun Clan.
And the next person he had avenged upon...
"...To Simha. We must hurry."
At that same time, the Saengsa Daeje had arrived at a small village.
"This must be Simha. That man is surely staying here."
It was a place he rarely had reason to visit. Once a modest satellite city outside Jangan in ancient times, it had now decayed to little more than a hamlet.
Its residents were mere villagers. But the Saengsa Daeje's eyes saw differently.
"Already infested... No wonder the Blood Monk favors Jangan."
His gray eyes flickered.
Before contracting with Heuk-yo, he had made a pact with another outer god. Before even meeting the Blood Monk.
A hidden scripture found in his clan's underground. Following its inhuman, eerie words, he had performed the ritual of devotion, consumed solely by thirst for revenge.
The reward: gray eyes.
Ming Cheon An. Eyes that discern life from death.
"I see at least seven sin-eo."
"Fascinating."
"Such words displease me. Who knows how many innocents have been sacrificed."
The Saengsa Daeje warned in a stern tone. A woman perched on a rock replied.
As always, her voice was beautiful and refined.
"How can it not be fascinating, seeing you frown at mere centipedes?"
"......"
The Saengsa Daeje's eyes glazed momentarily. Unshakable confidence welled within.
Yes, her words were all true. Those were mere baitfish swimming abundantly in the galactic rivers.
Company divine fish were prey for other outer gods. Until they matured, squeezing stars with their thousands of legs.
Compared to that, he...
"With my master by my side..."
Slowly, he drew his sword. Suddenly, his body froze rigid.
His wandering gray eyes turned cold as glass marbles.
Then, the Saengsa Daeje spoke again. No—something wearing the Saengsa Daeje's skin did.
A chill, gloomy voice flowed. His lips didn't even move.
"Heuk-yo."
"Do you wish death?"
The warning issued from his mouth. Two words, clipped short and concise. No ceremony. The meaning was clear. As if he could truly judge life and death with that authority alone.
But Heuk-yo merely smiled faintly.
"Me?"
"There is a limit to tolerating your filthy tricks. I will not stand for interference with a pact-bound soul."
"And if you don't stand for it? Will you rise?"
Question met with question. A meaningless retort, at best.
The Saengsa Daeje's gaze pierced Heuk-yo. The cold Jeon Si An—the eyes themselves were power.
The grass around Heuk-yo withered pitch-black. Not just that. The space itself grayed to ash.
Not just grass and insects—countless tiny lives dwelling atop them... perished.
A shocking manifestation even the Saengsa Daeje himself couldn't fathom.
Then his eyeballs themselves began blackening. Collapsing under the overwhelming power.
Yet.
Heuk-yo calmly tossed back a smile.
Soon, the Saengsa Daeje's gaze halted. From his open lips leaked a second warning.
"Do not overturn the game board. The Black Heaven's jade throne will not look kindly upon you."
With that, the unknown presence vanished without trace.
Soon, the Saengsa Daeje's eyes returned to normal. The blackened flesh rapidly regenerated. This time, Heuk-yo's power.
Once more.
"This must be Simha. That man is surely here."
The ill-fated avenger surveyed the village, speaking in a heavy tone.
Somewhere in this village lurked his second revenge target. Namgung Dan's cousin. A collateral of the greatest southern clan, a young strategist.
The architect who planned the massacre of an entire family.
Namgung Son, the Sword of Jiangnan.
And, according to the Saengsa Daeje's collected texts...
Another contractor supplying sacrifices to Namgung Dan.
"...Dealing with someone from the Outer God Hall will be a first. The whole village seems devoured. I see nine sin-eo."
"Nine?"
A refined voice came from beside the Saengsa Daeje. Turning, he saw a beautiful woman perched on the rock, staring intently.
The Saengsa Daeje felt a faint sense of déjà vu as he replied.
"Yes. Who knows how many innocents..."
"Maybe you miscounted. Check again."
"What do you mean?"
"Yeah, no hidden meaning. Just feels like not nine."
The Saengsa Daeje's eyes narrowed. Quietly, he recounted the profane beasts sensed by his Ming Cheon An.
Then coughed dryly. Fatigue, perhaps—the number was off.
"Seven. Not the worst yet."
Understandable. He'd just annihilated a clan yesterday.
Their true bodies were in Jangan anyway. He needed to dispatch Namgung Son swiftly, behead the sin-eo, and expel them.
Only then could he draw Namgung Dan's gaze here.
The Saengsa Daeje gravely scanned Simha.
Behind him, Heuk-yo watched.
Smiling again. An endlessly ominous smile, yet one that seemed to yearn for someone.