Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: I Spent the Night with the Murim Alliance Leader's Youngest Daughter
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The pure white ceiling of the hospital room, the frantic movements of the medical staff, the vital signs beeping faintly like a dying ember.
That was the last memory of my previous life.
I, who died at twenty-seven from a chronic illness, was reincarnated into this world—the murim.
When I first realized I had been reincarnated, I was confused, but as my memories sharpened, I gradually pieced things together.
The place I had been reborn into was the world from a wuxia novel.
A murim where the Nine Great Sects existed, and the Orthodox and Demonic Factions clashed.
I was an orphan wandering the rural outskirts.
A life with no connections whatsoever.
A wretched existence where I worried about my next meal every single day.
The one fortunate thing was that I had decent looks from birth.
Fair skin and sharp features.
In the countryside, it was a face that could get by.
"Kid, you won't amount to anything wandering around starving like that."
Women were especially kind to me.
Village girls would hand me sweet potatoes or potatoes, and married women would sneak me rice cakes or dumplings.
Thanks to them, I never starved to death.
But it wasn't enough.
Though it was dressed up with words like "hero," the murim world was close to barbarism.
The law of the jungle.
Reason and logic meant nothing.
In this world called murim, only the strong enjoyed everything.
Living as an orphan with no connections in such a place meant my life was worth less than a weed in the field.
That thought grew stronger after many villagers got caught in the crossfire and died during a territorial dispute between two sects.
'I need to latch onto someone.'
Find a backer.
That was the only way to survive.
I took all the money I'd scraped together and sought to become a disciple in a major sect.
"Your talents are lacking. You'll stay in the Outer Sword Hall."
I went to the Wudang Sect with a sliver of hope.
I figured even the lowest spot would guarantee my safety.
But I was relegated to the Outer Sword Hall.
A de facto exile, where they taught third-rate outer disciples.
Watching guys who were worse than me in the entrance exam head to the Inner Sword Hall to teach proper outer disciples, I realized it wasn't about talent—it was money.
'I'll make it somehow.'
Wealth was power too.
In the murim ruled by the logic of strength.
To survive here, I had to struggle no matter what.
'Aren't they being too hands-off?'
The training in the Outer Sword Hall was half-hearted.
They didn't even teach basic forms properly, just had the outer disciples grab wooden swords and brawl.
They'd taken the money, so they had no excuse to kick us out, but they'd grind us down until we left on our own.
I'd crossed mountains to come to this famed orthodox sect.
Taoists, my ass.
They treated people differently based on money.
They were steeped in worldly corruption.
After wasting a year, I finally left the Wudang Sect.
'I won't even spit in the Wudang Sect's direction.'
That might have been when it started.
When I developed my rebellious streak.
No matter how they boasted of being famed orthodox sects, they were all hypocrites.
In this harsh world, all I had was my malice.
So I never backed down from provocations and fought.
Nothing beats real combat for training.
For someone with nothing, that was the only way to get stronger.
From street thugs in back alleys, to bandits trying to collect tolls, to spoiled brats relying on their family prestige.
I honed myself clashing with them.
It was a life where I could get stabbed in the back and die screaming at any moment, but if I faded away like that, so be it—that was my fate.
I entrusted my body to a single sword and wandered the world.
That's how I lived for three years.
Fighting Ghost.
The nickname they gave me.
"You're awfully sharp for a young punk."
Then I met my master.
I got lucky.
The one who subdued my reckless charge was a person of character who understood, and an absolute master.
Only after meeting my master could I finally properly begin learning martial arts.
"You want me to be a gatekeeper?"
"Yes. It's perfect for fixing that hot temper of yours."
Just when I thought I'd reached a level where I wouldn't get beaten everywhere I went.
My master suddenly gave the order.
Gatekeeper.
A lowly position managing entry to the Murim Alliance.
"Master, did I train in martial arts just to end up as some lowly gateke—"
"Disciple?"
My master casually raising a fist.
What could I do?
Master's word was like the heavens.
I had no choice but to obey.
"I'm here for the gatekeeper position."
I'd planned to just go through the motions of an interview and leave.
But the security captain at the Murim Alliance entrance took one look at me and said,
"Oh? You. You're hired."
Was there no interview here?
And just like that, I became a Murim Alliance gatekeeper.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The post I was assigned to was the east gate of the Murim Alliance.
The job was simple.
If someone wanted to enter, check the token issued by the Murim Alliance and let them in.
"Remember just one thing. Never upset the Alliance Leader. Just think of yourself as a decorative screen."
The east gate security captain had a mild, easygoing personality.
A good-natured man who let things slide unless it was a major blunder.
The only order he repeatedly drilled into us gatekeepers was to "be careful around the Alliance Leader."
Be wary of your own organization's head? Was this a proper group?
Murim Alliance Leader Namgoong Hyeok.
A master infamous for his bastardly temper.
The kind who drew his sword first and asked questions later.
No one dared oppose him because he was the strongest.
He was the World's Strongest.
Namgoong Hyeok made his name known to the world in a battle in Shaanxi.
Demonic Factions' Strongest Im Jin-su.
His subordinates, the Seven Evil Swords.
It took them less than ten years to unify the Demonic Factions.
A battle against masters who could each topple a castle alone.
It began with an ambush by Im Jin-su and the Seven Evil Swords.
Under the banner that "cowardice is just the excuse of the defeated," the eight of them ganged up on Namgoong Hyeok.
But with a single technique.
The Heaven-Shaking Thunderbolt Sword swung by Namgoong Hyeok.
Boom!
A deafening roar that tore the air, lightning ravaging the earth.
On the day that one strike split the heavens, his name echoed across the world.
"Bunch of pathetic flies coming at me."
Namgoong Hyeok's words after massacring Im Jin-su and the Seven Evil Swords in one go.
After that, no one dared challenge him.
Such a Namgoong Hyeok had one daughter.
His precious late-life child, after three sons.
That was Namgoong Yeonhui.
World's Greatest Beauty.
The term referred to Namgoong Yeonhui.
Her fair skin glowed like it absorbed sunlight, and her eyes curved into crescent moons when she smiled.
A straight nose, plump lips, slender neck.
From her ample bosom flowed a waist slim like porcelain, curving into wide hips—a work of art sculpted by the gods.
Beautiful flowers attract bugs.
His treasured youngest daughter from his old age.
All who toyed with her ended up as cold corpses under Namgoong Hyeok's blade.
The fact that flirting with Namgoong Yeonhui was a complicated form of suicide spread throughout the murim.
'Today's suicide applicant is Moyong Cheon, huh.'
"What did you just say?"
A crisis arrived at the peaceful east gate.
Namgoong Hyeok was cornering Jegal Sang like he was on trial.
It was a scene I'd grown used to.
"Say it again."
"The Moyong Family side wants to discuss the young lady's marriage..."
"You call that something worth saying?!"
A thunderous roar.
Even without internal energy, it carried the fury of an absolute master.
The weak-kneed had already collapsed, and even I dropped to one knee.
"Moyong Cheon, that little punk again? How dare he talk marriage with our Yeonhui?"
"..."
"Jegal Sang. Do you think I put you in the advisor position to relay such bullshit? When a dog barks, you rip its muzzle off!"
Namgoong Hyeok's razor-sharp words.
Jegal Sang could only turn pale and flounder.
I wondered what it felt like to withstand the killing intent that froze the very air.
"Tell them if they spout such nonsense again, I'll exterminate their entire clan."
"Understood, Alliance Leader."
Namgoong Hyeok, threatening clan extermination just for proposing marriage to his daughter.
What treason had they committed?
He was as mad as they said.
'Is this why Master sent me here?'
Master had repeatedly advised me.
To control my temper.
It was a habit ingrained from rolling in the gutters.
The manifestation of not wanting to be looked down on.
Master called it the mindset of a stray dog.
'Any rising anger will cool off here.'
Gossips praised his prowess with flowery words, but I thought it was exaggerated.
It wasn't at all.
If anything, the endless accolades fell short.
Peerless and invincible.
Namgoong Hyeok's presence was majestic enough to sunder heaven and earth.
'Does Moyong Cheon have multiple lives?'
To even think of touching Namgoong Hyeok's youngest daughter.
No matter how much they propped up the Five Great Families...
He had to be insane.
'I must never get involved with Namgoong Yeonhui.'
That was the top rule for everyone in the Murim Alliance.
I had no reason to care much anyway.
What were the odds of a gatekeeper running into Namgoong Yeonhui?
The Murim Alliance had four gates.
That's what I thought back then.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 'What the hell is this?'
My head was spinning.
Lingering intoxication still rattled my brain.
In my hazy vision, the first thing that caught my eye was the woman lying next to me.
Even the darkness filling the room couldn't hide her beauty.
'Namgoong Yeonhui?'
Why the hell was she lying naked beside me?
That sight felt like a death sentence.
A man and woman naked in a bedroom.
It was obvious what had happened.
'I'm screwed.'
I spent the night with the Murim Alliance Leader's youngest daughter.