Wasn't This the Murim?
On the way to the Jongseogak, Myeong Hyeon explained this and that to me.
The hierarchy of the Asura Sword Sect was simple. Entry Disciples, Second-Generation Disciples, First-Generation Disciples, Pavilion Masters, Elders, Great Elders, and above them all, the Sect Master. The Sect Master needs no explanation; below him came the Great Elders, and beneath them the Elders. From the Pavilion Masters downward, things grew more granular — and though this place was technically a sect, in the broad sense it differed little from any martial clan in the murim.
There was the Jaegeongak, which managed the money. There was the Uigyeonggak, which treated the injured, supplied cultivation resources, and manufactured elixirs and pills. And there was the Asura Pavilion, which handled the sect's martial force.
The Asura Pavilion was the important one.
The Asura Pavilion Master was, at minimum, a master of Elder rank or above. In the official chain of command he stood beneath the Elders, yet in practice he was treated as an Elder's equal or better. The Asura Pavilion commanded sixteen Branches in total. Usually a Branch was led by a First-Generation Disciple who had reached a certain realm, while Second-Generation Disciples like Myeong Hyeon — and even First-Generation Disciples whose skill had lagged behind — served as ordinary Branch Members.
The Branch assigned to me was the ninth. Its proper name was the [SamBong Branch], though some people called it by its number and some did not.
Entry Disciples learned the sect's sword arts, and once they reached a certain realm, they became Second-Generation Disciples, joined a Branch, and carried out missions. That was the whole system. It was absurdly simple.
The Jongseogak was where all matters pertaining to the Asura Sword Sect were organized. Take assassination contracts, for instance — you could think of it as something like a mercenary broker's office.
I pushed open the door of the Jongseogak and stepped inside to find a number of men and women going about their work. The moment they saw me, they bowed in silent salute — less because they knew who I was than because it was the courtesy every martial artist in the Asura Sword Sect extended to one another.
"The archives over there record the sect's old debts of gratitude and grievance," Myeong Hyeon said. "Most of them were set aside because they were too difficult to resolve."
"Then what is that?"
My finger pointed to an enormous board tucked into one corner. Papers were plastered across it thick as scales, and the colors differed — red, black, and white.
"Those are the most recent grievances to come in. The red papers mark grave matters that demand you stake your life. The black ones are uncertain — matters requiring investigation. And the white ones are grievances that must be handled at once. A white paper sits here for roughly six hours before it goes to the Asura Pavilion Master; a red one lingers about two days. If the Pavilion Master is absent, it passes to his deputy. The document is then assigned out to one of the Branches. Of course, before that happens, Branch Masters or Branch Members who've come to the main mountain to collect their cultivation resources from the Uigyeonggak will sometimes take a paper and resolve it themselves."
It was clear now why he'd called it busywork. Handle one of these matters, and the Uigyeonggak paid out cultivation resources; handle it well enough, and rare elixirs came your way.
I walked over in silence and skimmed through several of the papers. One of them caught my eye. It was a red one.
"Er... Yi Do-nim?"
I turned my head. Myeong Hyeon was smiling faintly.
"If it wouldn't be an imposition, might I accompany you?"
I gave him a soft smile. "Fine."
The red paper's contents were simple.
The Seok Family Manor, located in Seongju Commandery along the border, was a clan under the Asura Sword Sect's protection. And naturally, sharing a border meant one thing above all: an enormous advantage in smuggling. The Seok Family had built its fortune ferrying goods back and forth between Yeon Country and Jeok Country, importing and exporting in equal measure. Its intelligence network enjoyed a decent reputation as well, and its Manor Lord, Seok Mun-jung, was a martial artist of the Five Dragons and Phoenix realm — a reasonably decent sort, by temperament and every other measure.
But even such a man could not master his own greed. In truth, every grievance in this world begins in desire and ends in desire. This case was no different.
The Seok Family reaped vast profits through illicit trade, and a fixed portion of those profits had to be paid up to the Asura Sword Sect as tribute. That much was only right — the reason being simple. It was the Asura Sword Sect that made the Seok Family's smuggling possible in the first place. The sect watched over them, and several Branches escorted contraband as it moved from region to region. Even when escorts could not be provided, the sect still lent them the weight of its name. Collecting tribute was only proper.
The trouble began with that tribute.
Ordinarily the Asura Sword Sect took one-tenth of the total revenue. But the Seok Family begrudged even that, and so they entered into a secret pact with the Kang Clan, third-ranked family of the three families dwelling in the Heaven Shattering Fist Sect's territory.
To put it plainly: of one hundred items of plunder, tribute would be paid on only twenty — and since the Kang Clan had worked the job alongside them, they'd get their cut of twenty as well, leaving a full sixty for the Seok Family to pocket outright. That was the honorless scheme the Seok Family had run. And it had been caught.
The full chain of events had already been pieced together, and the list of names — ringleader down to the merely swept along — was complete.
"The reason it's red is obvious," Myeong Hyeon said. "Armed conflict with the Seok Family is likely, and there's a real chance the Heaven Shattering Fist Sect's disciples — or the Kang Clan itself — will join the fight."
I nodded along. "So ordinarily, this would be the Asura Pavilion Master's to handle?"
"In principle, yes. But he's an extremely busy man, so usually the Branch Masters gather and deal with it together. People do die in the process, sometimes."
"I see."
And so we arrived. I gazed up at the main hall. Across its face, in characters big and bold, was written: Seok Family Manor.
I walked up in silence and kicked the gate off its hinges.
KWAAAAAANG—!!
The doors shattered, and chaos erupted inside. Behind me, Myeong Hyeon blinked.
"...Er... Branch Master, what exactly are you...?"
"Just watch."
I had already grasped the essentials. The Asura Sword Sect was rotten. It was festering from the inside out. Now that I had joined it, the before and the after would be two different things. This was to be my home, after all — and as I had told Dokgo Dan-ya, I intended to regard the sect's interests as my own. Which meant that from here on, my course of action became very simple indeed.
"Who in the hell are you?!"
"This is the Seok Family Manor!"
I ignored them and kept walking.
"I have come from the Asura Sword Sect."
At my words, every throat in the courtyard seized.
"I will count to ten. The Manor Lord will come before me at once and kneel. If he does not—"
I drew the Cloud Dragon Sword.
"—the Seok Family will be annihilated."
Seok Mun-jung, Manor Lord of the Seok Family, had gone gray. Anxiety he could not hide was blooming across his face — and with good reason.
Seok Mun-jung had ears. Eight hours ago, word had reached him that the Asura Sword Sect's Asura Pavilion had finished its investigation.
He did not deny it. He had been blinded by money. He had been swept up in the Kang Clan's manipulation, tempted by their talk of keeping four-fifths of the take, and had gone along with them — not once or twice, but dozens of times. A long tail always gets caught; he had simply believed his never would. It had been a foolish choice, and there was no excuse for it. The moment he'd heard the investigation had begun, the regret had set in — and now it had crested.
The Asura Sword Sect was famously kind to its allies and famously merciless to its enemies. Above all, the Great Elder Myo Man-li was. When a clan gave him a handle like this, he did not even look back — he simply annihilated them. There were already dozens of families he had ended that way.
And now the Seok Family stood one step from becoming his next.
What was he to do? Should he confess his crimes now, while there was still time, and kneel? The matter would certainly be sitting in the sect's Jongseogak right now. The grade went without saying — red, no doubt about it. If the Asura Sword Sect sent someone braced for bloodshed—
He swallowed hard. Surely... surely they won't annihilate us.
It was then that a steward's frantic voice pierced Seok Mun-jung's ear.
"Manor Lord!! Someone has come from the Asura Sword Sect!"
He shot to his feet.
"He says he'll count to ten... he says if you don't come out before he finishes, he'll annihilate the Seok Family — right now, he's—"
There was no need to hear more. Seok Mun-jung tore out of the room at a dead sprint, shoes half-shed, running like a madman.
His eyes met those of a man who happened to be counting nine.
The man smiled gently.
"How fortunate."
Seok Mun-jung could not say a word. The man's smile was... an undeniably handsome smile. So why did it make his skin crawl? It felt as though a killing intent of staggering depth had swept over his whole body in that instant.
And yet — something was odd. The man claimed to be from the Asura Sword Sect, but...
"Forgive me... might I ask your name?"
"Yi Do."
"And your position—"
It was Myeong Hyeon, standing behind Yi Do, who answered.
"Tsk tsk. Manor Lord Seok — this gentleman is the new Guardian whom our Great Elder personally brought into the Asura Sword Sect just today. Show proper respect."
Nothing after that registered.
Great Elder. At those two words, Seok Mun-jung and everyone with him dropped to their knees where they stood.
"We greet the Guardian-nim—!!"
The Great Elder, Myo Man-li. To fail to know that man's fearsome reputation here in Wisu Commandery — the Asura Sword Sect's own dominion, of all places — was unthinkable.
At that moment, Yi Do was watching Myeong Hyeon with an odd look in his eyes.
It was interesting. Myeong Hyeon clearly knew what was about to happen. And he had intervened to stop it. How amusing.
He shifted his gaze back to Seok Mun-jung.
"You know your crimes well enough. I won't belabor them. Pay the Asura Sword Sect ten times what you skimmed behind our backs."
Tenfold. An astronomical sum — but not one beyond their means.
"It shall be done."
"Good. You have one day. If a suitable sum does not reach the Asura Sword Sect within that day, you will see me again. And when you do, prepare for annihilation."
"...We will remember... we will remember, indeed."
Yi Do spoke again. "Hold out your arm."
With a puzzled expression, Seok Mun-jung extended his right arm. And in the same breath—
Srrk—!
The Cloud Dragon Sword sheared the arm off at the shoulder. The cleanly severed limb thudded to the ground. Seok Mun-jung screamed, and the manor's warriors began to reach for their weapons—
"Stop—! Sheathe your weapons!"
Even writhing in agony, Seok Mun-jung's desperate shout froze every man where he stood.
Yi Do said, flatly: "Look upon that severed arm and reflect on your wrongdoing. If you reattach it, I will take all four of your limbs. Do you understand?"
"Yes... yes, I understand completely."
"Then we're done."
Yi Do turned away, the dazed Myeong Hyeon trailing after him.
The moment we were outside the Seok Family Manor, I seized Myeong Hyeon by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
"Khhak... why... why are you doing this...?"
"Who told you to step in?"
"..."
"I told you plainly. Watch, and nothing more."
"...That was..."
Guardian was an unofficial title. Officially, I was a Branch Master. Myeong Hyeon had been calling me Branch Master the whole way here — and then, just now, he had called me Guardian instead. Titles carry weight, and Branch Master and Guardian were unmistakably different things.
Armed conflict had been all but certain. And by dangling the name "Guardian," Myeong Hyeon had cut it off at the root. I had told him to stand still, and he had nodded as though he understood. He had not kept his word.
I released my grip. Myeong Hyeon's feet, hovering an inch off the ground, touched down — and my right fist swung.
CRACK—!
Myeong Hyeon's face snapped sideways. I looked down at him as he crumpled to the dirt.
"That is your final warning. Act on your own one more time, and I will kill you."
"...I apologize. I will remember."
"Get up."
Myeong Hyeon scrambled to his feet.
"We are going to the Kang Clan. Lead the way."
"...Yes."
I watched him move out ahead, silently. Not bad at all.
His acting, in particular, was genuinely admirable. After everything he'd endured, not a hair of his true nature had slipped out?
It was interesting. Through every one of those moments — the blows to the face, sprawled on the ground — the man had not sent a single flicker of killing intent my way. His qi must have been churning, and yet he'd swallowed it. Impressive.
Still, it left me a little unsatisfied. Perhaps I ought to provoke him a little more.
Myeong Hyeon glanced back. He was smiling brightly, as though everything from moments ago had never happened.
"This way, please, Branch Master-nim. It's a long road."
It was a fundamental question. Anyone else, perhaps — but there was no way Dokgo Dan-ya did not know Myeong Hyeon's true identity. By my read, there was no possibility of it. Dokgo Dan-ya alone, at least, had to know what he was. And yet he left him be.
Why? It piqued my curiosity, but I set it aside for now.
The road was long. We had to cross the border, then pass through village after village. A full day passed before Myeong Hyeon and I reached A-hyeon Town, near Jungsu-gun in Yeon Country.
Myeong Hyeon looked worse for wear by then. His hair was mussed, bruises had bloomed across his face, and his arm ached enough that he kept rubbing it without thinking.
The whole way there, I had seized on any pretext to beat him. I'd told him to catch a rabbit, and he'd brought back only one — so I hit him and asked whose nose he expected me to pin it on. Crossing the border, the dust kicked up by his feet had brushed my collar. So I hit him. The sound of his footsteps annoyed me. So I hit him. His breathing annoyed me. So I hit him. And so on.
I just hit him.
"That is the Kang Clan's estate."
And still, unfailingly, the man kept his smile. I found myself wondering — why go this far?
I walked on in silence, stopping beneath the main hall, and turned my head briefly.
"Watch. Nothing more. Understood?"
"...Yes. Have no fear."
Leaving behind Myeong Hyeon's awkward smile, I kicked the gate apart, same as at the Seok estate.
KWAAAAAANG—!!
The instant the doors burst inward, the two warriors standing before them drew their swords. I closed the distance at once and swept the Cloud Dragon Sword through the air.
Srrk—!
There was one sound. There were two heads falling.
I lifted my gaze.
"Who in the—!"
I spoke flatly. "I have come from the Asura Sword Sect."
At that, one man recoiled in horror.
"You fool... this is Yeon Country! Your Jeok Country has attacked Yeon, and now—"
I burst out laughing.
"Nations? How trite."
"..."
"Even if the Emperor of Yeon himself stood in this courtyard, it would not change the fact that you meddled with the Asura Sword Sect's people."
"...You bastard..."
"Those words will serve as your last. Anything else you wish to leave behind?"
The man was clearly one of high standing within the Kang Clan. He answered with a roar: "Kill him—!"
A dozen-odd warriors charged at his cry. It was obvious what came next.
I gripped the Cloud Dragon Sword hard.
The clash of steel and the sound of flesh parting rang out without pause. At the ceaseless storm of it, Kang I-sang, patriarch of the Kang Clan, swallowed hard.
He was numb. The carnage unfolding before his eyes — it made no sense.
The elite forces of the Kang Clan were being butchered, every last one of them. Survivors? None.
Who in the world is that man?
The Asura Sword Sect had a man like that? A butcher of such reckless hands — why had no one ever heard of him?
The man's sword came around. One of the attackers lunged, fist extended. Steel met knuckle.
BOOOOOM—!!
Both men staggered back two paces. The onlooker flexed his numb fist and let out a dry chuckle.
"Your sword is quite sharp, but—"
He never finished. Srrk—! A blade that moved like a beam of light had closed the distance and swung at a speed to match it, and his head left his shoulders.
Only then did the man, drenched head to toe in blood, turn his gaze on Kang I-sang.
"Are you the patriarch of the Kang Clan?"
"...Just... who are you?"
"Did I not say? I came from the Asura Sword Sect."
"...There is no one like you in the Asura Sword Sect."
The man smiled. "I only joined recently. Would that not explain it?"
The words struck Kang I-sang like a blow. A new recruit? Of the Asura Sword Sect?
"You laid hands on the sect's vassal territory. You surely made your peace with annihilation before you committed the crime?"
"..."
"Enough. Opened, your mouth will produce nothing but excuses. Go well."
The man was about to swing his sword when Kang I-sang spoke. "What is your name?"
Kang I-sang's bearing was unexpectedly composed. The man gave a short laugh. "Yi Do."
"...I will go first, then. Soon, you will follow."
"Is that so."
"Do you still not understand?"
Yi Do tilted his head.
"Apparently not. Do you know who that man was that you just killed?"
"Should I?"
"You should. The man you just cut down was a First-Generation Disciple of the Heaven Shattering Fist Sect!"
Yi Do's expression did not change.
"Is that a problem?"
"...You must not know, being new. Sects avoid direct clashes with one another."
Yi Do was genuinely curious.
"Why avoid it?"
"...What?"
"One party commits the offense. The circumstances are plain and the instigator identified beyond doubt — and the option you reach for is to look away? That is nothing more than proving your own weakness."
"..."
"If you did something worthy of death, you die. Wasn't this the murim?"
He was right. This was the murim.
Kang I-sang could only stare, hollow-eyed, at the sword slowly drawing near his face.
Thk—!
Wherever Yi Do went, everything turned upside down. The Asura Sword Sect was no exception.
When the Great Elder had first gone out and brought the man back — a man whose name alone made dogs bark in the streets — everyone had been skeptical. It was true that rumors out of the murim tended toward exaggeration, but rumors did not circulate for nothing. They spread because they had a day's worth of truth in them.
Of course, he might not truly be a mad dog. He himself might feel some injustice at being called one. He had killed the stewards, his own father, his own brothers — but perhaps there had been reasons for all of it. Perhaps he had been scorned his whole life and simply could not bear it any longer in the end. And what was the poison his father had been given? The infamous Single-Soul Demon Poison — a poison with no antidote, one that condemned its victim to die convulsing in agony. Perhaps he had merely granted his father the mercy of release.
Excuses could be found for it all, one way or another. But how many would actually listen?
In the course of it, he had beaten assassins to death, slaughtered government troops wholesale. Every step of the road, there was some reason. Yet the fact that every road he walked was drenched in blood — that could never be denied.
Pursued and hunted, he had at last found refuge in the Asura Sword Sect. Any ordinary person, at that point, would vow to live quietly. That is what common sense demanded.
Instead — less than a single day after joining the sect, he had resolved the Seok Family affair and gone straight across the border to annihilate an entire family. And not only that, he had beheaded a First-Generation Disciple of the Heaven Shattering Fist Sect besides. Did this make any sense at all?
Resolving a red-grade grievance deserved praise, certainly. But not everyone in the Asura Sword Sect favored this manner of doing things. Those aligned with the Elders especially.
More than that — was this truly the end of it? Everyone could feel it in their bones. That this was only the beginning.
No — the Great Elder Myo Man-li had entered seclusion today, and the monster he had loosed upon the world was his mirror image, perhaps even more savage.
The people of the Asura Sword Sect stood at the sect's gates even now, staring blankly at the scene spread before them.
A man in a black robe. Across the center of his back was emblazoned a golden wheel, and radiating from that wheel to the four directions, golden flames. That was the sigil of the Asura Sword Sect. The wheel and the flame — those two marks decided one's standing.
And in the Asura Sword Sect of this moment, only a single man was entitled to wear that robe.
The Sect Master of the Asura Sword Sect — the Black Wind Sword Venerable, Dokgo Dan-ya.
And before him, the Manor Lord of the Seok Family groveled in the posture of five prostrations — no, four, one limb short — begging for mercy. Behind him, the Seok household's servants hauled the tribute chests with their own hands.
Dokgo Dan-ya smiled in satisfaction.
"Truly... you brought me a fine one."