The Killing Gate
It was interesting.
Few in this world knew the martial arts of Kunlun, but not a single soul knew nothing of them either.
There was Kang So-eo, whom I had sent to Jangryeong Commandery. There were cases like my master's — direct descendants of the lineage. And there were the countless factions that had crushed Kunlun with their own hands in ages past.
There was no chance in hell that every last one of them had burned Kunlun's martial arts to ash.
In one form or another, Kunlun's arts still existed in this world.
And yet.
I could say this with certainty now — whoever had staged this scene had made a mistake.
"The Imperial Sword Sect, perhaps? Or the Murim Alliance?"
I shook my head at Myeong Hyeon's question.
"Neither."
"...I beg your pardon?"
I knew a great many of Kunlun's martial arts.
The Supreme Clarity Dragon Form Sword, the Splitting Light Sword, the Falling Flower Sword — and beyond those, fist arts, footwork, palm techniques, and mental cultivation methods besides.
Truly, a great many.
If the mark on San Pung-du's neck had imitated one of the Kunlun arts I commonly used, then yes, I might have suspected the Imperial Sword Sect or the Murim Alliance.
But it was not.
It was the Taeheo Doryong-geom — the Void Stage Dragon-Slaying Sword.
Not a crude imitation of the trace. A perfect rendition of the Taeheo Doryong-geom.
No one in the Murim Alliance knew it, and no one in the Imperial Sword Sect knew it either.
Not a single living soul.
In my past life, I had never once seen anyone wield this art. I never found even a trace of it — not in the Murim Alliance's sealed archives, nor in the Imperial Sword Sect's.
Both places held several of Kunlun's martial arts in their vaults, yet even they had failed to acquire this one. Among the few of Kunlun's arts that had been lost to the world, the Taeheo Doryong-geom was one.
How could the question not arise?
If this was meant as a warning, then a warning of what, exactly?
Which of my actions had displeased them?
"A warning... and at the same time, a confirmation."
At my murmur, Myeong Hyeon tilted his head.
A dry laugh escaped me.
Come to think of it, there was no need to agonize over something so trivial.
Even if I walked the same road as my past life, I would do what needed doing.
And if they picked a fight with me? What else was there to do?
Hunt them down and kill every last one.
"Then... what should we do about everything here?"
I shook my head.
"Leave it."
"But if we leave it as it is, we'll—"
"Myeong Hyeon."
"...Yes."
"Are you worried?"
"...Honestly? A little, I suppose."
I understood well enough. But still.
"If we try to cover up something we did not do, that in itself could be taken as an admission of guilt."
"But if we do nothing, word will spread that we played with the San Clan and murdered them all."
I reached out and gripped Myeong Hyeon's shoulder.
"Nothing in this world is more laughable than making excuses for what you did not do."
"..."
"We will report everything we saw here, exactly as it happened, to the Cheonjeong Gate, the Hao Gate, and the Asura Sword Sect. Some will believe it, some won't. Must we personally convince the ones who don't?"
"...No, we don't."
"Don't worry. And if they turn against us for it."
A smile spread across my face.
"Then we simply kill them all."
The easiest way to clear one's name of charges like "Public Enemy of Murim" or "demonic head" was to kill the ones who staged the accusation — and then hunt down the schemers behind them and kill them too.
A fundamental question surfaced.
Had the Asura Pavilion Master, Sangguan Yeonhwi, known about this — or not?
Why, of all places, had things unfolded so suspiciously well-arranged precisely where I had come to carry out my mission?
It was all remarkably curious.
Something about it snagged in my mind, yet there was no concrete proof. It could all be explained away as coincidence — and yet the chain of events felt almost like inevitability. And even as coincidence piled upon coincidence, the hand behind it slipped neatly free of every net of investigation.
If I pressed Sangguan Yeonhwi about it, he would put on a shocked expression and say something like — Such a thing happened? Allow me to investigate the matter myself.
So meticulous that one would conclude there truly was no connection at all.
A laugh slipped out. What a fascinating situation.
But that was the end of it. Beyond this, I had no interest.
I turned away.
"Let's go."
"Yes."
Myeong Hyeon wore a visibly steadier expression now.
"Ah... Pavilion Master."
I turned my head as we walked. Myeong Hyeon smiled awkwardly.
"You know it's not that I don't trust you, right?"
"I know."
"To be honest, I was a bit shaken. It almost felt like the Murim Alliance and the Imperial Sword Sect might start moving any moment."
That much I could understand.
"They won't move so easily."
"Are you certain?"
"I am. What do you think the greatest goal of the Sword Emperor and the Heavenly Emperor is?"
"...Hmm. Power?"
I shook my head.
"Strength."
"...Strength, sir?"
"The reason those two turned their hands to demonic cultivation is that, at the very peak of the Realm of Myth, they cannot climb any further."
"..."
"Geum-cheon Shin-geom's death is all but confirmed. It has become obvious that I intend to target the Pacheon Fist Sect. And even now, those two have not moved. Most likely, they've entered closed-door cultivation — which means for at least the next two years, nothing will happen. So don't worry."
Myeong Hyeon scratched his head.
"Then who in the world is it? Someone who knows the Muryong Suragong, and Kunlun's arts on top of that... I can't even get a foothold on a guess."
"Leave it. Sooner or later, they'll appear before us."
Everything has its season.
Now was not the time to waste thought on things like this.
It wasn't as though I lacked even a suspicion of where they might have climbed from — so for now, the right move was to finish the work at hand before anything else.
Before long, Un Dohyeon, who had gone to apprehend her, returned and reported to me: the woman named Hwi-yeon of Honghwa Tower.
The death of Wi Mi-ran had indeed been Hwi-yeon's doing.
Hwi-yeon had conspired with the young master of the San Clan to have her killed. Her target had been Wi Mi-ran's father, Wi Ji-gong.
She had never intended to kill Wi Ji-gong. She loved him. And because Wi Ji-gong so doted on his daughter, she had that daughter slaughtered in the cruelest fashion imaginable — to drown him in despair — so that she could embrace him in his grief and become his new wife.
As absurd as it sounded, every word of it was true.
I drew the Cloud Dragon Sword and took Hwi-yeon's head.
"Dispose of the bodies as you see fit."
And with that, I turned away.
That day, we passed through two more zones to resolve another white warrant.
In a single day, we had completed one red and three white.
Then the gate disciples of the Cheonjeong Gate and the Hao Gate approached us simultaneously and handed over their reports — the results of the investigation into that black warrant I had entrusted to them.
The moment I read the contents, my brow furrowed.
This one was big.
Not far from Changam Commandery lay a district called Myeonghwa-hyeon.
There, the Myeonghwa Branch of the Asura Sword Sect was stationed — and its vice branch master had recently been found dead.
He had caused no great trouble, and he was a man of solid leadership whom the warriors under him trusted and followed.
Then friction arose with an establishment in Myeonghwa-hyeon called the Geumseong Escort Agency.
Not once or twice, but continuously — and by all accounts, the most recent dispute had been a serious one.
The Geumseong Escort Agency stood accused of underreporting its tribute goods and sharply cutting its payments — exactly like the Seok Family Manor case I had resolved the moment I first joined the Asura Sword Sect. But there was no evidence.
According to the reports, the Geumseong Escort Agency handled its paperwork with meticulous care, and in the end the Myeonghwa Branch gave up its investigation and merely warned them to be more careful in the future. The vice branch master, Sin Dae-gwang, had reportedly conducted that investigation alone.
And then, he died.
Not in a duel with anyone. He had simply gone to sleep one night and never woken.
The branch members insisted that Sin Dae-gwang had been struck down by a pressure-point technique that severed his blood flow, and the investigators dispatched from the main mountain reached the same conclusion — the blood-severing strike was the primary cause of death.
So who had done such a thing?
This was, unmistakably, not the way of martial artists.
Both Jang Sangbo's report and Cheon Chung-myeon's report carried the same passage.
At the time of Sin Dae-gwang's death, the Killing Gate assassin — the Killing Ghost, Ma Yong-sang — had been sighted in the vicinity of Myeonghwa-hyeon.
Who was Ma Yong-sang?
An assassin who had reached the Ogijowon realm.
At the very end of Jang Sangbo's report, he called this top-grade intelligence. Cheon Chung-myeon had appended a note: strictly classified — never tell them where you heard this.
I handed the reports to Un Dohyeon.
The conclusion came down to one thing.
By every circumstance, the Geumseong Escort Agency had placed a commission with the Killing Gate, and the Killing Gate had accepted it and killed the vice branch master of the Asura Sword Sect.
Assassin organizations like the Killing Curtain and the Killing Gate never revealed their clients.
That was their principle.
I let out a short laugh.
First things first.
"To the Geumseong Escort Agency."
The branch members of the Jangam Branch, myself included, entered the Geumseong Escort Agency in Myeonghwa-hyeon.
There was no need to kick the door down.
It stood wide open. Inside, porters and escort warriors bustled this way and that, busied with some task — and the moment they registered the crowd of us pouring in, they froze where they stood.
I paid it no mind.
"I've come to see the master of this agency."
Before the words had even finished leaving my mouth, a man who had been barking orders from across the courtyard came running over.
He was huge. Not with muscle, but with a truly enormous amount of fat — his thick jowls and heavy belly were his most striking features.
"Aigoo... the Asura Sword Sect, all the way to this humble little place... Please, come inside."
I shook my head.
"Are you Wang In, master of the Geumseong Escort Agency?"
"Yes. That's me."
"I've come to ask you something."
"Aigoo... ask me anything you like."
He said I could ask anything, so I got straight to the point.
"Were you involved in the death of Sin Dae-gwang?"
"...I beg your pardon? If you mean Vice Branch Master Sin Dae-gwang of the Myeonghwa Branch... absolutely not. I had nothing to do with his death."
Wang In's eyes did not waver, and his body did not tremble.
If he was acting, he was very good at it. For now, I let it pass.
"If you commissioned the Killing Gate and had the vice branch master of the Myeonghwa Branch killed, then say so now. I will end this with your life alone."
"...How can you say such a thing...? It wasn't me. How could I confess to something I never did...?"
"Consider that your warning. If I go and investigate, and it becomes certain that you placed the commission, the Geumseong Escort Agency will be annihilated that very day. One last question. Is there anything you'd like to say to me?"
Wang In closed his eyes for a moment.
As if sorting through his thoughts, he slowly opened them again.
His eyes still did not waver.
"Nothing. I had nothing to do with it."
"Good."
I turned away at once. As I walked out of the Geumseong Escort Agency, Myeong Hyeon asked:
"Where are we going now?"
"There's only one place, isn't there."
A smile spread across my face.
"The Killing Gate's Myeonghwa Branch. That's where we're going."
At those words, Myeong Hyeon, Un Dohyeon, and every branch member behind us went pale with shock.
"The Killing Gate? That's the finest assassin organization in the world right now. Shall I put it simply for you? They'll invoke their precious principle and never breathe a word about who commissioned the hit."
I shook my head.
"We can go and ask, and decide after. Myeong Hyeon."
"Yes, Pavilion Master."
"Have you still not figured it out?"
"...I beg your pardon?"
"The one who placed the commission is guilty. But so is the one who accepted it. Call themselves blades all they like — there are commissions a killer should accept, and commissions he should refuse."
Myeong Hyeon blinked.
"How cheaply did they take us, that they dared accept the murder of an Asura Sword Sect warrior?"
"..."
"Crawling things with no spine to act in the open, hiding in the shadows — and the moment those around them lift them up, they forget their place and start climbing."
Whether he finally grasped what was about to unfold, Myeong Hyeon clapped a hand to his head — and yet a smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
"One life to live, and it looks like I'm going to live it in absolutely eventful fashion."
We were just setting out for the Killing Gate's branch when it happened.
"A pleasure to meet you."
I turned my head.
There were perhaps twenty warriors there.
Nineteen, to be precise.
A man dressed in garb similar to my own stepped forward from among them and assumed the formal salute.
"I am Im Cheon-woo, branch master of the Myeonghwa Branch."
I was mildly surprised inwardly.
A black warrant was, by definition, a matter requiring investigation — there was even the possibility of a confrontation with the Killing Gate, and the document had specified that the Myeonghwa and Jangam Branches carry out the mission jointly.
So it wasn't the presence of the Myeonghwa Branch that surprised me.
It was his name.
Hmm.
"I am Yi Do of the Jangam Branch."
"Hahaha, why such formal speech? We of the Myeonghwa Branch look up to the legend you have built, Yi Do-nim. Speak down to me, please. Even between branch masters, rank must be observed, no?"
What a hearty man. Very much the personality I had heard about.
"Then I'll drop the formality. There's something I want to ask. Will you answer?"
"Ask me anything. I'll answer on the spot."
Im Cheon-woo seemed to assume I was about to question him about the black warrant.
It was not.
"You're from the Hanseong Sword Gate near the Snowy Mountains, aren't you?"
At that question, his eyes would surely go wide.
Blinking, Im Cheon-woo answered.
"Yes, that's right. I learned the sword at the Hanseong Sword Gate before joining the Asura Sword Sect... Truly... remarkable."
"Me?"
"You investigated the backgrounds of everyone here, myself included, before handling this affair, didn't you? Ah — please don't misunderstand. It's nothing offensive, not at all. I understand perfectly. Hahahaha."
This man, laughing so heartily—
Was one who, ten years from now, in the Righteous-Demonic War, would stand with the righteous path. A man who had upheld righteousness and chivalry to the end.
The Cold Star Iron Sword — Im Cheon-woo.
He had been the master of the Hanseong Sword Gate as well, and he would die roughly four years after the Righteous-Demonic War ended.
He had not died alone. He perished when the Imperial Sword Sect annihilated the Hanseong Sword Gate.
It was something I had glimpsed only in passing, so I didn't know the precise reason — but that it had been the Imperial Sword Sect, of that much I was certain.
That was all I knew.
That he had come from the Asura Sword Sect, too — I was learning for the first time right now.
I extended my hand to him.
Wide-eyed, he broke into that characteristic hearty smile and took my hand.
"Hahahaha. Your hand is a warm one, indeed."