Going Home
The vast Central Plains.
People joked that martial artists were so common you could trip over them—but even so, a blood duel between Peak Realm fighters was a rare and precious spectacle.
And for one of those fighters to awaken into the Transcendental Peak Realm mid-battle? That was a wonder you might not witness once in a lifetime of wandering the Murim.
"What the hell did we just get mixed up in?"
"We never meant for things to escalate this far…"
The spectators thronging in front of the Golden Dragon Academy, and the two family heads who had dragged their martial artists into a pride match, simply stood there, stunned, staring at the aftershock they themselves had unleashed.
"You look pretty refreshed."
I spoke to Jo Harang, who had just stepped into the Transcendental Peak Realm and now wore the serene face of a sage.
"…Yeah. My heart finally feels at peace."
Of course it did.
Until now she had been deliberately muddying her emotions—refusing to feel murderous intent even when cutting down the wicked, denying the resentment she clearly carried—so mind and body had been out of alignment.
I had simply cracked everything back into place with a satisfying snap. No wonder she felt calm.
I just hadn't expected the adjustment to be so perfect that it would carry her all the way to Transcendental Peak.
"Thank you. Because of you, the knot in my chest is gone."
…!!
The moment the Purple Micro Star offered that sincere gratitude, Salsung threw another fit inside me.
She was so furious she started scrawling every filthy curse she knew across empty air.
Probably because a massive surge of virtuous qi was welling up from the depths of my dantian. She was about to lose another chunk of her star's power to it—no wonder she was boiling.
I really have gone too far. I never thought I'd end up helping the Purple Micro Star herself.
Helping a destined rival who might one day take my life? That was pure saint-and-sage behavior. No surprise the good karma had been pouring in nonstop.
I could probably stop worrying about lifespan for a while and live a little.
But… is she even my destined rival in the first place?
The thought rose unbidden as I remembered the star-forged chains binding my fate.
I intended to smash the Heavenly Killing Star's destiny—paint the earth with blood and corpses—head-on.
So did that really make her my enemy?
Was it truly forbidden for us to stand on the same side?
Great Star Crushing the Egg
Having read my thoughts, the Heavenly Killing Star wrote a long phrase for the first time in ages.
It had taken the old saying "Mount Tai crushing an egg," swapped the mountain for a star, and spat the result back at me.
In short: how could a mere human egg ever withstand the weight of a star?
Stop thrashing around and submit to the fate you were given.
"Go fuck yourself."
"E-eh?"
I had spat the words out of pure defiance—only for Jo Harang, standing right beside me, to whip around with wide, startled eyes.
"Not you. Wasn't talking to you."
"Right? How am I supposed to fuck something that isn't there?"
"…"
She pressed a hand to her chest as if recovering from a shock.
Sometimes her mind was so pure and simple it felt like watching a martial artist who had spent her entire life training alone in the mountains.
"Wait—how did you know that?"
Apparently she had heard my muttered thought, because Jo Harang's eyes went perfectly round.
"…Seriously?"
"Yeah. I've only been working as a vagabond a few years. The sect ran out of money around then."
She explained that after a lifetime of mountain training she had finally come down to do some chivalrous work—and earn a little coin—by taking vagabond jobs.
So she was basically the young breadwinner of her sect. Listening to her, I thought her life had been pretty eventful too.
"It suits me pretty well, actually. Feels like I found my calling."
Or maybe she just wasn't overthinking it.
Like me, she might simply think: thrash bad guys, get paid—double win.
"Anyway, Mujin."
"Finally calling me Mujin, huh."
She scratched her cheek, looking sheepish at my grumbling.
"Ahem. Anyway… thank you. I've already received your help twice in a row. I have no idea how to repay this debt. It's honestly starting to feel overwhelming."
That was true—she was the type who always made sure to pay back whatever she received, one way or another.
Thanks to that trait of hers, I had broken through the wall of the First-class Realm myself. I remembered it well.
"I didn't even realize I was trapped in a heart demon, and you pulled me out of it. This debt is something I have to—"
"Hey."
"Hm?"
She had been absently fidgeting with the spine of her oversized saber—a habit that looked oddly out of place on her—and now pricked up her ears at my call.
"You remember the promise you made me last time?"
"Which one?"
"That even if I show up as someone who deserves to die, you'll look the other way. Just once."
When I reminded her of that earlier vow, she stamped her feet in sudden agitation—thump, thump.
"So why would I ever kill you? Why?!"
Exactly.
She couldn't understand it, saw no reason for it, and therefore refused to accept the idea at all.
Why should stars floating in the sky be allowed to tear apart a man and woman who got along this well on the ground?
"Then… instead of just looking the other way—could you maybe stand on my side?"
She lifted her gaze to the heavens and swore.
"You will never become a villain. This Jo Harang has seen it with her own two eyes. So I will always be on your side."
She thumped her chest for emphasis, as if telling me to trust her, and reaffirmed the vow once more.
Damn, that was a good sound. Felt like I had just banked an extra life.
Anyway, I had already awakened her—nothing to be done about that now.
I had been working hard to secure my own survival by winning over a girl who still knew nothing…
"Um…"
Our clients approached with pale, drained faces.
Right. We were still in the middle of a job.
"Looks like a draw to me. Feeling better now that you've gotten it out of your systems? Or do you still want to keep going?"
"No! Absolutely not!"
"Never again!"
The two middle-aged men shook their heads so hard it was a miracle they stayed attached.
Nice. Neighboring families ought to stay on good terms.
"Hey, kids. You two play nice from now on. If I hear you've been fighting again… we'll come find you and thrash you ourselves."
"…Yes, sir!"
The little ones answered in crisp, terrified unison.
That should keep them from causing any more trouble.
Then my eyes met those of Madam Ha of the Ha Family, who had been quietly studying my rather handsome face from behind.
Shh.
Nod.
We had both been startled by the sudden chaos, but we quickly agreed to respect each other's privacy.
Unlike the Ha family head, his wife was a woman you could talk sense with.
And just like that, this commission seemed to have ended successfully as well.
I was starving after all that fighting and had been thinking of collecting the fee and treating myself to dinner at a luxurious nearby inn—
"Hold it right there!"
A neat, scholarly-looking man planted himself in our path, face full of pure disbelief.
"I am a staff member of the Golden Dragon Academy. How could you smash a place where children study like this? Walls, doors—everything is ruined!"
He jabbed a furious finger at the shattered stone walls, the broken gates, and the wrecked front courtyard that had been caught in the fighting.
"I already knew martial artists were shameless, but to try walking away after this… Unthinkable. Today I will make you understand that the law still lives in the Imperial Capital!"
Even Peak Realm martial artists would not be allowed to leave unscathed, he declared, beard quivering with righteous rage.
"Harang."
"Yeah? What is it, Mujin?"
She answered softly at my call.
"You said you wanted to repay the favor."
"…Yeah."
Sensing something ominous, her reply came a beat slower this time.
"You wouldn't happen to have some money on you, would you?"
"…"
She patted the money pouch at her waist with a complicated expression. Clearly not gifted at saving; her face was far from confident.
Looks like that luxurious dinner paid for by the commission fee was off the table.
"Haa… unexpected expenses."
This was an academy attended by the high and mighty of Beijing. Of course it had ties to the Imperial Court, so we didn't push back and simply paid the exact repair costs.
Oh, and of course we also grabbed our employers—who had been trying to quietly slip away—and made them cough up their share.
"Technically most of the property damage came from you, though."
The female vagabond who had whirled that massive saber like a windmill and demolished everything in every direction.
"That's why I cleaned out my entire fortune to cover the damages…"
Jo Harang muttered, staring at her now-flat money pouch with a dejected face.
She looked like she wanted to curl up in a corner and disappear.
Well, she really had paid the most, so I wasn't about to give her grief over it.
What I did want to give her grief over was something else entirely.
"So… why haven't you gone home?"
I asked Jo Harang, who—despite the commission being finished—had quietly claimed a corner of the office for herself.
"This is my home."
"…Did the massive expenses make you lose your mind?"
I pressed my temple at her completely innocent reply.
"I've already received two huge favors from you. So I'm going to work here and pay them off."
"What…"
A heart demon was an inner monster that could bring even a master like Hwang Geolgae to his knees.
She claimed I had saved her from that and guided her onto the path of Transcendental Peak—debts too great to repay with ordinary means.
Therefore Jo Harang, Transcendental Peak vagabond, intended to repay them with her body.
"No, it's fine. You can just leave…"
But Ilhong, sensing something, tried to send her away with the wary eyes of a cat before I could even open my mouth—
as if declaring that the office already had one perfectly good flower and needed no more.
"Harang, I don't have the payroll to keep a Transcendental Peak martial artist on staff."
"It's fine. I'll work for free."
Free labor from a Transcendental Peak expert?
"Welcome to the agency."
What employer in history had ever enjoyed such luxury?
I welcomed her with a huge, idiotic grin.
"Haa… competition again, just like this…"
Ilhong pressed a hand to her forehead as if the world were ending.
With a Transcendental Peak fighter on the roster at full power, we wouldn't have to fear any commission that came our way for a while.
Even the dangerous jobs—we could take them without blinking.
"But weren't you supposed to earn money and send it back to your sect? I'm happy to have you, but you can pay me back gradually, you know."
I still had to show a little restraint. I was the boss, after all.
"No. If I keep walking around feeling like I owe you, then even when I do good deeds later I'll just think of them as debt repayment. I don't like that. Better to clear it fast."
That way of thinking sounded familiar.
From "might as well do the good deeds I'm going to do anyway and get paid for them" onward—how was her entire philosophy so similar to mine?
In any case, the office had just gained one more useful pair of hands.
"Welcome, new hire."
And one week later.
Even with a Peak Realm and a Transcendental Peak "sleeping dragons" nested in our tiny office, the days passed without a single job.
Ilhong and I sprawled across the desk and chairs as usual, staring blankly into space and killing time.
"By the way, Boss. Word about our agency seems to have spread."
Ilhong spoke up while crunching on a cheap wheat cake.
"Oh? What kind of word?"
I pricked up my ears at the news that rumors were finally circulating.
"What was it again? 'Academy-Wrecking Ghosts.' Apparently it means 'the ones who smash places of learning.'"
"…Ahem. That's a pretty vicious rumor."
No wonder customers weren't coming.
Viral marketing was important for any business, but that particular brand of word-of-mouth was unlikely to attract clients.
"Mujin! We've got a job! A job!"
But our new hire, Jo Harang, seemed to have dragged one in from outside for my sake.
Rain after a long drought. Accepting her had been the right call after all.
"What kind of commission? Does it pay well?"
"I stopped by the Vagabond Association and heard something. Seems a named request has come in specifically for you!"
"Huh? A named request?"
"Even I've only gotten a few of those. Impressive."
Not the usual system where someone posts a job with the Association and the Head scatters it to vagabonds he thinks can handle it—
but a request aimed at me from the very beginning. My own private commission.
"Finally the world recognizes its sleeping dragon."
Honestly it was a little late, if you asked me.
My shoulders rose with pride as I immediately led Jo Harang and Ilhong straight to the Beijing Vagabond Association office.
Association Head Gamun's room, decorated with all sorts of peculiar paintings, came into view.
"Hmm? Why are you appearing together with Jo Harang, the treasure of our Association…?"
Gamun looked up from whatever he had been writing and tilted his head at our sudden arrival.
"Jo Harang here is now the treasure of our troubleshooter agency."
"What…?"
He shot her a look laced with faint betrayal.
"…Only until I finish repaying the debt."
Jo Harang explained the circumstances—that she owed her life and her new realm.
That managed to cool Gamun's rising temper for the moment; he had thought he was losing Beijing's most useful vagabond.
Especially the news that she had reached Transcendental Peak seemed decisive. Once the debt was cleared, a master of that caliber would return to the Association's ranks.
"A heart demon, is it… Well, a life-debt can't be helped."
He still looked thoroughly displeased, but he seemed to have forced himself to accept it.
Then again, a Transcendental Peak expert could go wherever she pleased. Throwing a tantrum wouldn't accomplish much.
"So, what's this request that came for me?"
"Hmph. Truth be told I didn't particularly want to summon you after you went and set up shop on your own, but the client specifically named you, so…"
Our businesses didn't completely overlap, and there was no need for the Association to cut a Peak Realm expert loose with its own hands.
I still held the rank of Second-class Vagabond.
"Here. Take it."
Gamun scratched the long scar on his face and slid a single request form across the desk.
"What's it about?"
I asked for the gist before even looking.
"You… wouldn't happen to know anything about Liaoning Province, would you?"
"…"
The place filled with Moyong Cheongjin's scarred past.
At Gamun's sudden words, my entire body went rigid.