Where Heaven's Will Goes Awry
“Seriously, what kind of curse is hanging over this neighborhood?”
Dan Mujin muttered in disbelief as he stared up at the sheer cliff face.
If the words of the Jiangshi Demon were true, the remnants of the Blood Sect were swarming somewhere up there.
Of all the places in the world, why did it have to be there?
“What’s wrong with that cliff?”
Ilhong asked, puzzled by the grim look he kept fixed on the rock wall.
“Someone died there.”
“Huh? Who…?”
“There was a guy. Neither one thing nor the other.”
An ambiguous man who had been neither Moyong Cheongjin nor Dan Wonjun had thrown himself from that height.
And down below, under the single overriding purpose of survival, the two had fused and been reborn as one.
Kill.
Salsung flared a vivid red inside him, as if reminding him not to forget her existence.
Right. He’d almost forgotten about her.
An uninvited guest wedged into the blended selves of two men.
“He jumped on his own?”
“Half voluntary, half not.”
It had been a choice between being torn apart by his sister’s hand or dying on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff.
One or the other. That was the situation.
“If you fall from there it connects straight into the rapids we saw earlier… Whoever it was, they’re definitely dead.”
“Well… I wouldn’t be so sure.”
As soon as he answered, Dan Mujin suddenly seized the Jiangshi Demon by the throat.
“Hey, Fake Client. What the hell are the Blood Sect bastards doing up there?”
“……”
When the Jiangshi Demon hesitated, Dan Mujin once again applied Bone-Crushing Grasp, squeezing and twisting the man’s sinews.
“Ghk—! Th-the Blood Sect’s Astrologer! He said he tracked the traces of the Heavenly Killing Star all the way here…!”
Under the crushing pressure of those fingers the Jiangshi Demon spat the secret out with a pained groan.
At those ominous words the entire party’s faces hardened in an instant.
“……What did you just say?”
Dan Mujin asked again, half-convinced he had misheard.
“Heavenly Killing Star. You said Heavenly Killing Star just now… didn’t you?”
Jo Harang, who regarded that baleful star as her destined nemesis, reacted on pure instinct as well.
As if by silent agreement the two of them turned and stared at the mist-shrouded cliff at the same moment.
Their gazes locked onto it and refused to move for a long while.
Meanwhile the Jiangshi Demon had dipped his fingers into the pool of blood soaking the ground.
Bubble… bubble…
The crimson liquid began to writhe as though it were alive.
There had been a reason he spilled such an important secret so readily.
If he simply killed them all, the secret would be sealed forever.
Just as he shaped the rising droplets into a blood technique sharp enough to pierce every one of them—
Thud!
Dan Mujin’s fist smashed into the Jiangshi Demon’s face.
“Gah!”
Teeth shattered; blood sprayed from his nose as his head snapped back.
“Kh… again… How did you—!”
How had the man sensed the murderous intent he had been concealing?
“I told you. You’re so ugly that whenever you start scheming it shows all over your face.”
Dan Mujin answered the unfinished question with a crooked grin.
“You damned—right to the end—!”
Slash!
A heavy greatsword carved through the neck of the man who had been about to try something else.
The Jiangshi Demon’s head tumbled across the ground, the expression of shock still frozen on its face.
An absurdly hollow end for a once-infamous demonic master.
“Mujin, I don’t know about you, but I have to go up that cliff at least once.”
The look in her eyes said she would sprint there alone if he refused to come along.
The Purple Micro Star had thought the trail of the baleful star was broken; the sudden discovery of its traces left her unable to restrain herself.
“Funny coincidence. Same here.”
Dan Mujin answered as if there were nothing left to discuss.
He needed to find out why those bastards were chasing his traces.
He kicked the rolling head aside, locked eyes with Jo Harang, and then both of them broke into a run toward the cliff.
“Wait, Boss! What about this head?! We have to pickle it before we go!”
“Figure it out yourself!”
Priorities had flipped in an instant.
The thin mist coiling around the cliff was gradually turning the color of blood.
Clear proof that the Blood Sect was up to something up there.
The man and woman who carried the baleful star poured on even more speed.
Tap!
“Hah… hah…”
A woman whose entire body was painted crimson with blood heaved for breath, thin shoulders rising and falling.
Moyong Cheonghye, driven into a corner and hunted like game by the Blood Sect disciples.
The situation was hopeless, yet she still burned her own body without mercy, desperate to take even one more of them with her as she unleashed the Moyong Clan’s ultimate techniques.
As a result, dozens of Blood Sect corpses now littered the ground at her feet.
“What a vicious bitch…”
Beyond the corpses, Left Blood Dharma Gwang Hyeol-so ground his teeth.
He had sent his subordinates first to wear her down; instead she had cut every last one of them down without leaving a single survivor.
At that merciless handiwork the red light in Gwang Hyeol-so’s eyes flared even more sinisterly.
“So you wanted to kill that badly? Truly befitting the Heavenly Killing Star, overflowing with murderous intent.”
A being born with a natural talent for slaughter.
He had expected capture would not be easy, but he never imagined she would resist this fiercely, this desperately.
“Yes… I had to kill them. It wasn’t… enough.”
Moyong Cheonghye had already half given up on denying it.
At some point she had decided that dying here on this cliff as the Heavenly Killing Star would not be so terrible after all.
“I intended to knock you unconscious with as few wounds as possible, since that body will become the vessel for Him… But at this rate I’ll have no choice but to cut something off.”
He leveled his honed blade and muttered as if genuinely regretful.
It could not be helped. If he explained the circumstances of the injury, the Blood Sect Leader—and later the great One who would descend—would understand to some degree.
With that thought he clearly manifested the blood-red haze clinging to his sword.
This was the proof of the Transcendent Realm that could split not only flesh but steel and even sword qi itself: Sword Force—Geomgang.
“……I knew it.”
Moyong Cheonghye groaned at the sight.
A Blood Sect master who had been so confident of capturing even a Transcendental Peak Realm fighter without leaving a scratch.
From the moment their blades crossed she had felt an ominous aura; now it was confirmed.
Gwang Hyeol-so closed the distance step by step, Sword Force leading the way—something sword qi alone could not easily oppose.
Moyong Cheonghye thought, This is as far as I go, and something rose in her mind.
The resolve of Mutual Destruction—to take him with her even if she died in the attempt.
“Foolish girl. Surrender now and you may still receive mercy.”
Yet Gwang Hyeol-so suddenly spoke, clouding her thoughts.
“Surrender for mercy? Don’t spout nonsense I can’t believe.”
“Beneath the mercy of the Blood Heaven God you will be able to vent that boiling murderous intent without end. If that is not mercy, what is?”
“Still talking garbage—ah!”
The blood of the fallen disciples that had soaked the ground suddenly rose of its own will and snared both her legs like snares.
“Hahaha! Got you!”
Blood technique—crimson drops still fell from his little finger.
With her feet bound, Gwang Hyeol-so lunged in triumph. Moyong Cheonghye desperately wrung out the last of her internal energy and formed sword qi.
A flickering blue sword qi and blood-red Sword Force collided in midair.
Crash!
The beloved sword she had carried since childhood finally could not endure the Sword Force and shattered into countless fragments.
Sharp shards embedded themselves all over her body; she collapsed, bleeding.
Ah…
Gwang Hyeol-so’s fist immediately slammed into her and sent her flying.
The moment she sprawled on the ground the grotesque-faced man moved to seal her Conception and Governing vessels completely.
So this is the end…
On her final road she had tried to draw up even her primordial true qi and drag the Left Blood Dharma of the Blood Sect down with her.
Instead she had only felt the gulf in their levels and been defeated so emptily.
Heaven and Earth, gods and spirits… why place such a trial upon this girl…
Through her fallen ears came the roar of the violent rapids far below the cliff.
To have her life end here of all places, branded as the Heavenly Killing Star.
A truly twisted fate, if one could call it that.
Perhaps she was simply paying some kind of price.
“Heh heh. Sleep. When you open your eyes it will be a blood-red paradise.”
The sleep poison flooding through the sealed vessels slowly swallowed her.
Consciousness grew hazy; her eyes began to close.
And then—what was this?
“Sis—! Cheonghye—!”
From far away a familiar voice and face came racing toward her in shock and urgency.
A little more mature, yet a face that instantly brought her younger brother Moyong Cheongjin to mind.
“Cheongjin… is that you?”
Had her little brother come to meet her from the other side?
Her eyes widened for a moment in disbelief, then the sleep poison claimed them.
With those words her consciousness cut out and her head lolled.
My head was a mess of bewilderment, shock, and pure rage.
“Dan Mujin Assault!”
I had forgotten even the names of techniques. With a raw, primal motion I poured massive internal energy through the Yongcheon point in my sole and rocketed toward the enemy who had dared touch my sister.
Whoosh!
But the opponent was no ordinary man either. My full-powered Hell Demon-Slaying Staff cut empty air with a vicious howl.
With a mysterious footwork he slipped aside and then looked back and forth between me and Jo Harang, who had just arrived at the cliff. Red light burned in his eyes.
“Huh? Heroine Moyong Cheonghye? Mujin, why is she here?”
Jo Harang asked as she caught up.
“……I don’t know either. Why the hell is she here for real?”
That was exactly what I wanted to know.
The situation had been urgent so I just ran full tilt and saved her, but still.
From the way she murmured “Cheongjin” at the end, she had definitely seen my face.
My bare face, without the human-skin mask I had neglected to put on.
“Shit. This is bad.”
She had looked half-asleep after the vessel seal; maybe she would write it off as a dream?
Anyway the situation was anything but ordinary. When she woke up I would just have to insist she saw wrong and stick to it no matter what.
“And who the hell are you two supposed to be?”
Unbelievable. This bastard was asking the exact question I wanted to ask him.
“I should be the one asking that. Who are you?”
I jerked my chin at him.
“Hmph. This body is Left Blood Dharma of the Blood Sect—Gwang Hyeol-so.”
My skin prickled in an instant. The man answered with open displeasure while radiating an ominous aura.
Looks like this guy actually had some real skill.
I tapped the arm of Jo Harang, who had already drawn her greatsword, and asked silently if she knew him.
“Yeah, Gwang Hyeol-so. Looks nothing like it, but he’s a previous-generation demonic master… So he was Blood Sect too…”
“This son of a bitch.”
The two things I hated most in the world were clients who stiffed the fee and previous-generation demonic masters.
A demonic master who had survived for decades at least. The fact that a creature like him was still alive in the Murim meant one thing: he was strong.
Ssshhh—
As if to prove my thought correct, Gwang Hyeol-so openly unleashed a vivid crimson Sword Force right in front of us.
How could a single blade contain that much crushing, world-splitting power?
“See? I knew it would be like this.”
I shook my head.
“……This is bad. What do we do, Mujin?”
Why did bad premonitions never miss?
“I have no idea what kind of rats you are, but offer up those bodies of yours to the great cause of the Blood Sect.”
The Blood Sect master looked at us with a blade-sharp expression that already declared our deaths.
“Harang, if we fight together, can we beat him?”
“Mmm… even for us, that thing is…”
Not looking easy. Damn it.
In the middle of the crisis, pure white staff qi bloomed from the Hell Demon-Slaying Staff.
“Flesh and bone, blood and tears, down to the very last scrap of your bodies…!”
The Blood Sect master roared the savage words and stamped the ground.
Jo Harang and I swallowed our groans and looked at each other. A woman who had come to track the traces of the Heavenly Killing Star, and a man who had come to protect his sister.
Sometimes the world simply offered no place to retreat.
We detonated every last drop of internal energy in our bodies and charged straight at the blood-colored madman.
This was the cliff where the ominous mark of the Heavenly Killing Star had last been divined.
The moment the Astrologer set foot on the place he was seized by a bone-chilling sensation.
Left Blood Dharma Gwang Hyeol-so had discovered a suspicious woman and told him he was no longer needed, so the old man had withdrawn some distance behind them.
Thus the elderly man of advanced years stood far away, listening only to the sounds of battle.
Then a strange feeling gripped him and, without realizing it, he spread open the wooden board used for divination with a clatter of beads.
The moon and stars had not yet risen. The Astrologer dripped blood drop by drop and examined Heaven’s will through a sinister method.
And when he saw the contents of the reading, both eyes flew wide open.
“How can there exist such a bewitched, demonic cliff as this?”
Bizarre. Uncanny. Appalling.
A place to which every one of those words could be attached.
“In this place… Heaven’s will itself is distorted…!”
Originally everything on earth flowed according to Heaven’s decree.
Yet here, someone’s fate had been twisted on a massive scale.