Breaking the Precept Against Killing
Nine deaths, one life.
Was there ever a saying that cut closer to the bone than this—clawing your way out of death’s grasp again and again until, somehow, you still drew breath?
The moment I shoved aside the massive boulder sealing the passage with a deep, grinding kugong, hope lit every face around me. They could live.
“How in the world did you know a place like this even existed?!”
A lifeline dropped into a dead-end alley. Unit Leader Jang Jin stared at me as if he couldn’t quite believe it.
“Just… looked off. Unnatural. So I figured it was worth a shot…”
I shrugged, playing it like pure dumb luck.
From the corner of my vision, Salsung twitched with open irritation, as if to say, Excuse me? This was my doing.
Glare all you want. What are you going to do about it?
“Hah! Luckier than a cat with nine lives, this troubleshooter.”
Jang Jin clapped my back with a booming laugh, then dove straight into the secret passage as if he couldn’t stand another second in this hellhole.
A man with an unusually fierce attachment to self-preservation and life itself. And yet he still stepped forward against injustice. A thoroughly human gallant, if ever there was one.
“Thanks to you, Sohye and I may yet return to the Namgung family in one piece.”
Supported by his younger sister at the mouth of the cave, Namgung Jin offered his thanks with genuine eyes.
“Is that so.”
I answered shortly, studying him.
Something about his presence had felt strange from the start. Could he be one of the other baleful stars Salsung mentioned?
A razor-sharp question cut my observation short.
“But young hero, I must ask this. Did you truly find it by luck alone?”
While everyone else cheered that a way out had opened, only Namgung Jin kept his cold reason, watching me with keen eyes.
“What are the odds of stumbling upon a secret passage in the vast lands of the Demonic Sect by pure chance? Forgive me, but I cannot help but suspect you.”
He had a point.
Suspicion was already rampant that Demonic Sect spies had infiltrated the Murim Alliance. In times like these, you double-checked even the solidest bridge before crossing.
“It really was just luck. I’ve always had good instincts… The arrangement of the underbrush just felt wrong.”
Salsung thrashed in protest at being denied credit, but there was no way I could explain her.
Namgung Jin scrubbed a dry hand over his face and sighed. Far from convinced.
“Luck and instinct…”
He murmured it quietly, regarding me with complicated eyes.
“I have held your chivalry in high regard. Watching you stand firm against any demonic villain without flinching, I thought we might one day become the closest of friends…”
I stared at the man in front of me, slightly dumbfounded by the feelings he claimed to harbor.
What’s with this guy…?
We’d only met a handful of times. Why was he acting like we’d already walked through death together?
Had we crossed paths more often than I realized—maybe while I was wearing a mask?
“But when you offer only these unsatisfying explanations, I fear I will not be able to wipe the stain of doubt from you for some time.”
Regret colored Namgung Jin’s voice.
Personally he thought well of me, but given the situation, suspicion was unavoidable.
Well, I get it.
I had led them here on intelligence whispered by a Demonic Sect Holy Maiden, knowing full well it would raise eyebrows.
But first things first: keep them alive. At the very least, I had to get Jo Harang and my sisters back to the Central Plains.
“Could it be that you are connected to those Demonic Sect spies said to have infiltrated the Murim Alliance—”
“Absolutely not.”
A woman stepped firmly between us, her high ponytail swinging.
The moment Namgung Jin tried to extend the branches of his doubt, my blood sister Moyong Cheonghye planted herself in front of me like a shield and cut him off cold.
Then she pointed at me and spoke with absolute certainty.
“I have known Young Hero Dan since his younger days… since his time as a wandering swordsman.”
She hesitated on something, then continued.
“And as Vice Leader of the Demon Exterminating Squad, who has thoroughly investigated and tracked the Demonic Sect, I can state this without reservation: he has nothing whatsoever to do with them.”
“……Hmm.”
But as far as Namgung Jin knew, Moyong Cheonghye and I were little more than acquaintances who had brushed past each other a few times while hunting demonic villains.
Still unconvinced, he pressed her again.
“Would you stake your family name on that certainty?”
True to his station as the Alliance Leader’s son, Namgung Jin checked every last detail.
My eyes met Moyong Cheonghye’s for a brief instant. In that flicker I read something like steely resolve.
“Of course. I will guarantee him upon my honor and that of my family.”
“……?”
I stared at her, blank.
Why go this far for me…?
What was this unfathomable, thick trust she placed in me?
Surely she hadn’t figured out my identity? I hastily felt the disguised face beneath my mask. But Ilhong’s facial membrane still clung perfectly to my skin.
So nothing should have given me away. Why, then, was she shielding me so desperately?
And if she had discovered the truth, why was my head still attached to my shoulders?
The woman before me was the same cold-blooded sister who, even when her own blood brother begged and pleaded that he had come to his senses, had still run him through and shoved him off a cliff.
“What are you all doing?! Stop dilly-dallying and run already!”
When the people behind failed to enter the cave, the unit leader of the Collaborative Unit returned, sticking his head out and waving urgently for us to hurry.
Whatever this was about, deal with it after we got out—that was the tone.
Unlike Unit Leader Jeok Unyeop, Jang Jin was a pure pragmatist.
“Forgive me, young hero.”
Namgung Jin’s voice came from beside me.
“When I think on it… to be seized by suspicion and doubt the very man who leapt into this place to save us. How shameful of me.”
With Moyong Cheonghye’s guarantee so firm, he withdrew his suspicion and apologized.
The more I saw of him, the more he seemed a genuine soul whose character didn’t quite match his martial prowess, status, or looks.
“Let’s just get out of here.”
I said it while watching a red finger beckon impatiently for us not to waste time and hurry inside.
Once everyone had entered the secret passage leading out of Demonic Sect territory, Moyong Cheonghye glanced back and murmured softly.
“…It’s a pity we couldn’t recover the bodies of the Beggar Sect disciples.”
As if mourning the lonely spirits of the gallants who, according to reports, had been put on display as examples in various villages—one last farewell before we left this place behind.
“Hey. Dan Mujin.”
While we walked the passage, Dang Yeohye tapped my shoulder.
A beauty with alluring crimson-lined eyes. Pretty face, temper like wildfire.
“I owe you again. But I’m out of favor tokens to give…”
She muttered in a voice that almost crawled along the ground. She had already handed me every last one of her favor tokens; nothing remained.
Come to think of it, Dang Yeohye seemed to believe I had risked everything and charged into this deathtrap just to save her.
Well, she didn’t know Moyong Cheonghye was my blood sister, so the thought wasn’t unreasonable.
“So when exactly are you planning to cash in those gold, silver, and bronze favor tokens I gave you?”
Her tone and gaze shifted subtly. Something like quiet expectation glinted there.
I remembered what Neungsam had casually mentioned once. Collect every gold, silver, and bronze token from a single person of the Dang Clan, and you could make a special request of them.
But right now I didn’t particularly need anything from the Dang Clan. No special favors on my mind either.
“Couldn’t you just buy them back at a high price?”
“……Hey. I told you if you try to convert them into money, I’ll die.”
“Joke. Just a joke.”
Standing before me, the poison-born temper that usually simmered in her seemed to settle—only for her to flare up like this every so often.
Truly impossible to predict.
“Everyone! Once we return safely to the Central Plains, this Soyo Sword Jeok Unyeop will treat you all to a round of drinks!”
When no pursuers seemed to be following, the leader of the Demon Exterminating Squad—normally so tight-fisted that he was famously stingy with generosity—made a surprising declaration.
After clawing through that sea of corpses and blood, he would empty his purse if he had to, just to stand a round.
Moyong Cheonghye and Dang Yeohye both looked genuinely startled.
“Drinks? Count me out.”
In my previous life I had enjoyed the occasional drink, but in this one I had met Hwang Geolgae—the perfect cautionary tale.
If I started drinking for pleasure, the Beggar Sect disciples’ anxiety levels would skyrocket overnight.
“The old sayings really are never wrong. Even if the sky falls, there’s always a hole to climb through… When we get back alive, I’m going to gorge myself on the shaved ice Mujin makes.”
Jo Harang, leaning on my support, spoke as if she finally believed we had truly survived.
Yet somehow her words felt exactly like planting a flag.
“And there’s another old saying: beyond the mountain, another mountain.”
Right then, an unfamiliar voice rang coldly from behind us.
“……!”
We all froze solid in an instant.
No matter how exhausted we were, no matter how drained our internal energy had left our senses dulled—I never expected us to leave our backs this completely open.
“Keh keh. Did you truly believe you could slaughter so many disciples of the Bright Cult and still return to the Central Plains unharmed?”
The voice that spilled from behind mixed rage and mockery.
I didn’t even need to turn to grasp his affiliation and intent.
“Hunchback Protector. Ma Ryun-do.”
A shabby old man with a hunchbacked, bent spine and a scrawny frame. Yet the aura he radiated was powerful enough to make skin prickle.
Confirming those unmistakable traits and appearance as she looked back, Moyong Cheonghye bit her lip and muttered the name.
As one, we stopped and carefully turned.
From the Demonic Sect side of the passage, a short old man in black robes regarded us with icy eyes. Demonic energy poured from him, crushing down on the entire tunnel.
“Transcendent Realm… He’s a Transcendent Realm master. Mujin.”
Clutching a bleeding wound and leaning her weight on me, Jo Harang murmured in a voice thick with despair.
Even from a distance the pressure was ominous. Among Transcendent Realm martial artists, he was clearly one who had reached full maturity in the realm.
Proof enough: in my vision, Salsung was leaping about frantically, screaming not to engage him under any circumstances.
“Damn it…”
Just when a ray of hope had appeared, a Demonic Sect ambush to hurl us into the abyss of despair at the final moment.
“Judging by those faces, you truly believed you could set foot in the Bright Cult and still walk away. Keh keh!”
He barked a scornful laugh as if the very idea were absurd, then strode toward us with heavy steps.
Our party still had several Transcendental Peak masters. Under normal circumstances we might somehow have matched him…
“Damn it. Of all times, my arm won’t move properly…”
As Namgung Jin’s words made plain, everyone was in tatters. None of us had the strength left to fight a master of that caliber.
Jo Harang’s wounds ran deep; she would need time to recover. Of the entire group, the only one still relatively intact was me.
“I do not know how you found this secret passage leading to the Central Plains… but your struggle was meaningless.”
The hunchbacked old man’s eyes flashed cold.
“The Cult Leader has ordered that your heads be brought to him. His will shall be done.”
A cruel smile twisted the Transcendent Realm master’s face as he spoke of personally displaying our heads before the Cult Leader.
Accepting there was no other choice, I carefully passed Jo Harang to Dang Yeohye, then drew the pitch-black Jiokchammabong.
“Resistance is futile. Your location is already known, and a rear force follows behind this body.”
In other words, all he needed to do was pin us down and buy time—victory was already his.
By every measure, joining forces here to fight him was a road that led only to total annihilation.
I turned and shouted to the party.
“Go on ahead. I’ll catch up later.”
“…….”
Catch up later—but the odds of surviving against a Transcendent Realm master like that were nearly zero.
In the end it was nothing more than a desperate declaration that I would buy them a scrap of time to escape, even if it cost my life.
They understood at once and erupted in fierce protest.
“Hey! What the hell are you talking about?!”
Dang Yeohye flushed red and yelled.
“So you’d rather we all die gloriously together?”
I told them to face reality coldly, glancing at the people behind.
“Unit Leaders. And Young Hero Namgung Jin. Please. Take everyone and go.”
The ones who still had some grip on reality and strength left—Jeok Unyeop and Jang Jin—began pulling the others away despite their blind resistance.
In this situation, it was the most realistic and rational choice.
“Mu… Mujin!”
Moyong Cheonghye’s heartrending cry rang out behind me.
Hearing the raw anguish in that voice, a strange emotion welled up in my chest.
I still couldn’t read what was going on inside her.
“Forgive me, Master.”
He had taught me swordsmanship only for self-defense, and had told me never to draw the blade hidden inside my black staff even if I saw it.
Ssrrring.
The Jiokchamma-geom revealed its brilliant gleam to the world.
“This seat shall violate the precept against killing today.”
For a brief moment—a declaration of return as the murderous Heavenly Killing Star.
I locked eyes with Ma Ryun-do and unleashed an ominous, baleful light.