The Dragnet of Heaven and Earth

Beijing, China.

The Moorim Branch Association — a gathering of returnees from Murim — had assembled inside a conference room in Cheonmuseong.

"That hole must be sealed somehow, and it must be sealed now."

Namgoong Hwi, master of that space, was shouting with an expression of barely contained desperation.

He had made similar arguments before, but the atmosphere this time was different. Everyone present had now witnessed with their own eyes that madman Kang Samsik slaughtering orcs.

"How, exactly? What, do you propose we launch a nuke at it?"

"What kind of insane nonsense is that? A nuke, in the middle of Beijing? Who would bear the consequences of that? Do you honestly think they would simply accept it?"

"That's not the point I'm making. I'm saying it because I'm just as frustrated as the rest of you."

Everyone in the room agreed that the hole from which the people of Murim — or to be precise, the Blood Cult — kept emerging had to be sealed. The problem was the method.

"Gates, by their very nature, can't be closed by anything we do on this side in the first place, can they?"

True enough.

Humanity had hardly stood by with folded hands when gates first began opening without warning, of course. Clearance through Awakened individuals, who had appeared alongside the gates themselves, was the orthodox approach — but people had always searched for other paths as well.

Shelling the space where a gate had opened was the bare minimum. One nation had even gone so far as to spray poison gas around a gate's perimeter.

And of course, every one of those attempts had ended in failure.

"And yet that thing is different from an ordinary gate, isn't it?"

At Namgoong Hwi's words, the returnees of the Moorim Branch Association pressed their lips shut.

The gate that had opened in Beijing was utterly unlike any conventional gate. Awakened individuals could not enter it, and everything that had come out of it so far had been members of the Blood Cult, without exception.

"So what? What good does all this worrying without a plan actually do?"

"U-urgent report."

Someone entered the conference room just as everyone was suffocating under a conversation that kept circling without going anywhere.

"...What is it? I distinctly ordered that no one was to enter."

"The North has reported that Wei Jinsheng and every one of the Awakened in the Dandong region were annihilated inside the gate."

A strange silence settled over the conference room, and rightly so.

Every Murim returnee in that room had been among those who encouraged Wei Jinsheng's expedition north. And the reason they had done so was that very figure of the Blood Cult who had appeared in Korea. Not one of them, however, had predicted the expedition would end in total annihilation.

"...Any other news? Is the northern gate still uncaptured?"

"Well, the thing is — the Awakened from Korea have apparently finished clearing it. The government is already demanding an explanation for all of this."

That remark drew another heavy groan from the room.

"What in the world is going on? That monster went into the gate, didn't he?"

"I don't know. What kind of sorcery they've employed! But as I said before — the Blood Cult's Cult Leader is already on this soil as we speak."

At Namgoong Hwi's irritable outburst, everyone in the room rolled their eyes with anxious expressions.

The thing they had tried so hard to ignore now felt as close and as scorching as a fire fallen at their very feet.

"Look here, Sword Emperor. Since you were the one who raised this matter, speak. Surely you didn't insist on sealing that gate without a single alternative in mind."

"It's nothing grand, but for now it's better to try what can be tried, wouldn't you say?"

Turning to the eyes fixed upon him, Namgoong Hwi began to lay out the methods he had devised.

The first solution Namgoong Hwi had conceived was physical blockade. Pouring cement over the gate to bury it entirely, or whatever else it took — depriving them of the physical space itself so that not one of them could step beyond the gate's threshold.

There had been cases in the past where a similar approach was tried and failed, but it was still well worth attempting.

Of course, that was not all Namgoong Hwi had in mind.

Only two beings had emerged through the gate so far — which might well mean the gate itself carried a limitation, unable to transfer many people at once.

Kang Samsik was unquestionably strong. But numbers had never lost a war yet.

Namgoong Hwi alone might have been a different story, but if the Murim returnees and China's Awakened combined their full strength, it seemed inconceivable that they could not take the man down.

"The Dragnet of Heaven and Earth. I hereby name this operation — the Dragnet of Heaven and Earth."

So spoke Namgoong Hwi to the Murim returnees who gazed only at him.

"The Dragnet of Heaven and Earth... It is certainly worth attempting."

"Agreed. I second the Sword Emperor's opinion."

A strange light began to kindle in Namgoong Hwi's eyes.

He could not be certain this would stop that monster — but it was better than doing nothing at all.

And Namgoong Hwi privately assessed his odds of victory at no less than seventy percent.

What Namgoong Hwi did not know, however, was this:

While he was so diligently drafting his plan, a storm was raging inside the gate itself.

The Central Plains. Beijing.

Thanks to a communiqué from Hyeolnoe, the headquarters of the Blood Heavenly Cult had, for the first time in an age, erupted into a uproar.

The truth was that for the Cult's members of today, the Central Plains were nothing short of a golden age of peace. Ever since the Blood Heavenly Emperor Lee Jaeseong had brought Murim to heel, the cultists who had once been pointed at and scorned as a demonic sect had become beings whom even the high ministers of the imperial court dared not treat carelessly.

But peace was one thing — and for men who were warriors to the marrow, tranquility was merely another name for boredom.

Which was precisely why Hyeolnoe's communiqué, falling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as it did into the laps of the bored, could only become a scalding hot potato.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The moment the communiqué was posted, the headquarters split into two camps and descended into furious debate.

"Why on earth should we slog through hardship in some unknown land? His Excellency himself said only those who wish to come may come, did he not?"

"The grace we received from the Cult Leader is as vast as the heavens themselves. Only a beast would refuse to follow him to the land where he resides."

Whether to follow the Cult Leader into the new world he had opened, or to remain in Murim — the arguments for and against locked horns in perfect equilibrium.

And astonishingly, the one who brought the debate to its conclusion was none other than Kang Samsik.

"Samsik. You've been to that other world, haven't you? So — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what is the place like? Is it truly the Immortal Realm of legend?"

Kang Samsik let out a wry chuckle at the crowd that had sought him out.

The Cult Leader had demanded only that he not pressure anyone into going — he had never been told to keep silent about what that world was like.

"The Immortal Realm, is it. Heh. I'm not sure the place can even be captured by such a description. Let me tell you — the streets are lined end to end with luminous pearls, and people ride about on iron horses that move without a word. And that's not all. Skyscrapers that seem to pierce the very heavens stretch on without end."

"Now hold on — does that even make sense?"

"I saw it with my own eyes, didn't I?"

Kang Samsik barked at the doubters, glaring them down.

"That's the least of it. Inside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a miraculous mirror, fairies dance, and there are waterfalls in your own home that pour forth hot water at the flick of a finger? And you bathe yourself in mystical clouds scented with a thousand flowers."

"...If that is the truth, then it truly is an Immortal Realm beyond compare."

Kang Samsik suppressed a smile as he watched them, their eyes now gleaming, utterly spellbound by his tale.

"But the real marvel is the food. The moment it touches your tongue, it melts away — and the feeling is beyond ecstatic, honestly indescribable. Frankly, it made me think the food of this Central Plains land wasn't even worth eating."

"OOOOH!!"

At Kang Samsik's words, the eyes of the cultists began to change.

If one had to name the strongest emotion among the Blood Cult's people, it might well have been curiosity. That ceaseless spirit of inquiry was the very symbol of the Blood Heavenly Cult — and the very reason they had been despised in Murim.

"W-wait, no time for this — I must go submit my application at once."

"Quite right. Who could miss such a wondrous opportunity? It will surely aid my research..."

Thanks to Kang Samsik's agitation, within a single day of the communiqué's posting, volunteers numbered in the hundreds.

And the Cult's headquarters grew raucous once more — this time with those preparing for migration in earnest.

Watching the spectacle, Hyeolnoe could do nothing but clutch his throbbing forehead.

Once the tide tipped decisively toward one side, everyone and their grandmother came forward declaring they would cross to the new world — no, to the Immortal Realm. With so many thousands unable to cross in a single wave, the question now was how many shipments of migrants would be needed and in what order.

'Cult Leader. I most assuredly never forced a single one of them. They chose this themselves, the fools.'

And Kang Samsik, watching the whole spectacle unfold, could only smile to himself in secret.

"So this is the place?"

I said, staring at the dilapidated, abandoned building on the outskirts of Gyeonggi-do. Nothing about it suggested a site where any serious research could be conducted — and yet this was Dr. Han Chaeyoon's hideout, the one Kang Iseol had tracked down after an exhaustive search.

"Allow me to make the approach first, please."

Kang Iseol said this to me and my family, then headed for the half-collapsed building.

What struck me as interesting was the array of objects hanging off the building's exterior that had no business coexisting with such a ruin. High-performance sensor devices of one kind or another clung in tangled complexity along the mold-stained outer walls.

The moment Kang Iseol drew near the entrance, a sharp woman's voice crackled out through a speaker.

A brutally touchy, deeply defensive tone. Branded a fraud by the academic world, it was hardly unreasonable for her to show such wariness toward strangers.

"Dr. Han Chaeyoon, I presume? I've come from the Blood Heaven Guild. There's a matter we'd like to discuss with you, if you could spare just a moment of your—"

Kang Iseol calmly attempted to keep the conversation going, but the woman had no intention of listening.

Perhaps the exchange had grown too frustrating to watch — Seoyeon suddenly darted forward from beside me.

The original plan had been for only my brother-in-law, me, and Kang Iseol to come, but since this was our mother's matter, Seoyeon and Seojun had insisted they had no reason to be left behind, and so they'd joined us.

Seo Jinwoo had tagged along as well.

"Excuse me! I'm sorry, but this really is important to us. If you could just talk with us for a minute—"

As Seoyeon cut in, a device fitted with a camera lens swiveled to frame her face.

"Huh? You know me?"

Seoyeon asked back with a startled expression, and everyone around her felt much the same.

No one could possibly have guessed that a researcher buried and forgotten by academia ages ago would have any point of contact with Seoyeon.

With a heavy clack, the firmly sealed door could be seen swinging limply open.

Just as everyone stood staring at it in bewilderment, the woman beyond the speaker tossed out yet another wholly unexpected question.

At that unforeseen question, I could see every gaze in the group turning toward me.

And I, equally at a loss, could do no more than tilt my head.