Chapter 2
How much time had passed?
Bu Eun-seol slowly opened his closed eyes.
Today, a strange energy could be felt within the iron coffin.
It was a cold energy so frigid that even Bu Eun-seol, who had played the Corpse Game countless times, found it difficult to endure.
"I want a vestment and a peachwood sword."
Picturing the splendid vestment and peachwood sword, Bu Eun-seol clenched his teeth once more.
Bu Jan-yang had never once broken a promise.
If he endured until sunrise, he would surely gift him the vestment and the peachwood sword.
"Ugh."
But as time passed, the cold energy burrowed not only into his skin but deep into his bones.
Rattle-rattle-rattle.
As his teeth chattered on their own, Bu Eun-seol clenched both fists.
'No!'
Unable to bear the surging cold energy any longer, Bu Eun-seol squeezed his eyes shut and pushed the iron coffin open.
At that same moment, he saw a fantasy of the lustrous vestment and peachwood sword flying up above the heavens.
'Haah.'
Bu Eun-seol lowered his head and rose from the iron coffin.
—You rascal. I knew it!
The end of the Corpse Game was always the voice of his grandfather bursting into a hearty laugh.
But Bu Jan-yang's voice could not be heard from anywhere.
'Why is it so quiet?'
Sensing something strange, Bu Eun-seol cautiously stepped outside.
"Grandfather!"
He called out loudly, but no answer came.
Bu Eun-seol, who had been examining every corner of the morgue where the corpses were laid to rest, blinked.
"Did the constabulary contact him again?"
Whether it was night or dawn, the constabulary summoned Bu Jan-yang whenever corpses of those who had died away from home came in.
Judging by his absence, the probability that he had gone to the constabulary was high.
"What..."
Wearing a disappointed expression, Bu Eun-seol rubbed his eyes and was about to return to his room when,
"...!"
Bu Eun-seol's body, which had been passing through the courtyard, stiffened rigidly.
It was because the urn jars that had been stacked on one side of the yard were all shattered to pieces.
"Ah."
Bu Eun-seol leapt into the air and ran over, grabbing a broom.
The area around the urns had been reduced to devastation, as if a storm had swept through.
Not only that, but sharp and keen marks were carved all over the stone storage shed.
"What is this?"
Just as Bu Eun-seol, who had been staring at the marks carved into the stone, was about to touch them,
Shiiing.
A sharp metallic sound rang out through the dawn sky.
If Bu Eun-seol had been a master of the murim, he would have discerned that the sound was that of treasured swords clashing against each other.
But to the ears of Bu Eun-seol, who knew nothing of such things, it merely sounded like an ominous, eerie noise.
"Grandfather."
Muttering in a low voice, Bu Eun-seol walked out through the great gate as if entranced.
As he walked toward the source of the sound, he saw a great tree standing far off at the entrance to the village.
Above its branches, the full moon had risen brilliantly, brightly illuminating the dark night road.
Shiing.
This time, a shorter metallic sound than before rang out.
Feeling an even stranger sense of foreboding than before, Bu Eun-seol began to run frantically.
Tap-tap-tap.
After running for a long while, the great tree that had been faintly visible now appeared clearly.
And in front of it, a familiar shadow sat crouched on the ground.
"Grandfather!"
Bu Eun-seol, having spotted the shadow, let out a glad cry.
The shadow leaning against the tree where darkness had settled was none other than Bu Jan-yang.
"Grandfa..."
Bu Eun-seol ran forward, smiling.
But the moment he saw Bu Jan-yang's face reflected in the moonlight, he froze like ice.
The long eyes that had always gazed at him kindly had been pierced into black holes.
The gaunt arms that had always gently stroked his head had been severed below the shoulders.
The thin, broad back that had always carried him warmly on sleepless nights had its bones exposed, with dozens of hidden weapons embedded in it like a hedgehog.
Drip, drip, drip.
Tears that streamed from his eyes rolled down both cheeks and fell to the ground.
At that moment,
"...Is that you, Seol?"
Though he could not see, Bu Jan-yang, having sensed his grandson's presence, slowly opened his mouth.
"You rascal, I knew you'd come."
Drip, drip.
The tears streaming from his eyes completely obscured Bu Eun-seol's vision.
Though both his eyes had been blinded, Bu Jan-yang wore a benevolent smile, as if he could see that sight clearly.
"This old grandpa has startled our Seol-i."
Even amid wounds and pain so severe one would desperately wish for death, Bu Jan-yang was worried only about Bu Eun-seol being startled.
"Grandfather..."
Choked with emotion, Bu Eun-seol approached carefully, step by step, and caressed Bu Jan-yang's cheeks.
"Grandfather... Grandfather."
"It's alright."
Bu Jan-yang smiled and moved his shoulders slightly.
He must have intended to gently stroke the head of Bu Eun-seol, who was crying.
"Grandfather. Grandfather..."
"It's alright. It's alright."
Despite having no eyes, Bu Jan-yang gazed directly at his grandson and smiled softly.
"It seems this old grandpa must leave soon."
"Who was it."
From Bu Eun-seol's eyes burst a blood-light deeper than blood.
So thick was the killing intent oozing from his entire body that one could not believe this was the figure of a boy whose childishness had not yet faded.
"I asked who did this to Grandfather!"
A wretched cry rang out across the night sky.
"What this old grandpa wishes for is but one thing."
Bu Jan-yang, who had been silent for a long while, spoke in an affectionate voice.
"This old grandpa has no need for enshrouding or the like, so use the Bone-Melting Acid. So that not even a trace of my having been in this world remains."
Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
Bone-Melting Acid was the most vicious poison under heaven, dissolving a corpse into a single handful of liquid.
However, because it was so difficult to produce, a single drop of Bone-Melting Acid was more expensive than a diamond the size of a red bean.
Bu Jan-yang, thinking of the day he would eventually die, had told Bu Eun-seol where he had hidden the Bone-Melting Acid.
"I won't!"
"So you mean to disobey this old grandpa's words."
"Revenge, I'll get revenge!"
"Seol-a. If you do that... this old grandpa will not be able to close his eyes."
Bu Eun-seol swallowed his tears hard and nodded.
"Then, I'll die too."
Bu Eun-seol said, thick tears falling one by one.
"Who will attend to Grandfather in the Underworld? Who will boil noodles for you, and who will stay by your side and help with the enshrouding?"
"Seol-a."
"Grandfather always said the Underworld is no different from the Mortal Realm, didn't you? I want to go to the Underworld where Grandfather is."
In that moment, the corners of Bu Jan-yang's mouth trembled faintly.
The man in black had cruelly worked so that Bu Jan-yang would feel hellish pain until the very moment his breath ceased.
That he could still maintain a calm expression was due to his deep affection for Bu Eun-seol.
"This old grandpa always thought he could go calmly..."
Tears of blood flowed even from Bu Jan-yang's empty eye sockets.
He had thought his own life was more insignificant than a leaf rolling along the roadside, but...
Leaving behind his beloved grandson, he was in such agony that he could not close his eyes.
"Seol-a. This is this old grandpa's last request."
Though he had no arms, Bu Jan-yang mustered his final strength and held his grandson's body tight.
"When I die, go far away."
Bu Jan-yang could no longer continue speaking.
For blood was pouring out not only from his empty eye sockets, but also from his mouth, and then his ears and nose.
Seven Orifices Blood Spray.
The life force within his body had been entirely exhausted, and the time for his breath to cease was approaching.
"Seol-a."
Bu Jan-yang poured out all his remaining life force and left behind a single phrase.
"While we were together, I was so very happy."
Tuk.
The face of Bu Jan-yang, which had worn a benevolent smile at the corners of his mouth, slowly tilted downward.
Watching that sight, Bu Eun-seol quietly held his grandfather's body tight.
And he endlessly rubbed his face against the now-cold chest.
Upon the enshrouding table made of chestnut wood, a gaunt old man had been laid.
It was the body of Bu Jan-yang, who had drawn his last breath beneath the tree at the village entrance.
"Grandfather."
Bu Eun-seol gazed at his grandfather's body with a swollen face.
He had brought a cart and carefully moved his grandfather's body to the enshrouding table at Peaceful Burial House.
"Let's live happily in the afterlife too."
Bu Jan-yang had wanted his beloved grandson to leave the village and live an ordinary life for the rest of his days.
But Bu Eun-seol could not do that.
Instead, he had resolved to prepare his grandfather's body for burial, and then follow after him.
Swaak.
Bu Eun-seol lifted a clean cloth from a large water basin and began to carefully wipe his grandfather's body.
His hands, which had been moving ceaselessly, came to a halt.
As he examined the wound on Bu Jan-yang's shoulder, Bu Eun-seol's eyes flared red.
"Grandfather..."
The cross-section of the severed arm was as clean as glass.
Even if one were the World's Greatest Martial Artist of the age, cutting off both arms of a resisting opponent simultaneously, without a hair's breadth of error, was impossible.
There was only one way to make such a thing possible: to make him extend his arms himself.
"You were trying to protect me, weren't you?"
Bu Eun-seol had uncovered the cause of Bu Jan-yang's death.
That, to protect something more precious than his own life, his grandfather had extended both arms of his own will.
"The killer cut off both arms... and grandfather's eyes... and then the tendons and muscles..."
Tears of blood streamed from Bu Eun-seol's eyes as he clutched the clean cloth.
The killer had not only butchered Bu Jan-yang in the most brutal manner imaginable, but had also made him die in agony.
Flash.
Once again, a crimson light flickered in Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
He could not possibly forgive this cruel killer. It felt as though his fury would only be quelled if he found them and tore them to shreds.
"I have to find them."
Bu Eun-seol began to carefully observe the scars left on Bu Jan-yang's body.
The martial forms a martial artist executes are like their own face.
Even if disciples who studied under the same master perform the same forms, their power and direction are vastly different.
"I can find them."
For years, Bu Eun-seol had tirelessly studied the scars left on corpses alongside Bu Jan-yang.
Just by looking at the wounds left on a body, he could immediately grasp what situation the deceased had been in, what posture they had taken, and what form of the opponent had dealt the fatal blow.
"From above, downward..."
As Bu Eun-seol examined the cross-section left on Bu Jan-yang's shoulder, the most bizarre sword stroke in the world unfolded in his mind.
Astonishingly, the killer had attacked from below, upward, to sever both arms.
Among the sword techniques scattered throughout the murim, a sword stroke that surges from below to above is rare. Not only that, but the killer had altered the sword stroke that had cleaved both arms mid-motion to pierce both eyes.
It was clearly not an orthodox sect sword technique, but unmistakably a sword art of the demonic path.
"But such a movement is impossible..."
No matter how bizarre a sword technique may be, the one performing it is a human body of flowing blood and flesh.
Unless one could freely stretch and contract their bones, swinging a sword in such a manner was impossible.
"No, it's possible."
In that instant, Bu Eun-seol recalled something Bu Jan-yang had said.
—In the murim, there are numerous strange arts. Among them are things called Yoga Arts, which allow one to freely stretch and contract bones and muscles.
"Indian Yoga Art."
The killer was clearly a sword adept who had mastered the Indian Yoga Art.
This time, Bu Eun-seol carefully examined Bu Jan-yang's back. There, traces of ninety-three different hidden weapons remained.
"How could anyone throw ninety-three hidden weapons with one hand? Surely not the Myriad Blossoms Fill the Sky..."
Bu Eun-seol, who had recalled the ultimate technique of the Sichuan Tang Family, shook his head.
Even the Tang Clan's Myriad Blossoms Fill the Sky, renowned as a peerless art of the world, could only launch a mere sixty-six hidden weapons.
"Was there an accomplice? No."
Shaking his head, Bu Eun-seol's eyes flashed.
"They used a hidden weapon device from the Evil Fragrance."
Evil Fragrance.
The Evil Fragrance, which had long maintained its position as a legendary assassin clan throughout the murim's long history.
It was said that the place where numerous hidden weapon artisans gathered could create a device capable of firing hundreds of hidden weapons in a single burst.
"Furthermore, the symptoms of poisoning are..."
The underside of Bu Jan-yang's tongue, and the inside of the fingernails on his reattached arm, were stained black.
Such a phenomenon appears when one is poisoned, specifically by an extreme poison of the Flesh-Rotting Blood-Decay Poison category, which takes effect upon mere contact with the skin.
Bu Eun-seol bit his lip.
"Someone who has not only mastered the Indian Yoga Art, a strange art from Beyond the Frontier, but also possesses a hidden weapon device of the Evil Fragrance, renowned as a peerless art of the world, and who favors using poisons of the Flesh-Rotting Blood-Decay Poison category."
There would not be many such figures in the murim.
Bu Eun-seol cried out in a low voice.
"I will definitely find them."