The World Has Gone Mad
“Are you being serious right now?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
Baek-il’s eyes were dead serious. At the very least, this wasn’t something he’d brought up lightly. I rubbed my temples.
“You’ve lost your damn mind.”
I’d rather have someone charge at me screaming they’d rather slit my throat than receive an offer like this. My head was pounding. It felt like every common sense I’d clung to until now was crumbling to dust. And just where the hell was that ronin bastard who’d gone off to buy a pipe? I needed something in my mouth to calm my nerves.
“Choi Kang-ah. Isn’t this person an outsider? Why are you reacting like that?”
“Because he’s a very serious person.”
“Ah, I see. So he’s someone who actually cares about the rules of Murim? You should’ve told me that first.”
“I was trying to explain, but you’re the one who barged in without listening, old man.”
“Was I?”
Watching the two of them chat so casually while I sat there frowning, I seriously considered flipping the table. Why were they looking at me like I was the weird one? No matter how I thought about it, I was the normal one here. They were the abnormalities.
“Mint Duke. I don’t know what kind of Murim you’re imagining, but we’ve changed quite a bit over the past few years. After the day the Heavenly Demon tried to erase the existence of the Orthodox faction from the world, we had no choice but to change if we wanted to survive.”
In the past, when I sought revenge on the Orthodox faction, I had worked tirelessly to drive them into complete ruin.
“The Heavenly Demon took everything from us. Our people, the various martial arts we possessed, even the honor the Orthodox faction once held.”
It wasn’t just slaughter. He had sown discord between sects to create internal strife, worked to shatter the justification and honor the Orthodox faction possessed, and stolen so much that the fallen could never rise again.
“Those of us who survived out of fear of death longed for revenge, but we knew we could never achieve it. As survivors of the Orthodox faction, we had a duty to carry on its legacy.”
Even though I could have wiped out the entire Orthodox faction if I’d wanted, I had left them their final lifeline precisely so they wouldn’t even think of rebelling. I knew better than anyone that someone who had lost everything was far less troublesome than those who still had something to protect.
“We tried, but we couldn’t revive the Orthodox faction. Everything we did was nothing more than forcibly keeping dying people alive. It was obvious that at this rate, we would fall. Then one day, outsiders began to appear. That’s when we thought—if they were here, we might be able to resurrect the Orthodox faction.”
In the Murim I originally came from, the Orthodox faction had crawled along the very bottom, exactly as I had intended. They had struggled desperately to survive under the threat of the Blood Cult that appeared after I vanished. But this world was different. The variable known as outsiders had entered the world of Hwaryong Muin, and the story had begun flowing in a direction I had never anticipated.
“At first, there were many conflicts because our ways of thinking were so different from theirs. But not anymore. We were the ones in a hurry, so we decided to adapt to the outsiders.”
“So no matter what martial arts they use, as long as they belong to the Orthodox faction, they’re considered part of it?”
“Exactly. In the current Murim, useless pride will only get you killed. To survive, we need practical gains.”
He had spoken at length, but in the end, it meant that in order to survive and take revenge on me, they had abandoned even the values they once proudly displayed. How amusing. So it wasn’t just Mount Hua that had gone strange. The entire Orthodox faction had been twisted into something grotesque. The only thing that made them better than Mount Hua was the single fact that they hadn’t cooperated with the Blood Cult.
“Therefore, if you wish, I will allow you to join the Orthodox faction. We will also provide active support for your growth, and of course, allow you to learn many of our secret techniques.”
“Do you really think I’m the kind of person who belongs in the Orthodox faction?”
“You stood alone against the disaster created by the Blood Cult without retreating, and in the end, you stopped it. How could anyone say you don’t possess a righteous heart?”
A righteous heart? Ha. What a load of pretentious nonsense. Since when have you people ever cared about something like a righteous heart? You bastards who preached about justice while going mad over power and honor, committing every filthy act imaginable—what justice were you even talking about?
My thoughts must have shown on my face, because Baek-il scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
“So you have no intention of joining the Orthodox faction.”
“None.”
“Then the Demonic Path? Or will you go to the Divine Cult since you use divine arts?”
“I have no intention of going anywhere.”
I hadn’t wanted to before, but now that I knew the true state of this insane Murim, I wanted to belong to any of them even less. After hearing my answer, Baek-il shrugged and sat down beside the Hwaeum Magistrate.
“Then I have nothing more to say. If you ever change your mind, come to the Murim Alliance.”
“That won’t happen.”
“People’s affairs rarely go as planned.”
With that, he called over the tavern’s female owner and ordered food and alcohol. He spoke without even looking at the wooden menu, suggesting he’d been here more than once or twice. I hadn’t given permission for him to join us, yet he was doing whatever he pleased. Truly shameless.
“Um, Heavenly Spirit-nim.”
Just as I was about to sit back down, the user who had come with Baek-il spoke up.
“What is it?”
“First, I’d like to thank you. I’m the one who was leading the Mount Hua users. I practically lived on Mount Hua, yet I had no idea the Blood Cult was operating in secret. If it weren’t for you, Heavenly Spirit-nim, I would’ve been stabbed in the back without knowing anything.”
“Don’t worry about it. I was simply fulfilling a request from Baru.”
“And I’m sorry. Our old man is quite willful. He’s not a bad person, so please don’t think too poorly of him.”
“Who are you calling willful, you brat!”
When self-deprecating words came out, Baek-il, who had been chatting with the Hwaeum Magistrate, shouted at the user. The user, however, didn’t pay the slightest attention to Baek-il’s grumbling. This kid didn’t seem like an ordinary person either.
“Are you also here to try and persuade me?”
“No. I don’t really care where you belong, Heavenly Spirit-nim.”
“Then?”
“The Plum Blossom Swordplay. I won’t ask to see the manual. But could you show me the technique itself?”
Aha. So that was his goal. Much better than that sly old man. Curiosity and interest in martial arts were always welcome. Since I myself had a great interest in the Plum Blossom Swordplay, it wasn’t a request I couldn’t grant. However—
“Can it wait until after we eat? The food’s going to get cold.”
After hearing Heavenly Spirit’s explanation, Ha-rin roughly understood what was going on. However, there were still a few parts she couldn’t quite grasp.
“By the way, why did the Hwaeum Magistrate drink until he passed out?”
“That old fart Baek-il kept pouring drinks until the magistrate lost consciousness.”
“When men meet, they naturally open up over drinks! And I didn’t even make him drink that much! The problem is that this guy is weak to alcohol—it’s not my fault!”
Baek-il shouted in his gruff voice, but there wasn’t a single person in the tavern who agreed with him. Even the user Murim Strongest was shaking his head, so it seemed the magistrate’s collapse was entirely Baek-il’s fault.
“Then what about the ronins lined up behind us?”
“I’m teaching them their place. Since they’ve become part of this place, I need to show them the hierarchy in advance, don’t I?”
Heavenly Spirit said it was no big deal and that he was simply pressuring the ronins with killing intent the moment they woke up, but Ha-rin, who had experienced killing intent several times, knew it wasn’t as light a matter as he made it sound. Even a brief exposure made cold sweat break out—yet he was keeping it up continuously?
“Um… wouldn’t it be okay to stop now? It looks like they won’t dare pick a fight with Heavenly Spirit-nim again.”
From Ha-rin’s perspective, the chance that the lined-up ronins would challenge Heavenly Spirit again seemed close to zero. Unless they had lost their minds, there was no way they would provoke him while staring at him with faces drained of all color.
After listening to Ha-rin, Heavenly Spirit glanced at the ronins and nodded.
“You’re probably right.”
The moment the killing intent vanished, the ronins who had been standing stiffly collapsed where they stood. They sat on the floor catching their breath for a moment before standing up, approaching Ha-rin, and bowing deeply while thanking her for saving them.
While Ha-rin looked flustered at the sight of several burly adult men crying and bowing their heads, a fierce battle of nerves was unfolding right beside her. Baek-il and Baru were facing off over the last remaining fried tofu skin.
Even while chewing, neither of them took their eyes off the prize. It didn’t look like either had any intention of yielding. They swallowed their food at almost the same time. However, the speed at which their hands moved was different. Unlike Baru, who mainly used Taoist magic, Baek-il was a martial artist. It was only natural that he was faster when it came to physical movement.
Baek-il was certain of victory as he watched his chopsticks shoot forward, but at that moment another pair of chopsticks cut in and blocked his. They were Heavenly Spirit’s chopsticks.
“What the—?!”
While Heavenly Spirit’s chopsticks and Baek-il’s chopsticks struggled for dominance, Baru’s hand remained free, and in the end, the last piece of tofu skin became hers.
The moment he saw Baru munching with a triumphant, fox-like smile, Baek-il slammed his chopsticks down and pointed accusingly.
“Something like that is supposed to be eaten by adults!”
“How many years have you lived to say such a thing?”
“This year I turn sixty!”
“Only that much?”
When Baru answered as if she found it ridiculous, Baek-il looked flustered.
“…Then may I ask how old you are to speak that way?”
“I stopped counting after a hundred years, so I don’t know.”
“That’s a huge exaggeration! How can a person live a hundred years!”
“You fool! Do you think I’m some ordinary being?!”
As the tavern gradually descended into chaos, the door burst open. The ronin holding what looked like a rather expensive pipe blinked in confusion at the scene inside.
“Uh…”
Before he could say anything, Heavenly Spirit stood up, snatched the pipe and leaves from the ronin’s hand. The moment Heavenly Spirit stepped back, the other ronins surrounded the newcomer.
“Ah, sorry everyone. I was a bit drunk and…”
The ronin tried to make excuses, but no one seemed interested in listening. Just as the ronin sensed his grim future from their murderous auras, Heavenly Spirit began packing leaves into the pipe and spoke.
“If you’re going to make a racket, take it outside.”
“Yes sir!”
Even after the ronins left, the tavern remained noisy. On one side, Baru and Baek-il were arguing, while Murim Strongest tried to mediate. On the other side, the drunk Hwaeum Magistrate had his face planted on the table, muttering incoherently. As Ha-rin watched the smoke rising from Heavenly Spirit’s pipe and thought that maybe coming here had been a mistake, Heavenly Spirit spoke up.
“Since we’ve pretty much finished eating, I was thinking of opening the Plum Blossom Swordplay manual. Would you all like to look at it together?”
At Heavenly Spirit’s words, the noisy group turned their gazes toward her.
“You’re serious? You’re going to show everyone the manual you possess?”
The first to respond was Baek-il. As someone who also served as an elder of a sect, he couldn’t understand casually revealing a manual and frowned deeply.
“Why is that strange?”
“Of course it’s strange.”
Baek-il didn’t know much about the martial art called Plum Blossom Swordplay. However, he had heard from Murim Strongest that the manual was a gift bestowed by a divine spirit as a reward for stopping a disaster. How could martial arts contained in a manual with such history be ordinary? A manual containing advanced techniques held enough power to establish an entire sect, yet she was revealing its contents so easily. Baek-il simply could not understand Heavenly Spirit’s actions.
“The moment the text inside the manual spreads, it will lose all value.”
“That’s true.”
“You know that and you’re still going to do it? It might contain divine arts. Are you saying it’s fine for everyone to learn it?!”
Heavenly Spirit let out a small laugh at those words and replied,
“I already wield the greatest divine arts under the heavens. What does it matter if other martial arts spread to others?”