The Heavenly Demon Goes to Crush the Murim Alliance (3)
Baru knew that Min-ga always wore an indifferent expression.
She would smile at times, grow irritated at others, or put on a serious face, but those moments were always fleeting. Despite her youthful appearance, she gazed at the world with the detached air of someone who had already seen everything. But today was different.
Min-ga was smiling at her, yet her eyes told another story. Those eyes, cold and merciless as if frost had settled over them, held not a single trace of warmth. Perhaps that was why Baru thought, in this very moment, that Min-ga was more terrifying than she had ever been.
“If something like this happens again, run away properly next time.”
“I believed you would come quickly. That’s why I made it easy for you to find me.”
“I’m saying this because I know. Did you think I wouldn’t be able to find you in this mountain?”
Min-ga helped Baru to her feet, then firmly pressed down on her head.
“Wait here.”
With that, she left Baru behind and turned away. Only then could Baru finally see the scene that had been hidden behind Min-ga’s back.
It was bizarre. The people who had been desperately struggling to harm her just moments ago were all frozen solid. Like fish trapped in a winter lake, encased in ice along with the water, they could do nothing at all.
The spirits were no different. Those who had been fighting with everything they had on Baru’s orders could not tear their eyes away from Min-ga the instant she appeared, as though they had come face to face with a grim reaper.
The battlefield, where both sides had been doing their utmost to destroy each other only seconds earlier, fell into complete stillness with the arrival of a single person.
Min-ga’s single sentence reverberated throughout the entire building occupied by the Hwasan Sect.
“Courage is the word for those who step forward even though they know they cannot win. Recklessness is the word for fools who charge ahead without knowing their own limits.”
She paused, placed her long pipe between her lips, and slowly scanned the people inside the Hwasan Sect. Her gaze briefly landed on Na-seol, who was fighting the one called the Alliance Leader, and her eyebrows twitched slightly. That was the only reaction she showed.
“You fools. Did you truly believe you could bring me down? Did you think that with your level of strength, you could intimidate me into fear?”
“Shut your mouth!”
The first to react to Min-ga’s cutting words was the man known as the Alliance Leader. Forgetting the opponent blocking his path, he pointed straight at her and roared.
“Do you think this is Apis?! This is Hwaryong Muin! This isn’t a place where one person’s power can rule over everything!”
Min-ga, who had been quietly listening to his outburst, curled one corner of her mouth upward in a crooked smirk once he finished. The contempt was so obvious that anyone could see it.
“You know nothing at all about Murim.”
“What?”
“No matter how many ants gather in a swarm, they remain nothing but ants. In the end, they are crushed to death by a human hand.”
The individual is weak. The group is strong. It was such obvious common sense. Since the distant past, humans had hunted powerful prey in groups and protected one another through collective strength. A group could mean a small circle of friends or an entire nation. That a collective would be strong was perfectly natural.
Wasn’t it? Even the insects and beasts of the natural world formed groups for that very reason. The idea that a group surpassed the individual was nothing less than the law of nature itself.
Yet Min-ga denied it. She declared that an overwhelmingly powerful individual could not be measured by such ordinary logic.
“There are countless precedents. The martial artist who first created the Murim Alliance in the far past, the strange being who inherited the will of the Ming Cult, and more recently, didn’t a single calamity sweep across Murim and leave it in ruins?”
“Ha! You’re comparing yourself to the Heavenly Demon?! You think using the Heavenly Demon Divine Art makes you special? With nothing but a First-class body!”
At the Alliance Leader’s furious shout, Min-ga smiled. It was not her usual gentle, resigned smile, but a freezing, icy sneer.
If you wish to deny it, then prove it. Come, you group of fools—try to break me.
“I was going to do exactly that! Do you really think you can take down these people?!”
At the Alliance Leader’s gesture, black-masked martial artists appeared from nowhere and encircled Hwaryeong. Even Baru, who knew little of martial arts, could sense their strength. The profound energy each of them possessed was impossible to miss.
Where had these people come from? She hadn’t sensed their presence at all. Had they completely evaded her detection? They were clearly skilled. Just what realm had they reached?
Normally she should have been worried for Min-ga, surrounded like that. Yet for some reason, Baru felt no anxiety whatsoever. She couldn’t explain it, but she simply knew that to Min-ga, opponents of this level were nothing at all.
From among the masked figures surrounding Min-ga, one man stepped forward. He appeared to be the leader of the group.
“A pleasure. You truly are as powerful as the rumors say. Due to the circumstances, I cannot reveal my name. I hope you understand.”
“So you’re a child of the Beggars’ Sect. The calluses on your hands suggest you wield a staff. One of the head disciples, perhaps?”
“...How could you possibly—”
“You tried to hide your habits, but how could you ever conceal your true nature?”
When Min-ga spoke with clear disdain, the man was rendered speechless. It seemed he had never imagined his identity would be seen through the mask.
Leaving the masked man frozen, Min-ga turned her gaze back toward the Alliance Leader.
“Are these the people you trust?”
“That’s right! No matter how strong you are, a group of martial artists who have surpassed the Transcendence Realm—”
The moment the Alliance Leader shouted, Min-ga took a single step forward. Her figure seemed to vanish, and then with the sound of exploding air, she reappeared directly behind the man who had been leading the masked group.
The leader of the masked warriors, who had been utterly confident of victory only seconds ago, stared down at the gaping hole in his own chest with eyes full of horror before collapsing forward.
Thud.
In the silent grounds of the Hwasan Sect, the sound rang out, and blood began to pool across the stone floor.
“You thought you could defeat me with this level of strength? How laughable.”
Every time she blinked, another person died.
No matter how desperately the Alliance Leader struggled, the warriors he had never once been able to defeat fell as easily as snapping twigs. Watching the scene with his own eyes, the leader still could not believe what was happening.
It was impossible. These were no ordinary people. They were the elite of the Murim Alliance—monsters strong enough that any one of them could have served as an elder in a major sect. Ten of them were attacking a single person, yet how could the target remain so composed while the attackers trembled in terror, their minds shattered by fear?
This can’t be real. Something’s wrong. A bug? Or a cheat? Yes, it must be that. There’s no way a scene like this could happen otherwise.
“Alliance Leader. You’re not seriously thinking this is a cheat, are you?”
Na-seol, who had been arguing with him until just moments ago, asked with a light laugh.
“Of course not. Everyone knows cheats don’t work in VR games. Especially not in a game made by this company.”
“Then what the hell is that?!”
“It’s Hwaryeong. A person who cannot be understood through common sense.”
Hwaryeong. Hwaryeong. Damn Hwaryeong!
The Alliance Leader still clearly remembered the day he first encountered her. Back then, he hadn’t thought much of the person called Hwaryeong. He had simply assumed she possessed an inhuman level of physical ability. Dekai’s provocation during the tournament had only been to maintain the Alliance Leader’s character concept. There had been no deeper reason.
But after everything ended, when he went to seek her advice like the others—when he stood before her hoping she would show him the path forward—she had said this:
‘The martial art you currently practice does not suit you.’
‘If you wish to climb higher, seek a different one. What I recommend is…’
It had not been mere criticism. Had it been nothing more than an attempt to mock him, he could have laughed it off. But Hwaryeong’s words were different. She had spoken with genuine seriousness, stating that the martial art he had devoted nearly ten years to mastering was simply not right for him.
She had pointed out, one by one, exactly why he and his chosen art were incompatible. The problems she listed were things he had vaguely sensed himself but had refused to acknowledge. He wanted to deny her words, yet she would not permit it. She had dismantled every issue and explained them so clearly that he could not look away.
In the end, the leader had no choice but to accept that all the years he had poured into his training had been meaningless.
After the broadcast ended that day, as he mulled over her words, a dangerous thought took root in his heart.
What if—just what if—Hwaryeong was actually worthless? Wouldn’t that mean her advice was worthless too? And if so, wouldn’t that mean his ten years of effort hadn’t been in vain after all?
It was absurd sophistry. He knew better than anyone that such thinking would not change reality. Yet the leader chose to believe it anyway. He decided to tear Hwaryeong down. He could not endure it otherwise.
From then on, he devoted himself to discrediting her. He tried everything to diminish her many achievements and make them seem insignificant. But no matter what he did, Hwaryeong’s fame only continued to rise. His hatred was far too small to cover a sun like her.
Suffering from an indescribable inferiority complex as he watched her shine, the leader received a proposal from Baek-il, a genuine elder of the Murim Alliance. He would provide support—so would the leader like to attack the Hwasan Sect together with them?
The sight of the Hwasan Sect, led by Hwaryeong, flourishing had already been an unbearable eyesore. The leader welcomed the offer with open arms.
The support from the Murim Alliance was overwhelming. Taoist experts skilled enough to oppose Baru, a divine spirit and exceptional dosul practitioner. On top of that, the elite martial artists the Murim Alliance had personally raised.
Only then did the leader realize the truth. They were using him as a figurehead while planning to destroy Mount Hua themselves. And they intended to frame the entire incident as nothing more than a conflict between users. It was a dirty scheme unworthy of the righteous faction, yet the leader did not refuse. If it meant tarnishing Hwaryeong’s reputation, he was willing to do anything.
Right up until the moment they attacked Hwasan, the leader had never imagined they would lose. This was not a force any single individual could overcome. It was a mighty group that might even stand against the Three Supremes, the legends of Murim.
So why… had it come to this?
After dealing with the last martial artist of the Murim Alliance, Hwaryeong walked toward the Alliance Leader with an expressionless face. The other users were still alive, yet none of them dared to move. Overwhelmed by the killing intent radiating from her, they could only tremble with pale faces, paralyzed by fear.
The Alliance Leader was no exception. Crushed beneath Hwaryeong’s gaze, he felt a chilling energy crawl up his spine until his mind went completely blank.
He could not think. The only thing left in his head was pure terror.
It’s scary. I’m afraid. Am I going to die like this? Die? Me? But this is a game. Still… she could definitely kill me. How can I survive? How can I make her forgive me? How can I—
“I don’t know who you are, but I have one question. The one who instigated this attack was the Murim Alliance, wasn’t it?”
The only thing the Alliance Leader could do was nod.