The Third-Rate Martial Artist Who Remembers Everything
Between towering mountain peaks piercing the clouds, at the razor-sharp edge of a sheer cliff, a frail man hunched over in silence. He gazed wistfully at the drifting white clouds without a word.
“……Huh?”
Suddenly, his eyebrows shot up, and a murmur escaped his lips, echoing into the void.
“Yong So-a……. Or should I call you the Taecheong Sword Immortal now? Your noble self has come all this way.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a man in pristine white robes materialized before him with flawless lightness skill, as if stepping out of empty space.
Thud.
The man called the Taecheong Sword Immortal demanded in a voice as thick and dignified as his imposing presence.
“Are you Jin Sowoon, captain of the Small Justice Squad?”
“Captain, captain…….”
The man named Jin Sowoon, still staring at the clouds, asked softly.
“……Are all the Small Justice Squad members dead?”
“……”
“Then yeah, that makes me the captain. Otherwise, not.”
“……I asked if you are Jin Sowoon.”
“You knew who I was when you came looking. Why bother asking?”
At Jin Sowoon's retort, the Taecheong Sword Immortal drew his sword.
“I've come for something I must take back.”
“……”
Jin Sowoon lifted his head to glance at the Taecheong Sword Immortal, then shifted his gaze back to the clouds floating before him. Despite the blatant killing intent, his voice remained utterly relaxed.
“Didn't I restore all the lost Murim Alliance records for you?”
“There are records in your possession that you should not have.”
“Most of what I restored were useless scraps and junk data, weren't they?”
“I know you remember the contents of Simhyeongak.”
“……”
Simhyeongak.
The Murim Alliance's highest-security archive, housing all top-grade secrets. A sanctum accessible only to the Alliance Leader, the Chief Strategist, and a select few. It was the driving force that had mobilized the current Murim Alliance Leader, the Taecheong Sword Immortal, to this remote place.
Jin Sowoon spoke in a hollow tone.
“Damn it all, I told you not to look that deep. I knew it'd end like this.”
“……”
“So…… you came all the way from the North Sea to kill a single third-rate martial artist? Dodging the Demonic Cult's eyes?”
“For the justice of the jianghu, and to ensure absolute elimination of this threat.”
Jin Sowoon chuckled dryly and nodded.
“What happened to the rest of my Small Justice Squad?”
“I don't know.”
“Heh. Yeah, figures. To you lot, we pathetic losers were nothing but tools from the start.”
“All for the greater good……”
That damned 'greater good.'
The hollow excuse that threw us into the jaws of death.
Jin Sowoon's voice dripped with sarcasm.
“Did that grand 'greater good' bring prosperity to the North Sea?”
The tip of the Taecheong Sword Immortal's blade trembled faintly.
The jianghu's master had changed, and the Murim Alliance had fallen. Its key figures had fled to the North Sea, barely clinging to survival.
Cough.
As the frail Sowoon's body lurched toward the Taecheong Sword Immortal with a hacking cough, the Immortal subtly shifted aside. Even the hem of his spotless white robes retreated.
Jin Sowoon sneered at him.
“Yeah, you ultimately failed, didn't you?”
“The Murim Alliance will rise again as the pillar of the jianghu.”
“I may have been part of the Murim Alliance, but I hope that horrific world never comes to pass.”
“……You've been tainted by the Demonic Cult.”
Just as the Taecheong Sword Immortal moved to sever his head with a single stroke—
Halt!
As if sensing a ghost's presence at his back, the Taecheong Sword Immortal whipped his head around like lightning, his body shuddering.
It was the arrival of someone he never expected here.
“……How is he here!”
The Taecheong Sword Immortal glared back at Jin Sowoon.
“You've already colluded with the Demonic Cult?”
Jin Sowoon leisurely turned his head to stare at one spot.
“Who am I to move a big shot like that? Must be coincidence.”
“……”
“Anyway, you gonna keep standing around?”
No sooner had Jin Sowoon spoken than the Taecheong Sword Immortal kicked off the ground and vanished. But he didn't leave entirely—he perched atop a nearby peak overlooking the cliff.
Moments later, footsteps approached.
Thud.
Thud.
This time, a man in black robes walked slowly toward Jin Sowoon.
Without turning, Jin Sowoon said,
“Black Lion Gwak Gung.”
The man called Gwak Gung couldn't hide his surprise at the callout. Jin Sowoon had his back turned.
“How did you know?”
“Got a lot of visitors today. Nice weather and all.”
“I asked how you knew.”
“The Demonic Cult Young Leader's signature footwork, the Blood Lion Step, has a trick in the third step—a twist that lets you advance in eight directions.”
Gwak Gung gasped in astonishment.
“Heh, have we met before?”
“My Small Justice Squad once stood as meat shields blocking your Heavenly Demon Black Sword Squad. Ring a bell?”
“Heh, who knows. Back then, the entire Murim Alliance was just meat shields to us. Still, they say you remember everything in the world. Impressive.”
“Useless talent for a martial artist.”
Gwak Gung's gaze shifted to the Taecheong Sword Immortal, standing aloof on the peak and watching them.
“So the Murim Alliance sent him to rescue you? From the North Sea all the way here?”
Jin Sowoon shook his head at the question.
“Said he came to take back something from me.”
“?”
He didn't look like he had a single nyang to his name.
“What would that be?”
“This worthless head of mine.”
Gwak Gung glanced at the peak and clicked his tongue knowingly.
“Tch. I heard the Small Justice Squad tried to keep you alive to the end because your head holds all the Murim Alliance's secrets.”
“Nah…… they said it was because I wanted to live the most.”
Jin Sowoon muttered to himself, “Idiot bastards.”
“Touching brotherhood.”
Fire lit in Jin Sowoon's eyes at Gwak Gung's words.
“They're not the kind of guys some demonic scum like you can casually name-drop.”
“Amusing.”
Despite Jin Sowoon radiating killing intent, Gwak Gung didn't flinch—as if daring him to bring more.
But soon enough, Jin Sowoon seemed to lose steam and withdrew his aura.
“……You after the same thing as the Taecheong Sword Immortal? He's watching right now—I could hand over everything the Murim Alliance knows.”
“What value is that intel to the current Divine Cult?”
“……Fair point. Then why bother coming all the way here?”
“To catch the Small Justice Squad captain, our Divine Cult's most tenacious foe.”
Jin Sowoon nodded twice, calmly.
Gwak Gung couldn't hide his bewilderment at the composed attitude.
“Not afraid?”
“……Would someone whose life is hell fear death?”
“You said you wanted to live so badly, yet life was hell in the end?”
“You're capable—imagine a life remembering everything. A life etched only with countless deaths and defeats……”
Gwak Gung paused, then nodded.
“Hm. Must've been no easy road.”
“Kuhahaha.”
“What's so funny?”
“The demonic bastard I hated most is pitying me—how could I not laugh?”
“Be proud. Your Small Justice Squad was the Divine Cult's toughest enemy.”
“Third-rate martial artists abandoned by the Murim Alliance earning the Demonic Cult's respect? Guess the Murim Alliance's downfall was inevitable.”
After a pause, Jin Sowoon spoke up.
“But I'm curious. Why send the Young Leader himself for a mere third-rate? Did you know the Taecheong Sword Immortal was coming?”
Gwak Gung pointed at Jin Sowoon's wrist, ignoring the nearby Murim Alliance Leader.
“That bracelet you're wearing.”
Jin Sowoon looked down at the jade-green bracelet.
A strange dragon pattern etched into jade green—utterly mismatched with his ragged clothes.
“That's a Divine Cult sacred relic.”
“……Is it?”
Jin Sowoon raised his arm, staring intently at the bracelet. Nostalgia filled his eyes, as if recalling something.
Countless lives lost, the things they traded their lives for.
“When we caught the Ho-gyo Law King……”
I thought the Alliance and the world would change.
What a fool.
He snorted self-mockingly.
“Any last words? Die by a Divine Cult hand, and our Demon God will grant your wish.”
“Heh, seeing faith born from such nonsense doctrine? Truly a cult of madmen.”
“Our god is real.”
“A wish, huh…… Yeah, next life, I want to be born in a world without the Murim Alliance that abandoned us or the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult that killed us.”
“My, what a tough wish. The world is already the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's.”
Jin Sowoon's body floated up lightly, slipping neatly into Gwak Gung's grasp.
Gulp.
Soon, he felt Gwak Gung's demonic energy flooding his body.
Nerves tearing apart, bones shattering—the agony.
Ah, what a life full of regrets. May the karma of this life end with this life.
Sensation faded gradually, and the world darkened.
# “……That definitely happened.”
I definitely died.
My memory was always good, but that final day—the scent of the wind—is crystal clear.
So, that bastard showed up and killed m……
My back itched, so I reached for it.
Scratch, scratch.
A cool, refreshing sensation—so vividly real.
“What the hell is going on?”
The me who died in Black Lion Gwak Gung's hand had, bewilderingly, returned to thirty years ago—at nineteen.
Not as the Small Justice Squad's Jin Sowoon of the Murim Alliance.
But as Tae-eul Gate's Jin Sowoon.
Not in the era where the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult overturned the world.
But when the Murim Alliance ruled the jianghu.
“Was that wish thing real?”
I recalled my last conversation with Gwak Gung.
I never believed some dubious fraud god would grant wishes……
Did it actually work?
“But…… true to a demon god, it half-assed listening.”
I said, ‘A world without the Murim Alliance or Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.’
And it sends me back right before that hellish Orthodox-Demonic War.
Demonic Cult, demons, demon gods—anything with ‘demon’ in it, you can't trust.
“Sigh……”
Regaining youth isn't welcome at all.
My head's stuffed with the hellish reality of the next thirty years, and I'm still just a Tae-eul Gate disciple who can at best become second-rate.
This return doesn't feel like a sign to save the world.
“If it was, they'd have given me some special power or attached Jang Sam-bong's soul or something, right?”
Damn demon god.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult will resurrect soon.
No—it already has.
Everyone but me is just clueless.
The Murim Alliance, blindly trusting their absolute power, will scatter like fallen leaves.
Those who trusted the Alliance will scatter with them.
My sect, Tae-eul Gate, trusted the Alliance too.
So it scattered too.
Damn it.
“Remembering it is torture enough—do I have to relive those horrors?”
Putting it all together, my conclusion was one thing.
In a word—
“I'm screwed.”
Feels like that demon god bastard is cackling somewhere watching this.
Why?
If I were in its shoes, I'd do the same.