Autopsy (2): The Frozen Corpse
I saw in the novel that Gu Yin Bai Gu Jiao had a languid aura, but not this serious ice skill as a martial art… Originally, martial arts differ according to the creator’s imagination, don’t they? How many reinterpretations have there been under the name of Cheonma Shin Gong.
In this world, Gu Yin Bai Gu Jiao might take this form. I looked deeper into the corpse.
“Conical?”
I reanalyzed the puncture marks remaining on the head.
If the wound had been a person’s finger piercing straight through, the remaining scar would have been almost straight, close to a cylindrical tunnel structure.
But the remaining traces here were different. As they went outward, the hole’s width increased, and as they went inward, they narrowed. It was not cylindrical but conical.
“So the brain fluid or blood didn’t flow but froze…”
It meant that the cold thing had broken the bones and directly contacted the brain.
Was the ice used like a kind of gauntlet to wrap the fingers?
I imagined the green-glowing hand of the corpse. Long ice fingernails like beast claws.
It could be expressed as icicles starting from the fingers. Piercing the head in one breath and spreading cold at the same time.
It was a fatal technique. Even if not hit directly and avoided fatal injury, if cold invaded the brain, it would become useless in an instant.
I took out my notebook and memoed the guesses so far. During combat, concentrate cold at the fingertips to create weapons resembling icicles.
“Hey, brother!”
At that moment, Paeng Ju-hyeok called me.
“What’s the matter?”
“Ok Rin sent back the answer. It seems there is a rulebook for such things.”
“Let’s see!”
I snatched the book from Paeng Ju-hyeok. The first empty page was already densely filled with text, and even the back page was being inscribed with writing in real time.
『Gu Hun Ma Shou Cheongbaekgo Countermeasure Rulebook』
“Hmm, but there’s a problem.”
“What problem?”
“That Cheongbaekgo is a demon path that was caught and killed by the Murim Alliance’s extermination team long ago.”
It was not someone who could cause bloodbath here now. Not surprising. The Murim Alliance was busy for the peace of the jianghu, and demon extermination was at the forefront of such duties.
The reason I had entered the Management Records Bureau was because, during a demon extermination operation, I had become trapped in the Manghon Villa’s monster.
“I expected that.”
“What?”
“We just saw the traces of the corpse rising from the grave together, right?”
“Yes, but…”
If the corpse that had caused bloodbath in Changsu Village was indeed Mu Un, who had been resurrected from death, there would not have been a rulebook left in the records bureau.
From the investigation records of the government office, Mu Un had been born in Changsu Village and spent his entire life there.
“Sigh, then is this rulebook useless?”
“No. Since Gu Hun Ma Shou also used a martial art similar to the current corpse’s technique, Ok Rin-nim sent it as reference material. It will have meaning as a sample of the enemy rulebook too.”
Although I said that, my intuition was pointing to something else.
Perhaps the martial art of Gu Hun Ma Shou and Mu Un was not ‘similar’ martial arts.
***
As expected.
The Gu Hun Ma Shou Countermeasure Rulebook had several phrases describing the current situation.
『Gu Hun Ma Shou Cheongbaekgo Countermeasure Rulebook』
Act according to the state of the corpse you witnessed.
1. If the corpse’s temperature is similar to the surroundings and blood flows from the head.
Get away from the scene as fast as possible and head to the Murim Alliance branch to report.
Even if the responsible Murim Alliance member doesn’t understand the report, it’s fine. The Management Records Bureau will pay you a just reward.
2. If the corpse’s temperature is significantly lower than the surroundings and there is a puncture mark on the head but no bleeding.
Hide your breath and conceal your presence. If you can use techniques like Yu Shik Dae Beop to hide your vitality, even better.
However, never light a fire or something to dispel the cold. If you have items like Bi Han Ju, discard them. They chase people by temperature.
3. If the frozen corpse is moving.
Unfortunately.
Exercise your rights as a martial artist.
The phrases describing the victim’s corpse were so similar to the current situation.
It was a phenomenon hard to explain with the convergence-evolution logic that the common point of being both a martial art and a demon art made the results similar.
Not all demon arts handle yin qi. Demon arts that use blood as a sacrifice have the nature of hot blood, so they have yang qi but can be malicious.
The martial art of Gu Hun Ma Shou and Mu Un must be the same.
Paeng Ju-hyeok’s expression, who was reading the book with me, gradually hardened.
“This is really… strange. How can the martial art of a demon path from a generation ago and the martial art of this one resurrected from the grave in the tomb be so similar?”
I could guess the answer.
There must be something that ‘teaches’ martial arts.
An unknown anomaly that sows demon arts in this world.
From Baek Sam-byeol-ui’s subtle hint to me, heavenly grade anomalies affect the entire world.
One who revives the dead with resentment as an anomaly.
Something that makes them sow the seeds of the demonic path.
I was certain that the current situation was the shadow of a heavenly grade anomaly.
There was no basis to determine this as fact. But the sense that caught the scent of anomalies, some instinct that protruded from the five senses, whispered that my intuition was true.
“Brother Paeng.”
“Huh?”
“Do you know about heavenly grade anomalies?”
I threw this inference to Paeng Ju-hyeok to confirm it. Although the Paeng clan was famous for being simple-minded, it did not mean they were stupid.
Originally, if they were stupid, they could not have learned the upward cutting techniques. Expressing a straightforward personality and quick conclusions as simple-minded was close.
When I threw it like this, he should have understood immediately.
“Heavenly grade anomaly…”
But unexpectedly, Paeng Ju-hyeok faltered. I had thought he would show a reaction like ‘Indeed, that’s how it happened!’ and explain that some heavenly grade anomalies manipulated strange harmonies that defied life and death.
“I saw it once when I went to the Hae Nam Pa side.”
“…Did you directly face it?!”
I asked in astonishment. Since it seemed able to rival peak experts even if just paid, I had thought heavenly grade was at least transformation.
But Paeng Ju-hyeok was still alive after directly facing a heavenly grade anomaly now, so it meant he had not killed it, but at least succeeded in repelling it?
Reading my expression, Paeng Ju-hyeok shook his head.
“It doesn’t mean I won the fight. That is… I wonder if it’s an existence where a fight can be established. The only time I directly faced a heavenly grade anomaly was that day when I was heading toward the end of the sea.”
The more I heard the story, the more confused I became. Although I had not spent much time with Paeng Ju-hyeok, I could tell he was a jianghu person with a strong sense of chivalry.
He also had a somewhat excessive aspect that was more than chivalry. Otherwise, how could he watch the chain killings of a righteous sect high expert aiming at bandits’ eyes without envy?
A peak expert who had too much of the two things necessary for a righteous person—chivalry and chivalry—was an anomaly that ‘wondered if a fight could be established’ and feared it.
And he had come back alive after facing it.
I wanted to ask if it was because of his strength as a martial artist or because of the anomaly’s whimsy. But Paeng Ju-hyeok’s dark face seemed not to allow any further questions.
“…Eh. But how does the current situation relate to the heavenly grade anomaly?”
He asked with a hesitant expression. Probably, recalling the moment he had faced the heavenly grade anomaly had consumed his mental energy quite a bit.
“Ah. It seems that something that transmitted the martial art to Gu Hun Ma Shou pulled out Mu Un from the grave and transmitted the same martial art. If an existence that can do such a thing, it wouldn’t be classified as a heavenly grade anomaly?”
Paeng Ju-hyeok’s expression was one of shock as if he had not imagined it. Then he shouted.
“Persuasiveness… there is!”
“Then, do you have any idea which anomaly gave the demon art to Mu Un and revived him?”
“I don’t know up to that point. One thing is certain: even if it’s not a heavenly grade anomaly, it’s possible to revive people in a distorted form.”
Paeng Ju-hyeok recounted the stories of criminals from the Jinju clan who had been wanted. That guy had used ghost techniques to do strange things.
He would go to martial artists who had desires but lacked martial talent, and seduce them by promising to change them into better bodies, or return them to younger ages to alleviate the turbid qi of the blood veins with superior techniques.
The reality of that technique was a kind of organ transplantation.
The mad guy had repeatedly experimented with extracting the brains and hearts of martial artists and transplanting them into young children.
“I heard the ultimate goal was to steal the body of Cheon Mu Ji Che.”
“No, weren’t the people of the Un clan still treated as normal or righteous sect families?”
“So, they designated him as a public enemy and put him on the Murim Alliance wanted poster. If they only cared about the family’s face, it would have been impossible.”
While listening to Paeng Ju-hyeok talk about the various inhuman acts of the demons, I finished confirming the corpses left in Changsu Village.
“Indeed, it seems we can consider the technique of Gu Hun Ma Shou to be essentially the same.”
“Then, what will you do now?”
“Let’s use the prototype of the Gu Hun Ma Shou rulebook.”
“Exercise the rights of a martial artist?”
Paeng Ju-hyeok asked me if I would track the resurrected Mu Un. I shook my head in shock.
“No, there are no clues right now. I meant to return to the Murim Alliance and report.”
“Really…”
With a click of the tongue, the word carried a strange regret.
Honestly, Paeng Ju-hyeok in front of me was a bit creepier than the Mu Un in front of my eyes.