Eating Someone Else's Meal (1)
“How was the practice of writing the rulebook?”
The first words I heard after being locked in the north-facing room all day were these. I shrugged my shoulders at Byeol-ui.
“Why are there so many anomalies in the Murim?”
Even after learning the importance of selecting the expected readership from Baek Nopa's case, Ok Rin still threw several books at me.
The anthology that recorded testimonies about the same incident was filled with stories that contradicted each other. It was training to filter out reliable information from those narratives.
It felt similar to the logic problems I had prepared for the civil service exam before falling into this world.
If A is true, then B cannot be true, and under the assumption that B is true, C and D contradict each other... such long, tedious, multi-layered logical quizzes.
The problem was that because this place was Murim, sometimes the answer presented was crazy nonsense that didn't follow ordinary logic.
“Hoo, what case made you look so disgusted?”
“Life and Death Crossroads.”
“Ah, that formation isn't too bad at all!”
***
The Life and Death Crossroads was one of the formations created by that demonic cultist Gwigok-ja.
Compared to Manghon Villa, it had less aggressive eating of people, but its mobility was even more superior.
Gwigok-ja's formation wasn't stuck to one place; it was designed to move along the veins from the beginning, they say. In the Jegal family, they should have captured him and peeled his skull.
The conditions for being caught in the Life and Death Crossroads were simple: in the bustling streets of a capital city, at a crossroads.
Just wander around with deep thoughts.
If the core of the Life and Death Crossroads is embedded in the city's veins, you get trapped in the formation.
Like the name "crossroads", you end up in the middle of the four directions, and every time you move in a direction, different things appear chasing the victim.
The theoretical escape methods are two. One is to shake off the pursuer and successfully escape 10 ri.
There was a snake to the north, a lame person to the south, a tiger to the west, and a wolf to the east as pursuers.
I naturally chose the lame person.
“The safest choice is the lame person. You can run away by jumping, right?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because as a Peak expert, I can float my body with void walking.”
“…Is that a joke?”
“It's real.”
Actually, I didn't need to float my own body. Just grabbing the one trying to chase me would be enough.
I asked in disbelief. Then what is the correct answer?
“If you're an expert, you can use your inner energy to run away from almost anything, right? As long as it's not the lame person.”
Ok Rin explained Gwigok-ja's thinking to me. The Life and Death Crossroads had signposts that kindly told you what would chase you in each direction.
Many people would naturally choose the lame person who is easy to escape from, and die along that path.
“It seems Gwigok-ja found the paradox that the safest-looking path is the most dangerous-looking one and created this formation. That's why he named it Life and Death.”
“…What about other methods?”
“Stay still at the center of the crossroads, the starting point, and wait until the Life and Death Crossroads moves to another point.”
The victim has to move first for the formation to have no way to handle it.
“That sounds simple and good. In the rulebook, just write that method.”
“But the problem is time.”
“Eh?”
“According to testimonies of those who succeeded in escaping using this method, the minimum is 1 shi zhen, and the maximum is 48 shi zhen.”
48 shi zhen is 96 hours, 4 days.
No food or water for 4 days.
***
“What kind of sorcery is it that it can summon Peak experts one after another by choosing the lame person, a Peak expert who can float in the air…?”
“Ah, good question. Why, didn't Gwigok-ja use the victim's qi well in the Manghon Villa too? It seems like it's using the souls of former high-level experts who were captured similarly.”
It was added that the beasts in the other three directions are also phantasms of souls implemented using inner pills of spiritual objects. I harbored rational doubt towards Gwigok-ja.
‘That guy, all the spiritual objects he hunted, isn't it that spiritual objects have become so rare now?’
“Well, hearing you say that, you seem well-versed.”
“Versed?”
“Even though it's a particularly unusual case, it seems like he memorized an entire investigation record on anomalies. If he memorized it well after learning it in a day, he's well-versed. Then, let's go home!”
I turned around. No sound of footsteps from the rulebook manuscript room where Ok Rin was.
“Doesn't Ok Record Keeper come out?”
“She lives here. She likes the gloomy and damp, so the basement is the perfect environment, they say.”
I looked at Byeol-ui with suspicious eyes. It's not like she's just pretending not to be able to go home.
“But why are you suggesting to go home together. Where's Paeng-hyung?”
“Eh?”
Byeol-ui looked at me with an expression as if asking what boring thing you're saying, and opened his mouth.
“Eh, that's because of your constitution.”
“Smelling the anomaly well?”
“No. If you don't eat anomalies, you die.”
“Ah.”
…I had forgotten.
After I thoughtlessly chewed the Wu In-go that Byeol-ui gave me at first, I hadn't consumed anything that could be called an anomaly.
“Well, it seems you can live for a year without eating anything. There's no immediate problem. However, while going to investigate the Changsu Village incident, you must have used a lot of inner energy with light kung fu, shadow methods, etc. So, to check the state of your blood veins.”
The logical explanation made my head nod automatically.
“Go to the medicine hall and get your pulse checked appropriately, then let's go eat. You've been staring at the rulebook all day, so you're probably hungry.”
I nodded. I hadn't eaten lunch and had been reviewing the rulebook, and when I heard the word "going home", I came out.
I was happy about the health check-up uniform, but even happier about the idea of eating. As I nodded my head four times, a vague question popped up in my mind.
“Then why yesterday…?”
Wouldn't it have been faster and more accurate to get the pulse on the day itself? There was a separate reason for having to wait a day...
“There is a very important reason. You won't understand if you hear it now.”
“Eh, maybe the leader's inspection schedule was set?”
“I forgot.”
…It was right about the anomaly.
***
Actually, Baek Sam-byeol-ui had his own reason for dividing his day.
Originally, Byeol-ui refers to a doctor dispatched from the central government to the provinces. Byeol-ui had once held an official position.
The "Baek Sam" in Baek Sam-byeol-ui (White Shirt Byeol-ui) also refers to the white clothes he likes to wear, but it's also a word explaining his decision to discard the official robes of a bureaucrat.
Every time I heard that title, Byeol-ui had no choice but to self-mock.
To others, it would seem like he gave up his official position to provide medical treatment to martial artists fighting at the forefront of justice instead of receiving gold and jewels from the imperial court.
But it wasn't like that.
He just couldn't bear it anymore after reporting to the emperor and ran away.
After that, he transferred to the Murim Alliance after being persuaded by the leader.
Byeol-ui knew the leader's trap well. Although he is an old man who quit his official position himself, his skills and connections that reached the imperial court are not gone.
He probably wanted to serve as an intermediary between the current Murim Alliance and the court.
After suddenly meeting the Records Bureau Chief one day, Byeol-ui realized that what the leader wanted from him was more than just a negotiator for the government.
So, after much deliberation, Byeol-ui agreed to join the Management Records Bureau, but he was not excluded from his original duties of negotiating with the government.
That was why there was no one else as familiar with government affairs as Byeol-ui in the Murim Alliance.
Therefore, last night, Byeol-ui was writing a letter to Baek Cheon-ho of the Jinyiwei.
The Jinyiwei is in a position where they can't not know about anomalies because they are the most loyal limbs of the imperial court. There's no need to warn them about anomalies.
But they are ignorant of the physiology of the Murim.
Even if it's called demonic cultivation, if someone who hasn't practiced martial arts even once sees it, it's a divine skill that gives them incredible martial arts in just one night.
Surely rumors will spread, and the greed of martial artists will cause unnecessary conflicts. Especially in the heretical martial world that has left the righteous martial world.
That's why Byeol-ui warned Baek Cheon-ho about traps and sorcery that can be used in the heretical world, and at the same time sent a letter to the Three Black Lotus side's anomaly investigation team to attempt pre-negotiation.
This official duty was the first reason why Byeol-ui didn't take Yeok Cheon-myeong's pulse yesterday.
The second reason was to observe Yeok Cheon-myeong.
These people who have become half-anomalies are standing at the border between human and demonic paths. This border is thin and faint, and it's uncertain when they might cross to the other side.
Especially dangerous at the moment when inner energy is rapidly consumed. They often lose rationality at the sensation of their life decreasing.
That's why I entrusted the prognosis observation to Ok Rin, who has already walked the same path.
She is a shaman proficient in Zuo Dao, and she can skillfully correct her junior who is leaning towards the demonic path.
The moment the door of the manuscript room opened, Ok Rin threw one word at Byeol-ui with a telepathic message.
[Just feed him.]
It was proof that Yeok Cheon-myeong is truly a human-like person.