Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Dark Heaven Venerable
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Part 2: Dark Heaven Venerable
The first cock crowed.
The streets of Luoyang, past the depths of winter, began to welcome the dawn that arrived a bit earlier each day.
The figures of people who had no choice but to be diligent just to make ends meet started filling the streets.
"Did you hear?"
The owner of the accessories shop, Mr. Jang, broached the subject obliquely.
"...You mean the rumors about the Black Bone Gang from last night?"
Normally, Mr. Tak from the woodenware shop would have dismissed Mr. Jang's tales as mere gossip with a wave of his hand, but unexpectedly, he played along.
However, given the subject of the rumors, their conversation could only proceed in hushed tones.
"They say five of their dens were smashed in a single night."
"Five? I heard it was seven."
"Hey now, where'd you hear that?"
Mr. Tak beckoned Mr. Jang closer.
As Mr. Jang approached with a face full of curiosity, Mr. Tak quietly spoke.
"My brother-in-law works at the magistrate's office, doesn't he? He said the whole of Luoyang was on high alert all night. According to their investigation..."
"A full seven dens in one night?"
Mr. Tak nodded.
"No, I heard it was ten."
Mr. Tak jolted in surprise and nearly fell over at the sudden interjection.
Looking around in bewilderment, he saw that merchants had gathered, forming a long line.
"No, Old Man Wang said it was fifteen..."
"What are you talking about? I heard thirty!"
The more the common folk feared the Black Bone Gang's existence, the faster the tales about them spread.
Soon, the rumors snowballed, and wherever even a few people gathered, the air buzzed with talk of the Black Bone Gang.
"They say not a single corpse was left in the dens."
"Corpses? Not even a drop of blood remained!"
"They vanished without a trace, so many that they can't even be counted!"
Such stories always ended with the same question.
"Who on earth could have done it?"
* * *
"So you're saying there's no information at all?"
Geumju's attire and adornments were as splendid as could be.
Yet no matter how one looked at it, the opulence of the room she was in outshone hers by more than a notch.
"When did I ever say that to you? That the great Luoyang Sword Clan has no information?"
At the low question from the middle-aged man seated in the place of honor, Geumju felt a chill run down the back of her neck.
"I apologize."
The middle-aged man clicked his tongue at Geumju, who bowed her head deeply.
"You don't even know your place. Coming to bother me this busy morning over something so trivial?"
Geumju bristled inwardly at being called "something so trivial," but she bowed her head even deeper.
"I'm sorry, sir."
In truth, considering the position of the man before her, the matter of the Black Bone Gang was indeed trivial.
"You seem to be under some misunderstanding."
The middle-aged man tapped the precious ebony table with his finger.
"Do you think I gave you the Sword Clan Bronze Token because of your foster father's influence?"
Geumju's foster father, Geumjil, was a terrifying figure in Luoyang's underworld, but he could not even compare to the name of the Luoyang Sword Clan.
"N-No, how could I think that? I never even considered it."
She prostrated herself flat.
The middle-aged man glanced at the hourglass on the ebony table.
"Already, nearly a gak has been wasted on you."
He took a bundle of documents handed to him politely by his assistant maid and spoke.
Besides her, other maids stood in line, each holding armfuls of documents, waiting.
"Get out of my sight right now."
As Geumju bowed and withdrew, the middle-aged man's voice followed her.
"If you disappoint me one more time, I'll pass the Sword Clan Bronze Token to someone else."
Geumju's face flushed red as she hurried out of the massive hall.
'Damn it, I couldn't even bring up hiring experts from the Sword Clan.'
From the atmosphere, if she had, she probably would have been dealt with on the spot.
Out on the main street, she spotted a group of warriors.
She saw Luoyang Sword Clan warriors, each wearing a sword that looked far from ordinary, marching in orderly fashion toward somewhere.
They were palpably on a different level from the black path martial artists under her command.
'...Shit.'
Turning her body as she pondered her remaining options,
"Whoops, sorry."
The man who nearly collided with her apologized curtly.
"No, it was my fault too..."
She tried to say something, but the man had already quickened his pace and was walking away.
His attitude made it clear she wasn't even worth noticing.
'These damn Sword Clan bastards!'
Oblivious to Geumju glaring daggers at his back, the man hurried toward his superior's quarters.
The plainly modest dwelling on the outskirts made clear the degree of neglect their division suffered.
He flung open his superior's door in one go.
"Wake up! The sun's high in the sky!"
Books on astronomy and dust-covered celestial observation instruments hinted at their roles.
They were the Luoyang Sword Clan's typical sinecure: the astronomers.
In this materialistic age, with believers in superstition dwindling day by day, their value had faded.
Moreover, with meteorologists having split off to analyze and predict weather, the astronomers had even less to do.
"Snore."
His superior showed no sign of waking.
The man pinched his nose against the booze-soaked air in the room and kicked the dead-to-the-world superior.
"Wha—what?! What's going on?!"
The superior, clutching an empty bottle, rolled right off the bed.
"Big trouble!"
The man filled a bowl with cold water and handed it to his superior.
"...What the hell this early in the morning?"
Of course, it was late morning now, not early.
"Ah, drank too much—feels like I'm dying."
Without even thinking of getting up off the floor, the superior set the cold water aside haphazardly, picked at his eye boogers, and yawned.
Ignoring him, the man dragged over a chair and sat.
"I was on night duty last night."
His superior looked at him pitifully.
"You're still pulling solo night shifts every day? Sheesh, who even notices?"
The man ignored him and continued.
"It was an ill omen."
His superior scowled.
"Ill omens are a dime a dozen."
"A great ill omen."
Only then did his superior snap somewhat to attention.
"A great ill omen? What was it?"
The man hesitated a moment before speaking.
"I think I observed the Heavenly Killing Star last night."
At the words "Heavenly Killing Star," his superior gulped down the cold water he'd shoved aside.
Then he splashed the rest on his face.
"...For real? The Heavenly Killing Star?"
The man continued in a subdued tone.
"As you know, the Heavenly Killing Star is extremely hard to observe. Its position isn't fixed, nor its shape or color..."
"Varied. And the window for observation is short."
His superior, rubbing his face, picked up the thread and asked again.
"You're sure? That legendary Heavenly Killing Star? All we know is from books."
"...If you're asking if I'm certain, I can't say definitively."
When a subordinate as thorough as he put it that way, it was as good as confirmation.
"Crazy..."
Whenever it had appeared in history, the Heavenly Killing Star had brought rivers of blood.
"Shouldn't we report it upward?"
His superior sighed.
"Report this? In this day and age, who would believe us? Especially the Heavenly Killing Star?"
"Well..."
The man scowled at that.
But even he had no real retort.
"At the very least, we should report to our division's supervising officer..."
"Report to our supervising officer? Yeah, we should, but it won't mean much."
"I have a feeling it won't, but..."
Their organization, the Astronomy Pavilion, had the most powerless "powerholder" in the Sword Clan as supervisor.
The Swordless One, Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon.
* * *
In the farthest corner of Luoyang's slums, down an alley in an alley.
That alley teemed with swarming paupers.
No sane person would set foot there.
Yet not just ordinary folk, but famous merchants and high officials visited too, all for one reason.
It was home to Luoyang's greatest prophet.
A "dugout" was a hole dug in the ground, covered with straw mats and dirt to barely fit a person.
In a dugout squeezed between buildings sat a single old blind man.
That one man drew so many to this perilous, filthy alley.
Even skeptics cling to something when life grows uncertain—that's human nature.
"Ooooh..."
The old man, known only as the Dugout Master for not even revealing his name, trembled with his skeletal frame.
"The sun... the sun is gone..."
He was undoubtedly blind.
Whatever the reason, he hadn't seen the sun in days or years.
Yet his words carried an undeniable weight of spiritual power that no one could ignore.
"The heavens..."
He raised his withered arms, devoid of any flesh.
They shook like aspen leaves.
He was searching for the sun in the sky.
But the radiant sun was no longer there to be found.
"The heavens are pitch black. The sun is eclipsed. I can see the sun no more."
In his spirit eyes, the sky was as black as ink.
Not a single point of light pierced that sky, shrouded layer upon layer in thick clouds.
No moon, no stars.
Over a full Jiazi cycle had passed since he gouged out his physical eyes and gained spirit eyes, yet he'd never witnessed such a sight.
"Th-this is?!"
The old man, gazing endlessly at the sky, shuddered as if struck by lightning.
He pieced together words one by one into a sentence.
"Dark Heaven...! The master of Dark Heaven has appeared!"
He, who hadn't risen from his spot once since settling in the slums, stood up.
After so long without walking, his muscles should have atrophied beyond standing—yet he rose.
His emaciated legs trembled uncontrollably, but he paid it no mind.
"The Demonic Scripture! Has the Demonic Scripture awakened?! That ancient demon that devours darkness and shakes the heavens—has it appeared?!"
His gaunt body, clad in rags, emerged from the dugout.
Trembling with ecstasy, he cried out.
"The master of Dark Heaven has appeared! He who punishes the wicked from the deepest darkness has descended! Rejoice, you who have nothing, you who starve! The Dark Heaven Venerable comes to unleash black lightning in place of the indifferent heavens and earth!!"
The old man's skeletal form burned with the final flames of life as he began to dance wildly.
The paupers watching from afar buzzed in murmurs.
The old man's final prophecy etched itself vividly in their minds.
And so another rumor spread through Luoyang.
"If you meet the ghost in the white mask, bow your head in respect. If he questions your sins, answer without hiding. He is the executor of heavenly punishment, the Dark Heaven Venerable! Even the greatest sinners, fearless of heaven, shall not dare flee before him!"