Ripples
The gazes of everyone in the Ju Family—from the main house members to the servants and warriors—had changed.
It wasn’t something only I could feel.
“Young Master, it seems you’ve drawn quite a bit of attention.”
Muyoung stood close by my side and whispered quietly.
Beyond the training grounds’ walls, the murmurs of the inner court warriors reached all the way here. I could feel their sidelong glances peeking over the wall.
“It can’t be helped. The Red Dragon Unit moved.”
A rumor had spread through the family.
It was the story of how the reckless, good-for-nothing youngest son had captured a demon practitioner.
Fortunately, Father had acted quickly. It seemed the critical detail—that the man had been one of the Twelve Demon Emperors—had been erased.
Still, the mere fact that I had caught a demon practitioner appeared to have delivered a rather fresh shock to the warriors.
“Hah. What a shame, though.”
I clicked my tongue and rose from my seat.
I had been on the verge of breaking through to the tenth star.
It hadn’t been long since I reached the ninth star, yet the threshold to the tenth already shimmered before me.
Real combat.
This absurd rate of progress came, of course, from real battle experience. The profound insights I had gained in my previous life, along with my deep understanding of martial principles, had amplified the effect even further.
Even so, this speed is abnormal.
It was no wonder the orthodox murim world feared demonic arts. This ridiculous growth rate was so overwhelming it even inspired fear.
The more blood I take, the stronger I become.
That was my definition—and my conclusion—regarding demonic arts.
In real combat, the more blood I encountered, the stronger the demonic arts grew.
While it retained the characteristics of Dragon Heaven True Qi, its fundamental nature was demonic energy.
Its destructive power alone will be no joke.
Among my current peers, there were almost none who could be considered my match. If I had to name any, it would be my eldest brother and that monster from the Namgung family.
“Young Master, they’ve prepared bathwater for you. Please wash up quickly.”
While I was lost in thought, Danhee approached me.
“Ah, right.”
I stood up immediately and headed toward my quarters.
Danhee never stepped within a certain distance of me. When I moved, she followed behind.
I glanced back and asked, “How old are you?”
“I’m fifteen, Young Master.”
Fifteen. The same age as me.
“What about your parents?”
“They’re not here.”
“Hm?”
“They’ve already passed away. They originally worked as escorts for the Ju Gyeong Trading Company. Both of them.”
“Ah… I see.”
The Ju Gyeong Trading Company was a merchant guild operated by the Ju Family. It mainly supplied spiritual medicines to the family’s warriors. If her parents had been escorts there, their skills must have been quite decent.
Were they killed by bandits?
Despite losing her parents, Danhee carried herself with remarkable composure. At just fifteen years old, she had become the head of her household, responsible for a younger sibling five years her junior.
I…
I had not been nearly so mature.
In my previous life, when I had just come of age, our family was destroyed. For over a year, I had been paralyzed by terror, unable to do anything.
Yet here she was, facing the world with such steady poise at only fifteen.
“…Y-Young Master?”
When I continued staring at her, Danhee seemed uneasy. She clutched at her chest and called out to me in a nervous voice.
“Ah, sorry. I was just thinking about something else…”
“S-Something… else?”
“Hm? No, not like that. I just thought you were impressive.”
At those words, Danhee tilted her head in surprise.
“I haven’t done anything impressive, though?”
“You lost your parents at this age and still take care of your sibling. That’s impressive.”
“Is it?”
Danhee kept tilting her head, as if she genuinely didn’t find it surprising.
“Well, I suppose someone like you might see it that way, Young Master.”
Her reply instead sparked a question in me.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing special. It’s just… among the people my age around me, this isn’t exactly rare. There are so many children who’ve lost their parents.”
“Really?”
“Yes, of course. To me, it’s actually the normal thing.”
The normal thing.
Those words lingered in my chest.
To them, losing their parents and being left alone in the world was perhaps simply a matter of course.
In other words, children like Danhee had already been preparing themselves.
For the day they might one day be cast alone into the world.
“Still… thank you. That’s the first time anyone’s ever said that to me.”
Danhee bowed to me politely.
In my previous life, I hadn’t spoken with her much, so I didn’t have many memories of her. But her personality seemed like it would mesh surprisingly well with mine.
I washed with the prepared water, changed into fresh martial robes, then entered my room and quietly organized my thoughts.
Now the real work begins.
I had killed the Blood Hand Poison Emperor.
I had rested enough. It was time to prepare once again for the movements of the Demonic Cult.
That idiot went and got all his subordinates killed.
There were no prisoners.
I had told Ju Yu-ran, Chief of the Red Dragon Unit, to kill them all, and she had gladly accepted the request.
That was exactly why I had asked her, of all people.
If it had been anyone else, they would have insisted on capturing them for interrogation or claimed we couldn’t simply kill them. It would have been incredibly annoying.
Yu-ran, on the other hand, was different.
She was bold, hot-tempered, and not one to overthink things. While that trait had its downsides, she was without a doubt the most convenient person for me to use.
My name will be cleverly concealed. She’ll probably become the target instead.
The demon practitioners would not stay quiet.
Especially the Twelve Demon Emperors, who had received the title of sovereign.
Among them, the one with a special connection to the Blood Hand Poison Emperor.
Only one name immediately came to mind.
The madman who had chased after me right after I killed the Blood Hand Poison Emperor in my previous life.
Sal-je, Do-gon.
That bastard had formed a rather peculiar bond with the Blood Hand Poison Emperor. It was also the reason the Poison Emperor had been able to create his own force despite only knowing poison.
The martial arts learned by the Black Water Unit and Crimson Water Unit were mostly blade techniques that came from Do-gon.
The Blood Hand Poison Emperor would refine spiritual medicines and hand them over to Do-gon. In return, Do-gon would teach him his martial arts.
On the surface, their relationship appeared to be nothing more than that.
“Brothers.”
In truth, the fact that they were blood brothers was known only to the other Twelve Demon Emperors and the Heavenly Demon.
Driven mad by his younger brother’s death, Do-gon had immediately pursued me. We fought for three full days and nights without rest. In the end, by the narrowest of margins, I had taken his head.
I won because of a truly trivial mistake on his part. If we had fought to the very end… I might have been the one who lost.
That was how strong Do-gon was.
At the time, I had been so overwhelmed by his blade strikes that I could barely keep my mind straight.
Of course, that was also because I hadn’t fully detoxified the Poison Emperor’s venom…
Whatever the reason, Do-gon was clearly a formidable opponent.
If Yu-ran faced him now, she would lose without question.
Like most demon practitioners, Do-gon never left his enemies alive. Even when he killed, he made sure to inflict as much pain as possible first.
As long as she stayed within the family grounds, there would be no problem. The issue was Yu-ran herself.
She wasn’t the type of woman who would listen even if I warned her.
“This is troublesome.”
Even so, I couldn’t simply leave her to fend for herself.
I had dragged her into this matter out of necessity. Taking responsibility was only natural.
“What should I do?”
Just as my worries were deepening, Danhee came to find me.
“Young Master, the Family Head is looking for you.”
“…”
Hah. I suppose I could think about this later.
The Red Dragon Unit would be busy following Father’s orders anyway.
I stood up at once and headed toward the Sword Soul Hall.
* * *
The atmosphere around the Sword Soul Hall was different from usual.
Impressive.
I could sense a considerable number of presences.
It seemed the Rising Dragon Unit, which had been deployed outside, had all returned.
“Father, it is Woo-jin.”
Instead of a servant, I called out from outside the door first.
“Enter.”
Father’s voice came from within.
I took a light deep breath and stepped into the grand hall.
Father was not alone.
The elders?
Excluding those who had been sent on external missions, all three elders were present.
The first to catch my eye was the Great Elder, Ju Sang-geon.
His eyes were deep and unreadable, his expression cold. He had always looked down at me with a chilly gaze, as if barely acknowledging my existence.
He was my great-uncle and the only elder who was not Father’s brother. Because Father’s siblings were all so outstanding, he had taken the position of Great Elder to mediate any potential infighting among them. Perhaps because of that, his face always seemed filled with annoyance.
“Come in, come in.”
The one who greeted me with a warm smile was the Fifth Elder, Ju Tae-hwi.
My youngest uncle and one of the elders who supported me. He was usually so busy that he rarely stayed at the family estate, but it seemed he was here this time.
Last was the elder who radiated a cold aura as he looked at me.
The Third Elder, Ju Tae-cheon.
He supported the other young master and, naturally, despised and looked down on me with extreme contempt.
The fact that he didn’t even pretend to notice me brought back old memories quite vividly.
“It has been a while, Elders.”
I gave a light bow and stood in the center of the hall.
It was as if the seat had been prepared specifically for me.
The elders were seated in a circle around me.
Father, seated at the head, finally spoke.
“I received and reviewed the Red Dragon Unit’s report early yesterday morning.”
“…”
A heavy silence filled the room.
“They didn’t seem like ordinary demon practitioners. Do you happen to know anything?”
At Father’s question, I pondered for a moment.
Will they believe me?
I debated whether I should tell them that the Demonic Cult was moving in secret.
The problem of the Demonic Cult was not one that concerned only the Ju Family.
This wasn’t an ordinary demon practitioner. The appearance of the Demonic Cult was an enormous event that should put the entire murim world on high alert.
No.
I made my decision.
If I carelessly brought up the Demonic Cult now, they might grow wary.
If it were Father, he would send letters to all the great families and sects across the murim. The Demonic Cult’s spies hidden among them would report it to the Heavenly Demon.
If they go into hiding, it’s over. There’s no telling when or how they might strike.
Hadn’t I personally witnessed the Heavenly Demon’s terrifying martial prowess?
Countless renowned masters of the murim had become nothing but fleeting souls, wandering the nine heavens at his hands.
Such a tragedy… must never happen again.
I must act only within the range of what I can predict. This time… I must completely destroy the Demonic Cult.
I lifted my head confidently and lied.
“I do not know the exact details. However, I do know that he dared to attempt to harm my mother.”
“How and where did you learn of this? Explain in detail.”
It was the Great Elder, Ju Sang-geon, who asked. His sharp eyes seemed to pierce through my entire body.
I answered calmly.
“I visited Mother and noticed her condition was far more serious than usual. Just in case, I began investigating from the Insujeon medical hall. I traced the origin of the medicinal decoctions she was taking and even visited the maternal family. That is all.”
I had hidden the important parts, but everything I said was true.
I had simply phrased it cleverly.
The elders remained silent.
Ju Sang-geon looked at the Family Head and spoke quietly.
“This is an incident where someone dared to harm the matriarch of our main house. Whatever decision the Family Head makes, I will follow it without question.”
At Ju Sang-geon’s words, Father, Ju Tae-seong, bowed his head respectfully in gratitude.
“This meeting is now over.”
With Father’s declaration, the elders began to leave the hall one by one.
Once all the elders had left, I too tried to quietly follow them out.
But at that moment—
“Ju Woo-jin.”
Father’s icy voice stopped me.
When I turned around, he was looking down at me with those same indifferent eyes.
He slowly approached me.
Then placed a hand on my shoulder.
“You…”
The moment Father opened his mouth, an indescribable pressure gripped my entire body.
He spoke in a low, calm voice.
“What exactly are you hiding?”
As if he already knew everything, Father’s cold gaze pierced deep into my heart.