According to the words of Joo Ye-bin, a minor lord, the situation he described had happened.
At the Murim tournament held by the Alliance, the remnants of the Blood Sect played a nasty trick.
I, the successor of the Southern Heavenly Swordsman, discovered it and with Lee Jung-gyeom, the disciple of the Eight Great Warriors, saved countless people of the Murim Alliance.
It was said that due to this incident, Lee Jung-gyeom and I were even bestowed the title of the Two New Stars, which had become famous throughout Murim.
‘Ha.’
This was an amazing storyline. In just one month, I was being presented as the new hero of the Murim.
It was completely different from history before my return. Originally, only Lee Jung-gyeom should have been in the limelight.
-Just what the hell did you ask from Northern Blade?
‘It isn’t him.’
-What?
All I asked him was to pitch in such a way that wouldn’t bring suspicion onto me by the others and to pass the news of me being alright to my sister So Yong-yong.
He decided to help me, but there was no way that he would have exaggerated the things that would turn out like this.
‘It is the Murim Alliance.’
-Murim Alliance did this?
‘Yes.’
Only they could do such a thing.
-Why would they?
Why would they, huh?
Due to what happened there was a stigma around the Blood Demon Sword being stolen by the Blood Sect. And from their point of view, they had to minimize the damage.
One of them might have been to unite our strong people and make them the core of the Alliance, which was the plan for their tournament.
-And you got pushed into it?
‘Seems like it. Damn it!’
It could have been done if only Lee Jung-gyeom, a disciple of theirs was put ahead. But, it seemed like my discovery of the explosions was something people noticed.
It was my act to avoid being suspected and in the end it was used like this.
-The mastermind behind the Alliance is already dead, despite this they used their defeat to bounce back.
‘Yes.’
I thought the confusion from the death of the mastermind would make the Alliance stop functioning for a while but they fixed it in no time.
Since the First Military Commander was dead, this idea must have originated from any other Commander of the Alliance.
I wasn’t sure who, but things felt messed up.
-Hahahaha. Living in this body, seeing the Blood Demon and even hearing the plans of those from the Justice Faction. There really is no day filled with boredom with you, you human.
‘Can you shut up?’
My plans were getting continuously changed.
Clack! Clack!
Half-blind young man was lying on the wagon, chewing on beef jerky.
Across from him, a tall young man with a disapproving face was fiddling with something within a black cloth.
After a while, the young man next to the one eating beef said, “Stop eating. The sound of your eating is annoying me.”
The young man who was chewing on the jerky, lifted the head slightly and held a piece of it.
“Would you like one?”
“No need!”
“So picky.”
The young man went back to chewing on it again.
It was then the young man recalled something and shouted.
“Do you even have anything called conscience?”
“Conscience?”
“Yes. After getting pointers from two of the Eight Great Warriors, you still are here like it was nothing enough! Are you serious about doing all of this! Lee Jung-gyeom!”
The name of the man chewing on the beef was Lee Jung-gyeom.
The man had already learnt from Baek Hyang-muk, the first of Eight Great Warriors and the Elder Jong Seon’s Taiji sword.
Lee Jung-gyeom sighed and added.
“I am not going because I want to. It is annoying to move because of the orders from above.”
Lee Jung-gyeom looked annoyed and the young man didn’t like this attitude.
“Then you could have just said so!”
“Ehh. The old man told me to maintain the relationship with these forces, what can I do? It is quite different from your situation where these affairs don’t matter.”
Clench!
At the words of that, the young man called Jin Young, gritted his teeth.
“You try to show it like you are good.”
“Then why are you coveting the martial arts of the Invincible Wind God after inheriting the martial arts of your grandfather who is said to be the best in the Dao of Blade?”
Jin Young.
He was the grandson of Flame Emperor Great Blade, Jin Gyun. His expression was distorted by those words.
‘Isn’t this all because of you? Are you saying that I am greedy for the thought of becoming stronger when you have learned from two Great Warriors!’
Jin Young, who glared at him like he wanted to kill him, said.
“It is an Alliance, so I am not interested in fighting these people here. I just want to get stronger.”
“Yes, yes, yes. It has to be that.”
“You bastard!”
Jin Young jumped up the wagon and tried to take away the black cloth. To which Lee Jung-gyeom threw the jerky in his hand.
Pat!
Jin Young caught it.
“Calm down and eat. It isn’t long until they start this, and don’t you want to give the test in your best condition?”
At his words, Jin Young gritted his teeth, suppressing the anger as he sat down. And threw the jerky out of the wagon.
“I said, I won’t eat.”
Lee Jung-gyeom clicked his tongue.
“Tch, tch. You and your temper.”
“Huh!”
Jin Young sat back not wanting to even look at him. Lee Jong-gyeom shook his head and mumbled looking at the cloudless sky.
“The descendant of the Southern Heavenly Swordsman. I don’t think it would be boring if that friend joins.”
As I was reading what was written in a paper, Short Sword said.
-Seriously, it is so great. Didn’t they say that this place belonged to the Dual Martial Forces?
As said, this location was related to them and I wandered around to check but I couldn’t find even one Lower District sect branch.
Thinking it might be Lower District’s branch, I moved ahead and provided the password to check but nothing came up. In the end, I was only able to find just a small information place and the information they gave was what I knew.
‘Isn’t the Lower District sect an intelligence hub with skills? Are they unable to use their force within?’
The only information I got to know was of the Great War and the Flying Moon Order branching from a descendant of the Blood Sect and then being expelled and killed.
I couldn’t gather any other information about my family. Not to mention, the kids who survived, all that was there was my grandfather’s name.
-Actually it doesn’t matter anymore.
Right. I managed to hear everything from my grandfather already.
“I don’t know if the information we gave will please you.”
The middle-aged man with a goatee who sat across was the owner of the Lower District sect’s branch leader. I answered with a smile.
“It wasn’t bad. Can I ask for some other information?”
“We are a group with less information. I can give it to you, as long as you pay a reasonable price for it.”
The branch leader rubbed his hands together. The way he talked differed from before and now and that was because he knew my identity.
“Huhuhu, which one would you like?”
“I want to know everything about the Dual Martial Forces from your sect.”
“You want… to know everything?”
“Yes.”
“That is the kind of information which is too high and regardless of the grade you request, the cost would be too high too.”
I was looking at him waiting for him to ask and at his words I pulled something out.
It was a luminous stone.
“This?”
“This should be enough to pay for it.”
The eyes of the man gleamed in joy looking at the softly shining green stone.
The information was useful.
Comparing the information known to me from before the regression, it was valuable enough.
After the Murim was divided into parts, the Justice Forces and the Martial Dual Forces.
They hoped for long peace to arrive with their common enemy being the Blood Sect but with that disappearing, they couldn’t settle down on the power dynamics.
The Murim Alliance and Dual Martial Forces were more likely to collide whether they had an alliance or not. Unlike the Murim Alliance which claimed to be on the side of justice, the Dual Martial Forces didn’t care about it.
And the reason for this was that the marriage for the sake of the alliance was broken.
Baek Cheol, the cousin of the Alliance leader, was famous for having a derogatory nature and it was quite known.
But the affair he was having with another woman was what shattered everything. His own wife ended up committing suicide and this led to the breaking of the alliance.
-This was quite.
‘Either Baek Hye-hyang or Baek Ryeon-ha must have used their hands.’
This was all the information I knew. However, the information that he gave me held some interesting facts.
It was said that Baek Hyang-muk, the leader of Murim Alliance, was greatly angered and cut off the right arm of his cousin and sent him to the Dual Martial Forces to apologize.
-One arm is enough?
‘They would have asked for the head.’
According to the information, Wang Cho-il wanted his head. And even if the Murim Alliance leader was known to be fair, would he actually accept beheading his own cousin?
He rejected this, he turned completely different from it. However, an alliance could not fall out just because one thing went wrong.
Of course, there was a side which insisted on breaking the alliance from the start, the Storm Shadow Eight Classes.
According to the information, ever since Jin Song-baek became the sect leader he insisted on breaking the alliance with the Murim Alliance.
-Is it because of your mother?
If that was the case, he had his own fights within the sect.
In any case, two of the four major warriors wanted the alliance to end and that was what led to it. The important thing here was that since then, the two sides have been fighting.
-Maybe this is why your father became the head, Wonhwi?
-Right. It could be something like to increase his power.
‘Could be.’
Originally the Dual Martial Forces didn’t have a sole leader. The direction of its moving would be discussed by the four leaders of the major sects and then after the death of one, Cheon Mu-seong was to be the leader.
After placing everything together, it was clear that even within the Forces there were conflicts.
-Was it Cheon Mu-seong who would kill your father?
I had no idea. Even before coming back it was just announced.
However, for now, the guy, Cheon Mu-seong was just like the Eight Great Warriors and he was in conflict with the other sect leaders in Forces.
-Well, you cannot let your father just die.
-Right. Wouldn’t it be against the laws of heaven to turn a blind eye to the parents who gave birth to you, Wonhwi?
Laws?
I was not sure.
It was questionable if I would even feel a little emotions like I felt with grandfather. But one thing was for sure, I had to meet him.
-Then hurry up. If you chose to stay still and he decides on the successor then wouldn’t your position be taken away?
My position huh…
I would only get to know when I met him.
If that position was mine or not… before that we had something to do.
-That is?
Inform my grandfather of all the things about Blood Sect and my relation with it.
3 days later.
Yanan city to the north of Shaanxi.
There was this huge castle to the southwest of the city. This was the castle of the Dual Martial Forces and it had four tall towers surrounding it.
Hundreds of warriors were gathered around this place because of the recent news about the search for a successor.
Two men were walking through the crowd, Lee Jung-gyeom and Jin Young.
The people who knew them groaned.
“It is Lee Jung-gyeom, one of the Two New Stars.”
“And there is Jin Young too.”
“Ha! Why are the descendants of the Eight Great Warriors here?”
“They are also trying to challenge the martial arts of Invincible Wind God?”
“Fuck! Isn’t this too much?”
They were not talking in a good way.
Since they all came here with the same goal, they disliked the appearance of someone this strong.
“You took on the role of a villain properly.”
“You bastard! Acting so cheap when you are being criticized too. You really lack conscience.”
“You realize we are the same right?”
“Do not mess with me.”
Fighting their way through, the crowd looked at the top of the tower. The eight story tower which belonged to the Storm Shadow Eight Classes.
“So high!”
“They say one has to go through all floors to meet the man.”
It was only on coming here, they learned on how they would be tested.
It was said that in order to be the successor of the man, one had to climb the top floor of the tower. Each floor had warriors who have been extremely trained in the martial arts of Storm Shadow Eight classes.
“Becoming a successor isn’t so easy right?”
“So annoying.”
“If it bothers you so much, give up.”
“The old man will skin me alive.”
“Excuse~”
Jin Young snorted while walking ahead.
As they walked to it, the warriors gathered around to avoid their glances. The reason was to avoid taking the test with these two.
“It is good that they know their level.”
The faces of the Murim people were distorted by the arrogant tone of Jin Young.
But no one spoke back, it was because everyone knew what would happen and they didn’t want to get close to one who was a disciple to the strong.
‘Huh. In the end, it will be a competition between him and me.’
Looking at Lee Jung-gyeom, Jin Young’s eyes flared. And then heard people groaning.
“No way, compete with them?”
“Who is that young man?”
“Huh. Does he not know who those two are?”
Confused, Jin Young looked back and there was this normal looking guy walking with two sheaths and a dagger and eye patch on his left eye.
‘Huh! Look at the guy’s guts!’
