How did the Cheonma Sect become active again? The news had sowed doubt in our minds. However, I couldn’t let Noonim’s mentality get shaken by it. That’s why I quickly grasped her hand to comfort her. Then, startled, Noonim raised her head and met my eyes. Although most of her face was covered by a veil except for her eyes, they were so beautiful yet mysterious and could make people’s hearts flutter simply by seeing it.
“Noonim, let’s think about it positively. In any case, it is a good thing that the legacy of the Cheonma Sect continues without being cut off.”
Although the Cheonma Sect follows the teaching of the Heavenly Demon, it was said that evil parts of the teachings had long been abolished from their sect by the sect’s previous lord, Gal Hyuk-jun. He did it because he didn’t want to rule the world with blood and violence, and just wanted to quietly live in his own territory. It was said that the elders at that time had no choice but to follow the words of Gal Hyuk-jun since he was someone who possessed overwhelming power. And when Seol Jungyeon ascended to the seat of lord, the sect had become a completely clean sect without any influence from political factions.
In other words, the resurrection of the Cheonma Sect did not have any negative impact on the world. Although I don’t know what the current resurrected Cheonma Sect is like… I can only say positive things to Noonim.
“That’s right… Thank you.” Realizing what I meant, Noonim smiled faintly and nodded her head.
“By the way, is it really impossible to impersonate the Cheonma Sect?” Taylor, who took turns looking at me and Noonim with a frown, mumbled a question.
“Don’t you know that every sect has a unique martial art of their own?”
“Well, that’s true.” Taylor nodded at my question.
That was also why the situation was even more burdensome. People of Murim weren’t fools. There was no way that they couldn’t tell the difference between the idiots who pretend to be part of the Cheonma Sect from the real one. In other words, it was possible that someone who had learned the Cheonma Heavenly Art had re-established the Cheonma Sect…
“There’s only one person who comes to my mind.”
“Yes?”
Noonim sighed heavily before smiling.
“A long time ago… After the death of the Lord, I met a pitiful child.”
Noonim said she met the child for the first time in the back alley while she was walking on the street trying to shake off her loneliness. The girl, who was a beggar, secretly approached Noonim’s pocket, which seemed to be full of things, and of course she wasn’t able to steal from an Expert and Noonim quickly caught her by the collar.
‘Put me down! You wicked woman!’
Instead of feeling offended by the girl’s words, Noonim saw her young self in the child. Although her childhood was not as wild, daring and courageous as the little kid, she thought that she resembled herself in running desperately to live and survive. So, Noonim took the girl in.
Noonim faintly smiled as she told us the story.
“She had a very good swordsmanship, and I liked her personality that hated losing to others. That was why I personally taught her swordsmanship.”
Noonim said the talent the kid possessed was great. In addition to that, her desire to be strong was also admirable, allowing her to easily surpass any adult in an instant.
However,
“She got into accidents all the time.”
Because the girl was pretty, there were too many men who approached her. But even though it was only a simple approach, the girl couldn’t stand it and knocked all the men out.
And despite several warnings given by Noonim, she said that the girl’s childhood memories of being raped by a bandit made things worse every passing day, and eventually she castrated several male warriors of Murim.
“She was an unfortunate child. Her never-ending distrust for man grew bigger day by day, and I eventually had no choice but to expel her. My heart ached so much at the time…”
However, thanks to being expelled from the Cheonma Sect, the girl survived. Is that really a good thing? Me and Taylor couldn’t say anything.
As the atmosphere got colder, Noonim quickly finished the long story.
“Anyway, if that child was the one who re-established the Cheonma Sect, then she could be trusted.”
“That’s… good. But it seems that Noonim still wants to go there and check it out for herself?”
“That’s right. I need to pay respect to my deceased family member and meet the new Lord. Since I came back alive like this, she will definitely welcome us.”
I smiled at her and nodded my head.
Please, I wish it was true.
* * *
After a quick breakfast, we left the village. It was to meet the intelligence group ‘Shadow Group’.
Perhaps, because this world was a world of martial arts, there were a lot of difficult paths along the way, such as a road that could barely be passed by one person or a path on the edge of a steep cliff. However, such topography was not a problem for us. Even me, the lowest level here, could walk vertically on the cliff if I wanted to.
But, even though we could easily go to our destination even if it was not a comfortable forest path, Taylor’s constant pestering, ‘Let’s go through the forest path! There’s something I want to see!’ gave me no choice but to choose a common road that ordinary people use.
Half a day after we choose to walk through the forest path,
“Kah ha ha! these guys! Where are you going to go?”
‘Things Taylor wanted to see’ had finally appeared. The man who stood in our way had dark skin and yellow teeth that clearly show that he hadn’t washed well. His hair was dirty and tangled in many places, he was only wearing a vest-like garment that didn’t fit his body well.
“Oh oh! It finally came out! The Nokrim!” Taylor squealed.
It was none other than the Nokrim, a bandit group who was dubbed as ‘passing villain’ or ‘early protagonist’s combat power gauge’ in martial arts novels.
“Hahahaha, It seems you’ve heard of our notoriety, so you know it well! Yes, name is Wang Chil-deuk, the leader of the Eighteen Green Trees. If you want to go live, give us all of your valuables!”
Taylor’s eyes twinkled when the very obvious line came out. She put her hand together in front of her just like a girl who had met a superstar, it looked like she would easily give the bandit a single gold nugget.
I glanced around and saw that the number of bandits was about 100. It is larger than I expected. It is too cumbersome to fight, so I just took out a money bag and threw it away.
Then, a sudden thought crossed my mind. ‘Is this a cliché where they simply ignore you once you give them what they want?’
And as expected, Wang Chil-deuk did not let us go.
“Look at these, you do have a lot of money! Give me all your remaining money!”
“That is all we have.”
“How dare this bastard talk back to the boss?!”
“Ha ha, stop it. If they get scared and piss themselves, won’t their clothes get smelly? Your clothes are splendid, are you a young master from somewhere? Take that off too and give it to me.”
“Oh, hey. This is soooooo great. It is exactly like what I had imagined!”
“….”
Next to me, Taylor keeps hitting my side and making a fuss. Is it really that good?
Wang Chil-deuk suddenly slung his sword over his shoulder before rushing towards us and reached out for Taylor.
“Heh, When I heard the voice, it sounded like a woman, should I see your face first?”
The development that follows was obviously interesting to watch, but Taylor, who hates direct interaction, swept away all the bandits with a beam of light without leaving a single one alive.
In martial arts novels, it could be said that this kind of treatment was excessive for a mere common villain, but in the real martial arts world, the more you deal with them, the better. People who see women as objects and steal other people’s things were not needed in the world even if they were alive.
“Huhu, cleaning up trash is always fun. Shall we continue on our way now?”
Looking at Taylor, who seemed content after relieving her stress, Noonim and I could only shake our heads.
* * *
Our destination was a city named ‘Seoryusi’. Its name was derived from the fact that the entire city turns white when it snows. It seems to be too bright of a city for a group like Shadow Group. But whatever… It’s not really my business.
Along the way to Seoryusi, we met a lot of thieves, while we rarely encountered monstrous beasts. We even met an Expert who came out of nowhere and challenged us to a duel.
There were a lot of unusual people in Murim more than what the novel had described.
One time when I was sitting on the edge of a cliff to admire the meadow which stretched underneath, I saw warriors of Murim who shot their arrows towards a giant crow named ‘Black Devil’ that had appeared behind me. There were also merchants who flocked into a small hut to take whatever they stored there. I also met a hermit named ‘Kang Tae-gong’, who was casually fishing in a lake while sitting on the edge of a huge waterfall and had to experience an annoying night attack from him when we were staying in the village built on the cliff for a while.
Murim was a much livelier world than I had expected. Seol Jungyeon noonim always smiled whenever Taylor and I saw something new and then kindly explained them to us. It seemed she was also enjoying it, so I was relieved a little.
So, for two weeks, we had a very brief leisure time and were able to arrive at Seoryusi.
Seoryusi was a very beautiful city as its name suggests. The river-like structure which runs through the centre of the city was beautifully sculpted in marble, reminiscent of modern crafts. And most of the buildings in the city were the same size as if they were planned. The buildings that are larger than normal ones in the city all belonged to the sects. From traditional martial arts names such as ‘Chongsanpa’, ‘Mahodang’, and ‘Cheonryuhoe’ to some fantasy names such as ‘Blue Mind Sect’, ‘Destroyed Sword Guild’, ‘Speed of Speed Steel Party’, etc.
After looking at them, Noonim was silent for a while before saying a short word, “…there are a lot of new sects.”
We quickly went to the Shadow Group’s place. It was located in an alley called ‘Saro’s Street’, and it was said that the alley was ruled by various gangs called ‘cheoldupa’ (mafia in terms of earth).
The back alley itself reminds me of a red-light district on Earth. The prostitutes were subtly poking out their bodies for people who walked by to see, and it seemed that it didn’t matter whether the passerby were male or female.
“Hey, oppa, let’s play together~” The muscular man kept sticking into me, it was so ridiculous and troublesome.
“Um, it’s a bad place.”
Taylor looked around with a crumpled expression. Fortunately, because Taylor was small, she was well hidden behind me, so the female prostitutes didn’t cling onto her.
As we passed them and went deeper into the alley, some bastards standing in stiff posture with shabby weapons in their hand such as iron rods and bats were blocking the road. But as soon as we looked into their eyes, we knew. In a place like this, they weren’t just pretending to be a thug.
‘They were at least an Expert.’ Noonim whispered to me. I nodded quietly before approaching them.
“What do you want? I think you’ve taken the wrong road, I’ll let you go if you turn back now.”
One of them came to talk to me pretending to be a thug, but I ignored him and held out my hand. There was a tattoo of a V encased in a circular border engraved on my arm. It was a tattoo that came along with the letter from Smiling Shadow. Seeing it, the thug nodded as if he was used to it.
“You are a guest of honor. We will guide you.”
The thug… No, the member of the Shadow Group instantly changed his tone and led us to a certain building. As soon as we entered, we moved to the basement. I thought we would be greeted in a dark space, however, contrary to what we thought, he took us to a very bright and bustling place.
“…”
The place we arrived at was a large training hall with hundred warriors encircling us like a Colosseum. In the middle of it, a man was sitting quietly with a desk laid in front of him.
We sat on the seat across from the man while glancing at the warriors in our surroundings. Then, the man greeted us with a relaxed smile.
“Nice to meet you. It is an honour to have a distinguished guest in front of me.”
“Thank you. I came here with the introduction from ‘Smiling Shadow,’ the former Lord of the Shadow Group.”
When the name came out, the warriors in the training hall stirred while the man in front of me just laughed bitterly.
“My name is Hwa Ryujin. Of course, it is a pseudonym.”
“Is it okay for you to show your face?”
“I can change faces at any time, so it doesn’t matter. Originally, I didn’t even say things like this, but I don’t think lying could help me build trust.”
“When you say it like that, it actually builds trust.”
Of course, even this so-called ‘trust’ could have been intentional, so I didn’t completely trust him.
“By the way, who are these warriors? Your subordinates?”
“No. You can think of them as another group of information that is lurking all over the world. Because we are ‘sharing’ information, the conversation that happens here will naturally reach their ears.”
They were what people called shadow warriors planted by numerous sects. From huge sects that you could immediately recognize by just hearing names such as Cheongseong, Jongnam, and Hwasan, to organizations that you hear for the first time but were very powerful in reality. To be honest, I felt pressured, but I did not express it.
“Well, by the way… As the head of the intelligence group, this is the first time I’ve ever asked a customer for information…” Hwa Ryujin carefully asked me. “How is the former head doing?”
In response to that question, I remembered Smiling Shadow and his men, who not too long ago tried to betray their comrade when they were on the verge of death. Smiling Shadow was clearly not happy about it but…
“Yes. Well, he’s doing fine.”
“I’m happy.”
I could feel that he’s not sincere with his words. If this man was still genuinely worried about Smiling Shadow, it would have been better for him to go to Earth. Of course, the man was not someone from Earth, so there was nothing he could do about it.
“That’s good. Anyway, with your relationship with the former head, I’ll help you just once.”
“Isn’t that too little?”
“As an intelligence group, even if we keep our loyalty… we still have to look at the net profit.”
To be honest, it doesn’t matter much for me. After all, I didn’t plan to stay in Murim for long.
“What you want is information, right?”
“Yes.”
“It seemed so. Each and every one of you has an aura that I can’t even dare to touch. You don’t need power.”
“Yes. First of all, I want to find out about a certain ‘divine object’.”
“A divine object?”
“A divine object related to ‘dimensional movement’. Murim’s ‘demon’ has leaked into Earth. Perhaps, it was an object with the power to connect the Earth and Murim.”
In Earth’s language, they called it a core, but in Murim, it’s not called that. So I decided to just call it a ‘divine object’.
“Hm… A demon, huh?”
He pondered for a moment before nodding his head.
“There is only one object I could think of.”
“Yes?”
To be honest, I didn’t expect the information to come back immediately when I brought out the words ‘dimensional movement’ or ‘demon’ and I was just thinking of asking him to find something related to it. Because it was just such a silly story. However, Hwa Ryujin immediately gave an answer.
“The general public may not know, but… Some rumours were spreading among the people who are already familiar with it. Rumour said ‘Kunlun was infected by demon, they wield powers from other worlds’”
“Perhaps the rumors are true…”
“It is indeed so. In fact, they are doing some pretty heinous magic. It is similar to the one used by ‘Magyo’ 100 years ago, but in a more terrifying and cruel form…”
It was said that the magicians of the past were able to forcefully empower the inner energy of their body, and in an instant, their strength could be doubled or tripled. However, it was a technique that was rarely used in the political faction because it was easy to fall into backlash and tends to become violent.
“All the warriors of the Kunlun Sect are learning martial arts normally. When they are not fighting, they maintain a gentle personality. But… when the moment of battle comes, they change as if they become a completely different person.”
As if they had become a completely different person…. Even a child could easily guess that it was the handiwork of the same demon that had caused several accidents on Earth.
“All of that happened after a mysterious divine object they call ‘Magic Orb’ appeared in the Kunlun Sect.”
Noonim’s eyebrows twitched at the word ‘Magic Orb’.
“… it’s a story from more than a few decades ago.”
“Yes. At that time, the influence of the Magic Orb was very minimal, but it was recorded that there were small changes. However, this sudden change in the Kunlun Sect’s tendencies only occurred after all the warriors from Earth returned to Earth.” Hwa Ryujin said. Destructive, violent, and more brutal than any other martial arts, the Kunlun Sect possessed overwhelming force, and even now they were trying to devour the Murim Alliance.
In other words, it meant that even when the Kunlun Sect repeatedly started wars by attacking the Cheonma Sect, they were already in a state of being encroached by the ‘Magic Orb’.
‘The more I heard the more fusion martial arts this world became.’
Was it common for demons to appear in martial arts fields? I don’t know for sure, but it’s definitely quite unconventional. If I hadn’t killed the protagonist of this world, Lee Dongjun, I was certain that the demon related things would have spread to him.
Starting with the Saekma Bang Ho-Win, Murim was engulfed by demons which gradually crossed to Earth. Perhaps that was the main story of 『Turns Out My Dad Was Supreme Dharma』.
Of course, I had killed the protagonist by my own hand. So, from now on, I have to deal with all this. This was a sense of duty that I carried on my shoulder.
“Hm, it would be really tough if it’s Kunlun Sect.”
I presumed that the source of the demon’s power and the core responsible for the portal were almost identical. In other words, from the beginning, the demon had the power to cross dimensions. Then, by chance, the demon crash-landed on Earth that was once connected with Murim, and it was possible to speculate that it was able to completely descend on Earth by possessing a certain earthling who knew its existence.
<In the first place ‘dimensional movement’ is not a difficult field for demons. It will be much easier for you to understand if you recall the cliché of the demon army attacking from ‘Demon Realm’.>
‘Well… That’s true.’
The demons in the novel swipe open the portal as easily as stealing candy from a baby. The cost was mostly ‘loss of power’, and it was a basic cliché to make up for it by contracting with humans or absorbing power from humans.
Perhaps, in the current case, it was replenishing its power by turning to the Kunlun Sect. It’s been decades since then… To be honest, hunting demons by myself was a waste of time.Though, it would be different if Aracelli was here, but that child couldn’t even come here.
Then, it left me only one viable option. Destroying the Magic Orb to prevent demons from manifesting in Murim and Earth. But, how?
Then, suddenly, Seol Jungyeon slowly stood up from her seat and threw off her hood and veil.
Her platinum blonde hair, resembling the sunset light, fell down. Her shining appearance shone brilliantly even in this stuffy space. Hwa Ryujin shook violently as he saw her and unknowingly kicked off his chair and got up.
“You… You are the former lord of the Cheonma Sect, Seol Jungyeon!”
The agitation of the Murim people who were watching our conversation around us reached its peak. In the midst of the ‘trading’ of information, their lips trembled as they spit out words.
“The Supreme Cheonma…”
“She has returned…?”
I looked at them in amazement. As the ‘eyes and ears’ of all Murim groups were gathered here, Noonim’s appearances would spread throughout the world within a day. Seol Jungyeon spoke in a relaxed and sluggish tone, but it certainly contained an overflowing confidence.
“Tell the world, that I, Supreme Cheonma, has returned.”