TRDS 02

 Chapter 2

Return of the Sword 

Twenty years.

That was how many years Heoncheon had spent in Korea after leaving the Central Plains.

Even so, he vividly remembered what had been around the Blood Demon Cult.

During the war against the Blood Demon Cult twenty years ago, numerous scouts had been stationed throughout the surrounding area to protect Alliance Leader Namgung Hwi. Thanks to that, Heoncheon knew the terrain and landmarks around the area like the back of his hand.

His martial arts were what made this possible.

Once a martial artist reached a certain level, they gained a memory so sharp that they rarely forgot anything they had seen even once.

And since Heoncheon had been entrusted with the important duty of protecting the Murim Alliance Leader, he had naturally been even more attentive.

That was why he could still remember everything so clearly even after twenty years.

Besides, considering how much hardship he had endured back then, it would have been stranger if he had forgotten.

The moment Heoncheon arrived at a village, he entered the nearest house and stole a suitable robe to wear.

In exchange, he left behind the T-shirt and jeans he had originally been wearing.

“Damn… They were handmade by an Italian craftsman, too…”

Heoncheon looked genuinely reluctant to part with them, but he had no choice.

His clothes were perfectly ordinary in Korea, but here in the Central Plains, they were not merely foreign. They were downright outrageous.

If he continued walking around dressed like that, he would inevitably attract unnecessary attention.

While he was at it, Heoncheon also stole a chorip—a traditional straw hat resembling a conical rain hat—and put it on.

There were certainly people who wore short or distinctive hairstyles, but there was nothing to be gained from standing out in the Central Plains, or the Murim world for that matter.

After changing his clothes, Heoncheon eventually arrived at a city.

“Zhongyang County. This place hasn’t changed much, even after all these years. I guess they haven’t had any redevelopment or anything like that?”

Zhongyang County, located in western Shanxi, was considered a fairly prosperous city by Central Plains standards.

But to Heoncheon’s eyes, at best, it looked like a set from a Chinese martial arts drama.

Still, this was undeniably a city.

Even the main road Heoncheon was walking along was wide enough for several carriages to pass each other with ease.

That alone showed how active the transportation of goods and commercial trade were here.

There were also inns, something he had not seen in the previous village.

There were even three of them.

Heoncheon headed toward the one closest to the market.

The two-story wooden building bore the sign of the Sanghwa Inn. At first glance, there was nothing particularly different about it compared to any other inn.

But there was actually a secret that ordinary people knew nothing about.

‘Well, I don’t know if it’s still the same after all this time.’

Before entering the inn, Heoncheon examined the wall behind it.

The wall was covered with all kinds of graffiti and filth, but Heoncheon ignored all of it and inspected the area near the bottom.

Five black stones were placed at regular intervals in a straight line beneath the wall.

“As expected… nothing has changed here either.”

The five black stones beneath the wall were a sign and symbol indicating that this place was one of the branches of an organization scattered throughout the Central Plains.

After confirming it, Heoncheon immediately entered the Sanghwa Inn.

Before the waiter could even show him to a table, he sat down in the most secluded corner.

Then he crossed his chopsticks beside his teacup like a pair of scissors and quietly waited.

About half a shichen later, someone sat down across from Heoncheon without asking permission.

He was a man in his mid-thirties wearing blue robes. Other than his blunt expression, there was nothing particularly remarkable about him. He had the plain appearance of an ordinary man.

The man in blue silently studied Heoncheon for a long while before suddenly asking,

“What flows through the lowlands?”

Without hesitation, Heoncheon answered,

“Five streams of river water.”

The conversation ended there.

The question had merely been a way of confirming his identity.

The reason Heoncheon had crossed his chopsticks beside his teacup like scissors was because it was a secret signal used to indicate that he wanted to purchase information from the Haomun.

For reference, the “five streams of river water flowing through the lowlands” referred to the five lower-class professions that had made up Haomun’s original members: coachmen, boatmen, inn attendants, porters, and human traffickers.

‘Haomun hasn’t lost its touch.’

As befitted an organization specializing in information, its speed was still second to none.

After silently staring at each other for a while, the man in blue spoke first.

“What is it you’re looking for?”

He was indirectly asking what kind of information Heoncheon wanted to purchase.

Instead of answering directly, Heoncheon dipped one finger into the completely cold tea, pulled it out, and began writing characters on the table.

It was a form of written conversation.

The man in blue watched in silence.

The moment Heoncheon finished writing, his brows unconsciously drew together slightly.

‘The exact date of the Blood Demon Cult’s destruction, and the state of the Murim world from then until now.’

It was an unexpectedly broad and comprehensive request.

The man in blue asked another question.

“Would you like the greater or the lesser?”

Choosing the greater meant receiving extremely detailed information, including even minor details.

Choosing the lesser meant receiving only general and basic information.

Once again, Heoncheon answered by writing in tea.

‘Lesser.’

All Heoncheon wanted to know was how much time had passed in the Central Plains while he was gone and, roughly, how the situation in the Murim world had developed during that time.

He did not need the details.

Of course, the man in blue had no way of knowing that, so he pondered for a moment.

Soon, however, he seemed to have organized his thoughts and began quickly writing in tea on the table, just as Heoncheon had.

‘Twenty years ago, Blood Demon Cult destroyed. Righteous-Demonic War ended.

Nineteen years ago, Murim Alliance dissolved. Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families entered seclusion.

Eighteen years ago, the former leader of the Wudang Sect, Taiji Sword Immortal Cheongmyeong, passed away in meditation.

……

……’

Beginning with the destruction of the Blood Demon Cult, the man in blue listed only the most important events of each year.

They were little more than common knowledge to most martial artists, but it was more than enough for Heoncheon.

In fact, the moment he read the very first line, he felt that coming to Haomun had been the right decision.

‘The Blood Demon Cult was destroyed twenty years ago.’

He had spent exactly twenty years in Korea, so he could assume that time had passed at the same rate in Korea and the Central Plains.

That alone meant he had already achieved what he had come here for.

The second line, mentioning the dissolution of the Murim Alliance, was somewhat surprising, but not shocking.

He had already expected something like this.

‘So it really happened.’

Before the Blood Demon Cult appeared, the righteous and unorthodox factions had been like oil and water. They rarely mixed, constantly remaining at odds with one another.

So once their common enemy, the Blood Demon Cult, disappeared, there was no reason for them to continue joining hands.

The developments that followed were also exactly what Heoncheon had expected.

‘The Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families went into seclusion. Well, that makes sense.’

After the Righteous-Demonic War, the various sects and factions of the Murim world suffered considerable aftereffects.

The most serious problem was a lack of manpower.

A large number of the elite martial artists representing each sect had lost their lives in the war against the Blood Demon Cult.

After all, raising even a single expert required enormous amounts of money and manpower.

Above all, it required time.

The Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families had most likely entered seclusion not only to recover their strength but also to train the next generation and strengthen their foundations.

The smaller sects and factions were hardly any different.

‘So, basically, the Murim world has been at peace for the past twenty years.’

It was the very peace Heoncheon had desperately wished for during the Righteous-Demonic War, yet he had never been able to enjoy it himself.

Still, he did not feel particularly bitter or jealous about it.

Although he had received no reward for all the hardships he had endured as the Eunwol Guard Leader, he had instead enjoyed all kinds of advanced technology and modern conveniences in Korea.

And he had been able to do so freely, without having to worry about anyone’s opinion.

It had truly been a blessing in disguise.

If anything, those twenty years had been the happiest time of Heoncheon’s life.

‘Ha… But what’s the point? I’m back in this damn Murim world.’

And the worst part was that, just like the first time, he had been transported here completely against his will.

Heoncheon was lost in thought when—

Tap, tap.

The sound of someone tapping the table brought him back to his senses.

When he looked up, the man in blue was holding out his right hand toward him.

He had provided the requested information, so naturally, he was asking for payment.

The corner of Heoncheon’s mouth rose beneath the brim of his straw hat.

Whoosh—

At the same time, Heoncheon’s figure vanished from right before the man’s eyes like a ghost.

The man in blue’s mouth fell open.

‘W-What incredible body movement technique!’

Although his own martial arts were nothing special, he had developed a certain eye for martial arts during his years working as an information agent for Haomun.

Ordinary martial artists generally performed some kind of preparatory movement before using a body movement technique, such as pushing off the ground.

Heoncheon, however, had disappeared right before his eyes without making even the slightest preparatory movement.

There had not even been an afterimage.

Even the man in blue, who prided himself on having seen quite a number of experts throughout his life, had never witnessed body movement at such a level.

‘He must be an expert.’

And not merely an expert.

He was at a level the man in blue could not even dare to imagine.

As a result, he immediately abandoned the bold idea of collecting the information fee from Heoncheon.

Instead, he hurriedly ran off somewhere.

A red-light district about ten jang from the Sanghwa Inn.

Standing prominently in the middle of it was a three-story wooden building.

It was the Taehwaru, an upscale pleasure house that virtually every famous person in Zhongyang County had visited at least once.

On its top floor was a secret room cleverly concealed between two ordinary rooms.

Unlike the other rooms, which were filled with luxurious decorations and furniture, every wall inside the secret room was packed with bookshelves.

It was a quiet space, in stark contrast to the noisy bustle outside.

A woman sat before a table in the center of the room, muttering with a serious expression.

“An unidentified expert has appeared, and he used a secret signal from twenty years ago…”

For security reasons, secret signals were changed periodically.

That did not mean the old ones could never be used again.

From time to time, someone would use an old signal like this.

The fact itself could provide clues for identifying a client’s identity, and the information could even become intellectual property that could be sold to someone else.

‘Could he be someone who was active twenty years ago? Or perhaps a disciple of someone who was active back then?’

There was little lighting in the room apart from the small candle on the table, so the woman’s appearance could not be seen clearly.

Even so, judging from her clear, beautiful voice and the slender yet curvaceous silhouette visible in the dim light, it was easy to guess that she was an exceptional beauty.

Her slender, delicate hand held a sheet of paper that had just arrived.

It was a report hurriedly submitted by one of her subordinates, who was disguised as an information agent at this branch.

‘Of all places, it had to be here.’

The Zhongyang County branch was the Haomun branch located closest to the former main headquarters of the Blood Demon Cult, which had been destroyed long ago.

Because there was always a possibility that remnants of the Blood Demon Cult might appear, Haomun had been secretly keeping a close eye on this area.

That was also why a woman of such high standing within Haomun had been appointed as the branch leader here.

And now, after twenty years, an urgent report had finally arrived.

According to the report, the mysterious expert had asked when the Blood Demon Cult had been destroyed and about the state of the Murim world afterward.

That meant the man was connected to the Blood Demon Cult in some way.

However, the woman did not jump to conclusions.

“After the last Righteous-Demonic War, the Murim Alliance erased every trace of the Blood Demon Cult. With that being the case, could an expert of that level really have survived without being discovered?”

No matter how she looked at it, the possibility was exceedingly low.

Moreover, if he really were a remnant of the Blood Demon Cult, he would never have made such a fatal mistake as openly revealing his identity in this manner.

“Then who exactly is he?”

One thing was certain.

There was a high possibility that he had been active before the Blood Demon Cult was destroyed, then either left the Murim world for at least twenty years or lived without any contact with the outside world.

“A prisoner who escaped from the Island of No Return? Or perhaps a Warden of the Island of No Return who came out to capture an escaped prisoner? Or maybe someone from the Sun-Moon-Star Palace or the Xiaoyao Sect?”

The places she mentioned belonged to what were known as the Three Heavens Beyond the Heavens, mysterious organizations that very few people even knew existed.

The woman herself had not even known of their existence before rising to an important position within Haomun.

“Hmm. The situation in the Murim world has already been unsettled lately, and now an expert of this caliber has appeared as well.”

The woman could not even begin to guess whether his appearance would bring good fortune or disaster.

There was simply too little information.

If so, then all she had to do was gather more information from this point onward.

“October.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Along with a voice so ambiguous that it was impossible to tell whether it belonged to a man or a woman, a figure quietly rose from behind her.

It was a masked person almost completely covered in black cloth.

Without turning around, the woman handed over the report and said,

“There is no deadline. Gather as much information about him as you possibly can.”

“Your will shall be obeyed.”

The masked figure known as October nodded without question and quietly disappeared back into the darkness, just as silently as when they had first appeared.

After October disappeared, the woman rose from her seat and walked toward the window.

The moment she opened the tightly closed window, the moon shining softly in the night sky entered her large, round eyes.

As she gazed at the moon, a certain person suddenly came to mind.

“Could it be him…? No, surely not.”

In the woman’s mind, a mixture of faint hope, excitement, suspicion, and resignation repeatedly came together and faded away.

Just as they had for the past twenty years.

In the end, she could not take her eyes off the moon until dawn broke and the darkness completely disappeared.