The Genius Warrior Who Remembers Everything Chapter 93

Chapter 93. Time for the Hunt (7)

“They have vanished.”

Jegal So-myeong narrowed his brow.

Again.

Once again, the Trial Tokens had disappeared.

The examiners of the Murim Academy Exam followed the Trial Tokens. If they chased the Trial Tokens, the pass and fail results of the exam would ultimately be decided.

However, there was no way they could follow all four thousand Trial Tokens in the first trial alone.

That was why they predicted the routes and relayed the positions of the Trial Tokens to the examiners in the next region.

When asked whether there could be mistakes because it was work done by humans, Jegal So-myeong firmly shook his head.

“There are double and triple safeguards in place to prevent that.”

Moreover, the information given by the carrier pigeon letters was too subtle to be dismissed as a mistake.

“Two hundred. And all from the main sects, at that.”

Two hundred Trial Tokens, counting those from both the first trial and the second trial.

Considering that there were four thousand Trial Tokens in the first trial, it seemed to fall within the margin of error, but when one looked at the Trial Tokens and the subjects who had disappeared, that was not the case.

The Nine Sects and One Gang.

The Five Great Clans.

The One Hundred Eight Peaks.

They had targeted only those with a high chance of passing into Murim Academy, those who would become the future pillars of the Murim Alliance.

“Do you believe this is the work of the Black Path?”

“…….”

Jegal So-myeong looked at Maeng Ju-won, who had suddenly cut in.

The darkness beneath his eyes had descended all the way to his cheeks. Even so, the light shining from his two eyes was clear and bright.

“Why do you think so?”

“The samples are far too clear to consider this a simple error.”

“Explain in more detail.”

“Most of the ones eliminated in large numbers are those who could be called the second-line talents of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the One Hundred Eight Peaks. When seen overall, the number may be negligible, but if we consider them the ones who will support the middle ranks after entering the Academy or when working in the Murim Alliance, then it is exactly the right amount to break the overall balance.”

“Ha.”

Though the situation was clearly serious, Jegal So-myeong could not hold back his laughter.

The thought that if there were just one more person here like this, he himself might one day be able to retire from Mantongbu crept into his mind.

“Who do you think is doing this?”

“If we think simply, we could see it as the Black Path.”

Jegal So-myeong’s brow furrowed.

“But…… it is not the work of the Black Path.”

And then his eyes opened wide again.

“Speak without delay.”

“If war breaks out with the Black Path, it will become an all-out war. The greatest benefit the Black Path desires will ultimately end at wanting more than half of the Jianghu. If we think of it that way, the Murim Regular Exam is, to them, nothing more than an exam where they can lie under a persimmon tree and wait for persimmons to fall. There is no need for them to step forward directly.”

Jegal So-myeong nodded.

He was right.

Every time the Murim Regular Exam was held, the blood of the Orthodox Path sects flowed throughout the entire Jianghu.

The Murim Alliance’s forces would become even more elite, but their overall strength would clearly drop.

“Then who do you think did this?”

After thinking deeply for a moment, Maeng Ju-won shook his head.

“There is no one I can identify specifically.”

“…….”

“But I understand what they are aiming for.”

“What is it?”

“The destruction of the Murim Alliance.”

“Haa.”

Jegal So-myeong let out a long sigh. Maeng Ju-won had spoken without hesitation the very thought that had circled inside his head, yet that he had not dared to follow through to its end. It was something he could say because he was young and hot-blooded, and because he was still innocent.

“But are you simply going to stay still?”

“……?”

The Murim Alliance did not stop the Murim Regular Exam under any circumstances.

No matter what problem arose, all of it becoming part of the exam was the tradition of the Murim Regular Exam.

“Is that not too great a problem to leave alone?”

“It only looks like a great problem. It has not yet been confirmed to be one. If the Alliance steps in now, doubts will arise regarding the fairness of the exam.”

He found himself wondering why this fellow, who clearly knew that, was suddenly saying such things.

“At this rate, something truly terrible will happen.”

“…….”

Had this boy perhaps seen something beyond what even he had thought of?

“Our So-un has entered the region where the Trial Tokens disappeared. We have to rescue him before he falls into danger.”

“…….”

He had never even seen the boy’s face, yet he had already attached “our” to him.

“At this rate, I will not even be able to marry, I will not be able to have fox-like children, and I will not have a rabbit-like wife either…… Aaaagh!”

For a fool who could not come to his senses, a beating was the best medicine.

The Judge’s Brush in Jegal So-myeong’s hand unfolded toward Maeng Ju-won with the technique of Red Leaf Flying Flower, which was regarded as an Ultimate Art of the Jianghu.

“Die!”

“We are the Namgung Clan. What are you?”

While the warriors of the Namgung Clan gathered the wounded in that brief interval, Namgung Seon-hwa spoke to the black figures, but no answer came back.

“Prepare for battle!”

CLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG!

The warriors of the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect all drew their silver swords at once and formed a Sword Formation.

“If you don’t reveal your identities, we will attack!”

“…….”

The nearly twenty black figures did not answer. They did not appear to be exchanging opinions with one another either.

They simply stood there like trees and stones that had originally been in that place, and that made them even more chilling.

Moreover, for some unknown reason, his heart was beating even more violently now.

Unable to withstand that pressure, Cho Mu-bin finally shouted.

“Strike them!”

At that instant, white sword blades extended from between their cloaks, which had looked like black boulders.

They were swords with rough, uneven shapes, not smooth at all.

Chillingly, blood was streaming down the entirety of each blade.

The moment the warriors rushed at them even more fiercely to overcome their fear—

They instinctively stopped their steps after feeling the air tremble.

The sensation from Zhenjiang Port.

A pressure that felt as though it were sucking in all the air from every direction.

After this trembling of the air came……

The shockwave arrived faster than expected.

BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM.

The palm art that had smashed dozens of boats departing from Zhenjiang Port in a single blow now extended toward the black figures.

“Huff, huff…… We have to run!”

“Yes?”

For some reason, they could not tell why.

The sight of Jin So-un, who had maintained his composure in every situation until now, only made the warriors even more uneasy.

Kang Seo-pyo and Cho Mu-bin instinctively looked at each other.

They had joined in order to help them pass the exam, but the foremost duty of the warriors was ultimately to protect Namgung Seon-hwa and Seong Mo-ran.

Kang Seo-pyo and Cho Mu-bin decided to trust the Jin So-un they had seen until now.

“Let us go!”

“Move!”

The warriors immediately gathered the wounded and kicked off the ground.

Jin So-un, on the other hand, threw himself into the space where the aftereffects of the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm had not yet faded, then returned in an instant.

In his hands were that chilling sword and a severed arm.

“Young Master Jin…….”

“We will talk later…… Right now, we must enter Feng County no matter what.”

Originally, they had planned to go around Feng County to avoid people’s eyes. However, looking at Jin So-un’s expression now, this was not a situation where they could argue about that.

***

‘Why are those bastards here? And what is their objective?’

Jegal So-myeong was a tremendous genius.

I realized that while putting all of Mantongbu’s records into my head.

It was not simply that he was intelligent.

He knew how to create systems.

Without a system, no sect could continue for long years.

There were systems made to last ten years.

There were systems made to last fifty years.

And there were systems made to last a hundred years.

Jegal So-myeong had created a hundred-year system in the Murim Alliance. And that system had been made through his own unique method of handling information.

He organized Mantongbu and established Sim Hyeon-gak to judge the weight and importance of intelligence.

By efficiently using the Heavenly Eye Pavilion and the limited personnel of the Murim Alliance, he planted eyes and ears throughout the entire Jianghu.

Then he arranged the information obtained that way in chronological order, filling the gaps in information that people could not convey.

Sitting in Mantongbu, he watched all under heaven as though it were in the palm of his hand.

However, even though he had installed such double and triple safeguards, there were times when empty spaces appeared in the information.

He classified these as “missing pieces.”

Even after creating a system worthy of confidence, he had always considered the possibility that there were things he might not know.

And he had also left behind the statement that to find these missing pieces, one had to find the surrounding pieces.

‘The Missing Piece Theory.’

Now, inside my head, according to his Missing Piece Theory, the pieces gathered one by one and began searching for the missing piece.

◎ The ambush against Murong Sang-won.

◎ The Demonic Cult that intended to conquer the Jianghu in the future.

◎ The disappearance of the Wudang Sect’s Hyeoncheong and the Mount Hua Sect’s Yeon U-mun.

◎ The traces of the Fluid-Body Bone Sword found in the bones of Hyeoncheong and Yeon U-mun’s corpses.

◎ The Dark Soul-Severing Unit, which should not exist here.

When the surrounding pieces fit together, as Jegal So-myeong had said, the “missing piece” appeared.

-The assassination of key figures of the Murim Alliance in preparation for the Great Righteous-Demonic War.

“Damn it.”

The problem was that this “missing piece” would kill us to silence us in order to hide their intentions.

The Dark Soul-Severing Unit.

A special task force made into a “unit” with only twenty members.

They were monsters of the Demonic Cult, created by making peak-level masters learn the Dark Demon Sword, a bizarre martial art of the Demonic Cult that fused concealment art and swordsmanship into one, and then subjecting them to the absurd procedure called the Fluid-Body Bone Sword.

Each battalion was composed of only four people, but if the environment was prepared, one such battalion could easily face ten of the Hundred Greatest Masters under Heaven.

Such beings were targeting us.

“Light…… We need light.”

The most important thing when facing them was the environment.

A night covered in darkness was their stage.

Because I had fired the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm, my Internal Qi was showing its bottom. I had adjusted it as much as possible, but it was such a violent martial art that right now, I had to scrape the very bottom of my qi center just to use the Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art.

Even so, there had been results.

A member of the Dark Soul-Severing Unit had been hit by the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm I fired without warning and had become a Lonely Ghost, leaving behind only one arm.

It was such an incredible result that if the Sojeong Squad of my previous life had seen it, they would have pooled that month’s wages and given them all to me.

“What exactly…….”

“You absolutely must not stop!”

Whether there was a way to face them or not was a problem for later. If we confronted them now, the lives of not only the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect, but also the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers could not be guaranteed.

“Guh!”

Despite my words, at the sound of a scream from behind, Namgung Seon-hwa and Seong Mo-ran eventually turned their heads.

A warrior was sprawled on the ground, reaching out with one hand.

When Kang Seo-pyo nodded to another warrior, that warrior led Namgung Seon-hwa forward in his place, and Kang Seo-pyo immediately ran back.

A black figure was trying to stab a white sword blade into the warrior.

Kang Seo-pyo poured out the Boundless Firmament Sword Art with a sword wrapped in Sword Qi.

SHRASHRASHRASHRA.

Kang Seo-pyo’s sword instantly carved the black figure into three pieces.

However, his eyes were shocked for someone who had succeeded in a move.

SQUELCH.

Even after being struck by Kang Seo-pyo’s sword, the black figure had merely scattered for a moment like smoke, then pierced the warrior’s neck once again.

“What is this…….”

After confirming that the warrior’s breath had stopped, the black figure swung its white sword at Kang Seo-pyo again.

SWISH.

A sword form faster and cleaner than Kang Seo-pyo’s slashed toward him, aiming to cut his body into four pieces.

I barely unfolded the Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art, reached Kang Seo-pyo’s back in an instant, grabbed him by the nape, and fled again.

SLASH, SLASH.

He had barely avoided having his body cut into four pieces, but a long stream of blood gushed like a fountain from Kang Seo-pyo’s chest.

“Khuh.”

At the same time, I fired all the spare signal flares I had received.

Of the four signal flares that shot into the sky, three were blocked by something they threw and fell while only emitting white smoke, while a single signal flare barely exploded, briefly outlining the figures of the Dark Soul-Severing Unit members.

“Hiiik!”

Kang Seo-pyo, who was being dragged from behind, forgot even his injury and screamed as though he had seen something that should not be seen.

“It’s the village!”

After passing through the area full of darkness, Feng County, glowing like a field of fireflies, came into view.

“Do you perhaps require courtesans?”

“…….”

The owner of the Pleasure House looked over the faces of the people, then saw the faces of Seong Mo-ran and Namgung Seon-hwa and closed his mouth.

“Ahem…… then shall I call in entertainer courtesans instead?”

“Just bring us something to eat.”

Cho Mu-bin tossed him a pouch. However, as though the owner was not quite satisfied, he muttered and turned away.

That was understandable, since we were currently occupying the largest seat on the first floor of the Pleasure House.

In a place where only thin gauze curtains separated seat from seat, one could turn one’s head and see men and women entwining their bodies, while cries of pleasure passed back and forth through our silence.

“…….”

“…….”

I was the one who had chosen the Pleasure House instead of the Azure Sky Merchant Guild branch in Feng County.

Even with this absurd choice, the party had moved without a word of complaint.

No one could bring themselves to speak first.

Right now, there was not even time to mourn the dead.

Those who remained here might follow them at any moment as well.

In that sense, I thought that being in the Sojeong Squad had made my heart feel a little lighter.

Amid the deaths that were always with us, we had been able to choose the mood of that moment.

“What were those things?”

Kang Seo-pyo had a large bandage wrapped around his chest.

Fortunately, the wound was not deep, but because it was wide, red blood was still seeping out between the bandages wrapped around him.

“I-I have clearly never seen…… anything so horrifying before.”

At the words of Kang Seo-pyo, who had the most age and experience among the Namgung Clan warriors, the other warriors were also seized by fear.

“……Is this place safe?”

Namgung Seon-hwa wanted an explanation with anxious eyes.

Because I could not say everything I knew, I fabricated another lie. I felt no hesitation. This lie alone would likely be what kept us alive now.

“There was a time when I left the Taeul Sect and wandered the Jianghu alone. At that time, I saw them attack a Traveling Party.”

I roughly pulled out the memory of one vanished Traveling Party from inside my head and spoke.

“The escorts’ martial arts were excellent, and the Escort Agency itself was famous, so I naturally thought those people would lose.”

“……But they did not.”

I mixed information into the lie.

“The escorts’ swords did not reach them. They seemed to be practicing some peculiar martial art. Even if they were cut, it had no effect, as though they were water.”

The bodies of those who had learned the Dark Demon Sword and undergone the Fluid-Body Bone Sword procedure changed to become like air, like water.

In darkness, one could not grasp their true form, and they moved freely between darkness and darkness.

They became beings who could not be cut, even if one tried to cut them.

“Then the reason you used that palm art was…….”

“They were opponents I had only ever fought in my imagination. I had never thought that would work.”

I took out the arm of the Dark Soul-Severing Unit member.

“I brought it on purpose. To understand what kind of beings they are.”

When I tore away the cloth, black skin was revealed.

“Th-This is…….”

A white, uneven sword protruded from the palm.

“Is that not bone?”

The sharp edge of the bone sword jutting out through the palm was chilling.

Namgung Seon-hwa, Seong Mo-ran, and the warriors all wore expressions of disbelief.

“We have to stop the exam immediately.”

The missing piece said so.

The Dark Soul-Severing Unit, no, the Demonic Cult, wanted to take advantage of the exam to eliminate the sprouts who might become pillars of the Murim Alliance.

“You know that is impossible.”

During the Regular Exam, the exam never stopped.

The victims of the Dark Soul-Severing Unit had died during the exam, so no proper investigation would be conducted.

Ultimately, even if we ended the exam here, no trace of the Dark Soul-Severing Unit would remain.

“Th-Then…….”

They completely erased their own traces and dealt damage only to their opponent. It was an extremely clever operation.

Since they had made such meticulous preparations, it was no wonder the Murim Alliance had collapsed in an instant.

“For now, the important thing is to report their identity to the Murim Alliance.”

“That is true.”

“After we survive.”

“Yes? What do you mean by that……. We have already…….”

“They will not simply give up.”

What they feared most was that even a speck of their identity would become known to the Jianghu.

If that happened, the Murim Alliance would become alert to the Demonic Cult’s future invasion.

“…….”

“They were bastards who had been carrying out ambushes while hiding their identities completely. The reason we had not been ambushed until now was likely because they were dealing with other examinees.”

Gulp.

If they stormed into this place right now, they might be able to kill us all.

“They will never give up on us.”

However, if they did that, someone would see them.

If they were seen, suspicion would fall on them. That was what they least wanted.

“Then…… the reason you came to the Pleasure House was…….”

“Because the Pleasure House is the only place where lights remain on all night and people gather.”

I had known that the strange fragrance flowing through the Pleasure House would relax people, yet neither the warriors nor the women could relax in the slightest.

Moreover, right now, we even possessed part of their corpse.

Though I could not know for certain, even setting aside every other operation, they would have a reason to catch us.

“What should we do? Should we contact the main family?”

“Then you would fail the exam, would you not?”

Namgung Seon-hwa wore an expression that seemed to ask what kind of person I was.

“We will continue taking the exam.”

And I intended to escape their grasp using the method they least desired.