Rebirth of the Thunder God

-Clang! Cha! Clang!

The clearing on the wild mountain was instantly thrown into chaos by the clash of purple and white sword auras.

Though they had chosen a wide, empty space, the force of their collision was so intense that the ground was overturned and the surrounding rocks were shattered into pieces.

As even those shattered fragments turned to dust and scattered, the two entered a brief lull.

“Oh. This is a sword art I haven’t seen before, isn’t it? It doesn’t seem to be from the Moon Maiden Palace… You must have created it yourself.”

“How can you be so sure I created it?”

“Well. It’s not like you would have stumbled upon some fortuitous encounter… no. You wouldn’t have, that’s why.”

“And you? Did you steal and master the Purple Mist Divine Art or something? Why is yours purple?”

It was ironic.

The Sosu Demonic Art was also a martial art characterized by a purple hue.

She had created the new Nine Yin Divine Art precisely because she was worried someone might recognize it.

And yet, Namgung Hui had, in turn, created a purple-colored martial art.

Hit where it hurt, Namgung Hui scratched his cheek and hastily changed the subject.

“When did we ever fight with our mouths? Let’s continue.”

Namgung Hui threw himself forward again, and the two became a blur of motion and steel.

-Kakang! Kang! Kang!

The clear, sharp ring of swords filled the air.

It echoed with such a specific rhythm that one could almost feel a cadence to it.

No, it was more fitting to call it a sword cadence than a musical one.

From a distance, it looked as though a handsome man and a beautiful woman were sharing a sword dance.

And so, they surrendered their bodies to the sword cadence, falling into a state of selflessness.

* * *

“Hooah~ That’s refreshing! Nothing beats washing your face with cold water after breaking a sweat.”

After finishing his spar with Beak Seolhwa, Namgung Hui washed the sweat from his body in a nearby stream.

The mountain stream water was chillingly cold, but perhaps because of his duel with Beak Seolhwa, it felt merely lukewarm.

“To think you’d break a sweat from just a bit of sword dancing. You still have a long way to go.”

Beak Seolhwa hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat, so she had no need to wash up.

Even if she had, she could simply freeze the sweat and impurities with her yin ki and brush them all away.

If nothing else, Namgung Hui was truly envious of that kind of convenience.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re so great. Not a single drop of sweat after moving so intensely. You’re really something else.”

“Isn’t it the smell of your sweat that’s something else?”

“Hah. How absurd. When have I ever smelled of sweat? Did you get close enough to take a whiff?”

In the first place, thanks to his thunder ki, most impurities didn’t linger in his body.

It was only natural, given that he had reached the state of Profound Purity.

Having finished washing his face, Namgung Hui dried the moisture with his internal ki and climbed onto the bank, his nose twitching.

“Sniff, sniff. I smell something.”

“Don’t tell me you’re about to say the smell is coming from me? Go on, take a good sniff everywhere…”

“No, that’s not it. You should stop and focus on the smell too. I think I smell blood nearby.”

At the mention of the scent of blood, Beak Seolhwa’s expression turned serious as she focused her five senses.

Just as Namgung Hui had said, the faint scent of blood was subtly filling the mountain air.

“It doesn’t seem to be from an animal. It must be human, right?”

“Right. This is no time to stand around. Let’s go.”

Namgung Hui and Beak Seolhwa swiftly dashed toward the mountaintop, the direction from which the smell was spreading.

Though he had said it was “nearby,” the fact that they could barely detect it meant it was a considerable distance away.

But, Namgung Hui and Beak Seolhwa’s movement techniques were just as fast, so it wasn’t long before they reached the source of the smell.

As Namgung Hui and Beak Seolhwa calmly came to a halt, they saw a person lying face down on the ground.

A small amount of blood was seeping from his chest; he was likely the source of the scent.

When Namgung Hui turned the prone figure over, the face of a man who appeared to be in his late twenties was revealed.

Namgung Hui examined the wound on his chest and spoke.

“He was cleanly pierced by sword ki. He died without even being able to react. But the wound is a bit strange.”

Normally, being pierced by sword ki would leave a clean, circular hole. However, this wound, despite being made by sword ki, was not a smooth circle.

It was more like a raggedly torn hole.

Perhaps it was because of this kind of wound that the smell of blood had traveled all the way down to the valley where Namgung Hui was.

If the job had been done cleanly, the blood wouldn’t have flowed like this.

Beak Seolhwa also seemed to have noticed something about the wound, her face hardening as she remained silent.

Ignoring her, Namgung Hui continued to examine the corpse. As he studied the man’s face, something suddenly clicked.

Namgung Hui immediately reached into his robes and pulled out a portrait.

The corpse looked strikingly similar to the person drawn there.

That’s right. The identity of the corpse was…

“The disciple of the Heretic Alliance Leader! Why is he dead here…?”

“The corpse is the disciple of the Heretic Alliance Leader?”

“Look. Doesn’t he look almost exactly like this portrait? The Hao Faction Leader drew it, so the information can’t be wrong.”

Namgung Hui handed the portrait to Beak Seolhwa and stroked his chin, feeling an unexplainable sense of unease.

‘This is a good thing for me, but for some reason, it doesn’t sit right. And this wound… it’s both unfamiliar and not.’

A sword ki that created such a rough cross-section was hard to see as belonging to the Orthodox Faction.

Of course, there were plenty of sword arts that boasted fierce and powerful strikes, but when sword ki created a wound like this, it was often because the internal ki was impure or there was a problem with the cultivation method.

Much like heretical or demonic arts.

‘Heretical arts? No. The disciple of the Heretic Alliance Leader was trying to infiltrate secretly; it’s unlikely he was killed by an ally. Then, could it be the work of the Blood Cult?’

In a way, the Blood Cult was also in opposition to the Hoicheon Association, so it wasn’t entirely impossible for them to interfere.

Though he had no idea how they could have known about the Heretic Alliance Leader’s disciple.

It wouldn’t be strange for them to have planted a spy in the Heretic Alliance or the Hwacheonhui.

Namgung Hui searched his memory as he examined the wound, and sure enough, a demonic art of the Demonic Cult came to mind.

A rather terrifying one at that.

‘This is the martial art of the Black Wind Corps, the Demonic Cult’s strongest military force. It seems to be a sword art that only the elite can learn. It looks like it wasn’t lost and has been properly passed down.’

No, in terms of destructive power alone, it even felt like it had advanced.

Was the name Red Lotus Sword Art?

It was said to have been named so because a crimson mark would form after such a sword wound was inflicted.

It was a rare sight, as only the most elite of the Black Wind Corps could learn it.

Usually, the elite of the Black Wind Corps guarded the Heavenly Demon and stuck close to him.

They would be more familiar to the Martial God, his sworn brother, than to the Thunder God.

Namgung Hui searched Ji Yeongcheong’s body for anything else, but there didn’t seem to be anything worth taking.

“Seolhwa. I think I need to take the body to the Vermilion Bird Troupe. They might be able to find something through an autopsy.”

“...Is that so? Have a safe trip.”

“You’re not coming with me?”

“There’s no need for me to tag along. Don’t tell me you can’t carry one body by yourself?”

“Hah. You think something like this would be a burden to me?”

“See? You can go alone. Let’s meet at the inn later.”

Namgung Hui also felt like he was constantly clinging to Beak Seolhwa, so he nodded with a bitter smile.

As Namgung Hui silently disappeared with the body, Beak Seolhwa walked toward a rock on one side of the mountaintop.

Then, she powerfully unleashed her sword ki toward the rock.

-Kang!

Suddenly, a person shot up from under the rock and blocked Beak Seolhwa’s sword ki.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know you were hiding there? You might be able to fool him, but you can’t fool me.”

It was a strange thing.

To have detected an enemy that even his senses, sharpened by thunder ki, could not perceive.

The man who rose from under the rock was quite large, appearing to be over seven feet tall.

The reason Namgung Hui hadn’t been able to notice such a person hiding under a rock was…

‘It’s because of the Blood Severing Grand Art of the Heaven-Slaying Corps, who report directly to the Cult Leader.’

Blood Severing Grand Art.

It was named for its meaning of severing the flow of blood.

If the Turtle Breathing Grand Art slowed the heart, this was a martial art that truly stopped the heart, putting one in a complete state of suspended animation.

However, as it stopped the heart, it placed an immense burden on the user, so it was a martial art that had been all but abandoned.

‘Still, if they didn’t learn it, they would live a life worse than that of a slave, so the women had no choice but to learn it.’

Beak Seolhwa knew why such a cruel martial art had been created, so she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before asking the seven-foot-tall man.

“Are you from the Blood Cult?”

“Muchi. Yes, from the Cult. How did you know? Amazing. Hehehe.”

His bright smile made him seem somewhat simple-minded.

Could it be that he had gone mad as a side effect of the Blood Severing Grand Art?

“Cut the games. You. What is your position in the Blood Cult?”

“Muchi. I was told not to say.”

“You already said you’re from the Cult, and now you’re holding back?”

“Ah. I was told not to say that either, but for some reason, looking at the pretty lady makes the words just slip out. Hehe. So pretty.”

“……”

Beak Seolhwa couldn’t bring herself to scold a simple-minded person.

However, there was no reason not to ask for information she could get from him.

“Then what is your reason for coming to the Central Plains?”

“I was told absolutely not to say that either.”

“Who told you not to say?”

“My friend, Bukgung Jinwu, did.”

“Bukgung? Are you by any chance referring to the Bukgung family of the New Education House?”

“Huh? The pretty lady is smart. How did you know something I forgot? My friend is from the Bukgung family. He’s a really smart friend. He’s in charge of being a strategist or something.”

As Beak Seolhwa talked with the man named Muchi, her thoughts grew increasingly complicated.

She had only just recently managed to sort out these complicated feelings to some extent.

To be confronted with a ghost from the past once again created a momentary conflict within her.

But it was only for a moment.

Having already made a firm resolve, she looked at Muchi with determined eyes and asked.

“I’ll ask again. What is your purpose for coming to the Central Plains?”

“He really told me not to say… But when the pretty lady asks, I keep answering. Don’t ask.”

“This is the last question. Answer me now.”

Reluctantly, Muchi took a portrait from his robes and held it out to Beak Seolhwa.

“Jinwu told me to kill the guy in this picture. And he ordered me to find one item and one person, but I can’t find them at all. I hope my smart pretty lady can tell me.”

“And what are they?”

* * *

Arriving at the Vermilion Bird Troupe, Namgung Hui placed the corpse down in front of Jegal Geon and said.

“Geon. Can you perform an autopsy on this body?”

“Whose body is it?”

“The disciple of the Heretic Alliance Leader. He was found murdered on a mountaintop.”

“What? You didn’t kill him, did you?”

“If I had, I wouldn’t be asking for an autopsy. Anyway, Just know that a skilled assassin, capable of dispatching him so secretly, has infiltrated.”

Jegal Geon massaged his already throbbing head and continued.

“A friend who only brings me more work. Alright. You can leave now.”

After Namgung Hui patted Jegal Geon on the back and came outside, someone approached him as if they had been waiting.

His identity was none other than…

‘It’s Hu Gai, the Drunken Beggar.’

“Young Master Namgung. You’ve come at a good time.”

“A good time? Is something the matter?”

“Yes. An acquaintance of mine has asked to see you.”

“An acquaintance? Who might that be?”

Before the Drunken Beggar’s mouth could open, someone appeared from behind Namgung Hui.

(End of Chapter)