Chapter 1
It must have been a sign of how badly things were going, but after finally sending off the report, I went out for a heavy round of drinks to celebrate, only to drop dead. And then, they told me the file was corrupted.
How was I supposed to know the file would get corrupted? But years of experience had taught me that such excuses were useless.
No wonder my manager had been blowing up my phone. It all made sense now.
While my manager, who had just botched a meeting, was probably plotting my demise, I died suddenly at home.
And then, I woke up in a martial arts world.
Ha, should I be happy about this?
But this world… it feels strangely familiar.
* * *
The Heavenly Demon, Dan Mokdan.
The name, overheard in passing, sounded familiar.
‘Hey, I know that name,’ I thought, trying to recall where I had heard it before.
‘Ah! It’s from that one. What was it? The title had four characters.’
I remembered the title had the character for ‘hegemon’ in it, and maybe ‘emperor’ or ‘sword,’ but I couldn’t recall it exactly.
It was a story about a man caught in the whims of fate, who gets a second chance at life through the mysterious power of a bamboo slip he stumbles upon, eventually becoming the Heavenly Demon and uniting the demonic factions.
I couldn’t remember the protagonist’s name, but from the way things were unfolding around me, it seemed to be that very novel.
I remembered reading it avidly for a while because it suited my tastes.
The protagonist carries out an assassination and is then silenced to cover it up. Depending on when I’ve arrived in the story, I might be able to prevent his death. All I would have to do is stop him from going on that mission.
Speaking as someone who has experienced death, it’s best to avoid it if you can.
‘But what was the protagonist’s name? I feel like I know it, but it’s just out of reach.’
What I was more curious about was my own identity.
People called me Yasocheong, a name I had never heard before. I was a character who hadn't even been named in the novel.
‘This might actually be for the best. If I stick around the protagonist, I’ll just get caught up in some dangerous mess and end up dead. If I run into him later, I’ll just help him avoid death and then keep my distance.’
With that, I resolved to live a long and quiet life this time around and began to adapt as best I could.
Everything was fine, except for the fact that I was not even ten years old.
And a beggar, at that.
If I was going to be a beggar in the Heavenly Demon Sect, I had to wonder if it was really necessary for me to be reborn at all.
When I first woke up in the Heavenly Demon Sect, I thought I could manage.
But the world was not kind to a young beggar.
I never expected to be dragged off to an assassin training facility, but some rough-looking men hauled me away to a valley.
I wasn't taken alone. The carriage stopped several times on the way to the valley, cramming more people inside until there was no room left.
‘Nether Shadow Valley? That’s right. This is the training facility where the protagonist first trained. Will I meet him here?’
Nether Shadow Valley was the assassin training ground for Heavenly Forest, an assassin organization secretly run by the Cho family, one of the four great families of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
They would either kidnap homeless children or buy them from their parents. The survival rate through the brutal training process was extremely low.
When the protagonist entered, there were six hundred children. By the time they completed the entire training program, only thirty remained.
Now that I had been dragged to Nether Shadow Valley, my plan to live a quiet life would require some major revisions.
It seemed impossible to survive that way.
The Cho family was not one of the more powerful of the four great demonic families of the Heavenly Demon Sect. Yet, they had survived for so long largely due to the influence of Heavenly Forest, the organization they operated.
The Cho family didn't just focus on cultivating the martial artists within their own family; they also put effort into eliminating the martial artists of the other families they had to compete with. They got ahead by dragging down those who were about to soar, which was undoubtedly a great loss for the Heavenly Demon Sect as a whole.
If it became known that they were operating Heavenly Forest and using its assassins to secretly eliminate countless masters within the Heavenly Demon Sect, the very existence of the Cho family would be in jeopardy.
Therefore, the existence of Heavenly Forest and Nether Shadow Valley was kept a strict secret.
They managed this secret by mercilessly killing anyone who knew even the slightest bit about their existence.
Of all the people to get caught by, it had to be these guys.
Was there any chance I could get out of here alive?
No, why did I have to be reincarnated as a beggar of all things? A young beggar, at that.
As I was gloomily being transported in the cramped carriage, I felt a sharp sting on my foot. I thought a thorn had gotten stuck in it, but then I felt something crawling inside my shoe.
‘What is this? A centipede?’
A shiver ran down my spine, but rather than being disgusted, my first thought was that it could become my weapon.
It wasn't easy to move in that tight space, but I quickly took off my shoe. The centipede inside shot out like a live fish and tried to escape.
"Move it, will you."
It must have seemed absurd for me to be doing that in such a crowded place, but I managed to catch the centipede. I couldn't bring myself to grab it with my bare hands, so I just trapped it inside my shoe.
Now that I had caught it, I had no idea what to do with it, but I held onto it preciously for the time being.
Perhaps because of the situation, no one paid much attention to what I was doing. They were all too busy sniffling and worrying.
Finally, the carriage stopped, and the men outside yelled for us to get out quickly.
As the rough-looking men shouted, everyone scrambled out, intimidated.
"From now on, anyone who speaks without permission or makes a sound will be killed."
When a man in front of us shouted, a child who didn't understand the atmosphere sniffled. No matter how much he had been warned, he was so scared and young that he couldn't help but cry.
The man who had just given the warning immediately moved to kill the child.
He probably intended to make an example of him.
One might think it would be better to teach the child and make use of him, but Nether Shadow Valley had another purpose besides training assassins.
It was to cultivate a large number of poisonous creatures. The underground caves of Nether Shadow Valley were home to countless poisonous creatures.
They ate each other, and the survivors became even more venomous. The instructors of Nether Shadow Valley would throw the dead children into the underground caves, then pull out the corpses to extract the poison left in their bodies.
Even if I had planned to live a quiet life, I couldn't let such a young child die without knowing anything.
But it wasn't like I was going to suddenly develop superhuman strength in this body.
As the man who had given the warning raised his sword without hesitation, the only thing I could rely on was the centipede trapped in my shoe.
Until then, I had been walking with one bare foot, keeping the centipede in my shoe. I waited for the man to raise his arm, exposing his waist, and threw the centipede into his loose pants.
He wasn't planning on using his full strength to cut down a child anyway, just a casual swing of his sword. But he paused when he suddenly felt something clinging to his body.
Then, he screamed, "Aargh!" and jumped up and down.
The child, who had been sniffling in fear until then, forgot to cry and stared at the man, wondering what was wrong with him.
As the centipede crawled into his pants, the man fumbled around, unable to take off his clothes. I approached the child, took his hand, and pulled him into the chaotic crowd.
His face wasn't particularly memorable, so if I hid him like that, the man probably wouldn't remember him. If he did remember and came looking for him, then there was nothing I could do, but for now, I was counting on luck.
The men around him also rushed to help him, and the area became noisy.
If nothing else, it was certainly effective in stopping the crying child from crying.
Later, a large centipede crawled out of the man's pants and slithered away. He glared at us, embarrassed.
Normally, they would have started by beheading the crying children to create an atmosphere of fear, but that had been disrupted.
"Run to that cliff over there, now! If anyone hesitates, I won't let them..."
But I started running before he could finish his sentence.
Since the children with me were all around the same age, once someone started moving, the rest were bound to follow due to a herd mentality.
Besides, I was running with all my might, and it seemed to spark a competitive spirit in them, as they all gritted their teeth and ran.
Having read the novel, I knew that this was not how the atmosphere was supposed to be.
Even when told to run to the cliff, the children would hesitate, unsure of what to do, and a few more would be killed as an example.
But this time, that didn't happen.
There was a large cave in the cliff, and it had an opening on the other side. Passing through it would finally lead to the buildings of Nether Shadow Valley.
When you don't know the purpose of the man's orders, you're bound to hesitate. But since I knew he was trying to get us to the buildings of Nether Shadow Valley, there was no need for that.
The children followed me in an orderly fashion.
At least, the thirty or so children who had been in the same carriage as me did.
As we ran towards the cliff, I heard the screams of a few children from behind. It seemed that a few people from the other carriages had not been able to escape death.
After running for a while, I stood in front of the cave, and the child I had saved with the centipede stood next to me.
At first, I thought he was smaller than me, but standing next to him, I saw that we were about the same height.
"Th-thank you for helping me," the child said. Hearing the screams of the children behind him, he seemed to have realized what could have happened to him. He was a quick-witted and clever kid.
I just nodded. I thought that if I started talking, we would get scolded by the men again.
As we ran frantically, the men who hadn't expected this situation chased after us with bewildered faces.
"Go into the cave. Don't stop until you see the end, just keep going."
I was waiting for those words, so I started running again.
Some of the kids were even laughing now, as if they were having fun.
Had they forgotten the atmosphere from a moment ago, and did being with children their own age feel like a game?
I hoped those children could laugh a little longer, but that was probably a vain hope.
(End of Chapter)