novelraw Chapter 151 : Spreading Branches
Chapter 151 : Spreading Branches
Chapter 151: Spreading Branches
Dan Mujin really was a strange one.
It wasn’t just because he was my disciple—anyone could objectively see how peculiar the kid was.
One day, Eun Hwaran came to me, her face full of pride. She said I had an incredible eye for disciples.
That he resembled me—poor, but upright and transcendent of worldly desires. She claimed he seemed destined to become a true man of austerity and virtue.
At an age brimming with vigor and ambition, he had apparently grasped the principle of "People above profit, and profit above self," even before she had, and she couldn’t stop praising him for it.
I almost burst out laughing when she said that to my face.
‘That lunatic? A virtuous ascetic?’
But once I heard the full story, I found myself surprisingly stunned.
Most people from beggar backgrounds, once they find success, do everything they can to erase their lowly origins. But not that bastard. He went out of his way to remember the tough times and tried to look after young beggars.
He’d sass me without a second thought and butt heads at every turn, and yet there he was, doing things like this. It was enough to leave me confused.
So, I went straight to the training ground and asked him myself.
“What the hell are you?”
Dan Mujin furrowed his brows like I was spouting nonsense again.
“Why do you start with a fight the moment you see me?”
Maybe it was because I’d been scolding and beating him constantly, worried that the Heaven-Slaying Star might stray down the wrong path. By now, just the sight of me made him grumble with a sullen face.
“This isn’t picking a fight, you brat. Weren’t you obsessed with money?”
He used to be so greedy for coin that when he declined the payment Eun Hwaran offered for the sericulture job, it was like he’d cultivated internal energy for years.
I guess, in his own way, he’d wrestled with his conscience and greed quite a bit.
“Money? I love it to death. The problem is I don’t have any.”
“And yet you come into that kind of money and use it… to open a shelter?”
I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Did the bastard have no selfish desires?
It’s not like he was enlightened or had transcended the mortal world like I had. So how could he make that kind of decision?
“It’s, y’know. Dirty money, made by teaming up with something dangerous and scamming people… I thought I’d get cursed if I used it.”
Dan Mujin said this while staring off into space, like something was weighing on him.
“You’re impossible to figure out.”
I only took him in to keep an eye on him, since he was the Heaven-Slaying Star whose killing intent hadn’t yet blossomed.
But the more I watched him, the more enigmatic he became.
He was rude as hell, but his actions were always righteous. He helped the weak, punished the wicked, and embraced those weaker than himself with genuine compassion.
Maybe—just maybe—he really could become a chivalrous hero who led the Murim down the right path, even with the Heaven-Slaying Star within him.
Of course, I was still only half-convinced.
“What’s your dream, you brat?”
“Long life. Immortality. Luxury and pleasure.”
From what he said, he sounded like a greedy lowlife through and through.
And yet, despite that motor mouth, his actions were always upright—like the complete opposite of a hypocrite.
Sure, maybe all his actions were ultimately rooted in a desire to live longer…
But if someone truly gets saved—gets their life turned around—could you really call that hypocrisy?
“Oh, right. Once I set up the shelter, want to be the director?”
“Director…?”
“Wait, it’s a shelter, so maybe ‘superintendent’? Anyway, you run the place.”
“Why me, you little—”
“Come on. It’s not like you do anything. Just drink and loaf around all day. You should at least be doing something.”
That look in his eyes—as if staring at some useless freeloader wasting food.
This little punk had zero respect for his elders.
“I’m not loafing. It’s all part of my cultivation to one day meet the Primordial Heavenly Lord.”
“Yeah, right.”
I swung the Dog-Beating Staff and smacked him on the spot.
Thwack!
“Gah!”
He clutched the slightly dented crown of his head and rolled across the training ground floor.
The people of the Eunseong Trading Company walking by looked over in surprise—only to continue on like it was just another Tuesday.
“You son of a…”
Dan Mujin grumbled non-stop, shooting resentful glances my way.
The boy had a real talent for earning beatings.
“So, you want me to run this shelter? You want me to look after the young beggars?”
“Yeah. Do you know how hard it is to survive as a street kid in Beijing?”
“I know. I used to be in the Beggars’ Union myself.”
“Some of it’s your fault, you know.”
“…Yeah, I know that too, you brat.”
Honestly, the worst one was the Son of Heaven in the imperial palace, but still…
Right then and there, I decided I’d cut back on drinking and give this whole thing a try.
And as I looked silently at Dan Mujin, the one who had come to me with this request…
My expression wavered, a mix of emotions passing through.
“Maybe I’ve had the wrong idea about you all along.”
I muttered that under my breath as I walked over to him, step by step.
Dan Mujin flinched and backed away.
“Oh, come on. I do something good and this is what I get?”
He clutched his crown again, looking utterly dismayed.
“You little brat, I’m not scolding you, I’m just…”
“Grrng.”
Had I been wielding only the whip all this time?
When a disciple does something commendable, a little carrot is in order too.
“I’ll bestow upon you this old man’s sword techniques.”
At that, the brat’s eyes went wide.
A peculiar rumor had been circulating lately in the Demon-Slaying Unit’s headquarters.
It was about Vice Captain Murong Cheonghye, and there was much chatter among the troops about how she had noticeably softened and brightened recently.
“Isn’t it obvious? She’s got a man now.”
“Oh, come on. No way, right? She’s the Evil-Slaying Demoness!”
“I’m telling you, it’s true. Otherwise, how could someone who used to be like a lone blade wear that kind of expression?”
Once, she had radiated a deadly aura sharp enough to cut with a mere touch.
But now, the unit's gazes were fixed on her, face softened like someone basking in the spring sun after a harsh winter.
“And that’s what the troops are whispering—any thoughts, Vice Captain?”
Captain Jeok Unyeop, having overheard it all with the keen hearing of a martial master, spoke up with a sly smile.
“…We need to reinforce discipline.”
Murong Cheonghye clenched her fist so hard veins showed, signaling brutal training ahead.
Watching this, Jeok Unyeop whistled and silently offered his condolences to the troops. Her training was notoriously grueling.
“You should join us too, Captain.”
“Wait, why me…?”
“There’s been no progress in tracking the Blood Cult, and your combat instincts are getting dull. I’ll gladly swing my sword to sharpen them back up for you.”
With a chilly smile, the Murong Clan’s woman made her offer.
Jeok Unyeop felt a sliver of the old Evil-Slaying Demoness in that look.
“I’ll have to decline.”
“And I decline your decline.”
Though the troops claimed she’d mellowed, Jeok Unyeop still found her terrifying.
“I may be the Captain here, but still—Evil-Slaying Demoness…”
“Then act like a Captain and don’t be swayed by such baseless rumors.”
He regretted poking the bear out of idle curiosity.
Murong Cheonghye glared at him with crescent-moon eyes, the kind of gaze that brought back memories of her beheading villains—enough to send a chill down his spine.
“But something has changed lately… Did something happen in your life?”
Despite the danger, Jeok Unyeop pressed on, driven by curiosity.
“Hmm, maybe… it’s because I’ve found a reason to live?”
She murmured wistfully, looking off into the distance, as if thinking of someone she once thought dead.
Watching her like that, Jeok Unyeop couldn’t help but let his mind run wild.
No wonder people were gossiping.
Knock knock.
Just then, someone tapped the desk, snapping them out of their thoughts.
They turned to see a man with a radiant jade-like face, dazzling no matter the day.
It was Namgung Jin, the Young Master of the Namgung Clan, known as the next World’s Greatest Martial Artist and heartthrob of countless women.
“You’re here again…”
Also the person Murong Cheonghye found most exhausting lately.
He dropped in constantly, asking strange questions, as if keeping her under surveillance.
“Vice Captain of the Demon-Slaying Unit, long time no see. You don’t seem to be touring the Central Plains to cut down villains anymore.”
He showed an odd interest in her every move.
And thanks to him, weird rumors like the ones earlier had started cropping up too.
“I’ve refrained from such actions to focus on tracking the Blood Cult.”
“Is that so? But it seems your passion’s cooled off a bit.”
Muttering about how the madness that once fueled her transformation from Cold Jade Maiden to Evil-Slaying Demoness had faded—was her resolve for demon-slaying weakening?
“Not particularly.”
“Could it be your violent urges have subsided? Or maybe you’re getting your fill of blood elsewhere?”
“…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He always came out with cryptic nonsense like that.
Word had it he was carrying out the Alliance Leader’s orders solo, without support from martial units, chasing the Blood Cult.
Lately, though, he’d been acting… oddly obsessed with something else.
“Hmm… that can’t be right…”
What can’t be right?
Murong Cheonghye looked at him with a puzzled face.
“Well, if you say so, I’ll believe it.”
He tilted his head, looking like he’d let it go for now. Had he been misinformed somehow?
She had thought him a true chivalrous hero—dedicated to punishing evil and protecting the Central Plains.
“So then, what brings you here today?”
At least he never came without purpose.
Every visit of his had brought with it major events.
“I’ve come across troubling traces and signs.”
Namgung Jin carefully unwrapped a cloth bundle.
Looked like he’d been sneaking around collecting things again.
“What kind of traces?”
“Traces of demonic arts.”
At the word demonic arts, the once-Evil-Slaying Demoness’s eyes turned icy cold.
“There are many who practice demonic arts.”
“Yes, that’s true. But this is something different.”
Different how, exactly? If it were just an old demonic practitioner resurfacing, they could raise the bounty or send a martial unit.
And yet here was the wielder of the Cheongun Sword, face grave over such a matter.
“This is a trace of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
“…”
That name alone was enough to freeze the air in the room.
Despite the years, it remained a heavy weight on the Murim.
Both the Captain and Vice Captain of the Demon-Slaying Unit now stared grimly at the item wrapped in cloth.
Dew-laced dawn.
As always, Ilhong was sweating and swinging her sword through the morning air.
And in that quiet early scene, a new silhouette had joined.
“So what made you change your mind all of a sudden?”
I asked, gripping the hilt of the sword Hwang Geolgae had handed me. Normally, he wouldn’t let so much as a killing tool touch my hand.
“If you’d never tasted it, that’d be one thing. But you’ve already had a taste. Better to train properly than to get everyone killed flailing around like a fool.”
His voice was a mix of resignation and hope.
Judging from how fast I kept finding trouble, he must’ve realized I’d go down that path whether he liked it or not.
So better to teach me the right way than let me run wild.
“Oh yeah, I knew this day would come.”
First it was footwork, then fist techniques, then internal energy, and now swordsmanship.
Bit by bit, I’d gained his approval—finally, the time had come to learn everything from Hwang Geolgae.
I swung the sword named “Sovereign of All Cures” with a few crisp shh-shh slices through the wind.
“Excellent. Teach me how to stab people. Teach me how to club them with tools.”
At my excited quip, Hwang Geolgae frowned.
“‘Club them with tools’? Seriously?”
“What? In the end, it’s the same. You stab and slash people, right?”
No matter how you dressed it up with fancy words—
Martial arts were still about cutting down people.
“Do you remember what I told you before? Even a blade, depending on how it’s used…”
“Yeah, like a doctor’s scalpel. Can save or kill, right?”
“Exactly. That’s the principle.”
Hwang Geolgae nodded.
Then he looked at me sharply.
“But you, you brat—you’re liable to turn that blade into a killing weapon at the drop of a hat…”
Mentioning the Heaven-Slaying Star within me, he began channeling bloodlust into the sword.
Pretty sure that wasn’t a ‘life-giving blade’ at all.
“First, I’ll knock some sense into that thick skull of yours!”
Taat!
With that shout, Hwang Geolgae’s form shot forward like lightning.
“Whoah!”
And just like that, a storm of murderous intent swept through the training ground.
Thus began the first swordsmanship lesson between master and disciple.