Chapter 1

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Prologue. The Namgung's Lost Child
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*Thwack—*

A sword, shrouded in a jet-black aura, pierced Ilhwa's heart.

Utterly unprepared for the unexpected attack, dark crimson blood streamed from Ilhwa's lips.

"Wh-why...?"

Ilhwa stared with confused eyes at the person who had plunged the sword into her heart.

He was her master, who had raised her since childhood and taught her martial arts, and the leader of the Daesura Hyeolgyo, who had achieved the great feat of unifying the Murim.

Hyeolma.

The sword that pierced Ilhwa's heart was his.

"Disciple. Do you remember what I wished to achieve through you?"

Since her childhood, Ilhwa had heard a phrase from him so often it was ingrained in her mind.

'Destroy the Namgung. You must break the Namgung's sword with your own hands!'

She never knew why her master wished to destroy the Namgung.

As her master commanded, Ilhwa had simply lived for twenty-five years with the sole purpose of bringing down the Namgung.

She trained in martial arts with the singular goal of breaking the Namgung's sword.

Because of this, she was known within the Hyeolgyo as Cheonmyeolgeom, the 'Sword that Destroys Heaven.'

As a result, finally today, the Namgung was completely annihilated.

By Ilhwa's hand.

Ilhwa looked at Namgung Cheongun, the last sword of the Namgung, lying dead on the ground.

"I... I have fulfilled Master's will."

"Indeed. It will finally be accomplished."

"But... why...?"

Hyeolma's sword piercing her heart had happened simultaneously with Namgung Cheongun's last breath.

At the very moment she thought everything had been achieved after a long battle, Hyeolma stabbed her heart.

"Why... why did you do this?"

"Now, only you, a Namgung, remain in the world. My will can only be truly fulfilled when your life ends, so what choice do I have?"

Ilhwa stared at him, her expression hardening.

"That look in your eyes... as if asking what nonsense this mad master is spouting?"

Her master chuckled, once again, annoyingly, seeing right through her.

As if he knew everything, as if he could peer into her very thoughts.

"Do you know who lies fallen at your feet?"

Ilhwa's gaze returned to the fallen Namgung Cheongun.

The sword wound that had half-severed his neck had been dealt by her own hand.

"He is your father."

"…!"

"A pathetic fool who gave up his position as the Namgung family head just to search for you, even resorting to being a mere escort leader."

Ilhwa was thrown into confusion.

Her master, Hyeolma, was inherently malicious and evil.

He was someone who would casually kill people to replenish his dantian, so not all his words could be trusted.

But.

'Now that I think about it, it was strange.'

He, who regarded human lives as expendable as flies, had called her his disciple and raised her for a long time.

Even when those stronger than her swore loyalty, her master never abandoned her.

He persistently made her oppose the Namgung until she brought them down with her own hands.

Why, exactly?

*Cough.*

Dark crimson blood gushed from her mouth.

She had been using her internal energy to prevent the wound from widening, but now she was at her limit.

"Hahaha! How does it feel? How does it feel to have killed your own father with your own hands!"

Hyeolma's laughter pierced her ears.

"When I told him you were his daughter, he withdrew his internal energy. Isn't that truly pathetic?"

"…!"

Ilhwa recalled the desperate look in Namgung Cheongun's eyes as he stared at her just before his death.

The battle had clearly been going against her.

After a long battle, Namgung Cheongun had prepared a decisive strike imbued with internal energy, and Ilhwa had sensed defeat.

But the moment he was about to unleash his attack, Namgung Cheongun suddenly froze.

He looked at Ilhwa with a bewildered gaze.

Ilhwa didn't miss that fleeting moment and severed his neck.

Namgung Cheongun knelt on the spot, blood gushing from his neck.

Even as he did so, his gaze never left Ilhwa.

'Seol... hwa...'

A single tear streamed down Ilhwa's face as she recalled his last words.

She couldn't understand why tears were flowing.

Because Ilhwa's emotions had been completely destroyed as a side effect of the accumulated blood qi.

Yet, tears still flowed from her eyes.

"Heh heh, don't be so resentful. You enjoyed it quite a bit, didn't you?"

As she gazed at Namgung Cheongun's corpse, her vision slowly blurred.

As Hyeolma drew up his internal energy, the blade piercing Ilhwa's heart began to hum.

"I raised you with my own hands for this very day. For this moment when the arrogant Namgung would be annihilated by the Namgung's own hand! Hahahahaha!"

The heavens and earth trembled, and space itself seemed to be crushed by his laughter.

Hyeolma was truly delighted.

Ilhwa released the internal energy that had been stemming her wound.

*Cough—*

Dark crimson blood gushed from her mouth.

Her entire body went limp, and she no longer had the strength to even lift her arms.

Her barely clinging breath began to rapidly fade.

"Stop... please... It's not... interesting."

At that moment, Hyeolma's laughter abruptly ceased.

A dark crimson aura shimmered in his indifferent eyes as he looked down at her.

"I was already losing interest anyway."

An eerie aura swirled around the sword.

At that moment, Hyeolma's sword sliced through her body.

Starting from her heart and cutting through her shoulder, as the sword exited, Ilhwa vomited blood and collapsed on the spot.

"It was amusing, Disciple."

'Thanks to you, the Namgung has vanished from the world.'

Hyeolma's chuckling laughter slowly dispersed into the air.

His retreating figure, leaving her to die, was remarkably light and unburdened.

"Cough..."

Dark crimson tears streamed from Ilhwa's eyes as she watched Hyeolma walk away.

'How foolish.'

'What a truly foolish life.'

To have called him master and followed him, unaware that she was being deceived and used.

Why had she lived such a foolish life?

What had she believed in to follow someone who knew nothing but blood?

She had lived her entire life for Hyeolma, to bring down the Namgung, yet all that remained at the end was the scorn of the one she had trusted and followed.

All that awaited her was a miserable death.

All that remained was merely blood (血).

Only dark crimson blood stained the entire world.

The scent of the Namgung's blood, shed by her own hands, lingered around her like a vengeful spirit.

Within that bloody scent, Ilhwa's own death was surely present.

*Thud.*

Ilhwa's body lost its strength and collapsed.

Hyeolma's right-hand and the Hyeolgyo's Little Sect Leader, meant to destroy the Namgung. Cheonmyeolgeom, Ilhwa.

Her life, played as a puppet by Hyeolma, ended just like that.