Chapter 2

Twenty years.

That was how many years Heo Cheon had spent in South Korea after leaving the Central Plains.

Even so, he vividly remembered what had been around the Blood Demon Cult’s headquarters.

During the war against the Blood Demon Cult twenty years ago, numerous scouts had been stationed around the area to ensure the safety of Alliance Leader Nangong Hui. As a result, Heo Cheon had memorized the surrounding terrain and landmarks in great detail.

What had made such a thing possible was none other than Heo Cheon’s martial arts.

Once a martial artist reached a certain level of mastery, they gained an extraordinary memory that allowed them to remember things they had seen only once.

For Heo Cheon, who had been entrusted with the important responsibility of protecting the leader of the Martial Alliance, he had been even more attentive to his surroundings.

Therefore, even after twenty years, he could remember everything with remarkable clarity.

Besides, considering all the hardships he had endured back then, it would have been stranger if he had forgotten.

The moment Heo Cheon arrived at the village, he entered the nearest house and stole a set of clothes that fit him.

He left his T-shirt and jeans behind in exchange.

“Ahh, they were made by an Italian craftsman, stitch by stitch…”

Heo Cheon looked genuinely reluctant to part with them, but there was nothing he could do.

His outfit had been perfectly ordinary in South Korea.

Here in the Central Plains, however, it was not merely foreign—it was outrageously conspicuous.

If he walked around dressed like that, he would inevitably attract unnecessary attention.

While he was at it, Heo Cheon also stole a straw hat and put it on.

There were certainly people with short or unusual hairstyles, but this was the Central Plains—the martial world.

There was absolutely nothing to gain from standing out.

After changing his clothes, Heo Cheon eventually arrived in the city.

“Zhongyang County. It’s been a long time, but this place hasn’t changed much. Maybe they don’t have things like redevelopment here?”

Zhongyang County, located in western Shanxi, was a fairly prosperous city by the standards of the Central Plains.

But to Heo Cheon’s eyes, at best, it looked like the set of an old Chinese martial arts television drama.

Still, this was undeniably a city.

The main street Heo Cheon was walking along was wide enough for several horse-drawn carriages to pass each other with ease.

That alone indicated that the movement of goods was considerable and that commerce was flourishing.

There were also inns here, something he had not seen in the previous village.

There were even three of them.

Heo Cheon headed toward the inn closest to the market.

The Harmony Inn was a two-story wooden building with a sign bearing its name.

At first glance, it looked no different from any other inn.

But there was one secret that ordinary people knew nothing about.

‘Well, I don’t know if it’s still the same after all these years.’

Before entering the inn, Heo Cheon examined the wall behind it.

The wall was covered with all kinds of graffiti and filth, but Heo Cheon ignored all of it and examined the bottom.

At the base of the wall, five black stones had been placed in an identical row at regular intervals.

“As expected… nothing has changed here either.”

The five black stones beneath the wall were a sign and symbol indicating that this place was one of the branches of an organization whose members were scattered throughout the Central Plains.

After confirming it, Heo Cheon immediately entered the Harmony Inn.

Before the waiter could even show him to a table, he sat down in the most secluded corner.

Then he crossed his chopsticks beside his teacup like a pair of scissors and quietly waited.

After roughly half an hour, someone sat down across from him without asking permission.

He was a man in his mid-thirties wearing a blue robe.

Other than his blunt expression, there was absolutely nothing distinctive about his appearance.

The man in blue silently studied Heo Cheon for quite some time before suddenly asking,

“What flows through the lowlands?”

Without hesitation, Heo Cheon answered,

“Five rivers.”

That was the end of their conversation.

The question from the man in blue had merely been a form of verification.

The reason was that Heo Cheon’s act of crossing his chopsticks like scissors beside the teacup was a secret signal used to indicate that he wanted to purchase information from the Beggars’ Network.

Incidentally, the “five rivers flowing through the lowlands” referred to the five lower-class occupations that had made up the organization’s original core members: coachmen, boatmen, inn attendants, porters, and human traffickers.

‘The Beggars’ Network hasn’t changed a bit.’

As befitted an organization specializing in information, its speed was still second to none.

As the two silently stared at each other, the man in blue finally spoke first.

“What is it that you wish to find?”

He was indirectly asking what kind of information Heo Cheon wanted to purchase.

Instead of answering directly, Heo Cheon dipped one finger into the completely cold tea.

He then began writing characters on the table with the tea.

It was a form of written communication.

The man in blue silently watched.

The moment Heo Cheon finished writing the sentence, his brows unconsciously narrowed slightly.

“Precisely when was the Blood Demon Cult destroyed, and what has happened in the martial world from then until now?”

It was a rather unexpected question, and an extremely broad one at that.

The man in blue therefore asked another question.

“Would you like the large or the small?”

Choosing “large” meant receiving extremely detailed information, including even minor matters.

Choosing “small” meant receiving only a general overview and basic information.

Once again, Heo Cheon answered by writing with tea.

“Small.”

All Heo Cheon wanted to know was how much time had passed in the Central Plains while he had been gone and, in broad terms, how the martial world had developed during that period.

He had no need for every little detail.

Of course, the man in blue had no way of knowing his circumstances.

He thought for a moment.

Then, apparently having organized the information in his mind, he began quickly writing on the table with tea, just as Heo Cheon had done.

“Twenty years ago: Blood Demon Cult destroyed. War between the righteous and demonic factions ends.

Nineteen years ago: Martial Alliance dissolved. Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families enter seclusion.

Eighteen years ago: Former leader of the Wudang Sect, the Taiji Sword Immortal Cheong Myeong, passes away peacefully.

……….

……”

Beginning with the destruction of the Blood Demon Cult, the man in blue listed the most important events year by year.

For most martial artists, this was information they would already know.

But it was more than enough for Heo Cheon.

In fact, the moment he saw the first line, he thought that coming to the Beggars’ Network had been the right decision.

‘The Blood Demon Cult was destroyed twenty years ago.’

He had spent exactly that long in South Korea.

That meant time must have passed at the same rate in South Korea and the Central Plains.

That alone meant he had already accomplished what he had come here for.

The second line, mentioning the dissolution of the Martial Alliance, was somewhat surprising, but not shocking.

He had already expected something like this.

‘So it really happened.’

Before the appearance of the Blood Demon Cult, the righteous and unorthodox factions had rarely mixed with each other.

They were like oil and water, constantly clashing and keeping their distance.

Therefore, once their common enemy, the Blood Demon Cult, disappeared, there was no reason for them to continue joining hands.

The developments afterward were also just as he had expected.

‘The Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families entering seclusion. Well, that makes sense.’

After the war between the righteous and demonic factions, the various martial sects suffered considerable aftereffects.

The most serious problem was a shortage of manpower.

A large number of elite martial artists representing each sect had died in the war against the Blood Demon Cult.

After all, raising even a single expert required enormous amounts of money and manpower.

Above all else, it required time.

The Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families had probably entered seclusion not only to recover their strength but also to train the next generation and use the time to reinforce their foundations.

The same was largely true for the smaller martial organizations.

‘So, essentially, the martial world has been at peace for the past twenty years.’

It was the very peace Heo Cheon had longed for during the war between the righteous and demonic factions, yet one he himself had never been able to enjoy.

However, he did not feel particularly bitter or jealous about it.

Although he had never received compensation for all the hardships he had endured as the Commander of the Hidden Moon Guard, he had instead spent twenty years enjoying all kinds of advanced technology and modern conveniences in South Korea.

He had even been able to live freely without having to worry about anyone else’s expectations.

It had truly been a blessing in disguise.

He could say without hesitation that the past twenty years had been the happiest period of Heo Cheon’s life.

‘But what’s the point? I’ve been dragged back into this damn martial world.’

And to make matters worse, he had been transported back against his will, just as he had been transported to South Korea in the first place.

Heo Cheon was lost in thought when—

Tap, tap.

The sound of someone tapping the table brought him back to reality.

He looked up and saw the man in blue extending his right hand toward him.

He had provided the requested information, so naturally, he expected to be paid.

One corner of Heo Cheon’s mouth lifted beneath the brim of his straw hat.

Swish.

At the same instant, Heo Cheon’s figure vanished before the man’s eyes like a ghost.

The man in blue’s mouth fell open.

‘What incredible movement technique!’

Although his own martial arts were mediocre, he had developed a keen eye for martial arts through his years of working as an informant for the Beggars’ Network.

Ordinary martial artists usually made some sort of preparatory movement before using their movement techniques, such as pushing off the ground.

Heo Cheon, however, had disappeared right before his eyes without making the slightest preparatory movement.

He had not even left behind an afterimage.

Even the man in blue, who proudly considered himself someone who had seen more than his fair share of martial arts experts, had never witnessed movement technique of this level in his entire life.

‘He must be an expert.’

And not merely an ordinary expert.

He was someone whose realm was so far beyond the man’s imagination that he could not even begin to comprehend it.

Therefore, he quickly abandoned the audacious idea of trying to collect the information fee Heo Cheon owed him.

Instead, he hurriedly ran somewhere.

About a dozen yards from the Harmony Inn stood a red-light district.

At its center was a three-story wooden building.

It was the luxurious pleasure house known as the Grand Splendor Pavilion, a place that virtually every prominent person in Zhongyang County had visited at least once.

On the top floor was a secret room cleverly concealed between two ordinary rooms.

Unlike the other rooms, which were filled with luxurious decorations and furniture, every wall of the secret chamber was lined with bookshelves.

It was an eerily quiet space, in stark contrast to the noisy sounds coming from outside.

At a table in the very center, a woman muttered with a serious expression,

“An unidentified expert has appeared, and on top of that, he used a twenty-year-old secret signal…”

Secret signals were periodically changed for security reasons.

That did not mean the old signals could never be used again.

From time to time, someone would use an old secret signal.

Such usage itself could provide clues about the client’s identity, and the old signals could even become valuable information that could be sold.

‘Was it someone who was active twenty years ago? Or perhaps a disciple of someone who was active back then?’

There was little lighting in the room aside from the small candle on the table, so the woman’s appearance could not be seen clearly.

Even so, judging from her clear, graceful voice and the elegant curves of her slender silhouette, it was easy to guess that she was an exceptionally beautiful woman.

Her delicate, soft hand held a sheet of paper that had just arrived.

It was a report urgently submitted by one of her subordinates, who was working undercover as an informant at this branch.

‘Of all places, it had to happen here.’

The Zhongyang County branch was the branch located closest to the former headquarters of the Blood Demon Cult, which had been destroyed long ago.

The Beggars’ Network had secretly kept a close watch on this area in case any remnants of the Blood Demon Cult appeared.

That was also why a woman of such high status within the organization had been appointed as the head of this branch.

And now, after twenty years, an emergency report had finally arrived.

According to the report, the mysterious expert had asked when the Blood Demon Cult had been destroyed and what had happened in the martial world afterward.

That meant the man was connected to the Blood Demon Cult in some way.

But the woman did not jump to conclusions.

“After the last war between the righteous and demonic factions, the Martial Alliance erased every trace of the Blood Demon Cult. The chances that an expert of that level could have survived without being discovered are…”

She could think of no plausible way it could have happened.

Furthermore, if he truly were a remnant of the Blood Demon Cult, he would never make such a fatal mistake as openly revealing his identity in this manner.

“Then who exactly is he?”

The only thing she could say with any certainty was that he had probably been active before the Blood Demon Cult was destroyed and had either left the martial world for at least twenty years or lived without any contact with the outside world during that time.

“A prisoner who escaped from the Island of No Return? Or perhaps a warden who came out to capture an escaped prisoner? Could he be someone from the Sun-Moon-Star Palace or the Carefree Sect?”

The places she mentioned belonged to mysterious organizations collectively known as the Three Heavens Beyond the World.

Very few people even knew that such organizations existed.

The woman herself had not known of their existence until she rose to an important position within the Beggars’ Network.

“Hmm. The martial world has already been unsettled lately, and now an expert of this magnitude has appeared as well.”

She had absolutely no idea whether his appearance would bring fortune or disaster in the future.

There was simply too little information.

In that case, there was only one thing to do.

Gather more information from this point onward.

“October.”

“Yes, my lord.”

At the woman’s call, a figure quietly emerged behind her, accompanied by a voice whose gender was impossible to determine.

The figure was a masked person almost completely covered in black cloth.