Tang Hwa instinctively stepped backward. She herself didn't know why she did so. No, she didn't even realize she had done it in the first place.
She was just... scared. In her mind, the fact that Dong Bong-su had been an insignificant groom and that he was the one who had just killed Tang O had already disappeared, replaced only by fear.
She was terrified and repulsed by Dong Bong-su's indifferent eyes watching her.
Step, step.
Dong Bong-su approached two more steps.
Tang Hwa retreated backward by the same amount.
Creak.
Dong Bong-su pulled out the Novice's Sword embedded diagonally in the ground.
What was thought to be Tang O's head, pierced through by it, came up along with it.
Thunk.
Dong Bong-su raised the sword above his head as it was, then drove it diagonally into the ground.
Tang O's head split in half, and the Novice's Sword completely separated from Tang O's corpse.
Drip drip drip.
Blood and brain matter flowed out of Tang O's split head, dirtying the ground.
"Not bad."
"..."
What did he mean by 'not bad'...?
At those short, incomprehensible words, Tang Hwa trembled. No matter that he was dead, Tang O was her grandfather. This atrocity should not be forgiven, but she couldn't say anything.
Dong Bong-su quietly wiped the blood on the Novice's Sword against the brown robe Tang O had been wearing. The clothes were so dirty they weren't much help in cleaning the sword.
Then at one moment, he raised his head and looked at Tang Hwa.
"This won't do."
'What won't...?'
Tang Hwa questioned Dong Bong-su's words, which she couldn't understand again. And that was her last.
Shlick.
Dong Bong-su's body suddenly moved and passed by Tang Hwa. Following that, Tang Hwa collapsed and fell on top of Tang O's corpse.
At the same time.
Woooom!
Brilliant golden radiance poured from Dong Bong-su's body. It was distinctly different from the light during level ups.
[Quest Complete.]
[You have class changed to Wanderer.]
[According to the class change....]
...
.....
....
...
He had finally changed class. With that, several overlapping hologram message windows appeared before his eyes.
Dong Bong-su didn't read the messages and immediately closed all the windows. Because he thought the pursuit wasn't over yet. He thought that if it were Do Heo-ok, to ensure perfection, he might even send a pursuit team here.
However, this was purely a thought Dong Bong-su had because he didn't know the structure of this mountain in detail. In reality, this ground he was standing on wasn't simply the lower part of Seonjoong Mountain.
Both sides of this cliff were covered with tremendously high rocks and thick vegetation befitting a valley, refusing human footsteps for hundreds of years. Added to that, the front and back were blocked by the real cliff he had just jumped down from, making access even more difficult. Even if Do Heo-ok wanted to give chase, it was impossible from the start.
However, Dong Bong-su recalled that Tang O had used True Origin Energy to save Tang Hwa at the last moment, and began to move busily to eliminate any possibilities that might exist.
He first went around the area organizing the corpses. It was work to match the number of corpses that had fallen and the scattered corpses.
At the same time, he organized the items in their possession and took everything useful. Among them were Tang O's Dragon Phoenix Golden Needles, and there were also several secret martial arts manuals. That didn't mean he swept everything clean. Leaving just enough not to raise suspicion was basic among basics.
He found all the corpses and items he had used when falling down and put them back into his Inventory.
Next, he crushed the corpses of those whose heads had been pierced by his sword. He particularly skillfully shattered the parts with sword wounds. They had to look exactly as if they had burst from the impact of the fall.
Before long, all the work was finished.
Dong Bong-su finally drew all the fragments scattered on the ground in his mind as a final check.
Then he assembled them one by one in his imagination. He could then create exactly as many corpses as the number who had fallen. Among those corpses, of course, he himself was included.
Among the corpses, there was one dressed as a water bandit, and that corpse was his stand-in. Since it was already completely destroyed, no one would be able to recognize what person it originally was.
Perfect crime.
Dong Bong-su was convinced of that and quickly left the spot. His movements were more than twice as nimble as when he fell. Though he hadn't checked his newly acquired abilities yet, he could feel firsthand that there had been a dramatic increase just in his stats alone.
Grin.
A crack appeared at Dong Bong-su's mouth. He was smiling.
There was one murderer here. He had survived.
And....
He had finally come out into the world.
***
The Martial World began to surge. The origin of the waves was Anhui Province.
The extermination of the Namgung Family, Anhui's foremost prestigious sect under Heaven.
Who on earth could have brought about the downfall of the Namgung Family, undisputedly the head of the Five Great Families of the Central Plains, in a single day?
When this rumor first circulated through the Martial World, no one readily believed it.
The Namgung Family was a prestigious family among prestigious families boasting hundreds of years of history, and their martial arts were still evaluated by the world as worthy of competing for supremacy under Heaven. Moreover, Namgung Family Head Namgung Byeok was counted as one of the greatest masters of the current generation.
However, before long, martial artists learned that this shocking incident was true.
Murim missives that hadn't been issued in decades were delivered to all regions of the Central Plains. Written on them was a statement about holding a Murim Grand Conference due to the extermination of the Namgung Family, and the seal of the Murim Alliance Leader was clearly stamped on them. The murim missives embroidered with golden thread on red silk spoke to the gravity of the matter by themselves alone.
Though hard to believe, the great tree called the Namgung Family had fallen. It was certain they had suffered not sealing but extermination.
The Murim Alliance headquarters in Zhengzhou welcomed representatives from each sect under security stricter than usual. A murderous atmosphere hung in the streets, and the expressions of martial artists were uniformly hardened.
Soon representatives from the Nine Sects and One Society and the remaining four great families excluding the Namgung Family gathered in Zhengzhou. No, more precisely speaking, representatives from all five great families had gathered. A survivor of the exterminated Namgung Family had also attended the Murim Grand Conference.
The one person who survived that terrible calamity.
It was none other than Namgung Hye, the second daughter of Namgung Family Head Namgung Byeok. Her face was pale and wounds that had not yet healed remained all over her body, but her eyes alone burned with the will for revenge.
She had cut through the villains' fierce attacks and finally reached Zhengzhou.
As the sole survivor and witness, she testified at the Murim Grand Conference about the full account of the Namgung Family's extermination disaster.
The force Namgung Hye identified as the villains was.
Heavenly Demon Castle. And she said the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds had supported their flank.
All the representatives from each faction attending the Murim Grand Conference were shocked. To think that the identity of the villains they had been doubting was really Heavenly Demon Castle. Everyone present there instinctively realized that a hundred years of peace had finally been broken.
After Namgung Hye's testimony, the Murim Grand Conference began in earnest.
Some said they couldn't understand why Heavenly Demon Castle would suddenly commit such an act and argued for caution. The logic was that it wouldn't be too late to act after conducting a thorough truth investigation. However, those making such claims were only a minority.
Though the people gathered here were figures of the Orthodox Faction, that was merely a mask they wore on the surface—these people were fundamentally all martial artists. They were outlaws who moved under the absolute law of fist for fist, blade for blade, and above all, blood for blood!
In particular, the Tang Family, having lost Tang O and Tang Hwa, had their eyes turned over. They looked as if they would take action alone if the Murim Alliance didn't move.
Also, separate from the Tang Family's belligerence, Sichuan Province was adjacent to Tibet. Frankly speaking, Tibet was Heavenly Demon Castle's front yard, and Sichuan was Tibet's next-door neighbor. If this incident was truly the prelude to Heavenly Demon Castle's plan to advance into the Central Plains, then needless to say, Sichuan Province would be included in that first target.
The Kunlun Sect and the Kongtong Sect also felt the same sense of crisis as the Tang Family. If Sichuan was Tibet's next-door neighbor, then Qinghai and Gansu Province were close enough to Heavenly Demon Castle to be called Xinjiang's neighbors and back-door neighbors.
The remaining sects didn't particularly speak up either, but most agreed with the hardline policy.
The destruction of the Namgung Family was an extremely serious matter from the Murim Alliance's standpoint. If the Murim Alliance didn't step forward for such a serious matter, it was clear as day that the Murim Alliance's influence over the entire Martial World would decline.
If Heavenly Demon Castle had actually moved to plot for the Central Plains, the entire Martial World needed to unite with the Murim Alliance as its center. For that reason as well, the Murim Alliance had to actively take action.
In the end, the conference didn't last long before it ended.
Murim Alliance Leader Hyeoncheon Jinin immediately deployed the forces of the Demon Subduing Hall and Evil Conquering Hall among the Three Halls to Anhui Province. With two military organizations mobilized, naturally all four of the subordinate Four Direction Divine Squads were dispatched to Anhui Province.
The Murim Alliance Leader didn't stop there, but sent missives to affiliated sects in all provinces surrounding Anhui—Hubei, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan—to support the Four Direction Divine Squads.
Going further, Hyeoncheon Jinin also dispatched hundreds of masters to Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan. This was because he thought the main force of Heavenly Demon Castle might advance into the Central Plains while the Murim Alliance was focusing on Anhui Province.
However, even until then, Heavenly Demon Castle remained quiet. Then, when the Murim Alliance's forces advanced deep into the borders of Gansu and Qinghai, they urgently dispatched hundreds of masters to Gansu and Qinghai to check them. However, there was no actual clash between the two sides, merely mutual checking.
Meanwhile, as decided at the Murim Grand Conference, bloody retribution began.