At the Murim Alliance, chaos had erupted. The Alliance Leader lay on his deathbed, and the news had spread throughout Xi'an in a strangely rapid manner. People and merchants followed the reports with astonishment and disbelief.
Most people couldn't remember a day when he wasn't the Alliance Leader, and many of the Alliance's youth and soldiers considered him their one true leader. A man who had become the Murim Alliance Leader at sixty was now one hundred and thirty years old, yet no one had ever thought of his absence.
In the Divine Library Tower, Yujin Hak was arranging books while Noah Saiom carried a tower of books for him to place on the shelves.
"Vice-Leader, shouldn't you be with the Alliance Leader now?"
"The Tang Clan Chief is there."
"Did you think I was a better physician than him?"
"Besides, I had to return the books I'd borrowed."
"The Alliance Leader is strong, right? The Tang Clan Chief is there too."
"Time for some advice: try to always consider the worst possibility. Having your heart hardened for the worst is better than having your mind shattered by encountering something you never imagined."
The Vice-Leader might speak calmly like this, but I can see his hands trembling, his breath heavy, and his grip tight on the bookshelf frame.
Preparation doesn't mean control.
---
The Tang Clan Chief was in the Alliance Leader's room. The Leader's hands and feet were bound to the bed as he constantly convulsed, and the Tang Clan Chief was trying to reduce his fever.
The antidote had already been administered, but his blood vessels had ruptured, and blood clots were visible across his entire skin.
"Damn it."
"You stupid old man, you have to stay alive, you hear me?"
Cursing under his breath continuously, he reached toward the shelf beside the bed.
"This is the last hope."
He取出 a pearl the size of an infant's head from an old box and pressed it against the Alliance Leader's abdomen.
"I know you can hear me."
"You need to absorb it."
"I'll help you."
Now I just need to use needles to paralyze the rest of his body so he can focus entirely on his spine and abdomen.
Slowly, the pearl began to flake and reduced to half its original volume, and the spots on the Leader's skin grew fainter.
But he showed no reaction...
"This was my utmost effort."
"The rest is up to you, old man."
---
Lan and Zhan stared at Seon with wide, eager eyes, waiting for the answer she had promised them.
"Hey."
"Fine. We'll start from where we stopped."
Both: "Hooray!"
"The story goes back several thousand years, to the First Unified Empire."
Lan quickly asked: "Several thousand years?"
"Yes. You'll understand as I continue."
"After years of war, the First Emperor, or the King of Kings, brought all of today's territory—and even more—under his control."
"For the first time, people could trade under one banner."
"But the Imperial army wasn't enough to maintain security along such long and vast routes, and the Emperor didn't allow people to wear armor or carry heavy weapons. And the bandits themselves didn't ask anyone's permission."
Zhan was confused: "You mean even checkpoints and garrisons weren't enough?"
"A million soldiers in the world's largest country with dozens of nationalities still isn't enough."
"So what did he do?"
"He allowed the formation of escort caravans."
"The caravans weren't allowed to carry heavy weapons, but after years of traversing long routes and fighting bandits and remnants of previous governments, they became specialized warriors with combat experience in every condition."
Lan and Zhan had one word in mind: Rangers.
"Now these escort caravans had both high martial skills and wealth, so being an escort became a profession full of wealth and honor."
"This was when the sects entered the scene."
Lan and Zhan: "What?"
"It's natural—when there's money in something, even religious sects go after money."
"The first was the Shaolin Sect, whose monks decided to defend people's caravans."
"Then martial families emerged, establishing martial schools for young people who wanted to enter this dangerous profession and needed basic training."
"This was the first foundation of what we call Murim."
Zhan knew things couldn't have ended so happily: "So everything ended well, and the Empire remained in security and peace?"
"Huf."
"The King of Kings died, and although he left a worthy heir, his name was so great that his absence alone diminished half the Empire's power."
"So the escort caravans, martial families, and sects began to rebel."
"The young Emperor couldn't confront them because, for the first time, an institution outside the government had become more powerful than the government itself."
"So he decided to build a force of equal power, but he had another motive as well."
Both: "Another motive?"
"Immortality, or at least longevity."
"According to accounts, seeing the death of the most powerful man in the East affected his son."
"He who possessed the world's wealth had died, so the young Emperor, seeing his own future, decided to gather all alchemists, masters, physicians, and researchers to find a way to increase human power and lifespan."
"He was the Emperor—his resources were limitless."
The twins knew something similar had happened in their own world, but why was the result so different here?
"After years, the Emperor reached a conclusion."
Lan and Zhan now understood the difference: "Really?"
"Two Taoist sects offered the Emperor two separate paths for power and longevity."
"One was the path of transforming the body's structure through continuous, extremely difficult exercises and consuming medicines discovered during research—which could transform the structure of body, mind, and spirit, and even pass a portion to the next generation."
"The second path was using the Blood Flower."
"Human sacrifice at the base of a cursed flower—when blood and corpses are on the soil surrounding the flower, a large red blossom forms, and the essence of this flower transforms human body structure in a short time."
The Emperor's choice was obvious. He certainly hadn't held a sword and trained to death.
"This was the beginning of the Bloodthirsty Emperor and the Blood Cult."
"But the Emperor wasn't evil by nature, and execution was part of basic state law, so corpses were sufficient to feed the Blood Flower garden."
"But what he hadn't anticipated was the emergence of an equally powerful force from elsewhere."
"Now that the population had grown and villages had become cities, territories where humans had never set foot became settlements—and humans became prey."
Lan and Zhan knew what tigers in India and Russia had done to people, so they thought they were ready for the next sentence.
"Dragons began feeding on humans, caravans, and livestock, and their population grew."
Lan and Zhan froze—they hadn't expected this: "Dragons?"
"Yes."
"Large, four-legged snakes with horns and deadly venom—the worst enemy of humans in those days."
"But every dragon, even if small and young, has a pearl in its chest, and the larger the dragon, the larger the pearl."
"Absorbing a pearl's power could grant power, longevity, and even create a bloodline that would continue for several generations."
"Sects and martial families seized this opportunity—at great cost and with immense sacrifice, they obtained dragon pearls. Killing dragons, which was beyond human power, had now become possible."
"Now there was no mention of the King of Kings or the Emperor; the dragon-slaying heroes had become people's legends, and the rebellion of sects and families increased."
"The Emperor decided to suppress them, which faced opposition from the Taoists who promoted the path of patience, but those Taoists who had created the blood path completely agreed and wanted to see the results of their efforts."
"The suppression quickly turned into war, and Murim refused to surrender power, and the Emperor's garden didn't have enough Blood Flowers."
"So, pressured by the blood path supporters, the first crime in Imperial history occurred."
"The Emperor ordered the massacre of Murim supporters and members, using them to build the Blood Flower garden."
"The Emperor wasn't evil, but he was aware of the fate of a government that loses a civil war."
"The people, now aware of the secret behind the Imperial palace walls, leaned more toward Murim. The families and sects, seeing this situation, formed an alliance to confront the Imperial Blood Army."
"The Murim Alliance."
"The war was long and costly, no longer sustainable for either side."
"The first Murim Alliance Leader entered negotiations with the Bloodthirsty Emperor."
"The result was conditions that continue to this day."
"The Empire would no longer use the unholy blood path, and Murim would no longer interfere in Imperial affairs. Exploration and encroachment into dragon territory would stop, and dragon hunting would only be permitted in defense of human territory. The Murim Alliance must, at the Emperor's request, participate in defending the Empire."
"After years of conflict, peace had returned—but the blood path was not satisfied."
"The blood path decided to continue its own way, separate from the Emperor, becoming the first evil sect in the world."
"They aided bandits against caravans, took shares of the spoils, used caravan and escort corpses to plant Blood Flowers again, and encroached upon dragon territory."
"They were now the common enemy of both the Empire and the Murim Alliance."
Lan was confused: "Too fast! How did all this happen?"
Zhan punched Lan in the head: "Shut up, I want to hear."
"Huf."
"Now we have three fronts: the Empire, the Murim Alliance, and the Evil Front."
Zhan quickly interrupted: "What was the result of the war?"
"The Blood Cult lost, but to this day hasn't been destroyed. The leader of this cult now has dozens of dragon pearls and is among the three most powerful."
Now the truth would be revealed with a question from Lan: "We inherited the power of a dragon too—that's why they treat us this way?"
"One dragon!"
"Probably dozens of dragons, and some of them were the most powerful that ever existed."
"Dragons are cannibalistic, so a dragon might spend hundreds of years eating its own kind's pearls, becoming stronger and stronger. And the great Kang Long had hunted one of those before you were born."
"Wait, how did the Unorthodox Front come into existence?"
"That's for another time."
"It's night now, and Madam Chwi has been standing here for an hour."
Both: "When did it become night! Chwi, you were here?"
For now, this is more than enough. The path of the Heavenly Demon Sect is neither wealth, nor honor, nor the absolute evil path. The Heavenly Demon means power—and only power.