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“Should I say thank you?”

“No, I’m the one who should apologize. I’m sorry, Mister Jin. I had no idea that Mister Shim would be so extreme.”

Seo-Moon Hye-Ryung appeared remorseful, but Jin Mu-Won remained expressionless. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to respond to her, but that he was too busy gritting his teeth in pain.

Seo-Moon Hye-Ryung looked down at Jin Mu-Won for a long time, then sighed. She had not expected the situation to get this far out of hand.

“I wish to rest now.”

As she left the room, Seo-Moon Hye-Ryung said, “Please rest well then. I will make sure that Mister Shim does not disturb you again.”

“Sigh!” When he was sure that Seo-Moon Hye-Ryung was gone, Jin Mu-Won heaved a sigh of relief that he had been holding back all this time.

He had lost too much blood, so his face was still rather pale. If not for Seo-Moon Hye-Ryung’s timely rescue and medicinal pill, he would have died for sure.

How the hell did I survive this encounter?

He had literally gambled with his life.

No, this couldn’t be called gambling. Gambling implied that there was a chance to win and a chance to lose. Since losing meant the loss of his life, he could not take chances with a gamble. What he did was choose the one option with a possibility of survival, even if that possibility was slim.

As it turned out, he had made the right choice. His wounds were severe, but he was still alive. Jin Mu-Won strongly believed that his life would one day turn for the better, so the most important thing to him was to survive until that day arrived.

Also, it was imperative that Shim Won-Ui not find out about the Art of Ten Thousand Shadows. By letting Shim Won-Ui injure him, he had successfully convinced the man that he did not know any martial arts.

All in all, it was worth risking my life for this result.

Jin Mu-Won closed his eyes. The instant he did so, he was overcome by extreme exhaustion. Coupled with the pain from multiple wounds on his body, the fatigue was overwhelming.

He gave in to his body’s demands and fell asleep.

…How long have I been sleeping?

Jin Mu-Won’s face felt a little itchy for some reason, as if someone was spying on him in the dark. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a dark figure staring down at him.

The figure had eyes as bright as a cat’s.

Jin Mu-Won smiled. There were many people in the world, but only one person looked at him with eyes like that.

“Ha-Seol.”

“Who did this to you?”

“I’m fine.”

“I asked you who did it!” There was a hint of rage in Eun Ha-Seol’s voice.

“Was it them?”

“Ha-Seol.”

“It must have been them.”

I don’t even need to hear his answer. Those people are the only ones in this place who would hurt him.

Suddenly, the temperature inside the room plummeted. Goosebumps appeared on Jin Mu-Won’s frozen skin, and the cold air made it hard for him to breathe.

Was she this strong!?

He knew that Eun Ha-Seol practiced martial arts, so even though he had never had a chance to gauge her strength before today, he had never thought of her as weak. However, he hadn’t expected her to be this strong, either.

Her inner chi was in perfect harmony with the chi in the environment.

Transcendence.[1]

Just like how the color of fire would turn blue at a high enough temperature, Eun Ha-Seol’s martial arts had surpassed the fundamentals and evolved to a higher stage.

This was far beyond Jin Mu-Won’s predictions.

She’s only fourteen years old. How on earth did she reach Transcendence at such a young age? More importantly, how many people are capable of creating a monster like her? Just who is her master?

In the end, this girl is…

Jin Mu-Won sighed, saying, “I’m fine, Ha-Seol. This was part of my plan.”

“Your plan?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you do that to yourself?”

“Because I don’t want to arouse their suspicions.”

“You allowed yourself to get hurt just for that?”

“Not intentionally, no. I simply didn’t have any other options available to me at that time. I was in a life-threatening situation, and I chose the one and only path where there was a possibility of survival.”

“Ahh, you really…”

The anger dissipated from Eun Ha-Seol’s voice, and the temperature in the room returned back to normal.

Jin Mu-Won heaved a sigh of relief.

Eun Ha-Seol pulled up a chair and sat down next to Jin Mu-Won’s bed.

He got hurt so badly the instant I took my eyes off him. I’m partly to blame for this, aren’t I?

“Are you still in pain?”

“Yes.”

““Haa…”” The two of them sighed at the same time.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

A man was traveling alone through the plains of the North.

The northern winds ripped through him like the claws of a wolf as he moved against its flow. He raised a hand to brush his long hair out of his face.

All he could see was the whitish-gray color of arid land, stretching out all the way to the horizon. Despite its desolate appearance, he could feel the powerful vitality of the North hidden below the surface.

“This is great!”

The man beamed. From his smile, one could clearly see his immense confidence and boundless ambition. These traits only served to make him appear even stronger.

He was six feet[2] tall, with dark brown skin. As his black cloak billowed in the wind, his huge, bared muscular arms could be seen. A long scar ran across his face, further adding to his wild, ferocious look.

The man slowly strolled northwards.

His powerful spirit could be felt in every brazen step he took, intimidating those with lesser conviction than he. The wind turned his long, black hair into a lion’s mane, creating the illusion that he was the king of beasts.

He walked proudly on his own two legs, with no horse or carriage to ease his journey. Hidden beneath his cloak, his body was covered with dozens of wounds; some large, some small. These were wounds that he had sustained during his many battles on his way here.

Most of these wounds were merely small scratches, but several were deep and near-fatal. Despite sustaining all these serious injuries, he had survived and managed to travel all the way to the North.

“This is only the beginning of my grand journey.”

I have a dream.

Everyone calls it an impossible dream, but I don’t care.

I’ve had this dream ever since I was young, and to realize this dream, I have worked my butt off. Even so, I still don’t have the qualifications to make my dream come true.

Suddenly, the man stopped dead in his tracks and observed his surroundings carefully.

“Who goes there?” The man’s voice boomed like the roar of a lion.

Still, there was nothing.

“Come out, or I will go over and drag you out instead!” the man roared again.

As if in response to the man’s demands, several gray-cloaked warriors suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

The man’s eyebrows twitched.

“Er, so there really was someone there?”

“……”

The warriors did not answer the man’s question. They only stared at him with tilted heads and expressions of distaste.

The man sized up the warriors.

They had sharp eyes like that of a poisonous snake that had found its prey. Their muscles were tensed, like a leopard ready to pounce. Calluses covered the front and back of their hands, an indication of how hard they had trained.

What the man was most concerned about, though, were the unusual weapons hanging from their waists. It was a transforming weapon that could be interchangeably used as a sword and a sickle, with a thin silver chain about the width of a child’s thumb attached to the end of the handle.

Weapons like these were rare in the Central Plains, so the man was very curious about them. He had never fought someone wielding a weapon like that before.

Just then, a man who looked like the leader of the warriors stepped forward. The large man frowned as he looked at this person. That was because the leader of the warriors exuded an evil aura that disgusted him.

The aura was sinister yet noble. It was unlike anything he had seen before.

The warrior leader squinted at the man and asked, “Where are you going?”

“I think I’m hardly obliged to tell you that, right?” the man replied, crossing his arms. Even though he was surrounded by over thirty warriors, his spirit was not the least bit daunted.

The leader of the warriors smiled slyly.

“Then, allow me to change my question. Who are you?”

“I don’t think I’m obliged to tell you that either.”

“You won’t answer any of my questions, huh? In that case, please allow me to at least give you a warning.”

“I’m listening.”

“Go back to wherever you came from, and we will let you leave this place alive.”

“I will pretend I didn’t hear that. There is a reason I cannot turn back.”

The warrior leader narrowed his eyes. At the same time, the gray-cloaked warriors raised their weapons.

“You’re going to ignore our warning? In that case, we will be forced to execute you.”

“Let’s see who’ll be the one who ends up executed, shall we?”

“Your arrogance will be the death of you,” growled the leader in an icy tone.

Suddenly, the large man felt as if his skin had been painfully pierced by needles. He was stunned. He had not expected to meet someone who could affect him using just aura in this desolate place.

The leader yelled, “Kill him! There’s a possibility that he’s here to help that little bitch.”

That little bitch?

The large man appeared confused for a moment, but quickly decided to save his questions for later. The gray-cloaked warriors were swarming toward him like a tsunami.

A transforming sickle came flying towards him, its silver chain trailing behind it.

SHIING!

A piercing sound like the clinking of chains reverberated in his ear. Multiple silver chains had overlapped to form a giant web and they were approaching him in a disorienting manner. However, even now, the man stood still with his arms folded.

A white mist arose from the silver chains, just like the sword chi of a master swordsman. The mist then quickly spread out, concealing the gray-cloaked warriors within. Although it appeared harmless, the man knew that if he let the mist come in contact with his body, even for an instant, it would shred him into tiny pieces like a torrent of sharp blades.

The Shrouded Fire Demon Formation (隱形炎魔陣).

That was the name of the formation that the grey-cloaked warriors had put up. It was a formation that was highly effective when surrounding one opponent. The sheer pressure that the formation exerted on him was so great that even the large man could feel death’s approach.

I’ve never seen a formation like this in the Central Plains before.

The large man was fairly young, but he was very experienced and insightful. Despite all his experience, though, he had never seen warriors and formations like these before.

Interesting!

The man smiled.

When faced with a situation like this, some may lament their bad luck, but not I. This battle is merely a trial that will serve as nourishment for my growth.

WHOOSH!

The transforming weapons shot towards him, stirring up the wind and causing his clothes to flutter wildly. For a moment, all he could see were blades flying in his direction.

The man raised his right arm and pointed toward the sky. When the leader of the warriors saw this, he sneered.

I guess he’s just another lunatic.

I was stupid to think he was any more than that and get all nervous because of him.

Just then.

The man clenched his fist as if he was grasping the sky in his hands. A blinding light appeared between his clasped fingers, but before the light could spill out, the man slammed his fist into the ground.

BOOM!

Lightning flashed across the sky, accompanied by the roar of thunder.

“AHHHHH!”

“GEUHEUK!”

The gray-cloaked warriors and their silver chains were swallowed by a giant cyclone of light. As the light faded, smoking corpses fell to the ground one after another. In just one blow, more than a dozen warriors now lay dead.

A pure white light flickered on the still-smirking leader’s forehead for a moment, but before he knew it, it had disappeared like a mirage.

He was completely bewildered. He just couldn’t understand what had just happened. All he remembered seeing was a brilliant flash of light, and then suddenly, more than a dozen of his men were dead, killed by the broken fragments of their own weapons.

“What? How is this possible? We are the Shrouded Ghost Squad (隱鬼隊)!”

“The Shrouded Ghost Squad? Is that what you guys are called?”

“You… Just who are you?” asked the panicking leader, again.

Instead of answering him, the man raised a hand toward the sky once more. In the eyes of the warrior leader, it was as if he was about to take hold of the heavens.

BOOM!

Yet another tornado of light appeared, followed closely by the clash of thunder.

“The Shrouded Iron Shell Formation (隱形鐵甲陣), hurry!”

The members of the Shrouded Ghost Squad placed their hands on each other’s shoulders and locked their silver chains together with amazing speed to form a giant metal shell. The Shrouded Iron Shell Formation was the formation with the highest defensive power in their arsenal.

KABLAM!

They were immediately engulfed by a light cyclone.

CRACK!

Cracks appeared in the metal shell. All of the members of the Shrouded Ghost Squad, including their leader, grit their teeth as they reeled from the impact.

Blood flowed from the corner of the squad leader’s lips. Although his squad had managed to get the Shrouded Iron Shell Formation up in time, he had still sustained internal damage from the shockwave.

A desperate look appeared on the squad leader’s face as he growled, “You bastard! In the name of the Shrouded Fire Devil, I swear that you will definitely die a horrible death!”

“You finally introduced yourself, so I will do the same. My name is Dam Soo-Cheon.”

The man looked up at the sky.

To this man who brought forth the dawn of a new era, the heavens bestowed upon him the name “Dam Soo-Cheon”.

With the Shrouded Fire Devil in the lead, the Shrouded Ghost Squad clashed with Dam Soo-Cheon.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Jin Mu-Won’s wounds were itching unbearably, to the point where he couldn’t sleep. He tried and failed several times to fall asleep, until finally, he gave up and decided to take a walk. He left the Tower of Shadows and took a deep breath of the cold air outside. The icy wind brought his mind back into focus, making him feel alive again.

After the events of that day, Shim Won-Ui had lost all interest in him. He now treated Jin Mu-Won like he was invisible, pretending not to see him even when they ran into each other.

In addition, his wounds had taken a whole week to close properly. During that entire period, Jin Mu-Won had been bedridden and couldn’t move at all. If not for Eun Ha-Seol and Seo-Moon Hye-Ryung taking turns to look after him, he would probably still be stuck in bed.

Jin Mu-Won strolled around the inner courtyard of the tower for a while. Suddenly, he looked up at the night sky as if he was possessed by something.

One of the constellations was emitting a dazzling white radiance, drowning out the light from all the other stars.

The darkness of the night sky around that constellation pulsated in concert, as if it was resonating with the light. [3]

Footnotes:

[1] Transcendence: Technically, the term used here is 노화순청(爐火純靑), meaning Complete Mastery. It differs from other instances of Transcendence 상승지경(上昇之境), but seeing as it only appears once in the entire 400 chapters, I believe this is a mistake by the author. The description also matches that for Transcendence in C14 perfectly.

[2] Six feet: I’m converting all units of measurement from now on. Dealing with ancient units is a pain. Anyway, Dam Soo-Cheon is the same height as Jin Mu-Won.

[3] Dam Soo-Cheon is the light, and Jin Mu-Won is the shadow. In the Art of Ten Thousand Shadows (C6), Jin Mu-Won represents the darkness of the night sky that is lit up by a sea of stars. The phenomena in the sky appears to be prophesying that these two young men will spearhead the dawn of a new era, hence the title “The Momentous Dawn of a New Era”.