Chapter 63: Ghost Shadow Thief (4)
Seo Mun-Hwarin.
She was once the second daughter of the Seo Clan, a prestigious and renowned righteous sect.
The Seo Clan was famous for its exceptional swordsmanship, but Seo Mun-Hwarin herself had little interest in martial arts. Other than learning the very basics, she never truly devoted herself to it.
Since she was expected to marry into another family someday, her clan didn't see this as a major issue.
Thus, she spent her days peacefully, preferring embroidery over the sword—until the Seo Clan met its sudden destruction.
Their home was in Jiangxi Province, a place lacking strong orthodox forces like the Five Supreme Clans or the Nine Great Sects.
Furthermore, it was adjacent to Zhejiang Province, a region where the orthodox and unorthodox factions frequently clashed.
For a long time, the Seo Clan had maintained a firm grip on Jiangxi, making them a thorn in the side of the unorthodox sects.
Eventually, an equally old and ambitious unorthodox sect, the Black Sky Sword Sect, gathered its allies and mid-sized sects under its influence to conspire against the Seo Clan.
Their plan was simple.
Feigning an end to their long-standing conflict, the Black Sky Sword Sect's leader proposed an arranged marriage between their sects.
Weary from the never-ending territorial struggles in Jiangxi, the Seo Clan accepted.
Thus, a wedding was arranged between Seo Mun-Hwarin's younger brother and the Black Sky Sword Sect Leader's daughter.
What should have been a day of celebration turned out to be the Seo Clan's final day.
The head steward, bribed beforehand, poisoned the alcohol, incapacitating the clan head and his closest retainers.
Meanwhile, the guests—secretly allied with the Black Sky Sword Sect—drew their hidden weapons one by one.
The Seo Clan was not weak by any means.
However, the Black Sky Sword Sect had planned their attack meticulously.
The warriors of the Seo Clan, who took pride in protecting Jiangxi as a righteous faction, were struck down one after another.
Even their patriarch, whose skill was said to be unmatched save for a handful of supreme martial artists, fought desperately while poisoned—yet in the end, he was beheaded by the Black Sky Sword Sect's leader.
Her younger brother, who should have been a groom, was stabbed through the heart by his bride—his eyes filled with betrayal as he took his last breath.
Seo Mun-Hwarin survived for one reason.
Because she had never properly learned martial arts.
Lacking internal energy and the presence that martial artists carried, she was deemed unimportant and overlooked.
This allowed her to escape.
However, it did not change the fact that, in a single night, her entire world had been reduced to ashes.
She had watched, with her own eyes, as her family and household retainers were slaughtered.
What could she have possibly felt in that moment?
Even if no one else knew, I understood it all too well.
The unbearable rage burning in her chest.
Clenching her fists so hard her nails dug into her skin.
Screaming her throat raw, yet the fire inside never dimming.
Her hair, once black, turning stark white in a single night—proof of the unbearable torment within her.
And there was only one way to quench that fire.
Revenge.
Thus, Seo Mun-Hwarin left Jiangxi and began wandering the martial world in pursuit of vengeance.
Born a noble lady, she soon experienced homelessness, starvation, and betrayal.
And eventually, she learned what it meant to kill with martial arts.
To take revenge, she had to survive.
And the martial world was not kind to a young woman traveling alone.
Anyone who approached with bad intentions had to be struck down.
Fortunately, Seo Mun-Hwarin had never lacked talent.
Though she had never seriously trained, she still remembered the basic fist techniques she had learned for self-defense.
What should have been merely foundational exercises—normally practiced before proper sword training—became her focus.
She refined them, improved them, and trained relentlessly.
By the time she realized it, she had stepped into the ranks of experts.
And the moment she became aware of her strength, she began her long-overdue revenge.
Of course, no matter how strong a peak-level martial artist might be, they alone could not annihilate all the sects ruling over Jiangxi.
So, she started with the weakest sects.
She lured them out one by one.
Sometimes through deception.
Sometimes through ambushes.
At first, only a handful of martial artists disappeared.
But as time passed, Seo Mun-Hwarin's vengeance grew bolder.
Partly because her martial prowess was rapidly increasing.
But also because she had already wiped out so many sects that hiding was no longer an option.
Realizing the threat she posed, the sects that had conspired against the Seo Clan, including the Black Sky Sword Sect, began hunting her down.
But she survived every single attempt on her life.
Instead, she surpassed the peak-level realm—and massacred even more sects.
Her onslaught was like a wildfire, an unstoppable calamity.
By the time her vengeance reached its climax, every enemy sect had been wiped out—leaving only the Black Sky Sword Sect standing.
She knew the truth.
The Black Sky Sword Sect's leader had been a supreme master for a long time.
And after absorbing the Seo Clan's martial arts, he had grown even stronger.
But knowing that didn't matter.
Because by then, the fire of revenge had already consumed her.
She slaughtered every warrior of the Black Sky Sword Sect.
And for three days and nights, she engaged in a life-or-death battle with its leader.
In the end, Seo Mun-Hwarin crushed his skull.
And by then, the martial world had given her a new name—
The White-Haired Rakshasa.
With that, her revenge was complete.
But once the flames of vengeance died down, all that remained was ash.
The bloodshed she had caused weighed heavily on her.
Despite her righteous cause, she had killed far too many people.
For someone who had once been gentle at heart, slaughtering hundreds was bound to leave scars.
Drained and weary, Seo Mun-Hwarin gathered what remained of the Seo Clan's martial arts and went into seclusion.
This was the story known to the world—the destruction of the Seo Clan and the vengeance that followed.
However, there was one more detail the world did not know.
After refining her foundation and achieving the supreme realm through endless battle, she finally obtained her clan's secret martial arts.
And upon seeing them, she realized…
They were a clear, perfected version of everything she had painstakingly developed on her own.
Her progress surged even faster.
Eventually, she ascended to the Flowering Stage—a realm beyond mortal limits.
Yet, perhaps because of the guilt and remorse that haunted her after her revenge—
She didn't just undergo the usual rebirth (환골탈태) that came with reaching the Flowering Stage.
Her body reversed in age.
She became younger.
Thus, having returned to the body of her happiest childhood, Seo Mun-Hwarin made a resolution.
Now that her revenge was over, and although things had changed somewhat, she had inherited her family's martial arts. She decided to live a new life—a life without the stench of blood, a life befitting a person.
So, she erased as much evidence of her identity as possible and headed to Hubei Province.
She aimed to participate in the Yongbong Gathering held at the Murim Alliance in Wuchang City, starting over as an unremarkable yet decently skilled young martial artist from an unknown sect.
Well, that was the plan—until the Murim Alliance Leader, who usually only made an appearance during the finals, decided to spectate from the very first match. As a result, she was discovered immediately.
Due to the ruthless hand she wielded during her revenge, Seo Mun-Hwarin was already considered a prominent figure in the unorthodox world.
Though, as a master who had reached the Flowering Stage, they had tried to reason with her diplomatically, in the end, she was expelled without achieving her goal.
Eventually, when even her rejuvenated appearance was exposed, she abandoned the idea of a new life. In search of a place to belong, she joined the Black Lotus Sect—
and there, she met Seol Lihyang.
This is the story of the Seo Mun Clan and Seo Mun-Hwarin, as I know it.
She was my teacher, a figure akin to a parent. Though she never formally passed down her martial arts to me, she would occasionally observe and guide my techniques.
Thanks to her, I was able to refine my swordsmanship, improve my inner cultivation technique, and adapt my footwork—once a disconnected mess—into something that fit me perfectly.
And yet… to think that the footwork Seo Mun-Hwarin tailored for me was actually an improved version of the Seo Mun Clan's martial arts.
Seo Mun-Hwarin had always drawn a clear line, insisting she had no intention of passing down her martial arts to me. This was entirely unexpected.
"Ghost Shadow Thief, is this truly the footwork of the Seo Mun Clan?"
"It certainly looks that way to me."
"The Seo Mun Clan's martial arts once spread far and wide, didn't they?"
"The White-Haired Rakshasa managed to recover most of it, but some techniques were so widely dispersed that reclaiming them was impossible. However, this isn't just any incomplete technique."
Ghost Shadow Thief shook his head firmly.
Come to think of it, he was someone who had once infiltrated the Seo Mun Clan's secret archives. If nothing else, he possessed a genius-level talent in footwork and movement techniques.
It was hard to dismiss this as mere coincidence.
"I understand. Let's assume my footwork is indeed from the Seo Mun Clan. But what do you mean by saying it's not just any incomplete technique?"
"I mean it quite literally. By the way, what have you been calling this footwork until now?"
"It doesn't have a name. My teacher created it for me, and she said its true value would only manifest when I used it, so she never gave it an official name. If I were to name it, I suppose it would simply be 'Nameless Step'."
"Sigh… Such an exceptional martial art is about to be buried unnoticed."
"What exactly did you see in my footwork that made you say that?"
"What else? Have you ever heard of Thunderclap Step?"
"…Not at all."
"Well, that's not surprising. It has been a long time since the Seo Mun Clan was destroyed. Thunderclap Step is a renowned footwork technique known for its extreme speed. It gets its name because every step produces a sound reminiscent of thunder."
"Oh."
Now that he mentioned it, something did come to mind.
My footwork was fundamentally a martial art specialized in instantaneous speed and precise control over acceleration and deceleration.
While it lacked in seamless directional changes, it allowed me to explosively accelerate by channeling my inner energy into the Yongcheon Blood Point. Additionally, I could stomp down mid-stride to convert my speed into raw power, enabling me to halt abruptly.
Among these features, the explosive release of inner energy at the Yongcheon Blood Point produced a sound that, to an untrained ear, might resemble thunder.
Though my current level wasn't high enough to emphasize that sound, in my previous life—when I had reached the Transcendence Realm—the resemblance had been much clearer.
I had always believed this footwork was meant to exploit momentary openings in my opponent's defense.
To think it was actually one of the Seo Mun Clan's superior martial arts…
If that were the case, then why had Seo Mun-Hwarin, who so adamantly refused to pass down her clan's techniques to outsiders, lied to me?
As confusion clouded my thoughts, Ghost Shadow Thief spoke in a low voice.
"…It seems you had no idea."
"No. She always told me she had created it just for me."
"That part is likely true. You never learned the Seo Mun Clan's inner cultivation technique, nor did you study its theoretical principles. Yet, traces of repeated refinements are evident—alterations made so that even someone with entirely different martial arts could use it without difficulty."
"It must not have been an easy task."
"Indeed. But the question is… why?"
Why had Seo Mun-Hwarin gone to such lengths?
The question slipped from my lips before I could stop myself.
Ghost Shadow Thief let out a hearty laugh.
"You ask why? The answer is simple. If anyone were to pass down the Seo Mun Clan's martial arts to you, it would be the White-Haired Rakshasa. But she has many enemies."
"Enemies…"
Now that he mentioned it…
The son of the Black Sky Sword Emperor had somehow survived and, much like Seo Mun-Hwarin, rose to the Flowering Stage out of sheer vengeance—
only to ultimately die alongside her.
Seo Mun-Hwarin's revenge had been spectacular, but it wasn't perfect. Branded as a figure of the unorthodox world, her reputation in Murim had never been favorable.
"She didn't want to burden her disciple with her own baggage."
"…Ah."
The moment I heard those words, I realized—
I wasn't the only one who saw Seo Mun-Hwarin as a teacher.
Surely, she had also considered me her disciple.
As I struggled to suppress the surge of emotions welling up within me, Ghost Shadow Thief shifted the conversation back to the main point.
"I won't tell anyone about your teacher. However, considering the past wrongs I committed against the Seo Mun Clan, as well as the fact that you saved my life this time—I'd like to repay you for both."
"Repay me? In what way?"
"I'll teach you half of my footwork."
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