Murim Troubleshooter Dan Mujin

Chapter 1: Falling Off the Cliff

I used to be a successful troubleshooter.

Searching for missing persons, collecting debts, investigating infidelity, and so on.

I had a knack for scratching where others itched, which meant I made decent money and even considered this job my calling.

Then one day, a kitchen knife plunged into my abdomen.

It happened while I was collecting evidence of an affair.

The reason for the stabbing was pathetic. She said she lost the trial because my evidence was insufficient.

That’s why one must be careful when accepting love-related cases, but I couldn’t resist the temptation of the huge fee.

Anyway, my life, which seemed to end like that, was coming to a close. I was calmly accepting death as my consciousness faded, and then, what in the world?

A searing pain as if my intestines were being torn apart surged through me.

Pain was supposed to be the privilege of the living, so... was I not dead yet? Would I open my eyes to the ceiling of a hospital room?

With such hope, I opened my eyes wide.

But what spread before my eyes was something I never expected.

"……This is absurd. I struck your Qi core. How are you still alive?"

Heavy raindrops pounded my shoulders. Thunder boomed ominously, setting an unusual atmosphere.

In that storm, a woman gripped a bloodied longsword, staring at me in shock.

"What the hell is this……."

My mind was in utter chaos.

I was standing on the peak of a towering mountain range. Behind me was a sheer cliff, and below, the roar of rushing water echoed.

And my abdomen, with a knife wound, was spilling vivid red blood.

"O Heaven and Earth, why do you give such trials to this girl……."

A sorrowful voice. The woman exuded an air full of backstory.

Looking closely, she was ridiculously beautiful.

Eyes shining like black pearls, delicate features, neatly tied ponytail, and a pale nape.

"I'm sorry, Cheongjin. Even in death, don’t forgive this sister."

And that beauty was calling me by a completely unfamiliar name.

But I should be Troubleshooter Dan Wonjun. Who the hell was this Cheongjin guy?

At that moment, memories rushed in like a flood.

“Ugh!”

Growing up in the Murong Clan, the cursed star that gnaws at reason, and the inescapable fate of that star.

Soon I remembered who I was, who she was, and why this whole mess was happening.

This was a world where superhumans split boulders and seas with a single sword—the Jianghu Murim.

And I was the youngest son of the Murong Clan Leader, Murong Cheongjin.

“Cheonghye… Sister Cheonghye?”

And the woman in front of me was my biological older sister, Murong Cheonghye.

“To stop the bloodshed in the Central Plains and to ensure the Murong Clan survives, this is the only way.”

Why was my own sister saying something so heartless? I remembered that, too.

‘Heaven-Slaying Star (Cheonsalseong).’

A root of disaster destined to annihilate the clan. That’s what the Murong Clan called me.

When a human’s evil karma reached its peak, the heavens would punish them by sending down the Heaven-Slaying Star.

A past example being the previous Heaven-Slaying Star from a hundred years ago, who drenched the Central Plains in mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Step.

As if casting away her last hesitation, Murong Cheonghye took a bold step forward with a solemn face.

From the raised blade, I could feel a sharp killing intent, determined to end it this time for sure.

“W-Wait! Sister! Hold on!”

I was well aware of the power of her Sword Flash of Heaven and Earth.

Even if I had the body and talent made for killing, I was still just a lump of meat before the sword qi that sliced iron like tofu.

Crack.

And I had forgotten—I was being chased and had ended up with a cliff at my back.

As my foot landed on the edge, stones crumbled and fell, adding to the precariousness.

There was no retreat left. And at this rate, I’d get stabbed again, so I desperately tried to talk.

“Hey, Cheonghye nuna……? I’m really sane now, okay? So could you please put that scary thing down and talk…… please?”

With the memories merging into one, Murong Cheongjin’s tone slipped out unconsciously.

"……You really never give up."

But her reaction wasn’t what I had hoped. Instead, Murong Cheonghye bit her red lips as if even angrier.

“You wicked, cunning star. You plan to use my brother’s voice to deceive me again?!”

It had the opposite effect.

I could guess that the evil star that had taken over this body had already imitated Murong Cheongjin multiple times.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, I’m not the evil star! I really came to my senses this time! Look at me, it’s Cheongjin!”

I was on the verge of going insane.

No matter how I pleaded, she wouldn’t budge an inch.

To her, I was nothing but a bloodthirsty fiend, a vile evil star using sweet words to escape death.

“To the very end, you mock me…… But this won’t work anymore. Disappear from this world, evil star!”

A final verdict-like shout. The blade radiated a sharp aura that seemed to cut just by looking.

That was sword qi—something only a master with deep internal energy could wield.

Zzzzt—

Murong Cheonghye took a stance of the Murong Clan’s secret sword art that was said to even split lightning—the Sword Flash of Heaven and Earth.

“Ah, damn it.”

Her eyes were filled with unwavering resolve. There was no way I was walking out of this alive.

Crack.

Taking half a step back, more stones tumbled down the slope. Behind me now was a dizzying abyss and wild, raging rapids.

If I jumped in, would they even find my bones?

But standing here, I’d still be shredded by sword qi all the same.

“What kind of choice is this?”

It felt like I was born to suffer.

Die here, die there. If I was going to get stabbed again, I’d rather choose my own way out.

But as I stared down the cliff, I felt a tinge of resentment.

I’d been an orphan on Earth too, and now in this world, I was being abandoned by my own family again?

What the hell did I do in my past life to deserve this?

“In the end, even in sister’s eyes, I was just a monster……”

At that resentful, disappointed whisper, Murong Cheonghye froze.

Before they learned I was the Heaven-Slaying Star, she cherished me like a little brother she couldn’t bear to part with.

“Damn—”

I tightly shut my eyes and threw myself into the abyss.

Endless freefall welcomed me.

“Daaamn—!”

---

In the Central Plains, five prestigious clans had wielded unshaken power and influence for centuries.

One of them was the Murong Clan of Liaoning Province, who unified the northern Murim and reigned as its overlord.

“Did you send the child away without pain?”

A tranquil manor, where white magnolias bloomed in full glory.

The head of the Murong Clan, Murong Cheon, ground ink on the inkstone in an attempt to calm his troubled mind, then asked quietly.

“…….”

But no answer came.

Murong Cheonghye stood dazed, her face lifeless.

Always wearing a cold expression. She traveled through Hebei beheading martial demons with her lightning-fast sword, earning the nickname the Cold Jade Maiden from gossipmongers.

But in truth, she was a woman unbearably soft toward her family.

Especially to her youngest brother, who looked up to her and followed her so dearly—Murong Cheon’s gaze now held concern.

“……It was my lack of skill that caused the child pain.”

Murong Cheonghye finally opened her mouth after a long silence, clenching her fist so tightly it looked ready to crumble.

Even martial artists who could cleave massive old trees with a single stroke waver in the face of familial affection.

In a moment of hesitation, she failed to take his head, and because of that, her brother writhed in pain and threw himself off a cliff.

They had dispatched people, but the rapids swept him away, and not even a body could be retrieved.

“Did it… really have to be this way?”

Having finished her report, Murong Cheonghye asked again, her head bowed and voice filled with grief.

Murong Cheon’s brush briefly paused at that question.

“It had to be.”

If you don’t cut away a rotting branch in time, the rot will spread to the roots.

As the leader responsible for many dependents and blood kin, it was a decision that had to be made.

The previous Heaven-Slaying Star reached astonishing achievements within ten years of awakening, only to annihilate their own clan and soak the Murim in blood.

A murderous demon driven mad. Someone bearing the Murong name must never bring about such carnage.

There were already forces that foresaw the return of the Heaven-Slaying Star. Had the Murong Clan not severed the finger themselves, those forces would have acted.

“But, Father… at the end… he seemed truly back to himself.”

Whatever she had seen on that cliff, Murong Cheonghye, forgetting even the title of Clan Head, pleaded that something had changed.

“One in a thousand, one in ten thousand. If that really was Cheongjin coming back and I didn’t recognize it and drew my sword…”

Her voice trembled with guilt. Was it a mistake to entrust her with the task?

Murong Cheon clicked his tongue briefly and replied.

“Are you going to let yourself be deceived by that thing again? Even if it was a moment of terminal lucidity, he was destined to be swallowed by killing intent.”

Even if there was a flicker of clarity, it would’ve been fleeting. How could a human’s mind endure the weight of the heavens? It would only have made the farewell more painful.

Murong Cheon resumed brushing the characters onto the rice paper.

It was regrettable that they couldn't retrieve the body, but surviving that height was impossible even for a master like Cheonghye, let alone someone with a wound like that.

“The heavens are truly merciless.”

Why did it have to be that child?

Despite all kinds of rituals and medicines, the madness only grew stronger with each day.

Fate ordained by the heavens—no matter how much you struggle, some things simply can’t be defied.

The message he personally penned was now complete.

A notification that one of the stars in the night sky—one that had shone so ominously—had finally fallen.