Murim Troubleshooter Dan Mujin

Chapter 45: A Strange Reunion

“Leave the rest to me from here.”

A ponytail fluttered beneath the bamboo grove, revealing a white nape.

Hearing that soft voice praising my struggle until now, I felt a strange yearning well up inside me.

‘Cheonghye noona……?’

That name—both distant and resentful.

Judging by how the Murong Cheongjin part inside me stirred, it seemed that person really was her.

‘But why here?’

Ever since I got stabbed in the stomach, I had been actively avoiding contact. And yet, in this remote mountain, she had to show up again—right in front of me.

Had she come to finish what was left undone?

“What the hell are you supposed to be, woman?”

Soul-Stealing Demon Lord asked irritably, wiping blood from his ears and nose.

“Vice Captain of the Demon-Slaying Unit, Murong Cheonghye. The woman who will take the head of a century-old fiend today.”

Her sword radiated a sharp energy. As if to show no mercy to villains, Murong Cheonghye flared a fierce sword qi.

“So it’s you—the Murong clan woman who’s been madly slaughtering demonic practitioners these days.”

The two exchanged words, growling in front of me.

In the meantime, I quickly swallowed the swelling medicine that Ilhong had handed me.

“But how did you know I was here? I erased every trace.”

Soul-Stealing Demon Lord asked with a twitch of his eyebrow, clearly suspicious.

“I heard there was a nasty monster lurking about, so I came. But to find someone of your stature crawling out—I guess I got lucky today.”

“……Ha! You think you’re lucky for running into me? Foolish girl, not even knowing you’re at death’s door!”

He mocked her, calling her the truly unfortunate one, and unleashed a torrent of accumulated demonic qi.

Even as blood continued to flow from his body due to reckless qi manipulation, he didn’t care in the slightest.

“Even if I’m internally injured, the energy I’ve cultivated spans at least two sexagenary cycles! Snapping the neck of an arrogant girl like you is nothing!”

“Boasting with power built from the blood and tears of others? How utterly pathetic.”

Murong Cheonghye rebuked him with a cold voice.

Furious, Soul-Stealing Demon Lord wrapped both fists in heavy Demonic Fist energy.

Yet perhaps due to his disrupted qi flow, his demonic qi now swirled in a very unstable manner—unlike before.

“……Shut up!”

With a curse, he kicked off the ground and lunged at her.

In response, a blinding flash burst forth from the tip of Murong Cheonghye’s sword.

As everyone watched anxiously, the Murong clan’s ultimate technique, Sword Flash of Heaven and Earth, unfolded from her fingers.

Shhhwick—!

A deafening roar and shouts broke the silence of the mountains.

Each clash of opposing forces sent intense qi waves rippling in all directions.

Rocks split, debris flew, and trees were uprooted—such was the ferocity of the battle.

Kwaaang! Kwaaang!

Soul-Stealing Demon Lord’s Demonic Fist struck Murong Cheonghye square in the chest. The demonic qi on his fists howled like it would tear through flesh.

Shwick! Shhwick!

Murong Cheonghye received it with graceful yet dazzling movements.

The destructive onslaught of demonic qi lost its power and faded on its own, trapped by the sword path she wove.

Piiing—!

Then she counterattacked using Sword Flash of Heaven and Earth, her blade gleaming with the quick sword of the Murong clan.

“Grrgh!”

A silver streak sliced through the air, severing a wrinkled ear and sending it flying with a spurt of blood.

A woman and an old man exchanged attacks, splattering fresh blood.

“Who do you think will win, boss?”

Ilhong sidled up to me, eyes tense as he watched the duel.

“Whoever has the stronger martial arts.”

“Ugh, I mean who is it specifically?”

“That woman with the fast sword.”

I’d seen her many times when I was younger. Once she moved as one with her sword, she would occasionally show sword strikes that defied belief, surpassing even the peak level.

Plus, Soul-Stealing Demon Lord had already taken a hit from me earlier, leaving his insides in turmoil.

“But ‘that woman’? Boss, don’t tell me you don’t know the Demon-Slaying Unit’s Evil-Slaying Demoness? Even if you’re clueless about the murim, that’s just too much.”

Ilhong scolded me, as if baffled that I didn’t recognize his favorite female martial artist.

But it wasn’t that I didn’t know her. I knew her too well—that was the problem.

That’s exactly why I was going out of my way to pretend I didn’t.

Puhhhff!

Meanwhile, their fierce game of skill continued.

And as if confirming my earlier thought, the tide of battle slowly began to turn.

Back then, Tang Yeo-hye had coughed up blood from this same kind of power clash.

“Bweeegh!”

This time, Soul-Stealing Demon Lord, suffering worsened internal injuries, spewed out a handful of blood.

His qi flow completely disrupted, black enhanced qi scattered from his grip. He tried to pull back his fists in alarm, but it was already too late.

Skkkt!

A sharp longsword sliced through his fingers like dry twigs.

Then, in a lightning-fast move, it thrust deep into his lower abdomen before withdrawing.

“Gyaaah!”

The burst of internal energy rattled his insides, making him cry out in agony.

Oh, I knew exactly how that felt.

“Ghhrrk, wait! Stop for a moment! I have something to say!”

Gone was the arrogant old man who once called himself ‘this lord’. Soul-Stealing Demon Lord now desperately pleaded for a pause.

“I do not heed the words of trash like you!”

No wonder she earned the alias Evil-Slaying Demoness. She clearly had the personality to match—showing no mercy to anyone she deemed evil.

Wait, why does my stomach ache all of a sudden?

Could this be that so-called post-traumatic stress?

“The Murong clan is secretly looking for someone!”

But then, her sword—which I thought would fall without hesitation—suddenly stopped mid-swing.

“……Where did you hear that?”

Murong Cheonghye asked, her voice subtly trembling.

“The Murong Clan Head put in a request to Black Spot. Said to capture a youth around fifteen with a ruined face…… alive or dead, didn’t matter.”

Soul-Stealing Demon Lord explained that he knew because he had taken refuge with Black Spot to avoid pursuit from the Murim Alliance.

Still, for them to not care whether I was dead or alive while searching for me…

Those Murong bastards were still hunting me down after all this time. One would think they’d have given up by now.

“I, I know that bastard’s whereabouts.”

“……!”

At those words, Murong Cheonghye’s eyes widened in shock.

I, too, wore a startled expression beside her.

‘What the hell is this guy talking about—how does he know where I’ve been?’

No matter how I looked at it, it reeked of nonsense, yet for some reason, Murong Cheonghye had lost her composure and pressed on as if clinging to a lifeline.

“Speak. Where is he? No—was he even alive to begin with?”

“Guh... the details are written on this piece of rice paper here…”

As the bastard pulled something out from inside his robe, a sudden chill ran down my spine, and every hair on my body stood on end.

Sensing the murderous intent, Heaven-Slaying Star thrashed violently.

“Noona!”

As that familiar crimson arc aimed for Murong Cheonghye’s face, I instinctively stretched out my arm.

With a sharp crack, long poison needles embedded themselves in the back of my hand.

Shock and fury crossed Murong Cheonghye’s face at the same time.

Piiing-!

A sonic crack tore the air, and with a flash of blue, the bastard’s right arm was cleanly severed.

Blood spurted like a fountain, but Soul-Stealing Demon Lord, seemingly resolved to die together, triggered his latent energy and prepared his final technique.

Taking advantage of his diverted gaze, I yanked a poison needle from the back of my hand and stabbed it deep into the back of his neck.

“Graaagh! You again…!”

He kicked me square in the chest, demonic qi swirling wildly around his leg.

Maybe because of the rage and ferocity of his movements, the poison spread rapidly through his body, turning Soul-Stealing Demon Lord’s face deathly pale.

“Guh, kuk.”

Blood gushed from his throat, pierced by the very poison needle he’d fired.

Killed by the very weapon he shot himself—what an ironic end.

“Hrk… if only my qi hadn’t been disrupted earlier… scum like you would be…”

He was not only powerful in martial arts but also extremely calculating—unmatched in the past century. Yet today, he had stepped squarely onto a landmine named Dan Mujin.

Apparently unwilling to accept it, he glared at me with a look that could kill.

“You bastard… what are you… what the hell did I just encounter…!”

What did you encounter? Obviously something related to Heaven-Slaying Star.

A dangerous question that, if answered poorly, might get me labeled a public enemy of the murim.

“What’s with all the talking? If you’re gonna die, hurry up and do it.”

“You—you dog bastard I’ll rip you—! Hrk!”

Enraged by my cheeky reply, his blood pressure must’ve shot up, and the poison reached his bone marrow. Soul-Stealing Demon Lord rolled his eyes backward.

Did I just finish him off with my mouth?

The breath of the hundred-year-old demonic practitioner who once struck fear into the murim ended just like that.

“Young Master, are you alright?”

But regardless of whether the bastard lived or died, Murong Cheonghye looked at me with worried eyes.

“Eh? Why?”

“Your complexion is terrible. Didn’t you also get hit by those poison needles earlier?”

Yeah. Not just one—five of them.

Still, I thought I’d be fine thanks to Heaven-Slaying Star’s unique self-recovery ability.

“Ah… damn.”

Just then, my vision began to spin chaotically.

Taking in more than five times the lethal dose of a poison strong enough to kill a peak-level martial artist—of course I wasn’t going to be okay.

I felt the whole world tilt to one side.

Thud.

And then, someone rushed over and caught me as I collapsed.

A faint lotus scent lingered softly at the tip of my nose.

“……”

Murong Cheonghye looked down at the young man in her arms with conflicted eyes.

Why had this young man thrown himself in front of her, a stranger? Why had he cried out “noona” in that desperate moment?

The question had been swirling in her mind for quite a while now.

“Why does he keep reminding me of Cheongjin…”

If that child had grown up safe and unscathed, wouldn’t he be around this size and age by now?

That moment when he called her ‘noona’ had shaken her briefly, but up close, his face and voice were clearly someone else’s.

“I’m being foolish.”

She had claimed to be composed when she stood on that cliff. She had cut ties herself—she had no right to miss him.

And yet, she found herself searching for traces of her little brother in this young man.

Murong Cheonghye lowered her head with a bitter expression.

“Ugh…”

Just then, the youth stirred and groaned in her embrace.

If she remembered right, the second daughter of the Tang Clan had said his name was Dan Mujin?

“Lady Tang Yeo-hye, is he really alright?”

Murong Cheonghye asked the Tang clan woman who was tending his internal injuries.

“Yes, well. His breathing’s steady. And this brat—his poison resistance is stronger than mine. He won’t kick the bucket so easily.”

Supposedly, he once ate hundreds of poisonous mushrooms used in executions.

And as if to prove that absurd claim, the youth opened his eyes wide.

“Ugh… thought I was dead.”

Despite being pierced by all those poison needles, he woke up after a brief fainting spell—reminded her of that honey-loving badger from the Western Regions.

“Boss, are you okay?”

“Ugh, do I look okay? Felt like I was dying together with him.”

No sooner did he open his eyes than he started chattering with a boy around his age.

“Ilhong, that bastard’s definitely dead, right?”

“Yeah. That poison needle stuck in his neck did it. But boss…”

“Yeah? What?”

“You’ve been lying in Evil-Slaying Demoness’s arms for over a full incense stick of time, you know?”

“……!!”

Dan Mujin’s eyes flew open, and with a startled “Hiiik!”, he shot up like a spring.

His extreme reaction gave Murong Cheonghye a slight pang of disappointment, as if he’d touched something he feared.

‘Is it really that unpleasant to be close to me…?’

Ever since she earned the alias Evil-Slaying Demoness, fewer people treated her casually.

Especially kids—even more so. That thought left Murong Cheonghye a little sad.

“Heehee, snuggled up and snoozing. Was noona’s embrace that comfy, boss?”

Ilhong smirked, clearly enjoying the rare opportunity to tease him.

“Ha ha, what nonsense are you spouting…”

Dan Mujin broke into a cold sweat, his embarrassment painfully obvious.

His eyes darted anxiously, unable to meet Murong Cheonghye’s gaze, though it was clear he was trying to steal glances at her reaction.

He was said to be a wanderer from the Beggars’ Union. Maybe he once had a close older sister.

“Young Master, could it be that…”

Murong Cheonghye began to ask, curiosity piqued—

“When did this happen… what occurred while I was away?”

An old man in a scholar’s robe, aghast at the devastation around them.

“Senior Geolwang…?”

The man once thought missing appeared, sweeping away all her attention.