Murim Troubleshooter Dan Mujin-Chapter 119 : Enlightenment Shuttle

Chapter 119: Enlightenment Shuttle
When we first were matched, Jo Harang had definitely said that.
This wasn’t a life-or-death match.
She’d just felt her usual competitive spirit, and since a stage had been set, she’d suggested a splendid duel — to test our skills and compete.
But what was this now.
Kwaduk!
The tip of a great broadsword smashed through the floor and grazed past my front. It wasn’t a friendly bout — it was a strike packed with the intention to knock me flat.
Blade-radiance flashed menacingly all around, reeking of fighting spirit.
‘Run! Run!’
A message waved in the void from the Heaven-Slaying Star, urging me to flee quickly.
Even he must have thought the way Purple Tenuity Star wielded that great broadsword looked anything but ordinary.
“Dan Mujin! That’s not like you! Don’t run!”
Her heroic blade tore through the wind as she roared.
“Are you crazy — do I look like I’m going to run?!”
My body felt as if it would be blown away by the gust pushed forward by the enormous blade.
Her brutal, relentless saber technique left no pause. Whatever she had honed on Mount Sung, there wasn’t even a seam to exploit anymore.
So this was the speed of growth that was said to rival the Heaven-Slaying Star.
Tuh-ung—!
The heavy broadsword and the long Dog-Beating Staff collided in midair.
A gale rose and the surrounding space was swept. A frontal clash with nowhere to dodge. The force riding the broadsword tingled from my fingertips to my toes.
It felt like my whole body was being shaken to the core.
“Ugh.”
Through the contact of the two weapons, sword-qi and staff-qi mixed vividly. When it met Purple Tenuity Star’s aura, a crimson energy thrashed as if resonating.
A thick murderous intent pricked at my chest. I suppressed it as much as I could using the Seongun Heart Method.
Whoom—!
A rough sound of splitting air. A red arc shot out. I quickly bent my waist and narrowly avoided the continuing combo.
The tip of the broadsword, having lost its target, slammed into the stone wall with fierce force.
Kwang!
It looked like a demolition site of a siege ram. The wall exploded, scattering fragments of rock.
“Aiyo! Aiyooo!”
I heard wails not far away.
They sounded like the innkeeper’s cries when an inn had been smashed in the past.
“What—what ruckus is this in this sacred academy?!”
Someone who looked like a Golden Dragon Academy official saw the academy wall blasted open by a few sword cuts and wailed.
Pointing at the courtyard of the academy turned into a madhouse, the official demanded what sort of thing this was.
“Jang Clan Head, and Ha Clan Head! What grievance do you have against our Golden Dragon Academy… to do such a thing!”
But rather than questioning the apex master who spread such murderous aura, he seemed to berate the clan heads who appeared to be the employer.
“No, we—”
“We didn’t expect it to go this far—”
The two clan heads flailed with hands and bowed heads, using their whole bodies to plead their grievances in embarrassment.
Where was their snarling like sworn enemies? Now they were united, matching each other’s words in perfect sync.
“Hey, what kind of troubleshooter did you bring?”
“You should ask yourself… who is that monster of a wanderer?”
And the two kids who had started the incident trembled with mouths agape as the situation blew far beyond what they had imagined.
They had likely expected a spat between first-rate martial artists in front of everyone.
But by fate or irony, what they faced was Purple Tenuity Star and the Heaven-Slaying Star at full power clashing.
Anyway, thanks to that, the kids who had fought and cursed each other were cowering and clinging to each other.
Well, that looked fine.
“So, Harang, let’s just call it a draw—… Damn it!”
Whoom—
A broad blade cut through the air and came flying. I hurriedly raised the Dog-Beating Staff to block, but the colossal force behind the blade shoved my heels back three measures.
“Hey, calm down! What are you, an angry tiger—!”
Was it always like this when the Heaven-Slaying Star and Purple Tenuity Star met?
When opponents faced off, it felt as if fate itself ignited their fighting spirits.
Like a stone starting to roll down a slope, gravity made it accelerate uncontrollably.
“You bastard—”
“Hey, what did I do!”
I jumped in place in indignation.
I had believed that the strength of our friendship and fondness built up so far was stronger than that sort of fate.
But Jo Harang seemed swept by some unknown emotion and wouldn’t stop.
“Tell me why! Why am I the bad guy!”
I couldn’t explain it, but her face looked stained with betrayal and hurt — like a tragic heroine.
“Just looking at you… my feelings flip. My chest starts pounding!”
Had she eaten something bad on Mount Sung?
Instead of being happy to see me after a while, she said my chest was pounding when she saw my face.
“That’s a myocardial infarction.”
“What the hell is that—!”
Whoom—!
With an irritated cry, the great broadsword came again.
“Ouch!”
I twisted my whole body as if wrung out and barely evaded the strike. But Jo Harang’s trademark whirlwind combo unfolded.
She was huge, blocking much of my sight as she rampaged between us with that mindless sword art. I struggled to respond with the Dog-Beating Staff and was repeatedly pushed back.
Bang!
A strike so intense it left my body momentarily airborne. A red arc came down like a hammer toward my collapsing lower body.
Bang!
I split my legs wide to avoid the blow. The blade, full of murderous qi, struck the ground four inches away from my groin and scattered rock fragments.
“Damn it!”
It was almost a clean cut.
I immediately sprang, spun, and ran away.
It was nearly the Dan Mujin-style crisis exit no different from Narye-tagon.
Grab.
Ilhong, who had been watching from behind, took my unbalanced back against her whole body.
“…Boss.”
“You scared me. Why?”
“I thought that woman—could it be….”
Was there something she was guessing? Whispering softly, Ilhong spoke into my ear.
“Could it be because of that?”
“Because of what?”
“Isn’t she acting like this because of that marriage incident from last year?”
I tilted my head.
I had received such a request last year, sure… but what did that have to do with her?
I had to search my memory. Too many intense things had happened in the meantime, burying away the trivial.
“The arranged marriage job.”
“Oh, that. Why.”
That was the request that had gone nowhere because the Tang Clan wouldn’t allow it, and I had left in search of the Human-faced Spider’s lethal poison instead.
Come to think of it, I did see her face before leaving for Sichuan.
She seemed to have misunderstood something at the time, so I briefly told her it wasn’t like that, then left.
After that, I had completely forgotten about it.
“Eh, no way it’s because of that, right? I told her it wasn’t, and it was ages ago…”
“Boss, women can hold onto such memories and feelings for a very long time, you know?”
Ilhong narrowed her eyes knowingly, as if she understood women well, giving me advice.
“Yeah, the way you mentioned Juwol-a, I guess it really is like that.”
Slap!
A tiny palm smacked hard against my back.
The heat snapped my mind awake.
Then, following Ilhong, Heaven-Slaying Star also seemed to understand what state she was in, sending me advice in red letters across the void.
‘Inner Demons.’
So it was inner demons. The evil rooted in the depths of human nature.
That illness of the heart martial artists inevitably faced when trying to surpass their limits.
‘A once-in-a-lifetime chance.’
If a martial artist was trapped by inner demons, they were full of openings — a chance to take them down.
Now that I thought about it, hadn’t she said she was right on the verge of super peak?
It seemed some problem had arisen with Purple Tenuity Star, who bore the heavy destiny of being the savior of the world.
“Haa… haa…”
Her shoulders and vision shook. The great broadsword rose and fell with each breath.
Jo Harang tried to soothe her mind through deep breaths, even as the metallic taste filled her mouth.
But she was still like a small sailboat caught in a gale, her emotions and strange thoughts surging violently inside her.
“This is why I tried to avoid him for a while…”
She bit down hard on her red lips.
Of all times, of all people!
She had run straight into the person she most wanted to avoid — and even ended up crossing blades.
The longer their clash went on, the more her weapon and emotions mixed, and something kept welling up inside her.
‘I can’t let this happen. I have a destiny to protect the world.’
From the moment she saw his face, scenes rose unbidden — inexplicable jealousy, betrayal.
The young man before her had always been a reliable comrade she could entrust her back to, no matter where.
She had even thought of their relationship as one of water and fish — mutually elevating each other’s realms.
But strange sensations and emotions now seemed to drive a wedge between them.
As if this was fate decreed by the heavens.
“Hey, don’t tell me… is this about that marriage thing you overheard last year?”
“……”
At Dan Mujin’s question, asked with a look of disbelief, Jo Harang clamped her lips shut without realizing it.
He had just thrown the question out — but her subtle reaction left him wearing a dumbfounded expression.
“What, do you… have feelings for me or something?”
Her face twisted with murderous intent as she silently raised her broadsword.
Dan Mujin frantically waved both hands.
“Hey, that’s a misunderstanding! It was just a job, a fake marriage for an assignment.”
“What kind of lunatic would entrust such a matter of human duty and morality to a request?”
“Surprisingly, there are people like that.”
Was one word of “misunderstanding” not enough back then?
Nearly half a year later, Dan Mujin was only now able to carefully explain what had actually happened.
Hearing that the problem she had agonized over for more than a year was nothing much after all, she made a strange face.
“A sham marriage to block the Tang Clan’s political marriage? It really was that…?”
“Of course, idiot! Otherwise why would I suddenly get married overnight to some violent woman?”
Especially one who often resorted to violence and mixed poison in food.
Ah, though lately, she had, unbelievably, grown rather gentle.
It felt strange, as though a feral stray cat had been tamed.
“So it was internal Tang Clan affairs…”
As she listened step by step, the high wall she had built inside slowly crumbled away.
Had she misunderstood all on her own, and piled up such twisted feelings throughout her training?
“But maybe I’ve been tormented too long. The feelings just won’t fade easily. What do I do?”
Her voice trembled, as did the tip of her great blade.
She had been like this even when she came down from Mount Sung.
But her master had asked where she was going, and whether she would meet Dan Mujin — and had trusted that something would be resolved, sending her down.
“These twisted feelings… I must banish them somehow…”
She clenched her teeth, trying to drive the bad emotions out.
“What’s there to banish. Just accept them.”
Dan Mujin thumped his chest and told her to accept them.
“Why…”
“Harang, listen carefully. The stupidest thing in the world is fighting your own emotions.”
It wasn’t even a fight in the first place.
Enemies could be defeated and erased, but unless you ripped out your frontal lobe, emotions would always remain.
So Dan Mujin told her to simply accept the emotions that fate had raised to extremes — those rotten feelings.
“But… accept these feelings that are so close to evil…?”
They were the very feelings borne by the villains she had pursued and beheaded — envy, jealousy, betrayal, vengeance.
Things Purple Tenuity Star, who cut down evil to accumulate virtue, absolutely had to avoid.
“It’s normal for people. And you’re not an Evil Star — you’re human.”
She had always slain villains with no murderous intent of her own, solely to accumulate virtue.
But just as he had once advised her to accept killing intent to unite mind and body, now Dan Mujin advised her to accept these emotions too.
“Ah.”
Meeting Dan Mujin’s worried eyes, Jo Harang was struck silent.
When she regained her senses, she saw the chaotic scene around her, and the startled people.
Only then did she realize. That she had been tormented by inner demons.
“I see.”
And she realized again. That the emotions she had thought so evil were in fact the very fragments that made her whole.
By truly accepting the feelings she had tried to drive out, she united mind and body.
And the world, too, began to accept her. Her entire body resonated with all things, as though every meridian had opened.
Through her violet eyes, a new world in full color flooded in.
Swaaaah—
“…Heh.”
So this was natural qi? One peak martial artist wrapped in the incomprehensible aura, stepping into a new realm.
The scene was strikingly similar to Tang Yeo-hye’s awakening.
This was already the second time in such a short while that a martial artist near the super peak entered it.
“And I’ve gone and awakened another one.”
All I’d done was say a few words to calm her down.
Somehow, I’d once again raised Purple Tenuity Star’s realm by another level, as if she were my rival.
At times like this, that guy usually spat out curses, calling me an idiot.
‘……’
But even Heaven-Slaying Star was speechless this time, at a loss for words.
Amazing, wasn’t I? I had made even the great Heaven-Slaying Star lose his tongue.
“…Damn it.”
I let out a heavy sigh and covered my face.