Murim Troubleshooter Dan Mujin-Chapter 126 : To the Murong Clan

Chapter 126: To the Murong Clan
While we were catching our breath halfway up the mountain—
From below, Ilhong, who had retrieved Jug Gwima's head, approached us.
“……Wow, what in the world happened here?”
Blood flowed like a river, and corpses piled up to form hills. Witnessing what could only be described as a small-scale Blood Sea on a Corpse Mountain, Ilhong was utterly appalled.
“Ilhong, while you're at it, could you gather those heads over there too?”
“……No way, how could I possibly clean up this much?”
There were simply too many. She shook her head and waved her hands, horrified.
“There are sword flux marks carved in straight lines across the ground… don’t tell me the two of you did all this?”
I shook my head at her question and pointed at a woman lying prone nearby.
We’d applied Golden Sore Balm and done all the emergency care we could, but Murong Cheonghye still didn’t look well.
“Huh? Boss, why is she here……?”
“Beats me. I’ll have to ask when she wakes up.”
I’d rushed over upon sensing someone being attacked by the Blood Cult and nearly had a heart attack upon recognizing a familiar face.
No matter how I thought about it, I was pretty sure she’d seen my face, even if just vaguely, right before she passed out.
“Ilhong, hand me a human-skin mask.”
I didn’t need the voice medicine anymore.
I had learned Soundless Transmission from Hwang Geolgae and, along with it, the technique to control my vocal cords.
Basically, a trivial trick only intelligence agencies would bother learning.
“Boss, do you realize? Every time she shows up, you’re always asking for a disguise tool?”
Ilhong, rummaging through her diagonally slung bundle, spoke with a suspicious tone.
“Mujin, what did you do to her? Are you scared of the Evil-Slaying Demoness?”
The two women took turns throwing suspicious glances at me.
Seriously, these girls. Don’t they trust people at all?
“What would I do? If anything, I was the one who got done in.”
Honestly, from my perspective, all I did was wake up and get stabbed.
Later, when Murong Cheongjin’s memories and personality seeped into me, I finally understood what had happened.
“Oh, come on. Fess up. Everyone who ever avoided the Evil-Slaying Demoness had skeletons in their closet.”
“Mujin, it’s okay. Remember? You made me promise, with your pinky, that no matter what, I’d always be on your side…….”
That was Jo Harang, bringing up the vow she made to always be on my side no matter what.
“What is there to understand! You two—seriously! Just give me the mask!”
I snatched the flesh covering she pulled from the bundle with a swift “whip” motion.
“Cough, cough.”
Just then, Murong Cheonghye, lying there, coughed up blackened blood.
While I had healed her external injuries to some extent, she had apparently accumulated severe internal injuries from fending off a high-level master by herself.
“Boss, those are internal wounds that need long-term care from a skilled physician.”
Ilhong, checking her pulse immediately after the blood came up, declared that her medicine wouldn’t suffice.
“Let’s see, where’s the nearest place with a top-class physician…….”
“……Murong Clan.”
I answered Jo Harang, who had opened up a map, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Oh, right. We should hurry before the condition of the Evil-Slaying Demoness worsens.”
Jo Harang, who had always seemed to admire the Evil-Slaying Demoness who relentlessly punished the wicked, now looked worried to see her felled by a Blood Cult master.
“Murong Clan…… ngh, do we have to go there?”
I gave her a look that said, “Can’t we take the long way around?” but Jo Harang returned a firm glare—Cheonghye’s recovery was top priority.
These two, with their fiery eyes and penchant for beating up evildoers, really were a perfect match. Twin Maidens of Annihilation, honestly.
“Boss, you’re just uncomfortable about seeing Murong Cheon, aren’t you?”
“…….”
At that moment, Ilhong—who had worked with me the longest—hit the nail on the head.
“Seriously, you should’ve held your tongue. Calling him ‘a greedy old man’? You’re lucky you didn’t get your head chopped off then and there.”
She reminded me how it was only thanks to being surrounded by righteous sect leaders that I hadn’t lost my head for insulting a martial artist’s pride.
“Come on. Everyone badmouths kings when they’re not around. That man deserved to be insulted…”
Isn’t he the kind of ruthless father who would cut off even his own son for the sake of his clan’s continuity?
If Murong Cheonghye was just a blade, then Murong Cheon was the hand behind it, wielding her all along.
“That’s why I settled the score when I saved her during the Dragon-Phoenix Bloodbath. So I’ve got nothing to feel guilty about.”
“Yeah, right. Yet every time the Murong Clan is mentioned, your face stiffens.”
“…….”
Throughout this entire mission to Liaoning Province, my reaction every time the Murong Clan came up had been far too telling to deny.
“But I won’t press you about it. You didn’t press me when I had my secrets, either.”
“Me too. I’ll wait until you’re ready to talk. Mujin.”
Despite everything, they let it slide, understanding there was probably a story behind it all.
See? Maybe I have lived my life fairly decently.
“But we need to get her treated quickly. If something happens to the Evil-Slaying Demoness, it would be a tragedy for the entire Central Plains.”
The sincerity in her eyes left me speechless.
“Sigh, alright. Let’s go.”
Maybe I should have packed a miracle medicine or two.
Ilhong was weak, Jo Harang was exhausted, so it was up to me—still relatively energetic—to carry Murong Cheonghye on my back.
“She’s lighter than I expected.”
In Murong Cheongjin’s memories, she’d always had a towering presence.
But up close, she was rather slender, and signs of hardship were evident all over her body.
Sure, I had grown taller, but her weakened state likely contributed too.
Seeing her like this, suffering on a cliff like I once did, left a strange feeling in my chest.
“Mujin, which direction is the Murong Clan?”
“……That way.”
I answered without even looking at the map.
Jo Harang nodded, raising her shoulders in acknowledgment.
And with that, we began walking toward the Murong Clan.
“The blood trail ends here.”
At dusk, as darkness cloaked the world—
A Man in Black, perfectly melted into the shadows, muttered in frustration when the clues vanished.
“The Left Blood Law seemed like a pretty big deal within the Blood Cult…”
Just when he thought he’d found a key figure, the trail had suddenly disappeared.
Typical, really, for those who’d been hiding and scheming in the shadows for decades.
“Tsk.”
They say striking the grass only alerts the snake. He should’ve caught them this time—but having failed, the enemy forces would likely retreat back into hiding.
“But for that so-called Descent Ritual, they’ll eventually have to raise their heads again.”
The best chance to catch them would be the moment they went after Cheonsalsung’s body.
And using that as a clue, Namgung Jin, who had been tracking the Blood Cult, received intel while still in the mountains.
“That astrologer muttering back then… it must have meant that Heaven-Slaying Star was up on the cliff, right?”
He could still clearly recall the scene—how the astrologer had been shocked when Heaven-Slaying Star was mentioned and how the Evil Stars were said to be gathering there.
Which meant, excluding himself who had been present, there were three suspects remaining: Dan Mujin, Jo Harang, and Murong Cheonghye.
“Murong Cheonghye… was she the Heaven-Slaying Star……?”
Still hard to believe, but that was the conclusion Namgung Jin had reached.
Dan Mujin, though prone to reckless speech, had shown a tendency to avoid killing and instead perform good deeds. Jo Harang had no particular abnormalities.
Which left only one: the Vice-Captain of the Demon-Slaying Unit, notorious even among the orthodox factions for her relentless extermination of the wicked.
“……How does she even maintain her sanity? I myself lose control at times, overwhelmed by the surging Evil Star within me.”
Yet despite harboring the most ferocious of stars, she maintained her sanity enough to only kill the wicked.
It had to be a level of superhuman self-restraint and patience worthy of admiration.
“She really is an incredible woman.”
At any rate, if he kept observing Murong Cheonghye, the Blood Cult would show itself again eventually.
She seemed to be a key figure to them—it was only a matter of time.
“Still, that Dog-Beating Dragon, I keep running into him lately.”
That young master who had detected the conspiracy before anyone else, rushed here, and protected Murong Cheonghye—
Even when faced with a high-level master, he hadn’t retreated but instead fought back using his trademark sharp tongue.
“That guy definitely isn’t Heaven-Slaying Star.”
His sense of chivalry and grit seemed to surpass even Namgung Jin’s. A true candidate for a great hero of the righteous faction.
Nodding with approval, Namgung Jin thought:
“Wait a minute—does this mean he’s pulling ahead of me?”
Dog-Beating Dragon: classified as Level 3 threat.
Nangabong Monster: Level 4.
Yet judging by the mountain of corpses there, it was clear who had discovered the Blood Cult forces first and made a huge impact again.
“Looks like I’ll need to step it up…….”
He removed his hood, revealing the handsome jade face under the moonlight—
With a grin, Namgung Jin burned anew with the spirit of rivalry.
With Murong Cheonghye, wounded inside and out, on my back, we returned to the Murong Clan.
Naturally, the entire place exploded into chaos from top to bottom.
She was the brightest martial talent among Murong Cheon’s children and a famed Vice-Captain of the Demon-Slaying Unit. And yet here she was, bloodied, being carried in by an outsider male.
Murong Cheon, Murong Hui, and every other blood relative came rushing out in uproar.
“Who dares… in Liaoning Province, to lay hands on a Murong clanswoman?!”
So I explained everything, down to the last detail.
The ambush by Blood Cultists. The Left Blood Law master, a peak-level opponent. Even the Nangabong Monster—all of it.
The Murong Clan members looked like they might faint from shock.
“Such vile fiends…….”
“They dared to wreak havoc at our Murong Clan’s very doorstep?!”
Murong Cheonghye was immediately taken to the clan’s top physician for the best treatment available. Meanwhile, the bigshots of the clan huddled into an emergency meeting, whispering intensely.
“What are we, discarded broomsticks? They’re only worried about Murong Cheonghye.”
“Let it go, Boss. Once the meeting’s over and the decision is made, I’m sure they’ll give us our due.”
Come on now. I’m the guy who rescued your precious daughter. This cold reception is something else.
Sure, they’re providing the basics for hospitality, but this is exactly why I never warmed up to the Murong Clan.
“Still, lucky no one died in all that mess.”
“No—one did.”
At my reply, Ilhong flinched and turned to look at me.
“Huh? Who?”
“My Hell-Revenge Staff.”
I lifted the Dog-Beating Staff, now broken clean in half, my face full of grief.
“……Oh, come on. It's just a stick.”
Just a stick? Just a stick, she says?
My beloved partner of so many years had perished in battle!
“Worry about me, not that staff, Mujin.”
The backlash from fighting a peak martial artist must have caught up to her, because Jo Harang began to groan and demand my attention.
“You’re fine. You’re too tough to die from that.”
“I'm telling you, I feel like I’m dying!”
“You’re not gonna die.”
After seeing her chew on a poisonous mushroom last time and come out just fine, I was convinced. She’s just like me—built differently.
She’d bounce back from this kind of fatigue and injury in no time.
…And if not, well, oh well.
‘Kill (殺)!’
That familiar bloodthirst was urging me, telling me now was the perfect time to strike while exhausted. Persistent little devil, always whispering.
I let out a deep sigh and sat down.
Then—one of the Murong Clan’s attendants came running over, panic all over her face.
“Are you Dan Mujin, young master?”
I nodded in response to her call.
“The young miss… she’s regained consciousness…….”
“She’s awake?”
“She’s been asking for you since she opened her eyes.”
“…….”
I’d hoped she’d mistake it all for a dream.
But it seemed that the unavoidable moment had come.