Truth – Part 2

Anhui, night.

A woman visited the Martial Arts Alliance.

As her identity was verified, she was not stopped by any guards.

Furthermore, they didn’t say anything about ‘something’ she was carrying on her back.

She entered a building.

The building, labeled ‘Records Office,’ didn’t seem to receive many visitors, as a man was dozing off.

“What brings you here?”

The man, startled awake, rubbed his eyes and asked. The woman quietly presented her identification plaque.

The man’s eyes widened in surprise upon seeing her plaque, but he quickly composed himself.

“Show me the Alliance registry.”

Hearing the emotion-laden voice, the man retrieved the requested item from the archives.

As if in a hurry, the woman opened the book right there.

She began reading the records carefully from the beginning, stopping at a certain passage.

“No… no….”

The woman staggered out of the Records Office.

Left in the wake of the storm, the man blankly stared at the door through which the woman had left.

The woman left the Martial Arts Alliance and walked aimlessly.

‘Something’ on her back rattled with each step she took.

[Go to the Records Office and look at the registry.]

These were the words she had heard two weeks ago in Henan, from an unexpected figure she met in a mountain village.

The moment she saw the face of that person, who seemed to have no emotions, anger surged within her, and she attacked without warning.

After a few exchanges, the opponent sheathed his sword, effectively surrendering.

The opponent asked what had happened, and she carved out the memories of that day, which she had been piling up in her heart, and brought them out.

Each word she spoke was heartbreaking and painful.

Recalling the last moments of her living disciple, she burst into tears and collapsed to the ground.

The opponent, Cheong-yeon, cautiously approached her and patted her shoulder with clumsy hands.

How long had she cried?

As her sobs subsided, Cheong-yeon’s hesitant words fell upon Soyou’s head.

[Just think of it as me talking to myself.]

[Go to the Records Office and look at the registry.]

Although she couldn’t say they had a good relationship due to their conflicting personalities and master-disciple relationship, she knew that Cheong-yeon didn’t speak carelessly.

Soyou clung to her words and headed to Anhui, carrying her disciple on her back.

And today. After seeing a certain phrase in the registry, Soyou felt nauseous.

“Ugh!”

Leaving the city and walking across a wide plain, Soyou couldn’t suppress the churning in her stomach and vomited.

She hadn’t eaten much in days, so only thick saliva came out, but she continued to retch.

Perhaps it was the last vestige of her sanity.

After a long bout of vomiting, she collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

She loosened the straps and looked at Inho on her back.

“Inho… what is all this…”

As if the world had collapsed, she murmured in despair.

One year later.

A woman entered a small bookstore.

Dressed in black martial attire with a white outer robe, the woman looked around the bookstore.

“Welcome.”

The bookstore owner greeted the rare customer.

The owner approached the customer, who was wandering around the bookstore, running her hand over the covers of the books.

“Are you looking for a particular book?”

“If I tell you, will the owner find it for me?”

Although the young woman spoke impolitely, the bookstore owner replied with a smile.

“Yes, just tell me.”

“I’m looking for a cat-masked assassin. Isn’t he here?”

At the woman’s question, the bookstore owner jumped back and threw a hidden weapon from his sleeve.

But there was nothing where the weapon had passed.

“Looks like I’ve come to the right place. You’ll have to guide me.”

The woman grabbed the bookstore owner by the back of the neck and dragged him into the bookstore.

A loud noise was heard, then silence fell. Ho-sung, the owner of the Black Shop, closed his eyes.

“The time has come.”

To be found in just one year… he was even in awe of the opponent who had grown so much in the blink of an eye.

With no way out, he decided to accept his fate.

-Thump!

With a dull sound, the door opened, and a wave of heat washed over his face.

After the heat, the smell of burning flesh followed.

The grim reaper who would end his life was a woman with a serene face.

“Long time no see, I suppose.”

“Indeed.”

Ho-sung rubbed his right shoulder with his left hand.

There was nothing below his right elbow.

“Have you come for revenge?”

When Ho-sung asked calmly, the woman chuckled.

“Revenge… yes, you could call it revenge.”

The woman murmured, reminiscing about something far away.

“But before that… you have something to tell me.”

“Are you talking about the client? Give up. I’m going to die anyway… Kkeuaaaaaaack!!!”

Ho-sung collapsed forward.

His severed left arm fell to the floor with a thud.

“I’ll stop the bleeding.”

The woman’s palm was placed on the severed surface.

-Sizzle

The sound of burning flesh echoed through the basement.

“Ugh… ugh… Kkeueueue….”

Ho-sung felt as if thunder was crashing before his eyes.

The woman held out a piece of paper to Ho-sung’s face, who had collapsed forward in extreme pain.

“This is the record I saw in the registry last year. It doesn’t matter if you don’t tell me. There are plenty of ways to find out… but if you tell me, I can save a lot of time.”

“Ugh… ugh… Even if I tell you, what do I get? I’m going to die anyway.”

When Ho-sung said through gritted teeth, the woman smiled kindly.

“Why wouldn’t you get something?”

The woman said with an infinitely benevolent face.

“I’ll kill you without pain.”

At the unnegotiable offer, Ho-sung looked again at the record in front of him.

It contained records of the succession of inherited Martial arts.

[Yomryun Skill Succession]

Former: Yeom Jin

Later: Namgung Soyou

[Inherited Disciple]

Former: Namgung Soyou

Later: Vacant, Succession of direct disciple

“My master, who went to process the succession of Yomryun Skill… why didn’t she write Inho’s name… tell me everything you know about this and who is involved.”