Chapter 97: The Murim a.s.sociation (1)
‘I guess they aren’t that stupid.’
Chun Yeowun, who read the memories of Kwak Woon’s ghost, thought so.
No matter how much information was blocked and covered with the pretext of the Gate wars, the Murim a.s.sociation’s suspicions were directed towards the Sky Demon order.
‘This is proof that they are afraid of the Cult.’
The proof was that the Murim a.s.sociation could do nothing other than hold back even though 27 years had pa.s.sed
However, that wasn’t all. The Murim a.s.sociation’s response was quite extraordinary.
According to Kwak Woon’s memories, the Murim a.s.sociation sent him because he was close to Jinan city.
‘They didn’t hold onto their power.’
Even among the a.s.sociation’s warriors, the Five Great Warriors were the best.
In the case of Kwak Woon, he was from the Mount Hua clan.
Of course, this action was taken by the a.s.sociation since they thought that such a skilled person would be able to solve the suspicions they had in the Jinan city.
‘Hmm.’
Understanding the entire situation from the memories alone was difficult.
Kwak Woon didn’t directly give the full answers, but he did unconsciously recall a few things.
And those fragments were being seen by Chun Yeowun.
It was more like a movie, but unclean editing.
‘Well, it wasn’t like there was no benefit from this.’
He got some pretty useful ghosts, and learned about some of their weaknesses too.
The number of Ghosts around Chun Yeowun was 14, including Kwak Woon.
Five out of the Mount Hua clan disciples couldn’t be turned into Ghosts.
‘Some kind of self-defense which prevented the Ghosts from forming.’
Among the 18 disciples, some witnessed the death of their comrades and responded accordingly, so the surprise attack didn’t work.
And as they died, Ghosts didn’t form from their bodies.
So the ghost wouldn’t be formed if the man’s body was being protected by self-defense techniques.
‘That was unfortunate.’
If this weakness spread to others, then they would use that to prevent more Ghosts from forming.
‘Well, the secret should just not leak out.’
Since he was aware of this, he blocked the blood points of Kwak Woon in advance.
“Come in.”
When Chun Yeowun raised his right arm, the Ghosts roaming around began to get absorbed into the wrist guard.
Shhh!
Any power could be used appropriately. Chun Yeowun came out of the warehouse and approached the large RV parked in front.
Looking at the license plate, it was clear that this car was a rental.
Shh! Click!
Chun Yeowun reached out and broke the window.
A study case bag inside.
The case seemed to be made of special alloy and locked with a fingerprint.
However, that meant nothing to Chun Yeowun.
Beep!
Nano hacked through it, and the case was opened. It revealed a fist-sized sphere emitting dazzling light.
A core.
[Estimated to be an A-cla.s.s core.]
‘Right.’
If one looked at the vast energy radiating from it, it was sure to be an A-cla.s.s core.
Satisfied, Chun Yeowun closed the case.
This must’ve been the core that Kwak Woon had acquired in the Gate at Weifang city.
‘I must be lucky.’
Coincidentally, right after acquiring the core, he was asked to take up this job in Jinan city.
Due to that, the man could not absorb the core and brought it along, only to die and let Chun Yeowun take it.
At the dying moments, the man had intensely thought of this.
‘Two A-cla.s.s and one S-cla.s.s core…’
Chun Yeowun was anxious as he didn’t have many cores with him, but he managed to have three cores of top quality.
And this would be enough to increase the power even more.
“Now that we have recovered the important thing, should I recover the others too?”
Chun Yeowun closed the case and walked around the entrance of the product warehouse looking for the dead masked people and the corpses of the Mount Hua disciples.
Meanwhile, some people of the Yongchun group had arrived.
“Ah…”
Huan Myung-oh couldn’t hide his shock.
Fortunately, the situation was sorted out by Chun Yeowun, but he hated himself for not being able to get the information that the Murim a.s.sociation had come here.
“I am sorry. I should have known this.”
It was hard to say that this was Huan Myung-oh’s mistake.
Because of the underground high-speed trains, which were managed by the Defense, it was unreasonable to know who was using them in real time.
And as the trains were the most important means of transportation, it was impossible to plant people because the Defense would thoroughly check for suspicious people.
Huan Myung-oh tried to plant people with fake human skin masks, but it always failed as fingerprint and iris verification were needed.
“I’ll try to figure out a way to identify the people coming into Jinan.”
Chun Yeowun threw something at Huan Myung-oh.
“Use this.”
Tak!
“This is?”
A ring.
It looked like an ordinary ring, why would he be given a ring?
“The one called Kwak Woon had it.”
“Huh! Kwak Woon? The Mount Hua clan’s Kwak Woon?”
Huan Myung-oh was shocked at those words.
Even though he wasn’t a member of the Murim a.s.sociation, Huan Myung-oh knew the things happening in the Murim world.
And Kwak Woon was one of the Five Great Warriors.
He didn’t even imagine that one of the strongest in the a.s.sociation would break into the warehouse.
“Director Huan! Look at this body!”
At the same time, the cultists who were incinerating the bodies around the product warehouse brought a body out on a stretcher.
The body belonged to Kwak Woon.
White face and a ghastly body.
But the man was easily recognizable.
‘For the swordsman of Mount Hua to turn into this.’
He knew about Chun Yeowun’s power.
And for Chun Yeowun, even the Five Great Warriors seemed to be just rats.
‘Are they sending the strongest ones? That means that the Murim a.s.sociation has noticed us.’
Huan Myung-oh"s face darkened at that.
When they went against the Jinan city’s Murim branch, they did expect this to some extent.
But he didn’t think that such strong people would be sent.
This meant that they were being vigilant.
‘If Lord Chun Ma hadn’t come here first, then the device would have been taken away and we would have suffered terribly.’
Chun Yeowun could easily handle Kwak Woon.
However, the reputation of the Mount Hua clan’s Kwak Woon was huge.
And if it was the Yongchun group that fought with him, then they would have lost.
The Murim a.s.sociation would have also received the information that the Cult was trying to rise again.
Huan Myung-oh opened his mouth with a serious look.
“My Lord, the Murim a.s.sociation…”
“Must have noticed us. They would be idiots if they didn’t.”
“I see why Lord has ordered for the merging to be done right away.”
If the Murim a.s.sociation was being this wary, it was obvious that they would think of other ways to attack the Cult.
The longer it took for the merger to happen, the more chances Murim a.s.sociation would have to sway others.
In the end, the merger had to be hastened like Chun Yeowun said.
“Lord Chun Ma, what about this?”
Huan Myung-oh asked about the ring he was given.
A personal belonging of Kwak Woon, but he didn’t know the reason Chun Yeowun gave it to him.
“There is a chip in the ring.”
“Huh? Inside?”
The ring was small and thin.
Which meant that a micro-scale chip could be planted in it.
“It has to be the Murim a.s.sociation. You brought your phone?”
At Chun Yeowun’s words, Huan Myung-oh handed the smartphone around his wrist.
As Chun Yeowun grabbed the phone, a nanowire jumped out of Chun Yeowun’s palm and connected with it.
It then sent information to the screen.
After finishing, Chun Yeowun handed the phone back to him and said.
“I put the code of the frequency of the chip in the ring.”
“L-Lord, code of the frequency?”
Huan Myung-oh couldn’t hold back his expression as the task was done in such a short time.
He looked at his phone. Since not even the fingerprint was unlocked, he couldn’t understand.
To him, Chun Yeowun said.
“Can you use that to make a tracking device?”
“P-possible.”
Building a tracking device could be possible if the frequency code was known.
And with that, it would be possible to find out the owner of this chip.
Though it couldn’t be used inside the underground trains, just putting the members of the Cult with the tracking device on the platform would be enough to detect people.
‘We can stop them as soon as they enter Jinan city!’
Suddenly, Huan Myung-oh thought that it wouldn’t be just Kwak Woon, but the other warriors of the Murim a.s.sociation would have this too.
‘Then the others will…’
“No need to check. Put your hand out.”
Huan Myung-oh stretched his hand out at Chun Yeowun’s words.
A handful of things were grabbed from the pocket of Chun Yeowun’s coat and placed in his hand.
It started with b.u.t.tons and all.
“Y-You found all these?”
Huan Myung-oh was shocked.
Without proper equipment, he was worried about how to find these chips.
But the surprise didn’t end there.
“Take this as well. This is what Kwak Woon had.”
“Kwak Woon?”
Huan Myung-oh was puzzled by the case that Chun Yeowun handed him.
It had fingerprint recognition, but it wasn’t locked, so he opened it.
“Oh!”
A core was inside the case.
Huan Myung-oh was at a loss of words at the core which was emitting tremendous energy.
‘Just when…’
It seemed like Chun Yeowun possessed a number of abilities that didn’t go in line with a martial artist.
And it was so amazing to see them all in action.
‘They are all unlucky ones.’
They tried to take away the core refinement device and dig up information about the Cult. However, they didn’t just lose their strong warrior, but also a precious A-cla.s.s core.
They were going to get p.i.s.sed now.
And just the thought made Huan Myung-oh feel refreshed.
Up Until now, they were all in a position where they were bowing down to the Murim a.s.sociation. But seeing how the Murim a.s.sociation was now getting beat, he felt excited.
And then came one concern.
‘Ah… this one, will make them certain.’
Come to think of it, till now, the a.s.sociation was in a state of doubt.
However, if the recapturing of the device failed and the fact that Kwak Woon died was known, then their doubt would turn into certainty.
“… Lord Chun Ma. it seems like their movement will be in full swing after this.”
“In what way?”
“Maybe they will try to pressure us saying that Kwak Woon disappeared or maybe… they will come for an all-out war with us before we even get the numbers on our side.”
If the a.s.sociation dispatched one of the Five Great Warriors because of a doubt, then they’d surely wage a full-out war if they were sure.
If that happened, the merger wouldn’t be the most important task, since it would be crucial to come up with a way to handle the Murim a.s.sociation.
“That won’t happen.”
“Sorry?”
Puzzled at Chun Yeowun’s, Huan Myung-oh asked.
“How could you get to that conclusion?”
“Huan Myung-oh. What do you think is the best defense?”
It seemed like Chun Yeowun was asking about the invasion preparation of the a.s.sociation.
Chun Yeowun spoke in a calm voice to Huan Myung-oh as he was nervous and couldn’t come up with an answer.
“It is a preemptive strike.”
‘!?’
Three days later.
Wuhan city.
Located in the middle of Hubei province, this city was known to be the safest city.
The reason was that the head office of the Murim a.s.sociation was located here.
The home of the modern martial arts with hundreds of small and medium clans taking root here.
More than 30,000 of the residents were martial artists.
The headquarters of the Murim a.s.sociation was to the northeast of Wuhan.
The main office building was in the form of a tiled house modeled after the old Murim structure.
In addition, there were more than 20 buildings and hundreds of exercise facilities on the vast site.
“Haa! Haa!”
The cheers of Murim people filled the hall throughout the site.
And a large cargo truck had entered the Murim a.s.sociation.
Kik!
The barricade went down and blocked the entrance.
The guards at the entrance of the main gate came out and stopped the cargo truck.
A security guard wearing a yellow band, who seemed to be the team leader, gestured for the window to be rolled down.
Wheing!
The truck’s window rolled down and showed the driver"s face.
But the driver seemed nervous.
Puzzled, the security guard asked.
“Your vehicle isn’t registered, so what business do you have here?”
“T-that…”
At the question, the driver looked at the person sitting next to him.
Since the cargo truck was large, the pa.s.senger seat wasn’t visible from outside.
However, the truck driver suddenly looked confused.
“Huh? If you say that…”
The head of the security guard thought this was strange and took out the pistol.
“What are you up to? Show me your ident.i.ty card right now.”
Waving his hands in fear, the driver said.
“I-I have nothing to do with this…”
Click!
The guard aimed the pistol at the driver.
“Declare what business you have here! Otherwise!”
“Eik!”
Swish!
When the leader gestured, the other guards pulled out their pistols and surrounded the truck.
They were ready to check the truck at any moment.
“This is the last warning. What business…”
It was then.
The voice of the one next to the truck driver came out.
“Business? I have come to wipe out the entire main office of the Murim a.s.sociation.”