Clan annihilation.

The Seolleongtang tasted bitter.

It was a betrayal of expectations, considering Jin Cheon-hee had been simmering the bone broth diligently since the previous night to achieve a milky, rich consistency.

Seol Gyeon, the Branch Leader of the Beggars’ Sect, continued speaking, oblivious to the chef’s internal disappointment.

“The remaining three factions have lost half their forces. I still don’t understand why it came to this.”

“So, you came to ask if I know anything.”

“Yes.”

“…”

A cerulean light settled deep within Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes. But no matter how much he ratiocinated, he truly knew nothing. Rather, the question itself was puzzling.

“Is there any reason I should know?”

“Why do you say that, Kid?”

“Since you came to me despite not needing a discussion as a strategist, I assumed you might have caught a trail linking me to something.”

At those words, Seol Gyeon felt a prick of conscience.

This guy is quick-witted.

But seeing his calm reaction, it seemed Zhuge Rin hadn’t mentioned anything to his disciple. Above all, even the suspicion that Zhuge Rin was involved was purely circumstantial; there was no physical evidence.

For the Gangho to function under the banner of the Orthodox Path, one required physical proof—be it material evidence or a witness.

Seeing those who had once shouted at Zhuge Rin to keep his hands off their families—mocking him because he had no family left to protect—now falling one by one in the midst of a bloodbath… it gave Seol Gyeon a strange, unsettling feeling.

But they don’t have evidence of Zhuge Rin’s direct involvement either.

It had started with a delivery mistake from the White Qilin Medical Pavilion. However, even if it was an error, couldn’t the Bloody Axe Sect have handled it with their own power? If they blamed Zhuge Rin solely for that error, they would have to retract the praise they offered during the Blood Qilin Mad Slaughterer era, which would create a political quagmire.

“Since you’re a physician, I just thought you might have found out something through the clinic rumor mill.”

“I don’t have the energy to worry about that. Maybe if General Manager Yoo was by my side, things would be different.”

Ugh, you good-natured bastard. You good-natured, crazy bastard.

While Jin Cheon-hee conducted his virtuous governance of madness here, his master was dancing a sword dance of blood in the shadows. The words rose to her throat, but Seol Gyeon swallowed them down with the broth. Provoking Zhuge Rin’s inner thoughts would do no good.

“Anyway, I’m going! It was delicious, worth begging for!”

“Glad to hear it. Next time, I’ll feed you something else.”

Kind. Too kind.

Thinking this, Seol Gyeon patted Jin Cheon-hee’s head once and departed with her entourage of beggars.

Left alone, Jin Cheon-hee sat in the silence. The unnatural color of his eyes refused to return to normal.

There was no such development in the original novel.

Didn’t the Bloody Axe Sect expand its power until much later, eventually confronting the protagonist, Yeo Ha-ryoon?

Is this also a butterfly effect?

***

At the same time.

A rat bolted through the underbrush.

A rabbit leaped over the rat in a panic. A wolf sprinted past, ignoring both the rodent and the lagomorph, its predatory instincts overridden by primal fear. A deer bounded away in long, desperate arcs.

Finally, it became a forest where even the Great Tiger, the Lord of the Mountain, fled with its tail between its legs.

A persimmon-colored Fire Demon spread refreshingly through the dry air, consuming all in its path. Riding the gale, the inferno dyed the night sky a bruised vermilion. It raced forward, burning trees, animals, and even the corpses of martial artists with equal indifference.

Caw! Caw!

Now, only crows and martial artists remained in this hellscape.

Five figures emerged from the burning tree line, their faces gaunt with exhaustion. All wore Daoist robes, and the embroidery on their chests was unmistakably that of the Qingcheng Sect. Two were elderly men of Elder rank, and three were middle-aged Taoists.

One of the old men shouted.

“Hurry! The Fire Demon is spreading. I don’t know who set the blaze, but at this rate, we will be trapped!”

“Yes! Sect Leader!”

The old man was none other than Immortal Master Cheong Geon, the Sect Leader of Qingcheng.

However, why was a figure as prominent as a Sect Leader wandering through a burning forest far from his mountain sanctuary?

“We finally obtained the elixir, but the fire is the problem.”

Indeed.

The struggle over the Bloody Axe Sect’s elixir had reached its conclusion, and the victor was the Qingcheng Sect.

Immortal Master Cheong Geon gasped for breath as he issued commands. “To make matters worse, a formation has been set up to disorient us. Follow the rat.”

“Pardon? A rat?”

“Yes. Creatures close to the ground are less deceived by visual illusions and move in the correct direction instinctively. Therefore, a rat is the most suitable guide.”

“How did the Sect Leader know such…”

“Amazing. Everyone, find a rat! We go in the direction the pack moves!”

Immortal Master Cheong Geon couldn’t remember where he heard this wisdom, either. But it was a fragment of knowledge that had saved his life several times.

—Yes. Just find a rat. Though it is a lowly creature, its desire to live surpasses humans. If you wish to escape, you must follow it. Immortal Master Cheong Geon.

Ah, I see. It was that child.

The White Qilin Divine Physician in his childhood.

Before his clan was annihilated, that child was sharper, haughtier, and more knowledgeable than ordinary children. Many disliked him for toying with adults at such a tender age.

But everyone let it slide.

After all, that child had prepared for death from the moment of his birth. From the age of seven, he had to live while contemplating what he wanted to achieve before dying. The child, destined for an early grave, imparted his knowledge to various famous figures as if leaving behind a legacy.

Back then, Cheong Geon thought he was just an arrogant brat showing off, imitating the sages. But thinking about it now, wasn’t that his own desperate form of expression? A hope that even if his body perished, his knowledge would remain and circulate among the living.

Why am I thinking of that child now?

Whoosh—

The wind howled. The flames danced in tandem with the gale. Along with the acrid stench of charring wood, the distinct scents of gunpowder and oil assaulted their noses.

As expected, someone had artificially ignited this hell. It was clear they had calculated the Fire Demon’s spread, predicted the wind direction, and established a Killing Formation to ensure no survivors.

Who? Why?

And how did they know the final victor would be the Qingcheng Sect?

“Hurry!”

But no one answered his command.

Where had everyone gone?

Looking around, all he saw was the blackened skeletal remains of the forest, and… a dead rat at his feet.

“Where are you going in such a hurry? Immortal Master Cheong Geon?”

Snap.

With the sharp sound of a fan unfolding, long silver hair shimmered amidst the backdrop of flames.

A giant man, standing over eight feet tall. A man who preferred court attire or scholar’s robes over martial arts clothing. That man walked into this burning inferno as if taking a leisurely moonlit stroll.

“Y-You are…! Blood Qilin Mad Slaughterer! Surely…?!”

“Heh, I don’t know why everyone assumes I’m the culprit as soon as they see my face.”

“Who else would walk through a Killing Formation inside a Fire Demon!”

“You have a point. However, I merely walked a long way to congratulate you on the rumor that you obtained the elixir I made. Or… do you have evidence that I am the culprit?”

—Do you have evidence! Young Zhuge! I asked if you have evidence that I sent poison to your mother and kidnapped your wet nurse!

“Or… do you have any witnesses? I wonder if they survived.”

—You heard a voice? Look here. Young Zhuge has lost his mind and dares to insult the Great Qingcheng Sect! How can you insult us like this without a witness or evidence! The witness who died yesterday must have been killed by that Young Zhuge himself!

The words Immortal Master Cheong Geon had spat at the young Zhuge decades ago were now calmly recited by the elder Zhuge.

“Bastard! Do you think I don’t know you used a borrowed knife to annihilate the Qingcheng Sect?!”

“That’s too harsh. Even if the Sect Leader and Elders pass away, doesn’t the Qingcheng Sect still remain?”

—The Zhuge Clan annihilated? What nonsense is that. Aren’t you the successor of the Zhuge Clan? Doesn’t a child of the Zhuge Clan memorize all the clan’s secret arts before turning ten? Why should our Qingcheng Sect take responsibility for that!

Immortal Master Cheong Geon raised his eyes, trembling.

The young tiger before him had become a full-grown monster, and he was even smiling. Immortal Master Cheong Geon wasn’t ignorant of how rare it was for the man before him to show such an expression.

“Why… take revenge for the clan’s grudges… only now?”

“…”

“I know your father used you, a child who would soon die, to learn the Divine Art. Your mother knew it too, but she only found you medicine and didn’t stop your father.”

“…”

“Because it was such a clan. I thought you had let go of the grudge. The clan was torn apart, and you struggled, but still… I thought stopping at a certain line was ultimately due to love and hate for the previous Zhuge Clan Head. Am I wrong?”

“…”

Zhuge Rin only looked at him with a faint, inscrutable smile.

“I asked if I was wrong!”

Immortal Master Cheong Geon’s voice, filled with spite, echoed through the burning forest.

However, amidst the roar of collapsing timber and the wind generated by the Fire Demon, that level of sound couldn’t even travel a single li.

Eventually, Zhuge Rin opened his mouth.

“Correct. My father used the young me. To master the profundities of the Divine Art, he used my body as an experiment. He judged it wise to become fertilizer for the clan since I was a child destined to die soon anyway.”

He had told the young Zhuge Rin that living long was out of the question, so he should think about how to live.

Back then, the young Zhuge Rin understood the meaning—what the Clan Head and his biological father desired.

The young child decided to burn his short life for the clan. Because he didn’t know any other path.

To perfect the Zhuge Clan’s Divine Art, his father experimented with the mnemonic chants one by one on his son, who possessed the same constitution of True Qi.

Even if Qi Deviation occurred during cultivation, it was a short life anyway. Father could simply avoid the path where I died and interpret the chant again.

Pain eroded innocence. It made one forget hope.

And finally, after making one lose shining things one by one, the scenery left behind was only monochrome. Black and white.

“Then…”

“However. Even so, that judgment should have been mine to make, not yours. Old Qingcheng.”

“…!”

“Also, my mother was powerless but pathologically obsessed with finding medicine to reduce my pain even a little, and my wet nurse was simply naive. My other siblings in the Zhuge Clan suffered from my arrogant personality but foolishly believed it was because I was sick.”

There were good people, too. That was why he mourned them.

He still remembered his mother’s warmth. He understood she had few choices.

Thinking of his father left a large, empty hole in a corner of his heart.

Originally, the clan was supposed to revive by reinterpreting the Divine Art after his death.

Why did I survive alone, and the clan…

Since then, the child with genius intellect and unique sensibility became even more twisted.

Zhuge Rin still didn’t know the full picture of the Zhuge Clan’s annihilation. Time flowed like grains of sand, and by the time the boy became a young man, most evidence and witnesses had already vanished into the wind.

Days spent running like a blind man, groping only for patchy grudges.

Has the incense on the altar run out? Is there no more incense to burn? Is it the person who has fallen? Or the heart? Or is it longing?

“Didn’t you decide to stop exacting revenge?”

“Yes. I did. Old Qingcheng.”

“Then why?”