Eventually, at a sharp gesture from Muk Dal, the servants cleared the cluttered table of empty alcohol bottles and set down a fresh pot of tea. The liquid poured out a deep, lucid blue—a sign of high quality—but the woman seated across from them merely chewed on her refreshments, seemingly indifferent to the elegance of the brew.

“Did you come to form a faction in Hangzhou or something?”

Oh, getting straight to the point.

As a modern person, Jin Cheon-hee appreciated this attitude immensely. He liked a fast ball thrown right down the middle. He had resigned himself to enduring thirty minutes to an hour of useless pleasantries about the weather and worldly affairs, so this abruptness was a stroke of luck.

And as expected, her insight was quite sharp.

“Of course, I am not entirely uninterested in influence,” Jin Cheon-hee replied honestly. “But I came here because I have an interest that outweighs that.”

“And what interest is that?”

“Fulfilling my duty as a medical clinic. It is the work of saving people.”

The woman blinked, then snorted. “Wow, are you really the crazy guy the rumors say you are? Is that truly the only reason you came here?”

“I need manpower. About three hundred trustworthy people should be enough.”

“Not three, not thirty, but three hundred? Kuhahaha!”

The Wandering Vagrants King threw her head back and laughed for a long time, finding the sheer audacity of the request hilarious. Her unkempt hair shook around her face like a lion’s mane.

“You have big hands, just as I’ve heard,” she said, grinning. “Good. I will grant it. Leave the skills and vetting to me.”

“Thank you.”

“Anything else you want?”

“Umm… I will be distributing soap to each person. I expect them to wash their hands before entering the medical clinic tent without fail.”

“Strange. One Light. Is this why you are scattering the Heavenly Design?”

“Excuse me?”

At the unexpected remark, Jin Cheon-hee stiffened. Behind him, Muk Dal hurriedly slammed the sliding door shut, grumbling in panic.

“No, Director! Please…! We are a secret society, I told you!”

“Freeze to death with your secrets. Hey, this body is the Heavenly Design Compliance.”

In that instant, a tremendous fighting spirit exploded from her massive frame.

Schwing!

Jin Cheon-hee and Cheon Woo drew their weapons, shifting instantly into battle stances.

No, Heavenly Design Compliance? That… Is it a group like the Heavenly Network Sect?

Only then did he realize why the spirit he felt from Muk Dal had seemed strangely familiar; it bore similarities to the aura of the Heavenly Network Sect.

The Wandering Vagrants King, Mok Dam-hwa, waved a hand dismissively.

“I like fighting. But I don’t want to smash up my own place of business. Rather than that, how about talking? Especially since delicious refreshments have just been served.”

She kept her mountain-like body perfectly motionless, clearly revealing she had no will to fight.

“This tea…” Cheon Woo’s voice was low, his hand still on his hilt. “Is it poisoned?”

“Ey, do you think I would do such a low thing after inviting a guest? Besides, Taoist Cheon Woo, I have a connection with you. I, the Wandering Vagrants King, am not petty enough to feed poison to someone I share a link with.”

However, Cheon Woo’s expression remained glacial.

Does he feel betrayed?

“Straighten your face. Why is the future Number One Beauty of Wudang so cold?”

Ah, is that so.

Viewed from the perspective of this era, Cheon Woo’s innate bone structure did possess a beauty comparable to a massive, elegant Serpent Spear.

“It’s a bit of a flaw that your face is ferocious, unlike a proper Taoist, but even that is a charm.”

As expected… She is the same type as Wangya Ju.

Jin Cheon-hee sighed and sat down first, signaling the end of hostilities. “Cheon Woo. Let’s sit.”

“…”

Cheon Woo followed his brother and sat, though his guard remained visibly raised.

The Wandering Vagrants King sipped her tea as if it were water and spoke. “I’ll tell you frankly. We are called Heavenly Design Compliance. However, we are not a single sect. It’s more like a loose alliance. Thinking of the Martial Righteous Alliance or the Unorthodox Alliance would make it easy to understand.”

“I know the name. I’ve heard it before.”

“Hoh… Where did you hear our name?”

“The Blood Immortal Cult told me.”

At those words, Cheon Woo’s eyes narrowed instantly. On the other hand, the Wandering Vagrants King burst into a wide grin.

“Those bastards… As expected, they are fast. Indeed, since it is work they do because they enjoy it, they would be quick. So, what did the Blood Immortal Cult say?”

“They babbled nonsense about becoming allies with them. Of course, I refused.”

“Kueu… Decisive. You have decisiveness. Good, good.”

Thwack.

She set the teacup down. Strangely, despite the force of the impact, not a drop of the tea spilled. It was a realm where high martial learning resided even in trivial movements.

“Most of those gathered in our Heavenly Design Compliance are from single-transmission sects—where the art is not passed down unless the perfect successor is found. Well… there is no special philosophical reason. Most of the martial arts we learned are extremely difficult to cultivate. To reach the extreme, genius talent must be accompanied by bone-cutting effort. Naturally, the character must fit, too. So, it inevitably becomes a transmission only to the ‘right person.’”

Jin Cheon-hee nodded. “You mean single-transmission is not a rule, but an inevitable realistic methodology.”

“Right, right. It’s hard to find even one guy to receive the martial arts, and teaching that one guy isn’t easy either. No matter how great the master, isn’t time fair? All humans age. Unless one can undergo Bone-Transforming and Embryo-Seizing Metamorphosis eternally like a snake.”

The Wandering Vagrants King flicked her finger.

Snap.

A liquor bottle displayed on a shelf far away flew across the room by itself and landed in her hand with a solid thud.

Void-Grasping Art.

Cheon Woo looked surprised that she would use such a profound technique merely to fetch a drink. However, both Jin Cheon-hee and Muk Dal watched with calm eyes. Not a single unnecessary movement.

Slice!

Cutting off the neck of the liquor bottle with just the swipe of a finger, the Wandering Vagrants King tilted her head back.

Gulp, gulp.

She finished a long draught, made a loud, satisfied sound, and wiped her mouth.

“Kueu… As expected, the Shaoxing Wine of the Crimson Wine Gang is a killer!”

Shaoxing Wine, the famous liquor of Zhejiang Province. And the Crimson Wine Gang, as implied by their name, was a sect that built its fortune on the sale of alcohol. Watching the Wandering Vagrants King casually praise the liquor of a rival faction, Jin Cheon-hee waited for her next words.

“So. Since we are a loose alliance, we aren’t that cooperative. Besides, the internal attitude toward you, One Light, hasn’t been organized yet. Ah, for reference, I am of the bystander faction. Honestly, I don’t care.”

“Attitude… Hmm, it seems complaints about me have piled up quite a bit on the Heavenly Design Compliance side.”

“Kueu…” The Wandering Vagrants King wiped her mouth with her sleeve—swish, swish—and continued.

“It’s funny to say this, but the Founding Patriarchs of the sects belonging to Heavenly Design Compliance are mostly those who Ascended. Didn’t Teacher Wolong—Zhuge Liang, the Founding Patriarch of your Zhuge Clan—also ascend? It sounds like a joke or a tall tale, but it’s real, you know? There is evidence.”

Jin Cheon-hee considered this. “No… Well, if one can be the Founding Patriarch of a single-transmission sect and pass down martial arts strong enough for the lineage to continue, naturally they would have the capacity to ascend.”

“Right. Even if not the Founding Patriarch, someone among their first or third-generation disciples ascended. Didn’t Taoist Zhang Sanfeng, the Founding Patriarch of Taoist Cheon Woo’s house over there, also ascend eventually?”

What the Wandering Vagrants King wanted to say was simple: My own Founding Patriarch doesn’t lag behind the Patriarchs of the Zhuge Clan or the Wudang Sect.

That, well. I understand. She means don’t ignore us just because we operate via single-transmission.

But there was something else to focus on.

Ascension.

Did that mean they might be existences standing on the opposite point of the Blood Immortals?

Honestly, he didn’t know. Jin Cheon-hee had never heard Zhuge Liang’s voice, nor received his revelation. Appearing in a dream and giving a peach tree branch… Ah, was that a conception dream?

Anyway, there was no such dialogue at all. That was the same for his Master. To one living in the present world, Ascension was functionally identical to death. Even if a world existed after, there was no way to know.

Blood Immortal…

That number wasn’t specified even in the novel. But there must be those who oppose the Blood Immortals manipulating the human world as they pleased. Since even the Condor Dragon existed here, it was impossible that there was no world after Ascension.

Does this mean I am stuck in the middle?

Jin Cheon-hee fell into deep thought. Seeing the blue light spreading in his pupils, the Wandering Vagrants King continued, perhaps satisfied by his contemplation.

“So there are many bastards obsessed with the Heavenly Design. Because experts of single-transmission like us have nowhere to lean on. The Founding Patriarchs are the same. We are different from Wudang. If I die prematurely right now, the Martial Lineage of the Wandering Vagrants King ends. But even if you alone die, Zhang Sanfeng’s will continues, right?”

No, well… the will of the Zhuge Clan almost ended right at Master’s generation, though.

Even then, Teacher Wolong hadn’t helped his Master with anything. Hadn’t his Master lived bearing the terrible name of ‘Blood Qilin Mad Slaughterer’ all on his own?

The Wandering Vagrants King continued. “But from my position, it’s like ‘Is that so?’. And there are quite a few people like me. Mainly those following Laozi’s ideology.”

The Ideology of Laozi—one of the Taoist schools focused on developing human innate nature through Wu Wei Zi Ran—Non-action and Naturalness. Naturally, those following Laozi’s teachings had also been passed down for generations, to the extent it is speculated that current Taoist sects were heavily influenced by it.

“The Heavenly Design has already mostly gone bad. If it were a net, more than half is torn; if it were food, it’s been spoiled for quite a while. And this is aaaaall thanks to you.”

“Me?”

At those words, she burst into laughter. “Right. You accomplished what the Blood Immortal Cult couldn’t do, even by kidnapping virgin boys and girls and slaughtering children. They brought the Suksin kids and waged war to that point, but it’s surprising that you—just by saving people—dealt a bigger blow to the Heavenly Design than the chaos of war ever could.”

The possibility of humans.

“Because saving people creates more possibilities than killing people,” she mused.

“Somehow, you seem calm about it?”

“Anyway, congratulations. You achieved an unprecedented feat!”

Clap, clap, clap!

She applauded him, her congratulations seemingly genuine. Yet, hearing it, the reality didn’t quite sink in.

Jin Cheon-hee asked, “What is the purpose of the Blood Immortal Cult?”

“Umm, it seems they have different opinions individually, just like us. But first, human extinction seems to be the biggest purpose.”

“Human extinction?”

“Hmm… They say something good comes after humanity goes extinct. Actually, even going according to the Heavenly Design, the time of destruction comes someday. However, the factions are divided between those who want to wait until then, and those who don’t want to wait. That’s why every time the Cult Leader changes over there, they go back and forth a bit as if suffering from dementia.”

Jin Cheon-hee stared at her.

Is it okay to handle such a grave matter as human extinction according to personal subjectivity like that?

But on the other hand, a strange thought occurred to him. Come to think of it, weren’t the guys called the ‘Celestial Realm’ also a bit deficient administratively, clerically, and in terms of human rights?

The reason he felt it was absurd yet understandable was that he recalled words said by a friend working at a pharmaceutical company back in his modern life.

—Hey, Cheon-hee. Is it okay to just dump such a great and important job on someone like me and tell me to handle it roughly?

It wasn’t a small domestic firm, but a leading overseas pharmaceutical giant. In fact, such stories were always coming out, regardless of whether they were private or public companies; one only had to look at the anonymous ‘Blind’ app to see the pattern. It was a commonality shared by global companies, domestic conglomerates, SMEs, and mom-and-pop stores alike.

But discussing human extinction in this context… he felt a strange, terrifying sense of corporate déjà vu.