Blood Demon of the Past Life – Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Nightmare （3）

Hook.

Thud!

Seo Mun-ho was thrown to the floor.

More than the powerful impact that felt like his bones were breaking, the sight of the corpses staining the floor crimson caught his attention.

“Gasp.”

He inhaled.

His eyes shook frantically.

Among the corpses strewn about like trash, there were far too many faces familiar to Seo Mun-ho.

It was a small village with only about 30 households.

He knew who lived nearby, even the number of utensils they put on their dining tables, so they were practically family. The village elders who treated him like a grandson, the Ajusshi and Ajumma who never spared praise, saying Seo Mun-ho was the pillar of the village, and even the few young sprouts of the village. The sight of them lying lifeless was visually unbearable.

“Ugh, Ugh. Ugh!”

He buried his face in the ground.

Overcome by the sickening feeling rising from his esophagus, he vomited for a while before suddenly coming to his senses.

He had to live.

He had to save his family.

Lifting his head, he looked at Peng Mujeong, who had dragged him here.

“…So-Sorry. If I’ve done anything wrong, if I’ve offended you in any way, I’ll apologize for everything. And I’ll return the silver I received as a reward. It might be difficult right now because I’ve used some of it, but I’ll work my body to the bone to pay you back. Please, please just spare my life.”

“No need to be sorry. You haven’t done anything wrong to us.”

“Yes? Then why…?”

The opponent’s answer.

It felt like his heart was sinking.

If only he had offended him, if only he had made a big mistake while guiding them.

Then he could have apologized and rectified the problem, but a murder without justification meant a reality he couldn’t bear. He couldn’t bring himself to ask directly. Knowing that the power over life and death was in the hands of this terrifying martial artist, all he could do was plead with his wavering eyes.

Peng Mujeong smirked.

There was no trace of guilt about this situation on his face.

“It’s just that you were chosen by us. That’s the only problem. By the way, I’m sorry.”

“…!”

Why?

Goosebumps erupted all over his body.

Instinctively, he turned his head, and the reality he had feared unfolded before his eyes.

“Ah, Aack!”

His wife was being dragged away.

At the sight of his wife being dragged away screaming, Seo Mun-ho desperately tried to get up and save her.

But.

Hook.

Crack!

With a brutal hand, Seo Mun-ho’s face was slammed into the ground.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

It felt like his mind was going to explode.

He wasn’t in his right mind.

As Seo Mun-ho struggled and thrashed, the martial artist’s grip on his head tightened.

“Gasp, Gasp.”

He couldn’t even speak properly.

Dirt and dust got into his mouth as his face was pressed against the ground, and Peng Mujeong simply watched with his arms crossed. Even amidst all this, his wife’s voice continued to reach him from afar. The fact that this was a quiet mountain forest was maddening at this moment.

“Please, please don’t do this!”

“Aack!”

“No, please!”

He opened his eyes wide.

The situation played out in his mind.

His wife’s resistance gradually subsided, and at some point, the men’s rough breathing began to spread. His eyes became bloodshot at the utterly surreal situation. He couldn’t believe this was reality. They had spent such a happy day, yet he couldn’t understand why they had fallen into this abyss.

“Ugh, Ugh. Uwaaaack!”

He lifted his face.

Even though his face was scraped and bleeding from the ground, he stubbornly looked up at Peng Mujeong.

“You seem curious as to why this is happening.”

Peng Mujeong was calm.

His voice was calm and composed, contrasting sharply with the horrific scene.

“I’ll tell you the truth, especially for you. A few days ago, a guy presumed to be a Murim Alliance warrior dared to rape and murder my only younger sister. Although it’s circumstantial evidence, based on various circumstances, it was definitely a Murim Alliance warrior. The problem is that this old-fashioned righteous Murim can’t move without clear evidence. Then what should I do? Ah, should I suppress this boiling rage and say, ‘The will of the righteous Murim is great, so I’ll wait until we find evidence’?”

Moonlight fell.

Peng Mujeong’s face was consumed by immense rage that was beyond words.

“I can’t do that. Absolutely not. So I decided to create a justification for the righteous Murim to attack the Murim Alliance. The method is simple. Seo Mun-ho, from now on, you will be called a Murim Alliance spy. The Hebei Peng family, while searching for the culprit, discovered the village where the spy was hiding. And you, on the verge of being exposed, chose to kill all the villagers and flee. But cruelly, while living as ‘Seo Mun-ho,’ you pretended to be married to Jin Hwayeon and sexually exploited her. In this righteous Murim, touching a woman, especially a pregnant woman, is considered a grave sin. If the righteous Murim hears about this incident, how will they react? They won’t be able to leave the Murim Alliance alone, to uphold justice.”

He couldn’t breathe.

Every time he heard the truth, he felt like he was going to lose consciousness from his suffocating breath.

“Do you understand what I’m saying? You were simply the best candidate for the plan I had in mind. That was your misfortune.”

“You bastard. Go ahead, kill me. When I die, I’ll become an evil spirit and….”

“Sorry to interrupt, but I have no intention of killing you.”

Peng Mujeong looked up at the sky.

The moon was bright.

His face was filled with a strange excitement, as if the sins were being revealed in their entirety.

“You will survive this tragedy. Only then can the plan I have in mind be perfectly completed.”

✦✦✦✦✦✦

Peng Mujeong’s words were true.

After finishing off the villagers, he glanced at Seo Mun-ho and then turned around without hesitation and disappeared.

He didn’t understand.

Why he was spared.

What his intentions were.

But more than those complicated calculations, Seo Mun-ho’s priority was to get up and check on his wife’s condition.

Burst.

“Ah, Ahhh!”

It felt like the sky was falling.

On the scattered hay.

His wife was dying, covered in blood.

Jin Hwayeon struggled to move her eyes and looked at Seo Mun-ho, who was filled with despair.

“Take care of Ha-rin, take care of Ha-rin…”

“Honey!”

She couldn’t finish her sentence.

As Jin Hwayeon’s head drooped, Seo Mun-ho hurriedly ran over and checked on her condition.

She wasn’t breathing.

Her skin was cold, and his heart pounded frantically at the sight of her drenched in blood.

“Ugh, Ugh. Uwaaaack!”

He wanted to deny reality.

Seo Mun-ho, clutching the corpse and sobbing, got up with a dishevelled face.

He had to pull himself together.

His only daughter.

Seo Harin was left.

He ran frantically to find his daughter, but he froze in place as if struck by lightning.

“…No. This can’t be.”

Under the old tree, the symbol of the village.

His daughter was hanging like a toy.

As if to make it known that it was the Murim Alliance’s doing, the Murim Alliance’s symbol was carved in blood on his little daughter’s clothes. He stumbled and collapsed. His legs gave out, and he couldn’t get up. He thought he should at least make his daughter’s body comfortable, but he kept falling and getting up like a newborn deer.

“Uwaaaack!”

He screamed.

The fact that the moon was bright.

The fact that this miserable reality was so clearly visible.

Seo Mun-ho felt incredibly resentful.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

Hebei Peng family.

They were thorough.

The tragedy that unfolded in the mountain village.

Immediately after revealing it as the spy’s doing, they presented the silver received from the Azure Dragon Merchant Guild as clear evidence. Money that Seo Mun-ho, with his insignificant job, couldn’t possibly have. It was interpreted as support received from the Murim Alliance because he was a spy, and while Seo Mun-ho was traveling through the mountains with the Hebei Peng family, they left evidence here and there that could frame him as a spy. Signals sent by spies, Seo Mun-ho’s footprints, various circumstances all came together to turn ‘Seo Mun-ho,’ who had been a kind person in the neighborhood, into a heinous villain in an instant.

Public opinion was formed.

The righteous Murim was enraged and raised their voices, demanding the punishment of the Murim Alliance.

The series of events.

Seo Mun-ho knew he couldn’t be caught.

He thought that if he were caught now, far from revealing the truth, he would die as a spy, and everything would proceed according to Peng Mujeong’s wishes.

‘…I will tear you to shreds and kill you.’

He swallowed his anger.

With a haggard face from days of starvation, Seo Mun-ho climbed over the mountains and quickly headed somewhere.

Fortunately, the mountain paths were very familiar to him, and he didn’t get caught by the pursuers.

That’s how he arrived in Liaoning Province.

At first, he considered assassinating Peng Mujeong.

He wanted to hide in a toilet and kill him, but he knew all too well that it was impossible for an ordinary person to assassinate a martial artist. The overwhelming force that had crushed him. Knowing that it was a problem he couldn’t solve no matter how much time passed, he decided to find someone who would reveal the truth he had experienced.

Moyeongcheon of the Moyeong family.

Before being the head of the Moyeong family, he was also the leader of the Murim Alliance.

He would listen to the truth.

Even if the opponent was the Hebei Peng family, he believed that Moyeongcheon, renowned for his fairness, would be someone who would draw his sword to uphold justice. Moreover, he had heard that Moyeongcheon was staying in Liaoning at that time. Seo Mun-ho hid near the Moyeong family’s estate and waited for the right moment, finally confirming that Moyeongcheon had come out of the estate.

He rushed out.

Without even explaining the situation, he bowed his head and raised his voice.

“Leader of the Murim! I have suffered such an unjust and unfair incident. Please, please listen to my story and punish the heinous villain. I beg you!”

He kowtowed repeatedly.

As blood flowed from his head, which was splitting open, Moyeongcheon spoke in a gentle voice.

“I don’t know what the circumstances are, but please follow me. Let’s go inside and talk.”

At those words.

Seo Mun-ho lifted his head abruptly.

Moyeongcheon’s eyes, looking at him, were pursuing true justice, unlike those of a villain like Peng Mujeong.

It was truly fortunate.

Just as there is light where there is shadow.

Justice still existed in this world.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

It was a truly long story.

One day, Peng Mujeong suddenly visited and requested him to be a guide, offering a hundred silver taels as a reward. The hideous truth that on the night he returned after successfully completing the request, a terrible murder occurred.

He struggled to recall his memories.

His wife’s screams, his daughter’s corpse.

Every time he thought of those things, he wanted to vomit everything in his stomach, but he didn’t want to show such a disgraceful sight to the man in front of him. He was his only lifeline. He knew that he couldn’t possibly take revenge against a powerful figure from Hebei without someone like Moyeongcheon.

He was desperate.

After pouring out the whole truth, Seo Mun-ho bowed his head once again.

“…This is the situation. The Hebei Peng family is manipulating the truth and slandering me as a Murim Alliance spy to get what they want. Please. I’ll do anything to reveal the truth, so please punish the Hebei Peng family, who are tarnishing the name of the righteous Murim. I can even bet my life on it.”

Throughout the story.

Moyeongcheon never interrupted him once.

As if proving his reputation for fairness, he didn’t ignore the words of an insignificant commoner.

It was fortunate.

That such a person was the leader of the Murim.

That such a person happened to be in Liaoning.

But then.

“Tsk. These Peng family guys, they’ve finally caused trouble.”

His eyes wavered.

Moyeongcheon’s expression shouldn’t have been like that.

Moyeongcheon shouldn’t have made such a remark.

With an expression subtly different from when he saw him outside, Seo Mun-ho stared blankly at Moyeongcheon with a frozen face.

Suddenly.

Moyeongcheon showed a cold expression, as if looking at an insect.

“To think you came to me of all people. The Peng family is lucky.”

Only then did he realize.

This world.

The truth commonly known to ordinary people was, cruelly enough, not at all truthful.

It was a harsh reality.