The village of Wolseok had no name on Murim's maps.
It was too small, too poor, and too insignificant to be remembered by the righteous sects that ruled the martial world.
Jin Hae-Rin used to believe that was a blessing.
He was wrong.
"Cleanse everything."
The command was spoken calmly, as if ordering tea.
White-robed figures stood at the entrance of the village, their swords gleaming beneath the afternoon sun.
The emblem of the Heavenly Radiance Sect was stitched proudly on their chests—a symbol of justice revered throughout Murim.
To the villagers, it became a death sentence.
Screams erupted.
Blood splattered onto dirt paths that had never known violence.
Homes were set ablaze.
Old men were cut down mid-prayer.
Children were silenced before they could understand fear.
Hae-Rin stood frozen, his body refusing to move as his mother collapsed in front of him.
A crimson line bloomed across her chest.
"Why…?" he whispered.
A sword tip pressed against his throat.
A man with cold eyes looked down at him.
"Your village harbored demonic remnants," the man said.
"By Murim law, extermination is mercy."
Mercy.
Hae-Rin laughed weakly, tears streaming down his face.
They were farmers.
Before the blade could fall, the ground beneath Hae-Rin's feet cracked.
The earth collapsed.
He fell.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
Hae-Rin did not die.
He awoke in a place where even echoes feared to linger.
A vast abyss stretched endlessly beneath his feet.
Its walls were carved with ancient symbols that pulsed faintly like a dying heartbeat.
At the center of the cavern sat a skeleton clad in black robes.
The moment Hae-Rin approached, pale light ignited within its empty eye sockets.
"So," a voice echoed inside his mind.
"Murim has discarded another."
Hae-Rin