Murim Troubleshooter Chapter 191

Chapter 191: Midnight Hostage Crisis

There was a proverb passed down among the Divine Thieves of past generations.

‘A thief who fights is a novice.’

If bloodshed broke out, it ant the theft had been clumsy from the start.

And the Fifth Divine Thief of Xiangyang. She too had treasured those words like sacred wisdom, since her master had died after becoming entangled in the grudges of the Jianghu.

But when she ca to her senses, she found herself standing right in the middle of a battlefield where flashing sword light ran wild and explosions and fragnts whirled through the air.

Boom!

A deafening roar that made the ears ring. Trees that had stood densely packed toppled one after another, flas surged upward, and sharp tal fragnts rained everywhere.

From within the flas, the figure of Venerable Huiyin appeared. Faced with a blazing fire that could not be cut down with a sword, she protected her entire body with Enhanced Qi, a defense that consud enormous amounts of Internal Energy.

The gentle deanor she usually carried was nowhere to be seen. Madness and killing intent glead across her face.

As thick smoke spread through the area, the androgynous woman who had introduced herself as Muhong burst through the haze with flashing sword light.

Blue energy and white energy clashed within the wrecked battlefield. Sword Flux filled with killing intent tangled in the air, whipping up violent waves of energy.

The earth split open, and shattered wooden debris scattered in every direction.

“This isn’t theft at all…!”

Caught in the terrifying battle, Xiangyang cried out in shock.

At that mont, Geumhong pulled a cylindrical tube from her robes and yanked the cord attached to it.

With a loud bang, countless poison needles shot sharply toward Venerable Huiyin.

Venerable Huiyin imdiately tried to leap away, but Muhong trapped her footing with mysterious footwork and movents.

“You despicable wretches…!”

In the end, Venerable Huiyin gritted her teeth and once again spread Enhanced Qi across her entire body.

Clatter! Clink!

Silver poison needles fell uselessly to the ground.

Having suffered extre Internal Energy depletion twice, she glared at Muhong and Geumhong as if she would kill them.

Xiangyang had been staring blankly at the flowing chain of attacks, but suddenly snapped back to her senses and shouted.

“Just what are you people?!”

At that mont, Muhong ripped off the Human-skin Mask and wig from her face.

Under the moonlight appeared sharp features and handso looks.

The person she had thought was a woman revealed himself in a deep voice.

“Beijing Troubleshooter, Dog-Beating Dragon Dan Mujin!”

Crack. Crunch.

As the Bone-Shrinking Technique reversed his skeletal structure, the beauty with an androgynous charm instantly transford into a robust man.

“…This is insane!”

Xiangyang’s mouth fell open in shock as she watched the woman turn into a man.

Then she seed to recall the na Dan Mujin from mory and clutched her head while letting out a scream.

“Wait—Dan Mujin? Isn’t that the lunatic who causes massive trouble everywhere he goes?!”

It seed she had dropped her young lady disguise, because her tone had already beco rough and curt.

“Hey now, calling

a lunatic? That’s a bit harsh.”

Dan Mujin grumbled while pointing his sword at Venerable Huiyin.

“So let

get this straight. A master at the Transcendence Realm shalessly disguises herself as a woman and sneaks into a Male-Forbidden Domain… and you’re saying that’s sane behavior?”

By the common sense of the Central Plains, it was completely incomprehensible.

The kind of action only soone labeled a ‘strange eccentric’ by their alias would commit.

“I rely do my best for my client.”

His calm tone, insisting he had done nothing wrong, only made Xiangyang more dumbfounded.

Sneaking into the Ei Sect in female disguise and throwing Thunderburst Bombs at the Sect Leader.

No matter how much it was for a job, this was even more outrageous than theft.

“…Your head must be completely broken!”

Xiangyang shouted angrily.

At that mont, Venerable Huiyin, who had been silently listening, brushed the soot from her scorched white robes and spoke.

“If you are Dan Mujin, you must be the Beijing Troubleshooter Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo hired… Why did you return here in disguise?”

Her tone demanded to know why he had abandoned their request if he valued commissions so much.

“I don’t discriminate when it cos to requests, but I do discriminate when it cos to bad people.”

Dan Mujin explained that while he lived within a moral gray zone, he did not accept the requests of hypocritical villains.

At the remark that she was a villain, Venerable Huiyin’s face hardened and her eyes narrowed.

As if reading her expression, Dan Mujin shrugged and continued.

“What you’re doing right now… isn’t exactly a good deed, is it?”

“…I am rely doing this to survive. To maintain my sanity, I need Latent Energy or the Energy of Stars.”

Venerable Huiyin bit her lip as she continued.

Dan Mujin tilted his head at the phrase “Energy of Stars.”

“Think about it in the long term. Between a bizarre troubleshooter like you sneaking into a sacred won’s domain, and the Sect Leader at the Blazing Fla Realm who carries one pillar of the Nine Sects One Gang… which one surviving would benefit the Murim more?”

The Sect Leader of the Ei Sect claid that the number of villains she had cut down exceeded five hundred, presenting her own justification.

Dan Mujin snorted.

“Oh? A utilitarian, are we? Not long ago, you told

about Self-Purifying Righteousness—that the motivation behind actions mattered more than the result.”

“….”

If your heart is pure and upright, then that itself is goodness.

Dan Mujin returned the exact words of encouragent she had once told him at the training ground, adding a crooked smile.

His gaze said plainly:

You’re doing this because you don’t want to die, so why pretend it’s for the Murim?

“…Silence, you troubleshooter who betrays his clients. If you had quietly captured Venerable Huiyul and delivered her, at least the two beside you would still be alive…!”

Her killing intent began rising again, provoked by his disdainful gaze—and by the faint look that suggested he almost understood her reasoning.

“Hey, thief. Looks like she’s coming again. Help out.”

Xiangyang shuddered and stepped back when he asked her to fight.

“I’m not a thief, I’m Xiangyang! And why the hell should I get involved in your fight?!”

“Didn’t you hear what she said earlier? She’s going to kill all three of us.”

Xiangyang had heard it.

At the current montum, the Sect Leader of the Ei Sect looked ready to silence her as well.

Left with no choice, she angrily pulled a short sword from her waist.

“Why did I have to get tangled up with soone like you…! Ugh, I hate this!”

“Hey, I’ll take that as a complint.”

The mont Dan Mujin finished speaking, the Blazing Fla Realm martial artist lunged forward with eyes blazing with murderous madness.

The fierce Sword Flux bound to her blade split the earth as it shot toward them.

Dan Mujin and his companions leapt away in alarm.

In the blink of an eye, Venerable Huiyin closed the distance like a ghost and swung a sword radiating eerie purple energy.

Her strikes tore through trees, split boulders in half, and repeatedly slamd down the Iron Sword blazing with pale Sword Flux.

Boom! Boom!

Though it was the clash of tal, the sound echoed like bombs exploding.

Each collision sent white energy and purple energy crashing against each other, pushing the combatants apart.

Every ti their swords t, the Starfall Heart Cultivation thod inside Dan Mujin reacted violently, making his insides churn.

Even while shocked, a strange thought crossed his mind.

Yes—this feeling was like opposite poles of a magnet touching.

“…You Yin Fiend! Quietly beco a sacrifice for the Moonlight Heart Cultivation thod!”

Trails of killing intent spread in every direction.

“What Yin Fiend…! And what the hell is the Moonlight Heart Cultivation thod?!”

A life-and-death duel unfolded in the dead of night.

Enormous energies clashed savagely, as if trying to tear each other apart.

Night watch duty was always boring.

After falling out of favor with Venerable Huiyin, two disciples of the Ei Sect had been forced into unreasonable labor.

Standing idly, Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo began chatting while gazing at the stars filling the sky.

And since they lived isolated in the mountains, their topic naturally turned to the newly recruited Lay Disciples.

“That Seo Muhong kid… there’s sothing charming about that androgynous vibe.”

Jeong Yo ntioned the Lay Disciples worth noticing from the current intake.

She seed slightly anxious, saying a few other Ei Sect disciples had already taken interest.

“You really are sothing else… You sound just like Venerable Huiyul.”

Gi Hyo shook her head with an exasperated expression.

“But she’s polite, you know? She even complinted us. Don’t you like her?”

“Co to your senses. If you keep clinging like that and get caught, this ti it won’t end with simple confinent.”

“…That’s true, but still.”

They were idly passing ti with aningless chatter when—

Boom!

A powerful explosion and tremor echoed from deep within the mountains.

Startled, both won jerked their heads up.

The location seed to be the training ground used by past Sect Leaders of the Ei Sect.

“Are they training…?”

But the explosion had been far too violent for that.

“Let’s go check. Just in case.”

If they ignored it and sothing happened, they would be blad.

So Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo began climbing the mountain toward the source.

At the end of that path, they witnessed a brutal battle of explosions and Sword Flux.

A woman wearing the Ei Sect’s Daoist Robe and three suspicious figures.

“A man?!”

“That’s the clothing of a Lay Disciple—what kind of absurdity is this?!”

They reacted angrily at the outrageous sight.

They drew their swords to finish them imdiately.

But there was still one shocking thing they had yet to see.

“S-Sect Leader…?”

It was exactly as Venerable Huiyul had feared.

Venerable Huiyin had lost her reason, consud by sinister energy.

“T-This can’t be!”

“What—what in the world is happening here?!”

When I heard a familiar voice behind , I glanced back.

Then I saw familiar faces.

Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo, the ones who had visited my office in Beijing to deliver the Ei Sect’s request.

They looked completely lost as they stared at the devastated training ground and the madness radiating from Venerable Huiyin.

She regained her senses for a mont, then lost them again.

From the rambling words she muttered after my provocation pushed her over the edge, it seed she had lured us here for one reason.

She couldn’t bring herself to absorb the Latent Energy of the disciples she had raised.

So she accepted Lay Disciples from outside, selecting suspicious outsiders she wouldn’t mind killing.

That must have been the final line she refused to cross, even subconsciously.

At that mont, I thought of a thod to briefly restore her sanity.

“Gi Hyo! Jeong Yo! I didn’t expect to et you again in a situation like this, but do you rember my face?!”

They flinched and looked at .

“Ah! You!”

“The Beijing Troubleshooter! W-Why are you here?!”

They looked utterly bewildered.

“It’s a long story! Venerable Huiyul was right! Look at the Sect Leader!”

I chose a thod far more effective than a hundred explanations.

Seeing the Sect Leader spewing madness and killing intent like a demon, Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo bit their lips.

Normally they should have helped the Sect Leader repel

for entering the Male-Forbidden Domain.

But they were completely shaken.

So I whispered through Telepathy to guide them toward the right decision.

‘I have a thod.’

From the things that terrifying woman had muttered earlier—

Energy of Stars… and the Moonlight Heart Cultivation thod, which suspiciously resembled the naming style of the Starfall Heart Cultivation thod.

I didn’t want to kill the Sect Leader of the Ei Sect on Mount Ei, where countless Ei disciples lived.

When I told them I wanted to try sothing, the two Ei won nodded with difficulty.

They had already sensed sothing was wrong with their Sect Leader.

“Then excuse .”

The mont they gave permission, I turned around and imdiately took Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo hostage as human shields.

Facing Venerable Huiyin, I pressed a blade against their necks and shouted.

“Drop your weapon! Otherwise these poor won will die!”

When I tightened my grip, a thin line of blood trickled down Gi Hyo’s neck.

The ssage was clear—if she ca even one step closer, I would cut her throat.

Venerable Huiyin, who had been charging forward with eerie energy, suddenly stopped.

The madness clouding her eyes faded slightly.

“You despicable coward…! Taking defenseless won hostage… Have you no sha?!”

Just as expected, she treasured her disciples dearly.

Even though she had tried to drain the Latent Energy of others’ disciples like a Demonic Practitioner.

“Let’s talk, Venerable Huiyin.”

At last, the Sect Leader who had been charging like a wild beast seed ready to speak.

Enduring the killing intent that felt like it pierced my skin, I calmly continued speaking.