Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#001

Heavenly Martial Body .

A body bestowed by heaven solely for martial arts. A perfect vessel for learning martial techniques, one who monopolizes heaven’s favor. A noble existence that all people admire and look up to.

Heaven Slayer .

One who kills such heaven.

***

-Bang!

A hammer struck down on my right hand. It was a hand that had survived fifteen years as an assassin, enduring countless life-and-death situations.

Blood and flesh splattered, and my fingers bent grotesquely.

“—으아아악!!”

A hand that had lost its form.

The only pride of my life, trained to survive, was crushed.

It was a bamboo forest where rain poured down.

A Masked Man wearing a white, faceless mask looked down at me mockingly.

“Ugh… ugh… aaaaargh!!”

My whole body trembled from the pain of broken bones and torn flesh.

“Hahaha, so you inherited the name of Amje, but even his disciple is nothing special. As expected, no matter how much someone like you pretends and struggles…”

The Masked Man in the white mask sneered.

“You’re just a lowly mule. You know that?”

-Whoooosh-!

Heavy rain falls.

Cold raindrops of early winter struck my face, and white breath leaked out.

The Masked Man spoke.

“You still don’t understand, do you? Why you’re being treated like this, why you’re being hunted to the end and slaughtered like this. Or what, do you feel wronged? If you have something to say, say it.”

“Huff… huff…!! I am…!”

I grope through my memories in pain.

“I am…!”

Why are they doing this to me?

Why?

Why on earth…?

“Ah, you don’t recognize me? Even though I’m wearing a mask, I thought someone like you would recognize me.”

“What…?”

“I wondered what you were doing after being kicked out of the Namgung Family fifteen years ago, and you’re just a lowly assassin.”

“How do you… know that.”

“You.”

The Masked Man said.

“You’re Namgung Hwi, right? The lowly bloodline who defiled the Namgung Family’s blood and was even kicked out.”

“…!”

Eliminate the local magnate who stole the silver necklace case and recover the necklace case.

When I first received this commission as an assassin, I thought it was just another ordinary, common job in the assassination world.

[What’s inside the necklace case?]

[Just one pearl. About the size of a thumb.]

At the same time, an enormous commission fee was offered.

That’s why I accepted it.

Breaking through an unusually large number of guards who reacted as if they knew I was coming, overcoming countless traps, I finally completed the commission.

As was my usual habit to prevent possible failure, I switched the recovered pearl from the necklace case with a fake.

Then, breaking through countless more life-and-death battles, I returned.

And what awaited my exhausted return was not the enormous commission fee, but a man in a white mask.

“You’ve always been the trash and shame of our family.”

The Masked Man was wearing Namgung Family clothing. Shadows began to multiply around him one by one.

One, two, three…

There were eight beings emanating streams of purple light from their eyes.

I’ll die at this rate.

I have to move somehow to escape.

As soon as my thoughts ended, I threw my body backward like lightning.

-Crash!

But what filled my vision faster than that were eight flashes of light.

“Kugh!”

A sword pierced into my abdomen.

Unfortunately, with all my weapons and stamina depleted, I couldn’t even twitch a finger.

“Demonic arts…?!”

The sword embedded in my abdomen was surrounded by subtle demonic energy.

Eight cult members who had stabbed their swords into me were looking at me with eyes streaming with purple demonic energy.

‘What kind of nonsense is this-.’

I wasn’t seeing things wrong.

A Masked Man in Namgung Family attire.

It should be impossible for demonic cult followers, Marin of the Sun and Moon Sect, to be escorting someone from the Namgung Family, one of the five orthodox families…

-Crash.

Like a wooden puppet with severed strings, my body tumbled over a mud puddle in the heavy rain.

I coughed up blood.

“…Why… on earth?”

“Hey, mule. You’re quite curious, aren’t you? That’s-.”

“Why! Why are you… killing… me…”

The Masked Man crouched down in front of me. And whispered softly.

“There’s a limit to delusion. There’s no way we’d leave alone someone as dangerous as you from birth, is there?”

“What?”

“And.”

-Bang!

His mud-covered foot slammed into my face.

“Don’t interrupt me. You beast who’s not even human…”

The Masked Man roared furiously.

“Don’t interrupt the words of one who will become the master of Namgung and the master of the world…!!”

He began kicking me. Blood splattered in the heavy rain.

I was being trampled.

Mud entered my mouth.

My jaw twisted and blood spurted out.

-…. ….. ….

The word repeatedly heard amidst the pouring beatings. The contemptuous voice contained within it.

Mule….

Mule.

In the continuing beating of muddy feet, the mask covering my face slipped down.

Ah, if it comes off….

That won’t do.

But I couldn’t move a single finger.

The mask was helplessly stripped away, and my face was nakedly revealed.

What was revealed beneath was my ugly face.

And what was exposed between was a body so small and thin that it would look ridiculous even to be considered an assassin, let alone a warrior.

Mule.

A pathetic existence with mixed blood of horse and donkey, belonging nowhere.

From birth, I was a mongrel abandoned by the Namgung Family.

The blood of my mother who was a servant, a lowly body, no talent for martial arts, and a gaunt, ugly face.

Being called a disgrace to the family, I couldn’t even gain recognition from my father, the family head.

No, was it merely lack of recognition?

After my mother passed away, three terrible fates that would ruin my entire life struck me one after another, eventually leading to my expulsion, so truly my life was like a gutter from birth.

“Huh, I was feeling unpleasant because of your filthy face, but now I finally feel somewhat relieved.”

The Masked Man adjusted his half-slipped mask.

“But no matter how much you all recommended it.”

He spoke to the Cult Members with a displeased voice.

“Was it really necessary to set up such a trap? Anyway, this guy is just a mere assassin, embarrassing to even call a warrior-.”

“He’s not just any assassin. He’s the one that the first Dark Emperor uniquely took as a disciple and even passed down his name to.”

The Cult Member beside him also chimed in.

“If the information you gave is correct, we absolutely had to prepare this much. This is a matter even our Cult Leader agreed to.”

“…Hmph, anyway I’ve finished my business so it’s fine. Handle the corpse as usual.”

“What about the wooden box?”

The voices I hear by my ear grow distant.

The flowing blood thickly wraps around my vision, and only my gasping breath gradually fills my ears.

Through the reddening vision, the Masked Man spits at me and disappears.

After that, the Cult Members come carrying oil jars.

As naturally as flowing water, they begin pouring oil over me.

In the distance, they’re striking flint to light torches.

Moving without rest to incinerate my existence, they each spat out words.

“…I was uncertain, but the information was correct. The concentration of talent might even exceed our Cult Leader’s.”

“What kind of heavenly joke is this? Among the Jeongsamahyeol, to have the talent of heavenly killing right in the heart of Jeongpa. If this is a joke, it’s truly wicked.”

I muttered with difficulty in the pool of blood.

“…Heavenly killing…talent?”

When I, whom they thought had lost consciousness, muttered, all the Cult Members holding oil jars froze and hesitated.

“Still alive?”

I gasped and mumbled.

“What on earth have you been talking about…. What is heavenly killing again….”

“…?”

The Cult Members blink their eyes.

“…Don’t tell me you still don’t know what you are?”

The Cult Members stop talking.

They look at each other.

The Cult Members open their mouths.

They close their mouths again.

“Pff.”

“Puha.”

The end of my life.

What reached my dying ears was the Cult Members’ roaring laughter.

Hahahaha.

Uhahahaha.

It was truly a cheerful sound of laughter.

Everyone bursts into laughter.

“Those Jeongpa bastards, aren’t they worse than us at this point!”

“Was it possible to so thoroughly castrate someone who appears only once in a thousand years!”

“How pitiful must it have been that even his master Amje didn’t give him a hint.”

“Still, it’s fortunate. If he had just caught the right timing for learning, what kind of monster would have been born!”

I freeze.

Even in the hellish pain, even in the smell of oil. That one sentence drills into my head.

‘He missed the timing for learning…?’

That was something my master had repeatedly told me countless times while alive.

“Don’t feel too wronged about not knowing what you were. Anyway, in this world….”

Before my eyes, a Cult Member holding a torch was approaching step by step.

I urgently shouted.

“Wait, no-!”

“There are countless people who miss their timing without knowing what they’re good at until they die!”

Before I could say anything, he unhesitatingly threw the torch onto my body.

Pure white flames engulfed my entire body. My body burned mercilessly along with the oil.

“…! …! …!!!”

It hurts.

Flames like white night writhe in agony with desperate screams.

I let out white screams. I rolled on the wet ground trying to put out the fire somehow, but it only devoured my entire body.

The fire even cooked my throat as I breathed in air to breathe.

-Kwarruk!

In the vision turning pure white,

I see a white mask curling up its corners.

‘Who… are you.’

In the end, I couldn’t escape.

The Namgung Family.

In the end, I realized I couldn’t live ignoring the Namgung Family, my origin.

No matter how much I ran away, they would eventually chase me down and kill me for whatever reason.

‘Revenge….’

What felt hotter than the pain of my entire body burning in fire was the vivid anger burning like hell.

The feeling of wanting to bang my head against a wall and die.

I felt for the first time that it wasn’t simply a metaphor.

At the same time, what crept up gnawing at my brain was regret filled with resentment.

Because my life had always been lived promising ‘next time.’

Though it’s like a muddy swamp now, a better life would surely come.

My life hasn’t even begun yet.

Somewhere out there, there’s a slightly better life.

This couldn’t possibly be my real life—that’s what I believed and lived by.

And so all my past life was spent constantly watching others’ reactions, enduring, and being pushed around.

And now, having reached the final destination of my life, I finally realized.

That there’s no practice run for my life.

That my life happens only once, right now.

I’ve heard that some people, even until they die, never know what they’re good at.

Then.

‘What I’m good at… my talent…!’

If there’s something I was born with, some talent I’m good at.

If I could straighten out this thoroughly twisted life, even just once.

I would.

I would…!

“I’ll definitely destroy the damn Namgung Family…!!”

[…]

[…]

[…]

“…Gasp!”

I can’t breathe.

I thrashed my body against the suffocating pressure. And at the same time, I could smell the fishy scent of buckwheat hulls coming from beyond the pillowcase.

“Cough…!”

I flailed my arms in drowning agony. Something was completely blocking my airway.

Even in that urgent moment, I was puzzled.

My flailing arms felt far too light. In my narrow field of vision, I could see my own fingers thrashing about.

Thin, slender hands.

“Cough, gasp… cough!”

“The adults are right. You’re neither my brother nor human.”

A massive frame.

He was trampling my head, burying it under the buckwheat pillow.

My two hands were struggling.

Twilight was falling.

Under the twilight, where shadows stretched long, this was the middle of a luxurious room.

“Starting with that disgusting face of yours. Do you understand?”

He shouted while trampling my head with all his might.

“You bastard mule!”

The one trampling me before my eyes.

‘…Namgung… Cheon?’

This was the first of my three bitter enemies that I encountered.

The nightmare of my childhood, my half-brother Namgung Cheon.

“I clearly warned you. Until the Soga Clan Heir Selection Competition in two months, don’t you dare act up and stay buried in your corner. Got it?!”

Beyond, with giggling sounds, a large man disappeared.

“…”

I’m suffocating.

Buried in the buckwheat hull bedding, I remained dazed for a long while.

My childhood,

That childhood nightmare that always repeated every morning was vividly unfolding before my eyes.

“This can’t… be.”

This is reality.

What should I do, thrown into the middle of this nightmare?

Will my life be ruined again as I face the bitter enemies who destroyed me, and will the nightmare repeat itself once more?

Helplessly?

Powerlessly…?

I closed my eyes.

“…No.”

And opened them again.

“Not this time.”

I raised my head.

On the ruined floor, I was reflected in a bronze mirror placed there.

“At least…”

My black eyes in the bronze mirror.

From within them, a vivid blood-red light, the aura of heavenly killing, suddenly burst forth.

“At least this time, I know what I am…!!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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