Seomun Hwa-rin.
She was a woman born as the second daughter of the Seomun Clan, a prestigious Orthodox Sect that had once made a name for itself.
It was a place renowned for its outstanding Sword Art, but Seomun Hwa-rin herself had no interest in martial arts, and aside from the very basics, she had reportedly never trained diligently.
Since she was a woman who would one day marry into another family, the clan apparently did not make much of an issue of it.
For that reason, she lived peacefully, closer to embroidery than to the sword. Then, one day, the Seomun Clan was suddenly met with Clan Extermination.
The place they had settled was Gangseo Province. It was a region where, unlike the Five Great Families or the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, there were no powerful Orthodox factions, while Zhejiang Province sat right next door, making it a neighborhood where the orthodox and the unorthodox clashed and bickered.
Naturally, to the Unorthodox Sects, the Seomun Clan, which held a firm grip on one pillar of Gangseo Province, must have been a thorn in their eye.
In the end, the Black Heaven Sword Gate, an Unorthodox sect as old as the Seomun Clan itself, persuaded ambitious mid-sized sects and gathered a group of Unorthodox followers who shared their ambitions, and decided to bring about the Seomun Clan's Extermination.
Their plan was simple. Pretending to end their long-standing feud and seek reconciliation, the Lord of the Black Heaven Sword Gate hinted at a marriage alliance.
No matter how revered as a prestigious clan, the Seomun Clan, weary of the endless territorial disputes in Gangseo Province, accepted the offer.
And so, a wedding was held between Seomun Hwa-rin's younger brother, who had not yet married, and the daughter of the Lord of the Black Heaven Sword Gate.
The day that should have been a joyous occasion became the Seomun Clan's last.
They bribed the Head Chef to poison the wine, poisoning the clan head and his close retainers, and those who had gathered disguised as wedding guests one by one drew out their hidden weapons.
The Seomun Clan was not an easy target, but the Black Heaven Sword Gate's preparations were all the more thorough.
The martial artists, filled with the pride of being responsible for the Orthodox Sects of Gangseo Province, fell one by one, helplessly.
The clan head of the Seomun Clan, a Transcendent Peak martial artist said to have few peers even among those at his level, fought desperately despite the poison—but in the end, his neck was severed by the Lord of the Black Heaven Sword Gate.
Her younger brother, who should have become the groom, had his heart pierced by the bride's hand, and died with his eyes open, his face twisted with betrayal.
The reason Seomun Hwa-rin survived was simple. Because she had never learned martial arts.
She had little internal energy, and the Aura characteristic of trained martial artists was faint as well, so she was pushed down the priority list.
Thanks to that, she managed to escape by the skin of her teeth—but the fact that her world had turned into a sea of fire overnight did not change.
She had watched her family and retainers being brutally murdered before her own eyes. How must she have felt?
Others might not know, but I know very well.
She must have been burning with a rage that could never be swallowed. A fire that would not go out no matter how she gritted her teeth, clawed at her chest, or screamed at the top of her lungs.
How desperate must she have been for her black hair to have turned stark white in a single night?
There was only one way to quell that fire.
Revenge.
Having resolved to avenge her family, Seomun Hwa-rin left Gangseo Province and began wandering the Central Plains.
Born a noble young lady, she experienced sleeping outdoors for the first time in her life, went hungry, was swindled… and even killed people with her martial arts.
She had to survive to take her revenge, and the murim was hardly a good place for a young girl alone to survive.
So she had to beat to death anyone who approached her with ill intentions.
Fortunately, Seomun Hwa-rin simply had no interest in martial arts—her talent was overflowing, and she still remembered the simple fist techniques she had learned for self-defense.
How many times had she delved into and refined the basic fist techniques—mere foundation arts meant to build the body before one truly began sword training—along with her family's foundational mental cultivation method?
Before she knew it, she had entered the ranks of a master, and the moment she realized this, she began the revenge she had put off.
Of course, while a Peak Realm martial artist was formidable, she was not strong enough to exterminate all the sects that ruled Gangseo Province on her own.
So Seomun Hwa-rin started with the weakest sects, slowly luring them out or sometimes launching surprise attacks, taking them down one by one.
What began as members of a sect disappearing one by one, Seomun Hwa-rin's revenge grew bolder with each passing day.
It was partly because her martial level was growing rapidly, but also because she had exterminated so many sects and families that she could no longer hide it.
The forces that had participated in the destruction of the Seomun Clan, including the Black Heaven Sword Gate, began to seriously hunt down Seomun Hwa-rin.
But she broke through all these dangers, and instead rose to the Transcendent Peak, exterminating even more sects.
Seomun Hwa-rin's Aura was like a wildfire — an unstoppable calamity spreading like a blaze across dry grass.
In the end, every sect was exterminated, leaving only the Black Heaven Sword Gate standing.
Seomun Hwa-rin knew full well that the Lord of the Black Heaven Sword Gate had been a Transcendent Peak master for a very long time, and that he had grown even stronger by absorbing the martial arts of the Seomun Clan.
But even knowing this, she could not stop. The fire of revenge was already burning even herself.
In the end, she beat to death all the martial artists of the Black Heaven Sword Gate, and fought a life-and-death battle with its Lord for three days and three nights.
At last, Seomun Hwa-rin crushed the head of the Lord of the Black Heaven Sword Gate, and by then she was already being called by the alias Baekbal Nachal.
And so, with the extermination of the Black Heaven Sword Gate as the last one, Seomun Hwa-rin completed her revenge.
Her fire had gone out, but this time, the remaining ashes tormented Seomun Hwa-rin.
Even consumed by vengeance as she was, she had seen too much blood.
It was only natural—she, who was kind by nature, had killed at least several hundred people.
Exhausted, Seomun Hwa-rin gathered the martial arts of the Seomun Clan that remained at the Black Heaven Sword Gate and quietly retreated into seclusion.
Up to this point, this was the story of the Seomun Clan's extermination and her revenge, known to all the world.
However, there was a bit of a backstory to it.
Having refined her foundational techniques and reached the Transcendent Peak through endless real combat, the clan's secret arts returned to Seomun Hwa-rin.
Upon encountering martial arts that were clearly superior to everything she had learned so far, her skills began to develop at an even faster pace.
In the end, she reached the lofty realm known as the Harmony Realm.
Was it the guilt and realization that had shaken her since finishing her revenge that left their mark?
Bone-Exchange Rebirth is something everyone undergoes upon reaching the Harmony Realm, but in Seomun Hwa-rin's case, it went beyond simply optimizing her body for the martial arts she had mastered—she experienced a full Rejuvenation, becoming younger altogether.
Having returned to the body of her happiest childhood years, Seomun Hwa-rin made a resolution.
Revenge was over now, and though things had changed somewhat, she had inherited her clan's martial arts—so she would live a new life. She would live a humane life, one not stained with blood.
And so, she erased every trace of evidence that she was Seomun Hwa-rin as much as possible and headed for Hubei Province.
To the Murim Alliance in Muhan City. She intended to participate in the Dragon Phoenix Gathering held there and start over as a suitably skilled rising talent from an unknown sect.
Well. The Murim Alliance Leader, who normally only showed his face at the finals, had apparently been struck by some whim and came to watch from the very first sparring match—so she was caught immediately.
Because of the brutal methods she had used during her revenge, she was already regarded as something of a heavyweight among the Unorthodox Sects.
Because she was a master who had reached the Harmony Realm, they had tried to persuade her with kind words, but in the end, she was driven out without achieving her goal.
When even her rejuvenated appearance became known, she gave up on starting a new life. And so, seeking a place to belong, she threw herself into the Black Alliance.
It was there that she met me and Seol Ri-hyang.
That is the story of the Seomun Clan and Seomun Hwa-rin as I know it.
She was my teacher and a parent to me—she never passed down her own martial arts, but she would often look over mine.
Thanks to her, I was able to refine my sword art, improve my Mental Cultivation Method, and learn a new footwork that fit me perfectly, replacing the one that had never quite suited me.
And now, to think that the footwork I had always believed Seomun Hwa-rin had tailored specifically for me was actually a modified version of the Seomun Clan's martial arts.
It was completely unexpected, coming from Seomun Hwa-rin, who had always drawn a clear line, insisting she had no intention of bequeathing her martial arts to me.
"Elder Gwiyeong Sin-tu. Is this really the Seomun Clan's footwork?"
"Well, it certainly looks that way to me."
"Didn't the Seomun Clan's martial arts spread all over the place at one point?"
"Baekbal Nachal managed to recover most of them, but some arts had spread so widely they were impossible to retrieve. However, this is not one of those mediocre arts."
Gwiyeong Sin-tu shook his head firmly. Come to think of it, he was someone who had once infiltrated the Seomun Clan's secret vault, and if there was one thing he excelled at, it was footwork and movement techniques — he was a genius in that regard.
It was hard to dismiss this as a simple misunderstanding.
"Understood. Let's say my footwork did come from the Seomun Clan. Then what do you mean by saying it's not a mediocre art?"
"Exactly what I said. To begin with, what have you been calling this footwork all this time?"
"There is no name. My master created it for me, and since its true value only reveals itself when I use it, he never gave it a separate name. He told me I could name it as I pleased, so if I had to call it something, it would be Mumyeongbo."
"Oh my… Such a remarkable martial art, buried away like this."
"Just what footwork of the Seomun Clan did you see in me, Gwiyeong Sin-tu, to speak like that?"
"What else, you fool. Have you ever heard of the Thunder Step?"
"…Not at all."
"Well, that makes sense. It's been a long time since the Seomun Clan was exterminated. The Thunder Step is an advanced martial art famous for its extreme speed. They say thunder sounds with every step taken, which is how it got its name."
"Ah."
Hearing that, one thing did strike me. My footwork is, at its core, a martial art specialized in instantaneous speed and the control of pace.
My ability to change directions is somewhat lacking, but I can burst internal energy from my Yongcheonhyeol to accelerate suddenly, and at any moment I can plant my heel to convert my speed directly into force, allowing me to stop abruptly as well.
Among these, when I burst internal energy from my Yongcheonhyeol to gain speed, the explosive sound resembles thunder to the untrained ear.
My current level isn't high enough for it to be particularly pronounced, but in my previous life, when I had reached Transcendent Peak, I did produce a thunder-like sound.
I had always thought of it as a footwork designed to seize upon any brief opening an opponent showed and bite into it without letting go.
But it turns out it was one of the Seomun Clan's advanced martial arts. If that's the case, then why would Seomun Hwa-rin, who would never hand over her family's martial arts to an outsider no matter what, have lied to me about it…
As I stood there in confusion, Gwiyeong Sin-tu spoke in a low voice.
"It seems you had no idea at all."
"Yes. She only ever told me that it was created for me."
"It's true that it was made for you. You didn't learn the Seomun Clan's mental cultivation method, nor did you study that martial art and its mysteries separately. I can see traces of countless refinements, all so that someone like you—who has mastered a completely unique martial art of your own—could wield it without difficulty."
"…"
"It must not have been easy."
"Why would she…"
What on earth had Seomun Hwa-rin done all of that for?
The question slipped out before I could stop myself. At that, Gwiyeong Sin-tu burst into a hearty laugh.
"Why, you ask? The reason is simple. If there was anyone who could pass down the Seomun Clan's martial arts to you, it would have to be Baekbal Nachal—and she is a woman with many enemies."
"Enemies…"
Come to think of it, the son of the Black Heaven Sword Gate Lord had somehow survived, and just as Seomun Hwa-rin had, he rose to the Harmony Realm on the strength of his vengeance, only to die alongside Seomun Hwa-rin in the end.
Seomun Hwa-rin's revenge had been spectacular, but it had not been complete, and having already been branded as a leading figure of the Unorthodox Sects, his reputation in the martial world was hardly favorable.
"He didn't want to burden his disciple with his own baggage."
"Ah."
The moment I heard that, I understood. I was not the only one who had regarded Seomun Hwa-rin as a master.
Surely she, too, had thought of me as her disciple.
As I struggled to suppress the surge of emotion, Gwiyeong Sin-tu got to the point.
"I will not speak a word to anyone about your master. However, I wish to repay you for two things: for forgiving the wrongs I committed against the Seomun Clan in the past, and for saving my life this time."
"What repayment do you mean?"
"I'll teach you my footwork. About half of it."