Chapter 33.
Shadowless Divine Thief Two (2)
The interrogation had begun.
I already knew what the Shadow Divine Thief had stolen from our Sacheondang Family.
The seal of the Sacheondang Family Head.
The stamp used on the Family Head's orders.
At the ti, the Shadow Divine Thief had stolen Father's Family Head seal.
And cleverly brought a forged counterfeit seal back to Father's office in its place.
It was discovered several months later.
After fighting a war with the White Tiger Gate and concluding the armistice negotiations.
White Tiger Gate had unified the Four Divine Gate, but they were no match for our Sacheondang Family.
The White Tiger Gate agreed to pay massive reparations to the victorious Sacheondang Family.
Our Family agreed to accept those reparations and not destroy the White Tiger Gate entirely.
A war that commonly occurs in Gangho.
Father had once again demonstrated his magnanimity and tolerance as Family Head.
But as ti passed, the White Tiger Gate never paid the promised reparations.
On the contrary, they had the audacity to co at us first.
"The Sacheondang Family broke their promise! You've thrown the honor of the Five Great Households to the ground and trampled upon it!"
When they brought up the Five Great Households out of nowhere, Father could not hold back.
The situation escalated to a hair-trigger mont where another war could break out at any second.
That was when the Five Great Households, led by the Namgung Family, stepped in to diate.
Father said,
"How dare the defeated White Tiger Gate speak of our Sacheondang Family's honor!"
The White Tiger Gate Master sneered and pulled sothing out, waving it about.
"Can you still say that after seeing this?"
"……?"
The White Tiger Gate Master presented docunts to the heads and elders of the Five Great Households.
"This docunt is the armistice agreent between our White Tiger Gate and the Sacheondang Family following the recent war."
Thud!
He pointed to the bottom of the agreent, where the seal impression stamped by Father was located.
"Look at the imprint here! This is not the seal of the Sacheondang Family Head!"
"……!"
The claim that the seal was forged!
Father's eyes flew wide open.
The White Tiger Gate Master cried out triumphantly,
"Our White Tiger Gate trusted the Sacheondang Family! We trusted the honor of the Dang Family, which has endured for hundreds of years. That is precisely why we agreed to pay the massive reparations!"
"That cannot be. My seal is counterfeit, you say!"
"We've already had it appraised! The shape may be similar, but there is no special reaction that appears when the Sacheondang Family seal is pressed!"
Splash—.
The White Tiger Gate Master poured water over the armistice agreent.
The Sacheondang Family Head's seal is special.
Even if water is poured on the imprint after it is pressed, it will never bleed or sar.
And yet.
Spread—.
The imprint on the agreent began to dissolve and bleed in the water.
Distrust began to creep into the eyes of the Five Great Households' heads and elders.
"Good heavens!"
"So it's true……."
Father spoke to the White Tiger Gate Master.
"White Tiger Gate Master! You confird the seal I pressed at the ti, did you not?"
"That I did, yes. Indeed. Because I did not know it was your doing, Family Head."
"You insolent—! How dare you!"
Namgung Cheon, head of the Namgung Family, restrained my furious Father.
The White Tiger Gate Master shouted,
"Since a forged seal was used, our White Tiger Gate's promise of reparations is also void!"
Even if it had been forged, there was no question that Father had been the one to press it, so there should have been no issue with the armistice agreent's validity.
However, the very fact that our Sacheondang Family, a mber of the Five Great Households, had used a forged seal was the problem.
The circumstances hardly mattered either.
All that spread was the fact that our Family had not even realized their Family Head's seal had been stolen.
The diation had failed.
Father intended to strike the White Tiger Gate to restore our fallen honor, but once again, the Five Great Households stopped him.
"Striking the White Tiger Gate under the current circumstances lacks justification."
"Namgung Family Head!"
"Hold yourself. More than that, capturing the thief who stole the Family Head's seal must co first."
"Damn it all!"
Father had no choice but to swallow his rage.
Our Family's investigation proceeded, but the culprit could never be caught.
To have forged the Family Head's seal to an identical degree, it was clearly the work of a craftsman of considerable skill.
A craftsman of that caliber was rare even across the entire world.
Yet all such craftsn had died.
As though soone had severed their own tail to avoid being caught.
After that, all manner of counterfeit docunts stamped with our stolen Family seal began to surface.
Land and field transaction records, promissory notes, guarantees, and the like.
Each ti, Father was forced to suffer through humiliation.
On top of that, our Family had failed to collect the reparations from the White Tiger Gate, had pressed a forged seal, failed to notice it had been stolen, and failed to catch the culprit.
The label of an incompetent family was affixed to us.
And rumors began to slowly circulate in Gangho.
That our Family would be removed from the Five Great Households.
* * *
[Entering 15th floor of Murim Tower (Republic of Korea).]
[This is your first entry.]
[Mission (15th floor): Kill the Shadowless Divine Thief.]
The mont I entered, I had the Shadowless and the Divine Thief both captured.
The information that said their hiding spots on 14th through 16 floor were the sa had proven correct.
I had paid a steep price at the Black Market, but it had been worth every bit.
I couldn't have asked the Choi brothers about it.
They believed I was a high-floor climber.
"Shadowless Divine Thief. Hand over the Family seal you stole."
"……!"
The Shadowless Divine Thief's gaze wavered.
The look of soone wondering how I knew.
Our Family had never caught the culprit.
But the fact that the Shadowless Divine Thief — a thief — had appeared after the White Tiger Gate on 11th floor was as good as the Tower teaching the answer.
"Answer ."
Crack crack crack crack!
I crushed the shoulder blade of the Shadowless, whom I held in my left hand.
"Kkeugh!"
The Shadowless refused to open his mouth.
He said to ,
"You think I'll answer……. We're dead either way."
The look in his eyes was still alive.
I wasn't disappointed.
Shadowless and Divine Thief were brothers. A pair who had lived their entire lives as though one body.
There was a separate thod for interrogating people like these.
"Divine Thief, answer . Otherwise."
Snap!
I broke the Shadowless's collarbone.
"I will kill your brother in excruciating agony."
The Bone-Breaking Muscle-Tearing technique.
True to its na, it tears the muscles and wrenches out the bones.
When Shadowless began to let out a horrible scream, the Divine Thief could bear it no longer and opened his mouth.
"Please, stop!"
"Answer ."
"The, the Sacheondang Family Head's seal is no longer in our possession!"
"Who did you give it to?"
The Divine Thief glanced about, hesitating.
"Kkuaaak!"
"Answer ! Did you give it to the Alliance Leader? Was this the work of the Murim Alliance Leader?"
I applied the Bone-Breaking Muscle-Tearing technique to the Shadowless again as I interrogated him.
Then the Divine Thief let slip an unexpected na.
"Na, Namgung Cheon!"
……Namgung Cheon?
The head of the Namgung Family.
Why would he—?
"Are you certain?"
"Yes, sir. Both the one who commissioned it and the one who received the seal were Namgung Cheon."
"Evidence?"
"Over there……."
The Divine Thief pointed to sowhere on the second-floor rafters.
I swung Yama's Life-Chasing Threads and cut through the rafter.
Tumble tumble tumble——!
Gold ingots and banknotes spilled out from the gap in the cut rafter.
Upon inspection, they belonged to Cheongeum Manor, the foremost money house in the Central Plains.
The owner of Cheongeum Manor was related by marriage to Namgung Cheon, the Namgung Family Head.
"This alone is not enough to be certain."
When I narrowed my eyes, the Divine Thief cried out in a frantic voice,
"I, I swear it's true! Please believe ."
He poured out a detailed account of the circumstances.
The content was specific — and at a level impossible to fabricate without having lived through it firsthand.
The ten minutes were nearing their end.
I silently struck the Shadowless and the Divine Thief's necks.
[Bonus Mission Success]
[Swift Elimination of the Shadowless Divine Thief]
—Mission (15th floor) deed a success!
"Let's confirm it one more ti."
On 16th floor, I would conduct the interrogation in reverse.
I planned to apply the Bone-Breaking Muscle-Tearing technique to the Divine Thief, and extract the answer from the Shadowless.
If the answer was the sa, it would be the truth.
[Entering 16th of Murim Tower (Republic of Korea).]
A short while later.
"Namgung Cheon!"
It was confird.
The Shadowless had given the sa answer as well.
[Bonus Mission Success]
[Swift Elimination of the Shadowless Divine Thief]
—Mission (16th floor) deed a success!
It was also Namgung Cheon who had stopped Father from striking the White Tiger Gate.
Then did that an all those countless forged docunts — the land and field transaction records, promissory notes, guarantees — had all been Namgung Cheon's doing?
It seed Namgung Cheon had also been the one to inform the White Tiger Gate Master that the seal had been forged.
The fact that the White Tiger Gate Master had not put up much resistance when the Five Great Households stepped in to diate was proof of that……
The one who had sheltered the Dark Moon Pavilion before had been the Qingcheng Sect, one of the Nine Sects and One Alliance.
The one who had stolen Father's seal was the Namgung Family, one of the Five Great Households.
The Murim Alliance Leader, the Evil Path Alliance Leader, the Heavenly Demon.
When these foes attacked, the Nine Sects and One Alliance and the Five Great Households — who should have been our Sacheondang Family's strength — were in truth……
"Our enemies……."
Moreover, Yama's Life-Chasing Threads, found at the White Tiger Gate.
If even the Family's own mbers had betrayed us, then the destruction of our Sacheondang Family had been inevitable.
"Father……."
What our Family — what Father — had faced was.
The entire world.
* * *
I returned to the dicinal and poisonous herb field.
ssages appeared indicating that the success rewards had co in, along with increases in various minor martial arts.
Internal energy as well.
The Purple Mist Dust Poison I had scattered had been reabsorbed.
I no longer had any need to even glance at things like chemical waste.
Infinite-power Science Poison Demon.
14th floor had certainly been unusual.
No — the entire Tower was unusual.
As I had continued climbing the Tower, I had clearly noticed that each floor was different.
When clearing 1st floor's Nallyu Gang, it had been about 4 km² wide, and the basent of the Dark Moon Pavilion on 4th floor had been cramped.
There had been no way to exit outside the basent either.
But 10th floor?
That had been far too vast as well. Nor was it a kill mission.
So it was going to keep defying my expectations, was it?
……Interesting.
Next I checked the rewards.
First and foremost, the secret manual for the Sorcery Reversal Art.
[Sorcery Reversal Art lv1: The Great Law of Reversal can be applied externally in a limited capacity.]
'The Great Law of Reversal.'
[The Great Law of Reversal is applied. Poison becos dicine, and dicine becos poison.]
This was it.
The Reversal, which had only applied to my own body, could now be applied externally as well.
I tested it imdiately.
I tilted a water bottle and slowly poured it out.
"Reversal."
Trickle trickle trickle—.
Nothing had changed.
I tried various things again, but failed.
"Ah, right."
Poison and dicine.
Reversal only applied between these two.
I took out the Purple Mist Dust Poison.
The poison I had used on 14th floor with a bit still remaining.
"Reversal."
Pssss.
Sothing seed to have been applied.
"Now if I consu it, the opposite effect should co out. It was a poison, so it should act as dicine."
Would it even stop the coughing?
I plucked a dicinal leaf and tickled my nose with it.
When a sneeze was about to co out, I consud it.
[Consuming the Reversal Purple Mist Dust Poison. dicine becos poison. Internal energy increases.]
Click—.
There we go!
It was recognized as dicine, and the sneeze didn't co out either.
I gazed at the poisonous herbs growing in the field.
The ways to utilize the Reversal were boundless.
"……This is incredible."
A poisonous herb that dissolves bone.
What if Reversal were applied to this?
Fweeee—.
I let out a whistle.
* * *
I returned to my room and checked my phone.
There were ssages waiting.
[3 Unread ssages]
The first was a video sent by Min-jeong.
"Oppa, this is Paris! This is the Eiffel Tower! Can you see it? It can be seen from my room! Absolutely incredible! I can see the Eiffel Tower every single night when I sleep!"
Clearly visible.
What about her chocolate studies?
"I bought so chocolate mass here and tried making so. The taste is incredible! Curious, aren't you? I can't send it to Oppa, so just taste it through the video."
She shoved the chocolate into the cara.
……Is she joking with .
If it weren't for the Ten Thousand Streams Return to Origin Divine Art, I really would. Goodness.
[Bonus Mission: Turn Min-jeong into a master of chocolate.]
"Oh wait, I need to say the spell first. Yoisiku nare, moe moe kyun! Good night. Boop!"
……Goodness gracious. That incorrigible young lady.
She looks happy, so that's a relief.
Work hard.
The second was from Division Manager Jeong Jang-hyeon.
He was sending a ssage to my phone — he had said he'd contact with a new cell phone of his own.
Ah, I hadn't charged it right after receiving it, had I?
I checked the ssage.
—Mr. Kim. This is Division Manager Jeong.
—About the new Hero Chocolate corporation we'll be establishing, could we perhaps increase Baekgyeong's stake a little? We'd like to request up to 25% for 10 billion won. The more you're willing to give us, the better. When you see this, please give a call—.
Hero Chocolate.
He'd already gone and nad it before I'd even given a definitive answer.
It had been decided that Baekgyeong would invest.
The stake I intended to give them was 5%.
Baekgyeong's initial investnt was 20 billion won.
The chaebol heirs, who had a nose for money like bloodhounds.
They had recognized the value of Min-jeong and , and were now requesting 25% of the chocolate corporation for 10 billion won.
The brothers had been treating quite well, but this was business.
I sent a reply.
—I appreciate the proposal, but I'm afraid that won't be possible.
A ssage of refusal.
The 10 billion right in front of my eyes ant nothing.
The money I would earn from climbing the Tower would overflow.
On top of that, the newly acquired Sorcery Reversal Art.
The value of this was boundless.
Just you wait, Division Manager Jeong.
I'll beco wealthy enough to buy Baekgyeong outright.
Be grateful you're even getting 5% as things stand.
The last ssage.
—Are you doing well?
Just a single line.
The sender was—!
'Hae-jin.'
[Bonus Mission: Find 'Hae-jin.']
—Upon Success: Major aid toward Main Mission (3), Synchronization of Kim Tae-yang's mories.
[mory synchronization is in progress. 75%…… 76%.]
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