Only I Am A Reader

<That's him, I'm sure of it!>

The Murim Lord's shout deafened Geochin as he stared at the ongoing battle between the Heavenly Demon and the Demon Lord.

"Him? He is the one that…"

<Indeed. He was the one that ambushed me when I was roaming around.>

One of the reasons Geochin had involved himself so much with the cracks from the very start was the intel given to him by Namgung Geom. After all, the first crack to open up in Murim was something that the Murim Lord had witnessed with his very own eyes!

"Seems like you weren't just unlucky."

<Wasn't that already obvious from the beginning?>

The Demon Lord's words were ambiguous, but it wasn't that hard to glean the fact that he had made a trip to dispose of someone before, and that just happened to be none other than the Sword Emperor himself.

<I'm not a hypocrite to say that ambushing someone without their notice is unfair, but a crack in dimension definitely was!>

His contemplation journeys were far too many, and the Murim Lord was simply too strong for anything to affect him. Even then, he still kept up his Qi sense all the time. However, even the Qi sense of a Profound Martial Artist wasn't capable of noticing a dimensional crack at the moment of its formation.

<It wasn't even a battle, to begin with.>

Being the reason that kept him stuck in the gorge for a few decades, Namgung Geom could never forget the moment that he replayed in his head thousands upon thousands of times…

It was instantaneous. The moment he noticed something was amiss, a very weak sting had hit the back of his neck, liberating his mind and soul from his body. He was rendered unable to respond as he turned to catch a glimpse of the assailant who slipped away the moment he stepped foot into Murim.

"Right… The Heavenly Strength Society is just too optimized for this."

Neither Geochin nor the Murim Lord knew about the abilities of a Devourer, but it was easy to assume that the 'death' which Namgung Geom had experienced was the result of a high-level special ability!

On the other hand, the Heavenly Demon was capable of sealing away such special abilities! To begin with, the Demon Lord didn't even bother using that ability despite being in so much hurry.

<...Rules probably change according to the world, but I doubt such an ability can be used repeatedly.>

It could be that one had to only partially cross over to use such an ability, or it could require some sort of rare resource. It could even have a very long cooldown.

The rules that governed 'special abilities' were very vague, especially for murim-ins who had a completely different power system. However, Namgung Geom was quite confident that his sacrifice wasn't in vain… Not that he willingly chose to do it.

"If he only had one shot, why didn't he target the Society's Leader from the very beginning?"

<Didn't you hear him? He didn't know there was someone like him here. To be honest, even I don't know much about the Society's history. I'm no expert in things other than Martial Arts, but if I were to guess, I would say that pinpointing targets between worlds isn't very easy.>

Aside from the Demon Lord's words and the Heavenly Demon's responses, the two minds in one body had picked up some clues that introduced quite a few foreign concepts, but the Murim Lord adapted to them very quickly to the point of theorizing upon the situation.

"Yeah, if you are trying to find a descent point from so far away…"

<Exactly! You need a signal, a very strong one. I wouldn't say I'm absolutely confident in beating the Society's Leader in his current state. However, I'm sure he wouldn't have been this strong a few decades ago. I was just the strongest signal it could pick.>

"I guess being the strongest isn't always a great thing, huh?"

<I dunno about that, after all of the mess you dragged me into, staying at the gorge wasn't that bad. Besides, I would say it's the greatest thing that happened to you.>

After so many years of being bound together, both sides had been affected by each other as they learned more about themselves. The Murim Lord knew of the darkness hidden in the heart of the boy who had barely become an adult, so he often used humor to lighten the mood.

In reality, he truly wasn't that upset about what happened to him. He was roaming the Murim because he was bored in the first place. Although it took some time, getting to experience his current situation and see his descendent grow under his tutelage was more exciting!

"Yeah, I'm naturally not his match either. Everyone, ready up, we will be joining up!"

However, Geochin was more focused on the task at hand. Finding the truth behind one of the major points they were investigating was supposed to be worthy of celebration, but he only did a quick 1 and 2 analysis before jumping into the true reason he was there.

<Growing cold, aren't we? Alright, have fun slicing up monsters.>

Was staying in a child's head making him childish? The former Sword Emperor didn't ponder much on this question as he watched Geochin's charge using his very own eyes.

The Murim League's constant effort to fight back the monsters and the deviants might have made it seem like their goal, but it was just a means to an end. Nonetheless, that didn't reduce Geochin's enthusiasm if not increase it.

It would have served as a great opportunity if he could take down the head, but Geochin still knew his limits. Instead…

Swish!

"Th- Th- The Murim League's here!"

To help exactly when the balance was about to be broken and weigh down humanity's scales! The saviors and restorers of peace were here to save the world once again!