Chapter 1

Preface

Great Righteous-Demonic War.

A great war that broke out when the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult of Xinjiang revealed its ambition to conquer the Central Plains and invaded it.

In the early stages of the war, the Central Plains martial world could not help but shrink back before the overwhelming might of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Yet at that time, there was one martial family that volunteered to stand at the vanguard.

It was the Dokgo Family.

Through the Dokgo Family’s achievements and enormous sacrifices, they succeeded in stopping the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and the people praised them as the ‘Greatest Martial Family Under Heaven.’

However, that glory did not last long.

Suddenly, a rumor began to spread through the martial world.

The Dokgo Family colluded with the Demonic Cult!

The baseless rumor soon became accepted as fact, and the Dokgo Family was branded a public enemy of the martial world.

In response, countless experts of the Central Plains joined forces and eventually attacked them.

The Dokgo Family resisted fiercely, but they could not escape the calamity of annihilation.

And so, the ruined Dokgo Family slowly disappeared from people’s memories.

***

Was he around fifteen or sixteen?

A boy wearing a thin cloak was racing along a snow-covered mountain path.

Between the strands of black hair soaked with sweat and clinging to his forehead, features that were still youthful, yet bold and sharply defined, were revealed.

His face was a mess from splashed mud, but even that could not hide his high nose bridge or the dignity in his thick brows.

“Haa, haa, haa, haa!”

The boy, Dokgo Jin, was gasping for breath.

His lungs felt as if they were about to burst, and his legs had long since nearly lost all feeling.

Only the thought that he would die if he did not hurry kept his legs moving.

Dokgo Jin clenched his teeth and squeezed out the last of his strength.

‘I’m…… almost there.’

His meager inner arts had been exhausted long ago. He was holding on through sheer force of will, but it would not have been strange if he collapsed at any moment.

The sole survivor of the Dokgo Family, Eldest Young Master Dokgo Jin.

With quick thinking and resourcefulness, he had shaken off the pursuit of countless experts and wandered the realm in search of a chivalrous hero who would help him prove the Dokgo Family’s innocence.

But.

Not a single person took Dokgo Jin’s hand.

The sole survivor of the Dokgo Family, which had colluded with the Demonic Cult, was thoroughly shunned.

The same people who had praised them without end when they stopped the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult rushed to curse the Dokgo Family and spit on them.

There were many who welcomed Dokgo Jin with smiling faces, only to report him behind his back.

Because of that, Dokgo Jin had faced many crises, but it was what he had expected. Since he had never lowered his guard, he had been able to survive.

But now, Dokgo Jin had encountered a situation from which he simply could not escape.

It was because he had trusted the sworn brother of Dokgo Gang, the Family Head of the Dokgo Family, and his sworn uncle, ‘Red Chivalrous Beggar.’

Because he had trusted him so deeply, the sense of betrayal was all the greater.

‘Red Chivalrous Beggar, even you……!’

Dokgo Jin did not even have the leisure to chew over his anger toward him.

Thanks to that, he had ended up trapped in the inescapable dragnet spread across all of Great Snow Mountain, so he could not remain in one place even for a moment.

“Huuuk, huuuk, huuuk!”

After briefly catching his breath, Dokgo Jin casually wiped his left cheek with his sleeve.

Earlier, when he had been ambushed, a hidden weapon had grazed him, and blood had continued to flow from the wound.

However, Dokgo Jin could not even feel the pain.

‘I just need to go a little farther.’

As he diligently moved his feet, his eyes flashed. He had discovered something.

‘There it is!’

Soon, a vast forest appeared before Dokgo Jin’s eyes.

“So this is…… the Forest of the Dead.”

He looked up at the forest before him through his blurring vision.

It was strange.

Just behind him, the world was dyed red by the blood-colored sunset, yet beyond the entrance of the forest, it was a world of perfect black and white, as if it belonged to another dimension.

The black, dead trees twisted as they covered the sky, and beneath them lay a dense darkness into which not even a single ray of light seeped.

Perhaps not even wind could pass through, for not a single branch stirred.

That absolute stillness.

That oppressive silence, which seemed to reject all living things, paradoxically felt like a sanctuary to Dokgo Jin as he stood before danger.

Having judged that escaping Great Snow Mountain was impossible, he had decided to go to the Forest of the Dead.

‘……This is the only place.’

Dragging his heavy feet, he hurled himself into that lightless maw of the abyss.

Soon after.

By the narrowest margin, three pursuers appeared.

“Damn it!”

They were martial artists with sturdy builds, and they could not hide their dismayed expressions.

“……Mad bastard.”

“I had a feeling when he came this way, but…….”

“To think he’d throw himself into the Forest of the Dead!”

The Forest of the Dead.

This forest, located deep within Great Snow Mountain, was known as forbidden ground.

That was because no one who had set foot in the forest had ever returned. And martial artists were no exception.

It was no exaggeration to say that the Forest of the Dead was the only place where Dokgo Jin, branded a public enemy of the martial world, could hide from their eyes.

One of the pursuers asked their leader.

“What should we do, Incense Master?”

“…….”

The man called ‘Incense Master’ remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“There is nothing we can do. The pursuit ends here.”

“But…….”

When another man showed a regretful expression, the Incense Master laughed softly.

“Are you upset that you lost the chance to earn merit?”

“…….”

“If it pains you so much, go in. Then you will be remembered for a long time as a fool.”

“……No, sir.”

“Do not worry. We will not return empty-handed. We cannot rule out the possibility, however slim, that he may come out alive.”

“Then……?”

The Incense Master’s eyes flashed.

“Send word to the Green Water Gang. Tell them to send men to watch the entrance of the Forest of the Dead throughout all twelve double-hours.”

“By your command!”

One man disappeared after deploying his movement arts, and the Incense Master glared at the entrance of the Forest of the Dead.

‘To choose the Forest of the Dead as a place to hide. How foolish, Dokgo Jin.’

He could guess what Dokgo Jin had been thinking, but that did not mean he understood it.

‘He must know there’s no way he can come out alive.’

The Incense Master watched for a while, thinking that Dokgo Jin might perhaps come out, and did not withdraw his gaze from his vigil.

However, even after he watched for three full days with the Green Water Gang members, no one emerged from the Forest of the Dead.

In the end, the Incense Master left the Forest of the Dead.

The watch continued, but the Forest of the Dead, which had swallowed Dokgo Jin, remained wrapped in silent stillness.

And so.

The years flowed by.