The black stone walls of the room were wide, tall and well crafted but every crumb of those walls carried the distinct scent of blood. Everyone's eyes were fixed on me as I made my way across the room and took my first step on the crimson red carpet leading to my freedom. I was surrounded by a sea of people, all spies for the demonic cult. Envy seeped from their eyes like poison and their gazes stabbed into my back like daggers. I was just like them not long ago but it didn't matter anymore as I was moments away from becoming a free man. My foot reached the end of the carpet and was met face to face with the captain of the black rose squad, Kwang. He sat on a small throne made of silver.

"I greet the captain of the black rose squad. May our enemies feel nothing but breeze." I bowed deeply as I spoke, not looking at his face as per the cult's rules.

"Rise, soldier Jin." Captain Kwang sounded amused. "You have returned after having successfully stolen the recipe for the Tang clan's twenty origin poison. Congratulations, the heavenly demonic cult will see great prosperity because of your achievement."

I raised my head and looked at the Captain's imposing figure. He was shorter than me but he was well built, his veins visible on the callused hand that laid on top of his sword. His red and black uniform along with his sharp facial features and the deep scar running across his left eye gave him an imposing look even when he had a faint smile on his face.

"I am not one to waste time. So, soldier Jin. Are you certain that your wish is to leave the cult?" The Captain's eyes met mine and that one look shook me to the core.

"Yes sir. I am certain." I had made up my mind the day I was sold to serve the heavenly demonic cult that I would leave the first chance I got. And after seven treacherous years it was finally time. The first to be granted freedom was the second friend I made in the cult, Hyun and now it was my turn to be free.

"As you wish. Bring forth the jade Goblet." Kwang stood up and instinctively, everyone in the room stood at attention. Even I couldn't resist what was beaten into me the past years.

Two tall, slender men emerged from a gap behind the Captain's throne and made their way towards me. Deep purple robes covered their body and their faces were hidden behind a piece of paper and thick white makeup. They looked like jiangshi. One of the men held a gorgeous goblet made of pure jade while the other held a small vial of water with an unnatural blue hue. The vial held water from the heavenly demonic cave and according to the cult's rules was the only thing that could wash away one's typically eternal duty to the cult.

"I assume you are aware of the procedure." Kwang spoke as the man holding the goblet kneeled down and positioned the goblet towards me.

"I am sir." I put my hands right over the goblet and waited for the man holding the water of the heavenly demonic cave to start pouring it.

The other robed man acted slowly, or at least it felt that way as he opened the vial with extreme care, making sure not a single drop fell on the ground. He then took a few more steps, his slender figure looming over me so close that I could almost see through the paper covering his face. Only then did he start pouring.

As I washed my hands, the sins I had committed for the cult along with my involvement for it were all washed away as the water trickled from my hands to the priceless goblet. And as the last drop of the water fell from my hands to the goblet I raised my gaze towards Kwang and for a split second I saw his throat move. Why was he using voice transmission?

"You are now free of your service. Follow the attendants." Kwang's words reverberated through the room with magnanimous volume and weight, causing most of the recruits, including myself to flinch.

He had used internal energy to enhance his voice. Usually, martial artists wouldn't be affected to that extent, especially with such a minor use of internal energy. But the black rose squad was not composed of martial artists. We were forbidden from being taught martial arts or increasing our internal energy so we could infiltrate all levels of society as common people. And we were also taught to kill. Poison doesn't need internal energy to be lethal

As Kwang's internal energy dissipated, the robed men put down the goblet and empty vial in front of the Captain's feet and motioned for me to follow them. They guided me into the hidden passage behind the throne they had emerged from before, one stood in front of me and the other behind me. The passage was strangely spacious and cool, lit up by absurdly expensive moonstones.

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The man in front of me suddenly stopped his casual stride. He neither said anything nor moved aside nor let me pass. I took one step to the side to go ahead of him but my body would not move. My eyes grew blurry and I couldn't breathe. My body collapsed to the ground and I coughed out thick coagulated blood.

"What did you…do to me?" I managed to speak but I had already grown blind and couldn't breathe anymore. I recognized those symptoms. It was the three tailed viper's poison.

But I hadn't eaten or drunk anything the whole day. How could I have been poisoned? And that is when everything made sense. What I had cleaned my hands with wasn't water from the heavenly demonic cave. It was poison disguised to look like it.

"Liars" I mouthed with no way to actually make any noise. Then, I drew my last breath.

-

Cold water hit my face and I jolted up to my feet. My eyes were blurry but as they adjusted I saw a sight I didn't think I could ever see again. The small city I had grown up in was staring back at me. The same city that was turned to cinders by a band of rogue green forest bandits seven years ago was as lively as ever and the distinct smell of pork buns that filled my childhood was pungent and around me.

"Oh you've done it now punk" before I could process what was happening a large meaty hand slapped the top of my head.

My head bobbed and the recoil of the strike caused me to stumble forwards. I turned my head back only for my eyes to meet the man who had taken me in when my parents abandoned me and someone who I had seen die a little over seven years ago.

"Mister Joo? You're alive?" he hadn't aged a day since I had last seen him. He was still tall and plump with a full head of hair. In fact he looked younger, not significantly but the gray hairs that had started growing on his beard were entirely gone.

Mister Joo flinched and his face expressed sheer confusion for a split second before he swooped in and grabbed me by the ear.

"Boy are you calling me old?" He tugged on my ear a couple of times and then let go. "Get back to work. When will you learn to stop slacking? The buns aren't going to make themselves."

"Sir yes sir." I replied as if by instinct. The three tailed viper's poison didn't cause hallucinations, so what could have been the cause?

I made my way to our humble pork bun stand. The steamer was still new and the color of the little shed mister Joo used to prepare the buns hadn't faded yet. I smiled at the people around our stand and pulled a batch of fresh pork buns out of our steamer, laying them across the stand. I used to hate doing that eight years ago but for some reason getting back into it felt refreshing even as the time passed. The heat from the steamer and the fatigue of my voice as I shouted to advertise our stand was a welcome change from having to fool and kill people with my life on the line. But despite my best attempts at ignoring it the question of what had happened kept eating away at me.

I hadn't learned any martial arts and I didn't own any priceless treasure. How could I have turned back time without either? My thoughts ran wild but eventually I stumbled upon the one and only explanation for what had happened to me. It was that strange necklace.

Three years ago I was tasked by the cult to steal the treasure of the Golden Sparrow merchant association. The greatest lineage of merchants in the world, their profits alone surpassed the taxes gathered from an entire province. Their heirs always had a superhuman sense of opportunity and didn't fear to take big risks. And they rarely ever lost when taking a risk.

They had a priceless artifact in their possession. Despite it looking like a simple necklace with a sole steel bead among several wooden ones, they treated it like an unparalleled treasure. And I stole it. Or at least I thought I did. The memory of the cold steel bead sliding down my throat and into my stomach was still vivid. But when I made my way to the cult to present it to my captain, it was gone. Even the heavenly demonic physician couldn't find a trace of the necklace in my body. I was branded as a liar and thrown away to repent before having to claw my reputation back to receive my freedom. Though that too ended in tragedy.

Could it have been that the necklace truly was an unparalleled treasure? Was the reason for the Golden Sparrow merchant association's success neither luck nor talent but knowledge of the future instead? If the necklace allowed them to go back in time then what happened to me made sense. This has been the greatest opportunity I've had in my lifetime and I'd be a fool if I didn't make the best of it.

"Excuse me sir. I said I want two pork buns." a little girl's voice pierced my ears and I was taken out of my stream of thought.

"Oh, of course. I'll give you an extra one to say sorry that I didn't hear you the first time." I opened the steamer, gave the young girl the three buns and she went on her way with a smile on her face. Due to me having gotten distracted my line was backed up so I had to first serve the customers before having the leisure to think.

It didn't take long for my line to clear up and the pace of my work to get more leisurely. And that's when my thoughts started to fall into place. I needed to learn martial arts and I had to do it fast. Judging by my surroundings and how my body felt I was still seventeen years old which meant I'd have an easier time feeling my internal energy and dantian. I had to do it now otherwise my energy core would stabilize and starting my journey of martial arts would take significantly longer.

But how would I learn martial arts in this place? We didn't have even one local martial sect. That was the reason why the rogue green forest bandits managed to wipe out everything with ease. Me learning martial arts wouldn't change the outcome against even the weakest of green forest. I didn't have time to deal with them, I had to get my hands on that.

The rush of customers had died down and the break between each order was getting longer which let me take in the scenery of my old neighborhood. The simple wooden houses that were built before I was born, the small and large shops with markings caused by generations of history, the kids playing around and the beggar sleeping in the middle of the day right across from our stand with a worn down wooden bowl with loose change.

I wasn't sure why the beggar stood out to me. He was just that, a beggar, ragged clothes messily sewn together and a straw hat with a big hole at the top. But something about him felt off. Something I hadn't managed to realize eight years ago. His physique was not normal, I could immediately identify as much. Even if it was hidden under the baggy tattered clothes he wore I could see little signs that showed he was no normal beggar. From his broader shoulders to the three knots on his belt.

I had struck gold. That man was no normal beggar. He was a member of the beggar sect. One of the nine great martial sects of the murim.