Chapter 32. A Second-Rate Warrior Searching for a Legend (4)
“The people of Hunan Province called Demon Spirit Plateau the land that touches the heavens. Demon Spirit Plateau receives no rain throughout all four seasons and is barren, so among herb gatherers, it is called hell. It differs from the information other people have, but it points precisely to the place where Mita Sacred Water is.”
At the owner’s words, I asked.
“What is the information those other people have?”
“There is a valley in the deepest part of Demon Spirit Plateau. It is a place even the bold hunters nearby, as well as the herb gatherers, absolutely never approach. It is called Despair Valley. Recently, an herb gatherer accidentally set foot in that valley and was found only after six months. That man brought back a story that he saw an ice pillar shining like the sun inside a cave within Despair Valley.”
An ice pillar shining like the sun referred to the state in which Mita Sacred Water preserved its Extreme Yin nature before it was refined.
“The people of the murim began gathering here in Yueyang after following that rumor.”
Around then, I thought, if he was going to tell me all this, why did I have to pay twenty gold taels?
“Haha, please think of this much as something I am giving you in place of my rudeness earlier. If you wish to obtain the actual information, you must pay twenty gold taels.”
“What is that information?”
“A map of the caves inside Despair Valley.”
“A ma……p?”
“Did I not mention the herb gatherer earlier? We searched for that herb gatherer and produced a map.”
“Even so, twenty gold taels seems too expensive.”
“If you consider the price of your life, would you not say it is rather inexpensive?”
“There is also no proof that the map is accurate.”
“That would be true if you intend to spend half a year inside the cave.”
“……Is the cave that large?”
The owner took his hands out from inside both sleeves and drew out a scroll about the length of a forearm.
When that scroll unfurled with a flutter, it seemed to be one foot wide, and inside it, hundreds of drawings of tiny rooms like an anthill were visible.
“They say the small caves are about the size of this space, while the large spaces are so large that one wonders whether they might connect all the way to Despair Valley.”
“Ugh.”
“What do you think? Are you interested?”
The owner rewound the document with a whirr and tied it neatly with a leather cord. If carried properly, it was of a suitable size that would not easily be noticed by others, but.
“Unfortunately, I have no money.”
“I hear the Silver Wang Token allows you to borrow promissory notes indefinitely from a money house.”
“If I tried to pay all that back, I could not repay it even if I worked my entire life.”
Since the owner had already shown me the map, it was now imprinted clearly in my head, so there was no need to waste as much as twenty gold taels for nothing. Rather, there was something else.
“Oh dear…… Your identity grows more and more curious.”
“Ah, rather than that, would you buy a piece of information?”
“……Information?”
“Yes.”
“What sort of information do you mean?”
While I was staying at the stable, I had made a confidential document in the Murim Alliance format.
The travel expenses I had received from Wang Estate were sufficient, but leaving the information inside my head untouched without turning it into money would also be foolish. In addition, there was an important transaction I would have to make with Hao Gate later through this, so I needed to sow the seeds now.
“It is a confidential document related to the Beggars’ Sect’s advance into Hangzhou.”
“…….”
The owner’s face turned white.
The Beggars’ Sect was one pillar of the Nine Sects and One Gang, and at the same time, it served as the eyes and ears of the entire murim.
For that reason, it had always clashed with Hao Gate, an organization of a similar kind.
In terms of overall power, the Beggars’ Sect was far greater, but in places where entertainment and commerce had developed, Hao Gate held information firmly in its grasp.
That was why Hao Gate had continued to preserve its existence despite decades of fierce secret struggles.
“Hmm…… It is good information, but there is no way to know whether it is certain.”
“Let us do this.”
I took the document out from inside my robe, tore it in half, and handed it to the owner.
The owner carefully accepted the document, slowly read it, then widened his eyes and looked at me.
“Are you thinking of buying it?”
“……How much should I give you?”
“Twenty gold taels.”
The owner’s brow furrowed.
“Would it not be quicker simply to ask for the map?”
“No. I do not need the map. Please give me the money.”
“Are you serious?”
“I do not think I can obtain Mita Sacred Water. I only plan to get some money and go look around Yueyang Tower.”
“Understood. Please wait a moment.”
While the owner briefly left his seat, I looked around at the objects nearby and discovered one item that caught my eye.
“Why is this here?”
It was an object shaped like a silver flower bud folded shut.
“Do you like it?”
“Why is this here?”
“Somehow or other, it flowed all the way here.”
“If Sichuan learns of this, will they stay still?”
When I lightly probed him, the owner gave a meaningful smile.
“As expected, you are no ordinary person. How is it? I will give it to you for one gold tael.”
“If I use this, the ghosts of Sichuan will follow me for the rest of my life.”
“That is true. Then what if I simply give it to you as a gift?”
“You are giving me something this expensive as a gift?”
“Think of it as a friendship fee.”
“What a dangerous gift. You are a bad friend.”
The owner raised the sleeve that hid his hand and chuckled.
“Is playing with a bad friend not more fun by nature?”
The owner was observing me with shining eyes. I could see his strong will to dig me out somehow and extract whatever he could from me.
As expected, was there something different about the man who would become the thirteenth Hao Gate Master in the future?
Opening a personal connection with the future Hao Gate Master Yang Gun-baek was a choice that would cost me nothing. I picked up the object and spoke.
“That is true too.”
“Then I look forward to your favor in the future.”
***
After leaving the Black Shop, my state of mind was not very good.
The fact that the point where I thought the final traces of the Taeul Sword Emperor would be was the same space where Mita Sacred Water would be discovered meant that I, too, had to throw myself into that chaos.
“Hey! You think you can just pass by? My shoulder is broken now!”
“If your shoulder was that useless, should you not have thrown it away long ago?”
CLANG—! CLANG—!
When people of the murim gathered, fights broke out sporadically all around.
These were not mere fights between local thugs either. Every one of them was a master with a fearsome name.
‘Nine-Finger Divine Beggar Ma Go-san, Golden-Horned Bronze Man Sa Mu-in, Paradise Child Seo Hyeon-jae…… I have to compete with bastards like these?’
It was not only the Black Path. There were more than a few masters from the Orthodox Path side as well.
In particular, the Orthodox Path wore a single matching color to distinguish ally from enemy, and they moved together in groups of at least twenty and as many as one hundred.
‘Will it be too late if I go in after the battle for Mita Sacred Water ends?’
This matter would continue for no less than two months.
After that, the Orthodox Path murim factions, including the Namgung Clan that had lost its young lady, and the Black Path murim factions would spend another half a year on Demon Spirit Plateau to determine what had happened inside.
If I waited for all of that to end, I might not even be able to take the Murim Academy Exam.
‘Still, I have to go in.’
It was a place where Taeul Sect’s secret manual might be hidden. Even if it was a place where ten thousand people had died instead of five thousand, I had no choice but to enter. In addition, if I thought positively, perhaps I could obtain Mita Sacred Water along with Taeul Sect’s secret manual.
“First, let’s do what I need to do.”
If I might obtain Mita Sacred Water, I needed at least to prepare for it.
I headed to a jewelry shop at the entrance of Yueyang’s pleasure-house street.
Unlike the shabby interior, every item on display had a rare and beautiful appearance.
In the middle of it all, a gaunt old man who suited the shabby interior better than the beautiful ornaments was putting tobacco leaves into a long-stemmed pipe.
“You’re here, you strange bastard.”
The old man still stared at me as if he were looking at a suspicious bastard.
After arriving in Yueyang, I had spent one day at the stable, then come straight here the next day and entrusted Heavenly Silkworm Thread to that old man.
“Is it all finished?”
“You should tell me how you knew.”
The first day I came to the jewelry shop, I had thrust Heavenly Silkworm Thread at him without warning, so the old man had looked at me as though I were mad.
Regardless of that, I told him the object I wanted to make with it, and after thinking for a long while, the old man asked how I knew his identity.
Since I could not tell him that he and I would meet in the future, I had said I would tell him when the object was finished.
“Please tell me first whether the object is finished.”
The old man threw an object wrapped in cloth to one side.
What came out of the cloth had a strange shape.
The leather was too wide to call it a bracelet, and there were too many attachments to call it a hand guard worn around the hands and feet.
“Your turn.”
“I learned it through Hao Gate for ten gold taels.”
The old man’s identity was the Ten-Thousand-Hand Artisan, Jang Do-won.
It was something I knew because I had formed a connection with him at the Murim Alliance in my past life.
At the age of ten, he had been sold to a blacksmith and taken up a hammer. Afterward, he had been sold to a carpentry workshop, a leather workshop, and other places, learning skills along the way.
Even in such miserable circumstances, he had obtained the ability to make anything through his outstanding talent, but because he had been born lowly and did not reveal his ability, he had remained buried in obscurity.
Later, when the Demonic Cult returned, he would devote himself to the Murim Alliance, create fourteen Divine Weapon or Treasure Weapons for the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans, and disappear again.
Since I could not speak of that sequence of events, I simply glossed over it vaguely, saying I had learned through Hao Gate.
“My worth is only ten gold taels?”
Was that the part that angered him more than the suspicion?
“Is that not because they still do not know your true value, Old Master?”
“Enough. Stop flattering me and look at the item.”
“Oh, there is a dragon.”
“I named it Flying Dragon Claw.”
“How do I use it?”
Jang Do-won had made an object like this from the Heavenly Silkworm Thread I had given him in that short time.
“Pull your palm inward.”
CLACK.
The part over the back of my hand was pulled, and a hook-shaped arrowhead shot out.
“It is made of Cold Iron, so it should be able to pierce ordinary boulders.”
“You want me to throw this and pierce with it?”
“You know the characteristics of Heavenly Silkworm Thread, do you not?”
“It has the trait of stretching when inner arts are infused into it. Then I infuse inner arts to lengthen it, then withdraw the inner arts and pull it back. That is amazing.”
“You fool. You think I made such a crude thing when you entrusted it to me?”
“Huh?”
“Heavenly Silkworm Thread can change direction depending on the amount of internal qi infused into it.”
“Huh?”
“If different threads are woven together into one, and the method of infusing internal qi into each is varied, the direction can be changed. Ah, because it was wound taut from the start, if you have enough inner arts, the Flying Dragon Claw will shoot out by itself even if you do not throw it.”
“What does that…….”
“If I have said this much, you should understand. If you do not understand, it is not yours.”
I had not asked because I did not understand. I had asked again because I could not believe it.
Moreover, the ends of the hooks were jointed, so they could fold shut and spread open like a bird’s feet.
“To begin with, I did not make it for a green brat like you to use. To use it, one would need tireless effort and minute control comparable to acupuncture…….”
Whirrrrr.
The hook shot from Flying Dragon Claw twisted this way and that like a snake flying through the air. Flying Dragon Claw passed by Jang Do-won, plucked a silver ring from the end of the display case, and began returning again.
Whirrrrr.
From the inside of my wrist came the sound of a small pulley spinning merrily, and when all the Heavenly Silkworm Thread had wound back in, a silver ring lay in my hand.
“Is this how I use it?”
“Huh……. I cannot believe it even after seeing it with my own eyes.”
Jang Do-won made me demonstrate it several more times, and each time, I performed exactly what he asked me to do.
“Ahem. Well, it seems you can imitate it fairly well.”
“A moment ago, you said you could not believe it.”
“Enough! If your business is finished, go back.”
“Ah, more than that, I have one more commission.”
“Again? Tsk, you should have entrusted everything at once.”
“It was not planned for me either.”
I explained the shape of the object needed to collect Mita Sacred Water.
At that, Jang Do-won’s mouth gaped as wide as a wooden basin.
“What on earth are you?”
“Haha, if I tell you, will you make it for free?”
Jang Do-won’s brow furrowed deeply.
***
After ordering an object that could collect Mita Sacred Water in case of an unforeseen situation, I asked Jang Do-won and headed to the inn where the most people came and went.
For now, I thought it would be necessary to roughly join some group rather than go alone.
I would not be able to trust them to the end, but at least I would not be stabbed out of nowhere along the way.
As I headed toward the inn, someone entered my sensory perception, which had become sharper thanks to inner arts reaching One cycles.
‘What is it?’
There was no one I might meet in Yueyang right now.
Even if I knew some of them, they would mostly be connections from my past life, people who would not know me.
‘No way.’
Gye Yeon-seok, who had cursed me with eyes reddened by bursting veins, suddenly came to mind.
Had he hired an assassin?
If he aimed for me at Taeul Sect, he would immediately be pointed out as the culprit, so perhaps he was taking advantage of the moment I was away……. When my thoughts reached that far, my hair stood on end.
If an attack came without warning in the midst of the dense crowd, there would be no way to deal with it.
And the suspicious presence smoothly cut through the crowd and rapidly rushed toward this side.
The moment I was about to draw up my inner arts and respond.
“Young Master Jin!! What brings you here?”
The suspicious presence was none other than Seong Mo-ran of the Iron Sword Sect.
Seong Mo-ran was holding a chicken skewer in one hand and looking at me with a bright face.
“Ah…… You startled me.”
“I know. I was startled too. To think I would see someone difficult to meet even in Hefei here.”
“What brings you here, Lady Seong?”
“Me? Of course I came to search for Mita Sacred Water.”
As if realizing that she was holding a chicken skewer, Seong Mo-ran quickly hid it behind her back and spoke.
“Alone?”
“No. With a younger sister I know. A few people who will help that younger sister, and my friends came with us too.”
“Ah…… You have a party?”
“Could it be, Young Master Jin, that you also came to find Mita Sacred Water?”
“……Well, you could say it is similar.”
“With whom?”
“I am alone.”
“Heavens…… I knew you were bold, but you truly have no regard for your life.”
“……Lady, I think your words are a little harsh…….”
“No. They are not harsh at all. How could you think of going to find Mita Sacred Water completely alone?”
“I was actually about to look for a party.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yes.”
“Then how about moving with us?”
If she was a master of Seong Mo-ran’s level, I could trust her with my back.
Of course, that was under the premise that she did not stab a blade into my stomach.
Of course, I would be fine because I was wearing the Heavenly Silkworm Treasure Robe.
“May I?”
“Ah, one moment.”
Seong Mo-ran looked behind her and moved her lips. She must have been sending a sound transmission to someone.
However, after moving her lips for quite a while, Seong Mo-ran suddenly shook her head, and her cheeks flushed red.
It looked as though the conversation was not going well.
“Lady, if this is inconvenient for you, I do not have to force my way in.”
“Ah, no! M-My younger sister was teasing me, that was all.”
“Teasing you?”
“Ahem, anyway, she says it is fine for you to come with us if you can come to an understanding with us about the right of first claim over Mita Sacred Water.”
In group actions like this, people often made a prior agreement about the right of first claim over treasures or Spiritual Medicines.
In reality, there were countless cases where people entered without such an agreement, or failed to keep the agreement, and ended up drawing blades against one another at the very end.
I nodded and spoke.
“Of course.”
“She says she is coming this way now.”
A moment later, the front grew noisy, and people began to split to both sides.
I could immediately recognize their identities by the clothing of the men standing at the front.
‘Namgung Clan!’
The streets of Yueyang might be filled with countless masters, but there would be only a handful of masters greater than these people right now.
Because the people knew that, they all cleared the way.
I was about to grab one of Seong Mo-ran’s arms and pull her outside.
“Seon-hwa!!”
“!!”
Seong Mo-ran raised her hand high and waved.
“Older Sister! I was startled when you suddenly disappeared. Is this person…… that person?”
“Uh…… Ahem, this is Young Master Jin So-un of Taeul Sect.”
The woman who had called Seong Mo-ran Older Sister gave a small smile at the corner of her mouth.
The men who had stepped back to the sides of the road grinned foolishly at her beautiful appearance.
Namgung Seon-hwa offered a light clasped hands greeting.
“Hello. I am Namgung Seon-hwa.”
The party I had agreed to join was the group that would die in this battle.
