Chapter 3 :

Chapter 3: The Third-Rate Warrior Who Gathers Elixirs (1)

“So, you’re saying you won’t attend Busaeng Hall?”

Because of this incident, Taeul Sect was thrown into an uproar.

Gye Yeonseok, Gye Cheolyeong’s father and the guildmaster of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild, first caused a commotion over Gye Cheolyeong’s injury, and in the process of investigating that incident, Gye Yeonseung’s lax teaching methods were revealed.

Gye Yeonseung was dismissed from Busaeng Hall for this incident and was no longer allowed to enter Taeul Sect.

Gye Yeonseok complained bitterly that, by needlessly making an issue of things, the guardian who had been protecting Gye Cheolyeong had disappeared, but the matter had already happened.

“I have already been acknowledged as having completed the course by the former master of Busaeng Hall. So there is no need for me to go.”

Father put on an especially fierce scowl with that rugged face of his.

To others, it would be a face that made them feel fear, but to me, it was still a face that made my chest surge with emotion.

Afraid tears might come out, I quickly turned my gaze away.

“I still can’t believe it. How did you defeat Gye Yeonseung? Did you perhaps use some trick?”

“Ah, Master Gye said that and got his arm broken. Father, would you like your arm broken too?”

“What?”

“In any case, I’m free until the other junior brothers complete Busaeng Hall.”

“Of all the skulls you could have cracked, why did it have to be Gye Cheolyeong’s?”

My father, Jin Taesan, was the Master of the External Hall, which handled all outside affairs within the sect.

Since the Gyeryong Merchant Guild was Taeul Sect’s biggest sponsor, this incident could not possibly be welcome news to Father.

“In the end, didn’t the guildmaster admit fault? Then that settles it.”

“You brat! Do you think that man, Gye Yeonseok, will let it end with words alone? If Taeul Sect’s meals are reduced to two a day starting now, do you think the other disciples will leave you alone?”

“Please speak properly. Why would that be my fault? It would be the fault of the incompetent master of the External Hall.”

“You little—!”

“Your son will take his leave now.”

“Where do you think you’re going? If you’re not going to Busaeng Hall, then help with the External Hall’s work.”

“I have many personal matters to attend to.”

“And what are those?”

“I’m now at the age where hair grows on my face too. Please respect my privacy.”

“What?”

Jin Taesan’s beard began trembling as though he had heard something utterly absurd.

But it was not as if I could honestly say, “I need to prepare to protect Taeul Sect against the return of the Demonic Cult.”

Soon, Father’s hand began moving toward the club standing in the corner, and I quickly threw myself away.

“Then your son will be back—”

“You brat! Stop right there!”

#

“Are you the rootless bastard called Jin Sowoon?”

After escaping my fierce-looking father, I found an old pig with sagging cheeks blocking my path.

“Who are you?”

“You…… don’t know me?”

Why wouldn’t I?

Silk clothes that did not suit him. A golden leather belt inlaid with jade, and a crude, oversized gold ring.

There was only one person in Taeul Sect who wore such a vulgar outfit.

Gye Yeonseok, Gye Cheolyeong’s father, who turned Taeul Sect upside down every day with his trouser hems fluttering.

“What business do you have with me?”

“You brat! Watch your tongue! This man is Lord Gye Yeonseok, the guildmaster of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild.”

A man who looked like a guard glared fiercely, his eyes bulging.

“Yes. I understand. He is the guildmaster of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild. That is why I asked what business he has with me.”

Gye Yeonseok snorted repeatedly as though he found this unbelievable.

“Because of you, our Cheolyeong is injured and cannot get up. Did you think you could do something like this to the legitimate heir of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild and get away with it?”

He had bled a little, but he was exaggerating far too much over merely being struck once on the head.

If we judged things that way, then what about all the disciples of Taeul Sect who had been struck countless times by Gye Cheolyeong under the pretense of sparring?

“Didn’t you decide to let it go?”

“That is a matter between me and the sect leader. The matter between you and me still remains, does it not?”

At this level, should shamelessness be considered a martial art too?

“And what if you don’t let it go?”

At my words, the guard placed his hand on his sword, looking as though he might spring forward at any moment.

“If he was afraid of being hit, you should have taught him commerce. Why teach him martial arts?”

“……You, you brat, how dare you speak while an adult is talking…!”

I drove my words into the ears of Gye Yeonseok, who was rolling his eyes while thinking.

“If Senior Brother Gye is selected for the Martial Academy, do you intend to chase him there and demand responsibility from the descendants of the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families too?”

Not only Gye Yeonseok, but even the guard looked slightly surprised.

Had they not thought that far?

Or had they assumed from the start that the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families would not try to assert dominance?

“Seeing as you cannot answer, it seems you do not have the courage for that. But since you came to Taeul Sect and are acting so unreasonably, it seems you consider Taeul Sect quite easy to push around.”

“……Look at this brat……!”

Gye Yeonseok’s voice was so loud that the masters of each hall and even the sect leader from Daehyeon Hall began coming out.

“There are more than ten junior brothers who were beaten by Senior Brother Gye and could not get up for days. If you wish to blame me, then first blame Senior Brother Gye for doing that to the junior brothers.”

“How dare you…….”

Gye Yeonseok, who had only been shouting “how dare you” and “you brat,” suddenly smiled triumphantly.

“If Taeul Sect’s support is cut off because of you, will you take responsibility?”

This was always the problem.

Half of the disciples of the current generation were children who, like me, had been born and raised in Taeul Sect.

The other half were children from families that were not exactly well-off even in the village.

Most of them were children who had entered the sect to reduce the number of mouths their families had to feed.

Just as children who grew up in hardship became adults quickly, they knew better than anyone that resisting Gye Cheolyeong would cause harm to others.

“Responsibility?”

That was why Gye Cheolyeong and Gye Yeonseok could throw their weight around in Taeul Sect so freely.

“There are many other members of the One Hundred and Eight Peaks who want Cheolyeong. We can simply move him there at any time. When that happens, will you take responsibility?”

Gye Cheolyeong’s admission meant it would immediately lead to a massive sponsorship.

And Taeul Sect was not the only member of the One Hundred and Eight Peaks struggling with management.

The fact that “there were many places that wanted Cheolyeong” was, in other words, a weakness that forced those living in Taeul Sect to swallow their complaints.

That was why we had never once asserted dominance the way everyone else did.

“Please do so.”

“What?”

“Responsibility? I’ll take it. So please do so.”

My father, who had been approaching from afar, listened to the conversation with the other hall masters and turned pale, just before he was about to run over.

“There is less than a year left until the special admission screening period. Do you truly think Senior Brother Gye would be treated as well elsewhere as he is in Taeul Sect? And what martial sect would welcome Senior Brother Gye, an outsider who rolled in, just to receive one year of sponsorship?”

“You…… How do you know that…….”

Father, who had been about to run over, soon stopped in his tracks.

“The disciples of Taeul Sect are not fools or idiots. We have learned the virtues of gentlemen, so we simply choose not to associate with vulgar people.”

Gye Yeonseok, who was trembling, gritted his teeth and said,

“I will make sure Taeul Sect suffers great harm. Because of what you have done, Taeul Sect’s disciples will one day have their meals reduced and be forced to wear only worn-out clothes.”

A clear threat.

I quietly whispered into his ear.

“Do you think I will let that happen?”

Seeing Father rush toward me as though he could no longer hold back, I quickly turned around and left Taeul Sect.

There was a mountain of work to do.

#

In my previous life, after Gye Cheolyeong entered the Martial Academy through the special admission track, the support for Taeul Sect noticeably decreased.

Although he was a secular disciple, the support dried up within a few years as if he were cutting ties with us, and Taeul Sect’s disciples had to reduce their meals.

“If it will end up that way anyway, then someone other than Gye Cheolyeong should go.”

Considering that Taeul Sect would inevitably be swept up in the Righteous-Demonic War in the future, someone from Taeul Sect had to go to the Martial Academy. If one entered as a low-ranking warrior, they would only be used as a meat shield and thrown away.

“The problem is that Taeul Sect’s martial arts are too…….”

Trash…… no, too wasteful.

According to Jegal Cheon, the only useful martial arts among Taeul Sect’s martial arts were the Small Heaven Sword Art and the Taeul Heart Method.

All those countless martial arts were completely incompatible with the Taeul Heart Method, which was Taeul Sect’s root.

Since the root and branches were different, it was not strange that not a single expert capable of shaking the murim world had appeared in its hundreds of years of history.

My head contained all the advanced martial arts of the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families, but.

“If I learn those, not even a single dog in Taeul Sect will survive before the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult returns.”

In the end, the only way for me to grow stronger right now was to overwhelm others with internal energy.

“The current of the Yangtze River wears down a rocky island.”

But with the Taeul Heart Method, I would have to train for around two hundred years to gather sixty years’ worth of internal energy.

In the end, it meant I had to consume every elixir I could get my hands on. But elixirs would not be called elixirs if they were so common.

“……Heh, heh. But there is a way.”

I immediately began searching through the library created inside my head.

While my junior brothers were helplessly dying at the hands of the Demonic Cult in the Martial Alliance, my job was to remain in the Martial Alliance and memorize all sorts of miscellaneous reports and materials that only took up useless space.

However, when the final defensive line collapsed under the Demonic Cult’s flood-like numbers and there was no more time left, a situation came where I had to memorize even all the materials in the Intelligence Department and Simhyeon Pavilion.

Classified documents that were more complicated and far greater in quantity than the miscellaneous materials.

I gave up on understanding and absorbing them, and simply created a massive library inside my head to store them.

From the deepest part of the library in my head that I had created that way, I found one book.

The Murim Elixir Records.

A classified document that covered every location where elixirs appeared in the murim world over the next twenty years, along with their time of appearance and movement routes.

Though it was called a classified document, it was a book that recorded elixirs that had already all been discovered at that time.

I had overloaded my head trying to memorize something so useless and spent entire days with nosebleeds.

The price for going through all that hardship was being killed to silence me.

“Just thinking about it again pisses me off. That bastard Taechung Divine Sword…….”

The idol of my childhood.

An existence like a heaven beyond heaven, with no one of the same age able to face him.

The savior of the righteous faction, who instantly reorganized the Martial Alliance that had splintered apart when the Righteous-Demonic War broke out.

And the hero who preserved the Martial Alliance to the very end when it had nearly vanished from the murim world.

But the Taechung Divine Sword used everyone except a select few as sacrifices in order to preserve the Martial Alliance.

The Martial Alliance established in the Northern Sea was ultimately rebuilt upon their blood and corpses.

“I will never trust you or the likes of the Martial Alliance again.”

Grinding my teeth, I headed toward the location of the first elixir, the ten-thousand-year fleeceflower root.