Chapter 6 :

Chapter 6. The Third-Rate Warrior Who Gathers Elixirs (4)

After the Gyeryong Merchant Guild had the Snow Plum Pill stolen,

the traces of the Soul-Chasing Guest also disappeared completely.

It was not surprising for thieves to live with multiple identities, but the question was that no one who appeared to have consumed the Snow Plum Pill ever emerged.

It was not any other treasure, but a spirit pill.

Even if it could be sold because it was a precious spirit pill that could not be obtained with money, no rising expert who seemed to have consumed the Snow Plum Pill appeared.

The Snow Plum Pill and the Soul-Chasing Guest had truly vanished without a trace.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

While searching through the mission reports in my library that way, two people caught my eye.

Gu Ilmu of the Diancang Five Swords.

Jang Hangi of the Diancang Five Swords.

The Diancang Five Swords, who originally traveled together as five, gradually began taking missions split into three and two, and the mission completion rate of Gu Ilmu and Jang Hangi, who split off as the pair, was far higher than that of the other three.

“So this was where the tragedy of the Diancang Twin Swords began.”

This had been the beginning of the incident that would later split Diancang in two and cause it to destroy itself.

‘The person who assigned the mission to come to Hefei was also someone from the Diancang Sect. I should assume this had been planned for a very long time.’

In any case, now that I had grasped the inside story of the incident, the problem was how to seize it.

No matter how well I knew the martial arts of the Diancang Sect, including Jegal’s Three Forms, I could not face two of the Diancang Five Swords alone.

So what I thought of was traps.

No matter how great an expert was, it was not easy to move while paying attention to what was beneath their own feet.

“You fool. Did you think we would be taken down so easily?”

Jang Hangi’s feet floated into the air.

Grass-Treading Flight, one of the supreme movement techniques.

Certainly, if it was Grass-Treading Flight, the traps might not activate.

However,

“What martial artist in the world can fight while using Grass-Treading Flight? Have you already placed your name among the Top Hundred Experts Under Heaven?”

Without even needing a technique, I struck with the Three Powers Sword Art filled with internal energy, and Jang Hangi, who could not rashly move his feet, twisted his body strangely to regain his balance.

“You know us.”

“Of course I know you well.”

“Do you not fear the revenge of our great Diancang and the Martial Alliance?”

“You think the Diancang Five Swords can report another robber they met while committing robbery?”

“…….”

Gu Ilmu barely smashed the trap and said,

“He is the only one who knows where the traps are. Hangi. Fire palm strikes and overturn the surroundings.”

“Yes, Senior Brother.”

The two exchanged glances along with those words, nodded, and leaped at the same time.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Under the fiercely exploding Falling Shadow Palm, the surface of the ground was violently overturned, and the traps that had been aiming for their ankles appeared in broken form.

Because of the Falling Shadow Palm, leaves and branches tangled wildly together, and the area completely lost its original appearance.

“Now he doesn’t know where the traps are either.”

Stepping on the broken traps and launching themselves forward, the two poured out the Shooting Sun Sword Art from their hands.

I did not even dare think of responding to the Shooting Sun Sword Art and retreated several steps.

“How!”

The fact that I had taken several steps back without stepping on a single trap left them unable to hide their shock.

“The places he steps. Step only there!”

“Yes!”

After disturbing the surroundings, they stepped only where their opponent had stepped.

They truly had sharp minds worthy of being named among the Diancang Five Swords.

“Kraagh!”

This time, Jang Hangi screamed and forcefully broke the trap that had bitten into his ankle.

“Did you not think a trap could activate with just one footprint’s difference?”

Even if they stepped in the same place, I was one person, and those guys were two people. Naturally, one of the two was bound to get caught in a trap.

“You son of a bitch! I’ll uncover your identity and tear all your relatives to death!”

“If you can leave here alive.”

Gu Ilmu began unleashing the Shooting Sun Sword Art to its utmost.

It was clear he no longer cared what happened to the traps, and I simultaneously unfolded the breaking form of the Shooting Sun Sword Art.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang.

The moment we clashed six times in an instant,

Gu Ilmu’s face crumpled as he looked at his own sword.

“What on earth…….”

A breaking form was not simply a defensive form that blocked the opponent’s martial art.

It was a method of blocking the path of the martial art and twisting its energy so that the opponent could not even use their strength properly.

Naturally, if one faced a breaking form, they would feel their internal energy cut off and their body refusing to move as they wished.

Normally, one might be able to force through with sheer will, grit, and internal energy, but right now, he did not know where the vicious traps were buried.

“Do you have time to stand there blankly like that?”

Gu Ilmu, who had been pushed back by the breaking form, stepped on a trap with his other foot.

“Kraaaagh!”

“Senior Brother Gu!”

When Jang Hangi then entered using the White Gold Sword Art, I threw a stone at the trap installed where his foot would land and activated it, causing Jang Hangi’s foot to twist strangely.

“Keuk!”

“You shouldn’t take your eyes off me.”

And as if I had been waiting for that, I thrust my sword in.

The ascending form of the Small Heaven Sword Art.

It was inferior compared to the Shooting Sun Sword Art, but the speed of the Small Heaven Sword Art, which formed the foundation of a fast sword, was not something that could be easily dodged in a moment of panic.

Swoosh.

Stab.

“Keok.”

Red blood burst from Jang Hangi’s mouth, and Jang Hangi collapsed to the ground with bloodshot eyes wide open.

“Hangi!”

As if Jang Hangi’s death had shocked him, Gu Ilmu’s body trembled.

After a little time passed and Gu Ilmu regained his senses, he threw the wooden box and secret manual he had kept inside his clothes onto the ground and said,

“If you let me go like this, I will forget what happened here.”

“Good. Then I’ll let you go.”

When I readily nodded and pretended to pick up the wooden box, Gu Ilmu unleashed the Formless Fist and Seven Severing Hands.

At the same time, my sword crossed through the shapes of the fist and hand as if it had been waiting, leaving a deep wound on Gu Ilmu’s neck.

“H-How…….”

“I experienced more than enough in my previous life just how little you bastards keep your promises.”

Gu Ilmu collapsed onto the cold ground with an expression that said he had no idea what I meant.

“Haa, haa.”

My breathing barely settled, and I stared at Jang Hangi and Gu Ilmu for a long while.

Their miserable corpses.

“I won…….”

It was the horrific sight of people who had died, and once this scene entered my eyes, it would never be forgotten forever, but I did not want to turn my head away.

Because this was the first time I had seen chosen ones like them die, not third-rate warriors like me.

Without even thinking of taking the Snow Plum Pill or the secret manual, I spent time engraving this scene even more vividly into my memory.

#

“Taeul Sect of Hefei?”

Jegal Somyeong, who had been wondering whether such a sect existed, soon went “Ah!” and nodded.

“Isn’t it one of the One Hundred and Eight Peaks?”

“There are many powerful martial sects in Hefei as well. It is about time to replace it with a new peak.”

If it was a martial sect expanding its influence in Hefei…… that would be where the Iron Sword Sect was, and Namgung Taewon had recently said he was backing the Iron Sword Sect, so that must be the reason.

Jegal Somyeong gazed steadily at the elder in front of him, who was feigning ignorance and pretending to be elegant while drinking tea.

“Did Taeul Sect do something wrong?”

In principle, once a sect’s name was placed among the One Hundred and Eight Peaks, it was not replaced unless it committed a major wrongdoing.

That was the meaning of a blood alliance.

“Wrongdoing, you say…… Is regressing day by day without any development not also a great wrongdoing as a blood ally of the Martial Alliance?”

Jegal Somyeong delayed his answer to Namgung Taewon’s words and only drank his tea.

An elder of the Martial Alliance.

The fact that he occupied one of the seats in a decision-making body with only thirty seats in the Alliance meant that not only his own ability, but also his background, was not ordinary.

Jegal Somyeong was not someone who would lose to anyone in terms of martial power or background, but in order to counter an elder throwing a tantrum like this, he needed a certain justification.

After finishing organizing things in his head, Jegal Somyeong opened his mouth.

“The decline of the One Hundred and Eight Peaks must also be the Martial Alliance’s fault. Hmm, in that case, the Martial Alliance right now…… No, I suppose I am the one doing something wrong.”

Namgung Taewon’s face subtly twisted.

“That is not what I meant, is it?”

Namgung Taewon quickly revealed his true intentions.

Seeing that, Jegal Somyeong could not help but wonder.

‘Why did that bastard Taeha give the elder seat to this man?’

It was originally a seat that Namgung Taeha, the head of the Namgung Family, should have occupied.

Although Namgung Taewon was blood-related to the same Namgung Family, he was still clearly from a collateral line, so it was not a seat he could easily sit in.

“I am also aware that the influence of many of the One Hundred and Eight Peaks is gradually declining. However, the One Hundred and Eight Peaks were not created by the Martial Alliance to rank people in the first place. They were created to carry on the meaning of those who fought together during the most dangerous and difficult times in the past.”

“Ugh…….”

Namgung Taewon seemed to think things had already gone awry, and after smacking his lips, he opened his mouth.

“Still, if the One Hundred and Eight Peaks remain only in a stable position that never changes, will they not grow stagnant and rot?”

“That is why they are continuously managed, even if irregularly.”

“Hmm…… I understand. However, I hear that Taeul Sect is doing business with the rights to the ‘special admission track.’”

“…….”

It was a problem that had continued for a very long time.

However, there had been no major side effects, and he had left it alone, thinking that if the One Hundred and Eight Peaks, which were full only of obligations, did not even have such benefits, then what would they have?

“Ah, well, I am merely saying that is what I heard. It is not as though I want to place some sect into the One Hundred and Eight Peaks or anything like that.”

“Hmm. Is your business finished?”

“They say the leader of the Iron Sword Sect in Hefei is holding a feast for his sixtieth birthday. Since it is his sixtieth birthday, he sent an invitation asking whether the chief strategist might attend.”

“Haha. Ha.”

Was the chief strategist of the Martial Alliance such an idle position?

“Of course, I know very well that you are busy. But you must rest a little too, Chief Strategist. At this rate, you will fall ill. How about going to the Iron Sword Sect together while also investigating the ‘special admission track’ corruption case I mentioned just now?”

How much money had the Iron Sword Sect fed Namgung Taewon to invite the chief strategist of the Martial Alliance?

This must have been Namgung Taewon’s purpose from the very beginning.

Naturally, he could come up with about a hundred reasons to refuse, but he soon stopped.

No matter how much he spoke to this man, he would not listen. To set things right, he had to crush the one who had put this man in the seat.

“Hmm, that is not a bad idea. So, when is this sixtieth birthday?”

#

The Righteous-Demonic War was hell itself.

Demonic practitioners, each of whom was like a monster, and low-ranking warriors who charged toward them only to be endlessly ground down.

There were no countermeasures or strategies either.

The Martial Alliance used its absolute dominance over the murim world to gather martial artists and shove them into the battlefield.

The low-ranking warriors, pushed onto the battlefield with vague hopes of earning merit and rising through the ranks of the Martial Alliance, realized they had been naive when they saw their swords break helplessly, but by then, it was already far too late.

Compensation for the martial artists who were ground down like that?

There was none.

At least those who had already been registered as members of the Martial Alliance could have death notices sent home.

But even that was only in the early days of the Righteous-Demonic War.

There were countless people who had belonged to the Alliance, yet in the end, no one could even know where they had died.

And by then, the Martial Alliance that should have been held responsible had already moved to the Northern Sea.

If they were members of the Diancang Five Swords, they would probably hold a fifth- or sixth-grade rank within the Martial Alliance.

Their disappearance would be taken seriously within the Martial Alliance, and members of the Alliance would be dispatched across all of Hefei to find their traces.

So, not far from the place where the Soul-Chasing Guest was buried, I dug a deep hole, buried the Diancang Five Swords, then placed one animal I had caught in the mountains on top and packed the ground down.

At the very least, their corpses would not be discovered because of the smell.

To recover my body, which had grown exhausted from the battle with the Diancang Five Swords, and to absorb the Snow Plum Pill, I took a room at an inn and stayed there for several days.

Every time I came down to the dining hall to eat, people were busy talking about the Snow Plum Pill that the Gyeryong Merchant Guild had lost this time.

Just like in the past, the guildmaster of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild and Gye Cheolyeong wept bitterly, and the experts of Mount Hua shifted responsibility onto Gye Yeonseok before returning to the Mount Hua Sect.

The story of where the vanished Snow Plum Pill had gone was good drinking talk for people.

Even if they could not have it themselves, who would not be interested in such a precious treasure disappearing without an owner?

They simply could not imagine that, on the floor above where they were drinking, there was someone struggling in every way to absorb that very Snow Plum Pill.

“Phew.”

When I quietly opened my eyes,

deep darkness had settled around me.

My two eyes, adjusted to the darkness, had become bright enough to see even the dust piled in one corner of the small room where there was not a single point of light, and as I moved my arms and legs, not even the sound of muscles rubbing together could be heard.

Because I had been absorbed in circulating energy for several days, my insides were empty, but I was not hungry.

‘It is a little over half a cycle.’

The internal energy I could feel in my dantian had grown from the size of one finger to the size of two fingers.

It was the level of internal energy I had accumulated over my entire previous life.

Although I had gathered it rapidly, every bit of it had come from precious elixirs and spirit pills, and because it had been gathered through the pure Taeul Heart Method, much of the impure energy had left my body.

“Ugh. The smell.”

When I pushed at my skin with my finger, black grime immediately rolled off, and startled, I headed straight to the bathhouse.

“Have you come out?”

The young waiter, who had been guarding the dining hall all night while dozing off, soon came to his senses and shook his head.

“You hadn’t come out for several days, so I thought something had happened.”

In order not to be disturbed while absorbing the spirit pill, I had paid for my lodging in advance and even given a gratuity, so the waiter’s behavior was extremely polite.

“Is there anything to eat right now?”

“We can make plain noodles and dumplings.”

“I’ll have those, please.”

A moment later, steaming plain noodles and dumplings were placed on the table.

“By the way, are there usually this few people at this hour?”

The inside of the dining hall was extremely quiet.

“No. Until just a few days ago, because the Gyeryong Merchant Guild suddenly canceled its feast, even more people than usual had gathered here.”

“Ah…….”

“You know what happened, right?”

“I heard they lost something.”

“Yes. Whoever it was, they were truly amazing. They stole a spirit pill without anyone noticing in a place full of people. An investigation team came out from the Martial Alliance and tracked the culprit, but they said the trail was cut off quickly, so they could not find them.”

“Really? That’s unfortunate.”

“Right? Anyway, thanks to that, we thought we might recover some of the customers we had lost, but now the Iron Sword Sect is holding another feast.”

“The Iron Sword Sect?”

“Yes. This time, the leader of the Iron Sword Sect is turning sixty, and apparently, he will hold a feast for seven days and nights and carry out all sorts of events. They say all the drinkers from nearby villages are heading to Hefei.”

“Ah, has it already come to that?”

“You did not know?”

There was no way I could not know.

The sixtieth birthday feast of the Iron Sword Sect’s leader.

Because in that place where countless people had gathered, my father and I had knelt and apologized to the leader of the Iron Sword Sect.