Chapter 29 :

Second-Rate Warrior Searching for a Legend (1)

I calmly settled my mind and began drawing up the energy in my dantian.

Then, the birdsong from far away that I normally could not hear, and the sound of leaves cut through by the wind, could be heard clearly as if they were right beside me.

And the moment I opened my eyes wide,

the cliff, so tall that I had to stiffly raise my head to see the top, looked small, as if it had been built from sand.

Rumble, rumble.

The three hundred and sixty-five acupoints resonated all at once, and in both arms, heavy energy began to glow as if lightning had struck.

“Mad Heaven Divine Palm!”

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!!

The Mad Heaven Divine Palm that extended from my hands made a house-sized hole in the enormous cliff.

“Whew.”

Feeling the hollow sensation of my dantian completely emptying, I sank down where I stood.

“If my attainment is not high, it will be useless in actual combat.”

I had learned an unparalleled palm art, but the amount of internal energy it consumed was far too massive.

A full sixty years.

Its destructive power was worth the internal energy, but if I used something like this in actual combat, the opponent who dodged the palm art would surely cut off my neck at once.

Moreover, unlike most martial arts that produced stronger destructive power the higher one’s attainment, the Mad Heaven Divine Palm had stronger destructive power the lower one’s attainment.

So if I wanted to distribute an appropriate amount of internal energy and use the Mad Heaven Divine Palm, I had to raise my attainment in the Mad Heaven Divine Palm, and to raise my attainment in the Mad Heaven Divine Palm, I had to use the Mad Heaven Divine Palm…

As I continued that complicated line of thought, my miserable situation felt pitiful.

“A sword art as weak as ant piss and a palm art as enormous as the Yangtze River. What kind of martial artist is this? It would be better to introduce myself as a gambler.”

With a self-mocking grumble, I took a wooden box from my robes.

This was the reason I had come not to Hwaun Mountain, where I usually went often, but all the way to a rocky mountain located quite far away to test the palm art.

“If everyone later finds out that the pill of the Thousand-Cat Divine Physician was the prize for second place in the special admission exam, their minds will go blank.”

The second-place prize of the special admission exam was a pill called the Mind-Calming Pill, made by the Murim Alliance’s Medical Pavilion.

Some people might find it strange that the third-place prize was a Righteous Path Sword made by the Murim Alliance armory.

But that was because people now did not know the true effect of the medicine.

The Mind-Calming Pill was a pill that the Thousand-Cat Divine Physician would later make with her own preparation method, and inside this pill was a miraculous effect that strengthened the dantian.

The problem was that neither the person who made it nor the person who ate it knew the effect of this medicine.

Why? Because its hidden effect was that it protected the dantian from breaking once.

Since it was something one could only discover after suffering qi deviation or internal injuries like Gye Cheolyeong, few people now knew the effect of this Mind-Calming Pill.

Of course, even the Thousand-Cat Divine Physician who was in charge of preparing the medicine did not know this secret effect.

Moreover, since the cost of manufacturing it was too expensive while its effect remained unknown, it would only be made this time and would not be made again from the next session onward.

“In the end, only the fellows who placed second in this special admission exam get lucky.”

I placed the Mind-Calming Pill in my mouth and began circulating my energy.

This medicine was especially effective for people like me, whose dantian had rapidly grown due to elixirs.

It exerted the effect of firmly wrapping around the softened dantian.

When I began circulating my energy, a small trace of energy slowly started gathering in the empty dantian.

A handful of energy moved through every corner of my body and began gathering energy little by little. The energy gathered like that struck the Eight Extraordinary Meridians like a living creature and began running vigorously.

The three hundred and sixty-five acupoints resonated all at once, traveling through the Twelve Meridians and passing through the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

After completing a full circuit through the entire body, the energy filled about twenty percent of the dantian and returned to its original place.

In this state, I would have needed to circulate my energy several more times to fill the dantian, but I stopped circulating my energy because of the sense of energy I felt nearby.

“If you came, you should have said you came.”

Before my eyes, Saryeon, wearing a sword, was glaring at me with sharp eyes.

“Ho ho, seeing that your gaze toward your head senior brother is full of rebellion, it seems you will only come to your senses after being beaten with a cudgel.”

“Then why did you run all the way here instead of beating me with a cudgel?”

“Ahem. Who said I ran away?”

“Then why did you come to Seokju Mountain instead of Hwaun Mountain, where you sit around every day?”

“Kehehem. You brat. Watch your words. Even so, I am the head senior brother…”

“Enough! Why did you do it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why did you give up in the sparring?”

In the third exam, Saryeon ultimately took first place.

Though I was a little short on points, I had reached the finals and placed second.

Dongryong, whose match bracket had been good, placed third.

Dongryong, who received the Righteous Path Sword that did not suit him at all, had a dumbfounded expression, and Saryeon, who had become first, was the same.

“Give up? I clearly lost.”

“You call that a loss? Dropping your sword in just a few moves without any strength in it?”

“Did you not see it too? It was because I had exhausted all my internal energy fighting a decisive battle with Senior Brother Gye.”

“Are you seriously saying that?”

“Luck in the match bracket is also skill. In the end, Saryeon, you…”

“Aaaagh! Stop! Stop it! Enough. I will go and tell them I will not go to the Martial Academy. So whether you go or not, do whatever you want.”

Considering even the events of my previous life, my role was only to stop Gye Cheolyeong.

I had merely returned to Saryeon what should originally have been hers.

Nothing more and nothing less.

Moreover, according to my plan, to protect the Taeul Sect’s disciples in the Righteous-Demonic War, at least three to five people needed to enter the Martial Academy.

But this was, in truth, practically absurd, because even the upper sects of the One Hundred Eight Peaks had to use all their strength just to put five talents into the Martial Academy.

If Saryeon was not going to take the Martial Academy official exam, then sending even one person now was more important than anything.

“Hong Saryeon. Stop right there.”

At my low voice, Saryeon’s shoulders flinched.

“The result of the exam has already been decided. Changing it as one pleases is not something even the sect leader can do. So if you do not go, no one from the Taeul Sect will be able to go.”

“But…”

“Stop acting like a child!”

I knew Saryeon’s feelings, but as someone who knew the future, I had no choice but to make Saryeon understand in this way.

At my shout, Saryeon flinched in surprise, then soon lowered her head deeply and fidgeted with her fingers.

“What happens after disciples who complete Busaeng Hall complete Kuaehwa Hall?”

“…?”

“Do they not all go to the Murim Alliance for mandatory service?”

“…Yes.”

Saryeon suddenly began using respectful speech, which she normally never used.

“What kind of work do you think the disciples who go to the Murim Alliance like that will do there?”

“…”

There was no way Saryeon could know about a future she had not yet experienced.

Sometimes the hall masters talked about things from their generation, but they only mentioned fragments of hardship.

Because they too did not have particularly good memories of the Murim Alliance, they did not like talking about it.

“I know the junior brothers have expectations for life in the Murim Alliance. But dreams and reality will be completely different.”

“What does that mean…”

“The Taeul Sect will be worked like slaves in the Murim Alliance.”

“Pardon?”

“The Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families. No, there would be no need to even go that far. The upper sects of the One Hundred Eight Peaks treat lower sects as less than human. What do you think we can do in front of such people?”

This was something the sect leader and all the hall masters knew.

That was why, in my previous life, the adults in the sect had appointed Gye Cheolyeong, who possessed the weapons of money and the Martial Academy, as head senior brother.

And now I had erased that entire previous life.

“No one will help us. We must help ourselves.”

“…”

“To do that, we need diplomas from the Martial Academy. And only by entering as officers can we hold the position of deputy captain, commanding ten people. Do you think you can endure those who look down on the Taeul Sect with the rank of low-ranking warrior?”

In the end, the Murim Alliance also had a system of superiors giving orders and subordinates obeying.

If there was no one above to pull you up, you had no choice but to become the weakest.

“Then! That is even more reason Senior Brother should have gone!”

Saryeon said this while afraid of the situation, yet clenching her fists and enduring it.

“I will go as well.”

“Pardon?”

“Through the official exam. I will go to the Martial Academy.”

“Senior Brother…”

“So go first and wait for me.”

“…Are you sane?”

Saryeon looked at me with an expression of disbelief, like she was looking at someone claiming to have seen a dragon.

#

“No, I mean, let’s just go and talk to them. Who knows? They might change it.”

“That’s right. The person who took first place is acknowledging it. Would they not understand?”

Saryeon was persistent.

She tried to persuade me.

“Huh? Are you going to keep doing this? Then I will not go to the Martial Academy! I really will not go! If I say I am not going, I am someone who really will not go!”

She also threatened me.

“Senior Brother, the truth is, I have an incurable illness…”

“So as the wish of your dying junior sister…”

She even pleaded.

“No! They will not change it. Go back! They will not change it!”

I refused firmly.

As we bickered like that and were about to enter the Taeul Sect,

Gye Yeonseok was coming out of the Taeul Sect.

Bloodshot, hollow eyes.

Hair that had become a clumped mess as if it had not been washed for days.

Perhaps he had not even washed properly, because the smell of alcohol wafted from his whole body, and his once-fine silk clothes were full of wrinkles.

As he was leaving, Gye Yeonseok discovered me. His eyes grew as large as lanterns, and soon he glared at me with venom filling them.

“It is because of you. All because of you.”

I burst into a laugh of disbelief.

“You used a forbidden drug and are blaming someone else? Did I push you to use that drug?”

“…Krrh.”

“Moreover, I heard they will not let this matter pass.”

On the way back, Lee Jagon reportedly stopped by Gye Cheolyeong’s house to assess his condition.

The Gyeryong Merchant Guild desperately blocked them to prevent them from discovering that a forbidden drug had been used, but they were no match for the Murim Alliance’s Seeing Nature Envoy and Seeing Nature Warriors.

Thus, it was confirmed that Gye Cheolyeong had taken the forbidden drug, the Blood Explosion Pill, and the Gyeryong Merchant Guild suffered both material damage and disgrace because of this incident.

“Do you think I will just take this?”

“Why do you keep blaming others for your own wrongdoing? Do you truly want to properly determine right and wrong?”

At that moment, Saryeon pulled on my sleeve.

“Let us go in. Senior Brother.”

Saryeon had also heard that Gye Cheolyeong’s dantian had ultimately been destroyed.

His only child’s dantian had become unusable forever, so Saryeon also knew well that Gye Yeonseok had reached a state of desperation.

“You should have lived with a good heart from the beginning. If you had, it would not have come to this.”

I left only those words behind and went inside.

Gye Yeonseok remained in place like a stone statue, sending a gaze full of resentment.

The Taeul Sect grounds were noisy.

The children who had completed Busaeng Hall and finished all the tests of the Seeing Nature Envoys were playing noisily in groups of three or five, as if they had been set free.

“Still, this is too much, no? Why are none of the hall masters visible?”

Strangely, there were no adults in the grounds.

At that moment, Dongryong approached me.

“Head senior brother. They said you are to enter Daehyeon Hall now.”

“What is it about?”

“I do not know. It seems an urgent hall masters’ meeting has been opened.”

A hall masters’ meeting was a solemn meeting attended by the hall master-level people who led the sect, the sect leader, and some elders.

It was strange enough that a regular meeting had suddenly been opened urgently, but they were telling me to attend such a hall masters’ meeting?

I set aside my doubts and headed to Daehyeon Hall.

“Disciple Jin Sowoon has entered.”

When I offered a fist-and-palm salute, Sect Leader Hong skipped the greeting with a flick of his hand.

I quietly went and sat in the empty seat at the very end of the long table, then looked around.

They said it was a meeting, but only a quiet silence lingered, and no one brought up a topic easily.

Moreover, strange papers were piled high in front of Sect Leader Hong.

“This matter makes no sense at all. Asking us to return the sponsorship funds he has given until now?”

“Exactly. What sect in the world returns sponsorship money they have received?”

“This is because they look down on our Taeul Sect. Wasn’t Gye Cheolyeong’s qi deviation something they brought upon themselves in the first place?”

Listening to the hall masters and elders speak while spitting with anger, it seemed Gye Yeonseok had used what happened to his son as an excuse to demand the return of the sponsorship funds he had paid until now.

‘Really, he does all kinds of things.’

While cursing inwardly, I thought this might become a difficult matter.

Buddhist martial sects receive donations, and Daoist martial sects receive money by accepting donations, consecration fees, memorial rites, and the like.

The Taeul Sect could also be considered a Daoist martial sect in a way, but because its religious color was not strong and it merely upheld the intent, it had not performed memorial rites or rituals.

In the end, depending on how one looked at it, the money Gye Yeonseok paid as sponsorship could become borrowed money.

“Perhaps the Gyeryong Merchant Guild prepared for a time like this from the beginning.”

As expected of the Outer Hall master, Father immediately pierced through the problem of the situation.

However, he had only pierced through the problem, not found a solution.

“What must we do to compensate this entire amount?”

“Sect leader!”

“That will not do! Sect leader!”

“There is no such case. What sect in the world returns money that came in as sponsorship?”

There was no bold person who would give sponsorship funds to the martial sects of the Nine Great Sects or the Five Great Families and then demand that they be returned.

If they had not given them in the first place, that would be one thing, but giving and then taking back could be seen as an act of humiliating the other party, so it could worsen the situation even more.

Moreover, since people did not look favorably on acts that deceived others, it was not good for rumors either.

‘The Gyeryong Merchant Guildmaster has been cornered.’

In particular, the Gyeryong Merchant Guild, being merchants, would certainly suffer a great blow from this matter.

Even so, the reason he was pushing ahead must be because the grudge he held was that great.

“The guildmaster said he would report this to the government office. Do you have a countermeasure for that?”

Saying that he would bring in the government office meant Gye Yeonseok was no longer considering his own situation either.

The matter would be made public in all directions, so the merchant guild’s credibility would fall even further.

This was no different from Gye Yeonseok using the kind of mutual destruction that martial artists might use.

“Phew.”

“Ahem.”

“Good grief.”

When the government office was mentioned, everyone became as silent as if they had eaten honey.

Unlike the Gyeryong Merchant Guild, the Taeul Sect had no ties to the authorities, so even just arguing over right and wrong would already cause great damage.

Moreover, if the result came out that they had to return the sponsorship money, the outcome would become irreversible.

“Outer Hall Master. How much property do we have?”

“…If we sell all our assets, we will barely make it.”

He was probably talking about the guesthouses and inns, which were among the few sources of income they had.

Father paused for a moment, then continued speaking.

“It feels a little strange to say this in this situation, but how about receiving some help from the Wang Family Estate?”

“The Wang Family Estate?”

“Yes. Perhaps the Wang Family Estate Lord anticipated something like this before. He said if a problem arose for the Taeul Sect, we should come to him at any time. He said we would not have to repay the money if the situation was difficult.”

“He said such a thing?”

“Huh.”

At Father’s words, color returned to the hall masters’ faces.

However, the sect leader tilted his head.

“No matter how favorable he feels toward our Taeul Sect, giving such a large amount of money without compensation does not match reason, and it is even harder to understand if a merchant does such a thing.”

“Yes… that is…”

After hesitating briefly, Father looked at me.

Why me all of a sudden?

“He asked for Jin Sowoon, the head disciple.”

“Pardon?”

The gazes of the hall masters focused on me, and I let out an exclamation of surprise.

“What does that mean?”

“He said that if you perhaps had an interest in commerce, he would like to teach you the work of a merchant…”

Suddenly, I had become someone being sold off in place of the sect’s debt.

“What does that mean? That cannot be. The head disciple of the Taeul Sect doing merchant work!”

Hong Mungi firmly refused.

Though the hall masters knew it was not right, they still let out somewhat regretful sighs, and Kang Chaeseok, the hall master of Kuaehwa Hall in particular, was blatantly looking at me.

That man!

“Even if we must sell all the sect’s property, we cannot do such a thing.”

“…Yes. That is right.”

Father also looked at me with a strange, somewhat regretful gaze before turning his head.

“Even so, borrowing money from the Wang Family Estate is something worth considering. We do not have the ability to repay all the sponsorship money immediately, so on the premise that we repay it over several years.”

“Hmm.”

In the end, this too was nothing more than a temporary measure.

Everyone, including the hall masters, was merely drinking cold tea.

“Ahem, how about we hear our head disciple’s opinion?”

At that moment, Kang Chaeseok suddenly brought up my name.

Naturally, I had no right to speak at a hall masters’ meeting, so I could not speak unless someone gave me permission.

“Sowoon, you mean?”

“Yes. Even so, is he not the head disciple? He might come up with some clever idea that we hall masters cannot think of, and also… perhaps he has always had an interest in commerce.”

This man! Is he trying to sell me off for sponsorship money?

When I glared at Kang Chaeseok, he cleared his throat and turned his gaze away.

“Well, and if Sowoon inherits the Wang Family Estate, would that not be good for everyone?”

At Kang Chaeseok’s words, who had apparently drunk so much sweet water that no one could tell where the end was, not only I but everyone else looked dumbfounded.

“Why are you all acting like this? If that child Soso and Sowoon end up together, then the Wang Family Estate and the Taeul Sect would no longer be strangers to each other, would they?”

Wang Geumsan of the Wang Family Estate marrying off his only daughter, whom he cherished more than his own body, to a second-rate warrior of the third-rate Taeul Sect?

What on earth was Kang Chaeseok thinking?

But what was funny was that among the other hall masters, some began nodding one by one.

“Enough. I will not speak of that matter any further. I have absolutely no intention of teaching Sowoon commerce.”

Hong Mungi immediately settled the room.

“If you have something you wish to say, you may say it.”

Hong Mungi was looking at me with eyes full of expectation.

“What would this disciple know well enough to have anything to say?”

At my words, the hall masters, including Hong Mungi, looked somewhat disappointed.

“However, if any story is acceptable, I will try saying one.”

“Go ahead.”

“In truth, have I not been wandering everywhere? While doing so, I once met a miner on a mountain.”

“A miner?”

“Yes. The miner said he wondered why no mine had been established in such a place.”

The sect leader and the hall masters all had expressions that said they did not understand.

“According to that miner, there is a mountain called Seokju Mountain behind Hwaun Mountain, and he said it is filled with high-quality iron ore.”

“Iron ore?”

Iron was the most widely used mineral among ores.

In particular, for martial sects, iron was directly connected to weapons, so large sects always included mines among their assets.

Father asked the question instead of the sect leader.

“Isn’t Seokju Mountain just a rocky mountain where trees do not grow?”

Seokju Mountain was an ownerless rocky mountain.

Because the soil was barren and trees did not grow there, it was a useless mountain filled with weeds, so no one had ever thought of doing anything there.

Its price was also absurdly cheap, but because nothing could be done with a useless mountain, no one wanted to buy it.

“According to that miner, if one digs just a little into Seokju Mountain, iron can be mined quickly. So how about the Taeul Sect buys Seokju Mountain, borrows money from the Wang Family Estate, and develops a mine? If we do that, we should be able to gradually settle the debt to the Gyeryong Merchant Guild.”

I said this, but everyone seemed to not believe it much.

It was understandable, because they thought that if such a good mine existed, someone would have taken it long ago, and if it was something a miner could recognize, even the authorities might step in.

But I had no intention of missing this opportunity.

Two years later, a tremendous downpour would fall over this area, and an enormous landslide would occur on Seokju Mountain.

At the same time, the soil of Seokju Mountain would be washed away, and a large-scale iron ore mine would be discovered within it.

The government office, which owned Seokju Mountain, would suddenly become filthy rich from the newly appeared mine, and Father would drunkenly complain for a full year that he should have bought that mountain.

“There is no reason the miner you met would have lied. However, to invest based only on his words would be far too risky right now.”

The sect leader also seemed to think my words were absurd, but he did not go out of his way to criticize them.

I nodded and said,

“I thought you would think that, so I dug around the ground of Seokju Mountain for the past few weeks.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“What did you say?”

I rose from my seat and placed down a stone the size of an oriental melon from my robes.

It was iron ore, deep black with a faint silver sheen.

This was something I had picked up from the pit I dug in the mountain this morning while training the Mad Heaven Divine Palm.

“It has been some time since I found this, but I had to have it confirmed by a blacksmith, so please understand why I am telling you now.”

As if they anticipated my next words, the mouths and eyes of the hall masters began to open wide.

“The blacksmith said it was iron ore of outstanding quality.”

Even the composed Hong Mungi’s mouth and eyes opened as wide as bowls.