Chapter 43 :

# 43. <First-Rate Warrior Gathering People (2)>

Not long ago, I had seen Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran, who were counted among the Three Great Beauties of Anhui, but before her, even they lost their shine.

Her white naked body looked as if it had leapt out of a painting.

Her facial features formed a small, perfect harmony.

Her hair was like ebony, and with each step she took, the gold ornaments barely covered her secret places.

Regardless of man or woman, no one could maintain reason before her beauty.

Tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble.

Though I had not intended it, my body was trembling.

—Since you came through such a difficult path, I should reward you.

She touched her lips with her finger like a shy young girl and spread both arms.

At the same time, an irresistible desire surged up inside me.

It was like a person who had not slept for seven days and nights seeing a bed before his eyes.

It was like a person who had eaten nothing for a month seeing a feast before his eyes.

“…Ahem, impressive. Have you blocked intruders in this way for all these long years?”

—Intruders? I have never once thought of them that way. To me, they were all precious guests.

I pointed to the pile of skeletons on one side and asked,

“Is your hospitality not a little excessive?”

She pouted and crossed her arms.

Every time she made even the slightest movement, my body tried to move on its own, and I had to desperately circulate the Taeul True Scripture to restrain it.

—What can I do when they desire this body until the moment they die?

When she twisted her body strangely and made a gloomy expression, even the Taeul True Scripture that I was barely circulating nearly snapped off.

‘Just how powerful is her spiritual power…?’

No matter how low my achievement was, the fact that the movement of the Taeul True Scripture, which was based on the principles of all things, had momentarily stopped shocked me. I focused my mind and desperately continued circulating it.

She spoke with an expression as though she had seen something curious.

—You still maintain your reason. What an impressive child. Are you a disciple of Shaolin? Are you a disciple of Wudang?

“Neither. What exactly are you doing?”

—It is called the Bewitching Desire-Searching Art. A peerless martial art said to make even an ascended immortal fall back into the secular world.

“Hah.”

When the name of the legendary seductive art of the Pleasure Palace, which had vanished thirteen hundred years ago, came from her mouth, I could not help being astonished.

“Did you truly live since the Yue era?”

—Do you dislike a woman who never ages?

The woman approached step by step, certain that her opponent could not move.

—Among those bones are the bones of old men from Mount Song, and even a Wudang priest who was on the verge of ascension. So there is no need to blame yourself too much.

Each time her hand touched my skin, starting from my face, I felt all the blood in my body rush downward.

She took out the golden dagger worn at her waist and tried to stab my heart in one strike.

Grab.

—How?

The woman was greatly shocked when she saw that her hand was caught in my left hand.

“I do not have the mental cultivation of Shaolin’s old masters, but I do have something like this.”

I showed her the Demon-Subduing Talisman burning brightly in my right hand.

It was the reason I had changed direction from my original destination and deliberately come here, where a ghost was said to exist.

The Demon-Subduing Talisman given to me by the Mount Heng Sect absorbed and burned away the woman’s demonic energy, allowing me to escape from it for an instant.

—You are using petty tricks.

I unleashed the Myriad Transformation Invincible Fist and poured out twenty fist forms in an instant.

The gold ornaments, unable to withstand the impact, scattered and fell in all directions.

—What a lewd child.

The woman seemed not to have taken any damage.

Her charging figure was clearly not a movement of a movement art or footwork, but an ordinary motion. Even so, she was as fast as someone using a supreme movement art.

Bang.

I barely pushed her body back, but like a cat, she spun once in midair and charged in again. I could not regain my senses before the woman’s movement.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Under her rough hands, I rolled around in every direction like a ball being played with by a cat.

“What kind of sorcery are you using?”

Her movement and attacking posture were not martial arts, yet her destructive power far exceeded Seong Mohyeon’s, which I had endured at the Iron Sword Sect.

—Did you think there were any who found me who were not experts?

The very fact that they could break through this perilous place meant they were already beyond ordinary.

The fact that such people had met death showed that her strength was by no means ordinary.

The effect of the Demon-Subduing Talisman gradually faded, and my body began to stiffen.

Just as I was about to take out another Demon-Subduing Talisman and hold it in my hand, she kicked off the wall and shot toward me like a ghost.

“Damn!”

I desperately twisted my body and used the Lotus technique to push her body in the direction she had been charging from.

At the same time, the Demon-Subduing Talisman I had been trying to hold was dragged along with her body.

—Kyaaaaaaak!

For the first time, she let out a chilling scream and slapped away the small flame stuck to her body.

The Demon-Subduing Talisman quickly fell off, but for some reason, the spot where it had been attached had turned into a dried mummy instead of firm flesh.

“So that was your true form.”

—…I have changed my mind. I will chew you to pieces.

A crimson glow flashed from her two eyes, and her hair shot up in all directions.

All her beautiful appearance vanished, and she charged in like a demon from hell manifested in the world.

“I received quite a grand gift this time.”

I held Demon-Subduing Talismans in both hands and stretched out the Myriad Transformation Invincible Fist in palm forms.

Compared to the fist forms, the power dropped greatly, but more than ten palm forms appeared in the air in an instant.

As expected, the woman who had not learned martial arts could not distinguish which was real and which was illusion.

—Kyaaaaaaak!

The woman’s arms and legs caught fire.

While she stamped her feet and tried to put out the fire, two more Demon-Subduing Talismans stuck to her shoulder and back.

—Kyaaaaaaaaaaak!

With a sound like scraping metal, her whole body began to burn.

—No! No! This is all mine! Everything here is mine!

When the flames on her body no longer grew, she threw herself into the pile of treasure and struggled as if trying not to let it be taken away.

“Now live according to the natural order of time.”

When I stuck the final Demon-Subduing Talisman to her head, her body flared up in an instant as if it had become a talisman itself, and then turned to ash and vanished.

—How unjust… How unjust.

After Wolhyang’s body disappeared into ash, a black bead remained in its place.

“Its form is strange for an inner core.”

When I held the bead in my hand, an enormous energy began to surge in.

“Huh?”

The endlessly pouring energy was innate true energy, the source of human life.

“Huh. So this was the secret of immortality.”

As innate true energy filled every corner of my body, even the impurities that the Mita Divine Water had failed to expel vaporized through my pores.

As power overflowed, fear disappeared.

The strong people I had seen throughout my previous life, including the Supreme Azure Divine Sword, the peak lord of Four Emperors Peak, and even the young cult leader of the Demonic Cult, Black Lion Gwak Gung, all felt like opponents I could face.

“To think I would gain such a fortunate encounter here.”

I no longer needed mechanical formations or elixirs.

With this bead, I was confident I could protect the world and cut off all the heads of the Demonic Cult.

“Let us see.”

I raised my sword and swung it diagonally twice across the passage.

Even though I swung without any particular technique, sword energy gathered like sword force and produced a thunderous sound.

Kwagwagwagwang. Bang. Bang.

All the mechanical formations were cut apart, and the passage became twice as large as when I had entered.

I no longer needed gold, silver, or treasures either.

Was one who possessed absolute power not free from everything?

Even if it was financial power, it could not bind the current me.

The moment I boldly stepped toward the passage.

Flinch.

Suddenly, all the innate true energy in my body drained away, and I sagged helplessly.

Only a faint chill rose from the bead in my hand.

“…”

I took two steps back again.

I am omnipotent.

I am invincible.

Whether it is the Demonic Cult or the Murim Alliance, they will have no choice but to maintain peace beneath me.

Confidence surged up.

I proudly walked forward two steps again.

“…”

I looked around.

Gold ornaments scattered during the battle were strewn everywhere.

“I should scrape up every last piece without leaving anything behind.”

Since I was not free from anything, I definitely needed financial power too.

#

I descended Nine Dragons Mountain and headed back to Yueyang.

I lengthened the Heavenly Silkworm Thread taken from the Flying Dragon Claw and slung two stone coffins filled with treasure over my shoulders.

During this period, many wars were occurring in the north, and there was a custom of sending those who died in war back to their hometowns, so people did not see the sight of me carrying stone coffins as strange, though they did avoid me.

After carrying the stone coffins into Yueyang’s fabric shop, the noblewomen buying cloth inside frowned and clicked their tongues one after another.

“What in the world is that?”

“What are they doing? Why did they not stop someone like that from entering?”

“Are they trying to do business or not?”

Yang Gunbaek, who had been chatting with the ladies while selling expensive silk, met my eyes, opened his mouth wide, and hurriedly rushed out.

“You finally came!”

Yang Gunbaek suddenly clung to the stone coffin and began sobbing loudly.

The noblewomen seemed to have guessed something from his sudden behavior and looked at him with pitying expressions.

“He is my younger brother, who was dragged north for military service. I had no money to hire a proper escort agency, so he has only just arrived.”

When Yang Gunbaek shed tears like a stream, the noblewomen began tearing up along with him.

“You have come well. Truly, you have come well.”

As he said that, Yang Gunbaek winked at me.

#

“Although you are someone who comes and goes without notice, I was still quite surprised this time.”

Yang Gunbaek spoke while drinking tea.

“You did not look surprised at all.”

“Stone coffins in a place where the wives of high officials and nobles come and go? Young Master Soun, your jokes are truly severe.”

Just like last time, he was no ordinary person.

“By the way, what brings you here?”

“I have a request, and I would like you to dispose of these for me as well.”

I tapped the stone coffin, and Yang Gunbaek tilted his head.

“If they are corpses, it would have been better to bury them deep underground. Do you perhaps need Bone-Melting Acid?”

Instead of answering, I lightly opened the stone coffin.

“Hup!”

Yang Gunbaek’s eyes widened.

“The one below contains the same kind of items.”

At my words, Yang Gunbaek looked back and forth between the treasure filling the stone coffin and me, as if he could not believe it.

#

Yang Gunbaek laid out the jewels one by one on the floor.

It was quite different from the way I had shoved them into the stone coffin like gathering fallen leaves.

“You truly are an astonishing person, Young Master Soun.”

“How much can I get for them?”

At my question, Yang Gunbaek fell into thought and calculated for quite a while before speaking.

“How would twenty thousand gold coins sound?”

“…”

“Do you not like it?”

It was exactly the opposite.

The weight and value of the treasure I had calculated was roughly ten thousand coins.

But considering that when a black market branch bought items, it usually valued them at only around twenty to thirty percent of their worth, from the black market branch’s perspective, they were actually taking a loss by paying this much.

“That is exactly twice the market price. Does the black market branch calculate things this way?”

“Please think of it as repaying a favor.”

Yang Gunbaek hid both hands inside his sleeves and raised his arms politely.

“This is…”

“Do you not like it?”

“No. It is just that the request I mentioned is related to that ‘favor.’”

The Hao Sect owed me a great debt because of this incident.

The Namgung Family and the dark murim forces had tried to hold the Beggars’ Gang and Hao Sect responsible for selling the map.

“…I do not think this price can repay everything, but could I ask you to accept it as partial consideration?”

That was somewhat understandable.

In the end, everything had been settled because I came out, but unlike the Beggars’ Gang, which belonged to the Nine Sects and One Gang, the Hao Sect had indeed suffered some damage.

“It seems there was a misunderstanding in my words. What I mean is that I want to become a ‘guest’ of the Hao Sect.”

“…”

The Hao Sect had no physical substance.

Therefore, there were no guests who stayed there and received food and lodging.

When the Hao Sect called someone a guest, it referred to a precious guest for whom the sect called Hao Sect would consider the person’s interests before its own.

“…I do not know how you learned of it, but that is not within the authority of someone like me.”

“If Great Hero Yang Gunbaek, the eleventh disciple of the Hao Sect Leader, has no authority, then who in the Hao Sect does?”

“!!”

His expression showed a confused bewilderment over how I knew his identity, and a hesitation over whether he should kill me or not.

“I hope we do not have to watch each other over something like this. I also want to become a guest because there are areas where I can help the Hao Sect.”

“…Asking how you knew would be meaningless, would it not?”

Instead of answering, I nodded.

“Haa, truly, they say being surprised this often is bad for one’s lifespan. You really are a bad friend.”

“The Beggars’ Gang.”

“…?”

“I will give you the Beggars’ Gang. In return, become my eyes and ears so that I can understand the murim world at any time.”

The future records I knew were gradually shifting in subtle ways.

To check what effects these shifts would have on the future, I needed someone who could gather information from all under heaven.

“…”

“This is not something you can decide here and now, is it?”

Historically, only a handful of people had ever obtained the position of guest of the Hao Sect.

And most of them were people who had surpassed the supreme realm and reached the level of transcending humanity.

In other words, most were people who could annihilate the Hao Sect if the Hao Sect did not cooperate with them.

“I will consider the favor repaid if you tell the Hao Sect Leader.”

“…”

“And this is my gift.”

I handed him a document containing the Beggars’ Gang’s one-year plan for this period.

“…”

His gaze showed that he could not easily believe it.

But if he investigated even a little, he would know for certain that the contents of the document were true.

“Then shall we finish the calculation? Since I said the favor has been repaid just now, ten thousand coins will be enough.”

“…How could I trade with a benefactor? Please accept this.”

A strategy to avoid leaving any debt behind until the end.

In that way, Yang Gunbaek took out a bundle of anonymous draft notes divided into small amounts from his robe.

“…Still, I will speak to the Sect Leader.”

I had not planned to obtain everything from the beginning.

I needed a process of gradually making the other party aware of my existence while also learning about the other party myself.

“That is more than enough.”