Chapter 69 :

The First Gate of the Hell Official Exam (3)

“What does that mean?”

Yeo Mimi’s face turned cold for the first time.

“I said I wanted the qualification of a ‘guest.’ Not merely a relationship where we exchange information.”

“Are you saying you do not believe my words?”

“The person claiming to be the sect leader never once mentioned the word ‘guest.’”

“……I believe I conveyed it sufficiently.”

I rose from my seat.

“I understand what you mean. It is regrettable, but there is nothing to be done.”

“I am not finished speaking yet!”

The warriors spread out in a row, looking as if they would draw their swords at any moment.

At that moment.

The old woman I had been looking at slowly raised her head.

“That is enough. Stop.”

“…….”

Yeo Mimi closed her mouth tightly and stepped aside.

“You did enough. It is just that this child was no ordinary person.”

Her face, with a few strands of white hair hanging down, was filled with gentle wrinkles.

The way she looked me up and down with a slightly stooped posture almost made her seem like a warm-hearted grandmother looking at the prospective husband her granddaughter had brought home.

But this old woman, who did not possess even a handful of internal energy, was the current Haomun sect leader, Yeo Mimi.

“I apologize, sect leader.”

The woman who had been playing the role of Yeo Mimi lowered her head, her face reddening.

“Still, I am curious. How did you know?”

I had never seen her in my past life.

However, I knew information about her.

“When I entered the room, all the elders looked at me once. But you, sect leader, did not look at me.”

“!”

The servants, who had not moved at all, all flinched.

I shook the information I had received.

“And if I had truly become a guest, I would not have received such useless information.”

“Useless? How can you say something so rude?”

The woman who had played Yeo Mimi bit her lip.

I looked back and forth between her and Yeo Mimi, asking how I should address her, and Yeo Mimi quickly understood and gave me her name.

“She is my first disciple, Haeryeong.”

“Yes, Senior Haeryeong, the information you gave only lists key figures. If it were truly information that would help me, should it not have been about the mountain strongholds I should target and who is aiming for those strongholds, rather than about individuals?”

“…….”

Haeryeong’s face flushed red.

This information had probably been prepared by Haeryeong herself.

Yeo Mimi had become the sect leader of Haomun despite not having learned even a single trace of martial arts, not merely because her popularity was excellent.

It was possible because she possessed abilities such as speed and accuracy incomparable to other information organizations, as well as excellent predictions through independent analysis.

“And if this were Haomun’s true strength, I would not even have taken the ‘guest’ qualification test.”

“…….”

“…….”

At my one sentence, hostility seeped out from everyone in the room.

To Haomun disciples, Haomun was not merely the level of a gang they belonged to.

It was their friend and family, people no different from their own blood.

This tight bond was the strength that allowed them to possess information power comparable to the Beggar Gang, the only one under heaven.

“If you know us that well, then you must also know why we conduct such high verification for the qualification of ‘guest,’ correct?”

Throughout history, Haomun’s guests had only ever been absolute masters of the murim world.

And throughout Haomun’s long history, that number had not exceeded the fingers of two hands.

It was because most of them were people who did not create their own forces and lived leisurely in deep mountains and secluded valleys.

This was connected to Haomun’s identity.

There could not be a conflict between Haomun’s interests and the guest’s interests.

After all, Haomun had always placed protecting Haomun’s disciples as its foremost goal.

“You have your roots in the Taeul Sect, and that Taeul Sect is now waiting for the right time to soar. Is that alone not enough reason why you cannot become our guest?”

“One cannot live rooted in the murim world while cutting off ties with the murim world. If so, you should not have sold information about the murim world from the beginning.”

“…….”

“As I said earlier, the incident at Maling Plateau was a tragedy brought about by Haomun’s closed nature. If someone had to take responsibility for that incident, between the Beggar Gang and Haomun, which side would suffer the greater loss?”

In my past life, Haomun suffered damage close to annihilation.

If not for Yang Gunbaek’s ability, Haomun would not have been able to rise again.

“I like Haomun’s spirit. An organization that protects the powerless. If I were a waiter, it would be extremely reassuring. But Haomun has already grown to the scale of the entire murim world, and if it continues in the old way, a second Maling Plateau incident and a third Maling Plateau incident will happen someday. It is time to come out of the well.”

Yeo Mimi stared at me steadily with her wrinkled face.

“Are you saying you have the solution?”

The Beggar Gang ultimately failed to predict the Demonic Cult’s return.

An information organization without competitors eventually falls into self-contradiction and becomes focused on information processing driven by subjective interests rather than objective fact analysis.

Perhaps if Haomun had continued to exist until the end, information about the Demonic Cult’s return might have unfolded in a different direction.

“As you just said, the Taeul Sect will soar in the future. Join us when that time comes.”

“……You are using every sweet word possible for your own benefit. For a moment, I almost agreed.”

I did not feel offended by Yeo Mimi’s suspicion.

Because it was her personality, close to obsessive fastidiousness, that had created the Haomun of today.

“As expected, you do not fall for it.”

At my shamelessness, Yeo Mimi smiled.

“Heulheul…… You are a brazen one. Still, since I was swayed by your eloquence, I cannot help but give you a chance.”

“Sect leader!”

Haeryeong’s face went pale for the first time.

“The problem that child pointed out is something we have also thought about, is it not? Are you trying to ignore someone who may present a solution because of your pride?”

“…….”

“If you know the first and second qualifications, then you must also know what the third qualification is.”

“To be someone helpful to Haomun.”

“Heulheul…… Do you know this? This is a standard that has never once been announced externally. Those who became guests did not even know when they had completed the verification.”

“Is that so?”

I had also obtained this information from among the secrets of Simhyeon Pavilion, so it made sense.

“But for you as you are now, if you cannot become a guest immediately, then joining hands with us would be meaningless, would it not?”

Yeo Mimi seemed to have already predicted how I would use Haomun’s information.

“I will give you an opportunity. Of course, it will not be easy for you either.”

“What is it?”

“I heard you are acquainted with the Wang Family Estate Lord.”

“…Well, more or less.”

“We need one of the most precious things Wang Geumsan of the Wang Family Estate possesses. Can you give it to us?”

Haeryeong suddenly blocked Yeo Mimi.

“Sect leader…… It is fine.”

“Stay still.”

Haeryeong lowered her head and stepped back.

I could not understand what the two of them were talking about.

“Can you give it?”

“I need to know what it is before I can ask the estate lord for it, do I not?”

Yeo Mimi looked at Haeryeong once, then spoke to me.

“I will speak of that myself.”

At Yeo Mimi’s words, I tilted my head.

Haomun sect leader Yeo Mimi had never once revealed herself to the world.

How important was this matter that the Haomun sect leader would personally show her face?

#

The points Jin Sowoon had pointed out were worries that Yeo Mimi and Haeryeong had always had in the past.

In particular, Haeryeong had thought about opening Haomun more progressively than even she, the sect leader, had.

However, after Taegong, Haeryeong’s husband and her own second disciple, had died when his identity was exposed, Haeryeong became even more conservative than Yeo Mimi herself.

But just as Jin Sowoon had said, they had now reached their limit.

Problems were arising in branch after branch, and the people working inside were screaming.

Even knowing that reality, Haeryeong refused to change her mind until the end, perhaps because of her memories of Taegong.

Because of that, Yeo Mimi was, in a way, placing her hopes in Jin Sowoon.

She hoped he could change Haeryeong’s thoughts.

She hoped her pitiful daughter could cast off the shadow hanging over her.

Amid those thoughts, Yeo Mimi tried to set another time while looking forward to meeting Estate Lord Wang, but Jin Sowoon said they should go meet Estate Lord Wang immediately.

“I do not have time.”

Jin Sowoon said that, but she did not think it would be possible.

After all, Wang Geumsan was not someone one could meet as easily as an old man from a neighborhood apothecary.

And yet…….

“Euhahaha. I thought you would just leave because you were busy, but in the end, you came to see me.”

At Wang Geumsan’s words, Yeo Mimi and Haeryeong, who was playing the role of Yeo Mimi, had no choice but to be shocked.

Even high-ranking officials and famous figures of the murim world made appointments weeks in advance to meet him, and sometimes even months in advance.

Even then, if Wang Geumsan had urgent business that day, there were plenty of times when they could not meet him.

Yet now, did Wang Geumsan not look as if he had been waiting for weeks to meet Jin Sowoon instead?

“I worry that I may have stolen your time by coming so suddenly, Estate Lord.”

Wang Geumsan, who had piled up a great deal of work, pushed it aside and looked over Jin Sowoon’s face from one side to the other.

“What is the big deal if work like that is delayed by a day or two? So, you are taking the Martial Academy exam after all?”

“Yes. That is how it happened. I came with these people because I wished to receive your help in relation to that. They are from Haomun.”

Jin Sowoon naturally introduced Haomun.

Haeryeong stepped forward.

“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Yeo Mimi, the Haomun sect leader.”

Since it was a meeting with Wang Geumsan, Yeo Mimi had intended to step forward in her true appearance, but Haeryeong still did not back down.

Yeo Mimi, who could not be harsh to the pitiful child, eventually let her act according to her wishes.

At Haeryeong’s clasped-fist greeting, Wang Geumsan merely nodded.

“Pleasure to meet you. I am Wang.”

It was an excessively rude act toward the sect leader of a sect.

It clearly looked different from the Wang Geumsan Yeo Mimi knew.

“Do you need Haomun for this exam?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm…… I see. May I ask what information you need?”

Strangely, Wang Geumsan was showing a side different from Haomun’s information.

He treated the Haomun sect leader rudely, but toward Jin Sowoon, he used not the language of a merchant, but the language of a parent.

“I need all information about the exam as it changes from moment to moment.”

“Well, for information like that, there is no choice but to borrow the strength of the Beggar Gang and Haomun.”

As Wang Geumsan nodded, Haeryeong stepped forward.

“At Haomun, we……”

But Wang Geumsan cut off Haeryeong’s words again.

“Or how about letting the Wang Family Estate help?”

“…….”

Haeryeong’s face crumpled deeply.

This was a crisis where the promise could end before they even said what they wanted.

“How so?”

“I will mobilize people connected to the Wang Family Estate across the country and give you the information you need. It will be information needed around you anyway. It is not as if you need the scale of the entire murim world, right?”

“Hmm…….”

As he said, it was not exactly wrong.

If Estate Lord Wang, who had hired people throughout the murim world, wished to do so, then while it might not match Haomun, he could still establish an information network close to it.

Analysis and speed would be separate matters, though.

As Yeo Mimi watched the scene with her insides burning.

Fortunately, Jin Sowoon shook his head.

“I cannot do that. I cannot let the estate lord suffer losses just to help me.”

“Kuhahaha! My friend! Why worry about something like that? If you want it, I could even hand over the entire Wang Family Estate.”

While Jin Sowoon and Wang Geumsan conversed warmly, Haeryeong’s face turned bright red.

Though she was from Haomun, when she uttered the name of sect leader, no one in the murim world ignored her.

Such a woman was experiencing humiliation for the first time.

“You truly are rude.”

“Hm?”

“Do you look down on Haomun that much?”

Wang Geumsan changed his expression.

A solemn and stiff expression.

Like Yeo Mimi, he did not possess even a handful of internal energy, but he looked full of dignity, as if he would look down on the whole world.

His mouth opened coldly.

“I am the one who wants to ask. How lightly do you look upon me that you would impersonate the Haomun sect leader?”

“?!”

At Wang Geumsan’s words, the corners of Yeo Mimi’s eyes trembled.

As expected, this sort of act should not be done carelessly.

There was a reason why he had been especially cold only toward Haomun from the beginning.

“The Haomun sect leader’s identity may be wrapped in fog, but I heard that she has thirteen disciples. Since she took in her first disciple fifteen years ago, if you were the Haomun sect leader, Haomun would not be an information organization but something like children playing house.”

“…….”

Haeryeong’s face turned ashen.

Since she was already in a difficult position asking for a difficult favor, receiving sharp criticism made her situation even harder.

“You should stop too. Information is something where trust is most important. How can you undertake a great matter together with people so untrustworthy?”

In the end, Yeo Mimi herself had no choice but to step forward.

Yeo Mimi moved Haeryeong, whose shoulders had drooped, behind her and respectfully clasped her fists.

“I apologize. My disciple did this out of concern for this powerless master, so I ask for your forgiveness.”

The mental shock Haeryeong had suffered from losing Taegong was too great.

In addition, the only son left between them had contracted a fatal illness, so Haeryeong was in a state where she could go mad at any moment.

Yeo Mimi had hoped there would be no further tragedy for Haeryeong and had done as she wished, but now that had instead acted as a bad move.

“…….”

Wang Geumsan silently looked at her for a long time.

Then he abruptly spoke in a calm voice.

“Enough. Please rise. It is not a pleasant sight for the sect leader of a sect to lower her head like that.”

As expected, Wang Geumsan recognized at once that she was the sect leader.

How had he distinguished her? There were no servants like when Jin Sowoon had done it.

They said Wang Geumsan was the most difficult and wise among the four great merchants, and those words were indeed not mere rumors.

“I am already disappointed in you, but for Sowoon’s sake, I will overlook it once.”

Yeo Mimi looked blankly at Jin Sowoon and Wang Geumsan.

What did Jin Sowoon have that made Wang Geumsan trust him so much?

Was such trust possible simply because he had saved his daughter?

“What do you need from me?”

With no time to think of anything else, Yeo Mimi gathered herself.

After all, the reason she had come this far was to find a clue to prevent Haeryeong’s tragedy.

Yeo Mimi looked at Haeryeong once, then spoke.

“I heard your daughter suffered from solar physique.”

“Ho. As expected of Haomun.”

Since the Wang Family Estate had kept matters about Wang Soso extremely secret, even within the Wang Family Estate, few people knew Wang Soso’s constitution.

Haomun had only recently obtained this information after tracing the origins of the treasured items the Wang Family Estate had put up for sale.

“We need the treatment method.”

At Yeo Mimi’s words, Jin Sowoon and Wang Geumsan met eyes at the same time.

Wang Geumsan’s lips twitched visibly as he tried to hold back his laughter.

‘What is this?’

Yeo Mimi felt something was strange, but she continued speaking.

“We mobilized all of Haomun, but there was no way to find it out. Please tell us the person who treated that constitution and the treatment method.”

Haeryeong’s son was also suffering from an illness similar to Wang Soso’s.

The Nine Yin Severed Meridians, said to be impossible for anyone under heaven to cure.

If even that child were gone, Yeo Mimi could not predict what would happen to Haeryeong.

That was why she had placed her final hope in the treatment method that had cured Wang Soso.

If it was possible to cast off the solar physique and become healthy enough to learn martial arts at the Taeul Sect, then the Nine Yin Severed Meridians might also be possible.

“……Heoheo.”

“I earnestly ask that you tell us.”

“I earnestly ask you.”

Yeo Mimi and Haeryeong lowered their heads.

Wang Geumsan shook his head as he watched the scene, then looked at Jin Sowoon.

Jin Sowoon quietly gave a slight nod, and Wang Geumsan also nodded faintly.

“……I will tell you that person.”

“……Can you truly tell us?”

“Yes.”

Yeo Mimi and Haeryeong looked as if they could not believe it.

If it was such a precious treatment method, it could not be exchanged even for a hundred million gold.

Could he truly give it just because of Jin Sowoon’s request?

“It may not exactly be in exchange…… but I will give you one piece of advice.”

They had expected him to demand some great compensation, but when Wang Geumsan said he would give advice, Yeo Mimi and Haeryeong nodded gladly.

“In running an organization, suspicion and confirmation are indeed very important. However, if you truly wish to create an organization capable of doing great things, trust is more important than anything else.”

Yeo Mimi and Haeryeong looked as if they did not understand what Wang Geumsan was saying.

“If you tell us what you mean, we will listen even more carefully.”

“I am saying that if you had shown trust in Sowoon from the beginning, you would not have needed to come all the way here.”

“……?”

“The one who possessed that treatment method was Sowoon.”

Yeo Mimi and Haeryeong’s heads turned sharply.

According to their common sense, they had never imagined that Jin Sowoon would have that treatment method.

“Trust is extremely difficult to build. If the first beginning goes wrong, it becomes even harder. That is why showing trust at the start is most important. If the other party betrays me, I can repay them even more greatly, can I not? I know Haomun is already a sect of that scale. So show trust first. If you cannot overcome this, you will see how quickly that organization collapses.”

One of the four great merchants under heaven had given them his management principle.

Yeo Mimi lowered her head in deep gratitude.

“I will engrave what I heard today deep in my heart.”

“Enough. I only said it because Sowoon said he needed your strength. Let us stop this now and speak comfortably.”

Wang Geumsan relaxed his stiff expression and told the maid to prepare dinner.

“You do not intend to make me go through this situation and then simply leave, do you?”

Wang Geumsan released his earlier solemn expression and spoke to Jin Sowoon with a mischievous look.

“What are you saying? I came to have dinner with the estate lord and introduced these people along the way.”

They said Wang Geumsan had marked Jin Sowoon as his son-in-law, and it seemed that was true.

“Kuhaha. If you want to become a merchant later, you will need to learn how to lie.”

“What do you mean? Have you not heard that I found the Taeul Sword Emperor’s true transmission? Soon, I will become a martial expert.”

“I also heard that you nearly lost your internal energy while using innate true energy.”

“Kkeung…….”

“Let us go for now! I need to hear about your accomplishments in Maling Plateau. I hear that the end of that story is that you received the Changgung Merchant Guild?”

Wang Geumsan, delighted as if his dead son had returned alive, led Jin Sowoon out, then looked back.

While Yeo Mimi and Haeryeong were hesitating, unsure what to do, Wang Geumsan spoke.

“Are you not coming with us? The skills of our Wang Family Estate’s special chef are outstanding.”