Chapter 1075

Sometimes people you’ve been meaning to see all come back into your life at once.

Like right now.

“I’m Gung Gibang, a junior of Murim. It’s an honor to meet you, Seniors!”

Gung Gibang had come running as if his feet were on fire. At his hearty greeting, I spoke on everyone’s behalf in a stern voice.

“The Beggars’ Sect’s Successor Beggar, is it? Good. Pleased to meet you.”

“……”

“I’m Jin Taekyung. We’re about the same age, so from now on, feel free to call me Elder.”

“……You haven’t changed. Not one bit.”

I shrugged at the guy, whose already ugly face looked like he’d just swallowed shit.

“Of course I haven’t. If a perfectly normal person suddenly changes, it means he’s about to die.”

“I don’t think you were ever perfectly normal.”

“I was a lot better than you.”

“In what way, exactly?”

“Plenty of ways. Let’s start with our looks. We’re on completely different levels.”

“Damn it. I can’t deny that one.”

Gung Gibang let out a deep sigh, then chuckled.

“Still, I’m glad you haven’t changed.”

I laughed along with him.

It felt good to hear him say that. And I felt the same way about him.

Gung Gibang and the Beggars’ Sect disciples led us over to the campfires.

A winter-cold blizzard was howling all around us, but the warmth of the fires springing up here and there was enough to make us forget the cold. They’d also laid out dry rations to replenish our exhausted allies’ hunger and strength.

Plenty of them.

“Were you waiting for us?”

“Of course. We expected reinforcements to come from Gansu.”

Gung Gibang handed me some jerky and added, “We even figured those reinforcements might make the insane choice of crossing the Qilian Mountains.”

“Was it a rash decision? The missive from the Kunlun Sect made it sound like there wasn’t an hour to spare.”

“No. It was exactly the right call. We only got a chance to catch our breath a few days ago ourselves.”

A scab still marked Gung Gibang’s forehead, proof enough that he wasn’t lying.

A clear mark of battle.

His expression and voice were bright, but he’d recently been through a fight for his life, too.

“Oh, this? It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. I survived, and that’s what matters.”

Gung Gibang gave me a bitter smile, doing his best to sound solemn. I looked him up and down.

“Yeah. It really is nothing.”

“……”

“What?”

“Could you let me hit you just once?”

“Hmm. If you ask nicely, maybe.”

“And what about revenge afterward?”

“Oh, come on. What do you take me for? Of course there’ll be revenge. I’ll beat you within an inch of your life.”

“……I had you pegged perfectly.”

Gung Gibang shook his head and went on. “Anyway, considering we stayed at the very rear until the end, we got off cheap. Though that was only thanks to help arriving at just the right time.”

Gung Gibang glanced toward the Slaughter Saint, who’d been chewing his jerky in silence.

“You were just lucky,” the Slaughter Saint said. “We happened to be nearby.”

“I was truly shocked at first. I never imagined you’d be in Qinghai with Cheongpung…”

“The more people who know about you, the harder it is to accomplish your goal. And I’m no Great Hero.”

In other words, he’d kept his existence hidden even from his own allies.

“Then had you been here the whole time since we left for the Nanman Beast Palace?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t say the whole time. We only arrived in Qinghai about a month ago.”

I thought back over the past few months.

The last time I’d seen the Slaughter Saint was just after the Two Dragons Pavilion was founded, with Cheongpung and me at its center, around the time we left for Nanman.

So even setting aside that month in Qinghai, he’d spent the past several months on some kind of mission with Cheongpung…

Why hadn’t I heard a single thing about it?

It was strange.

Since we’d parted, I’d been caught up in one major incident after another, starting with the Nanman Beast Palace. Each time, the whole world’s attention had turned our way.

Rumors traveled tens of thousands of ri¹ without needing legs.

And yet I hadn’t heard anything about where the Slaughter Saint and Cheongpung had been or what they’d done.

The Slaughter Saint clearly didn’t want to tell me, either. Before I could ask, he spat out the jerky he’d been chewing.

“Tough. I’ll be resting nearby for a bit. Don’t look for me.”

He hadn’t said anything directly, but his actions made his meaning clearer than words.

“Always keeping secrets,” Jeok Cheongang muttered, clicking his tongue as he watched the Slaughter Saint walk away. “No wonder people say he’s got a foul temper.”

Then he saw my expression and frowned.

“What’s with that rotten look?”

“……What did I do?”

“Explain yourself.”

“N-nothing. You probably know better than I do.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Cheongpung, sitting near the campfire with a drowsy expression, spoke up on my behalf.

“Obviously, it means Grandpa Jeok’s temper is just as foul, doesn’t it, Benefactor?”

“……”

“Huh? Am I wrong?”

Of course he was right.

But some uncomfortable truths couldn’t be said out loud. Especially when doing so might get you beaten to death.

Cheongpung, you little shit…

I stared at him with a dead-eyed look. He’d been gone a while, but apparently he’d learned a new assassination technique from the Slaughter Saint. I did my best to ignore Jeok Cheongang’s scorching gaze beside me and changed the subject.

“So, Cheongpung, where have you been and what have you been doing for the past few months?”

“Hmm. Little Grandpa told me not to say.”

“You can tell me.”

“He knew you’d say that. He told me not to say anything even if it was you, Benefactor.”

“I’m telling you, it’s fine. If you’re worried, just whisper it to me with Sound Transmission…”

“Wow, that’s amazing. He even told me to keep quiet if you tried to talk me into telling you by Sound Transmission.”

“……”

“He said he’d kill me if I said anything. I think I’ve heard ‘Silencing the Witnesses’ about five thousand times by now.”

“……Then I won’t ask.”

Of course, the Slaughter Saint wouldn’t try to silence the witnesses just because Cheongpung told me everything that had happened so far. But at this point, it would be polite not to press him further.

Well.

To be honest, I was also a little scared he really might try to silence the witnesses.

“What about what happened in Qinghai? Is that a secret, too?”

“No. He didn’t say anything about that, so I think it’s fine.”

Cheongpung answered innocently and gave us a rough account of the past month.

He started with why they’d slipped into Qinghai without telling anyone, and what they’d come to do.

“You were looking for spies who might already be inside?”

“Yes. Little Grandpa said a traitor at your back is scarier than an enemy right in front of you.”

He was right.

I’d learned that the hard way more than once. I couldn’t take those words lightly.

“So, did you find any spies?” Jeok Cheongang asked.

“No. At least, not as far as we could tell.”

If Cheongpung had been on his own, I might’ve checked his work a hundred times and still had my doubts. But if the Slaughter Saint was part of that we, I could trust it.

He wouldn’t have been called the greatest assassin of all time if he weren’t that thorough.

Still…

“It’s too soon to relax,” Jeok Cheongang said. “You never know what might happen in Murim.”

Spoken like a veteran of the martial world. Cheongpung nodded.

“That’s right. Little Grandpa thought so, too. So he was going to infiltrate the Kunlun Sect and investigate further.”

There was a big difference between was going to and did.

And I already knew what had stopped him.

“Dark Heaven attacked just then. Right?”

“Yes. It happened in an instant.”

They had an overwhelming advantage in numbers and strength.

Some of Qinghai’s martial artists, including those of the Kunlun Sect, immediately withdrew from the sect’s headquarters and retreated east. But the Slaughter Saint and Cheongpung stayed.

“We hid among them and waited for the right moment.”

Anyone else who’d tried that would have been discovered and killed long ago.

But the Slaughter Saint was an exception.

And so was the other person who’d spent the past several months learning from him.

“I held my breath and hid my presence, just like Little Grandpa taught me. No one noticed. Like this.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Cheongpung stopped breathing with a sharp hup. Instead of answering, I let out a hollow laugh.

Not because of how ridiculous he looked, but because his presence had faded to a ghostly blur, even though he was right in front of me.

Can he really do that? After only a few months?

I’d known the answer for a long time.

Yes—if it was Cheongpung.

With that insane talent of his, as if he didn’t need a System at all, he could learn even a concealment technique that difficult in no time.

With talent like that and the Slaughter Saint teaching him, of course they could avoid being noticed.

A first-rate teacher and a heaven-sent genius.

Together, they’d managed to infiltrate the enemy.

Of course, even they had their limits.

“I did my best, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get as far as Taiqing Hall.”

“Taiqing Hall…?”

“It’s on the highest peak of Kunlun Mountain. It’s where the Kunlun Sect decides everything, big and small. But there was a strange energy surrounding the area.”

Cheongpung shuddered, as if remembering how it had felt.

“I could feel something… something invisible and sticky. It gave me chills.”

“Sticky? And it gave you chills?”

“Yes. Enough to make me shudder. Little Grandpa must have felt it too, because he decided we should blend in with the monsters coming down the mountain just then and turn back. A few days later, we met you, Benefactor.”

Even after he finished, Cheongpung’s expression didn’t improve. I watched him with a deep, steady gaze and quietly turned over the two words that had come to mind the moment I heard his story.

Magical power.

And at that very moment—

Splash!

A gentle ripple spread across the broad blue river beyond the thick veil of fog.