It looked like there were a thousand people, not hundreds. With the martial artists of the Jin Family of Taiyuan escorting us, we made our way through the enormous crowd.
This feels amazing.
I felt like a star in the Chinese-speaking world. The Korean Wave and all that.
Then again, I was actually Korean, so it wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi! Look this way just once!”
“Eeeek! Young Hero Jin!”
“Waaah!”
They say even a mutt has home-field advantage.
No matter how famous the Three Plum Blossom Elites were, they couldn’t beat the pride of Shanxi Province—the son of Taiyuan—on his home turf.
As I smiled warmly and waved, Chulwoo whispered to me.
“Look at the corners of your mouth. Enjoying this?”
“Look at the corners of yours. Are you crying?”
“You Shanxi bumpkin.”
“Yeah, next mountain man.”
“You little—”
“What, you—”
Just as sparks were about to fly again, a thread of Sound Transmission pierced my ear.
—Third Young Master!
Wipeng was glaring at me with a fierce expression. He looked like he wanted to slap me right then and there.
He must have sent a similar Sound Transmission to Chulwoo, because the man added a single word with a dissatisfied expression.
“I let you off.”
I answered with a derisive snort.
When I first realized from the people’s cheers that Chulwoo was a fairly prominent young prodigy of Huashan, I was rather surprised.
But that was all.
So what if he’s one of the Three Plum Blossom Elites?
I had already experienced enough of Huashan’s martial arts, thanks to a certain person plodding along beside me.
“I’m hungry. I’m hungry.”
“……”
Cheongpung was a strange fellow no matter how many times I saw him, but there was no denying that he was a Peak master who had mastered Huashan’s foundational secret arts.
Because of that, I was confident I could respond no matter what martial arts Chulwoo used. The only thing Chulwoo had over me was his background as a member of Huashan.
“……”
Ah, no. I take that back.
The difference in our backgrounds was pretty serious when I thought about it. No matter how much the Jin Family of Taiyuan had risen in status, the Nine Sects and One Gang were overwhelmingly powerful.
Fuck. I lose.
The Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families, as I saw them, were no different from a corporate alliance in Murim.
Powerful conglomerates had joined forces into one coalition and were ganging up on everyone else. There was no one who could stand against them.
Fortunately, they didn’t invade the alley markets despite calling themselves the orthodox faction, which was why small and medium-sized companies like the Jin Family of Taiyuan could still climb their way upward.
In that sense, it’s obvious that Huashan is paying close attention to this matter.
Huashan’s Lone Crane, Baek Museong.
If everything Hyuk Mujin had told me was true, Baek Museong was practically the next Sect Leader of Huashan—recognized as such by everyone, including himself.
There was one person among Huashan’s young prodigies who could be considered his only equal, though…
“Benefactor, I’m really hungry. Do you have any dumplings left?”
“No. I don’t.”
“Oh. Aaaah…”
Cheongpung was a lost cause.
It would probably be faster for Huashan’s Daoists to convert to Islam than for that guy to become the Sect Leader of Huashan.
Even I, an outsider, couldn’t help thinking, What kind of person is this? How much worse must it be for the people of Huashan?
Once he’s experienced everything in the world, he’ll probably decide that he wants to try being the Sect Leader of Huashan too. Yeah.
Just as I was imagining a fairly believable future, Chulwoo opened his mouth with an irritated expression.
“Hey, did a ghost of someone who died because he couldn’t eat dumplings latch onto you? Please shut your mouth and walk.”
“……?”
“……?”
“……?”
Chulwoo flinched when the gazes of Wipeng, Hyuk Mujin, and me all fell on him at once.
“W-What? Why are you looking at me like that all of a sudden?”
“Hey, you don’t happen to…”
“Young Hero Chul, you don’t know?”
“Come on, no way. You’re one of the Three Plum Blossom Elites. Surely you can’t not know.”
As the reactions came one after another, Chulwoo’s ox-like eyes rolled around.
“What? Why is everyone acting like this?”
Why else? Because he couldn’t recognize the elder of his own sect.
By seniority, Cheongpung was the Disciple of the Sword Saint and the youngest Junior Brother of the Heavenly Sword True Person, the current Sect Leader of Huashan.
To Chulwoo, that made him his Master’s Junior Brother—in other words, his Martial Uncle.
Come to think of it, he might not know.
Cheongpung had been raised by the Sword Saint, Mae Jonghak, while Mae Jonghak was living in seclusion. There was no doubt that only a handful of people within the sect knew what he looked like or who he really was.
I clicked my tongue as I looked at Chulwoo, who stood face-to-face with his Martial Uncle without recognizing him.
“Tsk, tsk. They say it’s darkest beneath the lamp.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Never mind. You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Damn it, this is driving me crazy.”
As Chulwoo pounded his chest in frustration, we left the cheers of the crowd behind and entered through the main gate of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.
At the same time, more than a hundred pairs of eyes and countless whispers flew toward us from every direction. The atmosphere was completely different from outside the gate.
“That young man…”
“That’s the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi. He’s as handsome as I’d heard.”
“The Defeated Flower Fist is here too. Isn’t he the second Disciple of the Heavenly Sword True Person?”
“Then who are the two young men beside them?”
“I couldn’t tell you.”
More than a hundred people of all ages, both men and women, were mingling together. Their wealth and leisure were evident in their clothes and manner.
The power players of Shanxi Province.
Some of them were Sect Leaders, while others were wealthy merchants. They had enough influence and ability to be formally invited to this gathering.
At a glance, it almost looks like a ball for aristocrats.
I walked on, swept up in a strange feeling.
The fact that these people, who could be considered Shanxi Province’s ruling class, were no more than supporting characters at this gathering—and the curious, admiring gazes they sent my way—made one corner of my heart itch.
And then it happened.
“My name is Jang Se-pal. I lead a small sect called the Hequ Sect.”
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
“I’ve long admired the reputation of the Jin Family of Taiyuan and the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi from the bottom of my heart, and…”
A middle-aged martial artist began an elaborate speech about how honored he was to meet me. Then people started surging toward us like a horde of zombies.
“Greetings. I run a small martial arts academy near Yangcheon…”
“Pardon me? Oh, yes.”
“Young Hero Jin, I have something important to discuss with you. Perhaps we could move somewhere else…”
“Right now? I’d rather not.”
“This is my daughter. She wanted to meet the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi at least once, so I brought her along. If you happen to find her appealing…”
“Yes, yes.”
“Oh! Then shall I send a matchmaker right away?”
“Wait, wait! I answered that wrong!”
What on earth was going on?
Requests for handshakes—or rather, a barrage of fist-and-palm salutes—were pouring in from every direction. I was on the verge of losing my mind.
If Wipeng hadn’t stepped forward at just the right moment, I would have ended up accepting every request and marriage proposal wrapped in flowery language.
“Everyone, restrain yourselves!”
The shout of a Peak master infused with internal energy made the people flinch, and we took the opportunity to escape. Chulwoo clicked his tongue as though he’d had enough.
“That was excessive. Are all the people of Shanxi like that?”
Of course not. This situation was a bit unusual.
Wipeng was the only member of our group who hadn’t been flustered. He opened his mouth with a calm expression.
“You’ll experience this often from now on, so you’ll have to get used to it.”
“I’m supposed to experience things like this often?”
“You’re a direct descendant of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, after all.”
“I almost got married five times just now.”
“That’s only natural for a promising young prodigy without a partner.”
“I heard someone say they were betrothed to me before I was even born… Is that true?”
“What difference does it make whether it’s true or false? Think positively.”
The hair on my body stood on end.
I had spent twenty-seven years of my life as a lifelong single in the modern world, and now I was suddenly worried that I might be forced into an arranged marriage.
In Murim, thousands of miles from home, no less.
No. I have Song-i.
Veins bulging in my neck, I shouted,
“Marriage is an incredibly important matter! You can’t just brush it aside like that! Love between a man and a woman! Pure feelings! Don’t I get any of that?”
“No. You don’t.”
“Why?! How come?!”
Wipeng looked me up and down as though he were looking at an insect.
“Is that something a man who’s been going in and out of pleasure houses since he was sixteen should say? Did you throw away your conscience along with your silver nyang?”
“……”
“Let’s walk quietly. Our Lord is waiting.”
If I’d actually been to one, at least I wouldn’t feel so wronged.
Fuck, I’d never even been to a pickup bar, let alone a pleasure house.
As I said nothing and shed silent tears of blood inside, Chulwoo sidled up and asked,
“Is that true?”
“What is?”
“That you’ve been going to pleasure houses since you were sixteen.”
“You don’t need to know. Why are you suddenly asking about that?”
Chulwoo flinched and began to ramble.
“Well, how should I put it? I suppose you could call it personal curiosity. About a man who has walked only the straight path of a martial artist…”
“You want to visit a pleasure house?”
“Ahem!”
“Finish walking the path of a martial artist. Don’t go wandering down side paths for no reason.”
I replied with utter disdain. That was when a voice cut in.
“Young Hero Jin is absolutely right. How long has it been since you left the main sect, and you’ve already forgotten the duty of a martial artist?”
The tone was stern, yet carried a hint of amusement.
The owner of the unfamiliar voice was a clean-cut man. He approached with an unwavering stride and respectfully made a fist-and-palm salute.
But he wasn’t addressing me or Wipeng.
“Baek Museong, First-generation Disciple of Huashan, pays his respects to his Martial Uncle.”
Cheongpung was silent for a moment before answering.
“Who are you?”
Around sixty, perhaps?
He was an old man with a slender frame and strikingly narrow eyes.
A deeply hoarse voice came through his chapped lips.
“So you were humiliated by an unknown nobody with no name?”
“E-Elder, that’s not what happened…”
The three men standing before the old man were sweating profusely.
They were known as the Three Hands of Zhongnan, but before an elder of their sect, they had to watch every word they spoke and every movement they made.
Even more so when that elder was the Roaring Fury Swordsman—a master counted among the top five in the Zhongnan Sect and a man famous for his fiery temper.
“Then what is it? No matter how I listen, it sounds to these old ears as though you idiots smeared shit all over the name of the great Zhongnan Sect.”
The Three Hands of Zhongnan trembled beneath the old man’s sharp gaze.
Just as the Roaring Fury Swordsman was about to unleash his thunderous reprimand, one of the men, who had kept his mouth tightly shut the entire time, suddenly spoke.
“He wasn’t an unknown nobody.”
“What?”
The man with a splint on his arm, Gong Ilhyuk, continued.
“He said he was the Sword Saint’s Disciple.”
The statement was so shocking that the Roaring Fury Swordsman momentarily forgot how to speak. Then he asked with an expression of disbelief,
“…The Sword Saint?”
“Yes.”
“The Sword Saint, who has been living in seclusion for so long, raised a Disciple?”
“We suspected it at first, but… it seems to be true.”
“Your evidence?”
“Li Feng, a lay Disciple of Huashan, serves in the military of Shanxi Province. Judging by his reaction, it seems certain.”
“Li Feng?”
The old man’s already furrowed brow creased further.
His memory wasn’t good enough to remember some lay Disciple of Huashan.
“Is that all?”
At the lukewarm reaction, Gong Ilhyuk hurriedly spoke again.
“He mastered Huashan’s foundational secret arts to the Peak realm despite being only twenty. He used martial arts that are permitted only to the direct Disciples of the main sect, one after another…”
After hearing the entire account of what had happened, the Roaring Fury Swordsman silently rubbed his sword scabbard.
The Sword Saint’s Disciple. The Sword Saint’s Disciple.
The Sword Saint had already been living in seclusion for decades.
No one even knew whether he was alive or dead, and now his Disciple had suddenly appeared in Murim?
It was difficult to believe, but his mind had already begun to lean toward accepting it.
At the very least, I should verify it.
After remaining silent for a long while, the Roaring Fury Swordsman abruptly rose from his seat. An order fell on the startled Three Hands of Zhongnan.
“Guide me.”
“W-Where do you mean?”
“Could you mean the Sword Saint’s Disciple…?”
While the other two men stood there flustered, Gong Ilhyuk’s eyes flashed.
“As far as I know, that bastard is traveling with a scion of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.”
“If you mean a scion of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, are you talking about that Jin Taekyung fellow you mentioned earlier?”
“Yes. He’s half a day from here.”
The Roaring Fury Swordsman clicked his tongue.
“Cunning bastard. That must be why you came looking for this old man.”
“The name of the great Zhongnan Sect has fallen into the dirt because of these inept Disciples. Elder, aren’t you the person who cares about our sect more than anyone? I happened to hear that you were in the area on business, so…”
“Cut it out. From what you’ve told me, this Jin Taekyung fellow sounds like an incredibly arrogant bastard too.”
“That’s right. A bastard like that needs to be taught a harsh lesson.”
Gong Ilhyuk added, as though he had just remembered something,
“I hear the Jin Family of Taiyuan is holding a gathering.”
“A gathering?”
“They’ve invited every sect in Shanxi Province to show off their power.”
“They’re trampling on our sect and holding a gathering?”
Anger filled the Roaring Fury Swordsman’s eyes.
“I’ve heard enough. Lead the way.”
“I obey, Elder.”
A smug smile spread across Gong Ilhyuk’s lips.
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