Chapter 320

The old man possessed an immortal-like bearing. I had heard that he was already nearing eighty, yet as befitted a Supreme Peak master with profound internal energy, his clear, refined face had not a single age spot, and his back was perfectly straight.

And then there were his eyes.

The old man, Hwangbo Eom, the Taeeul Merciless Sword, opened his mouth with that dark gaze that made people uncomfortable simply by meeting it.

“An interesting fellow has appeared.”

I did not avoid his stare as I answered.

“I hear that pretty often.”

“You have plenty of nerve, too.”

“That’s true as well.”

The corners of Hwangbo Eom’s mouth rose.

“You know who this old man is. Stop with the pointless wordplay.”

“Who are you?”

“What?”

“I’ve never met you before. How am I supposed to know who you are or where you’re from? You have to tell me. That’s basic etiquette.”

At my calm reply, startled gasps escaped from all around us.

“Y-Young Hero Jin.”

Ju Hwaran and the others from the Yongbong Escort Bureau stood there with their mouths hanging open, while the Zhongnan Sect disciples who understood what was happening reached for their sword hilts as if they had planned it beforehand.

“How dare he be so arrogant!”

“Can you not show proper respect at once?”

Hwangbo Eom raised a hand, calming the situation.

Normally, this was the point when someone would start foaming at the mouth and check their blood pressure as it shot through the roof.

But he was clearly different.

“So that’s how it is.”

Hwangbo Eom stared at me with a faint smile, then slowly turned his head.

His gaze passed over me, Cheongpung, and Hyuk Mujin before settling on the other two people.

“You don’t know this old man? The pillar of Huashan and the Successor Beggar of the Beggars’ Sect should have told you long ago. Excessive joking is unpleasant.”

At his words, Baek Museong and Gung Gibang flinched, stepped forward, and performed a clasped-hands salute.

“I am Baek Museong, a junior of the Murim. I pay my respects to Great Hero Hwangbo.”

“B-Beggars’ Sect’s Gung Gibang…”

“Enough.”

Hwangbo Eom waved a hand, his robe fluttering, and turned his gaze back to me.

“I believe I have indulged a child’s tantrum sufficiently. Is that still not enough?”

He really was no ordinary old man.

He was a completely different kind of person from his Senior Brother, the Roaring Fury Swordsman.

His martial arts and his personality were both a level above.

He’s troublesome.

Still, this was within the range I had expected.

Without letting my thoughts show, I calmly shrugged.

“No, that’s enough. Great Hero Hwangbo Eom, the Taeeul Merciless Sword.”

“You’re certainly bold. Why not make an excuse about failing to recognize me?”

“It’s a better look to admit it cleanly.”

“Hahaha. What an insolent brat.”

Hwangbo Eom burst into a hearty laugh. There was both interest in my existence and disbelief at the same time.

The Zhongnan Sect disciples under him, however, seemed to find this situation more than merely absurd. They seemed to consider it insulting.

It would have been one thing if I truly had not known who he was.

But I had known and pretended otherwise.

Apparently, Hwangbo Eom held an extraordinarily high position within the Zhongnan Sect if they could not simply laugh it off.

“You bastard!”

Was it called the Taeeul Sword Unit?

It began when a middle-aged man who appeared to be the oldest among the Zhongnan Sect disciples shouted and drew his sword.

Clang-clang-clang!

Thirty well-maintained swords pointed toward me. As disciples of the Zhongnan Sect, one of the Nine Sects and One Gang, every one of them was at least a First Rate master.

Of course…

They’re hopelessly weak.

At this level, they posed no threat to me whatsoever.

First Rate? Peak? It made no difference.

In my eyes, they were nothing more than thirty men with swords.

I am strong.

Might Makes Right.

One of the absolute laws governing the Murim.

By now, I had become strong enough to remain at ease within that law. That was why I could walk forward without hesitation.

“This is a fateful meeting and all. Would you mind if I joined you?”

I asked Hwangbo Eom that while ignoring the thirty blades surrounding me. The face of the middle-aged swordsman in charge flushed red.

“H-How dare this insolent bastard!”

“Bangjajeon¹ is fucking great.”

“Taeeul Sword Unit, listen up! Take this bastard—”

That was when Hwangbo Eom, who had been silently watching me, opened his mouth.

“Join us… Very well.”

“……!”

Everyone stared at Hwangbo Eom in surprise.

“S-Senior Martial Uncle?”

“Put away your swords.”

“But that bastard—”

“Are you planning to defy this old man’s command?”

At his icy voice, the middle-aged swordsman bit his lip and lowered his sword.

As the weapons that had brightly illuminated the inside of the teahouse disappeared, nothing remained to block my way.

“Thank you. They were a little hard on the eyes.”

Scrape. Thump.

I passed through the rigidly frozen people and dropped into the seat beside Ju Hwaran. Seeing how pale she was, I gave her a slight smile.

“Long time no—well, not really. It’s been two days. How have you been?”

“Young Hero Jin…”

“You don’t have to answer. I was only saying it as a courtesy. To be honest, Young Lady Ju, judging by your expression, you don’t look like someone who’s been doing well.”

“That’s not it. How did you even—?”

“I happened to be passing by and stopped in by chance. Young Hero Cheong here insisted that he absolutely had to have a cup of tea. Of course, that was also a coincidence.”

Unlike Baek Museong, Gung Gibang, and Hyuk Mujin, Cheongpung—whose twelve internal organs were apparently all livers—sat down beside me without hesitation and pouted.

“Benefactor, when are the candied sweets coming out?”

“Wait just a little longer. I’ll build you a whole mountain.”

“Wow! A mountain of sweets!”

Cheongpung looked ecstatic, as though he had discovered a mountain of candied sweets right in front of him.

Ju Hwaran, on the other hand, looked as if a mountain had collapsed.

Of course, most of the reason was probably Hwangbo Eom sitting across from her.

After looking back and forth between Cheongpung and me with an odd gaze, he suddenly spoke.

“You have a big liver. To the point of recklessness.”

“It used to be small. But after going through one thing and another, it suddenly grew a lot.”

“One thing and another, is that it? I suppose going through the Shaolin Bloodshed would do that.”

“……!”

“Why are you so surprised?”

Hwangbo Eom curled his lips into a smile and continued.

“I have heard all about the rumor that the Fire King took a Hidden Dragon under his wing. I also heard that you left the Murim Alliance seven days and nights ago.”

What a slippery old man.

He had known from the start.

Unlike Ju Hwaran, who had merely guessed our identities two days ago, he already knew everything.

How?

This operation had been carried out quickly and in secret, yet he knew everything as if he could see the palm of his hand.

Did the Zhongnan Sect Leader, who should still be staying at the Murim Alliance, send a messenger pigeon?

Then could he also know about Old Master’s condition…?

Just as I was wondering that, Hwangbo Eom’s gaze briefly passed over the pack frame I had entrusted to Baek Museong before sitting down.

Then he casually tossed out a single remark.

“I didn’t expect the Fire King’s heir to be dressed as a leather merchant like this.”

Was he pretending not to know, or did he truly not know?

There was no way to read his thoughts from his expression alone.

Jeok Cheongang was currently in a state resembling suspended animation. His heartbeat, breathing, and everything else had slowed to an extreme degree, making it extraordinarily difficult to sense his presence.

It was similar to the Turtle Breath Technique Cheongpung had mentioned before.

And with all those layers of leather piled over him, even a Supreme Peak master would have trouble noticing him.

There was a reason we had covered him with so many hides beyond maintaining his body temperature.

We had done it to hide his appearance, as well as his sounds and presence, so that no one would discover Jeok Cheongang’s existence.

“……”

“Is something wrong?”

“Nothing. But my throat is parched.”

I hurriedly redirected Hwangbo Eom’s attention. Without saying anything else, he picked up the tea service and held out a cup to me.

“Take it.”

“Then I won’t refuse.”

Pour.

Hwangbo Eom was no pushover.

I could feel the profound internal energy carried by the tea, and inwardly clicked my tongue.

So this is Zhongnan’s greatest master.

The tea fell in a slow, graceful arc. Yet the force carried within it was heavy and powerful enough to shatter a boulder.

Still, it’s not as much as Old Master’s.

Jeok Cheongang had a mischievous personality and had played all sorts of tricks on me before. What Hwangbo Eom was doing now was no different.

I had broken more than one or two cups this way.

Besides, Jeok Cheongang was the foremost among the Ten Kings, an absolute master who was sometimes even compared to the Three Saints.

This much is nothing.

When I did not even blink, Hwangbo Eom’s eyebrows twitched. At the same time, the internal energy carried by the tea grew stronger and stronger.

“Great Hero Hwangbo.”

“Hm?”

“The tea’s about to overflow.”

“……”

“You can stop pouring now.”

As I said, the cup was already full. I lifted the flawless cup, without even a hairline crack in it, and emptied it in one gulp.

“Ahh. That was good.”

“You seem to like tea.”

“Not really. Anyway, this time I’ll pour you a cup.”

When I reached out, the tea service containing the pot flew smoothly into my hand.

It was the technique martial artists called Seizing an Object Through Empty Space.

I possessed nearly two jiazi’s worth of internal energy and insight that had reached the brink of the Peak realm. I did not use the technique often because it consumed so much internal energy, but I could perform it whenever I wished.

I have to put on at least this much of a show.

Old Master had once said something in passing.

“There are idiots everywhere in the Murim. You have to show those bastards something flashy before they’ll listen. Look at this old man. All I did was beat the Demonic Cult bastards because they pissed me off, and they still call me a king.”

King Cheongang indeed. He had overturned the Murim by racking up a thousand kills single-handedly.

Seizing an Object Through Empty Space isn’t quite on that level, but it’s still an impressive technique.

As expected, the people watching opened their eyes wide.

“He used Seizing an Object Through Empty Space that easily…”

“Good heavens.”

Few people could use Seizing an Object Through Empty Space as casually as I did. Especially among people my age.

But I did not stop there. I drew up my internal energy.

I circulated the Fire Gate Divine Technique to seven-tenths, and Extreme Yang energy seeped into both my hands.

Fwoosh!

Heat burst forth, and the tea inside the tea service began to boil violently. I calmly filled Hwangbo Eom’s cup and spoke.

“The tea had gone a little cold. Since you’re going to drink it anyway, wouldn’t it be better warm? The weather has been cold lately, and older people need to be more careful.”

“……!”

Hwangbo Eom’s face hardened.

Heating tea with internal energy was not particularly difficult for him, either. He possessed a technique called Samadhi True Fire.

However, the Fire Gate Divine Technique was known as the greatest divine technique in the world when it came to handling Scorching Yang Qi.

No matter how powerful a Supreme Peak master Hwangbo Eom was, he could not match the Fire Gate Divine Technique.

And… No. It was too soon to jump to that conclusion.

I cut off the thought that was about to continue and offered him the cup.

“Please drink.”

“Ahem.”

“Here comes the tea! Chug, chug, chug-chug!”

“……I shall drink it properly.”

“Look at my internal organs! I’ve suffered internal injuries!”

“……”

Hwangbo Eom shot me a glare, then emptied the cup.

When he set it down, his gaze had changed considerably from the way he had looked at me when he first treated me as a mere youngster.

“Your martial arts are quite something.”

I waved a hand with a smile.

“Oh, no. Not at all.”

“Do you intend to deceive this old man’s eyes?”

“No. I meant that my martial arts aren’t merely ‘quite something.’ They’re at a very impressive level.”

“Your arrogance is excessive—”

“Oh, and for the record, my Master told me that. The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang. You know him, right?”

Now I was the only one smiling.

There was not a trace of amusement left on Hwangbo Eom’s face.

After remaining silent for a moment, he suddenly spoke.

“What are you plotting?”

“Pardon?”

“Your insolence reaches the heavens. I have heard enough of your nonsense about this being a coincidence. Tell me the truth.”

“You’re refreshingly direct. In that case, sure.”

I continued with a faint smile.

“I just happened to be passing by and came to see what kind of dirty trick the Zhongnan Sect was trying to pull.”

At those words, the eyes of Hwangbo Eom, the Taeeul Merciless Sword, turned cold.