Chapter 321

“What… did you just say?”

Hwangbo Eom’s voice was so strained it seemed ready to snap at any moment.

The snow-white beard that made him look like an immortal had puffed up, and the pair of eyes staring at me had turned cold and rigid.

I answered with a gentle smile.

“Didn’t I just tell you? I came to see what kind of dirty trick you were pulling. By. Chance.”

At that moment, blue sparks flew from Hwangbo Eom’s eyes.

“Gaaah!”

With his roar, an immense wave of qi burst outward from Hwangbo Eom.

The momentum released by a Supreme Peak master made the table—or rather, the ground itself—begin to rock like a ship caught in a storm.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

The inside of the pavilion turned into complete chaos amid the violent vibrations. Dozens of tea utensils shattered with a cacophony of noise, and tea splashed in every direction.

With a shriek, the proprietor, who had been nervously watching the situation from the corner, collapsed onto the floor.

I instantly raised my sleeve to block the tea splashing toward Ju Hwaran, then clicked my tongue.

“Someone your age shouldn’t cause a scene in someone else’s shop. Not with other people around, either.”

“How dare you…”

The aura radiating from Hwangbo Eom grew even stronger.

It was the aura of none other than The First Sword of Zhongnan. Even the swordsmen of the Taeeul Sword Unit surrounding him like guards flinched as if they had been burned and stumbled backward, while the people from the Yongbong Escort Bureau, including Ju Hwaran, went pale.

“Hngh!”

“Gasp!”

No matter how talented a young prodigy was, the difference in level between them and Hwangbo Eom was like the difference between heaven and earth.

Baek Museong, known as a pillar of Huashan, and Gung Gibang, the Successor Beggar of the Beggars’ Sect, which commanded a hundred thousand beggars, were no different from Ju Hwaran.

Even counting everyone present, only about three people still looked unaffected.

One of them was, of course, me.

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

Of the other two, one was Cheongpung, who was searching only for candied sweets, to hell with the Taeeul Merciless Sword and everything else.

And the last was…

“Hmm.”

Song Ilseom, the escort with the fierce eyes.

He let out a quiet groan beneath Hwangbo Eom’s aura. When our eyes met, he frowned and turned away.

I don’t like you either, asshole.

From the first time I had seen him until now, Song Ilseom had radiated a suspicious stench in more ways than one.

It would not take long to find out whether that impression of mine was mistaken or based on fact.

“Maybe we should have opened a window. The air feels a little stuffy.”

I spoke calmly and raised my internal energy. The hundred years of internal energy coiled within my dantian spread out between the tables like an invisible curtain.

Only then did Ju Hwaran escape the pressure and exhale the breath she had been holding.

“Young Lady Ju, are you all right?”

“Yes, yes.”

Still gasping for breath, Ju Hwaran gripped my sleeve tightly.

“Thank you, Young Hero Jin. But this is…”

“Enough.”

Her voice was cut off by a single word from Hwangbo Eom.

He had transformed from an immortal into a demon before I even realized it, and now he was glaring at me with killing intent.

“The arrogance of a young punk reaches the heavens.”

“I’m pretty good at piercing things. I use a spear.”

“Do you even know what you’re doing right now?”

“Of course.”

I leaned lazily against the hard back of my chair and continued.

“I’m rescuing innocent people who fell into a trap someone dug for them. Of course, I just happened to be passing by.”

“A trap. That someone must be referring to our sect.”

“Well, think of it however you like.”

The fury in Hwangbo Eom’s eyes subsided. What soon appeared at the corners of his mouth was unmistakably a sneer.

“You seem not to understand that every word carries responsibility.”

“Judging by the fact that I came here, I seem to understand that pretty well myself.”

“Boy, you have insulted the Great Zhongnan Sect with baseless nonsense you cannot prove. Do you wish to make an enemy of us?”

“It’s funny to hear orthodox Murim companions talk about friend and foe. Are you perhaps from an unorthodox faction?”

“You insolent whelp!”

“I already heard about the circumstances between the Yongbong Escort Bureau and your sect. That’s why I came here.”

As I spoke, I picked up the snow ginseng rolling across the tabletop.

The thing in my hand was certainly an excellent elixir. Yet the name displayed through Item Appraisal had not changed.

Hundred-Year-Old Snow Ginseng.

I already knew that the item Zhongnan Sect had commissioned the Yongbong Escort Bureau to transport was Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng.

It was a peerless elixir said to grant a full jiazi of internal energy instantly upon consumption.

It was such a rare treasure that Murim practitioners would risk their lives to obtain it. They said its value was whatever price someone was willing to name.

According to the information Gung Gibang had gathered, the Yongbong Escort Bureau had staked its survival on this escort mission.

Unless Ju Hwaran was a complete fool, she would never have tossed such an important cargo into a cart and left it unattended.

So where had the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng gone, and why was there Hundred-Year-Old Snow Ginseng here instead—an elixir of a much lower grade?

It was obvious.

It could only mean that either the Zhongnan Sect or Hwangbo Eom personally had meddled with it.

On top of that, the Zhongnan Sect had been deeply involved in the Yongbong Escort Bureau’s decline for the past two years.

The Xi’an branch of the Beggars’ Sect, whose information network was said to rival the Lower District Sect’s for the best in the world, had already pieced together most of the circumstances.

This was meant to be the final blow.

The Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng was the last strike meant to bring down the Yongbong Escort Bureau, which had been backed into a corner.

They had thrown out a delicious bait that could not be ignored, then dug an inescapable trap beneath it. The result was unfolding right before my eyes.

But…

“After living in this world for a while, I realized that’s how things tend to go. Even when it looks like everything is over, something unexpected suddenly pops out and throws the whole thing into disarray.”

Hwangbo Eom looked at me as if I were ridiculous.

“A brat who still reeks of milk is wagging his tongue. Just because a country bumpkin from Shanxi became the Fire King’s Disciple, do you think no one is above you now?”

“I’m still young, so you don’t have to worry about me. You should be worrying about your old eyes, Great Hero Hwangbo.”

“How should I tear apart that crooked mouth of yours?”

“I don’t know whether my mouth is crooked, but I do know Zhongnan’s special talent. You can’t say a word when you’re standing before someone strong. Was it a year ago? Your Senior Brother gave me an advance lesson.”

I still remembered it clearly. The sight of the Roaring Fury Swordsman pressuring the Jin Family of Taiyuan while invoking the name of the Zhongnan Sect.

Even the way he had been driven out after failing to get a single proper word out when the Fire King, Jeok Cheongang, appeared.

I pressed my lips together and looked at Hyuk Sopyung, who was sitting beside Hwangbo Eom, before continuing.

“And yesterday, I had a review session, too.”

Hwangbo Eom was a perceptive old man.

Once he realized what had happened, he clicked his tongue and muttered.

“…There are worms crawling all over our sect.”

“Still, aren’t harmful pests better than poisonous insects? From my point of view, getting drunk and causing a scene is much more exemplary than ruining a perfectly good escort bureau.”

“A poisonous insect, you say? To this old man? Hah. Hahaha!”

Contrary to my expectations, I could no longer sense even the slightest disturbance from Hwangbo Eom.

He was already looking down on everyone, myself included. He resembled a hawk high in the sky that had finished preparing to swoop down and snatch its prey.

“Boy, do you know what it means to make an enemy of the Great Zhongnan Sect—and of this old man?”

His wrinkled hand pressed down on the table. The spilled tea slowly rose, transformed into the shape of an arrow, and aimed directly between my brows.

“If this old man so much as wishes it, today will be the day of your funeral.”

That’s what you think.

I opened my mouth.

“Well, from both my perspective and yours, that doesn’t seem like a particularly good choice for either of us.”

“That is why you are still alive. This old man will personally punish you for what happened today later. If you do not wish to die a dog’s death, withdraw. This is an affair between our sect and the Yongbong Escort Bureau.”

Just as I was about to answer, a hand tugged at my sleeve.

At the same time, a trembling woman’s voice, carried on internal energy, pierced my ears.

—Young Hero Jin…

The clear eyes that had sparkled without a single flaw two days ago now swirled with conflicting emotions.

Fear and anger at the current situation. Relief and worry at my appearance.

I could tell exactly what she was thinking and what she wanted to say.

—I’m grateful that you’re thinking of us, but he’s right. This is an affair between the Yongbong Escort Bureau and the Zhongnan Sect. If you get involved any further, you’ll put yourself in danger as well.

Looking into Ju Hwaran’s eyes suddenly brought back a memory from a year ago.

The day the Roaring Fury Swordsman had mentioned sealing the gates of the Jin Family of Taiyuan for an absurd reason. What would have happened if Jeok Cheongang had not appeared?

Orthodox faction? What a load of bullshit.

What the powerful considered righteous was different from what the weak considered righteous.

I would not say that everyone in orthodox Murim was evil. But neither would I say that everyone was good.

There were surely people with evil hearts even in Shaolin Temple, and I believed that there were good people even in the Demonic Cult, the lair of fiends and monsters.

Orthodox, unorthodox, demonic. Good and evil coexisted in all of them.

It isn’t a problem with the sect. It’s a problem with the individual.

In the end, what mattered was the person. And the old man my gaze had landed on was one of the biggest assholes under heaven.

I took a deep breath, then spoke to Ju Hwaran. This time, I used my actual voice rather than Sound Transmission.

“Young Lady Ju.”

“Y-Young Hero Jin?”

“You’re right. This is an affair between the Zhongnan Sect and the Yongbong Escort Bureau. If I stick my nose into it, all I’ll get is a loss. No matter how powerful the Jin Family of Taiyuan is, we’re still nowhere near enough to stand before the name of the Zhongnan Sect.”

Ju Hwaran’s eyelids trembled and lowered in surprise.

I could feel the deep resignation coming from her.

But I was not finished.

“Actually, I kept thinking about it on the way here. Wondering whether this was really right, whether I should just pretend I didn’t know anything and pass by.”

“Young Hero Jin. You can stop. Please, stop.”

“No.”

I shook my head and continued.

“At first, I thought I kept thinking about your face and that was the only reason. But…”

I turned my gaze and saw Hwangbo Eom smiling as though he found this entertaining.

The Zhongnan Sect was one of the Nine Sects and One Gang, and Hwangbo Eom was its elder and most powerful martial artist.

His martial arts were higher and his personality more meticulous, but Hwangbo Eom was still the same kind of person as the Roaring Fury Swordsman.

I looked straight at another Roaring Fury Swordsman and parted my lips.

“It felt like fucking bullshit.”

“……!”

“……!”

Even without seeing it, I could feel the energy in the room stirring.

I continued with a sigh.

“Upright. That’s why you’re called the orthodox faction. But this isn’t orthodox, is it? If you’re going to act like this, you should use the jeong from Choco Pie instead, for fuck’s sake. Why use the jeong that means ‘upright’?”¹

I had never once thought of myself as a good person in all my life.

I became a Hunter for money, and in the Murim, I had even considered abandoning someone in order to survive.

I was dark gray. Nothing more and nothing less.

But now, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

“I guess I was pretty white after all. Why else would I go this far?”

“You insolent little—!”

“Great Hero Hwangbo.”

I smiled at Hwangbo Eom as he tried to roar at me.

“I said this earlier, didn’t I? Even when everything looks finished, something unexpected can suddenly pop out and throw it all into disarray.”

I slowly reached out and tapped the air.

No one else could see it, but I could. Hwangbo Eom’s dominoes were collapsing one after another.

“I’m not even your grandson, Great Hero Hwangbo. So why would I spend this long talking to an eighty-year-old grandfather?”

For an instant, Hwangbo Eom wore a dumbfounded expression. Then his face twisted violently.

He had realized it, too—the presences of several people rapidly approaching the pavilion.

“You bastard. What the hell are you planning?”

“You’re the one who pulled a trick. I…”

I turned my head and finished.

“I made a plan.”

That was the moment the pavilion’s doors opened and about a dozen people came streaming inside.

First came five beggars carrying a mountain of bamboo slips in their arms. They were the Xi’an Branch Leader of the Beggars’ Sect and his subordinates.

And the woman standing at the head of the group on the other side was someone I knew well.

“Congratulations on your promotion. It’s been a while.”

“Oh, our Young Master. A congratulatory greeting after a whole year? How prompt of you.”

Wolhwa, the Branch Leader of the Lower District Sect’s Shaanxi branch, gave her pretty eyebrow a playful arch.