Chapter 484

It wasn’t difficult to find our destination. The boatmen had already made one round trip and learned the waterways, so they guided the vessel forward with practiced ease.

Whoosh…

It was hard to believe that a storm had raged only two days ago. The river was calm, and the breeze was cool.

Sitting at the bow beneath the pouring sunlight, I spotted something familiar in the passing scenery.

That’s right. It was around here.

The Memory Fragment contained the memories left in the Water God Dragon’s mind, and I had seen and felt everything from its perspective.

Naturally, that included the way to that place.

“Wait. Cheongpung, are we sure this is the way?”

At my sudden question, Cheongpung tilted his head.

“It is. Why do you ask?”

“It looks a little different from what I remember. Especially that cliff over there…”

“Oh, that? There were some circumstances.”

“What circumstances?”

“Well, we followed the route you told us about, but the gap was so narrow that only a hand could fit through.”

“Oh.”

So that was why no one had set foot there for so many years. As countless years passed and sediment accumulated, the cliff had eventually blocked the passage.

That hadn’t been a problem for the Water God Dragon. It could simply swim underneath instead of passing through the cliff.

Humans, however, were a different story.

“So?”

“We cut through it.”

“…You cut through it?”

“Yes. The Wudang grandpa and I snipped it apart with our swords.”

What the hell? He’s talking about cutting through a cliff like it’s a piece of paper.

But with Origami Man—no, Perfected Being Hyeongong, the Supreme Peak master Wudang was so proud of—and Cheongpung, it wasn’t impossible.

Even I could have managed it without much trouble.

“Anyway, we carved straight through. It wasn’t that hard. I heard the others who arrived with the second group cleaned up the rest.”

“…Uh. Right.”

Sometimes I forgot that I was surrounded by monsters.

And that I was one of them.

Jeok Cheongang, who had been listening to our conversation, poked Mungyeong in the ribs.

“Has the world gone mad? I don’t remember things being like this when we were young. Those two are just monsters, right?”

“Don’t lump me in with you. It’s insulting.”

“So how old were you when you became a Supreme Peak master?”

“…”

“They’re the monsters.”

“Yes. That must be it. Hah. Perhaps the heavenly patterns have grown clouded. Murim has changed. It certainly has.”

As Jeok Cheongang lamented, the vessel continued between cliff walls cut so perfectly straight that the sight sent a chill down my spine.

Then a new landscape—and new people—gradually came into view.

Whoosh! Splash!

Peak masters swept down using the exquisite movement technique known as Rising on Duckweed, Crossing Water. They stepped across the river’s surface and blocked the vessel with imposing auras.

“Stop! Everyone aboard must state their names and sobriquets. Once the identity verification process is complete—”

Jeok Cheongang, already on edge after his recent aquatic lifestyle, stuck his head out with a fiendish expression.

“This old man is the Fire King.”

“Gasp!”

“Stop us and you die.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“O-open the way! No one stop them!”

Whoosh!

Gung Gibang watched the figures vanish at twice the speed with which they had appeared and muttered, “Was Wudang’s movement technique always this impressive? The Beggars’ Sect will have to stay on its toes.”

No. They had probably realized how completely fucked they were and fled for their lives.

Either way, everything proceeded smoothly after that. The vicious Fire Pokémon Jeok Cheongang needed no explanation, and my face was famous enough that anyone who failed to recognize me might as well have been working for Dark Heaven. Besides, Cheongpung and Gung Gibang were with me.

“Oh, did someone just recognize me?”

“Of course. You’re the only beggar who travels with me.”

“…”

“Wow! Someone recognized me just now, too!”

“Of course. You’re the only person who travels around with a horned water snake.”

“Okaaay…”

I ignored the dejected Gung Gibang and Cheongpung and focused on the scene ahead.

Archers had somehow climbed to the tops of the towering cliffs and stood ready to fire. I could also sense masters concealed all around us.

Wudang, the Zhuge Clan, and it looks like the Beggars’ Sect is here too.

The security was formidable.

But considering the weight and importance of the situation, that was only natural.

“Has the City Lord of Hubei Province decided to bury this matter completely?”

Jin Wikyung nodded gravely.

“For now. The common people would hardly welcome the news that a five-hundred-year-old imugi had gone mad and run amok.”

“That’s true.”

Public support was a double-edged sword.

Under normal circumstances, the simple folk would revere the Son of Heaven, but the moment a flood or earthquake struck, they would pull a Hyuk Mujin-level about-face and declare it an omen of the nation’s ruin.

And if a plague came along as part of a buy-two-get-one-free deal, the people of this era would grab the pickaxes they used to till their fields and charge out to overturn the country.

How much worse would it be if an imugi, worshiped by countless people as a divine creature, suddenly went mad and killed several thousand people?

The City Lord of Hubei Province would want to hide that truth as much as possible.

“He does agree, at least in part, that Dark Heaven is an extremely dangerous organization.”

“…He agrees in part? Even after all this?”

I took back what I had just said.

Concealing the Water God Dragon’s existence was one thing, but how many people had died because of this incident? And he only agreed in part?

He clearly still hadn’t come to his senses.

“It is a delusion born of arrogance. He believes Murim is merely Murim and that it poses no threat to their ability to govern the country. I tried my best to persuade him, but it was of little use.”

Jeok Cheongang abruptly cut in with a disgruntled voice.

“Those idiot government officials haven’t changed at all. They were exactly the same during the Great Faction War. When the Demonic Cult pushed down through Sichuan, they sat on their hands. Only after the civilian casualties mounted did they scramble to gather troops.”

“What happened then?”

“What do you think happened? By then, the Demonic Cult had already been defeated and withdrawn, and some bastard calling himself a Great General came strutting over to take credit. He said it was all thanks to His Imperial Majesty’s grace and whatnot. Since the Emperor was the master of the country, it didn’t really matter who won, but congratulations on your victory. That sort of bullshit.”

“You showed remarkable restraint. For you, Old Master, that was practically the patience of a Buddha.”

Jeok Cheongang looked at me as if I were talking nonsense.

“Why would this old man have put up with that? I tried to beat him to death. If Hong Dao hadn’t stopped me, it wouldn’t have been the Great Faction War. It would have been the Great Government War, or something like that.”

“…Ah. Right.”

“In any case, don’t expect much from the government officials. We should be satisfied that they at least turned the dark-path figures who had been sitting quietly into Dark Heaven’s lackeys.”

Jin Wikyung answered with a bitter smile.

“Yes. Fortunately, the people’s anger and wariness toward Dark Heaven have been soaring ever since.”

“They had nothing to do with this incident, but what can we do? They aren’t exactly innocent, either. They’re dark-path figures, so using this opportunity to uproot them wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

After negotiating with Murim, the government had crushed Hubei Province’s dark-path figures as scapegoats to appease the people’s anger. Both sides had gotten what they wanted, so it was a kind of give-and-take.

Of course, our reputations had skyrocketed once again in the process.

Whether the government would actually step in even if Dark Heaven ran wilder than it already had was another question.

As I thought about that, the vessel that had been charging forward finally came to a stop.

We docked at a temporary pier built against the cliff, and gazes poured toward us.

“That’s Great Hero Jeok Cheongang.”

“The Successor Beggar is beside him, too. I was wondering where the Huashan Divine Dragon had gone.”

“Wait. Isn’t that young man the Blazing Flame Divine Dragon?”

“Did you hear? There’s talk among the leaders that the Blazing Flame Divine Dragon was the one who took down the imugi…”

They thought they were whispering, but I could hear every word.

You idiots.

Annoyed by the muttering, I deliberately scowled. The area fell silent in an instant.

Then a shout broke the silence.

“Oh, you’re here!”

The middle-aged man running toward us was drenched from head to toe in mud and river water. Unfamiliar aquatic plants were tangled in his disheveled hair.

I muttered inwardly as I watched him approach.

That man is the Family Head of the Zhuge Clan?

It was something I was only now fully appreciating, but Crouching Dragon Guest Zhuge Feng was unquestionably an eccentric even by Murim standards.

“Family Head, I normally wouldn’t say anything, but there are outsiders present. Please show some decorum…”

“Ah, please move aside, Uncle.”

“Family Heaaad!”

He had clearly stuffed his dignity into a mailbox and left it there.

Zhuge Feng ruthlessly brushed aside the family elder trying to stop him, hurried over, and spoke with his face flushed.

“We found it. We really found it!”

“Yes, I know. Cheongpung told me—”

“At first, I wondered what kind of bullshit you were talking about, but it was sitting right there in the place you described!”

“…”

Wasn’t that a little too honest?

I had explained everything so earnestly, and he had dismissed it as bullshit?

Seeing my expression, Zhuge Feng continued with an appropriately solemn look.

“Our ancestor, Zhuge Wuhou, once said that one should tap even a stone bridge before crossing it. Don’t take it too personally.”

Was trotting out their ancestor whenever it suited them a Zhuge Clan motto, or was it hereditary?

I stared suspiciously at Zhuge Feng.

“…Did Zhuge Wuhou really say that? As far as I know, that’s a proverb from another country.”

“He must have said it at least once in his life. Is that important right now?”

Unbelievable.

Whether it was the Chinese over there or the Chinese over here, they were astonishingly good at copying other people’s work.

Before I could respond, Zhuge Feng spun around and started walking ahead of us.

“Follow me.”

Jeok Cheongang, who had been trembling with delight at finally being able to set foot on even a temporary pier, narrowed his eyes.

“‘Follow me’? Was that directed at this old man?”

“…I wasn’t speaking to you, Senior.”

“Then watch your mouth from now on. Straighten out that folded tongue before this old man splits you in half.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And why are you walking so slowly? This old man’s grandmother would be faster than you.”

“Hyah!”

What was with the sudden battle cry?

As alert and disciplined as the model trainee in position one,¹ Zhuge Feng activated his movement technique and raced ahead. Not long afterward, I encountered a bizarre sight that hadn’t appeared even in the Memory Fragment.

“What is that…?”

“I invented that device when I was nine. Bringing it here over the last two days was quite an ordeal. What do you think?”

I nodded as I stared at the enormous stone wall standing in the river like a barrier.

“Wow. That’s incredible.”

“It’s impossible to investigate underwater for long, so we used stone cut from the cliff to seal off all four sides, then drained the water from inside. If ordinary laborers had done this, it would have taken several months at the very least.”

The mechanism Zhuge Feng had invented had played a major role, but without martial artists, no one would have even considered building something like this in two days.

“Would everyone clear out for a moment?”

The moment we descended beneath the stone wall, Zhuge Feng uttered those words, and the people who appeared to be formation experts from the Zhuge Clan withdrew like the receding tide.

Only then could I see it.

A towering cliff that must have stood in the same place for countless years—and an enormous fissure running directly across its center.

Swish.

The instant I instinctively reached out and touched the fissure—

System

Beep.

System

Beep-beep.

An utterly ominous System notification pierced my ears.