Chapter 32
“The people of Hunan Province called Spirit Plateau the land that touches the sky. Spirit Plateau is barren as it doesn’t rain throughout the four seasons, so it is called hell among herb gatherers. It is different from the information other people have, but it accurately points to the place where the Mita Holy Water is.”
At the owner’s words, I asked.
“What is the information other people have?”
“There is the deepest valley in Spirit Plateau. It is a place that not only the bold hunters nearby but even herb gatherers never approach. It is a place called Despair Valley. Recently, there was an incident where a herb gatherer wrongly stepped into that valley and was found after six months. That person conveyed the story that he saw an ice pillar shining like the sun in a cave inside Despair Valley.”
The ice pillar shining like the sun referred to the state preserving the Extreme Yin property before the Mita Holy Water was refined.
“The figures of the Jianghu started gathering here in Yueyang following that rumor.”
Around that time, I thought, why do I have to pay 20 nyang of gold if he tells me everything like this?
“Haha, please consider this much as compensation for the rudeness earlier. If you want to obtain the actual information, you must pay 20 nyang of gold.”
“What is that information?”
“It is the map of the cave inside Despair Valley.”
“Ma… p?”
“You know the herb gatherer I mentioned earlier? We inquired about that herb gatherer and produced a map.”
“Even so, 20 nyang of gold seems too expensive.”
“Considering the price of a life, wouldn’t it be not that expensive?”
“There is no evidence that the map is accurate either.”
“If you are willing to stay in the cave for half a year, then sure.”
“……Is the cave that wide?”
The owner took out his hands which were inside both sleeves and took out a scroll about the length of a forearm.
When that scroll was unrolled, its width looked to be about 1 ja (approx. 30cm), and inside it, hundreds of tiny room drawings like an ant nest were visible.
“They said a small cave is about the size of this space, and a large space is so big that one might wonder if it leads to Despair Valley.”
“Groan.”
“Any thoughts?”
The owner rewound the document with a whirl and tied it tight with a leather strap. It was a suitable size that wouldn’t be largely noticed by others if carried well, but.
“Regrettably, I have no money.”
“I heard that with the Silver King Pass, you can borrow bills indefinitely from the money house.”
“If I were to repay all that, I wouldn’t be able to repay it even if I worked my whole life.”
The moment the owner showed the map already. Since the map was clearly stuck in my head, there was no need to spend 20 nyang of gold in vain. Rather than that.
“Oh my… I become even more curious about your identity.”
“Ah, rather than that, wouldn’t you like to buy one piece of information?”
“……Information?”
“Yes.”
“What information are you talking about?”
While staying at the stable, I had made one confidential document of Murim Alliance standard.
The travel expenses received from the Wang Clan were sufficient, but it is also foolish to leave the information in my head alone without changing it into money. Furthermore, since there was an important transaction to be made with the Rogues’ Guild later through this, it was necessary to sow seeds now.
“It is a confidential document related to the Beggar’s Gang’s advance into Hangzhou.”
“…….”
The owner’s face turned white.
The Beggar’s Gang is responsible for one axis of the Nine Sects One Gang and is simultaneously a place that becomes the eyes and ears of the entire Jianghu.
As such, they have always been in conflict with the Rogues’ Guild, a similar type of organization.
Although the overall power of the Beggar’s Gang was much greater, the Rogues’ Guild held a tight grip on information in places where entertainment and commerce were developed.
That was why the Rogues’ Guild continued its existence even amidst decades of fierce strife.
“Hmm… It is good information, but I cannot know if it is certain.”
“Let’s do this.”
I took the document out of my bosom, tore it in half, and handed it to the owner.
The owner who carefully received the document read it slowly, opened his eyes roundly, and looked at me.
“Do you intend to sell?”
“……How much would be appropriate?”
“20 nyang of gold.”
The owner’s brow furrowed.
“Wouldn’t it be faster to just ask for the map?”
“No. I do not need the map. Give it to me in money.”
“Are you serious?”
“I do not think I can obtain the Mita Holy Water. I just plan to get some money and look around Yueyang Tower before leaving.”
“Understood. Please wait a moment.”
While the owner left his seat for a moment, I looked around the surrounding items and discovered an item that caught my eye.
“Why is this here?”
It was an item shaped like a silver closed flower bud.
“Do you like it?”
“Why is this here?”
“Somehow it flowed into here.”
“Will Sichuan stay still if they know this?”
When I probed him slightly, the owner grinned with a meaningful smile.
“As expected, you are an extraordinary person. How about it? I will give it to you for 1 nyang of gold.”
“If I used this, the ghosts of Sichuan would follow me for life.”
“That is true indeed. Then how about if I just give it as a gift?”
“You are giving this expensive thing as a gift?”
“Think of it as a friendship fee.”
“To give such a dangerous gift, you are a bad friend.”
The owner lifted the sleeve hiding his hand and giggled.
“Isn’t it originally more fun to play with a bad friend?”
The owner observing me with twinkling eyes. A strong will to dig me up somehow and extract anything from me was visible.
As expected, is the one who will become the 13th Sect Leader of the Rogues’ Guild in the future different?
Establishing a personal connection with the future Rogues’ Guild Leader Yang Gun-baek is a choice with absolutely no loss for me. I picked up the item and said.
“That is also true.”
“Then I look forward to your cooperation in the future.”
***
My feelings after leaving the black shop were not that good.
The fact that the point thought to be the end of the Taeeul Sword Emperor is the same as the space where the Mita Holy Water is discovered means that I also have to throw my body into that chaos.
“Oi! Are you just going to pass by! My shoulder is broken right now!”
“If it was such a useless shoulder, you should have thrown it away long ago!”
Clang clang.
As martial artists gather, fights break out sporadically in all directions.
It’s not just a fight of neighborhood ruffians. Masters with bloody names are fighting such battles.
‘Gu Ji Shin Gae Ma Go-san, Golden Horn Bronze Man Sa Mu-in, Paradise Boy Seo Hyeon-jae… I have to compete with these guys?’
There are not just one or two masters from the Orthodox Faction as well as the Unorthodox Faction.
Especially the Orthodox Faction wore matching colors to distinguish friend from foe, and moved together in groups of at least twenty to as many as a hundred.
‘If I enter after the Mita Holy Water scramble is over, it will be too late, right?’
This affair lasts for a whopping two months.
After that, the Orthodox Murim sects including the Namgung Clan who lost their young lady, and the Unorthodox Murim sects spend another half year in Spirit Plateau to figure out what happened inside.
In the end, if I waited for all those things to end, I wouldn’t even be able to take the Martial Arts Academy exam.
‘Still, I have to go in.’
It is a place where the secret manual of the Taeeul Sect might be hidden. A situation where I have to enter even if it’s a place where ten thousand people died, not five thousand. Furthermore, thinking positively, couldn’t I obtain the Mita Holy Water along with the Taeeul Sect’s secret manual?
“Let’s do what I have to do first.”
If I might obtain the Mita Holy Water, at least preparation for it was needed.
I headed to the accessory shop at the entrance of the brothel street in Yueyang.
Unlike the shabby interior, the displayed items were all rare and had beautiful shapes.
In the middle of it, a skinny old man who matched the shabby interior better than the beautiful accessories was putting tobacco leaves into a pipe.
“You came, weird guy.”
The old man stares intently as if seeing a suspicious guy still.
Arriving in Yueyang, I spent a day at the stable and came here straight the next day to entrust the Heavenly Silkworm Thread to that old man.
“Is it all finished?”
“You should tell me how you knew.”
On the day I first visited the accessory shop, when I abruptly handed out the Heavenly Silkworm Thread, the old man looked at me like a madman.
Regardless of that, I talked about the object I wanted to make with this, and the old man pondered for a long time and asked me how I knew his identity.
Since I couldn’t say that he and I would meet in the future, I said I would tell him when the object was finished.
“Please tell me if the object is finished first.”
The old man threw an object wrapped in cloth to one side.
What came out of the cloth had a bizarre shape.
The leather was too wide to call it a bracelet, and there were too many decorations attached to call it a gauntlet to wrap around hands and feet.
“It’s your turn.”
“I found out by giving 10 nyang of gold to the Rogues’ Guild.”
The identity of the old man is Jang Do-won of Mansu Manor.
It was a fact I knew because I had formed a connection with him in the Murim Alliance of my past life.
He was sold to a smithy at ten and held a hammer, and afterwards, he was sold around to woodworking shops, leather workshops, etc., and learned techniques.
Although he obtained the ability to make anything with outstanding talent even in miserable situations, he was an existence buried in the countryside because his innate origin was lowly and he did not reveal his skills.
Later, when the Demonic Cult returned, he threw himself into the Murim Alliance and made fourteen divine weapons for the Nine Sects One Gang and the Five Great Families, then disappeared again.
Since I cannot tell such a series of processes, I just roughly glossed over it saying I found out through the Rogues’ Guild.
“My ransom is only 10 nyang of gold?”
Is he more angry about that part instead of doubting?
“Isn’t it because the world doesn’t know the true value of the Old Master yet?”
“Enough. Stop flattering and look at the object.”
“Oh, there is a dragon?”
“I named it Flying Dragon Claw.”
“How do I use it?”
Jang Do-won had created such an object with the Heavenly Silkworm Thread I gave in that short time.
“Try pulling your palm inward.”
Click.
As the back of the hand part was pulled, an arrowhead in the shape of a hook popped out.
“Since it is made of Dark Steel, it will be able to pierce decent rocks.”
“You mean I throw this to pierce?”
“You know the characteristics of the Heavenly Silkworm Thread, right?”
“It has the characteristic of extending when internal energy is injected. Then, after extending it by injecting internal energy, I retrieve the internal energy and pull it to use. It’s amazing?”
“Stupid guy. Do you think you entrusted it to me to make such a shoddy object?”
“Eh?”
“Heavenly Silkworm Thread can change direction depending on the amount of qi blown into it.”
“Eh?”
“By weaving different strings into one and differentiating the method of injecting qi, you can change the direction. Ah, since I wound it tight in the first place, if you have sufficient internal force, the Flying Dragon Claw will shoot out on its own without needing to throw it.”
“What does that…….”
“If I said this much, you should understand. If you can’t understand, it’s not yours.”
I didn’t ask because I didn’t understand. I asked back because I couldn’t believe it.
Moreover, the tip of the hook was segmented so it could open and close like a bird’s foot.
“In the first place, I didn’t make it for a greenhorn like you to use. To use that, endless effort and fine control reminiscent of acupuncture is…….”
Whiriririk.
The hook shot from the Flying Dragon Claw changed direction this way and that like a snake flying in the air. The Flying Dragon Claw that passed Jang Do-won like that tapped and picked up a silver ring located at the end of the display cabinet and started to return again.
Whiriririk.
Inside the wrist, the sound of a small pulley spinning excitedly was ringing, and when the Heavenly Silkworm Thread was all wound, a silver ring was placed in my hand.
“Do I use it like this?”
“Hah……. I see it with my own eyes but cannot believe it.”
Jang Do-won made me demonstrate several times, and each time, I effortlessly carried out the tasks he ordered.
“Ahem. Well, it seems you mimic quite well.”
“Just a moment ago you said you couldn’t believe it.”
“Enough! If you’re done with your business, go back.”
“Ah, rather than that, I have one more request.”
“Again? Eei, not entrusting it all at once.”
“It was also unplanned for me.”
I explained the shape of the object needed to collect the Mita Holy Water.
Then Jang Do-won’s mouth opened wide like a large bowl.
“What on earth is your identity?”
“Haha, if I tell you, will you make it for free?”
Jang Do-won’s brow furrowed deeply.
***
Having ordered an object to collect the Mita Holy Water in preparation for possible situations, I asked Jang Do-won and headed to the inn where people came and went the most.
Because I thought it was necessary to roughly join any group rather than going alone for now.
I won’t be able to trust them to the end, but I won’t get stabbed out of nowhere on the way.
While heading to the inn like that, thanks to the internal energy reaching sixty years, someone entered my sensitized senses.
‘What is it?’
There is no one I would meet in Yueyang right now.
Even if I know some of them, most of them would be connections from my past life who don’t know me.
‘Don’t tell me.’
Suddenly, Gye Yeon-seok, who cursed me with eyes bursting with red veins, came to mind.
Did he hire an assassin?
In the Taeeul Sect, if they targeted me, they would immediately be pointed out as the culprit, so taking advantage of the gap when I went out… As my thoughts reached there, my hair stood on end.
If they attack unwittingly in the dense crowd, there is no way to respond.
And the suspicious energy gracefully parted the crowd and rushed toward this side quickly.
At that moment when I was about to raise my internal energy to respond immediately.
“Young Master Jin!! What brings you here?”
The identity of the suspicious energy was none other than Seong Mo-ran of the Iron Sword Sect.
Seong Mo-ran was looking at me with a bright face holding a chicken skewer in one hand.
“Ah… you surprised me.”
“Indeed. I was surprised as well. To think I’d see someone here whom you’d hardly encounter even in Hefei.”
“What brings Young Mistress Seong here?”
“Me? Of course, I came to find the Mita Holy Water.”
Whether she realized she was holding a chicken skewer in her hand, Seong Mo-ran quickly hid the chicken skewer behind her back and said.
“Alone?”
“No. With a junior I know. Besides that, a few people to help the junior and my friends came together.”
“Ah… you have a party?”
“Don’t tell me, did Young Master Jin also come to find the Mita Holy Water?”
“……Well, you could say it’s similar.”
“With whom?”
“I am alone.”
“Oh my… I knew you were bold, but you really don’t know how precious your life is.”
“……Excuse me, Young Mistress, your words seem a bit harsh…….”
“No. Not harsh at all. How can you think of going to find the Mita Holy Water all by yourself?”
“Actually, I was trying to find a party.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yes.”
“Then how about moving with us?”
If it’s a master of Seong Mo-ran’s level, I could trust and leave my back to her.
Of course, on the premise that she doesn’t stab a sword in my belly.
Of course, I’ll be fine since I’m wearing the Heavenly Silkworm Treasure Robe.
“May I do so?”
“Ah, wait a moment.”
Seong Mo-ran looked behind and smacked her lips. She must be sending telepathy to someone.
However, Seong Mo-ran, who smacked her lips for a long time, suddenly shook her head and her cheeks flushed red.
It seemed something wasn’t going well.
“Young Mistress, if it is uncomfortable, it is fine not to force me in.”
“Ah, no! M, my junior teased me so that happened.”
“Teased?”
“Ahem, anyway, they said it’s fine to join if we can understand each other regarding the preemption of the Mita Holy Water.”
In the case of such group actions, promises are often made in advance regarding the right of preemption for treasures or elixirs, and it seemed they were talking about that.
Actually, there were countless cases where sword fights occurred among themselves at the end because they entered without such promises or did not keep the promises.
I nodded and said.
“Of course.”
“They said they will come this way now.”
After a while, the front became noisy and people started to split to both sides.
I could immediately recognize their identity seeing the attire of the men standing in front.
‘Namgung Clan!’
Although it is said that there are countless masters lining the streets of Yueyang, masters exceeding these right now would be counted on one hand.
Knowing that, people also cleared the way.
The moment I grabbed one of Seong Mo-ran’s arms and tried to drag her out.
“Seon-hwa!!”
“!!”
Seong Mo-ran raised her hand high and greeted.
“Unnie! I was surprised because you disappeared suddenly. Is this person… that person?”
“Uh… Ahem, it is Young Master Jin So-un of the Taeeul Sect.”
The woman whom Seong Mo-ran called Unnie smiled slightly at the corners of her mouth.
The men who retreated to the roadside smiled broadly at her beautiful appearance.
Namgung Seon-hwa bowing lightly with clasped hands.
“Hello. I am called Namgung Seon-hwa.”
The party I decided to join was the group that dies in this scramble.
