Guiding the bamboo-hat man back to Jeong Manor felt like countless eons.
The Sword Star had at least been an orthodox figure.
I don't know why he tried to kill me to seal my mouth, but I remember the pity that entered his eyes at the last moment.
But what kind of person was following behind me now?
Though he was concealing himself, he gave off an unknowable aura that threatened to send chills down the spine of an ordinary person like me.
And even that was probably a disguise.
A dangerous master heading for the Hermit Forest's secret estate.
I realized there was no need to overthink it.
This man was from the Demonic Cult.
I'd tried so hard not to get involved with martial artists, but coincidence wrecks my plans like this.
A sigh threatened to escape, but I held it back, unsure how it would look to the bamboo-hat man behind me.
It felt like a brown bear or a tiger was walking behind me.
‘This is way too serious.’
Masters are rare beings.
There was a reason Lizhou had been in an uproar just from the Sword Star staying at the Clear Wind Inn.
How many martial artists worthy of being called masters have I seen in my life? Well, I should say in the past five years, but knowing that the place I'd been living was the Hermit Forest's secret estate changes things a little.
‘It feels like a tremendous master who could swagger around any province. This prickling in my back must be leaking killing intent or whatever, right?’
And it seemed he was even trying to hide it.
I had no ability to gauge his level.
It might be a bluff.
But a freak who grabbed me just from the smell of blood, bluffing?
No way.
What was the cause?
The Sword Star.
Why on earth had that old man been at the manor at that hour, and what had he been discussing that I wasn't supposed to hear?
As my head began to clear, the facts I'd been looking away from began to appear before my eyes.
It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
As expected, Jeong Manor's martial artists were very flustered, but Hong-hyung hurried out and received the bamboo-hat man.
He seemed to have known he was coming.
Because the expression he showed me was incredibly strange.
It was as if he were asking why on earth I was opening the main gate and walking in with this man.
I bowed my head and went into my room.
It seemed it was time to sort out my thoughts again.
‘First, there's no chance the book's original owner will come for it.’
It's stolen property from the dead.
Did the original user have an experience like mine?
If that information was lost, maybe I should assume this so-called spirit beast's blood splattered on it at the moment of death.
‘And it's not only time to sort out my thoughts.’
It's time for a meeting with the book.
There's a lot I need to know.
I brought up the scroll.
I think I should start practicing now.
Even if I open the book just slightly inside my robes, I can make the scroll appear.
And only I can see it.
I might need to buy something urgently.
Protagonists who obtained miraculous encounters usually failed to squeeze their abilities to the limit.
I don't know if I'm a protagonist, but I must never die in vain because I couldn't use this at the moment I needed it.
‘But would a high official's secrets or ready money help in a situation like that?’
No matter how I thought about it, no.
The book had practically injected its functions into my brain.
But that was by no means all of it.
To begin with, this scroll might provide additional information, or its items might expand, as my awareness expands.
After all, it's the only thing in this world raising Hangul before my eyes.
I need to check how far that convenience reaches.
‘I've got a hundred thousand points, after all.’
The first thing to check was the refresh function.
The circular arrow shape was, any way you look at it, the refresh icon pulled from my memory.
I brought up the screen showing Jeong Manor Chairman Jeong Ryang-ja's name and the other Sichuan officials' names.
A screen.
Can I call writing that ink shapes by moving in real time a screen?
It also reminds me of an e-ink monitor.
Refresh -500 points
It responded the moment I pressed it.
For an instant, a reaction bloomed as if it were reading my memories from yesterday.
It didn't take time like the first time.
It was instantaneous.
What popped up was another three names.
[Bamboo-Hat Man] -3,000 points
[Hong Gu-pae] -100 points
[Sa Pae-cheon] -200 points
Just the three names I was most curious about.
Was it reflecting the importance of the current situation?
It could be physical distance.
Showing people near the book who hold secrets that might help me, that kind of thing.
‘What's the basis for the pricing?’
First, I opened all three.
I have points to rot.
I can buy secrets like these as much as I want with no problem.
-Bamboo-Hat Man
[The Blood Heaven Unit, one of the Seven Demon Heavenly Pillars, and its leader, the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit. As the Elder nearest to Lizhou, he arrived to answer the defection of the Sword Star Namgung Hyeon-ri.]
-Hong Gu-pae
[Squad Leader in the Hermit Forest's Infiltration Unit. He once dreamed of becoming an orthodox knight-errant, but that dream faded long ago.]
-Sa Pae-cheon
[Captain of the Hermit Forest's Infiltration Unit, settled in Lizhou. His passion for scholarship was genuine, so he cherishes the scholars he has taught.]
What? The Sword Star's defection? Joining the Divine Cult?
It even specifies his name so there's no confusion.
I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but the contents didn't change.
‘The Sword Star definitely had the impressive status of the Clan Head's younger brother.’
That's impossible in any sensible murim.
And one more thing.
There was something Hong-hyung said while he held me down and lectured passionately.
He said that among the orthodox sects who cry chivalry, the ones who pursue justice most relentlessly are the Namgung Clan of Anhui.
Of course, I said I knew that much too, but Hong-hyung grumbled and explained in more detail.
“Little brother Heo, you seem to know the murim, but you don't really.”
It must be the gap between knowledge from novels and this world.
From what I gathered while listening quietly, the Nine Sects One Gang and Five Great Clans of this world aren't greatly different from what I know.
But they're definitely different somewhere.
“If you're ever about to die and there's a Namgung nearby, run to them and ask for help.”
“Why do that?”
“Because the ones surnamed Namgung can never abandon chivalry.”
I asked back whether that wasn't true of any orthodox knight-errant.
Hong-hyung looked at me as if that were utterly laughable and shook his head.
According to his explanation that followed, the "chivalry" the Namgung Clan proclaims has something strangely obsessive about it.
By clan law, they do not lie, and they do not stand by in the face of injustice. He said they're the kind who would proudly consider it better to die stopping injustice.
When I asked if that wasn't just talk, Hong-hyung shook his head seriously.
“They're weird, I'm telling you. Chivalry-crazed fools with something broken inside.”
Was the ordinary Namgung Clan I knew like that……? Not to that extent.
This murim definitely has a lot of parts that are a little different from what I knew.
‘But why did the Sword Star try to kill me?’
I thought that only to myself.
But if it was defection.
If he'd meant to turn his back on the orthodox path and cross over to the demonic path.
And if that was what had been going on the night he tried to kill me to seal my mouth?
‘The pieces fit.’
What on earth was his story?
But I didn't feel particularly sorry. I couldn't just quietly die for him, could I?
Until this morning I'd been flustered, but it was completely self-defense.
If anything, the Namgung's Sword Star joining the Demonic Cult.
Isn't that the bigger wrong?
After thinking that far, I sighed again.
‘Haven't I gotten caught up in something way too big?’
If not for this book, I wouldn't have gotten caught up in it.
Then I might have been able to stay the quiet Licentiate Heo who knew nothing.
‘But is that necessarily desirable?’
I looked at Hong-hyung's and Teacher's secrets.
I think I know why they were cheap.
The contents weren't particularly surprising or strange.
They're just facts you could figure out with a little thought, minus the certainty.
‘Does the price vary with how hard it is to deduce?’
If so, the Chairman's secret certainly deserved to be expensive.
It was content I could almost never have reached by reasoning on my own.
The same goes for the bamboo-hat man.
‘But the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit……?’
He said to ask the Namgung for help if I wasn't sure.
Conversely, the ones he said not even to look toward if you so much as heard their names were the Blood Heaven Unit and the Ghost Spirit Valley.
‘Is it even okay for me to stay here?’
I wasn't sure.
Can I just stay as Licentiate Heo who knows nothing?
Then will everything pass quietly without incident?
The Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit must be a supreme master on the Demonic Cult's side.
Sichuan has the Tang Clan, Qingcheng, and Emei.
It's hard to believe a figure that conspicuous wouldn't have been noticed.
Suddenly, a bad feeling swept over me.
Which of the Nine Sects One Gang was closest?
Chengdu, which I'd visited myself, was very far.
I hadn't been uninterested along the way, so I'd learned roughly where Mount Emei and Mount Qingcheng were.
From Lizhou, the Qingcheng Sect is closest.
“……Surely not.”
A scene sprang into my head in an instant.
A staple of martial arts novels.
The Orthodox-Demonic War.
“Nah, surely not…….”
The Sword Star went missing, sure, but would something that small set off a main-event-level incident straight out of a novel?
Reality is far more solid than an ordinary man like me imagines.
Wars don't break out that easily.
As long as no one finds out I'm connected to the Sword Star's disappearance, that's the end of it.
***
The destinations of the messenger pigeons that took flight from the Alliance were truly every corner of the Central Plains.
But among them, there was one place the fastest hawk reached.
The place closest to the scene of the incident.
Mount Qingcheng.
The Sect Leader of the Qingcheng Sect, the Qingcheng Divine Sword, was going about his usual routine, unaware of anything.
At the highest point of the mountain named Qingcheng, meaning ever-green.
In the greenest place, amid the clarity of great nature, he breathed in and took in its energy.
Once one ascends to the rank of Absolute Master, at some point mental cultivation such as meditation becomes more important than physical training.
For Daoist martial arts the phenomenon is even more extreme, so that sometimes one meditates as still as a rock for weeks on end.
Even so, the domain called the symbol of the Absolute Master guarded Qingcheng's surroundings.
During meditation all the more, he missed no movement within that domain.
Not even a bird flying in.
The Qingcheng Divine Sword opened his eyes.
From its flight, he could tell at once it was one of the Alliance's spirit messenger hawks.
Still, to the Divine Sword's eyes, the bird's movement was far too slow.
The Qingcheng Divine Sword spoke to the hawk.
[Leave it there and go.]
It was still ten li away.
But the hawk understood and released the letter clutched in its talons into the sky.
The Divine Sword beckoned toward the sky.
True qi already spread out became a swirling wind that guided it across the ten li.
He unfolded the letter, which arrived as if sucked into his grasp.
It was not long or complicated.
[The Radiant Wheel Great Heaven Sword Star, Namgung Hyeon-ri, has died in Lizhou. Exact cause and culprit unknown. No traces of any battle in Lizhou. Fate of the three siblings unknown.]
The seal stamped at the end bore the name of the Murim Alliance's Chief Strategist.
The Nine Sects One Gang were the backbone of the Alliance, the sects that most deeply shared its values.
The Divine Sword let out a deep sigh at his friend's death and rose.
The worn, tattered Daoist robe peculiar to Qingcheng's Daoists fluttered lightly.
The letter conveyed only information without any instructions, but the Divine Sword knew its intent.
Mount Qingcheng was closest to Lizhou, and the master closest to Namgung Hyeon-ri was the Qingcheng Divine Sword.
So it meant: just get up and go to Lizhou.
“The Sword Star is dead……. That makes no sense.”
It was the first question that came to mind.
There were not even traces of battle, it said.
Could that be?
For an Absolute Master to die, another Absolute Master is needed.
It is not something mere assassins can do.
However.
What if it had happened anyway?
“The Hermit Forest Lord……?”
It came to mind, yet it could not be.
The Hermit Forest did not belong to the Seven Demon Heavenly Pillars by virtue of its Forest Lord's martial might.
An assassin with martial might, how laughable.
If there were an assassin who was an Absolute Master, he would appear before you and pick a fight rather than carry out an assassination.
That would no longer be an assassin.
The Forest Lord's martial arts could never reach the Sword Star's.
Then was it the Imperial Court?
“That is strange too.”
But it made a little more sense.
The Grand Eunuch of the Eastern Depot. There was the only one who could be called an assassin on par with an Absolute Master.
But a lack of motive applied all the same. For now, were they not cooperating with the Alliance against the Demonic Cult?
“I must go and see for myself.”
The Divine Sword leaped lightly. In a single stride, he crossed several peaks and landed far below, where the disciples and Elders lived.
Even at the sight of the Sect Leader appearing for the first time in years, the Daoist temples of Mount Qingcheng were calm.
He called over a young disciple passing by.
“Yes, Sect Leader. Please give your command.”
“Tell the Elders I am leaving for Lizhou. War seems likely, so select only the first-generation disciples and above……. No, the Venerable Masters will see to it. Just tell them war may break out.”
The young disciple was naturally flustered. Yet he tried to keep it in check rather than show it.
His cultivation was not deep, but his effort was admirable.
“Do not be afraid. The mountain of Qingcheng will always be green.”
He said so, but the Qingcheng Divine Sword thought he might not return.
But well, that too would be the way of nature, and someone would take his place and inherit the Sect Leader's seat.
Qingcheng's Daoists are those who wander the martial world as freely as the wind in harmony with nature, so would fate not be just as unknowable?
Qingcheng's cultivation was to entrust oneself to it while guarding one's own will.
“Then I shall go on ahead.”
And the Qingcheng Divine Sword leaped again.
In an instant, the mountains fell away.
As he soared high enough to touch the clouds, he saw the scenery of Lizhou far off.
Indeed, there was nothing like traces of battle.
If there had been a life-and-death duel between Absolute Masters, there should have been something like a giant crater.
“So it was not the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit.”
If it had been, he would have seen a sea of crimson blood.
“I will know when I get there.”
He set off.
Lizhou, far away, began to draw near with frightening speed.
“If it is the Rakshasa Immortal, that would be troublesome.”
The black mist north of Lizhou roiled gloomily, as it had for the past three hundred years.
If that thing had moved, matters would be worse.
But even so, he could not retreat.
The wind bearing the Divine Sword quietly took on murderous intent.
He did not know how his friend's children were faring.
If they were alive, he would have to save them.