***
“So, you’re not going to Bu-saeng-dang?”
Because of this incident, the Tae-eul Sect was in an uproar.
Gye Yeon-seok, the father of Gye Cheol-yeong and the head of the Gye-ryong Merchant Guild, had been the first to raise a ruckus over Gye Cheol-yeong’s injury, and in the process of investigating the incident, Gye Yeon-seung’s lax teaching process was revealed.
Gye Yeon-seung was dismissed from Bu-saeng-dang for being responsible for this, and he became a person who could no longer enter the Tae-eul Sect.
Gye Yeon-seok complained that the guardian who protected Gye Cheol-yeong had disappeared because of an issue that was created for no reason, but the deed was already done.
“I have already been recognized for completing the course by the former Bu-saeng-dang Master. So, there is no need for me to leave.”
My father made his rugged face look as menacing as possible.
It might have been a face that would make others feel fear, but to me, it was still a face that made my heart swell and ache.
I quickly turned my gaze away, afraid that tears might come out.
“I still can’t believe it. How were you able to defeat Gye Cheol-yeong? Did you perhaps use some kind of trick?”
“Ah, Gye Dang-ju [Hall Master] said that and ended up with a broken arm. Do you want to have your arm broken as well, Father?”
“What!”
“Anyway, I am free until the other Sa-je [junior disciples] complete the Bu-saeng-dang course.”
“Of all things, why did it have to be Gye Cheol-yeong whose head you cracked?”
My father, Jin Tae-san, was the Dang-ju [Hall Master] of the Outer Hall, who was in charge of all external matters of the sect.
Since the Gye-ryong Merchant Guild was the Tae-eul Sect’s biggest sponsor, this incident was inevitably unpleasant for my father.
“Didn’t the Merchant Guild Head eventually admit his fault? Then that should be enough.”
“You rascal! Do you really think Gye Yeon-seok is the type to let it end with just words? Do you think the other disciples will leave you alone once the grain rations in the Tae-eul Sect are reduced to two meals a day!”
“Please speak properly. Why is that my fault? It is the fault of the incompetent Outer Hall Dang-ju.”
“This brat—!”
“I will be going now, Father.”
“Where do you think you’re going—! If you’re not going to Bu-saeng-dang, help out with the work in the Outer Hall.”
“I have a lot of personal work to take care of.”
“What is that?”
“I am at the age where hair is growing on my face now. Please respect my private life.”
“What?”
Jin Tae-san’s chin began to tremble, as if he had heard something utterly preposterous.
But I could not exactly say, ‘I have to prepare to protect the Tae-eul Sect in anticipation of the Ma-gyo’s [Demonic Cult] return,’ could I?
Before long, my father’s hand began to move toward the cudgel standing in the corner, and I quickly took flight.
“Then, I will be going—”
“This brat! Don’t you stand there!”
<><><>
“Are you that rootless brat named Jin So-un?”
As I escaped my rugged father, an old pig with sagging cheeks blocked my path.
“Who are you?”
“You don’t... know who I am?”
How could I not know?
The ill-fitting silk clothes. The golden belt embedded with jade and the crudely large gold ring.
There was only one person in the Tae-eul Sect who wore such vulgar attire.
Gye Yeon-seok, the father of Gye Cheol-yeong, who fluttered his trouser hems and turned the Tae-eul Sect upside down every single day.
“What business do you have with me?”
“You rascal! Watch your tongue! This is Gye Yeon-seok, the Head of the Gye-ryong Merchant Guild.”
A man who appeared to be an escort warrior scowled and rolled his eyes at me.
“Yes. I understood. That you are the Gye-ryong Merchant Guild Head. So, I asked what business you have with me.”
Gye Yeon-seok snorted through his nose as if he were dumbfounded.
“Because of you, our Cheol-yeong is unable to get up due to his injuries. Did you think you could just get away with doing something like this to the legitimate son of the Gye-ryong Merchant Guild?”
He had bled a little, but it was just one hit to the head; the exaggeration was severe.
If we were going by that logic, what should be done about the disciples of our Tae-eul Sect who had been beaten countless times by Gye Cheol-yeong under the guise of sparring?
“Didn’t we decide to just let it pass?”
“That is a matter between me and the Sect Leader, but hasn’t the matter between you and me still remained?”
Should I consider this shamelessness a form of martial art?
“And what if I don’t let it pass?”
In my words, the escort warrior moved his hand toward his sword as if he would jump out at any moment.
“If you were afraid of getting hit, why teach martial arts instead of teaching commercial studies?”
“......T-this brat, how dare you, when an elder is speaking...!”
I drove my words into the ears of Gye Yeon-seok, who was rolling his eyes while thinking.
“By any chance, if Gye Sa-hyeong is selected for the Mu-rim-hak-gwan [Martial Arts Academy], do you intend to chase him all the way there and hold the descendants of the Gu-pa-il-bang [Nine Sects and One Clan] and the O-dae-se-ga [Five Great Clans] responsible as well?”
Gye Yeon-seok, as well as the escort warrior, looked slightly startled.
Had he not thought that far?
Or was it that he thought the Gu-pa-il-bang or O-dae-se-ga wouldn’t engage in territorial bullying in the first place?
“Judging by the fact that you cannot answer, it seems you do not have the courage for that. But seeing you come to the Tae-eul Sect and act so unreasonably, it seems you think the Tae-eul Sect is quite easy to handle.”
“......Look at this brat......!”
Gye Yeon-seok’s voice was so loud that the Dang-ju [Hall Masters] of each hall and even the Sect Leader from the Dae-hyeon-jeon [Great Virtue Hall] began to come out.
“There are more than ten fingers’ worth of Sa-je [junior disciples] who haven’t been able to get up for days after being beaten by Gye Sa-hyeong. If you want to place blame, you should first blame Gye Sa-hyeong for making the Sa-je that way.”
“This brat, how dare you.......”
Gye Yeon-seok, who had only been shouting, “This brat......,” and “How dare you......,” suddenly wore a triumphant smile.
“If the Tae-eul Sect’s sponsorship is cut off because of you, will you take responsibility?”
This was always the problem.
Half of the current generation of disciples were children who were born and raised in the Tae-eul Sect like me.
The other half were children from families that weren’t even that well-off in the village.
Most of them were children who had entered the sect to reduce the number of mouths to feed at home.
Just as children who grow up in hardship become adults quickly, they knew better than anyone that resisting Gye Cheol-yeong would cause harm to others.
“Responsibility?”
That was why Gye Cheol-yeong and Gye Yeon-seok could act like tyrants in the Tae-eul Sect with such peace of mind.
“There are many places in other ‘Baek-pal-bong’ [108 Peaks] that want Cheol-yeong. He can just move there anytime. Will you take responsibility then?”
Gye Cheol-yeong’s entry into the sect immediately led to massive sponsorship money.
And the Tae-eul Sect was not the only place with a ‘Baek-pal-bong’ that struggled with management.
The fact that ‘there are many places that want Cheol-yeong’ was a weakness that those living in the Tae-eul Sect had to swallow their dissatisfaction over.
That was why we had never once tried to assert the territorial pride that others did.
“Please do so.”
“What?”
“Responsibility? I will take it. Please do as you say.”
My father, who was approaching from afar, had heard the conversation with the other Dang-ju and was just about to run over in a pale state.
“The special admission screening period is not even a year away. Can Gye Sa-hyeong really be treated as well in other places as he is in the Tae-eul Sect? Also, what sect would welcome Gye Sa-hyeong, a rolling stone, just to receive a year’s worth of sponsorship?”
“You rascal....... You know that.......”
My father, who was about to run over, stopped in hesitation.
“The disciples of the Tae-eul Sect are not idiots. We have learned the virtues of a gentleman, which is why we try not to associate with base people.”
Gye Yeon-seok, who was trembling, gritted his teeth and spoke.
“I will definitely cause great harm to the Tae-eul Sect. Because of what you have done, in the future, the disciples of the Tae-eul Sect will have to reduce their grain rations and walk around wearing only old clothes.”
A clear threat.
I whispered into his ear.
“Do you think I will let that happen?”
Seeing my father running toward us as if he could no longer endure it, I quickly turned around and left the Tae-eul Sect.
There was a mountain of things I had to do.
<><><>
In my past life, after Gye Cheol-yeong entered the Mu-rim-hak-gwan through special admission, the sponsorship for the Tae-eul Sect decreased significantly.
Even though he was a secular disciple, the sponsorship eventually dried up within a few years as if he wanted to cut ties, and the disciples of the Tae-eul Sect had to reduce their grain rations.
“If it’s going to end up like that anyway, someone other than Gye Cheol-yeong should go.”
Considering that the Tae-eul Sect was inevitably going to be swept up in the Jeong-ma-dae-jeon [Great War of Righteous and Demonic], someone from the Tae-eul Sect had to go to the Mu-rim-hak-gwan. Because if one went in as a low-level warrior, they would just be used as meat shields and discarded.
“The problem is that the Tae-eul Sect’s martial arts are too.......”
Trash...... full of waste.
According to Jegal Cheon-gi, the only things worth using among the Tae-eul Sect’s martial arts were the So-cheon-geom-beop [Small Heaven Sword Technique] and the Tae-eul-sim-beop [Tae-eul Heart Method].
The fact was that all those numerous martial arts did not match the Tae-eul-sim-beop, which was the root of the Tae-eul Sect, at all.
Since the roots and the stems were different, it was not strange that not a single master capable of shaking the Kang-ho [Murim world] had emerged in hundreds of years of history.
Although my head contained all the supreme martial arts of the Gu-pa-il-bang and the O-dae-se-ga.
“If I learned those, not even a single dog would survive in the Tae-eul Sect before the Cheon-ma-sin-gyo [Heavenly Demon Divine Cult] even returned.”
In the end, the only way for me to become strong now was to be overwhelmed with internal energy.
“The current of the Yangtze River carves the rocky islands.”
However, with the Tae-eul-sim-beop, it would take about 200 years of training to gather one-gap-ja [60 years] worth of internal energy.
In the end, I had to eat as many spirit herbs as I could, but spirit herbs were not so common that they were called spirit herbs for nothing.
“......Heh heh. But there is a way.”
I immediately began to search the library I had created in my head.
While my Sa-je were dying helplessly at the hands of the Demonic Cult in the Murim Alliance, my job was to stay in the Murim Alliance and memorize only the miscellaneous reports and data that took up a lot of space for no reason.
However, as the final defensive line broke due to the Demonic Cult’s overwhelming numbers and there was no more time, a situation arose where I had to memorize all the data in the Man-tong-bu [All-Knowing Pavilion] and the Sim-hyeon-gak [Deep Mind Pavilion].
Classified documents that were more complex and larger in volume than miscellaneous data.
I gave up on understanding and absorbing them and created a massive library in my head simply to store them.
One book I found in the deepest part of the library in my head that I had created that way.
The Kang-ho Spirit Herb Book.
A classified document that covered all the discovery locations, appearance times, and movement routes of the spirit herbs that appeared in the Kang-ho 20 years later from the past.
Although it was called a classified document, it was a book that recorded spirit herbs that had already been discovered at that time.
I had lived with nosebleeds all day long because my head was overloaded trying to memorize such useless things.
The reward for that suffering was murder to silence me.
“It still makes me angry when I think about it. That bastard, Tae-cheong Sin-geom.......”
My idol from my childhood.
A being of the heavens who had no one to match him at the same age.
The savior of the righteous path who organized the Murim Alliance, which had been torn apart when the Jeong-ma-dae-jeon broke out, in one fell swoop.
And the hero who kept the Murim Alliance, which was on the verge of disappearing from the Kang-ho, until the very end.
However, Tae-cheong Sin-geom sacrificed everyone except for a few in order to keep the Murim Alliance in existence.
The Murim Alliance that was established in the North Sea was eventually rebuilt on top of their blood and corpses.
“I will never trust you and the Murim Alliance ever again.”
I gritted my teeth and moved my footsteps toward the place where the first spirit herb, the Man-nyeon-ha-su-o [Ten-thousand-year Knotweed], was located.