The Day the Fox Bit My Arm and the Snake Demanded Blood (1)
The next day was no different from before.
The fox appeared, sinking its fangs into my arm.
The next day a snake came and begged for my blood.
The next day the trio of monks showed up, healed my arm, and kidnapped my colleagues.
The next day the Hai Dragon King took Gang Dai.
The next day the Crooked-Headed Ghost took Kim Joo-im.
After that, Kim Young-hoon and I were hurled into a spatial rift just like always.
We lost consciousness.
***
“...Here we are.”
When I opened my eyes, I saw a ceiling I did not recognize.
“Ceiling?”
I jumped up in surprise and scanned my surroundings.
Kim Young-hoon lay scattered all around me.
It seemed we had only just crawled out of the rift.
“I knew we would be randomly dumped somewhere in Yeon Kingdom, but getting sent to someone’s bedroom was a first.”
I felt a bit baffled and lifted Kim Young-hoon onto my shoulder, then opened the door to leave the room.
Thud!
And as I stepped into the corridor, I locked eyes with a woman who looked exactly like a maid in trouble.
“...Kyaaaaak! Thieves!”
“...Damn it.”
I pressed my acupuncture point and quickly left the room.
“So this is a mansion?”
It looked like a manor belonging to some powerful family.
“Hey! The thugs ran that way! That bastard knocked me out... or something. Anyway, they came out of Lady’s room!”
From afar came the voice of the maid I had previously knocked out.
It seemed we had fallen right in front of the master’s room.
“Damn it, this is insane.”
Why the hell did we keep landing in places like this?
Still carrying Kim Young-hoon, I tried to slip out when two elite guards in black armor charged at me.
“How dare a mad dog sneak into Youngho-min’s house! You bastard!”
“Wait, Youngho-min?”
I froze the moment I heard the name.
It was one of the secrets I had learned in my previous life while digging through imperial information.
“Youngho-min, one of the five greatest corrupt officials in Yeon Kingdom. His exploitation of the common people is so brutal that the central government has sent investigators several times, yet he bribes them and uses connections to slip away every time.”
“He even takes another man’s bride on their wedding night by using his power and turns tenant farmers into serfs by taking every possible trick on the landlords’ lands, and nobody dares say a word.”
“Hmm, right. A memorable name because he’s such a disgusting trash.”
I turned on my heel and headed back into the main hall.
“If there’s this much trash, I can borrow a little of his wealth and it won’t matter.”
I barged straight into Youngho-min’s residence and tore the place apart.
His soldiers tried to intimidate me, but I pressed their acupuncture points and knocked them out one by one, then kept searching.
After rummaging through the entire house, I found a hidden chest containing twelve golden toads.
“This should be useful enough.”
I stuffed the chest with the golden toads into my bosom, grabbed a few more coins while searching the surroundings, and slipped out of Youngho-min’s house.
After that, wanted posters with my face on them began circulating around the Iron Dragon City where Youngho-min’s manor stood, but I changed my appearance with the Illusion Technique and bought a manor to live in.
Inside the manor, I taught Kim Young-hoon martial arts and swordsmanship.
A month passed.
Shuuu—
I laughed softly while watching the three flowers floating above Kim Young-hoon’s head.
“It’s been a month already.”
I, who had reached the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, had now spent an entire month guiding Kim Young-hoon myself.
Once he had accumulated enough internal energy, he immediately reached the same realm as me.
“The higher the teacher’s level, the faster the student progresses... I only taught him martial arts for a month and his qi is almost gone.”
“Haha, I never knew you had this much talent. Here, before your flesh is even gone, you’re already like this... oof.”
“...Since you have reached the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, I have a gift for you.”
“Hm? What is it?”
I handed him the first volume of the combined Great River of Drilling Monthly Martial Scripture, a secret manual from my previous life.
Great River of Drilling Monthly Martial Scripture!
“In this life, Kim Young-hoon will reach even higher.”
I would evolve the secret manual further.
I gave him the manual, taught him the language of the Yeon Kingdom, and then sat in the manor gazing at the sky.
“What should I do in this life?”
I had wandered through the Wulin, built alliances, followed Kim Young-hoon, and even entered the imperial palace.
“I just want to train martial arts more steadily this time.”
But I couldn’t simply stand by and watch the Yeon Kingdom suffer at the hands of the Makri sect.
What could I do to train while preventing the Makri sect’s atrocities?
After a moment of thought, I immediately found the answer.
“The Jin family sect.”
Yes.
There were Jin family sect disciples who wanted to drive the Makri sect out of Yeon Kingdom.
“In this life, I should cooperate with the Jin family sect.”
If I helped them like in the latter half of my previous life, I could indirectly stop the Makri sect’s activities.
I decided to visit the Jin family sect, then went to find Kim Young-hoon.
“From now on, I’ll be traveling separately.”
“Eh!? What? What happened?”
“...I just wanted to go around a bit.”
Kim Young-hoon looked slightly uneasy, but I calmed him and left the Iron Dragon City.
We had agreed to meet again every five years, so there would be no problem.
I began searching for the Jin family sect’s territory.
***
The Jin family sect’s hidden ground was located in a valley called Surowol Gorge, north of Changho City, in the eastern region of Yeon Kingdom bordering the Byeokra Kingdom.
I had visited this place several times in my previous life.
“This place... according to what I heard, it should be...”
The base of the Jin family sect’s hidden ground.
I found a suitable spot, settled in, and waited for someone to emerge from the gorge.
After several days, a man in a red robe finally appeared.
His consciousness field had already controlled the surrounding space.
“A Jin family disciple!”
I secretly followed him.
After a while, he entered a tavern in Changho City and ordered wine and food.
“Perfect, let’s slip in.”
I quietly sat beside him and ordered a better drink.
“Hmm? Who are you?”
“Haha, the place looked lonely, so I came to drink. The bill is on me.”
“Hah, really? If the person is paying... whatever.”
I ordered enough food and wine to make his stomach burst, then began chatting with him.
Once he was slightly drunk, I casually steered the conversation toward the subject of the disciples.
Soon the Jin disciple, drunk on the wine, admitted he was a disciple and had come to the mortal world for a mission.
“You’re amazing. A disciple of the great sect... I would be honored to serve alongside a peerless disciple.”
“Hmph, but the main house is already overflowing with people like you... trash.”
I casually tried to refuse his offer by showing him the twelve golden toads I had stolen from Youngho-min.
“If I could serve under a noble family, I could give you the toads...”
“Hmm...!”
The Jin disciple stared blankly at the golden toads, then coughed and accepted the chest.
“I’ll pass it on to my family elders. Heh heh...”
“Haha, thank you very much. I’ll trust you, Youngho-min.”
I gave him a friendly smile and extracted a promise.
The next day, after sobering up, he looked a little troubled, but greed for the golden toads won out.
He took me to the family while casting a Flame Technique.
He wanted the toads but didn’t want to introduce me to the family.
“A guy who seems to be only at the first layer of Qi Condensation...”
I frowned and slashed the Flame Technique apart with my sword, then unleashed Sword Gang to shatter his protective techniques.
“Youngho-min, what are you doing?!”
“Ah, no. I...”
“If you don’t want to introduce me, just say so. Why are you acting like that? Do you think I’m just some trash?”
“Hi, hick...”
I unleashed killing intent and grabbed him by the collar.
“Perfect. Using this as an excuse, I’ll drag you into the family.”
I signaled him to regurgitate the six golden toads he had already swallowed.
“Youngho-min, you already received six golden toads, so please properly guide me now? I would like you to introduce me properly.”
“Ah, yes. I’ll introduce you to the elders of the Jin family. I never imagined a martial artist at the Three Flowers Gathering would be...”
He stammered and guided me.
He explained that his mission was to deliver a letter to the Jin family branch in another city.
We arrived at the hidden ground of the Jin family sect near the Long River City of Yeon Kingdom.
He delivered the letter to an elderly Qi Condensation elder, then introduced me.
The late-stage Qi Condensation elder’s eyes lit up upon hearing that I was a martial artist at the Three Flowers Gathering.
“Perfect timing. With your level, you are more than qualified to serve the disciple sect. Haha, we’ve been needing a martial arts instructor to teach the trash, and at the Three Flowers Gathering... well, I suppose it’s still considered high for the trash, right?”
“...Yes. I can’t compare to the noble disciple sect, but I have cultivated martial arts to a high level among the commoners.”
“Good, good. Follow me.”
I headed to the disciple sect’s training ground.
Children around sixteen years old were practicing martial arts.
The martial arts instructor seemed to be at the late stage of Peak Realm, but there were too many children and he looked overwhelmed.
“Recently I’ve been handling the education of the trash children, but I’m not very skilled at it. If you’re around my level, you should be able to teach them better, right?”
“Yes, please entrust them to me.”
I felt a small sense of satisfaction at the chance to teach children.
This way I wouldn’t lose too much time on martial arts training.
Especially after reaching the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, I needed to explore the Way of Mind even more, so teaching the children would also allow me to study their thoughts.
“By the way, why do these children learn martial arts?”
“Ah, that’s...”
The Qi Condensation elder stroked his beard and explained.
“Recently, countless disciple sects that were ruling over us suddenly disappeared. I don’t know the details, but cultivators of the Core Formation realm and above vanished all at once.”
“So the current disciple world is on the brink of chaos. The fastest way to reach the next realm is to become a noble of the disciple world, and the sect he belongs to could become a great sect.”
“Therefore, although the surface looks calm, a tremendous hidden battle is raging behind the scenes. Those brutal Makri bastards are using golden pills to prolong the lifespan of Core Formation disciples and clear the way for their Grand Elders to advance to higher realms.”
“So that’s what happened...”
I could roughly guess the causal chain of events up to now.
The Ascension Gate that opens once every thousand years.
Countless high-level disciples and sects had rushed to the Deungsunhyang to challenge the gate, and as a result only Core Formation cultivators remained in the current disciple world.
In that state, the fastest one to advance would dominate the world.
The Makri sect was draining the pure yang blood of the commoners to extend the lifespan of its Core Formation disciples and block the path to higher realms.
“Whether those monsters win or lose in the upper realm, I didn’t think it was a big deal... but it turns out the root of everything was here.”
I nodded along with the elder’s explanation.
“And the Makri sect, that devilish family, requires an enormous amount of commoner blood to refine the golden pills. Because of them, missing persons are increasing all over Yeon Kingdom... these children are the survivors we Jin family sect rescued.
They all carry massive anger toward the Makri sect that slaughtered their families and the current emperor.”
“The main Jin family sect wants to prevent the Makri sect’s Core Formation disciples from advancing by seizing the pure yang blood of commoners and completing the golden pills.”
“Do the noble families and these children share the same cause...?”
Then, those children...
“So we plan to first reclaim Yeon Kingdom from the Makri bastards and prevent them from indiscriminately capturing commoners. As part of that, we plan to assassinate the current emperor of Yeon Kingdom, Makri-jeong.”
As the explanation continued, an eerie feeling crept over me.
“These children are all children who volunteered to be assassins. Youngho-min, can you teach martial arts to these children?”
Only then did I realize what that eerie feeling truly was.
I was supposed to teach the very children whose necks I had personally cut in my previous life.