Sea Dragon Broth (The Name of the Wudang Disciple Has Been Changed to Sugang)
I can declare this with absolute certainty.
The sea suits a sea dragon best.
If not the sea, then a river.
If not a river, then a stream.
And if not even a stream, then at least flat ground.
Doesn’t that mean pretty much anywhere works?
No. It doesn’t.
“Ughhh.”
“Ah, seriously! Try walking properly. Come on!”
Mountains.
Tall mountains.
Especially mountains as high as Mount Wudang are a hard no.
Climbing a rugged peak without even a proper hiking trail, sweat pouring off me like rain while I desperately search for water, my skin drying out until dehydration hits.
If only my tails didn’t weigh me down so much, maybe I could manage. But mine were heavier than anyone else’s.
In the end I collapsed before long, and even though Namgung Rin kept sighing, she supported me the whole way, carrying me on her back again and again as we headed for the summit of Mount Wudang.
And just as we drew near the Wudang Sect main hall—
“Oh? Who might you be? It’s rare to see anyone climb all the way to our main hall instead of stopping at Haegeomji.”
“Senior Brother, look. There’s even a divine beast with them.”
Wudang Sect daoists descending from the main building spotted us.
“H-hello. Hello. I’m a member of the Murim Alliance headquarters. We came to request protection.”
“A Murim Alliance headquarters member who couldn’t even climb one mountain?”
“If I were alone I could’ve climbed without getting tired at all, but the person I’m carrying just can’t walk.”
“I sweated too much and I feel awful. Water, please.”
“You heard that, right? This person’s voice already sounds like they’re dying. Could the daoists please show some generosity and share a little water?”
“Understood. For now, please drink some of the spiritual water from my canteen.”
“Take mine as well.”
After grasping the situation, the Wudang Sect daoists hesitantly handed over a gourd bottle filled with spiritual water.
“Haaah… haa… whoa.”
“Slurp, slurp.”
I finally felt like I might live.
I drank from the narrow, long-necked gourd like it was a bottle of soda, then poured the rest straight over my head.
“I feel alive again. Thank you.”
Once some moisture returned to my body, I really did feel like I might survive.
I swore to myself that I would never go hiking again after this.
But if I ever did, I would definitely bring a canteen.
A large one. At least two liters. I’d only hike when I had that much water.
“W-whoa.”
“Hey, kid. We have guests.”
“S-sorry. Please come this way. Since you’ve come all the way here, I’ll guide you to the main hall.”
The flustered daoists quickly pulled themselves together and offered to act as guides.
*
“Haaaaah.”
Rin went off with the Wudang Sect daoist who had shared water with us to make some kind of request, while I was led by a female Wudang disciple to the women’s bathhouse. I sank my body into a tub of warmly heated spiritual water.
“This is the life.”
I once told Rin that it felt like I breathed through my skin and that wearing clothes was annoying.
Now I realized it wasn’t just breathing. I apparently drank water through it too.
The moment my stiff, dry skin that had lost so much sweat touched the water, I could feel it rapidly growing moist again.
“This is what life’s about. What else could life be?”
After a grueling climb, sinking into a hot bath at the mountain lodge to melt away the fatigue.
And then—
Browsing the gallery inside the bath without worrying about my phone getting ruined by steam.
It really was like a dream.
The Murim Gallery provided by the system didn’t break just because of a little moisture.
“There’s a time lag, but information still spreads to nearby areas.”
Anyway, this story that was currently making the rounds as a hot topic in the gallery.
It was most likely about Rin and Rin’s Senior.
Wind Cloud Daoist had personally stated before that he was from the Murim Alliance, and unless he lived at the headquarters, there was no way he would notice so quickly that Rin hadn’t filed her regular report.
At any rate, I enjoyed the warmth of the bath while following the noisy gallery atmosphere stirred up by the bait Wind Cloud Daoist had thrown out.
“Oh, this one.”
Someone using a floating ID who had saved the note “Mount Wudang IP” after seeing others call it that uploaded a post.
“Hmm.”
The only person here who could know about Rin right now seemed to be Sugang, whom we had met at Haegeomji earlier…
From the reaction Sugang showed when he first saw me, it was clearly the “Huh, I think I’ve seen this person somewhere. Wait? It’s that person!” kind of feeling.
I had even uploaded a verification photo showing my hair color back when I planned to live only inside the cave, so it wouldn’t be strange for him to recognize me.
But…
“He deliberately didn’t mention it?”
Was he following the Murim Gallery’s unspoken rule?
‘Do not try to dig up a divine beast’s personal information.’
Or was it because openly saying he saw me here could attract the aggro of someone who might be watching the gallery—someone who had already learned demonic arts and fallen—thereby putting me in danger?
“That’s pretty cool of him.”
This must be what they call a favorable floater.
I sent a signal that basically asked, “Is that you?”
And Sugang responded after receiving my signal.
It was a reply that said, “Let’s just pretend we don’t know each other and live quietly.”
“Okay, I get the vibe.”
This would be the last time Sugang turned a blind eye to me just because I was a fellow Murim Gallery member.
Since I would be going to the Murim Alliance after this anyway, he probably figured there was no reason to reveal my existence on the gallery.
Once I reached the Murim Alliance, maybe the Murim Gallery members there—especially fixed-nick users like Wind Cloud Daoist—would also keep quiet about me for the same reason?
Even the Murim Alliance gatekeepers hadn’t mentioned me at all, and the real Rin kept saying she would protect me.
When everyone played hot potato like “Do I really need to say this?” and “Why should I?” and refused to reveal a divine beast’s location…
Even though the joke went around that seven out of ten divine beasts in the Murim belonged to the Murim Gallery, information on divine beasts was almost never updated—except for Six Tails.
And that meant—
“Just what is Six Tails doing that her location still hasn’t been sold?”
I hadn’t really harmed anyone, and the Murim Gallery people wouldn’t proactively report a fellow gallery divine beast, so even if they encountered divine beasts trying to live quietly like me, they deliberately didn’t share the information.
But Six Tails?
She was someone who went around killing people. Had she really left behind not even the slightest clue, so that the gallery only treated her as a likable fixed-nick while no information flowed at all?
Considering every major force in the Murim seemed to have at least one gallery user, that was astonishing in its own way.
“Miss, it’s about time you came out.”
“Ah, I’m coming out. Just a moment.”
“Yes. I’ll leave a towel at the door.”
The female Wudang disciple who had guided me to the women’s bath warned me that it was time to leave. I ended my first proper gallery session and bath in a while, drained the water, and stepped out.
Just as I was about to leave—
“Oh, right. A photo.”
Click.
I took a verification shot.
The title…
Sea Dragon Broth
That should do. I could use it as a comment ticket later.
*
“Haaa.”
“Eh?”
I walked out with a damp towel around my neck, carrying the aura of an uncle who had just come from the sauna.
The female Wudang disciple who had guided me here stared at me with a dazed expression.
Then her hands fluttered around her chest area.
It looked like she was asking, “Aren’t you going to cover up?”
“It’s stuffy, so it’s fine. It’s fine.”
“Uhh…?”
She tilted her head as if she had received quite a culture shock, but still led the way, telling me to follow.
Honestly, I thought, Is it really that shocking?
I had fallen into the Murim after becoming a sea dragon while spending my days on sites where hundreds of illustrations and photos of barely clothed women were uploaded every single day.
Even if I saw someone else walking around like this, I would have thought “How shameless” and moved on. But this was my own body?
If I’m fine with it, then isn’t that the end of it?
That thought dominated my mind, and since the person in question was saying she was okay with it, there was no one who would stop me more fiercely than simply giving a light scolding.
Right after I walked confidently and was guided to the place where Rin was waiting—
“Why is the child of the Namgung Clan Head in a place like this!”
A massive roar flew in and pierced my ears.
“The Namgung Clan?”
They wouldn’t be yelling at the people here asking why their surname was Namgung, so it must mean one of the newcomers was from the Namgung family.
Since I was the one here, the only person that shout could be aimed at was—
“Rin, right?”
The only conclusion was that Rin was actually Namgung Rin.
But…
“Just what is the Namgung Clan that he’s reacting like that?”
So what exactly was the Namgung Clan?
With my lack of knowledge about the Murim, I had no way of knowing. For now, I headed toward the source of the commotion to grasp the situation.
Staying here quietly wouldn’t tell me anything.