True or Fake
Yun Hyeon, the actual person in charge of the Namgung Family’s Luoyang branch, scanned the documents in my arms with his sharp eyes narrowed beneath thin eyebrows.
In his hands lay a thick bundle of the Ju Family’s papers that I had stuffed into my bosom at random.
“This one is genuine, and this one is questionable. This is fake. This is real.”
I swallowed hard and watched him read, my face tight with tension.
He was an ordinary person who had never cultivated any martial arts.
Yet the speed with which he flipped through the pages, the way he zeroed in on the key points, and the decisive certainty with which he separated truth from falsehood were the skills of a first-rate expert in this world.
He picked up the documents he had judged to be fake or suspicious and examined them.
To me they all looked real.
Units and numbers, every difficult term imaginable, and most importantly, they bore seals and had been sprinkled with gold leaf.
“Elder Yun. How do you know whether this is genuine or counterfeit?”
Yun Hyeon’s hand stopped moving.
“You can speak more casually with me. Young Master Biryu.”
His tone was always spirited and dignified.
He never crossed any line.
He upheld courtesy and respect.
No matter how busy he was, whenever he spoke he would pause his hands and meet my gaze.
I had heard countless times that he had started out as a simple porter or waiter.
Yet because of his bearing I could not take even a single dismissive tone or attitude with him.
I could be rude without consequence, but natural deference came only from that spirit of respect.
“I was being too formal. Once you’re used to it, I’ll speak comfortably too.”
I answered awkwardly, trying to brush it off.
“Young Master Biryu is truly an unusual person.”
“Huh?”
Yun Hyeon tapped his own ear.
“Besides what you have already said, information from our own network has reached my ears about everything you accomplished while infiltrating the Ju Family.”
He stroked his beard as he spoke.
“I was honestly doubtful when I heard you planned to sneak into the Ju Family, one of the most respected powers in Luoyang, steal documents, and get away with it. But you actually did it. I almost thought you were the real thing—living disaster incarnate.”
“….”
“But right now, standing in front of me is.”
Yun Hyeon gave a quiet laugh.
“A young man who is neither ordinary nor typical—someone who calmly analyzes himself, who moves with caution yet still pursues courtesy and righteousness. That is why I cannot quite figure you out. Which is the real you?”
I opened my mouth.
But I had no answer.
How many people in this world could truly understand who they themselves were?
Yun Hyeon simply looked at me, as if he had already read my thoughts, and changed the subject naturally.
With the rustle of paper he picked up one document.
“You asked how we distinguish genuine from fake, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
I thanked him for the unobtrusive courtesy.
“If I were to ask Young Master Biryu to give me just one piece of advice on the martial arts you can currently display, would you be able to explain?”
“….”
My words caught.
It was not impossible.
But the moment I tried to begin, the endlessness of it pressed down on me.
Yun Hyeon smiled and said,
“The one who can teach without hesitation, without a single hesitation, is only one person in this world.”
He raised a finger.
“The scammer.”
He massaged the stiff muscles at the back of his neck.
“Young Master Biryu is still young, so you lack worldly experience. Listen to this advice. That said, since you asked, I will answer you honestly.”
A single document slid in front of me.
Pointing to the paper, Yun Hyeon spoke at an incredible speed.
“Looking at the date here, it was at least thirty-four years ago, right after the end of the Jema Daejeon when the flames of the righteous way were already dying. That contract was made between the parties. The problem is that the paper itself is hanji. The feel, the texture, the color—all of it—show that this was made no later than four years ago in the Bukcheong region using the technique of weaving silk leftover from silkworm cocoons to give it extra gloss. From here the timeline is already off. And looking at the seal, the negative engraving shows three cuts and two missing parts—done in Luoyang…”
For the first time I asked someone a question and immediately regretted even asking it.
It was hard just to pretend I understood.
I had understood once again.
There was a saying about the eight directions of beauty.
Someone who is good at everything.
I felt that impossible dream, impossible in this reality, as sharply as ever.
Instead of knowing, I had once thought I could do anything, but the deeper I dug, the more I pursued the extreme, the greater the depth I felt.
Yun Hyeon explained with the pride of someone who had lived longer than me, then suddenly stopped as if cutting with a knife and gave a faint smile.
“You must have suffered a lot. That is the truth.”
The remark stung my heart, and I faltered.
“Why did they go to so much trouble to create such fakes?”
“There are countless reasons. Taxes, blackmail, market manipulation for the future, keeping the contract itself as a memento, or even fake documents meant only to pressure the other party at the negotiating table. Setting those aside, the most important thing to you right now, Young Master Biryu.”
Yun Hyeon pulled out another document.
The name “Kunlun Sect’s Cheongunryong” was clearly written there.
“This is genuine. Congratulations. Young Master’s efforts were not in vain.”
I raised my head.
Our eyes met.
I had no idea how my own face looked to others.
But the way Yun Hyeon’s eyes widened in admiration when our gazes locked made him say,
“Truly, it changed the moment your eyes met. That is my personal opinion.”
He handed me the document.
“From now on, the Luoyang branch will not want to turn you into an enemy.”
I pocketed the document.
“I feel the same.”
I thought this was the first button and the biggest crisis.
And that was how the first button of the third punishment trial was fitted.
***
“I cannot accept this.”
This was the same second-floor inn where I had first met him.
Cheongunryong said it without hesitation.
He showed not the slightest flicker of doubt.
“…What are you talking about?”
My voice cracked.
I already knew that the world did not bend to anyone’s will; I had learned it too well from living in this reality.
But I had also endured countless disappointments—being cheated, hoping, then betrayed—and still rebuilt some trust.
I had also felt the crushing silence that money itself carried.
So I thought there was no room for doubt.
A person could not possibly refuse such a massive debt relief.
I held the document up with trembling hands.
“So you will not accept it?”
“Yes.”
“Why!!!!”
*KWAAANG!*
The table shattered under my furious strike.
*KU-GUGUNG…!*
Dust rained from the ceiling as the whole building shuddered.
Cheap silver coins I had paid, expenses I had never imagined for my situation, and the entire second floor of the inn—all of it had become meaningless.
“Guest, what seems to be the problem? This kind of disturbance is unacceptable.”
The innkeeper stuck his head out from the stairs, face twisted in irritation, and shouted.
I roared with eyes blazing.
“Get down here! If you don’t want to die!!”
“Hik! Y-yes, understood.”
The innkeeper bowed hastily and scurried down.
Cheongunryong lowered his gaze.
Beneath him lay the shattered table, broken beyond half.
“When I first heard your story I thought you must have done it with your own hands… But you really are not an ordinary person.”
All formalities were dropped.
I slammed the document down in front of his eyes, sparks flying from mine.
“Have you looked at the numbers here? Looked? Do you even know what your current situation is?”
“Yes.”
Cheongunryong blinked with clear eyes.
I pressed down on the rage rising to my throat.
*Twuk.*
With a sound, my eyes filled with red.
I forced it back with all my strength.
Just as I was holding back an explosion with the Heaven and Earth Great Shift, I forced back the words about to spill out.
“Here the principal is listed, but what about the interest? Have you looked? Every six months it is one-tenth plus six percent of the principal. No matter how many wanted criminals you hunt down, no matter how many bandits you sweep clean, can you even hope to pay even the interest?”
“Still, I have to.”
“Why?”
“That is the rule. Rules exist to be followed. That is what it means to be human.”
My words choked.
It was impossible to argue.
The interest was genuine.
*Truly, even in my era there were no righteous people like this.*
Even Mumyeong had nothing to say.
The Heavenly Demon Dragon of Kunlun, one of the Oho-samhwa, who had become a debtor through an unfair contract—by saving him from debt and asking for the whereabouts of the remaining Oho-samhwa in exchange for the seal, that had been my plan.
It had been perfectly reasonable, and even though it was not entirely upright, it carried the weight of a status reversal, so even if I thought about it critically, I had judged it a plan without danger that was bound to succeed.
There was a flaw I had not foreseen in all of it.
Cheongunryong was more moral than I had imagined, a righteous man of the orthodox faction who guarded norms and rules as if they were his own life.
He did not question how I had obtained it or why I carried it.
But he did not accept it either.
By now Luoyang had been turned upside down by the news that a lone intruder had broken into the Ju Family last night and stolen private documents, even entering the daughter’s bedroom.
He had already guessed everything the moment I had summoned him to the inn and presented the debt document.
“You have turned the entire Ju Family into a wasteland.”
“…!”
“Along with that, there were casualties. Logically, apart from the documents, I should not forgive you right now. Above all, as one of the Oho-samhwa, I must uphold the justice of the rivers and lakes in accordance with my name.”
“Forgive… me?”
Cheongunryong looked up at me.
His uncompromising eyes pierced my black pupils.
I muttered.
“Right now, who are you suffering for? Standing in front of me who has already endured this much…”
*Swish.*
A red aura began to swirl and push out from the corner of my black eye.
*Host.*
Mumyeong sensed the danger and tried to stop me.
Cheongunryong reached toward his waist while still seated.
A single sword wrapped with a blue dragon—the symbol of the Kunlun Sect—was there.
That movement was like tossing a spark into gunpowder.
“Go ahead.”
I gritted my teeth in hellish pain and muttered.
*Pakjik. Pakjijik!*
Lightning began to seep from beneath my feet.
“Do it right now. Kunlun Sect’s disciple.”