Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Second-Rate Warrior Ho Cheonan Is Not an Enlightenment Pouch -1
“So I hear you spent the whole night gambling even after getting targeted by Yeo Ilye.”
“I already knew Brother Ho was incredible, but seriously…”
“Eiiing, even I should quit gambling. Seeing Brother Ho honestly scares me.”
The legend of Ho Cheonan within the Wanderers’ Inn had been updated once again.
From now on, people would probably know me as the idiot bastard who continued gambling all night without wavering even while his life was in danger.
Usually, the two fellow wanderers who approached me half to worry and half to mock me now avoided my gaze and fled instead, apparently genuinely embarrassed for me.
But neither my fleeing companions nor my once-again-shattered reputation mattered right now.
“Haa…”
I’m going insane.
I sighed repeatedly while shoving noodles into my mouth.
That idiot gambler, Dogwi—
In the end, I failed to lure him fully into my flow.
Naturally, I assumed a gambler of his caliber would be capable of reading the dice results inside Daehang Dice.
Well, I never expected him to correctly read all outcomes one hundred percent of the time, but I figured there’d at least be moments where he could roughly predict the dice.
Seriously, was that so difficult?
Shouldn’t he at least get half of them right?
Honestly, if he hadn’t dragged out fifteen different jars, things might’ve been less confusing.
I’d taken that as proof of absolute confidence in his skill.
Since it was my first time meeting a gambler who provided as much experience value as Dogwi, I completely misjudged his level.
I tried deliberately losing money to Dogwi in order to seize the flow, but apparently all my luck got consumed by Intuition activations—or maybe Dogwi’s brain just shut down completely—because it eventually devolved into a pure luck battle.
Maybe I’d overdone the psychological warfare and mentally destroyed Dogwi entirely.
Because of that, manipulating his psychology became completely impossible, and I ended up staying awake all night unable to read him at all.
In the end, by dawn neither Dogwi’s nor my funds had changed significantly.
I declared that I’d leave all my money at the gambling house as collateral and continue the match the next day before finally departing.
[Intuition proficiency 98.84%]
That was the result of last night.
Compared to yesterday, proficiency had risen by roughly 1.8%.
Considering I’d already invested over three months solely into training Intuition, last night’s growth was enormous.
The problem was that what I truly wanted was the [Trait] obtained after mastering every gambling skill.
That trait was precisely why I’d risked leaving the Wanderers’ Inn—the safest hiding place available—and gambled through the entire night.
“Ehh…”
By now, Yeo Ilye had almost certainly finished digesting her enlightenment.
From this point onward, nobody could predict what she might do.
She might dismiss everything involving me as insignificant and simply return to Mount Cang Sect.
Or—
She might decide that the fact she gained life-changing enlightenment from a mere wandering warrior was so humiliating that killing me became her number one priority.
Which meant returning to the gambling house tonight would be incomparably more dangerous than yesterday.
Still, I had no choice.
The only thing I could rely on now was that trait.
Even if it meant risking my life, I had to go.
I was just finishing the last of the broth while thinking that—
When suddenly my eyes met Yeo Ilye’s directly as she entered the Wanderers’ Inn.
“Yeo Ilye! How dare you come here!”
“You bitch!”
Shrrrng!
The wandering warriors instantly surrounded Yeo Ilye, but she merely glanced at them briefly before walking straight toward me.
Everyone had reflexively drawn their swords, but attacking Mount Cang Sect’s representative expert inside the Wanderers’ Inn would become an incident of enormous scale.
Even if the collective will of all wandering warriors supported it, actually striking first remained difficult.
And in a sudden situation like this, charging ahead without thinking realistically wasn’t possible.
Perhaps this too was the effect of a surprise attack.
Before the wanderers could recover from their confusion—
Before they could organize any concrete action—
Yeo Ilye had already arrived directly before me.
Naturally, I’d already lifted myself from my seat and shifted my legs into perfect position for escape.
“Benefactor.”
…What?
While I stood frozen in shock, Yeo Ilye lowered her head toward me and clasped her fists respectfully.
“Thanks to the martial principles you bestowed upon me yesterday, this Yeo has attained great enlightenment.”
This development had never once entered my predictions.
Long ago, there was a child whose entire family got slaughtered by wandering warriors before she entered Mount Cang Sect through the aid of acquaintances.
As expected, that child was Yeo Ilye.
And because I already knew through the game that her traumatic childhood was exactly why she became the Wanderer Crusher, I’d never imagined something like this could happen.
Considering Yeo Ilye’s personality and past, I figured she’d rather bite off her own tongue and die than lower her head to a wandering warrior.
Yet now she was doing exactly that right before my eyes, leaving me utterly speechless.
“From the rumors I heard of Hero Yeo, I believed you were not the sort to bow your head before a mere wandering warrior.”
In other words:
“Aren’t you the psycho wanderer-crusher obsessed with slaughtering wanderers?”
I’d phrased it politely, but that was the true meaning.
Yet Yeo Ilye merely shook her head quietly.
“My benefactor is not a wandering warrior.”
Looks like she developed heart demons after all.
I subtly shifted backward again, preparing to flee.
Sometimes people failed to properly digest enlightenment and ended up consumed by inner demons instead.
Seeing this level of cognitive dissonance, she definitely didn’t seem sane.
“You are simply my benefactor.”
…Was this Yeo Ilye’s own form of psychological compromise?
Either way, I slowly settled my hips back into place.
“This is my debt-token acknowledging our bond of favor and obligation. And though you may find it shameless for me to ask such a thing of my benefactor… the affairs of sects remain the affairs of sects. Might I ask you to keep silent regarding yesterday’s events?”
“I understand.”
The fact Mount Cang Sect and Gwangyang Sect had joined hands was actually valuable information.
But it was useless to me.
Mount Cang Sect already knew I possessed that information.
So if rumors suddenly spread about the relationship between Gwangyang Sect and Mount Cang Sect?
They’d immediately realize I was the one who leaked it.
Even beyond those calculations, becoming entangled in major sect affairs would inevitably affect my reputation value somehow.
I’d end up crushed between giant sects and smaller factions like a shrimp caught in whale battles.
There was absolutely no reason for me to open my mouth.
“The timing and place are unfortunate, forcing me to withdraw after finally meeting my benefactor… please forgive me. I shall await the day you someday visit our sect.”
Yeo Ilye gave one final respectful greeting and turned away.
“Stop.”
Well—
She tried to leave.
Yeo Ilye had absolutely maintained a rational attitude toward me.
Giving me her debt-token meant publicly acknowledging an official bond of favor and obligation.
In other words, unless I demanded something utterly beyond reason, she had effectively declared she would fulfill any request I made.
She truly came to the Wanderers’ Inn acting rationally.
But karma built up over years of tormenting wandering warriors wouldn’t simply disappear.
It wasn’t strange at all that people harboring resentment toward her existed within this inn.
The three wandering warriors currently blocking her path were exactly those kinds of people.
If they attacked Mount Cang Sect disciple Yeo Ilye here, they’d instantly become enemies of the entire Murim world.
And yet their hatred ran so deep they were prepared to fight regardless.
But before they could even voice their grudges—
Swoosh!
A streak of light sliced through the air.
Clang!
The wanderers stared in horror.
Even the man whose blade got cut cleanly in half opened his mouth in shock.
A radiant aura wrapped around Yeo Ilye’s sword.
Sword Aura.
Sword Qi.
Sword Gang.
Including myself, most of the wandering warriors present had never witnessed Sword Aura before.
The reality of it felt entirely different from mere stories.
I’d seen Sword Aura countless times through game screens—
But could a tiger viewed in pictures ever compare to a tiger standing directly before your eyes?
The sheer embodiment of destruction sent chills down my spine and shook my soul so hard I couldn’t look away.
Yeo Ilye was still Yeo Ilye.
Anyone could tell from her overwhelming presence alone that if they blocked her path even once more, they wouldn’t survive.
“Do not dirty my ears with your petty grudges.”
The wanderers slowly retreated beneath her razor-sharp pressure.
“Look at the things you yourselves do within Sichuan Murim. Who forced you into such actions? You willingly drench yourselves in blood and filth, yet dare speak of debts, loyalty, and the path of humanity?”
Yeo Ilye’s shout itself resembled a shockwave.
The Wanderers’ Inn trembled violently as dust rained from the rafters overhead.
“The only reason I maintain courtesy here today is for my benefactor’s sake. Trash should disappear.”
She strode forward without hesitation.
Though the wanderers had drawn weapons, they all retreated step by step.
Not a single one attacked Yeo Ilye’s back.
The Sword Aura glittering like starlight was only part of the problem.
More than that—
The realm of transcendence itself.
Even someone like me could feel the massive vortex of qi radiating from her.
The overwhelming pressure compressed hearts like the depths of the ocean and shredded my pitiful internal energy strand by strand.
That immense power erased the very concept of “success” from the minds of wanderers who’d briefly considered ambushing her.
After sending me one final greeting with her eyes, Yeo Ilye disappeared.
And then—
All that remained were the gazes of the wandering warriors staring directly at me.