Let’s Do a Job Together, You and Me (1)
“Hmm.”
At the low murmur in his ear, Jin Hyeon gave a slight shiver and carefully lifted his head.
There was the Taoist crown set neatly atop the man’s head. The hair was combed back in immaculate order. A face as red as a jujube, and a black beard that hung all the way down to his navel.
The man before him, with the appearance of Guan Yu come to life, was none other than Heo Do-jin-in, the current Sect Leader of Wudang.
Heo Do-jin-in had been thinking with his eyes closed, and after a while, he opened them slowly.
“So Mu Jin was defeated?”
“Yes. That is correct, Sect Leader.”
“By Mount Hua’s third-generation disciple?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
Just looking at his expressionless face, it was hard to tell what he was thinking.
“The Mount Hua Divine Dragon, was it? The rumors were true, then. If he cut down ten of Zhongnan’s second-generation disciples in a row, there’s nothing strange about him doing something like this.”
Jin Hyeon bit his lip lightly.
He wanted to say that Wudang and Zhongnan were different, but he was in no position to speak. Wudang had been just as thoroughly defeated by Mount Hua.
“Where is Mu Jin?”
“His injuries are serious, so we carried him to the medicine hall.”
“Serious injuries, you say…”
Heo Do-jin-in nodded slowly.
“Jin Hyeon.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Do you know why this happened?”
“...This disciple is foolish.”
“No.”
Jin Hyeon lifted his head a little.
He didn’t dare ask again, so he could only show his confusion with his eyes, and Heo Do-jin-in explained.
“It is because of the nature of Wudang’s martial arts. The more one learns them, the stronger one becomes. As one’s inner power deepens, as one’s enlightenment grows, and as the years spent contemplating the sword lengthen, the power swells like a snowball rolling downhill.”
“That is true.”
“There are those one might easily defeat in the future, but before one’s inner power has accumulated, they are not so easy to overcome. I assure you, if Mu Jin had trained in another sect’s martial arts instead of Wudang’s, he would never have lost to that Mount Hua Divine Dragon boy.”
Jin Hyeon bowed his head deeply.
Even if the words were true, they could not be accepted. They were an insult to Wudang’s martial arts. Even if they were false, he could not call them false, because they had come from the Sect Leader’s mouth.
“Do you understand, Jin Hyeon?”
“This disciple finds it hard to fully grasp.”
“That is why Yakseon’s refinement method is needed.”
“Ah…”
Jin Hyeon nodded.
If Yakseon’s refinement method truly surpassed Wudang’s current methods, it could make up for the weaknesses in Wudang’s martial arts. Then Wudang would be able to rise as the greatest sect under heaven.
There were two meanings to repeating something everyone already knew.
One was a reconsideration of the goal, and the other was a reprimand directed at Jin Hyeon for returning after failing to properly complete such an important task.
“I apologize, Sect Leader.”
“It was not your fault.”
Heo Do-jin-in slowly stroked his beard.
“We expected the Mount Hua Divine Dragon to come in person. But I did not think he was strong enough to defeat Mu Jin. I believed that someone as skilled as you would be more than capable of dealing with the Mount Hua Divine Dragon. It seems my judgment was mistaken.”
“I am sorry.”
That was all he could say.
“Now then. How was he? The Mount Hua Divine Dragon you saw with your own eyes.”
“...”
Jin Hyeon bit his lip slightly.
How was he supposed to describe that utterly absurd man?
He had countless things he wanted to say, but in the end, only one thing came out of his mouth.
“...He is a monster.”
Heo Do-jin-in’s gaze deepened.
“The other disciples of Mount Hua were strong as well. Shamefully, this disciple could not overcome them either. But... the Mount Hua Divine Dragon is on an entirely different level from them. The other disciples were merely strong, but from the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, I felt an enormous wall—one that could not be overcome.”
“Hmm…”
Another heavy murmur rumbled from Heo Do-jin-in’s throat.
To that extent?
Mu Jin’s defeat at the hands of Mount Hua’s Cheongmyeong had already been shocking enough. But Jin Hyeon’s assessment now meant that Cheongmyeong was not merely that much stronger.
This child, Jin Hyeon, is stronger than Mu Jin was at his age.
Given enough time, when he reached Mu Jin’s age, he might become twice as strong. And such a child felt a wall in front of Cheongmyeong?
The Wudang of the next generation may be pressed down beneath Mount Hua.
That was a grave matter indeed.
“Jin Hyeon.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Can you go again?”
Jin Hyeon raised his head sharply to look at Heo Do-jin-in.
“Do I have the right to do so?”
“You clearly made a mistake.”
“...”
“So I should give you a chance to make up for it. Preparations for the group departing for Namyang are nearly complete. This time, the elders will go in person. Once preparations are finished, you will go to Namyang again as well. And you will excavate the Sword Tomb.”
“This disciple will surely succeed and return...”
“I’m not finished yet.”
Jin Hyeon shut his mouth tightly.
Heo Do-jin-in’s voice, lowered even further, drilled into his ears.
“That Mount Hua Divine Dragon boy is probably stomping his feet right now because he still can’t decipher the treasure map. And if he is as clever as they say, he will be waiting for us to come. Then, at the proper moment, he’ll try to seize the refinement method.”
“Ah...”
“If the Sword Tomb is shaped the way I expect it to be... then no one outside will know what happens inside.”
Jin Hyeon’s eyes trembled slightly.
No way...
“I trust you understand what I mean. Make up for your mistake yourself.”
Jin Hyeon clenched his fist tightly.
“This disciple...”
Then a cold light entered his determined eyes.
“I will surely complete your command and return.”
* * *
Luoyang.
Hong Dae-gwang, the branch leader of the Beggars’ Sect’s Luoyang branch, slouched with one leg propped up on his desk and let out a long yawn.
“Haaaaaah!”
He rubbed his mouth with a dirty sleeve and picked up one of the reports on the desk with a bored expression.
“These days, nothing interesting ever happens.”
Such peaceful times.
For the past few years, no major incident had shaken the martial world. If one wanted to put it kindly, it was a time of peace and prosperity; if one wanted to put it bluntly, it was nothing but an unchanging string of days.
Luoyang was no different, so Hong Dae-gwang, the Beggars’ Sect branch leader in Luoyang, simply idled away his time.
I should’ve refused the branch leader post.
Nothing happening and nothing to do were not the same thing.
In this world, there were countless tasks that were not especially grand, but still had to be handled. Things that would not cause immediate trouble if left alone, but would become a problem if they piled up.
Hong Dae-gwang’s role was to keep those things from stacking up.
“Can’t some incident just blow up already?”
Then at least he could get out of this boring branch office.
Though calling it an office was generous; it was really nothing more than a collapsing shack with a desk someone had scavenged from who-knew-where.
“Let’s see...”
The report he was reading contained information brought in by beggars.
The beggars of Luoyang wandered the streets asking for alms, seeing and hearing all manner of things. They passed what they learned to the beggars at the branch, who then organized the information and reported it to Hong Dae-gwang.
His job today was to pick out the useful information from that report.
“Let’s see. The Fenging Tower has gone under. Too bad—the food there was decent. The owner was kind too, always accepting alms with a smile. Hmm, so that’s why it collapsed?”
With a disinterested flick, he tossed one sheet of the report onto the floor.
“A quarrel broke out between the Luoyang Seonghwa Hall and Jungjeongbo, and the disciples ended up brawling. Seonghwa Hall won, and five of Jungjeongbo’s disciples were carried off to the clinic... Should I even classify this as a martial world incident?”
Another sheet landed beside the desk.
“The Choi family in the lower district gave birth to quadruplets without complications... These people are really reporting anything these days.”
Hong Dae-gwang crumpled the paper in his hand and hurled it to the floor.
“Ugh. Not a single proper piece of information...”
He spread out another report and read through it with a listless gaze.
“Wudang’s disciples were defeated by Mount Hua’s disciples in Namyang.”
Hong Dae-gwang snorted.
“Now they’re saying all sorts of ridiculous crap. This guy’s dead.”
He dropped the paper to the floor and started reading the next report.
“A spar between Mount Hua’s second-generation disciples and Wudang’s second-generation disciples took place in Namyang on behalf of Hwayeong Gate and Zhongdao Hall. Mount Hua was victorious, and Zhongdao Hall withdrew from Namyang.”
Hong Dae-gwang straightened his back in an instant.
Wait. Is this for real?
His hands began to move faster. He quickly sorted through every report containing similar content, then even picked up the one he had already thrown on the floor and read it again. His eyes started to shake.
“Mount Hua’s second-generation disciples beat Wudang’s second-generation disciples?”
It was an unbelievable story.
But the same report kept coming in over and over again. Taken together, the reports said that everyone in Namyang had witnessed Mount Hua’s disciples defeating Wudang’s disciples...
No way that many people could all agree to lie, could they?
Then it really meant Mount Hua’s disciples had brought down Wudang’s disciples. The fact that Zhongdao Hall had left Namyang and Hwayeong Gate had remained was proof enough.
“Hnnngh.”
Hong Dae-gwang’s mind began racing.
This is not normal.
Mount Hua had already defeated Zhongnan once. At the time, it had become a huge topic in the martial world, but since both Mount Hua and Zhongnan had remained silent afterward and made no remarkable moves, the matter had not grown any larger.
But now Mount Hua had defeated Wudang as well.
One time can be a coincidence. But there’s no such thing as two coincidences!
That meant Mount Hua’s younger generation was several times stronger than public opinion believed. If so...
Does that mean Mount Hua could rise again if a little more time passes?
If that was true, this was a major incident.
Hadn’t Mount Hua already been expelled from the Nine Great Sects? If a place like that regained its power, the balance of forces in the martial world would inevitably be twisted out of shape.
That was how chaos began.
“Hmm. Maybe Shaanxi... Hm?”
As Hong Dae-gwang flipped through the reports, his eyes widened.
“...Mu Jin? You’re saying Qingliu Sword Mu Jin lost consciousness and was seen being carried back to Wudang by Wudang disciples?”
What kind of nonsense was this now?
Mu Jin of the Qingliu Sword was one of the Wudang Three Swords. What on earth could have happened to make someone like him collapse unconscious?
What the hell is happening in Namyang?
It seemed this definitely required investigation. Just as Hong Dae-gwang was about to call in his subordinates from outside—
Crack!
The shack door was yanked open as if it would be torn from its hinges, and one of the Beggars’ Sect’s three-ribbon beggars burst inside with a face drained white.
“Br-branch Leader! You need to come out and see this!”
“Huh?”
Hong Dae-gwang stared at the beggar in bafflement.
Come out and see this?
Did some mere three-ribbon beggar just tell the branch leader what to do?
I guess I’ve been too lenient with these beggars lately.
Sometimes you had to break a few bowls to remind people who the king beggar was. Today, he would set the discipline straight—
“Hiiiiiik!”
“Y-you can’t go in!”
“S-stop him!”
Huh?
Hong Dae-gwang whipped his head around.
What was all this sudden commotion?
“What’s all the racket—!”
Just as he raised his voice to shout,
step. step. step.
He heard slow footsteps, and then someone calmly entered through the half-torn door.
“Haaahhh.”
Breath?
No, should he call that smoke?
Why was this kid blowing smoke out of his mouth? Trying to scare people to death?
The fellow who had come in without any permission cast his gaze around the room with wild, glinting eyes. Then he fixed it squarely on Hong Dae-gwang.
“You the branch leader here?”
“...”
Hong Dae-gwang stared at him, at a loss for words, then nodded anyway.
“Y-yes, I am.”
The one who had entered the room—
Cheongmyeong grinned and said,
“Let’s do a job together.”