The Jade Bamboo Token and the Dark Dragon Pearl
“……A jade bamboo token?”
Before Su Hwa-seon’s words had even faded, Ju Yu-ryeon snatched the jade bamboo token from her hand.
“It’s real! Where did you even get this?”
“I received it from Teacher Yoo.”
Ju Yu-ryeon flipped the token over and over, examining it closely. But then she narrowed her eyes and looked straight at Yoo Eunhyeon.
“This is the Heavenly Martial Alliance’s invitation letter… Why did you give this to me?”
Yoo Eunhyeon simply shrugged, as if he had no idea why the invitation had been placed in her hands. He had indeed accepted the token, but he had never truly understood its purpose.
Ju Yu-ryeon spread her fingers to illustrate, beginning her explanation.
“In the Heavenly Martial Alliance, people are invited with these tokens. There are four grades—plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo—ranked in descending order of prestige. Plum is the lowest, bamboo the highest.”
“So then… this jade bamboo token is the highest grade.”
“Exactly. The token you received is only given when the Heavenly Martial Alliance wishes to invite its most honored guests. Even among them, there are fewer than ten of these.”
Yoo Eunhyeon’s face darkened noticeably at the words. Receiving such a rare token from the Heavenly Martial Alliance could never be a casual summons. Realizing this, his shoulders grew even heavier.
“Why are you making that face? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I received one too.”
Yoo Eunhyeon pulled a black bead from his pocket and placed it on the table. The heavy pearl rolled across the wood and came to rest before Su Hwa-seon.
“This… is the Dark Dragon Pearl…”
Su Hwa-seon’s face turned deathly pale, her lips trembling. Ju Yu-ryeon gasped and pointed at the bead.
“I-This is the Dark Dragon Pearl?!”
“I only heard rumors from my father, but the appearance matches perfectly.”
Su Hwa-seon examined the bead from every angle, then let out a soft sigh.
“Eunhyeon-ah… you didn’t fight with him, did you?”
“Yes. He called it a demonic cult entry permit.”
“A demonic cult entry permit… That’s ridiculous.”
“Eh? It’s not an entry permit?”
Since he had never even heard the name before, Yoo Eunhyeon could only ask innocently. Ju Yu-ryeon stared in disbelief.
“This token is given only to the direct descendants of the Thousand-Year Dark Demon, the Demonic Cult Lord. No matter how much your grandmother is a demonic cultivator, she cannot simply hand out such things without his permission. You… have you been involved with the Demonic Cult?”
Yoo Eunhyeon looked to Su Hwa-seon for guidance. When she gave a subtle nod, he began to recount everything.
“So… he proposed marriage to my daughter to lure me into the Demonic Cult. And So Biwon tried to recruit me into the Heavenly Martial Alliance through my disciples.”
Ju Yu-ryeon’s eyes widened.
“Then you met both of them?”
“Yes, though it was purely by chance.”
“Wow… Now everything finally makes sense.”
Ju Yu-ryeon nodded as if the pieces were finally falling into place.
At that moment, Su Hwa-seon, who had been waiting for the conversation to end, looked at the jade bamboo token and the Dark Dragon Pearl in Ju Yu-ryeon’s hands.
“It seems neither of them plans to give up on Eunhyeon.”
The air in the room grew deathly still at those meaningful words. Yoo Eunhyeon nodded in agreement.
“Maybe… even this was part of their plan.”
Yoo Eunhyeon had already suspected as much. The people who had turned his farm into a wasteland to force him out of the Demonic Cult had certainly not been acting on a whim. But Ju Yu-ryeon’s voice rose in disbelief.
“That’s impossible. So the rumors about the gold vein were also fabricated? I don’t know about the others, but the village has been buzzing with gold vein rumors for at least half a year. That was when they were deep in closed-door cultivation.”
“Even if they had prepared before entering closed-door cultivation, it still wouldn’t be impossible.”
Su Hwa-seon, who had remained silent during Ju Yu-ryeon’s protest, finally spoke.
“I knew Eunhyeon would eventually return here.”
The moment those words left her mouth, Ju Yu-ryeon’s face turned ashen.
“So the Black Lotus Merchant Alliance was involved too?”
“Yes. When the great ones move, rumors spread naturally. The gold vein rumor was just a way to lure people here. Their true purpose was to stir up trouble at this place itself.”
Su Hwa-seon closed her eyes for a moment and sighed softly.
“Gather people, disturb the village, prevent farming… They wanted to make sure Eunhyeon could never settle on this land. Of course, that’s not something the Thousand-Year Dark Demon couldn’t do. The man who toppled Mount Taesan with nothing more than a thought…”
Ju Yu-ryeon’s mouth fell open in shock.
“So the conflict between the Cheonhwang Paeundae and the Jeongeumdae destroyed the fields—not because they had already been destroyed, but because they were the ones who destroyed them from the start?”
The more she understood, the more stunned Ju Yu-ryeon became.
“So in the end, the Thousand-Year Dark Demon wanted to cause chaos and force Eunhyeon to come out of the Murim because he thought Eunhyeon would just stay here farming forever?”
“That’s the only way it makes sense. But… when So Biwon sensed the disturbance, he sent the jade bamboo token and his people to investigate.”
“And then the Thousand-Year Dark Demon sent that terrifying grandmother in response?”
“I doubt it. Their real goal was to bring me back here and give me this.”
Yoo Eunhyeon took the jade bamboo token and the Dark Dragon Pearl back from Ju Yu-ryeon and placed them on the table, muttering.
Ju Yu-ryeon’s mouth fell open in disbelief.
“What exactly did you do to those two to make them want to drag you in so badly?”
“I don’t know either. Teaching someone how to farm twice and it becomes a Murim achievement.”
Since no satisfactory answer came, Ju Yu-ryeon simply stared blankly at the table. The pearl and token gleamed with a faint luster. Her lips moved slowly.
“So… it’s not over yet?”
Once Ju Yu-ryeon reached her conclusion, both Yoo Eunhyeon and Su Hwa-seon nodded silently. The Black Lotus Merchant Alliance and Tiger-Chasing Sect had withdrawn for now, but neither was willing to stop there.
“The situation is calm now, but if Eunhyeon keeps farming here, they’ll move again. So Biwon might respect his position, but the Thousand-Year Dark Demon will never give up. And if he doesn’t, So Biwon will have no choice but to act as well.”
“That makes sense. Even if it’s not the Black Lotus Merchant Alliance or Tiger-Chasing Sect, something similar will happen. No… it might even be worse this time.”
Su Hwa-seon’s calm words convinced Ju Yu-ryeon that this was inevitable. She nodded.
Being targeted by both the Demonic Cult and the Heavenly Martial Alliance was already exhausting enough in the Murim.
“Is there any solution?”
“Probably not. Sigh… We must have underestimated everything. We thought the factions would keep each other in check and leave us out of it…”
Yoo Eunhyeon’s words were true, yet Ju Yu-ryeon had no ready answer. In her mind, the best course would have been to seek help from the Uiseon Suga. But with both factions involved, that was impossible. Asking for help could destroy the Uiseon Suga itself. Yoo Eunhyeon and Su Hwa-seon must have realized the same and chosen not to ask.
Just from the tokens left behind, one could guess how those two viewed him.
“What if I just pick one side and let the other come over?”
“That’s not a good choice either. The best thing in these situations is to stay out of them from the beginning.”
“I know that too… but I can’t. Even if we’re neutral, trying to walk the tightrope in this situation is too dangerous.”
“You’re right. Being neutral is ideal, but being neither would be even worse. And right now both sides seem determined to drag you in no matter what.”
Su Hwa-seon and Ju Yu-ryeon finally gave up and consulted each other. They discussed the problem at length, but no clear solution emerged.
“In that case… there’s nothing left to do.”
Yoo Eunhyeon stood up from his seat. Both women turned their attention to him.
“What are you going to do? Do you have a plan?”
“I’m going to follow the flow. There are times when farming also involves situations like this.”
Ju Yu-ryeon tilted her head in confusion. Yoo Eunhyeon spoke slowly.
“In farming, there are two things you can’t do without: water and sunlight. Do you know what they are?”
“Um… water and sunlight, of course.”
Even though Ju Yu-ryeon was not as experienced as Yoo Eunhyeon, she had worked in the fields enough to answer without difficulty.
“You’re right. But the important part is that neither can be missing. The order may differ slightly, but in the end, both are essential to growing a good crop.”
Ju Yu-ryeon looked stunned.
“You understood what I was trying to say? If one of them is missing, that’s what happens. You can provide both water and sunlight, but this situation is different. Choosing one side makes the other your enemy, right?”
Ju Yu-ryeon raised her voice in frustration. Yoo Eunhyeon nodded as if he understood.
“So you’re saying we have to choose one, but since both are important, we can’t decide which one?”
“Yes.”
“Actually, the premise is wrong. There’s no need to choose a side at all.”
Yoo Eunhyeon paused, then added calmly.
“Why choose only one when both are important?”
Yoo Eunhyeon smiled faintly, as if hiding the true meaning, and slowly curled his hand into a fist.
“I’ll just take a little from each.”