Chapter 33
The place where my eyes had gone was the wall of the cave, where the Thirteen Realms had carved their characters into the stone. But that wall held far more writing than just the words left by the Thirteen Realms.
Read them one by one, and they could be made into sentences. I just couldn’t make sense of what those sentences meant.
“A coded language?”
I’d often had to decode ciphers in my previous life. Usually because I’d stumbled across a map to a hidden martial art or the location of some divine weapon.
That didn’t mean I was professionally good at it. Ciphers came in far too many forms, and back then I’d had the luxury of endless time by using my power to turn time back.
But right now, I didn’t have the time to decipher every line of this code and think it through.
“I’ll take only what I need.”
I’d already confirmed the cave’s location. So the only coded message that mattered to me now was one thing.
My gaze went to the cipher left by the Thirteen Realms.
Three Knots.
Ten Defeats.
Three Knots, Ten Defeats... The third knot and ten failures?
It was utterly incomprehensible. Some kind of proverb? But nothing like that came to mind among the sayings I knew.
I memorized those four characters. Then I turned and walked over to the Thirteen Realms’ corpse.
I grabbed the head rolling on the floor.
“Sure enough, this bastard’s the same too.”
Right after I subdued the Twenty-First Realm, the first thing I’d noticed was the faint trace of caution still left on his face.
“Human-skin mask.”
He’d been wearing a human-skin mask. For a moment, a chill tugged at the back of my neck. And it made sense.
Just looking at these bastards told me they were the ones running around stirring up trouble in the orthodox sects while wearing human-skin masks.
A human-skin mask wasn’t something you could easily come by, but it wasn’t impossible either.
If you wore a low-grade mask, you could fool a mediocre martial artist, but not an expert.
The real problem was a high-grade human-skin mask. Unless you were an unusually sharp expert, you wouldn’t notice it even if you concentrated.
Well, thanks to that mask, I’d been able to fool the Thirteen Realms so easily this time.
“If he hadn’t been wearing one, he never would’ve shown himself in front of me.”
I brought a hand up to his face and tore off the Twenty-First Realm’s mask.
I wouldn’t be needing it again anyway.
Then I stripped the Thirteen Realms’ mask off in the same way.
The moment I saw his bare face, I couldn’t help grimacing.
“This one too... it’s the same as that bastard earlier.”
The Twenty-First Realm and the Thirteen Realms were no different. Their faces had been so badly burned they were nearly impossible to identify.
I couldn’t think of any brilliant way to distinguish them on the spot, so I decided to stop trying to solve that problem for now.
There were more immediate things I needed to deal with.
“Should I search him too?”
I began patting down the Thirteen Realms’ body. There had to be some clue on him.
But to my disappointment, all I found on him were a handful of throwing daggers, a few linked rings, and a single ebony token.
Namgung Clan. Namgung Hwan.
“Bold, aren’t you? Almost like the swordsmanship of the Murim Alliance Leader.”
The lettering carved into the ebony token, bearing the origin and the name, was written with striking confidence. It had clearly been cut into the wood with a sword, not engraved by hand.
“More importantly, Namgung Hwan...”
Namgung Hwan. A name I had no memory of. Once I returned to the Murim Alliance, the first thing I’d have to do was check whether Namgung Hwan was still alive.
My guess was that he was already dead.
“How far have these bastards spread?”
What was certain was that they’d infiltrated the Namgung Clan as well. Which meant there was no choice but to assume Tiger Mask had ears and eyes everywhere in the orthodox martial world.
I lifted the Thirteen Realms’ corpse and carried it deeper into the cave.
“That should be enough to tidy things up. Now then, the thing I need to deal with is...”
My eyes went to the sword rolling on the ground.
“Just the sword...”
Song Wol and the Thirteen Realms had used this sword, and they’d behaved as though driven insane, mad with slaughter. So I couldn’t help wondering whether it was wise to touch it now.
But only for a moment.
“I came into that prison specifically to get this sword. What’s there to think about?”
I put aside the useless thoughts and grabbed the sword.
The instant I took hold of it, a strange exhilaration washed over me. My body gradually grew hot, and I could feel a low, humming vibration running through the blade. Then, as if sending a telepathic message, someone’s voice seeped into my head.
Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut. Cut.
No, it rang out like mad. And before I knew it, that voice had leaked out through my own mouth.
“Cut.”
My gaze naturally settled on the sword. And I felt the urge to swing it. No, it was more than that. The desire to cut something kept swelling until it began to leak killing intent.
Wiiing.
The stronger my killing intent became, the more violently the sword vibrated, and the red line along its blade began to deepen.
If someone had been standing in front of me, I would have cut them down for sure.
That is, if I were some ordinary martial artist.
Crack!
I slapped my own cheek hard with the hand that wasn’t holding the sword. The stinging pain spread across my face, and in an instant my head cleared.
“What a damn fuss you’re making. A sword, of all things.”
Divine weapon? Who cares. My thinking was simple. A sword is a sword. The one who wields it is the martial artist.
How dare a sword try to seize a person and shake them around?
I drew out my internal energy and forced it into the sword. In response, the sword vibrated even more fiercely, as if it refused to accept my energy.
“Let’s see who wins, you bastard.”
I slammed most of the internal energy in my body into it.
“Ghk.”
I felt the internal energy rush into the sword in an instant. At the same time, a red sword aura gathered along the blade.
I swung the sword toward the cave entrance. Riding the blade, the sword aura shot out past the entrance and into the open air.
Crack.
Crack, crack.
Crack-crack-crack!
The sound of trees being cut apart came from the direction the sword aura had flown.
“Huuuu...”
I could feel the blood vessels in the arm holding the sword twisting painfully. But there was no more exhilaration, and the sword no longer rang.
I could feel my mind settling down little by little. The sword, after going berserk and collapsing like an exhausted wild boar, gave off no response at all.
“So I spent ten years with a sword like this? I can see why it drove people insane.”
I fastened the sword to my waist. Then I stepped out of the cave. And there it was.
Countless trees had been severed wherever the sword aura had passed.
“A divine weapon? The rumors are exaggerated. It’s just a sword that cuts a little better.”
I used lightness skill and headed for the Murim Alliance.
I said it was just a sword that cut a little better, but that was underselling it. Its cutting power was more than enough to be called a divine weapon.
The reason was simple: it had sliced the trees perfectly without crushing them.
If you asked me why a clean cut made it a divine weapon, I had only one answer.
I’d only condensed my internal energy and fired it out.
I hadn’t put any subtle control into it, no intent to cut, nothing like that. I had simply released my energy as it was.
And yet the sword aura emitted from the blade had sliced the trees perfectly in two.
While moving at light speed, I looked down and checked the sword.
“You really do seem like you’ve kept only the worth of a sword and nothing else.”
* * *
By the time I reached the Murim Alliance, the hot midday sun was beating down on me. I didn’t stop my lightness skill and went straight to the Alliance Leader’s Hall.
Of course, I did it without telling a soul.
The giant doors of the Alliance Leader’s Hall came into view. There were too many guards stationed in front of it, so I couldn’t just walk inside.
They were probably holding another tedious meeting in there.
I spread my perception wide. Inside the hall, there were many people, just as there usually were.
Someone was excited about something again today, and someone else was listening quietly. Among them was the person carrying the largest aura.
Alliance Leader.
I sent a transmission to the Murim Alliance Leader, Namgung Cheon. After a brief pause, his reply came back.
- Are you Baek Mugeuk?
- Yes. That’s right.
- Are you hiding in the Alliance Leader’s Hall?
- I’m still outside.
- Every single thing you do is madness.
- I’ll take that as a compliment.
- Wherever you go, trouble seems to follow.
- That wasn’t my intention.
Namgung Cheon’s transmission fell silent. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but it probably wasn’t anything good.
- Why don’t you request a proper meeting instead of skulking around like this?
- I have my reasons.
- Haa... Fine. What reason?
- I’ll tell you when we meet.
- I’m not exactly a man with endless free time.
- Do you know Namgung Hwan?
- Namgung Hwan? How do you know that boy?
- Please check whether he’s alive. I think it would be best if we spoke after that.
- Did you just say alive or dead?
Namgung Cheon’s aura sharpened instantly. As his presence changed, the noisy hall fell silent in an instant.
- Yes. Please verify whether he lives.
- Come to the rear garden behind the Murim Alliance at the hour of the Horse.
With that, the transmission cut off.
At the same time, the doors of the Alliance Leader’s Hall opened, and Namgung Cheon walked out.
Seeing his sharp expression, I immediately understood he intended to check it himself.
I left the Murim Alliance the moment everyone still inside the hall had disappeared.
“Tired.”
I hadn’t rested properly for days. It felt like one incident had been following another without pause.
“What I need to do next is...”
Grrr-rumble!
My stomach growled so loudly it felt like an earthquake. On top of that, the people around me started walking away to avoid me.
“I really stink of blood.”
A familiar feeling came over me. Yes. It was just like the day I first returned to the Baek Clan.
“Fine. Even Mount Geumgang is best enjoyed after a meal. Food first!”
I used lightness skill and headed for the White Lotus Inn.
Since I hadn’t eaten properly while I was in prison, I resumed eating and bathing at a leisurely pace. And before long, the hour of the Horse I’d promised Namgung Cheon was approaching.
I walked toward the rear garden.
The rear garden. It was the Murim Alliance Leader’s private garden, which meant there were endless rumors about it.
Most of them were things like these.
“No one who enters the rear garden ever comes out alive.”
“In truth, the rear garden is where the Alliance Leader stores his spirit medicines.”
Things like that.
“I’m getting to go somewhere I never even managed to step foot in in my previous life, and this time I’m here this quickly.”
Not that I’d been unable to go there before. I’d just been too lazy to bother. What did it matter? However you looked at it, this would still be my first time.
“It’s more atmospheric than I expected.”
When I reached the entrance to the rear garden, what appeared before me was a dense stand of bamboo and a single martial artist standing guard in front of it.
“I’m Baek Mugeuk.”
At my words, he merely gave a slight nod and said nothing.
Is this the Alliance Leader’s bodyguard?
There had been rumors since my previous life. They said the Alliance Leader had a guard, but no one knew his name and no one had ever seen his face.
Of course, I hadn’t seen him either. I’d known there was someone hidden near the Murim Alliance Leader back then, but...
I wasn’t curious, and I couldn’t be bothered.
In my judgment, that guard was at the peak of the highest tier, maybe even the limit of that realm.
“Follow me.”
The guard’s low voice came to me. He moved naturally through the very center of the bamboo. Then, all at once, he seemed to be drawn into the bamboo itself.
“Oh? So there was a formation inside the Murim Alliance. No wonder the rumors are so thick.”
I admired the formation and hesitated, so the guard stretched his neck slightly and looked back at me. Then he spoke briefly.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“I’m coming. I’m coming.”
The inside of the formation wasn’t much different from the outside. There was a vast bamboo grove stretching everywhere. But there was no ground you could simply step on.
Without turning his head, the guard spoke.
“Just follow exactly the path I tread.”
“Hm... What happens if I don’t step on the same spots?”
He turned his head slightly and gave me a flat look.
“You’ll be trapped in the formation for the rest of your life, and this bamboo grove will become your grave.”
“Huh? You’re joking, right?”
The guard said nothing more and continued walking in silence.
After walking for about half an incense stick’s time, the bamboo that had been blocking my view vanished, and a spacious garden spread out before me. There was a pond in the center of the garden, and a small island in the middle of that pond.
He was standing on that island.
The Murim Alliance Leader, Namgung Cheon.
“The Alliance Leader is waiting for you.”
As if his duty ended there, the guard disappeared back into the formation.
I launched myself toward the island where the Murim Alliance Leader stood.
“Baek Mugeuk, at your service, Alliance Leader.”
I clasped my hands and bowed my head. At that instant, Namgung Cheon’s sharp voice struck out.
“Namgung Hwan. Where is that child?!”
At the same time, a surge of internal energy like the open sea began pressing down on my body.
The force crashing over me like a flood made it feel as if I could hardly breathe.