Qualification to Have a Chance (5)
“We’re not from Jongnam.”
The warriors who had been eyeing us warily furrowed their brows at my words. In any case, they weren’t our enemies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
“Sheathe your swords.”
At my command, my wary juniors hesitated for a moment before slowly putting away their blades. Once we showed no sign of attacking, the warriors began to relax one by one.
“Why’d you come out from there? And what’s with that getup?”
They still seemed suspicious, tossing out questions. But was our state really that bad? I turned to check on my juniors.
……Yeah, it was pretty rough.
“Cough, we were heading for a different cave at first but ended up coming this way.”
It sounded ridiculous even to me, but what else could I say? We had no choice but to bluff.
And surprisingly, it worked.
“Looks like you got in over your head with greed and paid the price.”
“No need to fight since you’re not Jongnam.”
“Finding the spirit medicine comes first anyway.”
The warriors accepted it readily enough and soon lost interest in us. They all pulled out maps from the Beggars’ Sect and focused on finding their way.
“I’m telling you, we need to go this way!”
“No! The spot that appeared before wasn’t here!”
“Then go that way yourself!”
While they argued over directions, we slipped into the crowd. Even Dongryong’s face had regained a bit of color.
As the urgency faded, I started noticing people’s appearances. But why were these guys so pristine? Not a speck of blood or dirt on any of them.
Did they really not run into any Jongnam guys on the way here?
That explained why they hadn’t been too guarded when we strangers appeared. Traveling easy paths naturally dulled their vigilance.
“Senior Brother, they don’t seem to have fought at all so far. That’s why they dropped their guard so quickly.”
Eunho, as expected. He’d seen right through it. I should praise h……
“If we’d known, did we really need to come in from the opposite side?”
Huh? Was that little punk just sassing me?
Bad kids need discipline.
“Eunho.”
My voice made his shoulders twitch. Look at those slender lines—how could a swordsman’s shoulders be so delicate?
Smiling, I pulled two iron weights from my pack and handed them to him.
“Here.”
“……Sorry……”
“Yeah, whatever. Here.”
His eyes shook, but he clenched his fists tight.
“What’s the point of adding iron weights without using inner energy? It doesn’t make logical sense.”
Damn, he always nails the smart remarks.
So.
“Wanna try making it work illogically?”
“……”
In the end, Eunho took the weights. He seemed torn between ankles or wrists before settling on his ankles. Well, that much weight wouldn’t faze him anyway.
I scanned our surroundings again. Blending into the crowd was priority one. With this many eyes around, even Jongnam wouldn’t act rashly.
I nodded to my juniors, signaling them to merge deeper into the group, when—
“……Huh?”
I spotted the one person I least wanted to see. Shit, for real.
“Representative Jin, what are you doing here?”
Why was Cheol Sunjik such a clueless idiot? Didn’t he know when to butt in?
To avoid a scene, I lowered my voice. “Cough, things just ended up this way. But didn’t you say the Geomhyeon Group wasn’t coming in……”
“……No way.”
Now he was interrupting too. Ignoring me, Cheol Sunjik scanned us up and down, his face paling in shock.
“You broke through from the opposite side and made it here?”
Damn it, that’s why sharp guys are the worst. I tried to play dumb.
“No, right after punching through the entrance……”
“……So it was you who made the new entrance, Representative Jin.”
Aaaargh! I’d just confessed to blasting the hole myself.
Maybe it was that damn Jongnam expert’s curse messing with my head, but I couldn’t pick up on Cheol Sunjik’s sly implications at all.
No choice now. It was all or nothing.
“So what? You gonna take on Jongnam?”
To keep things quiet, I subtly drew my Black Dragon Sword halfway and glared at him.
“……Not like you to resort to threats, Representative Jin.”
If you toy with me, I turn thug too.
“I asked if you’re taking on Jongnam.”
“I entered here without Jongnam’s permission in the first place.”
Oh, right. A Geomhyeon Group disciple who should’ve been blocking outsiders at the new entrance was inside—Jongnam wouldn’t be thrilled.
As my excitement cooled and clarity returned, reason kicked back in.
“What guts brought you in here?”
Cheol Sunjik’s expression grew complicated at my question.
“……There’s something I wanted to see, so I came.”
“Something to see?”
His tone was dead serious.
“Yeah, there is.”
Putting on airs for no reason. In this bloodbath of a cave between warriors and Jongnam, what was there to see besides gore and corpses? Can’t fathom these scheming bastards’ minds.
“So you’re not here for the spirit medicine?”
“……You can’t just take it because you want it.”
He scowled like my question exhausted him.
“If you could get it, would you?”
“……What are you on about?”
But I didn’t buy it. How many inner energy cultivators or armed fighters could ignore spirit medicine right in front of them?
So.
“Do a job for me.”
“……”
Better to use him.
“Succeed, and I’ll give you five pun of Five Spirits Flower Oil.”
“……What scheme are you plotting now?”
“There’s this annoying guy tailing me. Block him for me.”
Cheol Sunjik’s eyes widened slightly.
“You think I……have the skill for that?”
I smirked, curling my lip.
“Who said you’re fighting him?”
“……?”
“You’ve got a specialty. Use that to block him.”
“My specialty?”
For the first time, he sounded genuinely curious.
“Stirring people up, driving them to the edge. Making them jump into the fire pit themselves—you’re good at that.”
“Representative Jin……”
Cheol Sunjik shot me a glare full of resentment.
But hey, I was just stating facts. That was his thing.
Still, his gaze stayed fierce. Fine, no helping it.
“Alright, I’m being generous. Eight pun.”
Even if it was easy for him, there was risk involved—he wouldn’t move for peanuts. He’d probably demand at least three or four hal. Key was to cap it under three. You needed at least seven hal of Five Spirits Flower Oil for a hundred Spirit Pills.
“Not asking you to risk your life—just get them fighting each other. Not hard for you.”
“……You make it sound simple—do you know how tough it is?”
Knew he’d say that. Whatever he came to see, sharp-as-nails Cheol Sunjik wouldn’t pass up a shot at spirit medicine.
Not a pushover, as expected.
“Fine, then out of generosity……”
“One hal.”
“Huh?”
What the hell? I tilted my head, thinking I misheard.
He continued. “If Representative Jin obtains the Five Spirits Flower Oil, give me one hal of it. Then I’ll block that mystery guy for you.”
Cheol Sunjik doing this? No way. He’d already calculated profits the second I proposed.
……One hal? What was going on?
As I opened my mouth to press him—
“……Senior Brother.”
Dongryong grabbed my arm, his face ashen.
Damn it, already closing in?
I had no clue what Cheol Sunjik was scheming, but we couldn’t waste more time. Deal it was.
“Fine. One hal.”
I extended my hand in a verbal pact, and he clasped it firmly. Then he stared at me intently.
This guy seriously ate something weird……
“……Make sure you survive……and keep your promise.”
Why end on such an ominous note?
“Got it.”
……Yeah, still didn’t like the guy.
Tatadak.
Cheol Sunjik watched Jin Sowoon’s group dash off the opposite way, letting out a small sigh.
What the hell is he thinking?
And iron weights on hands and feet in a life-or-death scramble? It was long proven that sandbag training was useless for inner energy users.
Everything about the guy—from one to ten—was baffling. Hanging around him made you feel yourself going weird too.
Bargaining over something he hadn’t even obtained yet.
But why did I negotiate?
His thoughts were spiraling when—
Swish—
He had to halt abruptly. He didn’t know who Jin Sowoon’s “annoying guy” was, but a figure with overwhelming menace was approaching.
“Jeez……”
A chuckle escaped him. The presence alone marked someone beyond ordinary.
Yet just “annoying.”
Cheol Sunjik tapped the shoulder of the warrior ahead. The man turned questioningly, and Cheol Sunjik murmured low.
“Mind hearing me out for a sec?”
To verify if Five Spirits Flower Oil would truly end up in his hands, there was no time to waste.
#
The minor palm strike from that Jongnam idiot earlier had rippled massively through the Heavenly Cave.
“Blocked here too.”
“Senior Brother, this way’s blocked too.”
“Here as well……”
Thanks to that fool, we’d been looping the same paths inside the cave. Plus, constantly avoiding Jongnam folks to get to the Five Spirits Flower Oil had kept us from closing in.
With the spirit medicine’s emergence nearing, impatience crept in. We’d set up this whole board just to starve?
I’d lose sleep for half a year over the injustice.
“Let’s rest first.”
Haste makes waste. I let my juniors catch a breather. It might be our last.
“Senior Brother, can’t we just fight our way through?”
Dongryong ventured carefully, worried he’d seem like a battle-mad killer. The others looked much the same.
For these academy-boosted kids, Jongnam’s fourth- or third-generation disciples weren’t that intimidating.
“We can’t fight. We have to subdue them.”
“……Pardon?”
Dongryong tilted his head in confusion.
“No Jongnam people can die in this struggle.”
“……”
“Not even severe injuries.”
“……Why?”
Dongryong rolled his eyes, utterly lost. Eunho chimed in bluntly.
“Plausible deniability.”
“Exactly.”
Jongnam trying to monopolize the cave and medicine for flimsy reasons was true. But a dead Jongnam disciple changed everything.
“If a Jongnam disciple dies, no one will care about their bullshit here. Jongnam will demand blood, no holds barred. And everyone here is logged with the Beggars’ Sect—their sects will suffer too.”
“……Eek!”
Dongryong paled again at the sect fallout, like a kid hearing tiger tales at night.
“Everyone in here knows that. This is basically Jongnam’s backyard. A dead disciple here wounds their pride deeply. Who knows how much blood they’ll spill to salve it.”
We couldn’t kill Jongnam, but they could kill us. Shitty situation, but reality.
This was politics. How the world worked. Brutal, but kids needed to learn it to survive.
“So avoid Jongnam disciples unless you must. Got it?”
Dongryong nodded, guilty for asking. Time for third-entrance warriors to clash with Jongnam disciples. Jongnam would learn of intruders, spread word, and mobilize to block.
Lucky part: Jongnam didn’t know where the Five Spirits Flower Oil would appear. That’s why they’d scattered disciples everywhere. They could gather to block outsiders, but it lowered their odds of spotting the medicine first.
And their hands are getting tied too.
One reason I’d blasted the third entrance: more eyes meant Jongnam couldn’t act boldly. Slaughtering unauthorized sect invaders was fine, but killing people in a cave they’d “sealed for safety”? That’d cause issues.
I closed my eyes, channeling inner energy to my ears. Distant clashes of weapons and screams echoed.
The moment I’d waited for had arrived. I pulled masks from my pack and distributed them.
“Time to get serious about thieving, huh.”
Eunho joked lightly before donning his. Kid was growing bolder by the day.
I quickly masked up too. The Beggars’ Sect already had eyes on me—no perfect cover, but a token effort for deniability.
“Let’s move.”
I roused my juniors and pressed on. Fights meant disciples mobilizing, drawing scattered ones to converge.
And my prediction hit.
Well, not perfectly.
Presences in the target cave, but far fewer.
Two……
Considering original six-disciple teams, this was ideal. And we had to pass here for the medicine cave—no detour without a long hike.
Manageable if not first-gen disciples. From observed teams, no way two first-gens here.
Calculations done, I transmitted to Dongryong.
-Approach with Ghost Walk Step, subdue instantly. They’ll be alert—target weaknesses.
As Dongryong moved to obey, Hong Saryeon stepped forward, uneasy about assigning the youngest. I shook my head.
-Dongryong has to do it. Sharpest blade here is his.
Hong Saryeon bit her lip hard, but Dongryong nodded reassuringly.
Might seem off—why send the kid? But if misunderstanding and hate kept them alive, I’d wear any filth.
Better sneering contempt than rigid corpses.
Steeling myself, I advanced slowly with Dongryong. Flickering torchlight cast long, wavering shadows at our feet.
I nodded to Dongryong, staff ready. In a flash, we lunged.
In a blink, Dongryong’s sword slashed an ankle, mine pierced an acupoint. They’d live but couldn’t fight.
Shrrk!
Shrrk!
But no blood or flesh flew as expected.
“……!”
Just torn cloth scraps and stray hairs fluttering.
Problem: foes had already thrust swords through the debris.
Whish—
I barely dodged with Iron Plate Bridge, yanking Dongryong back. No wounds, but our clothes were sliced too.
Then.
“Who dares intrude on Jongnam’s event without fear.”
A low, oppressive voice rang out. The figure sharpened into view: two middle-aged men, gray streaks in black hair.
“Heard outsiders entered—knew we were Jongnam and still ambushed?”
No irritation despite the surprise attack.
And.
Damn it……
Their calm only amplified the intimidation. Composure in crisis meant vast experience.
I’d hoped no first-gen.
Branch leader class.
This was gonna be a pain. That drunkard’s curse still clung for sure.