#43. A First-Rate Martial Artist Who Gathers People (2)
Even though he'd seen Anhui's three great beauties, Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran, just a short while ago, they paled in comparison before her. Her bare white skin seemed to leap straight out of a painting. Her features formed a delicate, perfect harmony. Her hair gleamed like polished ebony, and with every step, the golden ornaments barely concealed her most intimate places. No one, man or woman, could keep their wits about them in the face of her beauty.
His body trembled uncontrollably, a rattling shiver he hadn't even noticed.
"Since you've come this far on such a perilous path, I suppose I should reward you."
She touched her lips shyly with her fingertips, like a bashful girl, then spread her arms wide.
At the same moment, an irresistible surge of desire welled up within him.
Like someone who hadn't slept for seven days at the sight of a bed. Like someone who hadn't eaten for a month beholding a feast of delicacies.
"...Grrmph. Impressive. So this is how you've been fending off intruders all these long years?"
"Intruders? I've never thought of them that way, not once. To me, they were all precious guests."
I pointed to the pile of skulls stacked in one corner.
"Isn't entertaining your guests a bit... excessive?"
She pouted and crossed her arms. With every little movement, my body tried to act on its own, and I had to desperately circulate the Tae-eul Jin-gyeong to hold it back.
"How could I help it when they craved this body until their dying breath?"
She twisted her body in an oddly alluring way, her face falling into a sulky expression, and even the Tae-eul Jin-gyeong I'd barely managed to muster nearly cut off.
How potent is this spiritual power...?
No matter how low his cultivation, the fact that the Tae-eul Jin-gyeong, rooted in the truths of all creation, had faltered even briefly was shocking. He refocused his mind and desperately resumed circulating it.
She looked at him with an expression like she'd spotted some curious novelty.
"To still hold onto your reason... you're quite something. Are you a disciple of Shaolin? Or Wudang?"
"Neither. What the hell are you trying to pull?"
"It's called the Seductive Search Technique. The ultimate art that can even drag an ascended immortal back into the mortal world."
"Hah."
He couldn't help but gasp as the name of the legendary seductive technique from the long-lost Hall of Delights, vanished thirteen hundred years ago, slipped from her lips.
"Are you really from the Moon Kingdom era?"
"Does a woman who never ages displease you?"
She advanced step by step, utterly confident he couldn't move.
"Among those bones are the remains of old fogies from Mount Song, and even Wudang Taoists on the verge of ascension. So don't blame yourself too much."
Her hand touched his skin, starting from his face, and blood rushed southward through his entire body. She drew a golden dagger from her waist and thrust it straight for his heart.
Thud.
"How?!"
The woman stared in shock at her own hand gripped in my left.
"I may not have the mental discipline of Shaolin's old masters, but I've got this."
I revealed the Demon-Exorcism Talisman blazing in my right hand. That was why I'd detoured from the original path to this haunted place. The talisman from the Hyeongsan Sect absorbed her demonic energy and burned it away, freeing me from her influence in an instant.
"Playing petty tricks."
I unleashed the Cartoon Invincible Fist, pouring out twenty fist shadows in a flash. The golden ornaments shattered and scattered in all directions, unable to withstand the impact.
"Such a lewd boy."
She seemed utterly unharmed. Her charging form wasn't some advanced lightness skill or footwork— it was plain movement— yet it was as swift as the finest divine steps.
Bam.
I barely shoved her figure aside, but she spun in midair like a cat and lunged again, leaving me no time to recover.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Under her brutish grasp, I tumbled every which way like a ball a cat was toying with.
"What kind of sorcery is this?!"
Her movements and attack forms weren't martial techniques at all, yet their destructive power far surpassed even Seong Mohyeon's from the Iron Sword Sect.
"Did you think any ordinary fool could find me here? Just making it through this hellish place puts them beyond the norm."
That those experts had met their end proved her power was anything but ordinary.
The talisman's effect was fading, my body starting to stiffen. As I reached for another, she kicked off the wall and shot toward me like a ghost.
"Damn it!"
I twisted desperately, shoving her oncoming body aside with the Lotus Push technique. But the talisman I'd meant to grab got caught on her instead.
"Kyaaaaah!"
For the first time, she let out a chilling shriek, frantically slapping at the tiny flame on her body. The talisman fell off quickly, but where it had clung, her taut flesh had shriveled into dried mummy skin.
"So that's your true form."
"...You've changed my mind. I'm going to chew you up nice and slow."
Her eyes flashed crimson, her hair whipping wildly in all directions. All beauty vanished, replaced by the manifestation of a hellish demon as she charged.
"Looks like I got a pretty generous gift this time."
I gripped talismans in both hands and thrust out the Cartoon Invincible Fist in palm form. Less powerful than fists, but over a dozen palm shadows filled the air in an instant. As expected, the untrained woman couldn't distinguish real from illusion.
"Kyaaaaah!"
Flames caught her arms and legs. As she stomped frantically to extinguish them, two more talismans stuck to her shoulder and back.
"Kyaaaaaaaah—!"
With a sound like nails on steel, her whole body ignited.
"No! Nooo! This is all mine! Everything here is mine!"
As the flames refused to grow, she thrashed amid the treasure pile, desperate not to lose it.
"Time to go according to the natural order."
The final talisman hit her head, and her body burned like a single sheet of paper, crumbling to ash in seconds.
"So unjust... so unjust."
After Wolhyang's body turned to ash, a single black pearl remained.
"Not exactly like an inner core in shape."
As I picked it up, a massive surge of energy flooded in.
"Huh?"
The endless influx was innate true qi, the root of human vitality.
"Hah. So this is the secret to immortality."
As it filled every corner of my body, even the impurities the Mita Holy Water couldn't purge vaporized through my pores. With energy overflowing, all fear vanished. This power could match anyone I'd seen in my past life— the Tae-cheong Sword Immortal, the lord of the Four Emperors Peak, even the Demonic Cult's young leader, the Black Lion Gwak Gung.
"To gain such fortune here."
No more need for mechanisms or elixirs. With this pearl, I could protect the world and sever the Demonic Cult's head.
"Let's see."
I swung my sword diagonally twice down the passage. No forms, just swings, yet sword qi gathered like sword force, booming like thunder.
Kraka-boom. Boom. Boom.
The mechanisms all severed, the passage now twice as wide as when I'd entered.
I needed no more gold or jewels. Wasn't one with absolute power free from all? Even wealth couldn't bind me now.
As I stepped boldly forward—
I flinched.
Suddenly, the innate true qi drained from my body, leaving me limp and powerless. The pearl in my hand offered only a faint chill.
"......"
I retreated two steps.
I am omnipotent! I am invincible! Demonic Cult or Murim Alliance, they'll all maintain peace under me.
Confidence swelled. I strode forward boldly again.
"......"
I looked around. The golden ornaments scattered from the fight littered the ground.
"Guess I should scrape up every last one."
Free from all? Yeah, but I still needed wealth.
I descended Guryong Mountain and headed back to Akyang.
The two stone coffers full of treasure hung from my shoulders on a long thread of Thousand Silkworm Silk from the Flying Dragon Claw. In this era, northern wars were rampant, and the custom of sending war dead home meant no one batted an eye at the coffins— though they did shy away.
Entering Akyang's fabric shop with the coffins drew frowns and tsks from the noble ladies buying silk inside.
"What the hell?"
"What's he doing? Why let someone like that in?"
"Does he want to do business or not?"
Wang Geumsan, chatting up the ladies and selling pricey silk, locked eyes with me, mouth agape, and bolted out.
"You're finally here!"
Wang Geumsan grabbed the coffins and burst into tears.
The ladies, sensing what was up from his sudden outburst, looked sympathetic.
"This is my little brother, dragged north for military service. No money for a proper escort, so we only just arrived."
As Wang Geumsan wept like a stream, the noblewomen started tearing up too.
"You've arrived safely. Truly safely."
He winked at me as he said it.
"Even for someone who comes and goes as he pleases, you surprised me this time."
Wang Geumsan said over tea.
"You didn't look surprised at all."
"Stone coffins in a shop frequented by high officials' wives? You're quite the prankster, Sowoon."
Uncommon man, as always.
"Anyway, what brings you here?"
"A favor to ask, and this to handle."
I patted the coffin. Wang Geumsan tilted his head.
"A body belongs deep in the earth. Need cremation ash?"
I opened the coffin lid lightly instead of answering.
"Gasp!"
His eyes went wide.
"The one's below is the same."
He alternated between the treasure-packed coffin and me, incredulous.
Wang Geumsan laid out the jewels one by one on the floor, a far cry from how I'd crammed them in like fallen leaves.
"You're truly astonishing, Sowoon."
"How much?"
He pondered long, calculating, then spoke.
"Around twenty thousand nyang?"
"......"
"Not to your liking?"
The exact opposite. My estimate was about ten thousand nyang by weight and value. But considering black market buyers lowball, this was a loss for him.
"Twice the market price. Does the Black Market calculate like that?"
"Consider it repaying a debt."
He tucked his hands into his sleeves and bowed politely.
"Well now..."
"Not satisfied?"
"No. The favor I mentioned ties into that 'debt.'"
Haomen owed me big after this affair. Underworld forces like the Namgung family had planned to hold the Beggars' Sect and Haomen accountable for selling those maps.
"...We can't repay it all with this, but could you forgive a portion?"
Made sense. It ended thanks to me, but unlike the Beggars' Sect under the Nine Great Gates, Haomen had taken real hits.
"Seems there was a misunderstanding. I want to become a 'guest' of Haomen."
"......"
Haomen had no physical base, so no resident guests for lodging and meals. Calling someone a guest meant Haomen prioritized their interests before its own— a treasured patron.
"...I don't know how you found out, but that's beyond my authority."
"If the great hero Wang Geumsan, eleventh disciple of the Haomen Lord, lacks authority, who does?"
"!!"
Confusion at how I knew his identity, debating whether to kill me.
"Let's skip the wary glances. I have ways to help Haomen, so I want to be a guest."
"...Asking how I know is pointless, right?"
I nodded instead of answering.
"Sigh, they say frequent shocks like this shorten your lifespan. You're a bad friend."
"The Beggars' Sect."
"...?"
"I'll give you the Beggars' Sect. In return, be my eyes and ears across the jianghu."
The future records I knew were subtly shifting. To track how these changes rippled, I needed someone gathering intel on the world.
"......"
"Can't decide here and now, right?"
Historically, Haomen's guests were rare— mostly those beyond Super Peak, in the transcendent realm. Ones who could wipe out Haomen if uncooperative.
"Just mention it to the Lord; that'll repay the debt."
"......"
"And this is my gift."
I handed over a document outlining the Beggars' Sect's one-year plan for this era.
"......"
Eyes full of disbelief. But a quick check would confirm its truth.
"Shall we settle up? Debt repaid, so ten thousand nyang."
"...How could we haggle with a benefactor? Take this."
Determined not to leave me in debt. He pulled out a stack of anonymous bills in small denominations.
"...I'll speak to the Lord."
I never expected it all at once. Gradually letting them know me, while learning about them in turn.
"Perfect."