The King of Jigeom Sect
The disciples gathered around the shabby restaurant and began shoveling down their food in a frenzy. Watching them, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
Trying to make a living all on my own isn’t exactly easy.
That was one of the reasons my former self had run away from this place.
I had felt the limits of the martial arts I could learn here, but I had also judged that this kind of miserable environment would make it hard for any warrior to grow.
But there’s no reason for me to flee from this place now.
At least, not yet.
At this point in time, before my regression, I would have headed for Kunlun. But I had chosen to remain in Jigeom Sect. It wasn’t because I felt loyalty to Jigeom Sect or affection for the disciples.
There were several reasons.
For one thing, I was Jigeom Sect’s senior disciple.
And among all the sect’s disciples, I possessed the strongest martial arts. The other disciples always looked up to me because of my skill. Now that the sect’s fortunes had improved thanks to me, they showed me unquestioning loyalty. Even the sect master trusted me deeply.
Here, I’m the king.
Of course, Jigeom Sect had a legitimate heir.
The sect master had not one but two sons. They, too, had learned Jigeom Sect’s martial arts. And yet that would never change the fact that I was the king here. Their talent wasn’t something that could compare to mine, and it certainly would never surpass me in the future.
In other words, for the time being, I can grow safely here and do whatever I want.
Was that all?
If I trained the disciples well and formed my own beast-hunting unit, I could make an enormous amount of money. The current Murim still understood very little about beasts. By contrast, I possessed considerable knowledge about them.
Beast habitats. Beast hunting methods. The uses of the byproducts they left behind. And so on.
In short, I was far ahead of the great sects when it came to information. If I made good use of that advantage, there would be no problem living well and comfortably.
For now, I’ll build up my strength here first.
Then I would lay my hands on every treasure that could be won from hunting beasts. The situation was so perfect that I found myself grinning before I knew it. The disciples saw that and, once again, admired the senior disciple who suffered on their behalf.
“Senior Brother seems happy just watching us eat.”
“As expected of Senior Brother… how are we ever supposed to repay this kindness?”
As I imagined a future paved in silk, I looked over at the disciples.
“If you’re hungry, don’t hold back. Eat your fill. At a time like this, eating well is how you grow into a proper warrior.”
At my words, the disciples grew even more moved, and a few of them even began to tear up. If I could win them over like this, I’d be able to build the perfect private force for beast hunting.
Of course, that means there’s a lot I need to prepare.
While the disciples were eating like starving wolves, I calmly sorted through the tasks ahead of me.
First, the martial arts I’ll use.
The first thing that came to mind was Kunlun’s arts. They were dozens, even hundreds of times superior to Jigeom Sect’s techniques. Of course, they still fell far short of what I’d need to reach a higher realm, but there was nothing better available right now. I’d build my foundation with Kunlun’s martial arts, then obtain an ascendant technique and rise to an even higher level.
Step by step, I’ll raise my martial level until nobody can control my life anymore.
In my previous life, I’d been nothing more than a mere component in someone else’s machine. Now I wanted to escape that kind of existence and live a life that was independent and free. Having finished my thoughts, I asked the disciples,
“Has everyone finished eating?”
The disciples answered in booming voices that they had. Their faces, full from a hearty meal, were flushed red. As expected, people needed to eat well if they wanted strength.
“Good. Then let’s head back to the sect.”
After leaving the tavern, I returned to the sect with the disciples. Seeing them following behind me as naturally as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world made me feel like a king all over again.
Truly, it was better to be exceptional.
***
The training yard of Jigeom Sect was filled with the sounds of shouting.
“Haaah!”
“Aaaagh!”
Watching the disciples tangled together in a chaotic mess, each wielding practice wooden swords, I couldn’t help letting out a long sigh. They were all trying their best with serious expressions on their faces, but from my point of view, they looked like nothing more than neighborhood thugs. Compared to the martial arts I’d learned in Kunlun, they were leagues behind.
But even in mud, a lotus can bloom.
Amid those inept disciples, two of them stood out.
In my previous life, I’d wondered how I’d failed to notice them. They seemed to possess fairly impressive talent. That was something I could only recognize because I had my past experience after regression.
“Duseong, Hwaung. Come here.”
At my call, the two disciples I’d singled out hurried over.
“Yes, Senior Brother!”
“You called for us?”
I looked at the two who had come to me.
Disciple Duseong was a young man who had already turned around twenty and stood tall with a sturdy build. He had always been fairly sharp-witted, and he handled situations well.
His arms are long, which makes him well suited to wielding weapons.
I couldn’t say how far his talent would ultimately go, but among the disciples in sight, Duseong showed rather promising movement.
If I teach him a little, he should become useful.
Next, I turned to the other disciple standing beside him, Hwaung. Hwaung was of average height, but had a thick, solid frame. He had been born with strong bones and sinews, the kind of disciple whose body was tough and who rarely ever fell ill.
Hwaung is perfect for cultivating external martial arts.
In beast hunting, the most important role belonged to warriors who had trained external strength. Standing at the front and enduring the beasts’ attacks for long periods was an incredibly dangerous job. Because of that, warriors who cultivated external martial arts and served in the front-line defense unit were extremely rare.
The problem was that Jigeom Sect didn’t really have any external techniques worth learning. Jigeom Sect’s martial arts consisted only of the mental cultivation methods and sword forms practiced by the sect master’s family, and the same basic pair for ordinary disciples. Even those were technically the same martial arts, except that the ones used by ordinary disciples were degraded versions, stripped of the core formulas of the mental method and the latter forms of the sword technique.
Honestly, it’s amazing that a place that started out as a martial hall managed to grow this far.
It was, after all, an ordinary family-run martial hall, though one that had spent generations producing warriors and training disciples. Among them, a genius had been born, and thanks to that man, Jigeom Sect had enjoyed something of a revival. At the time, they had risen from martial hall to sect, and for a while they had even earned a fair amount of respect from those around them. But reality now was nothing like it had been back then.
For now, I need to at least put together a rear support unit and a front defense unit.
As time passed and experience with Illusion Gates accumulated, Murim eventually perfected the most ideal method for hunting beasts.
A defense unit standing in the very front line of battle against beasts.
An attack unit striking the beasts directly from just behind them.
A support unit at the rear, backing them up with formations or spells.
A single team built from those three components was called a beast-hunting unit. The first place to establish that system was none other than Kunlun Sect. Kunlun Mountain, where Kunlun Sect stood, was unusually plagued by beast appearances compared to the rest of Central Plains. Most of the high-grade beasts also made their home in Kunlun.
So it was only natural that Kunlun, which had clashed with beasts more fiercely than anyone else, would be the first to collect so much information and knowledge. That was why, despite being little more than a low-ranking warrior at the time, I knew an enormous amount of useful things.
“You two, come see me separately after today’s training is over.”
At my words, the eyes of both disciples widened with curiosity. It was only natural to wonder what business the revered senior disciple might have with them in private.
“Yes, Senior Brother.”
That evening, after all the day’s training had ended, I summoned Duseong and Hwaung to my private training yard behind Jigeom Sect. In truth, this was a place reserved for the sect master’s family and warriors of elder rank, but I had recently been granted permission to use it. Since I was the one feeding Jigeom Sect’s disciples, there was no basis to refuse my request, and as I’d already mentioned before, the sect master liked me quite a bit.
The two disciples who came at my call had eyes shining with anticipation.
“Senior Brother, what’s the occasion? Why did you want to see us?”
Of the two, the sharper one, Duseong, had already noticed that I had something different in mind than usual. The stalwart Hwaung, by contrast, just stared at me with round, unblinking eyes.
First, I spoke to Duseong.
“From this point on, everything I show and tell you must be kept secret from everyone in the sect. You can promise me that, right?”
At my words, a strange light entered Duseong’s eyes. Hwaung tilted his head as if he had no idea what I was talking about. Duseong answered first.
“The moment you say that, it becomes a matter of keeping a secret. I’ll follow you, Senior Brother.”
When he finished speaking, Duseong nudged the dazed Hwaung in the side.
“Y-yes! I’ll be loyal to Senior Brother!”
I let out a faint laugh.
“No, no, it’s not like I’m trying to build some secret society. You don’t need to take it so seriously. It’s just that for the time being, it wouldn’t be good if other people found out what I’m about to teach you. And it’s certainly nothing that would disgrace or harm the sect. On the contrary, it’s important for our future.”
Duseong’s slightly tense expression finally relaxed. Jigeom Sect might not mean much to me, but to Duseong it was everything. He had probably been worried that I was harboring some other scheme for the sect. Perhaps he had thought I was interested in the succession struggle.
As the senior disciple of the sect, I did have status, but with the sect master having two sons, the position of sect master would not be easy to claim. Since I’d recently been generous with the disciples, he must have wondered whether I was trying to win them over for the next succession.
I got to the point.
“First of all, I’ll be going to hunt in a beast lair soon.”
Duseong and Hwaung both jumped in shock. News of how terrifying beasts were had already spread everywhere throughout Murim. And now the so-called senior disciple was saying he planned to go hunting in the lair where beasts lived. No, this might even be the first time they’d heard that such a thing as a beast lair existed.
Duseong asked,
“Senior Brother, isn’t that dangerous?”
“Of course it’s dangerous. That’s why we need to prepare well starting now.”
“But what does that have to do with calling us here?”
He already seemed to have guessed, yet he asked as if he didn’t know. I grinned and opened my mouth.
“It has everything to do with it. The lair I’m going to will be the three of us: you two and me.”
For a moment, the expressions on Duseong’s and Hwaung’s faces were absolutely priceless.
“What??”
“Huh??”
I burst out laughing. I suspected I’d never forget the looks on their faces for the rest of my life.