Chapter 118: Chapter 118
Grant a wish?
A smirk leaked out.
He wasn’t some omnipotent god, so how could he grant whatever was desired?
“Anything?”
The Guild Leader waved his hand.
“Ay. I’m not a god, so how could anything be possible. It’s impossible if it’s beyond my capabilities. Instead, as long as it’s within my abilities, anything is possible.”
Thought so.
As Cheon-hwi nodded.
The Guild Leader’s eyes narrowed.
“If you want money, I will give you enough money that won’t run out even if you spend it for a lifetime, and if you want power, I will even buy you a government position in the Imperial Family.”
“You seem confident.”
“Even though I look like this, I have an overflowing amount of money, and my connections are immeasurably wide.”
“That’s true.”
To operate a merchant guild, the most important things were money, connections, and trust.
Furthermore, how would it be for him, the Guild Leader of the World Merchant Guild, which was called the number one merchant guild in the world.
‘Grant anything, huh…….’
Cheon-hwi pondered for a moment, but.
‘Is there anything to ponder.’
It ended immediately in an instant.
Because the thing he needed was only one thing, both then and now.
“Then I want to receive a profound martial arts manual.”
“A profound martial arts manual?”
“Yes.”
“That’s difficult.”
The Guild Leader said firmly.
“Didn’t you say you’d help as long as it’s within your abilities?”
Cheon-hwi twisted the corners of his mouth.
“Or are you perhaps going to go back on your word? The Guild Leader of the World Merchant Guild?”
“Hahaha!”
The Guild Leader burst into laughter at the provocation.
“I was rash. But as you know, a martial arts manual in the Jianghu is something more important than one’s life. Even if I say I will buy it with money, would you sell it?”
“You just have to give me the one you bought.”
“However, if it’s something like the Six Harmonies Sword Art rather than the profound martial arts manual you want, would you be satisfied with that?”
“If you want to get one, you should be fully capable of getting one.”
“What do you mean by that.”
“A place like the black market.”
“…….”
The Guild Leader’s eyes narrowed.
Then he soon shook his head.
“I do not wish to make enemies of the Jianghu.”
The profound martial arts manuals sold in the black market were mostly items sold secretly by excommunicated disciples without their sects’ knowledge.
If he bought that.
The trust with the Jianghu sects would crumble.
The Guild Leader, who was shaking his head, said.
“Instead, how about this?”
Following that, he rummaged through his sleeves.
Soon, he took out a faded, incredibly worn-out scroll paper and placed it on the table.
“It is the treasure map of the Shadowless Divine Thief that I recently obtained.”
A treasure map?
Cheon-hwi’s eyes narrowed.
What kind of treasure map was it.
At that, the Guild Leader was flustered.
“What’s wrong? I thought you would be satisfied with this.”
“With this?”
“Isn’t it the treasure map of the Shadowless Divine Thief.”
“Who is that?”
The Guild Leader momentarily lost his words.
“……You don’t happen to not know the Shadowless Divine Thief, do you?”
“Is he famous?”
The Guild Leader looked at Cheon-hwi with slightly surprised eyes and laughed in disbelief.
“The Shadowless Divine Thief is someone who suddenly appeared about two hundred and fifty years ago and stole not only all sorts of martial arts manuals of the Jianghu but even items of the Imperial Family. Some say that if there is a place where he hid his stolen goods, it could be called the greatest treasure trove in the world.”
It had all sorts of martial arts manuals?
Vitality swirled in Cheon-hwi’s eyes.
“Hahaha. Your gaze changed.”
“But are you certain that this is the treasure map of that thief called the Shadowless Divine Thief or whatever? It’s a bit strange if the treasure map was discovered after two hundred and fifty years.”
At Cheon-hwi’s unhesitating words, the Guild Leader revealed a smile and nodded.
“It is certain because I directly confirmed it and purchased it from the Imperial Family.”
“The Imperial Family? You said there were items of the Imperial Family too, but the Imperial Family sold it?”
“To be exact, I gave a huge sum of money to buy what the Imperial Family neglected after failing to properly decipher the text until the very end.”
It wasn’t just a huge sum of money.
From a few bolts of high-grade silk to rare items brought in from the Western Regions.
He had poured many things into the Imperial Family to buy this.
“Fortunately, I grasped that the location written on the treasure map is near Shaanxi, but you came here just as I was about to give up because I couldn’t figure out anything more.”
That was the reason he drank alcohol today.
He barely figured out the approximate location.
So he tried to decipher the cipher while staying in Shaanxi, but.
He failed.
‘It must not be a fate with me.’
The Guild Leader gave up refreshingly.
Continuing to stubbornly hold onto it here would only waste time.
One had to know when to give up.
And that was exactly the reason why he and the World Merchant Guild became the number one merchant guild in the world.
But at that moment.
Like fate, Cheon-hwi looked for a martial arts manual.
‘If this isn’t a destiny handed down by heaven, what else could it be…….’
The Guild Leader was certain that Cheon-hwi was an extraordinary person from the moment he appeared.
It was a signal sent by his intuition, having led the World Merchant Guild for a long time.
“How is it?”
The Guild Leader unfolded the paper.
Strange handwriting was written here and there along with drawings on the yellowed treasure map.
“Instead, to have this.”
The Guild Leader spoke, but right now, his words didn’t enter Cheon-hwi’s ears.
Perhaps it was a natural thing.
The text that even the Imperial Family couldn’t decipher was all too familiar to Cheon-hwi.
Because naturally, that text was.
‘The secret language of the Heavenly Demon Cult?’
Cheon-hwi’s eyes sharpened.
The Heavenly Demon Cult was a cult that worshipped the Heavenly Demon and Demonic Fire, and an appropriate language system had existed since ancient times.
That was precisely the secret language.
The secret language, which reversed words based on Sanskrit, was a language that only a very small minority learned even within the Heavenly Demon Cult.
‘The Shadowless Divine Thief wrote the secret language?’
He stared piercingly at the treasure map.
‘Is that thief called the Shadowless Divine Thief a cultist of the Divine Cult? Or did the secret language become known elsewhere after I disappeared? Or if not that, is it a trap made by the Divine Cult?’
Various hypotheses came to mind.
But.
‘It will only unnecessarily complicate my head.’
He shook his head and brushed off the thoughts.
No matter how much he thought about it, finding the answer to it was impossible unless he confirmed it with his own eyes.
‘I should read more for now.’
Cheon-hwi immediately read the treasure map.
“The eastern cave of Mount Fang? You can get your hands on everything in the world if you enter the secret cave inside it?”
A hollow laugh leaked out.
Getting his hands on everything in the world.
What arrogant words were those.
‘Even I couldn’t do it in my past life.’
Cheon-hwi smirked.
Even during his past life as the Absolute Heavenly Demon who made the Nine Provinces and Eight Desolates tremble, he couldn’t guarantee that he had obtained everything in the world.
Because the world was that wide.
“Go this way and turn left? Then…….”
As he was reading the secret language intermittently.
“Ca-can you read that right now?”
The Guild Leader said in astonishment.
How could the cipher written on the treasure map be an ordinary cipher?
At first, the Guild Leader was also full of confidence.
What overflowed for him was money and connections. Thus, he had called together all sorts of prominent figures and had them try to decipher it, but.
‘I cannot decipher it.’
‘I do not know it.’
‘I am sorry.’
The only words he heard were that they didn’t know.
He had barely managed to find out that the treasure trove was in Shaanxi after coincidentally meeting an eccentric who referred to himself as Cheongija, but.
The young man he met for the first time today was fluently deciphering the cipher of such a treasure map.
“It’s a language I know.”
“Tha-that language?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it from?”
“Cheon……. From the Xinjiang area.”
He quickly twisted what he was about to unconsciously say as the Heavenly Demon Cult.
“Xinjiang?”
The Guild Leader’s forehead narrowed.
“I certainly never thought it was a language from Xinjiang.”
Xinjiang was the most remote place even among the Outer Realms, and a place where people’s footsteps were scarce.
Rightfully so, because the most fearsome beings in the world lived in Xinjiang.
The Heavenly Demon Cult!
The holy land of demons, and its very essence.
As long as they were there, Xinjiang was a forbidden land that no one could recklessly enter.
‘So there are almost no people in the world who know the language of Xinjiang……. Don’t tell me!’
The Guild Leader flinched and looked at Cheon-hwi.
‘A Demonic Cultist?’
He swallowed his breath and observed him.
However, no matter how much he looked, there was no killing intent, let alone demonic energy, coming from Cheon-hwi.
‘I had a crazy thought.’
The Guild Leader smiled awkwardly.
‘It has already been well over a hundred years since the Demonic Cultists stopped showing themselves…….’
He shook his head and looked at Cheon-hwi.
Awkward from doubting him to be a Demonic Cultist, Cheon-hwi was all too clean and transparent.
‘He is rather similar to a Taoist…….’
Smirking, he opened his mouth.
“You must have spent a short time in Xinjiang.”
“I did.”
Cheon-hwi nodded.
It wasn’t to the extent of spending a short time.
He had lived there to the point of being sick of it.
To the point of barely stepping out a single foot in order to learn the martial arts that existed in the world throughout his entire past life.
“Karma is truly fascinating. To think you, who can read the cipher, came right when I was about to give up on the treasure map.”
The Guild Leader laughed heartily as he spoke.
Actually, he was just feeling greedy the moment Cheon-hwi read the text on the treasure map.
Because, naturally, wasn’t it the treasure map of the Shadowless Divine Thief, who was called the Greatest Thief of All Time, and not anyone else.
However, he cut off his greed.
It would have been a difficult task for an ordinary person, but.
‘Useless greed brings disaster.’
It was because he knew that holding onto something that wasn’t fate would only lead to suffering.
“It seems the fate of this treasure map belonged to you, not me.”
The Guild Leader grinned.
“Take it.”
“I was thinking of doing so anyway.”
Cheon-hwi immediately grabbed the treasure map.
“Ah right! And other than this, there’s one separate thing I want to ask for.”
“A favor?”
“I need a horse.”
“A horse……? Hahaha, I see.”
The Guild Leader immediately grasped his intention.
“I will prepare it.”
A moment later, the Guild Leader handed over a horse from the branch to Cheon-hwi and said.
“Can you tell me later what kind of items are in the Shadowless Divine Thief’s secret cave?”
“Let me see first.”
“Hahaha, I will look forward to it.”
As the Guild Leader stepped back.
“Heave-ho!”
Cheon-hwi got on the horse and grabbed the reins.
‘Mount Fang in Shanxi Province, huh.’
Cheon-hwi’s gaze turned eastward.
To get to the place written on the treasure map, he had to ride a horse and run tirelessly for a full ten days.
‘It will take quite some time.’
Just as Cheon-hwi was about to depart.
“Young Hero!”
A voice calling him was heard from afar.
Chief Steward Oh, who came late because he was working, waved his hand broadly and shouted.
“Have a safe trip! I will definitely increase the Young Hero’s wealth and come visit you in person!”
Cheon-hwi grinned.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
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