Chapter 46: Chapter 46
The man laughed loudly.
“Hahaha. Anyway, it’s fate that we met like this, so how about we introduce ourselves?”
The man, seemingly disliking the awkward atmosphere, scanned the four of them one by one and suggested they introduce themselves.
Following that, he revealed his name before the others could react.
“I am Gwak Ui.”
Hyeon-do’s forehead wrinkled.
“Gwak Ui……?”
As Hyeon-do unconsciously let out a voice, the man, Gwak Ui, shrugged his shoulders.
“Why do you ask?”
“It’s because it is a name I’ve never heard before.”
“There are countless people in the world, so how could you know all their names?”
“But it’s hard to believe that someone like you is nameless.”
“You evaluate me highly.”
“I’ve never evaluated you highly.”
Gwak Ui laughed at Hyeon-do’s blunt words.
“Hahaha, is that so?”
“In truth, it hasn’t even been a year since I stepped into the Jianghu.”
Hyeon-do felt uncomfortable, but accepted it.
Listening to their conversation, Ha Woo-jin and Junior Beggar’s expressions changed moment by moment.
Ha Woo-jin’s expression was especially serious.
‘If Senior Daoist Hyeon-do is speaking like that, at the very least……’
While he deeply engraved Gwak Ui’s appearance into his mind, Junior Beggar stared intently at Gwak Ui’s face from the moment he heard the name.
‘Gwak Ui? It’s a name I’ve heard somewhere before?’
Junior Beggar wracked his brain while repeating the catchy name, ‘Gwak Ui’.
‘Where did I hear it?’
He kept wracking his brain, but couldn’t recall when or where he heard it.
When his thoughts deepened like that.
“Isn’t it your turn now?”
Seeing the four keeping their mouths shut, Gwak Ui demanded they introduce themselves, and Hyeon-do spoke first.
“……I am called Hyeon-do.”
“I am Ha Woo-jin.”
Gwak Ui’s eyes widened.
“The Mount Hua First Sword and the Flying Swallow Sword Lord!”
While speaking, his eyebrows curved like crescent moons as he alternated looking at Ha Woo-jin and Hyeon-do.
“Hahaha! I am lucky. I never expected to see the Mount Hua First Sword, Immortal Hyeon-do, and the future of the Zhongnan Sect, the Flying Swallow Sword Lord, in a place like this.”
Gwak Ui smiled beamingly.
After doing so for a moment, he made eye contact with Junior Beggar, who was quietly hiding his presence.
“This humble one is called Junior Beggar.”
Staring intently, Junior Beggar quickly introduced himself as soon as their eyes met.
“Junior Beggar……? Hmm, it’s a good name.”
Gwak Ui spoke as if he lacked interest.
It was a lukewarm reaction compared to before, but the person involved, Junior Beggar, keenly understood Gwak Ui’s feelings.
‘Since it’s after the introduction of two Immortals……’
The difference in reputation was like heaven and earth.
Swish…
At that time, Gwak Ui turned his head.
He gazed at Cheon-hwi with the most intense gaze he had shown thus far.
“You are……”
“I’m Cheon-hwi.”
“Cheon-hwi, so it’s Cheon-hwi.”
Gwak Ui continued to repeat that name.
Then he suddenly changed his expression and spoke.
“But this is truly surprising. I heard that recently the relationship between the Mount Hua Sect and the Zhongnan Sect hasn’t been good, but it was a false rumor……”
Gwak Ui could not bear to finish his sentence.
It was because Hyeon-do and Ha Woo-jin were keeping their mouths shut with displeased expressions.
“Hmm.”
Through their reaction, Gwak Ui and Junior Beggar were able to figure out whether the rumor was true or not.
“……It seems it wasn’t a false rumor.”
‘Great!’
Unlike Gwak Ui, who spoke out loud, Junior Beggar cheered inwardly.
‘Hehehe, it’s been awkward to ask in the meantime, but I can use this person.’
He felt favorable towards Gwak Ui, who refreshingly scratched his itch of curiosity on his behalf.
“We aren’t on very good terms.”
Hyeon-do refreshingly admitted it.
No, he didn’t have the thought of hiding it at all.
Because the bad relationship between the two sects was already widely known in the Jianghu.
“We indeed aren’t on good terms.”
Ha Woo-jin also spoke while smiling bitterly.
Originally, the Mount Hua Sect and the Zhongnan Sect in Shaanxi didn’t specifically exchange with each other, but as Daoist sects in the same region, they maintained a good relationship for a long time.
However, that good relationship cracked twenty years ago.
On the day of the tragedy when the Mount Hua Sect lost the Plum Blossom Sword Knight and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, a Daoist of the Zhongnan Sect just so happened to reach the Heavenly Martial Realm.
The Zhongnan Sect cheered at the expert of the Heavenly Martial Realm who appeared after decades.
Thinking it was an opportunity sent by heaven, the Zhongnan Sect hurriedly pushed forward his journey into the Jianghu, and the result was successful.
He reaped the heads of notorious demonic heads, helped the suffering commoners, and thanks to that, the Daoist newly acquired the title of Zhongnan Sword Saint.
The downfall of the Mount Hua Sect and the rise of the Zhongnan Sect.
Naturally, the status of the Zhongnan Sect soared endlessly, and the Mount Hua Sect felt bitter inwardly at that sight.
They had stayed silent in order to exert silent pressure on the Murim Alliance’s decision, yet the Zhongnan Sect aimed for that gap and was elevating their status.
Fortunately, there were circumstances so it didn’t spread into a large war, but their relationship, which had been good, rapidly cooled down.
“Then why are you traveling together?”
Gwak Ui asked with a curious expression, then added words saying, ‘Oops’.
“Was it an impolite question?”
“No, it’s fine.”
Hyeon-do smiled bitterly and spoke.
“We are traveling together because we share the same goal.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Gwak Ui tactfully did not ask any further and took a step back.
When a brief silence hung in the air.
“Where did you learn martial arts?”
Then Hyeon-do rather asked in return.
“I have learned the family martial arts of my family.”
“Family martial arts? Are you affiliated with the Flying Heaven Society?”
“Hahaha, it is a very small clan. Even if I said it, no one would know.”
Though Gwak Ui spoke while smiling bitterly.
“It’s strange.”
There was someone who reacted to those words.
It was none other than Cheon-hwi.
“It is quite a unique internal energy art for a family martial art.”
Instantly, Gwak Ui’s eyes twitched.
“W-What do you mean?”
“Because it is an internal energy art that is hard to see in the Central Plains.”
At Cheon-hwi’s words, holding a faint smile, Gwak Ui’s pupils rolled here and there.
At that time, Hyeon-do intervened.
“What kind of internal energy art is it for you to be like that?”
“That internal energy is……”
“Young hero, you have quite a good eye. Long ago, parts of the oral formulas for the internal energy art were lost, so the internal energy is still unstable.”
When Cheon-hwi tried to answer Hyeon-do’s question, the startled Gwak Ui hurriedly glossed over it.
“Hmm, is that so?”
Cheon-hwi turned his head as if questioning it.
Gwak Ui gazed at such Cheon-hwi with a strange look, then hurriedly changed the topic.
“More importantly, I heard that the Mount Hua Sect’s Plum Blossom Sword Art is unmatched……”
* * *
The next day, Gwak Ui spoke to the four who were busily preparing to leave.
“If only our destination directions were the same, we would have traveled together, so it is truly a shame.”
Gwak Ui, seemingly pleased with the night’s conversation, opened his mouth while staring at the four.
“May I visit later?”
Hyeon-do and Ha Woo-jin held a smile.
“Come anytime.”
“Is there a need to get permission for a visit? Please come find us anytime.”
“Well, the Beggars’ Sect is a bit……”
“Hahaha!”
When Junior Beggar spoke awkwardly at the end, Gwak Ui laughed and patted his back.
“Then whenever you think of me, please contact me first anytime.”
“K-Keugh. Understood.”
“And……”
Gwak Ui turned his gaze to Cheon-hwi.
He looked at Cheon-hwi with a complicated gaze, then let out a low voice.
“I’d really like to see you too.”
“If it’s fate, we’ll meet someday.”
The surprised Gwak Ui’s eyes widened, then he threw his head back and laughed heartily.
“Hahaha!”
Gwak Ui, who laughed while cackling for a long time, wiped the tears gathering in his eyes and spoke.
“Yes, as you said, if we are fated, we will meet next time.”
Gwak Ui refreshingly turned his body.
After that, he sent a sound transmission towards Cheon-hwi.
[I’ll definitely seek you out later.]
After that, Gwak Ui parted ways, promising the next meeting without even listening to an answer.
* * *
Luochuan County in Shaanxi.
Was it because it was a place like a stepping stone connecting Gansu in the west and Shanxi in the east.
Most of those who visited this Luochuan County were merchants or travelers.
For that reason, the streets developed in a different direction from normal counties.
Into streets of the night to hold the visitors for even a bit longer.
The time crossing from the Hour of the Rooster to the Hour of the Dog.
The moment when the sun, which had been peeking while shining the sunset, finally gradually hid its figure behind the mountain, and darkness was about to be cast over Luochuan County.
Fwoosh!
The streets were chasing away the darkness by lighting fires from the lamps hung on the walls as if refusing that darkness.
From now on was Luochuan County’s time.
In the inns, a mouth-watering smell different from before slowly spread out.
The streets, which had been quiet and peaceful during the midday, rapidly changed when night fell.
The brothels and inns bloomed with the lights of temptation as if they had been waiting, and were preparing.
After a moment, their business began.
And as if waiting for that, people poured out from the inns.
The brothels and inns lined up on every street tempted them, and because of that, all kinds of people gathered as if bewitched.
The burning vitality and lust of the people.
Clop… Clop…
Just in time, a carriage entered.
The carriage, which arrived in Luochuan County only after three days had passed, was passing through the main road between the brothels and pavilions.
“There was a place like this.”
“……Immeasurable Life Buddha.”
Hyeon-do and Ha Woo-jin frowned.
To them, who had lived their entire lives as Daoists, the streets of Luochuan County were repulsive.
Unlike the two who hurriedly averted their eyes, Cheon-hwi calmly scanned the streets.
The people roaming the streets, the reddish lights shining every time he turned his head, and the vulgar temptations beneath them.
“Come here.”
A woman draped in extremely thin silk gauze sat on the windowsill of the second floor of a brothel where only vulgar decorations fluttered, sending alluring glances.
‘It’s nothing special.’
He, who had sickeningly experienced temptations far worse than this, did not even feel any inspiration.
Only Junior Beggar was the sole one reacting.
“Hehe, it’s nice.”
Junior Beggar, who was driving the carriage, drooled at the surrounding sights, his philtrum stretching out.
When the carriage moved forward in such a state.
“Now soon……”
“White Ghost Castle.”
Hyeon-do and Ha Woo-jin’s expressions changed.
As if realizing that they were gradually getting closer to the White Ghost Castle, the two slowly regulated their breathing.
At that time, the carriage rattled and stopped.
Junior Beggar turned only his head slightly from the coachman’s seat and whispered very cautiously.
“This place is the White Ghost Castle.”
The gazes of the three directed out the window.
In front, there was a massive wall that easily exceeded eight feet, and above it, a pure white and enormous roof faintly entered their field of vision.
Cheon-hwi spoke while stretching.
“Groan, we’ve finally arrived.”
At that time, Hyeon-do looked at Junior Beggar and spoke.
“You’ve worked hard in the meantime.”
Junior Beggar swallowed his saliva at those words.
While already traveling, he was able to grasp what the goal of the three was.
“Are only the three of you going?”
Hyeon-do nodded his head.
After a moment, he stared straight at Junior Beggar and spat out a stiff voice.
“I have a favor to ask before we go.”
“A favor?”
Junior Beggar’s expression became serious.
“It is not anything serious.”
Hyeon-do spoke while reassuring him.
“You just have to spread one rumor in Luochuan County.”
“If it’s a rumor, what kind of……”
“You just have to let it be known that the White Ghost Castle sent the Soul Killing Troop and the White Ghost Troop to the Flying Wind Merchant Guild to annihilate them.”
Junior Beggar’s pupils shook.
“I-Is that true?”
“Traces will likely still remain.”
Junior Beggar quietly closed his eyes, then opened them.
“So there was a reason you brought me.”
“Isn’t it a result that matches our calculations of interests?”
Junior Beggar, who realized he was rather used by Hyeon-do while trying to extract information, scratched his greasy hair vigorously.
“Sigh, do you not need anything else? If you requested troops from the Alliance right now saying the White Ghost Castle ambushed first……”
“It’s fine. This is our grudge.”
Hyeon-do spoke, cutting him off firmly.
He already had no trust in the Alliance.
“You just have to let it be known that we have justification to strike the White Ghost Castle.”
“Understood.”
When the answering Junior Beggar swallowed his saliva.
“How dare you speak of the Castle Lord!”
A sharp voice was heard from outside.
The flustered Hyeon-do turned his head to look at where Cheon-hwi was, but it was completely empty.
“Could it be……!”
In his field of vision as he hurriedly came out of the carriage, it could be seen that Cheon-hwi was in front of the gate guard protecting the gates of the White Ghost Castle.
“You mean he is inside.”
While glaring sideways at the glaring gate guard, Cheon-hwi raised his left hand and opened his palm.
At that moment.
Bang!
The gate guard flew backward like an arrow, smashing the sturdy main gates of the White Ghost Castle.
“……!”
Junior Beggar opened his mouth wide.
He had thought he was an extraordinary person, but the single move, no, the martial prowess that Cheon-hwi showed right now far transcended expectations.
‘For such a rising star to be in the Mount Hua Sect……’
When Junior Beggar was staring absentmindedly, forgetting even about trying to leave.
Tap, tap…
Cheon-hwi lifted his chin while striding toward the smashed main gates.
Beyond the fairly wide courtyard, there was a castle.
A gloomy and dark castle, purely white all over, fitting the name White Ghost Castle, and looking as if a ghost would live inside it.
“It’s over there.”
Enjoyed the chapter?
If you like our work, consider supporting us on Ko-fi. This site solely runs on donations. Every donation helps us keep translating!
Support on Ko-fi