Chapter 289: Chapter 289

“We are not Zhongnan.”

At my words, the martial artists who had been on guard furrowed their brows.

In any case, we were not people they needed to fight.

Was it not said that the enemy of one’s enemy was a comrade?

“Put your swords away.”

At my words, the tense junior disciples hesitated, then put away their swords.

When we showed no intent to attack, the martial artists also began lowering their guard one by one.

“Why did you come out from there? And what is with that state of yours?”

Still seeming suspicious, one of the martial artists threw out a question.

But did we look that bad?

I turned my head and examined my junior disciples.

……It was serious.

“Ahem. We were originally heading for another cave, but somehow ended up coming this way.”

Even to my own ears, it was an absurd excuse, but what could I do when there was nothing else I could say right now?

I had no choice but to gloss over it.

And yet, it seemed to work.

“Looks like they got into a rough situation because of greed.”

“If they are not Zhongnan, there is no need to fight them.”

“Finding the Spiritual Medicine comes first right now.”

The martial artists, surprisingly, seemed to accept it readily and soon began losing interest in us.

They were all busy taking the Beggars’ Sect’s maps from their robes and searching for the way.

“I am telling you, we have to go this way!”

“No! The place where it appeared before was not here!”

“Then you go that way!”

While they were occupied with finding the path, we blended suitably into the crowd.

A slight flush returned to Dong-ryong’s face as well.

Once the urgency faded a little, the appearances of the people around us began entering my eyes.

But why were these bastards so clean?

There was not a single one with so much as bloodstains, let alone dust, on them.

‘Do not tell me they have not encountered a single Zhongnan bastard on the way here?’

Only then did I understand why they had not been particularly wary, even though unfamiliar people like us had appeared.

Because they had come only along an easy path, their wariness had naturally loosened.

“Eldest Senior Brother, it seems they have not fought even once until now. Perhaps that is why they lowered their guard so quickly.”

As expected of Eun-ho.

He saw through it at once.

I should praise—

“Had we known this would happen, was there any need to enter from the opposite side?”

Hm?

Did he just dare to needle his Eldest Senior Brother?

A wicked child must be punished.

“Eun-ho.”

At my voice, his shoulders flinched.

Look at that. His shoulder line was still so delicate.

How could a swordsman’s shoulders be so fragile?

I smiled and took two iron rings from my bundle, then handed them to Eun-ho.

“Put them on.”

“……I am sorry……”

“Yes, that is enough. Put them on.”

Even his pupils trembled, but he soon clenched his fists.

“What meaning is there in adding iron rings when we are not even using motion arts? I do not think it is logical.”

My, how good he was at speaking correctly.

So.

“Would you like to be beaten illogically?”

“…….”

In the end, Eun-ho took the iron rings.

He seemed to agonize over whether to put them on his feet or his hands, then finally added them to his feet.

Well, there was no way that much weight would make him struggle.

I looked around again.

For now, it was important to hide ourselves within the crowd.

If this many people were watching, Zhongnan would not be able to act recklessly either.

After giving the junior disciples an order with a nod, I was about to blend deeper among the people.

“……Oh?”

I ran into the person I least wanted to meet right now.

Hah, truly.

“Representative Jin, why are you here?”

Why was this bastard Cheol Sun-jik so lacking in tact?

Did he not know where to interfere and where not to?

I lowered my voice so as not to cause a commotion and answered.

“Ahem. It just somehow happened. But did you not say the Bamboo String Gang would not enter……”

“……Do not tell me.”

Now he was even cutting me off.

Cheol Sun-jik ignored my words, looked me up and down, and was shocked.

“You made a hole on the opposite side, entered through it, and ended up all the way here?”

Damn it. This was why I hated quick-witted bastards.

I was about to feign innocence completely.

“No, we did not enter immediately after opening the entrance……”

“……As expected, it was you, Representative Jin, who opened the new entrance.”

Aaaaaagh!

I had confessed with my own mouth that I had opened a hole.

Perhaps because my mind had stopped working because of that damned Zhongnan master, I could not see through any of the sinister intentions hidden in Cheol Sun-jik’s words.

Now it was all or nothing.

“So what? Are you going to report me to Zhongnan?”

Since I could not cause a disturbance, I silently drew the Black Dragon Sword halfway and glared at Cheol Sun-jik.

“……This is unlike you, Representative Jin. To think you would resort to threats.”

If you toy with me, then I become a ruffian too.

“I asked whether you would report me to Zhongnan.”

“From the beginning, I entered this place without receiving Zhongnan’s permission.”

Ah, now that I thought about it, that was true.

Zhongnan would surely be delighted to see that a disciple of the Bamboo String Gang, who should have been blocking other martial artists at the newly opened entrance, had entered the Thousand Caverns.

Once my excitement cooled slightly and coldness filled my head, my reason slowly returned.

“What sort of nerve brought you in here?”

At my question, Cheol Sun-jik wore a rather complicated expression.

“……There is something I want to see.”

“Something you want to see?”

His voice was quite serious.

“There is such a thing.”

He was pointlessly acting weighty.

Inside the Thousand Caverns, where bloodshed between martial artists and Zhongnan was clearly bound to occur, what was there to see except blood and corpses?

Truly, I could not understand what went on inside the heads of sinister bastards.

“Then you did not come to search for the Spiritual Medicine?”

“……It is not something one can obtain merely by wanting it, is it?”

At my question, Cheol Sun-jik furrowed his brow in apparent disgust.

“If you could obtain it, would you take it?”

“……What are you talking about?”

But I did not believe him.

Among those who had cultivated Internal Qi and held weapons, how many could possibly remain indifferent before Spiritual Medicine?

So.

“Do a job with me.”

“…….”

It would be better to use him.

“If we succeed, I will give you five percent of the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil.”

“……What are you scheming this time?”

“There is a rather annoying fellow chasing us from behind. Stop him for me.”

At my words, Cheol Sun-jik’s eyes widened slightly.

“Do you believe…… no, do you think I possess that level of ability?”

I curled the corner of my mouth into a grin.

“Who told you to fight him?”

“……?”

“You have something you are good at, do you not? I am asking you to stop him with that.”

“Something I am good at?”

Cheol Sun-jik asked back, seeming curious for the first time.

“Inciting people and driving them to the edge of a cliff. Making them leap into a fire pit of their own accord. You are good at that sort of thing.”

“Representative Jin……”

Cheol Sun-jik glared at me with eyes filled with dissatisfaction.

But what of it?

It was not as though I had said anything untrue.

That was originally his specialty.

Yet Cheol Sun-jik’s eyes remained fierce.

Hah, it could not be helped.

“Fine. I am being generous. I will give you eight percent.”

Of course, even if it was an easy task for Cheol Sun-jik, there was danger involved, so he would not move for a cheap price.

If it was him, he would try to tear away at least thirty to forty percent.

Thus, the key was to settle the deal within thirty percent at most.

I needed at least seventy percent of the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil to make one hundred Spiritual Pills.

“I am not asking you to risk your life and fight. I am only asking you to make them fight each other. It should not be that difficult for you.”

“……You speak easily, but do you know how difficult that is?”

I knew he would say that.

I did not know what he had come in here to see, but the calculating Cheol Sun-jik was not the sort to miss the chance to obtain Spiritual Medicine.

As expected, he was not easy.

“Fine. Then I will be generous and……”

“One-tenth.”

“Hm?”

What was he saying?

Thinking I had misheard, I tilted my head.

Then he continued.

“If Representative Jin obtains the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil, give me one-tenth of it. Then I will stop the unknown person for you.”

What was this?

There was no way Cheol Sun-jik would act like this.

The moment I proposed the deal, he should have already finished calculating his gains and losses in his head.

……And yet he was asking for only one-tenth?

What in the world was going on?

Just as I was about to ask Cheol Sun-jik more—

“……Eldest Senior Brother.”

Dong-ryong grabbed my arm with an ashen face.

Damn it. Had he already come this close?

I had no idea what Cheol Sun-jik was plotting, but it was difficult to delay any longer, so I had no choice but to let it pass for now.

“Fine. One-tenth.”

When I held out my hand to signify a verbal agreement, Cheol Sun-jik grasped it.

Then he looked at me silently.

Had this child eaten something strange……

“……Make sure you survive and…… keep your promise.”

Why did he have to say something unlucky at the end?

“Understood.”

……As expected, I did not like him.

Tap, tap, tap.

As he watched Jin So-un’s party run toward the opposite side, Cheol Sun-jik let out a small sigh.

‘What in the world is he thinking?’

And what were those iron rings on their hands and feet in a situation that crossed the boundary between life and death?

It had long since been proven that sandbag training was useless for martial artists who used Internal Qi.

From beginning to end, he was a person impossible to understand.

When Cheol Sun-jik spent time around him, he felt himself growing strange as well.

To think he had negotiated using an item they had not even obtained yet.

‘But why did I negotiate?’

Just as his thoughts were about to continue—

Slide.

He had no choice but to stop them.

He did not know who the “annoying fellow” Jin So-un had spoken of was, but he could feel the presence of someone with a severe and imposing aura approaching.

“Well, now……”

A faint laugh slipped out.

Even judging only by the presence he felt from afar, this was someone beyond ordinary.

And yet Jin So-un had called him merely an “annoying fellow.”

Cheol Sun-jik tapped the shoulder of the martial artist standing in front of him.

When the man turned his head with a questioning look, Cheol Sun-jik spoke quietly.

“Would you listen to me for a moment?”

If he wanted to confirm whether the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil truly fell into his hands as Jin So-un had said, he had no time to waste.

The small Palm Force launched by that Zhongnan idiot earlier had created an enormous ripple inside the Thousand Caverns.

“This place is blocked too.”

“Eldest Senior Brother, this place is blocked as well.”

“Here too……”

Thanks to that idiot, we were going in circles along the same path inside the Thousand Caverns.

In addition, because we had kept avoiding Zhongnan’s people, we had not been able to approach the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil easily.

As the time when the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil would appear drew closer, impatience began to rise.

To set up the board this much and yet fail to eat from it.

If that happened, I was certain I would be too wronged to sleep properly for half a year.

“For now, let us rest a little.”

They said to take the long way around when one was in haste.

For now, I had the junior disciples take a rest.

Because perhaps this rest might be the last one.

“Eldest Senior Brother, can we not simply fight our way there?”

Dong-ryong spoke cautiously.

He seemed needlessly worried that he might look like a murderous fiend mad for battle.

However, the other junior disciples did not look very different.

For the children whose skills had risen greatly through the Academy, Zhongnan’s Fourth- or Third-Generation Disciples likely did not seem very difficult to face.

“We must not fight. We must subdue them.”

“……Pardon?”

Dong-ryong tilted his head as though he did not understand.

“In this struggle, Zhongnan’s people must not die.”

“…….”

“They must not even be seriously injured.”

“……Why?”

Dong-ryong rolled his eyes, seemingly unable to understand at all.

At that moment, Eun-ho, who had been thinking, suddenly spoke.

“Justification.”

“Correct.”

It was true that Zhongnan had controlled the Thousand Caverns and attempted to monopolize the Spiritual Medicine with an absurd excuse.

But if a Zhongnan disciple died here, that became a different matter.

“If a Zhongnan disciple dies, no one will pay attention to what Zhongnan is doing right now. And Zhongnan will stop at nothing to collect the price of blood. Moreover, those who entered this place were all recorded by the Beggars’ Sect. It will affect even their sects.”

“……Hiiik!”

At the words that their sects would be harmed, Dong-ryong’s face turned pale again.

He looked like a child who had been told a tiger would come out at night.

“Most of those who entered the Thousand Caverns likely know that too. Moreover, this place is no different from Zhongnan’s front yard. If a Zhongnan disciple dies here, Zhongnan’s pride will be deeply wounded. And no one knows how much blood will flow to fill that wounded pride.”

We could not kill Zhongnan, but Zhongnan could kill us.

It was a truly wretched situation, but there was no helping it.

This was politics.

This was the structure by which the world moved.

It was cruel, but it was a story the children had to know.

Only then could they learn how to survive in this cruel world.

“So it is better to avoid Zhongnan’s disciples as much as possible. Do you understand?”

Perhaps feeling guilty for having asked, Dong-ryong nodded.

It was about time for the martial artists who had entered through the third entrance to meet Zhongnan’s disciples.

Zhongnan, which had been careless, would also learn that outsiders had entered, and once the information spread throughout Zhongnan, they would certainly move their disciples to stop them.

If there was one fortunate thing, it was that Zhongnan did not know where the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil would appear.

That must have been why Zhongnan had spread its disciples throughout the cave.

They could gather the scattered disciples and block the outside martial artists, but in the meantime, the chance that Zhongnan would discover the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil when it appeared had been lowered somewhat.

‘In addition, their hands will begin to be tied as well.’

One of the reasons I had opened the third entrance was that the more outside eyes there were, the less boldly Zhongnan could move.

If it were someone who had broken into their sect without permission, there would be no problem with beating him to death. But Zhongnan had claimed it had blocked the Thousand Caverns to reduce casualties. If they killed people simply because those people entered the Thousand Caverns without permission, would that not become its own problem?

I closed my eyes and focused my Internal Qi into my ears.

From quite far away, the sound of weapons clashing and people screaming rang out.

At last, the moment I had been waiting for had come.

I took masks from my bundle one by one and handed them out to my junior disciples.

“So now we are becoming thieves in earnest.”

Eun-ho offered a brief joke, then put on his mask.

Truly, the more time passed, the more his nerve grew. How like him.

I also hurriedly pulled on my mask.

Since we had already caught the Beggars’ Sect’s eye, we could not conceal our identities perfectly, but should we not at least show enough sincerity to claim plausible denial?

“Let us go again.”

I raised the junior disciples and advanced once more.

Since fighting had broken out, the disciples would begin moving, and if the disciples moved, the disciples spread throughout the cave would gather in one place.

And my prediction was correct.

‘Well, not perfectly correct.’

I sensed presences from the cave I had targeted, but their number was clearly small.

‘Two…….’

Considering that each group originally had six disciples, this was a perfectly acceptable state.

Moreover, to reach the cave where the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Oil would appear, we had to pass through this place.

If not through this path, we would have to go a long way around.

As long as they were not First-Generation Disciples, we had a chance.

Judging from the group compositions of Zhongnan I had seen on the way here, there was no way there would be more than one First-Generation Disciple.

Having finished my calculations, I looked at Dong-ryong and sent a Sound Transmission.

-Approach with the Ghost-Breathing Step and subdue them in one stroke. They are likely on maximum alert as well, so aim for their weaknesses and take them down.

At my command, Dong-ryong moved his body.

Perhaps because she felt troubled that I was giving such a task to the youngest, Sa-ryeon tried to step forward.

I shook my head.

-This is something Dong-ryong must do. Among us, the sharpest sword is Dong-ryong.

Sa-ryeon bit her lip as though chewing on it, and Dong-ryong nodded as if to say he was all right.

It might well be difficult to understand.

Why would I order the youngest junior disciple to do something like this?

However, if I could keep them alive by accepting incomprehension and hatred, I did not care what filth I had to cover myself with.

‘It is better to see their contemptuous frowns than to see their corpses, stiff and dead.’

I hardened my resolve and slowly moved forward with Dong-ryong.

Long shadows flickering in the light of a small torch trembled at our feet.

I nodded toward Dong-ryong, who held a heavy saber, and in that instant, Dong-ryong and I charged toward the enemies in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, Dong-ryong’s blade stabbed toward one opponent’s ankle, and my sword stabbed toward another opponent’s Vital Acupoint.

They would not die, but continuing to fight would be difficult.

Slash!

Slash!

However, the blood and flesh that should have appeared were nowhere to be seen.

“……!”

Only torn scraps of cloth and a few strands of hair fluttered in the air.

The problem was that the opponents had already thrust their swords through the fluttering cloth and hair.

WHOOSH—

Using the method of Iron Bridge, I barely avoided the sword and pulled Dong-ryong backward.

We were not wounded, but part of my and Dong-ryong’s clothing had been cut away.

At that moment.

“Who are you? Who dares interfere fearlessly in Zhongnan’s affairs?”

A low, high-handed voice rang out.

The figures gradually became clear.

Two middle-aged men, white hairs beginning to show among their black hair.

“Outsiders have entered, I hear. Yet you ambushed us despite knowing we are Zhongnan?”

Even though they had been ambushed, they showed no sign of displeasure.

And.

‘Damn it…….’

The fact that they were not excited instead felt even more oppressive.

Not panicking in an urgent situation meant they had experienced enough dangerous situations before.

I had wished so desperately that they would not be First-Generation Disciples.

‘Hall Master-level, of all things.’

This was going to become rather troublesome.

The Demon God bastard’s curse was definitely still clinging to my body.