Chapter 55: Chapter 55
The scent of plum blossoms gently brushed the tip of his nose.
“Jin Un, do not forget for even a single moment that you are the hope of our Mount Hua Sect. Your martial uncles also place immense expectations upon you.”
“Show them that Mount Hua is the world’s greatest Daoist sect.”
“The dying wish of the late Old Master Plum Blossom Sword Saint…”
They were all too familiar words.
When he bloomed plum blossoms from his sword for the very first time.
That was the beginning.
“Is it heavy? So that means you intend to give up. Fine. Descend the mountain. It seems I placed too many expectations upon you.”
It was what his master had said when he once mentioned that everyone’s expectations were far too burdensome and exhausting.
Those eyes were still vivid in his memory.
He felt that if he walked down Mount Hua just like that, he would never be able to see his master, martial uncles, and junior brothers again.
“…I am sorry.”
“Did you not say you would truly become a Daoist? Did you think living as a Daoist was such a trivial matter?”
“…”
“Jin Un. You are the Plum Blossom Swordsman of Mount Hua. The only one who will inherit the name of Plum Blossom Sword Saint in the future.”
After that day, Jin Un could not utter a single word of rebuttal against the words of his master, martial uncles, and the Mount Hua Sect elders.
He was prepared for the fact that living as a Daoist was difficult. However, it was also true that compared to his junior brothers and others, he alone bore an excessively heavy burden.
Yet they were words he could never speak aloud.
“Senior Brother, why does the Medicine Hall Master only provide spiritual medicine to Eldest Senior Brother Jin Un? Isn’t that unfair?”
“Stop it. If you carelessly bring up such talk, you will face the roaring wrath of our martial uncles.”
One day, he overheard the covert conversation of his junior brothers.
Such was Jin Un’s existence in the Mount Hua Sect. Those above pressured him, while those below were jealous of him. In such circumstances, how could he utter that he could not do it anymore?
He had no choice but to carry it out in silence. What Mount Hua expected Jin Un to achieve by the time he reached twenty years of age, he accomplished by fifteen. What they said he would achieve at thirty, he accomplished at twenty.
He proved himself and proved himself again. To become a Daoist worthy of the name Plum Blossom Swordsman, he cut down on sleep and meal times, immersing himself solely in cultivation.
‘Without even knowing the real world.’
Jin Un smiled self-mockingly.
To think that after cultivating like that, he ended up falling into a shallow trap of bandits and receiving the help of his peers.
“Wouldn’t it be heavy?”
It was then. Along with the sound of a familiar voice, Mount Hua before his eyes scattered into pieces. He had returned from a dream to reality.
“Still, leaving him like that is concerning. Look at how he is breaking out in cold sweat. He might catch a cold at this rate.”
The voices of Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon conversing were heard.
Awakening from sleep, Jin Un simply kept his eyes closed.
It was because he had no strength to raise his body, and his mind was complicated since the dream he had was far too vivid.
However, Jin Un’s rest did not last long.
“This won’t do. I shall strip him first.”
Worried about Jin Un who was soaked in rainwater, Song Yi-yeon placed his hand on the hem of his clothes.
Greatly startled, Jin Un sat up abruptly.
“Oh? You are awake?”
Jin Un clutched his collar for some reason and looked at Song Yi-yeon.
At that gaze, Song Yi-yeon spoke as if making an excuse.
“Ahem, you were sweating cold sweat profusely, so…”
“…Thank you.”
An awkward silence lingered in the room for a moment.
It was the same inn where they had been poisoned by the waiter. Seok Do-byeok still seemed not to have woken up, and Cheon Woo-jin was sitting leaning against one wall, looking at Jin Un.
Song Yi-yeon spoke.
“Ah, I tried washing that as much as I could, but the stains didn’t come out easily.”
Where Song Yi-yeon pointed lay Jin Un’s hero headband. Having rolled in muddy water, it was heavily stained.
Jin Un smiled bitterly.
“Thank you, Young Hero Song. And Young Hero Cheon.”
As Jin Un tried to stand up, he momentarily stumbled. The poisonous energy had not completely dissipated yet.
Although Song Yi-yeon dissuaded him, Jin Un stood up determinedly and clasped his hands in greeting toward the two.
Though his disheveled hair flowed down without the hero headband, there was not an inch of wavering in his gaze and movement.
It was truly a sight befitting a Daoist.
“By the way, Young Hero Seok is…”
The moment Jin Un spoke in a voice full of concern.
“Khuuuugh…”
“…”
He appeared to have fallen into a deep slumber.
Jin Un let out a sigh of relief and sat down.
Silence settled once again. As two people who had not conversed since entering the Martial Alliance in the first place, they could not even think of what to say.
Song Yi-yeon also seemed to feel the atmosphere was awkward, attempting a conversation needlessly.
“I heard roughly what happened from the owner here. Looking into it, the cook and the owner knew nothing, and it seems the waiter acted alone after taking bribes from the bandits.”
Jin Un merely nodded his head. He had nothing else to say because he was ashamed of his own ignorance.
Song Yi-yeon continued speaking.
“They said the waiter fled immediately.”
“He must have been afraid. Because even if the bandits killed me, they would have tried to silence him by death.”
Although waiters were treated as the weakest in this era, because martial artists frequently frequented inns, his wits alone were exceedingly sharp.
Jin Un did not bear much resentment toward the waiter. If bandits pointed blades at him and threatened his life, what other choice could he have made?
“But we caught him.”
“…?”
Jin Un tilted his head. At that, Song Yi-yeon curled up the corner of his lips into his characteristic grin.
Suddenly getting up from his seat, Cheon Woo-jin left the room.
After a short while, Cheon Woo-jin returned to the room dragging someone along. It was the waiter, drooping limply as if his acupoints had been struck.
Jin Un’s eyes went round.
“How…?”
“The majesty of the Black Tortoise Squad, one might say.”
Song Yi-yeon spouted nonsense. Regardless, Jin Un stared intently at the waiter.
Soon Cheon Woo-jin tapped his cheeks.
At that sight, Jin Un’s eyes grew complicated. He had felt it before as well, but Young Hero Cheon did not seem like someone born and raised in the Righteous Path.
“Mmh, I hate going to work…”
The waiter, who had been mumbling in his sleep, froze on the spot. His small eyes busily surveyed the situation inside the room.
With his characteristic quick wits, the waiter immediately dropped to his knees on the floor and struck his forehead down.
“G-Great Hero! That is not it…”
Jin Un made a troubled expression, and Song Yi-yeon walked toward the wall and sat leaning against it as if his task was done.
Cheon Woo-jin asked Jin Un in a dry tone.
“Are you going to kill him?”
However, before Jin Un could even open his mouth, the terrified waiter banged his forehead repeatedly against the floor.
“P-Please spare my life! They threatened to tear me to death if I didn’t do so, so I did it out of sheer terror. P-Please spare me, Daoist-nim!”
The quick-witted waiter brought up the Daoist even amidst this.
It was because he had already understood the disposition of Jin Un, who endured criticism even after helping the village.
At that sight, Cheon Woo-jin’s eyebrows twitched.
“How old are you?”
The waiter looked at Cheon Woo-jin. Out of a desire to live, he intended to lie about his age to appear younger and evoke sympathy, but unlike the Daoist before him, those eyes were far too cold and dry.
He felt the fear that the moment he spat a lie, that iron staff slung on his back would smash his head to pieces.
“I-I reached twenty years of age this year.”
“Is that so.”
Cheon Woo-jin looked at Jin Un. It was a gaze asking what he would do. Appearing troubled, Jin Un pondered for a moment and spoke cautiously.
“…Let us just let him go. Those bandits were extremely cruel people. If such bastards threatened him, what could that waiter have done?”
When he spoke so, a flush of relief washed over the bowing waiter’s face for an instant. Cheon Woo-jin did not miss that brief change.
Thud, thud.
At the approaching footsteps, the waiter flinched and trembled.
Soon Cheon Woo-jin grabbed the waiter’s chin and forced his head up.
The waiter could not even meet Cheon Woo-jin’s eyes directly. Although he had begged for a living as a waiter here and there and seen many martial artists, it was his first time seeing such chilling eyes.
‘Does he even have emotions…?’
Such a thought occurred to him. A feeling like meeting the eyes of a wooden doll.
Cheon Woo-jin suddenly stretched out his palm above the waiter’s eyes.
Even until then, the waiter was bewildered. It was because he could not anticipate what Cheon Woo-jin intended to do. That was the same for Jin Un as well, while only Song Yi-yeon let out a dry cough, turned his head, and stared at the wall.
“G-Great Hero?”
“You had better keep your mouth shut tight.”
“Pardon?”
The bewilderment was brief.
Directly following, horrifying agony struck his right eye.
“Aaaargh!”
The waiter screamed and thrashed in agony. Startled, Jin Un attempted to approach, but meeting the eyes of Cheon Woo-jin who turned his head, he stopped right there.
Cheon Woo-jin snatched away one of the waiter’s eyes with his still dry expression. Clutching one eye, the waiter collapsed to the floor and sobbed loudly.
“Y-Young Hero Cheon…?”
Jin Un cautiously called out to Cheon Woo-jin. His eyes were saying this:
‘We are Martial Alliance members, are we not? Is this permissible?’
He had not the slightest intention of forcing the virtues of a Daoist upon others. However, setting everything else aside, Young Hero Cheon was a member of the Martial Alliance.
Cheon Woo-jin answered casually.
“He tried to offer another’s life so that he himself could live. He should have been prepared for at least this much.”
“…”
However, Jin Un still wore an expression of being unable to understand. Having lived his whole life seized by the compulsion that he must live like a Daoist, that was only natural.
Looking down at the squirming waiter, Cheon Woo-jin added softly.
“Being solicited by bandits was this waiter’s misfortune. How could it be considered just to push another into misfortune to overcome one’s own misfortune?”
While such a thing would never have happened, had the one the waiter deceived been Cheon Woo-jin rather than Jin Un, it would not have ended with merely one eye.
Cheon Woo-jin looked at the waiter and spoke.
“The Daoist present here saved your life.”
If Jin Un had died, the bandits would have tracked down the waiter and killed him. Because killing a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect was a risk factor for them as well.
Even if he deceived the eyes of the bandits and hid, there was no way Mount Hua would sit idly by once learning of it.
Even if decayed, a swordfish is still a delicacy; the Mount Hua Sect was still a pillar of the Nine Great Sects and One Clan. If someone trampled upon the hope that would revive the sect, Mount Hua would mobilize with full force to kill him.
Even while staggering in pain, the waiter bowed his head toward Jin Un.
“…T-Thank you, Great Hero.”
Jin Un could not say anything and merely watched.
Meanwhile, Cheon Woo-jin left the room as if he had finished his business and spoke.
“Young Hero Song. Let us return now.”
“…Ahem, understood.”
Song Yi-yeon glanced briefly at Jin Un and the waiter, then exited the room.
* * *
Hubei Province, Martial Alliance Headquarters.
Lately in the Martial Alliance, those seeking out the Personnel Inspection Hall Master had increased noticeably. The Personnel Inspection Hall was a subordinate organization of the Military Strategy Department, examining all personnel-related affairs such as promotions and stipends of alliance members.
Because the Chief Strategist of the current era tended to actively accept the Personnel Inspection Hall Master’s opinions in personnel matters, the Personnel Inspection Hall Master’s authority within the alliance was quite substantial.
Not long ago, the Benevolence Division Head was dismissed due to the corruption case related to the Gu Clan, and that post remained vacant.
Rumors circulated that one of the squad leaders would soon be selected to fill that position.
Of course, those who had not been squad leaders for long had no interest from the beginning, while those who had accumulated considerable seniority and recognition were eyeing that position.
“Hall Master. By any chance, have other squad leaders visited besides me?”
At the man’s question, the Personnel Inspection Hall Master smiled slyly.
“Well now. If I were to tell you that, would you be able to trust me?”
“Mmmh.”
The man nodded his head. Though he was curious, the Personnel Inspection Hall Master’s words were also true. How could one share a confidential conversation with someone with a loose tongue?
“By the way, it is unexpected. I thought you had no particular ambition for promotion.”
“How could that be the case for me? Every person naturally has ambition.”
“Hahaha, that is true.”
The Personnel Inspection Hall Master laughed and filled the man’s teacup.
However, appearing uninterested in the tea, the man looked at the Personnel Inspection Hall Master and spoke cautiously.
“In truth, I also know. No matter how much you are the Hall Master, you cannot install me in the Benevolence Division Head position. I am not someone who doesn’t know his own place.”
“If so, why did you visit so secretly like this?”
“It is about the Black Tortoise Squad Leader.”
The Personnel Inspection Hall Master let out a low groan. The Black Tortoise Squad Leader was a figure who bothered him quite a bit as well. He was someone who should have become a division head long ago, but the problem was that there were quite a few people above who viewed him unfavorably.
“At least, if I cannot occupy that position, I hope Cheol Ji-ak will not have that happen either.”
“Are you jealous of the Black Tortoise Squad Leader?”
“Pardon? Why would I be jealous of him? There are many fine people such as the Golden Wolf Squad Leader or Poison King Squad Leader; I merely do not wish to see Cheol Ji-ak promoted solely because his seniority is long.”
“Hahaha, to think you care about our Personnel Inspection Hall’s work, I am so grateful I don’t know what to do.”
At the Personnel Inspection Hall Master’s words, the man hurriedly waved his hands.
“I apologize. I did not mean it that way.”
“It is a joke, a joke.”
The man swept his chest in relief. If he earned the displeasure of the Personnel Inspection Hall Master within the Martial Alliance, his future affairs would become considerably tangled.
Of course, the same went if the Black Tortoise Squad Leader ascended to the division head position. Not only was he excessively chivalrous, but he also did not care about the mood of his superiors.
‘If such a fellow becomes a division head, the outcome is obvious as fire.’
Whenever someone who was upright and possessed great drive was appointed as a senior, it was inevitable that there would be those who felt uncomfortable.
For instance…
“Ah, I heard your daughter recently held her wedding. It weighed on my mind that I could not attend as I was on a mission back then, so though it is meager…”
The man placed a thickly jingling money pouch made of silk on the table. If Cheol Ji-ak became a division head, there would be no occasion to touch such money pouches in the future.
Seeing this, the Personnel Inspection Hall Master narrowed his brows.
“Now now, what on earth do you take me for?”
“They are apples, apples. As you know, doesn’t my family run a small orchard?”
Picking up the money pouch, the Personnel Inspection Hall Master narrowed his eyes and looked inside. Within, plumply ripened apples were thickly packed. At least, in his eyes, they looked like apples.
“Haha, they are well-ripened.”
“Yes, aren’t they?”
Putting the money pouch into the desk drawer, the Personnel Inspection Hall Master spoke.
“At any rate, one lives long enough to see everything. For someone to actually keep the perennial squad leader Cheol Ji-ak’s promotion in check. It is likely because of that brat, right?”
“…Yes, that is correct.”
The Personnel Inspection Hall Master nodded his head.
“Who could have known that the brat called the greatest genius to emerge in nearly fifty years would actually go to the Black Tortoise Squad?”
When Cheon Woo-jin was mentioned, the man’s expression quickly darkened. He too had never anticipated that an occasion would arise in his life to keep Cheol Ji-ak in check.
However, that fellow named Cheon Woo-jin had shown remarkable promise. The merits he achieved in the mission together with the Heavenly Tiger Squad right off the bat were proof enough.
Naturally, Cheon Woo-jin’s achievements were also the Black Tortoise Squad’s achievements, so at this rate, Cheol Ji-ak’s promotion was not an empty dream.
The Personnel Inspection Hall Master chuckled loudly and spoke.
“Do not worry too much. While it is true the youngest members of the Black Tortoise Squad are outstanding, there is not much an individual can do in an organization. Even Alliance Leader Bukli Cheon properly distinguished himself and solidified his internal support base only well after passing thirty years of age.”
“If that is so, then it is a relief, but…”
“There will probably be no great change until you and the Black Tortoise Squad Leader retire. Look at now as well. While the Young Sword Dragon is sweeping through Unorthodox sects in Anhui, didn’t they merely undertake an escort mission at best? Even if they are lucky, it would amount to nothing more than catching a few bandits on the way back.”
Having spent his life in the organization handling personnel affairs, the Personnel Inspection Hall Master was convinced of it. Rarely, a dragon could rise from a ditch. But that did not mean the ditch became an ocean. Rather, when the young dragon grew and felt the ditch was narrow, it would simply leave behind the place where it grew up and fly away.
‘It would have been different had he chosen the ocean called the Heavenly Tiger Squad from the beginning, though.’
Regrettably, within the Martial Alliance, the Black Tortoise Squad was a ditch. A trickling brook at that.
At the Personnel Inspection Hall Master’s words, the man finally let out a smile of relief.
“Then I shall place my trust solely in the Hall Master.”
“Hahaha, just wait and see. In all my time, the instances where my words proved wrong can be counted on one’s fingers.”