“What is it?”
Even now, Seo Daeryong had no idea what was about to happen.
“You have to enter the Little Dragon Tournament.”
At those words, Seo Daeryong was startled. He was so shocked that I almost felt sorry for him. In a trembling voice, he asked,
“You don’t mean the Little Dragon Tournament I know about, do you?”
“What Little Dragon Tournament do you know?”
“It’s the martial arts tournament held by the Martial Alliance for the younger generation of the orthodox sects, isn’t it? The one so dangerous that, with the Martial Alliance and countless orthodox experts gathering there, people from unorthodox sects—or our church—aren’t allowed to participate, or even watch. That one, right?”
“That sounds like the tournament.”
Seo Daeryong stared at me blankly, then abruptly rose from his seat and walked out of the inn without even looking back.
I did not stop him. Instead, I ordered some light snacks and wine from the waiter. I had been so immersed in training in the mountains that it had been ten million years since I’d last had a drink.
After I had drunk two or three cups, Seo Daeryong returned to the table.
“You’re not going to stop me?”
“Why would I? You were coming back anyway.”
Seo Daeryong poured himself a cup and gulped it down.
“No. This can’t be. What in the world are you talking about?”
“There’s no one but you.”
“That’s something evil leaders say when they want to work their subordinates to the bone. ‘There’s no one but you’? What do you mean, there’s no one but me? There are plenty of people if you look! If you search carefully, there might even be someone in this inn!”
Seo Daeryong thought of the people around me whom he could send in his place, then lamented that there was nothing but strange people surrounding me.
“Even so, I can’t.”
He emptied another cup.
“You do know who I am, don’t you?”
“I do. You’re a power-oriented, cold-hearted man, but also a real man who loves only one woman. When everyone else kept silent…”
“Stop!”
I omitted everything I had already said and added only the newly relevant part.
“…you’re a coward who ultimately never managed to fight Yeobin, but you’re still my right-hand man, Investigator Seo. Now I suppose I can add that you bravely entered the Little Dragon Tournament.”
“No, but how am I supposed to enter the Little Dragon Tournament?”
“It’s not as if I can enter, is it?”
“No one will recognize you. With that beard, you’re completely unrecognizable!”
“Wasn’t it a low-grade disguise? And wasn’t it a filthy beard?”
He sighed, then found another way out. Lowering his voice, Seo Daeryong whispered,
“I haven’t properly inherited my master’s martial arts yet.”
“That makes it even better. You can’t stand out. You’ll have to fight using only the basics anyway.”
Someone of Seo Daeryong’s caliber would already know how to conceal his demonic energy, so his martial arts would not give him away.
As Seo Daeryong bowed his head and resisted by radiating an aura of darkness, I brought out my strongest weapon.
“Fine. If you can’t do it, then it can’t be helped. I’ll have no choice but to fail the test my father gave me. In the end, my elder brother will become the heir. I’ll probably be assassinated and abandoned in some nameless field, where I’ll become food for beasts. Ah! But I won’t blame you, even then. I mean it.”
“I’ll probably die on the dueling platform after being stabbed by the sword of some orthodox bastard I’ve never seen in my life. Then my corpse will be sent to one of our church’s hidden sects, the one that provided my false identity. ‘Who is this?’ ‘I don’t know either.’ I suppose I’ll be some poor fool who was used to the fullest and then killed. He’s short and looks depressed. What a pity. Take him away and bury him. Ah! But I won’t blame the Pavilion Master either. I truly won’t.”
“When I become the Church Master someday, I’ll look back on today and say, ‘Ah, if it hadn’t been for you then, I could never have become the Church Master. Thank you.’”
“Someday, I’ll sit my grandchildren on my knees and look back on today as well. I’ll tell them, ‘It’s because I stubbornly refused to enter that tournament to the very end that all of you exist.’”
It was a battle between spear and shield. But no matter how fiercely he resisted, the outcome had already been decided.
“Oh, honestly, I’m going to die because of you. Then again, who can I blame? I was the one who wanted revenge for my senior when you first came to the Yellow Springs Pavilion, and I was the one who decided to learn saber techniques.”
I poured more wine into his cup.
“Thank you.”
“If you understand, that’s enough. I suppose life is about doing things you don’t want to do as well.”
“Anyone who says things like that probably lives doing only what they want.”
“No! That’s what I’m supposed to say!”
I knew this was a major decision for him. He hated stepping out in front of others more than anyone.
“As a martial artist, this will be a good experience for you too. Even the name makes it seem like fate, doesn’t it? The Little Dragon Tournament and Seo Daeryong. The Great Dragon will ascend to Heaven at the Little Dragon Tournament. If the tournament had been called the Little Tiger Tournament, I would have called Jangho.”
In the end, Seo Daeryong laughed at my foolish joke.
“Then this is an heir’s test.”
“Exactly.”
“What precisely are we supposed to do?”
“There’s a man called the Lord of the Heavenly Mandate Society. He’ll use this tournament to carry out a conspiracy. He may approach the participants, which is why you’re entering. Our goal is to catch him.”
“Of course we have to catch him. Catching bad people is what we do.”
“Just like my right-hand man.”
Once Seo Daeryong made a decision, he never looked back. That was probably why I liked him. Behind that small, gloomy-looking figure was an unyielding determination.
I took some documents from my robes and handed them to him.
“Here. This is your new identity. Memorize every last detail. You’re good at memorizing, so I’m not worried.”
“What about you, Pavilion Master?”
“I’ll serve as your servant and bodyguard.”
A flash of delight crossed Seo Daeryong’s face. He struggled to keep the corners of his mouth from rising.
“Why are you happy?”
“Me? There’s no way I am.”
“You just smiled.”
“You saw wrong.”
“You smiled.”
“Good heavens, you rascal. The elder says he didn’t, so why are you acting so mischievous? Ah, I was just practicing.”
I laughed pleasantly at Seo Daeryong’s teasing.
“For today, memorize that. Tomorrow, let’s go register for the Little Dragon Tournament.”
We took a large guest room with two beds.
As soon as we entered the room, I stopped Seo Daeryong from dusting off my bedding.
“Don’t worry about me. Think only of yourself.”
“Can you really do that?”
“I’m casually giving you an order that could change your entire life, so you’re allowed to do at least that much. You can even urinate on my blankets.”
“Receiving such orders is my life. Please don’t think of it as something bad. I’ve never thought of it that way myself. Especially not after meeting you, Pavilion Master.”
It was comforting to hear him say that.
After roughly unpacking, Seo Daeryong sat by the window and stared outside. Then he said worriedly,
“I’ll have to climb as high as possible to find out what the Lord of the Heavenly Mandate Society is plotting. I’m worried I’ll be eliminated too early.”
I did not know precisely how strong the Little Dragon Tournament was either, so I could not predict the outcome.
“Don’t worry. Old Man Doma left behind a strategy for you.”
“What? What do you mean?”
I took a small pouch from my robes.
“It’s a strategy pouch he gave me and told me to open when you reached your limit.”
Seo Daeryong was startled. He was even more shocked than when I had told him he had to enter the Little Dragon Tournament.
“Your master really gave you that?”
To be honest, I was surprised too. I never expected the Blood Heaven Saber Demon to leave something like this behind.
“Did you happen to see what was written on it?”
“No. Why? Should I open it in advance?”
“Absolutely not! If Master said to open it in a crisis, then you must open it during a crisis!”
Seo Daeryong must have been curious about what was inside, but he was deeply moved by the fact that the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had given it to him for his sake. He seemed to feel as though he wanted to face the distant window and bow to the Blood Heaven Saber Demon wherever he might be.
That day, Seo Daeryong could not fall asleep until late, lost in one thought after another.
* * *
The next morning, we ate breakfast and headed for the Martial Alliance.
In the distance, the magnificent buildings of the Martial Alliance’s main headquarters began to appear. A gigantic stone statue of a martial artist modeled after a chivalrous hero stood before us.
The closer we drew to the Martial Alliance, the stranger I felt. Someday, the Martial Alliance would also be swept away by Hwa Mugi.
Would their fate change because I had regressed? Or would only our church’s fate change? I still did not know.
Seo Daeryong kept sneaking glances at the passing female heroes.
“Orthodox women are beautiful, aren’t they?”
“They certainly are. I thought it was only a rumor.”
“Since we’re here, try dating one. The fated love between an orthodox female hero and a demon!”
“It would be fun for the spectators. But how difficult would it be for the people involved?”
He spoke lightly, but his gaze kept drifting toward the women passing by.
A separate registration area for the Little Dragon Tournament had been prepared in the outer grounds of the Martial Alliance.
Even though registration was open for nearly five days, the line was still long. Countless young talents from orthodox sects across the Central Plains had flocked here.
We joined the line.
As we waited, the martial artists ahead of us began discussing the tournament.
To summarize their conversation, it seemed that they would not select only the champion. Everyone who made it into the final eight would also be chosen and placed in the Martial Alliance’s elite organization.
One of the men chatting glanced at Seo Daeryong and me, then smirked. Seeing our country-bumpkin appearance, he seemed to have instinctively looked down on us.
Loud enough for him to hear, I asked Seo Daeryong,
“Young Master, are you confident you can win?”
Seo Daeryong’s eyes issued a powerful protest—*Win? All of a sudden?*—but his answer was forceful.
“I am.”
The men ahead exchanged glances and snickered. Still, they did not openly pick a fight or ignore us.
At last, after waiting for quite some time, it was our turn.
“Name: Seoryong. Sect: the Western Saber Sect of Gansu.”
It was an actual sect in Gansu, directly operated by the Tongtian Pavilion for situations like this. If anyone went to investigate, they would find a son named Seoryong, who had supposedly left to participate in the Little Dragon Tournament.
“The tournament brackets will be posted in front of the Martial Alliance in ten days. Check the date and dueling platform then. If you are late for your match, you will be eliminated without exception, so arrive early and wait.”
“Understood.”
After completing our registration, we left the Martial Alliance.
“You saw how those bastards looked down on us earlier, right? Since they gave me the idea, maybe I should just go ahead and win the whole thing.”
“It’s certainly possible.”
“Can I really do it? I may not look it, but I’ve been taking first place in everything since I was young. Don’t underestimate me!”
“I’m not underestimating you. Do it. You may win.”
“I really will!”
And from that very day, Seo Daeryong trained in the mountains until the tournament began. I did not help him. He was learning from the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, so it was not my place to interfere. I simply trusted Doma’s teachings.
Whenever Seo Daeryong went out to train, I trained as well. Of course, I went somewhere else so that I would not disturb him.
I had trained tremendously hard in the mountains even before Seo Daeryong arrived, but this time I trained even harder. And this training rewarded me with the finest result.
“I did it!”
At last, the Wind God Four Steps had reached the ninth stage.
Honestly, I was happier than when I had achieved perfection in the twelve stages of the Flying Heaven Sword Technique.
My Flickering Step could now escape dangerous situations even more quickly, my Shadow Step could evade people’s eyes like an illusion, and my Underworld King Step had become so powerful that I could confidently call it devastatingly lethal.
And my Swift Step had become terrifyingly fast. Its internal energy consumption had decreased, but the expenditure of mental strength had doubled. It was simply too fast. At first, I even crashed into a tree. If not for the Divine Eye Art, it would have been impossible to control that speed even across a wide plain.
Once I grew accustomed to this ninth-stage realm, the Wind God Four Steps, with only its final hurdle remaining, would say this to me:
—Amazing, isn’t it? This is what the ninth stage is like. What do you think it’ll be like once you reach perfection? Come on, let’s put in just a little more effort and get there!
I had to hear those words. Only then could I say this to the Wind God Four Steps after achieving perfection:
—You worked hard too!
I would definitely say those words.
After that, I would inherit the Nine Flames Demonic Art and achieve perfection in it as well.
Even after perfecting both martial arts, I would continue working hard without rest.
If I still could not stand against Hwa Mugi after going this far… then there would be nothing I could do. At that point, I would gladly smile and die.
* * *
The tournament brackets were announced.
My first match was the thirteenth bout of the Yellow Group, to be held the next day. So many people had gathered that the matches would be held simultaneously at dozens of locations in the outer grounds of the Martial Alliance.
“If our church held the same tournament, would this many people come?”
“They wouldn’t.”
“This is the power of the orthodox sects. For one thing, they probably have ten times our numbers.”
And that was not all. The orthodox sects also had vastly more reclusive masters.
That was why we could not rashly start a war simply because we were stronger than the Martial Alliance at present. Even if we drove them back and swept all the way to the Martial Alliance’s main headquarters, the real war would only begin from that day onward.
As Seo Daeryong and I ate and chatted about this and that, the waiter hurried over to us.
“I’m sorry, but would you mind sharing your table? So many customers have come because of the Little Dragon Tournament.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
Soon afterward, a woman wearing a bamboo hat joined us.
The moment she sat down and removed her hat, I was startled. She was someone I knew.
She was a woman whose status made it seem impossible that she would ever share a table at an inn, whose cold yet intelligent beauty had earned her the title of Hubei’s Number One Beauty, and who possessed outstanding martial prowess as well.
Amazingly, she was none other than Jin Haryeong, the granddaughter of the Martial Alliance Lord.