The area around the dueling platform was dark.
The one who descended soundlessly onto the stone floor, scarred with countless marks, was Geom Mugeuk.
Before coming down here, Geom Mugeuk had released his qi in all directions. Countless strands of qi spread out like a spiderweb, searching to see whether anyone was hiding nearby.
In Yeon Baegin’s unlit office, visible from here, in the other windows of the building, and in the darkness around this dueling platform, there was no one concealed at all. That meant the entrance was well hidden.
First, he climbed onto the dueling platform and examined the floor, but he could not find the entrance.
He had not thought from the beginning that the entrance would be on the dueling platform. If a fight grew intense, the ground could split or be gouged open and expose the entrance, so they would not have made it in a place like this.
If the person who made the entrance did choose such a place? If it was someone who placed meaning in symbolism?
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned toward the seats of honor in the stands. There was a separate area prepared where the hall master, masters, and instructors sat to watch. With the large, ornate hall master’s seat at the center, the seats for the masters and instructors were arranged to the left and right.
Geom Mugeuk examined the hall master’s seat first. The large chair, made like a grand master’s chair, was fixed to the floor.
‘It has to be here.’
Through all the experiences he had before his regression, Geom Mugeuk had become quite well versed in mechanical devices.
The most important mindset when searching for a mechanism was to be certain that it existed. Strangely enough, if one was half in doubt, a hidden device would never reveal itself. Only when one searched with the conviction that it was definitely here would it be seen.
Geom Mugeuk slowly ran his fingers over everything, even beneath the chair, meticulously inspecting even the finest crack.
After searching the hall master’s seat, he examined the next chair, the master’s chair. He searched and searched again, then moved on to the next chair.
Then, at the third chair, he felt a faint crack. A circular crack. It was such a fine crack that one would not even sense it unless one believed it had to be there.
Geom Mugeuk slowly pressed down on that spot.
He felt it sink inward slightly, but no entrance was revealed.
An ordinary person would have assumed this was not it and moved on, but Geom Mugeuk knew.
‘It’s a door opened by a double mechanism. This is the first device.’
Geom Mugeuk returned to the hall master’s seat.
Just as he sat in the chair and began examining this and that again, the yellow dragon ornament on the armrest, which had not moved earlier, turned sideways. This time, too, only very slightly.
At that very moment!
With a smooth sliding sound, the lower section opened, and while he remained seated in the chair, it descended.
When he rose from the chair, the chair returned to its original place, and as the ceiling door closed, the surroundings became pitch-black.
Geom Mugeuk used the Divine Eye Art and examined the area. When he pressed the device right beside the place where he had descended, the ceiling opened again and the chair came down. After enough time had passed for someone to sit in the chair, it automatically rose again. It was a top-grade mechanism, operating with truly refined and smooth precision.
Geom Mugeuk looked around again. It was a space of only about three or four pyeong, and on one wall there was a mechanism that led underground.
Geom Mugeuk carefully walked toward the mechanism. Since he did not know what the situation below was like, he did not rashly board it.
Geom Mugeuk examined the gaps in the mechanism. If there was a space through which he could descend, he intended to jump down through it. No matter how deep it was, with his martial prowess, he would be able to land without making a sound.
But the mechanism here had been designed so that anyone going down had no choice but to ride this device. If he boarded it, it would certainly be arranged so that those below would know someone was coming down.
It was just then.
Sssrrrk.
The door above opened again, and the chair descended. Astonishingly, the one who came down was the Sword King. He held an armful of items in both hands—wine and meat.
After stepping off the chair, he climbed onto the mechanism.
Standing in the place the Sword King was looking was Geom Mugeuk within the Space-Time Transposition Art. The instant the ceiling opened, Geom Mugeuk had vanished at the same time.
Because Geom Mugeuk could see outside, he was watching the Sword King, but the Sword King was merely looking into an empty space.
Inside and outside the mechanism, the two men stood facing each other.
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze went to his feet. He was wearing the shoes Geom Mugeuk had given him as a gift.
Soon after, the mechanism carrying the Sword King descended.
Wooooong.
Only after he rode the mechanism down did Geom Mugeuk emerge from the Space-Time Transposition Art and reveal himself.
Geom Mugeuk silently looked down into the endless darkness where the mechanism had descended.
‘What are you searching for down there?’
* * *
When Geom Mugeuk returned, Yeon Baekjin was waiting in the guest room with Ian and Seojin.
“The entrance was there.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, Yeon Baekjin’s expression brightened. His intuition had been correct.
“Knowing my brother’s personality, I thought he would have put the entrance somewhere visible.”
“You found it well.”
In the current situation, Yeon Baekjin was glad that he had personally discovered a place that would greatly influence his fate.
“Let us go in there together at once. I will go with you.”
Yeon Baekjin wanted to enter that place himself. He wanted to see whether an unparalleled divine art truly existed there.
But Geom Mugeuk firmly shook his head.
“Even though we know the entrance, we cannot enter rashly.”
The reason was something Yeon Baekjin had not expected.
“There is an expert near your brother whom even I cannot handle carelessly.”
Naturally, Yeon Baekjin was startled. There was an expert whom even the young cult leader of the Demon Cult could not do anything about? Had he ever seen such a person in the martial hall?
At that moment, as if by a lie, one person came to Yeon Baekjin’s mind.
“Could it be that temporary instructor?”
He did not know why that man came to mind. But the person he had seen in his brother’s office kept bothering him. That very man who had taught strange techniques to the members of the White Dragon Class.
“That’s right. It’s him. As long as he is there, killing your brother is impossible. If we move rashly, you would be the first to die instead.”
“Then why did he not order that man to kill me from the start? There would have been no need to call the White Snake Group.”
“Because he is not someone your brother can treat carelessly. He is probably more afraid of him than of the White Snake Group.”
Yeon Baekjin felt suffocated. His brother was trying to kill him, and around that brother was an expert whom even the young cult leader of the Demon Cult had to be cautious of.
Ian asked Geom Mugeuk,
“What will you do?”
“We have to go in when that man is not there.”
So first he had to find out what the Sword King was trying to excavate. If possible, he had to seize it first. This was a separate matter from his personal feelings toward the Sword King.
If the Sword King was putting this much effort into it, then it would certainly be something extremely threatening to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
On his way back here, Geom Mugeuk had already made one plan.
Geom Mugeuk looked at Yeon Baekjin and said,
“You will have to die. If the one ranked first in the White Snake Group came to kill you and you did not die, would that not be strange?”
Was he finally revealing his true colors? As Yeon Baekjin was shocked out of his wits, Geom Mugeuk followed with an incomprehensible action.
Geom Mugeuk asked Ian and Seojin,
“Which of you draws snakes better?”
* * *
When Giseok awoke and opened his eyes, someone was looking down at him.
It was a man wearing a mask with a bamboo hat pulled low, and through the parted collar of his clothes, a coiled white snake could be seen.
‘The White Snake Group!’
Of course, the man disguised as a member of the White Snake Group was none other than Geom Mugeuk. The person who had drawn the picture on his chest was Ian. Naturally, Seojin had assisted from the side. It needs to coil one more time, the tail should rise higher. When the two women put their heads together, a fairly convincing white snake was born.
Giseok struggled to maintain his composure. The man had probably not come to kill him. If he had, Giseok would never have opened his eyes.
“How did the commission go?”
At Giseok’s question, Geom Mugeuk answered in a low voice.
“It ended well.”
Geom Mugeuk spoke in a deep, altered voice.
“But why have you come to me? I heard the White Snake Group does not normally contact clients.”
“This time is an exception.”
Geom Mugeuk went to a chair placed in the corner and sat down. In the meantime, Giseok sat up on the bed. The other party had not moved Giseok’s sword, which stood beside the bed. That meant he was that confident in his skill.
“Yeon Baekjin said something strange before he died.”
At those words, Giseok’s heart sank, but he answered as if it were nothing.
“When a man is about to die, what would he not say?”
Geom Mugeuk quoted the words of Baek Osa of the White Snake Group, who had died.
“Usually, they show obvious reactions. They threaten, hate, or beg. But Yeon Baekjin said something else.”
The words Giseok desperately hoped would not come out flowed from Geom Mugeuk’s mouth.
“He said you people were digging up treasure underground?”
Inwardly, Giseok was furious.
‘Damn it! He should have just died, but he had to spout useless nonsense.’
For now, Giseok flatly denied it.
“I do not know what you mean.”
Geom Mugeuk said calmly,
“It was strange from the start. Calling me, the one ranked first in the White Snake Group, just to kill the younger brother of a mere martial hall master.”
Giseok was startled again.
‘So the one who came this time was the top-ranked man of the White Snake Sect.’
He knew that the hall master had asked the White Snake Group to handle this matter thoroughly. Even so, they had sent the one ranked first?
This had happened because the leader of the White Snake Group had felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding, but Giseok misunderstood it like this.
‘They sent this man to threaten us and extort money.’
They had looked down on them because they were a martial hall. From the reputation of being the Central Plains’ Number One Martial Hall, what they had sensed was the smell of money. They must have come to squeeze more money out of naive martial hall fools, and Yeon Baekjin had ended up saying that.
What could one expect from those who killed people for money? They were people who should never have been entangled with from the start.
Sure enough, the other party poured out a cold killing intent and demanded money.
“Since I moved personally, I must receive an additional three hundred thousand taels.”
At that absurd demand, Giseok predicted how this matter would proceed.
‘Because of this greed, both the top-ranked man and the hall master will all be replaced.’
They would never dream what kind of extraordinary expert was on this side.
“This is not something I can decide. First, I must report to the hall master.”
Geom Mugeuk coldly delivered his words and turned away.
“Bring three hundred thousand taels to the White Snake Group’s main headquarters within five days. For every day you are late, I will add another hundred thousand taels.”
* * *
After receiving an urgent message, the Sword King entered Yeon Baegin’s office.
From Yeon Baegin’s expression alone, he could already tell that a serious problem had arisen. The Sword King pretended not to know and sat down in a chair, saying,
“I drank with the children yesterday. I think I have rested enough now, so I was considering resuming work. I have also roughly chosen the members to take underground.”
Yeon Baegin said cautiously,
“Before you go, there is one urgent matter I must ask of you.”
“Speak.”
Yeon Baegin spoke in as composed a tone as possible.
“My younger brother was killed by the White Snake Group.”
The Sword King seemed to have expected this situation and was not surprised at all.
Yeon Baegin had expected him to look at him with eyes like these.
Was he not killed by the White Snake Group, but by you? I told you to say proudly that you killed him!
But the Sword King before him wore an oddly inscrutable expression. There was even a smile at the corners of his mouth. What was certain was that it was not a sneer directed at him.
“But a problem has arisen. Before that bastard died, he revealed the existence of the underground treasury to a member of the White Snake Group.”
It was something that should have become a major problem, but the Sword King remained calm.
“What did they demand?”
“Three hundred thousand taels.”
Yeon Baegin took a thick envelope from his bosom and placed it in front of the Sword King.
“Here is three hundred thousand taels.”
He was not asking him to take this money to them. He was asking him to accept this money and deal with them. Their demands would not end at three hundred thousand taels.
“Normally, I would have handled it myself. But in the current situation, I do not have the time to find people who can deal with the White Snake Group.”
What he feared even more was that he might draw in another wolf.
Yet he could not simply leave them alone. The White Snake Group, having smelled money, would never let this pass.
“I am ashamed to have to ask this of you.”
Yeon Baegin lowered his head.
The Sword King stared at him with an unreadable expression, then smiled.
“When one undertakes a great task, flies are bound to gather. I will handle it.”
If anything, it was Yeon Baegin who was flustered. He had not expected him to accept so readily. He had steeled himself to be cursed at, and had even been prepared to kneel.
Yet the Sword King even smiled as he tucked the envelope containing three hundred thousand taels into his robe and rose from his seat.
“When do you intend to leave?”
The Sword King asked as they stepped out of the office.
“I should finish my class first.”
* * *
“Today is my final lesson.”
The Sword King had everyone perform the Yellow Dragon Sword Form. Since most of them had not learned it properly, they performed the original Yellow Dragon Sword Form instead.
After the trainees had gone through the Yellow Dragon Sword Art in a flurry, the Sword King said to them,
“There are only a few of you who listened diligently to my lessons.”
He pointed out several people. Geom Mugeuk, Ian, Seojin, and even Yugwang and Gyoseok, who had followed along earnestly.
“Only the five of you learned it properly.”
The gazes the other trainees cast at them were far from kind. They believed those five had followed along with such absurd forms either because they were infatuated with a woman, or because they wanted to curry favor with this temporary instructor.
“You will come with me. I’ll show you a new world.”
The Sword King turned on his heel and strode away. He did not even bid farewell to the remaining trainees.
The five who had been singled out followed after him.
The place the Sword King arrived at was the sparring platform for the Yellow Dragon Class’s exit examination. Climbing onto the platform, the Sword King asked Geom Mugeuk,
“Where did everyone else go, and why are you the only one here?”
The only person who had arrived there was Geom Mugeuk.
“I sent them a voice transmission telling them to run. By now, Ian should be taking them to a safe house inside the main school.”
Geom Mugeuk also climbed onto the platform and stood before him.
“Why, all of a sudden?”
The Sword King feigned ignorance, but Geom Mugeuk knew what he was thinking.
“Because I realized that you had seen through my plan, Instructor.”
There was only one reason he had come here, of all places, and had brought not only him but all the other trainees as well. He had intended to take them all underground.
For Geom Mugeuk, that situation would have been an immense burden.
“After all, one shield cannot protect four people, can it?”
The Sword King burst into loud laughter. He did not seem the least bit disappointed that the other four had not followed. If anything, his expression suggested he had expected things to turn out this way to some extent.
“If you had been on our side, we would have achieved our goal long ago.”
Geom Mugeuk did not ask what that goal was. Their relationship had not yet reached the point where he would tell him. That question, at least, had to be saved. So that when he asked it just once, the question would have power.
The Sword King took an envelope from his robe and handed it to Geom Mugeuk.
“What is this?”
“You said you wanted it, didn’t you?”
When he opened it, there were three hundred thousand taels inside.
“You’re giving it to me even after realizing my plan?”
“It’s not my money anyway, is it? I can act like I did that man a favor by handling this matter, and act like I did you a favor by giving you the money.”
As expected, this man was no ordinary person.
“If I’d known this would happen, I should have asked for around a million taels.”
“Then you’d only have had more regrets. You’ll die before you can spend it all anyway.”
Geom Mugeuk laughed as he tucked the money away. It seemed the shoes he had given him were worth three hundred thousand taels.
“But how did you know? That I was the one who set this up.”
“I knew the moment the hall master told me Yeon Baekjin was dead.”
This was exactly why.
“You’re not the sort of man who lets someone you’ve formed a bond with die so easily, are you? There’s no way Yeon Baekjin would have died to the likes of the White Snake Corps.”
He had understood him precisely.
“You think far too highly of me.”
“I’m still underestimating you. That’s why I’m leaving you alive like this.”
And that sentiment was also connected to the reason he had called Geom Mugeuk here today.
“You haven’t forgotten that you agreed to grant me a request, have you?”
“Of course not.”
What kind of request was he going to make?
Since they were speaking atop the sparring platform, Geom Mugeuk had a feeling it would be a request related to fighting.
But the Sword King’s request was something he had truly never expected.
“Dig the ground with me.”