True Dragon (眞龍). (2)
“They say it’s the True Dragon.”
“You mean this year’s winner?”
On the day the final match ended, the heat in the inn was hotter than ever.
That was always the case on the day the Martial Arts Tournament ended.
But this time, the fervor was exceptional.
Perhaps it was because a new dragon had been born.
Or perhaps because the tournament had produced more divine stars than any in history.
Or maybe the joy aroused by the martial prowess the boy had displayed had yet to fade.
Amidst it all, a man quietly let out a remark.
He spoke as though the atmosphere displeased him.
“True Dragon? Isn’t that name a little arrogant? A real dragon, indeed….”
Did that mean the Thunder Dragon and Sword Dragon were fakes?
“I hear this year’s winner was just a fight between a bunch of bloodied brats who haven’t even grown proper hair yet. How impressive could it have been?”
“Goodness, will you listen to this man?”
At the man’s grumbling, the others let out weary sighs.
Just as they were about to add a word—
“Leave him be. Gim Chung couldn’t come because he had to work, so he’s just taking out his frustration.”
“Did I say anything wrong? The Sword Dragon, Hidden Dragon, and even the Sword Phoenix and Fighting Dragon—all of them failed to come. What’s there to enjoy about a martial arts tournament….”
The man called Gim Chung merely drained his cup again and again, his face twisted into a scowl.
Watching him, Cheon Sangju of the Cheon-eul Merchant House smiled.
‘He’s really throwing quite the tantrum.’
It was only natural that he would be furious.
With everyone reacting so passionately, he alone had been unable to witness it.
‘He should have come when I asked him to.’
He had known it from the moment Gim Chung had gruffly replied that there was no point in watching a tournament half of the Dragon-Phoenix contingent had skipped.
Cheon Sangju dared say that—
Contrary to what he had expected, that the tournament would be empty and uneventful,
this had been the most impressive martial arts tournament he had ever witnessed.
Was it not?
Three young talents had newly appeared and earned sobriquets, and one of them had even been called a new dragon and seated among the foremost ranks.
“Even so, what do they mean by True Dragon….”
“It’s a fine name. What’s there to complain about?”
“I hear he has a long way to go before he turns twenty. A proud sobriquet like that hardly suits him.”
“What does age matter? If he possesses enough worth to bear the name, then he ought to be called that and more.”
“That’s precisely what makes no sense. No matter how great his talent may be… You all saw it too, didn’t you? This is clearly favoritism from the Alliance….”
Gim Chung looked around, seeking agreement, but the others only gazed at him with amused smiles.
“Favoritism? Stop spouting such ridiculous nonsense.”
“I can understand saying that because you didn’t see it, but you’re going too far, Gim Chung.”
“Then you all think that young martial artist is truly worthy of being called the True Dragon?”
This time, Cheon Sangju answered himself.
“Without a doubt.”
“Cheon Sangju?”
Gim Chung stared at him in surprise.
Cheon Sangju was not a man who usually involved himself in such matters.
Looking at Gim Chung, Cheon Sangju continued.
“You don’t know because you failed to see the value of that young boy, but I saw it.”
Cheon Sangju had been left speechless after watching the final match.
Even to someone like him, who knew nothing of martial arts, the boy’s level had clearly been different from that of the other young talents.
His own son, who had watched the match beside him, had even declared that he would quit the martial academy he attended and take over the family merchant house.
He said it was because he had no confidence that he could survive among those people.
And Cheon Sangju respected his son’s choice. He felt he would have made the same decision.
‘They must mean this when they say talent is frightening.’
A merchant’s talent lay in seeing through people and things.
Buy goods cheaply and sell them at a high price.
This simple principle, said to be the most important and fundamental virtue of a merchant, concealed countless complications.
And the most basic of them all was—
Finding something of value among things that were cheap.
‘Unfortunately, I lack such an eye.’
Cheon Sangju knew his own limitations.
If he had possessed such an eye from the beginning, he would have become a merchant lord renowned throughout Henan, rather than merely the head of a small merchant house.
But he did not lack it entirely.
After struggling to survive in this place for so long, he had developed a certain sense for it over time.
“You said calling him the True Dragon was arrogant? I think differently.”
“You think he’s worthy of it?”
“Worthy? If anything, it falls short.”
In fact, Cheon Sangju found himself wondering why the Alliance had not given the boy the vacant seat of the Divine Dragon.
In Cheon Sangju’s eyes, the impression the True Dragon had made was far stronger than the path Paeng Ujin had once walked.
‘They say the position of Divine Dragon has already been decided. Could that rumor be true?’
It was a rumor circulating throughout the world of martial artists.
That the position of this year’s Divine Dragon had already been decided.
‘Surely not.’
After the tournament ended, when the Alliance Leader came out to say that everyone had worked hard,
Cheon Sangju had studied the Alliance Leader carefully.
Considering that the True Dragon’s opponent had been Jang Seonyeon, who had now begun to be called a divine star—
‘His own child was ruined like that, yet he could keep his expression composed.’
Having seen the manner in which Jang Seonyeon had been defeated,
Cheon Sangju was amazed that the man had maintained the appearance of the Alliance Leader, rather than that of a father whose child had lost.
That was why he could not believe such a baseless rumor.
“Gim Chung. Stop making such an unsightly spectacle of yourself and sit down. Let’s talk about something else.”
Really, for a man of his age to throw a fit simply because he had missed one martial arts match.
‘Though if I had missed that match, I would probably regret it for the rest of my life too.’
Cheon Sangju understood how he felt.
It had been, by any measure, the birth of a martial artist who would dominate an era.
For someone of the Central Plains, there could be nothing more regrettable or unfortunate than failing to witness that birth.
Cheon Sangju recalled the face of a certain boy.
‘The True Dragon….’
When he had first heard the name, he had not known who the boy was without his family name.
Now, the boy was being called the True Dragon of the Shanxi Gu Family.
This was an accomplishment achieved in a mere three or four days since the boy had first appeared,
and perhaps the greatest disturbance to be caused this year.
Only—
‘That final expression bothers me.’
He remembered the expression, far too heavy for a young boy to wear.
For a boy who had won the tournament all young talents dreamed of, his reaction had been unusually restrained.
People had said it was cool that he did not rejoice over winning such a minor tournament.
Others had called it the distinctive air of a genius.
But to Cheon Sangju, it had not seemed so simple.
******************
On an open field far from the Alliance’s martial arena, where the tournament had been held.
I stood alone, quietly watching the snow fall.
The snow was slowly leaving traces upon the ground,
but while I gazed at it, my mind was tangled beyond measure.
—Dokgo Jun is looking for you.
The final moment of the match.
The name he had left behind would not leave my ears.
‘Dokgo Jun.’
It was a name I had never heard before.
Not in my previous life, nor in this one.
It was not the name of any clan. Nor did it refer to any sect.
It was truly a name I was hearing for the first time in my life.
‘Who is he…? Who could he be?’
Who had he been?
The man who had spoken to me through Jang Seonyeon’s mouth.
How was something like that even possible?
Was he similar to Lord Shin? Yet even so, there was something different about him.
The chilling presence that felt as though the tip of a sword had been pressed against the crown of my head was clearly unlike Lord Shin.
If I had to compare him to anything—
He had resembled the Heavenly Demon.
‘Comparing him to the Heavenly Demon would be excessive. But he definitely felt like that.’
The Heavenly Demon, who had been called a god, had been even more overwhelming, but that was the feeling he gave me.
And what was the thing hiding inside my body?
‘Fuck… Can’t I just live my life in peace for once?’
Whenever one problem ended, another would rear its head and leave me even more confused.
I already felt as though I might be crushed beneath the weight of what I carried.
If there was a god, it was obvious that he was not on my side.
“You should at least say something. Don’t just keep your mouth shut.”
My voice, growling in frustration, scattered quietly upon the wind.
I was speaking alone in an empty field, but it was not a soliloquy.
“You were talking so eagerly earlier. Why are you keeping your mouth shut again now?”
I had spoken to the unidentified thing that had appeared at the end of the match and devoured energy like a madman,
the thing that had coiled itself inside my body.
But from the moment Jang Seonyeon lost consciousness, it had fallen silent once more.
“This is seriously fucked up….”
I had assumed it was merely a curse that had followed me along with my regression.
The Demonic Heaven Sucking Art had been the Heavenly Demon’s power, so it would not have been strange for some inexplicable situation to occur.
Even after turning back time, I had apparently failed to escape the Heavenly Demon’s grasp.
That was what I had thought.
But something seemed to be even more deeply entangled.
“Is there something you want from me? Why the hell do you keep coming after me?”
Perhaps because my mind was so complicated, not a single kind word came out.
Had Jang Seonyeon possessed such power from the beginning?
Or had something changed?
‘Though it’s more likely that I simply didn’t know.’
So much of what I had learned after my regression differed from what I had known in my previous life.
The odds were high that this was the same.
‘What the hell is that thing?’
The Black Night Palace was not only using crude demonic energy, but also engaging in suspicious acts to grow some strange flower.
And Jang Seonyeon’s side had been doing things unknown to everyone else as well.
I had no interest in whether that was right or wrong. I was no chivalrous hero.
What mattered was that these were things I had not known about.
‘What should I do?’
Should I prepare for it now that I knew?
The one who had spoken to me through Jang Seonyeon’s mouth had apparently recognized me, so I had to consider the possibility that information about me had already reached them.
I bit my lip in the face of this maddening situation, then shouted before I could stop myself.
“If you want something, at least tell me. Otherwise, how am I supposed to decide whether to give it to you or not?”
I was speaking to the thing living inside my body.
Not that I had any intention of listening even if it told me.
I simply felt that I would be able to breathe easier if I heard something—anything.
“Haa….”
I wiped my face with one hand.
Then I repeatedly rubbed it dry.
Even though I had accomplished most of what I had set out to do upon coming to Henan, my mood refused to improve.
It was probably because of this.
‘Did he call it a gift?’
Those had been the final words of the man who had called himself Dokgo Jun.
He had said that he had left me a gift.
I soon found out what exactly he had meant.
I let out a hollow laugh and asked,
“You gobbled everything else down so eagerly. Why aren’t you eating all of this?”
The energy I had drawn from Jang Seonyeon’s body.
More precisely, the energy that the man called Dokgo Jun had given me was not being properly purified.
Like the empty space left behind by demonic energy that had occupied one side of my dantian and been steadily drained away,
this thing had taken up a place of its own.
‘Is it really being purified properly?’
The Nine-Flame Wheel Technique purified demonic energy the instant it absorbed it, as though devouring it.
But what about this energy?
‘I don’t know.’
I could not feel any sense of purification.
If anything, I would have to say that it was merging with the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique.
I rubbed my abdomen for a moment, then gradually applied strength throughout my body.
Ssssss….
Energy spread from my dantian, traveling through my meridians and filling my entire body.
It was the basic process of raising my internal energy and strengthening my body.
Unless I used one of the Gu Family’s techniques that imbued the body with heat, this was where it would normally end.
“…Haa.”
When I concentrated my sense of qi on my dantian, one energy that had been curled up and holding its breath mingled with my internal energy.
At once, I felt the strength coursing through my body intensify.
This was the gift Dokgo Jun had spoken of.
Just as it had been with Jang Seonyeon and Namgung Cheonjun,
I too had become capable of using the energy they wielded.
‘This is insane.’
I did not say it in admiration.
I said it because of the uneasiness that came with feeling as though another shackle had been fastened around me.
One source of power received from an unknown being was already enough.
No—it was more than enough to handle.
I could tell simply by moving my body for a moment.
This was not merely a power that offered benefits.
I could feel the energy I possessed being consumed at an absurd rate,
but even taking that into account, the power I felt was overwhelming.
And it did not end with merely strengthening my body.
Fwoosh.
I infused my palm with energy and caused a flame to rise.
I had seen Jang Seonyeon’s martial arts grow stronger, so I wondered whether I could do something like this as well.
“…This is fucking ridiculous.”
The moment I saw the blazing flames, I had to curse.
Where had the flames gone that had emitted a somewhat bright light, infused with Daoist qi?
This time, they were giving off blue flames.
“I’m going to draw everyone’s attention.”
Judging by the color, they were exactly the sort of flames that would get me accused of practicing sorcery.
As if it weren’t enough that the color of the flames had changed.
“If Father sees this, there’s no way I can explain it.”
I couldn’t even imagine what Father—or the people from the other clans—would think if they saw this.
And what about an excuse?
Should I say, “I dyed the color of my flames with a gift I received in Henan”?
‘Heh. Fuck.’
My head throbbed.
Pak!
I clenched my fist and burst the flames.
Then, when I made the flames burn once more—
Fwoosh—
‘They’re back.’
They had returned to the color they originally emitted.
It seemed to be the difference between using qi and not using it.
‘If I want to hide it, I probably can.’
That was one blessing in the midst of misfortune. Just as I was about to calm my qi again and move on—
“…!”
I staggered as I felt light-headed. It was only a fleeting sensation, so I immediately regained my posture.
‘Is this the backlash from using qi?’
This much backlash from using it for only a brief moment.
If the shock that came afterward was this severe, I could understand why Jang Seonyeon had been reluctant to use it repeatedly.
The thing I found a little strange was—
Considering the amount of qi and the length of time Jang Seonyeon must have used it, his backlash should have been far greater.
The backlash and expenditure should have been overwhelming in proportion.
And yet, despite that, he had appeared perfectly fine.
‘Either the backlash I suffer is more severe, or I’m using more qi.’
Whichever it was, it was still a case of something that looked impressive on the outside being useless at its core. The situation was equally shitty either way.
Even in a situation like this, I had to forcibly lift the corners of my mouth.
“…This won’t make me break.”
No matter how horribly the world treated me,
at least this was better than my previous life.
No one I had unfinished attachments to had died.
And I had been given the chance to eliminate, with my own hands, those who had left scars on me.
I could endure at least this much.
“I’m tired….”
Though I was a little tired.
The heat in my body had risen as high as it could, yet for some reason, the cold wind blowing against me felt oppressive.
Was it because the weather was unusually cold?
I found myself missing Sin Noya, who was sleeping inside my body, just a little.
And there was something else I wanted to ask Sin Noya about.
I had a feeling that if it was him, he might know something about Dokgo Jun.
I didn’t know why, though.
‘So wake up already.’
Before it was too late.
******************
After conducting a few more experiments on my own regarding the qi, I returned to the tent.
The sun had already set long ago. With the martial arts tournament over, it felt as though the crowd had thinned out somewhat.
There were still events remaining, such as the Alliance Leader’s congratulations for the winner tomorrow, as well as Namgung Bia and Moyong Hee-a’s semifinal match.
But they didn’t seem to be treating them as particularly important events.
‘Well, it is a place that only acknowledges the winner.’
That was probably true in any world, but this was a place that was particularly obsessed with being the best.
“Ah! Young Master!”
The moment I entered the tent, Wi Seol-ah came running over and threw herself into my arms.
“Urk…!”
Perhaps her body slam had been a little too forceful, because an involuntary sound escaped me.
The fatigue that had accumulated while I experimented with this and that to investigate the qi made my head throb slightly even from Wi Seol-ah’s impact.
‘…Or is it just me? She seems to have gotten a little sturdier.’
“Y-Young Master… Are you all right?”
Perhaps because I had made a sound I normally didn’t, Wi Seol-ah looked at me with concern.
I forced a smile and answered her, signaling that I was fine.
“I’m all right. I was just a little surprised.”
“When Young Master smiles that frighteningly, it means something’s wrong….”
“…What did you say?”
Frighteningly…?
I had done my best to smile at her.
As I pinched Wi Seol-ah’s cheek in annoyance, another voice joined in from beside us.
“Are you here, Young Master Gu…?”
It was Dang Sohyeol. Looking over, I saw that Namgung Bia was asleep with her head resting on Dang Sohyeol’s lap.
“Ah, she fell asleep while waiting for you just now.”
“She wasn’t just sleeping the whole time?”
“S-She really was waiting.”
“…Sure.”
It was hard to believe no matter how I looked at it, but I decided to let it slide.
“Oh, right. Young Master, the Beggar’s Sect came looking for you earlier today.”
“The Beggar’s Sect?”
At Dang Sohyeol’s words, I immediately thought of Chu Ong.
He must have come looking for me as soon as he heard that I had won.
“When I arrived, Seol-ah was already meeting him.”
“She was?”
“Eeeeeh….”
Wi Seol-ah had been meeting Chu Ong?
That would have been quite a fascinating sight in its own right, so I felt a little disappointed that I had missed it.
‘They were comrades in my previous life.’
The Beggar King, the Divine Sword, and a few others.
They had been a group composed entirely of powerful figures with exceptional abilities.
As the Divine Sword, Wi Seol-ah had been one of the few people to whom the Beggar King had shown affection.
Their meeting must have carried all sorts of meaning.
If only they had retained their memories.
‘But now, he would have just been a beggar.’
“He told me to let the True Dragon know that Chu Ong of the Beggar’s Sect had come looking for him when you returned.”
“Thanks for telling me. Since I know now, I’ll say something when I see him later—”
I was answering Dang Sohyeol when something strange in the middle of her words caught my attention.
“What did you just call me?”
“The True Dragon!”
When I asked again, Dang Sohyeol answered excitedly.
“…The True Dragon?”
Was she talking about me?
‘Apparently so.’
Judging by the bright sparkle in Dang Sohyeol’s eyes, she was.
I could only laugh hollowly at the sight.
“…What kind of horribly tacky nickname is that?”
The True Dragon, really?
With my sensibilities, merely hearing it made me cringe.
‘My nickname in my previous life was even more fucking awful, though.’
The True Dragon was still somewhat better.
“Aren’t you happy, Young Master?”
“Is there any reason to be…?”
“You should be happy!”
Was she saying I should be happy about being lumped together with all those geniuses who had made their names across the world?
Even if the circumstances were what they were, it was embarrassing to act happy about it now.
Dang Sohyeol continued sending me an expectant look, so in the end, I gave in and spoke.
“Wow… I’m happy….”
“…Wow, Young Master Gu, you really look like you have no soul.”
I had put real effort into that….
Meanwhile, I pretended not to hear Dang Sohyeol whispering under her breath, “He’s handsome even when expressionless.”
And behind them—
Wi Seol-ah was gazing at the sky beyond the tent flap.
Her gaze was directed west.
Toward none other than the Murim Alliance—the direction where Jang Cheon and Jang Seonyeon were.