Chapter 312: The Dragon’s Secret Pavilion (2)
It was a desolate hour, with the moon floating in the center of the night sky.
The probationary disciples should all be asleep by now.
If I were caught going outside the dormitory, it could lead to an unpleasant situation.
Not to mention, the probationary disciples were keeping night watch, and the instructors were patrolling frequently.
What the hell is he doing here?
“Why are you here?”
I asked, as if dumbfounded.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand.
Why of all times and places was Jamnyong here right now?
On top of that.
*‘I didn’t notice him.’*
Wi Seol-a had an unusual presence to begin with, so that was understandable.
Cheonghae Ilgeom was also at such a high realm that it was possible I hadn’t noticed him.
But.
*‘If I couldn’t even sense Jamnyong’s presence,’*
then whatever was spread around this area seemed to possess considerable effect.
Setting that aside for now.
“Why are you here at this late hour?”
At my question, Jamnyong tilted his head.
Though he wasn’t speaking,
I could tell what he wanted to say to me from his expression.
“…You’re asking why I’m here?”
“Oh, I was wondering whether to say it or not. Having you say it instead is refreshing.”
Saying so, he smirked.
It was an incredibly refreshing smile.
Seeing a handsome man’s face on a night like this made for a rather unpleasant night.
“I was curious where you were going so late at night, so I followed you… What are you doing here?”
Jamnyong said so, looking around.
At the same time as his words, my eyes went wide.
He followed me?
“From where?”
“Hm? From the moment I saw you outside the window.”
He saw me moving outside the dormitory window?
*‘There’s no way.’*
I’m not an idiot.
I’d spent the last few days memorizing the paths around here.
I hadn’t moved so poorly as to be spotted by a mere late-stage expert.
Keeping in mind where people were staying,
I had even suppressed my presence.
Unless I approached someone on the level of Cheonghae Ilgeom or the Geomhu,
I shouldn’t have been easily discovered.
“You discovered me?”
“To be precise, rather than seeing you… I heard you.”
It was incomprehensible.
Heard? What did he mean by heard?
“Or, to be even more precise, rather than hearing… Should I say I found where it was silent?”
“What are you talking about? If you’re going to speak, speak properly. So I can understand.”
I couldn’t understand a thing he said as he scratched his cheek.
*‘What’s more important right now is,’*
not understanding what he was saying,
nor the fact that I hadn’t sensed his presence.
It was the fact that Jamnyong was here, one way or another.
*‘What should I do?’*
It was still fine for now.
Jamnyong likely hadn’t noticed the formation.
*‘I should head back first.’*
My time was already running short.
If Jamnyong had seen this,
I couldn’t afford to struggle with the formation.
And I couldn’t exactly take care of Jamnyong either.
*‘…There will be another opportunity.’*
It was my fault for trying to rush things.
It couldn’t be helped. I should head back for now.
*‘Since I’ve learned I can’t handle the formation alone. Next time,’*
should I really bring Wi Seol-a along to find a way?
I felt sorry for the Geomhu, but
given the circumstances, it would be better to ask her one more time.
If that didn’t work, I’d have to find another way.
Having finished thinking up to that point,
I immediately got up.
Then, looking at Jamnyong, I spoke.
“…I just came out for a walk.”
“That’s too flimsy for an excuse, isn’t it?”
As expected, he looked like he didn’t believe me at all.
It was an excuse even I wouldn’t have believed.
Jamnyong, who had been chuckling,
soon looked around briefly.
Was this the moment? Should I knock him out from behind and run?
It seemed like I could pull it off.
I could just carry the unconscious Jamnyong and throw him in his room.
Right, that would work.
Just as I was about to move,
“As I thought, it’s quiet.”
I flinched at the words Jamnyong muttered.
“What?”
“I wondered if it was a delusion. But it seems not.”
Well, it’s night, so of course it’s quiet.
Was he half-asleep?
“It’s quiet around you. It’s quite fascinating.”
“Strange words. It’s not like it’s a noisy time to begin with.”
I’d carefully spread out a qi barrier in case my meddling was detected.
Of course it had to be quiet. If it were noisy, that would be the problem.
Despite my curt words,
Jamnyong just smiled.
There was something enjoyable about his expression.
“I’ll believe you came out for a walk.”
“…No, I really did come out for a walk, okay?”
“Sure.”
His words saying he’d do me the kindness of believing me felt rather unpleasant.
What should I do, can I hit him?
Would one hit knock him out?
If I misjudged my strength, it could be serious.
Anyway, why was he acting so friendly?
I had my past life’s memories, so it made sense for me.
To him, I was no different from a complete stranger.
Not to mention,
considering it took some time to get close to him even in my past life,
the current progression was inevitably somewhat strange.
Had he swallowed some poppies or something? Why was he really acting like this?
*‘…This isn’t the time.’*
First, I had to return to the dormitory.
Then I would go to the Geomhu later and explain the situation.
“I’ve seen what I needed to see… I should get going now.”
Just as I was trying to drag Jamnyong back before Cheonghae Ilgeom arrived,
Jamnyong spoke, passed by me, and then….
….
.
“So this is the problem you were struggling with?”
“Yeah, that’s why I was going to go back… What?”
He gestured toward the empty air and spoke to me.
“…!”
The moment I saw Jamnyong’s fingertips, I had to gasp.
“You…!”
Similar to what Wi Seol-a had shown me before,
Jamnyong was definitely creating ripples in the empty air.
And so naturally at that.
Seeing that, I asked with wide eyes.
“You can see that?”
“No.”
Jamnyong answered immediately.
He couldn’t see it.
Then what was I seeing right now?
Before I could even harbor the question, Jamnyong gave a different answer.
“But if I listen, I can hear it.”
“…You can hear it?”
“The sound of the flow. Even if the noise disappears with you beside me… this is something I can hear well. Sadly.”
The words he spat out, as if amused contrary to his words,
made my head spin.
*If I can only hear it, I can cut through as much of this as I want.*
It brought back the words Jamnyong had spat out while cutting through a formation with his sword in my past life.
It was the same back then.
Namgung Bi-ah had been similar too.
*‘Is it the difference in a sense that I failed to possess?’*
The question arose.
It couldn’t simply be explained by them being geniuses; the domain seemed somehow different.
The moment I harbored such a doubt,
Jamnyong, who had been gesturing in the air,
seemed to have found something and stopped his hand.
*Swoosh.*
He stretched his hand deep into the ripples.
Surprisingly, his hand submerged into the flow, concealing its existence as if penetrating a wall.
“Even if by chance, since I’ve learned one of your secrets, I shall tell you one of mine as well.”
Amidst the incomprehensible situation,
Jamnyong was still smiling.
As I stared at that face,
*Crack!*
A sound of something shattering in the empty air was heard.
At the same time,
*Crumble!*
Centered around Jamnyong’s inserted arm,
transparent cracks spread splendidly like a spiderweb.
The range wasn’t wide.
The slowly spreading cracks seemed to form a border with a certain shape.
Taking on a form.
It looked exactly like
*‘A door?’*
It was shaped like a door that a single person could pass through.
Then,
*Clang!*
Before long, with sharp sounds, it broke into pieces and shattered.
*Thud, thud!* The falling fragments of empty air scattered in the wind and soon vanished.
What remained after that
was only a door that seemed to lead somewhere.
…Uh…
I stood there blankly with a dumbfounded expression as I looked at it.
Jamnyong dusted off his hand and spoke to me.
“Now we each hold one of each other’s secrets, don’t we?” His brilliantly smiling face was incredibly unnerving.
“We can become closer from now on.”
At his nonchalant words, I made a startled expression.
“…What’s that expression? Isn’t this what you wanted?”
“No, that’s true, but the way you say it is a bit gross.”
“…Gross?”
Jamnyong, who seemed to be wondering what I meant,
soon clapped his hands as if he understood.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I have a fiancée. I appreciate your feelings, but…”
“What are you talking about, you crazy bastard. Why are you the one apologizing?”
I have a fiancée too, you punk…
Why am I getting rejected when I was just standing here? And by a guy, no less.
*‘Wait. A fiancée?’*
I’d spat that out in the heat of the moment, but
strange information had slipped in.
Jamnyong had a fiancée?
*‘Did he get engaged?’*
I didn’t remember it being the case.
I had never heard such a story in my past life either. Besides,
*‘He’s a Daoist.’*
Could a Daoist priest from a Daoist sect marry?
Of course, I had heard there were Daoists who could,
but if he was from Wudang, shouldn’t it be forbidden…?
Amidst all sorts of fleeting thoughts,
Jamnyong called out to me, who was standing blankly.
“Aren’t you going in?”
Jamnyong spoke while looking at the door opened in the air.
Looking at it, I replied as if dumbfounded.
“…Why are you trying to go in there?”
“I opened it, didn’t I?”
I had to close my mouth at Jamnyong’s words.
It was somewhat correct, to the point that I couldn’t refute it.
Late at night,
a woman standing still in a wide field recalled a young man’s voice she had heard once.
“Will you not make a deal with me?”
At the words spat out with a grin,
when the woman harbored doubt,
“What deal do you speak of?”
“I do not know how the Geomhu came to know, but it seems our purposes are the same, so I speak.”
He was both her disciple’s older brother,
and the benefactor who had saved her life.
The woman, the Geomhu, had to hide her surprise internally.
Because his words were filled with conviction.
How did he know what she wanted to speak like that?
The Geomhu felt doubt, but at the same time, if what that child said was true,
*‘How does that child know about that?’*
That question wafted forth.
A trace located somewhere here.
In a place said to have been left by people of the past,
a hero of Huashan, and one of the five heroes who stopped the Blood Calamity.
The person the Geomhu respected second only to the Maehwaseon.
It was said that the precious artifact of Huashan Seon-geom Sincheol was hidden there.
*‘I must find it.’*
The Geomhu was not someone interested in precious artifacts or ancestral heirlooms.
The Maehwaseon had also continued to teach that one should not show interest in lost and scattered items.
The Geomhu herself was likewise
someone who thought it better to train with the sword or
save those in danger, rather than raise her eyes to such things.
However.
“The Maehwaseok.”
“Find it.”
“Then you shall know the clue.”
It was said the Maehwaseok was hidden somewhere in Shenlong Hall.
Why would such a precious object be hidden not in the Secret Pavilion of Huashan,
but in Shenlong Hall at the heart of Hanam? An unknowable matter.
Nevertheless, the Geomhu had to find it.
Even in a situation where she didn’t know if the words were true.
*‘Even for Cheonhui’s sake.’*
If it involved her dead friend,
she could do anything.
And in such a situation, the one who boldly opened his mouth asking if their purposes weren’t the same
was none other than
her friend’s son.
Could all of this be mere coincidence?
Unlike her own disciple, she hadn’t been able to look after him,
the child who had remained alone in the family and endured with difficulty.
Yet he had grown mighty, harboring a greater light than anyone, and now he was saying such things.
*‘What does that child know?’*
She wanted to ask.
What is it that you know?
He showed a stark difference compared to the other late-stage experts.
The Geomhu knew it well too, but
the reason she didn’t ask further
was because that child likely wished not to be asked.
So she would not ask this time either.
“It seems you need my help.”
The Geomhu did not deny it.
The child was already certain.
Because she thought that, at least if it was him, she could trust him.
It was a choice made solely through trust.
“Yes.”
“And what can I gain from this?”
“Since you must have come wanting something, if the place I seek contains the Geomhu’s goal, I shall bring it to you.”
“How do I trust you?” and so on—
“Don’t lie” and so on—
They did not engage in such thorny quarrels.
Because they thought theirs was not a relationship that required such things.
“…If what I need and what you need overlap?”
Since it was something she could not yield,
this part was the most important.
At the Geomhu’s words, Ouyang Cheon thought for a moment before answering quickly.
“That is unlikely to happen, but should it, I will yield.”
...
At his firm words,
the Geomhu too showed a brief moment of deliberation, then
nodded her head.
“What is it that I must do?”
The Geomhu spoke.
Ouyang Cheon explained regarding that.
And so, today.
On a night where a desolate wind blew.
The Geomhu regulated her breath quietly and waited for the one she called.
Before long,
*Hum!*
she could feel someone entering, piercing through the thick qi barrier she had spread out.
“Geomhu.”
Along with the old man’s voice came an indescribable scent of the sea,
and a somewhat refreshing energy brushed past the Geomhu.
The moment she felt his presence, the Geomhu assumed a respectful posture.
“I greet the Pavilion Master.”
“Calling out this old man at night. It seems to be an urgent matter.”
Cheonghae Ilgeom.
The one who sought the Geomhu was none other than Cheonghae Ilgeom,
the old man who had answered the Geomhu’s call.
“…I know this is a discourteous act. I apologize once more.”
“It is fine. I happened to have business with the Geomhu as well, so this works out.”
At Cheonghae Ilgeom’s words,
the Geomhu slightly raised her gaze to look at Cheonghae Ilgeom.
Because his words saying he had business with her caught her attention.
“You had business with me?”
“I was thinking of meeting with the Geomhu separately around tomorrow. Instead, this meeting is rather fortunate.”
Was it about the Red Demonic Barrier she had heard about before?
If so, it was fortunate from the Geomhu’s perspective as well.
Ouyang Cheon’s request
was that since the formation happened to be near the Pavilion Master’s chamber,
she had been asked to call Cheonghae Ilgeom far away if possible.
For this, the Geomhu had been waiting for Cheonghae Ilgeom while spreading a thick qi barrier.
Not only had she called Cheonghae Ilgeom out in this situation,
but she was told to detain him to some extent.
On the contrary, since Cheonghae Ilgeom said he had business with her, it was a comfortable situation.
While the Geomhu was organizing her thoughts in such a position,
Cheonghae Ilgeom spoke to the Geomhu.
“You would know, Geomhu.”
Cheonghae Ilgeom brought up the subject first.
Even though the Geomhu hadn’t been able to broach the subject yet.
“What do you mean?”
However, the order didn’t matter.
So the Geomhu responded to Cheonghae Ilgeom’s words.
“That ‘child’s’ child. Has entered the hall.”
*Keuk.*
At the words that burst from Cheonghae Ilgeom’s mouth,
the Geomhu momentarily failed to manage her expression and furrowed her eyes.
“It is the child of the one you cherished more than anyone, so I thought you would know.”
“Is that… a problem?”
“Not at all. It is not a problem. He is merely a child.”
Much time had passed.
Those who remembered her friend would number fewer than ten.
Even that would fade gradually.
“Do you still reminisce about that child, Geomhu?”
“It is only natural.”
“I see.”
At the Geomhu’s words, Cheonghae Ilgeom made a brief, desolate expression,
then spoke of something else.
“Then I shall ask differently.”
“…Yes.”
“Do the children know about their mother?”
“”
The moment Cheonghae Ilgeom brought it up,
the Geomhu’s expression changed curiously. As if she didn’t know what he was talking about.
Having confirmed that, Cheonghae Ilgeom
let out a low sigh and stroked his beard.
“I misspoke. It seems there is something you do not know first…”
“…Sect Leader. What are you talking about right now?”
“Is it because I’ve grown old and my tongue has grown loose? In such matters, I am quite at ease.”
“Sect Leader!”
The Geomhu raised her voice to cut through Cheonghae Ilgeom’s prattle.
She knew it was a discourteous act,
but now was not the time to fuss over such things.
And Cheonghae Ilgeom did not nitpick the Geomhu’s attitude either.
“This is the price I must pay for those lacking fellows failing to keep my mouth shut.”
“…Sect Leader, I cannot understand what you are saying. What do you mean?”
“Before that, shall I bring up one matter first?”
Upon the qi barrier spread by the Geomhu,
*Vwooom!*
an even greater Dao energy was layered over it, expanding its thickness.
It was Cheonghae Ilgeom’s energy.
At the sudden energy, the Geomhu
was momentarily bewildered.
Cheonghae Ilgeom opened his mouth again to the Geomhu.
“Cheonhui.
Like flower petals falling from the sky.
A name that descended slowly, fluttering, yet suddenly.
Just as when she first revealed her existence before the Geomhu.
“That child is not dead.”
Once again, she caused a great upheaval for the Geomhu.