EP.6 Hao Sect (2)
Hao Sect (2)
The moment I mentioned the Hao Sect Master, Hao Sect disciples stationed throughout the area drew their swords.
For martial artists of the Hao Sect, whose combat prowess was said to be quite low, their drawing of swords was rather swift.
However, the raining swords failed to touch me.
Because Muyeon, who had drawn his sword much later than the disciples, struck away all the blades in an instant.
"You said you'd apologize for your aggressive attitude earlier, but isn't this a bit too much?"
I spoke mockingly, but Do Unchu only continued to glare at me.
"This should be more than enough to cover the commission fee for the information, shouldn't it?"
"I need to set aside my prejudices regarding the Young Master. You are completely different from the person I thought I knew."
"I don't know how you know, but that's probably correct?"
"How did you know?"
The fact that the Hao Sect Master had disappeared was a tightly guarded secret even within the Hao Sect.
It was something most people didn't know, not just the Beggars' Sect, but across both the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions.
The existence of the Hao Sect Master himself was shrouded in secrecy to begin with, so knowing that he had disappeared was strange in itself.
'Should I say I learned it from the future? Would they believe me if I did?'
They'd treat me like an idiot, and while they might resort to violence, it wouldn't have any positive effect.
"You keep asking strange things. What's the point of asking when you know I won't answer?"
"If the Gu Family's information network is at this level, was there even a need to come find us?"
"Branch Master, I didn't come here to exchange Zen riddles with you."
I didn't care what Do Unchu thought about this.
Tap tap.
Between the strangely lingering silence in the room, only the sound of fingers drumming on the desk echoed.
"I have the information you need, and you have the ability to bring me the information I need, right? That's enough."
"Young Master, how am I supposed to believe whether that information is true or false in the first place?"
"That's for you to verify. Why are you trying to go around in circles like this?"
I stopped my tapping fingers.
Do Unchu had returned to an expressionless face, but I thought the mask had already been shattered long ago.
"That's something you do when you're desperate enough to not care about consequences, Branch Master. If you don't need it, scrap it. I'll go find the Beggars' Sect instead."
Ah, if push comes to shove, I'll leak a bit about the Hao Sect Master to the Beggars' Sect too.
With that softly whispered remark, the conversation ended.
Whatever judgment they make is their prerogative, but from my perspective, the answer was already set.
******************
"Why did you just let him go?"
After Gu Yangcheon left, only a few Hao Sect disciples and Do Unchu remained in the room.
Do Unchu smiled bitterly at the Hao Sect disciple's question.
"It was wrong from the start. I should have consistently played dumb, but I couldn't."
If you know, act as if you don't know.
If you don't know, act as if you know.
This was a saying akin to the Hao Sect's iron rule.
Do Unchu had survived until now based on these words. Even through numerous crises and the line of death, she had kept this one principle and made it here.
Yet, just because a single secret was discovered by a mere boy, everything had been shaken.
"...It seems we shouldn't have just let him go."
"Then what should we do, capture and torture him?"
"If necessary, even that..."
"Yacheol, don't say stupid things. Do you think the Gu Family looks like a punching bag because you've only been dealing with the Four Great Families?"
The Gu Family was undeniably a prestigious family.
Why is a prestigious family called a prestigious family?
Because the power and reputation built up over many centuries are so exalted that it earns the title. Because they never stopped growing during that long time.
Because they grew without falling behind, keeping up with the flow of the times, they came to be called a prestigious family now.
Messing with the Gu Family, the guardian of Shanxi, in Shanxi territory?
Moreover, touching the blood relative of the Gu Family and the Family Head's only son could, if done wrong, shake the Hao Sect itself.
"If only the Gu Family was involved, that'd be one thing, but touching the Gu Family naturally means handing the Orthodox faction a justification to attack the Hao Sect. In a situation like this, we should have been even more careful."
"...I apologize, Branch Master."
"The reason I'm not blaming you for recklessly swinging your sword is, first, because the Gu Family's Young Master didn't hold it against you, and second, because I already ruined everything from the start with my own mistake."
And the third reason she wouldn't tell Yacheol was the young man guarding Gu Yangcheon.
At first glance, he seemed like an unassuming young man, but not only did he instantly strike away the sword blades extending toward Gu Yangcheon.
If the disciples had tried to move even one step further...
'He definitely would have tried to cut them all down.'
The reason he didn't swing his sword any further was probably because there was no killing intent in the swords aimed at Gu Yangcheon.
Since they were swords drawn for intimidation purposes in the first place.
Likewise, the guard only deflected the swords without counterattacking.
Even so, Do Unchu hadn't even been able to properly see the guard's sword swing.
At least first-rate, or perhaps a martial artist who reached the tail end of the first-rate, invisible at Do Unchu's level of martial arts.
The fact that someone like that came as a guard meant it was safe to assume he had predicted the situation that would unfold from the beginning.
Not a single complicated thought was sorted out.
What was the reason the Gu Family's Young Master came to the Hao Sect? Was it actually to make a commission?
It was unlikely the boy had come alone with information he gathered by himself. Surely the Gu Family was involved, and if things went wrong, even the Gu Family Head was tied to this.
'...What on earth is he thinking?'
It was suffocating.
Do Unchu already found the circumstances pressing in on her difficult enough, but with another figure getting involved here, she couldn't easily reach an answer.
Do Unchu grabbed the flesh of her jaw with her hand and pulled.
Riiip-
The skin stretched, and with a tearing sound, it peeled off.
Just as Gu Yangcheon had predicted, it was a human skin mask.
Hidden beneath the human skin mask Do Unchu had been wearing was a woman.
A beautiful woman with eyes that seemed cold at first glance, slender eyelashes, and skin so pale it looked as if it had never seen sunlight.
When Do Unchu tossed the human skin mask aside, Yacheol asked.
"Is it alright to take it off?"
"It's suffocating, so please understand. There won't be anyone watching right now anyway."
Even the voice, which had been boyish for a man, changed to a delicate feminine tone.
"...No matter how much I think about it, I don't understand. The people who know the Sect Master disappeared can be counted on one hand, so how on earth did he find out?"
Due to the nature of the Hao Sect, even those who treat the Sect Master as such do not respect, trust, or follow him.
Rather, the majority are those who want to become the Sect Master and are after his position.
That was why the Hao Sect Master also lived hiding himself.
And just because the Sect Master disappeared didn't mean someone else could immediately become the Sect Master.
Only by inheriting the Hao Sect's token that the Sect Master possessed could one be acknowledged as the Hao Sect Master.
Probably the other elders and disciples who knew the Sect Master had disappeared were also frantically searching for his whereabouts for this very reason.
Though she didn't know how much Gu Yangcheon knew and came to find her, it didn't seem to her that he had come based on shallow information.
That was why he came to find her even more.
'That's something you do when you're desperate enough to not care about consequences.'
Gu Yangcheon's words echoed in her ears.
Do Unchu recalled the missing Hao Sect Master.
'...Father.'
As Gu Yangcheon had said, she was not in a position where she couldn't care about consequences.
**************************
'That was close.'
After finishing business at the Hao Sect, I came back out to the streets.
"Man, they really drew their swords. Crazy bastards."
Even though I knew they weren't trying to kill me, I didn't think they'd actually draw their swords.
I was momentarily startled.
Did I march in too arrogantly?
The reason I could maintain a calm facade even in that situation was because of the swordsmanship Muyeon had shown.
I glanced back, and Muyeon was moving his eyes around, surveying the surroundings.
'He seemed like nothing but a bumbling fool, but his movements were the real deal.'
Thanks to thinking that at least I'd be able to make it back alive, I was able to calmly seize the upper hand in the conversation.
I could feel Muyeon glancing at me furtively.
"Stop glancing at me like that and just ask if you're curious."
"I didn't ask because I thought you wouldn't answer even if I did."
"...You're really quick on the uptake, how did you know?"
"...."
"I'm joking. I'm a blood relative of the Gu Family, so of course I have some business to attend to."
As if something like that exists.
Since I've been causing incidents left and right, if worst comes to worst, I can just say I stumbled upon the Hao Sect by chance and went there out of curiosity, with a whatever-happens-happens attitude.
Going to an Unorthodox faction wouldn't end with just getting scolded, but it was a necessary priority before it was too late.
'It would've been more comfortable to go alone if possible.'
Bringing Muyeon along was unavoidable.
Of course, thanks to that, things seemed to have worked out well.
Fortunately, Muyeon didn't nitpick my words. Rather...
"...So there was a reason you insisted on going to the streets last time."
"Last time...?"
He must be talking about the first day I regressed.
"The day the Elder personally offered to adjust your martial arts, and you ran away saying you didn't want to. I thought you really ran away because you hated it."
"Uh...?"
"The Elder said he'd chop you in half the next time he sees you when he found out you ran away, but was even that an act you put on together with the Elder? I didn't even know that... As expected, the Gu Family's blood relatives have reasons even in their smallest actions...!"
"...."
It wasn't that I almost got screwed; I was already screwed. Am I crazy, why did that guy run away!
Having the Elder personally adjust your martial arts would be the greatest privilege a blood relative could receive, excluding being personally guided by the Family Head, Gu Cheol-un.
And I bolted because it was too hard.
This crazy bastard... How can I be such an idiot.
"Let's buy some yakgwa..."
Remembering how Wi Seol-a enjoyed eating them, I bought a few.
But then I realized I didn't bring any money, so Muyeon ended up paying for me. Could you not look like you're about to cry since I'll pay you back later?
Anyway, the Hao Sect matter would stop here for now.
'Please give us some time to think.'
Do Unchu had said that, but she'd take the bait before long anyway.
The 'Hao Sect Master Recapture' that would happen a few years in the future was proof. It was when the Hao Sect's elite infiltrated the Black Night Palace to recapture the Hao Sect Master, who would be in the Black Night Palace's underground around this time.
Ultimately, the recapture failed and the Hao Sect Master died.
However, the Hao Sect Master was replaced by the one who had led the recapture, and this incident became entangled with various other matters, leading to the Hao Sect properly rising to the surface.
'The only things I know for certain are that the Hao Sect Master was held captive in the Black Night Palace for over 5 years. And that the one who led the recapture was from the Shanxi branch.'
After the Sect Master was replaced, the new Sect Master also erased his traces like the previous one, but the traces he couldn't manage to hide in the urgent situation spoke of that.
In truth, while they called it a recapture, it was essentially a war between the Black Night Palace, a major power of the Unorthodox faction, and the Hao Sect. Afterward, the Black Night Palace collapsed and the Hao Sect was nearly annihilated.
The one who took advantage of the fight with the Hao Sect to bring down the Black Night Palace was none other than the Murim Alliance.
It was such a huge incident that even the past me, who didn't have even a sliver of interest in worldly affairs, remembered it.
'I was lucky. If it had been Anhui or Shaanxi instead of Shanxi, I wouldn't have even been able to attempt it due to the distance.'
It was half a gamble.
Whether the person in the rumors at the time was correct or not, whether there was even a Hao Sect branch in Shanxi right now, or whether that person was the Branch Master or not—I didn't know any of it and just jumped in.
As a result, I obtained a little bit of an answer from their reaction.
Given that the other party was the Hao Sect, I had many thoughts.
It was a commission that had to be made, even by choosing such a troublesome and dangerous method.
Whether commissioning the Beggars' Sect or searching directly, I had to find him somehow.
Tian You Lang Ya, Zhuge Yi.
The man who held a position in the Demonic Cult's leadership at a young age.
The strategist who was called the very brain of the Demonic Cult.
I was planning to find him and kill him for the future.
*******************
Taking advantage of going to the streets the day before, I only ate a few of the yakgwa I bought and gave the rest to Wi Seol-a.
While I was gone, something must have happened, as she was covered in spices all over her body. She said she was learning to cook, but how does learning result in that state?
Still, when I told her to keep working hard and gave her the yakgwa, she jumped around so excitedly that I thought, 'Should I buy some more next time?'
I told her to share the yakgwa moderately with the other maids.
Muyeon said he'd go report right after returning.
I asked Muyeon to keep today's events a secret since it was family business.
Muyeon naturally said he would, but since I had already prepared a loophole to patch things up in case he did report, I didn't let my guard down completely.
And so, the next day.
When the sun rose and I went outside, Muyeon and the Sword Venerable were chatting amiably.
"...What is that peculiar scene?"
The Sword Venerable was sweeping the courtyard with a broom like yesterday.
And beside him, Muyeon was talking to him.
"Elder, so I believe a swordsman must become one with their sword."
"Is that so, haha."
"For example... ah, do you happen to know of the Three Venerables Under Heaven? I heard that the Sword Venerable among the Three Venerables attained enlightenment while performing a sword dance under the moonlight. They said he heard the heart of the sword at that time."
"Hahahahaha!"
What is that.
Is that the thing about showing off in front of the grub?
"Sometimes when I train with the sword at night, I get that feeling too. The feeling of the sword occasionally speaking to me. When I swing the sword at that time, the sensation in my body... ah, you probably wouldn't understand even if I explain it this way, I apologize..."
"It's quite alright. It's interesting to listen to since this old man doesn't know much about such things."
Seeing him enthusiastically rambling on about swords in front of the Sword Venerable, it was more embarrassing for me as the observer.
Feeling like I couldn't take it anymore, I interjected.
"What are you doing?"
Muyeon and the Sword Venerable saw me and bowed. Putting Muyeon aside, even after seeing the Sword Venerable bow for several days, I still couldn't get used to it.
"...Well, I had a small enlightenment yesterday, and I suppose I unknowingly wanted to talk to someone about it."
I understood the feeling, but the problem was the other party of all people.
The Sword Venerable smiled at Muyeon's awkwardness.
"Young Master, I am fine. Although I was born a man, I have never even held a sword, so hearing the story of a young martial artist who commands the world makes my heart race too."
An old man who had truly commanded the world was keeping his mouth shut and pretending not to know while saying such things.
Meanwhile, Muyeon, having received a compliment, was shrugging his shoulders, which was a bit unsightly to see.
"So what's going on this morning?"
At my question, Muyeon made an oh-right expression and handed me a piece of paper. This guy had forgotten about it while showing off.
On the paper I received was written in red: 'Guryong Assembly' (俱龍).
As soon as I saw it and frowned, Muyeon spoke.
"Young Master, today is the day you must attend the Guryong Assembly."
Something that looked annoying at a glance had popped up.