Chapter 176. Thinking I Should Take a Spiritual Mountain

“Sect Leader, the First Young Master and Second Young Master are constantly being summoned by the Cult Leader anyway, and their maternal families each hold a position over there as well, so there’s no point.”

I set down my cup and looked at the White-Faced Young Master.

“Are you testing my patience right now?”

The White-Faced Young Master let out a hollow laugh and said,

“It’s the truth. You have no intention of sparing me anyway, do you? You’ll coax me gently with a cup of wine like this, and once you hear what you want, I’ll be as good as dead.”

It seemed my persuasion had not been sufficient yet.

“White Face, listen carefully. You’ve already lost your internal energy. If I want to confirm whether your faction is a proper force or not… whether it’s an even more pathetic place than the Hao Sect, all I have to do is let you live and send you back like this. Do you think your family will welcome you?”

“…….”

“All your internal energy is gone, and your face has been beaten in by someone. If it even becomes known that you were dragged around by the Hao Sect Leader, how do you think your family will treat you? Think about it and answer.”

After hearing my words, the White-Faced Young Master seemed to be considering his own situation and kept his mouth shut.

I pointed at the White-Faced Young Master with my finger.

“That’s why I said I sent you on a journey. If you’re confident, you can return just like this anyway. Instead, tell me where the antidote is made. If it’s separated from your family, all the better. I’ll go burn down the place where the antidote is made, and you’re free to run back to your family.”

“Why are you so desperate to get rid of that poison?”

In truth, this was a simple matter.

If it was a poison potent enough to trouble even Moyong Baek, it was better to burn it in advance. My conclusion was that it would be a problem if martial artists consumed it, and a problem if ordinary people consumed it as well. If farmers became addicted to it, there was even a possibility they would rush over, offer up their rice, and obtain it.

The force presumed to be the Phantom Demon would grow tremendously.

“A man like Blue Sword is not someone who should be under another. Yet even a man like that is acting as a slave, so this is a serious problem. The Cult Leader might abuse it as well, so I simply can’t overlook it. My patience ends here, so now it’s your turn to speak. I’ll count to three.”

“…….”

Having made up my mind to kill the White-Faced Young Master, I folded down a finger.

“One, two, three.”

The White-Faced Young Master said,

“It’s at Mount Hua.”

“Where? Do you think there’s only one Mount Hua in the world? You lunatic, how am I supposed to find it if you say it like that?”

“I said it’s at the Western Peak.”

“Are you telling me to search the whole vast Western Peak?”

“It’s scattered throughout the areas leading to Lotus Peak west of Mount Hua. I’ve never been there either. The person who manages that place sends the goods when the time comes, and we merely receive them.”

“Why make that garbage at the Western Peak of all places?”

“There was once a meeting of old fiends of the Demonic Path at the Western Peak to contest their rankings, and they were suddenly wiped out. There are a few spiritual mountains that the Demonic Path avoids, and it’s one of them. It remains in the records, so they still avoid it. It’s a record ordinary people don’t know about.”

In short, even the Cult Leader avoided it like superstition because it was a spiritual mountain.

“Who did they die to?”

“Only the epithet Guan Yinzi remains, so his identity cannot be known.”

“Where are the other spiritual mountains you people avoid?”

“Mount Heng, Mount Song, Mount Heng, Mount Tai, and Zhongnan.”

“And the reason you avoid those places?”

The White-Faced Young Master rubbed his chin before answering.

“Well, for reasons similar to Mount Hua. They say those mountains are good for cultivating the Dao, so the effects of circulating qi and regulating breath are superior to other places. Old fiends obsessed with martial arts climbed them to claim a place for themselves and died, and there are also fiends who supposedly took refuge in Buddhism. There are rumors some were forced to become Daoists. There are absurd tales that some were trapped in caves until they died. One way or another, rumors of people vanishing gathered together, and after that, those from the Demonic Path came to avoid visiting them.”

I suddenly sighed.

“Then the people making this on Mount Hua are not martial artists. They’re simply making it for money without knowing what it is.”

“Something like that.”

“All sorts of beggar-like things are happening all over the world.”

From what I heard, at least Mount Hua and Zhongnan were located close to one another, but the other spiritual mountains were quite far away. Considering they were mentioned in the records of the Demonic Path, it seemed to be such an old matter that even if I went there now, the likelihood of finding traces of old masters did not seem very high.

I emptied a cup of wine and then entrusted the matter to the White-Faced Young Master.

“I don’t have the capacity right now to go all the way to distant Mount Hua. I’ll give you three choices. Choose only one of the three.”

The White-Faced Young Master glared at me.

“…….”

“You don’t like it? If you don’t, let’s make it four choices, including dying.”

“If you tell me, I’ll choose.”

I folded down one finger.

“First, how about the choice of dropping dead? You can meet Yeop Yahong too.”

“I’ll pass.”

“What a shame. But don’t worry. There are still three choices left.”

I poured wine for the White-Faced Young Master, who had suddenly developed hand tremors because of me, and said,

“…Go back to your family and report in detail. Quite a lot of your subordinates died, didn’t they? Report the loss of manpower too. Tell them that a man like Blue Sword betrayed you and attached himself to the Hao Sect. You should also report that you were defeated by the Hao Sect Leader and lost your internal energy. Why? Because it’s true. Reports should be accurate, swift, without exaggeration, and exactly as they are. You’ve developed hand tremors anyway, so even the men you used to command will end up harassing you. Want to do that?”

The White-Faced Young Master glared at me as he answered.

“…I’ll pass.”

“What a shame. It would have been perfect for getting beaten up and then discarded after being used.”

The White-Faced Young Master downed his wine with a trembling hand.

I asked,

“How many are left?”

“Two.”

“Good. The next choice is very nice. You go on a journey. Let’s go on a journey. With a coin pouch slung over your shoulder on a green hill, toward the wilderness where the golden sun holds its festival, toward the valley, where dawn breaks.”

“Enough.”

With an expressionless face, I continued teasing the White-Faced Young Master.

“How is it? Bend after bend. You don’t like it? Well, true, if you wander around for no reason and run into someone like Blue Sword, you might get beaten to death. Your martial arts have fallen off quite a bit too, so you could meet mountain bandits, meet river bandits, meet horse bandits in the wilderness… It would be quite a fulfilling journey.”

“…….”

“For your information, the Hao Sect has dismantled the Southern Peak Green Forest Alliance, so I’ll let you know that you can travel comfortably in that direction. I didn’t do it so you could travel safely, but that’s how it turned out. As you know, I also beat down your side’s horse bandits.”

“What is the last choice?”

I nodded and then told him.

“The truth is, money is nice. It’s convenient when traveling too. I’m busy right now, so I can’t immediately run off to Mount Hua. You go and clean up that idiotic medicine they’re making. Whether you set fire to the place or take all the money those bastards have earned, do as you please. With that much, you should be able to earn enough travel money for a decade or two.”

The White-Faced Young Master stared at me blankly for a long while before asking,

“And after that?”

I said in a calm tone,

“That’s none of my concern.”

“Mm.”

“You should try living however you please at least once in your life. Find out what is normal and what is abnormal……. Go where you want to go, do what you want to do, spend money however you want. Do everything to your heart’s content. Do it all without regrets, and if you still want to kill me after that, come find me and take your revenge. If you are still worried about the force you once belonged to, you may return to it. If you change your mind and want to live differently, buy a good jar of wine and come find me. I will listen to what you were thinking as you lived all that time. When that day comes, tell me your name instead of White-Faced Young Master.”

The White-Faced Young Master avoided my gaze, then stared blankly out beyond the inn, where there was nothing to see.

To my eyes, the White-Faced Young Master looked like a greenhorn who had never once gone out into the world. As he merely blinked and stared at the sunlight outside, I said to him,

“You said you were dragged onto this battlefield the moment you were born.”

“…….”

“I’ll give you leave. Go.”

The White-Faced Young Master asked in a different tone,

“You are truly sparing me?”

I thought there was no need for more words, so I only gave a slight nod. The White-Faced Young Master, whose expression had been changing from moment to moment, rose from his seat and said to me,

“Then I will go on leave now.”

The White-Faced Young Master, who had been walking slowly toward the entrance of the inn, called me again.

“Sect Leader.”

“What?”

When I looked at him, the White-Faced Young Master clasped both hands and gave me a cupped-fist salute.

“I will…… go to Mount Hua.”

Only then did I feel that this fellow had finally understood human speech, and a long sigh escaped me. After nodding several times, I replied briefly.

“Take care on your way.”

The White-Faced Young Master lowered his head slightly.

I watched for a while as the White-Faced Young Master departed for Mount Hua on unsteady steps. If luck was against him along the way, he might be beaten to death by someone; if luck was with him, he might arrive safely at Mount Hua.

However, there was something that fellow did not yet know.

The merchants who wander the world on their own two feet with bundles on their backs are all weaker beings than that fellow, who had lost his inner force.

He would not yet know that ordinary people who have never learned martial arts travel long roads day after day, risking their lives in order to feed their families.

If he went on his journey and returned when his leave was over, perhaps he would come to know.

And only by knowing that would he finally be able to escape the Demonic Path.

After the White-Faced Young Master disappeared, I looked around the inn with a weary heart. I had only dealt with a single man of the Demonic Path, yet both my body and mind were exhausted.

Suddenly, my eyes met the waiter’s, who was standing quietly at the entrance to the kitchen.

The waiter asked me,

“Sect Leader, shall I bring you more wine?”

When I nodded, the waiter brought over a wine jar, poured the wine himself, then naturally sat down across from me. He poured the wine the White-Faced Young Master had been drinking onto the floor, then held out the empty cup to me.

“Please give me a cup as well.”

I suddenly came to my senses a little and looked at the waiter.

“If you ask, I ought to give it. Take it.”

“Yes, sir.”

As the waiter received the wine, he rambled on.

“It seems that frustrating fellow only barely understood your words at the very end, Sect Leader. Good grief, I was just listening along, and I thought I’d die from sheer frustration.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Still, at the end, something seemed to reach him.”

“That’s fortunate. Let’s drink.”

I drank together with the waiter. Only then did I feel somewhat relieved. The waiter wiped his lips with his sleeve and looked at me with a solemn expression.

“Sect Leader.”

“What?”

“In my life, I have heard all sorts of conversations over drinks, but this is truly the first time I have heard one as grand, solemn, interesting, and yet so bafflingly impossible to understand as today’s. However…….”

The waiter thumped his own chest.

“I understood it with this heart. You were doing everything you could to turn that frustrating man’s heart around, Sect Leader. That left quite an impression on me.”

I nodded, then asked the waiter,

“Are you drunk?”

“Not at all. Please give me just one more cup.”

“Take it.”

As I poured him wine, I asked the waiter,

“Do you know who I am?”

“I’m not sure. Sect Leader, Sect Leader. Hao Sect, Hao Sect. From the way he kept saying it, aren’t you the Hao Sect Leader?”

“That is me.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Not yet.”

I snickered together with the waiter and shared the wine with him. As we passed it back and forth, the waiter drained every last drop of my wine in no time.

“By the way, why are there so few customers here?”

The waiter sighed.

“I know, right?”

I turned sideways and put both legs up on an empty chair.

“Isn’t it because of you that there are no customers? If you drain customers’ wine like this every time, they’ll find it unlucky and never come back.”

“You have a point. That may be true.”

When I folded my arms and let out a long yawn, the waiter said,

“There are no customers anyway, so please get some sleep.”

“Fine.”

“But how does one join that Hao Sect? Can I join too?”

“Why are you trying to join?”

“Pardon? Well, you even sent that frustrating fellow on leave earlier. You seemed like a good person.”

“I am not a good person.”

“Are you a bad guy?”

“Quite far on that side.”

I took the Flash Dagger out from my clothes and waved it toward the waiter.

“I’m sleeping.”

After sticking the Flash Dagger into the table and closing my eyes, I heard the waiter’s voice.

“Sleep in peace. I will stand guard thoroughly. Sect Leader.”

I nodded slightly and answered,

“Confirmed.”

As the waiter went outside the inn, he said,

“Good. Business is over for today.”

Even with my eyes closed, strategies that were closer to stray thoughts arose in my mind without order. I thought that, in order to deal with the Cult Leader, I would have to seize Mount Hua and Mount Zhongnan. Of course, it was not something I could do right away. Everything had its proper order. I thought that if I gained a disciple worth teaching, it would not be bad to train together on Mount Hua then.

If that ugly Ghost Demon from my previous life, that bastard Yukgap, was still alive by then…….

I thought it might be good to send him to Mount Zhongnan. In any case, if that fellow continued training, he too would become a master counted among the ten greatest public enemies of the martial world.

If I occasionally visited Mount Zhongnan and beat up the Ghost Demon from my previous life…….

He was a bastard with a nasty temper to begin with, so he would throw himself into training with even more spite. And if he kept training while absorbing the essence of the sacred mountain?

Wouldn’t he amount to something?

.

.

.

If he didn’t, I could just beat him until he did.