Chapter 233: Where Did Our Fate Change?

After thinking it over carefully, I gave up and spoke to the Sect Leader across from me.

“…I’ll give up.”

“Already? Why?”

How was I supposed to explain this? The truth was, I could not imitate the Beggars’ Sect Leader.

To erase one’s presence, one first had to empty one’s mind…

But in my mind, there was already the Zaha Inn, there were flames, and there was madness as well. I was a man who could not empty his mind, and a man who would never forget. Crucially, it was because of those emotions that I had encountered the Zaha Divine Art. If I emptied my mind, the Zaha Divine Art would disappear too.

I could not allow that.

When I fought the Leader of the Jecheon Alliance, I had not used the Zaha Divine Art, but if we had fought to the very end, I would have settled it with the Zaha Divine Art one way or another.

I had no intention whatsoever of emptying my mind and giving up the Zaha Divine Art, my final bastion.

I tried to convey those honest feelings.

“I’m an emotional person. I don’t forget the past. I hold on to things, remember them, and take revenge. That is who I am.”

Across from me, the Beggars’ Sect Leader smiled and nodded.

“So that is who you are. Each person should do what they are good at. Fine.”

Suddenly, I looked around the bridge and asked the Sect Leader.

“By the way, does Brother Nosin often disappear like this?”

“He does. He likes looking around and meddling in things.”

I relaxed my hunched posture, sat up straight, and crossed my arms. In any case, because of the wooden sword at my waist, begging was already out of the question. Some uncomfortable feeling was stirring inside me, so I thought about it deeply.

‘…Am I mistaken?’

As I sat with my arms crossed and became wrapped in my natural atmosphere, ordinary passersby took one look at me and walked a little farther away. These ordinary people sensed no danger at all from the supreme leader of the Beggars’ Sect. From me, they were sensing killing intent.

The Sect Leader must have found my appearance odd as well, because he asked as if curious.

“What are you thinking about that your killing intent has grown so ominous?”

“I’m always like this.”

I met the Beggars’ Sect Leader’s eyes steadily for a moment, then said,

“…I’ll think a little more and tell you.”

“Do that.”

It might have been irreverent toward one of the greatest masters of the righteous path, one of the Three Calamities, so I was being cautious in my own way. The reason I respected the Sect Leader was because this man had already saved the murim once.

Suddenly, I wondered.

Did a man like this also live while making mistakes?

Was the Beggars’ Sect Leader also human, and therefore unable to avoid making mistakes? As I kept my mouth shut, people occasionally passed by and gave alms to the Beggars’ Sect Leader. As I saw it, the Beggars’ Sect Leader was fundamentally a man who bore goodwill toward the weak.

This man was no different inside and out.

That must be why he received such alms.

I traced the sequence of time and checked once more the words spoken by the Beggars’ Sect Leader, Nosin, and myself, in order.

“What was the martial art you displayed earlier?”

“It is Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven, combining the qi of the sun and moon.”

At the Jecheon Alliance, the Sect Leader had asked, and I had answered.

“Why are you only coming now?”

“Because Master is fast. Is it already all over?”

At the Jecheon Alliance, the Sect Leader had asked, and Nosin had answered…

“When internal and external arts are in perfect harmony within the body, like your sun and moon, they can possess explosive power beyond expectation.”

After we finished our lightness skill, Nosin had said this to me.

I also pulled from my memory the conversations we had shared at the Chunyang Restaurant and in Ilyang County, and reviewed them.

Was it a mistake, or not?

For someone like the Beggars’ Sect Leader to ask, “Why are you only coming now?” meant that Nosin had not been waiting nearby.

I had first used the expressions sun and moon, and Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven, to the Beggars’ Sect Leader. The Sect Leader had seemed to be hearing that story for the first time.

Then why had Nosin mentioned my sun and moon while giving me advice about lightness skill?

Was I getting too far ahead of myself this time?

Was the suspicion born from my madness flaring up again?

The ones who clearly knew the names sun and moon or Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven were the Four Great Evildoers and the White-Clad Scholar, more or less. Nosin also belonged to the Swift Hall and had a point of contact with the White-Clad Scholar, so there was a possibility he had heard it. But if I assumed the two had met between the time I met the White-Clad Scholar and returned to Ilyang County, the development was somewhat out of the blue.

While guarding against my own suspicious nature, I looked at the Beggars’ Sect Leader.

“……”

Now that I thought about it, in my previous life, when the Demonic Cult waged local wars and went around killing masters of the murim, Alliance Leader Im Sobaek had rushed all over the place and suffered greatly.

At that time, what had the Beggars’ Sect Leader been doing?

I had heard nothing about the Sect Leader’s exploits.

Had he been in training then too?

Even when I was running rampant as the Mad Demon, the Three Calamities were already masters who had become legends, and I could not meet them. Clearly, I seemed to be the type of person whose imagination worked better in a bad direction. Suddenly, I met the Beggars’ Sect Leader’s eyes and asked whatever came to mind.

“Senior, how does Brother Nosin know that I handle the qi of the sun and moon?”

The Beggars’ Sect Leader heard my words and looked at me without answering. His gaze was directed at me, but the Sect Leader was mulling over what I had said.

Suddenly, the Beggars’ Sect Leader gathered the alms he had received, stood up, came to sit beside me, and answered.

“You didn’t tell him before?”

“At our first meeting, he would have known that I had a yin-yang body. But as you know, the wording and tone weren’t something inferred from the yin-yang body he heard about then. It was certainty. It was something he had heard recently. And at the Jecheon Alliance, he arrived later than you, Senior. Was he waiting nearby?”

“No.”

The Beggars’ Sect Leader suddenly turned his head and looked at me. His expression said he now roughly understood what I meant.

“Are you saying he might have been in league with the Scholar? He deliberately joined the Swift Hall and shared information from the Scholar’s side with me.”

Seeing the Beggars’ Sect Leader flustered, I spoke honestly.

“You may get angry at me. It might be a needless suspicion. However, if the Scholar’s side also wants to properly grasp the Beggars’ Sect Leader’s movements, they have no choice but to ask Nosin. By any chance, do you know the Swift Hall Master?”

“Nosin said he did not know either. Apparently, there is talk that he appears if you defeat everyone with lightness skill, but even the White-Clad Scholar could not defeat him.”

There was also something I was curious about here.

Was the Scholar’s side truly in a position where they could kill the Beggars’ Sect Leader if they devoted all their strength? It would only be possible if the Scholar’s total forces were stronger than the Cult Leader and the Sect Leader joining forces.

It would not be easy.

But it was not impossible.

For example, Cheonak and the White-Clad Scholar could join forces, and each of their subordinates could be added to that. On top of that, if the unidentified Swift Hall Master was expected to be faster than the White-Clad Scholar, then at the very least, there was a possibility he was a leader in charge of another Book Prison.

Would that not be enough to handle the Beggars’ Sect Leader?

And what if Nosin also had a detailed grasp of the Sect Leader’s martial arts? In truth, the man who knew the Sect Leader’s martial arts best was Nosin.

Because he was his disciple.

I was also curious whether the Beggars’ Sect Leader was a man who could mentally withstand his disciple’s betrayal.

Combining all those vicious moves, no matter how I thought about it, I arrived at the conclusion that it would have been difficult for the Beggars’ Sect Leader to withstand them. Even if the Beggars’ Sect Leader had been more outstanding than they expected, it would likely have ended in mutual destruction.

Had the Demon Cult stepped to the forefront in that situation?

The Cult Leader had prepared the Heavenly Jade as though there existed someone even he could not defeat.

A master so powerful that, despite his current strength, he could only face him after consuming the Heavenly Jade?

Could there have been a master who sought to kill both the Sect Leader and Cheonak at the same time, or someone whose strength was like the Sect Leader and Cheonak joining forces……

The fact that the White-Clad Scholar had deliberately not revealed Hall Master Kwae’s identity to me kept weighing on my mind.

As I continued down a path of conjecture filled with chaos and confusion, I stopped thinking. Noshin was walking over from beyond the bridge.

“……Ah, those noodles really were a lot. My stomach’s finally settled a bit. How about you, Gate Master?”

I nodded as I looked at Noshin.

“Mine goes down in no time.”

“Good grief, youth is enviable. Truly enviable.”

Noshin plopped down beside me. With the Beggars’ Sect Leader, me, and Noshin sitting side by side like this, amusingly enough, not a single person tried to give us alms.

It was probably because of the atmosphere around me.

Noshin looked at me and said,

“You weren’t born with the fate of a beggar. Your natural aura is too ominous, so begging doesn’t suit you. First of all, that look in your eyes isn’t normal.”

I chuckled, then stood up and looked at the Sect Leader and his disciple.

“……In any case, I’ll try earning some money too.”

The Beggars’ Sect Leader replied with a smile.

“How do you intend to earn it?”

I pointed at the Beggars’ Sect Leader.

“Since you have taught me, I should earn it in Haomun’s way.”

I walked to the other side and sat precariously with my backside on the railing, watching the people passing by. Whenever fellows who looked like they had tempers passed, I deliberately put on a mocking expression or stared at them intently. Most of them frowned, then checked the wooden sword at my waist and quietly moved on.

I deliberately smirked, and when some particularly foul-tempered-looking fellows appeared on the bridge, I waved the wooden sword this way and that and said,

“……If you challenge me and win, I’ll give you one standard silver tael. But to challenge me, it’s ten nyang in iron coins.”

The pathetic fellows I had been watching stopped and asked me,

“What kind of challenge? With swords?”

“Fists are fine too.”

“How much did you say?”

“The challenge fee is ten nyang. If you beat me, one silver tael.”

“Do you even have the silver?”

I took out my money pouch, opened its mouth, and showed it to the loafers.

“I’ve got plenty of money.”

The loafers looked at one another, then one of them came over and handed me ten nyang. As I put the money into my pouch, I asked,

“Who’s challenging me?”

A man with a sword at his waist stepped forward with a smile and pointed to himself.

“I’ll go first.”

“Good.”

I stepped down from the railing and loosened up. I hadn’t even finished warming up when the loafer charged in without warning. I dodged his ordinary punch, then kicked him in the backside and sent the fellow flying under the bridge. With a splash, the loafer fell into the stream.

“Hahahaha……”

As I burst into laughter and looked at his companions, every last one of them drew their swords at the same time.

In that instant, goosebumps rose on my skin. The Sect Leader’s words came to mind.

‘Human evil is abundant even in the weak.’

That was true. I had only dropped him into the water, so there shouldn’t have been anywhere he was hurt, yet the reason they drew their swords without hesitation had to be because of my money pouch.

I hardened my expression and said,

“I told you. The challenge fee is ten nyang. That is proper etiquette. Know that if you attack me without paying, there’s a chance you’ll die.”

The fellow who had fallen into the water shouted from beneath the bridge.

“What are you standing around watching for!”

These crazy bastards charged at me all at once, swinging their swords. I dodged the first sword that reached me, grabbed the fellow’s wrist, and threw him into the stream. Then I struck the next one’s wrist with the edge of my hand and broke it, kicked another fellow’s knee with my left foot and knocked him down, and hit the last one in the chest with a finger technique infused with the Moon Shadow Heartless Art.

They were so feeble that I grabbed them by the collars and tossed them into the stream. Looking at the fellows who had fallen into the water, I said,

“If you want to be beaten to death, climb back up and attack me again.”

The one with the broken arm was screaming, so it didn’t seem like they would attack again. I turned around with a smile and looked anew at the Beggars’ Sect Leader and Noshin. The spot where I had been sitting was empty, and as I looked at them like this, the distance between the two of them seemed quite far.

Come to think of it, while his master and Sect Leader had been begging……

Where had the disciple, who was also a beggar belonging to the Beggars’ Sect, gone wandering off to?

If one were to ask who was more like a beggar,

it was not Noshin, but the Beggars’ Sect Leader who was a beggar in his true essence.

When I smiled, the Beggars’ Sect Leader and Noshin also looked at me with smiles. Noshin asked me,

“Is that how Haomun earns money? Still, you earned ten nyang.”

I nodded.

“Haomun is more or less like this.”

We were both at the bottom, but Haomun was different from the Beggars’ Sect. I pointed at the fellows who had fallen into the water, then spoke to the Beggars’ Sect Leader.

“Did you see that?”

The Beggars’ Sect Leader, the Divine Beggar, nodded with a smile.

I met the Sect Leader’s eyes and said this.

“……Human evil is abundant even in the weak. Senior, you must not let your guard down either.”

The moment the smile suddenly vanished from the Beggars’ Sect Leader’s face, Noshin checked the expression of his master beside him and then looked at me.

I said to Noshin,

“What are you looking at?”

Noshin suddenly smiled broadly and said,

“Hahaha…… That is something Master often says. How fascinating.”

I perched on the railing, looked at master and disciple, and then answered.

“I find it fascinating too.”

Noshin asked me with a smile,

“What do you find fascinating?”

“What happens in the Beggars’ Sect is the same as what happens under heaven. My meeting with you seniors is heavenly fortune.”

As I kept uttering words that sounded like Zen riddles, the smile was gradually disappearing from Noshin’s face.

Inwardly, I thought this.

No matter how events flow from here, because the Beggars’ Sect Leader came to meet me, fate has changed. The Sect Leader’s fate will change, and accordingly, my fate will change as well.

Then why, unlike in my previous life, did the Beggars’ Sect Leader come to meet me?

Perhaps that was……

because my state of mind had changed from my previous life?

It wasn’t a matter of “or perhaps not”; I could find no other reason besides that.