Chapter 421. Swindlers.

“Tomorrow, I ought to give the Cult Leader the greatest gift of his life. From what I’ve observed so far, whether he wins or loses, fighting the strong may have been the only solace in his life. That will be the gift.”

The White-Clad Scholar, who listened to me to the end, nodded several times even while lying down.

“After crossing hands with him, I understand. It certainly felt that way.”

I asked the White-Clad Scholar as he looked up at the night sky.

“Is it full of stars?”

“It is full.”

I lay down nearby as well and looked up at the night sky. Just as the White-Clad Scholar said, the night sky was packed with stars.

Cheonak asked me.

“As expected of you, you have no plan for how you’ll fight, do you?”

“How did you know? It’s not as though I have some brilliant scheme. I can only do my best. Isn’t that right, Senior Coachman?”

The senior coachman, suddenly asked a question, looked flustered, then answered with a dry cough.

“I suppose so.”

“You must have suffered much serving the Cult Leader.”

At those words, the senior coachman smiled faintly.

“Do you truly think so?”

“Did you not suffer?”

“What difficulty could there be in attending the strongest man under heaven? No road was ever blocked. No place was ever inaccessible. Wherever he wished to stay became our lodging. All I did was follow him around. Even when I made a mistake and took the wrong road, if I reported it to him, he would merely say, ‘Is that so,’ and tell me to change direction. What one sees from the outside and what one feels from the inside differ this greatly.”

Taken in by the coachman’s eloquence, I found the man looking like the greatest coachman under heaven.

Moyong Baek said to me.

“Sect Leader, it does not seem advisable for Senior Martial Emperor to get up right away. Rather, I will light a campfire here, so please go in first and get some sleep. We do not know when the Cult Leader will ask to fight tomorrow.”

Eldest Brother approached with the Lust Demon and said.

“A campfire… Let’s do that. Mongrang.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Since this is a manor, they will already have firewood stocked. It’s been so noisy that the maids probably haven’t been able to sleep either, so ask them and bring some.”

“Understood.”

When Eldest Brother plopped down nearby, Gongson Sim also came over and sat close by. Looking around, it seemed these people were all ready to hand the entire manor over to the Cult Leader and camp outside. Of course, there were several rooms, so it would not be a problem even if everyone went in and slept, but this was a kind of consideration.

I got up and sat, then looked around at the others.

“This duel would have been in serious trouble without Moyong Baek.”

Everyone looked at one another.

“You can say that again.”

I also urged the senior coachman to rest.

“Senior, you should go into the manor and get some sleep as well. We will guard the carriage and the weapons.”

“I am fine.”

The senior coachman went to the driver’s seat, cleared a place, and lay down there just as he was. I did not know whether he intended to sleep or merely close his eyes, but the coachman did not open his mouth.

Before long, the Lust Demon came carrying a great load of firewood on his back, set it down on the ground, and, together with Moyong Baek, quickly built a campfire and lit it.

We sat around and watched the fire, while Moyong Baek took miscellaneous tools and medicines from his bundle and first wiped away the blood that covered the White-Clad Scholar’s body. Moyong Baek’s hands, when treating someone, moved as naturally and swiftly as ours did when performing martial arts.

As the White-Clad Scholar lay there receiving Moyong Baek’s treatment, the blood slowly disappeared from his body, and he began returning to a more human appearance.

Because no one was making noise, the night was so quiet it was as if no fight had ever taken place.

When the temporary first round of treatment was over, the White-Clad Scholar said to Moyong Baek in a subdued tone.

“Thank you.”

Moyong Baek replied.

“Forgive me, but that ‘thank you’—hasn’t it been a very long time since you last said it?”

“How did you know?”

“Your tone was far too awkward.”

“You know all sorts of things. How far have you mastered the Transplanting Flowers and Grafting Trees Divine Art (移花接木神功)?”

“Lately, I have been training in the third stage.”

The White-Clad Scholar smiled faintly.

“Is that so? Even learning that much should be enough that you would not lose to most people.”

“I am curious myself, but in truth, I have never fought even once until now.”

At Moyong Baek’s words, everyone looked at him.

Cheonak seemed dumbfounded as well and asked.

“You learned a martial art with the name ‘Divine Art’ attached to it, and you’ve never fought once?”

“Yes. Everyone I meet is a patient, so who would I fight? Moreover, the area around my clinic already has no one causing trouble, thanks to the Sect Leader. If I so much as roughly borrowed the Sect Leader’s name, the only people there were those whose faces turned pale. After all, more than one or two men have acted up and been beaten to death.”

Everyone stared at the campfire, then chuckled.

Eldest Brother also smiled and said.

“In general, Third Brother is certainly frightening to the people of the martial world.”

I did not spare Moyong Baek a scolding.

“Still, keep training. This is a world where you cannot survive on medical arts alone.”

“Understood.”

I watched the wavering flames and muttered.

“Today, for some reason, the campfire looks strangely like the Sacred Flame (聖火).”

I sat among the beasts and shared in the warmth of the Sacred Flame. Moyong Baek also sat comfortably nearby and looked at me.

“As I understood it, I suspected that flames were psychologically connected to your madness, Sect Leader. Are you all right now, even when looking at fire?”

“How do you even know things like that?”

Moyong Baek smiled.

“Indeed. It is not something I learned because it was written in a book. When one studies, one begins to infer things one did not know before. Madness tends to begin from the incident that caused the greatest wound to the heart, so it is not difficult to anticipate.”

“I see.”

I looked at the wavering flames and said.

“Now, I’m perfectly fine.”

Gongson Sim said.

“How strange. The duel came about according to the Sect Leader’s idea, yet in the end, it also seems to have turned out exactly as the Cult Leader wished. After all, it does not seem as though the Cult Leader will lose to you, and yet the two of you will fight one-on-one.”

I picked up his words.

“Strangely, I have no worry or anxiety about victory or defeat. It is simply that I will fight on Mount Hua. Only that feeling remains.”

Eldest Brother said to me.

“Will you sleep? Or will you circulate your qi and regulate your breathing? Whatever you do, we will stand guard for you.”

I watched the wavering flames, then shook my head.

“Let’s just talk. We’ll chatter through the night, and if we get sleepy, each of us can sleep. We came all the way here well enough, so what’s this about circulating qi? I’m not going to train for a while. Tomorrow is important, but the present is important to me as well.”

These were masters of the martial world who had gathered with great difficulty.

Sitting around and staring at the campfire, we mostly exchanged rambling nonsense, but to me, this present time was just as precious as tomorrow’s duel.

Because everyone here was exceptionally capable…….

They were all masters who could properly raise at least one outstanding disciple.

The White-Clad Scholar, supported by Murong Bai, pushed himself up and looked around at us from where he sat.

“……Sometimes I imagined taking in a disciple who didn’t know my identity.”

“…….”

“A disciple who knew nothing of my past. I would have to act like a Daoist. As if I knew all there was to know about worldly affairs. As if I had no lingering attachment to the world. Like some old master who had retired long ago. I would become a hidden recluse. My disciple wouldn’t be able to understand me deeply. He wouldn’t know my past, after all. It doesn’t matter. I used to laugh whenever I imagined myself one day telling that disciple, ‘You must learn martial arts and become a chivalrous hero.’ What kind of fraud would that make me? A chivalrous hero…….”

At the White-Clad Scholar’s words, everyone laughed.

Cheonak muttered as if he found it ridiculous as well.

“A chivalrous hero…… you lunatic.”

The White-Clad Scholar said,

“In the end, isn’t it enough if only the disciple doesn’t know? Our true identities, I mean. Sect Leader, am I wrong?”

I nodded.

“You’re right. There’s no need for our disciples to know our pasts.”

The Lecherous Demon asked Eldest Brother,

“Master, but wouldn’t Yoran know, more or less, that her masters are villains? She’s sharp, after all.”

Eldest Brother answered,

“Yoran doesn’t care whether we are villains or not. As long as we don’t suddenly run far away.”

At Eldest Brother’s words, the Lecherous Demon looked somewhat surprised.

“Is that so?”

The Lecherous Demon looked around at us and said,

“Someday, I hope the disciples of the seniors and our disciples face one another on Mount Hua. Not in a life-and-death duel, but in a martial contest. The world’s greatest under heaven would be born, martial learning would be exchanged, and if there were forces in the martial world that strayed too far, the disciples would band together and smash them apart…….”

Murong Bai answered,

“It may be far in the future, but I hope my disciple will be there as well.”

For the most part, it seemed the flame I was gazing at truly was the sacred flame. We exchanged words no different from a covenant. Because these were each of our wishes and hopes, our true feelings untainted by any sinister emotion.

We talked until daybreak, chatted idly, and traded pointless jokes. No one really thought of sleeping. Though the paths we had walked were different, in the conversation we shared while looking into the campfire, all negative emotions such as hostility, hatred, and anger had been swallowed by the flames and carried off somewhere.

Surprisingly, around the time the dim light of dawn began to fill the sky…….

The Cult Leader’s voice was heard.

“Sect Leader.”

“Speak.”

“Let’s go. To Mount Hua.”

I tilted my head.

“For a walk?”

I stood and looked at the expressions of the men with whom I had spent the night talking, and then I realized this was no walk. Still, it didn’t matter. In any case, I exchanged a brief farewell.

“I’ll be back. It seems he doesn’t want to show you the martial contest, so I should respect that.”

The coachman sprang up from the driver’s seat and asked me,

“Sect Leader, what about Ilsal?”

“It’s fine.”

Eldest Brother looked at me and said,

“Go and come back.”

No one could offer me a farewell beyond telling me to come back. When I entered the manor, the Cult Leader was standing vacantly near the table like someone who had stayed up all night.

I went to the Cult Leader’s side and said,

“Let’s go.”

Without saying much, we headed for Mount Hua. I had never thought I would end up taking a walk with just the Cult Leader, yet that was exactly what I was doing now. Only after quite some time did the Cult Leader speak.

“Let’s go somewhere secluded.”

“Mount Hua is mostly quiet. There are few traces of people.”

At some point, the Cult Leader began using lightness skill, so I had no choice but to follow. He did not particularly seem to know the way. After all, he climbed cliffs without batting an eye. In truth, had I not learned Jaeyunjong, I might have fallen behind the Cult Leader and been unable to even have the martial contest. Strangely enough, to the point it felt as though the prelude to the martial contest was lightness skill, we rapidly climbed Mount Hua and continued searching for a secluded place.

I guessed that he wanted to find a place with no people, a wide area, and quiet surroundings.

I did not know every corner of Mount Hua either, so I had no choice but to follow him around.

In the end, the place we found was somewhere halfway up the mountain, and because it was shaped like a broad basin with a flat area set slightly lower, it seemed the most suitable place for a martial contest.

I suggested first,

“This place will do.”

Without saying this or that, the Cult Leader first sat down cross-legged in the lotus position. I sat a little distance away and looked at him. Naturally, I had no way of knowing what he was thinking.

After a while, the Cult Leader asked me,

“……Do you have any last words?”

I scratched my forehead, thought for a moment, and answered,

“Not particularly. I’ve lived saying everything I wanted to say.”

In truth, I had sufficiently conveyed my intentions to my comrades last night.

The Cult Leader nodded, then slowly closed his eyes as if he meant to rest. I also sat in the lotus position, then casually asked the Cult Leader,

“If you have any last words, say them.”

The Cult Leader answered,

“If I am defeated, I will appoint the Sword Demon as the next Cult Leader. You convey that.”

“Eldest Brother will refuse.”

“Regardless of his refusal, that is my will. If he refuses, tell the Sword Demon to appoint the next Cult Leader himself. He should at least do that much.”

“Understood.”

The Cult Leader said to me,

“I’ll give you time to recover. Tell me when you’re done.”

“Let’s do that.”

With the Cult Leader before my eyes, I began circulating my qi and regulating my breathing.