-The treasure that was left behind?
Immortal Sword?
A mythical treasure that was said to be the strongest and was left behind by the best swordsman from 600 years ago.
Referred to as the best of the Central Plains, he had left numerous things behind.
-Didn’t you say you ate it before regressing?
That’s right.
The realization that I had been abandoned and the records left behind made its place in my head as it went into my stomach.
This was the treasure that countless swordsmen, no, all of Murim, wanted.
-Then what the hell is this?
I’m hearing about the same thing here? Looking at it from the outside, it was similar to the past.
The records I found were made to have been stored for a long time using special materials.
-Did he make several?
I silently denied that question. Perhaps it was a fake?
-Fake?
‘Even before my regression, quite a few fake treasures were spread around.’
After every time, there was a bloody battle, after which they discovered that it was fake.
-Then that must be fake too.
Right.
No matter how much my actions have changed the past and things that came before, the decisive event which led to the appearance of the real Immortal Sword hadn’t happened yet.
It was impossible for Chun Mu-seong to have the real one. If this was bothering me, why not just look into it?
“… is that truly the treasure I know of?”
Chun Mu-seong nodded, and I pretended to be surprised.
“Where did you find it?”
“You must be shocked. I didn’t know that I would get this from Kunlun Mountain.”
“Kunlun?”
Kunlun Mountain was the sacred mountain that was the home of the now-extinct Kunlun Sect. Hearing his words, I sighed.
‘A fake.’
-Really?
‘The real one is in the Heavenly Mountains.’
If it was found in Kunlun, then it cannot be real. I will head there later and get the records.
I am sure that humans would be humans at times, and, looking at the facts that I know, I hoped that it wouldn’t fall into the hands of someone else.
-What about it? Humans can be greedy.
Was that so?
After confirming that it was a fake, I was curious about something else. The Kunlun Mountain was a sacred place.
The fact that he found the treasure there meant that he found it after Kunlun was destroyed.
I sneaked a look.
“It must have been when Kunlun wasn’t there.”
Hearing my words, he raised his eyebrows. Although imprisoned, he was once the number one warrior of this place.
And he seemed to know what I meant.
“You seem to think I took advantage of Kunlun’s crisis.”
“… I am sorry if it sounded like that.”
“Honestly. You wouldn’t have said that if I had the same power as before.”
That was hard to deny. If he was as strong as he had been in the past, I wouldn’t have thought about saying that at all.
He sighed.
That was more from a feeling of helplessness.
He then said,
“I am the owner of this.”
“Owner?”
“My great grandfather, one of the founders of the Dual Martial Forces, was actually a trainee of the Kunlun sect.”
“He was a member of Kunlun?”
This was my first time hearing this.
Who would think that the roots of one of the leaders of this place would be from the now-extinct Kunlun Sect?
In the first place, this place had nothing to do with Taoism.
“You are the first other than those of this order to know of this.”
“A Lord is from Kunlun. That is shocking.”
“If Kunlun was safe, then this was a secret they would have kept forever. That was the pact that my great-grandfather made.”
Now that Kunlun no longer existed, that pact was meaningless.
However, I don’t think he was just mentioning this for no reason. He was someone who had already surpassed the name of the vanished Kunlun Sect.
“Although the relationship with Kunlun was cut off for a long time, I worried after they died mysteriously. Shouldn’t we have done something for them? Weren’t our roots from there?”
“… so you went there?”
“That’s right. I went there to find traces of those who attacked, but there wasn’t a trace left in Kunlun. At that moment, there was a heavy day of rain on the day of the attack. Perhaps they aimed for it at that moment. I don’t know why they did it, but Kunlun’s demise seemed to have been thoroughly planned.”
A giant sect vanished in just one night.
Effectively deceiving the Blood Sect, Murim Alliance, and the Dual Martial forces, there was an organization with such enormous power?
I was puzzled as the old man lifted the paper and said,
“This page was in a cave similar to Hae Myung in Kunlun. It was a cave used to seal the ashes of the dead.”
“And you went there?”
“Right. I thought that it was destiny. The ghosts of Kunlun gave it to me to avenge the collapse of Kunlun.”
Revenge of the vengeful soul…
There was justification to take things out of Kunlun that no longer existed. However, did Chun Mu-seong, who gained support, really do something for those people?
Chun Mu-seong’s face became bitter as he noticed my doubt.
“You think I took the treasure and did nothing. I couldn’t, but I secretly investigated those who destroyed Kunlun.”
This was unexpected.
The truth about Kunlun being tied to the roots of this place. There would be no one to blame even if he obtained the reward.
Nevertheless, the fact that he searched into it meant a lot.
“Did you find something?”
Hearing my question, Chun Mu-seong said seriously.
“I had to search Kunlun for several years and found just one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Will it be fine?”
“Uh?”
“After I found out about it, it wasn’t long before the fake, no, Mu Ack came.”
Does this mean knowing the truth would be dangerous?
I looked around and couldn’t feel any presence around us.
“There is no one who can hear and see.”
Hearing my words, he took a deep breath and said,
“After a long search, this old man found an eyewitness who saw Kunlun being destroyed.”
“Is that true?”
How happy would the last survivor of Kunlun, Myung Kyung-in, be when he found out about it?
It looked like he could finally do something. Short Sword then clicked her tongue.
-For some reason, I wanted to ask
This was my chance to bring Kunlun’s poison, Myung Kyung-in, under my hand.
There was no reason to miss it, right?
It was a fake treasure, so there was no reason to benefit from it.
“So, you know who they are?”
He shook his head in answer.
He found a witness but still didn’t figure it out? This was unexpected to me.
“The eyewitness said that he saw dozens of men and their leaders with them. He said one of the pupils of the leader was golden.”
‘Golden Eye?’
I didn’t expect that the golden eyes would be brought into this.
If only one person had the Golden Eye, who would be the one who attacked so many warriors, including the South Heavenly Swordsman?
When I didn’t say anything, Chun Mu-seong continued.
“This information was an important clue. All I had to do was find someone with one gold eye. But in the end, I couldn’t do anything.”
“… seems to be related.”
“Right. They always noticed how I was always tailing them. And the result was this.”
Chun Mu-seong couldn’t help but feel bitter. However, a question filled me. If the man with the golden eye could see the flow of qi like I could, then there was no way he would have missed a witness.
-Perhaps he missed it because of the rain?
That could be it, but I think the witness was left as bait. If he had investigated the Kunlun for years, it could have been bait left behind to know who was searching.
-If it is a trap, wouldn’t it be normal to not reveal the golden eye?
That’s right.
So he didn’t see the witnesses because of heavy rain?
‘… heavy rain.’
This bothered me, but Chung Mu-seong looked puzzled as I was lost in thought.
Why was he making this face?
“What is it?”
He replied to my question.
“You are different.”
“Uh?”
“Normally, people cannot hide their greed when the best treasure is before them. This is true for all Murim warriors.”
Well, normal Murim people would show greed or fuss about something like this. It was natural for him to be shocked since I had other things that I was interested in.
But since I know this was fake, why would I show any interest?
Chun Mu-seong said,
“You aren’t interested in this but in something else.”
I guess I wasn’t being too attentive. It would be strange if I pretended to be interested now, so I instead said,
“If I wasn’t greedy, would I be a swordsman? But what should I do by coveting something which has an owner? I am just worried.”
“About?”
“There is a golden-eyed man behind Mu Ack. However, since you are alive, he would aim for you regardless of the state.”
He sighed at hearing my words.
“… that is why I wanted to settle things amicably with you.”
Ha!
Now I know why.
I thought that it was strange that he had asked his escorts to leave when this was ostensibly just a meeting to thank me.
If he had a good relationship, he wanted to ask for help from my father, Jin Song-baek.
It wasn’t because the people behind Mu Ack who aimed for him were just informed. He probably knew that I didn’t like his Order due to how I was treated. Since the situation looked urgent, he chose this final way.
-Right. It would be easier for him to ask your father.
Even if he lost his martial arts, he was still a Lord despite being an old man. At that moment, Chun Mu-seong showed me the book.
“I will be honest. We will share this treasure if you promise to protect the Order and me with your father.”
“Now you are revealing your true feelings.”
Chun Mu-seong had a small smile.
“My friend, you are clever. This isn’t a bad suggestion, even for you. It is a chance to see a treasure of the world that was known as a treasure from the past.”
“The Immortal Sword’s teaching…”
There was one thing he didn’t know.
The book he had was fake, and my father had no reason to do all that for it. I smiled and then told him.
“I apologize, but I will have to refuse this.”
“What?”
For the first time, he lost control of his expression. It was a natural reaction considering that this was his best bet. He then looked at me.
“Do you think that treasure is real?”
He frowned at my question. I wanted to tell him that it was fake, but if I did, I would have to prove its authenticity. I thought that this was enough.
“Then I will leave.”
I was about to turn around when he suddenly called to me.
“See.”
“I have nothing to….”
“I get it now. You aren’t greedy because this might be fake. Then look at this.”
Chun Mu-seong hurriedly opened the book and leaned over to where I was looking. There was no reason to look when I thought it was a fake, so why show this to… uh?
For a moment, I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
-What is this? What drawings are these?
There were no letters, just ink scrawled around like sword marks.
They were elegantly intertwined, and the traces were scrawled to the point where I shuddered at the thought of how amazing they were.
“… sword.”
He smiled a little at hearing my words.
“You can feel the sword just from this, which means your sword skills are pretty good.”
“What… what is this?”
My head reeled while looking at this. It was so complicated that it was hard to tell which one was real. Among them, however, there was one that glowed intensely.
“Didn’t I tell you? This is a treasure of the Immortal Sword.”
“Immortal Sword?”
This cannot be. The real thing was in Heavenly Mountain.
Besides, I’ve seen it.
Chun Mu-seong then told me.
“Even I learned many things while reading this. It would be hard to understand this at your current level.”
I cannot deny those words. Those countless marks were making me dizzy.
I would have to put a lot of effort into comprehending it.
“There is an idea in the old man’s head. If you accept it, I will teach you the swordsmanship here…”
“Right. What more did you hide?”
Chun Mu-seong and I heard a voice and turned our heads as we saw someone coming up to the third floor.
In front of us was a man wearing the uniform of the Martial Heavenly Order.
“Who are you? I said no one should…”
I held out my hand to stop him.
“He is not a person of your order.”
Chun Mu-seong, with his broken dantian, wouldn’t be able to feel anything, but neither could I. I felt nothing despite checking him with my eyes as if he was one with the surroundings.
It’s not exaggerating to say that he was someone that was undetectable.
I activated my mid dantian.
‘… to hold back this much qi.’
Even using my mid dantian, I could only feel a faint presence. He was like a warrior who mastered the art of stealth.
-Can you deal with him?
I don’t know.
In addition to him hiding his qi, I would need to get close to him to see the flow since I had my eyepatch on.
The man then moved.
Pat!
I stood in front of his movement as he aimed for Chun Mu-seong.
Srng!
I pulled out Iron Sword and blocked the path between the old man’s forehead and his sword.
At that moment, he frowned and tried to avoid it by swinging a dagger at me.
I, too, took steps to avoid it. He then turned his sword and swung it into my shoulder.
Crng!
With a metallic sound, we were pushed back by about 3 steps.
‘Both hands?’
A dagger was in his left hand.
-How?
‘… strong.’
As I approached him, I felt his qi was at the same level or even exceeded mine. It could be said that he was a warrior who had reached the peak stage.
If I just looked at his qi, he would be stronger than me. Still, I wasn’t at a major disadvantage.
Because I have a golden eye that allows me to see the flow.
“You are good.”
The man complimented me. I threw my sword at him while he spoke, and he made some distance using excellent footwork.
I looked at the flow of qi up to ten paces of movement and kept a closer look.
Then, once I got used to it, I moved closer to him and aimed for his head.
“Huh!”
My sword turned to the side when he tilted his head to avoid it.
The head wasn’t the purpose, but it was the heart.
Puak!
My sword dug into his chest slightly, making him cross both weapons and raise them up. His clothes were torn from the chest upwards, and Iron Sword bounced back.
Srng.
He kicked me, but I jumped and dodged it.
The man frowned.
“What are you? No matter how I look, your qi doesn’t match mine.”
Right.
Unless he crossed that wall, he wouldn’t feel the innate qi. Perhaps he was judging my qi from my dantian alone.
“You aren’t someone I could deal with easily.”
“You did the same before the sword was lodged into your chest, right?”
Hearing that, the man smiled and said,
“What, this wound?”
Then something shocking happened. The area around his chest where I had stabbed him began to heal as the veins moved on their own.
‘The wound?’
