In normal circumstances, these two Unorthodox Sect groups might never have clashed like this.
But both sides were already as worked up as they could get.
From the perspective of the Unorthodox Sect group that had been behind the child kidnappings and running the mountain stronghold, the stronghold they had poured so much effort into had been smashed to pieces overnight.
So while they were searching for whoever had wrecked their stronghold like that, another Unorthodox Sect group showed up, and it was only natural they mistook them for the culprits.
The Unorthodox Sect group that had chased after Eun Seo-ho was just as angry.
They had gone through hardship they never needed to. They wanted to vent on someone, anyone, so they had no reason to turn down a fight that walked up to them.
And since their levels were unfortunately evenly matched, both Unorthodox Sect groups ended up taking heavy damage.
Meanwhile, the very person who had set off the chain of events that made those two groups clash was currently on Mount Gongdong.
“So this is Mount Gongdong?”
I nodded at Palgap’s question.
“It really does look as impressive as you said.”
“Of course it does.”
Since ancient times, Mount Gongdong has been praised with nicknames like “the finest mountain in the west” and “its eastern peaks outshine every river under heaven” – that’s how beautiful its ridges are.
There’s even a saying that Mount Gongdong sits right beneath the Big Dipper and the North Star, that’s how famous it is.
“If you happen to run into any Gongdong Sect Daoists, make sure you greet them very politely.”
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am added an explanation.
“The Gongdong Sect has the Heavenly Demon Cult’s main base, the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, right in front of them. Because of that, clashes between them are frequent, and they’re always on guard against outsiders.”
“In other words, to put it simply, after being hounded by the Heavenly Demon Cult so much, if they decide you’re an enemy, they’ll just go straight for your neck.”
“That’s scary.”
“No need to get that worked up. It’s still a good place.”
Yeah.
The Gongdong Sect really is a good sect.
That’s why, even while getting beaten down by the Heavenly Demon Cult almost every other day, they still refuse to abandon Mount Gongdong and stubbornly hold their ground.
Of course, part of it is probably sheer desire for revenge.
The fellow disciples they trained martial arts with were killed by the Heavenly Demon Cult; there’s no way they wouldn’t bear a grudge.
That’s why one of the Gongdong Sect’s signature sword arts is even called the Demon-Subduing Sword Technique. The idea is that it’ll force the Heavenly Demon Cult to kneel.
“So we’re hiding out here, then?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded.
“This is where the Heavenly Demon Cult and the Gongdong Sect fight whenever they get bored, so there’s no way Unorthodox Sect people would dare come all the way here.”
In fact, Unorthodox Sect people often come to Gansu to throw themselves at the Heavenly Demon Cult and join up.
But there’s one place even they absolutely never go near – Mount Gongdong.
If someone from the Unorthodox Sect gets caught here by a Gongdong Sect Daoist while passing through, they won’t even leave bones behind.
“By the way, isn’t there some sort of inn on Mount Gongdong?”
Palgap asked, and Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am answered.
“Of course there is. What’s a bit unusual is that every inn on Mount Gongdong is run directly by the Gongdong Sect.”
“What? Run by the Gongdong Sect?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded.
“Normally they just use them as inns, but in an emergency, they turn those inns into a kind of supply base.”
You can think of the Gongdong Sect as a place that lives in a constant state of wartime readiness.
In everything, the Gongdong Sect has always been dead serious about stopping the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Around this time in my previous life, an incident broke out that really put that Gongdong Sect through hell.
And the reason I came to Mount Gongdong this time was to get my hands on the thing that would cause that incident.
A little while later.
We arrived in front of an inn on Mount Gongdong.
“…”
Everyone except Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am kept letting out sounds of admiration.
“This inn is… insanely big.”
“A three-story inn in a place like this!”
“I never would’ve imagined it.”
Normally, inns this deep in the mountains are one story, two at most.
And since they’re in the mountains, they’re usually small and shabby on top of that.
But if the inn is small, how are you supposed to use it as a supply base?
Once you clash with the Heavenly Demon Cult, you end up trading blows for at least a month.
I let out a soft laugh and said,
“When I heard about it from my father, I just took it in stride, but seeing it in person, it really is huge. Let’s go in.”
We went inside the inn.
“Welcome, honored guests.”
A young server with a sword at the waist greeted us; from the way he addressed us, he was clearly a Gongdong Sect disciple.
“We plan to stay for a few days.”
“Understood. How many rooms will you be needing?”
“Two rooms for three people each, and one room for two.”
Palgap and I would share one room, and the Escort Guards would split into two rooms of three.
“Very well. And where have you come from, honored guests?”
This was the important moment.
That question was to tell whether we were guests or enemies.
“We’re from Beijing.”
“Beijing? You mean from all the way over there?”
“Yes.”
I quietly pulled out my Censorate Inspector’s badge from my sleeve and showed it to him.
“Ah!”
“I’d appreciate it if you kept that to yourself.”
“Of course.”
There were two reasons I showed my badge before he could ask anything in detail.
First, a half-baked lie wouldn’t work.
They’d ask why we were visiting and check for themselves whether it was true, and if it turned out to be a lie, we’d be in serious trouble.
Second, the Gongdong Sect has certain ties with the imperial family, so they’re obligated to ask nothing and offer every convenience to anyone who comes bearing the Emperor’s orders.
Now, whatever I did here, they would neither suspect nor interfere.
After we unpacked our luggage in the rooms, we came back down to the first floor.
We needed dinner.
“Would you like to order dinner?”
Maybe because he knew my status now, he was treating me very politely.
There are a few dishes you have to try if you’ve come all the way to Gansu.
“We’ll have beef noodle soup, lamb sausage, and that stir-fried bean jelly dish.”
“Understood.”
“And do you happen to have any cheombae?”
Cheombae is a traditional drink made by fermenting oats. Whole oat grains float on top, and it spoils quickly, so you can barely taste the real thing anywhere except in high-altitude regions like this.
“We do.”
“Then bring one of those for each of us as well.”
“Would you like it after your meal?”
“Yes.”
The food came out soon after, and we enjoyed a good dinner.
.
.
.
The next morning.
We left our horses in their care and headed out of the inn.
We grabbed lunch on the way and then walked for about six more hours before we finally saw a rock carved with a little novice monk.
Once you see that rock, it means you’ve almost arrived.
I looked over my group.
As first-rate and above martial artists, none of them looked tired. Even Palgap still looked full of energy.
Good.
Because things were about to get really tough.
“Shall we rest a bit here?”
“Understood.”
We perched on the rocks scattered around the clearing in front of us, took out our canteens for a drink of water, and shared some jerky.
It was the same jerky we had bought at a shop in Kaifeng last time – we’d bought so much that there was still plenty left.
“By the way, do all of you know how to climb cliffs at least a little?”
When I asked the Escort Guards, Escort Guard Seo Wu tilted the head slightly and answered.
“I can manage it to some extent.”
Then Escort Guard Myeong Jong and Escort Guard Chang Un spoke up.
“When it comes to cliff climbing… I’m confident. Back when I first became a Mount Hua Sect disciple, I used to climb up and down one of Mount Hua’s sheer cliffs more than twice a day.”
I turned to look at Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am and Escort Guard Lee Pil, and they nodded.
“Our Zhongnan Sect also did a lot of training in climbing up and down cliffs.”
In other words, Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am and Escort Guard Lee Pil also knew how to handle a cliff.
At that moment, Palgap asked,
“Young Master, what in the world are we climbing a cliff for?”
“For a treasure hunt.”
“What?”
“Remember that book we picked up in Luoyang a while back? There were several notes tucked inside. One of them said there was treasure here on Mount Gongdong.”
At my half-made-up explanation, Escort Guard Myeong Jong and Escort Guard Chang Un both looked flustered.
“You’re really going there just because you believe that?”
“Like I said before, every man keeps at least one treasure map in his heart, right?”
“…”
“All right, let’s go.”
After walking for about fifteen more minutes, we came face-to-face with a cliff.
I turned to Palgap and said,
“Palgap, you wait down here.”
And with that, the six Escort Guards and I started climbing the cliff together.
Honestly, climbing a cliff that was almost vertical was really hard work.
But there was a treasure up there worth every bit of the hardship.
After climbing the cliff nonstop for about an hour, we finally reached a ledge wide enough for several people to stand on.
“Whew, is this it?”
“Yes, we’ve arrived.”
“By the way, Escort Guard Myeong Jong, Escort Guard Chang Un, I’m impressed. You two are really good at climbing cliffs. I was surprised.”
“My skills have declined because I haven’t been climbing lately.”
“If that’s what you call ‘declined’…”
“I really wonder what you were like at your peak.”
They chatted back and forth with relaxed ease.
While they did, I scanned the surroundings and spotted a cave.
“There’s a cave here. Let’s go in.”
The cave entrance was so narrow you couldn’t even see it from a distance.
As we moved deeper inside, a fairly large chest coated in black lacquer came into view.
An extremely old scrap of paper was stuck to the chest, and on it was written, [This was bestowed by the heavens, so may it be used according to heaven’s will.]
“I’ll open it.”
Escort Guard Seo Wu stepped forward, while Escort Guard Jin Yu kept watch.
Creak.
The chest opened. And in that instant… the Escort Guards all blinked hard.
“T-this is… isn’t this meteoric iron?”
It was.
This meteoric iron was the very thing that had caused the incident that tormented the Gongdong Sect in my previous life, and the thing I had come here to obtain.
Back then, this meteoric iron had been discovered purely by accident.
A Gongdong Sect disciple had been chased by a tiger and fallen down to this spot from the top of this cliff.
They stumbled into this cave and found it here.
Meteoric iron is called “heaven-sent iron” – once in a while it falls from the sky in a trail of fire.
Weapons forged from that iron were not only incredibly tough, their aura was on a completely different level.
On top of that, it was said to ward off evil, so any weapon made from meteoric iron was guaranteed to be a peerless, near-divine weapon.
So when an entire chest of meteoric iron was discovered, it was only natural the whole martial world turned upside down.
Not just the Heavenly Demon Cult right next door, but countless others bared their ambition, all aiming for this meteoric iron.
The Gongdong Sect tried to protect it, but they couldn’t withstand the pressure and ended up offering it to the Murim Alliance.
Yet once the Murim Alliance took the meteoric iron, it never appeared in the world again.
It had definitely been used for something dirty.
So rather than letting that happen again, I intended to claim it myself. That way the Gongdong Sect wouldn’t suffer, and the meteoric iron wouldn’t end up in the Murim Alliance’s hands.
“Wow! That really is a treasure.”
“Now I’m really curious who tucked a treasure map like that into that book.”
“What are you planning to do with this?”
At Escort Guard Seo Wu’s question, I smiled and said,
“Obviously, we’re taking it. In our world, the rule is that whoever finds the treasure gets to keep it, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
At that, Escort Guard Chang Un spoke carefully.
“For this… we should be careful. If word of it reaches anyone else, it’ll cause an uproar.”
“Agreed.”
Maybe because the two of them had nearly been expelled by the Murim Alliance before, neither of them said anything foolish like suggesting we donate it to the Alliance.
Of course, I’d brought the two of them along with that in mind as well.
I looked over the meteoric iron and did a rough calculation.
With this much, we could forge more than enough swords, right?
I planned to have a sword forged from this meteoric iron for each of my Escort Guards.
Now that they were my Escort Guards, they would be facing all sorts of unwanted trials alongside me.
In times like that, the first thing that protects your life is a reliable weapon.
I wanted my Escort Guards to survive, achieve their wishes with me, and enjoy wealth and glory for a long time.
Of course, this meteoric iron was incredibly valuable, but to me, my Escort Guards were worth far more than that.
“So, you’ll all keep this a secret, right?”
“Of course.”
“Thanks. Let’s head down, then.”
I took the meteoric iron out of the chest and slipped it into my pouch.
Then I looked again at the words written on the chest.
[This was bestowed by the heavens, so may it be used according to heaven’s will.]
Maybe I found this meteoric iron only because heaven allowed it.
If so, however I chose to use it would be heaven’s will as well.
I decided to think of it that way.
We burned the chest cleanly to erase any trace of it, then climbed back down the cliff.
“Young Master! Was there really a treasure up there?”
At Palgap’s question, I chuckled.
“I’ll tell you later.”
Seeing my expression, Palgap nodded like he understood.
“I already caught some fish. We can just grill those for dinner tonight.”
In that short time, he had even prepared grilled fish!
That was Palgap for you.
Anyway, I wondered where Elder Bang and the Embroidered Guard warriors were by now.
I’m really starting to want to head back to Beijing.
–TL Notes–
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