The Mad Dog Inspector of the Martial Alliance

Chapter 139 : An Ill-fitting Suit (2)

A great horned owl hooted in the distance. The sun had already disappeared, and the faint light of the crescent moon illuminated the ground.

If it had been at least a full moon, he would have been able to see to some extent even if it was night. The timing was not good.

If it was this dark even to Jang So-gil's eyes, Yang Gwan would probably see nothing but pitch-black darkness.

"Can't you see well?"

"It's been an hour since I couldn't see anything."

"Tsk. Then it can't be helped. Let's stop here."

At Yang Gwan's answer, Jang So-gil clicked his tongue and shook the reins once. Jang So-gil's fine horse, Cheongwol, snorted as if it could finally rest and stopped its feet with difficulty. Following him, Yang Gwan also stopped Yanghwangbijeon.

Jang So-gil, who had gotten off his horse, looked up at the night sky and read the constellations.

"I think we'll arrive at Maoshan around tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Hah, this crazy gallop is finally over."

"Yes. It's finally over."

The training had taken longer than expected, and he had used up ten days. But since he had gained a lot, it could not be called a waste.

Jang So-gil, rather than complaining about the lost time, was happy about his achievement and tried to regain the time with action. So he hurriedly packed his travel luggage and headed for Jiangsu Province, where the Maoshan Sect was located.

When traveling, it was right to decide the travel route and allocate time considering the post stations. But this time, there was not even the leisure to make a travel plan.

The current location of the two was the result of running as fast as they could, day and night, without any plan.

"I never want to go on a journey like this again."

"Me neither. I miss a bug-free bed, a mosquito-free room, and a warm meal so much."

It would have been great if they could have at least stopped at an inn.

Anyway, they had finally arrived. One more day, if they slept in the middle of the mountain path for just one more day, tomorrow would be Maoshan.

"First, I'll make a bed."

Yang Gwan skillfully unpacked his luggage and gathered firewood, leaves, and kindling to start a bonfire. When the 'Red Divine Art', the martial art written on the yang side of the Zixia Divine Art, which Jang So-gil had named, was unfolded, even the wet leaves easily caught fire.

Looking at the blazing bonfire, Yang Gwan sighed. Jang So-gil, who was lying flat on the blanket, heard the sound and said.

"What's with the sigh? Are you upset because you have no rebuttal now that you're treated like a tinderbox?"

"...!"

Yang Gwan, holding back his rising anger, bit his lip hard.

The deep part of his chest ached. Since he had been hit where it hurt, he couldn't help but be in pain.

Although there was a little jealousy, the self-loathing for his pathetic self was much greater.

As if spitting it out, Yang Gwan said.

"Yes. I'm upset. I'm angry. It's frustrating that I, who have no talent other than fighting, am now no better than Young Master So. Do I have to say that with my own mouth?"

Jang So-gil turned his body and lay on his side, propping his head up with his hand.

The bonfire illuminated his face. It was a face that seemed to think he was truly pathetic.

Of course, no words of comfort came out of Jang So-gil's mouth, and he just said what he thought.

"Aish, you fool. It's true that you're pathetic, but do you think it's right for you to think of yourself as pathetic?"

It was not that he didn't know that feeling.

The nickname given to the rising stars who were considered to be the future pillars of the martial world was 'Dragon'.

Yang Gwan had received the nickname 'Fire Dragon'. And he had sworn to use his skills for Jang So-gil, to use them to take revenge on the Sichuan Tang Clan.

But while Jang So-gil had become stronger, Yang Gwan had not become much stronger.

To be precise, Yang Gwan himself thought so.

Yang Gwan had also made great progress compared to him a year ago.

Even if the world was wide, there would not be many who had that much martial arts at Yang Gwan's age. It was true that he had grown beyond expectations.

But Jang So-gil's growth was incomparably overwhelming.

A person who had never even encountered martial arts had become a first-rate master as if he were flying, and now he had surpassed the peak and had become a transcendent master.

To Jang So-gil, who flew through the sky like a hawk, Yang Gwan's efforts and growth would probably be no different from that of a crawling bug.

The fear of being overtaken by a latecomer. And the sense of helplessness when that person was his own lord was something only a warrior knew.

Yang Gwan really felt that his use was like a tinderbox that lit a fire, or a low-class warrior who stood guard while he slept.

Since it had come to this, was he really a useful being? Was he truly a person worthy of the nickname of a dragon? Doubts arose.

And there was another question.

"How on earth does Young Master So get stronger so quickly?"

"I don't know that either. Brother Hui said he didn't know, and the Alliance Leader-nim said he didn't know either."

Jang So-gil's achievement was really strange. Although it had not been an ordinary speed until now, the achievement after eating the Plum Blossom Divine Pill was excessively good.

Jang So-gil's 'o-seong' was neither good nor bad. A person with an ordinary 'o-seong' and an outstanding brain. That was Jang So-gil.

But the current achievement was at a level that was not a waste to be called a once-in-a-generation genius.

"Was the Plum Blossom Divine Pill that outstanding of an elixir?"

"Well. Since the Lamp of Enlightenment was in Luoyang, the Alliance Leader-nim asked him, and he said he was also quite surprised. Although the Plum Blossom Divine Pill is clearly an elixir of the world, it probably doesn't have the effect of making an entry-level peak master into an entry-level transcendent master. If it were that much, would he have given it to me? No matter what, he would have fed it to Song Baek."

"That's true. Then what on earth could it be?"

"How would I know what the Alliance Leader-nim doesn't know, what Brother Hui doesn't know, and what the Lamp of Enlightenment doesn't know?"

"Then, as expected, doesn't Young Master So have some hidden secret? Like a secret of his birth..."

"What? A secret of my birth? Now you're just spouting nonsense. Are you still reading those five-coin novels?"

At Jang So-gil's rebuke, Yang Gwan closed his mouth tightly. With a chin as lumpy as a walnut, he took out some beef jerky from his travel luggage and grilled it.

The sound of the sizzling beef jerky cut off their conversation. Jang So-gil took out his share of the beef jerky and chewed it.

Ah, this tiresome beef jerky. When I get to Maoshan, should I first eat until my stomach bursts and rest until I'm limp? That damn dullard is making a fuss like that because he can't eat delicious things. What secret of birth, what a frozen-to-death secret of birth. Yes, first, I'll have to throw some silver taels and eat expensive things to my heart's content. That's the only way that fellow will come to his senses.

It was when he had half-closed his eyes in that flow of thought.

Jang So-gil, in his hazy consciousness, saw someone stroking his head.

It was a face he knew. He had gone with Director Jang and had a conversation with him.

Master Zhongli, with a face that had received praise from Emperor Hongwu as the most beautiful he had ever met, opened his mouth with a face full of pity.

'Did you say this child's name is Ryang?'

It was as if lightning had struck his head. Jang So-gil, startled, got up from his seat.

The beef jerky he had been chewing on fell onto the fur, and Yang Gwan looked at Jang So-gil with wide eyes.

"Y-Young Master So, what's wrong?"

Jang So-gil, whose strength had left him, sat down on the fur again.

His head ached. The throbbing pain did not disappear.

Jang So-gil, about to say something to Yang Gwan, closed his mouth.

"I-I just dozed off for a moment and saw something."

"You scared me."

"S-sorry."

"...It's strange that you're apologizing so readily."

Muttering, that fellow bit into the beef jerky again. Jang So-gil swallowed his saliva and pressed his pounding heart.

What he had just seen was a scene that was not in Jang So-gil's memory.

But to dismiss it as just something he had seen while dozing off, as he had told Yang Gwan, it was too vivid.

Besides, there was no reason for him to see things. Because Jang So-gil could be confident that he was in the healthiest state of his life. Now that his internal energy was one and a half sixty-year cycles, and it was also thanks to the remaining effects of the Plum Blossom Divine Pill.

The overflowing internal energy made him forget his fatigue. Even after several days of forced march, he did not feel tired at all.

Then what on earth was what he had just seen?

Of all people, that Master Zhongli, a famous person among famous people. Was it a foolish dream that he had seen because Yang Gwan had been spouting nonsense like a secret of birth, which would only appear in a five-coin novel?

Or was it something that had really happened to the young Jang So-gil a long time ago?

'Although I don't have memories of my childhood...'

Jang So-gil had no memories before the age of ten. When he came to his senses, he was living as a beggar.

Although he was sure that he was ten years old for some reason, other than that, it was as if a rice cake called memory had been cut with a knife.

'Isn't it normal for everyone not to remember their childhood? What secret of birth. Hah, that's ridiculous.'

There was no beggar in the world who did not have a story, big or small. Jang So-gil, recalling the stories of the other orphans he had seen and heard while living as a beggar before Director Jang had adopted him, let out a slight sneer.

Although people who had lived well and eaten well might not know, it was not a new thing.

He consciously cut off the tailing thoughts like that.

It didn't matter about the past that he couldn't remember.

'Let's focus on what I have to do. For now, it's the Maoshan Sect.'

His work was already plentiful and troublesome, so if he was distracted by his own past, it would only become more troublesome.

'Who knows. If I happen to meet Master Zhongli later, I'll ask him once... damn it.'

Didn't thinking like this mean that he had a lingering attachment?

Jang So-gil stubbornly closed his eyes and tossed and turned.

After a quarter of an hour. Jang So-gil, who had eventually failed to fall asleep, had no choice but to admit it.

That he had a lot of lingering attachment to his own roots, his own memories. That it was overflowing.

* * *

Maoshan was a mountain village far from the city. But it was not a quiet and deserted place that would be associated with a mountain village. Because it was a place where so many people came and went that it was reminiscent of a marketplace, it was very noisy.

Most of those people were not the common people who lived in Maoshan. They were visitors who had come to offer incense at the famous Daoist temple.

But these people were also different from ordinary tourists who traveled to broaden their horizons. Instead of coming once, seeing and enjoying, and then leaving, they came back again and again to offer a sincere prayer.

The procession to pray to the 'Three Mao True Monarchs' for the success of their children, the health of their parents, wealth and honor, and success in life was endless again today.

There was a man looking down at such a procession from the top of the city wall.

His tall and well-proportioned body was that of a martial artist, but he did not look rough. He was beautiful and had thin lines, so he was a man who could be called a handsome man.

If there was a flaw in his appearance, it was the color of his hair, which was as white as the snow of winter, and his eyes, which were as blue as the summer sky.

A peculiar appearance that was very different from that of a person from the Central Plains. Such an appearance could only be seen in the North Sea.

But this man did not dye his hair black or cover his eyes with a bamboo hat or a veil, as other people from the North Sea did in the Central Plains.

Because he had a hobby of messing up the face of anyone who found fault with his appearance.

Still, in most cases, he received gazes full of goodwill. Because he was handsome.

The man, smiling at the girl who was looking up at him from below the city wall and blushing, waved his hand and muttered.

"To think that I have to investigate alone in a place with so many people. Master Zhongli is really, too harsh in his use of people."

The Maoshan Sect, the Maoshan Sect.

Master Zhongli had told him to investigate the Maoshan Sect.

And he had also told him to gather as much information as possible and then to find someone to pass that information on to.

"It's because it's me that I can do it somehow. If it were someone else, they would have given up and run away beyond the Great Wall, right?"

The things that Master Zhongli ordered were mostly like this. At first, the story was too vague.

And yet, once he started, the work would go well, so it was a funny thing.

"Well, anyway, the investigation is over. I'm sure someone to pass the information on to will appear if I look."

It was while he was looking over the visitors with such a light heart, sitting on the city wall, propping his chin, and yawning.

Among the many people, one young man caught his eye.

To be precise, it was the sword hanging from his waist.

A dazzlingly white, shining sword. A sword he had always seen since he was a child.

The divine artifact of the North Sea Ice Palace. The proof of the Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace.

"White Azure Divine Sword-!"

The man roared and jumped down from the city wall.

His name was Baek Yugyeong.

He was the son of the deceased Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace and the current Young Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace.

(End of Chapter)