Chapter 154 - Believe It or Not, I Always Came First

“What job?”

Seo Daeryong still had no idea what lay ahead.

“You need to enter the Young Dragon Tournament.”

At the mention of the Young Dragon Tournament, Seo Daeryong jumped. He was so startled that I almost felt guilty. He asked in a trembling voice,

“Surely you don’t mean the Young Dragon Tournament I’m thinking of?”

“Which Young Dragon Tournament are you thinking of?”

“The martial tournament the Orthodox Martial Alliance holds for promising young martial artists from the orthodox factions. That incredibly dangerous tournament where so many Alliance and orthodox masters gather that people from the unorthodox factions or the Cult shouldn’t even watch, let alone compete. Not that one, right?”

“That sounds like the one.”

After staring silently at me, he sprang to his feet and walked out of the inn without looking back.

Rather than stop him, I ordered some light refreshments and wine from the waiter. I had been so absorbed in training in the mountains that it felt like ten million years since my last drink.

I had downed a couple of cups when Seo Daeryong returned to his seat.

“You’re not going to stop me?”

“Why would I? You were going to come back.”

He poured himself some wine and gulped it down.

“No. Absolutely not. What on earth are you talking about?”

“You’re the only one.”

“‘You’re the only one’ is what unscrupulous leaders say when they want to work their subordinates to death. What do you mean, I’m the only one? There are plenty if you look! Look hard enough, and you could probably find someone in this very inn!”

He considered the people around me who might enter in his place, then lamented that I surrounded myself with nothing but strange people.

“I still can’t do it.”

He emptied another cup.

“You do know who I am, right?”

“Of course. A power-seeking, coldhearted fellow, yet a real man who loves only one woman, and when everyone else falls silent...”

“Stop!”

I skipped the rest and added only the latest entry.

“... Investigator Seo, a coward who never did manage to face Yeo Bin, but who remains my right-hand man. Now we can add ‘who bravely entered the Young Dragon Tournament’ to that.”

“No, but really, how am I supposed to enter the Young Dragon Tournament?”

“It’s not as though I can enter, is it?”

“No one will recognize you. That beard makes your disguise flawless!”

“Didn’t you call it an amateur’s disguise? And a filthy beard?”

He sighed, then found another escape route. Lowering his voice, he whispered,

“I haven’t properly learned Master’s martial arts yet.”

“All the better. We can’t let anything give you away. You’ll have to fight using only the basics anyway.”

Someone of Seo Daeryong’s level would already have learned to conceal his demonic qi, so his martial arts wouldn’t expose him.

As he resisted with his head hanging low, radiating gloom, I resorted to drastic measures.

“Fine. If you can’t do it, there’s nothing to be done. I’ll simply fail the test Father set me. My brother will become the successor, and I’ll probably be assassinated, dumped in some nameless field, and left as food for wild animals. Ah! But I won’t blame you. I mean that.”

“I’ll probably die on the dueling platform, run through by the sword of some orthodox bastard I’ve never seen before. Then my corpse will be sent to the Cult’s front sect that supplied my false identity. ‘Who’s this fellow?’ ‘No idea. Probably someone who was used for all he was worth and died.’ ‘Poor little fellow looks so gloomy.’ ‘Hurry up and bury him.’ Ah! But I won’t blame you, Pavilion Master. Truly.”

“Someday, when I’m cult leader, I’ll look back on today. Ah, without you back then, I could never have become cult leader. Thank you.”

“Someday, with my grandson on my knee, I’ll look back on today. ‘You children only exist because I stood my ground to the bitter end and refused to enter that tournament.’”

It was a battle between spear and shield. But no matter how fiercely he resisted, the outcome was already decided.

“Oh, honestly, you’re going to be the death of me. Then again, who can I blame? When you first came to Yellow Springs Pavilion, I was the one who wanted revenge for my senior, and I was the one who decided to learn saber techniques.”

I filled his cup.

“Thank you.”

“As long as you appreciate it. I suppose doing things you don’t want to do is part of life.”

“I bet everyone who says that spends their life doing only what they want.”

“Hey! That’s my line!”

I knew what a momentous decision this was for him. Nothing displeased him more than putting himself forward.

“It’ll be a good experience for you as a martial artist, too. Just look at the names—this is destiny. The Young Dragon Tournament and Seo Daeryong, the great dragon. The great dragon will ascend at the Young Dragon Tournament. If it were the Young Tiger Tournament, I’d have called Jang Ho.”

In the end, my silly joke made him laugh.

“So this is your succession test.”

“That’s right.”

“What exactly do we need to do?”

“There’s a fellow called the leader of the Heavenly Mandate Society. He’ll be using this tournament to hatch a plot. He might approach the contestants, which is why you’re entering. Our goal is to catch him.”

“Then we’d better catch him. Catching bad people is our job.”

“That’s my right-hand man.”

Once he made a decision, Seo Daeryong never looked back. That was probably why I liked him. Behind that small, gloomy-looking exterior lay unbreakable resolve.

I took some documents from inside my robe and handed them over.

“Here’s your new identity. Memorize every last detail. You’re good at memorizing things, so I shouldn’t have to worry about that.”

“What about you, Pavilion Master?”

“I’ll be your servant and bodyguard.”

A flash of delight crossed his face. He struggled to keep the corners of his mouth from rising.

“Why are you so pleased?”

“Me? Not at all.”

“You just smiled.”

“You saw wrong.”

“You smiled.”

“Now, you rascal! Your elder says he didn’t, so why are you being so cheeky? Ah, I was just practicing.”

I laughed good-naturedly at his teasing.

“For today, memorize that. We’ll register for the Young Dragon Tournament tomorrow.”

We took a spacious room with two beds.

The moment we entered, he started to dust off my bedding, but I stopped him.

“Don’t worry about me. Think only about yourself.”

“How can I do that?”

“I freely give you orders that could change your life. You can at least do that much. You can even piss on my blankets.”

“Following those orders is my life. Please don’t think of it as something bad. I’m the one accepting them, and I’ve never thought that way. Especially not since meeting you, Pavilion Master.”

Yes, thank you for saying that.

After roughly unpacking, Seo Daeryong sat by the window. Looking outside, he spoke worriedly.

“I’ll need to advance as far as possible to discover what the Heavenly Mandate Society’s leader is plotting. I’m worried I’ll be eliminated too early.”

I couldn’t predict the outcome either, since I didn’t know exactly how strong the competition would be.

“Don’t worry. The Saber Demon left a plan for you.”

“What? What do you mean?”

I took a small lucky pouch from inside my robe.

“He gave me this strategy pouch and told me to open it when you hit your limit.”

He was astonished—more astonished than when I’d told him he needed to enter the Young Dragon Tournament.

“Master really gave you this?”

I had been surprised myself. To think the Blood Heaven Saber Demon would leave something like this.

“Have you read what it says?”

“No. Why? Shall we open it early?”

“Absolutely not! If Master said to open it in a crisis, then we must open it in a crisis!”

He must have been curious about its contents, but for now, Seo Daeryong was overwhelmed by the fact that the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had given this for his sake. As he looked out the window, I could practically feel his desire to bow toward his master somewhere far away.

That night, all manner of thoughts kept him awake until late.

* * *

The next morning, we ate breakfast and headed to the Orthodox Martial Alliance.

The imposing buildings of its headquarters began to appear in the distance. A gigantic stone statue of a martial artist modeled after a chivalrous hero came into view.

The closer we drew to the Alliance, the stranger I felt. Later, the Alliance too would be swept away by Hwa Mugi.

Would my return to the past change their fate as well? Or would only the Cult’s fate change? That much I still couldn’t know.

Seo Daeryong kept stealing glances at the female martial artists passing by.

“The orthodox women are pretty, aren’t they?”

“They certainly are. I thought it was just a rumor.”

“Find yourself a girlfriend while we’re here. A fated romance between an orthodox heroine and a demonic martial artist!”

“It might be entertaining for the spectators, but imagine how hard it would be for the people involved.”

Despite his words, his gaze kept straying toward the passing women.

A separate registration area for this year’s Young Dragon Tournament had been set up in the Alliance’s Outer Hall.

Even though registration lasted nearly five days, the line was long. Countless promising young martial artists from the orthodox factions had flocked here from all over the Central Plains.

We joined the registration line.

As we waited, the martial artists ahead of us discussed the tournament.

To sum up their conversation, it wasn’t just the champion who would be selected. All eight quarterfinalists would be recruited into an elite unit of the Alliance.

One of those talking looked at Seo Daeryong and me and smirked. Our appearance suggested we had just arrived from the countryside, which apparently made him look down on us instinctively.

I asked Seo Daeryong loudly enough for him to hear,

“Young Master, are you confident you can win?”

His eyes protested vehemently—‘Win? Where did that come from?’—but his answer was forceful.

“I am.”

The fellows ahead exchanged glances and sneered. Still, they didn’t openly pick a fight or belittle us.

After a lengthy wait, our turn finally came.

“My name is Seo Ryong. My sect is the Western Saber Sect of Gansu.”

It was a real sect in Gansu, directly operated by Heaven-Reaching Pavilion in preparation for situations like this. Anyone who investigated would find that there was a son named Seo Ryong, who had left to enter the Young Dragon Tournament.

“The tournament bracket will be posted outside the Alliance in ten days. Check the date and your dueling platform then. If you’re late for your match, you’ll be disqualified without exception, so arrive early and wait.”

“Understood.”

With registration complete, we left the Alliance.

“Did you see those fellows looking down on us? Now that you’ve brought it up, maybe I really should just win the whole thing.”

“There’s no reason you can’t.”

“Can I really? Believe it or not, I’ve always come first ever since I was a child. Don’t underestimate me!”

“I’m not underestimating you. Go ahead. You’re welcome to win.”

“I really will!”

And from that day until the tournament began, Seo Daeryong really did go back and forth to the mountains to train. I didn’t help him. He was learning from the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, and I had no business interfering. I simply trusted the Saber Demon’s teachings.

When he went out to train, I trained too. Of course, I went somewhere else so I wouldn’t disturb him.

I had trained very hard in the mountains even before he arrived, but this time I worked harder still. And that training rewarded me with the best possible result.

“I did it!”

At last, the Wind God’s Four Steps had reached the ninth level.

To be honest, I was happier than when I had achieved twelfth-level complete mastery of the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art.

Now my Flicker Step could carry me out of even greater danger more quickly. My Dark Shadow Step could evade people’s eyes like an illusion. And I could confidently add “extremely lethal” before “powerful” when describing my Underworld King’s Step.

As for Swift Step, it had become terrifyingly fast. It consumed less internal energy, but twice as much mental stamina. It was simply too fast. I even crashed into a tree at first. Without the New Eye Procedure, I truly couldn’t have handled that speed even on a broad plain.

Once I grew accustomed to this ninth-level realm, the Wind God’s Four Steps, with only one final hurdle remaining, would say this to me:

—Amazing, isn’t it? If the ninth level is this good, imagine complete mastery! Come on, let’s work just a little harder and get there!

I needed to hear those words. Only then, after achieving complete mastery, could I say this to the Wind God’s Four Steps:

—You worked hard too!

I would be sure to say those words.

After that, I would learn the Nine Calamities Demonic Art and achieve complete mastery of it as well.

Even after completely mastering both arts, I would keep striving without rest.

If I still couldn’t handle Hwa Mugi after going that far... then there would be nothing more I could do. At that point, I would gladly die with a smile.

* * *

The tournament bracket was announced.

His first bout would be the thirteenth match in tomorrow’s Yellow Group. So many people had entered that matches would be held simultaneously at dozens of locations in the Alliance’s outer grounds.

“Would this many people come if the Cult held the same tournament?”

“No, they wouldn’t.”

“This is the strength of the orthodox factions. For a start, they must outnumber us at least ten to one.”

And it wasn’t just these people. The orthodox factions also had far more masters living in seclusion.

That was why we couldn’t rashly launch a war just because we were stronger than the Alliance right now. Even if we pressed the attack and overran the Alliance headquarters itself, the real war would begin that day.

As Seo Daeryong and I ate and talked about this and that, the waiter hurried over to us.

“I’m sorry, but would you mind sharing your table? The Young Dragon Tournament has brought in so many customers.”

“Go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

A moment later, a woman wearing a bamboo hat joined us.

The instant she sat down and removed her hat, I was startled. I knew her.

Her status was such that I would never have expected her to share a table at an inn in her entire life. Her cool, intelligent beauty had earned her the title of Hubei’s Greatest Beauty, and she possessed outstanding martial skill as well. Astonishingly, she was none other than Jin Haryeong, the Martial Alliance Leader’s granddaughter.