episode_0033

“Oh, this seems like a bit of an accident.”

I clearly remember moving along the street.

The Great Guardian surprisingly has a talent for teaching the Gyeongshin method, so he explodes his energy at the Yongcheon point as he learned and runs like the blue hedgehog he saw in his past life.

He runs for a long time with the hem of his uniform fluttering, then when he gets tired, he walks, and when he feels recovered, he runs out again.

It seems like they clearly set their first destination as Jongnam Mountain, where Jongnampa is located, and ran all the way south.

“Why a mountain?”

I looked around, scratching my head.

As the road became steeper and more and more broken, I thought it was strange, but when I came to my senses, it was dark and I was already left alone in the mountains.

That’s what it was.

In this era, of course, there is no satellite communication or cutting-edge modern civilization.

There isn’t even a map!

Maps with detailed geographical information were considered military supplies. If a civilian was caught carrying a map in broad daylight, they would be immediately arrested and taken to the government office, where they would be forced to eat spicy fish stew with no excuses.

For a moment, I shudder at the primitiveness of hundreds of years ago.

“The tiger won’t come out, right?”

If I had known this would happen, I would have read more survival comics instead of novels. I haven’t read one since elementary school, so how many years has it been? Thirty years? Forty years?

With belated regret, I wandered deep in the mountains for a while, looking for a place to sleep.

I found a suitable spot in the shade of a rock, wrapped myself in a blanket, and went to sleep.

It was more uncomfortable than I thought, but as my level improved, I became somewhat more tolerant, although I was not invincible to the cold, so it wasn’t that cold.

Well, I’m not a well-raised young master, so one night would be fine.

From now on, you don’t know when the next guest house will be, so don’t be a troublemaker and stop when you see the guest house.

I learned a good lesson.

With that thought in mind, I closed my eyes and counted the sheep one by one. Then, I fell into a deep sleep.

I was sleeping soundly because I was in an uncomfortable position, but I heard the sound of footsteps.

“… … Let’s go.”

“… … If your throat knows… … .”

What is it? Am I dreaming?

I frowned at the ambiguous borderline between being half-awake and half-asleep at the sound of the chatter.

Let’s organize our thoughts.

Clearly, the place where I slept was somewhere in the mountains. Since I was heading south, I thought it was somewhere in the vicinity, if not Jongnamsan.

But then I hear footsteps, and now I can even hear faint voices speaking.

Here’s the problem.

So am I dreaming a realistic dream, like a brain in a vat, receiving electrical stimulation from a mad scientist, or is there an unidentified figure surrounding me as I sleep?

What the hell, there’s no way I can see this, there’s someone around.

“… … !”

I opened my eyes reflexively with a feeling of being completely awake, grabbed the sword placed next to me, and the series of events leading to me drawing it from its scabbard continued smoothly.

The sword, drawn from its scabbard in a graceful line, gleamed in the moonlight. And my eyes gleamed along with it.

“What!”

Along with that one embarrassed word, several bandits with shabby appearance surrounded me and were chatting away.

Judging from the way he was holding heavy weapons such as a sword and a sickle, he was clearly a typical bandit.

There’s no way he’d be walking around the mountains in the middle of the night with such a deadly weapon unless he was a bandit out to open a business, so he was definitely a bandit.

“… … Who is it?”

Naturally, the way I spoke became sharper.

If you’re not sleeping deeply to begin with, but are in a light sleep, then you’re bound to become violent when you wake up. I won’t forgive any bandit who wakes me up.

He looked around with a prickly tone. There were thirteen bandits. That’s a lot.

They were probably bandits who were mainly from the Jongnam area, so we can assume they were doing a good job.

Okay, let it come. My sword is hungry.

With that thought in mind, I unrolled the blanket I had been rolling up and prepared to fight, but one of the bandits who had been looking at me with a bewildered face walked over and grabbed me.

“Hey, we don’t plan on fighting either, so don’t be so cautious.”

“Don’t be on guard when you see bandits?”

What the heck, right now, hehehe! If you give me everything you have, I’ll let you go with your life spared! Or, isn’t it normal in this world to look at me and smack your lips?

As the bandit who had been hunting did not let his guard down, the bandit who had been hunting scratched his head.

“Sohyeop, I am the head of Nokrim, who runs a small mountain farm called Chopyeongchae here on Chopyeongsan Mountain. I see that you are either a child of a noble family or a disciple of a prestigious family. We are not without morals either.”

“… … ?”

“We are an officially licensed mountain village belonging to the Nokrim 72chae. We are not a group that kills and loots anyone who passes by. We are not sons of bitches who do terrible things to young men.”

The self-proclaimed Jang Mo said so and looked at the knife in my hand.

“Just by looking at the way they drew their swords, we can tell that Sohyeop is a master, so we have no intention of antagonizing Sohyeop. Originally, we would have received a small amount of money as an entrance fee, but we are fully willing to let Sohyeop go as is.”

“Ah.”

So, this bandit is not a random bandit, but a legitimate bandit belonging to the Nokrim?

And I’m obviously an expert, so I have no intention of making a fuss about it, right?

What the heck, the bandits I know aren’t like this.

If you come out like that in such a humble manner, I’ll be the only one who pulls out my sword and looks like a weirdo.

If you shout out the useless question and answer here and cast the evil spell, you will definitely become the biggest son of a bitch in the world.

“Ah, you are the heroes of the Green Forest. It seems there was an unpleasant misunderstanding between us.”

“That’s it!”

You scary bastards, you’re so considerate of my social status that you’re swearing at me with your tongue.

Of course, if you want to do banditry in a long and thin way, you have to stretch while looking at the place where you will lie down.

I see that the bandits with the Jang surname are far inferior to me. Well, I can be on par with the best masters, so why bother with banditry?

When I also took up my sword in an awkward posture and played poker, Jang Mo made a bright expression.

“Anyway, we have no intention of antagonizing the Small Group, so please come down the mountain.”

“Anyway, since you’re already awake, if you want to end it without any conflict, then I should do that. But can I ask you one thing?”

“Of course.”

“So where should Jongnamsan go?”

Even though I belong to the Demonic Cult, I am not a crazy murderer who would call a bandit like that a bandit.

The Mucham Nangagum Sword certainly had the ability to instill a killing spirit in those who practiced it, but thanks to the overwhelming energy of the Heavenly Demon Sword, it did not lead to a change to the Heavenly Killer.

That’s why, like an intellectual, I was willing to solve the problem through dialogue, and I asked for directions.

Jang Mo looked puzzled.

“This is Chopyeongsan. Where did the small group start?”

“It’s Seoan.”

“You should go southeast, but you went in the wrong direction. The west coast is northeast from here.”

“Oops.”

To commit such a petty act of fanboying.

I thought I was going south and just followed the road down, but before I knew it, I had headed southwest.

Somehow, I thought it was strange that Jongnam Mountain was not that far from Seoan, but I felt like I hadn’t even gotten halfway there even after walking there for a whole day.

Jang Mo kindly raised her hand and pointed in the direction.

“If you go down that way, it’s the path that goes down from the mountain, and when you go down the mountain, go straight east. It’ll take two days on foot, so if you use light air, half a day will be enough.”

“Thank you.”

“They say the four seas are the same island. The more difficult it is, the more we have to help each other and live together.”

My mother-in-law politely gave me a lottery ticket until the end, and I responded with a lottery ticket. Then I took out five coins from my bosom, called the entrance fee, gave them to him, and went down the mountain.

Since you showed me the way, I should pay the price.

Certainly, to commit banditry in the Central Plains, it must be systematic to this extent.

If we had acted like bandits, today would probably have been the day that Chopyeongchae was destroyed.

As I was going down the mountain, nodding my head, I heard voices behind me.

“You did a good job not touching it, right?”

“That’s right, boss. Did you see him pull out his sword? If you had even touched him and woke him up, his head would have been cut off.”

It was the sound of friendly bandits chatting away.

You need that level of insight to survive in the harsh central plains. I’ll have to keep that in mind.

* * *

Jongnam Mountain, finally reached by following the path shown by the friendly bandit.

At the entrance to the mountain, there was a village where quite a few people lived.

In fact, it is natural. When people think of Jongnampa, they think of them as simply members of the Gupailbang, but when I moved to the central plains, I felt that the Jongnampa’s status was by no means small.

Where is Jongnam Mountain, where Jongnampa is located?

It is the birthplace of Taoism, where Laozi founded Taoism.

Moreover, the founder of the Jongnam faction is Wang Jungyang, the famous founder of the Jeonjin sect, so it can be seen as more fundamental than the Hwasan faction, which regards Ho Gyo-tong, one of the Seven Disciples of Jeonjin, as its founder.

Now, Jongnam and Hwasan are competing over Seomseo, but if we go by fundamentalism, the real foundation is Jongnam.

So the town was becoming quite prosperous, and I went into any inn that looked suitable and sat down.

“Oh my, what a mess. How can I get it?”

“I’d like to wash up in hot water, stay overnight, and then eat dinner first.”

As soon as I sat down, I relayed my request to Jeomsoi who came running to me and lightly touched the sack. The heavy silver case made a pleasant clinking sound.

Whether it’s the modern world or the martial arts world, it’s a world of superficial, materialistic omnipotence where you can do anything as long as you have money.

“What would you like to eat?”

“Ahem.”

And I finally, finally.

“Baekyuk on Dosakmyeon. And a bottle of Jukyeopcheong.”

“Baekyuk and Jukyeopcheong on Dosakmyeon! Ordered! ”

As I watched the back of Jeomso-yi disappearing to deliver the order to the kitchen, the joy and thrill of finally ordering Jukyeopcheong took over my whole body.

Koreans live on rice, but since Shaanxi is so famous for its noodles, I had to try some noodles, and most importantly, I finally managed to order bamboo leaf soup, which has been featured in many martial arts novels.

Dead leaf tea!

The name itself is enough to make the hearts of all martial arts novel readers across the country flutter. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t say anything.

It is a medicinal liquor with a fairly high alcohol content and a sweet taste, but it is quite expensive.

The life of a ronin who eats rice from a knife is like wandering around like a flying dandelion, never knowing when he might be stabbed to death.

And the friendship between heroes that blossoms while sharing sweet liquor in such a rough life.

Jukyeopcheong could be said to be the number one contributor to making such absurd claims possible, so it has been a drink that anyone who has ever been in the martial arts world has wanted to try at least once.

This time, I was happily waiting for my order, thinking that I had finally succeeded in ordering bamboo leaf tea from the guest house, when I heard a commotion coming from the entrance.

BAM! CRACK! CRACK!

No, cancel.

It was a bit too loud to be simply noisy. The sound of something exploding and crashing was enough to draw everyone’s attention to the entrance.

Phew!

Again, a rare sight was seen of a person being shot out like a shell at the entrance to the guest house, accompanied by a sound like a torn book.

And the person who flew in heroically as a human shell.

“Oh my!”

He also had a fierce collision with Jeom So-i, who was running towards him with brisk steps, holding a bottle of elegant bamboo leaf tea and trying to bring him the alcohol he had ordered first.

Clang!

The scene of warm bamboo leaf tea pouring down with the sound of a bottle breaking was truly a tearjerker.

“What kind of kid is that?”

I was in a situation where I could have unknowingly let out a foul swear word after seeing that sight, and it would have been innocent.