RRRUUMBLE—!!

I looked back at Seongheon as the door opened.

Seongheon was staring at me like the whole world was absurd.

Like he’d just seen something he was never supposed to see.

[How in the world.......]

Was it because I’d just opened someone else’s hidden door without permission? I had to give an awkward smile too.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t even realize.......”

I should’ve asked before opening it, and I hadn’t, so it was something to apologize for.

[No, that’s not it.......]

Seongheon chose his words, then asked me.

[How did you open it?]

“Uh.......”

If he was asking how, the answer was simple.

“I saw it.”

[You saw it?]

“Yes.”

Moon Eyes told me. It wasn’t like I had some incredible talent.

Really.

‘I just cut where I could see.’

It gave me the right answer. And I just followed it.

‘Did my realm rise and change this too?’

A realm beyond Peak. Because of that, maybe my eyes had changed somehow too.

‘So it did.’

If it changed, how had it changed?

I should’ve asked someone. But the old man I could ask just so happened to not exist.

‘Whatever. It’s probably the realm.’

I didn’t overthink it. I’d already felt how bizarre the martial arts Yoo Cheongil created were.

‘Stuff like this doesn’t even surprise me anymore.’

With Yoo Cheongil, most things get “explained.”

It’s an incredible martial art. How is that even possible?

Yoo Cheongil made it.

Aha!

‘......Seriously, what a goddamn joke.’

It’s a ridiculous line, but it was true. When some incident or problem blew up, if you mentioned Yoo Cheongil to someone who knew him, it was like the thing solved itself.

Martial arts weren’t any different.

‘It’s unbelievable.’

The Yoo Cheongil-Can-Do-Anything doctrine.

[......Like master, like disciple, is that it.]

Look at him even now. Seongheon was trying to understand by bringing up Yoo Cheongil.

[......Anyway, that sect.......]

And in the end, he just slid into bafflement about Blue Moon Sect.

Only after watching that did I tell him.

“Anyway....... I just go in now, right?”

If the door was open, do I just go? At that, Seongheon nodded.

[Yes. Go in.]

“.......”

I stepped inside. The entrance was a bit narrow, but my body wasn’t that big to begin with, so I slipped in easily.

The moment I went in, I saw stairs. I don’t know why this Central Plains is so obsessed with building everything underground.

As I entered the darkness, Moon Eyes naturally made light.

My vision brightened fully. With the darkness pushed back, I walked forward through the brightened view.

“There aren’t any traps, are there?”

It was an unknown space. So far, every hidden stash had traps, so I asked if this one did too.

[It’s fine. There are no traps placed here.]

“......Really?”

That was a seriously strange answer.

“Then this isn’t a hidden stash?”

It was a hidden space, so I’d assumed it was a stash.

[It is a hidden stash. It’s a place called the Floral-Path Gate, a place only successive sect masters of Mount Hua can enter.]

“.......”

That was far bigger than I expected. Only successive sect masters?

“......Is it really okay for me to break into a place like that?”

[It wouldn’t be. Normally.]

Seongheon smiled kindly.

[But for Mount Hua’s benefactor, isn’t it fine to do at least this much?]

“By the sect master’s discretion?”

[That’s right.]

Like a living spirit had any “discretion” to exercise. I wanted to say that, but I held it in.

‘The Floral-Path Gate.’

A hidden stash only Mount Hua’s successive sect masters could enter.

And the Moon Immortal Sword wanted an item from inside that?

“Just what am I supposed to take?”

[Something very impressive.]

“.......”

He didn’t seem like he planned to answer. Was he telling me to see it myself?

‘Tch.’

Every old man who’d carved out a seat for himself had a screw loose.

I kept moving forward.

Not long after, a door appeared.

‘A wooden door.’

Not an iron door. It was a small-looking wooden door, smaller than I expected.

‘Do I just open it?’

I looked at Seongheon with that thought, and he nodded. It looked like he meant for me to open it.

CREEEAK.

I grabbed the handle and opened it. It wasn’t locked or anything.

I carefully opened the old door and peered inside.

‘Hm.’

My eyes narrowed. A faint fragrance drifted out of the inside.

‘Flowers.’

A smell I’d been catching a lot since coming to Mount Hua. A soft, fragrant flower scent.

It felt like that distinctive scent of Mount Hua, the fragrance that lingered in their air.

‘And I’m smelling it from inside.’

That meant there was something in there. Judging that, I stepped in.

STEP.

My ears perked up. Unlike the corridor, the sound echoed clearly.

‘Different materials?’

The floor and walls looked slightly different from the other area.

And.

‘There are a lot of boxes and things covered in cloth.’

Boxes stacked neatly. And things covered in cloth. And then—

‘Books?’

A shelf packed full of books.

[They’re all martial arts texts.]

“All of this?”

[Yes. It wouldn’t be wrong to call this Mount Hua’s entire legacy.]

“.......”

Mount Hua’s entire legacy. Those heavy words made me freeze for a second.

“Is it really okay for me to be here......?”

[If you’re our benefactor, as much as you want.......]

“Not that. I’m asking if you’re actually okay with this.”

[......Heh.]

At my refusal to take it as a ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) joke, Seongheon laughed awkwardly.

[Normally, it wouldn’t be allowed. But aren’t we in a situation where we don’t have a choice?]

“A situation where you don’t have a choice.......”

[I can’t hand it to you directly. And I also have something to ask of you, so it’s a situation we can’t avoid.]

“A favor?”

What favor, all of a sudden?

“What are you talking about?”

I hadn’t heard anything about that. A favor?

[It’s nothing grand. There’s just something I want you to deliver.]

“......Ah. That’s kind of difficult for me.”

Getting something back because the Moon Immortal Sword told me to, fine.

‘But receiving something from a living spirit and delivering it?’

That was a different story.

Anything that tied me directly to a soul was a problem.

‘It adds weight to my soul.’

I didn’t want pointless burden piling up. So I made a troubled face—

[Even if all you have to do is hand it over?]

Seongheon looked pitiful, but there was no way that would work on me.

“Yes. I don’t take things from souls, and I don’t do things for them either. Same with this—”

[Even if it’s about Yuyeon?]

“.......”

My face hardened.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

[Heh.]

Dragging Yuyeon into it out of nowhere just pissed me off.

“Whether it’s about Yuyeon or not, it doesn’t matter.”

Yuyeon or whatever—I’m the problem, and he’s acting like that’s irrelevant.

Why is she coming up here?

‘Did he think I’d do it if he said it was about Yuyeon?’

Tch.

A sigh surged up inside me.

“......Fine. Let’s at least look at what you’re saying you’ll give me first.”

I shoved the favor aside and said that. Seongheon swallowed his regret and pointed somewhere with his hand.

[Over there.]

I followed his fingertip. There was a box there too, covered with cloth.

“That one?”

[Yes.]

I headed that way.

When I reached the box—

[Remove the cloth.]

At Seongheon’s words, I grabbed the cloth and pulled. SHFFK. The cloth slid down off the box, and the object inside showed itself.

‘This is—?’

A box inside a box. But the problem was—

WHOOOOSH—!!

“......!”

The moment I uncovered it, a flower fragrance burst out in every direction, nothing like before.

“What the—?”

This wasn’t just “fragrance.” There was something in it that felt... sacred.

“What is this?”

This wasn’t normal. Not even close.

When I asked, Seongheon stepped in and said,

[It’s called the Floral-Virtue Pellet.]

“Floral-Virtue Pellet?”

What was that?

‘Doesn’t Mount Hua have the Purple-Mist Pellet?’

Famous pills in the Central Plains, starting with Shaolin’s Great Reverting Pill.

Blue Moon Sect had its own representative pills too.

But “Floral-Virtue Pellet”—

‘Purple-Mist Pellet.’

Mount Hua already had a pill widely known across the Central Plains.

But.

‘What is the Floral-Virtue Pellet?’

At least, it wasn’t a pill I knew.

If it was some ordinary pill, that would make sense—except.

‘No. There’s no way this aura is ordinary.’

The aura was ominous in its own way. Even someone like me, who didn’t know pills that well, could tell this was an absurd pill.

“What is the Floral-Virtue Pellet?”

What is it? At that, Seongheon answered.

[It’s Mount Hua’s pill that isn’t known outside.]

“Not known......?”

[Every sect has its secrets. Blue Moon Sect was no different, so neither are we.]

“......That’s true.”

He wasn’t wrong. I’d experienced it in Blue Moon Sect too.

A pill you could obtain if you became sect master.

I’d taken it, and my Moon Eyes had properly opened.

‘So this is that kind of pill too?’

And then—

“So this is the thing our sect master told me to take from Mount Hua?”

[Most likely, yes.]

“......What do you mean?”

That wasn’t certainty. It might not be?

I frowned at what I couldn’t understand.

[The Moon Immortal Sword didn’t entrust anything to Mount Hua in the first place.]

“What are you—?”

[It only believed there would be something you could receive.]

“......!”

My head rang like I’d just been smashed with a hammer.

‘Wait.’

That meant—

‘This bastard?’

Ha.

I realized what the Moon Immortal Sword was doing and let out a hollow breath.

‘......What a fox.’

It looks like a tiger or a leopard, but if you peel the skin back, the Moon Immortal Sword is a nine-tailed fox.

‘It predicted this?’

This was a chain of situations that had been predicted.

‘So it knew.’

The Moon Immortal Sword had anticipated I’d resolve something at Mount Hua.

Maybe it had even pegged that I’d be called “benefactor” level.

And also—

‘It knew Seongheon couldn’t go to Henan.’

It had predicted even that—Seongheon being unable to leave because of the Divine Spear.

So.

‘It made me bring back something, no matter what?’

After I’d done Mount Hua a favor—after I’d put them in my debt—it used that debt to make me take something back.

‘......That sounds insane.’

Even if that explained things, there was still something I couldn’t understand.

‘How did it know they’d hand something over?’

That “certainty” didn’t make sense.

The letter clearly said it.

‘If the sect master dies or something similar.’

If it told me to retrieve it under those conditions—

‘It’s more likely I’d have brought it up with someone else, not Seongheon.’

And what made it think someone like that would hand this over easily?

And in the first place—

He was confident Seongheon couldn’t come.

He’d sent this in confidence, unlike Zhuge Jin’s choice.

‘What is this?’

What is the Moon Immortal Sword?

What was it thinking? Or maybe—

‘Did it know I can see ghosts?’

The thought that it knew this would happen because I could see Seongheon as a living spirit crossed my mind, but—

‘That’s bullshit.’

That was even more bullshit.

‘So what the hell is it?’

It left a bad taste. A lot of thoughts about the Moon Immortal Sword churned up.

Even so, staring at the Floral-Virtue Pellet, I said to Seongheon,

“......You’re telling me to take this with me?”

[I don’t know if that will save the alliance leader. But it’s the best gratitude I can give you.]

“.......”

The Floral-Virtue Pellet.

I stared at it. I needed to take it for now, so I reached for cloth to wrap it—

[It’s right next to it.]

“Huh?”

Seongheon spoke to me.

[The favor I tried to ask you for earlier. It was the thing right next to it.]

“......Like I said earlier, that’s—”

I mixed it into my breath. No matter what he said, I had no intention of doing it.

I was about to answer like that, when—

“......Hm?”

I saw what was beside it, and my eyes widened.

“This is......?”

There was a sword.

An old sword, its edge completely worn away.