For Hall Master Jang Chulho of the Sanyang Martial Arts Hall, with not only his disciples but other martial artists watching, if he retreated like this, his face would be beyond repair.

Because he wanted to salvage his damaged face by gaining even the smallest concession, Hall Master Jang Chulho brought out the alternative he had thought up.

“Taoist, our lodgers will discuss it and share rooms together, and we will empty the rest. Then there will be no inconvenience for the Taoists of the Wudang Sect to stay.”

Hall Master Jang Chulho thought that, at that level, it would be something acceptable to both sides.

From the Wudang Sect’s standpoint as well, they would not have to climb onto pointless gossip.

But...

“Hall Master Jang, you really don’t understand what you’re being told.”

At the young Taoist’s chilly sneer, Hall Master Jang Chulho’s face flushed even redder.

“We asked the guesthouse owner to let us rent this entire place. We did not ask for a few rooms.”

“Taoist, but isn’t this guesthouse very large for the Taoists of Mount Wudang here to use all of it?”

“Hall Master Jang, who said the disciples of Wudang here are all of them?”

“Then...?”

“We are the advance party. We are looking for lodging for the main force that is following behind. Our master saw that this guesthouse is large, and so he asked the owner.”

“The main force... Then are you saying the Wudang Sect will also participate in this Heroes Assembly?”

The young Taoist nodded.

“Our Wudang Sect also came to lend a hand in this Heroes Assembly.”

After hearing that, Hall Master Jang Chulho had no choice but to turn around in helplessness.

If the Wudang Sect’s main force was coming to stay here, what could he do?

For people in a lowly position like theirs, trying to hold out against a great sect would only add a charge of insolence.

In the martial world, common sense existed only when you were stronger than the other side.

As Hall Master Jang Chulho turned around, his shoulders slumped—so different from when he had come.

Seeing him return with his face red after going as the guests’ representative, the guests grew dejected.

Among them, a quick-witted martial artist said to the guesthouse owner,

“Owner, I will yield to the Taoists of Mount Wudang and vacate my room. But at this hour, to find a room, I’ll have to pay extra. Compensate me for that much.”

Even doing this much was, amid being kicked out, at least a way to save some face.

The guesthouse owner spoke with a troubled face.

“Sir, that will be difficult. Even returning everyone’s lodging fee and meal cost already leaves us with enormous losses.”

Hearing that, the guests immediately understood why the guesthouse owner had been wearing an outright miserable expression.

It meant the Wudang Sect Taoists had hammered down the lodging fee.

Someone among the guests muttered in a low voice.

“Damn it. So the owner and we all got stuck with rotten luck.”

In that instant, a cold voice rang out through the dining hall.

“Who was it? Who dared to sneer that the Taoists of Great Wudang are rotten luck?”

At the shouted roar packed with inner power, the guests flinched and froze.

From the middle of the Wudang Sect Taoists, a middle-aged Taoist with a sharp impression stood up and walked out.

“As an elder of the Wudang Sect, I can endure anything else, but I cannot endure disrespect toward the main mountain.”

Hall Master Jang Chulho recognized that this was the very middle-aged Taoist who had been sitting with his eyes closed the entire time.

He had thought he was meditating, but in truth, he had had his ears open and been listening to everything.

Hall Master Jang Chulho hurriedly spoke toward the approaching middle-aged Taoist.

“Taoist, forgive him. That person surely did not say it to insult Mount Wudang.”

As someone who had put himself forward as the guests’ representative, Hall Master Jang Chulho stepped in. And it was also because he expected that a Taoist of Mount Wudang, who cultivated the Taoist path, would have broad magnanimity.

But his expectation was shattered by the middle-aged Taoist’s next shouted line.

“And what are you, that you dare speak for him?”

“Taoist, that is—”

“Hall Master of some Sanyang something-or-other martial arts hall. Keep that mouth shut. There are limits even to how much courtesy I can show you, simply because your disciples are watching.”

Hall Master Jang Chulho’s face turned scarlet, and the fists he had been clenching from earlier throbbed.

Because to say “some martial arts hall,” “some sect,” to a person’s face was humiliation itself.

It meant, “Your school means nothing to us.”

Martial artists would rather be cursed at—yet they could not endure their school being treated with contempt like that.

Hall Master Jang Chulho, seeing the jackal-like gaze the Wudang Taoist was shooting him, realized the Taoist was deliberately provoking him.

‘Ah! He was looking for a sacrifice to make an example of!’

That way, they could justify their act of taking the guesthouse for themselves.

When Hall Master Jang Chulho bit his tongue and endured the humiliation as if he would die, the middle-aged Taoist looked disappointed and spoke toward the guests.

“Out of consideration for that hall master’s face, this time I will generously endure those disrespectful words. And I will wait for half a quarter-hour to see whether you repay Wudang for this magnanimity. If, after that, anyone is still showing their face here, I will regard it as a challenge to me and to Wudang.”

The guests, who had been tensed tight, were startled at those words and hurriedly began to move.

It was not the time to bicker with the guesthouse owner over lodging fees.

Half a quarter-hour was barely enough time to return to their rooms, pack, and leave.

It was the moment the guests began to rush up the stairs toward the rooms with a clatter.

“Wow! These mule-headed Taoists sure know how to shake people down. They’d slap even we beggars in the face ten times over.”

A ringing voice boomed through the dining hall.

“Who is it?!”

The middle-aged Taoist’s face twisted as he shouted, and an immediate retort flew back.

“Who is it?”

At the same time, the back door banged open, and a dark man barged into the dining hall.

“Right here!”

The person who entered through the back door was Hu Gae. And behind him, Kwak Yeon and Jin Cheongha revealed themselves as well.

The moment the middle-aged Taoist frowned deeply at the sight of the sturdy beggar and the young man and woman in martial garb entering—

“Kwak, I tried to endure it somehow because I felt bad for you, but if I keep watching, that mule-headed Taoist is only going to smear even more shit on the Wudang Sect’s name.”

At Hu Gae’s words, Kwak Yeon nodded.

“How could I, of all people, stop you from carrying out chivalrous conduct? Only, since that person is someone I have ties with, I would be grateful if you allow me a moment to exchange greetings.”

“Ah, if it’s someone you know, of course you should greet him first.”

The people who had been rushing toward the rooms all stopped at this unexpected situation and watched.

From the words about beggars and chivalrous conduct, they had already grasped by instinct that the beggar who had appeared in the dining hall was a person of the Beggar Clan.

A Beggar Clan beggar had stepped in, displeased with the Wudang Sect’s behavior, so it could not help but be fascinating to see how things would proceed.

And in that midst, a young martial artist was walking straight toward the middle-aged Wudang Taoist, so everyone held their breath as if dead and watched.

STEP. STEP.

With calm footsteps, Kwak Yeon went and stood before the middle-aged Taoist. He clasped his fists together and bowed his waist in greeting.

“Senior Brother Hyeongong, it has truly been a long time.”

“......Senior Brother Hyeongong?”

Taoist Hyeongong was truly dumbfounded.

A brashly young brat he had never seen before appeared with some beggar and started playing tricks, and now he was suddenly greeting him and calling him senior brother.

Thinking there might be something to him, he examined the one walking toward him carefully. But aside from wearing martial clothing, he was truly ordinary—nothing more than a third-rate thug one could see anywhere in the marketplace.

If it were not for the beggar who had appeared with him and did not seem ordinary, he would have already barked, asking what kind of nonsense they were pulling.

“...Who are you, young hero, to claim yourself as this poor Taoist’s junior brother?”

The reason Taoist Hyeongong exercised patience and asked with formality was because he was preparing for what came after.

Seeing that the large beggar had cursed even while knowing he was a Wudang Taoist, it was clear the beggar was not of ordinary status within the Beggar Clan. That meant his martial arts would also be backed by confidence.

If a beggar like that interfered, things would get noisy. The plan was to seize this brat’s fault, then use that as a pretext to drive the beggar back.

“Wudang’s disciple relations are strict. If a disciple of a lay clan or a lay martial arts hall’s offshoot dares bring up seniority before a main-mountain disciple, we treat it as impersonating a Wudang disciple and punish the crime severely.”

When Taoist Hyeongong warned him in a stern voice, Kwak Yeon straightened and answered crisply.

“I know that, of course.”

“Oh? Then speak your identity and background at once. Who are you, and what connection do you have to this poor Taoist that you called me senior brother? I apologize to you, young hero, but I have not the slightest memory of you.”

It meant: since you started this, there was no way to retreat now.

Taoist Hyeongong naturally thought the brat would panic. But his expression was too calm, and an uneasy feeling began to crawl up Taoist Hyeongong’s spine.

“Of course you wouldn’t. Senior Brother Hyeongong would only have seen me in passing. And at the time, I was wearing the same martial garb among children around the same age.”

Taoist Hyeongong’s eyes began to widen.

Because he realized the brat was talking about the external training ground beneath Mount Wudang.

“So you’re saying you came from that training ground?”

“That’s right. As a trainee from that training ground, I saw Senior Brother Hyeongong—when you were the Divine Martial Unit Lord—many times from afar.”

At Kwak Yeon’s answer, a smug smile flowed onto Taoist Hyeongong’s face.

“So that’s why you recognized me at a glance. Then it’s even stranger. That there was a junior brother from that training ground whom even I don’t know.”

Taoist Hyeongong’s victorious smile was natural.

Those trainees were accepted as main-mountain disciples merely to fill the ranks. These days the perception of training-ground disciples had risen, but in any case, all the children brought in that way were juniors beneath his seniority.

“If Senior Brother Hyeongong thinks carefully, you will recall a single junior brother who became of the Hyeon line from that training ground. And what is more, that one junior brother also had a special tie with your master, the Great Elder.”

At those words, Taoist Hyeongong’s eyes grew wider and wider.

“You... No way....”

Taoist Hyeongong’s bulging eyes became as big as lanterns.

“...The Dark Cavern Taoist of Samryeong Palace?”

Kwak Yeon nodded.

“That’s right. I am the Samryeong Palace first-generation disciple, Hyeonmu. Ah. And by my elder’s order I have returned to lay life, so now I am the resident Taoist Kwak Yeon.”

Taoist Hyeongong’s body trembled.

“Senior Brother Hyeongong, how about returning the greeting to this junior brother’s first-meeting courtesy?”

At Kwak Yeon’s demand for a return greeting, Taoist Hyeongong’s face hardened into ash-gray.

Even if he had returned to lay life and become a lay disciple, his seniority did not disappear.

So it was only right that the Dark Cavern Taoist, as a proper junior brother, called him senior brother.

‘This low-born bastard from a slash-and-burn—how dare....’