Episode 11


    “I didn’t know you would speak so assertively.”


    “That’s the truth.”


    Expectations that he would give a hopeful answer without a solution or that he would cleverly turn things around were spectacrly wrong.


    For a moment, I stared nkly at Yu So-hwa, who was tilting her teacup with a calm expression.


    I smiled and opened my mouth.


    “I thought you would say, ‘It’s promising enough,’ even if it’s just empty words.”


    “Even if I had given a hopeful answer, I don’t think you would have taken it at face value.”


    “That’s true.”


    “If you’re disappointed, you can walk away now. But I won’t me you or anything.”


    I feel this once again, but she was a very strange person.


    I could see that he had been influenced in one way or another by hanging out with Cho Yeon-hee, but that didn’t mean he had a bad impression.


    Even the Manjangsega family members who treated Cho Yeon-hee like a dog and a chicken did not show any hostility towards her.


    ‘Rather, he is a popr person.’


    There were many people who admired her thanks to her unique gentle atmosphere, friendly personality, and gorgeous appearance.


    There are even rumors going around that the number of warriors who confessed to her and then got dumped exceeds double digits, so what more can I say?


    Although the rope he was holding was a rotten rope, he was not a person with a bad reputation.


    ‘Should I say that he has excellent friendliness or excellent management skills? ‘No, both?’


    Of course, the disadvantages are so great that the advantages seem to have faded.


    Anyone who hangs on to a rotten rope is bound to fall in the end.


    “Why don’t you stop the youngdy, even though you know it’s a gamble with extremely low odds?”


    “And you? If you’re smart, you wouldn’t know that the youngdy has little chance of bing the head of the family. “Why did you decide to help thedy?”


    “Anyway, I am someone who will leave Manjangsega someday.”


    “huh?”


    “I have no regrets, so my actions follow my emotions. “I’m going to leave anyway, so I’m going to repay the favor and go.”


    “I don’t think there’s any favor we can repay… If you’re talking about what happened when we first met, then we are in a position where our lives were saved.”


    “If it weren’t for you and Master Yu, we wouldn’t have been able to escape from the hands of the demon cultists, so we owe each other the same. And if it weren’t for the two of you, I wouldn’t have been epted as a member of the Manjang family.”


    “I didn’t know you thought that way.”


    “I am by nature very thorough in my benevolence.”


    I tried to say things I didn’t even mean to say and watched Yu So-hwa’s reaction.


    Fortunately, she didn’t seem particrly suspicious.


    “May I ask why you want to leave Manjangsega?”


    “Because I have work to do.”


    “That thing you have to do has to do with your hidden past?”


    “…….”


    “It seems like that because you’re not talking.”


    I didn’t have to make excuses because the misunderstanding was taken care of and it was really nice.


    I changed the subject by making an awkward smile.


    “Now it is Musa Yu’s turn to answer.”


    “You asked why I didn’t stop her, right?”


    “Don’t you know, Musa Yu? What does it mean to lose in thepetition for the head of the family? “You might not know if you don’t jump in in the first ce, but once you jump in, there’s no going back.”


    “That’s right.”


    “I don’t know, but the ending won’t be very good.”


    At present, the person most likely to be appointed as the next head of the family is none other than the Archduke.


    There was no way the Grand Duke, who was famous for his cold and merciless personality, would leave Huhwan behind, so it was as obvious as seeing what would happen to Cho Yeon-hee after thepetition for the head of the family ended.


    ‘They’ll probably kick you out of the family in the name of an arranged marriage.’


    Even if he escaped being sold, he would be in a position where he would not be able to join the family in any way.


    Cho Yeon-hee’s confidant, Yoo So-hwa, will also follow the same path.


    “Still, I think we should support her decision this time.”


    “Why?”


    “Because you are trying to change.”


    It was a truly absurd reason.


    In the end, isn’t that what it means to sacrifice oneself for others?


    From my perspective, it was a story I couldn’t understand and didn’t want to understand.


    “Are you satisfied with that?”


    “huh.”


    “You may be kicked out of the family you have spent your entire life in. Moreover, you may be forced to break up with the girl you served so devotedly.”


    If I were a grand duke, I would definitely cut off Cho Yeon-hee’s hands and feet when he was kicked out in the name of an arranged marriage.


    To prevent your inws from nning unnecessary things.


    “Even so, my resolve will not waver. “Are you going to look weird?”


    “It’s strange.”


    “is it.”


    A bitter smile appeared on Yu So-hwa’s lips.


    She and I didn’t speak to each other for a while.


    I hope that the ordered food is ced on the table one after another and the meal continues quietly.


    “Have you ever thought about what happens after you leave Manjangse?”


    I asked, picking up the noodles with chopsticks and throwing them away.


    “no. I hadn’t even thought about it that far…”


    “If you don’t have any other ce in mind, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to apply to the Murim Alliance.”


    “Murimmaeng?”


    “yes.”


    Although I cannot sympathize with Yu So-hwa’s way of thinking, I quite liked her as a person.


    At least, isn’t he the type of person who won’t lose anything by getting close to him?


    “It’s the Murim Alliance. “It’s like a dream.”


    “I think it’s worth the challenge.”


    “I think it would be too much for my abilities…”


    “You won’t know until you try, right?”


    To put it bluntly, Liu Xiaohua’s military power was at a negligible level.


    What more can I say since even the warriors of the Demonic Cult’s outer circle are helpless and are about to be subdued?


    But I know what will happen in the future.


    In the not too distant future, the Demonic Cult begins its activities in earnest, and the Murim Alliance recruits arge number of warriors to counter it.


    It was a natural step for the threshold of blindness to be lowered.


    ‘In the future, when I join the academy, having at least one senior I know will be helpful in many ways. Although his martial arts skills are a bitcking, he is a high-ss manpower at the level of Yu So-hwa. If there are no major incidents, I will be able to join the alliance easily.’


    Of course, if she had no intention of joining the family, it would have been a meaningless assumption, but at that time, we could just assume that was the only rtionship we had and move on.


    People don’t know what to do.


    Who knows whether the groundworkid down in this way may be of great help in the future?


    “From what you are saying, it seems that the reason you are leaving the Manjangsegae is also rted to the Murim Alliance. yes?”


    “That’s right.”


    “I’m blind……. “I will seriously consider it.”


    Yu So-hwa put down his chopsticks and drew a calm smile on his lips.


    * * *


    next day.


    Early in the morning, before dawn has yet dawned.


    After finishing my light training, I returned to my dorm, wiped my sweat with a towel, sat down on the bed, and was lost in thought.


    ‘The problem of internal strength will be roughly solved with the elixir.’


    Since I handed over the list of necessary items to Wang Chun-seong, I would soon be able to start making the elixir.


    Rather, prune what is urgent right now.


    There was a need to distinguish between techniques that could be used immediately and those that could not.


    ‘First of all, the Sura Heavenly Heart Beast will be sealed for a while.’


    There are three martial arts that I am currently mainly learning.


    Wolyeonggeom (月影劍).


    Ghost report (幽靈步).


    Surah Cheonsimsu (修羅千心手).


    Among them, Sura Cheonsimsu was a handcraft that was difficult to demonstrate its full power unless it reached a certain level.


    It even forced the caster to consume a huge amount of internal energy, making it difficult for me to use it now.


    ‘I’ll train, but I’ll make sure not to use it in actualbat.’


    Next is Wolyeonggeom.


    In fact, the origin of Wolyeonggeom was not the Demonic Cult but the Jungwon Baekdo Martial Arts.


    In the past, he was a martial artist from a long-standing military family that was powerful in Henan, but when the family was wiped out by Demonicism, it is presumed that the martial arts books flowed into the Cheonryung Library.


    ‘It’s a martial art with a long history.’


    Basically, Wolyeonggeom is a sword technique based on Kwae (快) and Hwan (幻).


    There are many martial arts in the world that focus on pleasure, and many martial arts that focus on fantasy, but there are not many martial arts that epass both.


    It was inevitable that pleasure and fantasy were concepts that were inherently difficult to coexist.


    The art of illusion ultimatelyes from the beginning of transformation, and in order to unfold the transformation, the speed of swinging the sword must be adjusted.


    Therefore, pleasure and fantasy were bound to be opposites to each other.


    As an analogy, water and oil.


    The Chosik of Wolyeonggeom yed the role of chopsticks that stirred the water and oil in the bowl and forced them to blend together.


    Herbivory, which was established through numerous previous generations’ research and efforts, brought together two opposing methods in an appropriate harmony.


    Of course, harmonizing the two opposing methods did not necessarily mean that the martial arts would be perfect.


    Rather,bining two methods with goodpatibility was often effective.


    For example, strength and pleasure, or flow and illusion.


    However, I can say without a doubt that Wolyeonggeom was a study worthy of being considered a martial arts study.


    By fusing the opposing martial arts, the disadvantages that arose were minimized and, conversely, the advantages were maximized.


    Because it was special, it was highly unexpected, and because it was so unexpected, it was easy to catch the opponent’s surprise.


    It goes without saying how powerful that advantage is in actualbat.


    Thousands of changes inics.


    It was the ultimate state pursued by Wolyeonggeom.


    It was also the final point I had to reach.


    ‘The problem is that the more herbivore changes, the more strength it consumes.’


    In my previous life, I encountered the Wolyeonggeom after gaining sufficient internal strength, so there were no problems, but this life was different.


    Among the dozens of herbal foods, there is a need to select those that focus on pleasure and use them first, and to ssify the herbal foods that contain illusions into stages so that they can be used one after another in the future when your strength increases. there was.


    It’s easier said than done, but it wasn’t that simple.


    Because we need to fill the gap caused by limited herbivore operation.


    First of all, while I was stuck in Jamma-dong, before I got my hands on the Wolyeong Sword, I nned to dismantle the martial arts I had learned and make up for myck of basic knowledge.


    Although they were somewhat low-level martial arts skills, they were sufficient to be used for auxiliary purposes.


    ‘All that’s left is a ghost.’


    Ghost Treasure was a world-ss divinew that had been passed down to the head of Ghost Valley, a former Demonic Cult subordinate.


    It is said that if you learn it to the extreme, you can fool even the spirit of an absolute expert, so I didn’t know if it was true because I didn’t seed in it even in my past life.


    For your information, Ghost Song does not exist in the current Demonic Church.


    I heard that at one time, it was a fearsome group that caused fear throughout the central ins, but it copsed after being caught up in a power struggle within the school during the tenure of the Jeonjeondae religious leader.


    ‘Well, it’s amon thing.’


    Whether it was a warrior boasting great power or a faction with many experts, the Demonic Cult was a ce where it could evaporate overnight.


    If it were a group that could be judged by themon sense and standards of the world, it wouldn’t even be called a demonic cult.


    Going back to the story.


    Actually, the ghost tree didn’t really need any pruning.


    As it has a reputation as a top-ss footing technique and light technique, it has no drawbacks.


    Even with a small amount of internal power, it was able to achieve twice the efficiency of other new methods, and its high stealth made it easy to infiltrate.


    There is a drawback in that it is so difficult that it cannot be mastered with ordinary talent, but it doesn’t matter to me.


    Isn’t this a martial art that I have already learned once in my previous life?


    What was problematic was not the martial arts itself but the origin of the martial arts.


    ‘Even though it is rotten, it is a martial arts skill that dominated an era. Someone might recognize the characteristics of the ghost treasure.’


    Ghost seeing is a martial art of the Demonic Cult, both in name and reality.


    What if the leader of the Segana faction, who was harmed by Ghost Song in the past, recognizes the characteristics of Ghost Song?


    There was a high probability that something troublesome would happen.


    I don’t know, but it won’t be beneficial to him bing an elder of the Murim Alliance in the future.


    ‘But I can’t throw it away.’


    I gave up on the Heavenly Demon God because I couldn’t learn it and there was no way to learn it, but I couldn’t give up on the Ghost Treasure either.


    So, in the end, there was only one conclusion that could be drawn.


    ‘I learn ghost skills, but I embody them and reorganize them to make them my own martial arts.’


    Can you do it?


    I couldn’t be sure.


    In my past life, I was often told by people around me that I had a talent for martial arts, but that only meant that I was a quick learner, not that I was good at inventing or reorganizing.


    How easy would it be to modify apleted martial art to your own taste?


    ‘I don’t know. It’ll work out somehow.’


    I smiled andid down on the bed.


    In the end, it was a problem that had to be solved somehow.


    If a person only thinks negatively, nothing will happen.


    If possible, let’s think positively.


    ‘Because I have a lot of time.’