Chapter 364
On the first day of the twelfth lunar month in the year of Gapjin, three stars will align in a straight line and a purple aura will come from the east on that night. At that time, at the third watch of the hour of the rat, the hidden realm will open at Baekhyeonri in Dahwahyeon.
Today, Young Master will leave Seolgung. I will make that happen. Do not worry about pursuers. I will lose every one of them for you.
Today was the first day of the twelfth lunar month in the year of Gapjin.
Unhwi looked up at the sky.
The three stars were moments from forming a straight line, and the hour was bearing toward the third segment of the rat watch.
Unhwi had intended, by any means, to come to this place at least once.
Still, there was something mildly irksome.
Chief Seong asked at once, as if he had read the same thing.
“Should I deal with them now?”
“There are many eyes watching.”
“.......”
“Not one or two, either, and there seem to be people of realms they ought not to be in.”
They had been trailed.
In truth, it was nothing novel. Wherever the name Seol Unhwi moved, something always followed.
People, influence, money, whatever it might be.
Under such circumstances, it was impossible not to attract tails.
From Unhwi’s position, he could not personally handle every one of them, and even if he issued repeated warnings people would cling.
So many martial men, once they reached a certain realm, simply used lightness skill to shake off pursuers — but Unhwi could not do that now.
He could not afford to ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) keep siphoning spirit like that.
Before long, the hidden realm formed in front of Unhwi and Chief Seong.
Chief Seong tilted his head as he watched Unhwi wait without entering.
“Aren’t you going in?”
“I will go in.”
There was something to be done first.
Unhwi took brush and paper from the dusk pouch and wrote out a long note.
It was not finished.
He placed several ordinary spirit pills and a weapon or two from the dusk pouch beside it.
“......Young Master?”
This was the best Unhwi could do.
“I would prefer not to be disturbed.”
“.......”
“This hidden realm means that much to me.”
Reading Unhwi’s sincerity, Chief Seong said nothing further.
“Go in.”
Unhwi stepped forward, and Chief Seong followed.
Where the two had vanished, about half a dozen men and women moved in swiftly.
They stared, eyes wide, at the items and the letter left before them.
Yet I wish to enter this hidden realm without anyone’s interference.
I came here for the sake of entering this hidden realm; you only followed.
I will not deny the stroke of fortune that befell me.
To the six who followed me:
A courteous proposal.
Take the items I have left below and withdraw.
If it is insufficient, send a letter by spirit-messenger or come in person.
I stake my name: five hundred gold nyang per person.
Even if the six of you collude and all enter, I will pay each of you the same amount.
Once more: I do not wish to be disturbed.
Seol Unhwi
It was surely enormous.
The spirit pills here were also no small matter.
These were spirit pills of high, heaven-and-earth grade.
Even entering an average hidden realm rarely yielded such a clean reward.
Especially when competitors were present, one could leave empty-handed.
This was not merely good — it exceeded expectations.
Wherever a man named Seol Unhwi moved, something always happened. There were those who trailed him as followers and those who came for the crumbs.
There were information-seekers, and many kinds besides.
At least five among them were there for the crumbs.
They had guessed correctly.
It worked.
The number of spirit pills, the number of weapons — all matched exactly.
They divided the items into piles and looked at one another.
All had the same thought.
What could be inside that made Seol Unhwi hand this over so readily?
Not to be disturbed? Five hundred gold nyang?
Alternatively, might it indicate something inside worth far more?
Greed.
It is one of the most essential aspects of human composition.
“......I will go in.”
Seol Unhwi was known as a decisive man.
Going in alone risked trouble.
Therefore—
“Will you go together?”
At the words of Han Seok, the Willow-Wind Sword, a master of the Divine-Sword Path, four of them nodded.
His gaze turned to the last person.
He did not seem very interested in spirit pills, nor in weapons.
As proof, one spirit pill and one weapon lay abandoned before the entrance to the hidden realm, which was curious. His realm seemed to be no higher than the Harmony realm at most.
“What will you do?”
“Oh, that, you mean?”
The young man in blue silk smiled lightly.
“Of course I shall enter!”
He seemed a touch eccentric.
Han Seok spoke up.
“Then let us all enter.”
Han Seok led the way into the hidden realm, and the rest followed.
In the end, Unhwi’s warning proved meaningless.
***
The interior of the hidden realm was simpler than any other hidden realm.
A small stone chamber.
That was all.
The chamber was very plain.
No gaudy decorations, no complex formations.
Just a small stone pedestal in the center and a single casket.
Unhwi surveyed the chamber.
Nothing had changed.
It was exactly as he had seen it in his previous life.
Chief Seong asked cautiously.
“Young Master, this place is......”
“It is the first hidden realm I ever entered in my previous life.”
Unhwi stood before the pedestal.
He carefully opened the small casket before him. Inside was a secret manual.
The Tao-Beginning Innate Heart Method.
The place where Unhwi’s martial path had begun.
“When I first came here in my previous life—”
Unhwi muttered.
“Everything was so different.”
So many things were different.
He had been seventeen then.
It was the tenth day since he had left Seolgung.
His body was lacerated, his belly hollowed, the cold in his bones.
When he lived as Seolgung’s fool he did not understand how cruel the world could be.
‘I will die.’
He had thought so.
He was so hungry.
He could not even remember the last meal.
He had no money. He had taken nothing when he left the palace.
His martial skill was pitiful. Unhwi, who had not cultivated his talent, had been a truly miserable man.
He followed the will Chief Seong had left and moved, and moved again.
With the feeling that it was his last hope.
Thus he had arrived.
He had barely made the timing.
He had shoved himself into the hidden realm just before it vanished and reached this stone chamber.
He had approached the old casket as if bewitched.
His hand trembled.
Whether from cold, hunger, or anticipation he could not tell.
He opened the casket.
At that moment, a subtle light leaked out.
Tao-Beginning Innate Heart Method.
Unhwi collapsed on the spot.
He wept.
He cried aloud.
In the moment when he had felt certain he would die, a single ray of light had come.
Because he had been weak, he had fled; the place he had fled to still yielded martial art.
As someone born into the martial world, he could not, and must not, turn away.
And one more thing.
The moment he recognized the truth of the problem, certainty of survival rose.
Yes. This could let me live.
It felt as if every chain that had bound him slid away.
That night, Unhwi began to practice the heart method in the stone chamber.
He understood then.
His talent, at the least, exceeded that of an ordinary prodigy.
He comprehended all the subtleties of the heart method and could see beyond.
Though his belly ached, the storm of insight naturally dulled the hunger, and the cold ceased to matter.
Unhwi concentrated solely on the heart method.
To live.
So he would not die.
So he would not be humiliated by anyone.
To forge and carve a path as a martial man.
To stand tall on his own.
Thus everything began.
“Young Master?”
Chief Seong’s voice brought Unhwi back.
“......It’s nothing.”
Unhwi looked at the pedestal.
The casket remained, and the manual within remained.
The original text.
“This heart method......”
Unhwi picked up the manual.
“It made me into a martial man.”
Chief Seong remained silent.
There was a peculiar emotion in Unhwi’s voice. He spoke calmly, but something lay within.
Unhwi leaned his back against the wall.
“When I first came here in my previous life, it was truly desperate.”
“.......”
“I felt I would die of hunger, freeze to death from the cold, die from the pain of my wounds.”
“.......”
“My father told Chief Seong of this hidden realm, and Chief Seong told me. He gave his life to help me enter here and escape Seolgung.”
“......Young Master......”
“I wanted to say thank you. Here, of all places.”
Chief Seong scratched his head bashfully.
“Even if you say such things, I have no memory of that time. I am content with the Young Master as you are now or as you were before.”
Unhwi smiled, and Chief Seong smiled.
Just then.
Unhwi’s brow tightened, and Chief Seong drew a deep breath.
“......There are many who will not take a kindly word, what are we to do.”
Unhwi turned his gaze without a word.
Exactly six figures had entered the hidden realm.
Of the six, the eyes of five, all but the youngest youth, fixed on the manual in Unhwi’s hand.
Their pupils sparkled.
One man stepped forward as their representative.
“I did not expect to meet the Great Hero Seol in person. A pleasure. I am Willow-Wind Sword Han Seok.”
The others introduced themselves in turn.
Iron-Arm Bang Seokgyu, Hundred-Flower Sword So Ran, Soul-Chasing Saber Cheong San, Bone-Breaking Silver Needle Chae Yun.
Each was a top-level martial man active in their own provinces and belonging to various groups.
Meanwhile the young man in the blue silk did not introduce himself; he retreated silently to a corner.
Unhwi spoke in a quiet voice.
“You saw the letter I left, did you not?”
“We saw it.”
“Yet you entered.”
“Well, the matter is this: we have long admired the Great Hero Seol......”
“I said I did not wish to be disturbed. I issued a polite warning, yet you did not listen.”
“So what of it......”
“The outside of a hidden realm and the inside are different. I do not relish saying such things, but for one’s own transgressions it is right to accept punishment if necessary, is it not?”
“......Now... you... intend to... punish us......”
Unhwi said no more to them.