Chapter 87 : The Mysterious Study Pavilion
'Well, it's just because we went through hardships together, so I'm helping out.'
Jang Baekseo barely managed to hold back his desire to answer that question about why he had included the Mysterious Tiger Escort Agency.
Although their first meeting had been bad, he had been traveling with Jang Yuran for nearly half a year, bickering with each other. It was impossible for them not to become close.
So he had included her in this matter as a way of taking care of her, but he could not tell Geum Gadong that directly.
Isn't the person who brings in a personal relationship into work the person you most want to avoid working with?
So Jang Baekseo had just made up some plausible story, but for some reason, Geum Gadong was nodding his head with an impressed expression.
"Indeed, what insight. It is a brilliant idea that could not have come from the head of a child of that age."
"Thank you for the compliment. And this is also a good thing for the Mysterious Tiger Escort Agency. Since it is an escort agency that is already on the verge of ruin, it is easy to avoid the attention of others. And since its background is clear and it has a certain amount of history, it is less likely to be suspected of being a front escort agency created for laundering. And since the amount of wealth is what it is, the Mysterious Tiger Escort Agency will be able to regain its vitality with just the escort fees."
"Indeed, it's a win-win situation."
As they were talking, Geum Gadong asked.
"Then, since the excavation of the secret vault is over, what do you plan to do now?"
"I have to go back."
Jang Baekseo said, looking somewhere far away with distant eyes.
"To my home, the Mysterious Profound Sect."
It was now time to go back.
***
The first person to welcome the returned Jang Baekseo was Sohyun, who was covered in tears and snot.
"Waaaaaaaaah! S-senior brother! Why are you so late!!!"
Sohyun, who had buried herself in Jang Baekseo's arms, cried out loud and resented Jang Baekseo for returning so late.
"I'm sorry, Sohyun. There was a person in trouble who really needed my help, so I was late because I was helping them."
"S-Sohyun also needs your help, Senior Brother! I need it, so why didn't you come!!"
Jang Baekseo, who was carefully patting the back of Sohyun, who was still crying in his arms, looked at his other junior brother, Jang Yuhan.
"You've had a hard time while I was away."
"…Not at all. It's what I had to do, Senior Brother."
Unlike Sohyun, Jang Baekseo, who was looking at Yuhan, who was speaking with a serious face without shedding a single tear, thought, 'He's so reliable!', but that was also for a moment…
Drip, drip.
Tears fell from Yuhan's eyes, who was still maintaining a dignified face.
"Y-Yuhan!?"
"…I'm fine."
As Jang Baekseo was at a loss for what to do at the sight of his junior brothers crying on both sides…
"You've had a hard time… and I'm proud of you."
His master, Cheongmu, came up and put his hand on Jang Baekseo's shoulder and said.
"Master…!"
"You've done a great thing, my junior brother."
"Senior Sister Cheong Yeonah!"
"We are proud of you."
"Senior Uncle Cheongdo…"
Jang Baekseo, who had had a moving reunion with the people of his sect, soon headed to the main hall where the Sect Leader was waiting.
The story he heard there was very shocking to Jang Baekseo.
'How can this be? To think that Qingcheng and Emei would join forces?'
The story he had heard from the Sect Leader was this.
Cheongdo and Cheong Yeonah, who had escaped from the clutches of the men in black, had contacted the sect. And the Mysterious Profound Sect, which had received the contact, had prepared the best forces they could and had also asked the Emei branch for help.
But just before the pursuit began, Grandmaster Gwangha had come, and they had set out to track Jang Baekseo's party and the group that had attacked them together.
Jang Baekseo's shock at this was enormous.
They had always been at odds, and it was the three sects of Sichuan that had joined forces only when the Righteous-Demonic War had broken out and the forces of the Demonic Cult were advancing into Sichuan, a desperate situation.
But to think that two of them would join forces over such a matter…
And the story that followed was also truly surprising.
In other words, as they had continued their pursuit, they had found out that the Righteous Heaven Alliance, or to be precise, the Strong Sword Squad and the Righteous Sword Squad, were somehow involved in this matter, or to be precise, in the group that was chasing Jang Baekseo's party.
Because of this, Qingcheng and Emei had become more vigilant than before.
To think that the Righteous Heaven Alliance, the core force of the Eastern martial world, which had been indifferent to each other until now, was doing such a thing in the Western martial world!
Although they did not know what the purpose was, they had begun to feel the black hand reaching out to the Western martial world, starting with the traitors planted in each sect.
Qingcheng and Emei, who had recognized the impending threat, began to promote a plan.
The Sichuan Alliance!
Qingcheng, Emei, and the Tang family.
The alliance of the three sects, the great pillars of the Orthodox Faction!
Anyone living in Sichuan had dreamed of it at least once, but they had soon given up because it was too unrealistic. They had begun to move in earnest for that.
"Have Qingcheng and Emei already joined hands?"
"You should see it as being in discussion."
'Wow! I can't believe it!'
Then, if they could just get the cooperation of the Tang family here, the Sichuan Alliance might really be born.
And hearing the story, it seemed that their goal was not the end of it.
The alliance of the Western martial world!
Jang Baekseo thought that he might be able to see the alliance of the Western martial world, which had not been achieved even at the moment when the Central Plains martial world was being ravaged by the Righteous-Demonic War, in this world.
'If that happens, the Demonic Cult won't be able to invade the Central Plains so easily!'
Jang Baekseo felt that the future was definitely changing.
Jang Baekseo, who had finished a series of incidents in that way, was finally able to return to his daily life.
But there was no time to be leisurely. Because Jang Baekseo had too many things to do.
'First of all, the first goal of saving Sohyun can be considered almost achieved.'
In the world before his regression, Sohyun had not been able to be saved because there was no elixir. But what about now?
Right now, there were several elixirs in Jang Baekseo's bosom, and there were a lot of elixirs and treasures owned by Jang Baekseo that were currently stored in the Geumjo Merchant Guild.
'Now, if I just bring the Divine Physician before Sohyun gets sick, it will be perfect!'
Jang Baekseo already knew the future movements of the Divine Physician. If he just brought the Divine Physician now, he could avoid the future where Sohyun died.
'It also caused a considerable disruption to the outbreak of the Righteous-Demonic War!'
In the first place, it was the Righteous-Demonic War that had started with the assassination of the Heavenly Demon. This meant that if they just prevented the assassination of the Heavenly Demon, the Righteous-Demonic War would not happen.
And with this Path of Chivalry, they had prevented the kidnapping of Madam Ma, which had been a crucial cause of the Heavenly Demon's assassination. The guys from the Hundred River Association must be having a headache by now.
No matter how thoroughly they had prepared and had prepared a master of the Unrestrained Realm, if there was no one who knew the crucial internal information, that is, someone like Madam Ma, the assassination of the Heavenly Demon could never succeed.
In addition, since the leaders of the Righteous Sword Squad and the Strong Sword Squad, who would have been a rather important force for them, had died this time, their damage must have been considerable.
'To be more certain, I have to find the master of the Unrestrained Realm who had assassinated the Heavenly Demon at that time!'
Although Jang Baekseo knew about his personal details, there was nothing he could do with just the peak realm.
'It will take some time.'
And finally, it was the development of the sect.
'The development of the sect…'
Currently, the Mysterious Profound Sect was in a very stable state financially. Right now, thanks to the matter at the Qingcheng branch meeting, the sect's finances were abundant with the support of Qingcheng. And since Geum Hyeonah had entered as a disciple, they were also receiving considerable support from the Geumjo Merchant Guild. In addition, if necessary, Jang Baekseo could even mobilize his own assets, so financially, they had reached a level where they would not be inferior to a decent large sect.
But…
'What's important in a martial sect is, after all, not financial power but military power.'
That's right. No matter how much money they had, the Mysterious Profound Sect was, after all, a martial sect. A martial sect should naturally have outstanding military power.
And the military power of the Mysterious Profound Sect was, unfortunately, nothing more or less than that of a so-so small and medium-sized sect.
Jang Baekseo, who had been racking his brain in that way, looked into the martial arts of the Hegemon's Fortress for a change of pace.
Jang Baekseo, who was looking into the martial arts of the Hegemon's Fortress to fix the martial arts as he had promised with Geum Gadong, suddenly realized what he had to do.
***
The next day, Jang Baekseo skipped his morning training and headed straight to the Mysterious Study Pavilion, where the secret manuals of the Mysterious Profound Sect were collected.
"No, Baekseo, what brings you here?"
The one who greeted Jang Baekseo was Ju Myeongwoo, one of the key members of the first-generation and at the same time the master of the Mysterious Study Pavilion.
"Grand Senior Uncle, I came to check the secret manuals because I had a question while training in martial arts. May I go in?"
"Yes, if that's the case, you should check. Go on in."
While bowing his head at the sight of Ju Myeongwoo, who was letting him in so easily, Jang Baekseo clicked his tongue.
'Tsk! To allow access to the library, which can be called the heart of a martial sect, so easily?'
Jang Baekseo, who had entered the Mysterious Study Pavilion without revealing his inner thoughts, had to be dumbfounded.
"…That's it?"
Although the Mysterious Study Pavilion was a rather large building from the outside, when he actually went inside, there were only two bookshelves where the secret manuals were placed.
If a person who did not know saw it…
'Isn't it quite substantial if it can fill two bookshelves?'
One might say that, but this was a person who did not know anything at all.
Let's take the Scripture Pavilion of Shaolin, the most famous library of a martial sect, as an example.
The Scripture Pavilion of Shaolin was several times the size of the Mysterious Study Pavilion, and it was not a single-story building but a three-story building.
In addition, since it was said to extend to the second basement floor, its scale was enormous.
And the inside was even more amazing.
High bookshelves that reached the ceiling were filling the inside, and of course, those bookshelves were also filled with secret manuals.
No matter how diverse the martial arts of Shaolin were and how many martial arts of the world were gathered there, there was no way that there would be such an enormous amount of martial arts secret manuals that could fill three floors above ground and two floors underground.
Then how could they fill that wide Scripture Pavilion?
It was a simple story. For example, if you look at the two bookshelves in the Mysterious Study Pavilion now, in the Scripture Pavilion, you can see that these two bookshelves are filled with just one Hundred-Step Divine Fist.
No matter how much the Hundred-Step Divine Fist was a super-high-level fist technique, there was no way that one volume of the Hundred-Step Divine Fist could fill two bookshelves. There were dozens of volumes of the Hundred-Step Divine Fist in the bookshelves of the Scripture Pavilion.
Then this question would arise.
'Dozens of volumes of the Hundred-Step Divine Fist? What? Is it a different martial art with the same name?'
But no. It was all the Hundred-Step Divine Fist that we know. Then why are there so many volumes of the Hundred-Step Divine Fist? …It was simple. Besides the original Hundred-Step Divine Fist, there were dozens of interpretation volumes and dozens of revision volumes.
Interpretation volumes and revision volumes!
An interpretation volume was one that contained the personal enlightenment and interpretation of a person who had trained that martial art deeply. And a revision volume was one that went beyond personal interpretation and had developed the past Hundred-Step Divine Fist one step further.
Of course, not just anyone could write such an interpretation volume. Only after a master who had been recognized for his skills in the sect had written it and had been recognized by the key members of the sect could it be stored in the Scripture Pavilion.
In the case of a revision volume, it was even stricter. Because if an interpretation volume was a 'reference book' that contained a personal interpretation of that martial art, a revision volume had to be one that had made a step forward in all aspects, literally replacing the previous Hundred-Step Divine Fist.
And in Shaolin, there were dozens, hundreds of such interpretation volumes and revision volumes for each martial art.
This meant that the martial arts of Shaolin had been continuously improved and developed without falling behind the flow of time.
That's why Shaolin was the Taishan and Beidou of the martial world and could be at the top of the Nine Great Sects.
But what about the Mysterious Study Pavilion?
"Revision volumes and interpretation volumes… are there only for the Mysterious Heaven Sword Technique?"
At least it was fortunate that there were several revision volumes and interpretation volumes for the Mysterious Heaven Sword Technique, the representative martial art of the Mysterious Profound Sect. But the amount was also small. Of course, it was absurd to compare the Mysterious Profound Sect to Shaolin, but even so, the Mysterious Profound Sect was a sect with a rather deep history.
"But to be in this state…"
Jang Baekseo's future was bleak.
(End of Chapter)