Hyeonjilmusin - Chapter 25



Only Krnovel

25. Mandate of Heaven (2)

As Cheonghwa approached me step by step, the feeling of my body being crushed grew stronger. It felt as if the blue energy in her hand would shatter my danjeon at any moment.

“Wait, wait a minute.”

“Do you have anything to say?”

“Yes, yes. So, please take those vicious hands off me.”

“Surely you aren’t coming all the way here to become a disciple of the main temple again? That would be disappointing.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. So stop for a moment.”

At my earnest request, Cheonghwa stopped. However, her eyes were focused on my dantian. Just the look in her eyes made me feel like she was going to break apart.

“First of all, there are other ways to get recognized. I wanted to prove my talent and abilities.”

I spoke quickly before Qinghua’s mind changed. He was skilled at speaking quickly and clearly in the market.

“A disciple of the shaman is a person of the shaman, but he can do things that the disciple of the shaman’s head temple cannot do. I can fill that gap. That is the true nature of Sangjae. I thought that if I could prove that ability, the elders would look at me differently.”

“There are a lot of merchants lining up to buy shamans anyway. That’s not enough.”

“My job is different from those incompetent people who just want to get in line. I’m not reaching out to the shaman, I’m holding the shaman’s hand. I want to make this clear.”

“Yes. I don’t know about Sangjae. But if there is no Mujae, there is no need to make him a disciple with a real name.”

“Mujae wanted to prove himself in the evaluation match, but in some ways it seems like it was a good thing. As for me now, I don’t think I can beat Myeongil.”

Cheonghwa’s eyes sank deeply.

“Does that mean you can win later?”

“You read between the lines. Yes.”

I said it confidently. Of course, this is not a situation where you can be confident at all. Tomorrow’s martial arts are truly ‘on a different level’.

But I just found a clue to beat tomorrow.

“How do you think you can beat Myeongil? I don’t mean to disparage your talent, but Myeongil has talents equal to or greater than yours. And he’s young, too. No matter how much you fly and crawl, you can’t beat Myeongil. At least ten years. At the very least, ten years.”

“I can win. So I will convince the elders.”

The reason Cheonghwa tried to take my danjeon was because he was certain that I would not be accepted by the elders. Since it would not work out anyway, he was planning on sending me down by giving me a hundred nyang of silver.

But if that happens? Cheonghwado can’t help but think differently.

“I heard that a disciple of the household name can serve his master just like a disciple of the main temple. I think that he is not lacking as a disciple. Whether I am a great or a great person, if I make the world cry, the name of the true person will also be raised.”

Cheonghwa’s pupils shook. Merchants are well-versed in people’s desires. They need to know their customers’ desires in order to sell their goods.

From what I’ve observed, the common desires of the people of the Central Plains are money and stability. However, the people of the martial arts world are different. Didn’t they donate all their wealth, something I couldn’t even imagine?

Does that mean they are people without desire? I didn’t think so. Since they have no desire for money, the desire of the other side would be huge. That was fame.

“Ah, ahem. You have great confidence. Don’t forget that there are many people who are eager to have me as their teacher.”

“They rejected me because they didn’t catch the eye of the true being. Since I caught the eye of the true being, I was invited to become a disciple of the main temple.”

Cheonghwa’s mouth snapped shut at my words. It was true that Cheonghwa wanted me, so she had nothing to say.

Since ancient times, a war of words is not a fight over who can brag better or who can speak louder. It is a fight over who has more advantageous facts. And speaking skills mean the ability to use facts appropriately.

“There’s no need to go far. In fact, I am recognized as the disciple of the true man. If I win Myeongil, from that moment on, there will be many people in the shaman world who look up to the true man.”

“… … If you can’t win tomorrow, it’s all just meaningless words.”

“If you win, that’s okay. If you win.”

“How do you win? I heard that Jang Moon-sa gave you three months to finish the job. Two months have passed since then, so now there’s only one month left.”

“That’s enough.”

I shrugged my shoulders, pretending to be relaxed, and drove the wedge in.

“Your Majesty, you just have to wait a month. If I can’t win tomorrow, just close the dantian and kick me out like you were trying to do now. There’s no harm in waiting, right?”

“Let me hear your plan.”

“There is only one plan.”

“What is it?”

“Talent.”

Cheonghwa’s face crumpled at my words. But I wasn’t lying.

Because right now, talents that could be bought with just a hundred nyang of silver were floating before my eyes.

***

I had to come up with a good strategy. A hundred nyang of silver is not a small amount of money. I also wanted to prevent my dantian from being destroyed.

When I travel around the world, I sometimes see martial artists with closed danjeon. They usually have mental problems or are physically weak while living their daily lives. That’s what it means to have a defect in one area.

For merchants, physical strength is not important, but stamina is. If they have to pass through a forested path, they may have to walk for days and nights, and there are countless instances where they cannot eat.

Traveling uphill is a journey that involves experiencing ups and downs with your whole body. Once you leave your hometown and live in a foreign land, there are many cases where you don’t recognize someone when you return. It’s only natural that there are no energetic young merchants, only old men with faces covered in disease.

‘Should I buy a 7th grade? Should I buy a lot of 8th or 9th grades?’

Just because something is of high quality doesn’t mean it’s good. To be exact, it’s not good for me.

Normally, meat is more expensive than rice for the same weight, but for someone who has been sick in bed for a long time, rice porridge is more necessary than meat.

For example, something like this.

[Poison Resistance – Level 7]

[ Price: 100 nyang of silver ]

In the case of poison resistance, it would be an absolutely necessary ability if I were a renowned martial artist.

But who would try to poison me now? If it were an unmanned person, even if you hit their head with a tree branch, their brain would be concussed and they would die. It’s not like I can win tomorrow with poison resistance, so this is something I don’t need.

‘I wonder if there’s anything useful for level 9 or 8.’

If you think about it, the nimble movement boasts incredible price-performance ratio. Upon closer inspection, there were other similar products.

[Strong body – 9th grade]

[ Price: Fifty nyang coins ]

This seems to be a sub-version of the solid body. In addition, there were quite a few abilities that assisted physical abilities such as delicate dexterity, leg strength, and grip strength.

Now I have a hundred nyang of silver. One thousand nyang of coins is equal to one nyang of silver, so in coins I have a hundred thousand nyang.

I was going to buy all the talents at level 9 first. I figured it wouldn’t be much anyway.

‘Can you give me a discount if I buy in bulk?’

As I was thinking such trivial thoughts, the letters on the Mujae Store suddenly began to shake left and right and made a honking sound.

[ It exceeds the wearable talent. Do you still want to buy it? ]

Suddenly, my vision seemed to be blurring. I hadn’t thought of this. Maybe I took life too lightly. There was a limit to the talent I could wear.

‘Damn. If you had something like this, you should have told me a long time ago.’

I cursed inwardly. But it was a sufficiently convincing restriction. Otherwise, there would be no lower and upper versions. It seemed that having a strong body and a strong body would not work together. It must mean that talents can be exchanged. No, they should be exchanged. For now, I don’t know how many talents I can have, so I put off buying them all.

‘Then I should buy the one with the highest grade possible.’

If there is a limit to the talents you can have, it is right to buy the highest one possible. If an 8th grade talent costs between 3 and 20 nyang, then a 7th grade talent costs between 50 and 300 nyang. There are countless 7th grade talents that cannot be bought even with a hundred nyang.

‘Who set the prices? You conscienceless bastards.’

The price is what you call a one-of-a-kind store. The person who sells rare items is always the best.

I looked at the 7th level talents. There were also physical auxiliary abilities at 7th level.

[ Rapid Movement – Level 7 ]

[ Price: 100 nyang of silver ]

The price was just right. A hundred nyang of silver. It felt like fate. But I shook my head.

“Don’t fall in love with things.”

It was a rule of thumb as a merchant. Only by looking at a product with rationality and cool-headedness can you judge its value. How dare you try to fool this merchant, Muk Hwi-yeong? It is a hundred years too early.

‘This won’t work anyway.’

Myung-il was born with incredible talent. If I were to rate his talent, I think he would be above level 3. He is the person who is mentioned as having the highest review index in none other than Gupaebang.

What I needed was a talent that could turn the situation around in an instant. Not a talent that could be used universally, but a talent so unique that it would bewilder Myeongil.

“It’s difficult.”

I looked through the list of 7th graders. For now, I decided to put off the talent that could strengthen the body. That could be assisted by other lower-grade talents, and that talent wouldn’t be able to defeat Myeongil.

However, he didn’t have any talent that could make him survive. In the first place, he didn’t have any easy-to-use talent like a finishing move.

“Fuck.”

All I have to do is create a single moment of space. How can I create that?

Then, a brilliant idea suddenly flashed through my head. There was one way to embarrass Myeongil.

***

After Cheonghwa spread the story of Mukhwiyeong to the elders, the three great disciples also now knew the story of the famous lay disciples.

In a narrow organization like a shaman’s, it only took a day and a night for the story to spread. The elders would tell the shamans and the first disciples, and the first disciples would gossip to the second and third disciples and tell them that it was a secret.

“How can a Taoist be so easy-going?”

“I was short-sighted.”

Cheongsu clicked his tongue at Cheonghwa’s gloomy voice. He wasn’t originally like that, but whenever Muk Hwi-yeong was involved, he became strange.

“Anyway, I had to let them know. What good would it do if I won tomorrow without anyone knowing? The elders should be paying attention, and they’ll either acknowledge Mukhwiyoung or not.”

Cheongsu comforted Cheonghwa. Cheonghwa rested her chin on her hand and did not even drink her favorite tea.

“Now, not only the shamans, but also the people of Gyunhyeon know. There is a guy who is sharpening his sword to defeat Myeongil and become a disciple of Gi-myeong.”

“… … You must have heard this story tomorrow too, right?”

“You must be so shocked to hear that.”

Even Cheonghwa himself would have been shocked. After all, he had heard from someone else that a disciple he had never heard of was trying to defeat him.

“But in the midst of all this, instead of practicing martial arts, Hwiyoung is playing the flute. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

“Could it be that you’re going crazy from the excessive pressure?”

Cheongsu was joking, but Cheonghwa’s face became deep again. It seemed like she thought that Mok Hwiyoung had gone crazy because of her own mistake.

But Cheongsu thought differently. He was bolder and more thoughtful than anyone I saw in Uichang.

‘What are you thinking, Mukhwiyoung?’

Time passed by without any solution to Cheongsu’s questions.