I Am the Youngest Disciple of the Martial Arts World’s Mastermind
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
The Youngest Disciple of the Murim’s Hidden Mastermind
Episode 8
As I dashed outside, an exclamation of wonder burst from my lips.
“Whoa….”
The sky was a clear, brilliant azure. Below the precipice at my feet, white clouds billowed in clusters, encircling the mountain.
To think there are clouds beneath my feet. It feels surreal.
This truly is an ironclad fortress.
Even just leaning against the ancient stone wall and rising slightly on my tiptoes, I could see the entire stretch of the mountain ridges. This must be the highest peak.
To think this is Mount Heng, one of the Four Great Mountains.
The peaks, as high and steep as the well-known Mount Hua, looked like a palace where immortals might dwell. That one looks like a black dragon, and that one over there looks like a black tiger.
Just as I was losing myself in the patterns of the mountain slopes, mesmerized by the scenery, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
“Ah.”
“Hey, kid. Follow me.”
“Honored Master Danhwi!!”
It was Danhwi, the one who had been snickering the whole time I was talking to Master before being dragged away by the physician at the end.
Despite his mischievousness, I felt most comfortable with him, perhaps because of how well he had looked after me back at Dongting Lake.
As I scurried along behind him, he noticed me peeking here and there and tried to scare me.
“If you try to look around without knowing the paths, you’ll get stranded and rescued about a week later.”
“Gasp….”
I immediately fixed my gaze firmly on Danhwi’s broad back.
Following him closely, Danhwi led me around various parts of Cheongsanbong, explaining the places that seemed important.
“This is the storehouse where the secret elixirs are kept.”
“…….”
Inside a grand building that looked like the warehouse of a wealthy merchant or an imperial villa, a plethora of high-grade items were stored.
I had memorized enough Hanja to recognize martial arts terminology, and I saw labels that were impossible to ignore.
‘Gongcheongseogyu…? Is that a Great Restoration Pill from the Shaolin Temple?’
Does this make sense? They’ve gathered all of these things in one place?
Moreover, the shock didn’t end at the storehouse.
“This is the pond. It’s as wide as a lake, so be careful not to fall in. An Imugi lives at the bottom.”
“…An Imugi?”
When I actually peered into the lake, I saw a massive shadow shimmering beneath the surface.
Furthermore, the carp swimming in schools were….
Aren’t these Ten-Thousand-Year Carps instead of koi? They’re way too big.
One fish was almost the size of my torso.
Danhwi gave me a subtle warning as I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the water.
“If you stare too long, the Imugi will jump out to eat you.”
“Eek!!”
As I tumbled backward and landed on my rear, he immediately doubled over in laughter.
“Bwahahaha! I’m kidding. You actually fell for that?”
“…….”
When I get stronger later, I’m definitely going to push Danhwi into that pond.
Perhaps thinking an eight-year-old wouldn’t understand anyway, Danhwi kept giving me warnings like ‘Don’t eat anything recklessly’ or ‘Don’t pick things up and eat them’ instead of detailed explanations.
Consequently, my fear, which relied on my knowledge of martial arts tropes to fill in the blanks, only grew.
Furthermore, the mechanisms and formations installed throughout the mountain were so cleanly automated that they wouldn’t pale even by modern standards.
Danhwi even warned me not to pick a single blade of grass on the mountain slopes. I could easily guess that they were likely three or four-hundred-year-old fleeceflower roots or wild ginseng.
Besides those, there were countless strangely shaped flowers and animals.
“Good. That’s a rough tour of everything.”
“Woooooow…. Phew.”
After spending several hours following Danhwi through facilities that rivaled a massive sect built atop Cheongsanbong, I briefly summarized my impressions.
“This place… it’s not the celestial realm, is it?”
“Definitely not.”
Danhwi chuckled at my serious question. I thought so.
“Well, then there’s no way Honored Master Danhwi would be here….”
“What? Kid, what’s that supposed to mean?”
I kept my mouth shut. Actually, I was holding back a laugh.
“Ha, seriously, this kid….”
As he sat down on a wooden bench in front of one of the buildings, Danhwi patted the spot next to him.
“Sit here. I have something to ask you.”
“Yes.”
As I plopped my bottom down next to him, Danhwi turned only his gaze to look at me.
“You weren’t a fool after all. Right?”
“Uh….”
It would be impossible to deceive him any further here. I scratched my head and nodded.
“There’s nothing good about a beggar being too smart.”
“That’s true.”
“But the flea attack being my finishing move is the truth.”
“Let’s just stop talking.”
Danhwi fell silent for a moment before suddenly asking.
“…Then is that true as well? That when we were staying at the inn, you just happened to come across that cave at night by chance.”
The gaze fixed on me had become so persistent it felt like it would pierce through my chubby cheeks.
“Master seems to have let it slide, but I was with you, so I know. …I clearly checked your breathing while you were asleep before leaving the room, yet you caught up so quickly…. If you heard something from somewhere, speak honestly. I’ll forgive you if you tell me now.”
I thought he was just a lighthearted person, but he had been agonizing over this.
I looked him straight in the eye and answered clearly.
“I didn’t hear anything at all. It was just that the moon was so bright, I naturally headed toward a place where Honored Master Danhwi and… Master happened to be.”
My surprise at encountering Danhwi and Master there had been genuine.
I had gone there to intercept a fortuitous encounter, not to meet the Murim’s hidden mastermind who was setting it up.
So, I conveyed that emotion honestly.
“…I see. Well, I suppose there’s no way you could know about this business.”
Danhwi, who had been staring at me intently, nodded slowly as if convinced.
However, a question arose in my mind as well.
‘But why are these people doing this?’
Just then, he spoke.
“Kid, as you can tell from looking around, this place is different from the Beggars’ Sect or any other sect or clan. It’s different from the Unorthodox factions as well, and Master walks neither the path of the Black Way nor the path of the Orthodox.”
“Then what path does he walk?”
When I asked with an innocent face, Danhwi hesitated for a moment before answering.
“…Master seeks to lead the world from the shadows, encompassing the Orthodox, the Black Way, and the Demonic Cult, in a direction that sheds as little blood as possible.”
…A game character does that kind of work?
“Is something like that… even possible?”
I asked in a voice laced with disbelief without realizing it, but Danhwi, perhaps thinking that was a natural reaction, calmly added an explanation.
“Yes. He is a man who harbors the will of an immortal, something impossible for ordinary men. Because it is a task he cannot do alone, he took in those forsaken by the jianghu, like myself, as disciples. And he believes that his disciples will ultimately fulfill his dream.”
His words were filled with trust and affection for Master.
If he was someone respected this much by the seemingly reckless Danhwi, then the direction he wanted to go must be the right one.
Then, Danhwi said something I couldn’t just let pass.
“Master knows exactly what has happened in the jianghu, what will happen, and he has a complete grasp of the history and future of every faction.”
What?
“I believe Master is the supreme master of all time.”
“Whoa….”
If he’s the supreme master of all time, it means he’s the strongest across any generation.
…He must be saying that out of respect for Master, right?
Even while marveling, my mind raced.
So, according to Danhwi’s words….
The world I wrote was functioning properly because that man existed.
The circumstances behind a fortuitous encounter are usually not explained in detail. They are, quite literally, ‘strange coincidences.’
But now that this has become ‘reality,’ someone has to orchestrate those events. Everything can’t be a coincidence.
Weapons, elixirs, and secret manuals placed in unexpected locations….
Cheong-ui Sanin is the one orchestrating it all.
‘…Ugh.’
Thinking about it that way gave me goosebumps.
How much does Master know? Up to the game’s ending? Even beyond that?
…The only relief was that he seemed to have no idea about my true identity….
And that, regardless, Cheong-ui Sanin had never appeared at the forefront of the game’s story.
So, my guess that sticking close to Cheong-ui Sanin would keep me safe even in this crazy world was correct.
“…….”
As I struggled to suppress the corners of my mouth from twitching upward, Danhwi spoke as if doing me a favor.
“So, if you say you want to go down even now, I can use a spell to erase your memories and send you back to your daily life. This is truly your last chance.”
