A full double-hour had already passed. Cheongun asked Seolhwa, who was walking silently onward. The two of them, having left Hefei using their Lightness Skill, had already entered a deep mountain valley in Mount Huangshan, south of the Yangtze River.
At this point, Cheongun could not help but ask.
“Just where are we going?”
“I’m going to get something to replace the Great Rebirth Pill.”
“That’s what I mean. Where in this area could there possibly be something to replace the Great Rebirth Pill?”
The Great Rebirth Pill was the pride of Shaolin, was it not? A thing called a divine object. Even Shaolin Temple itself likely didn't have many.
“In the first place, it should be Shaolin’s and Mount Hua’s responsibility for failing to manage such a precious item.”
“That’s true.”
If it was that precious, they should have guarded it properly.
“So, we don’t necessarily have to bring a replacement…”
“It wouldn’t matter, I suppose. But then it would be difficult to gain the upper hand.”
“The upper hand…?”
Seolhwa nodded.
“The ones who lost it are at fault, but the one who stole it and gobbled it down is also at fault. Mount Hua will surely find issue with that.”
“But what can be done? It’s already gone.”
Seolhwa looked back at Cheongun, as if surprised.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“For a Young Master of Namgung, you’re quite shameless, aren’t you?”
“Ahem, hm! It’s because I worked at an Escort bureau for a long time…”
Perhaps taking the word ‘shameless’ as criticism, the back of Namgung Cheongun’s neck turned slightly red. But Seolhwa had meant it as a compliment.
‘He’s not as rigid as I thought.’
He looked like someone who would insist only on the righteous path, but surprisingly, Cheongun was showing some flexibility.
“They can’t ask me to produce something that’s already gone. I could also say I never took it in the first place. But if that happens, our relationship with Mount Hua will end right there, won’t it?”
“I suppose so.”
They were a sect that had no connection to Namgung to begin with, and had never bothered to make one.
“Mount Hua coming to Namgung is an opportunity. We can’t let this chance slip by.”
To face the Blood Sect, the various powers of the Martial World must join hands. That was why Seolhwa had deliberately brought Mount Hua to Namgung.
‘I must use this opportunity to build a connection with Mount Hua.’
Cheongun, on the other hand, thought Seolhwa was calculating the family’s gain. Just as everyone in the family did, she must believe that they needed to form ties with Mount Hua to elevate the name of Namgung.
‘I knew Seolhwa’s feelings for the family were special, but…’
“I didn’t realize you thought that way as well.”
“?”
Seolhwa, who was only thinking of gathering strength before the war with the Blood Sect, tilted her head at the suddenly serious Cheongun.
Cheongun asked.
“So, you’re saying there is something nearby comparable to the Great Rebirth Pill?”
It would have to be something like the inner core of a spiritual beast or a ten-thousand-year-old spirit herb, wouldn't it?
“Have you ever heard the words Heavenly Palace Turtle Head?”
“Of course I have.”
Heavenly Palace Turtle Head. It was a legendary rumor that spread throughout Anhui Province.
“Isn’t it the rumor that finding the Heavenly Palace Turtle Head will let you conquer the world?”
“That’s right.”
No one knew what the Heavenly Palace Turtle Head was. Only that the one who found it would gain the world. The problem was that it became known as a treasure hidden by the Ten Thousand Li Divine Thief, who was called the greatest divine thief of his era, causing a stir in the Martial World for a time.
“However, that is a baseless, false rumor. Many have tried to find the Heavenly Palace Turtle Head, but not a single one has found even a trace of it.”
As that rumor began to spread in secret, the powers of the Central Plains, including Namgung, dispatched their elites to find the Heavenly Palace Turtle Head. Namgung also mobilized the Secret Wind Sword Unit, Namgung Mucheon's personal sword unit, but they too found nothing.
“At that time, the Ten Thousand Li Divine Thief was said to be so skilled he could even steal a person’s heart, earning him the moniker of the Boundless Divine Thief.”
It was a title given because he had gone beyond ten thousand li to a place of unknowable ends.
Seolhwa nodded.
“That’s right. But it’s also wrong.”
“Wrong? Don’t tell me, you mean the Heavenly Palace Turtle Head actually exists?”
“Yes.”
People dismiss things as nonexistent if they cannot obtain them. Whether it was Namgung or any other power, they must have known the divine thief’s rumor was not just a lie. But there was only one reason everyone collectively dismissed the rumor as false.
‘If I can’t have it, then no one else can.’
They drove it away as a false rumor, worried that someone else might set out to find the Heavenly Palace Turtle Head.
“Cheongung. It means heavenly bow. Do you know what it refers to?”
“A rainbow.”
“Then what about gwidu?”
“Literally, a turtle’s head.”
A turtle’s head situated beneath a rainbow.
“However, nowhere that rainbows frequently appeared were there any turtles. And even if one found the shape of a turtle, there would be no rainbow.”
There were times when both conditions were met, but that was all. Nothing special was ever discovered.
“A chance alignment of the two is meaningless. Heavenly Palace Turtle Head. A place that can only be described by those four characters. The power the divine thief spoke of, the power to rule the world, will be there.”
“And you know of this place?”
As they spoke, the two had already ventured deep into Mount Huangshan. The forest was so dense that the leaves now covered more of the sky than the sky itself, and so, despite it being broad daylight, less sunlight filtered through. On the treacherous mountain terrain, cliffs appeared without warning, and unknowable sounds could be heard from all directions.
Seolhwa looked back at Namgung Cheongun and gave him a bright smile. She suddenly drew her sword with a shing.
“Do you like monkey brain soup?”
“…Hmm?”
“I’m not particularly fond of it. Why would anyone eat an animal’s brain? There are so many more delicious things in the world.”
“Suddenly, what…”
It was then.
Kkieeek—! Kkiek! Kkiek, kkiek!
“!”
A sound like scraping metal came from somewhere. It sounded like a pig being slaughtered, or perhaps a person screaming. The blood-curdling sound was rapidly approaching the two of them.
Namgung Cheongun instinctively took a stance and gripped the hilt of his sword.
‘This is dangerous!’
“Seolhwa. We must hurry and escape…!”
But Seolhwa, instead, took a step toward the direction the sounds were coming from. She raised her sword toward the darkness.
“Seolhwa!”
“They say monkey brain must be eaten while the monkey is alive. So they tie drums or bells to the living monkey’s hands and feet. To know whether the meal is fresh or not while they eat.”
Kkieek! Kkieeeek!
The sounds that had been coming from a distance quickly swarmed around them, surrounding them in an instant.
“Humans are truly vile, are they not? Utterly cruel and lawless.”
Hearing the sounds from all sides, Cheongun spun in place.
“That lawlessness gives birth to resentment, and as that resentment builds, it creates things that should not exist in this world.”
“It’s dangerous! Hurry and get behind your father…!”
In that moment.
Kkieeeek—!
Something rushed toward the two of them. Cheongun drew his sword, but Seolhwa swung her blade even faster. Chwaaak— Two lumps fell to the ground.
It was a monkey, its head severed.
Kkieek! Kkieeeek! Kkiik!
Kkik! Kkiiik!
At the death of one monkey, the countless monkeys positioned around them roared. The deep forest of Mount Huangshan was suddenly filled with the cries of monkeys.
“When wishes accumulate, they give birth to spiritual beasts, but do you know what is born when resentment accumulates?”
Namgung Cheongun’s face filled with tension. His gaze was fixed on the corpse of the monkey Seolhwa had cut down.
“…A demonic beast.”
It was a monkey, yet it was not a monkey. Its head was split in two as if struck by an axe. Its claws were long, sharp, and hard, as if daggers were tied to them, and it looked two or three times larger than an ordinary monkey.
Above all, its eyes were blood red. As if filled to the brim with resentment. Toward cruel humans, toward a lawless world.
It was a demonic beast that had become neither monkey nor anything else because of it.
Kkiek! Kkieek! Kkieeeek!
“Just because they are insignificant creatures doesn’t mean they have nothing precious, that they feel no fear, that they hold no resentment.”
Humans are cruel. They catch a monkey, hang a bell on it, and crack open its skull to eat its brain on the spot. A monkey that barely escapes wails as it watches the death of its mother, its child, its friend.
Amid those wails, the humans eat. They simply relish it.
“Seolhwa…”
Cheongun swallowed dryly and tightened his grip on his sword.
“I do not like monkey brain soup either. But why… why must we bear this resentment…?”
Huh…? Just why…?
“Because what we desire lies beyond this. You can think of it as a battle between desire and resentment.”
“That… Heavenly Palace Turtle Head, you mean…?”
It lies beyond this?
“Yes.”
“Can’t we just give up on Mount Hua?”
“That is an even greater desire, so I cannot.”
Cheongun, as if giving up, spread his senses to count the number of monkeys that had gathered. There looked to be at least several hundred.
“Can the two of us defeat all of them?”
“Well.”
Kkieek!
Seolhwa swung her sword at a charging monkey. This time, however, Cheongun’s sword was slightly faster. Chwaaak— one of the demonic beasts burst in a spray of blood.
A sharp, blue energy was now shimmering around Namgung Cheongun.
“In a battle of wills, isn't the more desperate side the one that wins?”