Chapter 143: Jaseung, Listens

“The map, you knew about it.”

Cheon Myeongin’s eyes sharpened as he looked at Lee Jaseung. Perhaps thinking he’d found an opening, he spoke quickly.

“Fine, if you save me, I’ll tell you about the map.”

Lee Jaseung gave a faint smile at the offer.

“Why smile? Do you not trust me?”

“They say a man’s mind changes between going into the privy and coming out. All the more so when life and death hang in the balance. Do I not trust you, you ask? Of course I don’t.”

Cheon Myeongin answered with a pleasant face.

“I’ve got a year left at best. What would a man like that gain by lying? A man before death tends to tell the truth.”

Inwardly, Lee Jaseung thought,

That’s why I even considered letting you live. Because you’ve only got a year. Which makes you a hundred times more dangerous than someone who’ll live a hundred.

“Let’s pretend this deal never happened.”

He turned away without hesitation. There was no need to watch and waver. The man would try to seize him for sure. The game was already won. Only the margin of victory remained.

“Wait.”

Lee Jaseung had taken a few steps when he stopped.

When he turned back, Cheon Myeongin no longer clung to a tug-of-war he couldn’t win.

“At the time, I was the one leading the organization.”

Regret over that day flickered through his eyes. After a brief look back, he raised his head and asked,

“Have you ever made a mistake?”

Lee Jaseung answered with a nod.

“Of course.”

“Yes, we as people make mistakes. I too made more than a few. But the most regrettable was what involved the Hainan Sect. How much do you know about them?”

“Not much. Only that Jang Wonso did it, and that Ban Yeo was involved.”

He didn’t bother to say he had acquired the sect’s three treasures.

Cheon Myeongin might once have been formidable, but now he is ill. A man who spent his days in bed would have limits to his information.

The old organization would still be watching, and Yim Sayeon wasn’t the sort to pass along gossip.

Indeed, Cheon Myeongin seemed unaware that Lee Jaseung had obtained the three treasures, and focused only on his own account.

“At the time I scrutinized the situation in the Central Plains from every angle. I prided myself on knowing a lot about Jang Wonso. But I didn’t realize he was greedy enough to move on the Hainan Sect so soon after becoming Leader of the Murim Alliance.”

He sighed and added,

“It was a slip in a thousand thoughts.”

Lee Jaseung listened in silence. The man considered that a mistake.

But was it really?

Clashing greed against greed might have produced a result close to inevitable. Who could say?

Cheon Myeongin went on.

“By the time I learned of it, the sect’s treasures were already in his hands. The map in particular had vanished without a trace.”

Lee Jaseung still said nothing, only listened. When the other side was offering information, interrupting was foolish. You could speak after hearing it all.

Cheon Myeongin asked with a keen look,

“The treasures aren’t just one, so why search only for the map?”

Lee Jaseung had anticipated the question and answered without pause.

“I heard the rest are useless. And that only the map is the true treasure.”

“You heard right then. Yes, once the iron chest disappeared, the Limitless Steps became useless. After all, the Ten Heavenly Secret Arts hidden in the iron chest contained the mental method to operate the Limitless Steps.”

Lee Jaseung’s heart jolted.

The Ten Heavenly Secret Arts.

At last he learned the true name of the close combat art.

“Why did the iron chest disappear?”

Cheon Myeongin knew these four treasures fairly well. If anyone knew about the coffer, it would be him.

Baek Seolyoung believed it had been passed down in her clan. She didn’t know the Hainan Sect’s secret history, so she accepted what someone had told her.

“I don’t know the details of the coffer. Only that it vanished on the day the treasures were taken.”

He was curious how that coffer had ended up in Baek Seolyoung’s clan, but the map mattered more now.

“What does the map point to?”

“With the Hainan Sect’s treasures, a verse has been handed down. ‘When the Limitless Iron Gauntlets topple mountains, and the Limitless Steps traverse the Central Plains. When the Ten Heavenly Secret Arts command all men, those who enter the Seven-Color Hidden Land shall gain the world.’”

“The Seven-Color Hidden Land?”

Lee Jaseung had never heard the name.

“Yes. A secret, mysterious land of seven colors. Whoever enters it gains the world’s greatest martial art.”

Lee Jaseung stayed quiet for a moment.

“If it’s that great, wouldn’t Jang Wonso have entered it already?”

“Absolutely not.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because at the end of that verse there’s an added line. ‘When the Seven-Color Hidden Land opens, a rainbow shall hang over the Verdant Mountain for seven days.’”

“And there’s never been a seven-day rainbow over the Verdant Mountain yet.”

“Right. Which means no one has entered the Seven-Color Hidden Land.”

Now he understood why both the power behind the scenes and the Demonic Cult fought so hard for the map. If no one had entered, the map was still valid.

“Do you really believe that lore?”

“Is there a reason not to? The other treasures plainly exist.”

“Jang Wonso must know this too.”

“Of course. In fact, I believe that he was the very first person to learn this information. Otherwise he wouldn’t have taken such risks from the Alliance Leader’s seat.”

Cheon Myeongin continued,

“He didn’t care much for the other three. That sounds foolish, but he isn’t a fool. He already knew that verse about the treasures. Since the map was what mattered most, there was no need to hoard the others and increase his risk. I think he leaked the three to the outside on purpose, to scatter gazes. Sacrificing the small for the great.”

Lee Jaseung wondered if that judgment had made Cheon Myeongin unconsciously belittle the iron chest’s art.

Whatever the Seven-Color Hidden Land concealed, the Ten Heavenly Secret Arts and the Limitless Steps were truly formidable.

He wouldn’t boast they were peerless under heaven, but he would claim they could stand against the peerless. Only he, who had obtained the iron chest, knew their true worth.

Cheon Myeongin went on.

“Once I learned he had the map, I searched around him. I sent in the best at stealth, but we couldn’t find it.”

“Is it possible he memorized it and destroyed the map?”

“It’s possible. But if it were you, even after memorizing it, could you bring yourself to destroy it?”

He was right. You’d fear there was some mark yet unseen, and hesitate to burn it.

“That’s everything I know about the map.”

Lee Jaseung sensed he wasn’t lying.

As if only Lee Jaseung’s decision remained, Cheon Myeongin closed his eyes.

Lee Jaseung studied him quietly. He’d learned much from the man. He was grateful, but the condition he had set was the map’s whereabouts.

Normally he would’ve turned away coldly.

But at that very moment, an idea came to him.

A plan to carry out Jang Wonso’s order and find the map, two birds with one stone.

“You’ll need to be ready to stake your life on this.”

At the lifeline for survival, Cheon Myeongin’s eyes snapped open.

* * *

“Do it properly.”

At Yim Sayeon’s words, Baek Seolyoung turned back.

“Huh?”

“Do that again, just now.”

While waiting with Yim Sayeon in the courtyard for Lee Jaseung, Baek Seolyoung had absentmindedly stepped through the footwork of the Northern Sky Sword Art. Not even properly, but dragging her soles like a child at play.

She’d only been killing time, but Yim Sayeon’s face was serious.

“Okay!”

Baek Seolyoung executed the form correctly.

After watching till the end, Yim Sayeon rose.

“Now watch me perform it once.”

Yim Sayeon began the Northern Sky Sword Art.

Baek Seolyoung watched, not daring to blink.

“Ah!”

A brief exclamation slipped from her lips.

What Yim Sayeon displayed was perfection.

Restraint, maturity, art, beauty, completion, vision, harmony…

Her forms encompassed every one of those words.

On top of that, wherever Baek Seolyoung needed correction, Yim Sayeon slowed and emphasized those parts in particular.

Normally, that wouldn’t have been possible. Change the speed like that and you’d ruin the very perfection you meant to show.

But not here.

Baek Seolyoung didn’t even notice where Yim Sayeon reduced speed. Her mastery had reached seamless heaven-woven cloth, so such a thing was possible.

Moreover, Yim Sayeon demonstrated precisely the Northern Sky Sword Art that Baek Seolyoung had learned and directly instructed her. It was a peerless stroke of fortune.

When Yim Sayeon finished, Baek Seolyoung still stood there, dazed.

She replayed the forms in her mind. They came back vivid. She also saw where she had misunderstood. She fixed them in memory again and again so as not to lose any of it.

She could feel it. This single glimpse would help her immensely.

Smiling, Yim Sayeon gave her time to gather her thoughts.

Only after a long while did Baek Seolyoung finally speak.

“How can you possibly do it like that?”

“Long ago, I learned the basic mental method from your father.”

“Even so.”

To see her briefly perform a form today and, with only a mental method from long ago, to execute it so flawlessly. It was hard to believe.

“Why so surprised? Your husband is probably better than me at it.”

At that, Baek Seolyoung started even more.

“Him?”

Yim Sayeon nodded with a smile.

Baek Seolyoung couldn’t believe it. She knew well that Lee Jaseung’s martial arts were formidable.

But wasn’t Yim Sayeon basically saying that Lee Jaseung was stronger than herself?

Stronger even than this elder who had just displayed such a marvelous art?

There was no doubt Lee Jaseung was remarkable. Even her half-belief at this moment was proof enough.

Ah, this wasn’t the time for that.

She bowed deeply to Yim Sayeon.

“Thank you so much for your great instruction. I’ll never forget this grace.”

Yim Sayeon smiled at the sight.

Just then, a door opened behind them. Baek Seolyoung turned without thinking and froze.

Cheon Myeongin, who had lain only in bed, was walking out, supported by Lee Jaseung.

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