Treasure Hunters. (2)

The Taiji swordsmen of the Wudang Sect turned pale.

Because the Yin Yang Twin Monster had declared they would ascend Wudang Mountain.

Just imagining it was enough to make their heads swim.

“W-wait!”

The restless Taoist priests finally stepped forward and blocked the Yin Yang Twin Monster.

Yu Jinsan looked down at them with an indifferent gaze and spoke softly.

“You get one warning. Step aside.”

The swordsman with the highest rank among them asked with a pained look.

“W-why do you intend to ascend Wudang Mountain?”

As if he didn’t know. Yu Seol snorted and showed her torn clothes again.

“My expensive clothes got ruined. And what about this treasure bracelet? You should pay for it.”

“Th-that is…”

“Can you compensate us?”

“Tell us what compensation you want.”

Yu Seol stretched out four fingers and shouted.

“Forty thousand coins of gold!”

“Th-that’s absurd, isn’t it?”

Then the roar from the Yin Monster forced the people to take a step back.

“Forty thousand coins!!!”

Their determination left no room for compromise.

But where on earth would they get such an astronomical sum?

The sajaes thought the Yin Monster was making an unreasonable demand.

It was truly an outrageous request.

“E-even if we sold all the Wudang Sect’s assets, it wouldn’t be easy to raise such a sum.”

Yu Seol drew the spear at her back and fixed them with a stare.

“Then there’s no choice. We’ll have to go up and check.”

At that point, the top disciples of the Wudang Sect were in an uproar.

They might not have worried about ordinary evil sect members, but their opponents were the Yin Yang Twin Monster.

It was common knowledge that the Shaolin Temple, the Southern Edge Sect, and the Emei Sect had been ravaged.

Now the Wudang Sect faced the real danger of being laid to waste because of them.

Soon four of the top disciples dropped to their knees at once.

In the face of their sect’s safety, the pride of a famous Justice Faction meant nothing.

“P-please…”

Yu Seol hesitated for a moment at the sight of their tearful pleas.

Although she was angry thinking about their gossip about her behind her back, they also looked pitiful now.

“Don’t worry. We’ll take care of the compensation ourselves.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm~ what could there be? What treasures are hidden in the Wudang Sect?”

“…Huh?”

Yu Seol pinched the cheek of the highest-ranked swordsman and said.

“Come on, tell us. Then we might be merciful.”

The man before her hesitated, seemingly flustered.

He was in a situation where he couldn’t do either.

But he had to answer something.

“If I… say nothing, what will happen?”

Yu Seol toyed with the Dragon Flower Spear and feigned nonchalance.

“I’ll go up and pretty much pet them with this. Not a single one spared.”

“Y-you mean kill them all? Isn’t that too much?”

At that moment Yu Seol narrowed her brow and snapped.

“You killed Grandpa Storm too!”

“-S-storm? Who are you talking about?”

The Wudang Sect disciples in Hubei would have no way of knowing the details of that incident.

Nor how Storm Rider had died.

Questioning them further would change nothing.

Yu Seol calmed herself and tried to persuade him again.

“So you’re saying you won’t tell us? Hmm? You won’t? You’d better tell.”

The man sighed with a look of despair.

Though the Yin Monster spoke in a coaxing tone, they couldn’t simply ignore him.

They had to make a decision about something.

After a moment of silence, he opened his mouth in a dying voice.

“I’ll tell you where the treasure is, but promise me one thing in return.”

At that moment the other priests on either side began to restrain him.

“M-Myeong-jin sahyung!”

“Don’t give in.”

“Do-n-not ever tell them…”

They stopped mid-sentence and froze; the momentum the Yin Monster projected suppressed their bodies and minds.

Yu Seol bit her lower lip and sent them a warning.

“Tch.”

“….”

Only after the surroundings quieted did Yu Seol gently coax the man called Myeong-jin.

“Come on, tell us. What shall we promise?”

“Can you swear you won’t kill anyone? Including us?”

“Fine. I swear.”

It was an answer without a single moment’s hesitation.

Perhaps unconvinced by the reaction, Myeong-jin tilted his head slightly.

But a promise was a promise.

He took a breath and spoke to the sajaes on either side.

“I’ll take all responsibility. This is the best way for now.”

“…hyung.”

The sajae beside him reddened with tears but couldn’t stop him. It was now irreversible.

“What are a few treasures compared to everything? Don’t worry.”

“Understood. We will follow your will.”

Meanwhile, Yu Seol was in high spirits.

Now they only had to confirm the treasure’s location. She couldn’t contain her excitement.

She began bobbing her shoulders and urged Myeong-jin on.

“Tell me quickly. I’m curious~ I’m curious~”

Myeong-jin let out a deep sigh and reluctantly spoke.

“Huff. Go past the training hall to the left and head to the pavilion with the red roof that’s the third one you see.”

“What’s there?”

“There… there is the scripture hall where we keep our martial arts manuals.”

Disappointment crossed Yu Seol’s face, who had been full of expectation.

“Your martial techniques are weak. Anything other than manuals?”

The Taiji swordsmen looked momentarily stunned.

And that quickly turned into anger.

Who was the Wudang Sect? In terms of swordsmanship they were a prestigious Justice Faction standing alongside the Mount Hua Sect.

To belittle their martial arts like that? It was a humiliation they’d never experienced.

“The Wudang’s martial arts are not weak!”

“Don’t lie. I’ve seen it all.”

Myeongjin of the Wudang Sect did not yield; this was their last shred of pride.

“O-our ancestor Jang Sam-bong was called an immortal! How could the martial arts he left behind be insignificant?”

“Want to test it? Get up.”

As the Yin Monster tried to lift Myeong-jin, he resisted fiercely.

“…L-let go of me!”

Yu Seol smirked as if she’d expected it and released his arm.

In any case, she had no real interest in the Wudang Sect’s martial arts.

She had reached a level where only peerless martial arts would matter.

When she was a baby she had learned a few things from Hyun-hee of Black Mountain Bandits, who was from the Wudang Sect, but even those techniques had been sealed.

The only somewhat useful thing was the Taiji Righteous Sword the sword master used, but it wasn’t suitable to adapt to a spear.

“I’ll go up and check everything one by one. Until forty thousand coins of gold is found.”

Those words sounded to the sajaes like a threat to raze the Wudang Sect to the ground.

Myeong-jin frantically rolled his eyes.

He seemed about to propose an alternative.

After a short while, he opened his eyes wide and said.

“There is one place on Wudang Mountain where access is forbidden.”

At that moment the priests beside him shouted at him.

“Myeong-jin hyung!!”

“N-no, not there!”

They reacted as if it must never be revealed.

But their resistance couldn’t continue; they were warned again by the Yin Monster.

“Where is it? What treasure is hidden there?”

“I don’t know exactly what’s there, but surely there will be valuable items. It’s a sacred place where the ancestor achieved nirvana.”

Could it be that items belonging to Jang Sam-bong remain there?

Only now did Yu Seol’s eyes widen with interest.

“Really?”

“At the highest point of Wudang Mountain there is a place called Wind Wall. Around it there’s an entrance leading to a cave; look carefully.”

Yu Seol clenched both hands and shook them in delight.

“Hehe. Thanks a lot~”

“…C-can we go now?”

“Mm! Go carefully.”

When the Yin Monster nodded, the four Taiji swordsmen dusted themselves off and stood.

They ran off without looking back.

They had to reach Wudang Mountain before the Yin Yang Twin Monster.

That thought consumed their minds.

Pitapat-!!

Myeongjin, running as if his life depended on it, glanced back.

Fortunately, the Yin Yang Twin Monster was moving leisurely as if enjoying a stroll.

But the truth that their destination was the Wudang Sect did not change.

“This is bad. Those bundles of disaster are coming to our sect. I must rush up and inform the sect head.”

“Myeong-jin hyung, what on earth does the Yin Monster want? He said he doesn’t even need martial manuals.”

“You’ve heard. No matter how money-obsessed she is, who would have thought she’d covet our Wudang’s wealth…”

“But why didn’t they kill us and just let us go?”

“Obviously. They considered us that insignificant. They were terrifying.”

At that moment, a priest to Myeong-jin’s left asked with a disgruntled face.

“Then why did you reveal Wind Wall? You know what that place means to us, brother, don’t you?”

At that moment a meaningful smile crossed Myeongjin’s face.

“You disciples know, don’t you? Who guards that place.”

“C-could it be that Grand Elder still lives there?”

The Grand elder among the top members was essentially the highest rank in Wudang; he was so advanced in years that few of his peers were still alive.

“I’m sure. I heard it from the masters. If it’s him, the Yin Monster would have a hard time. If the elders join in a pincer attack, there’s a chance.”

The youngest-looking Taiji swordsman tilted his head and asked.

“We have such a person in our Wudang? It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

“You might not know. He was a person whose mention was forbidden since the masters’ generation.”

“Sahyungs, are you meanly keeping this secret just from me?”

The priest to his right satisfied his curiosity.

“Do you know, disciple? In the past Wind Wall wasn’t forbidden. Several times a year everyone gathered there to hold rites.”

“And then?”

“Around fifty years ago? I heard that Grand Elder, while examining the ancestor’s relics, became some kind of madman.”

“So he’s been staying in the cave since then?”

“Yes. For some reason he guards that place. They say he kills anyone who enters.”

The young Taiji swordsman still looked baffled.

“No one in our Wudang managed to resolve it? For fifty years?”

“Yes. I heard Elder Mu-jin once tried but nearly died. He barely escaped with his life.”

It was truly an unbelievable tale.

Who was Elder Mujin? He was the Wudang Sect’s foremost swordsman, known as the Taiji Swordmaster.

Although he had recently died, to the top disciples he was like a god.

Even he barely survived? It was hard to imagine how powerful such a person could be.

“Is, is all that true?”

At that, Myeongjin, who was ahead, nodded and replied softly.

“Yes. The one called Gwang Neung Master was Elder Mu-jin’s teacher.”

“Ah… then if he learns his disciple was killed by the Yin Yang Twin Monster he’ll go berserk.”

“Maybe. If he can be reasoned with. Anyway, that’s why I lured those bastards there.”

“You did a great thing, brother. I’m really looking forward to what happens next.”

The Taiji swordsmen heading for Wudang Mountain quickened their use of light footwork skill.