Book 1 Chapter 22

Finally, they're back

We're at the threshold of winter, and the chilly winds are now blowing through the

It's done. When you exhale, you'll see a white puff of breath coming out of the

At the beginning of winter, the leaves are changing colors and showing off their beauty.

The leaves fall and crumble, and when you walk down the street, the sound of dry leaves crunching underfoot is called a

Rustle, rustle, rustle, rang in my ears.

Leaving the blue waters of Panyang Lake behind, we found ourselves in an impregnable citadel of imposing and imposing buildings, much larger and more sprawling than the average village or small town, making it seem like a city of its own, separate from the city of Nanchang on Panyang Lake.

A wall, or rather a fence, is not quite the right word to describe the enclosure that surrounds this collection of buildings, which is larger than a small town. A fence is not quite the right word to describe this massive square combination of rocks, four stories high and half a story thick. It would be more accurate to call it a rampart. The wall, which must have been at least four stories high, was reminiscent of a cliff that you couldn't climb even if you wanted to, an iron wall that you couldn't pierce even if you wanted to, and an iron wall that you couldn't break even if you wanted to. Moreover, on top of the wall was a path of equal length, half a sheet thick.

It was a pathway for men to patrol or stand guard at fixed points, and it was designed to make that easy. In the center of the great, magnificent wall that surrounded this large, open area stood a black gate, perhaps two sheets wide and three sheets long. The walls around the gate were especially high because they contained a watchtower. Including the roof of the watchtower, it was at least seven stories high.

Above the main gate of the imposing citadel-like wall hung a giant gold-bordered black plaque. The words "Tianmu Academy" were inscribed in gold in a font that looked like it could soar into the sky as a dragon at any moment.

A sense of power, a sense of enormity and majesty without even entering. There was something about this place that gave humans a sense of awe and encouraged them to embrace it, and that was the name of the Academy of Heaven and Earth. Rather than a place of learning, there was a solemnity and sternness to this place that seemed to have been built with engagements and battles with countless enemies in mind. Of course, it was also a symbol of Baekdo Jeol's potential and power, so the above facts were perhaps too obvious.

Cat and Baek Seok-dong, both first-year students at Tianmu Academy, were currently standing guard at the main gate. Today was their shift. The guards at Cheonmu Hakwak were assigned to stand guard on certain days in groups of two, and their assignments were always changing. Goyangsi and Baekseok-dong were standing guard today because it was their assigned day. Their assigned position was to guard the outer gate of the academy, and this was their misfortune.

The guard outside the main gate was a well-meaning perimeter guard, but it was really more of a greeter. Because you're standing guard outside the main gate, you're responsible for most of the menial tasks of keeping an eye on who's coming in and who's going out of the building, contacting them, keeping a guest book, recording them, and so on. It's a busy job that keeps you on your toes. The first place on my list of worst guards, the ones I'd never want to do again, the ones I'd throw purified water at and pray to the heavens not to catch me, is the guard outside the main entrance of the academy.

Cat and Baek Seok-dong, who are now standing in a place where there is so much to talk about and so much to ride, had no luck today. It was said that if they were assigned to guard the outer gate, they would lose their bones and lose their hair. There was even a story that if they were assigned to guard the outer gate once, they would not be able to stand for a week afterward.

Did Nanchang become the most powerful city for nothing? Of course not. The Heavenly Martial Arts Academy was located in Nanchang, which is why it is now the center of the Hundred Islands Martial Forest and the strongest city in the world. With such a prominent location, there would be no shortage of visitors. The number of people involved in the academy alone, including the students, was over a thousand, and even if they were excluded, the number of people who came every day could easily be counted in the hundreds.

Monitoring and inspecting each one of them was a daunting task. Of course, no one was monitoring them, but even if they weren't, it was still a lot of work.

Because the academy is a place of learning, the policy of the academy is that those with power should protect the place they occupy without relying on others. Therefore, the students of the academy are responsible for patrolling the academy, standing guard, monitoring the crowd, cracking down on vice, and dealing with fights and other matters, all of which are handled by the students themselves.

This was the spirit of the Academy of the Heavens, to defend their learning grounds with their own strength, rather than relying on the strength of others. However, no one had ever dared to invade the Academy. There was no benefit to be gained from tampering with the potential and power of the mightiest of the mighty. In fact, there was so much potential for humiliation that no sect dared to even contest it. As a result, the guarding of the academy lacked the strength of a large force. There were only a few guards on duty who rotated through the gates.

During the day, it was as good as nonexistent, and the night was not much different. But if you think that the guards were idle during the day, with nothing to do, you are mistaken, especially the guards outside the main gate, because they had to deal with guests coming into the academy. And the problem was that there were too many of them.

Cat and Baekseok-dong were not in the best of moods. They resented the fact that promising late-stage martial artists like them had to perform tasks that would normally be reserved for lower-level martial artists. In Jianghu, once they had passed and entered the Heavenly Martial Academy, their skills were universally recognized, and they were no slouches, so they couldn't help but feel resentful that they had to take charge of security and serve as entertainers, jobs that would have been reserved for lowly warriors.

Baek Seok-dong was a beggar with a promising future in the open, and Gongsheng was a direct apprentice of Zhang Wen-yin in the Qing Sheng Sect, and was an excellent practitioner of the Qing Sheng Sword Technique. Considering that they were considered first-rate just for entering the Heavenly Martial Academy, they were no pushovers… but that was just outside the academy, not even half the story inside. Inside the academy, the seeds didn't work. It was a place where all the talented people of the Inner Dragon Peak were gathered, and they couldn't be recognized for their skills, especially first-year students like them. First-year students were just food and toys for the seniors.

Of all the guard duties, being on the watchtower above the main gate was the most comfortable, as the roof provided shade from the sun and a place to sit and stretch your legs from time to time, and patrolling the inside of the academy only required you to carry a sword.

But all the easy jobs would go to the seniors first, and first-year students like Cat and Baek Seok-dong would be assigned the hardest jobs. That was tradition and custom, and it would be the same everywhere. Maybe, but just maybe, Cat and Baek Seok-dong were busy. There were so many things to do in the morning, and they were so urgent, that people started coming and going nonstop from the time they switched with the previous group. Outsiders were not allowed to enter the hagwon from the beginning of the day (around 8am).

But somehow, as noon approached, and the sun set in the middle of Changcheon, the crowds seemed to have stopped for lunch, and Cat and Baek Seok-dong could barely breathe a sigh of relief. The morning's work was enough to make them exhausted, and they took a sweet break to express their sincere condolences to Joe, who would be switching missions with them next. There was still half an hour to go until their shift.

After a while…….

Bai Xiaochun took a breath first, then looked at Cat Xi with a relaxed expression and spoke. The topic of conversation was about a group of people who were currently the center of attention at the Heavenly Martial Academy.

"Catty, have you heard about the Zhu Jiajia Dan lately? The whole school has been talking about it."

"Of course, Baek Seok-dong. It's the center of attention in the academy these days. I've heard that the labor and management are having a lot of trouble with it."

Said Catty, as if she knew what she was talking about.

"Of course it is. The Blue Dragon Clan, White Tiger Clan, and Hyunmoo Clan have already returned two months ago and are practicing, but the Zhu Jia Clan just wrote a letter and hasn't heard from you in two months, so you must be worried."

After a moment's thought, Baek Seok-dong adds.

"The only letter he sent me was a single line, 'I'm not going back until I've seen the end of it - Yours truly.' I'm sure it has something to do with all the internal meetings we've been having lately."

After all, he was a disciple of openness, a disciple who knew everything about Kang-ho, including the contents of his letters.

"I hear the Blue Dragon, White Tiger, and Basalt are all on edge right now, too, and they're not going to be holed up in the mountains for another two months of unscheduled training, so they deserve a ride. Don't you think so, Cat?"

"Yeah, it looks like they're gearing up for something big, so I'd better be on my toes if I don't want to lose my seat."

At this time, and up until the summer, the master class had been the last of the four classes, an ultra-honor society of specially selected students. That hadn't changed until they left for training camp, and everyone assumed it wouldn't change upon their return. However, an unexpected delay in the main ceremony, and an extended ceremony that included missing the second half of the day's classes, kept the other three on their toes.

"The gerontological death penalty, which has often plagued me, was also stuck in the main workshop……."

Baek Seok-dong wondered if Noh Hak was an open disciple since he hadn't heard from him yet. He thought back to the death penalty Noh Hak, who was only a year older than him and had almost met him because they had eaten different amounts of steamed rice. Just thinking about it made him feel bad. It was strange and odd that someone who was a disciple of openness hadn't sent any news for two months.

We're not talking about the information being sent to the Heavenly Martial Academy, we're talking about the information being sent to the Open Gunta. If there was a delay of two months, there must be something wrong, and if so, the information should have been sent to the Chongta at all costs. That was the right attitude as a person working in the open. However, the information that was supposed to come didn't come, but just a letter that came to the academy, with a dubious story about not learning everything and going to learn more…….

Bai Xiaochun couldn't help but wonder: what kind of people were they to send a letter saying that they hadn't learned everything yet, and that they would come back to learn everything. He was a member of the Four Gods, a group of super-honored students that every newcomer to the Heavenly Martial Academy aspired to be a part of, and yet they felt that they were not good enough……. If it wasn't that, they couldn't master everything that was taught to them, and their suspicions grew deeper and deeper.

"Huh?"

Then, in the short shadows of noon, a group of people trudging toward the academy came into view of Cat and Baek Seok-dong. They were a mixed group of men and women, all with scattered hair, disheveled appearances, torn clothes, and weapons strapped to their waists. However, despite their unkempt appearance, the energy emanating from them was eerie and made them nervous.

Also, they were all wearing red clothes, with black stains in places, giving the impression that they were covered in blood.

They came within inches of the Heavenly Martial Academy. Gongsheng Shi and Baek Seok Dong simultaneously drew their swords and shouted.

"Who are you?"

"Bam."

Starlight sparkled in Baek Seok-dong's eyes.

"What the hell!"

At the same time as the shout of "Who is it?", a particularly dirty-looking man with dirty clothes and an even dirtier face rushed forward and punched Baek Seok-dong in the face. And the power of the blow was not to be ignored. The dirty man had struck a blow to Baek Seok-dong's stony forehead in the sense of disciplining Baek Seok-dong's spoiled mouth and tongue. The clothes he wore were the rags of a beggar, and while they were notably beggars' rags, they, like the rest of the group, were reddish in color, with black stains everywhere.

A knot was tied around his waist, marking him as a disciple of the Opening, and the number was eight. An eighth-level disciple of the Way, just below the rank of elder, was a high position. Baek Seok-dong's own knot was seven, so it couldn't be said to be low, but it was clear that he was a person of higher status and age. There was no one younger than him above the seventh level.

This pain, this shitty voice, this shitty behavior, it all felt so familiar to him that it actually surprised Baek Seok-dong.

"Gerontology… capital punishment?"

When asked to confirm his recollection, the answer came quickly.

"Yeah, man!"

Fortunately, Bai Xiaochun's memory and judgment proved not to be too bad, but he was not the least bit happy. There was nothing to celebrate in the return of a bad-tempered nemesis, or a junior who was easy to pander to. But the fact that the old man had returned, and that he was accompanied by sixteen others, told him one thing.

"The sixteen master craftsmen have now safely returned to the Heavenly Academy. Please notify me inside."

Namgungsang, the master of the Jujak Troupe, stepped forward and said. Even without Bai Xiaochun's beckoning, Cat Xi hurriedly ran in to deliver the messenger. This matter was urgent.

At last, the masterminds have returned to the Academy of Heavenly Arts. In the short shadows of noon, they returned wearing blood-red robes. The fact that their clothes had turned from white to blood-red, albeit obviously a bit dirty, when they had parted ways with Bi Ryuyeon in front of the Zhongyang Bureau under Amishan, silently told them that there had been a lot going on in their journey. It had been seven months since they had left the Tianmu Academy.

Baek Seok-dong was curious. He was curious, but he also had a lot of questions, which is a common characteristic of most beggars in the open world. It may be natural for an open space where information is life.

Yesterday was the Zhang family's son's wedding, today is the Qin family's 60th birthday celebration, tomorrow is the Kang family's award ceremony, and the day after tomorrow is the Zhao family's grandchildren's birthday party, etc. Starting from these basics, it was in the open that Zhang Mo Yang, a forbidden jade leaf of the Zhongchang Sect, currently a second-year student at the Heavenly Martial Academy, was collecting information about what color underwear she was wearing today, how many days she had been wearing it, how many times a week she had gone without it, and even how long her menstrual cycle was.

It was the information power of openness that allowed him to know, or rather, to know, how full her breasts were, how curvy her waist was, how firm her buttocks were, and even the three figures of her bust, waist, and hip circumference. There were many beggars who collected such information as a leisure activity. Baekseok-dong here was one such beggar. This kind of information is considered top secret, especially for women, as it relates to their private lives.

To give it a little more flavor, the first daughter-in-law of the current Cheng Shengfa Zhang Mun knows how many months pregnant she is, or whether the child in her womb is a boy or a girl, or both, and even goes so far as to say, "Is the child in her womb really the father's?" It's easy to see how amazing this ability is.

The power of this information-gathering ability has become so overwhelming that some of the most powerful people in the world have been known to call openness deaf ears, and open ark ears donkey ears. For them, the endless curiosity and desire for information may be a matter of course, since the only thing that remains is a bunch of bits and pieces.

So, Baek Seok-dong thought he might be curious about his surprise. So he asked. It was absurd that he would succumb to such a thing, even though he was surrounded by heavenly seniors, and even the death penalty was involved. I don't know about anyone else, but Nohak would answer. Even if he had a terrible temper, he wasn't the kind of person to break the rules of the door, or even the rules of the room. As a disciple of the Seventh Discipline of Openness, he had the right to demand and receive information from Nohak, as long as it wasn't top-secret, unless it was top-secret.

At first, Bai Xiaochun was surprised to realize that the clothes they were wearing were not red in color. But when he realized that the red dye was human blood, he was even more surprised. The black stains all over their clothes were the marks of congealed blood. Bai Xiaochun's gaze upon them, dressed in blood-stained clothes that emitted a blood scent, could not help but be bizarre. In his eyes, the stone character for curiosity was imprinted deep within his eyeballs.

"Seniors, what in the world is the English on those clothes?"

Baek Seok-dong cautiously asked with a face that said he couldn't understand it. He looked like he was dying of curiosity, so he asked for a quick explanation. At his question, Hyun-woon chuckled and looked at his friend Namgungsang, who was standing next to him. He must have been looking at him because he had something to say.

"That was great, wasn't it?!"

As if in agreement with the bottomless pit of Hyun-woon's words, the Namgungsang nodded and replied.

"It could have been really bad."

"Yeah. I thought I was going to die."

Nohak snapped.

"At that time, the blue face of the nationalist……."

Recalling the color and expression on Zhang Wuyang's face, Geum Young Ho smirked.

"I was stumped, too, with nearly 500 people popping up out of nowhere……."

Qin Lieng also spoke carefully, as if he didn't feel good about remembering what had happened.

"Yeah, I don't know how you knew, it was like you were waiting in the street."

It was Dang Chul-young, whose hands have taken the lives of countless people. They should be glad that he did not take their lives recklessly.

"But that first guy who came out looking like the leader of the pack was kind of weird looking."

Luo Hak said. He was really curious as to why the leader of a band of bandits would have the nerve to rob the marker of a mere peasant, much less a teenage peasant named Zhongyang Peacock.

"That's right," he said, "that thing that came running out of the overrun, that hobo-chan, the leader of a band of mountain bandits, with a black eye and a torn lip with a scab that hadn't even fallen off, looking rather pitiful."

Geum Young-ho seemed to agree with Noh Hak. He spoke in a lighthearted manner, as if it were a joke, but it wasn't lighthearted enough for Baek Seok-dong.

"Tiger Bones, aren't those the ones that occupy one of the 72 greenhouses?"

Baek Seok-dong let out a gasp of surprise, his mouth agape.

"Yes, one of the 72 greenhouses. Even if it's a horse seat."

The old man nodded at his admiration. In truth, the others didn't know that Hokgolchae occupied a place among the seventy-two greenhouses, and they wouldn't have known until the end of time if he hadn't taught them. The seventy-two green forests, as the name implies, have seventy-two living plants, but who can be bothered to memorize them all, seventy-two of them. That's why other people only know a few of the famous names of the 72 green houses, but if you go to the bottom, to the end of the table, they don't know who is sitting where. I knew because I'm a gerontologist. It was obvious. He was a disciple of the Eighth Discipline of Openness.

"Anyway, it was a big fight. They weren't very strong, but they had the numbers. They came at us with nothing but their numbers, and I'm sure the name 72 Greenhouses had something to do with it. We don't know, but they were lucky to get away with no casualties, if not wounded. We did a good job of making them half-assed and sending them away…………."

Nohak added.

"I cut their heads off with a single blow, and they scattered."

The volcano's Chocheon-woo, who knows the occasional line as his life's blessing, seized the opportunity to speak. Without it, he would be worthless. Until now.

"It wasn't a single cut, it was two."

In a situation not unlike Cao Tianwu's, Yi Yi of Kunlun coldly grabbed the pod and spoke. This was not a negligent act, for it was to let the world know of their existence and to ensure that they were not forgotten.

"……."

Ilgong ended up with no lines.

"Twice?"

"Ah, yes. You sliced off his right arm from the shoulder blade with your first stroke, and then you sliced off his crooked right leg from the top of his thigh with your second stroke. Right arm, right leg, out of balance, you're a bit harsh."

Excited to get one more shot, Kunlun's Yi Yun added a few words.

"What's too much?"

"Not too much. If you cut off the right arm and the right leg, the same side at the same time, how can the person live with crutches? If you use your left arm to hold the crutches, your right leg is the one you step on, so how can you hold the crutches with your left arm and put your left leg out? If you cut off your right arm, you have to cut off your left leg on the other side, so it's balanced. If you cut off the same side at the same time, it's like saying you're going to be bedridden for the rest of your life. You have to think about it and cut it off."

"What."

Cao Tianwu's temper flared up as he looked at Li Zhiyong with a look of pity on his face. His anger had reached a boiling point, and to defuse it, the Southern Palace Minister intervened.

"Hey, guys, stop fighting, stop being angry. We're not going to accomplish anything by fighting."

As if he wasn't already angry enough that the Namgung statue had separated them, Cho Cheon-woo sulked, and Lee Ji-ryong clucked his tongue. One way or another, the two of them were stomping their feet, increasing their lines.

"Still, we were very fortunate that there were no casualties."

Namgung San San said quietly. That was something she was glad to hear.

"But I did see a lot of blood."

Everyone nodded in agreement with Geum Young-ho's words. They had seen a lot of blood. They had cut off only one of the four limbs of the attackers who had come in on the basis of head count, and they had refrained from killing. Just because he didn't kill them doesn't mean he saw less blood. When one of the limbs is cut off, it is natural for blood to gush out of that section, and in the midst of a chaotic battle, it must be used. All Baek Seok-dong could do as he listened to the unintelligible conversations between them was to look bewildered and listen in silence.

Here's what happened to Jujak.

They were traveling toward Nanchang in the wake of the Zhongyang Bureau, and as they entered the border of Sichuan, a band of bandits, numbering about five hundred, were waiting in ambush in the mountains. It was no secret to Green Forest that Amifa was behind Zhongyang Feiqing. If they didn't know about the Zhongyuan Ten Thousand Pavilion, they wouldn't be able to steal it, and if they knew, they must have come prepared. Somehow, the bandits had found out where they were going and had set up an ambush.

Standing by to take the marks, they charged like mad, and while the Master Workers held them at bay, the Marksmen organized themselves to defend the marks. But none of them managed to break through the line of sixteen casters. When they had reduced nearly half of them to cripples, the man who seemed to be their leader stepped forward. They couldn't help but laugh, however, when they realized that the man who was supposed to be their master, the leader of the group that had tried to rob one of their teenage subjects, had a black eye and a scab over his right eye that made his lips look unusually red and messy.

The bandit leader, who recognized the laugh as a sneer, charged at him, and the volcanic Zhao Tianwu stepped up to meet him. With two light slashes, the leader lost his right arm and right leg and was carried away by his men, and the demoralized bandits retreated. No injuries to the main cast. Only a few marksmen were slightly wounded.

"Thank goodness you're safe, that's heavenly (except for the death penalty…….)"

"It's all skill."

The old man's words were cold and condescending. That's how you get no respect, Baek Seok-dong thought to himself.

"But the second one was the bigger problem."

Hyun-woon said with a weak smile as he looked at the Southern Palace statue. His eyes carried the meaning of a question, "Isn't that right? Namgungsang nodded once more in silence, and at the same time, all of the members of the Zhu Jia Clan nodded their heads in agreement, signifying 'That's right.

"Yes, the second one?"

He drew countless question marks in his mind at Hyun-woon's unexpected words, but unless he himself had been a party to the incident, there was little he could do other than to listen to what the parties had to say in silence. His hunger for information and his insatiable curiosity and wonder proved that he was a disciple of openness.

"There was one more, a raid."

In the back of his mind, he looked up at the sky, which was as clear as it is now.

"There was another attack, this time an ambush. We wondered how they knew so well, and worse, this time there were a thousand of them, almost twice as many as the last time, and we felt a little blindsided. We were swarming like ants, and who wouldn't be? But we laughed our asses off. Why? Because it was so funny.

This time, the bandit who looked like the boss was unharmed, but next to him, wearing the same color and shape as the boss, was the same bandit who had written on his face, "I'm the boss," as the last time we met, the Tiger Bone Chieftain Zhongguang. His blackened eyes and scabbed red lips told the story. His black eyes gave it away, and the location, size, and color of the bruises all pointed to the same person, at the same time. But that couldn't be right, could it? If it was the same person, at the same time, the bruises should have faded by now? No bruise lasts longer than a month.

But it happened. It just didn't happen at the same time, and it could have happened to the same person……. Well, he's human, he's got two legs to get around. But it was definitely around the same time. The guy who caught him told me. He said that a month and a half before, the vice captain had gone off to play somewhere, and he came back with a black eye and a busted lip, and he planned this raid, so it had to be the same time. A bruise that doesn't go away after a month and a half? The killer must have used some kind of trick, otherwise it wouldn't happen.

Anyway, the dockmaster was one thing, but the head of the dragonbone house, the owner, seemed to be a tough guy. His name was Wu Yak, with the nickname of the dragon. He was an arrogant bastard who used the character dragon for mountain bandits, but he was still pretty strong for a guy in charge of a dragonbone house that was supposed to be the middle of the 72 houses of the Green Forest, as you know… well, compared to last time.

However, he was no match for a man named Fang Long, who was fearlessly charging at him with a guidon sword, and was pierced through the heavens, earth, and people at the same time by three stones thrown by Tang San. They pierced the upper, middle, and lower electricity cables at the same time.

But this time, these mountain bandit bastards kept coming at us, even though we'd killed their leader. We were a little surprised, because we thought we could just send them to the goal and they'd back off. But even though the boss was cut down, they kept coming back for revenge……. We tried to stop them again and again, but our line was not breached, but they kept hitting the markers on the detour. We couldn't help them, we didn't have enough hands to stop them. They were coming at us in droves. ……. It was hard enough to hold the line, it's a mountain pass that's not very wide. It would have been dangerous for us if they came at us from the plains. It would have been hard for us and the markers to stay safe.

Well, at least they proved that the name "Middle Kingdom of the Teenagers" isn't a joke, as the head of state, Zhang Wuyang, swung his sword as if to release his pent-up frustrations. He must have had a lot of pent-up frustrations. Even ordinary marksmen fighting in pairs weren't going to get stabbed to death by a bandit, but they kept going, trusting in their brains. When the marksmen got in trouble, Tang San would throw in a mnemonic to save them, otherwise the damage would have been done. While saving them, he ran out of amigos and grabbed a rock from the ground and threw it at them, but one hit them and they all fell down. Well, even without the amigos, he hit them with his bare hands, so they couldn't make a sound and they were just as bad.

What? Why did you say Dangsam, Dangsam street? Oh, Dangsam is Chul-young Dang's nickname. We all call him Dangsam. But don't you ever think of calling him Dangsam. You could be traveling to the other world without the rats and birds knowing. We focused on the leader and cut him down, but even the vice captain with the blue eyes wasn't safe. We cut him in half and left him a cripple and a cripple, and they backed off.

They were tenacious, and it was a tough fight, with a lot of wounded among the marksmen. But the fact that we didn't have any casualties among the marksmen was a miracle."

He ended his long story with the word miracle.

"It was a little chilly back then, backbone."

Hyunwoon said playfully, making an exaggerated face.

"You've been outnumbered and outmaneuvered, but you've kept fighting."

Nohak said, frowning slightly.

"The marksmen have been hurt, and the marksmen have been hit hard."

"These clothes were also dyed at that time."

Mo Yongquan said with a smile like a moon shadow. It was her monumental first line.

"I didn't have enough memorization, so I picked up a rock and threw it, but that's what they do, a rock is all they need."

Dang said. "He was one of the people who made a difference. If he hadn't been there, there would have been quite a few casualties in the Zhongyang Pyo Bureau.

"Half cut down, half ran away, maybe 500 each."

Hyun-woon said in a tone that suggested he had counted them all. The more he listened, the more Bai Xiaochun couldn't help but be surprised. If he wasn't surprised now, it would be a failure to live up to their expectations. Fortunately, he hadn't disappointed them, so Baek Seok-dong was fully surprised right now. As proof, his mouth was now hanging open with his jaw hanging out.

"You mean you fought 1000 people and won? It was only 16……."

"A thousand, maybe 500. And not sixteen, for there were more than a hundred of them."

Geum said as if it was no big deal.

"But what did they believe they could get away with? How are they going to cover their asses? It's one thing for now, but there's the aftermath, isn't there? Even with their seventy-two greenhouses, turning the Amifa against them would be a bad idea."

Bai Xiaochun's suspicions were understandable. No matter how powerful the 72 greenhouses were, they were still not enough to turn the Amifa into an enemy. This was because dealing with the Amifa was not just a matter of dealing with a single sect, but a battle against the Amifa and all the forces sympathetic to it.

"Oh, that's right, the raid was the sole act of a hobgoblin and a keelboat. I caught a few and asked them."

The old man said, interrupting. It was he who had captured a few. If he touched them in the right way, they'd take care of themselves. He was vague about what constituted the right touch, but…….

"Yes? Then it makes even less sense, doesn't it? You boiled a tiger's liver and ate it. How could you possibly think of taking on one of the Zhongyuan Teenage Leprechauns and the Ampha behind it, with only one alive, without the backdrop of seventy-two greenhouses? It's as obvious as fire that you're going to fight Amifa, and if you're using a dragon to die, you're using it badly."

"Oh, they said that was the last thing they did."

As Geum explains.

"Yes?"

"He said he was trying to get his hands on it for the last time. Quit being a bandit. He was going to distribute it after the marker turn and disappear with it. The stakes were so high that if he pulled this off, he'd be guaranteed for life. That's why he brought the whole gang in, even the ones keeping him alive."

"How is that possible, that something of that magnitude was in transit, enough to risk the fate of a man alive?"

"Yeah, I heard that later, too, and that's what they said……. "Yeah, Goryeo celadon, originally Goryeo inlaid celadon, but they call it Goryeo celadon for short, and he was carrying three of them, and the story goes that if you sold one of them, you could buy a castle, and this one in particular was the pinnacle of all the Goryeo celadon, and it was worthy of destiny. If I could have it, I could play and eat for the rest of my life."

"Bam."

Bai Xiaochun's mouth dropped open. A single piece of pottery, which he had only ever thought of as a drinking vessel or a mere ornament, was worth a castle. When had he ever seen or heard of such a thing in a beggar's village? He could only marvel.

"Hey, I'm going to rip your mouth off, and your breath stinks, so close it."

Nohak stood with his mouth open, revealing to Baek Seok-dong how many cavities he had, and Geum Young-ho continued.

"That's the problem. An ambush is nothing compared to this. The question is, why did they ambush us with their entire force, their entire ……. They knew what we were carrying, or rather, they knew what we didn't know, and that's why they thought it would be a good idea to come at us with everything they've got, not just one, but two."

Geum Young-ho was pondering with an expression of indecision, but he could only sense that something was there, but it was very blurry and faint.

"The state must have been pushing for this to happen in secret, and yet you found out and risked your life for it……."

Geum Young-ho was still a mystery.

"How did you know?"

Geum laughed at Baek Seok-dong, who was looking at him with an incredibly curious expression.

"I'd like to know that too."

Geum Young Ho stared at the sky. The sky was endlessly high with a blue color that blessed their return, and the sun shone down from the cloudless sky, warm as ever. Inside the gates, there was a great uproar, and hundreds of people were running out to meet them, and as they saw them, they realized that they had indeed returned. To this Tianmu Museum……. It was truly a miracle.