Unlike Tang So-wol, who was quite excited to be traveling far for the first time in a while, Seol Ri-hyang seemed a little anxious about leaving the Tang Clan.
She had been glancing around restlessly for a while now, and finally asked me.
"Hey. Why do they hold the Dragon Phoenix Gathering anyway?"
"You're asking that now?"
"No, I know the basics, alright? The unity of the Orthodox Sects, camaraderie among rising talents, sparring experience you can't easily get, and so on. I heard all sorts of reasons from my master. But even taking all that into account, isn't it a bit too grand?"
"Ah, so that's why."
She had a point. The Dragon Phoenix Gathering was indeed a competition of startling scale.
Not only did gossipmongers from across the Central Plains gather, but sects seeking talented disciples, merchants hoping to profit off them, and even the heavyweights of the major factions—too comfortable to move—all came together in one place. That said it all.
"And I heard the winner gets the finest Spiritual Medicine, provided in rotation by the Five Great Families and the Nine Great Sects and One Gang. Even if you don't win, placing well earns you martial arts or weapons held in the Murim Alliance's vaults."
"That's right. Which is why, in the past, Unorthodox Sect martial artists would sometimes join just for that prize. They all got caught, of course."
That was only natural—with that many people watching, including several absolute masters of the Harmony Realm, deceiving everyone was an extraordinarily difficult feat.
But it seemed Seol Ri-hyang was concerned about something entirely different.
"I've been thinking, ever since I started learning martial arts and studying the murim… all martial artists seem so closed-off."
"That's hard to deny."
Blacksmiths and physicians alike were just as reluctant to share their skills.
But extreme retaliation—like training in seclusion in a hidden spot where no one would find you, or chasing down and killing someone who stole your true martial art—was hard to come by.
Given that martial arts were a matter of life and death, it wasn't hard to understand, but… thanks to that, a more closed-off atmosphere had taken root compared to other places.
This was exactly what puzzled Seol Ri-hyang.
"But isn't it a bit strange to hand out precious spiritual medicine and even martial arts just because someone performed well in a sparring match?"
"Ahem. Allow me to explain that part, Lady Seol."
Tang So-wol slipped between me and Seol Ri-hyang, clearing her throat. She continued with a bright smile.
"To put it simply, the Murim Alliance was founded precisely to break down that closed-off atmosphere."
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Yes. The martial world today is peaceful enough that it's hard to imagine, but in the past, incidents worthy of being called bloodbaths happened quite frequently."
That was true. I had only heard a brief account from Seomun Hwa-rin, but the martial world before the Black Alliance was founded had been quite chaotic.
Because the territories of the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects weren't as clearly divided as they are now, clashes between them were frequent, and when someone died, it wasn't uncommon for even greater bloodshed to follow in the name of revenge.
I didn't particularly like the Lord of the Black Alliance as a person, but that was exactly why I respected his achievements.
"What's surprising here is that even a force as massive as the Murim Alliance had to watch its step back then."
"In the days when the Murim Alliance didn't exist…"
"They say even the government had given up on managing the martial world. The principle of official inviolability came about during that era."
Sword-wielding thugs were slaughtering each other, and they were so powerful that they weren't easy to suppress.
In the end, all the emperor of the era could do was admit that he couldn't prevent conflicts between martial artists and ensure that the sparks didn't fly onto the common folk.
Left without any help, the Orthodox Sects decided to prioritize their cause over revenge for the time being.
They forgot past grudges to prevent new victims, risked their lives not just for themselves and their families but for complete strangers, and willingly joined hands with their rivals.
For the first time in the long history of the martial world, an organization broke free from the shackles of karmic debt. It was the moment the Murim Alliance, moving solely for the sake of a greater cause, was born.
These days, it feels like a corrupt establishment within the orthodox martial world, but… I still remember how the Heavenly Demon stood at the forefront when he invaded the Central Plains.
Even though the Murim Alliance collapsed, and more than half of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families—the pillars of the orthodox sects—were wiped out, with most survivors becoming vengeance-driven wraiths.
Still, the lofty ideals they once held and their resolute end do not lose their luster.
As I nodded inwardly, Tang So-wol, who had grown a bit more mature, wiggled her finger and continued her explanation.
"That's why the Murim Alliance has to keep proclaiming its strength. It's also the reason such excessive prizes are attached to the Dragon Phoenix Gathering."
"Is it a kind of showing off? Like, the Murim Alliance is this strong, so don't go causing trouble…"
As Seol Ri-hyang, who still had a hint of youthfulness about her, tilted her head, Tang So-wol giggled and patted her on the back.
"Correct! Now that Lady Seol catches on so quickly, you're a proper martial artist!"
"It's just that the scale was too grand for a mere show of force, so I couldn't imagine it right away—it's not that impressive. …And please don't treat me like a child, Sister Dang. I'm eighteen now. I'm all grown up."
Seol Ri-hyang turned her head away as if embarrassed, grumbling. Seeing that, Tang So-wol smiled even more warmly.
"That young hero Cheon over there with the stern expression never plays along with things like this, you know. So instead of an unlovable betrothed, I'll shower you with all the affection."
"No, that's not— …Eep?!"
Now Tang So-wol had gone beyond patting her back and was tickling her mercilessly. Seol Ri-hyang squirmed and resisted against the touch that reached her sides, but she didn't try to escape.
Say what you will, the two of them had grown much closer.
Ever since Tang So-wol had mentioned that seeing Seol Ri-hyang reminded her of the past, she had suddenly started treating her better.
That had been a little puzzling, so I'd asked her why… and the answer she gave was quite a sight.
Something about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?
According to her, even if she couldn't help seeing me the same way she saw herself, she was going to be kind to Seol Ri-hyang so that she'd feel guilty if anything ever happened, and so she'd notice right away if something seemed off…
"Hey!"
"Eep! N-not the sides, Tang unni!"
Seeing her like that, it seemed she was just happy to have someone like a younger sister. Maybe it was because she'd lived her whole life as the youngest?
On top of that, after Seol Ri-hyang started receiving regular meridian cleansing from me, she began to pay more attention to Tang So-wol and tried to treat her better.
When I asked why, all I got back was a puzzling answer saying it was because of me.
Well… I couldn't understand the reasoning, but the result was that the two of them grew closer, so that was a relief.
Honestly, when I first confessed to Tang So-wol, I was anxious about how things would turn out.
…Though sometimes, the extent of it seemed a bit excessive, and that bothered me.
"Just because there's no one around doesn't mean we're not out in the open. How about the two of you show a little restraint?"
"Whoa. Is young hero Cheon feeling jealous?"
"I think you're right, sister Dang. He's probably bothered by that part you mentioned earlier about him not being cute."
"Now that you mention it, that does make him kind of cute…"
"…I can hear everything. I don't know why you two are looking for cuteness in me."
As I let out a deep sigh, Tang So-wol and Seol Ri-hyang exchanged a glance and started giggling.
"That's exactly why it's fun—because you hate it so much."
"Do I need a special reason to tease you? We tease you because you react so well."
"…"
Thinking about having to travel all the way to the Murim Alliance with these two, I felt both happy and a little wistful.
***
We were just about to pass through Sichuan Province and slowly enter Hubei Province when Seol Ri-hyang spoke up with a curious expression.
"So there wasn't any real danger after all? Knowing what you and Sister Tang went through, I expected at least one or two life-threatening situations by now."
"What happened before was the anomaly. This is how it should be. This isn't even Unorthodox Sect territory—if incidents and accidents were that common, how would the Central Plains keep running?"
"But you and Sister Tang were in danger plenty of times."
"…That's exactly why my father-in-law kept us from leaving Chengdu for three years."
"To say Father worries too much… we really were just unlucky."
Tang So-wol nodded along with me. She was right. But something else was nagging at me.
It was the fact that every incident and accident I'd experienced so far was a problem born from twisting events that had happened before my regression.
Preventing Tang So-wol from being attacked and her poison energy going berserk—well, that one made sense, since I had to fight the attacker anyway.
But afterward, uncovering the Demonic Cult as the mastermind and going to cut them down, or coincidentally finding Seol Ri-hyang there and getting into a fight with a Haomun branch office while trying to pull her out of the courtesan house—
Or going to pick up some Spiritual Medicine only to run into Gwiyeong Sin-tu, an absolute master on his deathbed, hearing the latest on the Demonic Cult from him, and after defeating the assassin who tracked us down, fleeing all the way to the Zhongnan Sect.
From the outside, it probably looked worrying that I got caught up in incidents every time I stepped out. But from my perspective, the unease was stronger—it felt like the winds were blowing against me for trying to change the events of my past life.
In fact, before I kidnapped Tang So-wol, when I was wandering around alone, I'd run into the occasional petty squabble, but I'd never been swept into any real danger.
Was there a price to pay for changing what was fated? Or was it that, by dismantling the Demonic Cult's plans—which were connected in ways I knew and didn't know—I was inviting more frequent clashes?
Which one it was, I couldn't say for certain at the moment. What was certain was that now, when I wasn't trying to change anything, nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
"Well, aside from that, there were plenty of small incidents. Like when you got into a quarrel with a drunk martial artist at an inn and Tang unni silenced him with sleeping poison, or when you handed over some third-rate bandits claiming to be Green Forest outlaws to the authorities. And then there was that time you said it was too hot and asked me to fetch a bowl of water to freeze, only to get scolded by Tang unni later. Things like that happened often enough."
"…That last one, I was wronged."
To summarize it roughly, the scolding was about not slipping into other women's rooms at night. But wasn't the reason I got caught in the first place because she herself had gone to fetch water because she was hot and we ran into each other?
Still, having a block of ice by my head did make things more bearable.
Anyway, if peace was what we had, we spent several days crossing Hubei Province in that peace.
We were getting close to Muhan City now. We'd taken a room at a decent inn and were about to have dinner on the first floor when a bit of commotion broke out.
"How dare you! Stealing goods from the Great Geumhwa Merchant Guild!"
"O-oh, you misunderstand! This one has done no such thing…!"
The man bellowing was a hulking figure with a kindly face, and before him stood a small woman fidgeting nervously.
Among them, the woman's back was all too familiar.
"…"
I hadn't expected to run into her this soon.