In a sense, there had been an event so awkward it was almost horrifying, but things at the Murim Alliance had basically been resolved well.
The Blood Buddha had been annihilated with no room for resurrection, and although the Heavenly Demon's unexpected intervention had occurred, we had also succeeded in bypassing the seal through the secret manual.
And though it hadn't been my intention, I had even gained enlightenment while swinging my sword for decades within the manual.
In a way, one could say it was a conclusion where I had obtained everything I had wanted.
Thanks to that, a few questions and anxieties still remained, but I was able to leave the Murim Alliance with a much more at ease heart than before.
…And now that I had a bit of leeway, things began to surface in my mind.
"Knuckle gauntlets."
"Hm? What are you suddenly talking about, Hwi?"
"Wouldn't you like a pair of knuckle gauntlets forged from Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron? If we lined them with that Flood Dragon hide I brought last time, they'd be quite helpful to Senior Seomun Hwa-rin as well."
"If it's a treasure of that caliber, it would naturally be helpful, but my aura is so overbearing that the difference wouldn't be all that significant…"
"At any rate, you're saying it would help. As it happens, I know the location of a pair of knuckle gauntlets made from Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron."
"???"
Seomun Hwa-rin blinked rapidly, as if she couldn't follow the flow of the conversation.
But instead of offering her any further explanation, I immediately turned my gaze to Seol Ri-hyang.
"What was that Yin Art you're currently learning?"
"Ah… It's a martial art called Ilsimjiso that I received from the Jinzhou Eon Clan."
"An Orthodox Sect martial art, then."
"Well, of course it is?"
"Seol Ri-hyang. You suit the Unorthodox Sects better than the Orthodox. Have you considered learning an additional martial art called Cheokcheonbungeum? It would be a great help when you need to unleash an overbearing offense."
"It's not a Mental Cultivation Method, so learning another Yin Art is naturally a good thing, but… what exactly do you mean by saying I suit the Unorthodox Sects better?? Cheon Hwi, answer me properly!!"
As if the scene she'd seen in her mind's eye had been shocking, Seol Ri-hyang, who had been stealing glances at my body for the past few days, finally fixed her gaze on my face for the first time in a while.
Of course, I lightly ignored that as well and turned to Tang So-wol for the final question.
"The inner core of the Seven Flowers Centipede. Would it be effective for you in your current state?"
"It should be effective, right? The poison of the Seven Flowers Centipede isn't all that strong for someone in my current state, but its true value only shows when combined with other poisons. If I study it here and there, I'm sure I'll get good results!"
Unlike the two who had subtle reactions, Tang So-wol was already stomping her feet with anticipation.
She was the type to combine poisons whenever she had free time, after all. I didn't know if she'd get stronger or not, but I had a feeling she'd be happy about it.
Tang So-wol's innate talent wasn't just her Poison Spirit Constitution—she also had an attitude that genuinely enjoyed the poison art itself.
As I nodded in satisfaction, Tang Jincheon, who had been watching us from a step away with a dumbfounded look, finally spoke up.
"I don't know why you're talking about such things the moment we get away from the Murim Alliance… but is there nothing for me, son-in-law?"
"Isn't my very existence the Tang Clan's blessing and greatest gift?"
"You get more shameless the higher your realm rises, don't you."
Tang Jincheon let out a chuckle without denying it. He had stumbled a bit, but now that he'd gotten a glimpse of some of my memories from before the regression, the wary atmosphere had loosened somewhat.
Good. This was about the right time to bring up the main topic.
"I'll make a quick stop here and there to pick up the things I mentioned, then head back. I'll leave the rest to you, father-in-law."
"…Huh?"
Tang Jincheon flinched at the sudden declaration of passing the buck, while the others remained relatively composed.
It was partly because I'd often made sudden moves without warning… but more than anything, it was probably thanks to the glimpse they'd gotten of my memories this time.
The first to step forward was Seol Ri-hyang, who wore an expression as if she understood everything.
"Yeah. Well, it'd be good to have them anyway. Besides, finders keepers, right? Let's grab them quickly before someone else does."
"Ah… so that's how it is."
Seol Ri-hyang had said she'd noticed something and had been caught by the same seal as me. Perhaps she'd truly arrived at the conclusion of regression.
She didn't ask a single question about the most important parts—the evidence or the source of the information—yet the core points connected perfectly.
As Tang So-wol and Seomun Hwa-rin also nodded half a beat later, only then did Tang Jincheon let out a long sigh.
"…Come back as soon as you can. They said they'd send word once the preparations for the next Grand Ritual are complete, but it won't do if you're not there."
"Don't worry, father-in-law. It won't take that long."
As a result of my seal being revealed and partially bypassed through the trick I'd learned.
If I had to pick the single biggest difference from before, it was that I no longer needed to fabricate a plausible excuse to use my pre-regression knowledge.
In that case, wouldn't it be a good idea to take this opportunity to scoop up all the Fortuitous Encounters I'd missed out on?
***
Regression had granted me new opportunities and the knowledge to make use of them, but most of that knowledge wasn't something I could put to use right away.
Think about it. If I remembered the location of a treasure discovered in a landslide ten years from now, and I regressed twenty years into the past, I'd have to wait ten years regardless, wouldn't I?
In that sense, it was fair to say that up until now, I hadn't been able to properly utilize my pre-regression knowledge.
Even for someone like me, who'd mostly operated among the Unorthodox Sects, how many major rumors were there that either weren't tied to a specific time or had just happened to come due?
But now, a considerable amount of time had passed since the regression, and some of that information had become usable.
…Though I had no idea how much help it would be to our party, who had grown stronger than I'd expected!
Well, it's better than nothing, isn't it?
That's why, after parting ways with Tang Jincheon along the way, I headed for Hwaeum Village, a small town in Hubei Province.
The place itself is an unremarkable, ordinary village, but if I had to point out one peculiar thing, it's that a master blacksmith once came out of here a few decades ago.
He earned recognition for his skill and even rose to the position of Imperial Court blacksmith… but perhaps that wasn't enough to satisfy him.
He would secretly skim precious materials, forge weapons, and sell them at high prices to martial artists—this happened often.
In the end, he was caught and executed alongside the martial artist he'd been trying to deal with in secret.
During that process, the whereabouts of a pair of gauntlets forged from Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron became unclear, but…
"They say it was recently discovered by chance in this village."
"Hm?"
"As time passed, the village grew more populated, and a newlywed couple discovered it while tearing down an abandoned house site to build a new home. Ah, but they didn't find it while digging in the ground — they found it on the mountain where they'd gone to gather wood."
"And how do you know all that?"
"…"
"Oh dear. That was the wrong question to ask. Let's hurry and go retrieve it!"
When I fell silent unnaturally, Seomun Hwa-rin seemed to guess that it was a seal and nodded.
Thanks to that, I was able to head to Hwaeum Village without much deliberation, and I bought the gauntlets at a bargain price from the couple who didn't recognize their true worth.
Of course, "bargain" was relative — I'd paid three taels of gold, so the couple must have been satisfied with the deal as well.
If we hadn't bought them, the existence of the gauntlets would have spread through some passing wanderer, and most of the people in Hwaeum Village would have died in the process of martial artists fighting over them.
In a sense, we had saved lives.
"…So please stop looking at me like I'm some kind of legendary swindler. I had a reason for spending gold coins separately later."
"My friend. Even so, three taels of gold is a bit much."
Seomun Hwa-rin tilted her head while hugging the gauntlets.
The original owner must have been a large man, since they didn't seem to fit her, but that could be adjusted once we reached the Tang Clan. We could even add some flood dragon leather to them while we were at it.
Receiving Seomun Hwa-rin's gaze—happy yet seemingly unable to rejoice wholeheartedly—the place we headed to next was an auction house in Fujian Province, passing through Gangseo Province.
It wasn't as bad as Zhejiang Province, but it was clearly Unorthodox Sect territory. So normally, it would be a place where we, as members of the Tang Clan, would have difficulty moving openly…
"Huh! Everyone, lower your eyes! It's the White Moon Sword Lord!"
"You idiot! Haven't you heard that the White Moon Sword Lord is fine as long as you don't pick a fight first? The one you really need to watch out for is the Cheong-eum Ice Witch!"
"What's so dangerous about her?"
"They say she turns people into ice blocks just for looking at her with an arrogant gaze. And her hobby is shattering those ice blocks that used to be people into pieces."
"…How does someone like that belong to the Orthodox Sects?"
Was it thanks to the Lord of the Black Alliance? The Murim Alliance had heard whispers that I might not be Orthodox after all, but here in Unorthodox territory, my reputation was actually fairly decent.
If anything, they feared Seol Ri-hyang more—the one who had laid waste to all of the Black Alliance's rising talents and sparked all sorts of grim rumors.
"I'm innocent! Those were all just sparring bouts!"
"But isn't it true that you froze him into an ice block because you didn't like the look in his eyes?"
"That's because that bastard was eyeing me with a disgusting look!"
"Is that so? Then you did well. …But you didn't shatter him after freezing him, did you?"
"Why would I do something like that when it wasn't even a life-and-death duel?!"
"Seol Ri-hyang enjoys shattering frozen opponents into pieces when it becomes a life-and-death duel… Remember that."
"Don't remember that! That's distorted information!"
I listened to Seol Ri-hyang's indignant squawking with one ear and let it out the other as I headed toward the auction house.
I didn't know where it had come from or how it had ended up there, but during this period, a martial art called Cheokcheon Bingeum had appeared as a lot at the Fujian auction house.
Because it was a Yin Art with little demand, it hadn't sold, and its price had kept dropping until it was traded at a fairly cheap price… but when it became known that it was actually an advanced martial art that was hard to obtain even with money, there was a brief commotion.
Even if it was a Yin Art, if its level was that high, people figured there had to be something worth learning from it.
Unfortunately, though, it couldn't be proven. Because in the process of fighting over the Cheokcheon Bingeum, the secret manual itself had been damaged.
That's a common occurrence in the Unorthodox Sects. People die and get hurt over a secret manual, only for the manual itself to be lost in the most absurd way.
Of course, that wouldn't happen this time.
Maybe it was because I hadn't been in the auction house for long. It was a bit pricier than I'd expected, but I was able to obtain the Cheokcheon Bingeum secret manual for eighty silver taels, without even needing to go up to Gold Coins.
"Ugh. Cheon Hwi? I get that it's a good martial art, and I'm grateful for the gift, but…"
"Is something the matter?"
"You said there'd be a place to use the Gold Coins later. If not here, then where exactly were you planning to use them?"
"So that's what's been bothering you? I intend to use them to buy the Seven Blossom Centipede."
"…Buy it? A Spirit Beast?"
We live in an era where Spirit Beasts are growing harder and harder to come by. Unless you're somewhere as remote as the Northern Sea, powerful Spirit Beasts have practically dried up.
And the Seven Blossom Centipede, while not quite comparable to a Flood Dragon, is a fairly formidable Spirit Beast that reaches the Peak Realm.
On top of that, because it's said to harmoniously harbor seven different poisons within it, it's also a rare Spirit Beast relative to the power it holds.
If a creature like that showed up in the Central Plains, it would naturally cause an uproar.
That's also why I'd heard rumors of the Seven Blossom Centipede before my regression.
And the content of that rumor is simple.
"There's someone who was cast out of the South Man Beast Palace for trying to raise a Seven Blossom Centipede."
"Huh? Isn't raising a poisonous insect rather than a beast the way of the Heavenly Poison Sect, not the Beast Palace?"
"That's exactly why he was cast out."
"Ah, I see!"