Chapter 29 — Interrogated
Elder Jin Gwang-ung carried me under his arm as he sprinted madly down the mountain.
The fierce wind whipped across my face, and the training grounds vanished from sight in an instant.
After running for what felt like a long time, he finally stopped in a remote, deserted area.
Once he landed on the ground, Jin Gwang-ung roughly threw me down.
Having been tossed like baggage multiple times before, I used a prepared movement to land naturally on my feet.
The moment I stood on the ground without kicking up even a speck of dust, Jin Gwang-ung’s interrogation began immediately.
“Alright, spill it all. How the hell did you manage to learn the Flowing Flower Sword?”
He struck straight at the heart of the matter, giving me no time to think.
It was clearly an attempt to pressure me roughly and confirm the truth.
But who did he think I was? I was Han Mujin.
When combining my previous life and the one before my regression, I had lived well over a sixty-year cycle.
Having experienced all kinds of battles—on land, water, and even in the air—there was no way I would waver under this kind of pressure.
I immediately recited the answer I had prepared in advance.
“It’s exactly as I told everyone during the Great Assembly of Elders earlier. I happened to read the manual for the Flowing Flower Sword, and strangely enough, the contents flowed into my mind effortlessly.”
“Bullshit. Countless experts of the Kunlun Sect have struggled desperately yet failed to comprehend it, but you just happened to succeed? You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth, Master. How could I possibly dare to lie in front of you?”
“Look at this guy. You keep spouting such suspicious lies right in front of me. If you don’t confess properly, I’ll rip that tongue of yours right out.”
Jin Gwang-ung glared at me with flashing eyes.
He was cracking his knuckles, clearly ready to actually tear out my tongue if necessary.
‘This crazy old bear has really lost it.’
No matter how suspicious he was, thinking about ripping out his only direct disciple’s tongue was insane.
But the more this happened, the harder I had to push back.
If I got scared and gave a different answer now, it would only raise even greater suspicion.
‘Besides, even if I deny it to the end, what can he actually do?’
No matter how crazy Mad Bear Jin Gwang-ung was, he couldn’t harm me right now.
I had to attend the evening banquet as the winner of the Great Assembly of Elders.
Would he really create a disaster by sending a tongue-less winner to an event attended by the Sect Leader and even the delegates from the Orthodox Alliance?
I had solid backing. From here on, it was a battle of momentum.
I dropped to my knees on the ground and looked up at Jin Gwang-ung with a tearful face.
“… W-what? Why are you suddenly kneeling…?”
Jin Gwang-ung was visibly flustered by my sudden action.
I immediately continued with the next step.
“How can you call it a lie! Sob… sob… This disciple is wronged! I only spoke the truth, yet Master does not believe me. Hic… ugh…”
“S-stop that. Why are you crying—”
“Waaaahhh! I once heard the words of the ancient sages: the bond between master and disciple continues the karmic tie of parent and child from a previous life. Hic… Cough… What life could be more sorrowful than a child who cannot earn his parent’s trust? Sob… sob… hic… cough… cough…”
“… Th-that’s enough crying for—”
“I already lost my father at a young age… That’s why I wanted to serve and respect Master Gwang-ung, who took me in as his disciple, as I would my late father… But now I can’t even earn the trust of a father-like master… I deserve to die. Waaaaahhh… Father… hic… sob… sob…”
I wailed loudly as if my own parents had just passed away.
Jin Gwang-ung stared at me with a dumbfounded expression.
He probably had no idea what was going on.
And then I took it one step further.
“If, as Master says, the only way to prove my innocence is by cutting out my tongue… then I… will do it.”
“W-what? What are you—?”
Clang.
I drew the sword strapped to my back with my right hand.
Then I brought the blade toward my mouth with a solemn, resolute expression, as if I were truly about to cut off my tongue.
“Stop! Stop right there!”
A horrified Jin Gwang-ung hurriedly grabbed my right hand.
I inwardly cheered and pushed even harder.
“Let go! What use is a mere tongue to a disciple who cannot even earn the trust of a father-like master?”
“F-fine! I believe you! I believe you, okay?! So just stop! Please!”
After repeated pleas from Jin Gwang-ung, I pretended to reluctantly lower the arm holding the sword.
Then, in a pitiful voice, I said:
***
“Then… does this mean you believe me now, Master?”
“Ugh… Y-yes… For now, I’ll trust what you’ve said.”
Jin Gwang-ung spoke in a reluctant tone, his expression still tinged with suspicion.
‘Hmm, he still looks half-convinced.’
For a brief moment, I considered raising my sword again, but quickly abandoned the idea. Something told me that if I pretended to cut my tongue one more time, this crazy old bear might actually tell me to go ahead.
After a short pause, I spoke to him.
“Thank you for trusting this unworthy disciple. From now on, I will devote myself fully to training and serve you with even greater sincerity.”
“Ahem… Very well…”
Jin Gwang-ung cleared his throat and stared intently at my face.
‘Why does he keep looking at me like that? It’s making me nervous. Does he still have doubts?’
Sure enough, Jin Gwang-ung opened his mouth again.
“… Still, there’s one thing that doesn’t sit right with me.”
“Yes? What is it, Master?”
“Your internal energy.”
“My internal energy?”
Jin Gwang-ung’s brows slowly furrowed.
“The level of the Flowing Flower Sword you displayed at the Great Assembly of Elders wasn’t just a matter of understanding the forms. To connect those broken sword paths and leave perfect sword lines hanging in the air like you did, one would need at least fifteen years of internal energy, no matter how talented they are.”
“……”
“Yet when I first saw you at the Martial Training Hall, your internal energy was nowhere near that level. How do you explain this?”
It was a sharp question.
Just as he said, even if I had comprehended the Flowing Flower Sword, rapidly increasing my internal energy in such a short time was another matter entirely.
Fortunately, I had expected this question as well and already prepared an answer.
I deliberately hesitated.
“… That’s… actually a bit of a story.”
“A story?”
“My late father left me an elixir. I’ve carried it with me since I was young… and I recently consumed it.”
“An elixir? What kind of elixir?”
Jin Gwang-ung looked at me with eyes full of doubt.
I answered with a deliberately trembling, nervous voice.
“I don’t know its exact name. I only know it was a medicinal substance made by grinding very special flower petals.”
“Grinding flower petals? And eating that increased your internal energy?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Hmm…”
Jin Gwang-ung’s gaze grew even more suspicious. Suddenly, he placed his hand on my shoulder.
At that moment, a cold stream of energy flowed from his fingertips into my body.
“Hmm… It does seem like pure internal energy has taken root inside you.”
A moment later, his expression subtly changed.
“Uh…?”
Then his eyes narrowed sharply.
“How is this possible? This much internal energy…?”
Jin Gwang-ung asked with a look of astonishment.
“What exactly was the medicine you consumed?!”
I answered with an innocent, unknowing expression.
“Why do you ask? Is there something wrong with the elixir I took? Oh, now that I think about it, while I don’t have any of the medicine left, I do have a little of something related to it.”
I took out a small cloth bundle I had prepared in advance from my pocket.
It was smaller than my palm. When I unfolded it, a handful of finely ground powder was inside—thin, pale green with a faint jade luster.
It was the powder made from grinding Ice Snow Herb, which grew beside the Frigid Ice Snow Lotus.
“This is…?”
“It’s not the flower petals I consumed, but I was told it’s a medicinal powder made from the grass that grew near those petals.”
Jin Gwang-ung pinched a small amount of the Ice Snow Herb powder with his fingertips.
“It’s cold… If it’s a herb carrying the energy of profound ice, it can only be Ice Snow Herb… Don’t tell me the flower petals you ate were…!?”
As expected of a high-level expert, Jin Gwang-ung immediately recognized the identity of the Ice Snow Herb powder.
His eyes trembled faintly as they fixed on me. He had clearly realized that the elixir I had absorbed was the Frigid Ice Snow Lotus.
“……”
Jin Gwang-ung crossed his arms and stared straight into my eyes, as if trying to see through any trace of falsehood hidden within them.
After a moment, he slowly shook his head.
“You really are a strange one.”
“Strange, Master?”
“Not only did you somehow obtain the Flowing Flower Sword of Azure Cloud True Person—which countless people have failed to master for the past two hundred years—as if it were destiny, but right before the Great Assembly of Elders, your internal energy suddenly surged? And all thanks to an elixir left behind by your dead father?”
“……”
“You told me your late father was just an ordinary man who ran a small martial training hall, didn’t you? Yet the elixir you inherited doesn’t seem ordinary at all. What do you think? Doesn’t it sound suspicious even to you?”
It was a sharp question, but I had a prepared answer for this as well.
“My late father once said that in his youth, he found a dying hunter in the mountains by chance. He stayed up for days and nights doing everything he could to save the man, but the hunter eventually passed away.”
“So? What’s your point?”
“Before he died, the hunter gave my father the elixir as a token of gratitude. I believe that all the fortune that has come to me like destiny… is ultimately thanks to the good karma my father left behind.”
Jin Gwang-ung snorted at my words.
“Ha, you really are the incarnation of coincidence and destiny, aren’t you? Everything is either fate or connection with you. At this rate, the entire Kunlun Sect—no, the whole Murim—must be destined to take your side.”
“I have only spoken the truth.”
I looked at Jin Gwang-ung with eyes full of feigned sincerity.
He glared at me for a moment before suddenly bursting into loud laughter.
“Kekeke. Fine. Whether this ‘destiny’ of yours is real or just the sweet talk of a conman, I don’t know. But the fact remains that you became the winner of the Great Assembly of Elders thanks to it, so this old man won’t press you any further. Thanks to you, I got to see the noses of those unlucky first-generation elders get thoroughly flattened. That’s enough for me.”
Jin Gwang-ung, who had been chuckling for a while, leaned his face close to mine.
“But remember this: clumsy lies always get exposed. So if you’re going to deceive others, make it a massive scam that can overturn the entire world. Make sure everyone in the world falls for it.”
I smiled and replied to his words.
“Yes, Master. I understand it as a lesson to possess a heart bold enough to embrace the entire world.”
“Look at this guy. Still trying to deceive me to the end. Kekeke, good, good. I like it very much. You seem like someone who can truly accomplish something big.”
“Didn’t you yourself say that a tiger father doesn’t beget a dog son? I will live according to your teachings, Master.”
“That’s right. It seems both this old man and you are destined to live as great tigers who freely roam Mount Kunlun. I look forward to you making the Kunlun Sect even more lively in the future. Kekeke.”
Watching Jin Gwang-ung genuinely enjoying himself, I thought to myself:
‘Looks like this old man won’t bother me anymore.’
From his reaction just now, I could tell that no matter what martial prowess I displayed in the future, Jin Gwang-ung wouldn’t pay much attention to me.
‘Jin Gwang-ung is taken care of. Now there’s only one thing left to handle.’
As I was picturing my next plan in my mind, Jin Gwang-ung’s voice rang out.
“Let’s head back down. We can’t be late for the banquet in honor of the Great Assembly of Elders winner.”
Jin Gwang-ung placed his hands on his waist as if he had been waiting for this and started walking.
I followed behind him and quietly let out a breath.
‘A banquet, huh… Tonight will be a festival for Kunlun, but for someone else, it will be their last night.’
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of drums echoed from afar.
When I turned my head, I could see the Kunlun Sect buildings in the distance.
Even though it was still early, lanterns were beginning to light up one by one among the structures.
The long-awaited winner’s banquet was finally preparing to begin.
Just like in the life I experienced before my regression, someone would lose their life at tonight’s banquet.
However, one thing would be clearly different.
‘This time, the one who deserves to die will die.’
This was the future I had chosen—a future that would undoubtedly differ from the past.