CLS-Chapter 456

Chapter 456:

“Then who on earth created that secret manual?”

Sagan couldn’t contain his curiosity.

Though Sagan usually tried not to interrupt Guwangqushen’s words, he couldn’t bear this one thing.

“Curious?”

“Of course.”

Guwangqushen grinned widely.

“You would be curious. It wasn’t an ordinary matter, after all.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense like that and tell me clearly.”

“If you hear it, the rest of the story might become uninteresting. Are you still okay with that?”

“I’m not listening for entertainment.”

Perhaps this might be something forbidden.

To properly understand history, one must avoid hindsight bias. It was Sagan’s role as a historian to contemplate why people of that time made such choices.

If one knew the conclusion beforehand, right and wrong choices would be divided. Then one would inevitably view history with prejudice.

Even knowing this was an attitude to avoid as a historian, Sagan couldn’t help but ask. He was human too, and ultimately couldn’t overcome his curiosity.

“Since you’re so curious, I’d like to tell you, but…”

Guwangqushen looked at Sagan with a mischievous expression.

Sagan sighed and said:

“Alcohol?”

“No.”

“Then shall I prepare another table of food for you?”

“That’s not it either.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I don’t want anything.”

“Pardon?”

Guwangqushen shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t have an answer to give you.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know either.”

“…Excuse me?”

Guwangqushen smacked his lips.

“If I had known this, I could have gotten a grand feast out of it, what a shame. But I really don’t know. Who the owner of that secret manual was.”

“No, how can you not know that?”

“Wei Yan-ho seems to have figured it out, but he won’t tell me, so how can I know? And… it wasn’t really meaningful anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Because resolving the problems caused by that secret manual was the priority. At that time, we didn’t even know if that secret manual was really problematic. Same with later times.”

Sagan’s face showed he couldn’t understand what Guwangqushen was saying at all.

“So just listen to the story. As you listen, you’ll understand. Why I have no choice but to speak this way.”

“I understand.”

“Where was I in the story? Ah, yes…”

Guwangqushen gulp gulp drank the alcohol from his gourd and vigorously set it down on the ground.

***

I don’t know how to describe the situation at that time.

It was chaos.

Everyone came to know that what happened at the Tang Family wasn’t just the Tang Family’s affair.

Well, ‘everyone’ is a bit strange to say too. Those who felt a sense of crisis about that incident were people who controlled information in the martial world. For example, the Righteous Martial Alliance or the Heavenly Alliance.

Besides them, perhaps the Nine Great Sects knew as well.

Others probably didn’t really know what was happening. Surprisingly, crises that can collapse the world aren’t well-known to people.

When something erupts, it becomes a massive event that goes down in history, but if it’s somehow resolved, it becomes a crisis known only to those in the know.

Huh?

You think the response seems inadequate?

Isn’t that natural?

Listen, the martial world has dealt with countless threats so far. But most of those threats were things like someone invading or unsavory groups targeting martial world unification.

Conversely, no matter what happened, our response was nothing more than just beating up whoever was attacking. Heroes might be born in the process, or genius strategists might emerge, but the basics never changed.

But this incident?

We couldn’t deal with it that way.

It was the first time the martial world experienced such a thing. Think about it. There was no enemy. How do you block something when there’s no enemy?

Yes, we were incompetent.

Incompetent and stupid.

But what could we do? That was our limitation at the time.

Even if the current me went back to that time, there probably wouldn’t be much I could do. We were just taking the incoming waves head-on with our entire bodies.

Except for just one guy.

That guy was originally like that anyway.

When waves come while he’s lying down resting, isn’t he the type to make a fuss about smashing the waves?

But…

That actually works.

***

“Hmm…”

Wei Yan-ho gently scratched his cheek.

‘It’s a dream.’

Not particularly surprising. There was no reason for him to be dragged back to the cave. To this cave where every piece of moss on the walls was familiar.

“Where are you, Master?”

Wei Yan-ho looked around. When he came to this cave in dreams, his master was always there. But now, strangely, his master was nowhere to be seen.

“Maaaster!”

Wei Yan-ho cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted loudly.

“Noisy, you brat!”

“Huh?”

At the voice from behind him, Wei Yan-ho turned his head. On the small platform that could be called the only structure existing within this cave, his master’s inner core was humming.

“What’s with that appearance?”

“What do you mean, what’s with it? I’m usually in this form when I’m resting. Creating illusions is also burdensome, so I need to rest when I rest too.”

“I don’t really remember that…”

“…That’s because whenever I rested, you were always passed out sleeping.”

“Ah, that’s right. I did think it was strange when I occasionally woke up in the middle and Master wasn’t there. But I fell back asleep right away and forgot about it.”

“Pathetic brat.”

Wooong.

Baek Mu-han’s form began to be created in the middle of the cave.

White beard reaching down to his navel, neatly swept-back white hair, and fierce eyebrows with large eyes…

“Master.”

“What?”

“I have one curious thing. Is that really your face?”

“Of course it is.”

Wei Yan-ho stuck out his lips as if he couldn’t believe it.

“It’s an illusion anyway. It wouldn’t be strange if you made it roughly handsome.”

“Tsk tsk, stupid brat.”

Baek Mu-han clicked his tongue.

“I appear in this form because my appearance from when I was alive is easiest to implement. Because I’m familiar with it. As you said, changing my appearance takes a lot of concentration. And if I’m going to change my appearance anyway, I’d appear in a young form, not an aged one, right? And…”

Baek Mu-han looked around the cave once and smiled mockingly.

“Who’s here for me to dress up nicely for? To look good to you?”

“That’s not it, but…”

Wei Yan-ho’s lips jutted out.

Even in his eyes, Baek Mu-han’s appearance was incomparably magnificent.

“What’s the problem?”

“Honestly, it seems a bit unfair.”

“So what is?”

“Master, you’re from a prestigious family. The Ten Thousand Swords White Family was the greatest family under Heaven even when you were born, right?”

“That’s right.”

“But you’re strong in martial arts and handsome too… You had just about everything.”

“Indeed.”

“Your personality is the one problem… Hmm, thinking about it, the world isn’t completely unreasonable. Your personality devours everything else as much as you excel in other areas…”

Thwack!

“Argh!”

Wei Yan-ho rolled on the ground clutching his head.

‘This is really too much.’

Even though it was a dream, this pain alone was too vivid after getting beaten for five years in the cave. It felt as if his mind was protesting, ‘You got beaten so often, surely I didn’t forget that pain?’

“Pathetic brat, you should think about surpassing your master instead of being envious.”

“Those are really good words, but…”

Wei Yan-ho smacked his lips.

“When I was in the cave, I thought that might be possible. Actually, Master went easy on me a lot too.”

“Now you know.”

“But when I actually looked around the world, I newly realized how strong Master is. If Master had come out into the world with a body, you probably wouldn’t have met a single worthy opponent under Heaven, right?”

“How could that be? You’re looking down on the martial world too much.”

“I’m serious. I’m doing well in the martial world too. There probably aren’t more than ten people stronger than me.”

“Tsk tsk tsk, this pathetic brat.”

Baek Mu-han contorted his face.

“Are you calling that something to brag about?”

“Don’t compare me to Master from the beginning. Master, you’re the Sword Emperor.”

“Sword Emperor?”

“Master, they call you the Sword Emperor in the martial world. The greatest of all time.”

“Hmm, what a bland title. Stupid fools. If they were going to call me the greatest of all time, they should have given me a more impressive title. Like ‘Greatest of All Time, Strongest Under Heaven, Most Handsome Number One’ or something.”

“…”

It’s too scary that he’s serious about that.

“Anyway, telling me to do better than Master is like telling me to become the greatest of all time.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Hey, people need to know their limits. I’m someone who’s satisfied just being a neighborhood expert. That’s like telling someone who just learned the Thousand Character Classic to become greater than Confucius.”

“Goals should be big and grand. And there’s no law saying you can’t surpass me, is there?”

“Hey, that’s impossible for me.”

There are things you can only know after they pass. The stronger Wei Yan-ho became, the more he could realize how amazing his master was.

“I just want to live quietly. But these days, I can’t live quietly because of Master.”

“Because of me?”

“Yes. Master, did you ever create any secret manuals when you were alive?”

“Secret manuals? Why would I make such inefficient and stupid things with my own hands?”

It was exactly the answer he expected.

“Master, honestly, you right now aren’t the real Master. So I’m asking, is there any chance the real Master created a secret manual?”

“Unless his head was smashed, he wouldn’t have done that. If he was going to pass on martial arts through such an easy method, why would he go crazy and pour out all his inner power to leave behind an inner core and plant his consciousness in it?”

“Hmm…”

Certainly, this answer was correct.

Master wasn’t that kind of person.

“But just in case…”

“I said no.”

Baek Mu-han was irritated.

“Secret manuals? Do you think that scrap of paper could contain my vast martial arts? If I were to write down my martial arts, those books alone could fill all of Shaolin’s Scripture Repository. The Imperial Martial Archive? That would be insufficient too.”

It was incomparably arrogant, but it wasn’t exactly wrong.

If Baek Mu-han created a fly-swatting technique to catch flies, it would be superior to all the staff techniques under Heaven, and if he created a swordsmanship to cut radishes, the Supreme Ultimate Wisdom Sword would be reduced to kindling.

‘The more I think about it, the more terrifying this person is.’

“But a secret manual?”

“I saw a secret manual with martial arts similar to Master’s.”

“Hmm, martial arts similar to mine…”

Baek Mu-han tilted his head.

“There shouldn’t be such a thing.”

“What? It might be related to the Ten Thousand Swords White Family.”

“My martial arts are different from the family’s martial arts. You might feel my influence in the martial arts within it, but the way of unfolding it would be different.”

“What? Wasn’t Master’s martial arts the pinnacle of the Ten Thousand Swords White Family?”

A rotten smile appeared on Baek Mu-han’s lips.

Already, it was becoming unpleasant.