Chapter 96. The Jade Record (7)

Thanks to our hurried pace, we managed to arrive at the valley where the Immortal Sword Master's secret cave was said to be located a little earlier than scheduled.

As we reached the entrance of the valley, Lee Jin-ho checked the Jade Record and said,

"From here on, it says there is an array set up."

"An array?"

"Yes. It says it's an array that disrupts one's senses."

Indeed, even with Baecheonbaek and Lee Jin-ho right in front of me, I felt a vague sense of haziness. It was as if there were always some people who seemed to lack presence whenever we went on a trip. It felt like they had become that way.

"Why would they set up such an array?"

Feeling uncomfortable due to the disrupted senses, Baecheonbaek grumbled, and Lee Jin-ho quickly flipped through the Jade Record and answered while looking at the book.

"According to this, it says that the array was set up so that no one could detect who is inside the valley."

"Hmm. Indeed, if the existence of the Immortal Sword Master were known, people would swarm here like flies."

According to the Jade Record, the Immortal Sword Master resided in a cave within this valley.

Dukgo Wola said that to prevent the Immortal Sword Master from being troubled by worldly affairs until his martial arts were perfected, she set up the Demon Sect's array at the entrance of the valley and in front of the cave where the Immortal Sword Master resided.

Fortunately, the array at the entrance of the valley was not particularly dangerous, so we could easily enter without needing to deactivate it. It seemed to be set up to prevent lost civilians from entering recklessly.

"Is this it?"

"Yes, it seems so."

The entrance of the valley didn't look particularly impressive, so I thought there wouldn't be much inside. However, when we actually entered, it was not the case.

"Wow..."

"Amazing..."

Upon entering and seeing the scenery, Lee Jin-ho and I opened our mouths in amazement. The place was truly a mystical wonderland filled with all sorts of strange rocks and rare flowers.

The water flowed clear and pure, and various flocks of birds roamed the other side of the valley, undisturbed by human presence.

Baecheonbaek marveled at the crane flying through the air.

"Indeed, this is a place where someone like the Immortal Sword Master could seclude himself!"

I felt that if I were to become a hermit in the future, I would want to live in such a place.

After admiring the scenery for a while, we decided to focus on the purpose of our visit.

"Then let's start looking for the cave."

"We should look for a place shrouded in thick fog."

According to the Jade Record, a thick fog array was set up in front of the cave where the Immortal Sword Master resided. As I looked around, I could see a cave in the distance, partially obscured by what looked like fog.

'Could it be there?'

The entrance of the cave was shrouded in thick fog, which seemed out of place with the surrounding weather. It was clear to anyone that something was amiss.

I called out to Baecheonbaek and pointed to the cave.

"Is that the cave?"

"It seems so."

Baecheonbaek nodded. Lee Jin-ho, who was checking the Jade Record again, also nodded, saying that the description and characteristics matched.

"Then let's go in."

"Alright."

Just as we were about to move towards it, we felt the sound of footsteps on the ground, and a low but weighty voice came from a distance.

"Stop for a moment."

Despite not being infused with inner strength, the voice carried a heavy weight, resonating throughout the valley as if it were an echo.

Feeling a chill, I quickly placed my hand on the hilt of my sword.

'Who could it be?'

Looking at Baecheonbaek, I saw that he was also in a fighting stance, ready to fight, sensing something was amiss.

Baecheonbaek gave me a look, and I nodded slightly, positioning myself back-to-back with him, with the trembling Lee Jin-ho in between.

Once we were ready to fight, Baecheonbaek, filled with inner strength, shouted,

"Who are you! Show yourself!"

"Let's do it."

With that, about thirty people appeared, surrounding the valley from all sides. Their attire varied.

'What is this?'

Most of them wore the clothes of the Nine Dragons Gang, but some wore the clothes of the Four Seas Sect, and others wore the clothes of the Yan Ying Gang.

'Why are they all here together?'

I clenched my hand tighter, sensing that things were not going to be simple.

Then, a middle-aged man who looked like a scholar stepped forward and said,

"Nice to meet you, Baecheon. I've heard much about your reputation."

As he spoke, a bizarre green dragon tattoo, difficult to describe, was visible on the left side of his face.

***

The man who appeared and spoke to us looked like an ordinary government clerk, but the tattoo on his left cheek gave off a strange aura of toxicity.

I hesitated, feeling the unusual aura, and Baecheonbaek, seeing the face, exclaimed in surprise,

"That tattoo... Mr. Gong? The Left Dragon of the Nine Dragons Gang, why are you here?"

"Do you know him?"

When I asked, Baecheonbaek nodded and replied,

"He is a senior member of the Nine Dragons Gang."

The man called Mr. Gong smiled sardonically and said,

"I had to come in person because nothing was going well when I assigned the task to my subordinates. Besides, there were many things to negotiate."

As he spoke, he pointed to the other groups. One person from the Four Seas Sect and one from the Yan Ying Gang stepped forward.

Baecheonbaek's expression twisted in seriousness upon seeing their faces.

"Simahen, Yanliang, even you two?"

The men called Simahen and Yanliang, whose attire was different from the ordinary disciples, indicating higher positions, were clearly not ordinary.

Simahen shrugged and said to Baecheonbaek,

"Since you're here to play, there's no way to refuse."

"Hmm."

Yanliang, standing with the Yan Ying Gang, nodded in agreement, though his expression was stern.

Seeing this, I understood the situation.

'They must have negotiated with the Four Seas Sect and the Yan Ying Gang to capture us.'

I felt a chilling fear, like a frog facing a snake.

My fear was not just due to the surrounding people. The man named Mr. Gong, who had managed to negotiate with people who had been trying to kill each other just a few days ago, was truly terrifying.

Looking at Mr. Gong's face, I thought,

'Where did he get the information... Ah, that guy.'

I recalled the waiter who had been lurking around our door a few days ago. That was when the information must have leaked.

I resolved to return and deal with that waiter in a way that couldn't be described in a family-friendly version, gritting my teeth.

Baecheonbaek, filled with inner strength, shouted,

"So, what do you want from me?!"

He sounded like a cornered beast. His voice was so loud that Simahen and Yanliang flinched and said in surprise,

"Goodness, what a temper."

"Hmm."

They feigned fear, but it was clear they were mocking us.

"Hmm..."

In contrast, Mr. Gong looked at Baecheonbaek and raised an eyebrow. The green dragon tattoo on his left cheek seemed to wriggle like a venomous snake.

Mr. Gong, who had been silent, began to speak in a low voice, trying to calm Baecheonbaek.

"Don't be so defensive. We're here to negotiate."

"Negotiate? Ha, what a laugh! With all these people gathered?"

"To negotiate, one needs power. With this level of force, I believe even you, Baecheon, would consider negotiating."

Mr. Gong shrugged as he spoke. Baecheonbaek growled in response.

"Do you think I'll play into your hands?"

Of course, Baecheonbaek's words were partly bluster. There were more than ten high-level experts, and the rest were all at least first-class.

At this level, even without a strategy, Baecheonbaek would have little chance of winning.

'Not to mention us.'

In this situation, Lee Jin-ho and I would only be a burden.

It was the worst-case scenario.

I considered whether we could escape if we tried our best. I had already scouted an escape route, so if we ran there with all our might and Baecheonbaek covered our backs, it might be possible.

However, that hope was soon shattered.

"Of course, I'm not alone. Hey, you can come out now."

Mr. Gong pointed to one of the people, and a man slowly walked forward.

"..."

The man, who appeared silently, had a white dragon tattoo on both sides of his face. Baecheonbaek's eyebrows twitched upon seeing him.

"Even Jianlong...?"

I tightened my grip on the hilt of my sword, ready to draw it at any moment.

Then, I heard Baecheonbaek's voice in my ear.

[It seems today is a day of more misfortune than fortune. The man with the white dragon, Jianlong, is a peak expert. Simahen and Yanliang are not ordinary either... I can't handle this.]

The game is over.

I relaxed my grip on the hilt. With such a significant power disparity, there was no way to win by force.

With one peak expert, more than ten high-level experts, and a swarm of first-class experts, even Baecheonbaek would find it difficult to escape alive.

Let alone Lee Jin-ho and me, who had no chance.

'So, what do we do?'

I gave a look that said, "Do you want me to bring popcorn?" Baecheonbaek, with a stern expression, sent a mental message: [Let me try to talk first.]

There was nothing else to do but leave it to Baecheonbaek. Baecheonbaek shouted loudly to Mr. Gong,

"Fine. What do you want? The legacy of the Immortal Sword Master?"

"Yes, that's all we want."

Mr. Gong nodded readily. Baecheonbaek, with a mix of bluster, shouted,

"Do you think I'll hand it over so easily?"

Mr. Gong, with a mocking smile, replied,

"Yes, I think you will."

As soon as he finished speaking, the people surrounding us drew their swords, and a thick, sticky aura of killing intent washed over us.

'Ugh...'

The killing intent from thirty people. If I hadn't been using the Heavenly King Heart Sutra to withstand it, I might have suffered internal injuries just from the pressure.

Looking behind me, I saw that Lee Jin-ho was trembling, clearly lacking resistance to such killing intent.

Seeing our state, Mr. Gong said with a mocking smile,

"I don't mean to be rude, but please listen to me."

"What is it?"

Mr. Gong pointed to Lee Jin-ho and me, and said to Baecheonbaek,

"Old men like us can disappear from the martial world at any time without regret, but it would be a great mistake to take young friends like these with us. Ha ha ha."

He burst into a hearty laugh. Though it was not a statement that someone planning to commit a crime should make, it seemed to resonate with Baecheonbaek.

Baecheonbaek grunted,

"Hmm..."

Seeing this, Mr. Gong, with a friendly smile, began to gently coax Baecheonbaek.

"All we need is your cooperation to obtain the Jade Record. We don't have any other demands, and we don't plan to kill or destroy."

He even spread his hands to show his empty palms, as if to emphasize that he meant no harm. To an outsider, it might have looked like a fair deal.

'What a con man.'

He was a typical con artist. The problem was that this con artist had a significantly superior force.

"..."

Baecheonbaek, deep in thought, looked at Lee Jin-ho. His expression asked, "What should we do?" Lee Jin-ho, with a fearful face, nodded helplessly.

It was a silent agreement.

Seeing this, Baecheonbaek finally sighed and said,

"Fine. Gong Jia! Hand over the Jade Record to your bandits! In return, let us go unharmed!"

Mr. Gong shook his head upon hearing this.

"That's a bit too harsh a deal."

"What do you mean by that?"

"That's an array in front of us, isn't it? You'll need to deactivate it for us."

Mr. Gong pointed to the thick fog at the cave entrance.

As he said, it was indeed an array, specifically a Demon Sect array. While it posed no particular danger, it could not be deactivated without knowledge.

We could have thrown the Jade Record and fled to buy time, but he had anticipated this and demanded the deactivation of the array.

'He's seen through everything.'

Baecheonbaek, gritting his teeth, shouted,

"Then what do you want?"

"Send someone."

"Send someone? What do you mean by that?"

Mr. Gong pointed to Lee Jin-ho and said,

"Send the young man there, Li Jinchu, to us. If he deactivates the array, we'll let you go unharmed."

I understood Mr. Gong's intentions.

'He plans to kill us?'

Maintaining the encirclement, he only needed to know how to deactivate the array. Insisting on sending Lee Jin-ho suggested he intended to use him as a hostage and then kill him.

Baecheonbaek, sensing this, resisted fiercely.

"Hmph! How can I trust you?"

"If you don't trust us, we'll have to fight."

Mr. Gong shrugged as he spoke. Simahen and Yanliang nodded in agreement.

"Ugh..."

Baecheonbaek now looked unsure of what to do. He couldn't fight, but he couldn't send Lee Jin-ho as requested either.

I carefully observed the situation and thought,

'Even if we hand over the Immortal Sword Master's legacy, we must save Lee Jin-ho's life.'

The Nine Dragons Gang, Four Seas Sect, and Yan Ying Gang are all notorious evil sects. After deactivating the array, they would likely kill Lee Jin-ho to eliminate any future threats. Indeed, they would almost certainly do so.

If that happened, Baecheonbaek and I would be in grave danger. They would likely attack us with the intent to kill. We needed a safety mechanism to prevent mutual destruction.

'What can we do?'

After much thought, I raised my hand. As I did, Mr. Gong looked at me, puzzled.

"Young man, do you have something to say?"

I looked up and, with a pleading expression, said to Mr. Gong,

"Can't you just tell us how to deactivate the array? If it doesn't work, we'll send the young man."

"Hmm. That's a bit difficult. What if Baecheon attacks while we're deactivating it? You need to trust us. Ha ha."

His friendly smile was a clear rejection. Seeing this, I raised my hand again.

Mr. Gong, seeing my raised hand, asked, puzzled,

"What is it?"

"Then how about this. How about an exchange of hostages?"

"Hostages?"

Mr. Gong looked at me, clearly surprised. I tried to look as serious as possible and said,

"Yes. Send one person from the Nine Dragons Gang. Then we'll send Jin-ho. That way, we can trust each other, right? We really don't want to fight."

The people gathered from the Nine Dragons Gang were all first-class or higher. Compared to Lee Jin-ho, who was not even a martial artist, they were of incomparable value.

'If they really don't want to fight, they won't kill the hostage.'

I looked at Baecheonbaek, who was standing beside me. I signaled him to nod quickly, and he did so.

"Right! If you really don't want to fight, send a hostage! That way, it's fair, right!"

Seeing this, Mr. Gong looked at me with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Young man, you're being unreasonable. Why should we...?"

Suddenly, Simahen of the Four Seas Sect interrupted Mr. Gong and shouted,

"That's a good idea!"

Yanliang of the Yan Ying Gang also nodded, saying, "Hmm."

With their agreement, the disciples of the Yan Ying Gang and the Four Seas Sect began to chatter, as if they had planned it in advance.

"That's a good idea."

"The Nine Dragons Gang has many people. Sending one as a hostage shouldn't be a problem."

"Let's get this over with quickly!"

Seeing the mood shift, Mr. Gong fell silent