I will dance the 12th sword dance once.
He practiced and practiced the great sword technique of Bicheon Sword, which he achieved great success with.
It was a martial art that he had practiced for so long, but the feeling of using the Bicheon Sword Technique with his young body was different. This is probably why they say that even if you practice martial arts for your entire life, you will never see the end.
While practicing the Bicheon Sword Technique, I also practiced the Ki-Bal-Chul technique that my father taught me. I also tried to balance the internal and external energy that I gained through the Ma-Jeong-Dan.
As a result of repeated training.
After ninety-seven days of being here, I was able to perfectly control my increased air power. I was also able to produce more qi and more qi. It wasn’t quite spider web-like, but I was already able to produce more than ten qi at once.
“That’s it. That’s it.”
The remaining three days were spent quietly calming my mind and organizing the things I needed to do going forward.
On the hundredth day since I came here, I pushed the tombstone aside.
Then the door leading outside opened.
“Ah, this clear air! Bye-bye, Bye-bye, Bye-bye!”
I walked out of there, stretching my body.
At the exit of Sochon-dong, there was a single person from Cheonma-jeon waiting.
“Oh my! Your Majesty!”
He looked at me in surprise.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“I was waiting for this Confucius to come out, because he told me to bring him straight to Cheonmajeon. But I didn’t know he would come out this early. He said I had to wait at least 100 days from today.”
“How long have you been waiting?”
“It came out today.”
My father expected me to come out between the 100th and 200th day. That’s the talent he sees in me.
I think you’re rating it pretty high for this?
There’s another one there, at least you didn’t think I was going to die.
I followed the man, thinking that perhaps putting me in Sochon-dong was a reward rather than a punishment.
* * *
When we arrived at Cheonmajeon, my father was alone.
I walked slowly along the red carpet towards the throne where my father was sitting.
People call this carpet the ‘Blood Road’. How much blood must be shed to get there? How much blood must my father have seen to be able to sit there? How much blood must be shed to keep that seat?
“It took exactly 100 days.”
My mouth twitched at my father’s words. He said that the gate was broken in one day. That’s your son now. I guess I really have to go find the bamboo forest in the back mountain.
“I struggled, but I couldn’t break my father’s record.”
“Did you cut the sphere properly?”
“You cut it well without getting angry. You left me with such a clue, so of course you had to cut it well. You didn’t rest during the last welcome ceremony.”
At that moment, I saw a smile on my father’s face. It wasn’t the smirk I had seen before. It was a smile of genuine joy. But unfortunately, the smile disappeared as soon as it appeared. To my father, a smile is like a mirage.
“You’re not such an idiot.”
“Yes, whose son is he?”
Before my regression, I recognized my father as a man who enjoyed fighting over succession, risking the lives of his children.
But now I think I know. He is someone who would endure the death of his child for the future of the church, and at least he is not someone who enjoys fighting.
“But why did you call me?”
Before telling me what he wanted to do, my father called someone over there.
He was Sima Ming, the commander-in-chief of the military, who held the power of one man above ten thousand men in the school.
“It’s been a while, General Sima.”
“You passed through Socheon-dong in just one hundred days. You are amazing, Confucius.”
He was the commander-in-chief and the head of the Tongcheon Pavilion, which was in charge of the main school. He was a man with real power who held all the information of the Central Plains in his hands and was trusted by his father.
“It’s a punishment that I received for a hundred days.”
“Is it a punishment or a reward?”
Sima Ming smiled meaningfully.
“Perhaps you tried to punish him but failed?”
“ha ha ha.”
Sima Ming laughed, and I laughed with him.
After the greetings were over, Sima Ming got to the main point.
“The reason I came to see you today is to discuss a matter related to school.”
You called me instead of your older brother to handle school affairs? And right after you left Sochon-dong? This is definitely different from the past. Usually, you leave school affairs to your older brother. Even if you were out of town, you would have sent a letter to entrust it to him.
My gaze turned to my father, who was sitting in the Grand Historian beyond Sima Ming. Ultimately, this decision was something that involved my father’s will.
“Please speak.”
“A letter of complaint came in a while ago. It said there was corruption within the Demon Army.”
The Demon Army was one of the religious organization’s armed forces and its members were known for their rough temperaments.
‘ah!’
The reason I sighed inwardly was because the leader of the demon army was the younger brother of the Blood Heavenly Demon. It was the moment when the Blood Heavenly Demon was involved again.
“Last year, a complaint was filed and Hwangcheon-gak investigated it.”
The Hwangcheon-gak was an organization that investigated treason, corruption, and bribery. Due to the nature of the organization, it was a powerful organization that everyone disliked, but took precedence over everyone else.
“But the investigation at the time was a failure. No one testified about it, and the special investigator who was dispatched was murdered. The man who murdered him committed suicide.”
It was such a big incident that I remembered it too. It seemed to anyone that the investigation was obstructed within the Demon Army, but no evidence was found. In the end, the incident was covered up.
And as time passed, complaints came pouring in again.
“I would like you, Mr. Confucius, to become a special investigator and handle this matter.”
There was no need to ask, “Why me?”
This task, which smelled dangerous even before it started, was a test for my father.
In an elite organization like the Demon Army, being involved in a corruption case is a death sentence. In the end, anyone who commits corruption will try to hide their crimes somehow, and the investigators will not be lenient because they are the children of the Heavenly Demon.
And on top of that, you’re touching an organization whose leader is his younger brother, when the Bloodthirsty Demon even warned me?
——————
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“You are sending me to the brink of death.”
Sima Ming nodded and admitted it.
“That’s right. This mission will be life-threatening.”
I looked at my father. He was looking at me with a blunt face, and then he suddenly said something I had never expected.
“You’re going to grab them and put a leash on them?”
It was something I said to my father at the hunting grounds.
“That was when I became a heavenly horse.”
“So now you’re scared and can’t do it?”
“No, if you keep saying that, I can’t help it… … .”
My father saved Hyeolcheon Doma’s face by putting me in Sochon-dong, and he is trying to restrain Hyeolcheon Doma with this test. What on earth is my father’s true intention?
Suddenly, I remembered what my father had said that night while I was hunting.
-Father, can you kill me for you?
―If this is a problem for you, you shouldn’t use the word ‘poison’ so carelessly.
My gaze met my father’s in the air.
The blunt gaze was the same as when he went hunting, and the same as when he put me in Sochon-dong.
If you think about it differently, this is not the father’s decision.
Because I treated my father differently, and as a result, my father made his choice. In the end, it is also the path I chose.
“I said that while looking at those beautiful stars, so I have to take responsibility for it. I will take responsibility.”
My father smiled inexplicably at my cheerful acceptance.
‘I don’t know what your father’s plans are, but I’ll give you a cool sword dance.’
On the other hand, Sima Ming seems to be surprised by my acceptance.
“Are you okay? As I told you, this is very dangerous.”
“But we can’t just leave those who are raiding our school’s granary alone, can we? But there is one condition.”
“What is it?”
“Please give me the right to investigate as well as the right to summary disposition.”
Right to summary disposition.
It meant the privilege of not being held responsible even if the subject was inevitably killed during the investigation.
As this was an unprecedented event, Sima Ming looked at his father. His father nodded slightly in approval.
“Okay. But please exercise your right to summary disposition only when there is clear evidence.”
“of course.”
“Thank you for allowing me to do this difficult task.”
“If by any chance I die, please engrave on my tombstone that Mugeuk was brave.”
Sima Ming chuckled.
“Tomorrow, I will send an investigator from the Yellow River Pavilion to assist this Confucius.”
“If you’re going to do it, please send me a beautiful woman.”
“Hahaha. I heard that this Confucius has been showing a new side to him lately. He really has changed a lot.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Then I’ll take my leave now. This might be the last time, so let’s have a drink.”
After politely accepting the offer, he turned to leave and glanced at his father.
“Father, let me have a drink with you for what may be the last time… .”
My father got up and left without even listening to the end of my story.
I looked at Sima Ming and smiled.
“He may seem rough on the outside, but he’s actually kind to me.”
“It doesn’t look like that at all.”
After leaving a word with a smile, Sima Ming also left the place.
I spoke to him loudly.
“You are becoming more and more like your father, sir.”
Sima Ming also did not look back.
In front of those two, I tried to joke and play around. Because to them, I was a young and bright young man. I always told myself, let’s not bring the darkness of the past into this life. I was born again.
I stretched out my arms in front of Cheonma Hall.
If you pass this test, you will be one step closer to becoming the successor.
* * *
The next morning, Ian informed me that the Hwangcheon-gak investigator had come to see him.
“Your Majesty, I will also follow and help you.”
She knew very well how dangerous it was to investigate the Demon Army.
Asked instead for permission.
“Pretty?”
“yes?”
“Do you think the investigator waiting outside is pretty?”
“yes?”
“Don’t bother our cozy time! No jealousy!”
Then Ian said to me with a look on his face as if to ask what the heck he was talking about.
“The investigator is a man?”
“what?”
A moment later, the person who came in under Ian’s guidance was noticeably short and had a gloomy look in his eyes. And he really was a man.
“Nice to meet you. I am Seo Dae-ryong, special investigator of Hwangcheon-gak.”
His name was Daeryong, but his size was the complete opposite. Even his voice was small.
“Why are you here? I asked the General to send me the most beautiful woman in Hwangcheon Pavilion.”
Seo Dae-ryong, who had an awkward expression for a moment, shrugged his shoulders and answered.
“I guess I was the most beautiful woman in his eyes.”
Ian, who was standing next to Seo Dae-ryong, laughed heartily at his joke.
“Are you laughing? In this tragic situation?”
Ian quickly controlled his expression.
“no.”
“Oh, I was just trying to have some cozy time with a beautiful woman after a long time.”
I let out a forced sigh.
“Okay, let’s get to work. Tell me what you know about the Demon King. Just stammer. I’ll show you what a tragic fate is like for a beautiful woman.”
Seo Dae-ryong explained as if he had been waiting for my joking remark.
“The Demon Army consists of six divisions under the Demon Lord. Each division is composed of thirty people, and a total of one hundred and eighty-one people, including the Demon Lord, as an organization that only carries out the direct orders of the leader. There is no vice-lord, and a major lord acts in that role, and is the Demon Lord’s confidant.”
“You memorized it well.”
“Here are some materials about the demons.”
He handed me a thick document. It contained all the impressions and histories of the demons.
I took out one of them that I could get my hands on.
“Tell me about the bell.”
I thought I wouldn’t be able to memorize this, but he answered as if he had been waiting for me.
“I am a member of the Demon Army and this is my seventh year. My specialty is the palm technique called Guhonjang (求魂掌) and I am very cruel by nature. I like drinking and gambling so I have caused several accidents, but the Demon Army has covered them up.”
I asked in surprise.
“What? How do you know? Are you a friend? An enemy?”
“no.”
I took out another piece of paper and asked. This time, I knew exactly who he was.
“Did you memorize all 180 people here?”
“Yes. One hundred and eighty-one, to be exact.”
“Aren’t you a genius?”
“This is something I have been investigating for a long time.”
“No, no. If you memorized all of this, you’re a genius, a genius.”
“I hope you will recognize my efforts.”
“Oh, to be humble. It looks different now.”
He was short and had a somewhat gloomy look, but that gloomy atmosphere felt like the roughness of a genius.
“Isn’t there another reason you sent me away besides because I’m a beauty?”
“Oh, it’s no fun if you’re just humble, so show off a little. You entered Hwangcheon-gak as the top student, right?”
“How did you know?”
“This is it! Ian, did you hear that? How did you know when I asked if he was the chief? That’s the kind of answer you should give. He’s cool, he’s cool. But unfortunately, he won’t have a girlfriend.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Don’t you have a mirror at home?”
“I’m angry, but there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“What? A mirror? A woman?”
“No, it’s the courage to stand up to a rude superior.”
“ha ha ha.”
I laughed heartily. I somehow like this guy.
Okay, so let’s see how well you do your job?
“Then what kind of person is the Demon Lord?”
