Chapter 279: Heart to Heart (2)
Money, the more the better.
They say that once you reach a certain level of wealth, the curve of happiness starts to flatten.
But I could confidently dismiss that as complete nonsense!
The more money, the better!
Ten thousand nyang over one thousand nyang! A hundred thousand over ten thousand! A million over a hundred thousand!
In my life, there would never come a moment when the correlation between money and happiness did not rise diagonally!
Sa Gumhui, who had witnessed my madness for wealth, smirked wickedly.
"Fufu, it’s nice to see how clearly your greed shows, my junior!"
"Is there anyone in this world who hates money? I can only imagine how much you must have suffered to accumulate that fortune, Senior Brother…."
Moved by my words, Sa Gumhui's eyes glistened with emotion.
"You understand me, Junior!"
"Of course I do, Senior Brother!"
Sa Gumhui and I shared a heated embrace.
"The other brothers never acknowledged my hardships, only nagging at me day in and day out!"
"How could one accomplish great things by staying in just one place?"
"That’s why you’re my Junior!"
If Ma Seoyeon had seen this scene, she would have spat curses like, 'What a load of crap,' but…
She wasn’t here right now.
While still embracing Sa Gumhui, I whispered to him in a low voice.
"By the way, Senior Brother, is there any chance that your descendants might have used that fortune without permission…?"
Even if it was free, I needed to confirm the facts properly.
"Ah, you don’t have to worry about that. What I’m talking about is my private fortune, unrelated to the family. I buried it outside of Ten Thousand Mountain, so it’s not something they’d stumble upon easily."
Sa Gumhui nodded as if he had expected me to ask.
In other words, the chances of the Black Gold Sa Clan intercepting it along the way were slim.
I hugged Sa Gumhui even tighter.
"I respect you even more, Senior Brother."
"Fufufu, I’m glad I could properly fulfill my role as a Senior Brother."
Sa Gumhui then handed me a map.
"I was thinking of giving it to that slick guy from four hundred years ago, but I held back. Looks like it was the right choice."
…So they really did call the Second Heavenly Demon 'that slick guy.'
Anyway, the location indicated on the map was to the north of Ten Thousand Mountain.
A place practically devoid of human presence, right near the autonomous region of foreign tribes.
If it was somewhere like that, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it could sit there untouched for a thousand years.
"Well, I did set up a few traps for theft prevention, but with your skills, you should be able to overcome them easily."
Though he put slight emphasis on the word 'few,' I was too focused on the map to notice.
"Thank you, Senior Brother. This will be a great help."
"Even if you use it purely for your own greed, I don’t mind at all. Consider it a gift from your Senior Brother."
"……Senior Brother!"
As expected, he understood my heart better than anyone.
If there really was wealth equivalent to ten thousand gold bars in that place… the entire merchant world of the Central Plains would be reorganized into the Six Great Trade Guilds.
After our heartwarming exchange of brotherly generosity had concluded.
"Hmm, putting that aside."
Sa Gumhui looked at me with a curious gaze.
"I heard you were cooking up something interesting concerning Ma Seoyeon…."
"You heard?"
Sa Gumhui tapped his temple lightly with his finger.
"Your Senior Brother has quite good hearing, you know."
With each tap, a faint static electricity sparked around him.
He had not only mastered lightning qi but reached the level of Lightning Transformation, using it to enhance his physical body.
Especially when it came to hearing, there was no one who could surpass him.
"It’s not a bad plan. Though, I’m a little skeptical about the chances of success."
"…Why is that?"
"Both the Eldest Brother and Ma Seoyeon are the type who rarely show their true feelings."
Sa Gumhui had an accurate grasp of their personalities.
"I think that personality trait played a big part in us disciples falling apart like we did."
Was it that our hearts never properly connected with each other?
"More importantly, Ma Seoyeon probably believes she has no right to love the Eldest Brother."
"Because she killed the future lover of the Eldest Brother with her own hands?"
"Exactly."
Sa Gumhui gave a small chuckle and shrugged his shoulders.
"I don’t know the details of what happened, but Ma Seoyeon probably thinks she went mad with jealousy and killed the Eldest Brother’s lover."
"……."
"Because of that ridiculous sense of guilt, the relationship between those two has never progressed."
It was true.
The moment I heard that from Ma Seoyeon, I had similar thoughts.
But putting that aside, since the full truth hadn’t been revealed yet, it was too early to jump to conclusions.
And then.
"Of course, the real reason we all split apart was because we were affected by the changes in our Master."
"What do you mean by that?"
My question made Sa Gumhui respond with surprise.
"Huh? You didn’t know?"
"It’s the first I’m hearing of it."
At my words, Sa Gumhui scratched the back of his neck and groaned.
"Ugh! I guess everyone kept their mouths shut because there was no reason to bring it up. I mean, it would only stir up old wounds."
"Please explain, Senior Brother."
He let out a deep sigh as he looked at me with a complicated expression.
"Do you know that our Master isn’t a normal human?"
I nodded.
"I heard that the remnants of the Sun and Moon Divine Cult used fragments of the Demon Immortal’s soul to create our Master."
"Oh? Good thing you already know. That makes this easier to explain."
Sa Gumhui sat on a nearby rock and continued.
"Our Master was born with the unique karma of being a Guardian."
"I heard about that as well."
"The problem is, there are two types of Guardians—the Guardian of the Sun and Moon Divine Cult and the Guardian of the World."
Sa Gumhui let out another deep sigh.
"And the bigger problem is that we, the disciples, ended up inheriting parts of that karma ourselves."
Strictly speaking, it was more like we had volunteered to share in our Master's burden to lessen it.
"While the karma of the Sun and Moon Divine Cult was resolved when it was rebuilt, the karma of protecting the World got horribly tangled after we failed to destroy the Heavenly Evil."
"……."
"If there had only been one karma, it wouldn’t have become such a disaster."
In the end, the karma that the Heavenly Demon Founder carried had become the root of all these problems.
"One karma was fulfilled, but the other got tangled, creating an uncontrollable dissonance within Master."
The scattered fragments of the Heavenly Demon Founder across the world.
An obsessive fixation that transcended the limits of time, in the name of fulfilling that karma.
That must have been what he was talking about.
"We came here around that time as well. Master foresaw that he would lose himself to madness in the future, so we all joined forces and created this space to prepare for what was to come."
"Hmm…"
Sa Gumhui let out a small bitter laugh.
"Senior Brother Hwan Seong said that in the future, the Eldest Brother betrayed us, but I don’t think it was entirely his fault. I’m sure we, too, weren’t in our right minds, being influenced by Master."
"……"
In the end, they didn’t know the whole truth either.
Even Hwan Seong, who relayed information from the outside world to them, only knew fragmented facts.
Of course, since they were directly involved, their guesses about the future might be closer to the truth than anyone else's.
'Do I have to go back there to know for sure?'
The underground sealed cave managed by Cheon Jin-sang, the Master of Thousand-Day Pass, which was practically an ancient ruin.
With my current cultivation, I could supply enough inner energy to the Absorption Jade embedded in the depths of that cave.
I had a strong feeling that the truth about what happened after the Heavenly Demon Founder and his disciples faced their end was buried there.
"Things got a bit complicated, but let’s return to the main point."
Sa Gumhui spoke again, his eyes serious.
"If you truly wish to bring Ma Seoyeon and the Eldest Brother together, you must first resolve the emotional barrier standing between them."
"Emotional barrier…."
"This isn’t something that can be solved by simply pushing them toward each other. You’ll need something drastic to break down their walls."
He shrugged.
"Honestly, beyond that, I don’t really know. The other brothers deliberately stayed out of their relationship, so I don’t really have any advice to offer."
"No, this much is more than enough."
Through my conversation with Sa Gumhui, I had gained a key insight.
How I would go about solving it was something I would have to figure out from here on.
The fourth person waiting for me was my Fourth Senior Brother, Pa Gooncheong.
As promised before, Pa Gooncheong generously shared the Holy Saber and the supreme techniques of the Pa Clan without reservation. However, unlike the two people before him who listened attentively to my words, his reaction was different.
"To be honest, I’m not really interested in their relationship."
"Is that… so?"
"Whether they end up together or not doesn’t really concern me."
From his silent manner of teaching me martial arts, I truly felt no particular emotion coming from Pa Gooncheong.
'Seems like getting him to cooperate might be impossible.'
He only seemed like a seeker who pursued nothing but martial arts.
However.
While we were taking a break by the campfire, Pa Gooncheong suddenly spoke to me.
"That place where this space’s entrance is located, Yoo Family's Sacred Mountain… that’s actually the Eldest Brother’s hometown."
"Is that… so?"
I repeated the same words again, not missing a single beat.
"And after he took in Ma Seoyeon, I heard that he stopped traveling and stayed there for about two years to care for her."
Of course, it would have been difficult to travel to the Central Plains immediately after taking in a child who wasn’t even in good health.
But why was Pa Gooncheong telling me this?
I looked at him, silently asking for a reason.
But Pa Gooncheong casually betrayed my expectations.
"We’ve rested enough. Let’s resume the Holy Saber transmission."
"……."
Wait, seriously?!
After that, Pa Gooncheong occasionally shared more stories about the two while we were resting.
"I heard that on the backside of the mountain, rare blue spider lilies bloomed. Ma Seoyeon once said that going to see those flowers with the Eldest Brother was the greatest joy of her childhood."
"……."
I looked at Pa Gooncheong with a baffled expression.
For someone who claimed not to care about their relationship, you seem to know an awful lot of specific details about their past?
And some time later, he spoke again.
"Though spider lilies, called pianhua, are often associated with death and considered ominous, they’re not always used in a negative sense. Especially if they’re blue spider lilies."
I was starting to vaguely understand what Pa Gooncheong was trying to tell me.
"Next, Hwan Seong is waiting for you."
"……Alright."
"Hwan Seong… he might temporarily halt the succession and send you back to reality."
"……."
"It doesn’t mean anything in particular. Just the ramblings of an old man, nothing more."
Why don’t you just go ahead and tell me to bring back those spider lilies or something?
"If you really want to move their hearts, you’ll probably need something that allows them to share those old memories again. Well, that’s just my opinion…."
Pa Gooncheong muttered that he was going to take a break and wandered off somewhere.
Watching him disappear, I couldn’t help but smile quietly.
"Seriously, why not just say you want to help…?"
Despite his words, he clearly had a warm heart that still cared deeply for his fellow brothers and sister.