Chapter 903: A Lucky Day (3)

After eating breakfast at the inn and setting off toward Changbai, Qing’s mood was—once again—bright, fresh, exhilarating, and downright bubbly.

Because it felt like the luck that clung to her all day yesterday was going to keep going today, too.

See? There are already guys tailing me.

Looks like I’m getting a round in from the morning again today.

Sure enough, Qing’s sensitive senses caught a string of suspicious figures following behind her.

If they were ordinary sightseers or peddlers, there was no reason to trail after Qing while keeping distance.

It would be far more natural to hurry up and catch her—Where are you headed? Want to travel together? We’ll buy the meals—and propose tagging along.

So anyone who deliberately pretended not to know her, keeping a gap and tailing from behind, absolutely did not have good intentions.

Qing stroked Lu Bu, swish, swish.

So clever. Our Lu Bu can provoke people just by existing—like some wide-area taunt that summons bandits.

About half a two-hour watch after leaving Musun County, a huge lake spread out to the right of the road.

A large lake called First-Moon Lake—still locked in hard ice beneath Liaoning’s deep, lingering cold, casting a desolate, quiet landscape.

If you followed along the frozen lakeshore, there were two branching roads where the lake ended—one toward Manchuria, and one toward Huanin County—

Oh. Guess the bandits decided to do it here.

Qing saw the shape of a person standing blankly at the fork and let a quiet smile bloom.

She’d left the city and gone about half a two-hour watch—this spot, in other words, after about half and half-of-half of a two-hour watch—far enough out that it was already a peopleless mountain road.

If they went any farther, it would make the trip home after finishing the job too long.

So this was the perfect point for bandits to show their true colors.

Qing pressed down the excitement in her expression and slowed, guiding the horse forward at an easy pace.

The people at the fork were a man and a woman.

The woman wasn’t anything special.

But the man’s appearance was pretty striking.

He had several blades strapped left and right, and behind him a long spear-shaft rose up on both sides of his head—like he’d plastered every kind of weapon onto his body.

The kind of look that said he could throw down.

But thinking about it again, did he really need to carry so many different weapons?

If you didn’t care what weapon you used, you could just pick up anything and use it—there was no need to haul a whole collection.

And if he’d actually trained each weapon art, that was the kind of study where it was hard to become a master even if you dug into just one. If you spread yourself out like an octopus, how would you ever become a master?

Anyway, if she had to guess an epithet from the look of him—wearing every kind of weapon on his body—maybe Ten-Weapon Ghost?

Depending on his realm it could change, and if he was even higher, maybe Hundred-Weapon Ghost, and if he eventually made a name for himself under heaven, he might even evolve into Ten-Thousand-Weapon Ghost.

Qing had plenty of slack.

Sitting there with random thoughts while an enemy was right in front of her—wasn’t that the picture of excess calm?

Well, she couldn’t help it.

I’m a Harmonization Realm master—no, not just any Harmonization Realm master. Transcendent-Harmonization. If you insist on classifying it, I’m basically quasi-Transcendent Realm—(no I’m not)—a special kind of master independent from the normal distribution.

Up to Harmonization Realm, sure. No problem handling it.

I mean... a Transcendent Realm master isn’t going to pop out of nowhere with no warning, right?

Qing forced down the killing intent that wanted to leak out, hard.

Morning violence! A strong, powerful morning!

Strength calls for blood!

And I feel strong!

Buzzing with excitement, Qing approached the pair.

And when she finally stopped in front of them, she couldn’t help looking forward to what kind of nonsense these bandits would spout this time.

What’ll it be? Hand over the horse? That same old reward-cup, punishment-cup crap again? Or My legs hurt and that horse looks really nice? Or maybe they’d come up with some fresher bullshit.

And then—

She actually did hear something completely unexpected. Something genuinely novel.

“Heavenly Flower Sword. That you?”

Qing froze. Calling for me out of nowhere?

“...Who are you?”

“You don’t need to be that wary. A Harmonization Realm master hiding her face, wearing a large blade, and ‘three-headed’—khm, my apologies. Even if the rumor says that, it’s not something to say to a woman. In any case, I simply guessed you might be the Heavenly Flower Sword. That’s all.”

“Hah!”

A loud gasp.

It wasn’t Qing.

It was the woman at his side, who’d been standing there expressionless and bored—she was the one who gasped in shock.

“Heavenly Flower Sword? Are you really the Heavenly Flower Sword? Wow—seriously—I’m seeing the real Heavenly Flower Sword. This is incredible.”

The woman bowed at the waist.

“I’m Gongryang Sayoon. I watched your hearty meal and enjoyed it immensely. I’ve always prided myself on my appetite as well, but I realized there is always a heaven above heaven, and my eyes were opened. As a junior walking the same Path of Eating, please feel free to call me Sayoon.”

No matter what the woman did, Qing’s heart dropped straight down.

It wasn’t that he’d recognized her as Seomun Cheong and then called her Harmonization Realm.

He’d said, She’s a Harmonization Realm master, and those traits look like Seomun Cheong, so she must be her.

Meaning: he had seen through her realm.

But when did he see it—how could he read her realm?

Yesterday, she’d gone wild and thrown Force Aura around, sure, but she hadn’t revealed any “phenomenon,” so it wasn’t Supreme Peak... and it was still strange for “Harmonization Realm” to come out immediately.

Meaning: he guessed her realm the instant he saw her.

The realm where that was possible was—

“Um... are you, by any chance, a Transcendent Realm master?”

Qing was always strong to the weak and weak to the strong.

She cowered in front of the strong and stood tall in front of the weak—an unashamed little coward no matter where you took her.

So without her even noticing, Qing’s posture shrank.

“It’s true I’m Transcendent Realm. But I’m not a master.”

What kind of nonsense was that?

He said he was Transcendent Realm, but not a master?

If Transcendent Realm wasn’t “master,” then who the hell got called a master?

It was like a conglomerate chairman saying, I’m a conglomerate chairman, yes, but I’m not rich.

“I entered Transcendent Realm ten years ago. And in those ten years, I haven’t advanced even a little. How could I call myself a master?”

“Oh... I see.”

“At times I even wonder if I’m not in Transcendent Realm at all, but in some other realm. You know—if you want to reach Supreme Peak easily, you might fall into Demon Deviation. But then entering the next realm—reaching Transcendent Demon—becomes several times harder, they say.”

Suddenly the mood turned into complaining.

But with Qing shrunk in front of Transcendent Realm, she didn’t show it. She listened quietly to the grumbling.

“Maybe I’m like that too. I thought it was strange how easily I entered Transcendent Realm. Then once I actually reached it, I can’t take even one step forward.”

Mm. Isn’t that... normal?

People casually split a realm into early, mid, late, but by Transcendent Realm the gap was so severe those divisions were meaningless.

Her master had told her: one step forward after entering Transcendent Realm was harder than all the study you’d done up to that point combined.

“So after thinking and thinking, I reached a conclusion. If so, I should gather as many martial arts as possible. That’s why I’m traveling to learn martial arts.”

At that, Qing swallowed hard.

This conclusion was... no, the conclusion itself wasn’t that weird, but the actions taken afterward felt like there was a major problem.

“Uh... when you say you’re traveling to learn martial arts—do you mean what I think you mean? Usually, people don’t pass martial arts to outsiders. Especially if they belong to a sect—rather than let it leak, they’d choose death.”

“I thought it was just talk, but astonishingly, they really did choose death. Still, if they taught me their martial arts, I sent them on their way peacefully. Perhaps because of that, rumors spread about me in whispers. They call me the Plunderer Demon.”

Qing’s expression rotted instantly.

Goddamn it.

I thought this was a horse bandit. It’s a martial-arts bandit.

A martial-arts bandit who hit Transcendent Realm.

No—how are you Transcendent Realm and still out here robbing people?

And how does a Transcendent Realm master just appear on the road?

Qing felt wronged.

It was, objectively, a wronged situation.

Was Transcendent Realm some random criminal you ran into on the roadside?

Officially known Transcendent Realm masters were nine. Unofficially, everyone agreed there were more.

But in this vast Central Plains, only nine were officially confirmed—which meant a Transcendent Realm master was someone you might live your whole life without seeing even once.

Someone could say, Didn’t you get beaten up in the imperial palace too?

Sure, but that was the imperial palace. It wouldn’t be strange for Transcendent Realm masters to exist there.

But on some mountain road, with a Transcendent Realm master popping out and demanding martial arts?

It was a thing so absurd you couldn’t even imagine it.

And yet—

That thing happened in real life.

“There are other names I’m called, but I came today as the Plunderer Demon. So yes—I am the Plunderer Demon.”

And who was Qing?

A martial-arts thief who shamelessly stole other people’s martial arts through the mystery called the status window—so that even the victim didn’t realize they’d been robbed.

A martial-arts phantom thief.

A martial-arts Divine Thief.

And she really was, in fact, a Divine Thief in training, too.

In other words, you could say this was the dramatic moment when a martial-arts thief and a martial-arts robber met face-to-face.

Maybe it was inevitable.

“Don’t think of it too badly. I’m desperate as well. I do have some shame, so I’m giving you a chance to come at me with everything you have. It’s not exactly ‘payment’ for the martial arts, but experience crossing hands with a Transcendent Realm warrior isn’t a bad trade, is it?”

A person with shame wouldn’t try to plunder another person’s martial arts in the first place.

But it wasn’t a lie that fighting a Transcendent Realm warrior was precious experience.

And for the challenger, it was a situation where they could swing killing moves freely—to live, to protect their martial arts.

The Plunderer Demon’s last scraps of conscience—like a faint triangular trace rising from the worn-down outline of something that used to be conscience.

Of course, he was still just as conscienceless.

Who in the world would betray their sect and their master and hand over martial arts just to live?

So Qing, too, put on a grave expression—

Mm. Which martial art should I hand over?

That Moonshade Jade Maiden Divine Art that turns a handsome man into a beauty seems about right, but... no matter what, do I need the Seol bastard’s permission?

Though if it’s the Seol bastard, he’d probably say it’s martial arts from enemies he wiped out himself, so who cares.

No—wait. Would that just create a grudge with a Transcendent Realm warrior for no reason...?

While Qing was agonizing, the Plunderer Demon urged her on.

“Now then. Things have come this far—what’s the point of dragging it out? How should I face you? Sword? Spear? Saber? Crescent blade? Staff? You use a sword, so I can face you with a sword, or you could take this chance to experience a weapon that’s hard to encounter in real combat. Anything is fine. Which weapon shall I use against you?”

It was a welcome question.

Qing answered instantly.

“Then... if you’ll face me with fists.”

The Plunderer Demon’s eyebrows crumpled hard.

“Hey—do you have no shame? Fists? What fists? I’ve never learned that kind of trash technique, and with all these good weapons, who’s dumb enough to fight barehanded?”

“But you said I could pick anything.”

“I said pick among weapons. If I was going to use fist techniques, what’s the point of me lugging around all these weapons?”

“Still, fist techniques are the study of what’s most innate to a person, and in that sense—”

“Enough with the bullshit. Even you—fist techniques are the easiest for you, so you’re trying to pull a cheap trick and get me to fight you with that.”

Inside, Qing grumbled.

Damn it. That didn’t work.