Chapter 166

“Maknae.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

“To be honest, it’s all thanks to you.”

“I’m not sure about that. It was you, First Brother, who raised your realm. I appreciate the kind words, but I can’t accept the credit for that.”

“...Wow... what are you, some old man in a young man’s body? I’ve felt this for a while, but hasn’t your way of speaking gotten way too mature?”

I looked silently at First Brother.

Noticing my gaze, he reached into his robes and discreetly took something out, pressing it into my hand.

It was a small box.

“A Great Restoration Pill.”

The quiet whisper near my ear made my eyes widen.

“...This still exists?”

“It does.”

About four years ago, the Yongbong Assembly was held by the Martial Alliance.

The winner back then was a late-stage disciple named Wu Hwangseok, a direct disciple of the Suncheon Sword Sect, one of the Five Great Sword Sects.

And the Great Restoration Pill he received at that time was said to be the last one remaining in the world.

Its formula had been lost due to the Millennium Calamity. The idea that anyone could still have one was nearly impossible.

And yet here it was, in First Brother’s hand.

“There was a time long ago when the Martial Alliance held the Yongbong Assembly.”

“...I’ve heard of it.”

“Yeah? From who?”

“Second Brother.”

“Ah, Muryeon? If he told you, then you’d know. Back then, Yeonhwa dropped out during preliminaries and missed the chance to get this.”

“That’s what I heard.”

“So I bought it.”

“...Ah...”

“I meant to give it to Yeonhwa when the time was right. Maybe when she reached the Harmonization Stage, sneak it to her then. But in the end, I couldn’t give it to her. I ended up giving everything I had to get it. Turned myself into a beggar.”

“...If it was Wu Hwangseok of the Suncheon Sword Sect, then he was a direct heir of the sect. Even if the pill didn’t mean much to him, he wouldn’t have given it up just for money.”

A strange smile formed on Seol Horyeong’s lips.

“You’re sharp. No wonder you were the first of the Polar Lineage to make it to Commander. Your intuition’s deadly.”

“What did you promise him?”

“Nothing much. Just some gold... and a future favor. That’s all.”

“This pill is too valuable. I can’t accept—”

“Come on, just take it. You never know. I might enter a secret realm this time.”

My eyes twitched.

“A secret realm, you say?”

“Yeah. Baekryeongak sent me a letter as a gift for reaching the Entry-Spirit Stage. It mentions the location of a soon-to-appear secret realm. Judging by the time it was discovered and how the Celestial Compass reacted, it seems like it’s Divine-Grade Level 3. You know what that means. Those kinds of realms usually contain spirit pills and such.”

It was too precise to be a coincidence.

A martial artist from Baekryeongak just happened to be there, and just happened to be carrying the Celestial Compass?

Only one part of this could truly be chalked up as coincidence.

The timing of First Brother emerging from seclusion.

That part alone might be random.

Usually, the exact timing of a secret realm’s appearance is unknowable.

That’s common knowledge.

Like in the # Nоvеlight # case of the Demonic Path’s secret realm—what appeared inside, or what kind of mechanisms were involved, was almost entirely unpredictable.

Even if I had mastered the principles of heaven and earth, the world was still full of things I couldn’t know.

Just like how Yu Cheong was able to pinpoint the Demonic Path’s secret realm—there might be someone out there who possesses such a divine artifact.

And whether this secret realm was Martial God–level, Divine Level 3, or something else—what exactly it was, even I didn’t know.

Because not a single person had ever returned from it.

Yes.

It was that secret realm.

The one where the greatest genius ever born in the Snow Palace had died.

“First Brother.”

“Yeah?”

“This Great Restoration Pill... I think it should go to Yeonhwa-nuna.”

“Come on, Maknae. I’ve got something else planned for Yeonhwa—”

“This pill holds your heart.”

“...What?”

“You went so far as to go into debt to someone like Wu Hwangseok from the Five Great Sword Sects, and yet you never used it. Not even during seclusion. I can’t possibly accept something that carries so much of your heart.”

“...Damn... our Maknae’s turning me down? Didn’t think you’d resist this hard.”

I stared quietly at First Brother.

“Can I ask just one thing?”

“What is it?”

“Are you really going to enter that secret realm?”

At that, he gave a crooked grin.

“Maknae.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

“Do you know what I care most about in this world?”

It obviously wasn’t the title of So-Gungju.

I had a good idea.

What makes a genius a genius?

What drives someone like him to never stop striving?

Where did his freedom come from—what had created it?

“Secret realms.”

“Oh...?”

“To be more exact, the truth behind the Millennium Calamity.”

It wasn’t even surprising.

The Millennium Calamity.

An event that took place 700 years ago—one that wiped out a thousand years of history in the martial world. The greatest catastrophe in all of Murim history.

And there’s something that must be made clear.

The reason we say the Calamity happened 700 years ago is because that was when secret realms began appearing.

From then on, history had to be rewritten.

The gaps were filled with oral stories and fragments of accounts from survivors.

But.

No one knew why the Millennium Calamity happened.

Why the Primordial Era ended.

Why the mighty forces of that age—like the Nine Great Sects or the Five Noble Houses—vanished overnight.

Why their martial arts and artifacts only show up now in secret realms.

No one knew.

Personally, I suspected someone had deliberately erased it all... but who knows.

It could be that the information simply didn’t exist.

Even if I had been the Blood-Heaven Adjudicator, even if collecting martial arts had been my obsession, there was no way I could know everything.

And truthfully, I never cared much about the Millennium Calamity.

But First Brother did.

“...Damn... seriously... you’ve got terrifying insight. I’ve never told anyone this. How did you know?”

“I guessed.”

“Let’s go with that. Then, if you already know I’m obsessed with the Millennium Calamity, you must also know my answer.”

“Yes. I do. Even if everyone tried to stop you, you’d still go into that secret realm.”

“Right on. Secret realms sometimes contain fragments of history from the Calamity, right? Nearly half of what we know about the Primordial Era came from there.”

“That’s correct.”

“...Then why are you asking all this?”

“I’ve found something I want.”

“Just now?”

I nodded.

“Let’s enter that secret realm together.”

At that statement, Ju Soa and Commander Seong, who had been listening from a distance, shot to their feet.

And Seol Horyeong burst into a wide grin.

“Wha... wahahahahaha! Yeah. Let’s do it.”

***

First Brother stepped away for a moment.

The timing of the secret realm’s emergence was truly inconvenient.

It would appear in about five days from today—but the journey from Yangryeong Province to Cheonsnow Province, where First Brother was, would take close to four full days.

It was by no means a short distance. And from Cheonsnow to the secret realm’s location would take half a day more.

That meant if we were going to depart, we had to leave immediately.

“...Young Lord... this is... this is the one you mentioned before, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

Commander Seong already knew I had returned from the future. But the reason he wore such a grim expression now came down to one thing.

“...This isn’t the same as that secret realm that appeared in Yangryeong, is it?”

“It’s not.”

“At this rate, I won’t live to old age. Can’t you just not go?”

“Worried?”

“How could I not be? Seriously, why do you always...”

I smiled and brushed off Commander Seong’s shoulder.

“Isn’t this a man saying he wants to walk his own path?”

“...”

“When I was playing a match against Kang Cheonwoo, you held back Wonyang and Han Murin from interfering. Why was that?”

“...Because I respect you.”

“Same reason here. I respect my First Brother.”

This was the path a man had declared he would walk.

What had shaped Seol Horyeong into who he was now was a vast, burning curiosity—something that naturally guided such a genius forward.

Even if I told him not to enter the secret realm, he would still go.

And truthfully, even I was curious.

Why hadn’t he come back from that realm?

It hadn’t been a realm of the Demonic Path.

There had even been a martial artist in the Heavenly Human Realm, one in the Mythic Realm, and one in the Entry-Spirit Stage—three martial artists in total who had gone in together.

So how was it that not one of them returned?

I was dying to know.

“Don’t worry.”

“...Phew... fine. But before you go, could you at least help pick the unit members?”

Yangryeong Province was growing larger than I’d expected.

Security matters had previously been handled by people from the Shin Clan or the Heavenly Commerce Guild, but that arrangement was becoming inadequate.

It was understandable.

The black market had expanded, news had spread that we now controlled Shinsam Valley, the largest cultivation site for Divine Ginseng Flowers, and on top of that, No Cheonmyeong, a master of the Heavenly-Human realm, had established an academy here.

To put it simply:

This was a city protected by a resident master of the Heavenly-Human realm,

a city positioned at the frontier between the central plains and Everlasting Snow Palace,

a city with stable supply chains and abundant jobs.

If people weren’t flocking here, that would be strange.

So we created a force.

The name was Yangun Unit.

I hadn’t named it—Commander Seong had.

He took the “Yang” from Yangryeong and the “Un” from my name, Unhwi, forming Yangun Unit.

Ju Soa was appointed as the unit’s commander.

Under her, two sub-divisions were created: First Division and Second Division.

First Division Leader: Namgung Wonyang

Second Division Leader: Han Murin

Recruitment had already brought in nearly two hundred applicants.

“Commander Seong.”

“Yes?”

“While I’m gone, you’ll need to serve as acting Commander. Can you do it?”

“...If I must, then I’ll do it.”

“Then starting now, you’re acting Commander.”

“...Starting now?”

“Starting now. Wonyang, Murin.”

The two of them stepped forward at my call.

“You’ll be selecting your own unit members. They’re the ones who’ll take your orders—if I pick them myself, it wouldn’t be appropriate.”

They both nodded.

Then I turned and looked toward Ju Soa.

“Worried?”

“...This isn’t related to that demonic realm from before, right?”

“In the big picture, maybe. But in the smaller picture, no.”

“...You’re not going to just die some horrible death in there, are you?”

At those words, I let out a dry laugh.

Wonyang and Han Murin glared at her, while Commander Seong furrowed his brow sharply.

“Wait, why are you all looking at me like that? It’s not unreasonable to ask!”

Commander Seong stepped over and gently pressed down on Ju Soa’s shoulder, whispering,

“Come on, Commander Ju. Don’t jinx it with that kind of talk.”

“...I am worried, that’s all.”