Chapter 670: Isn't It About Time You Ate One?

TL: FoodieMonster007

With the Gentleman Sword at his waist, Geom Mugeuk continued to survey the area. He was hoping the Secret Box might ring, on the off chance a bead was hidden among the weapons or inside a display cabinet's drawer.

However, the Secret Box stayed silent even after he had inspected every weapon in the room.

Geom Mugeuk walked toward the door that led to the next room. Before passing through, he turned back and offered a farewell.

"I've had a good look."

It was a farewell meant for the souls of the martial artists who once wielded these weapons. This exhibition hall, after all, valued the lives of the weapon users more than the weapons themselves.

Geom Mugeuk opened the door and stepped inside.

This new room was smaller than the one filled with weapons, but it was still quite large when compared to the first room. Protective armors were displayed here.

Just as before, descriptions of the armors and the people who wore them were provided. Geom Mugeuk slowly began to look around.

"Oh, so I get to see the Alluring Robe in person!"

It was the protective armor of Yeon Gaek, a swordsman and playboy who had been popular with female martial artists long ago. The robe, which featured a beautiful woman painted on its back, was his signature garment. No ordinary sword qi could penetrate the image.

"I'm so envious! Someday, I will too!"

With that remark, which was half-joking and half-serious, he started to examine the protective armors in earnest. There were truly all kinds of them.

"So this is what the Silver Scale Armor looks like!"

The silver scales glittered so brightly that they were dazzling. Of course, it seemed to be lacking in practicality.

"The Arrogant Dragon Armor! How magnificent."

A roaring dragon was depicted on the chest. It seemed that if someone wore this to face their enemies, its sheer presence alone would be enough to intimidate them.

By far, the finest piece of protective armor here was this one.

"The Celestial Deity Armor!"

It was a protective armor renowned for being so light and flexible that it felt like wearing nothing. One should not underestimate it for its thinness, however. It was an armor that vied for the title of the very best, as it could not be cut even by sword qi or enhanced sword qi.

You bastards, don't even think about trying to fool me from now on!

Since the authentic items were stored here, any of the weapons or armors from this place being traded on the market would have to be fakes.

But still, would a martial artist really just leave this behind? It's the Celestial Deity Armor.

However, he had already decided not to choose a protective armor today. He had a certain thought in mind.

"That's right, training is the best protective armor."

He reluctantly moved on, comforting himself with that thought.

As Geom Mugeuk was looking at the remaining armors, something stopped him in his tracks.

The Ice Dragon Divine Armor.

The moment he saw it, Geom Mugeuk was reminded of that time three hundred years ago.

This Ice Dragon Divine Armor was the gift the Darkness Palace Lord had given to the Heavenly Fate Palace Lord, along with the Heavenly Yin Pill. Geom Mugeuk had witnessed it happen that day.

At the time, the Divine Sword Martial Emperor, the opponent the Heavenly Fate Palace Lord had to fight, possessed an inner art of extreme yang. The armor was given as a way to prepare for that. Geom Mugeuk, however, had judged it to be a trap.

The Darkness Palace Lord had been hoping for the Heavenly Fate Palace Lord to be defeated.

He could not be certain, as he had not witnessed the fight that day, but he predicted that the Heavenly Fate Palace Lord, who had prepared for an attack of extreme yang, was instead met with an attack of extreme yin.

The Divine Sword Martial Emperor must not have been the only one in that fight. The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had definitely been involved back then.

He looked around to see if there was anything else nearby related to the events of that time. Then, another item caught his eye.

Ah! This is?

It was not a protective armor. It was just a long piece of cloth.

The Saintess's Dream.

Geom Mugeuk knew what it was even without looking at the name written below.

It's the cloth the Saintess used to cover her eyes.

The Saintess he had met in the world three hundred years ago had been covering her eyes with this very cloth. He remembered the prophecy she had made.

Darkness will lead you to your heavenly purpose.

At the time, he had interpreted her prophecy to mean he would find the location of the large Secret Box through the Darkness Palace.

Now that he had confirmed their descendants had survived for three hundred years, the prophecy felt different.

That the fight against this hidden power is my heavenly purpose.

Geom Mugeuk slowly picked up the cloth named the Saintess's Dream.

"!"

The moment the cloth was in his hand, Geom Mugeuk felt a certain energy.

It was not an energy one could feel from a person's prayer or from martial arts. This energy was completely different, an auspicious and mystical force.

Was it because he had received a prophecy from the Saintess? Geom Mugeuk could clearly feel this energy, which had remained for over three hundred years.

Geom Mugeuk felt it instinctively. This energy was not for him, nor was it for anyone else.

It is for one person only.

In that moment, Geom Mugeuk thought of someone. The face of a person to whom he felt he should deliver this appeared in his mind.

If encountering the divine relic left by the Saintess here is also fate?

Geom Mugeuk did not hesitate and took the Saintess's Dream. This was Geom Mugeuk's second choice. His first and second choices were both for others.

Let's make the last choice for myself.

Having made his decision, Geom Mugeuk headed to the next room.

The moment he opened the third door, a strong scent told him what kind of room this was. This medicinal fragrance, always pleasant to smell, came from the place where miracle herbs were stored.

"Wow! This is incredible."

Countless miracle herbs were spread out before his eyes. The first thing that caught his eye was the Ten-Thousand Year Blood Ginseng. Several of them were displayed, each in its own box.

Had he ever seen so many Ten-Thousand Year Blood Ginsengs in one place? This was truly the first time. With them present, the Thousand Year Blood Ginsengs displayed separately nearby felt like mere balloon flower roots.

That wasn't all. Next to them was the Gu Yang Jin Dan, which bestowed an inner art of extreme yang, and across from it, as if to say 'the extreme yin inner art is over here', was the Divine Nine Yin Pill.

In front of those was the Pure Heart Pill. There were three or four of these miracle herbs, which one would be lucky to eat even one of in a lifetime.

And was that all? The Taeyang Dan and the Little Yang Pill, the Taiji True Heart Pill and the Gathering Clouds Pill, the Light Heralding Pill… there were truly all kinds of miracle herbs. And they were all very well organized.

Seeing this, he could once again appreciate what an incredible thing it was for Jin Paecheon to have let him in here.

What if he ate all these miracle herbs? What if he devoured them all like a madman and ran away? If one assumed there was even a slight chance of that happening, he would never have been allowed inside. The fact that he was let in anyway showed how much he was trusted.

The next room is probably the one with the secret manuals. Since I don't need any martial arts, I should choose a miracle herb here.

He possessed such a vast amount of inner arts that he wondered if he even needed more, but when it came to inner arts, the more the better.

He did not need to ponder which miracle herb to choose. As he walked along the rows of herbs, he met the commander of this room at its center.

"Blue Sky Stone Essence!"

It was the pinnacle of all miracle herbs. There was indeed a pure white bottle containing Blue Sky Stone Essence.

He carefully opened the stopper and looked inside, seeing what looked like a few drops of milky-white Blue Sky Stone Essence. Just a single drop had an effect superior to any of the other miracle herbs here.

"I was going to eat it all myself, but you sure are lucky!"

He was talking to his hyung. He had decided to split it with him. Why would he give it all away just because he liked him? Ah, well, he did like him a bit these days. Still, his hyung should be grateful to get even half.

"Chairman, I told you clearly when I came in. I said I would only take the best items."

And so, Geom Mugeuk had chosen the Gentleman Sword, the Saintess's Dream, and the Blue Sky Stone Essence. He had selected all three items he was allowed to take from this place.

Now, all that was left was to find the bead for the Secret Box to absorb. To Geom Mugeuk, this was more important than even the Blue Sky Stone Essence.

He meticulously searched the room with the miracle herbs, but the Secret Box showed no reaction.

Geom Mugeuk opened the next door and went inside. As expected, the final room was a place where martial arts secret manuals were stored.

Dozens of large bookshelves were filled with precious secret manuals that the Murim Alliance had collected over its long history.

"Ah, what a nice smell."

It was a good smell in a different sense from the medicinal fragrance. It was the scent of books.

Geom Mugeuk had become completely engrossed in reading in the Heavenly Demon Archives after becoming the Acting Cult Leader. He was now beginning to understand the joy of reading.

"I wonder what kind of books are here?"

Geom Mugeuk walked slowly, examining the bookshelves. They had mainly collected the martial arts of the orthodox sects. Regarding demonic arts or heretical arts, they had mostly gathered the martial arts used to counter them.

One could feel the will and confidence to surely suppress demonic and heretical arts with the martial arts of the orthodox sects.

There were ultimate martial arts that would make orthodox sects' martial artists faint, practically every other book. Geom Mugeuk did not take any out to look. For him now, the only martial art was the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

Thus, Geom Mugeuk walked slowly, passing between the bookshelves.

Secret Box, ring! Please, ring! You're hungry too, aren't you? Isn't it about time you ate one!

However, the Secret Box did not ring even after he had circled all the bookshelves.

Geom Mugeuk tried to shake off his disappointment.

Well, it can't be helped.

Geom Mugeuk did not rush. He had not been desperately trying to gather all the power of the beads from the start. He had only managed to collect three by faithfully following the flow of fate.

"No! It can't be! I have to find it!"

Geom Mugeuk went back to the first room. He started over from the beginning, meticulously searching as he moved inward.

From the Antitoxin Bead room to the weapons room, then from the protective armor room to the miracle herbs room. And finally, to the secret manuals room. He searched every corner, but the Secret Box did not react.

Ah! So the Murim Alliance's treasury didn't have a bead after all.

I had a feeling there would be one.

It's a shame, but I should still say my farewells before leaving.

"I've had a good look."

As he was about to just walk out, Geom Mugeuk looked back at the library. He had looked well at the other places as a farewell, but he was about to leave here without reading a single book.

"You know, I may not look it, but I've been reading quite a bit lately."

Geom Mugeuk picked the thinnest book from a nearby bookshelf.

"It's a commemoration of my visit here, so I should at least read one book before I go."

In a corner of this library space, there was a small chair against the wall, as if placed there for someone to sit and read.

It was when he approached that chair.

"……"

The Secret Box in his chest rang.

Geom Mugeuk was startled. He never thought the Secret Box, which had not rung no matter where he searched, would ring here.

Come to think of it, I only looked between the bookshelves, I never came to this corner!

There was nothing here but a single chair. The chair was also too small to hide a bead.

"There's nothing here."

At that moment, Geom Mugeuk flinched.

"No, there is something!"

Geom Mugeuk's gaze turned to the luminous pearl embedded in the wall behind the chair. It was a luminous pearl, placed there to provide light for reading.

That's it!

Indeed, as he approached the luminous pearl, the Secret Box vibrated even more strongly.

Geom Mugeuk very carefully pulled out the luminous pearl. Then, from behind where the luminous pearl had been, something rolled out.

What rolled out was a single bead. A yellow bead, the Yellow Orb.

Geom Mugeuk cheered.

"I found it!"

He would not have been this happy if he had found it from the start. Finding it after having given up hope made him overjoyed.

There was a reason he had not thought much of the chair in the corner and the luminous pearl above it. Luminous pearls were embedded in various places in every room. High-quality luminous pearls were embedded even in the corridor at the very entrance.

They were so commonly embedded in each room that he had thought nothing of this particular luminous pearl in the far corner of the final library.

Geom Mugeuk took out the Secret Box from his robes and placed the Yellow Orb on top of it.

HISSSS.

As always, the Secret Box absorbed the Yellow Orb. Soon after, the Secret Box vibrated greatly, and a golden energy began to flow out of it.

The energy of the Yellow Orb flowing from the Secret Box began to spread through Geom Mugeuk's hands and into his entire body, getting absorbed.

SWOOOOOSH.

The energy shimmered like light and spread like waves. The process felt incredibly pleasant. The sensation, like drinking cool water when one is at the peak of thirst, gave him a refreshing feeling that was simply beyond words.

Geom Mugeuk naturally began to perform the incantation he had learned before. As he did, the energies of the Black Orb, Green Orb, and White Orb, which had been dormant inside his body, reawakened.

These three energies began to move in a way completely different from his existing inner arts cultivation method, welcoming the newly joining energy of the Yellow Orb.

As the four energies coursed through the blood vessels of his entire body together, Geom Mugeuk had a new experience. His whole body felt as light as a feather, as if he could fly up into the sky.

At the final moment of the incantation, the four energies merged into one. In that instant, he felt the immense power contained within that energy. This power was a different kind of strength from that given by his existing inner arts.

However, the energies failed to fully merge and scattered again, falling dormant in his blood vessels.

Geom Mugeuk slowly opened his eyes.

"Haaa."

He had now completely absorbed the energy of the Yellow Orb.

Two colors remained. Only the red and purple beads were left.

Where could they possibly be?

What would happen if he gathered all the energies?

As he was momentarily lost in the afterglow of this mystical energy.

"……"

The Secret Box spat out the bead whose energy it had absorbed. The Yellow Orb that rolled out was now just an ordinary stone.

"Did you enjoy your meal?"

To Geom Mugeuk's question, the Secret Box, as always, simply smiled.

Geom Mugeuk placed the energy-depleted Yellow Orb back into its original hole and reinserted the luminous pearl. Then he sat down in that spot and read the book he had brought.

It was a text left by an old master longing for his hometown. As he read the words, he missed his father and the people in our Cult.

A short while later, Geom Mugeuk finished the book and placed it back in its original spot. If he had not thought to read a book before leaving, he would have never found the Yellow Orb. After all, he would never have a reason to enter this place again.

Long live the Heavenly Demon Archives! Long live the bookworm Geom Mugeuk!

Geom Mugeuk gathered the three divine relics and walked toward the entrance where Jin Paecheon was waiting.

"I've had a good read!"