I Became the Hidden Chapter 41

Stepping into the space behind the wall, Baek Yoonjun frowned.

A space glittering with gold.

There, gold coins were piled up like a mountain.

'How much is all this?'

For Baek Yoonjun, it was an amount that would make his eyes spin.

But he didn't take any separately.

'If it's not silver coins but gold coins, how hard would it be to use them?'

Since Baek Yoonjun had built a wall against social life in the first place, just going outside was a burden, and dealing with people and trading something for money was an even greater burden.

'I can handle up to silver coins.'

Even trading with silver coins was difficult, so to trade something with gold coins, which were more than that.

'If I trade with gold coins, people will probably get incredibly obsessed!'

If he went to buy clothes and offered a gold coin, the shop owner's eyes would widen, and what would he say?

It was obvious that they would approach him burdeningly, saying all sorts of things like they didn't recognize him, or that there were more expensive clothes that suited a great hero.

Just imagining himself trading with gold coins made Baek Yoonjun's complexion turn pale.

And so, Baek Yoonjun looked at the piled-up gold coins with eyes dripping with regret.

Swish! Swish!

He unconsciously moved his feet, avoiding the gold coins.

Rumble.

At that, the wall opened, similar to before.

Only then did Baek Yoonjun spread his senses and scan his surroundings, and he grasped that it was a structure where the wall would open only if he reached the end without touching the gold coins.

'The route to walk while avoiding the gold coins matches the thief's step from before, huh?'

Grumbling inwardly, Baek Yoonjun stepped inside the wall.

'Did a thief make this place?'

And so, after walking down the corridor for a while, a similar open space as before appeared.

Based on the lesson from before, Baek Yoonjun quickly spread his senses and scanned his surroundings.

'There's nothing particular installed.'

Relieved, Baek Yoonjun stepped inside.

There were quite a few precious-looking objects and booklets around.

Baek Yoonjun checked the booklets first.

He flipped through a booklet with no writing on the cover and read the first passage.

[I am called the Nameless Divine Thief.]

Since Baek Yoonjun had heard the word 'divine thief' somewhere, he immediately delved into his memory.

The answer, as expected, was in his past life.

-Divine thief? So, to put it simply, a great thief.

-Then is the secret cave of a divine thief a thief's dungeon?

-Huh? If you put it that way, I guess so? But divine thieves usually only deal with precious treasures.

-A treasure goblin.

-No, if you compare it like that, it looks a bit cheap.

-The secret cave of a divine thief is a treasure goblin dungeon.

-Let's not talk about it.

Having recalled his memory, Baek Yoonjun nodded his head.

'No wonder there were so many gold coins, it was a treasure goblin dungeon.'

Baek Yoonjun understood about the gold coins and the thief's step.

But there was something he didn't understand.

'What about the demonic art?'

The problem was not just the demonic art.

'Why is all this behind a Buddhist sect?'

Engulfed in questions, Baek Yoonjun turned to the next page.

* * *

She was an ordinary child born into a poor farming family.

However, she had an extraordinary talent, which was that she had a better eye for things than others.

From a young age, she felt a sense of incongruity in her surroundings.

Why is the value of a person different?

By the time she harbored such a question, she was sold.

Although it was a common thing for children to be bought and sold in poor farming families, she was sold while harboring that question.

The problem was that they were attacked by bandits during the move.

Although she dramatically survived, she fell into a situation where she could do neither this nor that.

It was obvious that she would not be welcomed if she returned home, and it was obvious that she would be pointed at with suspicion about her chastity if she went to her original destination.

And so, she wandered aimlessly, and one day, she accidentally discovered a group of thieves jumping over a wall.

With her good eye for things, she watched the thieves' actions from a distance and memorized them.

After that, she targeted a house with relatively lax security and robbed it.

From then on, she used her eye for things to rob others of their abilities, and her thievery began to become more and more sophisticated.

Obtaining numerous treasures and even robbing a family's secret techniques, her actions began to become more and more daring.

Robbing not only lax places but also low-ranking officials and high-ranking officials, at some point, she turned her eyes to the imperial palace.

The place where the Son of Heaven, the son of the sky, resided.

Pondering how different the Son of Heaven was from herself, one day, she set a date, infiltrated the imperial palace, and came face to face with the Son of Heaven she was curious about.

The Son of Heaven she saw was an ordinary human no different from herself, and at this, she was filled with disappointment.

Separately, she intuited that her life was over.

But surprisingly, the Son of Heaven hid her existence.

That day, the Son of Heaven and she talked a lot.

And she learned that the Son of Heaven wanted to leave the imperial palace.

But the Son of Heaven could not leave the imperial palace.

Although she thought that with her skills, she could take one Son of Heaven and leave the imperial palace, it became impossible due to a certain being.

The being behind the imperial palace.

No, the being behind the history of the Central Plains.

The being who taught sorcery to those who dreamed of defying heaven, who hinted to a mat seller that he was a descendant of a past imperial grandson, and who drove a wedge between a foster father and an adopted son from behind.

The being who changed the flow of history itself from behind.

She had accidentally confirmed the reality of that being.

But there was nothing she could do.

Because the affection she had felt for the first time in her life was there, she stayed there even if it was unreasonable and spent time with the Son of Heaven.

And one day, she witnessed the Son of Heaven being dragged down and the name of the country changing.

In the first place, since the name of the country was outside her interest, she had tried to save at least the Son of Heaven, but the Son of Heaven was already dead.

Although it seemed there was nothing she couldn't steal in the world, at that time, there was nothing she could do.

Because, as always, that being was behind that incident.

She realized.

The value of a person is all different and the same.

The farmer, the low-ranking official, and the Son of Heaven were all different and the same.

But in front of one being, they were all just ordinary.

Having confirmed the death of the Son of Heaven, she wandered the Central Plains aimlessly.

And she arrived at Mount Emei.

Already tired in body and mind, she just cooped herself up in the mountains and waited for the day she would die.

Then one day, she discovered a group of adult men and a group of girls.

For some reason, that sight overlapped with her past self.

She realized.

That even if the name of the country changed, nothing changed.

From that day on, she, who had been stealing things, stole people.

She stole girls in a similar situation to herself and had them stay at Mount Emei.

Although it was not out of pity or anything, and she was tired now, she didn't know why she had done it.

Like a thief, she stole the ways of the Shaolin, a men-prohibited area far away, and fixed them to create the Emei Sect, a women-prohibited Buddhist group.

It was a meaningful time for her for the first time since her time with the Son of Heaven.

But as such days repeated, a sense of anxiety continued to bloom in her chest.

It was fine when she was just waiting for the day she would die.

But after the Emei Sect, which was meaningful to her, was established at Mount Emei, she trembled in fear, not knowing when the threat of that being would rush in.

And so, in a situation where her life was not long, she decided to do something to warn about that being.

Since she didn't know what would happen to her if she was noticed by that being, she decided to leave something about that being, disguised as a secret cave where the secret techniques of Emei were hidden.

And so, just before she took her last breath, she left a secret cave in the domain of Emei that she held.

A secret cave that contained things about that being, the Black Heaven.

* * *

[Challenger who has passed my test. When the Black Heaven covers the sky again, I hope you will become a small starlight that will light up the dark sky.]

Having finished reading the booklet, Baek Yoonjun frowned.

'What is this?'

The contents of the booklet were hard for Baek Yoonjun to believe.

'I don't want to get involved.'

It was full of contents that he didn't want to get involved in at all.

'Besides, there's no evidence that this is true, is there?'

In the first place, not even the narrator's name was written here.

'This mat seller, could it be the story of Liu Bei from the Three Kingdoms?'

Although he didn't know about martial arts novels, since Baek Yoonjun knew about the Three Kingdoms, leaving aside the contents before and after, he could at least guess to some extent about the story of the mat seller.

No matter how he looked at it, it was a preposterous story.

'So this Black Heaven, this clandestine group, no, from what's written, it seems to be an individual, so this Black Heaven guy controlled everything from behind?'

Baek Yoonjun summarized the contents of the booklet and closed the book.

'The Three Kingdoms period was a long time ago, so wouldn't this Black Heaven or whatever have already gone to the other world?'

Although Baek Yoonjun didn't know the name of the current country, since he knew from the stories he had occasionally heard that there was a long time difference between the present and the Three Kingdoms period, it was a conclusion he had come to.

'And I'm not a person of the Emei Sect, am I? Let's hand this over to the sect leader and wash my hands of it.'

Pushing all the contents of the booklet to a corner of his mind, Baek Yoonjun made the choice to withdraw.

Perhaps because he had made up his mind, he didn't even give a glance to the extraordinary-looking objects around the booklet and was able to move his feet out of the secret cave.

Getting out was much easier than getting in.

He had already figured out how to move in the sections that required a certain movement, the formation was shattered, and the wooden puppets were still in the state of a wooden snake.

As he came out of the secret cave, sunlight poured down, and under it, Divine Nun Jihwa and Su Yeohyang, having confirmed Baek Yoonjun's existence, looked at him with surprised eyes.

"You've come out already?"

"Yes, it turned out that way."

At Divine Nun Jihwa's question, Baek Yoonjun nodded his head.

"I understand. Since it is a place with a rather tricky trial..."

Looking at Baek Yoonjun, who was quietly nodding his head, Divine Nun Jihwa smiled benevolently and joined her palms.

Seeing that, Baek Yoonjun noticed what Divine Nun Jihwa was thinking.

'Does she think I couldn't pass?'

Feeling somewhat wronged, Baek Yoonjun quickly answered.

"I didn't give up. I passed."

"What?"

Towards the surprised Divine Nun Jihwa, Baek Yoonjun held out the booklet he had found at the end of the secret cave.

"Besides this, I saw several other treasures, but this booklet seemed the most important, so I brought it first."

"This is..."

"Please read it."

Divine Nun Jihwa read the booklet.

Her expression changed seriously in real time.

"What kind of booklet is it?"

"Step back."

Gently pushing away Su Yeohyang, who was peeking from the side, Divine Nun Jihwa, who had been continuously reading the booklet, only then took a deep breath and closed the booklet.

Looking back and forth between the booklet and Baek Yoonjun with complicated eyes, Divine Nun Jihwa steeled her heart and quietly opened her mouth.

"Great Hero Baek. Could we move to another place and talk?"

"Let's do that."

Baek Yoonjun followed Divine Nun Jihwa.

Arriving at a secluded place, Divine Nun Jihwa stopped her feet, joined her palms towards Baek Yoonjun, and bowed her head deeply.

"First, thank you for fulfilling the wish of Emei."

Since Baek Yoonjun couldn't think of anything to say in response, he joined his palms and bowed his head.

'Since she saw that the founding ancestor was a thief and that it was written about a clandestine group called Black Heaven, her mind must be very complicated.'

Glancing at Divine Nun Jihwa, who looked complicated at a glance, Baek Yoonjun was quietly silent.

And so, after about a moment had passed.

"It's complicated. Did Great Hero Baek also see all the contents of the book?"

"Yes, as soon as I entered, it was the most conspicuous object, so I unintentionally looked at it."

Afraid that he might be held accountable for having seen the contents of the book, Baek Yoonjun answered Divine Nun Jihwa's question with the most polite expression he could muster.

After Baek Yoonjun's answer, silence flowed again.

Unable to bear the silence, Baek Yoonjun carefully glanced at Divine Nun Jihwa and opened his mouth.

"Are... you okay?"

"About what?"

"About finding out that your ancestor was not a person of the Buddhist school but a divine thief."

"Ah, that part is fine. Even if our ancestor did not have the will of the Buddhist school at first, her subsequent actions were ultimately to save the sentient beings that the Buddhist school talks about."

Looking at Divine Nun Jihwa, who cleanly passed over the divine thief part, Baek Yoonjun felt that he, who had taken that part seriously, was futile.

"As expected, those who are in the Buddhist school are different. I was worried that you might be hurt by that part."

"Thank you for your concern. Amitabha."

With the matter of the divine thief cleanly passed over, what remained was the matter of the Black Heaven.

'I don't want to get involved...'

As Baek Yoonjun thought of that, he wanted to get out of this place right away.

"Phew, come to think of it, I've been seeing quite a few groups shouting 'Black Heaven' recently, so I'm worried that it might be related to the Black Heaven that our ancestor left behind."

"Uh, I see."

Although Baek Yoonjun had also heard about the Black Heaven, since he didn't want to get involved, he pretended not to know.

"Although there are various complicated problems, there is something that needs to be made certain first."

To such a Baek Yoonjun, Divine Nun Jihwa politely held out the booklet in her hand.

Seeing that, Baek Yoonjun performed his lightness skill to its fullest and stepped back.

"Why are you giving that to me?"

"It is Great Hero Baek who has passed the trial. Naturally, the ownership of the items inside the secret cave should be considered to belong to Great Hero Baek."

"No, why is that mine? Naturally, it is an item that Emei should manage."

Divine Nun Jihwa looked at such a Baek Yoonjun with benevolent eyes.

'Great Hero Baek is as humble, incorruptible, and without greed as his appearance.'

Of course, it was a story that did not apply to Baek Yoonjun.

(End of Chapter)