I Became the Hidden Chapter 7

The day Baek Sowol decided to leave the mountain.

Until the very end, Baek Yoonjun watched over Baek Sowol's martial arts training and gave her a large bundle of herbs from the backyard.

"If you're sick, make sure to take the herbs, and if you think something dangerous is going to happen, be sure to avoid it. Understand?"

"Yes."

"And as I said, when you go down, stop by the village and make sure to get a sword."

"Yes."

"And go to the guy I told you about and tell him to accompany you."

Baek Sowol, who had been nodding her head continuously, couldn't help but hesitate a little at the last words.

"Uhm... I don't know what kind of person the one Master mentioned is, but the road to the Heavenly Mountains is long and rough. Is it... okay to ask him to accompany me on such a long journey?"

"He might refuse if he really can't, but he won't refuse if you say it's my request."

A person who wouldn't refuse a request to accompany someone on a long journey that would span thousands of li.

She thought about asking what their relationship was, but since it seemed like she would see him soon anyway, she didn't ask.

"Of course, even if you have a companion, try to avoid trouble as much as possible. The reason I'm giving you a companion is because he has various skills and I think he'll be helpful in escaping."

"I understand."

"Then you should start heading down the mountain."

"......"

Now that it was really time to leave, Baek Sowol hesitated as if her feet wouldn't easily move.

Baek Yoonjun laughed heartily, "Hoho," and patted her on the back.

"This place is no different from your home, so you can come back anytime."

"Master..."

Tears welled up in Baek Sowol's eyes.

"What are you crying for? You're not going to die, and you can come back anytime, so go on now."

"I understand. I'll be back, Master."

And so Baek Sowol left, and Baek Yoonjun stood in that spot for a while, watching her receding back.

'If fate allows, we will meet again someday.'

* * *

After bidding farewell to Baek Yoonjun, Baek Sowol stopped by the village at the foot of the mountain as her master had instructed.

The structure, which was too large to be an ordinary village, felt more like a single sect than a village.

'I heard from Master that since the mountain is so green, it would be fine to call it Green Mountain, and if it's a sect in Green Mountain, then Green Mountain Sect? Qingcheng Sect? It would be a name like that.'

Baek Sowol searched for a blacksmith's shop while having useless delusions.

Since it was a small village, she found the blacksmith's shop quickly.

A blacksmith's shop that was not very large for the size of the village, and was old and shabby.

It was even quiet, as if it wasn't operating despite it being broad daylight.

Baek Sowol knocked on the door of the blacksmith's shop, but there was no response.

There wasn't even a presence.

"Excuse me."

In the end, Baek Sowol carefully opened the door of the blacksmith's shop and went inside.

The inside was quiet as expected.

Seeing that the tools and equipment were not scattered around, it didn't seem like it had been robbed.

"Is anyone here?"

Baek Sowol quietly looked for someone, looking around.

She also spread her senses, but there was no one caught in them.

At that moment.

"Who're you?"

"Heeik!!"

Baek Sowol was startled by the sudden voice and presence.

'I-I'm sure there was nothing caught in my senses?!'

Startled, Baek Sowol turned her head to where the voice came from.

There, a middle-aged man with sparse white hair and an unkempt, dry beard was looking at Baek Sowol with his eyes half-closed.

He looked like he had just woken up from sleep, yawning repeatedly and scratching his head.

The man glanced at Baek Sowol and.

"Ah, the immortal sent you."

He muttered to himself and rummaged through a pile of swords in the blacksmith's shop.

"Here it is."

After a moment, the man took out a sword and held it out to Baek Sowol.

"Take it."

"This is?"

"Didn't the immortal say he ordered a sword for his disciple?"

"Did he?"

Baek Sowol accepted the sword, which was in a plain scabbard, with a bewildered face.

"Well, I've given you what I was supposed to give you, so you can go now. I drank too much yesterday, so I need to sleep more."

"Ah, yes, th-tha-thank..."

"Goodbye."

Baek Sowol couldn't even say a proper goodbye due to the man's order to leave and came out of the blacksmith's shop.

Still dumbfounded, Sowol first drew the sword from its scabbard.

Shing.

"......!"

A sword blade that was white as if it contained the blue sky itself, yet had a faint blue light.

'This is by no means an ordinary weapon. Why is a person who makes something like this a blacksmith in a mountain village...'

Baek Sowol's curiosity deepened.

But considering the man's attitude just now, it didn't seem like he would answer even if she went back in and asked, so she just turned away.

'Did the blacksmith just now also make Master's sword?'

Feeling that the mysterious feel of the sword blade resembled her master's sword, she slowly moved away.

As she was walking, Baek Sowol found a small inscription on the hilt of the sword.

[White Iron Green Dew]

Baek Sowol's gaze was momentarily captivated by the crude but extraordinary inscription.

'Does it mean white iron that embraces the blue sky? It's a fitting name.'

Baek Sowol was a little bothered by the blacksmith's attitude, but she really liked the sword.

When she swung the sword on the spot for a moment, the sword swung as naturally as if it were a part of her own body.

'Master said he was a slightly skilled blacksmith in the village, but he's definitely not a blacksmith of that level.'

Baek Sowol, recalling the face of the blacksmith who was as extraordinary as her master, put the sword in its scabbard and tied it to her waist.

She wasn't fully grown yet and was on the smaller side even among her peers, so the sword almost dragged on the floor, but she walked through the village without caring.

The village she lightly looked around was not a very large city. At most, it was the size of a village where about a hundred households would reside.

It seemed there was no proper government office either.

In such a small village, people would usually react sensitively to outsiders. But the people here were strangely indifferent, with no one talking to or paying attention to Baek Sowol.

And if there was one peculiar thing,

'To say they are ordinary villagers, something is... strange?'

They didn't look like martial artists, yet there was a strangely extraordinary aspect to them.

And it wasn't just one or two, but all the people she saw passing by had that feeling.

'By the way, the name of the person he gave me as a companion was Hyun, right? But he didn't tell me his surname. Can I still recognize him?'

'Well, the village is so small, how many people with the name Hyun could there be? I'll find him soon enough.'

Having such trivial thoughts, Baek Sowol, who had been walking for about an hour, felt a strange sense of unease.

"...Huh?"

She thought she had walked quite a bit, but she was still somewhere in the village.

The problem was that the village she had glimpsed from the outside was by no means this big.

'What is it?'

She was puzzled, but she started walking again.

After walking for another half an hour,

"The same place... you say?"

The location of the buildings was different, but she strongly felt that it was the same place.

At the same time,

'There are no people!'

At some point, there were no people to be seen around her.

"A formation...?"

Her words trailing off, she looked around.

The weather was clear, and the buildings exuded the charm of a village, but the scene felt desolate due to the absence of a single person.

Baek Sowol kept her mouth shut and walked a little more.

After walking for about another half an hour, she was able to confirm.

'I'm trapped in a formation.'

Baek Sowol stopped walking and calmly looked around.

'Let's be calm. Master taught me about formations. If I think slowly and carefully, I'll definitely be able to find the life gate!'

She resolved and slowly retraced her memories.

-But Master, why do I have to study formations?

-To survive.

-The martial world below that mountain is a truly dangerous and terrifying place with many formidable people. It's no different from a demonic realm where it's difficult to protect even one's own body with just martial arts alone.

No matter how much Baek Sowol thought about it, it didn't seem like there were many martial artists like her master.

A question arose in a corner of her mind, 'Could it be that Baek Yoonjun is mistaken about his own realm?', but she immediately shook off that thought.

'There's no way someone like Master would make such a mistake. He's just endlessly humble and unpretentious, so he must be saying that.'

Baek Sowol, while accepting Baek Yoonjun's words, reminded herself not to listen to them carelessly.

Her master's words continued to come to her mind.

-Didn't I tell you before? That there were people who raided my residence. I was able to survive then thanks to the help of a formation.

-Th... I understand.

-Now, then, try to feel the energy. How is it, can you feel the energy of the Primordial Celestial Formation?

-I can't feel anything.

-What? That can't be.

Baek Sowol could never forget the look in his eyes as he looked at her as if he was dumbfounded.

-No, you can't feel this? You can feel it even without spreading your senses?

The gaze was like looking at someone who couldn't breathe.

-Seeing as you've perfectly learned the theory, you're not stupid, so why can't you do this?

It sounded a bit sarcastic, but at that time, her master's eyes were looking at her with genuine pity.

It was definitely not sarcastic or anything like that.

-Sowol, you seem to be... well, since you can't do formations, should I call you a formation disaster? Anyway, it seems you have no talent for formations.

For reference, this was a story from just a few days after he had said she had no martial talent.

"Ah..."

Breaking away from her thoughts, Baek Sowol stared blankly at the sky for a moment.

In the meantime, the weather was still very nice.

* * *

A day had passed since she was trapped in the formation.

"Ah, ahhhhhh!!"

Baek Sowol screamed.

"Damn it! Damn it! How long! Do I have to be like this?!"

No matter how much she wracked her brain, she couldn't think of a way to get out of the formation.

'He told me to study because even if I can't feel the energy of the formation, it would be helpful if I knew the theory!'

As she was going crazy, her master's teachings came to her mind again.

-Hmm, well, I've taught you what I can, but are you sure you remember it correctly?

-Yes? Ah, haha. O-of course! Master!

-I won't test you on whether you've memorized it, but it's definitely helpful knowledge. If you learn it properly, you'll be able to use it well.

-O-of course! Ahaha! But Master. What should I do if I forget about the formation, or if I get trapped in a formation I don't know?

-......

-I memorized it! I definitely memorized it, but I'm just asking just in case!

At Baek Sowol's question, Baek Yoonjun thought seriously and then opened his mouth with a grim expression.

-If such a situation arises... break it.

-Pardon?

-A formation is not about creating a place that doesn't exist in the world. It is strictly made on the ground, under the sky. In that case, wouldn't it be enough to just break that sky and ground?

It was strange for her master, who claimed to be an ordinary person, to talk about breaking the sky and the ground.

But at that time, she just let it go.

And the moment that memory came to mind, sparks flew in Baek Sowol's eyes.

'Right, let's break it. I don't know if it will work, but I'll just break whatever I can!'

"Hyaaaaaaaah!!"

Along with her anger, internal energy spread out in all directions from Baek Sowol's dantian.

Unlike her master, Baek Yoonjun, a tyrannical energy, as if to crush everything with force, spread out and then gathered at Baek Sowol's center.

"Die!!"

Baek Sowol uttered a curse, not knowing at whom, and threw a punch filled with menacing internal energy.

Pat.

But Baek Sowol's energy did not reach anywhere else.

Someone's hand had lightly blocked Baek Sowol's punch, which was full of internal energy.

"Look at this ignorant brat. I was watching to see what you would do, but you're determined to destroy someone else's house, aren't you?"

Baek Sowol, forgetting that she had lost her reason for a moment, became wide-eyed like a rabbit and looked at the one who had blocked her punch.

A young man, who looked to be on the verge of adulthood and was dressed like a scholar, was looking at her with a very crooked posture.

"I can feel a tyrannical energy, but it also has the feel of the Celestial Records. This should be called the martial art of the Heaven-Shattering Records, not just the martial art of the Celestial Records."

The young man, who had lightly blocked her punch as if nothing had happened, muttered to himself while looking at her fist, and then looked straight at Baek Sowol.

He was a man with dark circles under his eyes that looked like rotten pollack, but he had a strange sense of dizziness.

The young man looked at Baek Sowol with a crooked posture and opened his mouth.

"Right, you're the brat who came down from the mountain."

"Ye-yes?"

"So what's your relationship with Master?"

"What? Ma-master?"

"My master, Immortal Baek Yoonjun. What's your relationship with him, I'm asking."

'Ah, this is the person Master told me about, 'Hyun', right?'

After hesitating for a moment, Sowol slowly answered.

"I'm his disciple."

"What?"

The young man's expression distorted at Baek Sowol's answer.

"This old man didn't seem to have any intention of taking a disciple until now, and he took a disciple without even consulting me?"

Then he muttered to himself as if there was no one around.

Baek Sowol looked at the young man and asked.

"I've introduced myself, so can you tell me who you are, young hero?"

"Me? You mean me?"

At Baek Sowol's question, the young man crookedly brought his face close to Baek Sowol's.

"I'm your senior brother."

"Pardon?"

The corners of the young man's mouth went up crookedly.

It was a crooked smile that suited his crooked attitude very well, as if he was looking down on all the humans in the world.

"We have the same master, and I was initiated as a disciple first. So you are my junior sister, and I am your senior brother, aren't I?"

"...Pardon? No, that..."

Sowol, who had known that Baek Yoonjun had almost no one he interacted with, let alone a disciple, was quite perplexed.

But even in the midst of that, she calmly collected herself and asked.

"Then... what should I call you?"

"Senior brother should be fine for calling me, and we should introduce ourselves. What's your name?"

"Baek Sowol... it is."

"Hmm, I see. I'm Zhuge Hyun."

At the young man, Zhuge Hyun's introduction, Baek Sowol nodded her head.

'I see. This is the person Master told me to accompany. I was very curious about his surname, and it was Zhuge.'

As she was coming to that understanding, something suddenly came to her mind.

'Zhuge?'

Baek Sowol tilted her head for a moment at the not-so-unfamiliar name.

And soon,

"...Zhuge?"

"Why? Is this the first time you've seen a Zhuge?"

"Th-that is... Zhuge... Zhuge, you say?"

As someone living in the land of the Central Plains, how could she not know that surname?

His courtesy name was Kongming, his posthumous name was Zhongwu, and he was the chancellor of Shu Han who once looked down on the world.

Wasn't that the surname of Marquis of Wu, Zhuge Liang?

In the present day, the surname 'Zhuge' was nowhere to be found in the Central Plains.

'No. I've definitely seen it!'

In Baek Sowol's mind, a flyer distributed by the government came to mind.

On the flyer, along with a bounty of one thousand guan of silver, was a portrait of an old man with the air of a scholar.

Zhuge Hyun.

The young man, who resembled the old man on the wanted flyer, was saying the name that might be the only descendant of the Marquis of Wu.

(End of Chapter)