When is a person most dumbfounded?

It is when they get cursed out while doing absolutely nothing.

And so, right now, Jin Sowoon was in a state beyond dumbfounded.

"I am a Beggars' Sect disciple!"

He could not understand why this beggar kept shouting that he was a Beggars' Sect disciple.

Did Beggars' Sect disciples have the right to curse at passersby or something?

On top of that.

"Dog-Beating Staff Technique! Break the Dog's Leg!"

Seeing how he was deliberately shouting the names of his moves while using martial arts, the bastard was clearly not in his right mind.

So Jin Sowoon pressed his emotions down, hard, and began beating the beggar.

Why the hell did the Beggars' Sect teach martial arts even to bastards like this?

Tsk, tsk. No wonder they get their asses handed to them by the Demonic Cult.

An information organization, and yet they did not even know which beggars inside their own house were crazy and which were not.

No, how was someone who did not even know how many spoons were in his own house supposed to know the affairs of another house?

Could an information organization like this really be called an information organization?

The Dog-Beating Staff was swung with considerable ferocity, but this was already a martial art whose Destruction Form had been revealed by Zhuge Cheongi.

Unless the beggar used the Ascension Form, it would be completely useless, and this beggar still did not know that.

"Urgh! Guh!"

Jin Sowoon struck the beggar's elbow with his scabbard to stop the staff's movement, then stomped on his foot just as the bastard's body was about to topple.

Then he kicked him up in the gut.

"Guhuk!"

Then he waited for the beggar bastard, who had floated up into the air, to fall before sending him flying with a roundhouse kick in one blow.

THWACK!

Because of this one move, that beggar would henceforth be called "the bastard who got hit by a roundhouse kick."

"Uuugh..."

Whether the impact had been quite severe, or whether he had become deeply troubled by the humiliating nickname he would be called from now on, the beggar sat curled up for a long while.

Whether they knew what was in his heart or not, his subordinate beggars rushed toward him, each trying to get there first.

"Boss!"

"Boss! Are you all right?"

"You just got hit by a roundhouse—!"

"Aaagh! Shut up!"

Even the worried voices rushing in from all sides sounded irritating, and Osam gritted his teeth and waved everyone back.

Because lying there just because it hurt was too humiliating.

"You c-cowardly bastard. How dare you...!"

A roundhouse kick... A roundhouse kick...

Was that not an act as cowardly as throwing dirt in someone's eyes in the Orthodox faction's Murim?

To Osam, who had lived his whole life as one of the Beggars' Sect's elites, it was utterly unacceptable.

"You bastard! Are you not afraid of the consequences?"

However, the slave trader, no, Jin Sowoon, did not even blink and instead let out a sigh.

"Haa, this damned beggar bastard is so annoying... I'm busy, so piss off if you don't want to get hit more."

"Th-That bastard!"

That exchange just now had clearly happened because he had let his guard down.

He had made a habit of shouting his move names so he would not create innocent victims, and in the end, that had come back to bite him like this.

Even so, he did not regret it.

As a proud Beggars' Sect disciple and a man who carried on chivalry, if he yielded to hardship of this level, how could he become a true Beggars' Sect disciple?

Osam rose to his feet and squared his shoulders.

"I will come at you properly now. Be on guard."

"... Haa."

Jin Sowoon clutched his head as he looked at that persistent beggar.

The martial art he assumed a ready stance with, saying he would come properly, was the Eighteen Dog-Beating Forms.

Judging by the look of it, he did not seem to have learned any higher martial arts.

Because of this beggar, his junior disciples' training had stopped.

'What the hell is this, when we're almost there?'

Perhaps his junior disciples also found time as precious as he did, because they could not take their eyes off Osam.

He even felt a sense of duty to quickly deal with this beggar for the sake of those adorable junior disciples.

As if telling them to trust only him, Jin Sowoon thumped his own chest and smiled benevolently at his junior disciples.

Of course, the other four were...

'Hang in there just a little longer, please! Let us rest too...'

'Another pitiful mortal has been added...'

Thinking completely different thoughts.

Jin Sowoon crooked a finger at Osam.

"Fine, when has my life ever been smooth anyway? Good, come at me. I'll just consider this a day for reforming a mad dog."

"Tahat!"

Following the opening stance, the forms of Passing the Dog's Tail, Sunflower Dog-Beating, and Wind-Dog Chaos unfolded in succession.

Jin Sowoon executed the Taiyi Eighty Thousand Divine Steps and smoothly avoided the Dog-Beating Staff.

At that sight, Osam's eyes flew wide open.

The Dog-Beating Staff Technique was one thing, but the Eighteen Dog-Beating Forms were not martial arts that could be dodged easily.

Moreover, not only beggars his own age, but even other four-knot beggars had a hard time receiving his Eighteen Dog-Beating Forms, so how could someone like Jin Sowoon smoothly evade the Dog-Beating Staff as if he already knew them?

'What is this...'

On top of that, he was not even dodging by much.

He was avoiding the Eighteen Dog-Beating Forms by the narrowest margin, with the bare minimum movement.

Being able to do this meant one of two things.

'Is the gap between me and Jin Sowoon really this wide?'

Either there was an enormous difference in martial arts between him and Osam, or he had memorized all of the Eighteen Dog-Beating Forms.

But even Osam had taken a year to memorize all of the Eighteen Dog-Beating Forms, so there was no way Jin Sowoon had them all memorized.

When his thoughts reached that point, Osam realized that this was not something he could handle with his own strength.

But it was already too late.

"W-Wait..."

"What do you mean, wait, you damned fool?"

Jin Sowoon drew back a fist shimmering with fist aura to his waist and glared viciously at Osam.

"This is the price for suddenly cursing at me for no reason."

THUD.

A tremendous impact swept through Osam, enough to make his organs lurch once.

And yet his body did not move even an inch from where he stood.

'Guhuk!'

Before Osam could even scream, Jin Sowoon's straight punch drove into his abdomen again.

"This is for the crime of ruining my luck by showing up in front of me first thing in the morning!"

BANG.

"And this is for interfering with my pretty junior disciples' precious training time!"

Jin Sowoon's foot, which had shot straight up to the crown of his head, came down and smashed into Osam's skull.

THWACK!

Amid pain that felt as if every bone in his body was being crushed to bits and even his head was about to split open, Osam recalled the sight he had seen earlier.

The four people walking in the dead of winter, sweating profusely, looking half-dead in a state wretched enough to make even a beggar shudder...

'Who the hell makes their junior disciples do something like that and calls it training!'

He wanted to scream from the injustice, but Osam had already yelped once and passed out.

PAT, PAT.

"What a beggar-like... No, he is a beggar. Tsk. What kind of beggar bastard is being this annoying?"

As Jin Sowoon brushed off his hands and approached them, Eunho asked with a genuinely curious expression.

"Um... But Eldest Senior Brother. Who exactly are the pretty junior disciples? Is there someone here besides us?"

"What are you talking about? You are the pretty junior disciples."

Huh? Did I hear that wrong?

"... Us?"

"Yes. Can't you tell from the way I care for you as if you were gold and jade?"

Eunho instantly broke out in goosebumps and lost the ability to speak.

"But Eunho."

"... Yes."

For some reason, Eldest Senior Brother's self-proclaimed affectionate gaze seemed to be heading toward his feet.

"Why have your feet stopped?"

"Uh... Huh?"

Eunho instantly spun his thoughts at high speed and answered.

"I found it far too difficult to restrain my rage at that beggar bastard who dared curse at you, the pillar of our sect, Eldest Senior Brother, and so... I apologize."

"Is that so?"

The remaining junior disciples, who had been watching Eunho with anxious hearts, quietly raised their thumbs.

After letting out a sigh of relief, Eunho hurriedly changed the subject to draw Eldest Senior Brother's attention elsewhere.

"But Eldest Senior Brother, didn't those people say they were from the Beggars' Sect? Is this all right?"

"And if it isn't?"

"They will definitely... bring more people."

What made the Beggars' Sect frightening was not the skill of each individual member.

It was the endless scale of their manpower.

Moreover, each of them had learned internal energy, however little.

Such people appeared and disappeared again and again.

The saying that there were a hundred thousand Beggars' Sect disciples was only an approximate number, and there were even those who said the real number was greater than that.

As people of Jianghu said.

Ten years would be enough to destroy the Shaolin Sect, but the Beggars' Sect would not disappear even after a hundred years.

"Did we not just provoke such an opponent? I think he kept singing 'Beggars' Sect, Beggars' Sect' because he knew that too..."

"Tsk. A beggar of the Beggars' Sect is still a beggar."

Yes, what did that matter?

"Move your feet already. Unless you want to get beaten half to death like that bastard."

Not getting beaten by Eldest Senior Brother right now was more important than anything.

"Y-Yes, sir!"

But those steps did not get far before stopping.

Nearly twenty beggars had swarmed over and blocked Jin Sowoon's party's path.

"See? What did I tell you?"

"Lee Eunho."

"Yes, sir!"

"You move your feet in place."

"..."

"If you don't, after I clear those away, you're dead."

"I was already moving them hard!"

Eunho began shuffling his feet in place as if he had stepped on thorns.

As expected, the thing he had feared had happened.

They were beggars, yes, but their opponent formed one pillar of the Nine Sects and One Gang.

He had not thought they could beat such a person into a pulp and then simply let it pass when his companions had come as well.

And yet Eldest Senior Brother's expression was utterly relaxed.

"Why did you lot come swarming over now?"

At Jin Sowoon's rebuke, the beggar in the most flamboyant attire among them stepped forward.

"I am Samcheol, the Third Sub-Branch Leader of the Xi'an Branch in Shaanxi Province."

"Enough with the introductions."

Jin Sowoon picked his ear and kicked Osam lightly with his foot.

"My training was interrupted because of this beggar. How are you going to compensate me for the damage?"

The Taiyi Sect junior disciples were left aghast.

'Crazy...'

'What is he saying?'

'Has he lost his mind?'

'Eldest Senior Brother... is strange...'

Samcheol, too, trembled all over at Jin Sowoon's attitude.

"You made a man like this just because he interrupted your training a little?"

"What? A little?"

Jin Sowoon spread his fingers wide and began folding them one by one.

"On top of that, he cursed at me and threw the first blow too."

Agitated by that leisurely manner, Samcheol shouted.

"Do you not know where that fellow belongs?!"

"What do you mean, I don't know? He even shouted the names of his moves with his own mouth."

"And yet you dare!"

Samcheol ground his teeth.

"You persecute a Beggars' Sect disciple?!"

"If a beggar has no eye for things, even his begging bowl gets smashed while he begs. You didn't become a beggar without knowing that, did you?"

"Reveal your identity. I will most certainly grind your sect and affiliation into dust!"

At Samcheol's bloodshot threat, Jin Sowoon gave a little laugh.

"The world has become a fine place. A mere Third Sub-Branch Leader is even threatening revenge. I wonder what the Murim Alliance would say if they saw academy students being persecuted like this?"

"What...?"

For a moment, Samcheol felt his spine turn cold.

Why had the status of academy student suddenly come up here?

Academy students were undeniably officer candidates belonging to the Murim Alliance.

The status of academy student itself was already no different from an identity tablet marking one as an officer of the Murim Alliance.

Therefore, protecting them was one of the Murim Alliance's foremost duties.

If academy students went outside and suffered an unexpected calamity, the Murim Alliance would always retaliate in the name of the Murim Alliance.

Putting future success aside, it was one of the reasons why those without backgrounds all sought to enter the Murim Alliance through the academy.

So what Samcheol had just said was no different from saying he would grind the Murim Alliance into dust.

"A-Are you not going to reveal your identity?"

However, there was no need to panic greatly.

Academy students also formed connections with one another inside the academy.

As it happened, a few beggars from the Beggars' Sect had entered this year's cohort.

Through them, this problem could be resolved any number of ways.

No, going further, he might even be able to receive an apology for the rudeness shown to a friend's senior.

"Reveal your identity first."

For that, information about the other party was essential.

"Good grief."

As if he had seen through all that, Jin Sowoon shook his head and answered dryly.

"Taiyi Sect."

"What?"

Samcheol frowned.

Some sect he had never heard of before... Hm, but why?

Taiyi Sect... Taiyi Sect... Taiyi Sect...

Why did he feel as though he had heard it a lot lately...

In an instant, Samcheol's eyes shot wide open.

"Hefei Divine Star! Taiyi Sect!"

Jin Sowoon clicked his tongue.

"What do you mean, Hefei Divine Star, not even Anhui Divine Star? Honestly, the level of the bastards who come up with these names..."

Samcheol carefully examined the delinquent-looking opponent's attire piece by piece.

A black martial robe with subtle embroidery.

A wholly black sword tied at his waist and a wicked-looking face.

And above all.

The front of his robes, bulging out so noticeably that it could not be hidden!

"N-No way... Are you the Black Flame Dragon?"

Jin Sowoon furrowed his brow, as if displeased by the title he had been called.

Only then did alarm bells begin ringing in Samcheol's head.

'I'm fucked!'

And badly.

#

Samcheol slowly turned his head.

Three young men who looked like half-beggars, but somehow resembled one another.

'Those are probably the Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers called the Iron Wall Three Dragons.'

A woman who, if only the dust and grime on her face were washed away, looked as if she would display beauty like a single blooming flower.

'That must be Hong Mungi's precious only daughter, Hong Saryeon.'

Moreover, they said Hong Saryeon had even had a personal meeting with Namgung Taeha when he visited the academy.

In the world's current perception, the Taiyi Sect was still nothing more than an insignificant sect, but from the standpoint of an information organization like the Beggars' Sect, it was no different from a Thunderbolt Bomb that might cause a massive explosion at any moment.

'The Black Flame Dragon... That bastard is someone no one can tell where he will bounce next...'

And the one standing at the center of them was none other than the Black Flame Dragon, Jin Sowoon.

He was the identity of the delinquent thug standing before him.

"Jin Sowoon..."

Samcheol asked in a low voice, as if chewing the words.

"Why... did you come all the way here instead of using the academy to return?"

Academy students made good use of their status.

One of the many benefits granted by the academy was consideration so they could comfortably return to their hometowns.

If Jin Sowoon had made proper use of that benefit, this unfortunate incident would never have happened in the first place.

Thus, he was asking the reason.

But Jin Sowoon picked his ear and tossed out an indifferent answer.

"Because I felt like it."

At the answer that came back, Samcheol's expression turned sullen.

"I am moving wherever I want. Do I need permission from beggars for that too?"

"..."

The logic was too obvious, and there was no more room to nitpick.

It was unfair that Osam had been beaten, but it was also Osam's fault for failing to properly grasp his opponent and picking a fight.

It was right to end matters here.

"Fine. It seems there was a misunderstanding between us. How about we quietly settle things here?"

The background of the Murim Academy was frightening, but they were, in the end, the Beggars' Sect.

Compared to the Taiyi Sect, they were an enormous sect and information organization.

The Taiyi Sect would not want to make an enemy of such a Beggars' Sect either.

"Let's do that."

Hah, as expected, he fears the power of the Beggars' Sect.

Thinking he had roughly understood, Samcheol was about to turn away.

"On one condition."

Jin Sowoon's voice continued from behind his head.

"You properly compensate me for the damage."

"... Compensate you?"

Samcheol looked at Osam, who was sprawled on the ground with his eyes rolled back.

Then he raised his head and looked at Jin Sowoon, who was exceedingly fine, no, beyond that, standing there in a slouching posture.

Who exactly was supposed to compensate whom?

"Because of that beggar bastard, my junior disciples could not train properly. In addition, he tore my delicate heart to shreds with harsh curses. I need compensation for temporal and mental damages."

"... Ha!"

They said the Black Flame Dragon's tongue was sharper than most needles.

His skill at spewing outright nonsense was truly first-rate.

Samcheol was so dumbfounded that a hollow laugh escaped him.

"Are you not afraid of the Beggars' Sect's consequences?"

"What is this beggar bastard saying?"

As expected, that crazy... no, Jin Sowoon did not disappoint.

"If you did something wrong, you have to take responsibility! Does the Beggars' Sect not even teach such basics?!"

"..."

"That beggar bastard lying over there picked a fight with someone who was standing perfectly still and threw a punch. Even if we look only at the simple facts, the instigator and the victim are clear, so why do you keep spouting sophistry? You beggar bastard!"

Looking only at the facts, as he said, it was certainly the Beggars' Sect's fault.

However, in such cases, because there had been a misunderstanding between both sides, people usually let it pass...

"Are you not going to compensate me? Then pay with your body."

"... Wait."

At Jin Sowoon's attitude as he immediately tried to draw his sword, Samcheol stretched out his hand and bought time.

His head was now spinning faster than it ever had in his life.

'This bastard has no brakes. If I make this bigger in the wrong way, there is no telling where the sparks will fly.'

Look at all the bizarre deeds the Black Flame Dragon had committed until now.

Had the places he swept through not turned into miserable ruins, as if locusts had passed over them?

Moreover, the justification was on that side.

He was not afraid of the Taiyi Sect, but if it was the Murim Academy and the Murim Alliance, the situation was different.

The Beggars' Sect would not lose in the end, but if this matter became a problem, his own head as Sub-Branch Leader would certainly fly.

It might be better to settle this at a suitable level instead.

Having reached a decision, Samcheol spoke with a resolute expression.

"What price do you want? Money?"

Jin Sowoon stroked the bulging front of his robes and sneered.

"As if beggar bastards would have much money."

Samcheol barely suppressed his trembling body.

He was certainly a beggar.

Yes, he was a beggar, but... why did the words "beggar bastard" shouted by that son of a bitch lodge so damn unpleasantly in his ears?

Still, endure it.

Endure it.

The opponent was the crazy... no, academy representative, the Black Flame Dragon.

"... So what do you want?"

Jin Sowoon snorted.

"You bastards are selling maps again this time, aren't you?"

"..."

"Honestly, even after going through the Demonic Spirit Plateau incident, you bastards still learned nothing."

Contempt appeared on Jin Sowoon's face, but Samcheol pressed down his anger.

"Bring me that. Then I'll call it even and pretend this never happened..."

"Are you talking about the treasure map?"

Right now, the treasure map to the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk was being traded at twenty gold coins per sheet.

He was demanding that over one simple mistake.

This bastard was not just crazy, he was a straight-up thief, wasn't he?

"Do you even know how much the treasure map costs before saying that?"

"What treasure map... You think I don't know it's just a map of the Thousand Caves?"

"...!"

Samcheol's hair stood on end.

How the hell did that bastard know that fact?

The Beggars' Sect was selling it as a treasure map to the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk, but it was not actually a map showing where the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk was.

It was only a map of the inside of a complex cave called the Thousand Caves.

They were merely predicting where the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk would appear around there.

Even so, the maps were selling like hotcakes.

Twenty gold coins for a single map was an absurd sum, but when one calculated the hope of protecting one's one and only life and obtaining the Five-Spirit Immortal Flower Milk, it was extremely cheap.

"What on earth are you talking about..."

"If you're going to play dumb, then forget it."

Jin Sowoon tried to draw his sword again.

"Wait!"

"What?"

Samcheol asked urgently.

"How did you know that..."

"Twenty gold coins."

"... Huh?"

Jin Sowoon wiggled two fingers.

"If you want to know how I found out, pay twenty gold coins. A bastard who buys and sells information is trying to get information for free without any conscience."

"..."

"Are you buying?"

What is this guy?

What is he really?

"... Forget it."

"And the map?"

"..."

After agonizing over it, Samcheol ultimately made a decision.

Even if one had the map, it was not a place one could enter.

Rather than continue quarreling with this dangerous man, it was far better to hand over the map.

"... Fine."

"Then that's settled."

Just as the two reached a dramatic agreement.

"Uuugh..."

Osam, who had been unconscious, barely raised himself up, then discovered Samcheol and cried out like a baby bird searching for its mother.

"S-Sub-Branch Leader! That bastard! It's that bastard! He doesn't know the terror of a hundred thousand Beggars' Sect disciples, and a mere academy student dared to lay hands on me, an elite of the Beggars' Sect..."

But Osam's desperation did not continue.

THWACK, THWACK, THWACK, THWACK, THWACK, THWACK!

Because in the blink of an eye, the Drunken Eight Immortals Fist exploded from Samcheol's hand and smashed Osam in the jaw.

As he lost consciousness once more, Osam looked at Jin Sowoon, who was sneering at him, and thought.

'No, why... me...'

Of course, there was no one to explain the reason to him.