Chapter 174: TQC Code (1)

All the Yongchun and Blade Six executives gathered in the conference room of the Yongchun Group.

However, at the top of it were Chun Yeowun and Hwang-heol, who were the heads of both sides.

Hwang-heol was holding a laser pointer in his hand, showing a specific location on the 3D map on the table.

“There are currently 38 estimated locations. After tracing them, we searched through 483 places, and the remaining places are those that are yet to be checked.”

Blade Six had searched the outside of the gate whenever they had a chance after signing an agreement with the Ministry of National Defense and tried to get the locations for ten long years.

The search appeared to take a long time at first glance, but given it was done only when the gates were unlocked, it was astounding.

“Then it means that one of those 38 places is the MS Group’s base.”

“Cough, unless they suddenly decide to move their place, I can guarantee that there is a 90% chance of us being right.”

Hwang-heol said in a confident voice. It was reliable information.

The reliability of the information was high as the time when the Blade Six was under surveillance after the prison act wasn’t too long.

“38 places…”

Investigating those places alone will determine the base of MS Group.

“How do we help?”

Hwang-heol answered Chun Yeowun’s question.

“There is no need to look for them. In any case, this is what we've been doing. We only require some minor assistance.”

“Tell me.”

“The right to explore outside the gate barrier.”

Except for the government and Yongchun Group, no one could head out. The agreement with Yongchun Group was permission to wander outside freely even without any Gate warning.

[Ancestor.]

Chun Yu-jang reached out to Chun Yeowon through telepathy.

[The alliance had formed because of the command of our Ancestor, but we have been in a hostile relationship with them for a thousand years. Wouldn’t it be dangerous to just give them what they want?]

The right to move freely beyond the Gate barrier was an authority any Murim warrior and clan would want, so Chun Yu-jang was wary of the Blade Six.

Chun Yeowun smiled.

“Good. I will contact the minister of Defense and give you the rights.”

[A-ancestor!]

Chun Yu-jang was perplexed at how the man ignored his opinion. However, that wasn’t all.

“However, if you go outside the barrier to search, you take people from our clan outside. Do you agree?”

“I do.”

Hwang-heol said that he was fine with it.

If the authority was passed on without any condition, then it wouldn’t be long before Blade Six took over the power. Chun Yeowun blocked that in advance.

“Good.”

”We should be thankful for that. And hmm… There is one more…”

“What do you mean?”

Hwang-heol slowly showed a news article. It was the fake news about Geum Seong-ryong being involved in the prison act. Now, Blade Six was having a hard time moving properly because of this case, and all their contracts were terminated.

“What about it?”

“… Senior, you know it wasn’t me.”

Geum Seong-ryong said carefully to Chun Yeowun. They were asked to clear up the public misunderstanding.

At that, Chun Yeowun smiled and said,

“Isn’t that something you should do on your own?”

“Huh?”

Geum Seong-ryong, who thought that the alliance would help in the matter, was flustered by Chun Yeowun’s answer. Currently, he wasn’t indicted or anything, but the government was wary of him.

“If my charges are dropped, the scope of movement will…”

“It happened before the alliance. That is your task.”

“How…?”

Chun Yeowun pointed to the Lord of the cult, Chun Woo-jin.

“Our current Lord has been imprisoned for at least 27 years. That, too, was because he had been framed.”

Geum Seong-ryong was silent at it. He was a party involved in the case. He too had been one of the Murim warriors who was tasked to check the marks on the dead people.

“Be grateful that you aren't being forced to accept responsibility for it.”

“…”

Geum Seong-ryeong and Hwang-heol said nothing about it.

‘Indeed!’

On the other hand, the members of the Yongchun Group nodded their heads. In their hearts, they were all worried that Chun Yeowun would concede because of the alliance, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

The alliance negotiations were all done.

Ultimately, the details were decided by the Chairman and the Executives, and most of them were finalized by Chun Yeowun and Hwang-heol.

From now on, it's a race against time. Blade Six will do everything they can to find MS Group. And Yongchun Group decided to help the broken contracts of Blade Six to their side. It was a temporary solution, but in the long term, Blade Six would have to rely solely on Yongchun.

Of course, Blade Six will do everything to restore their honor.

In the conference room after Blade Six left, Bi Makpheon handed over a phone to Chun Yeowun.

-Teacher.

“Ark Young.”

It was Ark Young, the descendant of Ark Wui and Chun Yeowun’s disciple. He had been moved to Russian thanks to E’s ability.

“I heard what happened.”

-I feel so embarrassed.

Ark Young wanted to connect directly with Chun Yeowun. However, he waited due to the all-out war that happened.

“Where did you say you are now?”

-Near the city of Bratsk.

Bratsk is a small town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. He wanted to enter the city, but Ark Young didn’t have a passport and didn’t know Russian, so he couldn’t get through the wall.

-Teacher. I am sorry, but could you please send someone who can understand Russian and my passport here?

It’s impossible to wander outside the wall forever since the outside wall was full of toxic substances. It wasn’t good to be exposed to such things for long, even if it was Ark Young.

“I know. Keep your smartphone on. They will come.”

-I am sorry for all this.

“It isn’t your fault. Don’t worry.”

-Thank you for saying that. I’ll wait.

Chun Yeowun hung up the phone.

He was planning to meet the descendants of the North Sea Ice palace who had gone to the Olkhon Island of Lake Baikal in Russia.

Looking at the executives, ChunYeowun said,

“I will go to Russia for a while, it won’t take long so…”

“L-Lord.”

Baekgi had called for him.

“What?”

“Would you mind stepping back with the three of us for a moment?”

Chun Yeowun was puzzled at it. The three were Mun Ran-yeong, Hu Bong and Baekgi.

Chun Woo-jin, who noticed it, stood up and said,

“Ancestor, it seems like they have something to tell you. We will now take our leave.”

After he got up, the others followed him and left after they bowed.

Even Yu So-hwa, Im So-hye, and Shakena too went out.

Then Baekgi said,

“Lord. I heard from Hu Bong and Great Elder that you know the reason why we were hibernating.”

“Yes.”

They had a code divided into three parts left behind by Chun Mu-seong. It was the location of the time pack which was arranged for Chun Yeowun to access and come back to his era according to the seer called Seong Mu-chun.

“Lord. What Lord is doing is important, but I believe that finding that divine artifact as soon as possible is the right thing.”

Mun Ran-yeong too nodded at it.

“Baekgi is right. I too believe that, and with Baekgi, who was in the MS Group’s hands, I think that the divine artifact might have fallen into their hands, so retrieving it in advance seemed to be the right thing to do right now.”

“Oh! I think the same too, Lord.”

“… Please, you didn’t think the same.”

Hu Bong’s lips twitched at Baekgi’s words.

The trio thought the same. They thought retrieving it as soon as possible was the right thing to do.

“… I see.”

Chun Yeowun had been thinking about it as well ever since Baekgi regained his consciousness. If his guess was right, this divine artifact has to be a time pack.

“Phew.”

He sighed.

The time machine can be used by one person only. From the perspective of his subordinates, they didn’t mind dying for this, but Chun Yeowun couldn’t accept their sacrifice.

‘Right. That needs to be brought back.’

Only then can he analyze it and produce it. However, since the time pack was a future thing, there was a high probability of the materials not being available and Nano being locked.

Whei!

Mun Ran-yeong, who has become a bit proficient in modern culture, put a touch screen tablet on the table.

“I will draw my part.”

She sketched something on the white screen. A total of 36 triangles of various sizes were drawn.

“Huh? My wife’s drawings are different from mine.”

Next, Hu Bong sketched his 36 combinations of rectangles and squares. The last was Baekgi. Baekgi had circles and 36 different triangles.

‘TQC Code.’

The TQC Code, a cipher, was created around the year 2600. TQC Code can be interpreted by forming a combination of Triangle, Quadrangle, and Circle. It was a code that was completely impossible to interpret if one of the three people was missing.

The descendant, Chun Mu-seong, had taken measures to prevent the loss of the item.

‘Can you interpret it, Nano?’

[I will scan the TQC Code.]

Chun Yeowun’s eyes trembled as the code was scanned. The scanned code was superimposed into one location in augmented reality and then turned into a complex barcode-like pattern.

[TQC Code combination complete. Decrypt the password.]

It didn’t take long to crack it. Not long after, the map of China was shown and numerous red lines were drawn on it, all converged at one point.

Wheing!

The location was…

‘Hubei?’

It was at Hubei. It was a location far from Jinan City. While Chun Yeowun was looking at it, it seemed like a mountain valley.

“Hmm.”

However, there was a weird thing. If his memory was correct, the place was quite close to the coordinates that Hwang-heol pointed to as MS Group’s base. The distance was around 1 to 2 km different.

It felt like what he feared was becoming real.

‘I need to hurry.’

If he had been there before then maybe he had been there once.

‘Have I been to that place?’

As he asked in his thoughts, Nano answered,

[Coordinates 31°23'38.6"N 110°16'23.8"E. This is a place the user has been to before.]

‘What?’

So it’s really a location Chun Yeowun had been to? As he was puzzled, a video played in his eyes.

‘This is…’

The Dead Sword Valley. A long time ago, it was the place where his ancestor, Chun Ma, and Blade God had fought. It was the place where the mountain sank to the bottom and created the valley.

‘It was hidden there.’

It was the most unexpected place. In any case, it was better if it was still there. Since it was a place Chun Yeowun once visited then he could use the Spatial Movement.

“Lord, do you understand it?” Hu Bong asked.

Chun Yeowun looked at them and said,

“We are moving right now.”

A shower room full of hot steam.

Swosh!

A naked woman drenched in warm water from the shower with her eyes closed. The woman was appreciating the jazz music as she moved her body to the flow of music. She liked ending her day like this.

In front of the half-open shower booth, was a Bluetooth speaker, a large towel, and a silver mask with a mark C.

“Mmm~”

She was enjoying the music but then she stopped humming.

Grunt!

‘!?’

A crack appeared in the wall to the left of the shower, and a strange thing happened.

It felt like the wall parted and something appeared. The strange thing flinched.

“Uh!”

“Kyaaak!”

Crack!

Startled, she moved back forcefully, breaking the glass wall and falling. The man who seemed like he was stuck in the wall said with a frown,

“D-damn it! Lord. Wall-I am in a wall!”

It was Hu Bong who was caught in the wall. The naked woman, who couldn’t understand what was happening, slowly lifted her head and looked behind her as she felt something weird.

Behind her was a woman with red hair and a man in a black suit and sharp eyes.

‘T-this man?’

The naked woman couldn’t hide her shock.

Chun Yeowun, who was looking at her expression, asked.

“You… seem to know me.”