Chapter 194

“Ahh, that hit the spot.”

Jeok Cheongang, who had said he was stepping away for a moment to relieve himself, returned a quarter-hour later. Something felt suspicious, and I narrowed my eyes.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Did you really just go relieve yourself?”

“Do you need to smell me before you’ll believe me?”

“But it took you a whole quarter-hour. Could it be that—”

“This old man has stamina to spare.”

“…”

How much stamina did he have if it took him fifteen minutes to pee?

At that point, wasn’t it less a stream and more a fire hose?

When I stared at him in disbelief, Jeok Cheongang raised his eyes.

“What? You got a problem?”

“Of course not.”

A problem? Me?

Considering all the help he had given me today, I could bow to him a hundred times and it still wouldn’t be enough.

And then there’s the other thing…

I pushed aside the thought that had suddenly occurred to me.

The Fire Gate Clan’s sacred treasure. The Fire King’s Disciple.

I also pretended not to hear the voices that had been whispering nonstop ever since.

Disciple? That’s ridiculous.

It was an issue I had never once considered before.

Why would a man accept as his new Disciple someone he had known for only a day—someone who had killed the Disciple he had cherished like a son?

Even if that Disciple had been a colossal son of a bitch.

As I was thinking about it, Jin Wikyung approached and respectfully cupped his hands toward Jeok Cheongang.

“I, Jin Wikyung, a junior of Murim, pay my respects to the Fire King Jeok Cheongang, whose fame resounds throughout the world.”

“Are you from the Jin Family?”

After scanning Jin Wikyung from head to toe, Jeok Cheongang nodded as though he had figured something out.

“Then you’re this brat’s father?”

“What?”

“Teach your son properly. The boy is young, yet he’s already getting hotheaded and causing trouble. His manners are terrible, too.”

Jin Wikyung answered with the darkest expression I had ever seen on his face.

“…”

“He’s my younger brother.”

“Hm?”

“I’m Taekyung’s eldest brother.”

Jeok Cheongang’s face turned serious.

“Don’t joke around. I understand wanting to look young, but getting too greedy will bring down Heaven’s punishment.”

“It’s the truth. I am Jin Wikyung, the Lesser Family Head of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.”

“…”

“By any chance, how old are you?”

“I turned thirty-six this year.”

Jeok Cheongang muttered with an expression of disbelief.

“You look forty-six.”

His face was, admittedly, somewhat—quite a lot, actually—more weathered than his age suggested. I had mistaken him for my father at first, too.

At least his hair was still thick, but there seemed to be no solution for a face that had taken a 160-kilometer-per-hour fastball from time.

Seeing the sadness on Jin Wikyung’s face, Jeok Cheongang tried to comfort him.

“It’s all right. A man is judged by his abilities. You’ve got a pretty wife and adorable children, so what more do you need? Heh heh.”

“I’m still single.”

“…At thirty-six?”

In modern times, that would only be around the age when people started thinking about marriage. But in Murim, where early marriage was common, thirty-six was old enough to have grandchildren.

The single Jin Wikyung answered shortly.

“Yes.”

“…”

This silence lasted a while. The Fire King furrowed and relaxed his brow several times, flaring his nostrils before finally heaving a deep sigh.

“Damn it. I could really use a drink.”

I snorted quietly. It was a feast day like this one—how could there be no alcohol? There was enough of it lying around to drown in.

“Would you like a drink?”

Jeok Cheongang’s eyes went round.

“You insolent brat. Are you making fun of this old man?”

“What?”

“Bring me the whole crock.”

A mood was like a spark. Once it went out, it was difficult to set alight again.

Yet even after the uninvited guests from the Zhongnan Sect had poured cold water over everything, the spark had not died.

No—in the presence of the Fire King, it had begun blazing even more fiercely.

“Wooooo!”

“Drink! I said let’s drink!”

“I never thought I’d live to see the Fire King in person!”

“When the Fire King gets flustered, he goes Right Fire King, Left Fire King!¹”

“…”

I didn’t know who that was, but that bastard had nearly put out the spark just now.

At my glance, Hyuk Mujin, who had been standing by, quietly slipped away to hunt down the mood killer.

Meanwhile, Jeok Cheongang was receiving greetings from countless people.

“Great Hero Jeok! It’s the honor of a lifetime to meet you!”

“Please do us the honor of visiting our sect sometime…”

“Please grant us your guidance!”

It was truly a sea of people.

The name Jeok Cheongang, the Fire King, was practically a living legend.

Moreover, his whereabouts had been unknown for decades, so most people had accepted his death as an established fact.

And now the Fire King, whom everyone had thought dead, had appeared—not in the Central Plains or Mount Jiuhua, but right here at the Jin Family of Taiyuan in Shanxi Province.

Of course everyone’s going to lose their minds.

Perhaps this was what it would be like if a legendary singer once called the Emperor of Pop came back from the dead.

Yet despite the enthusiasm of his local Shanxi fans, Michael Cheongang looked thoroughly displeased.

Jin Wikyung seemed to notice, too, and sent me a Sound Transmission.

—Youngest.

The only people who could carry on a lengthy conversation with the eccentric Jeok Cheongang were Cheongpung and me. But Cheongpung was impossible to predict, so in the end, I had no choice but to act as the messenger.

“Is there somewhere uncomfortable?”

“Look at the state I’m in. Wouldn’t you be uncomfortable if you were me?”

Jeok Cheongang glared at the wine crock beside him. Quite a bit of time had passed, yet hardly any of it had been emptied.

It wasn’t that he disliked alcohol. He simply hadn’t had enough time to drink.

“Damn it. It shouldn’t be this hard to have a single drink.”

There were people asking him to accept them as Disciples, Sect Leaders and merchants begging to host him as an honored guest.

One heavily pregnant woman had even asked if she could touch his nose. She wanted to receive the Fire King’s qi so she could give birth to a great person, or something like that.

Was he a dol hareubang or something?²

It was enough to make even the onlookers snicker. How much worse must it have been for the person at the center of it all?

Frankly, the fact that Jeok Cheongang had endured this much was impressive in itself.

“Why don’t we move somewhere I prepared in advance? It’s quieter there.”

“Ugh. Forget it.”

“You said you were uncomfortable.”

“I said forget it. Why are you so damn talkative?”

Even while grumbling, Jeok Cheongang stubbornly refused to leave. I tilted my head.

What’s going on?

We had known each other for only a short time, but I had gotten a fairly good sense of his personality.

It was obvious that he hated noisy places and found people’s attention bothersome. That was probably why he had spent his entire life on Mount Jiuhua in the first place.

Then why?

I watched Jeok Cheongang carefully.

In front of him, the owner of a merchant association with considerable influence in Shanxi Province was bowing and scraping.

“Great Hero Jeok! I’ve heard all about your thunderous reputation throughout the world. When I was young, I admired you so much…”

“Get to the point.”

“I have always admired you from the bottom of my heart, so I prepared a small token of my sincerity.”

“A small token?”

“Yes. It’s something I acquired recently, but I suppose every item has its rightful owner.”

The merchant took a small wooden box from inside his robe and opened the lid. A ring set with clear jade appeared inside.

“It is a Poison-Averting Ring.”

“A fairly valuable item. It must have been difficult to obtain.”

The merchant waved his hands exaggeratedly.

“Having the honor of seeing your noble face, how could price possibly matter? It only cost a thousand silver nyang. Heh heh.”

A thousand silver nyang for a single ring. It was among the most expensive gifts the Jin Family of Taiyuan had received so far.

Jeok Cheongang, however, merely nodded without much interest.

“Well, you’re giving it to me, so I’ll accept it gratefully. What was your name and where are you from?”

“I’m in charge of the Yangcheon Merchant Association…”

“Yangcheon? That’s near Hebei.”

The merchant had been interrupted before he could even give his name, but he bowed as though he had received an honor.

“Yes. We are trying to begin trade with the Hebei Peng Family, but it has been difficult.”

That was the merchant’s real purpose.

The reason he had come to Jeok Cheongang, even after offering a token of sincerity that was anything but small.

In short, he wanted Jeok Cheongang to help him establish a business relationship with the Hebei Peng Family.

“The Peng Family. Who’s the Family Head these days?”

“It is Great Hero Peng Cheolyeong, the Iron Blood Saber.”

“I’ve never heard of him. Is he the Thunderbolt Saber King’s son?”

“Yes, yes. The Thunderbolt Saber King retired from the front lines and passed the position of Family Head to him.”

“This old man once had a drink with the Thunderbolt Saber King when I was young. All right, I understand.”

That was the end of the conversation. The merchant left, grinning from ear to ear, after setting down the wooden box.

Beneath it lay a stack of bank drafts that had not been there moments ago.

I took advantage of the merchant’s retreat to whisper to Jeok Cheongang.

“You know the Thunderbolt Saber King?”

As his title suggested, the Thunderbolt Saber King was one of the Ten Kings, a Supreme Peak master just like Jeok Cheongang.

Jeok Cheongang took a sip of wine before answering.

“I told you. We had a drink together.”

“Wow.”

He spoke of the Thunderbolt Saber King as though he had met an old neighborhood friend. Every time he did something like this, I was reminded just how extraordinary Jeok Cheongang was.

When I gaped at him in admiration, Jeok Cheongang puffed out his chest.

“I flattened that bastard’s nose back in the day.”

“…What?”

“I was having a drink with the Sword Saint when he barged in without a word and picked a fight. We went a few rounds, and I taught him a lesson.”

What the hell was he talking about?

“Weren’t you two friends?”

“Me? With that guy?”

Jeok Cheongang furrowed his brows.

“What would I gain from associating with such an uncultured bastard? We never saw each other again after that.”

“…”

“Later, some strange rumor even started going around. They said that the Peng Family’s man and I had exchanged over a hundred moves, acknowledged each other, and withdrawn. The bastards from the Hebei Peng Family must have pulled some kind of trick.”

I was dumbfounded, and so was everyone around me.

The story about the Thunderbolt Saber King was absurd enough, but if it was true, the merchant’s request had just gone up in smoke.

“Th-then the Yangcheon Merchant Association can’t do business with the Hebei Peng Family, can they? Mentioning Great Hero Jeok’s name will only make things worse.”

Jeok Cheongang blinked.

“The Yangcheon Merchant Association? What’s that?”

“…”

“Ah, you mean that guy from earlier? Why should I care about him?”

“But you said you would help him trade with the Hebei Peng Family.”

“He asked me to meet him, so I met him. It’s also true that I had a drink with the Thunderbolt Saber King. Is there even a shred of falsehood in anything I said?”

“…”

I wasn’t sure about that, but he certainly seemed to be missing even a shred of conscience.

His shamelessness was so impressive that I almost felt respect for him.

Fire King, are you even human?

He had more than one or two victims. The people who had believed Jeok Cheongang’s empty promises and offered him a “small token of sincerity” would soon realize that everything had been complete bullshit and pound the ground in despair.

At this point, this is organized fraud.

But there would be no victims.

No one brave enough to come to the Fire King, Jeok Cheongang, and demand their gifts back existed.

“We would be honored if you would visit our sect sometime…”

“Hmm. I’ll drop by one day.”

That meant he would visit after he died and wandered the netherworld.

“This is my small token of sincerity…”

“I’ll accept it.”

No. He really is just taking it.

As I watched the various treasures, elixirs, and bank drafts piling up like a mountain, I realized something.

Was this why he had stayed behind?

It was clearly a grand plan to make one big haul in his old age.

Eventually, after dealing with dozens of suckers, Jeok Cheongang opened his mouth.

“Hm. This is quite a haul. Aren’t there any more?”

Jin Wikyung answered with an exhausted expression.

“Yes. It seems that everyone who was likely to come has already arrived.”

“A shame. I could have squeezed more out of them.”

Look at the greed on this old man.

Jeok Cheongang gazed at the spoils he had earned by drinking instead of sweating, then stretched his arms high above his head.

“Good grief, this is tiring.”

“…”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

I subtly averted my gaze from Jeok Cheongang’s round eyes.

“It’s nothing. I was just admiring you.”

“From where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like admiration.”

“I’m serious. There’s nothing wrong with having a lot of money.”

“Is that so?”

Jeok Cheongang let out a quiet laugh before casually tossing out another remark.

“Then you take it.”

“What?”

“I’m saying I’ll give all of it to you.”

“All of that?”

“It’s completely useless to this old man, but it’s different for you. Whether you scatter it across the street or do anything else with it, I won’t care. Take it.”

What was going on?

I stared at Jeok Cheongang with a bewildered expression.

Why all of a sudden?

He had already helped me immensely. Naturally, I wanted to know why he was showing such excessive favor to me and the Jin Family of Taiyuan.

Could it really be what I thought? Could he truly mean it?

I swallowed dryly and opened my mouth.

“Great Hero Jeok, by any chance…”

At that moment, Jeok Cheongang rose from his seat and spoke with a drunken expression.

“Ahh, I’m drunk. I’m going inside to rest. See you tomorrow.”

“…”

I watched Jeok Cheongang stagger away before turning my gaze back to the wine crock.

The moon was reflected in the crock, which he had not even emptied a quarter of.