Chapter 241

The Star-Array Grand Banquet.

With the most renowned masters in the world gathering in one place to pit their martial arts against one another, the name truly could not be more fitting: a banquet of stars.

An old man with deep wrinkles around his eyes packed tobacco into a long-stemmed tobacco pipe as he spoke.

“It could also be called a festival of victory.”

The place was a large inn in the southern part of Henan Province.

From among the people crowding around the old man, someone asked,

“Why is that?”

“Why else? If the Central Plains Murim had lost, would there have been a Star-Array Grand Banquet? The Demonic Cult would have ruled the world by now, and they would be holding the Demonic Grand Banquet instead.”

“Ah, that is true.”

“But because we won, the Star-Array Grand Banquet can be held, and the great sects from across the world can gather in one place to strengthen their resolve. Speaking of which…”

The old man fumbled around inside his robes, then waved his pipe.

“Does anyone have a light?”

The middle-aged man beside him quickly pulled out a flint and lit it for him.

Crack, crackle! Ssssss.

As the dry grass burned, the old man puckered his lips. After blowing out several streams of smoke, he leaned back leisurely in his chair.

“If there is anything you are curious about, ask me anything. This old man will tell you everything he knows.”

The people whose eyes had been shining eagerly began raising their hands all at once.

“Me! May I ask first?”

“Great Hero Song, then perhaps…”

“Hey, didn’t you hear me say I was going first?”

“I didn’t hear shit, you unorthodox-faction bastard!”

Wham! Crash!

Fists flew in an instant, and a table broke apart. The onlookers cheered at the sudden fight.

The guests who had been sitting well away from the old man shook their heads.

“Tsk, tsk. Martial artists.”

“Just let them be. It’s not as if this is the first time we’ve seen it.”

“That’s the problem—they never get a moment of peace. With the Star-Array Grand Banquet right around the corner, every kind of bastard is flocking to Henan.”

“Our trading run is over anyway. We might as well watch the show and enjoy the benefits.”

Two merchants chatted quietly.

They were wearing fine-looking blue silk robes and passing cups of liquor between them when a voice suddenly cut in.

“Is that Yeoahong¹?”

“Hm?”

The merchants stared at the owner of the voice with bewildered expressions.

A young man had somehow approached their table without them noticing. He was flaring his nostrils as he stared intently at the cups in their hands.

“Isn’t that Yeoahong? It looks like it…”

“It—it is. Yeoahong.”

“I knew it.”

As though he had achieved some great enlightenment, the young man slapped his knee and dragged over an empty chair.

“But the color looks a little weak. How much did you pay for this bottle?”

His actions were so smooth and natural that the merchants could only stare blankly at each other.

“H-how much was it?”

“T-two silver nyang.”

The young man sighed.

“What a shame.”

“What do you mean, a shame?”

“This is mixed with water. Can’t you tell at a glance? Looks like the owner played a little trick on you.”

“What?”

The merchants’ eyes flashed.

Was Yeoahong normally that expensive?

Two silver nyang was enough to buy two seom of rice and drink strong liquor like water for several months. Mixing water into it was nothing short of outrageous.

“I’m going to—”

One of the merchants was about to spring to his feet, but his companion stopped him.

“Forget it. Nothing good will come from making a fuss. Besides, aren’t we taking advantage of people a little at a time in times like these?”

“Ugh.”

The merchant groaned and sat back down.

Meanwhile, the young man was filling his cup to the brim with Yeoahong and gulping it down.

Gulp, gulp, clack!

“Ahh. That’s good.”

The merchants had been staring at him dumbfoundedly. Only after a moment did they finally come to their senses.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“That’s our liquor…”

“My throat was a little dry, so I tried a cup. Is there some problem?”

His answer was so shameless that the two men were speechless. They only managed to speak after the young man had emptied his third cup.

“Have we met before?”

“Of course.”

“When? Where?”

“Today, here.”

“……”

“They say even brushing sleeves with someone creates a connection. Let’s be friends from today.”

“Friends?”

The merchants glared at the young man in disbelief.

He was slender and had an approachable expression. He looked no older than his mid-twenties—just a ridiculously young brat.

What the hell does he mean, friends?

They were about to give him a proper tongue-lashing when they noticed the iron sword tucked into his waist.

A martial artist!

People had always said that there was barely a difference between a rogue and a martial artist.

They were also separated from the guards accompanying their merchant group. If a dispute broke out, they would unquestionably be the ones to suffer.

The merchants swallowed the reprimand that had been about to leave their mouths.

“Hey, Young Brother.”

“Young Brother? I like that form of address.”

“R-really? That’s good, then.”

There was something strangely relaxed about the young man’s grin. Forced smiles appeared on the merchants’ faces.

“Are you a martial artist too, Young Brother?”

“Hmm. I have learned some trifling tricks people call martial arts.”

What? He learned ‘tricks’ called martial arts?

The brat’s already drunk on his own swagger.

The merchants cursed him inwardly before speaking.

“You must be a future pillar of the martial world. If you don’t mind, may I ask which sect you are a Disciple of?”

“Does that matter between friends?”

The young man artfully dodged the question, so one of the merchants revealed their own identity.

“We are merchants belonging to the Geumwa Merchant Group.”

“The Geumwa Merchant Group?”

“It is nothing to boast about, but we are one of the top three merchant groups in Zhejiang Province. We came a long way to deliver supplies needed for the Star-Array Grand Banquet being held three days from now.”

The other merchant, who had been nodding beside him, eagerly added,

“We even brought a hundred merchant-group guards.”

“Warriors as brave as tigers.”

We aren’t alone. Get lost before you get taught a lesson.

The words carried an unspoken threat, but the young man paid no attention.

More precisely, he was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he let their words go in one ear and out the other.

“The Geumwa Merchant Group… I definitely heard that name this morning.”

The young man thought hard for a moment, then exclaimed,

“Ah!”

“Isn’t that the group that captured hundreds of bandits?”

“That’s right.”

The merchant who had answered with his chest puffed out mumbled an additional clarification.

“To be precise, we didn’t capture them. We picked them up.”

“Picked them up? What does that mean?”

When the young man showed interest, the merchants lowered their voices as much as possible.

The events they had gone through before encountering this young brat were far more troubling.

“Well, there were a bunch of bandits lying in the alley the merchant group was passing through, all with broken legs and groaning. As it turned out, they were from Black Mountain Stronghold, which is notorious in the area.”

“Their leader, the Red-Killing Axe Heuk Jongpil, had been turned into a headless corpse.”

“Oh?”

The young man rubbed his smooth, hairless chin.

“So what did you do?”

“What else could we do? We couldn’t exactly kill them all, but leaving them there would have been like throwing silver nyang onto the road. So we tied them all up in a line.”

In the end, the Geumwa Merchant Group handed the remnants of Black Mountain Stronghold over to the authorities and collected a huge bounty. The rumor spread quickly.

“People have been saying all kinds of things. That they angered a hidden master, that a war broke out between bandit strongholds…”

“It probably was a hidden master. How many people can kill a Peak master like the Red-Killing Axe in One Strike?”

The young man listened quietly, then asked with keen interest,

“With One Strike?”

The two merchants nodded together.

“That’s right. You’re a martial artist too, so you must know how remarkable that is.”

“What was it? The underlings said whoever it was had chunks of iron dangling all over them. It was so late at night that they couldn’t see their face properly. They just saw a flash, and then the Red-Killing Axe fell.”

“Hmm.”

The young man fell silent for a moment, as though considering something. Then he suddenly spoke.

“That hidden master must be much younger than you think.”

“Good heavens. Do you have some idea who he might be?”

“More or less. He was probably dressed shabbily, with his hair all over the place.”

“Oh! Who was he? Who is that master?”

“But I don’t know his name.”

“……”

“Well, I suppose I can get to know him little by little from now on. Thanks for the drink.”

It happened in an instant.

After tossing out that one remark, the young man rose from his seat and disappeared into the bustling crowd.

Soon, the inn’s door closed with a tinkling bell.

“What was that?”

“Did he really leave? After gulping down all that Yeoahong?”

“He called us friends. Damn it.”

The two merchants stared at each other blankly when someone spoke to them.

“Excuse me, gentlemen.”

“What is it?”

A broad-shouldered waiter held out a wooden tablet with an impassive expression.

There were scars across his face, enough to make one suspect that he moonlighted as a dark-path knife fighter.

No, with a face like that, it was practically certain.

“The gentleman who just left didn’t pay his bill. From what I just heard, it seems you two are friends.”

“Huh?”

“Two roast ducks and five bottles of Yeoahong. The total comes to ten silver nyang and twenty nyang in iron coins.”

“……!”

The merchants’ mouths fell open as though they had been struck squarely in the back of the head.

What the fucking hell?

He drank five bottles of Yeoahong?

But what could they do? If you could tell ten things from one, then the waiter’s face made it clear that this establishment was managed by a dark-path faction.

The merchants were rummaging through their coin purses with miserable expressions when—

“I’ll pay.”

Clink.

A silk pouch flew from somewhere and landed on the table.

The people inside the inn had fallen silent. Through the crowd, which had split cleanly down the middle, an old man came limping forward.

Tap, tap.

The sound of a wooden prosthetic leg striking the floor pierced everyone’s ears.

“Twenty silver nyang. Use it to pay the bill and get me a quiet room.”

The waiter looked back and forth between the silk pouch and the old man, then bowed politely. He already knew who the man was.

“Yes, Great Hero Song.”

“Well, that settles one matter.”

The old man wrapped his rough hands around the merchants’ shoulders.

His strength was so great that it was impossible to believe he was a man in his seventies. He seized the two men and hauled them to their feet.

“Now, the two of you and I are going to have a little talk. About that friend who just left.”

“Why, why are you doing this?”

“We have absolutely nothing to do with him!”

The old man smiled broadly at the two merchants, who were almost whimpering. But he could not hide the deeply sunken look in his eyes.

“Heh heh. Isn’t that something for this old man to decide?”

At the words of Song Ho, the Thousand-Faced Fox, the merchants drew a sharp breath.

As if to announce that the Star-Array Grand Banquet was only three days away, every street in Henan Province—and even every inn—was packed with people.

The problem was that, thanks to that, there was not a single inn left for me to stay in.

“We have no rooms.”

I had already been turned away from more than twenty inns.

With nowhere left to go and no reason left to retreat, I glared at the waiter and asked,

“You’re sure there really isn’t one?”

“I told you, there isn’t.”

“I have money.”

I pulled out a filthy silver coin and held it up. It was my entire fortune and my last hope.

If I hadn’t secretly hidden it away in advance, I wouldn’t even have this.

Jeok Cheongang had run off with my entire coin purse.

Damn old man.

At the very first inn we entered, Jeok Cheongang had been showered with salt by the waiter. After agonizing over whether to set the waiter or the inn on fire, he had come up with a peaceful and spectacular solution.

The Abbot of Shaolin card.

I’m going to Shaolin.

Wow. That option was available? Was dementia the driving force behind becoming a genius?

Shall I use that driving force to snap your neck?

I shouldn’t have run my mouth. Anyway, that’s great. Let’s hurry there, scrub the dirt off with hot water, and eat some Shaolin wild-greens bibimbap.

I’m going alone.

What?

A year ago, you ran your mouth about going to the Star-Array Grand Banquet, and this old man suffered for it despite having no reason to. The preliminary competition will be held in Kaifeng anyway, so don’t let me see your face until then.

No way! How is that fair?

Oh, and hand over your coin purse.

Why do you need my coin purse?

The Fire King has his dignity to consider. Do you expect me to arrive looking like a beggar and eat and bathe for free? I should at least be able to make a small donation.

……

Oh, and if you come looking for Shaolin, I’ll kill you. Understood?

He wasn’t the Fire King. He was a highway robber. A highway robber.

After having my coin purse stolen right in front of my eyes, I stood there blankly for a long while before wandering aimlessly in search of a place to sleep.

And this was the last inn anywhere nearby.

“This is real silver. Want to bite it and see?”

The heavily built waiter scowled.

“……Didn’t you just pull that out of your underwear?”

“I was hiding it.”

I quickly rubbed the silver coin with my sleeve before holding it out again.

“Want to bite it?”

“Get the hell out of here, you filthy beggar!”

You son of a bitch…

I considered punching him in the face, but turned away weakly.

Nearby, several children were huddled together playing jacks with small stones.

“Kids, do any of your families run a guesthouse?”

The chubby-cheeked children shook their heads.

“N-no.”

“My family does, but it’s already full.”

“Oh, I see. All right.”

“And my mom said not to bring in beggar bastards like youuu.”

“……”

Listen to the way that little brat talks.

I wanted to storm into his house and shout at his parents to teach him some proper manners, but I held myself back.

Where do I go now?

I was slowly walking through the streets, wondering whether I should go wash myself in a nearby stream, when someone called out.

“Young Hero!”

At first, I didn’t realize they were calling me. Given my current appearance, it was far too absurd to think that someone would address me as a Young Hero.

My clothes were no better than rags, and my hair was a tangled mess. At that moment, I was an excellent specimen of a beggar.

At least I had avoided looking like a prisoner by winding the chains around my body and covering the whole lot with cloth.

But who would call someone like me a Young Hero?

“Me?”

When I turned around, I saw a young man with an approachable expression smiling brightly.

“That’s right. You.”