Chapter 242

He was a young man with an approachable expression.

He looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties at most, and there was a strangely friendly smile playing around his lips.

“Whew. Why are you walking so fast?”

“Do I know you?”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“They say even brushing sleeves with someone creates a connection, don’t they?”

“We haven’t even brushed sleeves.”

“But we exchanged words, so that counts. Let’s be friends.”

“……”

It was one of two things. He was either crazy or a crazy social butterfly.

I took my time looking the young man over. Beneath his loose robe, I spotted well-developed muscles, as well as the hilt of a sword poking out from his waist.

At the same time, I sensed the qi lying dormant within his body.

A Peak master?

I had no idea how old he actually was, but his attainment was fairly impressive.

No, at this level, it could even be called remarkable. Reaching the Peak realm in your twenties was no easy feat.

But how should I put it? At that moment, the qi I sensed from the young man before me seemed to amount to no more than that.

If I had to put it into words…

An ordinary Peak master?

The Peak realm was already an incredible level, so why did he feel ordinary? Because I was surrounded by too many monsters.

After getting hit by the insane three-hit combo of Jin Mukyung, Cheongpung, and the Fire King, side effects like this were bound to develop.

Regardless, I had more or less figured him out. I spoke politely to the young man.

“Don’t worry about me. Go on your way.”

“Good heavens, isn’t that too cold between friends?”

“If we’re friends, can I drop the formal speech?”

“Haha. Of course!”

“Then fuck off, asshole.”

“……”

I left the young man behind and started walking. After standing frozen for a moment, he hurried after me with quick little steps.

“That was the first verbal abuse I’ve ever heard in my life. It stunned me for a moment. Yes, this is what true friendship is!”

“Go while I’m still asking nicely.”

“What’s your name?”

“Michael Johnson.”

“That’s an unusual name.”

“……You believe that?”

“Jang Sam? Or Yu Pil? Are you perhaps a Disciple of one of the Nine Sects and One Gang or the Five Great Families?”

“Why are you curious?”

“Because I’m interested, of course. I heard you killed the Red-Killing Axe with One Strike.”

I stopped dead at the unfamiliar epithet.

“Who?”

“The leader of Black Mountain Stronghold. Was that your doing?”

I recalled the hairy bandit chief I had dealt with on the way here. He had been the first one I took out to establish dominance, since there had been so many bandits.

I had thought he was unusually strong for a bandit. It seemed he had actually been somewhat famous.

“But how did you find out?”

“I heard it from the Geumwa Merchant Group’s merchants at the inn earlier. They said the surviving bandits claimed it was the work of a strange man carrying iron balls and chains.”

The young man beamed as he pointed at the iron balls strapped to my back.

I had covered them with cloth to disguise them as luggage, since I did not want to attract any strange misunderstandings. But it seemed I could not fool the eyes of a Peak master after all.

“And then you happened to walk by. My curiosity got the better of me, so I followed you right away.”

“Hmm.”

“So, what’s your name?”

Should I tell him or not?

After a moment’s thought, I opened my mouth. I was beginning to grow curious about which sect this eccentric young man belonged to as well.

“Jin Taekyung. That’s my name.”

“Are you the Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan in Shanxi Province?”

“You know me?”

“Of course I do. I’ve heard so much about the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi becoming the Fire King’s Disciple that my ears are ringing.”

A year was short if you looked at it one way, and long if you looked at it another.

But it was more than enough time for rumors about me and the Fire King to spread throughout the continent.

“What about you?”

“Ah, I am…”

The young man grinned and continued.

“Jongni Chu. I’m Jongni Chu from Yunnan. I have my reasons for not revealing my sect, so I hope you’ll understand.”

“Jongni Chu from Yunnan?”

“My epithet is the Always-Victorious Sword. Have you ever heard of me?”

I knew the name of Yunnan, but this was my first time hearing his name or epithet.

Considering I had spent the past year holed up in Fire Gate Cavern, that was only natural.

“Sorry, but I haven’t.”

“Is that so? Well, it’s understandable that you wouldn’t know.”

What a positive attitude. Normally, someone around his age would be disappointed, but he showed no such signs at all.

The freakishly positive guy continued with a serious expression.

“That’s because I just came up with the epithet. A swordsman who always wins. Isn’t it cool?”

“……”

Is he crazy?

As I stood there speechless, Jongni Chu made a motion of twisting his wrist.

“How about it? Shall we have a drink to celebrate becoming friends?”

“Not interested. Besides, there aren’t any seats at the nearby inns.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve been following you and watching the whole time. Every inn had at least one or two seats open.”

“……The waiters said there were no seats.”

“Hm? Then why did they tell me there were empty seats and invite me in?”

“……”

Damn it. Of course.

Even with the Star-Array Grand Banquet right around the corner, was it really possible for every single seat in dozens of inns to be taken?

I’m washing because I’m filthy. Because I’m filthy.

I would have to draw water from a stream and wash myself. At this rate, I would end up sleeping on the street despite leaving perfectly good inns unused.

“I know a decent inn, so come with me. I’ll pay for the drinks to celebrate becoming friends.”

“What do you mean, friends? You said your name was Jongni Chu, right? You go on your way too.”

It was not as though I was a penniless beggar. I had no desire to get entangled with some strange man and waste time chatting.

Hadn’t I heard that a stream ran straight ahead along this road?

As I searched my memory and walked on, Jongni Chu asked,

“Hey, where are you going?”

“None of your business. Don’t follow me.”

“Then answer me one last thing! Where can I see you again?”

“The Star-Array Grand Banquet.”

That was my final answer. I used light-body arts and quickly left the area. After covering a distance of more than a hundred zhang in an instant, I heard Jongni Chu shouting behind me.

“See you next time!”

Not a chance, punk.

One man left, and one man remained.

Jongni Chu stared in the direction Jin Taekyung had disappeared and muttered,

“The Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi, Jin Taekyung…”

Before long, dimples appeared in the smooth skin around his mouth, which was entirely free of wrinkles.

He stood there alone for a while, chuckling to himself, then turned toward an inn not far away.

A quarter-hour earlier, the waiter who had driven Jin Taekyung away bent at the waist with a broad smile.

“Welcome!”

“Do you have any seats left?”

“Of course, sir!”

Jongni Chu’s smile grew even wider.

Splash!

When I sat up, the hot water filling the wooden tub sloshed around.

I had picked up the battered wooden tub after finding it lying in the grass. Then I had filled it with cold stream water and heated it using Scorching Yang Qi.

After dumping out and refilling the water several times to scrub away the accumulated grime, I felt as if I had lost several kilograms.

“I feel like I’ve undergone Bone Transformation.”

I finally felt alive again.

It would have been nice to have shampoo or body wash, but this was more than enough to satisfy me.

The inventories for the Murim and modern worlds were separate, so bringing those things here had been impossible from the start.

But these clothes are a problem.

As soon as I put the rags back on—the kind of clothing that made it difficult to tell whether they were clothes or garbage—I frowned.

The discomfort was one thing, but at this rate, washing myself had been completely pointless.

I wandered through the streets, intending to buy at least one cheap set of clothes.

The streets of Henan had been crowded with people from all walks of life and every profession even a year ago, but given the timing, martial artists were especially conspicuous now.

Naturally, snippets of their conversations began to reach my ears.

“Have you heard? The Sword Dragon of the Nangong Family won’t be participating in this year’s Star-Array Grand Banquet.”

“Good heavens. Why did the Sword Dragon suddenly drop out? Is there some problem?”

“Who knows? It’s a shame. He was one of the strongest candidates to win. Things are getting harder and harder to predict.”

“Among the young rising martial artists, the Ten Dragons and Phoenixes probably have the best chance, but…the age limit is thirty-five. It’s impossible to say what will happen.”

“That’s a fair point. The world is vast, and there are many masters. There’s always a chance that a rising powerhouse from outside the Nine Sects and One Gang or the Five Great Families will appear.”

“You mean someone like the Heaven Shaking Sword of the Jin Family of Taiyuan and the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi?”

“Exactly. Though I don’t know whether either of them will attend this year’s Star-Array Grand Banquet.”

Listening to this was embarrassing for no reason.

I quickened my pace and left the road behind.

As soon as I reached a main street lined with large buildings, a cloth shop displaying silk and dozens of kinds of clothing caught my eye.

“Excuse me.”

“Wow, they say clothes make the man, but they suit you so well. Are you perhaps a fairy? A fairy…what do you want?”

The cloth-shop employee, who had been enthusiastically showering pretty female customers with flattery, frowned at me when I called out.

The change in his expression was so extreme that I barely managed to resist punching him in the face.

“Why do you think I came to a cloth shop?”

“To beg, obviously.”

“……”

No matter how ragged my clothes were, there was no way to hide my massive frame.

No, more of my body was exposed than covered, so my muscles stood out even more.

When I stared at him while subtly tensing my body, the employee flinched.

“W-why are you looking at me like that? Was I wrong?”

“That’s enough of the kind of remark you’ll regret. Let’s look at some clothes.”

“Y-you want clothes?”

“Here, I have money, so don’t treat me like a beggar.”

The employee’s expression changed when I pulled out a silver nyang and waved it around.

Contrary to my expectations, it changed in a very bad direction.

“That’s all?”

“It is. Is there a problem?”

“Good grief. What kind of clothes do you think you can buy with one lousy silver nyang?”

“……One lousy silver nyang?”

Had there been a major currency reform in the past year that caused the price of silver to collapse?

As I stood there momentarily confused, the employee snorted.

“Did you even read the price list before coming in?”

I turned around without thinking and checked the sign.

A wooden board at the front of the shop had these words written across it in huge letters:

The owner has gone mad. Star-Array Grand Banquet special discount! Martial-artist’s outfit—two silver nyang!

“……Two silver nyang? For a martial-artist’s outfit?”

“With that, you can buy underwear at best. Our cloth shop only handles the finest silk. Even our martial-artist’s outfits are made from Shu brocade.”

“……”

So this was a department-store brand.

Of all the places I could have entered, I had chosen this one. What an embarrassment.

The other employees and customers inside the shop began whispering as they watched me.

“Oh my, he must be a beggar. How pitiful. Don’t you agree, dear?”

“He certainly looks like one. He seems strong enough to put his muscles to good use, though. Should we take him in and use him as a servant while we’re at it?”

“You’re so merciful, dear. That beggar must be delighted.”

It was irritating enough when they simply called me a beggar, but hearing a couple say something like that made me twice as angry.

I shouted with all the anger I could muster.

“Who are you calling a beggar?”

“Gasp!”

“Eek!”

“H-how dare you!”

People recoiled in fright at my booming shout.

At the same time, several burly employees came rushing over from somewhere and surrounded me. The clubs in their hands waved threateningly.

“You bastard! How dare you make a scene here!”

“Do you even know where you are, you filthy beggar?”

“What? A beggar? Oh, these sons of bitches…”

Fine. You said it.

I rolled up the sleeve that was already half torn off.

“All right, let’s be a real pain in the ass today. Who’s the owner here?”

That was when it happened.

“You’re the kind of bastard who won’t come to his senses until he sees a coffin. How dare you make a scene here?”

A serious voice cut into my ears.

I slowly turned around, and a man came into view.

He wore a deeply pulled-down bamboo hat and black silk clothes embroidered with dragons. One hand rested on the hilt of his sword, as though he might draw it at any moment.

The edge of his mouth, visible beneath the bamboo hat, lifted in a quiet laugh.

“You seem to have learned a move or two somewhere, but if you don’t want to see blood, step aside.”

I tilted my head to one side.

“And if I don’t?”

“Nameless martial artist. The price of reckless bravado is death.”

When a line that sounded like it belonged in a martial-arts movie came out, the people nearby erupted in cheers.

Once the cheers had died down, I opened my mouth.

“Hey, can I ask you one thing?”

The martial artist answered casually,

“Speak. They will be your last words.”

I stared into the shadow beneath the martial artist’s bamboo hat and continued.

“You’re Hyuk Mujin, right?”

“……!”

I let out a deep sigh and looked up at the sky. A signboard written in vigorous, soaring calligraphy caught my eye.

Hyuk Family Cloth Shop

“You have three seconds. Put your head on the ground.”