Chapter 554:
“Food! Bring more food! Right now!”
“Y-yes, I’ll bring it right away!”
Jong-ya, the owner of Chuwol Inn, loaded all the food coming out of the kitchen onto a tray and rushed over frantically.
“H-here!”
As soon as he set the tray down, the dishes disappeared from it in an instant.
“Hand over that roasted duck!”
“Hey, you bastard! Are you eating everything yourself!”
“Are you stealing from your father’s hands, you most unfilial bastard in the world!”
Jong-ya unconsciously stepped back.
‘What the hell, do these beggar bastards have demons in their stomachs?’
A little while ago, when six beggars had kicked down the door and stormed inside, Jong-ya thought his business for the day was ruined.
Everything needs a good start. When beggars storm into an inn that hasn’t even opened for business yet, that day’s trade is as good as finished.
Jong-ya had grabbed a club, ready to beat up these crazy beggars who had ruined a day’s business, but when he saw the yellowish something one of the beggars held out, he carefully swept the ground with his club.
If his eyes weren’t deceiving him, that was definitely gold. Pure gold.
“Bring all the food this place has.”
It wasn’t beggars—it was the God of Wealth descending.
What did their clothes matter when they had money!
Jong-ya’s angry heart melted like snow meeting warm sunlight, and soon his face was filled with a pleased smile as he hurriedly showed them to their seats.
But then…
‘How long are these bastards going to keep eating?’
Chuwol Inn was quite a large establishment. The inn employed no fewer than five cooks in its kitchen.
But all five cooks were on the verge of collapse.
“No matter how frantically the cooks worked, the beggars ate faster than they could prepare food.
‘They’re not going to eat their money’s worth of that gold nugget, are they?’
It was ridiculous to think so. But wasn’t this ridiculous scene unfolding right before his eyes?
Plates were piling up high.
“Is the Gungbo Chicken still far off?”
“Soup! Soup! Give us something hot!”
‘Beggar bastards.’
It was the moment the Gods of Wealth fell back to being beggars. After carrying and carrying plates for what felt like ages, the eating speed of those gluttons finally began to slow down.
The one who looked most like a real beggar among the beggars patted his belly. Only after seeing his belly protruding like a tadpole did satisfaction appear on the beggar’s face.
“Ah, now I can finally live.”
“We couldn’t even drink water for three days.”
“It was a battle between dying by the sword or dying of starvation.”
Jang-il shook his head as if it were terrible.
While hunger was familiar to beggars, hunger was also what beggars hated most. Those who had experienced severe hunger knew how frightening it was to be hungry. Why else would fasting be the greatest punishment imposed by the Beggar’s Sect?
Now that food filled their bellies, it felt like their heads were finally working again.
“So, we don’t need to stop by Huashan?”
“Hmm…”
Wei Jeong-han also leaned back in his chair leisurely, as if his stomach was finally settling.
“What needs to be conveyed can be done through letters. Wasting time climbing the treacherous Huashan isn’t a good choice.”
“I agree.”
“For now, it’s right to quickly enter Luoyang. The Divine Hand Elder is there, so we need to meet and discuss the situation.”
Everyone nodded vigorously.
There might be room for debate, but once a direction was decided, it was right to follow it. Especially in wartime like this.
“Then shall we depart immediately?”
“…No. Let’s rest for a while first.”
“Huh? In this situation?”
“Because of this situation.”
Wei Jeong-han pointed to his companions.
“External injuries are one thing, but internal injuries can’t be helped. Even if we reach Luoyang, if our internal injuries flare up and we can’t be at full strength, it’s meaningless.”
“No, but still, the situation is a bit…”
“We must rest.”
Wei Jeong-han said firmly.
“We’ve already conveyed all the information that needed to be conveyed. Nothing will be resolved just because we are in a hurry. In that case, it’s important to recover our internal energy and prepare our bodies to be useful at any time. That’s war.”
“Hmm…”
It wasn’t easy to understand. But when it came to war experience, Wei Jeong-han was an expert, while Wei Yan-ho was no different from a new recruit who had just received his spear.
Moreover…
The situation was extremely urgent. But no matter how urgent the situation was, Wei Yan-ho wasn’t someone who could refuse the suggestion to rest.
“Th-then let’s rest for just a moment.”
Words he couldn’t keep came out of his mouth.
“Hnnnnnnnnnnngh.”
An unstoppable moan escaped from Wei Yan-ho’s mouth.
The feeling of his body being submerged in hot water, the sensation of soaking his body in a bath where hot steam was billowing out—this was a feeling he wouldn’t trade for any pleasure in the world right now.
This warmth that made him instinctively cry out ‘This is paradise.’
“Whoooooosh.”
A deflating sound escaped from Wei Yan-ho’s mouth as he pushed his entire body into the bathtub.
Normally, Wei Yan-ho didn’t particularly enjoy bathing. To be precise, he didn’t enjoy any activity that involved moving his body.
Moving made him hungry, and being hungry meant he had to move. The only way to escape this endless cycle was to not move at all.
Wei Yan-ho had long ago realized this truth, but the blood and dust that had clung to his body while escaping the Demonic Cult’s pursuit had made even Wei Yan-ho move his feet toward the bathroom.
And now that accumulated grime was being washed away.
“This is why people wash and live.”
Even when he couldn’t wash for five years while living with Baek Mu-han in the cave, he hadn’t felt such discomfort. Whether Wei Yan-ho had become more concerned with cleanliness than before, or whether this chase had been that harsh, he couldn’t tell.
Wei Yan-ho leaned back and rested his neck against the edge as he submerged his body up to his chin in the water from which hot steam was rising.
‘It’s complicated.’
Once he had some leisure, his mind started working again. Until now, his thoughts had been filled only with escaping from Xinjiang. He seemed to understand why Wei Jeong-han had said rest was necessary.
There was nothing to gain by moving around frantically with an anxious heart. What was needed now was to organize things once.
The Demonic Cult’s elite who had disappeared.
White Sword Castle’s incomprehensible movements.
And…
‘The Heavenly Demon.’
No one would understand.
How strong the person who was there was.
To people other than Wei Yan-ho, it would have seemed like grasping at clouds—a story that didn’t hit home.
But Wei Yan-ho had felt it clearly.
‘There’s no one who can face him.’
If that power was real.
If the power Wei Yan-ho felt from him was real, there was no one in the current martial world who could face him. He wasn’t someone who could be dealt with through joint attacks.
That’s why it was strange.
If an entity called the Heavenly Demon really existed and possessed such power, why would he bother with the troublesome task of moving the Demonic Cult and waging war?
He was a disaster by his very existence.
People like the Martial Extreme or the Sword Immortal needed forces. Even the Great Demonic Emperor needed the Demonic Cult. But a truly strong person doesn’t even need forces.
When his master roamed the martial world, the Ten Thousand Swords and Hundred Families were nothing but cumbersome followers to him. His teacher was that kind of person. To a strong person beyond measure, someone of a different class, forces were unnecessary. Because he was complete by himself.
Then why does the Heavenly Demon command the Demonic Cult? And why doesn’t he reveal himself and devour the martial world?
‘There’s something.’
There must be a reason he has to do it that way.
Wei Yan-ho scratched his head roughly.
He had never thought his mind was inferior to others, but uncovering such conspiracies wasn’t Wei Yan-ho’s specialty. Everyone has their strengths.
What Wei Yan-ho needed to do was convey the information he had obtained to those who used their brains. They could do the thinking.
What really bothered Wei Yan-ho was something else.
‘Why was there a sword there?’
The sword stuck behind the Sacred Flame.
Wei San-ho’s sword.
The fact that the sword was stuck there was shaking Wei Yan-ho.
It might have been a coincidence.
It might have been nothing at all.
But…
Wei Yan-ho closed his eyes and plunged his head into the water. After staying underwater for a while, Wei Yan-ho slowly emerged from the water again.
‘Brother isn’t someone who would abandon his sword.’
No matter how much Wei San-ho had joined the Demonic Cult, he wouldn’t have abandoned that sword. Because that sword was the Wei Family of Guangdong’s sword. It was no different from the last symbol connecting Wei San-ho and the Wei Family of Guangdong.
The fact that he had stuck that sword there seemed like a declaration that he was no longer Wei San-ho of the Wei Family of Guangdong, which kept making his heart heavy.
‘Why are you doing this, really?’
He couldn’t understand.
Why had Wei San-ho gone over to the Demonic Cult?
Father? Blood relations?
Ridiculous.
Even if others didn’t know, Wei Yan-ho knew. Wei San-ho wasn’t someone who would turn away from Wei Jeong-han and Wei Yan-ho for such reasons. Even if his biological father had died an unjust death, and even if the blame lay with the Central Plains, he wasn’t someone who would join the Demonic Cult to achieve his will.
The method that suited Wei San-ho would have been to block the Demonic Cult while seeking the truth in the Central Plains.
But why?
The Heavenly Demon, Wei San-ho, the Sacred Flame, the Great Demonic Emperor, and the Demonic Cult.
All of it was spinning around and around in Wei Yan-ho’s head.
Wei Yan-ho leaned his head against the bathtub, closed his eyes, and muttered.
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
Whatever the hidden truth was, whatever reason Wei San-ho had to do such things, however great the matter was, Wei Yan-ho didn’t care.
“Don’t worry. I’ll restore everything soon.”
Master’s words were right.
Master had said.
Many times.
“All problems that happen to you are because you are weak. The strong don’t experience any problems. There’s no reason for problems to arise. If any problem happens to you, there’s only one cause. Weakness. Only weakness. Become strong. The world isn’t all about power, but that’s just wishful thinking of those without power. The world is all about power. If you’re strong, you can solve all problems.”
‘He only says things that are annoyingly correct.’
The cause of everything happening now was also clear. It was because Wei Yan-ho was weak. If Wei Yan-ho hadn’t lost to the Mad Soul Demonic Emperor, Wei San-ho wouldn’t have gone to the Demonic Cult.
And even if he had gone to the Demonic Cult, if Wei Yan-ho had been strong enough to destroy the Demonic Cult, Wei San-ho might now be planning to catch a suitable wife and marry her after returning to the Wei Family of Guangdong.
The cause was clear.
Then the solution?
That was also clear.
Wei Yan-ho closed his eyes.
A pure white beam of light pierced down into the black world.
Becoming strong.
That was the only thing he had to do.
Becoming strong.
“There’s no time.”
Even in the midst of this war, he had to become strong. More and more, he had to become stronger.
Enough to handle everything in the world.
Enough to illuminate everything in the world.
Yes, just like his master.
Wei Yan-ho’s hand moved slowly with his eyes closed.
Chasing after.
His hand embroidered the empty air as if bewitched, chasing after his master’s sword that seemed forever unreachable.
