Chapter 4: Chicken Shred Noodle Soup After Decades
Chapter 4: Chicken Shred Noodle Soup After Decades
Back in my quarters, I stood before a bronze mirror.
My younger self was fresh-faced and brimming with vitality. I felt as though I could stare at my reflection all day. After savoring my rejuvenated appearance for a long while, my thoughts suddenly drifted to Hwa Mu-gi.
What was that bastard up to right now? Was he somewhere undergoing hellish training to grow even stronger?
If I could find and kill him before he reached his peak, the problem would be simple. The issue was that locating Hwa Mu-gi wouldn't be easy. He had appeared in the Murim as if he’d fallen from the sky, and after reaching the pinnacle of his strength, he had vanished into seclusion. There was absolutely no information on his origins. Furthermore, unleashing my men across the Central Plains to hunt for someone named Hwa Mu-gi was a dangerous gamble that could provoke an unpredictable reaction from him.
In the end, the best path was for me to become stronger than Hwa Mu-gi.
Fortunately, the heavens had granted me plenty of time to prepare. I would make time my ally and grow.
Perhaps it was because I had thought of Hwa Mu-gi, but the internal energy in my dantian stirred in response. The Energy-Scattering Poison had vanished as if it had never been administered in the first place. Since there was no trace of the poison after the duel, it meant Gu Pyeong-ho had acquired a high-quality variant.
Then again, that was likely why he’d dared to even think of poisoning the Heavenly Demon's own flesh and blood.
Lost in thought for a moment, I called out the name of the person I was most grateful to in my entire life.
“Lee An.”
At my call, a welcome voice answered from outside the door.
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Come in.”
The door opened, and a young woman entered. Her martial arts uniform looked ready to burst at the seams. She was a woman for whom "obese" was a more fitting description than merely "fat."
My personal bodyguard, Lee An.
Back then, I didn’t know. I didn’t realize that her immense size was due to the martial art she practiced. No—it was because of me.
The Full Body Petrification Art.
It was a secret art passed down only to her, allowing her to temporarily harden her flesh until it was as dense as stone. Her massive weight gain was a fatal side effect of this technique.
I looked at her through the mirror and asked, “How do I look?”
From the reflection, she answered cheerfully.
“You’re the most handsome man in all of Jianghu.”
Lee An’s voice was so pleasant. I was certain that if she entered a contest for the most beautiful voice in the Central Plains, she would undoubtedly win.
“Not funny.”
“When the man who pays your salary asks a question, there’s only one right answer.”
So, she didn’t just have a nice voice; she had a cheerful personality to match. Our eyes met through the mirror, and Lee An asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
The reason I had survived that day was entirely thanks to Lee An. She had thrown her body in the path of the sword qi Hwa Mu-gi had unleashed to kill me. Hwa Mu-gi’s sword qi had pierced through her Full Body Petrification Art, but in doing so, its trajectory had shifted ever so slightly. That was the only reason it had narrowly missed my heart.
Hwa Mu-gi hadn't bothered to confirm my death. He never would have imagined his attack could miss. Lee An’s sacrifice and his own arrogance were what saved me.
Thank you, Lee An.
She had been ready to throw her life away for me, yet at this time, I had seen her as just another guard. I had taken her presence for granted, much like one lives without realizing how precious the air is.
“You did well in the duel today. It was truly amazing.”
I turned away from the mirror to face her, walking slowly toward the real Lee An. There was a stark difference between the woman in my memory and the one standing before me.
She’s even bigger than I remembered.
I stared at her quietly, recalling what she had looked like as a child. Her gentle eyes, her high-bridged nose, and her doll-like face that was so pretty when she smiled. Everyone had agreed she would grow up to be the most beautiful woman in the world.
Then one day, that pretty girl showed up fat. She had gained so much weight that I couldn’t even tell how much she had cried or how swollen her eyes were. Even back then, that little girl had looked at me with the same eyes she had today and said:
I will protect you, Young Master.
What could that little girl have been feeling? Her only crime was being born into the Demonic Cult and raised as a bodyguard, yet the price she had to pay was far too great.
She had surrendered the beauty that could have captivated the world, but had I ever soothed her heart? Or had I, perhaps, started treating her coldly after she gained weight? I couldn't recall many kind memories with her.
She, on the other hand, had kept her promise. She had thrown her large body to block that sword qi, and thanks to her, I lived.
I believe this regression is worth it, if only to save Lee An.
Lee An, I’ll make you a promise, too. I will definitely find a way to remove the side effects of the Full Body Petrification Art.
I said to her abruptly, “We shouldn’t get too close.”
She looked puzzled. “Pardon? Why is that?”
“Building a rapport with a bodyguard—not just any warrior, but a bodyguard—is just a despicable way of earning enough favor to ask them to die for you, isn't it?”
“What are you saying? It is only natural that I protect you, Young Master.”
“What’s natural about sacrifice? You should always come first, then your family, and only then the person you’re guarding. I’d rather have a rational person like that protecting me.”
Lee An didn’t hesitate for a second.
“I cannot do that. For me, you are number one, and number two is also you. Besides, I have no family.”
I couldn’t begin to measure the sheer scale of this stubborn woman’s loyalty.
“You’re acting strange today, Young Master.”
“Want to see something stranger? Let’s go.”
“Where to?”
I strode forward. “To flip some dinner tables.”
I headed straight for the kitchen. There, I summoned the entire staff, including the head cook, Cook Im. From the lined-up servants, I called out an assistant cook who had been working there for three years.
“Why did you do it?”
“Sir? What are you talking about?”
“I’m asking why you put Energy-Scattering Poison in my food.”
Everyone gasped in shock.
“It wasn’t me, sir! It wasn’t me!”
One benefit of regressing is that I don’t need to read people’s minds; I already knew why this man had poisoned my food. He was addicted to gambling and drowning in debt. Having squandered his parents’ money and even that of his friends, he had committed the audacious act of poisoning the food of the Heavenly Demon’s own blood. That was how terrifying gambling could be.
“You took the three thousand nyang you received and went gambling again, didn’t you?”
The man flinched, then threw himself to the floor.
“Please spare my life! I was wrong. I was blinded by money and committed a grave sin!”
“Did Gu Pyeong-ho come to you himself and give you the money?”
“Yes!”
The moment the man confessed, I cut his throat in a single stroke.
Slice!
It was my first kill since regressing, but I felt nothing. I had lived a life of mercilessly executing those I deemed evil. Killing him painlessly was the last mercy I could show him.
In my past life, he had died today as well. On the night of the martial arts tournament, he was stabbed to death in a gambling den. It was likely the blade of an assassin sent by Gu Pyeong-ho to silence the witness. In any case, poisoning food was an act that could never be forgiven. A single pardon would only lead to another attempt.
“Of all people, a cook! Poisoning food!”
At my words, Cook Im, his face grim, fell to his knees.
“I am sorry, Young Master.”
“What are you doing? And with your bad knees?”
“This is all my responsibility.”
“Why is this your fault? It’s the fault of the man who used the poison.”
“Everything that happens in the kitchen is my responsibility.”
I pulled him to his feet.
“Cook Im. If something unjust happens in the Main Cult, is it my father’s fault?”
“What? No, absolutely not.”
“Then why do you say it’s your responsibility? Stop talking nonsense and make me some Chicken Shred Noodle Soup for dinner! I’ve been craving it for a while.”
How many decades had it been?
“But you just had some the day before yesterday.”
“Cook Im, I’m still holding a sword. A sword that’s dripping with blood.”
“I... I will prepare a delicious meal for you right away!”
When I left the kitchen, Lee An, who had been waiting outside, asked urgently, “I apologize. As the one in charge of your security, this is my fault.”
“Why is everyone so eager to take the blame? Did you all catch some kind of responsibility disease?”
“I will ensure this never happens again.”
“Enough. Just spread rumors about this throughout the cult. Tell them that Gu Pyeong-ho instigated it, and that I cut down the cook who used the poison.”
“The Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s side will deny it.”
“It won’t matter. There are too many eyes and ears that saw and heard what happened here.”
The entire kitchen staff had witnessed it. Denials would be useless.
“If you do something dirty, you should get a bad reputation. Spread it far and wide! Spread it so that even the dogs in the cult start barking, ‘Sangong, Sangong’!”
“Understood.”
“Let’s go.”
Following behind me, Lee An spoke cautiously. “Ah… you really seem different today.”
As the one who attended to me most closely, she was the first to notice the change.
“You’re making jokes you never used to. Your actions and words seem different, too.”
“I decided to live a different life, starting today.”
“All of a sudden?”
“Yes, all of a sudden. I don’t think people change little by little every day. They change drastically when there’s a catalyst. It’s just because that’s difficult and rare that people say a person never changes, right? Let’s go.”
I started walking again, not giving her a chance to ask what the catalyst was.
*
“Do you need all of this?”
Lee An was shocked as she looked at the items I had prepared for the hunt with my father. I nodded as I packed the gear neatly into a large leather pouch.
“I do.”
“I didn’t know you had a knack for camping, Young Master.”
Lee An, there’s no one in this entire cult who has camped as much as I have.
“I’m going with my father, so I have to be well-prepared.”
“I truly hope you have a good time.”
“You think I will?”
It wasn’t an empty complaint. I was confident about many things, but when it came to my relationship with my father, I had no confidence at all. Even though I had lived longer than my father’s current age… I was even less confident because of it.
“You have to make it a good time. I’m sure it will be.” Lee An smiled and bid me farewell. “Have pleasant dreams tonight.”
But I didn’t sleep well that night.
I had a terrible nightmare. In the dream, I was still searching for the ingredients for the Great Regression Art. The ingredients weren’t where they were supposed to be, and I wandered through endless, desolate places.
Then, I heard Lee An’s voice.
“Young Master, are you all right?”
I must have screamed in my sleep.
“I’m not. It was a filthy dream.”
“What did you dream about?”
“To put it in your terms, a dream where you have to start over as a bottom-tier warrior.”
“Aah! I’d rather you just kill me.”
Sitting up in bed, I looked at the bronze mirror propped against the wall. As if to say a dream was just a dream, I saw my younger self. My mood lifted again at the sight of my youthful face.
Yes, if I could greet the morning of my youth like this again, I wouldn’t mind having nightmares every night.
“You seem nervous.”
“I’m accompanying someone scarier than a tiger.”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t even be able to breathe properly.”
“I’m going to wash up. Prepare a fresh set of martial arts clothes for me.”
“Yes.”
In my past life, whenever things got tough, I would imagine what I would do if I regressed. Just imagining it made me feel better and helped me endure the pain.
But in all those countless fantasies, a hunt with my father on the second day of my regression was never one of them. Whether my instinctive choice was the right one… I would know the moment the hunt was over.
After finishing my preparations, I slung the large leather pouch over my shoulder and walked slowly toward the Heavenly Demon Hall, where my father was waiting.