The Taste of Home
“Sajeo, how did it go?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Seolgajik, I mean. The one with ‘latrine’ written on his forehead.”
“Ah! That guest? He said he wouldn’t sleep with any disciple of Hwanhuigung. No matter how desperate he was, he didn’t want to be crushed under some temptress. Ah, sorry if that hurt your feelings. It’s just that my life is precious to me. That’s all there is to it.”
Cheong was startled. Gyeon Po-hui had imitated Seolgajik’s voice almost perfectly. If she hadn’t seen the face, even Cheong might have been fooled for a moment.
What the hell? The base has this kind of talent for voice mimicry? And even if she had the talent, how did she end up with such a completely useless one?
Cheong asked, newly impressed by how trivial it was.
“Not that. Are you going to the Central Plains?”
“Eh? I already told you last time, didn’t I? I’m going.”
Her tone said it was obvious. Cheong struck her own chest in frustration.
“No, what makes you trust Seolgajik? You’re not suspicious at all? Just following some stranger like that?”
“Eh? He’s your friend, right? Is there another Seolgajik with ‘latrine’ written on his forehead?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
Seolgajik had said he would move to the Yunnan region. On a map, Yunnan was attached below Sichuan, close to the Central Plains. But there was a difference maps couldn’t show: the height. It was land belonging to the world’s highest mountain range. Moreover, the terrain was so rugged with blade-like peaks that it was difficult for people to live there. It was no wonder people joked that a single step could change the season. In reality, if you took one step off a vertical cliff, winter would turn into spring, and if you walked another step onto a protruding ledge, you would reach summer far below.
“Ah! He asked me to pass on a message. It was a short encounter, but it was quite an enjoyable time. If fate brings us together again someday, let’s have a drink.”
“Well, then. Tell him I was grateful too, will you?”
“Okay!”
Seolgajik, who dreamed of escaping the Demonic Cult, could not meet Cheong directly while she was treated as a VIP guest. But wasn’t that just how life was? Goodbye, Seolgajik. Life in the Central Plains without you might be a bit difficult, but you managed fine even without me before. Now, farewell. The greatest brain at the regional level. You were my first and last strategist. You’re not here anymore, but I hope you can live proudly as a man over there.
Mm. End of farewell! He’s smart, so he’ll figure it out on his own. I can always find another strategist if I need one. It was just nice having one around.
Cheong looked at the base. She too would be parting ways in less than half a month.
“He also told me to pick a new name to use. Over there? Sichuan? A name to use there.”
Seolgajik had promised to drop the base off in Sichuan territory. According to Cheong’s plan, the Emei Sect wouldn’t have time to worry about one runaway disciple, and if she changed her name and washed her identity, no one would know she was from the Demonic Cult. After roughly scouting out a plausible occupation, he said he would leave a message at the fifth-largest brothel in Sichuan. It was a cleanup worthy of the neighborhood’s greatest brain.
“A new name. Do you have something in mind?”
“Yeah.”
“What is it?”
“……Seo-hui.”
Gyeon Po-hui spoke shyly.
“Then it would be Gyeon Seo-hui?”
“No, the name is Hui. The surname…… the same as sajeo’s.”
Cheong raised an eyebrow. Wait, this ignorant girl still didn’t know people’s surnames and was just sitting there? Come to think of it, she had never properly told her, had she? Reflecting on her own carelessness, Cheong finally gave her real full name.
“Sajeo. It’s not Seomun Cheong, it’s Seomun Cheong.”
“Eh!? It wasn’t Mung-cheong?”
“Could you pay a little more attention to the pronunciation? Hearing it from you makes it sound like some shameful word.”
“Then I’ll make my name Seomun Hui…… Would that be okay?”
Gyeon Po-hui asked, glancing at Cheong’s expression. The Seomun surname wasn’t exclusively hers anyway, and if the other person liked it and wanted to use it, there was no real reason to stop her. In terms of family registers, both of them would end up with fake ones anyway.
“If that’s what you want, then do it.”
“Really!? Thank you! Now we’re really family!”
“Oing?”
“Being sworn sisters feels kind of embarrassing, doesn’t it?”
Cheong blinked. Sworn sisters? Cheong was about to demand what kind of nonsense that was when she saw Gyeon Po-hui’s face shining like the sun and simply swallowed her words. Yeah. If that’s what makes you happy, then that’s fine.
----
Cheong spent her time teaching Gyeon Po-hui the Maiden’s Joy Art and the Thousand-Li Flight. The Maiden’s Joy Art was originally a secret technique of Hwanhuigung, so Gyeon Po-hui had the right to inherit it. On top of that, she taught the Thousand-Li Flight to the not-so-bright base so she could escape in an emergency. It was a movement technique specialized in golden, fast, and far leaps with excellent endurance. Of course, this inevitably meant the training of the Tangseon Talui Dance had to be suspended. It was an event Cheong had not anticipated at all and felt no regret over.
As time passed like that, she eventually completed the Heavenly Heart Harmony. It was on the night she had calmly arranged to meet the base again. It was time to organize her martial arts window around now. Night walks had accumulated quite a few free training points. She raised the movement techniques Thousand-Li Flight and Wind-Dust Step all the way to the twelfth star, Great Completion, and even achieved Great Completion with the useful Black Shadow Concealment. After raising the other miscellaneous white and blue movement techniques to their maximum of ten stars, a subtle ticklish sensation arose in her body, as if something was about to change.
Come to think of it, she still hadn’t practiced the Taeeum Oknyeo Singong that Seolgajik had left behind. Since it had a golden border, she would learn just three stars for now. It seemed like she should keep it more subdued inside the Cheonma Tomb.
Cheong took a deep breath.
“Huuu.”
First, she needed to prepare her mind a little. I have no thoughts. Because I have no thoughts.
“Urgh…… Ugh…… Uuugh……”
An invisible hand kneaded her brain. Just as Cheong’s mood was plummeting into negative numbers and about to pierce through the bottom of purgatory, a merciful Buddhist smile suddenly welled up and seeped into her brain, bringing a sense of comfort.
Daejeong Seongong, it’s you again……
Come to think of it, wasn’t her Buddhist affinity a bit lacking? She had two purple mental cultivation methods, yet they hadn’t really done anything proper. She should have named the character Boridalma instead of A-cheong. Then she would have started with all the greatest Buddhist divine arts…… Strategy guide writer, why did you recommend A-cheong instead of Boridalma? If I ever get to go back, the beef is canceled. Instead, you’d better buy me kimchi jjigae. Huh? Ah…… I want kimchi jjigae…… Kimchi jjigae with a shot of soju……
A single tear rolled down Cheong’s cheek.
----
In the Central Plains, they said rice was half. Here, “half” referred to staple foods including rice. When ordering at a large restaurant, they would ask what you wanted for your staple. Southerners would ask for miban, that is, rice. Those from the east would order dumplings or boiled dumplings, while those from the north would order noodles or porridge. And westerners, except those from Sichuan, were poor people who couldn’t even enter high-class restaurants in the first place, so their staples weren’t even considered.
Of course, this wasn’t absolute. Due to the nature of people clustering in clan villages, even within a single city, various staples were divided. Under this concept, in the Central Plains, rice and side dishes were lumped together under the word miban. Side dishes in the Central Plains were merely accompaniments to rice, limited to pickles and seasoned vegetables that required no fire or cooking process. Everything else was considered cooking. In Central Plains terms, they called it chae. The four regional cuisines famous for their taste were also called the Four Great Cuisines of the Central Plains. Tian cuisine, Sichuan cuisine. Lu cuisine, Shandong cuisine. Huaiyang cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine. Yue cuisine, Guangdong cuisine. On top of that, the Central Plains had as much vegetation as its vast land, making it a paradise of gastronomy that led the world’s food culture! That was how important meals were to the people of the Central Plains. It was no wonder that one of their greetings was “Have you eaten?”
Meanwhile, there was another people who valued rice as much as the Central Plains. They were a people who inherited the noble blood of ancestors who had built the great empire of the Phantom Empire (as depicted on the watermelon map) during the Pangaea era before the extinction of the dinosaurs, a name so great that just thinking of it made some fluttering illusion appear. They were the Korean people! However, the Korean people had a special illness. If they didn’t eat Korean food periodically, they would contract the serious disease called homesickness. This was truly a big problem. If Koreans went too long without Korean food, they would collapse from longing for their homeland. Their whole body would lose strength, their mind would become hazy and unable to stand properly, and their motivation and will would plummet as one. It was Cheong’s symptoms.
Until now, Cheong had somehow managed with pseudo-Korean food, but she had accidentally touched upon the forbidden knowledge beyond the curtain that she had completely forgotten until now. Kimchi jjigae…… Blood-red broth like fresh blood, soft white tofu like brain matter, and a well-cooked piece of kimchi torn cruelly apart with both hands……
“Your complexion doesn’t look good. Are you alright?”
“I’m not alright…… I want to go home……”
“There’s no need to worry too much. Once we retrieve the Heavenly Demon Soul, we’ll send you back safely. This old man swears on his life.”
“Do you even know where my home is? Even if you add thousands more lives to your own, it probably wouldn’t be enough……”
If she could return home by sacrificing thousands of lives, she felt like she could do it right now. Hmm……? Was there a Korea in this world too? Joseon? Goryeo? Anyway, wouldn’t there be Korean food? But would those countries be the ones she knew? This was a world where people shot beams from swords. A world where running surpassed the speed of carriages. Maybe beyond the Central Plains, there was nothing but ocean. Maybe it was just a pseudo-Earth, an Earth-like planet……
I don’t know. Who cares. Cheong went limp in Choe-ri-ong’s arms. If Cheong had been an avid reader of web novels, she might have been excited, thinking she had finally experienced the possession that everyone goes through at least once in their life. She might have been lost in happy dreams of making a lot of money from donations after slaughtering people diligently and becoming a building owner. But Cheong was merely a factory worker who didn’t even have enough time to play games. She only knew a few memes from the sea of information she accessed while looking for fun games, and was completely ignorant in this area. This was why people should read web novels. It had already been scientifically, philosophically, humanistically, and sociologically proven by scholars in various fields that web novels were more helpful than Spanish! I don’t know. I just want to go home. Cheong simply thought weakly like that.
If Seomun Su-rin had seen this state and talked with her, she would have realized that her troublemaker disciple had finally fallen into a proper heart demon. Because heart demons didn’t only arise from becoming cruel or losing humanity. This kind of heart demon caused by intense longing was the type that even the great teachings of the Orthodox Sect couldn’t block. After all, a heart demon in the form of letting go of oneself was similar to the selflessness spoken of in Buddhism and Taoism. In fact, heart demons caused by homesickness were a common yet trivial problem that was very, very easy to resolve. It was a problem that could be solved with just one meal eaten while laughing and chatting with good people and warm attention. But there were people who couldn’t even do that easy method. It had already been ten days since the advance toward the Cheonma Tomb. For Cheong, it was just another listless day passing by.