Did You Poison It?
Had the food been poisoned?
Swoosh.
Jin Seongun lifted the long-hanging bamboo curtain with one hand and looked out over the inn.
Dozens of armed warriors ringed the entrance. Fifty-odd were visible at a glance — and another fifty or so were crouched in the shadows of the roofline and the courtyard wall, hiding their killing intent.
Every one of them wore a grim, determined face.
The annihilation of Saryonggangbang. The raid on Mogyangmun that ended in wanton destruction before a calm, unhurried disappearance. The eyewitness accounts of the Twilight Pavilion's leader and the Blue Night Valley's master. They had more than enough reasons not to take Jin Seongun lightly.
“That's him?”
“……Younger than I expected.”
A few of the warriors muttered among themselves. Apparently the Jin Seongun they had imagined was an older man with a harder, more brutal look about him.
Jin Seongun surveyed the assembled warriors with placid indifference, then spoke.
“Did we get famous for our food or something?”
He had invited exactly one man — Saryeonggeuk — and a hundred had shown up. And of the man presumed to be Saryeonggeuk himself, there was no sign.
Jin Seongun spread his qi sense wide.
And there it was — a strange, alien presence, far off in the distance. A man watching this place with the detached air of a spectator, as if he had nothing at all to do with what was about to happen.
Jin Seongun knew at once that it was Saryeonggeuk. Of every warrior he had ever met, this man carried the most singular presence.
He's like a blade.
It was no figure of speech — the man seemed to be a saber that had taken human form.
It wasn't merely that he was tall and gaunt, with sharp eyes and a sharp countenance. His very energy, his very existence, was as cold as a honed edge.
Seo Yugyeom came up alongside him and looked in the same direction.
“That's the Thousand Poisons Alliance's Vice Leader?”
“Looks like it.”
“Ugly bastard, isn't he. Men with a face like that always take everything they can get their hands on and then refuse to pay up. Am I right?”
Jin Seongun nodded in agreement.
Neither of them had bothered to lower their voices, and that, if anything, left the unorthodox thugs of Deokyang badly flustered.
“Do you — do you want to die?!”
The leader of Twilight Pavilion roared on their behalf. Since the Blue Night Valley's master lacked any talent for commanding men in broad daylight, the Twilight Pavilion leader had naturally been playing second-in-command.
Jin Seongun stared at him for a long moment, then said:
“Didn't you come here to kill us anyway?”
“…….”
It was too true to argue with, and the Twilight Pavilion leader shut his mouth. Facing Jin Seongun, he could feel his freshly emptied shoulder socket beginning to ache.
Before long, Jin Seongun left a single word behind and stepped back inside the inn.
“Come on in. The inn's small, so just two or three of you.”
Seo Yugyeom raised his thumb and drew it slowly across his own throat. Anyone who walked through that door died.
With that, the two of them slipped back inside, leaving the unorthodox warriors blinking at each other in bewilderment.
They had expected one of two outcomes from the monsters of Deokyang Inn: if the creatures were violent, they would draw steel and fight; if cowardly, they would beg or run.
Nobody had pictured this.
In the brief chaos that followed, the Twilight Pavilion leader turned to his subordinate, Yang Gwang.
“Report the situation to the Vice Alliance Leader.”
“……Yes, Pavilion Leader.”
Yang Gwang made his way over to Saryeonggeuk, moving with extreme caution — he had already been on the receiving end of the man's killing intent once before.
As Yang Gwang drew near, Saryeonggeuk spoke.
“Keep your mouth shut.”
“…….”
Yang Gwang, scolded without having said a single word, bowed his head.
Saryeonggeuk toyed with the straight saber at his waist and glared at Deokyang Inn.
What are they scheming?
Saryeonggeuk was, by nature, a calculating man. He considered every situation, weighed every variable, prepared for every outcome. His martial might, his merciless temperament, and his calculating mind together were what had made him Vice Leader of the Thousand Poisons Alliance.
And that man could not make sense of this. However he turned it over in his mind, there was simply no way those two could defeat him.
After a short deliberation, Saryeonggeuk began to move. He strode straight through the crowd of gaping thugs and toward Deokyang Inn.
Standing at the entrance, he spread his qi sense and confirmed it once more. There were, without question, only three people inside.
“Follow me.”
With that, Saryeonggeuk entered the inn. The Twilight Pavilion leader, at the head of the warriors, soon followed, as did the Blue Night Valley master, who had been concealing his presence on the rooftop.
The three men stepped into the inn.
Saryeonggeuk's eyes found Hwa Yeonseol, seated off in the corner, and he let out a mocking snort.
“Guild Leader. A foolish choice you've made.”
“…….”
Hwa Yeonseol did not answer. There was nothing left to gain from trading words with him.
Saryeonggeuk hadn't expected a reply anyway, and quickly shifted his gaze to Jin Seongun.
“So. You sent this?”
He held up a letter for all to see.
Have a meal before you go.
Absurd as ever, no matter how many times he read it.
Jin Seongun gave a calm nod, and Saryeonggeuk burst into a hollow laugh.
“Fine. I'm here. Now what?”
“You came to an inn. You eat, of course.”
Saryeonggeuk understood then. He had no idea what the man was banking on — but one thing was certain: this was, at minimum, half-mad spawn.
Oblivious to it all, Seo Yugyeom headed for the kitchen — whereupon Jin Seongun stopped him and declared, with the gravity of a man heading to his own execution:
“This time, I'll do it.”
Seo Yugyeom flinched.
Jin Seongun disappeared into the kitchen. Seo Yugyeom looked at Saryeonggeuk and his two lackeys and offered them a look of pure pity.
“Sit anywhere, wherever.”
“…….”
The Twilight Pavilion leader's face flushed red.
The Blue Night Valley master, assassin that he was, maintained a mask of perfect calm — though inwardly he was imagining driving a blade into the throats of these insolent wretches.
But with Saryeonggeuk keeping his silence, neither of them could speak first.
Suddenly, Saryeonggeuk burst out laughing.
“Hahahaha!”
It was only natural. When absurdity piles too high, a man laughs.
Saryeonggeuk had made his name in his youth, and in his whole life he could scarcely recall ever being treated like this. Especially since becoming Vice Leader — apart from a handful of supreme masters the world over, everyone feared him.
Which made this situation, if anything, refreshing. Curious. Almost enjoyable.
Saryeonggeuk took his seat. The Twilight Pavilion and Blue Night Valley leaders both flinched.
Watching them, Saryeonggeuk clicked his tongue.
“I said sit.”
“……Yes, Vice Alliance Leader.”
The two leaders settled themselves on either side of Saryeonggeuk.
Seo Yugyeom, with magnificent audacity, sat directly across from Saryeonggeuk himself.
“…….”
“…….”
A staring contest commenced. Each found the other rather interesting to look at.
Saryeonggeuk was marveling at how a young warrior could bury his killing intent and presence so completely and hold such perfect composure. Seo Yugyeom was simply marveling at Saryeonggeuk's face.
“Up close, you're even more of a f***ing eyesore.”
Seo Yugyeom swore deliberately. That was what assassins did — if unsettling an opponent's mind raised their odds of winning, then unsettling it was exactly what they would do.
The Blue Night Valley master's hand slid down, silent and unseen, beneath the table. The moment his fingers closed around the blade hidden in his robes, Seo Yugyeom's head turned.
“Draw it and you die.”
“…….”
The Blue Night Valley master froze solid.
Saryeonggeuk burst out laughing again. Curious how the man would react, he had simply left him be — and sure enough, he truly hadn't noticed. However pathetic the Blue Night Valley master might be, for a man of his considerable skill as an assassin, it was a fairly remarkable result.
In that instant, Saryeonggeuk was certain.
“You're an assassin. From Salmak, aren't you?”
The Blue Night Valley master's eyes flashed. His life's one great aspiration, after all, had been to build an assassin organization that would surpass Salmak itself.
The Blue Night Valley leader, the Twilight Pavilion leader — and even Saryeonggeuk — all waited for Seo Yugyeom's answer.
Before long, Seo Yugyeom replied with devastating magnanimity.
“That's right. I'm the leader of Salmak.”
Meaning: I'm not telling you, so fill in the blanks yourself. Somehow, the three men came away feeling they had moved a step farther from his true identity.
While Seo Yugyeom kept the three of them occupied with his easygoing manner, Jin Seongun walked out of the kitchen carrying bowls of noodles.
Thud. Three bowls landed on the table.
The Twilight Pavilion and Blue Night Valley leaders did not so much as glance at the noodles, as if a plank had been clamped to the backs of their necks; they stared only at Jin Seongun and Seo Yugyeom. Confronted by monsters, they had no composure to spare for anything else.
Saryeonggeuk, by contrast, surveyed the noodles with leisurely calm. The color was good, the aroma was good. Even to a casual eye, they looked competently cooked.
“Try them,” Saryeonggeuk said.
The Twilight Pavilion and Blue Night Valley leaders traded glances, sizing each other up. Naturally, neither had the slightest desire to stuff his face with enemy-provided food in the heart of enemy territory.
Saryeonggeuk felt much the same — which was exactly why he'd told them to eat.
“…….”
An awkward silence settled over the room.
Jin Seongun simply stood there, arms folded, watching the three of them.
Cold sweat began running down the spines of the two leaders. Saryeonggeuk's dry gaze pressed against them like a blade's edge, sliding up under their chins.
In the end, both men lifted their chopsticks at the same time, clinging to the hope that a man who could slaughter dozens of warriors with a single swing of his sword surely wouldn't bother poisoning a bowl of noodles.
With pained expressions, they put the noodles in their mouths.
A sliver of a moment passed.
“KUEGH!”
The archetypal thug of Twilight Pavilion and the cold-blooded assassin of Blue Night Valley shrieked in unison and spat the noodles across the floor.
Whereupon Saryeonggeuk drew his saber and said:
“Was it poisoned?”
With the naked blade before his eyes, Jin Seongun replied in the same even tone.
“Hardly.”
Saryeonggeuk frowned and looked at the two thugs. If it weren't poison, what else could possibly wring that reaction out of them?
But time passed, and the two men did nothing but glare at the noodles as if they were their mortal enemies. No blood ran from their noses. Their skin did not blacken.
Saryeonggeuk asked.
“What, then?”
The Twilight Pavilion leader hesitated a moment before answering.
“……It tastes — tastes wrong.”
“That's all?”
“Not merely wrong. It's abominable.”
“…….”
Saryeonggeuk very much wanted to swing the drawn saber right then and there and put an end to both of them.
Jin Seongun, for his part, looked somewhat glum. He had thought, after all, that he'd learned quite a lot from Seo Yugyeom.
Jin Seongun's cooking was truly a strange thing. He had used the ingredients Seo Yugyeom prescribed, followed the method Seo Yugyeom prescribed — and produced a result that bore no resemblance to the original whatsoever.
Having mastered the Supreme Ascension art, Jin Seongun could control the finest quantities, the precise heat, the exact timing to perfection.
And yet the result was the same.
It made no difference that Seo Yugyeom had stood beside him, watching the entire process.
After numerous attempts, the two of them had been left with only one possible conclusion.
The Cursed Hand.
Anything Jin Seongun's fingers so much as grazed turned to garbage. Everyone at Seongun Inn had learned this the hard way, which was why no one was ever fed his cooking anymore.
And so Jin Seongun, feeding another person for the first time in an age, had discovered that the curse still held — and grown a little despondent over it.
Amid all this, Saryeonggeuk spoke.
“Hand over the Guild Leader. Judging by the look of you, assassin, you're the wretched spawn who murdered Hwa Yuntak and fled. You die here. Blame no one — these are the terms that Hwa Yeonseol woman set.”
“That's—!”
From her seat far across the room, Hwa Yeonseol tried to protest.
Seo Yugyeom raised his hand.
Gathering every eye in the room, he then mimicked Saryeonggeuk's tone from moments before and said:
“What a pair of cripples you've all been, living your whole lives like this. Not one of you is worth keeping alive. All three of you — die here.”
“…….”
The Twilight Pavilion and Blue Night Valley leaders stared at him as if beholding a raving lunatic. To live long enough to see a man pull this kind of lunacy straight to the face of the Thousand Poisons Alliance's Vice Leader —
Saryeonggeuk, too, could not laugh this one off. His face went cold as a corpse, and he glared at Seo Yugyeom and Jin Seongun before giving the order.
“Kill them.”
His voice was saturated with such thunderous internal power that it rang clearly even to everyone outside the inn.
The Twilight Pavilion leader roared again for good measure.
“You heard him, you bastards — KILL THEM!”
At that very instant, the hundred-odd warriors surrounding the inn moved as one.
Dozens of armed men poured through the cramped inn entrance in a single flood, like a wave breaking over the doorstep.
Blades bared, brimming with murderous spirit, they came charging straight at Jin Seongun and Seo Yugyeom.