Surging Killing Intent (1)
"You mastered it all on your own?"
"It seems my rage toward my master seeped into the cooking."
Baek Won-young took those words to mean something entirely different.
So the master who taught him cooking must have been excessively strict.
He found himself suddenly curious about the man's name.
The owner of that young inn was no martial artist of the Jianghu.
But setting aside the different worlds they each lived in, he wanted to grow a little closer to him.
"I realize I don't even know your honored name until now. I am Baek Won-young."
Baek Won-young offered his own name first.
Only then did Jiang Zhou give his.
"I'm called Jiang Zhou."
Once Baek Won-young introduced himself, Yeon Ja-seol and Baek Ha-young had no choice but to reveal their names as well.
"I'm Yeon Ja-seol."
"I'm Baek Ha-young. Baek Won-young the Great Hero is my older brother."
Even as she gave her name, Baek Ha-young was feeling sour inside.
She was the cherished daughter of the Murim Alliance Leader, while the man before her was merely an innkeeper.
His cooking skills might be extraordinary, but he lived in a different world and belonged to a different station entirely.
Insufferable woman. My brother is perfectly pleasant—why on earth is she like that?
Jiang Zhou noticed the look in her eyes as well.
But he gave no sign of it.
"A pleasure to meet you."
Baek Won-young watched the whole scene with quiet amusement.
He too had caught the undercurrent of his younger sister's thoughts.
Yet this man called Jiang Zhou brushed it all aside without so much as a flicker.
"It was a truly delightful gathering. I will come again often."
Haha........
"Yes, please do."
"Next time, I was thinking of bringing horses along. Would that be all right?"
"There are only mares here at the moment, so that's fine. That beast of mine went off with my sworn brother."
At Jiang Zhou's answer, Baek Won-young was inwardly flustered.
Oh no. So my sister took the stallion away. And the other mares still need to be bred with him....
Haha..........
Baek Won-young papered over his flustered thoughts with a laugh.
"When will your sworn brother be returning?"
"Within ten days."
"I...... see."
"Brother, you don't much care for riding horses anyway."
Baek Ha-young asked on the road back to the Murim Alliance.
Her brother could ride well enough.
But he far preferred racing along on lightness skill to sitting in a saddle.
"Something happened, so don't ask any more."
Baek Won-young refused to explain the reason.
Sister or not, how could he possibly bring himself to talk about breeding?
But Yeon Ja-seol was just as curious.
Her talents were not limited to the martial arts.
Senior Brother couldn't stop laughing at that inn. It must not have been the inn itself—it was the food, and that man Jiang Zhou, that pleased him so.
He was a man she had met for the first time today.
She had never imagined a man she'd only just met could cook so magnificently, or be so delightful company.
Granted, the man was no Jianghu warrior, but he seemed thoroughly decent all the same.
"Senior Brother seems to have taken quite a liking to that man Jiang Zhou."
Hahahaha...........!
At her shrewd observation, Baek Won-young laughed openly.
"As expected of my junior sister—nothing gets past you. If we grow a bit closer, I'm thinking of swearing brotherhood with him."
"Brother.........!"
At his words, Baek Ha-young shrieked in protest.
"Brother! That man is a cook! How can someone of your stature swear brotherhood with an innkeeper?"
The heart she had softened, however slightly, on account of his cooking froze over cold and hard once more.
Between that man Jiang Zhou and her brother stretched a gulf as wide as heaven and earth.
Her brother was a man who played among the clouds; that man was one who walked the dirt below.
How could two people so far apart possibly become sworn brothers?
But Baek Won-young saw it differently.
"When one person takes a liking to another, what does station have to do with it? Besides, I don't consider the innkeeper beneath me in any way."
"Keep this up and I'm telling Father."
"Do as you please. Though I suspect Father would have little to say about it either."
Hmph......
Utterly exasperated, Baek Ha-young sprinted ahead to the Murim Alliance first.
Haah......
Baek Won-young sighed as he watched her retreating back.
She's got some growing up to do. It's a real worry.
Four days had already passed since Yang Jeong went home.
Without the rascal around, I find myself a little lost.
At the inn the boy did nothing but cause trouble, yet now that he was gone the empty space he left behind felt surprisingly large.
"Just three catties of pork, please."
Stopping by the butcher's shop, Jiang Zhou placed his order.
The owner sliced the pork, a smile spreading across his face.
"I hear tell you're charging a whole silver tael for a single bowl of noodles. Is it true?"
"It is."
Jiang Zhou kept his face perfectly composed, but inwardly he was grinding his teeth.
Cursed freeloaders. If you ate a free meal, the least you could do is spread a flattering rumor, not this.
No doubt the rumor had spread through the mouths of the village girls who had visited before.
Haha.......
"How delicious can it possibly be, to charge a silver tael a bowl? But tasty as it may be, I doubt you'll find many willing to pay a whole silver tael for noodles."
"I'm well aware."
The butcher tied up the sliced pork with twine and handed it over.
"That'll be two mun."
Jiang Zhou was reaching for his coin pouch when a group of village women came shuffling up to him.
"Um...... where has young master Yang Jeong gone?"
'Young master,' my foot.
Jiang Zhou turned to face the women.
They had clasped their hands together, their faces desperate with longing.
"Samryong went back to his family home."
At that answer, the women gasped, at a complete loss.
"He went... he went home? Then...... will he not be coming back here anymore?"
"When is he coming back?"
Jiang Zhou looked at them with eyes full of pity.
If my daughter ever carried on like that, I'd choke on my own rage and collapse on the spot.
"He'll be back soon."
The faces of the women, who had looked ready to burst into tears on the spot, brightened all at once.
"When...... when exactly did he say he'd return?"
"In a few days?"
No longer wanting to deal with them, Jiang Zhou turned away.
"That, I couldn't tell you either."
Sighs of lamentation rose from behind him.
"He needs to come back soon......."
The lamenting quickly turned into a brawl.
"I miss him more than you do."
"I knew him before you ever did."
"Why, you....... you little.......!"
"What did you call me? You want to die......."
Jiang Zhou paid them no mind and walked on.
Any moment now they'll be dancing with blades, those women.
The sun set and darkness fell.
Jiang Zhou stared blankly at the empty seat in his inn.
As the night deepened, the sounds of travelers passing along the main road faded away entirely.
No customers today either.
With no customers to feed, whatever ingredients remained were all his for the taking.
Thak..! Thak...!
Jiang Zhou beat the dough against his cutting board and drew out the noodles.
Lonely, so lonely.
Just as the pork noodles were coming together, he sensed something ill at work.
"So it's you lot.........."
Jiang Zhou reached out toward the Ink Sword standing propped in the corner of the kitchen.
Wheeee.........
The instant the sword flew into his hand, his body was already leaving the kitchen behind.
Stepping into the ruined mansion, he felt presences stirring here and there.
"I believe I told you not to cross my fence again......"
Jiang Zhou sent a quiet warning toward the presences.
In response, a man whose face was covered edge to edge in black tattoos stepped out of the darkness.
"The Blood Star warned us not to meddle in your affairs......"
The man spat back the very same words.
So that woman was the Blood Star.
He had no idea what a Blood Star was.
But he had felt more than enough to know these ones were wicked.
Sniff....
Jiang Zhou flared his nostrils.
Just like before, that sickening stench of rot filled the air.
Right. I was right to be disgusted.
It was the foul odor of flesh putrefying from within.
A faint thrill stirred in Jiang Zhou.
Why else would he never have bothered to move his inn, even knowing the ground it stood on was ill-omened?
It was surely because he had known that things like this would happen often.
"It's not too late even now. Climb back over the fence and vanish."
Even as he spoke the words, Jiang Zhou waited for them to draw their blades.
Kukukuk.........
The tattooed man twisted his face into a sinister grin.
"Do you understand that in this very moment, you have made an enemy of us?"
Jiang Zhou answered with a smile as cold as frost.
"Perfectly......... Come on, then."
The moment the words left his mouth, dozens of shadows erupted from the darkness.
GRAAAH.............! GRAAAH.......!
The shadows hurled out horrible cries, one after another.
"Miss Yeon. Where might you be going?"
A young prodigy of the Alliance caught Yeon Ja-seol as she was leaving and asked.
She was blessed not only with lovely looks but also a tall, graceful figure, and countless men gazed upon her with admiration.
But few warriors dared to approach her casually.
Her martial arts were simply too formidable—striking up conversation was a feat in itself.
"I have some brief business in the village."
At her reply, the young prodigy flashed a winning smile.
Few could afford such ease in her presence.
"It's long since grown dark. Allow me to escort you."
"Your offer is kind, but I'll decline."
She refused him with a smile and stepped out of the Murim Alliance.
The young prodigy gritted his teeth.
Grrrk..
She dares refuse my kindness? The insolence of that woman—how high does she think she flies?
His own clan lagged behind no other family in all the Jianghu.
The Eon Clan's name rang out especially loud ever since they had struck down the Northern Yanluo.
Eon So-ryong drank in the sight of Yeon Ja-seol's retreating figure.
Not just the face—the figure is exquisite too.......
Once outside the Alliance, Yeon Ja-seol hurried along.
She too had felt Eon So-ryong's oily gaze on her.
But what warrior hadn't endured one such man or another?
I do hope I'm not too late.
She had lost all track of time, so deep had she sunk into her martial training.
Yeon Ja-seol was on her way now to Jiang Zhou's inn.
Just as her senior brother had said, ever since eating there she could no longer taste anything in any other food.
A warrior must be master of his own restraint—yet the flavor kept rising in her memory, and in the end she had stepped out of the Alliance despite herself.
What if I've arrived too late?
Worried, she quickened her pace.
But as she reached the woods where the inn stood, her steps grew a touch more leisurely.
Light still glowed warmly from the windows—the inn appeared to be open.
Crossing the stone bridge, Yeon Ja-seol stepped over the collapsed fence and entered the grounds.
But nowhere could she see the innkeeper.
"Anyone here?"
Poking around the kitchen, she searched for Jiang Zhou.
GRAAAH.........! GRAAAH........!
Just then, a spine-chilling shriek echoed from deep within the mansion grounds.
What was that?
Sensing danger by instinct alone, her hand closed around her sword hilt.
And slowly, she moved toward the interior of the mansion.
Shwaak... swerrek.....
Cutting down his enemies, Jiang Zhou let his killing intent loose without restraint.
The eyes of the shrieking fiends showed nothing but white.
And from their bodies rolled that foul, rotting stench.
Swerrek..
The Ink Sword cleaved through the air, and a forearm spun off into the sky.
GRAAAH..........!
Yet the fiends shrieked on, utterly indifferent.
The white-eyed things seemed incapable of feeling pain.
Swerrek.
Only when their heads left their shoulders did their bodies tumble to the ground.
The instant an enemy hit the earth, a black sword gang came falling from above.
It was Sword Gang—blade qi made tangible and pressurized into form.
BOOM.....!
When the black sword gang and the Ink Sword collided, the darkness itself warped and shattered.
And there was more than one black sword gang.
Another came boring in at his waist.
BOOM.........!
Deflecting the sword gang, Jiang Zhou shifted his footwork.
Wheeee.....
The enemy's front, visible before his eyes a heartbeat ago, became his back in a flash.
Shwaak.....
Jiang Zhou's sword carved through empty space as the enemy's body scattered like smoke.
Their martial arts were not stronger than the giant he had once fought.
But there was not just one of them—there were many, and he could not afford to be careless.
KRAKRAKOOM......! BOOM.......!
Each time the Ink Sword met the black sword gang, roof tiles rained down from the battered old hall.
Swerrek..
Beheading another foe, Jiang Zhou retreated a step.
And in that instant, a chill of killing intent bored into his back.