NOVEL WEB Chapter 30
30: The Beauty Within
In the medieval martial world, an inn is synonymous with a battlefield.
Just like in martial arts novels, 50% of conflicts in the martial world occur in inns.
Martial artists, like Pokémon trainers entering a gym, start fighting the moment their eyes meet at an inn.
An inn is truly the extreme workplace of a hunter in this medieval isekai martial world.
Other extreme jobs in this medieval isekai martial world include informants, duelists, bandits, water bandits, fortune tellers, guards, black-clad rascals, and the top extreme job, eunuchs.
Huh, you should never do stuff like this. Damn it.
Come to think of it, in my past life, I was forced to switch to the eunuch class without any chance of a career.
Just thinking about that time still sends chills down my spine.
That bastard Jang Yi-hyun, who sold innocent orphans as eunuchs to the imperial palace through connections with a servant trader, deserves to be sent to hell like Wang Sam…
Considering the countless victims who were forcibly castrated and sold to the palace, he must be brought to justice soon.
In my previous life, when I looked for him to take revenge after rising to power like Wang Sam, Jang Yi-hyun had already died from a disease called boils and fled to hell, so I couldn’t get my revenge. But now, I can.
How dare you make me a eunuch and suck the lifeblood out of orphans?
As I pondered this, I surveyed my surroundings.
A thug, having overturned a table, was glaring at Seoharin and shouting.
“Is this what you call food? Who’s the owner here? Get the owner! Owner!”
Another thug with a scar on his face scowled beside the first one.
“What are you looking at? Got eyes? Why don’t you scram?”
At the shout from the thug with the rat’s mustache, the civilian guests, merely bystanders, scattered out of the inn in a panic.
“…Hey, why are you frozen? I said to get the owner! Your old man!”
“Hehehe… That one’s kinda pretty, even if she looks like a goblin, huh? You, how about working a job arranged by our Sayeong Hoe? Hehe. With someone like you, paying off debt would be easy!”
The rat-mustached thug approached Seoharin with a lewd grin, spouting clichés so old they were exhausting to hear.
I pinched my temples.
Yeah, seems like today is the day.
In my previous life, on the day the black-clad thugs of Sayeong Hoe disrupted the Gongdong Inn, my Sahyeong and Master struck a deal with Seoharin to protect her and initiate her into the Gongdong Sect.
‘Sayeong Hoe.’
Sayeong Hoe was a black-clad faction that seized control of Hwajeong County, the lower village of Gongdong Mountain, in the wake of the Gongdong Sect’s decline.
Like all black-clad scum, they not only engaged in loan sharking via the Yewang Channel but also extorted protection fees from local merchants around Hwajeong County.
Essentially, they were your typical black-clad thugs.
In the days when the Gongdong Sect held a position of power, it would have been unimaginable for black-clad thugs to roam Hwajeong County.
No sect gives up its front yard to another faction. Isn’t there a saying that even a stray dog eats half at home? In a war of the stars, if your front yard gets raided, it’s immediately GG.
But the current Gongdong Sect was reduced to a ghost sect with only three members.
Of course, they couldn’t manage their front yard. However, the market in Hwajeong County, on the entrance to Gongdong Mountain, was still relatively viable, leading the black-clads to invade.
Bringing enemy multi-players into your front yard? That’s just asking for GG.
Anyway, after the Sayeong Hoe monopoly of most resources in Hwajeong County, they intimidated local merchants into cutting ties with the Gongdong Inn, then committed the heinous act of forcing the inn to buy bad ingredients at outrageous prices.
Due to the decline in the quality of the ingredients, food prices skyrocketed while the quality plummeted. Naturally, sales fell because of the expensive plate of yuckiness. But they had to keep selling, so the Sayeong Hoe cornered the inn into debt for supplies.
It was all a ploy to suffocate the Gongdong Inn, the last source of funds for the Gongdong Sect.
‘The problem is that Sayeong Hoe isn’t just your run-of-the-mill loan shark.’
Sayeong Hoe wasn’t the ordinary black-clad faction.
If they were just an average black-clad group, Jeonyeong and Sahyeong would have wiped them out the first time they met in my past life.
Sayeong Hoe was a third-rate loan shark thug organization, but behind them was the massive black-clad faction, Heukryongbang, from Sichuan.
That’s right. Sayeong Hoe was actually a multi-faceted operation for Heukryongbang.
Of course, it wasn’t that Gansu Province had no White Path factions.
Fifty years ago, taking advantage of the Gongdong Sect’s downfall, the newly risen conglomerate, Seomun Seka, swiftly took control of Gansu Province, transforming the existing five major families into six.
However, the Seomun Seka in Lanzhou was turning a blind eye to the existence of Sayeong Hoe.
The Seomun Seka knew that Gansu had been the turf of the Gongdong Sect for hundreds of years. Unsurprisingly, public opinion in Gansu still supported the Gongdong Sect. The Gongdong Sect was not just a sect; it was the root of the people and martial artists in Gansu.
Thus, even after the Gongdong Sect’s downfall, they remained a spiritual pillar in Gansu. If the Seomun Seka did not deal with them, they would remain perpetually in second place, no matter how high their power.
Moreover, if the Gongdong Sect were to revive somehow, the geographically disadvantaged Seomun Seka would be pushed out immediately.
‘However, for a powerful faction like Seomun Seka, directly dealing with the illustrious Gongdong Sect with a long history would be impossible.’
So, Seomun Seka turned a blind eye to Sayeong Hoe’s encroachment on the interests of Hwajeong County. After all, a third-rate black faction like Sayeong Hoe could easily be crushed by a subcontract faction of theirs.
While it was blindfolded, they figured if the Heukryongbang dealt the final blow to the Gongdong Sect, they wouldn’t have to lift a finger.
In the process, even if Heukryongbang’s power grew, they had no connection in Gansu anyway. So, when the time came to ring the bell of justice, with the banner of avenging the Gongdong Sect, they could easily engage in a decisive battle against Heukryongbang.
This was a fantastic strategy.
From my 50 years of experience in politics, I saw Seomun Seka’s plan as objectively brilliant.
Though Heukryongbang belongs to the Sado Palmun, which could be likened to a first-class faction, their roots were in Sichuan.
If the two needed to clash as Seomun Seka’s home front in Gansu Province, Heukryongbang would never win.
Moreover, should they incite revenge for the Gongdong Sect, they could win over public sentiment in Gansu as well.
Some smart folks might suspect Seomun Seka’s ulterior motives, but without solid proof, it wouldn’t go beyond speculation. If the plan succeeded, it would also lead to Seomun Seka bleeding in the conflict with Heukryongbang, allowing things to slide under the radar.
Seomun Seka would finally be able to completely dominate Gansu.
‘A plan so perfect that even a 50-year-old scoundrel like me would admire it.’
It’s hard to tell if this is a two-birds-with-one-stone scenario or a countless-number-of-birds-with-one-stone affair.
The problem is that the target they aimed for just so happens to be the Gongdong Sect I belong to.
And now, they are daring to touch the future top beauty of a righteous faction, who is of the subclass of a subclass of a subclass of a subclass!
I can’t let this slide. How dare they interfere with my plans for the Samcheosacheop?
Unforgivable.
I will personally create an ending where both Seomun Seka and Heukryongbang get hurt.
And what business does this scumbag have touching a little girl?
The atmosphere instantly turned cold.
Seoharin’s empty eyes were trembling.
Her whole body had hardened as though it was frozen. Tears were welling up in her eyes.
Perhaps her childhood PTSD was resurfacing, rendering her speechless and immobile.
In my previous life, Sahyeong would have rescued her, and I could afford to wait until Sahyeong stepped in since it had nothing to do with me.
But I couldn’t do that.
Drip.
The moment a tear fell from Seoharin’s sky-blue eyes, I quietly stood up, channeling my inner strength into the chopsticks I held and threw them.
WHOOSH!
The chopsticks shot forth with a burst of power, piercing right into the black-clad thug’s hand.
AHHHHHHHH!
As the thug’s hand was pierced by the flying chopsticks, just before it could touch Seoharin’s cheek, blood gushed forth.
“You, wearing that black outfit with the reverse-taiji pattern, could it be you’re from the Gongdong Sect?”
“You little brat from a fallen sect dares to hurt my brother? You haven’t even bled yet, but here you are! I will claim your brother’s blood today!”
The two black-clad thugs started prattling incoherently at me.
Three ugly men fussing about being brothers was quite a spectacle.
It’s not like they were some sort of band either.
Of course, their ultimate goal was the Gongdong Sect. In that situation, I, as a disciple of the Gongdong Sect, had initiated the quarrel, so they felt like they had been slapped instead of begging to cry.
They certainly weren’t expecting that my slap would cut their lifespans short.
“Are you calling this food bad?”
I looked at the black-clad thugs while activating the Minor Yang Heart Method.
In my previous life, I was Hyeongyeong’s Master and the most powerful figure in the Ming Empire.
Even though my inner strength wasn’t at the peak yet, the momentum from my past life experience was still intact.
Hot Yang energy symbolizing manhood surged from my dantian, flowing through my limbs and veins.
As my energy rose, the expressions of the black-clad thugs stiffened.
Anyway, with their martial arts barely at a third-rate level, I could beat them even without inner strength.
“Y-yeah! The materials are cheap, so the taste is…”
One of the thugs, who flipped the table earlier, stuttered.
I sauntered over to the table he had overturned.
All eyes in the inn turned to me, even Seoharin’s vacant gaze.
Feeling their eyes on me, I picked up the fallen lamb meat from the floor and stuffed it into my mouth.
“Are you out of your mind?! I heard that the funds of the Gongdong Sect are in bad shape lately. Are they unable to feed their disciples?!”
“Is eating food off the floor even acceptable?!”
The black-clads murmured in astonishment.
Regardless, after swallowing the food, I said,
“Hey, it’s delicious.”
“What?”
The black-clad trio looked at me in disbelief.
I smiled at them and said, “The lamb meat you flipped over? It’s delicious! It’s the food that Seodae-in diligently prepared and gave to you. No way it’s not tasty. So why are you harassing an innocent girl just because it didn’t suit your taste?”
Feeling Seoharin’s gaze drilling into me from behind, I drew my sword.
SWISH!
The cheap iron sword I had bought from a blacksmith glimmered as it left its sheath.
I pointed my chin at the thug, who had earlier rambled on about brotherhood and wanting to collect blood.
“Hey, what are you doing? You said you wanted to collect blood from me. Go on, give it a try.”
I launched into the smoothly rehearsed dialogue while grinning at him.
From now on, I would inevitably have countless battles against black-clads in the martial world.
The sight of a righteous martial artist punishing devious black-clads who fed on the lifeblood of the commoners and merchants, that was exactly the ideal alpha male that women in the martial world yearned for the most.
In modern terms, it’s like being an idol or an actor.
And since I, unfortunately, cannot boast about external beauty like Sahyeong, I need to cultivate my inner beauty.
That inner beauty is none other than justice.
So how can I become a charming martial artist who captivates women’s hearts?
I must practice.
And now is the perfect time for that practice.
Daring to provoke me, a black-clad thug before officially stepping into the martial world! How thoughtful of them!
A superb teaching assistant has come my way.
With this, I must look somewhat cool, right?
But I hope Seoharin doesn’t fall for me too soon.
After all, I’m a dangerous boy. Hehe.