Book 2 - C106 - Unbelievable (5)
Despite watching Choi Jung Soo, who kept putting stir-fried meat in his mouth, Cale ignored him.
And picked up a dumpling with his chopsticks.
That's when...
"H-Human..." Raon nervously said, "Are you going to eat more?"
Cale was puzzled but replied calmly, "Yes. I'm hungry."
Beacrox stood up from his seat, "... I'll try making a steak."
Then, with two layers of white gloves, he left.
"Human, are you okay?" Raon looked at Cale with a genuinely concerned look. And Choi Jung Soo also stopped eating and asked, not understanding, "... Do you want to eat more?".
Empty dishes were stacked beside Cale.
Not one or two. It was five or six.
"Because I'm starving." Cale responded indifferently, stating the truth with a prickly look.
"My body has fully recovered, but it wants food because it has spent a lot of energy in the process. So I need to eat."
Raon stabbed the dumplings with a chopstick and placed them in front of Cale.
"Human, you need to recover soon, so eat a lot! That's right! Eat more to get better!"
"... I'm fine. Rather, have I ever been sick?"
"Augh," Raon shook his head with a sigh, then took an apple pie from his subspace and placed it on the table.
It was an apple pie brought from the Roan Kingdom, its freshness maintained by the subspace.
"Human, there are a lot of apple pies here. Eat a lot!"
"..." Cale had a lot to say, but he held back.
Instead, he ate in silence.
Choi Jung Soo, whose expression and posture seemed like he didn't eat much, stopped his chopsticks and looked at Cale, who was eating steadily.
Cale noticed and asked, "Are you going to tell me now?"
"...Yes." With a sigh, Choi Jung Soo put down his chopsticks and leaned back in his chair.
Currently, only Cale, Choi Han, Sui Khan, Raon, and Choi Jung Soo were in the room because Beacrox had left.
Outside this room, there were more people than ever in the entire guest house. They had their own things to do, so they didn't stay in one place.
Ron and the chief eunuch Wi were dealing with the Carnage Demon who had secretly visited them. Dust was in charge of Namgung Taewi, and Toonka was guarding No. 7 from the Blood Cult.
'Somehow, only those who are related remain.'
Cale suddenly had that thought, but soon shifted his focus when Choi Jung Soo opened his mouth.
"I waited because I heard my colleagues were coming."
Choi Jung Soo smiled as he said that. Cale then spoke.
"Is that all?"
"Ah!"
Only then did Choi Jung Soo take an old book out from his arms as if he had realized something.
A book that looked very old, with no title written on it.
The book was placed on the table.
"This is for my uncle."
And Choi Jung Soo gently handed the book to Choi Han.
He scratched his head, unable to look Choi Han in the eyes.
"I almost forgot."
Cale silently looked at the book and spat out, "Is that the Heavenly Sword?"
The Heavenly Sword.
The martial arts that the Three Factions were frantically searching for right now.
"Oh, as expected, you know. My colleague knows everything!"
Cale looked at Sui Khan. But Sui Khan was already looking at the air and crossing his arms without looking at either Cale or Choi Jung Soo.
At that moment, Choi Jung Soo muttered, "For some reason, I can't look at you."
Then he glanced at Choi Han.
He was curious about what Cale was doing. On the other hand, Choi Han couldn't even look at Choi Jung Soo, and he bit his lips as he stared at the Heavenly Sword.
Choi Han muttered quietly, "... I heard that because of this, the Murim people are after you."
"...Well, yes." Choi Jung Soo answered quietly, which was unusual for him.
"…But are you giving this to me?"
"...As you can see, yes."
“…”
“…”
The two Chois remained silent, not even looking at each other.
“Choi Han-ah, why are you so stiff? Greedy Choi Jung Soo, are you always this shy?”
Raon tilted his head and commented, but the two Chois couldn't even respond.
Cale sighed inwardly at the sight.
'That's unexpected.'
He knew very well how much Choi Han missed Choi Jung Soo and his family.
Moreover, Choi Jung Soo survived alone, so Cale knew how lonely the life Choi Jung Soo endured.
That's why there was a moment when Cale thought the scene where these two met would be somewhat affectionate.
'Well, I guess that's to be expected from these two, huh?'
Choi Han seemed gentle, but he was a person whose emotional changes weren't as evident as Cale had thought.
Choi Jung Soo seemed a bit carefree, but he was also a boring person. He was the one who built the graves for his family members. If such a person wasn't boring, he wouldn't have been able to endure it.
Choi Han would have also survived alone by becoming dull at an early age.
“Choi Jung Soo.”
Cale immediately got to the point because the two of them would always act like this if left alone.
"Do you work for the God of Death?"
Choi Jung Soo's expression soured immediately.
"...Well, I suppose so. Because I have a contract with him. As our team leader.”
He met Sui Khan's eyes.
“Of course, the team leader has quit now. However, I wanted to see his reincarnated appearance, so it's a shame. I thought it would look cute.”
“Jung Soo-yah.”
"Haha-"
Jung Soo laughed at the low voice of the team leader and spoke when he saw Cale.
"You're here to deal with the Blue Blood Family, right?"
"Yes. So spill what you know."
Choi Jung Soo smiled as if he knew what Cale was talking about.
"It reminds me a bit of when we used to work."
When Choi Jung Soo muttered that, Cale avoided his gaze. Seeing Cale like that, his smile deepened, and he took a paper out from his chest.
"Look."
He unfolded the crumpled paper.
When Cale saw the words in Korean, he unconsciously muttered, "Your handwriting is still bad."
"Can a person's handwriting change?"
Cale's gaze shifted to Choi Jung Soo, who asked with a smile and continued, “I'm still the same. Don't you think?”
Instead of answering, Cale directed his gaze to the paper.
The outward appearance of Choi Jung Soo, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, looked like Choi Jung Soo's appearance in Kim Rok Soo's memory.
However, Cale couldn't easily agree with that statement.
It didn't make sense that Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo would remain the same.
Just as Kim Rok Soo had changed, they had too.
Cale calmed down.
This was because the last appearance of Choi Jung Soo came to his mind for no reason. Naturally, the appearance of Lee Soo Hyuk also came to mind.
He shouldn't think about this.
Not now.
“…”
Cale slowly closed his eyes and then opened them again.
The spinning discs in his head had stopped, and his mind was blank.
Only then did Cale notice the poor handwriting on the paper.
"...Is this true?"
The moment Cale looked at Choi Jung Soo.
Lee Soo Hyuk stood behind Cale and looked at the paper.
"Yes, seriously. It was my job to get that information.”
Cale smiled at Choi Jung Soo's words, who was eating somen noodles again.
“...The Blood Cult is in Sichuan.”
Sichuan.
It was where the Tang Clan of Sichuan, one of the Five Great Families of the Justice Faction, was located. There were also the Emei Sect and the Qingcheng Sect of the Nine Great Sects.
Additionally, there was the Iron Family's Shop, a famous force in the Evil Alliance, and the Halberd Demon, one of the Five Demons. Other forces from the Evil Faction were also there, so there was a balance between the Justice Faction and the Evil Faction in that place.
In short, there was no predominant force in the Sichuan Province of the Central Plains.
Therefore, it was a place where all kinds of gains intertwined and mixed.
The Blood Cult was lurking there.
"...I thought they were hidden in some remote place or deep in the mountains."
Sui Khan murmured in surprise, and Choi Jung Soo nodded.
"So it was difficult to find their location."
Cale added, "It's harder to find them if they're disguised as a group of merchants."
The Blue Silver Merchants Guild.
Currently, there were Three Merchant Guilds in the Central Plains that wielded a lot of power.
Cale took out the information provided by the imperial family from his records.
"Originally, there were two major merchant guilds, but about 50 years ago, the Silver Blue Merchant Guild grew, so now there are 3 major merchant guilds, is that correct?"
"That's right. And the Silver Blue Merchant Guild is uniquely famous for being a guild that grew in a somewhat remote area called Sichuan." Choi Jung Soo added an additional explanation.
"The Silver Blue Merchant Guild travels through the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, trading with the southern barbarians in the distant lands and using the valuable items they obtained there for business."
In the Central Plains, there were various areas called outer lands, which referred to areas outside of the Central Plains.
Among those areas lived the southern barbarians south of the Central Plains.
The southern barbarians had a distinct culture from the Central Plains, and exchanges weren't well-established between the two areas as both sides distrusted each other greatly.
Cale clicked his tongue.
"Perhaps the Blood Cult is in Sichuan, but their power might have extended to Yunnan and the southern barbarians."
"That's how I see it too. Perhaps the headquarters of the Silver Blue Merchant Guild in Sichuan is related to the Blood Cult, or a part of it."
Cale nodded at Choi Jung Soo's words and immediately continued, "First, we'll take care of the Living Jiangshi and eliminate the possibility of a Great War Between Good and Evil."
They couldn't attack right away even if they roughly knew the location of the Blood Cult.
It's one of the three major merchant guilds.
First, the Blood Cult had a lot of money.
They must have many believers as well.
But what if they attacked right away?
We might get hurt.
After all, if they invaded the Blood Cult, the Blood Cult might cause the Living Jiangshi to spread throughout the Central Plains to self-destruct, plunging the entire murim world into chaos and causing many casualties among the general public.
"We'll have to take it step by step, even if it's slow."
"That's a waste!" Raon suddenly shouted.
Thud! Two chubby little front paws hit the ground, and the room trembled.
As Cale swallowed his saliva, Raon continued with an angry expression, "We have to destroy the Blood Cult right away! It's a waste to destroy it slowly! I made a promise to Jungwon! To completely destroy the Blood Cult!"
...He wouldn't have been able to speak with Jungwon, who had turned into a stone statue. What was he talking about, and what's this about a promise?
Cale was bewildered, but he handed one of the candies to Raon, who was puffing up his cheeks as if he didn't like the situation.
And Cale lightly said.
"First, we'll head to the Murim Alliance and take care of the Justice Faction's Living Jiangshi. Then we'll take care of the Demonic Cult and then the Evil Faction. Finally, we'll take care of the Blood Cult."
He outlined his plan with an indifferent tone.
"It's simple."
At that moment, he looked at his colleagues in the strangely quiet atmosphere.
"What's wrong?"
Sui Khan sighed. “Seeing it is different from actually experiencing it.”
"Huh?" Cale was confused, but regardless, he spoke to Choi Jung Soo.
“Jung Soo-yah.”
"Yes!"
"If the God of Death has any other way to purify the Living Jiangshi, get that from him, got it?"
"Yes!"
Choi Han, who had been silent, opened his mouth, “Let's ask N° 7 once again. If there's any other way to solve the Living Jiangshi problem."
Choi Jung Soo looked at him and said, “G-Good i-idea. Uncle."
Cale clenched his eyes shut.
-Cale, do you really have to purify them? If you die, my hyungs and nunims will kill me, I think?
When he closed his eyes, he heard the sobbing elder's voice.
Cale opened his mouth.
"Let's bring the two elders, Chief Eunuch Wi and Elder Ho."
Just let them handle it.
Cale was really looking forward to going home.
But before that, there was something to verify.
“Choi Jung Soo.”
"What?"
"When do you have to leave?"
Choi Jung Soo's lips curled up.
"When do I want to leave?"
Tap, tap. Cale tapped the table and asked Choi Jung Soo in a casual tone.
"Anyway, you're going to leave this world too, right?"
"That's right. When you go, I'll probably go too, right?"
"Then I'll make a suggestion."
Sui Khan saw Choi Jung Soo's mouth corners twist upwards. Choi Jung Soo's eyes sparkled.
It was the expression of a child who had something interesting in front of him.
Sui Khan smiled and shrugged at Choi Han, who had looked him in the eyes.
At that moment, Cale's voice was heard.
"Let's spread the rumor that the Sword Demon is a member of the Blood Cult."
Sui Khan held back his sigh.
"Oh, I'm from the Blood Cult? Really?"
"Yes. I think we should first spread some rumors about the Blood Cult in the Central Plains. And the rumor that the Heavenly Sword is in the hands of the Blood Cult."
"Oh, that sounds fun!"
"The Blood Cult will have difficulties."
"Hahaha! Now, the murim people will be frantic to find the Blood Cult along with me!"
Sui Khan silently observed the younger members of his team having a very harmonious conversation.
Finally, he uttered, "Rok Soo-yah, Jung Soo-yah. Both of you are still the same."
Sui Khan tilted his head as he watched the two younger members puzzled by the languid voice that sounded a bit tired.
"Sui Khan-ah, do you have a headache? Eat this!"
Then, Raon threw a candy into Sui's mouth.
Meanwhile, Sui Khan's hand was constantly touching his sheath, as if he was eager to unsheathe his sword and fight immediately.
"Ummm..."
Seeing this, Choi Han also touched his sheath.
"Something's wrong with the atmosphere! For some reason, I miss Crown Prince Alberu!"
Cale ignored Raon's words.
------------
"I'll also go to the Murim Alliance." The Sword Saint looked directly at Cale and said seriously.
No, he said it firmly.
"Young Master Kim, we will assist you in your testament."
Cale thought it was good. If Elder Ho from the Beggar Band, one of the Nine Great Sects, and the Sword Saint from the Namgung family, one of the Five Great Families, helped him, things would turn out well.
"Having the Sword Saint with us is the best." Cale responded as calmly as he could.
The Sword Saint spoke with a stern expression, "I'm glad this body can be of assistance. We can spend some time at the Namgung Family's residence, leave Taewi there, and then head to the Murim Alliance."
At those words, Cale was about to open his mouth to quickly give his consent.
But he closed his mouth upon hearing the Sword Saint's next words.
"We have a tight schedule, but it would be a great pleasure if our benefactor stopped by the Namgung Family, even if only for a moment."
...What, why are his eyes like that...
Cale was taken aback by the Sword Saint's fiery eyes.
At that moment, Raon's now visible voice resonated in his head.
-Human! Are we finally going to steal from the Namgung Family?
...I don't know.
Don't you think stealing from the Namgung Family might be a problem now?
Unknowingly, Cale moved away from the Sword Saint's fiery gaze.
For some strange reason, he felt a chill down his spine.
Let me know if you need anything else!
