Chapter 67

Jin Ja-gang’s face briefly hardened, but it soon relaxed.

Instead, a bitter smile formed on his lips.

While eating his meal, Jin Ja-gang drank all the remaining liquor.

A slight buzz came over him.

However, with a body immune to poison, could alcohol truly intoxicate Jin Ja-gang?

It merely made his head feel a bit heavy and lifted his mood slightly. Even that faded quickly as time passed.

Seeing that Jin Ja-gang had finished the liquor and remained unaffected, the merchants spoke to him.

“Young friend, you’re quite a drinker. Would you like to join us over here for a drink?”

Jin Ja-gang wasn’t accustomed to mingling with others.

“No, thank you.”

“Then have another bottle. Hey, waiter! Bring another bottle for this young man over there.”

The merchants ordered another bottle of liquor for him.

The waiter brought the liquor to Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang expressed his gratitude to the merchants and accepted the drink. However, with the second bottle, the buzz was even less than before, and it dissipated faster than it had come.

Finding the taste of the liquor lacking, Jin Ja-gang smacked his lips.

Even so, after finishing all the liquor, Jin Ja-gang called the waiter over. Then, he ordered another serving of the Sichuan Boiled Beef he had just eaten.

When the waiter brought the Sichuan Boiled Beef, Jin Ja-gang took out not a silver coin but a gold piece and handed it to the waiter.

“This is a token of appreciation for your kind explanations earlier.”

“Is, is this real gold?”

It was a piece of gold taken from the Stone Forest Gang.

“Yes, it is.”

The waiter, in disbelief, even bit the gold piece with his teeth to test it.

While the waiter’s eyes widened in astonishment at the gold piece, Jin Ja-gang personally carried the Sichuan Boiled Beef over to the merchants’ table.

“It’s a modest gesture of my gratitude.”

The merchants looked at Jin Ja-gang with puzzled expressions as he approached, but soon burst into hearty laughter.

Jin Ja-gang politely placed the Sichuan Boiled Beef on the merchants’ table.

“Ha, no need for something like this.”

“Young friend, you’re quite courteous.”

“We’ll enjoy it.”

The three merchants, their faces flushed from moderate drinking, made a fuss and expressed their delight.

“I’ll take my leave then.”

Jin Ja-gang even paid for the meal and went up to his room on the second floor.

Sitting on the bed, he quietly gazed outside. It was dark and silent.

Since this inn was a stopover for travelers, there were hardly any people around outside.

Jin Ja-gang wiped the blood droplet from his little finger and silently sipped tea while looking out the window.

And he waited.

About an hour or two passed.

Thud, thud.

It was a faint sound, one that could only be noticed if one listened carefully. It came from downstairs.

Without hesitation, Jin Ja-gang stood up from his seat.

He opened the door and went downstairs.

“Hey, hey! What’s wrong with you all? Snap out of it!”

Someone was shouting.

The three merchants from earlier and the waiter were collapsed on the floor.

A plump man, who seemed to be the innkeeper and cook, was panicking and trying to wake them up.

Upon seeing Jin Ja-gang, the man’s eyes widened in shock.

“Wha, how!”

His face looked as if he had seen a ghost.

Jin Ja-gang surveyed the scene expressionlessly. The merchants and the waiter were trembling, frothing at the mouth.

“Urk, ugh!”

They were poisoned.

Jin Ja-gang looked at the cook and asked.

“Is it strange that I’m fine?”

The cook was too shocked to speak.

“Th-that’s…”

“Seeing how surprised you are, it seems you were involved as well.”

When Jin Ja-gang drank the liquor sent by the merchants, he had already noticed that it contained poison.

However, he didn’t reveal his emotions right away because he needed to confirm whether the cook in the kitchen was part of their scheme.

While drinking the liquor, Jin Ja-gang had isolated and retained the toxic energy within it.

Later, he transferred that poison onto the Sichuan Boiled Beef he brought to the merchants and the gold piece he gave to the waiter.

The merchants, unaware, ate the Sichuan Boiled Beef and were poisoned, and the waiter was poisoned while biting the gold piece to test it.

Yet, they had no idea how they had been poisoned.

The cook prostrated himself and begged.

“Please spare me! I didn’t know you were a master of the martial world, and we made a grave mistake!”

From the cook’s perspective, there was no way to know how Jin Ja-gang had poisoned them.

Moreover, having drunk two bottles of liquor laced with a paralyzing poison and showing no signs of being affected, remaining so calm, it was no wonder the cook thought of Jin Ja-gang as a master.

However, listening to someone who had poisoned food and called it a mistake, Jin Ja-gang couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.

“Did you say it was a mistake? Do you mean attempting to harm someone?”

The cook frantically waved his hands and quickly made excuses.

“It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding! We only intended to steal a little money…”

“How am I to know whether you intended to steal money or to kill?”

“We’re not the kind of people who kill indiscriminately. How could we, running a small inn like this, commit such a horrific act? The drug we used on you, great hero, was just meant to paralyze temporarily.”

“Is that so?”

Jin Ja-gang listened to the cook’s words seriously.

Seizing the moment, the cook spoke in a tone full of grievance.

“Please, have pity on these wretched lives and show mercy…”

While listening to the cook’s plea, Jin Ja-gang suddenly walked over to the collapsed merchants.

Then, he searched one of the merchants’ bodies and pulled out a hidden dagger from their chest.

The cook’s face turned pale.

“That’s…”

Jin Ja-gang had to use everything around him to survive, and as a result, his observational skills had sharpened.

When he had brought the Sichuan Boiled Beef to the merchants, he had noticed one of them instinctively reaching into their chest to grip the dagger.

The cook quickly made an excuse.

“That’s just something they carry for self-defense because the world is so dangerous.”

“I see.”

I see?

Depending on how one interpreted it, it could sound like forgiveness or simply indifference.

While the cook was puzzled by Jin Ja-gang’s ambiguous words, Jin Ja-gang took the dagger and suddenly walked toward the kitchen.

The cook’s eyes narrowed. It was just as the waiter had said earlier.

He’s limping!

The cook glanced at the back door.

If he ran with all his might, he could reach the door immediately. He was quite confident in his lightness skill, so he might be able to escape faster than the limping Jin Ja-gang.

But could he really escape unscathed? Was this man truly not a master? Was he not pretending?

While the cook fidgeted nervously, he inadvertently looked at Jin Ja-gang and felt a chill run down his spine.

Jin Ja-gang was staring straight at him.

It was as if his gaze was saying, “Why did you hesitate to run? If you had run, I could have had a reason to kill you…”

“I-I’m coming.”

The cook hurriedly followed Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang entered the kitchen, surveyed the interior, and headed to the hearth. He took the dagger and thrust it between the charcoal embers in the hearth.

Unable to understand what he was doing, the cook felt as if his body was shrinking in fear.

After inserting the dagger into the charcoal, Jin Ja-gang rummaged through various seasonings, sniffing them.

Then, he picked up a small container.

“Is this High Vinegar?”

High Vinegar is used to add sourness to dishes.

“Then I’ve found the right thing.”

Jin Ja-gang pulled the dagger out of the charcoal. Its tip was glowing red-hot.

The cook flinched and recoiled. Unfazed by the cook’s reaction, Jin Ja-gang poured the High Vinegar onto the dagger.

Sizzle!

A cloud of acrid smoke and a sour smell filled the air.

“Cough, cough.”

The cook coughed and waved his hands to clear the smoke.

When he looked ahead, he saw Jin Ja-gang staring down at the dagger!

But the color of the dagger was strange.

There were reddish stains on it, like blotches.

“Huh?”

The cook’s eyes distorted.

An inexplicable sense of unease.

The cook cautiously moved his hand behind his back, gripping the handle of a square cleaver.

If push came to shove, he had no choice but to use the blade.

The cook asked carefully.

“Uh… what are those… stains…?”

“Bloodstains.”

Jin Ja-gang’s eyes grew colder as he looked at the stains.

“Huh?”

“When you heat a weapon and pour High Vinegar on it, even old bloodstains will leave traces.”

Jin Ja-gang flipped the dagger over to examine it.

“The intensity of the stains varies. It seems this dagger has been stained with blood more than once or twice.”

The cook’s face contorted.

It was only natural for bloodstains to appear on the dagger. And it was true that the intensity of the stains varied. After all, he had stabbed and killed several people with that dagger. If one checked the other blades they carried, they would likely show similar bloodstains.

All the excuses he had made up until now had been complete lies.

Jin Ja-gang slowly turned his head and looked directly at the cook.

The cook swallowed hard.

Sweat beaded on his forehead from the tension.

His back became drenched.

Jin Ja-gang stared at the cook silently for a moment before finally opening his mouth to ask.

“Who are you people?”

Jin Ja-gang’s voice carried a thick sense of death.

The cook felt chills run down his spine. He could no longer endure this uncomfortable moment.

Gritting his teeth, he drew the cleaver.

If he was going to die anyway, shouldn’t he at least try to fight before dying?

“Argh! Die!”

The cook swung the cleaver down as if to split Jin Ja-gang’s head in half.

Jin Ja-gang was not caught off guard at all. The moment murderous intent flashed in the cook’s eyes, he drew a wisp of energy through his Baihui acupoint and channeled it into his legs.

He executed a footwork technique, twisting his body as if staggering.

Thwack!

The thick cleaver embedded itself into a cutting board. The force was so great that half the blade sank into the board.

Jin Ja-gang splashed High Vinegar into the cook’s face. As the High Vinegar got into his eyes, the cook screamed while rubbing them.

“Uwaaah!”

The cook let go of the cleaver’s handle and flailed his legs forward wildly.

Tables and cooking utensils were sent flying in all directions by the cook’s kicks.

However, the cook soon felt a sharp, aching pain in his back.

It was as if he was being burned by fire…

No, it was indeed because he had been stabbed in the back with the heated dagger.

He could also feel the hot dagger being pulled out of his back.

“Urk!”

As the cook staggered and lost his balance, a searing pain struck his chest this time.

Sizzle!

The cook shed tears as he smelled the scent of burning flesh from the dagger embedded in his chest.

Jin Ja-gang’s cold voice came from right beside him.

“It’s a pity. The food was delicious.”

The cook felt anger rising within him.

If he was going to say something like that, why not just spare him!

But the cook couldn’t properly voice his protest.

Staggering backward, the cook collapsed. His clothes were quickly soaked with blood.

“Urk…”