Chapter 36 – Reasonably Useful

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read more at Nineheavens.org

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Chapter 36 – Reasonably Useful

A flash of interest passed across Cheol Ryu-heun's previously expressionless face.

A wanderer who possessed terrifying swordsmanship?

An interesting fact.

Who would have thought an unexpected answer would come from an unexpected question?

He might obtain an unexpected clue here.

If the wanderer just mentioned was the same person he was looking for.

"When?"

At Cheol Ryu-heun's successive questions, Ye Woon-rang calculated the dates in his head.

"Yes, that was roughly… Eight months ago."

Cheol Ryu-heun's hands involuntarily clenched.

'Eight months.'

Wasn't that just two months before the day when Sagong Woon and himself had been helplessly struck down by the mysterious wanderer?

He was getting a feeling.

"Where did you see him?"

"It was near Hong Lake."

Hong Lake was a giant lake at the southernmost tip of Hubei Province – just beyond the northern border of this Hunan Province.

Cheol Ryu-heun felt he was one step closer to what he wanted.

Because it was quite close both temporally and geographically.

"Sect Master, but why are you suddenly asking about that…? Ah, are you perhaps looking for guest retainer candidates?"

"Never mind that, just explain what happened in detail."

At Cheol Ryu-heun's curt reply, Ye Woon-rang suppressed his curiosity and spoke again.

"The first time I saw him was on a certain winter day. At that time, I had arrived at Hong Lake…"

Thus the story began.

* * *

Eight months ago.

Ye Woon-rang had arrived at Hong Lake while wandering here and there, searching for the secluded residence of his sect's ancestor, Ascending Heaven Sword Dragon.

-Master Ba Hun often said as a habit at drinking gatherings: There's no region with scenery as beautiful as Hubei and Hunan. I suspect the secluded residence is in one of those two regions. I gave up searching due to my illness… but you're still young, so someday you'll surely find it.

The dying wish of Hong So, his master who had served as captain of the Dragon Martial Gate's Red Dragon Sword Brigade.

'I'll stay about ten days exploring the mountain areas, and if there's no progress, I'll move toward Chibi.'

Ye Woon-rang visited a nearby mountain deity shrine to pray, climbed a peak to survey the terrain, then went to the lakeside to look for lodging.

Hong Lake was, as the name suggested, a vast and enormous lake.

As wide as it was, the scenery in all four seasons was also very beautiful – especially in summer, when all kinds of water birds and large lotus flowers covered the surface, creating a truly magnificent view.

Because of that, tourists' footsteps never ceased, and naturally the waterside commercial district developed greatly, with large and small inns lining up.

Ye Woon-rang intended to choose an inn located in as secluded a place as possible.

He wanted to avoid bustling places to organize his thoughts.

Thus, wandering around Hong Lake area as evening fell, he finally discovered an inn situated alone in a remote forest.

Solitude Inn.

Given its location and the overall decrepit state of the building, it was an inn that typical tourists would rarely visit.

But Ye Woon-rang rather liked that.

'A suitable place to stay.'

Upon entering the inn's interior, a quiet atmosphere enveloped his body.

There were no customers at all.

Living up to its name of Solitude Inn, each empty table seemed deeply steeped in loneliness.

At that moment, a man in his forties who appeared to be the owner signaled with his hand and spoke.

"Welcome."

"Do you have an empty room?"

"Use the room at the left end of the upper floor. Food?"

"One plate of dumplings, please."

"Alcohol?"

"No, thank you."

"Sit anywhere."

The inn owner spoke curtly before heading to the kitchen.

While Ye Woon-rang went to a table to wait for his ordered food, a presence was detected.

Creeeak.

Soon the door opened and a wanderer stepped inside.

He wore a gray traveling cloak, a bamboo hat pressed down low enough to hide his face, and carried a plain iron sword about four cheok in length.

A voice leaked out from inside the kitchen.

"Ah, you came? It's almost ready, so wait a moment."

At that, the wanderer went and sat in a corner seat.

Ye Woon-rang observed him with side glances.

'Hmm… At first glance, his appearance has nothing special, but for some reason he feels like a hidden master in the wild.'

Just a gut feeling.

A sense of the extraordinary lurking within the ordinary, perhaps.

He couldn't be certain without exchanging blows, but the impression that he was deliberately concealing his aura was strong.

Eventually, the owner brought out a plate of dumplings and then went to where the wanderer sat to ask.

"You came yesterday saying you wanted to take over this place – have you made up your mind?"

At that, the wanderer took off his bamboo hat and set it aside.

"Yes. If possible, I'd like to finalize it now."

He looked to be in his early fifties, perhaps.

From his demeanor, he had expected a somewhat cold impression, but it was unexpectedly a benevolent face.

The owner smirked and nodded in return.

"Well, I don't mind selling for money… Is there a particular reason you want to take over a shop that's going under?"

Ye Woon-rang, chewing and swallowing dumplings, heard that and muttered inwardly.

'A failing inn? Ah, no wonder…'

It made sense.

The portions were disgustingly large while the taste was disgustingly bad.

It was amazing it hadn't failed yet.

Clink-

The wanderer placed a fairly heavy-looking money pouch on the table.

"I simply wish to open a shop in a quiet place and spend my remaining years. There's no other reason. This is the purchase price."

Upon confirming the amount, the owner's eyes went round.

"What! Th-This is all…?"

"Three hundred taels of silver. I don't think it's insufficient."

At the wanderer's answer, not only the owner but even Ye Woon-rang was inwardly shocked.

'My! Three hundred taels of silver?'

He couldn't readily understand.

Pouring that much money into a shop on the verge of going under – was he in his right mind?

The owner clutched the money pouch tightly with an excited look.

"D-Don't say otherwise later!"

"Of course. Let's draw up the transfer contract right away."

"Haha! Good! You'll be blessed!"

While the two were drawing up the transfer contract, the scenery outside the window had turned dark as night.

Yet the inn's interior was still empty.

Only three were there – the one running a failing shop, the one taking over a failing shop, and the one staying at a failing inn.

A short while later.

The original owner left completely after packing his belongings with a satisfied expression, and the new owner – the mysterious wanderer – finally came to Ye Woon-rang's side and spoke.

"Nice to meet you, guest. Starting today, I'll be running this shop. How long do you plan to stay?"

"Ah, yes. About ten days or so."

"I see. You'll be the first and last lodger. Actually, I plan to close the rooms from now on and only sell dumplings… Anyway, I'll make sure you're comfortable during your stay. This too is fate, so shall we exchange names? I'm called Neung Po."

"I'm Ye Woon-rang. Oh, I didn't intentionally eavesdrop earlier, but… it seemed like you have some deep story behind taking over this place."

"Haha, how many people in the martial world don't have stories? Then I'll go organize the kitchen, so call me anytime if you need anything."

Neung Po deflected as such and headed to the kitchen, and Ye Woon-rang, suppressing his curiosity with effort, went up to the second-floor guest room and lay on the bed.

Ten days later.

Ye Woon-rang, as usual, explored the mountain areas around Hong Lake and returned to Solitude Inn around evening.

But.

Inside, where no customers had been seen until now, about a dozen martial world people had entered.

The group, who appeared to be traveling together, sat divided among several tables, tilting cups and exchanging various conversations.

Avoiding the noisy seating area, Ye Woon-rang went straight to the guest room, closed his eyes, and rested.

Not long after.

Crack- Crash-thump-!

A loud commotion erupted from below, and soon a shadow burst through the guest room door.

It was a gaunt man in his fifties who had been among the group of martial world people.

Swhack!

As a fierce sword strike fell straight onto the bed, Ye Woon-rang rolled sideways to dodge, grabbed his sword, and burst out of the guest room.

Crack!

The gaunt swordsman, who had only smashed the bed by a hair's breadth, shouted.

"There's nowhere to run!"

Sure enough, about a dozen of them were positioned at intervals on the inn's stairs and inside the first floor.

Ye Woon-rang quickly stepped on the second-floor railing and dropped down.

Thud!

The moment he firmly stepped on the first-floor wooden floor, a secret Sound Transmission reached his sensitive ears.

<I'll handle this all myself.>

It was Neung Po's Sound Transmission from beside him.

It seemed there had been a skirmish when the commotion first broke out – a martial artist lay dead on the wooden floor not far away.

By now, the dozen or so including the gaunt swordsman had formed a circular encirclement, radiating thick fighting spirit and killing intent.

Neung Po's expression showed no sign of intimidation.

"You heard from the previous owner. Despite how much I asked him to keep his mouth shut…"

Only then did Ye Woon-rang grasp the situation.

Because the previous owner had let slip talk about money, this wicked bunch had been attracted.

The gaunt swordsman, who was the ringleader, sneered as he spoke.

"That guy died by our hands a few days ago. And we split the silver nicely among ourselves."

"Then what more do you want by coming here?"

"Who do you take for a fool? There must be something more valuable than silver buried here, which is why you spent such an absurd fortune to take it over. I'm quite curious what it is."

The moment the gaunt swordsman finished speaking, Neung Po let out a bitter smile.

"You've got the wrong idea. I simply needed a quiet place to stay."

"Don't give me that nonsense. Well, once you see blood, you'll talk. For your information, my title is Mad Blood Sword. You've probably heard of it once."

At that instant, a peculiar light flickered in Ye Woon-rang's eyes.

Mad Blood Sword – a swordsman mad for blood – quite an infamous title.

He never expected to meet here the man who had once made a name as a first-rate unorthodox swordsman in the Hubei region.

He had heard that about five years ago, due to some incident, he had declared disbandment while being pursued by the authorities and completely vanished…

The group that came with Mad Blood Sword were most likely the leadership of the Blood Character Gang he had led.

"Why did you target me as well?"

At Ye Woon-rang's cold question, Mad Blood Sword answered mockingly.

"Kekeh, are you an idiot? Obviously to destroy evidence."

The moment Ye Woon-rang, angered, took a stance, Neung Po sent another Sound Transmission.

<They're not opponents to take lightly, but they're not difficult opponents either. I'll finish this swiftly with an extreme yang sword technique, so please duck immediately.>

Right after, a spine-chilling sound of cutting through air shook the inn's interior.

Shwaaack-!

Following that.

Splurt, splurt-splurt, splurt…

A third of those forming the circular encirclement had their waists severed, spouting blood.

Formidable sword power, swift sword energy.

A truly terrifying horizontal slashing sword form.

When Mad Blood Sword flinched, more blood fountains spurted.

Splurt, splurt-splurt…

Another five or six enemies had their waists additionally cut under Neung Po's horizontal sword form.

Ye Woon-rang widened his eyes in admiration.

'Truly matchlessly swift swordsmanship! And he's left-handed…!'

* * *

"Stop."

Cheol Ryu-heun abruptly cut off Ye Woon-rang's words.

"Huh? Why… is that?"

"I don't need to hear more."

When Cheol Ryu-heun waved his hand dismissively, Ye Woon-rang scratched his forehead looking awkward.

"Ah, doesn't he meet your standards as a guest retainer candidate? But Neung Po's sword skills were truly remarkable. Even Mad Blood Sword had his head cut off in just about ten exchanges."

But Cheol Ryu-heun's expression was uninterested.

It couldn't be helped.

The wanderer he was currently searching for was not a left-handed swift swordsman, and their prowess was far higher than that.

Reading the mood, Ye Woon-rang added.

"His martial power was definitely stronger than mine. I'm not saying I couldn't handle Mad Blood Sword, but still, subduing a famous swordsman of that level in just about ten exchanges isn't as easy as it sounds…"

"It'll be easy now."

"Pardon?"

"You've already achieved Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown. Escaping from that underground trap was thanks to that too."

At Cheol Ryu-heun's casual words, Ye Woon-rang was startled out of his wits.

"Gaaah! Th-Then when my internal energy level surged while I was in a selfless trance…"

"Right, that's it. You hit the jackpot."

"…!"

Ye Woon-rang trembled slightly, feeling a thrilling sensation run through him.

To think that he had achieved Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown – which they say allows one to accumulate in an instant the amount of internal energy a high-level internal cultivation master would need years of effort to obtain.

Then suddenly a thought occurred to him, and he was seized with dread.

Wait, then this person who was toying with me who even achieved Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown – what level has he reached?

At that moment, Cheol Ryu-heun muttered indifferently.

"Neung Po, huh… Anyway, he seems reasonably useful, so I'll consider him as a guest retainer candidate."

R-Reasonably useful?

Yes… Well, whatever you say. By your standards.