Moorim Pochang - Chapter 9

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 9. Visitors in the Dead of Night.

There was no denying it—Baek Won-young possessed formidable martial skill.
As the Alliance Master’s eldest son, he wielded the sword with ghostly grace.
His Twenty-Eight Blood Path technique ranked among the finest blades in the entire martial world.
Still, the fact that he’d fought such a spirited match against an innkeeper had captured the curiosity and envy of the junior disciples in equal measure.
Of course, much of that was owed to the Great Master’s considerable restraint.
“Congratulations.”
Ak Hwan scratched his head, feeling self-conscious.
“Much obliged. I realize I’ve been remiss in my introductions. I am Ak Hwan of the Martial Alliance.”
Kang Jo offered his name in response to the belated courtesy.
“Kang Jo, innkeeper.”
Haha……..
“I suspect my victory at the martial tournament owed greatly to your influence, Master Kang.”
Kang Jo received the compliment with characteristic equanimity.
“You’re too kind. My master once said that even heroes of the realm must encounter fortune at the right moment. It seems you were simply waiting for such a time to arrive.”
Haha ha……..
Genuine delight spilled from Ak Hwan’s lips.
This inn was peculiar, and so was its proprietor.
Beyond the quality of the food, the innkeeper possessed a gift for setting guests at ease—a way of speaking that soothed something in the spirit.
“What is this dish here?”
He pointed his chopsticks at the Seasoned Wild Vegetables.
“Codonopsis seasoning. It has quite a pleasant flavor.”
Ordinarily, codonopsis was used as a medicinal herb, not served as a side dish.
He nodded and brought a portion to his lips.
Lightly roasted and seasoned, it carried an aroma and a delicate taste that lingered on the palate.
‘Remarkable flavor. Wait—could it be…that my increase in inner strength wasn’t from the Pork Noodle Soup at all, but from these vegetables?’
It was entirely possible that rare spiritual herbs had been mixed into the seasoning by chance.
The realization struck Ak Hwan like lightning, and he began scooping the seasoned vegetables into his mouth with renewed urgency.
Most of what appeared in the vegetable preparations were indeed substances used in medicine—his suspicion was almost certainly correct.
‘It wasn’t the noodle soup at all. It was the vegetables. There were precious medicinal herbs among what I was eating.’
Kang Jo watched him quietly as he worked in the kitchen.
‘He really does love those vegetables. Well, my master enjoyed them too, always said they were delicious.’
“Your Pork Noodle Soup.”
The moment Kang Jo set down the noodles, Ak Hwan’s chopsticks fell still.
Yet the small wooden plates were already empty.
“Ah…thank you.”
Ak Hwan swallowed hard, the pork noodles now before him.
The vegetables had been splendid, but this Pork Noodle Soup transcended mere excellence.
Noodles were noodles—no matter how well prepared, they were ultimately all the same.
But after tasting what was served here, he understood that even noodles could have degrees of quality.
He sampled the pork first, bringing a piece to his mouth.
‘Soft and tender, as always. How does one cook a dish to such perfection?’
Slurp……..
The springy noodles released a subtle sweetness with each chew.
The broth itself was rich yet clean; while the stock at other inns often carried a fishy taint, this one was utterly free of it.
“Another bowl, please.”
Ak Hwan placed his order before he’d even finished the first.
Thwack….! Thwack…..!
Kang Jo brought down his cleaver on the cutting board and began drawing out fresh noodles.
‘That treacherous bastard. I offered him my finest wine as my first customer, and for what…’
His heart was not pleased, yet he could hardly voice his complaint aloud.
This man was, after all, his only guest at the inn.

*

As night deepened, Ak Hwan lay down, suppressing his excitement.
Soon his body would flush with heat.
‘Come on. Come on….’
Nearly half an hour had passed with his eyes wide open, yet his body showed no reaction whatsoever.
‘Did I rush things too much?’
Ak Hwan closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
Hurrying things along only ruined them.
He closed his eyes and sought sleep, but it wouldn’t come.
Time continued to slip away—an hour passed, then two.
Yet still nothing changed.
‘Why isn’t it working? Did I get it wrong?’
No matter how he thought about it, he didn’t think he’d made a mistake.
Of all the dishes served, the Seasoned Wild Vegetables were the only one that could reasonably be a Spiritual Herb.
‘It can’t be the liquor.’
The Inn’s cuisine was so skillfully prepared it seemed blessed, but the liquor certainly wasn’t special.
The liquor they sold there was the common sort you could find anywhere.
Ak Hwan, who had spent the night awake with open eyes, rose with exhaustion written across his face.
“It doesn’t seem like it was the vegetables after all……”
With a hollow expression, he muttered to himself, opened the door, and stepped outside.
In the pre-dawn darkness, the members of the Nampoong Faction were beginning to appear one by one.
‘Maybe the Spiritual Herb was all in what I consumed. That’s it. It must be.’

*

Four days had passed without a guest.
Ak Hwan, who had come four days earlier, no longer showed his face.
It made some sense that he wouldn’t return—giving away silver coins daily just to eat meant money was running out.
‘Where has Yang Jeong been?’
Yang Jeong, who’d promised to be back soon, still hadn’t returned after more than half a month.
‘How tedious.’
Simply staring at the empty road all day made a person feel positively foolish.
Kang Jo rose to his feet, picked up his basket, and left the kitchen.
At times like these, moving about on purpose made time pass faster and boredom bearable.
As he picked wild greens and snapped branches, the day gradually darkened around him.
Returning to the Inn, Kang Jo boiled water and prepared the greens he’d gathered.
“I’ll have to throw away meat again.”
With no guests coming, the prepared meat had to be eaten by him alone.
But there was a limit to how much one person could consume.
“Damn it.”
Kang Jo blanched the prepared greens in hot water and drained them.
He also peeled the Codonopsis and Platycodon, tearing them apart by hand.
By the time he’d lined a palm with rice and prepared Dong Po Pork, deep night had fallen.
The road to and from the Martial Alliance no longer echoed with the sound of footsteps.
After finishing his meal until his belly was full, Kang Jo carried the empty bowl toward the stream.
As he submerged the empty bowl in the stream water and sat quietly, someone was walking toward him from the direction of the Martial Alliance.
‘Who would be out this late in the night?’
The man walking through the darkness wore a sword at his waist and had broad, bulging shoulders and considerable height.
The man passed before the Inn and continued walking toward the village.

*

The middle-aged man halted his movement technique and gazed quietly into the darkness.
How long had he stood there?
From his lips came a deep, resonant baritone.
“You’ve arrived?”
From the darkness ahead came a cool reply.
“Yes, I’ve come.”
Another middle-aged man emerged from the darkness opposite.
He was a strikingly handsome man of middle years.
His beauty was so refined that he might have been mistaken for an exquisite middle-aged woman.
The man who had arrived first was handsome enough, but he could not compare to the man across from him.
“Dok Go Yeop. You spread that song, didn’t you?”
“You summoned me for that? Baek Moon-do.”
A chill of murderous intent flowed between the two.
Whiiiiii………..
The killing aura was so fierce that even the wind passing between them recoiled in shock, veering sharply away.
“That? You just called it ‘that’? Damn you.”
The eyes of the man who had arrived first gleamed with blue light.
He looked like a beast hunting prey in the dead of night.
“So you’re saying I made up lies? You petty bastard.”
The eyes of the man across from him flashed with blue light as well.
The man who had come first trembled with rage.
His voice emerged as a stifled whisper.
“How is the lady Guo?”
At his question, the man across from him offered a cold sneer.
“Why do you ask after another man’s wife? Haven’t you forgotten my wife yet?”
“I can’t even ask? You bastard.”
“What? Bastard? I ought to tear your mouth off.”
The murderous aura unleashed by the two middle-aged men blanketed even the distant forest.
Shiver…….
The trees in the forest, responding to that killing intent, trembled quietly after their repose.
The two middle-aged men, who had been watching each other in silence, released their aura almost simultaneously.
“So………shall we have a drink somewhere?”
The man who had arrived first asked in a hesitant voice.
“Did you just say ‘somewhere’? You summon me and don’t even prepare liquor?”
The handsome man across from him took him up in a quarrelsome tone.
“Why do you keep picking fights? I’ve prepared fine wine. Let’s go to the Martial Alliance.”
“You son of a bitch. You’ve set up masters in ambush inside the Martial Alliance to kill me, haven’t you?”
The man who had arrived first stared at the man across from him with a dumbfounded expression.
“Suspicious bastard. You were like this before too, and you’re still at it.”
“Shut your mouth, you fool.”

*

Since he refused to enter the Martial Alliance, the only place left was the tavern in the village.
But the brothels and taverns of the village would be crowded with martial artists, so they couldn’t go there either.
The man who had arrived first suddenly recalled a pale flag he had glimpsed moments before.
An inn in a place like that—could it have been built there?
That dilapidated mansion in the forest had a reputation as a haunted house and had seen no visitors for twenty years.
“Come with me.”
The man who had arrived first turned his light body technique toward where the Martial Alliance stood.
“I told you, not to the Martial Alliance.”
“I have no intention of going to the Martial Alliance either. Just follow me for now.”
The man who had arrived late reluctantly followed behind him.
But the direction they were walking was most strange.
They suddenly left the path and headed into the forest.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve never been there before, so I don’t know either.”
The two crossed the stone bridge over the stream.
After walking some ten paces beyond the bridge, a small house came into view.
But the house appeared to have closed for the night, its lights extinguished.
“Looks like they’ve shut down. I’ll have to find somewhere else.”
“That’s what you always do. What about the proprietor…!”
The handsome man scoffed and abruptly raised his voice.

*

‘What is this now?’
Kang Jo, who had been about to drift off to sleep, jerked awake.
A killing aura so fierce that his entire body bristled with gooseflesh, sharp enough to pierce flesh.
As the killing intent surged, the trees in the forest trembled and swayed in unison.
He had only felt such murderous aura once before—when his master had lost his temper.
Yet here he was, barely any time in the Jianghu, and already encountering such killing intent while sleeping.
Sigh…
‘Liar. And my master too. Calling himself the greatest under heaven, yet anyone and everyone is spewing out this murderous aura.’
Kang Jo, sprawled flat on his back, tried to return to sleep.
But then came the shout of a man.
“Where is the innkeeper!”
‘Guests?’
Though they were uninvited visitors arriving at such a late hour, if they were guests, he ought to hurry out and greet them properly.
Rushing into the common room, he found two middle-aged men standing in the darkness.
The one on the right was someone he had seen before while washing dishes—a tall man with broad shoulders and a face as handsome as any warrior’s.
The man on the left was also tall and broad-shouldered, but his face resembled that of a strikingly beautiful woman in her middle years.
‘Both look like martial artists, but their auras are oddly mundane.’
After observing the two men, Kang Jo lit a lamp and bowed his head.
“Welcome.”
The two middle-aged men examined the inn, then glanced down at the wooden chairs.
“You’re not seriously asking us to sit in those?”
The strikingly handsome man frowned as he asked.
“I’m afraid those are the only seats available.”
The man gave Kang Jo a quick glance, then grumbled as he sat down on the chair.
“To think we’d have to drink in a place like this…”
The other handsome man sat down opposite him, as if joining in his complaint.
“Stop your grumbling. We apologize for arriving so late. Bring us whatever liquor and side dishes you have.”
“Very well. Please wait a moment.”
Kang Jo bowed deeply and first kindled the fire in the brazier.
He poured liquor from the vat into a bottle and transferred seasoned vegetables into a wooden dish.
As he placed the seasoned vegetables and liquor before them, the handsome middle-aged man asked.
“What is this?”
Ordinarily greens ought to be deep-fried in oil, but this inn appeared to have merely blanched them.
“Seasoned wild vegetables, sir. They taste quite good—please try some.”
The two middle-aged men stared at the vegetables, then picked up their chopsticks.
Tsk…
“And this is supposed to be cooking? Everything you do is always like this.”
The handsome middle-aged man sneered and popped the vegetables into his mouth.
But the moment the greens entered his mouth, his gaze wavered.
The fragrant aroma filled his palate, and the crisp yet tender texture pleased him deeply.
Hmm… mmm…
After swallowing, they ate the vegetables several more times and refilled their cups with liquor.
Unlike when eating the vegetables, as they drank from their cups, both men’s expressions clouded slightly.
“The liquor tastes just ordinary.”
“It’s cheap alcohol.”
As Kang Jo continued cooking, a quiet irritation kindled within him.
‘They wake up the sleeping and then complain about everything.’
But he did not let his dissatisfaction show on his face.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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