The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 156

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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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Episode 156. A Luxurious Table (4)

“You’ve been throwing yourself into training lately.”
After finishing an intense Log Dodging session, Seol Jihoo was taking a brief rest when Jang Maldong appeared and struck up a conversation.
“Welcome.”
Seol Jihoo started to stand hurriedly,
“It’s fine. Stay seated and rest up.”
At Jang Maldong’s urging, he settled back down.
A trainer who teaches many people over years inevitably develops an eye for it. One accumulates enough experience to see at a glance whether someone is earnestly training and taking a break, or just shirking work.
Seol Jihoo certainly fell into the former category. The moment he began a session, even Jang Maldong couldn’t help but admire how serious he became.
Even when unwatched, he trained with steady diligence, and even during difficult, grueling sessions, he always pushed himself beyond the target.
Which is why Jang Maldong wore a smile of complete satisfaction.
“How are the kids doing?”
“Not bad.”
It was a brief assessment, but Seol Jihoo smiled quietly.
When Jang Maldong said “not bad,” you had to take it as praise. It meant both were doing well.
“Actually, it’s more than just not bad. Lee Seol-ah’s talent exceeds expectations. She’s quite the prospect. Agnes saw her potential correctly.”
At this shift toward near-glowing praise, Seol Jihoo clenched his fists tightly.
“Isn’t she?”
“Yes. Good dexterity, and her feet are quick too—probably from her athletics background. Her greatest strength is how quickly she picks up anything you teach her. An Archer needs to be competent across multiple disciplines, and that girl has it in her bones. I have high hopes.”
‘Truly a jack-of-all-trades!’
Recalling Lee Seol-ah’s potential, Seol Jihoo smiled warmly, then his thoughts unexpectedly turned to the other trainee.
“What about Lee Seongjin…?”
“Hmm….”
Jang Maldong didn’t answer right away, lowering his head instead. The pause made Seol Jihoo feel a subtle unease.
Lottery results broadly divide into two categories: winners and blanks. And among winners, further subdivisions are possible.
Like how Lee Seol-ah might not be a grand-prize winner, but certainly a first-prize one.
But a blank is just a blank. There are no rankings among them.
“I know what answer you’re hoping for… but I should still tell you straight. Honestly, Lee Seongjin shows no real aptitude. To put it bluntly, he’s nothing but a meat shield.”
At criticism harsher than expected, Seol Jihoo’s jaw tightened.
The phrasing—”meat shield”—grated on him, stirring a trace of irritation.
“But that doesn’t mean there’s no path.”
Yet in the next moment, Jang Maldong reversed course.
“Paradise, as a world, looks complicated but is actually simpler than you’d think. If you’re good at even one thing, you can survive and make your own way.”
He continued, his voice low and steady.
“Lee Seongjin doesn’t give up when he hits a wall, and he gets back up every time he falls. A boy of just sixteen, yet he has a quiet tenacity about him.”
“So…”
“A meat shield has its own value. If someone lacks talent, you pick one thing and drill it intensively until he’s good at it. No matter how talentless or clumsy, a person with enough grit can find an answer.”
As brightness returned to Seol Jihoo’s expression, Jang Maldong let out a soft chuckle.
“You fool. I’ve taught hundreds of people over my years as a trainer. I have dozens of different methods. Do you really think I’d give up that easily?”
Seol Jihoo felt a moment of shame for doubting the kingmaker’s judgment.
“The way forward is to keep pushing. That’s the answer, no question about it.”
At the same time, he felt a flicker of pity for Lee Seongjin. Listening to Jang Maldong’s low laugh, it sounded like he was saying, ‘That kid is as good as done for.’
“He’s still growing, and at a turbulent age… wouldn’t it be better to go easy on him?”
“I’m not entirely dissatisfied. He still complains sometimes, but he follows relentlessly without back talk.”
Jang Maldong snorted and glanced sidelong at Seol Jihoo.
“It’s probably because of you.”
“?”
“The two of them watched you training, and their jaws dropped to their chests. You’ve become their motivation… What’s the deal with you anyway?”
Seol Jihoo blinked at the sudden question.
“To be honest, the intensity of your training these days strikes me as strange. In all my years as a trainer, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m worried you might hurt yourself.”
Jang Maldong gestured to the logs hanging from the Ancient Tree.
“Take this, for instance. Your record was barely over three hundred. How are you suddenly dodging six, seven hundred in one session? By my understanding, I can’t make sense of it at all.”
“Ah, well…”
Seol Jihoo had been wondering the same thing, so he spoke up quickly.
“I’m not entirely sure myself. My body just improved suddenly.”
“Suddenly?”
“Yes.”
“That’s nonsense. Did you eat something good or something?”
A memory flickered through Seol Jihoo’s mind as he pondered.
Now that he thought about it, all of this started….
“Come to think of it, after I had that late-night meal.”
“Late-night meal?”
“Yes, yes. It was something like Spirit Chicken Soup.”
“Spirit Chicken Soup? A chicken?”
“A bird that looked like a chicken. I happened to catch one wandering around the Cave, and its meat and feathers gleamed with a golden light….”
As Seol Jihoo rambled on, Jang Maldong’s face grew increasingly distorted.
“Looks like a chicken, flesh and feathers that shine gold… Don’t tell me you’re talking about the Golden Phoenix Bird? Where did you even learn about that?”
“The Golden Phoenix Bird?”
“Birds resembling chickens are rare in Paradise to begin with, and if you add the golden characteristic you mentioned, there could be nothing but the Golden Phoenix Bird.”
“Ah. So what I ate as a late-night meal was the Golden Phoenix Bird, then.”
Seol Jihoo spoke without much thought.
“What.”
Then Jang Maldong’s face suddenly shifted to one of bewilderment,
“Heh, hehehehe!”
and he burst into laughter.
“The Golden Phoenix Bird, the Golden Phoenix Bird at Big Stone Rock Mountain? Whehehehe!”
He even clasped his belly as tears streamed down his face.
This was the first time Seol Jihoo had ever seen Jang Maldong like this.
Since he didn’t know what the Golden Phoenix Bird was in the first place, Seol Jihoo merely scratched his temple awkwardly.
“Why are you laughing like that?”
When Seol Jihoo asked with a serious face, Jang Maldong tapped his staff and chuckled.
“You fool! The Golden Phoenix Bird is….”
It turned out the Golden Phoenix Bird was a rare bird—no, a Spirit Being—that would be underappreciated even with the word “extremely” added to its description dozens of times.
It lived at the peak of the Divine Mountain where the sun never set, ate nothing whatsoever, and grew only on sunlight alone.
And after 1,000 years, it became the legendary phoenix spoken of in myths and ascended to heaven—a sacred creature.
“But wait, what? You caught the Golden Phoenix Bird and ate it as a late-night snack? Do you see that passing Cave Ettin over there rolling around holding its sides? Hehehehe!”
Jang Maldong wiped his tears with the hand that had pointed toward the distant mountains and continued.
“Quite the laugh. I see you have a talent for jokes. You could even post quality content on a compulsive liar’s gallery.”
“…….”
“Though I’ll say, if you could actually eat one, there’d be nothing better to solve your problem. It would be perfectly suited.”
Seol Jihoo’s ears perked up.
“Really? Where can I get one?”
“Heh. Look at the audacity of this pup, hoping to rely on an Elixir… But then again, if we’re talking about something on the level of the Golden Phoenix Bird, that’s a different story.”
Jang Maldong raised his staff and pointed it at Seol Jihoo.
“You do understand that in your current state, an Elixir that boosts Mana would be as toxic as poison, don’t you?”
Seol Jihoo, caught off guard, nodded his head reluctantly.
“But in Paradise, there exist things that raise your physical level.”
“Could the Golden Phoenix Bird be….”
“The final boss tier, you might say. It doesn’t just enhance simple physical ability—it fortifies all the organs that make up the human body, including the brain, purifies the blood, and even expands sensory perception. For warriors and archers, it’s a panacea comparable to the Herb of Immortality.”
Seol Jihoo swallowed hard.
“H-how much would one cost?”
“You madman. Who would sell that? If it were me, I wouldn’t sell it even for ten gold coins. Maybe if you offered five times that.”
Seol Jihoo’s eyes spun.
Won’t sell even for five billion won? Would have to offer about twenty-five billion to even consider it?
Was that Spirit Being really worth that much?
“And even if it went to auction, not a single person would buy it with money. There would definitely be a brutal bloodbath. Predictable.”
It was like the common scenario in martial arts novels where a legendary secret technique is discovered, and a bloody catastrophe ensues in the fight to seize it.
When it seemed Seol Jihoo hadn’t given up, Jang Maldong chuckled and continued.
“Come to think of it… it’s not like there’s only the Golden Phoenix Bird. For example, the Nine-Leafed Mysterious Orchid.”
“The Nine-Leafed Mysterious Orchid?”
“Nine orchid leaves that grow in the deepest crevices of rock thousands of years old, nourished by ancient moss. Or else the Bamboo Flower Spirit Wine.”
“The Bamboo Flower Spirit Wine?”
“Liquor brewed by placing flowers that rarely bloom in the Eternal Snow on a 1,000-year-old bamboo that resembles a human form. And thinking about it, there’s also the Myriad Year Fire Carp.”
“What’s the Myriad Year Fire Carp?”
“A giant fish that can only live in the Lake of Purity, where only a handful accumulates every century. Ancient mythological records say it tastes like honey, though I wouldn’t know since I haven’t eaten it myself.”
Jang Maldong spoke as if teasing, a hollow laugh escaping him. Seol Jihoo’s face was dreamy and hazy.
His throat moved ceaselessly.
“I’d like to try some once….”
“Hah, just eating one requires both miracle and fortune to align… chuckle chuckle. Once you’ve consumed it all, at minimum your Body won’t need worrying about anymore in your Heart-Technique-Body cultivation. No, your Mana should ease up considerably too?”
Jang Maldong folded his arms and stroked his chin.
“I won’t tell you to wake up from your dream, but truly—even if you find one per group, don’t just grab it and eat it raw. Swallowing it fresh as it is will most likely kill you.”
“Why?”
“You fool. How could an ordinary human body endure thousands of years of condensed Natural Essence? You’ll burst wide open, and they won’t even find a trace.”
In martial novels he’d seen countless times where someone finds something and immediately eats it to become stronger, but that was only fiction after all.
Seol Jihoo thought the reasoning sound enough and nodded in agreement.
“From the moment of gathering to everything thereafter, Elixirs, Spirit Beings, and Spirit Plants must be handled with extreme caution. You need proper expert knowledge, and only after careful refinement should you consume them.”
Only then did Seol Jihoo return to reality, and he smacked his lips ruefully.
“I thought you just had to eat it… nothing’s ever simple, is it?”
“Heh heh. Isn’t that right?”
Yes—a Golden Phoenix Bird, no less. The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.
Perhaps all the relentless training he’d poured himself into so far was layering up, only now ready to bear real fruit.
This way of thinking felt far more grounded.
Seol Jihoo shed his doubts and smiled sheepishly.
“I’ll just focus on training then.”
Both men burst out laughing at once.

“Cheers!”
“Clink!”
A sharp clink rang out as the glasses collided.
“Ahhh!”
Hugo drained his beer in one go, screwed up his face, and set down the glass, while Cho Hong grabbed a snack and munched away.
Looking around, the office was such a total wreck it rivaled a garbage dump.
After Carpe Diem’s members had left for Big Stone Rock Mountain, the two had quietly slipped back into the office as expected.
After thoroughly searching the building to make sure no one was hiding and waiting, they’d confirmed everyone was truly gone and erupted in celebration.
They’d barely had a chance to cut loose while watching Jang Maldong’s mood, so now they saw their opportunity and had been diving into drink-fueled festivities day after day.
“Seol’s such an idiot, I’m telling you.”
Hugo poured another drink and grinned widely.
“He says he’s only taking new members. Why follow him there?”
“Exactly~ why don’t we just eat, drink, and have fun with us instead?”
“Right! Why not enjoy this! Huh? Too much integrity is a problem, I’m telling you!”
Hugo held a glass in one hand and meat in the other, doing a little shoulder dance as he alternated between drinking and eating.
“Like this, like this. They don’t know how to enjoy life’s pleasures—life’s pleasures! Hehehehe.”
Cho Hong giggled.
“Leave him be. He’s a training junkie.”
“Ugh, I could never live like that. If training gets hard, and on top of that you can’t even eat properly…”
“True. Just thinking about them eating grass and rolling around makes me feel sorry for them.”
“Want to bet? When the three come back, I’m betting food’s the first thing they’ll look for. They’ll eat like starving beasts that luckily scored some meat.”
“Ha ha! You crazy bastard!”
As Hugo mimicked the three of them gorging themselves like ravenous animals, Cho Hong burst out laughing and cackled away.
As the two bickered back and forth and the trash heap of bottles and scraps piled higher,
a knock came to Cho Hong’s ears.
“Who is it?”
She could hear someone speaking, but too drunk to make out the words clearly.
“The door’s open, so just come in!”
She hollered, but the door didn’t open.
“What the heck. Why do weird people keep showing up lately?”
Cho Hong grumbled and got up from the sofa, swaying as she stumbled over. The instant she swung the door wide open,
“Who’s…huh?”
She let out a sharp, odd sound. Her flushed, slightly furrowed eyes went wide as saucers in utter shock.
“You… you…?”
“What? Who is it?”
Hugo came out behind her and soon wore the same expression—as if he’d just seen a ghost.
A moment later, they both stood there slack-jawed.
“Hey… you didn’t die?”
“What? You were alive?”
At that, the figure standing outside peered into the absolute disaster of a shambles inside and let out a scoff.
“It’s been a long time seeing both of you….”
In a calm voice,
“Stop talking nonsense.”
She spoke the words coldly.

Meanwhile, at that very moment—
Or more precisely, around the time Cho Hong was chuckling with Hugo, thinking, ‘Well, I do feel a bit sorry for him, having to graze and roll around.’
“Wow….”
Seol Jihoo, who had trained fiercely all day, was receiving his reward—a midnight snack in the deep hours before dawn.
He didn’t know it himself, but it was a reward that defied imagination in its extravagance.
Tonight’s menu consisted of no fewer than three dishes.
A massive Golden Carp caught from the lake, its scales gleaming with a bright golden sheen, grilled to perfection.
Nine colorful, orchid-like pickled leaves, dug from the mountains and preserved.
And a bottle of wine infused with Seo Yoo-hee’s own Sacred Power, its surface frosted with a refreshing layer of ice, exhaling the scent of blossoms.
“There’s a proper way to enjoy this.”
Seo Yoo-hee deftly cut a generous piece of carp meat with her chopsticks, then rolled it tightly in one of the pickled leaves and held it to Seol Jihoo’s mouth.
“Should I—”
“No, no. I’ll do it.”
“You can’t. If you don’t follow the order, you’ll ruin it.”
And in a small voice, she added, “Besides, I can already tell you’d just eat it mindlessly without tasting anything.”
“Ruin it?”
“Yes. If you’re going to eat anyway, you might as well enjoy it properly, don’t you think?”
Seo Yoo-hee smiled sweetly.
“Ah—”
The moment she popped it into his mouth, Seol Jihoo accepted it awkwardly and let out a deep groan.
The tender fish flesh melted into a delicate honey sweetness, while the pickled leaves, though thoroughly marinated, retained a crisp, peppery bite—the two flavors achieved a perfect, subtle harmony.
“Now have some wine. Go on.”
For reasons he couldn’t quite place, Seo Yoo-hee poured the wine into a cup with rather hurried movements and offered it to him, and Seol Jihoo promptly drank it.
“Oh!”
‘This can’t be real.’
A fragrant, icy coolness bloomed across his palate as though he’d placed snow directly on his tongue.
As he swallowed, it felt as though ice were rising in his throat, and the esophagus that had begun to sizzle and burn was gradually soothed by the chill.
“Ahhhhh….”
It was a taste that expressed the harmony of yin and yang through food itself—there was simply no way to refrain from gasping in admiration.
“Really… it’s incredibly delicious.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. How did you make something like this from such simple ingredients….”
Seo Yoo-hee, who had been skillfully slicing the meat and rolling the leaves, chuckled softly.
“Hehe. I’m quite the accomplished cook, you know. Come on, say ah.”
Seol Jihoo obediently accepted whatever she offered him.
While he was busily working his mouth, he suddenly brought up a question.
“By the way, have you ever heard of the Golden Phoenix Bird?”
“Pfft.”
In that instant, Seo Yoo-hee swayed noticeably and hastily covered her mouth. Then she stared at Seol Jihoo with a bewildered expression.
“H-how do you…?”
“Oh, my teacher mentioned it. There really are some amazing things in Paradise.”
With each item he listed—”the Golden Phoenix Bird, the Nine-Leafed Mysterious Orchid, the Bamboo Flower Spirit Wine, the Myriad Year Fire Carp”—Seo Yoo-hee’s shoulders and hips trembled slightly.
“To be honest, I’m curious what they taste like, but I don’t think any of them would be more delicious than this.”
The conclusion was a compliment. Only then did something shift in Seo Yoo-hee’s expression.
She observed Seol Jihoo’s smiling face intently, then exhaled softly. “Phew.”
“Y-you’re too kind.”
“Speaking of which, if the Golden Phoenix Bird went to auction, what would the price fetch? My teacher said ten gold coins wouldn’t even come close—he’d need at least fifty to even consider selling it.”
“Merely fifty?”
Seo Yoo-hee tilted her head.
“That makes no sense. Considering its rarity alone… I’ve turned down a hundred before… Two hundred might be different.”
She murmured quietly to herself, then shook her head and opened her mouth.
“Let’s stop talking about that. You’re not supposed to discuss business when eating something delicious.”
“Right.”
And so every last morsel on that table made its way into Seol Jihoo’s stomach, becoming his blood and flesh.
The price of goods is determined by the owner, after all. By Seo Yoo-hee’s own reckoning, each of the items eaten as a midnight snack carried a value of roughly one hundred billion won.
That is to say, including the Golden Phoenix Bird consumed previously, he had just eaten a total of four hundred billion won worth of food.
A feast that was nothing short of extravagant.
Yet Seol Jihoo, who couldn’t even recall what he’d eaten, simply patted his belly contentedly, convinced he’d had a splendid late-night meal.

(To be continued in the next episode)

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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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