CLS-Chapter 403

Chapter 403:

“Ah!”

Wei Yan-ho turned around. Before he knew it, an old man had approached behind him.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Wei Yan-ho hurriedly bowed his head.

No matter how shameless he was, he knew it was wrong to enter someone else’s place alone when the owner wasn’t there. When you do something wrong, you should apologize.

“I asked who you are.”

“I’m Wei Yan-ho.”

“Wei Yan-ho?”

“Yes.”

The old man looked at Wei Yan-ho with an expressionless face and said.

“Why are you here?”

“Well, it’s a bit of a long story.”

“Tell me.”

“I was hungry and looking for a restaurant… I came in here because I smelled food, but it wasn’t a restaurant.”

“A restaurant?”

“Yes.”

The old man tilted his head.

“Aren’t you a guest who came to visit the Tang Family?”

“Well… if you put it that way, yes.”

“How strange. It should be the Tang Family’s custom to bring meals to guests’ rooms.”

At the old man’s words, Wei Yan-ho awkwardly scratched his head.

“Originally, I was supposed to eat in my room, but I missed the timing because I was doing something. I felt embarrassed to ask them to bring it again, so I was looking for a suitable place…”

“You wasted your effort. The Tang Family doesn’t operate a separate restaurant.”

“Huh, then where do you eat?”

“There are places where food is made, but it’s carried to rooms to eat. And food is made separately in various places. If we operated group dining and food poisoning broke out, it would be a disaster.”

“Ah… I see.”

Most prestigious families had so many retainers and dependents that they often operated separate restaurants. So he naturally thought the Tang Family would have a restaurant too, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

“Then they should have just told me that! Those guys are the worst.”

“Bad guys?”

Wei Yan-ho stuck out his lip and said.

“While I was wandering around looking for a restaurant, I met several people, but none of them told me there was no restaurant.”

“Really?”

The old man’s eyes gleamed with interest.

If this child came as a guest, they naturally should have told him. But the fact that they didn’t tell him meant the Tang Family’s people intentionally gave this child a hard time.

As the old man pondered this meaning carefully, Wei Yan-ho bowed his head.

“Thanks to you, I won’t waste any more time. Thank you. Well then, I’ll be going now.”

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

The old man pointed to the dining table with his hand.

“Eat before you go.”

“No way, that’s not my food. I’ll go scrape up some nurungji or something.”

“I can’t eat all of that by myself anyway.”

“Huh?”

Wei Yan-ho looked back and forth between the dining table and the old man with a slightly surprised face.

“All of that by yourself?”

“That’s right. I just tell them to bring enough to fill my stomach, but they never listen.”

The old man spoke as if annoyed.

“It’s definitely too much for one person to eat. That could feed ten people.”

“Money rotting away.”

The old man shook his head disapprovingly.

“So eat before you go. It’s food that’s already here anyway. If you ask someone for food now, others will have to suffer for it. It’s better to eat together than to throw away leftover food.”

“That sounds very reasonable and sensible.”

“Does it now.”

The old man walked over first without saying much and sat at the dining table. Wei Yan-ho also quietly followed and sat across from him.

“Eat.”

“I’ll eat well.”

The old man watched Wei Yan-ho begin eating frantically and smiled subtly.

‘Strange fellow.’

The old man wasn’t someone you could call particularly sociable. If you had to classify him, he belonged to the side severely lacking in social skills. Even in the Tang Family with many people, there wasn’t really anyone you could call close to him.

The elderly avoided him, saying he was eccentric, and the young ones kept their distance from him.

Of course, he had no complaints about that. The old man also thought it was better to talk to a wall than to mix words with idiots.

But this fellow strangely caught his interest.

‘Looking at the clothes he’s wearing, he’s definitely a martial artist.’

But he didn’t seem like an ordinary martial artist.

The first thing visiting martial artists pay attention to is undoubtedly the exotic weapons filling the walls. Even if they have no intention of using them themselves, it’s the same.

Exotic weapons are dangerous if you don’t know about them, and much easier to deal with if you do know. If there were exotic weapons right in front of you whose usage you couldn’t guess at all, you’d naturally take interest for the possibility of facing those exotic weapons in the future.

But this young fellow had no interest in the exotic weapons filling the walls, only interest in the food.

‘Interesting fellow.’

It would be possible if some thoughtless young master from some family came to play… but there’s no way such a person could wander around the Tang Family like his own home at this hour.

First, the Tang Family wouldn’t allow it, and even if they did, it’s not something you could choose to do without considerable nerve. Moreover…

Munch munch, smack smack.

‘He sure eats well.’

The more he looked, the more fascinating he was.

Eating food at the Tang Family was something anyone would be reluctant to do. At the Tang Family, famous for poison, many people are careful even about water. But to be able to wolf down food like that in an unfamiliar place. Was this fellow’s nerve made of iron?

“Aren’t you eating?”

“It’s fine.”

“Come on, you should eat some too. Food tastes better when eaten together.”

At this point, you’d have to wonder who the host was. The old man seemed to think for a moment, then picked up his chopsticks.

“You’re right.”

The two ate in silence for a while like that.

When the food on the table was completely cleared, Wei Yan-ho picked up the teapot and gulped it down.

“Ah! I really ate well.”

“…You must have been quite hungry.”

“Yes. I thought I was going to die of hunger.”

That would be it.

Otherwise, he couldn’t have completely emptied all this food.

“Now that you’ve filled your stomach, it’s my turn to ask questions.”

“Yes. Go ahead.”

Wei Yan-ho had become generous now that his stomach was full.

“Which family’s young master are you?”

“I’m Wei Yan-ho of the Guangdong Wei Family.”

“Guangdong Wei Family?”

“…You don’t know it?”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

Wei Yan-ho’s face became dejected.

The Guangdong Wei Family might not be as prestigious as the Sichuan Tang Family, but it was still a family representing Guangdong with considerable recognition… To think that not just an ordinary person, but a martial artist would say he’d never heard of it.

‘I need to spread our name more!’

Wei Yan-ho casually thought something that would make his ancestors jump out of their graves and slap him if they heard it.

“I see. Anyway, the Guangdong Wei Family.”

“Yes.”

The old man looked at Wei Yan-ho with serious eyes and asked.

“Is what you’re wearing at your waist a sword?”

“Ah, this?”

Wei Yan-ho casually touched the sword hanging at his waist.

“Yes. It’s a sword.”

“Then you’re a swordsman.”

“You could say that.”

“But why don’t you show interest in the swords outside?”

Wei Yan-ho tilted his head. He couldn’t understand what the old man in front of him was talking about.

But the old man’s question was natural.

Martial artists were beings entranced by powerful martial arts and divine weapons. These were people who wouldn’t hesitate to go through hellfire to become even a little stronger, so there was no way they wouldn’t be interested in divine weapons that could dramatically enhance their martial skills.

But Wei Yan-ho spoke nonchalantly as if not everyone was like that.

“Should I show interest in swords that aren’t mine?”

“Things don’t have owners by nature. There’s no law saying you can’t become the owner of those swords.”

“Well, I suppose that’s possible.”

He said that, but his face looked quite indifferent.

“You seem uninterested.”

“You’re a weaponsmith, aren’t you, old man?”

“…Why do you think that?”

“Because your hands aren’t ordinary hands.”

Wei Yan-ho’s gaze lingered on the old man’s hands. The old man smiled wryly.

“You asked something obvious.”

His hands were completely different from ordinary people’s.

Hands deeply embedded with calluses and burn marks from touching heated metal.

Anyone who saw those hands and couldn’t figure out that he was someone who worked with iron would be an idiot.

“This might be presumptuous to say to someone who makes weapons, but my master said this. Divine weapons are like poison.”

“Poison?”

“Yes. Though at the Tang Family, that might even be a compliment.”

Wei Yan-ho smiled awkwardly.

“He said divine weapons are like tricks. They make you believe that power that isn’t your own is your own power.”

“Hmm.”

The old man slightly furrowed his brow.

“Are you saying that borrowing the power of divine weapons prevents development?”

“It’s not that you can’t develop. No matter how divine a weapon is, it’s still just a weapon, and you’d still have to train in the end. But how should I put it, the scope of that development narrows.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll use what you don’t have as if you have it. If two people with the same skill fight, one with a divine weapon and the other with an ordinary weapon, the one with the divine weapon would have the advantage.”

“That would be true.”

“But as you go higher, the advantages of divine weapons disappear. Then eventually, the one who worked hard from a disadvantageous position would become stronger.”

The old man nodded.

“I understand what you’re saying, but in the end, the martial world is a place where you have to protect your life with skill. If borrowing the help of divine weapons lets you survive longer, wouldn’t that increase your chances of becoming stronger?”

“That’s true too.”

Wei Yan-ho didn’t particularly deny the old man’s words.

“I think it’s ultimately a matter of choice. Do you give up the present for somewhere farther away, or do you protect the present so you can see that distant place?”

“That would be true. But don’t most people choose the present?”

“That’s right. I’m not saying that’s bad. It’s just that it doesn’t suit my way.”

“Hmm…”

The old man looked at Wei Yan-ho with interest.

It wasn’t easy for a young person to have no attachment to divine weapons. It’s when competitive spirit is strongest and you’re most thirsty for development. Yet this young man was speaking like a seasoned old martial artist despite his young age.

That fact stimulated the old man’s interest.

“Of course, weapons of that level might allow for that.”

“Excuse me?”

“But what if it were a true divine weapon that would dazzle even your eyes?”

“It still wouldn’t change anything.”

Wei Yan-ho spoke indifferently.

“I’ve already experienced to death that my master’s pebble is scarier than a master with a peerless divine weapon. The strongest person I know could shatter mountains and split seas with just one pebble, so why would I be obsessed with divine weapons?”

A slight dissatisfaction appeared on the old man’s face.

He wanted to somehow emphasize the necessity of divine weapons, but that brat’s attitude was too stubborn.

“Could I take a look at that sword?”

“This one?”

“That’s right.”

The old man knew that what he was saying was quite sensitive. Asking a martial artist to hand over their beloved weapon was tantamount to picking a fight.

No matter how much the old man had little to do with martial arts, he was still a figure of the Sichuan Tang Family. When such a person asks to see a weapon, there’s no way they’d easily hand it over…

“Here you go.”

But contrary to the old man’s concerns, Wei Yan-ho casually handed over his sword, sheath and all, as if it were nothing.

“…Thank you.”

The old man, who had been about to say something based on the fact that he wouldn’t hand over his weapon, took Wei Yan-ho’s sword with a somewhat deflated expression.

Then he carefully drew the sword.

Srrring.

The old man’s eyes filled with shock as he saw the sword drawn with a low metallic sound.

“Th-this? This is!”

The old man’s cry of shock echoed loudly through the room.