Chapter 46

The journey to Chengdu was smooth.

The Water Bandits, having heard that their comrades had been annihilated, no longer attacked.

The rice transport ship docked at a pier not far from Chengdu. From here, they had to travel by land, not by water. Carts were already waiting at the pier to transport the rice.

“Hurry up. We have to enter Chengdu by tomorrow.”

“Be careful not to burst the sacks.”

The workers boarded the ship and began to unload the rice.

Pyo Wol, Heo Ranju, and their party also disembarked.

Daoshi Go stretched.

“I feel alive now that I’m on solid ground.”

“Why are you whining after just a few days on board? It’s not like you’re showing off your age.”

“Why is this wench picking a fight again? Are you sexually frustrated?”

“What did you say?”

“Ahem! Nothing.”

When Heo Ranju’s eyes widened and she grabbed her whip, Daoshi Go subtly took a step back.

He deliberately spoke to Pyo Wol.

“What will you do?”

“About what?”

“I’m asking if you’re going straight to Chengdu.”

“I’m going to stay here for a day.”

It was already getting late.

There was no reason to push themselves to depart.

Daoshi Go looked disappointed.

“Then we’ll have to part ways here. We must enter Chengdu by tomorrow morning.”

“Can’t you just come with us?”

Heo Ranju, beside Daoshi Go, put on a pitiful expression.

“There’s something I need to prepare…”

“What kind of preparation? I’ll help you. Let’s go together.”

“It’s something I have to do alone.”

“Tch!”

At Pyo Wol’s firm reply, Heo Ranju pouted. The disappointment on her face was obvious. But that wasn’t enough to sway Pyo Wol’s heart.

“I’ll contact you when I get to Chengdu later.”

“You promise?”

“Yes!”

Seemingly pleased with Pyo Wol’s answer, Heo Ranju’s expression softened.

The three of them bought horses at a nearby horse market and departed immediately.

Left alone, Pyo Wol looked for a nearby Inn.

All the cargo from the ship was unloaded here and loaded onto carts. As it was a place where an enormous amount of cargo passed through, there were many large Inns for Trading Companys and Escort Agencys.

The Inn Pyo Wol found was one such place.

The inside of the Inn was already bustling with countless people. Most of them belonged to Trading Companys and Escort Agencys.

They were gathered in small groups, eating their meals.

As Pyo Wol looked around, a Waiter quickly approached him.

“Welcome. Are you here for a meal, a room, or both?”

“Both.”

“Ah! So you’ll be eating and staying the night.”

“A room?”

“We happen to have one left. But it’s a bit expensive…”

“How much?”

“You’ll have to give me ten Nyang in Copper Coins. And the meal is two Nyang. As you can see, we’re full, and even that room will be gone soon.”

Without a word, Pyo Wol took out the Copper Coins from his robes and paid.

“Hehe! Please go up to the second floor, follow the left corridor all the way to the end, and you’ll find the last room. You can sleep there.”

“Got it. Bring my meal first.”

“Yes! Please wait just a moment.”

The Waiter replied cheerfully and ran to the kitchen.

Pyo Wol watched the Waiter for a moment, then found an empty seat and sat down.

“Wow! What kind of man is prettier than a woman?”

“Is he really a man? Isn’t it a woman disguised as a man?”

Nearby Martial Artists whispered as they looked at Pyo Wol.

They weren’t the only ones. Most of the people nearby were staring blankly at Pyo Wol. That’s how otherworldly Pyo Wol’s appearance was.

Pyo Wol paid no mind to the people’s whispers.

He knew just how remarkable his own appearance was.

He had always been handsome, but not to this extent. After living with snakes for a full seven years, Pyo Wol’s appearance had become beautiful to the point of being demonic.

Perhaps it was the effect of living with snakes for so long.

Pyo Wol thought it didn’t matter either way.

There was no need to belittle himself just because his appearance was beautiful. A beautiful appearance was also a great weapon.

Pyo Wol had keenly felt this fact during his journey from the underground cavern to this place.

Women mesmerized by his appearance let down their guard, and they, knowingly or not, provided Pyo Wol with a lot of information.

Such information was of great help to Pyo Wol.

Pyo Wol tapped the table with his fingers, waiting for his food. Fortunately, the food came out quickly.

The Waiter asked as he set down the food.

“By the way, you don’t drink? The liquor we brew ourselves at our Inn is truly out of this world.”

“I don’t drink.”

“If you change your mind, please call me anytime.”

The Waiter bowed his head to Pyo Wol and returned to his post.

Pyo Wol picked up his chopsticks and began to eat.

At first, using chopsticks felt unfamiliar. It was because he hadn’t used them for a full fourteen years. So he dropped his side dishes several times. But he soon grew accustomed to using them.

Pyo Wol savored the food, little by little.

It was the kind of mediocre food you could find at any Inn. It couldn’t be called particularly delicious. But to Pyo Wol, even such cheap food felt like a taste of heaven.

This moment was the greatest luxury of his life.

The people here would never know how blissful it was to pay a fair price and eat a proper meal.

He could feel the sweetness of each and every grain of rice in his mouth.

A smile naturally formed on Pyo Wol’s lips.

It was then.

“Hey! You, are you really a man?”

A particularly large Martial Artist approached Pyo Wol.

He wore a sleeveless top as if to show off his muscles. His forearms, exposed outside his clothes, were as thick as a woman’s torso.

His face was also quite menacing, enough to make one’s knees buckle just by looking at him.

Pyo Wol looked up at the man, chopsticks in hand. The man then bared his yellow teeth and grinned.

“My name is Jang Wurak. I’m an Escort Chief of the Gujin Escort Agency.”

“So?”

“I made a bet with my colleagues. If I strip you and you have a dick, they give me two Silver Taels.”

Jang Wurak grinned slyly and glanced at a table in the left corner. The Escort Chiefs of the Gujin Escort Agency were gathered there.

They were watching Pyo Wol with expressions of great interest.

Pyo Wol asked with an indifferent expression.

“So which side did you bet on?”

“I bet that you’re a woman disguised as a man.”

“That’s a shame. You’re about to lose two Silver Taels.”

“So you’re a man?”

“You should throw those eyes away. Can’t you tell just by looking?”

“I can’t. Hehe!”

Jang Wurak let out a lewd laugh.

“Kehehe! Go on, strip him and check.”

“If you strip him, I’ll buy the drinks.”

Jang Wurak’s colleagues whistled and shouted.

The people gathered in the Inn watched this scene with great interest. They knew the Escort Chiefs of the Gujin Escort Agency were playing a cruel prank, but not a single one thought of stopping them.

To them, the events unfolding before their eyes were an exciting form of entertainment.

They were curious.

What kind of response would this man who looked like a woman show?

They thought he might even burst into tears and snivel like a girl.

Jang Wurak crudely stretched out his large hand and said.

“Now, let’s see if you have a dick… Ugh!”

Suddenly, Jang Wurak let out a bloodcurdling scream.

A thin chopstick was now embedded in Jang Wurak’s eye. It was the chopstick that had been in Pyo Wol’s hand.

“You, you! You crazy bastard! A man’s eye…”

Jang Wurak clutched the eye pierced by the chopstick and glared at Pyo Wol. Blood was flowing from his left eye.

Pyo Wol rose from his seat.

“If it’s an eye that can’t even recognize what’s right in front of it, it’s better off gone. I’ll take the other one too.”

“What? N-No!”

Jang Wurak hastily backed away. But Pyo Wol’s approach was much faster than his retreat.

Pyo Wol approached Jang Wurak’s face as if without a sound.

Only then could Jang Wurak see Pyo Wol’s eyes.

The eyes of a snake, devoid of any emotion, were staring intently at him. Only then did Jang Wurak realize he had picked on the wrong person.

Someone with eyes like these could not be ordinary.

Pyo Wol’s face was the last sight he ever saw in this world.

Puk!

“Aaargh! My eye!”

With a gruesome sound, Jang Wurak’s world turned to darkness.

“That crazy bastard…”

“What the?”

The faces of the Gujin Escort Agency’s Escort Chiefs, who had been watching with great interest until now, turned ashen.

Chopsticks were embedded in both of Jang Wurak’s eyes. Even if the chopsticks were removed now, he couldn’t avoid becoming blind.

They never imagined there would be a madman who would gouge out someone’s eyes without a second thought over a mere joke.

And a man with a pretty, girlish face at that.

They leaped over their tables and rushed at Pyo Wol. In their hands, weapons like swords and sabers had already appeared.

Their plan was to attack Pyo Wol first and save Jang Wurak.

Pupupuk!

“Kuaargh!”

“Keuheup!”

But before they could even get halfway, they screamed and collapsed. Chopsticks were embedded in their shoulders and sides.

Pyo Wol had thrown them.

“Wh-When?”

“I didn’t even see him throw them.”

The nearby Martial Artists were horrified.

Although they acted as rudely as street thugs, the Escort Chiefs of the Gujin Escort Agency were still quite renowned Experts.

The Gujin Escort Agency was a medium-sized Escort Agency in Sichuan Province. The fact that they had grown the agency, which had been shabby and insignificant when it first started, to this size was entirely to their credit.

Because of that, they had great pride in themselves and gradually became arrogant.

The reason Jang Wurak had tried to harass Pyo Wol was the same.

He knew his opponent was a man, but since he looked like a woman, he intended to harass and humiliate him.

The only problem was that Pyo Wol was not someone they could handle.

Pyo Wol was ruthless.

Chopsticks were already in his hand.

He had picked up a whole bundle of chopsticks using the Soul Restraining Thread.

Thwack!

“Aargh!”

With the sound of a chopstick embedding itself in the wall, one of the Gujin Escort Agency’s Escort Chiefs let out a desperate scream.

The chopstick Pyo Wol had thrown had pierced through his shoulder and stuck into the wall. The Escort Chief struggled to pull out the chopstick embedded in his shoulder, but it was lodged too deeply for him to remove on his own.

“You crazy bastard! Do you know who we are?”

The oldest of the Escort Chiefs, Gong Jinhyeok, shouted.

In an instant, four Escort Chiefs, including Jang Wurak, had been subdued by Pyo Wol.

For underestimating their opponent because of his pretty appearance, the result was far too fatal.

The Escort Chiefs here were the real power of the Gujin Escort Agency. With them blinded or injured, they couldn’t even dream of going on an escort mission for a while.

The fate of an Escort Agency that couldn’t go on missions was as clear as day.

It was then.

Ssk!

Suddenly, Pyo Wol appeared in front of Gong Jinhyeok.

Gong Jinhyeok was so startled by Pyo Wol’s appearance, which ignored distance and came without any warning, that he felt his heart drop.

The moment he saw Pyo Wol’s sunken eyes, he felt goosebumps all over his body.

An gaze that couldn’t be defined was looking at him.

It would have been less frightening if it were as cold as ice or full of Killing intent.

The perfectly still eyes, which betrayed no emotion, stimulated the fear deeply embedded in Gong Jinhyeok’s heart.

“Ugh!”

Gong Jinhyeok let out a groan without realizing it.

Pyo Wol brought his face right up to his and opened his mouth.

“Who?”

“Th-Th…”

“Tell me! Who are you?”

“W-We are the Escort Chiefs of the G-Gujin Escort Agency…”

“So? So what?”

“I…”

Gong Jinhyeok couldn’t finish his sentence.

An invisible, formless Qi seemed to be squeezing his heart.

His face turned pale, and cold sweat poured down his entire body like rain, making him look as if he would stop breathing at any moment.

“You thought you could mess with me without any problems because I look pretty? What, you were curious if I was a man? So you were going to strip me to check? Do you still want to do that?”

“No, sir. Absolutely not…”

“I haven’t lived that long in this world, but I know one thing. That you have to take responsibility for your actions. If you use someone, you have to pay the price, and if you use and discard them, you have to pay that price too. What do you think?”

“That’s…”

Gong Jinhyeok couldn’t answer.

He had a premonition that his fate would be decided by his answer.

It was just a joke.

Pyo Wol looked like a girl, which piqued their interest, and that led to the kind of dirty jokes men would make among themselves.

Let’s check if he’s really a man.

It would be fun to pull down his pants and expose him.

They thought there would be no problem.

Pyo Wol was alone, and he didn’t look like he had learned Martial Arts.

They thought it would end without issue if they just apologized later, saying it was a joke.

‘But what is this?’

Jang Wurak, who had started the joke, was blinded and just screaming, while his other colleagues were flailing about like insects pierced by needles.

What in the world was this nightmarish scene?

He couldn’t understand if they had done something so wrong as to deserve this price.

It was then.

KWANG!

“Hey! That’s enough. There are other people here, this is a bit much to see.”

A Martial Artist sitting on the opposite side of Pyo Wol slammed his hand on the table and said.

His name was Oh Wonhoo.

He was a Martial Artist who had been acquainted with the Gujin Escort Agency for a long time.

At Oh Wonhoo’s appearance, Gong Jinhyeok’s face lit up with relief.

“Oh… Great Hero! Keoheok!”

Suddenly, Gong Jinhyeok screamed.

A chopstick was embedded in his shoulder, and Pyo Wol had vanished without a trace.

Pyo Wol was now standing in front of Oh Wonhoo.

“Enough of what?”