Chapter 91. One Win, One Loss?

I sat where I could watch the street, ordered Du Kang wine, and sank briefly into thought.

As I organized my thoughts on the Thunder Sword Form, the Plum Blossom Sword Form, and Plum Blossom Fragrance, I waited for the Left Envoy.

The fact that Sword Demon had gone out of his way to summon him while mentioning “pants-shitter” meant he was telling him not to fight me. But even if we did not fight, I still needed to properly conclude my purpose for visiting Baekeungji.

The Left Envoy would have questions for me as well.

Because when I had engaged in that question-and-answer martial contest with Sword Demon, there had been a flaw in my words. Sword Demon, of course, could not have known. But the Left Envoy would wonder.

When I had emptied my fifth cup of Du Kang wine alone.

The Left Envoy, who had been heading toward the Meng family, approached the place where I sat.

The Left Envoy came over and stared at me, swallowed back the words he was about to spit out about three times, then sat across from me without saying a word and poured himself a cup of wine.

I said in an indifferent tone.

“What if that cup has laxatives in it too? How can you drink it so fearlessly? Are you out of your mind?”

As soon as he heard me, the Left Envoy choked, coughed, and set down the cup.

‘Well, he’s still just a brat at this point.’

The Left Envoy realized I had only been scaring him and glared at me silently. I drank my Du Kang wine and waited for him to speak.

The Left Envoy asked the question he naturally should have asked.

“How did you know I used Ice Art? I simply cannot understand it. Master may not have thought it strange since he only heard that we fought, but judging by your behavior, your attitude was that you had already known from the very beginning that I used Ice Art.”

I nodded.

“I am looking for Ice Art.”

“Is that all?”

“I have many subordinates. One of them, someone about on the level of an heir to a merchant group, told me in detail about the tale of Jade Flower Palace. Among the regions where the orthodox factions are concentrated, especially among the noble clans. I expected that someone there had inherited the true transmission of Jade Flower Palace, so I was looking.”

“Ah, so that bastard with the broken arm was following me around because of that. But even then, I never used Ice Art. He was not an opponent worth using it on.”

At that point, I grinned.

“What a funny bastard.”

“What is?”

“You broke my subordinate’s arm. In Baekeungji, of all places. When I looked into it, they said you were a womanizing bastard with excellent martial skill. If my subordinate gets beaten, I have to step in. As for the Ice Art, I confirmed it by chance while fighting you.”

The Left Envoy pondered whether there was any flaw in my words.

“How did that subordinate follow me around?”

I looked at the Left Envoy and told him plainly.

“My subordinates’ opinion was that Ice Art had probably been learned by a bastard son of some noble clan.”

The moment I said the words “bastard son,” the Left Envoy’s face turned bright red. I watched as his emotions surged across his face.

The Left Envoy forced a laugh and said.

“That damned talk of bastard sons. Do you know that every last bastard in Baekeungji who ran his mouth about bastard this and bastard that got beaten by me?”

“None of my concern. If you are a bastard son, then you are a bastard son. I don’t know why you got angry at other people over it.”

The Left Envoy replied with an expression as if he might flip the table at any moment.

“Insulting……”

“Why is that insulting? It was not something you could choose. You idiotic bastard.”

“You are impossible to talk to.”

The Left Envoy started to drink the Du Kang wine, then saw that it was empty and ordered more from the waiter.

In any case, the matter of the Ice Art was glossed over like that.

The next thing I had to confirm was the probability that this bastard would go over to the Demon Cult. I knew he had gone in saying he would kill the Cult Leader, but the situation now was different from my previous life. Because I was steadily making preparations to kill the Cult Leader myself.

It was probably because of Sword Demon’s teachings, but in any case, this bastard had become one of the strongest even within the Demon Cult. It would be more convenient for me to bring him to my side when dealing with the Black Path.

The Left Envoy said.

“Hey, country……”

“Country what?”

“You country bumpkin bastard, why is the Cult Leader your enemy? I doubt a little chick like you has suffered anything at the Cult Leader’s hands. Don’t tell me your mother’s family is Jade Flower Palace?”

“If that were the case, I would be using Ice Art too.”

“So why is the Cult Leader your enemy?”

This is what makes things difficult for someone who has returned to the past. From time to time, you have to make up reasons and talk. But I am me.

“I cannot tell you that.”

When I unfolded the defensive form of the question-and-answer martial contest, the Left Envoy also shut his mouth. Around this point, I too had to ask the Left Envoy what I was curious about.

Why on earth had this bastard become a Lust Demon?

If I could find that out, then just as I had eliminated the possibility of Moyong Baek becoming the Poison Demon by killing the Great Rakshasa in advance, perhaps I could also change the future in which the Lust Demon was born.

I had failed to obtain the Ice Art right away.

But something just as important as obtaining the Ice Art was still in progress.

Just then, when a beautiful woman with a slender figure and soft hair passed by on the street, the Left Envoy’s head turned while his lips were still pressed to his cup.

Changing fate is this difficult.

Without much expectation, I jabbed the question at him like a straight punch.

“Why did you become such a rutting dog? Is there a story behind it?”

The Left Envoy looked at me.

“Ah, there is a story.”

“What is it?”

“I cannot tell you that, you country bumpkin bastard.”

I cackled and laughed. In my opinion, the Left Envoy was living a ruined life just like my subordinates. Even if he had been born into a good family, if he was obsessed with the fact that he was a bastard son, then it was a ruined life.

While laughing, I extended a palm at a speed that was not particularly fast, and the Left Envoy, who had been about to drink, was startled and met it with his right hand.

Thud!

I immediately poured out the power of the Wood Realm, then switched to the Flame Realm.

The Left Envoy’s expression changed in an instant, and he dyed his right hand white in order to block the power of the Flame Realm. It was the moment the Jade Flower Ice Art was properly unleashed.

As I poured out the palm force of the Flame Realm, I watched the Left Envoy’s expression. His expression was growing more serious by the second. Until now, while dealing with the rising talents of the orthodox faction, he had probably won most of the time without using the Jade Flower Ice Art properly.

However, to begin with, the Flame Realm of my Golden Turtle Roaming Art was a natural counter to Ice Art. In addition, the internal energy I had drawn in and accumulated from the Heavenly Jade was not lower than the Left Envoy’s.

When I raised my power a little more, the Left Envoy hurriedly grabbed the table with his left hand. Since the table froze over in an instant, I also grabbed the table with my left hand. The pale cold energy that had been rising dispersed again.

To check how much strength the Left Envoy had left, I opened my mouth.

“Senior Sword Demon seems to have wanted us not to fight, but we still have to determine who is superior before leaving, don’t we? Pants-shitter.”

I had the feeling that I needed to crush this bastard’s pride once so that he would focus on training without even having time to meet women. If the Left Envoy, stimulated because of me, became stronger than he had been in my previous life, then I could be stimulated by that and become stronger as well.

The Left Envoy, whose pride was as strong as mine, opened his mouth too.

“Of course we have to determine who is superior. Country bumpkin.”

When, out of nowhere, a contest of palm force broke out at a table on a street where many people came and went, spectators began gathering. Moreover, since one side was Meng Lang, famous in Baekeungji, the number of people increased in an instant.

As I stalled for time while maintaining only the Flame Realm, the number of onlookers began to grow even more, and, absurdly enough, I even heard the voices of women cheering for Mongrang.

Even as I poured out palm force, I let out a laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

“Shithead, you’re quite the celebrity.”

“You’ll be famous soon enough too—for making a disgrace of yourself.”

The moment I confirmed that Jwasa was going to keep acting relaxed to the end, I shifted my inner power into the Fighting Realm. As if the two of us had set an unspoken rule, neither of us used our left hand.

When I switched to the Fighting Realm and pressed him, Jwasa’s face quickly went pale. His face was already white to begin with, but once the blood drained from it, he looked like a blank sheet of paper. Even then, Jwasa said this to me.

“Shall we call it a draw?”

For a moment, laughter burst out of me and my inner power nearly scattered, but I calmly settled my mind. Then Jwasa demanded again.

“I’m saying let’s call it a draw.”

I replied in an even tone.

“I can’t grant that request.”

I could kill the Lust Demon, but I figured it would be too much to kill the Sword Demon’s disciple, who had yet to become the Lust Demon, so I poured the Fighting Realm’s inner power out in the form of an explosion from the center of my palm.

After a loud bang erupted from my palm, Jwasa’s body fell from the chair and rolled across the floor.

The onlookers all went silent at once, as if they had stopped breathing.

Because it was their first time seeing Mongrang of the Mong clan lose. Jwasa, who had been rolling around in a hideous posture, lifted his head and looked not at me, but at the onlookers. That was because among them were women Jwasa would have to conquer in the future.

I drank while watching Jwasa’s predicament.

‘Serves you right.’

Suddenly, Jwasa rose while brushing the dust from his clothes, then burst into laughter.

“Wahahahahaha…….”

Jwasa approached me with his hands clasped behind his back and spoke awkwardly, like an opera performer.

“I lost today. One win and one loss, is it?”

Jwasa sat back down in his chair with a smiling face, then calmly drank as if nothing had happened.

“…….”

Jwasa waved his hand at the onlookers.

“The show is over, so go on back.”

“One win and one loss? You shithead bastard.”

Jwasa whispered in a low tone, as if saying something important.

“One draw and one loss, then, or whatever……. We’re going to keep measuring ourselves against each other from now on, so don’t be too harsh. You’re a bumpkin, so maybe you don’t know, but a fight of inner power isn’t everything. Fine, let’s say I lost in inner power. Take it easy.”

Jwasa glanced around, then drank a cup of liquor. The way Jwasa remained conscious of the eyes around him until the very end looked somehow pitiful. He looked like a man with an unconscious need for others’ approval ingrained into his body.

When I stayed silent, Jwasa began to speak.

“There used to be a male attendant named Byeonggu. He was my attendant.”

“…….”

“He was five years older than me, and they said he was a servant the Mong clan had taken in when he was young. No home, no family. He called me young master, brought me meals, changed my shoes, and when I bathed, he brought me towels and clothes. A loyal attendant like that. Truthfully, when I was young, Byeonggu was the only person I had to play with. Then one day, that loyal Byeonggu died hanging by the neck in a small room without my permission. Suicide. I looked into why my only attendant had died, and it turned out the fool had loved a woman named Danyeong.”

Jwasa drank another cup of liquor. He looked a little like a man whose mind was half gone.

“I found that bitch Danyeong and tortured her, and what do you think she said to me? She said when she rejected Byeonggu’s courtship, she did it by saying, ‘You’re not even Brother Mongrang, so why are you confessing to me?’ To think such an idiot was my attendant. He heard that and killed himself? In any case, I lost Byeonggu.”

“So?”

“So? I became curious about women. I wondered what sort of thoughts they had, for Byeonggu to have had to kill himself.”

“And?”

“And, astonishingly, most of them thought the same way as that bitch Danyeong. A slightly more handsome man, a slightly richer man. A family with slightly better standing……. From the start, they never saw Byeonggu as a person. No, it would be more accurate to say they never saw him as a man.”

I quietly stared at Jwasa, who had been twisted in a bizarre way since childhood.

Jwasa continued.

“The more I met them, the more frighteningly identical they were. Women with higher standards sometimes disliked me because I was an illegitimate son. To some women, I’m no different from Byeonggu.”

“So you’re meeting them while constantly swapping them out?”

“No.”

The Lust Demon from my previous life looked at me and uttered something absurd.

“It’s simply revenge for Byeonggu. Because I’m trash too, you see.”

I nodded.

“So you were a shithead bastard like an idiot after all.”

I suddenly knew the words that would make this bastard angriest. Without thinking too hard, I drove the straight punch home.

“You’re no different from your father.”

Jwasa’s face crumpled in an instant.

“What?”

“Looks like your father met your mother to obtain the Ice Art. Without loving her, I mean. Since the Ice Art was the soul of her family and was strictly guarded, your mother must have passed it down only to you. And you were certainly treated as an illegitimate son in the Mong clan. But to think you’re doing this because of a pitiful attendant…… Are you any different from your father? You pathetic bastard.”

The moment I saw Jwasa throw a punch, my hand moved first and slapped Jwasa across the cheek. When Jwasa’s face turned with a smack, I grabbed his hair with my left hand and pulled him toward me.

“Good grief, you immature bastard. Senior Sword Demon must have taken you in out of pity. Come at me again, and I’ll make you a eunuch.”

Jwasa, drunk as he was, briefly considered whether to go another round with me or not.

I shoved Jwasa’s head away, then drank a cup of liquor. A deep sigh flowed out from within me.

I spoke to Jwasa in a solemn voice.

“I haven’t met even one woman yet, so don’t say that kind of bullshit to me.”

Jwasa frowned and asked me a question.

“Is that true?”

I swept my hair back once, then replied to the Lust Demon from my previous life.

“I’m saying our very attitudes toward life are different, you bastard.”

The drunken Lust Demon threw his head back and burst into laughter.

“Hahahahahaha.”

I muttered as I drank.

“Where does true love reside?”

The Lust Demon clutched his stomach and laughed again.

“Hahahahaha.”

Even I thought I sounded like an idiot, so I laughed a little together with Jwasa, then made a vow inwardly.

This life will be different.

.

.

.

For real.