The Eunuch Regains His Manhood in the Second Round

30. Inner Beauty

In medieval murim, an inn is synonymous with a battlefield.

Just like in martial arts novels, 50% of the disputes in the murim world occur in inns.

Like Pokémon trainers entering a gym, murim warriors fight as soon as they make eye contact in an inn.

An inn is the extreme workplace of the medieval murim world, just like a porter in a hunter story.

Other extreme jobs in the medieval murim world include bodyguards, debt collectors, bandits, pirates, inn workers, security warriors, Black Path underlings, and the top of the extreme jobs, eunuchs.

Phew, don’t do these kinds of things, damn it.

Come to think of it, in my previous life, I was forcibly transferred to the eunuch class after being deprived of my career opportunity.

Just thinking about it still makes my lower body feel cold.

Through a connection with a slave trader, that b*stard Jang Ihyeon castrated innocent orphans and sold them to the palace as eunuchs. He needs to be sent to hell just like Wangsam.

Considering the countless victims who were forcibly castrated and sold to the palace, he needs to be punished as soon as possible.

In my previous life, I couldn’t take revenge on him because he had already died from a boil, a type of abscess, and escaped to hell when I sought him out after rising to power like Wangsam. But now, I can do it.

How dare he castrate me and suck the blood of orphans?

With these thoughts in mind, I observed the surroundings.

The thug who overturned the table was glaring at Seoharin and shouting.

—

—

“Is this what you call food? Who’s the owner here? Call the owner! The owner!”

The other man in black, who was standing next to the man in black with a scar on his face, frowned and shouted.

“What are you looking at? Is this a spectacle? Get lost!”

At the shouting of the man in black with a rat’s mustache, the civilian customers scattered out of the inn in a panic.

“…Hey, why are you dawdling? I told you to call the owner, didn’t I? Your father, I mean.”

“Hehehe… She looks like a goblin because she resembles a Sogdian, but she’s pretty, isn’t she? Wouldn’t you like to work at the job our Sa-yeong Association recommends? Hehe. With your looks, you could pay off your debts in no time.”

The man with the rat’s mustache approached Seo Ha-rin with a sinister smile, spouting a cliché line that was so trite it was tiresome to hear.

I pressed my temples.

Yes, it seems today is the day.

The day in my previous life when the Sa-yeong Association caused a ruckus at the Gongdong Inn, and after my senior brother and master confronted them, Seo Ha-rin was taken into the Gongdong Sect to protect her, with an agreement from Master Seo.

‘Sa-yeong Association.’

The Sa-yeong Association was a black path gang that took over Hwa-jeong County, the village below Gongdong Mountain, during the fall of the Gongdong Sect.

Like all black path gangs, they not only lent out high-interest loans called Yeomwangchae but also extorted protection money from merchants in the Hwa-jeong County area.

In short, they were typical black path thugs.

When the Gongdong Sect held a seat in the Nine Great Schools, it was unimaginable for black path thugs to run rampant in Hwa-jeong County.

No sect would give up their front yard to another force. There’s a saying that even a mongrel eats half its food at home. In the war of the stars, if you lose your front yard, you have to call GG immediately.

But now, the Gongdong Sect is a small sect with only three members.

Naturally, the front yard couldn’t be managed. But the commercial district at the entrance of Gongdong Mountain was still quite useful, so the black path gang took advantage of that gap.

Letting the enemy set up a multi in your front yard, this is a complete GG.

Anyway, the Sa-yeong Association, which had taken over most of the interests in Hwa-jeong County, threatened the surrounding merchants to cut off dealings with the Gongdong Inn, and committed the atrocity of forcing the inn to buy poor-quality raw materials at exorbitant prices.

As the quality of the raw materials dropped but the prices rose, the food prices went up and the quality went down. Naturally, sales fell due to the expensive and tasteless food. But since they had to keep the business running, they had no choice but to incur debt for the ingredients, which the Sa-yeong Association used to drive the Gongdong Inn into a corner.

It was all a scheme to pressure the Gongdong Inn and choke the life out of the Gongdong Sect behind it.

The Gongdong Inn was the last source of funds for the Gongdong Sect.

‘The problem is that the Sa-yeong Association isn’t just a simple loan shark gang.’

The Sa-yeong Association wasn’t just a simple black path gang.

If they were just simple black path thugs, my senior brother and Master Jeon, who had first-rate martial arts skills, would have dealt with them immediately when they first met them in my previous life.

The Sa-yeong Association itself was a third-rate loan shark gang, but behind them was the giant black path gang Heukryongbang (Black Dragon Gang) from Sichuan, south of Gansu.

That’s right. The Sa-yeong Association was a multi of the Heukryongbang in Gansu Province.

Of course, there were white path sects in Gansu Province.

Fifty years ago, during the fall of the Gongdong Sect, the Seomun Family, a legendary emerging conglomerate group, quickly took over the hegemony of Gansu Province and turned the Five Great Families into the Six Great Families.

—

—

However, the Seomun family of Lanzhou was overlooking the existence of the Sayeonghoe.

The Seomun family knew. Gansu Province had been the base of the Gongdong sect for hundreds of years. Naturally, the public sentiment in Gansu still supported the Gongdong sect. This was because the Gongdong sect was not just a martial arts sect, but the root of the common people and warriors of Gansu.

Therefore, even though the Gongdong sect had fallen, it was still the spiritual pillar of Gansu. If the Seomun family did not deal with the Gongdong sect, they would remain second in Gansu forever, no matter how powerful they were.

Moreover, if by any chance the Gongdong sect were to revive, the Seomun family, which lacked local ties, would be immediately pushed out.

‘But the Seomun family is a righteous sect, and it is impossible for them to directly deal with the Gongdong sect, which has a long history as a prestigious sect.’

So the Seomun family condoned the Sayeonghoe’s encroachment on the interests of Hwajeong County. In fact, a third-rate black sect like the Sayeonghoe could be crushed by the subcontracted sects of the Seomun family without them having to step in.

It was a case of pretending not to see, but in any case, since the Heukryongbang had not directly intervened, and if they could cut off the breath of the Gongdong sect, it would be like killing two birds with one stone.

Even if the power of the Heukryongbang grew in the process, the Heukryongbang was a demonic sect with no ties to Gansu. So at that time, as a righteous sect, they could raise the banner of “destroying evil and promoting good” and fight the Heukryongbang under the pretext of avenging the Gongdong sect.

They thought they could easily dispose of the Heukryongbang and the Sayeonghoe.

‘A very brilliant idea.’

From my perspective, with 50 years of political experience, the Seomun family’s plan was objectively excellent.

Although the Heukryongbang was a large corporate sect belonging to the Eight Demonic Sects, comparable to the Nine Great Sects in the righteous sects, their base was in Sichuan.

If they fought the Seomun family in Gansu, the Seomun family’s home ground, the Heukryongbang would never win.

Moreover, if the Seomun family incited the public sentiment by claiming to avenge the already fallen Gongdong sect, they could gain the support of the people of Gansu.

Some smart people might suspect the Seomun family’s strategy, but they would have no evidence, only suspicions. And if the plan was successful, the Seomun family would actually shed blood in the struggle against the Heukryongbang, so it would be glossed over.

The Seomun family would finally be able to completely dominate Gansu.

‘It’s a perfect plan that even I, a 50-year-old schemer, can admire.’

I don’t even know how many birds they are killing with one stone.

The problem is that the target they are aiming for happens to be the Gongdong sect, which I belong to.

Moreover, they are now trying to touch the future number one beauty of the righteous sects, who is under the subcontract of the subcontract of the subcontract of the subcontract.

I can’t stand it any longer. How dare they interfere with my plan of having three wives and four concubines?

I can’t forgive them.

I will personally create an ending where both the Seomun family and the Heukryongbang are hurt.

And where does this b*stard get off touching a young girl?

The atmosphere turned cold in an instant.

Seo Harin’s empty eyes were trembling.

Her whole body stiffened as if frozen. Tears welled up in her eyes.

It seemed that her childhood PTSD had resurfaced, leaving her speechless and unable to move.

—

Drip.

The moment a tear fell from Seoharin’s sky-blue eyes, I quietly stood up and infused my inner strength into the chopsticks in my hand before throwing them.

Swoosh!

The chopsticks, flying with a piercing sound, embedded themselves into the hand of the black-clad man.

“aaargh!”

Drip.

Just before the man’s hand could touch Seoharin’s cheek, the chopsticks pierced through his palm in an instant, causing him to scream in agony.

Blood spurted from his hand like a fountain.

“You, with that black uniform and reversed Taiji symbol, are you from the Gongdong Sect?”

“How dare a remnant of a ruined sect harm my brother! You brat, still wet behind the ears! Today, I will make you pay with your blood!”

Two black-clad men looked at me with disdain.

Three ugly men calling each other brothers, what a sight.

They must be joking.

Their ultimate goal is the Gongdong Sect. In this situation, as a disciple of the Gongdong Sect, I was the one who picked a fight first, so from their perspective, it’s like I slapped them when they were already crying.

Of course, they wouldn’t have expected that the slap I gave would end their lives.

“You said the food here is bad?”

I looked at the black-clad men and activated my So-yang Heart Technique to open my meridians.

In my previous life, I was a master of the Hyungyeong and the most powerful figure in the Daemyeong Empire.

Although my inner strength had not yet reached the first-class level, the aura I had acquired from my previous life remained the same.

The hot yang energy, symbolizing a man’s vigor, surged from my dantian and flowed through my limbs and meridians.

As the aura emanated from my body, the expressions of the black-clad men hardened.

Their martial skills were at best third-rate.

I could defeat them even without inner strength.

“Y-Yes! The ingredients are cheap and the taste is…”

One of the black-clad men, who had overturned the table earlier, stammered.

I walked towards the overturned table.

Everyone in the inn was watching me.

Even Seoharin’s empty eyes.

Feeling their gazes, I picked up the lamb stew that had fallen on the floor and put it in my mouth, chewing it.

“Are you crazy?! I heard the Gongdong Sect’s finances are bad these days, but are they so poor they can’t even feed their disciples?!”

—

—

“Eat food that fell on the ground?! Even the beggars wouldn’t do that!!”

The Black Path members muttered in horrified voices.

Ignoring them, I chewed and swallowed all the food before speaking.

“Hey, it’s delicious.”

“What?”

The three Black Path members looked at me with incredulous expressions.

I looked at them and grinned.

“The food you knocked over. It’s delicious. Master Seo cooked it with care, and Lina gave it to you. There’s no way it wouldn’t be tasty. So why are you picking on an innocent girl and making a fuss, huh?”

I felt Seo Harin’s gaze piercing my back as I drew my sword from my waist.

Srrrng.

The cheap iron sword from the blacksmith’s shop slid out of its sheath and gleamed.

I pointed my chin at the Black Path member who had talked about taking my blood and said,

“Hey, what are you doing? You said you’d take my blood. Go ahead, try it.”

I grinned as I delivered the cool line I had practiced endlessly.

There would be countless times in the future when I would roam the martial world and fight the Black Path.

Isn’t the image of a righteous hero punishing the wicked Black Path members who suck the blood of commoners and merchants the ideal alpha male that the women of the martial world admire the most?

In modern terms, a hero is like an idol or an actor.

And since I wasn’t as outwardly beautiful as my damn senior brother, I needed to cultivate inner beauty.

That inner beauty is chivalry.

So how does one become a charming hero who captures the hearts of women?

Practice was necessary.

And now was the time for practice.

A Black Path member picking a fight before I officially entered the martial world! How grateful I was!

A perfect teaching material had come to me on its own.

I must have looked pretty cool, right?

It would be troublesome if Seo Harin already fell for me.

Because I’m a dangerous boy. Hahaha.