Volume 1, Chapter 2
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Ihoe stared blankly at the ceiling of the room.
“Ah…!”
He had been wrong about his Master.
He had thought his Master was simply a good person, someone who, despite his lack of interest in the sect's affairs, had never spoken a harsh word to his disciples.
But that was a misconception.
His Master was not merely kind.
—How old are you this year?
The day he had declared his life's goal was to live recklessly.
After a long silence, his Master had posed that question.
—Four…teen.
He answered, dredging up an old memory.
He had been fourteen when he had sent Hohyeon away in the past.
And to that answer,
—I see.
His Master nodded.
After pondering something for a long while, he chuckled.
—Yes. This is the age of turmoil and rebellion. It's about time you got a beating.
And then he beat him.
He was beaten so thoroughly he thought dust would rise even on a rainy day.
Ihoe could see for himself why his Master was acknowledged as the single strongest martial artist in Ansang Prefecture.
It was truly exquisite.
Incredibly painful, yet just short of causing actual injury.
Perfect strikes and power control. And yet, the blows came in a flurry so fast he couldn't even gather his wits.
He had never received such a thrashing in his entire life.
Thanks to that, just four days after getting back on his feet, he had to spend another full day bedridden.
He had passed out from the beating.
“Kuk…!”
Realizing this only after waking up, Ihoe let out a hollow laugh.
Nothing hurt. In fact, he felt refreshed.
It was a testament to how exquisitely the beating had been delivered.
“Did a whole day just pass by?”
The scene outside the window showed that it was already well past noon.
It felt strange.
Had he ever rested alone in his room like this at this time of day?
‘Never. Not unless it was something special.’
Unless he was too sick to move, he always had to work at this hour.
He had to prepare lunch, do the dishes, sweep the yard, and look after his junior disciples.
When the sect began to decline, he had to take on manual labor just to provide for and raise them.
As a result, he never had time to rest at this hour.
He had lived such a busy life.
Without achieving a single thing.
A wave of complex emotions washed over him.
“Senior Brother. Are you sleeping?”
Just then, the door opened, and three small faces peeked into the room.
The cautious second, Dan Goyul.
A boy whose natural talent would one day place his name among the hundred greatest masters under heaven.
In Ihoe's opinion, Goyul was far better suited to be the Head Disciple than he was.
He was a child with that much depth and resolve.
“Eldest Brotheeeer!”
And the spoiled fourth. Hohyeon.
“Oof!”
A pained sound escaped him as Hohyeon threw himself into his arms like a headbutt.
Despite that, a smile spread across his lips.
He had no desire to live his past life over again, but that didn't mean he disliked the disciples before him.
No, in fact, he was happy to see them.
To Ihoe, the Sincerity Gate was his home, and the disciples were his family.
These three peeking in were especially dear to him, and they were the ones he hadn't seen for the longest time.
That made him all the more glad and happy to see them.
“Chaehwa, why are you just standing there? It's cold. Come on in.”
And the last one was the third. Chaehwa.
At present, the only female disciple of the Sincerity Gate.
While the second and fourth were already inside, Chaehwa still stood at the door, only peeking her head in.
She was still very shy.
To think that this child would one day become a female master ranked among the top five in a province, it felt strange all over again.
“…Senior Brother.”
Even at Ihoe's call, Chaehwa couldn't bring herself to enter the room, mumbling with her small lips.
“Master is tasteless.”
“…Huh?”
Her innocent eyes shone clearly.
“Tasteless. Master is!”
* * *
For a moment, he was stunned.
He doubted his ears, and his mind went blank.
To say their Master was tasteless.
He never imagined such words would come from the mouth of the kind, innocent, and shy Chaehwa.
Cursing their Master out of the blue.
“She said the food Master made tastes bad.”
If it hadn't been for the second, Goyul, he would have completely misunderstood.
His dilemma over whether or not to scold the little girl became moot.
And so, Ihoe was now cooking.
He couldn't ignore his disciples who said they were hungry.
‘He was never interested in this kind of thing.’
Ihoe knew better than anyone that his Master's cooking skills were poor.
He was an outstanding martial artist, but he was clumsy at most other things.
His cooking was just at the level of being edible without throwing up, and his laundry skills were also lacking. He wasn't good with children either, and always ended up making them cry.
It wasn't for nothing that Ihoe had taken charge of all the household chores in his past life.
His Master's frequent trips away were one reason, but his Master's lack of skill was another.
Clack, clack, clack, clack!
The rhythmic sound of the knife rang out cheerfully.
He planned to make stir-fried vegetables.
It was just a matter of stir-frying uniformly cut vegetables of a size easy for children to eat, but its simplicity made it quick to prepare.
He transferred the chopped vegetables to the heated wok.
Fwoosh!
He added more firewood to the brazier to increase the heat.
A wave of heat instantly filled the kitchen.
A heated wok. Preheated oil on top. Then, adding more heat to stir-fry as quickly as possible—that was the key to Ihoe's signature stir-fried vegetables.
“Heh!”
A smile spread across his lips.
It wasn't that he held no resentment toward his Master, Yu Hyeonjun, for being indifferent to the sect's affairs, but despite that, Ihoe respected him. And he was grateful to him.
The same went for the Sincerity Gate and his junior disciples.
To Ihoe, the Sincerity Gate was his home, and the disciples were his family.
He wanted them to do well.
So, he had willingly worked and sacrificed himself for them.
But, despite it all, the feeling of emptiness was unavoidable.
Sometimes, he wanted to rest. There were times when it was all too much.
That's why he didn't want to live like that this time.
He intended to do what he wanted to do, to pursue what he desired.
That was the meaning behind his declaration to his Master, Yu Hyeonjun: “I will live recklessly.”
And yet, even after making that declaration and getting beaten to a pulp, here he was.
No one had asked him to.
And still, he was making a meal for his disciples.
Was it simply out of inertia from his past life?
No.
He just wanted to cook for his disciples who said they were hungry.
He just wanted to see them enjoy the food he made and feel full.
“Hm. Hmm-hmm!”
A tune escaped his lips as he hummed.
It was then.
‘…Again?’
It grew warm.
He had added more firewood to the brazier, so it was only natural for the kitchen to heat up.
But this was different.
A warmth spread up slowly from the soles of his feet.
‘It's internal energy. Just like last time.’
When he had saved Hohyeon from the river.
Back then, too, an endless surge of energy from an unknown source had flooded into him.
It was happening again.
The warm energy spread from the soles of his feet throughout his entire body.
It surged endlessly.
But it wasn't exactly the same as last time.
Unlike the last time, when it felt like his whole body would explode, this time it was subtle. A subtle heat, a subtle filling.
His hands, stir-frying the vegetables, moved even faster, and he felt a surge of vitality.
The kitchen filled with scorching heat.
* * * “This is even more delicious than usual!”
Goyul’s eyes went wide.
“Eldest Brother, you’re the best! Hehehehe.”
Hohyeon laughed brightly.
“The food is delicious, Eldest Brother.”
The third, Chaehwa, also wore a satisfied expression.
Ihoe watched his junior disciples, who were gathered closely around the table, diligently eating the vegetable dish he had made.
Then, he let out a hollow laugh.
‘I made a delicious stir-fried vegetable dish.’
He was confident in his cooking.
Ever since entering the sect, he had always been in charge of preparing meals for his Master and junior disciples.
So, it was only natural that the stir-fried vegetables he made today would taste far more delicious to his current junior disciples than before.
After all, it was infused with the experience gifted by decades of time.
Moreover, if they had been tasting their Master’s own cooking for the past few days, the contrast would be unavoidable.
He had expected that much.
But the flavor of this stir-fried dish far exceeded those expectations.
Having tasted it himself after finishing, Ihoe knew this better than anyone.
In terms of taste alone, it was worthy of being called the best he had ever made.
It was on a different level.
So much so that he doubted if he had truly made it himself.
The vegetables had not lost their freshness. Yet, each piece was evenly coated in oil, and a subtle, smoky flavor rose to create a perfect harmony.
Nothing was different from how he usually cooked.
He had used the same equipment and the same process. In fact, the ingredients were rather lacking since he had prepared them in a hurry.
If there was one thing that was different, it was just one thing.
The warm energy he had felt while cooking.
That, whose origin he did not even know, was the only difference.
‘It is strange.’
Ihoe nodded to himself.
It was beyond strange.
To begin with, Ihoe had little awareness of himself as a martial artist.
He had rarely ventured far from the Sincerity Gate. There had not been many occasions where he had to fight for his life.
At most, two or three times. And even those, the ones he had engaged in before dying by the blade of the Blood Cult fanatic, had fizzled out and could hardly be called duels.
Nor had he truly dedicated his entire life to martial arts.
Thus, when he had rescued Hohyeon from the river, he had later dismissed the endless surge of energy from an unknown source as nothing significant.
For now, unlike his past life, he had saved Hohyeon in this one.
And he had traveled back in time to the past.
He had no room to even think beyond those two facts.
He had been prepared for death, but his body had only suffered some damage to its meridians. Far from death, he hadn't even experienced Qi Deviation or the shattering of his Dantian.
That was why it had been pushed down his list of priorities.
But not now.
This was the second time.
“…”
Ihoe’s gaze fell upon his own arm.
The blue bruise that had been etched along his meridians had faded considerably.
Was it because of Ihoe’s stare?
Hohyeon, who was in the middle of his meal, came over and looked at Ihoe’s arm as well.
And he smiled.
“Hehehe. It’s much better. I’m so glad, Eldest Brother. I’m sorry.”
Smiling, he met Ihoe’s eyes, then began to rub his cheek against Ihoe’s arm. Ihoe smiled back at him.
“Don’t do anything dangerous ever again.”
He stroked Hohyeon’s head.
Watching Hohyeon submit to his touch like a placid cat, Ihoe glanced down at his own arm and thought.
This, too, was a sudden change.
It certainly hadn’t been like this before he started cooking.
The bruise along his meridians had still been distinct.
It was when he started cooking, when that warm energy he felt at some point entered his body, and after it receded like an ebbing tide.
Only after that had the blue marks on his body faded.
He had seen it with his own eyes. He was certain.
‘What in the world could it be?’
Could it be an effect of the Myriad Seas Heart Method?
‘If it were an effect of the Myriad Seas Heart Method, I would have already known about it through my Master, or the second and third disciples.’
His own abilities with the Myriad Seas Heart Method were insignificant.
Still, it had been decades.
Under his Master, and beside his second and third juniors who had far surpassed him.
He had seen the Myriad Seas Heart Method through them.
None of them had ever spoken of an unknown energy from an unknown source entering and leaving their bodies like this.
‘Then what could it be?’
His contemplation over the unidentifiable phenomenon and energy continued into the night.
And that night.
“Are you asleep?”
His Master came to him.
Even though he had lived with his Master for over a decade in his past life, not once had his Master ever come to his door like this in the middle of the night.
“Would you come out for a moment?”
In that instant, a warm energy spread from the tips of his toes once more.
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