The group departed from Soaring Sun and walked without a moment's rest.
It was not until evening that they were able to reach Huainan.
Huainan was famous as the place where Yuan Shu of the late Han dynasty established his capital.
As its name suggested, it was a walled city located just south of the Huai River.
The Namgung Family estate was tens of li to the south from here.
They could probably reach it if they walked hard for a full day tomorrow.
In other words, they would have to stay in Huainan for one night..................
The group had considerable trouble finding an inn upon their arrival in Huainan.
This was because most of the inns had no vacant rooms.
Like Tang Oh and the members of the Danri Family, countless martial artists were gathering in Hefei to make their way to the Namgung Family.
Naturally, the inns in Huainan, which lay on the way, were bustling.
The group barely managed to find an inn where they could all stay.
It wasn't an exceptional establishment, but it was sufficient to relieve the fatigue of their journey, so they immediately dispersed to their respective rooms.
They needed to rest deeply when they could, as they had to walk for the entire next day.
However.
Among them, there was one person who remained alone outside the inn.
It was, of course, Dong Bongsu.
Gi Daehyo no longer considered him a member of the Danri Family and took no special measures, but inwardly, he hoped Dong Bongsu would look after Yeoro until they reached the Namgung Family.
He didn't know what might happen if a precious horse like a Blood-Sweating Horse was left alone in the inn's outdoor stable.
Regardless of his feelings, Dong Bongsu stayed with Yeoro in the stable of his own accord, even though no one had asked him to.
Anyone else would have preferred to rest in the inn, but for Dong Bongsu, staying in the stable was more comfortable.
Being alone was far better than being squeezed in among various servants.
He could reflect quietly by himself, and he could also practice his Inventory Divine Art or other skills.
He was a man who never wasted a single moment.
If he did not need to sleep, he would never have slept.
Even now, sitting in a corner of the stable, he was not still.
Dong Bongsu had tied Yeoro to a post in the stable and was practicing the Inventory Divine Art.
His continuous training had been effective, and he was now quite proficient at moving two objects in and out.
The next step was to practice withdrawing and depositing three grains of sand at the same time.
Just as Dong Bongsu was about to begin this practice.
Hee-hee-hee-hing, pfrrr-.
Yeoro neighed softly as a long, black, unwelcome guest cast a shadow in the moonlight inside the stable.
Someone had come to see him at this late hour.
Unlike the Danri Family stable, the inn's stable had no gate, so anyone appearing at the entrance could be spotted immediately.
The moment he confirmed the shadow's presence, Dong Bongsu's clear eyes instantly sank and grew turbid.
Who was it that said the eyes are the mirror of the soul? If the person who said that had met Dong Bongsu, they would have wanted to take back their words, or perhaps chew off their own tongue in regret.
Dong Bongsu could control the light in his eyes as he pleased.
He could become a fool, a genius, a passionate man, a weary one, or even a demon or an angel.
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With just his eyes, he could become anyone.
To him, the eyes were not a mirror of the soul, but a reflective glass with a projection on it.
The observer would think they were looking into Dong Bongsu's soul as if in a mirror, but in reality, they were only seeing what they wanted to see.
Looking closer was useless.
In fact, the closer one got, the narrower their field of vision became, leading to even more confusion.
Meanwhile, Dong Bongsu could hide behind the glass and observe his opponent freely.
In doing so, he could toy with the opponent, who had become a clown in a glass case, just as he pleased.
By the time Dong Bongsu's eyes had completely returned to those of So-sam, the shadow had fully covered him.
He waited until he felt the presence draw near before slowly lifting his head to check the person's face.
The visitor was a veiled woman with a slender figure that seemed as if it could float away.
Appearing before him at this late hour was none other than Tang Oh's granddaughter, Tang Hwa.
"Honestly, Grandfather... I don't understand why he'd ask me to bring someone like you at this hour."
"... "
Tang Hwa was grumbling without knowing the reason, but Dong Bongsu knew that what was meant to come had come.
"Follow me."
Regardless of her unpleasant tone, her words themselves were polite.
It was clear that Tang Oh must have told her not to treat him rudely.
Dong Bongsu slowly rose from his spot as she instructed.
As the two of them left the stable, a member of the Black Crow Corps who had come with her entered the stable in Dong Bongsu's place.
They couldn't leave Yeoro alone.
Afterward, Dong Bongsu followed Tang Hwa's lead into the inn.
She took him to the largest and finest room in the establishment.
Tang Oh was likely staying in this room.
As he expected, when he opened the door and entered, Tang Oh was sitting in the middle of the room with a cold expression.
"You've come? Bring him closer."
"Yes, Grandfather."
Dong Bongsu followed Tang Hwa until he was right in front of Tang Oh.
Tang Oh silently looked up at Dong Bongsu with his sharp eyes, then raised his hand and pointed to a bed in the corner of the room as he spoke.
"Go up on that bed and sit."
Without any hesitation, Dong Bongsu did as Tang Oh instructed, climbing onto the bed and sitting with his legs crossed.
He didn't know what Tang Oh intended to do, but he judged it best to comply.
Although Tang Oh's eyes were cold, a certain desire blazed within them.
And it went without saying that this desire was for 'something' that would be beneficial to him.
Once Dong Bongsu had assumed the desired posture, Tang Oh rose from his seat and approached the bed.
After sweeping his sharp gaze over Dong Bongsu's body once, Tang Oh began to knead various parts of his body.
Would the hands of an archaeologist handling an ancient relic be this careful?
Tang Oh's touch as he handled Dong Bongsu's body was so deliberate it was hard to describe.
A while later.
He seemed to have sufficiently examined Dong Bongsu's body, as he stopped touching him.
Then, from his robes, he took out a small wooden box meticulously inlaid with gold leaf, depicting a dragon and a phoenix intertwined in flight.
Even at a glance, it looked like a very precious item to Dong Bongsu.
"Dragon Phoenix Gold Needles!"
What was this? Judging by Tang Hwa's horrified shout, it seemed to be more than just a precious item.
"Grandfather, what on earth are you planning to do? Surely not?"
Tang Oh paid no mind to Tang Hwa's surprise and spoke to Dong Bongsu.
"I am about to perform a certain Grand Art on you."
A Grand Art.
Dong Bongsu thought that this was that 'beneficial something'.
Tang Oh's words continued.
"It will be extremely painful. So much so that you might think death would be better. However, once you endure it, you will be able to regain your speech, and you will be able to return to your original self, the self you were born as. What do you say? Will you do it?"
Dong Bongsu couldn't understand what Tang Oh meant by 'original self, the self you were born as'.
He could only surmise that it was the reason Tang Oh had chosen him.
What was interesting here was that Tang Oh had given him a choice.
The difference between a stablehand like himself and Tang Oh was as vast as the gap between the sun and a firefly.
For Tang Oh to allow him to 'choose' instead of 'commanding' him meant that the pain accompanying the Grand Art was beyond imagination.
It was a moment of decision.
Dong Bongsu thought.
Is there any need to hesitate?
No. An opportunity had come.
And opportunities must be seized when they arrive.
The penalty? Pain to the point of death?
Who cares? To be in pain to the point of death ultimately means that one does not die.
As long as he didn't die, that was all that mattered.
If he didn't die, he would grow stronger.
Was there any room for choice?
None.
To retreat here would be to waste that much time.
The more time wasted in a jungle like Murim, the closer one drew to death.
There was no reason to look back just for some mere pain.
'Forward, I will move forward.'
Dong Bongsu slowly but firmly nodded his head.
Seeing this, Tang Oh grinned.
It was a satisfied smile.
Dong Bongsu's simple nod had made the Soul-Chasing Poison Hand Tang Oh smile and gave him faith.
"Do you know the words, 'Orange Becomes Bitter Orange'?"
Orange Becomes Bitter Orange.
It was a four-character idiom meaning that an orange from Huainan turns into a bitter orange when it crosses the Huai River and goes north.
It was a famous saying uttered by An Ying, the chancellor of the state of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period, when he passed through this very Huainan as an envoy to the state of Chu in the north and spoke to the King of Chu.
Of course, Dong Bongsu knew the phrase well.
And he realized once again that this place, aside from the simultaneous existence of the bizarre world of Murim, was a parallel world not so different from Earth's past.
As if to confirm that its meaning and origin were the same as on Earth, Tang Oh's explanation continued.
"It means that an orange from Huainan turns into a bitter orange when it crosses the Huai River and goes north."
"G-Grandfather!"
It seemed Tang Hwa had realized why Tang Oh had brought up the idiom 'Orange Becomes Bitter Orange'.
She called out to Tang Oh in surprise.
Dong Bongsu, too, thought he understood why Tang Oh had mentioned the phrase.
It seemed Tang Oh intended to give him much larger wings than he had previously anticipated.
'So I wasn't to be a disciple. In that case,'
The bitter orange of Huainan becomes the orange of the north.
If Huainan was the Danri Family, then the north was the Tang Family.
If the stablehand So-sam was the orange, then the bitter orange was................
"Are you willing to take the Tang Family's surname?"
It was the Tang surname.