Volume 1 Chapter 8 – Gluttony

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Despite Jeong-ah’s dissuasion, Yeon So-hyeon insisted on helping with the meal preparation, and eventually even finished it together.

However, she did not feel any special emotion at his bizarre behavior.

Right now, Jeong-ah was captured by a sticky sense of incompatibility that she could not shake off.

‘How on earth is he escaping from my eyes?’

Clearly, this Eldest Young Master was in front of her eyes, but the information her ‘eyes’ read in was also just about that much.

What he was thinking, what kind of emotional state he was in, and what his next action would be.

The ‘eyes’ read nothing.

“Now, now. Do not just stand like that, and you sit here too.”

“How can a lowly servant share a table with the Eldest Young Master?”

Though she dissuaded him since setting the table, it was clear that this Eldest Young Master had absolutely no intention of listening to her words.

“Uh-huh. Did I not tell you to sit down immediately?”

At any rate, in the end, the option to refuse the master’s command did not exist for her.

Sighing inwardly, and then closing her eyes tightly, Jeong-ah sat down opposite the Eldest Young Master.

If she said outside that she shared a table alone with the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family, who would believe her.

“Mmh. This seasoned dish is very good. It has your personal touch. It is simple, yet the flavor is well-soaked.”

“……It is merely a skill of nothing special.”

Although she did not know if the food was going into his mouth or his nose, for some reason, the rice went down unusually well.

Come to think of it, clearing a bowl of gruel at dawn was everything.

Or, it might be because the food on this table used food ingredients directly grown in Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment.

By the effect of the formation, it was said that in Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment, even in this midwinter, the temperature of early spring was being maintained.

“Hmm. Come to think of it, do you no longer feel dizzy because of the formation?”

Jeong-ah covered her mouth and answered modestly.

“Yes. It seems to be thanks to your care and concern.”

At that, Yeon So-hyeon nodded as if he understood something.

“Yes. It is fortunate. Sometimes there are constitutions sensitive to energy in that way. Even without internal energy.”

“Is, is that so?”

“And pupils close to gold…… Hmm.”

“…….”

Jeong-ah’s composure was shaken again.

Regarding the ‘eyes,’ what Jeong-ah knew experientially was everything.

Anxiety that the Eldest Young Master might notice something about her eyes, and anticipation that he might learn the identity of her eyes, which were no different from her heavenly punishment, harmonized together.

At that time, Yeon So-hyeon, who was thinking of something with his eyes closed, opened his eyes wide.

“Mmh……!”

“……!”

Jeong-ah suppressed her anxiety.

“Indeed, it would be good to eat one more bowl. Fill it high with rice this time too.”

“……Yes, Eldest Young Master.”

In the end, the Eldest Young Master ate five more bowls of rice after that, and during that time, he did not say a single word about her constitution.

He just laid out trivial stories.

“……Hmm. It feels a bit lacking.”

The Eldest Young Master smacked his lips.

“……I am sorry. Then shall I cook rice again?”

The rice cooked in abundance was all gone, and it was after the Eldest Young Master had even mixed and drank scorched rice water in the pot.

“No. A moderately lacking degree would be good.”

Although it was impossible to know from where it was moderately lacking, Jeong-ah nodded.

“If so, I will prepare plenty of refreshments to accompany the post-meal tea.”

“Hmm. Tea is also good, but right now, wine would be good.”

“……Yes. I will also prepare and offer rich side dishes.”

“Haha. You are quick-witted.”

Jeong-ah hid her bitter look and headed to the kitchen once more.

Although preparing meals for a master who eats a lot would be more exhausting, was it not still much better than him severely picking side dishes or having a picky appetite?

After she withdrew, Yeon So-hyeon stroked his belly and tilted his head.

“……It is strange.”

Clearly, he was a person who ate little.

Half a bowl of rice.

A few kinds of pickled or seasoned side dishes.

And a bowl of hot soup; the memory that he was fully satisfied and had left over remained clearly.

Yet strangely, even now he was feeling hunger.

It was not a matter of eating a lot or eating little.

Five bowls of rice, a pot’s worth of scorched rice water, and all kinds of dishes, and soup……

If it was this amount, there should naturally be some sense of satisfaction, but what he was feeling now was about the degree of being slightly hungry right before eating a night snack.

If there was a reason he could guess……

‘The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.’

A primeval magical beast of a thousand eons.

An object among objects woven by three immortals sacrificing all of their everything.

Could this hunger be originated from that magical beast?

After a moment, Yeon So-hyeon burst into a hollow laugh.

‘The price of obtaining a magical beast that reverses time and twists destiny is that I do not get full?’

Moreover, even if it were so, what of it?

He is the direct lineage of this damnably rich family.

Even when countless citizens outside starved and died twisted dry due to famine, he would be able to eat until he was full.

Even if he ate up a whole cow a day, there was no problem.

At that time, he did not hear.

The small and ominous sound snickering in his lower belly, the dantian.

And he ate up all of the side dishes of an amount that five or six grown men would eat.

* * *

“Dear me……”

Though it was already midnight, Yeon So-hyeon could not fall asleep.

It was because hunger found him again.

“…….”

He thought of calling Jeong-ah again but desisted.

No matter how much he was playing tricks on Jeong-ah in various ways, to look like a hungry ghost beyond a big eater was rejected.

And fundamentally, there seemed to be some reason for this hunger.

Although there were a few hypotheses, in any case, satisfying his hunger first right now was priority.

He rose from his spot and packed and put on his clothes.

In the past, when his chest was stuffy and he could not fall asleep, he used to wander the night streets of Luoyang.

Since the tavern streets of Luoyang, one of the largest cities in the Central Plains, formed a sleepless city all night, there would be no problem in satisfying his hunger.

If he slipped out of the main family quietly like this, a few guards would follow while releasing their dislike openly.

There was no way for his past self, who did not have a speck of internal energy, to dare to deceive the eyes of the family.

But……

For some reason, today, it was felt that there was no need to go out like that.

Should he say that someone, no, something was calling.

Like when someone suddenly calls your name from behind, you look back reflexively.

In that way, as if looking back, he took a step.

“……?!”

And he was able to find himself standing on the top of a huge conifer.

It was the tallest and oldest tree among the conifers building the formation of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment.

“What is this……?”

At that time, the branch he was standing on swayed slightly.

Although it was a weak and thin branch that would break even if a small child clung to it, for some reason, did it not just sway slightly as if shaking in the wind?

Moreover, he might well have felt dizziness at the scenery looking down from that high place, but for some reason, his mind was calmness itself.

In his head, things like how he was able to climb this tall tree, or by what skill he was standing on such a delicate branch now, vanished.

Only a strange confidence that ‘I can do it’ arose.

He did not even know what he could do.

It was not his own thought or feeling, but it also seemed that someone, something had whispered.

[……Chosen one, you can do it.]

“……Yes. I can do it.”

In that way, Yeon So-hyeon took a step beyond the branch.

And the next moment, he was stepping on the roof tiles of a high pavilion of the Sword Family.

A voice leaked out from his mouth suddenly.

“It is like this.”

Yeon So-hyeon felt.

He grasped it intuitively.

This is moving from darkness to darkness.

Is it folding space like the earth-shrinking of legend?

Or did he pass through some passage?

From his body, the demonic qi that did not belong to him was flowing out sticky.

It was allowed only to those beings who lived solely in demonic qi and breathed in demonic qi,

A technique of the distorted immortal realm.

A single movement technique, yet not a movement technique, for the chosen one of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

[Dark Flow Transformation]

At the same time, his body melted into the empty space.

Above the roof tiles, which only the faint moonlight was illuminating, no trace could be found anymore.

Only the weak demonic qi that swirled slightly and then scattered with the wind told that he had been here.

* * *

An inn in Luoyang.

As the rumor that the food was delicious spread little by little, there were many regular customers, and it was a place where many gourmets who heard the rumor visited.

Working in that place and having grown old in it, the waiter was experiencing a bizarre experience that could not be expressed in words.

Normally, although he was only twelve years old, he thought he had gone through all kinds of experiences and had nothing to be surprised about.

What on earth was the thing unfolding in front of his eyes now?

He instinctively felt that the matter had left his hands, and quickly ran to find his senior.

“What?!”

The senior, who heard the story of the young waiter, judged that he could only believe it if he saw it in person.

And looking in the direction where the trembling finger of the young waiter pointed from the stairs, he was startled out of his wits.

In the first place, because it was an inn famous for its food, even at this late hour, customers visited for meals, not wine.

In such an inn, meeting gourmets who lived making big eating the pleasure of their lives was a common thing, and he had considered that there would be nothing for him to be surprised about by big eating.

But what is he looking at now?

The waiter, who watched that scene for a moment, felt something strange.

‘Why are there so few customers only on this floor?’

The customers only remained at a few places as far away as possible centering on ‘that table.’

And even those customers were slowly rising from their seats and preparing to leave.

Originally, a gourmet who ate a lot was bound to draw the attention of the surroundings.

There were those who cheered every time a bowl was added, those who sent support, and those who clicked their tongues, but seeing a case like now was a first in his life.

‘What on earth is all this harmony?’

Watching that way for a moment.

Feeling his legs give way, he slumped down on that spot.

“Gasp……!”

And looking next to him, the young waiter was also slumped down with a pale complexion.

Without even thinking twice, he ran down the stairs as if rolling.

No, he actually rolled on the first floor.

“Hey! Is something happening?!”

The proprietor, who was of a build that would not lose to anyone in bulk, strode in front of the waiter.

“Proprietor……! Proprietor……!”

The waiter hurriedly caught his trouser leg and whispered in a low voice.

As if fearing that someone would hear his voice.

“It is a hungry ghost……! A hungry ghost of hell has appeared……!”