Pyo-wol frowned slightly.
He could hear loud noises coming from all over the streets.
It had been a long time since he had been outside, and in the meantime, the entire city had changed to resemble a construction site. Repair work had begun on the mansions and pavilions that had been destroyed during the battle between the Jin family and the Snow Sword Manor.
It was a sight that reminded him of the saying that destruction must precede creation.
After the war ended, warriors left like a receding tide, and laborers took their place.
As the ruined mansions and pavilions started to be rebuilt slowly one by one, the people living in Runan began to gain their energy.
Since the streets were restored to their former glory, people began walking around again. Street vendors set up their stalls, and many people came out to engage in economic activity.
As the reconstruction work progressed, the streets became more lively, and the sounds of hammering and chatter could be heard everywhere.
People were now accepting the Jin family as the ruler of Runan.
This was evidenced by the fact that no one talked about the Snow Sword Manor anymore since the war ended with the Jin family’s victory.
Pyo-wol felt the change in the people’s sentiment as he walked.
He headed for the street where the workshops were located.
His phantom daggers have been heavily damaged in the battle. The blades became dull, and cracks began to appear on the surface. It might be able to hold up for a while, but he would have to repair it beforehand if he wanted to make his weapon last longer.
He didn’t know if there were any craftsmen in the area who possessed skills that were on par with Tang Sochu’s level. But in any case, it’s not as if the craftsman would be making him a new weapon, they would just be simply repairing it. There must be at least one skilled craftsman he could entrust his weapons to.
The sound of hammering echoed through the workshop street since morning.
The workshop street was enjoying an unprecedented boom due to the fight between the Snow Sword Manor and the Jin family. After the fight between the two factions was over, the surviving warriors entrusted their weapons for repairs.
Weapons piled up like mountains at each workshop.
The craftsmen would put the weapons in the furnace to heat them up, before proceeding to hammer it. There were so many weapons to repair that the craftsmen stopped accepting customers.
Pyo-wol carefully examined the weapons displayed on the stall in front of each workshop. The condition of the weapons sold on the stall was a way to gauge the skill of the craftsman.
After passing by dozens of workshops, Pyo-wol didn’t find any workshop he liked.
Most of them were not up to Pyo-wol’s standards, who was accustomed to Tang Sochu’s skills.
While he found one workshop that was somewhat decent, they were unfortunately too busy fulfilling their backlogs to take another customer.
In the end, Pyo-wol gave up on having his weapons repaired.
Even if he didn’t know how long he would be staying in Runan, he didn’t want to leave his phantom daggers in the hands of unskilled craftsmen.
Just as he was about to turn his back and leave, something caught his attention.
“How dare you cut in line in front of me?!”
“I was definitely here first, so what do you mean cut in?”
“I came to this workshop first!”
Two warriors were shouting at each other in front of a workshop in the corner.
One had a very large build, while the other was small but had sharp eyes.
At first glance, the warrior with the large build seemed to have the advantage. He was as big as a bear and had tremendous muscles to match. But the small warrior who stood up to him didn’t back down from the argument.
Pyo-wol did not recognize the two men.
The one who was bothered the most by the two men’s fighting was an old craftsman who seemed to be the owner of the workshop.
The old craftsman shouted out,
“I told you to go somewhere else and not make a scene here! My workshop is not open anymore, so there’s no reason for the two of you to keep arguing here!”
“Shut up, old man!”
“Mind your own business!”
The old craftsman’s pleas didn’t do anything to stop the two men. Rather, they even glared at each other with even more ferocity.
“You’d better leave now.”
“Screw you!”
“For this little brat to have such arrogance—”
It was the bigger martial artist who lost his temper first. He swung a fist the size of a pot lid, but the smaller man countered with his own move.
Boom!
Their collision broke the poorly built workshop apart.
“You damn bastards! Please stop! I said I won’t be handling weapons anymore!”
The old craftsman pleaded and shouted, but the two men paid no attention to him.
The old craftsman was similar to a patriarch of the workshop district.
Many craftsmen in the area learned how to handle iron from him. That was how skilled he was. However, he was now too old and sick to continue operating his workshop. So now, he was merely guarding it out of boredom and did not perform any actual work.
But somewhere along the line, those two men had heard of his reputation, causing them to barge in front of his workshop early in the morning, insisting that they wanted him to sharpen their weapons.
The old craftsman, Hong Noya, told them that he had already decided to put down his hammer for good. But those two men did not listen to him.
“You rascals, please listen to me!”
Hong Noya shouted, but he couldn’t stop the two men from fighting.
“What’s going on?”
“Oh no!”
The nearby workshop owners rushed over, but they had no particular skill in handling this situation.
One workshop owner spoke to a young martial artist beside him who had come as a customer.
“Please stop them!”
“Why me?”
“Please sir! He is like a teacher to me. If you can stop them from fighting– I’ll even repair your weapons for free!”
“Hey! Are you implying that I should make them hold a grudge against me?”
“What?”
“No, that’s not it. What I’m saying is– if I get involved in their fight for no reason, and they end up holding a grudge against me, what are you going to do? It’s been said for a long time that we shouldn’t interfere in the fight between powerful people.”
The young martial artist refused, citing his own reasons. But to the workshop owner, it sounded like a cowardly excuse.
Other workshop owners also asked their own customers, but all of them refused.
At a glance, it was clear that the strength of the two fighting martial artists were out of the ordinary. No one wanted to risk getting involved in their fight.
It was then.
A woman walked by the workshop where the two martial artists were fighting.
Step! Step!
Her footsteps cut through the noise, echoing clearly.
She was a beautiful woman with a curvaceous figure. She had black hair flowing down to her waist, and blue eyes that exuded a mysterious aura.
She had the power to draw everyone’s eyes and attention to her.
Perhaps it was her beauty that had men mesmerised.
Fearlessly, the woman approached the workshop where the warriors were fighting and said,
“That’s enough.”
At her calm words, the warriors stopped fighting and looked at her.
“Who are you?”
“Get lost, woman.”
The two men glared at her with displeasure and scrutinized her from head to toe. But the woman remained calm and replied in a composed manner,
“I came here to do some business, but with the two of you acting like this, I cannot enter. Please take your fight elsewhere and leave this place.”
“Is this bitch crazy?”
“Who are you to interfere? Hurry up and get lost.”
In an instant, the woman’s expression turned icy.
“Can you take responsibility for those words now?”
“Responsibility? How could you ask something about responsibility in front of me? Yeah, sure, don’t worry about it, I, Kwak Dae-yeong, will take responsibility.”
“This woman talks too much. Leave already.”
The tall man grinned sinisterly while the short man looked at her with a contemptuous gaze. Their reactions were different, but they shared one thing in common: they both ignored the woman.
“I will say this one last time. Leave this place. Both of you.”
“This bitch—!”
“Should I kill you first? Since you’re being so rude?”
At that moment,
Shing!
The sharp sound of a sword being unsheathed echoed through the workshop street.
“Keuk!”
“Hiiic!”
The big man who identified himself as Kwak Dae-yeong and the small man screamed at the same time. Deep cuts had appeared on their shoulders.
Fear became evident on their faces.
“W, When did she even draw her sword?”
“I didn’t see her swing it!”
Both men prided themselves on being experts, but they didn’t even realize the moment when the woman drew her sword.
If the woman was determined to harm them, the two men would have already died. Even the injuries on their shoulders were minimal compared to what she was capable of. If she had sliced deeper, their bones would have been severed.
Their faces grew white as they realized that the woman was an incredible martial artist.
The woman glared at them and said,
“Do you want to try again?”
“Oh, no! Please no!”
“I have some urgent business to attend to, so I’ll be going now—!”
The two fled without looking back.
The other workshop owners, who had witnessed the scene, were relieved to see the troublemakers leave, but at the same time, they were curious about the woman’s identity.
The hoodlums who had caused the disturbance earlier were undoubtedly skilled warriors, but she had subdued them too easily.
Suddenly, the woman glanced around. The nearby warriors were quick to turn their heads away, avoiding their gaze.
It was then that the woman’s gaze met with Pyo-wol’s.
The woman’s eyes lit up, and immediately rushed toward him.
“Long time no see.”
“I guess so.”
“Do you also have business here?”
The woman who looked at Pyo-wol with a cold gaze was none other than Um Soso, who had been traveling with Dok Gohyang.
Her blue eyes were filled with a strong sense of wariness towards Pyo-wol. Even when Dok Gohyang acted friendly towards Pyo-wol, she had always been cautious of him.
It was the same even now.
Pyo-wol wondered whether meeting her here was a coincidence or deliberate. He then answered,
“I came here to repair my weapons.”
“Is that so?”
“But no one here meets my standards.”
“Really?”
Um Soso looked at Pyowol piercingly, but no matter how hard she looked into his eyes, she couldn’t read his thoughts.
“Hoo!”
Um Soso sighed inwardly.
She realized that she had overreacted.
“If you really came here to repair your weapons, then follow me. Hong Noya is the best weaponsmith in the area.”
“Hong Noya?”
“He’s the owner of the workshop where the two warriors just fought in.”
“I see.”
“He’s originally from Hainan, but he moved here a long time ago.Nonetheless, his skills are top-notched.”
Um Soso approached Hong Noya, then Hong Noya greeted her.
“I greet the Lady.”
“That’s enough politeness. How’s my sword?”
“I’ve repaired it nicely.”
Hong Noya quickly brought out a long wooden box from inside. The box contained a sword with a sophisticated pattern engraved on it.
Um Soso received the sword in the box and then handed him the sword she was holding. The sword she was holding prior had been damaged. She needed Hang Noya to repair it.
The sword in the box was originally hers, but since its blades had been damaged, she had to borrow a temporary one to replace it.
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she received her own sword. As much as she liked her temporary sword, she still preferred the one she’d been using for a long time already.
“Thank you. It’s as good as new.”
“No, it was my pleasure to be able to work on the lady’s sword.”
Hong Noya replied with an emotional expression.
Although circumstances had forced him to leave Hainan and settle in this faraway place, he had never forgotten his previous hometown. That’s why he did his best to repair Um Soso’s sword.
Um Soso then pointed to Pyo-wol and said,
“If it’s okay with you, can you repair his weapon too?”
“I will do my best.”
Hong Noya answered.
Um Soso turned to Pyo-wol.
“You can leave it to him now.”
“Thank you.”
“If you’re grateful, come to Celestial Origin Pavilion in the evening.”1
“Celestial Origin Pavilion?”
“Young master still has lingering attachment to you. It would be good for you to come so he could tell you his intentions clearly.”
“Lingering attachment?”
“That’s right!”
Um Soso replied honestly.
SoundlessWind21’s Notes:
Thank you for reading!
Celestial Origin Pavilion. Raws: 천원루(天元樓). 天 tiān – sky, heaven; god, celestial 元 yuán – first; dollar; origin; head 樓 lóu, lǘ – building of two or more stories
