Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Number One Chef of the Central Plains, Awakens in the 21st Century

The axis of evil in the Central Plains, the Blood Cult.

The torches of the Orthodox Alliance Martial Alliance embroidering the pitch-black night sky.

The final subjugation war that broke out after ten years of bloodshed.

The peak of the unorthodox and called the Greatest Demon Under Heaven, Blood Demon Dokgo Pae.

His head fell by the sword of the Martial Alliance Leader.

And the Blood Cult was extinguished in vain.

In the desperate ruins burning and collapsing on all sides.

A man was kneeling in front of the massive main kitchen.

The chef who had been responsible for the three meals a day of Blood Demon Dokgo Pae his entire life, Jin Myeong.

“You must be Jin Myeong, the best chef of the unorthodox.”

Martial Alliance Leader Namgung Wi said in a cold voice.

Jin Myeong, who had been kneeling, raised his head.

His face was covered in blood, but his eyes were still alive.

“Not the best of the unorthodox.”

“···What?”

“The best under heaven. My cooking has no one in the entire Central Plains who dares to compare, so do not confine me to the narrow frame of the unorthodox.”

Even in a situation where death was approaching, there was not an inch of retreat.

“...”

Namgung Wi’s sharp eyes seemed to narrow, then soon a hearty laughter burst out, breaking the silence of the ruins.

“Keol keol keol! Not the best of the unorthodox but the best under heaven! A very pleasing fellow!”

The highest martial artist in the martial world, called the Sword Venerable.

But he had one epithet more notorious than his martial arts.

That was being the number one gourmet of the Central Plains and the owner of absolute taste.

Even as the leader of the orthodox, he was said to be more evil and picky than a demon in front of food, so among martial artists he was secretly called by another alias, Demon Tongue.

His taste was as bizarre and fussy as that notoriety, to the point that there was even a rumor that the chief chef of the imperial palace had his tongue pulled out for failing to match the soup flavor.

“Good. If that arrogance is not bluff, then prove it. If you satisfy my taste, I will spare only your life.”

In the face of death, anyone is bound to become weak.

But upon hearing Namgung Wi’s proposal, there was confidence in Jin Myeong’s eyes.

‘Dare to evaluate my cooking?’

Blood Demon Dokgo Pae was also a monster notorious for being as picky in appetite as his cruel nature.

Until Jin Myeong became the person in charge of the main kitchen, the kitchen of the Blood Cult was no different from a slaughterhouse where chefs died one after another.

For the reason that the soup was a bit salty, boiling oil from a cauldron was poured into the chef’s mouth, and for the meat being tough, the head chef’s limbs were tied with ropes and torn apart in all directions to death.

Sometimes, for the reason that the spice blend was annoying, they were skinned alive and thrown as food for starving beasts.

In that way, the top chefs from various places in the Central Plains who failed to satisfy the Blood Demon’s fickle tongue tip and turned into miserable corpses were often abandoned on the hill behind the main kitchen to become food for mountain beasts.

But Jin Myeong was the only man who satisfied such a Blood Demon’s taste.

In cooking, he was confident that he was the best under heaven.

‘I will make that well-spoken tongue of yours fall into ecstasy and dance.’

Following the order of the Martial Alliance Leader, he entered the main kitchen.

The best ingredients and exclusive cooking tools.

He did his utmost.

Tata tatata!

Hwaaaaaak!

Knife skills close to divine skill cut through the air, and with extreme internal energy he handled the temperature of the fire.

The process of drawing out the potential of the ingredients to the extreme.

Beads of sweat formed on Jin Myeong’s forehead.

‘Completed!’

The soul-stirring dish completed with all his strength.

As Jin Myeong carefully offered the bowl, confidence was stained on the corner of his mouth.

Martial Alliance Leader Namgung Wi slowly lifted the chopsticks and put the dish into his mouth.

“...”

Soon, Namgung Wi’s cold eyes widened in an instant and were dyed with astonishment.

“······Oh.”

A low exclamation burst out. The arrogant Martial Alliance Leader continued the chopsticks as if entranced and swallowed the dish repeatedly.

Watching that appearance, Jin Myeong inwardly called for cheers.

‘This is my cooking! Even the best tongue under heaven is ultimately in my palm······!’

But.

Around the time the bowl was half emptied, Namgung Wi’s unrestrained chopsticks stopped abruptly.

The brow that had been soaked in ecstasy furrowed very slightly.

“Excellent. It is not lacking even if called the best taste in the Central Plains. Worthy of praise from the Blood Demon of the world. However···”

Namgung Wi’s eyes cooled down again coldly.

“This off-taste that slightly floats on the surface. Lacking the last piece of harmony toward perfection. A bit regrettable to satisfy my tongue.”

“Wha, what...!”

Jin Myeong’s two eyes widened as if they would shatter.

The moment he opened his mouth in surging anger and astonishment.

Seo-eok-

A chilly sword light flashed.

Before he could even scream, the pain of his neck being severed covered Jin Myeong.

In the vision spinning round and round in the air, a regret greater than Jin Myeong’s death remained.

‘Why? What on earth was lacking...! It was perfect, why on earth?!’

The regret and sense of defeat that the dish into which he poured everything failed to subdue the absolute taste in the end.

In that way, Jin Myeong’s world was completely submerged in darkness.

***

“...”

When he opened his eyes, Jin Myeong was sitting in an unfamiliar place.

‘Where is this?’

He clearly thought he had died with his neck severed, but suddenly he was sitting in a strange place.

‘Ah, my neck!’

He frantically groped his own neck with both hands.

And upon confirming that it was properly attached in place, he was greatly surprised.

‘I’m alive? No, that can’t be!’

In a flustered state, he looked around.

But...

Everything was unfamiliar to a bizarre degree.

On the walls blocked on all sides, papers with unfamiliar characters written on them were crudely stuck, and around were red tables and iron chairs placed.

“Th, this is what on earth...”

Even the voice he uttered without thinking was not his own.

Jin Myeong, who lowered his head in surprise, opened his two eyes even wider.

Even the clothes he was wearing were of a bizarre form he had never seen in his life.

A crude and thin piece of cloth clinging to the body was wrapping the upper body, and on the legs a blue cloth that was strangely narrow and stiff was wrapped hideously.

A bizarre outfit with neither wide sleeves nor a belt.

But the most despairing was the state of the body.

‘My, my internal energy...!’

Jin Myeong’s complexion, who pressed on the dantian, turned the color of dirt.

The grand internal energy that allowed him to freely wield a large kitchen knife and handle a cast-iron wok like a feather had disappeared without a trace.

“...”

In the completely emptied dantian, not even a single handful of qi was felt.

That was not all.

The limbs were frail, and it was a body so weak that just taking one deep breath made the chest feel tight.

“Th, this is what on earth...”

It was when the flustered Jin Myeong, in extreme confusion, was about to get up from the seat.

“Keueuk...!”

Suddenly, fragments of unfamiliar memories began to mercilessly dig into his head.

Recent memories that gradually became clear...

A Chinese restaurant that his father had acquired by completely scraping together the retirement pay and jeonse deposit.

But this place was already a restaurant in the neighborhood that was so famous for being tasteless that only flies were flying.

He had been deceived by the previous owner from the start.

Moreover, the guy called the chef who remained in the shop was vicious.

Using the excuse of bulk purchasing ingredients and replacing kitchen equipment, he extorted several million won from his parents who did not know the ways of the world.

Not satisfied with that, he even scraped all the little money that was in the safe and fled in the night.

The contact was of course changed to a number that did not exist.

Because of that, his parents who instantly lost all their assets and sat on a mountain of debt.

“...”

Moreover, the owner of this body that he had entered now was a 22-year-old youth suffering from a mental disability.

The name was Lee Jin-myeong, similar to his own.

And he realized.

That for an unknown reason, he had entered the frail body of a completely different world.

‘Parents...’

In his previous life, he was an orphan.

He wandered the streets living like a dog and learned cooking, and due to his eccentric nature he shared affection with no one.

But the parents in Lee Jin-myeong’s memories were stubbornly enduring each hard day because of their sick son.

That blind affection shook Jin Myeong’s heart that had been firmly closed.

“...”

Jin Myeong turned his gaze.

In one corner of the empty restaurant, his father and mother were sitting blankly.

Faces pressed down by the pressure of bank debt, the livelihood of tomorrow, and worry about their son.

The father who turned fifty this year and the mother who was forty-five.

“Honey···”

The mother opened her mouth in a worried voice.

“Shall we··· just close the shop now?”

“···I’m sorry. I have no face to show you and our Jin-myeong.”

“What kind of words are those. It was all something we did so that our family could somehow live ordinarily like others. Anyway, what do we do? Next week is the day to pay the loan interest···”

At the mother’s sigh-mixed worry, the father dry-washed his face with both hands.

“I’ll block the debt somehow. Whether I do day labor at a construction site or drive proxy all night, even if my bones break, I will never let you and Jin-myeong starve, so don’t worry too much.”

The father forced a faint smile and tried to reassure his wife.

But his complexion had been strangely darkening since just a moment ago.

Cold sweat began to form beads on his forehead, and his breathing also became noticeably rougher than usual.

“Honey, why is your face like that? Suddenly your complexion is turning pale···”

“Ah, no, I’m fine. Just, maybe because I’ve been too nervous these past few days, my stomach is a bit stuffy···”

“Honey?”

“Eu, eueuk...!”

The father suddenly tightly clutched his left chest with both hands.

In an instant, his face turned blue.

Thick sweat drops poured down like rain, and his lips were distorted with pain.

Unable to endure the pain, his upper body gradually collapsed forward.

With trembling hands he somehow tried to hold onto the edge of the table to endure, but soon his strength loosened and he slipped.

“Heok...! Keuheok!”

Kwadangtang!

The chair overturned backward, and the father collapsed as if tumbling under the table.

Clutching his chest as if tearing it out, his eyes rolling on the floor lost focus and were turning white.

“Honey! Honey!!”

The mother, whose face turned deathly pale, screamed and embraced the father who had collapsed on the floor.

She tried to shake him awake somehow, but even the pained groans gradually subsided and the father’s breathing became precarious.

“...1, 119! Ambulance!”

The mother who fell into panic hurriedly rummaged through her apron pocket.

She barely found the smartphone, but her hands were trembling and she couldn’t even press the numbers properly.

“Ah, no··· please, 119...!”

While the mother, with a face covered in tears, was gripping the phone screen and trembling.

Jin Myeong, who had been standing blankly, looked at that appearance with a strange face.

“...”

The symptoms were not at the worst stage, but it was clear that if they waited until the ambulance arrived, the blood vessels would be completely blocked and the heart would stop forever.

Jin Myeong silently approached the side of the collapsed father.

And then he stretched out two fingers without hesitation toward the Zhongwan acupoint near the solar plexus of the father’s chest that was hardening, and the acupoints below the collarbone.

The dantian was empty and not even a single handful of internal energy remained.

But he understood the structure of the human body and the flow of qi and blood.

If there was no internal energy, it was enough to forcibly open a path by causing vibration in the blood vessels with precise physical impact.

Tak! Tak! Tak!

He consecutively tapped the father’s chest.

The momentary physical impact and vibration strongly expanded the tightly blocked blood vessels, and right after shattering the dark red stagnant blood that was blocking the entrance to the heart in one go and opening the path.

“He, hello?! Is this 119?! Please save my husband! Suddenly he can’t breathe and collapsed...!”

It was right then that the mother, who had barely connected the phone, was screaming as if spitting blood.

“Puhaaa!!”

In an instant, the father took a rough breath and opened his eyes wide.

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