TEST CHAPTER TO SEE IF THIS STORY STICKS!
"Woaah! This smells amazing, Old Wang! What are you cooking?" A young man as tall as Mount Guangtou exclaimed as he returned from his morning walk across the Gold Road and other parts of Chang'an.
"Your favorite, young master!" He answered with a happy hum.
The so-called young master was the owner of the inn called the Wind's Path Inn. His name was Cheon Su-Jin. The Wind's Path Inn was a quaint place that couldn't be called small nor large, unlike its owner, who was both tall and large. A young man at the decisive age of twenty-six years old, with his old cook in tow, had settled here in Chang'an almost a year ago.
"Nice! Make sure to have a few bowls with less spice. You know our mice can't handle too much of it yet." Su-Jin reminded with a chuckle, and old Wang obliged dutifully.
Out of nowhere, a crashing noise among rustling erupted in the pantry, as if a rodent had pushed off produce and several other ingredients once held aloft by the shelves. This was abruptly followed by a waft of colorful clouds pouring out of the pantry.
"Are you still alive, Ryang?" Su-Jin hollered in a soft, nearly relaxed tone lightly suffused in irony. With an index finger in his mouth, and his head and hair dyed orange from what Cheon Su-Jin could only surmise to be curry, a boy the size of a sack of rice waddled out of the pantry.
"Gaaah!" A young girl, the same size as the boy, exclaimed at the door that led to the dining area.
"You did it again, didn't you?" She rushed over and began beating him with her cute, little, marshmallow fists.
"Dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy…" she kept repeating, but her brother hardly noticed as his focus was somewhere else.
"So, you're also here, Dongmei?" Cheon Su-Jin followed up, as the hair on her brother's head gradually turned black again.
"Greetings, boss! Little Mei has come to help out, but…Ryang snuck in from the back again." She turned to acknowledge Cheon Feng with a greeting, though her brother's antics had once more caused her trouble. Therefore, her focus returned to her twin. Only for her attention to flash back at once, and to the side of Cheon Su-Jin, toward old Wang.
"Waah!" She exclaimed with noticeable awe. Her eyes turned into saucers as stars twinkled around them. Old Wang was currently pulling and whipping Biangbiang noodles into shape. Ryang, her brother, began to drool just as she started to make waves with her arms and sang.
"Biangbiang, Biangbiang, Biangbiang…" Her brother joined her dance, as he continuously waddled to the left, and then to the right and back again. Su-Jin couldn't help but laugh seeing those twins act upon what he could only describe as gleeful anticipation.
"Anyway, how about you two start cleaning up the pantry before we eat?"
"Wha…but?!" Dongmei began, since she felt a sense of injustice, but Cheon Su-Jin cut her off immediately.
"I know, I know, but trust me, your brother will have to clean up after you a lot more than you ever will once you come of age." Dongmei stared at him with reluctance painted all over her face, but eventually, she dragged her brother to the pantry.
"These orphans are getting quite bold, young master." Old Wang said to Cheon Feng, his eyes displaying a certain degree of seriousness.
"I know what you're worried about, but those two know how to survive. While they know well how to act cute, they are also aware of when to step back."
"Good morning, boss! I see you already have plenty at hand." A young man standing at the entrance of the kitchen began.
"Siyu, you're here, good! Has your grandmother eaten well?" Su-Jin asked, since Tang Siyu always took a meal home for his grandmother after getting off work.
"Of course, she thanks you, and also told me to give you this," Siyu added as he handed Feng a small vial with a dark liquid inside.
"Perfect, thanks! Now, to start. How about you go over the inn once more and organize the tableware afterward? We have two rather big reservations today. So make sure everything is in line and available." Cheon Su-Jin ordered as the small talk was over, and the time to put in some prep-work had begun.
"Oh? Who else, other than the White Tiger Escort Company, has made a reservation?" Siyu wondered, considering the short notice.
"You saw the man at the table by the window, right? He rode in late last night to make reservations for five, apparently in the name of the Sima Merchantry." Su-Jin elaborated.
"Sheesh, we're starting to make it big, huh?" Siyu exclaimed, considering the Sima family's business specialized in horses. Be it for farms, transport, or war. None could match them! So much so, that the Sima family actually held the monopoly in horse-trading all over the Central Plains.
"However, those Peng bastards… I'm sure they only made reservations because of the rumors about you, bos—argh!" Siyu added before his sentence came to an abrupt end by hand-chops-head.
"Mind your words, Siyu!" Su-Jin warned as the former was rubbing the top of his head.
"The White Tiger Escort Company is a respected customer, respected, and most of all, a well-paying customer. Now off to work!" he added.
Though to be fair, Siyu had a point. Considering, the Peng family's obsession when it came to outer-cultivation and body-tempering, has been well known across the plains for generations. Cheon Su-Jin's size had always attracted the attention of people, certain they could chew more than they could bite. Even as a child, he found their lack of logic incomprehensible. The culprit, pride, had long infested the minds of men. Even those of virtue. Yet Su-Jin hardly minded the occasional bouts of excitement himself. However, they came to be.
"Heh, back at home I couldn't even sleep at peace, isn't that right, Old Wang?" Su-Jin commented as he walked to the tiny window in the back of the kitchen, reminiscing about a life erased from history.
"Indeed, young master!"
---
Three years earlier.
"There is no place here for the weak! Your measly degree of talent has been counteracted by immense amounts of resources only made available because of your family. Yet your lack of ambition has squandered it all. If not for you, we would have another twenty to thirty masters among us. But what are you? Nothing but an unsightly, weak mass of meat! Your incompetence has not only tainted my bloodline but the Cult as a whole! Therefore, you leave me no other choice…"
The man's thundering voice paused for a moment.
"Zhu Jin, third son of this here Heavenly Demon, I hereby banish you from the Cult! You have a day to leave the mountain! Be content that, by the grace of my blood, you can keep your life! Never! Never speak of me, or your past; there is none. Your purged existence will become a rumor at best." The dominant voice resonated throughout the court hall of the Divine Sun & Moon Cult once more.
With around a hundred high-ranking demons present, the pressure in the atmosphere had already been palpable, near threatening. Though even more so now that Zhu Jin was officially cast out. Now he was an outsider, potentially an enemy, inside their highest court. He could feel on several spots around his body how some stares had turned into daggers filled with bloodlust.
The voice came from his father, the sixth Heavenly Demon, Zhu Ma, who sat on his seat high above the rest.
"I… I understand, fa... Your Highness. All praise the Heavenly Demon!" A young man with ungroomed stubble of hair growing on his face answered in a sullen tone.
"All praise the Heavenly Demon!" The entire hall erupted.
At the entrance of the hall, Zhu Jin came to a halt, turned and bowed to his father one last time. Though once outside the hall, his countenance changed, a small smirk crawled up on one corner of his lips and his gaze traveled to an old man that apparently had waited for him this whole time.
"Come, Old Wang, we are finally free of this place!"
That day three years ago, as two silhouettes began their descent down the mountain and slowly merged with the shadows of the night. The existence of Zhu Jin, third son of the Heavenly Demon, officially came to an end.