THE MARTIAL KING - Season 7 Episode 40

Food never looked so good! The smell of onions and garlic filled up the tavern.

Juice was oozing out of the tender meat as Zen sliced through it. He ate like he had not eaten in days! It was just too homely. Zen immediately grabbed another serving of the tavern’s special.

Everyone in the tavern looked at him intently. Cunning smiles crossed the faces of the several servers standing beside him. They looked at him with desire, like Zen was a prey ready to be killed and eaten at any moment.

Having been to the Killing Sword Mountain, Zen couldn’t be more sensitive to the paranoia and the killing aura, like when some people were ready to kill him. Nevertheless, he devoured his meal since his hunger was more important than being threatened. How could he not see through the threat by the several men?

The meal was so delicious, too delicious in fact. No threat could make him stop from eating since he was too hungry to even think about all those men. They dissolved into the background. The fighting could wait. Food was more important. He went with the eating as he grabbed more and more servings of the delicious meal in front of him.

Zen gorged on the food. With the clock ticking and Zen finishing one dish after another, the smiles on the several men faded away gradually and instead, were replaced by confused expressions.

Soon, Zen gobbled all the dishes on the table. Then he turned his head to the servers and grinned, with some meat sticking out of his teeth, “What’s with the look?”

The several men who wore their hair in plaits were embarrassed. They lowered their heads, trying to hide their scrunched up faces. “No…nothing…” they faltered.

“Were you thinking why the poison in the food didn’t work on me?” Zen asked smugly.

Hearing Zen’s blunt question, the several men’s face turned pale. The manager who stood not far away suddenly sneered and ordered, “Action!”

The several men around all drew out a small mechanical device from their waists. The end of the mechanical device was connected to a dark gold rope. Not thinking twice, they immediately shot their devices at Zen.

With swishing and whooping sounds, seven or eight dark gold ropes came directly at Zen’s head. Almost in the blink of an eye, Zen was bound by the ropes.

From their skillful moves and flawless cooperation between each other, Zen could see that it was not their first time to do the trick. It was flawless, like they had done it multiple times to different victims. It seemed not just one prey had been caught.

A skillful warrior as Zen was, he had all the time to dodge the ropes, but he did not budge this time. Instead, he let nature take its course and was bound by the ropes that locked him into place.

The manager smiled smugly and walked to Zen’s side with a gloating look. “It did come as a surprise that the poison wasn’t working on you. Yet, having known that your food is poisoned, you did not do anything. The joke is on you, lad. You didn’t know that the ropes have special structures that can stop your life vitality from working. Haha! Good job, everyone! We got another pig today! Take him to the back!”

Hearing the manager’s words, Zen didn’t panic. He stood there, bound, having a resting face, and with no emotion whatsoever. His eyes were blank, and no words came out of his mouth. He only thought of one thing–if he was only a common nature creature who got tied up by these special ropes and his life vitality rendered useless, he might have really been in trouble. However, Zen had a strong muscular body. All the training and fighting made this scenario a tad bit easy for him to escape. Although firmly locked up by the ropes, it was still very easy for him to break free. Piece of cake.

“Got a pig? What do you want from me?” Zen asked curiously. There was still no trace of panic on his face. Rather, he was very composed even he was trapped.

The nonchalance Zen was giving off annoyed the manager so much. Every warrior he caught as his pig lost their head in such situation. But why was the guy in front him still so calm? The manager sneered and said, “You are going to die anyway, so stop wasting your breath.” Annoyed and feeling confused, he ordered his men, “Take him off!”

Following the manager’s command, several men carried their pig towards the back yard of the tavern.

As soon as they landed on the backyard, Zen noticed something. He was not the only one, not the only pig. To Zen’s surprise, twenty-odd other warriors were locked up at the place, too!

The people in the Western Region looked different as they all had sunken eyes, and the clothes they wore differed from that of people in Central Region. Zen immediately thought that those victims were warriors, more like nature creatures from the Central Region. He also noticed that one Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator was among them. The dark gold ropes that bound him were doubled compared to ropes used on other warriors.

With a heavy thud, Zen was thrown to the ground. The several men left the back yard immediately, not even bothered by the possibility that Zen could escape.

As soon as Zen struggled to stand on his feet, he heard one of the warriors mutter, “Alas, here comes another pig!”

Zen slightly frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”

‘The manager said something about a pig. Were they taking men as pigs? What is all this?’ Zen wondered.

“Hey, man, which sect are you from?” The warrior smiled and asked with contempt.

Zen blinked his eyes, trying to look alright and replied, “Cloud Hall.”

Hearing where Zen came from gave the other warriors a sense of disbelief.

The Central Region housed several sects including what they called the second grade sects. There were hundreds of them in the Central Region. And even much more for the third grade sects. But for the fourth grade sect, however, there were only a few. And the Cloud Hall, however, ranked the top in the fourth grade sects.

The Cloud Hall enjoyed a very high reputation among the hundreds of millions of warriors in the Central Region. It was like the Cloud Sect of Eastern Region.

The other warriors in the backyard could not help but let out a little laugh despite being held captive. ‘This guy is clearly lying, ‘ a warrior thought. The disciples who were able to enter the Cloud Hall were elites strictly selected from tens of millions of warriors. And that nature creature guy claimed that he was from the Cloud Hall. That was totally nonsense! There must be some kind of a mistake.

Zen noticed both the mockery and disbelief in their faces. But he didn’t care. Believe it or not, he was just being himself, just answering truthfully to a question being asked to him. He continued, “You haven’t told me what it means by calling us pigs yet.”

“That’s to say we are just like pigs that will be the lunch for the beasts. Now, could you just shut it?” The warrior said impatiently. Other warriors who heard this all showed a downcast look.

Knowing that they were going to die shortly after, who had the mood to explain anything to Zen? They would all die anyway. Why even bother?

Zen believed in his skill. He knew he would be able to save all of them if he did try. He was going for a long shot. “Explain to me, and I can save you,” Zen said lightly.